Far East Adventures

Sorry about the super long gap, I went on an amazing trip to Thailand and Bali and had the chance to try lots of incredible food but I've been a little tardy since I got back!  I'm afraid I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked because I was so busy stuffing my face that I couldn't pick up my camera.

We ate lots of delicious street food in Thailand, you can walk down the street and buy incredible food pretty much all day.  We got up the first morning and went for a walk towards Khao San Road to get mango and sticky rice, I don't think I've ever eaten a mango that perfectly ripe before.  Later on in the day we got some watermelon and more mango to snack on - again amazing - and once it got dark it was time for Pad Thai and chicken kebabs.  Both are cooked fresh in front of you and cost about 60p each - if only you could pick that up after a night out in Shoreditch!  The Pad Thai came with a choice of egg or no egg and then you'd pick your own bits to sprinkle on top (I always added peanuts).  The chicken kebabs weren't the only option but they were so tasty I kept going back for more.

I also thought while I was there it was very important I ate Thai green curry as its the Thai dish I cook most often at home.  The one I had was absolutely delicious, so much better than anything I've had over here (what a surprise!) - although I think they've got confused about how many people were eating it because it would probably have fed a family of four.  Not to be beaten by a meal I ate the entire thing - I was so happy with it I even remembered to take a picture!

After a few days in Thailand we flew over to Bali and caught our boat (I say our boat but there were mostly Aussies on it so I guess it was their boat) to Nusa Lembongan a beautiful island near Kuta.  We were greeted at our villa with fresh fruit juice and given fish wrapped in banana leaf for dinner.  The banana leaf kept all the moisture and flavour inside and it's definitely something I want to experiment with at home.  If anyone knows where to buy banana leaves in East London please let me know.

The breakfasts we had in Bali were absolutely delicious, I started each day with watermelon juice (a tradition which I have continued since we got home as a weekend treat) and then tried a bunch of different things.  My favourite was the traditional Nasi Goreng - I think this is mainly because I've always been a fan of eating left-overs for breakfast.  It's basically spicy rice and vegetables topped with a fried egg - I'm sure there are many complicated things in there but my Balinese is not good enough to discuss ingredients so I'm going to have to do some Googling to discover that recipe.  They also did lovely pancakes with banana and honey but these were completely different to anything I've ever had at home.  I think of a pancake as either a scotch pancake which is thick, fluffy and suitable for smothering in jam or a thin crepe type which is perfect with lemon and sugar.  These were closer to a crepe in size but thick and slightly doughy - sort of like a crepe-scotch pancake cross.  Anyway, whatever they were they were much tastier than they looked so if you're in the area I would suggest you try them.

We also had some amazing dinners on the island including more chicken kebabs (!), barbecued Mahi-mahi (accompanied by a fantastic selection of cocktails since we were out for my flatmate's birthday), more Mahi-mahi grilled with tomato and rice, and lots of grilled prawns.  I won't gush about all the meals but I will try and recreated them at some point!

Unfortunately in Kuta we were so knackered that we ate crisps and Oreos for the single night we were there so I won't pretend we did had anything amazing there - although on the flight there I discovered Dairy Queen for the first time in my life which I'm slightly embarrassed to say I absolutely loved!!

After that we got to go back to Thailand - a lot of the same food so I won't repeat myself but I also discovered a chicken and cashew nut dish which was so tasty it deserved a picture!  When it's ready they bring out a burning hot flat plate with a saucepan full of food and pour it out at your table (I can't imagine they do this in the non-tourist restaurants but it was fun) - here it is along with my flat mates knee :)

I'm afraid it's quite late now, I've managed to finish going on about all this lovely food and also managed to work my way through an entire bottle of wine (although I should point out it took nearly 6 hours so is entirely respectable!) so many apologies for not checking this properly - if there are any mistakes I'm really sorry!

My perfect Summer salad

When a day has been as hot as today the only thing I really want it a big bowl of salad - and I don't just mean a bowl of lettuce - that's boring!  They always say that the more colours you can get into your meals the healthier they are and I like that as a basis for salads (although I must admit that the majority of colours in my salads are still shades of green)!  In my mind a good salad is made up of three key components: a protein, a carbohydrate and some veggies.  The protein can be meaty such as chicken or ham, or vege such as cheese or eggs.  Carbohydrates include bits like couscous, dough sticks, potatoes, bulgar wheat. The veggies can be whatever you fancy - my personal favourite is avocado (even though it's not technically a veggie), it's also good to bulk out your salad with bits like lettuce, cucumber and celery.

Today's salad is pretty much my favourite mix (although if I had any I would have added in a few tomatoes).

Here's what went in it:

Boiled new potatoes

Boiled egg

Iceberg lettuce

Celery

Roasted & marinated red peppers

Spring onion

Red onion

Avocado

Homemade French dressing

Boil the potatoes for 10-15mins depending on their size, after about 5mins add the eggs to the pan.  Meanwhile chop the lettuce, celery and spring onions and put them in a mixing bowl.  Finely slice the red onion and add that.  I normally shred the red peppers into strips but feel free to chop them instead.  Cut the avocado in half, remove the stone and use a sharp knife to cut it in the skin (without cutting the skin itself) then get a spoon to scoop it all out into your bowl.

