Tempest63

One of the reasons for visiting the Taj Stores in Brick Lane yesterday was to source some Bassar Mix. This is a Kashmiri spice blend that was recommended to me and is one I have never used before. In fact I have never seen it listed in any of the Kashmiri recipes that I have prepared before. The Taj Stores didn’t appear to have it on the shelves and when I asked the staff they looked nonplussed and had never heard of it. Given that the store is run by Bangladeshis is it surprising that they are not aware of a Kashmiri spice blend? I also enquired about the Bottle Masala but they didn’t have a clue about that either.

I very rarely purchase spices etc., off the internet. I tend to visit the stores themselves and browse the shelves, usually ending up buying far more than I anticipated. My go to shop for all things Indian is the Taj Stores https://tajstores.co.uk in London’s famous Brick Lane, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick_Lane it is close to where I work and is a pleasant walk through a part of historic London. It is looking up the links for the store just now that I found for the first time it has a mail order side to the business, you learn something new everyday. Where I live in Essex there are two Asian grocers I tend to use. The Asian Cookshop in Braintree https://theasiancookshop.co.uk actually started life in an Indian restaurant before moving a couple of times to its current location. This was a regular place I used to acquire a lot of ingredients when I was not in London. I rarely visit now as the local parking restrictions have become too onerous to battle with. They do however have an established and thriving mail order business, not that I have ever made use of it. The other I place I discovered relatively recently is Joe’s Market in Rainsford Road, Chelmsford. This place doesn’t appear to have a website let alone an online mail order service. I like this particular place as it has a number of other small grocers nearby where I can pick up goat and mutton, neither of which is widely available in the U.K. There is also a continental grocer close by that sells the finest vegetables and fresh herbs. Coriander (Cilantro in the U.S.) in big bunches as opposed to the small limp plastic wrapped packages you find in uk supermarkets. As an aside I visited the Taj Stores yesterday for some whole green moong dhal and some whole black urid dhal. Whilst there I picked up a box of Shan Special Shahi Haleem Mix, a product recommended to me by some Pakistani colleagues and a real shortcut to making a great tasting Haleem. I paid £2.69 for the package in store, but out of curiosity when I got home I compared the price on Amazon UK. It was a staggering £6.10. This is another reason I tend to shop personally rather than mail order for spices etc.

It has been a labour of love with its trials and tribulations along the way. I’m still learning as I go and with a country as large as India, without even thinking of its near neighbours, there is a lot more to learn. Too much for one lifetime.

I just had another dive into the internet and found this. https://omemade.co.uk/product/buy-east-indian-bottle-masala-online/ Looking at the brief outline of ingredients on the label, I have high hopes it may be a reasonable replacement for homemade. I am on a wholly liquid diet for the next few weeks (doctors orders) but will order it and start planning a few recipes. Update. Ordered! T63

There are a host of different Indian grocers around the fringes of the City of London, but most seem to be Bangladeshi, which makes sense as they service the local Bangladeshi community. I have in the past struggled to find the odd spice or ingredient as it is not used in that community. I'm thinking of some of the Parsi ingredients initially, but I have struggled with others. I've recently been looking for a Marathi style Bottle Masala without much luck. I don’t actually believe that I know of anyone from the Marathi community who could point me in the right direction either.

I have the essential Marathi Cookbook in my collection which I see from your blog you also have, there are some dishes that I would very much like to try from the book. The problem is it seems impossible to find a source here in the U.K. for Bottle Masala. I understand that this masala is usually made in the home in India and having found many recipes for it, including the one in the book, I find such small amounts of each spice from a lengthy list is impractical, and the quantities they make would be wasteful as I know it would not get used quickly enough. That aside, some of the component spices I have never seen here in the U.K. and a brief look across the internet appears to indicate that they are not available. I may have to wait until someone I know is going to India and see if a bottle is available there.

I mentioned last year that I had a dabble with Nigella Lawson’s Fish Finger Bhorta, and thought it would be a good canvas for a number of ingredients other than fish fingers. https://www.nigella.com/recipes/fish-finger-bhorta Yesterday I cooked up left over goose pie and whilst the oven was on I put in one of the glut of pheasants we currently have nestling in the freezer. I stripped the carcass last night after it had cooled and added the meat to the Bhorta tonight. Mrs T63 believes it was the best version I have prepared thus far. I did use freshly grated root ginger and garlic instead of the stuff out of a jar and that contributed to the improved taste. I also used two green chillies instead of red. I will be trying it again soon when I next have the oven on at the appropriate temperature to precook another of our many pheasants.

I used up some of my confit duck for our dinner tonight. Nice level of saltiness to the duck, nothing over the top. Served it with Boulangere potatoes, steamed veg and a Cointreau orange sauce.

We had our adopted pensioner and another friend who has had a turbulent couple of years around for new year lunch today. We cooked goose and pork belly. One of our local supermarket chains was selling six duck legs for the price of four, so knowing how much goose fat I would get I bought six and made duck confit for dinners over the next few weeks. I’m considering a cassoulet if I can find some Toulouse sausages locally. I often stock up from the ginger pig when I am at Borough Market but a trip into London is not under consideration until I return to work next week. https://boroughmarket.org.uk

I’ve cooked lots of Caribbean food over the years, most frequently curried goat, but also Brown Chicken Stew, Curry Chicken and pepper pot. But up until yesterday I had never cooked Caribbean oxtail. So after a trip to our local market where I bought 2kg of oxtails I tried it. After cooking I spent sometime taking the meat off the bones then left it in the fridge overnight for the fat to rise and harden. I removed this before reheating. Served it with leek and garlic mash, steamed veg and a cold pint of Guinness. One word of warning, the guys from the Caribbean who recommended this told me to pick the larger pieces of oxtail and get the butcher to put it through the bandsaw to chop it into smaller pieces. My butcher didn’t have a bandsaw so went at it “hammer & tongs” with a meat cleaver which resulted in quite a few little pieces of bone in the sauce. The flavour though was really quite outstanding. https://www.africanbites.com/jamaican-oxtail-stew-2/

Celebrating the wife’s birthday today, we did nothing special other than walk the dogs and clean and tidy ready for Christmas. We have twelve coming on the day plus us two means I’m cooking for fourteen. But for tonight we had roasted partridge, which we shot a week ago, steamed vegetables and a port and redcurrant sauce. Happy birthday Mrs T63.

Last night I put together a broad bean (fava beans) and leak purée sitting on a bed of spinach and topped with pan fried salmon. Served with steamed new potatoes. Lemon, caper dressing to finish.

It is really parsley sauce but given the Irish association with boiled bacon, where it is traditionally served, it is often, jokingly, referred to as Shamrock Sauce.

I’m currently on a gammon, ham, bacon trip and have either bought, or been gifted, a few gammon joints. I roasted one tonight, without first boiling, after buying it for a third off. My argument is I am practicing for the Christmas joint. So tonight was roasted gammon with steamed potatoes, steamed spinach and peas. Shamrock sauce to serve.

Chow Chow obviously has a different meaning where you are to here in the U.K. A very handsome looking Chow Chow.