A French evening with ...

Bonsoir!

No, I am not doing it again this time and have a post in French. I wouldn’t be that good with it. Nevertheless we are going to have some French food. Are we? Well, I don’t want to insult someone or something like that, but …

… sometimes having something French for me means …

Yes, a board of fromage, some bread and vin rouge. It’s all quite simple. Just unpack the cheese, place it on a board. Open a bottle of red wine and pour it into a glass and … et voila!

Fine, did I forgot something? A French evening with … With whom? No, not with whom, with what? Bread that is, garlic bread to be a bit precise.

So, pouring the wine and unpacking the cheese is quite simple, but baking your own bread is a bit of work …

Sift 500 g of flour into a bowl, add 7 g of yeast, pour over 250 ml of water and bring it together. Add a few tablespoons of steamed garlic t it.

Knead the dough for 5 minutes, let it rest 10 minutes, knead for 20 minutes (quite some work). Leave the dough to rise for 1 hour.

Then shape it into two balls and let it rise for 45 more minutes. Afterwards get it into the desired final shape and leave it for another 35 minutes. Then bake it at 230 °C for 20 minutes and then …

Maybe let it cool down a bit, if you like.

Fine, now I rushed a bit through the whole process of baking the bread leaving out a few details, like the precise shaping, the cut on top and the water in the oven for a good crust.

Anyway, it’s quite a process and as for me, sometimes you get nice bread and sometimes it’s not just perfect. Well, I enjoyed the bread, but it was a bit compact and not so lightly. Nevertheless, it worked out fine with the cheese and the wine.

For now I leave you with a picture of my adventuring time in France …

Au revoir!

Game Over?! Beer Butt Chicken with Cheese and Onion Bread

Do you like to play? I don’t mind a good game of … different things. I even used to like computer games a lot. I also used to have a dart board in my flat … I had to paste over a lot of holes in the wall. However, I still appreciate a game of darts once in a while. I’m not so good at it, but why not relax a bit and have some fun. The fun stops when you are playing a game of elimination and you have reached far some points and could even go as far as winning and then … someone scores your number and you go back to zero, nada, zip. 

There is simply no fun in starting at the bottom again.

Still, there is food, there is comforting food. Fine, a bit of chocolate once in a while isn’t bad, however, there is no way you get it away from your hips again at some point.

So, talk other food …

A lovely homemade pizza always works for me. For sure it also will settle on the hips, but at least you got something for it.

This time, I made double the amount of dough, though. Not to have more pizza, but to make some bread as well.

I just made my normal pizza dough with 1000 g of flour – a mixture of normal wheat flour, strong baking flour and semolina flour – 600 ml of water, a splash of olive oil, 14 g of dried yeast, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of sugar. Well … eh … mix the yeast, olive oil, water and sugar together. Leave it for some minutes and then pour it into the bowl with the flour and salt and make your dough.

Now, all this pizza and bread making business takes a while with all that rising proving and baking and everything. Luckily I could enjoy the pizza right away after baking and while the bread went into the oven.

Well, in between I prepared some kind of dessert, which, though, could not be eaten right after the pizza. At least I can say, I poached my first pear …

Anyway, this post is not about poaching pears or pizza. It’s rather about a chicken that is going to be baked in a special … eh … way.

Still, before we go to this, some more details regarding the cheese and onion bread. Remember, I already showed you the pre-baked loaf. The dough had to make it’s way from pizza dough to cheese and onion bread dough. Therefore I fried some onions with a bit of garlic (no, now it’s not cheese and onion and garlic bread, although … technically) and added them along with some 100 g of grated cheese to the dough, kneading all the ingredients in.

Here is the finished bread. It had to wait for it’s turn a while, because part of it was going to be consumed with a Beer Butt Chicken.

So, here goes my meal planning … off to the shop, because there are some essential parts missing for next weeks breakfasts …

Here comes the meat area … “Oh they have some decent chickens on offer. I could take one home and stick a beer can up its -censored- … eh … well, I could do a Beer Butt Chicken.”

