Pakistan Chicken and Potato Curry

This is a really lovely tasty and pretty easy Pakistan curry that my Dad taught me how to make! If you can get your hands on the spice mix for it, it's really simple to make. If not I've listed all the spices you need to make a very similar mix below!

SERVES 2

45 MINS 

INGREDIENTS

1 Onion

2 Cloves Garlic

1tsp Ginger Paste (or a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled)

500g Passata

250g Diced Chicken Breast (or 2 chicken breasts cut into chunks)

1tsp Achar Gosht Curry Spice mix (or alternative below)

1 Chicken stock cube

1 Potato

Rice to serve

This is the spice mix we use for this curry. It's quite hard to find my Dad gets it from an Asda sometimes but it's not always in stock. You might be able to find it on markets or specialilst Asian supermarkets and I'm sure you'll be able to find it somewhere on the internet to order but if you can't here's my alternative ingredients for it:

1tsp Cumin Powder

1tsp Coriander Powder

1/4tsp Chilli Powder

1/4tsp Cinnamon

1/2tsp All Spice

1/2tsp Salt

1/2tsp Black Pepper

These are the basic ingredients that you might have in your spice cupboard. There are a few more spices that go into the actual packet mix but this will give you a pretty similar taste. Just use a teaspoon of the mix and save the rest for another time. If you're missing one or two of the spices don't worry too much it'll still make a tasty curry!

METHOD

-Roughly peel and chop your onion, garlic and ginger if you're using fresh ginger and put into a food processor (If you don't have a processor don't worry just chop everything finely)

- Add your passata and blend until its a smooth sauce

- Add your sauce to a pan and heat on a medium flame for 10-15 minutes.

- While that's heating peel and cut your potato into small chunks, add to a pan and season with salt.

- Cover with water and bring to a boil. Cook these until they're tender (about 20 minutes)

- Once your sauce has cooked for the 10-15 minutes add your chicken stock cube and spice mix and stir in.

- Now add your diced chicken.

- Stir in so all the chicken is covered in sauce. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer (don't boil your chicken it'll go tough). Cover and leave to cook for 15 minutes.

- Drain your potatoes once they're cooked and add them to the sauce after the chicken has cooked for 15 minutes.

- Leave to cook for about 2-3 minutes just so the potatoes get coated in the sauce and can absorb the flavours a bit.

-Serve with rice, naan and whatever else you love with curry!

*Add a sprinkling of fresh coriander at the end to add extra flavour and a bit more colour to your dish!*

Enjoy!

Living Live at Uttoxeter Racecourse

So, there was a little Lifestyle festival on at Uttoxeter Racecourse this weekend and I decided to pop along for a look! I always go to these things purely to eat some really good food! This time I opted for the Ostrich Burger and my boyfriend, Adam, had the Buffalo burger! They were both really nice but I have to say the Buffalo won for me! I wish I'd got that, it was really tasty. I also had a lovely chocolate ice-cream and I'm annoyed at myself because I didn't get a picture of their name! But they had some really interesting flavours like salted caramel, lemon cheesecake, triple ginger, pineapple I think was in there too! 

Buffalo Burger 

I also got some brownies from Harry's Milkshake and Munchies, which I have been eating warmed up each night with a scoop of chocolate ice-cream! I've only got one left so I'm sad about that!! The last thing I got on my way out was a bulb of smoked garlic! I just thought it'd be worth giving it a go and seeing what it was like in my curries or whatever else I make this week! I did try it in a curry I made on Sunday night and it tasted good. The only way I can really describe it is it had a bit of a pickled taste about it?? Which might not sound appetising but it was actually a really good flavour! It just brought out the flavour of the garlic a lot more!

The Smoked Garlic

I'll hopefully be going to the Shugborough Great British Food Festival in a few weeks time too, which I'm really excited about I just wish I could fit more food in my tummy because I know I'm going to want to eat everythiiiing!!

Cheesy Mash Pie

*DISCLAIMER* 

This is not a healthy recipe, if you're looking for something suitable for dieting turn away. If you're looking for something cheesy and gooey, with just a bit of crispyness...read on....

SERVES: 2-3

ROUGHLY 1h10mins PREP AND COOKING TIME

INGREDIENTS

3 Medium Sized Potatoes

6 tbsp Milk

1 tbsp Butter

150-200g Grated Cheese (Mixed cheddar and Mozzarella works really well)

Salt and Pepper to taste 

METHOD

- Heat your oven to 180° C (fan oven)

- Peel and cut your potatoes into small cubes, as equally sized as you can get them.

