Prawn Curry with Coconut and broad beans

Mild Prawn Curry with Coconut and Broad Beans

I am addicted to foodie shows on TV and there are very few Indian or Asian cooks around that I admire or follow. Reza Prince of Spice is camper than Christmas and his shows are basically for sitting slack jawed wondering how much campness one can take in one sitting. Madhur Jaffery's recent Curry Nation was a good series for the variety of different types of cooking that are available in the UK alone but her old 60s show is too dated and dull. I must admit she is easy to watch but I have never felt compelled to try any of the dishes.  I do like Anjum Anand and think some of her dishes are easy to follow and they aren't necessarily the same formulaic curry recipes. I'm always up for new ideas so when I saw that she made a Bengoli Prawn in Mustard and Coconut dish I was intrigued.

I have my culinary skills in Bengoli cooking from my mother and I have improved along the way by trial and error and just trying different ideas. I have never come across a Bengoli dish such as this one - maybe it's from a different region than where my mother is from and something I should have in my repertoire? I'm not really convinced Anjum's recipe is very Bengoli as she lists English Mustard as one of the ingredients but nevertheless it turned out to be quite lovely.

I have decided to tweak the recipe a little bit and share the result on my blog. It's not very spicy but it is rich and a different type of curry from the usual tomato based sauces.

Ingredients:

Uncooked Prawns [I used a bag of frozen ones - I defrosted them overnight in the fridge then drained in a colander]
4 - 6 green chillies whole - stalks off and pricked with a knife
2 onions finely chopped/sliced
A knob of ginger peeled and grated
2 fat cloves of garlic crushed
Dessicated Coconut - 1/2 a cup
Paanch Paran [ Bengoli 5 dry whole spice mix : whole fenugreek, cumin, mustard seeds, nigella seeds and fennel seeds] - 1 pinch
Mustard Oil
1 cup of broad beans - boiled in salted water for 5 minutes, then cooled in running water before shelling.

Marinade for the Prawn: 1 tsp Red chilli powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp of salt

Paste for curry: Equal quantities of English Mustard and Cornflour and a little water to make it into a paste

Garnish: Rice to serve with curry and a wedge of lemon/lime and some chopped fresh coriander if you have it.

Marinade for Prawns:
Red chilli powder - 1 teaspoon
Tumeric - 1 teaspoon
Salt - 1/2 a teaspoon

Paste for Curry:
English Mustard - 2 teaspoons
Cornflour - 2 teaspoons
Water - enough to make the mustard powder and cornflour into a paste

Method:

1. Marinade the prawns once defrosted - add as much or as little chilli powder as you prefer. I used 1 level teaspoon to keep it mild. Use equal amount of turmeric and a pinch of salt - add more later to taste if needed.
2. Heat a wok or well worn pan up till smoking then add 2-3 table spoons of mustard oil and heat till its smoking then take off the heat for 15-20 seconds. This takes away the pungent flavour of the oil but leaves the taste.
3. Add a pinch of the seeds and allow them to pop - place the pan back on the heat on low and fry the onions in the oil and seed mix.
4. After about 5 minutes add the grated ginger and the crushed garlic.
5. Add the paste and stir everything - the mixture will stick so add a little bit of water and scrape the bottom of the pan
6. Add the grated/dessicated coconut

7. Add the prawns and mix well. Cover and simmer on a low heat until the prawns start to turn pink.
8. Stir well and mix in the shelled cooked broad beans. Check the seasoning.
9. Switch off and leave covered off the heat until ready to eat. Serve with white rice and fresh chopped coriander & and a slice of lemon or lime as a garnish.

Give this one a try for different take on the Friday night curry. Different is good. We all love different. And we all love a curry!

Feeling Blue? Cake will make it better.

Apparently cake releases endorphins that make you feel a surge of pleasure and triggers the release of insulin into the bloodstream, which in turn clears out all of the amino acids in the bloodstream except for tryptophan. In the brain, Tryptophan is converted into serotonin. Therefore cake can also comfort by producing serotonin which is the happy hormone. No wonder cake makes the world a happier place.

I have also been reading recently that eating blueberries can also elevate your mood and protect your memory [so you can remember all those fun times back in the days of your youth!]. So I thought why not try combining the two?

