Jassy's bacon & egg pie

I recently got to talk with food writer Jassy Davis about blogging, food and life .... and she was kind enough to share a recipe with me.  

A comfort-food-sounding-winner of a Bacon and Egg Pie. 

But, it also made me a little bit nervous about making it because to me, baking and pastry, y'know, they're TECHNICAL cooking.  And I don't really 'do' technical cooking. My cooking is generally based on throwing things together, cooking stuff quickly, and all about taste, taste and taste it again and adjust (and learn to trust your own pallette). 

However, I also really loved the sound of her pie, and I really wanted to make it.  

And I want other people who might have the pastry fear to have a go to.  You'll see on the header photo on this post Jassy's pie on the left and mine on the right.  Honestly, I'm pretty proud of how it looks (and it tasted much better than it looks) and I'm now inspired to have a go at more pastry.  Well, maybe this pie again a few times more before I move on to anything else. 

I was also really pleased when she suggested this recipe because it reminds me so much of one of my grandmothers.  My gran Irene (known as Rene), was a cook - she'd gone into service at the 'Big House' as a teenager and learnt and worked her way up to being a cook.  When she died, my dad (her son) found some of the notebooks with her handwritten recipes that she'd noted down as she learnt more dishes. I really want to find those notebooks - I think they're somewhere in the attic at my dad's and it's a job now back on my list to find them!

When I was little and we went to visit and stay with my grandparents in Sussex, I was always excited about the food, and about watching and helping my grandmother cook.

She had a little kitchen with the open door straight to the back steps down to the garden and sometimes I'd just sit on the steps in the summer sunshine with the smell of the pots of geraniums all down the steps (geraniums are still a favourite scent of mine today), with a cup of tea (in a cup and saucer) and Gran pottering and cooking behind me.

She made the best full English breakfasts, with delicious little fat herby sausages from the butcher.  She made beautiful salads and roast dinners and new potatoes with butter and sprigs of fresh mint from the garden.  And she made a perfect bacon and egg quiche.  I loved Gran's quiche so much that during a very short period of being vegetarian as a teenager I was very tempted by it.  

Especially because my grandparents were of a generation that didn't really 'get' vegetarianism and I now think they just thought I'd given up red meat.  Once when we were staying I was offered quiche for lunch and on turning it down on the grounds of being veggie, my grandmother said in kind of horror:

“Oh, but I didn’t think you meant BACON!”

— Irene Walder

And to be completely honest, when I saw that quiche and also smelt the bacon frying in the morning, I changed my 'vegetarianism' to allow eating bacon too.

So do give Jassy's pie a try, even if you're scared of pastry, or even if you're a vegetarian!

Actually, I can see that this pie would be fab made with perhaps leeks instead of the bacon.  If you give a veggie version a try, please get in touch and let me know what you tried and how it worked out.

But back to our glorious bacon and egg pie and Jassy's recipe which says it serves eight (but I'll always leave this vague as it's just so dependent on hunger, greediness, etc!) ... 

You'll need:

FOR THE PASTRY
240g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
60g chilled salted butter, cubed, plus extra for greasing
60g chilled lard, cubed

FOR THE FILLING
480g good quality unsmoked streaky bacon (make sure it’s good quality – you don’t want your pie ruined by cheap bacon bleeding salty water all over it)
150g crème fraîche
142ml pot soured cream (the pot I bought was 150ml so I used nearly all of it)
3 medium eggs
1 tbsp milk

First fill a glass with water and add an ice cube.  Sift the flour into a mixing bowl and add the butter and lard.  Rub together with your fingertips to make it look like breadcrumbs.  This took me back literally DECADES to possibly the last time I made pastry ... 

Add a little iced water and bring the dough together with your hands (add more water if needed).  Wrap the dough in clingfilm and pop in the fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to Gas 7 / 220 C and place a baking tray in to heat.  

Butter a loose-bottomed 20 cm cake tin (I had to borrow one of these and I think it would be really useful to have one of those ones where the main tin has a hinge mechanism - I'm sure this sort of tin has a proper name but I don't know it! Anyway, one's going on my Christmas list).

Chop the bacon into small pieces around 1 cm wide.  I used one of my favourite big knives and chopped through the whole pile at once! 

