Nice and Spicy Beef Curry - Gordon Ramsay

 Nice steaming hot beef curry, but it's only going to be good if the beef is so tender that it melts in your mouth.

Having made this I think it would actually work in a slow cooker.  Just follow the recipe up until the lid goes on and it cooks on the stove top for 3 hours or so. Cooked in a slow cooker I would imagine it would have to be on 7 or 8 hours.

 Once again another bad picture due to the flash having to be used - am not very happy, but what to do?!

Jeera Rice or Cumin Rice

Jeera rice or cumin rice, whatever you want to call it, it's good.
Jeera means cumin in Hindi. The cumin seeds are gently roasted with cloves, cinnamon, peppercorns and bay leaves until they nicely browned and nutty.
This is another Gordon Ramsay recipe from his book 'Great Escape'

If you like Indian food than you have to give this a go!


Of course you don't eat the bay leaves nor the cinnamon stick - I left those in an attempt to make the picture look more fancy!

Indian Sambar - Gordon Ramsay

Sambar is a thin stew flavoured with tamarind and thickened with toor (tuvar) dal.
A plateful of loveliness!
So, this was another recipe I just had to make from watching Gordon Ramsay's 'Great Escape' television programme.

I have to say this was the nicest Indian dish I have ever had. So many different flavours and very spicy but in the nicest possible way. The Jeera (cumin) rice was also delicious.
I will be making both again! Don't be put off my the never ending list of ingredients - this recipe is well worth the effort.



Print this Recipe
If you are going to make this, please note the following:
I must point out that Gordon's recipe doesn't mention adding water after adding the tamarind liquid. I had to add at least a cup if not a cup and a half.
The carrots and butternut can not possibly cook in just the little amount of thickish tamarind water and most definitely not in only 8 to 10 minutes as his book says it will take.
When I make this again I will part boil the carrots and butternut before adding to the recipe.
I also used frozen okra from Tesco's as I couldn't get fresh on the day
I wanted it. I also go the tamarind (wet block) from Tesco
in their world food bit and the toor dal from an Asian grocers.

Serves 4
For the Masala you will need:
2 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp yellow split peas
2 tsp coriander seeds
6 curry leaves
4 dried red chillies



For the Sambar you will need:
200g toor dal or it is also known as tuvar dal
6 curry leaves
100g tamarind pulp
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
½ tsp cumin seeds
4 dried red chillies
1 medium aubergine, trimmed and cut into 2cm pieces
¼ butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cut into 2cm pieces
3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 2cm pieces
at least a cup of water
1tsp ground turmeric
1tsp sea salt - or to taste
50g okra - washed, dried, trimmed and cut into bite sized pieces
4 tomatoes - skinned and chopped
1tsp ground coriander
1tsp red chilli powder fresh coriander - leave only and chopped
1tbsp of ghee or melted unsalted butter


How to do it:
Place a frying pan over a medium heat and carefully roast all the ingredients for the masala. When the spices begin to smell very fragrant and are nicely roasted, remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool completely.
Use a spice grinder or pestle and mortar to grind the spices into a powder.

Tip into a small bowl and add enough water, about 3-4 tablespoons, to form a thick paste with a slow-dropping consistency and set aside.

Put the toor dal and curry leaves into a medium saucepan and cover with 1½ litres of water. Bring to the boil and skim off any scum that rises to the surface. Reduce the heat slightly and leave to simmer for 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are tender. Drain and set aside.

Soak the tamarind in 200ml of very hot water for 20 minutes, break down the block into smaller pieces. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve pushing through as much as possible but discard the husks and seeds - you only want the thickish liquid.
Heat the vegetable oil in a large pan and add the mustard, fennel and cumin seeds and the dried chillies.



Cook for 1 minute or until the spices become very fragrant. Now add the aubergine, butternut squash and carrots, stirring well to coat the vegetables in the spices. After 2-3 minutes add the turmeric, salt and tamarind water to the pan and bring to the boil.
Boil for a good while until the vegetables are tender but not mushy. You will need to add water. I must have added at least a cup and a half by the time the carrots had softened - please see my note above.



