Courgetti estate

Some friends gave us three courgettes and a handful of broad beans over the weekend so I thought about making a dish with them on a Monday evening to keep the freshness.  We have had spiralized courgettes before instead of pasta, very quick to cook, much fewer calories and delicious to boot, so I thought of using the veg for a nice summery dish.  I was really pleased with the results so thought I'd share it before I forgot how to cook it!

Ingredients

1 dessertspoon olive oil

2 banana shallots, peeled and sliced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

½ a stick of celery

½ a teaspoon of vegetable stock powder

A handful of runner beans

A good handful of peas (I used frozen)

A small handful of fresh basil and marjoram

A dessertspoon of half fat soured cream

3 medium to large courgettes, spiralized

Method

Spiralize the courgette and place in a bowl or colander with a little salt for 10 minutes or so.  

Heat the oil in a pan and add  the shallot and garlic, fry over a medium to low heat until soft but not coloured.  Add the celery and cook for a couple of minutes more.  Add the stock powder and stir.

Remove the strings from the runner beans and slice them into 1cm pieces, I normally slice them on a 45⁰ angle but you don't need to do that.  Wash them and add the frozen or fresh peas to the colander.  Chop the marjoram and the basil.

Rinse the courgette and try to drain as much moisture off as possible, ideally use kitchen paper and pat dry. 

Add the beans and peas and cook for 3 minutes, then add the cream and herbs and stir to combne them all.

Now add the courgettes and cook for 2 or three minutes - don't overcook, you want to keep a little bite to the courgette.  Season with salt and black pepper to taste, then serve with a little grated Parmesan.

If you want some carb to go with that, you can serve with bread, but it's fine just as it is.  Enjoy!

Mango and Sweetcorn salsa

This came about as I had a mango and some sweetcorn left over.  Great Mexican style salsa I thought, put it together and everyone loved it, so here's the recipe.

Ingredients

1 large mango

2 corn on the cob

1 red and 1 green pepper

1 green chilli

1 small onion

2 limes

1 large bunch coriander leaves

Salt

Black pepper

Method

Remove the husk and the silk from the cob then slice the kernels away from the cob, wash and boil for 2 minutes - yoou want to keep a little of the bite.

Peel and slice the mango, then chop into bite size pieces. Core and seed the peppers, the chop into bite size pieces.  Chops the chilli finely, you can remove the seeds if you don't like it too hot but I don't usually bother as the green chillies we get are pretty mild even with the seeds.  Peel and finely chop the onion. Juice the limes. Chop the coriander leaves finely.

Chuck everything into a big bowl, mix it all together and add salt and pepper to taste and serve with pretty much any Mexican dish or even just as a salad.

Nepali Mushroom Curry

This recipe is taken from a recipe I frost saw by Atul Kochhar.  I've not seen a published version of it so thought I'd post it here as we had it and it was a really good curry side dish.  I hope you enjoy.

Ingredients

A few sprays of vegetable oil

1 teaspoon fenugreek

1/2 teaspoon asafoetida

1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic

2 medium onions, finely chopped

Salt to taste

400g assorted mushrooms, wiped clean and sliced in half

1 teaspoon chilli powder

2 teaspoons cumin

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon coriander

1 large packet fresh chives, chopped

1 large tomato, cored and chopped roughly

1 tablespoon fat free natural yoghurt

1 fresh chilli finely chopped

1 large packet coriander leaves

Method

Heat a frying pan large enough to hold all the ingredients under a medium heat, when hot spray with a little oil and add the fenugreek, asafoetida and garlic and sweat for a couple of minutes until the garlic is cooked but not coloured.

Add the onion and salt and cook while stirring until the onion has softened, make sure the onion doesn't start browning.

Now add the mushrooms and a little water, stir and cook for 4 or 5 minutes.  The mushrooms need to be cooked but keep their texture and not go too soft.

Add the chilli powder, cumin, turmeric and coriander and stir it in until the mushrooms are well coated.

Now add the chopped tomato and chives and stir the curry together to combine all the ingredients.

Finally, add the yoghurt, chopped chilli and coriander, stir everything in and serve.

