it looks like REAL indian food...

over a year ago i bought a certain someone a curry cookbook... but it was only last week that we finally opened it up and made a recipe. both of us love indian food. there is an indian restaurant right around the corner from our place that we get to deliver us food when we are feeling incredibly lazy, but i thought that the time had come to try making it ourself. after all the cookbook was looking slightly sad up on top of the fridge with all it's neighboring books laughing that it had never been used to make anything delicious. look whose laughing now (that's right... the indian cookbook...).

anyway. basically this meal was incredible. i chose it because it had the least amount of strange and obscure ingredients. i had everything already in my cupboard which meant no trips to any far away indian shops. we cooked it again tonight for the second time, but this time made the full recipe so that we could have leftovers. you can make it as spicy or as mild as you like, just adjust the amount of chili powder you put in. ok, so here it is... chicken jalfrezi.

ingredients

4 chicken breasts

juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp salt

5tbsp sunflower or olive oil

1 large onion (finely chopped)

2 tsp garlic puree

2tsp ginger puree (make these purees yourself just finely grate them both)

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp coriander

chili powder (to taste: 1/2-1 tsp)

300g tinned chopped tomatos (recipe recommends only 150 but we put almost a whole tin)

150 ml warm water

1 large garlic clove finely chopped

1 small red pepper

1 small green pepper (both deseeded and chopped into 1 inch pieces)

1 tsp garam masala

indian bread or basmati rice to serve

directions

part 1: cut the chicken into 1 inch cubes and put in a bowl, add the lemon juice and half the salt and rub into the chicken - cover and leave to sit

part 2: heat 4 tablespoons of the oil in a medium saucepan over a medium heat. add the onion and cook, stirring frequently, for 8-9minutes, until lightly browned. add the garlic and ginger purees and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes. add the turmeric, cumin, coriander, and chili powder and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. add the tinned tomatoes and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently.

part 3: add the marinated chicken, increase the heat slightly and cook, stirring, until it changes colour. add the warm water and bring to the boil. reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

part 4: heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in a small saucepan over a low heat. add the garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until browned. add the red and green peppers, increase the heat to medium and stir-fry for 2 minutes, then stir in the garam masala. fold the pepper mixture into the curry. remove from the heat and serve immediately with bread or cooked basmati rice.

the rating

expense: 4/10 - once you've got the spices and chicken the rest is super cheap

difficulty: 4/10

taste: 9/10 - seriously so yummy.

p.s. and yes, incase you were wondering this is jenny and yes, i am cooking more these days. i hope you are all impressed with my wifely domestic skills.

xx

Tuna and Artichoke Panini

So we made this recipe AGES ago (actually we have a few we need to post! Jenny's been cooking up a storm recently with some amazing meals). We had fallen into a bit of a rut and decided we needed to try something new. Jenny found the recipe here and its really tasty! It says to use a food processor but I just chopped things up finely.

Ingredients (serves six so we just halved the recipe)

• 3/4 cup pitted kalamata olives
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/4 cup mayonnaise
• 2 (6-ounce) cans tuna in olive oil, drained
• 1 (12-ounce) jar marinated artichokes, drained and coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (16-ounce) ciabatta bread, halved horizontally
• 1 tomato, diced

Directions

Puree the olives, oil, garlic, and zest in a food processor until smooth and spreadable. Blend in the mayonnaise. Toss the tuna, artichokes, lemon juice, and pepper in a medium bowl, keeping the tuna in small chunks.

Hollow out the bottom and top halves of the bread. Spread the olive puree over both cut sides of the bread. Spoon the tuna and artichoke mixture onto the bottom half of the bread. Sprinkle the tomatoes over. Cover with the bread top. Cut the sandwich crosswise into 6 pieces and serve.

taste: 8/10

price: 3/10

difficulty: 2/10

enjoy! xy

mmm... english breakfast.

early one saturday morning emerald and i hit up this little beautiful london location for some breakfast. not only do they make a mean meal but they've got a seriously charming little selection of goodies to tempt you on your wait out. really lovely.

i am the boss.

freddy is spending the weekend in holland and so i am home alone. you know what that means, right? i am in charge. which means pizza hut... my way! supreme with no mushrooms and double pepperoni. yum yum, and i've got left overs to see me through the weekend!

xx

Wiener Schnitzel Freddy Art

Yesterday Jenny had the day off. A big treat for us as normally Jenny works on Sundays. We decided to have a spring clean and sort out our lives a bit as they have been pretty hectic as of late. I also thought we should try to expand our repetoire of recipes and decided we would try to make some schnitzel... one of my favourites. Jamie has a pretty good recipe in his book Cook so this basically follows his ideas but with a few of my own twists.

Ingredients (serves 2):

Pork escalopes... I just used some pork loin steaks I found in the shops and then beat them heavily with a rolling pin.
Bread crumbs
1 Beaten Egg
Flour
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Butter
Half an orange (juice and zest)
50g sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves
3 apples peeled and diced (1 cooking, 2 eating)
Water cress
lemon wedges


Directions:

First make the apple sauce that goes with the schnitzel. Add the juice and zest of half an orange to a suacepan with a knob of butter. Melt the butter slowly and add the sugar and spices. Mix together. Once the butter starts to foam add the peeled and diced apples. Stick the lid on the pan and leave to simmer slowly until the apples become mushy (20 mins). To help it along you can smush the apples with a wodden spoon every once in a while.

