Belfast New Years Eve, Amy’s Bed and Breakfast and Safa Indian restaurant,

In true BBC form due to situations beyond our control we had to change our program, this meant going to Belfast on New Year’s Eve instead of spending it with Bob in Kilkeel. We booked in a B&B on the Antrim Road, Amy’s Guest House, it was a small, clean affair in an Edwardian terraced house, it had recently had some renovations done and a slap of paint, though there was still some work to be done (the en-suite door was very ill fitting) it was well worth the money. 

We arrived and Nick the owner was on duty, he had given his “girls” the New Year off, he is a dried out alcoholic, so as he said, “it was better to stay out of the way of temptation”. He showed us to our room,which was small with the bed taking up most of the space, though I have been in smaller cabins at sea, it wasn't much bigger, but for a couple of nights it would be more than adequate.  

There was a small newly furnished en-suite, it would do us for our main reason for being there which was to be near to the Stena Terminal for the ferry to Cairn Ryan the next morning and still central to town.  Down in the residents lounge/dining room  Nick made us a smashing pot of tea, showed us the workings of the TV and after answering our queries about buses into town and a Taxi the next morning left us to our own devises.

On the ground floor, adjacent to lounge/dining room is a well equipped kitchen which Nick said we were at liberty to use.

We decided as it was New Year’s Eve to head into town on the bus, there is a stop just across the road at the corner of Cliftonville Road and Antrim Road, this takes you straight into the centre of Belfast, we hopped onto the number 12A paid the 3 quid each and were soon set down on Royal Avenue. In front of us was the well adorned, tastefully, in its Christmas lights. 

Friends who live and work in Belfast had informed us that Safa was a very good Indian restaurant and was very central, we found Bank Street and a light trail set into the pavement led us to the famous Kelly’s traditional Irish pub, next door and upstairs was Safa Indian Restaurant

We were cordially greeted at the door, inquired if we had a reservation (were these the wrong sort of Indians?). Answering no, he consulted his large diary and seating plan and gave us a nice table for two not far from the door. Inquiries as to what we would like to drink, saying they had Kingfisher beer on tap. We were presented with the menu, this is quite extensive and covers most of the foods from the Indian sub-continent, but what hit me right between the eyes was “goat”, but before I could inquire my hopes were dashed, sorry sir but there is no goat on the menu, it is out of season,the goat-meat  that is supplied in Northern Europe is kid that was born in early spring, raised throughout the summer and slaughtered in autumn, this was very late December so I was out of luck. “But we do  have some very nice lamb, sir” came the offer. So we ordered our meals.

Papadoms to start for both of us, this came with three dishes consisting of a light vegetable pickle, a mango chutney and a spiced yoghurt dish.

Next the true starters : A mixed platter for two consisting of onion bhajee’s, chicken and lamb tikka pieces, Samosa's, spiced chicken wings and small kebabs.  All very well cooked and tasting fantastic.

For the mains: I had ordered the lamb tikka cooked in the tandoor oven, it was succulent pieces of Irish lamb, perfectly seasoned, this was accompanied by a vegetable tandoori sauce, perfect absolutely perfect.

Linda had ordered a chicken Balti, which she said was also perfectly cooked and the chicken was butter soft without falling apart, with the sauce had just the right amount of heat (for her). 

We had plain boiled rice, a chapatti and an onion and garlic Naan as the accompaniment.

The waiter service was perfect, it was prompt and well organised, very friendly without being overbearing, just a polite” is everything to your liking” a couple of times. The whole bill came to 65 quid for the two of us, now that was a gift.

We decided to have a look in next door at Kelly's Cellars, we walk along the outside passing a fella having a fag, he said in a broad Belfast accent ”aye get yersels insoid noy, ter’s a waam foyer and gud Craic in tear”, we took him at his word, so inside we went, it was quite full and most of the tables were taken, but we managed to squeeze onto a couple of seats at the table nearest the door, I ordered a pint of the black stuff for me and a gin and tonic for Linda, plonked them on the table and just then the chap that had accosted us outside, came back in from his fag break, and seeing us said with a twinkle in his eye,” I tol yi a liddle loy abaut ti foyer”. But the Craic was good and though they had no live music, the canned music was great, something for all tastes, from fiddle and pipe to modern cat-a wailing. The clientele was as varied as the music, flat capped and over coated wizen old knackers  to high heeled scantily dressed young fillies a veritable mixture of Belfast night life, what a wonderful place, a must for visitors to Belfast.

