Hard Boiled Eggs in Spicy Cream Sauce

We’ve had the most glorious Autumn – which is really nice because we had a deeply ordinary Summer. Autumn is my favourite season. I’m not good with extremes of temperature, don’t like being hot – nor do I like being cold. Picky – I know, but it is how it is 🙂

One of the lovely things about cooler weather is that a curry feels just right. I don’t know how people who live in India cope with spicy food in such hot, humid weather. I know there is supposed to be something about the spicy-ness of the food making you sweat, which in turn makes you cooler… But it just doesn’t make sense to me. Curry in cool weather? Now THAT makes sense!

This is one of our favourites. It is crazy-easy, delicious, cheap and really tasty. It is a Madhur Jaffrey recipe which I think I found on the interwebs…  It has come to my attention that – though I love cooking and eating curries, I don’t yet own a Madhur Jaffrey cookbook… I can feel some sneaky Amazoning coming on 😉

3 Tbsp ghee

50g onion  – peeled and finely chopped

1 inch cube of fresh ginger – peeled and grated

1/2 – 1 fresh green chilli – finely chopped

275ml cream – use coconut milk if you want this Paleo (I did, and it was delicious!)

1tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp garam marsala

2 tsp tomato paste

150ml chicken stock

6 – 8 hard boiled eggs – peeled and halved

1 tbsp finely chopped coriander or parsley

heat the oil over medium heat and fry the onions, Stir and fry for about 3 minutes or until the pieces are browned at the edges.

Add the ginger and chilli and stir fry for about a minute

Add the cream, lemon juice, spices, salt, tomato paste and chicken stock. Stir to mix thoroughly and bring to a simmer.

Add the eggs, cut side up and spoon the sauce over them. Cook about 5 minutes.

Serve cut side up with sauce poured over, Garnish with coriander or parsley. 

I added some cauliflower and broccoli florets, and some chopped spinach before I put the eggs in…

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Savoury Paneer Fish Cakes

I’ve been watching the Food Channel lately. This recipe came from a show called Spice Goddess (great title). I’m looking to change my diet a bit – I think I’ve had too much red meat lately… not that that is a bad thing, exactly… 🙂

I love eating fish, and almost always order it if we’re out for dinner, but we don’t often cook it at home. To buy fish is quite expensive – so we have been used to keeping it for a treat. But, I think we’re worth it. I made salmon for dinner the night before and had a small piece left over. The Spice Goddess (Bal Arnesan) had made these fish cakes which sounded really good, so I made them yesterday.

60z fish – flaked – I used a piece of left-over salmon and a tin of sardines all munched up together

1/2 cup grated paneer or mozzarella (I used mozzarella)

1/4 cup yoghurt

2 tbsp finely chopped red onion

1/2 cup chickpea flour

1 tbsp fenugreek leaves – crumbled (I didn’t have leaves, so I crushed fenugreek seeds in my mortar and pestle. I used about a teaspoon – probably should have been more.)

1 tsp ground coriander

Salt and pepper

Mix together, form into patties and fry till golden.

Serve with chutney or raita.

These were so easy to make. The flavour was very gentle – I expected it to be spicier and would prefer it that way, so next time I will use more fenugreek powder, and perhaps toast and then grind my own coriander powder.

This made 6 quite large fish cakes. You could make little ones which would be great as nibbles for a dinner party.

 

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Delicious!

My favourite cooking magazine was delicious. , I say was because I think I have beaten my magazine addiction!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve found so many great recipes on the internet – things my new friends are making and recommending, that I don’t need magazines anymore. Which is great – more space on my bookshelves (room for another addiction? snrk) , but not great, in that it’s difficult to put post-it-notes on my lap-top (though I’m sure I’ll figure it out… eventually)

In the meantime, there are still recipes from delicious. (an award winning Australian magazine) that I want to try. This one has been post-it marked for a while now. I find I get stuck with a few favourite recipes and they tend to go into a high rotate, but I’m getting a bit tired of chicken thighs wrapped in bacon – I know *spoiled*, so I thought I’d try this one.

