Turkey masala with saffron rice

I had made a turkey stir fry as part of my diet, I am doing the 5 & 2 diet, 5 days in the week normal eating and 2 fast days, that is approx. 600 Kcals in the day. But this is about the rest of the 500g of diced turkey breast (have you ever tried to buy 50 grams of turkey breast?).

You will require:

450g of turkey breast (diced)

For the marinade

crush the following together

3 small chillies

2 garlic cloves

and add

3 tsp. masala powder (you can buy it or make it yourself)

add 500ml of yoghurt

½ diced onion

Juice of ½ lemon

Mix all the ingredients together and add the turkey pieces, mix well cover and put into the fridge overnight.

Rest of the ingredients:

200g of onions diced (or more)

200g carrots sliced

200g mushrooms diced

2 pepper (red, yellow or orange matters not)

1 tbsp. of curry leaves (crushed)

4 kafir lime leaves (chopped fine)

1 tbsp. Tomato puree

1 tsp. grated ginger

1 tsp. crushed garlic

5-6 small red chillies from my balcony (you may wish to buy them as I cannot be held responsible if you fall)

1 bunch of coriander

1 tbsp. of oil for frying the onions etc.

Mix the masala spices with the yoghurt, add the chilli and garlic paste and lemon juice,  add the Turkey pieces to the marinade, stir well and leave overnight covered in the fridge.

Next day heat the oil or ghee in a wok, soften the onions, add the lime leaves.

 

 add the ginger, garlic,

 

stir fry a little add the tomato puree,

 

the diced (or sliced) carrots, peppers and mushrooms and ½ the coriander.

 

cook it a little and add the tomatoes and rubbed curry leaves,

 

then cook until the oil separates out, add the chillies (left whole but slit ).

Add the contents of the turkey marinade.  

 

Stir to coat all and transfer to the slow cooker, cook on low for 4 hours. Add the remainder of the coriander leaves just before serving.

Serve with basmati rice cooked with 5 cardamom pods, 3 cloves; add a few strands of saffron into the cooking water.

We had a ginger mango chutney (bought) and a cucumber mint riata (home made) with poppadum’s as a nice little starter and naan with the main meal.

 

Raita

½ cucumber deseeded and diced

250g yoghurt

1 shallot diced

Juice of ½ lemon

Small handful of chopped fresh mint

1 tsp. Crushed coriander corns

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the whole lot together (add the salt and pepper at the end) cover and allow the taste to develop. Some may wish to pep it up a bit with some chopped or sliced chilli.

 

Lamb curry made with Great Aunt Aline's curry powder recipe

There had been a bit of a discussion about a curry powder recipe on the wildfood.info web site, one of our members Mary had a Great Aunt who was out in India in the days of the Raj. She had brought a recipe back with her when they returned home to the Channel Isles.

Mary had faithfully copied the recipe and I have done a bit of conversion, but kept the proportions about right.

 As  1oz =28.35g so I used 30g

Coriander seed 3oz =90g
Turmeric 3oz =90g
Black peppercorns 1oz=30g
White mustard seed 1oz=30g
Best Jamaica ginger 1oz=30g
Allspice 1/2oz=15g
Jessen Cardomoms 1/2oz (note 1) =15g
Cummin seed 1/4oz =7.5g
Fenngreck seed 1/4oz (note 2)=7.5g
Cayenne pepper 1/4oz=7.5g

Be sure all ingredients are fresh and of the best quality. Finely powder the whole, mix and sift. Keep closely corked and dry. This mixture will make a dozen curries. This suscitating oriental stimulant was brought to Great Britain (in my Great Aunts case, Guernsey and Wiltshire) from India and was passed among those of us families whose delight was gastronomy.

(1) Elettana Ceramomum the seeds of a plant native to the East Indies. Also called Grains of Paradise. Useful in confectionary and curries

(2) Fenngreck - Trigonella Faenum Graecum. A leguminous plant.

 N.B.

(1) There has been a lot of discussion about Jessen Cardomom, so in the end I followed my intuition and used brown (black) cardamom pods as I had used these with success for a Mamta curry recipe in the past.

(2) These are Methi seeds, if buying in an Indian or Asian store.

I have done some conversion and then reduced the quantities to suit the curry that I was making (I used an online programme for the weight to teaspoon conversion factor) and 10% of the original quantity, I mean I didn’t want 330g of curry powder, I already have a jar full of homemade Garam Masala to Mamtas recipe.
For those that it is of interest, this is the conversion tool I used, it is American so will be of use when doing cups to metric etc.

