Friday 30 May - Chicken In A Cashew Nut Sauce

We have made a tradition of having curry every Friday, and getting a bit bored with the same ones every week. So I invested in a couple of Reza Mahamad books from Amazon. So far three recipes have been attempted, and all of them have gone down really well.

Tonights choice was Chicken in a Cashew Nut Sauce, and once I'd started cooking it I wondered what I was letting myself in for...

First stage was cashew nuts soaked for a couple of hours, and then blended to a paste

 

We also had to obtain the food of my nightmares -  a fresh coconut, which was grated

 

The next stage was to dry fry various spices, along with garlic, ginger and onions, and then add the grated coconut and fry for about 10 minutes.

 

The spice mix was blended to a paste with water, and then fried for 10 minutes before adding the cashew nut paste, and some fresh green chillies

 

 Finally, in went some diced chicken -  I used boneless breast here. The whole lot was simmered with some water added, and garnished with toasted cashews and fried onions.

I served with some dhal, and some greens cooked with fennel and cumin as recommended by Reza, and also some parathas - I buy these uncooked and frozen and we cook in a dry frying pan.

 

Wednesday 30 April - Pasta Puttanesca

I can't believe that I've never blogged this before, as it's one of our standby meals for when we can't think of anything else.

If I have fresh chillies and basil to hand I use those, if not dried ones work just as well.

Although I'm no fan of anchovies, they are vital in this as they add a salty and rich flavour to the sauce. I don't follow quantities here, I fry some garlic, chilli and basil, and then a big spoonful of anchovies are melted into these.

Then in with lots and lots of chopped olives and capers, and a pack of chopped tomatoes. If I'm not in a hurry I'll add a cup of water and a squeeze of tomato puree here too, and leave it to bubble away until thick.

Served stirred into hot spaghetti (dried is best here), and topped with a big handful of freshly grated parmesan. We served it with homemade garlic bread as we are greedy.