HOW TO MAKE A TOP CLASS INDIAN BANQUET!

A lot of people love Indian food, and why not? It's packed with flavour and spices and when pulled off, is so authentic you feel transported to the exquisite culinary world of India. Tonight I made a 3 course Indian meal, the curry was especially authentic, and one of the first curries I have made that made me feel like it was genuine Indian food instead of British takes on curry. Thankfully my mum, who lectures on Indian religion and has been to India many times and a handful of Indian ceremonies, agreed! I love a relaxed atmosphere in my kitchen, so if you are of the same mind and do not like dashing around the kitchen with a million and one pans in the sink, slipping on the milk that you just spilt on the floor and looking up to see expectant hungry faces, set aside most of your day to prep these recipes, so that by the time your dinner is, you can serve up in style. I would recommend making the samosas and the chutney the day before, then you have less to stress about. Below I have composed a menu and below that I will continue to put their recipes and pictures. Feel free to add and subtract, put on the music and relax in a sea of spices...

STARTER - Spiced cauliflower soup (in the pictures I made tomato and coriander soup, but I felt that cauliflower had a more palate cleansing balance in hindsight), with vegetable samosas and tomato and chilli chutney.

MAIN - Red butter chicken curry (I am a vegetarian, and chopped quorn fillets defrosted were fine as a sub), but if not just go with chicken, with spicy cottage cheese baked potatoes (great with cottage cheese but paneer would probably look more attractive if you wanted to sub) and mint raita.

DESSERT - Caramel custard with fresh fruit (the showstopper of the meal. I thought it would be a bit precarious but it turned out beautifully and was a silky cross between creme brulee and egg custard).
DRINK - Lassi. I made mango but add your favourite fruit as a different twist. Creamy and cooling beside the curry and very popular in the heat of India. (Sad to report we do not have quite the same problems in England).

I MADE MY CURRY FROM THE SAM STERN RECIPE BOOK REAL FOOD REAL FAST. SAM STERN IS AN ADVOCATE OF TEENAGE COOKING AND HIS BOOKS HAVE SOME OF THE HIGHEST SUCCESS RATE RECIPES THAT I HAVE EVER KNOWN. IT IS WELL WORTH INVESTING IN ONE FOR A FIVER FROM AMAZON.

SEE BELOW FOR MORE SAM STERN BOOKS - THESE ARE THE
PARTICULAR ONES THAT I OWN.

MY PARTICULAR FAVOURITE - ONLY BECAUSE I AM
A VEGETARIAN AND IT IS HARD TO GET BOOKS THAT
AREN'T JUST FULL OF SALAD AND STRANGE CHEESE AND
AUBERGINE CONCOCTIONS. THIS GIVES YOU GOOD FOOD THAT
YOU WANT TO TASTE NOT JUST LETTUCE!

PACKED FULL OF GREAT RECIPES!

THE BOOK THAT I MADE ALL OF THE REST OF THE RECIPES
FROM WAS THIS BRILLIANT FAT FREE INDIAN BOOK WITH RECIPES
 BY SHEHZAD HUSAIN AND WITH BEAUTIFUL PICTURES BY
MANISHA KANANI. I STUMBLED ACROSS IT BY CHANCE ONCE
WHEN I WAS IN DEVON A FEW YEARS AGO, SO I THINK IT
WOULD BE QUITE HARD TO FIND - BUT THEN AGAIN AMAZON
ALWAYS SURPRISES YOU!

BRILLIANT AUTHENTIC INDIAN CUISINE!

BELOW ARE THE PICTURES OF THE THREE COURSE MEAL I
MADE FROM THE TWO BOOKS.

                                                           

STARTER

                                                           

MAIN COURSE

 

DESSERT

 RECIPE - RED BUTTER CHICKEN CURRY - you will want to make this as your last dish, then keep it heated while eating starter.

1. Melt 75g butter in your largest pan, add 1 finely diced medium sized onion, 4 cloves of garlic (or adjust according to taste) and a pinch of salt. Cook for a couple of minutes then add ½ teaspoon of cayenne pepper, ½ tsp chilli powder, 3 tsps paprika, 2 tsps garam masala, 2 tsps ground coriander, a cinnamon stick and 4 crushed cardamom pods, then cook until onion is soft.

