Xmas is coming. We are preparing for small covid safe gatherings here in Sydney. Thought I’d organise myself by making extra of the filling for samosas tonight …and then make the actual samosas tomorrow night.
So i doubled the filling from Samosas and served with Red lentil dhal with rice and salad.
Now tomorrow I will use the rest of the filling to make the samosas, and freeze them so I have a supply to freeze up for drinks and gatherings over the weekend.
I haven’t made this curry for ages. Not sure why because it is very delicious, especially with the addition of the sweet, nutty flavour of fenugreek seeds which is strangely reminiscent of maple syrup.
The sweetness of the cauliflower is enhanced by the fenugreek and spiced up by the curry flavours of the sauce. A great alternative to using potato in Lamb and Potato Curry
Prep time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 1 hour
Ingredients:
Method:
1. Heat vegetable in a large casserole pot on medium heat, add cummin seeds, cinnamon bark and curry leaves if using. Cook for just a minute until fragrant.
2. Add onions and cook slowly until transparent.
3. Add ginger and garlic paste and mix through onions.
4. Add cummin powder, turmeric, salt, chilli and mix through until just heated through. Take care not to burn.
5. Add lamb and stir until it’s sealed. Add a bit of chicken stock to stop the lamb sticking if needed. After about 10 minutes, add the fenugreek seeds and enough stock to cover the lamb, reduce heat and allow to simmer for 35 minutes until the lamb is starting to get tender.
6. Add cauliflower and tomato and simmer for another 15 minutes until the cauliflower is cooked and the sauce is reduced.
7. Garnish with coriander and serve with basmati rice and or naan and salads.
Tried to recreate memories of beautiful dinners at Miro’s in Ubud this week with Balinese style corn fritters, homemade Ayam Goreng and Avocado Picasso Salad with a side of sambal mattar.
Came pretty close but not quite the same as being there!
Here’s a link to the story of Avocado PIcasso
We are trying to cut down on carbs again so trying to come up with ways to have curry flavours without eating rice or breads.
This recipe is inspired by Morrocan B’stilla, replacing the filling with Indian flavours and replacing the almond cinnamon icing sugar sprinkle traditionally used in the Morrocan version with Kersik, a Keralan coconut crumb mixed with cinnamon and cardamom powder.
Basically, you first make a dry curry with desiccated coconut and then bake it in a light filo pastry crust. The result was a delicious crispy package with spicy slow cooked lamb filling.
Defrost Pastry: 2 hours Prep time: 20 minutes cooking time: 2 hours
Ingredients:
Method:
1. Remove filo pastry from fridge to bring to room temperature allowing 2 hours.
2. Prepare onions, ginger garlic chilli paste and cut up lamb.
3. Heat oil in heavy based casserole dish, add cummin seeds, cinnamon stick, mustard seeds, cardamom pods and curry leaves and cook over medium heat until crackling stops. Take care not to burn spices.
4. Add onions and cook slowly until golden and just starting to caramelise.
5. Add ginger,garlic, chilli paste and mix through onions cooking until fragrant, about 1 minute.
6. Add turmeric, chilli and cummin powders and mix through to distribute evenly and just heat through.
7. Add lamb, 1/2 teaspoon salt, dried chillies and 2 tablespoons water to stop sticking and coat lamb in onion spice mixture. Slow lamb to seal, stirring from time to time for 2-3 minutes.
8. Add 1.5 cups of hot water or chicken stock to just cover lamb. Simmer with lid on over low heat for 30 minutes, checking regularly to ensure it isn’t sticking.
9. While lamb is simmering, toast the coconut until golden brown in a dry pan, taking great care as it will burn quickly if not constantly shifted and stirred. Allow coconut to cool slightly.
10. Add 1/2 the toasted coconut to the lamb and mix through, add more water or stock and cook for another 15-20 minutes until lamb is very tender and liquid is reduced.
11. Taste to see if additional salt required, this is unlikely especially if you are using chicken stock with salt in it.
12. Clean, chop coriander and mint. Melt butter and allow to cool slightly.
14. Remove lid and reduce mixture until liquid almost totally reduced, leaving only a moist coating on the lamb. Then mix through coriander and mint.
14. Transfer lamb to a plate to cool, remove dried chillies, cinnamon stick and cardamom pods(if you want and can find them). I just leave them in! PRE-HEAT oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
15. Whilst lamb is cooling, mix cinnamon powder and cardamom powder with remaining toasted coconut, pound together in a mortar and pestle, making a fragrant mixture to layer between the pastry sheets.
