I’m on Week 2 of a five-week FREE “Healthy eating on a small budget” cookery class from the GCDA (Greenwich Co-operative Development Agency) taking place in the London borough of Greenwich. It’s great! They run once a week for five weeks but there are classes in different venues throughout the week with two classes (in two different places) on Monday. They also run several times throughout the year so there are plenty of opportunities to get involved.
Not only is there such a thing as a free lunch but you often get to take a portion home too. Bring a lidded container.
See my post on Week 1 – potato and curried parsnip soup and mackerel pate mini pittas.
Week 2:
Chicken curry, veggie curry, rice and roti
Because there were nine of us in the class this week and multiple recipes happening we divided ourselves into groups to prepare and cook the various bit, but were encouraged to peer over the shoulders of our fellow chefs to see how things were done. My task was preparing some dough for the roti / flatbread.
I’m having to be a wee bit vague about the recipe because it’s copyright and also I wasn’t involved in the preparation of all of the bits of the meal, just the bread bit.
1. Chicken curry
- Chicken thighs – skin off but meat on bone, vegetable oil, spices (fresh coriander, garlic clove roughly chopped, some cardamom pods, a few cinnamon sticks, mild curry powder, cumin, lemon), veg (onions – chopped, potatoes – cubed, tinned tomatoes – chopped [we used passata]), tomato puree and yoghourt (optional)
Start with the onions frying in the oil then add the chicken. Then add the chopped tomato or passata, coriander and garlic. Then the potatoes and tomato puree… drop the heat and let it cook for a minute. Add the rest of the spices..
Then add enough water to cover the meat and bring to the boil. I think we shoved some aubergine in there as well, cos why not.
Above: Chicken curry cooking
2. Veggie curry – sweet potato, onion, chickpeas
Sweet potato (diced), onions (chopped), tomatoes (chopped), tins of chickpeas (drained), some coconut milk, water, herbs (garlic, ginger, chilli, fresh coriander – finely chopped, turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, pepper), lemon juice, salt.
To serve 4 it’s 100ml coconut milk and 100ml water in a pan and add onions, sweet potato and the herbs (minus the fresh coriander). Bring to boil and simmer for 10 mins until potato is softened. Add tomatoes, lemon juice, chickpeas and more water if required – cook for another 5-10 mins. Then stir in fresh coriander.
I missed the bit at the end here, not sure if it cooks all the water away or if there’s draining involved, but if so I’d say add the fresh coriander after draining!
3. Turmeric rice
We doubled our portions to serve 9 people (and we still had leftovers to take home) but to serve 4 the recipe involves about 8oz or 225g brown rice, a tablespoon of turmeric, 6 cardamoms and an optional 1/4 teaspoon of salt.
Boil some water in a kettle, or heat a saucepan with cold water in it and add everything except the rice until it’s nicely boiling on the stove. Add rice, turn heat down to a simmer and leave for 25-30 mins.
Rice hidden by water, cardamoms floating.
4. Roti flatbread
- 300g strong wholemeal flour, 1/2 teaspoon oil, half pint lukewarm water
Mix together, give it a good stir and then cover the bowl with a damp dishcloth for about 15 minutes to let it do whatever it’s going to do.
I peeked at the mix while it was under its damp towel…
Once ready to flatten your dough into cookable bread, flour your surface liberally, take a tablespoon’s worth of mixture (above recipe is meant to make about 12 rotis) and roll it out to form a vaguely circular flat thing that would fit both in a pan and on a plate. My mixture was really annoyingly sticky and I kept adding more flour to it to get it to obey. Eventually I won the battle.
Heat a frying pan without oil and stick the roti / chappati on and turn occasionally. It will puff up on being pressed when it starts to be ready and bits of it will char quite nicely.
Above: Roti rolled flat, on the pan, on the plate
Below: Here it is all ready to serve – looking, smelling and tasting delicious.
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