Lamb and Lentil Curry

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

 

When I was in Sainsburys looking for some stewing lamb I found a boneless lamb shoulder, which worked out cheaper than those packets of diced lamb. As it was boneless it was easy to cut up into pieces and I managed to make 2 meals from the joint. One was a Thai Massaman Curry and the other was this curry.

 

I adapted a recipe from an old Fresh magazine and I cooked it in my Tefal 4-in-1. The meat was meltingly tender and had incredible flavour as the lamb shoulder had a good bit of fat on it.

 

I served it with brown rice and home-made naan bread.

 

• Serves: 2 (the amount of sauce could serve 4 people if you double the meat)

 

Ingredients:

• 2 Tablespoons oil
• 500g lamb shoulder (or leg) cut into 4cm chunks
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1 green pepper, cut into chunks
• 2 Tablespoons of Rogan Josh Curry Paste (I used Pataks)
• 1 (400g) tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of water
• 1 Tablespoon of concentrated liquid stock (I used Knorr Touch of Taste Beef)
• 2 handfuls of split red lentils, rinsed and drained
• 1 whole green chilli, poked a few times with a knife

 

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and fry the lamb in batches until lightly browned all over. Remove the lamb from the pan (set aside in the Tefal cooking bowl) leaving the oil in the pan.
2. Add the onions and pepper to the pan and cook over a medium heat for about 10 minutes until soft and golden.
3. Return the lamb to the pan, stir in the curry paste and fry for a couple of minutes to release the spices.
4. Add the tomatoes, tin of water, the Tablespoon of concentrated liquid stock, the red lentils and the green chilli.
5. Bring to the boil, then transfer to the Tefal cooking bowl. Cook for 4-5 hours. You can transfer the curry back into the pan and simmer uncovered to thicken the sauce whilst you cook the rice in the Tefal.

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• You can cook this on the hob by covering the pan and simmering gently for 1 hour 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Or you can cook it in the oven at Gas mark 4/350°F/180°C for 2-2½ hours.

Thai Sticky Chicken – Rachel Allen

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

 

Rachel made this recipe on her ‘Home Cooking’ series and we thought it looked really good. I made it again the other day as it was Thai New Year between the 13th-15th April!

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

I’ve made this twice now and made it slightly different both times:

• The first time I used the nam pla (fish sauce) and it completely stunk out the fridge, but it did make the chicken taste good. I marinated the chicken for 2 days.
• The second time I substituted the nam pla for ketchup manis (sweet soy sauce) as I hoped it would make the chicken sweeter and more sticky. I marinated the chicken overnight. I used the remaining marinade in some stir-fried noodles.

 

Both times I used less chicken than the recipe stated (so it would serve 2 people), but I made the right quantity of marinade so we’d have more sauce.

I don’t like coriander leaf (but funnily enough I like the seeds) so I omitted it completely both times.

 

The recipe says to ‘Remove the chicken from the fridge about 30–40 minutes before cooking to bring to room temperature.’ but I didn’t have time the second time I made it, so I nuked the chicken on high for 2 minutes, then cooked in the oven as normal.

 

TASTE TEST:

The chicken tasted much better the first time I made it. I don’t know if it was the extra marinating time or the nam pla, but the flavours (sweet, sour, salty) were just more intense. So I would definitely marinate it for 2 days and store the chicken in an airtight container to stop the stink of the nam pla taking over the fridge!

 

The recipe below is how I made it, you can find the original here.

 

• Serves: 2
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C

 

Ingredients:

• 500-700g chicken, drumsticks and thighs (2-3 per person, depending on size)
• 2 red chillies, seeds removed and chopped
• 2.5 cm piece of root ginger, roughly chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 1 stick lemongrass, outer skin discarded, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp soft light or dark brown sugar
• 2 limes, juice only
• 3 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla) or ketchup manis

 

Directions:

