Was pleasantly supprised.... very nice.

Hob Splash Cover

I might get a set and put it to the test.

 chinese superstore to fetch some supplies yesterday, and at the checkout I poped a copy of their free magazine in the bag with my food.

Flicked through it to check out the recipies etc and low and behold there is a picture of one of my curries



Flattered!

Chicken Curry, beef curry and mushroom curry.

Hawt Dawg!!!

H4ppychris / ArtistPaul's recipe (not going in to debate, but I followed Happy's video)



Made 6 portions in 1 hit...




It never fails to deliver that true Chinese Take Away flavour this one.

I have been fortunate in the last 2 years to have 4 working trips to India which I have thoroughly enjoyed.
Recently there was an internal job vacancies email which was for 2-3 years secondment to Jaipur, India.
I have applied, and I have an interview on tuesday, but as the wife and kids wont travel with me, its a tough decision if I get offered a placement.

What would you do?

(p.s I'm not going to make my choice based upon your decisions. My choice will be purely based upon salary)

Could you do it, I mean really spend 2-3 years away from your family with only 3-4 trips back home?
46c heat in summer?
Sandstorms?
Loneliness?

I decided to try Dipuraja's bombay aloo

CA's base gravy - 1/2 of the recipe qty



Blended



Cooking



Finished

I have finally got my wok back to its perfect seasoned colour for cooking asian cuisine again after 2 years of cooking.

Now this wok is about 30 years old, it was passed on to me by my dad.
Carbon steel and bought from Wing Yips in Birmingham.



You can see the top most ring of blackness was where the wok was at until 1 of my kids used it and decided to wash it .... WITH WASHING UP LIQUID AND A SCOURER!!!

Needles to say I was not impressed.

Every week it is used, washed only with hot water from the tap and my bare hands and rubbed dry with a paper towel.
Then it goes back on the gas until it smokes and a tsp of oil is rubbed into the whole surface.

I have since bought the kids / wife their own wok to do as they please and instructions to not even look at mine.

but it was good finger food..



and I cheated by using pre made mix

I followed Stephen Lindsay's recipe and its not bad at all (except for the waistline)

Next time I will add more finger chillies and less honey (I used 2 tbsp)



...and naan breads with yoghurt and without yeast, cooked on a tawa

.....on buisness.
What are the do's & don't while out there?
What should I be bringing back with me on my return?

I dj every Saturday 6-8pm GMT on www.nu-raveradio.com playing anything from '88 house to todays breakbeats.

Tonights show was a chilled out melodic, inteligent DnB mix

    Melodic / Intelligent Drum n Bass mix

    2 hrs @ 256kbps = 221mb

    Download

    Omni Trio - Serpent Navigators
    Beta 2 & Zero T - NYC Diesel
    Seba & Lo-Tek - Sonic Winds
    Intense - Natural Progression
    Omni Trio - The Elemental
    The Spirit - Pace
    Fourth World - Brothers
    Mystic Moods - A Sense Of Summer
    Future Bound - Liquid Groove
    Jonny L - Tychonic Cycle
    Seba & Lo-Tek - So Long
    Hokusai - 12 Till 4
    Blame - Centuries
    Fokus - On Line
    Rantoul - Digital Future
    Nookie - Funk Be The Flavour
    Axis - Solutions
    Nookie - The Magic
    Mykra - Chimes
    Jonny L - Common Origin
    Radiance - Jazz Resource
    Omni Trio - Trippin' On Broken Beats (Carlito Remix)
    Adam F - Metropolis
    Decoder - Quake

    Download

A couple of months back 1 of the kids thought they would be helpfull and wash my wok while I was having my dinner.

Its took a lot of cooking to get it to start to look good again.





....oh, and I made another base...

Chicken tikka masala, garlid naans and onion bhaji

I just cooked myself a cheap cut of steak and it was one of the best I have had ever.
Morisons 'beefsteak', had a nice marbling and about 3/4" thick. ?2.46
Seasoned with salt, black pepper and garlic granules and fried, after I fried the onions, for 1.5 mins per side, seasoning the second side just before I flipped it.
Served with onions and 'double cooked'  chips, fried in lard.... it was awesome.

Now, I have had sirloin, t-bone, fillet and rib eye before and I can honestly say that this was as good as any of those in terms of flavour, tenderness and juicyness.

I cant be done with additional sauces, if its cooked right its served in its own sauce 

So whats your prefered cut and style?

I got home from work to an empty house so decided to make some finger food..



Appologies for the crap phone pic but my daughter has swanned off with the digi.

6-8 chicken thighs skinned and filletted or 6 chicken breast fillets
2 rashers of smoked bacon cut in to lardons
8 shallotts halfed
1 leek sliced
2 carrots thinly sliced
12 button mushrooms halfed
flour
salt & Pepper
garlic granules
parlsey
chicken stock (oxo)
Ale

Method
Season some flour with salt n pepper then roll the chicken in it then fry them in a little oil until they are golden all over and then put them in a casserole dish.
Slice up the bacon in to lardons and fry that until it is golden and add it to the chicken.
Fry the mushrooms for a minute or so, and add to chicken along with the rest of the vegetables.
Fry the shallots for a few minutes and sprinkle on a tsp of sugar to help caramelise them.
Add about 400ml of chicken stock (chicken oxo)
Add a good sprinkle of garlic granules and a good sprinkle of parsley and top the dish up with 1/2 pint of ale.
In the oven on 180 for 90 minutes.
use Bisto to thicken the sauce at the end if required.

Chicken pakora, chili n mint kofta, onion bhaji, popadoms & ratia, chicken tika masala, chicken tika madras & garlic nan breads.












I was lazy and bougt pre made popadoms cause I ran out of time and energy.