aye its a wee bit quiet around here recently, sorry to say i aint been helping much lately to spark the place up a bit, had the old head to the grinding stone a bit much lately. if you seen the cost of all that toy story 3 gunk that kids want for xmas then you know why.

at home this week though

i feel like a slave sometimes.

i need to make a new base sauce, the last was pretty poor but had to use it all up. i honestly think i used to make better curries when i was new to the site.

im going back to basics


ps: farmfoods have real decent frozen turkeys if your getting one. right size for a normal oven too. ive no idea who has an oven big enough for some ive seen, just bloody huge.

i did look at goose for a bit while walking the aisle but thought naaa

was gonna revive last years snow topic, but thought i would do another one instead.

be nice though to see some more igloo's being made

anyway i was thinking it realy aint that long since it was last snowing here, it never left till realy late i think middle of march here in northern scotland and came sooner than usual. Im thinking 7 months without snow here. last snow time i never saw a blade of grass peek through from start of december till start of march i kid you not. please please dont let this be the start of it till march again.

It was coldest place in uk for past few days around here -15 c though in the town the van temp gauge was showing at worst -11 c.

i drove from ullapool to aberdeen, then back from aberdeen to fort william last week through the night and let just say it wasint a journey for the faint-hearted. while driving along i took a few pictures, mostly on the way back in the daytime, though couple on isle of lewis on saturday. I started in stornoway taking the ferry then went for a bloody awfull curry in ullapool ( they even forgot to put my veg pakora in the takeaway bag which i paid for, never found out till i stopped a bit outta town onwards to inverness. and no yellow sauce or bag of salad) it was totaly rubbish, so anyone heading to ullapool forget getting a curry there totaly rotten. and the ?15.20 i paid for a vindallo and nan they did give me was a bit steep just to get poisoned.

i did the same journey a week earlier and that time i stopped for a chinese in ullapool, this time i asked for a chicken curry with fried rice and when i stopped found they had giving me a chicken fried rice.



saturday morning in tolsta isle of lewis



in stornoway on saturday daytime


will post load more once i get the lead to get em off my phone, these i emailed to my wife.

allways good to read a book test. without hijacking the thread i was in poundstretchers at the weekend and i spotted this book called fat free indian was 2.99, large book full of recipies. What i liked about it was the many chuckney and riati type recipies.

its not bir but the starters and bread and side dishes are definetly worth a try. its a big book for the cash, and to be honest im realy enjoying reading through it.

you can find it here   http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fat-free-Indian-Shehzad-Husain/dp/1844770028


its worth a crack for those trying to keep the calories down

regards.

i had lime pickle for the first time about 3 months ago and loved it. would realy like a good recipe for this.

on a side note. morrisons are doing a bogof deal on jars of pataks lime pickle at the moment.

yeah russel. spiceofindia is where i generally buy my spices. They do charge me postage even though it says on the site free postage for ?30 plus orders, but up here we are used to paying large postal costs.

i checked them out before posting above as they dont stock the pasco brand as axe said. So im needing a few spices topped up anyhow so dont mind trying another supplier if it means getting the correct brand for the taste test winning tikka, i realy wouldnt like to try an alternative or substitute as this defeats the purpose.

so does anywhere sell this pasco stuff online?, im sure others like me on here are far away from a shop stocking this. Or do i have to wait till xmas till im off to england to get some?

im real itching to give this recipe a go. And anyhow ive allready made a big mix of the spice mix needed.

im assuming this is the recipe that came out top in the taste test?. ( just wondering why so long since a comment on here, considering it came out top). Anyhow im getting all the stuff together to make this.

where the heck do i get pasco paste online?

perhaps you guys that did the taste test can point me in the right direction. Im on an island in the north of scotland so cant get to a asian supply shop.

i be waiting on these tests as well

my plants are winding down now for the winter, i am quite pleased with the jalopeno's. its intresting to keep them till red, as ive never tasted a fully ripe one till i grew my own.

next year gonna try some super hots.

my scotch bonnets were too late planted.

nice to see all they lovley chillies well done.

excellent, thanks to all for their hard work.

im gonna be pedantic now, and annoy a few people.

but i would have liked to see presentation as a category as well. i just feel especially if the results are close the way it looks would swing it for me. bir tend to be good on presentation too and after all thats what we are trying to achieve a likeness all round in what we get at the local bir. no point tasting great if you need a blindfold to eat it.

just my 10 cents my 2 cents is free.