This Christmas I challenged the readers of this blog to help me to rejuvenate what had become an all too methodical Christmas lunch. I wanted to eat something that went beyond our traditional and stale festive binge – nothing wildly different or controversial (I would never have been forgiven), but just enough to reinvigorate the day. There were some wonderful suggestions, from all over the world. Natasha’s fried carp with knedliky (Czech dumplings) sounded delicious but would have undoubtedly ended in a riot had it been served in favour of turkey. Alex, a Jewish friend, suggested latkas, potato pancakes eaten at Chanukah. Again, I was – I am – pathetic, and just didn’t dare produce these.

Some more conventional suggestions were embraced. However, after much deliberating I decided that, ambitious as I wanted to be with Christmas lunch, I didn’t really fancy the stress that would have undoubtedly been induced by attempting myriad dishes on Christmas morning. Doing turkey ‘n trimmings for 18 is stressful enough, so instead I dotted the various recipes around the festive period (there may still be time for more). They were all a complete delight. So thank you, everybody, for your truly inspirational input – you helped to make this Christmas much more fun.

Lambswool - with thanks to Nibbles for their suggestion

This is a medieval beverage, swilled no doubt by the gallon on high days and winter holidays. I tried it with ale, feeling that with cider (a more common variation) that it would just be like mulled cider. In truth it is probably nicer that way but it was still warming, aromatic and festive.

Makes 2 litres

6 Cox’s apples

25g butter

4 bottles good ale – Black Sheep or Landlord – otherwise good cider. White Lightning is excellent.

8 tablespoons brown sugar

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ginger

Peel, core and quarter the apples. In a large cauldron, melt the butter over a fire that is not  newly ablaze, and yet has not lost all of its fervour, and add the apples and spices. Gently nurdle those golden orbs until lightly bronzed like the sultry curves of a Moorish maiden, then add the ale and the sugar. Stir well and heat until just below the point at which the bubbles breaketh the surface. Leave for the length of the second act of the Bard’s Twelfth Night and serve in warm goblets ye rapscallion ye.

Hot chocolate with chilli – with thanks to Ms. Alex

This is just the thing to drink on a cold winter morning. Chocolate and chilli are terrific bed partners – the chilli helping the chocolate to coat the throat with a deep warmth that trickles down all the way to your toes. Fight any resistance to this idea and give it a go. It’s fab.

Makes 6 mugs

200g good quality chocolate (70%)

1 dried red chilli, finely chopped and seeds discarded

100ml water

1l whole milk

4 tsp sugar

250ml double cream

A little extra chocolate for dusting

Break the chocolate into bits and melt over a low heat along with the water and chilli. Meanwhile warm the milk almost to boiling point. Once the chocolate has melted whisk in the milk and add the sugar. Heat for another couple of minutes while you whisk the double cream until softly whipped. Pour the hot chocolate into warm mugs, top with cream and a little grated chocolate.

Brussels sprouts with black pudding – with thanks to The Student Gourmet

Prepare the sprouts by discarding any grotty outer leaves, trimming the bottoms and cutting in half. Add to a pan of boiling salted water and boil for three minutes. Drain and rinse under cold running water for 2 minutes. You can do this well ahead (I did it on Christmas Eve this year and the sprouts were as green and fresh as ever).

Heat some butter or goose fat in a large pan and add some chopped up black pudding. Fry until crisp, stirring occasionally, then add the sprouts and cook for a further 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Serve.

Chestnut soup with chorizo and saffron cream – with  further thanks to the mysterious ‘Nibbles’

This is an adaptation of a recipe from the Moro cookbook.

Serves 6

200g whole Chorizo, cut into cubes

1 red onion, peeled and finely chopped

1 stick celery, finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

1 dried red chilli, finely chopped

1 tsp finely chopped rosemary

1 tsp cumin seeds, crushed

400-500g cooked chestnuts, roughly chopped

1 tin tomatoes

1 litre chicken stock

2ooml double cream

a pinch of saffron

Olive oil

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and fry the chorizo until crisp. Remove with a slotted spoon, reserving the oil.

Add the onion, celery, carrot and garlic and fry over a medium heat for 10-15 minutes, until lightly caramelised and soft.

Next add the chopped rosemary, chilli and cumin and stir for a minute or so, before adding the chestnuts, chopped tomatoes and chicken stock. Season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, gently heat the cream and saffron together until the threads have dissolved. Set aside and blend the soup until smooth.

Whisk the saffron cream over a medium heat until it is a little lighter, then serve the soup with a few chunks of chorizo and some of the cream.

