I have done a fair bit of cooking over the last week. Whilst not being a huge believer in the new year being a ‘fresh start’, I naturally seem to want to be extra healthy as we come out of Christmas and move in to January. (That said, at least one of the things I have made (shown further down) is certainly not healthy, unless you take the fact it is made from just basic ingredients.) However, I think the additional ‘free time’ I find myself with between Christmas and New Year lends itself nicely to a bit of cooking or baking.
So, a short gallery of my recent creations, going backwards in time (to mix it up a bit):
Today I made a vegetable masala, tarka daal and naan breads (from scratch). I forgot to take a photo before we gobbled it down, but here is a shot of the remains cooling to go in the freezer!
Top-left: Veg. masala, Bottom-left: daal, Right: Naan
The masala was based on this recipe from BBC Good Food. I made my own paste, per the recipe, but I omitted the chilli because I forgot to buy one. It was nice without it but would have been better with the zing. I also halved the recipe because I didn’t need to serve 10!
The daal was a recipe by Madhur Jaffrey (this book I think), whilst the naans were from this Bread book. Main learn from the naan’s (it was first ever attempt) was that I didn’t shape the dough thin enough.
The next two dishes were for our New Years Eve dinner with out neighbours. I did the starter and the dessert. Both came from this Baking book I was given as a Christmas present. I used shop bought pastry for ease / because of laziness. Otherwise both dishes were really well received!
Starter: Tomato Tart
Dessert: Toffee Apple Tart
Only challenge with those two dishes: the caramel for the toffee! It took a second attempt and even after that, it needs some work.
