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!

Read more

Tomato, Olive & Feta Salad...

This is incredibly simple to put together, but makes a lovely side salad with meats, especially BBQ but great with a buffet too. The basics come together tastily enough, but you can also add basil, finely chopped onion, chopped pepper etc, also leave out the olives if you don't like them.

Ingredients:
These are the rough proportions...
• 500g small/cherry tomatoes
• 100g feta
• 100g olives

if you want to add them...
• about 1 tablespoon of finely chopped onion
• half a red pepper, finely chopped

Chop all the ingredients, crumble the feta into rough cubes, place in a large bowl and mix together gently with a litle olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt & pepper.
(quantities above will serve 4-6 as a side portion)

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more