Something for the weekend: Seven of our best ever homemade takeaway recipes Why dial in when you can whip up a fakeaway in no time? Our most popular fakeaway recipes As we look forward to cosy nights on the couch with the fire lighting, nothing quite beats a fakeaway. […]
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Something for the weekend: Seven of our best ever homemade takeaway recipes
Why dial in when you can whip up a fakeaway in no time?
As we look forward to cosy nights on the couch with the fire lighting, nothing quite beats a fakeaway. Once you know how, making your own takeaway from scratch couldn't be easier; from butter chicken to crispy shredded beef, try making one of our DIY fakeaway feasts at home.
Butter chicken masala
80ml fresh cream, or coconut milk
Put another tablespoon of coconut oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Cut the chicken into chunks. Cook the chicken for four to five minutes until it is browned and cooked through. Set aside while you make your sauce.
Slice the tomatoes as thinly as possible, I use a Japanese mandolin for this. I have previously mentioned that I try to avoid buying lots of kitchen gadgets, but this is one I really do value and use a lot. Add a tablespoon of coconut oil to a pan over a high heat. Put the tomatoes and the cashew nuts into the pan and add the sugar and some salt to taste. Reduce to a medium heat and cook for five to six minutes.
Let the tomatoes cool for a few minutes. Put them along with 300ml of water into a food processor or blender and blitz to a very smooth gravy. This is the base for your sauce. Make sure it is very smooth, if it is not blended enough the nuts will make it a little grainy which is not so nice.
Grate the ginger and garlic. Add all the dry spices and the bay leaves to a dry pan and roast for a few minutes. When they have gotten lovely and fragrant, add the butter, garlic, and the ginger. Next, add the fenugreek leaf and cook until the garlic and ginger browns a little. This will only take a few minutes.
Finally add tomato and cashew gravy, chopped coriander, cooked chicken and the cream or coconut milk. Cover and cook on a low heat for three to four minutes, until you can see butter separate slightly from the sauce. And that is it. Serve with fluffy boiled basmati rice, poppadom, naan, or another side dish.
If you want to make a vegetarian version of this dish, you can use paneer, an Indian farmer’s cheese. You will find that in some large supermarkets, but it is incredibly easy to make. All you will need is two litres of milk, some lemon juice or white vinegar and some cheesecloth.
Korean fried chicken burger
4 tbsp Gochujang chilli sauce
For the Ssamjang (optional):
Flatten the chicken breasts a little. I use a rolling pin to do this, just pound them gently to make them a uniform thickness. Grate the garlic, pop it into a bowl with the rice wine and ginger. Cut the chicken breasts in half, add them to the bowl and stir to cover with the marinade. Let them marinate for about 30 minutes.
Now make the pickled cucumber. Warm 60ml rice or white wine vinegar in a small pan, add one teaspoon of sesame oil, one teaspoon of Korean red pepper flakes or ordinary chilli flakes and one tablespoon of caster sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved. Thinly slice a cucumber, pop it into a bowl and pour over the vinegar mix.
Pop all the ingredients for the ssamjang into a food processor and blitz until smooth. This will only take a minute or two. It is optional, but it really adds something special to this dish.
Peel a few potatoes per person and cut them into two-centimetre cubes. Toss them in a little olive oil and roast in an air fryer or oven at 200ºC until golden brown. Heat one litre of sunflower oil to 180ºC. Dredge the chicken pieces one at a time in the cornflour. Carefully lower them into the hot fat, one-by-one. Do not crowd the pan, you will need to do this in batches of three pieces or so at a time. Fry them for five minutes. After five minutes, let the chicken drain on a rack over a tray or on some kitchen paper.
While the chicken is frying, toast the burger buns lightly. Make a sauce for the side serving of chicken and the potato by mixing the ketchup, two tablespoons of gochujang, two grated cloves of garlic, the soy sauce, brown sugar, honey, and sesame oil in a bowl. In another bowl, mix the mayonnaise and the last two tablespoons of gochujang. Now fry the chicken again for another two minutes. Plate up.
Put some lettuce on each bun along with some pickled cucumber. Next, put on a piece of chicken, add some of the gochujang mayo and some grated cheddar. Toss the potatoes in a little of the sauce you made earlier. Sprinkle with some toasted sesame seeds and some chopped spring onion. Serve on the side along with another piece of chicken and a little dish of the sauce.
Chicken shawarma
Never darken the door of the local kebab shop again with this takeaway classic from The Daly Dish
8 chicken thigh fillets, all visible fat removed
For the shawarma spice marinade:
To serve:
6 wholemeal pittas, warmed
Start by marinating the chicken. Mix the spices with the water in a large bowl. Add in the chicken thighs and massage in the spices, making sure they are completely covered. Cover with clingfilm and pop into the fridge overnight.
To cook, you will need to stick the chicken on skewers, which is easy to do! We have a kebab spike, but you can make a DIY version at home. Get a baking tray, cut a large onion or potato in half, stick two bamboo skewers beside each other into one half of the potato or onion and then layer up the chicken piece by piece. Once it’s been layered up, pop into the oven for 40 minutes until golden and brown.
Remove and allow to stand for 10 minutes and then slice those babies up. Serve in warm pittas with lettuce and red onion and drizzle on some garlic sauce.
