Looking at it now it looks a wee bit overdone, burnt one could say even, but at the time I didn't notice, it just had a nice charred taste.
I saw chicory in the supermarket recently and thought it was about time I gave it try again. I can't remember eating it since I was a child and those memories aren't ones of liking it. Tastes change though so in the basket it went. I had thoughts of cooking it on the ridged grill pan and the internet suggested this combination.
I'm pretty useless at planning ahead when it comes to food. I like to do a bigger shop on Sundays but mainly to take the car and pick up bottles of carbonated water and other liquid items that aren't too bus friendly. When it comes to planning food ahead though I try not to bother. I spend a lot of time each day thinking what to eat and it will change frequently over the course of the day, let alone between a big shop at the weekend and a Thursday evening. I know what I want and I want it now, but will probably want something different in two hours time.
Luckily for me, well i look at it that way anyway, I have to walk past a Sainsbury between my office and the tube station so I can plan what I want to eat during the day then pop in and get the ingredients quickly on the way home. Earlier this week I was thinking what to eat so was having a little run through of what was in the fridge that needed using up: some salad leaves, some tomatoes, some sugar snap peas and a couple of eggs I'd hardboiled on Saturday because it was their use by date. It may call for green beans normally but the first thing that sprang to mind was the old faithful salade nicoise, just changing the beans for sugar snaps and slapping a lump of seared tuna on top. I knew I had anchovies at home too so all I needed was some new potatoes and a lump of tuna and maybe some bread to bulk it up a bit.
My heart was now set on this so I popped into Sainos, found loose new potatoes complete with dirt, some mini plum tomatoes (the big tomatoes can get used another day), a still warm baguette and then, aargh, no tuna. I took the gamble that Marks and Spencer (oh, yeah, there's one of those in the tube station too) would have some and bought the rest. Alas when I got to M&S all they had was a single pack of tuna steaks left which looked a bit white-bits-between-the-layers heavy - we'd gone too far to pull out now though so I cracked on.
All my cookbooks bar one sit tucked away on a set of shelves in my kitchen where they're instantly accessible. Tools of the trade to get dog-eared and splattered with food. One of them is somewhat different to all the others though and so has pride of place on the living room shelves nestled amongst, come to think of it, some pretty random things: a couple of human bones, a nautilus shell, some mementos from The Fat Duck and a pickled shark - to name a few.
My girlfriend is half-Malaysian and a couple of years ago we went over there to visit her family. As far as food goes it's by far and away the best food I've ever eaten on a holiday, or for any two weeks of my life for that matter. As this blog shows I'm pretty partial to oriental food and over there, surprisingly, they tend to eat it all the time. Noodles for breakfast isn't a sign you failed to finish your takeaway the night before, it's just normal everyday fodder. Over the course of the holiday I many dishes stuck in my mind and I took loads of photos.
Later in that year I received a present from my girlfriend and opened up to find the most amazing handmade cookbook. Leah had collated all our food related holiday photos and then scoured the web for recipes corresponding to the dishes in them. It was such an amazing present and so nicely done, yet she still wonders why I don't have it in the kitchen getting greasy with all the others.
Anyway here's a few photos of inside the book, along with some others that are in the book.
One of the dishes that stuck in my mid the most from the trip was kangkong belacan. Luckily Leah got a recipe for it in the book and so I thought I'd make and blog it for you.
Today's weird and wonderful item is a pretty common one, well available in every oriental shop I've seen anyway. I think it's also eaten all across the Far East, you definitely get it in Chinese food and then the packet I bought was from Thailand. Admittedly China and Thailand doesn't constitute all across the Far East but I'm going to stand my ground on that statement anyway.
Once released from its plastic jail it spreads out into quite a big cabbage-like thing. Amongst the briney vinegar there's also a lone red chili, I guess to add flavour much in the same way you would add spices to a onion pickling solution. I tried some straight from the pack but it was a bit on the potent side, very salty and strong.
There was some squid in the freezer I wanted to use so I googled around and, luckily for me, it appears squid and pickled mustard greens is a usual combination. After reading through the various recipes I had a good idea of the general flavours and proportions of each ingredient so put together the recipe below. Some recipes said to rinse the greens, others didn't - I didn't.
Special occasions are always a bit of a balancing act with me. Obviously the first thing I want to do to celebrate - whether it be birthday, new flat, new job or Valentine's day - always involves food, either out or cooking. I have to remind myself that not everyone's obsessed with food like I am and so they may just want to have a drink or even, perish the thought, do something that doesn't involve the ingestion of solids or alcoholic liquids.
As you're all aware the most recent occasion was Valentine's day. I'm not a big one for going OTT for this, no big presents or bunches of roses, although I'm happy to acknowledge its existence and happy to use it as an excuse for some nice food with the better half. Speaking with her she mentioned she'd like a pisco sour and some ceviche, memories of our last holiday, probably because the new screen saver at home pops up image after image from our Peru holiday and we both end up sat staring at that rather than watching the TV blaring away next to it. I looked up the local South American restaurant (Sabor in Islington - definitely worth a visit) but they'd taken the set menu route, without these dishes, so I decided to make it at home instead. The lack of cooking making it perfect for the evening as I wouldn't spend all my time in the kitchen.
Back when I first spoke of ceviche I did prepare some to write about on the post too. I followed a recipe from a book I bought in Peru, alas what they translate to limes are actually a thing called a limon (I think) which although small and green is nowhere near as sour as our limes. Due to this the recipe I made was completely inedible and so I spared the write up. I was not going to be caught out twice though so checked out a recipe in a South American book that a friend of mine Kavey (who with her mum Mamta run the fantastic Mamta's Kitchen website) kindly bought me. The recipe for ceviche in this used a mixture of the juice of two lemons and one lime so I used this as my starting point, and as pisco sours also use the same citrus juice I extracted six lemons and three limes' worth.
