Slow Cooker Katsu Curry

A promoted ad for the BBC Good Food website’s recipe for Easy Katsu Curry Chicken has inspired me to make a slow cooker katsu curry.

Yes I know one, if not the main, feature of Katsu Chicken is the crispy breadcrumbed finish.  But as we’ve never had this before who’s to know!

It is still blipping away in the slow cooker, and whilst the carrots and onions look quite presentable in the sauce, I probably will puree the sauce and thicken it with cornflour in a small saucepan before serving to avoid all evidence of vegetables.

This has a very mild curry flavour, and in fact reminds me of the curry sauce they serve in a chip shop!

Serves a hearty 4
8 chicken thighs

Sauce ingredients (from Gizzi Erskine’s recipe for Chicken Katsu Curry in The Independent)
1 tablespoon groundnut or vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
5 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon medium curry powder
600ml chicken stock
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 bay leaf
half a teaspoon garam masala

Turn on your slow cooker to heat up.  Brown the chicken thighs in a large frying pan.  Once browned, place the chicken in the slow cooker and fry the onion, carrot and garlic for a few minutes.  Add the curry powder & garam masala, stir once more to warm the spices, then scrape everything into the slow cooker and rinse the pan out with the boiling hot stock (or boiling water, adding the crumbled stock cube).  I added the honey and soy sauce here, but eating it 6 hours later I’m now thinking it would be best adding this right at the end before serving.

Cook for High for 4+ hours.  When just about ready to eat, remove the chicken thighs to a warmed bowl and transfer the liquid and stewed vegetables to a saucepan.  Remove the bay leaf and liquidise with a stick blender.  Mix the cornflour with about 1 tbsp water to a single cream consistency and add to the sauce it begins to simmer, stirring until it thickens.  Add the soy sauce and honey if you haven’t already and check for seasoning.

Bolognese/Ragu Sauce made with Leftovers

Leftover Pork & Stilton, Venison & Damson, and Cumberland sausages from the last BBQ of the year found their way into this ragu, which in turn was made into a midweek lasagne.  The meat part  of this sauce could equally be made with leftover roast beef or roast pork.

A food processor makes light work of all the vegetable & meat chopping.

1 onion
1 large carrot
1 stick of celery
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
2 large handfuls of leftover meat
1 tin chopped tomatoes

Peel the onion and carrot.  Roughly chop onion and garlic and process into a fine rubble in the food processor.  Fry gently in a wide saucepan to soften whilst you roughly chop and process the celery and carrot to a fine rubble too.  Add these to the pan once chopped.  Cover and sweat over a gently heat for 5 minutes or so whilst you roughly chop the meat and process this to a rubble.

Once the onions start to look translucent, push the vegetables to once side, turn up the heat a little and add the meat.  Leave it to sizzle for a few minutes before adding the tomatoes (liquidised if you like, as my kids prefer) together with a can of recently boiled water.

Bring to the boil and simmer with the lid of for 20-30 minutes and the sauce has reduced and thickened to your taste.  If using leftover roast you may wish to add pepper and salt to taste.  Using processed meat, I found there was no need to add any further seasoning.

Slow Cooker Beef in Red Wine

It’s tipping it down outside, but I’m happy as I’ve just found the remains of Sunday’s beef stew and eaten it.

I did find another portion a few weeks ago at the bottom of the freezer and wondered if I could recreate it. But Dad took Sunday dinner into his own hands, as he does, and has managed to make a similarly tasty stew without knowing it.

With a slow cooker I think the trick is to leave most vegetables out. We just steamed some to have on the side later.

1kg stewing beef, shin (off the bone is cheaper), or ox cheek cut into bite sized pieces
2 medium onions, peeled and chopped
1 large clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp plain flour
2 bay leaves
1 stick of cinnamon or a star anise (this gives a lovely warming tingle)
500ml red wine
Beef stock cube
Boiling water to top up
Cornflour to thicken

Toss the beef in the flour and brown in a frying pan. Place into the heating slow cooker then fry the onions and garlic, adding more oil if needed and fry until beginning to brown then add to the slow cooker. Heat the wine in the frying pan with the crumbled beef stock cube and scrape all the yummy bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour over the beef once it has come to the boil. Add the bay leaves and cinnamon or star anise if using and top up with boiling water so there is about 2cm covering the top of the beef.

Leave to cook on high for at least 6 hours. And something I’ve only recently learnt, try not to peek! It lowers the temperature and makes the cooking time even longer, and shin and ox cheek all the tenderising help they can get!

After 6 hours, when tender enough pour off the liquid into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Mix 2 heaped teaspoons of cornflour with a little water until it is the consistency of single cream and add to the simmering sauce to thicken. Return to the sauce to the meat in the slow cooker and season to taste.

Dad served ours with roast potatoes and parsnips as it was Sunday, but it works just as well with boiled or mashed potatoes or even pasta.

