Gracie’s Life Experiment

Probably the least authentic recipe in the world coming up…. decided to make a korma for dinner tonight (there’s a lovely jar of Patak’s hiding at the back of the cupboard – I know it’s cheating, but it does taste nice). Decided that having rice or naan with it would be boring and I’m long overdue for another experimentation. Here’s my recipe for Bombay Potatoes (gleaned the main ingredients from various online webpages), it serves 4 as a side dish…

Ingredients:
- 3 medium/large potatoes
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp of wholegrain mustard
- 1 tbsp of plain flour
- 1 tbsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp crushed chilli flakes
- 1 tbsp ground cumin
- 2 diced fresh tomatoes

Instructions:
- Peel and chop potatoes (or could leave the skin on if you want to) into 1″ cubes and parboil for 7 mins
- Drain the potatoes and leave aside for 5 mins (don’t rinse the potatoes with cold water or anything, you want the heat from the potatoes to steam off and leave the potatoes dry). Once the potatoes seem dryish then sprinkle the plain flour and mix so that the potatoes are coated well.
- Heat the vegetable oil over medium heat in a frying pan (mine was about 30cm in diameter and you’ll need one with a lid)
- Put the mustard into the oil and stir
- Once the mustard starts to “pop” then add the cumin, turmeric and chilli flakes. Again stirring into the oil.
- Add the floured potatoes into the oil/spice mixture and stir
- Put the lid on the pan so that the potatoes cook through (I more or less sauteed for 2-3 mins then put the lid on for a similar amount of time and then stirred/turned the potatoes before replacing the lid)
- It took about 10 mins to get the potatoes done. They should look nice and crispy on the outside and coated with a golden brown spice mixture. The potato itself will go yellow because of the turmeric.
- Dice the tomatoes and remove all the soft pulp out of the middle (i.e. you’re just left with the skin/flesh – but no seeds or juice)
- When you want to serve it up just quickly heat through potatoes to crisp them up and then scatter the tomatoes on top when you plate it.

I liked this recipe best as it yields nice and crispy bombay potatoes with plenty of flavour (frying the spices seems to really increase the concentration). It will go well with our beef korma and rotis.

Decided to do a bit of baking again this afternoon. Really wanted to make a cake or cookies but realised that we have no eggs left (not even a small one hiding in the back of the fridge). Here’s the recipe:

-175g of self-raising flour (I used about 100g of wholemeal and 75g normal)
-50g of raw brown sugar
-1 large grated carrot
-1/3 of a medium sized pineapple diced finely (I had some fresh lurking about in the fridge I guess you could use a 250g tin drained)
-Handful of sultanas
-1 tsp of vanilla essence
-1/4 tsp of baking powder
-2 tsp of white vinegar
-125ml of water
-50ml of vegetable oil

For the icing:
-125g of cream cheese
-100g of icing sugar
-1tbsp of cold water
-Orange zest

Mixed the dry ingredients together and then added the fruits and liquids. I didn’t bother with the hand blender, just mashed it about with a fork. Poured into a 9″ cake tin (used spray oil to grease the tin first). Bake at 180 deg for 40 mins then allow to cool. Mix up the ingredients for the icing and spread on top of cake once cooled.

Been experimenting in the kitchen again! Am going over to my friend’s house this afternoon and they’re always plying us with loads of goodies so I said this time it’s definitely my turn to bring something yummy. Sat there last night racking my brains for something to make with tuna and avocado (basically the items I have in my fridge that need using up) apart from sandwiches, guacamole or a salad (which are a little impractical for 3 toddlers). My friend was telling about some tuna baskets she made that went down well with her littl’uns so I decided to have a go at my own version.

Tuna & Avocado Cheese Crisps

Ingredients:
100g of tinned tuna
100g of grated tasty cheese (or cheddar)
1 small-medium avocado
1 tbsp of whole egg mayonnaise
Dried basil (or any herbs you like really)
2 sundried tomatoes
3 mushrooms
1 large iceberg lettuce leaf
Handful of sweetcorn
Lemon juice

Instructions:
- Using some silicon mini muffin trays I put a generous pinch of grated cheese into each section. Use your finger to ensure that the cheese is more or less evenly distributed on the base of the muffin depression. Basically I had so that it was a couple of layers deep but still could see little bits of the base peeking through. Sprinkle a tiny pinch of basil into each one.
- Put in the oven on hottest setting (240C). It’ll cook really quickly in about 5 mins. Keep an eye on them and once they go brown take them out (with mine there was a lot of foamy oil that came out).
- Using the edge of a knife just prize the cheese discs out of the trays and onto a cooking tray. I transferred mine onto paper towel after that as they were quite oily.
- While they’re cooling make the filling..
- Mash up the tuna and avocado in a bowl with the mayonnaise and lemon juice
- Finely chop up the sundried tomatoes, mushrooms (I used the washed, but raw) and shred the lettuce finely. Add to the tuna avocado mixture.
- Mix in the sweetcorn
- The cheese discs will be fairly fragile so be careful when assembling the “bites”. I used about a teaspoon of tuna mixture on a disc and then sandwiched another disc on top and pressed down gently.

