Category: Indian

Indian spiced warm cauliflower and chickpea salad with homemade tortilla chips

July 13, 2015


I won’t be sharing all of my recipes I do for my column and other work on here all of the time but I felt I had to with this one.  It has proven to be very popular, more than I thought.  I had one young lady ask me in my local supermarket about it so I felt I should share it on here also. 
  Before though I wasn’t sure wether people would like this?  I know that sounds strange but just in the fact of it being quite a fusion style dish of Mexico meets India.  However Im so pleased to say I have no worries of that now. 

  So, you may wonder why there are tortilla chips on this dish being an Indian inspired one but the main reason for it is to show how easy you can use up different types of flatbreads you may have that need using up, such as Chapatti’s from the night before or pitta breads. I know for sure whenever I open a pack of tortillas or make homemade chapatti’s, Ive always got some left, hence why I used the tortilla wraps in this one. The young lady that asked me about this recipe, loved this part of the recipe.  You may recall I mentioned about doing this on Rupal Rajani’s show talking about Leftovers on BBC Radio Leicester last year.

  This recipe is a lovely spiced mix and match dish, the idea is to get a bit of each and the flavours will burst in your mouth together. Serve this with your favourite chutneys and pickles.  It is great for a Lunch, a picnic or even watching a film and if you have any left over you can use it again the day after in a wrap, with rice or as a cold salad.



Warm Indian spiced Cauliflower and chickpea salad with homemade Spicy Tortilla chips:




Ingredients:

( Serves 2 people as a sharing dish)

Warm dish:

  • 1/2 small cauliflower ( slice down the florets ) plus use the green part too, adds great flavour
  • 1/2 400g tin of chickpeas drained and rinsed 
  • small red onion sliced
  • Handful of fresh spinach or frozen
  • 1-2 tbsp of Rapeseed oil or any oil of your choice
  • thumbnail size of grated fresh Ginger
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1 thin green indian chilli chopped finely
  •   1 tsp  cumin ( All ground spices from Spice Kitchen)
  •   1 tsp  turmeric 
  •   1 tsp  ground coriander
  •   1 tsp  chilli powder
  •   1 tsp garam masala  

Cold mixed salad:

  • Good handful of fresh Spinach leaves or any leaf of your choice
  •   Chopped fresh tomatoes
  •   Cucumber sliced
  •   Red onion sliced
  •   Carrot thinly sliced 
  •   Radish sliced lengthways
  •   Fresh coriander 
  •   Fresh mint 
  •   Cracked Black pepper to season and a squeeze of lemon
Tortilla Chips:

  • Tortilla wraps cut into triangles
  •   3 tbsp of rapeseed oil
  •   1 tsp Garam masala ( Spice Kitchen )
  •   1 tsp Chilli powder ( Spice Kitchen )
  •   sprinkle of sea salt to season


Method:




Warm Salad:

  • Blanch off your chickpeas and your cauliflower in slated boiling water for about 3-4 minutes.

  • fry your red onion, garlic, ginger and spices for a couple of minutes on a medium heat.

  • Drain your Cauliflower and chickpeas and add to the frying pan. Cook fro another 2 minutes, stirring so all is coated in the lovely spices

  • Add your Spinach to the mix and cook for another minute or two.


Tortilla Chips:

  • Preheat oven to 190c

  • Place all triangles on a baking tray and drizzle with oil

  • Add your spices to it

  • Pop in the oven for approximately 7 minutes or until starting to turn golden brown.

* Assemble all salad together, serve in separate bowls, add your chutneys and pickles and you’re done.




Root Vegetable Samosas for BBC Radio Leicester’s Food Friday

April 9, 2015

We Love Indian food a great deal in our house and one thing we really like is a good tasting Samosa.  We mainly opt for vegetarian ones as you always have the ingredients in but also means it costs less which is a bonus.