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cooking-conversions/calc.aspx

I rounded up and down as I decided that the exact quantities would never have been adhered to in the good old Raj and as this curry powder seems to be for a whole platoon plus the cooks, Punka Wallas and Lady folks as well, a few grains here or there will not make a dammed bit of difference.

 My conversion table for the lamb curry.

spice	grammes	tsp conversion	10%	grammes	I used tsp
Coriander	90,00	42,86	4,286	9	4
Tumeric	90,00	35,00	3,5	9	3,5
Black pepper corns	30,00	15,79	1,579	3	1,75
White mustard seeds	30,00	9,10	0,91	3	1
Ginger root (dried)	30,00	16,67	1,667	3	1,75
All spice (piment)	15,00	7,90	0,79	1,5	0,75
Jessen cardomom (I used the brown cardomom)	15,00	6,00	0,6	1,5	0.5
Cumin seeds	7,50	3,50	0,35	0,75	0,5
Fengrek seeds (methi seeds)	7,50	3,50	0,35	0,75	0,5
Cayanne Pepper	7,50	1,42	0,142	0,75	0,5
	322,50			32,25

I used ready ground Turmeric and Cayenne pepper, the rest were seeds, berries and the dry ginger was rough chopped (it didn’t say on the packet its place of origin).  I put the whole seeds, berries and ginger into a pestle and mortar and crushed quite fine.

I then ground it in an old coffee mill that I keep especially for this purpose. (The coffee tastes a little strange if ground in it).

The remainder of the ingredients for the Lamb Curry:

1kg of lamb, I used chops and ribs as it is always cheap from my Turkish butcheress

2 largish onions sliced into rings

3 cloves of garlic (minced)
2,5 cm/sq piece of ginger (grated)
3 Kafir lime leaves chopped (I buy mine frozen, so always have some at hand)
2 sprigs of Rosemary (not really Indian, but I like it with my lamb)
Zest from 1 bio-lemon
5 carrots sliced
5 potatoes diced
½ red capsicum diced (that was all I had left)
1 yellow capsicum diced
10 mushrooms cut into quarters

small handful of fresh coriander leaves and stalks

2 desert spoons of oil for frying

1 tin of diced tomatoes

some chopped gari (japanese sweet ginger, that I had left over)

150ml of full fat yoghurt (Greek)

Fry the onions over a low heat until soft and just colouring, add the ginger and garlic and allow to soften without burning, add the curry powder and mix into the onion mixture.

Put the lamb into a bowl, salt and pepper and add the Rosemary leaves, add the onion mixture to the lamb and mix so that the pieces are covered.

Transfer to the base of the Slow Cooker.

Then add all of the other ingredients, pour in 400ml of stock, I only had beef, but veal, chicken, vegetable or best lamb will do. Give it a stir

Turn onto high, set the timer (I originally set it for 5 hours, but mine goes to a warm hold function and was in a good 8 hours), no setting on, no burning.

Serve with plain basmati steamed rice (I have one of those clever little rice steamers that takes all of the guess work out of cooking rice) not that I ever had any problems using the absorption method, but as I have it I may as well use it.

The curry was very tasty, very tasty indeed; it wasn’t at all hot, which was to be expected due to the small quantity of chilli (cayenne) powder. But though this will not be for the Friday night blow your head off after 10 pints of Lager crowd, it is a true curry, it is aromatic, tasty and will go down well with those that are not of the Vindaloo or Madras brigade. If making it for myself or others that I know, I would double the Cayenne or even put a few fresh chillies into the main curry with the rest of the vegetables.

But it got a top ten from me and as I have frozen a couple of large portions for next weekend, I shall also get a second opinion.

Thank you Great Aunt Aline

Wild boar and steak curry aloo

When my daughter was up in Kiel at Christmas, I was sitting thinking what to do with a piece of wild boar collar and a thick piece of rump steak, I was toying with either a stew or a pie but having had these already, I decided on a quick curry.

So the ingredients where.

300g of wild boar collar diced quite large (collar has a little more fat than the rest of the boar)

300g of rump steak diced (as this is a quick curry and not cooked for a long time, I think that rump or entrecote will be best)

5 potatoes cut into chunks

Spices

5 green cardamom pods

5cm piece of cinnamon bark

5 cloves

Teaspoon of methi seeds

5-6 dried curry leaves

1 teaspoon white mustard seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of Nigela

1 teaspoon of coriander

1 Scotch bonnet chilli (seeds removed and chopped fine)

1  onion diced

3 garlic cloves crushed

4-5 small tomataoes ¼ rd

1 teaspoon of tomato paste

1 tub of greek joghurt (250g)

300ml of chicken stock

2 teaspoons of Garam masala

Method:

Cut the meat into bite size pieces, season with salt, pepper and garam masala add the crushed garlic, cover and set aside.

