Eating Out - Wagamama

This was the first time I'd eaten at Wagamama, and really enjoyed it. I quite enjoy Japanese food anyway, so this was a nice treat. I'd had the gyoza recommended to me by my sister, and the friend I ate lunch with recommended the tropical juice - both were lovely!

                                                                Chicken teriyaki donburi

                                                             Steamed chicken gyoza

Freshly made tropical juice

 I would definitely eat there again, and I think I would try the chicken katsu curry next time.

Beef in Oyster Sauce

This is a great, simple but quick meal idea for those days you are rushed off your feet (which seems to be every day for me just now!). This tasted amazing, and you could serve it with some rice or noodles. You could change the vegetables for what ever you have in, carrots, courgette & onion would all work well too. This makes lots, so there were leftovers for lunch the next day.

Serves 2

300g rump steak, thinly sliced
150g chestnut mushrooms
150g kale or sliced greens
150g baby corn/mange tout
3 tablespoons oyster sauce
1.5 tablespoons soy sauce
Piece of ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, crushed

Mix the 2 sauces together & set aside.

Heat some oil in a large frying pan & quickly brown the steak strips. Remove to a warm plate. Fry the ginger & garlic for 1 minutes, then add the mushrooms. Fry those for a few minutes, then add the other veg. Stir fry for a few more minutes, then tip in the sauce. Warm the sauce through then add the steak back to the pan. let the whole thing heat up for about 5/6 minutes, then serve.

BBQ Pork Burgers

I had some pork mince to use up, so I thought I would be inventive and make BBQ flavoured burgers. Big Bee hated them, but the rest of us enjoyed them. Quick &easy to make, and I love BBQ flavour so this was right up my street. Popping them in the freezer for an hour helps them to keep their shape while cooking without having to add breadcrumbs/eggs as binders. Serve with finely diced onion & sliced gherkin on top for that McDonalds feel.

To make 4 burgers

400g pork mince
Salt & pepper
Teaspoon sugar
BBQ sauce ( I use Heinz honey barbecue)
4 burger buns

Mix the mince with your hands, adding the salt, pepper & sugar, Form into 4 equal patties, wrap & freeze for 1 hour.

Heat some oil in a large frying pan. Fry the burgers on both sides until cooked through. Add a spoonful of bbq sauce to one side of the burgers, then flip & cover the other side with sauce. Cook for another minute each side.

Serve in the burger buns with onion, gherkin or salad. Add extra BBQ sauce if liked.

Chicken Tikka Masala

This is Lorraine Pascale's take on the tasty chicken tikka masala. I saw her make this on her show the other night, and it looked easy. All her meals are so easy to do, and always turn out lovely so I really expected this one to. I wasn't as keen on this as I thought I would be, but everyone else ate it. Even my 4 year old ate it, with extra cream added. I am looking forward to trying out more recipes from her book even though I am very disappointed by this one!

Edit - a commenter has suggested frying off the spices before adding any wet ingredients, this may improve the flavour.

4 chicken breasts
1 bunch spring onions
2 cm ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
350 ml single cream
200g tomato puree
4 tblsp garam masala
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp english mustard powder
Fresh coriander

Fry the chicken in some oil until all browned. Add the spring onions & stir. Then add the garlic, ginger, cream, puree, spices & mustard powder. It looks messy to start with, but stir until its all combined and then allow to bubble away & thicken. Season to your taste, then top with fresh coriander. Serve with rice cooked in turmeric stock.

American-style Chicken Burgers

I had taken some chicken breast out of the freezer, and had no idea what to do with them. Then on my blogger feed, a recipe for chick-fil-a burgers popped up! Thats an American fast food chain, and as I have a soft spot for fast food, I wanted to try them. I was bit sceptical about the icing sugar in the recipe, but decided to go for it anyway. I'm glad I did, they tasted fantastic! Plus because you make them at home, you know what is in them and know that here are no hidden nasties. I served mine with just some mayo on a bun - yum!

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 egg
Splash of milk
1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoons icing sugar
1 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon dried basil
vegetable oil for frying
4 buns

Place chicken breasts in a bag and pound out chicken to 1/2 inch thickness.
Beat egg and milk together in a bowl.  Combine flour, sugar and spices in another bowl.  Dip chicken on both sides in egg first, then flour mixture.
Heat oil in a deep frying pan.  Fry each piece for a few minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through.  Serve in rolls with mayonnaise.