Blueberries are my favourite berries and I can demolish a punnet within minutes without assistance. Sometimes they are good with some yogurt and some oats and nuts for an alternative breakfast. I've have on occasion heated them up with some caster sugar and a shot of vanilla extract to make a compote to pour over cold ice cream as a fast dessert option, but I have never baked with them before. So I decided to have a go at a Blueberry Cake.

These little nuggets of anti-oxidants and shots of Vitamin C are generally regarded as a super food and are very healthy. However I am in no way suggesting that this is a nutritious or healthy cake because of the inclusion of berries! You can pretend it counts as one of your 5 a day if it makes you feel any better but the recipe calls for almost a whole pack of butter and just as much sugar!

I found the recipe in Delicious magazine as a tray bake but I tweaked it slightly in that I used lemon, orange and lime juice and zest instead of just lemons. I also used a round spring form tin instead of a square tin and I bunged everything in a food processor rather than using an electric whisk.

The result was a wonderfully fluffy and light cake with a tang of citrus. The blueberries unfortunately all sank to the bottom giving the cake a squidgy base but a crispy top with citrus icing gave it a contrasting texture. I personally think baking them took away the blueberry-ness from the berries and I wish I had kept some behind to garnish the cake with at the end, for a burst of fresh juice when biting into the slice. Still pretty tasty though - one of the rare occasions when one of my cakes has been good enough 1st time round to make into the blog instead of multiple tweaking and testing sessions!

Ingredients:

250g self raising flour
225g caster sugar
225g softened unsalted butter
200g blueberries
1 tsp baking powder
4 large eggs
3 tbsp milk
grated zest of 3 lemons / zest of 1 lemon + 1 orange + 1 lime

Icing:

Juice of the lemon, the orange and the lime [or the 3 lemons if only using lemons] mixed and heated with enough caster sugar to your liking - then cooled to make a pouring syrup.

200g of Icing sugar

Equipment:

Food processor
Grater/Zester
Greased/Lined tin
Pre-heated oven to 180 degrees C

Method:

1. Measure out the dry goods [sift the flour and baking powder] and make sure the butter is soft [leave it in room temperature or heat for 30 seconds in the microwave].

2. Place dry ingredients and wet ingredients in the food processor and blitz until a batter forms.

3. Scrape the mix out and then fold in the berries.

4. Scrape the mix into the lined tin and place on the middle shelf and turn the oven down to 170 C degrees. Bake for 35-45min until golden on top and set.

Unfortunately, I opened the oven door too soon [after 35min] and the cake had risen beautifully but was still very soft on top. So I left it in the oven for another 10 minutes - which meant I had let hot air out of the oven and so the cake fell ever so slightly in the middle once it was taken out - oh well - you live and don't learn!]

5. While it cools on a rack make the syrup.

6. Poke a few holes in the cake and pour a tablespoon of the syrup into each one.

7. Once the cake is cool, mix the rest of the syrup bit by bit to the icing sugar to make a runny paste.

8. Drizzle the icing over the cake and leave to set for about an hour.

I've had to give most of this cake away as a Friday treat for hungry office workers. It's too good not to share and too tempting to have hanging round the house.

Next time I make it I may omit the citrus syrup and use blueberry compote as the syrup/dressing and garnish it with uncooked berries for presentation. I wonder if I can make blueberry icing.. hmmm.. It's a good cake - just needs loads more blueberries to really kick the blues to the kerb!

 

Going out for an English

Ahh the English countryside. There's nothing like the glorious rolling hills of green when the sun shines. Just for a day or two, a few weekends ago, we had some intermittent sunshine. This not only brought out the sudden urge to get out of the city but also to explore a bit of the rural gastronomy that I've been dreaming about. Last month, my delicious magazine came with a small guide to good food outside of Londinium and the closest place on the south west list was in Stuckton near Fordingbridge - at the edge of the New Forest. It was a 2 hour drive from South London but worth the round trip for a superb 3 hour Sunday lunch!

This place, The Three Lions [Restaurant with rooms] reinforced my faith in good local English produce and good British grub in a hearty location. It was in a very pretty area and the inside of the restaurant was very cosy and homely and inviting. I'm not sure I was convinced about having to be seated in the corridor to choose from the menu board and then only being seated at our pre booked table when the food was ready to be served but hey that's their system and I guess it works for them. It was rather sweet that this family run place had all their teenage kids taking orders and checking tables were being looked after.

