Lamb chops and fresh spinach

Won’t pretend this one was easy for me. I don’t eat red meat often and I usually give up watching when Mother tries to teach me. It always seems to require too much attention, and I am an impatient cook.

Found myself ringing her today whilst at the halal butchers. Much to my embarrassment, the Pakistani butcher understood every word I said, and was probably wondering how it was possible that a Pakistani woman (of my age) didn’t know how to buy or cook chops.

Bringing shame on the family, yo.

No recipe because a) I made it up as I went along and b) I can’t bloody remember.

Vegetable curry for dummies

I’ve struggled with cooking vegetable curries for some time. They were either undercooked or overcooked.

During a long phone call to Mother over the weekend (prompted by her asking what I was having for my tea), she delivered the perfect quick vegetable curry recipe.

The remains of the result are below. I don’t know how appetising it looks, but it tasted great. I have yet to try it with other vegetables.

1. Take veg - in this case, broccoli and green beans - wash and cut.

2. Chop one medium onion, a clove of garlic and a small piece of ginger. Cook onions, garlic and ginger in a little vegetable oil, on a medium heat setting, until soft.

3. Add vegetables and turn heat to high. Put lid on and cook for two minutes.

4. Lid off. Sprinkle spices* on to vegetables and add six or eight cherry tomatoes, depending on size. Replace lid, heat on high for two minutes and reduce to lowest heat setting for five minutes.

* Spices: 3/4 tsp of salt (lo salt for me); 3/4 tsp of chilli powder; 1/2 tsp of ground coriander; 1/4 tsp of ground garam masala; 1/4 tsp of turmeric and 1/4 tsp of black pepper.

7. Lid off and use wooden spoon gently to move around ingredients, ensuring tomatoes and spices are evenly distributed with veg. Lid on, heat on high for two minutes and reduce to lowest heat setting for five minutes (see a pattern developing here?).

8. Repeat step 7 only if veg seems undercooked.

9. Resist the temptation to add water, it is my downfall.

10. Fresh coriander on top to serve. Eat with pitta bread (wholemeal works), chappatis or naan. I have eaten leftovers with toast! If serving with rice, suggest you have raita or salad too.

Pilau rice, variation on a theme

Pilau rice is bad for you. FACT. I cooked this in Malaysia for the first time in forever and was suprised I still remembered the basics.

You’ll notice that the colour of my pilau rice is brown. Not white, with funny food colourings, or even yellow. Brown. That’s the colour of Pakistani pilau rice.

The other thing you should know is that everyone’s pilau rice tastes different - even if they’re Pakistani. Sadly, I have yet to be able to recreate the taste of Mother’s pilau.

You’ll need a large heavy-based pan with a lid. Non-stick pans are banned.

1. Brown one large onion or three small onions, two cloves of garlic and a sliver of ginger in a little vegetable oil, on your lowest heat setting. Key is for them to be fried and dark brown but not burnt. The fried onions give colour to rice.

2. Meanwhile, boil the kettle. Wash and then soak two cups of basmati rice in cold water, leave until required.

3. Once onions are brown, add in two tablespoons of garam masala whole spices (do not blend). Turn up the heat gradually. Stir for a couple of minutes, don’t allow mixture to burn or stick to the bottom of the pan.

OPTIONAL: if you want to add chicken, do so now. Either chicken breast chunks or a baby chicken. Brown chicken on a high heat for about 7-10 minutes, you’ll need to keep stirring and not walk away from pan. Add a tiny bit of boiling water to prevent chicken sticking, if required.

4. Add water from kettle to pan. Formula is 1.5 cups of boiling water for every cup of rice. So in this case: 3 cups of boiling water. Add one teaspoon of salt. Turn the heat to high. (You can substitute chicken / vegetable stock for water, if you prefer - must be hot. You can also add peas or chick peas at this point.)

5. As liquid comes to a boil, transfer drained basmati rice to pan using metal sieve. Keep heat high and lid off. Stir the pan once to ensure spices and onions (and chicken) are spread evenly.

6. Keep watching the rice. This is where it could all go wrong. Do not stir. Get a tea towel which is larger than your pan lid. Wet it under the tap and squeeze out the water. Tie it around the top of the pan, careful to ensure none of the corners hang over the lid - could set alight.

7. You should start to see small air holes appear in the rice and considerable water still present. Once you see the water has reduced, but not completely dried out, stick lid covered with teatowel on top and seal firmly. Turn heat down to the lowest setting.

8. Leave to cook for at least 15 minutes. Take lid off and test rice is cooked. If not, give it another five or 10 minutes. Should be ready within 25 minutes, tops. Turn off heat. Stir pan gently, and only once, to move around flavours / chicken / anything stuck to the bottom.

Serving options: raita, daal, curry of any variety and … pickle!

Whole Garam Masala

I’ll do a spice pot post when I can, but this is what you’ll need for a basic garam masala mix.

Buy the following dried spices. Readily available from any Pakistani or Indian grocery shop:

- coriander seeds
- cumin seeds
- black peppercorns
- cardamoms
- whole cloves
- cinnamon sticks
- bay leaves

Once mixed, it should vaguely resemble this.

A simple raita

Not for the lactose-intolerant amongst you, I’m afraid.

On sabbatical I cooked quite regularly, chanelling my Mother’s recipes. I even attempted home-made chappatis after the maid nagged me to make them for her - that’s for another post.

Most dishes were accompanied with raita. It was a hit with my godson who, given the choice, would eat yoghurt all day. I’m sure the version I prepared for him wasn’t child-friendly, but here it is:

1. Add tub of low fat set natural yoghurt to a mixing bowl. If you only have greek or thicker texture yoghurt, that’s fine.

2. Chop tomatoes, cucumber (peeled) and red onions into very small pieces, think salsa. Add to yoghurt.

3. Add spices to taste: salt; black pepper; cumin seeds; sprinkling of ground coriander.

4. Mix together. If texture is too thick, add some skimmed or semi-skimmed milk, gradually.

5. Pour into a serving bowl, cover with cling-film, refrigerate until required.

No photo available on account of lack of yoghurt supply today!