Mmm Tasty

Lemon Meringue without the Pie

 

Meringues seem popular at present, they're everywhere, so I made some today.  Then, left with two egg yolks I rustled up a bit of lemon curd in the microwave (2 egg yolks, juice of one lemon, approx 30 grams butter, 60 grams of sugar) and it was a delicious, a new take on lemon meringue without the pastry and no cream in the meringues, just the sugar to worry about!  Oh, and the egg yolks and the butter... doh!

Toasty!

Grilled tomatoes on Marks and Spencer's Champion seeded bread, topped with artichoke antipasto (Aldi's best, £1 a jar) and fresh basil.  Delicious!

 

Vegetable Curry

 

Onion

Garlic

Ginger (grated)

Tomato puree

Chicken or veg stock

Dried coriander, cumin seeds, ground cumin, turmeric, asafoetida, garam masala, tamarind paste/sauce, chilli flakes.

Apple

Carrots

1 large potato

Frozen green beans

Frozen spinach

Cooked chick peas

Top with chopped coriander and preserved lemon.

Spicy Mexican Eggs - (huevos rancheros)

 

 

#BreakfastWeek

 Onions, peppers, tomatoes, chilli and eggs.

Lamb Biryani

Lamb, cooked, I used the remainder of my Sunday roast

2 large tomatoes

Large onion

Oil

1 tablespoon tomato puree

Meat juices or half a stock cube

Spices

Coriander

Turmeric

Asafoetida

Garam masala

Cumin

Chilli powder

Salt and pepper to taste

Basmati rice

Method

Sweat the onion in the oil until soft and slightly browned, add spices and tomato puree, continue cooking for a minute or two, then stir in the meat and chopped skinned tomatoes.  Leave to simmer and when the rice is cooked stir in the almonds and raisins.

Add water to cover and meat jelly/juice or half a stock cube.  Bring to boil and simmer.

Meanwhile put the basmati rice into cold water, with a little turmeric for colour, bring to the boil and then simmer for 10 minutes then drain.

Layer the rice and curry into an ovenproof dish, cover and bake for about 45 minutes.

Serve with chopped preserved lemon and freshly chopped coriander.  I also like a little mango chutney with mine.

 

The Great Grocery Cart in the Sky

ALDI DAIRYFINE CURIOUS INVENTIONS POPPING CANDY BAR

It's been a while but I am now lamenting the loss of Aldi's Dairyfine Curious Inventions popping candy bar, a wonderful concoction of smooth chocolate and hidden treasures!

And it's official!

SAUCE!

I don’t use many ready-made sauces or short cuts because I was brought up to cook ‘from scratch’ as they say today, or just cook as we used to say.  However, time is short and I found a couple of sauces that I really love, one is Sainsbury’s Puttanesca pasta sauce, not the one in their Taste the Difference range which I think is inferior to the one in the regular pasta sauce range.  The other is Tesco’s Finest Thai style stir fry sauce.  So I got into the habit of buying these, the Thai stir fry making, in my opinion, an absolutely delicious meal of tanginess, with lime, chillies and ginger.

The problem with relying on these products is that they can become DISCONTINUED, as has happened with both of these.

SOUP...ER

My favourite ready-made soup was Tesco’s Lentil, Bean and Barley, which was a perfect quick meal when served with their pretzel rolls, but they have both gone to that great grocery cart in the sky although M&S now sell pretzel rolls.

Fortunately, I found the ingredients for the Thai sauce and Lentil, Bean and Barley soup on Tesco’s website so I can at least attempt to recreate them.

Who makes these products?  Can’t they continue to make them for somebody else or do I have such peculiar taste that nobody else likes them?

 I have just remembered a previous post of mine:

Garner's Piccalilli - Pickled Tink 

http://sortoflife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/pickled-tink.html

...and similarly

And then there's the mayonnaise, Sainsbury's low fat French style was my favourite but I only need a SMALL jar, which they no longer do, only the large one and if I bought that I'd be throwing away more than I use.

So I found another one, Marks and Spencer's low fat mayonnaise with olive oil but it's now discontinued, not only that but one sales assistant was adamant it never existed and I was delusional.  

Another product has vanished, never to be seen again?  Sainsbury's Crunchy Muesli Breakfast Biscuits, they were lovely and flaky and I thought they were better than most of the other so-called breakfast biscuits.

M&S Horseradish Sauce

Marks and Spencer have now replaced their excellent horseradish sauce which was hot and feisty, as stated on the label, with an inferior product simply labelled horseradish sauce, a suitable description would be meek and mild!

I expect it's a ploy to make us buy more, I couldn't understand how we'd used practically a whole jar for one meal and then I noticed the label had changed and obviously the contents as well. 

Likewise with their piccalilli, the words you dread to see on your favourite products, 'new improved recipe' it now has the colour of the more insipid varieties, not the richness of it's predecessor, I'm not even going to try this one!