my favourite non-essential kitchen appliance

Yes, my rice cooker would have to be it! My hubby doesn't really like rice, he's pretty much a meat and potatoes kinda guy, but the rest of us LOOOOOOVE rice - it's so easy and versatile. One of these babies makes cooking rice easy peasy!!!!!

Thanks go out to the Ritchie-Powell Conclave, who brought theirs over to use the night they blessed us with dinner or I would never have known how fantastic these appliances are. :)

Creamy Curried Sausages

I make this dairy free, because my youngest daughter is intolerant to cows-milk. I have learnt to be very adept at checking out the packaging on items, and to adjusting recipes. This dish is extremely delicious.

For 4-5 servings:

1 Tbsp dairy-free margarine
2-3 tsp mild curry powder
1 onion
1 carrot
2 stalks of celery
1 cup water
400-500g precooked sausages
1 cup frozen peas
2 Tbsp cornflour
1 1/2 tsp instant chicken stock
1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup rice or soy milk

1. Melt the margarine in a medium to large pot. Stir in the curry powder and cook gently, without browning, while you prepare the vegetables.
2. Cut the onion, carrot and celery into small (5mm) cubes. As each is prepared, stir it into the curry and margarine. (Make sure that you have at lease a cup of each prepared vegetable.) After the celery is chopped, add the water, cover and simmer for 5 minutes.
3. While the vegetables simmer, skin the precooked sausages and slice them 5mm thick. Add them with the frozen peas, and cook 5 minutes longer. By this time, all the vegetables should be tender.
4. Remembering to use absolutely level measures, mix the cornflour, instant stock and sugar together, then add the milk and stir until smooth. Add to the curried vegetables and sausages and stir gently until the mixture thickens.

Serve in large bowls, on plain cooked rice or on spirals or other pasta.

Provencale Chicken

For 5 servings:

5 pieces chicken
plain flour
black pepper
ground cinnamon
3 cloves garlic
3 medium onions, peeled and quartered lengthwise
400gm can tomatoes
400gm can tomato soup
1/4 cup wine vinegar
2 tsp dried herbs (I use an Italian blend)

1. Remove the skin and fat from the chicken.
2. Mix the flour, pepper and cinnamon together in a plastic bag. Put the chicken in the bag and coat the chicken.
3. Brown the chicken in a non-stick frying pan.
4. Combine all the ingredients in the crockpot and cook on low for 8 hours or until the chicken is very tender.

Serve with pasta or rice and salad.

This was extremely delicious, although my husband and children didn’t like the onion. At least with this dish they can easily remove the large pieces. YUMMY!

Dahl

serves 4-6:
Olive oil for frying
1 clove of garlic finely chopped or crushed
1 onion finely chopped
1 cup of red lentils, washed well and drained (I didn't have any red lentils, so I used brown and it was still good!)
3 cups of hot water
1 400g tin of diced tomatoes
1 potato cut into small cubes
1/2 teaspoon of turmeric
1/2 teaspoon of garam masala
1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste

Heat the oil and then fry the onion and garlic until the onion is a golden brown. Add the turmeric and fry for a minute. Add lentils and fry for another couple of minutes. Add three cups of hot water, tinned tomatoes, potato and cinnamon. Bring to boil and then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20 minutes. Add garam masala, salt and pepper after about 10-15 minutes. Cook until soft and mushy. If the dahl seems too wet, let it cook for a while without the lid on.

Serve on rice with pappadoms, natural yogurt and for the adults lashings of lime pickle.

This was yummy, although the kid's and Jonno didn't like it as much as I did. It would be great as a meatless meal, and it was adapted from a recipe I downloaded from kiddly.com. :)

Dee's Devilled Sausages in the Crockpot

For 4-6 servings:
8-12 sausages (about 500-600g)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 Tbsp cornflour
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp soya sauce
1 Tbsp wine vinegar
1 can chopped tomatoes (400g)
1 stick celery (chopped)
1 large onion
1 can peaches (400g) - you usually use 1-2 green skinned apples, but my youngest daughter can't eat cooked apple, so I substituted them with peaches and it's YUMMY!

1. Seperate and chop the sausages into 1 cm chunks. Brown in a heavy-based frypan and throw into the crockpot with the sugar, cornflour and salt. Add the liquids and stir until smooth.

2. Chop the peeled onion length-wise and brown in the frypan you used previously. Add browned onion, celery and peaches to the crockpot, and stir into the mixture.

3. Cook for 8 hours on low setting.

Serve on rice, with baked or mashed potatoes, and beans or broccoli.

Whenever I have cooked this dish in the past I have used the Maggi Seasonings, but this time I tryed cooking it from scratch. It was DELICIOUS, way better this way! As we were going out for a pot-luck tea, I made it stretch by topping the cooked sausages with mashed potatoes and cheese. Everyone loved it, it was SOOOO good! :) This is a recipe I will use again.

Toad-in-the-hole

1 cup flour
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1 egg
1 1/2 cups milk
6 thick beef or pork sausages

1. Sift the flour, salt and pepper into a bowl and make a well in the centre.

2. Blend egg and milk together and pour into the well in the flour and stir gradually to make a smooth batter. Whisk it and continue to beat for about 3 minutes.

3. Strain mixture through a fine sieve into a jug and set aside for 30 minutes.

4. Place the sausages in a cast-iron pan and bake at 240 degrees celcius for 10 minutes.

5. Pour the batter over the hot sausages and return to the oven lowering the heat to 220 degrees celcius for 30 minutes.

Serve hot cut into wedges with fresh salad or greens.

Cooks Tip
Allowing the batter to stand lets the gluten rest, ensuring a tender batter. Do not beat again before cooking.

This was the first time I had ever made toad-in-the-hole, and it was GOOD! I grew up eating lots of different sausage dishes and it's about time I tried some of the recipes - they are cheap, good to eat, especially for families on a budget. My husband, who is a very fussy eater LOVES this dish (well, He is english afterall...).

Look out for more sausage recipes that I will put on this blog over the coming weeks.

Welcome to alimento {food}

I have decided to create a blog dedicated to trying out new recipes for my family to try. After 11 years of married life, I have gotten stuck in the habit of cooking much the same thing every night of the week. It's boring - and so my intentions are to cook something new at least once a week on a Thursday. I will post the recipe here and comment on the results {my families response and my own}.

My husband is fairly fussy, but I really want my girls (ages 9, 7 & 6) to have an extended palate - so I want to try new things - if you have any idea's feel free to comment or email me them...

A couple of months ago I started creating monthly menu plans, so that we would eat more healthily, and less often at McDonalds and other takeaway establishments. This is the next step to creating a tastier and better diet for my family.

Stay tuned.