4 spice lamb curry

I'm officially 27! Hip hip hoera!!
I'm not big on birthday so no birthday parties for me instead I went to work. My boss gave me a huge birthday hug and I found a huge birthday card on my keyboard, signed by the whole team! Thank you guys!!

My other big indulgence on my birthday is not cooking tea. As much as I like cooking, it is a nice feeling to be able to sit on the sofa watching crap telly while your other half is working hard on preparing a delicious meal.
So there was I, sitting comfortably under my green blanket watching American Idol season 9 - Atlanta Auditions while my husband cooking 4 Spice Lamb Curry, my choice of course.

He never had chick peas ever before so the fact that chickpeas is one the main ingredients in this dish was a huge challenge for him. He served the food unconvinced, mumbling "I don't think it's going to be good. I doesn't look right". But he was soo wrong. The dish was amazing. The lamb was soft and tender, the chickpeas were to die for and sauce was amazing.

I really think he should cook more.

 You think?

Four Spice Lamb Curry
from Good Food - 101 Best Ever Curries Book

takes 3o minutes
serves 4

Ingredients

2tbsp oil
1 large onion, very finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
500 gr lamb fillet, cubed
1 large pepper, seeded and cubed
1 lamb stock cube
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
410g can chickpeas, drained
a little shopped fresh coriander, to garnish


1. Heat the oil, then fry the onion for about 4 minutes until soft. Stir in the spices reserving 1 tsp of cumin, then fry for a few seconds more. Toss in the lamb and pepper, and stir fry over a high heat until the meat has browned.
2. Stir in 200ml water, crumble in the stock cube, season well, the cover and cook for about 6minutes until the mixture is pulpy and the meat is tender. Stir in the tomatoes, chickpeas and remaining spoonfull of cumin, and heat through for 2 minuutes. If the sauce is too thick, add a splash of water to thin it a little. Serve with scattered coriander,

Serve with cous cous (or rice or naan or even chips!)

27 years old

My birthday is coming up.
I'm going to be 27.
I'm not on my early twenty anymore, I'm on my late twenty!!


If I had to wrote a list of things I want to do before I turn 28, that list will be sooo long it'd be impossible for me to fulfill it. So I decided not to bother at all. Not because I'm lazy or anything, I'm just being rational. Ok?

I'm looking forward for my birthday tomorrow, the hubby promised to cook anything I want.
I can't wait!!

Red Velvet Cookies with chocolate topping

When I said I can't bake, I really mean I can't bake.
There's something about exact measurements that just don't do me. Don't get me wrong, I've tried to bake from a simple sponge cake to a basic chocolate cookies. None of them were edible. My hubby is living victim of my inability to bake. 


I stumbled over this recipe weeks ago on joy's page and I thought 'what a pretty cookie'  and I did the unthinkable. I baked it. And guess what, the cookies turned out great. Ok, they looked like they were made by a 10 years old but hey, they tasted amazing. 

Red Velvet Cookies with Chocolate Topping

adapted from Joy the Baker (who adapted it from Rachel Ray)

1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
5 Tablespoons butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1 Tablespoon red food coloring (I added 2 tbs because it wasn't red enough)

1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, or grease and flour the pan well so the cookies don’t stick. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

Using a mixer, 5 Tablespoons of butter with the granulated sugar until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the egg, food coloring and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk until smooth.

Place 1/4-cup scoops of batter 2 inches apart of the prepared baking sheet, spread the batter out with a butter knife, so they’re not completely flat but spread out a bit. (I did it slightly differently by placing a spoonful of batter rather than 1/4 cup scoops, so I'll have more cookies : D )


Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out dry, 15 to 17 minutes. Let the cookies sit for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool.

For the chocolate toppings, melted 300gr of milk chocolates and spread liquidish chocolate onto the cooled cookie. Leave them in the fridge for about 10 minutes (or until the chocolates set)


Serve with cold milk.

Sate

Sate or Satay is a barbeque dish not fried dish.
Ordering sate in chinese restaurant or even Thai restaurant in Edinburgh is usually a no no for me as most of them deep fried the sate. So a couple of months ago, I decided to learn how to make Javanese Sate the serves with Kecap Manis Sauce instead of peanut sauce. After spending days googling recipes and some disastrous try out, I finally managed to cook a Sate dish that is close enough to the one I used to eat back in Indonesia. I even (somehow) found out how to make the Pickled Cucumber!! Hooray for internet.