1. Using a sharp knife, cut slashes in the chicken drumsticks and thighs and place
   them in an airtight box.
2. Place the remaining ingredients in a mini chopper/food processor and blend to a rough paste, then pour over the chicken. Put the lid on the box and shake to evenly coat the chicken in the marinade.
3. Leave to marinate in the fridge, preferably for 2 days, shaking the box occasionally to redistribute the marinade.
4. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 7/425°F/220°C.
5. Remove the chicken from the fridge about 30–40 minutes before cooking to bring
   to room temperature (or heat on high in the microwave for 2 minutes). Remove the chicken pieces from the marinade (reserving the marinade) and arrange in a single layer on a baking tray. Roast in the oven for 35–40 minutes or until the meat is coming away from the bone.
6. Arrange the chicken pieces on a warm serving platter and place the reserved marinade and any juices from the baking tray into a small saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes, stirring with a wooden spoon and scrape any sticky bits from the bottom, until thickened and sticky.

Keema Pie with rosti topping

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

 

I’ve had a keema pie recipe from a really old issue of Delicious magazine sitting in my recipe folder for quite a while, but never got around to making it. It’s basically an Indian version of shepherds/cottage pie. What prompted me to try it was seeing another recipe in the April issue of Delicious which had a rosti topping instead of mash. Steve isn’t a huge fan of potatoes, so I consulted him on what his preference was and he decided that the rosti topping would be the lesser of two evils!

 

CHANGES TO THE RECIPE:

The new recipe uses lamb mince, but the old recipe uses beef mince, so it seems that they’re interchangeable. I used beef mince as that’s what I had available, but I only had 500g instead of the 750g the recipe said to use. I also substituted the 5 large skinned vine tomatoes for a tin of plum tomatoes as it was more convenient.

 

I only used about 1½ green chilies as they were really hot when I tasted a sample, so I also omitted the ½ teaspoon of hot chili powder as I have a tendency to make food too hot! But the finished dish wasn’t all that hot and I think using all the chili and the powder would have been OK.

 

MY SKIN IS ON FIRE!

I suffered really badly from the chili burning the skin on my hands, so I did a search on Google and I found the solution of rubbing salt onto my hands. I used coarse sea salt and I rubbed it on dry, which worked quite well and removed the really stinging burning sensation. But I discovered there was still some chili on my skin when I went to take my contact lenses out and my eyeballs started burning! So I used the salt again using wet hands and it seemed to have worked as it didn’t hurt when I put my contacts in this morning. So next time I will chop the garlic, ginger and chilies in my mini chopper to avoid so much contact with my skin!

 

TASTE TEST:

We both really liked the flavour of the mince as the spices were really nice, but it was a bit too watery. Next time I will leave the lid off the pan when simmering. I would also leave out the spinach, as even though I squeezed out the water I’m sure it released more water when baking. The old keema pie recipe uses peas instead, which is a much better idea and actually more traditional.

 

We were both disappointed with the rosti topping as it didn’t go very crispy, even though I’d also shoved the pie under the grill. Steve thinks the sweet potato was to blame. Making this topping was sooooo much extra work and totally not worth the effort! So next time I would just use a mash potato topping, or even just serve the mince with some rice.

 

The recipe below is how I made it and not the actual recipe from the magazine.

• Serves: 4
• Takes: 1 hour 45 minutes to make
• Oven temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C

 

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Knob of fresh ginger, grated
• 2 long green chilies, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 teaspoon coriander seeds
• ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
• ½ teaspoon hot chili powder
• 500g beef mince
• 300ml beef stock (I used Knorr Touch of Taste)
• 400g tin peeled plum tomatoes, discard the juice
• 200g spinach
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 medium potato, coarsely grated
• 1 medium sweet potato, coarsely grated
• 1 medium onion, finely sliced

 

Directions:

1. Heat 2 Tablespoons of the oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Add the chopped onion, season well and fry until softened. Add the finely garlic, ginger and green chilies and fry for a couple of minutes.
2. In a separate pan, dry-fry the cumin and coriander seeds until fragrant, then crush in a pestle and mortar with the turmeric and chili powder until finely ground. Add to the onion mixture and fry for a couple of minutes.
3. Add the mince, increase the heat and fry for about 10 minutes until the meat is brown, Drain off the excess fat, then add the stock and tomatoes, breaking them up as you mix them in. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the meat is cooked and the sauce has thickened slightly (remove the lid if it’s too watery).
4. Put the spinach in a colander over a large saucepan and pour over a kettle of boiling water, then refresh in cold water. Squeeze out the excess water. Stir through the curry with the lemon juice and garam masala and season to taste.
5. Put the pan of hot water that you used to wilt the spinach on the heat and bring back to the boil, then place the potato, sweet potato and onion into it and blanch for 30 seconds. Drain, then tip into a clean tea towel and squeeze out all the excess liquid. Place in a bowl and toss with the remaining oil and season.
6. Tip the keema into a large ovenproof dish and top with the blanched rosti topping.
7. Bake for 30 minutes at Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C until the rosti is golden on top – place under a hot grill for 5 minutes if it’s still not brown enough!