Beat together the creme fraiche, sour cream and eggs and season with lots of freshly ground black pepper (no salt! It's pretty salty already with all that bacon). 

Here's where it go a little tricky for me.  You slice off 1/3 of the pastry and set that aside.

Dust the work surface with flour and roll out the 2/3 left to make a circle that's approx 25cm across. Now this I just couldn't do.  

Mine stuck and didn't roll too thin and the more I played with it the more I realised that that was not going to help.  So I just did my best and lined the cake tin as best I could and patched it up with other pieces of pastry. 

You then scatter the bacon all over the pastry case then pour over the egg mixture.

What should happen next is that you roll out the remaining pastry (that 1/3 you set aside) to make a 20cm round and lay that on top of the pie.  Fold down any pastry running up the sides and pinch them together.

Jassy does say, 'don't worry if a little of the filling oozes out of the top, it's a messy looking pie', which was at least a little reassuring because I was getting worried by my patchwork quilt effect pastry efforts! 

Brush the top of the pie with the milk - and if yours is anything like mine it'll now have wrong-looking pools of milk in the crevices of the pastry patchwork quilt.  But I carried on!

I even made pastry letters to write 'PIE' across the top.

Bake for 50 mins - 1 hour until golden (and even slightly brown).  It smells SO good as it's cooking!

Cool in the tin for 15 mins then run a knife around the edges to loosen, sliding the tin sides of the pie.  Ummm, this didn't exactly go according to plan for me, but I managed to get the pie out! 

Leave to cool completely and chill until you want to eat it as it tastes best served cold.

Well, obviously THAT didn't go to plan either!

I was ravenous and wanted to try it straight away. I had a slice hot with some extra black pepper and my home-made brown sauce (recipe to follow soon) - and I had another slice the next day cold for lunch.

And yes, Jassy's right.  It tastes best served cold - but whether you have willpower enough to wait until then is another matter.

Definitely going to be making this again and would love to hear from you if you make it too! 

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Fish Tacos (tiniest-thai-style)

I don't think I'd even ever heard of fish tacos until this year ... and then some of my online friends in the States were mentioning them - and my only thought was a bit 'ewww ... weird ... not sure about that at all!'. 

But I was kind of intrigued too and started mulling over this fish taco concept.  And then last week I caught the fish taco recipe part of a Jamie Oliver programme ... and ok, having seen them, I actually couldn't wait to try them myself. 

So I found the Jamie recipe (and his Everyday Super Food book is now on my birthday list) and today, dear reader, I made it.  Kind of.  

I used it as inspiration but because I had slightly different ingredients and I wanted to make it a little bit 'Tiniest Thai' I did change it around a bit. Of course I did! That's how I cook (and live). 

And I have to say, it's a great recipe and a totally delicious dish.

What I love is that it's really easy and that I can see how I can make it a bit different every time, now I know what I'm doing.

There's a few stages in making it so it does take a little time, but each stage is super-easy and then you just combine it all at the end. 

So this is how I made my fish tacos.  

It makes four tacos so up to you if you think this is enough for four people, or two or just one (yes it's that good I can see how this could happen!).

Get the ingredients together.

I found the easiest way of putting the dough together was to just put it all in a measuring jug - the 60ml water, 100g plain flour (Jamie used wholemeal; I only had white) and a pinch of salt. 

Knead the dough for a minute or two and then set aside. 

Then you need the ingredients for the salad part - Jamie uses red cabbage, coriander leaves, red wine vinegar and orange juice.  

I just used what I had and made a Thai-style dressing instead:

half a white onion, sliced finely 

one courgette, julienned (is it a verb?)

one carrot (julienned)

half a handful coriander leaves, chopped 

All scrunched up with a very scant tablespoon of fish sauce and the juice of half a lime. 

Next I prepared the fish filling of:

half a red pepper and half a yellow pepper, diced into 1cm pieces

2 spring onions, chopped

1-2 little red chilles (Jamie's version doesn't use chillies)

2 pieces of sea bass, sliced into 2cm (ish) pieces.  (Jamie's recipe says haddock with the skin on, but I had sea bass in the freezer - I also took half the skin off as it was kind of peeling off when I cut the fish into pieces).

1 tablespoon light olive oil.

Put it all in a bowl and mix.

Now for the delicious salsa bit!