Home!

I know I have a recipe for it somewhere. It must be in one of Jamie’s book. So I leafed through all possible books and couldn’t find anything. Ask the Internet!

Oh, there we go with the recipe: It’s in Jamie’s America. Fine, could have taken that one from the shelf as well and have a look.

We’ll do that then!

As a bonus you are to drink have the beer before you start cooking. Well, you could set half a glass of beer aside for later consumption, but … what’s the point in that.

Important things done: beer can is ready.

Now we need a spice rub for the chicken. Basically it’s quite simple: Heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds and level teaspoon of cumin seeds bashed up in a mortar. Then add a level teaspoon of smoked paprika, chilli powder and a heaped teaspoon of brown sugar. Salt and pepper and a bit of olive oil to bring it all together.

Just before we go to the part were beer and butt meet, we gentle rub the chicken with the spice rub. The oven is heated to 200 °C.

Now the chicken is ready to go to the oven for 70 to 90 minutes on the lowest possible rack.

Sometimes, that is if you can and if you want to, it’s good to plan ahead. When you start with all this at the time you normally would be ready to eat, all this doesn’t sound like such a brillant idea.

I never said I was a smart one!

What to do in this 90 minutes, while you are in fact hungry? Good question, next one, please!

I had some grapes and got the idea for a quick dessert for later on. Additionally I prepared a tomato salad as some kind of alibi for my meal.

Still, so much time left!

In fact, quite often there is a lot of time left, but … I feel like I rather want to do nothing, just sitting there with some music blasting from the speakers. Today I feel a bit brave and have a surprise mix from all my music.

So it goes like quiet music maybe classic or a tune from a movie. Bam! A smashing hit with some music that wants you to dance. Blob! A tune that rather wants you to cry. Bam! Get up, some feel good music (didn’t know I would react to some songs like that). Blob! Oh that one makes you think about … eh … something. Speaking of thinking, today I saw a girl that reminded me of someone that I used to know … some 20 years ago. I was shocked at first sight, don’t know why, though. Bam! I should remove the chicken from the oven …

… get some smoke from the oven into the entire flat. I might consider opening a window or two.

Here we are with the chicken. Now remove the beer can. My first thought was to grab the can with my bare hand and pull off the chicken with the other … I told you … smart – not!

A more sensitive approach finally brought the chicken from can to plate. Finally, ready for eating. We just manage to avert starvation.

You see my alibi on the top edge and the cheese and onion bread at the bottom. Now I was willing to make use of my hands and dig into that chicken …

Already at the slightest touch the meat comes off the bones. It’s so tender and juicy and … ouch … yes, still hot.

Either I must have slept away most of my brain in the past few weeks or I have an increased willingness to take unnecessary risks or I was simply too hungry to be careful.

Anyway, these days I have to make the most of bright moments. Then I especially enjoy to drive my car like a racing car in day to day driving and … I enjoy some good food. I reckon, I succeeded this weekend. Already the pizza yesterday was a killer one (oh, I like the sound of it) and now the chicken: relish. Have a closer look again.

If you think I ate that chicken alone, then … you are … eh … forget about it.

I’d rather go to the fridge and grab my previously prepared creme chantilly with grapes …

And this is all for today … eh … Game Over!!!

Naan Cheese, Bacon, Tomato and Onion Sandwich

Of course, having some Indian food is also a very nice thing - with some lovely spices and all that. 

Maybe a nice potato curry together with some dal, raita and some freshly baked naan bread. Ah, that is lovely indeed. I don't know, though, whether my naan bread was the way it was supposed to be. Oh ... right ... I have only a standard oven with no extra tricks, so that was all I could do. Anyway, I had some leftovers of the naan bread. Yes, maybe some of the potato curry and dal was left, too, but somehow I must have managed to eat that up.
Whatever the case, I decided to use some of the leftover naan to make a naan sandwich with cheese, bacon, tomato and onions.

