I haven't done any cooking today as we're having a new kitchen floor put in. Yahoo!! It's ceramic and has been a long time coming! I can't wait until it is done. I picked out the tiles myself. They are a natural stone look, kind of a dark creamy colour, mottled . . . if that makes sense. I think it's called colorado stone. I'll take a picture when it's done to show you.



Anyways, no cooking here today, or tomorrow either probably. Thank goodness I always have a few recipes waiting in the queue! It helps to be prepared.



This is a fabulous curry. It's quick, easy and full of lovely flavours. It's not much to look at . . . I'll agree, but . . . this is definitely a case where you shouldn't judge the book by it's colours.
You get a bit of heat from the green chillies, and some chili powder . . . and of course the curry powder. I don't like mine really hot so I use a medium strength curry powder.



The lime juice and zest gives a bit of a tang, and of course the coconut milk gives a special richness.



The basil is quite simply surprisingly lovely. Don't stint on any of the seasonings and once it's cooked, taste it and adjust it according to your own tastes. You may find that you want a bit more ginger, or curry, or even chili.



I do think you'll like it. It's simple with subtle flavours, which when combined make it entirely delicious, if I don't say so myself!



*Coconut Basil Curried Chicken*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

You can charge up the heat of this by using a hotter curry powder. I don't like too much heat, so I use medium. Delicious!

3 skinless boneless chicken breast halves
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp fine sea salt, divided
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp chili powder
5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
2 tsp freshly grated gingerroot
1 medium red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 green chilies, seeded and finely chopped
1 TBS olive oil
the juice and finely grated zest of one lime
1 (410g) tin of coconut milk (I use the light, 14 ounce tin)
1 TBS cornflour (cornstarch)
1 TBS freeze dried Basil leaves

To serve:
hot steamed basamati rice

Cut the chicken into 1 inch pieces. Place into a bowl. Stir together the curry powder, 1/2 tsp of the salt, the black pepper and the chili powder. Add this mixture to the chicken chunks and mix well together with your hands, making sure all the chicken is well coated. Cover and chill for several hours.

When you are ready to cook the curry, heat a large nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Add the olive oil. Once it is hot add the onion, basil, garlic, green chilies, and gingerroot. Cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes, until the onion is translucent. Add the chicken pieces and the remaining 1/2 tsp of salt. Cook, stirring occasionaly for 5 to 6 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through. Combine the coconut milk. lime juice and zest and cornflour. Add to the skillet carefully, whisking vigorously. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbling away. Taste and adjust seasoning as required. You may want more chili, ginger or curry powder. (It's a matter of taste.) Serve hot over steamed basamati rice.

Note: If you happen to have some fresh basil in the house, tear up a few leaves and toss them on top for a pretty garnish!

Chicken Katsu Curry is a delicious Japanese curry that first caught on over here in the UK through the Wagamama restaurants. I have never eaten at a Wagamama, but I have heard that theirs is very, very good.



I have bought a packaged Katsu Curry kit at the grocery store though, and was instantly hooked. It was quite, quite delicious! I thought though . . . there has to be an easy way to make it yourself, without having to use a kit.



The other week I saw some ready to cook chiller meals of Katsu Curry in our local Morrisons. These ones had fresh peas, edamame beans and red onions included and I thought to myself . . . wow, that looks like it would be really tasty. I decided to come up with my own at home version. So I did a search online and came up with a recipe for a wickedly delicious sounding Katsu Curry Sauce via Simon Rimmer. I played with the ingredients a bit and came up with this.



A delicious curry sauce that is a wonderful mix of sweet and heat and spice. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts, pounded until tender, breaded with a mixture of seasoned flour, egg and panko, and then fried until crispy tender. Delicious edamame, peas and red onions heated through in the delicious sauce and then spooned over top of the tasty chicken breasts and served along side some sticky Japanese rice.



This was wonderfully delicious and something that I will make regularly I think! I'm not sure what my brother who lived in Japan for 4 years would think of it . . . I'm not even sure if it's authentic. I only know it's delicious, and that's . . . well . . . more half the battle as far as I am concerned, and really all that counts after all!!



*Chicken Katsu Curry*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

A wickedly wonderful Japanese curry in which chicken breasts are breaded and fried until crisp and then served with a delicious Oriental curry sauce spooned over top.

