Dogs, Chickens and Vintage China

I have shamelessly nicked this from Davina McCall, however it was advertised as sugar free which even though it has very little it still had too much for me due to the raging diabetes I have removed the sugar So I removed the maple syrup from the original recipe and replaced it with a date mashed up in boiling water. Makes quite a lot 1kg porridge oats 100g desiccated or flaked coconut 300g nuts, lightly crushed into pieces (any kind are good, but almonds add sweetness) Four pinches of salt 6 tbsp coconut oil (or another type of oil, but coconut oil is best) so far I've used rapeseed and olive oil due to a singular lack of coconut oil 4 tbsp boiling water 2 large or 4 small dates 3 egg whites Optional: Handful of raisins Preheat the oven to 150°C/130°C Fan/Gas 2. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper. Put the oats, coconut, nuts and salt in a large bowl. If your coconut oil has set, warm it gently in a pan until just melted. Chop the dates and add to the b...

My daughter Ocean is at Uni and was complaining to us that she wanted to do curry but never had the right spices and moreover didn't have anything to keep them in since the kitchen was the size a fairly small rabbit hutch.  So for Christmas I paid a visit to Kin Yip Hon and bought all the spices that I use and Helen went to Ikea and got a little wooden storage unit that fitted twenty spice jars. Since Christmas Ocean appears to have been cooking non stop and the other day asked me for my favourite recipe.  This is my go to recipe, the one that I do when I’m in a hurry or the one that I modify the most with other ingredients. With many thanks to  Veg Recipes of India  who have some of the best recipes. This recipe borrows from many of theirs.  Dry frying spices 4 or 5 Cloves – I just grab some and chuck them in, sometimes more sometimes less (laung) ¼ tsp of fennel seeds (saunf) 4 or 5 green cardamom – see cloves (hari elaichi) 1 black cardamom - spl...