Recipe Mama

Roti

obsidian — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:53:55 +0000

This is a pan cooked flat bread that goes nicely with curry. I got the basic guide from watching this YouTube video, which I suggest you watch!

This recipe makes 8 roti.

Mix together 1 cup plain white flour, half a cup of water, about 2 tsp oil, a pinch of salt and if you like a pinch of turmeric, a pinch of cumin and a pinch of corriander. Mix this together and knead it until it’s smooth (I use a spatula, so I can sort of knead it in the bowl without getting my hands sticky). Set aside for a few minutes, then turn out onto a floured surface and cut it into 8 sections.

Roll each section into a ball, coat well with flour and roll out until thin. It should make a sort of side-plate size rough circle. Put that into a dry frypan, and heat until you can see brown spots forming on the under side. Flip the roti over and cook that side until brown spots form. I then flip over and redo each side again for a minute or less, – sometimes they puff a bit, sometimes not. Flip onto a plate and give a light brush with melted butter (I add some garlic to my melted butter). Then cook the next roti and put it on the one you just made. You can butter both sides or just one if you prefer.

It’ll probably take about 15 mins to make all 8 (If I start when I put my rice cooker on for the rice, I finish when the rice does – which is 15 mins), so the bottom one will have cooled by the time you’re done, but if you time it right, you can enjoy the top ones with your curry while they are still warm (or you could put them in the oven on a lot temp to keep warm while you serve)

Easy Slow Cooker Curry

obsidian — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:42:21 +0000

I cheat with this and use a sachet of curry sauce. Actually, I use two, and fill my slow cooker, which does us several meals (it freezes well).

I start off by putting 2 sachets worth of Passage to India Korma curry in the slow cooker and turn it on to high to start warming.

Then I chop up half a butternut pumpkin into bite size pieces (maybe about 2-3 cups worth of chopped pumpkin), and a sweet potato, and adding that and 500g diced beef to a frying pan, and cook that (no oil) until the meat has browned. You could of course leave out the meat for a vegetarian meal.

Put the cooked stuff into the slow cooker, with a chopped zucchini, 2 chopped carrots, a tin of drained (and rinsed) chickpeas and a tin of drained (and rinsed) lentils. You can add other veg if you like. Don’t add any extra liquid, as the slow cooking will add moisture.

Leave that cooking for several hours until the pumpkin is soft. I like to mix a can of coconut milk through once it’s cooked. Serve on rice, with some roti

Purple Carrot Cakes

obsidian — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:12:33 +0000

There are such things as purple carrots! Not easy to find in supermarkets, but if you manage to find some, they release their colour wonderfully in foods. These cupcakes were made from a normal buttercake recipe, with a grated purple carrot added – and they turned a lovely blue colour (why blue, rather than purple, I’m not sure)

Shepherd’s Pie “Cupcakes”

obsidian — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 09:02:45 +0000

Make these cute little savoury cupcakes! Just line a muffin cup with pastry, fill with your pie filling stuff, and top it with very well mashed potato, piped on with a large piping tip. Sprinkle some dried herbs, or poppy seeds on top as “sprinkles”

You can put a few drops of food colouring in the mashed potato to colour it if you like. I’ve added some purple carrot to the potato to make purple ones

Sneaky Vege Lasagne

obsidian — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 08:51:51 +0000

Ingredients:
Milk
Flour
500g mince
1 tin lentils, drained, rinsed
1 small onion, finely chopped
Finely sliced mushroom
1 zucchini, grated
2 carrots, grated
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tins crushed tomatoes
Parmesan cheese
Pasta Sheets (Home made or bought)
grated tasty cheese
herbs (Fresh if possible – eg basil, oregano, chives, parsley)
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 heaped tablespoon cornflour
1 heaped tablespoon gravy powder
Lasagne sheets

Method:
1). Brown the mince and onion, then add the garlic and mushroom. When the garlic has cooked, pour in the tomato, herbs, spices, carrot, lentils and zucchini and allow to simmer for about 15 mins. Mix together the cornflour and gravy powder with about half a cup of water, and pour this into the mince mixture, and stir until it thickens.
2). In another saucepan, add the milk – or use a few tablespoons of milk powder with water (I don’t know how much, maybe 4-5 cups?) to about 1/2c flour and stir well to make a white sauce. Bring to the boil to thicken. If it’s not thick enough, add more flour (mixed with a little water, then pour that in), or if it’s too thick, add more milk or water. Add a sprinkle of nutmeg, Salt and pepper, and Parmesan cheese to taste (About 3 tablespoons of powdered/dried stuff). When thickened, leave to cool slightly.
3). Get your lasagne dish (Any flat casserole dish or baking pan will do), and make a layer of meat sauce, then a layer of white sauce, then place your pasta sheets on top to form another layer. Repeat until you run out of ingredients, or your pan is full.
4). Make sure the final layer is a white sauce one. Cover with aluminium foil.
5). Place this into a hot oven to bake for about 45 mins. Remove the foil and scatter grated cheese on top, then return to the oven for about 5 mins to let the cheese melt (I normally turn the oven off and let the residual heat do it)

I like to put a baking tray under my Lasagne dish, to catch anything that overflows … the tray catches this and is easier to clean than the oven.