For the sauce:
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp fennel seed
2 green cardamom pods
2 TBS vegetable oil
2 brown onions, peeled and sliced
2 small red bird's eye chillies
1 (400g) tin of chopped tomatoes (14 ounce)
1 inch piece of fresh ginger-root, peeled and finely chopped
1 TBS ground tumeric
9 fluid ounces of chicken stock
1 TBS honey
1 TBS Japanese soy sauce

For the Chicken and curry:
3 1/2 ounces plain flour, seasoned with some fine sea salt and
freshly ground black pepper (1 cup)
5 ounces Japanese panko breadcrumbs (about 2 cups)
2 large free range eggs
4 chicken breasts, boneless skinless
4 TBS vegetable oil
5 1/2 ounces frozen peas, thawed (1 cup)
5 1/2 ounces frozen edamame beans, thawed (1 cup)
1 small red onion, peeled and sliced

Cooked Sticky Rice to serve

Dry fry the spices in a hot skillet for several minutes, until very fragrant. Remove from the heat and grind to a powder with a pestle and mortar. Heat the oil in the same pan. Add the onions and cook, until golden brown, for about 10 minutes. Add the garlic, chili, tomatoes, ginger-root and tumeric. Bring to the boil, add the chicken stock and then reduce to a simmer and cook for about 25 minutes. Blitz the sauce until smooth. Return to the pan and whisk in the honey and soy sauce until totally amalgamated. Keep warm.

For the Katsu curry place the seasoned flour and the bread crumbs into two separate shallow bowls. Beat the eggs together in a third shallow bowl. Place the chicken breasts between two pieces of plastic cling film and pound with a rolling pin to 1/3 inch thickeness without tearing the meat. Dust the chicken breasts with the flour, dip them into the egg and then roll them in the panko to coat thoroughly. Set aside for about 5 minutes.

Heat the oil in a clean frying pan over medium heat until hot. Add the chicken breasts and cook them until browned on both sides and cooked through, approximately 2 to 3 minutes per side. Keep warm in the oven. Dispose of most of the oil. Add the red onion, peas and beans to the pan Cook and stir until the onion has begun to soften and the peas and beans are crispy tender. Stir the cooked vegetables into the curry sauce and heat through.

To serve, cut each cooked chicken breast through the middle diagonally and place onto a heated plate along with some cooked sticky rice. Spoon an equal amount of the curry sauce and vegetables over each. Serve immediately.



Over in The Cottage today, some delicious Chocolate Chunk Muffins!

This recipe here today is in honor of a good friend of mine named Jo. She just loves a good curry, and like me, she is always trying to watch her weight! (She's a bit better at it than I am though!)



Jo used to be the housekeeper at the Manor when I first started working there. Over the years we became good friends, and I really missed her when she and her husband left the area to pursue their dreams. She's now a Chiropodist, and her husband, well . . . he is still a plumber, but quite happy in his work!



Jo and her husband took me out to my very first Indian Restaurant actually! We had a really good time. They also took us to our very first Gherka Restaurant, and introduced us both to Thai Food as well! I guess you could say that they are very worldly in their tastes when they eat out!



They also enjoy a good curry at home. Colin likes the blow your head off kind . . . a hearty hot Madras, whilst Jo opts for something a bit milder.



This is probably a bit too mild for her, but she (and you) can certainly adjust the heat by adding more tikka paste, or even some chili powder. I found it just right for me. One thing she won't mind though is the fact that it's relatively low in fat and filled with lovely spinach, both for colour and texture.



So anyways, I never eat a curry now without thinking about Jo, and giving her a nod of thanks for having broadened my tastes!



*Chicken Curry with Rice*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

This is quick and easy and relatively low in fat. There is no cream or coconut milk added. The spinach makes it quite healthy as well. You could cut the fat even more by using chicken breast meat instead of thighs. I think you could safely cut the oil in half as well.

2 TBS vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (trim off any fat and discard, then cut into strips)
2 TBS tikka masala curry paste
200g tin of chopped tomatoes (2 cups of chopped tomatoes in tomato juice)
450ml of hot vegetable stock (1 1/2 cups) (Use low salt stock)
7 ounces basamati rice (3/4 cup)
1 tsp salt
1/2 pound of baby leaf spinach (225g)
naan bread and mango chutney to serve

Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the onion and fry, stirring, over medium heat, for about 5 minutes until golden. Add the garlic and chicken. Stir fry for another 5 minutes, until golden.

Add the curry paste, tomatoes and stock. Stir and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer and simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes, giving it a stir every so often to make sure it doesn't catch on the bottom.

While the chicken is cooking, cook the rice. Bring 1 pint of water to the boil. (2 cups) Add the rice and salt and stir. Cover and reduce the heat to it's lowest setting. Cook for the time stated on the package of rice. Once cooked, cover with a teatowel and the lid. Leave for 5 minutes to absorb the steam.