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• This dish can be frozen at stage 6. Bake for 40 minutes from frozen at Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.

Tuna in Tamarind Sauce (Pla Rad Prik)

 

MUNCH RATING: 2/5

 

A few months ago Steve and I went to a brilliant Thai restaurant near Richmond Park called Ayudhya. We had Monkfish in a tamarind sauce and it was called Pla Rad Prik. It was really tasty and the fish was beautifully cooked, but it was really spicy! I think traditionally the Thai fry a whole fish, but in the restaurant they fried pieces of monkfish.

 

Steve’s Mum bought us some tuna whilst in Tesco’s this week and I had to think of a good way to use it up. I’m not a big fan of tuna, so I thought this spicy tamarind sauce would be a good way to mask the tuna taste!

 

Well the sauce was good, but the tuna wasn’t. It just tasted so fishy and it put me off from eating it, so I left most of it. I will definitely make the sauce again, but I will use less chilli as it was a little bit too hot for us, even though I used only 1 chilli instead of the 3 that the recipe suggested!

 

Ingredients:

• Any meaty fish, cut into chunks
• Cornflour to coat the fish
• 1 shallot, coarsely chopped (I used ½ red onion sliced as that’s what I had in the fridge!)
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1 Tablespoon tamarind
• 3 Tablespoon sugar
• 1 Tablespoon fish sauce
• 1 Tablespoon dark soy sauce
• 1 red or yellow chilli, sliced

 

Directions for the sauce:

1. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a small saucepan over a medium heat.
2. Add the garlic, onion and chilli and fry until the onion is soft.
3. Then add tamarind, sugar, fish sauce and soy sauce and about 100ml of water.
4. Mix well and let boil to reduce down to a thick syrup.

 

Directions for the fish:

1. In a dish, coat the chunks of fish in the cornflour.
2. Heat 2 Tablespoons of oil in a wok or large frying pan, then fry the fish for about 5 minutes until golden brown.
3. When cooked, pour the sauce on top of the fish and garnish with spring onion brushes.
4. Serve immediately with steamed rice.

 

COOK’S NOTES:

• To make the spring onion brushes: take a spring onion and cut off most of the green part and discard, leaving about a finger length of the white part. Carefully trim off the root. From the greenest end of the spring onion, cut about halfway along the length a few times to make strips. Place the spring onions into a bowl of cold water and place in the fridge for about 10 minutes to make the strips curl. Lift from water and drain before using as a garnish.

Ken Hom's Udon Noodles with Beef and Chilli Bean Sauce

MUNCH RATING: 5/5

I used a recipe from a Ken Hom book (that accompanies his new Nutriwok) as a base for this dish. I added the carrots, green beans and mushrooms as I like my veggies! I also added the udon noodles as I love them, but you can use any kind of noodles you like or serve with rice.

His recipe was a bit confusing as he didn’t list the soy sauce in the marinade ingredients, but it is in the directions, so I ended up adding it at the end!
This is a great spicy dish, which is tasty but not too hot. Marinating the beef ensures that it remains soft and tender, whilst also adding flavour to the meat.

As with all stir fries, make sure all the ingredients are prepared before you start cooking.

