Sherried Pork Chops

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Ingredients

  • 5 large chump chops

  • ½ cup dry sherry

  • ¼ cup honey

  • 2 teaspoons oil

  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice

  • Salt to taste

  • ½ teaspoon dried rosemary

  • 1 clove garlic, crushed

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Directions

  • Put chops into a bowl, add sherry, honey oil and lemon juice
  • Mix together, then salt rosemary and garlic
  • Let marinate for at least 3 hours turning occasionally
  • Drain, put into a greased baking dish and cook in a moderate oven basting frequently with rest of marinade until tender

Grandma’s Curried Sausage

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Ingredients

  • 500g Sausage

  • 50g Butter

  • 1 Apple

  • 1 Onion

  • 1 Tablespoon Curry Powder, at least

  • 1 Tablespoon Plain Flour

  • 1 Teaspoon Salt

  • 500ml Stock

  • Squeeze Lemon Juice

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Directions

  • Place sausages in warm water, cover
  • Bring to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes, drain
  • Peel and slice onion and apple
  • Heat the butter, add chopped onion and apple, fry until golden brown
  • Add curry powder, flour and salt
  • Fry gently for a few minutes
  • Remove from heat and gradually add stock and stir gently until the sauce thickens
  • Add sliced sausages, simmer for 15 minutes
  • Add lemon juice and serve with rice

Cheese Ball

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Ingredients

  • 125g Cream Cheese

  • 125g Extra Tasy Cracker Barrel Cheese, Grated

  • 125g Tasty Cheese, Grated

  • 1 Onion, Finely Chopped

  • ¼ Red Pepper, Finely Chopped

  • 1½ Tablespoons Cherkin Spread

  • 1 Tablespoon Curry Powder

  • 1 Tablespoon Paprika

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Directions

  • Mix Cheeses together
  • Add Onion, Red Pepper and Gherkin Spread and combine
  • Roll into a ball and sprinkle with Curry Powder and Paprika to cover the whole ball
  • Wrap in foil and refridgerate

Butter Chicken

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Ingredients

  • 1 14- ounce Canned Tomatoes

  • 5-6 cloves Garlic

  • 1-2 teaspoons Minced Ginger

  • 1 teaspoon Turmeric

  • 1/2 teaspoons Cayenne Pepper

  • 1 teaspoon Smoked Paprika

  • 1 teaspoon Kosher Salt

  • 1 teaspoon Garam Masala

  • 1 teaspoon Ground Cumin

  • 1 pound Boneless Skinless Chicken Thighs

  • To FInish

  • 4 ounces butter cut into cubes

  • 4 ounces Heavy Cream or Full-fat coconut milk

  • 1 teaspoon Garam Masala

  • 1/4-1/2 cup chopped cilantro

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Directions

  • Place all ingredients into an Instant Pot in the order listed, EXCEPT for the butter, cream and 1 teaspoon of the garam masala, mixing the sauce well before you place the chicken on top of the sauce. If it’s frozen, push it into the sauce a bit so it defrosts better
  • Close the cooker and set for 10 mins on high, and let it release pressure naturally for 10 minutes. After that, release all remaining pressure.
  • Open up the pot and remove the chicken carefully and set aside
  • Blend together all the ingredients, preferably using an immersion blender
  • Add the cut up butter, cream, cilantro, and garam masala and stir until well incorporated.
  • It’s best to let the sauce cool just a little before adding the butter and the cream. Adding it into the boiling sauce will make your sauce very thin. If that happens, just put it in the fridge for a little and let it thicken up. It should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon
  • Take out half the sauce and freeze for later or store in the fridge for 2-3 days
  • Add the chicken back in and heat through. Break it up into smaller pieces if you need but don’t shred it.
  • Serve over rice, or zucchini noodles

Pumpkin, Chickpea, and Red Lentil Curry

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Ingredients

  • 2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas (drianed)

  • 1 medium yellow onion (diced)

  • 2 medium cloves garlic (minced)

  • 2 cups low-sodium vegetable broth

  • 1 cup split red lentils (rinsed)

  • 1 cup pumpkin puree

  • 1 tablespoon curry powder

  • 1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper

  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt

  • 1 (15-ounce) can coconut milk

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Directions

  • Add all ingredients except the coconut milk to a 3-quart or larger slow cooker. Cook on low 8-10 hours or in high 5-6 hours.
  • Stir in the coconut milk and cook on low for another 30 minutes. (The curry will be a bit thin at first; it thickens up as it sits.)
  • Scoop over rice and serve with cilantro and fresh lime wedges to squeeze over the top.

Pumpkin Curry

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Ingredients

  • 600 grams Pumpkin about 4 cups cut pieces

  • 1 tbsp Oil

  • ½ tsp Cumin seeds

  • 1 Green Chili Pepper slit (optional)

  • ½ tbsp Ginger minced

  • ½ tbsp Garlic minced

  • 1 Onion diced

  • 1 Tomato chopped

  • ¼ cup Water

  • 2 tsp Lemon juice

  • ½ tsp Sugar adjust to taste

  • Spices

  • ¼ tsp Ground Turmeric

  • 2 tsp Coriander powder

  • ¼ tsp Cayenne or Red chili powder (optional)

  • ¼ tsp Garam Masala

  • 1 tsp Salt adjust to taste

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Directions

  • Start the instant pot in SAUTE mode and heat oil in it.  Add cumin seeds and saute for 30 seconds.
  • Add green chili, onions, ginger and garlic paste and saute for 2 minutes.
  • Add tomatoes and spices. 
  • Add cut pumpkin pieces and water.  Mix well.  Press Cancel and close the instant pot lid with vent in sealing position. 
  • Set instant pot to MANUAL or pressure cook for 5 minutes at high pressure. When the instant pot beeps, do a quick pressure release manually.
  • Add lemon juice, sugar and mix with the pumpkin.  You can eat this curry as is or mash some of the cooked pumpkin pieces with a masher in the pot.
  • If you prefer a dry consistency, change setting to SAUTE mode and cook for couple of minutes.
  • Garnish with cilantro and pumpkin curry is ready to be enjoyed with parathas or naan.

