Saturday Sandwich 81: Trini Double

This sandwich from Trinidad & Tobago consists of two fried bread rounds sandwiching a potato and chickpea curry. Sounds lovely!

Make up a bread dough with the addition of some curry powder to spice things up! Knead for 5 minutes and leave it to expand a bit.

 

Diced potato, chickpeas, onion and curry spices along with garlic and chilli simmered in water until it has a thick sauce and the potato is soft.

Form the dough into 4 rounds (ours are more like triangles for some reason) and deep fry until golden brown.

Sandwich together the fried dough and curry adding a spoonful of mango chutney to sweeten the deal.

We loved this sandwich, it smelled great while it was cooking so we'd been really looking forward to trying it. The chickpea curry was really spicy due to the chilli but the mango chutney made it easier to eat by subduing the flavours a bit. The fried dough was light and tasty. We were surprised how puffed up they got in the deep fat fryer.  It's a messy eat with the curry falling back out onto your plate but with a fork handy you can clean up and finish it. It was really delicious, chickpeas and potatoes are a great curry combination.

Ratings: JD - 4, Emma - 4

Next Saturday - Fruit & Nut Sandwich AND a Japanese Fruit Sandwich

Things To Do When You Don't Have TV - Guinness World Record Attempts

I spelled Guinness wrong :(

I'd read an article about how lots of Guinness World Records were breakable so I thought it'd be fun to try a few at home.

First up was eating Jelly with chopsticks. As much as you can in 1 minute with one hand behind your back. This photo was staged after the event in case you're worried they're cheating. Erin loves eating things with chopsticks and felt confident she'd win. She didn't though, I did. :D None of us got anywhere near the record.

Next was sticking post-it notes to your face. As many as you can in 1 minute but not any on your eyelids (an official rule O_o). After the minute is up you have to count to 10 then count how many are still on your face. This was easily the most hilarious event. It's much harder to do than you think.

Erin got 3!

 JD managed 8!

I won with 15 :D

The record is 58!!

The third event was drinking water as fast as you can. The record is 500ml in 2.35 seconds. It has to be from a clear glass with no spillage allowed. Erin did it in 53.92 seconds, JD in 13.72 seconds but I won with 11.63 seconds. I'm starting to worry I have a problem with over-competitiveness!

Stacking coins was the next record attempt. The record is 51 coins stacked in 30 seconds. They have to remain on the pile for 5 seconds when the time is up and you have to have one hand behind your back. JD was moving so fast this picture blurred.

 Erin stacked 13 coins, JD stacked 16 and I won with 20 coins stacked.

Last of all it was time for some speed doughnut eating! The record is for the most jam doughnuts eaten in 3 minutes (6) but we decided to try for 1 minute because no-one really wanted to try eat 6 doughnuts. I won again with Erin beating JD for second place. Eating anything as fast as you can is a horrible experience. Luckily there were spare doughnuts to eat slowly and enjoyably afterwards.

We all won a prize and decided there wasn't much hope of us getting in the Guinness World Record book anytime soon. Still, it's a lot of fun trying.  :)

Saturday Sandwich 80: Roast Dinner Sandwich

This one is suspiciously similar to the Christmas Dinner Sandwich we've already done but we'll allow it I suppose :)

Ingredients: bread, butter and any food you're having for your roast dinner.

We had chicken, peas, roast potatoes, stuffing, gravy and yorkshire puddings.

Erin made up her sandwich with suspiciously few peas.

 JD's effort was greener.

 My sandwich, obviously the most superior. :D

A roast dinner makes for a pretty decent sandwich. The gravy on everything makes it a bit soggy though so maybe we should have used a sturdier bread like a crusty roll. I forgot that I love chicken sandwiches as long as the chicken has a sprinkling of salt so I didn't put any on mine, which is a shame! We had minted peas which gave a nice flavour to my sandwich but it was lacking in texture, something crunchy in there would've helped. Still, a nice sandwich overall.

Ratings: JD - 1, Emma - 3, Erin - 3

Next Saturday - Trini Double

Saturday Sandwich 79: Man'oushe

The man'oushe is a Lebanese flatbread filled with vegetables, yoghurt and za'tar (a spice mix from the Middle East) then rolled up and cut in half.

Ingredients: flatbreads, yoghurt, za'tar, tomatoes, red onion, mint and olive oil

Chop up the tomatoes, mint and red onion.

Make up some flatbreads.

We made some za'tar from a recipe online, you then add some oil to make it spreadable.

Spread the za'tar on the still warm flatbreads then add tomatoes, mint and red onion. Spoon on some yoghurt and then roll it up.

The man'oushe had a really interesting flavour. The best part of making them was spreading the za'tar mix on the warm flatbreads, it smelled amazing. I liked the taste combination of mint and yoghurt with the red onion and tomato giving some texture to the flatbreads. Having the flatbreads freshly cooked and warm was lovely and made it much easier to roll them. An enjoyable meat-free sandwich experience!

Ratings: JD - 3, Emma - 3

Next Saturday - Roast Dinner Sandwich

Saturday Sandwich 78: Ham and Mustard

A simple classic this week and one that we've eaten plenty of times before. We usually have regular sliced ham and this time it's ham from a roast ham joint.

Ingredients: ham joint, mustard, bread rolls and brown sugar.

Mix together mustard and brown sugar and rub it all over the ham joint. Roast the ham in the oven until it's falling apart (about 3-4 hours). Fill a bread bun with pieces of ham and add mustard to your taste.

JD and I picked at bits of the ham as we were making the sandwich. It was hard not to because it was hot out of the oven, smelled deliciously of sweet mustard and had the most fantastic soft texture. The minute we put it in a bread bun the magic disappeared and we were left with a ham sandwich without much taste. I don't know what happened but this sandwich just wasn't that great. Ham and mustard is a classic combination that works well but the ham just lost it's mojo for us this time. We'd have enjoyed the ham more stood up in the kitchen picking it off the joint and dipping it in the cooking juices. Still, it wasn't a terrible sandwich and I did enjoy the soft bread roll with the soft chewy ham inside.

Ratings: JD - 2, Emma -3

Coming up Next Saturday - Man'oushe

Things To Do When You Don't Have TV - A Beetle Drive

You might remember from a previous post that we don't have TV. We do watch TV on Netflix and sometimes catch-up services but not that much. So we're always finding different ways to entertain ourselves.

When I was at Primary School I remember us having a couple of Beetle Drives and I thought they were fun. So I decided to hold one for my family. I put up a poster to advertise it.

The best thing was that none of them had any idea what a beetle drive was. The kids googled it but JD wanted to wait and find out.

On the day I confused them further by having a woodlice race to start off the fun. Woodlice aren't very disciplined. :D

Then down to the serious business of playing beetle. You roll a dice and draw a beetle part based on what number you roll. The winner is the first person to complete a beetle drawing. JD, Leigh and Erin were all very creative in their beetle designs.

There was talk of cheating because I somehow managed to win the first three games. Erin won the fourth and we totalled up how many beetle parts we'd all drawn.

Emma - 42
Erin - 30
Leigh - 27
JD - 24

I won! :D

Everyone got a prize and said they'd enjoyed playing (even the woodlice enjoyed it). Plus there was pie and punch. Pretty sweet! :)