Jamie's recipe used a couple of kiwi fruits but my local shop didn't have any - it did have mango which I thought would work well (and I was right!). 

2 kiwi fruits or around half a mango

1 green chilli, cut in half (de-seed if you like - Jamie does, I don't) 

Put into a frying pan and cook over a medium heat for 2-3 minutes, turning once or twice until it's slightly charred. 

Then put in a blender with a handful of coriander leaves and the juice of a lime and blend until smooth. 

NOTE: this is absolutely delicious.

Even if you never make the fish tacos, do please, please make this salsa sauce. It's really really good and would be great with grilled fish, or meats, or honestly, just about anything. 

OK, now let's make some fish tacos ... 

You've got the salad made, the fish mixture ready, the salsa sauce done and the dough there to make tacos ... so let's start with the tacos themselves.

Take the dough, halve it and halve again so you have four small balls of dough and then roll them out until thin.

Put a non-stick pan over a medium heat and when hot, add a taco to the pan and cook for a minute or so each side until it starts to bubble. Remove to a plate and put in a very low oven or cover with a hot clean tea towel. 

This was my first time making tacos and whilst I could use a little practice, they were still ok and tasted good! 

When the tacos are cooked and left to keep warm, return the same pan to the heat and add the fish mixture.

Stir fry for around four minutes until cooked through. 

Now it's time to build the tacos. 

Add the fish mixture, some salad, the incredible salsa sauce and a drizzle of natural yogurt. 

And that's it!

I topped them with a little coriander and added some lime wedges.

Serve immediately and then just start planning how you're going to change up the recipe for the next time you make these. 

I'm absolutely certain there will be a next time too! 

Do let me know if you make these - and if you made any changes to the recipe ... 

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Summer roast tomatoes / roast tomato pasta

Tomatoes to me just smell of summer

I love the smell of them growing, of the stalks, of the green and ripe tomatoes both (and I'm looking forward to next weekend and having tomatoes straight from my parents' garden). 

Add oregano - and they smell like a Mediterranean summer

And roasting tomatoes with oregano has got to be one of the most languid and evocative cooking smells ever. 

So easy to do - but as with nearly everything very simple to make that relies on flavour, using the best tomatoes you can find is going to make all the difference.  I admit to just getting mine at the supermarket but I did get the tomatoes on the vine that actually smell of the fruit. 

Halve the tomatoes, cutting out the stalk if it looks a bit tough, and place on a baking tray.  Drizzle over extra-virgin olive oil, some salt and black pepper, and some dried oregano.  

Then roast in a low oven (Gas 4 / 170 degrees) for an hour.  

About half an in to the cooking time, they started SINGING with the smell of tomatoes and oregano, making my whole flat smell amazing!  

And that's it.  

Once cooked, you can use them as part of an antipasta platter, or the base of a tomato sauce for pasta or pizza.  Put them in pastry.  Have them on toast.  Eat them in a salad. Or even put them in a jar and give them as a gift. 

What I did was make a really simple pasta dish for dinner

In a frying pan I softened some chopped onion and a clove of chopped garlic over a low heat in a little olive oil, then added the tomatoes, breaking them up with a wooden spoon.  

No need to add extra seasoning as the tomatoes have so much flavour.  When they started to bubble I added some de-veined prawns, a few chilli flakes and some halved (and stoned) black olives.  

Right at the end, I threw in some fresh basil. 

When it was hot right through, I mixed it with pasta and served with a green salad and my favourite dressing of olive oil, vinegar and Dijon mustard. 

Tempted to make more today - they were so good!

Would love to hear what you make with roast tomatoes - do give them a try. 

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Valentina's Sicilian Orange Salad

This is a really good and easy salad, another family recipe from my friend Valentina, and a traditional Sicilian dish. 

I think this would probably make enough for 4-6 people depending what you served it with.  I halved the quantities for two and it was perfect with grilled tuna steaks and my favourite tomato and onion salad.

You'll need:

For the dressing -

4 tablepspoons extra vergin olive oil

the juice of 1/2 lemon juice

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

salt and pepper to season

For the salad -

4 oranges

2 fennel bulbs

approx 60g black olives

1/2 white onion

Make the dressing first by mixing all the dressing ingredients (olive oil, lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper) in a bowl.

