Things are not always running smoothly. In fact only sometimes they are. However, when it comes to the 'Christine & Christian' part here on my blog, things haven't been running at all and as I feel it, still things are not fine. Having some chapati or naan would have been the least to accompany today's dinner, but there was no such thing.
Today we are having some Indian food from Goa with a Portuguese influence ... which I have to change slightly on top of it. Originally the recipe is called Chorico Sausage with Dal. I had to turn it into Chorizo Sausage with Dal for I don't know where to get Portuguese chorico sausages here in the countryside. Chorico and chorizo - that sounds all the same to me. Therefore it should do no harm.
In the end it tasted delicious anyway. Still another funny thing, though, there were no chillies needed for the recipe. Alright, the sausage was spicy enough.
Are you a bread lover? Then for sure you won't mind that it's all about bread today. I am a bread lover! Some fresh bread can make me happy ... at least until I have eaten it all up. Right this very minute while I am writing these words I have some experimental bread baking going on ... wait the next stage is calling ...
...
I'm back. However, that bread experiment was not what I was going to talk about today. Maybe another time. It just depends on the outcome. So far things are looking fine, but you never know.
After all we are still with India and Tasting India. Fine then! What Indian breads do you know?
Naan. Very good. That would have been the first one coming to my mind before I started this Christine & Christian project. I already had some homemade naan bread in the course of this.
In case you have read this series regularly you might have read something about puffed puri breads already. So, puri is another one.
Next, chapati may come to your mind. According to Tasting India it is "The staple flatbread of India, this is served with every meal just about everywhere." So far I didn't have it with every Indian meal I tried in my project. Then it's about time I have it at least once.
Here I had it with a Ladhaki chicken curry. For the bread you just need wholemeal flour, a bit of salt and water. You easily can see why it is the staple flatbread of India. The only downside, when you compare it with naan, is that you have to cook each bread separately. So it takes considerably more time to make more than a few of them. Anyway, if you are doing it for just one or two persons, it's absolutely alright.
A closer look at the Ladhaki chicken curry. I could have used a tiny bit more of spices, but otherwise it was fine. I enjoyed it very much with the chapati. From now on I'm going to have chapati more often with my Indian meals. Now I also remember chapati from when I was a bit younger ... eh ... yes, more than a decade ... I had chapatis a few times at the place of my friends from Kenya. So, everytime I'm going to have some chapatis it will bring up good memories and ... sad ones, too. However, you can't change the past!
There is another wonderful flatbread I had a go at and that you wouldn't want to miss: roti. It's similar to chapati, but it's a little softer and richer than it. You don't use water for it, but milk and it contains also egg and ghee. You already see what this will do?
Since it is so lovely, there is no harm in having it with just a simple tomato chutney.
I was satisfied with that meal. Well, flatbreads don't look so spectacular on it's own, but have a closer look at the tomato chutney. By the way, it is a Nepalese flatbread.
It doesn't look spectacular on it's own either. So, no worries. I only can say, it tasted very delicious anyway. Apart from that, now it makes me think again about the past, since I know also quite a few people from Nepal. That was a good time, too. It's good to have some nice memories.
Well then, do you know any other Indian breads?
There are many more: Parathas, Luchi, Bhatura, Rumali, Kulcha, Dosa, Idli, Pathiri, Pappad and who knows what more. You see, there is still much more to learn and to try.
The breads I tried to do so far where not so complicated or difficult, especially when you compare it with the French bread I have been trying ... or my current experiment.
Since it is all about bread today, what is you favourite bread? How do you like to eat your bread?
At least for me it would be even more difficult to go without bread than having a life without cheese. Now, I don't want to have this post turn again into a sad occasion. I'll better keep those things to myself.
They say, never judge a book by its cover. What about judging it by the weight?
On Monday, in a kind of a spur of the moment thing, while browsing on the Internet, I ordered a new cookbook. I expected it to be ready for picking up on Thursday after I got the confirmation it had been send out. Today, being at work the whole day, I wouldn't be able to receive it personally. However, a friendly neighbour stepped in and took the package from the delivery service.
Well, I didn't expect the package to be so big and it turned out the book was over 3 kg in weight. Judging by the weight? Let me show you the cover first.
Every journey has a beginning ... but not necessarily an ending. This is supposed to be the beginning. For as to where this will be going, who knows!
It may all have sound like me having a plan about cooking through a complete book, blogging about it and all that like. However, I'm not that planning kind of person, although that would help a lot at times, I reckon.
Now, here we are with a copy of Tasting India by Christine Manfield. I've set my mind on completely going through this book ... over 250 recipes and over 450 pages. A first glance inside revealed, that it will not all be about cooking.
Why that book? Who knows!
By the way, do you know Christine Manfield? So far, I only know, she has written a few other cookbooks, is from Australia and has a restaurant there in Sydney, and apparently, has written the very cookbook you see on that picture and that I'm going to work through.
Why that book? You might know, that I have mentioned it before, I wanted to do such a thing. I didn't want to go with a book I already have or that already has been done quite popular or from a person, I've cooked a lot from already. So my mind was blank and I asked around on the net.
Strangely, there was not so much of a suggesting mood around there, but one person, which name is not to be mentioned at this point, suggested this book and ... eh ... well, since I have a whoever knows what relationship with Australia, I thought by myself ... go for it.
Fine, the book is not about Australia, but about India ... and there are a lot of people out there, who love a good Indian meal. What more reason do I need? Right, the name of the author would make a fine title for this project: Christine & Christian.
"Welcome Home!"
That's what I can say to this book, since it finally arrived. Here is its new home and now it's the time to work with it.
For now I can say, watch out for more episodes from Christine & Christian. As time goes by I will write more about it, while I continue doing the normal things around here on the blog as I used to do so before.