Once that is going hammer the pork with a tenderising type hammer or rolling pin or heavy frying pan so they are about .5 cm thick (pretty thin). Then get four large plates (I realise this makes a lot of washing up but its the best way to do it... trust me. Salt and pepper on one plate. Flour on the next. Egg on the third. And bread crumbs on the last. Then take the flattened pork steaks and dip them in each plate and pat them a bit on both sides. So pretty simple really. Once they are breaded you can put them to the side until they are ready to be fried. That too is simple, just add a couple of glugs of olive oil to a hot frying pan. Add the schnitzels. Fry for a few mins on both sides. Serve on with apple sauce, some water cress to garnish, and lemon wedges. MmmMmmMmm.

I think a good addition might also be to have a cold cucumber salad on the side. Im not exactly sure what form this will take but I think it will involve cucumber strips (acheived by peeling the cucumber into strips), some salt and pepper, perhaps some dill and/or parsley, and finally some white wine vinegar. And then into the fridge (or freezer if you are running late).


Enjoy! xy

Vivi's Birthday

The 25th of February was a while ago but we have been pretty busy with Vivi visiting and since then we have had to catch up with life a little bit. But it did happen and we did document it so thought I would do a quick blog post. So in the morning we woke up early (much too early for my liking... at least 8 o'clock) and gave Vivi ice cream in bed (an Inglis family tradition). Although she was away from home she got a few presents, lots of cards, and more money than I get paid in a month.

Unfortunately Jenny had to go to school so Vivi and I had some breakfast (apart from icecream) and watched the olympic highlights from the previous night. We then set off to the train station to go to London.

We arrived at Paddington and then set off to LSE to meet up with Jenny.

We had lunch at Wasabi, a great sushi place across from LSE and Vivi ate 13 pieces of sushi. I know it doesn't sound like much but I could only manage 11. For dessert we went to the Primrose Bakery to get some cupcakes. We were so stuffed that we got them to go and set off to Brick Lane to check out some sights.

When we got off the tube it was raining. But hey, you cant visit england without some rain! However unbeknownst to Vivi we were actually heading over to a shop that sells Banksy prints (Vivi is a big fan and so are we) that Jenny and I discovered over the summer on one of our adventures.

We told Vivi she could have any one she wanted and there was obviously a lot of choice so she had to take her time to decide. But after toing and froing she finally picked one that she liked and I think it looks really cool. Look forward to seeing it hanging on her wall.

After all that excitement we decided to eat our cupcakes - which were delish!

We then went to the natural science museum and took a look at the wildlife photographer of the year exhibition (one our favourite things to see when in London). Finally we were pretty exhausted and took the train home but had to wait around in Paddington for a while. Once we got home we could barely move but think we managed to get in a game of Just Dance. Will post about the rest of her trip soon and post some movies our dancing escapades. I really enjoyed Vivi's birthday... and I think she did too. It was a treat to have her here with us.

xy

Ganymede tortillas....

we love mexican food and we love everything to be spicy. when i saw these delicious little monsters on the Ganymede Kids blog i knew straight away that i had to try to make them for dinner. there wasn't a recipe so we just had to improvise and make up our own. we used a salsa recipe from a jamie oliver cookbook and even made our own refried beans. first time we have done that - pretty wild, right? these were so good, but a warning must be made... i went from starving to barely being able to stand up straight within 8minutes (maybe this is a testament to the fact that i eat way too fast). but they are like little monsters that jump in your belly and expand to make you so full - fred puts it down to the beans, beans always make you full.

fred's massive bite out of his... see, this is why i never offer to share with him. one bite and half of the thing is gone!

so we put some cheese, refried beans (with chorizo) and salsa into our tortillas... yumm. very easy, pretty cheap (although limes/avocados are a bit exotic in england so they aren't as cheap as they should be), and so good. they are so fresh tasting (lime...) but have such a great hot flavour as well (chili...). really wonderful and would definitely recommend it. they recommend making your own tortillas - which we almost did, but then realized we were a bit too pooped for that. next time we will give it a try though. thanks ganymede kids for the great idea!

Ingredients:

For the salsa

4 tomatoes

3 spring onion

2 red chilis

1/2 cucumber

Handful of fresh coriander

2 avocados

1 lime

salt and pepper

For refried beans

1 can borlotti beans (pinto or black also work)

2 spring onions

2 cloves of garlic

chorizo

2tbsp olive oil

Directions:

Chop up all the ingredients for the salsa as much or as little as you would like. I recommend to keep the avocado chunky. Add the juice of the lime and salt and pepper. So pretty easy so far. Then chop of the chorizo into small chunks and add to frying pan with the chopped spring onions and chopped garlic and olive oil to a frying pan. Fry for a few mins and then add the beans (drain first). Mush them up with a potato masher or a wooden spoon. If you like them more liquidy add some water. Serve with cheese and torillas.

xx

looking on the bright side....

it is not difficult to do when you pull the curtains open and get the sun glaring into your eyes. looking on the bright side can be difficult at times, but the english weather is making it easier. it hasn't been sunny in what feels like ages... but yesterday, the 1st of march, was a gloriously sunny day - and today we have been greeted by yet another. well, more importantly than the good news of the weather - we have got some more good news to report. freddy found out today that his lab has funding for him until october. this is wonderful news, because it means we wont have to attempt to live off my 1-day-a-week measly income, and freddy can take his time to figure out what he wants to do next. the world is his oyster and he can take his sweet time in figuring out... which oyster to pluck? i'm not really sure how that phrase would go... so congratulations to freddy! march is starting off to be a lovely month indeed.

p.s this photo was taken this morning before he found out the good news, can you imagine how spastically excited he is now?

xx