The Red Lychee: Food with Spice and Colour

The 4 Year Update...

2019-01-31T04:28:00.001-08:00

Has it really been 4 years since I last posted here? A rather enticing biryani recipe to boot, if I don't say so myself. For any long term readers and lurkers who've followed me on social media, you may have been keeping up with more up to date recipes on my official website www.theredlychee.com Click the link though and you'll see the site is down, some problem with the hosting or domain. I was going to resurrect the site when I was suddenly bit by the blogging bug again (it's been over a year since my last post), but quite honestly, time is always a tight squeeze these days and being stuck in a constant state of baby brain doesn't really allow mw to engage such technical intricacies. So, I thought, I know, why don't I return to my old familiar blogger site? I was surprised it still existed to be quite honest, but in a few minutes, I've managed to log in and open a new draft, and my fingers have been dancing over the keyboard, just like the old days...

So, what's happened in the past four years, I hear you ask? Well, I've probably moved about 4 times. I am now a Southerner in the Midlands, a fate I would never have predicted. I have now also left that awkward post-uni-early-20-something, not quite sure where they're going life phase and now hold the title of wife and more recently mother. I'm sure to many I can seem like a fairly put together person, but honestly some days I feel like I'm still getting to grips with 'adulting'.

Many things have changed and improved over the years. I can now confidently cook rice without exactly measuring out the water, huzzah! Though I will still measure when I make a pilau rice or the like. Me, the very un-natural baker, has garnered some praise for being able to produce tasty and relatively pretty cakes and bakes (I feel sorry for my family now for having to have endured all my experiemental hapless years of baking). Oh and I'm pretty sure I can roll out a round roti now!

But in many ways, things remain the same. I'm still a bit of a hurricane in the kitchen. I often am trying to cook as quickly as possible (whilst simultaneously creating the least amount of washing up for myself too). This almost always results in utensils and water flying everywhere, partly burning something (I set the smoke alarm off only yesterday) and it's a fairly common occurence for me to injure myself in some way.

My aims for my blogging redux are fairly low. To use one of my husband's favourite phrases, I'm managing my expectations. I'd quite like to just write and cook and take some pictures for the pleasure of it, without making it into some arduous task of making it SEO friendly and cross posting on social media and the like. I'd also quite like to thread in some food and lifestyle segments more applicable to my own personal life developments, such as recipes good for babies and kids.

But it wouldn't be a food blog without an actual recipe. So here's one for a quick weeknight dinner, a Moroccan inspired aubergine and chickpea stew. It's great with just some couscous and some roasted veggies. I think it'd be jazzed up even more with some harissa paste and perhaps a sprinkle of ras el hanout or any other middle eastern spice blend you fancy. You can make it in about 30 mins, so perfect if you have a baby like me. It's also pretty healthy and totally vegan (I'm not vegan but everyone and their Aunt seems to be these days...).

Ingredients:

2 tbsp oil

1 onion sliced

1 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic minced)

1 tsp cumin

1 aubergine diced

1 can of chickpeas, drained

1/2 can of plum tomatoes

Handful of baby plum tomatoes, sliced

1 medjool date, chopped

Squeeze of lemon juice

1/2 - 1 cup water

Sprinkle of red chilli flakes (optional)

Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1) In a frying/saute pan, add oil and allow to heat up. Add onion, garlic and 1tsp salt and sautee until golden

2) Add cumin and cook off for 1 min before adding in aubergine and giving a good stir.

3) Add in chickpeas, tinned tomatoes and fresh tomatoes and stir together before covering and leaving to cook for 2-3 minutes.

4) Uncover and add in chopped date, lemon juice and enough water until the vegetables are covered. Put the lid back on and leave to cook on a medium to low heat until the aubergine is cooked through and you have a thick tomato sauce.

5) Once cooked through, add chopped chilli, season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with couscous and roasted vegetables.

Tandoori Chicken Biryani

2015-08-05T10:16:00.000-07:00

Hello, all. Welcome to biryani recipe 240349304 on the interwebs. You might be wondering, well Abida, what makes your biryani recipe so different from all the other ones out there?? Well, I'll tell you exactly what, discerning readers. It's the fact that I have struggled to get to this point of a publishable biryani recipe that I can confidently share with other people. It has been a year long journey for me of trials, tribulation and hyperventilation. I should add a side note here that being Bangladeshi, biryanis are not really a traditional food as it is in Indian and Pakistani cuisine. It is usually more common for us to prepare a pilau or yakhni dish. And yep that is my very legitimate excuse that I am using before sharing my embarassing biryani making woes...

The first attempt came a year ago where I attempted to make the biryani from scratch with no boxed spice mixes. It was a sorry tale from the get go. I somehow managed to burn the onions when I was making the chicken masala, lending a rather unpleasant acrid taste throughout the whole dish. Furthermore, I was so fixated on not having soft, mushy rice, that I ended up with the total opposite and I had to spend aaaages letting it cook on the stove in a desperate attempt to get it to soften. The second biryani attempt came a few months later, when I managed to muster the courage to try again. This time, I thought to ease myself back into the process by using a ready prepared biryani spice mix. I ended up regretting the decision as I found the flavour too strong and decidedly flowery in taste. On top of that, the second time around, I was fixated on not having hard rice and subsequently I ended up with rice that was way too soft.

The struggles, guys. It's real.

But a couple of days ago, I decided to conquer my fears head on, armed with my new range of culinary skills and a bag load of tips that I'd preened from anyone who fed me biryani. And just like in the tale of Golidocks and the Three Bears, the third time was just right. And there was no box spice mix to be found in sight, huzzah! All of the spices were ones that we had in the cupboards anyway, and I tried to use whole spices in moderation so as not to overwhelm the dish. I decided to go for a tandoori chicken flavour as it is one that we all enjoy in our family so it was a safe option. I used chicken on the bone as I feel that it is more tender, but you can use boneless chicken, and make tikka style pieces.

There are three different parts to this recipe, the preparation of the tandoori chicken and then the gravy/sauce to go with it, the precooking of the rice, and the assembly process. It might seem a bit intimidating, but if you are lazy like me, you could prepare the chicken masala the night before and then do all of the rice and assembly the next day. And if you're looking for even more shortcuts, you could skip baking the chicken in the oven and just cook it on the stove straight off. I couldn't be bothered to use dough to seal the pot as in the traditional dum method to steam the biryani and instead used foil. Alternatively, you could wrap the lid in a damp tea towel and place it on top. A colleague gave me the tip of placing a flat tawa under the pot whilst the biryani steams and I found that it helps in distributing the heat.

You could add lots of food colouring to the rice or the chicken, but I decided to keep things simple and natural, and used a little bit of saffron. Like with most curry dishes, as good as the biryani tastes fresh, it tastes better the next day when the flavours have had time to mature and deepen. So give it a go, guys. I really mean it when I say that if I can do it, anyone can do it.

Tandoori Chicken Biryani
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 30 minutes (plus marination time)
Cooking time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients:

Tandoori Chicken marinade:

1 whole chicken, cut into small pieces (roughly 1kg in weight)
1 cup yoghurt
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp chaat masala powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

Gravy/masala sauce for tandoori chicken:

4 tbs oil
1 onion sliced
3 cloves garlic, grated/minced
1-2 inch piece ginger, grated/minced
2 bay leaves
2 green cardamoms
1 cinnamon stick, snapped into pieces
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 cup yoghurt
1 tsp concentrated tomato puree/paste
Water

Rice:

2 cups basmati rice, washed and left to soak for 30 minutes
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
pinch of whole black peppercorns
1 black cardamom
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick snapped into pieces
3 green cardamoms
2-3 cloves
1 tsp salt
1-2 tbs butter
Few strands of saffron (optional)
Few tablespoons of milk (optional)
Handful corriander, chopped
2 whole green chillis (optional)

Method:

1) In a bowl, add the chicken, and all of the marinade ingredients. If using chicken on the bone, slash drumsticks on the thickest part of the legs. Massage the marinade into the chicken and make sure all pieces are coated liberally. Cover and leave to marinade in the fridge for at least 1 hour, preferably overnight.

2) Once marination is complete, remove chicken from fridge. Preheat oven to 200C/Gas mark 7 and line a roasting tray with foil. Remove pieces of marinated chicken from the bowl, lightly shaking off any excess marinade. Place chicken pieces on tray, leaving some space between. Reserve any leftover marinade. Bake chicken in the oven for 45 minutes-1 hour, until the chicken is cooked through. To char the chicken slightly, you can finish the chicken pieces under the grill or on a stove top griddle. Once chicken is cooked, remove from oven and leave to the side whilst you prepare the gravy/masala sauce.

3) In a large frying pan or skillet, add oil and allow to heat up on a medium heat. Add garlic and leave to cook for a miute or two so that the garlic turns golden brown. Then add the onions and ginger. Stir onions to coat in oil and then add a 1/2 tsp salt to help onions soften. Add in bay leaves, green cardamoms and cinnamon. If you find the onions are catching, add a few tablespoons of water at a time. Once the onion have turned brown, add the chilli powder, cumin powder and curry powder and tomato puree. Stir and allow the spices to cook off for a minute or two. Once you see the oil and the sauce separating, add a half cup of water to help the onions soften and dissolve and leave to simmer for about 5 minutes.

4) Once the onions have softened, add in the cooked tandoori chicken and stir to coat in sauce. Then stir in 1/2 cup of plain yoghurt. Leave to cook for a minute or two so some of the liquid evaporates. Then add in 1/2 cup water and leave to cook for 2-3 minutes until the sauce comes together. The chicken masala should not be too dry, so add extra as and if necessary. Check salt to taste and then remove chicken from the heat.

5) To prepare the rice, place a large pot on a high heat. Add about 6-8 cups of boiling water from a kettle. Add all of the whole spices and allow the water to come to a rolling boil. Drain the basmati rice and pour into the pot. Leave to cook for 5 minutes, so the rice is partly cooked. Test the rice to see if it is ready by taking a grain of rice and rubbing it between your finger and thumb. If ready, it should break into 3 pieces. Drain rice in a colander and reserve to the side.

6) Take a few strands of saffron, and allow it to sit in a few tablespoons of warm milk for at least 15 minutes whilst you layer the biryani. The longer you leave the saffron, the more the colour will come out.