• Serves: 2 (but the amount of beef and noodles can be doubled to serve 4)
• You will need: a large wok or frying pan

Ingredients:
FOR THE MARINADE 

• 2 Tablespoons reduced salt soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 Tablespoon Chinese Shaoshing rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 teaspoons cornflour

• 225g (1/2 lb) beef steak (I used rump), cut into 0.5cm x 5cm slices
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 3 spring onions, finely chopped
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into thin slices on an angle
• a handful of green beans, cut in half
• 5-6 mushrooms, sliced
• 2 packs of straight-to-wok udon noodles
• 1 Tablespoon Chinese Shaoshing rice wine or dry sherry
• 2 teaspoons chilli bean sauce (I used Amoy Toban Jhan Chilli Bean Paste)
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil

Directions:

1. Mix the marinade ingredients together and add the beef, allow to marinate for 20 minutes.
2. Heat the wok over a very high heat until it is hot, then add 1 Tablespoon of the oil and when the oil is slightly smoking add the beef and stir fry for about 5 minutes until nice and brown. Remove from the pan and set to one side.
3. Wipe the wok clean and reheat over a high heat until it is hot. Add the other 1 Tablespoon of oil and heat. Add the garlic and spring onions and stir fry for 30 seconds until it smells fragrant.
4. Add the carrots, green beans and the mushrooms and stir fry for a few minutes until just starting to soften.
5. Add the noodles and stir fry for 2-3 minutes until they are heated through.
6. Return the beef to the pan, then add the rice wine and the chilli bean sauce and stir fry for another minute so that everything is coated evenly (if it starts to stick then you can add a little water to the pan).
7. Finally, add the black pepper, sugar and sesame oil.
8. Serve immediately.

Spicy Fish with Rice

MUNCH RATING: 3/5
Steve’s Mum bought some swordfish as it was half price, so I adapted a recipe that used cod and it worked really well as the swordfish held it’s shape and had a good flavour.

• Serves 3-4
• You will need: large wok or deep frying pan 

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 1 tablespoon curry powder
• 1 teaspoon hot chilli powder (adapt to suit taste)
• salt and pepper
• 3 large pieces of thick cut swordfish, skinned and cut into large chunks
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 3 spring onions, sliced at an angle
• 2 small orange sweet peppers, cut into small pieces
• 1 carrot, peeled and cut into matchsticks
• A big handful of frozen peas
• 450g cooked long-grain rice (that’s 2 cups uncooked)
• A pinch of cayenne (optional, but I like it hot!)
• 4 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce (I used Blue Dragon)
• 4 tablespoons ketchup manis*
• 2 tablespoons tomato ketchup** (optional)
• big handful of roasted, salted cashews (I used Tesco Value ones!) 

Directions:

1. Mix the flour, curry powder, chilli powder, salt and pepper in a wide shallow dish and add the fish. Gently mix until the fish is coated in the spice mixture. Chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Heat your wok or pan, then add the oil and heat until almost smoking. Add the fish and fry for about 5 minutes, until brown and crispy on all sides. Remove from the pan, place on a warm plate, cover and keep warm.
3. Put the spring onions, peppers and carrots into the pan and stir fry for 2-3 minutes, then add the peas, rice and cayenne and fry until they’re heated through.
4. Then add the sweet chilli sauce, ketchup manis, tomato ketchup and cashews and stir fry for 3 more minutes.
5. Return the fish to the pan, heat for a few minutes then serve immediately.

COOK'S NOTES:
* The original recipe uses soy sauce, but I prefer Ketchup manis which is Indonesian soy sauce and it’s thicker, sweeter and less salty than normal soy sauce. The only place I’ve managed to find it is Marks and Spencers. If you can’t get it, just use ordinary soy sauce instead, but use about half the amount, and add some sugar to the dish.
** If you don’t add the tomato ketchup to the dish whilst it’s cooking, it’s still nice to serve it with the rice, as a small squirt of tomato ketchup adds a nice sweet zingy flavour!

Mac 'n' cheese, chilli bake with butternut squash

MUNCH RATING: 4/5

I had some leftover chili that Steve had cooked and some roasted butternut squash in the fridge and this is something I threw together. I wasn't going to blog it but Steve insisted it was so nice that I should write about it, so I've done my best to remember the quantities, but really it is a dish you can play around with. The roasted butternut squash on the top is really the concept we want to share as it's a surprisingly good addition because it adds so much natural sweetness.
Credit goes to Steve for the photo - I was too busy eating!

