So I haven’t posted at all over the last couple of months, the reason being that my website has been a work in progress and in the meanwhile I have been directing people to my last blog entry to give them an idea of what I do and to help them decide if they want to go ahead with a cooking demonstration.

I have aptly named my business ‘Annabel’s Kitchen’.  www.annabelskitchen.co.uk was launched last week through my facebook page. Annabel’s Kitchen on facebook has received just short of 100 ‘likes’ this past week!

In the last couple of months I have given various kinds of lessons and demonstrations.

Recently I was invited into Maidenhill school where I did a demonstration and then cooked with 45 of their pupils during their cultural awareness days. It was a great experience and was something totally different for the pupils. Most of them had not tried Thai food before! I cooked with the pupils over two sessions, just over 20 in each group and with the help of two assistants. I showed them first how to fry prawn crackers, they were totally amazing that this was how you made them and they didn’t just come ready in a bag. They then sampled them with sweet chilli sauce. After that they watched me make a curry paste which I then turned into a curry. The pupils were very suspicious of some of the ingredients that went into the paste and curry, mainly the shrimp paste and fish sauce due to their extremely unusual smell (’unusual’ being an understatement!)

After watching the demonstration they got to work  measuring out ingredients and making their curries with the paste I had made. They were extremely enthusiastic but required a vigilant eye whilst they worked out the difference between all the ingredients they had never used before! I put some rice on to steam whilst running round helping all the groups of cooking students. I sampled their curries and they were all very good, all slightly different, some sweeter, some saltier some more herby flavoured yet totally edible. Were there any disasters!? Just a tin of coconut milk exploding all over the kitchen and a couple of woks of burnt paste, but we remedied that by starting again with a lower temperature. They all sat down and ate their chicken curries with rice, and inspite of their suspicions all thoroughly loved it, with the exception of one vegetarian!

I definately plan to do more work in schools, and in October I’ve been invited to give a demonstration at the regions food technology teachers networking meeting, I look forward to it!

So I went from teaching 45 thirteen year olds one week to giving a demonstration for a group of 8 at a house on the luxury gated complex in Cirencester water park the next. Everything went extremely well and I employed my first assistant to help with the evening. Janine did a fantastic job and I’ll definitely be working with her again.

I’ve also given practical cooking lessons to various people, did a demo and tasting for 16 people from the Cleeve Hill society and had the Stanton Guildhouse host a demonstration and tasting open to members of the public. They plan to host another on October 21st. See Annabel’s Kitchen for more details.

I’ll keep you posted as to what’s coming up next.

 

 

 

Last week a group of 7 gathered at my house for a Thai cooking demonstration and dinner. As they sat around the dining table  nibbling on prawn crackers I demonstrated several dishes whilst they followed what I was cooking on their copies of my recipes.

 I provided them with information on buying their ingredients, all of which are available in Cheltenham. I gave them details of equipment that I find useful, provided tips on techniques to use and shortcuts to take if time is limited. I also answered any questions that they had as we went along.

This culminated in a delicious dinner of all the dishes cooked and a dessert that I had prepared earlier. Here is a copy of the recipes and photos.

 

 

THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE

THAI GREEN CHICKEN CURRY (Keaw Wan Kai)

STEAMED RICE

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD (Som Tam)

THAI STIR FRIED VEGETABLES (Phad Phak)

COCONUT ICE CREAM

SPICED BERRIES

                                                                           

 

 

THAI GREEN CURRY PASTE

 Making your own curry paste produces such a fresh tasting curry as well as lending to a wonderful colour. This is my own version of the recipe as kaffir lime zest; an ingredient used in green curry paste in Thailand is unavailable in the UK.

Makes approx. 200g (8-10 tbsp)

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

6 big green chillies – deseeded if you do not want the paste to be too spicy

1 stem of lemon grass, finely sliced

5 cm piece of galangal, sliced thinly

5 kaffir lime leaves

30g coriander root and 10cm of stem, roughly chopped

1 tbsp coriander leaves

3 large cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

60G (3) shallots, roughly chopped

2 tsp shrimp paste

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

3 tbsp oil

 

Toast the cumin and coriander seeds in separate batches in a pan. Grind in a pestle and mortar.

