Easy recipes from Apple Tree

Category: Sides (Page 1 of 3)

Jamaican Coconut Rice

A very simple rice side for Caribbean and Jerk recipes. Serves 4 (or 3 hungry people)

  • 250g basmati rice
  • 400g can coconut milk
  • 200ml water
  • 2 bay leaves

Wash the rice until the water is clear. Place in a lidded oven proof pan on the stove, add everything and bring to a simmer. Place in an oven at 180C (fan) for 20 minutes with the lid on. Take out, fluff up with a fork and leave at least ten minutes (and up to an hour) to further absorb liquid. A very forgiving recipe! Great with Jerk Prawns.

You can also make a simple Rice ‘n Peas version. Add a tin of beans (red kidney, black or black-eyed peas) and a whole chilli with the rice and cook as above. (pictured)

Rainbow Pakora

This is remarkably simple and with relatively few spices, but it is incredibly tasty. You can use up almost any combination of vegetable but it is best to stick to those that cook at similar times: carrot, beans, onion, cabbage, spinach, courgette, capsicum pepper, beetroot etc. You can be quite vague with quantities too, the recipe is very forgiving. As long as there is enough batter to just coat the vegetables and bind them, you will be fine. Too much batter makes them stodgy, too little and they’ll fall apart. Just do what looks right!

In a bowl, assemble:

  • 1 carrot, grated
  • Handful of spinach leaves, sliced
  • 5 or 6 cabbage leaves, sliced and timmed to 5cm lengths
  • Half of a red pepper, thinly sliced
  • Half a mild chilli pepper, chopped
  • 2cm squeeze of minced garlic
  • 1tbs grated ginger
  • 2 tbs choped fresh coriander (or 1 tbs chopped mint leaves)

Mix tegether and allow to rest for ten minutes

  • 125ml gram flour
  • 1 tsp garam masala
  • 0.5tsp salt
  • 2 tbs cornflour

Mix together, then mix into your vegetables. Add splashes of water until it gets sticky. You may not need much liquid if your vegetables were already juicy. Now heat a pan of oil for deep-frying, to a temperature of 160C.

Take spoonfuls of the mix and drop into the oil. The easiest way is to scoop with a dessert spoon and scrape off with another spoon. Don’t over crowd the pan, you can do this in batches. After a minute or so flip the pakoras over, and when they are light brown and cripsy all over scoop them out and drain on kitchen paper. Keep warm while you make the next batches.

These are lovely served with a yoghurt dip (mint or coriander flavoured is nice) or chutney. Use as a side or a starter, or nibbles with drinks.

Knackebrod Swedish Crackers

This is really easy, although to be honest it’s even easier to just go to Ikea. Makes five or six 20cm diameter crackers. Firstly, thoroughly mix your dry ingredients:

  • 1 cup/250ml dark rye flour
  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 0.5 cup rolled oats
  • 0.5 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 2 tsp instant dry yeast

Now add the wet ingredients and mix/knead to an even dough

  • 0.75 cup milk
  • 2 tbs melted unsulted butter

Once mixed to a dough, cover and leave to rise at room temperature for an hour.

Then heat your oven to 190C and roll out your crackers. Traditionally they are made in big circles with holes in the middle, which helps with even cooking (and looks cool). Or you could make smaller rounds, squares or anything. I found the easiest way was to roll out onto baking parchment with a bit of help from a dusting of flour, literally as thin as you can get it. Cut a circle round a plate with a pizza cutter, and stamp out the hole with a cookie cutter. Prick all over with a fork (all over) and brush with melted butter to help it brown. Sprinkle with a little coarse sea salt. Keep the offcuts and re-roll. You may have to cook in batches. Put the baking paper on a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes. If it isn’t brown and crisp all over, put it back for a couple more minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Easy!

Chinese mushroom and peppers

This makes a quick vegetable side if you are making another more complex meat dish. For four:

  • Chop one onion (optional)
  • Chop two sweet peppers of different colours into squares about 15mm across
  • Dash of rape seed oil

Stir fry in a pan or wok until getting soft but still a bit crunchy

  • 4 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 packet button mushrooms, halved or quartered if large so all are the same size

Add to the wok and cook down until the liquid released by the mushrooms has gone. Add

  • 1 tbs oyster sauce
  • 2 tbs soy sauce

Cook on and stir until the vegetable are coated to your liking. Serve alongside your ethnic dish of choice!

Awesome Jerk Seasoning Mix

This looks like a lot of ingredients but an active cook will have these to hand. Nothing too exotic! Simply mix together:

  • 1 tbs onion powder
  • 1 tbs garlic powder
  • 2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1-2 tsp dried thyme
  • 2 tsp golden caster sugar
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp dried parsley
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 0.5 tsp dried pepper flakes
  • 0.5 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 0.5 tsp ground cloves
  • 0.5 tsp ground cumin

Tip #1: I didn’t have any dried parsley. Turned out fine.

Tip #2: If you only have whole spices (black pepper, cloves, chilli pepper flakes) then put whole spices all together in a spice grinder. I have a cheap IKEA coffee grinder reserved for that purpose.

Courgette and bean Salad

Perfect for a summer glut of vegetables.

