Pho Saigon - Twickenham

I admit to being a bit of an experimenter when it comes to food- I love to try new things, not matter how disgusting or ludicrous they may sound (I've tried haggis twice, but I just don't like the taste), so when I noticed that Twickenham had a Vietnamese takeaway and restaurant, I couldn't resist giving it a try.

Ordering for just the two of us, I selected a fairly random choice of food - Cha Gio (spring rolls), Thit Cuu nuong hanh gung (char grilled lamb sate marinated with ginger and spring onions) as starters then the beef Pho Noodle Bowl and the pork Bun Thit Nuong.

Before I go any further, let me copy out the description of these dishes:

Pho Noodle Bowl:
Pho Tai, gau, nam, Ga hoac Hai san - flat rice noodles in a large bowl with a piping hot, rich beef broth topped with your choice of thin sliced meat or sea food and fragrant herbs served with fresh Vietnamese basil, chopped coriander, sliced fresh chilli mung bean sprout, lemon wedge, fish sauce, chilli sauce and hoi sin sauce. Delicious and healthy dish (very popular dish with the Vietnamese diner. This dish has been voted the top 50 dishes around the world by CNN recent foods survey)

Bun Thit Nuong:
A classic Vietnamese dish. A very healthy dish (a complete meal). A warm rice vermicelli noodles salad topped with char grilled marinated meat or seafood then topped with an aromatic herbs salad and crusted peanut served with chill, garlic and lime fish sauce.

Now grammatical errors aside, they both sounded rather tasty to my inexperienced eyes.

The two starters were yummy - spring rolls were standard and the lamb dish was tiny pieces of cold lamb with a sweet and spicy marinate. The starter was meant to come with a chilli and lime dip and so was the 2nd main - we got a pot of sauce with a wedge of lime so we weren't sure what it was meant to go with so we mixed and matched.

The Pho noodle bowl was a huge disappointment - there were about 4 slices of beef floating on top of a bowl of beef stock with noodles in side. It tasted ok, but it felt like I could have made it at home by dissolving a stock cube and adding some flat noodles. We ate it, but not as unenthusiastically as the starters.

The Bun Thit Nong on the other hand was amazing! The pork on top was cold and marinated with a lovely flavour, there were a few peanuts on top, but I wouldn't describe it as a crust. The meat sat on a lovely, cold, crisp salad and underneath were some warm noodles with a sweet chilli sauce. Overall the textures and tastes combined to create a delightful medley and we were incredibly impressed - this dish more than made up for the blandness of the noodle bowl.

Overall I would give Pho Saigon 4 out of 5 - the service was fantastic, two of our dishes were well above our expectations, one was as expected and one was a little disappointing, but still edible. I would definitely recommend eating here, however it's perhaps worth avoiding the noodle bowl and trying something more interesting instead - I can't wait to try another new dish!

The Railway - Kew

My local Am Dram group rehearses on Wednesdays in Kew and so of late I've taken to meeting my friends early in the Railway next to Kew Gardens station - they do an amazingly cheap 2 for £10 deal on meals so it's cheap and cheerful and they usually have some nice beers or red wines to accompany it. I've tried the lasagne, the texan pork chop, the scampi and the bean burger and they all seem to be simple, tasty pub grub. I asked Him to join me for dinner there the other day and he couldn't resist expressing his disgust at the meal he was served....which was the lasagne and the texan pork chop (half each of course). The problem is, I didn't warn him that it was really cheap and cheerful pub grub and so because i go there regularly he'd thought it must be some sort of epic gastro pub...he also turned up half an hour late so his meal had been on the table for 10-15 minutes so was a little on the chilly side. At £5 a head you can't expect the food to be quality and if you just want basic pub grub it does what it says on the tin.

I like The Railway because the staff there are fantastic, however they have recently had some serious issues with the kitchen so one day our meals took over an hour to arrive - they were hugely apologetic and tried their best. That said, some friends of ours waited nearly 2 hours and in the end had to ask for their money back - the bar staff spoke to me about it the following week and said they had a REALLY bad day and had been working their hardest to ensure that sort of thing didn't happen again

My favourite meal is the texan pork, which is surprising since I'm not a pork fan usually, but tbh it's just a breaded pork chop with BBQ sauce and melted cheese (probably straight out of a brake brothers box and shoved in the oven) and it tastes great. The lasagne is probably a microwave meal from brakes too, but that doesn't necessarily make it bad food so I'm usually happy.

