Recipes for scrumptious and reasonably healthy food

[Marco]

Excellent. I'll ask my resident chef-esse to make it at the weekend

Marco.

[Neil McCauley]

Excellent. I'll ask my resident chef-esse to make it at the weekend Marco.

A damn fine fish curry:

This is not my recipe. I’m not a natural cook. My successes are only because I follow the recipe. I mention this so you don’t get the wrong idea.

Ingredients:

Feeds 4 ordinary people, or me + one other.

• A couple of tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 1 x Large onion + 4 big cloves of fresh unboiled garlic finely chopped
• 1 x Teaspoon of Freshly grated root ginger. (bottled instant ginger just does not work in this recipe)
• 1 x Teaspoon Ground Turmeric
• 1 x Teaspoon Chilli powder. (depends on the strength of the powder of course. Frankly half this amount of hot powder works fine)
• 2 x Teaspoon of Ground Coriander (I’m tempted from time to time to use 1 teaspoon of the powder + a fistful of crushed fresh Coriander. Not crucial but the latter adds a certain ‘bite’ that the powder doesn’t quite achieve).
• 1 x Teaspoon of Garam Masala. (sometimes I've doubled this with no adverse effects for anyone)
• 1 x Can of chopped tomatoes 13oz size
• 1 x Teaspoon sea salt if you can but ordinary will do fine
• 2 x Teaspoons of sugar. (Rather important this is. I've used brown sugar, demerara sugar or muscavado sugar all with subtle but worthwhile difference. The type is less important than quantity.)

Proceed #1

1. Fry onions in the oil until golden. Take care not to burn the edges ‘cos it really does damage the end result
2. Add all the spices in one go and keep stirring until you get a sort of muddy substance. At this point I find most of the time that I have to add oil to stop sticking or scorching. This addition has no adverse effect on the taste. Until I upgrade to an induction hob (brilliant technology; makes gas seem like stone-age technology) I’ll have to pay close attention to this part of the process.
3. Then add the salt, sugar and toms and stir over a medium heat for 10 mins.

Proceed #2a

• Now then, the original recipe assumes you have Indian King Fish to hand. About 16oz or so. This is white and much denser than our homegrown white fish. And candidly if you aren’t working on a tight budget then it is worth getting. If so, you add this fish, cubed around 3/4” and stir into the sauce. Cook until the fish is tender. This fish will keep its shape and texture

Proceed #2b

• Cod works fine as does Halibut. BUT you add the fish into the cooked sauce rather than cook it in the sauce, you are in fact warming it through in the sauce on the lowest possible heat setting. Otherwise it will fall apart. It will still be tasty – but won’t look particularly attractive.
• Oily fish such as Mackerel doesn’t work. Decent quality salmon works very well, I've substituted pre-boiled pawns for the fish with great success

Future experiments

• Not yet tried Monkfish tail meat. I’m less and less interested in red meat but I can’t see any reason why cubed lamb (but not mutton) wouldn’t work. I am thinking of doing an egg version using 6 or 8 free-range hard-boiled eggs.

Final note:

If using King Fish (or very similar) this dish freezes and defrosts very well and the flavours are enhanced whereas using UK fish though doesn’t work. Defrosting breaks cod or halibut apart.

[Tim]

Nice one... yum. I have a great Thai Red Curry recipe which I may post if there has not been one before. I think I will give this ago too Howard - thanks

[Rich Conroy]

Baked-chicken-curry
By Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from River Cottage
Serves 6

Ingredients

2 heaped tsp cumin seeds
2 heaped tsp coriander seeds
1 heaped tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground fenugreek
1 large onion, roughly chopped
3 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
1 large green chilli, roughly chopped
1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
3-4 tbsp sunflower or groundnut oil
1 chicken, jointed into 6 pieces, or 6 skin-on, bone-in chicken pieces weighing about 1.5kg in total
400g tin of tomatoes
400ml tin of coconut milk
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD
How to make baked chicken curry

1. If you've got the time, toast the cumin, coriander and fennel seeds in a dry frying pan for a minute or two, until fragrant. Grind the whole spices (toasted or otherwise) to a rough powder in a spice grinder or with a pestle and mortar, then mix with the turmeric and fenugreek.

2. Put the onion, garlic, chilli and ginger in a food processor or blender. Blitz to a coarse paste, stopping to scrape down the sides a few times.

3. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over a medium/high heat. Add half the chicken pieces, season well and brown them all over, making sure you get the skin a good colour. Transfer them to a large roasting dish, skin-side up. Repeat with the remaining chicken pieces.

4. Reduce the heat under the frying pan, add the spice mix and fry for a minute or two, then add the onion paste. Fry, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes, until the paste is soft, fragrant and reduced in volume. Add a little more oil if it seems to be sticking.

5. Tip the tomatoes and coconut milk into the food processor (no need to wash it out first) and blitz to combine. Pour into the frying pan and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Add 1 teaspoon of salt and a grinding of pepper, then pour the sauce over the chicken pieces. Make sure they are all coated in the sauce, then push most of the sauce off the top of the chicken - if there's too much sauce sitting on them, the skin won't brown in the oven.

6. Place in an oven preheated to 180°C/Gas Mark 4. Bake, uncovered, for 1 hour or until the chicken is cooked through and nicely browned on top, turning and basting it a couple of times. Serve with lots of basmati rice to soak up the sauce.

This is EXCELLENT. It tastes soooooo fresh.

RC

[Marco]

Cheers, Rich - nice one. Hope you are keeping well

Marco.

[goraman]

Tonight I put the 22qt. stock pot to work, 5.5 U.S. gallons of French Lentil Soup.
4 lg. white onions, 4 shallots, 12 carrots,a stalk of celery,bulb of garlic,4 32oz.cans of diced tomatoes in juice a little extra virgin olive oil, a dash of balsamic vinegar,and 6 32oz. cans of vegetable broth, some fresh cut basil,crushed black pepper and kosher salt.
1st. Dice the onions,celery,carrots,celery,shallots,and garlic then cover the bottom with just a little olive oil and saute everything you just diced. Add the tomatoes then the broth and a little water.
after it comes to a boil add a little balsamic vinegar and basil.
Let it boil for 2 hours then add black pepper and Kosher salt to taste.

to give you an idea of scale that is a 5 qt. dutch oven with rice next to the huge 22 qt. soup pot.

The last 2 pictures is rice pudding for just over 2000,thought you might like to see a really big pot.
I really don't do well at cooking for 1 or 2 but 12 or more and it's all good.Even when I lived alone I cooked big and froze the rest for other meals.

[Alex_UK]

That recipe sounds good Rich.

[Alex_UK]

That's not a pot Jeff, it's a Hot Tub!

[Rich Conroy]

Alex UK;
Try it. You'll never eat in an Indian restaurant again. It takes a few minutes to toast the spices, grind them, do all the chopping, blending etc. but it's worth it.
I used to use Patak's sauce (not the paste), but not any more.

RC

[Covenant]

I think I will try the baked chicken curry Rich. It's not too hot is it as I will get moaned at by the wife and daughter!