Turning Japanese...

One of the songs I had going round in my head in Japan was Turning Japanese, by the Vapors. I loved the song - whilst being mildly disturbed by it and unsure as to whether it was a bit culturally dodgy... also far too catchy for its own good.

Still, I liked much of the food we ate in Japan and became particularly fond of instant miso. I also tried a fair few things that I was sure I wouldn't like (fried chicken cartilege, anyone?) but something about missing the place has made me a little more adventurous of late.

I've eaten sushi precisely twice before: once made by a Japanese friend in Ecuador, but couldn't get over the new flavours, particularly when I was adapting to Ecuadorian food too (think triple quantities of starch, with no spice). The other time was awful airline sushi on a trip to Portugal, so no wonder I didn't like it. But look at it, it's just so pretty. I didn't try it (stupidly) when actually in the country, so it was time to make up for lost time.

It's also really tasty. I tried it, along with some Miso for lunch, and for the first time in ages didn't feel tempted by biscuits or crisps by lunch time. Strangely, it's not one of those things you crave (which would be unusual as I disliked it before) but I keep fancying it now I know how nice it is. And it goes with my current Murakami marathon.

Sushi = food of the gods. Try it at will (but do mix in the soy sauce with wasabi before dipping ;) Now, time to persuade Jonno that he really does want Katsu Curry for tea...

Travels and flowers

Oh dear. My attempts to avoid budget airlines and becoming more-carbonly-neutral do not seem to be working out quite as planned this summer, partially because many of our favourite people live away (and my favourite band released teasing European dates without English dates...)

J's best friend Phil has been living in Delft for the last year or so. We've been over to see him once, and saw him again at a Belgian festival last summer. Phil's also made it over here a couple of times - but not nearly as often as we'd like to see him. After much discussion we're going over for the weekend in mid-July, and I thought I'd try and see what the trains were like. Unfortunately - woeful. The journey times (even taking into account getting to/from airports at either end) are twice as long, and cost twice as much. It appears impossible to travel by train between London and Rotterdam without taking out a small mortgage, so VLM it is. I can't wait to see Rotterdam, too - apparently it's even prettier that Delft, which has already stolen my heart as one of the loveliest Dutch cities. The picture on the left wasn't taken wonkily - the church really does lean over to a disturbing degree.


We had such a good time the last time (even if we did end up looking like this by the end of the evening after one too many extremely strong Dutch beers) that it wouldn't feel like summer really without a trip over to say hello and see Phil and his partner Janneke's new place.

On the home front, the garden is changing daily as more and more of the climbers and pots start to flower. The mysterious plant Anne gave me (and swore was very pretty) has now flowered. I'm still not sure what it's called, but look: purple and gorgeous! The first three to blossom are the first of many, too, if the buds do what they look as if they will (and the slimy beasts don't get there first). The daisies are also going great guns; this happened after a little bit of deadheading whilst having a cigarette a couple of afternoons ago. The only thing I'm unsure about is the shocking pink geranium... it didn't look like this in the garden centre, honest...

Enjoying the fruits of labour

After a weekend sorting out the house and several weekends over the last few months getting on top of the garden, I've been wandering around this evening enjoying the results. 

When I start my new job at the end of July, I'm going to need somewhere to work for the two days a week or so I'll be working from home. And ta-da! A home office to be proud of. All I need now is a desk, which'll fit along the left hand wall where you can just about see the mirror in this shot. And as it's the only room in the house which gets much natural light, it's also slightly jungly with all the houseplants in here. The best part is that J can't get too jealous of me hogging the room as there's plenty of space for (all five of) his guitars.

The garden too is looking great, if a little overgrown. All the heat, sun and squally showers has left it greener than I thought possible. I only handweeded the entire damn patio a month ago - and a green carpet is now covering it.

One of the surprising successes of the spring though is a fuchsia that came from Anne's garden, and almost completely died in the snows of last year. Little by little, it's been looking more and more lively, and finally rewarded my patience with buds this weekend. Look! Buds! And the fuchsia which was here first is also looking nice, too. Last year it had become completely clogged with suckers and barely flowered, but after a good clear out in the spring has come back with a vengeance. 

