Fish Curry

The first thing I did when I got back from my holiday yesterday afternoon was head straight to my local Morrisons to see what interesting things they had in their fish and meat aisles. Kind of depressed after visiting France and being blown away by the sheer variety and quality of produce they have I felt I really needed to redress the balance and remember what our humble supermarkets had to offer.

I wasn't disappointed! Ok, so there was no bread, pates, cheeses or meats anywhere near the quality I'd had over the channel. And the prices were higher. But I found 2 whole red gurnards for £1 each! Fresh curry leaves for just over 50p and, after a visit to the little greengrocer on my road, okra, runner beans, beautiful shiny aubergines, vine tomatoes and fresh chillies. I knew what I wanted to cook.

Ever since seeing a recent Anthony Bourdain show on Penang, where he ate a bubbling fish dish in a claypot I've been craving something similar. This is what I ended up making.

Serves 2

2 whole red gurnards, cleaned and gutted

half can coconut milk

3 cups boiling water

1 White onion, chopped

1 Inch ginger, peeled and diced finely

6 Baby vine tomatoes, halved

5 Runner beans, chopped in half, then half again

1 Aubergine, chopped
2 Red chillies, seeded and halved

7 Okra, chopped

Vegetable Oil

2 Star anise

1 tsp Fenugreek

Around 7 fresh curry leaves

2 tsp Turmeric

3 tsp Cumin

Dried chilli powder

2 tbsp Tamarind Pulp

Prepare the vegetables before starting. Then, heat a generous splash of vegetable oil in a heavy bottom pan and add the star anise and fenugreek. Fry until fragrant, around 2 minutes. Add the chopped white onion, the ginger and the curry leaves and fry for another 5 or so minutes, until the onion is soft. Then, add the turmeric, cumin and as much chilli powder as you would like. Stir to combine. Mix the tamarind pulp with the 3 cups of water and stir until dissolved. Add to the pan. Allow to simmer for around 10 minutes. Fry off the aubergine in a tiny bit of oil in a frying pan. Then add the aubergine, the red chillies and the tomatoes to the curry. Add the coconut milk and stir. Add the gurnards, making sure they are completely covered by liquid. Cook for around 10 minutes, simmering with a lid. Then add the okra and the runner beans and cook until the fish is done (around 5 minutes more). Serve with rice.

Provence Eating

I'm back from a wonderful week in a small village in Provence, which was only marred slightly by the fact I spent the first half completely incapacitated by Tonsillitis and Quinsy (an unfortunate but not hugely unusual happening, as I suffer from ME). The weather was fantastic, I cooked every day and, when I could eat again, enjoyed some really great meals in our beautiful little gite we had hired for the week.

View of the gite from the back road

One of my favourite parts about leaving England is always the supermarkets in other parts of the world, I love seeing the produce and always pick up some things to bring home. I was so impressed with the selection in this part of France. We drove a few times to a large Auchan Hypermarche, where I spent hours looking at the impressive selections of vegetables, meat and seafood. The prices were great as well, we were very well fed and bought whatever we wanted for a far cheaper price than we'd have been able to back in the UK. Not to mention the fact that most of what we bought just isn't available in England like it is in France, leaving me lamenting the fact that beautiful pates, rillettes and huge shell-on prawns just aren't common place in the Asdas and Sainsburys back home.

Our lunches were simple but delicious spreads of pates, cheeses, cold meats and breads and on one day this omelette made with tomatoes, watercress, onions, asparagus and comte cheese. The evening meals were usually barbequed, with some kind of starter (often seafood) and big salads.

As well as enjoying the more traditional foods France has to offer I tried lots of snack foods as well, including the obligatory macarons which we bought from a small bakery in the nearby town of Carpentras (not as good as the ones we can get here in London from Laduree) an amazing meringue that tasted of popcorn! Lots of cakes, eclairs and creamy things and Lays cheeseburger crisps! Which were really good, but a little too sweet.

