Ohn-no khao swè AKA Burmese coconut noodles from Meemalee's Kitchen

I've been meaning to make these Burmese noodles for ages now, ever since seeing it on MiMi's excellent Meemalee's Kitchen blog last year. The full recipe can be found here but as ever I adapted things a bit.
Instead of chicken I used ready-prepared deep fried tofu, and added some chilli flakes to the ginger/onion/garlic paste it's cooked with. And due to laziness I bought some chilli oil and used prawn crackers for the garnish (rather than deep fried rice stick noodles as MiMi instructs). I also forgot to add the thinly sliced shallots and lime before eating, but this can be entirely attributed to rushing to scoff my lovely smelling bowl of food. I hope MiMi forgives these dips in authenticity, but even so this was a totally delicious dish.
The noodles in their coconut broth were rich but not heavy, and the tofu provided a good contrast in texture. It was all lightly spiced but very flavourful, despite missing the garnishes which I suspect would have provided a touch of freshness too. This was also a really simple and straightforward meal to prepare and could easily be an after-work dinner.
I heartily recommend it, and will definitely be making it again- this time with full garnish compliance!

Hairy Bikers keralan king prawn crisps

Image taken from the Hairy Bikers website.

I've realised I've not done a product post for a while so here's one on one of my favourite type of food- snacks! And of all the snacks of the world the fried potato crisp is certainly one (if not the) best. These days I tend to go for a plain salted crisp, but am open to innovations in crisp flavours. And some innovation has been delivered in the form of these crisps from the Hairy Bikers.

I have a bit of a soft spot for the Hairy Bikers a.k.a. Si and Dave- I've really enjoyed their travel and cooking programmes which covered parts of South America, India, and South East Asia. They were intelligent, informative, non-patronising and genuinely entertaining. I'm not quite so sure about their UK show where they seem to do a lot of acting 'craaaazy' in a mildly irritating way, but still they seem like nice chaps. They have now launched a range of cookware that is so subtly branded I didn't actually realise it had anything to do with them when I saw it in John Lewis, and also (a little randomly) a range of crisps. The crisps are currently only available from Waitrose and come in a range of flavours which reflect some of their travels. I picked up a packet of the keralan king prawn with coconut a few months ago and then had a follow up bag more recently, and I think I quite like them! It's initially a little strange tasting coconut when eating a crisp, but it in the context of some mild spices and a hint of prawn it sort of works. Despite the description on the packaging I didn't find these crisps particulalrly hot, but for a crisp they did manage to capture the taste of an Indian prawn curry pretty well. And overall I would say that they are a welcome addition to the crisp world!

NB Unlike many meat or fish flavoured crisps these are not suitable for vegetarians.

Hairy Bikers Keralan King Prawn Crisps
I rate them 7.5/10
Cost: £1.79 per 150g bag (currently only available in Waitrose)

Lorraine Pascale's Oreo fudge brownies

I made these brownies the other week, and have to say they are best chocolate brownies I've ever had. They incorporate bits of broken up Oreo cookie, and are somehow not too sweet but just very chocolatey and fudgey with the ocassional bit of crunch. I'd not heard of Lorraine Pascale before she popped up on television a few weeks ago, but am really liking her show. And on the basis of this recipe alone she is well on the way to baking genius status.
The recipe for these brownies can be found on Lorraine's BBC pages , and I followed it exactly apart from using half milk and half extra dark chocolate rather than all dark (this was due to a shopping error but didn't seem to make too much difference). The recipe was really straight-forward, and the hardest part involved not eating the mixture directly out of the bowl before cooking it.
Highly recommended for any brownie fan!

Lobster noodles (my version)

Lobster, like salmon, seems to have become one of those foods that I originally remember as a rare treat but has now become quite common place. Cooked and frozen Canadian lobster has turned up in a couple of my local supermarkets quite regularly at a very affordable price of around £6 each. It's certainly not going to compare to something freshly caught and cooked but is perfectly acceptable, especially when combined with some strong flavours.
So the onset of Chinese New Year seemed a good time to break out a couple of these frozen morsels and use them to make lobster noodles- something that I'd come across via the blogosphere. I was inspired by this recipe from Rasa Malaysia but adapted it somewhat to suit my ready cooked lobster. So I stir-fried the roughly chopped white parts from half a dozen spring onions, with four fat cloves of crushed garlic, around a teaspoon of chilli flakes, and a thick half inch piece of ginger squished to a paste (I guess a generous tablespoon in total). After a couple of minutes the cooked lobster (an indulgent one crustacean per person), which had been halved and cut into sections went in. This was all vigorously mixed together over a high heat, and when the lobster was heated through I added in the green part of the spring onions, some cooked egg noodles and a couple of tablespoons of dark soy sauce. A bit more stir-frying ensued, and after a check for seasoning it was done!