So, in conclusion, if you want cheap and cheerful pub food in a nice atmosphere head to the The Railway, if you want quality, tasty food then don't. Also, don't be surprised if you have a bit of a wait.

Recipe: Jamie Oliver Steamed Pork Buns Chinese Style

I think this recipe comes from the Jamie's Kitchen cookbook, but I can't remember - I took a photo of the recipe and ingredients which I keep on my phone so that when I fancy making it I can just pop into the nearest supermarket.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Jamies-Kitchen-Jamie-Oliver/dp/071814564X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347720020&sr=8-1

I love Char Sui Pork buns so I thought I'd give these a go - I use Lee Kum Kee Hoisin Sauce, which I get from waitrose and whatever the amount it specifies it's about half a jar that you use each time so it's nice and easy. I also decided that the buns themselves are not sweet enough so I tend to add about 50g caster sugar to the dough, which also helps the yeast to rise.

The recipe makes about 24 buns and 2 or 3 is massively filling, unfortunately they are also hugely more-ish so 2 or 3 isn't enough. We've tried freezing them, but it doesn't seem worth it since as long as we know they are there we will take them out after a couple of days and cook them. Generally we won't steam them 'til we're ready to eat them and they are fine sat in the fridge for a few days, however they tend to taste a bit more fluffy if you leave them out to warm to room temperature before you steam them.

Recipe: Wahaca Cookbook various

Wahaca is one of my favourite restaurants in London - my flatmates and I were going roughly once a week when Westfield first opened, however since moving to Richmond I don't tend to go as much since it's not as easy to get to. For my birthday my flatmates and friends bought me the Wahaca cookbook along with a load of other lovely things, including my favourite bubble bar from Lush, The Comforter

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wahaca-Mexican-Food-at-Home/dp/1444722395/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b

It's worth saying from the outset that this book is not for the faint hearted - the recipes are all very hardcore and require a lot of work as well as a fair amount of technical knowledge as well as some special ingredients!

So far I've tried the following recipes:
Corn Tortillas - X
Guacamole - /
Spinach and feta taco - /
Hibiscus Water - /
Refried Beans - X

You will notice there are a couple of Xs after some of the recipes - that's because those recipes were not easy to make, nor were they tasty.

I'll go into more details later, but let's start with the positives:

I left him in charge of the guacamole, as it was a recipe he'd made before and he'd brought some chilli's he'd grown at home to be added and, as usual, it was the perfect compliment to the main meal of spinach and feta tacos.

The spinach and feta recipe was relatively easy to make, however i ignored the instruction to squeeze out the water from the cooked spinach and this was a bit of an error as it was hugely watery. Overall it was delightful, however since it was accompanied by the corn tortillas, it wasn't as good as it could have been!

Speaking of the tortillas, I will mention them here - I decided to give these a go after seeing the flour i needed in Sainsburys - it was pretty pricey, but I thought I'd give it a go. The recipe suggests you'd be better buying a tortilla press, but as most people don't have one, I thought I'd give it a go. DON'T....just don't...it was a disaster from start to finish - the tortillas were edible, but for the amount of effort it took, they were not particularly amazing. I might consider buying a press and seeing if it's easier, but I'm just not sure it's worth the hassle. We also used some of the tortilla's to make tortilla chips as the book suggests you use the old ones and deep fry them - again a bit of hassle when they can be bought so cheaply and easily in the shop.

One of my favourite things to have in Wahaca is the hibiscus water agua fresca so I thought I'd give this recipe a go - after hours of hunting, i noticed that the flour I'd bought in sainsbury's had a webpage and so I had a sneaky peak where I discovered that most of the special ingredients required by the book can be bought, including hibiscus flowers - strangely the book does mention this site in the list of suppliers in the back, but doesn't really mention that you can get everything there from epazote to a tortilla press. I also discovered that the Masa Harina flour I'd bought in Sainsburys could be bought significantly cheaper direct from the source!

http://www.coolchile.co.uk/products/view/hibiscus-flowers-100g

The recipe calls for 50g of flowers and this makes about 2 litres of cordial which can be drunk neat or, as I prefer, with a dash of sparkling water on top. It's very simple and tastes exactly like what you would buy in store so I was thoroughly impressed with the recipe and will make it again.

