[Dinner 2017 (Part 5)]

Fettuccine rigate with pesto, a salad of rocket from the garden and garlic bread.

[Dinner 2017 (Part 5)]

Now back to regular life, home style fish curry, dal, roti, rice, fresh tomato chutney, radish raita and lime pickle.

[Dinner 2017 (Part 5)]

Arrived home Monday night (after a week away) to someone ecstatic to absolve all meal planning and little food in the fridge. This was cobbled together, onions, garlic, tomato, harissa and potato cooked in chicken stock with an egg on top and a spoon of yoghurt. Served with pocket bread as an outer case.

 

 

 

[The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 3)]

My honorary lady is a friend called Marc. The venue is in Victoria St Richmond (little Saigon) in Melbourne.

 

They only do pho. We both chickened out and had the shredded chicken, minus the giblets, liver and hearts.

 

I lied, they do spring rolls as well.

[The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 3)]

Another lunch, same eaters.

The venue is the Black Hill Hotel, where the new owners were rapt in Mums stories of the pub from eighty years ago (she wasn't an underage drinker, rather friends with the publicans daughter).

 

The meal was beer battered flathead for me, salmon for mama.

 

 

The best meal I've had in Ballarat for a looong time.

 

 

 

[The Ladies Who Lunch (Part 3)]

The ladies were me and my nearly ninety five year old mother. The venue was the Ballarat Yacht Club.

The lunch was pumpkin and haloumi tart with tomato relish and a salad.

 

The view speaks for itself.

[Bowling Ball Eggplant/Aubergine]

There's an Indian dish I've made with round eggplants about tennis ball size. You cut them from bottom to stem twice to make an x shaped opening to stuff with a mix including crushed peanuts, fried onion, garlic, ginger and ground spices, then simmer in a tomato type sauce.  The Indian eggplants are usually striped white and purple, but it would work as well with yours I guess. It was like this one...http://indianhealthyrecipes.com/gutti-vankaya-kura-enne-badanekai-recipe/

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

More Indian food. Chickpea curry, mushroom curry, spicy potatoes, dal trevini, rice, naan bread. Served with mint raita, mango pickle and tomato chutney.

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

23 minutes ago, Okanagancook said:

This cookbook is also from a member of the Pathak family.  All the recipes I have made so far have been excellent.

 

The Indian Family Kitchen: Classic Dishes for a New Generation by Anjali Pathak

I am giving dosai a go on Thursday with a friend whose husband is gluten intolerant.  I have a mix and I am making the dough from scratch for comparison.

 

when you make yours do you heat the pan before adding the batter?

Thanks for that link @Okanagancook, I'll have a read later.

 

Yes, definitely heat the pan. It needs to be hot enough that a few drops of water sizzle and disappear. The batter should be fairly runny, like pouring cream. I use a small ladle to spread the batter in a circular motion, cook for about 2 minutes then flip. There's lots of YouTube videos on the subject. Good luck !

 

Edited to add, she's the daughter of Meena, small world.

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Yesterday I road tested my 50 cent op shop find, Flavours of India by Meena Patak (she married into the Patak empire).

 

Pork vindaloo, spicy potatoes, snow pea poriyal, dal triveni (so called because it has three types of lentil), rice, served with pappads, tomato chutney and mango pickle. The potatoes were the star, although the snow peas were a close second. The book is a definite keeper.

 

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Chicken in coconut gravy, mustard cauliflower, radish leaf saag, paratha, matar pilau, potato & cabbage curry. Alongside, fresh tomato chutney, lime pickle, radish raita.

Whilst making so many different dishes is time consuming, I've got into the rhythm of using yesterday's leftovers to boost the number. In this case, the pilau, potato & cabbage and radish raita were holdovers.

 

 

I've posted a pictorial lesson on the fresh tomato chutney for anyone interested - check out the Indian cooking and baking forum. 

 

[Fresh tomato chutney]

I make this a lot. Traditionally served with dosa, but great with all kinds of Indian food, even just scooped up with bread or pappads for a snack. Although it's slightly different every time, depending on the tomatoes and chillies used, plus the strength of the tamarind, it's easy, quick to make and always delicious.