I decided to keep things simple, although I could have given it a further Indian touch somehow by frying the onions in some spices and adding some raita on top, but I didn't.
There is just a large slice of cheese, some slices of crispy bacon, a few tomato slices and some freshly fried onions ... put the lid on and go for it.

Well, there are still some more photos left on my USB stick. With some of those photos, there is the problem I don't know 100 % anymore what I did there, but here in this case it was quite obvious. 
There was simply too much time passing with doing so many other and new things I didn't get any chance to work off all those old ones.
Nevertheless, I will give you some more of those ...

Going French with Rillettes and Fougasse

Some weeks ago I was very much in the mood for cooking some French food and improve my knowledge in that cuisine. Well, apart from the option to look things up on the net, I have a few books on French cooking. One of it is The Little Paris Kitchen by Rachel Khoo. It's a lovely book and the recipes work excellently. I selected some of them and worked myself through them during a week.
I like to share some of the results with you today as France is also playing Switzerland in the World Cup today. However, I will not share all of them, I need to reserve a bit for later.
Therefore today I like to concentrate on two things: Rillettes au porc and Fougasse aux romarin, avande et from age du chèvre.

 First to the rilletes with pork. If you find the right shop you most probably can by it ready in a jar. However, it's so simple and worth a try. You need pork belly, some bay leaves, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper and some time. It goes into the oven for 3 hours at 130 °C. Afterwards you can easily shred the pork (rind cut off) and jar it up and eat it with some lovely homemade bread and a glass of red wine.
If you care to make a mess in your oven you can throw the cut off rind under the grill and let them get crispy. Great, you get a crispy, fatty snack, hear some crackling sounds from your oven and get the chance to clean your oven.
Guess what I did ...

I just wanted to test some pork cracklings, too.
Anyway, I enjoyed the rillettes most of it together with the fougasse and the red wine.

Sure, you need some time as well to make the fougasse, but hey, it's all so lovely. What I liked about this fougasse version was, that it included lavender and goat's cheese.
You make a yeasty dough with 10 g dried yeast, 400 g flour, salt, dried rosemary, dried lavender and olive oil.
Then, you know, there is some kneading involved, rising, proving and all that lot, yes shaping. Apart from that we need to fit in the goat's cheese. Push pieces of 80 g of firm goat's cheese into the bread before you let it rise for the last time after the shaping.
The bread needs about 20 minutes at 210 °C in the oven. 
The end result is lovely. So, if you want to try it, you either have to try it as it is or have a look at the book or ask for further details.

Now you get also a closer look at the bread. I enjoyed it very much. So, do you like to have a bite?

If you like to have this ready for the football match today, I have to inform you, that you better have to hurry. Otherwise ... you need to have something else.

I add this to our ever increasing collection of posts for the World Cup 2014 and Bloggers Around the World.

French Toast with Sheep Milk Mousse and Balsamic Strawberry Jam

I survived another day. Things can be quite dangerous ... especially when you race down the road as a lightning with your bicycle. At least I knew there would have been people nearby for first aid. Luckily the car did see me coming and all this wasn't necessary.
The other day, though, something was necessary ... and that was to have French toast, but ... not to have it in a simple way. I wanted it to look a bit more than it actually was.

Finally I decided I wanted to support the bakery across the road ... or at least give it a try ... and got a loaf of white bread, not something of that pre-sliced stuff.
Accordingly a few days later, I used the bread to have some French toast. 
I went for two thick slices of the bread and removed the rind. So I had a few little snacks before starting with the French toast.
On the side I had a bowl ready, which received an egg, about 200 ml of milk, a tablespoon of sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract ... all beaten nicely together.
On the stove top a pan was getting ready ... the use of butter is apparent.
Well, the slices of bread get properly soaked in the egg and milk mix before they get fried in the pan. Is there enough time to get something ready to go with for the French toast while it is getting fried in the pan?
Luckily, I had some sheep milk mousse in the fridge. For sure you won't have. Consequently I would advise a bit of vanilla ice cream or some mascarpone mixed with sugar and vanilla. 
What about something fruity or a sauce, too. There was some strawberry jam lingering in the fridge. That wouldn't do. So I put a few teaspoons of the jam into a small bowl and added a splash of balsamic vinegar. Off the bowl went into the microwave for a minute.

