Eating Tales

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 we stopped in Bath for the day and stumbled upon Jamie’s Italian whilst exploring the town centre. We were really hungry but it wasn’t usual restaurant hours, around four o’clock. Anyhow, we  thought we’d try and see if they’d let us in. Conveniently it turned out they serve food all day!

The decor is a mixture of rustic/stainless steel with red plastic chairs. Very ‘Jamie’. We were welcomed by a pleasant waiter who was happy to make recommendations on the food, was well informed and seemed very enthusiastic about his job. The options on the menu ranged from breads and antipasti through to pasta, mains, sides and desserts. All very reasonably priced. What I really liked about this menu was that it was all different to your usual Italian restaurant. All the pasta is freshly made on site every morning and all the breads are baked in one of Jamie’s bakeries and delivered daily.

The kitchens were partly open plan and partly out the back. The open plan kitchen had all the fresh vegetables on display and cured meats hanging up. It almost resembled a market stall. The loaves of bread were on display at the side of the restaurant- again it looked like it was for sale. I enquired if it was available to buy to take home as the sourdough looked extremely tasty! To which I was informed that it’s really there for restaurant use but if diners particularly want to take away their bread they could buy at the restaurant rate. Which worked out at around £20 a loaf…..I politely declined!!

I had to try their home made pasta. I went for TURBO! PENNE ARRABIATA £5.95/£8.75  which is curly penne tossed in sweet tomato sauce spiced with chilli, garlic and parmesan with crunchy herby breadcrumbs, it was absolutely delicious. With that I also had GENNARO’S WINTER SALAD -radiccio, roasted pumkin, sweet red onions, sultanas and pine nuts £3.35 a combination of flavours I have never had before – radiccio is quite a bitter salad leaf thoguth it was extremely tastey. Mark went for LAMB CHOP LOLLIPOPS £13.95 -Grilled Welsh mountain lamb chops, cooked ‘al matone’ under a brick with a special minted sauce, chopped roasted nuts and soft herbs, delicious! He thought it was well cook, pink in the middle and a novel idea to dip the lamb into the three little bowls of nuts and herbs. The only down side is that the mint flavour could have been stronger to compliment the lamb. To accompany the lamb Mark ordered FUNKY CHIPSwith fresh garlic and parsly £2.75 . He was originally going to go for the posh truffle chips but was informed by the waitor that the flavour would be too strong to accompany the lamb. These funky chips were what Mark has been after everytime we go to a restaurant, but is usually dissapointed by soggy wet chips, they  were crispy and crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

Our overall experince of Jamie’s Italian was excellent. The menu was a refreshing change from the usual Pizza chains (infact no pizzas on the menu) the staff were helpful and worked well together and the food could not be faulted. The popularity of the restaurant meant that you felt you were eating extremely fresh food. (There was a queuing system outside for busy periods, which luckily we didn’t have to use). The only thing that I could critisize Jamie’s Italian for would be general cleanliness- the floor looked like it could do with a good sweep and unfortunately the toilets had an airfreshner that was pumping out such a strong smell that you felt like you had to hold your breath whilst you  were in there. It almost seemed like they were overcompensating for the lack of toilet cleaning.

If you are in the Bath area you should most certainly pay Jamie’s Italian a visit, you won’t be dissapointed. Brand ‘Jamie’ is certainly on the up.

Last week I week I taught a Thai cooking lesson for three, they wanted a practical lesson, not just a demonstration. Our kitchen is suitable for a practical lesson for three people, as there are three work surfaces. They took it in turns using the hob as they each had ingredients prepared at different times. Now that I have a new camera I have photos to accompany the post! Including a photo of the new kitchen…

 The way it was arranged was that the recipes I gave them served one so they each prepared and produced their own meals. Being fairly amateur (apparently, never having cooked anything from scratch!) we started with the basics, frying prawn crackers, and then moved onto a Thai soup, Tom Kha Kai Mapaow Paow (Menam Chicken Soup), followed by Phad Thai noodles.

