Chicken Korma

We were given this recipe at our last Indian cooking class, but didn't get a chance to try it out - I'll give it a go soon, and report back what I thought of it!

Ingredients:

300g chicken breast, cut into 1" pieces

2 medium onions

2-3 Tbsp oil

1 tsp salt (or to taste)

¼ cup fresh cream

½ cup yoghurt

½ cup coconut milk

1 tsp ginger paste

1 tsp garlic paste

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp white pepper

½ tsp turmeric powder

Paste:

2 tsp poppy seeds

handful cashew nuts (approx 25 nuts)

2-3 green cardamom seeds

2 red dry chillis (optional)

Method:

1. Wash chicken pieces and keep them aside in a drainer.

2. Roast poppy seeds and cashew nuts, allow them to cool.  

3. Combine poppy seeds, cashew nuts, deseeded red chillis and cardamom seeds and grind them in a dry grinder.  Mix this with ¼ cup warm water to make a paste, and keep aside.

4. Grind onions in a food processor, or finely grate them.

5. Heat oil in a pan.  Add onion and cook until they are translucent or light pink (do not allow them to brown).  Add ginger and garlic, and stir for 15 seconds.

6. Add chicken pieces, salt, pepper, coriander powder, cumin powder and turmeric powder, and cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes or until it is cooked (make sure not to colour the chicken).

7. Add beaten yoghurt, stir for 30 seconds and then add the paste (made earlier) and coconut milk.  Add ½-1 cup water as required, and simmer for another 5-10 minutes until the chicken is tender.

8. Finish with fresh cream, simmer for another 20 seconds to mix it thoroughly and remove from heat.

Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot with naan, chapati or rice.

Methi Aloo - Fenugreek Potatoes

The final dish from our final Indian cooking class - reading this recipe sounds a lot like this will be similar to boiled minted potatoes. I'll let you know, once I've made it!

Ingredients:
4 medium sized potatoes
4 Tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp salt
3 Tbsp kasoori methi (fenugreek leaves)

Method:
1. Peel potatoes and boil.  Cut into pieces (about 8 pieces from one medium sized potato)
2. Crush methi leaves with fingertips.
3. Heat oil in a pan, add coriander powder.  When it is golden brown, remove from heat and add methi leaves.
4. Add potatoes, salt and chilli powder, and mix slowly, taking care not to break the potatoes.  Simmer for 5 minutes on very low heat.

Serve hot with tandoori chicken.

Chikki (Peanut Candy)

Another dish from our final Indian cooking class - a candy that seems to be very similar to peanut brittle to me.

Ingredients:
1½ cups roasted peanuts
1 cup sugar
½ tsp cardamom powder
1 tsp oil
2 sheets greaseproof paper

Method:
1. Grease a non-stick pan and the wooden spatula with oil.
2. Place one greaseproof paper sheet on the board and grease it lightly, where you are going to put the mixture later on.  Grease lightly in the other sheet too.
3. Coarsely crush the roasted peanuts.
4. Melt sugar in the prepared non-stick pan until it is in liquid form and has turned light brown in colour.
5. Add crushed peanuts and cardamom powder into the melted sugar.
6. Mix thoroughly but quickly and put this mixture onto the prepared board.
7. Place the other prepared sheet of greased paper facing down on the mixture and roll it out with a rolling pin to spread it evenly.
8. Cut it with a greased knife into 4-5cm squares.
9. Allow it to cool and break into pieces.

Store in an airtight container.

Butter Chicken (Murgh Makhani)

From the last week of our Indian cooking class - a favourite curry!