Thai Green Chicken Curry

This tasted much better than it looks! Thai green curry is one of my absolute favourites. Only me, my husband & our eldest daughter managed  to eat this though, as it is quite spicy. I use a jar of paste, as sourcing the ingredients to make my own would be a challenge in our town! You could change the vegetables to suit your own taste, I just happen to love baby corn & sugar snap peas.

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable or sunflower oil
1 large courgette cut into slices
75g baby corn cut into chucks
75g sugar snap peas
1 garlic clove , chopped
1 rounded tbsp or 4 tsp Thai green curry paste (you can't fit the tablespoon into some of the jars)
400ml can coconut milk
2 tsp Thai fish sauce
1 tsp caster sugar
450g boneless skinless chicken (breasts or thighs), cut into bite-size pieces
1 tsp lime juice
good handful of basil leaves
boiled rice , to serve

 In a wok or large frying pan, heat the oil until very hot, then drop in the garlic and cook until golden, this should take only a few seconds. Don't let it go very dark or it will spoil the taste. Spoon in the curry paste and stir it around for a few seconds to begin to cook the spices and release all the flavours. Next, pour in the coconut milk and let it come to a bubble. 

 Stir in the fish sauce and sugar, then the pieces of chicken. Turn the heat down to a simmer and cook, covered, for about 8 minutes until the chicken is cooked. 

Add the courgette, baby corn & peas, and heat through in the sauce. Sprinkle on lime juice to taste, and scatter the basil leaves to serve.

Homemade Pizza

Using my favourite book, The Takeaway Secret, I made these pizzas for lunch yesterday. The kids are having the leftovers in their packed lunches. I have made the thin crust version in the past, and I think I prefer that to this medium one. I made double quantities of the sauce (mostly because the passata I bought was 500ml and I didn't have any use for the other half) so now have some in the freezer for next time. You can put whatever toppings you like, I used up leftovers! Sweetcorn, onion & cherry tomatoes with grated mozzarella cheese.

Pizza Dough (makes 2 10inch medium crust pizza bases)

300g strong white bread flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp active dried yeast
210ml water

In a large bowl, mix the flour, salt, sugar, oil and yeast. Slowly add the water & mix until it becomes a sticky dough. Place on a floured surface & knead for 4 minutes until you have a smooth dough. Rub a bowl with a little oil, place the ball of dough inside & cover with cling film. Allow to rise for 1 hour, until doubled in size.

Knock the air out of the dough, divide into 2 balls  and knead those for another minute. Place each ball into a small bowl & place in the fridge for 2 hours. After this, the dough is ready to use or to be frozen.

Sweet Pizza Sauce

250 ml passata
1/2 tsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp mixed Italian herbs

Combine all the ingredients in a small saucepan & simmer for 5-6 minutes, until thickened. Use on pizza dough or keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Pizza Hut Warm Cookie Dough dessert

I had this once at Pizza Hut, and fell totally in love with it! Hot cookie dough with ice cream! I am not usually a sweet-tooth person, but this pudding is amazing. I was thrilled when my new recipe book, More Takeaway Secrets (the sequel to my other favourite cookbook!) arrived and contained the recipe. I have tweaked it slightly to be more like the Pizza Hut version. It makes 4 portions, but beware these are LARGE portions! Finish off with a dollop of ice-cream and a swirl of chocolate sauce. It is warm, gooey, chocolatey and cookie-ish all at once.

125g butter
100g caster sugar
100g brown sugar
1 egg
1 ts vanilla essence
1/2 ts salt
225g self-raising flour
100g chocolate chips

In a large bowl, mix the butter, caster & brown sugar. Add the egg & vanilla essence a mix again. Next add the flour, salt and choc chips, and mix again thoroughly.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Divide the mixture between 4 pie dishes (I used foil pie trays as they were the perfect shape). Press the dough into the dishes and then put into the oven for 6 minutes.

Reduce the oven temp to 180C and continue to bake for around another 7 minutes, It should be golden on the top & soft in the middle.

Serve with ice-cream & sauce.

American Breakfast Pancakes

I wanted to make a tasty, filling Sunday morning breakfast, so decided to try the American breakfast pancakes like those you get at McDonalds! They were very easy to make and cook. A good tip for perfect pancake batter is to leave some small lumps in the uncooked batter, dont over-whisk. These small lumps disappear whilst cooking and leave you with perfect, delicious pancakes!

