Gordon Ramsay Cookalong? Done!

Well, sort of.

My sister Jemma and I had our own Hell's Kitchen going on last Friday evening - it was the most stressful cooking experience I've ever had!

It all started when Jemma was rushing around Sainsbury's getting the ingredients. I was on the train coming home when she called: "What's lamb's lettuce?"; another: "Er, apparently, rhubarb isn't in season, should we get apples instead?"; one more: "Where would the shortcrust pastry be?"; and finally: "Can I use granulated sugar instead of caster sugar?" And my train-sleep answers each time? "Dur...I dunno..."

Despite these initial hiccups, we were both home in time and ready to go (after munching on some crisps and grapes to stretch our stomachs):

The first instruction was to put the softened butter into a bowl. Softened? We looked at the cold wodge we'd just taken out of the fridge. And we didn't even know how much to use!

As we tried to mix in the hard lumps of butter with the herbs, it suddenly dawned on us that we should have measured out ALL of the ingredients first. With Gordon Ramsay barking orders at us and already racing ahead with the next part, we started to feel rather panicked. It probably didn't help that we kept bursting into hysterics at the sight of each other aimlessly rushing about trying to get things Done.

The goat's cheese salad starter was more straightforward, although I had to wolf it down in a few bites during what felt like the quickest ad break ever - whilst my poor sister attempted to get us up to speed with the next part. Thank God we discovered that the recipes were actually online as well.

Time for the crumble. I left my sister to caramelise the sugar whilst I quickly measured out the crumble ingredients. We solved a small problem of not having a food processor by crushing up whole hazelnut shells with a pestle and mortar. Now they are tough nuts, I tell you!

The crumble was finally ready for the oven. "WAIT!" Jemma shrieked, "We forgot the cinnamon!" That's what the random brown dollop on top is here, in case you were wondering:

It was 25 past 10 when we sat down to eat our main course - Gordon Ramsay and co had already cooked and eaten all three courses 25 minutes ago! Whoops. It didn't look too bad though:

Yes, we noticed the abundance of broccoli too - in the midst of the cooking chaos, we measured out the full ingredients instead of halving them (since it was listed to serve four people). Never mind.

So the important question, how did it taste? Well, it was ok...but I'm not sure whether I'd make it again! I don't like the uncertainty of working out if the salmon inside is cooked through or not - we ended up leaving it in the oven longer to be doubly sure which then dried out the pastry. Yum.

I'd definitely do the crumble again though, as that was far more manageable!

And we've got a blender back in Chi so there'll be less struggle trying to grind up those hazelnuts :-)

Will I be cooking along with Gordon Ramsay next time? Umm, not sure, but at least now I know to measure out the ingredients and read through the recipes online before tuning in!

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Hungry Jenny Faux Pas: How Not to Make a Burger

1. Mix together cornflour, sugar, spring onions, a bit of oil and soy sauce.
2. Misinterpret 'dice' chicken by chopping into large chunks and drop into the mix.
2. Squeeze half a lime over the chicken, shrug, and squeeze the other half in too.
3. Realise this has now diluted the cornflour paste you need to stick together your burger...

4. Go to work and wonder if leaving it to marinade it all day will make it easier to mould together - or simply make it soggier.
5. Return from work and conclude that it is the latter.
6. Pick up the chicken goo and attempt to press into a burger shape.
7. Slap it into a hot pan, panic at the sizzling oil and flip the burger over, which instantly shatters to pieces.
10. Have a lightbulb moment that eggs could be the solution to restore the burger.
11. Set the burger bits aside, beat an egg and scramble in the pan.
12. Drop the burger bits into the centre of the half-cooked egg.
13. Beat another egg and pour over the top, in an attempt to 'seal' the contents together.
14. Cut the top layer of egg off to show that it really is a burger inside and not an omelette...

15. Admit that okay, it's just chicken pieces in a burger bun with a random scrambled egg underneath.

(My sweet potato chips came out well though!)
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A food-packed weekend awaits...

I am SO excited! I'm going back home to Luton for a long weekend next week which will be rather nice in itself but it will involve a lot of food-related activities :-)

I'm heading back on Friday straight after work to be greeted by my sister Jemma and an array of interesting ingredients to try out Gordon Ramsay's Cookalong live, since a new series is starting that night. The main course is salmon which I'm looking forward to the most as I've never tried to cook fish before. Partly because of the prospect of stinking out the house, partly because my veggie housemate Beth probably won't appreciate the smell either, but for the most part, it's because I'm afraid I'll make it completely wrong!

Then on Saturday morning I'm heading to the Chinese supermarket in Luton to stock up on various sauces and other things (yes, NOODLES) because I will have my suitcase readily available to lug them back to Chi. This will include getting ingredients to try making my own Char Sui sauce, mmm...

In the afternoon, I'll be catching up with one of my best mates Toral over lunch somewhere local, followed by a nice dinner with my sister (in the evening of course, not straight afterwards).

It was my mum's birthday earlier this week so we'll be taking her to a carvery for Sunday lunch. And then, who knows what we'll be having for dinner! Something delicious I'm sure :-)

After all of this eating, I want to take my mum to lunch on Monday before I head back to Chi, probably a little slower than usual, under the extra weight of the supermarket goods in my suitcase, and the weekend's worth of food in my belly. Phew! Continue reading this post..

Let's do the congee!

Jook jook!

