Tag Archives: Cooking

Salad therapy – lambs lettuce with pear and Sharon fruit

We can’t believe that neither of us had tried Sharon fruit (persimmon) till earlier this year but having done so it is now a regular feature in our fruit bowl.  Tonight we had a simple salad combining thinly sliced Sharon fruit and pear (used a mandolin slicer) topped with lambs lettuce dressed in olive oil, balsamic white vinegar, salt and pepper and finished with shavings of flavoured Gloucester cheese (onions and chives).  Hope you enjoy as much as we did.

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Salad therapy – Kerala dry chicken with coconut & yogurt dressing

We had a relative visit us over the weekend and had prepared some of Anna’s mum’s dry roast chicken curry as a snack.  We had some left over and this has formed the inspiration for this salad.  The dressing is simple to make and probably could work well with any Indian grilled/baked chicken dish (ie. tandoori chicken or chicken tikka masala).   The recipe for the chicken  (Chicken Ularthiyathu) was posted in an earlier blog – link below.

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The Dressing

What do I need to make it?

  • 2 tbsp fresh grated coconut
  • 3 tbsp yogurt
  • 1 green chilli chopped
  • Handful of fresh coriander and mint
  • Salt to taste

How much will I make?

100-150 ml

How do I make it?

Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend to a fine paste.   Place warmed left over chicken pieces over salad leaves of choice and drizzle the dressing over.   Enjoy.

Related Links:

Chicken Ularthiyathu –  http://wp.me/p3oBch-M

Gluten free churos (work in progress)

Building on the success of the chocolate cake we got our creative juices going to make a dessert with some chestnut flour we had picked up recently.   We are calling it gluten free churos as this is closest thing it resembles but still needs a bit of work to get the texture just right.   We are pretty happy with our first attempt and thought we would share this with you in the hope that you can input your ideas on improving and perfecting it.

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What do I need to make it?

  • 1 cup of chestnut flour
  • 1 large sweet potato peeled and boiled with a few cloves and a black cardamom pod and then mashed
  • 2 tsp fruit sugar
  • 1 tsp cinnamon powder
  • Oil to fry

How much will I make?

Serves 4

How do I make it?

Mix all the ingredients in bowl and knead together to form a soft dough.   Heat oil in a frying pan and fry long strips till done.   The end result is a crispy exterior with a semi chewy interior.  We used a traditional South Indian muruku press to place the dough into the oil – works a treat.

Radish salad

On a blistering summer’s day as today (temperature expected to reach their highest for the year!!) thought it would make sense to have a radish salad for lunch.  Radishes are a naturally cooling food and their pungent flavor is highly regarded in eastern medicine for the ability to decrease excess heat in the body that can build up during the warmer months.  Something I wasn’t aware of was that radishes are supposed to increase one’s appetite and therefore normally eaten at the end of a meal in Eastern cultures.

Radish salad

What do I need to make it?

  • 1 large white radish cut into small pieces
  • 1 green chilli chopped finely
  • Handful of chopped coriander leaves
  • Handful of chopped basil leaves
  • Juice of half a lime
  • Salt & pepper to taste – I used an Indian onion salad seasoning instead

How do I make it?

Put the cut radish in a bowl and add the other ingredients.   Give it a good mix and serve at your next summer barbecue.

Gluten free bread

Since going on the Paleo diet Shiv and I have not touched bread in the last four months.  As I have been experimenting with gluten free baking of cakes and cookies I decided to give bread baking a shot.   The base recipe is borrowed from “The Best Gluten-Free, Wheat-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes” by Grace Cheetham with some tweaks.   We made some fresh mint and coriander chutney with a twist to go with it.

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Gluten Free Bread

What do I need to make it?

  • 450 gms gluten-free bread flour (we used Dove’s Farm)
  • 2 eggs
  • 350 ml almond milk
  • 1 tsp malt vinegar
  • 6 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 2 tsp quick acting yeast
  • 3 tbsp mixed seeds (pumpkin, sesame and sunflower)
  • 1 tbsp unrefined sugar
  • 1 tsp salt

How much will I make?

1 kg loaf (medium loaf about 12 slices)

How do I make it?

Mix together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar.  Warm the almond milk and then beat eggs into it with the malt vinegar.  Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and then add the milk mixture and mix into a sticky dough.  Add 2 tbsp of seeds and oil and continue to mix till all the ingredients are bound together.  Pour into a greased loaf tin and sprinkle remaining seeds on top and cover with moist cloth and  set aside for an hour to allow the dough to rise.  Place loaf in a pre-heated oven at 220 degree Centigrade for 40-45 minutes.  Crust should turn dark brown and centre cooked through (check with skewer to ensure it comes out dry).  Remove and cool loaf on wire rack before slicing.

Mint & Coriander Chutney

What do I need to make it?

  • Small bunch fresh coriander
  • Handful fresh mint leaves
  • 3 stalks of basil leaves
  • 2 sprigs of green onion
  • 1 small carrot
  • 3 green chilies
  • 1 bird’s eye red chili
  • 1/2 lime
  • 1 tsp unrefined sugar
  • Salt to taste

How do I make it?

Place all ingredients in a blender and grind to a fine paste.  Add lime juice and adjust seasoning before serving.  This chutney can be used a marinade for barbecued fish/chicken or as an alternative salad dressing without oil.