Easy Crispy Aubergine (smooth pakora baingan)

I have a slight addiction to pakoras - I think it's the crispiness that gets me every time. That and the subtle hint of spice. This version isn't mouth-blisteringly hot at all and uses few ingredients so I reckon it's an easy one that goes well with just about any other Indian dishes or could just be eaten on its own as a snack.

I've stripped the ingredients here to the bare minimum. You don't have to use aubergine; it's just that I happened to have one lying around. Broccoli and cauliflower would work well too. Maybe carrot? Go crazy and try!

Serves: 4
Cost per person: 1.25 zl (25p)

What you need:

- an aubergine
- a small onion
- 1-2 tablespoons of greek yoghurt
- 2 green chillies
- 3 tablespoons of gram flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoons of rice flour
- a good pinch of salt
- 1 tsp coarsely ground coriander seed
- 1/3 tsp chilli powder (if you want a bit of extra kick; I didn't bother)
- veg oil for deep frying

Let's boogie!

1. Get your stuff ready for grinding

2. Chop up the onion and chillies and put into a coffee grinder

3. Yoghurt in and grind to a very smooth paste

4. Get the flours in a bowl. Add the crushed coriander seed

5. Get a pinch or two of salt in there plus some chilli powder if you like

6. Onion and chilli paste in

7. Start working it, baby!

8. Wash out the grinder with some water and add

9. Keep working it!

10. Add more water till you have a fairly thin batter

11. Slice the aubergine

12. Add to the batter

13. Heat up enough oil in a wok to deep fry comfortably. Get it nice and hot. Aubergines in. Cook till golden brown (approx 5 minutes).

14. Drain on kitchen paper and enjoy. Don't worry if the batter gets a bit deformed - it's all part of the fun!

What did this cost?

- aubergine: 3 zl
- the rest: 2 zl

Total: 5 zl
Serves: 4
Per person: 1.25 zl

Almost Free Chicken Soup

Ok. An easy one today. It's a bit of a "left-overs" meal, good for when you've had roast chicken or something like that or, as in my case, you've jointed a chicken and you're left with the carcass. Even if you haven't cooked chicken, you can usually pick up a carcass from the butcher for next to nothing.

Why do you need a chicken carcass? To make your own stock! Forget knorr etc. Full of chemicals. Yuck! What we want is real tasty stock from a real chicken and vegetables! We also want to get rid of those odd vegetables in the fridge that are "on the turn", if you know what I mean...

From this carcass, you can get two meals: chicken soup as I'm showing you today and later on we'll be making a risotto from the chicken stock.

Let's do the soup now.

Cost per person: 1 zl (20p UK, 24 Euro cents, 0.63 Turkish Lira)
Serves: 2

What you need for the stock:

- chicken carcass
- some old vegetables

What you need for the soup:

- an onion
- a clove of garlic (crushed)
- 1 dried red chilli
- 1 tomato
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp marjoram
- 3 bay leaves
- other herbs if you like
- salt and pepper to taste
- pieces of edible chicken salvaged from the carcass

What do we need to do?

1. Make the initial stock. Get the carcass in a big pan of water. Boil. Throw in some vegetables which are past their peak (but not rotten!). I used some bits of onion, old ginger, old garlic, one old green chilli pepper, 2 old tomatoes, a bunch of old parsley. You could use whatever's there.

2. Boil for around 2 hours.

3. Cool.

4. Strain the liquid into a container. Put in the fridge. You'll need this for in a couple of days time when I show you the risotto recipe. Yum!

5. Pick usable chicken from the carcass and put in a separate container. You'll need about half for the soup and half for the risotto.

6. Put the carcass and the veg from the stock back into the pan and add more water.

7. Bring to a boil and add the extra vegetables. I didn't add extra tomato because there was already a fair amount in the stock, but add some now if you didn't add any before.

8. Simmer for around an hour.

9. Strain the liquid out. Discard the carcass and veg. Add half the salvaged chicken pieces and hey presto! You've got your soup!

