Turkey Tikka Masala style

I´m not very good at eating leftovers so after the Christmas Day turkey, we bagged up the leftovers and froze them in different portions. I took a portion out to defrost to make a turkey curry...ok,not very original as that´s what the majority of people do with leftover turkey but why not? Plus I really fancied a curry. This is a curry I made up roughly based on chicken tikka masala, which I made a vegetarian version of but as it was an experiment I didn´t write the quantities down. This time I made sure I wrote the quantities down and although it was very tasty (even if I do say so myself!)it turned out different to the first time I made it!

Ingredients (for 2 people)

1/2 medium to large onion, finely chopped

leftover turkey (not sure how much I used..I just eyeballed it)

4-5 mushrooms, sliced

1/4 red pepper, chopped

1/4 green pepper,chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp of olive oil (or vegetable)

1 inch ginger, peeled and grated

2 cardamon pods, crushed

5 tsp curry powder (depending on how hot you like your curry, add more)

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp garam masala

1tsp ground cumin

about 1/4 cup of water

about 1/3 cup of cream (when I made the vegetarian version, I used sour cream which gave a thicker sauce)

about 1/3 - 1/2 tetrabrick of tomato sauce/tinned tomatoes (again not sure as I eyeballed it)

Method

1. Heat olive oil in frying pan and fry onion, garlic, mushrooms and peppers till tender.

2.Add grated ginger and other spices and cook till aromatic.

3. Add turkey and heat a little, then add the 1/4 cup of water and cook for a few minutes.

4. Add tomato sauce and cream and cook on a low heat till meat is heated through.

5.Serve with boiled Basmati rice or pilau rice.

* If you like your curries very spicy, you could also add fresh chilies or some chili powder to your curry.

Curry´s Indian Restaurant Review

Although things have been pretty quiet on my blog scene lately, I have been doing plenty of cooking but just nothing that was worth blogging about, plus I have been very busy.Last week there was a long weekend and we decided to go to Madrid to do some Christmas shopping. I love Madrid at Christmas with all the pretty Christmas lights and Cortelandia-it just seems so Christmassy and magical. The only thing I don´t love however is how crowded it gets!

Whenever I go to Madrid, I always like to go to a restaurant that you can´t find where I live, such as a Greek, Thai, Indian restaurant etc. This time we decided to go to an Indian restaurant as it´s one of my favourite cuisines and I really miss it!Before going to Madrid we did some research and found two restaurants that were in the centre of Madrid and ended up choosing the nearest, Curry´s Restaurante Hindu, located in C/Silva 16.

From the outside, Curry´s doesn´t look like anything special but when you step into the restaurant, the atmosphere is friendly, clean and warm. We had arranged to have lunch with a friend who lives in Madrid so we don´t see him very often so I wasn´t paying as much attention to the food as usual. He is vegetarian but luckily like many Indian restaurants, Curry´s caters to vegetarians.

There was a poppadom each with mango chutney, mint yoghurt sauce and another sauce, which I don´t know what it was as an appetizer (which I think were free). We ordered the Daal & Aloo Tikki to share as a starter as it was vegetarian and we´d never tried it before. It was like a crispy lentil and potato cake and was delicious although I don´t know where the lentils came into it as I could only taste the potato. I ordered my usual fav dish Lamb Korma, my OH ordered Chicken Tikka Masala and our friend ordered Malai Kofta (I think!) -cheese dumplings in a curry sauce, plus we ordered 2 lots of Basmati rice and some Garlic Naan. At first the portions looked quite small but they were filled generously with meat. The meat was lovely and tender and the sauces were lovely and creamy,not too rich or too spicy. I think my OH would´ve liked his to be a bit spicier though. I managed to polish off the whole lot of curry as did the others but we were too stuffed for dessert.

The food was amazing and far better than the exterior appearance leads you to believe. Plus prices were also fairly reasonable. So if you´re in Madrid and fancy something different or have a hankering after spicy or Indian food, you should give this a try.Unfortunately I don´t have any photos as I didn´t have my camera with me.

Touring Vietnam & discovering it´s cuisine Part 2- Hoi An & Hue

After Halong Bay, it was back to Hanoi to catch a plane to Danang and then on to Hoi An.It was a long day especially as we were both still recuperating from the previous night´s upset stomachs! I forgot to mention that near Hanoi there are restaurants which serve dog.However, we didn´t come across any of these restaurants luckily as I don´t think I could eat a poor little dog. Mind you, we do eat little lambs and piglets (roast suckling pig) so I suppose it´s not so different!

Hoi An is a sharp contrast to Hanoi with its much quieter and laid-back streets full of little shops. We visited the Japanese Covered Bridge, the Assembly Hall of the Fujian Chinese Congregation, Tan Ky House and then wandered round all the shops stopping of course at Yaly, one of the more famous shops, which makes tailored made-to-measure clothes of any design and with the material of your choice. I settled for a black and white flower patterned dress. We also took in the sights and strange smells of the market of all the local delicacies from dried shrimp and other dried fish to all kinds of exotic fruit.

