I don’t cook with a lot of cream but what’s a butter chicken without it? Line up all your spices before you get started, and you’ll have this meal on the table in no time.
Instant Butter Chicken – Pressure Cooker
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Rating: 1 out of 5.
Ingredients (serves 4)
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 tablespoons minced garlic
2 tablespoons minced ginger
2 teaspoons garam masala
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon tumeric
400g passata
800g chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite sized pieces
1 cup cream
500g broccoli, steamed
Method
Select SAUTE on pressure cooker and melt the butter. Add the garlic and ginger, and cook for 1 minute.
Add all of the spices, stir, and cook for 1 minute.
Add the passata and a ¼ cup of water. Switch off the SAUTE setting.
Add the chicken thighs and stir.
Select PRESSURE COOK setting and cook for 6 minutes on HIGH.
Carefully remove the lid, and press on SAUTE. Stir in the cream, and allow the sauce to reduce a little.
Serve with rice and steamed broccoli (or your favourite greens).
Wholegrain mustard is a staple in our home. It puts a real punch into a meal without being too spicy.
This relatively new recipe is so simple, giving you incredible flavours for minimal effort.
If you don’t have a pressure cooker, you can use a slow cooker and set to HIGH for 4 hours.
Honey Mustard Chicken – Pressure Cooker
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Rating: 1 out of 5.
Ingredients (serves 4)
2 chicken breasts/thighs, cut into 3cm chunks
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 cup of water
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1/4 cup of honey
2 tablespoons dijon mustard
3 tablespoons wholegrain mustard
6 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 3cm chunks
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm chunks
2 cups brown rice
Method
Rinse rice, add to pressure cooker with 5 cups of water. Select Pressure cook / rice – or follow instructions for your cooker or stovetop.
Whilst rice is cooking cut and prepare all remaining ingredients. Once rice is ready, remove from cooker and set aside. Rinse bowl and return to cooker.
Select SAUTE HIGH setting on pressure cooker, heat the oil, and brown chicken.
Add water to deglase the pot and with a spatula remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Switch off the SAUTE setting.
Add the rest of the sauce ingredients; garlic, honey, and mustards. Followed by potatoes and carrots.
Seal the lid and make sure that the valve is in sealing position.
This recipe is slightly more time consuming then the others, but if you put in the time, you will have a tasty dressing to use for salads during the week – win win!
If you’re time poor, you can just make the chicken and have it with rice and some steamed vegetables, or even in wraps for lunch or dinner.
Mexican Chicken Bowl – Slow Cooker
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Rating: 1 out of 5.
Ingredients – Mexican Chicken
800g chicken breast
300g chunky salsa
1/3 cup coriander lime dressing* (recipe below) + more as dressing
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
Method – Mexican Chicken
Add all “Slow Cooker Mexican Chicken” ingredients to slow cooker. Set on HIGH and cook for 4 hours.
Shred chicken (it should come apart really easily!) and let it cook/sit for 10 more minutes.
Other ingredients for the bowl
4 cups cooked rice
420g tin of corn, drained
420g tin of black beans, drained
2 avocados
1/4 cup chopped coriander
1 lime
Method – building the bowl
Cook the rice, drain corn and black beans, chop coriander, dice avocados, cut lime into wedges.
Assemble rice bowls by adding rice, chicken, corn, black beans, and diced avocados to each bowl. Garnish with coriander and lime wedges. Drizzle with *Coriander Lime Dressing, (see below).
*Coriander Lime Dressing
This easy coriander lime dressing is great to have on hand in the fridge for topping onto salads, tacos, or burrito bowls. To make it creamy, add 1/2 avocado or Greek yogurt to the base recipe!
Ingredients
2 cups fresh coriander
1/2 tsp Coriander, ground
1 Garlic clove
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tsp maple syrup or honey
1/2 cup of olive oil, extra-virgin
Optional extra – 1 avocado or 1/2 cup of greek yoghurt
Method
Place all ingredients (apart from oil), in food processor and blend.
With the blade running, pour in the olive oil until smooth.
Optional – to make creamy, add one avocado or 1/2 cup of Greek yoghurt.
I still can’t believe this recipe originated from the free Woolworths monthly cookbook? A real gem!
Recipe ideas can come from anywhere so don’t be too quick to judge as I once did. It may seem like there are a million spices, but once you buy them once, you’ll find they are used in many tasty recipes.
Malay Beef Rendang – Slow Cooker
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Rating: 1 out of 5.
Ingredients (serves 4)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 jar Ayam Malaysian Rendang Curry Paste – you can use any Rendang paste, simply follow quantity instructions on jar.
3 teaspoons ground corriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
6 fresh kaffir lime leaves (jar leaves are ideal to use and have in fridge as backup when you can’t find fresh)
1kg chuck steak or rump, cut into 3cm pieces
270ml coconut cream
1/4 cup tamarind purée
Cooked wild rice
Kachumber salad (optional extra on the side). A mixture of tomato, cucumber, red onion, coriander, lime juice or white wine vinegar and a little salt.
Method
Select SAUTÉ on slow cooker. Heat oil, spices and lime leaves, and cook stirring for 3 minutes.
Add beef and stir to coat.
Add coconut milk, tamarind purée, and stir well to combine.
This recipe is based on Jamie Oliver’s Thai Style Chicken Laksa from his book “Jamie’s 15 Minute Meals.”
I could dine with Jamie’s daily, so long as he cooks. Whilst he can whip up multi-faceted, three course meals in 15 minutes, I am not a trained chef, nor have the kitchen stocked to the level he does.
I have most of Jamie’s books, (did I mention how great he is?), and I have come to realise I can extract one aspect of his recipe and cook it as a standalone meal – a showstopper in its own right!
I’ve always cooked Jamie’s full version of this meal (including the Chinese five spice chicken accompaniment – worth checking out), however when cooking off-grid I realised, the Laksa element is a star on its own – and fillingtoo. It’s also a great way to introduce a meat-free meal into your diet.
Meal planning tip: pair this meal in your weekly (or monthly), meal plan, with Beef Rendang as you can share the kaffir lime leaves ingredient – which can seem all too exotic if you aren’t used to it.
Make ahead of time
Like the pressure/slow cooker meals, this meal can be made ahead of time and finished off just before serving. Make the paste and put in the fridge until you are ready to put it all together and eat.
Add any greens you like such as asparagus or green beans.
Thai Laksa
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Rating: 1 out of 5.
Ingredients (serves 4)
2 teaspoons minced garlic/ 2 cloves of garlic
2 teaspoons minced ginger / 5 cm piece of ginger
1 fresh red chilli (seeds removed)
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
½ a bunch spring onions / shallots
1 heaped teaspoon peanut butter
4 kaffir lime leaves
½ a bunch of fresh coriander
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon low-salt soy sauce
1 tablespoon fish sauce
300g laksa / vermicelli noodles
1 head of broccoli, cut into small pieces
1 x 400g tin of light coconut milk
800ml boiled water
1 chicken or vegetable stock cube
Method
In a small blender / processor add the garlic, ginger, chilli, turmeric, shallots, peanut butter, lime leaves, coriander stalks (saving the leaves), sesame oil, soy and fish sauce. Blitz to a paste.
Boil the stock, add in the paste, coconut milk, and broccoli and stir. Boil for 2 mins, then add the noodles, turn the heat down to LOW and stir for another few minutes until noodles and broccoli is soft.
Serve with lime wedges, sprinkling with the coriander leaves and slices of fresh chilli.
Adventure before dementia! 