Comfy Beef Stew Soup

Still post the celebratory weeks of Christmas, New Year, weddings and more,coupled with a cool weather calls for more simple, warm, homemade comfort food. This one stems from such a moment in the recent past. Hope you can enjoy this bowl of comfy goodness with your family. Add some crusty bread loaf and you have a perfect meal! You can try this one with the Crunchy homemade soda bread recipe I posted yesterday.

For my vegetarian friends, please note you can substitute the beef with 200 gms of mushrooms and need only 20-30 minutes to cook this dish when cooked in the pressure cooker. You can also add beans of your choice about 100 gms.

You need:

• 1/2 kg of fresh beef meat, cut into 1" cubes
• 2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 medium sized carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced finely
• 1 cup of tomato puree
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tsp of pepper powder
• 1/4 cup of plain flour
• 2 cups of beef stock
• 1/2 tbsp parsley leaves, finely diced 
• Lime leaves or cilantro for garnish (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Drinking water as required
• 1 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• 1 cup of red wine (optional)
• 1 cup of Guinness (optional)

The Make

Serves 4 adults | Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 45-60 minutes

Note: This recipe is best made in a slow cooker however if you do not have the time or a slow cooker, you could opt for the faster option as below. In a slow cooker, this recipe would require a minimum of 6 hours.

1. In a large pressure cooker, combine the beef, garlic, onions, potatoes, carrots and tomatoes. Saute on medium-low heat. 

2. Pour in the puree and season with Worcestershire (optional),bay leaf, parsley and pepper. 

3. Stir the flour and beef stock together in a separate bowl and add into the beef mix. Stir well. Add the optional Guinness and wine.

4. Cover and cook for 45 minutes or for 4 whistles on medium-high and 4 whistles on low heat.

5. Once the pressure has settled, uncover and do a salt check and add salt as required. Check also if you have sufficient liquid for your soup, else add more as required. Remove the bay leaf before serving. Garnish if required with cilantro or lime leaves.

Serve hot with a side of Crunchy Rosemary and honey soda bread ! Bon appetit!

Crunchy Rosemary and Honey Soda bread

This is by far the easiest bread recipe I have ever tried! I had handwritten it a while ago but only had the time to make it now.

Necessity is the mother of invention. Anup was away on work travel. I did not have a chance to step out of the home to buy store bought rolls, bread and had some extra kitchen time in between cooking the mains so what did I do when I realised I did not have yeast or any rising agents other than soda bicarbonate, look for the next best option! Which truly was the best option where it came to this recipe.

You can have it with melted butter, olive oil with some Mediterranean herbs or if you like sweeter options maple syrup, honey drizzle or jelly/jams or even peanut butter. I made this bread over Christmas Eve and we dunked it into some savoury Slow cooked duck gravy! Yumm! I will share the duck recipe soon as well.

This bread is best had immediately out of the oven so make sure you have your accompaniments of your choice ready to go and this is the last thing you take out from the oven. Crispy and crunchy on the outside, this is the bread to go when the weather outside is cold / chilly even! Hope you enjoy this bread as much as we did!

You need:

• 400 gms of whole wheat flour or multigrain wheat flour
• 475 gms of maida/plain flour
• A pinch of salt
• 8 tbsps of natural honey (if you do not have this you can use store bought varieties too)
• 2 sprigs of rosemary or dried rosemary (in case you do not have the option for fresh varieties)
• 600 ml buttermilk
• 1 tsp of soda bicarbonate

The Make:
Serves 4 adults | Preparation time: 5 minutes | Cooking time: 40-45 minutes

1. Preheat your oven to 210°C
2. If you are using dried rosemary, you can use it directly from the air tight bottle. Otherwise remove the rosemary from the stalks and set aside.
3. In a large mixing bowl, mix the whole wheat flour with the plain flour, rosemary and salt.
4.Add the buttermilk and honey. Mix well till you get a soft dough. Next turn the soft dough onto a floured surface and knead well to a smooth mix.
5. Shape into two round loafs and stick a knife into the top of one loaf and cut a cross and then cut into another cross till you see eight triangles. Repeat for the second loaf.
6. Using a metal spatula carefully scoop each loaf onto lightly floured baking trays.
7. Bake for 30-40 minutes each. Bake test is to tap the base of the loaf lightly to hear a hollow sound.
8. Rest for 5-10 minutes. If you are not a fan of crusty bread, then wrap the loaf in a damp kitchen/tea towel.

