Rachel and Ben are in the UK and we are celebrating their wedding  day  15 months later!  This is their first time together in the UK since the wedding and so it seemed a good excuse to eat, drink and be merry!!

I may be an ‘Indian Ma’ who has a passion for home cooked Punjabi food but having lived in ‘my home country’  for the last 45 years I do cook meals ‘from around the world ‘!

I think I am a real ‘foodie’. My husband , 3 children and I have travelled extensively and I think we all have a ‘ taste for food that is good’. This is not the  same as ‘ food that is made to tastes good’.

Sadly I had to deal with this tonight at a Gastro Pub that we have been going to for over a year. Have not visited it for nearly a month but my goodness what a downhill turn for the food.

Not going to name it as I hope it is  a one-off!

However, I am really disappointed that a main meal costing £15 was inedible  and at no stage did anyone say sorry other than not charge me for it!

Gosh what a busy day on Monday! Shopping turned out be a more eventful session than I imagined in the evening. Not sure why but the usual car parking in Kingsbury was full – some sort of flooding! Parked on the main road and paid a horrendous amount into the meter but happy to have bought all that I need.

After feeding ‘the boys’ it was so nice to have the rest of the evening to get my ‘masalas’ ready for the ‘Sag/Murg’ and the ‘ Sabji’.

It was lovely to have the time on Tuesday to actually cook the  dishes as well as the accompaniments and deliver them to our guest by 5.30 pm for the party to begin at 7.30 pm!

I must remember to have a memory card in my camera for photos!!

The colourful and unusual array of produce we use. Can you guess what it is yet……?

From the same family?

One of my favourite films when I was very young was Mother India (the first Indian film to be nominated for an Oscar). At the age of 3 I could be found in my parents lanscaped garden digging up the best of the plants trying to find this vegetable. There is a scene in the film where ‘Mother India’ is digging for vegetables in the river and for some reason I thought it would be quite fun to ‘try it at home’. I still watch it but tend to focus more on the spectacle of the wedding rather than the poverty of digging for vegetables!

Look out for Joginder’s Supperclub focusing on vegetarian food. We will be holding it during the summer!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAIRA

Instead of a Birthday cake, the new ice cream maker  was tried out on the family.  The overall opinion on the texture of the homemade ice cream was excellent but quite rightly I need to work on the flavour!!

Thankfully the ‘Mango Ice’ ( sorbet)  that Beje used to make in the 60’s was full of flavor and packed a punch. It is on the summer menu.

It’s great to catch up with friends, not just over the telephone but using Skype! So I have been talking with my Dear friend in France who is hosting ‘a small recption’ for her daughter who got married in Vietnam last year.   We hope the weather will be kind so that we can combine outdoor eating and a relaxed and informal atmosphere. Some special Punjabi dishes are called for so my thinking cap is going on tonight!

Thank you for being so generous with your donations back in February. Mum and I put in our lot as well and between all of us we raised £250! We will definately be holding more Supper clubs in aid of the charity, so watch this space.

xx

This concept is new to us but we have had so many requests to cater for private supper clubs. At first we said ‘no’ and only did it as a favour but have been persuaded to ‘go for it’!

So next week we are hosting our third ‘private supper club’ on the 18th and looking forward to it. Menu is being planned as I write this!