Mild Chicken Curry

2lbs Chicken parts skinned
2 tbspns coconut milk
1 tbspn turmeric. 2 tspns coriander, 1 tspn cumin, 1 tspn curry powder all ground
1 small piece fresh ginger about 1 inch
4 cloves garlic
1 onion
1/2 west indian pepper or a red pepper
salt and pepper

Throw chopped ginger, garlic and onions into a wok with a little oil
let cook until soft and add ground seasonings cook 2 minutes
add chicken parts and stir to coat, let cook for 5 minutes
add coconut milk and salt and pepper. cook with lid but lifted by a wooden spoon for 20 minutes. correct seasoning and serve with plain white basmati rice and salad.

Barts Spices

Barts are the only bottled seasonings I would recommend. The quality of their products is as good as home made and their red curry and green curry sauce are superb bases for any Thai dish. They make a wide range of products, mostly with an Asian flair and all are wll thought out and tasty.
Their web site

Indian Mussels

I hate to disappoint the French but they cannot cook mussels. This recipe is the best ever for mussels not only are they tasty but the "soup" at the end is delicious.

Chopped, 2 onions, 4 cloves garlic, 1 inch of ginger, 1 hot pepper
saute chopped ingredients in a little oil until softened add
1 tomato chopped, 1 tsp each of cumin, coriander, chilli let cook for 3 minutes
add cup of water and tsp salt let cook for 5 minutes
add cleaned mussels cook for 10 minutes
sprinkle with 1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander and half a lemon squeezed
stir and serve with crusty bread and butter or white jasmine rice

Pumpkin - Paquito

Since we have been in the UK we have been looking to recreate West Indian pumpkin and roti as well as pumkin to use in dishes such as red beans and rice. We tried everything on the market and nothing worked until last week we found a squash called PAQUITO at Tesco which is in fact the best tasting pumpkin we have ever tasted. Its perfect in pumpkin and roti but also just roasted with Sunday lunch. A real find. Grown in Senegal of all places.

Asian/Chinese Prawns

1lb raw prawns deveined and shells removed. If you have time and the right prawns you can make a little shrimp stock by boiling the heads and shells in 1/4 pint water, but if not use chicken stock.
Ginger, about an inch chopped fine
Garlic 4-5 cloves fine chopped
Two spring onions chopped
Barts red Thai Curry
Soy
Oyster Sauce
tablespoon cornstarch
Chopped 2 thai red peppers
2 tbpsp coconut milk

Marinate prawns in cornstarch, half the ginger half the garlic and the spring onions for 1 hour or even 30 minutes.
Cook the remainder of ginger, pepper and garlic for about 2 minutes in a hot wok and then add red curry paste (2 tsp), stir and let flavor develop for a minute then add seasoned shrimp and cook quickly tossing gently until cooked through just. Add coconut milk and tbsp stock, plus tbsp oyster sauce and tbsp soy and stir 1 minute to make a sauce and remove immediately from heat. Serve with white jasmine rice and stir fried Chinese greens

Deep Fried Haggis

I never thought I would have this recipe on my site. But we visited an old Inn in the Highlands and they had this on the menu and we were overwhelmed by the taste. We had tried Haggis and said "well ok thats interesting" but this recipe is a knock out.

Best to buy the sausage shaped haggis and don't forget to take off the skin. Slice into pieces about 1 inch by a half inch.

Make up a Japanese tempura batter, 2 oz rice flour, 2 oz plain flour, pinch of salt, pinch of baking powder. Mix just before you cook with cold soda water into think paste (don't mix too much). They sell tempura mix also in most supermarkets

Dip and fry in deep hot oil until golden brown.

Serve with Onion relish or marmalade and a leaf salad with a balsamic dressing.

Thai shrimp

1lb raw shrimp cleaned
Barts green and red thai paste (Barts is the only paste I will use, otherwise I make my own, but they are very good).
Onions, garlic, ginger
Tamarind juice
seasoning

Fry finely chopped onion, 3 garlic cloves and 1/2 inch ginger chopped in a wok until onions soft but not browned.
Add shrimp and cook until just pink
Add 1tsp of green and red curry paste
Stir and let it color shrimp 1 minute
Add 1/2 cup of tamarind plus 1/2 cup basil and cilantro finely chopped
Stir in and let cook for 1 minute.
Serve with white rice and cucumber

Dhalpuri Roti

I make roti every week. The ingredients and method are simple. 1.5lbs Plain flour, generous salt (1 tbsp), teaspoon of dry yeast, 2 tspns baking powder, 2 oz of butter or margerine, water to mix to firm dough. knead for 5-10 minutes, pour oil over, cover with cloth, and leave to rise for 2 hours at least. Makes aabout 6-8 roti enough for 4-6 people.