  
And this. It was described as a kebab on the menu of a small cafe in Carpentras. When it came it was a huge baguette filled with kebab meat, mayonnaise and crispy chips. For €4.30! It was so carby and heavy but so, so good.

 

The town of Carpentras, a 10 minute drive from where we were staying, was beautiful. It has a huge cathedral, lots of amazing architecture and many sweet boutique shops. But my favourite thing was the hand painted signs I saw everywhere I looked.

In the church my Mum lit a candle for her mother, my grandmother, Marika. Who was a fan of cathedrals and their art and, as cookery editor of the Sunday Telegraph until she died in 1982, a big fan of food also!

The shopping was so good in Carpentras, we came away with some Le Creuset expresso mugs and an amazing rhubarb scented candle that smells exactly like stewed rhubarb!

Now I'm trying to cook away the post holiday blues!

Cornwall Weekend

I'm back from an amazing weekend in Cornwall for my uncle's wedding. In between lots and lots of socialising with family members (some of whom I'd never met, most of whom I haven't seen for at least 5 years), too much drinking, some dancing and a few precious walks on the moors I managed to fit a few noteworthy meals in. Although I don't have photographs of it, the wedding meal deserves a mention here as all of it was unbelievable, and the caterers (Tink Gaskell of Tinkers Catering) did an amazing job. We were treated to half lobsters (I may or may not have eaten two and a half), crab claws and shell-on prawns all served with new potatoes and an avocado salad. My kind of wedding food. And I definitely ate an embarrassing amount of it, what can I say, seafood with fresh lemon is something I really, really like, free seafood with lemon is something I like even more. The catering was fantastic and I was lucky enough to also fit in some (a lot of) canapes including lots of smoked salmon toasts, some pesto, mozzarella and sun-dried tomato crostinis, mini spinach filo pastries and the best sausages I have ever eaten.

The night we arrived we were two hours later than expected which stopped my plans of getting a pasty from the famous Chough Bakery as along with pretty much everything in Padstow it was closed. My parents treated me to a meal I've been wanting to have for ages. Fish and chips at Rick Stein's restaurant. I started with breaded oysters which were so delicious and a perfect texture. I loved that they put Tabasco on the table as it was great with the oysters, and I covered my fish and chips in it! My sister had the tiger prawns and gave me the heads (so good!) and I chose battered haddock for my fish and chips, with mushy peas. It was absolutely lovely and the best fish and chips I've ever had. It was also a huge, huge portion! The ambiance in the restaurant was lovely too, communal seating and we were served by a really friendly, chatty lady. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the Cornish beer, which was flat and a bit tasteless, and the white wine didn't come to the table chilled. The bill came to £76.55 for 5 of us with wine and beer and there was plenty of food we couldn't finish.

 

We stayed in Jamaica Inn which has recently rebuilt one wing and was a great base for our weekend, although the beds aren't comfy, the staff are really friendly and energetic. It was kind of spooky after hearing so many tales of ghosts and strange happenings. The only thing I heard was a tapping at around 1AM on the first night, which was enough to stop me being able to sleep until 3.30AM!

The next day was the day of the wedding, but as it wasn't until the afternoon I embarked on a pasty mission and had one from a bakery at Trago Mills, which I've been to lots and is literally the weirdest shopping experience you can have in England. Mine came from a local bakery who's name I can't remember or find out, who supply the rubbish looking takeaway shop there (called Fit T Bust), and was pretty good but too salty and peppery. The meat was delicious though and the pastry was great. To be honest I think there's just something about having a pasty in Cornwall that makes every single one taste really good. But it seems from online reading I missed a trick by not trying the rendition by Warren's Bakery on the same site. Next time.

We then hung out at my other uncle and aunts house until it was time to go and get ready for the wedding. Their house is right out in the sticks, surrounded by the moors and absolutely beautiful, with so many cool touches like this skull on top of a wall. I wish I'd taken more photographs but plan to be back there in the summer. It was so good to see them and my little cousins who are all incredible. If I ever have children who turn out half similar to them I will be a very proud parent indeed! Also my uncle makes a mean bloody mary, and that's coming from the queen of bloody mary's herself.

