This week I took the plunge and decided my kitchen needed to get messy. So I tried a recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s 15-Minute Meals. Oh hells yeah! I decided to bring it.

Did I manage it? Eh…. no.

Now, I love Jamie as much as the next person. His recipes are delicious, no nonsense and always work, but I’m not too sure what he’s at with this everyone-can-cook-faster-than-the-speed-of-light malarkey. Honestly like. I know there have been about 20 bazillion blog posts written about how it’s nigh-on impossible to make any of his meals in either 30 or 15 minutes, so I’m not going to go there again; but I do think it’s a shame he’s made such a rod for his own back. I get the point he’s trying to make: food can be quick, easy and tasty if you’re clever about how you prepare it. However, I think that people in general are pedantic and once they can’t make something in the allotted time limit they will immediately call the whole venture a failure.

Well, this beautiful salad took me longer than 15 minutes to make, and afterwards my kitchen did look like a bomb had hit it; but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it, in fact I urge you to. The mix of flavours, texture, spice and sweetness is incredibly yummie and it’s pretty healthy to boot. It’s definitely one worth waiting for!

Blackened Chicken and San Fran Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

For the quinoa salad:
300 g quinoa
1 fresh red chilli
100 g baby spinach
4 spring onions
1 bunch fresh coriander
1 bunch fresh mint
1 ripe large mango
2 limes
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 ripe avocado
50 g feta cheese
1 punnet cress

For the chicken:
2 x 200 g skinless chicken breasts
1 heaped tsp ground allspice
1 heaped tsp smoked paprika
Olive oil
2 mixed colour peppers

To serve:
4 tbsp fat-free natural yoghurt

Put the quinoa into the pan and generously cover with boiling water and the lid. Put the chilli, spinach, trimmed spring onions and coriander (reserving a few leaves) into the processor, tear in the top leafy half of the mint, then blitz until finely chopped.

On a large sheet of greaseproof paper, toss the chicken with salt, pepper, allspice and paprika. Fold over the paper and bash/flatten the chicken into 1.5cm thick with a rolling pin. Put into the frying pan with 1 tbsp of olive oil, turning after 3 or 4 minutes, until blackened and cooked through.

Deseed the peppers and cut each one into 8 strips and add into the frying pan, toss regularly. Peel and cut mango chunks. Drain the quinoa and rinse under a cold tap, then drain well again and tip on serving board or platter. Toss with the blitzed spinach mixture, squeeze over the lime juice, add the extra virgin olive oil, mix well and season to taste.

Sprinkle the mango chunks and cooked peppers over the over the quinoa. Halve and destone the avocado, use a teaspoon to scoop curls of it over the salad. Slice up the chicken, toss the slices in any juices and add to salad. Crumble over the feta, scatter over the remaining coriander leaves and snip over the cress. Serve with dollops of yoghurt.

Yumbolicious.

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Pumpkin predicaments

Holiday-substitute chicken pilaf

Sweet chicken tagine with minted couscous

What do you do when the man you love; the man you’ve spent the last 7 (very happy) years with; the man you moved to the other side of the planet to be with; asks you to marry him?

You say yes.

And you celebrate with many many sparkles, strawberries, sorbet and smiles.

That’s all.

Champagne and Strawberry celebration sorbet

Serves 6, so you can celebrate with family and friends.

Ingredients

750 g fresh strawberries
75 g caster sugar
175 ml champagne
2 tsp egg white

In a blender purée the strawberries, sugar and champagne. Taste to check the sweetness and add a little more sugar if you’d like.  You could sieve this mixture to remove the seeds, but I prefer them in.  Pour into a dish, cover and freeze for about 8 hours. Then whizz it up again in a blender with the lightly whisked egg white.  Put the mixture back in the dish and freeze again. For a non-alcoholic sorbet, you might want to go through another whizz and freeze cycle, however the champagne in this stops the sorbet from freezing too much or forming too many crystals.

Serve with a glass of bubbles and enjoy with your loved ones.

Yumbolicious.