2. Add 700g passata (fresh tomato sauce in a pint bottle) The Best is good from Morrisons, 2 tbsps tomato paste/puree whatever you want to call it, 2 tbsps red wine vinegar and a tbsp grated ginger and stir together. Bring to boil, (turn up heat should start bubbling), then simmer (reduce heat for ten minutes).

3. Add 4 diced skinless chicken breast or Quorn breasts if (v), stir to coat. Tip in 200ml double cream and 150 ml natural yoghurt. Cook at gentle simmer until chicken is cooked white through, or Quorn is soft. Stir in some fresh coriander and serve. Should be a creamy, saucy curry.

RECIPE - HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN SAMOSAS - this recipe uses frozen filo pastry, I would use Jus-Rol personally. They still taste delicious, but when you are making a three course dinner, this is a handy cut on time.

1. Make sure that your filo pastry is defrosted before you begin. It sounds simple, but I can't count the number of times that I have had an idea that I am going to make something and then I forget to get the butter out of the fridge or unthaw something from the freezer. You will need 14 sheets of filo pastry to make 24 samosas, but you can adjust accordingly depending on the numbers in your family and the level of greediness or 'food appreciation' ...

Take the pastry out of the package. Do this very carefully as filo is extremely fragile and thin, and sometimes they put them in the package all folded together, so look out for where the pastry uncreases rather than tearing it to shreds and wasting your money and shopping trip. Lay the sheets out in front of you, they are normally floured in the packet but if you are a bit of a worrier, by all means flour your table. Cut each sheets of pastry down the middle lengthways so you get two long strips. Fold each piece in half lengthways and lightly brush with vegetable oil (or whatever oil you have in).

2. To make the filling, toss these ingredients into a bowl: 3 large potatoes boiled and coarsely mashed (you don't want it smooth and creamy so leave a few small chunks), 75g frozen peas, 50g sweetcorn (drained), 1 tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp of ground cumin, 1 tsp dried mango powder (amchur) if you live near a shop or deli specialising in Indian foods great, if you don't it still tastes fantastic without, 1 small onion finely (chopped), 2 green chillies finely (chopped), 2 tbsp coriander leaves (chopped), 2 tbsp mint leaves (chopped), the juice of one lemon and salt both to for you to taste with. Make sure they're all mixed in.

3. Using one strip of pastry at a time, place a spoonful of mix at the end of a strip and diagonally fold the pastry up to make a triangle, folding the other side so you are basically wrapping the mix up in a triangle of pastry. This seems hard, but when you get the knack of it, you impress yourself and it also happens to be great fun. Well ... it was for me. Brush the samosas with oil to make them crispy and golden on top and bake in the oven for 10-15 mins until golden brown at 200 degrees c. As always, know if your oven needs to be reduced in temperature. If you have any scraps left over that fell of in the packet or you ripped before you got the hang of it, you could always convert them into mini samosas for you to taste before the meal. BELOW, SEE MY PICTURE STEP BY STEP GUIDE FOR A CLEARER IDEA:

Lay the pastry out on the table

Fold, cut and brush pastry with oil.

   

Put mixture at the bottom of the strip

Fold the pastry up in a triangle over the mixture.

Fold the pastry back on itself still keeping it in the form of a triangle

Continue to do this until you reach the end of the strip

There you have it

Whack them on a tray and cook them - (before they are cooked in this photo),
but to see the end product take a look at the pictures of my starter!

RECIPE - BAKED POTATO WITH SPICY COTTAGE CHEESE - A bit of a triumph, but paneer might look more attractive than this - good stuff all the same...

