Curry Archives - Gimme The Recipe - You came for the food now stay for the romance!

I love food. That’s a given. This is one of the best things that I have ever cooked. What that means is that this is a really good dish. REALLY GOOD! Okay, you get it, I like this Chicken Biryani. Let me count the ways though : It is easy. It is relatively quick. It is a crowd pleaser. It will feed a crowd (yes, these are two different points). It cooks in one pot. It is delicious. I like it. 7. There are 7 reasons why this is a really good dish! And you don’t care, you just want the recipe so move along there Sheila and share…

Couple of notes, if you are finding your way with cooking and exploring new things you may yet have come to use cardamom. Don’t be put off by ingredients that may be unknown to you. You will find cardamom pods easily in the super market and you will bash the outer husks using a pestle and mortar or a rolling pin to release the inner seeds. Another note I like to share is about fresh ginger. Keep it in the freezer and grate what you need straight from frozen using a microplane grater, there is no need to peel ginger.

Chicken Biryani Recipe
Feeds 6 easily.
You will need :
250g frozen peas
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 onion chopped finely
spices :
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp Garam masala
2 tsp turmeric
8 cardomon pods seeded
Half teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin
Chicken breast 500g
2 tbsp tomatoes purée
2 cups quick cook rice = approx. 350g
Tin coconut milk
2 cup veg stock = approx. 250ml
Flaked almonds to toast
Fresh Coriander to serve
Method:
Place 250g frozen peas in jug of boiling hot water and set aside
Finely chop the onion, grate the ginger, crack open the cardamom pods to release the seeds
Melt 1 tbsp coconut oil in large pan over medium heat
Gently fry the onion for 5 mins.
Stir in the following spices :
2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp Garam masala
2 tsp turmeric
8 cardomon pods seeded
Half teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin
Cook spices couple minutes stirring through the onion.
Add chopped chicken 500g and 2 tbsp tomatoes purée, mix to coat chicken with spice
Add the drained peas stir through
Add 2 cups rice stir through
Pour in Can of coconut milk and the 2 cups veg stock
Raise the heat until just begging to bubble, stir well reduce the heat to medium and cover with lid for 10 mins
(Check every so often with wooden spoon that nothing is sticking to bottom of pan if it is give it a stir and turn down the heat a little.)
Toast the flaked almonds in a frying pan
Chop the fresh coriander
Once the Chicken Biryani has simmered for 10 minutes remove the lid and test to see if rice cooked, if not simmer a little longer covered and add more liquid if any danger of sticking.Turn the heat up for a few minutes more until just bubbling again.
Serve with the toasted almonds and fresh coriander.}
Enjoy! Sheila.

For a while there it was courgetti that the blogosphere was raving about but maybe all the spirulisers have gotten broken or something because the latest vegetable to attain the popularity badge is the head of cauliflower.

I’ve always thought it an appealing looking vegetable, a perfect plump white crown nestled in a bed of green leaves. Talk about versatile, about the only thing you can’t do is spirulize it. Boiled, roasted and even crumbled into a rice substitute or moulded into a ‘pizza’ base it is a vessel awaiting your direction.

Steer this vegetable in any way you chose, as a side or as a main contender, it will deliver. Have you come across Cauliflower Steaks yet? Google them if you haven’t! Great thick slices panfried and savoured in place of a juicy striploin – I think not! Yes,I’m a fan of cauliflower but I’m not fanatical, steak it isn’t.

It’s a vegetable and lets just treat it like that. In this vegetarian curry I like to keep both the sweet potato and cauliflower bitey so be wary of cutting the sweet potato too small, keep it in large chunks. This recipe is from my cookbook ‘Enjoy!’

Cauliflower and Sweet Potato curry
Serves 4
You will need:
5 cardamom pods
1 medium onion
1 tbsp rapeseed or coconut oil
Thumb-sized chunk of fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tsp mild chilli powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 large cauliflower (approx. 750g)
1 large sweet potato (approx. 500g)
200ml passata
500ml vegetable stock
250ml water
Boiled rice, to serve (optional)
Method:
Bash the cardamom pods – a pestle and mortar is good for this job – to release the seeds and discard the husks.
Finely chop the onion. Heat the oil in a large saucepan over a low heat and soften the onions for 5 minutes.
Grate the ginger and crush the garlic, then add to the softened onion and mix well. Turn the heat up to medium and add the cardamom seeds, garam masala, chilli powder and turmeric and cook for 1 minute.
Break the cauliflower into florets and cut the sweet potato into large bite-size chunks. Add these to the pan, mixing well to coat with the spices, then add the passata and mix well.
Pour in the vegetable stock and enough water to almost cover the vegetables.
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer with the lid almost covering the pan for 40 minutes, until the vegetables are tender. Serve as is or with rice.