The Efx3 Recipe Collection

I found a great blog post on cheaphealthygood.blogspot.com about how to use a whole chicken as the base for a week’s worth of meals.  I’ve tried most of them but this is my favourite by far. The recipe is easy and can be made fully vegetarian or with your meat of choice. Just remember to over-season the chickpea/chicken mixture because when you add the yogurt it’ll dilute any seasoning (and heat!).

Instructions below with my additions in italics.

Cook’s Illustrated’s Chicken Curry in a Hurry

Serves 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium onion, sliced thin
1/2 to 1 tablespoon curry powder (or to taste; mine is mild so I use about 2 tbsp)
Salt (I omit the salt since the stock has lots of salt in it)
4 garlic cloves, minced (optional, I hate chopping garlic so I skip it)
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
½ cup water (or vegetable/chicken/beef stock)
2 cups shredded of thinly sliced cooked chicken
1 (15-ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen peas (I don’t like peas)
1/4 cup raisins (or raisins)
1/2 cup plain  yogurt
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro (I didn’t bother with this either)

1. BUILD CURRY BASE: Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion, curry powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook until onion is browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Stir in garlic and ginger and cook until fragrant, about 30 seconds.

2. ADD WATER, MEAT, VEGETABLES, AND COOK: Stir in water, meat, chickpeas, peas, and raisins. Cook, stirring frequently, until heated through, 3 to 5 minutes.

3. GARNISH AND SERVE: Off heat, stir in yogurt and cilantro and serve. Over brown rice is a good option. (I’ve also served it over couscous and it’s delicious!)

———————-

Enjoy! I know I do ^_^

We don’t have US-style biscuits in the UK; closest thing is savoury scones. I made soup a few days back, veggies with barley and lentils, and had some left over and decided I’d like to make American biscuits to go with it. Found a promising recipe, tried it, and they came out fantastic.

Ingredients:

2.5 cups all-purpose flour

2.5tsp baking powder

0.5tsp salt

1/2 cup butter

3/4 cup milk

1 large egg

Preheat the oven to 205C and line a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

Method:

Sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. I used self-raising flour so only added 2 level teaspoons of baking powder.

Cut or rub in the butter (I used salted, either works) until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. The butter has to be very cold for this, and if you’re rubbing it in, your hands must be cold too.

Add the milk and the beaten egg and stir either with a metal spoon or a knife until the mix is sticky, moist and lumpy.

Knead the mixture only enough to bind it. If you knead it too much the biscuits won’t rise as well.

Roll it out to around half an inch thick and cut with a cup/glass/cookie-cutter into circles. Try not to twist the cutter – this pinches the edges together and you’ll get flatter biscuits.

Brush the tops with a little milk and pop them in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until the tops are golden and a toothpick comes out  clean.

Nom!

I wanted to make oat biscuits and perused a few recipes before I found this one. It’s absolutely amazing – I demand that as soon as you finish reading this recipe you scurry off to the kitchen to make a batch.

Prep time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup oats

1tsb honey or golden syrup

4pz salted butter

3oz brown sugar (I used caramel sugar, I imagine any light brown sugar will be good)

1/2 tsp baking powder

4oz self-raising flour

Vanilla essence

Method:

Cream the butter and sugar until soft and well mixed. Add the honey/syrup (melt in 1tsp water if it’s very thick) and a couple of drops of vanilla essence.

Slice in the flour, baking powder and oats until well mixed.

Gather walnut-sized balls of the mix in your hands, press together until the mix holds firm and place on a greased or lined baking tray. Makes ~10 depending on the size of your balls. *cough* You can squish them flatter if you like thin biscuits, but they do spread out when cooked.

Cook at around 160C for 15 minutes.

500g lean steak, cut into chunks

1 yellow pepper, chopped

1 medium to lge onion, chopped

2 teaspoons wholegrain mustard

1 slice white bread, crusts removed

pinch of salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper (or seasoning to taste)

method.

blitz everything in a food processor until very fine, shape into around 8 burgers, depending on how thick you like them, then chill for at least 30 mins.

grill under a hot grill for a few minutes on eavh side untill cooked through, again depending on how thick you like them, and according to taste.

Serve in buns with salad and mayo

This is a recipe for fairly easy homemade bread,  I didn’t write the original recipe(that can be found here) but I have altered it to my tastes.

Read more »