The only pasta sauces that I always have in the cupboard are green or red pesto. I`ve always been rather dubious of the other sauces. Maybe I should give Lloyd the benefit of the doubt?

I often use Lloyd Grossman curry sauces in an emergency.  They don't have the substance of the home-made ones but as bought sauces go - they're the best I think.

One of my sons does an excellent impression of Lloyd Grossman.  He had us in absolute fits once doing a "commentary" whilst he was boiling an egg.  

Ah!  Camisa, you say.  I'll try that.  The only trouble with Old Compton Street is resisting the temptation to pop into Gerry's for a bottle of something interesting

Re: chana dal - I find it's very easy to get hold of, and I live in an area that has hardly any Asian population (subcontinental, I mean - we have lots of Chinese neighbours).  You can buy it from ethnic supermarkets but ordinary big-name supermarkets seem to have it as standard in the pulses or world foods section (though perhaps that's just in London).  The bag I currently have in my cupboard came from Morrisons and is branded "East End".  I've only tried two recipes with it - the one on the packet, and the "Slightly Sweet Bengal Gram Curry" (Bengal gram being another name for chana dal) in Anjum Anand's "Indian food made easy" BBC cookbook.  Happy to forward you the recipe if you fancy it.  Funnily enough I was actually thinking about making it this evening!

If we don't hear from you again Martle, it's been nice knowing you!

I have no difficulty getting chana dal Ruth, it's probably my favourite pulse. What I was wondering is why restaurants in Brum don't serve it - they have Balti Chana etc on their menus but they always turns out to be chickpeas when the dish arrives.

Meanwhile in Brockley, someone (not me, I'm back home in Köln) is chowing down on home-cured venison pizza. 

And Mort, I cannot say how mouth-wateringly and flavoursome it was in all its succulentcy, and the juices were so delicious with the roasted garlic, the potatoes were perfection of course (even allowing for the absence of goose fat), the leeks were positively radiant and the baby greens glistened coyly.  In other words, I really enjoyed it    Plenty left for ce soir with baby potatoes lovingly cooked with fresh herbs and butter.

Still anxiously awaiting the tale of Marty's Welsh Black (has he hooked up with a Beef Producer?  )

My apologies for the tardiness of my report, Mistress Mort!



...but I'm better now. See, it was a bit of a leftover celebration for local friends and I needed to secure some quality meat before returning from the green valleys of Antheil so popped into the secret Aber butchers before returning south and procured something like this:



It was worth the wait, the days spent in two freezers (it, not me), and the 300 mile drive at breakneck speeds in order to avoid ecoli. Thank god for Marks and Sparks freezer bags! The spuds were, were, were...