1. Here is just a bit of a warning. Whether you take note or not is completely your choice, but I'm just saying that I thought baking the potatoes in this way was a little bit unnecessary, so I'd say bake them in your own way, you know, the way you normally just shove them in the oven and they come out fine. But anyway, I know there are people out there and I am probably one of them who would get annoyed that I was subtracting from the real recipe. So here is the book's original way to bake the taters.
Wash, dry and make a slit in the middle of 4 medium baking potatoes. Prick a few times with a fork, wrap individually in foil and bake in the oven directly on the shelf for an hour until soft and generally resembling a baked potato. Mine didn't take an hour - in fact two did which my mum and dad ate, but luckily my sister isn't eating carbs at the moment and I didn't mind waiting a bit while I ate my curry. Saying that it'll probably work out great for you and you'll wonder what I've been going on about. But you know, you have been warned if it doesn't!
2.  Put 225g low fat cottage cheese or paneer if you so wish into a heatproof dish (rhymed). In a separate bowl, mix together 2 tsp tomato puree, 1/2 tsp ground cumin, 1/2 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp chilli powder and 1/2 tsp salt.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a small saucepan for a minute. Add 1/2 tsp mixed onion seeds and mustard seeds and 3 curry leaves and stir about. When the leaves turn darker and give off aroma, pour the tomato puree mix in and turn the heat down. Add 2 tbsp water and mix gently. Cook for a further minute, then pour the cottage cheese into the tomato mix. Before this stage, my tomato mix was a really beautiful jewel like red colour if you want any guidelines or I just want to tell you.. Mix the two mixes together.
4. Check your potatoes are done, the flesh should be soft when prodded about (strictly in culinary terms!) If they are, unwrap them and insert the mix into the middles. If you are making the curry at the same time, it would be a great idea to keep it hot and time your potatoes so that they are ready at the precise time you want to serve your main. You will probably know this information, but I am the sort of person who has to sit down and write a schedule up of what goes in the oven when. And if you are, great and if you aren't, also great. Everyone has their own ways of remembering!

KITCHEN SONG OF THE DAY: Joe's Head, Kings of Leon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y30Wii_70c

RECIPE - MINT RAITA - this is a cooling way to cleanse the palette after eating a spicy curry.

1. Pour 475ml low fat natural yoghurt into a bowl and whisk it well, (a hand whisk is fine). Add 1 tsp of salt, 1 tsp of sugar and 1 and 1/2 tsps of mint sauce, I prefer Colmans. Taste, if it is not sweet enough for you add a little honey, everyone has their own preferences.

2. Add roughly 2 tbsps of chopped coriander to the mix with a finely chopped green chilli, a diced medium sized onion and 50ml water. Whisk again so that everything is mixed in evenly and pour into a serving bowl. Place in the refrigerator until ready to use. Yes, it really is as easy as that!

RECIPE - LASSI - Lassi is a drink that is available at roadside cafes in India and Pakistan on a hot day. It is really authentic to serve with your meal and helps the body to break down spicy foods as it is so cooling. Just a little warning, I served up for four people and decided to make one and a half times the quantity to fill a glass serving jug, this recipe makes for four, but when you have made it and think you could do with a little more make some up by all means it is not time consuming. Just remember to keep your ingredients proportional to the original recipe.

1. Place 300ml low fat yoghurt into a jug and whisk until frothy. Add 2 tsps sugar or enough so that you have it at your personal desired sweetness. Often in India, people sugar their own Lassi's as everyone has a different propensity for sweetness, so if you are serving for a number of people, it would be good to bear this in mind.

2. Pour in 300ml water and 2 tbsp of pureed fruit. I did mango and pureed it in a food processor, but add your favourite fruit instead, strawberries, raspberries and blueberries would work just as well. Continue to whisk for two minutes. It is important that you serve the lassi chilled as it is supposed to be very cooling, so keep it fridged until you need it. If you don't have someone nut allergic in the family, like me, decorate the tops with crushed pistachio nuts to finish.

