2 for 1 - Chicken Tikka and Chicken Tikka Masala

Make this for an entree..













Restaurant style Chikken Tikka cooked in a
frying pan

Recipe from The Curry Secret

And get this too for the main course!














Chicken Tikka Masala without the artificial colourings

Then rustle up a little comfort food for the distressed gardner...
















Easy Hazelnut and Choc Chip Cookies


Disaster strikes. Everything is shrivelled. Nature’s been hard but also provides the remedies.......

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Notes from diary, early November 2008. What will I find? I’m too impatient to even help unload the car, I go straight down to the veggie garden.

Oh no! Everything and I mean EVERYTHING, is stunted and shrivelled, leaves and stems covered with blotches of white-grey powder. Growth completely and utterly halted. The turnip leaves, the peas, beans, melons, pumpkins and sweet corn, even the tagetes (French marigolds) that (are supposed to) keep nasty bugs at bay - absolutely everything has succumbed to this terrible affliction. I examine them all in disbelief. Nothing is spared. I could cry.

Forlornly I stagger back up to the cottage. My husband has just unloaded the last of the bags, eskies and all the other things we cart to and fro. I almost drag him down the hill to show him what’s happened. He’s sympathetic but optimistic that they’ll recover. I don't share his optimism right now. I want to get onto my laptop and diagnose what it is and what can be done about it, but there is unpacking to do, a hoard of dead bugs to vacuum off the carpet and the dog’s hassling for his dinner. I plug in the old combination microwave that should have been thrown out years ago, programme the clock (It won’t work until you do that), find his dinner from the bottom of the esky, warm it up for him (he throws up if you don't), add a little olive oil and a doggy vitamin pill whilst he scurries around my ankles. Tonight he’s having chicken risotto, but he also loves mackerel or tuna with rice and veggies, a little steak and occasionally roast lamb. Roast free range chicken with all the trimmings is his absolute favourite. My kids reckon he eats better than they do. Apart from a little dry food that I give him daily to keep his teeth clean, he won’t eat dog food. I spoil him.

As soon as I’ve got my computer going, I do a Google search “powdery covering on leaves”. I soon confirm that I have, or rather the vegetables have, powdery mildew, a fungal infection that is fairly common during a wet, cold spring (like the weather that descended on us last week). I do another search for “organic treatment for powdery mildew” and am pleased to find there are several simple things that have been shown to be effective, although it seems more as preventatives rather than cures. The simplest one is manure tea, so I go back down and douse everything with copious amounts of the manure tea that I always have brewing down in the veggie patch.

Another treatment tested by the Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney is sodium bicarbonate (baking soda). A mixture of 2 tsp of sodium bicarbonate dissolved in a litre of water with a drop of washing up liquid to help spread the mixture and ½ tsp of vegetable oil to fix the mixture onto the leaves and stems of the plant when it dries. The sodium bicarbonate makes the plant surface too alkaline for the germination of fungal spores. The mixture should be sprayed onto susceptible plants about once a week or after rain to prevent the fungus getting hold. It seems a bit late, it’s already got a hold but tomorrow I’ll wage war on this rotten organism with baking soda and a spray bottle!

For now it’s past dinner time and whilst the dog is well fed, we’re starving. I’m glad I did some preparation the night before. Tangy Marinated Chicken with Spicy Lentils topped with Coriander and Lime Relish is a very tasty ‘fusion’ dish I created a while ago for some curry sceptics. It’s great with a glass or two of rosé. We’ll sleep well after this.

I’m aware that kindness can kill but doing things by halves has never been my strong point. Manure tea, baking soda mix, liquid seaweed, fish emulsion, over the next days, I do the lot! I take out a few of the more sickly looking beans and put in some more seed, but apart from cutting off a few very badly affected leaves, everything remains. I also spend two days, fly veil over my head (the flies are driving me mad) fixing lengths of shade cloth to the fence to serve as a wind break. Not only are fungal spores spread by wind, but most plants can’t handle the strong winds we’re getting here.

I’ve actually managed to pick some rocket that looks fine and tastes wonderful and white, pink and purple radishes that range from mild to quite peppery hot, yummy. You can’t buy these in the shops! I'm starting to feel a bit more upbeat.

We extend the fence and the watering system to cover the remaining beds and do some more mulching and planting. By the time we leave at the end of November everything is looking much happier.

I’m glad I wasn’t tempted to use chemicals as these often cause other problems. They can affect beneficial micro organisms in the soil, and can kill pollinators, like bees, and other useful insects that help control pests. It appears the ingredients for some effective organic remedies are hiding in the kitchen.


Let's cook something nice to celebrate.

Chicken Tikka and Chicken Tikka Masala

Ask for a Chicken Tikka Masala anywhere in India, and it is likely that all you will get is a blank look. 'Going out for a curry' is not an Indian pastime but in the West, and Britain in particular, it is a ritual that many people relish with gusto. Chicken Tikka Masala is reportedly the most frequently consumed dish in Britain and is even more popular than Fish and Chips.

Chicken Tikka Masala is probably more than any other restaurant dish, a hybrid of Indian and western tastes: tikka is a morsel of roasted meat, traditionally eaten without curry sauce or ‘gravy’, a practice seemingly unattractive to western palates. The ‘Masala’ part of the dish is the western touch that possibly came about in Glasgow in the 1960’s when a long-suffering Indian chef mixed some spices and yoghurt into canned tomato soup and presented his ever complaining customers with the sauce they demanded. The rest, as they say is history.

