Petone Curry Night

This is the lovely sight across our table a couple of Saturdays ago. In the foreground an amazing curry dinner, in the midground wine and candles, and in the background, my lovely sister Julie who came all the way from Invercargill to visit. I love having Julie to visit because all she wants to do is exactly what I love to do... grocery shopping. Not your normal supermarket shopping, but the farmers' markets, the Italian warehouses, Moore Wilson and the Petone delis and Indian grocery shops. Particularly the Indian grocery shops.

Spice Rack is our favourite, and the matriarch told Julie off for taking too many packs of their house mix off the rack. Anyway, all for a good cause. Curry dinner.

I'm not including recipes in this post because I don't know what Julie put in her dishes... a wonderful rich chicken curry, creamy potatoes roasted with spices and yogurt, and stretchy naan bread.

My contribution was paneer baked with chutney, curry leaves and coconut milk. A bit of a cheat, as all the bits were pre-made and needed nothing but a heat-up in an oven proof dish.

Julie in action... I wish she was still here. The kitchen is livelier (and tastier) with her around.