7) Now to layer the biryani, take a large pot (I used the same one I prepared the rice in) and then coat the bottom and sides of the pot with a tablespoon of butter to stop the biryani from sticking. If you do this over a low heat, the butter will easily melt. Spoon about 1/3 of the chicken masala into the bottom of the pan. Then spoon a layer of rice on top so that the chicken is covered. Then spoon on another layer of chicken in the middle of the rice. Then top that with another layer of fragrant rice. Then one final layer of chicken masala in the middle and then cover that with one last layer of rice. Try to even out the rice so the layer is nice and flat. Spoon over the saffron milk mixture in a large ring on the top layer of the rice. Break up a knob of butter over the top of the rice. Lightly sprinkle on 2-3 handfuls of water to help the rice steam. Then add the chopped corriander and the whole green chillis.

8) Cover the pot with tin foil tightly and place the lid on top, making sure there are no gaps. Place a tawa under the pot and leave the biryani to steam on a low heat for 30 minutes. Check the rice after 30 minutes (if rice is still hard, sprinkle with a little more water, reseal with foil and leave to steam for a further 5-10 mins). Use a large flat spoon to gently mix the biryani from top to bottom. Check salt and season to taste as necessary. Serve hot with salad and raita.

Vintage Eid Tea Party

2015-07-29T14:26:00.000-07:00

During the weekend of Eid, we threw a vintage style tea party on a surprisingly sunny Sunday afternoon. It was the first grown up party that I had taken part in hosting and I thought I'd share a few pictures from the day. It took a few days to plan and prepare, and whilst there were a few stressful moments, it was a very fun and enjoyable day.

It was a real DIY party, as most things were either homemade, like the cakes and cookies or bought from the pound shop/eBay like the disposable tablecloth and vintage style paper straws and washi tape. We placed the flowers in an old glass bottle and a jam jar decorated with paper doilies from the pound shop. Whilst I love those vintage looking glass milk bottles, we had no space to store a set after the party, so instead I bought readymade milkshakes from the supermarket which came in similar shaped plastic bottles, and then I replaced the plastic label with a paper doily. My sister in law prepared the lovely Victoria sponge cake which we decorated with a washi tape cake topper. But our cake stand was nothing more than a plate and bowl taped together! I also had some fun making some tissue paper Pom pom flowers. It's pretty cool what you can produce with a little creative thinking and lots of Pinterest tutorials!

My Ramadan Meals in Pictures

2015-07-27T06:03:00.001-07:00

Hello and as salamu alaikum dear readers! I can't believe it's been just over a week since the end of Ramadan. It feels as though it was just the other day, and years ago all at the same time. Does that even make sense?

I am feeling very nostalgic about Ramadan at the moment, and the tranquility and spirituality that comes along with the month, so thought I would share a post today with some of my iftar meals from the month. I was overall quite pleased with how I ate during Ramadan, it was probably my healthiest one to date. I must confess however, I have been indulging in ~~junk~~ decadent foods quite a bit since Eid, but this is something I hope to rectify soon!

I tried to keep it balanced for iftar this year, and tried to find the middle path between traditional and luxury foods and lighter, healthier foods. It wouldn't really be a Bengali iftar without the occasional appearance of kichuri, piyazi (lentil and onion fritters) or chana biran (curried chickpeas).... So we mixed it up with soups and salads as well as some deep fried savoury snacks!

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 18, 2015 at 2:05pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 19, 2015 at 2:35pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 20, 2015 at 2:13pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 21, 2015 at 2:17p
m PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 22, 2015 at 2:24pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 23, 2015 at 4:12pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 24, 2015 at 2:27pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 25, 2015 at 2:24pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 26, 2015 at 2:40pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 27, 2015 at 3:12pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 28, 2015 at 2:19pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 29, 2015 at 3:28pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jun 30, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 1, 2015 at 2:14pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 2, 2015 at 3:27pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 3, 2015 at 2:30pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 4, 2015 at 2:27pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 5, 2015 at 3:13pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 6, 2015 at 2:22pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 7, 2015 at 2:31pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 11, 2015 at 2:27pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 14, 2015 at 3:04pm PDT

A photo posted by Abida at The Red Lychee (@theredlychee) on Jul 16, 2015 at 2:03pm PDT

Aafiyah Ramadan Competition

2015-06-28T11:59:00.001-07:00

Hello, all! I have recently been working with the good people at Aafiyah and have created some tasty and simple recipes using their convenient frozen poultry range. Aafiyah are currently running a competition during Ramadan where there is a great hamper of goodies up for grabs.

All you have to do is try out one of the recipes on the website and upload an image of your creation. You could try out my tandoori chicken recipe, or chicken and sausage bake or some quick spicy wings. Not only are they quick and easy dishes for iftar, but by entering the competition you have a chance to win some free goodies. Win win situation all around I say. It would be great for one of my readers to win the competition, so do give it a go guys!

Sumac Lamb Chops

2015-06-28T11:44:00.000-07:00

Greetings readers! I hope you have all been enjoying the weekend, and that Ramadan is going well for all who are observing it. I can't believe we are already a third of a way through. The weather has been hot with a capital H recently in London, but alhamdulillah fasting has been going well so far. The day does move a lot faster though when I am kept busy with teaching. Just this Sunday afternoon for instance, I actually out of my own free will decided to do some cleaning as I felt I had a little too much time on my hands. And as those who know me personally would agree, it takes a lot for me to be enthusiastic about cleaning...

If you have been keeping up with my instagram feed, I have been posting daily pictures of my iftar meals with my family. I have been endevaouring this Ramadan to try and eat as best as I can and not gorge on traditional fried foods like samosas and pakoras. So far I think I have been doing pretty well and have been incorporating lots of veggies, leafy greens and fruits. I also like to go for simple, minimal fuss recipes where I can just leave something to simmer away slowly on the stove or bake in the oven without me being stuck in the kitchen for ages. These sumac lamb chops would be an ideal type of dish for iftar, as you can just leave it to cook away in the oven whilst you attend to other duties. As they are baked rather than fried, they are a lot easier on the stomach, and if you have some meat-loving males in your families, this is sure to satiate their appetite after a long day of fasting!

I loooove sumac, as you might have already surmised from my Sumac roast chicken post, and this dried Middle Eastern herb gives a subtle tang to the lamb chops. Also, in combination with the yoghurt, the marinade turns a pretty cute pink colour, although it is a little reminiscent of tubby custard...

As you marinade the chops the night before, all you have to do on the day is whack it in the oven. Afterwards, you can choose to finish off the chops either in the grill or on a griddle pan for some slight charring. The longer you marinade the chops, the deeper the flavour will be, however if you are running short on time you can always just marinade it on the morning of cooking. Serve the chops with salad and roasted veggies for a light meal, or some quinoa or rice for a bit more substance.

Sumac Lamb Chops

Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 6-12 hours marination
Cooking time: 1 hour

500g - 750g lamb chops, fat trimmed off
1 cup natural/greek yoghurt
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sumac
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
Juice of half a lemon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

1) In a bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for marinade. Add in the lamb chops and coat well. Cover and leave in the fridge to marinade for 6-12 hours.

2) Pre-heat oven to 180C and line a roasting tray with foil. Take lamb chops out of fridge and allow to come to room temperature. Place lamb chops on tray and spoon any excess marinade on top of the chops. Bake in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until cooked through to your liking.

3) Once chops are cooked through. finish them off under a hot grill or a stove top griddle to allow them to char slightly.

North African Style Chicken Stew

2015-06-20T10:29:00.000-07:00

I've been on a bit of a Middle Eastern/North African mood with my cooking recently. After my mujadarra recipe, I have got a North African style chicken stew for you guys today. The ingredients used are inspired by the Berber tagines dishes that you might find in Morocco, however I don't own a tagine so I'm not sure how authentically Moroccan this recipe really is.

I decided to add in some vegetables I had in my fridge like broccoli, and instead of the traditional couscous, I decided to make the dish a bit lighter and serve the stew over quinoa instead. However, you could just as easily serve it with some bread or rice if you prefer.

I used chicken thighs from Aafiyah's frozen range for this recipe. I braised the chicken thighs separately first before adding it to the pot with all of the vegetables. You can pretty much adapt it with whatever vegetables you have on hand at home, so it's a great simple dish that you can quickly whip up for dinner or iftar.

North African style Chicken Stew

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes- 1 hour

Serves: 4-6

4 chicken thighs

1 onion, sliced

2 carrots, peeled and cut vertically

2 potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges

Half a broccoli, cut into small florets

1 tomato, cut into slices.

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp chilli powder

¼ tsp turmeric

1 cinnamon stick

4 tsb vegetable oil

2 cups stock or water

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp pepper.

In a skillet or frying pan, add 2 tbs oil. Allow to heat up and then place the chicken thighs, skin down. Allow to sear for 3 minutes on one side, or until the skin is lightly browned, and then turn over to the other side. Remove chicken thighs from heat and allow to rest.

In a large pot, add the remaining 2 tbs oil, and any fat left over in the pan from the chicken thighs. Allow oil to heat, then add onions and half tsp salt. Allow onions to sauté for 5 minutes. Add cinnamon stick, cumin, chilli powder and turmeric and stir in. Allow spices to cook off for 2-3 minutes.

Add carrots into pot. Place chicken thighs back into pot and stir to coat in sauce. Add in potatoes and tomatoes and stir in. Then add stock or water. Cover and leave to simmer on medium heat for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, remove lid and add in broccoli florets. Cover again, and leave to cook for a further 10 minutes, or until the broccoli is cooked through.

*Disclaimer: this post contains sponsored links*

Mujaddara (Rice with lentils)

2015-06-20T10:17:00.000-07:00

Belated Ramadan Mubarak, readers! I can't believe we're already into the 3rd day already considering the period of fasting is quite long this year. I've got my interpretation of the Middle Eastern dish, mjddara/mujaddara to share with you today which would make a lovely addition to the dinner table for iftar.

Made with lentils and rice, this is apparently known as a peasant dish, as it is a cheap and filling dish with no meat. However, you really don't miss the meat and I could easily eat plates of this rice all on its own.

Being typically Bengali, I think my version of mujddara is quite similar to how we make pilau, minus all of the complicated spices. This dish only has cumin and black pepper but it surprisingly has a robust earthy and wholesome taste.