With a few enhancements since that fateful time, the dish has become an icon of Indian restaurant cuisine. Indeed, in 2001, Britain’s foreign minister Robin Cook declared it to be Britain’s “national dish” and the British consume vast amounts of it each week. It is in fact even more popular than fish and chips.

There are many recipes for Chicken Tikka Masala. The one below is easy to prepare and quite delicious as many readers of The Curry Secret have attested. Start by making a double quantity of chicken tikka to serve as a starter and combine the remainder with the creamy, subtly spiced curry sauce to make the famous masala dish. 2 for 1.

You won't get the deep orangey red colour with this recipe as I prefer not to use the artificial red and yellow food colourings that a lot of Indian chefs seem to be attached to, but rest assured the flavour does not suffer.

Prepare the chicken (and masala 'sauce' if you like) the day before and let it gently marinate in your fridge over night.

Chicken Tikka - served sizzling

Succulent chunks of chicken marinated in yoghurt and spices, skewered and cooked quickly at high heat in a tandoor, or in this case, an electric fry pan, make a delicious and impressive starter. It's so easy to make you have to wonder what all the fuss is about.

Serves 4. Preparation and cooking time: 20 minutes (plus marinating time).

6 large chicken fillets
8 tbsp good quality plain yogurt
½ - 1 tsp red chilli powder, to taste
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika

To serve: 1 large brown onion sliced into chunks, little olive oil to drizzle, lemon juice, fresh coriander, yoghurt mint sauce

• Rinse and trim the chicken fillets and slice each one into largish bite sized chunks.
• Place all the remaining ingredients into a bowl and mix well.
• Add the chicken pieces to the bowl and mix again, making sure that all the pieces are well coated with the yogurt. Cover and refrigerate for 4–6 hours or over night.
• Preheat the oven to its maximum temperature or heat a barbecue, teppanyaki plate or heavy based frying pan.
• If cooking in the oven, place the chicken pieces, shaking off excess marinade, onto a rack in a shallow baking tray in a single layer and bake near the top of the oven for 10 minutes or until cooked through.
• Or place chicken pieces on to a hot teppenyaki plate or fry pan cook for about 7 minutes, turning once or twice, until cooked through. Be careful not overcrowd and chicken pieces. They need to cook quickly without stewing.
• Reserve about half of the chicken for the next dish and serve the remainder like this:-

Let's sizzle!!
While the chicken is just finishing cooking, heat a sizzler dish or cast iron frying pan over medium to high heat until very hot. Keeping the dish or pan on the heat, spread your onion chunks roughly over the surface. Working quickly, pile your cooked chicken pieces over the onion and (this is what starts it all) pour a little olive oil to the side of the pan or dish and lift one end of it slightly so that it rolls down to the other side. It starts to sizzle. Now let's finish what we started. Sprinkle some lemon juice over. Now it really starts to sizzle and wow! Doesn't it smell absolutely wonderful? Sprinkle over the coriander and serve immediately to your surprised guests.
I bet they didn't expect this.
Tip: reserve about a tablespoon of the marinade for the next dish.


Chicken Tikka Masala
Don't even think about buying a ready made paste or sauce for this, they give Indian food a bad name. With a very little effort you can have the real thing. You will already have some chicken tikka ready to go so all you have to do is prepare a version of my Curry Secret curry sauce and you will work some magic you didn't know you could.


It's easy...


The Quick Version of the Curry Secret curry sauce. Fry 2-3 brown onions in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil until transparent. Stir in 2 cloves chopped garlic and about 1 tsp grated ginger and continue to fry for a couple more minutes. Add 1 tsp turmeric and 1/2 tsp salt and stir through. Add 2 tsp tomato paste and half a tin of tomatoes. Cook stirring for 2-3 minutes and add enough warm water to cover the mixture well - about a litre. Simmer half covered for 45 minutes to an hour. Cool slightly and blend until smooth. I use my stick blender for this but a jug blender is even better if you're not bothered by the washing up. Done.



Serves 3 – 4.

Preparation and cooking time: 15 minutes.

4 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp ground cumin
2 cups (500ml) of the curry sauce you just made (remaining sauce can be frozen)
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 level tsp chilli powder (or to taste)
½ tsp coriander
½ tsp garam masala (optional)
Chicken Tikka prepared as above
6 tbsp single cream
1 tbsp reserved marinade
1 tbsp coriander, finely chopped

• Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan, and stir in the cumin. Fry for a few seconds and add the curry sauce. Bring the sauce to the boil.
• Add the paprika, salt, chilli powder and ground coriander and continue to cook on high heat stirring frequently for about 5 minutes or until the sauce thickens.
• Turn down the heat and stir in the garam masala . Simmer for about 3 minutes.
• Meanwhile, slice each piece of chicken tikka into two and add to the sauce. Stir in the cream and simmer for a further 2 minutes.
• Stir in the reserved marinade and simmer for at least one more minute.
  
  Serve sprinkled with the coriander accompanied by pilau rice and nan bread. Yum!