Ingredients:


Marinade:
500g chicken breast
2 tsp garlic paste
2 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp salt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
½tsp chilli powder
¼ cup plain yoghurt
4-6 Tbsp fresh cream - or 1 Tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp cumin powder
2 Tbsp tandoori paste (I got this premade from my local Indian spice shop)

Gravy:
30g butter
300g tomato puree
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp chilli powder
3-4 tsp honey
200mL fresh cream
1 tsp crushed ginger
3 Tbsp roasted cashew pieces (optional)
1 Tbsp cashew powder

Method:

Marinade:
1. Remove skin from chicken, wash and make cuts over the pieces.  Dry chicken with a paper towel so that all the water is drained off.
2. Mix lemon juice and salt and rub over the pieces and into the cuts and leave for 15 minutes.
3. Mix yoghurt, fresh cream/oil, ginger, garlic, tandoori paste, and all dry ingredients in a big bowl to make a paste.  Now rub it over all the pieces thoroughly.
4. Leave it in the fridge overnight (or for least least 5 hours) before cooking.
5. Preheat the oven and place the chicken in a single layer in a greased shallow baking pan.
6. Brush the chicken with melted butter or oil and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes on 220°C.
7. Turn pieces over, brush with butter or oil and let it bake until cooked through.  The water in the chicken should be absolutely dry.
8. Cut the roasted fillets into cubes.

Gravy:
1. Heat the butter.  Remove from heat and add ginger, chilli powder, salt and honey.
2. Add tomato puree and melon juice and cook for 3-4 minutes.
3. Add cream and cook for a further 2 minutes.
4. Add roasted chicken pieces and cashed powder to sauce.
5. Simmer on low heat for about 10 minutes, keep stirring every 4-5 minutes as cashew powder tends to settle at the bottom.
6. Finally, add cashew pieces and garnish with fresh coriander leaves.

Serve hot with naan bread or plain rice.

Plain Naan

This is a recipe from our last week at our Indian cooking class - DH and I love naan with Butter Chicken (one of the other recipes this week), so are looking forward to trying this one out.

Ingredients:
2 cups plain flour
1 tsp sugar
3 Tbsp cooking oil
1 tsp dry yeast
¼ cup milk and water mixed together (I did half of each)

Mixture to put on top of naan:
20g clarified butter, melted
1 tsp sesame seeds
½ tsp nigella (kalongi) - optional
1 Tbsp plain yoghurt (optional)

Method:
1. Warm milk and water in the microwave for 20 seconds, add yeast and sugar.  Mix and leave in a warm place for about 10-15 minutes or until the yeast is frothy.
2. Sieve flour in a bowl and make a depression in the centre of the flour and add oil.  Now mix the oil into the flour with your fingertips.
3. Pour the frothy mixture into the flour and start mixing to make a dough.  Add more warm water if required.
4. Knead the dough well, apply a little oil on the dough and cover the bowl with gladwrap.  Leave in a warm place for 3-4 hours to rise.
5. Divide the dough into 4 medium sized balls and leave them for 15 minutes, covered with a damp cloth.
6. Prepare the mixture for pasting over naans with melted ghee (clarified butter), nigella and sesame seeds.  Roll each ball into an oval shape with some dry flour.  Cook one side on a heavy base pan and apply the prepared mixture to the uncooked side.  Cook the other side in a preheated grill on high and serve hot.

Serving suggestions:
Naan can be served with meat curry, mince ball curry, or butter chicken.

Easy Lunchtime Soup

I had some leftover lentils in my pantry, and no idea what to do with them, so made up a soup - it turned out OK, so here's the base recipe, and changes can be made from there!

Ingredients:
1 cup red lentils
1 packet tomato soup (I had a dried packet)
2 cups water
1 carrot, grated
1 onion, diced
oil to cook onion

Method:
1. Put water, soup mix and lentils in a saucepan, and bring to the boil.  Once boiling, reduce heat and simmer.
2. Fry onions until golden brown, then add onions and carrots to soup.
3. Continue to simmer until lentils are tender and carrot is cooked.

Next time, I might try adding some more grated vegetables and experiment with different flavoured soup packets - adding some bacon pieces would be rather nice too, I think.  Fry it up with the onions, then pop it in the soup.