In the evening we found a lovely restaurant called The Secret Garden, which our guide had told us about, but it was definitely very secret as it is hidden away down a side street and is very difficult to find. However, it was worth searching for as the restaurant is set in a sort of terrace outside in a beautiful garden with a pond.It is very beautiful and romantic especially at night when it is all lit up. There is also traditional live Vietnamese music playing while you are eating. We opted for a set menu for 2, which if I remember correctly consisted of: white rose (Bánh Bao Bánh Vạc)-a kind of dumpling filled with meat and prawns or toppd with them (delicious), Rice Pasta Rolls ( Bánh Cuon) -a type of spring roll filled with pork and mint and coriander (very fresh tasting due to the mint and coriander but not my favourite) and beef curry (CaryBò). The beef curry was divine, melt in your mouth tender beef, star anise, potato, carrots and some other vegetable or something which could have been taro.The flavours combined to make a really tasty dish. However, it wasn´t a curry as I know it as it wasn´t at all spicy, to me it was more reminicscent of a type of beef stew but anyway the main thing was that it was absolutely delicious! Dessert was a more simple affair of pineapple and watermelon. For me, this was one of the best restaurants we went to on our trip to Vietnam. The Secret Garden also does cooking courses but unfortunately time was short otherwise I´d have loved to have had a lesson in Vietnamese cuisine.

We also visited My Son, the ruins of an ancient Cham temple and the Marble Mountains. On route we stopped at a farm where they made rice pancakes and the owner showed us how she made the pancakes and we were even given the opportunity to have a go!

After Hoi An, we then travelled to Hue, Vietnam´s former imperial city, where we visited the Citadel, the impressive and beautiful Imperial Enclosure and went on a boat trip on the Perfume River. We were going to eat at this floating restaurant on the river, very near the bridge but everything we asked for, they didn´t have so we decided to go somewhere else. We found a lovely (but empty) restaurant set in a beautiful garden again . I think it was very late by the time we wanted to eat. We weren´t very hungry so only ordered a salad and banh khoai, a typical speciality from Hue, which consists of a rice flour pancake filled with prawns,pork and bean sprouts and fried. The food in the restaurant was of high quality and was quite expensive for usual Vietnamese restaurant prices. The banh khoai was absolutely delicious but very filling however I think because we weren´t that hungry we weren´t as keen on the salad and couldn´t eat much. I think we ate the banh khoai again during our time in Hue but the one from Rendezvous was definitely the best. We didn´t realize until we went in that the restaurant belonged to the Morin hotel but I´d definitely reccommend this restaurant as the food was exquisite and again a lovely and romantic setting. It was just unfortunate that we weren´t very hungry and didn´t like our choice of salad. We also ordered beef with lemongrass which was also delicious but we were just so full we couldn´t eat it. Unfortunately we don´t have any photos of the banh khoai.

I can´t remember what this is-prawns in a crispy panko type batter with a cute penguin/snowman made out of cucumber that we ate in a different restaurant!

Mixed Mushrooms in a Thai Red Curry Sauce

I´ve made this dish a couple of times and always mean to blog it but have never got round to it or taken a picture of it. I really wish I had though!! It´s a simplified version of a recipe from a recipe book called Cocina Asiática Vegetariana by Anne Wilson, as there are many ingredients which I simply can´t get hold of where I live. However, I think this adaped, simplified version is probably just as good as the original version. It´s also a very easy and quick dish to prepare.

Ingredients (Serves 2)

A packet of mixed Asian mushrooms (around 200g) (shiitake, enoki and beech mushrooms for example)
an inch of ginger, finely chopped
1-2 tsp red curry paste (depending on your spice threshold level!)
1 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable stock (I used Oxo veggie stock cube)
1/2 cup of coconut milk/cream (this time I used coconut powder, about 65g powder mixed with around 125ml hot water to make a thicker milk)
1/2 tbsp lime or lemon juice (whatever you have in the fridge!)

Method:

1. Fry curry paste and ginger together for 3-4 mins till it becomes aromatic.
2. Add vegetable stock, sugar, soy sauce, coconut cream or milk and lime/lemon juice and lower heat (to around 4 on an induction electric hob) and simmer for 3-4 mins until the sugar dissolves.
3.Add the mushrooms and cook 3-5 mins until mushrooms are cooked.
4. Boil some Basmati rice in the meantime to serve with the mushrooms.

Squash curry ( Dec 10, 2008)

I really fancied pumpkin curry the other day...even though I've never tried it. I didn't know, however, that pumpkins were no longer in season so ended up buying acorn squash, which I was told, is very similar. This recipe is a mish-mash of a recipe from VegWeb and my own invention. It's not a bad curry but maybe it's a bit bland and is very mild, due to the fact that I had a little accident when adding the coconut milk and the whole can plopped into the pan and over the hob- what a mess!! I kept adding more chilli powder and some of the other spices to make it tastier but it was very mild and as I said before a bit plain. It tastes a bit like squash Korma only a bit blander. I'm going to work on this recipe and when I have an improved version, I'll give you the new improved version. I also discovered that acorn squash is very difficult to peel so if I find a better way to prepare it or anyone has any advice, let me know. Scoop out the pumpkin/squash seeds, maybe you could toast them and add them to the curry. Sorry for not having the metric measurements.

Squash curry (serves 2-3 people)

Ingredients:
1/2 acorn squash/pumpkin, chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2cm fresh ginger root, grated
1/2 cup of mangetout/peas
1 small to medium sized potato
1/2 can of coconut milk
1/4 of 15oz can chickpeas
1/2 small courgette
pinch salt
1 cup of basmati rice
1/4 - 1/2 tsp chilli powder( If you like a really spicy curry, add more. 1/4 tsp wasn't enough I found and I prefer a mild curry!)
1/4 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1-2 tbsp olive oil
Method:
Boil the potato in salted water till just slightly underdone.
Heat olive oil in frying pan and add garlic, ginger and all the spices and cook for a few minutes.
Add onions and fry till soft and transparent.
Meanwhile, boil basmati rice in water with salt.
Add courgette and mangetout and cook for a few minutes. Add squash, potato and chickpeas and cook until everything is covered in curry spices. Add a pinch of salt.
Add coconut milk and cook at a low temperature until squash and potato are tender, taking care that the curry doesn't become too dry. Serve with basmati rice and Naan bread.