Malta and Gozo Oct 13

Last month izi and I went to visit  the Mediterranean island of Malta for a week and both being chefs we were very excited to go and see what Malta had to offer and we were not disappointed. We stayed in Saint Paul’s bay but often ate at Bugibba as well as travelling to Valetta Sliema and Gozo and trying lots of food along the way. Even if it was just a stop off for a patizzi on the way we had a great time and tried lots of food. 

 

The Maltese cuisine is very much influenced on Italian foods particularly Sicily and the south, as well as Spanish, French and English foods. Some of our favourite meals in Malta were Bragioli , spaghetti with rabbit sauce and lampuki.

We loved all the bread and cheese too especially Gozo cheese which we had to bring some back home with us. Some of the places we visited included Da Rosi, Malet and also a lovely sushi bar in Sliema.

On our final night we decided to go for a real treat and visited a restaurant called Tarragon, this way by far the highlight of our dining experience and although not the cheapest meal we have had it was worth every penny or cent as the case was.

Tempura battered veg with sweet chilli sauce

After visiting Raun Thai the other week I wanted to make my own tempura battered vegetables and made a quick sweet chilli dipping sauce to go with it. It was a quick dish to make and is such a nice vegetarian starter or great to share. I used mushrooms, peppers, courgette, red onions and sweet potatoes for mine but you don’t have to use these and there are plenty of other vegetables like aubergines and baby corn which work just as well.

Sweet chilli sauce ingredients:

½ cup white wine vinegar
¼ cup water
1 dessert spoon chopped chillies, seeds removed
½ dessert spoon chopped root ginger
1 tbsp corn flour
3 tbsp water
¼ cup sugar

Method:

·         Bring all the ingredients to the boil except the corn flour and the 3tbsp water.

·         Reduce to a medium low heat for 10 minutes stirring occasionally

·         Mix the water into the corn flour and whisk ¼ at a time into sauce until mixture is thick enough

·         Taste and add more chilli or sugar if you want it to be hotter or sweeter

Tempura batter ingredients:

1 egg

2 tbsp flour

½ cup ice cold soda water

¾ tsp. baking powder

Method:

·         Beat eggs

·         add water and whisk

·         add flour and baking powder and whisk until smooth

Tempura battered vegetables

·         Button mushrooms quartered

·         Large chunks of red pepper

·         Slices of courgette

·         Red onion rings

·         Thin slices of sweet potato

Method:

Heat a deep fat fryer to 180°c and coat the vegetables in the batter. Fry the vegetables that will take the longest to cook first like the sweet potato and the quickest ones like the onion rings last. They only need a couple of minutes to cook, then take them out and put them on some kitchen paper or something to drain the oil. Serve up and enjoy.

Ruan Thai

Now the summer has finished and work is a little quieter izi and I had time to go out for a meal the other night and so I told her to leave it to me and I will choose somewhere to go for the evening. It was not a difficult decision choosing to go to Ruan Thai as we had spoken about wanting to go there a few times before so I booked a table and told her to be ready for the taxi at half 7.

The restaurant is situated in wyke at the Old Castle Hotel and although it looks rustic on the outside do not be fooled as it looks great inside.  When we arrived we were the only couple there but it was a cold Monday evening and there were not many people about anywhere.

The waitress that evening was very polite and kind and we were soon served drinks and had menus (which are avaliable to view on there website). I think the positive side to having the pub right next to the restaurant was the fact there were quite a large selection of drinks including draft beer.

For starters we went for the ka num jeep which was Thai style dumplings and crispy battered prawns with a sweet chilli dip.
 

They were so tasty especially the dumplings which izi particularly enjoyed, we shared half each but they did not last very long as they were soon out of the way ready for our main course.

For main course izi went for the pad Thai and I had the ped makaam which was deep friend roast duck with Chinese leaves broccoli and cashew nuts and just because we were very hungry/greedy we also had the pak shoop which was deep dried mixed vegetables in a crispy batter with a sweet chilli sauce to share aswell.

The duck dish in itself was worth going there for it was so nice and I could have eaten it again if we hadn’t ordered too much and I was full but still no matter how much you eat there is still enough room for dessert which in my case was a chocolate hazelnut bomb.

We had never gone out for a Thai meal before but we are already planning our next trip although I think they may do takeaway too which we will have to check out.

Autumn spicy soup

Now the summer is over and autumn has arrived some of my favourite foods come into season. Pumpkins, venison, butternut squash, celeriac and parsnips. I have plenty of good seasonal dishes I would like to share and I am going to begin with a nice simple soup: something which always warms me up on a cold day.

Ingredients:

2 medium white onions

2 large sticks of celery

2 medium leeks

2 chillies

1 tbsp. ground cumin

3 carrots

½ large butternut squash

3 sweet potatoes

Vegetable stock

A small pinch of salt

Pepper

To serve

Roasted squash seeds or croutons

A chunky slice of bread and butter.