Beef Madras for slimmers

Beef Madras is not really a "proper" curry, rather it is made up for the British palate.  Not that there is anything wrong with that, but all too often it ends up being just hot and not a lot more.  This recipe is taken from Madhur Jaffrey's porial curry, but I've changed it to reduce the fat and increase the vegetable content while reducing the meat so it's much better for you, low fat and I think still tasty.  It takes a long time to simmer and reduce though, so it's not a quick curry, but it's better for cooking longer,

If you decide to try it out, let me know if you think it works.  Be warned though, it's still pretty hot so you might like to reduce the chillies if you don't want a tingling mouth :)  Serves around 10 people, but it freezes really well so make a batch of it and keep it in the freezer for those Friday night curry cravings!

Ingredients
2 tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp black peppercorns
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp fenugreek seeds
pinch of ground cloves
Good pinch of dried curry leaves
8 fresh red chillies
1 tbsp olive oil
4 onions, chopped
2 tsp grated fresh ginger
4 tsp crushed garlic
1 tsp chill flakes
1.3kg diced beef, cut into 2.5–4cm (1–1½in) cubes
3 400g tins chopped Italian tomatoes
1.5l beef stock (I use the ready made liquid stock but 3 cubes would be fine)
2 tbsp tomato puree
salt to taste
1 large bunch chopped coriander, to garnish

Instructions
Put the coriander seeds, peppercorns, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, cloves and chilli flakes into a small pan (I use a Le Creuset small saucepan or a small frying pan but almost anything will do) and set it over low heat. Shake the spices in the pan a few times while they heat until they give off an aroma. Transfer to a small plate and leave to cool, then grind in a spice grinder or coffee grinder.

Pour the oil into a large cast iron casserole and set it over medium heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and cook, stirring, until they're translucent and starting to colour. Add the grated ginger, crushed garlic and red chillies and fry for about a minute - make sure they don't burn. Add the meat and fry, stirring, for about five minutes. Add the tomato puree and spices and stir well for a couple about 10-20 seconds, then add the tinned tomatoes, stock and bring to the boil.

Turn the heat to a slow boil cook to reduce the liquid to a thick sauce (it took me 1 hour or until the mat is tender. Uncover the pan and boil away a lot of the liquid, until a thick sauce clings to the meat. Garnish with finely chopped coriander to serve.

Vegetable Pilaf

We've always liked pilaf and middle eastern food in particular, but the large amount of rice causes problems for my diabetic control, so for this dish I used Carmague rice as we had some in the cupboard, but you can use any rice - brown rice is absorbed more slowly if you need to avoid a high glucose spike.

Ingredients

A dessert spoon of dried sultanas.
Vegetable stock - about 500ml, but you may need more.
300g carmargue rice (can use any rice you like).
Olive oil for frying.
1 red onion, peeled and thinly sliced.
6 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed.
½ tsp saffron threads, roughly crushed.
1 tsp ground cardamom.
1½ tsp ground cinnamon.
400g tin of chick peas, drained.
A dessert spoon of dried apricots.
6 or so dried prunes.
Salt and black pepper.
Dill, flat leaf parsley, fennel fronds, mint roughly chopped to taste.
A dessert spoon each of pine nuts and toasted pistachio nuts.

Method

1) First, put the dried sultanas in a bowl and cover with freshly made tea - any black tea will do, I used Earl Grey.  Leave it for at least 15 minutes for the sultanas to plump up, then drain and throw the tea away.

2) Boil the rice in the stock, if using brown rice this can take a while and you may need to add more stock as you go along.  Once the rice is soft, drain and set aside keeping the cooking liquid for later.

3) While the rice is cooking, in saute pan big enough to hold all the ingredients, add a little olive oil and when hot add the thinly sliced read onion and fry until softened and lightly caramelised, then add the crushed garlic and fry for a further minute.

4) Next, add the cooked rice and spices and stir well to combine everything.

5) Now add the drained chick peas, drained sultanas, apricots. prunes, salt and pepper to taste, stir and heat gently.

6) While the chick peas and rice are heating up, toast the nuts in a dry frying pan until they start to brown, but be careful not to burn them!

7) once everything is nice and hot, add the herbs and nuts to the pan, give another quick stir and check for seasoning and put it in a large pan so everyone can help themselves.  Sprinkle with sumac and serve with Harissa if you wish.