From Frugal Foundations to Fortified Family Future

rtandon27

Dosa are such an incredible treat - in fact am going with a couple of work colleuges tomorrow while in the big smoke. A crispy crepe filled with spiced poatato and served with a variety of freshly made coconut chutneys. I'll need to have a black coffee afterwards or risk falling asleep in my boring meeting!

Greying_Pilgrim

kayannie - I don't want to trigger bad memories 😬 I suspect many folk who consider themselves fish eaters would baulk at eels……. full grown or elvers - trying to remember if it is Belgium the UK exports a huge amount of eels to 🤔I remember seeing a documentary or part of C'File or something about it.

themadvix said:

I agree that the sides are the best standard Indian restaurant dishes for veggies - the mains are generally mixed veg with a different sauce, which is fine, but not terribly inspiring (ironic, really as most of India serves a much wider variety of vegetarian food than meat, but typically 'British' to make it all about the meat 🙄).

Oh heavens, do I agree with this ^ so much. There is such a rich heritage of Indian vegetarian food, temple food, Ayurvedic - to debase the food options down to 'mixed veg' in a different sauce…….

I think I would be disappointed if we couldn't get a takeaway/meal for £50 - if we had change 👍 but I'm sort of thinking in terms of £50, to save the money. "Notionally" there is £35 in the meal kitty, as I put half of last month's saved grocery budget into this month's pot, and have £35 left over.

Tea has been munched. Not 100% successful, BUT clean plates all round. I made lentil dhal, steamed rice and an omlette, and as a trial, I made Matar Khumbi, or mushroom and pea curry, following THIS recipe on utoob. Now LG isn't the biggest fan of mushrooms, nor peas really, but I ploughed on. They did eat it, but they did grumble a bit. Now, I shall accept their constructive criticism, as I used cooked/frozen mushrooms and I just grabbed the quartered tub out of the freezer (I think I have sliced and minced in the freezer too), and this meant that the mushrooms, although smallish, were 'obvious', and I have to say, were very like…. canned mushrooms in texture. They tasted OK, but there was a slight textural issue, which may not have occurred had I used 'fresh' mushrooms. So, my introduction to Matar Khumbi (seen on one of the local restaurant menus), did not go to plan 🫤 Having said that, I didn't give LG a huge portion, and they did eat what was on their plate, so whilst they wouldn't rush to have it again - however i make it/a restaurant makes it - they have, at least tasted it, and knows that it's not "nasty". I omitted to put any chilli in my version, and didn't finish it with cream. DH ate it up, and liked it, and I liked it, but absolutely could see the issue LG was having, with regard to the mushrooms. Next time I make it, I will either use sliced mushrooms or fresh mushrooms.

The mushrooms were from the freezer, I had processed a punnet, or a YS'd punnet or something prior to Christmas, so that is one decluttered. I also used the last 4 eggs that I had for the omlettes. They made thin omlettes, so better to put them "with" something, rather than present them as a key component of tea. There was one pot of rice left over, 2 pots of lentil dhal, some onion/garlic/ginger puree and 2/3rds of a tin of chopped tomatoes. And we all got fed.

The weather forecast turned out to be right, so I'll keep my fingers crossed that I can have another go tomorrow to get the school uniform processed.

Thanks for popping in. Greying X

Greying_Pilgrim

Sorry jellytots, Watty and rt - I didn't respond to your posts.

jellytots - your childhood is closer to mine and DH's. Our family couldn't afford to go out very often, and yes, meat & 2 veg mentality predominated - DH's family didn't eat out much, but did do family visits, to fellow meat & 2 veg favouring relatives. We had a chinese takeaway about once a year, from when I was a teenager - it only lasted a couple of years, but it was sooooooooooo exotic! I don't suppose it amounted to anything more than steamed rice, sweet & sour pork balls, and prawn crackers - which gives you some indication of our usual food portions. It's interesting, when LG was weaning, I got myself tied up in knots because LG wasn't stuffing avocado and broccoli into their mouth by the fistful. And yet now - within a veggie household - I think their food choices/experiences/tastes are much broader than some of their peers. So it is interesting how it's not always down to getting given 'all the things', that makes you a bon viveur or a cuisine magpie.