Jamie Oliver’s Chilli con Veggie

 We possibly had our last BBQ of the year yesterday, with 13 family members to celebrate Sprout’s 10th birthday.  So today, with the arrival of rain, we are having a big veggie chilli to compensate for all the meat we consumed yesterday.

The recipe is courtesy of Jamie Oliver’s website, and Kerryann’s Chilli con Veggie.  Do note, the recipe is for 10!  I made halved the ingredients and still have a massive chilli for our family of five.  I also only added 1 teaspoon of smoked paprika and even this might have to much of a poke to it for my generally foodie kids.

Serves 5 (Halved from the original recipe which serves 10)
1 large onion
1 large carrot
1 large stick of celery
1 large clove of garlic
1 small leek
Half a fresh red chilli
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp smoked paprika (I only used 1 level tsp)
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp dried oregano
Nutmeg
2 tbsp tomato purée
125g dried green lentils
125g dried red lentils
1 tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 tin tin of black beans, drained and rinsed
1 tin chopped tomatoes
500ml vegetable stock

I chopped all my vegetables in a mini food processor, frying the chopped onion and garlic first in the olive oil, and then adding the chopped carrot, celery and chilli. Fry this for about 5 minutes or until the onion starts to look translucent. Stir in the spices and herbs and then the tomato paste and fry for another minute or so. Add the beans, tomatoes, stock and lentils. Bring to the boil then leave to simmer gently for about 30-45 minutes, stirring from time to time, and adding more liquid if it starts to get too thick. It is ready when the lentils are tender. Season and serve over rice or baked potato with a dollop of soured cream or greek yoghurt.

7pm – Kids have had their tea and wolfed it down. A success.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry
Instagram: sunhillmakesbakes

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

A tomato glut is something I never had, but when a friend posted on Facebook that she had too many beef tomatoes so the idea of trying to make ketchup came to mind. There are loads of recipes on the web, but this is the one from www.deliciousmagazine.co.uk was the one I settled on, partly because it coincided with the weight of tomatoes I was given.

Ingredients
2kg tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 onions, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
150ml red wine vinegar
100ml water
½ tsp black peppercorns
1 blade mace (I didn’t have any so I used 1/4tsp ground nutmeg instead)
4 allspice berries (Didn’t use any as ones I thought I had were juniper!)a
2 cloves
½ tsp crushed dried chillies (used only 1/4tsp as our chilli flakes are really hot, then saw the note about omitting this if making for children!)
2 bay leaves (forgot to add them!)
1 tbsp light brown sugar

Put tomatoes, garlic, 50ml of the vinegar and the water into a large saucepan and simmer gently for 40 minutes until the vegetables are soft and pulpy.

Whilst the tomatoes are cooking, put the rest of the vinegar into a little saucepan together with the  all the other ingredients apart from the sugar.  Simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes then turn off and leave to one side.

After 40 minutes, puree the tomato pulp with a stick blender then strain and rub the pulp through a sieve into a clean pan.  Make sure you get as much of the tomato pulp through the seive as possible, only leaving the seeds and skins behind.

Strain the vinegar and spices into the pan with the sieved tomato.  Add the sugar and simmer over a medium heat until thickened and reduced to a thick consistency, about 500ml.

Remove from the heat and season to taste. Pour the ketchup into a jug and use a funnel to transfer it into sterilised bottles or jars. Seal immediately and cool completely before labelling and storing.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry
Instagram: sunhillmakesbakes

Spiced Plum Jam

Joining a Facebook conversation about the amount of fruit falling unused on the pavements around our town, I ended up with 5lbs of free plums on my doorstep last week. I made Spiced Plum Chutney with half, and was so taken with the flavour I decided to make a sweet spiced jam with the other half.
tesco.com has a very simple recipe and the jam has a lovely autumny/wintery spice taste to it.

900g stoned and chopped plums
900g granulated sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp butter (to clarify)

Place a saucer in the freezer.

Put the stoned and chopped plums in a wide stainless steel pan or preserving pan with 150ml water.  Bring to the boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes until the fruit is soft.  As I had frozen my plums, they were soft enough to skip this step.

Wash and sterilise your jars and lids as soon as the jam goes on.  I reuse the ‘pop up’ style lids as these help seal the jam and allow you to keep it in a dark place for 1+ years. Wash jars and lids in hot soapy water, rinse well and drain.  Place the jars in a cold oven, let it heat up to 140C and then leave for 10 minutes at this heat or until your ready to pot up.  Place the lids in a pan with boiling water and boil for 10 minutes to sterilise.

Add the sugar and stir over a low heat until all the sugar has dissolved.  Stir in the cinnamon and ginger and bring to a rolling boil.  Boil rapidly for 10 minutes without stirring.  With a spoon, pour a little onto the chilled saucer.  After a few seconds push the jam with your finger.  If it wrinkles, it is ready.  If not, return to the boil for another 5 minutes and test again, stirring from time to time.  It took about 20 minutes when I made this jam this afternoon, and I did have to stir it to stop it catching on the bottom of the pan especially towards the end of cooking.

