Indian Bread Pakora, Onion, Spinach Pakora, Chicken

Bread Pakora is a really interesting Indian food that has not really hit the street of the UK.  It consists of a fried or toasted bread sandwich, with a filling of well quite a few different things. 

Actually there are several different filling suggestions. Generally paneer cheese or mashed potatoes and usually with a spicy chutney and a sour or sweet chutney like tamarind chutney .  Don't take my word for it, check this link. or a bread paneer pakora recipe both from Sanjeev Kapoorkhazana who has some brilliant videos on You-tube.

I also served this with onion and spinach pakora, chicken and spiced coriander topping. The best flout to make the pakora's is Gram flour.  Mix the gram flour with your chosen spices, add water and mash together to get the right consistency.  You can always cool them in the fridge to help hold their shape before frying until golden brown.

It's Been a Long Time

I cannot believe its been early April since I last blogged. I briefly saw Tim Anderson (MasterChef winner 2011) in Edinburgh on Sunday.  I just glanced into the door of Mellis in Stockbridge (as I usually do when passing) and saw a glimpse of someone sniffing some produce, wandering on, I thought that looked a bit like Tim but thought nothing of it.  A few minutes later I met my sister-in-law who said she had just seen him.  That is a pity, I was routing for him all the way through the last show. It would have been a great photo for the blog.  Well below it's not exactly hamburger and chips three ways but hey ho.

Thai Stuffed Squid 
Dice the tentacles and some prawn and mix with some finely chopped garlic and fresh ginger that has been softened in a frying pan. Add some fish sauce, coriander, chili and a squeeze of lime or some grated lime rind.  I used some of the squid ink to darken the rice as an experiment, it came out a strange grey colour but worth a try.

GastroTastic
Pesto spaghetti and stars, with chicken,  tomato and basil.  When I say pesto spaghetti, the spaghetti is made of pesto not pasta (courtesy of my new gastro purchases). The stars are also made of pesto, one course with pine nuts still visible and the other was put through a strainer to remover the bits.

Venison
Scottish Venison with spinach and walnuts, mash potato, a herb polenta and a sweet potato and a butternut squash puree with venison jus. The walnuts were to give it a bit of texture otherwise with the mash and purees it would be a bit mushy. Beautifully pink venison can't be beaten. 

Chicken with chirozo and a tomato tarragon and basil sauce

The wife gave this one top marks even saying it was one of the best meals I've made her.  Not bad for something I just rustled up on the spot. I used smoked paprika in the sauce with a little gastric to give it the sweet and sour tinge. The tarragon really helps the flavour and I used cherry tomatoes to add to the sweetness.

Gnocchi Mad

I went a bit mad and made far too much gnocchi. 2kg of potatoes baked in the over for 1.5 hours on a bed of salt. Its great for freezing but we spent most of Sunday evening rolling and shaping the stupid wee things.


Gnocchi with Meatballs
The great news is that the kids loved the gnocchi as well. I didn't tell them it was made with potato until afterwards but it worked. The wee soles spent ages rolling out the meatballs and actually did a really good job.

Sri Lankan Curry with Basmati Rice

I cook a lot of curries and decided to do something really different with this one, I wish I had written down what I did as it went down very well. I'm not sure why I have called this a Sri Lankan curry, I'm just have a feeling that their curry's are a little fruitier. I used a lot of amchoor(mango)powder, fenugreek and star anise which gave it a different flavour and I deep fried the chicken in spicy breadcrumbs.

Some basics

Home made tagliatelli with tomato and basil sauce. I have adopted a new recipe for my home made pasta and what a difference. 480g '00' flour, 2tbsp olive oil, 120ml cold saffron water, 4 egg yokes, 1 egg and pinch of salt. The secret is to add the water and oil very slowly and the essential ingredient to a good tomato based sauce is add some gastric (equal weight of white wine vinegar and sugar) to give it that sweet and sour experience.

North Indian chicken curry.