Quickie

I haven't died, fallen off a cliff, gotten lost while running or been buried under a pile of books. I've been very very busy and not really motivated to blog.

I have, however,

• Received my Garmin Forerunner 610 which I'll be reviewing shortly when I get over its new and awesomeness and stop wearing it all the time, even when doing the cleaning.
• Tried to walk to High Cup Nick and failed due to bad weather last weekend. ('Shall we go back?' *Looks at horizontal rain and soaked Mr Scientist* 'Yeah')
• Missed an interval training session simply because the gym was far and I was lazy.
• Baked a lemon polenta cake for a friend because she's moved house and it's the first time I'll be seeing her since she moved.
• Made an aubergine and chickpea curry from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen. It was delicious.
• Taken my car in to have the brakes fixed. I'm pretty sure this officially makes me an adult, but I haven't received my card yet.

Laters

World Vegetarian - Green Bean and Potato Curry

Green bean and potato curry

This curry took ages to make. I had the whole evening, but it took two people good 40 minutes to chop the shallots and green beans needed. Apparently in Sri Lanka they cut green beans 'at a steep diagonal into 5mm wide pieces' - wanting to do this properly I tried to do just that. I didn't include the full amount of beans and it still took ages. When I make it again I won't bother and just chop them roughly. The crunchy green beans and smooth potato did work together very well.

Either way it was tasty, but not delicious. The recipe calls for the juice of 1 lime and 3 chillies. I couldn't taste the lime much and the chillies' heat overpowered the curry powder somewhat, which is something I referred to in my post about making the curry powder, and made it taste a touch bland. The coconut milk did make it lovely and creamy. When I make it again I'll include the juice of 2 limes, only 2 chillies and more salt or a bit of vegetable stock to emphasis these flavours.

World Vegetarian - Sri Lankan Raw Curry Powder and Green Bean and Potato Curry.

This dish was good, but time-consuming and rather expensive to make. We already had most of the spices, but there were quite a few in the curry powder we didn't already have.

Sri Lankan Raw Curry Powder

I'm not sure why it's 'raw', maybe because it's only warmed at 60 degrees C rather than being toasted. It was easy to make - pre-heat oven to 60C, bung ingredients on a tray, leave for an hour, allow to cool, and grind. I ground it in the food processor, and it came out well. It filled half a washed-out old 250g salsa jar.

Warmed spices

Ground curry powder surrounded by a halo of its own foodie yumminess!

The powder has a mild, delicate flavour of coconut, curry leaves, coriander and fennel so you have to be very careful not to overpower it with other flavours. It can be used in any vegetable curry and although World Vegetarian only uses it in 2 curries this isn't really problem because the recipe only makes around 120ml. The recipe I used it in required 4 tsp and this used up about half of the powder so you won't have loads left sitting in the cupboard. It still took an hour to make though. It's going to be a staple in my kitchen, but only on special occasions.