SWEET POTATO AND BUTTERNUT SQUASH TAMARIND MASALA

VEGETARIAN SIMPLE ONE POT COOKING

Fabulous recipe, a sweet and sour moorish gorgeous dish, this was out of my normal stick to love my favourite curry recipes probably because firstly I love my favourites and secondly I have a mischievous side, which is great but not always helpful when reading recipes, ingredients and methods and I can find myself cooking the theory in my mind which comes with a pre judging of the results, in all honesty most times my natural instinct (28 yrs cooking) is often served well however I love it when there are those recipes that have blown me away which is a great leveller and reminder to never think you know what you think you know because you actually don't know until you try something new!!!

This is one of those recipes that even while cooking and tasting I was still not sure about, but it turned out to be a brilliant side dish or main that we will cook again and again.

Prep Time 10-15 minutes / Cooking Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 2 as main 4/6 as side dish)

2 tbsp coconut oil or ghee

2 tbsp mustard oil 

1 sweet potato peeled and diced

1 butternut squash peeled and diced

6 pink fir apple potatoes diced (or white)

2 fresh green chillies sliced long ways

50g ginger grated

1 small hand full raisins

100g dates chopped

1 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tbsp nigella seeds

1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

1 tsp ground coriander

Sea Salt Black Pepper

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

3 tbsp tamarind liquid

(how to make your own below)

fresh coriander to finish

Heat the oils over a just medium heat in a deep saucepan with a lid, add the fenugreek seeds, nigella seeds and ginger, cook for a minute or so, add the sweet potato, squash and potatoes along with the chillies, coriander and chilli powder, cook on a low heat for ten minutes, add a hint (50ml) of water or vegetable stock if you feel the pan needs it, I did several times!  

Then add the dates, raisins, sugar, salt and pepper and stir in well, add a hint of liquid and place the lid back on for a further ten minutes, gently turning over the vegetables occasionally, not stirring, until all the vegetables are cooked and just holding their shape.

Stir in the tamarind and now taste your wonderful dish, adjust the seasoning with the sea salt and pepper, you want a sweet and sour tangy balanced flavour then finish off with the fresh coriander serve as a side dish or as a main with lots of rice, flat breads and home made fruit chutney.

HOME MADE TAMARIND WATER

You can buy tamarind pulp already made or you can source whole and dried tamarind seed pods as shown below, I like to make my own tamarind water, all you have to do is pour over some boiling water over either of these and leave to infuse for ten minutes or so and then pass through a seive and collect the pulp and water that's all it takes.

MUSHROOM RAGU

Self Sufficient Dinners

A rich deep and wonderful moorish mushroom ragu tossed through beautiful homemade spaghetti pasta, this is one of those comfort dinners, simple to make and delivers so much more on your plate and for us a self sufficient family we are really pleased that almost all the ingredients are from our family garden, just the 00 flour for the pasta and a couple of ingredients added by choice is all that we did not produce, well not yet!

Prep Time 30 mins / Cooking Time 30 minutes plus min 1 hour resting (optional)  

Ingredients

(serves 2)

MUSHROOM RAGU

1 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

2 tbsp butter

1 kg chestnut mushrooms finely chopped

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

1 chilli finely sliced

100ml Marsala, Madeira, red or white wine

200ml vegetable stock

10 fresh tomato's or 1 tin chopped

1 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

1 tsp fresh thyme

1/2 tsp fresh marjoram

1 tbsp fresh parsley

1/2 tsp sugar (optional)

1/4 tsp turmeric

THE PASTA

(store bought or...make your own)

400g 00 flour

4 eggs

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

Semolina for dusting

10g sea salt for the pasta cooking water

First make the ragu as this needs to rest to enhance the flavours, you can eat this ragu as soon as it is made but this is one of those dishes that tastes even better a few hours old or the next day.  Heat the butter and oil in a pan and gently soften the onion and garlic for 10 minutes then add the mushrooms and cook for a further 10 minutes until soft, add the Marsala or wine and bubble away for a couple of minutes to reduce slightly, then add the rest of the ingredients and gently simmer on a really low heat for at least one hour if you can while you make the pasta.  When ready to serve the sauce should be medium thick, if it is not turn up the heat to reduce any liquid stock, unless you like your sauces a little more soupy.

