Roasted Gobi with Aloo Saag Curry

The Husband and I took a trip to our local farm shop the other evening and staring at me were some beautiful looking Romanescos. Lime green in colour with cone shaped florets, it really is an attractive looking vegetable. A member of the brassica family, it seems to sit somewhere in between a broccoli and cauliflower.

I've never actually cooked with Romanesco before, mainly because I have never come across them in the supermarket / shops. However, this is not for lack of trying to find one. Funnily enough, the appearance of this vegetable in my local shop does coincide with the Great British Food Revival series on BBC2. In the first episode, the Hairy Bikers did their bit to campaign for the resurgence of the humble cauliflower, which is often overlooked in favour of broccoli. From that episode, I was really excited by their Saag aloo with roasted gobi curry. As much as I am a huge carnivore,  I do have a love for veggie curries.

The star of the curry is the cauliflower, which if first roasted off in the oven for 20 mins. Now cauliflower is not a vegetable I would ever think of roasting, but it seems to bring out the most amazing nuttiness which transfers well into the curry.

However, I didn't follow their recipe to the letter, I have issues with too much fat in my food, (cakes of course are an exception, but come on - I've got to cut back somehow!) plus I didn't have all of the ingredients in my pantry, so this is my take on Dave and Si's recipe.

The dish has bags of flavour and texture and really leaves you feeling satisfied without the heavy feeling of a meat curry. The roasting of the cauliflower really adds depth to the dish. Definitely one I will be making again!

Roasted Gobi and Aloo Saag Curry

Ingredients

For the roasted cauliflower
1 small romanesco
1 small cauliflower
A drizzle of olive oil
Salt & pepper

For the Aloo Saag Curry
1 large onion
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 green chilli - up to you if you remove or keep the seeds, finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped / grated
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fenugreek
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped into inch cubes
4 large tomatoes, chopped
250g bag of spinach leaves, washed
50ml water
Lemon juice
1/2 tsp Garam Masala

To serve
Basmati rice


Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Break up the two cauliflowers into bite-sized florets and place into a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, or until golden-brown. Ideally you want a bit of crunch still to the cauliflower, as it will add texture to the finished dish. Set to one side.

For the curry, fry off the onion in a pan until softened, about 3 mins. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger, then add the powdered spices (with the exception of the garam masala). Keep stirring for about a minute or two so that the spices do not burn, add a drop of water if you find the pan sticking.

Add the potatoes and coat in the onions and spices, then add the tomatoes, spinach and water. When you add the spinach, put the lid on the pan and wait for the spinach to wilt, as it will be an impossible task to try and stir everything before this point, the spinach will be everywhere!

Leave to simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the potato is cooked through. There should still be a bit of liquid in the pan at this point, but this is fine, as the cauliflower will absorb this.

Add the cauliflower to the pan and then season to taste. Add a squeeze of lemon juice and the garam masala. Stir through and it is ready to serve with basmati rice. I think a tomato, onion and coriander salad would be a nice refreshing side to go with it also.

Let's support the cauliflower!

Aiming to Peas!

The husband isn't the biggest fan of fish. I am a massive fan of fish. Therefore sometimes we have a problem when I really need a seafood fix!

Don't get me wrong, its not as if he refuses to eat fish, he just needs some gentle coaxing sometimes and there are certain things that I love that are definite no-no's - namely mussels, smoked salmon and mackerel. I tend to reserve these to eat when I am alone!

Again, I think sometimes our opinions of food are shaped by our childhoods. I was brought up eating lots of fish, on the bone and I was taught at an early age not to be scared of bones. The husband really wasn't and probably the only fish he was given to eat was battered. However, he's has come on a long way and is willing to try most things.

The other night I decided to make something a little bit different and I also had a bit of a hankering for scallops. The husband actually doesn't mind scallops, but he loves risotto and he also loves peas. So I thought about combining the three, to make a dish which was the best of both - something for me and something for him. I do make a good negotiator.

Scallop and pea puree often appear together on menus and I have a basic recipe for a pea risotto. However, after a bit of a recipe search I came across one from Delicious Magazine which also incorporates pea puree in the risotto itself.