Even though I halved the salad quantities and the olive oil, I still put in this much lemon juice as I like it really lemon-y so do taste and adjust as you like. 

Set aside while you prepare the salad. 

Peel and segment the oranges, removing all pith then slice or halve as you prefer, but do cut them gently to try to keep the juice within the orange pieces rather than all over the bowl.

Slice the onion and fennel bulbs in very thin slices and add the olives.

Add the orange pieces and combine gently, then add the dressing and toss with clean hands so that everything is coated and thoroughly mixed.

It will keep in the fridge for a day or so, but is best eaten fresh.  It was deliciously summery with grilled tuna steaks and I'll be having it with steak soon too.

If you make this I'd love to know what you eat it with so do let me know in the comments below.

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Valentina's mushroom risotto

This is the best, most delicious risotto I've ever made, all thanks to my friend Valentina sharing her family recipe.  

When she talked me through how to make this, we also chatted about family, food and memories - if you'd like to know more then head over here. 

But if you 'just' want this gorgeous recipe, then here's what you need to make the most beautiful mushroom risotto for two.

half a 25g packet of dried porcini mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes

extra virgin olive oil

1/4 onion, finely sliced

2 garlic cloves, chopped finely

a selection of mushrooms -  I used about 8 white and chestnut mushrooms 

1/4 onion

2 garlic cloves

salt

1 vegetable stock cube (I used chicken as I didn't have a veggie one) made into stock with 1 litre of boiling water

about 3/4 cup risotto rice

2 tablesppons grated fresh parmigiano cheese

3 teaspoons mushroom concentrate (optional)

1 tablespoon double cream 

salt and black pepper, to season

chopped fresh parsley to serve

Put the dried mushrooms in a bowl, cover with hot water and leave to soak for 20 minutes. 

Put a saucepan over a low heat, add some extra virgin olive oil and tip in the onion and garlic plus a pinch of salt.

Cook over a low heat for around ten minutes until soft or, as Valentina says, until 'it makes gold' (but not brown, you don't want them browned). 

In the meantime, chop the fresh mushrooms into small pieces.

When the onions and garlic are soft, add the mushrooms to the pan and continue cooking on a low heat, stirring every now and then. 

After the mushrooms have been cooking for around 10-15 minutes, add one ladle of the stock and stir in.

Now add the risotto rice - the rice will absorb the little water that comes from the mushrooms so you need to stir constantly for the first 30 seconds. 

Then slowly add another ladle of the stock and keep stirring so the rice doesn't burn.

Now strain the dried mushrooms, add and again, stir in.

All you need to do now is add a ladle of stock at a time and stir until it is absorbed.

Continue doing this until the rice is creamy and all the water absorbed.  You might not need the full litre of stock or you might need to add a little more water.  

It's going to take quite a while, perhaps 20 minutes, so you do just have to take it slowly, be patient and surrender to the whole long beautiful process of making a risotto. 

When the rice is creamy and just before you turn off the heat, add two tablespoons of grated Parmigiano cheese, three teaspoons of mushroom concentrate ( if you have it) and one tablespoon of double cream. 

Stir to combine, turn off the heat, season to taste and serve your risotto with a little chopped parsley. 

PS. I have a confession.  

I've made this twice now - both times I was home on my own and once I thought I'd leave a portion for the bf to have when he got home and the other time i thought I'd take the other half in to work for lunch the next day.  

On both occasions, full though I was, I ended up eating the (big) second portion that same night ... oops.

So beware! Only make this when you have all the people needed to finish it, or lots of willpower.

Because this is DELICIOUS.

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Friday night fakeaway: chicken jalfrezi

Cooking just for myself is such a treat.

I can have ANYTHING I want and no-one else to consider ... and what I want is a curry.

But I'm being more conscious about what I eat at the moment so I'm certainly not ordering a takeaway - besides, I like cooking too much to do that.  

So I'm returning to what is now a favourite recipe - a really easy, delicious and spicy chicken jalfrezi using the Hairy Bikers  'fakeaway' recipe from their excellent cookbook, The Hairy Dieters.

Note: I didn't scale down exactly pro rata so it's my spicy version ... 

This genuinely has all the taste - and more - of a standard recipe, but with far fewer calories.

I'm not calorie counting on my Tiniest Thai diet, but this recipe fits in with all the principles of TTT and I love it!

