Easy dhal with stir-fried corn and courgette

This dish represents a perfect January meal: Delicious, Nutritious and Cheap!

The dhal was super-simple. Just boil 300g of any lentil with 1 litre of water salt, 1 tsp and 1tsp of garam masala. In a separate pan fry onion, garlic, ginger, 1tsp chilli powder and 2 chopped tomatoes. Once the dhal is cooked just stir the fried mixture through it then top the whole lot with coriander. Lovely.

The side dishes were:
1. Stir-fried corn with chilli - errrmm....for this you should stir fry tinned corn with chilli!
2. Courgette with sesame seed and ginger - pretty easy again, stir fry all of the ingredients together.

If you get your timing right you can use only 2 pans. Perfect :o)

Creamy coconut curry with aubergine and courgette

I actually learnt this one at Ballymaloe back in..........hmm when was I there??.....2008-ish......anyway.....I hadn;t made it since then. So as I was working late left instructions for Stokesy and came home to lovely dinner, my preferred recipe testing method.

The boy did good! And here's how you can recreate the magic at home...serves 2 greedy b*stards

• 1 aubergine, cut into chunks
• 1 courgette, cut into chunks
• 1 tsp black mustard seed, whole
• 2 tsp fennel seed, ground
• 1 tsp cumin seed, ground
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tbsp oil, sunflower/groundnut/rapeseed
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 300ml coconut milk
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 chilli, finely chopped
• lime wedges
• fresh coriander, roughly chopped - we didn't have any in but would have been better with it

In a large frying pan dry fry the vegetables until browned. Remove and set aside.

Now heat your oil in the same pan, then add the spices, stirring while then toast gently for 15secs. Add the flour and keep stirring for 2 mins (you're making a kind-of roux to thicken the curry), it should be fairly dry and change colour slightly.

Add the coconut milk, tamarind and chilli. Heat through then add the aubergine and courgette back into the pan. Taste it and add more salt, lime juice or water so it's just right. Stokesy added about 1 tsp salt, juice of 1 lime and 150ml water.

Serve with rice and coriander over the top.......yum!

Tip: This would be really nice with big prawns added for 1 minute of cooking time at the end. The leftover coconut milk freezes really well

Lunch at Meena's - Sweetcorn and peanut curry yummmmmm

I went to help Meena with some pictures for her body art project. We negotiated a good exchange, I take the pictures....Meena makes lunch. Suits me! Meena teaches a class at the cookery school so I knew that I was in for a tasty meal.

On the menu was sweetcorn and peanut curry, freshly made chapatis and lightly spiced lassi. I even got to practise my chapati rolling skills. Thank you Meena!

Tamarind + Peanut curry

I find there is nothing quite like calculating my tax liability to make me go around turning lights off and the thermostat down...............and cooking a cheap b*stard meal. So that calls for veggies, pulses and spices. On Meena's Gujarathi cooking day she showed us a Tamarind and Peanut curry, stupidly I never wrote down the recipe so it's taken me a couple of goes to get somethig even vaguely approaching her version. Try this:

2 tbsp sunflower oil

2 large dried chillies

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

2 tbsp ginger, cut into thin strips

1 tbsp tamarind puree

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

3 handfuls peanuts

1 handful cauliflower, cut into small florets

Heat the sunflower oil in a large pan then add the dried chillies and mustard/cumin seeds, fry until the seeds pop and start trying to escape from the pan. Now add the ginger and tamarind puree. Stir for 1 minute then add a long pour of water, salt, sugar, peanuts and cauliflower. Lid on and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Taste, as you may need to add more salt or sugar. It seems like a lot of sugar but the tamarind is so sour, it needs it.

Hey dhal!

Stokesy got on the case getting dinner ready while I was having my massage. It's a hard life isn't it. So I came home to lentil dhal, cumin/coriander cauliflower (cauli from the veggie box) and real poppadoms (fried by me).

For the cauliflower........cut into small florets then boil until tender. Drain and allow to dry. Heat some oil in a pan, then add cumin and coriander seeds until they crackle. Now chuck your cauli back in and stir fry until hot. finish with a big pinch of salt.

The secret to getting lovely crispy and non-greasy poppadoms is to get your oil really hot before you throw them in the pan. then they are in the oil for the minimum time.

Basil's Valentine Meal

As it is the international night of romance/cards/flowers/expensive meals out we decided to ignore all that commercial b*llocks and have lovely dinner at home with Wee Jan and Basil in attendance. Basil gave me Indian Cooking Made Easy* for Xmas so we broke that out and cooked a few dishes from it.

*It should be noted at this point that the only reason Basil bought me that cookery book was because he wants to do bad stuff with the author, Anjum Anand.

For main it was 1. Coconut and Chilli Halibut 2. Tandoori Salmon

On the side 1. Toasted chickpeas 2. a really refreshing cucumber/tomato/green chilli/peanut/coconut salad combo 3. cucumber raita

Then for puds it was a baked concoction, combining condensed milk/greek yoghurt/ cardamon/raisins. I just love that hint of cardamon. This recipe was taken from Atul Kochar's Simple Indian, if you're into Indian food you have to get this. The flavour combinations are incredible. One thing people often say to me is that they don't like Indian food because they think it is too oily. Aaargh not true.......Get this book people!