Blend chillies, lemongrass, galangal, kaffir lime leaves, coriander root, stem and leaves along with the ground coriander and cumin seeds.

Add the rest of the ingredients and continue to blend until smooth.

 

 

 

THAI GREEN CHICKEN CURRY (Keaw Wan Kai)

 

Thai green curry is one of the most popular dishes in Thailand. This is probably one of the most authentic recipes you will find. It is a slight adaption of a recipe that I learnt whilst at the Blue Elephant cooking school in Bangkok.

Serves 1

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1tbsp green curry paste

½ tsp roasted ground cumin seeds

½ tsp roasted ground coriander seeds

150ml coconut milk

50ml water or stock

70g-100g chicken, sliced finely

2 small Thai aubergines, quartered

10 pea aubergines

2 kaffir lime leaves

3 Thai sweet basil leaves

1 tbsp chopped coriander

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

Heat the oil in a wok until hot. Add the curry paste, cumin and coriander and fry for around 2 minutes until an aroma develops.  Lower the heat and add half of the coconut milk a little at a time. Allow to simmer for 2 minutes, add the chicken and cook until cooked through, and then add the other half of the coconut milk. Gradually add the water/stock until the curry has reached the desired consistency.

Add the green aubergines and the pea aubergines, the sugar, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves and basil. Simmer for 5 minutes.

Sprinkle with the coriander.

 

 

STEAMED RICE

 

Serves 1

100ml-150ml Thai rice- measured in a measuring jug

100ml-150ml water-equal volume to the rice

 

Wash the rice well in a sieve until the water runs clear.

Place rice and water in a rice cooker and press the ‘cook’ button.

If cooking in a pan, place the rice and water in the pan and bring to the boil. Simmer gently until the water has reduced to the level of the rice. Then place the lid on and cook on the lowest heat for 15-20 minutes or until cooked.

Fluff up with a folk before serving.

 

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD (Som Tam)

 

 

Green papaya salad is a delicious traditional raw salad with mildly spicy, sweet, sour and salty flavours. Green papaya is totally unlike the fruit that we know. The texture of the green papaya is like a white crunchy vegetable.

Serves 1

70g green papaya, peeled and grated into long thin strips

½ -1clove garlic

½ -3 green birds’ eye chillies

30cm yard long beans, broken into 3cm pieces

1 tbsp roasted unsalted peanuts

1 tbsp dried shrimps

3 cherry tomatoes cut in half

2 tbsp palm sugar

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp lime juice

Pound the garlic and chillies in a pestle and mortar.

Add the dried shrimps and pound until crushed. Add the beans and peanuts and pound.

Add the sugar, fish sauce and lime juice and stir together. Then add the tomatoes and press with a pestle.

Finally add the papaya and stir until well mixed in.

Serve at room temperature.

 

 

THAI STIR FRIED VEGETABLES (Phad Phak)

 

Serves 1

Stir fried vegetables are a great accompaniment to eat alongside all Asian dishes. Or for a healthy meal, eat the dish on its own with steamed rice.

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 garlic clove, finely sliced

40g baby corn, halved

40g Chinese cabbage, coarsely chopped

50g broccoli florets

40g carrots, julienned

25ml vegetable stock

2 tsp soy sauce

2 tbsp oyster sauce

½ tsp sugar

40g beansprouts

Heat the oil until hot. Add the garlic and fry for a couple of seconds, then immediately  add all the vegetables except the beansprouts, stir fry for 30 seconds to 1minute, or until the vegetables are cooked to your taste.  Add the stock and the sauces and sugar. Mix well. Toss in the beansprouts just before serving.

 

 

 

COCONUT ICE CREAM

 

Serves 4

2 sheets of gelatine

560ml tinned coconut milk

250g caster sugar

Soak the sheets of gelatine in cold water for 15 minutes. Dissolve the sugar in half the coconut milk in a pan over a low heat. When the sugar has dissolved, remove the mixture from the heat and add the gelatine. Mix to allow the gelatine to dissolve.

