Chillies glorious chillies....

It has been a great start to the week. The weather has been glorious not too hot and I have the week off. I am gearing towards the event this coming Saturday 13th Aug, very excited indeed and I do hope my diners can take a bit of spicing up. Earlier last week, Wiltshire Chilli Farm contacted us and said they admire what we are doing so they would like to donate some of their produce for our event. The timing could not have been more perfect! I was absolutely overjoyed as I adored chillies. How much I hear you say? Hmmm what is the best way to describe it? I mean I am not crazy like rubbing chillies in my eyes which I once saw on Gordon Ramsay far east travels a few months ago! I mean that is just suicide. I'd rather enjoy them in my food. I would use chillies at least 3- 5 meals a week either as an ingredient or condiment. So when Wiltshire Chilli Farm said they will donate some of their produce, I was jumping for joy! So emails got exchanged and the owner said she will drop some by either tomorrow or Thursday! She was laughing at how excited I was and said and I quote 'LOL..Its just chillies'.

There are the 3 holy trinity of ingredients I have to have at home, garlic, ginger and chilli. With these three ingredients, you can always turn anything bland into something fragrant and interesting. I made this dish last night.

Mini Spicy Pork Patties, green mango and papaya salad & crushed honey peanuts

Pork patties
350 g minced pork
1 tablespoon of fish sauce (nam pla)
A dash of soya sauce
1 teaspoon of finely chopped chillies
1/2 teaspoon of palm sugar or sugar
1 tablespoon corn flour
Note: Marinate for at least half hour, overnight is best

Salad
1/2 green mango julienne or shredded (must be very firm)
1/2 papaya julienne or shredded (must be very firm)
1/2 carrot julienne or shredded
Mix together
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon of palm sugar or normal sugar
1 teaspoon chopped red chillies ( you can use bird's eye if you like it very hot)
Pour the dressing onto the salad. Set aside. Do this nearer the time about 15 mins before the pork is cooked
Handful of peanuts, crushed

1. Form the patties into circular shape about 5cm in diameter (you can have it bigger, just cook them longer)
2. Heat oil in pan, fry on medium heat
3. Give about 1 minute on each side to brown and then about 5 mins to cook through. Try by cutting the patties in half to check if unsure
4. Set cooked pork aside. This dish doesn't need to be served piping hot.
5. Assemble pork with some salad and top with crushed nuts



Another dish is dead simple which involves sexing up the humble fried egg (sunny side up). This recipe is so easy it can be done in under 5 minutes. You will need:

2 Eggs (Increase the quantity if you have more people)
1 spring onion and 1/2 red chilli (Finely chopped)
Dash of kecap manis ( you can find this in most supermarket)

1. Fry the eggs until they are still runny in the middle but crispy on the edges. Set aside
2. Fry the chopped spring onions and chillies until they are soft (about 2-3 minutes)
3. Sprinkle them onto the eggs. Then dash the kecap manis all over the eggs. Serve with plain boil rice!

As a simple condiment sliced either red chillies or birds eye chillies, dash enough soya sauce to cover. Let it infuse for 2 minutes and it is a great condiment to any rice or noodles dish!

As far as my collection of chilli sauces or stuff are concern here are some of my favourites. They all have their various uses and I don't want to bore you with details. If you do want to know send me a message :)

From back left: Thai sweet chilli sauce, Fussels Chilli oil, SriRancha chilli sauce, Maggi chilli sauce, Tean's crispy prawn chilli and Way On shrimps infused chilli oil


As I was just finishing this blog, my friend called and said that the riots that were terrorising London has spread to Bath. I told her not to worry as I have a hammer next to me and lots of chillies. God help them if they try to come anywhere near me! I might never rub chillies in my eyes but I will not hesitate even for a split second to rub it on those bloody good for nothing trouble makers!!!

True Provenance!

While I am writing this I am sitting in my kitchen frying some Malaysian curry paste for my dish tomorrow and I have a pink shower cap on with bow at the front! I mean I look ridiculous but hey I got my hair done today and I didn't want to smell like a walking bulb of garlic. The paste also contains shrimps...so.. you get the point...not good!

It has been a good weekend and Monday is always an anti climax! I go on and on about hating Sundays and yet Sundays are just the best especially these past few weeks! I was invited to friends over the past few Sundays and my have I been fed well! We were invited for a BBQ yesterday and we ended up sitting in their amazing garden for hours having wine, tapenade with goat's cheese, feeding on BBQ prawns, homemade cumin and Emmental bread (if you follow me on Twitter you will know my husband made it) and then came the spread of delightful assortment of home grown delights. Provenance is so IN at the moment. People love knowing where their food come from (whether they truly  give a shit, I am not sure) but when I made my way to their green house to pick on their Thai basil to put on the salad, I felt a twinge of jealousy but at the same time felt extremely lucky as my friends share the same passion as I do! Well...am still jealous as not only do they have a greenhouse that fills with tomatoes, assortment of herbs, they also have fruit trees, lettuces and lots of vegetables!

