Kitchen Klutz' Recipes: Chicken Fajita Salad

Sorry, my camera doesn't have great resolution
But this is what the salad looks like :)

Hey beautiful people!

For a long time, I didn't know how to cook. Yes, I could whip up something so the blokes wouldn't starve, but I didn't know how to go about cooking and making dishes, etc. That's how I used to term myself an undomestic goddess, especially in the kitchen.

Tidbit Tuesday: Lamb Tagine

Hello beautiful people!

Today I'll share with you the recipe for a dish that features prominently in Walking The Edge. The hero in the book, Gerard Besson, is a police commissioner in Marseille. He grew up with an absentee mother and a father who never cared for him, and his solace he found in the council flat two floors up - the home of Khadija Bashir, a widow of Moroccan origin and mother of 3 daughters. Gerard grew up pretty much like her foster son, considers Katie his mother, and one thing he comes to love from her household is her signature Lamb Tagine and Couscous dish.

Here's the scene where he is introducing Amelia to his mother's cooking:

'... Scents—a hint of lemon and the sweetness of cooked, dried fruits; the distinctive, heady fragrance of lamb from the tagine—rose up in a delicate cloud around them as he pried the plastic boxes open. After dishing out two servings, he placed a plate of couscous covered with tagine before her and then sat down in front of his own plate.

"Go on. Eat," he told her when he saw her hesitate.

She took a spoon of couscous into her mouth, and he watched as the frown lifted from her features, and she smiled.

"It's good, isn't it?" he asked.

She nodded.

"The best in Marseille, made by my mother," he added with a grin. He wanted to share that with her, God knew why, really. Normalcy, even some semblance of it, was what he wanted with her. If only for a moment, he'd take it.

"Your mother is Algerian? Tagine is an Algerian dish, isn't it?"

"Moroccan," he replied in between spoonfuls, wolfing down the food and delighting in the spicy taste that reminded him of his youth.

"You don't look like your mother hails from the Maghreb," she said.

He paused, then said, "She's my foster mother, actually." ...'

******

And now, here's the recipe!

Lamb Tagine

Ingredients:

For the spice mix:

Cayenne pepper - 1 tsp
Ground black pepper - 2 tsp
Paprika - 1.5 tsp
Ground ginger - 1.5 tsp
Turmeric - 1 Tsp
Cinnamon powder - 2tsp
Garlic - 1 tsp (I don't use garlic, so remove this if you don't eat it)

For the dish:
Lamb - 1.1 kg/ 2.5 lbs
Onions - 2 large, sliced
Olive oil - 4 tsp
Tomato Juice - 570 ml
Tinned tomatoes - 800g
Apricots - 115g, halved
Dates - 55g, halved
Saffron threads - 1 tsp
Lamb stock - 600ml (or use water, but the flavour is better with stock)
Honey - 1 Tbsp
Coriander + Parsley leaves - chopped

Method:
Cut the lamb in small, 1-2 inch pieces. Marinate overnight with half the spice mix

Add 2tsp oil to pan, heat, and cook onions until soft

In another pan, use 2tsp oil and brown meat in batches

Deglaze meat pan with a little tomato juice, and add this liquid to the onions' pan

Add meat and all the remaining ingredients to the onions' pan (incl. remaining spice mix)

Bring to boil. Turn off heat, transfer contents to ovenproof casserole.

Cook in preheated 150degreesC oven for 2-2.5 hours.

Sprinkle with chopped coriander and parsley, and serve over couscous (take one cup water, bring to boil. Turn down heat, add one cup of couscous grains. Cover and allow the grains to puff up, for about 5 minutes. Fluff with fork - you can add a small square of butter if you want)
 
*****
 
From Mauritius with love,
 
Zee

Tidbit Tuesday: Recipe - Pumpkin & Red Split Lentils Soup

Hey peeps

Last week on Twitter I mentioned I was cooking this dish, and my friend and fellow author Annie Nicholas asked for the recipe. I promised her I'd put it up asap, so here it is!

This is totally my invention as soup, but I do attest that it tastes very good!

