EH - Essex > Hebrides...the next step of the adventure?

MistyMountainTop

You'll have to let us know how the Korma turns out! I absolutely love Korma. I've never found a recipe that tasted anything like what we get from the local restaurant. We have a curry night once or twice a year as a real treat, but I'd love to be able to make something that actually tasted like the restaurant. I remember something on the OS board years ago about making a base and using it for different currys. I tried it and it literally took all day, and the result wasn't worth the effort. Maybe I did something wrong, I can't quite remember. I do remember the disappointment though.

Still no meal plan, but I have put it down as one of my things to complete so am not worried about it at the moment, it should be done in the next few days.

EssexHebridean

Further update
Stuff to do:
[STRIKE]Need to start putting together next weeks meal plan and shopping list, and update my "use up" list. Started...[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Sort out converting the ClubCard to online.[/STRIKE]
Attack the room of doom...spare room. A job for Friday. :eek: Started!
[STRIKE]Stuff to Charity shop - Friday[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Clean car - also Friday, weather permitting.[/STRIKE]
Hoover inside car - Friday again, will stick £1 in at the garage Decided against this for now
[STRIKE]Email pals about the weekend[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]Decide on recipe to cook on Sunday - maybe something from Rick Stein's India...? [/STRIKE]Kind of - except I'm doing it for tomorrow instead! :rotfl:
Decide on our best route to Twickenham on Saturday
Buy Train tickets if that's our best route!
Credit card money shuffle Work in progress
Sort out hem on work trousers...
[STRIKE]Aldi[/STRIKE]
[STRIKE]ThaT oTher supermarkeT[/STRIKE]

EssexHebridean

MistyMountainTop wrote: »

You'll have to let us know how the Korma turns out! I absolutely love Korma. I've never found a recipe that tasted anything like what we get from the local restaurant. We have a curry night once or twice a year as a real treat, but I'd love to be able to make something that actually tasted like the restaurant. I remember something on the OS board years ago about making a base and using it for different currys. I tried it and it literally took all day, and the result wasn't worth the effort. Maybe I did something wrong, I can't quite remember. I do remember the disappointment though.

Still no meal plan, but I have put it down as one of my things to complete so am not worried about it at the moment, it should be done in the next few days.

There is a great curry base recipe in the "Takeaway Secret" book - I can't find a link to the actual book itself anywhere but the sauce recipe is included in This chicken Jalfrezi recipe if that helps. It may be that was the one you tried of course, in which case not so much good, but there you go! Korma is absolutely my favourite sort of curry too Misty - being mildly allergic to chilli limits me to that end of the spectrum and I think there's little nicer than a really tasty Korma!

However, it now looks like I'm not going to be cooking it until Sunday in any event - just had a text from MrEH that he's going to be late home from work AGAIN - it's been the theme of the last fortnight, in fact there's barely been a day when we've eaten a meal together recently. As I'm not certain how well the curry will reheat, it seems to make sense to delay making it until Sunday. That means a meal plan adjustment (already!) for tonight being mushrooms baked with bacon and cheese, I think. I've got the other half of the loaf of posh bread from last weekend out of the freezer so we can have those with toast. Not what was planned, but what are plans, after all, of not for changing?!

Car washing cost me £5 at the jetwash. Naturally I noticed all the bits I'd missed when I got her home and put her in the garage. Oh well, she's still cleaner than she was! Decided against doing the hoovering as I didn't want, on reflection, to do it right after washing her while she was still dripping wet.

Shopping: £17 odd in T's, and £1.77 in Aldi (added a bag of sweet potatoes to the Super 6 leeks and Swede). Bargain. Meal plan will be adjusted to incorporate some roasted veggies somewhere along the line I think as I seem to have lots to choose from!

Off to Twickenham tomorrow for the Rugby! :T England -v- Fiji - should be a good match hopefully, and we're meeting up with pals who we've not seen in an absolute AGE - the chap who was MrEH's best man, and his wife, it'll be gorgeous to see them!

MistyMountainTop

I can't remember if that was the base EssexH, I seem to remember it taking all day to cook, and the one you posted seems like less work. I really want a korma now, I'm super hungry and trying not to snack before supper tonight. I'll be looking forward to your report about the korma tomorrow.

