Category: brunch

Tomato Curry Sauce ..with hard boiled eggs

Simple but very satisfying! Having tomato curry sauce (or tomato chutney as it is sometimes referred to) in the freezer means you can quickly whip up all sorts of easy meals using the sauce as a base. Just add boiled eggs or meatballs or a tin of beans and hey presto! Dinner is served.

Here’s the recipe for the sauce.

Tomato Curry Sauce

Ingredients:
2 large onions finely diced
5 large fresh ripe tomatoes diced

400g can of diced tomatoes
1 handful of curry leaves
1.5 teaspoon cummin seeds
2 sticks of cinnamon (preferabley cinnamon bark available in Indian grocers but quills are fine if not)
5 cloves of garlic and equal amount of fresh ginger peeled
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1.5 teaspoons cummin powder
1 teaspoon salt (or to your taste)

1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups chicken stock (or water)
Coriander to garnish
Vegetable oil

Method:
Heat vegetable oil in medium size heavy based pan which has a lid
Add cummin seeds, curry leaves and cinnamon sticks and heat gently until fragrant
Add onions and cook gently until transparent
Add ginger and garlic and heat through
Add all powdered spices: chilli powder, turmeric, cummin powder, salt and sugar and mix through for 2 minutes.

Add fresh and canned tomatoes, cooking for 2-3 minutes, stirring to avoid tomato mixture burning.

Add 1 cup chicken stock/water and bring to a boil, then lower heat and then simmer for 20-25 minutes, adding more chicken stock/water as required to make sure the tomatoes break down but don’t stick to the bottom.

Halve quantity to serve 2 people or use whole quantity for 4 people. Freezes well.

Add hard boiled eggs, canned beans, tuna or meatballs and serve with rice or rotis to make a meal. Here’s the link to the meatball recipe With the same base in lesser quantity https://freespiritfood.net/2017/04/17/durban-indian-meatballs-in-tomato-curry-sauce/

Shanthini2 Comments

Puff pastry pot pies

This was easy as.

Just cooked up a diced lamb filling with onions, tomato, garlic, white wine, pepper, mushroom, peas, spinach and herbs …then lined the little buttered ceramic pots with frozen puff pastry, filled the pots, topped with a circle of pastry, brushed with egg and popped in the 230 degrees Celsius oven for 15-20 minutes until puffy and golden.

Quick and easy, perfect with salad but still warm and comforting.

Reminded me of the recipe for Lamb Curry Pot Pies but simpler and …I like the puff pastry better.

Shanthini2 Comments

Pancetta wrapped prawns with watermelon, mint and feta salad

Recently discovered wrapping prawns in pancetta before frying them. The pancetta adds a layer of crispy saltiness which goes brilliantly with the sweetness of the watermelon in this salad. I also made it while I was in Bali with pomelo and watermelon salad which was also delicious but pomelos aren’t as easy to find in Australia.

Prep time: 15 minutes. Cooking time: 5 minutes
Ingredients:

12 green prawns peeled with tails left on
12 thinly slices of pancetta
2 cups watermelon cut in cubes
3-4 cups of Rocket leaves for salad base
1 cup mint leaves roughly torn
1/2 cup of Persian marinated feta
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil for dressing
2 tablespoons olive oil for frying prawns
Salt and pepper

Method
Prepare salad base by scattering watermelon, and mint on top of rocket leaves, then sprinkling with bits of feta and dressing with dressing made with lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Wrap each prawn in a slice of pancetta

Heat oil in non-stick pan and fry prawns for a few minutes on each side until pancetta is crispy and prawns are pink and cooked.

Pile prawns on salad, garnish with a few mint leaves and serve

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Orange and date salad with pistachio yoghurt and mint

Inspired by an Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine recipe, I decided this salad would be a great accompaniment to the Christmas Roast Turkey with my traditional Christmas Turkey Stuffing.

I didn’t have any muslin cloth so I used a new piece of Chux superwipes (!!) with the holes in it to “hang” the yoghurt.

