Challenge 27: Appliance cookbook - root vegetable curry

[norfolkian]

Ok, so I interpreted the challenge pretty loosely this week. I didn't get any new appliances for Christmas and I couldn't think of any recipes or cookbooks that I had that came with an appliance (in hindsight I could have used one that came with our breadmaker, but I've made bread in the breadmaker lots of times and wanted to do something different). So, I used this Abel & Cole Veg Box Companion book which came as a free gift back when I was getting Abel & Cole veg boxes for a time. I don't get the veg boxes anymore, but there are some good recipes in here (and I hadn't looked at this book for ages, so this challenge was a good prompt to use a little used cookbook and cook something a bit different!).

My recipe was based on a recipe in the book called Roots Manoeuvre Curry (recipe is also on their website). You can use all sorts of different root veg in this, but here's what I did. (NB, I have a small electric fan-assisted oven - you may need to adjust temps/timings for your particular oven). :)

Serves 2 - 3

Ingredients
Rapeseed oil
2 large parsnips, chopped (2-3cm chunks)
3 medium carrots, chopped (as above)
1 small swede/turnip/rutabaga, chopped (as above)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 small green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced using a garlic press
1 tsp frozen chopped ginger
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
1 heaped tsp ground coriander
1 heaped tsp ground turmeric
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
1 400g tin coconut milk
A couple of handfuls of broccoli florets
Juice of one lime
Salt and pepper (to taste)

Method
1. Pre-heat oven to 200C.
2. Meanwhile add the root veg to a large roasting tin, along with a drizzle of oil and a bit of salt and pepper. Give it all a good mix. Put it in the oven and roast for 35 mins.
3. While the veg is roasting, heat a little oil in a pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook gently for about five to ten minutes until starting to soften. Add the chilli, garlic and ginger and cook for a couple more minutes.
4. Add the spices to the pan, stir well and cook for another minute.
5. Pour in the tomatoes and the coconut milk, stir well, bring briefly to the boil and then turn down to a simmer. Let it simmer for 15 - 20 minutes.
6. Once the root veg has roasted for 35 minutes, take the roasting tin out the oven and carefully pour the sauce over the veg [I say carefully because I managed to burn one of my fingers on the handle of my roasting tin and splash some of the sauce up the wall when I was doing this]. Add in the broccoli florets.
7. Turn the oven down to 180C, return the roasting tin to the oven and cook for 20 minutes.
8. Squeeze in the lime juice at the end of cooking.

I served mine with long grain rice. It was yummy.

Challenge 27 Appliance cookbook - Rice pilaf

[hilarita]

This recipe came with my mother's microwave some time in the mid-1980s. Quite a lot of the rest of the cookbook was horrible - this was the time when microwave sellers were earnestly trying to persuade you that you really could do all your cooking with a microwave and they were so, so wrong - but this recipe has survived unscathed. I have never tried to adapt this for the microwaveless. It's a one-dish meal, and feeds 3-4, depending on how hungry they are. It can optionally be made vegetarian, though if you were doing it as a main meal you might want to consider adding some protein.

Ingredients

1 onion

150g mushrooms

2 sticks celery

1 pepper

25g butter

300ml hot water

75g rice

1 stock cube

(optional) 1 cooked chicken breast

Pans & Oven:

1 large pyrex dish (3–4 litres)

a microwave (times are optimised for around 750 watts)

Instructions:

Chop the onion, celery, and pepper. Put them and the butter into the dish,
and microwave on HIGH for 3–5 minutes.

Chop other ingredients, and add everything except the optional chicken to
the dish. Mix and cover.

Microwave for 5 minutes on HIGH, then 10–12 minutes on MEDIUM, until
the liquid is absorbed. Let it stand for 5 minutes.

Cooker appliance challenge: Bread Maker Brioche

[tree_and_leaf]

I have a bread maker. I'm never sure if I'm entirely convinced by bread maker bread - but I am convinced by this recipe for brioche, which came with it.

Ingredients:
1 egg, beaten into a measuring jug. I like to use a large one, but it doesn't entirely matter because the next ingredient is
Milk, added to bring the total liquid up to 190 ml. I use semi skimmed and the brioche still seems fairly rich. I have never tried substituting oat or almond milk, but I don't see why it wouldn't work if you want to avoid lactose.
80g melted butter (non dairy substitutes should also work).
1 tsp salt.
30g sugar.
350g strong/ bread flour.
1.5 tsp dried yeast.

Pans, etc:
Predictably, you need a bread maker. This is for a 1lb size machine.
You also need a measuring jug, a scale and a bowl to measure in, and some way of melting the butter (microwave or stove).

Add the ingredients to your bread maker in the order given here.* Scatter in the sugar and flour gently a bit at a time, so that it at least partly floats on the liquid. Make a hole for the yeast in the flour - preferably at the opposite end of the bread maker to the salt and add.

Bake on the sweet bread programme. Slice and serve with the jam or jelly of your choice.

* Caveat: I believe some bread makers say add the wet ingredients last. If yours does, reverse the oder given here.