Ingredients:
Serves 2
500 grams of Chicken, cut into small bite sizes cubes.

Marinate: 

• 2 tsp of ground coriander seeds
• 2 tsp of ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp of ground cumin
• 1 tsp of ground candle nuts
• 2 red chilies, finely chopped.
• 3 cloves of shallot (1 red onion), finely chopped. 
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  
• 1/2 tsp of salt
• 1 tbs of oil (please don't use olive oil)
• Juice of one lime (chuck in the squeezed lime too if you want)
  
• a dash of white pepper
• Lots and lots of Kecap Manis (Indonesian Sweet Soja Sauce)

Mix all the ingredients together.
Marinate the chicken for at least 3 hours before grilling, for best result leave them marinated for a night in the fridge.

If you're cooking in the summer then finding bamboo skewers is dead easy but finding one in winter time is pretty challenging. You're best option will be your local chinese supermarket who will have bamboo skewers all year long. To avoid burnt sticks, soak the skewers in water for an hour before grilling (longer if you have time)

Stick the meat cubes onto the skewers, I tend to put about 5-6 cubes per sticks. It all depends on  how long your skewer is and how small your meat cubes are.

Since I don't own a charcoal grill, I cook mine on an oven grill. Preheat the grill and then grill them until they're done. Don't worry if you see some burnt bits on the meat, it's all good. While grilling, baste the sate with marinate which has been mixed with some more kecap manis and juice of a whole lime. I baste my sate so frequently while grilling, they usually come out quite sticky and juicy (yummy!). Grill til the sates cook all the way through and caramelized.

My favorite sate sauce is Kecap Manis Sauce, it's sweet and sour.

Ingredients for the Sauce:

• 2 cloves of Shallots (1 red onion), finely sliced.
• 1 tbs of brown sugar
• Juice of a whole lime
• 1 kaffir leave (if you happen to have the fresh one then slice it finely, but 1tsp of dried one will do too)
• A pinch of garlic salt
• 3 chilies, finely chopped. 
• Lots and lots of kecap manis
• 1 tbs of oil
• A handfull of peanuts, fried / roasted and finely chopped.

Mix everything together

Acar Ketimun (Pickled Cucumber)

This side dish is sooo easy to make, it's so easy to go wrong (at least for me)

Ingredients:
1 whole cucumber, cut julienne style
2 shallots (1 red onion), thinly sliced.
1 red chili, cut in half.
7 tsp of sugar
10 tsp of white vinegar.

Mix all the ingredients together in a tube with lid (I used an old pasta jar) except the cucumbers. Stir it all up til the sugar disolves. Then add the sliced cucumbers.
Put the lid on and keep it in the fridge for at least a night before serving.

Serve Sate with Acar Ketimun and Lontong (Rice Cake) or Rice

Pairs of Pears..

I just got back from my second trip to the gym and strangely enough I actually enjoyed it. I might go again, who knows.


Pears! I love the look, the smell, the shape and the delicate taste.
But what would you do if you bought too many of them??


Beef and Pear Salad
Serve 2 (but I ate them all by myself - so serve 1)

200 grams of Beef Steak, cut in thin stripes
2 pears, diced to small biteable pieces 
5 cherry tomatoes, halved
3 spring onions, finely chopped
1tsp of garlic salt
1tsp of white pepper
1tbs of tomato ketchup

• Sauted the thin stripes of beef steak in some oil until brown 

• Add in the tomatoes and spring onion and leave it cooking for 3 minutes 

• Add the cubed pears and mixed it up. The pears will automaticaly provides liquid required for the dish but if you think your it's too dry, you're welcome to add water or stock

• Cook the mixture until the pears turn soft and golden brown.

• Add the garlic salt, pepper and tomato ketchup

Yummy Mango Pear Jelly
Serves 5

1 pack of Mango jelly
2 pears

This is probably my favorite (healthy) dessert ever. All I did was cook the mango jelly according to the instruction on back of the the box. While the jelly mixture is cooking, I sliced the pears as thin as possible. Add the sliced pears into serving glass and pour in the jelly mixture. Leave them in the fridge for half an hour to harden.




