Freaky Friday Curry

I'll be honest, this one was a bit Oh Mama, hot hot. You can all blame Dinesh for that. He's my friend Hapi's friend and once made a comment on my deseeding a chilli for a recipe so I thought I'd try it with the seeds this time. Vienna didn't really appreciate it. I could see why.

I've since made it and adjusted the curry thermostat and she gave me a look as if to say "do you think I'm daft, mummy?" but she did eat it. I've kept the original pictures though because the updated one looked the same.

Ingredients

• 1 can coconut milk
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander, ground
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 chilli (seeds in if you're mad, deseeded otherwise)
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 garlic clove, chopped
• 1 large potato (as in, a normal potato)
• 1 large sweet potato (as in, a knobbly mutant potato)
• half a suede
• 3 salad tomatoes, chopped
• 1 parsnip
• 1 carrot

Method

1. Parboil the parsnip, carrot, potatoes and suede (a posh technical term I learnt from my mum which means partly boil... or for about 10-15 mins).
2. While that's doing, fry the spices, then the onion, garlic, chilli and mix in the tomato puree.
3. Gradually stir in the coconut milk and simmer for a few minutes until the root veg is done parboiling away.
4. Add the parsnip, potatoes, suede, carrot and tomatoes, and leave to simmer for about 20 mins.

I gave Vienna an orange with hers and the juices did help ease the spice of the original version a bit (tip there!). Also, teaspoon of cheese spread. Works wonders.

Spiced Fruit Wedges

This recipe makes me wish I'd started my blog at Christmas! I've been saying for a while now I might branch into desserts and this is a really nice, quick recipe that would be really good with custard (not that I would advocate giving a baby normal custard!) and tastes really festive.

Ingredients

• 1 apple, sliced
• 1 spoon unsalted butter (about 50g)
• 1 handful sultanas/raisins (about 75g)
• 1tsp nutmeg
• 2 tsps vanilla essence

Method

1. Melt the butter in a pan and add the vanilla and nutmeg until it starts to smell lovely.
2. Add the dried fruit, stir, then add the apple.
3. Keep stirring until the apple is nice and soft. You don't have to stir constantly, but don't let it stick to the bottom of the pan.

I really like giving this to Vienna as a treat because she loves raisins/sultanas and it makes the apples nice and soft for her to chew through.

What is this "Spice" Nonsense?

I have a few updates tonight so I'll get to them in a minute, but this has been on my mind this week. I want this blog to be a bit more than just a list of recipes, I want it to be helpful to people (mainly mums and dads, obviously, but not just parents) who want quick but nice food, and, like me, don't speak "chef".

Tonight, I'm going to decipher the mysteries of the spice rack! Sort of...

I kind of take after my mum, who thinks you NEED herbs and spices in a dish, except not quite as strongly. I think people that say they "transform a dish" are going a bit overboard, because no amount of coriander is going to make chicken taste like fish, you know? But on the other hand, if all you've got in the cupboard is a couple of carrots and some coriander then there you go! Carrot and coriander cuppa soup. Just makes life a little bit less beige.

So here's the YMHT guide to essential herbs and spices it might be a good idea to stick in the cupboard:

1. Coriander (dried, leaf)- lots of recipes ask for this, it's one of the most useful herbs there is, you can use it in soups, curries, stews, salsa, mexican food, thai food, indian food and it's really nice in stuffing
2. Oregano (dried)- this is also really useful, the best way of describing its flavour is 'italian' and it's great with tomato dishes and meat stews
3. Cumin and Turmeric (ground)- if you only have cumin, you don't necessarily need turmeric and vice versa, but they work really well together in curries and asian dishes- I use a lot because I love moroccan food and these two give a nice, bit more exotic flavour
4. Nutmeg and Cinnamon (ground)- these are lovely in cakes or rubbed into grilled apple wedges but they give sweet dishes a little bit more of a pudding-y flavour; if you get cinnamon sticks these are nice in asian stews as well but they aren't all that essential
5. Flat leaf parsley- parsley's quite easy to grow and it is nice fresh but it's just as easy to buy dried. There is actually a difference between curled and flat leaf but flat leaf is a bit more common for cooking and curly is more of a garnish- it has a nice clean flavour that goes with fish, pork, soups, salads and vegetables on a sunday roast
6. Basil- this is like oregano in that it has a nice italian flavour that goes really well with tomatoes and meats
7. Chives- really easy to grow, it has an onion-y type flavour because it comes from the same family so it's great with cheese, salad, dips and sauces
8. Mixed Spice, Mixed Herbs- right now this can be a bit confusing because mixed spice and mixed herbs are pretty obvious, but allspice lives near mixed spice in the supermarket and it's not the same- technically it's ground pimiento berry but you can make an allspice substitute by mixing 1 part cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves

If you only want a REALLY basic stock I'd go with cumin, coriander, oregano and mixed spice, but that's no fun at all.

Moroccan-style Chicken and Chickpea Stew

So here's to the first of many, hopefully! This is that stew I was telling you all about in my last post about chicken (see, it's all interconnected here!). It has chilli in it but it actually isn't spicy at all:

Ingredients:

• 300g chicken fillets
• 2 cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 can chickpeas (in water, not dried)
• 2 carrots, cut into chunks (makes it easier for your baby to pick up)
• 1 parsnip, cut into chunks
• 1 tsp caraway seeds (in with the jars of spices at the supermarket)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander (dried, not leaves- although you could use 1tbsp fresh)
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and chopped
• pinch of black pepper (optional)

Serves: 

Well it did me for two lunches, Vienna for tea and lunch and there was some left for Steve so I'm going to say 2 adults and one baby.

Method:

1. Grill the chicken (feel free to see "The trick to chicken" for this ;) ) until cooked all the way through.
2. Boil the carrots and parsnip in water for about 15 mins until fairly soft.
3. Put all the spices in a large pan and fry for a couple of minutes, then add the chilli and fry that for a further couple of minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, chickpeas, carrots, parsnip and chicken. Leave to simmer until the chickpeas are really soft.

Notes:

• Dad said after I made this that it needed a touch of garlic. If anyone makes this before I get a chance to give it a go with some onion & garlic see what you think and let me know but otherwise I was pretty proud.
• when frying the spices, two things here: one, this is not really a job you can leave because spices burn quite quickly which makes them taste horrid and sets your fire alarm off in a matter of seconds, and two, most recipes will say to grind/crush the caraway seeds... I don't know if you've ever tried this but I wouldn't recommend it. It's nigh impossible. And they taste nice whole. They aren't big.
• most importantly, the chickpeas need to be very soft when you give them to your baby- the rest it doesn't matter quite so much because carrots/tomatoes you can eat raw, and you've already cooked the chicken and parsnips right the way through anyway