What did this cost?

- chicken: nothing at all - it was left over from a previous meal
- veg for the stock: nothing at all - I was going to throw them out the next day anyway
- veg and spices for the soup: about 0.20 zl let's say (and I'm being generous there)
- bread with the soup: 1.80 zl (again, that's generous)

Total cost: 2 zl
Serves: 2
Per person: 1 zl

Aubergine in a spicy nutty coconut sauce (bagare baingan)

There's a few reasons I'd been interested in trying this one out. Firstly, it's an authentic Indian dish from the Hyderabad region and you definitely won't see it on a restaurant menu in the UK (or at least, I never have). Secondly, it's vegan without really trying to be. I mean, it's vegan by accident and is so good that you just won't notice that it's vegan. In fact, I shouldn't have really told you. Thirdly, it gave me the excuse to pick up some baby aubergines from an Asian store when I was over in the UK recently. I'd noticed them in India and Thailand and always wanted to check them out.

Here's what the end product looks like: it's a wonderfully rich dish with a nutty spicy flavour laced with coconut and a good amount of heat from the dried red chillies.

As for the aubergines, ok I'll be frank: you could just use regular ones and chop them up into meaty strips. In fact, please do this! Don't worry if you can't get the ones I got.

The first time I made the dish, I used these:

The second time, I thought I'd try these:

Both worked well. If you're going to use this kind, keep them on the stem and make two cuts upwards towards the stem to make a cross. Keep the stem intact:

Salt them for 30 minutes then leave to soak in water while you get the rest of the ingredients ready.

But, I'm getting ahead of myself, aren't I? Haven't even told you what this costs yet... Or the ingredients...

Cost: 2.90 zl per person (59 pence, 92 cents, 5.5 Norwegian Kroner)
Serves: 4

What you need:

- 10-12 baby aubergines
- 2 tsp cashew nuts
- 2 tsp almonds
- 4 large dried red chillies 
- 1 tsp sesame seeds
- 1 tsp poppy seeds
- 2 tablespoons of grated coconut - about half a coconut - (or desiccated if you can't be bothered grating a fresh coconut)
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 2 cloves
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 2 black cardamons
- salt to taste
- 2 onions finely chopped
- 2 tsp ginger/garlic paste
- 2 tsp mustard seeds
- handful of curry leaves
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 2 tsp tamarind concentrate in a glass of hot water (prep in advance)

One thing about the ingredients: traditionally, peanuts are used instead of the cashews and almonds, so feel free to experiment there. Like I said, use normal aubergines if you like. Chop up fairly large, though. Grating a coconut is a faff, but is worth it for the fresh flavour. 

Let's get on with it!

1. Soak the cashews, almonds and dried red chillies in a little water for around an hour. This makes it easier to grind them to a smooth paste. 

2. Prep the aubergines as above.

3. Prep the other ingredients (excluding the onions, garlic and ginger)

4. Start by dry roasting the hard spices first for a minute or two until you can smell the aroma

5. Add the nuts and dry roast for a further 30 seconds.

6. Coconut in and dry roast until the whole mixture feels dry but avoid browning the coconut too much. Take off the heat.

7. Transfer to a coffee grinder and grind to a powder.

8. You might have to do this in batches, but add the cashew/ almond/ chilli mixture along with the soaking water and grind with the coconut spice mix. Add enough water to form a smooth paste. You might need to grind for some time. Be patient - you'll get there!

You should end up with something which looks like this:

9. Oil in a pan. Hot. Mustard seeds in

10. When they splutter, aubergines in. Medium heat. Cook till the aubergines are about 90% there. Remove from the pan

11. Keep the same oil. You might need to add a little more. Onions in. Sweat down with a little salt till they start to brown slightly.