Banana & Choc Chip Muffins

obsidian — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:42:43 +0000

Ingredients:
2 bananas (past their prime)
1/2 cup raw sugar
dash of vanilla essence
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk (or coconut milk)
2 cups SR flour
Handful choc chips

Method:
1). Mash the bananas into the bowl, then stir in all the other ingredients. For these I used half a block of cooking chocolate cut into fine bits, as that’s what I had on hand. Spoon into muffin tins (or make in a loaf pan), and bake at 180ºC for about 15 mins, or until a skewer comes out clean.

yes, no butter in this recipe, the banana replaces it! You could use coconut/soy/almond milk in place of regular milk for a dairy-free alternative

“Under the sea” bento

obsidian — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:25:46 +0000

This is a cute little kids school lunch I made today.

I started out by taking a spoonful of cream cheese in 2 separate containers, added a bit of food colouring, and spread it onto a halved slice of bread. This forms the background. The fish with pink scales was made with a boiled egg, placed into an egg mould and allowed to cool. Then painted with pink (natural) food colouring. The eye is a dot of cream cheese leftover from the background, with black sesame seeds as eyelashes.

Baby fish cut from carrot (by hand, a fish cutter would be handy)… “seaweed” is a cheese stick “stringer” cut in half and peeled open. The starfish is a piece of bread spread with apricot jam and orange sprinkles.

The “octodogs” were something new I tried today, they get their name from hotdog octopus… and these are a skinless cocktail frank. What you do is cut the bottom portion in half lengthways, then turn it on it’s side and cut again, so now there are 4 “legs”, then carefully cut between those (I did single layer, not all the way through, so I could make sure it was even) to make 8 legs. Then simply put them in a pot of water, bring to the boil and watch their legs fan out Allow them to cool before putting in the lunchbox.

They curl more the longer they are in the water, this shows the difference in just the time it takes to cut each one (the most flared went in first, the least flared was in shortest time)

Personally they don’t seem very appealing cold in a bento, but apparently kids love them… They are a bit cute, I admit, so I think I might make some hot ones one day just for fun… maybe poke a piece of wild rice into where the eye should be?

Homemade cordials

obsidian — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 23:27:55 +0000

Lemon Cordial/Lemonaid (left)

Mix 1 cup water with 1/2 cup sugar in a saucepan. Heat until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool, then mix this sugar syrup with 1 cup lemon juice. This can be kept in the fridge and used as a cordial concentrate, or add 1 litre of water (or soda water) to make it up all at once.

Lemon, Lime & Ginger Cordial (right)

Grate about 3cm worth of ginger into a bowl (you don’t need to peel it), zest a lime then add both the zest and juice to the bowl. Slice an additional lime and place that in the bowl. Zest a lemon, then add it’s juice and zest to the bowl. Pour in about 1/2-3/4 cup of sugar and 1 cup of boiling water to the bowl. Cover and allow to cool, then place this in the fridge overnight. Then strain and bottle the liquid. You can return the grated bits back to the bowl and add more water, leaving it to soak for a few hours, to make a diluted drink from the left overs too.

More recipes:

Ginger Cordials

Citrus Cordials

Other Cordials

Spicy Sekanjabin

obsidian — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 03:42:57 +0000

(Sekanjabin is a vinegar-based cordial)

Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1 cup water
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
cinnamon sticks
whole cloves
star anise

Method:
Bring all to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes. Leave to cool and infuse overnight then strain off the spices and bottle.

Kashmiri Korma Curry Spice Mix

obsidian — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 08:11:34 +0000

Ingredients:
1 tsp Turmeric
10 cardamon pods
1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon
8 Black peppercorns
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp ground Cumin
2 tsp Ground Corriander
1 tsp dried Chilli flakes (optional)
1tb Ground paprika
1tb chopped fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic

Method:
Break open the cardamon pods to get the seeds out. You could buy the seeds, but I’m not sure how much you’d need as equivalent (maybe a teaspoon worth?). The seeds give a greater aroma and flavour than the powder does…. so use the seeds if you can. Then crush all the spices together in a mortar and pestle. You can keep this mixture in a spice jar and use all of it at once, or smaller amounts if needed. When you go to use it, fry it off with a little oil and the ginger and garlic.