'A sort of Thai curry'

Coming back from the garden with all this lovely organic produce I needed to think what to do with it. I also had a can of coconut milk and some yellow curry paste so decided to combine a few recipes I had used before. The result was lovely.

We cut up a medium sized butternut squash into small cubes, some green beans, carrots, red peppers  and broccoli  florets into similar sizes.

This post was first published on 15/10/2018

In a non stick pan we heated oil and added a chopped onion and a clove of garlic once translucent we added a good table spoon of yellow curry paste and cooked for a minute to develop the flavour.

When fragrant we added a quarter of a tin of coconut milk and mixed it all through.

Once done, we added the rest of the coconut milk, rinsed out the tin with 2 tbsp of water and added to the pan.

Then we added the butternut squash chunks, the rest of the vegetables and a little salt to taste.

We simmered it for another 15 or so minutes.

Meanwhile we dry roasted a handful of peanuts nuts. When toasted, we put most into the coconut mixture, keeping behind a little as topping when we dish up.

We served the curry with noodles and topped with cashew nuts and coriander leaves. MMM!

Courgette curry

 courgette curry

To use up some excess courgettes this curry went down very well. Would be good with rice as well as naan bread.

Mung Bean Curry, Flat bread, and apple rose pastry

This post was first published on 24/06/2020

Finishing off what is in the fridge I made this curry today,  bringing back lovely memories from 2nd february 2010

After a very stormy night a warming curry is just the job.
WE made some mung bean curry with rice and flatbread.
  

In September Melendra, June and I went to pick apples in Storey's way. June wrapped them in newspaper and today was the day that we turned about 15 apples into a on the stove apple crumble
    

In the topping we put walnuts and maple syrup instead of pecan nuts and we added

crushed branflakes in the mix.

Elderflower season: our first Foraging walk is today!

June is the month for Elderflowers and lovely walks.

Today starts sunny and bright with not a cloud in the sky. We are expecting 29C so it might be too hot to go for a walk in open fields, luckily enough Alexandra park is around the corner and has lots of tree cover, and  a beautiful elder flower bush to give us the main ingredient for our Cordial.

We made some elderflower thee

It is a very versatile plant and worth reading more about here

Country file had an article with more elder recipes

Medicinal information

Every year I make more and more recipes with it.

First I made the cordial, (always adding the sugar at the second stage to prevent a sticky mess when squeezing out the flowers)

Then I tend to put in the fridge the left over lemons (and slice them very thinly) and the cordial that did not fit into the bottles.  So that with the next batch I can make Elderflower Marmalade

Thai week - Spring rolls, chocolate lava cakes, Thai Curry and lemon poppy cakes

 On Monday we made Thai spring rolls with a Peanut dipping sauce

As a dessert we made little chocolate lava cakes in a coffee cup. It was so good that on Monday I made them again when we had friends in the garden.  After so much chocolates I thought we'd try to change the recipe a bit and make lemon poppy steam cakes. We used home made lemon essence we made it last year and tasted beautifully lemony.

The Thai Curry we had with rice was quick and easy. Rather than using chicken breasts I used mushrooms which worked out very well.

Cashew nut loaf, potato croquettes, halloumi and orange salad and a mincepie star.

Many years ago, my friend Pat gave me this Cashew nut loaf recipe as my first ever vegetarian Christmas meal. We all liked it, veggies and meat eater alike, so thought to share it with you too. I have included it into my 4th from Spade to Plate book, that is getting well on the way.

Ingredients

1 chopped onion

Oil from the sun dried tomatoes

200g ground cashew nuts

12 finely cut sun dried tomatoes

1 can of chopped peeled tomatoes

Rind of lemon

1 spoon of fresh basil

1 egg

Salt and pepper

1 packet of puff pastry

Method

1. Fry the onion in the sun-dried tomato oil
2. Add the can of chopped and peeled tomatoes and leave until the juices have evaporated, then remove from heat
3. Add chopped sun-dried tomatoes, lemon, nuts, basil, salt and pepper and most of the egg (keep some behind to put over the puff pastry)
4. Mix together thoroughly and put in a loaf tin
5. Bake in over at 180ºC for 45 mins
6. Let it cool down completely.
7. Roll out the puff pastry large enough to wrap around the loaf.  
8. Then if you feel in the mood to do some fancy decorative skill, do that now. Haha Glaze the pastry with the left over egg.
9. Put back in the oven until the puff pastry is golden brown and puffed up. (about 20 minutes)

