parathas

We eat a lot of Indian food, which means we eat a lot of rice. And sometimes I just want a change. So we decided to have a bash at some Indian bread last night.

Mixed 250g wholemeal flour, 4 tbsp of gram (chickpea) flour, 1 tsp of salt, and a good pinch of bicarb.  Added 1 tsp of fennel seeds and 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, ground, and 2 tbsp of veg oil, then about 250ml of water to make a dough.  I also have half a bag of spinach, so I finely chopped about 100g of that and bunged it in as well.

It made a very sticky dough, which was really quite hard to work. You’re supposed to roll them out to a 10cm round, brush with oil, fold in half, brush with oil again, then fold in half twice more so you have a triangular sort of affair.  Then roll them again until they’re 15cm across.  This bit didn’t go all that well, but Pete fried them in our cast iron flat pan and they were very tasty. I think I’d add a chopped chili next time.

We had them with an aubergine and potato stew; the mix made enough dough for 12 parathas, so we ate 3 last night, put enough for 6 in the freezer, and will eat the other three for lunch tomorrow, with the rest of the stew (boosted with some chickpeas, which are soaking now, and the last of the spinach).

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meatballs in tomato sauce

In the freezer was a pound of sausagemeat, and pound of pork mince, both left over from Christmas. I fetched them out last night, with the intention of making some meatballs, but when I came to think about it, I decided they needed some beef mince too, so we hurtled over to Aldi  (15 minutes the quickest way, or 20 if you go through the park – we went there the slow way, and back the quick) to fetch some. We took the shopping trolley, and also bought 4 bottles of fizzy water, a bag of peppers, some spaghetti, a bottle of cooking wine, some onions and some rhubarb. Oops.

Once returned, I diced two carrots, half a courgette, two sticks of celery, a red pepper, and sliced 1.5 onions and four cloves of garlic.  Put that all to saute in some olive oil, while Pete combined the three lots of minced meat with some seasoning, and the very last of the dying basil plant.

It made 39 meatballs, which I fried off before putting them in the slow cooker. Then I added some sliced mushrooms to the veg mix, a carton of passata, a glassful of red wine and a dash of water.  Brought it to a simmer and poured it over the meatballs. Just have to wait now :)

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chicken with feta and basil

Regular readers will know that our regular fare is Indian, middle Eastern, Italian, but rarely, very rarely, something that involves potatoes and veg and so forth.

But we had a dying basil plant and half a block of feta that needed using up, and some chicken breasts in the freezer, and Jersey Royals, and English asparagus, so some combination was called for.

I chopped the feta into small cubes, and bunged it in a bowl with a finely chopped shallow and clove of garlic, some black pepper, some chopped basil, lemon juice, and olive oil. Cut a pocket into the chicken breasts, and bunged as much of the mix in as I could – there was far too much stuffing, of course.  I tied the chicken breasts round with string, put them in an ovenproof dish, and scattered the rest of the feta mix over the top.  Into the oven at gas mark 5 for 20 minutes, then turned it up to 6 for another ten.

Boiled the potatoes, steamed the asparagus on the top.  Utterly lovely.

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a quick trip to Aldi

I used to turn my nose up at Aldi and Lidl, but now we are poor people :), I’m a huge fan. There’s an Aldi about 10 minutes walk from home, and after a stroll round the park to see the new ducklings, we popped in for a couple of bits.

£17.38 bought:

• 1 pack of green beans
• 1 cauliflower
• 1 big pack of mushrooms
• 1 block of pate
• 2 packs of smoked mackerel
• 2 packs of oatcakes
• 1 pack of pastrami
• 1 pack of kabanos sausages
• 1 pack of another cold meat that I can’t quite remember
• 2 mozzarella
• 1 pack of Danish Blue cheese
• 1 litre of semi skimmed milk
• 2 tubs hummous
• 2 tins of pilchards (inexplicably, Pete likes these for lunch)

There might even have been more, but I don’t have the energy to go down and check; Aldi do a cracking range of continental meats and other deli type stuff – go take a look!

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cheap as chipsH^H chicken

From time to time – actually, quite often – our local CoOps (and probably yours, if you have one) do great offers on fresh chicken. I like to take advantage of these and stow them in the freezer. The most recent was two packs of chicken thighs for four quid, which seems like a bargain in anyone’s eyes.

I fetched two packs out of the freezer on Saturday, and yesterday turned them into Madhur Jaffrey’s lemony chicken and coriander, which is one of our very favourite things to eat. That recipe is a good guideline, but we use far more garlic and ginger, and I tend to do it in the slow cooker, then the meat falls off the bones.

We tend to eat this with rice and dhal, so we have small portions, and the two packs of thighs made 10 servings – £4 for the chicken, 75p for the coriander, and sunk costs for the ginger, garlic and chillis, which we always have in, I reckon about six quid the lot.  Can’t grumble at that.

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