We are nearing the end of our week off and I am feeling very sad, but rested, all batteries recharged.  For lunch we popped along to Teddington and went to Carluccio’s- the food is consistently tasty but today it was more than a little chaotic as there was a very big table of ladies, all with little people and buggies.  In fact you could hardly get in the door for buggies, which might not be the best welcome when you are looking for a relaxing lunch out. 

Through the week I have bought 4 new cookery books and we decided against a takeaway tonight in favour of trying 3 new veggie curries from Madhur Jaffrey’s ‘Curry Easy’.  This was a good decision as we have now found 3 new favourites.  Each week we are trying some new veggie curries and I will have to have a serious think about which selection is our all time favourite menu.  Tonights offering was:

We had a South Indian Potato Curry- lots of mustard seeds, fresh curry leaves and coconut milk.  This was truly delicious- next time I will par boil the potatoes first as they took so long to cook in the sauce and I didn’t want to spoil it. 

Second up was a Bangladeshi Dal which was cooked differently to how I would normally tackle it- onions and tomatoes fried first with the spices before adding the red lentils.  I finished it off with a dash of coconut milk instead of the butter it suggested and this gave it a richness which it needed.

And last but not least was a tomato and aubergine curry- fresh tasting, lots of chilli, cumin and mustard seeds, perked up at the end with a good squeeze of lemon juice.  Delicious.

A really lovely Saturday night dinner- lots of taste and tang but not too much food, given the amount we have shifted on our week off!  I feel a diet coming on from Monday……

Tagged: Aubergine, Carluccios's, Curry, Madhur Jaffrey, Potatoes, Tomatoes, Veggie