I've been tagged and it's all about food

So this is a new one for me...actually being tagged to do a meme by the wonderful Life on the "j" train. So without further ado I'm just going to get down to it!

1 What or who inspired you to blog?

Ahmm seriously not very exciting really...I had just moved to Scotland with little do as yet so I thought I would fill up my time by writing randomly about my thoughts. I did get lots of encouragement from the hubby as well. My blog has changed its face over the years and has grown to be a bit more loved and nurtured by me maybe because a lot of it's focus now is about me and my son.

2 Who is your foodie inspiration?

Seriously I had no interest in cooking when growing up and was not really inspired until I had moved to Scotland with you guessed it...little to do....I think my first experiment was with home made pizza so my inspiration was hubby, Italy...the internet. Now though I want to be like Gordon Ramsay and tell you to get out of my kitchen. I am also influenced by my dad who is a great cook and tends to put bacon in everything for the flavour!

3 Your greasiest, batter-splattered food book is........

The silver spoon...if you have not got it get it...the greatest thing about Italian food is it's simplicity, few ingredients to make something lovely...seriously!!! honestly!!! get the book if you don't believe me!!!

4 Tell us all about the best thing you have ever eaten in another country, where was it…what was it? 

I could pick Jamaican food but as I grew up with it I thought that was kind of cheating. So the first time I really travelled was to Italy and the first time I had pizza in Verona, Italy it was AMAZING...trust me you will never see pizza the same way again. I love Italian food...gnocchi and fresh pasta....great in its simplicity.

5. What is the one kitchen gadget you would ask Santa for this year (money no object, of course)? 

The dualit looks pretty cool....but any mixer, beater would be good...I love baking and I'm tired of fighting with the butter and sugar!

6. Who taught you how to cook? 

I guess I have taught myself....hence you will find that I follow recipes religiously and don't have much of an imagination when it comes to cooking.

7. I’m coming to your house for dinner.  What’s your signature dish? 

I usually do a form of a Jamaican meal...jerk chicken, rice and peas, ackee and salt fish and johnny cakes. Hubby would probably choose my pizza and loves when it's pizza night which we tend to make at least once a week.

8. What is your guilty food pleasure? 


As long as it's sweet I will eat it. I have a soft spot for sticky toffee pudding and tend to always pick it when we are out at restaurants for my dessert. I also LOVE peanut butter...peanut butter and jam sandwiches...I think that is actually what I might just have for lunch now.....


9. Reveal something about yourself that others would be surprised to learn. 


I have a fear of heights even though I crazily still climb to the top of things. I hate scrambling if hill walking and if there are any narrow edges that is a definite no no.


Ok that is it from me. Now I get to tag someone else. As I am not great on this whole networking thing I will safely try and tag those gals Jen and Elanor over at Upper Cut Cakes! As great bakers (trust me I have tasted some!) this food meme should suit them perfectly.

Where's the plantain?

My hubby asked me yesterday how we were going to cook a Jamaican meal for friends this afternoon if we did not have any plantain? With the best laid plans the intention was to try and get some this morning but we got a bit behind schedule and cleaning the flat became a higher priority. Ah well we just had to make do. I'm a bit nervous actually blogging about my Jamaican cooking...

1. Because really it's not that authentic as a lot of it comes out of tins and
2. Well I don't know how good I am at it and
3. WE DID NOT HAVE ANY PLANTAIN, which I might add is the simplest and usually most mouth watering part of the whole meal!

Anyway I nervously forge ahead. 

First on the menu is rice and peas probably the most authentic part of the meal and the bit that can go very wrong. I religiously follow my Dad's recipe which I have saved written down in an old diary and is the only reason why the diary has never been lost or thrown away.

I have found that the real trick is to make sure to get your measurements right. That simply means it's the same cup measurement for the rice, kidney beans and coconut milk. Also no rice in this country takes 40 minutes to cook! Then once it's cooked leave it to dry out for a bit as the grains will separate. It was not a bad effort even if I did not have any scotch bonnet (yes that's another thing...I managed to cook this meal without scotch bonnet!) It appeared to go down a treat with the guests and my son had some and he liked it.

