I will go straight into this recipe without discussing the chickpea and hummus patties I did today or the reading on the scales this morning. I sort of knew I shouldn't have eaten all the Vietnamese spring rolls I made yesterday. But they were so good.

But onwards and upwards. The spice mix in my cauliflower recipe is not really chaat masala, probably more a garam masala, as the original chaat masala includes amchoor and asafoetida. Since I don't have them and have no idea what they are I just took what I had from the ingredients list and added some cinnamon, cardamom and garam masala to boot. But you can buy ready made chaat masala spice mix. Or indeed the mysterious amchoor and asafoetida and make your own. Apparently asafoetida is hing - if that helps. Still means nothing to me.

Indian restaurant Copper Chimney opened in the Shepherd's Bush Westfields recently. It is a well known restaurant brand in India, first established in Bombay in the 1970s and serving North Indian food. We've visited this branch now a couple of times with a friend and the food has been amazing both times. To be fair we ate the same things both times. I suspect we will continue to have exactly the same things for the forseeable future, if it ain't broke why fix it. But I'm sure the other items on the menu are delicious too.

The first time I had the cauliflower it was partly because I thought it would be healthy and low calorie but mostly out of curiosity, because cauliflower is usually just a bit diappointing. The main problem with cauliflower is that it smells like poo and tastes like nothing. Unless you add a pint of cream and a pound of cheese, it will be a disappointment pretty much however you cook it. But this wasn't.

My version obviously is not as good as the Copper Chimney one. I don't have a tandoori oven and I haven't been trained by Mr Kapur. But if you want a tasty, easy, healthy and crunchy cauliflower side dish and you want your kitchen to smell like Christmas, this is definitely the way to go.

Once I get my BBQ pants on again I will definitely try this on the coal barbecue and I bet it will be really nice. This time I had it as a light dinner with some of my healthy hummus and a rocket salad.

Oven baked cauliflower with a Chaat Masala style spice mix

1 cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garam masala spice mix just in case
Salt
Blackpepper
A splash of olive oil

To serve: Freshly squeezed lemon juice and a sprinkling of crushed red pepper flakes if you like it hot.

Remove the stalk and cut the cauliflower into florets. Add all the spices and the oil and mix well. Leave to marinade for however long you can. I only had 30 minutes, but you could leave the it in the fridge overnight.

Heat the oven to 200 C. Spread the florets on a baking sheet and bake for 20-30 minutes depending on how small you cut them turning the florets a few time during baking. Don't overcook, they are nice when they still have a bit of a bite in them. Sprinkle a few crushed red pepper flakes on top and finish with a good squeeze of fresh lemon juice.

I've been away for a few days but luckily today the meeting finished a bit ahead of time so I managed to get an earlier flight, which gave me the opportunity to cook something for husband. He's been eating leftovers for the last couple of days so deserved something delicious. Although the leftovers where food I had cooked, so obviously also delicious.

I had a nice meal last night with colleagues. We were quite a large group, so dinner was preordered. The starter was a beautiful plate of salmon carpaccio, just lacking a bit of salt, but otherwise nice. I was so hungry I forgot to even take a picture. But I can tell you it looked beautiful.

For main course I had the vegetarian option because in Bavaria there is a risk with a meat main that you get the whole backside of a pig on a plate in front of you. Probably beautifully cooked and if you are into pork that is exactly what you should order. But I decided I could do without, so went for the ravioli which was really nice. I think it was spinach and ricotta, the waiter did say what it was, but my German is not particularly ausgezeichnet nowadays so could have been anything really.

If I was the one plating this dish I would have straightened the rogue raviolo.

Dessert was a slightly weird sorbet of some fruit or another. Someone suspected clementine. By that time I was so freaked out by my Kiwi and Aussie colleagues weta and huntsman stories that I had somewhat lost my appetite. I am glad they and their crazy insects live on the other side of the world.

So tonight I wanted to do something really quick, because even if I did catch the earlier flight it was already late. Fridge was pretty empty, but I had nice big shrimp in freezer and they defrost quickly, so I did my crispy oven baked shrimp. I served it with a Greek inspired mixed salad.

Recipe: Crispy oven baked shrimp 

Large shrimp (I had about 20 for 2 people, but depends on size and hunger levels)
1 cup of panko bread crumbs
1/3 cup plain flour
2 eggs
salt
pepper or lemon pepper
2 tbsp of fresh chopped herbs
or
2 tsp of dried herbs
Lemon to serve with

Heat the oven to 220C

Peel, devein and dry the shrimp leaving the tails on if you like. I don't think they add much to the experience - I'm not much of a finger eater, so I often use ready pealed shrimp and don't particularly miss the tails.

Mix the flour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Mix panko and the herbs in an other bowl. Break the eggs into a third bowl and mix with the herbs. For herbs use what you like / have. I used dried greek herb mix this time, but fresh dill, coriander or oregano work nicely too.

Drizzle a baking sheet lightly with oil.

Dredge the shrimp in flour, then egg and finally in the panko and place on the baking sheet. Turn over once so that it is lightly covered in oil, You can use a spray if you want to keep them healthy, but I find quite a modest amount of olive oil will do.

Bake for about 4-5 minutes on one side until they get some colour, then flip them all over and bake for another few minutes until that side is also nice and crispy with some colour, but not overcooked. You want to keep them juicy and succulent.