I adapted this recipe from This Muslim Girl Bakes and Arabic Zeal. From the latter, I took the idea of adding carrot which adds nice bites of sweetness to the rice. From the former, I got the idea of adding butter to the dish. The reasoning behind this was that apparently butter makes everything taste better, and my giddy aunt, the butter makes such a huge difference to an otherwise humble dish. I usually use ghee when I make traditional pilaus, however after the success of this dish, I may just switch to using butter now!

As I was writing out the recipe and instructions, I think I might have ended up making this sound more complicated than it really is. If you omit the caramelised onions, it is just an easy one pot dish. Measuring the rice and water using a coffee cup pretty much guarantees stress free perfectly cooked rice. In typical lazy Red Lychee fashion, I used canned green lentils, which cut down cooking time greatly. One day I might get around to soaking and boiling dried legumes, but today is not that day my friends!

Mujaddara (Rice with lentils)

Serves: 4-8
Prep time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 45 mins - 1 hour

For the rice:

2 tbs oil
1 red onion, sliced finely
1 tsp salt + more to season to taste
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground black pepper
3 1/2 cups water
1 carrot diced
1 can of green lentils (roughly 400g)
2 cups basmati rice
2 tbs butter, broken up into small pats/knobs

For the onion topping:

1 tbs oil
1/4 tsp salt
2 red onions, sliced finely
1 yellow onion, sliced finely

1) Wash the basmati rice with cold water and leave to soak for at least 30 minutes

2) Prepare onion topping first. In a frying pan or skillet, add oil and allow to heat up. Add in the onions and the salt to help onions to soften. Leave onions to slowly soften and caramelise uncovered on a very low heat. Leave onions to caramelise while you prepare the rice, stirring every now and then.

3) In a large pot, add in oil. Allow to heat up then add in onions. Add in a pinch of salt to help onions to soften. Leave onions to soften until they turn golden brown, on a medium heat. Stir in the cumin and the black pepper. Add water and allow it to come to a boil.

4) Once water has come to boil, drain the basmati rice and add it to the pot along with the carrots and lentils and a teaspoon of salt. Turn the heat up to high and leave the rice to cook with the lid on for about 10 minutes.

5) After about 10 minutes, remove lid. The water should have been absorbed and the rice should now be cooked through in the middle. Distribute the butter equally over the top of the rice. Use a large slotted spoon to very gently stir the rice from top to bottom, making sure not to break the rice. Lower the heat a low heat and leave the rice to cook for a further 3-5 minutes without the lid on. Leaving the lid off should allow any remaining water to evaporate away.

6) Once the water has evaporated, you should be left with nicely separated grains of rice. Check salt and season as necessary. If you add additional salt, make sure to gently stir the rice from top to bottom with a large slotted spoon to ensure the salt is distributed evenly.

7) Once the rice is cooked through and it is seasoned to your taste, remove the pot from the heat and cover it up with the lid and let it rest for about 5-10 minutes.

8) In the time that the rice was cooking, the onions should now have caramelised and reduced down. Remove the onions from the heat. To serve, layer the rice on a platter and then top with the caramelised onions.

Mango Kulfi

2015-06-17T00:23:00.000-07:00

Greetings, dear readers! I'm back today with what will be my last post before we enter Ramadan on Thursday, in sha Allah. It's going to be a very different experience for me this year, as it's the first time that I'll observing Ramadan whilst working full time. In previous years, I have usually been on summer holidays, which has meant that even though the weather has been quite hot, it was mostly a calm and reflective time for me. Nothing at all like running after children and talking all day long! I only hope and pray that it will be something that increases me in patience and willpower. May we all be able to benefit from this Ramadan, ameen!

As Ramadan has been in the warmer months for the last few years, our eating habits when we break our fasts for the iftar meal has changed. People from the Indian sub-continent especially are notorious for having lavish feasts with very rich (and often deep fried!) foods. However, myself and my family have been trying harder to stay away from indulging too much in heavy foods during Ramadan as it's obviously not the best thing health wise, and also because such types of food are often the last thing you want to eat in the summertime. I have increasingly been enjoying consuming less hot food (both in temperature and spice!) that is lighter on the stomach after a long day of fasting. Last year especially, we often had something cold on the table, like this watermelon granita, or ice cream to cool us off.

As such, I've brought for your this version of a traditional desi mango kulfi which is quick and easy to make and involves no churning! I only tried kulfi a few years ago actually, as I think it is more popular in India and Pakistan than Bangladesh. A quick google search will reveal that kulfi is not just the Indian version of ice cream. Though creamy, it has a slight icy texture. And most importantly, it has a very ditinctive taste from the addition of pistachios. Kulfi comes in different flavours such as plain pistachio, or malai, however I went for mango as we are smack bang in the middle of mango season at the moment.

I have made this kulfi twice now, both times using tinned mangoes rather than fresh mango. I chose tinned mango mainly because it is just more convenient and also because tinned mango is pretty much always guaranteed to be sweet. Using kesar tinned mango pulp gave a much more vibrant colour to the kulfi. When I used another tinned mango brand, I had to mash the mango using a fork before I could add it to the mix.

Mango Kulfi

Serves: 6-10

Prep time: 30 minutes

Freezing Time: 12 hours

Original Recipe from Kurry Leaves

Ingredients:

2 cups milk

1 1/2 tbsp cornflour

3/4 cup condensed milk

pinch cardamom powder or 3 whole green cardamoms

2-3 tbsp chooped pistachios

1 1/2 - 2 tbsp sugar

1 - 1 1/2 cup of pureed mango (tinned or fresh)

Method:

1) Pour 3/4 cup of milk in a pot along with sugar and condensed milk. Bring to a boil and stir frequently.

2) In a small bowl, create a slurry with the remaining 1/4 cup milk and cornflour. Mix well together. Once the condensed milk mixture in the pot comes to a boil, add the cornflour slurry and stir in well. Keep on stirring the mixture on a medium to high heat until the mixture becomes thick. Once it has thickened so that it coats the back of your spoon, add in the cardamom powder and pistachio. Stir in and then remove from heat.

3) Allow the mix to cool then stir in the puréed mango. Pour into a freezable container or moulds and freeze overnight.

To remove the kulfi from the mould and seve, place the container in a shallow bath of hot water which should help it to come out more easily.

Spicy Wings

2015-06-11T17:55:00.000-07:00

Very often when I get home from work, I will feel super peckish. I'll be walking up to the front door and all I'll be doing is thinking about getting home in launching myself face first into some potato-y, cheesy goodness. I blame our strange hours as a teacher. We have lunch at half 11 in the morning(!!) so by the time I get home, I'm feeling ravenous. Sometimes, as I raid the kitchen drawers, I can be pretty good and stay away from the carbs. And sometimes I know exactly what I want to eat, but it takes too long to prepare it, so I don't bother. These wings, come happily between not being too carb heavy and being quick and easy to prepare.

As it's from Aafiyah's frozen range, you can just take them out of the freezer and shove them into the oven, without waiting for them to defrost, and are cooked in about 20-30 minutes. They make a great Friday evening, post-work appetizer or snack, as my family and I enjoyed them, or can form a part of bigger dinner with sides. I served these wings with chopped cucumber and carrots (hello, vitamins) and topped the wings with toasted sesame seeds for a little crunch.

The wings from Aafiyah come ready prepared with either a spicy or BBQ flavoured sauce, but I decided to come up with my own sweet and spicy sauce to drench the wings in just to add some more moisture.

Spicy Wings

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook time: 30-40 minutes

Serves: 2-4

300g wings

For sauce:

½ cup Hot Sauce

2 tbsp Honey

2 tbsp Brown Sugar

2 tbsp Soy Sauce

½ tbsp Fish Sauce (optional)

For garnishing:

¼ cup of toasted sesame seeds

1) Preheat oven to 180ºC.

2) Place wings on a roasting tray and cook for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through and the skin is slightly crispy.

3) In saucepan on a low heat, combine all of the ingredients for the hot wings sauce and stir until well combined.

4) When chicken is cooked, submerge the wings in the sauce and stir well until it is coated in the sauce. Top the wings with toasted sesame seeds and serve.

** Disclaimer: this post contains sponsored links

Mutton and Yellow Split Peas Curry (Beri di chana dal)

2015-06-11T11:16:00.001-07:00

I loooove legumes. I could quite happily live off lentils and chickpeas and not miss meat. Well not too much anyways. But combining meat and legumes together is a pretty winning combination in my eyes. This mutton and yellow split curry is one of my absolutely favourite meat curries. I had to do some research to find out what yellow split peas are called in Bengali or other South Asian languages. We call yellow split peas chana dal, however it turns out that's incorrect as chana dal is quite literally dried, split chickpeas. Yellow split peas are apparently called matar dal. And who said food blogging wasn't educational, ehhh??

I actually used dried yellow split peas rather than relying on tinned lentils as I normally do. But it's only because I haven't found tinned yellow split peas in the supermarket yet. If I do, I would totally switch over. I like this curry best the next day after the sauce has dried up and thickened a little bit and the spices have had time to mature a little bit. That's also my favourite way to enjoy any dal curry, actually, is that weird? I decided to pair the curry with the homemade, yeast free naan that I've already blogged about a couple of weeks ago which is perfect to mop up all of the juices. It tastes just as good however with plain rice, which is the usual way us Bangladeshis eat it.

Mutton and Yellow Split Peas Curry

Serves 6-10

Prep time: 30-40 minutes (plus overnight soaking of yellow split peas)

Cooking Time: 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minutes

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

1/2 cup yellow split peas

1 kg of mutton diced into chunks
5 tablespoons vegetable oil
One and half medium onions
4 cloves of garlic, minced/grated
1 inch piece of ginger, minced/grated
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick/cassia bark snapped into pieces
3 cardamoms
1/2 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp turmeric
1-1 1/2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
Handful of Coriander
Salt to season
Water

Method:

1) Wash and then leave yellow split peas in a bowl of cold water to soak overnight. The next day, rinse yellow split peas, and then place in a pot with cold water. Cook on a mdium to high heat for about 30 minutes, until the peas have softened in the middle. Skim off the froth from the top of the pot every now and then. Once peas are cooked, drain and reserve to the side.

2) In a large pot, add oil. Allow to heat up, then add garlic. Allow garlic to turn golden then add garlic, onion, cardamom, bay leaf and cinnamon. Add salt and stir. Then add the meat and the turmeric. Cover and leave to simmer on a medium to high heat. Check every 3-5 minutes. If the meat is catching the pan, add a little bit of water.