Easy Hazelnut and Choc Chip Cookies
Well, a girl needs to indulge occasionally. These are brilliant with a cup of my home-made flat white made from locally roasted coffee beans and organic milk.
Makes about 30

Preparation time: 15 minutes Cooking time: 15 minutes

90g plain organic flour
90g hazelnut meal
110g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
50g cold butter, chopped into pieces
2 egg whites, preferably free range, beaten
½ tsp vanilla essence
½ cup chocolate chips

• Pre-heat the oven to 160°C. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.
• Place flour, hazelnut meal, sugar and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Do not over process. Transfer to a mixing bowl.
• Beat egg whites and vanilla essence together until frothy and stir into flour and hazelnut mixtureand bring it together until you have a firm dough.
• Shape into a log and chill for 30 minutes or so if you have time - this just makes it easier to handle. Slice thinly and press choc chips into each biscuit.
• Bake for 15 minutes, swapping trays around from top to bottom half way through.
• Leave in the oven for a further 3 minutes and then remove. Sprinkle with a little caster sugar. Cool slightly and transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Enjoy.

Ajwaini King Prawns

King Prawns tossed with carom seeds, coriander and cumin served with char-grilled orange slices
Recipe from THE NEW CURRY SECRET
http://www.thecurrysecret.co.uk/


Sometimes the land yields more than you put in....















Just picked field mushrooms from a trail en route to the cow paddock. Delicious sauted in a little butter and garlic and served with a juicy barbecued steak.







The veggie seeds were finally sown and then we went back to Sydney for two weeks leaving them in the care of hungry hares, curious kangaroos and the thousands of field mice. After all the hard work to get them in, did they make it???

Notes from diary Late October 2008. The suspense I feel is so great I don’t even unpack. I need to see what's happening down in the veggie patch. A sigh of relief - it’s not too bad. The watering sprays didn’t cover some areas of the beds so seeds there haven’t germinated, but I have plenty of healthy looking seedlings. The peas and beans are peeking through but only about half of the dozen or so sweet corn have appeared. This isn’t so good. Sweet corn is wind pollinated so needs to be planted in blocks of at least 16 plants for optimum fertilisation. I was pushing it with 12. Pumpkins are looking good so is everything else that managed to germinate. No sign of the aubergines and the one half of a bed that I sowed carrot seed in is totally bare. Carrots do take time to germinate but I’m not sure if they’ve germinated and died due to lack of water or if they haven’t germinated yet. So I sow some more carrot seed just in case, and some more aubergine.

I make some manure tea (for the veggies, not the husband) by mixing some prized cow manure that we risked our lives retrieving from the cow paddock with water and letting it stand overnight. I water everything with a diluted mix of this every 3 days or so. I also douse the the rapidly growing plants with some seaweed extract.

The fencer hasn’t called with the quote. I ring another one that is recommended by a neighbour and leave a message, but he doesn’t call back. There's nothing else for it but to do it oursleves. After a determined trip to the hardware my ever suffering husband carts several star pickets, a star picket driver, and a huge roll of rabbit wire down to the vegetable site and we make a temporary but hopefully effective fence, around the 4 beds. Surely there are fencers in Orange that actually want work! I suspect there are and eventually we’ll find one, but for now this will have to do.














4 of the raised beds are fenced in to keep the hares out. Hopefully the kangaroos will be disinterested


By the time we leave everything (except for the carrots and aubergines) is growing beautifully. Some more sweet corn has appeared and the zucchini, peas and beans have unfurled their tender leaves, shedding the seed casings they’ve been clinging onto like umbilical cords. It’s an inspirational sight– the emergence of healthy, vibrant, bright new life. It’s incredible that these little morsels of life will grow into such a diverse range of edible, nourishing and in some cases, very large plants and fruits, and in an amazingly short time.

And the mushrooms are a tasty and unexpected bonus!

Back in Sydney, I’ve taken to checking the weather in Orange at least once daily, sometimes twice. Particularly the rainfall. Not only because of the trees and veggie garden but because we don’t have town water. We use what my husband calls God’s water. When it rains, our roof harvests the water into the 10,000 litre tank that sits besides the cottage. We have a 100 square metre roof so we collect 100 litres of water for every 1 ml of rain.















Collecting God’s water




The main house will have a 120,000 litre tank and collect 4 times as much, but for now this small tank is serving us well. The weather stations show we’re having good rains, but it’s turned unseasonably cold and Orange has had hail. Maybe we didn’t get it on Mount Sugarloaf because we are 100m lower than Orange and the temperature is generally 2°C higher. Oh dear!

Lets eat:

Ajwaini King Prawns

Ajwaini King Prawns is an impressive dish that is bursting with flavour. It is delicately yet distinctly spiced with the unique flavour of carom seeds and the tangy sweetness of the orange.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes including marinating time

16 king prawns
1 tsp carom seeds (ajwain)
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
½ tsp of turmeric
1 green chilli finely chopped
1 tbsp of finely chopped coriander
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp of salt
Zest of half an orange
1 orange, sliced

• Shell and de-vein the prawns leaving the tail intact. Rinse under cold water, drain and pat dry with paper towels.
• Mix all the remaining ingredients, except for the sliced orange, in a non-ceramic bowl and add the prawns. Stir to coat and leave to marinate for 15 minutes.
• Heat a griddle or heavy based frying pan large enough to take the prawns in a single layer.
  Stir the salt into the prawns cook them over medium heat for about 5 minutes, turning once or twice.
• Meanwhile, char grill the orange slices for a minute each side.
• Serve prawns with a green salad, the char grilled orange slices and coriander and mint drizzle.