• Serves: 2 generously
• You will need: small but deep baking dish (I used a 9 x 5 x 3 inch silicone loaf pan)

Ingredients:

• 225g/8oz macaroni
• About 1 cup leftover chilli
• About 3/4 pint cheese sauce
• About 1 cup of roasted butternut squash

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to Gas Mark 7/425°F/220°C.
2. Cook macaroni until just al dente then drain well.
3. Mix half of the cooked macaroni with the chilli and spoon into a baking dish.
4. Mix the other half of the macaroni with the cheese sauce and spoon on top of the meaty pasta.
5. Scatter the roasted butternut squash over the top.
6. Bake in the oven for 30-40 minutes or until the cheese is slightly golden.

Potato Galette & Sweetcorn Succotash

MUNCH RATING: 3/5

I bought some frozen ready-marinated Mahi-Mahi (similar to swordfish) from the supermarket so all I had to do was pop it in the oven to cook. This meant I could turn all my attention to the side dishes.

I knew I wanted to serve potatoes with the fish but I wanted to try something new. I knew I would already have the oven on to cook the fish so that narrowed down my cooking method and I knew I wanted to achieve something with a crispy texture to counter-balance the fish. Somehow the idea of a Potato Galette came into my head even though I've never made it before. After a quick search on Google I discovered there are a variety of ways to make this dish, so I went with what sounded best.

I've been wanting to make Sweetcorn Succotash ever since we went to The Cheesecake Factory (TCF) and I tried it for the first time. To be honest, before that meal I didn't know Succotash was an actual dish, I just thought it was part of a catchphrase by Sylvester The Cat! I couldn't find a definitive recipe on Google, it seems to be one of those dishes which is open to interpretation, so I made up my own recipe based on what I remembered of my TCF experience.

POTATO GALETTE

• Serves 2
• Oven Temperature: Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C
• Cooking Time: 25 minutes
• You will need: A mandolin or a box grater, small baking pan

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 white potatoes (Russet or Maris Piper are good for this), peeled
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• Salt & Pepper
• Some Italian seasoning or other type of mixed seasoning (optional)
• 2 handfuls of grated cheese (I used a bag of Quattro Formaggio which had Parmesan, Asiago, Fontina and Mild Provolone)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas mark 6/400°F/200°C.
2. Slice your potatoes as thinly as possible, preferably with a mandolin. But if you haven't got one then I found that the wide slicing blade on a box grater works really well. To make it easier, lay the grater flat on a board with the slicing blade facing upwards and then push the potato away from you as you slice them.
3. Put the tablespoon of olive oil in a large bowl and add salt, pepper and Italian seasoning. Add the sliced potatoes and toss in the olive oil until evenly coated.
4. Starting from the middle, arrange your potatoes in the dish so that they are overlapping and the bottom is completely covered.
5. Sprinkle on half of the cheese.
6. Arrange another layer of potatoes on top and then sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.
7. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes or until the potatoes feel tender when you insert a fork.
8. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10-15 minutes (perfect timing for me to cook the fish which takes 12 minutes!)

For convenience I used the 9" round silicone pan that I use to bake cakes. It gave a good result and was very easy to clean afterwards, however next time I would put a disc of foil at the bottom to give it a crispier bottom. Alternatively you could use a metal cake tin or simply arrange your potatoes in a circle shape on a metal baking sheet.
Of course you can use a much smaller dish but you will have more layers and your Galette is going to be much thicker, therefore it may take twice as long to cook.

SWEETCORN SUCCOTASH

• Serves 2
• Preparation time: 10 minutes
• Cooking Time: 15 minutes
• You will need: A medium saucepan

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 red onion, finely diced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed, grated or finely chopped
• 1/2 red pepper (bell pepper), diced
• Approx. 1 teaspoon red chilli flakes
• 1 432g/15.25oz tin whole kernel sweetcorn, drained
• 1/3 to 1/2 cup chicken stock

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in your saucepan, add the onion and gently saute until softened and slightly golden.
2. Add the garlic and cook gently for another minute.
3. Add the red pepper and cook until softened.
4. Add the chilli flakes and then stir in the sweetcorn.
5. Add the chicken stock and simmer until it has reduced and evaporated away.
6. It is now ready to serve.