I had the last asparagus and wild mushroom starter that was left and jolly good it was too! Yum. Seasonal. Succulent. Sublime. And you could just tell it was picked locally rather than flown in from Mexico as it tasted incredibly intense & fresh... well I hope it was anyway - I didn't ask! The bread that came with the table was certainly home made [I did ask] and so I would hope everything else was home grown too!

The main of Dover Sole and garlic was divine as was the finger licking jus that it came in - I could have mopped my plate clean with the home made oat bread. I was particularly impressed that someone in the kitchen had taken care to give each vegetable side dish that came with the main some careful love and attention, making them stars in their own rights rather than some overcooked or underwhelming afterthought. My dessert was a trio of home made sorbets [mango, lemon and raspberry] - which was bursting with fruit and a perfect light end to a slow Sunday lunch.

My husband had the bacon and anchovy starter followed by the lamb which he said was tender and full of flavour. I liked the fact his main had some fresh garlic flowers on the plate! He then opted for the Three Lions St Clements tart with a lemon posset which he declared his new favourite dessert! I may have to search for the recipe on line or write to them!

 

 

Very good food, excellent service and a pleasant atmosphere - what more could you ask for?
And apparently they have rooms - I do hope I get a chance to stay there one day!

Check out...
http://www.thethreelionsrestaurant.co.uk/ for yourself...

No Butter No Flour Chocolate Orange Tort

OMG I have finally found a cake that has no butter & no flour but lots of fluffy chocolatey deliciousness! I was very pleased to find a torta recipe in the Moro cookbook which surprisingly didn't use any butter. It was their Spanish Almond and Orange Torta. I made it and it turned out to be a crowd pleaser. The torta was basically eggs and ground almonds with a separate orange syrup to pour into the cake for moisture, which I thought was a really nice touch.

So I tweaked the recipe and added cocoa because orange and chocolate make for good bedfellows. All the fluffiness comes from the egg whites and that means that you do need an electric whisk to beat the egg whites or else it's quite tiring with just a hand whisk! This is a gluten free dessert for your Coeliac Friends or those on a low carb diet. This is my guilt free chocolate cake treat and it doesn't last long if within my reach!

Chocolate, Orange and Almond Torta

Ingredients:

225g of Ground Almonds
250g of Caster Sugar
25g Good Quality Cocoa Powder
6 large eggs separated
2 oranges zested

Syrup:
4 oranges segmented and juiced
Caster Sugar to taste [add gradually and however much you like to get the sweetness you want - the amount will vary depending on how much juice you get out of the oranges and how sweet they are naturally]
1 whole cinnamon stick

Serve with Vanilla Ice cream and mint or the segments of orange and the syrup... or both!

Equipment:

Electric whisk
Spring form tin
Grater
Sieve
Pre heated oven

Method:

1. Measure everything out, sifting the ground almonds and cocoa powder into a mixing bowl. Grate the orange zest.

2. Separate the eggs - easier to do when they are cold but better to cook when they have come to room temperature. Make sure the bowl in which the whites go into is washed, cleaned and dried really well so there is no grease in the bowl. This helps the egg whites to stiffen quickly when beaten. Otherwise it takes ages!

3. Grease, flour and line a spring form tin with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C.

4. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until fluffy - it will be quite a stiff mix.

5. Whisk the egg whites until stiff.

6. Mix the ground almonds and the cocoa with the yolk and sugar mix along with the orange zest.

7. Then mix in a third of the whites and fold in gently with a metal spoon.

8. Add the rest of the whites in slowly and fold in gently [it's quite tiring on the wrists as the mix is very stiff at first but the gradual addition of the egg whites loosen it up].

9. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and place the tin into the oven on the middle shelf turning the heat down to 180 degrees and bake for 55-60 min.

10. Make the orange syrup while the cake bakes. Segment the oranges and save the juice. Squeeze out the juice out of the pulp and place into a small pan with a stick of cinnamon and about half a cup of caster sugar [or add a few table spoons gradually to taste] and simmer on a low heat to thicken. Pour into a serving jug and set aside to cool.

11. Check the cake at 55 min - and it's ready if the top feels set. Take it out to cool then release the tin turn/flip over and take the base off. Then flip back onto a serving plate.

12. Poke some holes into the cake with a wooden skewer or a chopstick and then carefully dribble some syrup into the holes. Serve the rest of the syrup on the side. You can also serve the cake with ice cream and the orange segments!

Guess what I'm having with my nice cup of Yorkshire Tea right now? Mmmmm.....chocolatey goodness.