King Prawn Curry with Spinach

Prawn curry with spinach, with the basic recipe stolen from the 'Jono and Jules do food and wine' site. https://jonoandjules.com/2018/07/30/prawn-spinach-curry/

I skipped the extra sugar, and the coriander, but otherwise it is very similar. I created some creamed coconut, and mixed it all together with the Madras curry powder and the tomato puree. I added lots of diced spinach.

The rice was steamed earlier in the day, and spinach and the peas were added. The king prawns (from Vietnam) were added to the top of the steamed rice, and steamed once again for fifteen minutes.

Served with the tomato and curry salsa. Delicious!

Lamb Chilli with Sultanas and Red Pepper

200g of lamb mince (ground lamb), browned in a little olive oil. Plus julienned white onion, diced red pepper, and three diced Aleyna red and green chillies. And a handful of Turkish sultanas (an unexpected detour into a Marks and Spencer store produced that find). I added lamb and vegetable stock, and some coconut, tomato puree, and water. Simmered under glass for an hour. Served with Basmati rice. 

 

Thai Chicken Curry with Jasmine Rice

A delicious and simple Thai style curry made with diced roast chicken from the fridge, with diced carrots, julienned onion, haricot beans, tomato puree, a dessert spoonful of shredded coconut, Thai spices, ginger, and chicken stock.

All the ingredients were added to a single pan, and cooked together under glass for forty five minutes.

The basmati rice was cooked in boiling water to which a single drip of Jasmine essence was added (fifteen minutes). The coriander leaf was sprinkled over the dish as a garnish.

Madras Chicken Curry with Rice

The peas, leek and carrot essentially forms the underlying dahl (blended) for this dish.

After making that (if you don't already have some in your fridge), add the chicken stock, the diced chicken pieces, to a pan with a little hot sunflower oil, and stir-fry for ten to fifteen minutes at a medium heat.

Add a cup of boiling water to the dahl, and decant the chicken pieces to the pot containing the dahl, and add the Madras curry powder and turmeric, the garlic, and the finely diced root ginger. Cook at a low heat for about an hour.

Served with some dessicated coconut, sprinkled on top, finely diced strips of (deseeded) raw red chilli, and long-grain rice with a little wild black rice. Delicious!

Chicken and Sweet Potato Curry

Cubed sweet potato curry, with onion, tomato puree, turmeric, roast chicken pieces, red chilli, and Madras curry powder. Plus lemon juice and coriander leaf.

The sweet potato and onion were stir-fried for about seven minutes, before being added to a pot of water brought to the boil. I used one clove of garlic (crushed), and two diced red chillies, deseeded. Then I added the curry powder, the turmeric and the tomato puree.

Cooked for forty-five minutes under glass at a low heat. Stir occasionally. Then I added the roast chicken pieces from two drumsticks, and simmered until the curry sauce began to thicken. Served with diced coriander leaf and a drizzle of lemon juice, a sprinkling of coconut, and a teaspoonful of lime pickle. Plus a garlic and coriander naan. Delicious!

Apricot and Coconut Cornbread

I used peanut oil in this recipe - if you have an allergy to peanuts, use coconut or sunflower oil instead. I also used milk.

Made with 100g of semi-dried apricots, 150g of coarse cornmeal, 50g of peanut oil (I weighed this in a bowl), 2 heaped teaspoonfuls of baking power, a pinch of salt, one egg, plus 150mls of milk (actually a low fat blend of milk and buttermilk, bought from the co-op).

The Apricots were chopped up with a sharp knife. The cornmeal was added and stirred together. I added the milk, the peanut oil, the salt, and the egg. Then I added the baking powder and the dessicated coconut (two teaspoonfuls). The mix was gently blended with an electric foodmixer for five minutes, at a medium speed.

I decanted the bread mix into a silicon bread tin. Cooked at 180 deg C for forty minutes on the middle shelf, until the bread had risen, and the surface had browned. Check the bread at 25 minutes, even if you are using an accurate oven thermometer.

The loaf can be knocked out of the bread tray without breaking or sticking (just turning it upside down is enough!).