Coriander and Mint drizzle

Take a handful of fresh coriander and mint, 1 or two green chillies, juice of a lemon, 1 tsp of caster sugar and salt and pepper to taste, and place in a blender.

Blend until smooth. Store in the fridge for up to 24 hours.

FUSION FOOD

Tangy Marinated Chicken on a bed of Spicy Lentils with Coriander and Lime Relish


















Home-made organic sour dough type bread



Notes from diary early October, back in Orange. Where did all these flies come from? And let’s not mention the grass. Let’s talk about Dave though. Dave lives down the hill and he has (no not a combine harvester) a bob cat. He clears and smooths out a piece of ground that was too hard to do by hand (and too hard for my doggy to negotiate). He and his bob cat also fill the remaining beds with soil – it takes them about 5 minutes. It took me 2 days just to fill one and a bit.


















The soil we bought is a little sandy, I would really like to dig in some organic matter - some compost, manure or chook poo. Although I have started a compost bin, I don’t have any compost yet, I can’t find the cow manure in the long grass (I’m too scared of the highly poisonous brown snakes to look too hard) and the garden centres have sold out of chook poo. Looks like other people prepared their garden beds for sowing some weeks ago! Never-the-less, I need to do something. I purchase a bag of blood and bone and water crystals that swell up and help hold moisture in the soil, combined, these should be a reasonable substitute for compost. I sprinkle generous handfuls of each onto the soil and lightly mix it in. Now I need to water it and we still don’t have a watering system. But I do have a watering can and, donning fly veil and gum boots (wellies), up the hill I go and down again, about 10 times until I have damp soil in the 4 beds in which I am going to (finally) sow these vegetable seeds. The dog wasn’t much help!















Fly veil for protection against the swarms of flies, gum boots for (some) protection from the brown snakes, if my friends could see me now.


2 days to go before we leave again and 4 out of the 7 beds are planted and watered. I’ve also made three extra beds on the ground, lining small areas with newspaper to keep the grass and weeds out, using rocks for borders and filling them up with my organic garden soil, with blood and bone and water crystals added. I plant sweet corn, pumpkins and cantaloupe melons in each of these. I’ve also sown snow peas, sugar snap peas, 3 different varieties of beans, cucumbers, rainbow chard, bloomsdale spinach, lots of radishes, spring onions, rocket, lettuce, bok choy, red pak choy, zucchini, zucchetta, turnips, carrots, beetroot, aubergines, capsicums not mention some herbs and garlic to keep the bad bugs away. There is no fence around them yet, but I figure that until they’ve grown a little there is nothing for the hares to get at. Need to get a watering system in though because the soil will need to be kept moist for germination to occur and it doesn’t rain often enough to do that. The weather’s warmed up (spring arrives a few weeks later in Orange compared to Sydney) so we should get a good start.

The day before we leave, an exhausted husband attaches the 4 veggie beds to a temporary watering system with a very long poly pipe and some spray nozzles. Eventually we’ll put in a drip system as this uses less water, prevents leaf burn and reduces the risk of mould, but this will have to do for now. Only the raised beds are hooked up for the moment. The sweet corn, melon and pumpkins will have to fend for themselves until we come back. They’re sown deeper than the small seeds and I’ve given them a deep watering (with mywatering can) so they should make it. Hopefully we’ll get some rain.

The cookings been good though:

Tangy Marinated Chicken on a bed of Spicy Lentils
with Coriander and Lime Relish

I concocted this dish a couple of years ago for a dinner party for guests who were unsure about Indian food. It was an enormous hit. I suppose you could call it an example of ‘fusion food’. It looks quite impressive and tastes great.

For convenience, you can prepare the relish up to 2 days ahead, the chicken can be marinated several hours ahead and the lentils and vegetables can be prepared and cooked several hours ahead too.

Serves 4

Preparation: 30 minutes Marinating time: 30 minutes Cooking time: 45 minutes


For Chicken:
4 free range chicken fillets
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
1 tsp grated lime rind
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander (stems and leaves)
½ tsp turmeric
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp olive oil

For Lentils:
1 cup green lentils, rinsed and drained
2 carrots, sliced into rounds
2 potatoes, diced
2 tbsp ghee or olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
1 cup frozen peas
Freshly ground black pepper
4 thin slices ginger, julienned
1 tbsp chopped coriander

For Coriander and Lime Relish:
1 cup coriander, leaves and stems
1 clove garlic, roughly chopped
1 red chilli, seeded and finely chopped
2 tbsp grated fresh coconut (or 1 tbsp dessicated)
1 tsp grated lime rind
2 tbsp lime juice
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper

Chicken: Score chicken flesh lightly and place in a large bowl. Combine all the other ingredients and rub into chicken. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 8 hours.

Lentils: While chicken is marinating, boil lentils in plenty of water for about 30 minutes until soft but not mushy. Drain. Also, boil potato and carrot in boiling salted water until tender. Drain.