Pear Shaped Potato croquettes

Although they are easy to make they take more than one and a half hour for chilling so something to be aware off. We won't be able to do the whole recipe in our 40 minutes Zoom session

Ingredients

600 g floury potatoes, peeled and chopped

1 egg

1 egg yolk

60g parmesan grated

2 tablespoons chopped parsley

plain flour for coating

1 egg lightly beaten (extra)

1 cup dry breadcrumbs

2-3 strands raw spaghetti

Method

1. Boil the potatoes and turn into mash potatoes, include the eggs, egg yolks, parmesan, parsley until soft, while the potatoes are still hot.
2. Divide into 12 portions, put on a tray, cover and put in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
3. Shape the potato portions into small pear shapes and coat each in the flour, egg and then the breadcrumbs
4. Break the spaghetti into small lengths and insert one piece into the top of each pear shape to represent a stalk
5. Put back into the fridge to firm up.
6. Then put in the oven until golden brown around 20 minutes.
7. Serve hot or warm

We also made the Halloumi, carrot and orange salad. A fresh and tasty salad that went well with the Nutloaf and potato croquettes.

For dessert we made a mincep ie star which we had with a lovely cup of Chai.

Merry Christmas to you all.

Christmas coffee morning - Book launch

Over the last few weeks,  have been finishing my 4th From Spade to Plate recipe book. Lovely to see these pictures from 2 years ago when we launched the first book .

Today was such an exciting day as it was the launch of the first From Spade to Plate cookbook.
It was lovely to see how much my friends enjoyed them, even though we have already spotted a few mistakes!  So the 2nd edition will be in the making.

I made some hot apple Christmas juice, with puff pastry mince pies, anise biscotti and an amazing strawberry Christmas star. To be honest I was surprised myself. Here is the link on how to make it.
The anise biscotti are included in the cookbook.

        

Testing for the recipe book - crepes, biscuits and a pumpkin soup

Those were the days. This weekend  2 years ago, Andrea came to help figure out how to publish the cookery book and came with a Pumpkin so we decided to turn this one into .... Pumpkin Soup. To be honest our 5 spice recipe in which we normally use butternut squash, would have been much better. So won't give the recipe we used as it was a little mediocre.  Use the Butternut squash and 5 spice recipe instead substituting a pumpkin.

      
In addition we made some Christmas biscuits, three different types. The Honey jumbles, we changed into heart shapes, The thumb print  biscuits and the puff pastries christmas trees came out well and were quick and easy to make.

For the Christmas trees, take a pre-rolled sheet of puff pastry, sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar, cut a 1 cm strip from the short side of the sheet and layer over it self, zig zagging and reducing the width, resembling a Christmas tree. Pierce a cocktail stick through the top to the bottom and follow the rest of the recipe.

Whilst all this was being made we tested the Cheese ball share and tear bread. I prepared the bread dough before hand to speed things up. We used a mature Cheddar cheese to put inside but think a blue cheese might have been nice too.  Apart from it tasting so lovely, it looked attractive too (even though I say it myself)






Simone was in charge of the Crêpes Suzette and turned this basic ingredients into a scrumptious desert. We used  hot melted butter and Marmalade to make the sauce, to pour over the crêpes but for those who like a tipple, a little orange liqueur added to this sauce would be very nice too.







Lu, Asako, Sayaka, Simone and I worked hard to fit in so many lovely recipes in just 2 hours, the end result was well worth it though.

Pumpkin Pie and a Kale and Cauliflower salad

Haruna making the pumpkin pie filling

 Last week we had a huge butternut squash that provided us food for 6 of us in the form of a soup. The other half was turned this week into a pumpkin pie. No bake as per our 3 cookery book. We thought it was a little too sweet, so would reduce the brown sugar to 1/4 cup rather than 1/2 cup

We also went to the allotment where we picked the kale for the  Kale and Broccoli salad we used Cauliflower instead of Broccoli and it tasted amazing. Who would have thought that raw Kale could taste so nice.

Manami cooking the pie ingredients    

Simone chopping the cauliflower

A sunny (but chilly) walk to the allotment

Bon Appetit

chopped up ingredients for the Kale  salad

Thai inspired food with a hint of British Cuisine!

As the butternut squashes have now been harvested, it is time to do something nice  with them.

We chose to make a Thai inspired butternut squash soup 

and as a main meal, brussels sprouts in a thai peanut sauce with rice

 and a salad with fresh carrots, peppers and stuffed nasturtiums and home made egg free mayonnaise.

   

 How to lay a table, Simone is giving a demo