Here's how I made my spicy curry for one (and if you make it for more, no one would EVER know it was 'diet' food!).

You'll need:

3  long green chillies

1 skinless chicken breast

cooking oil 

I garlic clove, finely chopped

2 tomatoes, chopped

2 scant/level tsp ground cumin 

2 scant/leveltsp garam masala

1/2 tsp turmeric (I found I'd run out so just left it out)

1 tsp caster or white sugar

1/2 tsp sea salt 

a couple of sloshes of cold water (maybe 100-150 ml)

1 tbspn natural yogurt

1/4 onion, cut into a few wedges

about 1/3 green pepper, cut into chunks

1 tomato, cut into quarters or eighths

1 tsp cornflour

a little water, maybe 1/2-1 tbspn 

And here's how you make it.  

Finely chop 2 of the chillies, and then with the third, cut off the stalk and make a slit down the whole chilli from stalk to tip without opening or removing the seeds.

I then add the garlic, tomatoes and spices to the chopped chillies so it's all ready to throw in the pan.

 Cut the chicken breast into bite-sized chunks.

Heat about a tbspn of oil in a pan over a high heat.

Add the garlic, chopped chillies, chopped tomatoes, cumin, garam masala, turmeric, sugar and salt, then stir-fry for 3–4 minutes until the vegetables soften.

Don’t let the garlic or spices burn or they will add a bitter flavour to the sauce. Add a splash of water if you need to - it doesn't make any difference overall!

Next, add the chicken pieces and whole chilli and cook for 3 minutes, turning the chicken regularly.

Pour over the water, stir in the yoghurt and reduce the heat only slightly – you want the sauce to simmer.

Cook for about 8 minutes, stirring occasionally until the chicken is tender and cooked through and the sauce has reduced by about a third. (The yoghurt may separate to begin with but will disappear into the sauce.)

While the chicken is cooking, heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a clean pan and stir-fry the onion and pepper over a high heat for 3–4 minutes until lightly browned.

Add the tomato and fry for 2–3 minutes more, stirring until the vegetables are just tender.

Mix the cornflour with the tablespoon of water to form a smooth paste.

When the chicken is cooked, stir in the cornflour mixture and simmer for a few seconds until the sauce thickens, stirring constantly.

Remove from the heat, add the hot stir-fried vegetables and toss together - then serve with rice and maybe a carrot salad.

And then the Hairy Bikers say: 'Just in case you were wondering – don’t eat the whole chillies!'.

I have to disagree.

Eat the whole chilli and be happy, that's what I say!

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'Green Goddess' salad

OK, a short post today but I just have to share as I am ADDICTED to this delicious salad!

It's based on this recipe from Mel Wells.

I've had it twice this week already, once with some cold sliced roast chicken and today with peppered smoked mackerel.  Both utterly delish.

To make it as I've done you'll need:

a cup of broccoli florets, chopped really small

a cup of peas (I used frozen)

one avocado

juice of one lime

a handful of mint leaves

a handful of basil leaves

a spoonful or two of Greek-style yogurt

a great big handful of spinach

a little olive oil

salt and pepper

cooked chicken or smoked mackeral to serve

And here's what you do.

Boil a pan of water and when boiling throw in the broccoli and peas.  Bring back to the boil then remove from heat, drain and cool the veg. (Note - I made this again last night and had to add just a splash of water to get the dressing liquid enough - no idea why, perhaps the avocado wasn't as soft as the other one. Anyway, just to say if it's not blending beautifully creamily, you might need to add a little water).

Halve the avocado and put one half into a blender or food processor with the lime juice, mint, basil and yogurt and whizz up to a lovely creamy dressing.

Put the cooled broccoli and peas into a bowl and pour over the dressing, and add the other avocado half chopped and the spinach leaves.

Stir it all together with a drizzle of olive oil and salt and pepper to taste and serve with the chicken or smoked mackerel.

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Easter curry

This is forever after going to be known to me as Easter curry.  I do like having specific dishes for events so this is another to add to my list ... for instance, at Chinese New Year I make this barbecue pork, and for Pancake Day it's now a tradition to have crispy duck pancakes.  We usually have lamb for Easter lunch in my family anyway so it's just a tiny move on to making that a lamb curry.

