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!

Meal for One

The Husband has been working strange shifts for the past few days and also over weekends so I have often been cooking just for me in the evenings. Because it's just cooking for one, I tend to make something that's quick, but I also try to be relatively healthy too.


Continuing on a fishy theme, this week I made a very quick but tasty prawn linguine with chilli, lemon and parsley.

Prawn Linguine with Chilli, Lemon and Parsley (Serves 1)


Ingredients
200g raw tiger prawns (you can use pre cooked if you can't find any)
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped finely (depends on how much you like)
1 red chilli, chopped (seeded or deseeded depending on preference) 
Zest and juice of half a lemon
2-3 tbsp chopped tomatoes or a small handful of cheery tomatoes, chopped roughly
1 tbsp Olive oil
Small bunch or parsley, chopped
100g linguine

Cook the linguine in a large pan of salted boiling water until al dente (approx 8-9 mins).


Whilst the pasta has about 4 minutes to go, get another pan on a high heat and add the olive oil. once the oil is hot, turn it down slightly and then add the chilli, garlic and lemon zest. Be careful they don't burn in the heat of the oil and after 30 seconds throw in the prawns and cook until they turn pink. Add the lemon juice and the tomatoes, season to taste and then throw in the parsley. Take off the heat as you don't want the prawns to overcook. 


NB - if you are using cooked prawns, throw these in at the end of making the sauce and warm through.


Drain the pasta, then add to the sauce.


Serve with or without parmesan (I do) and maybe some crusty bread (I didn't). A nice dry white would also go really well, perhaps a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc.

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!

How I met your Father....

My husband often tells me that the reason he married me was because of my meatballs. They are one of his favourite things to eat and I often end up making them at least a couple of times a month. My usual ones are of the Italian variety and I serve them with tagliatelle or spaghetti.

I have to say that I never really tend to stick to a tried and tested recipe, I like to try different variants every time, just to see if I can make them that little bit better.

This time, I made a few tweaks, namely the inclusion of breadcrumbs to the meatball mix (I have never really seen the point of using them before but have heard these really keep them tender) baking the meatballs rather than frying them off, and the addition of a bay leaf to the sauce.

Spiced Meatballs in Tomato Sauce

For the meatballs
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed (depends if you like garlic!)
500g minced beef / pork or a mixture of the two
60g breadcrumbs (I used an old pitta bread and blitzed it)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 a freshly grated nutmeg
Grated zest of 1 lemon
small bunch of parsley, finely chopped (I used parsley because I had some in my fridge, but feel free to use whichever herbs you choose, I often use basil).

For the tomato sauce
1 large jar (650g?) passata
1 med - large onion, finely chopped
2 sticks celery, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic,
a few sprigs of thyme, leaves picked (Again or use whichever herbs you have at hand)
1 bay leaf
1 chilli (optional) - deseeded if you don't want too much heat or leave them in if you do. 
glug of olive oil
1 tbsp sugar

To serve
Tagliatelle or spaghetti
Chopped parsley
Grated parmesan

Preheat the oven to 200°C / gas mark 6

Firstly, make the meatballs. Simply mix all of the ingredients into a bowl (or whiz up in a food processor like I do) and season well. Form the mixture into walnut sized balls and place on a greased baking tray.

Then place the meatballs in the oven for about 10-15 mins or until golden brown. (They don't need to be cooked through)

Whilst the meatballs are in the oven, make a start on the sauce. Add a glug of olive oil to a large pan and add the onion and celery. Soften for around 5 minutes, taking care not to brown them too much. Then add the garlic, herbs, chilli and bay leaf. Stir and soften for another 3 minutes and then add the passata and the sugar. (The sugar takes the acidity away from the tomatoes). Then fill the passata jar  a third full with water and add that too.

Allow the sauce to come to a simmer then add the meatballs to the sauce.

Leave the meatballs and sauce to rumble away on a low heat until the sauce has thickened. (This can take from 30 - 45 mins, but it's worth the wait!)

Cook the pasta and stir it into the sauce and meatballs. Serve in a large, heated shallow bowls and scatter with parsley and serve with grated parmesan

Enjoy with a glass of red (or white or pink of you prefer!)