For extra Christmassy flavour I added a few cloves to the syrup mixture and then freshened up the salad by adding fresh mint leaves. It was delicious and simple despite requiring a bit of prep the night before.

Prep time: 8 hours/overnight

Ingredients:

240g Greek-style yoghurt

50g brown sugar

Piece of muslin or new piece of Chux superwipe cloth

1 cup caster sugar

1.5 cups water

1 cinnamon quill

3 cloves

2 pieces each lemon and orange peel, removed with a peeler

1 tsp rosewater

2 oranges, thinly sliced

4 dates, pitted and sliced into strips

1/2 cup pistachio kernels

Handful of fresh mint leaves

Method:

1. Line a small sieve with muslin or Chux superwipe and place over a deep bowl.

2. Layer a quarter of the the yoghurt alternating with a quarter of the brown sugar in the cloth, repeating until all he yoghurt and brown sugar is used up.

3. Tie the cloth tightly with string or an elastic band, and place yoghurt mixture in fridge for at least 8 hours. The liquid will come out of the yoghurt and collect in the bowl below.

4. Place cinammon quill, cloves, orange and lemon peel, sugar and water in a pot, bring to the boil stirring until sugar dissolves then simmer for 10 minutes until a syrup forms, be careful not to caramelise.

5. Allow syrup to cool slightly then add rosewater and mix through, then let syrup cool completely.

6. Carefully slice peel of oranges and pith off, then slice oranges thinly.

7. Deseed the dates and slice into slithers.

8. Place oranges in a single layer in a flat dish, then sprinkle with the dates and pour over syrup and place in fridge for at least 8 hours or overnight.

9. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees. Peel pistachios and roast in oven for 5 minutes or until just turning brown, be careful not to burn.

10. Keep some pistachios aside whole to sprinkle over the salad for added texture. Cool pistachios completely then crush in a mortar and pestle or grind roughly in a spice/coffee grinder. You want a slightly rough mixture not a fine powder.

11. Take yoghurt from fridge and roll into small balls, then roll in pistachio mixture. The yoghurt will have lost a lot of moisture and be of a soft cheese consistency which makes this easy to do.

12. Place oranges and dates on a serving platter, discarding the syrup. Scatter with pistachio yoghurt balls, sprinkle over whole pistachios and a handful of torn mint leaves.

Shanthini3 Comments

Baked Italian Sausages with red capsicum and onions

As the cooler days approach here in Sydney, this is a quintessential comfort food dish which will warm your heart and soul in true Italian style.

Preparation time: 5 minutes Cooking time: 1.5 hours (including grilling capsicum)

Ingredients
6-8 Italian spicy sausages or merguez sausages
2 red capsciums
2 large onions cut into thickish slices
3-4 tablespoons Olive oil
4 cloves of garlic roughly chopped
3 red chillies sliced lengthwise (optional)
Handful of fresh basil and parsley
Crusty bread

Method
Heat oven to 150 degrees celcius

Place whole red capsicums on roasting tray and place in oven for 35-45 minutes until skin is black and blistering, turn during cooking process to evenly blacken capsicum

Meanwhile slice onions, heat 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and cook onions slowly until just golden

Remove capsicum from oven and place in plastic bag, tying up ends of bag. Allow capsicum to sweat inside plastic bag for 5 minutes which will loosen skin.

Increase oven heat to 180 degrees celcius.

Place sausages in a baking tray, add a little water to moisten and allow to roast for 25 minutes.

Whilst sausages are cooking remove one capsicum at a time and remove skin, cut through and remove seeds and core. Slice capsicum into thick slices and set aside, repeat for second capsicum.

Remove sausages from oven, add garlic, chillies if using, onions (with cooking oil) and capsicum, toss ingredients gently through and put back into the oven for a further 15-20 minutes until sausages are cooked and nicely browned.

When done, add fresh basil leaves and parsley and allow to cool slightly before serving with crusty bread, a green salad and a glass of red.

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