Yesterday's food - pub lunch followed by curry - grrrrrreat!!

Mmmm, I'm practically salivating just thinking about yesterday's food. I met some friends at the White Hart for lunch (again) and this time had an open sandwich with roasted veg and goat's cheese. It was on a smallish slice of granary bread, with roasted peppers, onions and courgettes and an enormous slab of charred goat's cheese. The cheese wasn't as delicate as some, and it was a little too much for me, but it was good with the veg and bread. The salad on the side had a tangy mustard dressing which I liked
a lot and there were Salty Dog (if I'm not mistaken) crisps on the side. It was all for £4.95 - a great lunch, as you can see above.

In the evening two friends I hadn't seen for ages came round for supper armed with lots of red wine. At Christmas I had been given a packet of ready-measured spices to make 'prawns in a hot and sweet sauce' (spice packet made by Kitchen Guru) and I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to sample it. The spices included were cumin seeds, a mix of ground coriander and cumin, amchoor (dried mango powder), red chilli powder, turmeric and garam masala. I also used some red chillis, lots of garlic, a green pepper, onions, tomato puree and fresh tomatoes, finely chopped. The curry was fairly dry, so I added a couple of tinned tomatoes near the end to give a bit more of a sauce.

I always think a really good curry needs a few accompaniments to ensure lots of flavours, or maybe it's just because I'm greedy, but I decided to cook a variation on brinjal bhaji (with a whole aubergine, onion, a few cherry tomatoes to add some colour, lots of garlic and cumin) to have as a side dish, and served the lot with brown rice (it was overcooked and I do apologise), garlic and coriander mini-naans, yoghurt and an onion salad. We all had seconds (and some of us, thirds) and I shall do my best to make a similar curry again, perhaps without the Kitchen Guru's help this time...

BTW, you can't see any rice in the photo but it was there (it wasn't so overcooked it was inedible or anything), but it was just hidden underneath the rest in the bowl, I promise.

The White Hart, Drury Lane, again

This time I had a burger and chips. It was fine, but the chips weren't double-fried as I had waxed lyrical about for so long, so I did look like a bit of a fool in front of my colleagues. They were all expecting the crispiest chips in London. The pub was too busy in the kitchen so to allay our hunger pangs as we waited (not as long as I thought we would have to wait) we nibbled on spicy nuts and seeds. I felt a bit of a 'tit' (haha) as it did seem like we were pecking on bird food, and I must look up what some of the seeds were, but they did the job and were nicely spiced - a bit like a posh, Anglofied Bombay mix.

The burger was fine. It was served in a ciabatta bun with cheese melted on the bottom part which I always find disappointing. Surely both aesthetically and for maximum taste it's best melted on the top of the burger, under the top half of the bun? There was a little pot of tomato relish an enormous endive leaf and some rather underdone chips (in my opinion). I should have taken the top off so you could see the burger underneath, but I didn't. Sorry.

And they didn't have the marinated olives that they do so well. All in all, most of our party of six seemed pleased, but I know they could have done better.