Tag: #fodmapcurry

Beef Madras (serves 4)

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Beef Madras by The Fat Foodie

Beef Madras by The Fat Foodie

Now that spring is creeping in, with its sporadic sunny, but chilly days it’s tempting to get work done in the garden. However, I know fine well that if I’m going to be working in the garden all day the last thing I’ll feel like doing when I get in is cooking a decent meal from scratch. I think a hot bath to take the chill from my bones (helped along by a warming glass of wine or two) will be a much stronger calling. So it was with a great deal of foresight that I prepared this beef madras in the slow cooker before I headed outside the other day.

The beauty of using the slow cooker to cook a curry is that it allows the spicy flavours to permeate into the casserole beef throughout the whole day while the slow cooking process also tenderises the meat. As a result, you’ve got a wonderful meal to come home to after a hard day’s work with very little effort and minimal prep work involved.

Upon tasting this beef madras, I discovered that it was a bit on the spicy side for my family so I kept my (dairy-free) portion aside and added lactose-free double cream into the rest. I don’t mind quite a generous amount of heat in my curries, but the addition of the cream seemed to be a resounding success with my family because it tamped down the heat of the chilli in the curry while adding a luxurious richness. Equally, you could omit the madras curry powder and use a garam masala curry powder instead, which will add flavour, but not heat.

If you like meals that involve very little work to prepare and curries with plenty of body and flavour then this beef madras is definitely one for you to try.

Ingredients:

450g diced casserole beef
360g of tinned chopped tomatoes
2 tsps hot Madras powder
1 tsp (heaped) ground turmeric
2 vegetable stock cubes
1 tsp salt
200g red bell peppers (diced)
60g desiccated coconut
1/2 pot lactose-free double cream (optional)
Serve with basmati rice
Method:
Set your slow cooker on low and put the beef, chopped tomatoes and desiccated coconut in.
Put the stock, Madras curry powder, salt and ground turmeric in a jug and add around 100ml of hot water to it and stir before adding to the slow cooker. Stir until everything is mixed together.
Leave the beef madras to putter away all day. About twenty minutes before serving add your diced peppers. Taste to see if you need to add any more salt. Make your rice.
When you’re ready to eat, serve as it is or add double cream (or a dairy-free cream) if you feel it’s a bit too spicy or if you just want to make it richer.
Serve with rice, naan breads or poppadums and fresh coriander.
Beef Madras by The Fat Foodie

Beef Madras by The Fat Foodie

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Vegetable Coconut Curry (Serves 6)

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Vegetable Coconut Curry

Vegetable Coconut Curry by The Fat Foodie

Yesterday, in a determined effort to eat a bit healthier, I made a cracking vegetable coconut curry. The main reason for making it was to use up some mangetout I’d had sitting in the fridge, but sadly I forgot to add them! Although the curry lacked a bit of greenery (hence its overall orange glow!) it was still packed to the gunnels with mixed vegetables and was held together with the addition of coconut, making it taste really creamy and decadent even though it was dairy-free.

Most curries rely on a base of fried onion and garlic to add that sweet, caramelised background note that’s so prevalent in Indian cooking, but they’re like napalm to my digestive system so there was no way I’d put them in my curry. However, I’ve recently discovered a fantastic spice called asafoetida powder which tastes exactly the same as onion (and has garlic flavoured tones through it too) and it genuinely adds the flavour of garlic and onion into my cooking without having any negative effects on my tummy. Try it, guys. Asafoetida is amazing!

I made quite a large pot of the vegetable coconut curry, so there were plenty of leftovers. I froze a couple of portions to take to work for lunch throughout the week, but I think we’ll also be having this for dinner tonight too. I’m really looking forward to it though, because the flavours and spices will have been marrying overnight so it’ll taste even better today. (I always think curries taste better the next day, don’t you?)

I’m also having a bash at making my own naan breads for the first time. The dough is rising in the kitchen as we speak (so to speak). I intend on making two types: a sesame seed one and one sprinkled with nigella seeds (aka black onion seeds). Sadly, as much as I’d love to give it a whirl, I think attempting a peshwari naan (a filled naan stuffed with a mixture of ground pistachios/almonds, raisins/coconut, and sugar) might be a little ambitious at this stage.

I’m sure you’ll hear in a future blog post how I get on, but in the meantime wish me luck!

