Old El Passé

Yes. They do go well together. Very well.

You might well think - oh god another food blogger (yes I am), bet she's a right snob when it comes to food. Well, no. I'm not. I like a decent shortcut every now and then, and one of my ultimate comfort dinners is fajitas. From a dinner kit. Yes that one.

But hold your horses and sighs of no-cooking-needed relief. I'm fine with shortcuts but I also love spending time actually cooking, so getting out of the kitchen quickly isn't always a good thing. I tend to embellish every sauce, dinner kit, paste or other shortcut (including Paxo).

Roast dinner leftovers

Forget expensive chicken breasts. On Sunday we had a lovely roast chicken. A roast dinner works out far cheaper and tends to generate some amazing leftovers for the week following - even with our huge appetites. This week we used our chicken in a comforting risotto and, for the first time, risked using it in a fajita dinner kit.

Slow(er) cooking

Quite by accident, my man's late arrival home from the football meant things cooked for far longer in the pan. Turns out slow cooked sliced red onions, green and red peppers, scraps of roast chicken and the fajita seasoning turn into something a bit magical. I threw in a handful of chopped coriander and some diced fresh mini plum tomatoes just to freshen up the mixture. 

Sides

Old El Paso kits miss a key ingredient for any Mexican meal though. Guacamole is so simple to make and I may as well make something a bit authentic to accompany this dinner.

For two people, mash one large ripe avocado. Finely grate about one quarter of a small red onion and half a small clove of garlic. Finely slice some coriander, squeeze in the juice of half a lime and stir through. Season with salt and pepper and finally stir in a little finely chopped red chili and tomato.  

Your kit will come with a just-ok salsa, so if you want it spicy, throw in some chili. If you want it chunky, stir in some fresh tomato. We are a generation of supermarket lovers and these prescribed dinner shortcuts scare us into thinking we can't play with them. We can!  

The result

So we've got slow cooked shredded fajita chicken, fresh guacamole - and I included some leftover watercress and a nice bit of grated cheese in each tortilla. I might have cheated, but I feel anything but guilty.

The perfect brownie

Wow. Just wow. 

Office brownie from The Hummingbird Bakery cookbook lovingly made by Vix from the team.

 

Food hell

On reading the Guardian's article on Britain's most hated foods, I realised that I started something I never finished: my food hell.
Waaaaaaaay back in November 2010 I posted a little something about the evil disguised as food that is Scotch eggs. My opinion stands but this is just the tip of the food hell iceberg.  
Come into my courtroom....

Defendant 1 - Shop bought coleslaw

I'm going to write this under the rationale that everyone has seen Never Been Kissed. You have right? Drew Barrymore being adorable. David Arquette being.... David Arquette. Popular kids and High School nerds. All the usual tripe that gets me scoring films 9/10 on IMDB. 

Well, there's this one scene that fills me with dread, where Arquette's character necks a cafetiere-sized bucket of coleslaw. Shop-bought coleslaw is the food of Satan. Mayonnaise? Mayonnaise my arse. This is salad cream in all its evil genius glory, overbearing and smothering those poor lovely shredded vegetables. They never even had a chance... GUILTY!

Defendant 2 - Brussels sprouts

Damn you Christmas! All I've ever done is love you and yet you delight in tormenting me year on year with these little green bastards. Hidden under roast potatoes for years of my childhood  ("just one Nathalie" - yes just one, but it's ruined the flavour of my mouth for the whole of the 25th December) I'm happy to say I've almost completely rid myself of the enduring terror of the Brussels. Better still, they sell them on trendy sticks nowadays and I can pretend I'm morris dancing. Still, GUILTY!

Defendant 3 -  Cottage cheese

When I googled cottage cheese I ended up looking at a picture of a woman's cellulite-rich thighs. Nuff said. GUILTY!

Defendant 4 - Stilton

You know cheddar cheese? You know when it gets mould on it and you THROW IT IN THE BIN? That. GUILTY CHEESE!

Defendant 5 - Baked beans

Yes, that is Pete Townsend

Many of the comments following the aforementioned article focused on the issue of texture. Mushrooms and bananas prove a huge issue for so many people. I've been there. I hated mushrooms, bananas and, in fact, tomatoes for that very same reason. But flavour won over in the end and I eat all three of these squeaky/hairy weirdos regularly.

