Suburban Lush

Wonton Soup

 2010 hasn't gotten off to a great start. I've been sick: wracking great coughs and a runny nose. The first 3 days of the year were spent in bed with a hot water bottle. And when I complained to my parents they mumbled something about "burning the candle from both ends" so no sympathy there.

I've got 3 weeks left in Belfast, so need to be fit and healthy for leaving dinners, leaving drinks, final hikes, and just general fun, so I'm eating my greens, taking my vitamin pills and trying to get a few early nights.

And its been cold here - the coldest winter in 28 years, apparently. John and I went for a stroll to the local park the other day. Well, we weren't exactly strolling, more slipping and sliding on the black ice. We noticed a thin layer of ice on the river Lagan. There hasn't been much snow, just a light dusting each morning, but the temperature hovers around 0. Not that I mind the cold too much. I'd take cold weather over rain any day. And I'll be getting plenty more cold on my travels.

Anyway, its the kind of weather for warm comforting food, and what could be better for a quick Tuesday night dinner than wonton soup. I had some chicken stock left over from a roast I cooked on Friday night, and I stopped past the Asian supermarket on my way home to pick up some wontons. Yes, I could have made my own, but its Tuesday remember! This soup is a meal in itself, and the chili-soy sauce I made in which to dip the wontons helped clear the sinuses.

Ingredients (serves 2)

• Chicken stock
• Water
• 1 tablespoon light soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of dark soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon of sesame oil
• Fresh ginger, about 5 very thin slices
• 5 mushrooms, sliced
• 1 large chili, sliced
• 3 spring onions
• 2 large handfuls of pak choi leaves
• packet of 8 frozen wontons
• Fresh cilantro to garnish

Place the chicken stock into a pot, and top with water so that you have just over 1 litre of weak chicken broth. Bring to a simmer over a medium heat. Add soy sauces, sesame oil, fresh ginger and mushrooms. Simmer for approximately 5 minutes, until the mushrooms are almost cooked. Add the sliced chili, spring onions, pak choi and wontons. As the soup is coming back to a simmer, chop the cilantro and place in two bowls. The wontons should be done by the time the soup starts to simmer, so quickly ladle the soup into the bowls. If desired served with a dipping bowl of chili-soy sauce (equal parts dark soy sauce and chili sauce). 

A Little of Everything - Food, Drink, Parties & Paris

Hello! I have photos to show and stories to tell about Paris, but things have been go go go since we got back and I haven't managed even 10 seconds to plug my camera into my laptop so you will just have to wait. Don't believe me about the hectic-ness? Check it out:

We got home from the airport at around 12.30am on Sunday, and headed straight to bed. Monday morning I got up, made pancakes (yes, brunch is far more important than plugging in cameras) and a batch of cookies. I'd give you the recipe, but they are Christmas wreath cookies, so you'd have to wait for a year to make them and so teasing you with the recipe just feels mean. Once the cookies were done I managed a quick shower before shooting out the door to catch the bus (spectacular fail on that one) to my cousin's house for a family get together. I finally arrived, panting and breathless but at least carrying cookies, and she promptly started plying me with champagne. Not that I was complaining, mind you. All the family was there and we had a lovely afternoon eating and drinking. It was very nice. At 7.30 a friend picked me up and drove John and I out to a party, where I continued to drink bubbly and have a wonderful time. I'm not sure when we got home, but I think it was around 2am. Now, I'm one of those people who needs a lot of sleep (about 9-10 hours a night generally works) so getting up the next morning for work was painful. But it had to be done and I coped with the day, helped along by a sausage roll and two cans of coke. Straight after work I headed back to Alex's house for more drinks, this time with friends. I was a little more sensible though, and managed to get home, somewhat sober, around 12.30am. Today, its work again, then we're off to a birthday party tonight. And I'm pretty sure nobody will let me get out of celebrations on Thursday. I miss my couch.

So, how was your Christmas? Are you still full? I managed lots of walking and surprisingly far less eating then I usually manage in the season but, let me tell you, food we did eat was fantastic. Now, I know this is no life-changing revelation and everyone knows French food is good, but everything we ate was seriously amazing. Steak tartare for dinner on Christmas eve, croissants or pain chocolat for breakfast every day, mussels in a white wine garlic and gorgonzola sauce, roasted chestnuts from street vendors, croque monsieur. Mmmmm. Oh, and I discovered one of the best things in the world: walking along in the cold, you stop at a crepery. They cook your crepe as you are standing there, sprinkle it with sugar, and liberally douse it with Grand Marnier. I'm pretty sure there is no better way to warm up!We went out for dinner on Christmas day, and I had duck in a green peppercorn sauce, served with the creamiest sweet potato mash, perfectly seasoned. The green peppercorn sauce was pretty much browned butter and green peppercorns - divine - and John and I used bread to mop up every last drop of it. And of course, there was plenty of French champagne and red wine to wash it all down.

