Me

Me

Sunday 28 October 2012

The thrifty one returns!!

Helloooo lovelies. I cannot believe its been 7 months........7 months!!!! Since my last post! Life well and truly took over! Its mainly because I started working full time.....its been a roller coaster ride but i'm happy, i'm healthy and i'm doing good! I've also moved home AND trained for a half marathon....busy busy!
One of the hardest things (apart from seeing my daughter less of course) is not being able to cook as much :( I miss it so much! By the time I come home from work i'm so tired and since Seren eats tea at the childminders I only have myself to cook for. But recently i've picked up my spatula again and re-found my love for cooking and baking (reignited by the recent Great British Bake Off and new Nigellissima series)!
So today I have spent the majority of the day in the kitchen, helped by my handy helper (little Seren Mai) and have two treats for you....Chicken Makhani and Coconutty flapjacks! Yum.
Firstly I make no such claims that my Chicken Makhani is authentic....or original. Its loosely based on the recipe as I really do like to make things to my taste! Ooo how selfish of me! ;) Luckily little lady likes it too...which helps! She also discovered she likes anchovies last week BONUS! Gotta love a kid who likes food! :)
Here's little miss enjoying her flapjacks and milk after dinner....I think it went down well!


Ok so now to the recipes...first up Chicken Makhani! I made my 'rubber chicken' today so had lots of lovely moist chicken meat to make a few meals, I made a chicken stew but you've seen that recipe before so no need to include it on this post, I also have enough chicken for my yummy buffalo chicken which i'll have for lunch this week.

Ingredients:

Marinade:
- Chicken, raw or cooked. I had cooked and would say I used approx 500g
- 1tbsp Lemon Juice
- 1-2 tsps of chilli powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 2tbsps natural yogurt
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp garam masala

 Sauce:
 - one onion diced finely
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 1 inch piece of ginger grated or made into a paste with pestle and mortar
- 1 tin of tomatoes
- 4tbsps melted butter (ghee preferably)
- 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 2tbsp ground almonds
- 1 tbsp tomato puree
- 1/2 tbsp chilli powder
- 2tsps cumin
- 2tsps coriander
- 1/2 tbsp curry powder
- 1/2 tbsp sugar
-  200ml double cream or a tin of coconut milk if you like the coconutty flavour!
- 1tsp garam masala




Method:
- mix all marinade ingredients together and add chicken, stir to coat and then put in the fridge for at least an hour
- Heat butter in a pan, add onion and fry gently until soft, then add the fenugreek seeds, when they start sizzling add garlic and ginger and fry for a few more mins until softened.
- add the dry spices (except the garam masala) and cook for a few mins, then add the tomato puree again cooking out for a few mins
- add the tin of tomatoes and simmer for 10minutes
- add the ground almonds and sugar and simmer for another 10mins
- at this point add the chicken and stir to combine, if raw cook until cooked....if cooked then simmer very gently for 5-8minutes until cooked through.
- Add the cream and garam masala

Serve with whatever accompaniments you like. We had brown rice, mango chutney and poppadoms. I also served mine with natural yogurt and another sprinkling of garam masala.

Here's little lady enjoying her curry with gusto!


Lastly are the delicious flapjacks I made. They are from Sophie Dahls recipe and I followed it to the tee apart from the sour cherries and mango as didn't have any...so mine are the less fancy plain old coconut flapjacks. And yummy they were too!!
Here's the link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/goldenflapjackswithm_93620



And here's the final product: 


I cooked them for 10 mins less than Sophie Dahl's recommended time however as I love em chewy!!!

Well that's it....I hope you enjoy!

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