I’ve been on the look out for baking recipes that aren’t too sweet to eat at morning tea. The recipe for these maple bran muffins appealed because the recipe doesn’t contain sugar (but it does have 4 tablespoons of maple syrup). The original recipe asked for pecans, and instead I substituted with dried apricots. I thought that the dried apricots worked well, as they gave a bit of fruity sweetness to the nuttiness of the bran. I tried another batch using banana – and this was a big FAIL. I know that I liked the recipe because I didn’t want something that was too sweet, but the banana batch just wasn’t sweet enough. They were just too damn healthy tasting!
Old-fashioned maple bran muffins Adapted from Linda Collister’s Quick Breads
Makes 12 medium muffins
225g sour cream 125ml milk 75g wheat bran 35g wheat germ 1 large egg, beaten 4 tablespoons maple syrup 125g plain white flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda a pinch of salt 100g dried apricots, chopped into small pieces (or 100g chopped pecans) a little demerara or coarse sugar for sprinkling
In a large bowl combine the sour cream with the milk, then stir in the wheat bran and wheat germ and leave to soak for 30 minutes.
Heat the oven to 180°C.
Stir in the egg and maple syrup into the sour cream mixture. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt on to the mixture and mix in. Stir in the apricots
Spoon the mixture into muffin moulds. Sprinkle each muffin with a little sugar and then bake for about 25 minutes until firm to the touch.
Turn out on to a wire cooling rack. Eat the same day while still warm, or the next day gently reheated. Can be frozen for up to a month.
Brrr! The cool weather here is quickly turning into cold weather – and I am not happy! I miss summer already. I’m a summer person. I love the heat (yes, I don’t even mind the 40 degree scorchers), the long days, warm nights, eating outside, and the summer fruits and vegetables. But despite the fact that I miss summer, I must admit that there are some good things about autumn and winter. Food during the colder months is a tad more interesting – such as soups, stews and casseroles. And while I miss mangoes, berries, cherries and lychees (my favourite summer fruits), other fruits keep me happy during the dreary, grey months – granny smith apples, crunchy pears and persimmons.
The other evening I felt like a spicy, warming meal and immediately thought that soup would be a good idea. I decided that I wanted a spicy bean soup, and quickly found a recipe on the internet that I adapted to our tastes.
The soup was exactly what I felt like eating and the house felt warm and cozy with a pot of soup bubbling away on the stove. The cumin seeds gave the soup an aromatic, nutty, peppery flavour, and my Bro remarked that with the crisped flat bread and sour cream on top, it was like eating soupy nachos!
Olive oil 2 sticks of celery 2 medium carrots 2 medium onions 4 garlic cloves 1 teaspoon cumin seeds 750g can kidney beans, rinsed 800g can whole tomatoes boiling water 2 tablespoons tomato paste 1 dried bay leaf Cayenne pepper to taste Salt & pepper
To garnish: 2 pieces of Lebanese flat bread/pita bread Sour cream Jalapenos Spring onions
Roughly chop the onion, celery and carrots. Peel and chop the garlic.
Heat the oil over a low heat in a large pot. Add the onions, carrots, celery, garlic and cumin seed.
Place the lid on the pot and sweat, covered, on a low heat, for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are juicy and tender.
Add the rinsed beans, canned tomatoes and enough water to cover the mixture. Stir in the tomato paste, and add the bay leaf and cayenne pepper. Bring to the boil, then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 30-60 minutes.
While the soup is simmering, preheat your oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly spray the flat bread with olive oil and bake in the oven until toasted and crispy. Remove from the oven and break into small pieces.
To serve, ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with a handful of crisp bread, sour cream, diced jalapenos, sour cream and spring onions.
I found out a “neat” thing today – chestnuts explode! Fortunately, I have a lovely husband who is currently cleaning my oven while I sit on the couch. If I had bothered to google roasting chestnuts before I popped them into the oven, I would’ve found out that I should’ve cut them first. Whoops!
