52 Cook Books : Subzi Biryani

I have a tonne of cook books, and that really is no exaggeration. I have at least 25 'current' books in my kitchen, the odd few by my bed and next to the sofa, and the bulk of them (2 shelves full) in a wardrobe in Jack's bedroom. I very rarely follow a recipe from a cook book despite having so many, I mainly use them for inspiration or to just flick through and drool at the pictures - one of my pet hates is a cook book that doesn't have a photo for each recipe, how on earth are we to know what the finished dish is supposed to look like!

Mary from Keynko has come up with a new weekly challenge where she will be cooking something that she's never cooked before from one of her many cook books - 52 of them to be precise, hence the name of the challenge. She is asking fellow bloggers to cook along with her too, so I'm going to try and join in every week.

Last night I decided to select a recipe and then buy any necessary ingredients this morning. I crept into Jack's bedroom where him and Hanna were fast asleep on their sleepover. In the darkness I reached into the wardrobe and picked out a book - Curry by Vivek Singh (and others), published in 2009. I have no idea where I got this book from, most likely a birthday or Christmas present. I think I browsed through it when I first received it but I have never cooked anything from it, thinking that many of the recipes had far too many ingredients! It's a 350 page book with recipes from India, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Africa, Caribbean, Japan & Britain (yes Britain!) by a variety of authors. It not only includes recipes but also information on cuisine and spices for each region.

The page I opened the book on was a recipe for Subzi Biryani, which pleased me, as after a quick scan of the ingredients I realised that I had pretty much everything already in the cupboard. I was only missing cumin seeds and tomatoes so instead substituted for ground cumin and a tin of tomatoes.

Apart from over cooking the rice (I'm useless when it comes to boiling rice) the recipe went to plan and was delicious, as well as being a perfect dish for the boys to come home to, after a day at the football - warming and filling (although my version does look more like a risotto!)

There is an almost identical version of this recipe on the BBC Good Food website here.

I've had a helping hand selecting next week's recipe, Apple & Apricot Treacle Bars from Good Food - The Collection.

Take a Bag of Veg - Ham & Vegetable Pie

Following all the Christmas festivities I found that we had some of the delicious 'ham in coke' left over. Instead of eating more sandwiches filled with leftover meats and stuffing I decided to make it into a quick pie for the family.

It was a nice easy pie made using ready made puff pastry. I've made my own puff pastry previously but always try and keep a block or two of shop bought in the fridge or freezer ready for quick meals like this. Frozen veg is also something that I always try and keep in the freezer as the fresh fruit & veg in this house gets eaten in a flash, so having the frozen variety always means we have some kind of vegetable available for dinner.

This pie is the first of a few recipes that I have coming up that use frozen vegetables, and the low cost (£1 for a 1kg bag) makes the meals incredibly frugal as well as convenient - and unlike frozen ready meals you have control over exactly what ingredients go into your meals.

Ham & Vegetable Pie - serves 4/5

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

150ml milk

2 tsp cornflour

300g frozen mixed vegetables, defrosted (mine included sweetcorn, peas, cut green beans & mini carrots)

300g cooked ham, diced

100g cheese (I used a mixture of soft goats cheese and grated Red Leicester leftover from the Christmas cheese board)

500g ready made puff pastry

1 egg, beaten

• Heat the oil in a pan and fry the onion to soften
• Mix the cornflour with a little of the milk and add to the pan with the remainder of the milk
• Stir in the vegetables and ham
• Bring gently to the boil for the sauce to thicken
• Meanwhile roll the pastry out to form a base and a lid for your pie (I used just over half for the base and the rest for the lid)
• Line your pie dish with pastry, prick all over with a fork & bake for approx 6-7 minutes in a preheated 200C oven
• Stir the cheese into the ham & vegetables
• Fill your part baked pastry base with the filling
• Brush around the edge of the pastry with the beaten egg & lay the pastry lid on top (doesn't matter about being neat!)
• Press the edges together with a fork to seal
• Brush with more beaten egg
• Bake in the oven for approx 20 minutes, until puffed up and golden

I need to get into the habit of doing my cooking earlier in the day until the Spring comes as I hate those night time food photos!