Cooking with Kids :: Summery Chicken Curry

This weekend we were experimenting with our new Cuisinart Soup Maker plus - we were challenged to try out some non-soup recipes in it so Lara, Holly and I cooked a really light and fragrant chicken curry.  I will admit that I need a little bit more practice with the soup maker - it needs less liquid than if you were cooking in a pan and my curry paste was a little grainy because I used cashew nuts (not something I normally do) but I really liked the fact that I could see into the jug as it was blending and cooking and make decisions about what ingredients to add, or what temperature to use. Being able to see all of the ingredients in the pan is a little luxury!

Our summery chicken curry served four people easily and I was very happy that the Soup Maker Plus could hold all of the ingredients for a family meal.

INGREDIENTS
3 large chicken breasts, chopped into 1-inch chunks
A handful of green beans, chopped in half
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 inch fresh ginger, peeled
1 tablespoon cashew nuts
1 tablespoon ground almonds
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1 fresh chilli
The seeds from 4 green cardamom pods
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
1 teaspoon ground corriander
1 large handful fresh basil leaves (thai or traditional basil is fine)
250ml chicken stock
200ml coconut milk
1 teaspoon black onion seeds
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

METHOD

1. Place the oil, garlic, ginger, cashew nuts, ground almonds, half of the onion, ground corriander, the chilli, basil leaves, cardamom seeds, chilli flakes and half of the coconut milk into the soup maker, or if you don't have one, use a traditional blender. Blend for 1-2 minutes on a high speed until the ingredients form a paste.

2. Add the chicken and then heat the paste gently for 5 minutes on the 'SAUTE' setting.  You can also do this in a large saucepan.

3. Add in the rest of the onion, the chicken stock, the rest of the coconut milk and the green beans. Bring the liquid to the boil by using the 'HIGH' setting for 10 minutes, this will cook the chicken through.  Stir occasionally using the gentle stir function.

4. Now turn the liquid down and 'SIMMER' for 30 minutes, stir regularly to make sure that the chicken doesn't stick.

5. To serve, sprinkle with black onion seeds and fresh mint for a really summery hit.  We served our summer chicken curry with fresh mint, steamed rice and a salad of banana and raisins.

I enjoyed cooking the curry in the soup maker - I need a bit more practice to get it just right but I think the thing I enjoyed most was the fact that the girls can get a bit more involved in the cooking element than they would do when using the hob; it is a little safer for them than using a gas flame.

Disclosure: I was sent the Cuisinart Soup Maker Plus to review and help me create new recipes.

#FlavourOfTogether - Kashmiri Blackened Sea Bass, Fragrant Dahl and Beetroot & Carrot Bhajis with Minted Pea Puree - Recipe!

McCormick are celebrating their 125th year in the food industry with a special anniversary Flavour Forecast. Each year their Flavour Forecast brings together the emerging trends in food and flavours for the coming year.  Schwartz, part of the McCormick group, sent us a selection of the herbs and spices from this year's predictions and I used their 2014 forecast as inspiration for tonight's dinner - Lara had great fun helping me; she is always happy to help me in the kitchen when there is curry on the menu!

I chose to explore the "Modern Masala" flavour trend which allows Indian food to break free of its traditional confines; I also used one of the year's Top 5 flavours (as highlighted by Schwartz) - a homemade Kashmiri masala.  My dish was very much an experimental one (I felt like Heston as I 'invented' the components in the kitchen with Lara) but I tried to capture a good mix of textures and flavours based on traditional Indian combinations but with a slightly modern twist.  This is my recipe for Kashmiri blackened Sea-Bass on a fragrant yellow dahl served with beetroot and carrot bhajis and a minted pea puree.

