Kerala

Deep fried Mars bars will have to wait if there are battered squid, shrimp or cuttlefish on the menu. My main concern is that my appetite would disappear for the rest of the day. However, if and when I make it to Skye, I might just lodge near here fpor a couple of days!

They were a bit skimpy with the chips, especially at £2 a portion. And yes, the chips look a bit pale. The fish looks a bit small too, at that price. Gutted for you, mate. ☹️

This topic escaped me until a couple of days ago. It looks like you had a wonderful time with your family, @Duvel ! I haven't been to Scotland in a couple of decades, and I certainly missed out on some great food, especially the seafood. When did fish and chip shops get so adventurous? And that shack selling oysters and lobsters for pennies is calling me. I'm glad you enjoyed yourself in that "atmospheric" weather. My family were planning a trip to Skye before Covid, but there was definitely a faction put off by the promise of rain and midges. You've yet to deal with deep-fried Mars bars. Did you manage to try the Tennent's Extra? I might try and find a haggis tomorrow, you've put me in the mood!

(Just re-reading this thread.) At least I know myself!

For once I took a picture of my food before munching half of it. Ironically my phone died straight away, so no pictures showing the runny yolk and set white squished into the golden buttery toast. On the plus side, I could enjoy my breakfast without any scrolling.

I didn't do a tuna/mayo mix for this baked potato! The tuna was light and sweet, the pieces flaking along the muscle planes without crumbling. In the UK supermarket aisles there's often a wall of different brands of canned tuna, with little or no other fish. I'm fed up with it, and virtually never buy it anymore. I only eat it mashed up with mayo, either in a sandwich or in a baked potato, certainly never by itself. This is another... uhm... kettle of..🐟

I didn't really make a systematic purchase, more like a smash and grab. Various fish, various styles. They all taste milder and lighter than the usual UK supermarket brands, and the texture of the flesh is less compressed. It tastes less... denatured. I liked the subtle herb and spice additions in the cans of Pinhais. I was so pleased the tomato sauce was not the thick slurry I expected. This is definitely the start of another regular indulgence.

Happily working my way through my tinned fish haul from my recent trip to Portugal. Sim9le pleeasures.

From a few days ago,roast lamb with a sticky glaze from a Gary Rhodes cookbook. And the cut surface...

Getting my vegetables in. Store-bought mixed leaf salad, with added tiny tomatoes and radish, dressed with a honey, EVOO, apple cider vinegar vinaigrette and some crushed peanuts. Part-baked (then baked!) ciabatta roll, air fried chicken.

First Brussels of the year. Duck, tomatoes, roast baby potatoes.

When the stars align... You couldn't plan that, but I would definitely bite into that!

Lamb curry with the shoulder, served with rice and yoghurt. Quite mild, but the flavour was good. The family all liked it. There's a bit of room to increase the heat. Quite pleased.

Love smoked duck. A bit of a luxury here. So, i guess, when I do get it, it's a real luxury.

The other two sardines in the picante Pinhais tin. As someone has noted, the level of spicy heat is very gentle, just a subtle warmth with a hint of herbal nose. Perfect for breakfast.

Air fryer chicken in a quick ginger/garlic marinade with salt and pepper, olive oil. Store bought salad with a dressing of olive oil, honey and white wine vinegar, topped with a little grated pecorino.

Shepherd's pie. Loads of mash!

Gently heated. In a baked potato with the oil instead of butter. Partial cross-post on lunch.

Warm for November but still wet and miserable. Just squeeze a bit of Portuguese sunshine into a microwaved British spud. Nice.

Sunday brunch. Although there will surely be lunch later!

Salmon in the air fryer (7 minutes at 200C) in a bun with mayo and chilli/garlic oil.

Sometimes eggs break, but you don't have to make an omelette.

@farcego I was just on holiday in Portugal and these were bought at an Apolonia supermarket. I live in the UK.

Roast chicken, usual fixings. The unsightly aggregation at top left is stuffing with sage from the garden.

Vaguely a Keralan chicken curry, but modified to suit the mild palates of my family. One daughter is away at Uni, another is off travelling (Maldives at present) so I thought I'd try a curry again. It still needed to be mild for my Nepalese mother-in-law, wife and remaining teen daughter. I started with mustard seeds crackled in hot sunflower/coconut oil, then added garlic and ginger, swiftly followed by 2 chopped onions and chilis. I split and de-seeded 2 green chillis, something I've never done before in my life- I would normally have used 5 or 6 chopped chillis for a kilogram of chicken. Once the onions were soft and off-white, I added 2 teaspoons of Keralan chicken curry powder and let that fry a little. I would have added a spoonful of chilli powder plus a spoon of Kashmiri chilli powder for colour with a garam masala or whole spices instead of chicken curry powder. A dash of white vinegar to deglaze before adding 900g of chopped chicken drumsticks and 2 chopped tomatoes. I let all that cook for about half an hour while I made the rice. At the end I added a tadka of a handful of curry leaves and a crushed cardamom pod in sunflower oil. It was medium hot- still a little hot for the family but providing some satiety for me. The recipe above is not really strictly Keralan, incorporating some Nepalese steps, also some concessions to time. However, I made a satisfying curry which my family enjoyed, so I'm happy with that. They do like my biriyani, but that's a 3 hour project, whereas this took me one hour from stepping in the kitchen.