16. Take one sheet of filo pastry, lay horizontally, brush with butter and lay another sheet on top and repeat with another sheet. After 3 sheets, brush the next one with utter and add a sprinkling of the Kersik coconut mixture. (4 filo sheets in total horizontally)
17. Layer a sheet of filo vertically across the middle of the horizontal stack, brush with butter, sprinkle with coconut mixture and repeat with 2 more sheets. (3 filo sheets vertically in total)
18. Add the lamb mixture in a neat even pile in the middle section where the base is made up of 7 sheets of filo.
19. Fold the horizontal section over from right to left, taking some of the vertical section over to create a straight edge, brush with butter, sprinkle with more coconut if you have any left, fold the left side in and repeat with remaining sections of pastry to create a neat rectangular parcel.
10. Place the parcel face down on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Brush with remaining melted butter.
11. Place in oven for 20-25 minutes until pastry is golden brown.
12. Remove, sprinkle with remaining Kersik, allow to cool for 5 minutes and cut into wedges to serve with salad, and raita.
Inspired by Karen Martini’s recent recipe in the Sydney Morning Herald, I used ingredients I had at home to do a version of this simple but delicious stir fry.
Bit of chopping, marinating and grinding involved but worth it for the very tasty outcome.
Method
1. Slice beef, place in bowl.
2. Finely dice 4 cloves of garlic, crush 2 cloves into paste, add garlic to beef.
3. Add pepper and 1 tablespoon of fish sauce to beef and set aside to marinate for at least half an hour.
4. Heat a small pan and add rice to pan to toast. Keep shaking pan to brown rice but make sure it doesn’t burn. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
5. Prepare fresh ingredients. Trim and clean watercress, dice onions, cut capsicum, spring onions, dill, and chillies. Scatter watercress on a large serving platter and set aside.
6. grind rice to a rough powder in a mortar and pestle.
7. Mix palm sugar, 1 tablespoon fish sauce, oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce and mix to combine and dissolve palm sugar in a amsl bowl and set aside.
8.Heat the oil in a wok on high for 4 minutes until smoking.
9. Carefully add beef to wok and spread so as much of beef surface on one side is in contact with wok. Reduce heat slightly but leave beef undisturbed for 2 minutes.
10. Stir beef to expose other side to wok, add capsicum, diced onion and chilli and cook for 3 minutes or so until onion softens.
11.Add spring onion, dill and the sauces mixture. Mix through and cook for a minute or so until sauce has heated up.
12. Tip beef over watercress. Pour lime juice over the beef, then sprinkle roasted rice powder over beef and serve with jasmine rice.
Spiced up this classic Catalan sauce and then smeared it over chicken, salmon fillets before grilling and even used as a base for a fish curry over the next few days.
Sweet, smoky, nutty and this version has a nice spicy kick with the inclusion of chilli flakes.
It’s great to have in the fridge to brighten things up.
It’s delicious as a dip on it’s own as well. The recipe makes a big bowl of it so use it as you please!
Sauce: Prep time 40 minutes
Ingredients:
· 2 large red capsicums
· 1 tomato
· 6 cloves of garlic with skin on
· 1 slice of white bread
· ½ cup of nuts – I used walnuts but traditional is almonds
· 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or red/white wine) – I used apple cider vinegar
· 1 tablespoon smoked paprika
· 2 teaspoons chilli flakes
· 1 tsp salt
· 3 tablespoons olive oil
Method:
Heat oven to 200 degrees celcius
Wrap tomato and garlic in foil
Place red capsicums whole in oven, alongside foil parcel
Grill turning red capsicums until blackened and char grilled on all sides
Remove capsicums and foil parcel from oven
Put bread and nuts in hot oven and grill until nuts are browned and bread is toasted on both sides – take care not to burn nuts (lower oven heat to 170 degrees or so) my walnuts got a bit dark but it still tasted good!
Place blackened capsicums in a plastic bag and seal – leave to steam and cool, remove skin and seeds – put in blender
Remove skin from tomato and peel garlic and put in blender with rest of ingredients – break toasted bread into large “crumbs”
Whizz until smooth thick paste forms, place in bowl.
Chicken Thigh Cutlets: Marinate overnight if you like, cooking time: 35-40 minutes
Ingredients:
4-6 chicken thigh cutlets – skin on and bone in
1 tablespoon olive oil
Fresh Thyme
Black peppper
Method:
· Rub Chicken thigh cutlets with 2-3 tablespoons of romesco sauce – leave to marinate for a while, even overnight if you can but it’s not mandatory.
· Sprinkle with black pepper, thyme and olive oil – might need a bit more salt
· Place in hot oven 175 degrees Celsius
· Roast until skin crisps up and chicken is cooked through – about 30 minutes, then turn up to 250 degrees for 5 -10 minutes to crisp up skin
· Serve with salad, rice or roast vegetables with romesco sauce on side.
Salmon Fillets
Smear Salomon fillets with romesco sauce, grill in hot oven 180 degrees for 15 minutes or so, turn skin side up, turn up oven to 250 degrees and grill until skin crisps up for about 5 minutes, I served this with couscous and a vegetable tagine with preserved lemons.