We decided to move on to the Titanic Quarter, but before we reached there, Linda needed, urgently, the little girls room, so we back tracked to a bar we had seen a few minutes earlier, The Garrick Bar

this is a real old bar with cut-glass mirrors and hanging chandeliers, well-kept and so Linda ordered us drinks and promptly disappeared to the toilets, we found a couple of seats in the well frequented but not overfull bar and savoured our drinks while pondering what to do next, we decided that we would head back to the B&B and watch the New Year in on the tele. We grabbed a cab and in next to no time we were back on the Antrim Road and our B&B.

Linda wanted to watch something on TV so I went up to our room, and switched on my PC, to read my e-mails and catch up with the news via skype from my daughter who is back packing in Laos (following in her fathers footsteps). I then decided to stream tv and just then it was time for Mrs Browns Boys film and then Jules Holland Hootenanny, Linda came up and we started watching it together, I must say I did not see in the New Year as I was fast asleep by that time.

Next morning we had decided on no breakfast s, we were travelling Stena Plus and would eat on board, Nick had actually taken 10 quid off for not taking breakfast.  The taxi arrived as ordered and it was off and in plenty of time for the ferry (Linda likes to be super punctual).

A good night was had in Belfast, I do believe that I would do it again if catching the early ferry as it means it is stress free, though I will also say if travelling only to Ireland I would prefer to travel via the France to Rosslare ferry, it is much more civilised, cuts out the England crossing with the Oscar wild, the Oscar Wilde is a fantastic ferry with excellent meals, though saying that, the DFDS from Newcastle to Ijmuiden (Amsterdam) also has very nice restaurants on board and I do get to see my sister only 15 minutes from the DFDS terminal at North Shields.

We had a safe journey from Linda’s brothers, where we had left the car across the breadth of the UK (Port Logan to Backworth), stayed the night at my sisters, went shopping for a few necessaries at the local Morrison’s and caught the ferry the next day.

We had a nice meal onboard, then decided to have an early night and have a read and I done a bit of writing up for my blog. There were a few bangs and crunches as the vessel ploughed through the Troughs and over the peaks, but I slept through it,  it would seem that Linda did not.

Next morning I was up early and caught the watery sun coming up over the North Sea as we approached the coast of Holland. If I have a long journey ahead of me I never eat breakfast as if do then I have to take my diabetic medicament, this can cause a violent bowl movement 2 hours later, it is not nice if caught between service stations. So I tend to starve myself instead, Linda had a continental breakfast and read her book.

The Blue Ribbon Restaurant

Blue Ribbon Restaurant Menu

The Explorer Restaurant Breakfast Buffet, but not for me!

The breaking dawn over the North Sea

The Bar and lounge area

Entrance to Ijmuiden Harbour

The Fort Island at the river mouth

We arrived on time, docked

From there is only the journey across Holland and North Germany and Home.

Turkey masala with saffron rice

I had made a turkey stir fry as part of my diet, I am doing the 5 & 2 diet, 5 days in the week normal eating and 2 fast days, that is approx. 600 Kcals in the day. But this is about the rest of the 500g of diced turkey breast (have you ever tried to buy 50 grams of turkey breast?).

You will require:

450g of turkey breast (diced)

For the marinade

crush the following together

3 small chillies

2 garlic cloves

and add

3 tsp. masala powder (you can buy it or make it yourself)

add 500ml of yoghurt

½ diced onion

Juice of ½ lemon

Mix all the ingredients together and add the turkey pieces, mix well cover and put into the fridge overnight.

Rest of the ingredients:

200g of onions diced (or more)

200g carrots sliced

200g mushrooms diced

2 pepper (red, yellow or orange matters not)

1 tbsp. of curry leaves (crushed)

4 kafir lime leaves (chopped fine)

1 tbsp. Tomato puree

1 tsp. grated ginger

1 tsp. crushed garlic

5-6 small red chillies from my balcony (you may wish to buy them as I cannot be held responsible if you fall)

1 bunch of coriander

1 tbsp. of oil for frying the onions etc.

Mix the masala spices with the yoghurt, add the chilli and garlic paste and lemon juice,  add the Turkey pieces to the marinade, stir well and leave overnight covered in the fridge.

Next day heat the oil or ghee in a wok, soften the onions, add the lime leaves.

 

 add the ginger, garlic,

 

stir fry a little add the tomato puree,

 

the diced (or sliced) carrots, peppers and mushrooms and ½ the coriander.

 

cook it a little and add the tomatoes and rubbed curry leaves,

 

then cook until the oil separates out, add the chillies (left whole but slit ).

Add the contents of the turkey marinade.  

 

Stir to coat all and transfer to the slow cooker, cook on low for 4 hours. Add the remainder of the coriander leaves just before serving.

