Aldi half leg of lamb, slow cooked

I had been planning to do Littl'Un's favourite oxtail for some time, but the delivery at Papa's shop didn't arrive, and I was out and about at a knitting drop-in but not near enough to any larger supermarkets to go look for oxtail there, so I popped into Aldi and saw a great price on some nice looking lamb.

I seared the joint on all sides and then put it in my slow cooker.  I then quartered a couple of onions, added some olives that had been hanging around - some from the fridge and some from a jar at the back of the cupboard, and then I sprinkled over some ground cinnamon and marigold powder and finally added a tin of chopped tomatoes. I did swill the tin round with some red wine that was already open and set aside for cooking, but this wasn't exactly necessary.  I then put the lid on and set the cooker onto high, and then left it alone.

I was then out for most of the day, which is good as I do sometimes find if I'm in the house while the food is cooking all day I sort of "go off" the flavour from smelling it all day.  I left instructions with GodPapa as to what to do to make the accompaniment for the 2 littler children who were at home with him, as I realised Papa, Big'Un and I would be out past our usual supper time.

About 10 minutes before they wanted to eat, GodPapa toasted a premeasured amount of couscous in the pan in which I had previously seared the lamb joint.  He added some marigold, a can of chickpeas and then the same volume of water, or slightly more, brought it to the boil and switched the heat off, covering the pan.  After 5-6 minutes the couscous had fluffed up, and he stirred through some sour pomegranate seeds which had been peeled the day before but were too sour to just eat as a fruit.

The whole dish was comforting, hearty and bursting with flavour and incredibly low in actual work to cook it!  There was also plenty of meat left after we had all eaten our fill, which I'm planning to reheat and serve with tagliatelle and some extra veg.

Indo-Chinese not so chilli paneer

I had been hankering after a dish I've had in a couple of Indian eateries which I had no idea how to begin cooking, and also I knew I'd need to calm it down for the kids, and my decreasing chilli tolerance.  I did a bit of a Google and found out it is one of the interesting and completely unique Indo-Chinese dishes I have experienced when visiting family in Calcutta.  There is a fairly large Chinese community in Calcutta, originally based in the tannery areas, and the combination of Chinese food and Bengali tastes and ingredients led to some very regionally specific dishes. This style dish is made with chicken or paneer or tofu, and is delicious and easy. It is becoming more common in some Indian (NOT the Bangladeshi type) restaurants, and would be found under the name "Chilli Paneer" and my recipe would be very easy to re-chilli.  I adapted 2 or 3 of the different recipes I found to suit my own tastes. Oh and apparently it is often cooked with green pepper, which of course I can't/don't eat, so I put sweetcorn in instead.  I'm sure other veg would work such as courgette, green beans, baby corn or whatever takes your fancy!

1 pack paneer (I use Long Clawson from the supermarket which is 227g I think)
3 or 4 cloves garlic (or 1 clove and 1 large cube frozen garlic puree)
1 inch ginger, grated (or 1 large cube frozen ginger puree - often in supermarkets with ethnic foods)
half a bunch of spring onions
1 small red onion
1 cup of frozen sweetcorn
2 tbs ketchup
2 tbs soya sauce - Kikkoman
1 tsp vinegar, malt is fine 
2 tbs groundnut oil or similar
salt, pepper, chilli flakes
1 tbs cornflour

Start off by dicing up the paneer and putting it in a dish in one layer.  Finely chop or grate 1 clove of garlic and spread over the paneer.  Season with salt, pepper and the chilli flakes to taste.  I used VERY little.

Put the cornflour in a mug and add 5 tbs of water.  Mix well and pour over the paneer, toss them around briefly and ensure it is still in one layer.  Leave to marinade for 10 minutes.

Use the 10 minutes to chop the spring onions separating the white and green parts to use separately.  Chop the red onion too.  At this point I defrosted the frozen ginger and pureed the remaining garlic also.

Now heat a nonstick frying pan or saute pan with 1 tbs of the oil and fry the paneer, reserving the marinade.  Make sure you turn the pieces so 2 or 3 sides are browned and crisp.  At this point, try not to have no one but BigUn looking after Tiny, and Tiny has a nosebleed and BigUn isn't sure what to do or your paneer might burn. Luckily, BigUn was fine...and so was Tiny, and so was the paneer...

Remove with a slotted spoonand set aside, and add the 2nd tbs of oil if needed.  Now on a lower heat, fry the red onion and the white part of the spring onion until the onion is soft and transluscent.  Now add the garlic & ginger purees and fry on a slightly higher heat until the garlic no longer smells raw.  Now add the sweetcorn (or vegetable of your desire!)  If you were wanting to spice things up, now would be a good time to add some chopped green chilli, or red chilli etc.