My poor Dad also seems to suffer from the same lack of culinary creativity. It’s his job to make the dinner on a Monday night (which, in fairness, is probably the most insipid of all the weekday nights); and so for the past 30 years he has made chili beef. Religiously. Every Monday. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like chili beef just as much as the next person. It’s just that after 30 years of it; I find it, well, not quite as exciting as it once was. Obviously I don’t get to spend that many Monday evenings with my folks, what with living on the other side of the plant and that. One major upside of which is not being subjected to what has become known in our family as ‘Monday night surprise’.

On evenings when I am feeling unimaginative and bored, I just need to open one of Tessa Kiros’ books to get the creative (and tummy) juices flowing. Her recipes are simple, wholesome and comforting and they are just so beautifully presented, I would challenge anyone not to fall in love with them.

This week I made her stuffed aubergines. Like all of her recipes, these are delicious and filling and a little bit different. Okay, so stuffed veggies ain’t exactly world-rockin’ stuff, but they may just brighten up an otherwise dull and same-y weekday evening.  Who knows? Even my Dad might like them.

Midweek beef-stuffed aubergines

This recipe is adapted from the book Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes where it is described as serving 8; however I would suggest it will serve 6 with a side salad, but perhaps I’m a little greedy! Tessa recommends boiling the aubergines, which stops them being greasy and heavy (always a risk when mixing aubergines and olive oil) and I think it works really well.

Ingredients

8 tbsp olive oil
2 garlic cloves, lightly crushed with the flat of a knife
3 cups of tomato sauce (I made my own, by simmering two tins of tomatoes with half a shallot, a clove of garlic, a sprinking of dried basil and a dash of water and a dash of red wine until rich saucy)
4 medium aubergines, rinsed and cut lengthwise
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 tsp paprika
450 g mince beef
¾ cup grated Parmesan
1 cup feta, crumbled
4 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a saucepan with one of the garlic cloves. When you can smell the garlic, add the tomato sauce and 1 cup of water. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a boil. Decrease the heat and simmer for about 15 minutes, or until it is cooked and still rather liquid.

Preheat your oven to 180 °C and bring a saucepan of lightly salted water to a boil.

Scoop the flesh out of the aubergine so you have a boat-shaped, thin shell. Chop up the flesh and set aside. Boil the eggplant boats for about 10 minutes in the pan of water, testing them with a fork. They should be soft but still in shape. Drain.

Meanwhile, heat the remaining olive oil and garlic in a large non-stick saucepan. Add the eggplant flesh, celery, and paprika, and sauté over medium heat until it is softened and very lightly golden. Add the beef and continue cooking for 10 to 15 minutes, until the meat is lightly golden, seasoning lightly with salt. Mix in 1 cup of the cooked tomato sauce, cook for 2 to 3 minutes more, and then remove from the heat to cool slightly. Mix in the Parmesan, feta, and parsley. Check the seasoning and remove the garlic clove from the tomato sauce.

Ladle tomato sauce onto the bottom of a baking pan to a depth of 2 cm. Use a pan that is large enough to fit all the eggplants fairly compactly in a single layer. Fill the eggplant boats with meat filling, patting it in well with your hands, but don’t make it too compact. Arrange the eggplants on top of the tomato sauce and splash the tops with the rest of the tomato sauce, but don’t drown them.

Bake for 30 to 45 minutes (or longer if necessary), until the sauce is bubbling up and a little bit of a golden crust has formed on the top in places. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before serving.

Yumbolicious.

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Chicken with coriander and spinach rice

Creamy, basily, mushroomy pasta

Walnut and parsley pesto

Isn’t it great that there’s a whole day dedicated to chocolate?!

Okay, okay, I’m not being serious. And I certainly don’t mean to be insensitive to any religious folks out there. I do realise that for a great many people, Easter is about much more than chocolate. However as I’m an atheist to the bone, this weekend is pretty much ALL about the brown sticky goodness. That and having four days off work of course, could there be a better holiday?!