Coriander and Lime Relish: Combine all ingredients in the bowl of a small food processor and process until fine. Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until required.

Preheat oven to 200°C.

• Place chicken in baking dish, spoon over marinade and roast for 20 -25 minutes until cooked through.
• Meanwhile, heat ghee or oil in a medium saucepan and cook the onion for 2 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and fry for 30 seconds.
• Add turmeric, stir and add lentils, cooked vegetables, frozen peas and salt. Add about half a cup of water and bring all ingredients to a simmer.
• Taking care not to break up lentils and vegetables, stir though freshly ground black pepper, ginger and coriander. Simmer until thoroughly heated through and all liquid is absorbed, about 5 minutes.
  
  To serve, ladle some lentil mixture onto deep plates, top with cooked chicken and spoon over a little relish. Garnish with extra red chillies and coriander if desired.

Home-made Organic Bread (with the help of my bread machine)

I stopped buying bread some years ago. Like much of the highly processed food available nowadays, I wasn't sure what went into it. Preservatives, flavours, stabilizers, colourings not to mention what goes onto the wheat itself - pesticides, fungicides and believe it or not, fire retardant during storage. A chemical cocktail in a sandwich! No thanks.

The house is filled with the lovely aroma of fresh baking bread most days but if that conjures of up images of me slaving in a hot kitchen all day every day, forget it. I do it the easy way - with a bread maker. This fantastic device takes the hard work out of the whole process but I don't let the machine do all the thinking, I drive it.

Once I've added the ingredients and started the machine, I lift the lid to ensure that the dough is the right texture. I add a little more water or a little more flour as required to get a soft but not sticky dough. Once the kneading stops, I often turn the machine off and let the dough double in size in its own time. Once that has happened, I punch it down and if I only want fresh bread for the two of us, I slice about a third of the dough off, shape it and put it back into the bread pan to rise again. Once it's risen to how I like it, I bake it in the machine using the bake only programme. I refrigerate the remainder of the dough, punching it down a few times until it cools enough to stop rising. I may use half of the dough the next day and the remainder the day after of even a day later, by which time it has developed some sour dough characteristics. The bread in the photo is made with dough that is 3 days old. I wouldn't keep it much longer than 4 days, but the bread tastes better as the dough matures so it's an added benefit.

This is my recipe:

250ml (1 cup) warm water
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp olive oil
3 tsp instant dried yeast
450g (3 cups) strong organic bread flour
1 level tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp bread improver*

Put the ingredients into the bread pan in the order listed. Select the french bread programme (this kneads for longer and produces a lighter loaf) and switch on. Check after a few minutes and add a few more drops of water if the dough looks too dry or a tablespoon more flour if it looks too sticky. Let the machine complete the whole programme for a fresh baked loaf or follow the instructions above for 3 small loaves over the next 3 days.

*most instant dried yeasts in the UK have an improver added.

Spicy Lamb Cutlets, Raita & Home-made Yoghurt

Spicy Lamb Cutlets – Garlicky, spicy lamb cutlets, marinated in fresh herbs and grilled until sizzling.
Recipe from The New Curry Secret















Raita made with home-made organic yoghurt

 
Notes form diary late September 2008, back in Orange. This blooming grass! Oh well, it is getting a bit easier as we dig out the rocks – the ones that don’t go all the way to China that is. I use the ones that I can lift to build rock borders around some of the areas we barked and gravelled last time around. It’s hot, exhausting work but a good way to keep fit. I’m getting a tan on top of my tan and muscles on top my muscles, but the rock borders look absolutely beautiful. Every cloud has a silver lining.















Rock Border in front of the Cottage
and the views to the North West



Several tons of organic soil and wood chip have been delivered. Still time to plant the summer veg - once we’ve transferred the soil into the beds, that is. And spread weed mats over the grass and covered them with wood chip. And built a fence to keep the hares out. And put a watering system in. We’ve got a few days, we’ll get there.

The fencer I called doesn’t turn up. He comes the following day, spends an hour chatting about all sorts of things (except the fence) and said he’ll call with a quote.

The evening before we go back to Sydney, the raised beds are assembled, the area around 4 of them has been covered in weed mats and mulched with wood chip, we have filled one bed, using
a shovel and wheel barrow, and about a third filled the others so that they don’t blow away.

















Beds are ready but there is no watering system. Next time I will sow.

Phew. The good thing about this hard work is that it gives me very healthy appetite and I can eat lots without putting on weight.

Spicy Lamb Cutlets
These lamb cutlets are so succulent and tasty you will have them coming back for more. They are ideal for an entree to a formal dinner or as finger food for a casual bash.

The cutlets come from the rib and contain the tender fillet attached to the rib bone which makes them ideal as a finger food for informal gatherings.

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time: 30 minutes approx (plus 2-3 hours marinating time)

8 lamb cutlets
2 tbsp finely chopped mint leaves
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp paprika
3 cloves garlic, minced garlic
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
Juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp mint jelly
1 tsp of salt

• Trim the cutlets and scrape the bone ends to remove
  fat and gristle.
• Mix all the remaining ingredients except salt in a bowl,
  and add the lamb cutlets. Using your hands rub the
  herb and spice mixture into the meat ensuring each
  cutlet is evenly coated. Cover and leave to marinate in
  the fridge for at least 2 hours or overnight.
• Remove the lamb from the fridge about half an hour
  before cooking.
• Heat a heavy based frying pan capable of holding
  the cutlets without overcrowding, until very hot.
• Sprinkle somed salt onto each cutlet. Cook the cutlets
  for about 1 ½ minutes each side.
• Serve hot with yoghurt mint sauce.

