Stir Fry, Curries and Baking!

Hello all! I've tried out 3 new things this week that I want to share with you. They range from great all the way through to 'must try harder' (think this one is more me related than the recipe itself though!)

The week favourite is.....

Simple Goan Curry! 

For the marinade:

I love love love spices and curry as you all know by now. This dish uses some of my favourites such as cumin, tumeric and coriander. 

These spices are combined together in a dish with some lemon juice and water. I must admit I got a bit excited with the tumeric adding a teaspoon rather than half. Mixed together as a paste it looks like this

 To this mixture add the chicken and marinade for between 30 minutes and an hour.

For the pan:

Sorry about the bluriness! 

Its a can of coconut milk, mustard seeds, onions and garlic. The idea of adding a whole can of coconut milk was a bit much for me, so I ended up using just over half and this proved to produce enough sauce for me and josh. The downside to my limit on the coconut meant the dish turned out to be more spicy than it perhaps should have been.This doesn't bother me as I like a dish that makes me sweat (I probably should say sweat in a food blog but alas).

The recipe sees that you fry the mustard seeds before adding chopped garlic and onions - do beware, those seeds don't half jump. Fortunately my glasses acted as a protective shield to my eyes when checking this process out.

I added the chicken to the mustard seeds, onion and garlic and the smells from the spices were amazing, rich and delicious! I cooked this off for around 5 minutes before adding the coconut milk. If you're like me it may be worth adding about half and seeing what you think. 

It says to simmer for about 12 minutes and I left it for about 10, it did reduce and thicken slightly but I was happy with the amount of sauce available!

The flavours were rich and potent in this dish. For Josh it was a little on the hot side and this maybe that I went a bit spice happy and didn't want to add that extra coconut milk. For that me and Josh thought this recipe was 8.5/10!

 Here is my finished product....

The average one of the week:

Nigel Slater's quick, mildly spiced beef recipe. 

I originally got the recipe from the guardian website at the beginning of October  I went back to get the link but it has expired. Everywhere else I search seemed to take forever to load so I'll type it out for you.

You will need:

• Oil for frying
• 500g of cubed beef
• 2 onions sliced
• 3 garlic cloves chopped finely
• 2 teaspoons of ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons of ground coriander
• 1 tablespoon of garam masala
• 500 ml of vegetable or beef stock  my hatred of watery dishes means I only used about half of this.
• 1 tablespoon of grain mustard
• 200 ml of double cream  As ever I removed this and used good old creme fraiche around 3 table spoons

 The recipe said it had enough for 4 but as ever it fed 3 of us providing 'normal' portions. One thing that myself and Wayne (a friend of mine and Josh's) said that it lacked was some form of veg. Josh of course thought more meat would have been the answer but there wasn't much bulk to the dish. Next time I think I would add some peppers for that extra bite.

The recipe says to season the beef and fry then remove from the pan. Although I can see that this may benefit in terms of adding extra flavours but I was cooking to a deadline so I firstly:

I added the onions, garlic and oil to my wok and fried until golden brown. I then added the cumin, coriander and garam masala for around 3 minutes. I then added my extra lean beef strips and cooked for a further 5 minutes, allowing the meat to mix in with the spices. I added my half measure of stock and left to boil for 10 minutes.

After this I added my mustard and the creme fraiche (mixing this in thoroughly) and let to simmer for a few minutes. The spice mixture for this dish  saved the day in all honest.  Yes it is quick and easy but it lacked that extra dimension that veg would have added. I'd say about 5 or 6 out of 10. I will try again one day and let you know how I go.

The needs more practice dish of the week:

As I mentioned when I started my blog, my forte and confidence lies in savoury dishes. My mom is allergic to eggs so pudding and pudding making always took a back seat in my cooking. I have been experimenting recently and my friend Jessie has been helping me with it. As an avid reader of the BBC food section I came across Marshmallow Brownies.

As I am so new to the world of baking, I always follow every instruction to a T and did so for the brownies. I must say I was shocked (and secretly excited) about the amount of sugar that went into these bad boys and as a result made them even more irresistible to me.

We didn't have any square tins so used circular ones. As we felt the mixture was a little on the thick side, we cooked for about half an hour rather than 20 minutes. We took it out the oven and chilled as advised. Whilst the outside was moist (shudder) and delish, the middle seemed to have remained gooey.

Should we have cooked for even longer and risked burning the outisde or have I missed something? Answers appreciated!

hmmm a little rough around the edges

Despite the hiccups the taste was great and the mashmallows were amazing next to the brownie. I even had to remove it from my house so i didn't try and eat the goo. I think that speaks volumes!

And the final one of the week is the 'trusted classic'. 

 Pork, Green bean and oyster stir fry.

When Josh and I moved into our house a friend bought me a recipe file and I stuffed it full of dishes I wanted to try. This one sat in there for a while and is now one of our favourites.

The ingredients I used are just here. As I didn't have any pork in the house (it is much more fattening) I used turkey steaks that i sliced into strips. 




Others are:

• Lime juice - 1 Tbsp needed
• Chilli sauce - 1 Tbsp needed (I add 2/3)
• Oyster Sauce - 75ml needed
• Soy sauce - 1 tsp needed (I use about 3 table spoons)
• Garlic cloves - 2 needed, finely chopped
• Onion - 1 needed cut into chunky pieces. The recipe actually calls for red onion but this doesnt agree with me so I use standard cooking onions
• Green beans - 140g halves (I use frozen green beans and just cook them for slightly longer)
• Noodles to serve

I know that me ADDING more moisture is rare but when I tried this for the first time I found that the sauce wasn't substantial enough to coat the chicken, beans and noodles so I added more.

Step 1 -

Mix the lime, chilli sauce, oyster sauce and half the soy in a bowl.

Step 2 -

Coat the meat in a dash of soy, salt and pepper. Once this is thoroughly mixed, heat the oil in the wok and toss in the meat. (Start to boil the water for your noodles)

Step 3 - 


Add the garlic onion and beans and cook for around 4 minutes.(If your beans are fresh the recipe recommends around 2 minutes) Add your noodles to the boiling water and cook according to packet instructions.




Step 4-

 Add the sauce to the wok and simmer for 2 minutes, it should thicken slightly.

Step 5 - 

Drain your noodles and add to the mixture, toss in until mixed together.

My finished product

The recipe offers a unique flavour, almost sour and salty with the oyster sauce and the lime. Extra tang offered in by the garlic. I often add a glug or 2 extra of the chilli sauce for that extra kick or even some freshly chopped red chilli depending on my mood. This recipe will serve 3 hungry people or 2 people with extra for a lunch time portion! All in all takes around 25 minutes including prep time!

I am on half term this week and I am travelling out and about! I'm sure I will do some cooking but I have a feeling next weeks blog with contain some restaurant reviews! 

Have a great week.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry!

H x