Student dish of the day- Thai green curry

My little brother who's recently headed off to university asked me for some of my favourite meal recipes, so I thought I'd make an easy to follow guide on here.

These are EASY meals that I make every few weeks, requiring little skill, few ingredients and are mostly reliant on ready made sauces- but still they are better than beans every night and so hopefully they'll be useful. The first is an old favourite from my uni days- green curry.

You will need: 

Noodles of your choice/rice of your choice 

Coconut milk- keep the tin upside down in the cupboard

Meat of your choice

Thai green curry paste from the world foods section of a supermarket or an Asian food shop. Do not use Sharwoods/blue dragon etc you need the authentic stuff.

Veg eg baby corn, mange tous, peppers, mushrooms, carrots

This will take about 15 mins to make

Method:

-Fry a little oil in a pan and add about 1 tsp of the paste and fry. This paste is very hot, and I like a mild taste, so you can add more if you like.

-open your coconut milk from the top (it should have been stored upside down). The coconut milk should have separated into cream and water and you should now have the water on the top. Pour the water into the pan and leave the cream for now. If it hasn't separated don't worry, just add a bit to the pan and add a bit of water on top. 

-to this liquid add the diced chicken, baby corn and mushrooms and bring to the boil for a few minutes until cooked

-bring the noodles/rice to a boil in another pan

-add the coconut cream (or the rest of the milk if not separated) to the pan with the mange tout and turn the heat down just to warm it up- you don't want this to boil as the coconut milk will split

And that's it! Serve in a big bowl with lots of the sauce. 

Deelia's proper trifle

This trifle has a lovely creamy home made custard, which takes a bit of time and effort but is really worth it. This is a Deelia Smith recipe.

Ingredients

 3 egg yolks

 1 pint (570 ml) double cream

 1 oz (25 g) caster sugar

 1 level teaspoon cornflour

 5 trifle sponge cakes

 2 oz (50 g) flaked almonds, lightly toasted

 some raspberry jam

 2 fl oz (55 ml) sherry

 8 oz (225 g) fresh or frozen raspberries

 2 small bananas, peeled and sliced thinly

Method

Break the sponge cakes in pieces and spread a little raspberry jam on each piece. Then put them into a large glass bowl and sprinkle the raspberries and sherry over them, giving everything a good stir to soak up the sherry. To make the custard, heat ½ pint (275 ml) of the double cream in a small saucepan. Blend the egg yolks, sugar and cornflour together thoroughly in a basin, and when the cream is hot, pour it over the egg mixture, stirring the whole time. Now return the custard to the saucepan and stir over a very low heat until thick, them remove it and allow to cool. Slice the bananas, sprinkle them in amongst the raspberries and pour the custard over the sponge cakes. Whip up the remaining ½ pint (275 ml) of cream and spread it over the top. Decorate with the flaked almonds. Cover and chill for 3 or 4 hours before serving

 

Walnut apple and Stilton bread

• I was recently looking around Chatsworth house farm shop and they had some delicious looking breads on offer- the Stilton and walnut cob looked really tasty but at over pour pounds each I couldn't justify paying just for a little taste! I decided to try to make a similar bread at home and found this recipe on the baking inspiration website. I've modified it slightly as I felt the loaf was not salty enough, and instead of fresh apples I added dried apples from the whole foods section of the supermarket.
• 
  
• 300g White Bread Flour
• 200g Wholemeal Flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1 pack yeast
• 25g butter
• 300ml warm water
• 150g stilton, finely crumbled
• A handful of walnuts, chopped
• Handful of chopped dried apples
• Yoghurt/milk mix to glaze
• 
  

1. Mix the flour, salt, sugar, butter, yeast, water into a dough and knead for 8 minutes.
2. Prove in a warm place for 1 ½ hours. Knock back and knead in the walnuts, 1/3 of the stilton, and dried apple. Make into two round loaves and prove for another hour.
3. Preheat an oven to 200ºC conventional, 180ºC fan, gas 6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, brushing with the yoghurt/milk mix and sprinkling over remaining stilton half way through cooking.
4. Preheat an oven to 200ºC conventional, 180ºC fan, gas 6. Bake for 30-35 minutes, brushing with the yoghurt/milk mix and sprinkling over remaining stilton half way through cooking.

Vanilla panna cotta with poached plums and figs

A quick vanilla panna cotta recipe which I've been making for a few years at Christmas with some poached fruit, but would be equally good in the summer with a fruit coulis. This year I found this recipe with plums and figs in a Christmassy syrup, but I also really enjoyed the poached pears from last year which can be found under the recipe section of this blog. This recipe was found on bbc food.

Ingredients:

For the panna cotta-

1 litre/1¾ pint double cream

500ml/18fl oz milk

100g/3½oz sugar

2 vanilla pods, split and seeds scraped out or 1 tsp of vanilla paste

15g/½oz gelatine leaves

For the poached fruit-

500ml/18fl oz red wine

200g/7oz crème de cassis

100g/3½oz sugar

½ bunch rosemary

1 cinnamon stick

4 plums, stoned and cut into quarters

4 figs, cut into quarters

Method:

1. Put the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla pod and seeds in a pan, and slowly bring to the boil.

2. Soak the gelatine leaves in cold water until soft then squeeze the remove any excess water. I used 10 gelatine leaves (came to 17g) but the set was quite firm so 9 would have probably been enough. Once the cream mixture has come to the boil, stir in the gelatine until dissolved. Strain through a fine sieve into a jug and discard the vanilla pod. 

3. Pour the mixture into moulds or glasses, and leave to cool before transferring to the fridge to set.

4. Put the red wine, crème de cassis, sugar, rosemary and spices in a pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and allow to simmer for half an hour to infuse the spices. I reduced this down for quite a while longer to produce a sticky sauce so this can also be done if you prefer.

5. Add the plums and figs to the red wine, and continue to cook for 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly. Set aside to cool completely. 

6. Serve the cooked fruits with the set panna cotta.

Dental Lino print- Cons Kit

Inspired by my usual 9-5, this print is available on my Etsy page
Baby brown cow's Etsy

Ffranc Dachshund abstract print- woof!

Available now in three colours on my Etsy page! Baby brown cow's Etsy

Menai Bridge / Pont Menai lino print

This print is available on my Etsy page. Two layer multicoloured edition of 18 prints, and only 3 of the monochrome version.

Baby Brown Cow Etsy shop