The right hand side of the garden is completely overgrown, though, not least because the lilac plant there has shot up 6 foot since the spring, with a buddliea that has done the same but twice over in the same period of time. I need to get busy with the hacksaw next weekend. Another candidate for world domination (well, at least back-garden-at-26a-domination) is this.

What is it? And where did it come from!? I swear it wasn't there last year. One of the nice things about gardening here for the second year is the sheer volume of surprises every season brings. The landlady (who lived here for years before renting the flat out) spent summers in the south of France and came back with all sorts of cuttings, bulbs and seeds, which she scattered around the garden. So there are orange poppies pushing up underneath the wisteria-honeysuckle-jasmine-fuchsia confusion around upstairs' spiral staircase into the garden, and hollyhocks showing up in the raspberry patch. Which brings me to my favourite part of gardening: being able to wander around it when I come home from work, finding two perfectly ripe strawberries for eating *right now* and just enough raspberries to make a little pudding after dinner.

The best part is that only a few seem to ripen every day (just enough for a small bowl to share) but then there are always more getting ready for tomorrow or the next day. The garden-project though has not been without its trials.

This is pretty much me nil, snails one, at least where the marigolds are concerned. Four weeks ago, the planters on the right (begonias, which appear strangely slimy-thing immune) were lacklustre-looking green foliage and not much more, whilst the marigolds were a glorious mix of orange, yellow and red, giving a bit of much needed colour to what was then a pretty much green-and-white colour scheme. And what on earth has happened to my previously-luxuriously green rosemary? All I did was replant it into a larger pot, give it some compost to get its potbound roots to dig into, some fertiliser and started an organic (i.e. squish every last m.f. one of them) war against iridescent rosemary and lavender bugs. Oh dear.  I'll leave you with the happiest member of the Smallwood-Darlington household where the garden comes into it: La Mojita, who manages to spend an extraordinary amount of time curled up in the pot, atop the soil, around the base of the lilac tree. Whatever makes her happy!

Cold and manflu cure

I've always been a firm believer that what you eat impacts on your mood and health more than almost any other factor - and when faced with mopey ill partner, my thoughts immediately turn to comforting, soothing, healing food. J woke up yesterday with the beginnings of a cold. As both of us were sneezing like... well, sneezy people, what with all the dust yesterday I thought I'd give it 24 hours to check he was actually ill before food-ministry.

I spent a while googling chicken soup recipes that took less than three hours to cook (seriously, who has three hours to cook after work?) and for which I had most of the ingredients for in the house. I found something perfect on BBC Recipes, not a particular favourite of mine (I generally find All Recipes a bit more useful). I was looking for something with a little spice which to clear out his head-cold and be nourishing, pique a diminished appetite and be generally life-affirming.

If you make Thai or Malaysian on a regular-ish basis, the ingredients for Spicy Chicken Dumpling Soup should be mostly to hand with just a couple of fresh ingredients to buy on the way home from work. I'm not posting the link directly as I made a few amendments (some of the quantities were really odd) and this turned out delicious.

Here's a picture someone else made earlier (notice that you can also use udon noodles apparently as well as rice ones, although the delicacy of the rice noodles is nice with the lumpiness of the dumplings).Mine didn't quite end up looking like this but not far off - the aim is a fragrant coconutty broth with bite-sized dumplings.

For the chicken dumplings

- 2 medium-sized chicken breasts, minced (no, nowhere sells chicken mince, as I found out this afternoon. Putting them through the cheese grater function on a food processor does a pretty good job; equally dicing it very, very finely should do the trick too)
- Half a small can of bamboo shoots, drained, chopped finely
- 1 long red chilli, seeds removed, chopped finely
- 2 tsps freshly grated ginger
- 2 tbsps chopped coriander leaves
- 2 tsps nam pla (fish sauce)
- 2 tbsps cornflour
- salt and fresh ground black pepper

For the soup

- 800ml chicken stock (I used Knorr concentrate as I'd run out of homemade, was perfectly nice)
- 1 large can coconut milk
- 2 kaffir lime leaves
- 1.5 inch piece of root ginger, peeled and sliced thinly
- 1 tbsp nam pla
- Juice of one lime (small)
- Pinch caster sugar
- 4 baby pak choi (I couldn't find baby ones so used 2 regular sized, with the cores cut out, which tasted fine)
- 1 sachet of Amoy ready-to-wok rice noodles

