Whoa, it's been some time!

It's been hot, and OK, not as hot as a few other places but I'm very sensitive to the heat. I resemble a paranoid vampire when the sun is about.

Ok, since my last post I became a year older. I took my parents and little sis out for a meal in Manchester; I took them to Piccolino's and we were all very impressed. I had the turbot with gnocchi, wonderful light dish and left lots of room to finish off my sister's lasagne :-D What? Bad for to swap plates? Is it really? (Mona you make these reviews look easier than they are :-))

My dad and I finished on a couple of malt whiskies, Lagavulin for those of you with interest.

They also got me a food processor. I've been meaning to get one for ages but they beat me to it (freeing me to buy something else :-))

So to christen it I thought I'd go Thai/Chinese on some free range chicken. I dumped in a load of fresh coriander, garlic, ginger, chilli, cayenne pepper, cumin, ground coriander, lime juice and S&P. There might have been other things, I was excited :-) I blended them while drizzling a little (olive) oil into the mixer. The mix was poured into a freezer/fridge bag and introduced to the chicken breast quite intimately. I left it over night to marinade [I also created one for that night without the curry spices].

Served on rice they were great. The mini sauce I had that night reminded me of a Peruvian (South American) sauce, the name escapes me... but it's green and spicey. My bro will know, I'll ask him at some point.

No pics, I'm lazy at the best of times, when it's hot I'm... well, you can imagine!

Vongolle a la Nazca with tiger prawns and scallops

I cooked the vongolle in white wine, finely chopped onion, garlic and olive oil for a few minutes. They all opened up, it was going to be my day! ;-)

I emptied the vongolle from the saucepan but left the juices behind and reduced them.

Meanwhile, I pan fried the tiger prawns and scallops in butter and olive oil.

To the wine reduction I added fresh oregano, fresh parsley, lime juice and a double cream. And then added the shelled vongolle to warm through.

I arranged the seafood around the bowl and served the vongolle sauce on a mound of basmati.

No pics I'm afraid. You'll just have to imagine the large smile on my face too :-D

Cookies!!!

Recipe is here. The only difference was that I used vanilla extract rather than expresso (I don't drink coffee so buying expresso was not an option really).

See food and eat it!

I was in the mood for some seafood today. So I went for quick, easy and sublime.



In a little butter I pan fried the scallops and tiger prawns for a couple of minutes. Then lifted them out and placed them on the buttered toast. Then into the butter I added a little olive oil and the asparagus. Near the end I added a little balsamic vinegar.

Salt and pepper and consume!

Pork Stir fry (sans pictures)

Super hot wok, veggie (or any high flash point) oil and preperation. That's all you need for a good stir fry... well, assuming you have ingredients of course.

Having everything julienne'd (er, sliced nice and thinnly [this was done after four pints of Guinness {not recommended to extend your life }]) before hand is always a bonus. Then you just fry them in order of cooking time.

Day 1: Pork strips, baby sweet corn, spring onions, orange pepper, bamboo shoot, water chestnuts, chilli, garlic, lime juice/peel, bundles of fresh coriander and soy sauce. Served with stir fried noodles.

Day 2: Pork strips, baby sweet corn, mushrooms, spring onions, chilli, garlic, ginger, lime juice/peel, bundles of fresh coriander and soy sauce. Served on naan bread (obviously!). It had to be quick, England were about to pulverize Trinidad & Tobago... well, kinda! ;-)

Get it all in

I was going down to London on Friday to celebrate England's first game in our inevitable sucessful World Cup. So I needed to get rid of the perishables on Thursday.


After slicing the raw chicken, I put paprika and cayenne pepper on/into it and pan fried it. I added red peppers, red onions and mushrooms. And emptied them onto baby tomatoes. Onto that went fresh parsley and (torn) fried eggs.

I sliced the chicken and added that to the mix. The concoction was then forced into pitta bread and snaffled pretty quickly.

Pork belly a la curry

Some regular viewers will remember I did a root vegetable soup not so long ago. Yesterday for those with memory problems. Today I had a pork belly joint to cook and left over soup to finish. What to do?

I rubbed Thai 7 Spice into the pork, with a little paprika and salt, and let it rest for about 20-30 minutes. Then into the oven (190c) for 70 mins.

I reheated the soup I had left, added tumeric, cumin, dried coriander and cayenne pepper. Let that cook out for about 30-40 mins and then added the juices from the pan of the resting pork and stirred.



I still have that other half for tomorrow. I think it'll be soup again tomorrow too, kinda over -bought on the veggie side!