Category: carrots

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carrots chicken courgettes food rice stock

thai rice soup with chicken

thai rice soup with chicken

It was one of ‘those’ Mondays; very little in the cupboard and mouths to feed. What I did have however, was some Tilda Stir Fry Thai Green rice and one of Jo Pratt’s recipe cards from a recent cookalong. Using that as a starting point I knocked up a ten min din which was slurpy, filling and had that tickle of heat rolling through your mouth and leaving you with a warm feeling in your belly.

The Tilda rice helpfully skips all the pastes and mounds of herbs and spices, which gives it a real authentic taste. It may sound like a complete shill but I believe in the product – we’re all busy people and these kinds of ethical prepared foods give us handy shortcuts. Sometimes you have the time, and you can bash down a Thai paste and simmer the ingredients gently. Sometimes you don’t and that’s where these come in.

I decided to use a yaki soba style sauce to enrich the broth, and yanked courgettes and carrots from the garden for veg. However my coriander was looking decidedly ropey and attempting to go to seed, so rather than use the leaves I went for a coriander “bouquet garni”, tying some stalks together and leaving it in the soup to give out flavour as it cooks. I’d prefer to use the greenery but it’ll do in a pinch.

(PS. Note the oversize teacup serving dish. I really must get around to buying Chinese style soup bowls – I have the spoons but no bowls!)

Thai rice soup with chicken:

2 chicken breasts, diced

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1 litre chicken stock

1 tablespoon chilli dipping sauce

1 pack Tilda Thai Green Rice

1 medium carrot, cut into matchsticks

1 medium courgette, cut into matchsticks

Bunch of coriander stalks, tied into a bundle

1 small red onion, cut into rings

Sesame oil

For the yaki soba sauce:

100ml light soy sauce

1 tablespoon dark soy sauce

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

  1. Get the yaki soba sauce on: put all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Whack down to low and allow to reduce gently until syrupy. Put to one side.
  2. Heat a little oil in a wok until smoking and add the chicken. Stir fry quickly until the chicken is white all over, then add the garlic. Fry for another 30 seconds and add the stock and chilli sauce.
  3. After bringing the stock to the boil add the carrot and rice. Continue to cook for another minute and then add the courgette, ½ the yaki soba sauce, coriander bunch and rice. Bring back to the boil and simmer for another few minutes until the chicken is cooked through. Taste to see if it needs more yaki soba sauce (if not this can be kept refrigerated for another day).
  4. Remove the coriander and serve in bowls, garnished with onion and a few drops of sesame oil.
Categories
beef carrots food

beef casserole

beef casserole

On those cold, snowy nights, the slow cooker must come into play. This was totally simple, but utterly delicious. Soft, flaky beef and sweet little chunks of carrot, in a thick oozy gravy. Total cost? About £3 for two big servings.

Beef casserole:

300g stewing steak, diced

2 carrots, diced

1 celery stalk, diced

200g baby onions, peeled and halved

1 pint beef stock

1 teaspoon thyme

2 bay leaves

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon butter

Chopped parsley

  1. Coat the beef in half the flour and season liberally. Fry in batches in a large pan, allowing to brown. Set to one side and fry the vegetables in the same pan gently for five minutes.
  2. Place in a slow cooker on low and cover with the beef stock and herbs. Cook for 7 hours or until the beef is tender.
  3. Strain off all the goodies and pour the liquids into a saucepan and boil fast to reduce down. Mix the flour and butter together to make a beurre manié and whisk vigorously into the sauce to thicken. Add the veg / meat back into the pan and serve with parsley, scooping up the debris with plenty of bread.
Categories
artichoke carrots food pancetta

artichokes a la barigoule

artichokes a la barigoule

This is a recipe from the Ramsay protege Clare Smyth. It’s an unpretentious and hearty french stew, yet takes only 10 – 15 minutes. Mine is a little toned down from her version, going with what I had in the cupboard. It’s usually made with fresh artichoke but I used a jar of good-quality chokes that I had knocking about. It’s very tasty and very simple – my only slight criticism is that I think this will taste much better in the Spring.

Artichokes a la barigoule:

200g pancetta

200g baby onions, peeled and halved

1 carrot, sliced

1 clove garlic, sliced

4 mushrooms, quartered

100ml cider

200ml vegetable stock

500g jar of artichokes

Chopped parsley

  1. Fry the pancetta and onions in a pan until browned. Add the carrots and mushrooms and stir fry four a couple of minutes.
  2. Add the cider and bubble over a high heat. Add the stock and reduce to a simmer.
  3. When the vegetables are tender increase the heat to high and get the sauce reduced down to a thick glaze. Add the artichokes to warm through.
  4. Serve with parsley and bread for mopping up.

The original recipe can be found here.

Categories
carrots cauliflower coriander courgettes cumin curry food

dhania gobi

dhania gobi

I’ve gone a bit curry mad lately. A recent rerun of Floyd’s Indiadidn’t help, and Gordon Ramsay’s latest seriesisn’t going to quash it either. So tonight I really fancied yet another home-brewed curry.

A quick aside: I can’t find a gospel on how Indian food should be named. Sometimes it’s named by method (balti), sometimes by ingredient (dhansak = double onion). I don’t know what the formula is. So I’ve decided to make my own rules too, smashing the Indian terms for coriander and cauliflower together, to reach dhania gobi. I could’ve gone with vegetable masala, or courgette bargar, or carrot jeera. So pardon me for slapping almost any old name on it, but I like the exotic sound. (If anybody knows the real ‘rules’, let me know).

I had courgette, cauliflower and carrot on hand, so they were a lock. Then it was a case of picking and choosing my spices. Coriander ended up going in twice and was the main flavour, so it packed quite a citrussy punch. A little yoghurt at the end helped both thicken and sour the dish, and was pretty pleased with the result. This won’t be the last curry I cook this season, I’m sure!

Dhania gobi:

1 tablespoon coriander seeds, cracked

1 teaspoon cumin seeds, cracked

2 inch cassia bark

1 onion, sliced

1 tablespoon garlic and ginger paste

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon garam masala

1 teaspoon tomato puree

2 carrots, diced

2 courgettes, diced

½ head cauliflower, diced

1 litre vegetable stock

2 tablespoons plain yoghurt

1 tablespoon ground almonds

Chopped coriander leaves

  1. Fry the coriander seeds, cumin and cassia in a little oil for a minute. Add the onion and soften.
  2. Add the paste, turmeric, garam masala, puree and a pinch of salt and stir for another minute. Add the vegetables and coat well with the onion masala.
  3. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and continue to cook for 15 minutes or until the veg is tender.
  4. Take off the heat and stir in the yoghurt and almonds. Serve topped with coriander leaves.
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