My Good Lady makes us a Butter Chicken curry, not using pre-mixed powders or sauces, but from scratch, drawing on a recipe by Gordon Ramsay - not at all one of my favourite chefs, but it turns out to be excellent nevertheless.
Doing it this way - mixing all the spices by hand - gives the meal a freshness and a much more authentic Indian quality which is quite different from the usual Anglicised flavours so familiar to English curry-lovers.
True, it is a bit of a faff, but definitely worth it.
The celebratory nature of the meal is because we manage to get a London hotel booked for our little trip later in March.
It's certainly swish, this place, and rather dearer than we orignally planned; it was not our first choice but the first two fell flat because they had no wheelchair accessible rooms available. So here we are booked in for a couple of nights at the St James Hotel, part of the French Sofitel group, and the place where the great chef Albert Roux has his restaurant.
Not that we're likely to be dining at the latter - I believe there's a decent café just up the road in Piccadilly Circus - but still, it's nice to know.
Why we're rather thrilled, though, is because of the French connection - the receptionist who answers our queries has a distinct French accent; she's polite, welcoming and very helpful. Somehow we just know
So now we've just got the train tickets to sort out and we're all set.
On the whole, then, a satisfactory day.
1 comment:
the best things are usually worth waiting for!
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