Real Food Made Easy » home cooking

Curry in a Hurry

janice — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 03:33:54 +0000

We eat curry fairly frequently here, chez Real Food Made Easy — for a couple of reasons.

It tastes pretty good, and we like pretty much all versions of it.
It can be made up fairly quickly with a couple of pantry staples at hand, and a pressure cooker
It is pretty versatile and works well as a freestyle item — no recipe needed, just a set of guidelines

Some people get intimidated by curry, but basically, it is a stew — and the same “rules” for making a tasty stew apply to curries — spend a little bit of time at the beginning developing the flavours, add liquid, and braise until everything is tender, and the flavours meld together. With some pre-cooked chickpeas (from a can or from the stash in the freezer), we can cook up a tasty curry in about 25 minutes — 10 minutes prep, and 15 minutes in the pressure cooker. A little bit longer if you’re going for a meaty curry.

When in doubt, a tasty braise is always on! If you notice, a lot of the tasty fancy dishes around the world are in fact, just versions of stew. Curry, coq au vin, boeuf bourginone, chicken paprikash, goulash, chicken tikka marsala, chicken pot pie = stew masquerading as pie!

For us, a quick curry is also a good way to empty out the fridge — just remember to keep the flavours complementary. For this curry, we had chickpeas and cauliflower (one of my favourite combos), with the addition of a cubed sweet potato, an apple cut in small dice, julienned ginger, lots of garlic and some apple butter that needed to be used up.

Go ahead and give it a shot! With the cauliflower, this is one instance where I like it cooked until it “melts” into the curry and starts to become part of the sauce. It stays nice and sweet that way, complementing the sweetness of the apple butter and sweet potato. It you want to switch it up, you can add coconut milk to the braising liquid, or diced, canned tomatoes. You can also amp up the onions and garlic, cut back on the ginger, add extra spices — its your curry, so go crazy!!!

Vegetable Curry in a Hurry

1 large onion, diced
5 garlic cloves, minced
2-3 Tablespoons garlic, finely julienned or minced
3/4 teaspoon salt
3-4 Tablespoons curry paste (I use Patak’s but you can use your preferred brand)
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
1 medium sweet potato, sliced and cut into 3/4″ dice
3 cups cauliflower, cut into florets
1 medium apple, cut into small dice
3 Tablespoons apple butter
2 to 1 1/2 cup vegetable stock (quanity depends on your pressure cooker)

Saute onions on medium heat until translucent. Add the garlic and ginger, and cook until onions are just starting to brown lightly. Add the curry paste, and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add all the other ingredients and mix to combine everything. Place the lid on the pressure cooker and bring the pressure up. Cook at high pressure for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let the pressure come down naturally. Give one last stir, and serve over rice, or with flatbread and raita.

Tonight’s version is a vegan curry, and if you serve it over rice, is also gluten-free

Gluten-free Chocolate chip Bread Pudding

janice — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 04:42:05 +0000

So what do when you’re testing bread recipes, and you find yourself with a surfeit of bread? Why make bread pudding!

Bread pudding is one of those easy things to whip up, and if you are familiar with Michael Ruhlman‘s book Ratios, once you understand that bread pudding is basically custard with lots of stuff in it, you are pretty much open to freestyle it.

The custard for this is a basic 2:1 custard (2 parts milk or cream to 1 part beaten eggs), sweetened with a bit of sugar, and spiced however you like. I rummaged through the cupboards and decided to sweeten the custard with brown sugar, spike it with a bit of bourbon, and toss in some chocolate chips. Don`t forget to bake this in a water bath! It may seem like a hassle, but it really does help make the custard nice and creamy.

Gluten-free Chocolate chip Bread Pudding

1/2 loaf gluten-free sandwich bread, cut into 1-inch cubes
3/4 cup chocolate chips
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups light cream
6 T brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3-4 T bourbon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix liquid ingredients and pour over the bread in an 8-inch square pan. Let sit for at least 15 minutes, and bake in a water bath for 35-45 minutes, until just set in the centre.

