Ryvita crackers

I remember when I was little that Ryvita crispbreads were firmly placed in my mind (alongside Weetabix) in a category of inedible foods that tasted like corrugated cardboard. So when a nice PR person asked if I'd like to sample some Ryvita crackers, I was not exactly biting their hand off. However, I think my tastes buds have matured a little over the years and as these crackers are billed as biscuits for cheese, I thought I'd give them a try.

Ryvita crackers come in two varieties, black pepper and golden rye. They both have a very light crunchy texture, but don't shatter everywhere. The black pepper crackers are pretty peppery though, which makes them ideal to go with a super-bland cream cheese, a super-flavoured strong cheese (I had them smothered in Boursin), or for dipping in hummous. The golden rye crackers are much more neutral though and therefore genuinely suitable for a whole range of cheeses. They are also high in fibre and low in fat (though less so when covered in butter or cheese), which is nice if you are into that sort of thing.
Another feature that I fully endorse is the packaging of these crackers. Each box contains about six packets, containing six crackers, which means that you don't have to worry about things going stale or finding biscuit tins. So overall a thumbs up!

Ryvita crackers
I rate them 7/10
Cost: Around £1.25 per pack

Thanks to Wildfire and Ryvita who sent me my crackers in a hamper for free and gratis.

Indian-style carrots with mustard

This is one of my mum's recipes which uses a very typical Bengali ingredient- mustard, and in this case ground whole black mustard seeds. It makes a perfect side dish to go with Indian food, and is pungent with mustard and garlic with a little carrot-y sweetness. For me it's an ideal way to use up a carrot glut, so just scale this recipe up (or down) as required.
You should be able to find whole black mustard seeds in any Indian grocery shop, and then grind them yourself. I use an electric coffee grinder for this, just don't expect to be able to use it for coffee beans too.

Recipe (enough for loads)
1kg carrots (grated)
Around 3-4 tsp ground black mustard seeds
3 medium cloves garlic (crushed)
Small bunch corriander (roughly chopped)
1 medium green chilli
Around 1-2 tbsp oil
1 tsp salt (or enough to season to taste)

Put the oil in large pan, and heat until hot but not smoking and add in the carrots. Cook for a couple of minutes, and then add in the ground mustard. You basically want enough mustard so you can see the little grains against the carrot, as in the picture. Give everything a good stir, add in the garlic, pierce the chilli a few times and then add this in too. Piercing the chilli means you should get the flavour from it but not too much heat. Cover the pan and leave to cook for around ten to fifteen minutes or until the carrots are almost tender. Then add in the corriander and salt, stir and cook for another five minutes or so, by which time the carrots should be fully cooked through. Serve with dhal and rice or some Indian breads, or indeed anything that is likely to go with carrots and mustard.

Addendum: Following on-going conversations, my mother says that she also uses a couple of teaspoons of kalo jeera/black onion seeds in this dish- frying them in the oil at the start before the carrot goes in. However, I cook it without and it's still lovely. She also adds that if you are a serious mustard fan, you could also add some shorshe tel or mustard oil. It's pretty potent stuff though, so exercise caution!

Rhubarb and ginger crumble fool

Double layer of fool and crumble only for the truly gluttonous.

There was quite a bit of local rhubarb about in the market when I was in town the other day. The non-wintery conditions meant that making a rhubarb crumble with it didn't seem entirely appropriate, so instead I decided on a fool. Fool is essentially some fruit, sugar and cream, and so is one of the simplest desserts ever.
I had about half a kilo of trimmed rhubarb, cut into chunky pieces. This was cooked with a couple of tablespoons of water, three 'balls' of stem ginger (finely chopped), and about three tablespoons of brown sugar. The amount of sugar you'll need will depend on how sweet or sharp your rhubarb is, so have a taste as it softens and adjust as required. Simmer the rhubarb over a low heat until it's completely cooked and softened. This should take about twenty to thirty minutes.

In the meantime whisk up around 300ml of double cream into soft peaks, with a tablespoon of icing sugar. Once the rhubarb has completely cooled stir it into the cream, and your fool is done! I thought I'd still add a crumble element though, so I used the same method as this rhubarb crumble ice cream to cook some crumble topping separately. The one minor amendment was to add a couple of teaspoons of ground ginger to the mix. Once the crumble had been cooked and cooled, it just needed to be sprinkled over the fool (a ready made alternative would be to serve some ginger snaps on the side). My favourite April fool to date.

NB This fool can also be turned into an ice cream by using the rhubarb crumble ice cream method.

Stickybeaks Cafe, Cambridge, UK

Just a quick post on a new independent cafe that has appeared in the chain-opoly that is central Cambridge. Stickybeaks Cafe is tucked away on Hobson Street and offers a daily changing lunch menu, along with a range of cakes and drinks. I popped in for a late lunch yesterday with the male companion person and had a very nice (and at £4, reasonably priced) frittata with crab and artichoke, while he had a selection of salads.

It seemed rude not to sample some cakes too, so along with a genuinely chocolate-y hot chocolate I had a lamington which was light and not too sweet either.

I liked Stickybeaks. It wasn't doing anything amazing but it had a bright, homely interior and provides an alternative to the numerous Costas, Neros and Starbucks that populate the town centre.

I suspect it's going to be popular though and they could really do with trying to increase their seating, as once the word is out nabbing a table may become rather tricky.

Stickybeaks Cafe
Hobson Street
Cambridge CB1 1NL

Sticky ginger cake (or pudding)

I had a sudden hankering for dark ginger cake around Christmas time- a proper version with real stem ginger in it. I found this excellent BBC Good Food recipe, which contains both stem and ground ginger, golden syrup and black treacle, and produced a dark, rich, sticky cake (which I felt didn't need icing). I cooked this in my cupcake tray primarily because I couldn't find my regular cake tin. But in fact cooking individual cakes turned out to be an excellent move, as these cakes freeze incredibly well. I had about twenty in total, half of which were eaten just as cake and the rest were frozen for later.

A couple of months later, after defrosting overnight in the fridge, they were still moist and sticky, and this time they were eaten as pudding with warm vanilla custard (nb Sainsbury's Taste the Difference custard is very good). An excellent warming pudding for a winter's night.

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)