Stuffed Aubergine Curry

After a few months off Taste and Create I was pleased to be back again this month and even happier when I saw I had been paired with Pavani at Cook’s Hideout.   Her blog is packed with delicious Vegetarian Indian food and there were so many recipes I would have loved to make.   In fact, as well as this I also tried her quick and easy egg curry.   It was the first time I had made an egg curry and I enjoyed it, but not as much the stuffed aubergine curry, which I absolutely loved.   My husband doesn’t like aubergine much but it is one of my favourite vegetables so I made it while he was away doing a course for work.   I probably ate enough for two anyway, and was more than happy that I didn’t have to share it with anyone!   The peanuts add a delicious flavour and as I didn’t have any sesame seeds I used tahini instead, which worked really well.  The end result was nutty, spicy and filling.   So delicious.   I loved the nut and spice paste so much that I ate quite a lot of it raw as I was stuffing the aubergines.  It was a bit like a spicy peanut butter. The only thing that didn’t look right was the picture, it didn’t look very appetising at all, so I’ve shown the aubergines before they were cooked.  But,  if you really want to see them, there’s a tiny picture right at the end of the post!

It may sound a little fiddly to stuff all the aubergines and may also be difficult to find baby aubergines.    If so, the  recipe can easily be adapted and a normal aubergine can be used and diced into large cubes.   The stuffing can then just be used as a paste.

To see what other people involved in Taste and Create have been making, have a look at the Taste and Create Website.  It’s currently run by Min of the Bad Girl’s Kitchen and each month participants are paired with another blogger and make a dish from their partner’s blog.

Ingredients – Serves 1-2 (For cup measurements and the original recipe,see Pavani’s original post)

6 baby aubergines (use 8 if serving 2 people, but there will be enough of the other ingredients)

1 tsp tamarind pulp

Salt

50g peanuts (I was a bit generous and threw in a few more)

1 tsp tahini or 30 g sesame seeds

1/4 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

2 cloves

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp chilli flakes or 3 dried red chillies, crumbled

How to make Stuffed Aubergine Curry

1. Wash and dry the aubergines.  Make a slit lengthways down the aubergines and another short slit widthways.

2. If using whole spices, dry roast them, then grind before the next step.

3. I used ground spices so I placed all ingredients in a blender with a little water and ground to a paste.  Taste and adjust anything if necessary.

4. Stuff as much of the paste into the aubergines as possible.

5. Heat a little oil in a saucepan and add the aubergines.  Cook over a low to medium flame until the aubergines are beginning to soften.

6. Mix a little water into the remaining paste until it is a thick liquid.   Pour over the aubergines and continue to cook until they are soft and the sauce is bubbling.

7. Serve with rice.

 

Broccoli and Cheese Quiche with Mashed Potato Crust

Taste and Create always gives me the perfect chance to make something a little different, and that’s exactly what this recipe is.    It’s a quiche, but without any pastry, just a crust made of mashed potato.   Now, I love pastry, so that wasn’t why I decided to make it, no, I was just curious about the potato crust.   The potatoes are boiled and mashed and then the mash is spread around the inside of the tin.    It’s then baked in the oven until it begins to go crispy, before the filling is added, just as you would with a normal quiche.   I was impressed with how it turned out.   I worried that the potato wouldn’t be strong enough and that it would all collapse when I took it out of the tin, but it actually stayed together well.   We managed to eat it all in one evening too.    I was intending to take the leftovers to work for my packed lunch but unfortunately I was just too greedy.   I don’t think it would carry as well as a pastry quiche but I’ll never know…So, the final question, will I be replacing pastry with potato regularly now?   I have to say, I love pastry, and it does provide a firmer base for the filling, so as much as I enjoyed this recipe, both making it and eating it,  I think for a quiche, pastry does have the edge.

Anyway, this recipe is all thanks to Carol at No Reason Needed, who I was paired with this month.   To see the original recipe and her other wonderful creations, have a look here.

Crust Ingredients

2 medium-sized potatoes

Oil

40ml milk

Salt

Black pepper

Filling Ingredients

3 eggs

3 tbsp broccoli, cut into small florets

1 small onion, sliced

80g cheese (approx)

Pinch nutmeg

Salt

Black pepper

200ml Milk

How to make Broccoli and Cheese Quiche with Mashed Potato Crust

1. Boil the potatoes until cooked then mash them with a little milk until you have a smooth mash.

2. Lightly oil the inside of a round cake tin or quiche dish.  Spread the mash over the inside of the tin.      Ideally with a spray oil, spray the mash with a light covering of oil.   Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes at about 190C.   The potato should be browned and crispy.

