Spinach, spinach and more spinach!

Following the veg box delivery last week, I had a lot of spinach in my fridge so this weekend has been dominated by recipes including this green vegetable!!!

It started Saturday morning with Eggs and Spinach en cocotte.  I had done a cocotte before:

https://creationsfromlacuineta.wordpress.com/2013/12/21/oeufs-en-cocotte-eggs-in-pots/

They are really tasty, a real treat for a weekend breakfast so a good way to use the spinach.  Again it was really tasty and you can find the recipe I used here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/eggsandspinachencoco_88059

Next up was Saturday dinner 🙂  I really fancied a curry, so I did this Chicken and Spinach Balti recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenandspinachbal_86977

Really nice flavours from the yoghurt marinade and the spinach gave it something extra for sure.  I usually don’t have spinach in my curries and I’ve eaten a lot of curries over the course of my life so quite a turning point!

And now this brings us to Sunday night!  As I’m writing this, I’ve been cooking a Ghanaian Beef and Spinach Stew for about 2 hours by now!

http://www.girlcooksworld.com/2011/03/shoko-ghanaian-beef-and-spinach-stew.html

It comes from a really nice blog which features gluten free recipes.  I didn’t have all the ingredients (serrano peppers for example) but I have suitable substitutes and also was able to add a couple of my organic carrots and some leeks.  You can see what it looks like below!  I just need to add the spinach and it will soon be ready to eat!

For anyone who has not yet had enough of spinach while reading this post, you can find all the health benefits of spinach here:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/ingredient-focus-spinach

I should definitely be feeling stronger and ready to tackle Monday!!!

Thanks to the BBC for providing a lot of inspiration this weekend!

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Chickpea curry

I’ve been ill for a few weeks now, with this week being particularly bad, so this recipe is an illness busting one!  I hope!  No meat or dairy which should be avoided with a cold and also containing chilli and turmeric which are good spices to help fight cold like symptoms.  I’ve been eating a lot of spicy food these days!

You can see the full chickpea curry recipe in the link below although I supplemented it with mushrooms, used dried ginger powder instead of root ginger and added some fresh coriander (which appears in the picture on the recipe below but not in the ingredients ;-)):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickpeacurry_2213

It’s a really simple, fast, straightforward recipe but with a lot of taste!  I’m someone who is reluctant to cook vegetarian food but with the chickpeas in this, it had a good texture so I didn’t miss the meat too much (I did think “ah, this would be great with some chorizo in also” but it is much healthier without it and cheaper too!).

All in all, I think it took me only 15 mins to cook (mainly because of the rice cooking time) and is a really easy dish to cook when your fridge may be looking sparse!  If you have a jar of chickpeas in your store cupboard then you are pretty much there!

The jury is still out on whether it got rid of the illness though… 😦

Oven ki murghi

As I said in my last post, my aim was to blog once a month.  I think I am a couple of days late but it could be worse!  I had big plans for this blog being something new, something that I’d not tried before but in the end, I decided to go for an old favourite that I’ve cooked many times but never been disappointed with.

It is based on the following recipe:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/ovenkimurghichickenb_76546

Madhur Jaffrey is a very popular Indian cook in the UK and she was quite influential in bringing Indian food to the UK so a very good person to feature here!

I don’t follow this recipe exactly as I think pretty much any combination you make with it will give you good results.  I was cooking for 2 so I used only one large chicken breast and started by cutting this into four pieces and lightly browning on each side.

Then I added half a chopped onion and half a chopped yellow pepper.  I think green or red work better in this dish but I had a yellow one in my fridge and was lacking energy to go food shopping!

I cooked the peppers and onion for about 5 mins with the chicken and then added the ingredients to a glass cooking dish, layering the ingredients with the chicken first and then the onion and pepper.

Then I added one teaspoon of mustard seeds to the pan (with a little more oil), cooked for about 30 seconds before adding a chopped clove of garlic.  I cooked this for about another 30 seconds before adding 3 tablespoons of tinned tomatoes and approx. 200ml of double cream and 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard.

For the spices, I chose 1 teaspoon each of cumin, coriander, garam massala and chilli flakes.

Once these were mixed in and the sauce started to bubble, I poured the sauce over the chicken and cooked in the oven for approx 30 minutes on 180 degrees.

I served with boiled rice.  In the end I think these ingredients would be enough to serve 4 people as we still have leftovers for tonight!

So now I have one month to think of my next recipe… I have a borrowed book that I could try one from; Mastering the Art of French Cooking (which is also featured in a great film; Julie and Julia 🙂 ).  I think if I do one from there I definitely need to set aside a good few hours so we will see what time is like over the next few weeks.  Also depends whether I can find the equipment I need from my very small kitchen!  I also think it is a little dangerous to start a book like that.  The assumption is that afterwards I will be a master of french cooking and I think that is a difficult promise to keep!

Simple homestyle curry

I haven’t blogged for a long time due to a general lack of time.  I’ve still been cooking and found the time for that but not to write about it as well.  I’ve started new Catalan classes which will be at least 8 hours a week including the homework involved so time will continue to be limited.  However, as we are moving from summer my recipes should be easier to find as I grew up on more of a winter diet coming from the UK.  I hope this is a big enough motivator!

So my reason for this recipe after a few month’s absence…the main reason is that I had some tinned tomatoes in the fridge that I wanted to use up!  Also it is a recipe from a book given by a good friend of mine last Christmas.  We haven’t spoken for a while either so I’m reconnecting with her as well as blogging!  It was also my birthday last week and I got a very nice present; a book to write recipes in so I need to get back into writing!  I can use the best from my blog now and in the future to make a nice book 🙂  I also want to make a note of some of my mum’s best recipes and I’m going home in 2 weeks so perfect timing for that!

This is the basic curry recipe from the book;  50 great curries of India.  It is onion based and a little time consuming as you cook the onions for 25 mins to start the recipe before getting to the other ingredients.

I changed the recipe slightly from the book with the following ingredients (makes 4 portions):

• 2 onions
• 2 chicken breasts
• 3/4 tin of tomatoes
• 200ml of water (more if necessary)
• 4 cloves of garlic
• Oil
• A little butter
• 1 teaspoon of ginger
• 1.5 teaspoons of coriander
• 0.5 teaspoons of cumin
• 0.5 teaspoons of garam masala
• a pinch of tumeric powder
• 2 teaspoons of paprika
• Chopped coriander leaves

I started off by cooking the onions on a medium heat in the oil for about 15 minutes.  The recipe states that the onions should start to brown and they weren’t so I also added the butter at this point to help and cooked for another 10 minutes.  While they were cooking I also chopped the mushrooms and browned the chicken in a separate pan.

Once the onions were browner I added the spices and cooked for 2 minutes, stirring regularly.  Then I added the tomatoes and the water and simmered for 10 minutes before adding the partially cooked chicken and the mushrooms.

I continued cooking this for 15 minutes while also cooking the rice.

The end result was great!  Not spicy enough for my taste so if you like spicy food I would recommend adding some chilli (unless your paprika is already spicy).  I had strict instructions not to make this too spicy from my ever suffering dining companion!

It was good to get back into cooking and writing about it so now I will aim to blog once a month which should be achievable!