Kerala

March 15

Turkey on a slice of toast drizzled with olive oil, tomatoes, avocado.

March 10

Harder and chewier bits after a four hour cook, I imagine, must be cartilage and such.

March 3

Sea bass. The prawns are in a simple white sauce infused with saffron.

March 2

With parmesan and ham.

March 2

I returned home very late last night after a late visit at the end of the day. So... I could cook something quick but unpalatable to the immediate household. Every cloud! I swung by Tesco's on the way.

And they had... lamb hearts! Flash fried with white pepper, served with red onion,cucumber, ripe tomato,and two finely sliced red finger chillies. On a brown wheat wrap. A drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lime and a pinch of grey salt from France.

You know sometimes it's just you and your upper gastrointestinal tract, with no outside thoughts? Can be good or bad, of course. This was good; I completely zoned out for five minutes.

March 2

People here making me add vegetables and fruit to my breakfast! Thank you.

March 2

Pinhais again, with hard boiled eggs. That's a black coffee to the side, not a glass of red wine. Those days are only for some boys' holidays.

Just realised this was the "before" picture to the one above, but it just adds a bit of context, right?

March 2

Pinhais breakfasts are always good!

March 2

Self-explanatory except for the dusting of bottarga.

February 28

On 1/16/2024 at 2:45 PM, Kerala said:

So simple, but really so good!

@Laurentius just bacon, avocado and toast!

Welcome Our New Members! · February 28

Wonderful to have you here. Welcome!

February 27

Well, I have done a couple of dishes from Flavours Of The Spice Coast, and they have come out delicious! Mrs. Mathew has simplified the recipes in Spices, or some editor has, but they have done a good job.

Tonight, mutton red curry.

It took me two and a half hours after getting back from work and opening the book to getting the food on the table.

Mise

Did I cook the recipe as stated? No. I halved the amount of chilli, and I used Kashmiri chilli powder which is not as hot but is more red- for my chilli sensitive girls.The amount of garlic and ginger seemed way too little for a kilogramme of meat, so I doubled the quantities.

No pics here of the final dish but it tasted good. Authentic, meaning I would not be surprised to taste this at a home in Kerala. The family loved it, and actually, so did I.

January 16

So simple, but really so good!

January 13

Momo in kwati. My Nepalese heritage by marriage.

Chicken dumplings in a stew of several different types of beans and lentils. Made for January wherever you are. Especially good if it's winter.

January 9

I still have a few cans of fishies left from Portugal. So for lunch today:

Wonderful. A very light taste, firm texture. I ate the whole can on two slices of toast, splashed with the olive oil and just a dash of Tabasco. Glass of Sancerre to accompany.

January 9

My two current favorites.

They are both is from TKMaxx. The one on the left looks Jamaican, but I can't find a country of origin on the labelling. It has 60% Carolina Reaper, whereas Encona's Carolina Reaper sauce has ...5%. There is indeed a quantum leap in heat. I would call it very hot. No bitterness or off notes. Lovely.

The one on the right is bottled in Portugal. Light, sharp, bright. It's hot. Perfect for what you'd use Sriracha for, but if you wanted more oomph. To be clear, it does not taste like Sriracha. Much more of a vegetal taste. I could ladle this on just about any meat, fish or egg as a guilty pleasure.

January 6

I'm getting hungry again reading this thread. There was a lot of cooking. Here's a meal I didn't have a lot to do with making. I don't know much about Mexican cuisine, so I can't give much detail.

Refried beans.

Guacamole. I made this.

Cheddar. So shoot me!

Slow cooked pulled shoulder of lamb.

Battered and fried fish strips.

Assemble as desired on tortillas.

January 6

Sure, @TdeV

800g of chicken livers to 400g of butter is the crucial information. I cut out any manky bits or black bits from the livers then washed them, first in water then in milk. Fine sliced two medium sized brown onions and coarsely sliced six cloves of garlic. I added the leaves from a couple of sprigs of thyme and added a four bay leaves, whole. Maybe 200g of chicken breast on a friend's advice to add more body, which worked, but I won't bother next time. Finally a ladleful of brandy, say two tablespoons. All into the oven, 200C for 20 minutes, stirring halfway through to dunk the exposed bits of liver under the butter. Removed bay leaves. Pureed with a wand blender then into the fridge to set.

January 5

Wow, @FrogPrincesse

That looks great! We love goose, it's a popular choice for our Christmases. I must remember to search this topic in the run-up to Christmas this Year and onwards.

The young man rolling the turkey thigh in the picture above is my sister's son in law. His turned out a bit neater than mine. Some of you might remember him from the first Kerala blog. He suggested removing and deboning the thighs to ballotine them, brining thighs and breast before cooking. We used shop-bought sausage meat for the stuffing.

The actual cooking time was only 60 minutes. Since I only helped, I don't need any false modesty- it was excellent!

January 1

From my Christmas week in Bude, Cornwall. I booked a restaurant called Temple for lunch on the final day to sidestep washing up. Mine was a fried chicken sandwich. Very nice.

The menu was short but served vegetarians and carnivores. There were 18 of us, and everyone was very happy with their meals. Service was attentive but relaxed. Michelin guide likes this place, too.

The way people speak in Britain changes just miles across the country. In Nottingham I'm used to being called "duck" or "me duck." "Love" or "luv" probably everyone knows. In Cornwall the young waitress called me "my love" which felt a bit weird, but nowhere as odd as being addressed as "my lover" in Somerset.

December 31, 2023

Christmas is a big deal for this Hindu family. When I was growing up in South Wales, the misery of wet cold was worse for returning to school in January where everyone was talking about their fabulous Christmas and their Christmas presents. When we had children, my sisters and I decided to make Christmas special. Every year for decades, we have tried to have the most wonderful Christmases for our children.

There were eighteen in the group this year including new in-laws and grandchild. Many of us cook. We were together for seven days, but between the cooking, the drinking and the eating, not a lot of photographic documentation. It's a pity you can't load videos directly on this site.

We were in Bude, Cornwall.

Christmas dinner we stuck to Turkey.

Removed the thighs to prepare a ballotine.

Here's a chicken liver pate being prepared with extra chicken breast

As I said, not many food pics over a glorious food jammed week.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, friends. May the next year be a good one.

December 21, 2023

On 10/22/2023 at 10:30 PM, liuzhou said:

Back in this post, I mentioned mustard sauce as served in American Chinese cuisine being unknown here and, in fact, never having seen such a thing. I wrote:

@Tropicalseniorsaid:

A couple of days ago, I was searching for something else and came across this. I had to order it, purely out of amusement. It arrived yesterday evening.

I love the lame attempt to mimic Coleman's iconic packaging. The mustard inside looks like it should, but I haven't tasted it yet. Will report back.