Serves 4.
Total cooking time 3 hours (approximately)

INGREDIENTS
For the puree
100g frozen peas
150ml chicken stock
1 inch fresh root ginger (peeled and chopped finely)
1/2 small onion (finely diced)
1 heaped tsp dried mint
A tiny knob of butter or drop of sunflower oil

For the dahl
100g red split lentils
100g yellow split peas
1 small onion (chopped roughly)
1 inch fresh root ginger (cut into two big chunks)
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground corriander
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
5 green cardamoms (bashed gently with the back of a knife to bruise them)
2 strands of saffron
A knob of butter
1 tsp sunflower oil
2 garlic cloves (crushed)
250ml chicken stock
250ml water
1 tsp black onion seed
1 tsp whole cumin seed

For the bhajis
2 carrots (peeled)
1 small onion (peeled and sliced reeeeaaallly thinly)
3 small, whole uncooked beetroot (peeled)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground corriander
150g gram flour
1 tablespoon ground rice
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 fresh green chilli (copped)
100ml tepid water
oil for deep frying

For the fish
4 sea bass fillets (skin on)
A knob of butter and a dash on sunflower oil
2 bay leaves
5cm of cinnamon stick
1 whole star anise
4 whole green cardamoms
4 whole cloves
1 heaped tsp whole cumin seed
1 heaped tsp black peppercorns
1/4 teaspoon whole fenugreek seed
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp chilli flakes (I would have used 2 tsp if I weren't feeding a 1 year old and a 4 year old!)
1 heaped tsp ground corriander
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp garlic granules
The juice of one lemon

METHOD
1. Soak the lentils over night in two separate bowls of water.  Drain well before cooking.

2. Make the pea puree well in advance as this is easy to heat up when you are ready to serve.

Fry the onion and ginger in a little oil or butter until softened.  Add the dried mint.  Then add the frozen peas and the chicken stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce the temperature and simmer for 5 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly before using a hand-blender to blitz it into a smooth puree.  If the puree is too thin, you can return it to the pan and cook gently to allow some of the moisture to evaporate.

3. Make the dahl next.  It will need some time to mellow before you serve it.

Cut the onion in half.  Slice one half very finely and put to one side.  Chop the other half roughly into pieces you wouldn't mind eating whole.

4. Melt the butter and fry the chopped onion and ginger until just softened.  Add the garlic, ground ginger, corriander, turmeric, saffron strands, bruised cardamoms and chilli flakes. Pour in the yellow lentils and the chicken stock and simmer for 10 minutes.

5. Add in the red split lentils and top up with enough water to fully cover the contents of the pan.  Bring to the boil and them simmer on a gentle bubble for around 30 minutes.

6. As the dahl cooks, make some crispy fried onions.  Place the thinly sliced onion into a small frying pan with a tiny bit of sunflower oil and fry REALLY slowly for at least 20 minutes.  The slower the better as this will result in amazingly crispy caramelised onions.  Shortly before you remove them from the heat, add in the whole cumin and black onion seeds to fry for a couple of minutes.

7. Just before the dahl is fully cooked, the lentils will start to stick to the bottom of the pan.  Make sure you stir regularly to prevent sticking and burning.  When the lentils are totally softened, your dahl is ready.  Stir in the fried onion mixture and put the dahl to one side to soak up all the yummy flavours as it cools.  Once cool, you may wish to fish out the whole cardamoms and ginger chunks if you can see them (Mr. B. doesn't like finding large chunks of spices in his dinner).

8. Lara helped me make the Kashmiri masala paste which uses a classic combination of spices from the northern Indian region of Kashmir where red chillis are a particular favourite.  If had been cooking for just grown-ups, I would have used a lot more red chilli in my masala paste!

We dry-fried all of the whole spices in a hot frying pan until they made an awesome smell.  We removed the spices from the heat before they started to pop and placed them straight into a spice grinder (aka coffee grinder) to blend them down to a fine powder.  Lara mixed the blended powder with the ground ginger, corriander and garlic granules before stirring in the lemon juice to make a paste.

9. Next, we made the beetroot and carrot bhajis.  I used a food processor to grate the beetroot and carrots and mixed this with the sliced onion.

Lara sieved the gram flour, bicarbonate of soda and ground rice into a large bowl before stirring in the beetroot mixture and the chopped fresh chilli.  Add a little water at a time to make the mixture soft enough to be able to form balls (don't make it too liquid as it will be hard to make the balls keep their shape).