Callaloo is easy. It comes out of a tin so you just need to spice it up with some onions and pepper.

Johnny Cakes are nice and simple. You just need self raising flower, some salt (I'm afraid that I don't measure it), some butter (again it's go for broke, this time I actually added too much) and slowly enough cold water until it forms a soft dough. Then I deep fat fry them. I get the oil really hot then actually turn it down before putting the johnny cakes in so that they don't cook too quick as once I found that the outside cooked well before the inside.

For the Ackee and Salt fish, the only detail really is preparing the salted cod. You simply soak it for at least 30 minutes then boil it so that you can flake the fish off the bone. Then its just a matter of frying some onions, scotch bonnet and spring onions,  until the onions soften. There are some who add bacon at this point but I don't usually. Add the salt fish, then add a fresh tomato with the ackee and fry for another five minutes stirring gently. I usually season with a bit of thyme.

and of course the ackee comes out of a tin...

The Jerk Chicken is another forgery really. Simply season the chicken over night with some jerk seasoning which you can now easily get from your local supermarket. The only recommendation I would make is to use the wet seasoning and not the dry for this. I then fry them for a bit and finish the cooking in the oven just to get a bit juicier.

So that's it. I have now bravely shared my version of a Jamaican meal when living abroad in the United Kingdom. It's really great these days because you can get so much here now to help you out and usually from your local supermarket. Other favourites include spiced bun, Ting, Plantain chips, rum and of course fried plantain.

Vegan Glasgow

So only after a week in our new flat we had visitors! Ok so it was only Alberto's sister and husband and I knew they would not mind a few empty boxes lying about. Anyway they came to Glasgow with a plan...to visit all the Vegan restaurants and do CD shopping. I had nothing better to do so we tagged along (and this if for Aunty Michelle: we did it with my son who usually still sleeps in his pram for his lunch time nap...though this is no longer guaranteed....booooo). Not being vegan or even vegetarian does not put me and hubby off as long as the food itself tastes good.

Our first stop was The 78, a venue which is conveniently situated just around the corner from us which meant it even got a second visit before they left. It's got a nice relaxed atmosphere to it and some outside space if the sun decides to bless us here in Scotland with it's presence. It's a place to go to eat, just have a coffee or beers and music in the evening (they stop serving food at 9 which won't come as a surprise to most UK residents). 

The food itself is good. Hubby and I always go for the veggie burger (I know a bit of a cop out) but his sister was more adventurous with a sandwich and soup which she was pretty happy with. They had a peanut butter cake on our second visit and we all had a slice and we all wolfed that down. It's sisters with Stereo which we have frequented to listen to bands and which does some pretty good tapas. It's slap bam in the city centre down what could be described as what looks like a dingy lane from afar or maybe even close up. The space here to eat is a bit cramped and not as comfortable and it does tend to be quite busy.

 Our second stop was Heavenly again slap bam in the city centre (and only just checking out the website today I have noticed that it just opened this year) . I liked the space, modern but relaxed. All the tables are named after bands and we sat with the Bikini kill...

The food itself is pretty good. I am not a tofu fan so had to stay away from the burger this time and actually most of the menu! Just because you go to eat vegan does not mean I have to eat a healthy salad right so I had the falafel with spicy chips. Oh and its independent of a big brand chain if you find that appealing.

Our last stop was Mono. THE best stop for vegan in Glasgow as far as I am concerned. I will admit that the staff can appear somewhat cold and abrupt but the food is good, atmosphere relaxed and the food definitely tastes the best of the lot. The fact that it has a record store attached to it has meant that it is not the first time we have visited this location. We also used to live close by and it's child friendly so it was a good place to bring visitors and go for a sneaky beer in the evening when my wee man was taking his evening nap...which gives it extra bonus points as far as I am concerned. It attracts people on sunny days as it is one of the nicer places you can sit outside when the sun is shining.