Recipe 114: this is not a classic italian Christmas recipe but, for a reason or another, this rice is something i always cook in Christmas. Last year i did it for my parents who came to London to see me, and this year I prepared it for my friends before to come back to Italy for the Christmas break.

Just to make the dinner a  bit more interesting i also prepared a little and super-easy starter that goes really well with the rice. An amazing champagne and wine completed the dinner.

For three people the ingredients are: a bunch of asparagus (8/10)- 250gr rice – around 100gr goat cheese – 1 onion – butter – 50/70gr pancetta – a glass of white wine – a vegetable stock – pepper – salt – chilli  and if you also want to do the starter you will need around 300 gr of Jumbo prawns.

As usual, let’s start from the onion: cut it in little pieces and put it in a quite big sauce pan with some butter or olive oil. Wait for the color to become goldish and add the pancetta. In the mean time wash and cut the asparagus in 2 or three pieces and put them to boil in a little sauce pan, while in a another container you will put some water to boil for the vegetable stock.

When the pancetta is a bit cooked, add the rice and let it toast in the sauce pan. after few minutes you can add the white wine and mix it all until the wine is totally evaporated. add some of the vegetable stock water and let it cook always mixing a bit to don’t make the rice stick to the pan.

Waiting for the rice to cook, you can now prepare the starter: put some batter in a pan and let it melt. After a bit you can put the jumbo prawns with some salt, pepper and chilli. Wait for them to fried a bit with the butter and then add some white wine. in thsi way you will create a nice sauce that will help the prawns to be cooked and the taste will be amazing. Wait until they are a nice orange color and you can serve them in a plate with some of teh asparagus you put to boil before.

Be careful: for the rice you will use mainly the tender points of the vegetable, so i suggest you to use for the started the other part of the vegetable that for the rice would be too hard.

When the rice is almost cooked add the tender parts of teh asparagus you boiled before with their water, to maintain more flavour and mixing all wait for the rice to cook and the water to evaporate.

When the rice is ready, take it off from the fire and add the goat cheese in pieces: mix it all and the cheese will melt giving to the plate even more consistency and a great taste. Then serve it as usual with some Parmesan!

Buon appetito e Buon Natale!

PS. Mamy te lo ricordi questo riso che vi ho fatto l’anno scorso e che vi era piaciuto tanto? beh questo anno ho bissato e l’ho preparato per la nostra cena natalizia a casa prima che partissi con anche un bell’antipasto di gamberetti! Ormai questo risotto e’ diventato il mio piatto natalizio e viene sempre benissimo!

Fans of Vanessa Williams will enjoy "A Diva's Christmas Carol"

Happy Tree Day Eve everyone! I thought I’d post some quick reviews for a few more movies I watched this past week:

Mixed Nuts — An 1994 movie starring Steve Martin and directed by Nora Ephron. I have seen this movie three times now and it’s one of my favorites. The first time I saw it I thought it looked terrible (Steve Martin is known for physical comedy and I hate physical comedy) but it was actually pretty hilarious. Every cast member is funny from Rob Reiner to Juliette Lewis. Daily Show fans will enjoy seeing Jon Stewart in a (very) minor role. Adam Sandler fans will not be surprised by the character he plays (or the silly little song he sings in the movie).

Don’t go into it thinking it’s amazing though, my sister had heard my brother-in-law and me rave about this movie and thought it was boring (it is a bit low-key) but when I went into it thinking it would be boring, I thought it was awesome. You know how that is. I hated Napoleon Dynamite when I saw it because everyone had told me it was amazing and to me it wasn’t.

A Diva’s Christmas Carol — I previously said that I hated “A Christmas Carol” remakes and stopped watching this after a few minutes, but I actually ended up watching the whole thing. And it was surprisingly very funny. It is worth it to see Vanessa Williams + Chilli (from TLC) + some other lady in an ’80s R&B band complete with tacky dance moves and outfits. Hilarious! Be warned, though. You may become very bored of the song the group wrote for the movie and you may wonder if Vanessa Williams will ever play anything other than a mean lady who ends up not being so mean after all ala Ugly Betty.

An Accidental Christmas – Basically a “Parent Trap” on Christmas only with uglier kids and a dad who comes across as gay (but isn’t supposed to be). This movie was okay. Not great, not completely terrible.

Santa Baby 2: Christmas Maybe — Starring Jenny McCarthy. This was very boring. I ended up playing facebook games at the same time and fast-forwarding when I couldn’t take it anymore. Definitely did not live up to the first movie.

Image by Save the Children / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

My mind is feeling a little bit unorganized lately, so I am trying to reflect on where I was before I came here, where I am presently, and what I want to strive for when I return home.

1) Before coming here, my mind was in complete distress.