3) After about 20 minutes, once the onions have softened to a much and the meat has shrunk in size, add the remaining ground spices. Cover again and leave to simmer on a medium heat so the spices cook out. Check every now and then, and add water 1/2 a cup at a time if the meat seems like it is burning.

3) After another 15-20 minutes, once the oil and sauce have separated, add the split peas and coat in the sauce. Leave to cook for about 10 minutes, and then pour in enough water to cover the meat and peas. For me, that is usually about a cup and a half of water (I use a normal coffee mug). Turn up the heat to medium-high and allow the curry to simmer to a boil.

4) Once yellow split peas have softened, and the meat is tender to your liking, season with salt to your taste. Add coriander and remove from heat. Serve with plain rice or flat bread.

Chicken Pilau

2015-06-10T00:30:00.001-07:00

Many moons ago, when I was undertaking a work experience placement, someone asked me what the Bengali version of a Sunday Roast was. I jokingly replied we had Curry Sundays instead. Any family gatherings or inivtations we have usually fall on a Sunday, and usually there is some sort of pilau or biryani dish served as the star of the meal. Now I'll be honest, before making this chicken pilau, I had never really been trusted enough to make a pilau dish for company. But I feel as though I've made great strides in my cooking over the past year, and a few Sundays ago, I decided enough was enough and that I needed to conquer my fear of the pilau.

Now pilau, or pulao or pilaf, or fulaab as we Sylheti Bengalis call it, is a lot easier to make in my opinions than Biryani. You just combine the rice with the masala and add the water. The tricky part is making sure the grains of rice are nice and separate and don't become too mushy. That was the one thing I never used to quite get when I would watch my mum making pilau as she never used to measure anything and would rely on the dreaded 'antaaz' where everything was done by eye or feel. As a result, I never really knew how much water to add in proportion to the rice. However, to stay on the safe side, I followed a ration of 1 cup of rice to roughly 2 cups of water. You can scale back a little with the water as the rice cooks from the steam too.

If you are a lover of Indian food, but can't take the heat too well, this is a great recipe for you. It's sweet and aromatic and packed with lots of flavour. Alongside the chicken, you get butteriness from the ghee and sweetness from the addition of peas. The additional topping of nuts and sultanas also adds some sweetness and little crunch. I used no ground spices in this recipe, instead relying only on whole spices. The chicken masala/curry is cooks separately in about 45 minutes and what's really convenient is that you can make it the night before and make the actual pilau on the day in under an hour to serve fresh and hot.

Though chicken pilau is a favourite in our family, I can't say this version here with all of it's sweet notes is very authentically Bengali. I was trying to figure out if it is North Indian style or Mughal style or even Afghan style, but I'm not really too familair with the different asian cusines to definitively say one or the other. If there is an expert lurking on this page who can help me, then let me know! However, geography aside, it's a very tasty dish that is great for dinner parties and surprisingly straight forward to make.

As I mentioned a while back in my Afghan Kabuli post, the addition of dried fruit with rice can be contentious at times! I used golden sultanas this time around, and me and my family all really enjoyed the contrasting sweetness. I also added some toasted cashew and almonds for some texture. If you have some dried fruit and nut phobics in your families, then feel free to omit it or perhaps serve on the side as an optional topping.

Chicken Pilau

Serves: 4-8
Prep time: 20 mins
Cooking time: 1-2 hours

Chicken masala:
1 baby chicken cut into bite size pieces (about 1kg)
1 large onion
3 garlic cloves, minced/grated
One inch piece of ginger, grated
1-2 cinnamon sticks, snapped
Two bay leaves torn
2 green cardamoms
2 cloves
Teaspoon of cumin seeds
1 teaspoon salt
3-4 tbs oil

Pilau rice:
1 medium onion, sliced
1 bay leaf
2 green cardamoms
1 tablespoon ghee
3 cups basmati rice
6 cups water
1- 1 1/2 cups peas

Topping:
Handful of almonds
Handful of cashews
Handful of golden sultanas
1 tbs butter

1) First prepare the chicken curry. In a pan, add oil and allow to heat. Then add garlic. Allow to turn golden then add onions and ginger. Add salt, cardamom, bay leaf, green cardamom, cloves, and cumin seeds. Stir to coat in oil. And then cover and leave onions to soften on a slow heat. Uncover and check every now and then, and if the onions are sticking to the pan, add a few tablespoons of water.

2) After about ten minutes, once onions have softened to a golden brown, add in the chicken. Stir to coat in onions then cover and leave to cook on a medium to high heat. After about ten minutes, once all the water has come out of the chicken, lower the heat and allow chicken to cook gently with lid on for a further ten minutes. Season to taste and remove from heat and set aside.

3) Wash and soak basmati rice for at least 30 mins.

4) In a large pot, add ghee and allow to heat up. Add onions, salt, cardamom cinnamon and bay leave and allow onions to soften and turn a deep brown colour.

5) Drain rice and add to pot. Stir to coat in ghee and let it slightly toast in pan. Leave for three to five minutes. Then add chicken curry in. Then add peas. Stir everything together and leave for a minute or two. Then add water and a teaspoon of salt. Cover pot with lid and turn up heat to high. Leave the water to boil and the rice to absorb water, which should take about ten minutes. Once the water has been fully absorbed, uncover pot and leave rice to cook on low heat for a further five minutes to allow water to dry off. Check salt and season to taste. Using a large spoon, preferably slotted or wooden, gently mix the pilau from top to bottom. Be gently or otherwise the rice will turn to mush.

6) In a separate pan, dry toast cashews and almonds until brown. Reserve. Then add a tablespoon of butter to pan and allow to melt. Add sultanas and allow to puff up and brown slightly. Remove from heat.

7) To serve pilau, layer rice on a platter and then top with toasted nuts and sultanas. Serve with salad and raita.

Lemon Curd

2015-06-06T07:58:00.001-07:00

We've been having some glorious weather recently. The skies have been bright and the sun has been shining with full force. It really does put a bit of a zing in your step. Of course, on the flip side, good weather always seems to bring out the worst in drivers in London. Maybe it's because they're in a rush to enjoy the sun whilst it lasts, but they can be crazy at times. And don't even get me started on using public transport in London during the summer. It's an arduous and sometimes traumatizing experience...

Nonetheless, as I've mentioned many times, the sun always puts me in a good mood. And maybe it's an unconscious thing, but the food I eat seems to become more colourful in the warmer months. This homemade lemon curd is pretty much sunshine in a jar. I was oohing and aahing like a child at its colour as I was making it.

I may not have the worlds biggest sweet tooth, but I love citrus flavoured desserts. I love the freshness and the slightly sharp note that cuts through the sweetness. This lemon curd is bold and vibrant, perfect for the warm weather. It tastes great on toast, on cheesecakes or with meringue. My personal favorite way is to top Greek yoghurt with it and top it with some almonds and golden sultanas. It's a very quick and easy dessert that doesn't come with too much guilt at the number of calories it contains!

I used the popular recipe from BBC Good Food to make this lemon curd. I was put off it at first because the mention of using a double boiler method just seemed like too much effort to me (I've lost count of how many times I've mentioned on this blog what a lazy cook I am). However, it can all be made within an hour and it requires very little equipment, so minimal washing up. Win.

The only thing I found difficult was sterilising the jars. I had these cute kilner jars that I wanted to use. I thought it would be fine to just wash the jars out with boiling soapy water and then leave them to air dry. However, as soon as I poured the water straight from the kettle into the glass jar, the bottom of the jar just clean split away. I was pretty sad that I had wrecked the jar with a silly rookie mistake. Then I found an old honey jar and second time round made sure to wash it out with hot (but not boiling hot!) soapy water. I then put the jar in the oven at a cool temperature, probably about 140C to dry out.

The only other thing I would mention about this recipe is that you need to make sure that you adjust it to your liking. The Good Food recipe uses the juice of 4 lemons. I squeezed them out pretty hard, and as a result, the taste was very sharp. If you would prefer something a little less tart, then I would recommend either using 3 lemons, or squeezing 4 lemons lightly. This recipe yields quite a lot of lemon curd, about 500g. I was able to fill a 340g jar fully, and still had about 150g-200g left. I would also say that it will keep for about 1-2 weeks in the fridge, and longer if your freeze it.

Homemade Lemon Curd

Prep: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 45 mins - 1 hour
Adapted from: BBC Good Food

Ingredients:

Zest and juice of 3-4 unwaxed lemons
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter
3 whole eggs
1 egg yolk

Method:

In a bowl, add lemon juice, zest, sugar and butter. Place the bowl over a pan containing simmering water. The bottom of the bowl should not touch the water. Stir until the butter has melted, and the mix has come together.

Whisk the egg and egg yolk. SLowly add into the lemon mix in the bowl. Whisk until well combined. Then leave to cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring every now and then. In that time, the mix will thicken and become quite creamy.

After the 15 minutes, and when the curd is coating the back of your spoon, remove bowl from heat. Leave lemon curd to cool and then pour into jars. Store in the fridge.

Chicken and Sausage Bake

2015-06-05T08:45:00.000-07:00

I have another 'shove-it-in-the-oven' savoury recipe today. It's a totally lazy, minimal thought recipe suitable for even the most culinary handicapped. It was inspired by a recipe from Nigella for Spanish chicken, where she baked chicken with chorizo and flavoured it with orange zest. I have yet to find halal chorizo sausage and so used some Merguez sausage from the other side of the Mediterranean, and which I've already talked about in my North African style breakfast hash post.

I've kept the flavourings pretty simple here, but all the juices that come out from the chicken and merguez create a delicious sauce. I used chicken thighs from Aafiyah's frozen range, which already had a garlic and herb coating. Like Nigella, I added some chopped baby potatoes which roasted away with the meat. After the potatoes are done, they become lovely and crisp on the outside but fluffy on the inside, just the way potatoes should always be. I also added some chunks of red onion, which caramelise in the oven to give a sweet contrast.

The great thing about this dish is that you can just modify it to suit whatever you have in your pantry. Sweet potato would make a great alternative to baby potatoes, and you could add other produce like tomatoes or carrots. It's a convenient dish for busy families when you don't have the time or energy to labour over dinner. I served the dish with a simple side salad. You could also add some other veg for extra health benefits or some nice pita bread.

