Recipes

An Easy Chickpea Summer Salad

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

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While the silly season is over (and thank goodness for that – I anticipate it will take me a good couple of months to recover!) summer feels like it’s just ramping up.

Here in South Australia, the mercury has already topped 44°C and brought with it an awful and devastating bushfire and we are facing some more scary (that’s “hot”) conditions this week.

This very easy chickpea salad is a perfect dinner in its own right on a hot night, or an ideal accompaniment to a BBQ. It’s also very flexible. At some point I read about a chickpea salad but I failed to find the recipe. However, a quick google reveals a ton of ideas. I think avocado would be a brilliant addition to this salad but in order to maintain a bright and colourful appearance you would have to add it at the last minute. This was no good for me as I was taking this to a New Year’s Eve BBQ and needed it made in advance. Add in any fresh herbs you have access to – I was intending to use mint from the garden but forgot (which I now regret, as the mint suffered during the heat). Consider the recipe that follows a bare-bones starting point and flesh it out as you wish. If you have fresh, warm, sunkissed tomatoes from the garden, why not add those? Work with what you have. In cooler months, tossing through some roasted vegetables such as pumpkin or courgette/zucchini could work well too.

For the dressing, I used some Cobram Estate chilli infused oil which I was given as a Christmas present. This gave the salad a lovely, warming chilli kick without being over the top. I have not been a big user of flavoured oils in the past, but this one definitely gets a bit tick from me.

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An Easy Chickpea Summer Salad

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of chickpeas, rinsed and well drained
  • ½ red onion, finely chopped
  • 50g Australian feta, finely chopped
  • ¼ red capsicum, finely chopped
  • fresh parsley, finely chopped
  • juice of half a lemon
  • olive oil
  • pepper
  • salt

Instructions

  1. Mix all the ingredients together and season to taste.
https://eatingadelaide.com/easy-chickpea-summer-salad/

How to Drive the new GLAD Packaging

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

 

Cling film (saran wrap/whatever you want to call it) is, I have found, one of those kitchen essentials which is NOT worth economising on. Over the years I have tried various supermarket own brands of the stuff and found them to lack the all important stretch-and-stick ability.

Because I can’t save money on brand I save money by buying the biggest, fattest roll which offers me best bang for buck (or, indeed, fewest cents per metre). So I’ve just brought home a 60m packet of GLAD cling film.

And what do I discover? In an attempt to increase ‘safety and convenience’ the cutting strip has moved. It now perches on the lid. You can still cut your fingers but as a bonus, as soon as you place any pressure on it (you know, to cut off some cling film), the strip and lid tear thus making it even tougher to use next time.

The GLAD facebook page is full of people complaining about this … and GLAD is managing to come up with a stock response, time after time. For some reason, GLAD isn’t taking a hammering on twitter.

Anyway, over the next couple of days we’re all going to be using plenty of cling film so here’s a short video about how to try to manage …

And yes, while I’ve been toying with the ideas of videos for a while, I envisaged that my debut may involve some makeup, no chicken cooking in the background and not wearing a nearly 20 year old t shirt. That’s what you get for doing these things on a whim, solo, on Christmas Eve!

Merry Christmas!

Charmaine Solomon’s Lamb Korma

- Alex Prichard Leave a comment

 

Lamb kormaAh, korma. That sad, sad little curry that seems to exist only on restaurant menus for those that can’t or won’t eat a ‘real’ curry.

I understand how korma gets that reputation – in restaurants it is often bland and vaguely sweet. Why would you choose it when there are so many more exciting offerings?

This recipe, from Charmaine Solomon’s India and Pakistan, will ensure those kind of preconceptions are firmly put aside.

This recipe even has chillis in it so if you want it fiery, go ahead and make it fiery. The use of both nuts and yoghurt will help temper that heat anyway – and I suspect is what has led to the curry’s maligned character. Of course, you can always play it safe while cooking the curry and turn things up by adding a good dollop of hot lime pickle when you serve.

 

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Lamb Korma

Ingredients

  • 800g diced lamb (leg, preferably)
  • 2 onions
  • 1 tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
  • 2 large cloves of garlic, crushed and chopped
  • 40g raw, unsalted cashew nuts
  • dried red chillis - to taste
  • 2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 green cardamom pod
  • 2 cloves
  • ½ tsp saffron strands
  • 2 tbsp boiling water
  • 20g ghee
  • oil
  • salt
  • 125g plain yoghurt
  • fresh coriander to serve

Instructions

  1. Begin by making a curry paste.
  2. Roughly chop one of the onions and place in a food processor with the ginger, garlic, cashew nuts and chillis. Add 125mL water and process to a smooth paste. Add the spices (if you have ground cardamom and cloves, use ¼ tsp of each, but I used the whole spices and the flavour was fine) and process until everything well combined.
  3. Put the saffron in a small bowl with the boiling water and set aside.
  4. Heat the ghee and some oil in a large heavy bottomed saucepan. Finely slice the remaining onion and cook until soft and golden. Add the spice mixture and cook, stirring, until the oil starts to separate out.
  5. Add a little water and salt and cook until the liquid has evaporated and then add the lamb. Stir thoroughly to ensure the lamb is well coated with the spice mix.
  6. Stir through the saffron (crush the strands against the sides of the bowl as you pour it in) and then add the yoghurt.
  7. Ensure the heat is low, cover and leave to simmer for at least an hour - until the lamb is tender. Make sure that the mixture doesn't boil and give it a stir every now and then.
  8. When you're ready to serve, stir through some coriander, leaving some aside for decoration. Serve with rice (and perhaps some hot lime pickle).
https://eatingadelaide.com/charmaine-solomons-lamb-korma/