Chicken Pineapple Curry

The exciting flavours of pineapple and curry make for a delicious, quick meal.

It doesn’t have to be hard to prepare a quick and healthy homemade meal. While there are countless recipe books on the subject, with a little bit of practise, you won’t need any of them.

For today’s recipe, I took a quick look through my fridge and freezer to see what ingredients I already had. I had some frozen pineapple in the freezer, and decided to pair it with curry for some great contrast.

As always, there is a lot of room for adjusting – and fun in the kitchen- with this recipe.

Time to Make: 45-50 minutes, a lot less if you use minute rice instead

Serves: 1, as written, adjust as needed

Ingredients:

• 130 g (4.5 oz) raw chicken
• 1/2 cup pineapple chunks (frozen, fresh, or canned)
• 1/4 cup long grain brown rice, dry
• 1/2 cup frozen mixed vegetables (corn, peas, etc)
• 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• pinch of garlic powder
• 1/2 tbsp soy sauce

What to Do:

1. Start cooking the rice in a small pot.
2. While the rice is cooking, cube and cook the chicken in a pan. Make sure to cook it throughly.
3. Combine the rice, chicken, and pineapples in the pan with the oil.
4. Add the soy sauce and spices.
5. Add the frozen mixed vegetables. Its ready when the vegetables are nice and hot.

Modifications:

Feel free to use another kind of meat if you don’t have any chicken on hand. Rice can be easily substituted with couscous or macaroni. The pineapple is a little tricker, though I think you could try any fruit that would remain reasonably firm after cooking – apples come to mind immediately. Ginger also compliments curry quite well, if you’d like more spice.

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Ginger and Honey Chili

I still had some leftover cooked ground beef from yesterday’s dinner, so I used a bit of it in this new dish.

This has a lot of interesting flavours all working well together, with the ginger, honey, soy sauce, and chili. The ginger and the honey provide a touch of sweetness to compliment the spiciness of the chili powder.

With this recipe, you’ll need to spice it to your liking. When in doubt, add a bit more spice, since usually recipes are ruined by being too bland, not too spicy. If you add too much chili, you could add a bit more honey to balance it out, also.

Depending on your skill level, either taste it as you add the spices, or rely on the smell coming from the pot.

Time to Make: 40 minutes to cook the rice (or use quick rice, if you’re in  hurry), then about half an hour for cooking the beef and combining the dish.

Serves: 1, as written, adjust to suit your needs

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup brown rice, dry
• 130 g/ 4.5 oz ground beef (raw weight)
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1 cup mixed frozen vegetables
• spices: chili powder, crushed red pepper, ginger, garlic powder, onion powder, dried parsley
• soya sauce
• honey
• 3/4 cup water

What to Do:

1. Cook the rice. Long grain brown rice is what I used, but use whichever kind of rice you prefer, or have on hand.
2. Brown the ground beef. Ensure that it is cooked completely.
3. Drain the rice, and combine the rice, ground beef, and tomato sauce in the pot.
4. Add about 3/4 cup water. It looks a bit like a soup at this point, but most of the liquid boils off.
5. Now for the part that involves intuitive cooking: adding the spices. I didn’t measure any of the spices, though I used approximately 1/2 tsp chili powder, 1/8 tsp crushed red pepper, a pinch each of garlic powder, onion powder, and dried parsley. Adjust the amounts of the spices little by little until it smells good – you can also taste it to be sure the spices are right.
6. Let it simmer until most of the water is gone. Add the frozen mixed vegetables.
7. Add honey and soy sauce. This provides a balance for the spicy ingredients. I used a drop of honey and around 1/4 tsp of soy sauce. Add more honey if you’ve made your dish too spicy. You may need more soy sauce than I used.
8. When the frozen vegetables are cooked, it’s ready. Enjoy!

Modifications

If you don’t have an beef, any other meat should be able to stand in quite well. You may want to add a small amount of olive oil if you’re using  low fat meat, to bring the flavours out. If you are a vegetarian, try it with your favourite type of beans, or some tofu.

Missing one of the seasonings I used? It’s not a problem. Just use something spicy, and something sweet. Curry could replace the chili, or cinnamon could replace the ginger. The soy sauce could be left out or replaced with a pinch of salt. If you’re out of – or don’t like – honey, white or brown sugar should work.

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Green Pepper Stuffed with Meat and Rice

A stuffed pepper sprinkled with parmesan cheese.

Stuffed peppers are simple to make. The basic recipe is a green pepper stuffed with ground meat, rice, and tomato sauce. Modify the amount of meat and rice, depending on how large your peppers are. I try to choose large ones, with flat bottoms. The flat bottom is important because it needs to sit upright in a baking dish, and not topple over, letting the filling fall out.

Green peppers are usually used because of their mild flavour, but you could try yellow, red, or orange peppers as well. No peppers? Make stuffed tomatoes instead.

Time to Make: 40 minutes to cook the rice, and an additional hour to bake the pepper. (You could use instant rice to save 40 minutes)

Serves: 1, as written, adjust to suit your needs

Ingredients:

• a green pepper
• 130 g / 4.5 oz ground beef (that’s the raw weight, and just an approximation)
• 1/4 cup brown rice (dry)
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce
• 1/2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
• garlic powder
• onion powder
• dried parsley
• oregano
• 1/8 cup water (approximately, to add some moisture)

What to Do:

1. Boil the rice. While the rice is cooking, brown the ground beef.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 F/ 180 C.
3. Wash the pepper, and remove its stem, centre, and seeds. Don’t remove the bottom or the filling will escape.
   

   Remove the stem, centre, and seeds, while taking great care not to harm the bottom.

4. Mix the rice, cooked beef, and other ingredients. This is where you can experiment a bit. Add enough worcestershire sauce and spices to make it smell good. The exact quantities depend on you. Stuff the mixture into the pepper.
5. Bake the pepper in an oven safe baking dish for 1 hour. Every 15-20 minutes, baste the pepper with the juices from the filling.
6. (Optional) You can now sprinkle the peppers with crumbled feta, parmesan, mozzarella, or another cheese that you like.

Modifications

You can do a lot to this basic stuffed pepper recipe to make it more exciting. Use macaroni or couscous instead of rice, chicken, shrimp, or lentils instead of beef, or use a cream based sauce instead of tomato sauce.

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