Saag aloo — from the Hindi words Saag (spinach) and Aloo (potatoes) — is a favorite Indian vegetable dish of mine. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to make. I started out with this general recipe, but I added tomatoes and some water to allow the potatoes to cook. (I should have par-boiled the potatoes first). The result was especially delicious. Sorry about the rubbish photo …
Mito left us some shiso leaves, so I tried to make a shiso pesto.
The shiso is essentially very sharp so I tried to counteract that with a few drops of balsamic vinegar, and lots more of the other ingredients. The result was interesting and exotic, but not really fine cuisine. Also I used a bit too much garlic … I suspect this might work with half-and-half basil leaves.
Lots of others have tried to make shiso pesto … here are a few links:
Blackbirds – 2
Blue tits – 1
Great tits – 2
Sparrows – 5
Long-tailed tits – 3
Robins – 2
Starlings – 2
Wood pigeons – 1
Wrens – 1
The man who invented the doner kebab died last week and in honour of Mahmut Aygun I decided to make doner kebabs for us.
I don’t have a recipe, and I don’t have the rotating spit either, so a lot of improvisation was required.
The basic marinade is onion, garlic and a whole lot of curry spices, into which I mixed all the meat:
The meat, a mixture of lamb mince and lamb steaks, is sliced thinly and/or formed into patties and thoroughly cooked in a frying pan:
At the same time, I made a salad, and a greek yogurt and coriander sauce:
After cooking the meat, I stacked it up on my skewers to make kebabs:
Real doner kebab is cooked on a slowly rotating spit in front of a vertical grill …
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I don’t have a doner kebab spit, so I had to improvise:
The aim was to burn the meat and give it a barbeque flavour:
These a greek chillis from a jar:
Heat up pitta bread, and layer everything on. At this point you can say “you want chilli with that boss?” in an authentic turkish accent …
Verdict: delicious! And much healthier than the real thing.
This weekend (24th/25th January) is the RSPB‘s Birdwatch weekend, where you spend one hour counting birds to contribute to the RSPB’s survey.
On the left, pork belly and mustard. On the right, ebi-fried-rice.
From:
CC-licensed image c/o Rhys Jones photography
to:
using the standard coq au vin recipe. Cheap and tasty!
The pheasant was from the butchers in Sandridgebury.
This was a store-cupboard pizza because we didn’t have any fresh ingredients except for mozzarella left over from the new year. Not too bad though.
Nabe:
Sashimi, yum yum:
Salmon jaw … sadly I didn’t get to eat any of this:
Happy New Year everyone!
