Coconut Dhal

I love love love this recipe. We found it in an Olive magazine recipe booklet and I've had it at home quite a few times. I never realised quite how simple it was to make – perfect if you’re short on time and don’t want loads of washing up to do! It is just delicious, and as a lover of creamy, coconutty curries like Korma, this is perfect for me. You can adapt it to be as spicy as you like it. Enjoy it with some flat-breads or rice. 

If you’re only cooking for one, like me, then this recipe makes too much. You could halve it, but as the coconut milk I had was a 400ml tin, I didn't like to. So I've frozen it instead and now I have an instant meal for another day!

Ingredients:
2 medium tomatoes (chopped)
250g red lentils
400ml tin coconut milk
1 onion (chopped)
green chilli’s (as many or as few as you require)
1 teaspoon turmeric

Method:
Put all the ingredients in a pan with 300ml water and simmer for 20 minutes until the lentils are tender.

There’s ONE step. How great is that?!
BEWARE: This has a habit of sticking to the pan, so regular stirring is a necessity.

To garnish:
(Optional) Fry one sliced onion in four tablespoons of oil until crisp. Add a handful of fresh curry leaves or coriander and two teaspoons of mustard seeds and sizzle together. Pour over lentils.

I left this out as it means using another pan, but if you can be bothered, go for it as it does add a great flavour and texture.

(Photo from BBC Good Food)

Finally, a recipe... Tray Bake

As you all already know, I got this idea from Jamie Oliver’s magazine. It’s so easy to adapt and there’s no skill at all involved, just chuck some food that you fancy on a tray. Here’s my version for you all to peruse…
(There are no pictures because 1) This meal was no great shakes looks-wise, 2) My camera appears to be broken and 3) I was too hungry to delay eating by trying to take a decent photo of it)

Ingredients:
Half an aubergine
A whole red pepper
Halloumi cheese
Palma ham
Salt, pepper
Dried herbs (I just used oregano)
Sunflower oil
Couscous
Boiling water

Method:

Cut up your aubergine, red pepper and halloumi into equal sized chunks and put them all on a tray, drizzle with the oil and season with the salt, pepper and herbs. Mix it around a bit. Put it in a hot oven – I have no idea what temperature I turned the dial to but it was probably around 200 Celsius.

Cook until the veg has softened and the halloumi is starting to turn a little bit golden – this time will vary depending on how big you’ve cut your veg. It probably won’t be more than 20 minutes.

Towards the end of the cooking time take the tray out and add in some chopped up ham – I also drizzled the veg with a bit of balsamic glaze which added a nice flavour – and pop it back in the oven.

Now, you’re meant to add “1 part couscous to 1 part water” but I just tipped some couscous in a bowl and poured boiling water over it so the water came just a bit higher than the couscous. (Turned out I’d used far too much couscous and a little too much water so I ended up with a mountain of damp, sticky couscous – it still tasted nice.) Anyway, so add the water and cover the bowl with a lid of some sort and wait until it’s absorbed all the water – five-ten minutes.

When that’s done, season it, fluff it up, take the veg out the oven and plonk it on top.

It tastes nice, I promise. And it’s so quick and easy. Pretty well balanced and healthy too.

As I made much too much for just me, I kept it in the fridge and tonight I used it as a filling for stuffing peppers which were super tasty.

An Improvement!

This week I’ve basically been some sort of professional chef/baker/eater/foodie person.

I’ve had a complete turn around and have actually been cooking! Have to say, I’m rather proud of myself. Okay, so I may have started my week with tomato chicken spaghetti… with tinned pasta sauce and pre-cooked chicken, but it was cooked food and I had to do dishes afterwards! (I use the term “afterwards” loosely, it was roughly four days later.) But as the week went on my dinners improved – baked aubergine (using the leftover pasta sauce), a trip out to Yo! Sushi and even a cheeky Jamie Oliver-style tray bake.

I hope you’re all proud of me!

Poor student, Poor effort.

I've been living in my flat for over a week now and I am ashamed to say that my cooking's been pretty non-existent. In a bid to avoid having too many dishes to wash up I've been eating out or making sandwiches and salads.

It actually took me forty-five minutes the other day to decide whether to use bacon or ham in a sandwich; I wanted bacon more but then I had to wash up the frying pan (the horror!) whereas ham I could've just plonked straight onto the bread. After much arguing with myself I did eventually decide on bacon... although somehow, my boyfriend ended up washing the frying pan...

So, whilst flicking through Jamie Oliver's magazine I saw the section "How to be a healthy student" (he probably wrote it specifically for me... one day we'll get married). One of the pages is entitled "Tray Bakes", basically, you just shove a bunch of ingredients onto a baking tray and bake them all together. Such an obvious idea. And only one tray, one plate and some cutlery to wash up.

I'm now determined to try at least this - even if I don't yet tackle any cooking that involves more dishes to wash up (I will eventually, I promise). The pepper, courgette, aubergine and halloumi idea has taken my fancy.

So hopefully, next time I write I'll have some recipes for you, along with proof that I do actually cook!

Cakes, cookies and cooking

Cooking has always been a part of my life; before me and my sister were born, mum was a chef, and she used her brilliant cooking skills when bringing us up. Whilst most of our friends were fussy and picky with their food, Alice and I would eat most things (within reason!) that were given to us. We had fun learning to cook and going out to eat from a young age and that has stayed with me over the years.

The clearest memory I have is of cooking for a “bake sale” with two of my best friends – Stevie and Cassie – when I was eight or nine. We made all sorts of things – biscuits, cupcakes, flapjacks… - and sold them at a stall in our school hall to raise money for the National Autistic Society.

I’m a firm believer that baking can, if not solve, then make most problems a bit more bearable; whether you’re raising money to help solve other people’s problems, baking as therapy for your own, or you’re giving someone something you’ve made to make them happy (it works. Cakes and biscuits make the best presents – cheap as well!).

 Baking cakes and cookies remains one of my favourite things to do. I’m not too bad in other areas of cooking… although there’s a lot of room to improve!