Enough with the mushy red food!

[highlyeccentric]

Of late, due to poverty in both money and time, I've been eating an awful lot of tomato-based batch food. This week I hit overdose, and came up with some alternative plans. Tonight's experiment foods both have msjackmonroe recipes somewhere in their ancestry.

Mango and Eggplant Curry

Concocted using Jack's Jardaloo Ma Murghi (which produces delightful, but tomato-based, mango variants) and this mango chicken recipe.


This recipe involves: chopping things, working over a hot pan. Two pans, assuming you cook rice on the side.
This recipe is: vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, dairy free, egg-free, nut-free - assuming you check your canned ingredients first.



3 tbsp at least of vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Mustard seeds
Ginger powder (damnit, I forgot that bit)
Cumin, chilli, coriander and cinnamon powders in about equal pinches (no more than 1 tsp for any of them? Adjust according to heat of your chilli)
Dash of lemon juice
300 ml coconut milk (I used coconut cream powder, and made it up 1 pack / 300 ml instead of 1/200)
1 capsicum (bell pepper)
1 can of mangoes, with canning juice (if i could afford fresh mangoes i would be eating them with ice cream, not curry)
1 can chickpeas, drained
About 1/2 cup sultanas

1. Heat oil, fry onion, garlic and mustard seeds for a few minutes. Add eggplant and capsicum, stir-fry until soft. You may have to add more oil, eggplant absorbs oil like it's going out of style.
2. Add remaining spices and stir through to coat veg.
3. Tip in the mangoes, juice, and coconut milk. Simmer for about 15 min.
4. Toward the end, add chickpeas, sultanas and lemon juice.

Test; if too sweet, add more lemon juice or season with salt or pepper. Serve with rice. If I was feeling super fancy, I'd serve on top of mustard potatoes instead of rice (simple: par-cook potatoes in small chunks. Dry-fry mustard and cumin seeds until they pop. Add a splash of oil and fry with potatoes. Nom).

I originally decided against the chickpeas - the dish looked hearty enough without them! Having eaten a bowl, though, it was too fruity, and needed something more savoury to balance it out, so I added a can to the pot that was still on the stove.

And, carrying on with the theme of What to do with leftover fruit, I present:

Apple and Sultana Soda Bread

This is a pretty straightforward variation on Jack's Bramley Apple Soda Bread.



This recipe does NOT require: kneading, multiple bowls, or heavy mixing
This recipe does require: Putting stuff in and out of the oven
This recipe is: yeast-free, egg-free
This recipe could be: vegan, gluten free - see Jack's recommended variations.


1 large apple
200 grams of flour (any flour you have to hand, according to Jack; I had boring white plain flour)
1 tsp bi-carb soda
200 ml milk
Dash of lemon juice
1/2 cup sultanas
Pinch of cinnamon

1. Mix together milk and lemon juice, leave to stand
2. Dice the apple (smallish. I made my chunks too large...)
3. Mix together flour and bicarb, then add fruit and cinnamon.
4. Pour in the soured milk and mix well.
5. Grease a bread tin*, pour in the mixture and flatten gently. Bake for about 40 min at 180 degrees.

Note: the mixture looks like cake batter, not bread dough, and you test it as you would a cake for cooked-ness.

I think next time I will scatter brown sugar on the top for a caramelised crust effect.

* I seem to have purchased an EXTENDABLE BREAD TIN. I cooked this at 22cm long - i could've had any of about six settings between 20 and 30cm. It made it super easy to turn out - i turned it upside down and extended the tin away from the cake!

Comments

[stultiloquentia]

Hi stranger! I just found this post by searching DW for "eggplant curry." Omg my kitchen smells so good right now. Thanks!

[highlyeccentric]

Thank you for reminding me, I'd completely forgotten this recipe!