3. Put a layer of broccoli on top of the potato, then sprinkle the slices of onion over the top.

4. In a bowl beat the eggs.   Add the milk, nutmeg, salt, pepper and most of the cheese.   Beat together then pour into the quiche.   Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.

5. Return to the oven for another 30 minutes.   Check with a skewer to see if the egg is set.   If necessary cook for a little longer.

6. Serve with salad or vegetables.

 

Tuna and Cannellini Bean Salad

At the moment I keep trying to make my packed lunches a little more interesting than just sandwiches.   I’ve been making rice, pasta, quinoa and millet salads, adding whatever vegetables I can find in the fridge, nuts, seeds or cheese, and dressing with a variety of oils, vinegars and citrus juices.    So when I came across this salad on the Bad Girl’s Kitchen, I decided it would be perfect both for lunch, and as this month’s Taste and Create dish.   The salad was originally based on a Giada de Laurentis recipe.  The beans and tuna mean it’s quite filling, and I added extra vegetables for a bit of variety too.  I only wish I had the organisation and motivation to make delicious salads like this for lunch every day.

Taste and Create is an event where food bloggers are paired together and each make a dish from the other’s blog.    To see what everyone else has made, have a look at the Taste and Create website.   It’s one of my favourite events as I love discovering new blogs and pushing myself to try new dishes, I may not have decided to make otherwise.   This month I was lucky enough to be paired with Min, who helps run Taste and Create.   There are hundreds of all types of recipes on her site and as ever I spent a long time browsing before making my decision.    If you like the sound of this then come and join us for the next one!

I am also submitting this to Anamika at Taste Junction for Salad Spread and to Ali at Jam Hands for Summer Cookout Food.

Ingredients – Serves 2

400g tin cannellini beans

120g tin tuna

3 spring onions

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tomato

Handful olives

How to make Tuna and Cannellini Bean Salad

1. Drain a tin of tuna.   Empty it into a bowl and mash a little to break up the chunks.

2. Drain and rinse the beans and add to the tuna.

3. Slice the tomato and chop the spring onion and add to the tuna along with the olives.   Season with salt and black pepper.   Add the vinegar and mix well.

 

Rocket and Goat’s Cheese Balsamic Salad

This month for Taste and Create I was paired with Measured in Pinches and I found this lovely salad on her blog.   Although not a big fan of greens, she actually fell in love with rocket (arugula) when she was in England because of it’s peppery taste and because of a certain carrot, rocket and houmous sandwich she used to buy in Boots the chemist.   Now, it’s a long time since I’ve had that particular sandwich but I do know what she means, and I will look out for it again next time I get my lunch from Boots.  Anyway, Boots may be good but this salad would make an even better alternative.  The rocket of course is lovely and delicious, but for me, what makes it really good is the goat’s cheese, onion and balsamic vinegar.   For me these flavours really work well together.  The sweetness of the balsamic vinegar really complements the tanginess of the cheese.   It is definitely something I will make again.    I served it with pitta bread to make a nice easy weekday dinner.

Ingredients – Serves 2

4 handfuls of rocket

1 red pepper, sliced

1 onion, sliced

5 mushrooms, sliced

2 tomatoes, diced

1 clove of garlic, crushed

Goats cheese

3 tbsp balsamic vinegar

Pinch of sage(optional)

Pinch of rosemary(optional)

How to make Rocket and Goat’s Cheese Balsamic Salad

1. Heat a little oil in a  wok.   Stir fry the peppers, onions, mushrooms and garlic.   When nearly ready add the balsamic vinegar and herbs if using.  (I was a little unsure about whether sage would go so I added a very very small amount which I then couldn’t taste so I still don’t know). Stir in then take off the heat and leave to cool slightly.

2. Put a pile of rocket on each plate. Top with diced tomato.  Add the pepper, onion and garlic mix.   Crumble the goats cheese on top. Add extra balsamic vinegar if it’s too dry.

