&roid

Tonight we had butter chicken. This is a big family favourite when we go out for Indian, eldest kitchen porter often asks to order two. I’ve tried a lot of different home recipes, lots have been nice but ultimately none really tasted quite like the ones at our favourite restaurants. Until now that is… I decided to have a go at the serious eats pressure cooked version tonight. It’s a lot simpler than most recipes I’ve made so wasn’t sure how it would turn out. The answer is that it’s bloody perfect! Has a really nice tang to it and that great balance of creamy richness with spice and a little heat. 100% I’ll do this again. Chicken thighs done under the broiler then charred a touch with the blowtorch to give a bit of tandoori flavour. The finished article - even passed the “kitchen porter test”, both boys loving it and going back for seconds.

Perfect! I’ll give that a go soon. Sounds delicious.

This looks great @KennethT do you have a recipe for the curry?

Yeah I get that, but have you read the recipe? The hot pot is simply lamb dusted with flour, softened onions and sliced potatoes. It’s the very epitome of a traditional hot pot!

why do you say that? The presentation is a bit fancy but the hot pot part of the dish is very normal.

I might have mentioned this on here before but we love hot pot so much we had it for the main course of our wedding meal at Northcote. It was spectacular. This is the recipe which nigel howarth took the final banquet of great British menu: https://www.greatbritishchefs.com/recipes/lancashire-hotpot-recipe-lamb-cabbage-roast-loin

Nothing better than a hot pot when the weather turns nasty. Looks a great example @Dejah

Finished articles were great, the chicken sauce could possibly do with a bit more liquid so I’d add a bit of stock after cooking next time. The Prawn dish was perfect though, will definitely be making that again.

Chicken and almonds: marinading in yoghurt, almonds and garlic/ginger onions and spice nearly finished dish - gorgeous, rich sauce with a nice hit from five green chillies

Prawn progress: frying the onion and garlic starting cooking the tomatoes and spice spicy tomato gravy cooked down and ready for the prawns

Next up, browning the onions and spices for the brown rice: The trick with this is to take them to a very, very dark point. More than you’d probably want to eat on their own as it gives the finished dish a lovely deep flavour. spice mix is cumin, cardamom, caraway, cassia, cloves and star anise with a grating of jaggery goor to take the caramelisation even further.

On the trip back up north from my parents over Christmas the author of this book was on the radio talking about how he’d come to write it. Was a really interesting history lesson about a topic I’d previously known very little of. His enthusiasm for food is infectious. Before he’d even finished the interview I’d summoned a copy from Amazon. It’s a beautiful book, well written and a combination of history and recipes that I really enjoy. I’ve made a couple of dishes from it which were very nice. Today we have a couple of friends coming over so I’m doing the following: chicken in an almond gravy prawns in a spicy tomato sauce parsi brown rice Starting off with a really slowly darkened masala spice mix - the kitchen smells amazing, I’ve really enjoyed watching the transformation of onions, garlic and ginger into a deep, spicy paste.

Loving it, @rotuts seeing those chickens on the grill really gives an idea of the scale of it - what a beast! Looking forward to hearing about the salmon - I still have a cold smoked side on my list of things to try. What are the overall impressions now the society has had some time to get to know the monster?

Indeed. And I’d add cheeks to that too - they really hold their structure and moisture well despite the lack of bone.

Love the look of that short rib, @Dejah

There’s nothing that can’t be made better with a dollop of cheese (or two!). The soup was really quick and easy too, perfect weeknight supper.

Nigel Slater’s cream of onion soup for dinner tonight. This recipe popped up in the paper this weekend and immediately grabbed my attention - as much as I love a nice dark French onion soup, I almost prefer the soothing, silkiness of a white version. I tweaked the recipe a little to add some cheese - crumbled a little creamy Lancashire in before blending then dropped a few blobs of dolcelatte on top to serve. https://www.theguardian.com/food/2023/jan/22/nigel-slaters-recipes-for-cream-of-onion-soup-and-clementine-and-lemon-tarts

That’s really interesting - as a naive end user I’d kind of assumed Wi-Fi would be simple to implement. Clearly not! What sort of range can we expect between the probe and the base unit (assuming the probe is inside a kamado)? Would it work with the base unit about 5-10m away indoors? Matter is interesting too - our house is chock full of Apple TVs so this might work well. Is HomeKit support a thought?

Steak night date night yesterday. Mrs roid found a beautiful looking ribeye at the butchers so we had this with a radicchio and blue cheese salad, some tomatoes with a made up kind of salsa verde and onions cooked in the dripping from the beef. The meat was really nice and fatty so I went for a very hot, hard cook. This gave a great crust and was a nice contrast to the low and slow/reverse sear methods I’ve been favouring lately. The “kind of salsa verde” was made of what I found in the fridge - cilantro, mint, nocellara olives, gherkins, pickled Turkish chillies and red wine vinegar. Nice bottle of claret to wash it down.

Great update @ChefChrisYoung 👍 I'm a really keen potential customer, can you tell us a bit more about the iOS app? Does the display unit connect to Wi-Fi and then to your phone? What features does the app have? Graphs? I love pretty pictures!

Good news! Did it manage to predict the finish time better this time? What we’re you cooking with it?

@mgaretz just wondered how you were getting on with this? Seems a bit strange that there aren’t reviews popping up if they started shipping 6-7 weeks ago.

Looks great @Duvel - a Barnsley chop?

I reckon this recipe would work really well with lots of types. Something quite dense like a kabocha would be perfect. Can’t recommend the method highly enough if you’re a pumpkin lover.

It still has pride of place on the top! 😊