Ingredients:

1 tsp of asafoetida powder

400g of tinned chopped tomatoes

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger (crushed/minced)

4 tbsps of oil

2 large potatoes (cubed)

200g sweet potato (cubed)

2 large carrots (cut into bite-sized pieces)

1/2 a chilli (seeds removed and diced finely)

1 tsp ground turmeric

1 1/2 tbsps curry powder (I used madras)

1 tsp of salt (add more to taste if necessary)

1/2 tsp black pepper

400g of coconut milk

60g of desiccated coconut

Method:

Put the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat and add the asafoetida powder, ginger and chilli and continue to fry for 5 mins, stirring frequently.

(Have a good ol’ sniff at this stage because it smells fantastic!)

Add the tin of chopped tomatoes along with the turmeric, curry powder, desiccated coconut and salt and pepper. Continue to cook for 5 mins, stirring frequently.

Add all of your prepared vegetables followed by the tin of coconut milk. Gently simmer until the potatoes are soft to the touch and cooked through.

Sprinkle with chopped fresh coriander and serve with rice, naan breads or poppadums.

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Coconut Chana Masala (serves 6)

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Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

Chana masala is traditionally a chickpea curry that is normally quite dry, spicy and flavoured with citrus. This variant of a Happy Pear recipe however, uses coconut milk as its base which creates a saucier curry, but with no loss of flavour. Although I made mine without meat, on reflection, the addition of beef to the mix and then cooking the dish in a slow cooker throughout the day would make for a really tasty carnivorous meal at dinnertime.

This isn’t a particularly hot curry, but that’s entirely in your hands and depends on the amount of chilli you choose to add. A pot of natural yoghurt or crème fraîche on the dining table to help cool the palate is always welcomed by my partner when we eat curry. I tend to use brown chickpeas  (also known as Desi or Kala Chana) in my cooking for two reasons. 1.) I can get four tins of them in the Indian section of my local supermarket for £1. And 2.) Although they have a brown coloured skin, they are still yellow inside and have a much deeper, nuttier flavour than their popular yellow brother.

Chickpeas are a high FODMAP food in large quantities, particularly if you use dried ones, but if you buy the tinned variety and drain and rinse them well before using them in your recipe their FODMAP content is considerably lowered. As always though, use your own judgement as to what your own body and digestive system can tolerate.

I served the curry with poppadums because I felt that with the amount of vegetables in the dish it was unnecessary to include bulky rice, but you could accompany the curry with pilau rice, naan breads, or chapatis. I know the ingredients list is long, but it’s worth it. And if you have leftovers they’re fantastic the next day because all of the flavours have been marinating together overnight making for a richer, more complex, curry.

Ingredients:

1 large common tomato (diced)

1 tsp of asafoetida powder

2 carrots (cut lengthways then into 1/2 cm thick half moons)

100g green bell pepper (chopped into bite-sized pieces)

1 thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger (finely chopped or grated)

1 red chilli (finely chopped)

1 tbsp of vegetable oil

1 tbsp of cumin seeds

1 & 1/2 tsps of ground turmeric

2 tsps of curry powder or garam masala

1 tsp of ground coriander

1 tsp of ground cumin

2 tsps of paprika

1/4 tsp of ground pepper

3 cardamom pods (crushed under a knife so the casing splits)

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

A 400ml tin of coconut milk

A pint of vegetable stock

200g of tinned chickpeas (drained and rinsed)

Salt (to taste)

The juice of 1/2 a lime

To serve (optional):

Fresh coriander (chopped)

Natural lactose-free yoghurt (or non-dairy version)

Rice

Method:

Prepare your ingredients as per the directions.

Place all of your spices together in a small bowl.

Pour the oil into a large pot and then fry the chilli and ginger for 5 mins on a medium heat, stirring regularly.

Add the spice mix and some salt and cook for a couple of mins.

Add in the tomatoes, carrots, green pepper, coconut milk and chickpeas and simmer for 15 mins (or longer on a low heat, if preferred, to encourage the flavours to marry).

If you feel the curry is too thick add in some vegetable stock. Taste to see if it requires more salt (mine needed quite a bit).

When you’re ready to serve the curry place it in bowls, scatter with fresh coriander and sprinkle with the lime juice.


Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

Coconut Chana Masala by The Fat Foodie

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