Ethiopian Berbere chicken wings

Recipe adapted from here (serves 4 as part of starter, serves 2 as part of mains)

 

Chicken wings- 1kg, I used niblets without any skin

Runny honey- 2 to 3 tbsp
Lemon wedges- to serve (optional)

Berbere spice mix
Cardamom- 8,. Discard the pods and keep the seeds, around 1/4 tsp of seeds (read notes)

Coriander powder- 1 tsp,

Chilli powder- 2 tbsp (I used Kashmiri chilli powder, if you dont have that, use mild paprika)

Garlic granules/ powder- 2 tsp

Fenugreek powder- 1 tsp

Cumin powder- 1 tsp

Ginger powder- ½ tsp

Salt- to taste

Oil- 1 tbsp, to brush on tray (I used oil spray)

Dip

Mayonnaise- 2 tbsp

double cream- 2 tbsp

Yoghurt- 1/4 cup

Lemon juice- 1/2 tbsp

Salt- to taste

Into a spice jar throw in all the ingredients for the berbere spice mix and grind to a fine powder.

Marinate the chicken wings as evenly as possible, with the spice mix and keep covered in the refrigerator for a minimum of 1hr. Can also be kept overnight in the fridge.

When ready to cook, preheat oven to 170C and line a baking tray with aluminium foil.

Spray/brush the foil with oil and tip the chicken wings on to the tray.

Cover with another piece of foil and cook for about 20 minutes.

Take it out of oven, turn the wings over and cook for another 20 minutes.

While the wings are cooking make the dip by whisking together all the ingredients. Do a taste test and adjust salt accordingly.

Remove the tray from the oven and change the setting to broil/grill mode.

Brush the wings with half the honey, or you can even toss the wings in a bowl with the honey. I found that brushing it was easier.

Place the tray back in the oven, but without the foil covering and grill for about 6 to 8 minutes.

When the time is up, turn the wings over and brush with remaining honey.

Watch the wings carefully while grilling as some grills can be really powerful and may burn the chicken, in which case, reduce the cooking time.

Check that the wings are cooked, caramelised and slightly sticky

Remove from oven and serve hot with the dip and lemon wedges.

Notes: The cardamom flavour stood out a little too much for me, so maybe ill reduce it a bit next time.

The original recipe called for chilli flakes, but since i was using a slightly spicy version of Kashmiri chilli, i didnt add the flakes. 

The reason my wings are more red is because of the Kashmiri chilli.

The honey here doesnt lend an overpowering sweet flavour, but just enough to know its there. If you refer it more sweet, brush with more honey.

Pea, mint and feta dip & a Bloody Martini

 

I have been busy, very busy, but good busy. Those of you on my Facebook page would already know that Chaiparty has pretty much taken over our lives. Read all about it here. Its a lot of work, but absolutely rewarding at the same time. We are also doing themed lunches in the next coming months and cant wait to get started on the next big chaiparty in September. We also just got back from a holiday in Spain, which was eventful to say the least and I have also been busy attending a lot of fun food events around London, not to mention thoroughly enjoying summer, or what's left of it.

A couple of weeks back I was invited to the Putting on the Ritz event where we were treated to some gorgeous cocktails and dips, all paired with the new Ritz thins. Ritz teamed up with supper club expert Alice Levine and the very popular mixologist Richard Woods (of Duck & Waffle) to come up with a series of tips, recipes and ideas to Ritz-Up socialising this summer. It was held at a stunning penthouse apartment in East London with amazing views over the city. 

The 4 new flavours of oven-baked potato crisps from Ritz- Cream Cheese & Onion, Sea Salt & Vinegar, Sweet Red Chilli and Sea Salt & Black Pepper- are delicious. They were paired with equally delicious dips, with the pea, mint and feta and the smoked paprika topping my list. Of course, the glamour side was intact with 4 very unique cocktails that were paired with the crisps. The weather was great, the company was good and we all had a nice time 'Putting on the Ritz.'

I had to make the pea, mint and feta dip at home, especially after bragging about it to the husband. It turned out great and was wiped clean in a matter of hours while watching a movie. Of the cocktails that were served on the day, the Mates Martini, a (very) complicated version of the Bloody Mary was my favourite. Trust the cocktail expert Richard Woods to make things easy ;). Since i like complicated i decided to make it at home. It took me 2 days and a lot of patience to make the drink, but it was totally worth it. Yes, I do go out of my way for that perfect cocktail. I am however trying to figure out an easy way to do this mix, because you know, the urge to have a bloody Mary doesn't quite last for 2 days.