Don't worry, I'm not practising some odd ritual. I spent a good hour making my lunch today because last night I had a random urge to have some congee - rice porridge. 'Jook' is the literal translation from Chinese. Not like the rice mush I made by accident when I was a student and tried to make steamed rice for the first time, but the proper stuff:


I saw a recipe for yam rice porridge last night and it was just what I fancied. So I got up early this morning to head to the market - but alas, there was no yam. Whizzed over to Tesco's and again, no yam :-(

Never fear, I said to myself. I got a normal sweet potato instead which did the trick. I've actually never made rice porridge before, despite wanting to for ages because it's such a good comfort dish. My mum makes it alot with fish and pork and it's just delicious!

You basically boil rice in a lot of water! I did a ratio of one cup rice to eight cups water which worried me at first when I poured it into my biggest saucepan (which is rather small). Despite being in the kitchen the whole time to keep an eye on the dangerously high water level, I still managed to almost let it boil over! Whoops. Don't worry, kitchen still intact.

An hour later, it was ready and I was starving. I hadn't forgotten that it takes a long time to make but this still didn't register when I decided to start cooking at 1, rather than earlier to be able to sit down and eat at lunchtime.

It was worth the wait though and I'm very proud of my first effort:

I'm very glad that I made a bigger portion than I thought I was making as I still have half a pan left to eat! Mm, I think it's almost dinnertime... Continue reading this post..

Hooked on Yongfook

I've just found the most amazing website called Open Source Food (www.opensourcefood.com) - it's a food social networking site where people share their own recipes! Recently, I've been hunting around on the net for something like this but hadn't come across anything very interesting. But I just cannot get over the quality of the images and how good the recipes look - I want a new camera now!

These images are from the site's creator, Yongfook, and they look absolutely delicious:







And this is just the tip of the mountainous iceberg of food heaven!

It's perfect timing too as I want to get ideas for my veggie month (and beyond). Browsing around this site, it's made me realise that although I cook myself dinner pretty much every day, I never really experiment. It's always down to money, convenience, comfort when I go food shopping. But this is certain to make me cook something completely different every now and again, just for the experience - even if it does turn out to be a disaster! Continue reading this post..

Bite It and Believe It

Aero was its biggest rival.
Dairy Milk Bubbly was a substitute reject.
But now finally, Wispas are back...

...FOR GOOD!

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Oodles of Noodles

Hurrah, I managed to get hold of the noodles I used to eat when I was younger:

Curly!...

...best served with Frankfurters :-)

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Sluggish

When you try a new restaurant or even just a new dish, you always fear the food will not be what you expected. It's one of those things that I actually dread because there is nothing worse than that feeling of disappointment with your meal. And it happened to me yesterday :-(

I went to Bosham for the day, a lovely village near Chichester. I thought it would be a good chance to try out a local restaurant or pub. After a little walk around Old Bosham, exploring the arts and crafts shops in Bosham Walk, Matt and I became quite hungry. We had seen a couple of pubs dotted around so stopped by them to scope them out. Unfortunately, they didn't feel particularly welcoming, with one in particular having some rowdy football men which I just did not appreciate!

When deciding on new places to go to, I don't just look at the menu but like to feel out the atmosphere as well. You don't want to eat somewhere feeling uncomfortable. There are lots of places I've been to for the first time when I've felt perfectly welcome and enjoyed myself. Then there are others like these pubs, where as soon as I stepped in them, I just wanted to get out!

In the end, we went back to Chi. By that time, we were starving and decided to go to Zizzi's because it was fairly close to the station! I was a bit disappointed that we were going somewhere familiar but I was too tired and hungry to mind too much.

On the way, we passed the Slug and Lettuce and I thought, hold on, I've never really eaten here. A quick look at the menu enticed us in. I fancied something comforting to eat so went for the steak and mushroom pie...and, when it arrived, I was amazed with what I saw!

But not for long.

It wasn't bad to begin with - the height of the pastry was staggering and it was light and crispy, though messy to eat, as it flew about everywhere when I cut into it!

However, as I dug into the meat of the pie, I realised that the red wine gravy was rather rich and overwhelmed the taste of the beef and mushrooms. I don't like too much sauce/gravy with my food anyway so it was probably to do with that more than anything. But then I noticed that the pastry didn't actually extend down the sides and underneath - it was sat in a bowl with pastry covering the top. Now I don't know if that is just the posh way to eat pies but I do like my pastry. So that didn't help lift my spirits about this pie either.

So I moved on to the mashed potato.

Uh oh.

Did you ever used to eat it at school? It always had a slight metal twinge like it had been sitting in the pan for too long underneath that strip lighting. As soon as I had a forkful of Slug mash, all of those school memories flooded back. And not in a good way. Just gulp and swallow, gulp and swallow, I thought to myself, to avoid any risk of that industrial aftertaste.

Oh, and to top it off, the green beans were cold.

If one part of a dish goes down, I take the rest of the food down with it!
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Salad Appeal

I'm sure I'm not alone in seeing salads as just rabbit food. I'm not referring to side salads, or the ones you get inside a sandwich and stuff, but the ones you order at a restaurant as a main meal. I've never got my head around why people do this. I'm not saying that they're not appealing, just not as appealing as the rest of the stuff on the menu! (But that's coming from someone who loves carbs too much.)

The one time I did order a salad as a main meal was at Pizza Express after a heavy night out - I just fancied something 'light'. It was quite tasty and I didn't regret not ordering pizza or pasta, but it had too much dressing for my liking so was quite vinegary. So that didn't help to sway my mind about salad dishes.

But for once, I've seen one that actually appealed to me:

I was at Wagamama's with my friend Lucy yesterday and she ordered this beautiful pork and squid salad. Doesn't it look delicious?! Lucy almost didn't order this though, as she was wondering whether a salad would fill her up enough. Another reason why I never go for salads too! It was one of the 'specials' though and something that she really wanted to try so she managed to find a solution - by simply ordering some extra rice!

Perfect!

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