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.

Mexican-style Chicken Soup

Vienna's been feeling a bit sorry for herself this week. Her teeth are coming through and she's had a bad case of the sniffles so I thought I'd make her some chicken soup to feel better and put a bit of a YMHT spin on it.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 red chilli, chopped
• 400g chicken, diced and grilled
• 1 can sweetcorn, drained
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 800 ml stock (see below)
• 1 tbsp tomato puree

For the Stock

• 800 ml water
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp oregano
• a pinch of tarragon
• the chicken from the ingredients above

1. Put 800ml water into a saucepan and add the herbs. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5-10 minutes.
2. Add the chicken, cover, and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
3. Don't forget to take the bay leaf out before you use it!

Method

1. Put the onion, garlic and chilli in a large saucepan and cook until soft.
2. Add the tomatoes, sweetcorn and tomato puree. Stir well.
3. Mix in the stock with the chicken in and leave to simmer for 15 minutes.

 It's great with a nice bit of buttery toast. Vienna had hers with a jacket potato, broccoli and some kidney beans. I gave her some of the juice in a cup so she could have her own cuppa soup too!

Ratatouille

That's quite hard to spell but to be fair, I was planning on eating it not spelling it so apologies if it's wrong ;) I love ratatouille because it's a nice main meal with some pasta if you've forgotten to take some meat out of the freezer, but it also goes really nicely with fish and garlic bread (like we had it), chicken, baguettes- it's just really versatile and pretty easy to do.

Ingredients

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 large aubergine, cut into chunks
• 1 large courgette, cut into chunks
• 1 red pepper, chopped into chunks
• 1 green pepper, chopped into chunks
• 5/6 large tomatoes, blended (feel free to substitute for a can of chopped tomatoes)
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 2 tsp oregano

Method

1. Fry the onion until lightly browned and add the garlic. Cook for about 3-5 minutes.
2. Add the aubergine and brown, followed by the courgette and then peppers.
3. Add the tomatoes then mix in the tomato puree and season with oregano to taste.
4. Leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes until soft.

You can get boneless, skinless fish fillets that can be microwaved from frozen and they're so handy for some healthy food in under 5 minutes. The amount of fish you actually end up eating makes these better value than buying from the fish counter and it's just as good for you. I don't eat cod so we always get either salmon or haddock but any white fish would be really tasty.

Aubergine Gratin

That's posh for Aubergine and Lentil Bake.

Ingredients

• 1 large aubergine, sliced
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 150g red lentils (dried)
• 1 tsp oregano
• 50g grated mild cheddar (mature has more salt in it)

Method

1. Give the lentils a rinse and put them in a pan with twice as much water. Bring to the boil and simmer until all the water has evaporated.
2. Stick the aubergine slices under a low heat grill until they're nice and browned.
3. Fry the onion  in a small saucepan until soft, then add the garlic and cook for about 3-5 minutes before mixing with the tomatoes and oregano. Add the lentils and simmer until they're really nice and soft.
4. Preheat the oven to 180C.
5. Take a casserole dish (ceramic/pyrex dish) and layer the aubergine on the bottom. Cover with the sauce, then repeat until you run out of both.
6. Cover with the grated cheese and bake for 20 minutes.

Tell you what, this was really nice on top of a toasted bagel. Vienna said so too.

(Well, actually what she said was "ning ning" but I'm assuming that means yum.)

Snaffoo Sauce

Part of me really did not want to share this with you because if you knew how easy it is to do it would make me look a lot less clever ;)

Ingredients:

• 1 can chopped tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans (in water)
• 1 can sweetcorn (in water)

Method:

1. Mix in a pan until warmed through.
2. Don't tell anyone how easy it is.

We had this for tea last night with a poached egg, meatballs, pasta, courgette and beans. Yum.

PS. 3 of your 5 a day. Just saying.

Chilli con Carne

We eat a lot of chilli con carne so I thought I'd give it a go. It was really yummy, I'm dead proud :) It was actually meant to be for a do on Sunday but Steve got home before I could hide it in the freezer and commandeered it. Probably just as well because I polished off Vienna's stew yesterday and she'll want something nice and hearty after swimming tomorrow. It's really easy, but if you have a bit of time the night before I'd probably do it then. By the way, this counts as 2 of your 5 a day. I  know, I didn't believe it either.

Ingredients:

• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 large garlic cloves, chopped
• 2 red chillis, deseeded and chopped
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• 500g mince
• 1 1/2 cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 can kidney beans
• 2 tsp oregano
• pinch of black pepper (to taste)

Serves: 3

Method:

1. Fry the onion until soft, then add the garlic and fry for 3 minutes. Add the chilli and cook for another few minutes, stirring constantly (you don't need oil because the mince is fatty enough and it will make it a bit too oily if you do)
2. Add the mince and properly brown. Drain the excess fat then stir in the tomato puree until the mince is all evenly coated.
3. Stir in the tomatoes, kidney beans, oregano and season with pepper to taste.
4. Simmer for 20 minutes.

Notes:

• made me feel a lot less poorly after snaffooing this...!

Stuffed Marrow with Pepper

My grandad does the best marrow with shepherd's pie filling inside it, so you could try that too. Here's what I do:

Ingredients:

• 1 large marrow
• 250g mince
• 1tbsp tomato puree
• 1 red pepper, deseeded and chopped

Serves: 2 adults (not on its own), 1 baby (on its own, unless you're Vienna)

Method:

1. Slit the skin of the marrow, pop it on a baking tray and put in a preheated oven on 160C for 50 mins.
2. After the 50 mins, turn the oven off and leave the marrow in the heat for half an hour.
3. Brown the mince in a frying pan (you don't need any oil because mince is really fatty) then drain the fat away and add the tomato puree and pepper until the pepper is nice and soft.
4. Take the marrow out of the oven, scoop out the seeds and stuff with the mince/pepper mixture.
5. Put the whole thing back in the oven (on 160 again) for 20-30 minutes.

It's nice with Worcestershire sauce but I wouldn't recommend giving that to a baby. This recipe takes time, but it's really easy, and if you leave the mince in little clumps it's easier for a baby to pick up (although you need to take extra care to cook it).

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