- April 20, 2020
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- in Travel, Special Interests, Culture, Foods, World Tastes
Flavours of the World
Welcome to our round-the-world culinary guide, featuring our take on some scrumptious world classics that you can adapt from home, with just some store cupboard basics and a few fresh ingredients that are easily available.
SRI LANKA - Cheat's Kothu Roti
Kothu is a Sri Lankan delicacy, and one of the unmissable dishes and experiences on a visit to the country – make sure to find a street food seller making this, it’s a fantastic watch! With so many supermarkets and food shops empty, we’ve put together an entirely un-traditional version of this flatbread stir-fry that uses ingredients that you might already have in your cupboards.
Ingredients
- About 8 flatbreads (rotis if you have, but parathas, tortillas and sandwich wraps will work!)
- 2 tbsp oil
- 7 curry leaves
- 2 green chillies, chopped and deseeded
- 1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- 150g carrots, diced
- 1 tbsp frozen peas, defrosted (optional)
- 150 cabbage/leeks/kale (whatever greenery you have in your fridge!), finely sliced
- Salt
- 2 eggs
- 150g leftover curry (of any kind – bonus points if it’s Sri Lankan, of course!)
Instructions
- Chop your flatbreads into small squares – about 1.5-2cm. Set aside.
- Heat the oil in a medium pan over a low heat. Add the curry leaves and chillies and saute briefly, before adding the onions and cooking until soft. Then add the turmeric and turn the heat up to high.
- Add the vegetables and stir-fry for a few minutes until cooked. Season to taste.
- Turn the heat down to medium. Push the vegetable mix to one side of the pan. If your pan looks dry, add some oil. Break in the eggs, season with salt, and scramble. Mix together the vegetables and egg mixture and turn the heat back up to high.
- Add the chopped flatbread to the pan a handful at a time, mixing them in with each addition.
- Once all the bread is in, add your curry and mix thoroughly. Cook until everything is warmed through, and serve hot
ITALY - Homemade Egg Pasta
Pasta has become one of the hot commodities in the UK over the last few weeks, with shop shelves across the country bare of fusilli, spaghetti and macaroni alike. To beat the shortage, why not make your own fresh pasta at home? You might be surprised at how few ingredients it takes. If you don’t have a pasta machine, don’t worry! We’ve provided instructions for both with a machine and without. Serves 6 Ingredients
- 600g white ‘00’ flour
- 6 medium eggs
- ½ tsp fine salt
Instructions
- Sift the flour onto a clean work surface or into a large bowl. Make a well in the middle and break in the eggs and beat together. Add the salt. Note – if you’ve got a food processor you can use that to make the dough and keep your hands a bit cleaner! Add the mixture as above and pulse it together until it resembles breadcrumbs.
- Using the handle of a wooden spoon or your fingers, mix the flour into the eggs from the middle outwards.
- Once you’ve mixed for awhile and you’ve got a crumbly textured dough in front of you, bring it together with your hands into a rough ball.
- Knead until you’ve got a soft dough – after a few minutes (depending on how much elbow grease you put in!) you should end up with a smooth rather than rough and floury dough.
- Wrap your dough in cling film or beeswax wraps and rest it in the fridge for up to an hour.
Rolling with a pasta machine
- Make sure your pasta machine is properly set up as per manufacturer’s instructions.
- Take your dough out of the fridge and cut into sections. Make sure to keep the rest of the dough covered while you work so it doesn’t dry out.
- Dust your work surface with ‘00’ flour and press out your dough so it’s flat.
- Set your pasta machine to its widest setting and feed the dough through – dust with a little flour if it sticks.
- Turn the machine down a setting and repeat. Then, fold the pasta in half and roll it through again. You’ll need to do this five or six times until it’s smooth.
- Work down through all the settings of your machine, dusting the dough lightly as needed.
Rolling pasta by hand
- Take your dough out of the fridge and cut into sections. Make sure to keep the rest of the dough covered while you work so it doesn’t dry out.
- Dust your work surface and a rolling pin with ‘00’ flour and press out your dough so it’s flat.
- You’ll need to roll the dough very thin to make your pasta the right texture – it should be thin enough for you to see the shape of your hand through it.
Shaping pasta Once you’ve got your sheet of thin pasta dough, it’s up to you how to shape it! Cut long strips for tagliatelle, cut circles and pinch together for farfalle, cut longer rectangles for lasagne sheets, or use your imagination and whatever cutters you have to hand! Fresh pasta will dry out quickly, so make sure to cut it and cook it immediately. You can use a damp tea towel as a cover.
THAILAND - Store Cupboard Pad Thai
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