To make the pasta season the flour with the salt and turn out on to your work top and make a well in the centre, mix the eggs and olive oil and pour in to the center, start to work the flour in to the egg mix from the outside, keep working the flour in until you form a dough and then start to knead the dough until smooth, around 7-10 minutes, wrap in parchment paper and  rest in the fridge for around 1 hour, you can make this dough the day before, if you do keep the dough in a air tight container.

I have what I call a pasta gun!  It is a long tube that has a bronze cut die on the end that produces fabulous spaghetti with a rough edge from the bronze die that makes the pasta hold the sauce so much better.  Dust your work surface with semolina to stop the pasta from sticking while you work.  You can alternatively roll out the pasta dough and cut thin strips there is no wrong way to make your pasta, have fun and create.  To cook your gorgeous fresh pasta...

Bring a large pan up to a simmering roll, season with the salt, this is so important and makes a huge difference to the overall taste of your finished pasta, cook until al dente, soft with a hint of a bite, approx 8-10 minutes, bring your mushroom ragu up to a hot heat, drain the pasta off and add to your ragu along with a ladle of the cooking water, toss well and serve immediately and enjoy.

HERBY JUICY LAMB FLAT BREAD BURGER

Self Sufficient Dinners

(Home Grown and Raised on our Small Holding)

These are so fabulous I had to stop myself from eating a third one!  Gorgeous home grown lamb seasoned with fresh garden marjoram, mint and a hint of oregano, pan seared and served with homemade mayo and garden slaw, sandwiched between two turmeric and chilli flat breads, these flat bread burgers are just gorgeous.

This is a quick and speedy super to make, the proving of the flat breads is the only time delay, I generally make the dough up a day before and prove it in the fridge for 24hrs or prove the dough at room temperature for the one hour and then divide in to dough ball portions and freeze, this then only needs to come up to room temperature to use, saving time.

Prep Time Flat Breads 9 min (proving 1 hr) / Prep Time Burgers 5 mins / Cooking Time 10 min

Making the Mayo 3 mins / Making the Slaw 5 mins

Ingredients

(makes 5 burgers)

500g organic lamb

3 tbsp chopped mint

1 tbsp chopped marjoram

1 tsp chopped oregano

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp ground black pepper

To cook coconut or olive oil

Mix all the ingreidents together and form into five equal burgers all around a 100g each.  To cook head a non stick pan to a medium heat with a little coconut or olive oil and cook for approx two to three minutes on each side only turning once letting the burgers sear and catch a little adds a great extra depth of caramelised flavour.

The Flat Breads

500g 00 flour

10g sea salt

50g olive oil

320g water

Mix all the ingredients together and knead for seven minutes until smooth and springy to touch, leave to prove for 1 hour at room temperature or 24hrs in the fridge, bring up to room temp before use.  Divide the dough in to large golf ball size balls and roll out to approx 4" circles, heat a non stick frying pan to a high heat and place the flat bread in the pan and leave for approx one minute until it starts to puff up or you can see it is half cooked, turn over and repeat, wrap in a warm tea towel and continue to cook the rest of the flat breads.

The Mayo

2 egg yolk

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp mustard

300-400 ml olive oil

1 lrg pinch sea salt

1 lrg pinch white pepper

Place the egg yolks and white wine vinegar in a bowl and whisk, start to drizzle in the olive oil very very slowly at first, whisking all the time, once half the oil is incorporated you can then add the rest of the oil at a faster pace, season with the mustard, salt and pepper.

Garden Slaw

(this can be any vegetable ingredients)

2 carrots julienned

1 onion finely sliced

1/2 cabbage finely sliced

2 kale leafs finely sliced

6 rhubarb chard leaves finely sliced

1/4 fennel finely sliced

1 pinch sea salt

1 pinch white pepper

1/2 of the mayo made from above

Place all the ingredients in a large bowl and mix well serve along with the rest of the mayo on the side and serve your flat breads and lamb burgers family style so not only great food but great family atmosphere and banter creating great memories over these great lip smacking gorgeous burgers.

Why not add a few different sides of fresh chillies, jalapenos, mint and yogurt dip, maybe add some rosemary to the mayo or a mint and onion salad !

