Nigella Lawson’s Strawberry & Almond Crumble

There are so many things to love about fruit crumbles. It’s so comforting on a windy, cold day, it tastes bloody good with ice cream, or custard, or double cream, or chocolate sauce. And if you ignore the amount of sugar that goes in, it’s totally healthy!

Strawberries are in season at the moment, but the past few punnets I’ve bought have yielded fairly average fruit in terms of sweetness. So when I volunteered to bring dessert to a friend’s house, this seemed like a great fruit to use in the crumble! And then when I found out Nigella had a strawberry crumble recipe I was sold.

Nigella’s recipe is available on the BBC website. I ended up using 1.5 recipes. I washed hulled 750g of strawberries (3 small punnets) and popped them into an ovenproof dish.

 

As you will see, the recipe calls for both ground and flaked almonds, but only tiny portions of each. So I bought some flaked almonds, and popped a bit in the food processor. easy! It ended up being a tiny bit less than what was needed, but I had some spare almonds in the pantry which made up for it.

I poured the ground almonds over the strawberries, along with some white sugar (recipe called for caster which I didn’t have. Don’t personally think it makes any difference anyway, in this recipe at least! And this is another thing about Nigella that I love. The recipes asks you to “give the dish a good shake or two to mix the ingredients.”

 

Screw using a spoon? One less thing to wash? My kinda woman!

Oh, and the vanilla extract. I had vanilla essence at home so that had to suffice. I didn’t get the vanilla hint at the end though so will go for vanilla beans or proper extract next time.

 

some diced butter. I use the term ‘diced’ lightly.

I put some flour and baking powder into a bowl, and rubbed the butter in. an oddly satisfying experience, just make sure you don’t overwork the mix otherwise it gets doughy. You can see the end mix under the mountain of flaked almonds here.

Not really sure why you have to use a fork to mix in the demerara sugar and almonds into the flour mix. But hey. Whaddaya do. 

I left the strawberries and crumble mix separate until just before I had to pop it in the oven. I covered the strawberries with the mix, and popped it into an oven at about 180 for 45 minutes. The recipe calls for 200 but I didn’t want to end up with a burnt blob on top so I went down the safe(r) route.

Nigella says it’s done when you can see the juices seeping through. It’s pretty clear when this happens!

We had a generous serving of ice cream each with the crumble, but I reckon that custard, chocolate sauce or double cream would work just as well. done!

 

Bah Kut Teh

Bah Kut Teh is a staple of any KL visit I make. I’ve had this meal at least once every single time I’ve been back for a holiday. For those of you who don’t know what this is, it’s a mixture of pork ribs and meat cooked in a herbal soup, served with Chinese donuts and rice (in its simplest form). If you’re truly adventurous, you can also have it with liver, pigs’ intestines and more. I actually quite like pieces of pigs stomach (cue shuddering on the interweb) but that’s where I draw the weird-animal-sections line.

But K has always taken offence to it, until last week when a friend made it for us. Now it’s all “yeah I like that dish, make it why don’t you?”

God.

So I decided to take the plunge. I ended up using this brand.

I also bought some dried shiitake mushrooms that you have to soak in some warm water for about 30 minutes to soften. I used 250mls of water, you’ll see why shortly!

I used a combination of pork ribs and diced pork. Also, you can make this in a pot but as I had a lunch to attend I threw it all into a slow cooker.

I added 6 garlic cloves (skin on, smashed)…

…along with 1 tbsp of dark soy sauce and 4 tbsps of light soy sauce.

Added the two sachets in the BKT spice mix packets (whole, don’t cut into it)…

…and poured in the now-softened mushrooms plus soaking liquid in.

The recipe calls for 1.5l of boiling water to be added, but my kettle only boils a maximum of 1.25l. Hence the 250ml mushroom liquid!

If you’re using a pot, simmer this for an hour. I just banged the lid on the slow cooker, turned it to high, and came back 5 hours later to this…

I added in some tofu puffs, which I now now to be the wrong kind of tofu. No idea what the right one is called, but it’s denser than the puffs.

Now, BKT isn’t complete without some soy sauce mixed in with goddamn-hot chillies that you dip your mushrooms and meat into. In KL you also add raw garlic but I thought that might be a bit much!

I was lucky enough to score some Chinese donuts from the Asian grocer on Glen Huntly Road. You dip these into the hot soup.