Chicken and Sausage Bake

Prep time: 10-15 minutes

Cook time: 45 minutes- 1 hour

Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:

4-5 chicken thighs

4-5 Medium potatoes, cut into small chunks

6 sausages

1 medium red onion, cut into chunks

Juice of half a lemon

½ cup olive oil

¼ tsp Black pepper

¼ tsp salt

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 200ºC.

2) On a roasting tray, place chicken drumsticks. Arrange potatoes, onion, and sausages around the chicken.

2) Pour the olive oil, lemon juice and seasonings over the tray bake. Gently massage it in into the chicken, sausages and vegetables so they are all liberally coated.

3) Place the tray into the oven to cook from 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes or until the chicken and sausages are cooked through and golden brown. Turn the sausages and chicken over halfway through the cooking to ensure they are coloured evenly. Check that the chicken is cooked through by piercing the drumstick at its thickest part. The juice should run clear.

4) Remove from heat and serve.

*Disclaimer: This post contains sponsored links*

Tandoori Chicken and Homemade Naan

2015-06-02T14:29:00.001-07:00

How time does fly! It feels as though I just blogged my last recipe the other day. But it's been a rather jam packed few weeks. The last week of May especially in my mind now is just a manic blur of work, deadlines and other commitments. The 1 week break from school came as a much needed respite, and though my lack of posting boiled down to technological restraints, being "unplugged" for a few days felt quite refreshing. I sometimes get the urge to just throw away all pieces of technology and just live ~~under a rock~~ on a farm, but to be honest, I think I'm too much of a city girl slash technophile to ever really survive such a lifestyle. I suppose the key is finding the right balance, but that's the secret to pretty much everything in life, right?

The teacher side of me has the end of the academic year firmly in her sights, but sadly my brain is so fried at this point, that it's more like I'm dragging myself to the finishing line rather than a final sprint. Hashtag The Glamorous Life of a Teacher. However, I am currently super excited for the arrival of Ramadhan, my favourite time of the year. As for many people, it's a time of moral and spiritual renewal for me and to be able to take a step back and realise, amongst all the stress and the mayhem, what the bigger picture really is. It's also around this time of year that many start searching for and planning what meals to prepare to eat after breaking their fasts. So I thought I'd post some slightly more traditional yet surprisingly easy recipes.

The first recipe is a quick tandoori chicken recipe, using drumsticks from Aafiyah's frozen range, minus the tandoor or packaged tandoori spice masala. Like my sumac chicken, it's another great example of just leaving things to marinade for a while and then shove it into the oven. Exactly the kind of recipes you want for Ramadhan, when you do not want to be stuck in the kitchen all day. And as it's baked, it's a lot lighter than other heavier Indian dishes.

Homemade naan makes a great accompaniment to the chicken. I have been wanting to try out so called instant naan recipes for a while now, however I always got put off thinking that it was too time consuming. But surprisingly it was a lot quicker and easier than I expected. There is no yeast used in the recipe, with all the rising power coming from the yoghurt, and baking powder/soda combo.

The dough is very elastic and malleable meaning that it's easy to roll out. As I was making them, I was far too impressed by how much the little circles of dough puffed up on the pan like pillows. It was quite the metamorphosis. The recipe I followed suggested smearing the naan with ghee to add a buttery taste, however, all of my family members agreed that it tasted better without. I also decided to add some black seeds to add a little contrasting spice to the naan. Whilst I was rolling out the naan, I sprinkled a handful of black seeds on top of each circle. I don't own a tawa at home so I just used a regular frying pan and the results turned out just fine. To try your hand at some instant naan, check out Kanakana's detailed instructions here. To find out how I made my tandoori style chicken, read on!

Tandoori Chicken

Prep time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 45 minutes- 1 hour

Serves: 2-4.

6 Aafiyah Original Drumsticks, skinless

Tandoori Marinade:

1 cup natural yoghurt

4 tbsp oil

Juice of 1 lemon

4 cloves garlic, minced or grated

1 inch ginger, grated

¼ tsp turmeric

1 tsp chilli powder

½ tsp cumin

1 tsp curry powder

½ tsp garam masala

¼ tsp salt

1) Slash the drumsticks two or three times at the thickest part of the leg.

2) In a bowl, combine the yoghurt, oil, lemon juices, and all of the spices. Mix well.

3) Add chicken to bowl and stir to coat in mixture. Leave to marinade for at least 1 hour, but preferably overnight.

4) Preheat oven to 220ºC and line a tray with aluminium foil.

5) Gently shake off excess marinade from chicken legs. Place legs on tray. Roast for 35-45 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. Check that its cooked through by piercing the chicken at its thickest part. The juice should run clear.

6) Finish the chicken off either on a cast iron griddle on the stove or under a grill for 5-10 minutes, turning over the chicken half way, until the outside of the chicken is crispy and slightly charred.

7) Serve with salad and a yoghurt and mint raita.

Disclaimer: This post contains sponsored posts.

Sumac Roast Chicken

2015-05-14T22:58:00.001-07:00

Hello, dear readers! I feel I've been in a bit of a daydream lately. The weather has been all over the place, for starters. This whole week, the skies have been so bright and the sun blazing, that it was as though summer had come early. And then suddenly, Thursday was grey and it rained about a whole month's worth of rain! I do like the rain, and I firmly believe it's a blessing from my Lord, but I like to be in the comfort of my own home, wrapped in numerous layers and not trudging around with wet socks....

Recently, I was contacted on behalf of Aafiyah, an up and coming halal poultry brand, who offered me the opportunity to try out their new range. According to their website, their brand is aiming to provide quality products to traditional Muslims with a busy, modern lifestyle. When I heard that, I thought, yep, that's me (this exhausted teacher slept for 10 hours in total last night, guys). They have a range of frozen poultry products, some of which are ready prepared, and all you need to do is throw them into the oven. So I bring you today one of the recipes I put together using Aafiyah's products.

I discovered Sumac last year in the world foods section of my local supermarket and I have totally fallen in love with the stuff. I think to date, it is probably my favourite Middle Eastern flavouring. It has a sour taste, similar to citrus fruits, however, it also has these floral undertones that you would never be able to get lemon alone. The other amazing thing that I love about it, is its vibrant colour. Any food item which mixes with it turns into this beautiful deep rosy hue, and due to its texture, it creates a crispy crunch on poultry and meat when it is roasted or grilled.

Other than the time needed to marinade the chicken, this is pretty much a throw things together in a bowl then shove it in the oven kind of recipe, so very low maintenance. Totally my favourite type of recipe. It is recommended to marinade chicken from 1 hour to overnight. If I'm honest, you can get away with marinading this recipe for just under an hour as the Sumac comes through well.

Sumac Roast Chicken

Serves: 4-6

Prep time: 1 hour

Cooking time: 35-40 minutes

500g Aafiyah original Drumsticks

1 tablespoon Sumac

1 tablespoon olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp cumin

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

1) Pre-heat oven to 180ºC.

2) In a bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice and spices. Add chicken and stir to combine in mix. Leave to marinade for at least 1 hour.

3) Place marinated chicken on an oven tray and roast in over for 35-40 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Check that its cooked through by piercing the chicken at its thickest part next to the bone. The juice should run clear.

4) Finish the chicken off either on a cast iron griddle on the stove or under a grill for 5-10 minutes, until the skin of the chicken is crispy and slightly charred. Turn the chicken over halfway through the cooking time to char other side.

5) Serve with potato wedges and grilled corn.

*Disclosure: This post contains sponsored links*

Brodu and Pastizzi

2015-05-10T06:52:00.000-07:00

Huzzah, I finally managed to get a post in for MENA cooking club! I officially joined about 2 months ago, but due to ~~facepalm fails~~ circumstances (getting the date wrong for the Lebanon challenge and adding too much salt for the sfinz in the Libyan challenge), I am only getting around to my first challenge now for Malta.

I will admit, I was a little confused at first when I saw that the country was Malta, as it is a European country, but some quick research soon revealed that like many others countries, including the South Asian countries, Malta has had some historical influence from the Middle East in its culture.

As a lover of soup, I decided to try out the classic Maltese vegetable Brodu. I added wholegrain fussili pasta, and being a typical desi, added a teaspoon of crushed chilli to add a little bit of heat. It definitely had a kick to it! I'm not sure if Maltese cuisine has a lot of spice, but you can of course omit for a milder soup.

Aside the heat from the chilli, the soup itself was delicious with a depth of flavour that was surprising consider how simple the broth was.

From the light and simple soup, I also tried making the slightly more decadent pastizzi. I guess it's like a Mediterranean version of pasties, and let's be honest, who doesn't like puff pastry and cheese together?! As the ricotta cheese I bought was a little runny, I decided to add some chopped spinach. However, due to the addition of the egg, the actual filling quickly solidifies in the oven. Even though puff pastry is quite rich, the light nature of the filling meant that it doesn't taste too heavy.

Also, I must admit, as I was shaping the pastizzi, I thought they looked a little unattractive. But the wonderful thing about puff pastry is that it is ever so forgiving, and after a transformation in the oven, it always comes out looking golden and inviting.

Out of laziness, I decided to make these pastizzi quite large in size, I'm not sure what the traditional size is. You could enjoy 1 or 2 with some salad for a light lunch. We enjoyed it as an appetizer with some chilli sauce in our home. Yes we are totally typical desis!

Brodu

Serves: 4-8
Preperation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 45 mins - 1 hour

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion sliced
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 stick of celery, chopped
1 carrot diced
1/2 whute cabbage, sliced
1 cup plum/cherry tomatoes, chopped
1 cup wholegrain pasta
2 bay leaves
1/2-1 tsp crushed chilli (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Water

Method:

1) In a large pot, add the oil. Allow to heat up slightly, then add in the onions and garlic. Add bay leaves and a 1/4 tsp of salt to help onions soften. Lea3ve for a minute, then add in the celery and carrots, Stir, and cover and leave to cook for 2-3 minutes for vegetables to soften.

2) Uncover pot and add in the cabbage, tomatoes and crushed chilli. Stir and allow to gently cook in the oil for a further 3 minutes on a medium heat with the lid on.

