Pea salad with creamy dressing

Most evenings when I come home from work I want a quick supper. Pasta, rice with veggies, Thai noodles or salad. Salad is for sure the quickest of them all. When you count the several times though Scott requested a 2nd dinner 2 hrs after having had his salad, salad it not quite as time saving as it first seems.

So I would usually serve salad on the side of a "proper" dinner. Mostly lettuce with - you guessed right - pumpkin seed oil dressing. Recently however I re-discovered peas. I think I haven't used them for years. But now we have them in soup, rice and salad. Actually, there is no better salad out there than lettuce with peas in a creamy dressing served with some freshly baked bread.

Pea salad with creamy dressing

: green leave salad

: 200g frozen peas

: 1 egg yolk
: olive oil
: lemon juice
: Maldon sea salt

Wash the leave salad and put it in a large bowl. Bring some water to the boil. Add some salt to the boiling water, then add the peas. Leave the peas in the boiling water just for one or two minutes. Once drained, place them in the same bowl as the lettuce. Now drizzle some olive oil and lemon juice over your salad, then add the egg yolk (this helps to add creaminess to the dressing), toss the salad until well mixed and finish off by seasoning your salad with a sprinkle of Maldon sea salt.

Pasta in white wine sauce and prawns

I have been living in the area of Charlton/Greenwich for two years now and for approximately the same time I have been wondering how to get access to the massive See-Woo cash & carry supermarket just down the road. My new Chinese neighbour recently told me the secret: Just walk in. And indeed: no shopping/access card required, private customers are as welcome as restaurant owners.
The first visit to See-Woo was at least as exciting as a day in Disneyland. You find everything you ever wanted for your Asian cooking, and more. Live lobsters and crabs are one of the highlights... not that I would ever buy any of those. The fresh fish counter however must be one of the best kept secrets in London. Best fish at best prices. The same goes for the frozen fish. squid in all shapes, cuts and sizes; large bags of raw, cooked, peeled or unpeeled prawns for a mere fiver. Goodbye Sainsbury's and Waitrose. When it comes to fish, See-Woo has just gained another loyal customer.

Last time I came back home with a bag of cooked and peeled frozen prawns. Since then, I have been dishing up sweet and sour prawns with onions and peppers, egg fried rice with prawns and pasta in white wine sauce with prawns.

Pasta in white wine sauce and prawns, for 2

: 200g pasta

: 200g cooked and peeled prawns

: 1 medium sized onion, chopped

: 1 tbsp butter

: 150ml white wine

: 100ml single cream

: freshly ground white pepper

: sea salt

: fresh curly parsley, chopped

Cook the pasta according to the instruction on the packet. In the meantime, heat the butter in a pan. When melted, add the chopped onions and cooked them until just soft. Letting them turn brown could end up in the onions overpowering the subtle wine flavour of the sauce.
Add the wine to the sauce and let simmer for one or two minutes, then add the cream and let it simmer a little more.

Drain the pasta once it's ready. Set aside for a minute while you add the prawns to the sauce. Remember, they are already cooked, so you do not want to cook them anymore. So let them just heat through in the warm sauce for a minute. Season the sauce with salt and pepper, then add the pasta. Make sure all the pasta is covered with sauce. Finish off with a sprinkle of parsley and serve immediately.

Crumpet pizzetta

It must be one of the simplest and fastest dinners. Not only that, it actually looks pretty good too. A toasted crumpet makes the perfect base for almost every topping: Nutella and toffee gooeyishly make their way through the many wee holes, butter and honey melt into utter creamyness, jam transforms the bready base into an almost cake-like delicacy.

As much as I prefer to eat my crumpets with sweet toppings: crumpets make a delicious savory snack and dinner... ready in a mere 10 minutes. Crumpet pizzette with tomatoes, onions, cheese and a little olive oil drizzle are my favourite. Toasted crumpets topped with bacon and maple syrup are a close second, and a herby scrambled egg topping comes third. But try whatever you fancy; and have them for breakfast, brunch or dinner.