Back to baked beans.  I feel a bit peculiar just talking about these. There are enough of these in a tin to mount an army. I can feel the film forming inside my cheeks, I can smell the metallic nasties threatening to be eaten cold in the tin.

You know the way they slowly spread on the plate? Like the mercury puddle in Terminator 2 (or Alex Mack for that matter) they threaten to intoxicate all good fry-ups everywhere. Someone! Anyone! Save my bacon! GUILTY!

Defendant 6 - Egg mayonnaise sandwiches

They stink, and if you eat these in public I probably hate you (a bit). GUILTY!

Defendant 7 - Hersheys chocolate

America. Land  of the plenty. Land of the vomit aftertaste. GUILTY!

I'm not fussy though, honest!

Nx

What's on the menu?

I had to share a fellow food blogger's post, which manages to combine what I do for a living with one of the things I like most. That's food, if you hadn't guessed.

Melissa Loves Food's post What I want from a restaurant website rejects the nonsense (nonsense nonsense!) and embraces simplicity. Enjoy!

Nx

Old spice

Surely a sign of age, I have suddenly become a convert to dark chocolate. That's the sensible person's choice right? 

I am veering away from my family sized bar of Galaxy days and erring towards a respectably-sized bar of Divine 70% dark chocolate. 

Old, wise and bitter.

Nx

Brits abroad

I've just returned from my first ever all inclusive holiday which I spent in beautiful sunny Mexico.

One of the things I most look forward to when jetting off on my hols is - no surprises - the food. This was no exception. Uh, hello? It's Mexican food!

In true Rambo style, Rich bought himself a warm-up burrito the day before the flight, just to line his stomach for the onslaught of pinto beans, various tortilla incarnations and churros we were about to indulge in. We've watched Thomasina Miers banging on in Spanish about what Mexican mama used to make-a, so we think we know what's coming. We're actually rubbing our hands together with anticipation.

But authenticity was not to be. It seems all inclusive means only one thing: Brits abroad. It's beer and chips and that old British favourite - Chinese. 

OK, I'm being slighty harsh. The food was fine. We had a fancy Italian restaurant and an actually rather decent Japanese. But for all the restaraunts on site just one was Mexican. It felt like a dumbed-down version of what the staff would have made at home, outside of this resort, full of plonkers, who wouldn't know a good authentic meal if it punched them in the face.

A lesson learned. We hope to return to beautiful, friendly Mexico one day and, although we might not give up the nice hotel, we'll certainly be venturing a little further into their exciting world of food.  

Mexico - 5, All inclusive - 0.

Nx

Obamarama

Sooooo, Obama likes to be the bearer of birthday cakes. Awesome.
 

A full slideshow of the patisserie president in action can be found at bonappetit.com.

Nx

Gilly's Jubilee cake

Check out this queen-sized beauty my friend Ms Tayler just posted. Happy Jubilee everyone!

Om nom nom nom nom

It is important that I stress how much I LOVE this.

Eaten less

Last night I made Eton Mess for the first time. 

After a minor op I've not been able to do any exercise for the last two weeks so am feeling a bit fatty boom booms to say the least. With this in mind I thought the main ingredient of double cream might just be a muffin top moment too far.

Everyone knows I love a good Greek, so step forwards Total 0% Greek yoghurt to kick the cream to the kerb. Did it work I hear you say? Hell yeah! Rich? Check. Creamy? Check. Still naughty? The meringues and booze say...Check! 

Here's what I did...

Smug Eton Mess

Ingredients (4-6 desserts)

8 pre-bought meringue nests (I got mine in ASDA)

1 large tub Total 0% Greek yoghurt

1 large tray of raspberries

1 small punnet of strawberries

1 tray of blueberries (optional but good for a bit of colour)

1 tbsp icing sugar

Splash of cherry brandy

How to make it

About half an hour to an hour before you intend to eat the pudding, grab about a third of each punnet of fruit  and put into a bowl with the cherry brandy and icing sugar. Using a fork, mash the fruit into a pulp and leave to mascerate (a new word I learned - mash/marinate I'm guessing). 

