King prawn and Chicken Laksa

Enough with the potatoes and gravy it's time for some refreshing spicy flavours and a bit of a health kick so here is a really simple and delicious laksa recipe with abnormally bright photo's, not sure what happened there!

2 shallots
2 red chillis
2 lemon grass sticks
Piece of ginger cut into thin batons
pack of deboned and skinless chicken thighs
handful of king prawns or any other prawn!
2 tbsp of fish sauce
1tsp of shrimp paste
1tbsp of brown sugar
500ml chicken stock
1 tin of coconut milk
1 lime
handful of beansprouts
baby leaf spinach
rice noodles
1tsp of veg oil





Finely chop your lemongrass and chilli and cut the ginger into matchstick shapes.


Fry in some oil for a few minutes


Add your chopped chicken thighs and shrimp paste but cook only for a minute before adding the coconut milk and stock or they won't be tender. You can use breast if you like but thighs have loads more flavour


Let it simmer for around 10 minuites and add the beansprouts and spinach near the end so they don't overcook.


Add the lime juice, fish sauce and if you are using prawns that ready cooked add them at the last possible moment so they don't loose there flavour.


I put some thinly sliced cucumber to garnish and would have put some coriander on to if I had remembered to buy some!


My eyes!!!! The brightest photo ever taken, sorry about that!

Christmas Day

I spent Christmas at my mum's house in Kent and took my camera with intending to take photo's of all the lovely food but my camera ran out of battery before I got to the food!
We had lovely little canapes including smoked salmon and dill sauce on blinis, chicken parfait on toast and brown shrimp. For our starter we had a seafood platter with snow crab, prawns, mussels with home-made aloi.
We never have turkey at Christmas because none of us like it and we always have rib of beef and goose instead and everyone has there special side dish they ask for at Christmas, mine is always cauliflower cheese!
For pudding we had trifle and plum pudding with brandy butter and of course there was a cheeseboard! Hope you all had a lovely Christmas!x

Pear and Chocolate Crumble

All of a sudden it got really cold and all I want to do is hibernate underneath my duvet with stews and hot puddings and what is easier to make than a buttery crumble with sticky caramelised fruit and some chocolate chunks thrown in for good measure.
I used apple as well as pears in my crumble just for a bit of different texture and flavour.

Pears
Apples
Plain flour
Butter
Chocolate chunks dark or milk
Rolled oats
Muscadova sugar
Lemon juice



To make my crumble topping I used plain flour, butter, oats, muscadova sugar and chunks of milk chocolate.



I would never normally cook my fruit before putting it in the oven but sometimes pears need a little help or they can turn out quite hard so I fried them off in butter and muscadova sugar while covering the apples in lemon juice and a bit of sugar and left un-cooked.




I baked it in the oven for around 20-25Min's, some of the chocolate chunks on top got slightly burnt at the edges but still tasted lovely.




I just dollop some extra thick cream on the side but it would be lovely custard or vanilla ice cream, I love the combination of hot and cold.

Food Bloggers Unplugged

I have been tagged in 'Food Bloggers unplugged' by the lovely Jennifer from L'heure du the' and it's the first time Ive ever been tagged in anything in the food blogging world so yey for me!


What or who inspired you to start a blog?

Well to be honest I was kind of forced into doing my blog by my boyfriend who was getting increasingly frustrated with my food obsession and he said I needed an outlet for it and so suggested (made) me start a blog. I thought blogs were for socially inept weirdo's if I'm perfectly honest but I am happy to say now that it was one best idea's he has ever had because I love it and your not all weirdo's, hooray!

Who is your foodie inspiration?

My first foodie inspiration is most defiantly my lovely Mummy who worked as a chef for many years and instilled the importance of locally sourced, organic, home-grown and home-made food into me and my brother
My brother and I were bought up to appreciate and love good food and we were always in the kitchen helping her whilst learning. I still ring my Mum if I need help with a cooking question!

Your greatest, batter-splattered food/drink book is?

I have a few books I return to time and time again including Nigel Slaters 'Real Food' I mean who wouldn't love a book that has chapters that are devoted entirely to chocolate and sausages?! Another all time favourite is Simon Hopkinson's 'Roast Chicken and Other Stories' and I adore the way it is written.
Last but not least is Nigella Lawson 'Christmas', what can I say Christmas is my favourite time of year and Nigella's book is the kind you really can sit in bed with a cup of tea and read late into the night, love it.

Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it, what as it?

That is a hard question to answer but I would actually have to say it would be having breakfast in Australia which isn's amazingly exciting but god I adored the breakfast out there, sweetcorn fitters with creme fresh, rocket and sweet chili sauce or gorgeous eggs benedict with home-made sour dough bread or roast mushrooms, tomatoes, spinach and scrambled eggs or ricotta pancakes with figs and honey, the list could go on!

Another food blogger's table you'd like to eat at is?

I want to eat at so many other food bloggers tables, I couldn't even begin to list them!

What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object of course)?

