Moooooosewood curry

We had a cauli in the fridge last week. Now, I like cauli, and we make cauli cheese, or a cauli and lentil curry. Sometimes we even just have it as a side veg. But none of them appealed, so I went rummaging through the books, and came up with Satyamma’s cauliflower curry. I didn’t follow the recipe precisely – they’re guidelines, is all.

We added sweet potato rather than “ordinary”, and adjusted the spices a bit (but not enough – needs about twice as much as the recipe, to my mind), and added a can of chickpeas*; it was absolutely lovely, and I reckoned it at about 190 calories a serving, without rice or whatever. We had roasted peanuts left in from the festive season, and everything else was in the house already, so that was a win too.

I really must go through that book more, because I’m currently in a bit of a rut with cooking.

Also, note to self: take photographs!

*Yes, I know, but I do keep a few tins of pulses in for such occasions; normally I would have soaked and boiled. Mea culpa.

chickpeas

Chickpeas are splendid legumes. We always keep a couple of cans of them in (along with a variety of other beans), but I do prefer to soak and cook them myself, as that way they are far, far cheaper. However, I am a bit prone to just lobbing a load in a bowl of water, and then finding I have far many more of the little chaps to deal with than I had anticipated …

I soaked and boiled some on Sunday last week, and then on Monday I chopped red onion, yellow pepper, a tired aubergine, together with some garlic. Fried that off in olive oil, lobbed in a couple of teaspoons of Ras el Hanout spice and some lemon juice, added a load of chickpeas, and cooked it down for half an hour or so. Added some finely chopped flat leaf parsley, and had it with rice for supper. And there was enough to have for lunch the following day with some toasted pitta.

The remaining chickpeas went into the food processor with lots of garlic, olive oil, salt and pepper, and tahini, to make hummus. Hummus is ridiculously easy to make, I really don’t know why I ever buy it! Some of the parsley went in that too (and the rest? Post coming!).

roast veg forever!

We decided to christen the Remoska with roast veg, something I love but rarely manage to start in time to eat it at a reasonable time of night. Well, actually, we christened it with some potato scones – they worked beautifully, but I’m not sure that it’s not easier with a griddle pan on the hob.

Between us, we chopped two courgettes, half a butternut squash, a red onion, a red pepper and a couple of carrots. Bunged them in the Remoska with about 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped, some dried chilli flakes, and some thyme from the garden. Tossed it all about in olive oil, took a deep breath and switched it on.  It cooked in about 50 minutes, and was totally lovely. So we’ll do *that* again.

While that was going on, I boiled up some chickpeas that had been soaking overnight and set them aside for today. There was about half the roast veg left, so this morning I seasoned a chicken breast with salt, pepper and cumin seeds, and quickly roasted it off in the small Remoska (no idea why I’ve never tried this before :). Then, today’s main meal was:

Remainder of the roast veg, chickpeas, cubed chicken breast, and a stir through of some Ras el Hanout. As always, I was unsure what to put in for some additional liquor, and then inspiration struck. I have a bad habit of buying chutneys, and never using them, so I bunged in a tablespoon each of apricot chutney, and tomato relish – it worked really well.

And there was another meal’s worth left, which I put in the freezer!

what to do with leftover kebab #2

This follows on, really, from here. We had even more left over this time!

I cut up an onion and some garlic, and fried them off in olive oil. Then I added a heaped teaspoon of Ras el Hanout and fried that off for a minute or two. In went the meat, cut into smallish pieces, then some chickpeas. I’d put the chickpeas in to soak the night before, and boiled them up in the morning, because I am too mean to use a can unless I’m caught short (as it were).

There were, inevitably, more chickpeas than would fit in the pan.

I added about 2/3 of a carton of passata, and a slug of cider (as that bottle is still in the fridge and, you know, I don’t want to waste it ..). Tasted it, and it was a bit sweet, so I added the juice of half a lemming. Simmered it all for about 20 minutes, ate with rice. Made a nice lunch (as previously noted, we tend towards main meal at lunchtime on Tuesdays, due to Morris practice).

[Edited to add]
It made loads, and so I lobbed in the remainder of the chickpeas that were leftover, and put it all in the freezer!

what to do with leftover kebab

We don’t as, as a rule, eat takeaway food. It’s cheap here in Hull, but it’s not terribly good for diabetics :) But we did have a kebab on Saturday night. Now, this is not the sort of kebab you get from the corner van, that smells so inviting when you’re on your way home from the pub – this is from a Lebanese restaurant, Ranoosh, on Beverley Road, and their food is just gorgeous.

