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.