ilovemealplans.com

Since receiving this book to review my thoughts have been on a rollercoaster, up and down, up and down. Firstly, I loved the photography and the whole vibe of the book; page after page of delicious recipes, I didn’t know which to try first. Next, I felt worried, where would I get all the ingredients? I’ve looked locally for tamarind paste before to no avail, but what about pigeon peas and what is panch phoran? Was this book really for a housewife from the suburbs?

Then, when I actually got down to the cooking I found there were plenty of recipes I could try, with all the ingredients listed to be found locally. Now, with the cooking completed and my meal eaten I’m feeling really proud of myself. I’ve cooked yummy naan, for the first time ever, my rice was better than it’s been in months and my two year old son ate all of his creamy almond vegetable curry!  This is a book I will not be leaving on the shelf, but tackling head on – finding ways I can get these recipes onto my weekly meal plans.

Best of all my husband was really chuffed with the book. He suggested (with no hints from me) that he could regularly cook his own “fakeaway” on a Saturday night for us, and true to his word last Saturday he cooked Lamb Roganjosh. Just like me my husband felt an immense sense of achievement after putting together his meal with rice and his own chapatis. It was delicious. If this book gets your partner cooking your Saturday dinner, and excited about doing it, then you can’t find a better reason than that to buy I Love Curry.

You can see the pictures of the meals we cooked below and, with kind permission by Quadrille, the naan recipe (in my own words) is included – you have to try it, so quick, so tasty!

Instant Naan:

Ingredients:

• 300g plain four, plus more to dust
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tsp sugar
• 4 tbsp milk
• 4 tbsp plain yogurt
• 15g butter melted, plus more for brushing

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to its highest setting (usually 275°C).
2. Place a baking tray on the top shelf to heat.
3. Mix together the dry ingredients, make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients with 85-90ml of water and bring together with your hands to make a dough. Kneed until smooth.
4. Pull pieces off of the dough and roll into approx 0.75cm  thick naan breads (trying to make characteristic teardrop shapes), use extra flour on hands and surface to prevent dough sticking. You should be able to make approx 6 medium naan.
5. Place on a baking tray (you may need to do this in two batches), pop into the oven for approx 2-4 mins or until there are golden spots on the surface of the naan.
6. Brush with extra melted butter and serve hot.

Top tip – You can add flavour to your naan by adding extra ingredients at the dry stage, I added 1 tsp of dried coriander, but you could add any ground spices or fresh herbs you like.

Earlier this year, when staying at our family cottage in Norfolk, we visited the local church’s Flower Festival. I’m not sure if a Flower Festival is an English tradition or whether other countries have a similar events; but here in the UK many churches have an open weekend with beautiful flower displays for visitors to enjoy.

Where I live I see less and less Flower Festivals, but out in the countryside these events are still going on at smaller parish churches and they are a fantastic celebration of the beautiful flowers that we have from Spring to Summer. Often these events also coincide with raising money for charity. At our North Norfolk village the festival was beautiful and I wanted to share these photos with you. Enjoy!

This week George and I hosted a tea party; a tea party for his teddy bears. Four teddies were invited and much time was spent finding a collection of toy cups, saucers and plates. George made an excellent waiter and enjoyed trying out the plastic cakes! Here are the pictures:

My big brother Matthew cooked this meal for my family a couple of months ago. It was the first time we had all eaten gnocchi, but Matt is a big fan of it since he visited Italy earlier this year. He loves to cook gnocchi not only because it is delicious, but he can buy a prepared packet cheaply and it only takes 3 minutes to cook!

Since Matt introduced us to gnocchi I found out you can serve it with a wide variety of sauces and have been trying them out at  home for a speedy supper. Matt cooked his gnocchi with a ragu sauce roughly the same as my recipe below.

Matt is one of the biggest supporters of my blog. This week, as if he doesn’t do enough for me, he visited, played with my son, and cleaned George’s playroom carpet with a steam cleaner for me – now wouldn’t everyone want a brother like him?!!!

Here’s the recipe:

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 500g pack gnocchi (2 packs if you are extra hungry)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 2 tsp mixed herbs
• 1 tsp oregano
• ground black pepper
• 1 tsp worcestershire sauce
• 500g steak mince
• 2 tsp tomato puree
• 1 tub passata (500g)
• (optional – 1 glass red wine)

Method:

1. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add all ingredients except the passata and cook for roughly 3-5 mins or until soft.
2. Add steak mince and fry until browned.
3. Add passata (wine if using) to frying pan, simmer for 15-20 mins.
4. Serve on gnocchi with ground pepper.

