Potato Curry

 Essentially this is aloo palak curry made with ground beef, minus the ingredient of spinach. With red and yellow peppers, plus diced white onion, tomato puree, ginger and black pepper. 

Beef and Chickpea Curry

 Excellent beef curry, made with ground Scotch beef. The chickpeas were softened in a slow cooker over several hours, and the beef was browned in a flat pan in a little olive oil for an hour and a half at a low to medium heat. I added diced mushrooms, a red chilli, and a julienned red onion. 

Water was added to the beef along with the chickpeas, and was simmered for a couple of hours, after which the herbs and spices were added. The Madras curry powder was the most important of these. 

Served with some fresh coriander, Basmati rice, and Pataks Lime pickle. 

Chicken with Chinese style Rice

I've taken to cooking rice along the lines of the process in China. I don't have a rice cooker, but basically the idea is to cook the rice slowly, and to allow it to stick together (oobviously the opposite of most western practice). You can do this by putting the rice in a small pan, and cooking it until the water has evaporated. If you leave it for a bit longer, and add something like sunflower oil, it will become a little crispy underneath. Fabulous! I used turmericed rice with a handful of thai black rice, cooked and drained separately, so most of the purple dye was removed. 

The rest of the dish is composed of diced chicken breast, diced red and green pepper, diced onion, chopped pak choi leaves, diced ginger and garlic. Cooked for about ten minutes in a separate pan. Dressed in a little dark soy sauce on serving. 

 

Singapore Fried Noodles with Chicken

I respect many aspects of chinese cooking, but I tend to avoid cooking at very high temperatures (I can't stand the smoke in the kitchen). The vegetables (with the ginger, garlic and diced chillies) were fried at a very low heat for about twenty minutes. Then set aside. After that I cooked the diced chicken breast, again very slowly at first - altogether for about twenty minutes in the same oil I used to cook the vegetables. 

The Singapore noodles were sourced from Sainsbury's, who supply a couple of varieties (plain and curried) which are pretty authentic. I steamed them first for a few minutes (or you can blanche them in boiling water). Then they were drained and then fried in sunflower oil at a high heat for a couple of minutes in a skillet. Meanwhile the chicken and vegetables were being reheated in another pan. 

Assembled on a plate with a drizzle of dark soy sauce. Utterly delicious!

 

Chicken Gumbo with Green Beans and Red Pepper

Not an authentic Louisiana dish, but inspired by Cajun gumbo recipes. Chicken goujons from the fridge refried until slightly browned in olive oil. I added julienned onion (two small ones), half a diced red pepper, and about 75g of diced green beans.

I made the sauce with a teaspoonful of arrowroot powder in water (normally cornflour or flour), half a 400g can of chopped tomatoes, a teaspoonful of Cajun seasoning, a teaspoonful of paprika, and half a teaspoonful of red chilli powder. Then I added some chicken stock. Cooked for fifteen minutes. 

The sauce was added to the chicken and vegetables, along with about 100g of boiling water. Cooked slowly half under glass until the sauce thickened again. 

Served with some steamed basmati rice, originally cooked with diced root ginger. 

Sweet and Sour pan-fried Chicken

Basmati rice cooked with finely diced root ginger. Pan-fried chicken goujons, cooked slowly (mostly under glass). Plus a sweet and sour sauce which had been in the fridge for a few days, which I made for a previous dish (essentially two teaspoonfuls of tomato puree, a dash of fish sauce, a little sugar, and diced pineapple I added arrowroot as a thickener). I added diced spring onion. Served with a little white pepper and a dusting of coriander leaf. Delicious!

King Prawns with Spaghetti, Garlic, Chilli and Ginger

Some nice pre-cooked Nicaraguan King Prawns sourced from Sainsbury's today. I looked through a number of relevant recipes first, and then came up with this one. 

I filled a large flat pan with water, and brought the water to the boil, adding a drizzle of olive oil. I added a handful of wheat-free spaghetti.  Cooked for ten minutes, stirring frequently. Cooked for a further ten minutes with a couple of spoonfuls of chopped tomatoes and about 100g of diced green beans (under glass). White pepper and dried Basil were added shortly before serving. 

three cloves of garlic (diced) were fried in another pan containing a little olive oil, along with diced fresh ginger and two green chillies. I allowed the contents of the pan to brown just a little, and then added the king prawns (140g). Stirred frequently, but largely cooked under glass at a medium heat for five minutes. 

Served together in a pasta bowl. Will feed two, but I polished off all of it by myself :-). 