RECIPE - TOMATO AND CHILLI CHUTNEY - eat as an accompaniment to your samosas if you so wish. Makes about one and a half jars so you have loads left over for future lunches and picnics - definitely a bonus! You do I'm afraid need a food processor for this one, I'm sorry. Before I had my Kenwood Multi Pro FP735 3 litre food processor, which is now incidentally my baby, I used to get really frustrated at recipes that I didn't have the equipment to make. It is really worth buying one of the food processors however, they do rapidly speed up many processes like making cakes and bread and on the subject of this recipe, chutney. My Grandma bought me one last Christmas as a surprise, my friends would go, "yeah I got an iphone 4 for Christmas what did you get?" and I'd go, "Well ... I got this really amazing food processor that has a julienne function, a metal twin-geared whisk, a mill and a citrus press", and they would go "okay then Becca ....." and zone out for the next ten minutes. So if you have one fantastic! But if you don't have and aren't considering investing in one any time soon, there is a great range of chutneys such as 'Geeta's lime and chilli chutney' and 'Sharwoods smooth mango chutney' that would go great with the samosas. If you don't have one and are looking to invest in one, look no further than Amazon, the one I have is on a great offer at the moment reduced from £109.99 to £79.99 with free delivery and I think you'll be hard pressed to find another one of such good quality in this kind of price range. Click the link for  a better look:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kenwood-Multi-FP735-Processor-Silver/dp/B000M5G52A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313576272&sr=8-1

So here goes:

1. Roughly chop 4 big tomatoes, a red pepper, 2 green chillies and a garlic clove. Chuck it all in a food processor along with 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 1 tsp chilli powder, 3 tbsp tomato puree and 1 tbsp of fresh coriander.  Remember to check all your parts are fixed on because I always seem to chuck in my ingredients without putting in the knife blade first. Not.a.good.and.very.messy.idea! Mental note: make a big notice to stick above food processor to help me remember...

2. Add 2 tbsp water to the mix and process until fairly smooth but a few chunks are visible. Fridge it until you need it, in old jam jars etc. I bet that took you less than 5 minutes or more if like me you glide around the kitchen mouthing along to Adele with a sharp knife in your hand - which is definitely not a good idea.

RECIPE - SPICED CAULIFLOWER SOUP - this soup will start off your meal with a kick.

1. Put 1 large diced potato, 1 small chopped cauliflower and 1 chopped onion into a large saucepan with 1 tbsp oil and 3 tbsp water. Heat until hot and bubbling, then cover and turn the heat down. Continue cooking for about 10 minutes.

2. Add 1 crushed garlic clove, 1 tbsp grated ginger, 2 tsp ground turmeric, 1 tsp cumin seeds, 1 tsp black mustard seeds and 2 tsp ground coriander stirring well and cooking for another 2 minutes. Pour in a litre of vegetable stock, which you can do the oxo cube way or the -  I've got much more time on my hands because I set the alarm and happen to have these ingredients in my fridge way.

This is the latter:                                                                        

Put 3.5 litres of water, 2 sliced leeks, 3 sticks of chopped celery, 1 chopped onion, 1 chopped parsnip, 1 chopped yellow pepper, 3 crushed cloves of garlic, fresh herbs, salt and pepper and 3 tbsp light soy sauce into a pan. Slowly bring to the boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30 mins, stirring from time to time. Cool. Strain discarding the vegetables. Use as indicated in the recipe.

3. Season well, then bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 20 mins or so. If you are serving as a starter, I would recommend making in the morning and putting in the fridge at this stage, but if you are serving straight away, stir in 300ml low fat yoghurt, adjust the seasoning - don't underestimate the power that salt and pepper can bring to your dish and serve garnished with coriander. If you are making it in the morning, leave it until just before you serve to do these steps as I am always a bit dubious about reheating yoghurts and creams. Let me rephrase that - seriously don't reheat anything with cream or yoghurt in EVER. Enjoy!

RECIPE - CARAMEL CUSTARD WITH FRESH FRUIT -  a great way to round the meal off with a spectacular and grand finale. Tastes a bit like egg custard with the silky smoothness of a creme caramel. A great Indian pudding served in little clay pots in India, but also makes a fabulous pudding for any meal. I would make this dish a few hours in advance and then invert it and arrange the fresh fruit during a short break between the main and dessert, it is much more relaxing and rewarding.

