Butternut Squash Thai Red Curry

Tom tonight,

Jess is off being drunk somewhere (I have the texts to prove it) and my housemate Lucy is leaving tomorrow to get herself her own place so were making a big curry for her last meal. This is the first time I've made a red curry, and because I am cheap I have bought a curry paste rather than making my own. It's probably not too hard to make your own but this is easy and I think it still tastes awesome. I'm making this with Thai sticky rice and pan-fried red cabbage. The vegetables used in this can be changed for others if you like but I like the colour combinations these bring - originally I was going to add the red cabbage but I saw online someone suggested doing this and honestly it turned out incredibly tasty so will definitely make this a regular part of my cooking. I also baked chicken breasts in the curry paste for Lucy as a non-vegan. Also added peanut butter for an extra flavour as I'm liking adding peanut butter to asian dishes and butternut squash and peanut butter are a match made in heaven.

This recipe makes enough for about 5 portions of curry and rice.

Ingredients:

For the Curry:

1 Butternut Squash
1 large Onion
1 tbsp Olive Oil
3 tbsp Thai Red Curry Paste
4 cloves Garlic
1 small Chili
2 inch of fresh Ginger
6 large closed cup Mushrooms
1/2 a Courgette
1 Red Pepper
1/2 pack of Dwarf Beans
1 dessertspoon Peanut Butter
1/2 can Tomatoes
1 litre Boiling Water
1 1/2 tsp Bouillon
1 inch block of Creamed Coconut
3 tbsp Light Soy Sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

For the Chicken:

1 Chicken Breast
1 tbsp Red Thai Curry Paste

For the Rice:
1/2 a pack of Thai Fragrant Rice
A sprinkle of Seaweed Flakes (my secret ingredient for everything)
Cold Water

Method:

First peel the butternut squash, drizzle with a little bit of oil and pinch of salt flakes and roast in a hot oven until cooked and browned.
Next put the rice on, cover with a centimetre of water and add a sprinkle of nori flakes if you have them, a sprinkle of jasmine leaves  also adds a great flavour if you have them.
Put on a high heat until bubbles form around the edge of the saucepan, then turn down to a low heat and put the lid on.
Leave until all the water has been absorbed, then fluff up and leave with the lid on to steam for a few mintues. While this cooks start the curry
Chop up the onion and fry in oil in a saucepan until soft.
Once soft, add the garlic, chili, ginger and curry paste, fry for a few minutes.
Chop up the mushrooms, courgette, pepper and dwarf beans and add to the saucepan, mix thoroughly and cook until soft.
Add the peanut butter and mix well, it helps to put the peanut butter to the bottom so it heats up and then it's easier to stir in.
Add the tomatoes and mix again.
Add boiling water until the vegetables are covered by about a centimetre of water and just a bit thinner than you want it to be.
Next add the stock and creamed coconut (you can make each of these separately if you want to but i didn't think it was necessary and this seemed easier to get the right consistency.
By this time the butternut squash should be nicely roasted, add this to the curry. At this point I rubbed the chicken with the paste and put in the oven to bake (reuse oven tray, save washing up, done).
Mix all of this together and bring to the boil.
Simmer until the correct consistency (as you like it).
At this point I quickly fried the cabbage (link) if you want to make that as a side.
Serve and enjoy.

Really pleased with how this came out, the curry paste I used wasn't fantastic but I imagine you could get nicer ones without too much effort, and if i find a decent recipe to make one I will definitely post it later. This could be very easily adapted to make it how you like, spinach might make a nice addition to this! As always, let us know your own versions at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com.

Nutritional Info:


                      Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar
          Total:     885         113       40         24          3481         42
Per Serving:       177          23        8           5            696          8


And 1 cup of rice adds around 240 calories, and 101 from the cabbage (worth it!) giving 512 for the meal in total! (not including chicken)

Ignore the cabbage, originally this post included that recipe.

I apologise for the steam, it was a very, very, very, very cold day.

The vegan version

And with the baked chicken.

Lemon and Coconut Chickpea Macaroons

Tom today,

Ever since going to the christmas markets (if you haven't been yet and are in manchester, GO, albert square, now) and smelling all of the wonderful things that I couldn't eat, I've had a massive craving for coconut macaroons. The smell of them cooking was enough to make my stomach tap it's watch disapprovingly to remind me it was dinner time. So, after a hard day's revision I decided that I would throw something together that vaguely resembled them, put it on the internet, then sit back and bask in the glory of my own genius. Here's what happened.