120g self raising flour
Pinch of salt
30 g caster sugar
1 egg
142 ml/¼ pint milk

In one bowl, mix the flour, sugar & salt. In another, mix the egg & milk. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry whilst whiskung gently. Combine the ingredients but do not over-mix and allow some small lumps to be left.

Heat a small frying pan with a tiny amount of oil or butter. Ladel in a dollop of the batter, and tilt the pan to make a medium sized pancake, Cook until small bubbles appear in the pancake, about a minute. Flip and cook the other side for around a minute. Remove to a warm plate and repeat with the rest of the batter. You should get 8 pancakes Serve with maple syrup, bananas, lemon or sugar. Also good with scrambled egg, american breakfast sausage and eggs.

Chicken satay, spare ribs & fried rice.

Nope, I did not order in a takeaway :) This was all made by me, and actually tasted great. I used recipes from my Old Faithful, The Takeaway Secrets recipe book by Kenny McGovern. I really do recommend this book to anyone who loves a good takeaway and wants to make their own. Everything is easy to make, and usually tastes just like the real thing. Tonight I made spare ribs, satay chicken & egg fried rice. You need to make the marinade for the ribs in advance, and also have some cold, cooked rice ready.

Spare Ribs

2 teaspoons garlic & ginger paste (I use the Lazy jars of garlic & ginger & mix them)
8 tablespoons tomato ketchup
3 tablespoons honey
½ tablespoon Chinese five-spice powder
1 kg/2.2 lb pork ribs



Mix the garlic/ginger paste with the ketchup, honey & soy sauce, then coat the spare ribs. Marinade for at least 4 hours, overnight is ideal though.

Heat the oven to 200c, and lay a heatproof bowl containing water in the bottom. Place the ribs on a tray and cook for 8 minutes on the middle shelf. Turn the ribs and cook for another 8 minutes. Turn again, place on the top shelf and cook for a final 8 minutes.

Chicken Satay

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon mild Madras curry powder
3 tablespoons peanut butter
2 teaspoons soy sauce
200 ml/7 fl oz coconut milk
75 ml/2½ fl oz water
1 tablespoon brown sugar
Pinch of dried chilli flakes
wooden skewers
3 large skinless, boneless chicken breast fillets
1 teaspoon soy sauce
½ teaspoon garlic powder
¼ teaspoon ginger powder
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cornflour

In a small saucepan or frying pan, heat the vegetable oil over a low-medium heat. Add the chopped onion and stir fry for 1–2 minutes until just beginning to soften. Add the curry powder and stir-fry for 1 minute. Add the peanut butter and stir-fry for another minute until beginning to melt. Add the soy sauce, coconut milk, water, sugar and dried chilli flakes. Bring to the boil then simmer on a low heat until the sauce is combined and the desired consistency is reached. Remove from the heat and set aside. The sauce will thicken upon cooling and can be reheated when needed, adding a little water if necessary.

Soak the wooden skewers in cold water for 30 minutes to prevent them from burning.

Trim any excess fat from the chicken breast and cut into 6–8 long, thin strips. Add the soy sauce, garlic powder, ginger powder and vegetable oil. Mix well and marinade for 5 minutes. Add 1 teaspoon of cornflour and mix well again. Ribbon the chicken strips onto the soaked wooden skewers, piercing each piece of chicken several times.  Grill the skewered chicken on a high heat for around 2 minutes per side, or until the chicken is cooked through and just beginning to char. Remove the cooked chicken skewers and arrange on a serving plate. Drizzle with the prepared satay sauce and serve with fried rice.

Egg Fried Rice



150g basmati rice (ubcooked weight) cooked & cooled completely
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 spring onions, chopped (optional)
Any veg you like (I add mushrooms, frozen peas & frozen sweetcorn)

3 eggs lightly beaten with a pinch of salt


Heat some oil in a large wok. Add the rice & stir until completely coated. Add teh soy sauce & vegetables, and mix through. Make a well in the middle of teh rice, and add teh beaten egg. Lightly whisk the egg as it cooks, then mix into teh rice once it has scrambled slightly. Season & serve when the rice & egg is all heated through.

Sushi!