So this week I tried my hand at making chocolate bark; because a chocolate-melting project is always fun and you can really get creative with the flavours and appearance. For a few pointers I checked my infallible The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who like me is a little unable to stick to recipes; basically it helps you to mix and match flavours and gives you pointers and ideas as to what works well together (and why) without actually giving any recipes. I love it. After some flicking I decided to dress up some super-dark chocolate with almond and apricot and also rose, pistachio and cardamom. And what can I say? The Flavour Thesaurus never fails, although when you start with excellent quality, rich, dark chocolate, you would have to have a very serious fail for it not to taste like more, oh so much more.

Many thanks need to go to The Fella for helping me out with these photos. I made these on quite a hot day and struggled to take any decent shots in good light before the chocolate began to melt. He’s a bit of a creative whizz with the camera and help me tonnes. He did have quite the incentive though and obviously I rewarded him well! If you’re interested in checking our more of his work check out his website.

Happy chocolate day!

Almond and apricot chocolate bark & Rose, pistachio and cardamom chocolate bark

Ingredients

400 g dark couverture chocolate, or the best quality you can afford (couverture refers to the type of fat in the chocolate; it simply means that a higher proportion of the fats are from cocoa butter which leads to a smoother, richer chocolaty taste. In this instance I used Lindt Dessert 70% cocoa).
greaseproof paper
100 g almonds, roughly chopped and lightly toasted
100 g apricots, roughly chopped
1 tsp ground cardamom
100 g pistachios, roughly chopped and lightly toasted
2 tbsp dried rose petals (I used a brand called pariya, who also make all kinds of other interesting and exotic yumness)

Bring a pot of water to a gentle boil and pop a bowl over the top. Break the chocolate pieces into this bowl and allow to melt, stirring gently until it is all liquid. Try not to eat too much of it at this stage, you will need to have at least some left for the bark.

Spread half the chocolate across a sheet of greaseproof paper and sprinkle the almonds and apricots over the top.

Add the cardamom to the remaining melted chocolate and stir well. Spread this chocolate across a second sheet of greaseproof paper and sprinkle the pistachios and dried rose petals over the top.

Allow both barks to cool for several hours, before breaking into rough pieces and enjoying.

Yumbolicious.

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Hot cross buns

Pork with a serious, devilishly good (chocolaty!!) twist

Bow ties ‘n’ bolly

I’ve been writing this silly little blog for nearly two years now, that’s mad isn’t it?! I’ve got to be honest, for the longest time I was a bit weird about it.

You see, the truth is I’m actually quite private. Yeah right you say! But it’s true. Yes, I realise I project my life onto the internet for full public consumption, but that’s easy when you hide behind a pseudo-name and an avatar. It took me years to get a Facebook account, I still am slightly scared by twitter and I can’t even begin to fathom Pinterest, so it came as no surprise that I took a little time to ease into the blogging.

For the first few months I barely even told my friends about my project, I certainly never interacted with the wider blogosphere (yes, I did just use that word, a sure sign I am now a bona-fide part-time blogger!). I was so terrified that someone might actually SEE it, shock HORROR! Over time, I have (very) slowly been working on this.

So ten days ago, when I went to a food bloggers meetup group, I was really really stepping outside my comfort zone. The people I met there were amazing and all write such unbelievably drool-tastic blogs that it made me feel immediately self-conscious. They also spoke another language, one I’m not very familiar with; SEO, engagement and PR were just some of the foreign and strange terms being bandied about. I just sipped my wine, nodded, smiled and tried to at least look like I knew what they were talking about.

Seriously though, it was wonderful to meet such lovely, energetic and creative people. Left-brained auld me can always do with a dose of inventive thinking and inspiration, check out some of their blogs below (in no particular order) to get some for yourself.

It has also made me think a little more seriously about what I want to get out of my hobby, which has been good. And I realise that I am what I am. I am never going to take the best photographs, or write the snappiest posts, get 10 bazillion hits a day or even write the most interesting recipes. But that’s all OK. As long as I’m still excited to be in the kitchen, making things that make my belly gurgle and pushing myself to write something that at the very least doesn’t put people to sleep, I’ll be happy.