For dhalpuri these are the additional steps. Soak 1/2 lb spilt peas overnight and boil with water and a pinch of curry powder and a garlic clove plus some salt until cooked through. Strain and let dry. Pound with a mortar until mush. Fry in oil with some garam masala or curry powder, salt and pepper to taste and turmeric until dry, don't let it burn. Let it cool.

When making roti roll out each one to about 8-10 inches and put a couple of tbspns of pea mix in centre, fold roti over and put aside.

Get a flat pan or flat griddly very hot and roll out roti carefully trying not to break skin. Put roti on surface and have a bowl with a mixture of oil and butter melted and a brush. Brush the roti with the mixture and as soon as small bubbles form turn and brush the other side. The roti will rise into a ballon shape. Tap the edges and remove after 2 minutes.

Pak Choy with Garlic Sauce

Ingredients
3-4 heads of pak choy, washed and choped into 1 inch pieces
tspn ginger chopped fine
tablespoon garlic chopped fine
tablespoon onion chopped fine

cup containing
half cup water
half cup light soy
tsp corn flour
tspn salt
tspn ground pepper
tsp oyster sauce

Method
Put wok or frying pan whith a cover available on high heat with tbspn of oil
when hot fry quickly the ginger, garlic and onions (1-2 minutes)
add pak choy, stir and cover, turn down heat a little and cook pak choy for about 3-5 minutes maximum shaking occasionally until the green leaves look a little wilted

turn heat low, push pak choy to one side and add liquid from cup let it wamr through and go transparent then mix into pak choy to coat and serve hot.

Very Good Muffins

I have been trying different recipes to find the best and this one is pretty close. It makes a dozen large muffins.

2.5 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking soda (if you use self raising flour cut this to 1.5 tspns)
half a cup of sugar
1 tsp salt
just over half a cup of butter (about 3 oz)
2 eggs
cup of milk
1 tsp orange zest

1.5-2 cups of some filling, blueberries, raspberries chocolate chips etc

Topping
zess of one lemon (or orange or lime)
qtr cup sugar
mix until sugar turns the colour of the zest

Preparation
Heat oven to 400
Put flour, sugar, salt, baking powder into a bowl and cut in butter to crumb
Seperate eggs from white into two bowls.
Add milk to yolk and beat lightly
Beat whites until fluffy
Put berries on a flat plate and sprinkle icing sugar or sugar
put berries in flour micture and using wooden spoon gently mix
then add all liquid and mix very carefully, basically your folding it until its just moist (not stirring)

Grease your cups and divide mixture and add lemon topping and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown

remove from pans onto a rack if possible and let cool before moving to plate.

Buljol and Bake

Buljol
one of the best snacks, either for breakfast or in an evening as a late supper. Serve with Ooft!
1 large Avocado
4 medium Tomato
1 Onion
1 Garlic cloves
2-3 tbsn good Extra Virgin Olive oil
1 Pepper (scotch bonnet)
1/2-3/4lb soaked, cooked boned codfish
1 lime or lemon
1 tsp ground black pepper

Codfish varies a lot, try to get boneless because its so much easier although slightly less flavor. Some Tesco's have it on the International counter. It may be enough to soak in boiling water for 15 minutes or you may need to boil, depends on how much salt. Drain and shred.

Skin and finely chop 3-4 tomatoes and mix with finely chopped onion, garlic and hot peppers, and add to salt fish. Add avocado cut into cubes, and salt and pepper (may not need salt if fish still salty) , then mix with squeezed lemon or lime and virgin olive oil. Let it sit for a while for the flavors to mix and then serve as is on fried bakes, toast, fresh rolls or even crackers.

Fried bakes are made with flour, salt, baking powder and water much like a roti. Let the softish mixture sit for 1 hour and then tear off egg sized pieces and flatten and deep fry in about 1/2 inch or more hot oil. Spoon hot oil over the flattened bake to make it puff up. Fry until lightly brown and put in a tissue lined bowl to drain.

Jamaican Rice and Peas

The essence of this dish is the heavy (and I mean heavy) use of fresh thyme in both the peas and the rice.
The Peas
Half a packet of dried red beans (or you can use blackeye peas for a different taste)
carrot, celery onion, lots of fresh thyme
Soak red bean overnight. Biol covered with water to cover plus vegetables for 1-1.5 hours until soft.
The rice and peas
Use longgrain rice about 2-3 cupfulls
Coconut milk, salt
Measure water cocunut water and bean water roughly to 3 cups water to one rice.

Add all ingendients and cook slowly monitoring the water for about 20 minuets until rice cooked. You may have to add some water towards the end.

When cool this will set and you will almost have to cut it with a knife to reheat but that normal. Keeps 4 days at least in the fridge. Heat either microwave or as my wife does in a steamer.