Curry night! Chicken passanda & lamb madras with soda naan bread, bhajis, kachumber & pilaf rice

Chicken passanda - based on this recipe, but loads of other things from the spice shelf added as well to taste.  

Madras powder for making lamb madras using this recipe souped up at the end with a bit of this, bit of that.
Toasting whole spices, then grinding them  - it 's the secret to  real flavour. The curry powder you buy ready made is so dull in comparison. You roll the raw diced meat in this powder then leave it to marinade overnight in the fridge. 

Cucumber, tomato and pomegranate kachumber - a recipe from  Ms Marmitelover's  Eat Pray Love press night which I helped out with last year

Soda naan bread (using this recipe) - with one guest having an onion and yeast allergy it meant everything being made in 2 batches - apart from the naan bread which we made all soda. Actually first time I'd made naan bread - something you keep putting off, but then realise how easy it is, and how many million times better it tastes than a brought version. 

Looking back now it all looks a similar colour - but this is without the lamb madras, slightly darker. This is everything they had asked for - but colourwise it's something worth thinking about for next time......

Pilaff rice from the rice cooker (essential piece of kitchen equipment)

Onion bhaji - a combination of this recipe and this one.

Bombay aloo - using this recipe with a few added extras including tomato coulis

Sweetcorn pakora - adapting this recipe

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Wild strawberry and coriander sushi

Strawberries and coriander - who would ever think of putting those two ingredients together?

Mr Brooks might. And did - that's where I got the idea for doing this. I was going to use normal strawberries, but as I went through the garden this morning in search of rosemary and sage to go on top of foccacia I saw the recent sun had ripened up all the wild strawberries so I just had to pick them......

As this is a sweet version of sushi I used coconut milk to cook the rice rather than water. I'm not sure this is quite authentic - maybe in malaysian cuisine, but it tastes good. If you want a savoury version (with normal sushi rice) tuna and strawberry sushi is a classic.

No nori on this one - though if you google strawberry sushi - you can see some quite interesting versions and some 'interesting' ones too.

Rolled in toasted dessciated coconut. Best to toast it in a frying pan - if you put it in the oven you'll remember it's in there only when black smoke is wafting through your kitchen.......

Let it cool down too before you roll. Roll tightly in cling film - this helps you cut the round shapes easily.

Balsamic syrup makes a nice accompaniment (as above), but you could also sieve some strawberries to make a coulis as a dip.

This has been submitted to the Strawberry Feast at My Kitchen Treasures.

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1001 Kitchen tips # 38 - Toasted sesame

The best way we have found to toast your sesame seeds is in a saucepan.

If you put them in the oven by the time you've remembered them an hour later, they resemble the soot in your chimney rather than toasted sesame, and I know which one I'd rather eat.

If you put them under the grill this works, but as they heat up they pop like pop corn and bunce all over and around your grill, so if you don't clean it straight away, you'll be smelling burning sesame for weeks to come.

The same happens if you put them in a frying pan - they pop/ jump all over your stove and floor - and who needs more cleaning?


So put them in a saucepan (it holds them in), and you can keep an eye on them which you can't in the oven. Keep stirring occasionally till they are toasted to your liking. Turn them out on to a metal tray/ china dish (they are so hot plastic will melt) and let them cool down. *Take care as they are very hot*. As they retain so much heat if you leave them in pan they carry on cooking.

Once cool you can use them to coat your sushi:

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