Turkey Rogan Josh...

...or The Best Curry I've ever made.

Please excuse the superlative title of this post. But it was really rather good.

I was aiming for a Rogan Josh style curry, and wanted a slow cook to maximise meat tenderness and flavour. The result was perfectly tender turkey chunks (yes not your obvious curry meat, but cheap and very tasty so give it a try) in a rich, silky, tomato-based sauce. The effort required was minimal. All round the ideal meal really.

Being a curry the list of ingredients is as long as your arm, but it's mostly spices and I reckon you can just give it a bash with whatever you've got in.

Ingredients:
• 600g diced Turkey Thigh
• 2 tbsp Plain Flour
• 1 Onion
• 2 tsp Ghee (or Oil)
• 3 tsp minced Ginger & Garlic paste
• 1 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
• 1 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp ground Turmeric
• 4 tsp Curry Powder
• ½ tsp Chilli Powder
• 1 x 400g tin Chopped Tomatoes
• 250ml Passata
• 250ml Beef stock

Method:
• Pre-heat your oven to 140-150°C.


The bit with all the flavour (10 mins)
• Heat the ghee in a large pan.
• Add the onion (chop half finely, the other half into thin slices/chunks) and begin to sweat over a medium to low heat.
• Add the ginger/garlic paste and the seeds to the pan and continue to cook on medium.
• When the onions have sweated down nicely, add the powedered spices and cook for anothe rminute or two until you have a pan full of flavourful paste/onions.
• Transfer to a casserole dish.

The meat (5 mins)
• Turn the pan up and if it's looking dry add a little oil.
• Coat your meat in the flour and add to the pan to sear/brown the outsides (may need two batches, dont crowd the pan).
• Transfer to the casserole and stir into the pastey mix.

The sauce (1 min)
• Make up the stock (I used half a stock cube)
• Pour the tomatoes and passata over the meat with the stock and stir together. (it should just about cover the meat)

Cooking (2-3 hours)
• Cover the dish tightly with foil and/or a lid if it has one.
• Place in the oven and wait.
• Check around 2 hours, if you're in, that it hasn't completely reduced or dried out (not likely, but add some liquid if so).
• After about 3 hours reomve from the oven and serve as traditional with rice and naan, and anything else you usually have with your curries (I made a quick chickpea dhal to go with this one)

(Serves 2 heartily, or 3 with plenty of sides)

Notes:
• You can add some veg to the dish too if you like, I've done it with red pepper chopped up and thrown in.
• Curries don't photograph well!

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Bacon Gratin Pie...

Sometimes you need to branch out at dinner time and try something different. In this case, dream up something different. It was far from perfect and needs some development to make it really work but a general success and pretty tasty. Anyway, it's something you can work with as an idea. It's just a puff pastry sheet with a tasty filling topped with sliced potato and cheese. In this one I fried up onions, garlic, leeks and smoked bacon to make a filling, topped it with sliced boiled potatoes and cheese and carefully poured over a little beaten egg and milk mixture then baked it for about 30 minutes at 200°C.

The result is something of a cross between a pie, a gratin and a fritata. A welcome break from the norm.

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Coriander Fish Fingers...

A few weeks ago we had a big 5-course family meal (for 11) where each of us contributed one course to the evening. We chose the fish course. Then begun the challenge of finding something to make. We wanted something simple, tasty and light enough to leave room for the other courses. We ended up with a bit of a cross between something we'd seen on Jamie's Fish Suppers and a recipe in Nigel Slater's The 30-Minute Cook ('An Indian way with a fish fillet'). The result was very tasty and simple to put together. I'm sure we'll have them again some time.

Ingredients:
750g White Fish
Large Handful Coriander
2 Garlic Cloves
1 inch Green Chilli
Olive Oil
Lemon Juice
5 tbsp Yoghurt
4 slices Breadcrumbs

Method:
• Cut sweet potatoes into wedges, place in a roasting dish with a little oil and dust with paprika and cumin (or whatever takes your fancy). Place in the oven at 200°C to cook whilst you prepare the fish fingers.
• Blitz the coriander, garlic, and chilli with two tablespoons of olive oil and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
• Prepare the fish (scale, bone etc.) and cut into inch-thick fingers accross the fillet.
• Dip each fillet in yoghurt, then cover in about a teaspoon on coriander paste and finally roll in breadcrumbs.
• Fry the fish fingers gently for about 4 minutes each side until firm and golden brown.
• Serve with the chips and some mayonnaise mixed with lemon juice and capers.

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Gratin Dauphinoise...

You don't need to say much regarding this dish, it's simplicity and flavour speak for themselves. Thinly sliced potato, baked in cream with onions and garlic... it's probably my favourite way for potatoes.