  For this particular Food Friday on BBC Radio Leicester,  I wanted to show just how versatile these can be.  Not to mention how incredibly easy and quick they are! On this recipe, I went with what I had in and to use up of course…and it worked perfectly. The earthy yet sweet taste that came from the celeriac among the bursting sweet petit pois was quite something and what I also love is the crunch of the pastry when you bite into these little delicacies which gives it great fun when you can’t possibly eat them without a cascade of flakey, crispy pastry going all over your Kitchen floor.

   Listen here where you will hear Myself showing Ed Stagg just how quick and easy the Samosas were to make. 

  I did send a tub full of them back to the BBC Radio Leicester team, however I don’t think they quite reached there as Ed loved them so much! 


Root Vegetable Samosas:

Ingredients: ( Makes approximately 14 samosas)

–  Approximately 4 white potatoes Diced Finely (1cm cubes)
–  1/4 Celeriac Finely diced
–  1 Carrot Finely Diced
–  1 small Parsnip finely diced or 1/2 larger one
–  100g of Petit Pois (Defrosted)
–   1 Onion finely diced
–  1 Hot Green chilli Finely Chopped or more if you wish ( Mine were a hot kind )
–  1 Level Tsp Mustard seeds (My Spices are from Spice Kitchen) 
–  1 Tsp Garam Masala
–  1/2 Tsp Hot chilli Powder
–  1 Tsp Mango Powder (Amchoor) 
–  small Handful of Chopped Fresh Coriander
–  Fresh Ginger Grated (Small finger end size)
–  Salt to season
–  A large pack (550g) of Spring Roll Pastry defrosted, keep under a damp tea towel (I Buy from Asian/Chinese Supermarket)
–  Sunflower oil for deep frying plus some for frying your onions and spices
–  2 Large Eggs beaten to use for egg wash



Method:

–  Boil Vegetables except the peas and onions for about 5 mins as you still want a little crunch to the veg.

–  Fry of the chopped onions for a minute or two to soften, then add your fresh chilli, Ginger and dry spices coating all the onions.

– Once the Vegetables are cooked add them to the spiced onion mix leaving a bit of the water they are boiled in as you will need this to loosen some of the dry spices in the Pan.
–  Add your Defrosted peas and chopped Coriander.Stir, coating everything.Put to one side to slightly cool.

–  On a clean flat surface place your Pastry sheet each one by one and slice with a knife into the middle length ways to make a rectangular shape. Using a Pastry brush, brush the edges with the egg wash.

–  Fold the bottom right hand corner to the top of the rectangle,  Diagonally left to make a triangle shape.
–  Fold again towards the left and you will have a bit of excess, this is your last flap for your Samosa. 

–  Hold the Pastry up so you can make a cone shape, Pull away the first fold and fill 1 Tbsp of your mixture. 

–  Place back down on the surface, finish with more egg wash and seal. Continue this process.

–  Once all made, deep fry for a couple of minutes until just turning golden brown. Place onto Kitchen paper to dry off excess oil.

–  Then serve with Chutneys and Pickles of your choice.


Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Kale Fritters for Food Friday on BBC Radio Leicester

March 26, 2015

Often when it comes around for myself to do Food Friday again for BBC Leicester, which is about every month now.   I love to look at what I have already in my Fridge and Cupboards as I want to show people how it is great to tackle a few ingredients and see what you can come up with. I like to show how we can be more frugal by using up things we have and creating something that is quick, easy and has that wow factor.  Other times I have to admit, there maybe a certain recipe I want to cover may it be a particular event or season in the Calendar year.  I have the skills of being a Chef so I obviously want to share that knowledge with our Listeners.

   I had to laugh at Ben’s reaction to when I told him what I had decided to cook.  His response was, “Apparently we are doing something spectacular with a cauliflower!” Which I do believe our little humble cauliflower over the last couple of years has lost its pizzaz. I personally LOVE cauliflower (Has to be British over personal choice mind you).  It is so versatile and I hope to share many other recipes, however it is going out of season, but still widely available.  I won’t tell you what you can do with it as you will just have to listen Here at Ben and Myself chatting about this fantastic Vegetable. 

One thing I need to add is that since I did this recipe for BBC Radio Leicester, I actually feel that they should have been called Patties rather than Fritters as with a Fritter it is more likely to be covered with a Batter, which these are not. 

