My easy cooking by Nina Timm.

Chickpea Thai Curry

2012-02-28T05:35:00.000+02:00

When I posted this picture of my Chickpea Thai Curry on Face book last week, asking people what they thought it was, most people got the answer right, but did not have faintest idea how to cook it.I was even more amazed at how many people wanted to try and make it. Well, wait no longer, here it is.....
Making Thai Curries, require a little knowledge and a little bit of time. Unlike a fragrant lamb curry or Chicken Korma, Thai Curries can be on the table in about 10 minutes. So fast you might have to wait for the rice to cook, before you can plate up!
I promised to blog a little less and write a little more, so let me just stay true to that promise and get on with the recipe.

Chickpea Thai Curry
serves 4

Ingredients
1 large onion - halved and sliced
25 ml vegetable oil
½ green pepper - diced
½ red pepper - diced
½ yellow pepper - diced
25 ml red curry paste (or more if you like it really hot)
2 x 410 g chickpeas - drained and rinsed
250 ml coconut cream
250 ml chicken stock
5 ml fish sauce
10 ml palm or brown sugar
juice of ½ lime

Method

Heat a wok or a deep pan and add the vegetable oil. Once the oil is hot, add the onion and peppers. Stir fry for about 1 minute and then add the curry paste. Stir through and add the stock and the coconut cream. Allow to cook for about 5 minutes or until the sauce has thickened slightly. Add the fish sauce, sugar and lime juice, taste and adjust to your preference.

And that my dear friend, is how fast it is, I hope your rice is cooked.

Serve this quick and easy Chickpea Thai Curry on Basmati Rice with lots of fresh coriander and chopped chili.

More Thai Recipes

Thai Chicken Burgers

Green Thai Chicken Curry

Tom Yum Goong

Mini Butterscotch and Banana Pavlovas on RSG

2012-02-22T23:33:00.001+02:00

I had to think long and hard about this weeks radio program on RSG. The recipe was the easy part. The pavlova was a request from our house guest, the banana and butterscotch sauce a quick fix (that turned out to be a stroke of genius) and the blog I turned to for a recipe was The Gorgeous Gourmet. The theme or shall I say the thought pattern behind this post was somewhat challenging, let me explain....or at least start at the beginning of my story!
To put it mildly, life has been somewhat challenging for my family and I in the last couple of months and we had to dig deep inside ourselves to find the strength and courage to take each and every day head on. I have come to learn(at last!) that if you embrace, rather than fight the tough times and just get on with fixing it, answers come quicker, solutions appear from nowhere and inspiration comes from the most unexpected places. Life lessons are not learned in school benches, life lessons are learned from falling down and getting up. Taking the highs and the lows and do it Nike style "Just do it!"
Friends of ours are staying with us at the moment, while she recovers from a cancer related operation she had last week here in Cape Town. Their courage, the will to get better, the positivity and their faith has been such an inspiration to me these last two weeks.
Fighting cancer the first time, must be so scary, fighting it the second time......takes great courage and that is what I have learned...So bottom line for me is this piece of advise:

Just put your girl panties on and deal with it!

My friend had a big stomach operation and was not allowed to eat for days. Then slowly she started with little meals so when she asked for a Pavlova tonight, I was the happiest host in the world. Elize, this one is for you. You are such a inspiration and right next to you, is that amazing husband of yours. I salute you both!

Mini Butterscotch and Banana Pavlovas

Makes 6 mini pavlovas or 1 big round pavlova

Ingredients

225 gram caster sugar

4 egg whites

1 ml corn starch

2.5 ml butterscotch extract or essence

Preheat oven to 120 C( 250 F). Place a pot with water on the stove and bring to the boil. In a big mixing bowl that fit over the pot, pour the caster sugar and the egg whites. When the water comes to the boil, place the mixing bowl with eggs and sugar over the boiling water and beat the egg whites and sugar until it is warm and most of the sugar has melted. Transfer mixture to your blender and beat until your have a glossy white meringue. Sprinkle the cornstarch over the mixture and fold it in with a metal spoon. Place a sheet or baking paper(not wax) on a baking sheet and divide the meringue mixture into 6 mini pavlovas. Bake for 1½ hours, switch the oven off and allow pavlovas to cool in the oven.

Banana and Butterscotch Sauce

Ingredients

1 cup sugar

100gr butter

125ml cream
3 bananas - peeled and sliced

Place the sugar and butter in a pot and allow to melt over low heat. Once the mixture starts bubbling, keep your eye on it as it burns quickly. Allow to caramelize and once you have a deep golden color, add the cream. The sugar will solidify when the cream is added, but just keep stirring on low heat. Once your sauce is done, smooth and has thickened slightly, add sliced banana before serving this butterscotch sauce on the pavlovas.

