Dilnaz Restaurant,Preston Restaurant Review

  

 I was lucky enough to return to the UK for a flying visit recently after 6 years without going so couldn´t resist having an Indian meal the first night, as I miss Indian food because there aren´t any Indian restaurants where I live! We decided to go to one of our frequent takeaway and restaurants, formerly known as the Naaz, which has now reopened as the Dilnaz Restaurant.

The decor of the Dilnaz is modern, smart and clean-looking. We ordered a chicken tikka and onion baji starter and as the owner recognised us he threw in some poppadoms,mango chutney, sweet chilli sauce and mint yoghurt.All were delicious! I then ordered some plain Naan bread and my favourite curry,lamb pasanda and plain Basmati rice. The Naan bread was lovely and fluffy, the rice cooked to perfection and the lamb pasanda,which I haven´t been able to find a similar version of in many Indian restaurants,did not disappoint and tasted exactly the way I remembered it. The lamb was lovely and tender and the pasanda curry sauce was lovely,creamy,coconuty and sweet.The only problem was I was so stuffed I couldn´t eat it all! The owner also threw in some samosas but again I didn´t even eat one as I was so full. I´d definitely reccommend the Dilnaz Restaurant...hope I can return again some time!

Turkey Tikka Masala style

I´m not very good at eating leftovers so after the Christmas Day turkey, we bagged up the leftovers and froze them in different portions. I took a portion out to defrost to make a turkey curry...ok,not very original as that´s what the majority of people do with leftover turkey but why not? Plus I really fancied a curry. This is a curry I made up roughly based on chicken tikka masala, which I made a vegetarian version of but as it was an experiment I didn´t write the quantities down. This time I made sure I wrote the quantities down and although it was very tasty (even if I do say so myself!)it turned out different to the first time I made it!

Ingredients (for 2 people)

1/2 medium to large onion, finely chopped

leftover turkey (not sure how much I used..I just eyeballed it)

4-5 mushrooms, sliced

1/4 red pepper, chopped

1/4 green pepper,chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp of olive oil (or vegetable)

1 inch ginger, peeled and grated

2 cardamon pods, crushed

5 tsp curry powder (depending on how hot you like your curry, add more)

1 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp tumeric

1/2 tsp garam masala

1tsp ground cumin

about 1/4 cup of water

about 1/3 cup of cream (when I made the vegetarian version, I used sour cream which gave a thicker sauce)

about 1/3 - 1/2 tetrabrick of tomato sauce/tinned tomatoes (again not sure as I eyeballed it)

Method

1. Heat olive oil in frying pan and fry onion, garlic, mushrooms and peppers till tender.

2.Add grated ginger and other spices and cook till aromatic.

3. Add turkey and heat a little, then add the 1/4 cup of water and cook for a few minutes.

4. Add tomato sauce and cream and cook on a low heat till meat is heated through.

5.Serve with boiled Basmati rice or pilau rice.

* If you like your curries very spicy, you could also add fresh chilies or some chili powder to your curry.

Curry´s Indian Restaurant Review

Although things have been pretty quiet on my blog scene lately, I have been doing plenty of cooking but just nothing that was worth blogging about, plus I have been very busy.Last week there was a long weekend and we decided to go to Madrid to do some Christmas shopping. I love Madrid at Christmas with all the pretty Christmas lights and Cortelandia-it just seems so Christmassy and magical. The only thing I don´t love however is how crowded it gets!

Whenever I go to Madrid, I always like to go to a restaurant that you can´t find where I live, such as a Greek, Thai, Indian restaurant etc. This time we decided to go to an Indian restaurant as it´s one of my favourite cuisines and I really miss it!Before going to Madrid we did some research and found two restaurants that were in the centre of Madrid and ended up choosing the nearest, Curry´s Restaurante Hindu, located in C/Silva 16.

From the outside, Curry´s doesn´t look like anything special but when you step into the restaurant, the atmosphere is friendly, clean and warm. We had arranged to have lunch with a friend who lives in Madrid so we don´t see him very often so I wasn´t paying as much attention to the food as usual. He is vegetarian but luckily like many Indian restaurants, Curry´s caters to vegetarians.

There was a poppadom each with mango chutney, mint yoghurt sauce and another sauce, which I don´t know what it was as an appetizer (which I think were free). We ordered the Daal & Aloo Tikki to share as a starter as it was vegetarian and we´d never tried it before. It was like a crispy lentil and potato cake and was delicious although I don´t know where the lentils came into it as I could only taste the potato. I ordered my usual fav dish Lamb Korma, my OH ordered Chicken Tikka Masala and our friend ordered Malai Kofta (I think!) -cheese dumplings in a curry sauce, plus we ordered 2 lots of Basmati rice and some Garlic Naan. At first the portions looked quite small but they were filled generously with meat. The meat was lovely and tender and the sauces were lovely and creamy,not too rich or too spicy. I think my OH would´ve liked his to be a bit spicier though. I managed to polish off the whole lot of curry as did the others but we were too stuffed for dessert.

The food was amazing and far better than the exterior appearance leads you to believe. Plus prices were also fairly reasonable. So if you´re in Madrid and fancy something different or have a hankering after spicy or Indian food, you should give this a try.Unfortunately I don´t have any photos as I didn´t have my camera with me.