Recipes for a Camp Birthday
Take one Birthday Boy
Make him look as silly as you can.
Agree to bring a couple of plates of finger food to his ‘pot luck party’ and spend half a day agonising over what to make. We decided on:-
Two very full Dinner Plates one of Onion Bhajis and another of Thai Fishcakes.
ONION BHAJIS
Ingredients:
3c Chickpea Flour (also known as Gram Flour)
2 Eggs (optional)
3 – 4 average sized onions, very finely sliced
1T Curry powder, or asian spices.
Salt to taste
Water to give correct consistency.
Oil for frying.
Method
*Beat the eggs into the sliced onion so that the onions are well coated.
*Mix all the dry ingredients together.
*Stir the dry mix into the onions, add water to give a ‘soft drop’ consistency (more or less)
*Taste and adjust the flavourings and salt.
*Heat the oil and fry heaped t’s of the mix. This can be shallow or deep fat frying.
*When golden on one side, flip them over and cook the other.
*These small Bhajis cook quickly, so you’ll soon have a production line going.
Serve hot or cold.
To make them a little more exciting: add coconut milk, rather than water, when mixing. Fry in part ordinary oil and part coconut oil: coconut oil froths as it fries, this is normal. Add fresh coriander, or mint. Add garlic. Add chilli (not always popular at parties). Once cooked, sprinkle a little salt over them. Make them using other vegetables– fantastic, but keep spare flour handy, as some vegetables make the mix sloppy over time and, if this happens, you will need to mix in more flour.
Really this is a chuck it all together recipe. As long as the consistency is about right and the vegetables have some of the mix on them, you will have a good result.
THAI FISHCAKES
Ingredients
3 tins sardines in tomato sauce
1 large potato
1T onion, finely diced
1t oil, to bind it together
1t curry powder
2 cloves garlic
half lemon, zest and juice
Salt to taste
Oil for frying
COATING
3T flour
1T curry powder
pinch of salt
Method
*Boil and then mash the potato
*Stir in all the other ingredients, breaking up the fish as you go.
*Making one fishcake at a time, form the mix into table tennis sized balls and flatten in the palm of your hand.
*Coat both sides with the flour mix
*Shallow fry on each side, so that they are browned.
Serve hot or cold, with sweet chilli sauce (from a super market)
This is another ‘chuck it in and hope for the best’ recipe. If the consistency is about right, and you like the flavour, then that is perfect.
The Wandering Wallys 