Recipe: Spicy Mango Chutney

I freakin’ *love* Indian Food (and fortunately, almost everyone I know does, too). But that doesn’t mean that you have to spend a hot summer’s day slaving over a hot stove to get a little bit of East Indian influence into your day!! The following recipe is adapted from “Curry: Fire and Spice – Over 150 great curries from India and Asia” by Mridula Baljekar (ISBN 0-7548-0822-X). It’s super-easy, sweet and spicy. Mmmm... chutney! It's definitely better than any retail product I've ever tried, and is totally worth the little bit of effort!!

Mango Chutney (makes 340g/ 1.5 lb/1½ cups)
600g bag frozen mango pieces
1 cup cider vinegar
130g/4 ½ oz/2/3 cup light muscovado (brown) sugar
2 small fresh red chillies, split
5 cm/2 in piece fresh root ginger, grated
1 garlic clove, minced
5 cardamom pods, bruised
2.4 ml/½ tsp coriander seeds, crushed
1 bay leaf
2.5 ml/½ tsp salt

1. Chop the mango chunks roughly and put into a pan. Add the cider vinegar and cover. Cook over a low heat for 10 minutes, then stir in the remaining ingredients. Bring to the boil slowly, stirring.
2. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes, until the mixture is syrupy. Leave to cool, then ladle into a hot sterilized jar and cover. Leave to rest for 1 week before serving.

Comments:
This spicy mango chutney will add a bit of flare to this summer’s barbequed lamb, chicken or turkey burgers! In fact, use it in place of ketchup or steak sauce just about anywhere you like! Mental note, though: this really is quite spicy; cut the amount of chillies and ginger by half, if you prefer a milder, sweeter chutney. Enjoy!!

~ One of Seven

The Weenie Roaster

Oops....you've burnt your weenie! This gadget brings new meaning to the term Hot Dog! Apparently it comes in a variety of colours and has a rope strap to hang it up. It's available on e-bay for $14.99 but you have to supply your own weenies.

Barnyard Animals Ice Cream Sandwich Press

Spring is here, with the heat of summer soon to follow. The kids will love making their own ice cream sammiches with these colourful chicken, cow and pig cutters. They are dishwasher safe & come with recipes.

A bit o Korean BBQ at home

If you've ever been to one of those Korean BBQ restaurants where you cook your own dinner on the table, you'll understand what this is all about. Basically there is a heat source in the middle of the table, upon which you cook up your meal. Now, thanks to the Cook-N-Dine people, you can have that experience at your home or cottage. These tables come in a wide range of models, from smaller stainless steel models to portable table top versions, all the way up to the teak model pictured above that seats ten.

I want one!

Quick Chicken Roll-ups

The following recipe is a quick, easy chicken recipe I adapted from the Kraft website. The kids love it and it's easy for them to help make. Clean up is quick and easy as well.

Quick Chicken Roll-Ups

4-5 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (or fillets)
1 package stove top stuffing
1 package shake and bake

Take chicken breasts and bang them (I know what you're thinking, honey!) until they are flat. Coat with Shake and Bake. Mix stuffing in a bowl with 1 cup of water. Place stuffing on each chicken breast and roll up. Use a toothpick to hold and place seam side down on a baking sheet covered with tin foil. (This makes clean up a breeze!) Cook in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees and it's done. Don't over cook or it tends to dry out.

Product Review: Flor de Sal d'es Trenc Olivas Negras

Translation: Black Olive Fleur de Sel

I know it seems pretty nerdy, but I have a salt collection. Yes, indeed. I think Michael Smith also has one, which is what makes me feel even nerdier. But then, what would I do without them all?? Fortunately, I don’t have a blood pressure problem… yet.

During a recent trip to Toronto, we indulged ourselves in a trip to the Saint Lawrence Market – one of the many places in this world that rivals, in our estimation, Disney World for the title of “the Happiest Place on Earth”. While perusing the amazing selection at Alex Farm Products (ostensibly a simply awesome cheese market – they have several locations in Toronto – but also purveyors of other specialty products), we came across a display of Flor de Sal d’es Trenc. With three aroma variations (hibiscus and Mediterranean herbs being the other two), we nabbed the black olive. Oooohhhh, so olive-y!! Even without opening the inner bag, the pungent sun-dried kalamata quality enwrapped us and we simply could not resist!!

Use as you would any other salt on your favourite concoction (like grilled summer veg), or venture to try one of Chef Marc Fosh’s recipes designed especially for these products (and oh so handily provided as part of the packaging) -- we did!!

Olive-Salt Crusted Beef with Coriander Pesto (serves 4) (note: obvious typos removed)
4 filet steaks
1 tsp black pepper (crushed)
1 tsp Flor de Sal de Olivas Negras
1 tsp mustard

Cilantro Pesto:
1 bunch of fresh coriander
2 garlic cloves
2 Tbsp toasted pine nuts
1 Tbsp lime juice
150 ml olive oil
Seasoning

Place all of the ingredients in a food processor and blend to a purée.

To Serve:
Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan and sear the beef filets for 1 minute on both sides.
Using a pastry brush, paint the top of the beef filets lightly with mustard and sprinkle with the olive salt and crushed peppercorns. Place under a hot grill to finish cooking for about 3-4 minutes. Serve with coriander pesto and a green salad.

Comments:
The filet available on that day looked unappetizing, so we went with ribeyes instead (which is typical for us) and well, you know how I feel about pan searing during barbeque season, so you can guess what happened. Also typical for me, I didn’t really look at the recipe before hand and couldn’t pull together the pesto, so we went without (but not next time!!). All the same, the steak was unbelievable -- I’m sure it goes without saying to use some form of Dijon mustard and not “French”…!! Served with grilled portabellas and “Zucchini Fettuccini” (a la Brigit Binns – my undisputed new favourite cookbook author), our meal was outrageously delicious!

Pick up this product if you ever get the chance!!

~ One of Seven

Homestyle Beef-a-roni

Today I discovered Elise at Simply Recipes and was interested in her old family recipe for HMO which stands for Hamburger, Macaroni & Onions. I can't wait to try it, but it reminded me of a meal that The Grants make on occasion.

Weekly, we make a big pot of spagetti sauce that might be used for any number of possible meals. Perhaps the easiest and favourite thrown together dish in our house. The following is far from a real recipe, but here it is:

Kraft Dinner - as many boxes as needed depending on how many you are feeding.
Make KD as per instructions on box. In our house we mix in lots of extra cheddar to make it extra cheesy.

Left over meaty spaghetti sauce:
Mix as much sauce as you like into the KD.

That's it! Scoop it out of the pot & load on some grated old cheddar.

If you want to take it up a notch or two, put the mixture in a baking dish & cover it with a bucnh of CHEESE. Mix it up a bit, use old white & orange cheddar, monteray jack and mozz. Throw it in the oven until the cheese it brown & bubbly.

Our family loves this simple use of left overs & I bet yours will too.