I'm going to say the most given answer ever probably but I want a kitchen aid really badly!!

Who taught you to cook?

My Mum taught me to cook and Ive always been one for reading 100's of cookbooks and finding out the answers to things by looking on the Internet. I hate following recipes so am very much a trial and error kind of girl!

I'm coming to you for dinner, what's your signature dish?

My signature dish would have to be a traditional Sunday roast with all the trimmings wrther it be a roast chicken with a lemon in the cavity rubbed with butter and herbs, or rare roast beef or pork belly with crackling and apple sauce. I always make home-made Yorkshire pudding no matter what the meat is and my creamed leeks with a bit of mature Cheddar stirred in, goose fat roast potatoes, mashed carrot and swede, cabbage and roast parsnips all covered in a lovely wine flavoured gravy.

What is your guilty food pleasure?

Anything with synthetic cheese like cheese moments or dairylea dunkers, I can't help myself.

Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn.
When I was a tiny baby my Dad was in a play in the west end and the legendary Jack Nicholson came to see it and at the end he came backstage to meet the cast. He went to my Dad's dressing room where I was with my Mum and he asked if he could hold me which of course was fine! So I have been held in the arms of Jack Nicholson, Ooh and I guess some of you may not know Im heavily tattooed!

Your ment to pick five more bloggers to pass the questions on to but Ive been naughty and chosen 6, sorry it was to hard to pick 5!

Gary from Exploits of a Food Nut

Olivia from la bonne bouff

The wonderful lady from The Art of Being Perfect

The Very lovely Beach Hut Cook

And Good Food In A Crap Kitchen

Lovely Phil from As Strong as Soup

Trip to Amsterdam and lot's of yellow food

I have spent the last week in Amsterdam with my lovely friend who came all the way from Australia to spend some time in the UK AND Europe. I had never visited Amsterdam before as I have generally associated it with groups of men on drunken stag do's and getting stoned in coffee shops neither if which I have an interest in! It turns out it has some really gorgeous architecture but I'm not entirely convinced of the food as it all seemed to consist of fried or baked things covered in whipped cream of a whole list of different sauces to put on chips, but sometimes yellow food is good and who doesn't like cake!!




Some kind of cheese sauce on raw onions and chips, to be honest it wasn't that bad!


The waffles with whipped cream were amazing












One of the best things they had over there was hot chocolate, I was given a stick with rich Belgium chocolate to stir into hot milk with whipped cream and it was the best hot chocolate I had ever had but I didn't take a photo like a fool. I enjoyed my stay in Amsterdam and would love to go back again but must try not to eat so many chips and waffles next time....

It's been so long, here is a bit of everything!

Sorry for being a bad blogger and not posting anything for awhile, I have been very busy with my new job and life and stuff but have been taking a few photo's here and there of lovely food I have made so here are Lot's of things in one post!


I made a lemon tart with puff pastry instead of shortcrust as that is all I had but it was bloody gorgeous. I used un-waxed organic lemons, double cream, melted butter, eggs and extra egg yolks and icing sugar to make my tart.


This is a chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella and wrapped in parma ham that I roasted in the oven with spicy chorizo and vine tomatoes. I served it with wilted spinach and a proper baked potato, I hate microwave baked potatoes they are a disgrace!


Here is the start of my roast chicken and veg soup that I made using left over roast chicken, homemade chicken stock and Lot's of leeks, carrots, butternut squash, cabbage and whatever other veg I could find


Yummy roast chicken and veg soup


I didn't make this but I had to show you guys a photo, it was my boyfriend's Birthday and lot's of us went to his friends Thai restaurant for dinner and I had stuffed squid and it came out with this amazing carved bird on the side! Apparently one of the chefs spends hours carving animals out of carrots in his spare time and they use for decoration, fabulous!


A pile of beautiful wild mushrooms foraged by my Mother and given to me to use in my cooking.


I got a duck crown and roasted it stuffed with apples and onions and put whole apples that I cored in for good measure.


I somehow managed to delete the picture of my whole roasted duck because I am a fool but I can assure you it was lovely.


I served it with braised red cabbage, duck fat roast potatoes and redcurrant gravy.

I will be doing a proper post very soon!

Smoked Mackerel Kedgeree

I love Kedgeree but I have never made it with curry powder or smoked haddock instead I like to make it with smoked mackerel, turmeric, cumin and chili powder, it's very delicious.

Basmati Rice
Smoked Mackerel
Frozen petite pois
Onion
Free-range eggs
Turmeric
Chili Powder
Cumin
Salt

It's so simple to make, just cook your rice, fry the chopped onion in the spices and hard boil your eggs and peas. Mix it all together and flake the mackerel in near the end and that's all there is to it.


Lovely Peppered smoked mackerel


Free range eggs from my Mum's chickens, look at the lovely pale blue one!





There is a very noticeable contrast in the photo's I have taken as the brighter ones are in my kitchen and the softer looking ones were in my living room under my lamp whilst I was eating the kedgeree but I can assure you it's the same kedgeree!