Grubbs n Critters

July 5, 2015

Sunday Humour: Lamest of the Lame

Category: Entertainment

Sometimes, all it takes is reading a lame humour to turn your frown upside down:

Tell me that you didn’t break into a smile, even when you have rolled your eyeballs to back of your brains? Tee…heee!

OK. I’m quite easy to please.Going on forth, as lame as you feel your week has been, have a smiley one!

Monthly Mystery Munchies #3 with Gen

Category: Recipe

In the mood for some curry this weekend?

Then you have to, HAVE to check out Gen’s Lamb Saag and Aloo Curry winning creation which she made in response to this month’s Monthly Mystery Munchies Challenge.

Along with the 3 key ingredients which she has chosen consisting of lemon, coriander and thyme, she also added plethora of other ingredients – veggies, spices and herbs. Her advice is: to keep in mind when using so many ingredients is that balance is key – especially with spices.

They shouldn’t be overpowering because that can ruin the dish in one easy step (and I agree!) They should all work well together to create the ideal blend (Agree!) From fragrant coriander (cilantro) to succulent lamb to the bite of the chillies, this comes together beautifully! (Agree! Agree!Agree!) This meal contains many superfoods and superspices (yep, that’s a thing), so not only is it delicious, tasty and fragrant but ridiculously healthy too.

Lamb Saag and Aloo 5 2 Lamb Saag and Aloo 7 2

She couldn’t be more right! I love it that she used lamb for her dish, which, in my mind can be a little tricky to cook. Gen has rightly pointed out that I may have chosen chicken for the challenge, and she is right. Mainly because, we don’t do pork in our family so that’s out; but also because Silver Bullet does not eat seafood, which is a big bummer for me; hence why I always ever cook with nothing more than just beef and chicken.

Although, I can always make my husband go hungry. I mean, I love, love, love my fish and prawns and squids and it’s just a shame that I can’t cook them that often or I’ll end up cooking several types of dishes (for me and for him) and then OD-ing myself on seafood for a week!

But I digress.

Gen made a good remark that curry tend to taste better when you let it stand. This, I couldn’t agree more as we always find that curries do taste better the next day.

And yes, don’t forget those taters! Ever. Gen, has, definitely nailed the challenge as I would never have thought of using lemon and thyme to a curry dish. Well done, I’d say! Hmmm…I’m inspired to make Gen’s lamb curry soon!

I also learnt a new word: Saag = Spinach.

This has been so much fun. We were using quite similar ingredients and I wonder if we ever would one day come up with the same dish. Only time will tell. Meantime, if you every try those dishes from Monthly Mystery Munchies, don’t forget to let us know how it turned out for you, and if you can, post up your experience too.

Till next month, folks!

Monthly Mystery Munchies #3: Spiced Chicken with Thyme, Saffron and Lemon Gravy

Category: Fabulous Friday Flavours

Our Monthly Mystery Munchies challenge has just gotten better! Gen over at Eat, Play, Clove has chosen 3 key ingredients for this month’s installment to be used in our respective dish: Lemon/Lime (or the juice of), Coriander and Thyme. Also with other ingredients if I like.

lemoncroianderthyme — Source: Google Image

This is good as I absolutely lurrrve using a combination of spices and herbs as they make the taste that much more flavourful to a dish. I thought that this is quite up my alley!

Saffron is just one of those ingredients I always keep in my spice cabinet and I usually only use it for festive dishes. But I needed an excuse to use saffron along with the ingredients which Gen suggested, and as I scoured for recipes, I found 2 dishes using saffron: one from Karen Martini and the other from Ethnic Spoon.

One is Syrian, the other is Moroccan…but I don’t have a tagine to work with, although the Moroccan Saffron Chicken looks so amazing. Those are certainly recipes to try for the next time, but this one today has been adapted from Karen Martini’s which has inspired me to create my Grubbecipes for this month’s challenge.

Let me present you with my version of Syrian-Moroccan inspired Spiced Chicken dish that has the 3 vital ingredients required for this challenge with add-ons of saffron, cumin and cranberries:

The flavours blend well and the spice infusion was lovely! There’s a distinct saffron taste with lemony zing while sweetness of the cranberry added a touch of a pleasant surprise to the dish and we love it! This is a definite keeper.

Spiced Chicken with Thyme, Saffron and Lemon Gravy

2015-07-07 17:24:12

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Ingredients

2 onions, sliced
3 tspn ground cumin
2-3 tspn black pepper
2 tbsp tumeric powder
half a tspn of salt
8-12 pieces of chicken, with bones and skin
2-3 tbsp olive oil
3 inches young ginger, thinly sliced
1.5 tspn coriander powder
5 garlic, pressed
4 fresh red chillies, sliced lengthwise
3 red tomatoes, chopped
2 pinches of saffron thread (saffron can be overpowering, so be mindful with the pinches)
1 tspn cumin seeds, lightly pounded
Sprigs of thyme, leaves only
1 lemon, squeeze juice and grate about 2-3 tbsp of zest
3-4 tbsp dried cranberries
3 tbsp honey
1 chicken stock cube
Onion flakes (optional)
Bunch of coriander leaves to garnish

Instructions

Mix ground cumin, black pepper, tumeric powder and salt together. Rub the mixture to the chicken and set aside.
Fry chicken in a deep pan with hot oil. I prefer the skin to get a little crispy, but you can also just brown the sides and then remove it from the oil.
In a separate pan, heat up olive oil. When it is hot enough, press garlic and stir fry for about a minute. Be careful not to burn it. Then add in the onions, chillies, ginger and chicken stock cube. Stir fry for about 2 minutes.
Add in tomatoes, saffron, cumin seeds and thyme. Cook for about 3-5 minutes.
Add in honey and squeeze the juice out of the lemon. Add in the zest. Mix thoroughly.
At this point, you can add in the chicken and add enough water to cover the chicken. Let it simmer for about 10 minutes, until the liquid is slightly reduced before serving. Alternatively, place the chicken in an oven dish. Once the gravy is mixed well, pour the gravy over the chicken which you have laid out in the oven dish
Sprinkle the onion flakes and cranberries over it and cover. Put it in the over for 30 minutes at 160 degrees celcius. Carefully stir the gravy and the chicken at least once at about 15 minutes to distribute the flavour (I prefer the alternative as the chicken seems to absorb the flavours from the gravy better and the chicken will not get too dry from the earlier frying)
Serve hot with rice, couscous or salad.

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I also have a good mind to add a dash of Bhut Jolokiah flakes (and I have a bag of that from our last trip in Prague) just to see how that would transform the entire thing. That, I reckon, should be good!

Eat, Play, Clove should be brewing with a recipe any minute now and I can’t wait to feature what she has made. Thanks Gen, for the great combo of ingredients! This has been a lot of fun and let’s toast to next month with different ingredients/theme to experiment with!

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Monthly Mystery Munchies features every first Friday of the month in collaboration with Gen, Author of Eat, Play, Clove. Next month will be my turn to suggest a theme and I have a few weeks to come up with something. Until then! 🙂

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