Here goes:

Pumpkin & Red Split Lentils Soup
(Makes about 4-5 cups soup)

Ingredients

1 large onion, chopped finely
250 g red split lentils, washed and soaked for an hour
1 pound pumpkin, cubed (or canned. I've never tried it with canned but it should work too)
Spices: 1 teaspoon each of
            Cumin powder
            Coriander powder
            Turmeric powder
            Paprika
            Ground black pepper
A dash of nutmeg (don't use too much coz this can get overwhelming. You want just a hint of flavour)
Tomato puree (or sauce) - 1 Tablespoon
3 cups water
Salt
Olive oil
Pasta shells (optional)

How to:

1. Heat oil in pan and brown onions.
2. Mix spice powders and make into a paste by adding a little water. Add this paste to the onions and fry for 1-2 minutes.
3. Drain lentils and add to pan. Stir.
4. Add pumpkin and water. Stir and bring to boil.
5. Lower heat, leave to simmer, covered partially, for 20-30 minutes (you want the lentils to have softened and lost their shape, and the pumpkin to have 'melted').
6. When soup is at the consistency you want, stir in the tomato puree. Add a little salt, and taste (add more if it needs!).
7. If you want to make this a full meal but still keep it light, throw in some pasta shells towards the end of cooking time.

There you are - a quick and easy soup! Bon appetit!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tidbit Tuesday: D'oh!

Good grief - yesterday was one of these days. Today's not much better, I'm afraid. This is gonna turn into one of those weeks, you know, where time zips by and you get absolutely nothing done. Sigh...

Need a good pick-me-up... and what better than donuts? I have to admit I'm addicted to the stuff now, after a friend of mine steered me to a bakery that makes donuts here that taste pretty much like Krispy Kreme's. But sadly, feeding an addiction equals money, and these treats do add up to quite an amount after all.

This got me on the Net, scouring for the recipe for making donuts. I tried a few, but this one is the best I've found. Real easy, cheap, not time-consuming at all. Check out the video - it's really self-explanatory.

Just FYI - the amount of flour is 2 cups. He also bakes these donuts, which is really the healthy way. However, I have fried them and they didn't come out soggy or even greasy at all. And also too, he says to 'lightly flour' your board when you're going to knead the refrigerated dough. It requires a little more flour than 'lightly floured' to get the dough to that smooth ball that you can roll out. :)

Real easy to make - I even brought the boys in the kitchen and had them cut the shapes. They had tons of fun!

Dunk them in glaze and sprinkles like in the video, or do what I did - I drenched the tops in Nutella. Pure yum!

Try it - really worth the effort. :)



From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tidbit Tuesday: Food, Glorious Food...

Hey peeps

I'm posting late today coz I just got home from a mad dash with the blokes out. They, of course, tried to make the best of this public holiday, and needless to say, I'm the one who got lugged around. Dead tired now so I'm keeping this quick today.

I thought I'd post the link and some videos of the stuff I've been cooking recently. Check out Dede Med's website - she's got amazing Mediterranean and Middle Eastern recipes up there, and there's even a video for every dish. she explain in a really easy to grasp way, so anyone who can pay more than 2 seconds' attention can attempt the food she prepares.

Here's the vids for her Pitta Bread recipe (comes out great. Tried and tested by me!) and for her Garlic Sauce (if you don't have a blender like hers, I made mine in those smoothie blenders and it came out fine).

Enjoy!





From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tidbit Tuesday: Apple Pie Recipe

Yesterday I spoke about the tea party I had over at my place on Saturday. I promised the recipe for my apple pie, so here it is.

Before you read any further, I must tell you I'm one of those cooks who follows a recipe scrupulously the first time. If I get the dish right, the next time I make it, I'm gonna start tinkering with the recipe. Biggest 'places' I do this are with fat and sugar content. I'm appalled at the amount of fat some recipes ask for, when much less will still do the trick. As for sugar, my husband is diabetic so I always work the sugar low on everything I make. And before you ask, no, I don't 'believe' in those sugar substitutes. Too much bad associated with aspartame and sucralose and whatever else passes for 'no-sugar' in today's culture.