When you're ready to make the dessert, whip up the greek yoghurt with a spoon so it's nice and smooth. Fold into the mascerated fruit. 

Put 4 of the meringues into a bag and bash with a rolling pin until it's a mixture of breadcrumbs and small pieces. Pour this into the yoghurt and fold in. 

Spoon this into some nice dishes or glasses then crumble on the remaining meringues (allow one per person) so there are some bigger chunks to crunch on. 

Garnish with remaining fruit and, if you're feeling a bit cheffy, some mint leaves.

Afraid there are no photos this time. It was far too nice to stop for pictures!

Nx

30 minute miracles

About a year ago, 'the book man' came into my workplace. A few days later he returned with cardboard boxes full of copies of the same book. Most of the two adjoining offices had been swung by the rumours. It had turned into actual gossip. Everyone was talking about Jamie's 30 Minute Meals.

I have a huge pile of cookery books, many of which are looking sad, collecting dust and grease in my kitchen. But I've cooked more recipes from this book than any other. As I fell for the office gossip, I've become a bit of a preacher about this book myself....

Fear no evil

Everyone questions whether these meals can be done in 30 minutes. They can. But there's small print. 
You need  certain equipment to get you through. If you don't have a food processor you can pretty much rule out about 70% of the book. It's there to create the sauces, pastes, marinades which create the big flavours. It's also there for short-cutting the slicing and dicing when you don't have the knife skills of Senor Oliver.

The path of the righteous man

I'm boring old White British. We don't have a lot to sing and dance about when it comes to food unless you're willing to go foraging for regional produce on the roadside. So I don't have anything to be protective over when it comes to cuisine. I think everyone knows that, thanks to his surrogate father-son relationship with mentor Gennaro, Jamie's speciality is Italian. 
In this book, Jamie spreads himself pretty thinly. You're given elements of Mediterranean, Malaysian, Thai, Indian, Moroccan, Jamaican and Mexican. But don't expect 100% authenticity. On cooking the Satay recently, I was offered an alternative authentic recipe to try by somebody who had grown up in Malaysia and questioned Jamie's methods. So one recipe leads to another - bonus!

Praise be

So, my favourites? WITH a star rating? Oh, go on then...

• Broccoli Orecchiette - Sounds boring, isn't. ****
• Pregnant Jools' pasta - Leftover sausages = gorgeous comforting ragu ****
• Curry Rogan Josh and carrot salad - perfect for friends (including vegans) ****
• Chicken pie, French style peas and carrot smash - Absolute favourite - mega moreish *****
• Mustard chicken, quick dauphinoise - A great beginner's guide to dauphinoise ***
• Tray baked chicken, squashed potatoes - One of the healthier options but still loads of flavour ***
• Chicken skewers, satay sauce and fiery noodle salad - Gorgeous, sweet and spicy (but not authentic!)****
• Tasty crusted cod, mashy peas, homemade tartare sauce - Bit fiddly, bit expensive but very tasty, better for a big crowd ***
• Asian style salmon, fiery noodle salad - ***
• Kinda sausage cassoulet - So easy, even my kitchen-fearing fella will cook it ****

I'm not on commission from Jamie (or Gowd) but I do worship at the altar of food. Enjoy!
Nx

Prague patisserie

A few weeks ago, we went on a last minute getaway to Prague. The thing about Prague is, it's very pretty but it's really not good for rampant foodies. 

Unless you're a tuck-your-napkin-into-your-top meat and potatoes kind of person, you might be a bit alienated by their menus (pork knee anyone?). 

Pork knee - it's a real thing!

Vegetarians, beware! Vegans, don't bother! (Sorry Mr Middleton). During one sitting, in an attempt to manage even one of my five a day, I ordered a portion of green beans. Lucky me - they came with a side of BACON - of course.

The crux of this post is that we did have a lull in our culinary drought. In the Kampa area, our favourite part of the city, we discovered Cafe Savoy. Very French and very expensive but the patisserie counter sucked us in (plus, the chefs looked like the master chocolatiers from those Lindt ads). 

In a normal situation we should have shared a cake but, as we were deficient in just about every major food group other than red meat, we decided this was a special opportunity to stock up on sugar and dairy. 

