Koottu

I've made this with raw papaya, chow chow (choyote squash) and a couple of other veggies and it turns out amazing. The first two are my absolute favourites, but I'll happily take any koottu I can get. This recipe is adapted from a bunch of different recipes. This one uses toor dal, since it is my current fave, but I've also made it with chana dal and simple pink masoor.

Ingredients

• Tur daal 1 cup
• Choyote squash 2 medium to big
• Water 2.5 cups
• Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp

For the coconut paste

• Dessicated coconut or fresh/frozen grated coconut 1/2 cup
• Green chillies 2
• Cumin seeds 1 tsp

For the tadka / tempering

• Oil 2 -4 Tbsp  
• Mustard seeds, black 1 tsp
• White urad dal 1tsp
• curry leaves 10-15 
• Dried red chillies (optional)

Method

1. Wash and soak the daal for either 30 minutes at room temp or 15 minutes with hot water
2. Add water, chopped veggies and turmeric powder to a pressure cooker and cook for about 5 whistles
3. Grind the ingredients for the paste into a smooth paste.
4. After the pressure releases, add the paste to the cooked daal+veggie
5. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and the urad daal. When the daal turns light golden and the mustard begins to sputter, add the curry leaves and then turn off the heat and add the red chillies. 
6. Add to the daal+ veggies while still hot. Let the daal boil for a few minutes for the flavours to incorporate.
7. Eat with hot rice or chapati if you're a weirdo like martin. 

Coconut curry (with chicken, pork or fish)

This recipe is adapted from here. I originally made it with chicken but have tried it with pork shoulder and it tastes like it would be amazing with fish as well. I've kept the heat to a minimum by deseeding the dried kashmiri chillis and the result has been a mild and very flavourful curry.

Ingredients

• Chicken 2 kg (or pork, about 1.3-1.5 kg)
• Dried Kashmiri chillies 4-5 
• Peppercorns 16-20 
• Coriander seeds 4 Tbsp
• Fenugreek seeds 1/2 tsp
• Tamarind, (if dried soak in hot water) 2 Tbsp
• Dessiccated coconut 1 cup
• Oil 3 tbsp
• Red onions chopped 4-5 
• Ginger garlic paste 1 tb
• Turmeric
• Green chilly 2 (totally optional)
• Curry leaves (if dried, add 3 times as much) 20 leaves
• Salt
• Coconut milk 1/2 cup

Method

1. Dry roast the red chillies, peppercorns, coriander seeds and fenugreek seeds in a pan. Add them to a grinder jar with the dessicated coconut and add the tamarind water to make a smooth paste. If you don't have ginger-garlic paste, add fresh ginger and garlic at this step.
2. If you are using pork as your protein, cut the pork into 2" pieces and then add to a pressure cooker with salt, pepper, a dash of vinegar and turmeric. Add 2-3 table spoons of water and pressure cook the pork until half done. I used fläskkarré and pressure cooked for 15 minutes after the first whistle. Skip this step if you're using chicken. 
3. Heat oil in a pan and add the curry leaves (And green chillies, if you're using them) and then the chopped onions. Once the onions are well cooked, add turmeric and then the masala paste. 
4. Cook the paste until oil separates and then add the protein on medium heat. Add salt (I add a tsp for every kg, to begin and then adjust to taste at the end).
5.  Leave the dish alone for about 10 minutes and then stir occasionally about every 5 minutes, for a total of 20-25 minutes.
6. Adjust the final consistency with coconut milk, adding more if you want it runnier and less if you want it more dry. Cook with coconut milk for about 5 minutes on low. 
7. Very good with rice and with roti. 

Pulled pork

A simple pressure cooker pulled pork that turned out amazing!

Ingredients

Pork

• Boston butt (fläskkarré) 3lbs
• Salt
• Sugar
• Fennel seeds
• Cumin seeds

BBQ sauce

• 1 medium onion, minced
• 1 cup (250 ml) ketchup
• 1/2 cup (125 ml) beer
• 1/4 cup (60 ml) honey
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons (30 ml) Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon (25 g) brown sugar
• A good dash of soy or coconut aminos

Method

1. Cut the pork in one inch cubes. Add lots of salt and sugar and let it brine for a few hours.
2. Wash off the excess salt and sugar. The pork should now have a beautiful deep red color. Add lots of oil to the cooker and pour in the fennel and cumin seeds. Let them sit until fragrant.
3. Fry off some of the meat to get it nicely maillarded. Don't crowd the pan, you need to get it nice and brown. If you don't feel like frying all of the meat, don't - as long as some of itis browned and blackened you're good.
4. Pour in half of the BBQ sauce and deglaze the pan. The pour in the rest.
5. Dump in the meat, put the lid on and let the pressure build.
6. Let it sit at high pressure for around 40 minutes. Then take it off the heat and let it cool.
7. When the pressure equalizes, take out the meat and shred it. Reduce the sauce down to half.
8. Add sauce to the shredded meat until it tastes amazing. Maybe half of the sauce. Don't overdo it!