 

Lime Pickle

I am a little late with this post as it has taken me nearly two weeks to make the pickle.  Yes, you need to have patience for this one!  I decided to make lime pickle when I was paired with Jayasri from Samayal Arai for Taste and Create.  As soon as I saw the pickle recipe I knew I had to make it as it is one of my husband’s favourite things ever.   Whenever we go to an Indian restaurant or order a takeaway he always has lime pickle with the popadoms to begin with.   If there is no lime pickle, he is not a happy man.   Mixed pickle or mango pickle are just not good enough for him.

Although I knew straightaway that this was the recipe I wanted to create, I was a little nervous about making a pickle as I’ve never made one before and I was worried that I would spend so long making it and it would somehow go wrong, be inedible and I’d have to make something else at the last minute.   Luckily I needn’t have worried.   I did discover at the last minute that I had very little chilli powder, but I did have crushed dried chillies so I used those instead.   I was also unable to find asafoetida in time to add it to my pickle.  This was especially irritating as I remembered seeing it somewhere recently but I just couldn’t remember where.  As the pickle only uses a small amount I hoped that just leaving it out would still give me a good pickle.    As I write this I am certain that I will now see it somewhere this week, probably in the most obvious shop to look in.  Never mind, the pickle is wonderful.   It’s a lot of effort, but worth it.   And yes, my husband agrees it’s, ‘very good’ too.

If you are interested in Indian food then take a look at Jayasri’s blog.  She has loads of delicious recipes and if I hadn’t made this pickle I would easily have found something else to make.

Taste and Create is a blogging event where bloggers are paired with each other and each cook a dish from each other’s blog.  It’s one of my favourite events as it means I push myself to try something I maybe wouldn’t think of making otherwise.

Ingredients – Makes 1 jar, but can easily be scaled up

5 limes (thin skinned ones if possible)

Lots of table salt – Approx 50g

1 1/2 tsp mustard seeds

1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

1 tbsp crushed dried chillies

50ml oil

How to Make Lime Pickle

1. If necessary sterilise the jar you plan to use first.  This can be done by putting it in a pan of hot water then bringing to the boil and boiling for ten minutes.

2. Squeeze the juice from 2 limes.  Chop 3 limes into slices then cut each slice in half so you have triangular chunks of lime.

3. Put a layer of limes in the bottom of the jar.  Cover with a layer of salt and some of the lime juice.   Repeat the layers until the jar is full.   Put the lid on and leave on the work surface.  It will need about 10-14 days for the limes to become soft and pickled.   Give the limes a stir every 3-4 days.

4. When the limes are ready, dry fry 1/2 tsp fenugreek.  When it begins to darken slightly and release its scent, put it in a pestle and mortar.  Do the same with the 1/2 tsp mustard seeds.  As soon as they begin to pop, take them off the heat and add to the pestle and mortar.   Grind to a powder.   Add the chilli flakes and grind too.

5. Take the limes out of the jar and put in a clean bowl.   Add the ground spices and mix well.

6. Heat the oil and remaining  mustard seeds in a small saucepan.   As soon as one of them pops, remove from the heat and leave to cool.

7. Add the oil to the lime and mix well.   Put back in the jar and store in the fridge.

Apparently this will keep for up to 8 months but I know in my household it will be gone within a week.

 

Cinnamon Swirls

One of my favourite sweet treats is cinnamon rolls.   I love cinnamon and sugar.  To me it is far better than chocolate.   Absolute heaven.   So when I was paired with No Reason Needed for this month’s Taste and Create, I was immediately grabbed by this recipe.  Of course I looked through the site at other recipes, thinking I should really make something savoury, but I kept going back to this recipe.   In the end I decided that I should follow my cravings and I’m glad I did.   These rolls are very sweet but absolutely delicious, especially when still warm with a little vanilla ice-cream.  The only thing I would change slightly if I made them again is reduce the amount of filling as there seemed to be a little too much and a lot of it ran out onto the baking tray as they were baking.   But it’s so good, you will be tempted to eat it with the spoon before even spreading onto the dough and if a lot of it does end up on the baking tray later you can always peel it off and eat it like caramel.   If you think this’ll be the case then don’t change a thing.

