Satsuma chickpea curry

Or "chana dahl," which I'm fairly sure means a chickpea curry of sorts. This was a bit of a "Oh my, what is hiding out in the fridge?" adventure. Spicy and fragrant hint-of-coconut rice and a cucumber and mint raita accompany this hot and slightly fruity curry.

For the rice:

Basmati rice

3 cardamom pods

1/4 tsp very coarsely ground black pepper

2 - 3 tbsp coconut milk

Rinse and drain the rice before setting it over a high heat with 1:1.25 ratio of rice to water. Add cardamom and black pepper to the pan, bring to the boil, and then cover and move to lowest heat to steam. Stir in coconut milk just before serving.

For the raita:

4" piece cucumber

7 or so leaves of fresh mint, finely chopped

3 dsp Greek yoghurt

Black pepper

Seasalt

Cut the cucumber into small cubes, peeling and/or discarding seeded part if you prefer. In a bowl mix up the yoghurt, mint and seasoning. Stir in the cucumber, and adjust dressing to taste.

For the chickpea curry:

1/3 onion, finely chopped

1/2 red chilli, roughly chopped

1/2" piece of ginger, minced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 tsp coriander seeds, toasted and ground

1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and ground

1/2 tsp ground turmeric

3 whole cloves

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1 small green pepper, diced

1/2 head of cauliflower, broken into small florets and steamed

1/2 can chickpeas

Pieces of leftover beef, vegetable (optional)

1 - 2 cups hot water

1/2 satsuma, all pith and segment skin removed

1 dsp sultanas

1 tbsp mango chutney

1/2 tbsp tomato purée

2 - 3 tbsp pumpkin purée

1/4 cup thin coconut milk

2 tbsp Greek yoghurt

1 - 2 tsp potato starch, mixed with a little cold water

Heat some oil in a pan over medium heat. Add the spices, and stir to release oils.

Add onion, chilli, ginger and garlic to the pan, and sauté until onion has softened.

Stir in green pepper. Then add cauliflower, chickpeas and any additional leftovers (e.g. beef.) Heat through.

Add hot water to just cover contents of pan - a lovely bright orange yellow and fragrant sauce should now be simmering. Add the pieces of satsuma and the sultanas. Stir in the mango chutney, tomato and pumpkin purées. Leave to simmer until vegetables are just cooked.

Shortly before serving, add the coconut milk. Thicken the sauce a little with the potato starch slurry (taking care as it is far more powerful than cornflour, and quite viscous in quantity.) Stir in the yoghurt, and serve up over the fragrant rice and with a good helping of raita. Leftover chickpea latkes and flatbread make good accompaniments, too.

Flatbread

I'm still working on breads, although I think I almost have a good custom wheat-free flour mix figured out. The problem is when I forget to use it, and go a bit too heavily on the starches. My multi-flour mix was simply turned into a dough with flour, warm water and flaxseed meal (mixed with a little water as a binder.) Some was fried into the wedges in the photo, creating a chewy dense and nutty flavoured bread. (That would be the millet and sorghum flours and the potato starch, I think.) Some was grilled as flat thin discs on some oiled foil. They turned out quite pleasantly crispy, and so a supper of flatbread, Port Salut and some sweet paprika spiced salami was had.

Pumpkin seeds

I bought a pumpkin. A little one, for a cake I forgot to photograph. It is the first pumpkin I have ever bought, and in messing around with the innards I found all these seeds. "Ah ha!" went the lightbulb, "Roast them!"

Take the seeds from one pumpkin. Rinse and clean them, removing as much of the slipperiness as you can. Pat dry. Spend 5 mins removing the seeds deftly stuck to the paper towel you tried to use to pat them dry. Resort to putting them in oven for a bit to dry off.

Arrange seeds in a baking tray so that they're mostly in a single layer. Mix with a little olive oil (and a tiny bit goes a long way - the above result features far too much), and more seasalt than you consider necessary.

Bake seeds until golden brown and crispy, some 15mins or so at 160C. Check regularly and adjust oven if they're scorching or nothing's happening.

Mix with some whole skin-on almonds and toasted sesame seeds for a mid-morning snack!

Sesame seared beef salad

This was essentially a simple little meal, of rice and seared steak and some vegetables and salad. It's one of my favourite sorts, though.

1 piece steak

3 portobello mushrooms, stalks removed

1/3 red pepper, thinly sliced

Spinach, baby leaf

Cucumber, sliced

Olive oil

Soy sauce

Sesame seed oil

Rice vinegar

Sesame seeds

Jasmine rice

Take the steak and marinate in a small bowl with a little soy sauce and sesame seed oil. Set the rice a-cooking and leave to steam.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan, and when medium-hot sear the steak to preferred cookedness. Remove to one side.

In the steak juice laden pan, add a little more oil if required and then add in the red pepper and mushrooms. Sauté until a little coloured but not too softened. Set to one side.

In a dry frying pan, toast some sesame seeds over a medium heat. Check for a nutty flavour (all "greenness" should be gone) and remove to a small dish.

Mix a teaspoon or two of olive oil with a little (1/2 tsp) sesame seed oil, 1/2 tsp soy sauce and 1/2 tsp rice vinegar for a dressing. Rinse and drain spinach.

To serve place a small heap of rice and the spinach and cucumber on a plate. Drizzle some of the dressing across the salad. Then arrange red peppers and mushrooms, and top with the steak (sliced for eating with chopsticks.) Sprinkle on some toasted sesame seeds, and enjoy!