Stir the spinach into the curry and cook until just wilted. Spoon the rice into heated bowls. Ladle on the curry and serve immediately, along with the naan bread and some mango chutney.


You can get a good Peshwari Naan Bread recipe here. It's delicious!

There are some things in life that you just can't live without. Thinks like hugs and love . . . chocolate and cherries . . . puppy snuffles, good chips, bacon, and . . . ok, I'll admit it . . . curry!!

I had only ever had curry once before I moved over here in 2000. An acquaintance of mine in Suffield, Alberta, who also happened to be a Brit, had us over for a party one time and she made a killer curry! Wowser! It was fantastic. Spicy and delicious and quite unlike anything I had ever tasted. Her name was (K)Cathy Giles, and I have been looking for her since I moved over here to no avail. She was a Mancurian or maybe even a Liverpudlian. I only know she was from the North West and her hubby was named Mick . . . she had two sons and a daughter, Louise, and she made a mean curry!!

I have come to really love curry since moving here and have also come to realize there are many different kinds. I do love a good Indian, but last summer I was introduced to Thai Curries and I adore them too!



I was craving a curry today, and remembered a rather tasty one I had seen on Kevin's page, Closet Cooking. It was fruity and looked spectacularly delicious, with distinct Thai Flavours. It was also quick and easy and I am rather lazy at times, you know . . .

I was sadly lacking in a few ingredients though, the main one being fresh apricots. Ok, the only one being fresh apricots. I do, however, always have several tins of them in the larder. They come in really handy to make cakes and crumbles and all sorts!




It would seem they also come in very handy when making this delicious curry because . . . we quite, quite liked it! I have adapted his recipe a bit to my own tastes and methods, and this is what you see here, but by all means hop on over and see his original recipe. You won't regret it as he has a fabulous cooking blog and always cooks the most interesting foods!

If you don't want a lot of faff (ie. Peeling and stoning of fresh apricots) then . . . just cook my adaption. Either way I'm sure you will agree, this is one mighty tasty curry. (You can adjust the heat by upping or downing the amount of curry paste. Just sayin is all . . . ) You won't need any salt either, as fish sauce is quite salty.




*Fruity Chicken Curry*
Serves 2
Printable Recipe

Loosely based on a Thai Curry, this is quick, easy and quite delicious! (Plus it uses stuff that I always have around!)

1 410g tin of apricot halves in juice, well drained
1 heaped dessertspoon of apricot preserves
2 TBS Thai Fish Sauce
the juice and zest of half a lime
1 TBS oil
2 to 3 TBS of red Thai curry paste (I used Blue Dragon)
3 large free range boneless, skinless chicken fillets, chopped into bite sized pieces
small handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped (Cilantro)
1 small red chili, thinly sliced

Place 8 apricot halves in a blender along with the apricot preserves, fish sauce and lime zest and juice. Blitz to puree. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a deep skillet. Add 1 TBS of the curry paste and heat and then throw in the chicken pieces. Cook and stir until no longer pink. Pour in the mixture from the blender. Allow to simmer on a slow bubble for about 10 minutes, stir in the remainder of the apricot halves, cut into 1/2 inch chunks, the coriander and the rest of the curry paste to taste. (I like it a bit zippy, so use about another 1 1/2 TBS, but you do it according to your own tastes.)

Serve spooned over top of some warm basamati rice and garnish with some thinly sliced red chili. Delish!

Curry is one of our favourite foods here in the UK. I expect it is a holdover from the days of British Colonialism in India. Thai food is also gaining great popularity over here.




Todd and I went to a Thai Restaurant for the very first time last Friday night with our good friends Jo and Colin. What a fabulous experience!



I think Todd may have had a touch of experience with it when he was stationed in Singapore back in the 1960's with the army . . . but I had never experienced it at all.



It was love at first bite! I just adored the flavours!! Similar to Indian curry, and yet at the same time completely different . . . much lighter, without any of the heavy sauces. I thought the flavours were cleaner and fresher.



We shared 4 different starters and 4 different mains, each one delicious in it's own right. I just know we will be going back. I have already put in my order to go there for our anniversary in November, and . . . if Todd doesn't take me there I'll be quite upset!



In the meantime I have been searching here at home for some tasty Thai recipes that I can make by myself. I came across a tasty looking one on the BBC Good Food recipe page. It's light and very, very tasty and quick to put together.



Of course, you know me . . . I had to put my own stamp on it. I marinated the chicken pieces in some of the curry paste first to give them even more flavour, and then added a few extra vegetables for more colour and crunch. We do love our vegetables in this house.