Rich opted for the made-famous-by-Great-British-Bake-Off Sachertorte. Thin layers of light chocolate sponge sandwiched together with kirsch, cherries and chocolatey goodness, all smothered in a shiny ganache glaze. Mary Berry would have been proud.  

I went for a journey back to childhood. One of my favourite cakes growing up was a slice of chocolate swiss roll from Food For Thought deli in Totnes (god that sounds posh). Instead of the fluffy icing sugared cream, the Prague version had a chocolate cream filling with a banana running through the middle. Despite this - err... interesting recipe, my wedge of cake really was beautiful. It felt like my birthday all over again. 

In conclusion - journeying to Prague? Don't miss Cafe Savoy. Oh, and pack a bag of apples. 

N.x

Thyme of our lives

On Friday I turned 29. Rich surprised me by whisking me away to the Cotswolds for the weekend. What's more, he announced we were finally going to have a proper anniversary celebration (previously cursed by illness) and go out for a slap-up meal - err, what else?

The restaurant in question was the Wild Thyme in Chipping Norton. (Yeah, yeah - we were destined to have a wild time. Already fallen for this slightly with blog title...apologies. You know I can't resist a terrible pun.)

Wild Thyme is a modest looking place with fewer than 10 tables in the main part of the restaurant. The atmosphere is warm, cosy, welcoming and, despite the upper price range of the menu, there was not a hint of pomp about the place (well... except perhaps for some of the local clientele - residents of Chippy include Jeremy Clarkson - nuff said). 

Front of house were polite, not pushy and all the things you tend to have to ask for just appeared as if by magic. Water was provided and topped up - no hidden charges; gourmet nibbles were laid out on arrival - no pre-fingered bowls of nuts, just cool juicy olives and a brilliant popcorn, parmesan and parma ham fingerbowl (really very good indeed).

The menu makes reference to the chef's passion for seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. This ethic may have been done to death but it still packs a punch with me. Plus, when you've strayed from your own neighbourhood, it's an opportunity to really sample the best of British.

On reading the menu it was pretty clear that the full three courses was going to be essential. You can see for yourself we had a tough decision on our hands. 

Rich chose the saute lambs kidneys, shallot tatin, butternut squash with Djion cream, while I opted for the oven baked blinis with Cornish crab and Upton smoked salmon, poached egg with light hollandaise . 

For mains, I enjoyed melt-in-the-mouth Cotswold guinea fowl; poached and roasted breast, confit leg tortellini, puy lentils, savoy cabbage, crispy pancetta, shitake mushrooms and chicken veloute. Rich inhaled (it's really the only way to describe it) the local Tamworth pork; braised and roasted belly, pig cheek on horseback, black pudding, truffle mash, glazed apple, buttered carrots, shallot jus (and breathe). 

We both agreed that the main courses were two of the best meals we had ever eaten. Sad as it sounds, it's one of those life highlights where you just feel privileged to be able to experience food of such a high standard. 

Rich finished with a trio of rhubard puddings (where would we - or indeed, Masterchef contestants - be without a trio?), appropriately named Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb; crumble, steamed sponge, ice cream, while I got stuck into the crispy apple tart and vanilla ice cream.

I could talk for hours about the food. The textures, the seasoning, the freshness were all just so striking. Before I forget, we opted for a bottle of Gran Sasso Montepulciano D'Abruzzo which was uh-mazing; we struggled to let it last the meal - very guzzleable indeed.

So, Wild Thyme - well, we didn't have a WILD time per se... but we did have a very special and very memorable one. I can't recommend this restaurant highly enough - trust me, it's worth a fleeting visit.

Bananarama

Continuing with the must-bake-more promise, I've definitely discovered my foolproof banana bread recipe. Step forward Gregg Wallace (or egghead as my other half affectionately - and I do mean that - calls him), whose Banana and Walnut Loaf recipe is just perfect. 

My only addition? Chocolate of course. A handful in the mix and a few sprinkled on top for added crunch. 

Voila!

Can we do it? Yes ve-gan!

It's not often that you're given the perfect opportunity to sample a completely different diet. Last weekend our lovely friends the Middletons came to stay. Mr Middleton is vegan. This was our opportunity.