Serve hot! Bon Appetit!

Three spotted (swimmer) crab in spiced coconut gravy

Happy New Year 2015 dear readers! It has been close to a year since my last blog post (sounds a bit like a confession at church - 'Forgive me Father it has been close to a year since my last confession!'). Jokes apart, I must apologise to you my dear readers for not having to hear from me. 2014 was quite a roller coaster ride with the best and worst seen! It was definitely a year full of changes and challenges. Thankfully we survived the bitter ones with the Grace of Our Lord! I also thank you dear readers for the numerous emails, messages, calls, texts and IMs to check in on me and motivating me to return to G'Gina's Kitchenette.

I lost my dear grandma in August of 2014 and as you may have noticed a lot of my previous blog posts and posts/tweets refer to grandma's influence in my cooking. So what started as what may have been a writer's block, saw me through a whole heap of events including a physical move of G'Gina's Kitchenette to a new location. I am not sure if you know that I also run a Tourism business ICare Holidayz which thanks to word of mouth from dear friends and family has been doing fairly well in 2014. I also work in my field of specialization which is Human Resources. Our recent relocation in 2014 has not been easy on my little one or us as a family owing to a lot of circumstantial changes. We hope for the best and a resolve in 2015. So among all this my recipe creations were on a hold from being shared!

I was contemplating on what to begin with as although the writing had ceased for a while, the cooking cannot! So there are a lot of new recipes I have tried and tested time and again which I hope to share with you soon. I thought I would begin with Mum's recipe which was liked a lot by my grandma as well. I am hoping I can be regular with my blog posts as often as possible to compensate for the 11 months silence. I dedicate this recipe to my dear grandma who I am sure is in Heaven's Abode praying and looking over us.

This recipe has always been welcomed by family, friends and relatives. And I am certain you would love the same.

You need:

• 1 kg of fresh three spotted swimmer crab, washed, cleaned and halved
• Cleaned hard shells of the crabs, air dry the shells (Mom does not incorporate this in the original recipe)
• 4-5 green chilies (depending on how spicy you like it)
• 2 large tomatoes, quartered
• 1/2" ginger, diced
• 2-3 cloves, garlic (*optional - mom does not use)
• 1/2 cup of drinking water
• 1/2 of a medium sized coconut, grated
• 1/4 tbsp of red chili powder (I use Kashmiri Chili powder)
• Salt to taste
• Oil to fry the hard shells

The Make:

Serves : 4 adults | Preparation time: 10 minutes | Cooking Time: 40 minutes

I normally get my crab cleaned at the vendor's place itself. This time, I got the hard shells cleaned as well. Garlic is not required but you can add a few cloves.

1. Grind the coconut gratings, green chilies, ginger, garlic (optional) ,chopped tomatoes, red chili powder and salt with a little water as required to grind the mixture for a minute on high to medium speed.

The ground mixture should be thick enough to leave a circle in mix when stirred with a ladle.

2. Next heat oil to fry the hard shells in a wok and add the air-dried hard shells, taking care to ensure that the shells do not have traces of water to avoid the splutter. Once the shells turn orange, strain off the oil and on to kitchen towel.

3. Drain off most of the oil leaving just 1 tbsp of oil in the wok. Next add in the ground coconut mixture to the oil on medium-low heat. Cook for 2 minutes or until the coconut mix leaves the sides of the wok.

4. Add the crab halves to the coconut mixture and cover the crabs with the coconut mix. Saute for 3-5 minutes.

5. Add a tad bit of water if the coconut mixture is too dry. This will help the cooking process and avoid drying or even getting burnt.

6. Cook for about 20-30 minutes taking care to saute in between to avoid the coconut getting burnt. 

7. Serve with the hard shells on top on in the shells with piping hot /steamed rice.

Bon Appetit!