I cooked our bhajis in a deep fat fryer in batches of 5 at 170 degrees for around 10 minutes for each batch.  My mixture made 12 bhajis.  Make sure you cook the bhajis nice and slowly to avoid burning the outsides before the soft middles have cooked.  Look for a golden coating which is just starting to darken.

Drain the bhajis of fat by placing them onto a sheet of kitchen paper.  The bhajis can be served hot or cold and can be re-heated in a warm oven if needed.

10. About 15 minutes before serving, baste the skins of the sea-bass fillets with the Kashmiri masala paste.

11. About 10 minutes before serving, slowly reheat the dahl and pea puree.

12. The sea-bass fillets only take about 4 minutes to cook.  Heat the butter and oil together in a frying pan until it reaches a medium heat.  Place the fillets into the pan flesh side down for 2 minutes.  Turn them onto their skin side and cook for a further two minutes.  The lemon juice will cause the spices to blacken quickly but don't worry, they won't turn bitter or burned in such a short cooking period!

13. Serve the fish on a bed of the aromatic dahl.  Place the bhajis on a drizzle of the pea puree and finish off with a little freshly grated carrot and beetroot and a sprig of fresh mint.

My girls LOVED this fresh take on a fish curry and I found it to be an elegant and refreshing change.  I've never cooked with beetroot before and I think these bhajis were a triumph!  I loved the overall combination of savoury fish and dahl with sweet beetroot, carrot and peas.  Yummy!

Find out more about the Schwartz #FalvourofTogether anniversary flavour forecast on the Schwartz Facebook page.  Schwartz is looking for people to share their flavour stories on their facebook page and will donate $1 to United Way Worldwide and it's UK partner Focus on Food, for every story shared on the Schwartz website, Facebook page or other social channels

Cooking with Kids :: Healthy Chicken Tikka Masala with Flora #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community and so Lara and I made this scrumptious healthy Chicken Tikka Masala recipe together as part of a sponsored post and shopper insights study for their client - Flora.

Healthy & Tasty Chicken Tikka Masala With Flora

Lara and I love to cook curry together but it has been a while because last time we cooked curry together, I made it too spicy and brought both of my girls to tears! This healthy version of a Chicken Tikka Masala recipe from the Flora website tempted me because it was a reasonably mild curry and sounded easy for us to cook together as a family. I will admit that I have never cooked a Tikka Masala before so it was a first for all of us!  It was another first in the Mellow Kitchen because, on this occasion, Holly joined me for the first time in the Funpod and it was great fun to see her exploring the different smells, tastes and textures (there are some awesome photos of her trying out the lime on my G+ page!)

Preparing for our Flora curry

Holly picking fresh coriander for the Flora chicken tikka masala

I won't repeat the whole of the recipe here but so that you can get an idea of what went into our curry, here is the list of ingredients for our family of 4.

INGREDIENTS
3 chicken breasts
Chopped root ginger
Chopped garlic
Chilli powder
Black Pepper
Fresh Corriander leaf
Lime juice
50ml Flora Cuisine (or Flora Buttery if you prefer)
1 onion
1 red chilli (for Mummy and Daddy only... I wasn't going to make that mistake again)
Ground turmeric
Chicken stock
Elmlea single
Basmati rice

Cooking curry with Flora Cuisine

To me, cooking a curry with Flora cuisine feels very much like cooking with traditional ghee (but I have no idea where I would buy ghee locally) because Flora Cuisine is very runny and more or less liquid. Usually I would cook the chicken in butter before creating a curry sauce as the buttery flavour and richness really makes a curry - oil never makes a particularly tasty curry. I found the flavour of the curry cooked with Flora Cuisine to be just as satisfying but with 70% less saturated fat than butter (and even 45% less than olive oil) it is a healthier start to the recipe for our family.

