Dinner and Dessert

I love desserts and if I'm going to the pub or eating out, I feel perfectly entitled to a big pudding since I usually eat well most of the time.  I'm a huge fan of baking and have really gotten into the whole sugar free baking lately, so will post about some of the cake recipes I've tried next week.

Last week though, I was pretty impressed with my skinny chicken korma, done in the slow cooker, followed by sugar free/dairy free ice cream.  I made the ice cream with the leftover coconut milk from the curry, meaning there was no wasted food to chuck out which is one of my absolute HATES when it comes to cooking.  The recipes were both taken from books, but I have adapted and changed them. Your first job is to get the slow cooker out of the cupboard and start on the curry!

Slow-cooked Chicken Korma
Ingredients:
500g chicken breast, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 onion, chopped
2 peppers, sliced- though chuck in any leftover veg you have lying around too!
2 tsp mild curry powder
1/2 a teaspoon of cumin, turmeric, paprika and salt
2 tbsp tomato puree
250ml passata
60ml coconut milk (go for the full fat version whilst you're using it to make ice cream. Also, the full fat alternatives aren't anywhere near as bad as their chemically engineered reduced-fat versions and a lot of people are now advocating full fat cheese, butter etc as a healthier, more natural choice).
1 tbsp ground almonds (very impressed that Aldi now stock these- get a couple of bags ready for your baking next week!)

In fact, I bought all of these ingredients from Aldi for absolute pittance- their range of curry sauces and Asian ingredients is really impressive and they even have a Thai curry spice kit (complete with lemon grass) in the fresh herb section!

Brown rice or courgetti noodles to serve.

Method:
Put all of the chopped ingredients into the slow cooker.  Mix together your spices, tomato puree, passata and coconut milk in a measuring jug. Pour over the remaining ingredients. Stir, cover and cook on low for 7-8 hrs.

Once all that's cooking, it's time to make your ice cream with the leftover coconut milk...

Chocolate Ice Cream (dairy free and refined sugar free!)
Ingredients:
400ml coconut milk (so you can either open another can of coconut milk for completely dairy free ice cream, or top up your 340ml of leftover coconut milk with regular milk- I used Arla Lactose free milk which was fine).
Half a teaspoon of vanilla extract
5 tablespoons of maple syrup
40g of raw cacao powder (I order mine from Amazon- it's hard core dark chocolate and completely unrefined)

Method:
Whisk together the coconut milk, regular milk, maple syrup and vanilla extract. Sieve your raw cacao powder into the mix and continue to whisk until smooth. Pour into a plastic container and freezer.  Be warned that this does freeze completely solid- like Mini Milk lollies- so take out of the freezer in plenty of time before serving so it can thaw a little.

Hope you enjoy these recipes until my next post- time for some baking I think! #notofaddiets