Tag: pomegranate

Maunika Gowardhan’s Pomegrante and Chilli Spice Chicken (Anardana Murgh)

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4

I typed up this wonderful Thali Nat and I plated a while back, from the aptly named cookbook ‘Thali’ by Maunika Gowardhan. And now I am back with the absolutely wonderful chicken curry.

Served alongside an excellent Spiced Turmeric & Coriander Potato Curry from the same book, this chicken curry is just pure moorish.

It is also really unique in terms of the heavy use of pomegranate powder, a style I had never encountered and wasn’t really sure of. (Note: I substituted mango powder (Amchur) which has essentially the same tanginess and qualities.)

It’s also a pretty simple recipe.

An absolute homerun of a curry. Mate it with a vegetable curry for a dahl and this is the perfect way to end the week and say hello to an Autumn weekend.

Ingredients

1kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bite-sized pieces
2 tbsp vegetable oil
300gm white onions, thinly sliced
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 c chicken stock
Salt to taste
2 green bird’s-eye chillies, slit lengthways
2 tbsp roughly chopped coriander leaves

For the pomegranate marinade

4 tbsp pomegranate powder (substitute mango powder (Amchur))
1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tbsp ground coriander
6 garlic cloves, pounded to a paste*
5cm ginger root, grated*
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Method

  1. First, make the marinade by mixing all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl. Smear the mixture over the chicken pieces and leave to marinate in the fridge for 3 – 4 hours or overnight.
  2. When you are ready to cook, heat the oil in a large, non-stick frying pan (skillet) over a medium heat. Fry the onions for 11 – 12 minutes, until they are soft and turn light brown.
  3. Tip in the marinated chicken pieces and fry, sealing the meat, then continue to fry for 5 minutes until the chicken is browned. Add the garam masala and stir well. Now add the stock, then season and bring to the boil.
  4. Reduce the heat to low, letting the mixture simmer gently. Cover the pan and cook for 9 – 10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through, stirring halfway through.
  5. Add the green chillies and fresh coriander. Stir and serve with warm paratha or rice.

* I always substitute garlic ginger paste from all good Indian supermarkets.

Matt Preston’s Cheat’s Lamb Pide

.Reading time 3 minutes.

Serves: 4 (2 of you in reality)

One of our favourite pastimes comes in three parts:

  1. Long, lunch with a few bottles of wine
  2. A few more drinks at home, music, laughter, talking shit
  3. Making the sort of dinner you want after 1. and 2.

Point 3. of course requires planning because you can’t just decide on a whim to cook something wonderful and outrageous on the couch at home. You not only need the ingredients to be in the fridge, you likely need to have made a start on it… because nobody feels like cooking a fresh meal at 7pm on a Saturday night after a few wines.

We spent a few nights up in Newcastle last year leading up to NYE.

We love a place up there – Parry Street Garage – which serves great pizza and pasta, great wines and beers and more great wine. And it was within walking distance of our AirBNB.

Fast-forward a few hours, the music is on and we commence Matt Preston’s Cheat’s Lamb Pide.

Fast forward another hour or so and we have the best, Saturday-night – still drinking wine – dinner, in Merewether.

Do this the next time you have your own long lunch and finish (or start) the night right!

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil
600gm lamb mince
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp ground cinnamon
4 ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Seeds of 1 pomegranate
1/4 cup un-roasted pistachio kernels, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup mint leaves, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp lemon juice
4 oval-shaped rolls or small baguettes
1/3 cup Greek-style yoghurt (full fat!)

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 160c.
  2. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the lamb mince; cook, breaking up the mince for 10 minutes until well browned and crisping.
  3. Add the garlic, cumin, paprika and cinnamon and cook, stirring for 1 minute. Stir in the tomato and cook for 4 minutes until the tomato starts to break down. Season.
  4. Time for a red wine: pour one glass and enjoy. Turn the music up.
  5. Combine the pomegranate seeds, chopped pistachios, parsley, mint, lemon juice and remaining oil in a bowl.
  6. Cut a long slit along the top of each bread roll, ensuring that you do not cut all the way through. Open the roll slightly and scoop out a little of the bread. Spoon in the lamb mixture into the rolls to fill. Place on a baking tray and bake for 5 – 10 minutes until warmed through and the rolls are crisp and crunchy on the outside.
  7. Top the rolls with yoghurt and sprinkle with the pomegranate mixture.
  8. Tequila time!

Bulgar with Pomegranate Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Bulgar with Pomegranate Salad

Serves: 4 – 6

This is a recipe I pulled from the Weekend Australian Magazine by David Herbert and it is really quite good. I’ve been more hit than miss with his stuff in the past, though as far as a clean, healthy, spring salad goes, this is a winner.

If you haven’t cooked with bulgar, it is worth the effort to find it in your local organics shop.

It is less abrasive than quinoa, healthy, packed full of protein and fibre, and filling. Add the fresh herbs and vegetables and you have a salad that looks great, tastes great and is easy to prepare.

Try it with steak or lamb and you’ll be pleased you did.

Ingredients

150gm bulgar
¾ cup roughly chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
½ cup roughly chopped fresh mint
200gm cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 Lebanese cucumber, peeled and diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
Seeds 1 pomegranate
3 spring onions, chopped
Juice, 1 lemon
2 – 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Method

  1. Place bulgar in a bowl and cover with 500ml boiling water. Soak for 30 minutes and then drain well, removing all excess water.
  2. Combine cooled bulgar, parsley, mint, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, pomegranate, spring onions and lemon juice in a large bowl. Season well with the salt and freshly ground pepper. Pour over olive oil and toss well.