It was buzzing literally every second of the day, calculating calories and contemplating my meal plan and calorie goals. I felt like I was going crazy, and that each passing hour brought more intensity and less control. I felt completely lost.

2) Currently, I have much more peace of mind even though I am still feeling discouraged.

While my intake today was not the extreme jump that I was hoping to challenge myself with, I made a lot of progress in other areas. I successfully ate without knowing the caloric intake of my meals. Of course I know the obvious ballparks, but I was able to stop my mind from doing the calculations which gave me an amazing sense of freedom. I even ate a home cooked meal of which I was extremely terrified; There was major anxiety experienced, along with some expected tears, but in the end I was able to make it enjoyable.  

Dinner: Chilli

Chilli has always been one of my favourite home-cooked meals… I abandoned the entire prospect of it during the depths of my eating disorder because of the high calorie content. While it is a major fear food, it is also extremely comforting. When I took the first bite, I realized what I had been missing: wholesome, nutritious, amazing food that is only going to increase my health. I was able to block out EDs taunts and power through!

3) When I return home (back to my glorious groceries), I strive to apply my new mindset and jump start my daily intake.

In all honesty, I didn’t think it was going to be this hard to suck it up, throw away the numbers and eat like a champ. Yesterday’s post proved to be yet again one more motivational boost of positivity with no follow-through to back myself up. At least now I have the proper mindset, and all I have to do it apply it (… again, easier said than done). There will be no wavering back and forth, no excuses this time. I feel like I am saying this a lot lately, but this time I mean it: I survived the chilli, and actually took pride in the fact that I did not bow down to ED and surrender to the crazy taunts in my head.

What are your favorite home-cooked meals?

Today’s other eats:

Breakfast: Instant Oatmeal with Maple Syrup

Mid-Morning Snack: Clementine

Lunch: Pan-Grilled Wrap with Turkey and Veggies, Salsa for dipping

 I hope you all had an amazing start to the week! I can’t believe Christmas is almost here… In fact, my sister and I got into a festive mood today and made this:

Gingerbread Anyone?

 … the icing ended up covering almost everything but the house   I felt like a four year old again

Happy Holidays! (4 more days!?)

xox Tat

This is quite potent.

You will need:

• one medium onion
• one tin (450g) of chopped tomatoes
• six cloves of garlic
• 60mL red wine vinegar (you could use Balsamic, if you wanted)
• a tablespoon chilli
• salt, pepper, sugar, 6 cloves

Finely slice the onion, and gently fry in enough olive oil to keep it moist, but not so that it’s swimming. A quick grind of salt, and about half a teaspoon of sugar will help it on its way.

Whilst that’s happening, peel and chop the garlic. When the onion is soft and squishy, move it to one side, add the garlic, and fry for a minute or two; still on a gentle heat. You may need an extra splash of olive oil.

Once the garlic is soft and translucent, move it to one side, and add the chilli. I’m just using the minced stuff that comes in jars, pickled with vinegar. Fry the chilli for about a minute, and then add the tomatoes.

Bring it to the boil, and then reduce to a simmer. Add the vinegar, another teaspoon of sugar, half a teaspoon of salt, the cloves, and a very thorough grind of pepper.

Simmer gently. Taste from time to time, and decide whether you fancy more sugar, salt, vinegar, etc.

As it reduces, it will change hue from a cheerful orange to a more ominous dark red, and after about an hour, it should have reduced and become thick and sinister. You could shove a handheld blender (purée wand) into the mix at this point, or just leave it as it is. I’d pick out the cloves first, in either case, so they don’t come as a horrid surprise.

Serve hot or cold with sausages, potato wedges, etc.

Last year I officially bought my first 8 inch chef’s knife.  It was beautiful.  I was walking hazily through downtown and strolled into a cutlery shop by a French soul food house and had an impulse to buy my first real knife for my first real kitchen gig. $120 later I had purchased my first knife. I had purchased a WU, I had never heard of the name before, but felt a sudden connection with the shiny sharp object.

Cayenne and Cumin

A chef told me a story about how Samurai’s never picked their swords, instead the swords picked them.  Same story with chefs, and how when you grip a knife you will immediately know “the one” he said.  One after another I softly yet firmly wrapped my 5 fingers around the many handles.  I envisioned  what the perfect knife would grip like, chop like, slice like, and dice like within my grasp.  Really…really when I held on to that light wooden handle I knew that this would be my knife…THE KNIFE.   It was perfect.  The weight,  the way my hand gripped the handle, along with the beautiful Japanese aesthetic mixed with the western rocking motion of a knife.  I carried it with me in its box nearly everywhere I went in my black leather back.

