Chickpea Fruity Curry

This one is adapted from a Jack Monroe recipe. If you've been in a coma for the last three years and have somehow stumbled on my blog without ever seeing cooking on a bootstrap, you should definitely have a look through Jack's recipes, they are delicious and cheap and the newer ones are all vegetarian/ vegan friendly.

Ingredients 

1 tin chickpeas

1 tin peaches

1 tin chopped tomatoes 

1 handful frozen diced onions

2 teaspoons garlic paste (or 2 cloves of garlic) 

Medium Curry Powder or Garam Masala - just keep adding it until the spirit of an ancient and benevolent chef tells you it's enough. Not all spice blends are creates equal. 

Method

1. Heat the onions in a frying pan over a low heat. When they look just about defrosted, add the garlic paste and some of your chosen spice blend, keep it on a low heat, you don't want the onions to brown. 

2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and pop them in boiling water to soften them a little. 

3. Drain the peaches, keeping the juice for the sauce later. Chop them into chunks, the size is up to you, I went for about 1 inch chunks. 

4. Add the peaches, peach juice, chickpeas and chopped tomatoes to the spiced onion mix. At this point I added about a teaspoon of curry powder because I tasted it and the flavours weren't quite where I wanted them to be, I recommend tasting at this point, but remember that the flavours are going to develop and intensify as you simmer it for at least half an hour and the liquid reduces. I added a cup of water half way through as the sauce was a little too thick, and then I let it thicken again.

I served this with turmeric rice with raisins I'd soaked in apple juice overnight, it made for a perfect sweet and savory, fruity and spicy meal that I'm sure I'm going to make again and again.. Maybe with spinach next time. 

Pork and Chestnut Stuffed Mushrooms

I forgot to take a photo of these before I boxed them up for the week so I'll try and remember to get one next time, and for now you'll just have to trust me that they look delicious!

Ingredients 

6 Breakfast or Portabello Mushrooms, the bigger the better

1 pack sausages - any type will do, I got some low fat pork ones, I tend to avoid heavily flavoured ones since we're going to add our own flavours

2 teaspoons dried thyme

2 teaspoons garlic paste or finely chopped garlic

1 vacuum pack of chestnuts

Olive oil or butter, fry light at a push but it's not the same! 

Optional - breadcrumbs and cheese to top

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and pop them in a roasting tin. 

2. Drizzle a little oil or butter over the mushrooms and sprinkle some dried thyme over each one. 

3. Pop the mushrooms in the oven for about 10 minutes while you prep the stuffing. 

4. Cut the cases off the sausages and put the meat in a bowl. 

5. Roughly chop the chestnuts, you can make them as chunky or as fine as you prefer, I normally make them about the size of my little fingernail so they have a little bite. 

6. Add chestnuts, garlic paste, salt and pepper to the sausage meat and mix it until it's roughly evenly distributed. You can add other herbs or spices at this point if you fancy them, or a teaspoon of sugar to add a little caramelisation when they cook. 

7. Scoop the stuffing into the mushrooms and if you're using them, sprinkle the breadcrumbs and/or cheese on top. 

8. Pop them in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the tops are brown.