To serve

- 2 sliced red chillies
- 8 sprigs fresh coriander
- 2 kaffir lime leaves, finely sliced

1. For the dumplings, put the minced chicken, bamboo shoots, ginger, chilli, coriander, fish sauce and cornflour into a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Mix it all together by hand (this is nice and squidgy) until it holds in a large ball. Rinse your hands, and make lots of teeny weeny dumplings, and set them to one side (I made massive ones and they were hard to eat!).
3. Put the stock, coconut milk, lime leaves and ginger slices in a large pan and bring to a simmer.
4. Reduce the heat to low, add the dumplings and simmer gently for five mins or so until just cooked through (they cook far more quickly than you expect).
5. Stir in the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar.
6. Add the pak choi and rice noodles, bring back to a simmer and remove from the heat.
7. To serve, ladle the soup into serving bowls, dividing the dumplings evenly.
8. Serve with the chillies, coriander leaves and lime leaves scattered on the top.

It says it serves four, which it probably would do with pudding. I made this panful for the two of us and we couldn't finish it - very, very filling. If anyone reading this makes it, do let me know how it turns out, and whether you made any changes.

Home grown

Inspired by Anne and her green thumb, I thought I'd update on the house and garden.

Ever since we moved into Rochester Square just over a year ago, our back pantry has been stuffed with clutter. Not just any clutter - boxes of J's psychology textbooks, bags of elderly computer equipment, camping gear and so on. Not much that we actually want to get rid of (apart from maybe a mouldy suitcase or two) but general stuff taking up three times more room than it should. And since we moved our bed from the front room to the box room (finally repainted and dry after the Great Floods of '09) that room's been filled with a collection of clutter and Anne's furniture.

After a nicely lazy Saturday (three football matches, a quick trip to Proud Gallery in Camden Market to see our friend Giles play guitar and two movies), J awoke on Sunday with a peculiar light in his eyes. "Come on," he said, poking me, "let's sort out the house." And once we got started, it became kind of addictive. We threw out so much crap from the pantry we had room to store some of the furniture in there. The front room is now a light and airy space, ready for me to turn into a home office, with plenty of room for J's guitars. Anne's loveseat is in front of the only big window in the house which gets enough light. It's become Mojo's new top spot and a lovely place to while away a few hours reading.

We also cleaned the place from top to bottom, which we'd neglected to do for a while. I'd been doing rooms piecemeal here and there but a proper spring (well, summer) clean was in order.

So, when we finished, slightly sore of back but light of heart, I wandered out into the garden for a cigarette, only to realise with the heat and rain of the last couple of weeks, the garden has gone completely bananas. The slugs/snails have eaten all my marigolds (little bastards), but thankfully left most everything else alone. I've got some copper tape for the tubs which should mean I can replant without fear of slug theft again, but I was faintly amazed by how completely they'd managed to decimate what had been fairly large plants - whilst the begonias in the pots next to them were completely untouched. Luckily, the slimy villans do not appear to have cottoned onto the raspberry and blueberry bushes and strawberry plants yet, so our al fresco lunch between room-tidyings came with a warm-from-the-sun, sweet, homegrown treat. The fuschia I was so worried about has actually budded and the clematis montana is about to take over the back fence.

So the next big task (next weekend) is to lop the overgrown buddliea and lilac bushes into shape and give the garden the sun it should have. I swear that lilac has grown four - six feet in the last 12 months. The buddleia seems to do the same in three; more to follow with some additional pictures.

And to finish with a recipe, given the nature of this blog: I made this lasagne this week, much to J's delight. It's rationed to once every couple of months as we can't help but eat the whole pan over a couple of days...