Pad Thai is an extremely simple recipe (all the effort is in the preparation). The recipe is posted earlier on this blog, and the soup is delicious, just as you would have in Thailand. They are worth a try!

Tom Kha kai Mapaow Paow- Menam Chicken soup

Ingredients (makes 1 serving)

12 tbs chicken stock

140g coconut milk (1/2 cup)

4 thin slices of galangal or ginger

1 stem of lemongrass very finely sliced on the diagonal

1 kaffir lime leaf- crushed

40-60g chicken breast- cut into thin slices

20-40g button mushrooms quartered

1 shallot halved and crushed

1-3 birds eye chillies crushed

1 coriander root and stem

To season

1 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbs tamarind juice

½ tbs lemon juice

1 tsp sugar

½ tsp oil of Nam Prik Paow (chilli oil)

Pound the Lemongrass and coriander root in a pestle and mortar to form a paste

Put the stock in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a medium heat.

Add the galangal, lemongrass & coriander root paste, shallot, chillies and kaffir lime leaves and boil for 1 minute.

Add the coconut milk and bring to the boil; add the sliced chicken and mushrooms and simmer for 1 minute until the chicken is half cooked.

Add the fish sauce, sugar, tamarind and lemon juice. Bring back to the boil and remove from the heat.

Transfer to a bowl and Float chilli oil on the surface and garnish with coriander leaves.

For one month now I haven’t posted at all. This is because a rare event happened….my husband took a holiday! One month off work infact, so I took one too. But really it was a month of gradually moving  house, a slow process because not only have we had Christmas and New Year in between, we’ve had plentiful snow and have also been doing all the moving ourselves (with a lot of help!).

However, there has been no shortage of Christmas cooking! I got given Delias new book, HAPPY CHRISTMAS by Pauline who we cooked for down in Cornwall. I love it, and as much as people scoff about Delia and her recipes these days, they all worked and they were all extremely tasty, so I could only highly recommend it- for your Christmas cooking next year. I made her classic Christmas cake, which I generally cook every year, although this year I didn’t have the exact quantities of the various dried fruits, so I used more of some and less of others to make up the measurements, and perhaps  I would say the cake wasn’t as good as usual. Another Christmas cake I made was the Italian chocolate nut Christmas cake, this was great becuase it’s less dense and more like a fresh cake but wrapped in foil in the fridge it keeps for 2 weeks, although it never actually made it to the fridge.

 This year I also made more chutneys than ever before, Delias spiced cranberry chutney- which just reading though now, I realise I made totally wrong! I misread 425ml red wine vinegar for 425ml red wine!! Having tasted it the red wine I used was also corked!! I really ought to recall the jars I gave out as a Christmas gifts! The chutneys that worked well were the Ballymaloe spiced apple chutney and the tomato and apple chutney. We made 21 jars in total, between 3 of us that made them for Christmas gifts.

I also made Delias home-made mincemeat recipe, delicious, though no one was massively keen on the pastry that went with it, apparently not crumbly enough was the verdict from the keen mince pie eaters. (I’m not a massive fan of them anyway!) Her book provides a drinks recipe section, and we tried her hot spiced cider with buttered apples, which everyone loved, and also the mulled wine.

On Christmas eve I made canapes of chicken liver pate with onion jam on little biscuits. We had friends over and we bought a whole salmon. I filleted it and stuffed  home-made salsa verde between the two fillets and baked it in the oven. I served it with potato dauphinoise and buttered peas. Instead of dessert we had a cheese board with home made cheese biscuits.

The cooking of Christmas day lunch was handed over to my Dad, a welcomed day off for me! But I did cook the accompaniments of cranberry and bread sauce.

Amongst many other things cooked over the Christmas period I made a  Sri Lankan turkey curry, a beef hotpot and a good old 70s chicken chasseur!