When ready remove from the heat.  Stir in the butter which should make any scum ‘vanish’.  Take your jars out of the oven and fill right to the brim.  Seal immediately with your sterilised lids and leave to cool.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Sweet & Sour Vegetables with Noodles

A quick Sweet & Sour dish I learnt in Thailand. It’s a great way to vegetables into kids, even if you have to resort to selling it as ‘it’s got ketchup in’.

Below is the recipe as taught to me but I often use different vegetables depending on what I have left over. I always use carrot and pineapple, plus sometimes pak choi, cabbage, kale, red pepper. The list is endless. And again I usually add noodles, but you could serve this over rice.

Serves 2 greedy adults or 4 children

1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
100g cauliflower, cut into bite sized pieces
1 carrot
1 cucumber
8 baby corn
220g pineapple chunks (keep the juice)
70g snow peas or green beans
1 chopped red chilli (optional) or 1 tsp hot chilli flakes
2 tomatoes, roughly chopped (optional)
1 tbsp cooking oil
2 layers of noodles

Sauce
2 tbsp lime or lemon juice
2 tsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
6 tbsp tomato ketchup
50ml reserved pineapple juice + water or stock

Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet. Drain when cooked and leave in cold water to stop them cooking and sticking.

Mix the sauce ingredients together in a bowl apart from the juice/water.

Prepare the cauliflower, carrot, snow peas, and baby corn and chop into bite sized pieces.

Put the oil into a wok and fry the garlic over a high heat until it starts to turn brown. Add the onion and stir fry. Add the cauliflower and carrot followed by the cucumber, baby corn and pineapple and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Add the chillies, tomatoes and peas and stir fry for another minute until all the vegetables are cooked. Add the sauce ingredients and noodles and stir to combine. Add as much or as little of the reserved juice/water to make it the consistency you like. Serve immediately.

Cooked chicken or pork can be added at the start with the garlic if wished.

The trick is to prepare everything before hand as once you start stir frying the dish is pretty much done in a matter of minutes.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Leftover Roast Pork in a Sweet & Sour Barbecue Sauce

This dish started off with me following the chilli sauce recipe from Ching-He Huang’s Chilli Chicken with Jasmine Rice, but as I added additional ingredients from a Thai Sweet & Sour dish I learnt in Thailand as I prefer the saltier flavours, it began to take on more of a barbecue sauce flavour. The kids have devoured it, including mine and Dad’s portions, so I had better write it down to be able to reproduce it again.

2 big handfuls of roast pork. If you don’t have this much you could always leave the pepper chunky and add a small tin of pineapple chunks to bulk the dish up.
1 tbsp sunflower oil

Sauce
1 tin of tomatoes
3 garlic cloves
2.5cm ginger
1 red pepper
2 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp lemon or lime juice
1 tsp sugar
1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes

Skin the garlic, de-seed and roughtly chop the pepper, roughtly chop the ginger and blend everything in a blender cup.

Fry the chopped pork in the sunflower oil, leaving it to brown as much as you dare. Add the sauce and bring to the boil. Serve with rice.

Quick Moroccan Inspired Fish Stew

There is an advertisement on television right now with a dad and young daughter making a Mediterranean Fish Stew. Here’s my take on it. More Moroccan, and less (read as no) child participation.

Serves 4
Cooking Time: around 15 minutes

1 small onion, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 red pepper, chopped small or pureed to hide it
1-2 tsp harissa paste
4 fillets frozen white fish (I use pollock)
Handful of black olives (optional)
Handful chopped parsley or coriander (optional)

Fry onion, garlic and red pepper if using chopped in the olive oil over a medium heat in a saucepan until it starts to brown. Add red pepper puree if not added chopped earlier. Add tomatoes, half a tin of recently boiled water, harissa and bring to a simmer. Add the other ingredients and simmer until the fish can be broken up easily into small pieces. Stir in parsley or coriander if using, and season to taste.

I serve it over couscous (Add a good pinch of salt, pepper and a glug of olive oil to half a mug of couscous. Cover with a full mug of boiling water in a dish with a tight fitting lid and leave to cook in the heat of the hot water whilst you make the fish dish) or bulghur wheat (boil a mug of bulghur wheat for 10 minutes in lots of salted water whilst waiting for the fish to cook). If in need of brownie points off the children I will serve it over pasta.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry

Leftover Roast Chicken with Chorizo & Butter Beans

A really quick tea I put together last week with leftover roast chicken.

Serves 4

1 large handful of leftover roast chicken, or more if you have it
100g spicy chorizo, cubed or finely sliced
1 can butter beans
1 can chopped tomatoes
1/2 can recently boiled water
1 onion, finely chopped
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
Pepper & salt to taste

Fry the chorizo in the olive oil until it starts to brown. Add the onion and garlic and cook for another 5 or so minutes. Add the rest of the ingredient, topping up with water to make into a suitable stewlike consistency, and simmer for 10-20 minutes to ensure the onion is cooked. Season to taste.

Serve over rice, pasta or just with crusty bread.

Twitter: Leesa@sunhillcurry