Tempest63

Looking on Amazon uk (which is never the cheapest option) a litre of “external use only” mustard oil costs £7.40 per litre, whilst the cheapest mustard oil for cooking (KTC Brand) is £10.00 per litre. Examining the label of the KTC Brand shows it is only 51% mustard oil and 49% rapeseed oil. 100% mustard oil for cooking ranges from £26 to £126 (cold pressed) per litre. I may be sticking to my usual brand which remains “for external use only” Edit: Dubur brand is £16.90 per litre; I couldn’t find the Yandilla brand over here.

The Dhansak Masala you posted is very similar to the version I made from"Parsi: From Persia to Bombay: recipes & tales from the ancient culture” by Farouk Talati. A great book that should be in any good collection of Indian recipe books. What I note with both is the use of Persian dried black limes, a particular favourite of mine. 100g coriander seeds 50g cumin seeds 8g dried bay leaf 20g black peppercorns 20g dried Kashmiri chillies 5g black cumin seeds 5g green cardamom pods 8g black cardamom pods 3g caraway seeds 8g cinnamon or cassia bark 8g cloves 4g ground fenugreek 1 blade of mace 1 nutmeg, grated 8g poppy seeds a pinch of saffron 2 whole star anise 25g ground turmeric 5g mustard seeds 1 whole dried black lime (a Persian speciality) Using a spice grinder or food processor, blitz all the ingredients to as fine a powder as your grinder or processor will allow (you may have to do this in batches, depending on your grinder’s capacity). Pass the ground spices through a sieve on to a tray and re-grind anything left in the sieve to get the finest powder you possibly can. Store your dhansak masala in a clean, airtight jar for up to 12 months.

I have noticed that Mustard oil, “safe for human consumption “ is appearing on shelves here in the U.K. I have never really worried that mustard oil was not supposed to be for consumption, being assured from a number of sources that it was ok to use in cooking. However given there is now a “safe” version I will undoubtedly buy that when my current bottle runs out.

I managed to get some Kolhapuri Masala so will hopefully be trialling that as well over the weekend.

I cooked a chicken curry for the wife today using my bottle masala and was not over enamoured with the result. It reminded me strongly of a certain brand of garam masala that I once purchased and found the overall flavour and aroma strongly floral, I didn’t use it after that and luckily found a source of my preferred brand. I could never put my finger on the exact component that seemed to overshadow the whole. I am going to try the Lonvas over the weekend and depending on the result may try an alternative provider that has been recommended to me to see if their version is more appealing to me.

I will post the results of the Curryfest as well as the trial dishes leading up to it.

No pictures I’m afraid, but tonight I cooked the Dishoom Dhal Makhani, but instead of bubbling for hours on the stove I made it in the slowcooker. The wife had a generous portion poured over a jacket potato with some petit pois to accompany. I’m currently on an elemental diet, doctors orders, so could only watch with envy as she savoured every mouthful whilst I drank my prescription “milk shake”. The diet ends Wednesday after four weeks and I am looking forward to trialing some new curries for a night in mid March when we are having friends over. Slow cooker dhal recipe was from here https://www.happyveggiekitchen.com/dishoom-dal-in-the-slow-cooker/

I bought a Taste of Kashmir and a Taste of Punjabi many many years ago and have cooked extensively from them. These are two books out of a series of four, the other two being a Taste of Goa and a Taste of Baltistan. I found these missing two books on used book websites recently. I ordered them and both came today. Opening a Taste of Baltistan it had a big spill stain on the inside with half the pages stuck together, so it is being sent back for a refund. A Taste of Goa though is fine and has enough recipes that appeal to me to keep me busy for a while. Edit. I found another copy of the Baltistan book advertised as used but very good, collectible condition which I have ordered to replace the damaged copy I am returning.

I fear that my photos will not match up to those you have posted or those on your blog. I may need to dig out my DSLR and invest in the right flash.

I have a week booked off of work from March 10th and have invited some friends around for a Curryfest, a night of Indian food. I normally pick dishes that I am familiar with without consideration from where they originate, so I could present dishes from across India, i.e., Rogan Josh from Kashmir, Vindaloo from Goa, and often a fish dish from Bangladesh. This time around I have decided to focus on one region, keeping all the dishes from one area of India. One of the constraints on me this time around is one of the guests doesn’t eat tomatoes. I’m unsure if this is for personal or medical reasons (she is currently on medical treatment for a serious health condition) but I find that the majority of my “go-to” dishes include tomatoes in some form or another. I always err towards the cooking of Kashmir or Punjabi as these regions offer my favourite recipes but I find again most include tomatoes. However browsing through my regional cookbooks I have found that a lot of Bangladeshi recipes from My Bangladeshi Kitchen are tomato free. I have definitely settled on Halim as one of my dishes from the book and am mulling over several options for beef, duck, chicken, lamb or mutton; as well as the obligatory fish/shellfish dish. In light of the recent flurry of posts from Mr Tan, I will also prepare all of the masala’s and spice blends fresh at home.

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.