Despite being a pretty regular visitor to Cornwall as most of my family live there, I really fell in love with it this time. The wedding was so lovely and I hope the bride and groom have a very happy life together with many more delicious lobster dinners to come!

Chicharrónes

Crispy pork skin. Crispy pork skin. CRISPY. PORK. SKIN.

Okay, so it's not something I'd eat everyday for so many reasons, but oh my goodness, is it good.

I always do my shopping online, with Waitrose or Ocado, but I'm so busy that today I didn't need a whole weeks worth of shopping as I'm hardly going to be at home, so I walked to my local Morrisons. Not only did I find a whole, fresh plaice for 81p, beef skirt steak for under £2 and something I've been looking for everywhere - beef shin, but I found pork skin. 3 sheets of it for 30p. I bought the ingredients for guacamole and today's snack was sorted.

I love the Chicharrónes at Wahaca, and Thomasina's book was the first thing I checked for a recipe when I got home. Her recipe was comprehensive and I knew the outcome would be delicious, but it required me to make a spice rub and to dry the pork for 4 hours, which I really couldn't be bothered to do. Some internet searching led me to a really easy recipe from Emeril Lagasse, found here which, although it needed deep-frying (such a bore and let's face it, quite terrifying) it only needed an hour of drying and simply salting. So I decided to do the Emeril Lagasse recipe and a tweaked version of the Wahaca recipe. And see which turned out best! Pork time!

Firstly, a warning: Your house will smell of pork. Actually, when you first open and prepare the raw skin it will smell of something I'm hesitant to even mention on my blog, but let's just say, it's a vital component in baby-making. Then when you simmer it, it will smell of pig. Not pork. Pig. Then it will smell porky while it bakes or fries. Then it will smell delicious and you will want to eat it all.

My version of Wahaca's Mexican Chicharrónes:
Pork Skin (I used 280g)
Salt

Cut the pork skin into pieces roughly half the size of a credit card. Bring a saucepan to the boil and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain the pork skin pieces, dry with kitchen roll and sprinkle with salt. Lay on a rack and place in an oven heated to 50°C for one hour. Preheat the oven to it's highest setting and place the rinds in a single layer on a baking tray. Roast for around 10 minutes, then turn the heat down to 170°C. Roast for around 30 minutes, until crisp but not too blackened. Drain off the fat periodically into a heatproof dish. When they are done, the rinds should be puffed up and golden, but not burnt. Thomasina suggests eating them with plenty of guacamole and a glass of fine ale or tequila.

And here's my really simple guacamole recipe (Serves 2, but double as much as you like for more!):
1 Avocado
Half a red onion, very finely chopped
1 red chilli, finely chopped
Juice from half a lime
Small handful of coriander leaves, chopped
Salt

Peel and roughly chop the avocado, then smash in a pestle and mortar, add the red onion, the chilli and the chopped coriander leaves, smash some more with the pestle to mix. Salt to your taste and add the lime juice. Stir. Serve.

So here's the end result:

The Lagasse recipe didn't work for me at all, although I hate my deep fryer and am awful at deep-frying in general. Every time I do it I swear not to do it again, and then I do, and it's always crap. I fried the cracklings for 10 minutes longer than the recipe suggested and the skin still didn't puff up or crackle, it looked kind of golden but stayed soft and chewy. Total fail. Serves me right for being lazy!

But the tweaked Wahaca recipe was a total revelation. Hello golden, crispy pork skin! I'm so glad I didn't have to deep-fry it because it was so crispy and not at all oily. It tasted of pork, not oil, which is great. It went so well that next time I go to Morrisons I'm going to buy more and do the whole recipe properly, spice rub and 4 hour drying time included! Just a warning though, I could only manage 4 of these little squares. 4! Before nearly having a pork overdose and begging for mercy. Do not make over 200g of this unless you are having a party or are absolutely mad.