 

In a blender - half a medium red onion chopped, 7 dried red chillies broken up a bit, 2 ripe tomatoes chopped, 1 tsp of sea salt, 3 tsp tamarind paste.

 

Whizz until purée like about 2 minutes.

 

In a sauté pan over medium heat add 60 ml sesame oil (gingelly), when it's hot but not smoking add 1 tsp black mustard seeds.   

 

Quickly cover the pan to prevent escape and sizzle for a minute.

 

Add 1 tsp of urad dal (black lentils, skinned and split they are light grey).

 

Fry until golden, another minute or so.

 

Throw in about 20 curry leaves. These splatter so cover the pan again. 

 

Lower the heat and add the  blender contents.

 

Simmer, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, until you get a runny jam consistency.

 

Ta da !

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Matar pilau (peas and rice) potato & cabbage curry, chana dal with spinach, eggplant masala and store bought roti.  On the side, radish raita and mango chutney.

 

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Back to normal programming- Chettinad black pepper chicken, rice, roti, tomato chutney, chana dal with spinach, date & tamarind chutney, lime pickle, eggplant masala.

 

 

 

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

He who must be fed is away on business, so I rescued this minestrone from the freezer and paired it with a couple of mustard pickle cheese toasties. The minestrone was a tad uninspiring until I whacked it with a teaspoon of harissa.

 

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

4 hours ago, Luke said:

Double Chilli Chicken..... finger licken' good...

 

 

You can read the pictorial recipe here: 

 

 

Please, pretty please give me the name of the restaurant...

[Double Chili Chicken Pictorial]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

Every now and again I come across a recipe that is awesome.

 

It started with a discovery in my local South Indian take away near work. This is a true South Indian place, not your usual run of the mill Indian restaurant which we get around here.

 

In the bain marie was a red, slightly oily, dry spiced chicken dish scattered with onions and green coriander. A dish with no name. I asked what it was, and they replied it was "spicy chicken". I bought some and I was hooked.

It was obviously a favorite of patrons as there was never a day when this dish was not in the bain marie and it sold out quickly.

 

Here is my take on that recipe, which I believe is called Double Chilli Chicken. 

 

Apologies in advance, but I dont work to quantities when cooking. Hopefully you can make your own judgement but just ask if you want more clarification. 

 

The ingredients you will need are:

- oil or ghee (mustard oil if my wife is giving me grief over health, ghee for best flavor)

- Chicken mini drumsticks (about 1kg) 

- About 3 brown onions, cut in half and then sliced (red onions would be better, but I only had one for garnish)

- Salt

- About 20 curry leaves

- Sliced ginger

- Sliced garlic

- 10 to 15 whole dried chillies (I remove most of the seeds)

- Ground dried chilli powder (medium hot)

- Ground coriander

- Ground black pepper

- Jaggery or Palm Sugar

- Lime juice

- Chopped fresh coriander for garnish

- Chopped red onion for garnish

 

I start with a heavy base fry-pan that has a fitted lid and add the ghee.

 

 

Choose a dried whole chilli of your liking and remove most of the seeds, as they can burn and become bitter. 

 

Saute your dried chillies in the ghee for a few minutes

 

You will notice they start to darken quickly

 

Don't let them burn, but take them a bit darker than shown in the photo above and then remove into a spare bowl to cool with a slotted spoon. You can leave the ghee and seeds. Quickly add the onions to stop the remaining seeds from burning. Add salt to help the onions cook.

I should have also added the curry leaves to the oil first, but I forgot so I added them later.

 

As the onions soften on the heat, finely julienne some fresh ginger and slice some garlic. Exact quantities dont matter so adjust to your preference. 

 

Add the garlic, ginger and chillies to the pan once the onions soften and take on some colour

 

After a few minutes of cooking out the garlic and ginger, add the ground coriander and chilli powder. Again, exact quantities don't really matter but I used about 1 Tablespoon of each. What matters more is the quality of the ground powders. The coriander is ground in my coffee grinder just before use, and I make my own chilli powder from dried Spanish Padron chillies I grow each summer. If you can, always make your own ground spices. For the ground chilli powder, remove the seeds before grinding as you will get a redder product.

