Tempest63

I don’t. I have the recipes written down but can deviate as my tastebuds dictate on the day, a little more garlic, a little less chilli etc. If I find something I like whilst trying out variations I will scribble it down. But I don’t have two sets of scales and don’t measure spices out to the nearest gram

We had our Curryfest and it went down very well with our guests (or they were being extremely polite). I was a little disappointed as I had cooked all the dishes previously and on this occasion I felt some didn’t turn out as well as previous occasions. Following discussions with my wife I didn’t go for the whole Bangladeshi menu as she was concerned that never having cooked any of the recipes previously I may not have turned out dishes to the same standard as some of those I had cooked many times before. I will start cooking the dishes that I had anticipated preparing, but one at a time to see how the results are. I didn’t get the opportunity to take photos as I overstretched myself a little and was pressured to finish the last dishes and sit down with our guests. The same guests are returning in April for an Italian night and I plan on more pre-preparation and less last minute rush, rush, rush.

In the U.K. what our American cousins call eggplant is an aubergine; in Italy it is Melanzane (or Melanzana). I had a tried and tested recipe for Melanzane Parmiagana, but with friends coming for an Italian dinner in April can I find it? No I can’t. Searched high and low, interrogated the internet and don’t recognise any of the recipes I have stumbled across. One of our guests follows a low fat diet for gall bladder issues so I will need to grill (broil) or bake the aubergine. I need to compare the fat content of Mozzarella and Tallegio, as I have been told by some Italian colleagues that both cheeses are used interchangeably in the traditional dish. Fresh tomatoes, tinned tomatoes or Passata? I think I will conjure up some hybrid of a number of dishes and see how it turns out. Fingers crossed our guests will enjoy it.

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.

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.