Cheap Curry Menu

You may be wondering if the budget is coming good yet. Well, next week looks OK for a change, but I'm sure something will come up lol.

Tuesday 13th ~ Fragrant Egg Curry
Wednesday ~ Curried Tomato & Coriander Rice with Egg (from an old magazine, it is a Keen's Curry recipe) recipe here. Swapped with another recipe from last week
Thursday ~ Spicy Indian Potato & Spinach Curry
Friday ~ Coriander & Corn Omelette Rolls
Saturday ~ Chickpea Burgers With Raita
Sunday ~ Corn Quesadillas with Bean Salad
Monday ~ Chihuahua Rice
Tuesday ~ Capsicum & Corn Enchiladas
Wednesday ~ Pumpkin, Lemon & Broccoli Risotto
Thursday ~ Spicy Potato Cakes
Friday ~ Chicken Tabouli Salad
Saturday ~ Spaghetti Bean Bolognaise
Sunday ~ Creamy Tomato & White Wine Gnocchi
Monday ~ Broccoli & Cauliflower Bake

Extra recipes ~ Pasta & Vegie Soup

Added in this one because my second son brought home a Jap pumpkin
Onion Pancakes with Vegetables & Chilli Sauce

I found it in the heart friendly section (see sidebar), and wanted to try it because it fits in with the vegetarian pancakes theme we have going, love them.

Successes from last week:

Spicy Bean Hotpot I was worried about this. But apart from an issue about which chili to use (I would use whatever you usually put in your chili con carne) it was lovely. We particularly liked how the rice was thick so that made up for the watery tomato, one of my pet hates atm. My daughter had seconds and thirds of the rice (on different days).

Mexican Pita Pizzas this was a real occasion.

Baking from last week:

Ham, Pineapple & Cheese Pizza Scrolls my daughter bought her own ham, and my budgeting allowed up to buy extra cheese

Interesting recipes:

Baby Dampers with Herbed Mascarpone
Broad Bean & Silverbeet Soup

Curried Tomato & Coriander Rice with Egg

From: Good Taste June 2009 (not sure if it is on the Taste site, I can't see it yet.) I suspect it used to be on the Keen site.

Curried Tomato & Coriander Rice with Egg

1 tabs olive oil
1 brown onion, finely chopped
300g ( 1 1/2 cups) basmati rice
1 tab Keen's Curry Powder
750ml (3 cups) vegetable stock
3 large tomatoes, finely chopped
1/3 cup fresh coriander leaves, chopped
4 eggs
Fresh coriander leaves, extra, to serve
Baby spinach leaves, to serve

Heat oil in a large, deep frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until golden. Add the rice and curry powder. Cook, stirring, for 30 seconds or until aromatic. Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Cover and cook for 12 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.

Use a fork to separate the grains. Stir in the tomato and coriander.

Use the back of a spoon to make4 large evenly spaced indents in the rice mixture. Crack an egg into each indent. Cook, covered, for 5-8 minutes or until the eggs are just set.

Top with extra coriander and serve with baby spinach leaves.

Plates Johnson Australia.

Simply Retro

My Tech School year level are having a reunion this month. I was not born in '75, but I thought it fits in with the retro theme.

Homemade Kewpie Mayonnaise & Vegetarian Japanese Pancakes

We have been still making Vegetarian Japanese Pancakes adapted from another site. Post about it here. Here is our adaption so far:

Vegetarian Japanese pancakes

You will need for 12 rather large pancakes or many littler ones:
Pancake batter
1. ½ cup of self-raising flour
2. 1 ½ cup of plain flour
3. 2 large eggs
4. 3 cups of cabbage, thinly sliced
5. 2 cups grated carrot
6. 2 cups grated potatoes
7. 1 tbsp of chopped fresh mint leaves (optional best leave out)
8. 1 tsp of salt
9. 1 tsp of pepper
10. Some milk
11. Some oil
Mix the flours, egg, salt and pepper together add milk to give thick and not runny mixture. Add the vegetables.
Add some oil to a non-stick frying pan, spoon the pancake batter , flatten out with back of spoon.
Fry until both sides are golden brown.
To serve:
Serving without smoked salmon, spread thinly kewpie (Q.P) mayonnaise and some Worcester sauce (rather than tomato sauce only).
QP mayo is much less sweeter than ‘normal’ mayonnaise and that is why it goes well with the vegetable pancake and Worcester.



