In the Mood for Food

Deluxe Malteaser Traybake and S'more Parcels

2010-09-18T13:12:00.000-07:00

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

2010-09-04T14:24:00.000-07:00

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

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.

Cake Britain

2010-08-27T13:01:00.000-07:00

If you have ever wanted to feel like Hansel and Gretel and eat your way through your surroundings, then make sure you go to the Cake Britain exhibition being held at the Future Gallery. This edible art exhibition is only around for 3 days but on Sunday (29th August), visitors will be invited to eat their way through the art. I popped in yesterday to see the (uneaten) exhibits in their pure form and was impressed by the stag head coloured with sugar crystals. Most of the ‘art’ was created by artists but there was also a competition for the best decorated cake. Sponsored by Tate and Lyle, this made for a sweet exhibition.

Cake Britain, Future Gallery, London 27-29th August 2010

http://www.madartiststeaparty.com/

Tequila - it makes me happy: Mestizo Review

2010-08-22T09:20:00.000-07:00

Lately, I’ve noticed an increase in popularity of “authentic” Mexican restaurants in London. Now, I’ve had many an enjoyable TexMex meal over the years, but having spent a bit of time travelling in Mexico myself, I am keen to see how our capital is representing the country’s fine cuisine. I’ve visited Wahaca a few times which does a pretty good take on Mexican street food, but for a while I’ve been keen to check out Mestizo’s more substantial dishes.

Located on Hampstead Road, close to Euston Station, Mestizo is a smart, contemporary place with a very impressive bar, said to contain a choice of around 120 tequilas. They are currently holding a Margarita Festival (August 2010) and so we were promptly handed a three page margarita menu with variations on the famous cocktail (verging from the inspired to the ridiculous – a Tiramisu Margarita, anyone?!). We ordered a classic and a cherry version to have with our complementary nachos, and fortunately, we chose correctly. I’d even go as far as to say that the Classic was probably the best margarita I’ve had in London.

Although tempted by the tamales, it was the main courses we were there for, and so we went straight for their house specialty, the Molcajete ‘Mestizo’. We chose the chicken version in a chipotle sauce and it arrived shortly after in an impressive, big, sizzling stone pot, which kept the temperature so well I could still feel the steam coming off it ten minutes after it had arrived at our table. This Mexican stew contains (along with the chicken and chipotle sauce) cheese, chorizo, whole spring onions, coriander and avocado; and it’s served with tortillas so you do a bit of DIY to make your own tacos. It was rich and tasty, with the chipotle sauce giving it a that lovely smoky flavour, although chilli fans should not expect to feel a burn It’s more of a comforting, warmth and worked well with the icy zingy margaritas.

With eight tortillas between us, we were pretty stuffed afterwards, so given that we were not particularly inspired by the deserts (Mexican crème caramel, an assortment of ice-creams, cheesecake etc) we skipped straight to coffee. An Americano for me was nothing special (disappointingly, no mention of it being made with Mexican coffee beans) but my boyfriend was duly impressed by the cafe cortado, as he has failed to find a London establishment which can serve a proper cafe cortado or follow his instructions on how to make one. This is definitely more upmarket than your typical Mexican restaurant (think Chilango, Benito’s Hat, the new Chipotle) and the prices reflect this. Most of the mains were around £14, with starters and tacos tending to be around the £7 mark. They were amenable to groups (we saw them twice moving tables together to fit a large group) but it still managed to avoid that cheesy, forced party atmosphere that so many TexMex restaurants try to promote to bring in the Saturday crowds. Will I be back? I don’t see any reason why not to, but on the other hand, I’m just as likely to skip the food and instead head straight to the downstairs bar for some more delicious margaritas, the Classic of course!

Food: 7/10

Ambiance: 7/10

Service: 6/10

Value for money: 5/10

Overall: 6/10

I Heart Bento Boxes

2010-08-18T15:20:00.000-07:00

I've always liked the idea of Bento boxes - a bit of that, some of this, etc, etc. I recently thought I'd look them up online and I've found tonnes of youtube videos on how to make them.

Here are my two favourites but I can't believe they both make octopus sausages. Is this traditional?

And now one showing true devotion! Cool egg mould! (Just ignore the music)

Unpleasant coloured food and drink

2010-08-14T14:46:00.000-07:00

There are certain colours that food should not be: blue and grey.

Blue is just wrong and I don’t expect anyone to dispute that (although I did have a friend who said that as a child they used to be given ‘Alien Scrambled Eggs’ on a Saturday morning by her father who was a dab hand with the food colouring!)

Grey is actually found in a few dishes but has Dickensian connotations of thick lumpy porridge or thin, watery gruel.