In the next couple of months  I learned that having an extremely sharp knife is completely addictive.

So, the other day Daniel asked me if I could think of an idea for him to bring to a work potluck…CHILI I exclaimed here is MY RECIPE!!

Hearty Stout Chili’

This Chili is great because it packs the right amount of heat and has a great spice medley that works with the bold and rich quality of the meat and stout.  It’s texture is not too soupy but also not too thick but is also extremely hearty…just right in my book.

2 lbs Ground Chuck
1 medium yellow onion
3 cloves garlic
1 bottle of Guinness or hearty Stout
1 can crushed tomatoes
1 Can tomato paste
2 cans Kidney beans
6-7 leaves of Fresh Sage
3 T. Apple Cider Vinegar
1 /4 Cup Brown Sugar
2 T Salt (adjust as needed)
Pepper to Taste
Olive Oil

SPICE MIXTURE
A. 1 T Cumin
B. 1 T Smoked Paprika
C. 1 T Chili Powder
D. 1 T Cayenne

Prep: Dice onions to ¼ inch dices.  Rough chop garlic.
With a pot at medium heat add Olive oil when oil is rippled and heated through begin to add the aromatics: onions and garlic, let the onions sweat a bit till slightly translucent.  Add ground beef and roughly break apart (Do not aggressively break down the meat because as it cooks it will break down itself.).  Brown beef slightly and add all of the spice mixture and let it bloom.
After 5-10 minutes and sides are slightly browned and caramelized add the bottle of stout.  Bring to boil and add enough water to cover aforementioned ingredients about ¾ of an inch.
Now add the tomato paste, the can of crushed tomatoes, kidney beans, the 3 Tablespoons of Apple Cider vinegar and brown sugar.  Bring to boil turn down heat and let simmer.  30-40 minutes.
Chiffonade the Sage leaves and roughly chop those into smaller pieces.   Stir this to the Chili before serving.

I really like this recipe so enjoy. I will have some pictures up soon too.

It appears that this blog is well and truly obsessed with chilli.

Maybe I should change the name of it  to ‘We like Chilli’?

Maybe not, I may well become obsessed with something else in 2010?

Anyway, we’ve finally crushed up the chillis we grew over the summer that have been hanging drying in the kitchen.

…and they are fiery as hell!!!

We might even plant some of the seeds next spring. Second generation chilli plants. How exciting!

We decided it was about time we used the naga chilli chocolate we bought at the Fiery Foods Festival a while back, so we made some chilli chocolate cookies using one of Hugh FW’s recipes here.

so, so bad for you, but delicious. Just enough bite. Chilli is the best ingredient!

My mum LOVES sweet chilli sauce.  I honestly think she’d have it on everything if she could.  So I found this recipe for sweet chilli jam and knew I had to make it for her for Christmas.  It’s got a bit of a kick to it but if you’re not keen on spicy then just don’t use so many chillies.  I used a really big deep saute pan much wider than it is tall, which is a really useful pan to have around but any really large pan will do.  If the pan is deep rather than wide the jam will take longer to reach setting point. 

Makes about 4 small (~250ml) jars. 

8 red peppers, chopped (I used 4 long sweet ones and 4 bell as the supermarket didn’t have < would you look at that, didn’t know I could do that I meant 8 then)!
6 large red chillies, sliced
about 2 1/2″ root ginger, peeled and chopped
8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
400g tin cherry or plain chopped tomatoes
750g granulated sugar
250ml red wine vinegar

- Put the peppers, chillies, ginger and garlic in a food processor and whizz until finely chopped and pulpy.  You may have to do this in two batches. 
- Put this into your pan and add the tomatoes, sugar and vinegar. 
- Bring to the boil and then simmer at a rapid pace for about 45 minutes.  Keep stirring to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. 
- When there is a texture change and it goes very thick and sticky give it 5 minutes more while stirring. 
- Put into sterilised jars while still hot and screw the lids on immediately.

[MARINA BAY/SINGAPORE] I checked out Wendy’s Restarant today and saw my favourite beans and chilli side dish on the menu- $2.50 buys you a cup (maybe I should put this under the Top 10 Foods under $3 post). They were also promoting the square burger patties – panini. Not sure if this concept will fly in Singapore, food should look natural and not manufactured, lest looking edgy and square. The Chinese feels that anything with sharp edges often associates with cold and steely knives. – SCOOP

Just like every year, Christmas has snuck up on us all. A few weeks ago we had our first Christmas party, which was dinner with the admin girls and the IT boys. Altogether there were eight of us, including our colleague who went on maternity leave in July. It was great to see her again, and I think she was just as glad to get away from the house!

