The Curry Secret

Fijian Goat Curry and Fijian Pea and Courgette Dhal

2011-07-21T19:55:00.000-07:00


Fijian Goat Curry

Fijian Pea and Courgette Dhal

My new book, Curries and Spicy Dishes for your Slow Cooker is available in the shops from today.

Warming, delicious and deeply satisfying, slow cooked soups and stews feature in cuisines around the world. The epitome of comfort food, I love slow cooked dishes, but until I began writing this book I was not particularly a great fan of the slow cooker. I’ve owned one for decades and I’ve found it to be very useful at times but it was not one of my regularly used appliances. I’m not quite sure why, but my perception was that the cooking environment in a slow cooker was not the best for many of the slow cooked dishes that I’ve cooked regularly over the years. Well all that’s changed. True, I’ve had to modify recipes and there has been a bit of trial and error to get the best results, but I now find myself using the slow cooker almost daily. It is so convenient and easy; a few minutes of preparation at the beginning of a busy day and the slow cooker delivers a perfectly cooked meal with little additional time, care or effort.

Fijian cuisine is a delicious fusion of the robust spicy flavours of India with local foods like coconut, fish, sweet potatoes and cassava. Cooking styles are simpler compared to Indian cooking methods, with everything being more or less ‘thrown together’ rather than the frying of ingredients layer by layer typical of Indian cooking – perfect for easy slow cooker meals. These two dishes are particularly quick and easy to prepare.

Of course, if you don't have a slow cooker they can be simmered on the stove.

Fijian Goat Curry

For such a simple recipe this produces delicious results. Goat meat is best, but lamb can be used instead.

Serves 6-7

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 3-4 hours on High, 6-7 hours on Low, 2.5-3 hours on top of the stove

10 cloves garlic, coarsley chopped

1 red chilli, de-seeded and coarsely chopped

1 large onion, half finely chopped, half coarsely chopped

2 strips lime zest

3 cups (750ml) water

1 tsp chilli powder or to taste

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp sugar

1 lime, juiced

2 tsp salt or to taste

1 kg (2.2lbs) goat meat (with some bone) cut into chunks

2 cups (500ml/1 pint), sweet potato cut into 2.5cm (1inch) chunks

2 potatoes, peeled and cut into 2.5cm (1inch) chunks

1 cup coriander, leaves and stems

2 tbsp curry powder

½ cup yoghurt, stirred until smooth.

To serve: rice, coconut chutney, a fish or vegetable dish, raita.

Place the garlic, chilli, the coarsely chopped onion, lime zest and two cups of water into a blender jug and blend until smooth.

Transfer to a medium sauce pan and bring to the boil. Add the chilli powder, turmeric, sugar, lime juice and salt and let the sauce simmer for 2 or 3 minutes.

In the meantime, place the vegetables, meat and half the coriander into slow cooker. Pour over the hot sauce, cover and switch onto desired setting.

About 40 minutes before the end of cooking stir through the curry powder. Cook on high, uncovered for the remainder of cooking time, stirring now and again to allow the sauce to thicken a little.

Stir through the remaining onion, coriander and yoghurt just before serving.

Coconut Chutney: Combine 2 cups (500ml/1 pint) grated fresh coconut, a small bunch of coriander, 1 coarsely chopped green chilli, 3 tablespoons lemon juice and a teaspoon of salt in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped. Allow the flavours to develop for an hour or so before serving.

Fijian Pea and Courgette Dhal

In Fiji this hearty vegetarian dish is made with a type of gourd called lauki. In the Indian version a type of squash (sometimes called Chinese Melon) about the size of a small marrow with a pale green skin is used. Yellow or pale green courgettes (zucchini) are fairly good substitutes. It is a tasty dish that is quite spicy to provide a lively lift to the relatively mild tasting basic ingredients.

You can reduce the cooking time by about half by soaking the dhal in cold water over night.

Serves 6-7 as a main, more as a side dish

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 6-7 hours on High, 12-14 hours on Low, 3-4 hours on the stove (after soaking)

1 ½ cups (500ml) split channa dhal (split chickpeas or yellow split peas)

5 cups (1.25 litres) hot water

1 tsp turmeric

2 yellow or pale green courgettes (zucchini) or 4 button squash

2 tsp salt or to taste

3 tbsp ghee or extra virgin olive oil

2 medium onions, finely sliced

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp mustard seed

4 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 tsp chilli flakes

2-3 green chillies, finely sliced

Thumb sized piece of ginger, finely sliced

1 lime or lemon, juiced

2 tbsp chopped coriander

Wash the dhal in two or three changes of water and drain. Add to slow cooker with the water and turmeric. Cover and switch slow cooker on to desired setting.

About 30 minutes before the end of cooking, halve the courgettes lengthways and cut each lenth into 1cm thick slices. Or slice each button squash into 6 slices. Add to slow cooker and stir in the salt. Cook on High for the remainder of the time.

Meanwhile, heat the ghee or oil in a fry pan and add all the remaining ingredients except for the lime juice and coriander. Stir fry on medium heat for about 5 minutes.

Stir onion mixture into dhal with the lime or lemon juice and coriander and serve.

Shakuti Chicken, Mixed Veg Curry, Nan

2011-06-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

Shakuti Chicken

Mixed Veg Curry

Nan, fresh and piping hot

First day of June and winter in the southern hemisphere. On Mt. Sugarloaf about 10K's northwest of Orange with an altitude of 750 metres above sea level the weather is unusually mild in contrast to the beautiful, crisp, cold and frosty mornings we were having last week. Following the productive summer months my pantry is again full of preserves, chutneys, pickles, jams and jars and jars of tomatoes. Summer came late this year but thanks to the over abundance of tomato plants that I put in I still managed to bottle something like 60 bottles to use over winter - minestrone soup, tomato soup, sauces and stews, once you've got used to cooking them with home grown tomatoes, canned just don't do.

I love summer vegetables and fruits, especially the tomatoes, capsicums, melons and figs. Oh the figs. Left to ripen until they are dark and soft and so sweet it's like someone has injected honey into them. Yum. But, I must say I'm not disappointed when winter comes around because I love winter veggies even more. I've planted an abundance of chard, kale, sugar snaps and snow peas, broccoli, broccolini , cauliflower and of course spinach and they are so good grown in our cold climate. Whenever my mother observed a heavy frost in the winter she would say it is like nectar to the veggies and I've found she is absolutely right. The same veggies after a couple of frosts are so much sweeter and tastier.

Looking forward to delicious, warming winter dishes.

Shakuti Chicken

Sometimes called Xacuti or Chacuti, the symphony of flavours created by the fragrant spice mix in this delicious Goan dish of tender chicken will get your tastebuds dancing. To make it richer and creamier, substitute some of the water with coconut milk or cream.

Serves 5-6

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cook time: Just under an hour

Shakuti Spice Paste

1 cup grated coconut, fresh or desiccated

6-8 Kashmiri Chillies

1 tbsp coriander seed

2 tsp cumin seed

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tbsp sesame seeds

1 x 2.5cm (1 inch) cinnamon

4 cloves

2 tsp fennel seeds

½ tsp black pepper

½ tsp grated nutmeg

1 tbsp oil

1.5kg (3 1/3 lbs) chicken, preferably free range, skinned and cut into small pieces

4-5 tbsp ghee or good quality oil

2 large onions, finely sliced

3-4 cloves garlic, grated or finely sliced

1 thumb sized piece ginger, grated or finely sliced

1 tsp turmeric

½ tsp chilli powder or to taste

2 tsp salt or taste

1 cup diced fresh tomatoes, or equivalent canned

8 golf ball sized potatoes, peeled or 2 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered

4 cups (1litre/2 pints) hot water (approx)

2 tbsp tamarind puree or lime juice

2-3 tbsp finely chopped coriander stems and leaves

To serve: Basmati rice, flat bread, pickles, raita.

Heat a little of the ghee or oil in a large, heavy based pan and lightly brown the chicken pieces, in two batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding. Transfer to a clean plate.

Heat remaining ghee or oil in same pan and fry the onion until lightly browned, about 6 or 7 minutes.

Add the garlic and ginger and fry for a minute. Stir in the turmeric, chilli and salt, cook for a few seconds and add the tomatoes. Cook until tomatoes are pulpy and add chicken and juices.

Add water and potatoes. Stir well, bring to the boil. Turn the heat down to low, cover pan and simmer for about 45 minutes or until chicken and potatoes are very tender.

Meanwhile, dry roast the coconut in a small hot pan over low- medium heat, stirring continuously until golden. This will only take 2 or 3 minutes. Transfer immediately to a plate lined with kitchen paper and cool. Repeat with all other ingredients (except for the nutmeg) for the spice paste until mixture is aromatic, about 2 minutes.

Grind the cooled spices with the nutmeg to a fine powder using an electric coffee grinder or pestle and mortar. Combine with the oil in same pan and fry over medium heat for a further 2-3 minutes or until deeply fragrant.

Stir the spice paste and tamarind or lime juice into chicken and simmer for a further 5 minutes or so, adding a little more water if sauce is too dry.

Stir in the coriander just before serving.

Mixed Veg Curry

Serves 4-5 as a main dish, more as a side

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes (approx)

4 tbsp olive oil or ghee

2 medium onions, finely sliced

1 x 2.5cm (1 inch) stick cinnamon

1 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp salt or to taste

chilli powder

2 carrots sliced

3 medium potatoes, cut into 2cm (just under 1 inch) chunks

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 cups (500ml/1 pint) hot water

1 small head cauliflower (about 800g/2lb), cut into large florets

½ tsp garam masala

1-2 green chillies, finely chopped

1 cup frozen peas

Heat the oil in a heavy based pan and fry the onion for 3-4 minutes over high heat until starting to brown at the edges.

Add the cinnamon stick, fennel seed, turmeric, salt and turmeric and fry for about 10 seconds.

Add the carrots and potatoes and stir fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the tomato paste and fry for a minute and add water. Bring to the boil and simmer covered for 15 minutes.

Stir in cauliflower florets, partly cover pan and simmer for a further 22-25 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Stir in the garam masala, chillies and peas. Cook for a further 5 minutes.

Nan

Making good nan bread is really easy, particularly if you have a bread maker. Just put everything into the bread pan and let the bread maker knead for about 5 minutes only – just enough to provide a smooth dough. You can leave the dough to rise in the bread pan with the machine switched off.

The dough can be stored in the fridge for up to 2 days. It will rise, quite quickly at first until it cools down, so check it frequently and punch it down.

Makes 6 nan

Preparation time: 10 minutes plus about an hour to prove the dough

300ml (11fl. oz) water, approx

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp instant dried yeast

1 tbsp oil

450g (1lb) white bread flour or plain white flour

1 tsp salt

Extra flour for dusting

Warm the water slightly, pour into a large bowl and add the sugar, yeast and oil.

Add the flour and sprinkle the salt over the flour. Using your hand, mix and bring the ingredients together, adding more water or more flour until you have a soft but non-sticky dough.

Place the dough onto a clean, lightly floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes until smooth.

Placed the dough in a lightly greased bowl, cover with a damp tea towel or greased cling wrap. Place the bowl in a draught free place for about an hour or until the dough has doubled in size.

De-gas the dough by punching it down and knead briefly. Divide into 6 equal portions and roll into balls.

Using a little flour for dusting, roll into a thin round or tear shape and cook on a hot tawa or frying pan for about 2 minutes each side. Brown spots should appear and the nan should puff up.

Alternatively, cook underside on the tawa and place under a very hot grill for about a minute to cook to the top.

Wrap in a clean tea towel to keep warm while cooking the remaining nan.

Brush with melted buutter or extra virgin olive oil and serve.

Traditional Chicken Curry

2011-02-03T20:16:00.000-08:00

Delicious, spicy home-made Chicken Curry

Another Christmas has been and gone. It is usually a joyous and fun filled occassion where the family can take time off to relax, gather with friends and chill out - if you can call it "chilling" out in the heat of the Australian summer. This one alas, has been a very sad one. Our beloved little doggy boy Pedro - only 10 years old but with a diagnosed heart murmur - developed congestive heart failure on Christmas eve and spent Christmas day in hospital. He was released the next day after some intensive treatment but began going down hill within days. Blood tests indicated renal failure and he became so unwell that the vet pronounced the only kind thing to do was to have him "put to sleep". When? I asked. Tommorow morning at the latest, or this evening if that will make it a little easier for you, came his answer. As any pet lover will testify, this is the most harrowing and painful decision to make and for a day or two I was in denial, putting his symptoms down to the new diuretic that was prescribed for him whilst in hospital. I certainly couldn't take him in that evening. I had to be sure. It didn't help when next morning (more than likely due to the anti-emetic injection the day before) he seemed a bit perkier, going out, albeit slowly and falterningly and not as far normal, for his usual morning walk and eating a little breakfast. Optimistically, I called the vet and asked for more tests, and booked him for another anti-emetic. However, as the day progressed and I observed him suffering in silence, it became clear that I was being unrealistic in believing his condition was not serious. When, the following morning, I discovered that one of the reasons he had not been able to eat over the last few days was because of increasing mouth ulcers, I felt totally defeated.

As I held him in my arms during the last few hours I knew that losing him was not going to be easy. I considered doing things alone that I had always done with him by my side and the dark spectre of loneliness flashed through my thoughts. But there was no time to think of tomorrow. I still had to deal with today. The daunting, heart-breaking process of euthanasing my little ray of sunshine dimmed any contemplation of future pain and I went about doing what I had to do.

So when it came, I was not at all prepared. The avalanche of grief that hit me when I came out of the vet hospital found no resistance. I was completely and utterly heart-broken.

It is precisely 3 weeks since that horrible day and I write this blog through eyes still blurred with tears. The journey I've taken over the last 21 days has been like walking through a long, dark tunnel burdened with a heavy weight that I could not shed . There have been moments when I have plunged to depths so black I thought I would never find my way out. However, with the support of my lovely family and friends I am now over the rawness of it and, though my world doesn't yet seem quite as bright as when my Pedro was in it, I can see some light at the end of that tunnel. I'm lucky. Consider those living alone, perhaps elderley or infirm with little contact from friends, family or neighbours. Losing the joy, love, loyality and companionship of a beloved pet can be devastating.

If you have never owned a pet, you will probably not understand, I wouldn't have, but they steal your heart. And you let them do it gladly because they give back in spades, making you smile a 100 times a day and loving you unconditionally, but when they go, as go they must they tear your heart to shreds. I won't put myself through that again, you say, but the vacuum they leave demands to be filled so then you do it all over again. Such is the power of the dog.

The Power of the Dog

By:Rudyard Kipling

There is sorrow enough in the natural way
From men and women to fill our day;
And when we are certain of sorrow in store,
Why do we always arrange for more?
Brothers and sisters, I bid you beware
Of giving your heart to a dog to tear.

Buy a pup and your money will buy
Love unflinching that cannot lie--
Perfect passion and worship fed
By a kick in the ribs or a pat on the head.
Nevertheless it is hardly fair
To risk your heart to a dog to tear.

When the fourteen years which Nature permits
Are closing in asthma, or tumour or fits,
And the vet's unspoken prescription runs
To lethal chambers or loaded guns,
Then you will find--it's your own affair--
But...you've given your heart to a dog to tear.

When the body that lived at your single will,
With its whimper of welcome, is stilled (how still!)
When the spirit that answered your every mood
Is gone--wherever it goes--for good,
You will discover how much you care,
And will give your heart to a dog to tear.

We've sorrow enough in the natural way,
When it comes to burying Christian clay.
Our loves are not given, but only lent,
At compound interest of cent per cent.
Though it is not always the case, I believe,
That the longer we've kept 'em, the more do we grieve:
For, when debts are payable, right or wrong,
A short-term loan is as bad as a long--
So why in Heaven (before we are there)
Should we give our hearts to a dog to tear?

Pedro, my little bundle of happiness

Chicken with rice and vegetables was Pedro's favourite meal (along with a nibble of a home-made biscuit if he could get hold of one). This chicken curry is one of my mine.

Traditional Chicken Curry

This delicious, rustic chicken curry was a regular weekend treat when I was growing up. Dad generally cooked the meat curries in our household (with mum doing all the chopping and washing) and it was quite a ritual; the grinding of spices, the pounding of garlic, ginger and chillies and the slicing of a mountain of onions was a time consuming business in the days prior to electric food processors and grinders. The resulting curry was spicy and fragrant with lots of really tasty sauce and chicken so tender it was falling off the bone.

