Sweet Potato Chips (Fries)

"Hello my name is Laura and I'm addicted to Sweet Potato Chips".

Frequently I become addicted to a foodstuff.........at the moment it's sweet potato chips (fries for the international audience)!

As I see it, these are the benefits of my current sweet potato chip addiction:

1. Surely they are healthier than regular potato fries?!
2. Very quick to make, 20 minutes from raw ingredient to plate.
3. Like every other chip they taste awesome with Tomato Ketchup.

To make simply peel then cut a sweet potato into fries. Place in an oven tray with a drizzle of oil and a sprinkle with salt. Cook in a high oven (230 degrees C) for 10-15 minutes or until crispy on the outside. Done.

Do you have a current food addiction?

Porridge: How Do You Eat Yours?

In recent years you may have noticed that porridge has made a serious comeback into the breakfast bowls of the UK:

• "Pret A Manger Boasted by Sales of 50000 Porridge Pots a Week" The Guardian
• "PepsiCo Invests £8.5 Million in Quaker Mill and Porridge Sales Soar" Pepsico

Porridge is even a frequent visitor to my breakfast bowl (I never thought I'd be saying that a few months ago). So why the renaissance? The population today is more health conscious and strangely porridge appears to be fashionable!

Probably for the "fashion" reason I had tried porridge for breakfast a few times. I didn't enjoy it and the experience reminded me of the porridge I ate as a child - a salty sloppy cement like substance.

So what changed? A few months ago someone made me porridge using just water. I loved it and have had it almost exclusively for breakfast since then.

After becoming a Porridge Eater I made a couple of important realisations:

• You all make and eat porridge completely differently.
• You seem very passionate about your porridge.

These points were emphasised during a recent coffee time discussion at work: 4 of us talking about porridge for 20 minutes and none of us cook or eat it the same. Points proved.

How do they eat theirs?

• One of my colleagues eats half a mixing bowl full of porridge mixed with sultanas and raisins approximately 3 hours before a long run. He makes it with 1 part oats, 2 parts water and 1 part milk. He adds more milk to the bowl when serving and loves it when the porridge floats in the milk.
• Another makes it with half water and half milk. And enjoys adding sugar and milk once served.
• Rather unfortnately my third colleague has no idea how his is made, his wife makes it. However, he recently found out that after 25 years of believing his porridge was cooked with salt it actually hadn't been.

How do I eat mines?

• I make mine with water only. 2 parts water to 1 part rolled oats.
• I serve it with Acacia honey and fresh fruit. My favourite being blackberries. 

This leaves one question. How do you eat yours?

Weekend Food Highlight #2

This weekend's food highlights were definitely a couple of fabulously simple breakfasts!


Breakfast Number 1: Banana and Oat Shake

I generally get some hard and fast exercise in first thing on a Saturday morning - allows me enjoy the weekend relatively guilt free. Afterwards I have a small brunch to help me recover. This Saturday I had a Banana and Oat Shake - absolutely delicious! I'm not a massive fan of smoothies or milkshakes but I really enjoyed this one.

Blend the following ingredients: 1 banana, 2 tablespoons of peanut butter, dribble of honey, 1.5 tablespoon of rolled oats and rounghly 250ml of milk. Done.

This shake was inspired by the wonderful 'A Wee Bit of Cooking'.


Breakfast Number 2: Poached Eggs on Organic Caraway and Rye Toast


I'm lucky enough to live within a five minute walk of a gorgeous Organic Bakery. I bought a Caraway and Rye loaf there on Saturday.  For breakfast on Sunday I poached a couple of eggs and served them on a couple of slices of the Caraway and Rye bread toasted. The flavour of the Caraway just worked with the poached eggs. Gorgeous.

How to Make Hummus

Given my recent exploits in the Middle East this post was inevitable!

I love making my own hummus. It's very satisfying. The satisfaction was added to here as I made Pita bread to eat it with.

Here's how I make Hummus (me and the rest of the world).

Ingredients:

1 x tin of chick peas
2 x tablespoons of tahini
2 x crushed cloves of garlic
2 x tablespoons of olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
1/2 a teaspoon of cumin

Boil the chick peas until soft.