On a Friday evening after work we went into the city to a place call Gaylord, an Indian restaurant in Chinatown. I’ve been there a few times and it’s been great, so I suggested it for our small group dinner and it was welcomed by most – and those that didn’t, didn’t say anything until it was too late! So that we could try different things, we each ordered a curry and shared, with rice, roti and garlic naan. The lamb saag, butter chicken and a prawn curry were the favourites of the evening. It was very enjoyable, mostly because it’s a relaxed atmosphere where you can be noisy and have a good time.

After dinner, my manager suggested we go to a cocktail bar she likes, called 1806. I’m not a big cocktail drinker – I enjoy a martini and a margarita sometimes, but mostly, they’re too sickly and too expensive! This place had a good atmosphere, pleasant and knowledgeable wait-staff and was quite quiet. We stayed for a few drinks (I enjoyed the martinis) before we both called it a night and headed out into the rain.

The next Christmas party was a lunch organised by the heads of the department. A larger group, of about 20 people, fit into the large and stylish Hu Tong Dumpling House in Market Lane. I hadn’t been there, but a colleague recommended it, and I was happy to try real dumplings as opposed to those as Shanghai Dumpling House! Sharing a banquet meal and some wine (for those that weren’t lab staff), we were able to try a variety of dumplings and meat dishes – including a Sichuan style chicken dish with plenty of chilli. All in all, it was an enjoyable meal, and because it was reasonably priced, I’ll probably be returning.

The last Christmas party was last night, and that was for the whole of the department. Altogether about 60 people has RSVP’d in the positive, but only about 50 went. It was held in the Fad Gallery in Corrs Lane, also in Chinatown (sense a theme here?)

As I know that just two doors down there is a delicious Sichuan restaurant, I tried to round up some people to come to dinner with me beforehand. Due to forgotten lunch parties and family illness, only one person actually came, but it was no less enjoyable. We shared the potato threads and tofu with leek (he is vegetarian, and those dishes are delicious), which filled us up nicely before we headed back to the party venue.

The Fad Gallery is an interesting place, with a variety of artwork throughout upstairs and downstairs. We had the upstairs are to ourselves (after last year where we shared a room with another group) and a bar too.

The music was supplied by ourselves, and games were played, with prizes, and then was the time to dance the night away. I headed off early, not feeling so great (the dizziness isn’t help by noise, alcohol and dark rooms), but I must say it was a good night. I managed to take a couple of hundred photos, as requested by the manager, which might be ready to go on the network on Monday. I decided to keep it simple with digital, and try out my new lens, the 28mm f/1.8. It’s fantastic, wide enough for confined spaces, without distorting. The speed was very useful in the dark bar too.

In the week coming up, we have our work Kris Kringle party, and then that’s about it until New Year. I’m looking forward to a quiet Christmas and a short break until the New Year.

…check out TLC’s “Sleigh Ride” courtesy of a LaFace Christmas in 1992

The garden bed on an overcast day

First, a confession: Gardener Scampus was a very lazy boy last weekend. Well, I was and I wasn’t.

Physically I put the Big Ones in, spending those two broiling hours working in the garden on Saturday morning. But digitally it was a case of never quite getting around to putting together my usual weekly post here about the goings-on in the vege gardens.

So the post for last week’s progress report that you see on this blog was actually written today, a week after the events described. I hope that hasn’t resulted in a scratchy, incomplete effort on my part. Although frankly how will you, my readers, know?

Anyway, on to this week’s round-up. (No, that wasn’t a free plug for Monsanto’s product, Roundup. Au contraire, mes amis…)

Beetroots

Main bed

Thankfully all 10 plants in the main bed are coming back into contention, including the two I transplanted to new positions last weekend. Most of them obviously received a nasty shock when I thinned them out, but the heat, and that nice little storm mid-week, gave them all a fighting chance. A couple of the plants on the higher row are enormous now, but all of them are still in there and battling on.

Beetroot transplants in The Annexe

The Annexe

At this point, of the 10 plants I transplanted here last Saturday morning, 9 are still alive, if barely! But that’s something, I guess. I read something just now that recommended watering transplants once and even twice a day for a couple of weeks, which I haven’t been doing. Will rectify that over the next few weeks.

Carrots

A crowd of carrots - note the big one at top right

Nothing particularly new to report here. Another slow grower, the carrot. I accidentally pulled out a couple of the smaller plants while thinning out the neighbouring beetroots last week, but given how many plants there are in each of the two rows, it doesn’t really matter.

As the accompanying photo shows, the plant at the highest end of the right-hand row is for some reason growing much, much faster than all the others.  Show-off.