Mixing the chicken marinade

The chicken was marinated in most of the spices before cooking. We fried it off in the Flora Cuisine together and then fried the onion and turmeric which gives it the vibrant colour (Lara LOVES 'yellow chicken'). We added home-made chicken stock and Elmlea (a low-fat cream alternative) and cooked it all through before garnishing with fresh corriander and slivers of red chilli for the grown-ups.  We served our tasty and healthy Chicken Tikka Masala with plain steamed Basmati rice and a chopped cucumber and tomato salad.

The curry was very mild and wasn't awfully authentic (I'm sure a chicken tikka masala usually has something to give it a vibrant orange colour) but it was perfect for a family meal as it was very light.  I have NEVER seen Holly eat a meal with quite so much enthusiasm... every single atom was consumed.

Chicken Tikka Masala - My favourite!

This is such a simple chicken curry to cook and all of the ingredients are distinct and easy for young children to identify. Lara and I had great fun shopping for the ingredients together (Lara had to smell all of the herbs until she had found the corriander) and to see both girls enjoying such an english classic curry puts a smile on my face.

Flora Healthy Chicken Tikka Masala With Basmati Rice

5-Star Curry and Pregnancy Flashbacks

Just over 12 months ago, Mr. B. and I splashed out on a night out in London for a curry. Not just any curry; a Michelin-starred curry at Benares in Mayfair. This weekend, we went back to celebrate a special birthday. Curry, followed by 5-Star hotel luxury and a baby-free, teething-free, early-wake-up-free night... my idea of a perfect weekend.

During the length of my pregnancy, the only food I craved was curry. Actually, crave is too strong a word. The only food I had any interest in was curry. I am a foodie, I love to plan my meals and daydream about them throughout my working day. I love to cook, I love to eat. During pregnancy, all that changed. I couldn't get excited about food. There was literally nothing that took my fancy. Some days, the effort involved in planning a meal reduced me to tears. The only food that triggered my taste buds for the whole nine months was curry. Curried anything, any way...I wasn't fussy.

When Mr. B & I drew up our list of stuff we wanted to do before the baby arrived, two of the things at the top of our list were 'have a meal at a celebrity-chef's restaurant' and 'go for a weekend in London'. For our 1st wedding anniversary, we decided to kill two birds with one stone. We had dinner at Benares, part of celebrity-chef Atul Kochar's growing restaurant empire. Dinner was stunning. Benares is an impressive restaurant serving a modern take on traditional Indian dishes. Despite the exclusive location, the clientèle span all ages, races and the complete social spectrum. The dining room runs like clockwork and the professionalism of the staff adds to the spectacle of evening.

The evening was lovely but at 6-months pregnant, I was uncomfortable throughout the meal (despite the staff's best efforts to ease the pain with a comfy cushion). I wasn't drinking so I was unable to make the most of the impressive cocktail list and the mouth-watering wine list. It was our first visit to the restaurant and we were in awe of the Michelin-starred Mayfair-esque wonder of it all – it left us feeling a little uneasy and throughout most of the meal we were worrying about how enormous the bill was going to be.

That night, the couple on the table next to us were enjoying the Benares grazing menu – 5 amazing courses; each a set of small samples from the main menu, served with a glass of wine chosen to perfectly compliment the dishes. We swore that if we ever had occasion (or funds) to return to Benares then we would try the grazing menu ourselves.

As promised, this weekend we returned to Benares. As we were led to our seats I couldn't help but notice the couple next to us. Fresh-faced (i.e. no bags under the eyes), loved-up and she, propped up by a remarkably familiar comfy pillow, sporting a well-formed bump and sipping on a non-alcoholic cocktail while her partner guiltily coveted a glass of wine. Their sly looks towards our tasty 5-course grazing menu told me they'd be back, a year from now.

Dinner was brilliant. We tried so many different things that we would ordinarily be afraid to try. Tandoori pigeon, monkfish with squid-ink mayonnaise, pickled prawns, white chocolate and Cointreau mousse (not all in the same course, I hasten to add).

I would love to know whether the couple next to us return next spring for their post-baby celebration. I hope they enjoy their return visit as much as we did!