Add the ketchup, soy sauce and vinegar, and add the paneer back in.  Stir and coat well and add half a mug of water. Heat the sauce up and then add the marinade too.  The sauce will thicken up very quickly, but you can always thin it down or add more of any of the sauces to taste.  Add the green part of the spring onion to serve.

We had this with bought naan bread and pitta breads, it is dryish, but you could as easily toss it through some noodles.  Big Un split her pitta and stuffed it full of paneer and ate it faster than a blink! I will admit Tiny Un really didn't even try this, but he enjoyed his pitta bread.  I guess it wasn't a protein day for him! Can't win them all.  Papa loved it and said he could easily have eaten the whole panful...

So who's wondering about Littl'Un? Thank you for asking! She was at Rainbows and had had cheese on toast before hand!

Oat Frackles (strawberry banana)

The baby likes to copy his sisters and eat a banana, but after the novelty of the first time, he never has more than a few bites. I also noticed the strawberry melts in the cookie cupboard and thought they'd make a nice twist to a plainish idea. This is what I came up with, it was a great little midweek pudding.
Somewhere between a flapjack and a fairy cake with a cookie like crust.
A great way to use up some of that bag of jumbo oats I bought instead of regular porridge oats which no one will eat for breakfast cos they turn out too chewy and husky.

6 yellow scoops (my yellow scoop is a coffee scoop we measure the girls' porridge with, it's over a tablespoon) jumbo oats
2 heaped Chinese spoons SR flour (I have plastic Chinese spoons in my flour containers, a heaped spoon is about 2oz usually)
3-4 tbs sugar 1 mashed banana (minus the bit baby nibbled)
2 squirts stork liquid
Some strawberry melts

Mix all together, mashing banana as you go. Spoon into 12 fairy cake cases Bake 15-20 mins at 200 deg.

turkey mince curry

I'm not a big fan of turkey. I cooked with the meat a lot at uni as it was cheap and possibly overdid it on the flavour. Breast meat is not quite chicken, and can be offputting but the dark meat is like a lean red meat in flavour and if treated well, can make a good alternative.  It's cheaper than meat or chicken, and it is much leaner too.  My recipe is similar to how my family has always made keema curry, and is adapted from a recipe in Cooking Like Mummyji by Vicky Bhogal.

So, heat 2 tbs oil in a pan, and add 1 finely chopped onion and 2-3 finely chopped cloves of garlic.  Fry on a medium heat until deep golden brown.

Lower the heat and add half a can of tinned tomatoes, 1 tsp grated fresh ginger, 2 green chillies if desired, chopped or not to taste, 1tsp salt and 1 tsp garam masala.

When the mixture becomes shiny and the oil separates, add a pound of mince.

Stir throughly to coat, and then add 2 cups of frozen peas and stir well again.  Stir fry for a few minutes, breaking up the clumps of mince.

Add a cup of boiling water and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a low heat, cover and simmer for 20 mins.  Take the lid off and stir fry for a few more minutes.  The meat should be moist, but not swimming in water.  Add a tbs of dark soy and a tbs of light soy sauces, and serve with rice or naan or chapatti.

chop up and curry Sebastian!

So I finally seem to have found a way for Papa to eat (and ask for seconds of) aubergine! I wasn't especially trying to, I had resigned myself to the fact he would have a taste, and say no thanks, so I decided to make what I felt like with the one received in our organic veg box.  I was out shopping and visiting my aunty, so I texted Godpapa to "please chop up Sebastian for me" so I could get on with cooking as soon as I got in.  (This will only make sense to parents and carers of small children who watch Cbeebies; it is a reference to Mr Bloom's nursery.)

So I got home and got a good slosh of olive oil + veg oil heating and tipped the aubergine cubes in and set them squeaking.  As the character Sebastian is always singing, and in Bengali we refer to the aubergine as singing when it is cooking at the correct heat, I was quite amused to call Littl'Un in for a listen. She was delighted.

After a few minutes, I added finely chopped onion, about half a large one, and a teaspoon of cumin seeds.  I put the lid on  and let it cook down. I have a real abhorrence of any bite left to the aubergine, so I like the pieces small and mushed down.  I got on with the other dishes while this magic happened, in this case my turkey mince curry which I've been requested to post up too, and will do in my next post.
When I felt it was cooked enough I poured in half a tin of tomatoes, and a teaspoon of my garam masala.  I wanted a sourness to it too, so I added an extra half teaspoon of ground cumin and also at the very end, a teaspoon of green mango powder.
I may have added water and obviously salt to taste, some tomatoes in tins are thicker so would probably need a little water added to make this gravyish enough to mix with rice.

I'm sure it was the green mango powder, also known as amchoor, that made all the difference, so don't leave it out if at all possible.

Both girls loved it too, and there wasn't any left!

Upcoming meal plan

I'm currently feeding an extra person,  a dear friend who has a badly injured hand and so cannot easily cook for herself,  so I'm trying to make as many one-handed-eating meals as possible. Here's what I've come up with for this week:

Saturday: jacket potatoes with chilli com carne and salad.

Sunday: jerk chicken,  coconut rice,  fried plantain.

Monday: khichdi,  fried eggs and veg.

Tuesday: my parents wedding anniversary,  we will have take out together.

Wednesday: crumbled sausage meat with orzotto and veg.

Thursday: oven baked bacon and tomato risotto and salad.

Friday: pasta with tinned salmon and creme fraiche and beans.

Let's see how that goes.

By Special Request: Daal Parathas

I don't usually write up recipes I haven't recently made but my friend Monica is hosting the FussFreeFlavours Breakfast Club over at her amazing website and she dropped a hint really heavily that she would like me to submit a recipe I have mentioned in the past, but not made recently or blogged ever.  To be honest, I haven't blogged it because it is embarrassingly vague, and erm, basic, but it is true that many people wouldn't think to do it, so here goes...

Daal Parathas.

This is another food idea brought to me by my dear Sis In Law, Sonia, and I guess it would be best on a weekend, or perhaps if eating them cold then anyday.  They make a nice packed snack/breakfast/lunch too.

Imagine you made your preferred daal on Monday evening for supper, and you served it with rice.  But perhaps you ate all the rice, or you there is more daal left than would go with the leftover rice, so you put the left over rice in a tupperware (or "dubba" - a catchl-all word for box, tub, tupperware, container) with the portion of daal to go with it, and you have some daal left.
Or perhaps you want something different or more long-burning than rice and daal (rice always messes with my blood sugar these days), then this would be perfect for you too.

So, either as you clear up on Monday evening, or on Tuesday morning, or whatever morning you want this, or the evening before whatever morning you want this, you empty the left over daal into a large flattish bowl, and then you slowly add your chappatti flour (atta) to this.  Now, I really truly can't tell you how much atta you need, as daal varies in liquidity obviously, and I don't know what amount you have to start with!!!  With a medium thickness daal, like porridge, you'd probably need about double the volume of atta, but basically add small amounts and mix, until you get a soft, not stiff or dry, not sticky dough.  If you have made chappatti before, then that is basically the dough texture you want, allowing for the bits from the daal!

Now refrigerate for 10mins-half an hour if  you can.

When it has rested awhile, heat up your tawa or a good heavy frying pan, and break the dough into pieces about the size made when you make the OK sign with your index finger and thumb. Roll the pieces into flattish balls, and roll out one by one til about 2 mm thick, about a saucer size.  You can make them bigger if you prefer, but my kids get daunted by big looking food.  I find it easier to get a round shape if I flatten the ball on the rolling surface with my palm before rolling with a slight clockwise twisting motion.  I also use a this Indian "belan" rolling pin stick which kinda does the shaping as you roll.

I have a tiny kitchen, so I roll one while the previous one is cooking, but if you have space, roll them all out if you want.  I test the tawa is hot enough by dripping a drop of water onto it, if it fizzes and vanishes, the tawa is hot enough.  As this is a paratha, you will use some oil or ghee to fry these, but remember there will have been one or other in the daal in the first place.

I slap the rolled out paratha onto the tawa and then using a teaspoon of the oil or ghee, I "draw" a circle around the edge of the paratha and spread a little onto the centre of the upper side too.  After about a minute (longer if the paratha is thicker or larger) I lift an edge up and if I see black or brown spots, I flip it over, and repeat the oil/ghee circle ritual.  When the 2nd side is spotted too, I remove the paratha and put it in a chapatti "dubba" to keep warm.  Feel free to store the cooked ones between 2 plates if you don't have such a thing! Repeat until dough used up, or you have enough for your needs, and store dough for the next day.

There, it is honestly is that simple, serve with a dollop of yoghurt and some pickle or chutney, marmite, some salad, veggies, hot cup of tea or whatever takes your fancy!

Here are the links I'm supposed to link to, which inspired this post...

http://fussfreeflavours.com/breakfast-club/

http://smarterfitter.com/2012/06/04/breakfast-club/

I shall try and add a pic of this next time I make it, but if you try it, do post a pic on Twitter or FB or elsewhere and comment a link to it!