Besan Ka Pura

The third dish for our Week 5 Indian cooking class. At the top of our recipe, our tutor wrote:

Besan ka pura or as popularly known as besan chilla is an easy protein rich pancake recipe made from a chana flour based batter.  The delicious besan ka pura can be relished with green chutney.

This is a lovely savoury pancake, which is great for a lunchtime meal - you can add pretty much anything to it. Next time, I think I'll try adding some bacon pieces, and will fry the onion up in advance (rather than putting it in raw). I also left the chilli out, so mine was a fairly 'tame' pancake, suitable for the kids to eat.

Ingredients:
1 cup chana flour (Bengal gram flour)
1 green chilli, finely chopped
little coriander (dhania) leaves
salt to taste
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 egg
1 slice of bread
oil to cook
little water

Method:
1. Wet the slice of bread with water and crumble it.
2. In a bowl, mix chana flour, salt, chilli, coriander, onion, tomato, bread and egg with a little water (spreading consistency)
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan and put one teaspoon of oil on it to grease the pan.
4. Put one serving spoon of batter on it and spread it like a pancake.
5. Lift it carefully after 40 seconds to check if it has been cooked to a golden brown colour, then flip it over to cook the other side and pour 1 teaspoon (or as required) oil all around it.  When both sides are evenly cooked, remove it from the pan.

Serve with coriander chutney or tomato ketchup.

Variation:
To make it more nutritive, add finely grated carrots and green peas to the batter.

Seekh Kebabs

The next dish for our Week 5 Indian cooking class. At the top of our recipe, our tutor wrote:

Kebabs are an important class of meat preparation.  They are prepared from minced meat.  Cooking it for too long, however, makes it tough.

Ingredients: 
500g minced lamb or beef
2 Tbsp crushed ginger (I used garlic instead of ginger)
2 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp chilli powder (optional)
4 tsp coriander powder
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
2 tsp garam masala
2 Tbsp coriander or parsley, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped (optional)
1 egg
1 tsp oil (to grease the tray and hands)
10-12 wooden or steel skewers
a pinch of red/orange food colouring (optional) - this is a powdered colouring, and it makes the kebabs a nice reddy colour, instead of that murky brown/grey look that cooked mince has!
Tin foil (for cooking with)

Method:
1. Mix all the ingredients with the mince in a mixing bowl.  Add the chopped coriander/parsley and chilli to mince.  Grease the oven grid and keep aside.  Mix well and divide into equal parts and roll them with greased palm and fingers on wet skewers.  Place the skewers in the greased grid.
2. Fill the oven tray with hot water and keep the grid on top.  Place the skewers on the grid and cover it with aluminium foil.  Roast them in the oven for about 8 minutes on 200ºC, and then turn them over and roast for another 7 minutes or until cooked.

Serve hot with freshly cut salad of lettuce, onions, tomatoes and celery.  Kebabs can also be served with onions and cumin seed rice.

Bhajia

This is a recipe for Week 5 of our Indian cooking class - these bhajia are best cooked and eaten straight away.  I kept mine until the next day, but they had lost their crispiness by then (but were still yummy!)

Ingredients:
1 onion
1 or 2 big leaves silver beet
15 Tbsp channa flour (keep some extra flour handy in case you need to add more)
1 green chilli (optional)
½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp salt (or to taste)
4-5 Tbsp water (or more as required)
1-2 cups oil for frying

Method:
1. Slice onion lengthwise thin and fine - the thinner you slice them, the crispier the bhajia will become.
2. Wash spinach and take the leaves off the stalk and chop coarse (no stalk) into long strips (roll up and cut thin, basically)
3. Chop the green chilli very finely.
4. Put the onion, spinach, chilli, and all dry spices in a mixing bowl.
5. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.
6. Gradually add the sifted flour into the onion mixture, rubbing it in with your fingers until firm and sticky, add water as required (because onions and spinach tend to leave their own water) and mix well.
7. Heat plenty of oil in a deep pan, but do not let it get too hot.
8. With your fingers, put small dollops (no bigger than 2.5cm/1") of the mixture into the oil to fry - just a few at a time.
9. Fry them slowly until crisp and golden on the outside, and cooked through in the centre - about 3-4 minutes.  If the oil is too hot, they will be raw and gooey inside.
10. Drain in a sieve placed over a bowl and then serve hot with tomato ketchup or mint chutney.

