Brick Lane Curry

Brick Lane is rammed full of curry houses.

Picking one in no easy task, especially when each curry house has its owner outside insisting that you come in and 'try the best curry in town'.

Life: Brick Lane Food Market

Martin and I went to Brick Lane yesterday. We'd seen London Coffee Festival being advertised and we were keen to go. Unfortunately everyone else in London seemed to have had the same idea, and being far more organised than the two of us, had already pre-bought their tickets. We decided that we didn't want to spend the whole of our Sunday queuing on the off chance that they might release some more tickets, so we went for a wander around Brick Lane instead.

Brick Lane is such an interesting and exciting place to visit. It's full of some of the best curry houses in London, and you can watch delcious bagels being made in front of your eyes. For once we bypassed the bagels in search of our lunch in the huge food market. There was so much on offer it was impossible to choose!

I started with a refreshing and creamy coconut Pina Colada.

Cookbook Review: The World Food Cafe

The World Food Cafe Cookbook

I love cookbooks. Buying me a new cookbook is a failsafe birthday present. I read them like novels; from cover to cover. Inevitably, however, I only ever end up make 3-5 recipes from each book and then I remember them as old favourites and return to them again and again. I always seem to forget that all the other recipes exist. It's probably because I've got distracted by another cookbook. Do you find that the same thing happens to you? For any specific recipe or method I need (e.g. how to make homemade buttermilk), I'll just search for it on BBC Good Food rather than check out my encyclopaedic recipe books. Bad I know, but it's just so much quicker.

The World Food Cafe cookbook finally arrived from Amazon. It cost £9.59 (link) and, reassuringly, it's very highly rated. It's really the diary of a married couple's travels around much of the world. They don't attempt to comprehensively list all the recipes from a particular region - they merely give their particular favourites. The book itself is complemented by Chris Caldicott's beautiful photography of particular areas e.g. local tribes men in Africa. If I had to have one negative, it would be that I would prefer more photos of the dishes themselves. Most of the recipes are unfamiliar to me and I would appreciate a photo of the end dish so I know what I'm aiming for.

Food: Lamb Coconut Curry

This curry is mild and creamy and makes a tasty alternative to chicken based curries. It's a bit like a chicken korma. The coconut milk gives it a lovely rich quality and it's very easy to make. Just let the oven do all the work!

Serves 4

750g lamb shoulder, cubed
1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp plain flour
80g flaked almonds
100ml coconut milk
300ml chicken stock
5 cardamom pods, remove the seeds and discard the pod
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp curry powder
3 tbsp vegetable oil

Preheat the oven to 210 degrees celsius.

1. Rub the lamb into the flour, and curry powder and season with salt and pepper.
2. Add 2 tbsp of oil and the lamb to a casserole dish and place in the oven. Stir after 10 minutes and then remove after another 10 minutes. The lamb should have become slightly brown.
3. Meanwhile sautee the onions and garlic in a frying pan with 1 tbsp of oil for 5 minutes over a medium heat.
4. Reduce the temperature of the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
5. Add all of the listed ingredients back into the casserole dish, cover with a lid, and cook in the oven for at least 2 hours, or until the lamb is meltingly tender.