We took a long weekend in Cornwall a couple of weeks ago in a beautiful area called Mylor Bridge near Falmouth. Our friend Chris was also down there staying with friends of his family. The friend he was staying with, an avid cook  is very interested in running a series of Oriental cookery demos next year. They have an absolutely amazing kitchen overlooking the harbour, with no shortage of ring space on the range cookery nor a shortage of ovens, 4 in fact, including a steam oven which apparently cooks wonderful things, and 2 large warming drawers. We set to it, trialing the wonderful equipment cooking a dinner party for them and their friends. Luckily many hands makes light work and I had the help of Mark and Chris. Below is the menu….

MENU

Green papaya salad

Stir fried prawns and squid with green peppercorns

Beef Massaman curry

Cashew chicken and vegetables

Steamed jasmine rice

Apple tart tatin (cooked by Chris!)

Ok ,so not quite 5000 but it actually felt like it. Cooking a three course meal for a party of 20 ravenous boys is no small task! It took several days of preparation and some innovative coordination and logistics arranging for it all to arrive at the venue to be eaten 20 minutes later. An Oriental/Thai menu was requested. I decided to make the pastes for the curry from scratch which I have discovered is an expensive decision as the amount of ingredients that goes into making the paste is phenomenal and to buy a tub of paste costs only a few pounds, but it was the authenticity that I was after! Here is the menu below, if any of the dishes takes anyone’s fancy let me know and I’ll publish the recipes. The Thai recipes are courtesy of the Blue Elephant Cookery School in Bangkok where Mark and I spent a week in 2008. I would highly recommend it for anyone wanting to learn to cook Thai. However if travelling to Bangkok is going to stretch the budget, i’m looking to do a series of Asian cooking demonstrations in the New Year. I’ll keep you posted.

MENU

Prawn and pork dim sum dumplings with dipping sauce

Prawn crackers

Thai beef massaman curry

Thai cashew chicken

Steamed jasmine rice

Stickey toffee pudding

Apple fudge cake

I bought a large tub of akamiso (red miso) and was a little worried about how long it would keep for. Although I realised this would be longer than a few weeks due to its ingredients, I didn’t want to open the tub come the depths of winter, ready to make a warming soup, only to find a layer of mould. According to Harumi, miso paste keeps for years, so there’ll be no further ‘best-before-end-obsessing’ from me! Speaking of which, said obsessing has become a habit that’s resulted in a lot of unnecessary food wastage, eh – as highlighted in the UK a few months ago. The goal is to keep eyesight and olfactory in peak condition then. I can’t confirm that the following provides relevant nutritional content…

Here’s the recipe:

Steak Marinated in Two Types of Miso

(Taken from Harumi Kurihara ‘ Harumi’s Japanese Cooking’)

First of all, a note about the ingredients and marinade:

- See miso soup recipe for info about miso.

- Only a tablespoon of the marinade is needed to marinate the fillet. The rest of the mixture will keep for up to 4 weeks in the fridge.

- ‘Mirin is a sweet alcoholic liquid used to tenderise and sweeten, as well as balance saltiness.’  It is made by mixing steamed glutinous rice, on which the rice mould aspergillus oryzae has developed, with distilled spirits. An essential ingredient in Japanese cooking – and not for knocking back like sake. But, go on, why not have a little sip instead, just to check…Hon mirin is the good quality stuff.

- If unable to find mirin, it has been suggested that sweet sherry or simply adding some extra sugar will substitute. Just remember, it’s a sweet rice wine and not vinegar.

- I used red miso only and just added a little extra mirin, it still tasted pretty scrummy to me.

Serves 2

3 ½ tbsp white miso

3 ½ tbsp red miso

½ tbsp soy sauce

½ tbsp sake

1 tbsp mirin

8 oz beef fillet

sunflower or vegetable oil to fry the meat

wasabi to taste

1. Mix together the two types of miso, soy sauce, sake and mirin. Using a tablespoon of the sauce, marinate the fillet and wrap in clingfilm. Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

2. Remove the meat from the fridge about half an hour before cooking, so it reaches room temp.

3. Heat a little oil the frying pan, remove any excess marinade from the fillet then pan fry over a high heat.

4. Cook according to taste then perhaps garnish with a little wasabi. Add some fresh green salad with dressing of your choice; though don’t kill the miso marinade of course. Harumi suggests a simple serving of rice shaped in a ramekin and decorated with toasted sesame seeds.

