Gita's Healthy Happy Chips!

Last night I fancied some chips but not from the "chippy" as we say in Yorkshire. The fish and chip shop to every one else around the Globe.  

So I made my healthy happy chips at home. Here is my recipe that I liked to share with you. Chips made from 1llb (500g) chips and just 2 teaspoons of oil. 

For my recipe you need to peel the skins off or as I have done keep the skins on (making sure to give them a good scrub). I like mine fairly chunky but I will leave that up to you. I would recommend a floury potatoes that enables a softer centre and and a crispier skin. Varieties I suggest are Maris Piper and King Edward . 

So, you will need:


Ingredients
500g gm of potatoes 
10 ml of vegetable oil
(salt and vinegar to taste) or spices if you prefer.

Method:

Heat the oven at 200 oc and the baking tray
Prepare the potatoes into chips or wedges

Place them in a bowl and pour over the oil, using your hands coat them evenly, sprinkle over a little salt.

Place them on the hot baking tray and spread them out evenly. Cook for  for 25 mins. Open the oven once half way through cooking and giving them a turn. Once golden and crispy on the outside and soft in the middle they are ready. To give them that chip shop style feel and taste wrap the chips in cat paper or grease proof paper and place them back in the oven for 5 mins (switched off) - sprinkle on some more salt and vinegar.

Alternatively try this spice combination to jazz up those spuds and have them with a spicy mayo for which you will need a large dollop of good mayonnaise. Mix into that- pinch of smoked paprika, Himalayan pink salt & pepper, crushed roasted cumin and coriander seeds and small pinch of nutmeg and glove and touch of cardamon.

Enjoy!

Spiced fruit scone recipe (vegatarian)

Here's a quick recipe for some a brilliant for an egg free fruit some scones which I baked over the is weekend.

(c) 2015 Gita Mistry, all rights reserved

Put oven on: gas mark 6, 180 oc fan assisted 170oc
Grease a non stick baking tray (I find using a roasting tin bakes a softer scone)


Ingredients:


8oz self raising flour
2oz hard butter
1tsp baking powder
1oz caster sugar (more to taste - But I find this perfect as the dried fruit is sweet)
Pinch of salt
3oz dried sultanas or raisins
1/2 tsp of mixed spice
A drop of vanilla essence
120ml cream, milk or butter milk (can be mixture of them)


Method


1. Rub the butter into the in to the flour and add in baking powder and pinch of salt. (Rubbing is a method using your finger tips -take small amounts of mixture and rub the flour into the butter until is resembles breadcrumbs. Raise the mixture to some height whilst doing this over the bowl to aerate it.


2. Mix in the sugar and fruit and spice.


3. Add in 120ml of liquid, vanilla essence and bind it together with a flat knife


4. Using your hand bring it together to form dough.
Pat out in an 8 inch circle (1 inch in height) score the top in 8 pieces like the picture. Brush the top with milk (not the sides to give it colour contrast)


5. Bake for 20 mins and remove onto a cooling rack and simply enjoy with some best butter and jam is desired.


Of course this is not just for vegetarians! I took this bake to a party last night and they went in a shot...

Spice

From time to time I will write little posts on spice that I regularly use when cooking.  According to Wikipedia: " The word spice comes from the Old French word espice, which became epice, and which came from the Latin root spec, the noun referring to "appearance, sort, kind": species has the same root" 

Spices are fun to use and allow my dishes to come alive with flavour, character, colour and celebration as my father used to say. Spices are used to preserve too. There are many medicinal values of spices and combinations of them create perfect solutions to comfort and cure the body from the common colds to healing the womb after pregnancy. For example a mixture of ground cumin, turmeric and salt gargled before bed time works wonders on a horsey cough and a slowen  throat. And I saw my mother cure a few of those. 

Today I will talk about turmeric. A relative of the ginger plant - it has many properties and tastes slightly bitter but I think of it as a soft bitter taste with a warm mild scent. It is referred to as Indian saffron and it is often used as a dye in textile.  The chemical in turmeric curcumin which is what gives turmeric its vibrant yellow colour is known have an antioxidant & anti-inflammatory properties. According to research I carried out in India, people informed me of its ability to marry ingredients in a dish and how it enables other spices to sit well on the palate . A base spice.

I remember as a child having "haldi dhud" - turmeric milk .  Turmeric is known to have powerful antibacterial and anti- inflammatory properties. Helping to relieve pain; caused by muscle strain and swelling, it is referred to as the natural aspirin and a little everyday can be very beneficial for joint pain and headaches too. I named it "hunu dhud"Golden milk. I still have turmeric and ginger to manage my inflammation today and if I don't have it on a regular basis either in its dry ground or  fresh form my body is not best pleased-let me tell you.  Its especially good for skin care and can be mixed with gram flour and water to form a paste to use on your face. In Indian the haldi ceremony is a ritual performed before the marriage-using the paste to ex-foliate the skin 
for both the bride and groom. Its left on the skin until its dries and is then washed off with luke warm water- leaving the skin refreshed cleansed and smooth.

However I am warning you that it can stain your clothes, fingers and kitchen works tops! You can have too much of good thing, and if you do consume too much it can lead to you having the runs. Little and often is the best. Don t worry too much though as there is another cure for this which I may talk about another time.   

Here's a quick tasty turmeric relish which I have as a snack. Spread- onto any Indian bread with a roasted cumin papadom and drizzled with olive oil.  

Fresh turmeric( two pieces 6 cms long)- peeled & grated or ground to a paste
Green  peppercorns (10) ground to paste
Himaylayn pink salt
Pinch of chilli powder
Lemon juice 

Mix the ingredients together! Leave it all to sit in a jar for a few hours making sure the lemon juice covers the turmeric and peppercorns. Place in the fridge- bring it to room temperature, stir before devouring it - its simple but very tasty. Enjoy!

Last Christmas - this Christmas

You can have just so much of a good thing: "Jingle Bells", "Away in a Manger",  "The Twelve Days of Christmas". So I switched to the BBC Asian network. What did I find but Tav Bains who claims to have recorded the first Indian Christmas song. Really?

Anyway you can't have too many of my mince pies.  Mmm ........ yummy!

Last Christmas I did a buy and try. I bought from ASDA, Bettys and our local baker


This Christmas I did a make and bake with an all butter, ground almond and cinnamon pastry, a filling of brandy and ginger spice mincemeat.


Brandy is my favourite liqueur.

Ginger is my favourite spice


According to Wikipedia mince pies have been around since the 13th century.  Apparently Oliver Cromwell and his less than merry men tried to ban them. Why are they called mince pies when there is no meat in them? Not everyone knows that, incidentally, because one of my guests once asked "A Halal version for me, please?" I told him that he had missed the boat. Originally mince pies did have real mince meat and the spices had to be there to preserve or more likely mask the rancid meat. Nowadays we have fridges so we can enjoy the spices for themselves.


Why spice at Christmas? it's because its expensive, scented and special for this time of year.