Wholemeal Roti Paratha

My husbands' buddy had just recently introduced us to store bought wholemeal roti parathas. Frozen wholemeal roti, where each roti is separate from each other by a film of plastic and kept in your freezer. The are 30 rotis in each packet and they are very easy to cook, so easy my kids can prepare them. Plus they are a great time saver if you want freshly unfrozen rotis.

Rather than kneading dough, which for me, an inexperience roti maker, could take me up to an hour to prepare it.  I would also be left with sore knuckles and arms. So if you want a curry with roti all you have to do is follow these few easy steps.

Go to your local Indian spice shop and buy Katoomba brand whole meal roti parathas. They will be located in the freezer section in the shop.

Here is how one looks

Now just remove the plastic and place it on a pan.

Cook the roti on both sides and if you want to coat both sides with butter. Otherwise they are fine without butter. Yes the butter in the picture below is definitely excessive and was quickly removed after my son placed it there.

Remove it from the pan and there you have one prefect roti ready to eat. My husband, who has an Indian background, this takes him back to when he was a kid and his mother prepared rotis. My kids adore them too and often request to have one for their dinner on a weekend.

Chicken Laska

Chicken laska is a absolute favorite with my daughter and I love it too. I love the spiciness that comes with the chillies, and adding more chili gives it a greater omf factor that is too my liking. The coconut milk soothes the tastes buds and the rice noodles, coriander, chicken all compliment each other.

Here is the recipe for the the chicken laska I made.

The ingredients

200 grams of dried noodles (I used rice noodles)

2 red chillies

4 garlic cloves

5cm of ginger chopped roughly

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Half a cup of coriander leaves

50 ml of sesame oil

3 chicken breasts

1 liter of coconut milk

3 cups of chicken stock

50 ml fish sauce

The juice of one lime

I also used a tablespoon of laksa paste, even though in this recipe, you actually make your own.

To serve

Bean sprout

Coriander leaves

The method

Soak the noodles in boiled water for about 5 minutes and then drain. I used rice noodles.

Rice noodles in boiled water

I pan fried the chicken breasts, without any seasoning until cooked.Then the chicken was cut thinly into strips and set aside.

As you can probably see that I did not actually use chicken breasts but rather thigh fillets. I had then in the freezer and preferred to cook with something I already had.

Place the chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander seeds, fresh coriander and sesame oil into a food processor and blend until a paste is formed. I used the blender as I prefer the smoother texture that it gives compared to the the food processor.

The vortex of laska paste

Laska paste

Now with the laska paste that was made in the previous step, pan fry it for about one minute while stirring. It is at this point that I added about a spoonful of the store bought laksa paste.

Add the coconut milk and chicken stock and bring to the boil. Then allow it to simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the fish sauce and cut chicken and cook it for a further 5 minutes. Then add the lime juice.

Place the noodles in a bowl, pour the soup over and top it off with bean shoots and coriander.

The result, a content daughter who is a avid laksa lover, who also does not mind a touch of chili. 

The Baby Shower

The baby shower for my sister came and went. There were a few games, plenty of talking and plenty of food. My macarons, an improved version of them made a show. Though I still can't seem to avoid a slight browning of the shells. I tried it with lower heat, they were too soft and the shells ended breaking apart. I guess with a lot more practice I will hopefully master the macaron. 

There were plenty of yummy wraps, sandwiches and desserts. Here are a few pictures of the food (the majority was prepared by my sister and her husband) that was enough to feed a whole army.

Lots of highly concentrated sugar goodies

Mind the used plates, I should have taken a shot way earlier before the food was disturbed

My macarons, again slightly browned

Moroccan beef meatballs, harissa and couscous

This is a tasty recipe in which the family will love. The recipe requires lamb, but I had beef mince in the freezer so I incorporate that into the recipe.

The recipe to make the Moroccan meat balls

The ingredients

2 teaspoons of cumin seeds

2 tablespoons of coriander seeds

50g of breadcrumbs

1 crushed garlic clove

500 beef mince (lamb mince)

juice of a lemon

1 egg

20 grams of chopped mint

The method

In a pan heat the cumin and coriander seeds for about 2 to 3 minutes. The seeds should be giving off a wonderful aroma. Remove the seeds from the pan and crush them with a mortar and pestle.

In a bowl add the beef mince, breadcrumbs (I made my own by processing bread in a food processor) garlic, lemon juice, crushed spices, egg and mint. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Mix all the ingredients until well combined and roll them into balls.

