Friday 10 and Saturday 11 February - Curry and Chinese

Friday evening  we had chickpea and chicken curry. I prefer the taste of dried chick peas to tinned, and have found you can cook them in the slow cooker as long as they are boiled thoroughly first. I cook 500g at a time, and then freeze portions for later use.
We also experimented with cooking popadums in the microwave - they are a bit dry, but not unpleasant.

Saturday night we had guests for dinner, so no photographs. We did a home made wonton starter, followed by char siu - Sophie Grigsons recipe means a bit of searching specialist shops for ingredients but is well worth the result. Served with stir fried pak choi and mushrooms, and some steamed rice.

Just for a change we finished the meal with homemade mango and passionfruit sorbet, but also served home made vanilla ice cream for those not on diets.

Great excitement this week, as we have booked a holiday for August - we are off to Burgundy to a gite for two weeks. this coincided with Raymond Blanc visiting the region and cooking the local dishes on his TV show. Inspired by this we are having Boeuf  Bourguignon tonight. So yesterday the beef was put to marinade in a whole bottle of red wine along with some carrot, celery, onion and herbs.

This is now in the oven, having been flamed with some brandy, and some shallots and onions added to it. Smelling great, but a while to go until we can eat!