Lamb & Sweet Potato curry with chapatis

This is the first recipe I have tried out of my newest book, Rick Stein's India. We watched each episode of this series each Monday night and we love Rick's style of cooking and story telling. I won't go into full recipe detail for the curry as it was quite involved but it turned out nicely with a thick gravy. I would halve the white pepper and chilli powder next time.
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The photography in this book is so good, really beautiful  - I can almost smell Delhi, Agra and Jaipur (where I visited in 2006) and hear the street noise of these bustling places...
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Chapatis

(Makes 8)

250gms (half plain flour, half wholemeal plain flour)

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp melted ghee (or butter or vegetable oil)

120-150 mls warm water

In a mixing bowl, mix the flour with the salt, then add the melted ghee and 120mls of the water. Mix together, adding a little more water until you have a soft but not sticky dough. Knead for a minute or two then cover and let rest for 15 minutes.

Divide the dough into 8 pieces. Roll our each ball on a floured board to about 13cm in diameter. Heat a heavy based frying pan or griddle so its nice and hot. I sprayed my griddle with cooking spray then cooked two at a time until bubbles appear then I sprayed the top side then flipped over for a further 2 minutes...

Cook until golden on both sides.

 

This is the old electric griddle I use (gifted to me by my mother-in-law) - its great for making pancakes, naan bread and now chapatis!

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Here is the curry with basmati rice and my favourite cucumber & mint raita - (which helps cool down a hot curry!).

Quite delicious apart from being just a little on the hot side for us. I'd definitely make it again! It's a cracking curry, Ricky!

PS:  I just had a serve for lunch today and it was even better than last night! Yummo!

Cheers - Joolz xx

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To the coast!

 Brianna and her boyfriend came home for the weekend so we headed to the beach on Sunday.  Not for swimming (too windy and crisp) but just to sit and watch the waves roll in.

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How blue is the sky? All the pictures were taken on my iPhone and not retouched - SOOC!

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 Dear Ruby - we love riding in her!

  The reef was out at McIntyre Beach.

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 This was further around the beach where we set up for the day.

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 We were on a rocky little outcrop - no sand to wiggle between our toes.  The National Parks & Wildlife have stopped access down on to the beach in this area as it is just too dangerous for four wheel drive vehicles - too easy to get stuck and you could lose your vehicle out to sea!!

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 Gus cooked us a yummy barbecue lunch of Wagyu sausages and beef shasliks...

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I had a lovely glass of light red wine...  I love these Govino plastic wine glasses - look and feel like glass but are plastic and very safe for the beach.

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 The Cheeky Red went down a treat!

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 Still can't believe that sky!

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 The kids relaxing and getting some Vitamin D !

 Bri did the honours and drove us home safely - she does love driving Ruby through the dunes!

Thanks!

They head home today but I will see my girls next weekend when I head to Adelaide for the Clipsal 500 weekend.  I am not going to the race, just chilling with the girls and having dinner with Gus on 2 nights.  Can. Not.Wait!

Cheers - Joolz xx

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So much cooler this week...

I go straight for comfort food when the weather cools off.

This recipe was slightly different as the meat/tomato sauce did not use a tin or jar of tomatoes, only tomato puree and not a lot of it. I actually used 2 tablespoons of tomato paste instead of opening a tin of puree and only using 30mls as suggested. Bit weird!

Anyhow, as you can see from the top picture, you layer the lasagne wuth the meat sauce then a bechamel sauce and parmesan cheese, repeating until you have 5 layers of pasta.

Top the final with bechamel sauce and cheese then bake until golden on top, about 40 minutes.

It had a plainer taste than my usual lasagne ( with hearty bolognese sauce) but we really liked it. It was lighter than usual.

We have had some lovely rain, a nice soaking which should green things up a bit.

This is everything I put into my baked rice.

1.5 cups rice (this was Jasmine)

1 tablespoon good curry powder

2 teaspoons chicken stock powder

Carrot

Sweetcorn

Red onion

Capsicum

Zucchini

Salt & pepper to taste

Add enough water to cover all this, mix it up well then dob in some butter/margarine. Cover with foil and bake for about 30-40 minutes. Check if its done by fluffing it up with a fork and taste a bit.

I like to make my own chicken skewers. Thread on fresh chicken tenders, drizzle with sweet chilli sauce, a little olive oil and a dollop of minced garlic. Put them in a plastic container and give them a good shake to coat them. Leave for at least 30 minutes to marinate. I cooked mine in a non-stick skillet.

Just keep an eye on them as the sweet sauce can make them burn easily.

Serve the chicken skewers over the rice with satay sauce which is

1/2 cup crunchy peanut butter

1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce

1 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon lemon juice

And I sweeten it off with either one tblspn honey or maple syrup and I also added 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin.

Last night I made pizzas. I made the dough from the recipe on my bakers flour packet but I was farly heavy. Not my best dough.

Still, they were tasty. This one has chunks of fresh chicken on it with all the usual pizza toppings.

This one has pineapple added as I like that.

I have started collecting fabric to make a scrappy strip quilt like the one Alicia Paulson made for her daughter. I am aiming for small florals, dots and ginghams like Alicia.

I got these few in Spotlight, total cost $8.75 (15cm strips) so I need to collect lots more yet.

I just love how it is put together randomly - a good beginners project.

This is Alicia's quilt and the link to her beautiful blog. Her daughter, nicknamed Mimi, is just gorgeous.

http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2013/03/sun-spots.html?cid=6a00d8345196d169e2017c379c60b3970b#comment-6a00d8345196d169e2017c379c60b3970b

It might be a while before I tackle sewing this but I really want to give it a shot!

Brianna is coming home today so it will be lovely to catch up with her!

Cherrs - Joolz xx

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Sweet & Sour Pork and Jam Cup Puddings ...

Gus cooked Neil Perry Sweet and Sour Pork for dinner...

This is what the picture looked like ...

Stir-fry wok wizard ...

The finished dish - yummo!

I saw this recipe in Better Homes and Gardens magazine ... Jam Cup Puddings ... so I had a go at making them.

I opened my last precious jar of apricot jam from last summer and used some plum jam that my friend Denise gave me.

I hand whipped the batter...

It made quite a lot ...

Into the cups, which I sprayed with canola cooking spray...

5 minutes in the microwave ... Oh, dear! Cups too small or too much batter, you decide!? I actually cooked them on full power when the recipe says 75% power. Oops!

I cleaned up the cups and tipped them out - yummy cake with jam topping.

They might look a bit manky but the taste was there.

I'd use a taller cup or mug next time and I think there is enough batter for 5-6 serves.

115g butter, softened

4 - 5 tbs jam (shared between cups)

1/2 cup caster sugar

2 eggs

1 cup SR flour

1/3 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

Cream or custard to serve

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1. Grease the cups (I used cooking spray). Divide jam between cups. Whisk sugar and butter in a bowl until light and creamy. Whisk in eggs, one at a time.

2. Fold in flour, milk and vanilla then spoon batter over jam. Only fill cups to about 1/2 way full.

3. Cover cups with paper towel and place 2 cups in microwave. Cook for 5-6 minutes on MEDIUM (75%) until cake is cooked.

Repeat with remaining puddings.

Turn out puddings onto plates and serve with custard.

I hope you have success - you could try chocolate ones or swirl the jam through the batter....

 

When I was looking for that apricot jam, I found this poor jar of tomato relish from last summer too. You can see how the cellophane seal has failed whereas the other jar has a screw top lid as well and is still fine, one year later.

So much on TV tonight, we only managed MKR so will have to watch the INXS special tonight.

What did you get up to this weekend?

Cheers - Joolz xx

 

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