If you don’t wish to buy a whole chicken you can use an equivalent amount in thigh and breast portions, wings and drumsticks but leave the bone in for the best flavour.

Serves 5-6

Preparation time: 30 minutes

Cook time: 2 ½ approx

1 chicken approx 1.8kg (4lbs approx) preferably free range, skinned and chopped into 8 portions plus drumsticks and wings

4 onions, coarsely chopped

6-7 cloves of garlic, grated or finely chopped

1 large thumb sized piece of ginger, grated or finely chopped

8 tbsp ghee or good quality oil

1½ tsp turmeric

4 ripe tomatoes, chopped or equivalent canned

2 tsp salt or to taste

1 tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp paprika

½ tsp chilli powder or to taste

4 – 5 cups hot water

2-3 green chillies, finely chopped

1 ½ tsp garam masala

2 -3 tbsp chopped coriander

To serve: rice, flat bread such as chappati or nan, vegetable side dish, pickles, raita.

Rinse the chicken portions well and pat dry with kitchen paper. Place onion in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped.

Place onion in a large, heavy based pan and add half a cup of water. Bring to the boil and simmer, stirring until dry, about 5 minutes.

Add the oil and stir fry on high heat for about 5 minutes until the mixture begins to brown. Turn the heat to low and cook for a further 15-20 minutes, stirring now and again until the onion is a golden brown.

Add garlic and ginger, stir fry for a minute or two and add turmeric. Stir for a few seconds and add tomatoes and salt. Continue to cook on medium-high heat for about 2 minutes until tomatoes are soft and pulpy.

Add chicken pieces and cook them, turning each piece frequently, until all the pieces are sealed. Add the tomato paste and continue to cook, stirring until everything is well mixed and sizzling.

Stir in the chilli powder and paprika and cook for a further minute or two.

Stir in about half a cup of hot water and cook the chicken on very low heat for about 45 minutes or until it is tender. Stir regularly and add a splash of water to prevent the chicken catching to the bottom of the pan.

Add 3 – 4 cups of hot water, depending on how thick or thin you want the sauce to be and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Stir through the green chillies and the garam masala and simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

Allow the curry to stand for a few minutes and spoon off any excess oil if desired. Stir through the coriander and serve.

Lamb Tagine with Saffron, Raisin and Mint Couscous and Harissa

2010-10-31T23:46:00.000-07:00

Aromatic and delicious - Lamb Tagine

Couscous flavoured with saffron, raisins and fresh mint

Hot and garlicky harissa

1st of November in Orange, NSW, Australia, one month before summer and the temperature is 12.4 degrees Celsius. The same time 12 months ago it was 26.9 degrees and continued to rise over the proceeding days - a prelude to the hottest, driest summer in decades. We sweltered in the heat, struggling to keep everything watered with the frugal supplies of rain water that we had then. Now I 'm sitting in front of the fire keeping warm and it doesn't seem to stop raining for long. The good news is the drought that this State, and others throughout Australia, have suffered over the last several years is officially over. The creeks and rivers are flowing like I've never seen before and the dams are full. I've noticed dams over the last few weeks that I didn't even know existed, there just wasn't enough rainfall to fill them. Water restrictions have been eased for the first time in years and the countryside is so green and lush I could be in England.

I've just completed my new book - Curries and Spicy Dishes for your Slow Cooker. I've really enjoyed writing it and of course cooking a whole range of wonderful spicy dishes but I'm glad it's finished. I'm itiching to get out into the garden more. Despite this cold spell and the demands of the book, I have been able to get started with the summer veggies - planting 8 different types of beans, 6 types of tomatoes, 4 types of zucchini, 2 varieties of rockmelons and watermelons, full size and baby capsicums (some so chocolate coloured they look like they are coated in chocolate), sweet corn, pumpkins and an abundance of lettuce and salad vegetables. With so much rain we should get a bumper crop, providing I can protect it from the hares, rabbits and kangaroos.

Podding freshly picked peas and broad beans

In the meantime we are still picking the late winter stuff - delicious broccoli and broccolini, sugar snaps, snow peas, shelling peas and spinach. The broad beans, allthough a labour of love to prepare, have just become ready to pick. Yes, it is a pain to pod them, blanch them and peel them but they are quite delicious served in a whole host of different ways - sauted with a little onion and tomato, drizzled with good olive oil and sprinkled with grated parmesan they are a meal in themselves. With fresh podded peas, sugar snaps and broccoli they are wonderful in a pasta primavera. Or try them lightly cooked in a mustard and cream sauce and served with sliced pork fillet or chicken breast. Yum! They also make a great curry with potatoes, like the Indian Aloo Mattar (potatoes and peas in a spicy, tomatoey sauce). Mmmm. It's making my mouth water.

I love spicy food and whilst Indian food is probably my favourite, I really do enjoy dishes from other regions too. It's fascinating how different cultures can create quite unique flavours with the same spices simply by using some local ingredients or a particular cooking style. Moroccan cuisine is one such example. The spices are very much the same - ginger, cinnamon, chilli, coriander and cumin - but with the inclusion of ingredients like dried fruits, honey and fresh and dried herbs, the flavours and aromas are quite different to spicy dishes from the Indian sub-continent or Southeast Asia. This Lamb Tagine eptomises the wonderful flavours of this cuisine.

Lamb Tagine

The Tagine, which is both the name of the unique cooking pot and the dish itself, is widely seen in the cuisines of North Africa. An ingeniously designed cone shaped lid fits into a flat, circular base with narrow sides. Less tender cuts of meat often combined with several other ingredients such as preserved lemon, dried fruits, honey, olives, spices and a little stock or fruit juice are simmered until the meat is melt-in-your-mouth tender and the flavours deliciously complex. The tall cone of the lid remains cool during cooking, condensing the steam and returning it to the base preventing the food from drying out.

This popular Moroccan dish has a lovely depth of spicy and slightly sweet flavours and the meat is falling-off-the-bone tender. I make it with lamb forequarter chops that I trim and slice into two or three pieces but use whatever cuts you like.

There should be lots of thin, deeply tasty sauce that is perfect to eat with couscous.

Serves 4-5

Preparation time: 30 minutes or less Cook time: 2 ½ - 3 hours

Tagine Spice Mix

2 tsp dried ground ginger

2 tsp paprika

½ tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp cayenne pepper

3 tbsp good quality oil

1 kg (2¼ lbs) lamb with bone in, cut into large pieces

2 medium onions, thinly sliced

3-4 cloves garlic, finely sliced

4 cups (1 litre/2 ¼ pints) hot water

2 x 2.5cm (1 inch) sticks cinnamon

4 green cardamom pods

4 cloves

2 carrots, peeled and diced

2 tsp salt (or to taste)

2 pieces orange peel about 2cm (1 inch) wide and about 7 cm (3 inches) long

6 prunes, chopped in 3 or 4 pieces

Juice of 1 orange

2 tsp honey

Pinch saffron (optional)

To serve: couscous, harissa, salad

Place the lamb in a bowl or other non-corrosive container, add 1 tablespoon of the oil and sprinkle over the spice mix. Mix until all the pieces are well coated with the spice and oil. Cover and set aside.

Heat remaining oil in a large tagine or pan and sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes or until softened. Move to one side and add the meat. Cook the meat pieces turning once or twice until sealed.

Stir in the whole spices, carrots and salt and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat to very low and simmer gently for about an 1 ½ hours. If you cook this in a tagine you won’t need to stir, otherwise stir once or twice during that time.

Add the orange peel, prunes, orange juice, honey and saffron if using, and stir into tagine. Simmer for a further hour or more until the meat is really tender.

Couscous with Saffron Raisins and Mint

Serves 4-5

Preparation and cooking time: 10 minutes or less (plus standing time)

1 ½ cups hot water

Large pinch saffron threads

1 tbsp raisins

2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

¼ tsp salt or to taste

1 ½ cups couscous

2 -3 tbsp chopped fresh mint

Place the water, saffron and raisins in a medium saucepan, cover and set aside for about 30 minutes.

Bring mixture to the boil, and stir in the olive oil, salt and couscous. Remove from the heat, cover again and let stand for 10-12 minutes.

Fluff the couscous and break the lumps to separate the grains using a fork. Stir in the mint and serve.

Harissa

Harissa is a fiery hot, garlicky Middle Eastern chilli paste used to add flavour to a whole range of foods. It can be stirred into soups, rice and couscous. It can be used for basting meat and fish, for flavouring marinades and salad dressings and even stirred into mayonnaise, yoghurt or sour cream for a delicious dip. It’s also easy to make.

I usually make this paste with dried red chillies because it keeps longer but it is just as good made with fresh chillies so use which ever you wish. You can also vary the type of chilli according to how hot you want the paste to be.

Makes about ¾ of a cup

About 40 (30g/1 oz.) dried red chillies

6 cloves garlic, sliced

4 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice or red wine vinegar

½ tsp coarse salt

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

Remove any stalks still attached to chillies and soak in hot water for about half an hour or until soft. If the chillies are very full of seeds, remove about half.

Combine chillies with garlic, olive oil, lemon juice or vinegar and salt and grind down to a paste using a pestle and mortar, blender or food processor.

Stir in the spices and transfer to a clean air tight container. Drizzle on some extra oil and store in the fridge for up to 4 weeks if using dried chillies and up to a week if using fresh.

Pork Tikka Masala

2010-07-28T00:38:00.000-07:00

Succulent pieces of pork in a thick spicy sauce

Where has this year gone? It does not seem that long ago since the beginning of the year when I sat in the cottage looking out on a parched landscape during one of the hottest, driest summers this region has seen in a long time. We were so short of water it was a real challenge to keep the veggie garden going - a problem compounded by the builiding of the main house, and completion of the house seemed like a distant dream. I now sit in that 'distant dream', albeit sparsely furnished, in the middle of the coldest, wettest winters that we've seen in a while! We have had several minimums of -4⁰C with one night getting down to -6⁰C. The heavy frosts have subdued growth of many vegetables that I had growing in abundance during last winter and the rains have delayed starting on the landscaping but I have no complaints. The tanks - including the big one attached to the main house - are over flowing and although I'm frustrated that I can't store the overflow, water shortage should be a thing of past.

Great weather for the Orange Frost Fest

Finally, I have the kitchen that's been about 2 years in the planning and I have spent a lot of time getting to know it! To be able to build a kitchen based on your own specific needs, pandering to every little detail is to be in a cooks paradise. I had a great deal of difficulty getting tradesman to do some of the things I wanted (This kitchen is too big, it will never work. Why do you want drawers under the sink, we always do cupboards? I didn't know (forgot) you wanted two dishwashers, it's too hard to get the plumbing in now!) but I did not compromise, getting things re-done where necessary, and it has paid off. The kitchen is a dream to cook in. Even the kids love working in it - there is a place for everything and everything is in it's place. Remembering where everything is another matter but I've gotten better at it!

The new book - Curries and Spicy Dishes for Your Slow Cooker - is progressing well and there has been a lot of cooking going on. My slow cooker that previously only had the occassional airing has seen a resurgence. I have been converted, using it (or them, I have 3 now) for stews, casseroles, stocks and sauces in preference to the stove top every time. The Pork Tikka Masala recipe below is cooked in a slow cooker and will be in the new book due out early next year. If you don't have a slow cooker, double the amount of water and simmer it on the cook top on a very low flame for 2½ to 3 hours, stirring now and again and adding more water as needed.

Pork Tikka Masala

Chunks of pork shoulder are marinated and slowly cooked until very tender and the whole lot stir fried with an aromatic onion mixture and generous amounts of spices until the juicy meat chunks are coated in a thick, spicy sauce.

Serves 5-6

Cook time: 3-4 hours on High 6-8 hours on Low

Marinade

3 onions, chopped

6-8 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped

Thumb sized piece of ginger, chopped

1 cup (250ml) plain yoghurt

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp good quality oil

1.2 kg pork leg or shoulder, cut into chunks

½ cup hot water

6 tbsp good quality oil

1 tsp turmeric

2 green chillies, finely chopped

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp salt or to taste

1 ½ tbsp garam masala

2 tbsp chopped coriander

To serve: chappatis or other flat bread, dhal, pickles, chutneys, raita or plain yoghurt

Process or finely chop onion, garlic and ginger. Reserve about half of the onion mixture and combine the rest with remaining marinade ingredients. Add pork to marinade and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight if time allows.

Transfer meat and marinade to slow cooker, add water and mix well. Cover and switch slow cooker onto desired setting and cook until meat is very tender but still holding its shape.

The dish can be prepared to this stage up to 24 hours ahead.

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan and add the reserved onion mixture. Stir fry for 4 – 5 minutes on medium – high heat until starting to brown.

Add the cooked meat and juices. Cook on high for 4-5 minutes until about half the liquid has evaporated.

Turn down the heat to medium, add all the remaining ingredients except garam masala and chopped coriander, and stir fry the meat and spices for a further 3-4 minutes until dark. You should have a richly coloured thick sauce by now and it will be releasing the oil.

Stir through the garam masala and cook, stirring, for a further minute or two until the sauce is very thick.

Let the curry stand for a few minutes, during which time it will thicken further. Spoon off excess oil if preferred and serve sprinkled with coriander.

Chilli Chicken Masala, Succulent Grilled Prawns and Mushroom Risotto

2010-04-30T00:05:00.000-07:00

Chilli Chicken Masala

Grilled King Prawns and Mushroom Risotto

It is the end of April already, and coming to the end of Autumn here in Oz. I find myself apologising again for the time between posts. It was the height of summer (and boy has it been a hot one!) when I did the last post and here we are now, almost in winter. What have I been doing? Well, I have made a start on the new book but I have not done nearly as much as I should have done. I have planted some winter veg but no where near as much as last year. Not that we can eat as much as I grew last year, but there were a couple more things I had intended to sow. But I can say, with some relief and pride, that the house is just about done!! It's a hive of activity right now just finishing off the last little bits and pieces - you know, little things that were not quite right or not quite according to plan or just plain got missed. It feels like we've been doing this for ages but it has actually been just over 12 months since we poured the slab.

Being owner builders has meant maintaining almost constant vigil over the building and the last few weeks when you do all the finishing, have been particularly demanding. The kitchen fit out was no exception. We certainly had our fair share of dramas there for one reason or another, but the end result is lovely. In large part due, I think, to Caroline and Peter from our local stone and granite specialists, who provided the bench tops. Their old fashioned skill and dedication was wonderful to witness - the undermount sinks, the mitered edges, the polished surfaces are all just beautifully done. Each sink cut out not only needs some skill to get just right, but takes hours to polish. This is all done in the factory, by hand, and the sink glued in position before transporting the stone to site. Can be a bit tricky. Watching them position everything to the last millimetre, join it expertly and polish it to perfection has been fascinating . I had no idea that stone bench tops required so much time and expertise to make and so much strength and effort to install. "I have a 4 metre island" I said to Caroline when I first went to see her, "and I would really like the bench top to be in one piece, no joins". Considering that Caroline is a tough woman who does more than a bit of the heavy lifting herself, I'm surprised she didn't look at me as though I were from another planet. Apart from the fact that stone comes in a maximum of 3 metre lengths so that it had to be done in 2 pieces, and it's quite brittle so can break easily, it took 3 strong men (plus Caroline and myself) to lift just one 2 metre piece, maneuver it carefully through the door and position it on top of the island without damaging it or anything else. Now how would that go with a 4 metre piece, if there was such a thing? I dread to think. Caroline and I have become friends over the months, talking about our love of the countryside , our dogs and growing our own vegetables, and we laugh about my (former) ignorance now and again.

Move in date? 4 days from today. How about that?

It's a good job too. We've have slowly but surely outgrown the one bedroom cottage (as we call it) with tiny kitchen that we've been living in when in Orange, watching the house go up. My increasing amount of preserves, chutneys and sauces, flours, spices and cooking paraphernalia have virtually taken it over. As much as I enjoy cooking, it has become a bit of a hassle with the relative lack of space and facilities. But the quality of the food certainly makes it worth the effort. Tasty free range chicken, delicious un-waxed crisp apples, sweet and juicy local oranges, our own field mushrooms and vegetables, even beautifully fresh sea food like these delicious prawns.

Fresh King Prawns

These prawns were so fresh that I really didn't want to do much to them at all. I just brushed them with a little butter and lemon juice, seasoned them and grilled them for about 4 minutes under a really hot grill. Wonderful served with a wedge of lemon followed by the mushroom risotto.

Mushroom Risotto

I used some of the field mushrooms that we've had heaps of lately together with some dried porcini, but this recipe is great with wild mushrooms, fresh or dried, swiss browns, shitaki or a combination. Use whatever you can find that is really fresh and tasty.

