Tag: recipes

To many cooks

That title is not a typo. This is an open letter to any of you out there with a culinary bent.

Tonight I’m teaching a friend of mine to cook. He’s got fried rice and steak down pat but is looking to expand his recipe book. We’re also going to talk about the significance of the book of Acts.

Given my published (here) culinary repertoire features replica Sizzler’s Cheese Toast, toasted mars bar sandwiches, a little number I like to call “Baked Bean Ravioli Surprise”, and Butter Chicken, I need your help.

We’ll do home made pizzas next week (including dough), then a variation of my mum’s Satay recipe, then my world famous, yet to be published, Spaghetti Bolognese. After that I’m open to suggestions. We’ll have covered the major food groups – Indian, Italian and Thai. What’s left?

Tonight we’re doing Butter Chicken. Feel free to give me a list of “must haves” for any single guy’s recipe book.

August 27, 2009

Butter Chicken

I’ve been a bit inspired by my mum’s cooking blog (that doesn’t get updated very often) to put some of my recipes online occasionally.

It saves trying to write them down in a book somewhere to keep track of them.

Today’s recipe is for Butter Chicken – my Butter Chicken Recipe is deceptive – it contains no butter.

Ingredients

  1. 2 tins of Tomato Soup
  2. 1 medium size tub of natural yoghurt
  3. 1 dollop of cream
  4. 2 tablespoons almond meal
  5. 2 tablespoons garam masala
  6. 1 tablespoon turmeric
  7. 2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika
  8. 1 tablespoon cumin
  9. Curry powder (to taste – I used about a table spoon)
  10. 2 teaspoons of coriander
  11. Chicken (I used about 4 thighs – but this could probably be safely increased)
  12. Onions

Method

  1. Combine tomato soup and yoghurt in a pot on low heat, add almond meal and spices, stir.
  2. Brown the onions in a separate saucepan/wok, add the chicken (cut into chunks) on medium heat.
  3. Once the chicken has started to seal add the sauce.
  4. As the sauce starts to bubble add the cream, stir in. Cover.
  5. Simmer on medium heat with a lid for 30-40 minutes.

Serve with rice and naan/roti/flat bread of some description/pappadams.

Leave any suggested improvements in the comments…

August 2, 2009

Spice up your life

The colonel’s eleven secret herbs and spices are one of life’s great mysteries.

A guy from the US reckons he’s cracked the culinary code – and he runs a website that provides all sorts of “secret recipes”… here’s his guesstimate of what’s in KFC chicken pieces box…

— 1 teaspoon ground oregano

— 1 teaspoon chili powder

— 1 teaspoon ground sage

— 1 teaspoon dried basil

— 1 teaspoon dried marjoram

— 1 teaspoon pepper

— 2 teaspoons salt

— 2 tablespoons paprika

— 1 teaspoon onion salt

— 1 teaspoon garlic powder

— 2 tablespoons Accent

July 24, 2009

Homebaked: Cookies in the car

Did you know that you can bake biscuits in your car? Me neither.

It’s summer in the US so the US Lifehacker is featuring great tips for "surviving the heat".

Here’s a car cookie recipe (if you don’t just want to buy pre-mixed cookie dough)… here’s the original source of this baked goodness.

Car-Baked Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, soft
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
2/3 cup mini chocolate chips

July 15, 2009

Mum’s the word

I found out yesterday that my mum has a blog. My wife told me. Why had I not been informed?

It’s a bit of a Campbell family recipe book. You should check it out.

The icecream was delicious…

“Ingredients:
4 eggs
3/4 cup icing sugar – sifted
300mls cream

Method:
Whisk the egg yolks in a bowl until well blended.
In another larger bowl whisk the egg whites until stiff then whisk in the icing sugar a spoon at a time.
In a third bowl whisk the cream until it forms soft peaks, then fold into meringue mixture with egg yolks.
Turn into a 1500ml container, cover and freeze.

Flavours:
Vanilla – add 1 tsp vanilla essence to cream
Coffee – add 2 Tsp strong coffee and 1 Tsp rum or brandy to mixture before freezing
Chocolate – mix 2 Tsp cocoa with 4 Tsp cold milk, warm until blended then combine with 60gm melted chocolate and fold into mix before freezing
Dried Fig and Ginger – Chop one cup of dried figs – cover with strong black chai tea til soft combine with 1/2 cup diced ginger and 1/2 tsp cardammon then blend into ice cream mix and freeze”

If you go there and comment – be nice or you’re in big trouble.

July 1, 2009

How to make Sizzler’s Cheese Toast

It’s winter. Winter in our house means soup. Soup needs bread. The best bread for soup is Sizzler’s Cheese Toast. The best cheese toast is the stuff you make at home. Here’s a handy guide to making Sizzler’s Cheese Toast at home.

I was a Sizzler employee for some 16 months and gleaned some little bits and pieces of information that will make emulating the trademark toast possible (though it’s never quite as good).

I took these photos with my iPhone so they’re a bit grainy.

Ingredients

  • Frozen thick cut bread – and I mean really thick cut… doorstop style
  • Enough butter – softened but not melted to put a 2mm thick spread on each piece of bread you intend to cook (Sizzler’s website says they use margarine).
  • Parmesan Cheese (quantity depends on how cheesy you like things). I used 200g of powdered Parmesan with 500g of butter. You can also make acceptable “pan bread” by skipping the cheese, if you don’t like Parmesan.
  • A frypan heated to around 160 degrees

Directions

  1. Keep the bread frozen at all times prior to cooking – this is seriously important.
  2. Mix/beat/stir the Parmesan cheese into the butter until you have a smooth paste with an even texture.
  3. Spread the butter/cheese mix on the bread – and when done put it back in the freezer, you might think it’s a good idea to store them butter sides together in the freezer. It’s not. Your best bet is to separate them with greaseproof paper.
  4. Heat the fry pan – use either a non stick pan or a pan treated with some sort of cooking spray – oil and butter are out, they’ll throw out the balance. You want a moderate heat, the bread is thawing on the pan and you want the cheese to be a golden colour. I’ve settled on about 160 degrees on the electric frypan and three quarter power on the stove.
  5. Put the frozen bread spread side down on the pan.
  6. Cook the bread on one side until the uncooked side is thawed, squishy to touch, and slightly warm.
  7. Your cheesy toast should now be ready.
  8. Repeat.

June 3, 2009

Cooking with coffee

Here’s an awesomely cool (literally) coffee recipe (thanks to Lyle) here are the ingredients just to whet your appetite. Here’s all you need to know.

Ingredients:
• 4 scoops of good quality ground coffee
• 500 mls thickened cream
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature
• 250g (1 cup) caster sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 200g dark chocolate and or roasted hazelnuts, chopped

Espresso Syrup
• 2 scoops coffee
• 50mls coffee or orange liquor
• 60g (1/2 cup) caster sugar

March 9, 2009