Tips: The mint jelly is the secret ingredient in this dish. The hint of sweetness balances the lemon juice and spices beautifully.

Ready prepared garlic, usually preserved in lemon juice, is also a good shortcut for garlicky marinades.
Yoghurt Mint Sauce

150ml (5 fl oz) plain yoghurt
1 tsp mint sauce
½ level tsp salt
¼ tsp chilli powder
¼ tsp garam masala
¼ tsp ambchoor
½ tsp caster sugar
2 tsp chopped fresh mint (optional)

Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
Raita

Yoghurt is a superb accompaniment to spicy foods and traditionally, is served in some guise or another at every Indian meal. It is a common side dish or accompaniment on the Indian restaurant menu as Raita, lightly spiced and usually combined with shredded cucumber. Cucumber is an excellent ingredient to use in Raita – it doesn’t require cooking, is easy to prepare and has the right texture and mild flavour, but other vegetables or even fruits can be used to add variety.

I have used a combination of onion, cucumber and carrot but you might like to try grated daikon or radish, chopped tomato, shredded mint or finely diced melon or apple.

If you don’t wish to make you own yoghurt, purchase a good quality, preferably organic, commercial product.

Serves 4

Preparation time: 15 minutes

½ red onion, finely sliced
1 carrot, grated
½ cucumber, grated or julienned
1 small clove garlic, finely chopped
1 green chilli, finely chopped
300ml (11 fl oz) yoghurt
½ tsp salt (or to taste)
½ tsp cumin seeds
½ tsp garam masala
Pinch turmeric (optional)

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and stir until well mixed. Refrigerate until required.

How to make yoghurt
Bring a litre of organic milk to the boil. Let the milk stand until it cools to about 36°C - blood heat. Transfer the milk to a warm bowl or other container with a lid and stir in 2 tbs of live plain yoghurt. Wrap the container in a tea-towel and place in a warm place for 4-5 hours until set. Refrigerate for up to a week.

Easy Thai Style Laksa and Proscuitto and Rocket Pizza

Easy Thai Style Laksa


















Procuitto and Rocket Pizza




Notes from diary, early September 2008, back in Orange. The grass is about 2 ft tall, the kangaroos have trampled some the orchard trees that I spent hours nurturing, and the hares have ring barked almost all of the remainder (probably the farm trees too but I won’t look, I’m depressed enough). Still no raised beds.
















The local residents. These two Grey Kangaroos are part of a mob of about thirty that like to sun themselves not twenty metres from our cottage in the early morning. When we’re not here, they become even bolder and “nibble” on and ocassionally knock over our precious fruit trees. I guess they were here first.

We spend several days doing more hard labour – smoothing out the builders rubble, spreading gravel for a car parking area and bark over bare sections of earth that will otherwise get covered with a weed aptly named Patersons Curse. I call the garden centre and ask them to replace what’s been destroyed and put cages around the base of the fruit trees and all the larger farm trees. Those blinking kangaroos.

I need to console myself. My husband suggests that when the going gets tough the tough go shopping. I'm not going to argue with that one. And am I glad I didn't - I find a new kitchen gadget (I rather like kitchen gadgets) an electric pizza oven. It’s not much bigger than one of those health grills, with electric elements in the base and lid that get very hot and a stone turntable that cooks and crisps the pizza on the underside. It was invented by a woman! How brilliant is that?

I'm impatient to try my new pizza maker. Piping hot, straight from the oven home cooked pizza for lunch. It was deeelicious!

Proscuitto and Rocket Pizza
Pizza this good is hard to come by and it’s so simple and quick, particularly with my little pizza oven. If you have the dough already made in the fridge (I generally keep some aside when making bread with my bread maker), it’s quicker and easier than making a couple of sandwiches. The dough actually improves if made 2 – 3 days ahead. I love the prosciutto and rocket topping but you can use whatever topping you like.

Makes 2 large pizza bases

Dough:
200ml l warm water2 tsp instant yeast1 tbsp olive oil1 ½ cups bread or plain flour (plus extra for dusting)1 level tsp salt

Topping for 1 large pizza:
3 tsp tomato paste (puree double concentrate)3 tbsp grated mozzarella4 slices prosciutto1 bunch rocket leaves1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil:

• Place all dough ingredients in the recommended order in the pan of your bread machine. Switch on and let the machine knead only until you have a smooth dough, about 3 minutes once all the ingredients have come together. (Dough that is well kneaded for bread making is too elastic to roll out). Keep an eye on it and add a little more flour if the dough is too sticky or a little more water if it looks too dry. The dough should be soft but not sticky.
• Leave the dough in the pan to rise until it is about double in volume, about 45 minutes to an hour.
• If you don’t have a bread making machine, mix the ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and knead until smooth. Cover with a damp tea towel and place in a draught free place for about an hour until it is doubled in size.
• Refrigerate the dough until required. Punch it down regularly until it is cold when it will stop rising.