Serves 3-4

Preparation time: 10 minutes Cook time: 20 minutes

25g dried porcini mushrooms
1.5 litres good chicken or vegetable stock
100g butter
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced or finely chopped
350g Arborio or Carnaroli rice
200g of assorted mushrooms, sliced
200ml dry white wine
1/2 cup grated parmesan

Soak the porcini in half a cup of hot water for a couple of minutes. Drain, reserving the soaking liquid, and slice. Strain the soaking liquid to remove any grit and set aside.

Bring the stock to the boil and keep it at a simmer on very low heat while you make the risotto. Heat half the butter and all the oil in a heavy based pan, add the onion and garlic and saute for a minute or so until transparent.

Add the rice and stir for about 2 minutes until the grains are transparent. Add the fresh and porcini mushrooms and saute until soft, about 2 more minutes.

Add the wine and allow it to evaporate completely before adding two or three ladles of stock plus the soaking liquid. Stir until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Keep adding a ladle of stock at a time, stirring and waiting until it is almost absorbed before adding more.

After about 15 minutes for Arborio rice and a little longer for Carnaroli (this takes a bit longer to cook) the rice should be cooked. Stir in half a teaspoon of salt and some freshly cracked pepper and taste it. The risotto should be creamy and the grains of rice should have only a slight bite. Add a little more stock and cook for a minute more if required.

Remove from heat, stir in remaining butter and parmesan.

Rest the risotto covered for about 3 minutes and serve with more freshly grated parmesan.

Chilli Chicken Masala

Using some pre-prepared curry base such as the Quick Version Curry Secret curry sauce and some preparation done the night before this is as quick as a take away, just as tasty and probably better for you. This popular restaurant dish can be made with thigh or breast fillets or try it with pork fillet for a change.

The red capsicum adds a nice sweetness to the contrasting heat (I used some sweet baby ones I had growing in the garden) and you can vary the type and quantity of hot chillies according to your own heat tolerance. The smaller the chilli the hotter it generally is, so if you don't want it too hot, use the larger milder chillies and adjust the heat with chilli powder.

Serves 4-5

Preparation time: About 20 minutes. Cook time: 15 Minutes

4 tbsp olive oil

600g (1¼ lb) chicken breast fillet, trimmed and sliced into strips

½ red capsicum thinly sliced

3 cups (750ml) curry sauce

2 green chillies, deseeded and sliced into thin strips

2 red chillies, deseeded and sliced into thin strips

3 ½ tsp turmeric

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp chilli powder or to taste

1 tsp salt or to taste

1 ripe tomato, sliced into 8

1 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp chopped coriander

To serve: rice, flat bread such as chappati or nan, pickles, chutneys, raita.

Heat the oil in a deep, heavy based frying pan and add the chicken strips, capsicum and 4 tablespoons of the curry base. Stir fry on medium to high heat for 2-3 minutes. Turn the heat down a little and cook for a further 2-3 minutes until chicken is cooked through and capsicum softens.

Turn the heat up again and stir through the chillies. Cook for a minute and add the remaining curry base, turmeric, paprika, chilli powder and salt.

Bring to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly, until the sauce is thickened and the oil rises to the surface.

Stir through the tomato and garam masala. Simmer for another minute and serve sprinkled with fresh coriander.

Be careful not touch your eyes when cutting up the chillies. Better still wear rubber gloves for this job.

Traditional Marrow Curry, Heirloom Tomato and Feta Salad and Topsy Turvy Peach Cake

2010-03-01T16:39:00.000-08:00

Delciously Spicy Marrow

Salad of home grown Tomatoes, Capsicum and Feta

Topsy Turvy Peach Cake

Christmas has been and long gone and it's a long time since the last post. For that I apologise. I don't know where the weeks have gone. I could do with another 6 hours in the day to do all I have to and all I want to do. The house has taken an inordinate amount of time - we are getting to the finer details now - and bottling and preserving the summer produce has taken almost as much but we now have a years supply of jams, chutneys and pickles of all sorts. We have seared in the summer heat but alas, we have had rain, lots of beautiful rain. 140mm over the Christmas period whilst we were in Sydney and another 90mm a couple of weeks ago. The brown landscape is suddenly green and lush, as though it were never brown at all. Much of the summer produce that was struggling with the dry has become remarkably lively again. The melons, beans and cucumbers that looked as though they wouldn't bear much this year have now gone beserk with producing. And the tanks are full, including the big concrete one we recently had connected to the main house. We have plenty of water and what a great feeling that is.

I always find it such a delight to savour the produce of each season and for me home grown tomatoes, fully ripened on the vine would probably be the highlight of summer, followed very closely by pretty much everything else, but good tomatoes are particularly difficult to find in Australia. I didn't plant too many, but surprisingly, a lot had self seeded from last years planting. They had survived the cold and frost during the winter, the dry during the extraordinarily hot spring and summer and my total neglect of them so I thought some at least deserved the chance to go on. I left more in than I perhaps should have done. And my goodness, did they pay me back! The plants were bigger, stronger and more productive than the ones I planted last year, my first season in Orange. I have been picking kilos and kilos of red, green, black and yellow tomatoes since we got back after Christmas and despite my best efforts I have left a lot more of the yellow ones on the bush than I've managed to pick. There have been just so many of them. I've been making delicious salads and sauces and cooking with them at every opportunity. I have also bottled several kilos to use over winter.

Marrows are not common in Australia so I was pretty pleased to find a few. After just 3 weeks away the zucchini flowers I left behind had turned into these huge vegetables. The marrow is not a vegetable many people know what to do with but in the right recipe with robustly flavoured ingredients it can be absolutely delicious - like the curry (pictured) that my mum use to cook. I made it for the first time since I've been in Australia and promised to take some back to Sydney for my daughter Lisa who was drooling at the thought of it. However, by the time our builder Mark had got some and our architect Nic had got some, there wasn't much left except for what's in the picture. I made a beef and potato curry at the same time but all of that went before I could photograph it. Well, they kept telling me it smelled a whole lot better than their sandwiches so what was I supposed to do? I made another marrow curry the next day and took it all to Sydney for Lisa, so everyone was happy.

Traditional Marrow Curry

If you have never eaten marrow in a curry before, believe me you're in for a treat. It is a delicious combination of robust flavours and textures against the soft juicy chunks of mild flavoured marrow. The fenugreek seeds and leaves are responsible for those robust 'curryish' flavours and are vital for this recipe. The texture and additional spicy flavours come from generous quantities of garlic, ginger and chilli and from a punjabi ingredient called 'Bhadi' (sometimes spelled 'Wadi'), a sundried 'cake' of ground, fermented and spiced moong dhal that is a necessary component of this dish. All ingredients are readily available from Indian grocers.

Serves 4 -6 as a vegetarian main dish. More as a side dish

Preparation and cooking time: about 1 hour

6 tbsp good olive oil

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

60 gm butter or ghee

2 onions, finely chopped

4-6 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped

2 tsp grated ginger,

Small knob of ginger, julliened

3-4 green chillies, finely chopped

2 ripe tomatoes, chopped

2 tsp salt (or to taste)

1 1/2 tsp turmeric

1 marrow (approx 1kg in weight) peeled and chopped into chunks

2 onions, thickly sliced

2 punjabi bhadi, each one broken into 3 or 4 pieces

1 tbsp dried fenugreek leaves (khasoori methi)

1 tsp garam masala

chopped coriander (optional)

To serve: flat breads like roti, mountain bread or parathas and yoghurt or raita

Heat the oil in a large, heavy based sauce pan and add the fenugreek seeds. If the oil is hot enough they should start to pop. Be careful not to burn them as they will turn bitter.
Immediately stir in the butter or ghee and add the onion. Cook the onion for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly until it softens and starts to brown at the edges.
Add the garlic, all the ginger and chillies. Cook for about a minute and stir in the tomato, salt and turmeric. Cook, stirring for another minute or two and put in all the remaining ingredients except for the garam masala and coriander.
Stir well and cook on high heat until the contents start to boil. If the marrow is very fresh you shouldn't need any water, but if it seems dry add 100ml or so of hot water.
Cover and cook on low to medium heat for about 30 - 35 minutes, stirring regularly until the marrow is very tender and the bhadi is soft and breaking up.
Stir in the garam masala and cook for another minute. Serve sprinkled with fresh coriander if using.

Heirloom Tomato and Feta Salad

I've been lucky enough to have half a dozen different varieties of heirloom tomatoes and some really sweet, multi-coloured (including chocolate brown) mini capsicums growing in the veggie garden and together with sweet home-grown salad onions, lettuces and herbs, making great salads has been about as easy as it can get.

This is so simple it hardly needs a recipe. What it does need though is beautiful, sweet tomatoes, maybe some capsicums and some fresh basil or mint leaves. Add some creamy feta chunks, some olives, perhaps some onion rings, drizzle with good quality extra virgin olive oil and fresh lemon juice, sprinkle with freshly cracked pepper and serve with fresh crusty bread or garlicky barbequed lamb chops. Delicious and healthy.

Topsy Turvy Peach Cake

Each Christmas we have what we call a 'roving' Christmas party on the marina where we moor our boat. Half a dozen or so boat owners get together and each boat provides a course and a bottle (or two) of something to be enjoyed on their boat before moving onto the next boat for the next course. I was picked to do desert and coffee this time. Along with the obligatory mince pies I couldn't resist doing something with the best of the season. Sweet, fragrant, juicy peaches signal the return of the wonderful stone-fruit season and the region of Orange is renowned for the quality of its stone fruit. This delicious cake is another great way to use this fabulous fruit, it is quite easy to make and it transported well from Orange to Sydney. It was so good, the mince pies hardly got a look in.

Serves 8-10

Preparation and cooking time about 1 hour 30 minutes.

1 ½ cups organic self-raising flour
½ cup ground almonds
1 cup caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
150g cold butter, cubed
½ cup granulated sugar
4 peaches, stoned and sliced into thinnish wedges
½ cup orange juice
4 free-range eggs
100ml extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp peach or orange liqueur (optional)

To serve: Thick cream or custard.

• Preheat oven to 170°C. Grease and line base of a 24cm round spring form or square cake tin with baking paper.

• Place flour, ground almonds, caster sugar, baking powder and butter in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until mixture resembles fine bread crumbs. Don’t over process. Transfer mixture to a mixing bowl.

• Place granulated sugar and orange juice in a small, heavy-based saucepan and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil. Simmer for about 3 minutes or until thickened slightly. Immediately pour into base of cake tin and top with peach wedges, skin-side down.

• Beat eggs until frothy, combine with olive oil and vanilla extract. Add to dry ingredients in bowl and mix until well combined. Don’t over mix.

• Pour cake batter over peaches and smooth top. Bake for I hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Cover top of the cake with baking paper during cooking if it is browning to quickly.

• Stand cake in tin for about 10 minutes before inverting on to plate. Remove base and baking paper. If using liqueur, prick upturned cake with a skewer and drizzle on liqueur.

• Serve warm or cold.

Slow Cooked Duck Curry with Peach Chutney and Vegetable Pilau

2009-12-14T21:24:00.000-08:00

Slow cooked Duck Curry

Vegetable Pilau

Peach Chutney

Recipe from The New Curry Secret

We are in the big dry. A whopping 80% of the State of NSW is now officially drought declared with the Central Tablelands, within which Orange lies, the latest victim of these harrowing statistics. We had only 25mm of rain last month (November) and it has been hot. The same month the previous year delivered around 135mm of rain without these hot temperatures. Evaporation at this time of year generally exceeds rainfall anyway - 135mm of rain, 145mm evaporation - so it always appears dry but this summer is exceptional. There has been no rain so far this month. The golden hills of straw have begun to turn brown with hot winds thirstily sucking every last drop of moisture out of all in its path including my veggie beds. I have had difficulty getting my summer vegetables going. I put in lots of seeds - carrots, lettuce, beetroot, rainbow chard, radishes and other spring goodies directly into the raised beds but very little germinated. The soil had become dry. I re-sowed and have tried to keep the water up with some success but the soil dries out so quickly it is quite a challenge, particularly as we are still away in Sydney every couple of weeks. I'm continuing to water the fruit trees with washing up water, scooping the last cupful out of the sink, and now I take a bucket into the shower too. Every bucket full is a tree watered. My heart goes out to the farmers. The odd bucket full of water won't help them much. To compound my sadness, we saw the cattle off to the sale yards this afternoon. They had eaten the last blades of dry grass and were being hand fed - an expensive exercise. The paddock below looks a little empty without them.

Delivering a bale of hay for hungry cows

(the concrete water tank that will service the main house in the back ground)

Despite all this, I feel this is truly God's country. It's beauty and serenity scarcely diminished by the hot, dry, dusty summer conditions. When we sit out on the verandah of our little cottage in the evening, look over the hills that roll along for miles and feel the cool mountain air on our faces, the heat of the day becomes a distant memory.

It's hard to imagine that we are sitting bang in the middle of the crater of a huge volcano that stopped breathing probably some millions of years ago, but we actually are. The rich volcanic soils and the (usually) cool mountain climate is ideal for growing food and I love it here. The main house is nearing completion, the plasterers and tilers are in there right now and a late March to early April move-in is now imminent. Look out for lots of cooking and blogging when I have a real kitchen!

In the meantime I manage reasonably well (albeit with a little frustration) with a couple of hotplates in the little cottage kitchen, making chutneys, sauces and preserves to take advantage of the lovely local produce. Totally Local, my favourite place for anything I don't grow yet, have begun stocking duck. I bought one a little while ago, cut it into portions, roasted the breasts and froze the remainder. Served with fresh vegetables from the garden, roasted pear and a sauce made with my quince paste, the duck breast was delicious. A couple of days ago, I felt I needed a curry fix and with all that duck taking room in the freezer it was the obvious choice. I don't normally use duck for curries, but was encouraged to do so by John Byrne asking me a little while ago if I had a duck curry recipe. I hadn't so John sent me one. John is a self proclaimed fan of my books and through his questions and suggestions via e-mail we have become friends. He is also now a fellow blogger with some wonderful recipes on his blog Easy Cooking Easy Recipes.

I have not followed John's recipe yet but I have definitely drawn inspiration from it.

Slow Cooked Duck Curry

This is an easy recipe that produces a rich spicy curry that is even better when eaten the next day. So if time permits cook it the day before you intend to eat it to let the flavours develop. The fruity sweetness of the peach chutney is ideal with this curry but mango or any other sweet chutney would be also be good.

Duck has a lot of fat under the skin and as you can see from the picture, there is quite a bit of oil on top of the sauce. I spooned at least two tablespoons of it off the top before serving the curry and unless you like your curries quite greasy, it's a good idea to do that. Or you can remove the skin and discard it after you have browned the duck pieces to reduce the oilyness.

Serves 4

Spice blend: Grind or pound to a fine powder 1 tsp fennel seeds, 2cm piece cinnamon, 2 cloves, 4 green cardomoms, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp cumin, ½ tsp black peppercorns.

1 duck approx 1.8-2.0 kg in weight

3 large cooking onions, roughly chopped

4 large cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

Thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped

2 or more green chillies, chopped

1-2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp sugar

2 fresh ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 ½ -2 tsp salt to taste

½ tsp garam masala

1 tbsp chopped coriander

Cut the duck into pieces - 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks and 4 breast pieces. You might like to keep the wings too, but discard the wing tips. Remove the excess fat and skin that hangs from the sides and ends of the bird, leaving only the skin on top of the meat. Rinse well and pat dry with kitchen paper.
Place the onion, garlic, ginger and green chillies in the bowl of a food processor and process until finely chopped. Set aside.
Heat a large heavy based sauce pan or crock pot on medium heat and spray with a little oil. Add about half the duck pieces, skin side down and brown well. Make sure the pan is hot enough and don't overcrowd or the duck will stew rather than brown.
Turn each piece over and brown on the other side.
Transfer browned duck pieces to a clean bowl or plate and repeat with remaining duck pieces until all the duck is nicely browned.
There will be quite a bit of duck fat in your pan by now. Stir the prepared spices into the hot duck fat and cook for a minute or until aromatic.
Add onion mixture and a tablespoon of oil and cook on low-medium heat stirring, for about 7 minutes. You don't need to brown the onion but add some more oil if pan seems too dry.
Stir in the turmeric followed by the sugar tomatoes and salt. Turn down the heat and cook covered for about 5 minutes, stirring once or twice until the tomatoes are pulpy.
Return the duck pieces and any juices to the pan and stir around the pan until all the pieces are coated in the sauce.
Add 3 cups of water and bring to boil. Turn the heat to low, cover pan and simmer for 1½ - 2 hours unitl the duck is very tender and the meat is almost falling off the bone. Stir the sauce and turn over duck pieces every 15 minutes or so during that time.
Stir in the garam masala and simmer for a minute. Turn off the heat and sprinkle with fresh coriander. Serve with chutney, rice and chappatis or nan. Yum!