For the ragu sauce:

1 large onion
4 – 6 cloves of garlic
Splash olive oil
500g beef mince
Handful of dried mushrooms, rehydrated (keep the juice)
Large glass red wine
2 x tins chopped toms
Large squirt tomato puree
Splash balsamic vinegar
Glug Tabasco sauce
Glug Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Marmite (special secret ingredient)
Pinch of sugar
Oregano (big pinch)
Basil (middling pinch)
Fennel (smallish pinch) (You could use a scant tbsp of Italian seasoning in place of the three herbs)
Salt & fresh ground black pepper

Chop onions and garlic and fry in the oil til softened, stirring well, in a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the beef mince and stir until browned. Add the mushrooms, red wine and mushroom juice. Stir well and add herbs. Heat high until bubbling well. Add chopped toms and tomato puree and dash of balsamic, Tabasco, Marmite and Worcestershire sauce. Add pinch of sugar. Leave over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for about 45 minutes. (You can add chopped bacon and/or chicken livers at the mushroom stage if liked).

For the béchamel:

1 tbsp plain flour
c. 50g butter
2 pts milk
½ a nutmeg, grated
100g mature cheddar
S&P

Melt butter in the saucepan over a medium heat; add flour and stir like crazy til it bubbles a little (needs to cook off a bit). Add the milk bit by bit, stirring well, medium – high heat. It should thicken as you do it (if not, add 1 tsp cornflour mixed with 2 tbsps water at the end, but do wait a little while). Whisk it if it gets lumpy. Stir in nutmeg and S&P. Take off the heat and add the cheese – stir in til it melts.

Finishing off:

Lasagne sheets
100g cheddar, 75g parmesan

Now: assemble a large lasagne dish. Put half the meat sauce in the bottom. Put a layer of pasta sauce over the top. Pour a reasonably thick layer of cheese sauce over the sheets. Then put on the rest of the meat sauce carefully so it doesn’t mess up the cheese sauce layer below. Then another layer of pasta and another layer of cheese sauce. Sprinkle over both cheeses evenly over the top. Bake at gas mark 4 for about an hour until the cheese is browning on top and bubbling slightly.

Serve with a side salad (I use peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, red onion) dressed with homemade salad dressing (1 part balsamic, 2 pts red wine vinegar, 4 pts olive oil, pinch of herbs, pinch of sugar, clove of garlic whisked together).

Anne's last supper - well, lunch

My friend Anne, after a number of happy years in London, announced a couple of months ago that she was moving back to Vancouver (sniff, sob). She came around to mine for a final meal before I took her to the airport. The day's challenge was to make something light enough that wouldn't make her feel too full for sitting around and waiting a while for a flight (pesky ash cloud) and would be suitable for brunch - and also didn't take too long to cook or too much attention when I wanted to talk to her.

I'd tried Nigella's Red Prawn and Mango Curry before a couple of times, but never felt the recipe got it entirely down pat. This is my take. I also dislike her preference for pre-cubed veg, lazy devil, and this is much cheaper. Serve with steamed or boiled jasmine rice (in small quantities - curry to rice ratio should be about half and half).

1/2 tsp of sesame oil, 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
4 - 6 spring onions chopped roughly
2 large tbsps of red thai curry paste (a non-salty one if poss)
1 400g can organic coconut milk (not low fat or it comes out too runny)
150ml chicken stock from homemade (if making with concentrate or stock cubes use half recommended quantity)
2 tsps nam pla (fish sauce)
1 smallish butternut squash or half of one and most of a sweet potato, cubed small-ish
Around 300g fresh prawns (much nicer than frozen)
Juice of half a lime
1 large mango, cubed small-ish
Generous shake of green tabasco (red will do)
Chopped coriander, generous handful.

Heat up the oils in a large pan; when hot fry the chopped spring onion. Stir in the paste; add the stock, fish sauce and coconut milk, stir til mixed well. You can start cooking the rice now. Bung in the squash (and/or) sweet potato to the sauce mix and simmer for about 10 mins - should still have a slight bite to it.
When veg are ready, throw in prawns and bring back to boil; add mango and lime juice and heat through. Serve on the rice with coriander chopped on top. Tabasco to serve too.

I find the variation in flavour in this recipe great - it gives you lots to play with; this version is very saucy and fragrant without being overpowering, but there's barely any heat, even though I've upped the curry paste. Definitely one to play with and I think she really liked it.

(We had Gu ganache for pudding which was gorgeous - I can't do desserts from scratch when we're due to eat at 12.00pm).

Saturday night, Sunday morning

The challenge this weekend was to cook a Saturday evening meal for sister and self, followed by three course Sunday lunch with one of my best friends who has just announced she's departing these shores.