Foodmonger's - Mexican Bean Crumble

Rainbow Cooking's Chocolate-filled Shortbread

Gorgeous Gourmet's Caramel Croissant Pudding

If you like this recipe and many other on My Easy Cooking, please vote for me in the Eat In Awards. It will motivate us to keep going even in the wee hours of the morning when I normally work. Just click on the picture below and follow the instructions. Thank you!

Yes, you can bake cake in an Air Fryer!

2012-02-21T22:55:00.000+02:00

Can you bake in an Air Fryer? If I had a dime for every time I answered this question, I would be able to buy quite a few Air Fryers and give them away for free. I like giving things for free, that is just how I roll! Sadly, I don't have all those dimes, but I just want to show you what is possible and give you a quick cake recipe.....for free!

Soft sponge cake with creamy meringue icing, in an Air Fryer...impossible...or not! You all know by now that I am on Philips payroll, right? So Wrong! I just love working with the Air Fryer and the fact that I do not have to switch my oven on, is such a relief. Saving time, saving electricity and not sacrificing on the flavor or taste is just phenomenal.
Enough said, the cake recipe, is the same recipe that I use for a standard vanilla or Victoria Sponge cake. Equal quantities of flour, butter and sugar, the rest is up to you. The amazing thing here is that you do not have to adapt the recipe to use in the Air Fryer, the only thing you will have to adapt is the size of your pan.
(the new model Air Fryer comes with a nifty little pan!) So whether you have an Air Fryer or not, try this recipe......few ingredients, one bowl and voila!

Lemon Sponge with Meringue Frosting and Candied Lemons
make 1 double-layered cake - 15cm in diameter
or 1 single layer cake - 23 cm in diameter

Ingredients

250gram self raising flour
250gram caster sugar
250gram butter - room temperature
3 eggs
5 ml baking powder
5 ml vanilla grated lemon zest

Preheat oven to 180C or the Air Fryer to 160C. Prepare your baking tins by spraying them with Spray 'n Cook or butter them. Place all the ingredients in the bowl of your mixer and mix at high speed until the mixture is creamy and thick. If you are using the Air Fryer you have to bake 2 cakes, so you will only spoon half the cake batter into the little pan. Place in the Air Fryer and bake for 15 minutes. The cake should now be soft to the touch and a light sand color. Remove from the Air Fryer,remove from the pan and allow to cool and repeat with the other half of the batter. If you are using the conventional oven, spoon all the batter in a 23cm pan and bake for 20-30minutes or until light brown and soft to the touch.Remove from the baking tins and cool.

Candied Lemons

2 organic lemons(no wax)
125ml sugar
50ml boiling water

To make a sugar syrup, pour the sugar into a small bowl and add the boiling water. Stir to dissolve all the sugar. Keep sugar syrup ready. Slice the lemons into thin slices, dip in the sugar syrup and place on a baking sheet. Bake/dry in the oven 120C for about 30-40 minutes or until lemons are slightly sticky and still chewable. The time varies because of the difference in thickness of the melon slices, so keep an eye on it. You can make these candied lemon slices in the Air Fryer, but I happen to have the oven on for something else so I just popped them in there.

Meringue Frosting
200gr caster sugar
4 egg whites

You need an electric beater or a whisk and strong arms. A metal mixing bowl and a pot with simmering water.
Poor the egg whites and sugar into the metal bowl and place over the simmering water. Make sure the bowl does not touch the water. Beat the egg whites and sugar until it is fluffy and white.and can keep its shape. Spread generously over the cake and top with candied lemons.

What else can you do with a basic Sponge cake?

Fudgy Coffee Cake

Vanilla Cupcakes with Mousse and Candied Strawberries

Donuts or dougnuts......as if the spelling matters!

2012-02-19T20:55:00.001+02:00

I am very particular with donuts or doughnuts, which ever you prefer. They must be soft, a light oily surface, but when you bite into a doughnut , it must be pillow-soft, with no oil. An oil-drenched doughnut, gives me the creeps and heartburn for a week! Maybe that is why I eat donuts once a year and suffer the consequences if there are any. Well, I don't know if it is a good thing or not, but since I've made these baked donuts, things have changed, no more greasy donuts and no more horrible consequences!
Oops, I forgot about adding all the weight, but I promise to have only one, ok!
There is something so rewarding about making your own dough. I just love the chemistry of it all, taking 3 very simple ingredients) flour, water and yeast) and creating something as delicious as a loaf of bread or in this case baked donuts. I am sure you will find a recipe here that you would like to try, all started with 3 basic ingredients, flour, water and yeast....magic!