Pea, mint and feta dip (Recipe adapted from Alice Levine who prepared this dip at Ritz event)

Frozen peas- 250 gms, thawed

Feta- 50 gms, crumbled

Fresh mint- 3 tbsp, roughly chopped

Garlic- 1 clove, chopped

Green chilli- 1/2 of a small one, chopped (optional)

Extra virgin olive oil- 2tbsp

Lemon juice- 1 tbsp

Salt- to taste

Pepper- to taste

Blend together all the ingredients in a food processor and season to taste.

Add a splash of water if you would prefer it a bit loose.

Transfer to a serving bowl, drizzle some olive oil on top, garnish with some mint leaves and serve as a dip with the Ritz Sea Salt and Vinegar.

Bloody Martini (Makes a little more than 2 drinks. Recipe adapted from Richard Woods who prepared the drink at the Ritz event)

Vodka- 100ml

Basil- 15gms

Bloody Marry Consommé- 100ml (recipe below)

Ice cubes- 4

Bloody Marry Consommé

Ground black pepper- 2 gms

Sea salt- 1.5 gms

celery salt- 1 gm

Tabasco original- 5 dashes

Tabasco green- 8 dashes

Lemon juice- 1/2 tbsp

Worcestershire sauce- 8 dashes

Tomato juice- 300ml

Infuse the vodka with the basil leaves for about 24hrs. Make sure you don't infuse it longer or else it would turn bitter.

Strain and use as required.

The consommé also needs to be made a day before.

Into a freezer safe container with lid, pour in the tomato juice and all the other ingredients and stir well.

Leave to infuse for about an hour and then put on the lid and place in the freezer.

The following morning, remove the frozen tomato mix from freezer and do a drip thaw, which essentially means you create a filter through which the block thaws naturally.

I used a muslin cloth and my sieve to do this.

This takes an entire day so patience is much advised.

You can make this in bulk, and it will keep for 7 days in the fridge.

To make the Martini, chill the martini glasses prior to serving.

Stir together the vodka and consommé along with the ice cubes until well chilled.

Strain into chilled glass, garnish with a floating basil leaf and serve.

With thanks to Ritz UK for inviting me to the event and for all the delicious crisps.

Shami kebabs with coriander-mint chutney

 

I love kebabs, and its a pity we don't get them as frequently as we did back home. We had this really nice tandoori restaurant near home and my dad would so often go pick up tandoori chicken, seekh kebabs, chicken tikka and the like from there. Even now when i go back home, he gets me the kebabs and it tastes just as nice, but i just haven't had anything close to that here. I mean Tayyabs is good and so is Kadiri's but they are so far away, and i miss those corner kebab places you find in abundance in India.

So the next best thing is to try and make your own. I have a few favourites that i have proudly mastered, like the Afghani murgh malai kebabs, the beef seekh kebabs and chicken tikka, and they make it to the table at most of my parties because they are so easy to make. Shami kebabs on the other hand is a bit difficult to make, i admit, but so frikking tasty and def up there on the kebab list. Like seriously melt-in-the-mouth types.

I had some friends over last weekend and I made these kebabs as starters and served them with a spicy coriander mint chutney, which i must say came out so well. The one time i previously made them, they were bitter...its a problem i always seem to face with coriander leaves when ground. I started putting it together with a plan b in mind, 99 percent sure it wasn't going to turn out nice, but then, it just did...and i decided to post it here before i forgot the measurements.

The recipe is from Maya's Yummy O Yummy, a blog i religiously follow for all my mallu recipes. She's really got some amazing stuff up there so do drop by and check them out. 

Makes 25 to 30 small patties

Ground beef- 1/2 kg

Chana dal- 1/2 cup, rinsed

Ginger- 1 1/2 tsp, peeled and chopped

Garlic- 2 tsp, peeled and chopped

Onion- 1 cup, roughly chopped

Dried red chillies- 2

Salt- to taste

Water- 1/2 cup

To grind

Coriander seeds- 1 tbsp

Cumin seeds- 1 1/2 tsp

Whole peppercorns- 1 tsp

Cinnamon stick- 1/2 inch

Cardamom- 2 pods

Cloves- 4

Coriander leaves- 1/2 cup, washed and roughly chopped

Mint leaves- 25 (around 1/4 cup packed)
Onion- 1/2 cup, roughly hopped

Oil- enough to shallow fry the patties
Egg- 1, beaten

Into a pressure cooker throw in the ground beef, chana dal, ginger, garlic, onion, red chillies and salt.

Break the meat down, while mixing in the other ingredients as well.

Pour in the water and cook on medium heat for about 15 minutes or for around 2 to 3 whistles.