Todd gave it a two thumbs up! (SO did I!) I served it simply with some steamed basamati rice. Next time I think I'll tackle a Satay, or maybe even Thai Fish cakes! This stuff is addictive!!



*Thai Green Chicken Curry*
Serves 4
Printable Recipe

Delicious curry, that is light, flavourful and filled with the lovely crunch of fresh vegetables!

1 TBS oil
4 small skinless, boneless chicken breasts, thinly sliced
1 to 2 TBS green curry paste, depending on how hot you like it
400ml of coconut milk (don't use the low fat)
(about 1 3/4 cup)
a handful of thin green beans, trimmed and cut in half on the slant
1 small courgette, trimmed, cut in half lengthwise and thinly sliced on the diagonal
a packet of mangetout, washed and cut on the diagonal
a packet of baby corn, trimmed and cut on teh diagonal
the juice of one lime
a large handful of fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)

Stir one TBS of the curry past into the sliced chicken breasts. Let marinate for 15 minutes. Heat the oil in a large skillet. Once hot add the chicken and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes until it begins to brown. Reduce the heat and add the remaining curry paste, if using, and cook for a minute longer. Add the coconut milk and give it a good stir. Let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the vegetables and cook for about 3 minutes, just until the vegetables are tender. Remove from the heat and stir in the lime juice and coriander. Serve hot with some steamed basamati rice.

Lamb was not something I really ate a lot of before I moved over here. I guess it was just not something that was readily available where I lived over in Canada, or maybe it was because it was not something that my mother ever really cooked when I was growing up.

She did try to cook some lamb chops one time, but they smelled like she was burning a pair of wool mittens when they were cooking, and none of us would touch them. That was my sum whole total experience of lamb.



After Todd and I got married our church Ward took us out for a meal about a week later to celebrate. One of the things on the menu at the restaurant was Roasted Lamb Loin with a Cumberland sauce. It sounded really good and I thought . . . . why not be brave and go for it.
I fell in love. Totally in love. The meat was sweet and tender and incredibly tasty.

Since then I have taken every opportunity to cook lamb when I can. I once did a slow roasted shoulder in the oven, using lemon and oregano and it was succulently delicious with some boiled potatoes. That reminds me . . . I need to do that again soon!



We had a delicious lamb curry one night for our tea last week and it was gorgeously tasty. Not too spicy . . . I don't like it when the spice in a dish masks the true flavours of what you are eating. The rich flavour of the lamb shone through in this, with just a hint of curry.

It was incredibly moreish served up with a Coriander Rice. I had thought there would be leftovers the next day for lunch . . . but it was gone right away. Totally gone. In fact . . . we licked the platter clean.




*A Mild Lamb Curry*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

A delicious gentle curry, creamy and mild. Serve with some tasty lime coriander rice.

2 tsp coriander seeds
2 tsp cumin seeds
The seeds from 8 cardamom pods
4 whole cloves
3 TBS mild flavoured oil
4 medium onions, peeled and thinly sliced
1 KG of lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into ½ inch squares
2 tsp ground turmeric
4 fat cloves of garlic, peeled and minced
1 TBS minced fresh ginger root
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
450ml of coconut milk
150ml of chicken stock
The juice of one lime

For the rice:
500g basmati rice
1 ounce butter
A large handful of fresh coriander, chopped
The grated zest of one lime
The juice of one lime
Salt and black pepper to taste

To make the curry, toast the seeds and whole cloves in a dry skillet until fragrant. Tip into a pestle and mortar and grind until fairly fine. Pour two TBS of the oil into a heavy based saucepan over high heat. Once hot, add the onions and cook, stirring for about 5 minutes. Scoop out to a bowl and set aside. Add the remaining oil and add the lamb, in batched, browning one batch on all sides before removing to the bowl with the onions and browning the rest. Don’t overcrowd the pan or your meat will not brown properly and will stew instead of sear.

Tip the onions and meat back into the pan along with the ground spices, the turmeric, garlic and ginger root. Season to taste with some salt and pepper. Toss all together and then add the stock, coconut milk and lime juice, stirring and scraping any juicy bits from the bottom of the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer for about an hour, until very tender. Remove the lid and simmer for about 15 minutes longer. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.

While the curry is cooking cook the rice. Place the rice in a sauce pan with double the volume of salted water. Bring to the boil. Cover with a lid. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 to 12 minutes until the rice is completely cooked and all of the moisture has been absorbed. Remove the pan from the heat and let sit for about 10 minutes with the lid on. Stir in the butter, lime zest, lime juice and chopped coriander with a fork. Serve immediately with the curry.