I hope you had a lovely time today at the rugby x

Huskyrunner

EssexHebridean wrote: »

There is a great curry base recipe in the "Takeaway Secret" book - I can't find a link to the actual book itself anywhere but the sauce recipe is included in This chicken Jalfrezi recipe if that helps. It may be that was the one you tried of course, in which case not so much good, but there you go! Korma is absolutely my favourite sort of curry too Misty - being mildly allergic to chilli limits me to that end of the spectrum and I think there's little nicer than a really tasty Korma!

However, it now looks like I'm not going to be cooking it until Sunday in any event - just had a text from MrEH that he's going to be late home from work AGAIN - it's been the theme of the last fortnight, in fact there's barely been a day when we've eaten a meal together recently. As I'm not certain how well the curry will reheat, it seems to make sense to delay making it until Sunday. That means a meal plan adjustment (already!) for tonight being mushrooms baked with bacon and cheese, I think. I've got the other half of the loaf of posh bread from last weekend out of the freezer so we can have those with toast. Not what was planned, but what are plans, after all, of not for changing?!

Car washing cost me £5 at the jetwash. Naturally I noticed all the bits I'd missed when I got her home and put her in the garage. Oh well, she's still cleaner than she was! Decided against doing the hoovering as I didn't want, on reflection, to do it right after washing her while she was still dripping wet.

Shopping: £17 odd in T's, and £1.77 in Aldi (added a bag of sweet potatoes to the Super 6 leeks and Swede). Bargain. Meal plan will be adjusted to incorporate some roasted veggies somewhere along the line I think as I seem to have lots to choose from!

Off to Twickenham tomorrow for the Rugby! :T England -v- Fiji - should be a good match hopefully, and we're meeting up with pals who we've not seen in an absolute AGE - the chap who was MrEH's best man, and his wife, it'll be gorgeous to see them!

Very very jealous your going too see england play

I am still recovering from last night Newcastle Falcons are my team sadly we got a masterclass from Exeter 😕

EssexHebridean

MistyMountainTop wrote: »

I can't remember if that was the base EssexH, I seem to remember it taking all day to cook, and the one you posted seems like less work. I really want a korma now, I'm super hungry and trying not to snack before supper tonight. I'll be looking forward to your report about the korma tomorrow.

I hope you had a lovely time today at the rugby x

The Korma was a-m-a-z-i-n-g! Definitely a keeper of a recipe. I strayed a wee bit off the straight and narrow - the chicken we had was already cooked, so I just put it in for the 30 minute simmer at the end. I didn't have the Kashmiri chilli powder but used the second half of what turned out to be a really mild fresh red chilli from the stir fry last week. For flavour it was brilliant, but it left the colour a bit limited, so I added a teaspoon or a bit less of turmeric, purely to make the colour a bit more pleasing. For the coconut I used one of the T's "snack pots" that they have on the shelf with the fresh fruit salads etc - as we reduced the quantities of the curry by half there is still about a third of that left so I'll be freezing that. :T The Black cardamom that you add at the end smelled REALLY odd when MrEH had bashed the seeds up - to the extent that we googled it to see how it was meant to smell...like it did, apparently! Definitely going to be doing it again - next time I'd use fresh chicken thighs I think as they'd have plenty of flavour and would make the whole thing taste even better thanks to being cooked in the sauce.

Huskyrunner wrote: »

Very very jealous your going too see england play

I am still recovering from last night Newcastle Falcons are my team sadly we got a masterclass from Exeter 😕

Most people do, these days, don't they?! The match on saturday was great - far better than the scoreline suggested - albeit the first half action was nearly ALL down the other end of the pitch to where we were! Our seats were superb - when the tickets came through they'd been upgraded from the £35 ones we'd paid for, to £50 ones - So we were right at the front of the middle tier, pretty much level with the posts. All four of us agreed they were the best seats we'd had at HQ. Although the first half was a bit of a rout Fiji put up far more of a fight in the second.

Spendy-ish day on Saturday then, but then we knew it would be, in fairness, and actually, it wasn't really that bad. Walked to the station in the morning, travel was bought ahead and took advantage of our railcard so was £24.40 for the two of us - none too bad. Couple of beers in the pub beforehand with OH (one round him, one round me), and a roast pork butty on the way to the ground which he paid for. Beers in the pub after paid for by his pal, and my share of cab from the station and a chinese when we got home. Yesterday, by contrast and agreement, was a complete NSD, however! :T

Purse contains £20 plus some change. Change will make it's way to my tin at home.
Bank account is OK, and there should be some money for me to transfer to my airshow account this month...or I leave the balance sitting there and it will be used for this month's CC spend. Need to think about that.