Watty & rt - I don't think I've ever had dosa (I would remember, I'm sure), but that is one thing - that whilst regarded as 'street food' and simple, is something that I would much, much prefer to have made for me. I wouldn't even try to do it at home.

Greying X

Watty1

Dhosa very hard to make at home! Now is there a London based person who could pm a place in central London to get a really good dhosa? or even pop it on here? I avoid going out as those who read my diary know - but - I'm hoping to get better and I would love to have that in the plans for lunch when I get better and have to go to London for work!

greenbee

I just googled and found a list of the best places for dhosa in my county (with links to reviews), so now have something on my to-do list!

teapot2

When I lived in Londinium my favourite very local to us, veggie Indian restuarant did a lovely dhosa. In fact they did a couple of different ones. In one dish the 'pancake' was more 'lacey'. Yummy accompaniments too.

I'm not averse to home cooking a curry but wouldn't attempt a dhosa.

oceanspirit

Long time lurker delurking to mention that NT cafes serve veggie and vegan meals. They have, for the past 5 years or so had a very nice spicy cauliflower and chickpea pasty on their menu - I don’t know what they make the pastry out of but it is a whole meal type. Their vegetable curry however isn’t really a curry - more like a slightly spiced stew. If you are going to a NT place at half term it may be worth checking at the individual property as to what they have available.

Greying_Pilgrim

Good Morning!

Loving the food chat here 😁 oceanspirit - I normally "assume" that the NT eateries won't have much for me - but I shall be sure to keep a beady eye, and an open-mind on purchasing one of those pasties in HT - they sound delicious. Thank you for posting.

So, I bit the bullet this morning and put a wash on. The bee bee cee reckoned we were in for light showers all day. The weather map said we weren't going to get any rain, so I took a punt. In reality, I think both forecasters got bits right. There is a good breeze, which is moving the clothes, and it is cloudy. Whereas the weather map didn't think the cloud would drop rain, in reality we've had intermittent mizzle. So, given the air temp/humidity levels, whether the washing will come in drier than it went out is anyone's guess. If there was no mizzle, the breeze is sufficient to do some good work.

I went off shopping this morning. We needed some non-food stuff, and I decided to call into MrL to get some ingredients whilst I was there. I spent £10.51 on food and £8.56 on non-food. I'm sure you all know this, but MrL have got some asian ingredients in at the moment on special offer. I think of the pulses, our store had chickpeas, channa dhal and red lentils - 1kg bags, all £1.49, which I think puts them on a par with the MrT offer for the same products - but aren't the MrT bags 2kg usually??? La1la brand, anyway. There were also lots of different spices - 79p a bag I think.

Can't think of anything else to add at the mo. Ta for popping in. Greying X

EssexHebridean

I love a curry takeaway, but struggle with Indian restaurants on an eat in basis as frequently the service is very attentive - bordering on intrusive, and that's not an experience I want when eating out. I do think though that no matter how good a cook of curry and Indian inspired dishes one is, the flavour profiles of dishes coked in a professional kitchen is going to be different at least, and very often notably better. Same with Chinese food too - although I've usually put that down to them being braver with the MSG levels than I will risk being!

themadvix

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81866895#Comment_81866895

I think the flavour profile can be achieved at home with Indian food, but it requires making a 'base' sauce that takes a long time to achieve. The D1shoom recipe book and I think also the Curry Secret both detail how to make such sauces (they're similar but different in each). We make a batch of the D1shoom stuff periodically as it freezes well and offers a different 'curry' option to more standard homecooked curries - it's great for entertaining. I don't have the experience of Chinese cooking to know if it's the same - but surely anything can be cooked at home, as long as you have the right process?