Vegetable Pilau

Unless you're serving a vegetable side dish with the duck curry, this pilau is perfect with this spicy curry. I've only used diced carrot in this recipe because that's about all I had but a combination of carrots, peas and beans would be nice.

This method of cooking rice will produce lovely fluffy results everytime.

1 cup Basmati rice

1 tbsp ghee or olive oil
1 large or two small carrots, peeled and diced
2 tbsp finely chopped onion
4 green cardamoms
3 cloves
1¾ cups cold water
½ tsp salt

Wash the rice in several changes of water and leave to drain in a large sieve. Pre-heat oven to 170°C, 325°F or gas mark 3.
Heat the ghee or oil in a heavy based pan with a tight fitting lid and stir fry the carrot, onion and spices for 2 minutes on medium heat.
Stir in the drained rice and mix well to coat all the grains with the ghee or oil. Cook on medium heat for about a minute.
Add the water and salt and bring to the boil. Once boiling, turn the heat to very low and place the lid firmly on the pan.
Stir the rice after about 5 minutes, and again after about 3 minutes. Re-cover and leave for a further 4-5 minutes after which time all the water will have been absorbed.
Place pan in oven for about 20 minutes to dry off the rice.
Transfer pilau to serving dish taking care not to break the grains of rice. Fluff up with fork. Serve immediately or cool and refrigerate for later use.
Re-heat in a microwave oven for about 2 minutes.

Peach Chutney

This fruity chutney goes well with cold meats, cheese and sausages as well as spicy curries. You can buy bruised and misshapen fruit but it’s important that it is sweet and ripe as tasteless fruit will produce tasteless chutney. Nectarines work well in this recipe too.

Makes about 500 ml (18 fl oz)

1 kg ripe peaches
2 large onions, sliced
200g golden raisins
250ml cold water
370ml malt vinegar
250g white sugar
2 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp chilli powder

Wash fruit well, remove stones and chop flesh coarsely. Place in a large heavy based saucepan with the raisins and water, bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 20 minutes, stirring once or twice.
Add all remaining ingredients and bring slowly back to the boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
Simmer partly covered for about 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Spoon the hot chutney carefully into warm sterilised jars, place lids on firmly and invert each jar for two minutes.
Store chutney in a cool dry place. Store in the fridge after opening

Salmon Kalia, Easy Passionfruit Ice-Cream and Super Quick Cake for Tea

2009-11-10T18:46:00.000-08:00

Salmon Kalia

(from The New Curry Secret)

Light and delicious - sponge cake cooked in the microwave

and topped with chocolate icing and dessicated coconut

The thermometer outside is reading 38°C, inside it is a comparitively cool 29.3°C. Less than 3 weeks ago it was so different, we had the log fire blazing each evening and were savouring winter vegetables in warming curries, casseroles and soups. It seems like just overnight we've gone from comfort food to light salads. It has been warm to hot for several days now and it hasn't rained for a while. The ground outside my window is like a thick carpet of golden straw, except around the building area of the main house where the excavators have dug up the red clay which is now covering everything with a layer of red dust. We are short of rain water and whilst we can buy town water I've taken to carrying a bucket with me into the shower, using the washing up water and catching anything that drips to water the trees. My husband is not sure what to make of my new found frugality but I feel the need to conserve such a precious resource.

There's no air conditioning in the cottage and the cooking facilities are meagre taking into account my love of cooking. We hadn't planned to spend so much time here until the house was built but it is a lovely peaceful environment in stark contrast to the fast moving rat race that is Sydney and we love it. With the ceiling fans going it is bearable as long as you don't move around too fast or cook. Baking is definitely out! However, we need a change from salad tonight and the cake tin is empty, and whilst I've never been a huge fan of microwaved cakes this is one of those times it seems like a great idea. I have some curry sauce in the freezer so the Salmon Kalia will be a cynch and the ice-cream takes no effort at all!

Salmon Kalia

This tasty, satisfying curry with its origins in Bengal is traditionally made with a Carp like fish called Katla. The delicious aromatically spiced sauce is flavoured with a special spice blend called Panch Phoran (five spices) which complements the oily fish beautifully. Salmon is an excellent substitute for the traditional fish but other varieties of fish can also be used.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 20 – 25 minutes

Spice Blend
½ tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tsp onion seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds

4 salmon cutlets or fillets about 200g (7 oz) each
1 tsp turmeric
1 ½ tsp salt or to taste
2 tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely sliced
2 tsp tomato paste (tomato puree double concentrate)
600ml (21 fl. oz) curry sauce
1 tsp paprika
3 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 ripe tomato sliced into 8 wedges (or 4 cherry tomatoes halved)
2 hot red chillies, de-seeded and sliced, or to taste
½ tsp garam masala
2 tbsp chopped coriander

Combine all the spices for the spice blend and set aside. Mix half the turmeric with half of the salt and rub over the fish. Set aside.
Heat the oil in a deep, heavy based frying pan and add the spice blend. Stir around in the hot oil for about 20 seconds until the seeds start to pop and add the garlic. Fry for another few seconds and stir in the tomato paste and remaining turmeric.
Stir fry for a minute and add the curry sauce, paprika and the remaining salt. Bring to the boil and cook on high for 2 minutes until thickened slightly. Turn down the heat and stir in the yoghurt. Simmer while preparing the fish.
Heat a separate pan capable of holding all the fish in a single layer. Cook on high heat for a minute each side or until lightly browned.
Transfer the fish to the sauce and turn the pieces in the sauce until each piece is completely coated. Bring to the boil and turn down the heat. Cover and simmer for 10 - 15 minutes, turning once. Stir in the tomatoes half way through.

Transfer to a serving platter or plates, sprinkle with the red chillies, garam masala and coriander and enjoy with rice.

Easy Passionfruit Ice-Cream

Everyone loves ice-cream and everyone can enjoy this without guilt. It is low in fat yet tastes creamy and delicious. In fact you can leave the cream out altogether and make up the quantity with evaporated milk, it still tastes great. The passion fruit gives it a really yummy fruity aroma and flavour but you can leave it out and stir in half a teaspoon of vanilla extract instead.

Serves 8-10

225ml (8 fl. oz) sweetened condensed milk
600 ml (14 fl oz) light evaporated milk
200 ml single or double cream
6-8 passion fruits

Whisk the two types of milk and cream if using in a bowl until well combined and frothy. Pour into your ice-cream maker and set to churn according to manufacturers instructions.
Meanwhile remove pulp from passion fruit. Press half of pulp through a sieve to remove seeds. Discard seeds. This is optional of course. I don't like too many seeds so I prefer to remove some but you may choose to leave them all in or remove all of them. It's entirely up to you.
Add pulp to ice-cream maker and continue to churn until ready.

If you don’t have an ice-cream maker, place the mixture in the freezer. Remove from the freezer after 30 minutes and beat with a whisk or a fork until smooth. Repeat twice more and freeze until hard.

Super Quick Cake

This takes about 15 minutes all up and is great with a cup of tea of coffee. The olive oil helps make the sponge moist and makes it more healthy too. For a variation, I sometimes make it without the icing and include a generous amount of organic, sulphur free sultanas stirred into the cake batter for a really moist, fruity cake.

Genuine free range eggs are essential to give the cake a nice golden colour.

6 tablespoons organic self-raising flour
4 tablespoons caster sugar
60g (2oz) cold butter
3 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
2 large or 3 small free range eggs
1/2 cup organic milk
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Chocolate Icing
3 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp dutch cocoa powder
1 tbsp boiling water
1 cup dessicated coconut

Grease a 20cm round or square microwave proof cake dish and line with baking paper.
Place the flour, sugar and chopped up butter into the bowl of a food processor and process for a minute or two until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
Whisk together the oil, eggs, milk and vanilla extract . Make a well in middle of the dry ingredients and add the liquid mixture.
Gently fold in until well combined but do not over mix.
Transfer batter to cake dish and microwave on high for 5 minutes. Allow the cake to stand for 3-4 minutes and check if cooked by inserting a skewer or knife into it. It should come out clean. If not, microwave at 30 second intervals until done.
Turn out the cake onto a wire rack and allow it to cool completely.
To make the chocolate icing, combine the icing sugar and cocoa and add the boiling water. Mix well and add another tablespoon or so of cold water until you have thick, glossy easily spreadable icing.
Pour onto the cake and spread to cover. Sprinkle on the coconut, slice and serve.

Cheats Samosas, Traditional Lemon Pickle & Quince Paste

2009-10-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

A quick fix for Samosa lovers

Traditional Lemon Pickle

Notes from diary 25 August 2009. It's been cold with some morning frosts but the weather is just starting to improve. The locals tell me that it's been a mild winter in Orange this year. I thought it had been a very cold one. I've clearly become too accustomed to the sub-tropical Sydney climate, and I've still got the cold winters of Orange to look forward to, brrr!. Well it serves me right I suppose, I've been boasting to all my Sydney friends and acquaintances about what a lovely climate we have here and yes, it does have it's plusses. The lovely warming log fires, the deeply satisfying comfort food and the beautiful winter produce. Firm and tasty brussels sprouts, deliciously white and sweet cauliflowers, fresh and juicy unwaxed limes and lemons. These are the things I've been buying from Totally Local and the monthly farmers markets as well as silky smooth fresh sheeps milk cheeses, aromatic locally produced olive oils, the tastiest potatoes ever and lots more that I don't have growing yet. The cooking apples (a Russian variety I think) have been wonderful. This is the first time I've been able to buy real cooking apples here in Australia and we've been enjoying the best crumbles and fruit pies I've had in a long time.

Quince Paste and Jam

The quince is an unfortunate looking fruit, a bit like an ugly, oversized pear with an overcoat of some of the apples least favourable characteristics. Raw it is colourless, odourless and tasteless and furiously difficult to prepare. However, cooked with some sugar it becomes enticingly rosy, impossibly fragrant and deliciously fruity and sweet - a transformation nothing short of miraculous.

Foolishly I decided to buy some at the farmers markets. I made some quince paste with half and jam with the rest - quince jam is easier to make than the paste. The jam combined with the apples made a heavenly crumble and the paste was so delicious eaten with the local cheeses, it lasted less than a week. A good excuse to go to lunch at Sisters Rock at Borrie's beautiful orchard and vineyard and buy a whole lot more to make a big batch. I started on them after breakfast the next day. I spent the entire day peeling and chopping the rock hard fruit (after battling with the first one or two I microwaved them to make peeling and chopping easier) and boiling and pureeing and boiling the living day lights out of the resulting puree, while it bubbled and popped all over the walls and ceiling and eventually turned a rich dark brown. Phew! I fell into bed exhausted and determined not to repeat the exercise ever again. To make matters worse, when I went to slice it the following day, it hadn't set. Or least the stuff in the dishes hadn't, the numerous blobs on the walls and ceiling did! I gave it another day, in hope, but had to pour the whole lot back into the pan and boil, splash and pop it some more. I ended up with about a week's cleaning and a year's supply of delicious quince paste if I don't let the kids steal too much of it.

If anyone's daft enough like to me to want to make quince paste and you would like the recipe, e-mail me and I will send it to you.

My winter veggie garden has been doing really well. Winter vegetables really do need cold weather and they are just thriving in this climate. In fact most winter veggies actually improve in flavour after being exposed to frosts and I can vouch for that - we've been enjoying the sweetest, tastiest broccoli, parsnips, baby cauliflowers and spinach that I've ever eaten.. The Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan) has been particularly tender and tasty as have the snow peas. There have been no problems with pests or deseases and I've hardly had to water them. After the challenges of the summer season this has been so incredibly easy.

Chinese Broccoli

The broad beans looking healthy and robust

Beetroot Bulls Blood - deep red leaves and roots, both of which can be eaten

Well, now for these Cheats Samosas. For someone who makes quince paste why would I think of cheating on making samosas? Anyone who's made samosas 'from scratch' will tell you it is a labour intensive process. Not quite as bad as making quince paste but never-the-less, it is time consuming. In these time poor days most people buy ready made samosas, but they are not a patch in terms of flavour and freshness as home-made. These Cheats Samosas are quick and absolutely delicious.

The secret is to make your own tasty filling and use shop bought tortillas for the pastry casing. It works well.

Cheats Samosas

I love the carrots in this recipe for added flavour and texture, but you can omit them and make up the quantity with more potato.

Makes 12 Samosas

50g (2 oz) diced carrot
150g (5oz) diced potato
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced
2cm piece of ginger, grated or finely chopped
1 or 2 green chillies, finely chopped
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp of cumin seeds
salt to taste
3 tbsp frozen peas
1 tsp of ambchoor or juice or half a lemon
½ tsp garam masala
6 flour tortillas

Oil for deep frying

Boil carrot in salted water for 5 minutes and add the potato. Cook until vegetables are tender but not breaking apart. Drain.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a heavy based sauce pan and add the onion. Fry for a few minutes over medium heat until beginning to colour around the edges.
Add the ginger, chillies, turmeric, cumin and salt and stir fry for 2 minutes. Stir in the cooked vegetables, peas, ambchoor and garam masala. Mix well over low heat for a few minutes so that the vegetables absorb the spices.
Turn off the heat and allow the filling to cool.
Dampen a tortilla by dipping briefly in warm water. Slice in half and bring the cut sides together, slightly overlapping, to make a hollow cone. Seal by pressing the cut sides together firmly. You may need to dampen the edges with a little more water.
Fill about ¾ full with the potato mixture, being careful not to overfill. Pinch the open ends together firmly to enclose the filling. Set aside and repeat with remaining tortillas.
Deep fry in batches and drain on a wire rack. Serve hot with Tamarind Sauce or tomato ketchup.

Tamarind Sauce:
2 tsp of tamarind paste
200 ml (7fl.oz) warm water
½ tsp salt
½ chilli powder
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp ambchoor
1tbsp tomato ketchup
1 carrot, grated
1 tbsp diced red onion
1 tbsp of chopped coriander

Dissolve the tamarind paste in the water. Add the remaining ingredients and mix to combine.

Traditional Lemon Pickle
There are lots of different recipes for lemon and lime pickle, with and without oil. Home-made pickles are intensely flavoursome, much more so than most commercial brands, and it is worth making some. This recipe is really simple and allows the fresh flavour of the lemons or limes and other ingredients to really shine through. It is great with all sorts of food and you can even use the pickled lemon for recipes that call for preserved lemons.

Vary the quantities of ginger, chillies and garlic according to preference.

500g (1lb 3oz) lemons or yellow limes
12 red chillies
100g (3oz) ginger
1 bulb garlic
2 tsp turmeric
3 tbsp salt
1 tsp chilli powder
100ml (3 fl. oz) white vinegar or lemon juice

Rinse the lemons and chillies and wipe dry. Peel the ginger and slice thickly. Divide the garlic bulb in to cloves and peel.
Spread the ingredients out on the bench top or large tray and air dry over night or for at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile, rinse a large glass or ceramic jar and lid (needs to be a tight fitting one) in hot soapy water. Rinse in very hot water and dry thoroughly.
Combine turmeric, salt and chilli powder in a small bowl.
Quarter the lemons and place about a third of them in the jar. Add about a third of the garlic, ginger slices and chillies and sprinkle over about a third of the turmeric mixture. Pour over about a third of the lemon juice or vinegar.
Repeat twice more with remaining ingredients.
Shake the jar well and place in bright light (preferable sunlight) on a window ledge or outdoors during the day if weather permits.
Shake the jar at least twice daily to mix the ingredients for 7-14 days. In hot sunny weather this pickle will be ready to eat in 7 or 8 days.
Store the pickle in a cool place.