This made about 20 “bites” (well, I ate a few whilst I experimented so could prob make 30 depending on how thickly or thinkly you use the cheese). It’s probably not the healthiest thing for kids, but as a once in a while treat I’m sure it’ll be fine. I can’t see how it’s much different in ingredients and quantity from having a salad with a couple of small chunks of uncooked cheese – in fact surely it’s less fat as a lot comes out when you bake it and drain it?

Mmm – decided to have a little experiment today. I’ve got most of a tin of beetroot in the fridge and no idea what to make with it (other than stick it on a burger or in salads) so decided to have a look on the net for ideas. The lack of Branston’s Pickle here really made me want to eat pickle (mmm warm chunky pickle with cheese and a big doorstop of crusty bread). So found a few recipes for beetroot chutney and some for branston-style pickle and decided to experiment with what I could find in the pantry. Here’s my recipe (as usual amounts are guestimates)

Ingredients:
Tinned sliced beetroot (prob used about 250g)
2 apples (red ones ‘cos that’s what’s left in the fruit bowl)
1/2 a large onion
1/2 a large carrot
2 cloves of garlic
Small handful of sultanas
Small handful of olives (the green stuffed pimento ones)
1/2 cup of sugar (you don’t need too much as the beetroot and apples are naturally sweet)
5 tbs of malt vinegar
Small knob of butter
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of ground cloves
2 tsp of chinese five spice (didn’t have all spice, but looks not too dissimilar)
1 tsp of grated ginger
Slosh of lemon juice
Pinch of black pepper

Instructions:
-Finely dice the onions, garlic, apples, carrot, sultanas, olives and beetroot
-Melt the butter and soften the onions and garlic over a medium heat
-Add the apple, carrot, sultanas and olives along with enough water to submerge (basically enough water to cover the contents)
-Turn up the heat
-Add the spices (ground cloves, ginger, five spice, salt n pepper), the vinegar, lemon juice and sugar
-Stir well and add the beetroot
-This is where you need to use some common sense. You need to keep cooking it until everything’s soft and it’s looking sticky, but you don’t want to burn it or caramelise it so you need to submerge it in water now and again if the chunks aren’t soft enough to your liking. I think I ended up cooking (after putting in the beetroot) for about 30 mins, refilling with water every 10.

The end product is yummy. Put into a sealable glass jar and store in fridge.

The weather has suddenly turned lovely – really warm and sunny – AND IT’S WINTER here!! So after being uninspired for lunch and needing to go food shopping this afternoon I foraged about in the cupboard and this is one of my favourite meals (that I’d forgotten about). My tuna cous cous salad – in fact I used to have it or something similar everyday for lunch when I was at work. This recipe makes enough for one hungry mummy!!

1/2 tin of tuna
2 leaves of iceburg lettuce (nice and crunchy)
1 medium tomato
3 tablespoons of dried cous cous
3 small chunks of feta (approx. 1cm3 for each chunk)
1 piece of sundried tomato
1 tsp of mayo
1 tsp of french dressing (could just use some olive oil with a bit of lemon juice also)
Sprinkling of dried/fried onions/shallots

First I boil the kettle and pour out the cous cous into the bowl I’m eating from (less washing up) and I pour the hot water onto the cous cous until it is covered with water (I usually fill up to about 5mm above the level of cous cous, but convention says to use equal volumes of cous cous and water). I put a plate ontop of the bowl (and then use the plate to cut the veggies on – again can’t be arsed to wash up more than I need). I chop up the tomato into small chunks and shred the lettuce. After that the cous cous is usually done so I remove the plate and throw 1/2 the tin of tuna in (strain the liquid out of the tin first though) and I cmash up the feta into it too. I like to put in a tiny amount of sundried tomato which I decimate into tiny pieces. Put the mayo and dressing in and mix the lot. Finally I put the fresh tomato and the shredded lettuce into the bowl and give it a good stir. I finish it off with a sprinkling of fried onions (there’s something very nice about the fried onion – feta combination). That’s it folks – so simple and you can make it within the same time it takes to make a cuppa tea.