Gemma Date night dinners have changed a bit in our house over the last year. Going from 1 to 2 children — amid a global pandemic — has been a bit of a culture shock, to say the least. So when we have our weekly date night it is nearly always a prerequisite that the food tastes great without grafting at the stove as the trade-off. Nowadays it is the one night of the week we get to sit back, watch an episode of a Netflix series, have a beer/wine/gin and do very little else. How times have changed!
Feed the kids early so you can relax
Last week we brought you our Cheesy Broccoli & Spinach Pasta Sauce – it’s one of our go-to meals for feeding the children when we aren’t eating together as a family. This week we bring you one of the dinners we reserve for date night – mainly because I make it really spicy, but you don’t have to.
Jamie Oliver
This recipe came from my sister Hayley. She found it on Jamie Oliver’s website and took a screenshot about six years ago – she has been making it ever since. Throughout 2020 we have been really lucky to have Hayley living locally again which means we have enjoyed having her curries delivered to our front door! But the Madras is so good that we wanted to cook it ourselves and now it is a firm favourite. We can’t find the recipe on the JO website to share it directly so these images are the best we can do.
Jamie’s recipe has been a good starting point and I do always refer to it, but I have changed things over time depending on what’s in the cupboard/fridge. And I always add extra garlic — 4 cloves? Not enough for us. One specific change I made was actually a mistake; I used fenugreek seeds, not leaves because I read the recipe wrong. Aparently, believe it or not, maple syrup is a better substitute for fenugreek leaves than fenugreek seeds are. Taste Essence has the details!
Easy and full of flavour
Our date night dinners are usually curries and this one is great because it’s so easy to make and yet there are zero compromises on the flavour front. You can control the heat because, as Jamie suggests, you add curry powder to your taste. It’s also great if you are feeding vegetarians/pescetarians and carnivores alike because you can make the sauce in advance and then split it accordingly. I don’t do this in the video but would fully recommend as it’s better the next day. Annoyingly I meant to separate 1/3 of the sauce before adding the prawns ready to freeze but I forgot so we had lots of sauce left in the pan at the end. We make our madras with king prawns in this recipe but I have had it with chicken and tofu, and both work.
Tofu?
I am yet to eat tofu and think “wow, this is great”. The only time I did was when Jim and I were in Berlin (pre-kids) and we ate at a Japanese vegan place at the end of an all-day session. I remember the tofu being crispy and full of flavour – I have never been able to replicate it at home and if I’m honest I don’t really trust my memory… we were many steins and schnapps’ into the evening when we ate it and I would have likely eaten and enjoyed anything.
Kitchen gadgets
Jamie uses a food processor here which I admit makes it less accessible as a recipe. But Christmas is coming and kitchen gadgets are always a good option for your Christmas list. My sister tells me she used to use her nutribullet to blitz the ingredients before she bought a food processor. It’s worth the investment if, like us, your date night dinners are at the end of a busy family filled day and you don’t want to cook for hours.
You can buy Nutribullet on amazon for £39.99. We have had ours for about 7 years and given it some good welly in that time. In fact, I recently partially broke it. I was making a smoothie for our eldest and, through what I am going to blame on severe sleep deprivation, I left the teaspoon in and blitzed that too. Kudos to Nutribullet the only thing I broke was the container — the blades and mechanism survived and the spoon came off much worse.
If you are looking for a tasty weekend win then our JO King Prawn Madras is a gooden. I serve it with our homemade flatbreads which I use across lots of meals and they are so good! You have to make and eat them fresh but they are very low maintenance – perfect for date night dinners.
Mum Life
Firstly I am flying low in the flatbread video which Jim pointed out to me at 11:50 pm the night before this post was published… I mean, yeah that’s life now, I am not going to rerecord that video to save embarrassment for anyone. Then in the Madras video, I am literally rocking baby to sleep in the pram while I make the sauce. I hope it helps you to see that we don’t set up any kind of staged environment to cook these recipes. They are real and honest and in no way perfect. But we hope that you find joy in sharing them with us.
Here’s to the weekend, to the opportunity to sit down with dinner, crack open a beer, put your feet up and chill with a much-needed date night curry!
King Prawn Madras
Equipment
- Food processor / blender
Ingredients
- 2 medium onions
- 6 cloves of garlic
- 1 thumb sized piece ginger
- 600 g of Passata
- 400 g king prawns
- First group of Spices
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp of ground coriander
- 1 tsp of ground Carraway
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp of chilli powder to your taste
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp of salt
- second group spices
- 1 tbsp Methi fenugreek leaf I couldn’t get my hands on any so used 1 tsp fenugreek seeds. Apparently maple syrup is a better substitute
- 1 tbsp garam masala
Flatbreads
- 200 ml strong white bread flour
- 100 ml warm water
- 1 pinch salt
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
Instructions
Curry method
- Put the onion garlic and ginger in a food processor and blitz until you get a fine and even chop
- Add a drizzle of olive oil to a pan and cook this mix on a low heat
- Meanwhile add your cumin, caraway and coriander seeds to a dry frying pan to release the flavours and then grind. If your sprices are already ground you can skip this step
- Once ground add the tumeric and chilli powder to the spices
- Your onions, garlic and ginger will fry for roughly 30 minute. Jamie says to mix through three or four times but I mix more often
- After the first 5 minutes put a lid on the pan. Jamie says to take the lid off for the last 10 mins to reduce the liquid but I don’t find I have any liquid to reduce
- Add the passata and the first group of spices then mix thoroughly. I add 200g more Passat than Jamie
- Stick a lid on it and leave it to cook for another 10 minutes
- Meanwhile I ground some fenugreek seeds and added it to the pan with the garam masala
- 10 mins out from serving add your king prawns to the hot sauce and cook gently for 10 minutes or until cooked thoroughly. I made my sauce earlier in the day and reheated it once we were ready to cook
- I served our curry with a brown rice, cauliflower and garlic side which makes a great leftovers lunch the next day. And I make my own flatbreads which are in someways the star of the show!
Flat bread method
- Put all the ingredients in your food processor/food mixer with the dough attachment and mix for a minute
- Lightly oil a bowl, put the dough in it and set aside for 20 minutes
- Lightly flour a surface and pull a golf ball size piece of dough from your bowl
- Using a rolling pin roll the dough as thin as you can get it then immediately transfer to a dry frying pan
- Fry for a 30 seconds to a minute each side (depending on how thin your flat breads are) little air pocket will fill as the bread cooks
- Set aside in a clean towel or tinfoil and fry the next one. You want to serve the curry as soon as the breads are cooked so use that to time your king prawn prawns going in, garnish with coriander and put your feet up!
Video
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