This is my first ever attempt at sushi - and it was easy! I am not sure what I expected, but it was simple to prepare. I managed to source all the ingredients locally, no need for an Asian supermarket. The rice wine vinegar & Nori (seaweed sheets) were utterly cheap at Home Bargains (29p each!), the sushi rice was easy to find in our small Tesco in the World Food aisle and the rolling mat came from Asda. The fillings were just avocado, peeled cucumber, crab sticks and tamagoyaki (a sweet Japanese sweet omlette). You could also add pappers, tuna, prawns, salmon etc. Rolling it up wasnt hard either - the rolling mat came with very clear instructions. This is definitely something I will make again!

1 Egg Tamagoyaki - (only if you want to include omlette in your sushi)

• 1 ‘large’ egg
• 1 Tbs. water
• 1 tsp. soy sauce (regular or light-colored; here I used regular, since that’s all I had in stock)
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 1 Tbs. bonito flakes (optional, for added flavor)
• Vegetable oil for cooking

Whisk all the ingredients together lightly with a fork. Heat a small frying pan, then add the mixture. Stir with a fork or chopsticks until it is half cooked. Then fold over one side, thenthe other, until you have a long thin omlette. Press down, let it cook for another 30 seconds then remove & allow to cool before using in sushi. Cut into strips.

• 300g sushi rice
• 2 tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp caster sugar
• 1 large avocado
• juice ½ lemon
• 4 sheets nori seaweed
• 4crab sticks, cut in half lengthways
• 1 bunch chives 
• 1 egg tamagoyaki
• 3 inch piece of cucumber, peeled & cut into thin strips

• Put the rice in a small pan with 600ml water. Bring to the boil and cook for 10 mins until the water is absorbed and the rice is tender. Stir through the vinegar and sugar, cover and cool.
• Skin, stone and slice the avocado. Put in a bowl and squeeze over the lemon juice, turning the avocado to ensure the pieces are covered.
• Divide the rice between the nori sheets and spread it out evenly, leaving a 2cm border at the top . Lay the tamagoyaki over the rice, followed by the chives and finally position the avocado across the centre of one sheet.
• Add the crab sticks and cucumber to the other.
• Fold the bottom edge of the seaweed over the filling, then roll it up firmly. Dampen the top border with a little water to help it seal the roll. Repeat to make 4 rolls. At this stage, the rolls can be wrapped individually in cling film and chilled until ready to serve.
• Using a serrated knife, cut each roll into 8 rounds. 

Cashew Chicken

This is another takeaway-inspired dinner though not from the cookbook I used yesterday. This is a recipe that I put together after having a look at a few online recipes for chinese chicken meals. It can be easily adapted with any vegetables you have, and those that your family enjoy. Mine all love peppers, so I made sure to add those. It would be tasty served with rice or noodles, I used ribbon noodles. This tasted amazingly like the cashew chicken that our local Chinese takeaway does, so I was very impressed!

Serves: 4 

2 tablespoons cornflour 

200ml chicken stock 

3 tablespoons soy sauce 

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 

2 tablespoons vegetable oil 

1 (500g) pack chicken breast chunks 

1 small onion, chopped 

1 red pepper, chopped 

8 mushrooms, chopped  

1 (220g) tin water chestnuts, drained and sliced 

100g cashews    

 

Mix the stock with the soy sauce, ginger & cornflour intil it is all combined. Add half the oil to a large wok and stif fry the chicken until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Remove the chicken & set aside. Add the remaining oil to the wok, and stir fry the other ingredients for around 5 minutes, until heated through.  Add the chicken & the stock, and simmer for anouther 5 minutes. Serve with noodles or rice.

Garlic Cream Fettuccine with Bacon & Mushrooms

 This is a dish from one my favourite cookbooks - The Takeaway Secret. It's cheap book, no pictures, but fantastic recipes if you love takeaways. I have tried many recipes from it, mostly Indian & Chinese, but decided to give other sections a go. Well, I am so glad I did! This was absolutely delicious, very rich & creamy. My husband, who is not great with praise, even said he loved it. I thin the whole thing took about 20 minutes or so to cook, so great for a quick dinner.It would be easy to make this vegetarian if you left out the bacon.