Also, I made carrot cake and it was good.

Check out all of this yumness: Belly Rumbles, Simon Food Favourites, 84th & 3rd.com, Mademoiselle Slimalicious, The Littlest Anchovy, Raging Cravings, One Small Pot, and last but by no means least Chew Town.

Carrot and orange cake

Ingredients

Makes two medium loaves.

zest and juice 1 orange
100 g sultanas
150 g butter, plus extra for greasing
150 g soft light-brown sugar
3 eggs
200 g self-raising wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground cardamom
200 g carrots, washed, peeled and grated
100 g walnuts, chopped, plus a few halves to decorate

For the icing:
200 g cream cheese, softened
50 g butter, softened
85 g icing sugar, sifted
Rind of 1 orange

The night before you’re going to make this, let the sultanas soak in the orange juice and rind in a covered bowl .

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Grease and flour the edges and base of two medium loaf tins.

Cream the butter and the sugar together until the mixture looks pale and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating after each one is added.

Meanwhile sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and spices and mix well.  Carefully fold into the butter and eggs mixture. Add the carrots, soaked sultanas, walnuts and mix.  Transfer this mixture into two small loaf tins and pop into the oven for about 35 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to cool on a wire rack.

For the icing, beat together the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar until smooth and slather over the cake. Decorate with walnuts and orange rind.

Eat quickly with copious amounts of tea before anyone else can get their greedy hands on it.

Yumbolicious.

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Pear and almond cake

Chocolate strawberries with bow ties

Rosemary and pine nut semolina cookies

Filed under: Cakes, carrot, orange, walnut Tagged: cake, Deserts, diet fails, guilty pleasures, recipe ]]> http://yumbolicious.net/2013/03/24/carrot-and-orange-cake/feed/ 12 yumbolicious Carrot and orange cake with cream cheese icing and walnuts Cream cheese icing and walnuts Carrot and orange cake silce Carrot and orange cake slice with cream cheese icing and walnuts Pear and almond cake Chocolate strawberries Rosemary and pine nut semolina cookies http://yumbolicious.net/2013/03/17/upsidedown-paddys-day-tricolour-salad/ http://yumbolicious.net/2013/03/17/upsidedown-paddys-day-tricolour-salad/#comments Sun, 17 Mar 2013 00:35:58 +0000 Aoife.D http://yumbolicious.net/?p=1508 Continue reading →]]>

Well it’s that time of year again, when the entire world commandeers my nationality and dyes everything green. Lá Fhéile Pádraig!

Paddy’s day as an expat is a strange experience to say the least, although I’d say it would be worse for Irish people living in the States. It’s such a big deal, a day that everyone knows about, but no one is really sure what’s it for. According to the rest of the world St Patrick was some drunk bloke who wore oversized green top hats and said thirty-three and a third a lot.

This year I’m OK with it though, people can think what they want to as long as it makes them happy. And if they get a bit of craic out of it, sure all the better.

The Fella thinks I’m an absolute disgrace to my country for posting this picture, he thinks I deserve to get my passport taken off me because of it. But I say, if the world wants leprechauns, why not give them leprechauns?

You can all blather on about corned beef (baffling and disgusting in equal measures), leprechauns (just plain lame) and pots of gold (I don’t know if any of you folks heard, but Ireland is currently owned by the IMF) as much as you like and I won’t bat an eyelid. But, I would really like to remind everyone that there are actually two other colours in the Irish flag. Yes folks, believe it or not there is some orange and white in there too! I know right? It just blows your mind.

I made this salad as an homage to the oft-forgotten tricolour, where mango represents the orange and macadamia the white. An Australian take on my national flag if you were, as mangos and macadamia nuts are a little harder to come by in county Louth.

I will be celebrating Paddy’s day in Sydney CBD with The Fella and his family and I’ve no doubt there won’t be a tractor or a bunch of shamrocks in sight, but it will be fun none the less. And I hope you have the craic too, wherever you are in the world and however you choose to celebrate; but I do ask this: as you’re tucking into your green beer, do save a thought for the tricolour, sure it’s a grand wee flag!