This recipe is from Gina and Karol Daly's The Daly Dish Rides Again, published by Gill Books.
Creamy chicken korma with almonds
Add the chicken pieces, salt, cream, garam masala and 150ml water. Cover and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to low and simmer gently for 25 minutes.
This recipe is from Madhur Jaffrey's Indian Cooking, published by BBC Books
Perfect pizza dough
Pour the water into the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, then add the flour to the water and add the yeast and salt in separate piles. Mix for 10 minutes on a medium–low speed. For the first few minutes, it will look shaggy and you might be worried that it won’t come together, but leave it be and by the end of the 10 minutes the dough should be smooth, springy and slightly sticky. Check the dough after a couple of minutes, though, to see how it’s coming along.
If it’s really dry and isn’t coming together, add another tablespoon of water. If it looks really wet, add another tablespoon of flour. Alternatively, if you don’t have a mixer, you can knead the dough by hand. Sprinkle your work surface with a little flour and tip the dough out onto it. Knead it by hand a few times to bring it together into a smooth, round ball that holds its shape well and springs back when you poke it. If it doesn’t pass those tests, knead it for 1–2 minutes more.
Using a dough cutter or a sharp knife, cut the dough in half. Pressing it firmly into the work surface, roll each piece into a smooth round, like a tennis ball. Put the dough balls on two side plates or a baking tray dusted with flour. Cover tightly with cling-film/plastic wrap or soak a clean tea towel in cold running water from the tap and wring it out really well, then cover the dough with the damp cloth.
Take the dough out of the fridge one hour before you want to cook the pizzas, making sure you keep it covered with the clingfilm/plastic wrap or damp cloth so it doesn’t dry out. When you’re ready to shape the dough, dust a pizza peel or a thin wooden chopping board generously with flour. You can either stretch the dough by hand or use a rolling pin. If you’re using a rolling pin, dust that with flour too.
Take the rested dough ball off the plate or tray using a dough cutter or a bowl scraper, making sure the dough ball stays round at this point. Place the dough ball onto the floured peel or board and dust some flour on top of the dough too. Press down the middle of the dough with your fingers, but don’t press the edge of the dough ball, as that will be the crust later. It should already look like a little pizza.
Chicken and king prawn spice bag
Start by preparing your chicken wings. Cut the wings into three sections and discard the tips. Use some kitchen towel to dry the wings. Pop the wings into a bowl and sprinkle over the baking powder and two teaspoons of the potato starch. If you do not have any potato starch, you can use cornflour instead. Mix everything well to coat the wings in the baking powder and potato starch.
For beautifully crisp wings, cook them in an air fryer. Place a layer of wings in the basket of your fryer, do not pile them over each other, instead, leave a little space between each one. Cook at 180°C for fifteen minutes, then turn them over and cook for another ten minutes at the same temperature. If using shop-bought oven chips, put them into the oven not long after you get the wings on as you want both ready at the same time.
You can bake the wings in the oven if you do not have an air fryer. If you are using an oven, bake the wings at 190°C n a fan oven for the same amount of time. Just spread them out in a single layer on a baking tray and pop them in the oven. Bake for fifteen minutes, then turn them and bake for a further ten minutes. You can of course cook your oven chips at the same time as the wings. You may need to up the temperature to about 200°C once you take the wings out of the oven for about another five minutes to get the chips golden and crispy.
While your wings are cooking, make your spice mix by mixing the spices together in a bowl. You will not need all of this for one meal, but it will keep in an airtight jar or container for future use. Peel, half and then slice the onion. Peel and finely slice the garlic. Wash the peppers and remove the stalk and seeds. Slice them into strips about the same size as your chips and set aside the vegetables and spice mix for now.
When your wings have had the full twenty-five minutes cooking time, take them out and toss them in a generous teaspoon of the spice mix. Turn the temperature up to 200°C and pop the wings back in for another six minutes until they are dark golden, and crispy. You might need to allow a little extra time if you are using your oven as that can be a little slower than the air fryer. See how they are at the end of the six minutes and if they are not yet very crisp and golden, pop them back in for another five.
In a bowl, mix the remaining two teaspoons of potato starch with half a teaspoon of the spice mix. Dry the prawns with some kitchen towel and toss them in the bowl to coat them well. Warm a little sesame or olive oil in non-stick pan over a high heat, and when it is good and hot, reduce the heat to medium and pop on the prawns. Cook them for about three minutes, before flipping them over and giving them another minute or two. Remove them from the pan and keep them warm while you cook the vegetables.
Warm some more sesame oil in a wok, again over a high heat. Add the onion, stir-fry for a minute, then the garlic and peppers. Stir fry for another three minutes or so, you want them to be a little blistered but still have plenty of bite. Sprinkle them with a little of the spice mix and remove from the heat.
By now your wings and chips should be ready and you can start to put your spice bag together. Add the chips to a big bowl, along with the wings and a few teaspoons of the spice mix. Toss well to combine and add the prawns and vegetables. Taste and add more spice mix if needed.
Crispy shredded beef with sweet chilli sauce
Moreish and a hit with the whole family, this Chinese favourite hits all the right notes of sweet, sour, salty and spicy
Pour out onto a serving dish, garnish with the sesame seeds and serve with some boiled rice.
This recipe is from Gina and Karol Daly's The Daly Dish Rides Again, published by Gill Books.