12. Ginger/ garlic paste in. 

13. Curry leaves

14. Turmeric

15. Get the paste in. Add a glass or two of water. Simmer for around 10 minutes.

16. In the meantime, prep the tamarind juice. Add 2 tsp concentrate to a glass of hot water.

17. When the oil starts to separate from the paste, you know it's cooked.

18. Time for the tamarind.

19. Get those aubergines back in and cover. Cook for a further 5 minutes or so. Add salt to taste.

20. Blimey, that was a marathon, wasn't it! Enjoy with rice!

What that cost:

- Aubergines: 7 zl

- Coconut: 1 zl

- Rice: 1.60 zl

- The rest: 2 zl

Total: 11.60 zl

Serves: 4

Cost per person: 2.90 zl

Green Chicken Curry (Thai-style)

Let's get down to the terminology. "Curry" as used to describe Thai dishes is a translation of the Thai word "Gaeng" which is used by the Thais to refer to a kind of thin spicy soup-like dish eaten with rice.

Sometimes people may be surprised when their Thai "curry" arrives in a soup bowl and indeed feels more like a soup than the Indian thicker more sauce-like dish they were expecting.

Personally, I think that if you're going to eat something with rice, it's better to err on the thicker side so that's what I'll be doing with this dish.

Another thing: should you buy a ready-made green curry paste or make your own? Make your own! It's fresher, tastier and you can control how hot you want it or tweak it to your own personal preferences. And it's fun! And if you do it right, it tastes miles better than some bland jar from your supermarket.

Serves: 4
Cost per person: around 4 zl (40 Thai Baht, 81 UK pence, 95 Euro cents)

What do we need?

For the paste:

- 2-3 shallots or 1/2 a bunch of spring onion (leaves)
- a handful of basil leaves
- a handful of coriander leaves
- chopped up coriander root from the coriander leaves
- 3 green chillies
- 2 inch of ginger
- 2-3 cloves of garlic
- zest of 1 lemon
- juice of 1/2 lemon
- a pinch of salt
- tsp black pepper corns (dry roasted)
- tsp cumin seeds (dry roasted)
- tsp coriander seeds (dry roasted)

For the stir fry:

- 400 g chicken breast
- vegetables of choice (onion/ radish/ peppers/ carrot work well)

For the sauce:

- a nice glug of fish sauce
- a nice glug of soy sauce
- a cup of coconut milk (dissolve 1/4 of a bar of creamed coconut in hot water)

All you Thai purists out there will have noticed that I've missed out some key ingredients which are bloody hard to get outside of SE Asia. Here they are:

- galangale (it's a bit like ginger in appearance but with a sharper taste. I've just doubled up the ginger instead)
- kaffir lime leaves (useless dried, so I've just used extra lemon to compensate)
- lemon grass (just used lemon juice to compensate)
- kaffir lime peel (just used lemon zest to compensate)
- shrimp paste (you could substitute by adding a couple of anchovies into the paste mix, but I just splashed in some extra fish sauce to compensate)

Trust me: the result tastes good even without those 5 authentic but omitted ingredients.

Shall we get cracking?

1. Get your ingredients together

Don't forget the basil like I nearly did!

2. Dry roast the pepper corns, cumin and coriander and transfer to a coffee grinder. Grind up real good.

3. Add the rest of those paste ingredients to the grinder and grind like you've never ground before!

4. Get ready to stir fry! You need the wok nice and hot. Add a little oil. I'll use coconut oil for a more authentic taste.

5. Stir fry the chicken to seal (1-2 mins)

6. Get the veg in and stir (30 secs)

7. Paste in.

8. Glug in the fish sauce. I use the Cock brand because the name amuses me.

9. Soy sauce in.

10. Coconut milk in. Cook for a further minute until the sauce has slightly reduced. 

11. You should be ready now. The whole cooking process should be over in around 5 minutes. No longer or the chicken will start to "rubber up"

12. Serve with rice (jasmine rice gives you that real Thai feel but any long grain variety will work)

What did all this end up costing?

- chicken: 6.50 zl
- vegetables (peppers and onions): 2 zl
- paste ingredients: 5 zl
- coconut milk and the rest: 1 zl
- rice: 1.60 zl


Total: 16.10 zl
Serves: 4
Per person: 4.03 zl