Serve cold

My ever growing belly...

New Year's resolution. I don't believe it, I think it's a hoax. But with my trousers getting tighter everyday, I feel like I should do something and maybe this new year is the right time to start. So I decided (foolishly) to join a gym, not just the a gym, but the same gym that hubby goes. I thought maybe exercising with him will be fun (again foolishness). Well, that was 24 hours ago and now that I had some time to think, I'm actually dreading it. I paid for the gym membership last night and promised him that I will go for my first spinning class tonight (in 45 minutes to more precise!!) with him. Help!!

I'm still hoping for a really really bad weather. Snow storm maybe? Anything to keep me going......

Garlic Pasta

Happy New Year, people.

After spent almost two bloody hours in the cold watching the Big Blue Man walking from the Holyrood Park to High street, I craved for something warm. I tried Starbucks but the que was just unbelievable so I went to use their toilet instead (hey, since I'm in Starbucks might as well warmed up). We passed several people eating chips (with vinegar by the smell of it) and thought, why not, but guess what the waiting line for the chippy was freakishly long. And no, it's not because it's the best chippy in Edinburgh it's just because it's the only one open in New Year's day. Crap.

So we're hungy, cold and dissapointed by the entertainment provided by Edinburgh Tourism. I'm not writing here to complaint about Edinburgh Tourism Board's lack of creativity so I'm going to take a deep breath and just let it go. Back to my belly - we need something. He said, we can go home and cook something. Don't take me wrong, I love cooking but the thing is I ran out salt (like at all) and since it's New Year's day every single shop around our house is shut. And trust me I've tried cooking with salt, challenging as it is it's duable with soya sauce and fish sauce as substitutes, however, I seriously don't feel like eating Asian food. I want proper scottish food! Pie or Stew!

So we went on a Salt Hunt. We tried every open shop on Highstreet and North Bridge. Just when we were about to give up, we saw the light on Jordan Valley Wholefoods store on Nicolson Street. I know they won't sell my normal coarse sea salt but hey, any salt is better no salt. So I went in and asked the guy behind the counter if he has coarse sea salt, he said unfortunatelly he ran out of normal sea salt but he did have a slightly more expensive coarse salt. He pointed towards some white pinkish crystals stuff in clear jars, I said that can't be salt, it's pink. He told me it's a Himalayan Rock Salt and it costs £4.20 for 500grms. I said no way I'm paying that much for salt, I don't care where it comes from. He said understandable as he wouldn't buy it himself - Ha! I went for small packages of Garlic salt and Lemon salt, at least it'd save me chopping up some  garlic tonight.

At home, the idea of making steak pie evaporated by my lazyness in kneeling dough so I thought stew it is. Just a couple of minutes after slicing my lean steak, my belly rumbled and I realized that my belly ain't going to last long enough for stew.

I need something quick! Since my fridge is practically empty and there's no stores open, it has to be something very practical and what can be more practical than pasta? (get some chips you numpty) Since I already sliced the beef I might as well use it. I've got no basil nor cheese but I do have a bottle of passata infused with garlic and garlic salt. Since I'm off tomorrow, why not binge on Garlic it's healthy and keep unwanted vampires at bay.

So here it is my Linguini with Tomato and Garlic Sauce

Ingredients:
200 grms Linguini
350 grms of Passata infused with garlic
200 grams of lean steak, cut in bite pieces
1 onion, diced.
2 chilies, sliced with seeds.
2 spring onion, chopped finely
1 ts of garlic salt
1 ts of cayenne pepper (optional)
black pepper
a cup of brocolli (just because it's the only I have in my fridge, feel free to use other veggie)

• Cook your linguini per instruction
• Heat oil in a skillet, brown the steaks (but don't cook it all the way) and then add onions and spring onions. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes or until golden.
  
• Add the rest of ingredients (I added a cup of water just because I like the sauce not so thick)
  
• Stir the mixture and bring to a boil. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the sauce reduces and thickens slightly .
• Serve over pasta 

The dish is so delicious it makes me wonder, why? This is not my first pasta sauce using just garlic for flavour but how come it tastes sooooo different. After (literally) checking all my ingredients I realized the key is my new garlic salt for Jordan Valley. What ever they put in it, it definitely helps.

You think I should go back and buy more?

Happy New Year People.