Kewpie mayonnaise recipes:

Just Hungry

Not Quite Nigella

BellaOnline



Other things I found:

Japanese Pancakes from msn

Vegetarian Japanese Pancakes another version from Travelling in Mary Janes

Another Vegetarian Japanese Pancake from Your Weekly Menu (an Australian menu site)

Japanese Pizza Pancake from Not Quite Nigella

Wholemeal version from I Ate Brisbane which is sad as my husband wants to make wholemeal ones too, he is the one who wants to make his own mayonnaise as well.

Cookbook Suggestion

I found this cookbook in my pile of books, magazines and papers. Actually my husband did. It fits in so well with what we have been cooking and menu planning lately. A real treasure.

Lately we have been roasting tomatoes, roasting pumpkin slices and having sliced zucchini in pizzas on pita bread.

Though this book encourages you to buy products like Latina or Old El Paso items, still the rest of the ingredients are cheap. It even has a photo of a paella pan like the one I got for a blog prize.

It was published in 2003 for General Mills Australia. Sometimes you can get these type of books on ebay.

I am just amazed at the vegetarian versions. For example Vegetable Gorditas that includes broccoli (keep in mind I made a Mexican dish with pumpkin recently), Soft Tacos with Spicy Chargrilled Vegetables.

There is a really clear picture of Chimichangas.

The non-vegetarian recipe that I like is Nachos with Chicken & Olives. What a great variation to the one that our family makes, it uses a BBQ chook.

I have gone off Italian, but this book was great. Gnocchi with Parsley Olive Pesto & Grilled Cherry Tomatoes. We are eating rocket pesto that is homemade from a recent sausage recipe on my menu plan for lunch on toast. Lovely.

The soups look fabulous and there is a great recipe for Italian sausages which are hard to come by I feel. There is also the paella recipe that is a variation of our family's one which is from the McCormick spices site.

Black-eyed Bean, Mushroom & Silverbeet Balti

In my current menu I have this recipe. The link is broken, thankfully the good people of Riverford recovered it for me.


Black eyed bean, mushroom and chard balti

Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

If you have aubergines and courgettes in your box, substitute the mushrooms and chard for these, chop them into small chunks, you may need to cook them for slightly longer.

1 can black eyed beans, rinsed and drained
300g chard, roughly chopped
200g mushrooms, halved
3 tbsps oil
3cm piece root ginger, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 green chilli, finely chopped (1 tsp dried chilli if not available)
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
handful fresh coriander, chopped
5 tomatoes, chopped
salt to season

Instructions

Heat oil in a large pan over a medium heat. Fry the garlic, chilli and ginger for a couple of minutes. Add the rest of the spices and cook for another minute, then add the chard and mushrooms, cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Stir in tomatoes, beans and coriander, cook for another 5 minutes or so. Season to taste. Serve with basmati rice, yoghurt and pickles.

Jalapeno Jumping

This is a week early, so hopefully not too premature. I have a large jar of 6/10 heat jalapeno peppers to use up. Also we are getting a large jar of anchovies.