I think Shrek and the Incredible Hulk would love this meal

Overall the risotto was a nice balance between the sweet of the pea and the scallop and also the salty of the parmesan in the risotto. I know that Italians would be horrified at the thought of cheese and seafood, but I think it worked. The only bit of advice I would give to anyone who wants to make this would be that you need to make sute that you have all of your pans (4!!) / equipment out and ready as there are lots of different pans / gadgets on the go at once and you need to keep an eye on everything. I was terrified of overcooking the scallops and turning £10 worth of lovely fish into rubber. Luckily it turned out all ok and the plus point was that the husband also loved it.

Scallop and Pea Risotto (Serves 4)

For the Scallops

15g unsalted butter

1 tbsp olive oil

300g roeless scallops, thawed if frozen

Fresh baby mint leaves, to serve

For the pea and mint risotto

1.2 litres chicken or vegetable stock

75g butter

1 small white onion, diced

1 stick celery, diced

225g risotto rice

50ml dry white white wine (optional)

175g freshly shelled or frozen peas, plus a couple of handfuls

2 tbsp chopped fresh mint

25g Parmesan, finely grated

First, you’ll need to make the risotto but the key to a good risotto is hot stock, so put the chicken or vegetable stock in a saucepan, bring to the boil and keep hot over a low heat.

Melt 50g of the butter in a medium pan, add the onion and celery and cook gently for a couple of minutes until the onion and celery are soft and translucent. Make sure they don’t colour too much.

Add the rice and stir until all the grains are coated in butter. Pour in the white wine and simmer, stirring, until it has nearly disappeared. Add a ladleful of stock and stir over a medium heat until it is nearly all absorbed, then add another. Continue like this for 20-25 minutes or until al dente (so it has a bit of a bite to it).

Meanwhile, cook 175g of the peas in a pan of boiling salted water for 4-5 minutes, until tender. Drain well, tip into a food processor / blender and add the remaining butter and chopped mint. Process until smooth, and then set aside. If you find that it is hard work to puree this up all a small amount of stock to loosen.

When the risotto has about 5 minutes to go, heat a large frying pan over a high heat until smoking hot. Reduce the heat to medium-high, add the butter, olive oil and half the scallops and sear for 1 minute, seasoning with salt and pepper as they cook. Quickly turn them over, season again and cook for another minute. Be careful not to overcook as they will end up like boot leather. Spoon them onto a plate and keep warm while you cook the remainder.

When the rice is tender but still a little al dente in the centre, stir in the pea purée, a handful of frozen peas, Parmesan and salt and pepper. Spoon onto warm plates and pile the scallops on top. Serve immediately, scattered with baby mint leaves and some extra parmesan.

Looks impressive, but really isn’t that hard to make.

Friday Night Mess, or Jumbalaya

It was supposed to be a quiet night in with the Hubs and a DVD as he was working early in the morning. However, I was asked to go for a few drinks by the Mother in Law. I felt I had to do my wifely duties and represent, so dinner was a bit of an off the cuff, rushed affair, but tasty nonetheless.

The last time I made a jumbalaya was when I was trying to lose timber, so it was a Weight Watchers recipe which was a bit insipid and lacked one of the main elements of a jumbalaya - chrorizo!

The idea of making this dish was born out of a few factors:

1. I had lots of leftover chicken from the Nigella dish the previous night 
2. I had bought some cooking chorizo the other day 
3. I was after something relatively easy, a one pot dish.
4. I had all of the ingredients needed.

I based the recipe on Jamie Oliver's Chicken and Sausage Jumbalaya from his America book, but again, with a few tweaks. The main one is that Jamie roasts off chicken thighs for it, but with me having lots of leftover cooked chicken, I threw this in later on. I have to say it was a really lovely comforting dish with a lovely spicy kick! 

I'll definitely be making this again but when I do, I'll probably put in half the quantity of tomatoes to turn down the acidity, and add more chorizo to add more zing. These quantities are, as I mentioned a bit ad libbed but it made about 4 generous servings.