Stir in the rest of the coconut milk and set aside (put in the fridge once the mixture is cool enough) until the mixture is completely cold.

Freeze in an ice cream machine or put it into a container in the freezer. If making it in the freezer, after an hour of freezing take it out and beat by hand or use a food processor, repeat this process again after another hour, and repeat until it is smooth and evenly frozen.

 

 

SPICED BERRIES

 

Serves 4

400g mixed berries

200g sugar

225ml water

1 cinnamon stick

1 star anise

 

Put the berries into a bowl.

Put the sugar, water, cinnamon stick and star anise into a pan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Boil for just 2 minutes.

Cool for 4-5 minutes then pour the hot syrup over the fruit and allow the flavours to infuse for several hours in the fridge.

NB If using frozen berries, pour the boiling syrup straight onto the berries rather than allowing it to cool.

Now I’m back home i have been thinking about what to do next. One of my various ideas is to give cookery lessons and demonstrations. So i decided to have a trial run.

Last week a  friend who is eager to learn to cook was my first student!

She has decided she wants to learn to cook Chinese, starting with the basics. We cooked Chinese braised chicken with steamed rice and stir friend vegetables with garlic. For dessert we made banana bread. ( Which of course is not Chinese!)

So we started with the banana bread, using incredibly black bananas. Once that was in the oven we moved onto the braised chicken. We sliced all the onions on the mandolin so they were nice and fine and then we prepped the chicken. I had jointed the chickens before she arrive which left me to show her how to prep a chicken leg which we divided up into thighs and drumsticks, the thighs were boned and skinned and we cut through the sinues on the drumsticks.

Whilst the chicken was slowly braising we went out and picked vegetables for the stir-fry from the garden. There is nothing better than the taste of homegrown vegetables, they can be cooked so simply and yet taste so good. We picked a sweetheart cabbage, french and runner beans.

We came in and put the rice on to steam and then stir fried the vegetables at the last minute when the chicken had finished cooking.

All in all it was a very successful afternoons cooking. The banana bread rose perfectly and was wonderfully moist with an intense banana flavour. ( This is the perfect way to use up any black bananas you would never choose to eat!) The vegetables were fresh and not at all overcooked and the chicken was so simple but with a truely authentic Chinese flavour. ( I have recently found some very old Chinese cookbooks and have adapted the recipes for everyday cooking. Some of the ingredients and measurements needed rethinking! This chicken recipe is one of those. )

Here are the recipes from my first lesson to try:

CHINESE BRAISED CHICKEN

Serves 4

600G CHICKEN LEGS AND THIGHS

225G ONIONS

3 TBS DARK SOY SAUCE

1/2 TBS SUGAR

2 TBS WHITE WINE

250ML WATER

 

Cut the chicken into pieces.

Shred the onions.

Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan and stir fry the onions until they start to colour slightly. Add the chicken pieces and stir-fry briefly.

Add the soy sauce, sugar, wine and water and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes or until most of the sauce has reduced and the chicken is cooked.

 

 

STIR FRIED VEGETABLES WITH GARLIC

Serves 4

600g VEGETABLES

2 CLOVES OF GARLIC

2 TBS LIGHT SOY SAUCE

2 TSP SESAME OIL

2 TBS COOKING OIL

 

Slice the garlic thinly.

Cut the vegetables into bite size pieces.

Heat the oil in a wok and then fry the garlic until it turns light brown at the edges.

Add the vegetables in order of the hardest and largest vegetables first (like broccoli or carrots) to the lightest vegetables last (like bean sprouts). Stir constantly  over a medium heat and add the soy sauce.  Cook for a couple of minutes and taste to check if cooked.

Season with pepper.

Finally add the sesame oil before serving.

NB If the vegetables start to stick to the pan at any point add a couple of tablespoons of water.

 

 

STEAMED RICE

 

75G OF RICE PER PERSON

 EQUAL VOLUME OF WATER

 

Measure 50g of rice per person. Place in a measuring jug and measure the same volume in water as the rice.

