Tomato and Basil Soup
We had some leftover tomatoes languishing in the bottom of the fridge so I turned them into soup for lunches next week.
Roast some tomatoes, red peppers, red onions and garlic in the oven for about 40 minutes.
Add some vegetable stock and basil.
Blitz until smoothish.
Eat 🙂
Oriental City
Last night we went to Oriental City in Colindale with friends of ours. We had never been before, and as they are due to close down some time next year for development into something less interesting, we’ve been wanting to go for a while. We went along for an evening of shopping and eating dim sum in the food court. Some pictures from our visit:
A chef making noodles at one of the stalls in the food court.
Thai style steamed squid. Very good, yummy.
Steamed seafood roll. Nice, but I burned my tongue on one when I first tried it.
Rice wrapped in lotus leaf. This contained some rather overcooked chicken in it, which wasn’t what I was expecting. And not just normally overcooked, but the sort of chicken that has been used to make stock and has very little flavour left.
Steamed scallop dumpling. The scallop was a little slice of scallop on top, but inside was mostly prawns. A sprinkling of roe on top too.
Prawn and chive dumpling. Lots of tasty garlic in it with the chives.
Pineapple buns. These were dessert but I was too full by then so just had a small taste.
Fried squid. Really long strips! Tasty but quite oily.
Prawn and chive cheun fung. We unintentionally went a bit overboard with the whole prawn and chive food group in our selections; there was another type of prawn and chive dumpling too which we don’t have a picture of. We also had some greens with oyster sauce and some chicken spring rolls. All in all, very tasty and I was rather stuffed by the time we finished.
After dinner, we did some more shopping and went to the supermarket, where we bought a bamboo steamer and also various ingredients. We also bought some interesting crockery, which will probably make an appearance in pictures on Dinner Diary soon.
It’s an interesting place to visit, so it’s a bit sad that it’s due to disappear soon. It has an air of a place that has limited time too. For example, only one of the sliding doors at the main entrance, and even that only opens half way. The two giant ceramic lions at the entrance don’t seem too worried though.
Fishcakes with Lemony Leeks
We’ve had these in the freezer for a while and thought they would be nice and easy for a Friday night. And they were except I left them in the oven a little too long.
We served them with lemony leeks which were a good contrast: leeks braised in some chicken stock and lemon juice, cooked in the oven on a low heat for about an hour.
Spaghetti with Mussels
A quick and simple dinner tonight. We sweated some garlic and shallots, then added parsley, wine and mussels. After a few minutes, the mussels were done and we served them with pasta, sprinkled with a little more parsley. Quick, simple and tasty.
Fish, Potatoes and Tomatoes
We made this recently and were both pleased about how quick and easy it was. We decided to do it again tonight and add some red peppers and olives. The olives didn’t work very well but overall it was ok. Not as good as last time but ok.
Chicken and Chilli and Basil
Another Monday, another chicken stir-fry.
Make a paste with four cloves of garlic and two birds-eye chillis and fry. Add the leftover chicken and heat through, throw in the vegetables and holy basil and cook through. Add two tablespoons of soy sauce and two tablespoons of fish sauce. Put the lid on and cook for a couple of minutes. Serve with jasmine rice.
We both thought this would work well with lemongrass too…look out for that next week!
Larry
I never knew Larry the Lamb when he was alive, but even if I had done, I don’t think I would have minded eating him anyway because he was very tasty indeed. Regular readers may remember our good friend Geraldine. Larry was next in line for being cooked on the excellent spit created by some very skilled friends of ours.
Being a lot smaller than Geraldine, Larry only required three and a half hours to cook rather than ten. He was stuffed with garlic, onions and herbs and then expertly sewn up, as visible in one of the pictures. Raised on the Isle of Aran he’d been eating tasty grasses and heather all his life and this showed through in the taste of the meat.
We made some tabouleh to take along to have with it and other people made various things, including an excellent ginger and mango upside-down cake for dessert. We forgot to take pictures of anything other than Larry though. Wine will do that to you.
Beef, Chilli and Basil Stir Fry
Back on Tuesday last week, we cooked Beef, Chilli and Basil Stir Fry. We ended up being really busy and/or disorganised for the next few days so never got around to posting about it. Until now.
When we’d tried stir frying with basil before, we used sweet basil (i.e. the usual European variety). Having been to Chinatown over the weekend, I’d bought a bunch of holy basil which we used this time. Holy basil is unlike sweet basil in that it doesn’t taste or smell like much until it’s cooked, and when cooked it becomes wonderfully fragrant.
We followed a traditional Thai recipe for stir fried beef with chilli and basil, which goes something like this: Pound a birds chilli with two gloves of garlic, then stir fry this for a minute. Add half a pound of thinly sliced beef and stir fry for a few minutes. Add a tablespoon or so each of fish sauce and soy sauce, along with half a cup of holy basil. Stir fry for a few more minutes and it’s done.
We served this with jasmine rice and also had a side dish of traditional stir fried vegetables. The beef turned out really brilliantly and we’ll definitely be having it (or a variation on it) again soon. The recipe can be changed to use chicken or prawns too, which makes it quite versatile.
Thai Green Curry with Chicken
Stephen had a busy day shopping in Chinatown on Saturday afternoon buying ingredients for Thai curry paste which he made up in the afternoon. We used the paste last night to make a green curry which was delicoulsy fragrant and zesty. We used reduced fat coconut milk for the first time to save some calories, it had just as much flavour as the full fat but was slightly thinner in consistency.
We use this recipe from ‘Hot Sour Salty Sweet’ by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/4 cup minced coriander roots (or leaves and stalks)
11/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 cup minced lemongrass
1/4 cup coarsley chopped garlic
1/4 cup coarsley chopped shallots
2 tablespoons chopped galangal (or, 1 tablespoon minced ginger plus 1
tablespoon lime juice)
1 tablespoon minced wild lime zest
1/2 cup green bird chillies stemmed and coarsley chopped
1 tablespoon shrimp paste
(This has to be pounded until it’s smooth and free of coarse bits – about 20 minutes in a large stone mortar and pestle).
Teriyaki Salmon and Tempura Vegetables
I wanted to cook salmon in a sweet chilli rub this evening but couldn’t find a recipe for it, a quick look on BBC food threw up this recipe for teriyaki salmon which both Stephen and I thought sounded good. Stephen had the fantastic idea of making tempura vegetables to go with it so that’s what we did.
The salmon turned out brilliantly, the teriyaki sauce is made seperately and the fish is fried before being added to the liquid – I was really surprised that it managed to take on so many flavours without actually being cooked in the sauce but it did.
The tempura vegetables also worked out well, the second batch were better after we realised that the oil wasn’t quite hot enough in the beginning. We used a plain tempura batter but I think it could have done with some seasoning and/or some chilli.
