Food & Drink

Me Come Dine With Slow cooker chicken tikka

masala

Preparation and cooking time

Prep: 20 mins Cook: 4 hrs and 30 mins - 7 hrs and 30 mins Serves 4 Ingredients

• 8-12 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, each cut into 3 chunks • 2 tbsp veg or rapeseed oil • 1 large onion, chopped • 2 garlic cloves, crushed • thumb-sized piece ginger, nely grated or chopped • 3 tbsp tikka curry paste • 500ml passata • 1 tbsp tomato purée • 1 tbsp malt vinegar • 1 tbsp light brown soft sugar • 1 cinnamon stick • 5 cardamom pods • 100ml double cream • handful chopped coriander • cooked basmati rice, lime wedges and naan bread, to serve (optional)

• Method

STEP 1

Heat the slow cooker. Season the chicken, then put the oil in a wide frying pan and, once hot, add the chicken. Don’t overcrowd the pan – you may want to do this in batches. Cook over a high heat until the chicken is browned, then transfer it to the slow cooker. Add the onion, garlic and ginger to the pan and cook for a few mins until softened. Add a splash of water and scrape any bits from the bottom of the pan, then tip everything into the slow cooker.

STEP 2

Add the remaining ingredients, except the cream and coriander, then season well and cover with a lid. Cook on low for 5-7 hrs or on high for 4-5 hrs.

STEP 3

Add the cream and check the seasoning, adding more vinegar, sugar or salt if needed. Cook for another 10-15 mins until hot. Ladle between bowls and garnish with the coriander. Serve with rice, naan bread and lime wedges, if you like.

DON’T HAVE A SLOW COOKER?

You can cook this dish on the hob or in the oven instead. Follow the recipe up to the end of step 1, putting all the chicken back into the pan. Cover with a lid and cook on the hob or in an oven set to 160C/140C fan/gas 3 for 2 hrs, or until the meat is tender. Remember to stir every now and then to prevent the sauce burning, and add a splash of water if it’s looking dry.

Apple & hazelnut galette

Satisfy your comfort food cravings with this cheap and simple creamy pasta dish with chunks of ham and crunchy veg

Prep: 10 mins Cook: 20 mins Serves: 4

Ingredients

• 50glight brown soft sugar,plus extra for sprinkling • ½ lemon,zested and juiced • 1 tbspcornflour • 1 tbspmaple syrup • 3 Bramley apples,peeled, cored, halved and thinly sliced • 20ghazelnuts,roughly chopped • double cream,to serve • 175gplain flour,plus extra for dusting • 150gcold butter,cubed • 1 egg,beaten

Method

STEP 1 First, make the pastry. Blitz the hazelnuts and sugar in afood processoruntil finely chopped. Add the spelt and plain flours, butter and a good pinch of salt, and blitz again until all of the butter has been incorporated and the mixture is sandy. With the motor running, drizzle in 1-2 tbsp cold water until the dough starts to form in clumps. Squeeze a little between your fingers – if it feels like it will come together, tip the mixture onto your work surface and knead briefly into a ball. Shape into a disc, wrap and chill for 30 mins or overnight. STEP 2 If the pastry has been chilled for longer than 30 mins, let it come to room temperature for 20 mins before rolling. Mix the brown sugar, lemon zest, cornflour and maple syrup together in a large bowl. Add the apples and toss well. Set aside while youroll outthe pastry. STEP 3 Heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Dust a sheet of baking parchment large enough to line a largebaking traywith flour, then roll the pastry out to a roughly 30cm circle on top of the parchment. The pastry will crack and crumble a little as you roll it, but just keep pushing the edges back together – don’t worry if it looks rustic. Slide the pastry on its parchment onto the baking tray. Pile the apple slices into the centre of the pastry circle using your hands, letting any excess syrup drip back into the bowl as you do (save the syrup for later). Be sure to leave a clear 2cm border around the edge. Use the baking parchment to help you lift the edges of the pastry over the apples, leaving the most of the apples exposed. Pinch together any cracks around the edge to make a rustic pastry border.

STEP 4 Brush the pastry edge with some beaten egg, sprinkle with a little extra brown sugar and scatter over the hazelnuts. Bake for 50-55 mins until golden brown. Meanwhile, pour any leftover syrup from the apples into a small saucepan and bubble for a few minutes until syrupy. When the galette is cooked and still hot, brush the syrup over the top. Leave to cool for at least 30 mins, then serve warm with cold cream.Will keep in the fridge for up to two days, or freeze in well-wrapped slices for up to two months.

Your wine glossary: Part 1

Acidity

One of the essential elements in both grapes and nished wines. Acidity is necessary to keep any wine fresh. Ironically, acidity is perhaps most important in sweet wines, where it prevents then from being merely sickly-sweet.

Acidi cation

Adding ACIDITY during winemaking to compensate for grapes which have over-ripened.

Alcohol

Ethanol is produced as a by-product of fermentation. e alcoholic strength of a wine is a measure of its concentration of Ethanol.

Balance

A tasting term. A wine is balanced when all of its characteristics work together in harmony, with no single element of fruit, TANNIN, ACIDITY, ALCOHOL – overpowering anything other.

Bâtonnage

French term for stirring of the LEES.

Body

Tasting term for the weight and texture of a wine on the PALATE e ‘mouthfeel’ of the wine. A combination of ALCOHOL, EXTRACT and glycerol.

Botrytis

A fungus to which grapes are prone. Often it is bad news in the vineyard where it destroys grapes, but in a few places conditions allow it to develop bene cially as ‘Noble Rot’. Botrytis draws the water content from the grape and leaves concentrated sugary juice that makes luscious sweet wine.

Brettanomyces

Or just ‘brett’ to some wine bu s. A controversial fault in wine caused by a rogue strain of YEAST. It imparts a ‘mousey’ aroma that some nd repulsive, some nd adds character, particularly in Rhône and Burgundy reds.

Cap

e bubbling mass of skins and pips that oats to the surface during FERMENTATION of red wine. It must be submerged regularly.

Carbon Dioxide

Another by-product of FERMENTATION, winemakers take great pains to make sure none is left in the wine before bottling, unless they are making a sparkling wine.

Carbonic Maceration

A special FERMENTATION technique where whole berries are starved of oxygen so fermentation begins within the grape. Common in Beaujolais, it makes soft, fruity wines not made for keeping.

Chaptalization

Named after its inventor Jean-Antoine Chaptal who suggested adding sugar to under-ripe juice before FERMENTATION so that more ALCOHOL could be produced.

Cold Stabilisation

A process in which white wine is chilled to precipitate tartaric acid as small crystals which can then be removed before bottling. Wines that have not been cold stabilised may throw these crystals at a later stage. ey are harmless, but don’t look very nice in the bottle.

Corked

A ‘corked’ wine su ers from a speci c fault where a mouldy cork (or faulty processing of the cork) has caused a chemical called trichloranisole to form, imparting a dirty aroma and avour to the wine.