Upsidedown Paddy’s day tricolour salad – spinach, mango and macadamia

Makes enough for two as a side

Ingredients

40 g macadamia nuts, very lightly toasted
2 large handfuls of baby spinach leaves
½ large mango, cubed
½ tbsp olive oil
½ tbsp A Taste of the Bush raspberry and lemon myrtle finishing vinegar

Toast the macadamia nuts under a very low grill until they are just beginning to colour. Obviously you don’t want them to lose their whiteness as that’s kind of the point of using them, but likewise you do want to give them a bit of extra crunch and bring out their flavours.

Simply mix together with the spinach and mango. Drizzle over the olive oil and vinegar and serve.

I used A Taste of the Bush raspberry and lemon myrtle finishing vinegar because it’s beautiful and I thought it would be a great Australian twist on an already very Auzzie salad. The colours may be Irish but the flavors most definitely are not! I should point out that this post is in no way sponsored by A Taste of the Bush, it was just what I happened to have to hand.

Yumbolicious.

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Australia day totally tropical fool

This one is for my very very awesome mate, Dr B.

For a long time now, she has been my number one drinking buddy, and no doubt she will remain so for many many years (and hangovers) to come.

This woman is a vodka connoisseur, a discerning, knowledgeable and appreciative consumer, who knows her Gray Goose from her Absolut.

That is until she’s had a few; then all wisdom goes out the window and it’s a free for all. But sure who needs wisdom anyway? It’s totally overrated in my opinion.

Whoever thought of mixing fruit with sugar and vodka was a genius, as this raspberry vodka is unbelievably delicious. If you think it’s going to be like the skittles vodka you drank in your student years, think again. This is the grown up version. It’s not too sweet and tastes so strongly of raspberries you almost forget about the vodka, at least until it warms the back of your throat and of course, slams into your synapses.

So now you can get drunk, talk shite and act the maggot, all the while safe in the knowledge that you’re at least getting a little more mature with your choice of drink. Sounds just perfect for a vodka-aficionada-come-messer-extraordinaire I know.

Cheers Doll, I know you’ll enjoy!

Raspberry vodka

Ingredients

Makes two 750 ml bottles

350 g fresh raspberries
350 g of sugar (or a little less if you prefer a tarter taste)
1.5 L of decent quality vodka

You’ll need to sterilise the bottles or jars you’re planning on making this in, do this by boiling in water for about 10 minutes, alternatively, pop them in the oven at 180 °C for 20 minutes. Allow them to cool before adding in any cold liquid.

Divide the raspberries and sugar equally between the two bottles and top up with the vodka. Seal the bottle or jar and shake well to dissolve the sugar. Place in a cool, dark place and give the bottles a shake every day for a week or until all of the sugar has dissolved. Leave to infuse for at least a month (but ideally longer) before cracking open.

The great thing about this recipe is that once you’ve polished off the vodka you can still use the alcohol soaked fruit in all kinds of deserts, slathered over scones or ice-cream or even just on their own.

Yumbolicious.

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Raspberry Cheesecake

Kumkuat vanilla and vodka scented marmalade

If you haven’t seen the film Anchorman, you should, right now. Stop reading this post and go rent it. I’m serious.

Those of you that have will no doubt remember Ron Burgundy singing at his scotch:

I love scotch.
Scotchy scotch scotch.
Here it goes down, down into my belly…….

And so on.

Well today I am here to confess that I feel much the same way about bread. It’s sad really, scotch and bread don’t really have a lot in common, one takes 18 years to mature, is smooth and effortlessly cool and the other is, well, just bread. But the heart (and by heart I of course mean belly) wants what it wants.

If someone told me in the morning I could never eat bread again I think I might consider slapping them; at the very least I’d shout at them, loudly. I always feel sorry for those women in glossy magazines who profess the benefits of a carb-free diet. I mean, they may be skinny, rich and successful, but could they really be happy? I doubt it. But then again, the less bread they eat, the more there is for me, whoop!

