Wednesday, November 25, 2015

Chicken and Spinach Tikka Masala with Buttered Lemon Cauliflower 'Rice'

I am really stoked with this recipe - I'm just gonna say that right from the get-go. We eat chicken at least once a week at our house and it's hard to keep coming up with new and interesting things. I was looking for something a little bit different to the usual and came across this recipe by Nadia Lim, of MasterChef and My Food Bag fame, which I found on The Food Show website, somewhat randomly.
I was surprised to find that I had almost all the staple ingredients in my pantry already and I liked the idea of making a curry totally from scratch - I usually use a store bought paste. I'd also never had a go at the latest trend of using cauliflower for everything from pizza bases to mash to rice, so I was keen to give it a whirl. And it looked pretty healthy and quick - very important for a Sunday night dinner, after spending the better part of the day driving back from Hawke's Bay.

1 tablespoon of oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced or chopped
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon of smoked paprika
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground tumeric
1 teaspoon of ground chilli
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons of chopped, grated or minced ginger
Zest of 1/2 a lemon
1 teaspoon of salt
600g boneless, skinless chicken things, cut into 2-3cm pieces
400g can chopped/crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/2 cup sour cream or cream - I used lite sour cream
3 large handfuls of baby spinach, chopped
2-3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt (to serve)
1/4-1/2 cup chopped coriander (to serve)

For the buttered cauliflower rice:
1/2 head of cauliflower (including the stem), cut into florets - the recipe said a whole head but 1/2 head was just right for 4 servings.
1 tablespoon of butter
Zest of 1/2 lemon
1/4-1/2 cup chopped coriander or flat-leaf parsley


Heat the oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Cook the onion for 4–5 minutes until it's just starting to turn brown. Add the spices, garlic, ginger, lemon zest and salt and cook for a further minute or two. If the onion or spices catch or stick to the bottom of the pan, just add a little bit of water to the pan and stir. Add the chicken, tomatoes, sweet chilli sauce, lemon juice and cream/sour cream, cover and simmer for 5–10 minutes until chicken is cooked through and sauce has thickened slightly. While the chicken is cooking, make the cauliflower ‘rice’. Put the cauliflower florets into a food processor and pulse until it's the texture of rice or couscous. Put into a microwave-safe bowl and microwave on high, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes to steam the cauliflower slightly and evaporate extra moisture to make it fluffy. Add the butter and coriander/parsley to the hot cauliflower and fluff, using a fork, then season to taste with salt and pepper. The chicken should be cooked by now, so just stir through the spinach until wilted and season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon some cauliflower rice and chicken tikka masala onto each plate and garnish with a little yoghurt and coriander.

This recipe was easy and quick, I already had most of the ingredients and, most importantly, it was delicious! I really liked the cauliflower rice - a simple and healthy alternative to rice - and even my partner who doesn't like cauliflower, thought it was pretty good. I can see this becoming a regular!


Saturday, November 14, 2015

Banana Bread

Oh haaaaaay! It's been a month since I last posted but I've had a some other exciting-and-kind-of important-sort-of life-changing stuff occupying my time of late. And I've actually just been pretty busy with quite a few weekends away from home, but I have still managed to squeeze in some cooking here and there.

I was working from home the day I made this, which meant when I finished up for the day I had some time to put a banana bread in the oven. There were a couple of dire-looking bananas in the fruit bowl, which normally I chuck straight in the freezer for future use in cakes or smoothies, but I was inspired to whip something up then and there. I looked for a 'healthy' recipe for banana bread, something without as much sugar and fat and found one on BBC Good Food. I didn't quite have the right amounts of everything so I adapted it a bit to suit, and added some extras.

140g flour - wholemeal would make this even healthier, but I didn't have any.
100g self-raising flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
2-3 ripe bananas, mashed - I think 3 is best, but I only had 2.
4 tablespoons of agave syrup - I only had honey, so I mixed about 3 tablespoons of clover honey with a little hot water, to make it more like a syrup. I used a little less as I didn't want it to be too sweet.
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
150ml of low-fat, plain yoghurt - I didn't quite have 150ml so about 50ml was some mixed berry yoghurt I also had in the fridge.
chopped pecans or walnuts (optional - and I didn't opt for these).

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius, fan bake. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and line a loaf tin with baking paper - make sure you leave it coming up over the sides a bit. In a second bowl, combine the mashed bananas, agave syrup/honey, beaten eggs and yoghurt. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into the tin and sprinkle the nuts on top, if you're using them. Bake for 1 hour 10-15 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean - mine was done in just over an hour though so keep an eye on it. Cool on a wire rack and eat warm, or like the Aussies do, slice it, toast it and spread it with butter, cream cheese or even lemon curd at breakfast time. Store in an airtight container and it should last at least a few days, longer if you're toasting it.


I was a bit over the usual for breakfast and this was a bit of at treat for the rest of the week but it didn't taste overly sweet and a couple of slices with butter were surprisingly filling. It wasn't quite as banana-ry as I would've liked, so I'd use 3 bananas next time. I've recently bought an Easiyo yoghurt maker too, which is great as I use a lot of natural yoghurt, both in cooking, smoothies and just to eat, so it's nice to be able to make your own. It's also great served with any sort of sweet cake instead of cream, to take the edge off the sweetness a wee bit. Enjoy!