I was adamant that this was not going to be a cop out. I wanted us all to eat the same meal and for nobody to feel like they'd compromised or lost out. I couldn't bear the idea of this being like Come Dine With Me where the sad little vegetarian gets a mushroom with a lump of tofu while everyone else eats fillet steak.

I did my research (thank you internets) and wrote a meal plan. Here are the results...

Friday dinner

• Cauliflower, butternut squash, spinach and chick pea rogan josh; spiced carrot and almond salad; soya yoghurt; chapattis, poppadoms and pickles. 
•  Vegan chocolate cake

This is yet another of Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals which we've cooked a few times before. With that in mind it was less of a risk but I was still relieved to discover every single ingredient was vegan. This recipe uses Patak's Rogan Josh paste and their website was detailed enough for me to check its ingredients.

The only switch I made was from natural yoghurt to soya yoghurt on the side. (I failed. Having grabbed without reading the label, I was inches away from scooping a nice dollop of summer berries soya yoghurt on the side of the curry. Oops.)

The cake was billed as the best chocolate cake in the world ever ever even though its vegan - honest mum. So... with that billing, I thought I'd better give it a go.
Sure enough, despite the lack of eggs (vegetable oil as substitute) and butter (soya margarine as substitute), this was a surprising success.

Brownie-like in texture, the cake didn't rise much but had a satisfyingly squidgy texture and was topped off with a sticky chocolatey glaze. The secret ingredient it seemed to me was the vanilla essence which provided extra sweetness to compensate for the lacking dairy richness.

I'm happy to report, the cake was a success with Mr Middleton but even more jaw-droppingly, with my man the dairy fiend Mr C. Score!

Saturday breakfast

• Herby garlic mushrooms on toast
• Granola with soya yoghurt (summer berries in fact!) and fresh fruit (I picked mango, blueberries and red grapes).

Having said we didn't compromise, Mr Middleton opted for the granola so a rogue knob of butter was dolloped into the garlic mushrooms - but I'd like to make clear that THE THOUGHT WAS THERE.

Saturday lunch

• Eating out at Boston Tea Party, Bristol

Thank you @BTPcafes for having a helpful twitter account who confirmed that we would have plenty of choice if we came to visit. They were truth-telling. Their menu already has a good mix of meat-free options and they adopt the 'ask nicely and we'll make it vegan' approach.

Mr Middleton and I both had their veggie burger: mine slotted with halloumi, his without. Oh my word - what a thing of wonder. The single most beautiful veggie burger I have ever eaten. What's more, it's pretty - pink with beetroot. Everyone wins! And as if that wasn't enough, Mr Middleton was confronted with a choice (faint) of vegan cake choices.

Top marks Boston Tea Party!

Saturday night

• Non-butter, non-parmesan risotto with as much butternut squash, mushrooms, leeks and herbs as I could find.

As it transpired, Mr Middleton went to sample the delights of vegan curry in North Bristol before a big night out in a karaoke room.

Confession time - vegan barriers broke down as Mrs Middleton and I stayed in and tucked into a cheeseboard. What can I say? The manchego was calling to us...

Sunday morning

More of the fruity yoghurty wonderment (and lashings of toast for Mr Middleton to absorb the previous evening's karaoke lubricant). 

Sunday lunch

• Mushroom and Chesnut Wellington with all the roast dinner trimmings

Who says Sunday roast has to revolve around meat? Mrs Middleton stepped in as head chef and cooked up a beautiful Mushroom and Chesnut Wellington from Vegan Village. The revelation that Jusrol puff pastry was vegan gave me some food for thought (no pun intended) for the next vegan invasion.

We served the Wellington (crammed with mushrooms, chesnuts, cashew nuts, onions and breadcrumbs) with roast potatoes and all the vegetable trimmings. I will be making this again - it was (forgive the Os) soooo good. 

(Aah) Bisto onion gravy topped it off - thanks again to the internet for a clear list of ingredients (plus vegan website reccomendations), this shortcut is 100% vegan and 100% easy peasy.

I completely forgot to take any photos to accompany this post. I put this down to having far too much of a lovely time as well as being testament to the delicious food. Would I go vegan? No. But could I? Could we? In a zombie apocalypse? Yes. Yes ve-GAN!

