Chickpea Butter Masala

Ingredients.

2 tins chickpeas, drained and rinsed.

2 tomatoes blanched, peeled and quartered

4 garlic cloves

1 thumb sized piece of ginger

(or you could use a tin of chopped tomatoes with about two Tbsp of garlic and ginger paste blended with a stick blender)

1 large onion very finely chopped 

1 Tbsp sunflower oil

2 Tbsp butter

1 tsp cumin/jeera seeds

1/2 Tbsp tomato paste

1/2 tsp tumeric

1 heaped tsp chili powder or to taste

2 tsp ground coriander powder

1 tsp cumin/jeera

2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp garam masala

1 tsp crushed fenugreek leaves

1/2 cup water

200ml coconut milk

1/2 cup fresh coriander 

1 Tbsp melted butter

1 tsp paprika

1/4 cup fresh chopped coriander for garnish.

Method.

Place the fresh tomatoes, garlic and ginger into a blender and blend until smooth. 

Add the oil and 2 Tbsp butter to a pot or deep pan and add the onion, cumin seed and 1/4 tsp salt and saute until lightly browned.

Add the tomato paste and cook for another minute stirring

Add the spices (Tumeric, Cumin powder and Chili powder)

Add the blended tomato, garlic and ginger puree, cover with a lid and cook for around 5 minutes. Stir mixture, partially cover and cook until thickened. 

Stir and add the 2 tsp salt, the sugar, the garam masala and crushed fenugreek leaves.

Add the chickpeas and water, keeping 1/3 cup aside and stir.

Blend the 1/3 cup reserved chickpeas and add to the pot and stir. I used a pestle and mortar to crush them to a paste.

Cover and cook on low for 15 minutes.

taste and adjust seasoning.

Add the chopped fresh coriander and coconut milk keeping some of the coconut milk aside for garnish. Stir.

cover and cook for another 5 minutes.

melt the butter in a pan, switch off the heat, add the paprika to it and pour over the curry.

Garnish with a bit more fresh coriander leaves and streaks of coconut milk.

Serve with Naan bread or Roti.

Dias Tavern Trinchado

This is as near to the original Dias Tavern Trinchado sauce that I could get. I found it on the Internet and added a few tweaks.

 Ingredients.

One or two beef steaks of your choice. (Fillet, Sirloin, Rump or Ribeye) (About 150 - 200g per person).

2 Onions chopped

6 cloves of garlic (Four finely chopped and two crushed).

1 or 2 fresh or dried chili's of your choice. (I used 4 fresh Bird's Eye and the sauce was pretty hot but that's how I like it).

1 heaped tablespoon flour 

250ml Red Wine.

250ml Beef Stock.

3 or 4 Bay Leaves.

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce.

Pepper and Salt to taste. About 1/2 teaspoon of each. You can add more later if you need to,

1 Tablespoon of brandy.

100ml fresh cream.

Method.

First make the sauce.

Fry the onions on a medium heat until soft and slightly browned. 

Add 4 of the cloves of chopped garlic and the chili at the end and cook for a minute or two longer.

Add the flour to the pan, stir it in well and cook for another minute. (This is to slightly thicken the sauce). 

Add the red wine, beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and bay leaves, bring to a gentle simmer and cook covered for a minimum of one hour for the flavour's to develop, adding water from time to time if it is drying out too much.

Check for seasoning and remove the bay leaves.

Lastly add the 2 cloves of crushed garlic, the brandy and the cream. 

It is now ready.

Braai or pan fry the steak/s to your liking and put aside to rest for a few minutes.  

Suggestion.  Do the steak/s slightly rarer than you normally do as they will cook slightly more in the hot sauce.

Carve the steak into strips and halve the strips if you prefer smaller pieces of meat.

Place some sauce into individual bowls (About 2/3 of a cup in each). Add a few pieces of the steak to each bowl and enjoy with Portuguese or other rolls to mop up the sauce.

Easy Flatbread Recipe - No Yeast

 Ingredients.

300g Cake/All Purpose flour.

1/2 tsp Salt

180ml Milk

50g Butter

Method.

Mix the flour and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Add the milk and butter into a Pyrex jug and melt the butter by putting the jug into the microwave for about one minute.

Add the mixture to the flour and salt and mix together using a wooden spoon or a silicone spatula until all combined.

Turn out onto a well floured surface and knead for 5 minutes.

Cover with Glad wrap and allow to rest for 30 minutes.

Divide into 4 equal portions and roll each one into a ball.