  • 160g (handful) green beans, trimmed

Cook in boiling water for 4 minutes then place in iced water. Drain, chop into 3cm lengths

  • 2 courgettes

Slice longways on the smallest setting of a mandoline slicer to create ribbons. Mix with the beans in a bowl

  • 10g coriander, chopped
  • 10g parsely, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 2 tbs red wine vinegar
  • 2 tbs olive oil
  • 1 shallot chopped or a small bunch of chives, chopped
  • half a mild chilli, chopped

Mix to form a dressing. Toss the vegetables in the dressing and leave to absorb the flavours, from 5 minutes to several hours. Just before serving, top with

  • 10g pine nuts, toasted
  • 20g feta cheese or goats cheese, crumbled (omit or use vegan cheese for vegan)

Middle Eastern Roasted Vegetables

This is very cheap, very easy and very delicous. It makes a great side for a Middle Eastern-themed meal, or it could be a veggie/vegan main. Try stuffing pittas with it. You can use any suitable vegetables for this, just swap out the ones listed for something similar.

First roast the vegetables:

  • 1 red onion
  • 1 carrot
  • 1 courgette
  • 1 small raw beetroot
  • Cauliflower florets
  • half a butternut squash or small pumpkin
  • olive oil
  • salt and petter

(alternatives are broccoli, parsnip, pepper, sweet potato, aubergine, button mushroom)

Prepare the vegetables then dice into about 2cm cubes so they cook evenly. Put them in an oven roasting pan. Toss in olive oil then season with salt and peper. Roast in an oven for 30-40 minutes at 180C . (Tip: prepare everything except the beetroot. Then prepare the beetroot and push to a corner of the tin. That way the vegetables stay their own colour otherwise everything ends up pink!)

Meanwhile make the tahini sauce.

  • 3 tbs tahini paste
  • 3 tbs lemon juice
  • I garlic glove, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Pepper

Mix all the ingredients and add cold water to make a consistency of thick cream.

To assemble, take your vegetables and mix in

  • 2 tbs toasted pine uts
  • 2 tsp za’atar spice mix
  • 1 tbs chopped fresh parsley or coriander

Drizzle over the tahini sauce. Enjoy!

Chicken Pakora

Great for an appetizer for an Indian meal, on their own or even as a side. Serves 3-4 as a starter

  • 250g chicken breast, cubed into bite sized chunks
  • 1 egg white
  • 1tsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbs grated fresh or frozen ginger root
  • 0.25tsp tumeric
  • 1tsp chilli powder
  • 1 tsp cumin powder
  • 0.5-1 green chilli, seeded and chopped
  • 1tbs chopped fresh coriander leaves
  • 0.5tsp salt
  • Juice of 1 lemon

Mix that lot up and leave for a few minutes while you heat up a pan of oil for deep frying. Warm your oven and have a plate with kitchen towel on handy.

Go back to your chicken and add

  • 2tbs gram flour
  • 1 tbs rice flour or plain flour

Mix into your marinating chicken. Add a bit more gram flour if necessary to make a sticky coating. When your oil is about 160C, drop pakora individually into the hot oil and fry for 3-4 minutes until brown and crispy like the photo abouve. Do this in batches so the pakora don’t clump up and the oil remains hot. Removewith a mesh or slotted spoon and drain on your kitchen towel. Keep warm on the plate in your oven while you fry the remainder.

Great served with a dipping chutney or riata.

Awsome Roasties

These are the best-ever roasties. Only a tweak on the traditional method but oh what a tweak. Here’s how:

Heat your oven to 200C. Put a generous layer of oil in the bottom of the roasting pan and put it in the oven to get very hot.

  • Potatoes – floury type, peeled and chopped to 3-4cm cubes

Boil in salted water for five minutes only. Drain, and let steam dry for a bit. Add

  • Polenta/maize flour

Sprinkle over enough to stick to the potatoes, if you have enough potatoes for four people, two tablespoons of flour will be plenty. Roll around in the dry pan to coat. Now take the hot oil out of the oven and put the floury potatoes in the pan. Jiggle around to coat with oil then return to the oven. Cook for 30 minutes then check. Roll around if cooked uneavenly. They may be done already, depending on potato variety, boiling time and size of potato. If not, cook another 5-10 minutes and check again.

This produces the crispiest, brownest, crumbly roasties you will ever eat.

Chilli Jam

There are many, many recipes for chilli-based condiments and part of the fun is experimenting with them, or even combining recipes. One of the biggest challenges is knowing how hot your chillis are, and how many to include. My attitude is – if the jam turns out hot, simply use less of it! A chilli jam that isn’t hot is just….jam. This recipe uses liquid pectin. Alternatively you could use jam-making sugar which includes pectin.

  • 4 long (10-15cm) red chillis (or as many shorter ones make up the equivilent) seeds removed.
  • 2 red capsicum peppers, seeds and stalk removed.
  • 300ml cider or wine vinegar

Pulse in a food processer until finely chopped. Put the mix into a stainless steel saucepan and add

  • 800g white (granulated) sugar
  • 3 tbs lemon juice

Stir well to dissolve the sugur then boil for ten minutes. Keep stirring gently so it doesn’t catch and burn. It will start to get foamy and rise up so you will need to tweak the heat. Add

  • 175ml liquid pectin

Mix in and boil again, until it reaches setting point which is 105C. If there is foam on the surface, scrape this off with a spoon. Test for setting by putting a litle jam on a very cold plate. If the jam sets, you can put it in clean, sterilised jam jars.

If after all that the jam hasn’t set when it cools, don’t get depressed. Firstly wait another 24 hours because sometimes it can be slow to set. If it is still too runny, you can tip the jars back into a saucepan and heat up again, making sure it reaches 105C. If it still doesn’t set, you’ll have to pretend you made chilli sauce.

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