Indian Spiced Cauliflower and Kale Fritters:




Ingredients:

Makes about 20 fritters

– 1 Whole Cauliflower broke into its florets
– 3 handfuls of Curly Kale chopped
–  1 1/2 sweet potato chopped into 1/3’s if large
–  1 medium onion diced finely
–  3 cloves of Garlic
–  1 tsp of Cumin seeds or ground if have it ( I use Spice Kitchen for all my spices )
–  1 tsp of Ground Coriander
–  1/2 tsp of Turmeric
–  1 tsp of mustard seeds
–  1/2 tsp of chilli powder (hot)
–  1/2 large green chilli diced finely
–  1 Lime 
–  Small handful of flat leaf parsley chopped
–  Plain flour to coat fritters
–  Rapeseed oil 
–  Salt and pepper to season
–  Lime


Method:

*  Boil the Sweet potato until soft, take out of pan and dry onto some kitchen paper.

*  Boil the cauliflower until soft.

*  Fry off the onions and all spices, leave to one side to cool.

*  When the Cauliflower is soft, take out with a slotted spoon, pop onto kitchen paper to dry. Leave water to keep boiling for the Kale to go in.

*  Cook the Kale for a couple of minutes and once again, dry off with kitchen paper and chop down.

*  Into a Bowl mash with a potato masher all the veg and add the onions and spices. Add Salt and Pepper to season.

*  Add the chopped parsley, mix all together and start to make a ball in your hands with mixture, pat into a fritter/Patty shape, dust with plain flour and fry off in a hot pan with rapeseed oil in.

*  Fry for a few minutes each side and serve in a bowl with salads, chutneys and wedges of Lime.

A Great affordable meal from leftovers :-) !

May 9, 2013

Ok so I was “umming and Arring” , (debating), on wether to put this recipe on.  But in actual fact I realised it was a great little number to write about.  
  Now this recipe isn’t one to “wow really” at first glance (please excuse the poor photo!),       and there are so many versions of this recipe,  just purely because I suppose it is very versatile.  However, one Vital point I have to make about this recipe, is that it is cost effective or even so, thus can be created from the brilliant leftovers from the day before! 
 One thing all of My readers out there will probably agree with, is that we all like to save a few pennies. To buy maybe the finer foods we enjoy to eat?  Or Fine wine?  Or even for that break away to maybe have them all ha ha! Here it is…

 Beef Keema Matar Curry:











Recipe: For 2-3 people (approx)

If you dont like dishes too spicy, just go easy on the chillies ok!

300g Minced Beef Or Lamb Mince (or if you had left over lamb or beef from a roast you could use)
1/2 tsp of Ginger
2 Garlic cloves finely chopped or minced
1 Onion Diced finely
salt and pepper
1 chopped green chilli (add more if you like it hot but we are adding hot chilli powder aswell)
1 tsp of hot chilli powder
1 tbsp of Mild curry powder
1/2 tbsp of Garam masala – Normally bost of these spices wouldn’t work quite well together and you could just use Tumeric powder, but I took the chance and it worked.
1/2 tin of chopped tomatoes or fresh
1/2 tbsp of Tomato puree
about 4 medium sized potatoes 
Frozen Petit pois or garden peas
A little beef stock with water just to keep a nice sauce and to enhance the Beef. Use Chicken stock or lamb if it is Lamb meat.
Chopped Coriander to serve.

Chop your potatoes into small chunks or quarters and blanch them off. Do not boil totally as you want them to still have a crunch as they are going into the curry.  Then defrost your peas.

Fry off the Onion, Garlic, Ginger, chillies and dry spices for a few minutes. Add the meat and the seasoning until the meat has browned and cooked through.  Add the Stock, Tomatoes, puree, and cook on the stove for about 10 minutes, checking that it wont go too dry or stick etc. Add the potatoes and cook for a further 5-10 mins and a few minutes before it is done, add the defrosted peas.
Serve with the chopped Coriander on top.  I served this with Basmati rice but you could just have this with lovely Chapatis…your choice!