Saturday Shopping and Curry

For once we had a free Saturday and decided to make the most of it, and the beckoning sunshine, by taking a trip to the Kirkstall Deli Market.  Joe first went to this market when it started a year ago and wasn't even inside the ruins.  How things have changed - the market was a delight with a huge variety of producers and goodies to sample and buy.  We could have happily spent hours there gorging on the treats - Dough Bistro was showing off some nice burgers and their new menu, while the cakes from the Yummy Yank looked absolutely incredible and we will definitely pick one up next time.

This time round we restricted ourselves to just a few treats - some tea from the Tea Experience (rose cong fu and spicy black chai no less), green chilli pickle from Asharun Spices, some soup from Thistlemist Farm and some biltong - which is a new one for me but tasted awesome!  I definitely recommend it for some cured beef snacks.

After the market we popped over to Headingley for a quick drink and the papers at the Arcadia bar, followed by some shopping at Beer-Ritz, which has a fantastic selection of interesting beers, ales and lagers.  We picked up some interesting bottles to try, some of which have already been sampled - oops!

The Tea Experience's wares

The fab biltong - everyone should try this (and sorry for buying the last small piece)

Joe is having a weekend off the running so I thought this would be my opportunity to indulge in some Indian foods (off limits during training unfortunately).  We have been following The Curry Guy on twitter for ages and this seemed like an ideal time to try out one of his recipes.  He also does a daily blog which is packed to the rafters with recipes, both traditional and a bit more anglicised, suiting all tastes.  I had a bit of a search and really fancied trying his chicken vindaloo recipe (see here).  Although this is a restaurant style recipe, I was fairly convinved it wasn't going to be a horror of a vindaloo (thinking beer bellies and chilli eating competitions) and I was right.  Although I slightly bastardised the recipe (apologies - I never cook with chicken breasts in a curry) it was a really tasty, albeit quite hot, curry full of layers of flavour and heat.  It was accompanied by an aloo gobi and some M&S naan - although I will definitely try his recipe for home made naans next time too.

Me enjoying some vino...well, why not?

Our starters some (lazy) M&S samosas

The green chilli pickle - simply superb.  Everyone should also buy this!

Chicken vindaloo

Aloo gobi

The first helping (of a few, I'm ashamed to admit!)