Magic stuff, that yeast!

Making your own bread is a lot less effort than you’d think and the results are oh so worth it. You just need time and a little elbow grease. The recipe I’m sharing today is one I’ve adapted from Maureen Tatlow’s The Back to Basics Cookbook. I’ve tweaked it a bit to suit my tastes and I just love it.

There are just two things to point out with it, if you don’t put in the requisite kneading time your bread will be heavy and dense; but hand-kneading for 10 minutes is a kind of exercise and so in a way makes up for the delicious carb overload that’s coming. The second thing is, this bread doesn’t keep well, you really need to eat it on the day it’s made, although it does toast really well on the day after. So adjusting the quantities to suit your hunger levels ain’t a bad idea.

Rosemary flecked focaccia

Ingredients

Makes 2 medium loaves

600 g strong white flour, plus extra for dusting
50 g rye flour
1 tsp caster sugar
1 x 7 g sachet yeast
400 – 450 ml lukewarm water
2 tbsp olive oil, plus a little extra
3 tbsp rosemary, finely chopped, plus a little extra for topping off the bread
2 tsp salt flakes

You’re going to make a mess while making this, so it’s best you square with that from the get go. Roll up your sleeves, stick on an apron and wash your hands before you start.

In a large bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients until they are totally combined. Make a small hollow in the centre and pour in the water and oil, stir everything together into a moist and sticky dough. Maureen advises erring on the side of wetness, as it’s much easier to incorporate more flour if necessary.

Turn your dough out on a clean, lightly floured surface and knead energetically for 10 minutes, you’ll feel the texture of the dough change and become more elastic and pliable as you go. Add only as much additional flour as is absolutely necessary to bring the dough together, as the more moist the dough, the lighter your bread will be. Shape into a rough ball.

Rub the ball of dough in a little olive oil and place in a clean, dry bowl. Cover and leave to rise for about an hour in a warm spot, longer if it’s a little cooler.

Punch the dough down and divide into two loaves. Carefully kneed half the rosemary into each loaf, then leave to rest, covered with a tea towel for a further 10 minutes.

Roll out each of the loaves to fit a fairly wide baking tray that has been lightly greased with olive oil. Cover with a tea towel and allow to rise again for about 10 minutes.  Finally, with your fingers, poke deep dimples all over the risen dough and sprinkle on the salt, olive oil and remaining rosemary.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200 ° C for about half an hour or until it is crusty and golden and smells irresistible.

The smell of this as it’s cooking ensures that it won’t last long. I guarantee you’ll be salivating before it even comes out of the oven. And of course, feel free to mix up the deliciousness, while rosemary is my favourite, I’ve also made this bread with black and green olives and sundried tomatoes, so add in anything else you fancy.

Then get it in your belly!

Yumbolicious.

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Halloween barmbrack

As an Irish ex-pat, I sometimes get wished a lovely morning; and while I always appreciate the sentiment, I’m not usually a fan of the delivery. Let me be clear here, Irish people don’t, nor have they ever used the phrase ‘top of the morning to you’.

When Australians say this to me, my response is always the same. I say ‘Ahh yeah, throw a shrimp on the barbie mate’.

That usually gets a reaction.

And I just love a reaction.

If the only thing you know about the Land Down Under comes from Crocodile Dundee or Men at Work songs, you need to throw out those misconceptions. I’ve never seen a deadly spider or snake;  I’m still not entirely sure what a billabong actually is; I don’t carry around large knives; The Fella hardly ever drinks Fosters or rides kangaroos to work. It’s all a bit disappointing really. Although I still hold out hope of one day finding a koala bear living in my back garden.

Barbequed crustaceans are sadly lacking from my life, so in honour of Australia Day I decided to turn that around. God damn it, I threw some shrimps on the barbie and they were bloody bonzer mate!

Barbequed shrimp Aussie style

I actually used banana prawns instead of shrimp, but that doesn’t make for nearly as good a story. I paired them with my favourite seafood flavours: lemon and garlic, although I reckon these bad boys would be just as delicious on their own.