Beans

Bottom end of the garden showing beans in the foreground, beetroot and carrots in the background

If it wasn’t for the fact that I have the neighbour’s burgeoning bean plants in full view, I would think that it’s been too hot to grow beans this summer! Mine are all fairly small by comparison, and as mentioned previously 2 or even 3 of them remain very stunted, to the point where I can’t see them contributing to the harvest in any way.

I might add that the beans are planted in the lowest corner of the bed. Perhaps that has something (a lot?) to do with it. I think, as the opportunity arises, I’ll re-lay the soil within the garden’s boxing so it’s more level right across the bed, and see if that leads to more consistent growth patterns next time around. It surely can’t hurt.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes in the main bed showing the size difference between the 2 plants

Small green tomatoes have now appeared on three of the four plants, but are obviously a long way off ripening at this point. Still, no sign of bugs on them as yet.

The right-hand plant in The Annexe continues to struggle, with most of the lower foliage having browned off. It can’t be the heat, otherwise why isn’t its neighbour in the same boat? But the topmost fronds look pretty healthy this weekend, so I’m still hoping.

Meanwhile, over in the main bed the right-hand plant is massive in comparison to its neighbour, but way behind in terms of fruit production as yet. Too much potassium? Nitrogen? Put it on my list of things to check into online, as time permits. Once again the clarion call goes forth: “More research needed!”

Chillies

Chillies in the main bed

Just this morning I noticed a monster chilli on one of the plants in the pots on the back deck. It’s green, but it’s enormous – not sure whether to leave it for a bit longer and see if it changes colour, or pull it off now and take my chances. A bit of online reading earlier this morning suggests leaving it to ripen, but oh, the temptation!

Most of the chilli plants now sport a one or more fruit on their spindly boughs, but all are still green and most are small, except for the big hoo-er mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Sweet Corn

Going along swimmingly, thanks for asking! All 6 plants are tall, green and healthy. (You can surely see why they suck so many nutrients out of the soil.) This week the tassels have really started to come out for the first time.

I guess it is only four weeks until the cobs are due to be picked. But by the looks of them, if they keep up the current rate of growth, they may be ready a little earlier than that, and that would mean we get to eat them ourselves. Otherwise they’ll be going to friends and/or neighbours to consume while we’re ‘across the Ditch’ in NZ.

There’s something very pleasurable about sitting under the back deck and just listening to the breezes rustle through the corn, late in the afternoon at the end of a hot day. Especially if you’ve been working in the very same garden earlier that day.

Eschallots

Very little to report. The cats’ digging and mulch-moving activities in The Annexe have led to the death and disappearance of a couple more eschallots there, but the other plants continue to grow, if slowly. I’ve moved in a few bits of old pavers to try to protect the survivors better.

They do appear to be a very slow grower, eschallots. The result is, at this stage, not a lot of progress to report on.

Cucumbers

Cucumber plants in main bed

Almost forgot! Our major producers (so far) provided another 3 or 4 cucumbers during the week, and there are at least another 3 on the vines in the main bed, almost ready to pick now.

Cucumbers on the vine, including a mutant in the centre

All this fruit producing must be exhausting, and the plants are starting to look a bit frayed and brown around the edges, especially those in the main bed. I don’t know how long they live for, but I’m suspecting it’s not all that long – I doubt they’re perennials. Or it could be that they need fertilising. Once again, time to get online and do more investigating, I suppose. (Never a dull moment when learning to garden, you know!)

And that was the week that was, as a British wit once said, some time last century.

Coming up is the last week of work this year, and it’s a short one, since Christmas Day is on Friday. And then a glorious week or so (10 days, to be precise) of vacation time! I’ll miss the air conditioning at work, but probably not much else.

After that, it’s only about 10 days until we’re winging our way to New Zealand for a couple of weeks. Seems like forever since we were over there last, although it’s been less than 2 years, in fact. I can’t wait.

almost everything….

Ooof. It’s that time of year, so I guess I must be having a party, which means coming up with a way of feeding lots of people. How about this?

It’s neither paella nor risotto, but nevertheless, rather good. It has evolved over some time, starting with a recipe from Silvana Franco.

