Coconut Oil ...

I bought some coconut oil this week in order to make a vegetable curry and then noticed a link to beauty ideas involving coconut oil.

Coconut is a product which has been round for years.  I can remember lathering a load of coconut oil onto my hair.  Then a friend called and asked if I'd like to go to the premier screening of the musical 'Tommy' - immediately.  So I went along with hair plastered down with the oil, hoping everyone thought it was a fashion statement!  But I digress.

Firstly, here's the recipe for the curry.

Recipe for Coconut Curry

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp cumin

2 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp coconut oil

garlic

2 courgettes, sliced

1/2 a cauliflower

4 potatoes

1 tin coconut milk

1. Mix spices together in small bowl
2. Par-boil potatoes and cauliflower
3. Slowly fry garlic and courgettes in saucepan
4. When nearly cooked add spices
5. Then add drained potatoes and cauliflower
6. Add coconut milk
7. Finish cooking, season to taste
8. Serve with cooked rice, amaranth or similar.

... and now the beauty ideas, to quote: 

50 AMAZING BEAUTY TRICKS WITH COCONUT OIL

It was recently given a ringing endorsement by one of the most beautiful women in the world. So it comes as no surprise that coconut oil – favourite of Victoria’s Secret model Miranda Kerr (along with Madonna and Demi Moore) – is the latest must-have beauty product. Even cosmetic companies like Clinique (their Pore Refining Solutions Instant Perfectorand Correcting Serumare infused with coconut acid) are promoting its benefits. And for good reason: coconut oil is antibacterial and antifungal, it’s an excellent moisturiser, it can penetrate hair better than other oils and, well, it smells like cookies.

However, you don’t  need to consume coconut oil to reap the beauty benefits. Here are 50 topical skincare, bodycare and haircare uses for it in your very own home. All you need is virgin coconut oil (preferably organic) and you are all set to glow. 

And here's the link: http://thebeautygypsy.com/coconut-oil-beauty-benefits/.

Another link is:

Top 10 Evidence-Based Health Benefits of Coconut Oil

 http://authoritynutrition.com/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil/

A recipe from: 

http://www.bodyandsoul.com.au/nutrition/nutrition+tips/10+facts+about+coconut+oil,18271

Coconut Treats

Coconut oil

almonds or walnuts

dates

coco powder

shredded coconut

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor.
2. Roll into small balls and roll into shredded coconut
3. Place in fridge for 15 minutes to set

also: http://wellnessmama.com/2072/benefits-of-coconut-oil/ and http://www.organicfacts.net/organic-oils/organic-coconut-oil/health-benefits-of-coconut-oil.html

I love a good curry but it's difficult to get one down here in Devon.  So today I made a Keema, a recipe given to me by Ruckshanda, a friend from Pakistan, many years ago:


KEEMA
3 tbsp Oil
2 medium Onions, slices
1 lb mince Meat (beef, pork, lamb according to taste)
1 cup Beans or 1 cup Peas
4 tsp Ginger and Garlic mix
2 tsp Salt
2 tsp Chilli powder
2 tsp Tumeric
4 tsp ground Coriander
1 tsp gr Cumin
2 tbsp Coriander leaves and 2 tsp Garum Masala (add at end)
1 tin Tomatoes

1. Fry mince and set aside
2. Cook onions in oil, then add spices, ginger and garlic.
3. Add tomatoes and mince meat
4. Add beans (if peas add later)
5. Cook
6. When cooked add gm and coriander leaves.

About the time I was enjoying Ruckshanda's cookery classes, we had a university-student lodger from the Gujerat who was really encouraging with my cooking.  Every Sunday when Jatin returned from the weekend home with his family, he brought with him a small gift from his mother of samples of what she'd cooked for the family that day. Yum yum!

I'd also been given one of Madhir Jaffray's cookery books (see: http://www.madhur-jaffrey.com/), which contains what became firm family favourites.  The book's packed away at the moment but when we eventually move I'll put some of the recipes on this site.


Later, when we moved up to Leicester, I was introduced to Patak's (http://www.pataks.co.uk/) and found their pastes extremely useful.

Today, as well as the Keema, I plan to make a vegetable curry and also some dahl.  It's important to only use ingredients already in the house as we're trying to run down kitchen stocks before moving.

This looks like a good dahl recipe: 

COCONUT DAHL
250g red lentils
400ml coconut milk
a handful of curry leaves (or coriander)
2 medium onions, one finely chopped, one sliced
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1tsp Tumeric
2 -3 long pointy green chillies, sliced
2 tsp black mustard seeds
flat bread - to serve

1. Put the lentils, coconut milk, the chopped onion, tomatoes, chillies and turmeric in a pan with 300ml water, season and simmer for 20 minutes, until the lentils are tender.
2. Fry the sliced onion in 4 tbsp oil until crisp, add the curry leaves (or coriander) and mustard seeds and sizzle together.
3. Pour over the lentils. Serve with flatbread.

Here are other vegetarian recipes which look worth trying:
Creamy Egg Curry:  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3214/creamy-egg-curry
Spiced Vegetable Biriani:  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1397/spiced-vegetable-biryani
Vegetable Curry for a Crowd:  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/775646/vegetable-curry-for-a-crowd

5th - 9th November was National Sausage Week* but I, along with most of the country, was busy enjoying Bonfire Night (about the 5th) and honouring the fallen on Remembrance Sunday (this year it actually fell on 11.11). 

So now, only one week late, it's time to celebrate one of Britain's favourite foods.  As a nation we spent more than £707million on sausages last year and we've been eating them for a very long time.

Sausages were brought to Britain by the Romans in around 400AD so sausage eating predates by a very long way our national dishes of fish & chips and curry+.  The dates at which these dishes became popular is a whole other story.

To celebrate the humble sausage sandwich, here's a Yorkshire recipe for this often-thought-of-as-humble delicacy:

1. Cook the sausages (fried, grilled or oven cooked) the more cooked the better so far as I'm concerned
2. Split the sausage(s) in half lengthwise and lay on the bottom of a Yorkshire tea cake (also known as large roll/bap/cob) cut in half.
3. The top half should then be fried in the bacon fat until crisp and tasty.
4. Dip into reduced chopped tinned tomatoes
5. Carefully lay on the of the sausage.
6. Serve, perhaps with brown sauce.

Incidentally, I'd never even heard of a sausage sandwich 'til I worked for BBC Local Radio in the mid 1980s.  It's what kept the journalists going when they were busy on a 'story'.

Other good ways to eat sausages include:

• Sausage casserole with plenty of vegetables, beans, possibly with a scone mix on top, a cobbler-type of dish.  Here's a colourful version, complete with seasonal pumpkin.
• Toad in the Hole, with the best Yorkshire pudding batter recipe (On from our very own Delia: http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/toad-in-the-hole-with-roasted-onion-gravy.html)

*http://www.lovepork.co.uk/blog/article/sausage-week-2012

From an article by Brian Turner, Chef

+ Fish & Chips and Curry House, rather surprisingly the curry house came first:

• Fish and chips is a popular take-away food that originated in the United Kingdom in 1858 or 1863. In 1860, the first fish and chip shop was opened in London by Jewish proprietor Joseph Malin.
• The first curry house was more like 1809, see: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8370054.stm