Spicy Goodness!!!

Last night I made some Vindaloo for supper. (From Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, pg. 87) I LOVE curries, they have tons of layers of flavours that can be hot and sweet at the same time. Most nights I use Patak’s curry paste but last night I made my own curry paste from one of Jamie Oliver’s recipes. The recipe isn’t hard but it is a bit time consuming, not a recipe for a 15 minute meal. While it may take a while, the end result is awesome!

Vindaloo Recipe

• 2 onions
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 1 fresh red chile
• thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root
• a small bunch of fresh cilantro
• 4 tomatoes
• peanut oil
• butter
• 1 3/4 pounds diced pork shoulder (I used two pork chops, used up all my shoulder)
• 1/2 cup vindaloo or hot curry paste (or the curry paste recipe below)
• salt and pepper
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon honey

1. Finely slice your onions, garlic, chile, and ginger. Pick the cilantro leaves and chop the stalks. Cut the tomatoes into quarters.
2. Heat a large casserole-type pan on medium to high heat and add peanut oil and butter.
3. Add the onions, garlic, chile, ginger and cilantro. Cook until softened and golden, about 10 minutes.
4. Add the pork and curry paste. Stir well to coat everything with the paste and season with salt and pepper.
5. Add tomatoes, balsamic vinegar, honey and about 1 2/3 of water, enough to cover everything and stir again. Bring to a boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 45 minutes with the lid on. Check the curry regularly to make sure it’s not sticking to the pan, and add extra water if necessary.
6. Once the meat is tender and cook, taste and season with salt and pepper.

I served it only on rice, but it’s also good with a wedge of lemon and natural yogurt.

This is super yummy, a must try!

Vindaloo Paste (found all of my spices at Bulk Barn)

• 2 cloves garlic
• a thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger root
• 4 dried red chiles
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 tablespoons peanut oil
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 fresh chiles
• a small bunch of fresh cilantro

Spices for toasting

• 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
• 4 whole cloves
• 2 teaspoons coriander seeds
• 2 teaspoons fennel seeds
• 1 teaspoon fenugreek seeds

1. Peel garlic and ginger.
2. Put a frying pan on medium to high heat and add the spices for toasting to the dry pan.
3. Add the toasted spices to a pestle and mortar and grind until fine, or put them into a food processor and whiz to a powder.
4. Whiz the toasted spices in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients until you have a smooth paste.

Hope you enjoy!

For the chocolate lovers…

This is my favourite brownie recipe ever! It’s from Jamie Oliver’s cookbook Cook with Jamie, (ISBN-13:978-1-4013-2233-5) this is my second favourite Jamie Oliver cookbook. These brownies are super decadent and are awesome with vanilla ice cream or with some Grand Marnier mixed into the batter. Give them a try and let me know what you think! (I will add photos next time I make them, this post is for a friend, she better enjoy them!)

Ingredients:

• 1 cup and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 7oz best-quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
• 3/4 cup cocoa powder, sifted
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-3/4 cup superfine sugar
• 4 large eggs
• optional: zest of one orange, 2-1/2oz dried sour cherries, 1-1/3oz chopped nuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, line a 12 inch baking pan with wax paper.
2. In a double boiler melt chocolate and butter together until smooth.
3. Add cherries and/or nuts if using them
4. In a separate bowl mix cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and then sugar. Add to melted chocolate.
5. Beat eggs and mix until you have a silky consistency.
6. Pour into baking pan and bake for about 25 minutes. Until outside is slightly springy.
7. Allow to cool before removing from pan.
8. Serve and enjoy!

(goes well with orange zest and crème fraiche)

Jamie Oliver’s TED Talk

Hi everyone!

Sorry its been a while since I have posted anything. Its been really busy with exams and the million of other things that I am a part of! There will be lots of new posts coming up as I am going to be cooking supper for my family everyday next week! I will take pictures and share recipes and reactions from the family.

Until then I wanted to share this video with you guys. I must admit I am already a fan of Jamie Oliver, I have 3 of his cookbooks and do enjoy some of his shows. Some may criticize him but I think he is doing a hell of a job! This video is from his presentation TED2010. (TED is an organization that brings together influential thinkers in different fields and spread new and inovative ideas, it’s really cool! Check out their website at www.ted.com) The video is all about how Jamie wants us to start a food revolution to change the way we eat, especially in schools!

After my exams are done I would love to try an experiment. I will post a recipe and teach it to 3 people. I would love for you to take the recipe and teach it to 3 people. We can see how many people we can teach in a month! Stay tuned for more info on that project!

Anyways I hope you enjoy the video!

Happy Eating!!!