So in a nutshell that was my experience of vegan Glasgow. There is the Tapa bakehouse in Dennistoun still to try but I have heard very good reviews and they do AMAZING bread which is often stocked in other small shops so we have been able to try. Dennistoun is not a place you tend to go to though unless you live there so location made it get left out on this occasion. If you are really interested in vegan food check out hubby's sister's blog (you have to speak Italian) and she has written her experience of vegan Glasgow and it has pictures!

A meagre protest

Recently we heard news of how a Tesco protest became quite violent as it turned into a riot in Stoke Croft in Bristol. It is termed as a bohemian area and they saw the opening of the store as a risk to small local businesses. I am personally not a big fan of such type of rioting as usually innocent people get hurt and it usually doesn't really achieve must. Yet I find myself sympathising with the cause as a new Tesco Express opens in the Merchant City. It's not even the fact that I now have a choice of maybe 5 or 6 Tesco's I can now go to all within scarily close proximity to each other it's the fact that my local greengrocer probably closed it's doors because of it! It had something special by being able to go there and buy my fresh bread. I even blogged about it! Yes you may argue that Tesco do fresh bread but pity you because it is certainly not the same. It also had great options for fruit and vegetables. Everyone must agree that just because an apple is the perfect shape, red and shiny does not necessarily mean that it is going to taste good....and that's usually how supermarkets market their products...on the perfect look.

I would argue that now it is the case of "the chicken or the egg", that is, we as consumers now have lower expectations on what is on offer that supermarkets no longer have to work so hard on what they try to sell us. The quicker and the more convenient the better is what sells these days. Cheap usually wins out over quality as well. Can you really compete against a supermarket anymore?

Yet this is a meagre protest, as hanging my head in shame, I shop at Tesco.

Ode to the Rolling pin

Okay so I was actually given this ceramic rolling pin as part of the hen night tradition where an older woman in the family gives a rolling pin to the bride to be to keep her future husband in control. Cheers to my big sis!!! Thankfully I have never had to use it on hubby and considering it's weight he is a lucky boy. The thing is I actually use the rolling pin weekly to make home made pizza and it works a treat. Ok and the handy pizza trays can get a little look in as well.

Here's to you rolling pin!

Yummy apples

So here are the apples I got from the green grocer to bake hubby's favourite apple pie. I can never be bothered to mess about with the pastry so I always end up making a cake. I got the simple recipe from the silver spoon which as it has an absence of spices I assume rests on the tastiness of the apples. We like it spicy though so we added some. 

Recipe

80g/3oz unsalted butter, softened
300g/11oz self-raising flour
3 eggs
150g/5oz caster sugar
3 apples, peeled, cored and chopped
whipped cream, to serve (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a cake tin or mould with butter and dust lightly with flour. Whist together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy, then beat in the butter until thoroughly combined. Sift in the flour mixture,  then add the apples and mix gently. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin or mould and bake for 30-40 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, then turn out, or serve immediately while hot. Served with whipped cream, if you like.

To my flour mixture I added a tsp of cinammon and some nutmeg. Once I added the flour to the mixture it became really thick and I thought how the hell am I going to get apples in here. As usual though I forge ahead and not just add apples but raisins as well! There was loads of mixture and it was interesting getting it all in the tin but...yep...I just forge ahead. I put a tray underneath the tin in the oven just in case there was spillage but surprisingly there was not. It turned out pretty good and tasted even better.

Whipped cream was not optional!

Yam Soup

I have been turning everything into soup these days (other than the odd freaky salad for lunch) as it's autumn. I want to cook things that will warm us up. It's especially a welcome home for hubby after a long day at work who has to then take the train back usually in the cold and wet these days. We got excited when we saw Yam at our local green grocer and just had to buy a piece. I have to be honest that it is something I have eaten from when I was young but have never attempted to cook it myself so was on the hunt immediately for a recipe. I was pleased to find a rather simple soup on line for which I pretty much had all the ingredients! You will find the source here. 

