I’m no Annabel Karmel

Hands up, how many of you own an Annabel Karmel cookbook? The days of Annabel Karmel are long gone in our house and I’ve been known to serve spaghetti out of a tin, beans on toast or worse, McDonald’s.  However, we were recently sent Annabel’s Kitchen, My First Cookbook to have a look at.  I frequently use children’s cookbooks as it’s indicative of my cooking abilities but I also like flipping through them for inspiration for meals for Madame.

So far, I’ve tried two of the recipes, Oriental Plum Chicken Wraps and the Meatball Pasta Bake and before I go any further, they were both delicious.

However, as a working mum I often don’t have the time, energy or ingredients to make Cat and Mouse baked potatoes, Jelly sailboats or Bagel Snakes! By the time I fly through the door at about 6pm, I only have an hour with my daughter and I don’t want to spend all this time in the kitchen.  I do involve her with the cooking and she enjoys it but she has the attention span of a newt and normally wanders off half way through, leaving me to do the rest.

I know Ms. Karmel is busy building an empire but I’d bet my life on it that she doesn’t do this herself at home.  Books like this just add to my level of guilt as a parent.  Please can you just give me recipes that are quick, healthy and don’t require 20 ingredients!  I also found it very frustrating that the recipes were all mixed together, separate sections for mains, puddings etc, could save me a valuable 5 minutes.

Saying all this I am looking forward to trying the Lamb Biryani and the Prawn and Sausage Paella but I’ll have to save them for my day off.

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Not Pukka but Cheeky!

The bloody cheek!  Would you return it?

I’m a Grumpy Old Woman. Are you? Help yourself to a badge.

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Butternut Squash and Chickpea Coconut Curry (Slow Cooker)

I’ve been meaning to post this recipe for ages.  I made this curry for my Book Club a few weeks ago, along with my Lamb Curry.  It’s dead easy to make and absolutely delicious.  Enjoy!

Ingredients

  • 1 tbsp of oil
  • 1 onion diced
  • 2 cloves of garlic crushed
  • 1 tbsp of minced ginger (I use lazy ginger in a jar)
  • 3 tbsp of Patak’s Mild Curry Paste
  • 350g Butternut squash, bitesize pieces (you can buy it ready peeled if you want to keep your limbs!)
  • 4 medium sized potatoes peeled and cubed
  • 400g tin of chickpeas drained and rinsed
  • 400 ml of coconut milk (you can use light if you want, I didn’t)
  • 250 ml of vegetable stock
  • 60 ml of smooth peanut butter (it gives it a creamy texture)
  • 2 large handfuls of spinach
  • 250ml of frozen peas

Directions

  1. Preheat the slow cooker (low)
  2. Sauté the onion, garlic and ginger till the onions are soft (about 5 min).  Then add the curry paste, mix well, and cook for about a minute.
  3. Put the squash, potatoes and chickpeas in the slow cooker.  Top with the onion mixture.
  4. Pour in the coconut milk, stock and peanut butter.  Mix well.
  5. Cook covered for at least 4 hours until the butternut squash is cooked. (I did closer to 5-6 hrs)
  6. 30 minutes before you are ready to serve mix in the spinach and peas.  I served with Naans, Sag Paneer and Basmati rice.

For more recipe ideas, cooking tips and ideas check out Patak’s Curry Club

Thanks to Patak’s for sending me a lovely selection of their products!  I can’t wait to try them all.

Using up Supplies

This week I decided not to go grocery shopping and try to use up some of the ingredients I had in the kitchen.  Click here to see previous post.  This is a record of what I managed to create:

Monday

Sausage Casserole

What I used:

  • 1 Coleman Packet sauce
  • 6 sausage
  • 1 onion
  • 175 g mushrooms (looked slightly dodgy)
  • 4-6 potatoes for mash

Tuesday

Pasta with  5 minute Tomato Sauce (hubby loved the lemony zing of sauce)

What I used:

  • Virgin Olive Oil
  • Crushed Red Chili Pepper Flakes
  • Sea Salt
  • Garlic Powder as I didn’t have any garlic
  • Tinned chopped Tomatoes
  • Zest of one slightly squishy lemon
  • Penne Pasta
  • Bagged Salad that was 2 days past sell by date

Wednesday

Pork Chops in Mushroom Sauce, Rice and Carrots

What I used:

  • Vegetable Oil
  • 4 pork chops
  • 2 cans of Campbells’ Cream of Mushroom Soup (must have ingredient for all chefs)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Water
  • Milk
  • Carrots
  • Rice

Thursday

Steak, Chips and Salad Gordon Ramsay Style (well kind of!)

What I used:

  • 2 Prime Rump Steaks
  • Butter
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • McCain Frozen Oven Chips as we didn’t have any Desiree Potatoes
  • 4 Tomatoes (grilled) with a sell by date of the 28th of January instead of Rocket Salad with Vinaigrette

Friday

McDonald’s

  • Quarter Pounder with Cheese Meal and a diet coke! ;-)