This is a Nigella Lawson recipe that was published in delicious. in July 2004. I changed it a little – to suit what I had – and because I don’t much like turmeric, I used less than in Nigella’s recipe.

Chicken Tikka (Nigella makes a hot red onion relish to go with it, which would be good, but I didn’t have most of the ingredients)

Marinade

2 garlic cloves

5cm piece of fresh ginger – peeled

1 small red chilli – seeds removed

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp garam masala

juice of 1 lemon

1/4 cup vegetable oil (I used light olive oil)

1 cup plain yoghurt.

Whizz the garlic, ginger and chilli together until finely chopped

Add the other ingredients and whizz to combine. Add some salt and pepper.

Pour over chicken pieces (I used chicken thighs – bone in/skin off), stir to coat in the marinade and leave in the fridge at least 4 hours (or overnight)

Bring the chook to room temperature.

Melt some butter in a pan, add chicken and cook over medium-low heat till done (you don’t want to cook it too high, because the yoghurt will burn). I baked mine in the oven, Nigella suggested using a frypan.

We had ours with salad leaves, avocado and some steamed rice, and we squeezed some extra lemon juice over the chicken.

This recipe is really, really good. It is gently spicy – not at all scary. Marinating the chicken in yoghurt makes the chicken very moist and tender.

I wish I’d made this years ago.

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Ray McVinnie’s Malaysian Chicken

This recipe was published recently in a newspaper – I forget which one. It looked good, so I put it aside to try later… as you do. Or as I do anyway!

The marinade blitzed up easily and smelled really good – fresh, citrusy. I thought if it tasted as good as it smells, we’re onto a winner…

4 cloves garlic – chopped

6 shallots – chopped – I used a small onion

4 tbsp finely chopped ginger

1/2 tsp ground aniseed – i used ground star-anise (I’m not sure if that is the same, but it was what I had)

2 stalks lemongrass – white bits only – sliced  – I used the stuff in a jar that comes pre-sliced

1 tsp ground turmeric

100ml coconut cream

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp grated palm sugar, or dark brown sugar

5 whole chicken legs, cut into half into thighs and drumsticks

Blitz everything except the chicken until smooth.

Combine chicken with marinade, mix well and marinate at least one hour, or overnight

Shake off the excess marinade, but reserve it.

Grill, bake or barbecue the chicken, brushing it with the reserved marinade as it cooks, until it is well browned and cooked through.

Serve with lime wedges, cucumber, tomatoes and rice – or avocado and home-grown coriander. This is a photo of the leftovers I ate for breakfast (it’s 10:30am). It is good, but needs a little more salt and sugar for my taste (or perhaps a little less turmeric – I don’t really like that stuff).

We” ll make it again! 🙂

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>It’s suddenly cold.

>Wet, grey and cold. Summer is gone. I guess it had to happen. Cold nights make me think of curry. This is a new recipe to me, one of the ones I had taken from a magazine. I probably should have made notes on these recipes – whose recipe it was, which magazine I found it in… but I didn’t… , so I hope I don’t tread on any toes in writing it out here.

Chicken Korma

1 onion – sliced
3 garlic cloves – finely chopped
chicken thighs or breasts – thickly sliced
2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp ground cumin
300ml chicken stock – home made this time, but Massel brand is gluten free
60g (1/4 cup) creme fraiche or yoghurt
60g (1/2 cup) ground almonds

Cook onion in oil over medium-high heat for 2 or 3 minutes, then add garlic and cook for a minute.
Add the chicken and cook for about 5 minutes
Add the spices and cook until fragrant.
Add stock, creme fraiche or yoghurt and ground almonds.
Bring to the boil then cover and simmer until the chicken is cooked.
Add vegetables of your choice for the last few minutes – peas, zucchini, green beans, chopped spinach etc.
Serve with rice.
Sprinkle with coriander leaves if you have some.

This is a very quick curry to make, so perfect for a last minute, what the heck to I want to make for dinner thing. It tastes really good, the spices are warm, but gentle – nothing to offend any fussy eater – not that there are any of those here.

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>how to ruin perfectly good lamb and stay married

>Rick grew up on a farm. His idea of heaven is roast lamb every night. I like roast lamb too, but not all the time. Rick likes this curry, which should be a testament to how good it is.