My Take on Jamie's Jumbalaya
125g chorizo sausage chopped into 1cm thick slices 
250g cooked chicken, chopped into chunks (you can use raw, just cook this off after the chorizo) 
Couple of handfuls of king prawns, preferably raw, but I had some cooked.
1 onion chopped
2 celery stalks, trimmed and diced
1 pepper, deseeded and chopped (preferably green, I only had a yellow)
1 bay leaf
A few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked
3 cloves of garlic sliced
1 red chilli, finely chopped (feel free to leave seeds in if you like it hot!)
1 tin of tomatoes, chopped
500ml chicken stock
300g long grain rice ( I didn't have enough long grain so used basmati too)

Starting with a cold, large* casserole pan, add the chorizo and turn onto a medium heat and allow the oil from the chorizo to render out and the pieces to brown. I find that by starting off with a cold pan stops the chorizo from browning too quickly and means the oil renders out nicely.

After 5 mins, add the onion, pepper, celery, thyme and bay. Season. Keep on the heat until everything softens, about 10 minutes. Stir regularly.

Then add the chilli and garlic, soften slightly and then add the tomatoes and stock. Bring to a simmer and the add the rice. Stir well and then clamp on the lid. Make sure you stir every few minutes making sure it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. It will take about 15-20 minutes for the rice to cook through.

Stir in the prawns and add a little more water if it's looking too dry. You're looking for a porridgy consistency at this point. Place the lid on again and continue cooking for about 3 mins.

Serve with a green salad if you like. We didn't.

Hubs took leftovers to work the next day. He thought it tasted even better after the flavours developed even more.

*I emphasise large, I used my 20cm Le Creuset and then had to transfer everything to a much larger pan later, as I didn't realise it would make quite so much!

And then I Broke the Bird's Breast!

This is my second attempt at Nigella Lawson's Praised Chicken dish which is from her Kitchen book (one of my faves from 2010) and also featured in one of the TV Episodes.

It's one of those dishes that really makes you feel virtuous, as it's just poached chicken, veg and rice. Definitely one for January, it's a welcome change to all of the excesses of the Christmas and New Year. (Speaking of which, the decorations need to come down tonight!!) I was hoping that the fact it's full of chickeny goodness would cheer the husband up, as he had a bit of a nightmare with trains tonight! Well, this coupled with a few beers anyway. Think it worked!

I have made some slight tweaks to Nigella's original recipe, but its essentially the same. The only bit if kit you will need is a rather large pan that will fit the chicken. My Le Creuset only just fits everything in and it's 24cm wide and about 10 cm deep. I love one pot cooking and this is easy peasy.


Nigella's  Chicken

1 chicken, approx 1.5 kg (pref free range / organic please!)
A glass of white wine
2 carrots cut into batons
2 stalks of celery, chopped
2 leeks, each cut into 4 batons
4 garlic cloves, peeled but kept whole
A few sprigs of parsley
A few sprigs of thyme
Cold water

To Serve
Rice
Parsley

Untruss the chicken and then snip off its ankles (If it's not a better welfare bird then you won't have to do this as they will have already been removed) but don't throw them away!

Then press down on the breast of the bird until you hear its breastbone crack and the bird flattens slightly. Like Nigella, I really enjoyed this bit! Great if you feel like a bit of violence on a Thursday evening... If you're a wuss then skip this part, but be warned that it may not fit into your pan. Season the bird.

Splosh some olive oil into the pan and heat up slowly. Once it's warm enough, place the chicken in the pan, breast side down and turn the heat up. After a few minutes, the chicken should have browned so turn it over and pop in the bird ankles (Of course these are not for eating, unless you want to, but they will add flavour to the soup).

You don't need to completely cover the chicken

Add the white wine and let it bubble away slightly before adding the garlic, carrots, leeks and celery. Add the parsley and thyme (I tie them up with the elastic I untrussed the chicken with).

The add enough cold water so that most of the chicken is covered, bring to a rumbling simmer and then clamp the lid on.

The chicken should take around 1 hour 30mins - 45 mins. Once ready, remove from the pan and carve.

Serve the chicken, soup and veg with rice (I used basmati as this is all I had in the cupboard, but wild rice would be yum!) and an extra smattering of parsley. Not the prettiest of dishes, but it tastes brill. Felt so healthy that a glass of wine was in order to restore the balance...

This also leaves shed loads of leftover chicken as for some reason it goes a very long way and any leftover soup can be used as a stock. Bonus.