Method:

Dice the onion and chilli; slice the celery leeks and carrot. Heat a large pan with olive oil and add the chopped veg. sweat off for 5 minutes.

Peel and chop the squash and the sweet potatoes and add them to the pan with the cumin and cook for a further 5-10 minutes on a medium high heat. 

Cover ingredients plus an extra inch or so on top with a weak vegetable stock and turn the heat down to a medium low temperature and leave to cook out for at least 60-90 minutes stirring occasionally. Once all the veg is cooked through and it has cooked out for plenty of time take off the heat and blend with a hand blender until smooth. Adjust seasoning accordingly.

Dark Chocolate Brownies.

 

Today at work we took part in the ‘World’s Biggest Coffee Morning’ for Macmillan. All the staff baked some cakes and biscuits for the event and we had all sorts of goodies on offer from lemon drizzle cake to millionaire’s shortbread and cupcakes to chocolate brownies.

They all went down very well and we managed to raise almost £300 in just a couple of hours. It was nice to be involved and it was a good excuse to make chocolate brownies, which I am sharing the recipe with you today.

Dark chocolate brownies.

Ingredients:

400g dark chocolate

250g unsalted butter

3 eggs

250g brown sugar

100g flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Method:

Preheat the oven to 170c and line a large deep baking tin with greaseproof paper

Break up the chocolate and chop up the butter and place them in a bowl over a pan of simmering water and stir until it has all melted. (Make sure you keep 4-5 squares of chocolate back to eat along the way)

Whisk the eggs and then add the sugar and whisk well until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Fold the chocolate and butter mix into the egg and sugar mix, then sieve the flour and baking powder and stir in. Pour the mixture into the large baking tin.

Cook for 35-40 minutes or until the top has set and started to crack and a knife comes out clean when piercing. Leave to cool and serve. Or have warm with some ice cream.

Goats cheese sunblushed tomato and caramelised red onion pizza

 Having two days off in a row is great this time of year because I can spend one catching up with friends and family and the other I can have a nice lazy day in front of the TV with some nice home cooked food. Izi and I usually take it in turns with whose going to cook up something but with my brother coming over to stay for a couple of days I thought I would go for one of his favourite foods, pizza.

 

Everybody loves pizza and what’s not to love? You can pretty much have anything you want on a pizza, in fact when a few friends and I did our own come dine with me evenings, I went for a kids theme and for my starter I made a selection of pizzas: one with chilli chorizo and peppers, one with ham pineapple and avocado and also the one which I have decided to make today, my goats cheese, caramelised red onion and sunblushed tomatoes pizza.

 

You can make the sauce up in advance and keep in the fridge to be used not only for a pizza base but can also be used for pasta dishes and works well as a sauce to go with chicken or fish. To save time you can also make up the sunblushed tomatoes and the caramelised onions in advance too.

 

For the sauce:

Ingredients:

2 tbsp Olive oil

½ white Onion sliced

2 Garlic cloves pureed

2 tsp. Paprika

5 tsp. Tomato puree

1 tin of Chopped tomatoes

2 tsp. Mixed herbs

1 tsp. Dried oregano

2 tsp. Sugar

Salt and pepper

 Start off by sweating off the onion and garlic in the olive oil in a saucepan on a medium heat, after 5 minutes add the paprika and the tomato puree and stir.

Then add the tomatoes and bring to the boil, then add the rest of the ingredients and turn down to simmer for 30 minutes then take it off the heat blend it with a hand blender and leave to cool. Cover and refrigerate if you are not using it straight away.

For the sunblushed tomatoes:

Cut cherry tomatoes into half then in half again and lay them on a tray with garlic and extra virgin olive oil salt and pepper, cook them on the bottom shelf of an oven on 100c for an hour.

For the caramelised onions:

Slice a red onion and put in a saucepan with 50ml balsamic vinegar, 25ml red wine, 25 ml of red wine vinegar and 1 tbsp of brown sugar. Bring to the boil then turn down to a medium heat for 30 minutes stirring frequently.

For the pizza base:

 

Ingredients:

2 cups of warm water (43-46c)

2 cups of plain flour

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. white sugar

1 pack (7g) fast action dried yeast

 

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water and leave for 10 minutes until mix becomes almost creamy looking.

Add the rest of the ingredients and start to mix well with a wooden spoon then once it has started to become dough knead it with your hands, make into a big ball and leave for 5 minutes.

Transfer the dough onto a floury surface and using a rolling pin, roll out and then place on a tray on some greaseproof paper.

When you are ready to top your pizza spread the sauce to cover the base then sprinkle some grated mozzarella, add the caramelised onions, some sliced soft goats cheese and the sunblushed tomatoes and bake at 200c for 15-20 minutes.When cooked top the finished pizza with some wild rocket and enjoy. ☺