We had Makanek (Lebanese sausages flambeed in lemon), Halloumi Cheese, Mixed Grillof 4 skewers: Lamb meshwi, shish taouk & 2 kofta, and Mixed Chawarma – Slices of marinated lamb & chicken roasted on a skewer. It arrived with two portions of rice, salad and a selection of dips, and was delivered to the door for the princely sum of £21. And there was too much to eat, so we put the leftover meat into the fridge.

For today’s lunch, I chopped up the meat, and added radish, cucumber, red pepper, spring onions and half a can of chickpeas, plus lemon juice, black pepper and a little mayonnaise. Pete had some Indian flat bread too. ‘Twas lovely.

a sort of chicken tagine

I bought a pound of diced chicken last Friday, and soaked and boiled some chickpeas, with the full intention of making a tagine with them on Sunday. Didn’t get to it, due to an unfortunate cycling incident (OK, I fell off), so I stole 30 minutes yesterday morning to make it.

Browned the chicken pieces in olive oil, and put them in the slow cooker. Cut two peppers (one red, one yellow) into chunks, and fried them off until they were just starting to blacken at the corners, added them to the cooker. Hurled in a sliced courgette which was getting a bit tired, a lemon cut into 8, salt, pepper.

Cut a red onion into chunks, and chopped four cloves of garlic, fried them off, added some ras el hanout to the pan and cooked it for a few seconds. Rummaged in fridge for ideas, and found a jar of tomato and pepper relish, so bunged in a couple of tablespoons’ worth, then a squirt of honey and some water. Brought all that to a simmer, hurled it into the slow cooker with the chickpeas, switched on.

The smell drove us demented all afternoon, and we ate some for supper with rice, and chopped coriander sprinkled over the top.

chickpeas with chicken

We had a load of cold cooked chicken left over from a roast, some rather tired coriander leaves, a wizened yellow pepper, so time for one of our favourites.

Roughly chopped two onions, several cloves of garlic and the yellow pepper, and sauteéd them off in some olive oil. Added some chopped chorizo and let it cook down, and then added some cumin seeds. Hurled in the chicken, a load of chickpeas (which I’d soaked and boiled, but tinned is fine).

Made a stock of Marigold bouillon powder (no home should be without it) and a teaspoon or so of arrowroot to thicken it. Squeezed in the juice of a lemon, and some salt and pepper.  It looked a bit unbalanced, so I bunged in half a jar of roasted yellow peppers, sliced thinly. Left to cook for about half an hour with a lid on, then added the chopped coriander and cooked for another ten minutes.

Delicious!

chickpeas bitsa

We accidentally (as you do) consumed a small fry up while on a 7 mile walk today – this is progress, as normally we’d have gone for the large version, but we did feel we deserved it, especially as I’d already walked 2.5 miles and swum 16 lengths this morning!

Anyway, we didn’t want a lot for supper, so we had a rummage in the fridge.

Into a pan went three small chorizo chopped up, with some olive oil – the chorizo came from Discover Unearthed, who very kindly sent me a whole load of new stuff to review this morning, so you’ll be reading about those soon.

Then we added chopped onion and garlic, and a thinly sliced red pepper, and cooked it all down for about 15 minutes.  Added some sesame seeds, chopped rosemary, a dribble of honey and about a wine glass water, popped in the last of the chickpeas, and left it all for another ten minutes.

Ate out of bowls, accompanied by toasted wholemeal pitta – delicious, quick, healthy, tasty.  Perfect.

roasted veg

We used to have this a lot, but somehow got out of the habit.  But it’s a nice healthy meal while I’m battling with health issues, so off we went.

Chopped an aubergine, a yellow pepper, half a butternut squash, half a sweet potato and a red onion, and put in a bowl with about five cloves of chopped garlic.  Added olive oil and sesame seeds, mixed it together (I always use my paws), then put some clingfilm on it, and zapped for 8 minutes in the microwave, which knocks about 20 minutes or so off the cooking time.

Turned into an ovenproof dish, and baked for about 45 minutes at gas 6.

To accompany it, I did some chickpeas (as I’d boiled up a load the day before) – browned a chopped shallot in some olive oil, add the chickpeas and a good dollop of lemon juice, and warmed through.  Added chopped fresh coriander at the end.We had the remainder of the veg on a small ciabatta each for lunch, topped with a little feta and grilled for a couple of minutes.  Fab.

lunch today

Was the last of the chickpeas, that had already been enhanced with peppers.  There were two elderly chorizo sausages in the fridge, so I chopped them up and fried them with a little olive oil – as always, they gave forth some lovely paprika-y, garlicy oil of their own, and once they’d crisped up, I added the chickpea mix, and warmed it all through for 15 minutes.

We had it with some toasted pitta bread – Pete managed to burn the first lot (!), but we had more in the freezer, thankfully.  Was all very nice, apart from the smell of charred pitta through the house … :)