My week in food 15/10

Right, we are getting on track and I have finally caught up with my tales of yesteryear and food. 

Last week was fairly busy so I only have a couple of recipes to share with you. One is a trusted classic and a Josh favourite and one was a new find.

The Trusted Classic....

A good friend of mine Lucy introduced me to the Good Food Magazine books and I invested in the 101 Veggie Dishes which has a couple of good recipes in it. Josh being a strong carnivore couldn't understand the concept of eating a meal without meat so I amended the recipe to include diced turkey

Thai Satay Noodles

you will need:

• 3 Tbsps of crunchy peanut butter (I like to use the whole nut version as it gives the flavours a different element).
• 3 Tbsps of Sweet Chilli Sauce 
• 100mls of coconut milk (light option all the way for me)
• 100mls of Chicken Stock 
• 2 Tbsps of Soy Sauce
• 2 inches of ginger, grated
• 140g of broccoli florets
• 1 red pepper sliced
• 85g of baby corn, sliced in half length ways
• 50g Mangetout, sliced in half length ways
• 3 cloves of garlic, diced finely
• 2 nests of wholewheat noodles
• Olive oil

To start you need to mix the peanut butter, sweet chilli sauce (I usually add another tablespoon or so as I like it spicy), coconut milk, chicken stock and soy sauce. Mix them together until the peanut butter mix becomes smooth. One thing I forget to do regularly is to stir the coconut milk before adding. It makes the difference. It may not seem the most appealing in sight or smell but give it a taste here as I often add extra soy sauce.

Add a small amount of olive oil to a wok or large frying pan and add the turkey and cook through then add ginger, broccoli, peppers and corn for 3 minutes. I always tend to cook this for a little longer as I find that the broccoli can be underdone and too crunchy for my taste. Take your own taste after 3 minutes and see what you think. At this point boil the water for your noodles and cook as per packet instructions.

Add mangetout and garlic and fry for another 2 minutes. Add peanut mix and stir into vegetables and allow to boil for a couple of minutes. Once the noodles are cooked add to the mixture, stir and serve.

When I first made the recipe I wasn't too sure about it, especially the first phase, however it mixes well with the ginger and garlic to give a unique flavour. One thing that does often gripe me is the ability to mix the noodles in to the vegetables enough that they are spread evenly. You may benefit from plating the noodles first and then adding the sauce mixture. the recipe will take about 30 minutes to cook and prepare when you are in full flow and this should serve around 3 hungry mouths. I have had to sub in petit pois and normal sweetcorn at a push and it still works well.

I tried to find the link for this on the bbc good food website but no joy. If you want to buy the book this is what is looks like:

I got mine from W H Smiths but is available online too!

The new find...

So as you will know by now I have a love of curry. And I'm a fan of vegetables. I made this one and managed to persuade Josh to have this without meat! 

Quick Vegetable Curry

Now I'm not sure about you but quick to me is around half an hour but this recipe with all of its faffing would take at least an hour. As I was tired and impatient I must admit I cut a few corners and amended it to my taste 

*bad harriet*

 As you know this goes against my ethos of try the recipe first then mix it afterwards. If you have a read through the recipe I'm hoping you will let me off about this one.

The recipe says you will need the following. (Though I have crossed out the things I didn't use)

• 2 large aubergines, cut into quarters, thickly sliced
• salt
• good glug groundnut oil
• 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 large, juicy garlic cloves, peeled, chopped
• finger-length piece fresh root ginger, peeled and cut into fine shreds
• 6-8 cardamom pods
• 1-2 good pinches dried chilli flakes
• 1-2 tsp ground turmeric
• 1-2 tsp cumin seeds
• 6-8 tomatoes, roughly chopped    I used passata here
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• few good dollops natural yoghurt I omitted this as I felt it would be too creamy
• dollop crème fraîche
• small handful fresh coriander, roughly chopped
• small handful fresh mint leaves   I ommitted this as I didn't feel it would be to my taste.

• 
  
  I also added to this 2 potatoes (cut into quarters and boiled for 20 minutes) and 2 carrots (Sliced thinly and boiled for 15 minutes) and a can of cannellini beans to add some more texture and to bulk it out for my man

So for this recipe I changed a lot. Firstly it said to :

1. Place the aubergine slices into a colander set over a bowl. Sprinkle with salt and leave for 30 minutes to draw out the moisture from the aubergine. - No Thanks, I want to get this ball rolling!
2. Meanwhile, to a large pan over a high heat add the groundnut oil with the onions, garlic and ginger. Cover with a lid, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes or so, until the onions have softened. I once again feel that this was too long to cook them for so cut this down dramatically.
   
   
   The next stage it says is:
   Crush the cardamom pods, extract the black seeds and lightly crush them in a mortar with a pestle (I don't have one of these at the moment as I broke mine so used a spoon to crush and extract the pods.) - a gold star so far.
   Add them to the same pan, along with the chilli flakes, turmeric and cumin seeds, and stir to lightly toast the spices (discard the empty cardamom pods) - once again this was fine.
   
   
   Next it says to add the Aubergines which you have to griddle cook first until brown which is fine. At this point I added my other vegetables and the passata. I also added a little water to the mixture to loosen it up slightly. I left it to boil for about 15 minutes. 
   
   
   
   

   The chilli was quite strong against the onions so at this point I added the creme fraiche to cool it a little. The portion fed 3 of us and I had enough left over. As there is a lot of veg in my version there wasn't really the need for rice but I can't fault having a Naan to mop it up. I didn't find the aubergine needed to have the moisture drained out and found that the veg worked together well.

Tomorrow Night I am embarking on some baking with my friend Jessie so I'll take lots of pictures and let you know how we get on.

Eat, Drink and Be Merry.

H x