I followed a basic cookery course while in high school. So I know my basics, and this allows me to tinker and experiment. The recipe for apple pie calls for a version of the shortcrust pastry so I don't really follow an established recipe for the pastry and just make mine like that.

Here goes! This makes a 9-inch pie, which easily serves 6-8.

Ingredients

2.5 cups of plain flour
125 g butter (or shortening)
Handful of sugar
3-5 tablespoons of water

5-6 red apples
A handful of sugar
A sprinkle of cinnamon
A few drops of vanilla essence/extract

Method

For the pastry:

Sieve flour in a bowl.

Cut fat into small cubes and dump in flour. Keep cutting the butter with the knife in the flour until it becomes small globs in there. Ditch the knife, go in with the tips of your fingers (just the tips, mind you!), and rub the fat into the flour until the mixture resembles fine sand.

Sprinkle sugar in the 'sand'.

Add 2-3 tablespoons of water and start bunching the mixture into a ball. If all is not 'pulling up', add another tablespoon of water.
Now if your dough is too sticky, don't despair. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and keep kneading until it no longer sticks.

Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

In the meantime, peel, core, and cut apples into small cubes.

Place in a saucepan, cover with water up to half the apples' level, add sugar, cinnamon and vanilla essence and set to boil. At boiling point, bring heat to low and simmer until apples are tender.
The water should not evaporate - it will form a light syrup in the saucepan.

Take dough out of fridge. When you handle it, it should have the same texture and consistency as Play-Doh (so very easy to handle. This dough also doesn't break and flake off as usual pie doughs, which is the biggest nightmare of pie making, I admit)
Break into two balls - one is two-thirds of the dough, the other the remaining third.

Roll the bigger ball of dough out on a floured surface in a round (or somewhat round!) disk. Lift up and place in your pie dish. Prick with a fork all over the dough and bake blind in a moderately-hot pre-heated oven (200 degrees C, 425 degrees F).

Take pie dish out of the oven. Let cool slightly. Fill pie shell with the apples.

Roll out the remaining dough and cover the pie with this, making sure you seal the edges using pressure from your fingers.
Cut slits into the pastry top. Sprinkle with sugar (or if you want, some of that syrup from the apples if you have too much).

Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until pie is golden.

There you are - an easy apple pie!

From Mauritius with love

Zee

Tidbit Tuesday: Jaffa Cake Recipe

Hey beautiful people

The place I most hate to be in in my house is the kitchen. Nopes, not for me - I'm no Nigella by any scope, and certainly not a domestic goddess by far or near!

Still, what do you do when it turns out you have 2 men (occasionally 3) who are total foodies at your place? And no, they don't cook (without turning said kitchen into a bombed out zone). What you do then is turn your nose up all you want, deep breathe for 15 minutes to give you the confidence, and you stroll into that damn kitchen and prepare food. Urghh! I. Hate. Cooking!

That being said, I'll also admit I'm thrifty. I mean, come on - buy prepared food/cakes/cookies and get totally ripped off of a) my husband's heard-earned money (one breadwinner household here, folks) and b) our health. Have you seen how much fat and sugar there is in those prepared store cakes? Not to mention that they drown what passes for cake under layers of butter and icing sugar cream??? Prepared food - don't mention the fat, and the salt!
What then happens is you really gotta get yourself in gear and cook healthy stuff, even if the cooking will kill you.

So, on that intro, here's how I went looking for Jaffa Cakes' recipe. We absolutely love eating Pim's, but only 12 little cakes (so inconsequential really you have no idea you've eaten one after you're done...) for about 85 bucks minimum (roughly $2.50 for the US-ans). I can actually cook 12 Jaffa Cakes (and you actually get a 'cake' to eat!) for half that amount!

Here's the recipe, the original of which can be found at the BBC Food's site and which I somewhat adapted to my thrifty ways. :)

Homemade Jaffa Cakes

Makes 12 - can be stretched to 20 if you like really thin cakes

Ingredients

2 eggs
50g flour
50g sugar
Vanilla extract/essence

Marmalade (or any other jam if you don't have the orange one. Though it's true the 'real' jaffa cake is in orange flavour) Tip - store it in the fridge and take it out just before you'll dollop it on the cakes.

100g Dark chocolate
30g butter

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.