Our campervan has been off the road for about 3 years and last week we finally got it serviced, taxed and working again! However, on the night we had to pick it up from the garage the traffic was terrible; when we got home I didn’t have time to cook my planned meal before my little boy’s dinner time, so I improvised and made up this Garden Pasta. Basically I knew anything with olives would be a big hit with George, he may be only 2 but he loves olives! The meal turned out to be a huge hit with us all and got George eating lots of vegetables. Try this recipe out, it is super healthy, super quick, super colourful and super tasty.

Ingredients:

Serves 2-3

• 75g spaghetti per person
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 sliced garlic clove
• 1 sliced courgette
• 1 sliced yellow or orange pepper
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• 1 tsp fresh or dried oregano
• ground black pepper
• 50g halved cherry tomatoes
• 50g sliced green olives
• fresh grated Parmesan
• handful chopped parsley

Method:

1. Cook spaghetti according to instructions on packet.
2. Heat oil in a large frying pan, add courgettes and peppers, cook on a medium heat for approx 5 mins.
3. Add herbs and ground pepper (as much as you like) to frying pan, turn heat down and place a lid on, cook for a further 2-3 mins on a low heat.
4. Add olives and cherry tomatoes to the pan, stir, and replace lid for a further 2 mins.
5. Pour cooked and drained pasta to the frying pan, mix well.
6. Top with plenty of grated Parmesan and chopped parsley.

Our campervan; three years on our driveway; needs a lot of work; mobile kitchen. Excuse my hat, but the aviator is in this year!

My 2 year old and I made Daddy a pizza. He came home from work to a delicious pizza we had made from scratch. Dinner was made and my son was entertained at the same time! Normally I try to make dinner while he hangs on my leg, or shouts for me to play with him; sometimes he tries to help, but there isn’t always something he can do. When we made this pizza he was kept busy and useful; we are having pizza for dinner more often!

One reason that this pizza recipe is so good for kids is that it does not use yeast. Yeast requires the dough to rise which means waiting time, something kids are not good at. It is also important to control any spillage of yeast or it can grow (and smell!) on your kitchen surfaces; since cooking with kids always creates a lot of mess it is best to use a yeast free recipe. The final point to consider is that kids put things in their mouths and putting a spoon covered in dough containing raw yeast is not a good idea! Anyway I’m a bit fussy when it comes to yeast, I think it is over used and put in unnecessary products – you can even find it in crisps! Too much of anything is not good for you, but I stop here as my husband says this subject is boring!

Moving on, the other plus side to this homemade pizza is that by making it yourself pizza becomes the healthy option. So often shop bought or delivered pizzas have too many calories, hidden salt and sugar, but when you make it yourself you know exactly what the ingredients are.

Here is my extremely easy recipe:

Serves 4 for dinner (with a salad)

Ingredients:

• 10 oz self-rising flour (sifted)*
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 200ml warm water
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 250g passata
• 1 ball mozzarella (or 2 if you like cheese!)
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp dried mixed herbs
• toppings of your choice (egg, ham, olives, chorizo, spinach, peppers)
• greased large rectangular baking tray

Method:

1. In a large bowl mix flour, baking powder, water and oil until a smooth dough is formed.
2. Make dough into a ball and place on a clean floured surface; using a rolling pin roll dough into a rectangle.
3. Lift dough onto baking tray and stretch to fit the whole of the tray, push dough into corners to make a thicker crust.
4. Spread passata onto pizza base using the back of a spoon.
5. Add sliced mozzarella evenly over the pizza, add herbs and toppings**.
6. Cook in a pre-heated over at 180°c for 25 minutes.

*Add a pinch of salt to the dough mixture if you wish.

**If you wish to use eggs as a topping as I did they should not be placed onto the pizza until later. Cook the pizza until there is 5 minutes remaining and then crack the eggs onto the pizza to cook.

Recently it has been all about blackberries in our household. My little boy loves them; he is surprisingly good at spotting even the smallest blackberry patch and despite the thorns he is able to pick them himself. Every walk we go on he is looking out for blackberries! I’m pleased he likes them as they are packed full of vitamin C. In fact, this blog is inspired entirely by my boy, who suggested to his Nanny and I that blackberries and ice cream would be a good idea, we were suitably impressed – 2 years old and a chef in the making. His first own contribution to my blog.

