Weeknight coconut chicken (or fish!) curry

There's nothing like a quick curry to give you that taste hit to get through the week.  I love nothing more than taking time to slow fry my onions and simmering my curry for hours on a weekend, but on a busy school night it's all about the flavour without the hard work.  And this is pretty easy using my bottle masala, a healthy, pre-roasted mix of more than 20 different spices - so good for you.  The list of ingredients looks long but don't be daunted, it's easy to put together and I often leave a few out. 

I have left all the ingredients for a traditional curry in this recipe, but I most often omit the onions, and sometimes the garlic, depending on what I have in the kitchen.  Frying onions is a labour of love, your curry will always taste raw if you only fry them for a few minutes - you really need at least 15-20 minutes of cooking, so it's much easier to leave them out when you're short of time.  Using only ginger can also give your curry a different flavour which is nice from time to time.  I actually really love the ginger only version.  

You can also substitute a nice fish in this curry... the fish version with no onion and garlic is one of my favourites.  If you're using fish, choose a firm, thick steak that won't disintegrate.  Cook your whole gravy first, then gently place the fish in the curry, and simmer for a few minutes until done.

To serve four, you will need:

500 grams of boneless chicken (thigh or tenderloin) or 750 grams to a kilo if using bone-in legs or thighs 

3 tablespoons of coconut oil 

1 red onion, finely chopped (optional)

2 large cloves of garlic, crushed (optional)

1 tablespoon of ginger, finely grated

1 stalk of curry leaves (if you have them)

1 green chilli, sliced vertically down the middle

1 heaped tablespoon of bottle masala (or very good, natural curry powder)

1 tin of good quality coconut milk (I use Ayam brand)

1 coconut tin full of water or stock (equal amount)

1-2 teaspoons of tamarind paste (can substitute with freshly squeezed lemon juice)

1 teaspoon of salt

1/2 teaspoon of sugar

Finely chopped fresh coriander to garnish (optional)

To make the curry, heat the coconut oil, and slowly fry the onions if using.  If not, add the curry leaf (also optional), green chilli, and both ginger and garlic or ginger only to the pan.  After a couple of minutes, add the bottle masala, then quickly add the chicken - you don't want the curry powder to burn, followed by the coconut milk.

If you're using fish, just add the coconut milk directly to the aromatics.  Fry for another minute or two, then lower heat and simmer until cooked for chicken (around 20 minutes for boneless, 45 for bone-in), around 10-15 minutes if you're going to use fish.

After this, top up the gravy with the extra stock or water, then add the tamarind paste, salt and sugar to taste - you want the gravy to be a bit tangy.  Your chicken curry is now done (for the fish version, add the fish now and simmer for another 5-10 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish).

Add some finely chopped coriander and serve, leave out if coriander is not your thing. 

Fresh and spicy kachumber

Kachumber is such a lovely, fresh and spicy Indian salad, perfect for a hot day like today.  It relies on the perfect balance of flavours: lemon, salt, sugar and chilli.  To make a kachumber, you will need:

To serve 4 people:

1/2 large red onion

2 large cucumbers

3-4 large tomatoes

3 green chillies, deseeded if you like

Half a bunch of fresh coriander

Juice of one-two lemons

Salt and sugar to taste

Slice the onions, cucumber, tomatoes, chillies and coriander extremely finely and mix together in a large bowl.  

Add lemon juice to taste, you want the taste to be nice and zingy.... no subtle flavours here.  Add a teaspoon of sugar, and salt to taste. 

Leave aside for 30 minutes or so in the fridge for the flavours to mingle.

Serve with any Indian meal, and it's also a delicious side for any barbecued or grilled meat. 

Perfect rice

Pilau rice with turmeric and peas  

Cooking perfect rice is one of the essential skills in Indian home cooking. And the secret to this art? Buy the right rice and you're halfway there.

I would never recommend buying rice from the supermarket, you need to get yourself to an Indian grocery shop and find the best Basmati you can. Look for aged Basmati rice, beautiful long fragrant grains which will cook separately (Indian rice should never be soft and mushy).