Parsi Chicken with Apricots and Hatho Brinjal

2009-09-22T20:57:00.000-07:00

Parsi Apricot Chicken - deliciously aromatic, fruity flavours

Hatho Brinjal - flavoursome combination of eggplant, potato, tomatoes, peas and shredded coconut
Recipes from THE NEW CURRY SECRET

Notes from diary April 2009. It's getting towards the end of April and winter will soon be upon us but right now it is unseasonally warm and unfortunately still quite dry. The rains this year have been a little shy in showing themselves and, as the building of the main house started a little over three weeks ago, it doesn't help that the builders are using lots of water. We are having to buy town water. A big truck brings about 18,000 litres of water at a time and pumps it into what we call the 'cow tank.' This is the tank that provides drinking water for the cattle. Once the house it is built with it's 126,000 litre rain water tank the cow tank will take the overflow from that but for now we have to refill it with purchased water. For the first time we have had to pump water out of this tank into the cottage tank as that has run very low.

The 20,000 litre 'cow' tank

The good thing about the extended summer weather is that we are still picking capsicums, beans and other veg which would normally have finished by by now. It's just as well because my winter veggies are getting off to a slow start. I started them off in seed trays and have been carting them off in card board boxes to Sydney and back so that I can keep them watered. It has not been a successful exercise - I lost some on the journey to Sydney and some on the way back. Second time around I bought some plastic germination boxes with lids so those sowings faired a lot better. Those that I sowed direct into the raised garden beds are getting off to a better start. I've sown just about every variety of winter veg that's available but I'm particularly looking forward to the purple kohl rabi, ruby red sprouts, broad beans and Chinese and Italian broccoli. The brassicas, the family of plants that these veg fall into are particularly prone to the caterpillar of the Cabbage White butterfly which munches its way through the succulent young leaves and totally destroys the plant. I have proof that is true as my emerging kohl rabi plants have been completely eaten and I have been picking green grubs off the Chinese broccoli leaves. I've read that the Cabbage White will only lay its eggs on plants that have not previously been used by other Cabbage Whites for egg laying and you can fool it by scattering pieces of white eggshell around the plants to make it look like others got there first! Mmmm. I'll try that, otherwise I'll have to do a late sowing so that it's past Cabbage White season by the time the leaves emerge.

Growing food has been keeping me busy but I'm also persuing my other love - cooking it. I'm holding my first cooking class for Lesley Russell of the Orange Regional Cooking School soon. I think Parsi Apricot Chicken and Hatho Brinjal will go down well.

Parsi Chicken with Apricots

This delicious Parsi dish has a lovely balance of sweet and sour flavours derived from juicy apricots, soft brown sugar and vinegar. Lamb can be used instead of chicken for a change.

Serves 2-3

450g chicken breast, sliced into bite sized pieces

450ml curry sauce (recipe in The New Curry Secret or use the Quick Version Curry Secret curry sauce)

3 tbs olive oil

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp salt

2 tsp tomato paste

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp paprika

6 dried apricots – quartered

1 tsp soft brown sugar

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tbsp thick cream

1 tsp garam masala

1 tbsp chopped coriander

Cook the chicken first:-

Heat one tablespoon of oil in a heavy based saucepan and stir in half the turmeric and about 1 tablespoon of the curry sauce. When it starts to bubble, add the chicken pieces stirring well to coat in the oil.
Sprinkle over half the salt and simmer, stirring now and again for 10-12 minutes until chicken is cooked through.
Lift the chicken pieces out of the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside until ready to proceed with the recipe.

When you are ready to make the curry:-

Heat the oil in a large, heavy based frying pan and add the tomato puree and turmeric. Stir fry for a minute.
Add the curry sauce, salt, chilli powder, paprika, apricots, sugar and vinegar. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes.
Stir in the chicken and bring back to the boil and simmer, stirring often, for another 5 minutes.
Stir in the cream and garam masala. Simmer for a minute. Serve sprinkled with coriander.

Tip:- The chicken and curry sauce can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. That's how they do it in Indian restaurants

Hatho Brinjal

Eggplant or aubergine, (known as brinjal in India) is a common and popular vegetable in Indian cooking. It is easy to grow, nutritious and incredibly versatile. It can be fried, roasted, stuffed, mashed, pickled and anything in between!

Good on its own, it also marries well with potatoes and coconut as in this very tasty south Indian dish.

Serves 4 – 6

4 smallish thin eggplant
1 large or 2 small potatoes
4 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp salt
1 tsp turmeric
2 tbsp grated coconut (or desiccated coconut)
350ml curry sauce (recipe in The New Curry Secret or use the Quick Version Curry Secret curry sauce recipe)
1 tsp chilli powder
100g (3 oz) frozen peas
½ tsp garam masala
1 tbsp chopped coriander

Slice each eggplant in half and each half into 3 or 4 thick slices depending on the size of the eggplant. Peel the potatoes and cut into slices a little smaller than the eggplant so that they will cook in around the same time.
Heat the oil in deep, heavy based saucepan, add the cumin and coriander and fry for a few seconds.
Stir in the tomatoes and salt and cook for 2 – 3 minutes until pulpy and add the turmeric and coconut.
Stir fry for a minute and add the potato and eggplant.
Stir on medium heat for about 3 minutes and add the curry sauce and chilli powder. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring once or twice until the vegetables are tender. Add a little water if the sauce is becoming to dry.
Remove lid, add the peas and simmer uncovered for a further 5 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated.
Stir in the garam masala and simmer for a minute. Serve sprinkled with coriander.

Salad Caprese and Minute Steak on Wild Rocket

2009-09-06T23:20:00.000-07:00

Salad Caprese

Steak on Wild Rocket

As one journey nears its end, another one is beginning. What have I learnt?

Notes from diary March 22nd 2009. So many melons and sweet corn have gone to waste because they were ready for harvesting several days ago when we were in Sydney that I almost feel cheated, but that’s what happens when you’re only there half the time!

Remarkably, the beans have recovered and are bearing so many purple, green and mottled beans I am picking them every day and offering them to anyone that calls in. Some of the snow pea plants grew again from the roots I left behind and are producing a fresh crop of tender, sweet snow peas. There are carrots galore, a purple variety called Purple Dragon with orange flesh and a yellow core and other more normal looking ones. The crook neck zucchini is spent but we got plenty of tender fruit from them over the last weeks. I’ve dedicated hours tying the tomatoes up and we’ve been eating them with everything. There are plenty of herbs and the rainbow chard just goes on and on. Each evening I pick whatever is ready to be harvested thinking we'll never eat all this, but we invariably do. The flavours are wonderul.

Sweet yellow tomatoes

Rattlesnake beans (top) and King Purple

This first season of growing my own food is coming to an end. It has been an interesting and rewarding experience and I have learnt a lot. There have been some lows but plenty of highs. Witnessing the miracle of tiny seeds overcoming and surviving some pretty tough challenges and growing into enormous, healthy, tasty plants and fruits has been tremendously uplifting. I will do some things differently next time but we can hardly say this season has been a failure. I ask myself, why do more people not grow at least some of their own food?

It is now autumn in Australia and time for the next journey - winter crops! Broccoli, Kohl Rabi, Broad Beans, Cauliflowers, Sprouts, Kale etc. etc. I've got packets and packets of heirloom and organic seeds. I can't wait.

Salad Caprese

We are having a warm autumn. Some days are getting to 35°C so salads and quick to cook meals are the order of the day. Besides, we have to do something with all the lovely ripe tomatoes and crisp, peppery rocket.

This Italian salad couldn't be easier or healthier. Goodness packed tomatoes, fresh milky buffalo bocconcini drizzled with the best olive oil and sprinkled with fresh herbs is a sublime combination. It makes a wonderful lunch with some fresh crusty bread to mop up the delicious juices or a substantial starter to a main meal. As this dish is so simple, its success depends on the quality of the ingredients, so buy the sweetest tomatoes, the freshest bocconcini and the best olive oil you can.

To serve 4

4 ripe tomatoes
8-10 balls baby bocconcini, drained
2 tbsp of the best extra virgin olive oil you have
Fresh basil leaves, torn
Freshly cracked black pepper

Slice the tomatoes and bocconcini and arrange on a serving plate. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with the torn basil and cracked pepper.
Serve with crustry bread

Minute Steak on Wild Rocket

Another simple, tasty and nutritious meal. Quick to prepare on a hot day and wonderful with a glass or two or good red wine.

To serve 4

800g rump steak (2 large steaks), trimmed
3-4 cups of wild rocket leaves
sea salt flakes
2-3 tbsp good extra virgin olive oil
2 tbsp white balsamic (optional)
Freshly cracked black pepper

Slice each steak in two crosswise. Place each piece between two pieces of plastic wrap and beat with a meat mallet or rolling pin until thin.
Lay the steak in a single layer on a large plate and lighly spray or sprinkle with olive oil and freshly ground black pepper each side.
Heat a large pan or barbecue. Meanwhile, divide the rocket amongst four large serving plates, sprinkle with a little sea salt, olive oil and white balsamic if using.
Lightly salt the steak and cook for a minute each side in a very hot pan.
Immediately place on top of the rocket and serve with crisped potatoes.

For crisped potatoes, microwave potatoes until tender. Peel and slice thickly and salt lightly. Crisp in a moderately hot oiled pan for about 5 minutes each side until golden and crisp. These are a tasty and healthy alternative to chips.

Spicy Pakora and Thai Sweet and Sour Eggplant

2009-09-06T18:39:00.000-07:00

Crispy chick pea flour batter enclosing juicy chunks of eggplant

Scrumptious Sweet and Sour Eggplant

It seems to just get better until a 5.00am phone call from England changes my world.

Notes form diary January 5th 2009. It’s incredible. The melons have spread all over the ground, the leaves barely concealing their bounty of ripening fruit. The rampant zucchetta have taken over the fence, the crook neck zucchini have taken over half the bed and we have so much chard, rocket, lettuce, radishes, bok choy, tomatoes, snow peas and beans I don’t know what we will do with them all. We even have carrots. I cannot contain my delight. The pleasure of picking and eating this ultra fresh, home grown, chemical free produce is beyond words. It’s a cinch to get your ‘5-a-day’ when vegetables taste this good. Vegetables so delicious that they are in stark contrast to the uniform, commercially grown, tasteless things we buy from the supermarkets here. And we have so much of them we can feed ourselves and the neighbourhood for the next month. I particularly want to try the zucchetta – a thin, cucumber length, pale green zucchini like vegetable and a member of the marrow family – so that evening I make a delicious dish Dhal with Zucchetta, that my mum often makes with a similar vegetable. It’s fresh, spicy flavours are fantastic with the Chicken Tikka that my husband cooks on the barbecue. We serve it with crisp, fresh salad leaves from the garden. He’s really pleased, but mostly because he doesn’t have much grass to cut. The place is almost a dust bowl. There has been a fair bit of rain but the evaporation at this time of year is much higher than the rainfall. The hills are golden with dry grass.

Basket of just pick summer vegetables - from left, purple carrots, rainbow chard, sweetcorn and zucchetta

January 9th 2009, 5.00am and the shrill ringing of the telephone wakes us from our slumber. My mother has passed away. It is not totally unexpected but the news still comes as a terrible shock. We were planning one of our regular trips to see her in March but now we need to go as soon as possible. Murphy’s Law would have it that we are also starting the excavations for the main house today. We get these done and put everything else on hold. I ask Dave down the hill to pick whatever he wants but I don’t do much else. We leave Windera a couple of days later and head to England on the 16th so that I can give my dear mum the sending off she's meticulously instructed me to do. The days between have been a bit of a blur.

February 6th back in Orange. We’ve been away for 4 weeks. The fence protection has been torn to smithereens by the hot winds. The radishes, lettuces, bok choy, rocket, snow peas and beans have all gone to seed, the dry pods dangling forlornly in the hot summer breeze. I have cucumbers and zucchetta the size of giant marrows, totally inedible and the vines have taken over everything in their path. The crook neck zucchini are over sized and dry - good only for decoration. Summer vegetables need to be harvested at least twice a week to keep on going and they haven't been picked for a month. The heavy sadness I feel gnawing ferociously at my heart is not because of what I see but because it is an affirmation of the duties I have recently performed and of my loss.

Dried out Crook-neck Zucchini (top) and saving seed from the dried beans and peas

There are so many tomatoes, particularly the little yellow ones, the weight has dragged the bushes down. They needed tying up as they grew but of course that didn't happen. I spend the next two days tying the tomatoes up, picking baskets full of little yellow fruit, pulling out tons of zucchetta and cucumber vines and compositing everything. There is mildew on the leaves but there are still some flowers and small fruit on the crook neck zucchini, so I cut off the overgrown fruits and leave most of the plants intact. I’m not sure if the beans will continue to fruit now that the plants have put so much energy into producing seed pods but I snip off all the dried pods and leave the plants. I save some dried beans and peas for seed and a few handfuls to use as a green manure and discard the rest. I snip off the pea plants leaving the roots in the soil. Being a legume, the roots have nodules that will release nitrogen into the soil for the next crop. The wind is still blowing everything about.

Remarkably though, there's still plenty left to eat. There are lots of fragrant, juicy carrots and radiantly colourful rainbow chard. It looks quite majestic - robust and tall with perfect lush green leaves. The sweet corn is ready to eat and so tender and creamy you can eat it raw. I pick one and take it to the house. We eat it straight away, it's incredibly delicious. A couple of the melons are ready to pick so I pick them for dessert. Mmm! impossibly sweet, juicy and fragrant.

Keen not to let anything go to waste, I spend several hours making Passata with the little yellow tomatoes and Tomato Relish with a green variety.

Our draughtsman/architect is coming over for a drink this evening. Time to make something tasty to serve with drinks. I bought a lovely fresh eggplant from Totally Local, it will make delicious pakora.

Spicy Pakora

You can use just about any seasonal vegetables to make pakora. Cauliflower, mushrooms, potato and onions, either alone or combined are great choices. Chunks of fish are delicious too. Pakora are very easy to make.

Enough for 4-5 people as a snack.

Preparation and cooking time: 25- 30 mins

180g (6oz) gram flour (besan)
1 tsp salt
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 green chilli, finely chopped
½ tsp of chilli powder (optional)
1 heaped tsp mint sauce (optional)
½ tsp garam masala
½ tsp of ground methi (optional)
2 cups eggplant (auberjine) chunks
Oil for deep frying

• Sieve the gram flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Add enough water to make into a thick batter.

• Stir in chillies, mint sauce, garam masala and methi if using.

• Allow the batter to stand for about 10 minutes before adding the chunks of eggplant and stirring around in the batter until all the pieces are well coated.

• Drop spoonfuls into hot oil and fry over medium heat for about 5 minutes per batch until cooked through. Be careful not to overcrowd the pan.

• Drain on kitchen towels and serve hot.

Sweet and Sour Eggplant with Basil

This is how I used the remainder of the eggplant. I served it with a Yellow Chicken Curry and rice, yum. The secret of this delicious, flavour packed dish is to use the freshest, tastiest eggplant you can get. Any variety will do but it works really well with the large, plump purple eggplant. Or try it with white for an interesting change.

The secret of this delicious, flavour packed dish is to use the freshest, tastiest eggplant you can get. Any variety will do but it works really well with the large, plump purple eggplant. Or try it with white for an interesting change.

Serves 4 (as a side dish)

Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes

Stir-fry sauce: In a small bowl or cup combine 3 tbsp lime juice, 2 tbsp fish sauce and 1 tbsp grated palm or soft brown sugar. Stir until sugar dissolves and set aside.

2 tbsp oil
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1-2 hot red chillies, finely sliced
1 large (or equivalent quantity smaller) aubergine, sliced into small chunks
1 cup Thai or sweet basil leaves

• Heat a wok or large pan over medium to high heat and add the oil. Swirl to coat and add the garlic and chillies. Stir fry for a minute or so until the garlic starts to colour.

• Add the eggplant and stir until well coated with oil mixture.

• Stir in one cup of water, bring to the boil and turn down the heat a little.

• Cover wok/pan with a lid and cook eggplant for 5-6 minutes, stirring once or twice until it softens and water completely evaporates. Add a little more water during that time if wok/pan dries out before eggplant is soft.

• Add prepared sauce and stir fry for a few seconds until liquid evaporates.

• Stir in the basil and remove from heat. Do the taste test and add more fish sauce, lime juice or sugar as required.

Murgh Hariyali Masala - Chicken in Fresh Herb Sauce

2009-08-19T18:45:00.000-07:00

Recipe from the The New Curry Secret

Notes from diary early August 2008. I have completed and sent off the manuscript for my new book “The New Curry Secret” and have some time before I start the next book. It’s a great opportunity to create this much desired vegetable garden. Following a great deal of observation and discussion (and a little argument) we’ve chosen a site on the north eastern side of the block, just down a rocky escarpment from where the main house will be. It will get sun all day and have some protection from the cold southerly winds. The olive trees we’ve had planted in the north east corner directly opposite the site, and some fast growing conifers along the remainder of the northern fence will (eventually) provide protection from the hot northerlies. No solution to the cold easterlies and westerlies yet, will need to work on that.

