Tag Archives: Jackies challenge

It’s been a while since I’ve posted a cook book challenge post but here’s a really simple recipe that we use often. It is pangasius fillets served with a little extra. I am sure you could use other firm, white fish as a substitute.

Pangasius with extra
serves 2

2 pangasius fillets
50 g smoked salmon
coarse mustard (I use this one from Maille)

Apply some mustard to one of the pangasius fillets. Place the smoked salmon on top of the mustard and finally place the second fillet on top of this. Season the stack with salt, pepper and perhaps some lemon juice. Divide in two. Place in an ovenproof dish, cover with foil and place in a 200C / 400F hot oven and cook for 20-30 minutes until the fish has cooked through. Easy peasy.

This can be served with almost any kind of side dish but I like to serve it with broccoli, green beans, green salad, oven baked veggies or something along those lines.

If you (or I) didn’t know better you might believe that K and I only eat Indian – while we do eat a lot of Indian food not every meal is Indian, but a lot of the new recipes I try out are. So here’s another Indian recipe and once again it stems from Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Easy.

Curry with Whole Spices
serves 4

6 tbsp olive oil (we used less than that)
8 cardamom pods
2 x 5 cm/2″ cinnamon sticks
8 whole cloves
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp whole fennel seeds
115g / 4oz peeled and finely chopped onion (we used more than that because we like onions.)
900g / 2lb boneless lamb / beef, cut into big bite-sized pieces
300ml / 10 fl oz natural yoghurt
2 tbsp ground coriander
2 tsp peeled and finely grated fresh ginger
½ tsp cayenne pepper (you might want to go easy with the cayenne)

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Put the oil into a large, wide, flameproof pan and set over a medium-high heat. When hot, put in the cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, cumin and fennel seeds. Stir once, then put in the onions. Fry until the just begin to brown. Add the meat and all the remaining ingredients. Stir to mix and then bring to simmer. Cover first with foil, crimping the edges and then with the lid. Place in the oven and bake for 1 1/4 hours, or until the meat is just tender, stirring now and then.

Uncover and cook for another 15-20 minutes, or until the meat is a bit more dried out and slightly browned. Stir now and then during this period.

We cooked it on the stove with foil and lid on through the entire process. The dish tastes great. We served it with a cauliflower relish and some dahl; both found in the same cook book.

So have you ever cooked any Indian dishes?

I have officially lost track of the weeks of Jackie’s challenge so I’ll just post when I have something to post ;o) This next recipe is actually from a recipe collection on my pc and I have absolutely forgotten from whence it came. But it tastes great so here we go.

Sri Lankan style curry
serves 4

800 g meat (chicken, lamb, pork or beef)
200 g chopped onion
1 chopped red chili
15 g grated fresh ginger
1-2 cloves of garlic (crushed or grated)
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp curry
2 tsp salt
2-3 tsp oil
1 can coconut milk
2 dl water

Dry rub
1 tbsp basmati rice
1 tbsp dried coconut
6 cloves
25 black peppercorns
4 cardamum pods
4 laurel leaves
4 cinnamon sticks

Cut the meat into bitesize cubes – don’t make them too small.

Mix the ingredients for the rub and toast them on a hot pan. Make sure they do not burn. Remove the laurel leaves and the cinnamon sticks and put the rest of the rub ingredients into a spice mill or mortar and turn them into a dry, finely “chopped” rub.

Mix the curry and ground cinnamon into the rub and rub the meat well. Add cinnamon sticks, laurel leaves, onion, ginger and garlic to the mix. Let it rest for ½ hour.

Heat the oil and brown the meat on all sides. Then add the coconut milk and water and let it simmer for app. 45 minutes – stirring occasionally.

***

I served this with Madhur Jaffrey’s Salaad from Curry Easy and some rice. You could serve it with steam broccoli and cauliflower, a green salad etc. It has a very nice perfumed taste.

Yet another week has begun and I am back with a recipe from one of my cook books. This time around I’ve cooked from a Danish cook book, called Vegetarisk Vellyst (Vegetarian Delight) – so bear with my translation. Some cooking terms might be wrong but hopefully the recipe makes sense.

I have decided that we’ll have at least one meat-less dinner a week and today was a meat-less day. I cooked Quinoadunser (quinoa-“patties/meatballs”) and served them with ovenroased potatoes, carrots, celery and parsnip as well as a cabbage tzatiki. It was delicious. The Quinoadunser had a very nice texture, a great taste and was generally really nice. Next time I’ll add more spices to the mix: cumin, coriander, chili or something along those lines. But we can both recommend these “patties”.

Quinoadunser ready to be eaten.

Quinoadunser
12-14 patties – serves 4

1 dl whole quinoa (3 dl when cooked)
1 3/4 dl water
150 g beetroot (I used carrot since I don’t like beetroot)
100 g onion
1 garlic clove
1 dl graham flour or other whole grain flour
2 teaspoons curry
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs
taste-neutral oil

Rinse the quinoa in cold water. Cook it in 1 3/4 dl water for 10 minuttes. Remove from heat, stir in a bit of salt and let the quinoa rest covered for another 10 minutes.
Peel the beetroot (or carrot) and the onion. Grate both using a coarse grater.
Mix grated garlic, flour, curry, salt, onion and beetroot. Now mix in the quinoa and finally the eggs. If the quinoa is cold, you can mix all the ingredients at the same time. Let the mixture rest for a while.
Each “quinoa-patty” is made from 1 medium- large spoonful of the mixture, making “patties” that are app 1½cm tall. Put some oil on a hot pan and cook the “patties”. They need app. 5 minutes on each side on medium heat – cook until they are “firm”, brown and crispy.

Took this picture while making the mix for the Quinoadunser and talking to my mother who then wanted to see the mix, because I claimed it look like a mix for cupcakes.

Have you joined the movement to have at least one meat-free dinner a week? And what do you cook on those days?