Tuesday 29th ~ Mexican Pita Pizzas
Wednesday ~ Corn Quesadillas with Bean Salad
Thursday ~ Chihuahua Rice
Friday ~ Capsicum & Corn Enchiladas
Saturday ~ Spicy Bean Hotpot
Sunday ~ Puttanesca
Monday ~ Orrecchiette with Creamy Broccoli
Tuesday ~ Spaghetti with Chilli & Sun-dried Tomatoes
Wednesday ~ Pumpkin, Lemon & Broccoli Risotto
Thursday ~ Egg & Vegetable Curry
Friday ~ Mexican Potato & Salsa Salad
Saturday ~ Middle Eastern Chickpea & Vegetable Salad
Sunday ~ Spicy Potato Cakes
Monday ~ Chicken Tabouli Salad
Tuesday ~ Gnocchi with Sugo
Wednesday ~ Japanese Vegetarian Pancakes
Thursday ~ Sausage Bake with Rocket Pesto
Friday ~ Lima Bean Soup (an adaptation of Pea Soup from Cookery The Australia Way about 2003) to use up left over dried lima beans

Interesting recipes: Lentil Tabouli with Crisp Garlic Bread

Swap recipes to use the left-over brussels sprouts:
Brussels Sprout, Carrot & Pasta Soup

Success from last week:

Cheesy Damper
Creamy Fettucine with Brussels Sprouts (not that good reheated)
Pumpkin & Capsicum Fajitas

Silverbeet & Black-eyed Bean Soup & Greek Lentil Soup

The above picture is dill, horseradish and chives. My husband picked a lot of chives from our other house to use this week, I eat horseradish cream sandwiches and tonight dill in our soup.

This is a recipe we have used in the past, possibly our first recipe with black-eyed beans. I liked the delicate flavour of the beans.

Silverbeet and Black-eyed Bean Soup

Serves 4-6

190g (1 metric cup 250ml size) or 1 1/4 US cups black eyed beans, soaked overnight in cold water or substitute a 400g tin of borlotti beans or lentils
40ml (2 metric tablespoons) olive oil
1 red onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 dried bird's eye chilli, crumbled (optional)
1 litre (4 metric cups) chicken stock
400g tin diced Italian tomatoes (30g is 1oz) Roma
1 bunch silverbeet or chard, washed, trimmed, roughly chopped

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium and add the soaked black-eyed beans. Simmer for 30 minutes or until tender. Drain well.

In another large saucepan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, cumin, fennel seeds and chilli, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring continuously, until the onion is soft. Add the chicken stock and tomatoes, and simmer for 5 minutes.

Add the black-eyed beans and silverbeet. Simmer for about 10 minutes and serve immediately.

Adapted from recipe in Family Circle (Australian) October 2006.



Here is another recipe we use, we are eating it tonight with wombuk instead of spinach.

Greek Lentil, Spinach & Dill Soup

Serves 6.

2 tabs olive oil
3 medium brown onions, chopped finely
1 stick celery, chopped finely
1 medium carrot, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/2 fresh long red chilli, seeded, sliced thinly or green chilli
2 bay leaves
6 stalks fresh parsley, or 1/3 cup chopped
1 1/2 cups (300g or 10oz) brown lentils
3 litres (12-15 cups) water
2 teaspoons salt
freshly ground black pepper
5oz/150g baby spinach leaves or Chinese cabbage
1 tab red wine vinegar, approx.
1/2 cup lightly packed fresh dill sprigs or 1/3 cup chopped
3 chicken stock cubes
3/4 teaspoon sugar

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, cook onion, celery and carrot, stirring, for about 5 mins or until softened. Add the garlic, chilli, bay leaves and parsley stalks, cook, stirring until fragrant. Add the lentils, stir to coat, add the water, bring to the boil. Reduce heat, simmer, uncovered, for about 20 mins or until lentils are tender. (Our own recipe says 1 1/2 hours, and usually 45 minutes is the minimum from memory.) Remove the bay leaves and parsley stalks. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. Add the spinach, stir until wilted. Stir in vinegar to taste and sprinkle with dill. Suitable to freeze.

Adapted from: The Australian Women's Weekly June 2004

Cake made with oil

I often look in the taste site for cakes made with oil. Today I found a standard cake recipe in an odd cookbook we got secondhand a year or two ago. At the moment we are in an unusual position lately and have more butter than oil or we could have made it and showed you a picture. We deliberately got some butter in case the girls wanted to bake. My youngest is making some jam drop at the moment. (They turned out looking like kolaches, but they look delicious.) We are thinking baking helps our very frugal diet at the moment. I have some advice, don't look at the Taste site for cakes unless you are prepared to buy lots of ingredients and are not hungry!