The right site for the veggie garden

We’ve decided to use raised beds– a quick and easy (albeit more expensive) solution to the hard, grass and weed covered clay soils. Fill ‘em up with good organic soil from Australian Native Landscapes and off we’ll go. Raised beds are also a good barrier to slugs and snails and they are easier to work – you don’t have to bend down so far. We order 7 of them online from a Queensland company when we get back to Sydney.

Late August 2008, nearly spring in Australia. We’re in Orange and I am armed with about 40 packets of assorted heirloom and organic seeds that I eagerly ordered from the Diggers club a month ago. Heirloom varieties that are tops for flavour unlike modern hybrids and genetically modified crops bred for transportability and storage. Heirloom vegetables are our inheritance; selected and saved by our ancestors, over hundreds even thousands of years, they offer some of the best yielding, best tasting and disease resistant varieties. Each season they produce fertile seeds that you can sow again. Seeds for genetically modified crops have to be purchased each year from the large multinational companies together with petroleum based chemical fertilisers, herbicides and pesticides at ever rising prices. The idea of a few large, greedy corporations controlling the world’s food production alarms me. I have been impatient to get started ever since my package from Digger’s arrived, but the raised beds that were supposed to arrive from Queensland have not and we have to go back to Sydney tomorrow. No sowing yet.

Time for some cooking -

Murgh Hariyali Masala.

This is absolutely delicious and so simple and quick to prepare. The lovely fresh herbs are the mainstay of this spectacular dish.

Serves 3 - 4

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes (plus marinating time)

3 chicken fillets about 450g (1lb) in weight
1 tsp of salt
4 tbsp of coriander leaves
4 tbsp of mint leaves
4 fresh curry leaves
4 green garlic tops (optional)
4 spring onions
2 - 3 green chillies
2.5cm (1inch) piece of ginger, roughly chopped
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 tsp garam masala
6 tbsp of greek style plain yoghurt
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp of thick cream
1 tsp of gram flour (besan)
100ml hot water

Rinse chicken fillets, pat dry with paper towels, and cut into 2.5cm (1 inch) chunks. Place in a large bowl.

Place the salt, herbs, chillies, ginger, garlic, garam masala, yoghurt and 1 tbsp of the oil into the bowl of a blender or food processor and process to a paste.

Add the herb paste to the chicken, mix well and refrigerate for 2 -3 hours or overnight.

Remove from the fridge about half an hour before cooking and stir in the cream and gram flour.

Heat a wide heavy based, (preferably non stick frying pan) and add the remaining oil. Add the chicken and all the marinade to pan and stir fry on high heat until chicken is opaque.

Turn down the heat a little, and continue to cook, stirring and turning the chicken pieces, until the sauce is quite dry at which stage it will release the oil, about 6-7 minutes.

Continue cooking for a few minutes longer until the chicken pieces start to brown slightly. Now add the water and stir in to create a thick, creamy sauce.

Simmer gently for 3 or 4 minutes. Add more water if you want a little more sauce.

Serve with rice and nan.

Note: The gram flour stops the sauce from splitting.

Spicy Prawn Curry & Aloo Gobi

2009-08-13T19:34:00.000-07:00

Marinated King Prawns pan-fried before going into the delicious curry sauce

Prawn Curry

Aloo Gobi (cauliflower and potato curry)

Mother Nature’s amazing bounty, the sacrificial radish and hot water bottles for tomato plants.

Notes from diary late November 2008. A miracle! The warm weather and perhaps all the organic feed and remedies I provided last time have worked. The young veggie plants look really good, and although development has probably been slowed a little by the fungal affliction, everything has grown since we were last here. Still no sign of the aubergines, but the carrots have finally emerged, the grass has all but stopped growing (thank goodness) due to the hot dry conditions. But alas, most of my fence protection has been blown off by the hot, strong winds.

Examining each bed as I am compelled to do, I observe an interesting phenomenon. Little green caterpillars, probably of the cabbage white butterfly, have taken residence on the radish leaves. Some of the radishes have virtually all the leaves nibbled away although the radish itself isn’t affected. The lettuce hasn’t been touched, neither has anything else. I’ve planted some radishes in just about every bed and although I didn’t know it at the time, I’ve since found that radishes will attract caterpillars, keeping them off other more valuable crops, and this is exactly what appears to have happened. Sacrificial radishes! Mother Nature never ceases to amaze.

I’ve transplanted the heirloom tomato plants that I started off in Sydney several weeks ago. Tomatoes don’t like being disturbed and these have been disturbed twice. Once when I got them out of the pot they were germinated in and into a pot to transport to Windera and again out of that pot and into a bed. They are looking a bit sorry for themselves so I give them some liquid seaweed which helps with transfer shock. The typically cool nights we have here are going to be a bit of a shock for them too. Tomatoes don’t like night time temperatures below 12°C and we are getting lower than that. To top it all, the next day we get a cold strong south westerly wind all day and they are flattened. I give them some more seaweed. The following day we get a cold easterly all day long and they are flattened in the opposite direction. I give them some manure tea. I spend an hour putting tall stakes around the tomato plants and wrapping cling film (well that’s all I have and it is remarkably strong) around the stakes to provide some protection. I also fill plastic bottles with warm water and place one next to each tomato plant. These will warm with the sun each day and release gentle warmth around the tomato plants at night to alleviate the cold temperatures. I spend another day fixing up the wind protection around the fence and re-jigging the watering system. The flies are terrible.

Just before Christmas - we are cooking turnips nearly every day, baby crook neck zucchini every other day, there’s more rocket than we can eat, a few snow peas and several lettuces, heaps of rainbow chard and radishes that are now the size of golf balls and still tender and tasty.
Not wanting to waste them, I even bake some radishes with the roast goat for dinner and they are delicious.

This crook neck zucchini will be ready to harvest in about a week

Just picked vegetables to be steamed and served with the roasted rump of goat (from what has become my favourite shop - the recently opened TOTALLY LOCAL - supplying wonderfully fresh, locally produced food)

The beans aren’t ready yet, the melons and pumpkins look a bit slow, the beetroot is sparse but the carrots are doing well, and there are lots of herbs that I have used as companion plants. December 23rd and back to Sydney for Christmas, laden with fresh vegetables. We won’t be back until January the 5th. Let’s see how we go.

Spicy Prawn Curry

We made a great discovery this trip - Orange has a visiting fish man every Friday, refrigerated truck and all laden with fresh fish from the Sydney fish markets. What's more it's a hell of lot easier (and cheaper without paying tolls and parking in Sydney) than going to the fish markets. Orange is looking better all the time.

Serves 2 - 3

12 King Prawns
Small knob of ginger, peeled
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1 red chilli
1/2 tsp turmeric
freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
1 quantity curry sauce
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp chilli powder (optional)
1 tbsp double cream
1 tbsp chopped coriander

Peel prawns and place in a bowl. Finely chop or process ginger, garlic and chilli and add to prawns with the turmeric, ground pepper and half the olive oil. Mix well, cover and refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile heat the remaining oil in a large, deep fry pan and add the curry sauce. Bring to the boil and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
Stir in the garam masala and chilli powder if using, leave to simmer gently while cooking the prawns. Add a little water if the sauce becomes to thick.
Heat another heavy based fry pan over medium heat. Stir the salt through the prawns and cook them for about 2 minutes each side until opaque.
Add the prawns to the sauce and simmer for a further 2 minutes. Stir through the cream, heat through, sprinkle with coriander and serve with rice and nan.

Note: make extra curry sauce if you plan to make the Aloo Gobi too.

Aloo Gobi

This is probably the most popular vegetable side dish (apart from perhaps Chana Aloo - Chick Pea and Potato curry) served in Indian restaurants. It's certainly popular in our household. Make it with the freshest cauliflower you can find.

If you don't have curry sauce add 2 extra onions and an extra clove of garlic to the recipe below. You will probably need a bit more oil too - you can't cook a good curry without using a generous amount of oil or ghee.

Will serve up to 6 as a side dish

2-3 tbsp olive oil (or ghee)
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1-2 hot green chillies, finely sliced
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp fine sea salt
1 tsp turmeric
2 ripe tomatoes, chopped
2 small potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 small cauliflower, broken into florets
1 cup curry sauce
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp chopped coriander

Heat the oil in a heavy based saucepan and add the onion. Fry onion over medium heat, stirring now and again for 5 minutes or until softened and starting to brown at the edges.
Stir in the garlic, chilli and ginger and stir fry for a minute or two until aromatic.
Stir in the turmeric and salt followed by the tomatoes. Turn the heat down, coer pan and cook the tomatoes for 4-5 minutes until pulpy and the oil rises to the surface. Add more oil if necessary .
Add the potato and stir well to coat with oil and spices. Stir in the curry sauce, bring to a simmer and cook covered for about 10 minutes.
Add the cauliflower and curry sauce, mix well and cook over low heat, stirring now again until potatoes are soft and cauliflower just cooked (the cauliflower shouldn't be allowed to go mushy) - about 20 minutes.
Stir through the garam masala, cook for a further minute and serve sprinkled with coriander.

2 for 1 - Chicken Tikka and Chicken Tikka Masala

2009-07-30T23:03:00.000-07:00

Make this for an entree..

Restaurant style Chikken Tikka cooked in a
frying pan

Recipe from The Curry Secret

And get this too for the main course!

Chicken Tikka Masala without the artificial colourings

Then rustle up a little comfort food for the distressed gardner...

Easy Hazelnut and Choc Chip Cookies

Disaster strikes. Everything is shrivelled. Nature’s been hard but also provides the remedies.......

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Notes from diary, early November 2008. What will I find? I’m too impatient to even help unload the car, I go straight down to the veggie garden.

Oh no! Everything and I mean EVERYTHING, is stunted and shrivelled, leaves and stems covered with blotches of white-grey powder. Growth completely and utterly halted. The turnip leaves, the peas, beans, melons, pumpkins and sweet corn, even the tagetes (French marigolds) that (are supposed to) keep nasty bugs at bay - absolutely everything has succumbed to this terrible affliction. I examine them all in disbelief. Nothing is spared. I could cry.

Forlornly I stagger back up to the cottage. My husband has just unloaded the last of the bags, eskies and all the other things we cart to and fro. I almost drag him down the hill to show him what’s happened. He’s sympathetic but optimistic that they’ll recover. I don't share his optimism right now. I want to get onto my laptop and diagnose what it is and what can be done about it, but there is unpacking to do, a hoard of dead bugs to vacuum off the carpet and the dog’s hassling for his dinner. I plug in the old combination microwave that should have been thrown out years ago, programme the clock (It won’t work until you do that), find his dinner from the bottom of the esky, warm it up for him (he throws up if you don't), add a little olive oil and a doggy vitamin pill whilst he scurries around my ankles. Tonight he’s having chicken risotto, but he also loves mackerel or tuna with rice and veggies, a little steak and occasionally roast lamb. Roast free range chicken with all the trimmings is his absolute favourite. My kids reckon he eats better than they do. Apart from a little dry food that I give him daily to keep his teeth clean, he won’t eat dog food. I spoil him.

As soon as I’ve got my computer going, I do a Google search “powdery covering on leaves”. I soon confirm that I have, or rather the vegetables have, powdery mildew, a fungal infection that is fairly common during a wet, cold spring (like the weather that descended on us last week). I do another search for “organic treatment for powdery mildew” and am pleased to find there are several simple things that have been shown to be effective, although it seems more as preventatives rather than cures. The simplest one is manure tea, so I go back down and douse everything with copious amounts of the manure tea that I always have brewing down in the veggie patch.

Another treatment tested by the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney is sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). A mixture of 2 tsp of sodium bicarbonate dissolved in a litre of water with a drop of washing up liquid to help spread the mixture and ½ tsp of vegetable oil to fix the mixture onto the leaves and stems of the plant when it dries. The sodium bicarbonate makes the plant surface too alkaline for the germination of fungal spores. The mixture should be sprayed onto susceptible plants about once a week or after rain to prevent the fungus getting hold. It seems a bit late, it’s already got a hold but tomorrow I’ll wage war on this rotten organism with baking soda and a spray bottle!

For now it’s past dinner time and whilst the dog is well fed, we’re starving. I’m glad I did some preparation the night before. Tangy Marinated Chicken with Spicy Lentils topped with Coriander and Lime Relish is a very tasty ‘fusion’ dish I created a while ago for some curry sceptics. It’s great with a glass or two of rosé. We’ll sleep well after this.

I’m aware that kindness can kill but doing things by halves has never been my strong point. Manure tea, baking soda mix, liquid seaweed, fish emulsion, over the next days, I do the lot! I take out a few of the more sickly looking beans and put in some more seed, but apart from cutting off a few very badly affected leaves, everything remains. I also spend two days, fly veil over my head (the flies are driving me mad) fixing lengths of shade cloth to the fence to serve as a wind break. Not only are fungal spores spread by wind, but most plants can’t handle the strong winds we’re getting here.

I’ve actually managed to pick some rocket that looks fine and tastes wonderful and white, pink and purple radishes that range from mild to quite peppery hot, yummy. You can’t buy these in the shops! I'm starting to feel a bit more upbeat.

We extend the fence and the watering system to cover the remaining beds and do some more mulching and planting. By the time we leave at the end of November everything is looking much happier.

I’m glad I wasn’t tempted to use chemicals as these often cause other problems. They can affect beneficial micro organisms in the soil, and can kill pollinators, like bees, and other useful insects that help control pests. It appears the ingredients for some effective organic remedies are hiding in the kitchen.

Let's cook something nice to celebrate.

Chicken Tikka and Chicken Tikka Masala

Ask for a Chicken Tikka Masala anywhere in India, and it is likely that all you will get is a blank look. 'Going out for a curry' is not an Indian pastime but in the West, and Britain in particular, it is a ritual that many people relish with gusto. Chicken Tikka Masala is reportedly the most frequently consumed dish in Britain and is even more popular than Fish and Chips.

Chicken Tikka Masala is probably more than any other restaurant dish, a hybrid of Indian and western tastes: tikka is a morsel of roasted meat, traditionally eaten without curry sauce or ‘gravy’, a practice seemingly unattractive to western palates. The ‘Masala’ part of the dish is the western touch that possibly came about in Glasgow in the 1960’s when a long-suffering Indian chef mixed some spices and yoghurt into canned tomato soup and presented his ever complaining customers with the sauce they demanded. The rest, as they say is history.

With a few enhancements since that fateful time, the dish has become an icon of Indian restaurant cuisine. Indeed, in 2001, Britain’s foreign minister Robin Cook declared it to be Britain’s “national dish” and the British consume vast amounts of it each week. It is in fact even more popular than fish and chips.

There are many recipes for Chicken Tikka Masala. The one below is easy to prepare and quite delicious as many readers of The Curry Secret have attested. Start by making a double quantity of chicken tikka to serve as a starter and combine the remainder with the creamy, subtly spiced curry sauce to make the famous masala dish. 2 for 1.

You won't get the deep orangey red colour with this recipe as I prefer not to use the artificial red and yellow food colourings that a lot of Indian chefs seem to be attached to, but rest assured the flavour does not suffer.

Prepare the chicken (and masala 'sauce' if you like) the day before and let it gently marinate in your fridge over night.

Chicken Tikka - served sizzling

Succulent chunks of chicken marinated in yoghurt and spices, skewered and cooked quickly at high heat in a tandoor, or in this case, an electric fry pan, make a delicious and impressive starter. It's so easy to make you have to wonder what all the fuss is about.

Serves 4. Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes (plus marinating time).