A quick word on chillies : There are hundreds of varieties, but I choose the Spanish Padron due to the balance between heat and flavour. I want an intense chilli flavour without searing blow your head off heat, and this chilli has that right balance. 

 

Stir the powders into the onions and cook for a few minutes.

 

Add the chicken and arrange such that the chicken has good contact with the bottom of the pan. We need this to get the meat to release its own moisture, which is what makes the sauce and prevent the dish from burning

 

Cover with a lid and lower the heat. After 5 minutes you should notice some liquid from the chicken. This increases to a maximum around 15 minutes. Stir every 5 minutes but don't remove the lid until 15 minutes have elapsed.

 

While the chicken is cooking, prepare some jaggery or palm sugar and squeeze the juice out of one lime.

 

After 15 minutes of cooking with the lid on, remove the lid, add the jaggery and lime juice, and now increase the heat. What we are going to do is evaporate the remaining liquid and turn it into an awesome sauce that sticks to the chicken.

For another 10 minutes, you will need to pay careful attention to ensure the dish does not stick and burn. You need high heat to help caramelize the sauce and constant movement. Taste for seasoning. Add extra salt, lime juice and heaps of black pepper.

 

Prepare some slived red onions for garnish.

 

 

And some roughly chopped green coriander. This stuff grows like a weed in my garden as I let the kids loose with the seeds and they scatter them far and wide!

 

Serve the chicken on a bed of steamed basmati rice

 

And garnish with onion and coriander. Serve and enjoy with a glass of cold beer. Awesome stuff!

 

Cheers

Luke

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks fantastic ! 

Ill be in Melbourne next week, can you tell me the name of the Indian restaurant please ?

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Chettinad black pepper chicken, potato and cauli curry, spinach paneer, rice, rotis, fresh tomato chutney, hot mango pickle. It pained me to rip perfectly good skin off these thighs, but that is the Indian way. Next time I'll leave it on.

 

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Veg cutlets with tomato chilli chutney, stir fried cabbage, matar paneer, pineapple relish, naan bread, rice, coconut chutney, lime pickle.

 

 

 

 

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Rava dosa (made with semolina, coconut, green chillies and chopped coriander), rice, spinach paneer, cabbage with channa dal, fresh coconut chutney, mint raita, fresh tomato chutney.

 

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

I tried out a few recipes from my new (to me) The Complete book of Indian Cooking by Suneeta Varaswani. I like the book, she groups each dish by geographical region, these are all from the south.

Pork Uluruthu, fiery potatoes with tamarind, tomato Pappu (toor dal), pineapple relish, mint raita, lime pickle, rice and store bought roti paratha.

 

 

 

[What kind of blender for making this spice paste?]

2 hours ago, haresfur said:

Just found this beauty at an Asian food store in town. The woman asked what I was going to use it for and I said, mostly to look at. But I'll at least try it out.

I have one of them for making som tam. I've used it once or twice, but it is pretty to look at

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Chicken thighs marinated in a mix of pomegranate molasses, garlic and chilli, baked cinnamon sweet potatoes, herby couscous and a few garden fresh rocket leaves.

 

[Yard Sale, Thrift Store, Junk Heap Shopping (Part 3)]

My day started at "Book Fest" an annual three day book sale run by Lifeline. The event is so huge it's held at the convention and exhibition centre. Imagine a 100 metre long trestle table with 5 rows of books spine up, and that's only the cooking section. Within 5 minutes I had reached my "capacity to carry" limit. The long wanted Complete Asian by Charmaine Solomon, Complete Indian by Suneeta Vaswani, Complete Middle East by Tess Mallos (she was Australian of Greek immigrants and had a long and varied career in food, I have three other books by her) and Cooking under the Influence by Ben Canader and Greg Duncan-Powell (I already have this great book, copy is for a friend).

Total cost $15, and I am now complete.

 

Topped that with a tiffin carrier from the Lifeline shop nearby $4.

[Dinner 2017 (Part 4)]

Aussie meat pie, horseradish potato mash and broccoli cheese with a touch of Gorgonzola.