You can even buy Sela Basmati, which is parboiled before milling to preserve its nutrients, and cooks even faster. Most Pakistani Basmati is good, a couple of the brands I buy include Dawaat, Lal Qila and Kohinoor. The rice comes in big five kilo bags, but it will last for ages.

The next trick is soaking the rice before you cook it. Always wash it well, and then leave it to rest in the water you are going to cook it in for at least 15 minutes, though half an hour is better.  In terms of the ratio of rice to water, I use 1:2 - a cup of rice (usually enough for four people) and 2 cups of water. You want the water level to be about an inch higher than the level of the rice in the pan.

To cook the rice, turn your heat to high and bring it to a boil. As soon as it boils, turn the heat down to very low, partially cover with a lid and cook for 10-12 minutes until all the water has evaporated, then turn the heat off. Put the lid on fully and leave the rice to keep cooking in its own steam for another 10 minutes, if you have an electric stove just keep it on the warm hob.

Always fluff the rice up before serving, you can drizzle in some olive oil or a spoon of butter or ghee.

There are infinite variations for flavouring rice as you cook it, and I have included a few below.  All quantities are based on a one cup serve of rice. If you are cooking more than a cup, you probably want to increase the amounts by one and a half.

Basic rice

Add a teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil to the cooking water.... include this in all variations below.

 Jeera rice

Add a teaspoon of cumin seeds along with the salt and oil.

 Turmeric rice

Add half a teaspoon of turmeric along with the salt and oil, with or without cumin seeds as well.

Pilau rice

Whole garam masala adds a beautiful fragrance to your rice. Add a bay leaf, 3-4 cloves, 2-3 cardamom, a few peppercorns and a stick of cinnamon.  You can also fry these in a bit of oil first, then add the raw rice and water, but simply adding them to the water is fine.

You can also include half a teaspoon of cumin seeds, and half a teaspoon of turmeric.

Cooking liquid

Another easy variation is to change the cooking liquid. Instead of water, you can use stock (homemade chicken stock is amazing with all the whole spices), or even coconut milk.

Another option is to add a quartered tomato, or include some tomato passata in the liquid. Throwing in some frozen peas as the rice cooks is also nice.

Garnish

All sorts of garnishes work well on rice, especially if you have made a lovely yellow pea pilau, or a fragrant rice with stock.

Chopped herbs, coriander, spring onions or mint, or a bit of red chilli for colour are perfect.

Deep fried shallots or onions give a lovely crunchy texture, and this also pairs well with sliced hard boiled eggs.

There are so many more delicious ways to cook rice, lovely pilaus with lots of veggies, khichri, which is rice cooked with lentils, and lots of rice variaties to use, like brown and red rice.

I'll be posting some of these more complex recipes separately this year, so stay tuned.

Quick and tasty green chutney

Green chutney has possibly been my most requested recipe this year.  It's a chutney my family has made regularly for generations, with a few recipe variations, all of them delicious.  It's such an easy chutney to whip up, and so full of taste and goodness.  

You can use it in sandwiches, as a dip, a curry paste, a marinade or a salad dressing (it makes an amazing potato salad).  It keeps in the fridge for a few days, and can also be frozen.  

There are two other green chutney recipes on this website, one using toasted cumin seeds, and other with the addition of ginger and garlic. Both also use a combination of coriander and mint.  

This recipe is the easiest of them all, it only uses coriander, and takes seconds to make in a Nutribullet or blender.  I am making a huge batch for Christmas and thought I'd post the recipe as it's perfect holiday fare. 

To make your own batch you will need:

1 bunch of coriander, washed, with roots cut off (supermarket sized)

1-2 green chillies, depending on how hot you like it

1/3 to 1/2 a cup of coconut cream (Ayam brand is preferable)

1/3 cup dessicated coconut

1 teaspoon of salt

2 teaspoons of raw sugar

Juice of half a lemon

Put all the ingredients in your blender and blend till smooth.  Taste and adjust ingredients until you are happy with the flavour and texture.  If the chutney is a bit runny, it will set like butter in the fridge.