It's A Wonderful Life

The arthouse cinema in Belfast shows It's A Wonderful Life every year in the lead-up to Christmas, and a group of friends decided it would be a fun night out for the Monday before Christmas. They were all surprised when I told them that I'd never seen it, and they wanted to know what my traditional "Christmas movie" were.

Many people here have certain movies which they watch to get into the Christmas spirit - Scrooged, Elf etc. And I don't. I couldn't quite figure out why this was, and then it came to me. We moved to New Zealand when I was 11, and began celebrating Christmas in the summer. So there is no need (or desire) to sit curled up in a warm house watching films. Instead we go out - for walks, swims, BBQs - and enjoy the long warm evenings. Now, before I was 11 we did have cold snowy Christmases in Canada, but I grew up in a house without TV, so evenings were spent reading, watching the fire, or chatting. And of course, I was young enough that I went to bed pretty early. So that's it - no traditional Christmas movies for me.

I do, however have several Christmas traditions, and Christmas day is always a fixed routine. My mom always makes mince pies, and we have our first taste while putting up the Christmas tree. Raffi's Christmas record must be played before anyone is allowed to put on more "grown-up" Christmas music. My Dad and I secure the tree and put up the lights while Mom warms the mince pies and dusts them with icing sugar. Once the lights are up, the tree is decorated by all of us (and Wombat if she's there). In the lead-up to Christmas Mom and I always make gingerbread cookies, shaped like Christmas trees and decorated with green icing and smarties. And Christmas eve I go shopping with Dad to pick up present's for Mom's stocking. That evening we have salmon, often BBQ'd whole, and a letter is written and left for Santa under the tree, along with snacks.

Christmas morning we wake up early and the "kids" (ie Wombat and I) take the stockings from under the tree and into Mom and Dad's room. Sitting on Mom and Dad's bed we read the letter that Santa has written us in return, and open our stockings. Then its up for showers and breakfast - grapefruit to start, then kippers and toast, and for those who are still hungry there is always toast and marmalade. Because I don't like orange juice, my Dad and I start on the Black Velvets, a mix of champagne and Guinness despised by the rest of the family. Once breakfast has been eaten, dishes done, kitchen cleaned, and everyone showered and dressed, we open the presents. We sit around the tree, and presents are opened one person at a time, drinking and munching on cookies and mince pies as we coo over each gift. The person who opened the previous present then chooses the next present to be opened and so on. It takes a while. After presents there is usually swimming, and eventually its time for Christmas dinner: turkey with all the fixings, onion sauce, strawberry and asparagus salad, and mom traditionally forgets the ham, realising half way through the meal that it is still sitting in the fridge. For desert its pavlova and summer pudding - no heavy Christmas pud for us. Its never just family by this stage. We always have a few visitors for Christmas dinner, and my best friend Percy almost always arrives for a visit just as desert is being served. After the meal we relax, perhaps have another swim, and sit reading the books we've inevitably gotten as gifts.

This year, though, we are breaking with tradition. John and I are heading to Paris on Christmas eve. And so, I wish you all a Joyeux Noel.

Hiking Cookies

I had the best intentions to go hiking on Sunday, and so I made cookies on Saturday to take with me. Unfortunately due to a sore foot I didn't make it out hiking, but don't let the name fool you - these cookies still taste good when you're curled up on the couch with a cup of tea. The cookies are almost trail-mix in cookie form and they are infinitely adaptable - use whatever dried fruit/nuts/seeds you like best, or do what I did and use up all the little odds and ends left in the cupboard from previous baking experiments. This time, mine had slivered almonds, raisins, craisins, and pumpkin seeds, but they are good with sunflower seeds, chopped dried apricots, chopped almonds or walnuts - basically anything you'd put in trail mix. If you've got kids going along for the hike, try throwing in some chocolate chips.