So, get your French toast onto a plate, add the ice cream, mousse or vanilla mascarpone, spoon over the balsamic strawberry jam and add some toasted nuts or almond slices for texture.
Well, I think the thicker slices of the bread and the added balsamic vinegar to the strawberry jam did really do a good job to lift this pudding. I enjoyed it very much. 
What do you think of it?

No matter what you decide, I think it's a delicious and dead easy dessert. That's the reason why I also enter it to Sarah's Dead Easy Desserts challenge at Maison Cupcake.

Have a go ...

... and while I'm at it, this post goes as well to Recipe of the Week Emily is doing at A Mummy Too ...

From Failure to Bread-Stick Tomato Soup

Out of a sudden bread-sticks were on my to do list. What comes to your mind, when you think about bread-sticks?
Well, it would be lovely, if they are straight and they should make this snapping sound when you break them.
I had my standard yeast dough, I use in a similar form for pizza, ready and wanted to have a go. I had added some Parmesan and dried rosemary as well to the dough. Things started out nicely ...

I even made some extra effort to give them some spiral shape. Maybe there wasn't enough effort, for you can already see, they are not going to be straight. Anyway ...

Long Goodbye, Long Lunch ... Fresh Baguette with Ham and Cheese

To me it seems I'm working now a very long long time on my move to a new flat and I still have a lot to do. I tried a relative organised way to do it, but ... I keep on doing here a bit and there a bit. Well, that doesn't mean I don't get anything done. It's rather gives me some variety and in the end ... I am sure about ... well, have to be ... that everything will be achieved in time. Anyway, it's a long goodbye from this place.
Therefore it's only fitting I have a long lunch ... eh ... well ... eh ... sort of ...

... yes, it was fresh, it was long and it was delicious ...

Quick and Easy Greek Lunch - Strapatsada

I have quite a lot to do and to decide at the moment. Not really an easy job. Every day a little bit more is accomplished. Nevertheless, the show must go on and ... will go on ... as far as it is in my hands. Right now I prefer to cook larger amounts of food so I have some for the days ahead. Otherwise I appreciate quick and easy food as well. As you know, cooking some Greek food is on my list for this month. Therefore, it is only logical to have a quick and easy Greek meal ... or two.
Here is what I came up with today: Strapatsada. It is popular in many regions in Greece. It's really quick and easy to prepare and for sure you have all the ingredients ready with no big fuss about it.

Let's see ... 

Food for Free: Foraging Wild Mushrooms

Do you like to have food for free? There are many ways for that ... but then again, there is always something to give to get something. Even when you are invited for dinner by a friend, you have to give something. A 'thank you' would be something good, although it doesn't seem too common anymore. At least you have to get to the place to get the food ...
Wait! We don't want to go that far in classing 'food for free'. Let's talk about foraging. You have to invest some time to get the food. Also you need to get answers ... answers to the questions: What? When? Where?
This would be a good spot for free food ...

But when and what?

Go Swedish with Pickled Herrings, Köttbullar and Äggkaka

I'm having my Swedish days right now. I started by buying some Daim chocolate. Right now I am well stocked on it. I only need to be careful not too start eating from it in a non-self-controlled manner. So far things are working well.
In fact, I didn't just go and buy chocolate. Right while I was writing down the Bloggers Around the World post for Sweden, I knew what I was going to cook and, of course, bought things for that, too.
Somehow I had a travel brochure from 2011 about Sweden in my possession. Today I have no idea, how I came to have it. Blank, no idea at all. Anyway, there was a picture of Äggkaka in it and I thought ... I am going to have it ... whatever it is. What is it then? 

Christine & Christian: Episode 8 - It's all about Bread

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.