No secret here, the potato is my favourite vegetable. Always has been, always will be.




I've tried low-carbing it in the past . . . the potato has always been my downfall. I just can't go very long without a potato . . . period . . . end of statement.




You can take away my chocolate. You can take away sweets . . . but don't take away my potato. To do so is risking my eventual wrath! Imagine my joy at discovering Bombay Potatoes!!

Yes, a potato curry!



Delicious and spicy with a bit of heat that you can control by either increasing or lessening the amount of chili powder you use.

mmm . . . mmm . . . good. I could eat a whole plate of these and nothing else . . . seriously. Thank you India!



*Bombay Potatoes*
Serves 6 to 8
Printable Recipe

A delicious accompaniment to any curry, meatwise or vegetarian. It's also a great way to use leftover cooked boiled potatoes. Very easy and very tasty!

3 TBS sunflower oil
1 tsp mustard seed
1 pinch ground cumin
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp freshly ground garam masala
1 tsp chili powder
1 knob of fresh ginger root, peel and finely grate
6 potatoes, peeled, parboiled and cut into cubes
4 knobs of butter
4 tomatoes, cored and diced
a handful of roughly chopped fresh coriander

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat until it shimmers. Add the mustard sed, cumin, tumeric, ground coriander, garam masala and chili powder. Cook and stir until the mustard seeds begin to pop. Stir in the ginger root, potatoes, and butter. Stir to coat the potatoes in all the spices. Reduce the heat to medium low and cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes. Cook until they begin to wilt, then stir in the coriander and serve.

One of the things I have come to embrace over here is the curry. Several years ago there was a program on the telly called Britain's Favourite food and it was not surprising that curry came quite high on the list. The shelves in every grocery store are stocked to the hilt with a variety of curry sauces, curry ready meals and you can find curry in any self respecting chippy in the land. Chips served with curry sauce are a very popular dish! (Kind of like the British Poutine, but without the cheese)



There are over 9000 curry houses in the UK, spread out all over the land. It's an industry worth some £3.5 billion! The British love affair with curry goes back to colonial days which entailed some two hundred years of British Colonial presence in India, where much loved traditional Indian dishes wormed their way into British hearts and tastes.

I tasted my first curry when I was stationed in Suffield, Alberta with my ex husband. This was the British Army Training base in Canada. We were close friends to many British soldiers and their wives during the time we spent there and often had dinner parties together. One night one of the ladies served up a chicken curry and I have to say it was love at first bite for me!



The other day I was wanting to make a curry from one of Bill Granger's books. It was a rich and tomatey roasted curry. I got the red curry paste stirred into the coconut milk and stopped to read the ingredients on the jar. It had shrimps in it. I had to throw it away then, as I am allergic to shrimps. (I know, poor me!) Anyways, I had to quickly rethink what I was going to do and this is what I came up with. We found it most delicious!



*Roasted Chicken Curry*
Serves 6
Printable Recipe

This started off as a chicken curry cooked on top of the stove, but I decided that I wanted to roast it instead. It is a dry curry, in that there is not a lot of sauce with it. It's tender and delicious though, and if anything tastes even better the day after, as most curries do! The ingredient list is long, but once you have everything assembled, it basically cooks itself.

3 pounds of chicken pieces
5 TBS oil
2 large garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 1/2 inches of fresh gingerroot, peeled and finely chopped
2 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
3 bay leaves
4 whole cloves
1 1-inch piece of a cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
4 whole peppercorns
4 whole cardamom pods, bruised
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp roasted cumin
1/2 tsp red chili
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp mace
salt to taste
300ml whole milk
300ml creamed coconut
3 ounces cashew nuts, cut in halves lengthwise
1 ounce pistachio nuts, chopped coarsely
5 ounces sultana raisins



Pre-heat the oven to 180*C/350*F. Place the chicken pieces into a large roaster. Season lightly and then put them into the heated oven to roast while you make the sauce.

Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan. Put in the garlic, ginger, onions, bay leaves, cloves, cinnamon stick, cardamom powder, peppercorns and whole cardamom pods. Cook and fry gently until golden brown. Stir in the garam masala, roasted cumin, red chilli, turmeric, nutmeg, mace, and salt. Add the milk and coconut milk. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat to medium low and simmer for about 15 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Remove the chicken pieces from the oven and reduce the oven heat to 160*C/325*F. Stir the nuts and sultanas into the sauce. Pour the sauce mixture over the chicken. Cover the roaster and return to the oven and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, until most of the sauce has been absorbed by the chicken and the chicken is very tender. Remove from the oven and serve.