My brother-in-law makes exceptionally good curries - he's been making them for years from scratch so has many, many hours of spice toasting and grinding practice under his belt, as well as an inspiring curry cookbook library.  Cookbooks are probably my favourite reading material and every time I visit it seems there are yet more gorgeous curry books to gorge on.  And curry too of course.

Our Easter curry was cooked outside using a Kadai fire bowl, which I LOVE. Love cooking outdoors anyway but curry outdoors, over the firebowl? THE BEST.

We started with these delicious onion bhajis - I'll post the recipe when I make them ...

and then on to the main event, Easter Curry.

Or as it was previously known, Mr Singh's slow-cooked lamb curry with cloves and cardamom from Rick Stein's India book.

It was SO GOOD.

Oh, and then we had pavlova, made by my step-mum (also an excellent cook!).  YUM.

So ... on Easter Monday I decided to make Easter curry for myself, but didn't have lamb.  I made it with chicken and it was still good, but I have to admit not quite as good as with lamb, and the Kardai cooking method adds something special too I'm sure.

Here's the recipe from Rick Stein, with pictures and variations by me.

Serves 4-6 (mine served 2)

1/2 tsp cardamom seeds (from about 8 green pods - I used five)

4-6 cloves (I used three)

3 medium onions (I used one and a half)

200g tomatoes (I used two tomatoes)

10 cloves garlic (yes, I used five!)

4 cm ginger (I just cut a small piece)

75ml vegetable oil (I just poured some in)

100ml thick Greek-style yogurt (again, I just poured in what looked right)

700g boneless lamb shoulder, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 4cm pieces (or if you want to make my version a couple of chicken breasts)

1 tsp salt (yup, half a teaspoon)

1 tsp garam masala (half)

1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder (half a teaspoon of ordinary chilli powder for me)

1 tablespoon single cream (I just poured in a bit)

Grind the cardamom and cloves into a powder (I used a pestle and mortar); set aside.

In stages, using a mini food processor (or a full sized one, or a blender would do I'm sure) and rinsing out in between, roughly chop the onions then blend to a puree with a little water; roughly chop then puree the tomatoes; roughly chop then blend the garlic and ginger with a tablespoon of water to a slack paste (I used the pestle and mortar again here).

Heat the oil in a heavy-based casserole pan over a medium heat and gently fry the onion paste for 10-15 minutes until golden (10 mins was enough for my smaller amounts), then add the ginger and garlic and fry for three minutes.

Stir in the yogurt, then add the meat and salt and cook over a low-medium heat for 20-30 mins until browned.

Stir in the garam masala and chilli powder, and after about 30 seconds pour over enough water to just cover the meat.  Simmer, covered, for 40 minutes (30 minutes was enough for me).

Stir the cream and pureed tomatoes into the lamb (chicken), followed by the cardamom and clove mix.

To seal the pan, first cover with foil, then a lid (I just used a lid).  Cook over the lowest heat for 30-40 mins (again I think my smaller chicken version only needed 20 mins) until the lamb is tender.

Serve with chapatis (or rice).

And DON'T wait until next Easter to make Easter curry - it's just too good!

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UPDATE - EASTER 2017!

This year I followed the recipe as above for the smaller portion - for two people - but used a couple of lamb leg steaks, trimming the fat and cutting into chunks.

I didn't have any single cream so just added another spoon of yogurt at that stage.

Loved it (will def be making again before NEXT Easter this time!).

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Turkish-style eggs

'Same same but not same same'.  That's the Thai bit done then!

These eggs (straight into 'rest of the world' category of course) are very delicious and a Middle Eastern take on the Italian eggs in purgatory.

This one isn't my recipe either (eggs in purgatory is a Nigella recipe) - it's my friend Amanda's and it was absolutely perfect for a weekend brunch after a wedding party the night before and even better for being able to be eaten outdoors.

These would be equally good of course for an easy supper or lunch.

Quantities are up to you but you'll need the following:

olive oil  (for frying so not extra virgin)

some onion, thinly sliced

red chilli, diced

roasted red peppers from a jar, sliced

tinned chopped tomatoes

salt and pepper to season

eggs, one-two per person

chopped coriander leaves and more sliced red chilli, to serve

minced garlic stirred into some plain yogurt, to serve

Heat the olive oil over a medium-low heat, add the onion and cook slowly until translucent (about ten minutes). Then add the red chilli and roasted red peppers and again cook slowly for about another five minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add the tinned tomatoes, season to taste, and cook until it's all good and hot and bubbling gently and then crack in the eggs and cover the pan.  Cook for a few minutes until the whites of the eggs are set and then bring to the table to serve or ladle straight onto plates.

