Meat Cooked with Cardamom, Cauliflower with Ginger, Stuffed Baby Aubegines

There is a market in Shepherd's Bush Market that I didn't know existed, duh. Last Saturday my dad drove me there, past the throngs of people heading into Westfield, to buy a new foam mattress for the day bed in the spare room. Very glamorous, but let me ask you how much a bushel of lemons, a head of cabbage, a bag of potatoes, three cauliflowers and a bag of baby aubergines would cost you anywhere else - £4.50? Yeah, me too.
I didn't really need so many vegetables, it was an impulse purchase, something I have been trying to curb, but which is a beast that cannot be tamed. I was going to make some pasta for dinner and went to a local store for spaghetti and came out with a kilo of bone in lamb neck and a bottle of carob syrup. It feels too pathetic to say that I haven't bought myself any clothes since before Christmas and almost didn't pay my phone bill this month because I spend all my money on food. Is there like a support group I can join? And would I want to hang out with any of those losers?
On Saturday night I made some recipes from 50 Great Curries of India by Camellia Panjabi. I actually have an enormous collection of Indian cook books, and only the most rudimentary understanding of how to make Indian food because somehow I have always lived near an amazing curry house (Everest Spice in Drayton Park and Curry Garden in Arnos Grove). But interestingly enough I had all of the ingredients required in my spice cabinet. There are a few recipes in this book that call for things like mango powder or cocum, which you would have to go out of your way to buy, but overall this book is very accessible.
I made the interesting sounding Meat with cardamom out of the lamb which calls for grinding 33 green cardamoms, and them boiling in water with the meat and some other spices. Panjabi describes this as 'very delicate' but it was entirely too bland with no discernible cardamom flavour. On Monday I took some for lunch at work and ended up with this beautiful display of bone fragments.
To go with it I made cauliflower with ginger which is steamed in it's own juices and delicious, worth the price of the book. I defile all of my books now with notes on the recipe's success and there is a wonderfully hyperbolic note next to this one.
Also stuffed baby aubergines which are very cute, didn't do it for me on the night but are amazing as leftovers.
Oh yeah, I'm supposed to be on the soup diet, ooops!