Spiced Carrot and Sultana salad
This makes a tasty, interesting side salad, packed with fresh flavours
200g freshly grated carrot
50g sultanas
Lots of lemon juice (bottled is fine)
½ tsp freshly ground cumin seed
½ tsp freshly ground coriander seed
¼ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp runny honey
1-2 tsp dried oregano
S&P, to taste
1-2 tbsp Extra virgin olive oil, preferably a nice fruity one
Simply mix together all the ingredients, adding lemon juice to taste and enough oil to make it glisten! It is really worthwhile grinding the spices freshly, I used my latest kitchen toy. This salad is best made several hours ahead so that the flavours can infuse together.
The salad is shown in the middle of the dish, we also had some surprisingly good olives from my local Budgen's, mini cheese kabanos, roasted peppers and my precious jar of Caponata that I had been saving, which I bought at a food festival back in the summer, which was really tasty, must remember to buy more jars next time!
Moroccan Spiced Courgettes
This is probably best made with smaller courgettes than I used, as I had to adjust the cooking time by at least double! The recipe is taken from the ‘Best of Morocco’ book. Think I still need to adjust time/ temperature slightly as was only just about cooked through but overall the dish was pretty well received – it was all eaten so always a good sign!
500g small courgettes
Lemon juice, chopped fresh coriander and parsley, to serve
For the Charmoula:
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 garlic cloves
¼ red or green chilli, seeded and sliced
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp olive oil
S&P
Pre-heat the oven to 190o/ 350F
Cut the courgettes lengthways and place in a baking dish, snugly together
Blend together the Charmoula ingredients with 60ml water, spoon over the courgettes and cover with foil. Bake for 15 minutes, baste and un-cover and cook for 5-10 minutes more (or in my case about 35 minutes more!) Serve with the lemon, coriander and parsley, though I forgot the lemon and not very keen on parsley so just the coriander for us!
The picture isn't pretty but it tasted good!
Lamb Kofta
I used this recipe from BBC food site, minor amendments were that I used smoked paprika instead of the paprika and also added some finely chopped fresh mint leaves, as I just love the combination together!
For the lamb kofta kebabs
500g/17½oz lean minced lamb
3 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 clove garlic, peeled, chopped½ chilli, finely chopped
pinch cayenne pepper
salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Preheat the grill to high. (not too high though unless you want a very smoky kitchen!)
Place all of the kebab ingredients together in a bowl and mix together with your hands until the meat sticks together.
With damp hands, take a handful of the kebab mixture and shape into a long sausage shape around a metal skewer. Repeat with the remaining kebab mixture, using a new skewer each time (or fit two kebabs onto each skewer, if space allows).
Place the skewers under the grill for 10-12 minutes, turning them halfway, until the lamb is golden-brown and cooked through. Slide the kebabs off the skewers serve.
Spinach Pilaf
Not sure why I haven’t blogged this one before but I also cooked this lovely simple rice dish, just without the lamb addition this time as we were already having the lamb koftas, however I can recommend the whole recipe for a simple and tasty mid-week dinner!
Serves 4
olive oil
1 onion, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 cardamom pods , lightly crushed
300g basmati rice
550ml chicken stock
100g spinach , washed and chopped
Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan, add the onion and garlic and cook for 5 minutes until softened then stir in the spices and rice. Pour over the stock, bring to a simmer and cover with a tight-fitting lid.
Turn the heat down and cook gently until all the stock has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir through the spinach for the last minute of cooking until wilted.
Here is a picture of my plate loaded up with everything!
And if you are anything like me, you find the packet of pitta breads in the bread bin, after dinner is finished……
Oh Anne....that looks lovely! (And every family meal we ever had there was always something found later that was meant to be served! It just goes to show you have made so many lovely things that what might have been considered important actually turned out to be not missed at all!)
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful feast!
ReplyDelete