Tandoori Chicken Kebab's

We like Indian food and all its variety of spices and flavours. In our first attempt to cook an Indian dish at home we tried this Tandoori Chicken Kebab's. The dish is originally from the Punjab region, where it is traditionally cooked in clay ovens known as tandoors. Great choice for a first time because it was really tasty and simple!

Ingredients (4 people):

4 skinless chicken breast fillets
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp tandoori paste
3 tbsp plain yoghurt
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped and some more to garnish
1 onion, cut into wedges and separated into layers
Olive oil, for brushing
Salt
Black pepper
Pilau rice, to serve

1. Chop the chicken breast fillets into 2.5 cm cubes and place them in a bowl. Add lemon juice, tandoori paste, yoghurt, garlic and coriander. Season with salt and pepper. Stir well. Cover the bowl with cling film and leave it in the fridge to marinate for 2 or 3h, stirring occasionally. 

2. Thread alternate pieces of marinated chicken and the onion wedges brushed with olive oil on to four large skewers. Preheat the grill. Lay the kebabs on the grill and cook under high heat, for 10-12 minutes, turning once. 

3. Transfer to warmed plates, garnish the kebabs with fresh coriander and serve with pilau rice. 

Notes: It was suggested to be served with a yogurt dip as well (yoghurt, chopped cucumber and mint). Since the dish was not spicy we didn't think it was needed.

Honey Garlic Salmon

Australian cuisine is full of asian influences and it owes some of the more interesting fusion dishes we have came across. Unfortunately, we have only visited the country shortly but, fortunately, that was enough to entice us to try more recipes from down under. This recipe was a recent find and it immediately climbed up to the top of our favourite dishes! It combines salmon with a punchy sauce and it's so easy to make that you won't even believe it. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did (and do)!

Ingredients (serves 2):

2 salmon fillets

Sauce

1 teaspoon garlic, minced

½ teaspoon ginger, minced

4 tablespoons honey

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1. Combine the sauce ingredients and marinate the salmon in the sauce for 15-30 minutes.

2. Arrange salmon on an oven tray lined with a baking paper sheet and bake at 180 ºC about 12 minutes or until it's just cooked through (see note), basting the salmon with the leftover marinade halfway through.

3. Over medium high heat, bring the leftover marinade sauce to a boil and simmer for 3-5 minutes until reduced.

4. Dish and serve the salmon hot drizzled with reduced sauce.

Note: We served the salmon with peas and pak choi. The cooking time of salmon depends a lot on the thickness of the fillets. You can estimate the time as 10 minutes per inch of thickness.

Chicken legs in Curry Sauce

Simone Ortega is the author of probably the most famous Spanish cookbook "1080 recipes". In the book one can find a little bit of everything, as Spanish people like travelling and that is reflected on what they eat on a daily basis. This recipe of chicken in curry sauce was based on a recipe I found in this book, given to me by a Spanish friend. It was easy to make and the result was very tasty. Go ahead and try it!

Ingredients (4 people):

4 Chicken legs (whole)
Olive oil
Liquid butter
Salt
Pepper
Rice and frozen peas, to serve

Sauce
1 tbsp corn flour
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp liquid butter
125 ml cold milk
250 ml chicken stock
1/2 tsp curry powder

1. For the sauce, heat up the butter and olive oil in a sauce pan. Add the flour and mix well until incorporated. Slowly, add the milk and afterwards the stock, always stirring. Allow to cook for about 10 minutes. Add curry powder. Add salt to taste. 

2. Season the chicken legs with salt. Heat up a drizzle of olive oil and a drizzle of liquid butter in a thick bottomed frying pan or a casserole. Put the chicken legs inside and cook until is golden on all sides. Reduce the heat to medium, cover the frying pan and cook for about 10 minutes or until the legs are cooked through. 

3. Steam some white rice. Add frozen peas when it's almost cooked and mix. Remove from the heat.

4. Serve the chicken with the rice and pour the sauce on top. Serve immediately.

Note: Instead of ready chicken stock you can boil some chicken bones in salted water for 1h or until it reduces to about 1 cup, as described in the original recipe.

Sweet & Sour Chicken

When it comes to asian food we are great admirers but not experienced cooks. We want to change that. Nowadays, one can find a whole range of asian products in the supermarkets around the world and cooking asian food becomes achievable and easy. One of our favourite Chinese dishes is Sweet & Sour chicken. The recipe is probably not that very much Chinese, but more of a westernised version of the dish, commonly found in Chinese restaurants in Europe. Either way we enjoyed it a lot and we will make it again.

Ingredients (4 people):

1 tablespoon cornflour

1/4 cup soy sauce

380g can of pineapple in natural juice, drained and reserving juice

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon olive oil

500g chicken breast, cut into cubes

1 small green capsicum, cut into pieces

1 small red capsicum, cut into pieces

3 cm piece of ginger, peeled and grated

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Steamed jasmine rice, to serve

1. Combine cornflour and soy sauce in a jug. Stir until mixture is smooth. Add reserved pineapple juice, vinegar and sugar. Stir until sugar has dissolved.

2. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook until each side is light golden (about 5 minutes).

3. Add capsicum, ginger and garlic to the pan. Cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until tender. Add soy sauce mixture to pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add pineapple pieces. Simmer, uncovered, for 10 minutes or until sauce has thickened and chicken is cooked through. Serve with rice.

Spaghetti Carbonara

Simple. Easy. Delicious.

Ingredients (4 people):

5 egg yolks

60 g Parmesan cheese, plus some more to serve, grated

200 g piece of ham, diced

300 g spaghetti

2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed with hand

Olive oil

Black pepper

Salt

1. Put the egg yolks into a bowl, add the Parmesan and season with pepper. Mix well using a fork and set aside.

2. Cook the spaghetti in a large pan of boiling salted water until al dente. Meanwhile, heat up a tablespoon of olive oil in a medium frying pan. Place the frying pan over a medium-high heat. Add the garlic cloves and leave it to flavour the fat for a minute. Stir in the ham and cook for 4 minutes, or until it starts to crisp up.

3. Pick out and discard the garlic from the pan, then, reserving some of the cooking water, drain and add the spaghetti. Toss well over the heat so it really soaks up all the flavours. Remove the pan from the heat. Add a splash of the cooking water and toss well and season with pepper. Pour in the egg mixture – the pan will help to cook the egg gently, rather than scrambling it. Toss well, adding more cooking water until it’s lovely and glossy. Serve with grated Parmesan and an extra twist of pepper.

Note: It’s traditional to use spaghetti in this recipe, but other kinds of pasta may as well be used. Jamie Oliver suggests bucatini or rigatoni. We suggest tagliatelle as well. The original recipe used pancetta instead of ham.