Recipe taken from 'Floyds India'
I love Keith Floyd. And I love the tone of his cookery books;
"Whilst I have done my best to ensure that al the recipe's in this book work, I must tell you that as I cooked them - and indeed I have cooked every single recipe that appears in this book - I did not have the luxury of a fitted kitchen....One day I would be cooking with dried cow dung in a hole in the ground, another burning my wrists whilst attempting to slap Indian bread into a searingly hot tandoor oven.....What I am trying to say is, please approach these recipes with a good common sense attitude. All the measurements, timings, temperatures quantities etc, etc, are very approximate. If, say, a recipe calls for a tub of yoghurt, but two just in case you need a little more. Do not slavishly follow the quantities of the spices for the masalas; you might like it hotter, in which case add more hot spices; you might like it a little milder, and so on and so forth.....It is not possible to say that a lamb curry takes exactly 45 minutes. If you happen to be using very young tender lamb it may only take fifteen, if you are using some tough old mutton it may be an hour and a half. The thing to do is periodically taste and see how it is getting on. Anyway, I wish you very happy cooking and a contented tummy."
The ingriedients list is quite long but Floyd says, "If you cannot get some of them, do not be discouraged, just leave them out and do the best you can."
Makes about 20 kebabs
500g minced lamb
for tempering
3 teaspoons ginger paste
3 teaspoons garlic puree
3 tablespoons of brown onion paste *
1 tablespoon grated fresh coconut
2 tablespoons natural yogurt (I used soy yoghurt)
2 tablespoons of cream (I missed this out, obviously)
2 teaspoons fresh ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon ground black cardamon
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1 teaspoon crushed poppy seeds
1teaspoon red chili powder
3 tablespoons gram flour
1 tablespoon fresh chopped mint
1 tablespoon fresh chopped coriander
1 teaspoon ground papaya
salt and pepper to taste
* ginger and garlic puree are self explanatory I think, but brown onion paste is simply onions fried until golden brown and blitzed. A lovely undertone of flavour that I will definitely use again.
Mix it all together and shape into kebabs, complicated ;)
(I could not get ground papaya, and I used green cardamon and not black. The recipe survived fine.)
Roasted stuffed peppers
I used what I had in the fridge basically - white onion, green beans, carrot and sweetcorn sauted in the masala mix, mixed with sultanas and stuffed into the peppers. The recipe called for cashew nuts and paneer, but seen as my husband is allergic to nuts and I cannot eat dairy I missed those out. I don't think the recipe suffers at all.
masala
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon garlic puree
1 teaspoon ginger puree
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt
According to Floyd a raita is any of the following in any quantities, yoghurt, mint, tomato, grated cucumber, chill, pineapple, spring onions, beetroot - anything you fancy!
By this measure I made a very boring mint and cucumber one with soya yoghurt and plenty of salt.