Ingredients

340g, plus 150 g plain flour

7g  sachet of yeast

1/2 tsp salt

55g caster sugar

180ml milk

55g margarine

1 egg

Filling

175g soft brown sugar

110g margarine

1 tbsp cinnamon

How to make Cinnamon Swirls

1. In a bowl put 340g flour, the yeast, salt and caster sugar.

2. Put the margarine and milk in a bowl and heat gently in the microwave.  When the margarine has melted, but without letting it get too hot, add to the bowl with the flour. Mix

3. Add the rest of the flour (140g) and the egg and mix again.  The dough should form a ball.

4. Flour the work surface and knead for about 10 minutes.  Keep adding extra flour to stop it sticking.

5. Put the dough in a bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave for about 1/2 hour.

6. Make the filling by mixing all the filling ingredients with a wooden spoon.

7. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.   Press the dough down so it makes a rectangle and covers the baking tray.   Spread it with the cinnamon mixture.

8. Roll the dough up like a swiss roll then slice into about 10 pieces.   Place back on the baking parchment with the cut side facing upwards.    Leave to rise for about 20 minutes then put in the oven for another 20 minutes at about 190c.

 

Sweet Potato and Black Bean Patties

This is a dish I would probably never have made if it hadn’t been for Taste and Create.  And that would have been a real shame.   I like sweet potato and I like beans.  Unfortunately other people in my household are not so keen on either of those ingredients which means I was glad to have a really good excuse to use both.   For Taste and Create this month I was paired with Megan at A Bolder Table. Megan uses whole, organic and unprocessed ingredients to create mainly vegetarian dishes using mostly local ingredients.  Now, I like healthy food but I have to admit that I rarely think about where my food comes from.  Black beans and sweet potatoes are hardly British ingredients either.  When looking through Megan’s blog I decided that I wouldn’t worry about finding a recipe that used ingredients local to me but that I would use organic produce where possible and of course free-range eggs(which I do use anyway).    This seemed to be a way of incorporating some of Megan’s principles into my dish.   I altered some of the quantities and the original recipe can be found here.

If anyone is thinking of trying Taste and Create, it’s a fantastic way of getting to know different blogs and making you try different things.   Each blogger is paired with another blogger and as the blog you are paired with is often quite different to your own it makes you try something you would not have tried otherwise.   Have a look here for more details.

Ingredients

1/2 can black beans

2 gloves of garlic, finely diced

1 sweet potato, grated

1 small onion, sliced

1 1/2 tsp cumin

Pinch of salt

Pinch of black pepper

1 tsp dried coriander leaf (cilantro)

1 chilli pepper, finely sliced

2 eggs, beaten

2 tbsp yellow cornmeal

How to make Sweet Potato and Black Bean Patties

1. Put the black beans in a mixing bowl and mash with a fork.

2. Grate the sweet potato and add to the mixing bowl.  Also add the onion, chillies, coriander, garlic and seasonings.

3. Add the egg and mix well.   Add the cornmeal and mix in well.

4. Heat a frying pan with a little oil.   When hot add tablespoons of the sweet potato mixture.  Press down to make flat round patties.  Cook for about 8 minutes on each side.   Serve with salad.

 

Chicken Pie

The time has come for this month’s Taste and Create event.   I love this event as it gives me an opportunity to find out about different blogs and also to cook something that I would perhaps not have made otherwise.  That’s the case with this pie.  I love pies but my husband is not so keen.   For that reason I had not made a pie like this before, although I have used this type of pastry for tarts.    This event was just the opportunity I needed to go ahead and make a pie.

Taste and Create is an event run by Nicole at For the Love of Food.  Participants are paired with another blogger and each have to make a dish from each other’s blog and then blog about it.  This month I was paired with Glenda at Busy at Home.  Her blog is extensive, covering not just food and recipes, but also gardening, home-schooling and family life.  There’s also a good mix of sweet and savoury recipes.  At first I was drawn to the brownies, but as I’ve just made Millionaire’s Shortbread and am going on holiday at the weekend, I would unfortunately not have time to eat them.   It had to be something savoury, and also as I am pretty busy this week, something relatively easy.

As there are just two of us at home I made two individual pies rather than one large pie.  However, they were quite big and would have easily served four rather than two people.  I  didn’t put as many vegetables in the pies as in the original recipe but I did serve extra vegetables with the pies instead.   The result was delicious and creamy.   Very nice traditional food, a complete change from what I normally make and I would happily make again.  See the original recipe here.

Ingredients

200g chicken, cut into slices

1 potato, diced

1 onion, finely diced

1 clove of garlic, finely diced

4 spring onions, sliced

Handful of frozen peas

Tsp dried rosemary

Black pepper

1 tsp chicken stock powder

300ml milk

1 tbsp flour

Ready-made puff pastry

How to Make Chicken Pie

1. Heat some oil in a saucepan.   Fry the chicken until cooked.  Remove.   Add the potatoes, onion,garlic, rosemary and black pepper.  Cook for about 10 minutes until the potato is cooked.

2. Add the flour and stock powder to the potatoes.   Stir well so it coats all the vegetables.   Add the milk.   Stir until the sauce thickens.

3. Dice the chicken and put it in the bottom of the pie dishes.  Sprinkle the frozen peas over the top.  Top with the rest of the pie filling.

4. Grease the pie dishes around the top and put the puff pastry on top. Put a few dabs of butter on the pastry lid.

5. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.

 

Bacon and Mushroom Quiche

This is the second quiche I’ve ever made.  I made my first in January this year.  This doesn’t mean that I’m not a quiche fan.  In fact my mother used to make one  at least once a week when I was growing up.   She had about 5 different recipes – smoked haddock, chicken, cheese and tomato and my favourite, bacon and mushroom, which she still often makes when I go to visit.    And that’s partly why I’ve chosen to make this, although it’s not her recipe.

The other reason is that this dish was made for Taste and Create, where bloggers are paired with each other and each make a dish from each other’s blog.   I was lucky enough to be paired with Nicole who is also the organiser of the event.   Her blog, For the Love of Food is fantastic with loads of recipes so I was really spoilt for choice.   When I came across her recipe for Pat in the Pan Pie Crust it just looked so much easier and quicker than normal pastry that I really wanted to make it and I was intrigued about the way the pastry was made.   You really do just mix the ingredient quickly in a bowl, put the whole lot into the baking dish and press around the dish so it covers the base and sides of the pan.  I would have used a proper quiche dish if I’d had one but unfortunately I don’t and so I just used a square dish with a removable base and it was absolutely fine.   I also decided to use a mixture of plain and wholemeal flour as I love the crumblier texture of wholemeal pastry.  The taste of this pastry was very good but it was incredibly crumbly.  I’m not sure if this was because of the wholemeal flour or not but I’d still make it this way again.  As far as I’m concerned, taste is the most important thing and I won’t be put off by a few crumbs.

I also more or less followed Nicole’s recipe for the filling using this recipe for bacon quiche.   I used slightly less cream and more milk and also added mushrooms which were not in the original recipe.   The end result was really creamy.   We ate it warm with salad and because it’s warm it is falling apart a little in the picture but as it cools it firms up and I’ve been taking it to work and it travels well.   It’s good to make one dish that can be eaten up over so many days – not something I often do but I really should try to more often.  It’s definitely a nice change from my normal lunchtime sandwich.

Ingredients for Pastry

3 cups of flour (I used 2 white, 1 wholemeal)

1 cup of vegetable oil

3 tbsp milk

1 tsp salt

Ingredients for Filling

4 eggs

1 cup cream

1 cup milk

6 rashers of bacon, cooked and torn into small pieces

6 sliced mushrooms

1 tsp chives

Pinch of black pepper

2 cups grated cheese (I used Red Leicester)

2 tbsp flour

How to make Bacon Quiche

1. First make the pastry case.  Sift the flour into a mixing bowl.   Add the salt, milk and nearly all the oil.

2. Mix all the ingredients with a spoon.   They should all stick together and stick to the spoon.   Keep stiring until it is well combined.   Only add the rest of the oil if it is too dry.  Put into a greased  quiche dish or cake tin with a loose base.  Press the pastry down and flatten, pushing outwards until it covers the base and the sides. Make a few prods with a fork.

3. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes at about 180°c.

4. Begin to prepare the filling.   Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl.   Beat with a whisk.   Add the milk and cream.   Beat again briefly to avoid any lumps in the cream.

5. Add the sliced mushrooms, bacon, chives and black pepper.

6. In a separate dish mix the flour and most of the grated cheese then add to the other ingredients.  Mix well.

7. When the pie crust is ready, add the filling.  Sprinkle the rest of the cheese on top.  Return to the oven and bake for about 45 minutes.   Leave to cool for about 10 minutes then serve warm.   The rest can be eaten cold.