Chicken and Onion Stir Fry

♬ 'Sticky Fingers' By The Rolling Stones

Rock and roll is what I fancied today and who better than Mick Jagger and his lyrics about his secret love.

Feels like it has been ages since I have sat on my bed and blogged, but fear not you will soon see what I have been working on!

▶ Feeds 2

Ingredients:

2 large chicken breast fillets

Thai green curry paste (mine was from Waitrose)

Half a red onion

1 large spring onion

8 cherry tomatoes

100g fine green beans

Organic peanut oil

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp Soy Sauce

Salt

Medium egg noodles

Method:

: Boil or prepare your noodles.

: My favourite term 'chop' and 'add' could be severely over used but I will try and save you...

: Chop everything that needs chopping.

: Crush and chop garlic clove (sorry if you have already done that!)

: In a large wok add a tablespoon of peanut oil and add the garlic and onions.

: Add the chicken and thai paste, stir on a low heat.

: Once chicken has changed to a white colour, the noodles can be drained and added to the wok.

: Lastly add the beans, cherry tomatoes, soy sauce and season.

< Serve immediately or if you are keeping it warm, pour a bit more peanut oil when ready to eat.

Very quick and seriously quicker with this album on. Doesn't look like there is a lot of onion but the combination of red and spring onion is very tasty - trust me.

Next Time:

⤵ Chicken and prawns are a classic ingredient in a stir fry, but I would like to widen my next dish to include tofu and rice.

Favourite Song:

ê 'Brown Sugar' By Mick Jagger

Chocolate Chip Muffin$

♬

'Feel So Good' By Mase

'Top Of The World' By Brandy Featuring Mase

'What You Want' By Mase

'Breath, Stretch, Shake' By Mase

'Mo Money, Mo Problems' By Notorious B.I.G, P Daddy and Mase

'Lean Back Remix' By Fat Joe Featuring Lil Jon, Eminem, Mase and Remy Martin

'Only You' By 112 featuring Notorious B.I.G. and Mase

'Horse and Carriage' By Cam'ron Featuring Mase

'Can't Nobody Hold Me Down' By P Diddy Featuring Mase

'You Should Be Mine (Don't Waste Your Time)' By Brian McKnight Featuring Mase

'Window Shopper' By 50 Cent Featuring Murda Mase
'Jesus Walks Remix' By Kanye West Featuring Mase and Common
'Best I Ever Had' By Drake Featuring Mase
'Money Comes and Goes' By Mase
'Get Ready' By Mase and Blackstreet






Well classic music week lasted a very short time, I quickly switched back to old school Mase this weekend, and made these muffins...

▶ Makes 12


Ingredients:


250g self raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
50g butter
100g caster sugar
2 medium eggs
200ml milk
100g organic milk chocolate chopped in large chunks.


Method:


Preheat oven 200°c, get a 12 hole muffin tray with cases at the ready!

: Rub in the butter with the flour and baking powder until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.

: Add the sugar, eggs and milk.

: Stir in the chocolate chips and mix with a butter knife, so the mixture looks very lumpy.

: Spoon the batter in the muffin cases and bake for 20 minutes.

< Leave to cool or serve with a cup of coffee.

This time the playlist took longer to type than the actual recipe!! 

Next Time:

⤵ Wheat free I think...

Favourite Song:

ê 'Top Of The World' By Brandy Featuring Mase

Curried Sweet Potato, Carrot and Broccoli Soup

Yes! this is what I call a spicy and healthy soup.

It did start to look like baby puree but I soon sorted that out with more stock.

♬

'Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham' By Various Artists (2001)

Translates to 'Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness'.

▶ Feeds 2

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato peeled and chopped.

4 small broccoli florets cut in half.

1  large carrot chopped.

half a teaspoon of nigella seeds

half a teaspoon of mustard seeds

half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds

2 tsp Bouillon vegetable stock powder mixed with 200ml water.

2 cardamom pods 

1 garlic clove crushed.

1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method:

: Par boil the sweet potato.

: Heat veg oil in another pot and add seeds.

: Add the carrots and broccoli to the pot with the spices.

: Then add the sweet potato, garlic and stock.

: After 10 minutes of simmering, use a hand blender and whizz until it looks like thick soup.

: You can add 50ml more water if you like.

< Season and serve with naan and enjoy, this can also be frozen.

Next Time:

⤵ You could replace the potato with parsnip, pumpkin or butternut squash.

