Jamie Oliver's Chicken Tikka Masala

Here's  another recipe from the lovely Jamie Oliver for you all, this time one that actually worked better than my attempt at fishcakes, mainly because I had all the ingredients this time...  This was my first time making a homemade curry and I was pleasantly surprised at how it turned out - I've had curry sauces from jars before but I feel that it's always nicer to know exactly what goes into your food. 

For the Tikka Masala, you will need:

• 1 red chilli
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 15g ginger (Jamie Oliver specified fresh ginger but I had to resort to dried thanks to my somewhat pathetic local supermarkets)
• Paprika
• Garam Masala
• Cinnamon
• Turmeric
• Coriander (fresh if possible, Tesco surprisingly had packets of this)
• 1 onion
• 2 peppers
• Tinned tomatoes
• Tomato puree
• 2 chicken breasts
• 100ml plain yoghurt
• 100ml double cream

For a student-orientated cooking blog, this is quite a ridiculous list of ingredients, but don't be put off!  I already had all of the vegetables, spices and tomato-based things in the house, apart from the ginger and coriander, so it really wasn't all that expensive a meal. If you don't have anything on the list but are serious about getting into cooking, you could always use this recipe as an excuse to go out and buy a ton of herbs and spices - most of these are useful, everyday things that I use in a lot of my cooking, so think of it as an investment!  Remember supermarket brand spices are a lot cheaper, plus the ones in Tesco have letters on the bottles so you can also use them to spell out cute/obscene words to decorate your kitchen.

1. Firstly, chop the chicken into small pieces and place in a dish or bowl.  I think this is the first time that my blog has featured photos taken in daylight rather than my horrible kitchen lighting, thus marginally improving the quality of my terrible photography.  Hooray!

2. Chop the chilli, garlic and ginger (if you've managed to acquire fresh ginger).  Discard the chilli seeds if you don't like your curry to be too hot.

3. Mix the chopped chilli, garlic and ginger together with the chicken.  Add a generous sprinkle of paprika and garam masala, plus a couple of tablespoons of tomato puree, a drizzle of olive oil or sunflower oil, and some chopped coriander.  Jamie Oliver suggests leaving this to marinate for 24 hours, but as I am far too disorganised for such a proposition, I left mine for about 4 hours and it was still very flavoursome.

4. After leaving the chicken to marinate for as long as your hunger can withstand, begin to prepare the rest of the meal by chopping the onions and peppers.  Sadly I only had green peppers so my curry isn't as dramatically colourful as I would have liked.

5. Fry the onions and peppers in a large pot or wok and add a pinch of cinnamon and turmeric and some more chopped coriander.  At this stage it should hopefully begin to smell really nice.

6. After about 10 minutes when the onions and peppers are soft, add the tin of tomatoes and the yoghurt.  Then add the chicken pieces and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes.  Now would be the time to think about boiling your rice and so on.

7. Just before serving, add the double cream and some more chopped coriander and stir through until the curry is bubbling again.

Here is the finished product!  I served the curry with rice and garlic and coriander naan breads.  If you want to go all out and have an Indian feast, get some poppadoms and chutneys as well, or whatever else you fancy.

I tasted the curry before adding the cream and it was perfectly spicy, but after the cream was put in it was quite mild, so if you like hot curries I would suggest using less cream.  Other than that it was lovely, and the quantites were enough to give Tetley and I a substantial dinner plus lunch the next day - definitely worth the extra effort!

Spanish Sausage and Bean Stew

I got the idea for this recipe ages ago from a magazine, but I've changed it so much since then that I now feel like it's mine.  The 'Spanish' aspect of the stew is debateable, but it has chorizo in it so that's good enough!

For the stew you will need:

• 6 pork sausages
• 1 chorizo sausage or a pack of chorizo slices
• 1 large onion
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Other vegetables if desired (I used peppers and a courgette)
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• Tomato puree
• 300 ml pork or beef stock
• 1 can canellini beans (I used kidney beans this time as that's all the conveniently close Tesco has)
• Paprika and chilli powder

1. First of all, chop up all of the vegetables and set them aside, to save time later.

2. Next, cook the sausages in a large pot or wok for about 10 minutes until they are golden.  While you can buy the cheapest versions of everything else in this recipe, I would advise buying nice sausages as ominously pink, supermarket value ones are gross and don't tend to contain much meat.  These carmelised onion ones are delicious and really not that expensive:

3. Tip the sausages and all of the delicious meaty juices into a bowl and set aside.  Add the vegetables and chorizo to the pot or wok and cook until the veg is golden.