Serve with basmati rice cooked with 5 cardamom pods, 3 cloves; add a few strands of saffron into the cooking water.

We had a ginger mango chutney (bought) and a cucumber mint riata (home made) with poppadum’s as a nice little starter and naan with the main meal.

 

Raita

½ cucumber deseeded and diced

250g yoghurt

1 shallot diced

Juice of ½ lemon

Small handful of chopped fresh mint

1 tsp. Crushed coriander corns

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the whole lot together (add the salt and pepper at the end) cover and allow the taste to develop. Some may wish to pep it up a bit with some chopped or sliced chilli.

 

Lamb curry made with Great Aunt Aline's curry powder recipe

There had been a bit of a discussion about a curry powder recipe on the wildfood.info web site, one of our members Mary had a Great Aunt who was out in India in the days of the Raj. She had brought a recipe back with her when they returned home to the Channel Isles.

Mary had faithfully copied the recipe and I have done a bit of conversion, but kept the proportions about right.

 As  1oz =28.35g so I used 30g

Coriander seed 3oz =90g
Turmeric 3oz =90g
Black peppercorns 1oz=30g
White mustard seed 1oz=30g
Best Jamaica ginger 1oz=30g
Allspice 1/2oz=15g
Jessen Cardomoms 1/2oz (note 1) =15g
Cummin seed 1/4oz =7.5g
Fenngreck seed 1/4oz (note 2)=7.5g
Cayenne pepper 1/4oz=7.5g

Be sure all ingredients are fresh and of the best quality. Finely powder the whole, mix and sift. Keep closely corked and dry. This mixture will make a dozen curries. This suscitating oriental stimulant was brought to Great Britain (in my Great Aunts case, Guernsey and Wiltshire) from India and was passed among those of us families whose delight was gastronomy.

(1) Elettana Ceramomum the seeds of a plant native to the East Indies. Also called Grains of Paradise. Useful in confectionary and curries

(2) Fenngreck - Trigonella Faenum Graecum. A leguminous plant.

 N.B.

(1) There has been a lot of discussion about Jessen Cardomom, so in the end I followed my intuition and used brown (black) cardamom pods as I had used these with success for a Mamta curry recipe in the past.

(2) These are Methi seeds, if buying in an Indian or Asian store.

I have done some conversion and then reduced the quantities to suit the curry that I was making (I used an online programme for the weight to teaspoon conversion factor) and 10% of the original quantity, I mean I didn’t want 330g of curry powder, I already have a jar full of homemade Garam Masala to Mamtas recipe.
For those that it is of interest, this is the conversion tool I used, it is American so will be of use when doing cups to metric etc.

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/cooking-conversions/calc.aspx

I rounded up and down as I decided that the exact quantities would never have been adhered to in the good old Raj and as this curry powder seems to be for a whole platoon plus the cooks, Punka Wallas and Lady folks as well, a few grains here or there will not make a dammed bit of difference.

 My conversion table for the lamb curry.

spice	grammes	tsp conversion	10%	grammes	I used tsp
Coriander	90,00	42,86	4,286	9	4
Tumeric	90,00	35,00	3,5	9	3,5
Black pepper corns	30,00	15,79	1,579	3	1,75
White mustard seeds	30,00	9,10	0,91	3	1
Ginger root (dried)	30,00	16,67	1,667	3	1,75
All spice (piment)	15,00	7,90	0,79	1,5	0,75
Jessen cardomom (I used the brown cardomom)	15,00	6,00	0,6	1,5	0.5
Cumin seeds	7,50	3,50	0,35	0,75	0,5
Fengrek seeds (methi seeds)	7,50	3,50	0,35	0,75	0,5
Cayanne Pepper	7,50	1,42	0,142	0,75	0,5
	322,50			32,25

I used ready ground Turmeric and Cayenne pepper, the rest were seeds, berries and the dry ginger was rough chopped (it didn’t say on the packet its place of origin).  I put the whole seeds, berries and ginger into a pestle and mortar and crushed quite fine.

I then ground it in an old coffee mill that I keep especially for this purpose. (The coffee tastes a little strange if ground in it).

The remainder of the ingredients for the Lamb Curry:

1kg of lamb, I used chops and ribs as it is always cheap from my Turkish butcheress

2 largish onions sliced into rings

3 cloves of garlic (minced)
2,5 cm/sq piece of ginger (grated)
3 Kafir lime leaves chopped (I buy mine frozen, so always have some at hand)
2 sprigs of Rosemary (not really Indian, but I like it with my lamb)
Zest from 1 bio-lemon
5 carrots sliced
5 potatoes diced
½ red capsicum diced (that was all I had left)
1 yellow capsicum diced
10 mushrooms cut into quarters

small handful of fresh coriander leaves and stalks

2 desert spoons of oil for frying

1 tin of diced tomatoes

some chopped gari (japanese sweet ginger, that I had left over)

150ml of full fat yoghurt (Greek)

Fry the onions over a low heat until soft and just colouring, add the ginger and garlic and allow to soften without burning, add the curry powder and mix into the onion mixture.