If you want to have some fruit for free use blackberries, they are growing everywhere at the moment. If you do get out and pick some here are some ideas for your blackberries:

1. Heat blackberries with a few teaspoons of water and sugar in a saucepan til soft, pour over ice cream.
2. Add berries to breakfast cereal.
3. Make blackberry jam.
4. Stew apples and blackberries in a saucepan, add custard to make delicious fruit fool.
5. Mock Trifle - this recipe of mine combines chocolate and blackberries.
6. Cook rich meat such as duck or venison and add blackberries to the pan with red wine for a delicious sauce.
7. Add berries to both plain and fruit yogurt to add some extra vitamins.
8. Use blackberries to top a pavlova.
9. Blackberries are great added to a pear or apple crumble.
10. Whiz blackberries in a blender with yogurt and milk to make a smoothie.

Following on from my cupcake blog I thought I’d show a couple of pictures of our decorations. We hung pictures in our apple tree, my husband made a station sign for our front door, we had Thomas music and a Thomas cake. Our Thomas cake was a homemade marble cake and featured Thomas’ face which was made using icing sugar, cocoa powder, edible glitter and a stencil. I had ordered a printed sugar paper topper for our cake which featured three trains, but just before the cake was to be served we found it totally ruined! We had to peel it off and think fast to turn disaster into a triumph! I love stenciling using icing sugar and the edible glitter I had used for my cupcakes added something extra!

My baby boy turns 2 this week and we threw him a party. He is totally Thomas the Tank Engine mad and so it wasn’t hard to choose a theme. I went cupcake crazy and made 40 Thomas cupcakes which went down a storm with both children and adults! They were totally delicious partly due to the vanilla sugar and partly due to the sweet cream cheese topping. I made a mixture of vanilla and chocolate cupcakes with both plain cream cheese icing and cream cheese/chocolate icing. Now how to make cupcakes Thomas themed? Well, first I found some Thomas rice paper toppers on ebay so that was easy, but I wanted to do something more. Then I found Thomas silicone ice cube trays and was able to use these to make Thomas chocolate shapes to top the cakes! Here are the pictures and the recipe:

Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes

Ingredients:

Makes roughly 20 cupcakes

• 8oz unsalted butter
• 80z sifted vanilla caster sugar (make this by storing caster sugar for several days with a vanilla pod to infuse)
• 80z sifted self-rising flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 4 large free range eggs
• 2 tsp milk
• 1 tbsp coca powder
• 1 tbsp drinking chocolate powder

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°c.
2. Make sure butter is soft and, in a large bowl, mix well with caster sugar until smooth.
3. Add half the flour, all the baking powder, and 2 eggs to the bowl, fold in gradually and gently.
4. Add the rest of the flour, eggs and milk, fold in gently.
5. Test mixture, it should drop easily from your spoon, if it is sloppy add a tbsp more flour, if it is too thick add a tsp more milk.
6. Be gently with your mixture and fold gently this will keep air in the mixture.
7. Spoon half the mixture into cupcake cases, fill each case no more than half full or they will rise too high to ice easily.
8. Gently fold cocoa powder and drinking chocolate into remaining mixture and then spoon into remaining cases, again only fill cases half full.
9. Bake cakes for anywhere between 15-25 minutes this will depend on your oven*.

*A fan oven will cook cakes more evenly and quicker, but all ovens vary and you must check your cakes after 15 minutes. Try to check the cakes through the glass of the oven door (if you have a glass front) if you open the oven too early it will change the temperature and can effect how they rise. When you think the cakes have risen open the oven and test the cakes by pushing a skewer into one, if it comes out clean without any wet mixture then they should be ready – see the photograph below for the cakes straight out of the oven.

Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes

Icing:

Ingredients:

• 500g full fat cream cheese
• 12 oz sifted icing sugar
• 100g dark or milk chocolate

Method:

1. Mix cream cheese and icing sugar well**.
2. Pipe half the icing onto a variety of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes.
3. Melt chocolate and pour into remaining icing, mix well.
4. Pipe chocolate icing onto remaining cupcakes.

** Full fat cream cheese is needed as low fat will not keep its shape when piping.

Thomas Chocolate Shapes:

To make these shapes buy silicone Thomas ice cube trays available online. Melt chocolate and pour into moulds, cover the ice cube tray with cling film and place in the freeze over night. Pop out Thomas chocolates and make another batch. Place on top of the iced cupcakes.

Cupcake Stand:

Inspired by Annies-eats.com I made my own cupcake stand. It is really easy to make and you can read all the instructions on Annie’s blog, but I made it even easier by using some old cake board instead of starting from scratch.

My beautiful boy turns 2.

Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes

Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes

Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes Thomas the Tank cupcakes Thomas the Tank Cupcakes

Next week is my little boy’s 2nd birthday party and I’ve been planning to make some fancy cupcakes. However, I’ve never used a proper piping bag before and I’ve been watching youtube videos to teach myself how to pipe icing!
Here is one of the videos I found, great fun and helpful too: