10/02/2011 by D.

This is the fantastic Waitrose recipe, with the amount of ginger revved up a little.  In my book this is an unbeatable recipe as it creates crunchy, yet chewy Gingerbread men.  It has a high snaffle factor too!

125g unsalted butter
100g dark muscovado sugar
4 tbsp golden syrup
325g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
6 tsp ground ginger

Grease a couple of baking trays or line with parchment. Melt butter, sugar and syrup in a medium saucepan, stirring occasionally, then remove from the heat.

Put the dry ingredients in a bowl, and mix in the saucepan contents.  Mix well to form a stiff dough.  Cover with clingfilm and refridgerate for an hour or more.  It will keep well for a couple of days like this.

When you are ready to bake, preheat oven to 170°C and take the dough out of the fridge.   Work it a bit to warm it up.  Roll out and cut into shapes.  The more you work the dough, the better it is, so it’s a great activity to do with children.

Place the shapes onto the lined baking trays and bake, in batches, for 9-10 minutes until light golden brown.  Cool before icing.  They’ll keep for 2 weeks in an airtight tin.

To make an excellent icing, mix 1 tsp lemon juice with a cup of icing sugar.  It should be fairly thick, but glossy and not stiff.  If too stiff add a little more lemon juice.  I give the kids a chop stick and they dip that in the icing, then trail  it on the biscuits, decorating with dried raisins, cranberries and cherries.

Posted in Biscuits, Ginger, Butter, Vegetarian, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

25/01/2011 by D.

8 large cabbage leaves
4 oz minced chicken, pork or beef (or cooked puy lentils)
2 finely chopped spring onions
1 chilli (optional)
3 tbsp cooked rice
1 minced clove garlic
1 tsp grated ginger
2 tsp soy sauce (dark)
4 cocktail sticks

Veg or chicken stock to simmer

Bring a pan of salted water to boil and cook the cabbage leaves for 3 minutes.  Drain and flatten on a board and cut out the stem in a triangle shape.

Mix the rest of the ingredients together.  You can now either make eight small rolls, or 4 big ones.  For the big ones, simply overlap two leaves, place a quarter of the filling in the centre, then rollup and fasten with a stick.

Simmer the parcels in chicken or veg stock for 40 minutes until cooked through.  To serve, remove the sticks and  place the parcels in a bowl with a ladle of the cooking stock.

Posted in Cabbage, Puy lentils, Chicken, Pork, Ginger, Soy sauce, Chilli, Beef, Garlic, Rice, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

07/06/2010 by D.

This is another fabulous recipe I’ve adapted from World Food Café 2.  If the chutney jar is empty and the cheese board awaits, this fantastic little number is quick to make and has all the great elements a chutney needs: spicy, tangy, sweet and moreish.

3 tbsp tamarind dissolved in 350ml hot water
2 mugs dates, stoned and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 inch ginger, peeled and grated
1 tsp chilli powder or 1 fresh chilli, sliced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp sultanas
1/2 mug cashews, chopped

Gently bring all ingredients apart from the cashews to a boil.  Cover pan and simmer for 10 minutes until the dates have cooked down to a chutney consitency.

Fill two jam jars and their lids with boiling water to sterilise.  Tip out water after 10 mins and upturn jars and lids to drain onto a clean towel or cloth.

Add cashews to mixutre in pan and cook for 5 more minutes.  Spoon into the jars and seal with lids immediately.  Leave to cool.  Once you open a jar, store in fridge.

Posted in Chutney, Tamarind, Sultanas, Cashews, Dates, Ginger, Vegetarian, Chilli, Garlic, Recipe | Print | No Comments »

08/02/2010 by D.

- Quick note on the spices; you can use dried chilli and ginger, and pre-ground spices if that’s what you’ve got.  The taste is more zingy with the fresh stuff!
2 Onions
3 fat Garlic cloves
1 inch Fresh Ginger
4 Potatoes
4 Carrots
any other seasonal veg (sweet potato, cauliflower, broccoli, peppers, mushrooms, celeriac, squash, spinach etc)
2 tbsp Oil
2 Fresh Chilli (to taste)
1 tsp Coriander seed
1 tsp Cumin seed
1 tsp Cardamom pods (green)
(optional tin of tomatoes and a tin of coconut cream – the curry is richer with, but equally good and more authentic without these)
2 veg or beef stock cubes
1 litre boiling water
Salt to taste
(to serve: Fresh coriander leaves, chilli, pitta breads, yoghurt, chutney, basmati rice)
 
Chop the onion finely. Peel and crush the garlic.  Peel the ginger and cut into small matchsticks.  Peel, wash and chop all the remaining veg into roughly the same size pieces.  Place all the above in a big pan and drizzle over the oil. Finely chop chillies and add to pan.

Crush the cardamom pods and discard the husks.  Finely grind the cardamom, cumin and coriander and add to the pan.  Boil the water.  Heat the pan slowly and stir for a couple of minutes until you can smell the spices.  Add the tin of tomatoes, the coconut milk and add the stock cubes to the pan.  Stir.  Pour over the boiling water until all the veg are just covered (depending on your pan it may need more or less than a litre).

Bring to boil again and stir every 10 mins or so.  Simmer for 40 minutes or until the hardest vegetable is done.  Taste and season accordingly (eg salt, more chilli etc).  If you want a thicker curry, crush some of the potatoes against the side of the pan and stir them back in.  For a thinner one, add a little more water.  Adjust seasoning.

Serve in pita pockets, wrap in pastry for samosas or boil up some brown or basmati rice.   You could serve it with some thick yoghurt, chutney, fresh coriander or extra chilli, according to your tastes!

A good side dish with this is a basic dhal (red lentils, whole onion, 2 cloves, stock and water, add the lot and simmer for the same time as the curry, stir regularly and don’t let it dry out).

NB this curry is great for children as they love the taste and will eat all manner of veg like celeriac and parsnips, believing them to be potatoes.  For kids leave most of the chilli out and serve the curry with chopped chillis on the side for the adults.

Posted in Cardamom, Ginger, Cumin, Curry, Coriander, Garlic, Chilli, Potato, Carrot, Onion, Vegetarian, Recipe | Print | No Comments »