6 large chicken fillets
8 tbsp good quality plain yogurt
½ - 1 tsp red chilli powder, to taste
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika

To serve: 1 large brown onion sliced into chunks, little olive oil to drizzle, lemon juice, fresh coriander, yoghurt mint sauce

Rinse and trim the chicken fillets and slice each one into largish bite sized chunks.
Place all the remaining ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix again, making sure that all the pieces are well coated with the yogurt. Cover and refrigerate for 4–6 hours or over night.
Preheat the oven to its maximum temperature or heat a barbecue, teppanyaki plate or heavy based frying pan.
If cooking in the oven, place the chicken pieces, shaking off excess marinade, onto a rack in a shallow baking tray in a single layer and bake near the top of the oven for 10 minutes or until cooked through.
Or place chicken pieces on to a hot teppenyaki plate or fry pan cook for about 7 minutes, turning once or twice, until cooked through. Be careful not overcrowd and chicken pieces. They need to cook quickly without stewing.
Reserve about half of the chicken for the next dish and serve the remainder like this:-

Let's sizzle!!
While the chicken is just finishing cooking, heat a sizzler dish or cast iron frying pan over medium to high heat until very hot. Keeping the dish or pan on the heat, spread your onion chunks roughly over the surface. Working quickly, pile your cooked chicken pieces over the onion and (this is what starts it all) pour a little olive oil to the side of the pan or dish and lift one end of it slightly so that it rolls down to the other side. It starts to sizzle. Now let's finish what we started. Sprinkle some lemon juice over. Now it really starts to sizzle and wow! Doesn't it smell absolutely wonderful? Sprinkle over the coriander and serve immediately to your surprised guests.
I bet they didn't expect this.
Tip: reserve about a tablespoon of the marinade for the next dish.

Chicken Tikka Masala
Don't even think about buying a ready made paste or sauce for this, they give Indian food a bad name. With a very little effort you can have the real thing. You will already have some chicken tikka ready to go so all you have to do is prepare a version of my Curry Secret curry sauce and you will work some magic you didn't know you could.

It's easy...

The Quick Version of the Curry Secret curry sauce. Fry 2-3 brown onions in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil until transparent. Stir in 2 cloves chopped garlic and about 1 tsp grated ginger and continue to fry for a couple more minutes. Add 1 tsp turmeric and 1/2 tsp salt and stir through. Add 2 tsp tomato paste and half a tin of tomatoes. Cook stirring for 2-3 minutes and add enough warm water to cover the mixture well - about a litre. Simmer half covered for 45 minutes to an hour. Cool slightly and blend until smooth. I use my stick blender for this but a jug blender is even better if you're not bothered by the washing up. Done.

Serves 3 – 4.

Preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes.

4 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp ground cumin
2 cups (500ml) of the curry sauce you just made (remaining sauce can be frozen)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 level tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
½ tsp coriander
½ tsp garam masala (optional)
Chicken Tikka prepared as above
6 tbsp single cream
1 tbsp reserved marinade
1 tbsp coriander, finely chopped

Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan, and stir in the cumin. Fry for a few seconds and add the curry sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil.
Add the paprika, salt, chilli powder and ground coriander and continue to cook on high heat stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
Turn down the heat and stir in the garam masala . Simmer for about 3 minutes.
Meanwhile, slice each piece of chicken tikka into two and add to the sauce. Stir in the cream and simmer for a further 2 minutes.
Stir in the reserved marinade and simmer for at least one more minute.

Serve sprinkled with the coriander accompanied by pilau rice and nan bread. Yum!

Easy Hazelnut and Choc Chip Cookies
Well, a girl needs to indulge occasionally. These are brilliant with a cup of my home-made flat white made from locally roasted coffee beans and organic milk.
Makes about 30

Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes

90g plain organic flour
90g hazelnut meal
110g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
50g cold butter, chopped into pieces
2 egg whites, preferably free range, beaten
½ tsp vanilla essence
½ cup chocolate chips

Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
Place flour, hazelnut meal, sugar and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Do not over process. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
Beat egg whites and vanilla essence together until frothy and stir into flour and hazelnut mixtureand bring it together until you have a firm dough.
Shape into a log and chill for 30 minutes or so if you have time - this just makes it easier to handle. Slice thinly and press choc chips into each biscuit.
Bake for 15 minutes, swapping trays around from top to bottom half way through.
Leave in the oven for a further 3 minutes and then remove. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar. Cool slightly and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Enjoy.

Ajwaini King Prawns

2009-07-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

King Prawns tossed with carom seeds, coriander and cumin served with char-grilled orange slices
Recipe from THE NEW CURRY SECRET
http://www.thecurrysecret.co.uk/

Sometimes the land yields more than you put in....

Just picked field mushrooms from a trail en route to the cow paddock. Delicious sauted in a little butter and garlic and served with a juicy barbecued steak.

The veggie seeds were finally sown and then we went back to Sydney for two weeks leaving them in the care of hungry hares, curious kangaroos and the thousands of field mice. After all the hard work to get them in, did they make it???

Notes from diary Late October 2008. The suspense I feel is so great I don’t even unpack. I need to see what's happening down in the veggie patch. A sigh of relief - it’s not too bad. The watering sprays didn’t cover some areas of the beds so seeds there haven’t germinated, but I have plenty of healthy looking seedlings. The peas and beans are peeking through but only about half of the dozen or so sweet corn have appeared. This isn’t so good. Sweet corn is wind pollinated so needs to be planted in blocks of at least 16 plants for optimum fertilisation. I was pushing it with 12. Pumpkins are looking good so is everything else that managed to germinate. No sign of the aubergines and the one half of a bed that I sowed carrot seed in is totally bare. Carrots do take time to germinate but I’m not sure if they’ve germinated and died due to lack of water or if they haven’t germinated yet. So I sow some more carrot seed just in case, and some more aubergine.

I make some manure tea (for the veggies, not the husband) by mixing some prized cow manure that we risked our lives retrieving from the cow paddock with water and letting it stand overnight. I water everything with a diluted mix of this every 3 days or so. I also douse the the rapidly growing plants with some seaweed extract.

The fencer hasn’t called with the quote. I ring another one that is recommended by a neighbour and leave a message, but he doesn’t call back. There's nothing else for it but to do it oursleves. After a determined trip to the hardware my ever suffering husband carts several star pickets, a star picket driver, and a huge roll of rabbit wire down to the vegetable site and we make a temporary but hopefully effective fence, around the 4 beds. Surely there are fencers in Orange that actually want work! I suspect there are and eventually we’ll find one, but for now this will have to do.

4 of the raised beds are fenced in to keep the hares out. Hopefully the kangaroos will be disinterested

By the time we leave everything (except for the carrots and aubergines) is growing beautifully. Some more sweet corn has appeared and the zucchini, peas and beans have unfurled their tender leaves, shedding the seed casings they’ve been clinging onto like umbilical cords. It’s an inspirational sight– the emergence of healthy, vibrant, bright new life. It’s incredible that these little morsels of life will grow into such a diverse range of edible, nourishing and in some cases, very large plants and fruits, and in an amazingly short time.

And the mushrooms are a tasty and unexpected bonus!

Back in Sydney, I’ve taken to checking the weather in Orange at least once daily, sometimes twice. Particularly the rainfall. Not only because of the trees and veggie garden but because we don’t have town water. We use what my husband calls God’s water. When it rains, our roof harvests the water into the 10,000 litre tank that sits besides the cottage. We have a 100 square metre roof so we collect 100 litres of water for every 1 ml of rain.

Collecting God’s water

The main house will have a 120,000 litre tank and collect 4 times as much, but for now this small tank is serving us well. The weather stations show we’re having good rains, but it’s turned unseasonably cold and Orange has had hail. Maybe we didn’t get it on Mount Sugarloaf because we are 100m lower than Orange and the temperature is generally 2°C higher. Oh dear!

Lets eat:

Ajwaini King Prawns

Ajwaini King Prawns is an impressive dish that is bursting with flavour. It is delicately yet distinctly spiced with the unique flavour of carom seeds and the tangy sweetness of the orange.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes including marinating time

16 king prawns
1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp of turmeric
1 green chilli finely chopped
1 tbsp of finely chopped coriander
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp of salt
Zest of half an orange
1 orange, sliced

Shell and de-vein the prawns leaving the tail intact. Rinse under cold water, drain and pat dry with paper towels.
Mix all the remaining ingredients, except for the sliced orange, in a non-ceramic bowl and add the prawns. Stir to coat and leave to marinate for 15 minutes.
Heat a griddle or heavy based frying pan large enough to take the prawns in a single layer.
Stir the salt into the prawns cook them over medium heat for about 5 minutes, turning once or twice.
Meanwhile, char grill the orange slices for a minute each side.
Serve prawns with a green salad, the char grilled orange slices and coriander and mint drizzle.

Coriander and Mint drizzle

Take a handful of fresh coriander and mint, 1 or two green chillies, juice of a lemon, 1 tsp of caster sugar and salt and pepper to taste, and place in a blender.

Blend until smooth. Store in the fridge for up to 24 hours.

FUSION FOOD

2009-07-19T22:33:00.000-07:00

Tangy Marinated Chicken on a bed of Spicy Lentils with Coriander and Lime Relish

Home-made organic sour dough type bread

Notes from diary early October, back in Orange. Where did all these flies come from? And let’s not mention the grass. Let’s talk about Dave though. Dave lives down the hill and he has (no not a combine harvester) a bob cat. He clears and smooths out a piece of ground that was too hard to do by hand (and too hard for my doggy to negotiate). He and his bob cat also fill the remaining beds with soil – it takes them about 5 minutes. It took me 2 days just to fill one and a bit.

The soil we bought is a little sandy, I would really like to dig in some organic matter - some compost, manure or chook poo. Although I have started a compost bin, I don’t have any compost yet, I can’t find the cow manure in the long grass (I’m too scared of the highly poisonous brown snakes to look too hard) and the garden centres have sold out of chook poo. Looks like other people prepared their garden beds for sowing some weeks ago! Never-the-less, I need to do something. I purchase a bag of blood and bone and water crystals that swell up and help hold moisture in the soil, combined, these should be a reasonable substitute for compost. I sprinkle generous handfuls of each onto the soil and lightly mix it in. Now I need to water it and we still don’t have a watering system. But I do have a watering can and, donning fly veil and gum boots (wellies), up the hill I go and down again, about 10 times until I have damp soil in the 4 beds in which I am going to (finally) sow these vegetable seeds. The dog wasn’t much help!

Fly veil for protection against the swarms of flies, gum boots for (some) protection from the brown snakes, if my friends could see me now.

2 days to go before we leave again and 4 out of the 7 beds are planted and watered. I’ve also made three extra beds on the ground, lining small areas with newspaper to keep the grass and weeds out, using rocks for borders and filling them up with my organic garden soil, with blood and bone and water crystals added. I plant sweet corn, pumpkins and cantaloupe melons in each of these. I’ve also sown snow peas, sugar snap peas, 3 different varieties of beans, cucumbers, rainbow chard, bloomsdale spinach, lots of radishes, spring onions, rocket, lettuce, bok choy, red pak choy, zucchini, zucchetta, turnips, carrots, beetroot, aubergines, capsicums not mention some herbs and garlic to keep the bad bugs away. There is no fence around them yet, but I figure that until they’ve grown a little there is nothing for the hares to get at. Need to get a watering system in though because the soil will need to be kept moist for germination to occur and it doesn’t rain often enough to do that. The weather’s warmed up (spring arrives a few weeks later in Orange compared to Sydney) so we should get a good start.

The day before we leave, an exhausted husband attaches the 4 veggie beds to a temporary watering system with a very long poly pipe and some spray nozzles. Eventually we’ll put in a drip system as this uses less water, prevents leaf burn and reduces the risk of mould, but this will have to do for now. Only the raised beds are hooked up for the moment. The sweet corn, melon and pumpkins will have to fend for themselves until we come back. They’re sown deeper than the small seeds and I’ve given them a deep watering (with mywatering can) so they should make it. Hopefully we’ll get some rain.

The cookings been good though:

Tangy Marinated Chicken on a bed of Spicy Lentils
with Coriander and Lime Relish

I concocted this dish a couple of years ago for a dinner party for guests who were unsure about Indian food. It was an enormous hit. I suppose you could call it an example of ‘fusion food’. It looks quite impressive and tastes great.

For convenience, you can prepare the relish up to 2 days ahead, the chicken can be marinated several hours ahead and the lentils and vegetables can be prepared and cooked several hours ahead too.

Serves 4

Preparation: 30 minutes Marinating time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 45 minutes

For Chicken:
4 free range chicken fillets
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp grated lime rind
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander (stems and leaves)
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

For Lentils:
1 cup green lentils, rinsed and drained
2 carrots, sliced into rounds
2 potatoes, diced
2 tbsp ghee or olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 cup frozen peas
Freshly ground black pepper
4 thin slices ginger, julienned
1 tbsp chopped coriander

For Coriander and Lime Relish:
1 cup coriander, leaves and stems
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp grated fresh coconut (or 1 tbsp dessicated)
1 tsp grated lime rind
2 tbsp lime juice
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Chicken: Score chicken flesh lightly and place in a large bowl. Combine all the other ingredients and rub into chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.

Lentils: While chicken is marinating, boil lentils in plenty of water for about 30 minutes until soft but not mushy. Drain. Also, boil potato and carrot in boiling salted water until tender. Drain.

Coriander and Lime Relish: Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a small food processor and process until fine. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until required.

Preheat oven to 200°C.

Place chicken in baking dish, spoon over marinade and roast for 20 -25 minutes until cooked through.
Meanwhile, heat ghee or oil in a medium saucepan and cook the onion for 2 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and fry for 30 seconds.
Add turmeric, stir and add lentils, cooked vegetables, frozen peas and salt. Add about half a cup of water and bring all ingredients to a simmer.
Taking care not to break up lentils and vegetables, stir though freshly ground black pepper, ginger and coriander. Simmer until thoroughly heated through and all liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes.

To serve, ladle some lentil mixture onto deep plates, top with cooked chicken and spoon over a little relish. Garnish with extra red chillies and coriander if desired.

Home-made Organic Bread (with the help of my bread machine)

I stopped buying bread some years ago. Like much of the highly processed food available nowadays, I wasn't sure what went into it. Preservatives, flavours, stabilizers, colourings not to mention what goes onto the wheat itself - pesticides, fungicides and believe it or not, fire retardant during storage. A chemical cocktail in a sandwich! No thanks.

The house is filled with the lovely aroma of fresh baking bread most days but if that conjures of up images of me slaving in a hot kitchen all day every day, forget it. I do it the easy way - with a bread maker. This fantastic device takes the hard work out of the whole process but I don't let the machine do all the thinking, I drive it.

Once I've added the ingredients and started the machine, I lift the lid to ensure that the dough is the right texture. I add a little more water or a little more flour as required to get a soft but not sticky dough. Once the kneading stops, I often turn the machine off and let the dough double in size in its own time. Once that has happened, I punch it down and if I only want fresh bread for the two of us, I slice about a third of the dough off, shape it and put it back into the bread pan to rise again. Once it's risen to how I like it, I bake it in the machine using the bake only programme. I refrigerate the remainder of the dough, punching it down a few times until it cools enough to stop rising. I may use half of the dough the next day and the remainder the day after of even a day later, by which time it has developed some sour dough characteristics. The bread in the photo is made with dough that is 3 days old. I wouldn't keep it much longer than 4 days, but the bread tastes better as the dough matures so it's an added benefit.

This is my recipe:

250ml (1 cup) warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp olive oil
3 tsp instant dried yeast
450g (3 cups) strong organic bread flour
1 level tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp bread improver*

Put the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. Select the french bread programme (this kneads for longer and produces a lighter loaf) and switch on. Check after a few minutes and add a few more drops of water if the dough looks too dry or a tablespoon more flour if it looks too sticky. Let the machine complete the whole programme for a fresh baked loaf or follow the instructions above for 3 small loaves over the next 3 days.

*most instant dried yeasts in the UK have an improver added.

Spicy Lamb Cutlets, Raita & Home-made Yoghurt

2009-07-10T00:00:00.001-07:00

Spicy Lamb Cutlets – Garlicky, spicy lamb cutlets, marinated in fresh herbs and grilled until sizzling.
Recipe from The New Curry Secret

Raita made with home-made organic yoghurt

Notes form diary late September 2008, back in Orange. This blooming grass! Oh well, it is getting a bit easier as we dig out the rocks – the ones that don’t go all the way to China that is. I use the ones that I can lift to build rock borders around some of the areas we barked and gravelled last time around. It’s hot, exhausting work but a good way to keep fit. I’m getting a tan on top of my tan and muscles on top my muscles, but the rock borders look absolutely beautiful. Every cloud has a silver lining.

Rock Border in front of the Cottage
and the views to the North West

Several tons of organic soil and wood chip have been delivered. Still time to plant the summer veg - once we’ve transferred the soil into the beds, that is. And spread weed mats over the grass and covered them with wood chip. And built a fence to keep the hares out. And put a watering system in. We’ve got a few days, we’ll get there.

The fencer I called doesn’t turn up. He comes the following day, spends an hour chatting about all sorts of things (except the fence) and said he’ll call with a quote.

