Turmeric Archives - Spiced Up By Bilal

Browse Tag by Turmeric

Belle Babies

Belle Babies - Served

ByBilalBham | On July 28,17 | 0 Comment

My Italian friend Giovanni was having a dinner party at his and invited his European, hailing from Italy and Spain, over for food and asked us to bring or cook something. As you know, I love to cook, but I also wanted to show off my culinary skills… ehem! Since my friends were European, the food had to be good! I wanted to make something which was relatively easy to transport, didn’t need any Tupperware and people could just pick up and eat on a small plate. I also had to ensure that it was tasty in terms of spices but not too spicy hot since various people had different levels of tolerance, and I am a softy when it comes to spicy hot !If you are wondering why I used 3 different bell peppers, it’s simple, I like my food to be colourful and appetising!

I had made stuffed peppers before but I wanted to make sure I nailed it right this time. The time before, I didn’t have enough tomato puree and it showed up in the taste test!

If you are wondering how I managed to transport this to Giovanni’s place directly from the oven, then here’s the spoiler – mum came to the rescue with a brilliant idea! She covered the top with more aluminium foil, and then wrapped it in packing paper we had lying around from various deliveries, popped it in a large shopping bag and I was ready to roll! When I arrived 10 mins later, the food was still piping hot and ready to eat, and thankfully, they all enjoyed it!

For my vegetarian/vegan friends, you can swap the beef mince with Quorn mince, tofu, legumes and grains, or nut blends.

INGREDIENTS

1 kg beef mince

9 bell peppers

1 red onion

1 normal onion

3 cloves garlic

1 cm ginger

1 cm turmeric

1 red chilli

1 green chilli

100 g tomato puree

Salt and pepper to taste

1 teaspoon of coconut oil

RECIPE

Chop up the onions, garlic, ginger, chilli and turmeric, and sauté at medium heat in a small frying pan with coconut oil.
In a larger frying pan, cook the beef mince at medium heat until it is cooked through and turned a tan/light brown colour – get rid of all the red bits, unless you like eating raw meat!
Whilst the 2 frying pans are cooking, slice the top of the bell peppers off and clean out the insides of seeds and other debris. Be sure to wash to get rid of everything, and shake dry.
Transfer the sautéed vegetables to the mince meat saucepan and mix thoroughly.
Add the tomato puree – they tend to be 200 g so use half – and mix thoroughly until cooked.
Set the oven at gas mark 6/200°C and set a shelf in the middle.
Line a baking tray with aluminium foil.
Fill all of the bell peppers with the beef mince mix, cover with the sliced portions, and place in the baking tray.
Bake the bell babies for 30 minutes until the tops begin to turn brown.
Belle Babies served!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves up to 9 people – my friends loved these!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Dinner, Lunch, Teatime

Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine

Dinner is served!

ByBilalBham | On March 05,17 | 2 Comments

I haven’t made a tagine for a while and felt inspired after hearing from my sister from another mister, Hanane. Hanane and I have been friends for about a decade and have become family, with me visiting them and her and her mother visiting us. On my visit to Morocco, I knew I didn’t want to come home without a tagine, and so Hanane and her family helped me get an excellent one for pennies from the Atlas Mountains! Whilst we were visiting Marrakech, we stopped by a road seller selling tagines of all sizes, and I got one for about 50p!

During my time with Hanane and her family, both over in Morocco and here in England, they cooked some wonderful tagines for me, and my mother and I also cooked our slightly spicier versions, and I must say, mum is quite fond of using the tagine!

I wanted to cook something healthy, spicy (not too spicy), sweet, filling, rich in protein and healthy carbs, and this is what came to me! My Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine! It was a lot tastier than I thought it would be and it looks like I will be cooking it again for mum and I!

If you don’t have a tagine, then a casserole dish should do the job too!

INGREDIENTS

3 chicken breasts

1 red onion

1 white onion

1 regular onion

1 spring onion

3 cloves garlic

1 cm ginger

1 cm turmeric

1 red chilli

1 green chilli

1 red pepper

1 green pepper

3 sweet peppers

20 pitted dates

1 teaspoon dried coriander

Salt and pepper to taste

A pinch of saffron

6 tablespoons olive oil

RECIPE

Chop up the garlic, ginger, and turmeric, move to a bowl and add 3 tablespoons olive oil, saffron, dried coriander, salt and pepper.
Clean the chicken breasts, coat them with the mix in the bowl and leave to marinate in the fridge whilst you prepare the rest of the tagine (you can leave it anywhere from 30 minutes to overnight to really get the flavour infusion).
Slice the onions and sweet potatoes, and wash the chillies and peppers.
In the tagine, add 3 tablespoons of olive oil, and the red, white, normal and spring onions, covering the bottom and side of the tagine.
Cover with the tagine lid and cook on a raised bracket on low to medium heat for about 10 minutes, until the onions begin to caramelise.
Place the chicken over the onions, cover and leave to cook for 10 minutes.
Turn the chicken and leave to cook for another 10 minutes.
Turn the chicken again and add the chillies, peppers and dates across the chicken and sides, and leave to cook for 5 minutes.
Add the sweet potatoes on top and leave to cook for another 10 minutes.
Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine is served! (If you wish, garnish with fresh coriander, parsley, basil or even mint!).