The sugar means these cookies are a quick pick-me-up, while the oatmeal, molasses, dried fruit and nuts give slow-burning energy. They are not the most attractive of cookies, and the molasses makes them a little sticky so they need to be kept separated (I wrap them individually with glad wrap, perfect for throwing into the front pocket of my backpack to grab as a quick snack). I think they'd probably freeze well, but there have never been any left for me to experiment with.

Ingredients (makes about 2 dozen cookies):

• 115 grams butter
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup self raising flour
• 1 1/2 cups rolled oats
• 2 tablespoons flax seeds
• 1 cup mixed nuts/dried fruit/seeds, chopped so they are all roughly the size of raisins

Preheat oven to 190C. Grease a cookie sheet. Beat the butter in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat until well mixed. Add eggs and molasses, and beat until combined. Add spices and flour, and beat until batter is smooth. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Drop the dough, by the tablespoon, onto the cookie sheet (hey don't spread much, so I managed to fit 12 cookies per tray) and bake for 12 - 15 minutes, until golden. Remove from the oven and cool the cookies on a rack.

Sushi and Thai

I've done a couple of cooking courses recently. 

A few weeks ago my friend Anne and I attended a Thai cooking course at the Bo Tree Cafe. Last year we did their Thai Food for the Family course, and this year we went for the Hot and Spicy class. We learnt how to make Thai red curry paste from scratch, and used it to make Thai red curry with chicken (Gaeng Phet Gai). We also cooked Penaeng curry with prawns (Kung Choo Chee), beef in Thai curry paste with fresh peppercorns (Neua Pad Phet), and Chicken with Holy Bail (Pad Kapao Gai).

After a cup of coffee and brief introduction to Thai ingredients in the main restaurant, the bulk course is held in the restaurant's kitchen by the head chef. The chef demonstrates a dish, and the attendees get a chance to taste it.  After every demonstration, each attendee gets a chance to try their hand at cooking the dish, and there are a couple of the restaurant employees are there to lend a hand. We then got to try our own attempt, before putting it into a takeaway container for later and moving on to the next dish.

The previous class we'd been was one of the first run by the restaurant, and they've streamlined their operations a bit. They now e-mail you the recipes after the class so that while in class you can concentrate on the techniques rather than the ingredients, which was a huge improvement. It was reasonable value for money too, £40.00 for the class and you get to take home the food you've cooked. I did a rough calculation and figured that to order all 4 dishes in the restaurant would cost you approximately £35.00.

Sushi is one of the foods I miss most. While Belfast has a couple of sushi restaurants they are extremely expensive, and as a result I started making sushi at home. I taught a couple of my friends how to make it, and when we saw that The Ginger Tree Restaurant was offering a sushi-making course we jumped at the chance. While I knew how to make the basic rolls, we learnt a few new tricks including making rolls with the rice (rather than the seaweed) on the outside. The demonstration was done at a long table at the front of the main room of the restaurant, and two attendees were called up to help make each roll alongside the instructor. After each new type of sushi, the plate was passed around for everyone to sample a piece. Unfortunately not everyone got a chance to try their hand at making a roll, but everyone got to taste the results.

After the sushi demonstration we were shown how to make origami cranes while dinner was prepared - a buffet of Japanese curries, served with saki and green tea, and your choice of a beer or a glass of wine. The course was interesting and well run, and outstanding value at £15.00

Dinner for One

I've been house-sitting for a friend the last couple of weeks and, while I've been enjoying not ever having to wait for the bathroom, I'm particularly enjoying the chance to cook whatever I want for dinner without having to consider anybody else's likes and dislikes. This means that I have eaten lots of fish, which John hates, and no potatoes, which my flatmate Fiona adores and cooks with every meal. I've been eating mostly vegetarian meals, and only eating meat when I can afford to splurge on a nice steak. John on the other hand requires some time of meat (but not fish!) with every meal, and so we eat a lot of mince and chicken drumsticks at home.

Two meals I've enjoyed most are this brussel sprout recipe for smitten kitchen (and yes, I'm enjoying being able to get away with cooking nothing but a giant plate of brussel sprouts for my dinner!); and a simple meal of farfalle dressed in a sauce of garlic, parmesan, parsley and chili oil (all buzzed in the food processor until smooth), tossed with a large handful of baby rocket. Mmmmmmm.

And yes, I know I didn't do an October Review, but I'm pretty sure nobody missed it. Obviously I tried out a whole heap of recipes for thanksgiving, I saw District 9 and finally got around to watching Amelie (which I didn't think was as good as everyone said it was - a case of too much hype I think). And I went on a couple of hikes, but did no other exercise whatsoever.