Enjoy!

Comforting one pot dal and veggies

Meatfree Monday is my salvation after inevitably eating too much, and particularly too much meat, over the weekend.  I love feeding my carnivorous family but I feel so much better when I'm cooking and eating simple, homemade vegetarian food: I could live on it.

This dal was a bit of an improvisation... I mixed two different types of dal because both packets were nearly empty, and threw in lots of leftover veggies from the fridge.  But it turned out to be totally delicious, so has earned itself a recipe.

For a huge pot of this comforting concoction, you will need the following ingredients. It sounds like a lot but the recipe is easy as you basically just throw everything in.

Once it's all cooked, you can also freeze portions for later on to eat as is, or to add to curries and sauces as a thickener (I put a portion in all my chicken curries so the kids eat it without knowing they're eating veggies): it's very time saving.

1 cup of toor dal

1/2 cup of moong dal

1 zucchini, roughly chopped

2 tomatoes, roughly chopped

1/2 an onion, roughly chopped

1 green chilli, sliced vertically in half

1 cup of pumpkin, roughly chopped

1 large carrot, roughly chopped

1 large handful of greens: spinach or silverbeet

1 teaspoon of turmeric

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon of red chilli powder

1 heaped teaspoon of tamarind paste, or juice of at least half a lemon

Rinse the lentils together (really well) and soak in a large pot covered by a couple of inches of water for at least 30 minutes.  After this, bring to boil, and skim of the foam from the top as it does so.  Once this foamy layer has been removed, throw in all the veggies, salt, cumin, turmeric and chilli.  Cook for 40 mins to an hour on a slow heat until everything is lovely and mushy, stirring occasionally and adding water as you go if it looks too thick - the amount of water you use is totally personal, depending on whether you like a thin or thicker dal.

When everything is cooked, add the tamarind or lemon and adjust the salt to taste - it needs to be really tangy, dal on its own is very bland and totally sucks up flavour.  You can then mash the dal roughly with a potato masher, or blend it to a more homogenous consistency, and add fresh dill or coriander to serve.

Very, very tasty batata vadas

It’s our first hot Perth weekend afternoon and beer and hot snacks are on the menu.  Batata vadas, crispy fried balls filled with soft spicy potatoes, are the perfect accompaniment to cold beer.  And here finally is one of our most requested recipes (the quantity below will make 20+ pieces).

For the potato filling:

About 4 large potatoes, diced and boiled

2 tablespoons of oil

A stalk of curry leaves (optional)

1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 green chilli, finely chopped

¾ teaspoon of turmeric

Salt to taste

Lemon juice to taste

Cook the potatoes and set aside.  Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the curry leaves, mustard seeds and cumin seeds and let them pop.  Add the finely chopped green chilli and then stir fry the diced potatoes, the turmeric, salt to taste, and some red chilli powder if you want it to be spicier.  Finish off with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, then roughly mash the mixture and set aside to cool (make sure you are happy with the taste, adjusting salt, lemon and chilli to personal preference).

For the batter:

1 cup of besan (gram flour)

1/2 to 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt

1/2 to 1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1/2 to 1 teaspoon turmeric

Juice of half a lemon

pinch of bicarb soda or teaspoon of fruit salts

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl with luke warm water, a little at a time, enough to form a cream like consistency (like pancake batter).  Adjust spice until you are happy with how it tastes.

If you can, make the batter the day before and leave it in the fridge, it's better.  Just before cooking, add a pinch of soda bicarbonate or a teaspoon of Eno's fruit salts to the mixture (this is key to a light, aerated batter).

Batata vadas:

To make the vadas, take the cooled potato and make small balls from it, around 1 inch diameter.  Put in the fridge to cool for half an hour.

Heat a couple of inches of good oil (like peanut oil) in a frying pan until hot.

Dip each potato ball in the batter until coated, then drop into the hot oil.  Fry, ensuring all sides are coated with oil, for a few minutes until golden.  Depending on the size of the pan, aim to fry 3-5 balls at any one time.  Remove from pan and rest on some kitchen towels to absorb excess oil.