 

Curried Singapore Fried Noodle with King Prawns

A favourite dish from student days, when we used to hop on a bus to Chinatown in London, to have Singapore fried noodles at Wong Ki's restaurant (Gerrard Street). 

This variant of the dish uses curried noodles from Sainsbury's. The Vietnamese king prawns (also from Sainsbury's) were cooked for a couple of minutes in a little sunflower oil. The vegetables were cooked first for about four minutes at a high heat - diced red pepper (one third of one pepper), one diced spring onion, some chopped root ginger, and two cloves of garlic. No chilli this time. 

I added the noodles to a wok containing the stirfried vegetables, and mixed them together. Cooked in two and a half minutes, stirring often. I then added the king prawns. Decanted to a serving plate, and dressed in a medium dark soy sauce. 

 

Cavolo Cabbage Stir-Fry

Simple vegetable stir fry. The Cabbage leaves were removed from the stalks by hand (easier to tear them off than cutting them off with a knife). The leaves were chopped up.

Add julienned red onion, diced spring onion, diced mushroom, sliced yellow pepper, one clove of garlic, crushed, diced fresh ginger.

Mix together in a bowl with a little sunflower oil.

Cook in a flat pan or wok drizzled with sunflower oil, at a high heat for two minutes, and then for another six to eight minutes at a medium or low heat, stirring about every ten seconds or so, until the dish is ready.

Served on some dark soy sauce, and topped with a spiral of sweet Thai chilli sauce. Delicious!

Ground Lamb, Sweetcorn and Ginger

Ground lamb cooked with onion or leek, peas and ginger. Plus diced garlic, and half a small tin of sweetcorn.

The lamb was browned for twenty minutes before the other ingredients were added.

 The ginger was diced, along with a clove of garlic. Added to the pot with the sweetcorn and peas, along with the diced onion. Cooked for another twenty minutes under glass. After that the tomato puree was added, along with some water.

Served with boiled rice, Chinese style (sticky enough to be picked up with chopsticks).

Chickpea Curry with Pilau Rice

Black chickpeas were soaked in water for six hours, until they became soft. Then they were boiled, and I added diced carrot, diced leek, diced green chillies (3), tomato puree, a dessert spoonful of Madras curry powder, half a teaspoonful of powdered ginger, and three crushed garlic cloves. Plus the vegetable stock, and a quarter teaspoonful of turmeric. Cooked slowly under glass for two hours.

The basmati rice was cooked slowly with pilau rice spices, and a pinch of turmeric, for fifteen minutes, in a partially lidded pan.

Served with a garnish of coriander leaf.

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.

Cajun Maque Choux

This is a variation on a well known Cajun dish from Louisiana, which is essentially a stew made with sweetcorn.

I browned some diced leek in sunflower oil (normally diced onion). I added some pre-soaked chickpeas (not a standard ingredient), cooked earlier in some turmeric and Cajun spices (I used a commercially available Cajun spice powder, which contained garlic, chilli powder, paprika and cumin. But you could easily make this up from your spice cupboard). Stir-fried together for a little time. Then I added boiling water, some powdered ginger, a pinch of cumin seeds, and vegetable stock. and the sweetcorn.

Diced green pepper is usually also an ingredient, but I used diced green beans instead. I also skipped the addition of tomatoes. Finally I added a large pinch of dried coriander, plus another dash of Cajun spices, and stirred them through. Allowed to simmer for about twenty minutes under glass, at a low heat.

Served with basmati rice (or American long grain). The dish was served with a dusting of coriander. Delicious! Can be served with diced chicken.

Baked Bean Curry

An ideal student dish (inexpensive, easy to prepare, and tasty). Made with half a medium sized leek, eight chopped baby plum tomatoes (or similar), about 120g of tomato passata (or paste), half a standard tin of baked beans, half a dessert spoonful of curry powder, half a teaspoonful of powdered ginger, half a teaspoonful of dried coriander, one red chilli (deseeded), plus a pinch of cumin seeds (or powdered cumin).

The leek was divided lengthwise, and the halves were further divided, then diced. Added to a small pan with a drizzle of sunflower oil, and cooked at a medium heat until the leek pieces soften and begin to brown. The the chopped tomatoes were added and stirred through. Cooked until thoroughly softened (about ten minutes or so).

Add a little water. Add the tomato passata, and stir. Allow to simmer until the mixture thickens (watch carefully). Add the curry powder, the red chilli, the cumin seeds, the coriander, and the ginger. Stir through for a minute or so.

