For this challenge the theme is Leaf – one of my new favourite leaves is Kaffir Lime leaves. I usually pick a few off my lime tree, throw them in a cup with some honey and make a quick tea – very refreshing and great if you have a cold.

Kaffir leaves are also used a lot in Thai cooking, so I wanted to do a Thai dish – Green Beef Curry with Thai Eggplant from my curry cookbook

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

3 tablespoons green curry paste

2 1/2 cups coconut milk

450g beef sirloin

4 kaffir lime leaves, torn

1 tablespoon Thai fish sauce

1 teaspoon soft light brown sugar

150g Thai eggplants or small eggplants, sliced

2 fresh green chillies and a small handful of Thai basil to garnish

Plain boiled rice or noodles, to serve

Heat the oil in a wok or large pan. Add the green curry paste and fry gently until the paste begins to release its fragrant aromas.

Stir in half the coconut milk, a little at a time. Cook over a medium heat for about 5-6 minutes, until the oil begins to seperate and an oily sheen appears on the surface.

Cut the beef into long thin slices and add to the pan with the kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce, sugar and eggplant. Cook for 2-3 minutes, then stir in the remaining coconut milk.

Bring back to a simmer and cook until the meat and eggplant are tender. Finely shred the green chillies and use to garnish the curry, along with the Thai basil leaves.

This curry was pretty easy to make, although it looks more like a brown curry than a green curry! I made the green curry paste from scratch which took the longest but you can take a shortcut by buying curry paste which would make the process even quicker. I would definetly make this again.

Ingredients

Large bunch of asparagus

1/2 a fresh red chilli

1 tablespoon groundnut oil

1 tablespoon sesame oil

400g king prawns, raw, peeled

1×400ml tin coconut milk

a handful of snow peas

1 lime

Ingredients for green curry paste

2 stalks lemongrass

4 spring onions

3 fresh green chillies

4 cloves of garlic

a thumb size piece of ginger

large bunch of fresh coriander

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

optional: 8 fresh or dried lime leaves

3 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon fish sauce

To make your green curry paste:

Trim the lemongrass stalks, peel back and discard the outer leaves, an crush the stalks by bashing them a few times with the heel of your hand or a rolling pin. Trim the spring onions. Halve and deseed the green chillies. Peel and roughly chop the garlic and ginger. Set aside a few sprigs of fresh coriander, and wizz the rest in a food processor with the lemongrass stalks, spring onions, chillies, garlic, ginger, coriander seeds and lime leaves (if using), until everything is finely chopped – the smell will be amazing! While wizzing, pour in the soy sauce and fish sauce and blitz again until you have a smooth paste. If you don’t have a food processor, chop everything by hand as finely as you can – it may take a while but it will be so worth it.

To make your curry:

Snap the woody ends off the asapargus and discard them. Run the stalks through a runner bean slicer, or finely slice them lengthways with a knife. Finely chop the red chilli and put to one side. Place a large pan or wok over a high heat. When it’s really hot, add the groundnut and sesame oils, swirl them around, then carefully drop in the prawns. Add the asparagus and your green curry paste and stir fry for about 30 seconds. Pour in the coconut milk and add the snow peas. Give it all a good stir, bring to the boil and cook for a few minutes. Have a taste and add a bit more soy sauce if you think it needs it. Push down on the lime and roll it around to get the juices going, then cut it in half. Squeeze the juice into the pan – this will give your curry a lovely twang.

To serve your curry:

Pick the leaves off the remaining coriander sprigs. Serve the curry sprinkled with the coriander leaves and the chopped red chilli, and some rice.

I decided to go with a pretty basic recipe, Thai Grilled Pepper Chicken. This was really easy to make but tasted like it took a lot more effort which is always a good thing!

Ingredients

2kg chicken breast or thigh fillets

3 tablespoons of Thai Barbeque Marinade

To make the marinade, crush 1 tablespoon chopped garlic with 2 teaspoons salt to form a smooth paste. Roast 2 tablespoons black peppercorns in a dry pan for 1-2 minutes, then coarsley crush in a mortar and pestle. Finely chop 2 cups of coriander (including stems). Mix all ingredients. You can make this paste in a blender, but reduce black peppercorns to 1 tablespoon as they are hotter when more finely ground. You can store extra paste in an airtight container in the fridge.

Wash and dry the chicken fillets, trimming off any visible fat. Lightly score the surface. Rub the marinade over the chicken and allow to stand for a couple of hours before cooking, or cover well and refrigerate overnight. Cook the chicken on a barbeque over glowing coals or under a preheated grill for about 5 minutes on each side, or until well browned. Garnish, if you wish, with tomato wedges and cucumber slices. Serve with boiled rice or a crisp green salad.

I served mine with some veggies thrown on the BBQ and some rice.

I decided on 2 recipes – Beef and Vegetable Rolls and Sushi Rolls.

Beef and Vegetable Rolls

2 medium carrots

6 asparagus spears, halved lengthways (I’m not a fan of asparagus so I substituted with brocollini)

3 green onions

12 thin slices of beef eye fillet (300g)

2 tablespoons cornflour

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon sugar

1/4 cup mirin or sweet rice wine

2 tablespoons sake

1/4 cup soy sauce

Using a vegetable peeler, slice carrot lengthways into thin strips. Cut carrot strips to width of beef. Place asparagus in a heatproof bowl, cover with boiling water, stand 2 minutes, drain, rinse under cold water. Cut asparagus and onions to width of beef. If you use brocollini like me you’ll need to blanch in boiling water for a few minutes as they need a bit longer to soften than asparagus.

Lay beef slices flat and sift 1 tablespoon of the cornflour lightly over the top. Lay 2 pieces each of the carrot and onion and one piece of asparagus across the dusted side of each slice of beef and roll up. Tie rolls with kitchen string or secure ends with toothpicks. Dust rolls lightly with remaining cornflour.

Heat oil in medium frying pan and cook rolls until lightly browned all over. Remove rolls from pan, wipe oil from pan with absorbent paper, return rolls to pan. Add combined sugar, mirin, sake and sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce heat, simmer, turning occasionally until rolls are cooked through. If thicker sauce is preferred, remove rolls and boil sauce to reduce. Return rolls to pan and coat with sauce.

Remove rolls from pan, cool for 2 minutes. Remove and discard toothpicks and cut rolls in half. Arrange on a serving plate and serve with the remaining sauce.

I was really happy with how these turned out, the meat was sweet and tender. The only thing I would change would be to double the sauce quantity as I found there wasn’t a lot there to drizzle over the rolls and some rice as an accompaniment.

Sushi Rolls

3 cups prepared sushi rice (details below)

4 sheets toasted seaweed (yaki nori) – from an Asian grocery

2 tablespoons mayonaise

1 teaspoon wasabi

1/2 cup soy sauce

For the filling you can use whatever you like, I used some cooked salmon and cucumber strips.

To make the sushi rice, put rice in rice cooker as normal. Make some sushi vinegar by combining 1/2 cup rice vinegar, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Once the rice is cooked, allow rice to stand, covered, for 10 minutes. Spread rice in a large, non-metalic flat bottomed bowl or tub. Using a rice paddle or wooden spoon, repeatedly slice through the rice at a sharp angle to break up lumps and seperate the grains, gradually pouring in the sushi vinegar at the same time. Continue to slice and turn the rice with one hand, with the other hand fan the rice until almost cool. This will take about 5 minutes.

To make the rolls, combine the wasabi with the mayonaise in a small bowl and cover. For each roll, place a sheet of the seaweed shiny side down on a plate and add about 2 tablespoons of rice in the centre of the seaweed and spread the rice across the sheet, leaving a strip on one side empty. Swipe a dab of the mayonaise down the centre, then top with your filling. Roll up the sheet from the full side to the empty side. To join the roll together I just dabbed some water inbetween like you’re sealing a letter. Cut the rolls in half and serve.

I was actually surprised at how easy sushi is to make. Mine didn’t quite taste as good as the sushi bar sushis but I’ll experiment a bit more now I know how to do it!

3 garlic cloves, crushed
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tbsp chopped rosemary leaves
1 lemon, sliced
4×4 cutlet lamb racks
10 chat potatoes
150g cherry tomatoes
1 cup pitted kalamata olives (I used green olives instead)

Combine the garlic with 2 tablespoons of the oil, the rosemary and lemon in a bowl. Add the lamb, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat. Marinate for 15 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 deg celcius
Meanwhile, part-cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water for 5-6 minutes, then drain. Flatten each potato with a potato masher and place in an oiled roasted pan. Drizzle with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil and season well. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes, or until golden.
Meanwhile, heat a large frypan over a medium-high heat. Sear the lamb on all sides. Place the lamb and any pan juices on top of the potatoes with the lemon slices and roast for 10 minutes for medium-rare, or until cooked to your liking.

Remove the lamb, cover loosely with foil and rest for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and olives to the potatoes, then return the pan to the oven for a further 5 minutes, until the tomatoes soften. Serve the lamb on the potato mixture.

I had big problems with the timing of this recipe – I needed to keep the lamb in the oven for 30 minutes for it to actually cook. I also didn’t really crush the potatoes like I should have so this turned out to be more of a lamb with roast potatoes. It tasted nice though, even if it didn’t look like the one in the picture!

2×400g tins cannellini (white) beans, drained

5 ripe roma tomatoes, roughly chopped

400g tin chopped tomatoes

2 leeks, roughly chopped

6 garlic cloves, peeled

2 bay leaves

1 cup dry white wine

350g spicy, thick sausages

1 handful parsely, roughly chopped

mashed potato or warm crusty bread to serve

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius. Put the beans, fresh and tinned tomatoes, leek, garlic, bay leaves and white wine into a casserole dish or ovenproof pan. Season with a little sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Prick the skins of the sausages with a fork, then sear them in a non-stick fry pan over high heat until they are browned on all sides. Cut the sausages into bite sized pieces and put them in the casserole dish.

Lightly stir everything together, then cover the dush with a lid or foil and bake for 1 1/2 hours. Sprinkle with parsley and serve with mashed potato or crusty bread.

Seves 4

The recipe is really simple and it turned out well

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

4 chicken breasts

2 medium onions

1 fresh red chilli

a thumb sized piece of fresh ginger

small bunch of fresh coriander

vegetable oil

knob of butter

tikka masala paste (see further down for details)

sea salt

black pepper (ground)

1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes

1 x 400ml tin coconut milk

200g natural yoghurt

small handful of flaked almonds

1 lemon

Tikka Masala Paste

2 cloves garlic

thumb sized piece fresh ginger

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

2 teaspoons garam masala

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons groundnut oil (I just used vegetable oil)

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 fresh red chillies

small bunch fresh coriander

1 tablespoon desiccated coconut

2 tablespoons ground almonds / almond meal

1 teaspoon cumin seeds (for toasting)

1 teaspoon coriander seeds (for toasting)

To make the paste

Peel the garlic and ginger. Put a frying pan on medium – high heat and add the spices for toasting to the dry pan. Lightly toast them for a few minutes until golden brown and smelling delicious, then remove from the pan from the heat. Add the toasted spices to a pestle and mortar and grind until fine or put into a food processor and wizz to a power (I cheated a bit here – I couldn’t find corriander and cumin seeds so I just added powder straight away).

Add this and the other ingredients into a food processor and wizz until you have a smooth paste.

To make the curry

Slice the chicken into thin strips. Peel, halve and finely slice the onions. Finely slice the chilli. Peel and finely slice the ginger. Pick the coriander leaves and put to one side, then finely chop the stalks.

Put a large casserole type pan on medium – high heat and add a couple of lugs of oil and the butter. Add the onions, chilli, ginger and coriander stalks and cook for 10 minutes, until softened and golden. Add the curry paste and the strips of chicken. Stir well to coat everything with the paste and season with salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes and coconut milk. Fill one of the empty tins with water, pour into the pan and stir again. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid on. Check regularly to make sure it’s not drying out and add extra water if necessary. When the meat is tender and cooked, taste and add a bit more salt and pepper if you need to.

Serve with rice with a few spoonfuls of yoghurt on top. Sprinkle the almonds and coriander leaves and serve with some lemon wedges for squeezing over.