In a frying pan, heat the oil and then fry the meatballs until cooked. I found it at this point my nice spherical balls became slightly flat on the side in which they were being cooked on. Now that is the beef meat balls done.

Now for the harissa

The ingredients

2 tablespoons of coriander seeds

2 tablespoons of cumin seeds

4 garlic cloves

1 chopped red onion

1 chopper capsicum

6 red chillies

The method

In a frying pan, heat the cumin and coriander seeds until fragrant. You could also heat the cumin and coriander seeds for the meatballs at the same time to save some time. Once done, crush the seeds in a mortar and pestle.

In the frying pan, an oil and fry the garlic, onions, capsicum and chillies until soft and remove from the pan.

Place the vegetable and seeds into and blender and process it until it is smooth. The smooth paste that is harrisa is brilliant to have with anything. I even spread some on my sandwich to give it a bit of omf factor. Without a bit of spice I feel like my meal is not complete.

The couscous

For the couscous, I bought a packet from the shops, that had some added spices and all I had to do was add hot water to it. With some occasional stirring, the couscous was ready in a matter of minutes.

Serve the meatballs with the couscous and top it off with some harissa and yogurt. 

Yes, my plating technique requires some work

Masoor Dal, with Basmati Rice and Cucumber Rita

For my next intrepid cooking adventure I decided to turn to Indian cooking. It is absolutely rich in flavors, colours, textures, spices and diversity. A flavor explosion in the mouth and for me, the spicier the better. I had cooked Indian curries many times before, but this was the first time I decided to whip up masoor dal. What I made was not masoor dal in its entirety but in its essence. Rather than using masoor dal, I decided to supplement it with green mung beans. I had them in the pantry and rather than going out and buying the required lentils and adding them to the ever increasing amount of clutter in my pantry, I used the mung beans. The clutter is another story and potentially another blog.

Along side the masoor dal, I cooked basmati rice and for a side made cucumber rita. The recipe for the cucumber rita will be provided below.

The ingredients:

1 cup of masoor dal (spilt orange lentils)

1 slice of yellow pumpkin cubed

2 medium onions chopped finely

1 can of tomatoes

1 inch of ginger, sliced thinly

3 cloves of garlic, finely sliced

1 teaspoon of chilli powder

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

1 teaspoon of garam masala

1 teaspoon of turmeric 

salt to taste

The method

Wash the dal and soak overnight in water. On the next day, either pressure cook the dal if you happen to have a pressure cooker or just boil the dal in water in a saucepan for half an hour. Pressure cookers are great time saving devices as they cook the food much more quickly and under pressure, in comparison to the humble saucepan 

Then, heat an amount of oil as required in a pot and when the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds. When the seeds start to splutter and pop, add the ginger and the garlic and allow to fry for 30 seconds, until golden brown. Onion is added with salt to taste and allow the onion to brown.

 Now, at this step some would add the spices and then the pumpkin and dal. I personally prefer the method in which I add the can of tomatoes and the spices, turmeric, chilli powder, garam masala and simmer the ingredients until the tomatoes become a paste. You could also use chopped up tomatoes rather than canned tomatoes, but I find that they take too long to break down. Alternatively, as my sister and brother in law in India would get fresh tomatoes and processed them in a food processor until it forms a paste. Everyone has their own trick to the trade. My trick is to put the canned tomatoes in, as I am impatient in cooking, after allowing the tomatoes to simmer for a few minutes, I take out my potato masher and start squashing them. It achieves the desired results regardless of how odd a method it appears to be.

Now, after the tomatoes form a paste add the pumpkin, some water and allow to simmer until the pumpkin starts to soften. I then add the dal, with more water and leave it to boil for a number of minutes. The heat is then reduced to a simmer for up to 20 minutes. The finished product of Masoor Dal is completed.

Now it is time for cucumber rita.

The ingredients:

1 medium cucumber

1 teaspoon of cumin seeds

2 cups of plain yogurt

1 clove of minced garlic

2 tablespoons of chopped mint

Paprika to garnish

The method

Peel and grate the cucumber, removing any moisture.

Toast the cumin seeds in a frying pan for several seconds. Add the cumin seeds, crushed garlic, mint and cucumber to the plain yogurt and combined the ingredients. Finally sprinkle with paprika.

I prepared some basmati rice earlier in a rice cooker, to be served with the Masoor dal. It can be served also with roti, but as I have not made roti in so long that rice is the quickest and easiest alternative. So below is my finished product.