Pesto and Feta Loaf

Fruity Breakfast Buns

Making bread

Calzone

Why am I in this baking mode? Well, apart from the fact that it is my weekly therapy, anybody reading this who has a teenager son in the house will understand....They are hollow, between their necks and their feet, is this hollow trunk that never-ever fills up. I am beginning to think there are little hungry monsters living inside his tummy, devouring every morsel he eats, leaving him hungry all the time. He gets up from the table and this is what he says...." thank you for the food mom, it was lovely" and before I can respond with a "Thank you, son" he utters those dreaded words..." So, mom, what can I eat?"
Needless to say, these donuts were a treat and the recipe makes a lot, so it sorted out a lot of what-can-I-eats!
The bonus is that the donuts are baked, so no need to feel guilty is you eat too many, at least you've cut down on some of the fat....

Baked Donuts/ Doughnuts
makes 24

1 kg cake flour
1 sachet of instant yeast
1 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
1-2 tsp fine cinnamon
2 cups milk
1 cup boiling water
100gr butter
2 x 100gr slabs chocolate
125ml sprinkle nuts or toasted almonds

Preheat oven to 180C.
Cut the butter in small cubes and place in a mixing bowl. Add the boiling water and allow the butter to melt completely. Add the 2 cups of milk and keep ready. Mix the dry ingredients and add the liquids while mixer is running. Keep about 100ml of the milk/butter mixture to use as a wash for the donuts. If you are doing this by hand, place dry ingredients on a clean work surface, make a well in it and add the water slowly while mixing it with the flour. When completely mixed, knead for about 5 minutes until dough is elastic and ready to roll out.Roll out the dough to about 2 cm thick and use a doughnut cutter to cut out the donuts.Brush the donuts with the milk/butter liquid and leave to rest for about 10 minutes and then bake them in a preheated oven for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown.
When the donuts have cooled down completely, dip them in melted chocolate and sprinkle with nuts.

If you like this recipe and many other on My Easy Cooking, please vote for me in the Eat In Awards. It will motivate us to keep going even in the wee hours of the morning when I normally work. Just click on the picture below and follow the instructions. Thank you!

Potato and Onion Frittata

2012-02-17T08:46:00.000+02:00

Making this simple Potato and Onion frittata was the result of a short survey I did amongst friends, followers and family to try and find out what recipes people actually want. The answer came back and it was unanimous........keep it simple, keep it real and you have winning recipes. Give us recipes that require few, on-hand and affordable ingredients and you will have our support, is what the public demanded. Who am I to argue......
Just last night someone gave me a recipe for a relish, I kid you not, 2 ingredients! Hah, unheard of, but I promise you, I will try it and you will be the first to know about it!
Well, some of you will be delighted to know, others maybe a little disappointed, but we are eating a little meat again. Although the majority of our meals are still vegetarian, I am adding the odd lamb chop or beef cube to the pot. Those of you following my Facebook page may have noticed that we have a little water polo champ in our midst and he complained that he is so tired all the time. I think, even while not eating meat, we managed had quite a balanced diet, replacing the meat with legumes, green vegetables, beetroot and such, but he needed a little more sustenance.
Enough of that, because today's recipes is again a meatless one, but packed with protein and certainly packed with flavor. The best part is that it has 3 simple ingredients and the rest is up to you. Shall we cook?

Potato and Onion Frittata
makes one huge frittata, enough to feed 8

Ingredients

3 large potatoes - parboiled and cut in chunks
1 big onion - sliced
about 3-4 tablespoons olive oil
8 eggs
2 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 chopped chili(optional)
salt/pepper

Preheat oven to 180C if you are using it!
I used a huge catering skillet for this, but if your pan size is limited, it can be baked in a Pyrex dish in the oven. I will explain both ways. Heat the skillet you are going to use or any other pan you have and add the olive oil. Once the oil is hot, add the potato chunks and the onion and allow to caramelized and brown slightly. Lower the heat, because you do not want to burn the potatoes or onions. Season with salt and pepper. In the meantime, beat the eggs in a separate bowl, season with a little salt and pepper and keep ready. Here is where the difference in the two methods start. If your skillet is big enough, add the egg mixture to the pan and turn the heat right down so that the frittata cooks through without burning. If your are using the oven method, butter your Pyrex dish and add the potato and onions to the dish, spreading it evenly. Add the eggs to the dish and place in oven for about 20-30 minutes. The middle of the frittata in both cases must be just set when touched. If you are making it on the stove top in the skillet, cover the pan with a sheet of foil so that the top of the fritata also cooks. Once the frittata is ready, sprinkle the parsley and chopped chili over the top and serve with a green salad and some homemade bread.
The frittata is delicious served hot or cold or cut up in small blocks as part of savory platter.

More Egg Recipes

Serano Ham and Potato Quiche

Boiled Eggs

Festive Roulade