4. While the chorizo and veg cook, cut up the sausages into small chunks with a knife and fork.  Don't worry if they're still slightly pink inside as they're about to be cooked some more.  I added some bacon as well as I needed to use it up, if you do this then cook it with the sausages at the start.

5. Tip the chopped up meat back into the pot or wok and add a lot of tomato puree, the stock and as much paprika and chilli powder as you prefer.  Turn down the heat and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.

6. Add the beans and the tin of tomatoes and cook for a further 5 or 10 minutes.

This stew is perfect served with some crusty bread or garlic bread to mop up all the juices.  The quantities I gave serve about three people, so adjust accordingly depending on how many people you need to feed.  Enjoy!











Spicy Chicken Skewers

Hey guys, here's another recipe for you all.  These chicken skewers are quick and easy to make, you literally only need 4 ingredients.  On top of that, they're super tasty as well, so why not give them a try?

The ingredients you will need are:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 2 peppers (and other vegetables if you like)
• 5 tablespoons natural yoghurt
• 1/2 tube of chilli paste

These quantities serve two people, if you want more or less skewers the the quantities are pretty easy to adjust.

1. Firstly, work out roughly how many wooden skewers you're going to use and soak them in a bowl or washing up basin full of cold water.  This will stop them burning in the oven.

2. Next, make the marinade by putting the yoghurt into a dish and adding the chilli paste. The paste I used is from Schwartz and it or something similar should hopefully be available next to the herbs and spices in most supermarkets.  I also add a bit of chilli powder and some tabasco at this point, but if you don't like your food to be too spicy then leave the marinade as it is.

3. Cut the chicken into small pieces and mix into the marinade.  Remember to wash hands or utensils thoroughly if they have touched raw meat.

4. Cut up the peppers into small pieces and add them to the marinade as well.  For variety, you could add in other vegetables, like courgette, cherry tomatoes or small wedges of red onion, or whatever you like best.

5. Mix everything together and leave to stand for a while if you have the time, to allow all the lovely spicy flavours to work their way into the meat and veg.  Put the dish in the fridge to marinate if you're leaving it for more than 15 minutes.

6. Pat the skewers dry and push the chicken and pepper pieces on to them, alternating between meat and veg.  Place on a baking tray or a grill tray with a dish underneath so your oven doesn't get ruined by drips.

7. Cook in an oven preheated to 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes, turning once halfway through cooking.

I appear to have taken more photos than usual for this post, so I'm sorry if that creates the illusion that these are complicated and time-consuming to make, they really only take about half an hour!  I normally serve them with my spicy potato wedges but I realised too late that I only had one potato in the cupboard (that was attempting to grow mutant baby potatoes), so I made some rice instead which complemented the spicy chicken very well.  For a lighter meal, the chicken skewers are perfect on their own or with some dips - enjoy!

Spicy Potato Wedges

Here's a recipe that's really quick and easy, but guaranteed to taste more amazingly flavoursome than any potato wedges you can buy in the supermarket.  All you need is:

• Potatoes (about 2 or 3 per person)
• 1 chicken stock cube
• sunflower oil
• chilli powder, paprika, sea salt

1. Peel the potatoes and chop them as shown in the photo, ignoring my weird looking hand.  Try to get as thin wedges as possible.

 2. Prepare the roasting dish.  Drizzle some oil into the dish, and then add the stock cube and pour a little oil over that.  You should then be able to break it up with your fingers into powder.

3. Add the chilli powder, paprika and salt, and spread them and the stock powder evenly over the dish.

 4. Add the potatoes and move them about with a spatula until they are evenly coated.  Put in an oven preheated to about 200 degrees for 40 minutes-an hour, moving the potatoes occasionally.

For photos of the cooked wedges, see my previous post as I forgot to take a photo while they were still in the dish.  They go with lots of different meals and are great with dips!

Jamie Oliver has Brainwashed Me

I wouldn't say that I'm the biggest fan of fish - I'll have a fish supper or a tuna toastie, but that's about as far as it goes.  But then I watched Jamie Oliver's Fish Supper, and I went from gaping in horror as Jamie held up a grey, slimy looking squid, to drooling over that same squid when it was beautifully cooked 5 minutes later.  I think Jamie Oliver has some kind of voodoo powers.  Not quite amibitious enough to try the squid recipe, I decided to try and make another recipe from the show, the crab fishcakes.  Unfortunately neither Tesco or the fishmonger had crab, so I made do with crabmeat from a tin.  However, according to Jamie Oliver, the fact that I tried to buy a crab has created demand, so maybe if you try to buy one (in the Dundee area anyway) you'll be more lucky...  Here is a picture of my finished recipe, of which I am quite proud:

