#1 chilli attack

Hi, first blog on the topic of food in general and my attempts at various recipes...

I think I'm an ok cook, however some things remind me that I still have to pay attention as not everything turns out alright!

Take today for example - I attempted curried aubergine from last week's Something for the weekend:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/curriedaubergineonto_92480.shtml

Unfortunately I didn't read the recipe before starting (thinking that a cupboard full of Indian spices would have it covered), and so had to subsitute fenugreek for fennel seeds, not ideal, but just the start things going wrong...

(I usually try to alter recipes to fit what I have in the cupboard anyway...)

But then I misread curry powder for chilli powder, and we had full on chilli attack - the recipe had already called for fresh chopped chilli (provided by my friend home grown from the seed pack you can pick up at Wahaca's), which I had neglected to de-seed, so the three times the chilli pretty much took away from most of the flavours..

(except perhaps the fennel seed :))

So a glass of milk later I've just about recovered from that! Also along the way with this recipe I had to overcome onions and aubergine sticking to the bottom of the pan - so go non stick all the way is my advice, or else use a lot of oil - not ideal for those on diets...

However not all my attempts at cooking/following recipes go so badly - and I would definitely try this one again as I love aubergine and curry, but next time will try to follow the recipe!

The Camden Road Cook