Slow Cooked Beef Curry

This is a lovely curry to have on a cold winters day, you can cook it on the stove top, but I find that putting it in a slow cooker, makes the meat really tender and is perfect to come home to at the end of the day.  Traditionally at home we use tomatoes and red chilli powder and a range of spices as the base of our cooking, this is no different.
This is similar to a "beef madras", with a couple of slightly different ingredients that gives it a slightly milder taste.
Also I have used ready crushed paste of garlic and ginger, for ease of recipe and powdered spices, as the whole idea of my blog is quick. simple and authentic meals.

500g  Diced Beef (Can be bone in)
2-3 medium potatoes peeled and quartered
1 Sliced onion
2-3 tomatoes, roughly chopped
4-5 Tbl  Vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp Ginger & garlic paste
1 Tbl Tomato paste
1 Tsp Cumin powder
11/2 Tsp Coriander powder
1/2 Tsp Tumeric
1 tsp Garam masala
1Tsp Chilli powder
1Tsp Paprika
2cm cinnamon stick
1Tsp salt
Pepper to taste

1. Heat the oil in a saucepan and fry the onions until a golden brown.
2. Add the ginger & garlic and salt and turmeric, cook for 5 min, then add the chopped  tomatoes, tomato paste and all the spices, cook  for a further 8-10 min  on low until the tomato mixture separates from the oil ( this process is important to give it real depth of flavour) add the beef, stirring to coat.
3. At this point, pour the curry into a slow cooker, add the potatoes and 600mls of water
4. Cook on a low setting for  4-5 hours. If you are cooking it on the stove top, after adding the water, bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat to low and cook for about 11/2 hours or until the meat is tender.

Serve with a plain or vegetable pilau rice.

Enjoy!

Till next time, Ashia.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All In The Family

I thoroughly enjoyed working on my food feature for April's issue of NZ House & Garden.
Fantastic food styling by Bernadette Hogg and brilliant photography by Manja Wachsmuth. Great working with you both again!

Well here is the pdf of the article for all my friends and family in the UK and Austrailia, and all you lovely foodies, that visit my blog. Please feel free to share and cook and leave comments, I appreciate all your support.

Enjoy reading my food feature!

Till next time

Ashia

Macchi Fry ( Fish Curry)

Nothing like a fresh fish curry, especially if it's caught by my lovely husband! Graham went out paddling on his sea kayak and caught a lovely big kahawai. So that was going to be dinner, with mum and dad visiting from the UK I thought a fish curry would be ideal. Kahawai is lovely and fleshy and tastes divine in a curry.
With a little help from my lovely mum, we made my mum's gorgeous curry. We used 2 large fillets which were approximately 1kg. You can halve the recipe for 500g.

2 Large fillets of fresh fish ( a fleshy fish is best)
1/2 cup of oil
Juice of half a lemon
2 medium sized onions ( sliced thinly)
6-8 cloves garlic, crushed
21/2 tsp Coriander powder
1 tsp Cumin
1 tsp Salt
3/4 Tsp Turmeric
Pepper to taste
2 tsp chilli powder
1 Cup chopped tomatoes or passatta
1 Tbl Tomato paste
1/2 Tbl Tomato sauce
Small bunch of chopped fresh coriander

1. Cut fish into large chunks, and add the lemon juice and 1/2 tsp of salt, mix well and set aside.
2. Heat oil and fry sliced onions on medium heat until golden brown, remove with a slotted spoon and put aside on a piece of paper towel.
3. Fry the fish pieces in the same oil until golden, set aside.
4. In the same oil, add all the spices and garlic and then the chopped tomato, cook on a low heat for 12-15 min, then add tomato paste, cook for 3 min and then add the tomato sauce, cook for a further 2-3 min then add the fish pieces.
5. Just before serving arrange the fish in a dish, scatter the fried onions on top and garnish with coriander. Best served with Roti or paratha but you can serve it with rice if you wish.

Enjoy!

Ashia

Sugar Puff pastries

My parents are visiting from the UK, and I am loving cooking and trying new recipes with my mum. Some of these bring back memories from my childhood growing up in Malawi.

These scrumptious little pastries are a great accompaniment to ice cream or just served as an afternoon snack.

2 Cups plain flour
1 Cup Sugar
1/2 Tsp baking powder
1 Tbl semolina
1/3 Cup ghee ( or melted butter)
1/2 Cup milk
Oil to fry

1. Heat milk in a pan and add the sugar, stir until melted. Add the ghee/ butter
2. Add the remaining dry ingredients in a mixing bowl, add the liquid mixture to make a soft dough.
3. Divide the dough into 3 balls and roll out into a circular shape approx 22 -24 cm, using a sharp knife cut into diamond shapes
4. Heat oil in a deep pan and fry until golden, when slightly cool, dust with icing sugar.

Divine! These are best eaten on the day.

Enjoy!