Then drain the chick peas.

Add the chick peas along with the remaining ingredients to a blender (I used my Cuisine Systeme 4200). Pulse until all the ingredients are combined to form a paste.

Add a couple of tablespoons of water and pulse again until the consistency is a smooth wet paste. Salt to taste.  Save the water from the tin of chick peas and add here, you may need to repeat this step a couple of times to get the right consistency.

Done.

I recently served this Hummus with homemade Pita Bread, made using this recipe. This was relatively successful, although I feel the recipe requires a little more salt than stated.

If you've never made your own Hummus please do it!

Scallops with Bacon and Cauliflower Puree

Scallops are one of my favourite ingredients. I regularly cook them at home for pasta dishes.

This recipe is fairly simple yet delicious and an impressive starter for any of your dinner guests. This combination of scallops, bacon and cauliflower is a match made in heaven and was inspired by a dish I had at Chardon D'Or a couple of years ago.


Ingredients (serves 4):

• For the puree: 1/2  cauliflower, milk, 1/2 onion, few cloves, 2 bay leaves, knob of butter.
• 12 scallops.
• 8 slices of streaky bacon.

I used this recipe from the BBC for the cauliflower puree. The subtle flavour of the cloves works nicely. I need to perfect a smoother puree.


Dry fry the bacon until crispy. Remove any excess oil before serving.


Sear the scallops in a little olive oil. A couple of minutes on each side is enough.


To serve smear a layer of the puree on the plate and delicately place the scallops and bacon on top. I added a little cress. Simple.

Weekend Food Highlight

Thought I should share a quick weekend food highlight with you.

I had an afternoon out with my Mum and Gran on Sunday. We enjoyed lots of cups of tea with a fabulous meringue. But the real food highlight was popping into Overton Farm Shop. I bought, among other things, a Romanesco. This interesting and beautiful vegetable is a cross between a Cauliflower and a Brocoli and I love them. I steamed it and ate it with a delicious Lamb Gigot Chop and some Roast Potatos (inspired by A Wee Bit of Cooking).

What was your weekend food highlight?

PS I love Overton Farm Shop! Great selection of vegetables and meats.

To Do List: 3 Months To Go

It's the 1st of October, only three months left of 2011.

I've created a "3 Months To Go To Do List" - a list of food related goals I'd like to achieve by the end of 2011.

• Eat in a Michelin Star Restaurant. I'll need to wait until my husband is home from Dubai for Christmas for this one. Most likely to go to The Kitchin. Looking forward to it!
• Make Macaroons. This has been on my to do list for quite some time!  
• Lose 14lbs. I can't believe I've actually written this down, I'm going to have to do it now. 
• Make two new recipes a month. Not entirely sure how ambitious this one is. 
• Cook Duck. Surprisingly I've never cooked duck before.

I'll let you know how I get on. Wish me luck!  

PS What's still on your 2011 to do list?

How to Make Kick-Ass Chicken Kebabs

I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't cooked much in the last couple of weeks. I was dying to get back to it: I enjoy cooking and it really helps me de-stress.

Thursday was a particularly long and busy day at work. As a reward I elected to cook some quick and easy kick-ass chicken kebabs. And they were very rewarding indeed.

I needed to share this recipe with you: I can't emphasise enough just how good they are.

For the chicken:

• 1 Chicken breast diced into sizeable chunks.
• 1.5 teaspoons of curry powder ( I used some top notch curry powder I bought in an Egyptian souq).
• 0.5 teaspoons of paprika.
• 1 crushed clove of garlic.

No chicken kebab is complete without a hefty garlic sauce - this one packs a punch!

For the garlic sauce:

• 1 clove of garlic.
• 3 cherry tomatos.
• A wedge of red onion.
• Sprinkle of dry chilli flakes.
• Juice of half a lemon.
• A dash of olive oil.
• Salt to taste. 

Mix together the chicken, curry powder, paprika and crushed garlic until the chicken is coated in the spices. I left this mixture in the fridge to marinade for about 30 minutes. 

To make the garlic sauce simply blend the ingredients together. I used the chopper from my Philips Hand Blender to blend this sauce. 