Christine & Christian - Episode 7: From Chicken Cutlets to Pancake

It can be very enjoyable to put together some lovely, well tasting dishes. However, it is even better to share with others. While doing so online, there is nothing better than sharing a good meal with family or friends. It can even be fun cooking together.
So far 22 days have pasted since cooking from Tasting India. Up to this day, I managed 25 recipes. Recently I enjoyed some Bengali-style mashed potatoes and the day after that even something for breakfast: Breakfast Potato Parathas. I didn't manage to take some nice photos from that. The breakfast was really nice ... a simple dough with wholewheat flour and water and then stuffed with mashed potatoes mixed with coriander and chilli.
But let us now go on with cooking and eating with friends ...
That's really more enjoyable than eating alone all the time. The cooking together part is also a great thing. A side effect of it is, you manage greater variety with less work.

It's good to prepare some naan breads to go with the meal. You can learn also a lot and you get encouragement to do things better. If you eat alone, it's easier to like everything you cook.

That's a way, how ready naan breads can look like. Maybe it's good to have a mint raita with it, too.

That one was really fresh, although it included a green chilli. But what about the main course? There was a vegetable dish with potatoes and chickpeas.

Lovely tasting that was. Then we got something meaty as well: Chicken Cutlets. That recipe was from Tasting India.
The pieces of chicken breast were to be marinated in yogurt mixed with spices and ... how dangerously ... with 40 g of chopped up green chillies. Do you have any idea on how many chillies these are?
Roughly around 20 small green chillies that would have been. Argh! I decided to go for 4 chillies instead.
After the marinating of the chicken pieces they  went into a batter, which had 4 eggs in it. Then the job was to fry the pieces.

Already with 4 chillies it was quite hot. Still, it tasted good. Fine, I didn't manage to get the presentation on the photo right ... again ... but ... no worries.
It was only a chance, that there was still some yogurt of the marinade and some batter left afterwards. I just mixed both together and thought ...

... why not have it as an Indian pancake to start the meal with. Well, it could have made two or three thinner ones as well, but this way, it was fine, too.
Altogether, the meal made at least four people happy instead of just one person for more than one time ... and still there were leftovers.
Do you also like to make people happy by cooking for them even if it's not your family?

Christine & Christian - Episode 6: Dal, Naan and beyond

I need a plan ... again. Or I simply need to be careful. There is no way I am going to buy new clothing just to have it comfortably fitting. Loosening the belt from time to time isn't what I want to imagine.
Since I've started Christine & Christian, I had quite some Indian food not meaning I didn't have anything else as you can see from my previous posts. After 17 days of cooking from Tasting India I managed 22 recipes so far. I didn't have so much help with eating things up, but still I cope.
What did we have on the menu then last week? Maybe you remember the white dal from the last post. The leftovers were taking some time to be dealt with. Therefore I just made some naan bread to go with it and got any idea as well.
The dough for naan bread is quite easy to make, similar like your familiar yeast dough you might use for pizza. For the naan there was just some yogurt added, roughly spoken.
I made dough that would go for four average sized naan breads. they tasted quite good. I was satisfied. The dough for one bread, though, I decided to turn into something else ...

White dal stuff! Hm, let's rather say naan bread stuffed with white dal, almost like an Indian calzone, if there would be something like that. Samosas are prepared slightly differently. You most probably will read something about that at another time on this blog.
What else was on the menu?

There was this spiced eggplant (aubergine) salad served at room temperature. It was spicy, so it was fine.

Potatoes in curd, also a rather colder dish. That doesn't mean, though, there wasn't any chilli in there in some way.

Another quick one, sweet and sour tomatoes. While they were sweet, I couldn't detect so much the sour part in it. There was, however, something else apart from the sweetness. Oh, sure, the recipe mentioned to use chilli powder in it. Sweet and spicy would be fine.

I go on with eating more fish after I just had this Italian-style tuna, poached in tomato sauce, this time it's Indian-style fish fry. Very nicely you get the taste of ginger with a hint of lime beneath that breadcrust. Besides that the marinade included mustard and garlic. That doesn't sound too bad, does it? Yes, it tasted lovely and ... there was no chilli included.
There also was no chilli in the last dish for today ...

