sartoric

Chicken in coconut gravy, mustard cauliflower, radish leaf saag, paratha, matar pilau, potato & cabbage curry. Alongside, fresh tomato chutney, lime pickle, radish raita. Whilst making so many different dishes is time consuming, I've got into the rhythm of using yesterday's leftovers to boost the number. In this case, the pilau, potato & cabbage and radish raita were holdovers. I've posted a pictorial lesson on the fresh tomato chutney for anyone interested - check out the Indian cooking and baking forum.

I make this a lot. Traditionally served with dosa, but great with all kinds of Indian food, even just scooped up with bread or pappads for a snack. Although it's slightly different every time, depending on the tomatoes and chillies used, plus the strength of the tamarind, it's easy, quick to make and always delicious. In a blender - half a medium red onion chopped, 7 dried red chillies broken up a bit, 2 ripe tomatoes chopped, 1 tsp of sea salt, 3 tsp tamarind paste. Whizz until purée like about 2 minutes. In a sauté pan over medium heat add 60 ml sesame oil (gingelly), when it's hot but not smoking add 1 tsp black mustard seeds. Quickly cover the pan to prevent escape and sizzle for a minute. Add 1 tsp of urad dal (black lentils, skinned and split they are light grey). Fry until golden, another minute or so. Throw in about 20 curry leaves. These splatter so cover the pan again. Lower the heat and add the blender contents. Simmer, stirring frequently for about 10 minutes, until you get a runny jam consistency. Ta da !

Matar pilau (peas and rice) potato & cabbage curry, chana dal with spinach, eggplant masala and store bought roti. On the side, radish raita and mango chutney.

Back to normal programming- Chettinad black pepper chicken, rice, roti, tomato chutney, chana dal with spinach, date & tamarind chutney, lime pickle, eggplant masala.

He who must be fed is away on business, so I rescued this minestrone from the freezer and paired it with a couple of mustard pickle cheese toasties. The minestrone was a tad uninspiring until I whacked it with a teaspoon of harissa.

Please, pretty please give me the name of the restaurant...

Looks fantastic ! Ill be in Melbourne next week, can you tell me the name of the Indian restaurant please ?

Chettinad black pepper chicken, potato and cauli curry, spinach paneer, rice, rotis, fresh tomato chutney, hot mango pickle. It pained me to rip perfectly good skin off these thighs, but that is the Indian way. Next time I'll leave it on.

Veg cutlets with tomato chilli chutney, stir fried cabbage, matar paneer, pineapple relish, naan bread, rice, coconut chutney, lime pickle.

Rava dosa (made with semolina, coconut, green chillies and chopped coriander), rice, spinach paneer, cabbage with channa dal, fresh coconut chutney, mint raita, fresh tomato chutney.

I tried out a few recipes from my new (to me) The Complete book of Indian Cooking by Suneeta Varaswani. I like the book, she groups each dish by geographical region, these are all from the south. Pork Uluruthu, fiery potatoes with tamarind, tomato Pappu (toor dal), pineapple relish, mint raita, lime pickle, rice and store bought roti paratha.

I have one of them for making som tam. I've used it once or twice, but it is pretty to look at

Chicken thighs marinated in a mix of pomegranate molasses, garlic and chilli, baked cinnamon sweet potatoes, herby couscous and a few garden fresh rocket leaves.

My day started at "Book Fest" an annual three day book sale run by Lifeline. The event is so huge it's held at the convention and exhibition centre. Imagine a 100 metre long trestle table with 5 rows of books spine up, and that's only the cooking section. Within 5 minutes I had reached my "capacity to carry" limit. The long wanted Complete Asian by Charmaine Solomon, Complete Indian by Suneeta Vaswani, Complete Middle East by Tess Mallos (she was Australian of Greek immigrants and had a long and varied career in food, I have three other books by her) and Cooking under the Influence by Ben Canader and Greg Duncan-Powell (I already have this great book, copy is for a friend). Total cost $15, and I am now complete. Topped that with a tiffin carrier from the Lifeline shop nearby $4.

Aussie meat pie, horseradish potato mash and broccoli cheese with a touch of Gorgonzola.

I do use parchment in metal pans and it works well. This is a silicon pan, so parchment kind of defeats the purpose. The bulge just below where the silicon meets the metal is the problem, I can't see how parchment would change that. Happy to be corrected if wrong.

More dosa, this time with a spicy potato filling, making it masala dosa. Seen here with eggplant leftover from yesterday, rice, sambar on the rice, two kinds of tomato chutney and lime pickle. Close up of the potato mix, a few cashews added for crunch.

I picked up this book today and have only read the introduction. Meena grew up in Bombay, had an interest in cooking from a young age and was determined to have a career in food technology. Then, out of the blue a marriage proposal arrived via her aunt. She was fiercely opposed, but agreed to consider the idea, met him, and at the age of twenty moved to the UK. Her betrotheds family founded the Pataks empire in England (they dropped the H). Worth 50 cents for that story even if the recipes aren't.

More dosa. I'd been concerned about this batter. As the weather here cools it's harder to achieve the temperature for fermentation. Anyway, it was all good, seen here with smoky eggplant, chickpea curry, vegetable sambar, fresh tomato chutney, lime pickle and green mango pickle.

Roast vegetable tortellini in a puttanesca sauce, with spinach salad. A friend gave me a packet of this commercial tortellini claiming it to be the "best pasta ever". Can't say I agree, being a detester of capsicum (the content of the torts, pumpkin, capsicum and ricotta). The sauce was good though, anchovies, capers, garlic, olives and roma tomatoes.

This was the first use of the pan, I might try something else before giving it away. Thanks !

Derr, I'm such a dummy sometimes. That yellow thing underneath the whole cake is a flexible chopping board.

I made this chocolate and pear cake yesterday. It's yummy and disappearing quickly, but I have some questions... This is the pan I used, 9 inch square, silicon fused to a metal edge. There's a ridge just below the top of the silicon sides, which made it kind of tricky to turn out. Could I have your thoughts on that ? It was picked up (still in the original packaging) at an op shop for $5, so I'm more than happy to recycle it back to them. Also, after cutting two pieces for testing, it broke in half as I manoeuvred it to the storage tub. I was using my largest spatula, about 3 inches wide. Is there a workaround I could have used to prevent the break ? Thanks...

Yesterday I made samosas. These are baked not fried, so not as brown as I'd like. Next time I'll be more liberal with the oil brush and turn the oven up a bit. Served with coriander and mint chutney.

Tandoori chicken, zucchini masala, parripu dal curry, rice, naan, fresh tomato chutney, date & tamarind chutney. The chicken was the star of this show, guess I'm not turning vegetarian.