Beef Chilli with Brown Basmati Rice

Brown Basmati and black wild rice takes longer to cook than ordinary basmati (at least thirty minutes), but is easy to prepare if you use a timer. Stir frequently, and add a little sunflower oil to the water, to avoid sticking.

The beef chilli was made with ground beef, garlic, scotch bonnet chilli (half of one, with the seeds removed), onion, tinned tomato, red and yellow pepper (diced), and a diced half head of brocolli. I cooked the onion, garlic and the chilli first, until the onion began to brown.Then I added the ground beef, and cooked that also until it began to brown.

 I added boiling water, some beef stock, and the other vegetables. Cooked for another fifteen minutes before adding the tin of chopped Italian tomatoes. Cook under glass at a low heat for at least an hour, stirring occasionally. If you have two hours available to prepare the dish, you won't regret it: the beef will be wonderfully tender.

Finally I dressed the rice with a few pinches of the spice Sumac, which imparts a subtle lemony flavour to the rice.

Chole Palak (Chickpeas and Spinach)

A vegetarian chickpea and spinach curry, which is simple to create.

The other ingredients are: diced onion, garlic, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf, ground in a mortar, which should be stir-fried until the onions are golden brown.

For the Palak sauce, I used some left over tinned tomato, two handfuls of spinach leaves, turmeric, three Indian finger chillies, Some asfoetida, garam massala curry powder, a dessert spoonful of ground coriander, and salt. Blend.  I added a dessert spoonful of cornflour for thickening. Maize or Gram flour may be used instead.

Add the chickpeas and the stir-fried ingredients to the Palak sauce, plus a handful of finely chopped spinach and some chopped potato (optional), and simmer for at least ten to fifteen minutes. Serve with basmati rice, cooked with a pinch of sumac. Delicious!

Beef in Oyster and Spring Onion Sauce

Stir-fried beef strips, with batoned carrots, chopped onion, and sliced red pepper and three finger chillies.

The beef strips came from a roast, so did not to be cooked from scratch. Everything else was. The onion, red pepper, carrot and chillies were stir-fried for five to seven minutes at a medium heat. Then the beef strips were added, and the contents of the wok cooked for another five minutes.

Then the oyster and spring onion sauce was added, with a little water, and the mixture was further cooked at a low simmer for another half an hour. Served with Basmati rice cooked with two pinches of Sumac.

Sweet and Sour Chicken

Fried chicken pieces in a sweet and sour sauce, served with basmati rice and green peas, cooked with some pilau spices, and some sumac. Also some chopped onion and yellow pepper, added after the chicken was cooked..  I cheated with the sauce, since it was bought ready made from Aldi's. 

If you want to make your own sweet and sour sauce, it is essentially 1 part sugar, 1 part vinegar, and 3 parts tomato sauce or ketchup. Plus tinned pineapple chunks in juice, and sometimes spring onions.

So the ingredients might be something like below. 

2 oz/ 50g brown sugar
2 oz/ 50g malt vinegar
6 oz / 150g tomato sauce or passata
1 small tin of pineapple chunks in juice
1 tbsp light soy

Sweet and Sour Chicken