Koli Ishtew - Indian Chicken Stew

I am an avid viewer of Saturday Kitchen, apart from the fact that I love James Martin (especially his gorgeous arms and hands) the recipes are always fantastic and there's plenty of banter, bad jokes and gorgeous recipes.

So a few weeks ago Atul Kocchar (and Donna Hay) was on and made a delicious looking Indian Stew. Atul has a new book out called Simple Indian which is on my christmas list and if the stew was anything to go by it's set to be a much loved and used book in my kitchen.

It sounds like you need a lot of ingredients but let me tell you it's definitely worth it, this was one of the nicest stew's I've had in AGES, warming and fragrant and creamy, I couldn't recommend it enough!!

So here's what you need and the original recipe is here:

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 boneless chicken breast, cut into four pieces, dusted with little flour, salt, freshly ground black pepper and ground cinnamon
• 2 star anise
• 2.5cm/1in cinnamon stick
• 2-3 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
• 4 cloves
• 4-6 black peppercorns
• 1 blade mace
• 1 green chilli, slit open
• 20g/¾oz fresh ginger, peeled, sliced into matchsticks
• 2 medium onions, thinly sliced
• 8-10 fresh curry leaves
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
• 400ml/14fl oz coconut milk
• 10-12 baby plum or cherry tomatoes

I cut my chicken breasts up a little smaller as I don't like them too big, I also used reduced fat coconut milk but other than that I stuck to the recipe as it is on the BBC site

• Heat 1 tbsp of the vegetable oil over a low heat add the chicken fry gentlybut don't let it go brown. When the chicken is almost cooked take it off the heat and put it aside.
  
• Heat the rest of the vegetable oil and add the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods, cloves, peppercorns and mace. Fry until the spices start to crackle, then add the chilli, ginger, onions and curry leaves. Now I couldn't hear mine crackle so I left them 3 or 4 minutes and then added the onions and fried them until they were translucent.
• Add the turmeric, coriander, black pepper and cinnamon powder and fry for another couple of minutes.
• Add the coconut milk and simmer.
• Add the chicken and the tomatoes and simmer again, now the recipe says 3-4 mins or until the chicken is cooked though but mine was maybe 10 mins I think and the sauce thickened nicely in this time.

I served mine with basmati rice and I have to say it was SO fragrant and delicious, I will definitely be making this again.

Nothing so simple as stew

When it's cold outside there's nothing I like more than some stew (or soup but that's another days posting) so being brass monkeys as the husbag would call it I decided it was a day for some beef stew. I also have an excuse to use my new Le Creuset pot!!!

You need:

• 1lb round steak cut into chunks
• 2 large carrots
• 1 large onion -I like to use red but use whatever you like personally
• 1/2 a butternut squash - use whatever winter veg you fancy this is just what I had today
• 1 litre stock
• couple of tablespoons of plain flour seasoned with salt and pepper
  
• herbs - I used oregano and basil as I like Italian flavours but you could use mixed herbs or a couple of different ones
• Olive oil

I've also made some dumplings just to show off in my first post :) and popped them on top of the stew with about 30 mins to go and you them you'll need:

• 125g flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 15ml olive oil
• 2 tbsp oregano (I've used dried)
• 2 tbsp basil, dried again
• 125ml milk
  

So enough rambling here's the jist of it:

• Heat some olive oil in a pot, I have 2 teaspoons cos I'm dieting and know the value of this
• Toss the cubed steak in the seasoned flour and brush off the excess flour.
• Put the steak into the pot and brown in batches, it's easier to make sure none of it gets too brown if you put in smaller ammounts
• When all the steak is browned put it to the side and add some more olive oil to the pan, pop in your onions and saute for a few mins until softened, add your carrots and other veg and cook for another 5 mins
• Put the steak back into the pan and add your stock and herbs, salt and pepper and put the lid on.
  

I cook my stews in the oven but you can cook it on the hob in the same way just keep it at a gentle simmer and stir every so often. Give it about 25 mins then pop in your dumplings.

I make these in a food processor, throwing in everything together. Knead the dough for a couple of mins and then shape into balls about the size of a walnut maybe. These are done when they've risen and browned slightly on top mmmmmmmmmm

Once you've checked everything is cooked to your liking, serve.

Now that this is written this looks more technical than it actually us, really just throw everything into a pot and cook until you're happy with it :)