Ok so I did have some variances. Firstly we were all out of wild rice...or admittedly I never buy wild rice. Then I tend to prefer creamy to chunky soup. Hubby thinks I just like to hear the sound of the blender. I also started by softening onions with fresh garlic before adding the yam and stock. Then of course hubby likes it spicy so I added a touch of cayenne pepper as well as the curry powder to give it a kick. After it simmered for it's appointed time into the blender it went. OMG!!! How was I to know that it would turn out so thick. I guess that is what yam does and had I known I would definitely have added more stock than had been advised!  I ended up adding some milk in the vain attempt to thin it out a bit (the vain effect is evidenced in the picture below).

Anyway it still tasted rather nice and what a filling experience it was. I use the word filling literally here as a bowl of this soup certainly leaves you feeling extra stuffed. An experience definitely to be repeated.

A small piece of yam was reserved and is now being roasted with my chicken in the oven as we speak!

Oh yes a greengrocer in the Merchant City

Finally a nice surprise for us on our return to Glasgow...to discover that there is a greengrocer not far from us in the Merchant City. I would love to introduce you to Black Cherry...

I'm really not going to even bother get into what the fruit and vegetables are like at the local supermarket and the difference of being able to get them fresh. These guys head to the market every morning to get fresh produce and bring it close to my door...nice! So far we have sampled the tomatoes which are huge and juicy., the avocado and the cucumber. Hubby is over the moon of course as he has never been a fan of supermarket tomatoes and has always been half hearted in his desire therefore to eat them. Unfortunately I guess it is technically not the time of year to be creating fresh salads but hey who cares? With a drizzle of a mix of lemon juice and sweet chilli sauce I really am talking about heaven here. Of course hubby said it was missing prawns and little octupus' (and yes we have got a fishmonger just for that) but we managed to settled for a big block of cheese.

Oh and the beast beside the salad...well that is the fresh bread they have available as well.

It comes from Tapa Coffe & Bakehouse which has always been a bit far away being in Dennistoun but we knew they had always had rave reviews so we were very excited to try it out. One the best things of Italy is being able to walk down the road and get your bread fresh every morning. What do you know? Now we can do it right here in Glasgow. The guys even advised that you can request them to put aside bread for you to collect if you want as it tends to go fast and if they don't stock what you like you can always request it. So of course I might just have to take them up on that and do a bit of research on the Tapa website.

There is more to this place as well. The next post will be about the yam I got and turned into soup. Then there are the apples waiting to be turned into what I hope will be a yummy cake. Of course they also have a selection of spices and condiments and organic bits and pieces. All making it well worth a visit.

Next week I head to the local butcher in my quest for fresh!

A sunny day in Scotland

You know if it wasn't for the weather I think we would really appreciate Scotland even more. We have never tried to deny how beautiful Scotland is and enjoy having guests and being able to show them around. For us it usually means getting out of the city and getting into the 'countryside'. I think hubby survives living in Scotland by being able to go walking and he has certainly bagged his fair share of Munro's. I will quietly admit my fear of heights and scrambling but I do venture out myself on the more less intimidating. The great thing as well is that you don't usually have to travel that far if you don't want to. We had already rented a car for the weekend anyway as we had Sunday plans so we thought we had to go somewhere on Saturday as well.

First thing that morning the sun was not exactly shining :( Yet for some reason we would not be defeated. So hoping for the best we head for Balloch along Loch Lomond for a pub lunch...yes a huge favourite of mine! We had been to a local pub/hotel before for food and it was not bad and it is very close to Balloch Country park so that if the weather cleared we had the benefits of going for a walk so off we headed.

First stop was Balloch House for lunch. It was a rather pleasant experience and the food and service was good. It probably helped that as soon as we arrived the sun came out. So with our bellies full yes with an amazing chocolate brownie for dessert we head along the path for a meander along the shores of Loch Lomond through Balloch Country Park.

I can't help but comment though that it is such a shame they don't use Balloch Castle as the views over the Loch are great and the park is very well maintained. Today for the first time as well we discovered the walled garden. Lots of dog walkers, a bag of tourists and even a few families picnicking as well.

 
A great way to enjoy a sunny day in Scotland.