On Saturday, the highly entertaining PG kindly hosted the second Bloggers Banquet. Oooooh pressure! What do you cook for people who love food and know a lot about it? I had a feeling that there would be lots of sweet items, so I went down the savoury route.
One of my items was bagels with smoked salmon and cream cheese. I’ve owned a copy of Richard Bertinet’s Crust (not an affiliate link) for a couple of months, and so far all I have made are bagels. To be fair though, none of the bread recipes in this book are quick and easy. This was my second attempt at the bagel recipe, and initially it all seemed to be going rather well. The starter dough fermented in the fridge for a day, and then on Friday night I added the rest of the ingredients and worked the dough as instructed. The dough started to come together and was very light and lively. I let it rest for 30 minutes, then separated it into small balls and shaped into bagels. The bagels then proved for an hour.
When I came back to them, the bagels had risen but seemed a bit limp. But I was too far gone by this stage and had to keep going – the bagels got a brief boiling then baking. They tasted okay (I think), and had the chewy texture, but they were a bit flaccid and some were wrinkly.
Obviously I haven’t quite mastered the art of bagel making yet, but I will keep trying!
Fortunately I had another item to redeem myself! The recipe for the tarts is from Cuisine.com.au and the shortcrust pastry recipe from Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion. My bread making skills are a bit lacking, but at least I can make pastry! It was 11pm by the time I rolled out the pastry, and despite the late hour and my haphazardness, the pastry was still light and slightly flakey.
Shortcrust pastry From Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion
Will line up to a 26cm tin
180g unsalted butter 240g plain flour Pinch of salt 1/4 cup water
Remove butter from refrigerator 30 minutes before making pastry. Sift flour and salt onto a marble pastry slab or workbench. Chop buter into smallish pieces and toss lightly in flour. Lightly rub to combine partly. Make a well in centre and pour in water. Using a pastry scraper, work water into flour until you have a very rough heap of buttery lumps of dough. Using the heel of your hand, quickly smear pastry away from your across the workbench. It will combine lightly. Gather together, then press quickly into a flat cake and dust with a little flour. Wrap pastry in plastic film and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. When required, roll out pastry, dusting generously with flour as necessary. Line your required tin and blind bake.
Easter this year was pretty special. I always love having four days off, but this year Easter coincided with Alastair’s birthday (on Saturday) and our first year wedding anniversary (on Monday).
We celebrated Alastair’s birthday at home with Birthday Lasagne. Every year, I ask him what he would like for dinner on his birthday. I offer to make him anything. And every year he asks for lasagne! I’m often rather critical of my cooking, but even I thought that his Birthday Lasagne this year was frickin’ awesome! The meat sauce was flavoursome and rich, having simmered for a couple of hours, and there was oodles of cheese.
Apart from Birthday Lasagne, Alastair also had Birthday Pancakes and Birthday Cheesecake. He was rather spoilt.
The recipe for the cheesecake was from Jamie Oliver’s “Cook with Jamie” (the recipe is at the end of this post). In the book, he calls it the Bloomin’ Easy Vanilla Cheesecake. Was it easy? Well, it would’ve been much easier if I hadn’t been trying to juggle making lasagne at the same time! I broke my food processor pulsing the crumbs for the base – the tabs locking the bowl in place snapped. Then the cream cheese wasn’t quite soft enough when I started beating the filling, and I got cream cheese on my face, on the bench, on other appliances, basically everywhere!
The other thing to note about this cheesecake is that it’s HUGE. It has almost a kilo of cream cheese in and although the book says it serves 8-10 people, I reckon 12 people is a more accurate number. If I had realised just how big it was going to be, I would’ve scaled it down. It’s pretty rich and filling, so it’s not the kind of dessert where you’ll have seconds. We had a piece of it after our anniversary dinner the next day, and I thought it tasted better after sitting in the fridge for a day.
