Hi again,

a coupe of weeks ago, I was in Lodon for work and had the chance of meeting with my “partner in gastronomical crime”, Alan. Since we both love a good curry, we went to Southall to the restaurant Brilliant!, which was recently featured in Gordon Ramsay’s new show Ramsay’s Best Restaurant.

Amazingly, we managed to get a reservation on a Saturday night, even though it was quite a late table (21:15). We arrived there and the place was packed. All tables filled to the limit. Good sign. Very good sign. We had a very nice waitress and we asked her for advice, as we could not eat everything on the menu. So here’s her plan

Starters:

- half a butter chicken

- half a spicy chicken

Main course:

- Tilapia in a kenyan masala sauce

- lamb chops in a smooth and creamy sauce

- some dahl, rice and a naan bread.

In between starters and main course, we had a couple of mango and banana lassies,  but we washed down the whole lot with 2 bootles of cold Chablis. Nishe.

Well, that was a complete feast. Each dish was better than the previous one. Most particularly, both chicken starters were foodgasmic. Butter chicken melts in your mouth. Spicy chicken is just, how can I say, fuckingly awesomly, orgasmically good. Spicy it is, hot, sweat a lot, but the blend of aromas and spices they use makes you just forget about that. You just can’t stop it. You find yourself licking the bones, crying in pain and joy and gaging for more.  Fantastic (as were the fresh, cold lassies after that).

As for the main courses, also a great experience. I am not a fan of tilapia, but the way they prepared it made it a very tasty dish. The lamb chops were just too small for my taste. Can really remember all the details as we were, at that point, pretty “happy” (had a few drinks beforehand, as 21:!5 is late) and full and with half stoned taste buds, caus’of the chicken.

So, message is, if you are in London and want a real curry, take the trip to Southall (basically, just before Heathrow) and have dinner there. You won’t regret it!!!

See yous!

Fred

PS: Alan, cheers mate!

Hi everyone,

I take a break form my paper-writing business and would like to tell you about a simple and tasty dish I cooked yesterday. It’s a wee variation from a dish found in my bible (see previous post), which is based on cabbage and split yellow peas.

You’ll need a small/medium cabbage, half a cup of moong dal and a third of a cup of urad dal. In terms of spices, you’ll need about 1.5 tsp of black mustard seed, 1 tbsp of ground coriander, 1/2 tsp fenugreek powder, 3 garlic cloves, some oil, a chunk of fresh ginger (I like it grated), some chopped almonds and a couple of handfuls of baby spinach.  Ah, and somegaram masala, naturally Before doing anything else, wash 4-5 times the beans in plenty of water and finely chop the cabbage.

Let’s get started:

- put some oil in a big pot (I use an enameled cast-irin pot), add the ginger, coriander, fenugreek, mustard seeds and garlic and let whole thing get hot and frying (add a bit of water if it gets sticky)

- throw in the beans and the cabbage, add a cup of water and bring to a boil. Cook for 5 minutes

- reduce the heat and cook the whole thing until creamy (about 30 minuutes). you can add water if you feel that it gets too dry

- add the spinach leaves and cook for an extra 5 minutes

- add the almonds and a bit (1/2 tsp) of garam masala

- serve at once, with rice or polenta or grits and enoy

Unconventional, right? Indian food is not limited to choicken with a spicy yellowish sauce. This dish is very indian. Delicate,  mild, different, simple. you can cook it when back from work in less than an hour and will stuff you nicely.

The original is on page 286 of the “bible” (buy it! it’s worth it)

See yous!!!

Hi all yall,

I’m back for part deux. This time I’ll talk about my “beans and lentils” collection. Again, until recently, i only thought about these guys as plain an boring colored things to boil. Slowly started experimenting wuth few “unconventional” varieties, ie ones that we don’t really use in our western cuisine, and that was a good thing to do. Explosion of different flavors and aromas. Taste. Not boring. Colorful. Beautiful for both the eyes and the taste buds. Mmmmmhhhhh

So, here we go:

From top left to bottom rigth: Moong Dal, Urad Dal,  Moong Split Peas, Urad Chilka, Masoor Dal and Red Chori.

The beauty of these guys is that they do not really need to soak overnight, as other beans do. I just wash them 4-5 times and put them in thepot “as is”.

I usually tend to make combinations of these guys, when preparing dishes. I like to overdo it with Masoor Dal (usually 1 cup) and then 0.5 cups of any other bean. I also use chickpeas a lot, but those are nothing “special” and you can find tem anywhere.

Well, these are my beans and lentils. Soon for some nice ways on how to use them

Have a nice week-end und

Tschuess