That’s it!

(Sorry it’s been a while coming…)

Cheltenham is the oldest literature festival in the world. This year they’re celebrating their 60th Anniversary. 100000 people now come to more than 440 events. Amongst other things there’s a great chef/foodie line-up at the festival. Here’s what is instore this year:

• Tom Parker Bowles and Valentine Warner –   Sat 10th October  Garden Theatre 2-3pm £7 Celebrate home grown food in this hearty discussion about the best of Bristish. Join Tom Parker Bowles, presenter of market kitchen, food critic and author of Full English, and Valentine Warner, chef and author of the BBCs What to Eat Now, as they share some of their culinary adventures.

• Sophie Dahl -  Sunday 11th October Town Hall 8-9pm £7 In her original and beautifully written cookery book, Miss Dahl’s Voluptuous Delights, former model, now author and food writer, Sophie Dahl shares her favourite recipes along with the misadventures and travels that inspired them. She reveals a compassionate common sense about food and her book celebrates both the joy of eating and life!

• River Cafe – Mon 12th October The Inkpot 11am-12pm £7 or £45 for event followed by three course lunch at The Daffodil Looking for some culinary inspiration? Join Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers, the acclaimed chefs behind the successful River Cafe restaurant, as they share their love of food and discuss bringing Italian food to life in the UK with their bestselling food writing and their new book The River Cafe Classic Italian Cookbook.  In a special Festival partnership, The Daffodil restaurant is offering an opportunity to sample delicious River Cafe dishes with a lunch after event 103, attended by Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers. £45 includes event ticket, three-course lunch and a goody bag which will include a signed River Cafe Pocket Book as well as other VIP treats.

• Hugh Fearnley- Whittingstall Monday 12th October Everyman Theatre 8.45-10pm £9 Putting food on the table for the family quickly and economicallydoesn’t mean you have to compromise on quality. Hugh Fernley- Whittingstall, River Cottage chef, broadcaster and author of the new River Cottage Every Day offers a whole raft of solutions from food sourcing and shopping strategies, to thrifty kitchen tricks and delicious, easy recipes.

• James Martin Wednesday 14th October Main Hall 6.30-7.30pm £12 From Saturday Kitchen to Strictly Come Dancing, chef James Martin joins us to present his new collection of seasonal recipes, A Year at Home. With inspiring new ideas, he talks home cooking and will be preparing a recipe live on stage.

Joanne has sent me over her experiences of cooking and eating in Japan. How fantastic…..

From: Joanne in Japan!

These recipes are simple and straightforward yet highly nutritious and low in calories (depending on the size of the steak…)

First of all, some nutritional stats:

Miso

This is a fermented paste of soybeans and grain (barley or rice), with a 5-10 % salt content. It consists of around 15% quality protein and is regarded as very nutritious. It has a savoury, meaty flavour.

There are hundreds of varieties in Japan; some are made without using grain, consisting of just soybean and salt. Red miso (akamiso) is principally made with rice and is high in protein and salt. White miso (shiromiso) is sweeter in flavour and is often used in cooked salads (aemono) and sweets.  Red miso is used in the regular soup recipe.

It is a good source of manganese, zinc, phosphorous and copper as well as vitamin B12, from the rice-fermented product. Ele-mental.

So it’s worth its sodium chloride then? Here is some info I have found from reputable high street supplement vendors:

Manganese – strong bones, healthy nervous system, optimal function of thyroid gland

Zinc – healthy function of immune system and cell division

Phosphorous – present in every cell of our bodies, mainly in teeth and bones

Copper – works with zinc to form elastin, a skin protein. It aids the formation of collagen, a protein component of bones, skin and connective tissue.

Aha, so this is why the Japanese have smooth, age-defying faces. Forget the expensive Crème de la Mer ladies – Miso soup is the way forward! (Hhm, I wonder if it’s reparative too?!) Just try to avoid topical application, no matter how delicious it smells.