STUFFED ROASTED VEGETABLE FLATBREAD WITH GOATS CHEESE

Self Sufficient Dinners

(from our small holding)

Gorgeous great way to stuff a fresh warm flat bread, a simple and quick prep, although the oven roasting takes some time it but is time you are not needed to be in the kitchen, and you can time and motion the rising of the dough with the roasting of the vegetables.  This is just my what's ready in the garden recipe and you can use any vegetables you have to hand and dress this up and down to your tastes with ideas like garlic mayonnaise, taziki and sweet chilli sauce etc...  I am defiantly a condiment girl, but with this filling of our own goats cheese and vegetables I do not want to cover up the self sufficient bounty from our small holding and for me this adds so much more to the eating.

Prep Time 10 minutes / Proving Time 1 hr / Roasting Time 40 minutes  

Ingredients

(makes 4)

For The Flat Breads

(Makes 8-10)

500g 00 flour

15g yeast (optional)

50ml olive oil

320g water

10g sea salt

For The Filling

1 tsp coconut oil

2 courgettes roughly chopped

2 red chillies chopped

1 yellow pepper roughly diced

1 beetroot peeled and chopped

2 leeks sliced

1 onion chopped

2 cloves garlic chopped

4 radish's chopped 

100g hard goats cheese

2 tbsp fresh oregano chopped

Bunch of salad leave and beet root leaves

Sea salt and black pepper

First pre heat your oven to 180 degrees then on to make the dough for you flat breads, I leave the yeast out, this is just personal, if you do it will make your flat bread a little less light and fluffy and more like a chapati, place the flour, salt, olive oil, yeast and water and either by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook knead for seven minutes, cover with a cloth and leave somewhere draft free to prove for a minimum of one hour, up to three hours is fine or you can make this the day before and prove in the fridge for 24hrs.  You can also freeze any proved dough at this stage then once defrosted just roll out and cook.

Next prepare the vegetables for roasting, take all the vegetables and toss in the coconut oil, place in your roasting tin, season with salt and black pepper and pop in the oven to roast for approx 30-40 minutes until soft with some caramelised corners, once cooked sprinkle over the chopped oregano.

For the flat breads turn out the dough and divide into eight portions, this can stretch to ten if needed, form each portion into a round ball and roll out rustically into you flat bread, mine fit my standard frying pan,  heat your non stick frying pan hot and dry fry your flat breads on a medium/high heat, they will puff up and char a little then turn over and repeat.  Wrap in a warm tea towel to keep warm while you cook the rest.

Place your flat breads on your plate load with salad leaves and your hot roasted seasoned vegetables, crumble over the hard sharp goats cheese, scoop up and enjoy.

MAKING YOUR OWN GOATS CHEESE

Self Sufficient Dinners

(from our small holding)

WoW this gorgeous fresh sharp beautifully clean goats cheese is a simple pleasure to make and eat.  A simple process for making your own goats cheese, all you need is a little patience and somewhere in your kitchen you can leave a saucepan and cheese cloth drainer for (2-3days) then you will have approx 450g of gorgeous fresh sharp soft goats cheese which you can then mature for depth of flavour or knead in flavours like garlic, chives, black pepper or walnuts.

Cooking Prep Time 15 minutes / Standing Time 24hrs / Finishing Time 24hrs

First you will need to make a culture, this is what you need to sour the goats milk for the next stage, you will use the culture with a few drops of rennet which in the next stage will separate the curds and whey.

Ingredients and equipment for the culture

1 sachet of culture (homestead farms on line)

1 ltr goats milk

1 saucepan

Ingredients and equipment for making the goats cheese

24 hrs at room temperature 

1 bottle vegetarian rennet

4.5ltr goats milk

1 deep saucepan

1 cheese cloth

1 drainer and large bowl

Baking paper

The Culture

(plus extra for freezing for next time)

This is a really simple slow process, patients is the key here, in a sterilised saucepan bring the goats milk to room temperature 22 degrees Celsius sprinkle over the sachet of culture powder and leave for one minute to allow the dry culture to absorb some of the goats milk then gently whisk the goats milk to incorporate a even spread of culture throughout the milk, leave covered with cling film and a saucepan lid in a warm place for 24hrs, when you remove the lid you will find a beautiful double cream consistency with a gorgeous aroma of a promise of fresh sharp clean goats cheese.  

This recipe makes enough culture for 20 batches you can freeze the culture in ice cube trays then pop into a freezer bag and use when needed.  Now you are ready for stage two.