Parsnips Molly Parkin

My Mom always used to make Parsnips Molly Parkin for Thanksgiving, and again at Christmas. It hasn't made an appearance for years, probably due to a combination of family members turning health-conscious, being diagnosed with high cholesterol, and us moving to a country where its usually around 30 degrees on Christmas day, which is not conducive to eating lovely rich and creamy dishes.

Who is Molly Parkin? According to Wikipedia (the oracle of all knowledge) she was a Welsh painter and journalist who was "banned from the BBC for too much swearing" and was ranked "24th in Timeout magazines review of London's best erotic writers". All of which kind of makes me like the dish a little more. According to this article, Molly Parkin hated parsnips.

John hated parsnips too, until he tried this dish. Turns out enough cream and cheese can make anyone eat their veges!

Ingredients:

900g parsnips
450g tomatoes
5 tbsp oil
85 g butter
3 level tbsp soft brown sugar
salt & black pepper
170 oz Gruyere cheese
560ml single or double cream
4 rounded tbsp fresh white breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 165C. Peel parsnips and slice thinly. Discard any hared central cores. Grate the cheese. Skin the tomatoes, remove seeds and cut flesh into slices. Heat the oil and lightly fry parsnips for 4 minutes.

Grease  casserole with 1/2 the butter and place a layer of parsnips over the base sprinkle with a little sugar, salt & pepper, a little cream. Cover with a layer of tomatoes. Spread a bit more cream and some cheese over tomatoes. Repeat layers until the ingredients are finished, ending with cream and cheese.

Top with breadcrumbs and dot with the remaining butter.

Bake for 40 mins in centre of oven. Serve directly from the casserole dish.

Giving Thanks - The Foodie Edition

So, I may have mentioned that we ate a fair amount on Saturday. After all, we had to wash something down with the wine!

The menu:

• Pita crisps (homemade) and vege sticks with hummus & salmon dips.
• Turkey, creamy mashed potatoes, whiskey glazed carrots, parsnips Molly Parkin (my mom's recipe), sweet potato puree and peas. Served with cranberry sauce, onion sauce, and gravy.
• Pecan pie and pumpkin pie, served with whiskey whipped cream and Irish coffees (heck, I have to use the bottle up somehow!).
• Cheese platter - Emental, Gorgonzola and Brie, grapes, pear slices, olives.
• Plenty of wine and bubbles.

And yes, I'm much fatter now thankyouverymuch.

I came home straight after work on Friday and plonked myself down in the kitchen with a bottle of wine. I cooked both pies, pita crisps, and made the base for the sweet potato puree, leaving the topping until the next day. Oh, and I roasted my pumpkin seeds cause I'm good like that.

Saturday morning the turkey went in the oven. I'd been hoping to try my hand a brining a turkey, but our turkey was so huge I was unable to find a brining bag big enough.

Once the turkey was in the oven I got to chopping and peeling - carrots, potatoes, parsnips, celery, tomatoes, onions. I made the topping for the sweet potato puree, and assembled the parsnips Molly Parkin so I could just throw those in the oven when required.

At this stage I rushed off to have a shower etc, and then put the crisps, vege sticks and dips onto the table and poured myself a glass of wine (check out our ugly glass coffee table with the excess of tv, wii and x-box remotes!).

The guests arrived and we relaxed for a while before heading into the kitchen to continue chatting as I finished off the last of the cooking. My friends are so considerate!

Our turkey was perfectly cooked:

And huge:

I'd made the creamy mashed potatoes before, and they are always a hit. 

Both the whiskey glazed carrots:

and the sweet potato puree:

were new recipes for me. I enjoyed the carrots as a nice change from my usual orange glazed carrots, but I don't think I'll make the sweet potato puree again as I found it far too sweet for my taste. However the combination of sweet potato and pecans was divine, so maybe I'll try to make a similar recipe but without the sugar.

Parsnips Molly Parkin is possibly the lease healthy vegetable dish in the world, but it is divine:

It is standard holiday fare in our house, and I had to have Mom e-mail the recipe as I'd never made it before. Its one of those dishes that is so creamy and delicious that you can feel your thighs expanding as you eat it. You know, cause we needed more unhealthy dishes with this meal.