Ingredients:

1 can Chickpeas (drained and thoroughly washed)

1/2 cup Dessicated Coconut

3 tbsp Coconut Milk (I used creamed coconut in hot water)

1 tsp Baking Powder

6 tbsp Rolled Oats (This came out as roughly 75g when I measured it afterwards)

Pinch of Salt (I always use Maldon - you caught me, I'm a salt snob.)

1 1/2 tsp Vanilla Bean Paste

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

Juice and Zest of 1/2 a Lemon

This is another complete make-it-up-as-I-go-along recipe, but my last one went pretty well so I'm hopeful. I used this recipe to make 16 smallish cookies. These worked out to only 77 calories each, which was definitely my favourite bit!

Method:

Preheat an oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Blend the chickpeas in a mixing bowl.

Add all the dry ingredients (coconut, oats, baking powder, salt and sugar) and mix together thoroughly.

Add the vanilla bean paste, lemon (zest and juice) fold through.

Add the coconut milk, stirring gently until the mixture is the right consistency (if you don't need all the milk don't add it, and if it's a bit thick or dry then add a dash of water and mix in.

Spoon cookie-sized balls onto a lightly greased baking tray.

Cook for 15 minutes on the top shelf.

Then, just as they start to brown around the edges, squash them flat with a spoon (I was hoping they would spread like cookies but apparently I was too optimistic here)

Cook for a further 10 minutes until golden.

I am super happy with how these turned out! Only 77 calories apiece. And the smell filling the kitchen is definitely christmas-market-ey enough to satisfy my stomach. I'm starting to get into this style of cooking, however pretty soon I think I'm going to have to bake something hideous and fat filled to balance this out.

(Jess: Tom gave me one of these the day after making them and they were delicious - please try this recipe!)

As always, email any comments or photos you have to me and Jess at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com - we love to hear from you!

Enjoy

A close-up slightly-out-of-focus picture of food on a food blog!? Genius.

Nuritional Info (if made into 16)

                      Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar

          Total:     1236        182       45         29             67          113

Per Serving:        77           11        3          2               4            7

Fat-Free Lentil and Mushroom Burgers

Tom today!

Basically, I have a whole buttload of work I should be doing, so naturally all I can think about is new recipes to make (For some reason learning about sex steroids has given me an absolute hankering for some coconut macaroons. Don't ask me to explain. However that one will have to wait a few days). This is something of an invention, based loosely on a few recipes I have looked at and made before, but also very much making this up as I go along. We'll see how this goes.

Having read several of the Happy Herbivore's (http://happyherbivore.com/) recipes, I have a budding interest in fat-free cooking (from both a scientific curiosity and a health point of view) so this is my attempt at fat-free recipe! (I say fat free, meaning that there are no added fats in this, however there are still some fats in the ingredients used - but this is minimal) I've also used arrowroot to bind the mixture, which makes this recipe both vegan and gluten-free (as long as you use certified oats). Also I am a terrible cook who never measures anything, so these are all approximations which I think I've used, so if you're out by a bit here and there, I can't see it mattering. As I haven't made these before and am making this up as I go along I'll have to add the nutritional info afterwards.

Makes 9 small burgers, probably about 3 meals worth

Ingredients:

2 cups of Green Lentils
Pinch of Salt, Pepper, Rosemary, Cayenne Pepper and Smoked Paprika
1/2 cup of Red Lentils
1 Carrot (Grated)
1/2 an Onion
1 cup finely chopped Mushrooms
3 large cloves Garlic
5 tbsp Rolled Oats
1 tsp Paprika
1/2 tsp Rosemary (I used dried)
1/2 tsp Thyme
1 tsp Mixed Herbs
1/2 tsp Bouillon (vegetable stock powder - if you're using stock cubes 4 tsp of Bouillon makes 1 litre of stock, so that would be a quarter of a stock cube usually - I didn't want to overpower the flavour)
Large pinch of Salt (the stock I use is pretty salty already)
Pepper to taste (I like LOTS)
1 tbsp Arrowroot (can also use cornflour or an egg)

Method:

