Twenty Naans and a False Curry

To go with tonight's Meatballs I made 20  naan breads. They won't all be eaten of course, some will be carry forward to tomorrow's cold chicken and curried pasta salad.
I thought making them in bulk would make more sense. Something I'm not commonly known for !

I have guests tonight, the Hairy Bunch. And as I well know the youngest of them (14) can tuck away a huge amount of food so I might NOT have as many naans for tomorrow as first thought...
Still as long is everyone is happy.

The curried pasta salad is easy to make.

Boil some small pasta. Rinse in cold water. Put into a bowl.
Boil an egg or two till firm. Then chop. You can boil the egg with the pasta.
Chop half a pepper, a few spring onions, a red apple, a stick of celery and also put out a few sultanas.
Add all this to the cold pasta.
THEN...

Stir in a couple of tablespoons of mayo mixed with the same amount of Greek yoghurt. Mix well.
Then add a little spicy dressing..
Olive oil, black pepper, salt, curry powder, turmeric, garlic and lemon juice. 

Adjust all this to your taste.

We always have this salad with cold roast chicken. It is divine. Play around with ingredients. Sweetcorn is a nice addition likewise any dried fruits that take your fancy. Apricots are a favourite of mine, none used today on account of the few I had being used in a fruit loaf.

The other day I made a little curry.
Sausages, thin chipped potatoes, tomatoes and eggs. I called it my Full English Curry.
Mock ye not, as faux curries go, it was smashing.

Ghastly as it may sound yesterday's spam sweet and sour was superb. With some added reduced in price mange tout and a bowl of fried rice (recipe below) Sunday tea time was to die for.
Today I'm making lentil Bolognaise. A vegetarian favourite easy to prepare and cook and always good to eat. A couple of slices of garlic bread for an accompaniment.

On the baking front I made an English Cherry cake for Hairy Suit's birthday. Glace cherries are notorius for sinking to the bottom cakes if they aren't properly prepped. You need to wash and thoroughly dry the fruit before adding to the cake mix otherwise they sink.
I took the necessary precautions yet as I dried and patted the little horrors they still looked moist and fearing a disaster I resorted to something extreme. Electricity.
Laying the halved damped cherries on kitchen paper I blasted them with me hairy dryer.
The cake was a fabulous success...


FRIED RICE

Some long grain rice, washed and put in pan, add lots of water and simmer till water absorbed.

A chopped onion, a couple of rashers of bacon, snipped into small pieces, a beaten egg, soy sauce, sugar and spring onions.

Just before the rice is cooked fry the onion and bacon, then when the rice is done, drain off any water and dry out over a low flame adding the bacon and onion mixture. Pour in the beaten egg and stir. Then add soy sauce and sugar mixing well. Pour into serving bowl and stir in chopped spring onions.

SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE

fry a chopped onion, some green peppers, sliced carrots, pineapple rings and anything else you fancy like bamboo shoots water chestnuts, mushrooms, mange touts, sweetcorn etc etc
Add some sauce:
MIX
A tablespoonful of tomato ketchup
a good shake of soy sauce
some sugar or honey
the juice from a small can of pineapple
a generous splash of vinegar. I use whatever is handy. On this occasion it was balsamic. But I've used malt, wine and cider.
A sprinkling of Five Spice powder
a little pepper
Into this stir some cornflour and mix thoroughly.
Pour this over your veggies and stirabout. Won't take long to thicken and glisten.

A Dish Too Far

Sweet and sour Spam.

Pork chops with apple sauce and gravy. Mashed potatoes and green beans. And for pudding, pineapple and custard.

I bought a secondhand recipe book today written by one of the Fearnley-Whittingstalls. It's a mash-up of olde receipts one's granny might have rustled up.
A good volume even though I already have a lot of the recipes in other books, the pre-recipe bumpf is entertaining.

I made some bread last week. It lasted a day. So delicious it was. Tomorrow I'm making some buns. Probably yeasted. Bit early for Hot Cross so I'll knock-up a few Bath Buns. Seeing as I'm overflowing with sugar cubes.

Other delights on the foodie horizon are Papaya Cheesecake.
Would someone's granny ages ago have known what to do with a papaya?
Mine is in a jar.

Eating Tonight

Oh Goody...

Winter Ratatouille with penne and homemade seeded bread
followed by
Individual Toffee Apple Puddings and custard


The puddings are new to me, Could have made one large one but individual portions in little metal cups look cute.
A vegetable suet pastry holds chopped Bramley apples, demerara sugar and a little lemon juice then lid goes on and is baked for 20 minutes. Remove from oven brush with golden syrup and scatter with demerara sugar
and continue baking for a further 20 minutes.

I'll post a pic providing they don't explode.


Made some good stuffing yesterday.
Sage onion and apple. Very moist and perfect with the chicken of course. Roasted potatoes, parsnip and carrot and a few peas. A luscious milk gravy poured over succulent chickenmeat is just too good for words.

No dessert.

On Saturday Mr Horsehound and myself were the guests of Mr and Mrs Nof at Simpsons- in- the- Strand.

Mr Horsehound chose pork for his mains, Mr Nof, a steak and kidney pie, and Mrs Nof and and I plumped for the calves liver.
Mashed potatoes to die for. Onion marmalade likewise. For pudding Spotted Dick, a chocolate and berry mousse, treacle sponge finished off a spectacular meal.
We chose mineral water instead of wine and tea and coffee for later.
Marvellous surroundings and lovely company.
Thank You Mr and Mrs Nof x

How sweet is this?

Positively glowing

Good crumpet. Bad crumpet

Another fine example

The crumpet making was slow but worth it.
A yeasted mix was left to froth then poured carefully into greased pastry cutters which sat in a hot frying pan. Each one took a few minutes to cook. As you can see, I overdid the first one. Happy to say though the rest were fine.


Today I made six jars of Seville orange marmalade, pics coming tomorrow. As the cauldron (large flowered saucepan) of sugar, oranges and water boiled and spat several jars were warming in the oven . I couldn't wait to pot the golden mixture.
After a thorough boiling I tested it in two ways, first using the saucer method, secondly using a thermometer.
Crossing my fingers and praying to the god of preserves I poured the liquid amber into the jars...
 I'll taste it tomorrow......


Had a lovely fish supper Saturday before going on to yet another disco. The fish was cod and for dessert  the iconic banana longboat .


Today I made, along with the marmalade, a small beef cobbler and mediumYorkshire Teabread.
All turned out well.