Grill, griddle or BBQ the chicken. I cooked the chicken on my griddle, a few minutes on each side. It's a great BBQ recipe. 

Serve the chicken in a lightly toasted pitta bread with a healthy covering of the garlic sauce. I ate this with a cress, tomato and red onion side salad. Delicious!

For some the punch from the garlic sauce will be too violent. If so, cool the sauce by mixing in a spoon-full of greek yogurt. Easy.  

This made enough kebabs for one but probably enough sauce for a couple.

Enjoy.

PS I can't get enough cress at the moment, every salad I make contains loads of it! 

So Good it Went Bad

I don't think I've bought any food for over a week so a quick walk to the supermarket for some essential supplies was long over due. But how does it go from being so good to so bad in a matter of an instant?

When I arrived at the check out queue my basket contained milk, raspberries, strawberries and bananas. However, when I arrived at the check out my basket contained milk, raspberries, strawberries, bananas and a large bar of Green & Blacks Butterscotch Chocolate.

I wonder just how long this particular bar will last?

For now I'll not worry about the calories and simply enjoy a few squares with a nice cup of tea. 

PS I'm all about Clipper tea bags at the minute! 

Dubai

I spent the weekend visiting my husband in Dubai. A great weekend but quite a distance to go for just three full days.

Whatever your view of the desert wonderland that is Dubai - pure heaven or absolute hell - it does offer fantastic weather and a wealth of culinary delights.

The weekend was spent, sunbathing, breaking my toe at the water park and eating a lot of food. For me there were two stand out food encounters:

1. Having landed at 2300 on Thursday I met Simon at the airport and we headed straight for a midnight feast at Aroos Damascus, a Syrian restaurant located in Deira. What a fantastic welcome back to Dubai this feast was: hummus, lamb shawarma, falafel, Arabic salad and chicken kebobs. My mouth waters at the memory.
2. For my last supper in Dubai we headed to Ravi. The restaurant, located on the colourful Satwa Road, serves Pakistani food and is rated #1 in Dubai by the lonely planet. I am certain many people who take this recommendation will have second thoughts at the sight of this rather rustic restaurant. I would urge you to take an outside table, absorb the atmosphere of the Satwa Road and order sparingly from the menu. We certainly enjoyed doing all three. The Mutton Green Masala was my personal highlight, it's must order along with the Daal. 

It's at this point I ask myself why both my culinary highlights in Dubai were feasts that cost less than approximately £5 per person. I don't believe I'm cheap it's merely that I enjoy eating in places where the food is genuine, the locals eat and (when in the middle east) somewhere that feels like I'm in the middle east.       

For anyone looking for something slightly less rustic in Dubai try Ashiana at the Sheraton Dubai Creek.

A World of Eating

I am a traveller. I love to experience the cultures, people and food of the world. I've eaten China, Australia, Italy, Kenya, Malta, the list goes on...........I just wish I could remember all of the fantastic restaurants. Here are a couple I can specifically remember.

Aroos Damascus, Deira, Dubai 

For anyone holidaying in, working in or travelling through Dubai this is a must visit restaurant. The Lonely Planet Website currently lists this as the #237 things to do in Dubai, I disagree this is #1. My husband was introduced to this restaurant by a Syrian friend while working in Dubai. Syrian food is fantastic, ensure (insist) you get a table outside to experience the atmosphere of this Arabic favourite.  Every time we visit we are greeted like family members even though sometimes there are months between visits.

Le Bistro Du Praz, Courcheval, France

I ski a lot. As such I have enjoyed and endured cheese fondu all over the Alps and this is certainly the best. For anyone looking to experience the Three Valleys I recommend staying in a Chalet in Courcheval 1300 (Le Praz)  and eating here on your hosts night off.  We stayed in the Chalet Du Praz.

Loch Bay Seafood Restaurant, Isle of Skye 

I'm embarrassed to admit I rarely holiday in my own country, however in April 2010 I was encouraged to do so by my husband. We stayed in the beautiful Kinlochewe and visited Skye for the day. As a lover of the Lonely Planet I referred to their restaurant recommendations and we headed straight for the Loch Bay Seafood Restaurant. For me sometimes its not just about the food its about the atmosphere, the surroundings, the company and the conversation. This place was about all of the above, the food was amazing. Remember to book.