Ladled some rice and iceberg lettuce into a big bowl…

Added the meat, soup, mushrooms (I threw some enoki in at the last minute but only because I had it handy!)… and tucked in.

 

Cheat’s Vegetable Biryani

I promised you a vegetable biryani recipe in the previous post, and here it is! Again, I got the base mix from that Indian grocer on Carlisle Street near the library.

Popped the spice mix in a saucepan…

…turned the fire on, and then added some frozen veggie mix…

…and some water.

While the mixture was simmering, I cooked some rice in the rice cooker. I used about 2/3rds of the water I would normally use to cook rice, as you’re meant to have the rice underdone so it doesn’t go mushy when you pop it in with the spice mix.

I popped the lid on and let it cook for about another 10 minutes. Done.

I should say that while this particular brand was great, it’s pretty spicy. And the chilli actually develops in strength if you have it the next day! I had leftovers at work and I won’t lie, there was a fair bit of water needed to calm my mouth down!

Cheat’s Tandoori Chicken

When I was young, Dad would take me to the Royal Lake Club for a swim and after, we would always have lunch by the pool. There were a few hawker stalls you could choose from and I always had garlic naan, tandoori chicken and onion pakoras.Gotta love childhood food memories.

Most of the tandoori chicken I’ve had in Melbourne has been pretty dry, so I’ve avoided ordering it outside. But I’ve recently found a great Indian grocer on Carlisle Street, and when I saw this packet mix and read how easy the instructions were, I thought I’d give it a crack.

I love the simple maths equation on the packaging. Wasn’t sure about the dairy products at an Indian grocer though, so I ended up with some European yoghurt instead.

Popped the contents of the packet into a dish and dolloped the yoghurt on top…

and mixed it in to form a thick marinade…

which I slathered on 4 chicken drumsticks (I was a bit too lazy to clean chicken marylands).

I did this in the morning and let the marinade work its magic on the meat. Just before dinner, I popped it into the oven (highest heat, grill setting), being careful to turn the chicken over after 15 minutes so it wouldn’t burn, and voila.

I squeezed a wedge of lemon over the chicken and had it with a vegetable biryani (recipe to come!). While the chicken didn’t have that awesome red hue that proper tandoori chickens have, it tasted damn good. And of course, damn simple too.

Tuna and mixed veggie pasta sauce

Another super quick sauce for a weeknight dinner that’s packed full of veggies.

Fry some sliced leek in a lug of olive oil…

…then add some sliced mushrooms…

…and a diced capsicum…

…a can of tuna and a tin of corn kernels…

…and finally a jar of Leggo’s spinach and garlic sauce. Simmer for 10 minutes. Done.

Quick pasta with tomato sauce

While Jamie Oliver’s version was much more impressive in flavour, I needed a quick tomato sauce to have with some vegeroni as a side dish. I don’t like using the bottled stuff without adding anything to increase the flavour, as the passata or pasta sauce on its own actually tastes pretty ordinary.

Looking back on it now though, there wasn’t much difference in preparation time between the two recipes. So next time I’ll definitely stick to Jamie’s recipe!

Fried up “two cloves” of garlic before pouring a good lug of chardonnay in (the tip-your-bottle-over-the-pot-for-4-seconds lug)…

Once the wine had reduced in half I added a can of chopped organic tomatoes plus some dried herbs.

After about 30 minutes on a low fire, this is what the sauce looks like…

Threw some vegeroni into salted boiling water for a couple of minutes, then mixed it in with the sauce. Done.

san choi bow

San Choi Bow is right up there with sweet and sour pork, special fried rice and lemon chicken on the “Not Really Asian Asian Dishes” list. But I was starting to exhaust my one-pot dinner repertoire so I thought I’d give it a crack. And now that I’ve made it and know how simple it is, looks like this dish might make it’s way onto our dining table more often!

I fried some chopped onion and garlic with minced pork that I had marinaded with some oyster sauce, sesame oil and white pepper.

Once the mince had browned I added in a carrot that I had chucked in the food processor…

along with a can of water chestnuts that I blitzed in the processor as well (but for a shorter time than the carrots.

Finally I threw some beansprouts in to the mix…

…let that simmer for a bit and voila.

I cooked the mince mix the night before, so after work the following day I tore off some iceberg lettuce leaves, heated the mix up, and dolloped some chilli & garlic sauce on top, and dinner was served. In about 15 minutes.