Fun with Buckwheat Pancakes

Not being a fan of waste I was keen to try and use a bag of four yer old buckwheat form Doves Farm.

The classic formulation for a nrmal English pancake is:

1. 100g flour
2. 2 eggs
3. 300ml milk
4. 1 table spoon vegetable oil

As I was scared that the flour might taste rancid even if it smelled OK I did not want to waste two eggs, so only used one, but as it turned out two would have been fine and might have made the pancakes stiffer.

Instead of milk I used clotted cream and water as the cream needed eating.

The first three seemed a little bland so I added a third of a teaspoon of salt.

All fine, but now lets play, adding a little water when needed adding the following between batches of three cakes.

A teaspoon of Colemans English Mustard flour, nice.

A teaspoon of ground garlic powder - strong but fine

A teaspoon full of ground pimento - slightly too dominant for me

A squirt of tomato ketchup - not really noticable

Two tablespoons of chili vinegar - nice

I recommend this playful bit of cooking!

Korma Cashews and Chicken Korma, Saag Aloo, Mushroom rice

Ingredients

• Chicken drum sticks and thighs
• 400g cashew nuts
• Coconut oil
• Ground almonds
• Flaked almonds
• Garlic powder
• English mustard powder
• Turmeric
• Frozen chopped ginger
• 6 crushed cardamons
• A teasoon of ground black pepper
• Two teaspoons of mild Madras curry powder
• Two teaspoons of English mustard
• 10 shallots

One sauce for two dishes

The idea is that the sauce will suit both a cashew disk and chicken leg dish. I currently think this is a bit ambitiout and I should have gone with chicken breast.

For those that think English mustard is unknown in Indian cuisine, my research seems to say that it is normally ground from seed rather than stored as flour, but it it widely used.

Assemble the dry ingredients.

Add a 450g plain yoghurt, a splash of milk, stir into a runny mix.

Add half of the mix to 600g cashew kernels, stir, add milk if too dry. Microwave for three minutes.

Fry 10 finely chopped shallots

Add shallots to cachews and stir in. Microwave for two minutes.

Chicken Korma

Microwave the chicken for 5 minutes, allow to cool, keeping jouices, skin and debone.

Add shallots and meat back to juices and add sauce. Microwave for three minutes.

Saag Aloo

• Bag of fresh spinach
Four potatoes
• Ginger
• Turmeric
• Powdered mustard
• Finely chopped garlic
• One red chilli
• Two small shallots

Fry shallots, ginger, chillie, garlic

Peel potaoes and cube hem

Microwave the potatoes for 4 minutes with some oil

Add turmeric and mustard to potatoes.

Add cooked potatoes to seasoned oil and fry off the water.

Wash sinach and add to pan, fry gently until wilted.

Mushroom and Spring Onion Rice

• Punnet of brown mushrooms
• Bunch of Spring Onions
• 2 cups of rice
• Bouillion powder

Finely chop the mushrooms and spring onions.

Fry in a little oil.

Wash rice and add to frying pan, fry until water absorbed.

Add four teaspoons of boullion and four cups of water. Bring to boil. Simer until water absorbed.

Serve with popadoms.