Cooking on no gas.....

Ooooooh a kitchen blog 2 weeks running! The oven broke this week so the testing schedule had to be put on hold for a couple of days. The first days sans oven became Indian BBQ day which was such a success that it's going to be one of big night afternoon outs for next year. Here's a wee preview:

Indian BBQ (clockwise from left, cafreal paneer kebabs, shami kebabs with green chutney, tandoori chicken, kosambari salad and dum aloo snd bbq naan breads(which works a treat by the way))

2nd day I had to borrow the toasting team's (the toasting team being Toby in this instance) plug-in electric worktop hob thingies and cooked up dahl, Keralan fish curry and rice. Worryingly it seemed to be the most successful meal of the week (if you count success in terms of how much gets eaten)! It's 2 weeks until we make the mammoth move over to our new pad in Bristol so the packing has commenced and I'm trying to use up various ingredients that've been sat on the shelf most probably since Emma was in control of the Spicery kitchen. This week's recipe was trying to use up an old packet of rumble in the crumble and a few packets of dried fruit so here goes: Spicy Fruity Crumbly Shortbread You need: 220g plain flour 175g butter 110g caster sugar 200g whatever dried fruit you have knocking about A handful of oats 1 tbsp rumble in the crumble or a mix of ground cassia, ginger, nutmeg and allspice (easy on the nutmeg and allspice) An 8 inch spring form baking tin - greased and lined Method:

• Preheat the oven to 200 deg C
• Beat 125g of the butter (first softened) with 60g if caster sugar until pale and fluffy
• Stir in 170g of the flour and form into a ball
• Press this mixture into the greased and lined tin and poke a few holes in with a fork
• Bake for 20-30 minutes until just golden
• Cook the dried fruit together with 1 1/2 tsp of the rumble in the crumble and a splash of water for a few minutes to soften the fruit (you want quite a sloppy mixture)
• Rub the remaining flour, butter, sugar, rumble in the crumble mix and all the oats together until it resembles breadcrumbs (with a few oats thrown in)
• Spoon the fruit on top of the shortbread then top with the crumble mixture (make sure the crumble mix is kind of poked in to the fruit otherwise it all falls off)
• Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes until brown on top
• Serve with a cuppa