Aubergine and Green Bean Curry

Yup, no school run means more cookin'. Time to grill some auberine.

This time in wedges for a curry. I then made some curry paste with onion, coriander, cumin, garlic, lemongrass, turmeric, ginger, and a couple of mild chillis.

Have I mentioned I love my food processor? It's the kind of love that really lasts.

The paste and grilled aubergine went in the fridge overnight, because I was fed up with cooking at that point and my husband offered to cook something else instead.

So the next day, when we got back from our outing, I cooked the paste for a while, then put in the aubergines (5 in total).

In went a can of tomatoes and a can of coconut milk.

That went in to simmer for a half hour and looked like a gloupy mess.

I toasted some cashews. If you pronounce it Ca-SHOOOOO! you can pretend you are sneezing.

Once the curry had simmered long enough I put in green beans just long enough really to heat them through, a few minutes.

And I artfully chopped some cilantro/fresh coriander on a chopping board that was given to us as a wedding gift. It took us some 7 years to gather the courage to actually use it (it's real purdy), but we're over that now.

And finally, it all went together on some rice. All was well with the world, especially since there was enough left over to make another family meal for the freezer. Of course, when I say "family meal", I mean my husband and I will eat it, my eldest will force half of his down, and the other two will try to dig out the rice not touching the curry.

For the recipe, you can go here, or find it copied and pasted below:

For the curry paste
5-6 shallots (or 1 onion), peeled and finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
2 thumb-sized pieces ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
2 lemongrass stalks, tough outer layers removed, finely sliced
5-6 green chillies (medium-hot), deseeded and roughly chopped
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground turmeric

For the curry
5 large aubergines
About 6 tbsp sunflower oil
300ml passata, or sieved roasted tomatoes
400ml tin coconut milk
300g french beans
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 handful chopped coriander leaves
75g cashews or almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)
Lime wedges, to serve

Put all the curry paste ingredients in a blender with a tablespoon of water; whizz to a coarse paste. If necessary, stop the motor a few times so you can scrape down the sides.

Cut each aubergine in half lengthways, cut each half into three lengthways, then halve each piece, so you end up with 12 wedges from each aubergine.

Heat two or three tablespoons of oil over a medium-high heat in a large, nonstick frying pan. Sauté the aubergine wedges in batches, until lightly browned, adding more oil as needed. As you remove each cooked batch from the pan, lay the wedges on kitchen paper to drain.

Heat a tablespoon of oil in a large, deep saucepan and add half the curry paste (refrigerate the rest for another use). Fry over medium heat, stirring constantly, for three to four minutes, then add the aubergines and stir for a minute or two until coated with the spice mixture. Add the passata and coconut milk, and simmer, partially covered, for 10 minutes. Add the french beans and simmer until tender – about five minutes.

Season generously, then stir in the chopped coriander. If using the nuts, scatter them over the top. Serve with lime wedges and rice.

ANZAC biscuits

ANZAC biscuits? What are those? I get asked this whenever I make these. Admittedly, it has been just a little shy of a decade since I last made a batch, but I did used to make them fairly frequently. The story I've been told is that these were the cookies sent over to the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps during the war, as they were simple and travelled well.

They are meant to be brittle, worthy of breaking a tooth, but I prefer them chewy. I messed up and didn't make them that way this time, but if you are in America and can get good coconut, these can be truly divine. They look deceptively boring, just appearing to be a plain oatmeal cookie, but when you bite in you get a hit of coconut and you realise just how more-ish these can be.

Another good thing about them is that you don't use any eggs, so no salmonella worries with the dough. Not that this has ever stopped me from eating raw cookie dough.

Oh, and one last tip: when adding sugar, don't mistake a jar of bulgar wheat for a jar of demerara sugar. Trust me on this.

Ahem.

One other nice thing about this recipe is that everything gets thrown into a bowl and mixed together at once. So here we have brown sugar, flour, baking soda, coconut, oats, and a dollop of golden syrup.

Then on went some melted butter.

Then it was mixed.

Err, it seemed a bit dry. So then I actually looked at the recipe and realized I was meant to add a couple tablespoons of water. That made it better.

Then it was rolled into sizeable balls and put in to bake. I can only really fit two trays in my oven at a time, so I crowded them in closer together than perhaps I should have in order to save time.

They flattened out, and I also realized I had overbaked them. Oops.

Not perfect shapes, to be sure. Nevertheless, I brought them to the playground after school and quickly found myself surrounded by children willing to eat them and thus take them off my hands (and a few parents too, of course).