Serve with chopped coriander and more chillies (if liked) and a spoonful of the garlic yogurt sauce.

Eat with bread, coffee, and ideally with sunshine.  And a gorgeous dog too if possible (also if liked) :)

Let me know if you make this; would love to hear if you liked it as much as I did!

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Green smoothie to start the day

Definitely this is in the 'rest of the world' category rather than anything Thai!  The green smoothie trend shows no signs of slowing down and I love them.

You don't really need a recipe, just throw things in a blender, but I make mine like this.

Ingredients:

couple of ice cubes

1/2 a frozen banana (peel before freezing - I'm not sure anyone else would be as stupid as me but I froze them at first with the peel on.  It doesn't work!)

handful of spinach leaves

a big piece of melon, sliced

a kiwi fruit

a good squeeze of lime

almond milk (or soy milk, or coconut rice milk)

2 teaspoons bee pollen (sometimes I have this, sometimes I don't)

Method:

BLEND!

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Island-style bacon and eggs

 'But bacon and eggs isn't Thai food!'

I hear you.

But, done like this, it is for me.  It's what I call 'island-style' bacon and eggs and reminds me of eating in the sunshine, sitting on the sand at a low table and the sea right in front. Eating from a patterned plastic plate and mismatched cutlery.  It's probably not served where I had it any more now the beach bungalows have given way to villas and hotels with swimming pools, but I bet there are still some places in the world that do a great, garlicky, fried breakfast on the beach.

Anyway, it doesn't really need a recipe but here's how I put it together.  You'll need:

cooking oil

some slices of white onion

a couple of cloves of garlic, flattened and chopped (if you have the little Thai garlic cloves, just leave the papery skins on too to crisp up when fried)

chopped bacon (I'm using up some lardons)

cooked and sliced boiled potatoes (great for using up leftovers)

salt and pepper

one egg

Put a frying pan onto a medium-high heat, add the oil and when hot add the onion, garlic and bacon.  I cook all of this at a higher temperature than I would if I was making just normal bacon and eggs to try and recreate that sense of a full English being cooked too quickly over a high heat in a wok. Sort of like a stir fry full English!

Keep stirring though so it doesn't burn.

When the bacon's cooked, add the sliced cooked potatoes, turn the heat down a bit and leave to cook for a couple of minutes.

Turn the heat up again, add salt and pepper to taste, and cook for another minute or two, stirring, until the potatoes are hot right through.

Then either push everything to one side, add more oil if needed and fry the egg in the same pan …

…. or tip the bacon, potatoes, onions etc into a bowl and put a plate or lid on top to keep warm.

Then add more oil to the same pan and fry the egg over a higher heat than you normally might.

Keep spooning the hot oil over it as it cooks to cook it more quickly, and as soon as it starts to set, pop a lid on top and cook for perhaps two minutes.  The hotter temperature cooks the egg with a few bubbles in it and with just-about-to-crisp edges but you still want a lovely runny yolk.

Serve the egg on top of the pile of bacon, onions and potatoes and if you like, on a plastic plate as I did, for added 'authenticity'.

And there you have it. Drumroll please!  Island-style bacon and eggs.

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Pasta with lemon

Super-easy, super-quick lemon sauce for pasta and fittingly for today, a sunny day in June, it is sunshine on a plate. Best with long thin pasta like tagliatelle, spaghetti or linguine - but I make it with penne sometimes too.

A good lunch or easy supper, this goes well with a quick salad and it's also easy to add prawns or grilled chicken to make it more substantial. And lemon linguine alone makes an elegant first course.

My favourite sort-of-French-dressing uses:

3 tablespoons olive oil

4 tablespoons white vinegar

1 garlic clove, skinned and squashed (not chopped)

1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Method (if you can call it that!) - put it all in a jar and shake, and add more of any dressing ingredient as needed to balance and until you're happy.

I put the jar into the fridge after using and every day just add more vinegar and/or oil as it gets more and more garlicky ...