When the potatoes and eggs are done plunge them quickly into cold water to stop them cooking.  Remove the potatoes first, cut them while they are still warm and add them to the salad.  Peel and quarter the eggs but don't add these to the main mixing bowl.  If you have trouble peeling eggs I would recommend Jamie Oliver's method, lightly crack all round the egg (top, bottom & sides) then give it a gentle roll across the worktop, this should loosen the shell enough to let you get it off more easily in one go (or at least less go's than normal)!

Stir up all your ingredients (minus the eggs) and put a portion into your bowl/plate and top with the quartered egg.  Make a quick French dressing by putting a teaspoon of Dijon mustard and a pinch of salt in a jam jar, then top that off with white wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil (in a ratio of roughly 1:3 depending on your own taste, you may find you prefer 1:4).  Put the lid on your jam jar and give it a good shake before tasting it and adjusting the ratios if necessary.

After this you just need to dress your salad and stuff your face!

Here comes the sun...

Finally we’ve had some sun!  The summer is my favourite time of year and since we get precious little of it in England I think it’s so important to make the most of it.  I normally spend a silly amount of money on Starbucks iced coffee when it’s hot so over the weekend I decided to experiment with concocting my own – with pleasing results!

I’ve never been very keen on instant coffee so to start off I made a big pot (about 6-7 cups) of strong coffee in a cafetiere.  After it had brewed and been plunged (still something I enjoy doing despite the fact I’m no longer under the age of 10) I poured it into a blender and added 60g soft brown sugar and a good glug of vanilla extract.  To cool the coffee down I chucked in about 8 large ice-cubes (part of the reason the coffee needs to be strong) and set the blender to melt in the sugar and crush the ice.  Once everything had disappeared I added skimmed milk until I got the colour I was looking for – it depends how you like it really but I added about 200ml.  After this I chucked a few more ice cubes in and blended again.  Once all the ice was melted and I had a nice cold drink I poured it all into a jug, chucked some ice cubes in a glass and headed out to the balcony.

All in all it was a very successful experiment (and what’s even better is there was even some left over for this morning)!

A bit of Bank Holiday baking

It’s not that long since I moved into my flat and there are still a few bits that need fixing up.  Obviously the best person to do this is my dad and the best way to get him round is to promise food!

I always think the best bribe will be cake but at the moment I’m trying to get ready for my holiday so I’ve been developing ‘healthy’ cake recipes.  This one is a variation on a great recipe from a kids cook book called ‘Let them eat cake’ – I think it’s called American Chunks.  My variation is made with spelt flour because I think it makes lighter cakes and also isn’t so bad if you have problems with wheat as I seem to.  I also use Clover lighter in all my baking which I’m not sure you’re supposed to but it always makes nice cakes – it does mean you don’t need to add a pinch of salt to any recipes.  I also added chopped prunes and mixed chopped nuts because I like them!

Here’s the finished cake:

  

If you fancy making your own here’s the recipe for what I tend to think of as crack top cake.

Ingredients:

1tbsp cocoa powder

5 tbsp cold water

85g Clover lighter

2 medium free range eggs

225g golden caster sugar

2 tbsp chopped nuts (approx)

100g white spelt flour

1 tsp baking powder

Chopped prunes (optional – feel free to substitute other dried fruits)

Preheat oven to about 150 C for a fan oven (I’ve only ever used the fan but I think you could probably go with about 180 C non-fan in the centre of the oven).

Heat the cocoa powder, water and clover lighter in a non-stick pan until the fat has melted.

Break the eggs into a large mixing bowl, add sugar and beat with an electric whisk (if you have one) until they are light and fluffy.  Add in the chocolate mix and keep beating, also add the nuts and dried fruit at this point.

Add the flour and baking powder into the bowl (some people sift it in but I’m way too lazy), I normally use the electric whisk to incorporate it all in but you could fold it in with a metal spoon.

Pour into a deep baking tray lined with greaseproof paper and put in the oven for 35-40mins (check after 30).  Take it out when the top is firm to the touch and leave to cool for a bit in the tin (don’t worry when the top starts cracking – it’s supposed to do that).

Happy baking!

An experiment in flavoured vodka

A few years ago I saw a recipe for Lemon vodka in a food magazine and decided to try it out, it was very yummy but my friend and I managed to work our way through it in a scarily short amount of time just mixing it with orange juice.  I always slightly regretted that I hadn't been a bit more adventurous with it.

More recently I’ve had great fun experimenting with cocktail ingredients lists and finding the perfect blends for what I’m looking for in an after work tipple (or even a weekend tipple come to that!).  I’ve decided I’m now ready to move on to being a bit more experimental with the drinks I’m making.  I thought I’d better start somewhere fairly simple so after making a few batches of Skittles vodka as Christmas presents this year (I’d just moved house and was more than a little bit skint) I decided to experiment a bit for myself!