I might try making them into bars next time, as I think that might help prevent overbaking and would also take less oven space. But here is the recipe for them as out of my Mrs Beeton cookbook (and why these are in a "Mrs Beeton" cookbook when she wrote her recipes prior to the war is a question for the publishers at Marks and Spencer):

Ingredients:

75g rolled oats

100g plain flour

150g sugar (I use brown sugar)

50g coconut

100g melted butter

1Tbsp golden sryup

1 1/2 tsp bicarb of soda

2 Tbsp water

Method:

Preheat oven to 160C. Line two baking sheets. 

Combine ingredients and mix well, then roll into balls and place on sheets. Bake for at least 10 min, more if needed but make sure you don't overbake. 

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies

There are many things I like about not owning a car: the avoided expense (including those unexpected repairs that seem to happen to everyone I know), the people watching on bus journeys, not having to focus on driving while little people scream in the back of the car. When we rent a car for long journeys, it seems expensive at first glance, but you always get a brand new car and again you don't have to worry so much about mileage and strange rattling noises.

The main times when I really wish we did own a car are when my kids get invited to birthday parties. For their younger years we were fine - they were usually very casual affairs somewhere nearby where we could walk to, and parents were always invited to stay (often enjoying the party far more than the children). But now that two of my children are of school age, parties have been amped up a notch. I totally get why - usually you are under pressure to invite a high number of kids, and entertaining a group of primary schoolchildren for two hours is enough to give anyone nightmares. So instead, people usually choose some venue out on an industrial estate where, for a fairly reasonable price, they will promise to look after the little terrors and celebrate a child growing a year older, so long as you bring the cake and party bags (do NOT forget party bags). Parents are only half-heartedly asked to stay, as while there is space for kids, there is not a great deal of room for adults. If there is, it is usually a small waiting room or an isolated corner of a VERY LOUD ROOM.

Now this is fine and great if you have a car. You can usually draw a deal with some other parents where one of you will drop them off and another will pick them up, and having handed the kids over the parent will usually involuntarily begin to grin like a madman at their short period of freedom.

If you don't have a car, this means studying the Lothian Bus website and Google streetview to figure out which buses to take, what the bus stops look like so that you know when to disembark, and what the actual venue looks like so you know where you are heading to and don't walk the wrong way round a building with the same circumference as Lake Erie dragging the child who is invited and two other children who have to come along anyway now matter how much they complain.

This weekend my son has been fortunate enough to be invited to a tubing party. The lucky kid gets to go on the dry ski slope with 10 of his friends and speed down it on an inner tube at the speed of 100 miles an hour, screaming with delight the entire time. The small drawback is that it is two bus rides away, and then one has to trek up a hill to get to the ski centre. I have done it before in good weather, but as I looked at the weather predicted for today it did not look good. My husband had told me he was going to be in Glasgow for the day, and suddenly I pictured myself on the last stretch, buggy-less, dragging up the kids in wind, hail and sleet and I decided this called for desperate measures.

I begged.

To be precise, I sent an email to all the other parents who had kids going and asked if any could transport my child there, explaining our lack of wheels. For the first hour after I sent the email, I confess I cursed them all, wondering why they hadn't dropped everything to tell me they would take my precious child. Then the offers came pouring in, the father of the birthday boy even asking if I'd like them to take my son there and back. I cheered, I wept tears of joy...and I got out my pinterest board of baking ideas.

I couldn't offer to return the favour today, but I could offer baked goods at least to the parents willing to chauffeur my offspring. I decided on this recipe, using lime zest as well as lime juice, but there was one little problem: I'm off sugar. When I am making something, especially when I am making it for the first time, I like to taste it to make sure it is ok before giving it to anybody else. Yes, of course I could cheat and have a bite, but that would just be like sticking dynamite next to a dam...once started I wouldn't be able to start - it's all or nothing, really. So I made a batch and made my kids try them.

"Thumbs up!" my son cried.

"Yes, they're ok," my daughter said.

"Do they taste like lime?" I asked.

"Lime?" they both asked.

"Yes, lime! You know, kind of like lemon?" I demanded.

They both shook their heads no and continued chewing. So I juiced another lime and added icing sugar until it looked like an ok consistency for drizzling over the tops and added it on.

My husband, who had ended up not going out of town in the end (I know my son is totally going to rat me out on this, by the way, so I'll need to explain myself next time I see the parents) came shuffling through at this point and decided to give up his lunchtime fasting.

"I'm not feeling well!" he said as he chewed. "I'll start fasting again tomorrow."

"Are they ok?" I asked.

"Mmm...gorgeous..." he replied, then shuffled back to bed.