Wash the rice in a sieve until the water runs clear.

Place in a pan with the measured quantity of water and bring to the boil. Simmer until the water reduces to the same level as the rice and then turn the heat down to the lowest setting and place the lid on to finish the cooking.

After 15 minutes give the rice a stir with a fork and then set aside until ready to eat.

We have one week left in Ireland and school is already over. I decided to venture into Ballymaloe one final time to a demonstration by Gerard Coleman. Gerard runs four Artisan du Chocolat shops in London and one stall in Borough Market selling his artisan chocolates. The day was started with a delicious chocolate brownie,  which was made to Gerard’s recipe. He took us right from the basics of the cocoa bean, to how chocolate is made and then took us through various chocolate recipes including his famous liquid salted caramels, which were first made in 2003 for Gordon Ramsey’s menu at Claridges.

After a lesson on the origins of the cocoa beans which are sourced, roasted and ground in South America, the Caribbean and Asia we were invited to taste a raw cocoa bean! I was amazed to taste the bean that makes chocolate, it had the crunch of a nut, a bitter sweet taste, more bitter than sweet and the flavour to me seemed to be a cross between chocolate and a nut.

 

 

There is a fleshy pulp that surrounds the bean, chocolate eaters don’t normally see or hear anything of this but we were given a small taste. It was completely delicious. It had an acid sweet taste. I would choose to drink it like a fruit juice if it was readily available! The flavour was a mixture of lychee, banana and apple. It has a very high sugar content and is rich in antioxidants. In fact the locals drink it as it is or add rum to it to make an alcoholic drink. If left it will ferment itself and turn to alcohol. Allowing the bean to ferment on the plantation actually results in a better flavoured bean.

I was so interested to hear that where cocoa beans are grown, chocolate is an alien product to them. Cocoa was originally a savoury product, ground up and mixed with spices and water.

The raw cocoa beans are roasted before use, this is because the husk carries bacteria like salmonella!

We tasted each type of  chocolate that he uses from milk chocolate to dark chocolate to 100% cocoa mass. I have to say my preference still lies with the lower cocoa content chocolate. We also tried cocoa butter. It was almost tasteless but had a cooling melting quality when eaten.

So, enough of the facts, onto the chocolate making….

Gerard started out by showing us how to make ginger nougatine, which is crystalised ginger and flaked almonds in a sugar mixture which is then coated in tempered chocolate.

Next were his Gianduja Almonds which are almonds covered in praline and then a coating of chocolate. They were delicious and i’m tempted to try making them. But i don’t think anyone would appreciate how much effort goes into making them!

He finished the morning session by showing us how to make his artisan chocolate mousse. This is one I’ll definitely make at home.

We stopped for lunch and started with a Cacao pulp bellini cocktail. This was the cocoa bean pulp that we had tasted earlier mixed with water and prosecco.  Having tried the pulp straight before and loved it, the cocktail actually tasted a bit dilute and was not as good as i had hoped. We ate Mexican soups, stews and salads. This was from Thomasina Miers demonstration yesterday. She is a past student of the school and now owns the restaurant Wahaca in London. Dessert was Gerards chocolate mousse, it was lovely and light, one of the bests mousses I’ve eaten, you could even see the air bubbles in it, it was also not too bitter like a lot of other mousses I’ve tried.

After lunch we continued with the chocolate making demos, starting with Liquid salted caramels. As delicious as they are they appear impossible to make unless you have all the chocolate making equipment, like the special moulds he used for them which cost £90! Looks like I’ll probably keep to buying these!

He finally showed us how to make dark chocolate truffles. Slightly different from the truffles we have learnt to make on the course this mixture is beaten with a food processor to bring it to a mousse consistency. It is then piped into shapes and once set dipped in tempered chocolate. Nice, but not my favourite, as it is fairly bitter from the dark chocolate.

To finish off the day we tasted everything that had been made. We were given a sample of four of Gerards chocolates to take home. I am so full i couldn’t even contemplate trying them today!