Favourite Song:

ê 'Say Shava Shava ' By Sudesh Bhosle, Alka Yagnik, Sunidhi Chauhan, Amitabh Bachchan and Aadesh Shrivastava.

Chicken Korma

This whole week I have been thinking about chocolate and then hear it has also been curry week. Seriously I can't keep up!

I have eaten a lot of curries in my time and felt like cooking one that I did not discover in my mums kitchen but in an Indian restaurant.

The KORMA.

Some say this cuts corners compared to a traditional curry - I disagree. 

 I created a playlist that has many flavours but still keeps an Indian base.

♬

Cutting Korma's Playlist:

'Maine Pyar Kiya' By Lata Mangeshkar, Usha Mangeshkar, S.P. Balasubrahmanyam and Shards Sinha

'Chura Liya' By Bally Sagoo

'Addictive' By Truth Hurts Featuring Rakim

'Boom Shack-A-Lak' By Apache Indian

'Jogi' By Panjabi MC

'Get Ur Freak On' Missy Elliot

'Sunshowers' By M.I.A

'Me Against The Music' By Britney Spears Featuring Madonna and Juggy D

'Beware' By Punjabi MC Featuring Jay -Z

'Hindu Sad Diamonds' By Nicole Kidman, John Leguizamo and Alka Yagnik

'Indian Flute' By Timbaland, Magoo, Sebastian and Rajé Shwari

▶ Feeds 2 I tell you.

Ingredients:

1 bay leaf

4 cloves

2 garlic cloves crushed.

1 green chilli finely chopped.

200ml natural yoghurt ( 6.76 fl oz)

100g ground almonds (3.53 oz)

1 tsp ground coriander

400g chicken breast cut into chunks. (14.12 oz)

Vegetable oil

100ml water (3.37 fl oz)

1 medium onion

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp chili powder (maybe 1 if you think the  fresh chilli will be enough)

Method:

: Mix the ground almonds with the yoghurt and add the chicken, garlic and chilli - refrigerate.

: In a large pot fry 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil with the cloves, ground coriander and bay leaf.

: Add the onion and leave on a low heat until they get soft.

: Take the chicken out the fridge, tip in the pot and add water.

: Let it simmer on a very low heat, add the turmeric and chili powder after 20 minutes.

<Once chicken is done, serve straight away with naan, pitta or rice.

Next Time:

⤵ Will take a better picture, I really struggled with this dish. My twitter followers were not impressed!

Favourite Song:

ê 'Chura Liya' By Bally Sagoo

Have a great weekend, make curry and eat chocolate...NEXT WEEK IS NATIONAL BAKING WEEK!!

Chocolate Fridge Cake

No BAKED cake today only a refrigerated block of beauty.

P.S it takes 4 hours to chill.

The recipe was inspired by Konditor and Cooks 'Chocolate Biscuit Cake' but I put my own spin on it.

Chocolate week is turning out to be quite magical, next week is baking week then after that Diwali and after that Halloween. I'm rubbing my forehead while re- reading what I just typed.

In the space that I was preparing this beautiful yet strange looking cake Aqualung was being played. Chosen because they create such a peaceful and heartbreaking atmosphere, and I had 4 hours to wait...

♬

'Aqualung' By Aqualung (2002)

▶ 10 thick slices

Ingredients:

100g Divine dark chocolate, minimum 70% cocoa (3 oz)

100g Montezuma's dark chili chocolate (3 oz)

50g Green and Black's Dark Chocolate with Ginger (1.8 oz)

75g maple syrup (3 oz)

125g soft unsalted butter (4.5 oz)

1 medium egg

50g hazelnuts chopped in half (2 oz)

50g digestive biscuits broken in large chunks (2 oz)

50g dried soft apricots ( 2 oz)

50g glaced cherries, and keep a few to decorate. (2 oz)

Method:

: Line a small loaf tin with greaseproof paper.

: Melt the chocolate in a bowl over hot water.

: Add the butter and wait for it to melt.

: Add the syrup and the egg.

: Beat everything slowly and make sure the bowl is still over heat. Do this for about 2 minutes.

: In a separate bowl add the nuts, biscuits and fruit.

: Pour the chocolate mixture over the dried ingredients and stir.

: It's ready to go in the tin! Put a few cherries on top and leave in the fridge for 4 hours.

< A great cake to make the night before a party, and can stay in the fridge for a week.

Next Time:

⤵ I think I could make this vegan friendly by using soy margarine, soy milk and vegan chocolate.

Favourite Song:

ê 'Strange and Beautiful' By Aqualung