For every four guests, you will need:

• chilli (will vary on your chilli, but suggest enough to add a tingle, but not enough to make it hot)
• 2 fat cloves garlic, or as much as you dare (I keep on saying that with garlic, don’t I?)
• 1 large onion
• 1 red capsicum
• 100g peas (or beans, mangetout)
• Kalamata olives (as many as you like, but leave the stones in)
• 200g long grain rice (not arborio or anything fancy, just basic long grain)
• 900 mL stock
• turmeric (half a teaspoon)
• paprika (half a teaspoon)
• salt/pepper, plus lemon wedges to garnish

Here’s how:

1. Thinly slice – don’t crush – the garlic, and fry gently with the chilli in some olive oil
2. Slice/dice/whatever the onion and capsicum, and add – keep on frying ’til soft
3. Make the necessary arrangements to have the stock ready and hot
4. Add a bit more oil and the rice, turn the heat up and fry the rice as you would if you were making a risotto
5. Add the turmeric, paprika and olives
6. pour over the hot stock, stir vigorously
7. Turn the heat right down and leave for 15 minutes – the heat should be high enough to cook the rice, and low enough so that it doesn’t burn on the bottom – check occasionally – the ideal situation is to get it slightly crunchy underneath – so regular stirring is not on
8. Add the peas about five minutes before serving

In Advance

You can prepare this in advance, by getting up to the stage where you fry the rice, and then adding only 200 mL of concentrated stock, stirring to deglaze the pan, and then covering and allowing to cool. The following day, spread the rice out in a roasting tin, add 800mL hot water, and pop in an oven on about 150C for about 20 minutes.

Vegetarians avert your gaze now

Obviously you can add meat. Some possibilities:

• start by gently frying some pancetta or sliced chorizo in the pan, until all the fat has oozed out, and then carry on as normal
• add some leftover roast chicken or duck with the stock, or just fry up some chopped up chicken thigh fillets (don’t bother with breast meat, not interesting enough for this kind of recipe)
• add some prawns or other shellfish at the same time as the peas
• in theory, you could use saffron instead of turmeric, but I’ve never dared

To those who are well versed in cockney rhyming slang you will know that : Mutton = Deaf.  All related to an old british cartoon duo called Mutt and Jeff.

What has that got to do with the price of meat? Well, I am always hard of hearing when I am in the butchers because I never hear the them trying to sell me mutton. I always get sidetracked and pick up some lamb and forget to grab me some mutton.

I have been feeling ill of late, nothing serious, just the usual. This means that I had been struggling to get everything done during the day, the weekly online delivery was missed and I had not been out to the local shops either. I opened the fridge and t’was bare. I could have made a very simple dinner of roasted sweet peppers and baby tomatoes on toasted pitta with a side salad of basil, coriander, mint and pickled lemons, but I thought that was a Fridge Challenge too far.

I popped across the road to Al Hayat a melange of cornershop, butcher(halal), greengrocer and all things middle eastern. It is a genius last minute life saver, and anyone that live  in the general vacinity of one of these will know how great they are.

The fruit and veg is of great quality and they had some big juicy aubergines, so I grabbed one. Inside they had tons of chicken wings, lamb neck, brains, liver – in fact most things you can think of. Seeing as it was still early-ish and he had one chunk left, I took the mutton. I had no idea what I was going to do with it and as I wanted to eat in the not too distant future I got out of there quick.

I stood in the kitchen for a few minutes and had a think abut what to make. I chopped the muttton up into bite sized chinks and did the same with half of the aubergine. I did this without any real thought of what was coming….but i know it was going to be curry. I have been making curry since before I could walk (that may be due to being Indian) and whenever I have no brain space or am in need of comforting ,out comes the Ginger, Garlic and Chilli.

Mutton and Aubergine Curry

350 g Mutton (whatever cut you prefer, leg for me)

Half a Large Aubergine

3 tbs Yellow Split Peas (Chana Dhal)

1 onion

1 tbs chopped ginger

1tbs chopped garlic

2 green chillis (small, hot ones – the supermarkets call them finger chilis)

Big Handful of baby Tomatoes

1 tsp cumin seeds

1tbs cumin powder

1tbs coriander powder

1/2tsp turmeric

1tsp salt

small stick of mace

2 green cardamom pods

6 black peppercorns

Handful fresh coriander

Method

Thinly slice the onion and fry it till good and golden in a sucepan. Add the ginger, garlic and chilli and when they are toasted  – add the rest of the spices (except the salt and fresh coriander) . Chop the aubergine and the mutton into bite size chinks and add to the spiced inion mix. Whack up the heat and brown everything and mix well.

You should get a great smell coming out of the pan. Add the baby tomatoes (halved) and the lentils and incorporate on a high heat. Add double the amount of water needed to cover the contents of the pan.

Leave simmering for just under two hours – check it every half hour an if needed add a little water. By the end, all the water should have evaporated and made the mutton nice and soft; You should end up with the aubergine pieces breaking down to form a very thick sweet sauce.  It should look like this:

This is one of my favourite dishes with which to end a meal: perfectly ripe blood oranges drizzled with a little honey and a scattering of dried chillies and rosemary.