You know the drill! If its got yeast in it, it goes over to Yeastspotting! Check out all the yeasty treats this week!

Gingerbread Houses: post-modern style

janice — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 06:51:37 +0000

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

This one was actually squeaked out over the xmas holidays. The posting schedule was a little wider than usual, and I actually started to panic a little bit as some of the first posts of beautiful gingerbread houses went up starting on the 23rd.

I had already made one gingerbread house (Twitter themed) as part of a twitter team for our local Habitat for Humanity gingerbread display, but, obviously couldnt count that one in, as :

I didn’t make it myself,
It used construction gingerbread, which was neither of the recipes given by the Daring Bakers hosts, and while edible, was not delicious, and
it relied on the clever use of tree branches, so while the actual house walls were freestanding, it included non-gingerbread elements

Just for a teaser, here’s a pic of that house:

So anyway, onto the Daring Bakers Challenge!

I opted to go with the recipe from Good Housekeeping. It called for no eggs, only cream to bind it, which sounded intriguing. As I went, it mixed up all right, until the last bit of flour was incorporated, and then it seemed to get almost sandy in texture — quite dry, and not holding together like I thought it should. I actually ended up adding at least another 1/4 cup of heavy cream before it achieved what I felt was a workable texture.

It was quite stiff to roll out, and as I read through some other DB recountings, I was skeptical about whether this was going to have enough structural oomph to it! As it turned out, it baked up just fine!

I decided to go modern in feel rather than traditional gingerbread, and found a modern design on the Interwebz, however, it required a bit of modification, as it included some structural supports inside made out of cardboard. I simply replaced the cardboard with gingerbread in order to meet the DB requirements.

The other new thing I tried with this gingerbread house was to use the sugar syrup method of adhering the pieces together. I had read about this a while back, and didn’t try it because … well, because I’ve always used royal icing. The thing about royal icing, however, is that it takes time to set, and requires precarious propping up of pieces with cans and books etc… while the royal icing sets.

The appealing thing about using the hot sugar syrup is that the set is pretty much instant. Word of warning though — it is hot, and you will probably burn yourself at least once during assembly! I have to say (burns aside!) that I really like this method, as the joins are VERY solid.

Finally, the embellishment on this one was very simple, relying only on plain royal icing.

I’m having fun looking at all the gingerbread permutations and combination. Go check them out over at www.thedaringkitchen.com!

I like meatballs so much I’m blogging about them!

janice — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 04:37:41 +0000

I love meatballs. Meaty goodness, in a bite-sized package — all the fun of meatloaf without the commitment!

One of the things I like about them is the fact that you can combine them with all kinds of flavours — any way you want. That way you can eat them in all kinds of forms — not just restricted to the usual spaghetti and meatballs.

Cooking today, I had a hankering for the same meatballs I was preparing during the day, for our dinner at home — flavoured with a bit of orange zest, and filled with bulgur instead of breadcrumbs. For our dinner, I decided to put them in pita bread and top with tzatziki (kind of like donair), and pair with a quick “cleanoutthefridge” greek salad.

Making meatballs is pretty basic: you need meat, some kind of binder, and some kind of flavouring. With those basic parameters, its pretty easy to come up with gazillions of permutations and combinations.

For these: I started with extra lean ground beef as the meat, bulgur + egg + tomato paste as the binders, and orange zest + garlic + basil + oregano as the flavourings.

Next, these get all mixed up. I almost always use my hands, partly because they do an efficient job of mixing, and partly because it allows me to feel the texture. You want to mix everything well, but not to bash the life out of them or the meatballs will be pretty tough. With the addition of the egg here, the mixture is slightly moist, but will hold together just fine in the end. Then I measure these out. I find a 1/4 cup measure or a large scoop just about right in terms of size. This may seem a little obsessive, BUT, they will cook more evenly if they are all the same size! When I shape them, I kind of slap them gently from one hand to another, which helps them to hold together.

