What did you have for dinner?

@Loki

I certainly do! I remember it in its many incarnations, not right back to its original time in the 1890s but from when it was the Lodore Swiss Hotel owned by Bob England, his wife, son and daughter-in-law. I think they sold it to Stakis around 30 years ago and it has been sold/taken over a couple of times since.

I used to be asked to take some of their guests on walks around there (I used to take small groups on walks in the area and still have one of my books on walks on sale up there - I only allow it to be sold for charity nowadays).

One of our other members has links to the place. There's a famous poem by Robert Southey (Poet Laureate a couple of hundred years ago) called 'The Cataract of Lodore' and Southey was an ancestor of @roders wife.

It's a small world.

They're certainly taking a long time building the spa. Must be a couple of years now.

Just down the road from there is a small hotel/guest house called Hazel Bank. This was the fictional home of Rogue Herries - hero of the series of historical novels by Hugh Walpole (who also lived near there).

Sorry, I've gone off topic.

 

No, they were just brought out on a plate as an hors d'oeuvres as we sat on the settees in the bar area and looked at the menu. The pretentious restaurants now call hors d'oeuvres 'amuse bouche'

They used to come out piping hot as the tiny Yorkshire puds had just been baked, the hot gravy poured in and a freshly carved piece of roast beef (about 1" square) popped in the middle with a tiny blob (technical cookery terminology ) of fresh horseradish sauce on top.

 

@Loki

Do you marinate the chicken in the spices first?

 

@Loki

My favourite time



As I'm a foodie I make all my own curry powders and pastes so I only marinate the chicken if it's chicken breast (rarely use it). I do that to get the flavour into the chicken as it can't be cooked for long. My preference is to use thighs which can be put into the sauce and cooked for a long time.

I enjoy cooking most things but Indian is my favourite. I may have posted this before but it was the last big Indian meal I cooked - for 36 cousins.

 

I rarely make any breads.

I don't really use any recipes for the curries as I chuck in what I feel like at the time but I did this one for someone to use for a dinner party.


SHINEY’S SPECIAL CURRY RECIPE

4 tablespoons oil
4 med/large onions
8 oz. tomatoes - fresh or canned
3 lb. lean meat cut in 1” cubes
3 cloves garlic
1 stick cinnamon 2’~ long
8 cloves
6 Bay leaves
1 level tablespoon coriander
8 pods cardamom
1 oz. fresh ginger
2 or 3 tablespoons curry powder
½ tablespoon garam masala
Tamarind (optional)
Salt
1 cup yoghourt or a can of 75% coconut milk - if required
3 cups cleaned Basmati rice
Fresh coriander (separate the leaves from the stems)

METHOD:

Chop onions, crush garlic and cook in oil until golden brown. Put in meat and stir continuously for 3 - 4 minutes on medium heat. Add bay leaves. Chop or grate ginger. The spices (cinnamon, coriander and cloves together with the seeds from cardamom pods) can be stirred on a hot dry pan for 20 seconds (it releases the aromatic oils) and (The ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander and cloves can then be put in a liquidizer with ¼ cup water on fast speed). Stir in to the meat.

Chop tomatoes and mix in. If necessary, add water to just cover meat and simmer for 30 minutes adding more water when necessary. Add chopped coriander stems.

Tamarind juice can be added if you like the slight acidic flavour it gives. I much prefer it to vinegar or lemon.

Put in curry powder (2 tablespoons only) but if you make your own curry powder, as I do, then you will need less as you won’t have any ‘fillers’ in it (bought curry powders tend to have potato flour or similar), Garam Masala and ½ teaspoon of salt, simmer till meat is tender. As the powders thicken the curry, it may be necessary to add water occasionally to prevent it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Before serving, taste to see if there is enough salt. If not, add salt in very small quantities until suitable. If a stronger flavour is required, the third spoon of curry powder may be added but must be cooked for at least 10 minutes before serving.

If yoghourt is being used, put ¼ cup yoghourt in liquidiser instead of water and add the rest 10 minutes after the curry powder has been put in.

Put fresh chopped coriander leaves in a bowl for people to sprinkle on their curry if they like it.

Serve with boiled Basmati rice

Side dishes can be: curried vegetables, e.g. – potato/cauliflower etc.
Popadoms, chapattis , salad

 

When I make my own curry powders I tend to do them in bulk but this is the typical mixture

5 tbs. coriander seed
4 tbs. cumin seed
1 tsp. fennel seed
2 tsp. ginger powder (I rarely use this as I use fresh ginger in the curries)
2 pieces whole cardamom (black)
2 tsp. white poppy seed
2 tbs. fenugreek seed
3 tbs. turmeric powder
1 tsp. cloves
2 tbs. paprika
1 tbs. chilli power - but I use fresh chillies in the curries

I rarely use bought curry powders (only if cooking large curries such as in the two big pots above - to save time). I use one that the Indian restaurants tend to use when bulking out a curry. It's made by TRS (they do bulk whole, and ground, spices with supposedly no fillers to make up the weight) they also, now, sell retail size packets of about 100gm.

I keep some of their 'Mild Madras' for when I need to save time making a large curry. That mix contains coriander, turmeric (which I think they say helps to bulk out the powder - I quite often use turmeric in other dishes as it's also a healthy spice), chilli, mustard, Cumin, Fenugreek, garlic, fennel and salt.

They say all their spices come from Madras but I know they roast, grind and package them in Southall.

For diabetics - they don't add any sugar to the powder.