Both pies turned out well, and it was the first time I'd ever made pecan pie. I cheated and bought pre-made pie crusts as I detest making pastry (probably because I don't really like eating it), and figured that pre-made pie crusts would mean less dishes, which has to be a good thing.

As if all this wasn't enough, Julian made Irish coffees to help keep us awake so that we could continue drinking for hours. Cheers!

Giving Thanks

It's hard to believe that it is over a year ago since I posted this. On Saturday I again celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving, with the same group of close friends. And what a day it was. I'd been cooking since finishing work on Friday, staying in with a bottle of wine to make pies and prep for the next day. Up early Saturday and straight to chopping and cooking, getting everything done in time to relax with my first glass of wine at 3.00.

The food was good and the company was fantastic, and it was a great afternoon and evening. Both John and Julian (our two token boys) headed off after the meal to go out drinking, and the 5 girls stayed in, drinking, laughing and chatting, till 3am. John came back home around 1am, and I think he was slightly terrified by what he found.

Its hard to explain in words what a fun evening it was, so I'm resorting to photos to tell the story.

It all started off relatively innocently:

But then Anne realised we were taking her picture . . .

 

And for some reason I tried on her glasses:

And she and John posed with their "good sides" to the camera:

And John decided he would look better like this:

Anne pouted some more, but Alex joined in the fun:

Alex, Anne and Jen drank plenty of wine:

And even though John drank less, he enjoyed himself too:

I don't think we believe that Anne is really shy at this point:

Especially since she almost made wine come out of Jen's nose:

Thanks for making Thanksgiving so special, guys!

Proper Coffee Cake - John's definition

I made coffee cake the other week to take to a friends place. When I produced it, most of my friends were pleased to learn that it was coffee cake in the American sense of cake to eat with coffee, rather than coffee flavoured cake. When I took a slice home for John, he was disappointed for the very same reason - he doesn't like plain, cinnamony cake and wanted cake that tastes like coffee.

So, at John's request I made a coffee flavoured cake. When I was younger and living at home I went through a phase of making sponge cakes - Victoria sponge, orange sponge with chocolate frosting, and coffee sponge with coffee frosting. The basic recipe was from my Mom's trust Delia Smith cookbook, and it was a foolproof one-bowl sponge. Since I don't have the books here I went online to find Delia's sponge recipe, and adapted it to suit my needs. Watch out - this makes a HUGE cake. I ended up taking half the cake to work, much to the delight of my colleagues. For the icing, I used this recipe from The Pioneer Woman, and it made the perfect amount for icing my giant cake.

Ingredients: (for a 10 inch, double layer cake)

• 350g self-raising flour
• 2 rounded teaspoons baking powder
• 6 large eggs (at room temperature)
• 350g very soft butter
• 350g caster sugar
• 4tsp instant coffee
• 4tsp hot water
• Milk if required

Icing:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 450g icing sugar
• 1 tbsp instant coffee
• 1 - 2 tbs hot water

For the cake: Preheat the oven to 170 C. Grease two 10 inch round baking tins and line the bottom with greased baking paper.

Place butter in a large bowl. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl from a reasonable height to give it a good airing. Dissolve the coffee granules in hot water. Add all remaining ingredients (including the coffee) and whisk well, for at least 1 minute, until combined. The batter should drop off a spoon when you tap it on the side of the bowl. If it is too thick, add a little milk to the mixture and whisk again.

Divide the mixture between the two baking tins, smoothing the mixture until level. Bake on the center shelf of the oven for 40 - 45 minutes. Do not open the oven to check the cake until 40 minutes have passed. A skewer inserted into the middle of the cakes should come out clean. Remove the pans from the oven and allow to sit for 5 minutes before turning onto a wire rack and removing baking paper.

If you only have one tin (like me), make 1/2 the mixture, cook one cake, then make the second half of the mixture when you are in a position to put the second cake in the oven.

For the icing: Beat butter with a whisk. Dissolve the coffee granules in hot water. Slowly add sifted icing sugar, beating in between additions. Add coffee as required.

Once the cake has cooled, go ahead and ice it. I decorated the top of mine with walnuts - divine.

Remember, this cake contains caffeine so probably best not to eat it before bed. Although I have to admit that my cake didn't. This is simply because John accidentally bought a jar of decaf instant coffee. Since nobody in our house drinks decaf, this is the coffee I use for baking. Now that I think of it, perhaps it wasn't such an accident after all as I'm now stuck making coffee cakes until the jar is empty!