 For the fishcakes, you will need:

• 500g white and brown crabmeat
• 500g potatoes
• 2 lemons
• 1/2 a red chilli (I used a whole chilli and it wasn't too spicy)
• 3 spring onions
• parsley

Jamie Oliver also had a salsa recipe to go with the fishcakes, but I used my sister Mairi's recipe instead as I wanted to try it out.  If you don't trust Mairi, visit Jamie Oliver's website.  For the salsa you need:

• 4 tomatoes
• Half a red onion
• 1 red pepper
• Juice of one lime/lemon
• 3 red chillies
• Basil

1. Firstly peel and chop the potatoes into small chunks.  Boil them for 15-20 minutes, they are done when a piece of potato can easily be crushed against the side of the pot with a fork.

2. While the potatoes boil, make your salsa.  Cut the tomatoes in half and scoop out the seed-filled centres with a teaspoon and discard. Dice the remaining tomato into small cubes, as well as the red pepper.  Dice the chilli and red onion very very finely, and add everything to a bowl.  Squeeze in the lime or lemon juice, sprinkle on the basil, and mix well.

 3. When the potatoes are done, drain them and return to the pot.  Add the crab meat and salt and pepper, and mash.  Grate in the zest of the two lemons, and finely chop the chilli and spring onions and add, along with the parsley.

 4. Divide the mixture into round patties and refridgerate for four hours or overnight.  I notied this part of the recipe far too late so I didn't refridgerate the fishcakes at all but they turned out okay, though refridgeration may have made them a bit more solid.

 5. Heat some olive oil in a pan and add the fishcakes, cook them for about 5 minutes, turning once with a spatula.

Here are the finished fishcakes, they were nice but didn't taste too strongly of crab, I would advise trying to find an actual crab before trying to make them.  A recipe for the spicy potato wedges in the photo is coming soon...

If you want to save our seas from becoming empty, there is a petition here which you can sign to prevent the shocking numbers of fish that are caught and thrown back dead, just because they aren't the 'popular' cod or haddock.  Stand up for obscure fish today!

Chilli

Hello internet people!  I was looking at my blog and I realised I've not yet posted any recipe involving meat, other than a few mentions of bacon, so I thought I'd do a beef chilli today.  This is a very easy recipe, I got the basic recipe from the hamlyn student cookbook which is the best student cookbook I've seen as all the recipes are so simple and achievable.  The only downside to chilli is that you have to be a wee bit organised when making it as you need to cook it over a low heat for about an hour to so all the juices are absorbed and it's really rich, so not the best meal to choose if you're really hungry.  You will need:

• 500g beef mince (I use lean mince to be healthy, or you could use quorn mince)
• 2 peppers
• 2 onions
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Can of kidney beans
• Can of chopped tomatoes
• Tomato puree
• Tomato passata (you can get this in little boxes at the supermarket for about 50p, mine had garlic and olive oil in it)
• 400ml beef stock (I used a stock cube)
• Chilli powder, cumin, paprika

1. Firstly, crush and chop the garlic, and finely chop the onions and peppers.  Fry them in some sunflower oil in a pot or a wok.

 2. When the onion is golden coloured and translucent, add the mince and fry until it is all brown.  I usually cut the mince into little cubes when it's still in the packet as it's easier to break it up this way when cooking.

3. Add the stock, the kidney beans and all the tomato related things.  I normally use only half a can of kidney beans but you can use the whole can if you like.  Also the amount of tomato puree is up to you, I use quite a lot though as it thickens the sauce a bit.

4. Next add the spices.  Again, I can't tell you amounts as this is a very personal thing, Hamlyn suggests 1/2-1 teaspoon of chilli powder but I like a lot more than that, so just sprinkle some in and then taste a little bit of the chilli to see if it's spicy enough.  Here are my spices, the mystery one on the end came with a set Tetley got for Christmas but it looked the right colour so I put some of that in too, it tastes like chillies.

 5.  Lower the heat under your pot/wok so that the surface of the chilli is bubbling only very slightly.  Don't worry if it looks watery because after 50 minutes or an hour the liquid will have reduced down.  Stir it every so often.

 Here is the finished chilli, it's not very photogenic but it tastes great.  These quantities serve about 4 people, so me and Tetley eat it two nights in a row.  It goes perfectly with rice or inside tortilla wraps, or try it in a baked potato or sweet potato with some grated cheese on top.  It's especially lovely with the sweet potato - put some holes in the sweet potato with a fork then put it in the microwave for 8 minutes, it's that easy!