Sweet'n'Spicy Chicken Tagine is served! — Sweet’n’Spicy Chicken Tagine is served!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves 2 to 4 people – mum loved hers!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Dinner, Lunch

BrocCauli ChiQuin

ByBilalBham | On October 16,16 | 0 Comment

In traditional Indian cuisine from the state of Gujarat, for those of us who are meat eaters, we don’t eat much by way of vegetables! As I have been trying to do throughout my blog, I want to increase the nutritional content of traditional dishes that I have grown up eating! Today it was chicken curry or chicken tikka massala again!

Broccoli and cauliflower are rich in vitamins C, B and K, and broccoli, so definitely good for your immune system at this time of year as our climate changes! Pigeon peas add some extra greens and vitamins to really give you a good helping of protein, healthy carbs, fats, fibres, vitamins and minerals!

I love my quinoa, but you can have it with whatever you wish! Mum had hers with chappati because she’s not a big fan of quinoa! More for me!

INGREDIENTS

BrocCauli Chicken

1 chicken breast

1 onion

50 g pigeon peas (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

1/2 tin chopped tomatoes

4 cloves garlic (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 cm ginger (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 green chillies (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon dried coriander

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1 teaspoon

2 teaspoon coconut oil

Pillau Quinoa

40 g quinoa

¼ onion

2 cinnamon sticks

200 mL of filtered water, boiled.

¼ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Coconut oil

INSTRUCTIONS

BroCauli Chicken

In a large saucepan, add in 2 teaspoons coconut oil, 1 chopped onion, and caramelise on 3/4 heat;
Add in garlic, ginger, chilli, and cook and stir until the smell goes;
Add in the chicken, sliced and diced, and cook until all the pink bits are cooked.
Add in 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes, spices and seasoning, pigeon peas, and place on ½ heat and cover for 5 minutes whether ingredient are frozen or not due to moisture from the chicken;
Simmer on ¼ heat for 20 minutes and stir occasionally to mix;
Add in the cauliflower, chopped, and cover for 10 minutes;
Add in the broccoli, chopped, and cover for 10 minutes,
Continue to stir whilst the curry cooks, add water if needed;
Check the chicken and vegetables if they are done as you like them;
BrocCauli Chicken is served!

Pillau Quinoa

You can begin cooking this simultaneously with the BroCauli Chicken at point 6;
In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (put the water on to boil);
Slice and dice in the ¼ onion and stir, sauté until the onion caramelises;
Add in the boiling water, ¼ teaspoon of salt, the quinoa and stir gently;
Allow the quinoa to simmer, turn the heat down to a quarter, and cover with the lid;
Check on it 3 to 5 minutes later and gently turn the quinoa over with a plastic or wooden spoon to ensure you keep your quinoa seeds in tact;
Repeat step 8 until the quinoa is cooked and all the water evaporates;
You are now ready to eat!

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves up to 2 people

I made enough just for mum and I! Mum had hers with chapatti!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂

Dinner, Lunch, Vegan, Vegetarian

Spicy Spinach

ByBilalBham | On October 09,16 | 0 Comment

As part of my little experiment to go meat free, I decided to get mum in to help me out when I decided to cook! She suggested I cook her dish Spicy Spinach, which I have enjoyed for many years. The only thing we have changed recently is using coconut oil instead of other oils.

Traditionally, we ate this with every other Saturday with yellow rice, (mum uses turmeric for the colour!), and kurhi, a heated watered down yogurt, not great for my digestive system! Mum also enjoys this with chapati, naan or pitta bread, however, with my gluten intolerances, I guess I could handle wholemeal or jasmine rice, but I went with my tried and trust quinoa, made Indian style!

This dish is perfect for a light lunch or dinner, contains potatoes for some carbs (mum said sweet potato or butternut squash would make the dish too sweet, so I went with starchy potatoes!), iron and zinc from spinach and other spices to up antioxidants. You will also receive a decent amount of protein from 40 g of quinoa!

INGREDIENTS

Spicy Spinach

200 g spinach (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

50 g peas (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

¼ tin chopped tomatoes

4 charlotte potatoes

4 cloves garlic (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 cm ginger (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

2 green chillies (we used a bag we’d frozen before)

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon dried coriander

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1 teaspoon

2 teaspoon coconut oil

Pillau Quinoa

40 g quinoa

¼ onion

2 cinnamon sticks

200 mL of filtered water, boiled.

¼ teaspoon Salt

1 teaspoon Coconut oil

INSTRUCTIONS

Spicy Spinach

In a large saucepan, add in ¾ chopped onion, 2 teaspoon coconut oil peas, garlic, ginger, chilli, ¼ tin tomatoes, chopped potatoes, spices and seasoning, place on ½ heat and cover for 5 minutes whether ingredient are frozen or not due to moisture from the spinach;
Simmer on ¼ heat for 20 minutes and stir occasionally to mix;
Spicy Spinach is served! Yes really!

Pillau Quinoa

You can begin cooking this simultaneously with the Spicy Spinach;
In a saucepan on ¾ heat, add 1 tablespoon of coconut oil (put the water on to boil);
Slice and dice in the ¼ onion and stir, sauté until the onion caramelises;
Add in the cinnamon sticks;
Add in the boiling water and a ¼ teaspoon of salt;
Add the quinoa and stir gently;
Allow the quinoa to simmer, turn the heat down to a quarter, and cover with the lid;
Check on it 3 to 5 minutes later and gently turn the quinoa over with a plastic or wooden spoon to ensure you keep your quinoa seeds in tact;
Repeat step 8 until the quinoa is cooked and all the water evaporates;
You are now ready to eat!

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 20 minutes

Eating time: 15 minutes

Serves up to 2 people

I made enough just for mum and I!

Let me know how you get on and please feel free to provide feedback 🙂