Caramel Crusted Rhubarb Pudding

This is yet another recipe from the Low Cost cooking class - it's absolutely delicious, and could easily be made with any other fruit you happen to have - adding some apples to the rhubarb, or making it with apples and berries would be nice, I think.

Ingredients:
4 cups diced rhubarb

Crust
¾ cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ cup rolled oats
¾ cup sugar
100g melted butter

Topping
¾ cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornflour

¼ cup boiling water

Method:
Place rhubarb in ovenproof dish.  Sprinkle crust mixture over rhubarb.  Spoon topping mixture over and pour boiling water over top.  Do not stir.  Bake at 180ºC for 30 minutes until crusty and caramelised.

Spinach, Feta and Caramalised Onion Tarts

These are absolutely divine, and perfect as fingerfood at a party.

Ingredients:

Caramelised Onions
2 onions, sliced
3 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp oil
2 Tbsp malt vinegar
2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

Tart:
1 block savoury shortcrust pastry
200g crumbled feta
4 eggs
bunch spinach/silverbeet
1 cup milk

Method:
To make the caramalised onions - saute onions in oil until soft, add sugar and vinegars.  Bring to the boil then simmer for 20 minutes until caramalised.
To make the tarts - roll out pastry and cut into circles to fit small/large muffin trays.  Mix spinach, feta and onions together, and put spoonfuls into cases.  Mix egg and milk together and pour into cases.  Bake at 180ºC for 12 minutes.

Beetroot Dip

Those that like beetroot will enjoy trying this one over summer - this recipe was given to me at the Low Cost cooking class I went to.

Ingredients:
1 large beetroot
¼ red onion
2 regular sized lemons
½ tsp dried oregano
2 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp sea salt
pinch cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp olive oil

Method:
Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth.  That simple!

Busy People's Bread

This recipe comes from a Low Cost Cooking evening that I went to with a couple of friends a few months ago. The course was run by local Bronwyn Dunlop who doesn't claim to be a Masterchef, but does know how to stretch her money.

This recipe is a simple one mix dough that you don't have to let rise because it rises in the oven during the first stage of low temperature cooking.

Ingredients
2 cups boiling water
4 tsp honey
2 cups cold water
7 tsp dry yeast granules
2¾ cups high-grade white flour
2¾ cups wholemeal flour
3 tsp salt
2 cups sunflower seeds
4 Tbsp pumpkin seeds

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 80ºC (yep, really low)
2. In a large bowl, mix the boiling water with the honey to dissolve.  Add the cold water and yeast and put aside for 10 minutes.
3. Whisk the yeast mixture then add flours, salt and sunflower seeds, and mix with a large spoon until evenly combined.  The mixture will be a very loose wet batter.
4. Divide the mixture between two loaf tins, spread evenly and flatten the top.  Sprinkle the pumpkin seeds over the top of the loaves, and then run a sharp knife through the top of each loaf in at least 3 or 4 places so that it rises evenly without splitting.
5. Bake for 20 minutes at 80ºC - put the timer on because you don't want it to be any longer than this.  After 20 minutes, turn the oven up to 210ºC and bake for a further 30-40 minutes.  When cooked, the loaves will sound hollow when tapped.  Turn out of the tins while hot and leave to cool.

This bread stays fresh for several days and toasts well.  It can be made in larger flatter containers - adjust the cooking time accordingly.