Rule #3 – always eat good food

My Saturday night was spent at home, in my pjs with a lovely glass of wine, while my husband spoilt me with one of his delicious three course meals! It’s become a little bit of a tradition for us… every now and then, he’ll buy a bunch of ingredients, pour me a glass of wine and I’ll sit on the breakfast bar while he cooks. We tend to eat while he cooks as well – which is the fun part

This time the courses were:

1st – Tomato & olive bruschetta

2nd – Garlic prawns in a white wine sauce – SO GOOD!

3rd – A perfectly cooked medium rare peppered steak, with asparagus in a mustard vinaigrette & roasted peppers stuffed with mushrooms

It really was a perfect way to spend an otherwise extremely busy weekend.

I will eventually post the recipes for these delicious meals – if not here, then on my food blog (I have a list of recipes that I  have been meaning to add to it, but haven’t found the time!). I am actually thinking about merging the two blogs together – so we’ll see what happens with that!

I hope you all enjoyed your weekends as much as I did!

Pasta-less Spaghetti!

This one was all down to my delightful husband Such a brilliant idea and oh-so-very yummy!!! It is perfect for those who are always counting calories and trying not to eat carbs It’s also very delicious and easy to make!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 large Spaghetti Squash
• 1 pound of Minced Meat (chicken, lamb or beef – all of them will work – so it’s upto you! In the photos below we used beef, however have used chicken too)
• 1 small Onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves Garlic, chopped/crushed
• A piece of Ginger, chopped/crushed (roughly 1 tbs)
• 1 green or red Chilli, chopped/crushed
• 2 Tomatoes, liquidized – or 1 small can of crushed Tomatoes
• 1 tsp Madras Curry Paste (Pataks)
• Salt to taste
• Olive oil/Cooking oil

1. Pre-heat oven to 350. While the oven is heating, cut the spaghetti squash in half and remove the seeds and pulp.
2. Once the oven is ready, place the 2 spaghetti squash halves into an oven try and bake for 40-45 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a pan and once hot add the onions and cook until brown.
4. Add the ginger/garlic/chilli and allow this to cook with the onions for a few minutes.
5. Add the minced meat and cook this through thoroughly.
6. Add the tomatoes and madras curry paste and mix well. The meat and tomatoes will give off water, keep cooking this until the water starts to evaporate.
7. Ensure the meat is thoroughly cooked before serving.
8. Remove the spaghetti squash from the oven – and allow this to cool. Once cool, gently scrape the tines of a kitchen fork around the edge of the spaghetti squash to shred the pulp into strands. (Look here for more info on cooking spaghetti squash)
9. Pour the minced meat over the spaghetti squash and there you have it

You can sprinkle some grated cheese over it if you like.  We had it with our (still) favourite wine, Apothic Red. It’s healthy and really yummy – you can’t get any better than that

Peri Peri Prawns With Tomato Kissed Potatoes

A busy week meant no blogging for me – however it didn’t mean no cooking! My husband cooked a fair bit over the weekend, and he said he wants to blog about it instead of me – so you have that to look forward to.

For now – Peri-peri prawns with tomato kissed pototoes!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 kilogram queen or king sized prawns (in the shell or out works!)
• 3/4 cup Butter
• 2 tbs Paprika
• 1 tbs Red chilli powder or 1 Red chilli crushed
• 4 cloves (crushed) Garlic
• Salt
• 1 cup Lemon juice
• Olive oil

1. Clean the prawns, cutting the heads off but keeping the tail and shell. Ensure the prawn is devained and wash them thoroughly.
2. Marinate the prawns in a small amount of the lemon juice, a teaspoon of salt and 1 tablespoon of paprika.
3. Cook the peri peri sauce by melting the butter in a small pot – once melted add the garlic, red chilli powder/chilli, rest of the paprika & lemon juice and salt to taste. Cook until it is thick and creamy.
4. Heat a pan with some olive oil and add the clean marinated prawns - braise and cook quickly over heat. The prawns will change colour when cooked to a creamy pink tone and the tails tend to curl upwards.
5. Once the prawns are cooked – pour the sauce over the prawn and mix in well.

For the Potatoes you need:

• Potatoes (as many or as little as you want – depending how hungry you are)
• Cherry tomatoes
• 1 clove Garlic (crushed)
• Rosemary
• Salt
• Olive Oil

1. Cut the potatoes into thin slices (like french fries)
2. Place them into a oven-friendly dish and drizzle with olive oil and add the garlic, rosemary and salt to taste - mix well
3. Pierce a few cherry tomatoes and add these to the dish as well
4. Place in the oven at 180C / 350F and allow to bake for about 20mins – turning the pototoes over at regular intervals

We had it with a nice green salad & a bottle of white wine (Mission Hill Chardonnay) – it was a sunny warm day in BC and it was a perfect meal – truly delicious! You can have the prawns with rice or normal french fries too – whatever takes your fancy. The whole meal took about 45mins to make (including all the prep work).

Bon Appetit!

Veggie Tuesdays: Rajma – Red Kidney Bean Curry

Every Tuesday for us is veggie day! One day a week we are purely vegetarian – I’ve been doing it with my family for as long as I can remember and my husband has agreed to do it with me now too. SO veggie tuesday will be for all the vegetarians out there

Last night we made Rajma – an Indian red kidney bean curry and had it with rice. It was truly delcious! You can have it with naan or roti if you want to subsitute the rice – it works well with both!

Here’s what you need:

• 1 can of Red Kidney Beans
• 1/2 an Onion (diced very small)
• Mushrooms (optional)
• A piece of Ginger
• 4 cloves of Garlic
• 1 Red Chilli
• 1 can of Crushed Tomatoes (depending on how large the can is – if it’s a large can, you only need half) OR 3 tomatoes crushed/blended
• 1/2 tsp of Tomatoe Puree
• 1 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp Madras Curry Paste (Pataks)
• Coriander / Cilantro
• Salt
• Olive Oil / Cooking Oil

 

1. First thing you want to do is prepare the ginger, garlic and chillis.  Add the ginger, garlic cloves and red chilli to a blender and blend into a paste. (You can use ginger or garlic pastes, crushed ginger/garlic etc)
2. Heat the oil in a pot and once hot add the onions and cook till brown.
3. Add the ginger/garlic/red chilli mixture and allow this to cook with the onions for a few minutes.
4. Add the crushed tomatoes, tomato puree, garam masala, madras curry paste and salt to taste – let this cook for about 5minutes.
5. Rinse the kidney beans and add these to the pot along with the mushrooms.
6. Add 3 cups of water to this – this will ensure you get the right curry consistency. The curry should be saucy but not took thick.
7. Add more water if you feel it’s needed and let this cook for a few minutes to ensure the mixture cooks through to the beans and mushrooms.
8. Chop up a small bunch of coriander/cilantro and sprinkle this on top just before the dish is served.

 

The mushrooms are a completely optional addition – I’ve never actually had mushrooms in rajma before, however my husband swore by it and insisted I added them! It was actually a very nice combination!

We had the rajma with hot basmati rice, a fresh green salad & an onion pickle! It was yum – my husband had seconds (yay!) Enjoy!

Related Articles

• Just Married: My Experiments with Rajma (mysoulsongs.wordpress.com)