First cook the green lentils in water, adding the salt, pepper, rosemary, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika to the water and then boiling for 10 minutes before simmering until soft (should be around half an hour). This will give the lentils a nice flavour (I always think green lentils have a slightly smokey flavour on their own which goes really nicely with these flavours and gives a meaty taste to the burgers).
Next boil the red lentils until they are soft, then drain and puree using a hand blender. These will give the burgers more substance and something to hold them together without needing flour (at least I hope so).
Now preheat your oven to 220 degrees celsius.
In a mixing bowl (as you can see in the pictures I am a poor student without such luxuries, so I am using a saucepan) combine all the ingredients and mix.
Add dashes of hot water until the mixture holds together (be careful not to go overboard! Really use little bits at a time and mix it thoroughly - I probably used about 6 tbsp). If you do go overboard, fear not! Flour or oats can easily be used to bring the mixtures back to the right consistency.
Make the mixture into small balls - I made mine into 9 which will be small burgers but you can do what you'd prefer - and place on a lightly greased baking tray.
Bake for 20-30 minutes (or until they start to look cooked and are brown on the bottom) then flip them and squash into burger shapes, bake for another 20-30 minutes until they seem cooked all the way through.
Serve - I like mine with vegan coleslaw and salad in a pitta!

This recipe can be used with different spices for a different flavour, or the carrot can be substituted for another vegetable (I'm thinking parsnips could be good?) or you can use different lentils, or a different pulse altogether! Let us know any ideas you come up with at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com.

Enjoy!

NB// Here is the nutritional info for these burgers (calculated using myfitnesspal.com):

                      Calories   Carbs     Fat     Protein     Sodium     Sugar
          Total:     686          117       5          41           299           9
Per Serving:        76           13        1           5             33           1

One serving is one burger if made into nine burgers

Christmas Butterbean Cookies

Tom again, feeling surprisingly prolific today,

...and CHRISTMASSY. Yes I know it's november. I don't know what is happening to me. I am normally a massive scrooge. Help?

Anyway, in the spirit of my want to bake and christmas spirit (and because I can use my parents' fancy food processor!), here is a recipe for christmas flavoured cookies (the smell when they bake is glorious, it's filling my kitchen as I write this). This is entirely stolen from Happy Herbivore (http://happyherbivore.com/recipe/butter-bean-cookies/), and I adapted it with christmas flavours to suit my mood.

But now, to address the elephant in the room, yes, I said butterbean. Before you run screaming and denounce me as a witch or burn me for worshiping the devil...62 calories per cookie. And 0.7g fat. That's all. Because you're using the protein from blended butterbeans (which lets face it, have no flavour) to bind these cookies together, you don't need to add any fat to it, animal or otherwise. To be fair, this recipe isn't exceptionally sweet, but that can be altered easily enough if you'd like too. Yes it sounds weird, yes it looks like babysick when blended, but hey, it's worth a try right?

Ingredients:

1 cup Rolled Oats
1 cup Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda
2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Cloves
1 1/2 tsp Vanilla
3 tsp Ginger (or about an inch of grated fresh ginger)
1/2 tsp grated Nutmeg
1/2 can of Butterbeans
1/4 cup of Apple sauce (or stewed apples)
1/2 cup of Sugar
Pinch of salt
Handful of Almonds

These cookies are kind of like macaroons in texture. On a side note DO NOT COOK THESE ON BAKING PAPER. They stick. And do not peal. At all. However, despite the occasional piece of baking paper still stuck on they were still tasty (my mum would NOT leave them alone). Also this recipe needs a food processor, you can probably do it with a spoon and a hand blender but it will take a lot of elbow grease.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F, 175C or Gas Mark 4.
Pour 3/4 cup of oats into the food processor and pulse until they are lightly ground but not a powder.
Add the oats and all of the rest of the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl.
Put the butterbeans, apple sauce, vanilla and sugar in the food processor with a tbsp of water and blend until smooth.
Add the oats and stir until mixed.
Toast the almods briefly and break them up in a pestle and mortar (or with a rolling pin).
Combine the wet and dry ingredients in the mixing bowl and 1/3 of a cup of water and mix roughly (it should still be pretty lumpy, it works better that way).
Put tablespoon blobs on a greased baking tray.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden around the edges and on the bottom and solid in the centre.
Enjoy with a coffee! (I just did)

Dry ingredients

First butterbeans...

Now babysick. Also known as the wet ingredients.

Combine the two.

Add a few almonds.

Before

And after baking. With a nice bit of icing sugar, everything looks christmassy with icing sugar.

As always, make any changes you come feel - I'm thinking walnuts and coffee? - and let us know what you come up with at twocooksoneblog@gmail.com