Dear LPG,

I have been at it again.  I mean trying to get it right in the kitchen.  I have to admit to not even having heard of Turkmenistan before this but I did have a go.

With the varied degrees of success that I have had so far during my LPG cooking venture, I have learned to try very hard when it comes to pre-preparing, and even the quick scan through of the version of the recipe I chose is my first task.   Top priority number one is to make sure that there are as few unusual or un-gettable ingredients and the recipe that I chose for this month looked really easy on first perusal.  There were no unfamiliar ingredients and though the method was quite long, it was very detailed.  How could I possibly go wrong?

I thought that all I would have to do is pop into my local supermarket but, when I went shopping I realised that enriched parboiled rice was not so easy to get, so I looked it up on the internet, followed the instructions and had a go.  Though I am not sure if I got that bit perfectly right, the method was easy enough but I had no idea about how to choose enriched rice or what it was supposed to taste like. 

Having improvised a bit, absolutely everything else about the method was included in the instructions although it took a lot of time to cook this ‘on the hob’, which made it all the more difficult to adhere to the warnings not to stir during the cooking.  I always find that if it is in the oven you can go away and forget it until the, ‘it’s finished’ ping happens but there is a need to wait, watch and check the bottom to see if it is burning when there is an open flame below the pot.

I think that all my taste testers found it quite nice but they were very aware of the curry influence.

Now there is just enough time to tell you that I have been checking out the independent significance of November and worked out that Latvia celebrates on the 18^th when I hope to present my version of Aukstā zupa.  Having checked out a recipe or two for this one, it looks doable (even if you really don’t know what you are doing in the kitchen) like me, and the pictures I have seen show it to be a very pretty dish to look at too.

CB, Lewisham.

CB shares what she plans to cook for us next month…

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