Now make your tarka

Place the dried spices into a mortar and roughly pound with the pestle.

transfer to a frying pan, when the mustard seeds start to pop add to the meat Fry the onion in Ghee (I used vegetable oil, thinking of the girls waist lines, LoL., tears running down my cheeks)

Add the meat and sear, add the spices,chillies, stock and add the tomato paste and tomatoes, lid on and allow to cook until the meat is tender (when the meat is just tender add the spuds and cook until soft).

Adjust the seasoning and add the lemon juice and stir in the Joghurt

Serve with fresh boiled fluffy rice, poppadoms and chutneys and pickles (some homemade and some bought).

It turned out very nice for a quick curry!

Moules and a red Thai curry

October 22nd-23rd

I was spending a weekend in Rheda as it was our 4 weekly kegelabend. I was up very early on Saturday morning just so that I could get out and about looking at the wildlife and do my shopping before the rush.
I hadn’t thought about what I was going to eat over the weekend I decided to see what was on the market.

I noticed some nice Schnitzelfleish by my butchers stall, so I decided to do a red Thai pork curry for Sunday lunch and as the fish stall had some nice looking Mussels it was to be Moules Marinier for Saturday.



So for the Moules (1 portion +)

2 kg mussels (pre cleaned as it saves a lot of work)

1 carrot diced

White of a leek sliced

A Piece of celeriac diced

3 shallots diced

2 table spoons of olive oil

Wine glass of white wine

Slug of Cinzano bianco (or similar vermouth)

1 large tomato diced

300 ml of vegetable stock

1 dessert spoon of crème double

Soften the vegetables in the oil (I like mine still with a bite of bite, chefs call this, a la dente)

add the washed and cleaned mussels, add the wine and bring to the boil and add the tomatoes, put the lid on and shake the pan to make sure all of the mussels get the liquor over them.

When they are open they are ready (do not over cook them, please),  add the stock and Cinzano and crème double, bring to the boil and quickly serve.

Serve with fresh baguette.

This is one of the quickest cooked meals on the planet, I do love my moules, I gave the frites a miss this time.


I had some mussels left over and quite a bit of sauce, I removed the mussels from their shells, put the sauce etc into a container and blitzed into a soup, adding the mussel meat, this went into a container for Monday’s lunch.

Thai red pork curry


100 g of pork mince

200 g of lean sliced pork (I used Schnitzelfleisch) sliced

2 dessert spoons of neutral oil (corn oil)

1 dessert spoon of light soy sauce (Japanese)

1 teaspoon Cumin seeds

1 teaspoon Fennel seeds

1 teaspoon of Garam Marsala

2 carrots sliced into matchsticks

2.5 cm piece of ginger cut into small dice

A slice of celeriac cut into small dice

The white of leek. Sliced length ways into matchsticks

2 shallots thinly sliced

3 spring onions sliced

3 red Chillies, seeds and pith removed and sliced

Small handful of chopped coriander

1 large tomato diced

1 piece of cauliflower diced (I like this added as it gives a nice crunch)

3 cloves of garlic crushed and chopped

1 stalk of lemon grass crushed and finely sliced

100 g of shitake mushrooms sliced

200 ml of coconut cream

Dark Soy sauce to taste

100 g of soya bean sprouts

3 pieces of lemon peel shredded (or a tea spoon of grated lemon peel)

2  heaped tea spoons of my home made red Thai paste (see my Tom yam recipe)



Back row: minced pork,  marinating pork strips, coconut cream, tomatoes, curry paste.
Top Middle: Oil, cauliflower,carrots,garlic, shallots, bean sprouts
Lower middle: chilli, celeriac, ginger,leek, lemon zest, lemon grass
Front row: heavy dark soy sauce, spring onions, shitake mushrooms, coriander




Method
Marinate the pork with the fennel, cumin and Garam Marsala along with some soy sauce and oil for about 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a wok and fry the garlic, shallots and ginger, add the marinated pork over a high heat, browning it quickly, add the pork mince and also fry quickly.

Remove and set to one side. Now add the curry paste and fry (you will in all probability not need any more oil).

Add the rest of the vegetables and lemon grass etc and fry quickly,

add the shitake mushrooms and Chillies,

add the pork, then the bean sprouts and tomatoes, finally pour in the coconut cream, stir, adjust the seasoning (I only use soy for the saltiness but a little pepper may be to your taste).

Serve straight away with fresh boiled rice, another quick and tasty meal, I think the preparation takes longer than the cooking.