Lamb Korma that will make you nod your head.

There is not much that will quieten me down. I’m a talker. I talk a lot. I talk in my sleep, I talk under water and I know its uncouth, but I definitely talk when I’m eating. But – if you ever see me close my mouth while chewing, point calmly and repeatedly at my plate (This thing! This thing right here!!), and nod my head up and down, you know you’re on a good thing.

My brother in law passed up the offer to come over for dinner last night. Silly, silly bro-in-law. Haha! Because I found a Korma that had me exclaim out loud, “I’ll never get take away Indian again!” And while that of course was probably a hyperbole or just plain untrue, this Lamb Korma was easy, and stop-the-press kind of tasty. Seriously, make this. Make it this week. 🙂

Tip of the week: Unless you are fancy (ooh la la) and have bought blanched almonds, you’ll need to remove the skins of normal almonds before you grind them up. Blanching almonds is easy. Put them in boiling water for 60seconds (ONLY!), drain them into a strainer and rinse them under cold water, pat dry with paper towel. Squeeze one end of the almond and it will shoot out of its skin happily. It will also shoot across the room if you are pointing it haphazardly around. You have been warned. 😉

We served this with rice, papadums and flatbread. And the yoghurt went really well with it. Even my husband, who is not a fan of yoghurt at all, ate quite a bit with his dinner. Enjoy!! 🙂

By the way: When you read the recipe below, it calls for “Ghee”. Ghee is clarified butter. You know when you melt butter, and there is a clear part and a cloudy part? Ghee is a whole jar of the clear part only, which you can buy in the “Indian section” of your supermarket. (You get the Korma paste in that section too.) BUT – You could use oil or butter instead and it wouldn’t make that much difference at all.

This recipe is from The Australian Woman’s Weekly: The Complete book of Modern Asian recipe book.

Pete’s Potato Wedges

Looking for something new to do to spice up your roast potatoes?

What’s in it?

• Potatoes cut into wedge shaped pieces
  

PLUS

• Fresh Rosemary from your garden 😉 – chopped finely
• A clove of garlic – chopped finely
• Cumin (whole seeds or ground is fine. We use either, depending on what is in the house.)
• Tonight we also added Cajun Pepper too, just to spice it up a bit. You can left this out if you prefer.
• Sweet Paprika – one teaspoon
• Olive oil (more than you want to admit to… glug glug glug)
• salt
• pepper

Par-boil the cut potatoes in boiling water. We cooked for two people tonight and 8 minutes on the stove did the job. You can of course skip this par-boiling and go ahead and whack them straight in the oven, it just takes longer.

While the potatoes are par-boiling, prepare and mix all the rest of the ingredient in a small bowl. It should be a sloshy liquid, not a paste. See my note about using fresh rosemary here.

Drain the potatoes and let them sit for a bit. All the water needs to evaporate. I like to spread them out over the oven tray to let off some steam in their own space. I’m about to use it (get it dirty) for the baking anyway, so no loss.

Here is another tip. You already dirtied the saucepan par-boiling the potatoes, so why not use it again now, instead of another mixing bowl. Can you tell I’m not a fan of washing up? 🙂
SO – pop the now “dry” par-boiled potatoes back in the saucepan and pour the liquid spice mixture over the top. Mix together. You can use a spoon, but I find getting in there with your hands gets a better result.

Lay the spiced potatoes out on the same oven tray as before, spreading them out as much as possible. Pour any extra spice mix over the potatoes on the tray.

Cook in the oven until crispy as, bro. 🙂 Yum!

Seasonal Note: There are many varieties of potato that grow throughout the year in Australia. So that’s good news! 🙂 Eat up!

Seed Lovers Salad w Roasted Pumpkin

This salad is kinda a combo of my favourite salad and favourite muesli. Nuts and seeds offer us so many important nutrients as part of our everyday requirements, and too often they are missed out. While they can be super expensive from the supermarkets, I’ve found that they are surprisingly cheap from the farmers markets. If you’re not someone who is yet into farmers markets, have a Google around, and see where your local market is. They are much more accessible than they used to be.

Here is an easy, and tasty way of working seeds and nuts into your lunch.

What’s in it?

• Pumpkin, cut into small pieces and roast in olive oil, salt and pepper

Get the pumpkin sorted first, while it is baking sort the rest out. The pumpkin will be ready by the time all else is chopped, mixed and in the bowl/s (or lunch boxes) ready to serve.

The rest of the tasty things:

• Cashews
• Flax seed (or linseed)
• Pumpkin seeds
• Sunflower kernels
• Sesame seeds
• Pepitas
• Baby spinach (or mixed lettuce leaves or rocket would work)
• Carrot, peeled thinly
• Baby tomatoes, halved
• Avocado, in small pieces
• Red capsicum, in small pieces
• Feta cheese, crumbled
• Parmesan cheese, shaved
• Salt
• Pepper
• Olive oil/balsamic/ranch dressing (whatever floats your boat)

A Seasonal Note just for us to keep in mind: (In Australia)
Capsicums – are in season in Summer
Carrots – Summer, Autumn, Winter
Pumpkin – Summer, Autumn
Tomatoes – Summer, Autumn
Spinach – Winter, Spring, Summer
Avocados – all year

Museli should be toasted – got that?

My fav way to start the day (or finish the day, or spend the day) is in the sun, with a pot of tea and a bowl of this – my homemade toasted muesli. I like it with natural yoghurt, honey and fruit. It’s really filling and really good for you. I have tried really hard to like the soggy so called “trendy” bircher muesli that circulates in cafes, but I just can’t enjoy it. I like my muesli to go *crunch munch munch crunch mmmmm* True story.

This one sorta actually kind of IS my recipe. It is a combination of various other toasted muesli and “granola” recipes that I have read, and it’s also inspired by a Low GI muesli recipe that a friend gave me. Over the years it really has become a “whatever is in the cupboard becomes that week’s muesli” situation.

What’s in it?

You can use a combination of any of the below. The apple juice and the oats are kind of the backbone though. Obviously if you add ALL the fruit options it is much sweeter than just one or two of them. Each to their own though, you might really like dried fruit.

• 3 cups of rolled oats
• 1/2 cup of oat bran (I have also used “bran” cereal plenty of times too)
• 1/2 tablespoon of ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tablespoon of ground ginger
• pinch of salt

• 1 cup (100 grams each) of any of the following nuts: hazelnuts, brazil nuts, almonds, desiccated coconut

• 1/4 cup (each) of any of the following seeds: flax seed (or linseed), pumpkin seeds, sunflower kernels, sesame seeds, pepitas

• 1/2 cup of apple juice

• 1 cup (each) of any of the following dried fruits: apple, cranberries, mulberries, sultanas… any fruit you want really. 🙂

Mix all the dry ingredients, except the fruit, together in a bowl. Spread out over a baking tray. Pour the juice over the entire tray and stir through. Bake for 40 mins at 160 degrees. Every 10 minutes take the tray out and stir through to get rid of the lumps. Don’t let it burn. There is no saving it once it tastes like burnt grossness.

You can add the fruit in at the very end while the muesli is cooling, or you can add it in for the last “10 minute baking block” if you prefer them a little toasted.

Serve with natural yoghurt, honey and fresh (or thawed, frozen) fruit. You could use milk instead of the yogurt, if that is your sort of thing.