In My Kitchen, October 2024

 It's been a while since I posted an In My Kitchen, but we are now home after 3 months away in Cairns in Far North Queensland, so grab a cuppa and make yourself comfortable, I have lots to tell you. It was really lovely to be away and with our family, but there's no place like home.

Malaysian inspired Chicken and Sweet Potato Casserole

 

This Malaysian style chicken casserole is lightly spiced with the chicken cooked in a succulent sauce smoothed by coconut milk. It can be as spicy as you like by increasing the spice measurement, however if you follow this recipe it will be perfect for most tastes. Simmered and cooked on the stove top you will be so pleased you made the effort as this is comfort food at its best. This is the perfect meal to make for a relaxing weekend dinner.

Budget Friendly and Loaded Sweet Potato Wedges

 

This nourishing dish is a simple, inexpensive mid-week meal with Middle Eastern flavours, or it can have more of a Mexican influence depending on what you substitute or add. It's a recipe that is extremely versatile and only limited by your imagination. I placed the mince filling on a bed of lettuce both for extra nutrition and appearance, however corn chips as a base, yes, I am thinking Mexican nachos now, would really bring this dish to another level if you are cooking for children or extra adults. Who doesn't love  a corn chip? If you are adding corn chips, add some drained sweet corn to the mince or add it separately, and layer it up. Hidden vegetables are very achievable here and always important for our health, I love them. Please see my notes below.

Lime salsa with Sweet Potato Mash

Sweet as sweet potatoes are exactly what their name suggests, lending themselves perfectly to both sweet and savoury cooking. They are in abundance right now, and along with tangy juicy limes also in season, I hope this simple recipe will tempt you to eat and celebrate the beautiful produce in season. Herby lime salsa is the perfect  counterpart to the versatile sweet potato, which is only a distant relative of the normal potato by the way. Sweet potatoes are high in fibre, and their bright orange colour tells us they are also high in the antioxidant beta-carotene and Vitamin A., all supporting our immune function.

When I first tasted this dish at our foodie friends P&J's home, I just loved it, the lime salsa combined with the sweet potato was such an exciting surprise to my palate. It really tickled my taste buds. This dish shines alongside all sorts of foods, Middle Eastern cuisine, humble grilled sausages or a vegetarian or vegan spread. I baked the sweet potatoes ahead of time and kept the mash refrigerated to be reheated later, made the salsa the same morning, which meant the dish was easy to assemble just prior to eating.

Yotam Ottolenghi also suggests that after cooking, we keep the skins, brush them lightly with olive oil and roast them again for about 8 minutes, at 200 deg. C fan forced, and eat them as a crisp-like snack. Waste not, want not. Yes, it's one of Yotam's clever recipes.

Let's cook:-

Preheat the oven to 200 deg. C fan.

Serves four to six as a side

Ingredients:

1 kg orange sweet potatoes washed, skin left on and cut in half lengthways, from top to bottom

60 ml olive oil

5 g basil leaves, chopped

5 g coriander, finely chopped

1/2 garlic clove, crushed

2 large limes, finely grate the zest to get 2 teaspoons, then juice to get 1 tablespoon

salt and black pepper

Method:

Massage the cut sweet potatoes with 1 tablespoon of oil and season with 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Line them up on a high sided baking tray lined with baking parchment, flesh side down, and roast for 30-35 minutes, until very soft. Be careful removing from the oven as some juice will have  come out of the potatoes.

While the sweet potatoes are roasting away, make the salsa.

Put the remaining 3 tablespoons of olive oil into a small bowl. Add the remaining ingredients with a good pinch of salt, and gently stir to combine.

Remove the sweet potatoes from the oven and allow to cool. Remove the skins, they should just slide off easily, or scoop out the flesh. Baking them this way results in a softer vegetable and better flavour. Set aside the skins to use later if you wish. Mash the flesh in a bowl with 1/8 teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper until quite smooth.

Transfer to a platter, make dips in the surface of the sweet potato, and spoon in the salsa. Decorate with extra herbs or some sprigs of tarragon.

Serve hot.

The 2nd edition below of Sweet Potato Mash with Lime Salsa.

Warm wishes

Pauline

Curried Sweet Potato Soup in Winter

Curried Sweet Potato Soup

A very warming soup in Winter, with the intensity of the spices and chilli softened by the beautiful sweet flavours of the lime and the coconut milk. This will also stretch the budget in Winter with Sweet potatoes being very much in season.

Serves 4-6

2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil

2 onions, chopped

4 Australian or locally grown garlic cloves (to support local industry)

4-5cm piece of ginger, peeled or grated

1-2 red chillies, finely chopped and deseeded, or to taste (It is quite spicy using two chillies)

1 tablespoon garam masala

2 teaspoons curry powder

4-5cm piece fresh turmeric, peeled and grated if you have it (optional)

3 sweet potatoes (about 700g) peeled and cut into 2cm dice ( or substitute some pumpkin)

1 litre vegetable stock or homemade chicken stock (depends on whether you are a true vegetarian or not)

400ml can coconut milk

A small handful of coriander, roughly chopped  (I grow it because I love this stuff)

Juice of 1-2 limes ( or a good tablespoonful)

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

To serve:

A few tablespoons plain (full-fat) yoghurt (optional)

A small handful of coriander, roughly torn

Let's cook:

Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium-low heat. Add the chopped onions and saute for about 10 minutes, until soft and translucent. Add the spices, the garlic, ginger, chillies, garam masala, and curry powder, and stir for a minute to intensify the flavour.

Tip in the sweet potatoes and stir until they are well coated in the spices. Add some salt and pepper to taste and pour in the stock. Increase the heat and bring to simmering point. Cook gently until the sweet potatoes are very tender, usually about 15 minutes.

Remove the soup from the heat, cool slightly and then puree with a stick blender until very smooth, unless you like the lumps. Return soup to the pan, stir in the coconut milk and warm through on a low heat.

Remove from the heat and add the coriander and lime juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. 

Serve the soup topped with a good spoonful of yoghurt, scattered with some extra torn coriander, and some homemade sourdough bread. As a final garnish grind some black pepper over the top, delicious!

Thanks to Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from River Cottage for this recipe which I have adapted.

This recipe can be further adapted by substituting the sweet potato for 180g of red lentils, and adding chopped carrot, celery, and a couple of bay leaves to the onions. You might need more stock if using lentils, eg 1.3 litres, and the juice of 1/2 lemon.

Chocolate Brownies, Paleo Style And No Guilt

Click here for recipe:

Paleo Chocolate Brownie cake, was one of the highlights from the kitchen on the weekend when our beautiful daughter came home for a surprise visit.  The slice is based on cacao, coconut flour, honey and white sweet potato. So a trip to the health food shop for the coconut flour and cacao, purchase of the sweet potato, and we were set.

We didn't make the dark chocolate topping this time, mainly because we forgot to buy it, however the chocolate Brownie with a cuppa doesn't really need it. If serving as a dessert though, I would certainly adorn the cake with the melted chocolate sauce and berries.

(This recipe is adapted from the Eat, Drink Paleo website.)