Other great food experiences I've had while traveling (the specifics of which I can't remember):

• Water beetle in Nanjng.........crunchy and tasted just like garlic and ginger, it having been cooked in garlic and ginger.

• Aligator in Nanjing......salty steak, very yum.
• Peking duck in a small restaurant in a Beijing slum. Thank goodness we had a Chinese guide would never have found it otherwise. 
• A trio of steak in a Uruguayan restaurant in Amsterdam. Amazing. A trio of steak......need I say anymore. 

There is a lot of the world left to eat and explore. Any recommendations?

A Fyne Birthday Lunch

Yesterday was my mother's birthday, to celebrate we had lunch at the Loch Fyne Oyster Bar . It was a first visit for my parents and sister. 

The restaurant is roughly a 1.5 hour drive from our home town of Glasgow but well worth it - the drive is pretty gorgeous too. A former cow byre, the restaurant is situated on the glorious Loch Fyne at the small village of Cairndown and I love it's relative remoteness. It specialises in smoked salmon, oysters and mussels but also serves a number of other fish and meat dishes. 

Possibly the most wonderful thing about this restaurant is that it contains a farm shop selling fish, meat, some vegetables and a number of other delights. I have previously bought scallops, salmon and venison burgers from the restaurant all of which I barbecued with resounding success. 

On this trip I ordered the Special Mussels - Mussels Steamed with Chorizo, spicey pepporonata and spinach. It was delicious.

My parents had the Sea Bass and Mackerel, and my sister ordered the leek and potato soup. Yes, that's right all she had was the leek and potato soup: this is why she is the skinny sister. 

I love this place it's in a great setting, has a friendly and relaxed atmosphere, they serve gorgeous Scottish seafood and you can buy gorgeous Scottish seafood on the way out. It served as a Fyne birthday treat. 

Simon Demands Jerk

I was given Jamie's 30 Minute Meals as a gift and I do enjoy the book. However I, like many others, do struggle to complete the recipes in 30 minutes: perhaps because my kitchen isn't equipped with certain mod-cons like microwaves.

In the past, I have enjoyed cooking and eating the Curry Rogan Josh and the Piri Piri Chicken with the accompanying Dressed Potatoes (the potatoes are pretty tasty). Didn't have much luck with the Trapani-Style Rigatoni - not sure who was to blame for this disaster me or Jamie.

Each time I pull this particular cook book out to have a browse my husband, Simon, demands I make the Killer Jerk Chicken. I always dismiss this recipe, generally out of laziness. To me there seems to be too large a number of ingredients (particularly ingredients not already in my cupboards). However, on Tuesday Simon moved to Dubai for a year to work, so it only seemed fair that I met at least some of his demands before he left.

Firstly, allow me to apologise, this recipe doesn't appear on the web (at least that I can find). I aim only to blog about my own recipes, which I can publish, or recipes that appear elsewhere on the web.

I only made the Killer Jerk Chicken aspect of this recipe. I served with wholemeal rice and a kos lettuce and cress salad.

Deviations from the recipe: I used chicken thighs not breasts, I didn't have golden rum so used dark rum instead and I didn't add any oil to the chicken before cooking. None of these were to the detriment of the recipe and with cooking you have to be dynamic, rigidly sticking to recipes is boring and you won't learn much.

I made the Jerk Sauce in my Magimix Food Processor (Cuisine Systeme 4200 - possibly my favourite kitchen gadget). Although this recipe could be made even if you don't have a food processor: I'd substitute the spring onions for grated onion and mix the Jerk Sauce ingredients in a bowl, easy.

The Jerk Sauce was delicious. I love this combination: crispy chicken, sauce with a kick and wholesome rice and salad.

What would I do differently next time: add more chilli to the sauce (for the chilli's I had and with my taste buds, I maybe needed another half a chilli or so) and not forget that I had also planned to serve the dish with corn (I found this still boiling on the hob 50 minutes after serving, ooppppsss).

Is Food Just Fuel?

No. Not to me.

For some food is simply fuel. For others food is a comfort blanket or even a career.

For me food is a passion.