Step count is now showing above 5k average for the week - but I'm unsure that's going to be added to much today judging by the horrendous weather that has descended on us. I refuse point blank to go for a walk at lunchtime if it's bucketing, so we'll have to see.

Meal plan has descended into chaos/farce as I was a lazy moo yesterday and completely failed to get the stew in the slow cooker. Shuffling will need to occur, and tonight will be a "cooking night" I think. Stir-fry chicken noodles can be brought forwards to tonight, Stew will go in the SC overnight ready for tomorrow...that'll work.

Conscious money-saving decisions:
- weather checked and front room storage heater turned down as a result, Needs revisiting tomorrow evening.
- my Graze box has been "snoozed" meaning my next one will arrive in three weeks, not two.

EssexHebridean

Yay - just had a useful thought. Our Virtual Sealed Pot savings for the year are currently sitting just under £300, and I'm keen to nudge it to above that level by it's "year end" - 1st December. Just remembered £4.38 in TCB that can be cashed out, so that will help! :T

MistyMountainTop

The korma does sound lovely! I don't have most of the ingredients, so will have to buy one or two items a week until I have everything and then give it a try.

I'm glad you had a good time out. It must have felt great knowing the money was there and you could just relax and enjoy yourself!

The virtual sealed savings pot - wow! I don't really know what one is but am very impressed you have nearly £300 in there. Are you saving up for anything in particular or is it an emergency fund?

EssexHebridean

MistyMountainTop wrote: »

The korma does sound lovely! I don't have most of the ingredients, so will have to buy one or two items a week until I have everything and then give it a try.

I'm glad you had a good time out. It must have felt great knowing the money was there and you could just relax and enjoy yourself!

The virtual sealed savings pot - wow! I don't really know what one is but am very impressed you have nearly £300 in there. Are you saving up for anything in particular or is it an emergency fund?

The VSP theory is thus:
Each time you log in to your online banking (or just once a week if that suits you better) you round the odd pennies in your current account down to am agreed level - so it might be to the nearest pound, we do to the nearest £5 increment usually. The money gets shuffled across to the designated account for saving it, and stays there untouched until your "finish date" - I always stick with 1st december as it is the date the "official" challenge on here always used.
This time round it's paying the car hire and food budget for our week in the Hebrides over Christmas. :T We throw the rounds from the joint account and both our own current accounts into ours, plus Topcashback payouts, and the odd pennies of interest that my current account earns.

EssexHebridean

Woke up this morning with the contents of the slow cooker smelling ace - and we've just had a portion each for dinner,with dumplings added. :T Mutton stew - very tasty indeed, I think we're going to buy a meat box from the same people that meat came from at some stage. Actually had a b it of a cooking frenzy last night in the end - while I was sorting the veg for the stew, I decided I might as well prep the rest of it to an easily useable state too, so I did a big roasting pan of roasted veg too. Some of it might get frozen, or it might just get used through the rest of the week. Most likely the latter, I suspect.

Further meal plan adjustment though is that the sausages are getting done with mixed root mash and veg, rather than as the lentil casserole thing. I still want to try that at some stage, but I've come to the conclusion I need the time to make it ahead. Recipes on weeknights don't really work for me.

NSD again today. No applause - there was nothing I needed. I remembered to check I've got the paperwork for the car tax handy so that can be done into next week so long as I don't forget - hurrah for them making that electronic now! :T

Diesel spend is going to be a little higher than average this month - MrEH's working hours are still somewhat erratic - he was an hour late leaving again tonight - and while that's the case it't not really practical for us to car share. In fairness we'd only be sharing 2 days a week at most at this time of year anyway, but still...It's bad enough having to sit in the car for an hour and a half waiting for him though, I'm blowed if I'm prepared to add another hour to that!

Just been invited to another Orchard campaign - this one gets us a free pudding for Christmas dinner which will be handy. We'll be having "Fakemas" at Mums in the style of Pippi and co a week ahead of the day itself as we're away for Christmas itself. Even handier is that Mum has an invite to the campaign too and she's getting some free "party food"! :T Bonus!

I'm probably going to leave next weeks meal plan a bit "fluid" at this point, as we're at the Good Food show on Sunday, and it's not unheard of for us to come back with some lovely goodies we want to incorporate into the following weeks meals! We're both off work on Monday in any case so might just shop then, as we're away Saturday and Sunday.