26.02.07

Thai Food

Posted in Food, Thailand, Travel at 1:21 pm by Andy

I mentioned that I loved the food in India. All the cheap curries, tasty samosas and wonderful breakfasts. Well, now in Thailand I’m in Heaven. Thai food, along side Italian, is my favorite. Pad Thai, Green Curries, Spring Rolls, Tom Yam soup… It’s all good.

Finally, three days before leaving Thailand I got round to doing a Thai cookery course. There are hundreds to choose from in Chang Mai, but I was so impressed by the professionalism of the Eagle Guesthouse that I signed up for their Chili Club course with little further thought. I was not disappointed.

After selecting the 5 dishes each from the excellent cook book that comes with the course, we set off with our somewhat eccentric but wonderful tutor to the local market where we bought our ingredients. Each different herb and vegetable was explained to us along with some of the weird and wonderful fruits found here.

The rest of the day was spent creating wonderful dishes and eating them. We even did a bit of plate decoration creating a rose out of a tomato! Now I’ve dabbled a fair bit with Thai cooking before, but I could not believe how good my tom yam gam soup and green curry tasted. The correct fresh ingredients and the expert instruction were what made them so good. Who knows, some day maybe you’ll sample the goodness when I cook for you… Mr Fish, I believe you will have the pleasure first.

That night we wandered off to the weekend market. A huge expanse of street stalls stretching off in most directions within the old town. The usual tourist tat, along with some wonderfully creative items for sale. Unfortunately I was unable to buy the things I wanted for my home, firstly due to space and weight constraints, secondly because I don’t have a home.

The best find for me though, was a small photo exhibition / sale. A local university astronomy teacher, Mr Aniwat Sooksawat, set up the stall with his wife a year or so ago, and along with selling countless print and postcards, they were invited to set up a large gallery of his work in one of the local shopping malls. I mention this as I was so impressed by his work. Using only a semi pro compact camera this couple are able to capture the most stunning pictures, proving once again (and rather depressingly) that it is not about expensive equipment, but about composition, lighting, creativity, patience and being in the right place at the right time.

After speaking with the couple yesterday and asking many a question about individual shots, Espe and I went along to the shopping mall gallery today and I was once again blown away by the creativity and beauty of his shots. The collection has served as inspiration and motivation for me… In fact, to make me feel better about my own pictures, I bought a new lens today.

Check out his website, www.aniwat.com. Currently under development, it should be up and running within a few months.

As for Chang Mai, last time in Thailand I was gutted I didn’t make it up here. This time I’m gutted I’ve not got more time here. A four day trek at organised by the Eagle Guesthouse would be awesome (high five Jon), as would a day trip up the Doi Suthep mountain. Riding in the Mae Son Loop, a six day trip on motorbike, would be another unforgettable experience. All will have to be saved for another trip. It’s not all bad though. If all goes well, tomorrow I’ll spend the day mountain biking down the afore mention mountain.

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10.11.06

Can you feel the love?

Posted in Food, General at 12:54 pm by Andy

Most of my recent posts have been about nice people that I’ve met over the last 4 years. I’ve felt the need to share how these people have influenced me. I guess I’m just getting soppy as I know I’m leaving Spain in 3 weeks time and there are a lot of people that I’m going to miss a great deal. Last night we invited David, Alberto and Paola over for dinner. I met both David and Alberto due to the Mongol Rally, and have remained friends while helping them prepare and watching them take part. Yet more people I’ll miss…

And here, especially for Paola, is the recipe for last nights dinner.

Mushroom and Potato Pie
(Serves 6)

for the mashed potato (puree)

• 2kg of potatoes
• 50g of butter
• 200ml of hot milk
• 3 eggs (beaten)
• 75g of Parmesan cheese

for the filling

• 400g of mushrooms
• 50g of butter
• 3 cloves of garlic
• Serrano ham
• Parsley
• 200g of Gruyere (or similar melting cheese)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees C.

2. Peel and boil the potatoes for 15 to 20 minutes. Drain the potatoes and add the hot milk, butter and 2/3rds of the grated Parmesan. Mash together.

3. While the potatoes are boiling, fry the sliced mushrooms in with the butter, chopped garlic and parsley. Add the Serrano ham for the last few minutes.

4. Spread 1/3rd of the mashed potato along the a reasonably deep baking tray. Place the cubed Gruyere cheese out on top of the mashed potato, then poor in the mushrooms and cooking juices. Spread the remaining mashed potato over the mushrooms and cheese, covering them up completely. Finally, sprinkle the remaining Parmesan over the top.

5. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.

6. Serve and enjoy.

Paola, let me know if you need translations for any of the above.

Mum, hi!

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02.05.06

Good Food

Posted in Food at 9:52 pm by Andy

After the abismal meal we’d had the previous night I felt the need to cook something good. Another new recepie, but one that turned out beautifully first time.

This was followed by the somewhat bizarre, but great, chilli choclate that Cathy has so thoughtfully bought for me for Christmas.

Mustard & Parsley Chicken

Ingredients (serves 2)

For the Chicken:

• 2 chicken breasts
• 4 tables spoons of olive oil
• 1 heaped table spoon of Dijon Mustard
• 1 handfull of parsley
• 2 table spoons of white wine vinager
• 200 ml of Chicken Stock

For the potatoes:

• 400 grams of new potatoes
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled & crushed
• A handful of Thyme

Preparation

Prepare the marinade for the chicken by mixing the Dijon mustard with the olive oil and parsley. Smear the chicken through the marinade and leave for at least an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Cut the potatoes into slices (about the thickness of 1 pound coins). Toss these in a bowl with the olive oil, garlic and thyme. Place into a baking tray and put this in the oven for 45 minutes, shaking the tray occasionally so that the potatoes do not stick.

10 minutes before the potatoes are ready heat up a stove based grill pan / griddle. Drain the bulk of the marinade from the Chicken and add to the griddle. Cook the chicken for 4 minutes each side.

While the chicken is cooking add the warm chicken stock to the remaining marinade. Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the griddle and add the stock / marinade mix to create the sauce to pour over the potatoes and chicken.

Season to taste with salt, pepper and a little bit of lemon juice.

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28.04.06

World’s Best Paella

Posted in Food at 1:17 pm by Andy

With the laptop fixed with a shiny new motherboard (top marks to Dell for the quick resolution) I can finally post this update:

Espe and I spent the weekend down in Valencia visiting her family. It was nice to have such a relaxing weekend in the sun (despite the bad forecast), eating some great food without stressing myself with all the little ‘to do’ things that normally take up quiet weekends at home.

I made a good start with Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell Tolls, and in the process learned more about the Spanish Civil war. Something that has caught my attention lately due to an excellent weekly documentary on TVE2 and some good factual books.

As ever, Espe’s mother cooked us her superb paella. A dish that is very simple to make, but very difficult to make well. So paying great attention I hope I’ve picked up some good tips. Read on to see how to make the world’s best paella:

	1. Prepare, chop and clean the chicken and rabbit.
2. Heat olive oil in the paella (the name for the special dish in which the paella is prepared) and fry the chicken, rabbit and green peppers.
	3. Add 4 - 5 peeled and chopped tomatoes to the paella and several cloves of garlic.
4. Boil green beans in water for 10 minutes and then add the water (without the beans) to the paella.
	5. Leave the water to simmer and soak up the flavors (as though preparing stock). It is worth turning any of the chicken or rabbit that is not submersed in the water.
6. Step back and admire the Don Quixote figures while the Paella simmers away happily to itself.
	7. Chop up two cloves of garlic and crush together with the zafron (the key ingredient that gives the distinctive colour and taste).
8. Add a little water to the zafron & garlic mix and pour into the paella.
	9. Spread the rice evenly around the paella. The rice should be well below the water level. Ensure that all rice is submersed and that none remains on top of the chicken or rabbit. The rice should be cooked in the water for 18 minutes and it should not be stirred during this period.
10. Salt greatly affects the taste of the paella and too little or too much can destroy it. It is advisable to add salt in small quantities throughout the cooking and taste to check. Apparently true expert can tell from the size of the bubbles if there is enough salt. Too small = too little. Too big = to much.
	11. As the rice start to rise as it absorbs the water and the partially cooked green beens and green pepper.
12. After the 18 minutes is up remove from the heat and leave to stand five minutes before serving. Serve and enjoy: I’ve not listed any quantities as this will vary depending on the size of the paella (cooking dish) and the number of people eating.

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05.03.06

Baked Trout, Thai Style

Posted in Food at 1:48 pm by Andy

You lot seem to like my recepies, so here comes another. I got the idea from “The Circle of Friends Cookbook” (something put together by a colleague of my sister) but changed it based on my Thai cooking experiences.