The recipe comes from The Complete Australian Cookbook. Sometimes these types of books come up on ebay.

We have changed the flours from grams to cups, same with the mls for oil and water.

The cake has variations.

Basic Cake with Oil

240g flour or 1 2/3 cup
250g sugar, or 1 1/3 up
3 eggs, separated
125ml or 1/2 cup oil
125ml or 1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla essence or other flavouring
3 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt (just remember Australian cups are bigger, same with tablespoons)

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a mixing bowl.

Beat the egg yolks, oil and water together well in a bowl, then stir in the vanilla essence.

Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Beat the egg whites in another bowl until stiff but not dry, and fold into the batter.

Turn the batter out into two greased sandwich cake pans, 220mm in diameter, and bake in the oven at 190°C (375°F) for 30 minutes.

Turn out onto a wire cooling rack.

Variations:

Chocolate cake: Sift 1 1/2 tablespoons cocoa with the dry ingredients

Spice Cake: Sift 1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, ground ginger and ground allspice together with the dry ingredients.

Coconut cake: Stir 3 tablespoon desiccated coconut into the batter before adding the egg whites.

Menu Thoughts

Photo Source

Last fortnight I had some pumpkin recipes left over. We had just finished Pasta with Pumpkin Sauce and used up our pumpkin. No specials online on pumpkin. The next day, Tuesday, my husband brought home one, then two more Kent/Butternut cross pumpkins, very pretty. They are rounder on the bottom and have green patterned bits on them.

So on with the pumpkin recipes!

Monday ~ Low-GI Lentil Patties with Roast Tomato Sauce
Tuesday ~ Pumpkin & Capsicum Fajitas
Wednesday ~ Spicy Pumpkin & Coriander Fritters
Thursday ~ Curried Green Pea Soup (decided to use a recipe so similar from Cookery The Australia way, about 2003 version)
Friday ~ Vegetarian Japanese Pancakes
Saturday ~ Gnocchi with Sugo again
Sunday ~ Pasta with Pumpkin, Tomato & Butter Beans
Monday ~ Broccoli & Pasta
Tuesday ~ Creamy Roast Pumpkin Pasta
Wednesday ~ Black-eyed Bean, Mushroom & Silverbeet Balti
Thursday ~ Italian Soup with Cheesy Damper
Friday ~ Creamy Fettucine with Brussels Sprouts
Saturday ~ Vegetarian Japanese Pancakes
Sunday ~ Greek Lentil Soup
Monday ~ Pumpkin & Spinach Cannelloni

Swap recipes:

Adzuki Beans, Pumpkin & Ginger Casserole
Tomato & Rosemary Risotto Cake
Creamy Sweet Potato Pasta

Success from last week:

Vegetarian Japanese Pancakes. You know I love the ones from the taste site, well this recipe despite not having lovely fried pork mince embedded in the top, or nice steak pieces, it substantial, which is always an issue for me feeding a family. I like my meal to fill us up! We didn't have the salmon the recipe said it wasn't necessary. We tried our new Kewpie mayonnaise. It comes out like cream from the bottle. It made the pancakes really. We decided for our tastes, we are going to change the flour rations around. My daughter put on too much mayo, doesn't work.

Interesting recipes:

Black-eyed Pea Salad
Black-eyed Bean & Vegetable Curry
Exotic Spicy Black-eyed Black-eyed Bean Curry
Mince with Black-eyed Beans
Mexican black-eyed bean soup
Carribean Butternut Pumpkin & Sweet Corn Stew

My husband said that soon we are getting a large jar of anchovies! I wonder if there will be anchovy recipes on my blog in a month's time? It took 11 days to make this menu and I am about 4 days early!

I recipe for the Chrisco frozen vegetables:

Vegetable Fritters

Simple Songs

This song about simple living is by Josh Turner called I'll Be There. It gives a new meaning to simple living doesn't it?