Using your fingers or a rolling pin, roll them out into thin flatbreads.

Heat a cast iron pan on your stove and fry individually using no oil for about a minute on each side or until bubbles form and they puff up.

After you have removed them from the pan you could brush them with Garlic Butter and use them as Naan breads. (One option).

The uncooked balls keep well in the fridge for a few days, wrapped in Glad wrap 

Smoor/Kedgeree smoked fish

 

Ingredients.

320g of flaked smoked fish (Snoek or Angelfish)

2 Onions sliced or chopped

1 Green Pepper diced

3 cloves of Garlic, chopped

1 3cm piece of Ginger, diced

2 large tomatoes, chopped

3 Birds Eye Chili's or to your taste, chopped

1/2 cup Sultana's

2 large potatoes, peeled and diced

Olive Oil

Butter

Parsley, chopped

Spring Onions, sliced

Lemon wedges to serve

Method.

Put some butter and olive oil in a pan or pot and saute the onions until soft.

Add the potatoes, green pepper, garlic, chili's and ginger after a while and carry on cooking until the potatoes are soft. Add Pepper and salt to taste

Add the sultana's and tomatoes, reduce the heat and put a lid on the pan and carry on cooking until the potatoes are cooked.

Remove the lid and add the flaked smoked fish and combine. Carry on heating gently to warm the fish up.

Add the parsley and spring onions and serve with lemon wedges

Enjoy.

One of the great things about this recipe is that it's very flexible and can be adjusted completely to your taste and availability of ingredients. 

Beef and Onion Stir Fry with Oyster Sauce

I got this recipe from an English chef who lives in Thailand and posts video's on YouTube almost daily.

I once had a very nice Chinese tour group for a few days and we went to lunch at a Chinese restaurant and this was one of the dishes served and I enjoyed it very much.

Ingredients.

300g of steak with the fat removed.

1 tsp Baking Soda

2 Tbsp water

2 Onions cut into segments and separated.

1 tsp White Pepper

3 cloves of Garlic finely chopped.

A piece of ginger, peeled and finely chopped.

1 Tsp of Sesame Oil

For the sauce.

1 Tbsp Soy Sauce

2 Tbsp Oyster Sauce

1/2 Tbsp Rice Wine

1 tsp Dark Soy Sauce

1 tsp Sugar

3 Tbsp Water

1 tsp Cornflour.

Method.

Slice the steak into diagonal coin thickness slices and place in a bowl

Add about 1 teaspoon of Baking Soda and a bit of water and work it into the steak.

Leave to rest for 15 minutes. This tenderizes the steak. 

Rinse the steak off to remove the baking soda

Add white pepper, a splash of Soy Sauce and a teaspoon of cornflour plus1 Tbsp of Sunflower oil. The oil helps prevent the steak slices from sticking together.

Mix all the sauce ingredients together and whisk to remove any lumps of cornflour.

Heat a Wok up to a high heat, add a bit of oil and brown the steak slices, stir frying all the time. Remove and set aside.

 Add a bit of Oil to the wok and add the onion segments and stir fry.

When they are translucent after a few minutes, add the garlic and ginger. Stir fry for just a few seconds so that the garlic does not have time to burn and quickly return the steak to the Wok and add the sauce and quickly stir fry as soon as the sauce starts bubbling.

Add about 1 Tsp of Sesame Oil and combine.

Serve with White Rice.

Colleen's Spicy Chicken Soup

 

 

 Ingredients.

8 Chicken thigh portions. Bone in but skin removed.

1 leek halved and thinly sliced

3 carrots chopped

3 celery sticks chopped

3 garlic cloves chopped

1 onion Chopped

1/4 cup Olive Oil

1  tsp tumeric

1 tsp chicken spice

 1 can of coconut milk

2 tsp grated ginger

2 or 3 chili's finely chopped

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

 1 Tbsp tomato paste

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp salt

5 cups of chicken stock

1 cup lentils

fresh coriander either roughly chopped or torn.

Method.

Cook the onions in a large pot slowly on low heat until soft.

Add the rest of the vegetable and carry on cooking until soft.

Add the garlic, ginger, chili's and tomato paste.

Add the salt and spices.

Add the stock and coconut milk

Add the chicken pieces.

Simmer slowly for 30 minutes

Add the lentils.

Simmer until the chicken is just staring to fall off the bones.  

Remove the chicken from the pot and separate the meat from the bones taking care to remove all of them.

Add the chicken back to the pot.

Add the coriander.

Serve with a nice sourdough bread.

John Kirkwoods English Crumpets