Separating the Curds and Whey

Pour the 4.5ltrs of goats milk into a deep pan and bring to room temperature 22 degrees Celsius add 30ml of your room temperature culture and four drops of the vegetarian rennet stir in well and cover the pan with cling film and leave to one side in the kitchen for another 18-24 hrs.  I found this stage exciting as after 18hrs I had separated curds and whey and the promise of exciting goats cheese...

After 24hrs pour the cheese curds and whey in to a cheese cloth using a jug and leave to drain for approx 24 hrs, don't be tempted to speed this up by squeezing the cloth as you will squeeze out some of the soft cheese.

Once all the whey has drained from the cheese cloth after 24hrs you will be left with a soft goats cheese, turn this out onto some baking paper, this is the point where you can knead in any flavours you might like then shape using the paper to roll up, spatula or butter pats.

I bashed some walnuts and rolled the goats cheese coating all the way round, I left my goats cheese plain as I wanted to taste the pure clean sharp fresh flavour.

The Culture

One batch of culture will provide you with enough frozen culture for approx 20 more batches of 450g of goats cheese, having this ready to hand in freezer bags will save 24hrs of the goats cheese making process, approx two ice cubes per batch.

LAMB MEATBALLS WITH CARAMALISED ONIONS HOME MADE GOATS CHEESE AND MY FIVE FAMILIES ITALIAN TOMATO SAUCE

Self Sufficient Dinners

(from our small holding)

Fabulous balls, I love meatballs and these beautiful little balls are loaded with flavour from caramelised onions and home made fresh sharp goats cheese that balances really well with the sweetness from the onions, a few herbs and seasonings and you are served up with delicious moist and moreish meatballs, so make plenty as these are a great left over in the fridge for snacks, tossed in a slow cooked tomato sauce over spaghetti or served on top of a toasted strip of french bread and finished off with mozzarella cheese in all a great way to serve three or four meals from one cook...

Prep Time 5 minutes / Onion Caramelising Time 15 mins / Meatball Cooking Time 35 mins

Goats Cheese 24hrs mostly unattended actual hands on time 30 mins 

Ingredients

(serves 4)

THE BALLS

500g organic lamb mince

500g organic pork mince

1 tbsp coconut oil

2 onions finely chopped

1 cloves garlic finely chopped

1 tbsp sugar

1 beaten egg

100g breadcrumbs

1 tsp dried red chilli flakes

1 tsp Sea Salt

1/2 tsp white pepper

1 tsp freshly grated turmeric (or 1/4 tsp powdered)

1 tsp fresh chopped thyme

1 tsp fresh chopped marjoram

100g fresh soft ish goats cheese

(home made recipe and instructions at end of blog)

MY ITALIAN FIVE FAMILIES TOMATO SAUCE

(best when cooked slowly for 3hrs)

2 tins San Manzarno tomatoes

1 tbsp olive or coconut oil

1 onion finely chopped

2 cloves garlic finely chopped

1/2 red pepper finely diced

1 glass red wine

1 tbsp fresh thyme

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Pre heat your oven to 180 degrees and place a tbsp of coconut oil in a shallow roasting tin and leave to one side for now, heat a pan and add the rest of the coconut oil until hot, add the onions and gently sweat for ten minutes, then add the garlic and cook for a further five minutes, then add the sugar and cook for a further five minutes then leave to cool for a few minutes, in a large bowl place all of the ingredients and the onions except the goats cheese and mix thoroughly together with your hands, squish and squash gently, then add the goats cheese and gently squish a little more, take a small ball of the mixture, flatten and cook in the onion pan check how the sample tastes and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Make your balls, whatever size you like, sometimes I like big ones and other times I like lots of small ones, especially if I am tossing them through spaghetti and tomato sauce.  Place your meatballs on the pre greased roasting tin with a small gap between each ball, the cooking time for this recipe is for large golf ball size balls around 35 mins but if your making the balls smaller adjust the cooking time to around 20-25 minutes, to check take one of your largest balls and cut in half to check if cooked.  Once just cooked take the tray out of the oven and leave to rest for around five minutes before serving either on a bed of the tomato sauce or to flavour the sauce further pop the cooked meatballs and resting juices in to the tomato sauce and simmer gently for five minutes before serving over spaghetti or on their own.,

TOMATO SAUCE

Heat the oil medium hot and gently soften the onions and garlic for ten minutes, add the red pepper and wine and simmer for a couple of minutes then add the tomatoes and herbs, bring up to a gently simmer, pop a lid on and leave to gently bubble away for up to three hours if you can, this really deepens the flavour of the sauce and is well worth the wait.