We also celebrated our anniversary in the weekend, again at home. We popped a bottle of champagne that had been a wedding present (thanks Scott!) and I prepared some garlic and chilli tiger prawns, steamed mussels, pan-fried salmon and tuna sashimi.
It was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary. And we had such a lovely weekend that it was hard to go back to work on Tuesday!
Bloomin’ easy vanilla cheesecake
From Jamie Oliver’s Cook with Jamie Serves 8-10 (serves 12 in my opinion)
150g /5 & 1/2 oz unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing 250g /9oz digestive biscuits, crushed 115g/4oz caster sugar 3 tablespoons cornflour 900g/2lb full fat cream cheese, at room temperature 2 large free-range eggs 115ml/4 fl oz double cream 1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds removed, or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract zest of 1 lemon zest of 1 orange for the cherry compote 400g/14oz stoned cherries (I used a punnet of raspberries) 3 heaped tablespoons caster sugar options: a swig of port or whisky icing sugar, for dusting
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/350 degrees F, and grease and line the bottom and sides of a 24cm/9 & 1/2 inch springform cake tin. Mix the biscuits and butter in a bowl, press into the base of hte prepared tin and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool.
Turn the oven up to 200 degrees C/400 degrees F. Combine the sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Add the cream cheese and beat, ideally with an electric whisk, until creamy. Add the eggs and beat well. Gradually add the cream, beating until smooth, then beat in the vanilla seeds or extract and lemon and orange zest.
Scrape the mixture on to the biscuit base, and gently shake it to level out the surface. Put the cheesecake in the centre of the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minjutes until the top is golden brown and the filling has set around the edges. (A piece of foil over the top will stop it browning too much.) Let it cool at room temperature and serve after 2 or 3 hours. Or, for a slightly firmer texture, put it in the fridge until it’s nice and cold.
Before serving, put the cherries in a pan, sprinkle over the sugar and add a splash of water. Put on a low to medium heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes. If you’ve got some port or whisky handy, feel free to add some. When the compote has reduced down it may be a little dry, so add a splash of water to loosen it. Remove from the heat and let it cool down, then serve spooned over the cheesecake with a dusting of icing sugar.
I have heard many things about the famous Moroccan Soup Bar and it’s amazing chickpea bake, but I haven’t been there yet (I know, I know). I have eaten a chickpea bake once, when a friend made it at one of our FFOFs, and I remember it being tastier than it initially seemed. I was thinking about it the other day because I had some Lebanese flat bread in the pantry. The bread was a bit stale, so I was trying to think of a way to use it up.
In some ways it’s a good thing I’ve never had the Moroccan Soup Bar version of the chickpea bake because I don’t have any preconceived ideas about how it should taste. I can tinker with my own version to my heart’s content!
So I googled for a chickpea bake recipe, and found one on a blog called the mobius strip. I adapted this recipe to my taste, mostly in the way I cooked the eggplant and flat bread. I also added some chermoula spice, that I had purchased from the Harvest Picnic.
The chickpea bake was good – I really loved the crispy flat bread and the tangy, slightly spicy chickpeas. I thought it could’ve used a squeeze of lemon juice and might try that next time I make it.
I topped the bake with some spinach from my garden, to add a bit of green. Speaking of my garden, I have cracked the coriander growing problem. After a bit of research, I found that coriander is quite sensitive to transplanting, which might be why I had so much problem with seedlings. I sowed some coriander from seed a few weeks ago, and they sprouted without any problems. They’ve very small at the moment, but seem to be growing successfully. The rest of my plants are also growing well, although my basil, mint and spinach seem to have been decimated by unidentified insects and the recent heat wave. I’m hoping they will revive! They’re not completely toast, but they’re not as lush as they were a week ago.