Wakame seaweed

A common ingredient in miso soup. Often used in sunomono, which is a simple salad of thinly sliced cucumber – the cucumbers are thin, crisp and sweet in Japan – and slightly sweetened vinegar. Also good in aemono dishes, that is warm salads of veg and seafood smothered in oil-based dressings.

What are the benefits of this green ‘slimy’ stuff?

It’s full of amazing minerals and natural saltiness, so if fresh, don’t forget to soak before use.

Wakame is a type of kelp, which are apparently a great source of iron, magnesium and folate (vitamin B9.) It is said that recent research has discovered Wakame has anti-obesity properties, whatever that actually means and, perhaps conversely, contains EPA, an essential fatty acid.

Remember Dr Gillian Mckeith? Well, she reckons that wakame contains 10 times more calcium than milk and that the protein in seaweed is more easily absorbed than that of meat or fish. If you want to beef up on the iron levels, kombu seaweed will knock a steak out in the first round, with 8 times more Fe than the quarter pounder. Although it may not pack the same punches on the taste buds…

Wakame up! Before you miso… Groan!

Tofu

A bean curd made by adding water and mineral salt to mashed soybeans. It is rich in calcium and protein, hence its popularity in vegetarian diets.  Packaged in boxes labelled ‘silken’ or ‘firm.’ Silken is used in most recipes and firm is best for frying as it keeps its shape.

Soy-based foods are claimed to reduce fat absorption and cholesterol levels, reducing blood pressure and apparently contain ‘isoflavones’ that can inhibit the growth of cancer cells. These isoflavones are said to be similar in structure to oestrogen, modifying the effects of oestrogen in the body and possibly decreasing the risk of breast cancer and osteoporosis.

So this simple soup, (yes, simple could depend on the availability of authentic ingredients), is full of health benefits. The most beneficial has to be the relaxed, smiling, happy feeling that accompanies each slurp. Oh, slurping and grinning is a must – forget that wrinkle fighting regime, the miso will sort that out! Watch out for the next Z-list celebrity video of soup-slurping facial-toning exercises.

Miso Soup with Wakame and Tofu Recipe

Makes: 4 regular bowls though could potentially serve 1 hungry person. (inc. breakfast the next day.)

Ingredients:

4 cups of water

1/2 box (6 oz / 15g) of soft silken tofu (1 inch cubes)

3 spring onions / scallions (Should I admit I’ve just learnt what a scallion is?)

2tbsp of shredded wakame seaweed (soaked to reduce salt)

3 tbsp of red miso paste

N.B The basic miso soup recipe requires 3 cups of dashi. (fish stock) As the wakame will add a fishy saltiness it shouldn’t be necessary. I found that the wakame I bought in the supermarket had only a slight saltiness so included a small quantity of dashi at the start.

You may want to add a splash of soy sauce (watch the salt intake!) or sesame oil too.

To make (blink and you’ll miso it…):

1. Bring the water to the boil and add the dashi, as appropriate.

2. Add the seaweed and simmer for 5mins, or longer if you want reduced saltiness.

3. Add the rest of the ingredients, apart from the miso and simmer on a very low heat for no more than a couple of minutes. I added shitake mushrooms and fine noodles (already cooked) at this point. Add what you fancy.

4. Now for the miso. First mix it in a bowl with a ladle full of the current broth, until smooth and lump-free. Add to the soup, which is still on a low heat and DO NOT allow to boil, or simmer for too long as the nutritious goods will be lost and those wrinkles will take longer to shift.

Douzo meshiagare!                                                                 Itakadakimasu!

Which translates as: Help yourself / enjoy your meal!   The second is said before eating.

*** Steak recipe to follow…

I have not posted on the blog for a few weeks now. This has not been due to lack of activity in the kitchen…infact I’m still being very productive, unfortunately my Dad has lost my camera. I feel posts without photos are rather uninteresting. However there is still no sign of it, so i’ll post what i’ve been up to and add pictures at a later date. Either when my camera turns up or if I resort to buying another one.

Looking forward to a guest post from Joanne, all the way from Japan, with photos and recipes of her Japanese creations!