3) After a few minutes, once the vegetables have slightly reduced down, add enough water to cover the pot almost to the brim. For me, this was about 6 mugs of water. Cover and leave to cook on a low to medium heat for about 30-40 minutes. Uncover the soup every now and then to give the vegetables a stir. Halfway through the cooking time, season the broth with salt and pepper to taste.

4) After roughly 20 minutes of cooking the soup, add in the pasta and stir in. Cover and leave to cook.

5) After the 30-40 minutes of cooking, check to make sure that the pasta and vegetables are cooked through. Check seasoning of soup to taste, then remove from heat and serve.

Pastizzi

Yields: 8-10
Prep time: 30 mins
Cooking time: 20-30 mins

500g Puff Pastry
250g ricotta cheese
2 eggs, whisked
1 cup spinach, chopped
1/2 tsp crushed chilli
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup seasame seeds (optional)

Method:

1) Pre-heat oven to 180C and grease and line a bking tray.

2) Prepare filling by combining cheese, spinach, eggs, salt, pepper and chilli in a bowl. Mix together well.

3) Take golf size balls of puff pastry and roll out into circles roughly 10-15 cm in diameter. The dough should be rolled out quite thin as it will puff up in the oven.

4) Place filling in the centre of the circles. Bring the sides up together and crimp then together using a folding or twisting motion. This should create a sort of package and the pastizzi should be able to sit up. Don't worry if it is a little messy as it will look better after it comes out of the oven.

5) Repeat step 4 for all the remaining pastry. Place the pastizzis on tray. Brush the tops of the pastizzis with milk and then sprinkle on sesame seeds from a height. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes or until the pastizzi are golden brown and puffed up. Allow pastizzi to cool slightly before serving.

An InLinkz Link-up

Tahini, Almond and Honey Cookies

2015-05-08T13:56:00.001-07:00

Hello, dear readers! It has been a while. I was recently ill for about a week and didn't quite have the energy to blog. On top of that, I think I underestimated how long it would take for me to settle into the new term at work. Quite frankly, this summer term has had me whipped so far! But all is not lost, and I am back today with a new post.

Remember how I mentioned how I often have things sitting around in the pantry (I know, I know, terrible habit)? Well, I've had a jar of tahini sitting in the cupboard for a while now. I originally bought it to make hoummus, but my versions never tasted quite as good as the restaurant kind, so I never really put it to good use. But I'm trying use up things before buying more ingredients, mainly because we really don't have any space left in out kitchen cupboards! So I racked my brain and the internet for tahini recipes. Initially I saw quite a few savoury recipes, but then I came across quite a few tahini cookie recipes. At first I thought it was a bit weird sounding. In my head, I have come to associate tahini with hoummous, so when I heard of tahini cookies, I just kept thinking of hoummous flavoured cookies. Hardly appealing.

But I realised that, you know, it's just like a sesame version of peanut butter, which I've already used to make cookies. And then I remembered eating sesame snaps as a kid, which were basically shards of seasame brittle. So I thought, what they hey, let's try them out!

With all that drama, you can imagine my surprise when the cookies actually turned rather yummy in the end. Soft, with a slightly cakey texture, these subtly nutty cookies have a fudgey taste that comes from the use of brown sugar and honey.

You could make these cookies completely gluten free by only using almond flour, however, I decided to use a mix of almond and all purpose flour.

I adapted this recipe by kind of amalgamating recipes from Umm Hamza at Halal Home Cooking and An Edible Mosaic.

Tahini, Almond and Honey Cookies

Serves: 12

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 mins

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup tahini
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg whisked
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
Handful of sesame seeds (optional)

Method:

1) Preheat oven to 180C/350F and grease and line a cookie sheet.

2) Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and ground almonds in a bowl.

3) In a separate bowl, cream together tahini and brown sugar. Add in honey, vanilla and egg and mix together until well combined and smooth.

4) Slowly add in the dry ingredients to the tahini mixture. Gently fold mixture together until combined. Leave batter to rest for a few minutes.

5) Spoon a tablespoon at a time onto the cookie sheet, making sure to leave space to allow for the cookies to expand as they bake. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with sesame seeds. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies are lightly golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool before serving.

North African Style Breakfast Hash

2015-04-19T03:54:00.000-07:00

All good things come to an end at some point, try as we might to hold on to them. I have thoroughly enjoyed my break from work (it was 17 whole days, guys), but sadly I must return to the grind from tomorrow. I know that some people in the working world grumble about the seemingly long holidays teachers get, but a quick glance at any teacher at the end of an academic term would explain it all (frazzled, sleep deprived and up to the ears in deadlines). I now feel refreshed and ready to tackle any challenges in the new term. We shall just have to wait and see how long that lasts for...

But before the Monday blues kick in, why not make the most of your Sunday by enjoying this North African influenced dish for brunch? This dish is inspired by Shakshouka, a spicy tomato and eggs dish that is popular in Tunisia, Libya, Algeria and Morocco. I'd call it an interpretation because it does not have quite as much liquid as more traditional versions, and also uses sweet potato. I guess you could say it's somewhere between Shakshuka and a breakfast hash, so the best of both worlds.

Spiced with cumin and smoked paprika, it's packed with flavour. The sweet potato provides, as the name states, a sweet contrast to the heat and a lift of freshness comes from spoonfuls of yoghurt and corriander. I also added some Merguez sausages, having been inspired to try them out by an instagram post from Umm Hamza of Halal Home Cooking. They're not always the easiest thing to find, but I was out one day and spotted a North African butchers who made and sold their own. I bought chicken as they were sold out of the lamb. I was actually surprised by how spicy there were, not overpoweringly so, but there was a definite kick from the addition of harissa and garlic. If you can't get your hands on Merguez, any other sausage is fine, or you can just omit it for a vegetarian (vegan without the yoghurt) friendly version.

If you serve this with some nice, crusty bread, it should be enough to serve 2-3 people. If you're watching the carbs and omitting the bread, it will serve 1-2.

North African Style Breakfast Hash

Serves: 1-2

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

1 Medium sized onion, sliced.

1 tbs olive oil

1-2 large tomato, chopped

1/4 tsp smoked paprika

1/4 tsp cumin

1 sweet potato, peeled, cubed and left to soak in water

2-4 Merguez Sausages, chopped

Half a Bell pepper, sliced

2-3 eggs

2-3 tablespoons Greek yoghurt

Handful of coriander to garnish

Black pepper

Salt to taste

A few tablespoons of water

Method:

1) In a skillet or frying pan, add oil then add onions. Allow to gently saute so that onions soften. Then add in the paprika and cumin. Allow spices to cook for a minute or two, then add the tomato, Cover and allow to simmer on a medium to low heat to allow the tomato to soften.

2) Drain sweet potato and add to the pan. Add a few tablespoons of water to allow the potato to soften. Cover and allow to cook on a medium to low heat for about 5 minutes, or until the sweet potato has softened.

3) Uncover pan and add in the chopped sausage. Stir to coat in the spices. Cover and allow to cook for a further 5-10 minutes. Turn every now and then to ensure the sausage is browned on all sides. Add in sliced bell pepper and stir.

4) Once sausage and sweet potato are cooked sufficiently, make wells in the middle of the pan using you spoon. Crack eggs carefully into the wells. Lower heat and cover with a lid to allow the eggs to steam cook for about 3-5 minutes, depending on preference.

5) Once eggs are cooked, season with black pepper. Add salt if necessary, however merguez sausages usually have quite a bit of salt. Remove from heat and spoon Greek yoghurt around pan. Garnish with coriander and serve.

Ayr maas di aloo ar khomlar bakhol (Bengali Fish Curry with Potato and Orange)

2015-04-13T13:57:00.001-07:00

Happy Monday, readers! I don't know about you, but last week flew by for me. I fully intended on posting a few more times last week, but somehow time eluded me. And it was a bit of a strange, up and down week, to be honest.

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, I was awoken by a mosquito buzzing around my ear. I know what you're thinking, are you vacationing in some exotic resort, Abida? The answer is no, dear reader, I'm still in the concrete jungle of London, and the temperature has hardly been sweltering. It was only when I got out of bed and looked in the mirror that I realised that I had been bit on my eyelid, and my whole left eye had swollen up as a result. I looked like something between Quasimodo and a heavyweight boxer. Not an attractive sight at all.

I still had to go out though, much to my own trepidation, and so I tried to think of the best way to look less creepy. I tried curling the eyelashes on my swollen eye to make it look a little bigger, but when I curled my good eye, they just looked uneven again. Then I tried squinting my good eye, so at least the two matched a little, but it's surprisingly difficult to walk around in a busy city with squinted eyes. In the end, I just tried to keep my head down and minimise eye contact with other people as much as possible. Thankfully, my eye has gone back to normal now.

Then after the Quasimodo-Eye Episode, my beloved mother accidentally threw an item that I needed into the bin. As we live in an apartment block, we have a communal rubbish storage system and so we ended up rifling through a giant metal bin trying to find said item. However, we managed to find said item in the end, so not all was lost. I'd like to say that's the only time I've ever accidentally thrown something in the bin and have had to fish it out, but it's actually happened a few more times than I care to admit. Forget misadventures in the kitchen, I think I should rename my blog to misadventures in life....

But anywho, on to the actual recipe, which I'm sure is the real reason you're here. I bring you today another traditional Bengali fish recipe. I do like my fish, and this curry makes a great meatless Monday meal. This dish uses Ayr fish, another freshwater Bengali fish which is great for the fish-phobic as it does not contain too many bones and has no scales to remove, yay! As when preparing any Bengali fish, the fish is cut into small pieces and then washed and left to soak in salted water before adding to the curry.

The fish is paired with potato and orange peel, which although might sound a little strange, is quite a traditional combination in Bangladeshi, and especially Sylheti, home cooking.

Rather than adding only the zest, cut up pieces of orange peel are used. This adds a great citrus scent to the whole curry and the cooking process softens the orange peel and takes away any bitterness. It's a great way to jazz up a boring fish and potato dish and complements the spices in the sauce well. Even if you cannot get a hold of ayr fish, I would definitely recommend trying the potato and orange combination with another fish.