4 slices of smoked bacon, cut into thin strips
5 large chestnut mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 large cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon butter
150ml double cream
 150ml semi-skimmed milk, mixed with 1.5 teaspoon cornflour
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
200 g fettuccine pasta (uncooked weight)

Heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the bacon and mushrooms and stir-fry for 6–7 minutes. Add the chopped garlic and chopped onion. Stir-fry for a further 1 minute. Add the butter, double cream, semi-skimmed milk and Parmesan cheese. Add salt and pepper and stir thoroughly. Cook for a further 3–4 minutes or until the sauce just starts to thicken. Fill a large pan with water and bring to the boil. Add a pinch of salt and the fettuccine pasta. Stir once and simmer for 5–6 minutes or until the pasta is just cooked. Drain the pasta through a sieve, reserving a little of the water. Add the pasta and remaining water to the frying pan and stir well until completely coated in the sauce.

Sausage Rolls

It's Takeaway night for my husband and me tonight, so the kids got a "lazy tea". These sausage rolls were very easy to put together, and I served them with beans. The kids totally devoured them & begged for more! I might make another batch & freeze them before baking, it would be very handy for having guests or a picnic.  I am going to try different flavours, like adding pickle or ketchup to the sausage mix. If I do try new flavours, I'll be sure to blog about it :D

Ingredients

• ½ small garlic clove
• handful parsley , chopped
• 400g pack sausagemeat or sausages
• 375g pack ready-rolled puff pastry
• 1 beaten egg , to glaze

Crush the garlic with a pinch of salt, and mix with 50 ml of water. Put the sausage meat, garlic mix & parsley into a food processor & blitz til smooth. Unroll the puff pastry, and cut down the middle lengthwise. Cut each length into 3 square/rectangle pieces. Spoon the sausagemeat into the middle of the pastry, leaving a 1 cm edge. Brush the edge with beaten egg, and fold the pastry over to seal. They should look like this ...

Brush the tops with beaten egg and bake in the oven at 200c for about 35 minutes.

Chicken Curry

I havent had time for much cooking this week! We have eaten out a couple of times and then my husband cooked one night. It has been an easy & relaxed week for me :) We tried out a new restaurant that opened up in town. I had the duck rilletes with a spiced plum chutney for my starter, which was very delicious! For my main meal, I tried their "Catch of the Day" which was 4 pieces of locally caught fish (we are a fishing town and this restaurant is right on the harbour). There was rainbow trout, sea bass, lemon sole & halibut. I did enjoy it, but I was disappointed that all the fish was over cooked. You have to cook fish so carefully! Hopefully it was just opening week nerves and because they were so busy.

Anyway, I did manage to cook one meal this week - chicken curry! I rarely cook these from scratch, I do tend to use a decent curry paste to make them. I was directed to this brilliant blog called mamtas kitchen.  I found a recipe for an easy basic curry sauce, so I gave it a go. The resulting curry tasted great! You can add what you like to it, so I went for a Korma slant as that is one of my favourites. Next time, I am going to make up a big batch of the basic sauce and freeze some. I cant wait to try out different flavours!

I used this recipe here for the basic sauce. I added chicken, ground almonds, fenugreek leaves, dessicated coconut & single cream, to make a wonderful mild tasty curry. Going to omit the cream next time for a spicier taste.

Homemade donner kebabs

I'll admit, I love a dirty greasy takeaway! Kebabs feature often on a Friday night, once the kids are in bed. Sometimes though, they want one and Im not so eager to feed them this "meat" as it comes from our local kebab shop. Perfect solution - make my own! That way, I know exactly what is in it and children love the "takeaway" treat that Mum & Dad have. This recipe comes from an awesome wee book called The Takeaway Secret, whichtells you how to make all your favourite takeaway foods at home. I have to admit, I have used this book a LOT. We have enjoyed egg Mcmuffins, chinese ribs, pakoras etc. I may blog about them sometime soon. This is a recipe that I have made at least 5 or 6 times now, the kids really do love it. I add coleslaw & salad to the pittas, serve with potato wedges and it makes for quite a healthy dinner! My husband though says he could at 2 of these, and this recipe just makes enough for 5 kebabs. I might make double next time, and freeze some of the meat, Im pretty sure it would freeze well. Let me know if you try this recipe, and what you think of it.

1 teaspoon plain flour

1 teaspoon dried oregano

Ha;f teaspoon dried Italian herbs

Half teaspoon garlic powder

Half teaspoon onion powder

Quarter teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon salt

Half teaspoon black pepper

500g Lamb mince

Pittas, salad & coleslaw/sauce to serve. I als added potato wedges coated in olive oil, garlic & herbs.