Do you know how long it takes to cook 1 litre milk so that it thickens? Well, it was okay in the end, although the rice pudding was a bit sweet. I guess 150 g sugar would do as well. Maybe one or to pistachio and almond more wouldn't hurt, either. At least it wouldn't hurt me. I know others, who cannot even eat a single piece of almond.
Anyway, I like to take this rice pudding along on our food trip around the world for Bloggers Around the World for as you might know, our current stop is India.

 

 
Do you notice another ingredient from the rice pudding picture? Have a guess and tell me. It shouldn't be so difficult.
In the meantime hang on and keep cooking!

Christine & Christian - Episode 2: Mind the Ghee

Since the book arrived on Wednesday, I had a bit of time to check it out. Not too much, though. I don't want to rush anything. Too often in life we have to rush and so we miss some good parts.
Therefore, I decided to take it easy on that cooking business. There are over 250 recipes in the book and when I say I want to cook them in over 250 days, that could mean ... hm ... 500 days ... or ... 444 days ... or even ... 250 days. Due to that, it might mean nothing at all.
Now, Tasting India is divided in 10 regions food wise. So far I had a glimpse at the first section: Kalkata & Darjeeling. First thought? 
Mine was tea. I appreciate a good cup of Darjeeling tea once in a while. In this section of the book are 35 recipes. So, if you would like to take on a mathematical approach and would assume that there are equally numbers of recipes in each section, you would get 350 recipes. I don't want to confirm anything and I don't want to take a mathematical approach either. Just in case, you want to do anyway, you can tick 2 off, because I already had a go at two of those. I went for something simple, where I don't have to spent a lot of money on ingredients. I simply got a few potatoes. The rest I have at home.
As to that, I consider myself to be well equipped, also for taking on a lot of Indian cooking. At least that is what I thought. Some weeks ago I was in need of some cardamom pods. I knew they had to be somewhere, but I couldn't find them.
This time, when I needed them, it was just opening the cupboard, quick glance and here we are. I don't know what it was back then.
To the two selected recipes ... the first is Alur Dom and the other Luchi, in other words Curried Potatoes and Puffed Puri Bread. Both recipes were in need of ghee, the bread recipe even heavily.
There was still ghee in the house, but by far not the amount mentioned.
To put it simple, ghee is clarified butter, that can stand more heat and adds more flavour to your meals. I have to check again some shops for ghee. I guess I need to have some in the house at all times, unless I want to make my own, which has to be possible somehow.
In the meantime, I have to select a few recipes without ghee until I get chance to stock up some more of it.
I guess, at the essential points this time I used sufficient ghee, as things tasted fine.
For the curried potatoes I had to do my own spice mix with turmeric, cumin, salt, pepper, coriander seeds and sugar.
While the preparation for the curried potato wasn't in need of any attention, I went for the puffed puri bread.

You can already see, where this is heading ... a lot of food. Well, they are not all evenly sized on the picture, but hey, enjoy! There was enough dough for 36, but I decided to put half of the balls to the fridge to make some fresh puffed puri breads tomorrow. Fresh is better.
The balls were flattened, rolled out and then, normally in ghee, deep fried. 

Simply try to imagine the smoke in the house. I opened each and every window afterwards. The luchis (puffed puri breads) will only puff properly, if the ghee (or oil) has the right temperature. I must have done everything right, for there was a lovely puffing going on.
After all the luchis had been fried, the potatoes were ready, too.

Time to enjoy an Indian meal. To create some atmosphere, I switched my newly acquired Internet radio to an Indian radio station and went for it ...

I for sure will have some more of it. The recipe for the Alur Dom stated it would serve 8 people. Maybe it holds true, if you have some fish with the potatoes as was suggested in the recipe or ... alternatively it stated to have the puri bread along with it. Hm! I thought it would last at most for 4 people ... Oh! I hope I'm not that greedy. I was supposed to use 1 kg of potatoes. So, judge for yourself.
Anyway, if I want to go through the whole book, I need some time to eat up all the food in a reasonable way or I need some guests. Any volunteers?