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

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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

Chicken liver masala with pao bread (kaleji pao)

New table cloth from Calcutta courtesy of my lovely sister-in-law (she also made the butter dish)

I’ve got  tigers on the brain this week… My sister-in-law has just got back from a great trip to Bandhavgarh National Park and I spent last night watching this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01nhwyz/Natural_World_20122013_Queen_of_Tigers_Natural_World_Special. I’ve been desperate to go on safari in India  ever since seeing tigers in the wild at Jim Corbett National Park in 2007.

For now I’m making do with tonight’s Curryclub effort, though: chicken liver masala with pao bread (or kaleji pao)  from Food of the Grand Trunk Road. I was stuggling to find a good recipe for a saag side-dish online, so I  improvised my own using this recipe from the blog Santosh’s Kitchen: http://santoshbangar.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/sarso-ka-sag-makki-ki-roti.html.

First I fried up a tablespoon of garlic and ginger paste with 2 tbsp vegetable oil, one chopped onion and one chopped tomato. I also added one chopped green chilli and a generous amount (approximately 2 tbsp) of dried fenugreek leaves. When it had all softened up and come together I added a whole large bag of supermarked spinach and stirred on a medium heat until cooked, adding dashes of water as necessary. I then pureed the whole lot with my hand blender – yum.

Curryclub is going on tour to Italy this week, so I’ll be taking a weekend off from cooking next Sunday; normal sevice will be resumed the week after.

Marks: 8/10 for saag and pao bread, 7/10 for the liver (I’m usually a big liver fan, but the spicing in this dish didn’t have enough bite for me)

Madhur Jaffrey’s “Moghlai Lamb with Spinach (Palaag Gosht)

Delicious aromas not included

Dinner in progress

Washing up “lite”

A perfect end to a lovely sunny weekend catching up with friends and celebrating milestones, exploring the New Forest and rubber-necking to see the giraffes at London Zoo. I can’t think why I’ve never made this recipe before – it’s very very easy to cook, doesn’t require too many ingredients or spices, and  doesn’t produce gargantuan amounts of washing up. A rich and scrumptious treat.

Marks: 9/10

Recipe adapted from the Ultimate Curry Bible

Marinate 600g of boneless lamb shoulder/neck meat with 4tsp grated ginger, 7 crushed garlic cloves and 2tbsp ground corainder for 30 minutes.

Slice 1 large onion into slim half-rings and fry until golden in 4tbsp olive/vegetable oil. Remove and leave on kitchen paper. Add meat to remaining oil in pan with 1/2tsp tumeric powder, 1tsp cayenne pepper and 1 tsp salt, and cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat with the lid on.

Gradually add 4tbsp of natural yoghurt, waiting until each spoonful is absorbed, then add chopped, fried onions and 450g thinly sliced raw spinach. Cook on a low heat for 50 minutes, or until the lamb is tender.

Madhur Jaffrey’s “Chicken with Spinach” (Saag Murgh)

Crispy fried onions

Apologies for the tardy write-up this week – the snow has made me quite soporific! We finally made something from Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible last weekend. The recipe was a great success. I pureed the spinach so it went a little brown during cooking but still tasted fresh and healthy. The crispy onions added an extra dimension of richness and the dish was far nicer than a takeaway chicken tikka masala – much less cloying. The final 300ml of water made things a bit sloppy though – I’d halve the amount next time. It would be good to find a way to reduce the quantities of cooking oil (I used vegetable oil instead of corn/peanut, for ease) too.

I’m enjoying my education in spice – I used to pour vats of cumin and coriander into my self-invented dishes but see now that it’s all about delicate combinations, not vast quantities. I didn’t realize until this week that cayenne pepper is different to chilli powder – in fact it’s just one of the many components in a good chilli powder! I’m enjoying working our way through the Madagascan cinnamon sticks we bought on honeymoon last October too – they’re delicious! Our flat it definitely taking on the odour of spice…

I also bought some half price asafoetida this week. Wikipedia tells me that it comes from a type of gum produced by a giant member of the fennel family, and “has a pungent, unpleasant smell when raw, but in cooked dishes, it delivers a smooth flavor, reminiscent of leeks”. Could be interesting.

Marks: 7/10. A tasty, easily-made classic. Will retain some crispy onions to sprinkle on top next time. Mr Curryclub also thinks the spinach should be added a little later on in the cooking process.