1. To make the caramel, place 2 tbsp sugar and 2 tbsp water in a heavy based pan and heat until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbling and pale gold. I hate to be a nag, but it is really important that you dedicate your sole (not soul) and undivided attention to this process and don't do the washing up while it's doing because burnt caramel really isn't too great. I'd get a chair though and sit down next to the pan, it does take rather a while and you may as well be seated. When it is this colour and don't wait too long because it easily darkens and burns, pour carefully into a 1.2 litre/2 pint soufflé dish and leave to cool. I had to make two batches of caramel to cover the base of my dish as it is quite important that it is covered, and the caramel harden extremely quickly when you try and pour it out and when it has done that all you will get out of scraping the pan may be spun sugar. SO, if you deem it very necessary and have time because the resources aren't very extravagant I would make another batch to cover the base of the dish.

2. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees c or whatever your oven needs. To make the custard, simply break 6 medium to large eggs into a mixing bowl and hand whisk until frothy. Stir in 4 drops of vanilla essence and gradually add 9 tbsp sugar and 750ml of semi skimmed milk, whisking continuously - so, great if the milkman came today. You should get something about the colour of custard but runnier, you really don't need to whisk for too long to be honest it only took me about a minute. Pour the custard over the caramel.

3. Cook in the oven for 35 - 40 minutes on the middle shelf. It should be kind of golden-y and a little bit wobbly like a soufflé. Remove from the oven and leave to cool until the mixture is set. Keep somewhere cool like a conservatory/fridge and lay a piece of foil across the top to stop flying creatures from sampling. 

4. When you are ready to serve and this is truly a moment of triumph (if something hasn't gone unfortunately wrong by this stage), gently run a knife around the sides of the custard to slightly loosen. Get a pretty serving plate, one made of glass would be pretty, and place it face down on the top of the soufflé dish. If you have done this manoeuvre before you will know what is coming with some knowledge that you are already a practised hand. Place one hand under the soufflé dish with a safe grip, the other on top of the plate and turn so that the plate is the right way up and the dish is the wrong way up and put down on the table. At this point, the pudding will slide from the sides of the dish onto the plate and upon releasing carefully the soufflé dish you will see your pudding (as in my pictures above). It will have run out caramel juices onto your plate, but don't wipe this up as they soak into the fruit deliciously. Then arrange an array of fresh fruit in a tasteful manner around the side of it, I used banana, orange, strawberries, blueberries, nectarine and mango. You can choose your own favourites to display. And voila! Cue impressed faces from the members of your family and friends.

KITCHEN SONG OF THE DAY: Please Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood, The Animals
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2FT4FprxDg

CHOCOLATE CUPCAKES WITH CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM - INTERESTED YET?

The Cupcakes! The Recipe Book! HUMMINGBIRD BAKERY CHOCKIE CUPCAKES WITH CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM: Yes, now is definitely an appropriate time to introduce to you a recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery, a celebrity cupcake haunt in London which is delicious but probably charges inordinate rates for a cupcake (which some people are very willing to pay and I am very happy for them). But if you have a lovely friend who goes to London and buys the baking book for you, something magical happens. You can make them in your own kitchen without having to get on a train to sample the goodies! Brilliant, isn't it? I will continue to post recipes from this tiny book of splendour, if when I make them they continue to be as good. Which I don't doubt that they will be. RECIPE: Warning: This recipe is for a food processor, but it is equally delicious if you make it by hand, just cream your butter and sugar, add the wet ingredients and the dry ingredients and beat like you would usually. 1. Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Basically, just make sure your oven is hot enough to cook the cakes, that would be a good starting point. If you know, like me, you have to reduce the heat of your oven by a number of degrees do so. 2. Put 100g plain flour, 2 and a half tablespoons cocoa powder, 1 and a half teaspoons of baking powder, 140g caster sugar, a pinch of salt and 40g  butter in a food processor and beat until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. (You don't want to beat it to death, but you don't want big lumps and stuff in it). 3. Whisk an egg, 120ml milk and a couple of drops of vanilla essence together in a bowl then pour HALF into the food processor and beat to get rid of lumps. Turn the processor down and and pour in the rest of the milk mixture and mix until smooth, but don't overmix. 4. Spoon into paper cases of your choice, until two thirds full and bake for 20-25 mins, until the cake bounces back when you touch it and a skewer comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. 5. To make the icing: (also by processor, but easily done by hand if you follow the usual methods) - Beat 300g icing sugar (sifted), 40g cocoa powder (sifted) and 100g butter in the processor until the mixture comes together and is well mixed. 6. Turn the processor down and add 3 tablespoons of milk a little at a time. When it is all incorporated, turn up to high speed and beat until fluffy, light, creamy and looks like it belongs on top of a cup cake. When the cakes are cool, because otherwise you'll get a melty, soaky, slidey mess and a bad mood, spread, pipe or top your cakes with the buttercream and dazzling extras: sprinkles, dragees, silver balls or anything you can find in the house. Scoff or save. KITCHEN SONG OF THE DAY: Daydream Believer, Monkees http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=okQe_lmM8OI