3 pieces of flat Lebanese bread Olive oil for spraying 2 teaspoons of chermoula spice (or any other desired mixture of spices) 1 medium eggplant, cut into cubes 1 teaspoon of olive oil 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed 1 onion, peeled and diced 1 teaspoon chermoula spice (or other mixture) 400g can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed Salt and pepper 1 cup yoghurt A handful of baby spinach (optional)
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly spray the bread with olive oil, and sprinkle the spice on top. Toast in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until nice and crispy. Take it out of the oven and crush/rip into smallish pieces. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees C.
Steam the eggplant over boiling water for about 10 minutes, or until tender. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat, and saute the garlic and onions until soft. Add the spice mixture, chickpeas and the steamed eggplant. Fry lightly for a couple of minutes to warm the chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper.
Put the chickpea mixture into a baking dish, then stir through the yoghurt. Place the dish into the oven until the chickpea bake is just warmed through (don’t bake it for too long or at too high a heat in case the yoghurt curdles).
Take the chickpea bake out of the oven, and stir through the toasted flat bread (or layer if you prefer). Top with spinach if desired, and eat immediately before the bread softens.
I like the humble carrot. I wouldn’t say that it’s my favourite vegetable, but it’s certainly one of the most useful. I put it in almost everything – pasta sauces, soups, stews, stir fry, sandwiches, roasts and salads as well as eating it raw by itself or with dips.
Carrot juice is probably my favourite juice, although I don’t drink it often due to the amount of carrots needed to make a cup (plus I don’t have a juicer). And carrot cake? Carrot cake has got to be one of the best cakes ever. Foodtimeline says that carrot cake was most likely descended from Medieval carrot puddings, where they were used due to the natural sweetness (because sweetners were expensive). Carrot cake was around here and there since that time, and recipes for cakes with a cream cheese icing started to appear in the 1960s.
This recipe was adapted from Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion. The original recipe called for plain white flour and walnuts. I used wholemeal flour instead, because one of my favourite things about carrot cake is the nuttiness. Because I don’t like walnuts and therefore never have any in the pantry, I substituted pepitas.
I made muffins instead of a big cake and ate them over a few days – they were a great mid-morning snack.
Simple carrot cake
Adapted from Stephanie Alexander’s The Cook’s Companion
125 g self-raising wholemeal flour 3/4 cup brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 2/3 cup olive oil 2 eggs, lightly beaten 2 cups finely grated carrot 60 g roughly chopped walnuts or pepitas
Preheat oven to 180 degree C and grese an 18 cm springform tin or 6 cup muffin tin. Mix flour, sugar and spices. Add oil and eggs and beat in a food processor or an electric mixer for 1 minute. Stir in carrot and walnuts/pepitas. Spoon into prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour (less if making muffins). Cool in tin before turning out.
When cold, dust with icing sugar mixed with ground cinnamon or ice with cream cheese mixed with a touch of icing sugar and lemon juice.
Has anyone been watching Food Safari on SBS? I’m really enjoying the series, and have found most episodes fascinating, with the exception of at least one cuisine that didn’t seem very exciting – schnitzel. I love the run down of the common ingredients used in each cuisine, and the segments with the home cooks.
The episode on Singaporean cuisine inspired me to make Hainanese chicken rice. If you’ve never had the pleasure, Hainanese chicken rice is a dish that originated in Hainan, China. An entire chicken is poached, and served with rice that has been fried with garlic and ginger (and chicken fat if you want to be really unhealthy), and then cooked in chicken stock. Alongside the rice and chicken are a couple of dipping sauces – normally a ginger and garlic sauce and a chilli one. Often there’ll also be a bowl of soup. It’s nothing fancy, but oh so good.
I have seen recipes where the chicken is simmered in the water, and I liked this one from Food Safari because you just leave the chicken in the hot water for an hour without simmering. For the rice, it’s important to have a well flavoured chicken stock, otherwise it’s just normal rice! The cooking liquid from the chicken doesn’t have enough flavour, unless you want to add more bones after cooking the chicken and simmer for a couple of hours. I had made a big pot of stock in the weekend, so I used that, but of course you could just buy some liquid stock. I wouldn’t bother with powdered stock though.
I made the ginger and garlic sauce, but didn’t like the result, so I’ve taken that off the recipe (check out the link to the Food Safari recipe below if you’re interested). I wanted to make the chilli sauce too, but I ran out of steam. I’m kind of glad though, because looking at the recipe I’m not sure about it. I ended up simply eating the chicken with some extra soy sauce and sesame oil.
So the result – was it good? It was great! The chicken was moist and full of flavour, and the rice was super tasty without being too oily. And another bonus, because I had made it myself, there was no MSG thirst afterwards, which seems to plague bought versions.
Writing this post is making me want chicken rice. Perhaps it’ll be an outside kitchen night!
Chicken 1 fresh, free range chicken (mine was 1.3kg, which should serve 3-4 people) 1 tbsp Chinese rice wine 1 tbsp light soy sauce 6 slices fresh ginger 1 clove garlic, slightly bruised 2 shallots, chopped in a few pieces 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tbsp light soy sauce ½ tsp salt
Chicken Rice 3 cups long grain rice 2 tbsp chicken or pork fat (this tastes great, but peanut oil can be used instead) 2-3cm ginger, grated 3-4 cloves garlic, chopped very finely or grated 1-2 tsp salt (to taste) 3 ½ cups chicken stock 2 pandan leaves (optional)
For the chicken: 1. Bring a pot (large enough to fit the whole chicken) of water to the boil. While the water is heating, rub chicken inside with rice wine and soy sauce. Roughly chop three pieces of ginger, garlic and one shallot and then blend in a food processor. Place mixture inside chicken. 2. When the water boils, turn heat off and place the chicken, and the remaining three pieces of ginger and shallot in the water. Stand for five minutes, then lift up the chicken, draining the water from the stomach cavity. After the water has drained, put the chicken back in the water and cover with the lid. Repeat this process two or three times during the cooking period to make sure the chicken cooks inside as well as outside. The chicken will stand in the water for a total of one hour. 3. After 30 minutes, turn on the heat to bring the water back to almost boiling point, then turn the heat off (don’t let the water boil so the chicken stays tender and juicy). At the end of the hour, remove the chicken and brush the surface with the remaining soy sauce combined with sesame oil and salt. Cut the chicken into bite-sized pieces with a sharp cleaver.
For the rice: 5. Wash the rice and drain well. In a wok, fry chicken fat (or peanut oil) until oil is released and then add the ginger and garlic and fry well. 6. Remove from heat and discard the chicken fat and skin. Add the rice and salt and stir fry briskly for about 1-2 minutes. Transfer rice into an electric rice cooker or pot and add the chicken stock and pandan leaves. Follow normal instructions for cooking rice. If you’re using a pot, put the rice on a high heat until it comes to the boil. Then lower the heat until it becomes a gentle simmer. Let it cook until all the water has been absorbed, and you can see steam holes in the rice. Take it off the heat and let the rice sit for 10 minutes to finish absorbing the rest of the liquid before eating.
It’s interesting what people search for to arrive at my blog. Mostly, people seem to be looking for Jamie Oliver recipes. Well, when I cooked this snapper, I took a bit of a Jamie approach. A bit of this, a bit of that, throw it all together – lovely (jubbly)!
For this meal I just used what I had at hand. I had bought a snapper, obviously, but didn’t have any idea of what I was going to do with it until I got home. Unusually, I had no lemons in the house, and couldn’t be bothered going to get some. So I pulled some herbs from the garden, sliced up some onions, stuffed them into the fish and bingo! Dinner!
The end result was superb – the flesh was sweet, moist and delicately flavoured with the onions and herbs. In all honesty though, it was such a lovely piece of fish that I could’ve just sprinkled some salt on it, and it still would’ve been great. I had asked the fishmonger for a fish that would feed three people, and he sold me one that was almost 2 kilos (!) so there were leftovers that I took to lunch the next day. Normally I find that left over fish isn’t terribly great but this was an exception. I was happy that it stretched to another meal so I could prolong the enjoyment.
Roasted snapper
One whole snapper Handful of thyme sprigs Handful of oregano 2 medium onions, peeled and sliced Salt Olive oil Salt and pepper
Preheat the oven to 220 degree C
Clean the snapper, and give it a rinse. Take a bit of salt and rub it inside the cavity. Crush the herbs in your hands, and then stuff into the cavity with half of the onions. Place the rest of the onions on to a baking tray and lie the fish on top. Give it a drizzle with the oil.
Place into the oven and bake until it’s just cooked through (I didn’t note down what time my fish went in, but I think it was about 30-40 minutes). Season with salt and pepper.
I’m having difficulty with food blogging at the moment. It’s not due to lack of time or energy. It isn’t because I’m not eating well, or not cooking good food, or not photographing meals. My issue is with the whole stringing words into coherent sentences thing. It seems that food blogging involves more than just food, it also involves writing. I know. Who’d thought!
However, I am pushing through and making an effort.!
The other week, I cooked a meal from a Indian cookbook I had received over Christmas. I made a chicken curry, a daal, and an interesting cabbage slaw that I’d never tried before.
The Portuguese-style chicken curry (aka mungh vindaloo) wasn’t as spicy as it usually is in restaurants, although I did try to up the heat factor. Originally, vindaloo wasn’t particularly spicy and the cookbook tells me that vindaloo actually means “vinegary”. Other sources (internets!) say that vindaloo is a derivative of the Portuguese “vinho de alho” which literally means wine (vinho) and garlic (alho). Vindaloo was bought to Goa by the Portuguese and was traditionally cooked with pork. I used chicken drumsticks in my version. They took ages to cook, but were very succulent.
The daal was good, but a bit overshadowed by the vindaloo and the cabbage. My daal was quite soupy at first, but after standing for a while (I had to wait for the curry to finish cooking) it thickened up. I was rather heavy handed with the ginger!
But on to the cabbage. The cabbage slaw was a real surprise. The coconut gave it a lovely fragrance, and the cabbage was sweet, slightly nutty and spicy. If you like coconut (and cabbage) give it a try. It was very different from how I normally cook cabbage and we really enjoyed it.
Gujarati Cabbage Slaw
From Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking
Serves 6
1/4 cup peanut or vegetable oil 1/4 teaspoon asafetida (hing) 1 cup dry-roasted unsalted peanuts, coarsely chopped 1 medium head green cabbage (1 1/2 pounds), finely shredded (8 cups) 1 cup shredded fresh coconut or 1/2 cup dried unsweetened shredded coconut 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh coriander 3 fresh Thai, serrano or cayenne chillies, finely chopped 3 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric Juice of 1 medium lime (2 tablespoons)
Heat oil in wok or pan over medium-high heat. Add asafetida and peanuts; sizzle 30 seconds.
Add remaining ingredients except lime juice, stir fry about 5 minutes or until cabbage is hot; remove from heat. Stir in lime juice.
Moong daal
From Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking
Serves 6
1 cup dried whole green lentils (sabud mung), sorted, rinsed and drained 4 cups water 1/4 teaspoon turmeric 1 tablespoon ghee or vegetable oil 1 teaspoon black or yellow mustard seed 1/4 teaspoon asafetida (hing) or garlic powder 1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger 1 medium tomato, finely chopped (3/4 cup) 2 fresh Thai, serrano or cayenne chillies, cut lengthwise in half 1 teaspoon salt
Place lentils, water and turmeric in a saucepan. Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Partially cover and simmer 30 to 35 minutes or until lentils are tender.
While lentils are simmering, heat ghee/oil and mustard seed in a a pan over medium-high heat. Once seed begins to pop, cover skillet and wait until popping stops.
Add asafetida and ginger to mustard seed; stir fry about 30 seconds or until ginger is partially brown. Add tomato and chillies, stir fry 3-5 minutes or until tomato is softened.
Stir tomato mixture and salt into lentils. Partially cover and simmer for 10 minutes.
Portuguese-style chicken curry / Mungh vindaloo
From Betty Crocker’s Indian Home Cooking
Serves 4
2 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 medium onions, coarsely chopped 1 tablespoon coarsely chopped ginger 5 medium cloves garlic, coarsely chopped 3/4 cup tomato sauce (I think this is tomato puree, I used a can of whole tomatoes) 1 tablespoon coriander seed, ground 1 teaspoon cumin seed, ground 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut crosswise into 1/2 inch strips (I used drumsticks instead) 1/4 cup white vinegar 1/2 cup coconut milk 1/4 cup plain yoghurt
Heat in a pan over medium-high heat. Add onions, ginger and garlic; stir fry about 5 minutes or until onions and garlic are golden brown.
Stir in tomato sauce, ground coriander, ground cumin, salt, cayenne pepper and turmeric, reduce heat. Partially cover and simmer around 5 minutes or until a thin film of oil starts to form on surface of sauce. Remove from heat; cool 3 to 4 minutes.
Place sauce in blender (or use a stick blender). Cover and blend on medium speed until smooth. Return sauce to saucepan.
Stir chicken into sauce. Simmer uncovered 3 to 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is partially cooked.
Stir in vinegar and coconut milk. Simmer uncovered 5 to 7 minutes, stirring occasionally, until chicken is no longer pink in centre.
Beat yoghurt with wire whisk until smooth; stir into chicken mixture. Cook uncovered for 1 minute, stirring occasionally, just until yoghurt is warm. Serve with rice.
Remember encyclopedias? Do you remember how those big books took up several shelves? This is a very nerdy thing to admit, but when my parents bought us a set of encyclopedias, I read most of the volumes. Nowadays, with Wikigoogle at our fingertips, who needs encyclopedias filling up the bookshelf?
Wikipedia in particular is great. Now, I know there are problems with it: anyone can edit it (gasp), plus it’s on the internets and we all know that everything on the internet is a lie. But since I don’t look at it when I need 100% accuracy, I reckon it’s fab!
For example, if it wasn’t for Wiki, I never would have known that:
“Eggplant is richer in nicotine than any other edible plant, with a concentration of 100 ng/g (or 0.01mg/100g). However, the amount of nicotine from eggplant or any other food is negligible compared to passive smoking.”
Put that in your aubergine and smoke it…..!
Righto, enough of the bad puns and useless trivia, how about a recipe? I made this dish to use up the second half of the bunch of garlic shoots that I cooked previously. I think that the eggplant worked nicely with the garlic shoots – they were soft against the crunchy shoots and the eggplant also absorbed some of the flavour.
Despite the amount of chilli in the recipe, and the extremely hot vapours that will come out of the wok, the end result isn’t actually that spicy. But you’re not supposed to eat the chillis. Those little babies will be hot!
Spicy eggplant and garlic shoots
Serves 4 as part of a multi dish meal
4-5 small eggplants (or a couple of large ones) 1/2 bunch garlic shoots, sliced into 3cm lengths 150g bean sprouts 1 tablespoon peanut oil A handful of dried whole chillis Soy sauce
Slice the eggplants into 2-3cm pieces. Steam over a pot of boiling water for approximately 10 minutes, or until they are tender.
Give the garlic shoots and bean sprouts a good rinse, and drain well.
Heat the oil in a hot wok. When the oil is hot, throw in the chillis. They will darken quickly, so watch them! Add the garlic shoots and stir fry for a couple of minutes, until they are tender and start to darken in spots.
Add the bean sprouts and eggplant and swish around for another minute.
Add a splash of soy sauce and mix well to coat the vegetables. Taste – you may want to add more seasoning, but I found that the soy sauce was enough.