- Put into a large pan and sprinkle with some salt.

- Fill pan with cool water so that it covers all the potatoes.

 - Bring to boil and cook for 20-25 minutes or until the potatoes are soft. A fork should pass through them easily.

- Drain your potatoes in a colander. Then return to the now empty pan. 

- Add your milk and butter to your potatoes and start mashing!

- When the mash is nice and smooth have a taste and add any salt and pepper if it needs it.

- Add almost all of your cheese to the mash and stir in.

- Once it's all combined scoop it all into an ovenproof dish.

- You can either add whatever cheese you've got left now or wait until it's almost cooked. It just depends on whether you like slightly burnt crispy cheese or just melted cheese on top. I don't like the taste of well-done cheese so I add mine 5 minutes before its finished cooking.

- Cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes.

- And you're done! 

You can serve this with all sorts, I like to have it with chicken, my boyfriend always has it with sausage and beans (below). It'll go with any kind of meat really. Or even just serve with some steamed vegetables.

Tips!

*This would also be really nice with some chopped chives mixed in or cooked chopped onions if you prefer*

Crispy Chicken Chilli Noodles

                                       

I love Chinese food but I'm not a fan of sweet dishes so this is a really yummy savoury and spicy alternative. If you are a fan of the sweet flavours you can easily drizzle some sweet chilli sauce over at the end or add a teaspoon of sugar when you add your soy and oyster sauce.

SERVES: 2

30 MINS COOKING TIME (+marinating time of your choice)

INGREDIENTS

FOR CHICKEN:                                                      FOR NOODLES:

2 Chicken Breasts                                                  2 Nests Medium Egg Noodles

1 tsp Salt                                                           1 Green Pepper, thinly sliced

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper                                    2 Mushrooms, sliced

1 tsp Garlic Powder                                               1 Red Chilli, thinly sliced

2 tsp Chinese 5 Spice                                             4-5 Spring Onions, trimmed and sliced

1 1/2 tsp Chilli Flakes (or to taste)                             1 tsp Ginger Paste

3 tbsp Plain Flour                                                  1 tsp Garlic Paste

Vegetable Oil                                                        1 1/2 tbsp Light Soy Sauce

                                                                       1 tbsp Oyster Sauce

METHOD

- In a cup or bowl mix salt, pepper, garlic powder, Chinese 5 spice and chilli flakes. In another bowl put your 3 tablespoons of flour, add half of your spice mix to the flour and combine. Put both these aside for now.


- Cut your chicken breasts into small, bite size pieces and put in a bowl

- Add the other half of your spice to the chicken and mix so the chicken is coated.

- Refrigerate your chicken for at least an hour. (You don't NEED to do this step but the longer it gets to sit in the spices the tastier it'll be in the end)

- While you're waiting for your chicken to marinate, boil a pan of water and add your noodles. The pack should tell you how long to cook for but on average it'll be about 4-5 minutes. Once cooked drain in a colander and drizzle with a bit of oil and put to one side.

- Once you've left your chicken for however long you decided, get your flour and spice and coat each piece of chicken in the mix.

- Once you've coated each piece if you have any flour left over just sprinkle it over your chicken, the more flour that you can get on the chicken the crispier it'll be.

- Add a generous amount of vegetable oil to a frying pan, enough so there's a shallow pool and heat on a medium-high flame.

- When your oil is hot add your chicken.

*Make sure to not overcrowd your pan, you're chicken will take longer to cook and won't be as crispy if you cook too much at once, I had to cook mine in 2 batches*

- Cook your chicken for about 7 minutes and then flip and cook for a further 5-6 minutes or until cooked through.

- Remove your chicken from the pan and put on some kitchen roll for the time being, this will soak up any excess oil.

- CAREFULLY drain about half the oil from you pan and return to heat. Add your chopped vegetables and then your garlic and ginger paste.

- Cook for about 5 minutes, making sure to mix your pastes in quite well.

- Add your cooked noodles, soy sauce and oyster sauce and mix well. Cook for about 2-3 minutes.

- Finally add your chicken back into the pan just to heat through.

- Serve and enjoy!

Tips!

*Throw whatever vegetables you fancy in, these are just the ones I tested first!*

*Add more or less chilli depending on your taste!*

*Substitute the chicken for beef, pork or prawns, whatever meat you prefer or throw them all in there!*

If you have any questions about the recipe feel free to ask me.