Serve the batata vada fresh and crispy, with more fresh lemon to squeeze over and a pinch of salt. 

And most of all, enjoy!  With beer x

Gluten-free moong dal pancakes

I have been trying to find good substitutes for bread for a while without success, as I know that cutting bread, and reducing gluten generally from my diet makes me feel a lot healthier.  Lately I have hit upon a series of old recipes that have done the trick, and I have been making and eating dosa and various Indian savoury pancakes almost daily.

It has taken a little bit of practice to master the art of cooking them to become perfectly thin and crepe-like, but it has most definitely been worth the effort.

I highly recommend these moong dal pancakes, called chilla in India.  They are not only totally delicious, but are completely vegan: dairy, egg and gluten free, and you can source good quality organic moong dal too.  The pancakes are light, strong and have that elastic quality of good flatbread: making them perfect for wraps and to use instead of chapatis. 

The batter below will make around 8 pancakes, but make them as you need to as the batter stores in the fridge for a few days. 

You will need:

1 cup of yellow moong dal, organic if possible

1 teaspoon of salt

A little bit of coconut oil or ghee to grease 

Flavourings optional: see below

To make the pancakes, wash and rinse the dal well, then soak in enough water to cover it by about an inch and leave aside for 1-2 hours. 

Drain the dal, reserving the liquid, and place it in a blender (I use a 900 watt Nutribullet and it works perfectly).  Add a teaspoon of salt, and you can also add flavourings if you want: a teaspoon of toasted cumin seeds; a quarter teaspoon of turmeric with a twist of black pepper, some chopped ginger, green chilli, or some coriander leaves and a squeeze of lemon.  Add in a little of your reserved dal water and blend for a minute or so... you want to end up with a thick, pale yellow, creamy looking batter.  You can add more water if you need to: the final batter should have the consistency of single cream.

Heat up a non-stick frying pan, about 26 cm in diameter on a medium-high heat, then take a ladle of the batter, around a quarter cup, and pour it into the centre of the pan. With the bottom of the ladle spread the batter out in circles, until it covers the base of the pan, you may need to turn the heat down at this point.

Cook the pancake for a minute or two until the bottom is done and you can slide your spatula under it.  Spread a little bit of coconut oil or ghee on the top and sides of the pancake and then lift and flip it.  Cook the top side for another minute or two and it should be done.  I have been perfecting the art of using as little oil as possible, but my mother reassures me that more is always better. 

Cooking the perfect pancake takes a bit of practice.  You can play with the heat settings, try a high heat for less time or lower and longer... as depending on how you cook it you can make it thin and crispy or a little thicker and spongier.  

These moong dal chilla are perfect for breakfast, and because of their strong texture great as wraps or to mop up curry gravy.  I can't recommend them enough!

Red cabbage stir fry

We have made our red cabbage stir fry at the Bombay Cook Club a few times recently and have many requests for the recipe.  It's so easy, so healthy and so tasty... full of nutrient packed ingredients like mustard seeds, turmeric and ginger.  Red cabbage is one of the healthiest veggies you can eat, full of anti-oxidants and properties that can assist in the prevention of cancer and heart disease.  It is also low in calories, and full of immune system boosting vitamins like vitamin C.

You can use pretty much any vegetable as a substitute for the cabbage, including potatoes, cauliflower, peas, capsicum and zucchini.  Just make sure you adjust cooking times to suit. 

Here below is how you make it:

1/3 to ½ a red cabbage, finely sliced (you can use a ready cut bag of coleslaw mix for convenience too)

1-2 tablespoons of coconut oil

1 stalk of curry leaves (optional)

1 tablespoon of grated ginger

1-2 green chillies (to taste), sliced vertically down the middle

½ teaspoon of black mustard seeds

½ teaspoon of cumin seeds

½ teaspoon of turmeric

½ teaspoon of salt (to taste)

Sprinkle of black pepper

Juice of a lemon

Fresh coriander to garnish

Heat the oil in a large wok or frying pan and fry the curry leaves for a minute or so, then add the mustard seeds, followed a few seconds later by the cumin seeds.  These ingredients will start to spit and pop, then add the green chilli and ginger and fry for a minute or two. 