Lamb Curry with Pomegranate
1/4 cup raw cashews – chopped (or 1/4 cup ground almonds)
1 large onion – roughly chopped
3 cloves garlic – chopped
large knob of fresh ginger – peeled and roughly chopped
2 tbsp canola oil
700g lamb shoulder – trimmed and diced 2cm
2 tbsp garam marsala
2 tsp ground pomegranate seeds (anardana powder – I get mine from the FABULOUS Indian grocery just around the corner from us)
1 tsp sugar
4 tbsp tomato paste – I didn’t have tomato paste, so I used a little container of tomato passata that I made last month and froze
1 tsp salt
fresh coriander to serve

Soak the chopped cashews in 1/2 cup water for a few hours, then puree the nuts and water to a smooth cream in a food processor. (I used cashews and blitzed them, but they didn’t go to a smooth cream – I’m not sure that it isn’t a problem with my new food processor… anyway… the end result was really tasty, just a bit nutty/lumpy if you know what I mean. Ground up nuts in Indian food are often used as a thickener and I can’t think of any reason that you couldn’t use ground almonds instead of the cashews. Don’t soak them, just stir them in a spoonful at a time and add a bit of water or stock too)
Puree onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor until smooth
Heat oil in a fry pan and stir-fry the onion paste for 2 minutes – make sure it doesn’t brown
Add the spices and cook for 1 – 2 minutes
Add the rest of the ingredients and cook a further 2 minutes
Add the meat and cook gently until just tender (about 40 minutes )- add a little water or stock if necessary Serve with chopped coriander on top
Serves 4

And now a confession – I didn’t use lamb. I used mutton – not only that, but it was left-over roast mutton. I made everything exactly as in the recipe, but the mutton only needed to be reheated really. It was still really good 🙂 You will have to take my word for it, because I forgot to take photos…. sigh

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>Steady grew some green chillies

>and he gave us some. So I made this sauce – rude not to really. This is adapted from the book called Complete Indian Cooking published by Hamlyn. It is a great book that I use heaps. A lot of folks are frightened of curries – because the list of ingredients always looks a bit daunting. Harden up people. I wasn’t going to actually cook the curry here – I was just making the sauce to freeze for another day when I can’t be bothered doing it all from scratch, so the method is quite different from the original recipe… I did it my way (sounds like it should be a song doesn’t it?)

Bangalore Chicken Curry Sauce – My Way

2 onions – cut into quarters
6 cloves garlic
1 tsp turmeric
3/4 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp ground cumin
40g fresh coriander leaves – I didn’t measure this, I had 1 1/2 bunches and I just bunged it in – stalks included – rip it up a bit

3 large, fresh green chillies – deseeded and chopped a bit

1 can coconut cream

1 tsp salt

Blitz everything in a food processor.



The smell is fresh, clean and mouth-watering



 Put it in a container and freeze.



I LOVE these containers!



When you want to actually make the curry – put sauce, chicken pieces and a little chicken stock in a pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer, turning the chicken pieces occasionally until the chicken is done.

Stir in some lemon juice (about 1 tbsp), add some more salt if you need to.

Serve topped with some more fresh coriander.

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>Japanese Curry Rice

>I miss Japanese food. We used to have HUGE nights at Izakya Yatai (a sort of Japanese Tapas bar). I can’t eat Japanese food these days unless I make it myself. Back when we hosted International students while they studied English Language at the university near us, a favourite dinner for homesick Japanese students was curry rice, made with a roux mix you can get at the supermarket. Japanese curry is delicious – quite different from Indian or Thai flavours (which are also delicious), and I have missed it. THEN, I found this blog www.norecipes.com – the guy who owns this is called Marc Matsumoto – he is as cute as a button and he posts ingredients and a method to encourage you to wing it – to try something you might otherwise not even dream of. He has a post for Curry Rice. I tried it the other day – I changed his recipe a bit – used up some caramelized onion marmelade I had (so I left out the apple Marc suggests); I’d run out of cayenne – so I used a bit of curry powder… It worked just great – we both had seconds! Check him out – he’s not only into Japanese food…

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