6 blood oranges
130ml fragrant honey, such as acacia
3 tbsp water
3-4 rosemary stems, plus extra sprigs to finish
1 small dried chilli, deseeded and very finely sliced (optional)

With a sharp knife, slice off both ends of the oranges and stand upright on a board.

Running the knife from top to bottom, cut away the peel and pith, following the fruit’s contour. Now slice the oranges across into pin wheels – I usually get five slices from each orange. Set aside and warm the honey.

Put the honey and water into a small saucepan. Lay the rosemary on a chopping board and, using a rolling pin, gently pound the stalk and leaves to bruise them and release the flavour.

Add the rosemary to the pan and place over a very low heat. Allow the honey to warm through very gently for a few minutes, stirring from time to time; don’t let the mixture boil. Take off the heat and set aside to infuse for 10 minutes, then take out the rosemary.

To serve, arrange the orange pinwheels on individual plates. Sprinkle with the dried chilli if using, and spoon over the infused honey. Scatter over a few fresh rosemary sprigs and serve.

Cheeky Chili – The Concept

Cheeky Chili was a concept designed by the Chef (Jon Shawcross) and his Fiancee/Assistant (Samantha Smith), brought about by their love of the fiery pepper.

Rarely a day goes by in the Cheeky Chili household without the inclusion of chili in our diet. This love and fascination of all things chili, along with Jon’s new found love for designing websites and Internet Marketing bore an idea to combine the two passions.

It is our desire and intention to bring to you a world leading authority on chili, combined with an array of products, recipes and ideas

Top celebrate the launch, we are giving away a FREE e-book which contains some well known and some not so well known information in the chili world, as well as a selection of our favorite recipes.

Come along today and be a part of Cheeky Chili

On December 8th, Ben from Chowtimes tried out a restaurant in a humble neighborhood where it had an honorable mention of being the most authentic tasting pho on this side of Vancouver. One of the things that Ben has heard was that this restaurant serves horse meat pho. At that time when Ben wanted to ask if they sell this exotic pho, he was intimidated by the bossy owner lady.  After I commented his post, I was given the mission of asking if they sell horse meat.

With a mission on my mind and a few reasons to go, I decided to check it out. On that day, I had a cold (kinda recovering) and I had to visit the dentist. I felt lazy that day and didn’t have time to make brunch so I decided to trek down there.

Lam Hoa Quan is located on Victoria Drive between East 34th and 35th. Basically the sign that you see here is the same writing and color as the awning.

As I entered into the restaurant, I was promptly seated by the window near the door. I was given the menu and some tea to start. Even though it was an hour before noon, the restaurant had quite a number of customers eating there. There were 2 servers there, one male and one female (possible boss lady?). Since I knew what I wanted to order, I waited patiently for the male server. Once I made eye contact with the male server, I made my order and asked if they sell horse meat pho. The male server was nice enough to explain to me that they used to sell horse meat pho about a year ago. Since it was not such a popular item, the restaurant decided to eliminate it from the menu. After saying that, he enthusiastically told me that they have goat on the menu.

Now you have it Ben, they don’t serve horse meat, but they do serve goat.

Before my pho came, a dish of bean sprouts, shallots, lime wedge, hot pepper slices, and basil arrived at the table. I was quite amazed at the condiments that I was given. Usually at other pho places, they only give the bean sprouts, lime wedge, Thai Basil and/or the hot pepper.

Another condiment that arrived at the table is the pepper salt. This is used for the chicken in the pho. What you do is squeeze the lime into the pepper salt and then mix it all together and then dip the chicken into it for extra flavoring.

And now, time for the pho!

What I ordered was the Pho Ga Dac Biet (House Special Chicken Noodles). It’s perfect for such a cold day and such a fitting remedy for the cold that I have been trying to fend off. The Pho Ga was quite flavorful. The broth tasted like the chicken had aromatics added to it and was then simmered on low heat to create such a savory broth. As for the chicken, it was perfectly cooked and was firm. Same thing goes for the noodles. I ate the noodles with a combination of the condiments of shallot, red chili, cilantro with a bit of soup. Let’s just say that this combination is very delicious!

Overall, Lam Hoa Quan offers authentic tasting pho without the addition of MSG. I totally recommend the Pho Ga Dat Biet as it has a delightful full-bodied flavor soup and the chicken was cooked perfectly.

Lam Hoa Quan
5073 Victoria Drive
Vancouver, BC

Food:
Service: (Didn’t get the boss lady. HAHA!)
Value: The Pho Ga Dat Biet costs $7. Slightly expensive than most places and this is the large size. Overall, totally worth it.
Ambience: Medium-sized cozy Vietnamese restaurant with TVs.