Not just any hot chocolate

Yesterday was a rather rainy day in Verona. After all the hot weather we have been having here it was a nice break. This morning I have now woken up to the sun but a nice cool breeze which I hope continues for the rest of our time here which is actually quickly coming to an end. Last night after dinner the practice is usually an expresso but I felt for something rather different and requested to hubby's somewhat surprise a hot chocolate or should I say "Cioccolata Calda". Seriously its not just any hot chocolate and an Italian experience I promise you will never forget.

It starts with proper powdered chocolate (the first big difference, not this sweetened powdered stuff) mixed with a little bit of cold milk before putting it on the fire (it's in a pot at this point by the way) and then you had more milk. Then you add some potato starch which is used to thicken the liquid (the second big difference). It requires continuous stirring until it reaches the desired consistency of thick dark melted hot chocolate which you could technically 'drink' with a spoon.

Making Home-made Jam

I have always had the opportunity to take home jars of hubby's mum home made jam. So you can only imagine my excitement when the opportunity arose for me to actually help! There has been an abundance of fruit....the fridges are overflowing in this house, from peaches, to apples, to apricots. Just as a matter of note you cannot say no to gifts of fruits from the neighbour's either. So this morning we were making peach jam and I was overwhelmed with how easy it really all was. The bottles had been washed with boiling water and prepared and ready.

The next step was the peaches which needed to be peeled and cut into small pieces. A lot of our peaches were pretty mature and very easy to peel. I have boiled peaches in the past if they are not very soft to make them easier to peel but something tells me they won't make as nice jam! You should have about 1 kilo of peaches.

 

You then need to add the peaches with 350grams of sugar and put it in a large pot to boil. Hubby's mum then added a packet of 'Fruttapec' which means you have to add less sugar and boil for a lot less time. I found it great the she has a special wooden spoons only for making marmellata! After boiling for about 10-15 minutes she felt that the pieces were still too big after boiling so gave it a quick whizz with a hand blender. 

Now all we needed to do was fill the jars with sticky juice using a ladle. Of course be careful when handling the jars as once they have the jam inside they will be hot!!!! Then we turned them upside down and left them for 10 minutes while we started the process again.

 

And the next day...well just YUM!

Little things Italian

So here I am in Italy for 2 whole months! 2 whole months of holiday as well so I really can't complain! I really do love Italy as much as it frustrates me some times. Of course two of my favourite things are the food and the wine. I love the idea of cooking with the seasons, eating what is local, fresh and abundant. So there was certain simple joy in the fact that I was able to go on two very if rather small but special outings for me.

The first was going directly to the local farmer to buy some vegetables. As we arrived there she was coming in from the fields with her basket loaded with fresh tomatoes! The second was heading off with our big white jug to get some wine from a local producer. The best bit of course was being able to sample the produce! The best bit for hubby's day was that it cost 1 euro a litre! Of course as most Italian families there is a cantina downstairs where all this lovely produce is stored. Hubby's dad then bottles the wine himself when it is then chilled and ready to serve at dinner.

Winter Warmer

Yes it is strange talking about it being winter at the end of May,but that is what you get when you live on the other side of the world. In Auckland there was actually a weather warning because of all the expected rain! Well I guess it can't be nice here all the time. The point is though when the weather gets colder I always feel for food that is going to warm me up. One of my favourites is a big bowl of soup...on the menu last night:

Pumpkin Soup

Most of the recipes I found doing my usual trawl through cookbooks and on line had similar recipe, mine was heavily influenced by Annabelle White and her presentation on the breakfast show which you can view here

I melted a lob of butter with some olive oil and added a large onion and 3 cloves of garlic both chopped obviously. Then I added a tsp of ginger and some coriander. Fresh is probably best but I was working with what I got which was ginger in a jar and dried coriander which ain't that bad to be honest. Then I added the pumpkin. Then I think my favourite bit which really adds a kick to this recipe is a tbsp of curry powder...heat and flavour galore! Once it softened I added a few cups of chicken stock, all depending really on how much soup you are aiming for. And no I did not make my own chicken stock but go for it if you are so inclined and it will probably make a huge difference. Then you let it simmer till the pumpkin is nice and soft. I am a fan of smooth soups but I do not own a hand held blender so out came the potato masher...hence the lumps in the picture ( hubby thought it was lentils....hmmm possibly an interesting addition?). At the end I lobbed in some parsley and serve.