When you’re ready to make pizza:

• 
  Heat the pizza oven to maximum or a pizza stone in a conventional oven at maximum temperature for 15 minutes or until very hot. Roll out the dough to the desired thickness, dusting with flour to stop it sticking.
• Slap the dough onto the pizza stone, working quickly spread the tomato paste over the top, sprinkle over the cheese and close the lid or place stone back in oven.
• Cook for 4-5 minutes in the pizza oven, and about 10-12 minutes in a conventional oven.
• Transfer pizza to a large plate, slice into 4 sections. Top each section with a prosciutto slice and some rocket.
• Drizzle with some good extra virgin olive oil and serve immediately with sea salt flakes and freshly cracked black pepper

Having a change from Indian

When I reminisce about the heart warming Indian foods that my mum made for me, or savour the best that a good Indian restaurant has to offer, or try new dishes during my own cook ups, I am convinced that Indian food with its delicious spicy and complex flavours has to be the best in the world. But when I experience the intense, mouth-watering flavours and fresh herb aromas of Thai cuisine, I have to acknowledge that this must be a close second. Second only because it is difficult to relinquish the comfort one gets from eating the foods of one’s childhood.

Thai cuisine doesn’t have too many influences of eastern Asia, and apart from a handful of dishes that have an Indian influence, its cuisine is quite unique. Unlike Indian food that relies on a variety of spices and a range of dry spice mixes, Thai cuisine is more about fresh herbs like galangal (Thai ginger), lemon grass, kaffir limes, basils, mints and chillies and condiments such as dried shrimp, fish sauce, soy sauce and chilli pastes for its fantastic flavours and enticing aromas.

The secret of a great Thai dish is in the quality and freshness of the ingredients and the balance of the four main flavours – hot, sour, sweet and salty. It’s not always possible to source some of the ingredients so you can substitute. Lemon grass for example can be substituted with lemon juice, kaffir lime, with lime zest and juice and fish sauce with soy sauce or salt, but by using as many of the authentic ingredients that you can, you will ensure that your Thai dishes are bursting with flavour and fragrance.

Thai cuisine is also fabulously healthy. Galangal, ginger, garlic, lemon grass, chilli and herbs all supply health promoting substances. What about the coconut milk I hear you say? That’s healthy too. The fat in coconut milk is the same as found in mother’s milk and does not contribute to weight gain, unless consumed in excess of course. So go ahead, and cook some Thai food today.

Easy Thai Style Laksa

This is one of my favourite Thai dishes, mainly because it is simple to make but also because it’s so delicious it gives you a feeling of well-being as a multitude of wonderful, complex flavours explode on your taste buds. I generally make it when I have some left over free-range chicken from the previous night’s roast dinner. Using a ready-made paste and some fresh vegetables and herbs from my newly created organic garden it’s quick and easy. If I have some home made paste it’s even better, otherwise I use one from Aldi. It’s called simply “Asia – Red Curry Paste”. The lemon grass in the recipe makes quite a difference so do try and use it but if you don’t have it, don’t fret.

Do all the preparation first. Take the chicken out of the fridge so that it’s at room temperature. Mix all the sauce ingredients in a cup so that you’re not reaching out for a bottle of this or a jar of that. Prepare the herbs and vegetables and put them in individual piles on a tray or platter so that you can add them when you need to. Warm some bowls, set the table, pour a cool glass of crisp white wine, and dinner will be ready in 10 minutes.

Serves 2

Preparation time: 20 minutes. Cooking time: 10 minutes

Sauce: In a small bowl or cup combine 1 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tsp soy sauce, 1 tbsp soft brown sugar, 1 tsp finely chopped lime rind, 2 tbsp lime juice.

400ml chicken stock (or water and half a stock cube)
1 stalk lemon grass, pale part only, crushed and coarsely chopped
3-4 slices galangal or ginger
100g thin rice noodles or noodles of choice
2 tablespoons red curry paste
1 large clove garlic, crushed and finely chopped
1 hot red chilli, finely sliced
1 x 400ml can coconut milk
1 carrot, peeled and thinly sliced
1 head bok choy, leaves separated, large ones sliced lengthways
4 baby sweet corn, halved lengthways (optional)
12 snow pea pods (mange touts), topped and tailed, halved cross ways
1 cup cooked chicken, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 cup bean sprouts
1 spring onion, sliced into 2.5cm lengths and white part julienned
½ cup mint leaves
½ cup coriander leaves
1 large red chilli, sliced

To Serve; lime wedges and hot chilli sauce

• Bring the stock to the boil and add the lemon grass and galangal or ginger slices. Turn off the heat and let it stand.
• Soak the noodles in hot water for about 10 minutes (or prepare according to packet instructions if using other type of noodle) and set aside while preparing vegetables.
  Heat a saucepan on medium heat and fry the curry paste, garlic and chilli for about 30 seconds until fragrant.
• Strain in the stock (discarding lemon grass and galangal) and add the coconut milk. Bring to the boil.
• Add the carrot and bok choy and bring back to the boil. Simmer for a minute. Add the baby corn and simmer for another minute.
• Add the prepared sauce and snow peas. Bring to the boil stirring, and turn off the heat. Do a taste test. Add more fish sauce, sugar or lime juice if desired.
• Drain the noodles well and divide equally among warm bowls (you will find this easier if you cut them into two portions using kitchen scissors and transfer them to the bowls using tongs).
• Top each bowl of noodles with chicken, bean sprouts, spring onion, mint and coriander leaves.
• Ladle on the piping hot coconut mixture, dividing the vegetables more-or-less evenly. Garnish with red chilli slices. Enjoy with lime wedges and hot chilli sauce.
  

