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I was cleaning off some photos from the memory card today and came across this one that we originally took to chuck up on the blog.

We made some leavened Roti  bread to go with our curry the other week, and while the recipe did say ” bake for 3-5 minutes until lightly browned and a bit puffy” we weren’t quite expecting quite this amount of puffiness!  In fact they were quite hard to poke down so we could get more than one sitting on a plate.

It was actually quite fun making them too.  We’ll just  have to remember to be quite organised if we want to make them again.  As it’s leavened bread, it does need a bit of time and attention… Yum though.

It happens every chilli growing season.  The day that the little sprouts are transferred out into the big, wide pots.

I think we (I) might have overestimated the compost requirements somewhat this year, as after putting all 11 chilli plants in big pots and  potting up some of the coriander seeds that I’d planted a few weeks ago we’ve still got a fair bit left.  Oh well.  I guess we’ll get another few pots and try some lettuce or something… And it’s definitely better than having to take yet another trip to a garden centre to get dirt.  Of course we’ll have to go to a garden centre to get lettuce seeds or something, but that’s different!

Although making another trip to a garden centre might just be the end of us. Yesterday’s trip home from one was a bit of a disaster. I was not flavour of the month after deciding we should take a bus that was due to terminate close to our place.  How was I to know that it was going to wander all over town (and “town” in London is quite a big area!) first before getting there!

Ok, so I should have remembered that we’d caught it before and been caught out before too, but that was over a year ago now… And why Bec ever chose to listen to me and get on a bus is still a mystery. I don’t really do buses.  I’m more of a tube kind of guy.

Anyway, I still have no idea where everything is going to go once it starts getting a bit bigger, but we’ll find somewhere…

And I think I’m glad it only happens once  a year.  My back is feeling the effects of bending over for so long sorting them all out!

Sometimes things just come together right.

A day working at home, a few interesting things in the fridge, a recipe I’d found the night before, a bit of motivation… And voila! A chorizo, tomato and bean salad for lunch with a red onion and honey dressing.  Somewhat more interesting that the baguette or sandwich I’d probably have at work, but you’re probably thinking “OK, still not really that interesting.  If I wanted to know what people had for lunch I’d go follow the idiots on Twitter instead”….

And I agree.  The interesting thing about this lunch for me is that it almost looked exactly like the picture in the magazine!

I think I can probably count on one hand the times that’s happened in the last  year or two! And OK, it’s only a salad, but it still impressed me.

Now I just have to remember to clean up before Bec gets home…

Back to the office and a boring sandwich again tomorrow, I suspect!

We seem to be having a decent period of (relatively) hot, sunny weather at the moment.  Perfect for the balcony garden.

So most days all the plants get chucked out on the balcony, and then if we’re home they get pushed around to make sure they’re in the sun for the maximum time each day. We’ve even managed to get motivated enough to re-pot Bec’s capsicums and the largest chilli.  The rest will have to be done over the next couple of weeks. Might have to go get a bit more dirt first though. We’ve had to make a few trips to the garden centres for bags of mix so far this season. It’s a bit too hard to get all that we need in one trip and get it all on the tube.  But at least it’s given us something to do i the weekends when we got bored enough.

I’m also relieved to report that so far I’ve not found any other infestations of aphids.  Still keeping fingers crossed on that!

As all of the chilli plants are still in a bit of a delicate state, what with still being infants and all, I try to keep a close eye on them.  Every 2 or 3 days I give each one a bit of a check up, making sure there are no little greeblies on them.  Over the last couple of weeks I’ve fond a couple and squished them, but nothing major.

But on Friday after checking all of the chillis I thought I  may as wel check the little coriander plants as well….

AAAARRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!! What’s the next biggest thing after “gazzillion”? That’s how many aphidy things were on both them.  There was almost no plant material visible, it was all pretty much little green bugs!  Sitting right by the chillis! So straight into an airtight sandwich bag with them, pots and all…

I’m not sure if it’s a case of good “companion planting”, but luckily the chillis still seem clear, as do the other corriander that has just popped up from seeds I planted about a week ago.

I’ll be watching closely though!

We have a bought a few new cookbooks lately.  Strangely enough more of them seem to be curry ones, for some reason! So as we’ve got them, we thought we better try a new recipe.  Today it was something from ‘Madhur Jaffrey’s Ultimate Curry Bible’. First recipe we have tried from it. Gets a huge thumbs up.  Nice and subtle, not purely based on heat, but just gentle and all round yummy!

It’s was also really easy to cook, but as the flavours are pretty mild they almost get lost with a bit of cumin seed rice that we decided to have with it.  They only gripe I have is that I got all the cardomom pods and some of the cinnamon stick.  What does that tell you, that Mike rigged it that way? (Only problem is that I dished up, so must’ve been unlucky as he got none!)

Would we give it another go?  I think so!

This week the parsley plant has taken a bit of a beating.  We used a fair few of it’s leaves for 3 nights in a row, but luckily it looks like it’s coping with that.

I have to say that when we were chopping  it up there was a yummy parsley smell in the kitchen that we’ve just not had with the bought bags.. Now if the coriander would just get a bit of a wriggle on, we’ll be able to see if that does the same.

Apologies for the photo.  This was taken when we first used some, but it has needed some serious tweaking due to some sunlight issues at the time…

This morning I’d decided to give up on the sweet peas I’d planted the other week.  Mainly because I’d kind of decided that the pot that I’d planted them in would perhaps be better used for more herbs or something else that we could eat, rather than something merely colourful.

And just when I’d told my sister this on Skype I went out and checked the pot. And guess what. The first sweet pea plant had decided to poke its head up overnight!

Hey, ho. I guess colour it is then. I guess the edibles will have to go in some of the other pots that we’ve got stacked up.

Oh, and we seem to be able to grow parsely pretty well!  Hopefully the plant that’s now doubled in size since we planted it (it’s bigger in real life than it looks in the photo, honest!) will see us though the year…  Let’s just hope the coriander catches up soon!