The original recipe for the pasta with lemon is from Mireille Guiliano's 'French Women Don't Get Fat' and while her recipe serves four, this has been modified and serves two.

if adding prawns, I find it easiest to throw them in with the pasta for the last minute or two to heat or cook.

Make the sauce during the last few minutes of your pasta cooking, or when it's cooked, as it's very quick.

You'll need:

2 lemons

a good slosh of olive oil

around 100g-150g creme fraiche

approx 60g Parmesan

salt and pepper

Grate the zest of the lemons and halve one of them so you have it ready to squeeze into the sauce and grate the cheese.

In a saucepan, warm the olive oil and add the zest. Cook over a low heat for a couple of minutes.

Add the creme fraiche and bring to the boil, then squeeze in the juice of one lemon and bring to the boil again.

The easiest way to juice a lemon is to squeeze a half over your closed hand so your fingers catch the pips.

Cook for a couple of minutes, then add the grated Parmesan, season to taste and cook for another minute.

Combine with the cooked pasta and serve immediately.

Yep, sunshine on a plate and super-quick too :)

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Burmese spicy cabbage

Healthy, detox-y, budget-y and delicious spicy Burmese cabbage.

Not Thai (obviously), and not really my recipe either - I found it online and have since adapted it but I think it's originally from one of the Leon cookbooks.  However, this is way too good not to share, and it's great to eat this time of year.  Clearly I'm not on a detox (should have moved that glass of red out of shot!) but I am on a budget and wanting to eat vegetables and clean, spicy flavours after all the festive gorging on rich foods.

This will serve four as a side dish -  I love it just with plain grilled or roasted chicken, but it would also be good as a main course in its own right served with rice.

approx 400g of any cabbage

1/2 - 1 red chilli (a normal one, not a birds eye one!)

a piece of ginger

2-3 cloves of garlic

a few spring onions

around 50g roasted peanuts (or add toasted flaked almonds right at the end)

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 tablespoon fish sauce

100 ml hot water

juice of half a lemon

2 tablespoons cooking oil

coriander leaves or, like me, the coriander stalks that I had leftover in the fridge

1. Slice the cabbage thinly and chop the red chilli

2. Chop the spring onions, garlic, ginger and peanuts and set aside in a bowl (they all go in at the same time).  I also added the chopped coriander stalks, but if you have leaves these will go in later

3. Pour 100ml hot water into a measuring jug and add the turmeric, stirring until smooth, then add the lemon juice and fish sauce

4. Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan and add the cabbage and chilli

5. After 2-3 minutes when the cabbage has just started to wilt, add the spring onions, ginger, garlic and peanuts (and coriander stalks if using) and cook for a further 2-3 minutes

6. Pour in the liquid and cook for a couple of minutes more and if you are using coriander leaves, add these right at the end of the cooking time

7. Taste and add another squeeze of lemon at the end if it needs it

DELICIOUS!

If you try this recipe, do let me know what you think.

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Eggs in purgatory

Spoiler alert! This isn’t Thai, not even ‘ish’, just not at all. It’s Italian I think, well it comes straight from Nigella Lawson’s Nigellissima but it’s just such a good recipe I want to share it.  One of my favourite weekend brunch recipes of all time and it’s going in as the first entry into a new category, ‘Rest of the World’.

Super simple too, you just need:

olive oil

one clove of garlic, minced

1/4-1/2 teaspoon chilli flakes

approx half a 400g pack or tin chopped tomatoes

1/4-1/2 teaspoon salt, preferably flakes

one egg

a couple of teaspoons of Parmesan, plus a little more to serve

baguette or toast, to serve

Add a splash or olive oil to a pan, add in the garlic and chilli flakes and stir over a medium heat for about 30 seconds to a minute.

Tip in the chopped tomatoes and salt, and bring to a bubble.

Crack the egg straight in and sprinkle the Parmesan over, leaving some of the yolk still exposed.

Turn down to a simmer, partially cover with a lid, and leave for about four minutes (maybe have a quick check after three minutes).

A little black pepper and another sprinkle of Parmesan and it’s done – scoop the egg and tomatoes out with a ladle and serve in a bowl.

To be honest I only did that today as it looked nicer for the pictures – normally I just eat it straight from the pan!

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