The evening before we go back to Sydney, the raised beds are assembled, the area around 4 of them has been covered in weed mats and mulched with wood chip, we have filled one bed, using
a shovel and wheel barrow, and about a third filled the others so that they don’t blow away.

Beds are ready but there is no watering system. Next time I will sow.

Phew. The good thing about this hard work is that it gives me very healthy appetite and I can eat lots without putting on weight.

Spicy Lamb Cutlets
These lamb cutlets are so succulent and tasty you will have them coming back for more. They are ideal for an entree to a formal dinner or as finger food for a casual bash.

The cutlets come from the rib and contain the tender fillet attached to the rib bone which makes them ideal as a finger food for informal gatherings.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes approx (plus 2-3 hours marinating time)

8 lamb cutlets
2 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp paprika
3 cloves garlic, minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp mint jelly
1 tsp of salt

Trim the cutlets and scrape the bone ends to remove
fat and gristle.
Mix all the remaining ingredients except salt in a bowl,
and add the lamb cutlets. Using your hands rub the
herb and spice mixture into the meat ensuring each
cutlet is evenly coated. Cover and leave to marinate in
the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Remove the lamb from the fridge about half an hour
before cooking.
Heat a heavy based frying pan capable of holding
the cutlets without overcrowding, until very hot.
Sprinkle somed salt onto each cutlet. Cook the cutlets
for about 1 ½ minutes each side.
Serve hot with yoghurt mint sauce.

Tips: The mint jelly is the secret ingredient in this dish. The hint of sweetness balances the lemon juice and spices beautifully.

Ready prepared garlic, usually preserved in lemon juice, is also a good shortcut for garlicky marinades.
Yoghurt Mint Sauce

150ml (5 fl oz) plain yoghurt
1 tsp mint sauce
½ level tsp salt
¼ tsp chilli powder
¼ tsp garam masala
¼ tsp ambchoor
½ tsp caster sugar
2 tsp chopped fresh mint (optional)

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Raita

Yoghurt is a superb accompaniment to spicy foods and traditionally, is served in some guise or another at every Indian meal. It is a common side dish or accompaniment on the Indian restaurant menu as Raita, lightly spiced and usually combined with shredded cucumber. Cucumber is an excellent ingredient to use in Raita – it doesn’t require cooking, is easy to prepare and has the right texture and mild flavour, but other vegetables or even fruits can be used to add variety.

I have used a combination of onion, cucumber and carrot but you might like to try grated daikon or radish, chopped tomato, shredded mint or finely diced melon or apple.

If you don’t wish to make you own yoghurt, purchase a good quality, preferably organic, commercial product.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes

½ red onion, finely sliced
1 carrot, grated
½ cucumber, grated or julienned
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
300ml (11 fl oz) yoghurt
½ tsp salt (or to taste)
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp garam masala
Pinch turmeric (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and stir until well mixed. Refrigerate until required.

How to make yoghurt
Bring a litre of organic milk to the boil. Let the milk stand until it cools to about 36°C - blood heat. Transfer the milk to a warm bowl or other container with a lid and stir in 2 tbs of live plain yoghurt. Wrap the container in a tea-towel and place in a warm place for 4-5 hours until set. Refrigerate for up to a week.

Easy Thai Style Laksa and Proscuitto and Rocket Pizza

2009-07-09T22:37:00.000-07:00

Easy Thai Style Laksa

Procuitto and Rocket Pizza

Notes from diary, early September 2008, back in Orange. The grass is about 2 ft tall, the kangaroos have trampled some the orchard trees that I spent hours nurturing, and the hares have ring barked almost all of the remainder (probably the farm trees too but I won’t look, I’m depressed enough). Still no raised beds.

The local residents. These two Grey Kangaroos are part of a mob of about thirty that like to sun themselves not twenty metres from our cottage in the early morning. When we’re not here, they become even bolder and “nibble” on and ocassionally knock over our precious fruit trees. I guess they were here first.

We spend several days doing more hard labour – smoothing out the builders rubble, spreading gravel for a car parking area and bark over bare sections of earth that will otherwise get covered with a weed aptly named Patersons Curse. I call the garden centre and ask them to replace what’s been destroyed and put cages around the base of the fruit trees and all the larger farm trees. Those blinking kangaroos.

I need to console myself. My husband suggests that when the going gets tough the tough go shopping. I'm not going to argue with that one. And am I glad I didn't - I find a new kitchen gadget (I rather like kitchen gadgets) an electric pizza oven. It’s not much bigger than one of those health grills, with electric elements in the base and lid that get very hot and a stone turntable that cooks and crisps the pizza on the underside. It was invented by a woman! How brilliant is that?

I'm impatient to try my new pizza maker. Piping hot, straight from the oven home cooked pizza for lunch. It was deeelicious!

Proscuitto and Rocket Pizza
Pizza this good is hard to come by and it’s so simple and quick, particularly with my little pizza oven. If you have the dough already made in the fridge (I generally keep some aside when making bread with my bread maker), it’s quicker and easier than making a couple of sandwiches. The dough actually improves if made 2 – 3 days ahead. I love the prosciutto and rocket topping but you can use whatever topping you like.

Makes 2 large pizza bases

Dough:
200ml l warm water2 tsp instant yeast1 tbsp olive oil1 ½ cups bread or plain flour (plus extra for dusting)1 level tsp salt

Topping for 1 large pizza:
3 tsp tomato paste (puree double concentrate)3 tbsp grated mozzarella4 slices prosciutto1 bunch rocket leaves1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil:

Place all dough ingredients in the recommended order in the pan of your bread machine. Switch on and let the machine knead only until you have a smooth dough, about 3 minutes once all the ingredients have come together. (Dough that is well kneaded for bread making is too elastic to roll out). Keep an eye on it and add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky or a little more water if it looks too dry. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
Leave the dough in the pan to rise until it is about double in volume, about 45 minutes to an hour.
If you don’t have a bread making machine, mix the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and knead until smooth. Cover with a damp tea towel and place in a draught free place for about an hour until it is doubled in size.
Refrigerate the dough until required. Punch it down regularly until it is cold when it will stop rising.

When you’re ready to make pizza:

Heat the pizza oven to maximum or a pizza stone in a conventional oven at maximum temperature for 15 minutes or until very hot. Roll out the dough to the desired thickness, dusting with flour to stop it sticking.
Slap the dough onto the pizza stone, working quickly spread the tomato paste over the top, sprinkle over the cheese and close the lid or place stone back in oven.
Cook for 4-5 minutes in the pizza oven, and about 10-12 minutes in a conventional oven.
Transfer pizza to a large plate, slice into 4 sections. Top each section with a prosciutto slice and some rocket.
Drizzle with some good extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately with sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper

Having a change from Indian

When I reminisce about the heart warming Indian foods that my mum made for me, or savour the best that a good Indian restaurant has to offer, or try new dishes during my own cook ups, I am convinced that Indian food with its delicious spicy and complex flavours has to be the best in the world. But when I experience the intense, mouth-watering flavours and fresh herb aromas of Thai cuisine, I have to acknowledge that this must be a close second. Second only because it is difficult to relinquish the comfort one gets from eating the foods of one’s childhood.

Thai cuisine doesn’t have too many influences of eastern Asia, and apart from a handful of dishes that have an Indian influence, its cuisine is quite unique. Unlike Indian food that relies on a variety of spices and a range of dry spice mixes, Thai cuisine is more about fresh herbs like galangal (Thai ginger), lemon grass, kaffir limes, basils, mints and chillies and condiments such as dried shrimp, fish sauce, soy sauce and chilli pastes for its fantastic flavours and enticing aromas.

The secret of a great Thai dish is in the quality and freshness of the ingredients and the balance of the four main flavours – hot, sour, sweet and salty. It’s not always possible to source some of the ingredients so you can substitute. Lemon grass for example can be substituted with lemon juice, kaffir lime, with lime zest and juice and fish sauce with soy sauce or salt, but by using as many of the authentic ingredients that you can, you will ensure that your Thai dishes are bursting with flavour and fragrance.

Thai cuisine is also fabulously healthy. Galangal, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, chilli and herbs all supply health promoting substances. What about the coconut milk I hear you say? That’s healthy too. The fat in coconut milk is the same as found in mother’s milk and does not contribute to weight gain, unless consumed in excess of course. So go ahead, and cook some Thai food today.

Easy Thai Style Laksa

This is one of my favourite Thai dishes, mainly because it is simple to make but also because it’s so delicious it gives you a feeling of well-being as a multitude of wonderful, complex flavours explode on your taste buds. I generally make it when I have some left over free-range chicken from the previous night’s roast dinner. Using a ready-made paste and some fresh vegetables and herbs from my newly created organic garden it’s quick and easy. If I have some home made paste it’s even better, otherwise I use one from Aldi. It’s called simply “Asia – Red Curry Paste”. The lemon grass in the recipe makes quite a difference so do try and use it but if you don’t have it, don’t fret.

Do all the preparation first. Take the chicken out of the fridge so that it’s at room temperature. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a cup so that you’re not reaching out for a bottle of this or a jar of that. Prepare the herbs and vegetables and put them in individual piles on a tray or platter so that you can add them when you need to. Warm some bowls, set the table, pour a cool glass of crisp white wine, and dinner will be ready in 10 minutes.

Serves 2

Preparation time: 20 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes

Sauce: In a small bowl or cup combine 1 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp soft brown sugar, 1 tsp finely chopped lime rind, 2 tbsp lime juice.

400ml chicken stock (or water and half a stock cube)
1 stalk lemon grass, pale part only, crushed and coarsely chopped
3-4 slices galangal or ginger
100g thin rice noodles or noodles of choice
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 large clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped
1 hot red chilli, finely sliced
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 head bok choy, leaves separated, large ones sliced lengthways
4 baby sweet corn, halved lengthways (optional)
12 snow pea pods (mange touts), topped and tailed, halved cross ways
1 cup cooked chicken, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 cup bean sprouts
1 spring onion, sliced into 2.5cm lengths and white part julienned
½ cup mint leaves
½ cup coriander leaves
1 large red chilli, sliced

To Serve; lime wedges and hot chilli sauce

Bring the stock to the boil and add the lemon grass and galangal or ginger slices. Turn off the heat and let it stand.
Soak the noodles in hot water for about 10 minutes (or prepare according to packet instructions if using other type of noodle) and set aside while preparing vegetables.
Heat a saucepan on medium heat and fry the curry paste, garlic and chilli for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
Strain in the stock (discarding lemon grass and galangal) and add the coconut milk. Bring to the boil.
Add the carrot and bok choy and bring back to the boil. Simmer for a minute. Add the baby corn and simmer for another minute.
Add the prepared sauce and snow peas. Bring to the boil stirring, and turn off the heat. Do a taste test. Add more fish sauce, sugar or lime juice if desired.
Drain the noodles well and divide equally among warm bowls (you will find this easier if you cut them into two portions using kitchen scissors and transfer them to the bowls using tongs).
Top each bowl of noodles with chicken, bean sprouts, spring onion, mint and coriander leaves.
Ladle on the piping hot coconut mixture, dividing the vegetables more-or-less evenly. Garnish with red chilli slices. Enjoy with lime wedges and hot chilli sauce.

Well the beds finally arrive - the day before we are due to go back to Sydney.

Spicy Fresh Bean Bhaji

2009-07-01T18:26:00.000-07:00

The Orange region has a lovely climate; very warm summers with low humidity and cool nights, cold winters with relatively few really cold days and most importantly, good rain, unlike much of the rest of Australia. A great climate to produce fine wines and grow fruit and vegetables (One of our neighbours established the first vineyard in the district in 1983). That is unless you live on a sheep station on top of a mountain (it’s a high tableland really - 750m above sea level – but it feels like a mountain) where strong winds from every direction batter your newly planted trees, flower beds and horror of horrors, your lovely, organic vegetable garden. Hot westerly's and north westerly’s can singe even the most robust of plants in the summer and the easterly’s (which can go on night and day for 7 days in a row at any time of the year) flatten everything in their path and virtually blow the roof off your house. Ah well, the views are absolutely beautiful…..

We allowed ourselves to be seduced by the views, knowing this would be a challenging place to establish the vegetable garden I’ve been thinking about for a few years now. The whole venture has been a challenge really. We bought the 8 acre bare parcel of land, a former sheep station about 280K west of Sydney and 10K out of the city of Orange, in a place called Windera, in late 2005. Bare only in that it didn’t have a single tree, it was in fact covered with pasture grasses. Grasses that can grow to about 6 ft tall (and did), weeds like gigantic blackberry shrubs that are impossible to eradicate and lots and lots of rocks both small and large. My husband reckons some of the big ones go from here right through to China. They make getting a slasher in impossible, so much of the grass has to be slashed by hand until we clear the rocks.

We fenced off the lower 5 acres and placed there some living lawnmowers and fertiliser producers (cattle), and through much dedication and even more hard labour we finally managed to get a small one bed-room dwelling built on the top block in February 2008. We had about 300 native trees and 20 fruit trees planted the year before and the cottage will serve as a base, a week or so on, 10 days or so off (we are still living and working in Sydney) from where we can plant more trees, plan and create the gardens, and supervise the building of the main house. We christen the place ‘Mount Sugarloaf’ and look forward to the next few years dodging the brown snakes, knee deep in compost and manure. There have been many trials and tribulations but it has been worth it. Just look at these beautiful beans.

Blue Lake, King Purple and Rattlesnake. Some mythical beings out of Harry Potter? No, Phaseolus Vulgaris - beans! Beans with purple pods, beans with green pods flecked with purple and beans with plain green pods. These are few of the many heirloom varieties that are (thankfully) readily available from seed saver associations and various other organisations worldwide.

Heirloom vegetables are our inheritance; selected and saved by our ancestors, sometimes over hundreds even thousands of years, they offer some of the best tasting, best yielding and disease resistant varieties. These open pollinated heirloom varieties are reliable, productive and easy to grow, unlike modern hybrids and genetically modified crops bred for transportability and storage, not flavour, goodness and continuity.

Beans both dried and fresh, are brimming with nutrients. An excellent source of protein they are also packed with vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, iron and many other minerals as well as omega-3 fatty acids and fibre.

I grew these three varieties of beans (that all turn green when cooked), along with dozens of other organic and heirloom vegetables and fruits, last season at Mt. Sugarloaf. They were easy to grow, incredibly resilient to the harsh conditions, and wonderfully productive over a many weeks. They were also very tasty.

These delicious beans have been in such abundant supply I have been using them in everything - pastas, stir fries, steamed with roasts and barbecues and curries like this one. Yummy....

Spicy Fresh Bean Bhaji

This bhaji is delicious with yoghurt, roti or paratha and Indian pickles. It is also particularly good as a side dish with a lamb or goat curry.

Both French beans and runner beans would be just as good, but they do need to be very fresh and full of flavour. It is the succulence and sweetness of the beans that make this dish so lipsmacking good. If you don’t grow your own, buy fresh locally grown or organically grown beans.

Serves 4-6 Preparation and cooking time: 45 minutes

3 tbsp ghee or olive oil
2 small or 1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small knob of ginger, finely chopped
2 green chillies (or to taste), finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric
500g green beans, topped, tailed and sliced into 1 cm pieces
1 tsp salt
½ tsp garam masala

Sauté the onion in the ghee or oil until starting to brown at the edges. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for a minute until aromatic.
Stir in the chillies, turmeric and salt and stir fry for a few seconds and add the beans. Stir the beans around in the pan until everything is well mixed.
Add a little water, stir and cover pan. Cook over low-medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly until the beans are tender. Add a little more water during this time if required to prevent the food sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Stir in the garam masala, cook for a few seconds more and serve.

There are many good reasons to grow your own food; flavour is only one of them. When the going gets tough, the tough get growing!

Recipes

2009-06-19T01:31:00.000-07:00

Quick Version Curry Secret Curry Sauce
Spicy Bean Bhaji
Murgh Hariyali Masala
Thai Style Laksa
Proscuitto and Rocket Pizza
Spicy Lamb Cutlets
Raita
Home-made Yoghurt
Tangy Marinated Chicken on a bed of Spicy Lentils with Coriander and Lime Relish
Ajwaini King Prawns
Chicken Tikka
Chicken Tikka Masala
Spicy Prawn Curry
Aloo Gobi
Salad Capresi
Minute Steak on Wild Rocket
Spicy Pakora
Thai Sweet and Sour Eggplant
Cheats Samosas
Traditional Lemon Pickle
Salmon Kalia
Passionfruit Ice-cream
Super quick Cake for tea
Slow Cooked Duck Curry
Vegetable Pilau
Peach Chutney