SIMPLE LAMB CURRY

Here in the West Midlands, we got off fairly lightly with the snowfall at the beginning of the week. I know others had a significant amount of snow and it brought lots of things to a grinding halt. The children loved it though, and it was definitely the right sort of snow to build snowmen and have lots of fun.

Curry is always good to eat when the weather is cold and brings with it lots of comfort.

This recipe is by James Martin and was taken from THE COLLECTION - ISNB 978-1-84533-350-8 - Page 146. I found a link to the recipe on the UKTV Food website. Simple this curry recipe may be, but it was totally delicious.

James says to use fresh tomatoes, even in the summer most of our tomatoes are unfortunately tasteless. I replaced these with half a large tin of chopped tomatoes, at least this way you get some tomato flavour.

Chilli powder - now how much, or how little! In the recipe it says one tablespoon of chilli powder - in this house we definitely aren't brave enough for that amount. I'm presuming he means mild chilli powder, still sounds quite a lot to me though. Perhaps some of you have used this amount of mild chilli powder in other recipes and can let me know if you think this sounds about right. Unfortunately, I didn't make a note of how much chilli powder I used, but I mostly use an organic hot chilli powder from Waitrose and am guessing I would have used half a teaspoon.

Coconut powder is a store cupboard essential, I never use canned coconut milk. It works out far better value as you can measure out the powder and then add water to make up the same amount as you would buy in a can. You can buy this at most Tesco Supermarkets.

I've never had takeaway but always make my own curry, for no other reason than I love roasting the spices and smelling the curry as it is cooking.

This recipe is for four people, but if there are only the two of you, make the full amount in the recipe and freeze the rest for a rainy day.

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ORANGE POUND CAKE

Well - I don't think it's ever going to stop raining and this cake is just the thing to make for 'rainy day baking'.
The cake in the photograph looks very orange, but I promise you, it isn't food
colouring, I used only fresh orange juice.
Making this cake is a doddle, all the ingredients are mixed together for a couple of minutes in a bowl (easy!).
The butter cream is different from your usual creaming together of icing sugar and unsalted butter - there isn't any icing sugar in sight for this one. If you don't like butter cream, maybe you will enjoy this filling.

JAMES MARTIN COOKBOOK - THE GREAT BRITISH VILLAGE SHOW

ISBN 9781405320801 - PAGE 160

Serves 6-8

125g soft butter, 125g vanilla caster sugar, 125g self-raising flour, 1 tsp baking powder, grated zest of 1 large orange, juice of ½ large orange, 125g eggs (about 2 medium eggs), 1 rounded tbsp ground almonds (optional).

1. Preheat the oven to 150°C fan(170°C/Gas 3). Line the bottom and long sides of a 23cm loaf tin with baking parchment.
2. Put all the ingredients for the cake into a bowl and mix until smooth. Spoon the mixture into the loaf tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes until golden brown and springy to touch.
3. Leave the cake to cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then take hold of the edges of the baking parchment and lift the cake onto a wire rack. Leave to cool.

BUTTER CREAM
125g granulated sugar, 3 tbsp orange juice, 2 egg yolks, beaten, 125g soft, unsalted butter.

1. Dissolve the sugar with the juice, then put a sugar thermometer in the pan and boil to 115°C or a fraction higher. Put the egg yolks in a bowl. Tip in the boiling syrup and beat vigorously with an electric mixer. Before the mixture is cold, add the soft butter and beat again until light, creamy and thickened. Chill in the fridge to firm up (this takes a while).
2. Cut the cake horizontally in half. Fill with the butter cream, keeping back a little to smooth on top (I found I didn't use all of the butter cream).

TO FINISH
A handful of flaked almonds, sifted icing sugar.
Scatter over the almonds and dust with icing sugar before serving.

This cake is definitely in my repertoire now, it not only looked fabulous, but tasted fabulous too.