Stuff to cook

• Trout or Rainbow Trout
• Green Pepper
• Mushrooms
• Potatoes

Stuff for the Marinade / Sauce

• 1 stalk of lemon grass
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 small red chilli
• 1 Challot or small onion
• A thumb of ginger
• Black Pepper
• Corriander Seeds
• Soya sauce
• Olive Oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Grated rind of the lemon

Chop and grind the onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, lemongrass, pepper and coriander seeds into a bowl. Add the lemon juice, soya sauce and olive oil and blend into a runny paste.

Clean the fish and slash three or four times on each side (this allows the marinade to soak in further). Place the fish in a suitable baking tray and cover in the marinade working this into the slashes. Leave to marinate for several hours.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees C. Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes and drain (batter them about a bit to give fluffy edges). Add the patatoes, mushrooms and pepper around the fish in the baking try. Cover with lid or foil and place in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Baste occasionally to spread the sauce over the fish and vegatables.

Serve, decorate with corriander leaves and enjoy!

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22.01.06

Slow fried Potatoes with Thyme and Cheese

Posted in Food at 11:54 am by Andy

Even if I do say so myself, I cooked another excellent dinner last night… Despite having done a huge shop a few days previous we were a little short on substantial ingredients. Looking over a few cook books Nigel Slater, once again, came up trumps…

90 minutes later I’d prepared an incredibly simple, yet very tasty dish:

Ingredients

• 3 Potatoes
• 1 Onion
• Handful of Mushrooms
• 4 rashers of streaky bacon
• 2 Garlic Cloves
• 2 tbsp Olive oil
• 50g butter
• Shed load of Thyme
• 100g Cheese (the softer the better)

First off I sliced up the potatoes and then fried the onions in a large saucepan with the butter and olive oil. I then lowered the heat as low as possible and added the potatoes, garlic, salt, pepper and thyme.

I left this to fry on a low heat for 50 minutes adding the bacon and mushrooms after 20 minutes or so. After this it was just a case of adding the cheese (in slices) and leaving this to melt over the rest of the ingredients for a further 5 minutes.

So simple, yet so good. I’ll have to remember that one for the next time Chris is up to visit, as without the bacon it makes an excellent vegetarian dish.

Talking of Chris, just looking over my previous posts I don’t think I mentioned that he was up in Madrid to stay for 4 days just after new years. I’d completely forgotten that I’d offered him accommodation until he phoned a couple of hours before arriving. Great to see him again and actually have time to chat (unfortunately its always a very different story when we go diving in Mazarron as he’s always so busy).

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08.01.06

Sunday Roast (on Saturday evening)

Posted in Food at 7:14 pm by Andy

Being on call all weekend I knew a quiet weekend was in store. I planned a Sunday Roast for Saturday evening, and then decided to invite Philippe, Ana, Jon and Pete along to try and dispell the myth about how terrible English cooking is.

Even if I do say so myself, it turned out very well. Roast Chicken with roast potatoes, sausages, bacon, (home made) stuffing, carrots, brocolli, peas, sweetcorn and gravy.

So here is how I did it:

• Made the stuffing. Minced up 4 pork(ish) sausages with 120 grams of breadcrumbs and a table spoon of parsley and sage. (When I was younger I used to dislike stuffing. If only I’d been told that it was just sausages and bread crumbs!)
• Heated the oven to 190 degrees.
• Cleaned and seasoned the Chicken with olive oil salt and pepper then covered with streaky bacon. Placed in the oven in a covered baking tray.
• Peeled the potatoes.
• Removed chicken to baste (spoon the oil back over it) after 30 minutes.
• Boiled the potatoes for 10 minutes then battered them about a bit to give them fluffy rough edges (all the better for roasting them).
• Added the potatoes and basted them and the chicken (60 minutes after starting the chicken).
• Added the stuffing (I cooked this seperately based on several recommendations online (To keep the chicken moist a lemon was stuffed inside instead).
• After 75 minutes, added the sausages and and basted the whole lot.
• Just over 90 minutes after starting I removed the Chicken to allow it to “relax”, leaving the potatoes, sausages and bacon to finish. A tip from Delia.
• It was then just a question of cooking the veg, carving the chicken and serving all together.

A good evening, and an excellent meal.

Oh, and yes, I cheated with the gravy. Bisto out of a packet… Having made stuffing for the first time I didn’t want to tackle doing “proper” gravy on the same day.

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