Potatoes (pressure cooker)

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup water

  • 1kg potatoes, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks

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Directions

  • Pour the water into the inner pot of the pressure cooker. Put the potatoes in the steamer basket, then lower it into the pot.
  • Secure the lid on the pressure cooker and make sure it’s set to its “sealing” position. Select the “Steam” or “Manual” setting, and set the cooking time to 3 minutes at high pressure. (The pot will take about 10 minutes to come up to pressure.)
  • When the cooking program finishes, perform a quick pressure release by moving the pressure vent to its “venting” position.
  • When the pressure has fully released, open the pot. Use a pair of heat-safe mitts to remove the steamer basket of potatoes.

Fresh Egg Pasta

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Ingredients

  • 6 large free-range eggs

  • 600 g Tipo ’00’ flour

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Directions

  • Place the flour on a board or in a bowl. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs into it. Beat the eggs with a fork until smooth.
  • Using the tips of your fingers, mix the eggs with the flour, incorporating a little at a time, until everything is combined.
  • Knead the pieces of dough together – with a bit of work and some love and attention they’ll all bind together to give you one big, smooth lump of dough!
  • You can also make your dough in a food processor if you’ve got one. Just bung everything in, whiz until the flour looks like breadcrumbs, then tip the mixture on to your work surface and bring the dough together into one lump, using your hands.
  • Once you’ve made your dough you need to knead and work it with your hands to develop the gluten in the flour, otherwise your pasta will be flabby and soft when you cook it, instead of springy and al dente.
  • There’s no secret to kneading. You just have to bash the dough about a bit with your hands, squashing it into the table, reshaping it, pulling it, stretching it, squashing it again. It’s quite hard work, and after a few minutes it’s easy to see why the average Italian grandmother has arms like Frank Bruno! You’ll know when to stop – it’s when your pasta starts to feel smooth and silky instead of rough and floury.
  • Then all you need to do is wrap it in cling film and put it in the fridge to rest for at least half an hour before you use it. Make sure the cling film covers it well or it will dry out and go crusty round the edges (this will give you crusty lumps through your pasta when you roll it out, and nobody likes crusty lumps!).
  • How to roll your pasta:
    First of all, if you haven’t got a pasta machine it’s not the end of the world! All the mammas I met while travelling round Italy rolled pasta with their trusty rolling pins and they wouldn’t even consider having a pasta machine in the house! When it comes to rolling, the main problem you’ll have is getting the pasta thin enough to work with. It’s quite difficult to get a big lump of dough rolled out in one piece, and you need a very long rolling pin to do the job properly. The way around this is to roll lots of small pieces of pasta rather than a few big ones. You’ll be rolling your pasta into a more circular shape than the long rectangular shapes you’ll get from a machine, but use your head and you’ll be all right!
  • If using a machine to roll your pasta, make sure it’s clamped firmly to a clean work surface before you start (use the longest available work surface you have). If your surface is cluttered with bits of paper, the kettle, the bread bin, the kids’ homework and stuff like that, shift all this out of the way for the time being. It won’t take a minute, and starting with a clear space to work in will make things much easier, I promise.
  • Dust your work surface with some Tipo ‘00’ flour, take a lump of pasta dough the size of a large orange and press it out flat with your fingertips. Set the pasta machine at its widest setting – and roll the lump of pasta dough through it. Lightly dust the pasta with flour if it sticks at all.
  • Click the machine down a setting and roll the pasta dough through again. Fold the pasta in half, click the pasta machine back up to the widest setting and roll the dough through again. Repeat this process five or six times. It might seem like you’re getting nowhere, but in fact you’re working the dough, and once you’ve folded it and fed it through the rollers a few times, you’ll feel the difference. It’ll be smooth as silk and this means you’re making wicked pasta!
  • Now it’s time to roll the dough out properly, working it through all the settings on the machine, from the widest down to around the narrowest. Lightly dust both sides of the pasta with a little flour every time you run it through.
  • When you’ve got down to the narrowest setting, to give yourself a tidy sheet of pasta, fold the pasta in half lengthways, then in half again, then in half again once more until you’ve got a square-ish piece of dough. Turn it 90 degrees and feed it through the machine at the widest setting. As you roll it down through the settings for the last time, you should end up with a lovely rectangular silky sheet of dough with straight sides – just like a real pro! If your dough is a little cracked at the edges, fold it in half just once, click the machine back two settings and feed it through again. That should sort things out.
  • Whether you’re rolling by hand or by machine you’ll need to know when to stop. If you’re making pasta like tagliatelle, lasagne or stracchi you’ll need to roll the pasta down to between the thickness of a beer mat and a playing card; if you’re making a stuffed pasta like ravioli or tortellini, you’ll need to roll it down slightly thinner or to the point where you can clearly see your hand or lines of newsprint through it.
  • Once you’ve rolled your pasta the way you want it, you need to shape or cut it straight away. Pasta dries much quicker than you think, so whatever recipe you’re doing, don’t leave it more than a minute or two before cutting or shaping it. You can lay over a damp clean tea towel which will stop it from drying.