"Do you taste the lime?" I shouted after him.

No response.

So I can't fully endorse this recipe, as I've not actually eaten any, but I've sent them off with the parents anyway (though the dad may have been slightly disappointed as they were in a plastic chocolates tub).

But on a positive note, now that I'm in city car club, kids' parties will be more welcome in my life. I didn't have enough courage (or car seats) to do the journey in one today, fearing that my first ever trip in one of their cars would be too stressful to attempt going to this party, but next time, Gadget...next time...

Coconut Lime Sugar Cookies

3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1½ cups granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
zest and juice of 1 lime
½ cup toasted coconut

juice 1 lime, icing sugar

Preheat your oven to 350 F/180C.

Beat butter and eggs until smooth and fluffy. Then, add in eggs, vanilla, and lime. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt, baking soda, coconut and baking powder.  Carefully add the dry ingredients to the wet.

Drop rounded teaspoon size balls onto parchment paper-covered cookie sheets and bake for 8 – 10 minutes, until lightly browned. Let baked cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a minute or two and them move to wire cooling racks.

Once cookies have cooled, juice 1 lime then add icing sugar until glaze is consistency you want it. Put it into a ziplock bag, snip off the very end of the corner, and drizzle over cookies.

Nanaimo Bars

A few months back, a colleague and fellow canuck announced the happy arrival of twin nephews, both born in the area of Nanaimo. This had given him a hankering for Nanaimo bars, so he asked me if I knew any place here in Edinburgh that sold them. Not wanting to immediately confess I had not heard of them, I quickly googled them and determined that I had not, in fact, ever seen them here...nor did I recall ever tasting them. I am obviously not Canadian enough. My husband has had to correct my pronunciation of these several times and I still don't even know how to say it.

My curiosity was piqued, and they looked simple, so I offered to make some for him and they were well received by him(as were the off-cuts by my family). I even got good quality loose leaf tea in payment, always welcome in my house.

Several months later, he has asked to commission another batch, so I have agreed once more in hopes of restocking my tea shelf.

Of course, this time I didn't manage to do things like measure out ingredients or source everything ahead of time, because I'm stupid like that. Our kitchen is in a bit of a state at the moment due to the recent replacement of our broken boiler, a happy event that unfortunately resulted in the destruction of three kitchen cupboards. You never know just how much stuff you manage to cram into a small space until you have to empty it and find it a new temporary home. Think clown cars at the circus, or perhaps Mary Poppins' bag. Right now the temporary home of all the clutter is the kitchen worktop, and the containers, dishes, and gadgets are precariously balanced and leaning against our hot water tank, threatening to fall into the gap never to be seen again except by the creatures that live in tenement walls.

I had very little space to cook on, so rather than crushing digestive biscuits and then measuring them, and grinding up nuts and then measuring them, I just roughly guessed and threw them into a food processor with some coconut. Oh, shredded coconut of North America (and elsewhere, no doubt) how I miss you. Desiccated coconut is all that can be found here (unless I want to pay £10 a bag or so at Lupe Pintos) and it is a poor imitation of its saturated cousin.

This is what it looked like after a bit of pulsing. The recipe had asked for chopped almonds, but I didn't have any, so hazelnuts were used instead as I still have a massive bag in my cupboard from a care package sent by my mother.

I then turned to melting butter and stuff together. Normally I'd do this in my microwave, but the wiring by the microwave isn't working right now. Our wiring is very important to someone, and they have put us in a queue and will give us a representative as soon as possible to fix it. Of course, I could always just ask again at another time.

Here we had a nice smoothish mixture and two small children magically appeared, asking if what was I making and if they could have some now and if not now when I was done and could they have the spoon please.

Is that chocolate, mummy? Can I help? What's that? Are you adding an egg?

Once the egg was added in, it came off the heat and the other stuff got added.

It then looked like this, and something felt different but I was trying too hard not to shout to be able to stop and figure out what looked wrong and why.

Only did I later realise, after I had put this in the fridge, what I had forgotten. I'll leave you in suspense for now.

At this point, mixing spoons were distributed and there was a brief moment of silence.

On to the next layer! It asked for regular cream and I didn't have any, but I did have sour cream, so I added a mixture of sour cream and milk. If it's good enough for other icing, it's good enough for these, I thought. Enough icing sugar (2 cups) should be able to hide the difference, I figured. The important part, the tasty fatty fats, would still be in it. I also put in Bird's custard powder (invented by a man whose wife was allergic to eggs) and butter.

And I got out the electric beaters to mix it as I felt like I needed some background noise to drown out my muttering.