Homemade Cumin and Emmental Bread (Recipe is in Dough by Richard Bertinet pg 58). Andrew substitute it with Emmental cause we didn't have Gruyere.

Lovely salad with assorted herbs - fennel, parsley, Thai basil, all homegrown!

Jealous jealous jealous....;-)

Well I would have been stupid if I didn't utilise my friend's amazing array of goodies so I asked if I was able to pick the courgette flowers and attempt to make this dish which I tried in Rome so many moons ago! It is such an incredible feeling just picking on fresh produce. I was beside myself with excitement today as I attempted this dish. I so wanted to create the taste and texture of the ones I tried in Rome! If you are ever in Rome, head to the deli right opposite the Vatican Museum. I can't remember what it is called but it is an amazing deli and you can find this there. I have modified it slightly and this is my own adaptation.

Fresh from the garden!

 Recipe for my deep fried courgette flowers:

Courgette flowers (I had 9, from small to medium)
1 x ball of mozzarella
4 - 5 strips of anchovies
Batter:
100 g self raising flour
Sparkling water
Note: Consistency of double cream
Sauce:
1 x tin tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
2 teaspoon tomato puree
seasoning
oil for frying

1) Wash them thoroughly to get rid of bugs
2)Cut mozzarella into small chunks and half the strips of anchovies
3)Stuff carefully inside the cavity of the flowers. Note: Dont worry that the petals are with holes, the batter will cover the holes and the cheese will stay within.
4)Where possible, twist the petals slightly to shut the flowers
5) Heat oil. I used a small frying pan with about 150ml of vegetable oil. As a utensil to move them about, the best is chopsticks (Use only if you are a master of chopsticks, if not tongs will do but be gentle)
6)When oil is hot enough, try with a bit of batter, dip the flowers with your hands and gently put into the oil. Fry until golden
7) Lift them up when ready, sprinkle with sea salt.

Sauce:
1) Chop garlic,  Fry with little oil
2) Pour the tin of tomatoes into the garlic
3) Add tomato puree
4) Blitz and then return to the hob, simmer for about 20 minutes until flavour intensified

Thank you Giles and Corinne for an amazing lunch and let me run riot in your garden! X

The World of Dim Sum

I wrote on my earlier blogs how much I disliked Sundays whether I am having a good time or not. This Sunday is no different. I thought hi Sunday what can I do today to forget that your friend Monday is just round the corner? Andrew (my husband) suggested Dim Sum and we called this eating activity Dim Suming but usually Chinese called this activity 'Yum Cha' which means drinking tea.

Dim Sum are little dishes that consist of either fried or steamed meat, seafood or vegetables tasty morsels. These morsels are served either in bamboo steamers or small plates. The best way to describe them is  'Chinese tapas'. If you haven't  been Dim Suming before I will include in this blog the basic etiquette so that you won't feel overwhelmed and behave like a first timer on a Japanese sushi conveyor belt! Totally clueless! You should also take your time when eating dim sum over a cup of 'cha'.

In this country,when you sit down at the table you will find a piece of paper with either numbers or description of certain dishes. The dim sum menu is either on the table or the waiter will bring you one. You look at the menu, pick what you want and you tick and state the quantity on this paper next to the items. The waiter will come along, check the orders and leave a copy on your table. At this point, you order anything additional that you like. I would suggest that you order hot Chinese Tea. The logic behind it is that it helps digestion especially if some of the dim sum are fried. It helps cut through the fat. Well on this particular day we ordered the following. Please note that dim sum arrive at your table as and when they are ready. They don't arrive at the same time!

Deep fried yam paste with meat stuffing

Steamed 'Har Kau' (Prawn Dumpling)

Steamed Chicken's Feet with Black Bean & Chilli (Dont be afraid, they taste incredibly amazing)

Crispy Beancurd Prawn Rolls

In addition we also ordered the following..(this can be found on the normal menu as addition to your dim sum)

Roasted duck and crispy pork

Crispy Noodles with Seafood

Ermm.... on reflection, shouldn't have ordered that much but that is the beauty of dim suming. You should order loads as you can taste different morsels and whilst it is not common practice to takeway leftovers in say a tapas bar, it is perfectly normal in a dim sum restaurant, even encouraged!

Dim Sum is becoming increasingly popular in this country. There are several modern Dim Sum restaurants in London ie Ping Pong and the delectable Yauatcha. These places has taken the traditional Dim Sum eating, give it a twist and make it trendy combining it with fancy teas and scrummy cocktails.

Traditional Dim Sum is quite different. In Asia, when seated on your table, you will immediately notice the hustle and bustle of the place.  Instead of ordering the dim sum on a menu, waiters come along with a trolley full with different dim sums and you pick what you want. You just have to point at the array of tasty looking morsels. They put it down and tick the paper on the table. You then take the paper and pay at the counter when you finish. Simple! Unfortunately due to space issue in this country, it is difficult to replicate this :(

But there are a lot of lovely Dim Sum restaurants in this country. So go on, go dim suming today and if you want me to come with you, I am absolutely delighted to. But be warn, I order loads! If you want some recommendations, I am happy to direct you too :)