After perusing Nigella, Nigel, Gordon and Delia for some inspiration, I decided that duck was the order of the day for the Saturday evening meal. I've never cooked duck before so was looking for something fairly simple and hard to mess up - no time constraints, as I had all afternoon to get sorted out. I decided on roast duck with cherry sauce, accompanied by braised red cabbage and a simple side dish of kale. It was nicer than I could ever have hoped for. To make this, you'll need:

1 duck, free range (roughly four lbs)
1 jar cherry conserve
1/2 bottle red wine
1 red cabbage
1 large baking apple
1 large or two small onions
1 clove garlic
Red wine vinegar
Duck fat (either from the bird or from a jar)
Nutmeg
Cinnamon
Cloves
Brown sugar
Packet of kale
Salt and pepper

This will serve 4 people (add more ducks if you need to - the sides and sauce make plenty).

Start by getting the braised cabbage started. Set the oven to GM2. Shred the cabbage, throwing away the tough central stalk. Peel and core the apple, chopping finely. Chop the onion(s) finely. Mix together in a large casserole dish; grate over 1/2 a nutmeg, about 1tsp of cinnamon and a few whole cloves; mince the garlic very finely and mix thoroughly. Add about one large glass of red wine, a slug of red wine vinegar and some fat (butter would be okay, but I had some duck fat in a jar so added that). Also add a good handful of brown sugar (probably about 3tbsps). Sit in the oven for an hour.

At the hour point, you need to prep your duck. Remove the giblets (reserve for stock if you want). Then break the backbone by putting it breast side down on a chopping board and pushing till you hear it crack (this will help the duck cook evenly). Turn right side up, prick the skin carefully - the aim is to let the fat run away but not to pierce the meat. Season liberally with sea salt and black pepper. Set in a roasting rack in a tin (I didn't have one so scrunched up some tin foil and placed the bird on that - an excellent Delia tip). Take the cabbage out of the oven, shift it up to GM8 and stick the duck on the middle shelf for about 20 - 30 minutes until the fat starts to melt. At this point, take the duck out and spoon out the fat from the tray into a jug (keep to one side for later). Turn down to GM4, put the cabbage back on the bottom shelf and the duck on the middle shelf. Check the duck every 20 - 30 mins (1 hr 50 mins in the oven from start to finish) spooning out the fat and basting. Also use the interruptions to stir the braised cabbage (I added some of the hot duck fat to this too). When the duck is cooked (usual skewer to check the juices are running clear) take it out of the oven to rest under a tea towel for 20 mins or so. Now put half a jar of cherry conserve in a pan, and add a large glass of red wine. Simmer for ten mins. Wilst stirring, boil the kale for 6-8 mins or till cooked.

Plate up slices of duck breast with the cherry sauce, a generous portion of the red cabbage and lightly cooked kale. This was absolutely gorgeous! For pudding, I settled for ripe strawberries with whipped cream and a very little bit of dark chocolate in shards over the top.

Even better, tonight's dinner formed the basis for some of tomorrow's lunch. After I'd washed up and said goodbye to Hani, I shredded the rest of the duck from the carcass (1 very large soup bowl's worth) and boiled the de-skinned bones with water, garlic, ginger, a chilli (deseeded) lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, nam pla, rice vinegar, soy sauce and a generous handful of coriander. I'm leaving it to simmer on the stove for an hour tonight before straining. Tomorrow, I'll add the duck meat to the clear soup and season - a nice Thai-inspired starter.

To follow, it's a roast topside of beef with the red cabbage (this is always better the second day and freezes amazingly well if there's any leftovers) and roasties with some more green veg (probably sugar snap peas and the rest of the kale).

Roast potatoes are always a top topic and bone of contention in the office. My method is to peel, parboil til soft (about 15 mins); strain, put back in the hot and empty pan and shake around to fluff up the edges. Put in a roasting tin and cover with duck fat (handily conserved from yesterday) and cook at a medium heat for at least an hour and a half until crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. I also season with a lot of sea salt to really crisp up the outsides.

So most of tomorrow's work is done - it's just the potatoes and searing the topside joint before putting it into the oven. Not bad for an afternoon's work. All I really have to worry about is what to make for pudding!