You are supposed to spread it on in one pristine layer, so naturally mine looked like this. Why is the bottom layer so crumbly? I asked myself. And then I realised I had calculated incorrectly earlier. The recipe had asked for a half cup of butter in the bottom layer and I'd weighed out roughly 60 grams of butter. Unfortunately that is 1/4 cup, not 1/2 a cup, leading the the bottom layer being more crumby that it should be. Crumbs. The only thing to do now was push on.

On to more chocolate. And more butter. You might as well call these butter bars. Again, normally I'd do this bad baby in the nuke-o-matic, but today it was a bowl suspended over a pan of simmering water.

I prefer the microwave as it's easier to abandon it if motherly duty calls, but it just wasn't meant to be.

Mmmm...Butter and chocolate...

I poured it on top, and put it in the fridge to set.

So when I took it out of the fridge it looked like this.

The long greaseproof layer meant it was easy to pull out for slicing.

And while the bottom layer does come apart from the top a bit, and I felt the dry coconut somewhat lacking, my husband assures me these are entirely edible.

Let's hope my colleague agrees.

Nanaimo Bar Recipe

Bottom Layer½ cup unsalted butter
¼ cup sugar
5 tbsp. cocoa
1 egg beaten
1 ¼ cups graham wafer crumbs/digestive biscuit crumbs
½ c. finely chopped hazelnuts
1 cup coconut 

Melt first 3 ingredients in top of double boiler. Add egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat. Stir in crumbs, coconut, and nuts. Press firmly into a lined 8" x 8" pan.

Second Layer½ cup unsalted butter
2 Tbsp sour cream and 2 Tsp. milk
2 Tbsp. vanilla custard powder
2 cups icing sugar

Cream butter, cream, milk, custard powder, and icing sugar together well. Beat until light. Spread over bottom layer.

Third Layer4 oz dark chocolate
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter

Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, but still liquid, pour over second layer and chill in refrigerator.

Once set, remove from tin and slice into bars. Store in fridge.

Samoas...in the shape of pumpkins...sort of...

Continuing on with the theme of American grocery store items, let me express my great fondness for shredded coconut.  Not desiccated coconut, as you find in virtually every store here, but the saturated kind that they recommend you keep in the fridge after opening.  It is ideal for making macaroons and also for the king of all girl scout cookies, the Samoa.

Why the cookies have that name I have no idea, but I grew up in an area that called them Samoas and not "Caramel Delights" as some regions did.  If you are not from the USA, they are shortbread rings covered with caramel, coconut, and chocolate.

I have made Samoas before in the ring shape, but was not ready to go through that process again.  I briefly entertained the idea of making bars, but I also felt I should be doing something with a Halloween theme for the kids.  Upon remembering I was in possession of a pumpkin cookie cutter, I realized I was set.

I lined my baking trays in preparation.  I used to feel holy about avoiding silicon trays, opting instead to line baking trays with paper.  Then I read the packet of baking paper and saw that it's lined with silicon.  Oops.  Still prefer it to floppy trays and weird floppy liners.

I also like to roll out cookie dough between sheets of paper to prevent adding too much flour to the dough and so nothing gets stuck to surfaces or rolling pins.  I did take photos of me making the dough, but I lost them. It's just a basic shortbread, nothing fancy.

I was all excited and sure they would be an amazing success when I put them in...

And then they came out looking like this.  Oh.  Vaguely pumpkin shaped, but not really what I'd had in mind.  Next time I should just do the Joy of Cooking recipe for rich roll cookies.  Thanks, Liz, for reminding me how wonderful it is!

I then spread out the glorious coconut and started to toast it.

Then comes the part that fills me with fear: caramel.  I really have no clue what I'm doing when it comes to caramel.  I get all panicky and don't like to attempt it if there are any kids nearby.  I only had one with me this time, and he was well out of the way on my back, so nervously I set to work getting everything ready: sugar, butter, and cream.

Ok, into the pan goes the sugar.

Ooh - coconut looks good, better take that out before I burn it.

Ack!  Ridges!  Some parts are clear, some are deep amber (what I want all of it to be) and some haven't even melted yet...WHAT IS GOING ON!

Ok, that's kind of better, but will someone make that big lump go away?!!

NOOOO, I THINK IT'S BURNING!!! ABORT ABORT!!!

And into a sinkful of water it went to stop it getting any hotter.

So I added butter and the caramel all solidified around the whisk.  Great.  Still, I kept stirring and eventually it all melted.

Then I added cream until it looked like this.

This was my end result.  It tasted kind of like a soft version of the inside of a Heath bar or Daim bar.  So not utterly like the caramel of Samoas, but not bad either.

After setting about a third of a cup or so aside, in went the coconut

And it was stirred until it was a big, gloopy mess.  Now onto assembly.

Some pure caramel gets smeared onto each cookie...

Which helps the gloopy mess to stick.

Mmmm...but don't eat any yet!

Then you flip them over and paint some melted chocolate on with a pastry brush (or dip them - it's up to you).  I am a big fan of melting chocolate in the microwave on a very slow heat.  This way, if you get summoned out of the room on some parenting emergency, you do not need to worry about it being left on the heat; the timer on the microwave will run out, and the chocolate will patiently wait until you have time for it again.  Just don't try to do it on high heat or in one long blast - regular stirrings are kind of important.

Once that's hardened, turn them back over

And carefully pipe decorations onto them.  At this point, everyone was home and in the kitchen, and Robert was on my back now awake and kicking.  I was under pressure as a couple had already been stolen by my husband who didn't realize I was going to decorate them even further.  Precision was never going to happen with all this going on, so while I tried at first to make some vaguely jack'o'lantern type piping decorations, eventually I gave in and just went with the quick zigzag drizzle.  

At least my kids recognized them for what they were meant to be.

But my husband just shrugged and said, it's not how they look that matters.

And they do taste pretty pretty good.

Recipe from the Little Epicurean

Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 tsp vanilla paste

2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp whole milk

Method

1.  Cream together butter, sugar, and vanilla paste in the bowl of a stand mixer.

2.  In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

3.  All flour mixture to butter mixture.  Add milk and mix until dough has formed.

4.  Divide the dough into two disks.  Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes or freeze for 15 minutes.

5.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Prepare parchment lined sheet trays.

6.  Roll out chilled dough to 1/4 inch thick.  Cut out circles using a floured 2 1/2 inch cutter.  Punch out an inner with a smaller cutter of your choice.

7.  Lay the cookie cutouts on the parchment lined sheet trays and bake for 12-15 minutes until firm and lightly golden.  Let rest on sheet tray until cool to the touch and then transfer to cooling racks.

Caramel

Ingredients

1 cup granulated sugar

6 Tbsp unsalted butter

1/2 cup heavy cream

pinch of salt

3 cups sweetened dried shredded coconut, toasted

Method

1.  Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.  Line sheet tray with parchment paper.

2.  Spread coconut into a thin and even layer on prepared sheet tray.  Bake for 10 minutes.  Rotate pan and stir coconut.  Continue to bake at 5 minute intervals, rotating the pan and stirring the coconut until golden in color.  Once toasted, let cool to room temperature.

3.  In a medium sauce pan, add sugar.  Cook over medium high heat until sugar begins to melt.  Once sugar begins in liquefy, reduce heat to medium or medium-low.  Do not over agitate the sugar, but swirl the pan once in a while to make sure sugar melts evenly.  Continue to melt the sugar until liquid is amber brown and aromatic.

4.  Add butter to sauce pan. Whisk until all the butter has melted.

5.  Remove sauce pan from heat and slowly add the heavy cream.  Continue to whisk until cream and sugar mixture are homogeneous.  Be careful, once you add the cream, the sugar mixture will bubble and rise quite a bit.  Be sure the sauce pan is away from heat before you add the cream.

6.  Continue to whisk until caramel is thick and smooth.  Let cool until slightly warm to the touch.  Reserve about 1/4-1/3 cup of the caramel in a separate bowl.  Then add the salt and toasted coconut.  Fold into the coconut until thoroughly distributed.

Dipping Chocolate

Ingredients

10 oz dark chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Slowly melt chocolate in the microwave.  Place chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 45 seconds on full power.  Stir chocolate and continue to heat at 30 second intervals at half power until chocolate is melted.  Make sure not to overheat the chocolate which will bring it out of temper.

Assembly

1.  Once shortbread cookies are cool, dip one side into reserved caramel sauce.  Then spread about 1-1 1/2 teaspoons of coconut caramel mixture on top of cookie.  Dipping the cookie first into the reserved caramel sauce helps the coconut mixture to adhere to the cookie.  Let cool on rack.

2.  Dip the bottoms of the cookies into the melted chocolate.  Let cool on rack upside down (coconut mixture side down) until chocolate has hardened and set.

3.  Once chocolate is set, turn cookie right side up.  Transfer remaining dipping chocolate into a small parchment bag or piping bag.  Cut a small tip and drizzle chocolate over the tops of the cookies.  Let cookies sit out until drizzled chocolate has set and then enjoy!

4.  Keep cookies in an airtight container for up to three days.