Below you will see evidence of such an experiment!

Having had pleasing results with normal skittles at Christmastime I still thought the ‘recipe’ could be improved upon.  I wanted to see if sour skittles might take the edge of that slightly sickly sweetness that went with the normal skittle vodka.  To make it a totally fair experiment I took all the purple and red/pink coloured skittles (my personal favourites) from two small cardboard packs of normal skittles and sour skittles.

Both my flatmate and I are fond of a cocktail or two but we aren’t really shot drinking types except under special circumstances but in order to be totally fair we tried both vodkas in both forms and here are the results.

For shot drinkers I would recommend the normal skittle vodka – the sweetness balances out pretty well with the vodka (although the vodka was still a bit much for me!).  The sour vodka was a bit like drinking apple sours (although obviously this one tasted like skittles) but had a much stronger taste of vodka – I think it you bothered to work it out the percentage here would be higher than a normal apple sours.  For people who just want a few shots at a party either one would suffice – if you’re looking for something to drink over ice you might need to get a bit more fancy.

While the skittle vodka was yummy as a shot it was not suitable for something to take the edge off a long day of work – too many shots and I might not make it in the next day.  We tried mixing the normal skittle vodka with lemonade or with lime and soda but both times it was a bit too sweet.  However this time the sour skittles vodka version was much better, it took the edge of the sweetness of the lemonade while still tasting of skittle-y goodness!

If you fancy running your own skittles vodka experiments you will need only a bottle of vodka (or a pretty bottle and some vodka to put in it) and a pack of skittles.  Depending on what colour you want your vodka to end up you may need to remove some skittles (if you put every colour in you may end up with brown vodka) – as I said I removed all but the red and purple and then ate the rest a cook’s perk.

For when you can't be bothered to cook!

Firstly many apologies for the lack of posts since I set this up - must become more organised!

Today I got home absolutely knackered and couldn't be bothered to even think about food.  I poured myself a glass of wine and settled down to watch Lord of the Rings with my flatmate.  Luckily she got a very long phone call and the film was paused for long enough to make me prise myself off the sofa to make dinner, I decided using my new Le Crueset pan would make getting up worth while!

Unfortunately as I have an electric stove I started with the heat way too high and almost burnt my onions, as you can see it was not such a pretty sight - luckily all was not lost and a tiny bit of water helped me along nicely!

I decided to persevere and lucky I did because I ended up with a most satisfactory meal despite that fact that I am going through one of those boring calorie counting phases.  In case anyone is looking for a yummy but still healthy dinner this is what went in to mine and my flatmate's dinner:

100g Free From Fusilli pasta

2 Red onions sliced

2 Large garlic cloves sliced

3 Medallions of be good to yourself bacon cut up into little pieces with a pair of scissors

1 Red pepper diced

1 Tin tomatoes

Squirt of tomato purée

A shake of dried basil and dried oregano

Salt and freshly ground pepper

Grated cheese

I cooked the pasta separately and fried off all the ingredients putting them in the pan in roughly the same order as they are listed here - once one bit is mostly cooked add in the next etc.  When it was all cooked I stirred the pasta through along with a little bit of the cooking water and then grated cheddar cheese over the top.  You'll be glad to hear despite a shaky beginning it was very tasty and even looked quite nice too!

Bon apetit!

First official yummy adventure!

A meal out last week finally made me decide it’s time to write some of this foodie stuff down and since I like the idea of food writing as an extra to my day job why not make it into a blog!

The meal in question was at Benares.  It was my mum’s birthday and I found an amazing deal on Keynoir for cocktails and canapés for two.  With a lot of these deals you turn up only to find you’re choosing from a totally different menu to everyone else (also it’s still normally pretty good food) – not so with Benares.  The cocktail menu was extensive and there were loads of different options with an Indian influence, I’ve had the chutney martini before and it is very nice indeed – in fact at some point I’m going to have to experiment myself and report back!

The bit I want to write about this time though is the food and specifically the five spiced pickled prawns canapé.  Now I’m not normally a fan of prawns, I was a vegetarian in a former life (age 12-18) and it has had the unfortunate effect of making me very conscious of body parts when eating anything that still looks quite like it did when it was alive.  It’s not the look of the thing but more the texture when you bite through it.  Anyway I was completely expecting not to like eating this giant prawn – especially when I picked it up and found it was chilled rather than hot as I had assumed.  However it was one of the tastiest and most interesting things I’ve eaten in quite I while.  I say interesting not just because I can’t describe to you what it tasted like – although I can’t! – but because the flavours worked together so well that I couldn’t tell one from the other.

After eating this meal I’ve made it my next task to learn more about Indian cooking.  I can already cook a basic curry thanks to my mother and a Jamie Oliver recipe that I cut out of a magazine a few years back but I know very little about the spices and other flavours that go into a curry in their raw form.

I am now on the hunt for recommendations for good Indian cookbook from which I can steal ideas from!

Btw sorry about the lack of pictures in this first entry – I stupidly left my phone in my coat pocket so it was sat in the cloak room for all the time I was stuffing my face!