Tada...a winter warmer that goes down a treat!

Delectably divine!

My tour of the fish market in Auckland continued on to me buying some prawns! I had to take my time scooping them into the bag because I was very tempted to go overboard with the amount I was getting. I had spotted a recipe by Annabel Langbein which I was very keen to try.

Lemon Chilli Grilled Prawns

Recipe

500g raw prawn tails

1tbsp sweet chilli sauce

2 cloves garlic

1/2 tsp chopped red chilli

Freshly grated rind of 1/2 lemon

Method

Mix prawns with chilli sauce, garlic, chilli and lemon rind. Chill until ready to cook (they can be kept up to 12 hours in the fridge). Lightly oil a barbecue hot plate and cook prawns about 2 minutes each side until they turn pink (of course I was kind of missing the barbecue hot plate so I stuck mine under the grill and the time does not really change that much and the smell that was emanating was driving me crazy) Eat as they are or serve on Avocado and Snow Pea Salad.

Of course I very much liked that suggestion.........

Avocado and Snow Pea Salad

Recipe

200g snow peas

200g sugar snaps

1/2 telegraph cucumber, cut into 4cm long batons

1 large spring onion, finely sliced

2 just-ripe avocados, cut into chunks

Dressing

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 cup sweet chilli sauce

2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander or mint

Method

Pour boiling water over snow peas. Drain at once and chill briefly in cold water. Just before serving combine all the dressing ingredients and toss with snow peas and other ingredients. Divide between serving plates and top with prawns.

I think the the sweet chilli sauce really makes this menu and is a relatively new ingredient to me...I had a hard time choosing which one I wanted to get at the supermarket....so I think I will have to start experimenting and trying different ones to decide my favourite now. I chose 'Golden Sun' this time round and made enough dressing for a week of salads :) Trust me we were sopping it up with the bread and licking our fingers.

It was a delectably divine experience.

Whole Fish with rosemary, garlic and parmesan crumbs

So I guess technically this is a continuation of the previous post. My thoughts on buying fresh fish developed from the fact that that is exactly what I was doing yesterday. I guess I should mention that in Auckland maybe I should do research first before going to buy fish because I am lucky if I recognise the names of fish here! Snapper...always get snapper...hmmm mullet...oh ok recognise that one...SOLD!

On the menu today from Julie Biuso

Whole Fish with rosemary, garlic and parmesan crumbs

Recipe

1.2kg whole white fish or fish of you choice gutted and scaled

3tbsp olive oil

1tsp fennel seeds

2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced

2tbsp rosemary leaves

1/2tsp salt

1tbsp lemon juice

2tbsp dried breadcrumbs (or use panko crumbs)

2tsp freshly grated parmesan

Lemon wedges to serve

Method

1. Rinse fish thoroughly, drain briefly then pat dry with paper towels. For dressing, mix oil, fennel seeds, garlic, rosemary, salt and lemon juice together in a bowl.
2. Line a large roasting tin with a piece of tinfoil, then a piece of baking paper, each large enough to wrap around the fish. Put the fish on the paper and spoon over the dressing. Sprinkle with crumbs and parmesan. Firstly wrap fish in paper then foil, without turning it over.
3. Preheat oven to 200C and cook fish for about 30 minutes.
4. When cooked, fold back the foil and baking paper and carefully slide fish onto a heated serving platter. Serve immediately with lemon wedges.

For me definitely an experience to repeat!

Valentine Special

Yes I know there are those who are against the whole commercialisation of love for one day and say we should love each other the same everyday. Yet I admit I LOVE to have the excuse to get my husband to spoil me for a day! And what better way than making me a huge pot of chilli to enjoy with a big bag of chips and a bottle of wine. It was extra special to come home to after a hard day at work!

Now I would love to share this fantastic recipe with you as hubby is the 'Chilli King' but unfortunately he tells me it is a secret! A secret filled with lots of LOVE.

Happy Valentines Day!