Grease a 12-hole muffin tin. You can also grease a second such tin so you get 20 'moulds', since the batter can be stretched if you like really thin cakes. 12 holes-pan gives a cake that's about an inch thick.

In a double boiler, or if, like me you don't own one (and are no Nigella!), get a bowl that fits over a pan. Place the pan on the heat, and add just enough water so that the base of the bowl doesn't touch the water when you place it on the pan. Bring the water to steady boil.

In bowl, break eggs, add sugar and vanilla essence.

Place bowl over boiling water pan and whisk until the mixture doubles up and turns pale yellow and very fluffy.

Take bowl off heat, sift flour directly into bowl. Place bowl back over heat and whisk just until all the flour is incorporated.

Take bowl off heat. Scoop a tablespoonful into each muffin hole, until batter is used up.

Bake for 8-10 mins (mine always takes more time, about 15 at least, but this could be due to my oven).

Take out and let cool. Remove the 'cakes' from the tin and place on a tray/baking sheet/plate.

When cool, place a teaspoon of marmalade over every cake disk.

Again using the double boiler (or if you have a microwave oven!), melt the chocolate. Be very careful no water gets into the chocolate or it'll become a thick unmanageable mass. I usually add butter to the chocolate in a 1:3 ratio to stretch out the chocolate and make it easier to handle too.

Cover marmalade-laden cakes with the melted chocolate.

Place tray/baking sheet/plate in the fridge so the chocolate hardens, as the jaffa cake choc shell should be hard and crackly when you bite into it.

There you are - homemade Jaffa Cakes. Easy and very cheap to make. :) Needless to tell you, I no longer buy the store stuff now.

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tidbit Tuesday: A recipe again - Ras Malai

Last Friday I promised the recipe of the dessert I was making and taking to my mom's place for dinner. Well, here it is today! The recipe I use for Ras Malai.

Now Ras Malai is traditionally a Bengali sweet dish (originally from Bengal, South-East India. Coincidentally, my dad's family hails from there, the city of Kolkata - Calcutta in the past). But ras malai is also very popular all over India and Pakistan, a favourite sweet dish and dessert of all the Indian Diaspora around the world too.

I got this recipe from my aunt, who is a Pakistani native. The one she makes is the complicated one using curdled milk, but I use a milk powder paste which is easier. I'll add the curd version too. So here it is:

Ras Malai

Ingredients (makes about a 5-liter casserole dish of dessert)

For the 'malai koftas' (those small floating islands!)
1 cup milk powder
1 large egg
a pinch of baking powder

For the 'ras' (thick cream in which the little islands will float)
4 cups water
2 cups milk powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
A pinch of cardamon powder/ground cardamom
A few drops vanilla essence
1/2 cup sliced almonds/pistachios (optional. I don't add these in mine coz I'm allergic to nuts)

1 can/300 ml evaporated milk
2 Tablespoons custard powder (or any other thickener such as cornstarch or tapioca powder. Custard is best though)
1 small can/125 g thick dairy cream
100 grams sugar

Method:

- Place water, milk powder, sugar, cardamon powder, vanilla essence and almonds/pistachios in a deep pan. Bring to a boil, lower heat until the mixture barely simmers.

- Mix milk powder with baking powder and the egg until it forms a thick, cloying ball.

- Taking two teaspoons, form small balls of milk powder/egg mixture and place in the boiling milk. Allow the balls to puff up until they resemble fluffy little clouds (usually 8-10 minutes). Remove 'clouds' with a strainer, place in a deep bowl.
Tip to make the balls - take a teaspoon, scoop half-teaspoon size of the paste, using the other teaspoon scrape and roll until the little ball is formed (exacly like what you do with spoons and ice cream).
This amount of paste should give you about 20-25 small balls or more. Boil only 10 or less at one time so they all have space to expand in the pan.

-  Once all the balls have been turned into clouds, pour a third of the boiling milk mixture into the bowl holding the 'clouds'.

- Return remaining milk in pan to the boil. Add evaporated milk and remaining sugar (you can use less or more sugar if you want). Stir and cook over low, simmering heat until the mixture starts to thicken.

