Chickpea curry

Cheap, cheerful, and everything in - no shopping required.  The veg is what I used - but could have been pretty much anything.

1 onion
tbsp olive oil
1 carrot
1 red pepper
handful of green beans
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 tsp balti paste
2 potatoes
handful mushrooms
tin tomatoes
tin chickpeas
natural yogurt


1.  Chop onion and saute in oil.
2.  Add chopped carrot, red pepper and green beans, turn over in the oil.
3.  Add crushed garlic, 2 chopped tomatoes and curry paste, chuck in mushrooms and potatoes, turn over again for a couple of minutes.
4.  Add a tin of tomatoes, and a tin of water.
5.  Simmer for about 20 minutes, until veg are soft.  Taste, season...
6.  Drain and rinse chickpeas, chuck into curry, simmer again for a few minutes, add more water if it's drying out.
7.  Take off the heat and allow to cool for a few minutes - chuck in some naatural yogurt.
8. Scoff, with rice.

Enough left for lots of work dinners... anyone want some?

Prawn curry

I am currently emptying the freezer.  There are many prawns in the freezer, because former primary victim is very fond, but rarely cooked, so a backlog has developed.

So what to make which I would enjoy ... prawn curry... treating what some people think is a big treat as a fairly bland protein source.  And, it worked... big style - have had seconds, which I rarely do!

Recipe:

1 leek, chopped
1 tbsp mild olive oil
1 red pepper
Handful of green beans
1 tbsp curry paste (tandoori in this case)
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tin tomatoes
prawns (200g ish)

Method:

I defrosted the prawns,  don't suppose it's essential, but it was a ruse to make me use them!

1.  Saute leek in olive oil, add chopped pepper and green beans.
2.  When a little soft add curry paste and garlic and a cup of water - lid in and simmer until veg are softish.
3.  Add tin tomatoes, simmer for another 10 minutes.
4.  Add prawns, and simmer gently until heated through - about 3-4 minutes.
5.  Serve with rice/ naan.

Beetroot, apple, carrot, orange juice

Recipe?

2 small beetroot, 1 orange, 2 apples and 1 carrot.

Yum

uninspiring looking fish and rice (delicious)

Looks entirely ... yeah, whatever, do I have to eat that?  But was very tasty, and very cheap.

The fish I used was actually dab - but could have been any white fish in cajun(ish) marinade.  I mixed cajun seasoning, 1 clove crushed garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 tbsp yogurt ... chucked fish in and put in fridge for half an hour.

For the rice I chopped a small onion and 1 stick of celery, and fried in olive oil (quite hot, so that it caught a little bit, so got some caramelisation, but not much), added 1 cup of rice, and turned around so that every grain had a coating of oil/onion.... added veg stock, about a pint (just short of an inch above surface of rice), stirred in added 3 tbsp sweetcorn from a tin and a chopped red pepper from a jar.  Lid on, brought to boil - stuffed in simmering oven in Aga for about 20 mins (on hob, low
simmer for about 14 mins, if your oven is on... lowish oven for 20 mins +... in a microwave, about 6 mins)...

So, fish marinading, rice nearly done ... fry/grill fish in olive oil... make sure the oil is hot - or really hot grill.

Serve as glamorously as you can manage, with lemon.

Was very tasty.

Juice-tastic

Let's get this year started in the right fashion - 1 orange, 3 clementines, 1 ruby grapefruit, 2 apples ... yum ... that's gotta be good for me, right?