Bengali Fish Curry with Potato and Orange

Serves: 4-8

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30-45 minutes

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

1 small onion, or half a large onion, mashed/grated (Either using food processor or cheese grater)
3 cloves garlic
3-4 tablespoons oil
2 pieces of Ayr fish, cut into small pieces
2-3 medium potatoes, cut into large chunks, washed and soaked in water to remove starch.
1/4 tsp salt plus extra to season
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp curry powder
1-2 cups water
Peel of half an orange, cut into small pieces
Green chillis sliced lengthways (optional)
Chopped corriander to garnish

1) In a large pot, add oil and allow to heat up. Add garlic, wait for it to turn slightly golden, then add the onion. Add 1/4 tsp salt and allow to cook on a medium heat for a 2-3 minutes. Stir every now and then, and add a few tablespoons of water at a time if you find the onion is catching to the pan.

2) Add turmeric, chilli powder and curry powder. Allow spices to cook off for about 2-3 minutes, and then add about a 1/4 cup of water to allow the onions and spices to soften together in a smooth base. Cover and allow to simmer on a low heat for about 5 minutes.

3) Once the curry base has softened to a smoother consistency (add a few tablespoons at a time to help it along, or if it catches to the pan) drain fish from salted water and add to the pot. Stir the fish to coat in the sauce once, and then leave be. Stirring the fish too much as it cooks will make it crumble apart. Leave fish to cook for about 5-10 minutes on a medium heat, so that any water comes out of the fish and starts to dry up.

4) Once water from the fish has dried up, drain potatoes and add to the pot. Gently stir to coat in the sauce, without disturbing the fish too much. Leave to cook for about 3-5 minutes on a medium hat, with the lid on. Remove lid, and add enough water so that the fish and potato are just about covered. For me, that is about a coffee sized mug and half of water. Then add the orange peel. Cover, and leave to simmer to a bubble on a medium to high heat.

5) After about 5-10 minutes, once the curry has simmered to a boil, check salt and season to taste. Add the sliced green chilli and corriander. Cover with the lid and remove from heat. Serve with plain rice.

Bhaingan Bhorta (Aubergine Chutney)

2015-04-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

I can often have a glut of things in the fridge or food cupboard. At the moment, it's spinach, which I accidentally bought an extra bag of (ideas for a recipe, anyone?). As the title implies, on this particular occasion, I had a few extra baby aubergines lurking around in the fridge. In the end, I decided to use them to make a quick and simple bhorta (or Satni as we call it in the area of Bangladeshi my family are from), which would loosely translate to chutney in English. In simple terms, it is just a process of mashed aubergines/eggplant along with some onion, chilli and coriander. I decided to leave the aubergines slightly chunky for a bit of texture rather than completely puree them. A subtle smokey taste is added to the dish by pan roasting the aubergine and onion.

Though a simple and economical dish, bhortas are a great alternative to curries as they are light and fresh tasting. As you can eat them cold, they are great for warmer days when you might not fancy eating something hot. There is just a hint of spice from the fresh green chillis and the few drops of mustard oil, however it is subtle and complements the overall fresh notes of the bhorta.

Traditionally, Bengalis will eat various types of vegetable bhortas with plain rice, however, as this aubergine bhorta is quite similar to aubergine dips, I think it could also taste pretty good with wedges of pita bread as a dip.

Bhaingon Bhorta (Aubergine Chutney)

Serves: 2-3

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large aubergine or 4 baby aubergines
1/2 medium sized onion
2 green chillis, chopped
handful of coriander. chopped
1-2 tablespoons mustard oil (optional)
salt to taste

Method

1) Place a large skillet or frying pan on a low heat and allow to heat up for about a minute or two. Place the whole, unpeeled aubergine on the pan. If you have space, you can also add the onion to the pan, cut side down. If you don't have space, you can dry roast the onion afterwards.

2) Leave both the onion and aubergine to slightly char and lightly roast. Turn the aubergine over every so often, so that the sides cook evenly on all sides. The aubergine will be cooked when it slightly charred on its sides and it is soft. It should take 5-10 minutes. The onion should also char slightly and soften slightly.

3) Remove aubergine from heat. Peel off skin and discard. Mash the aubergine using a fork or your hands. You can mash it until is completely smooth or leave it a little chunky.

4) Take the roasted onion, and slice. Combine onion with aubergine, then add the chilli, corriander and mustard oil. Mix well. Season to taste. Serve with plain rice.

Meloui

2015-04-06T03:34:00.004-07:00

Good morning, readers! This post comes to you from one bright eyed and bushy tailed blogger on a Monday morning, no less. I all but skipped home on Thursday afternoon, delighting in the prospect of the upcoming Easter break. So far, I haven't really been doing too much aside from catching up with some reading, but man, it felt good to luxuriate in a little bit of leisure time.

After my last Lebanese inspired post, I come to you today with a Moroccan flatbread recipe. Meloui, is a derivative of rghaif, but unlike msemen is round rather than square. It is a layered flat bread made from semolina and generous amounts of butter. The end result is a buttery and soft bread that is pretty similar to the Indian lacha paratha, but made with semonlina instead of wheat.

I'd never tried meloui before I made them, so as you can imagine there was lots of googling and youtubing beforehand. It didn't seem too difficult, but as I realised shortly thereafter, not having a mixer with a dough hook made a bit of a difference. I am not really one for kneading (my upper body strength really isn't anything to brag about), so I was on the floor with my bowl trying to knead with as much vigour as I could muster. I probably should have kneaded on a flourerd surface to make it easier for myself, but the thought only occured to me after.

The recipe I followed used yeast but I am unsure how authentic of an ingredient yeast is. I did find the mix slightly more resilient than the usual dough used to make roti, which I again wondered if it was down to the yeast. Perhaps I could have added more water, but I didn't want to make it too runny. It's all good and well to watch videos and read recipes but finding the right consistency is something that will probably come with more experience of making meloui.

However, despite all these setbacks, I was pretty pleased with the final result as they tasted pretty good. There is something also quite timeless about making your own bread. When you're in that arduous process of kneading with your own hands, you do kind of get a sense of the generations of cultures and women before you who had been in the exact same position. So even though it took a little work, I will definitely be making these again!

Meloui

Yield: approx 20-25 meloui

Prep time: 1 hour

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Recipe adapted from About.Com

Ingredients:

2 cups semolina
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon yeast
1 1/2 cups warm water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soft butter
1/2 cup semolina

Method:

1) Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add the warm water and mix to form a dough. Add more water if necessary, but the dough shouldn't be too sticky.

2) Knead by hand for 10 minutes (or 5 minutes if using stand mixer) until the dough is smooth and elastic.

3) Divide the dough into small balls roughly the size of golf balls, cover with a damp tea towel and leave to prove in a warm place for about 20 minutes.

4) Once proved, take a ball of dough and place on a oiled surface. Use oiled hands to stretch and flatten the dough into a large a circle as possible. Dot the large circle with pieces of butter and a sprinkle of semolina.

5) Fold the dough up in thirds, like a letter. Bring the bottom side of the dough to the centre line, and then fold the top side down to cover the bottom side. Starting at one side, roll the dough up until it coils to the other side. Flatted the roll slightly. Then use oiled hands again to stretch and flatten the dough ball into a circle.

6) Heat a dry pan or skillet on a medium heat. Cook each meloui for about 5 minutes, turning over to each side a few times. The meloui should be golden brown in colour.

7) Remove from heat and serve either by itself or with a sweetener such as honey.

Lebanese Style Green Lentil and Spinach Rashta Soup

2015-03-30T13:05:00.001-07:00

I really wish I was more of an organised person. I know a few people who are always super tidy and punctual and seem to always be ticking things off to-do lists. And I just look at them and think, how are you doing this?? I'm more of the type who is always running around to catch the train on time and looking for that thing you lost under that pile of stuff you keep meaning to sort out.

You don't even want to get me started on to do lists. Whenever I try to get into the habit of keeping one, I always seem to end up with a load of papers or notebooks that I either never bother to look at or end up losing. I used to think it added a certain creative quirk, but let's be honest, as you get older, it loses a bit of its charm and you just come across as a bit of a scatter-brain.

Scatter-braineditis is my official excuse for preparing this recipe for MENA cooking club's Lebanese theme and then not posting in time because I got the dates messed up. It was a real face-palm moment, guys. However, all is not lost, as I can still post the recipe here even if I did miss the final cut.

I'd never heard of this soup before I saw it on the MENA cooking club website. I'm still not sure if it's called Rishta or Rashta soup as I've seen it spelt both ways in English. I'm going for Rashta though because as a Desi girl, the word Rishta is something I hear enough of in everyday life...

Being a self confessed soup-lover, who could pretty much live off the stuff, I am so glad to have been able to try out this recipe because it is so lovely. If there is one word that I could use to describe it, it would be nourishing. It's filling and warming whilst also remaining quite light and refreshing. A squeeze of lemon into a bowl before serving helps to also lift the slightly earthier notes. It is, in all honesty, a hug in a bowl.

And as I sit here, wrapped in layers of clothing in what is now allegedly the start of British Summertime, I can't help but fondly reminisce over this soup. My fingertips are veritable icicles tapping over my keyboard, and a bowl of soup could not sound any better right now.

So if you're also enduring some chilly weather, or looking for a simple Meatless Monday supper, look no further than here, my friend.

Being a tres lazy cook, I took as many shortcuts as I could. I used tinned green lentils and fresh egg noodles which considerably cut down on cooking time. In another display of scatter-brainednitis, I didn't realise until I had started cooking that I had no onions in the house. So there is no onions or oil in this recipe, which means that everything is super light and quick to make. As everything is pretty much cooked, it could be done in 30 minutes, but I like to cook a little longer on a slower heat to allow the broth to become as flavourful as possible.

Lebanese Style Green Lentil and Spinach Rashta Soup

Serves: 2-5

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 30 minutes - 45 minutes

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

1 tin of green lentils (approximately 235g)
1 clove of garlic grated
1/2 inch piece of ginger, grated
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 stock cube
1 bay leaf
Water
150 g Fresh Egg Noodles
Handful of Spinach Leaves
1 chilli, sliced vertically (optional)
handful of chopped corriander
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1) In a large pot, add green lentils, ginger, garlic, bay leaf, paprika, cumin and a crumbled up stock cube. Fill with enough water to fill the pot, about 2-3 cupfuls, depending on the size of your pot. Simmer soup on a medium heat, stirring occasionaly.

2) Allow soup to bubble away for about 15 minutes, then add in noodles. Allow noodles to soak up broth and cook for about 5 minutes. Add handful of spinach and cook for a further 5 minutes to allow the leaves to gently wilt. Stir in sliced chilli and corriander and let soup cook for a final 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then remove from heat. Add a squeeze of lemon juice to each individual bowl before serving.