Once the pressure releases, open the cooker and add the ground mix.

If there is any water, put it back on medium-high heat and cook till the water completely evaporates, while stirring continuously.
Keep aside to cool.

Once cool, transfer the contents of the cooker into a food processor/ blender along with the coriander, mint leaves and onion and grind to a paste.
(I do not have a food processor and my spice mill is too small, I'd have to grind it multiple times, so i used my immersion blender which surprisingly worked fine. I think I've solved my minced meat dilemma for cutlets)

 

Transfer the ground meat to a large bowl and start making small lime size balls and flatten.
You can freeze the patties at this point and continue with the next step once you take them out of the freezer.
When ready to cook, heat oil in a pan, dip the patties in the egg and fry till brown on both sides.
Drain on paper towels and serve hot with the chutney.

Notes: The shami kebabs are traditionally made with ground mutton, but i went with beef. Feel free to use the exact measurement of ground lamb.
The kebabs weren't spicy at all, and so i made the chutney a wee bit spicy, which worked well.

Coriander-mint chutney

 

Coriander leaves- 1/2 cup, roughly chopped
Mint leaves- 1/4 cup
Cumin powder- 1/4 tsp
Lemon juice- a generous dash
Green chilli- 1, chopped
Salt- to taste
Yoghurt- 2 heaped tbsp

Blend together all the ingredients, except yoghurt, in a food processor (I used my spice mill).
Transfer to a bowl and stir in the yoghurt.
Adjust seasoning if required.
The chutney stays in the refrigerator in an air tight container for about 5 days.

Minced beef kebabs- Summer BBQ with Waitrose

Summer has been fab, like really fab. I also say it 'has' been because, its gone back to sunless, chilly days and cardi's and jeans. I've also been so busy the past 2 months, this is the first weekend off after ages and i wanted to just vegetate on the sofa. Of course after about 2 hours catching up on Pretty Little Liars and Orange is the New Black, i started getting withdrawals. I realised that I actually like being busy, but not so busy it messes up with my mind.

This year BBQ parties have been scarce, with me working on weekends and with our favourite BBQ couple off on holiday. We still managed a few, and we also did our first BBQ at home as well, thanks to Waitrose. The deal was to get some food recipe inspiration from celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal, do a twist on it and serve it at your BBQ. I scouted around Heston's Ultimate BBQ page and wanted to make almost everything there. My first option was the Asian style ribs, closely followed by the steak and parsley sauce. But after some brainstorming (read arguing) with the husband, we finally decided on Hestons beef kebab. A quick shopping spree on Waitrose online, and we had kick started our BBQ weekend.

I did my own (no fuss) version of it, slightly Indian seekh kebab in nature, and served it with a side of pickled onions, cucumber and tomato salad, asparagus wrapped in parma ham, cous cous, pita bread, a yoghurt sauce and some Indian style corn on the cob. I also made a pitcher of raspberry vodka spritzer and for dessert, a meringue roulade with strawberry coulis. I invited some friends over and held the BBQ party in our common park next door. It was a laid back evening with great company, good food and fab weather.

Summer is still not over, so if you are looking for inspiration to whip up a BBQ feast, then you know where to look.

Serves 4

Beef mince- 400 gms

Onion- 1 small, finely chopped

Garlic paste- 1/2 tbsp

Green chilli-  2, finely chopped (adjust according to preference)

Almond powder- 20 gms

Coriander leaves- a handful, finely chopped

Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Garam masala- 1/2 tsp

Ground cinnamon- a generous pinch

Egg- 1 small, lightly whisked

Salt and pepper- to taste

Oil- 3 tbsp

Wooden skewers- 1o to 12, soaked in water for abut 2 to 3 hours

In a large mixing bowl, mix together all the ingredients until well combined.

make sure you break down the beef mince and nicely incorporate all the masalas and ingredients into the meat, mixing with your hands if possible.

If you think the mix appears to be a bit loose, add some more almond powder.

take small portions of the meat in your hand and press on to the skewers, binding well.

make sure you don't use too much meat on the skewer, or else the weight would make it fall off.

Fire up your bbq and place them on the hot grill, rotating them every couple of minutes.

They should be done in about 10 minutes. Do a check by slicing off a bit and if you don't see any pink meat, you're good to go.

Remove from heat and serve warm.

I wrapped my kebabs in a pita bread along with cous cous and salad and doused some yoghurt sauce on top whereas the husband kept dunking his kebab in the sauce, which he said brought out the flavours much better.

Recipe for the Meringue Roulade can be found here

With thanks to Waitrose for the bbq grill and the voucher for the food and ingredients.