• Finely slice the onion and crush the garlic.
• Slowly sweat down in a pan with a little butter/oil. Do not burn.
• Meanwhile, finely slice the potatoes and begin to arrange in a dish.
• Every so often add some of the onion/garlic mixture and seasoning before continuing to layer potatoes.
• Thin the creme fraiche with some milk to a consistency like double cream and combine with the double cream.
• Pour the creams over the potatoes and cover with foil.
• Bake in a preheated oven (170°C) for around 2 hours.
• The last 20 minutes should be uncovered to crisp the top up.

Notes:
• You can top with grated cheese (Gruyere/Cheddar) for a lovely cheesy top (see picture).
• My recipe roughly follows that of Leith's Cookery Bible.

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Meatballs & Spaghetti...

I’ve been making this for a while now. I can’t quite remember where the idea came from at first, I think I was just looking for something new to do with minced beef.
Anyway, this is what came about. It’s a bit time consuming, but all that time simmering leads to fantastic flavour. I couldn’t believe I’d been living without these in my repertoire for so long.

• Mix the beef, bread (make into breadcrumbs first), herbs, salt & pepper together in a bowl until well combined.
• Fry each one gently to brown the outside.
• Meanwhile, finely chop the onion and garlic, place in a large saucepan and sweat over a low heat in a little oil. Set aside.
• When the onion has softened, add the chopped tomatoes to the pan, bring to the boil, season with fresh herbs, salt and pepper then simmer to reduce the liquid slightly.
• When the mixture has thickened, place the meatballs in the mixture, cover and continue to simmer for 20-30 minutes depending on the size of the meatballs.
• Serve hot spooned over spaghetti with a sprinkling of cheese.

Notes:
• Don’t be tempted to over mix the meat or use a food processor. Smooth textured meatballs are not pleasant.
• You can also add an egg to the meatball mixture, I didn't on this occasion but it can help it bind together.
• This forms the basic recipe, nothing stopping you experimenting with other additions… chilli, pepper, mushrooms etc.
• You can simplify the process by not frying the meatballs first, they’ll still cook through, just without a smoother, paler outside.

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Roasted lamb Chops with Mint & Potatoes...

This is one of those incredibly simple throw it all in one tray kind of dinners. I kept the flavours fairly simple in this instance and seasoned the meat well.

Prepare the meat a little in advance...
• Place the chops in a bag/bowl with a couple of crushed garlic cloves, chopped mint, salt, pepper and a dash of olive oil.
• Shake it up a little and leave for at least an hour

Later...
• Heat the oven to 200-220°C.
• Chop the potatoes and an onion into roughly inch-sized chunks, coat in oil in a roasting tin and pop in the oven for about 10 minutes.
• Meanwhile, brown the lamb chops on both sides in a little oil in a frying pan.
• Add to the roasting dish, arranging the potates and onions around the chops. Include any juices/seasoning and the garlic from the bag.
• Roast for around 20 minutes or until the lamb is crisping up on the edges.
• Serve with fresh vegetables.

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Cabbage Soup...

We rarely buy soup, it seems there’s always some vegetables that have passed their best to create one from for a tasty Saturday lunch. I came up with this purely to use up a very limp cabbage and was pleasantly surprised at its tastiness! I also threw in the green top of a leek which was lying around, and attribute this to lifting the cabbage’s flavour.

Like most soup, there’s not really a definitive way of making it, it’s a bit of an art and you style it to your own tastes/preferences. What is essential is that you serve it with some crusty fresh bread’n’butter.

Ingredients:
Half a Savoy cabbage
Green end of a leek
1 clove of garlic
1 onion
Veg stock cube
Salt & pepper

• Slice the onion and garlic then sweat in butter/olive oil until softened, not browned, in a large saucepan.
• Add chopped leek and cabbage and briefly fry for a couple of minutes.
• Dissolve a stock cube in about 1-1½ litres of water and add to pan.
• Bring to the boil and leave to simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Not too long though, or the cabbage will not be tasty; the liquid should have slightly reduced.
• Lightly blitz with hand blender to break up cabbage, but leave plenty of chunky bits for the bottom of the bowl.
• Season to taste before serving.

Notes:
• Makes 2-3 portions. Just increase quantities for a larger amount.

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Pearl Barley with Roasted Vegetables...

This is really simple and very tasty, I'm sure there are loads of possibilities of what you could add to this. I just approached it as you would cous cous to make a warm salad or accompaniment to meat and was pretty pleased with the results.

• Wash the barley and boil for 30-40 minutes.
• Meanwhile, chop and roast slices of the pepper, courgette and onion until soft and slightly charred. Finely chop once roasted.
• Drain the barley and mix with the copped vegetable, finely chopped chilli, garlic then season.

Notes:
• Great with barbecued meats, along with some green salad.

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Simple Salsa...

This is so simple to make, but perfect with a BBQ or Nachos.
The key to success is the freshest, ripest ingredients you can get.

• Chop the tomatoes, onion, garlic and coriander. Depends how coarse you want your salsa, but I usually chop as fine as possible. You could always use a hand blender if you want a smoother texture.
• Add a small splash of olive oil and season to taste.
• Ideally rest for an hour before serving to allow the flavours to mingle.

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