- Dilute custard powder (or other starch) with a few Tablespoons of water and add to the milk. The cream should thicken more now.

- Remove from heat. Stir in the dairy cream.

- You can already mix the 'ras' (cream) with the 'koftas' (clouds) and place in the refrigerator. Or you can place both dishes in the fridge and mix/assemble just before serving.

- This dish should be served chilled. Place a few slices of almond/pistachio on each 'cloud' for garnish. You can also add a few strands of fragrant saffron.

My aunt makes the traditional Ras Malai using curdled milk. She boils milk, when it's boiling, she adds lemon juice to it. Once the milk curdles, she strains in into a thin cloth and lets the curd hang for at least 4 hours. She then makes little balls using the curd which she uses in place of the milk powder/egg mixture I use.

Another good tip for this recipe is it makes delicious ice cream! I often make this dish in summer and freeze the 'ras' (cream) in small tubs or in popsicle moulds. My kids love this treat!

There you are - Ras Malai as we have it at my place! Enjoy!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee

Tidbit Tuesday: Chicken Curry... A recipe

... for an easy to make chicken curry. I told a friend I was making this dish a few weeks ago and she asked for the recipe. Figured I'd share it with all of you readers of crazy Zee's blog!

Okay, so there's nothing exactly spectacular about my chicken curry, except maybe if you're not used to eating chilli, 'coz mine would probably liquefy your oesophagus, stomach, intestines and guts. Yup, we're heavy on chilli here! But on the whole, this dish is easy to make, speedy, and keeps very well for 2 days in the fridge (make sure the dish is cooled before putting it in the fridge) and can even be frozen and eaten at a later date.

Here goes:

Easy Chicken Curry (a la Zee!)

Ingredients

- 1 whole chicken, approx. 2.5 pounds, cut into pieces (or you can use whatever chicken pieces you prefer)

- Onions, finely chopped - the more, the thicker your curry. I use about 3-4 closed-fist sized onions.

- Potatoes, diced. Use however much you want, I don't keep tabs on how many I add to this dish.

- Curry powder, about 2-3 Tablespoons - any good grocery store carry these. I know Shaan brand is available in the US - just be very careful with this brand coz it's loaded with chilli. Try going for a mild or chilli-free version if you're not used to Indian food.

- Gram flour - 2-3 Tablespoons again - this is what will thicken your curry. It's available in all good Indian stores, under the name of Besan. If you don't get this, you can use chickpea flour.

- Salt - check to see if your curry powder is already salted.

- Pepper - preferably fresh ground

- Crushed tomatoes or tomato paste/puree - about 2 Tablespoons.

- Oil for cooking - a good vegetable oil such as soya or sunflower. Olive oil is not indicated for this recipe.

- Fresh coriander (cilantro, as I think it is called in the US) - chopped, for garnish.

Method:

- Heat oil in a deep, thick metal pan. Add chopped onions, fry until onions start turning brown.

- Mix curry powder, gram flour, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Add a little water to make into a paste. Add paste to fried onions pan.

- Cook, stirring all the time (or else the flour will make it stick, and keep flame on medium), until the oil separates from the paste. Add a few drops of water if the paste is sticking to the base of the pan.

- Add chicken pieces, stir to coat with massala (which is what the paste is called!). Add water, usually just enough to cover chicken pieces, and stir.

- Add diced potatoes (add more water to cover potatoes and chicken if necessary. This will ensure that the food doesn't dry out so the massala doesn't stick to the pan and get burnt). Close pan with lid, bring to a boil, lower heat slightly. Let cook for 15-20 minutes.

- Remove lid, stir to check if potatoes are cooked (smash one cube against the side of the pan with the back of a wooden spoon. If it smashes easily, it is done).

- Add tomato paste/puree (this softens the massala). Stir, let cook uncovered for 5-10 minutes.

- Turn off heat. Garnish with chopped coriander.

- Serve hot with rice, naan (Indian yeast bread), or chappatis (Indian flat bread cooked on a hot griddle).

I hope you'll enjoy this recipe. It's a staple of my kitchen, and I don't get away from this deal without making chappatis!

From Mauritius with love,

Zee