Spicy lamb chops • Baby aubergines with picking spices (achari baigan) • Okra with carom seeds (ajwaini bhindi)

Hi curry peeps,

Hope you’re all well. It’s been a funny old weekend here. We had another family funeral to go to on Friday – a beautiful woodland burial near Norwich. (We had a lovely eggs Benedict at the cosy Talc cafe in town beforehand – http://www.talcinnorwich.co.uk – which I’d highly recommended). We were feeling rather drained when we got back so we got a heartwarming takeaway from our old friend the Bengal Lancer. I even spotted our upstairs neighbours having a romantic date there when I went to collect the food (incidentally, this entitles you to a 20% discount).

After a mammoth lie-in we came up fighting again on Saturday and had a lovely lunch at Phonecia in Kentish Town (amazing as ever) before exploring a couple of properties with Open House London (www.londonopenhouse.org) – a great opportunity to find the hidden gems in your local area. My favourite was Philip Hughes’ studio – an incredible space with a multitude of mirrors and a spa space hidden in a cosy white ceramic bubble. We also popped in to see the Thomas Hardy tree near St Pancras (pictured above) – a curious nub of history among all the new building around King’s Cross.

With the help of Mr CC and my lovely sister-in-law (cook extraordinaire) we rustled up a delicious spicy dinner using the Food of the Grand Trunk Road cookbook. I’ve also just invested in a copy of Rick Stein’s new India book on her recommendation so watch this space. I’m interested in trying out the Pondicherry-style prawn curry with preserved lemons and fresh herbs. Has anyone tried it out?

We’ve got a busy few weekends coming up – Mr M’s bday, our wedding anniversary and an impromptu trip to Paree, but I’ll do my best to keep in touch.

Marks: 8/10 (please excuse the lack of actual curry content in this post).

Easy like…Curry Easy

Almond chicken & sweet and sour baby aubergines

It’s been a busy few weeks here with weekend trips up to Edinburgh for a hen do and Machynlleth in Wales for a comedy festival, with a few curries along the way: dinner at the always dependable Rasa in Stoke Newington (www.rasarestaurants.com); a takeaway for 21 hungry hens in Edinburgh;  moreish samosas from @TheCurryStall in Machynlleth. The train journey back from Edinburgh was particularly amusing as we somehow found ourselves sandwiched between Vince Cable (serious legend) and David Milliband (surprisingly sauve).

I decided to treat myself to a new curry book this week after leafing through the sumptuous photos and eye-popping colours of Madhur Jaffrey’s Curry Easy  at a friend’s house the other day. It’s already been a revelation – the great illustrations make it much more approachable than The Curry Bible and there are lots more interesting vegetable recipes in this book too.

Dinner this Sunday was Curry Easy‘s “Whole Chicken Baked with an Almond & Onion Sauce” and “Sweet and Sour Aubergines” (serves 4). Both of the recipes were incredibly easy to follow, and after 24 hours of marination the chicken tasted out of this world – tender and tangy, with lovely warm ginger undertones; the only change I’d make next time would be to reduce the amount of salt in the chicken before my blood pressure goes through the roof. The sweet and sour aubergines were a doddle too and used much less oil than some of the other aubergine dishes I’ve made.

Mr Curryclub’s leftovers corner

Serves three (using two portions of chicken)

• Heat 2tsp vegetable oil in a small pan, with one cardamon pod, a small cinnamon stick, a pinch of coriander seeds and cloves, one dried chilli and a handful of raisins.
• Add basmati rice for three people to the same pan and a pinch of salt.
• Fry the rice and oil mix while you boil the kettle.
• Add boiling water to cover the rice by 2cm.
• Simmer on a low heat with the lid on until the rice boils dry.
• Pull leftover chicken meat off carcass. Heat in a large pan and add drained rice. Mix thoroughly, pat rice down flat and leave on a medium heat with the lid on until the rice at the bottom goes brown and crispy. Repeat process until all the rice is nice and crispy.  Serve with Greek yoghurt and mango/brinjal pickle.

We also enjoyed some vegetable pakoras with our leftovers tonight courtesy of my friend Bobby’s mum – thank you!

Marks: A whole-hearted 9/10; the leftovers verged on a knockout 10/10.

Aubergine and yoghurt raita • Indian-style bread and butter pudding

Curryclub’s latest members

Chilled aubergine and yoghurt raita

Indian-style bread and butter pudding

Despite the weather being cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey we had a brilliant Easter weekend: oodles of chocolate; Scrabble by a log-fire; and a visit to the new David Bowie exhibition at the V&A (http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/david-bowie-is/). The audio-visuals are fantastic, and your clever personal MP3 player changes the soundtrack as you explore the show, depending on your position.

We rounded off with an Indian feast fit for a king (well, my parents, anyway, who are much more important). Here’s the menu, all cooked to a soundtrack of the Thin White Duke:

• Michael Hathorne’s lamb curry – complete with fenugreek leaves this time. Still delicious, despite a slight burning incident (damn Le Creuset pan).  I’m wondering if the 40g of dried fenugreek leaves is an error, as my version was very strongly flavoured with only half the amount.
• Mango and chilli salad – fast becoming a regular dish for us. Seasoned with red chillis and lime juice this time around, it was seriously refreshing
• Madhur Jaffrey’s chilled aubergine and yoghurt raita – pretty oily, but oh so delicious. I’ll be sure to make this again.
• Saag – some tasty, token greenery to counteract the Simnel cake and Easter eggs.
• Indian-style bread and butter pudding – adapted from a Delia Smith recipe this was the star of the show. MrCurryclub added a pinch of saffron, orange zest, several cardamom pods and a dash of rosewater to the mix, along with some lovely yellow-yolked home-laid eggs from his parents’ chickens in Kent. The end result was a great, waist-line increasing success!

Marks: 9/10 for whole shebbang

Madhur Jaffrey’s “Best ever aubergines”

“Best ever aubergines” in all their glory

I walked several (actually quite enjoyable) miles in the snow to assemble the ingredients for this week’s dish so expectations were high. There was a hankering for a veggie curry at Curryclub towers this weekend as Mr Curryclub made an oxtail stew last night and we were feeling a bit flesh-ed out. To say I had high expectations is an undersatement – I would live ona diet of pure aubergine given the change.

When it came to the crunch, the aubergines were creamy and delicious but greasier than Berlusconi’s hair (implants)… The tangy chickpea and tomato sauce (seasoned with dry Mexican chillis from my friend, Erin) and tart cumin yoghurt  provided nice counterpoints of texture and flavour, and I substitued the fiddly-sounding tamarind chutney for shop-bought brinjal (aubergine) pickle for a lip-smacking sweet finish.

We’re going to Whitstable for my birthday next Sunday (weather permitting) so I’m reschudling curry club next week – watch this space.

Marks: 7/10. Very tasty but we don’t think these are quite as special as the name suggests.