With this in mind, I was surprised recently by the new milkshake introduced by a certain fast food chain as part of their Summer menu: the Mars Milkshake - a more un-summery, unappetising drink I can’t imagine. Even in the name of research, I wasn’t keen on tring it but then today I noticed a new poster with the drink contents all touched up to be a deep brown. Presumably business has been slow!

Coronation Chicken in a Warm Baguette

2010-07-19T13:45:00.000-07:00

The base of this recipe came from Economy Gastronomy but with a few frugal tweaks, plus the inability to follow any recipe rigidly. This is amazing served in a crunchy, warm baguette with a bit of lettuce and lots of napkins on hand for spillage, because you can’t help but overfill with this mix!
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You only need a bit of coconut milk so next time, I’d probably try to do it in a week when we were having a curry with a coconut base. Otherwise, you have to become creative. In the end, I just added it to a tropical smoothie I was making (pineapple, banana, mango, milk and the rest of the coconut milk tin).

Ingredients:

Left over chicken, shredded

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 dessertspoon of curry powder

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp turmeric

100ml stock

100ml coconut milk

200g mayonnaise (try Helman’s Extra Light – it’s really good!)

2 tsp chopped herbs (coriander is ideal but don’t buy it especially)

2 tbsp desiccated coconut toasted

Method:

Fry the onion and garlic in a little bit of oil until soft. Add all of your spices and fry lightly for about 30 seconds (You’ll get an amazing smell!)

Add the stock and coconut milk. Boil until its mostly dry. It will not look particularly attractive at this stage but have faith(!)

Allow it to cool completely. Add the mayonnaise, herbs and toasted coconut. Mix together well. Add the cooked chicken, shredded or diced into small bits.

Serve in a warm baguette. Lush!

Chicken Fajitas

2010-07-17T13:24:00.000-07:00

We are big fans of Mexican food in our household. The food is so fresh and vibrant, and inherently fun to eat. None more so than fajitas. This is a great recipe for fajitas and a great way of using up leftover meat.

The secret ingredient here is chipotle paste, which are smoked, dried jalapeno peppers. We found this in Waitrose, made by the Discovery brand. We usually avoid using the pre-made sauces and kits, but this is a great little ingredient, especially given that we cannot easily make this ourselves. A teaspoon of this stuff goes a long way, and we keep finding more and more uses for it.

Ingredients:

Left over chicken, shredded

1 onion

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

Sprinkling of allspice

1 clove of garlic, chopped

1 tin of plum tomatoes

3 teaspoons of chipotle paste

¼ iceberg lettuce

Cheese

Sour cream

4 Tortillas

Method:

Cut the onion into slices. Heat up some oil in a large frying pan, and add the onion, sugar, cinnamon, allspice and some salt and pepper. Cook for a medium-high heat for 15 minutes. Then add the chopped garlic and cook for another 5 minutes.

Add the tin of plum of tomatoes, breaking up the tomatoes into smaller pieces with the back of your spoon. Now add the chipotle paste. Stir in a teaspoon at a time and have a taste to get the spiciness right for your tastes. We like it spicy so we put in 3 teaspoons. Cook on a gentle simmer for 15 minutes.

During this time, prepare your accompaniments. Finely spread the lettuce and grate the cheese. Place these in separate bowls and put on the table, along with the sour cream. Heat the tortillas in a frying pan with a splash of water to stop it from sticking.

Once the sauce has been simmering for 15 minutes check the consistency. It should be fairly thick by now. If not, cook for a big longer. Stir the shredded chicken into the sauce and give it a good stir.

Vietnamese Cold Noodle Salad

2010-07-16T13:36:00.000-07:00

This is yummy on a scorching hot day but you do need to enjoy chopping or have some kind of device that juliennes the vegetables for you easily. Otherwise, you might go stir crazy cutting matchstick size slices!

This comes from our faithful book Blue Ginger by Les Huyh although we added the chicken to his vegetarian salad which we love. The dressing is amazing, so we always make extra and fire up the heat with an extra chilli or two.

We were pleasantly pleased to see Bill Granger doing an incredibly similar recipe on Saturday Morning Kitchen. Pure coincidence but we decided to try the wine recommendation as we spotted in Sainsbury’s later that week. It was very drinkable and reminded us of Sauvignon Blanc.We thought it would have gone better with prawns or oysters rather than chicken but what do we know?!

Ingredients:

Nuoc Cham -
2 long red chillies
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons sugar (we use palm sugar)
Juice of 1 lime
3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablespoon vinegar

Salad -

2 Portions of rice noodles

2 carrots

1 cucumber

¼ iceburg lettuce (optional)

1 handful of mint leaves

Left over chicken, shredded

Method:

First make the Nuoc Cham. Pound the chillies and garlic into a paste with a pestle and mortar (or use a small food processor. Add the sugar, lime juice, fish sauce and vinegar with 2 tablespoons of water. Stir well until the sugar dissolves.