Well the beds finally arrive - the day before we are due to go back to Sydney.

Spicy Fresh Bean Bhaji

The Orange region has a lovely climate; very warm summers with low humidity and cool nights, cold winters with relatively few really cold days and most importantly, good rain, unlike much of the rest of Australia. A great climate to produce fine wines and grow fruit and vegetables (One of our neighbours established the first vineyard in the district in 1983). That is unless you live on a sheep station on top of a mountain (it’s a high tableland really - 750m above sea level – but it feels like a mountain) where strong winds from every direction batter your newly planted trees, flower beds and horror of horrors, your lovely, organic vegetable garden. Hot westerly's and north westerly’s can singe even the most robust of plants in the summer and the easterly’s (which can go on night and day for 7 days in a row at any time of the year) flatten everything in their path and virtually blow the roof off your house. Ah well, the views are absolutely beautiful…..

We allowed ourselves to be seduced by the views, knowing this would be a challenging place to establish the vegetable garden I’ve been thinking about for a few years now. The whole venture has been a challenge really. We bought the 8 acre bare parcel of land, a former sheep station about 280K west of Sydney and 10K out of the city of Orange, in a place called Windera, in late 2005. Bare only in that it didn’t have a single tree, it was in fact covered with pasture grasses. Grasses that can grow to about 6 ft tall (and did), weeds like gigantic blackberry shrubs that are impossible to eradicate and lots and lots of rocks both small and large. My husband reckons some of the big ones go from here right through to China. They make getting a slasher in impossible, so much of the grass has to be slashed by hand until we clear the rocks.

We fenced off the lower 5 acres and placed there some living lawnmowers and fertiliser producers (cattle), and through much dedication and even more hard labour we finally managed to get a small one bed-room dwelling built on the top block in February 2008. We had about 300 native trees and 20 fruit trees planted the year before and the cottage will serve as a base, a week or so on, 10 days or so off (we are still living and working in Sydney) from where we can plant more trees, plan and create the gardens, and supervise the building of the main house. We christen the place ‘Mount Sugarloaf’ and look forward to the next few years dodging the brown snakes, knee deep in compost and manure. There have been many trials and tribulations but it has been worth it. Just look at these beautiful beans.

Blue Lake, King Purple and Rattlesnake. Some mythical beings out of Harry Potter? No, Phaseolus Vulgaris - beans! Beans with purple pods, beans with green pods flecked with purple and beans with plain green pods. These are few of the many heirloom varieties that are (thankfully) readily available from seed saver associations and various other organisations worldwide.

Heirloom vegetables are our inheritance; selected and saved by our ancestors, sometimes over hundreds even thousands of years, they offer some of the best tasting, best yielding and disease resistant varieties. These open pollinated heirloom varieties are reliable, productive and easy to grow, unlike modern hybrids and genetically modified crops bred for transportability and storage, not flavour, goodness and continuity.

Beans both dried and fresh, are brimming with nutrients. An excellent source of protein they are also packed with vitamin C, vitamin K, vitamin A, manganese, folate, iron and many other minerals as well as omega-3 fatty acids and fibre.

I grew these three varieties of beans (that all turn green when cooked), along with dozens of other organic and heirloom vegetables and fruits, last season at Mt. Sugarloaf. They were easy to grow, incredibly resilient to the harsh conditions, and wonderfully productive over a many weeks. They were also very tasty.

These delicious beans have been in such abundant supply I have been using them in everything - pastas, stir fries, steamed with roasts and barbecues and curries like this one. Yummy....

Spicy Fresh Bean Bhaji

This bhaji is delicious with yoghurt, roti or paratha and Indian pickles. It is also particularly good as a side dish with a lamb or goat curry.

Both French beans and runner beans would be just as good, but they do need to be very fresh and full of flavour. It is the succulence and sweetness of the beans that make this dish so lipsmacking good. If you don’t grow your own, buy fresh locally grown or organically grown beans.

Serves 4-6 Preparation and cooking time: 45 minutes

3 tbsp ghee or olive oil
2 small or 1 large onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 small knob of ginger, finely chopped
2 green chillies (or to taste), finely chopped
1 tsp turmeric
500g green beans, topped, tailed and sliced into 1 cm pieces
1 tsp salt
½ tsp garam masala

Sauté the onion in the ghee or oil until starting to brown at the edges. Add the garlic and ginger and fry for a minute until aromatic.
Stir in the chillies, turmeric and salt and stir fry for a few seconds and add the beans. Stir the beans around in the pan until everything is well mixed.
Add a little water, stir and cover pan. Cook over low-medium heat for about 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly until the beans are tender. Add a little more water during this time if required to prevent the food sticking to the bottom of the pan.
Stir in the garam masala, cook for a few seconds more and serve.

There are many good reasons to grow your own food; flavour is only one of them. When the going gets tough, the tough get growing!