Having this for lunch today, Toasted Nan and Dahl. I will be using dried chickpeas from my store, some of the coconut milk powder that I have masses of and I shall make a nan using the magic dough in the fridge. For the squeeze of lemon, I shall use a few drops of intense lime oil extract that I have had for years and years. Literally 1 or 2 drops is all I use at a time. Couldn’t see any on mySupermarket, but you can get it online, in Lakeland,  Amazon & other places.

When I was looking up where to get lime essence, I came across a site, www.food.com, where there is a recipe to make it. I was intrigued by that, and if I didn’t have my ancient bottle, I would definitely have a go at making it.  Actually, thinking about it,  what I might do is have a go at it, but using lemons instead. That would be just as useful as the lime essence, I did have one of lemon, but I used it all. Ooh, and what about orange, that would be good.  The alcohol used is 98% proof and looking it up on Wiki, that is used because it extracts the essence very well. I assumed I would use vodka, but now I’m not sure if that would be strong enough. Do chemists sell very strong alcohol do you know?

The chickpeas are in soak and in an hour or so, I shall put them in the Remoska to cook. Thought I would show you the Remoska as I mention it so often, and I found that they have changed it to a new model. Not cheap of course, but I do use mine a lot, so it earns its keep.

Once the chickpeas are cooked, it is a very quick dish to assemble. We both love spicy food, so this is one of our favourites, and like soup, it can be varied in many, many ways.

Change the pulse to big green or brown lentils, kidney beans, butter beans etc etc and it will be different. Use a spoonful of any curry paste, any curry powder or add separate spices and each mix will be different. Add the coconut or leave it out and it will be different. You can also, of course, add a few veg… peas, cauliflower or broccoli stalks, onion, carrot,  potato, anything you fancy, and each time you make it, it will be different.  Serve it with rice instead of nan, over jacket potato, with pasta and it will be different.

If you use coconut powder, like I am, I have found that I need to add the powder at the end. If I heat the powder too much, it tends to split. Still tastes good, but it looks strange and doesn’t have the creamy texture.

Later….. well the nan was tasty, but more like a very flat loaf than a nan, so I think I will go back to my old way of doing it (in the link at the beginning) where I just mix flour and water and leave to stand for an hour or so. That comes out much more nan like.

More kitchen assembly today. It really is the most frustrating thing, where all you want to do is assemble a 900cm three drawer unit, and it takes most of the day, and that is only because the instructions are so rubbish. Every little bit moves us forward. DP is a clever man who is very good with his hands and still he struggles to work out what on earth he is supposed to do. I asked him today if he thought Wickes would send him a certificate when he is done. I might even make him one as a bit of a laugh. He’ll deserve it!

Still look at that, doesn’t it look great! And that black slab on the top is the lovely new hob. DP will cut a hole in that old bit of worktop tomorrow for the hob to go in. All temporary until we can get the new worktops fitted. Tomorrow is more electrics, then probably disconnection of the cooker, or possibly Thursday. The next stage involves disconnecting the existing cooker, moving it out of the way, fitting the new tower, the new cooker, putting the 300mm, 900mm drawer unit and another 300mm in place, and connecting up both the cooker and the hob. The 300/ 900/ 300 units are all made up, they just need putting in place.

Do you remember that my younger daughter is getting married next June? Over the weekend, she and her intended went to a Wedding Fair. I said to her that I didn’t really know what she wanted to get out of it as she is so organised, there is barely anything left to do.  Well, she only went and won a wedding cake didn’t she !!!

We were talking on the phone when she had another call beeping her and she got so annoyed with it she hung up to see who it was. It was the Wedding Fair organiser, telling her she had won the prize. So I very quickly had a very excited daughter on the phone telling me all about it. The cake is to be provided by a Hailsham company, Dream Wedding Creations, and they said she could have whatever she likes! Believe it or not, those lovely roses in the picture are sugar paste.There is not a price to be seen anywhere on their website, so what’s the betting they are mega expensive. We were going to do something ourselves. It would have been fun and looked lovely, but this will be outstanding.