 If you would prefer a sweeter loaf, you can add some granulated sugar before blending. Dissolve the sugar in the milk to make sure there are no crystals in the bread mix.

Excellent eaten with rhubarb and ginger jam!

Thai King Prawn, with Rice and Green Finger Chillies

Thai style king prawns from Vietnam. With coconut, lime leaves, and lime juice.

A  prawn dish which was intended to be consumed as part of an Asian salad with Asian pickles. I chose to make something different with them.

I made a Thai style sauce, using a teaspoonful of Thai spices, with red peppers, onion, coconut, garlic and four green finger chillies This was allowed to simmer for ten minutes before the prawns were added.

The prawns were pre-heated in a steamer for about ten minutes. Add to the sauce, and simmer for three to five minutes.

Served with basmati rice on a spiral of dark soy sauce.  Garnished here with two padron peppers.

Coconut, King Prawns, with Sweet Potato noodles

Coconut, lime Leaves, lime juice, and King Prawns.Thai style king prawns from Vietnam.

A  prawn dish which was intended to be consumed as part of an Asian salad with Asian pickles. I chose to make them the focus of a stir-fry.

The prawns were heated in a steamer for about ten minutes.

The noodles were made with sweet potato and onion. The noodles were spiralised sweet potato, and onion, and stir-fried in a pan at medium heat, along with two small carrots, grated and sliced red pepper. The noodles, carrot and sliced red pepper were decanted onto a plate with a spiral of dark soy sauce.

Ready in fifteen minutes at a medium heat. Stirred frequently to prevent burning. Delicious!

Apricot and Chestnut Mushroom Curry

A delicious apricot and mushroom curry, which can also be served as a dressing for chicken pieces.

The ingredients are: three fresh apricots, basmati rice, haricot beans, cashew nuts, red chilli, grated coconut, single cream, cumin, cumin seed,  garam massala, garlic, root ginger, onion, Californian raisins,  turmeric, vegetable stock, and yellow pepper,

A dish such as this would normally be made with dried apricots, but diced fresh apricot works just as well, particulary when paired by raisins, which add sweetness. Destone the apricots, and chop finely. Chop the onion (two small), the chestnut mushrooms (two), and half a yellow pepper. Stir fry in sunflower oil at a high heat until the onion begins to brown.

Add deseeded chilli, root ginger, and three crushed cloves of garlic.Turn the heat down to medium and stir-fry for another three or four minutes. then add boiling water to the pan. Add the haricot beans (half a tin of baked beans will do just fine), a handful of cashew nuts, another handful of the raisins.

Add the spices - a teaspoonful of turmeric, half a teaspoonful each of garam massala and cumin, and a pinch of cumin seed. Simmer for forty-five minutes to an hour at a low heat under glass.

Finally, add a generous cupful of single cream, and a dessert spoonful of ground coconut, and stir together. Simmer for ten minutes, and serve with white basmati rice.

 

Beef Korma

Made with stir-fried beef strips, peas, scotch bonnet chilli, garlic, and a korma sauce made with turmeric, cream and ground coconut.

Cook the beef until it begins to brown, Add the chopped chilli (1 chilli should be enough) and the garlic. After a couple of minutes add some boiling water and the garden peas. Allow most of the water to evaporate.

You can make the korma sauce from scratch with the turmeric, cream, ground coconut, coriander leaf, and a little sugar (chopped dates are an alternative), or you can add a commercially available korma sauce. Add cumin if you like.

Cook for another seven minutes or so, stirring the mixture frequently.

Serve with boiled basmati rice.

Beef Curry

The beef came from a joint of Scottish prime silverside, slow roasted in the oven for two hours, at 180 deg C. Cooked on a bed of root vegetables - 2 carrots, 2 onions, one large carrot, and a chopped stick of celery. Sea salt was rubbed into the top of the joint, along with freshly ground black pepper. Roasted in a large casserole dish, with half a pint of beef stock.

The joint was allowed to cool, and was cut into slices the following day, The gravy, made by liquidising half of the root vegetables and the stock from the roast. became the basis of the curry sauce.

