Deluxe Malteaser Traybake and S'more Parcels

Camping has always been a cold experience for me and so something incredibly chocolately is always needed for energy about 4 o’clock. This year, it was also someone’s birthday and so I decided to try out a Deluxe Malteaser Traybake which I had found on the Goddess’ Kitchen page who in turn had got it from Ruth’s Kitchen Experiment. It was incredibly rich, looked very yummy but was probably a bit sweet for most of the boys, although this meant the girls all got second dibs for once!

As I had a couple of digestives left and was bringing marshmallows, I decided to see if I could make some American campfire treats – S’mores. Traditionally, you toast a marshmallow until soft and then squidge between two graham crackers (closest UK equivalent is digestive biscuits I think) with a piece of chocolate. This creates a homemade wagon wheel (yeehaw!)

I’ve always felt this would be a bit tricky in the dark and so I decided to pre-make some S’more packages for the barbie. These were basically digestive sandwiches with a filling of chopped marshmallow and Nutella. I then packaged each sandwich up in a neat foil package (tight at the edges) and then sat these on the cooling bbq at the end of the night.

These worked a treat and I’ve even made them at home since we’ve been back. These will also be perfect for Bonfire Night.

Thai Basil Chicken

If I had to name my top 5 dishes, Thai Green Curry would definitely be one of them. When I first came to London, I lived in Clapham and used to visit The Pepper Tree frequently for their Thai Green Curry and Big Tum Noodles. I went through a spell of trying everything to recreate their delicious curry. I made fresh curry paste, I found a place that sold Thai aubergines, I even found fresh lime leaves, but somehow something was missing. That missing ingredient turned out to be Thai Basil. For me, that slight aniseed hit really makes all the difference.

Nowadays, I don't often make the paste myself, and I don't often by the Thai aubergines or fresh lime leaves. But the one thing that I will always go to the effort of buying is Thai Basil. A handful of leaves right at the end of the cooking is now essential for me.

The trouble is, in the Chinese supermarket where we buy it from, the basil comes in pretty big bundles. So what to do with the rest of it? The solution that we've come to is the recipe below for Thai Basil Chicken. This is a really tasty recipe that we have with rice. It has lots of sauce and is very flavourful due to the amount of oyster sauce, basil and chillies which are added. This is a slightly adapted version as we added a pepper and some mushrooms leftover. Now I like this dish almost as much as Thai Green Curry.

Ingredients:

- 2 garlic cloves
- 3-4 skinless and boneless chicken thighs, chopped
- 1 onion

- 1 pepper
- 5 mushrooms

- 4 tbsp oyster sauce

- 2 tbsp light soy sauce

- 1 tsp dark soy sauce

- 2/3 cup water

- 2 handfuls of Thai basil

- 2-3 chillies, chopped

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Method:

Heat some oil in a hot wok. Add the garlic and fry until fragrant (20-30 seconds). Add the chicken and fry until opaque. Add the onion, pepper, mushrooms and cook for a further minute. Add the sauces, water and chillies and cook for a further 2 minutes. Turn off the heat, add the Thai basil and stir well. Serve with rice.