Citrus and Cardamom Pound Cake with Candied Blood Orange

2015-03-25T14:41:00.000-07:00

For the last few weeks, I have been seeing recipes using blood oranges pretty much everywhere on social media. I had only tasted this exotic looking fruit once before, but I was enraptured by all the pictures I saw of these jewel like oranges and vowed to make something myself using them. And that's where the mission began. You may assume, dear readers, that living in London, the metropolitan capital of culture in UK, it wouldn't be too difficult to get your hands on what is simply a red coloured citrus fruit. I've written previously on here about how you can find the most obscure Bengali fish and vegetables in big supermarkets here these days, but finding blood oranges was like looking for a rare and endangered species.

I went to no less than 4 different supermarkets within a several mile radius looking specifically for this fruit. And each time they seemed to have every other fruit under the sun except blood oranges. And when I would ask some poor employee if they had any blood oranges, they would stare at me blankly with a confused expression. I'm pretty sure I scared off a few with the word 'blood' too...

I had just about given up on finding it before the end of the season, when I chanced upon a small selection of blood oranges in a larger supermarket I was shopping in with my cousin. It was one of those light bulb moments and I only just about refrained from fist pumping in the air to celebrate.

Despite buying a few bags of them, Me and my family gobbled down the blood oranges. I'm not sure if that was to do with the actual taste of them or just the novelty of their appearance. Nonetheless, I began to seek out a recipe to use up the last oranges before my small window of opportunity disappeared.

I've been wanting to make a pound/loaf cake for a while now, and as it didn't seem to complex for a beginner baker like me, I decided to give it a go. The recipe I used as a basis for this cake, used a mix of oil and yoghurt instead of butter and I was surprised at how light and airy the texture of the cake turned out to be.

I also subbed some of the plain flour for half a cup of ground almonds as I seem to love the taste of it in bakes these days.I think I must be turning into an almond nut (get it??). I used a mix of both lemon and orange zest to add perfume to the cake and then a good pinch of ground cardamom which seems to complement citrus flavours well.

I wavered between decorating the cake with a blood orange royal icing (which comes out a super cute pastel pink, btw) or candied blood orange slices. However, as I'm not too fond of sugary icing, I opted for the latter. To make the candied blood orange slices, you simply let them cook in a hot sugar syrup. While I wasn't altogether sold on the taste of it, it's a pretty way to dress up an otherwise humble pound cake.

The actual taste of the cake however was amazing! I think it is my favourite bake on the blog to date. Like I said, the texture is light and airy and has a range of flavours from the citrus fruit and ground cardamom. I'm just a little bit sad I couldn't get a few more photos of the cake. As I rushed home from work to take a few pictures on another grey and dull London afternoon, I only got a few minutes to photograph before sunset. The odds just seemed to stacked against me from the get go for me on this one, but as they ~~may or may not~~ say, what doesn't kill you, makes you a stronger and more willfully resolved food blogger!

Citrus and Cardamom Pound Cake with Candied Blood Orange

Serves 6-10

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking Time:35-45 minutes

Adapted from Chili and Tonkaby Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

For the cake:

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup ground almonds

1 cup sugar

pinch of salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tbsp grated orange zest

1/2 tbsp grated lemon zesst

1 tsp vanilla

3/4 cup greek yoghurt

2 eggs

1/2 cup vegetable oil

For the decoration:

1 blood orange thinly sliced

1 cup sugar

1 cup water

1) Preheat Oven to 180°C and grease and line loaf tin.

2)Sift together flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

3) In a separate bowl, add sugar and citrus zests. Add eggs one at a time and whisk. Then mix in yoghurt and then the oil and vanilla.

4) Slowly add in dry ingredients, a third at a time. Gently fold in using a cutting motion. Do not over mix.

5) Pour mix into a loaf tin and bake on middle tray of oven for about 35-45 minutes, when a skewer comes out clean from the cake. When baked, leave to cool on a rack.

6) Whilst waiting for cake to bake, prepare the candied blood orange slices. In a heavy frying pan or skillet, bring sugar and water to a boil. Gently stir sugar to help it to dissolve.

7) When the sugar has dissolved, arrange the slices of blood oranges on the frying pan/skillet in a single layer. Leave the orange slices to simmer gently on low to medium heat for about 45 minutes to 1 hour until the edges become slightly translucent. Remove pan from heat, and allow the slices to cool down in the syrup slightly.

8) Place the blood orange slices on top of pound cake and drizzle some of the remaining syrup over the cake.

Murghi di Khadur Salan (Chicken with Bottle Gourd Curry)

2015-03-23T12:20:00.001-07:00

Ah, the humble khadu. Sometimes known as doodhi or laukhi, this bottle gourd vegetable is now widely available in a lot of supermarkets in the UK. There are apparently lots of health benefits associated with doodhi too, from helping with digestion and weight loss to helping with stress relief. According to online sources, duudhi tastes great in desserts such as halwa, however, I bring you a recipe today using this vegetable in a curry. Typically, in Bangladeshi home cooking, khadu may be cooked either with fish or chicken. When it is cooked with fish, it is often cooked with less chilli. My preferred version however is in a spicy curry with chicken.

It is also around this time of year that many Bangladeshis in the UK attempt to grow khadus in their own gardens. It's no easy feat considering the obvious difference in climate between the UK and Bangladesh. Even for the most seasoned of gardeners, growing a khadu takes dedication and and a good dose of coaxing. And in the end, you might only just end up with the one or two khadus, if even that. Yet, despite the odds, you get some people who will try to grow these vegetables year in and year out. If that doesn't show a love for vegetables, I don't know what does.

To prepare the khadu, you must first remove the outer green peel. You could do this with a vegetable peeler or a knife, but these days I like to do it using a traditional Bangladeshi sickle shaped knife called a da which you kind of crouch down over on the ground, allowing you to use both of your hands to hold the food item (remind me to blog about this strange but highly precise tool at a later date).
Once peeled, you need to cut the khadu in half lengthways. Then you can scoop out the seeds using a spoon. Once scooped out, roughly dice the khadu into big chunks.

Khadu as a stand alone vegetable doesn't really have a lot of taste to it, but it takes spice well and as such it makes a great accompaniment to the chicken in this curry. Some of my family members prefer this dish with minimum amounts of chilli so that they can enjoy the taste of the khadu more, as such I would recommend trying out the recipe and varying the amount of chilli powder according to your own taste. So if you like the flavour of South Asian curries but can't always tolerate the heat, then try this recipe out.

Chicken with Bottle Gourd Curry

Serves: 4-8

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking Time: 45 minutes - 1 hour

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

1 Medium sized onion, sliced.
4 cloves of garlic, grated
2 inch piece of ginger, grated
5/6 tablespoons oil
1/2 tsp salt
2 bay leaves
1 cinnamon stick, snapped into 3 pieces
4 green cardamoms
1 kg chicken, cut into about 10-12 pieces
1/4 tsp turmeric
1 chilli powder (depends on individual taste)
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1 bottle gourd/khadu, peeled, deseeded and chopped into chunks
Water
Salt to season
Corriander to garnish

Method:

1) Add oil to pan and wait for it to heat up.

2) Add the minced garlic. Wait for garlic to turn golden, then add your onions and minced ginger.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to help onion soften. Then add cinnamon, cardamom and bay leaves.

3) Wait for onions to soften then add chilli powder, turmeric, curry powder and cumin. Allow spices to cook off on a medium heat. Stir and add a few tablespoons of water if it catches the pan.

4) Then add chicken. Stir to coat in sauce. Cover and leave to cook on a medium to high heat for about 10 minutes so that all the water comes out of the chicken.

5) After a few minutes, add the khadu. Leave khadu to soften with the lid on.

6) Add about a cup and a half of water, enough to cover the chicken. Cover and leave to bubble on a medium to high heat until the khadu is soft and cooked through.

7) Season with salt to taste. Garnish with coriander and serve with plain rice or bread

The Red Lychee: Food with Spice and Colour

The 4 Year Update...

Ingredients:

Method:

Tandoori Chicken Biryani

Tandoori Chicken BiryaniServes: 4-6Prep time: 30 minutes (plus marination time)Cooking time: 2-3 hours

Ingredients:

Tandoori Chicken marinade:

Gravy/masala sauce for tandoori chicken:

Rice:

Method:

Vintage Eid Tea Party

My Ramadan Meals in Pictures

Aafiyah Ramadan Competition

Sumac Lamb Chops

Sumac Lamb Chops

North African Style Chicken Stew

Mujaddara (Rice with lentils)

Mujaddara (Rice with lentils)

Mango Kulfi

Mango Kulfi

Serves: 6-10

Prep time: 30 minutes

Freezing Time: 12 hours

Original Recipe from Kurry Leaves

Ingredients:

Method:

Spicy Wings

Spicy Wings

Mutton and Yellow Split Peas Curry (Beri di chana dal)

Mutton and Yellow Split Peas Curry

Serves 6-10

Prep time: 30-40 minutes (plus overnight soaking of yellow split peas)

Cooking Time: 1 hour - 1 hour 30 minutes

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

Method:

Chicken Pilau

Chicken Pilau

Lemon Curd

Homemade Lemon Curd

Ingredients:

Method:

Chicken and Sausage Bake

Chicken and Sausage Bake

Ingredients:

Method:

Tandoori Chicken and Homemade Naan

Tandoori Chicken

Sumac Roast Chicken

Sumac Roast Chicken

Brodu and Pastizzi

Brodu

Method:

Pastizzi

Method:

Tahini, Almond and Honey Cookies

Tahini, Almond and Honey Cookies

Serves: 12

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 10 mins

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

Method:

North African Style Breakfast Hash

North African Style Breakfast Hash

Serves: 1-2

Prep time: 5 minutes

Cooking Time: 20 minutes

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

Method:

Ayr maas di aloo ar khomlar bakhol (Bengali Fish Curry with Potato and Orange)

Bengali Fish Curry with Potato and Orange

Serves: 4-8

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 30-45 minutes

by Abida at The Red Lychee

Ingredients:

Bhaingan Bhorta (Aubergine Chutney)

Tandoori Chicken Biryani
Serves: 4-6
Prep time: 30 minutes (plus marination time)
Cooking time: 2-3 hours