Add a handful of cabbage and then put in the turmeric powder (so it doesn’t burn directly in the oil), then keep adding the cabbage, stir-frying quickly so it doesn’t overcook and stays a bit crunchy.  Cook for a couple of minutes then turn off the heat.  Squeeze in the juice of a lemon, and add salt, and a grind of black pepper, to taste.  Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot.

Ilona's spicy pepper dish

It's such a pity that people don't write any more.  Real writing, beautiful handwriting, on thick paper.  My great grandmother and grandmother's hand written recipe books mean so much more and convey so much more emotion than if they'd been typed into a word document.  Fading script that gets shakier as the books end, smudges, doodled patterns... the books talk to me in a way the typed word never could.  And the letters! Lovingly written aerogrammes on wafer thin paper from India, gossipy and full of news .... I would do anything to go to the letterbox and find one.

Luckily I'm from a family of hoarders, and we still have boxes of paper everywhere. Mum just found this recipe in an old letter written to her by her friend Ilona ... I decided to make it on a whim and oh my goodness!  It's delicious!  Cook it now!  You will need: 

3 peppers (capsicums): red, yellow and green, sliced thinly

1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

a stalk of curry leaves

2 teaspoons of besan (chickpea) flour

1 teaspoon of red chilli powder

1/2 a teaspoon of turmeric

1/2 a teaspoon of salt

1/2 a teaspoon of sugar

oil

squeeze of lemon juice

Make a paste of the besan, chilli, turmeric, salt and sugar by mixing it in a small bowl with a little (1-2 tablespoons of oil) and set aside.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan and add the mustard seeds and curry leaves, waiting until they pop.  Add the finely sliced peppers and stir fry quickly for a minute or two on high heat.

Add the besan paste, stir it in, and then turn down the heat for another minute or so to finish cooking while stirring to make sure it has blended in.  

Serve with a squeeze of lemon juice.

Amazingly easy palak paneer

Paneer is so easy to make once you try it you won't ever buy it again.

To make a small ball of paneer around 250 grams in weight (to feed 4-6 in a curry), you will need:

3 litres of full cream milk

1/3 a cup of vinegar (apple cider or white vinegar is fine, you can even use lemon juice)

1 teaspoon of salt

Heat the milk in a large pan on the stove until it boils, stirring well.  To flavour the paneer, we added a teaspoon of red chilli flakes and a teaspoon of cumin seeds.  When the milk is bubbling and rises, pour in the vinegar and keep stirring. The milk will start to curdle really quickly.  Stir and stir until the whey has fully separated and is almost clear.  Turn off the heat.

Place a piece of muslin or cheesecloth into a large strainer in the sink and quickly pour in the curdled milk.  Drain away all the liquid, and squeeze the solids in the muslin into a small ball.  Keeping it wrapped in the cloth, place it on a plate or in a bowl with another plate on top of it and a heavy weight to weigh it down.  Keep it pressed for half an hour or so, then unwrap - you should be delighted to find a solid ball of cheese. 

To make paneer and spinach curry for 3-4 people, you will need:

One portion of homemade paneer, cubed

2 tablespoons of ghee or oil

1 heaped teaspoon of my vindaloo masala (or any good curry powder)

1 large tomato, blended or finely chopped

1 tablespoon of tomato paste

1 large bag of washed spinach leaves

salt and a bit of sugar to taste

To make your curry, heat the oil in a heavy pan.  Add the vindaloo masala powder, tomato and tomato paste and stir well until you have a glossy and shiny curry paste.  Throw in the spinach leaves and stir for a minute or so, then gently add the paneer.  From here on stir gently so as not to break up the paneer.  Add salt to taste, and a bit of sugar if you need it. Add a bit more water to form as much gravy as you prefer - we eat it as quite a dry dish.