Add the okra, cooked lentils, ground masala spice, chopped tomatoes, ground coriander and chilli powder to the pan and stir well.
Add more water to the pan if necessary. (The sambar should be quite thin in consistency.)
Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and leave to simmer for 5 minutes or so until the okra is just tender.
Taste and adjust the seasoning.
Just before serving, stir through the chopped coriander and ghee or butter.



Serve the Sambar hot with rice and warm naan bread.
I served mine with Jeera rice.

Indian Butter Chicken - Murgh Makhani

I've been watching Gordon Ramsay's 'Great Escape' on TV - a fantastic programme!

However, when the book was published I'm thinking something is wrong with the butter chicken recipe.
In the programme talking about the butter chicken he had there, Gordon said
"It doesn't taste tart - like it's been laced with tomato puree....it uses fresh tomatoes" 

Now, this is all very strange because the book says to use 275ml of tomato puree and there's not a mention of a tomato fresh or tinned!  
That said, I must point out that in the USA tomato puree is known as tomato paste perhaps a misunderstanding by whoever wrote the book.

So, there I was, everything ready to go until I noticed the amount of tomato puree. Not only would the dish have been very bitter, there would have been no sauce at all.
With all that in mind, I set about looking up different recipes on the net and the result is my 'titivated' version of Indian butter chicken.

Cottage Pie with Guinness and Other Good Things

Who can't love a nice cottage pie?

I came across this recipe by Gordon Ramsay that has Guinness in it. I made it exactly (which is strange for me to follow a recipe exactly) and it was totally delicious.

I did put come cooked peas and carrots in the bottom of mine.
If you've never used a potato ricer you must immediately go out and get one - they are amazing! I brought mine for just £5 from Marks and Spencer.

To serves 6 you will need:
a large pie dish
2 tbsp olive oil
900g good quality (low fat) minced beef
sea salt and black pepper
3 medium onions, peeled and finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
a few thyme sprigs, leaves only
2 nice fat plum tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons of tomato purée
330ml bottle of Guinness
5 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce
300ml chicken stock (I used fresh home made chicken stock) but you can use a Knorr stock cube
1 kg floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper or King Edward, peeled and roughly cubed
50g butter a handful of grated cheddar, plus extra for the top of the pie
1 large egg yolk
plus a good handful of cooked peas and carrots if you fancy

How to do it:
Put a large frying pan over a high heat and add a thin layer of olive oil. Season the mince with salt and pepper and fry, stirring, in two or three batches, until nicely browned.
Drain off any fat, although you shouldn't really have worth worrying about if you used good quality mince.
Put the cooked mince into a bowl and set aside.
In the same pan you just used, put it over a medium-high heat and add a little olive oil. When it's nice and hot, fry the onions, with the garlic for a few minutes until until soft and golden.
Now add the thyme and cook for another minute or so.
Add the browned mince, tomatoes and tomato puree. Stir constantly for 4-5 minutes.
Add the Guinness and Worcestershire sauce and boil until the liquid has reduced by half. Pour in the stock and return to the boil.
Turn the heat down and simmer for 20-25 minutes, by which time the mixture should be lovely and thick and glossy.
Continue to simmer for another 5-10 minutes if it doesn’t seem quite thick enough. Once done remove it from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F or Gas 4

Meanwhile, add the potatoes to a pan of salted water, bring to the boil and cook until tender. Drain and return to the hot pan for 15 seconds or so, to dry out, then take off the heat.
Pass the potatoes through a potato ricer back into the pan or mash smoothly. Mix through the butter, cheese and egg yolk.
Taste and adjust the seasoning.

Put the cooked peas and carrots into the bottom of the dish if you are using them and then spoon the mince mixture on top.
Spoon the mashed potato on top and rough up the surface with a fork.
Grate over some extra cheese and bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until bubbling and golden brown.