Topic: Pre-use product review

[Peripatetic Phil]

Sorry to hear that Phil.

Thank you.  Fortunately, due mainly (or perhaps even entirely) to an extremely good gastroenterologist, it seems to be remaining under control.  Sadly he retired a year ago, and I now have to start looking for another ...

I suffer from gastric reflux

Nasty :  I get that from time to time, and find that 2 x Domperidone 10mg bring it rapidly under control (after I have recovered from the worst of an acute attack).  But I also take Pantoprazole 40mg b/d.  Avoiding late-night chocolate and/or fruit pastilles also helps, and there are one or two other foods that fairly reliably trigged it, but I cannot remember what they are as I write ...

** Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

I have tried both the Rogan Josh and the Punjabi tomato products from the spice tailor. They are probably the best supermarket curry product I have had.  They are hard to describe more like a cross between BIR and Homestyle Indian.

That sounds very promising :  just a shame that I have no opportunity to cook before Saturday at the earliest (well, apart from tonight, when I had king prawn chow mien for quickness after a 2-hour meeting).

** Phil.

[Peripatetic Phil]

Waitrose had the Spicetailor range on special offer yesterday, ...

More when I have cooked and eaten it !

Which I just have.  Cooked /exactly/ to recipe, including a weighed 300gm of lamb, and it required the full 1H30 to get the lamb sufficiently soft and tender to be fully enjoyed.  The oil clearly separated twice :  once after adding the base, and once (much later) after adding the sauce.  I decanted off excess oil at the end.  Overall impressions :  not bad, but not earth-shattering.  No better and no worse than some of my own efforts.  Rather too sweet and aromatic for my taste, but an unexceptionable dish.  I did add some Burmese lime pickle to try to liven it up, but the combination was not particularly successful.  It might have been better if I had had some coriander stalks to add at the end.  Worth trying if you think that nothing good can ever come out of a packet (or three packets/sachets, in this case).  Would I buy it again ?  Probably not, but I don't regret buying it once.  Oh, and if you try it, remember to remove the black cardamom before serving :  biting into a green cardamom is fun; biting into a black one, anything but.

Post scriptum :  while I was cooking the curry, I was also making some lamb stock using the 1/2 shoulder bone, sufficient water to cover the latter, and one Knorr chicken stock pot.  I have just tried the lamb stock, and it is out of this world -- better than the curry, in fact.  I just can't stop drinking it.  Sometimes the simple things in life are the best ...

** Phil.

[goncalo]

Post scriptum :  while I was cooking the curry, I was also making some lamb stock using the 1/2 shoulder bone, sufficient water to cover the latter, and one Knorr chicken stock pot.  I have just tried the lamb stock, and it is out of this world -- better than the curry, in fact.  I just can't stop drinking it.  Sometimes the simple things in life are the best ...

Thanks for the review Phil. The knorr chicken cubes/stock pot never fail in my non-BIR cooking!