Ingredients

300 g prawns
1 ½ tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp chilli flakes
1 clove of garlic, crushed
juice of one lemon

Mix together the oil, chilli, garlic and lemon. Allow the prawns to marinade in this for at least an hour, but ideally longer.

Remove the prawns from the marinade and barbeque over a hot grill for 2-3 minutes per side, or until the flesh turns an opaque pink colour.

If you wish, you could heat through the remaining marinade until he garlic and chilli are just cooked (about 4 minutes) and use this as a dipping sauce to serve alongside your prawns.

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Traditional St Patrick’s Day dinner

Totally tropical fool

 

I’ve previously written about how the Fella and I packed up our lives in Dublin and took the slow boat other side of the planet. We stopped off in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia and Singapore before making the final trek to this great red land Down Under. Truth be told, I only picked those countries because of the delicious and unusual treats that were waiting to be discovered. As I’ve said before: feck culture, I’m hungry!

Vietnam was …… oh god, how do you describe Vietnam in a few succinct words and do it justice? The simple fact is you can’t, well, I can’t. Not without gushing endlessly.

We started our Vietnamese adventures in Hanoi, the home of the famous pho soup. On nearly every street there is a stall selling this hot and savoury beef soup, you can smell the star anise at almost every turn. So many stalls and restaurants all claim to sell the best version in Hanoi, the competition is fierce. It is light, spicy, full of green freshness and yummie; oh so very yummie.

I would urge any of you who can to visit Vietnam; the people, scenery and food all combine to make such a wonderful and interesting holiday. Just some of our highlights included sleeping at a gibbon sanctuary, celebrating the full moon festival in Hoi An and exploring the coffee plantations and waterfalls of the Dalat highlands by moped.

Pho bo (beef pho)

I adapted this recipe from one I got when I did a class at Saigon Cooking School. I love doing cooking classes while on holidays, but I often find that when you get home the recipes can be difficult to replicate, ingredients can be hard to come by and techniques can be lengthy. I shortened the cooking time and stuck to ingredients that I could find (and pronounce) and it still worked out great! Just as I remember it.

Ingredients

Serves 4
6 cm piece of fresh ginger
2 star anise
3-4 cloves
1 cinnamon stock
2-3 cardamom pods
2 L beef stock, or clear beef soup (consommé)
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp sugar
750 g rice noodles
250g beef fillet, very thinly sliced

To serve:
red chillies, sliced (use as many as you like, careful if you don’t like it too hot!)
1 spring onion, sliced
75 g beansprouts
A handful of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
1 lime cut into wedges

In a dry pan, toast the ginger, star anise, cloves, cinnamon and cardamom together, until they are heated through and the smells are beginning to fill your kitchen. Transfer the spices into a muslin parcel (or even a tea strainer).

In a large pot, add the spices to the beef soup and bring to the boil; reduce the heat and allow to simmer for about 30 minutes while all the flavours infuse. Then add the fish sauce, pepper and sugar to taste. Add the slices of beef and allow to cook for 1-2 minutes if you like your beef on the rare side; longer if you’d prefer your meat slightly well done.

Meanwhile, cook the rice noodles according to the instructions on the pack.

Divide the noodles between 4 bowls and pour the soup and beef slices over. Add the red chilli slices, spring onion, beansprouts and fresh mint leaves, all to your taste of course, finish with a squeeze of lime juice.

It brings back so many memories, Vietnam, I can’t wait to come back!

Yumbolicious.

Some of the holiday snaps above were actually taken by my very tallented Fella, you should check out more of his creative work here!

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New Year beer fish

Sweet chicken tagine with minted couscous

Phad thai challenge

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Filed under: beef, chilli, Dinners, mint, noodles, Soups Tagged: backpacking in vietnam, Hanoi, Phở ]]> http://yumbolicious.net/2013/01/21/pho-bo/feed/ 7 yumbolicious Pho bo recipe Asian ingredients Images from Vietnam Pho bo New Year beer fish Sweet chicken tagine with minted couscous PhadThai Enhanced by Zemanta