I added a dessert spoonful of ground coconut, half a teaspoonful of garam massala curry powder, half a teaspoonful of cumin, half a teaspoonful of powdered ginger (root ginger will do fine instead), half a teaspoonful of cayenne pepper, half a teaspoonful of turmeric, and some dried coriander leaf. I added a whole red chilli, some white pepper, plus two diced cloves of garlic.

I cubed the beef and added it to the curry sauce. Simmered for an hour before serving with white basmati rice.

Thai Green Vegetable Curry

Thai Green Curry, with chopped tomatoes, one medium leek, two spring onions, podded peas, red and green chillies, half a green pepper, a handful of cashew nuts, half a teaspoonful of Nam Pla fish sauce, plus a Thai green curry paste. Add the cashew nuts to hot sunflower oil in a wok, along with chopped leek, tomato, peas, spring onions, and the red and green chillies. Stir-fry for ten minutes, turning the heat down after five minutes. Add boiling water, and simmer the vegetables for twenty five minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the Nam Pla fish sauce, and the green curry paste. Stir the paste into the vegetables thoroughly. Cook for another fifteen minutes at least before serving. Most, if not indeed all cuisines often have a number of signature sauces which are the basis on which dishes are created. Curry sauces serve the same function. So there is no definitive Thai green curry in terms of ingredients, beyond the ingredients of the curry paste and its spices. The ingredients I used in this particular vegetable curry were items in my fridge which needed to be used, and which would be harmonious with the curry sauce.

The sauce can be augmented with (more) coconut, ground almonds, and yoghurt or cream. Served with brown basmati rice and a handful of black wild rice (cook for thirty minutes). 

Chicken Tikka Massala

Stir fried (or steamed) chicken breast pieces. The sauce was made separately with Tikka spice powder, with tomato puree, chopped mushrooms, onion, orange pepper, chicken stock, chopped chilli peppers, and some chopped boiled potato. The chicken pieces were added to the Tikka Sauce, and cooked for fifteen to twenty minutes before serving. The ingredients listed below can be added too (yoghurt, coconut, ground almond, etc). And you can start with a lentil and onion dahl.

What is a tikka massala? Normally this is understood to be a chicken dish, marinated in spices and yogurt, which is then baked in an oven, and served in a masala sauce, which is a mix of spices, whose main basis is tomato and coriander, but there is no standard recipe for chicken tikka masala.

The spices which are used commercially are hard to discover, which suggests that the story that Chicken Massala is a dish invented in an Indian restaurant in Glasgow sometime during the past 50 years,  may be true. The Tikka spices I used were bought in powder form (as Tikka spices) from a large supermarket. It's a good guess that if you start with the standard curry spices, add tomato and more coriander, yoghurt, shredded coconut, ground almonds, and tomato puree, lentils and onion, you will have an excellent tikka massala dahl. 

Chicken Tikka Massala

Turkey Tikka Massala

Hot curry made with diced turkey breast, a tikka massala flavoured dahl, made with lentil and onion, tomato puree, coriander, yoghurt, ground almonds and shredded coconut. The turkey breast was stir fried in sunflower oil, and was then added to the tikka massala dahl, and cooked for twenty minutes at a moderate heat. Served with basmati rice. Also great to eat with Naan bread.

What is a tikka massala? Normally this is understood to be a chicken dish (for which turkey breast is a good substitute), marinated in spices and yogurt, which is then baked in an oven, and served in a masala sauce, which is a mix of spices, whose main basis is tomato and coriander, but there is no standard recipe for chicken tikka masala.

The spices which are used commercially are hard to discover, which suggests that the story that Chicken Massala is a dish invented in an Indian restaurant in Glasgow sometime during the past 50 years,  may be true. The Tikka spices I used were bought in powder form (as Tikka spices) from a large supermarket. It's a good guess that if you start with the standard curry spices, add tomato and more coriander, yoghurt, shredded coconut, ground almonds, and tomato puree, lentils and onion, you will have an excellent tikka massala dahl. 

Turkey Tikka Massala 

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