The Good Cook » Spicy

Chicken, Cauliflower and Bean Curry

Sarah — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 08:06:25 +0000

I really like spicy curries with a lot of fresh vegetables. When I came across the recipe for a Cashew Curry on the beautiful 101 cookbooks site, I made it immediately. It’s simple, it’s yum and you can swap the vegetables with the ones you have at hand.

I’ve slightly changed the recipe, as I am not a big fan of tofu and I didn’t have any cashew nuts. I am sure it will be even better with the nuts, so make sure you try it.

Chicken, Cauliflower and Bean Curry.

Serves: 2 – 3

Source: Based on 101 cookbooks

Ingredients:

250 g chicken breast filet
1 tsp canola oil
250 ml coconut milk
2 tsps curry powder, mild
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 red onion
1 clove of garlic
75 ml water
250 g cauliflower
200 g green beans

Directions:

Dice chicken breast filet and red onion. Finely chop garlic. Cut cauliflower into tiny florets and cut green beans into 3 cm segments.
Heat canola oil in a large saucepan or wok and stir fry chicken breast for about 4 – 5 minutes. Set aside and wipe out the saucepan or wok.
In the same saucepan or wok bring half the coconut milk to simmer. Whisk in curry powder and salt, working out any lumps.
Stir in red onion and garlic and cook for 1 minute.
Stir in remaining coconut milk and water and add cauliflower and green beans.
Cover and simmer for about 2 minutes.
Add chicken breast filet and cook for another minute.
Serve with rice or pita bread.

Ginger Teriyaki Beef

Sarah — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 07:55:07 +0000

Ginger Teriyaki Beef

After we arrived in New Zealand, we ate so much beef that I am sure at least 5 cows had to die. Each. Within 6 month. Just kidding… But seriously. We went from hardly ever eating red meat (except in Spaghetti Bolognese) to ‘What’s for dinner? Beef, of course.’ within a week.

It just tasted so different to what we were used to. And was incredibly delicious. There was nothing better than a good steak from the BBQ.

Well, red meat is not quite what is good for you. It is not bad either. But eating it every day was certainly not recommended in my little nutrition bible.

So we have reduced the amount of cows we eat dramatically. And unintentionally Sunday has become our Beef Day. Last week I made this delicious ginger teriyaki beef with rice – yum. I would like to share it with you. Try it. I am sure you will love it.

Ginger Teriyaki Beef.

Serves: 2

Source: ‘The Complete Book of Modern Asian’ from The Australian Women’s Weekly

Ingredients:

40 ml teriyaki sauce
60 ml hoisin sauce
1 tbsp mirin
1/2 tbsp peanut oil
350 g beef, lean
125 g broccoli
125 g snow peas
50 g baby corn
10 g ginger
50 g bean sprouts

Directions:

Cut beef in stripes.
Wash snow peas and broccoli and cut broccoli in small florets. Cut baby corn lenghtways in half.
Combine teriyaki and hoisin sauce and mirin in a small bowl.
Heat half the oil in wok and stir-fry beef until browned. Take beef out of wok and set aside.
Heat remaining oil in wok and stir-fry brocoli until almost tender.
Return beef to wok with sauce mixture, peas, corn and ginger. Stir-fry until vegetables and beef are cooked.
Remove from heat and sprinkle with sprouts.
Serve with rice.

Cajun Spiced Red Cot Filet

Sarah — Sat, 02 May 2009 07:49:02 +0000

During my lunch break last week, I went to my favourit book store in Wellington, Unity Books. Mainly to look for a book about Tonga (hurray – we are going there in July), but of course I couldn’t pass the cookbooks without quickly flicking through a few.

I found this wonderful book: The New Zealand Seafood Cookbook and couldn’t stop looking at the beautiful and mouthwatering photos. One recipe in particular made me feel hungry… I didn’t want to buy it because I am still feeling guilty for owning so many cookbooks and still buying more. Sometimes I simply ignore it, but sometimes I can’t.

So what to do if you desperately want to cook this meal, but don’t want buy the book it is in? I tried to remember everything, rushed in the next grocery store, bought everything I needed and at the time I arrived at home, I had almost forgotten everything. But my shopping bags reminded me of the basics and so I was able to create a wonderful, wonderful dinner.

Cajun Spiced Red Cot Filet.

Serves: 2

Source: The New Zealand Seafood Cookbook

Ingredients:

Spice Mix:

1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp ground paprika
1/2 tsp parsley, dried
1/2 tsp thyme, dried
1/4 tsp sage, dried
1/2 tsp black pepper

Recipe:

10 green asparagus spears
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp garlic salt
6 small tomatoes
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp lemon pepper
2 x 200 g red cot filets
1 tsp olive oil
Spice mix as above

Directions:

Preheat oven to 180°C.
Mix ingredients for spice mix in a small bowl. Set aside.
Peel asparagus stems, brush with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt.
Preheat griddle pan and grill aspargagus for about 5 minutes. Put on a plate and place in oven to keep warm.
Place tomatoes on a backing tray, rub with olive oil and sprinkle with lemon pepper. Bake in oven for 5 minutes.
Dust red cot fillets in spice mix.
Lay some aluminium foil in the griddle pan and brush with olive oil. Place fish presentation-side down on the foil and cook for 4 minutes. Turn fish over and cook for approximately another 3 minutes.

Salmon Tikka with Cucumber Yoghurt

Sarah — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 07:59:35 +0000

When I looked through iTunes the other day, I came across a Video Podcast from Jamie Oliver and that’s where I found this wonderful, wonderful recipe. I didn’t even know that Jamie has that kind of show, but it is actually very cool. Short snippets of film, just about 5 – 10 minutes long with straight forward recipes for everyday dinner.

I’ve got a few more that I want to try, but this one really is amazing. It is so quick and simple and the combination of fresh yoghurt and cucumber with the spicy salmon is incredible.

Salmon Tikka With Cucumber Yoghurt.

Serves: 2

Source: Jamie Oliver – Ministry of Food Podcast

Ingredients:

2 x 150 g salmon filets
1 tbsp tandoori curry paste
2 Naan breads, prepacked
100 g plain yoghurt
1/2 cucumber
1 lemon
Salt
Black pepper
1/2 red chilli, fresh
1 bunch of coriander, fresh

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 120°C and put your Naan breads into the oven to warm them up.
Finely chop the chilli, deseed it first if you can’t handle the heat.
Roughly chop the cucumber and put it into a bowl. Squeeze the juice of the lemon into the bowl, add yoghurt and season it with salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly.
Slice each salmon fillet across lenghtways into three slices and use yor fingers to smear the tandoori paste all over each piece.
Heat a frying pan over medium heat, put salmon into the pan and cook for about 2 minutes in each side until cooked through.
Place a warm Naan bread on a plate, top each with three pieces of salmon and cucumber yoghurt. Scatter over with chilli and coriander leaves.