EAT IT!!!!!

Milk-free, Egg-free, Soy-free vanilla cake with vanilla frosting

Since we have Milk, Egg and Soy allergies in the family, we've been making a lot of vegan recipes. These taste delicious and work really well. The lack of egg seems to make a difference to the texture, with vegan waffles and pancakes in particular being more brittle than their egg-y counterparts. I've never baked a vegan cake before, and I must confess, based on my experience with eating vegan cakes at cafes, I was expecting either something slightly dry or too wet, viz, I was expecting the result to also have a different texture than regular cake. This cake was NOT at all what I was expecting. I am absolutely amazed by how ridiculously delicious it was. I got the recipe from here and made some modifications.

Cake Ingredients

• 1 + 3/4 cups Flour
• 1 cup Sugar
• 1 tsp Baking Soda
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 1 cup Oatley ikaffe
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/3 cup Vegetable oil
• 1 Tbsp Vinegar (I used white wine vinegar)

Frosting

• 450g Powdered Sugar (I used Florsocker)
• 3 Tbsp Vegan Butter (room temp)
• 4 Tbsp Oatley ikaffe
• 2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Steps

1. Turn on the oven at 180 C.
2. For the cake, sift the flour into a bowl and then add the rest of the dry ingredients-- Sugar, baking soda and salt into the flour
3. Add in all the liquid ingredients at the same time and used the whisk on my standing mixer to blend them all together
4. Grease two round foil pans with coconut oil and then split the batter between them.
5. I baked the cakes for 30 minutes. I tested them to make sure they were cooked through but both times I've made this cake, 30 minutes has been plenty.
6. For the frosting, I just threw all the ingredients into a bowl and then used the whisk on my standing mixer to blend them together. First use the lowest speed and then and then crank it up. 
7. Make sure the butter is completely blended.
8. Once the cake layers have cooled, frost them 
9. Serve with berries! We've tried this with strawberries and it is delicious!

Greek style feta kebabs with Mediterranean salad, tzatziki sauce and oven roasted root vegetables

This is a dinner that needs a lot of chopping but yields lots of food and lots of leftovers. The Greek style meatballs/kebabs recipe is adapted from here, called Grekiska fetafärsbiffar, but we changed the recipe. The original LCHF version turns out very dense and the kebabs get harder and harder in the fridge. The roots recipe is inspired from all over, it's called Rotsaker i ugn and is a swedish classic. The "Mediterranean salad" is also inspired from the LCHF recipe above.

Ingredients:

Meatballs:

• 1kg blandfärs (50-50 pork and beef mince mix)
• 1 finely chopped onion
• 3/4 cup breadcrumbs soaked in enough milk so it has the consistency of porrige
• 4 tsp ginger-garlic paste
• 250g feta cheese
• 3 tsp sumac
• 3-4 tsp thyme
• 3-4 tsp oregano
• 3 tsp salt
• 3 tsp pepper
• 2 tsp smoked paprika
• Peel of one lemon, juice of one lemon (optional, essential if you're skipping the sumac)

Mediterranean salad:

• 1 cucumber, large dice
• 1 box cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2-1 red onion finely sliced (not too much onion or it overwhelms the salad)
• Olives, seedless (we used a half bottle, we like olives!)

Tzatziki sauce:

• 1 cup thick yogurt/ greek yogurt
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 2 tsp honey
• pinch of salt

Roots:

• All the root vegetables are cut into approximately the same size, like homefries or thick-cut fries
• 5-6 small potatoes
• 2-3 parsnips
• 2-3 beets
• 1/4 celeriac root
• 2-3 carrots
• 1 Rutabaga
• 10 garlic cloves, peeled
• Fat of choice (cooking oil/ olive oil/ coconut oil)
• Honey
• Dried thyme
• Salt
• Pepper

Recipe:

For the roots: 

1. Set the oven at 200C and chop all the vegetables
2. Chop the rutabaga, beets and celeriac root first and toss them in a bowl with honey, thyme, salt and pepper. These go in the oven 10-15 minutes before the rest of the vegetables.
3. Spread them on an oven tray and put them in the middle of the oven.
4. After 10-15 minutes add the rest of the vegetables adding more honey/ fat/ thyme/ salt/ pepper as needed.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes (or until done).