I ate these noodles with some steamed green vegetables dressed with a little sesame oil. And if I say so myself the whole thing was totally delicious. Though to be honest anything involving ginger, garlic and chilli generally is.

The Secluded Tea Party, Cambridge, UK

I love a good afternoon tea. What's not to like- sandwiches, savouries, scones, cake, and a nice cuppa. And what better time for a cheering afternoon tea than cold and grey January. Thanks to coordination by top jeweller and food blogger Deepa, myself Nora and Sarah, all went to The Secluded Tea Party organised by Miss Sue Flay (nb not her real name) last weekend.
The secret venue turned out to be the rather plush Cambridge Cookery School and we were soon ensconced around a central table laden with lots of lovely things all made by Miss S Flay herself.

As a non-meat eater I had my own little selection of cheese and garlic jam sandwiches as well as some delicious and still warm caramalised red onion tartlets. There were plenty of other classic sandwich options with ham and garlic jam for the meat-eaters and more veggie friendly choices of egg and cress and Red Leicester and spring onion too.

Moving on to the sweet side of things, we enjoyed an array of chocolate macarons with vanilla cream, freshly baked fruit scones with homemade peach and ameretto jam, and a rich chocolate ganache cake.

We also had a wide choice of different teas (from TeaPigs and TeaBoxOnline) to pick from. I had a lovely light vanilla infusion. And all of this was for the bargainous price of only £12!

The food was served on lots of mis-matched, vintage china which made everything seem more individual and special. I really enjoyed this afternoon- getting to catch up with some internet friends in real life, meeting some new people, being surrounded by pretty things and scoffing lots of food. An ideal Sunday afternoon!

Miss Sue Flay can be found on Twitter or keep an eye of her blog for further afternoon tea dates in Cambridge and the surrounding area.

Carrot (gajar) halwa

Halwa, or indeed halva and around a dozen or so other variations, seems to mean many things to many people. As Wikipedia states it can be be made of semolina, sesame, nuts, lentils or yams. However when I think of the Indian dessert halwa, I think of carrots. Carrot halwa is an unctuous and creamy mix of lightly spiced sweet carrot, fruit and nuts. I guess it's the Indian equivalent of carrot cake.
I was reminded recently that I've not had halwa for absolutely ages and as I had a large bag of carrots that needed to be used, this seemed the obvious solution. There are loads of recipes for carrot halwa with lots of variations on the exact ingredients, but the key ones are milk, sugar and carrots. This is what I've seen my mum using.

Recipe (easily enough for six):
1 kg carrots, peeled and finely grated
1 tbsp butter
Around 300ml full fat milk
Around 6 tbsp sugar
Around 6 cardamom pods, split to remove seeds
2 tbsp raisins
1 tbsp chopped pistachio nuts
0.5 tbsp flaked almonds

Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed or non-stick saucepan, and fry the carrots over a medium heat. Remove the seeds from the cardamom pods and crush in a pestle and mortar (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). After around 10 minutes add the milk, raisins and crushed cardamom, turn the heat down and leave to simmer for about 45 minutes stirring occasionally. Once most of the milk has evaporated add the sugar and continue to cook for another 10 minutes or so. Do taste at this stage and add more sugar if it's not sweet enough. If it's looking too dry or in danger of sticking to the saucepan add a little more milk. What you should have is a thick but moist mix of cardamom scented carrot. When you're happy with the taste stir in the nuts, saving some of the almonds to garnish if you want.
I like this served while it's still warm with some cream or ice cream, but it's perfectly nice at room temperature too.

Caramelised red onion and mushroom quiche

So it's goodbye to 2010, and hello 2011- that seems to have gone incredibly quickly. Anyway I eschewed the traditional fizz, to start the new year with a quiche! Well not quite, but this is a pretty rich and indulgent dish which is great for a special occasion, but is also very simple to put together.

I used this basic recipe, but adapted it somewhat. I used trusty Jus-Rol to supply my shortcrust pastry. And for the filling, I slowly cooked two finely sliced red onions in a little olive oil and couple of stems of thyme for about 45minutes until they were soft and unctuous. Four sliced chestnut mushrooms then went in, and everything stirred around until cooked. Once cooled, this was mixed with the eggs and cream with a little salt and a generous grind of pepper. I also added big handful of grated emmental cheese.

I followed the rest of the instructions in the recipe by blind baking the pastry before cooking the entire quiche. I had a few issues with some over-flowing filling, but if this happens just use a few scraps of pastry to patch up any cracks or areas where the pastry has shrunk back. After about 45 minutes at gas mark 6 you should have a quiche that is golden on top but still moist inside. You can leave it to cool to eat at room temperature if you want, but I personally like this quiche still warm with some nice salads or other vegetables.
So in conclusion, quiche- a retro classic I'm planning to bring back in 2011!