Thursday 11 June 2009

back again and raring to go, new toys at the ready!

ok, it's been a little while as things were manic and I just wasn't sticking to budget or doing anything adventurous really, so nothing to report essentially, but I'm back with bells on and ready to go.

Last week we did one of our quick standby meals on Saturday; lamb mince from freezer, fried with cumin, pomegranate syrup and cinnamon, then with cous cous added, with stock poured on and left to steam til done. With some roasted cherry tomatoes. Yum.

Sunday was a tenderly slowly cooked ragu, with spaghetti, free-from, with some saved for the Brownies on Monday.

The grown-ups had beetroot keftedes on Monday, with pitta bread and tzatziki. Basically boiled grated beetroot formed into patties and fried. I found the recipe in Good Food mag, in a review of a veggie cookery book and had a lot of beetroots over a couple of Abel and Cole deliveries, it was delish, even the carnivores enjoyed it! As Claire put it, meatballs without the meat, like it!

Tuesday was a homestyle chicken curry, with a carrot and spinach and potato curry with green mango powder, and rice. Very yum. Love the rediscovery of green mango powder.

Wednesday was (apart from Mr D. J. Betts' birthday) stuffed prepared trout with potatoes and salad. Yum, but no acutal cooking really, so can't take credit. Godpapa bought the trout when they were on offer, and we put them in the freezer for just such an occasion.

Friday was a delish and wonderful rediscovered much loved recipe of one pan coconut and red paste rice and salmon curry. Very easy and uttely wonderful comforting food. Totally my kind of dish. I ate leftovers twice and LOVED it!!! LOL.

This week, we've had 2 brilliant slow cooker dishes: easy simplified cassoulet on Saturday, and slow cooked sausages and apples in cider, on Tuesday.

Sunday we had tandoori chicken cooked in a tandoori pot : http://www.spicesofindia.co.uk/acatalog/Tandoori-Pot.html - I used Anjum Anand's recipe, got one of her early books from the library, definitely buying a copy.

Monday we had another Anjum recipe, yellow sunshine daal and rice. Comfort food, yum. The Brownies had home made turkey mince burgers, with sweet potato chips (oven cooked) - tho we can call them yam chips for nightshade-phobics.

Wednesday we had an absolutely wonderful - shock horror - beef biryani, made with frozen casserole beef cubes, cook from frozen, and using a Pataks paste, and Abel and Cole baby spinach, and Easy Cook mag recipe.

Today we had a Cooking like Mummyji recipe, dry chickpea curry with home made naan, made the dough in the new bread machine, and tried to cook the naans in the tandoori pot but it wasn't working quickly so I stopped and used the chapati pan (tawa) instead.

Tomorrow is going to be tuna and jersey pot and beans salad, recipe from Good Food mag.

Other things I've done in this time frame have been the famous better than drugs choc brownies, in tiny cubes, for the church BBQ celebrating our Confirmation. (Along with 8 others, Godpapa and I took this momentuous step and it was fab. Can't say if it's made a difference, but will keep at it.) I also made custard fairy cakes, and fruit flapjacks for the BBQ, and I ended up staying up til after 1am baking, since typically Littl'un decided not to nap that day, so I couldn't use that time to do the baking! Glad those things worked out well, cos I did bake a disasterous banana bread, same recipe I've used for 15 years and it didn't work properly, was claggy and undercooked at the bottom. Oh well.

I also took delivery of the long awaited bread machine! I've tried plain white rapid loaf, which my handsome older nephew ate most of, then I tried a half and half white and rye n the timer, to be ready at breakfast so we could have some at elevenses and lunch. That's a hit, Little'un has been chomping that with great pleasure. Tho she has a preference for "crunchy skin", doesn't so much like it when the crust is soft the next day, any ideas? And I made the naan dough in the machine, what a breeze! My next try is gonna be bacon and cheese. Will keep you posted...

1 comment:

  1. Holy shit that tandoori pot looks good! Wonder if I can get one in the suitcase and bring it back?

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