Now cook the noodles. Boil the kettle, place the noodles in a large bowl, and then cover the noodles with boiling water for about 10 minutes or until they are soft. Meanwhile, prepare the vegetables. Julienne the carrots and cucumber and finely shred the lettuce.

Mix together the vegetables, mint, chicken, noodles and Nuoc Cham. Serve.

Wine: Sainsburys TDD Albarino Rias Baixas 2009

Tumbledowns - Chicken

2010-07-15T13:04:00.000-07:00

When you’ve only got two people in the household, it can sometimes be a challenge to have a variety of home cooked meals during the week without having a load of half-used ingredients left over and going off in the fridge.

Borrowing the terminology from the book and series “Economy Gastronomy” by Paul Merrett and Allegra McEvedy, my boyfriend and I are trying to choose a “bedrock” ingredient for the week which once cooked, can then be turned into a variety of delicious dishes.

This week, our local supermarket had chickens on offer, so that’s what we went for. We have quite often roasted a chicken during the weekend and used the leftover during the week, but this time we decided to poach it.

This proved to be such an effortless way of cooking a chicken we will definitely be doing it again.

You cover the chicken with water and add carrots, 1/2 onion, peppercorns, bay leaves and various herbs. You slowly bring it to the boil (covered) and then let it lightly simmer for 20 minutes. You then turn off the heat and allow it to cool in the pan, which ended up taking about 2 hours.

The chicken comes out a healthy white and was immediately stripped of its skin. Carve it all up and we were left with two tupperware dishes of chicken for the week.

See, the next entries for what we did with the chicken.

Svalbard Global Seed Vault

2010-07-13T20:10:00.000-07:00

I thought this story from the BBC website was quite interesting. It’s about a vault in the Arctic Archipelago where seeds from the main food crops are stored. Several kinds of rare chilli seeds had been delivered, including some cultivated by Native Americans.

What an amazing idea! Its cool to think that somewhere there is this magical vault containing the building blocks of all the food that we eat today. It’s designed in case some kind of natural or man-made disaster wipes out our crops and all seems very 2012 (the disaster movie about the possible end of the world) but also quite comforting.

To learn more about the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, go here.

The Lasagndwich

2010-06-20T13:02:00.000-07:00

A 'Brangelina' idea of horrific proprtions was drawn to our attention by the Guardian's Word of Mouth blog. It was however, too good to keep to myself!

The Lasagne sandwich has come to Tesco!

Breakfast Apple Sundae

2010-06-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Easy-peasy!

I love apples but tend to go through phases of eating 2 a day for a week and then ignoring them petulantly for 2 weeks. This is what I do with slightly bruised/waxy skinned/wrinkled apples or when I just don't fancy them raw.

This is so easy that I don't really use measurements, just throw it all together but those of you who prefer exact amounts then here you go:

Ingredients:

4 apples, peeled, cored and any really bad bits (actual rot, yuk!) cut out

1 tbsp sugar (or sweetener if you are waist conscious)

1 tsp cinnamon

150ml water or apple juice

1 tsp butter (optional)

Method:

Chop your apples into small pieces. [Chop - I'm doing a Gordon voice here]
Add the butter to a warm, large saucepan. [Melt.]

Add the apples and swirl the butter over them. [Swirl]

Add the sugar and cinnamon. [Stir.]

Add about 100 ml of the water [Slosh]

Turn the heat up high until the sugary water starts to bubble. Lower the heat and cover the pan.

Keep on the hob for about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add the extra water if it gets too dry.

The fruit should be very soft now and all cinnamony brown. If you chopped very small or like it with a bit of texture, leave as it is. If you prefer it smoother, use a potato masher to mash the apples. Allow the mix to cool.

Now get a large wine glasss and layer your apple mix with greek yoghurt, crunchy cereal and drizzles of honey. End with a yoghurt layer and sprinkle with chopped nuts (pistachio look most impressive).

Fancy breakfast!

Fruit flavours

2010-06-11T13:55:00.000-07:00

The gorgeous weather has brought lovely salads and fresh fruit platters to the forefront and its hard not to get a little bit over enthusiastic at the shops and come back clutching bags of apples, cherries and even a large watermelon ["I carried a watermelon", cue Dirty Dancing Music].

Unfortunately, we've been quite busy at the C&L Towers and the fruit has started to languish in the corner of our warm kitchen. Every piece is a bit too soft and squashy for our fussy tastes but it seems awful (financially and morally) to just through it in the bin.

So what to do with:

- 2 limp, brown, brown banana

- 3 slightly wrinkled nectarines

- 4 bruised and waxy apples

- 1/4 punnet of over-ripe cherries?

Here is what I have come up with:

- Breakfast Apple Sundae

- Low fat Banana Cinnamon Bread

- Poached Nectarines in Cherry Syrup

See the next entries for pics and recipes!