Finally, add the half tin of beans. Allow to heat close to boiling, then serve with a halved garlic and coriander naan bread, cooked in a toaster until it begins to sizzle!

Balti Style Chicken Curry

Dish prompted by some cheap vegetables from the local Co-op. Washed and diced leek and carrot, cooked with yellow split peas, which formed the basis of the curry sauce.

Mashed and blended, I added the curry powder (Madras), plus some turmeric, and tomato passata. Then I added a handful of raisins, a red and green chilli (deseeded), diced root ginger, chicken and vegetable stock, some fish sauce (Nam Pla). And finally the chicken slices from two chicken thighs.

Allowed to simmer for an hour. Served with long grain rice (or basmati, if you prefer), cooked for two minutes in boiling water before being shocked by cold water, and then another eight minutes of cooking. Served with lime pickle. Drizzle some lime juice on the rice before serving. Excellent!

Singapore Noodle with Chicken and Peppers

Fabulous dish made with fresh and soft Singapore Noodles from Sainsbury's. First I julienned one white and one red onion, cut the peppers into strips, diced the two chillies, diced the root ginger, and crushed some garlic.

The chicken meat came from a steamed chicken thigh (deskinned), which spent the day before the preparation of this dish in the fridge. The groundnut oil (peanut oil) was heated to a high temperature in the wok, and the both the onion and the chicken meat were added.After which the heat was turned way down (I've mentioned before that my electric hob has a high degree of heat latency, meaning it takes a while to heat up and to cool down). Stirred continuously for about three minutes, and then the other vegetables and the cashew nuts were added.

The mixture of chicken and vegetables was cooked for another four minutes, stirring frequently.

The heat was turned up high before I added the noodles, and then turned down again immediately afterwards. Stir together continuously for another three or four minutes, until they are thoroughly heated.

Serve on a spiral of dark soy sauce. Delicious, and a trip down memory lane.

Sweet Potato Curry

Made with cubed sweet potato, onion, diced carrot, fresh root ginger, coriander leaves (the dressing), red chilli (deseeded), turmeric, and Madras curry powder. Served (Korean style) with black Thai rice and Basmati rice (cooked separately), and a four leaf salad.   

Chickpea, Kidney Bean, and Black Bean Curry

A vegetarian recipe, with chickpeas, red kidney beans, leek, potato, and red chilli. Built on an existing garlic and black bean sauce.

I used dried chickpeas and red kidney beans, so they were soaked overnight. Then they were boiled for forty-five minutes, along with the potato pieces, the garlic and black bean sauce, and the diced leek. After that I added the ginger, the Madras curry powder, and the red chilli.

Diced coriander leaf was then added, and stirred through. Served with two lightly toasted Peshwari naans, and a serving of lime pickle. Fabulous!

Mushroom and Cabbage Stir-Fry, with Chilli Chicken

Mushroom and cabbage stir-fry ingredients from the local Co-op, and onion and bean sprouts. Stir fried-for seven minutes at a medium heat (I have an efficient cooker hood, but I still try to avoid cooking at very high temperatures). The stir-fry was decanted to a plate heated in the oven.

The chopped roast chicken was prepared in a separate small pan, with chicken stock, deseeded and diced red chilli, plus a quarter spoonful of powdered ginger (fresh is better if you have a root in your fridge). Simmered under glass for ten minutes until most of the chilli salsa has been reduced.

Serve on top of the stir-fry and drizzle with some dark soy sauce and some white pepper.

Singapore Fried Noodle with Chicken

Stir-Fried vegetables and chicken pieces, with fantastic Singapore noodles from Sainsbury's.

The vegetables were stir-fried first in a little sunflower oil, at a high heat initially, but reduced a minute or so after the vegetables were added to the wok (I use an electric cooker, and the hobs take a while to cool down). The vegetables included mushroom slices, bamboo shoots, bean sprouts, green cabbage, onion, and red chilli (deseeded).

I added the chicken pieces, which had been marinaded and pre-cooked in chicken stock with ginger. The stir-fry was on the hob altogether for seven minutes.

The vegetables and chicken pieces were then decanted to a pre-heated serving plate, and the wok was now used to fry the noodles. I added sunflower oil to the wok and cooked the noodles for two minutes at a medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent sticking (the noodles came vacuum-packed, and ready to cook).

Once ready, the noodles were added to the serving plate, and the vegetables and chicken were mixed through. The dish was drizzled with soy sauce. Delicious!