I came across a foodie video about corn dogs yesterday. First I'd ever heard of them, but apparently they're a 'thing' in the US, Korea and elsewhere. Who knew?

Anyway, it was the method used to form chilli corn dogs illustrated on the Chefclub TV website that caught my attention as I thought it looked ideal for preparing foolproof seekh kebabs that wouldn't fall apart. There is a video describing the recipe and method, but you'll have to sign up to the site to see it all.

Essentially, the method of forming the 'dogs', or kebabs as I'll now call them, is to use a home-made sausage machine:

1. Prepare the mincemeat mixture as usual.
2. Cut a plastic water bottle in half.
3. Stuff the top half of the water bottle with the mincemeat.
4. Place the cut end of the bottle over a suitably sized plunger (a glass jar was used in the video).
5. Push the bottle down onto the plunger until the meat reaches the bottle mouth.
6. Insert a skewer down into the mincemeat.
7. Push the bottle down onto the plunger to force the meat out.
8. Snip off the kebab once the skewer is clear of the bottle top.
9. Refill the bottle as required and repeat.

I grabbed a couple of screenshots just to illustrate the method.





I'm going to give it a bash myself next time I do kebabs.

I've recently been flicking through my recipe files with a view to to revisiting curries I haven't made in a while.

Last night, it was a choice between my adaptation of Domi's Dopiaza, a South Indian Garlic Chilli Chicken (the origin of which is lost in the mists of time!), or my de-Tazified version of Stephen Lindsay's Punjabi Masala.

As the topic title suggests, the Punjabi Masala won - and it was delicious! Stephen has posted some excellent recipes to this forum which are definitely worth revisiting.

I bought half a kilo of large prawns at the weekend with the intention of enjoying a nice, hot, saucy curry based on the tried and tested Chicken Ceylon recipe I habitually use. (I suppose I really should start calling it a Sri Lankan curry, although, in truth, I wouldn't know what a typical Sri Lankan curry would taste like.)

So after 30 minutes of shelling and de-veining the prawns, I was left with enough large prawns for 2 meals. I think I probably need some practice in the de-veining department as the cooked prawns ended up looking like miniature pink tyres! They tasted and texture was fine, though.

Incidentally, I made a stock for a seafood paella with the shells which I fried off with onion and carrot and boiled for 20 minutes in 500ml water. I blitzed the stock and strained it through a fine sieve and again through a very fine reuseable coffee filter.

Long-time members will be aware of my fondness for this particular recipe and, because my good lady wife is neither fond of prawns nor hot curries, it was going to be mine, all mine!

The only addition I made to the standard recipe was a heaped tablespoon of chilli, coriander and garlic paste which is based on Chewy's recipe and made with a handful of eye-wateringly hot bullet chillies, a large bunch of fresh coriander and half a large bulb of garlic all blitzed together in sunflower oil.

It was really good, and the best news is that I have the other half in the fridge to look forward to.

Something tickled the back of my mind on the subject of Lamb Balti recently, and I found myself looking for a suitable recipe without quite knowing why.

I ended up on the YouTube channel of Misty Ricardo (aka rshome123, late of this parish) and found a Lamb Balti video that looked pretty decent.

I made a 4-person balti (hence the giant wok!) according to MR's recipe this morning for later consumption, and I can honestly say that it is one of the best curries I have tasted. Highly recommended!



If you're looking for something new to try, have a go at this one - it's delicious!

As long-term forum members will be aware, I am a great advocate of the Ceylon Curry. I just had to have some again last night with some home made naan bread.