Put the lamb into a bowl, salt and pepper and add the Rosemary leaves, add the onion mixture to the lamb and mix so that the pieces are covered.

Transfer to the base of the Slow Cooker.

Then add all of the other ingredients, pour in 400ml of stock, I only had beef, but veal, chicken, vegetable or best lamb will do. Give it a stir

Turn onto high, set the timer (I originally set it for 5 hours, but mine goes to a warm hold function and was in a good 8 hours), no setting on, no burning.

Serve with plain basmati steamed rice (I have one of those clever little rice steamers that takes all of the guess work out of cooking rice) not that I ever had any problems using the absorption method, but as I have it I may as well use it.

The curry was very tasty, very tasty indeed; it wasn’t at all hot, which was to be expected due to the small quantity of chilli (cayenne) powder. But though this will not be for the Friday night blow your head off after 10 pints of Lager crowd, it is a true curry, it is aromatic, tasty and will go down well with those that are not of the Vindaloo or Madras brigade. If making it for myself or others that I know, I would double the Cayenne or even put a few fresh chillies into the main curry with the rest of the vegetables.

But it got a top ten from me and as I have frozen a couple of large portions for next weekend, I shall also get a second opinion.

Thank you Great Aunt Aline

A mild beef Vindaloo

This is a variation on the traditional Vindaloo; it does not blow the top of your head off. It is roughly based on Mamta’s recipe Vindaloo 1 with my changes due to not having certain ingredients to hand (forgot to pick them up) and wanting to make it less severe without losing the acidity of a Vindaloo.

I made the Vindaloo marinade the day before and let it mature overnight on my balcony (it was quite chilly about 2 Degrees)

Meat (you can make this with pork as it comes from Goa which is predominantly Christian)

1.2 kg of beef goulash

The marinade spices

Dry ingredients

5 green cardamom pods

2 large black cardamom pods

4 cloves

10 peppercorns

3 cm piece of cinnamon bark

1 tsp. coriander seeds

1 tsp. of cumin seeds

½ tsp. fenugreek seeds

3 large dried chillies

1 tsp. white mustard seeds

heat all of the above in a heavy based pan when the mustard seeds begin to pop put

into a pestle and mortar (or a blender) and pound until it turns into a rough powder

heat the ghee in the pan and add the onions, garlic and ginger, fry until translucent, but not brown add to a blender along with the spices and blitz to a paste.

 







20ml of red wine vinegar

10ml of sherry vinegar

½ tsp. of tamarind paste

add the above to the paste and give it another wiz

pour the lot over the meat

Mix all together, cover and put in a cool place I put it on my balcony as it was about 2 degrees

Next morning (Sunday) up with the larks (none about at the minute)

slice another red onion and fry in ghee until soft add the black mustard seeds and allow to pop add this to the meat, give it a stir.

add

1tsp. of turmeric

1tsp of sweet paprika powder

2 tsp. of vegetable stock powder

mix and pop the lot into the SC bowl

Add

1 tin of chopped tomatoes (a deviation)

A good sprinkling of dried coriander leaves (had no fresh)

And here I deviated again from the traditional Vindaloo recipes (will I ever be forgiven)

150ml of full (10%) cream Greek yoghurt

Give it all a good stir, lid on and on to full for 2 hours and then low for a further 3 hours, taste the sauce at the 2 hour point, if you think it needs more acidity add a splash more vinegar (I did).

This Vindaloo is I suppose not what the lads want on a Friday night after 10 pints of Lager but I think that this will suit most people’s palates without blowing them to bits. If you would like a little or a lot more heat just up the number of chillies or add a couple of teaspoons of chilli powder.

I served this with plain boiled basmati rice steamed with a couple of green cardamom pods

I think the sauce was a bit thin, next time I shall strain the juice from the tomatoes and may be do without the beef stock, we live and learn, though there was nothing wrong with the taste.

I would have had some naan and pickles or chutney but if the truth be known, I had run out and was too lazy to make some.

I drank a nice cold pink from Aldi which it cost all of €2,90 a bottle, a litre that is.

I should have sprinkled some fresh chopped coriander leaves on top before serving but I had forgotten those as well.

ahh well I don't suppose it will get any better, my memory not the Vidaloo