HOMEMADE GOATS CHEESE

First you will need to make a culture, this is what you need to sour the goats milk for the next stage, you will use the culture with a few drops of rennet which in the next stage will separate the curds and whey.

Ingredients and equipment for the culture

1 sachet of culture (homestead farms on line)

1 ltr goats milk

1 saucepan

Ingredients and equipment for making the goats cheese

24 hrs at room temperature 

1 bottle vegetarian rennet

4.5ltr goats milk

1 deep saucepan

1 cheese cloth

1 drainer and large bowl

Baking paper

This is a really simple slow process, patients is the key here, in a sterilised saucepan bring the goats milk to room temperature 22 degrees Celsius sprinkle over the sachet of culture powder and leave for one minute to allow the dry culture to absorb some of the goats milk then gently whisk the goats milk to incorporate a even spread of culture throughout the milk, leave covered with cling film and a saucepan lid in a warm place for 24hrs, when you remove the lid you will find a beautiful double cream consistency with a gorgeous aroma of a promise of fresh sharp clean goats cheese.  

This recipe makes enough culture for 20 batches you can freeze the culture in ice cube trays then pop into a freezer bag and use when needed.  Now you are ready for stage two.

Pour the 4.5ltrs of goats milk into a deep pan and bring to room temperature 22 degrees Celsius add 30ml of your room temperature culture and four drops of the vegetarian rennet stir in well and cover the pan with cling film and leave to one side in the kitchen for another 18-24 hrs.  I found this stage exciting as after 18hrs I had separated curds and whey and the promise of exciting goats cheese...

After 24hrs pour the cheese curds and whey in to a cheese cloth using a jug and leave to drain for approx 24 hrs, don't be tempted to speed this up by squeezing the cloth as you will squeeze out some of the soft cheese.

Once all the whey has drained from the cheese cloth after 24hrs you will be left with a soft goats cheese, turn this out onto some baking paper, this is the point where you can knead in any flavours you might like then shape using the paper to roll up, spatula or butter pats.

I bashed some walnuts and rolled the goats cheese coating all the way round, I left my goats cheese plain as I wanted to taste the pure clean sharp fresh flavour.

The Culture

One batch of culture will provide you with enough frozen culture for approx 20 more batches of 450g of goats cheese, having this ready to hand in freezer bags will save 24hrs of the goats cheese making process, approx two ice cubes per batch.

BIG GIRLS DIET DETOX CLEANSING AND CHOLESTEROL LOWERING SALAD

SELF SUFFICIENT DINNERS

(Home Grown and Raised on our Little Farm)

This is a powerful blood and liver cleansing fat busting cholesterol lowering lung protecting  beautiful salad bursting full of zesty flavours and knowing what this food is doing for your health for me makes it so much more yummy, a real feel good eat, one of my top favourite salads.

I'm not sure we should do detox diet's as a short term fix, instead to me it makes sense to eat detox foods on a daily basis, to have to undertake a detox makes me think of low maintenance, (poor eating) and that is not how a loved and slightly mis-used (!) body should be treated, with that thought in mind and that I do regularly indulge in beautiful food, I therefore try to keep a good balance by eating a healthy gorgeous rainbow colour of organic home grown foods that nourish and naturally support and detox your body on a daily basis so those oh so naughty moments are counter balanced by a diet high in super for you foods, balance is the key for me.

Prep Time 5 minutes / Cooking time 7 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 2)

1 tsp organic coconut oil

2 skinless organic chicken breasts

1 red chilli sliced

1/4 fennel finely sliced

1 lemon juiced

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp fresh grated turmeric (1/4 tsp powdered)

1 bunch dandelion leaves

1 bunch watercress

1 large handful spinach

1 stick celery finely diced

2 beetroots peeled and grated

1 spring onion sliced

Large pinch sea salt and black pepper

First finely slice the chicken breast, heat the coconut oil in a pan on a medium high heat and once hot add the chicken, sear the chicken on both sides for a couple of minutes, then add the ginger, turmeric, fennel, chilli and lemon juice, turn down to a low heat and pop on a lid to slowly finish cooking.  Meanwhile...