Soy Sauce Chicken Wings

Today I planned to get a lot done for my final hand in for university first year, which is in two weeks time. Unfortunately it all required being outside and it started raining the second I set off. I got wet. I'm now tired, and there wasn't much point even going because I didn't get a huge amount done. But I've been looking forward to cooking these chicken wings all day.

Chicken wings are just SO GOOD, and a great choice if you're on a budget. They are very cheap, even if you buy free-range, and (provided you don't deep fry them every single time!) healthy. There are so many variations. You could eat them every night and not repeat a recipe for weeks! Also, they are easy to cook. I don't deep fry mine, mainly because it's fussy and messy and wastes a lot of oil, but also because my behind doesn't need any more encouraging to grow.

Anyway, look at how sticky and good these look. I would actually choose these grilled ones over deep fried every time! I'm definitely making these next weekend when we have friends round. Tonight I served them with a quick shredded cabbage and carrot salad (dress with rice vinegar, sesame oil and a bit of soy sauce) and some rice.

500g chicken wings (wing-tips removed if you want*)
1 birds-eye chilli finely chopped
1 clove garlic mashed
2 tablespoons light soy-sauce
1 tablespoon dark soy-sauce
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon sesame oil
1 lime

*Removing the wing tips and separating the two parts of the wings just gives a cleaner look. Sometimes I do it, sometimes I don't. If you do, save the wing tips and use them to make stock.

Combine the honey, the light and dark soy-sauce, the sesame oil, the chilli and the mashed garlic in a non metallic bowl. Stir. Add the chicken wings. Slice the lime in half and add the juice from one half to the chicken wings marinade. Reserve the other half for serving. Leave to marinade for at least an hour.

Preheat the grill to 200c. Lay the chicken wings on a wire rack above a baking tray lined with foil or parchment and grill until done and nicely brown (around 10 minutes on each side, but keep checking them).

Then serve!

Regional Thai Sausages

Last week, I somehow came to the conclusion that my very purpose in life was to bring the many joys of regional Thai sausages to the people of London. I’m not totally sure how I decided this but I just really love Thai sausages and making foods so it seemed like a relatively good idea. Past-lives may or may not have been mentioned in my many passionate pitches to friends and family on the subject. The main reactions varied between wary, “It’s going to be a lot harder than you think it is” “You can’t just ‘start making your own sausages! It doesn’t work like that” to humorous “You are absolutely mad” and just plain laughing in my face.

Yesterday was spent trying to create 3 master recipes for 3 kinds of Thai sausage. A good portion of it was also spent close to tears and lying on the floor in pain. I don’t know why I was so adamant in thinking I possessed some unused sausage-making gift, able to dismiss anyone’s concerns of how tricky it would be with unashamed confidence and belief. It is really, really tricky to make sausages. It is even more tricky to make sausages with an empty water bottle sawn in half and an upside-down wooden spoon. Pretty much impossible, actually. I made 4 links in an hour and a half and felt like I was about to die. 4 Ibroprufen, 2 Bloody Mary’s and a Kitchen Aid sausage stuffing attachment later, things were sort of looking up. After half of a horribly frustrating hour trying to manually stuff sausages using the Kitchen Aid attachment with the mixer turned OFF I finally realised (was told) that it actually works better if you turn it on. It got a lot easier after that. Although it was still by no means a breeze, and I possess no sausage-making gift whatsoever. I suck. The whole thing (12 sausages) took 5 hours, then a further 2 hours de-porking kitchen, Kitchen Aid and myself.

But my sausages were pretty good! They were far too fat, some split, they were a little dry and I’ve learnt that when you put 15 cloves of garlic in anything you need to cook it really, really well. But they tasted alright! Not 7 hours of slaving in the kitchen fantastic. But pretty good considering some people I spoke to prior to doing it seemed to think stuffing mince meat into intestines and not causing some kind of serious disaster was impossible. I did it! And my first sausages are my babies and I am that irritating parent in the schoolyard going on about how perfect and lovely their genius children are when actually everyone else can see they are horrible, thick, snotty nosed bullies. But they are mine and I love them.

… Although I would happily not see another one for a good few weeks, and I still have 4lb of meat left.