The Yummy Food Blog

So, now hopefully you've read a bit about the blog (or skipped it because you reckon it looks boring and just WANT TO SEE THE CAKES FOR GOODNESS SAKE), but all in good time dear reader. In this Blog, I am going to submit some of my most fail safe recipes that coincidentally and luckily happen to taste good too. I am definitely not professing to be an expert, no, not by any means whatsoever but if you are a likeminded person who enjoys baking and whipping up a dinner for your family in the safety of your own home (or even just wants to learn a basic repetoire), AND get more than appropriately excited when you see a range of complicated looking culinary utensils, I may have some recipes that interest you. Probably not blow torches and nitrous oxide though...
Some of the stuff will be dead basic, some a little trickier for when you want to pull out all the stops and say with a knowing look in your eye:
"Oh yes I do haute cuisine. Gastronomy and all that..."
I hope you enjoy cooking my recipes and borrowed recipes with fantastic results!

An introduction to the Yummy Food Blog:

Okay, firstly, before I embark upon writing this blog, I have one thing to say. If you are reading this, you are potentially just as good a cook as me. (Unless of course you happen to be Michel Roux, and um in that case you definitely are a lot better - and as you were).... It is frustrating to hear people say, "oh I just can't cook," just because they had one bad experience in their lifetime. Food is something that is quintessential in our every day lives, if we care so much about the clothes we wear (once to twice a day), why aren't we as scrupulous about what we put into our mouth (three times or more per day)? It's not like we all tried to walk, fell over and said, "you know the funny thing is, I just can't walk" and proceeded to bum shuffle for the rest of our lives. If I'm being honest, that is what a lot of us are like with cooking, metaphorically bum shuffling our way around ready meals and takeaways - I'm not talking about when you have 20 minutes to knock something up and you use jus-rol instead of crafting your own pastry - that is pretty much a certified kind of bum shuffling.

What I'm really trying to say in my own special way is that like everything in life, cooking has limits. Instead of saying, "I can't cook", say "I can't cook a roast poussin with wild mushrooms and caramelized shallot sauce very successfully, but I can do eggs three ways." It's just like saying, "I can't run twenty miles without stopping, but I can run 10k in under 45 minutes."So make yourself good targets. In the end, cooking is following a set of instructions on a page, and like everything, repeating and repeating until you have it cracked.

Cooking is also pretty adaptable for whoever you are. Whatever qualities you have, bring them out in your food. For example, if you can be creative and very determined, yet over ambitious and slightly neurotic, (me), you have to think about striking the right balance between practicality and the surreality of your mind. Cooking and baking is also pretty therapeutic. Rumour goes that I have been known to take anger out on slicing root vegetables to 'a town called malice' by the Jam. If you make your kitchen your space, cooking and baking can be relaxing, but I'm not going to lie, if you push the boat out it can get stressful.

So I hope you can gather and gain ideas from here - adapt them, add twists, test them, disagree with them (mentally not physically), and I hope you can try these recipes that basically work for me every time and hopefully and probably for you, but I don't want to put any definites on that, as I don't want to receive an angry email saying that your masterpiece fell apart in front of your entire family who flew over from Australia to specifically sample your culinary genius.....

Oh and P.S - my title 'the yummy food blogger', yeah that refers to the food as being yummy not me, it isn't weird sideline advertising for anything. Just to clear that up....