spring onion and chilli pancakes

Pancakes for breakfast are always welcome and these savoury spring onion and chilli pancakes are no exception. You can put them together very easily in no time at all but they feel like a real treat. Enjoy them as they are or do as I did and enjoy with a soft poached egg and some crispy bacon.

Ingredients
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
salt and pepper

1 large egg
2/3 cups milk
3/4 cups plain (all-purpose) flour

2 tbsp freshly grated parmesan

4 or 5 spring onions (scallions), finely chopped white and green parts

1/2 tsp chilli flakes (optional)

vegetable oil for cooking

1. Put all of the ingredients apart from the spring onions into a blender and blitz for a minute or so or until everything is thoroughly combined. You can mix everything together by hand but this way is so much easier.
2. Add the spring onions and stir through or very briefly pulse the mixture to bring everything together
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan and add a tablespoon or so of oil then pour in 1/4 or 1/3 cup measures of the mixture. Turn the pancakes over once bubbles have formed on the top then cook for another minute.
4. Serve with some crispy bacon and chilli sauce or add a poached egg for extra decadence.

spicy peanut butter noodles with broccoli and pickled mustard

This is a 'store cupboard special' recipe. Chances are you'll have all, if not most of these ingredients in your kitchen already and if not you can improvise. These noodles are quick and easy too. (I have been known to knock up a bowl after a night out on more than one occasion!) Once you understand the basic idea of this simple dish you can alter the flavours based on your own tastes or what you have in. The foundation of the sauce is peanut butter made into a sauce with hot water. You could even make this super healthy by blending roasted, unsalted peanuts with water and various seasonings.


Ingredients (2 greedy people)
200g egg noodles
1 head of broccoli or other veg of your choice, cut into bite sized pieces, stem and all
The sauce
3 heaped tbsp (crunchy) peanut butter
3 tbsp sriracha chilli sauce/chilli ketchup or similar. (You can add more or less of this to taste)
1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
1/2 tsp sesame oil (optional)
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 tsp soy sauce
250ml (just) boiled water

To serve any selection from:
Finely sliced onion/spring onion
lime wedges
pickled mustard
radish slices
fresh coriander, mint and/or chives

1. In a pan of boiling water cook the broccoli for 5 minutes then scoop out with a slotted spoon and set to one side.
2. In the same pan cook the noodles according to the instructions on the packet.
3. Meanwhile, get on with preparing the sauce. Mix together all the ingredients apart from the water. Taste and adjust the chilli seasoning to your taste. Next add the water little by little until you achieve the consistency of pouring cream. 
4. Once the noodles are cooked, drain then place in a large mixing bowl, then stir through the broccoli and peanut butter sauce. Serve with the lime wedges, onion and pickled mustard or whatever you've got. 

courgette, chickpea and roast tomato salad

Continuing my thread of recipes using up what I've got in my cupboards before I move house is this delicious salad. It's straightforward to prepare and very 'Ottolenghi' in style. I had a jar of wonderful Spanish chickpeas to use that I had bought from Brindisa that are seriously good. Much creamier and quite a lot larger than what you usually get in cans. This recipe brings together several of my favourite ingredients into a tasty and satisfying salad. If you don't like one of the ingredients don't use it - make it vegan by omitting the tuna and egg, maybe add some grilled red peppers for a different flavour, boost the chilli levels, switch the herbs - basically, go with what you fancy, this is your salad. It makes a great summer supper especially if you serve it with some toasted fresh bread.



Ingredients
425g drained, cooked chickpeas
2 courgettes
3-5 tomatoes
3 eggs
olive oil
sherry vinegar or lemon juice
small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tsp sumac
salt
pepper
1 tin tuna steak in spring water
bunch of spring onions, finely chopped
2 tsp dried or fresh dill
1 tsp dried chilli flakes (optional)

Toasted bread to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 200C, quarter the tomatoes and lightly drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and a generous amount of cracked black pepper. Roast in the oven for around 30 minutes or until they are soft and slightly golden on the edges. Meanwhile prepare the rest of the salad.
2. Preheat a griddle pan then slice the courgettes lengthways about 3-5mm thick, brush with a little olive oil mixed with black pepper then place the slices on the griddle pan for about 5 minutes on each side or until they are cooked through and have grill marks on each side. Place to the side until you're ready to assemble the dish.
3. Boil the eggs to your preferred hardness. I like them when the yolk is still a bit soft for salads. Peel and halve ready for assembly.
4. In a large bowl place the chickpeas, tuna, chopped spring onions, chilli flakes, sumac, parsley, dill, a little salt and pepper to taste and a glug each of olive oil and sherry vinegar. Mix together until evenly combined. Taste, then adjust the olive oil, vinegar, salt and pepper balance to your preference. 
5. You can put this salad together any way you like I opted for a ring of courgettes round the edge of the plate topped with the roasted tomatoes. The chickpea mixture in the middle and the boiled egg halves on top. A final sprinkle of sumac over the top and it's ready to go. 