Place on your serving bowls or plates a mix of the dandelion leaves, watercress and spinach, sprinkle over the grated beetroot, celery and spring onion.

Take the chicken of the heat and season with the salt and pepper and serve on top of your salad, that's it, now enjoy a bowl of beautiful body loving abundance.

GARAM MASALA

Wonderfully aromatic and a essential for any curry cook!  This is a recipe that has taken a while to perfect to my family's personal taste, the challange for me was the cloves, the are not my most favourite of flavours but I don't mind a background hint, but my family always manages to pick out that clove flavour in all the variations I have tried so far... so I wanted to find a balance of traditional, honest flavour that they would 

VINDALOO GOAN

BEST EVER GOAN CHICKEN VINDALOO

Another best ever Gold Medal winning curry recipe, this is based and tinkered with from Rick Stiens recipe that he got from Rui Madre Deus his friend in Goa and has an outstanding depth of flavour with a wonderful hot and sweet vinegariness with a gorgeous flavour and a little heat from the kashmiri chilli powder along with a extra punch from the hot chillies that keeps the heat going at a hot level that does not ramp up to a burn, it is almost to much but just manageable for my family.  I urge you to try this as it really is that good and will become a family favourite and is very versatile with vegetables, fish and meat.

This is a really easy and simple cook that may look like a lot of ingredients and work but it really is not, a few minutest to make the marinade and then a few more minutes to get the curry cooking and not a lot else to do, I like to cook the rice and breads if you want to accompany the meal while the curry is cooking so keeping a simple time line.

Marinating Time 12hrs - 24hrs / Cooking Time 40 mins

Equipment pestle mortar or coffee/spice grinder

Ingredients

(serves 4)

The Vindaloo Marinade

500g chicken breast or thigh meat large dice chopped

1 stick cinnamon

1 tsp whole black peppercorns

1 tsp whole cloves

1 tsp cumin seeds

12 cardamom pods seeds only

1 onion peeled and roughly chopped

8 cloves garlic peeled

5cm ginger roughly chopped

3 tbsp tamarind liquid

(how to make below)

1 1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 tsp sugar

2 tbsp kashmiri chilli powder

1 tbsp hot chilli powder

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

5 tbsp white wine vinegar

The Vindaloo Sauce

2 tbsp ghee or coconut oil

1 onion finely diced

6 tomatoes quartered

5 green chillies sliced in to quarters length ways

200ml chicken stock

3 tbsp fresh torn coriander

For the marinade grind (I use a old hand coffee grinder you can also use a pestle and mortar) the cinnamon, peppercorns, cumin seeds, cardamon seeds and cloves to a powder, add to your blender or pestle and mortar along with the onion, garlic, ginger, salt, sugar, chilli  powder, turmeric, tamarind and vinegar and pound or blitz to a paste.  Add this to your chicken (or veg or other meat), marinate in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours but 12-24 is sooo much better.

To cook your gorgeous vindaloo heat the ghee or coconut oil in a pan and gently fry the onion for around 8 minutes until soft and just coloured, add the marinated chicken and marinade, sear for a few minutes then add the stock, chillies and tomatoes, cover with a lid and gentle simmer on a low heat for 30 minutes when the chicken will be moist and tender and the sauce a medium thick consistency, just perfect.  

Sometimes I throw in some sweet potato, butternut squash and pink fir potatoes at the beginning for a easy take on bombay potato, if you do add another 200ml of stock.

Serve with fluffy rice and flat breads

Perfect Fluffy Rice

(serves 4)

1 lrg coffee mug rinsed rice

2 lrg coffee mugs water

Place the rice and water in a pan with a lid and bring to a simmer, do not lift the lid until the end of the cooking time, leave on the heat for six minutes then take of the heat and leave un touched for a further 8 minutes while the rice finishes cooking, and that is it a perfect pan  of cooked rice.

Fabulous Flat Breads

Super speedy to make and cook, any leftover dough freezes really well just bring out and up to room temperature before using,

500g 00 flour

10g sea salt

50g olive oil

320g water

1/2 tsp turmeric

1/2 tsp dried chillies

Place all the ingredients in a bowl and bring together to form a dough ball, knead for seven minutes until smooth and springy, leave to rest for one hour, then take large golf ball size balls and roll out in to a 6" circle.

To cook, heat a frying pan very hot and just place the flat bread in the pan and cook for approx one minute each side.