Aloo gobi

From Jamie’s Ministry of Food
Serves 4
Ingredients

1 medium fresh onion
2-3 green chillies (to your taste)
a thumb sized piece of fresh root ginger
a small bunch of fresh coriander
1/2 a cauliflower
500g potatoes
oil
knob of butter
1 tbsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 level tsp ground cumin
2 tbsp desiccated coconut
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lemon

Directions

Preheat the oven to 220 c, 425 f, gas 7

1. Peel, halve and finely chop the onion. Finely slice your chillies. Peel and finely chop the ginger. Pick the coriander leaves and finely chop the stalks.

2. Discard the outer leaves of the cauliflower, break into florets and cut the thick middle stem into cubes. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 2cm cubes.

3. Put a large ovenproof pan on a medium to high heat and add a couple of lugs of oil and the butter.

4. Add the onion, chillies, ginger, coriander stalks, mustard seeds, turmeric and cumin and cook for 7 to 10 minutes until softened and golden.

5. Stir in the cauliflower, potatoes and coconut. Season with salt and pepper and add 400ml of water.

6. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer with the lid on until the veg are cooked and soft.

7. Check the curry regularly to make sure it’s not drying out, and extra water if necessary.

8. Give it another stir, then put the pan into the preheated oven for another 20 minutes.

SERVE with fluffy rice, sprinkled with coriander leaves and with some lemon wedges to serve.

Had a lunch party with colleague and gf, and M. M cooked a huge pot of pork vindaloo and indian roasted vinegar chicken. My contribution was a aloo gobi as a vegetable dish to complement the meats. Turned out quite successful I must say, I can’t really remember what aloo gobi tasted like because I haven’t had indian for ages, but I think it was pretty close enough.

With M around, I eat a lot more spicy food as that’s the kind of stuff she cooks, and so I have quite a lot of indian spices around. Guess this means I will be cooking more of such stuff over the weeks!

Prawn pilaf

From Gordon Ramsay’s Best Menus
Serves 4

Ingredients

500ml light chicken stock
4tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1.5 tsp mild curry powder
10 cardamom pods
few thyme sprigs (leaves only)
200g basmati rice
sea salt and black pepper
20 large tiger prawns (in shells)

Heat oven to 200C. Cut a circle of baking paper big enough to cover an overproof pan. Cut a steam hole in the centre. Bring stock to boil in another pan.

Heat olive oil in ovenproof pan, add garlic, onion, spices and thyme. Stir over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, then tip rice in and stir well. Add some salt and pepper and toast the rice for a minute. Pour in the boiling stock and arrange the prawns on top of the rice in a single layer.

Lay the baking paper on top to cover, then transfer pan to oven. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until rice is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid. Leave to stand, still covered with the paper, for 5 minutes before serving.

Rice was undercooked but the taste was pretty good! More practice required.

Indian chickpeas and vegetable soup

From BBC More One-pot recipes
Serves 4
Ingredients

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion , chopped
1 tsp finely grated fresh root ginger
1 garlic clove , chopped
1 tbsp garam masala
850ml vegetable stock
2 large carrots , quartered lengthways and chopped
400g can chickpeas , drained
100g green beans , chopped

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan, then add the onion, ginger and garlic. Fry for 2 mins, then add the garam masala, give it 1 min more, then add the stock and carrots. Simmer for 10 mins, then add the chickpeas. Use a stick blender to whizz the soup a little. Stir in the beans and simmer for 3 mins. Pack into a flask or, if you’ve got a microwave at work, chill and heat up for lunch. Great with naan bread

For a soup that’s a bit different and packs a bit of a kick, this is a pretty good recipe. And if you are like me and you love all things spicy, this is brilliant!

I didn’t use a stick blender to whizz the soup so it’s not as thick as it should be at least according to the recipe. Reason is simple. I don’t have one (which leads on to the next question which is should I get one? Jury is still out on this.) Anyway if you want something less thick, the obvious answer is don’t use a stick blender!

To make it a bit meatier and because I have leftover bacon from the coddled pork, I added two slices of bacon to the soup. FYI.

Chicken Saag

From Chicken – the best ever recipe collection
Serves 4
Ingredients
Ingredients

Fresh spinach Leaves, 200g, washed but not dried
8 chicken thighs, skinned
2.5 cm ginger
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 green chilli, roughly chopped
1 cup of water
1 tbsp oil
2 bay leaves.
1/4 tsp black peppercorns
1 onion, finely chopped
tomatoes – 4, peeled and finely chopped
Curry powder – 2 tsp.
Chilli powder – 1 tsp.
Plain yogurt – 3 tbsp.
Salt as per taste

Cook the spinach leaves, without extra water, in a tightly covered pan for 5 minutes. Put the cooked spinach, ginger, garlic and chilli with 1/4 cup of the measured water into a food processor or blender and process to a thick puree. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a large heavy pan, add the bay leaves and black peppercorns and fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the onion and fry for a further 6-8 minutes or until the onion has browned.

Add the tomatoes and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Stir in the curry powder, salt and chilli powder. Cook for 2 minutes over a medium heat, stirring once or twice.

Stir in the spinach puree and the remaining measured water, then simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the yogurt, 1 tbsp. at a time and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the chicken pieces and stir to coat them in the sauce. Cover and cook for 20-25 minutes until the chicken in tender.

Not too sure how authentic the recipe is but it tastes good to me – wonderful flavours coming from the spices and the chicken was so tender when I plated up. Definitely, one of the chicken dishes I will cook again. Added too little spinach, unfortunately and so the dish doesn’t look green enough.