chickpea mixture

the finished salad

I'm entering this recipe in the July Four Seasons Food Challenge hosted by the lovely people at Chez Foti and Delicieux. 

tomato salad

I love a good tomato salad. It works with most dishes and it's a fantastic way to enjoy tomatoes when they're at their best. I know it's not the tomato season in the UK yet but my local Turkish supermarket had some amazing vine tomatoes in that I just couldn't resist this weekend. The key to making this taste even more delicious is to prepare it at least 30minutes in advance of eating it to allow the flavours to fully develop and to make sure you serve it at room temperature. A cold tomato salad is a tasteless tomato salad. This is super easy to make and goes particularly well with grilled meats such as these spicy harissa chicken skewers



Ingredients
3 large vine tomatoes, sliced finely
2 spring onions finely chopped
generous pinch of salt
several turns of freshly ground black pepper
1-2tbsp extra virgin olive oil (or to taste)
handful of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
handful of fresh dill, finely chopped

Put all the ingredients together in a serving dish and mix together. Cover with a plate or cling film and set to one side until ready to serve.

thai feasting - part 1 bangkok

I was lucky enough to be able to spend a couple of weeks over Christmas and New Year in Thailand. It was the perfect way to escape the usual pressures and expectations of this time of year and to get some sunshine too. It has taken me a while to get round to posting about my adventures and I will explain why soon. I've recently been checking out this website called Import Food. It's got lots of great videos and excellent recipes too. Well worth an explore if you're interested in learning more. Enjoy!

Whenever I go somewhere on holiday I always try to seek out new tastes and ingredients in an attempt to better understand the flavours that make up country's food. In a short trip I was never going to completely get to grips with all of Thai food. Instead I decided to set myself the challenge of seeking out the best pad thai I could find and to indulge in the kinds of street foods that I can't get back in London.

Pad thai quest part 1

Pad thai is the national street food dish of Thailand. On most street corners you can find a cart dishing it out. Like most national dishes, everyone has their own way of putting it together but this video recipe from SITCA is a great place to start. This recipe also seems to come close to the dishes we ate. We started our search at Thip Samai because it is recommended in numerous food and travel blogs as serving 'the best' so we had to give it a go. This was going to be the pad thai by which all others were going to be measured so it made sense to start at the top. Thip Samai serves numerous variations on the standard dish but we went for the 'superb pad thai'.

Once you've place your order you're brought a selection of accompaniments. We got banana flower, bean sprouts, spring onions and lime segments. On the table were already pots of crushed peanuts, chilli sauces and chilli flakes.

Here's the pad thai when it arrived. I loaded mine with extra peanuts and chili flakes because I'm a bit of a chili fiend given half the chance. I was particularly taken with the presentation of the dish with the noodles carefully wrapped in a fine omelette. 

Now, perhaps unsurprisingly I'm a bit of a greedy person so a little later I was after something else to eat. Close to our hotel in Bangkok was a busy little market stretching the length of the street with numerous tasty treats on offer. If in doubt in a new country I'll go for something I've never had before and I couldn't resist finding out what 'coconut egg' was. During the rest of our time in Thailand I never found another stall serving these curious little things but it's definitely something I want again. They were crunchy, crispy gooey, sweet but a little savoury all at once. A very special little thing. I've done a some internet research since returning and I think it was Khanom Buang. Check out this page for more info. This is a neat video showing how another lady makes them.

Our next culinary stop was at one of the ubiquitous roti pancake carts in the same market. Normally when making crepes and pancakes you start with a batter and pour it out on to a hot griddle. Not with these glorious beauties. The stall holder started out with a little ball of dough and deftly pulled it out so that it was transparent and paper thin before putting on the griddle. Here's a lovely video of a stall holder in action. The skill of the food stall holders in Thailand is incredible. The speed and skill they repeatedly demonstrate is awe inspiring.  I couldn't resist the classic banana and nutella combo topped off with a drizzle of condensed milk. Yum!