Chanterelles marinated in lime scented pumpkin seed oil

Kim is the Gordon of Vienna. Not that she would be as rude as her British counterpart, but her cooking is considered to be the best in the capital, just as Gordon Ramsey's cooking is in London. Her cuisine however is a bit more daring. She's presenting her guests with a kind of Asian-Austrian fusion cuisine; take her tuna and nash pear filled with Grammeln (dry roasted Austrian speck)
Kim kocht is the name of probably the only restaurant in the whole of Austria that has a three or more months waiting list. I haven't been there yet, but it is definately on my list of places to visit (or better food to try). In the meantime I try to do a Romana kocht based on the recipes in her cookbook.
As mentioned in previous blog entries, I cannot live without a daily dose of pumpkin seed oil. Ever since I bought her cookbook I have therefore been thinking about making the chanterelles marinated in Asian spices pumpkin seed oil. I just wasn't sure what to serve it with. It was when I read the Nobu Now cookbook that it hit me: with beef sahimi (or carpaccio). I went all way to Kensington High Street to get reddest beef fillet ever seen perfectly marbelled with the thinnest lines of fat throughout the whole piece of meat. It was well worth the 5 Pounds or so I paid for a mere 100g.
If you don't like raw meat, simply serve the mushrooms with potato or simple green leave salad.
Chanterelles marinated in lime scented pumpkin seed oil
: 1tsp vegetable oil
: 1 large onion, finely chopped
: 200g chanterelle mushrooms, cleaned and cut into small pieces
: 1 stalk of lemon grass, finely shredded
: 4 Kaffir lime leaves
: 90ml pumpkin seed oil
: a dash of balsamic vinegar
: freshly ground pepper
: salt

Saute the chopped onion in a little vegetable oil. Add the mushrooms and season with salt and pepper, then mix with the Kaffir lime leaves and chopped lemon grass. Finally add the pumpkin seed oil and balsamic vinegar.

Pancakes, kroketten and buttermilk

I am a big fan of the Netherlands. 10 years ago I lived and studied there for a few months and ever since I return on a regular basis to enjoy the two things I like most about the Netherlands: Dutch interior design and proper pancakes. Last week when I visited my friend in Groningen I had the chance to eat the best pancake ever. It was served to us in a small village in the area of Drente. Drente is one of those places where half of the country's population comes for a weekend walk or cycle trip with the whole family. Being such a touristic hotspot the area is full of cafes, resaurants and of course pancake houses. But you really need to walk or cycle for miles to work off the pancakes. I had an apple, raisin and speck pancake drizzles with syrup. The most satisfying thing you can eat on a Sunday afternoon. For a weekday lunch however I would opt for something a bit lighter. "A bit" in its true meaning... you wouldn't see Kate Moss feasting on a kroket with potato salad. Not if the kroket is deep fried and the salad dressed with mayo. But you can disguise it as a healthy option if you order a glass of buttermilk with it. Yes, buttermilk. Or just milk. Both of which can be found on every Dutch menu. Lekker.

Hotpot pot

I don't like throwing food away. It's a waste of money and resources. Whilst others bin all the leftovers from a dinner party, I pack them neatly away in airtight containers and either freeze them or use them straight away on the next day. Take the leftovers from my Chinese hotpot night: fishballs, Chinese greens, rice vermicelli, mushrooms, tofu and of course the hotpot stock. All these lovely ingredients should really feel your belly and not your bin. So I just threw them all ino one pot, let it simmer for a few minutes and served it in large soup bowls with some crispy smoked chillies in oil.

Chinese Hotpot

Beef Wellington, Prawn Cocktail, Floating Island... we can either call them old-fashioned or classic dishes. Fact is, they are all still being served both in restaurants and on our dinner tables.
Recently I watched a few episodes of a program called “Dine with me” where 5 strangers have to cook for each other and at the end a winner is be identified through a scoring system. Anyway, details aside, a good third of the hosts feed their guests on dishes they must have dug out in cookbooks printed in the 70ies.
Take my family and friends: the raclette and fondue equipment is taken out of the cupboards at least once or twice a year. Considering that most electric kitchen gadgets never see the daylight, fondue and raclette sets live a quite busy life.
At home at my parents we have fondue every Christmas. It’s the easiest way to satisfy my sister’s chicken-only and my no-chicken needs. I do grow sick and tired of the yearly fondue though… So I wasn’t half as excited as my neighbour when we decided to have a Chinese hotpot to celebrate the arrival of our new - Chinese – neighbour. Meat cooked in soup sounds suspiciously like fondue to me.
But it wasn’t. Well, the concept it sort of the same as my mum’s fondue: veggies, protein and seasoned/spiced stock. Just that the protein in this case was fish (prawns, squid, various kinds of fishballs) and the veggies were choy sum and fungus (they should try and find a new name for that kind of mushrooms, yak). In addition to that we had tofu and a variety of sauces, e.g. the Chinese version of Hummus (Tahini and fermented bean cured), crispy fried chilli sauce and my favourite which I believe to be more Japanese than Chinese: Soy sauce with a dash of mirin, ginger, garlic and a raw egg yolk.
No mayo based sauces in sight. Dipping the fish and veggies into a light sauce makes this kind of “fondue” so much more enjoyable than my mother’s version. No nasty surprises when you step on the scales the day after.
To make the hotbot base, we bought a ready made stock in See-Woo, a massive Chinese supermarket in North Greenwich. If I was to recreate the dish, I would probably make the base myself by adding lemon grass, ginger, Chinese chive leaves, Sichuan pepper, kaffir lime leaves, soy sauce etc to a home made veggie stock. Might not be authentic, but more yummy for my taste. The rest is perfect just as outlined above. And just like fondue and raclette: it is a very social way of eating and entertaining your friends.