Combine all the ingredients. Work the mixture well with your hands, pounding & kneading until there are no air pockets. It shold be a smooth mixture.

Shape into a loaf shape, and place on a baking tray (preferably on a wire rack) and put in the oven at 180c for 1 hour 20 mins. Turn the loaf over halfway through cooking.

Remove from the oven & wrap in foil. Let it rest for 10 minutes while you warm pitta bread & prepare salad. Unwrap the meat and slice as thinly as possible.

Chicken katsu curry

100g flour, seasoned with lots of salt and
pepper
1 free-range egg, beaten lightly
200g Japanese panko breadcrumbs
4 boneless chicken breasts
100ml groundnut or vegetable oil
steamed rice and salad to serve

For the curry sauce

1 tablespoon groundnut or vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
5 whole garlic cloves, peeled
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons plain flour
1 tablespoon medium curry powder
600ml chicken stock
2 teaspoons honey
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 bay leaf
half a teaspoon garam masala

Anyone who is into Japanese food knows that katsu curry is wickedly wonderful. What makes it stand out from other curries is that the meat is breaded and fried before having a luxurious silky curry sauce slathered all over it.

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a small pan. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 2 minutes, then throw in the carrots and sweat slowly for 10 minutes with the lid on, giving the odd stir, until softened and starting to caramelise. Stir in the flour and curry powder and cook for a minute. Slowly pour in the stock until combined (do this gradually to avoid getting lumps). Add the honey, soy sauce and bay leaf and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, so the sauce thickens but is still of pouring consistency. Add the garam masala, then pass the sauce through a sieve (unless you prefer a chunky sauce).

Now prepare the chicken. Lay the seasoned flour, egg and breadcrumbs on separate plates. Coat the chicken in the flour, then dip into the egg and fi nally into the breadcrumbs.

Heat the oil in a frying pan and fry the breaded chicken breasts for 5 minutes on each side, or until golden and cooked through. Remove from the pan with a slotted spoon and leave to drain on kitchen paper. Slice the chicken diagonally and serve with the sauce drizzled over, steamed rice and salad.

From 'Gizzi's Magic Kitchen' by Gizzi Erskine (Virgin Books, £20).

Homemade BBQ chicken pizza

Pizza dough (makes enough for two 10" pizzas)

230g strong white flour
1 x 7g packet active dried yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
120 ml water.

Mix the flour, yeast and sugar. Add the salt & mix again.

Add the olive oil & then slowly add the water until the dough comes together.

Knead thoroughly on a floured surface for 3-4 minutes. Shape into a ball.

Retrun the dough to the bowl, cover with a damp cloth & leave in a warm area for 1 hour (it shoudl double in size).

Knock the air out of teh dough. Divide in half and knead for a further minute. Shape into a ball again.

The dough is now ready to use or freeze.

Chicken Satay

This is a bit of a cheat meal, as I used a packet spice mix from my local Asain supermarket! It's this one here. The chicken is marintaed in the spices & coconut milk. There is a second sachet of spices to make the peanut dipping sauce to go with it - this was quite spicy! Delicious though.

Tanddori Chicken Kebabs

These tasted way better than any takeaway! I dont think my home made pitta bread turned out right, too doughy really, but still tasted far better than the cardboardy shop-bought versions. The chicken was marinated overnight, but the marinade was very easy to make. I picked up the tandoori spice mix in my local Asian supermarket.

To make 2 kebabs -

2 chicken breasts, cut into strips
1 tsp tandoori masala spices
19 tsp natural yogurt

Mix the spices with the yogurt until completely blended. Add the chicken pieces, coat well & marinade overnight (or as long as possible).

Line a grill pan with foil, add 100ml water, then place the wire rack on top. Place the chicken on the wire rack, and put into a prehetaed oven (220c). Cook for about 20 minutes, turning once. Serve in a pitta, with salad and sauce (sauce recipe below).

Garlic kebab sauce

3 tblsp mayo
1 tblsp natural yogurt
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp olive oil
Pinch of salt
Pinch of dried parsley
1 tblsp water

Mix the ingredients (except the water) until thouroughly combined. Add the water a bit at a time until you get the desired consistancy. Chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours.