Maple Syrup & Date Crumbs

While my lamb shoulder rogan josh curry is slowly bubbling away, a short update on what no one in their right mind would call cookies. They're more like crumbs. Delicious, sugary buttery crumbs you have to scrape off the baking tray. Mmmmm....


Ingredients (makes 16 slices)
125 grams salted butter
100 grams of white granulated sugar
1 large egg
50 grams self-raising flour
75 grams (porridge-quality) oatmeal
A little maple syrup (or use maple syrup flavoured oatmeal instead!)
10 dried dates
Plastic sandwich bag

Warm the butter in the microwave (5 seconds at full power, don't let it start to melt too much). Mix in the sugar with the butter until you have a homogeneous mass. Add the egg and beat. Now add the flour and oatmeal. Mix, make sure there's no flour left in the edges of your bowl. Finely chop up the dates and add to the mixture, stir until distributed evenly. Spoon the dough in a plastic sandwich bag and knead into a cylinder of about 5 cm in diameter. Put the dough in the freezer until hardened (about 30 minutes will do).

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C. Take the dough out of the plastic bag and cut into 1 cm slices. Squash the slices a little bit until the centre of the slice is thicker than the edges. Put on a baking tray. Repeat. Make sure you leave some space between the slices - they'll spread out tremendously. Put in the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the edges of the slices are brown. Take the slices out of the oven and carefully lift them off the baking tray and onto a wire rack (this is easier when the baking tray is still warm). Leave them to cool. Chances are about half of your slices will bend, break or crumble as you lift them, leaving you only with crunchy, buttery, sugary bite-sizes crumbs... That is your intention.

Chicken Three Ways

In the cooking shows I watch they love it when a contestant cooks something Three Ways. It nearly always means they've done something complicated, like made a duck sausage stuffed in the duck's neck, duck sousvide, and crispy duck skin. However, the chicken I used for three meals last week is simple, yet certainly cooked three ways. This chicken will be enough for two.

Day 1 - Roast Chicken

Ingredients
A big chicken (2 kg)
A lemon
A few sprigs of rosemary
Half a bulb of garlic
An onion
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat the oven to 240 degrees C. Prick the lemon all over and put it in the microwave for 40 seconds. Half the onion and take the cloves out of the bulb of garlic (don't peel). Stuff the chicken with the lemon and the rosemary and rub the olive oil all over the chicken, inside and out, and in the folds. Sprinkle over a decent amount of salt and pepper. Put chicken, onion and garlic cloves in a roasting tray. Put this in the oven and immediately turn down the temperature to 200 degrees C. Roast the chicken in the for at least the time recommended on the packaging (for a 2 kg bird, my supermarket recommended 105 minutes). Baste the chicken every 20 minutes or so (drizzle the juices in the roasting tray over the chicken, especially the legs and breast, so that the legs don't dry out and the skin becomes extra crispy). Take the chicken out of the oven and leave to rest for about 30 minutes. Take the rosemary and lemon out of the chicken and throw these away. Serve the legs and thighs of the chicken with boiled baby new potatoes and a simple salad.

Why this is simple - apart from getting over the possibly scary "I have to handle a dead whole chicken!" moment, preparation will take you less than 20 minutes. Then, while the chicken is roasting and resting, you have two hours to watch someone stress over their duck sausage masterpiece on TV. Excellent.


After dinner - make chicken stock for the next day (see below), or if you're fed up with cooking, at least put the chicken, roasting tray with onions and garlic and all, in the fridge covered in cling-film.


Day 2 - Chicken Soup
Ingredients
Yesterday's chicken, onion and garlic
2 vegetable stock cubes
100 grams of bean sprouts
200 grams of corn
1 leek
100 grams of dried egg noodles, broken up in small pieces
Salt
Pepper


You now have a chicken without its legs and thighs, but otherwise still fine. Cut off the breasts and put these in a container in the fridge (you'll use them on day 3). What remains is a chicken carcass with some bits and bops of meat on it. Cut this in half and put in a large pan with the onions and garlic. Cover with 2 litres of water and the stock cubes. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and leave to simmer for at least two hours. Then take out the onion and garlic and throw them in the bin. Take out the chicken carcass pieces and start doing the fun job: tear the pieces of edible flesh (and offal, if you like it) off the bones with your bare hands and set these aside. Throw out fat, skin, bones and other nasty bits. Put the chicken flesh back in the stock. Clear your worktop because it's a huge mess now. Then chop up the leek thinly and put it in the soup with the corn and egg noodles. Leave this soup to simmer for another half hour. Then add the bean sprouts and serve.

Why is this simple - well, again, you have over two hours to watch TV. And there's the nice simple relaxing bit of tearing up chicken flesh.

Day 3 - Chicken enchiladas
The chicken breasts
2 avocado's, sliced
100 grams of creme fraiche
Tomato salsa
4 plain flour wraps
100 grams of cheddar cheese, grated
Olive oil
Mexican spice mix (cumin, chili, garlic, cayenne, smoked paprika, oregano)

Fry the chicken breasts with the spices until hot. Serve in the wraps with the sliced avocado, a dollop of creme fraiche, salsa and cheese. Enjoy!

Why is this simple - there's no waiting time, but the actual instructions are short and before you know it, you can laugh at the guy on TV who went all out with the duck three ways.

Burritos for a Rainy Day

It's a rainy day and I couldn't focus on  the dreadfully dry economics textbook I was reading. But when my lovely partner requested burritos I brightened up! I made him some oven baked flour tortillas with a chili con carne filling, mature cheddar cheese on top and an acidic tomato salsa and creamy chunky guacamole as accompaniments.

Ingredients (for 2, with leftover sauces!)
For the guacamole:
2 ripe avocados
3 tbsp creme fraiche
Half a lime
2 tbsp freshly chopped coriander leaves
Half a clove of raw garlic, finely chopped
Salt
You can also choose to add finely chopped tomato or green olives.

For the chili con carne:
200 grams of lean beef mince
2 small onions
2 cloves of garlic
2 small potatoes, peeled
400 grams of chopped tomatoes (tin/carton)
400 grams of mixed beans in chili sauce
Mexican spice mix (cayenne, smoked paprika, cumin, oregano)
Olive oil
Salt

For the burritos:
Chili con carne
75 grams of mature cheddar cheese
4 plain flour tortillas
A little olive oil

Start by making the chili. Heat some olive oil in a large frying pan. Fry the onions and garlic until soft, add the mince, salt and spices and brown. Chop the potatoes into half inch cubes. Add the mixed beans, potatoes and chopped tomatoes to the chili. Stir. Leave to simmer on low heat.

While the chili is simmering, make the guacamole and the salsa. For the guacamole, spoon out the avocado flesh and mash with a fork. Add the creme fraiche and juice of half a lime, the coriander leaves, garlic and salt (and tomato or olives if you're using them). Mix. Set aside.

Grease in an oven dish with some olive oil. Fill the tortillas with the chili and fold. Put in the dish and grate over the cheese. Grill for about 5 minutes until the cheese is melted and the top of the tortillas is golden. I guarantee you your rainy night in will brighten up!

Copyright, Potato & Aubergine Curry

In her book Eastern Vegetarian Cooking, Madhur Jaffrey gives the following recipe, passed on to her by Neela. I feel lucky that the book has passed it on to me, so now I pass it on to you! This might be the modern technology version of a family recipe... (This remark might contain a lesson about dealing with copyright issues.)

Ingredients for 4 servings

2 tsp mustard seeds
500 grams peeled, diced potatoes
500 grams diced aubergine
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne
2 tsp salt

To serve
4 tomatoes
Salt and pepper
A bunch of fresh coriander
Natural yoghurt
Naan

Heat the oil in a large wok or casserole pan on medium heat and add the mustard seeds. Toss around for a few seconds. Add the potatoes and aubergine an all the spices. Add the salt. Toss to coat the potatoes and aubergine in the spices, then add a splash of water. Put a lid on and turn down the heat. Let this curry simmer for at least 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender and the aubergine melts in your mouth.

Slice the tomatoes and season well. Chop up the coriander. Put the curry on a plate with the tomato, naan and yoghurt. Sprinkle the coriander over the curry. Serve. Thanks Madhur, thanks Neela!

A Real Vegetarian Burger

By now you know that I don't really fancy store-bought vegetarian burgers. So, yesterday, I tried a home-made version and I loved it. So, maybe you will too!

Ingredients
800g canned chickpeas
1 red onion
2tsp ground coriander
2tsp ground cumin
6 tbsp plain flour
4 tbsp olive oil
1 lime
Salt and pepper
A lot of frustration about bad burgers

Use the frustration to mash the chickpeas to mush. Finely chop the red onions, then zest and squeeze the lime. Add the zest, juice, coriander and cumin to the mushed chickpeas. Mush a little more. Get your hands in and make four patties. Coat in the flour. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and cook the burgers on both sides until they are golden brown and crispy. Serve with home-made tomato salsa and creme fraiche on burger buns (lightly toasted under the grill).

Vegetarian Burgers: Preview

Usually the vegetarian burgers you can buy in the shops are bland, boring and dry. They pretend to be something they're not. So when I found a recipe for homemade chickpea burgers, I thought I might as well give it a try! I'll put the recipe up later, but here's a preview photo.