Matcha financiers a la framboise

Starbucks, Cafe Nero, ice cream parlours, restaurants, bars... Matcha is everywhere. The green tea powder has taken London by storm ever since the first few magazines featured this Japanese treasure a few years ago.
I am always curious to try something new, so guess what: I got myself some Matcha as well... a bit too much of it as it turned out. My first online order was delayed but since I wanted to feed my friends with green tea tiramisu, I embarked on a two hour long journey to a Japanese shop in Putney to get soma matcha. A few days later the online delivery came in... actually in time for my dinner party. Nevermind.
So I have got plenty of that stuff at home. Most recently I used it for making financiers.
I had my first financier in Bacchus, a sort of Gastropub in London which is famous for it's sous vide cooking. It came as part of the dessert. Before that, I had never heard of the term financier. I am very glad though that Bacchus brought this dense, moist, nutty little cake to my attention. The nutty flavour comes btw from powdered, toasted almonds and beurre noisette. So yes, there is a little bit extra work involved in making it, but it is well worth it.
Matcha financiers a la framboise, for 12 small cupcakes
For the financier
: 115g unsalted butter
: 35g flour
: 90g icing sugar
: 1 tsp matcha powder
: 3 lightly beaten egg whites
: 50g powdered almonds
: 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
: pinch of salt

For the topping
: 2 tbsp single cream
: 30g white chocolate
: 4 tbsp raspberry jam
: 12 raspberries

Start by making the beurre noisette: melt the butter in a pan. Using a spoon, skim off the white foam (scum) that floats to the surface once the butter has melted. Let the butter bubble for a minute or two until the milk solids at the bottom of the pan turn brown: this is how you add both a nutty colour and flavour to the butter. When the butter has turned golden brown, sieve it through some muslin (or a sieve lined with a sheet of kitchen roll). You should be left with approx. 85g of beurre noisette.
Now toast your almonds. Spread out the powdered almonds on a baking sheet and allow to slightly brown in a hot oven. Alternatively, toast them in an oil-free pan on your hob.
Then mix together the almonds, flour, sugar, matcha and salt in a large bowl. Add the butter and vanilla extract and fold in the lightly beaten egg ("lightly beaten" can mean anything from "still very liquid" to "almost stiff": the more you beat the egg, the more your financiers will rise).
Preheat your oven to 200 degree Celsius. Butter 12 mini-muffin or cupcake moulds. Fill them almost to the rim and bake the financers for about 11-14 mins until slightly golden on top. Leave to cool.

To make the white chocolate ganache, heat the cream in a small pan. Break up the white chocolate into small pieces and place in a bowl. Pour over the hot cream and stir until the chocolate has melted.
In a small pan, heat the rasperry jam until liquid. This will make it easier to spread the jam over the top of the financiers.

Now assemble your matcha-cupcakes: first, glaze your little cakes with raspberry jam. Leave to cool a little, then drizzle over some chocolate ganache and decorate with one raspberry each.

Spinach and sweet potato cake

Any party that exceeds a dinner party in size is a good excuse to search the web and especially food blogs for funky finger food and sweets. In fact, that's how I first discovered the art of food blogging. Some of the stuff you come across there is much more inspiring and handsome than any celebrity chef's offerings.
I admit to being a rather superficial person. Looks, looks, looks. That's how I usually choose my party food. The more impressive it looks, the more likely it is to make it on to my buffet. So when my friend Laurent decided to make a spinach and sweet potato pound cake look-alike from La Tartine Gourmande's food blog (don't get me wrong, the cake on the blog does look nice, it's just missing the wow factor), I suggested a million and one more attractive things to eat, but he stubbornly insisted on his choice.
Right so. The spinach and sweet potato cake not only looked delicious, it was delicious.

Suya Pepper

If someone had asked me two weeks ago what the best pepper based spice mix is, I would - without hesitation - have said: Shichimi togarashi. A Japanese mix of sanshou, chinpi, hemp, poppy, shiso and sesame seeds. It adds flavour and zing to the blandest of udon dishes, lifts every salad and is a great addition to dips.

If you asked me know, my answer would have to be: Suya Pepper. I got introduced to it only recently in an African restaurant in Reading. It was sprinkled over a very simple dish: roast and flaked chicken leg topped with thick slices of fresh onion. The spice mix brought together the flavours of a dish that would otherwise have been totally overpowered by all that fresh onion. Living close to Lewisham comes handy when you are a fan of the African cuisine like I am as they have all the ingredients there: Yam, Cassava, Plantains, Okra... Suya!
It's been a week now since I bought my wee bag of Suya Pepper. And it has spiced up my life tremendously: it's fabulous on Verhackert (a kind of Austrian pork rillette) and a match made in heaven when sprinkled over corn-on-the-cob.