Till next time

Ashia

Tuna Fish cakes with dipping sauces

These gorgeous little fish cakes are so simple and perfect for Summer!  Again, as with all my recipes, using simple ingredients, quick and easy from your pantry and fridge.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

These delightful little morsels can be made spicy (using a mixture of green chillis and coriander) or left plain, depending on who you are entertaining. This serves 4-6 people as a main with a salad.

8-10  small/med potatoes - peeled and cut into chunks
11/2 can of tuna (in oil -drained)
1tsp chilli and coriander mix
1/2 lemon juice
salt and pepper
1 Beaten Egg
Breadcrumbs, I use panko.
Oil to fry


1.  Boil and mash the potatoes, don't add milk or butter.
2. In a large bowl, add the mashed potatoes, lemon juice, drained tuna, salt and pepper to taste
3. Grind a hand full of coriander and 2-3 small green chillis into a paste . I usually make quite a lot of this and pop it into the freezer to use in my other recipes.  If you are going to do this, you would need a large bunch of coriander and 8-10 green chillis, once grinded it keeps well in the freezer for about 4-6 weeks, you can put it in an ice cube tray and use as required.  It is quite potent so use cautiously!
4.  Add the chilli and coriander mix to the bowl and mix well.  You can then start shaping them into small patties.
5.  Dip each patty into flour, then the egg and then the breadcrumbs, set aside.
6.  Heat oil in a pan and fry on a medium to high heat, you want a lovely golden colour

Serve with a crunchy green salad or an Asian slaw, and dipping sauces , I had a yoghurt and coriander and a sweet chilli sauce. Perfect for a quick and easy meal.

Enjoy!

Till next time

Ashia

 

 

 

 

 



Summer Berry Tarts

A couple of days before the end of 2014, it's been another busy year, with cooking and writing and having an article published with Taste magazine. And getting ready to write another one for NZ House & Garden, which will be published early next year.

Having realised three years ago that this ( foodie projects) is what i am passionate about doing, it would be amazing to spend all my spare time doing this. Unfortunately, "life" gets in the way, and my foodie plans, made with good intentions go out the window!

I envy people that make a career out of doing something they love, it will happen some day for me, of this I am sure, and don't they say ..... Good things come to those who wait .... I truly believe that.
I do feel blessed though, having my gorgeous family around me for support and encouragement, and my parents and three sisters on the other end of the phone and Skype for advice with food and life in general. Sometimes I do wonder how I cope without my extended family literally on the other side of the world! But with the love and support of my gorgeous kiwi husband and two rapidly growing children (13 & 9) I get through ok.

As I have been a little slack in keeping my blog up to date I felt that now I am relaxed and on holiday in sunny Ohope beach I can post a couple of entries, that have been waiting to be uploaded.

So I decided to end the year with a very easy summer berry tart, which is inspired by a recipe in Taste magazine in the autumn, I used ready made shortcrust pastry ( you can make your own but the emphasis here is easy)

2-3 sheets ready made shortcrust pastry tarts ( I used Edmonds sheet pastry )
500g mixed berries, raspberrys, blueberrys, strawberries, blackberries and cherries ( you can use late summer fruits, peaches, nectarines and even apples and pears
1 Tbls cornflour
1 squeeze of 1/2 a lemon
3/4 cup icing sugar
1 beaten egg
Raw sugar to sprinkle

Pre heat oven to 180
1.Taking each pastry sheet use a 20-22 cm cake tin and cut out a circle.
2. Halve the strawberries and place all the berries in a bowl, add the the other ingredients and mix well.
3.using a slotted spoon scoop the fruit and place in the middle of each circle, place the cherries on top of the fruit leaving the stalks on, try not to get too much of the syrup on the pastry and making sure you leave a 2-3 cm space around the pastry.
4. Gather the pastry in towards the fruit, encasing it, egg wash the tarts and sprinkle sugar.
5. Bake for 25-30 min or until golden

Serve warm or cool with thickened cream or mascarpone, a perfect summer treat.

Well with this easy summer treat, I wish you all a happy and relaxing summer holiday, keep reading and sharing my blog, and in the new year I have plans for a website so all the Instagram, blog and articles can be accessed in one place.

Happy new year!

Enjoy, Ashia .

Gifts from my kitchen

Well, it's been another busy year, I have neglected my blog :-( but still busy cooking and baking and writing.

I was asked again by NZ House & Garden to write another food feature for an issue early next year, so thrilled to be able to do this.

The photo shoot was a couple of weeks ago, and I headed off to Matakana where I met Bernadette Hogg, one of the food writer/ stylist whose work I have admired for many years. It was great to finally meet her, and see her collection of eclectic dishes, platters and props for the various food shoots she has worked on.

I was excited to be involved in the process, the photography was done by Manja Wachsmuth, who did an amazing job, again. We were thrilled with the result, which will be published in the April issue 2015. So watch out for it.

Christmas has been and gone and the run up to it has been busy, as usual, as we prepare for the end of the year and summer holidays. I decided again to do some baked gifts for the children's teachers and some friends.

A lovely shortbread which is so easy to bake, and so traditionally Christmassy. It's one that my mother in law makes, simple with a bit of Christmas sparkle.