Hob, Recipes, Vegan

Chickpea and Potato Curry

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Kitchen – Hob

Ingredients

  • 1 tin chickpeas
  • 1 tin baby potatoes
  • 1 small tin coconut milk
  • Peanut butter
  • Curry powder
  • Chili flakes or Tabasco sauce
  • Garlic
  • Peanut oil

Equipment

  • Small sharp knife
  • Tin opener
  • Saucepan
  • Wooden spoon

Method

Peel and chop garlic. Pour a tablespoon of olive oil into the pan and add garlic. Add to a medium heat.

Open and drain the potatoes – halve or quarter if required. Add to pan. Open and drain chickpeas and add to pan, stir thoroughly. Add in coconut milk, a heaped teaspoon of peanut butter, curry powder and chili. Add water if additional liquid is required. Stir thoroughly and cover until it reaches a rolling boil then reduce heat and simmer for 10 to 15 mins.

Serve

Serve with plain boiled or steamed rice in a bowl.

Add sides of chutney and plain Greek yoghurt.

Add flat bread.

Oven, Recipes

Hot Artichoke Dip

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Kitchen – Oven

Ingredients

  • 1 tin artichoke hearts
  • 1 cup mayonnaise
  • 1 cup parmesan
  • Pepper to taste

Equipment

  • Hand held blender
  • Terracotta pot
  • Tin opener

Method

Heat oven to 275.

Drain the artichoke hearts and chop roughly.

Add mayonnaise and blend until smooth.

Mix in parmesan and add pepper.

Place in terracotta pot, cover with lid or tin foil.

Place in oven for 25 mins. Remove lid or foil and replace in oven for another 10 mins to brown.

Serve

Serve hot with crusty bread and/or corn chips.

The dip is very rich and so a small amount will serve 8 to 10 as a starter or side dish.

all at sea, Travel tales

Drying fish in Minerva Reef

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June 2007 and we left New Zealand to head to Fiji. We had waited for 3 weeks for the right weather so we grabbed the first ‘window’ and headed north. Ten days later and we were still 400 miles from Fiji but only 80 miles from Minerva Reef so we headed there to rest up and wait for some decent wind.

Minerva Reef is a magical place. A dormant underwater volcano chain 600 miles north of NZ, 350 miles south of Tonga and Fiji. North Minerva is about five miles across and barely breaks the surface of the water at low tide. There is a small pass in the volcano wall – big enough to sail through. Inside the wall is around 35 feet deep, outside the drop off is over 1,000 feet.

We sailed through the pass and headed to the south of the volcano, anchoring in 25 feet around 200 feet from the southern wall. After 2 days we spotted another sail boat who headed around to the pass and anchored about half a mile away. 10 minutes later we had a call on the radio – did we want some wahoo? The skipper headed over in our inflatable and came back half an hour later with half of a 3 foot wahoo – much too much for us to eat so, without a freezer the only answer was to dry the fish. Recipe to follow.

No cooking, Recipes

Beetroot, lentil and mandarin salad

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Kitchen – No cooking

Ingredients

  • 1 tin beetroot
  • 1 tin lentils
  • 1 small tin mandarins
  • Vinegar
  • Salt and pepper

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Spatula
  • Salad servers

Method

Open and drain the tin of beetroot, cut into halves or quarters if required. Open tin of lentils and rinse and drain thoroughly. Add to beetroot. Open tin of mandarins and drain. Add to mixing bowl. Add in vinegar – if you have flavoured vinegar – raspberry or balsamic vinegars work well in this recipe. Season with salt and pepper.

Serve

Chill and serve as a side dish or lunch. Goes well with feta cheese.

Great to take to a pot luck.

Menu planning

Feeding the crowd

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This blog is not written by, or for, those who delight in creating gourmet dinners. I am a sociable creature though and like to get together with friends.

My favourite solution is to plan for grazing. Shared food is sociable, people can move about and mingle and all you really need is a few core dishes then little ‘asides’.

The foundations for me are hummus and flatbread. Then, if I can get them, I will add fresh carrots and celery cut into sticks. Gherkins cut lengthways, a jar of sundried tomatoes, olives, nuts.

If the crowd is a little larger I add in a couple of other dips, red bean dip and Tzatziki, some crisps and crackers. Usually people will bring along a dish to share so there is always more than enough to eat.

Hob, Recipes

Beans Bonanza

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Kitchen – Hob

Ingredients

  • 1 tin baby potatoes
  • 1 large tin baked beans
  • 1 small tin kidney beans
  • Optional – veggie sausage
  • Tomato paste
  • 1 tin chopped tomato
  • Hot English Mustard
  • Worcester sauce
  • Olive oil
  • Garlic
  • Onion
  • Celery

Equipment

  • Wok or large frying pan
  • Tin opener
  • Small sharp knife
  • Wooden spoon

Method

Peel and chop garlic, onion and celery.

Place one tablespoon of olive oil in the frying pan.

Add garlic to cold oil and heat the pan. When garlic begins to brown add the onion and celery and fry until they start to soften. If you are adding in veggie sausage – cut to bite size and add to the pan – fry until brown on all sides.

Open tins of beans, tomato and potato – rinse the kidney beans thoroughly.

Add potatoes and stir to cover with oil. Fry until browning. Add in beans and tomatoes and tomato paste, two teaspoons of Worcester sauce and one heaped teaspoon of hot English mustard.

Stir thoroughly and lower heat. Simmer for 10 minutes and remove from heat.

Serve

Serve in a bowl. Optional – add a sprinkle of parmesan.

This is a hearty dish that can be increased to large proportions to serve a crowd. Chilli can be added with the garlic to add heat.

When you are miles from the grocer