If music be the food of love

I tweet. A lot. I've been lucky enough to come across some excellent food writers and bloggers in the twittersphere. 

One which had really stood out for me is Food Glorious Foods by @rachaelhogg. Rachael regularly includes the music which inspires her food or accompanies her cooking.

Music was my first love and has shaped who I am. Being the youngest of three sisters I spent my first years in double figures eavesdropping on Pearl Jam (food association coincidental), Nirvana, Alanis Morissette and other think-rock blasting from behind closed bedroom doors. At the age of 15 I began my gigging odyssey, the rest is history... 

So, where food and words combine for me, Rachael has added that third dimension and landed a spot-on combination. Inevitably, this has made me think about the relationship between my food and music and specifically, music to accompany my cooking.

My musical journey

In my formative years, music was a discovery. I was as happy listening to Ace of Base and Celine Dion (come on, I'm trying to be honest here) as to Blur or Rage Against the Machine. As time moved on I became hugely passionate, some might say obsessive, about particular bands (one in particular - I've seen the Manic Street Preachers well over 30 times).

At university, this continued to shape my personality. I met a boyfriend and together we began to expand the types of music we listened to. Every Wednesday I would attend my favourite indie night, Popscene at Clwb Ifor Bach, and shake my thing til 4am.

In the few years following university my life took a number of twists and turns, and with it my musical preferences. A new life in Bristol has offered me a place to call home for the last four years and, after years of squirming between extremes, I've settled on who I am and what I want from life.

Sonic suppers

I'm at my happiest cooking in the kitchen, listening to music; occasionally being twirled around in my apron by Rich.

On week nights I almost always cook from scratch so I tend to be in the kitchen for long enough to bother turning on a particular song or station.

Right now I listen to a lot of Jo Whiley on Radio 2. Like me, it feels like she's finally found a place to be herself in this slot. No more banging on about how much she really LOVES drum and bass (she can leave that nonsense to Fearne Cotton). She mixes old and new; comfort songs from my childhood (e.g. Fleetwood Mac), new music (for my 6music injection) and something in-between (like Popscene club staples, Pulp). 

But for those long cooks - the roast dinners, the tagines, the slow cookers - my default setting is the parents' playlist: the umbilical cord of music. Songs from my childhood. Songs full of memory. Songs of family. Songs of sitting in the back seat staring into space. Songs with lyrics you just can't shake off (even if they still don't make any sense).

Enter Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, Sting, Kate Bush, Eurythmics, Peter Gabriel, Carole King, Don Henley and, of course, The Beatles. Comfort in food, comfort in music. 


Follow up: Parent's playlist on Spotify.

Devon apple cake

In response to my previous post I've gone ahead with my new year's baking resolution starting with this Cranks classic. Here it is fresh out of the oven. Divine.

Dreamy drizzles

The baking continues...

My fallback bake when cakes are in need are my lemon drizzle muffins. Sometimes made with white chocolate chips but always made with love.

As for the recipe? Sorry. This one's top secret. ;)

Peri-peri bad

Last night my cooking pride took a hard knock. After fogging the kitchen and undercooking the peri-peri chicken (yet somehow blackening the outside) I spent the rest of the night in a funk of failure.

I realised that cooking is not just about pleasure for me, it's my my stress-balancer, my pride, my comfort blanket,  my THING.

If ever I was faced by Sir Alan (Lord, he's a Lord now isn't he?) and his minions, forget writing and web-tinkering, I'd profile myself as someone passionate about food.  Now THAT I can really get excited about.

This blog is my attempt at joining those skills together. If only I could get paid for this, life would be sweet. AHEM - open to offers...

Christmas baking swag

This Christmas I received a floral apron, a huge traditional mixing bowl, a peace sign biscuit cutter (all the way from San Francisco!) and a gorgeous flour dredger. Oh, and if we're being 100% accurate, I bought myself a new rolling pin. All this can mean only one thing: 2012 is the year I get serious about baking (and my friends and family get faaaaaaaayt). 

For some instant baking relief, visit cakeandfeminism - a great blog by the lovely Laura (aka @philosophobia) about all sorts, but heavy on the baked goods.