For the Kebabs:

1. Soak the breadcrumbs in milk
2. In a large bowl, combine the meat, breadcrumbs, chopped onion, thyme, sumac, oregano, salt pepper, smoked paprika, ginger-garlic paste and crumble in the feta. 
3. Mix well.
4. Shape into flat patties about 3-4" diameter
5. Cook on a greased medium-hot pan. Cook on one side for 2-3 minutes, then flip and cook on the other side for another minute and then cover and cook for 4 minutes to cook through. 

For the Mediterranean Salad

1. Chop and mix all the ingredients together

For the Tzatziki sauce:

1. In a bowl, mix together all the ingredients and let sit for at least 20-30 minutes before eating

Sriracha fish tacos

We based these off a shrimp taco recipe at Delish, but took as many shortcuts as we dared to. Also, breaded rödspetta instead of shrimps.

Ingredients

Coleslaw

• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil
• 1 tsp. honey
• 2 limes
• kosher salt
• 2 c. shredded purple cabbage
• 1/4 c. fresh chopped cilantro

 The fish

• Frozen rödspetta
• Panko, potato chips, egg, flour
• Sriracha mayo

Method

1. Zest the lime, and add the zest and lime juice to the sesame oil and honey. Season with half a teaspoon of salt. Mix with the shredded cabbage and cilantro. Set aside.
2. Batter fry the fish. Tasty Japan normally does egg, flour, panko, egg, panko.
3. Slice the fish and eat with sriracha mayo, corn tortillas, and coleslaw.

Kerala pork curry

This is more of a Kerala inspired pork curry recipe than an actual one. We had a bunch of left over dosa batter and a piece of karré that needed using and et voila. I googled around and matched recipes with the ingredients that I had. Since I was basically making up the recipe I chose not to grind the spices but the pressure cooker was unavoidable else this would have been a 3-4 hour long cook time as opposed to the one hour in toto that this was.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg karré (or boston butt or picnicbog or pork shoulder etc)
• 3.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 3 Tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 250g shallots sliced, not too finely
• 2 large onions sliced, not too finely
• 2 large tomatoes, chopped
• 2 large or 4 small potatoes, chopped
• 1.5 tsp mustard seeds
• 0.5 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 0.5 tsp coriander seeds
• 0.5-1 tsp fennel seeds
• 0.5-1 tsp peppercorns
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• 3-4 green chillis, chopped
• 3.5 tsp ginger garlic paste
• 2 Tbps coriander powder
• 2-3 Tbsps meat masala powder (I used goan mutton masala)
• Salt

Method

1. Cut the pork into 1" ish chunks and marinate with about two teaspoons of salt, one teaspoon of turmeric, 1.5 tsp of ginger garlic paste and the vinegar and the soy sauce. Mix well and leave at room temperature for a bit or in the fridge if longer than an hour.
2. Heat a teaspoon of oil in a pressure cooker and add the marinated pork. No need to fry the pieces. Add two cups of water and pressure cook the meat. (For this amount and this type of meat I pressure cooked for 20 minutes after the first whistle on medium heat)
3. In a pan heat up oil and add a teaspoon and a half of mustard seeds followed by half a teaspoon of fenugreek seeds, half a teaspoon of coriander seeds, 3/4 teaspoon fennel seeds and about 20 peppercorns. 
4. Now add a handful of curry leaves. Since I was using frozen curry leaves, this is a total guesstimate. 
5. Now add the onions and a dash of salt and fry until golden brown.
6. Add the chopped green chillis and ginger garlic paste when the onions are light brown and cook until the raw smell disappears and the onions and golden brown.
7. Next, add the masala powders and cook for a few minutes, then the potatoes and then the tomatoes and the tomato paste, stirring and cooking for a few minutes after each addition.
8. Cover and cook for about 10 minutes on a medium-low heat until the tomatoes and squishy and the masala is beginning to look cohesive
9. Add the pork along with the water and cook for 15 minutes on medium heat to thicken and reduce the liquid if need be. If the meat doesn't feel tender enough, cook covered for longer or pressure cook the meat again for a few more whistles
10. Mash a few pieces of the potato to thicken the gravy and cook a few more minutes
11. Serve with dosa or idli or appams or rice or roti. It's all good.