I almost always bake my meatballs. 400 degrees, about 20 minutes, cooks them perfectly through. Baking in the oven means that I don’t have to worry about turning in the frypan, and I can spend that time chopping vegetables for a side-dish, or making a sauce if that’s my inclination that night. (About the only time I fry meatballs is when I’m making Swedish Meatballs — the pan bits are essential for the sauce there!)

Finally, time to enjoy! These were wrapped in a whole wheat naan bread, with tzatziki, and some quick greek salad on the side. A quick but tasty weeknight dinner!

Play around with the basic ratios here — Food is supposed to be fun!!!

Meatballs v1.5

3/4 lb. xtra lean ground beef or other ground meat
1/3 cup bulgur, combined with 1/3 cup boiling water
3 T tomato paste
1 egg
zest of 1/2 orange
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano

“I’m just goofin’ around, that’s all!”

janice — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 04:32:17 +0000

Just like the 22-Minutes version of Babe Bennett (having some time this afternoon) I decided to goof around a bit … with teff!

I was interested in coming up with an alternative bread formulation that was rice-based, but still had plenty of spring to it. My usual formulations start with a base of garfava flour, millet, tapioca starch and potato starch, which produces a really nice texture due in part, to the high protein level of the garfava. Not everyone tolerates the garfava, and I was also interested in trying something without the potato starch, for those avoiding nightshades. Enter, teff.

I have been using teff for muffins recently, and have also used it to make injera, the Ethiopian pancakes, but haven’t used it yet for gluten-free bread. It really is a fascinating grain — tiny little grains, packed with protein and fibre, they also have tons of calcium thiamin and iron! While teff contains no gluten, it does have a somewhat binding quality, producing baked goods with a bit of puff and bounce!

I decided to test-drive the teff in foccacia — the flat Italian bread that is usually nice and dimpled on top, and drizzled with olive oil. I think the goofin’ around could be considered a success! The dough for this is a little bit stiffer than the usual loaf formulation, so bakes up nicely as a freeform round on a baking sheet.

The exterior has a slight crust to it, without being overly crusty — more chewy, as a result of the drizzle of olive oil (how I like my focaccia!). I also gave it a liberal drizzle of oil before putting it in the oven, and sprinkled with rosemary and smoked Maldon Sea Salt. In terms of flavour, there is a small amount of teff providing a bit of nutty, earthy flavour without being overwhelming.

I think it hits the mark in terms of my “must haves” for focaccia:

1. Slightly open crumb and bounce in the interior

2. Soft chewy crust

3. Lots of dimples on top

4. Salt and olive oil on top!

Let me know what you think!

Printer Friendly Recipe: Glutenfree Teff Focaccia

Teff and Rosemary Focaccia with Smoked Sea Salt

2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1/4 c. white rice flour (39 grams)
1/2 c. brown rice flour (79 grams)
1/4 c. teff flour (30 grams)
1/2 c. tapioca starch (60 grams)
1 1/2 tsp. xantham gum
1 tsp. gelatin powder or agar agar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, whisked
2 T. extra virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling on top
1 tsp. dried rosemary plus more for the top
1 tsp. Smoked Maldon Sea Salt

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Combine all ingredients in a stand mixer, and mix at medium speed for 3-4 minutes until well combined. The dough will be wetter than wheat-based bread dough, but hold its form if mounded on a baking sheet. Place the dough in the middle of a baking sheet and flatten out into an 8 to 9-inch round using a spatula.

Dimple the top with wet fingers, and drizzle with olive oil. Let rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes, until doubled in size. Just before baking, sprinkle with rosemary and smoked Maldon Sea Salt.

Bake for 30-40 minutes until the internal temperature registers 205-210 degrees.