Finally I tried to make refried beans because the ones you can buy in Wahaca are truly delicious. After several hours of simmering (and several pounds on His gas bill), I made a disgusting, lumpy, oniony mess that ended up straight in the bin. Maybe I'm just not cut out for making refried beans, but this wasn't a recipe that I enjoyed making, and, even if it had tasted as good as the refried beans at Wahaca, I wouldn't make it again, but since it didn't taste at all pleasant, I will definitely be filling this in the 'do not repeat' pile.

Haweli - St Margaret's

Every once in a while I get a craving for an Indian takeaway- more often that not He over rules me (and if I'm lucky, makes me his very delicious curry), however recently I ordered from Haweli for collection (their delivery service takes a minimum of 45minutes). Since then I've been back since the food was very tasty!

Having lived in Birmingham, I love a good Balti so I decided to try the Balti Chicken Bhoona. He, rather bravely, told me to order for him so I got him a gosht lajawaab (I admit it, I just liked the name, but also, I know he loves a decent lamb dish). I think I've mentioned before that despite previously following the Friend's classic moto "Joey doesn't share", in the last couple of years, He and I have found ourselves regularly ordering two meals to share half each and this was no exception. When we share a meal, usually we declare one or the other of us a 'winner' - sometimes we are both happy with our own dish and that wins, but more often He picks the winner so I was pleased when my chicken dish was quite definitely declared the winner - it was completely and utterly delicious and I would recommend it to anyone. That's not to say that the lamb dish was unpleasant, but in comparison it was a very average dish.

Now because I had enjoyed my food so much the last time, I decided to order again when a friend was visiting, but I'd forgotten what I ordered so mistakenly got the Balti Hawlei Chicken Tikka Masala. My friend, being veggie, decided to try Motor Panir and we got a few side dishes, knowing that both our partners would have a nibble later so we got the Bombay Aloo and Brinjal Bhaji.

My friend and I both love spicey food - she will eat chilli peppers raw and whole claiming that her Sri Lankan heritage makes her immune- so this meal was a bit of a mistake for us both. The chicken was incredibly tasty and full of flavour, but it was completely spiceless - there was zero kick to it. The same was true of the paneer dish, which was basically a korma with peas and paneer - once again it was delicious, but without a kick. Sadly the two side dishes we ordered were both very bland and hadn't lived up to the full flavours of the other dishes we'd ordered - I was particularly disappointed with the brinjal bhaji since I love aubergines and somehow it was very boring and tasteless.

In conclusion, the main courses at Hawli are lovely and full of flavour - some are a bit mild, which is a shame for someone like me who enjoys spicey food, but overall they are great. In comparison the side dishes we tried were a bit boring and not nearly as good. Price-wise it was not a cheap Indian, but about what we'd expect to pay and they always include a couple of cans of drink as a bonus. Delivery will take 45 minutes to an hour and can be ordered online:

http://www.curriesonline.co.uk/haweliofstmargarets-twickenham/menu.htm

I'll probably go back here again next time I fancy an Indian because it's convenient and relatively cheap in comparison to my favourite Indian restaurant Swagat, which I save for special occasions.

Recipe: Delia's New York Cheesecake

Waitrose have started doing these fantastic recipe cards in store with recipes by Delia and Heston- they also put the ingredients for one of the recipes all together on a shelf so you can grab the bits easily. One day my other half made me delicious bean enchiladas (http://www.waitrose.com/content/waitrose/en/home/recipes/recipe_directory/s/spicy_bean_enchiladas.html) so I figured it was time I tried one of their recipes out. Of course I went for a sweet one and chose to make Delia's baked cheesecake.

My nearest supermarket is actually Tesco so I swooped in to grab the ingredients - in an attempt to be slightly more healthy I chose to get low fat cream cheese and low fat creme fraiche and it didn't affect the taste in the slightest. Curiously neither Tesco nor Waitrose sell Creme Fraiche in 350ml tubs so I just used 300ml with no adverse affects. Obviously I just used the vanilla extract I had at home rather than Ndali or whatever Waitrose suggests.

Actually, I'm going to quickly talk about vanilla extract - I can't remember when, but at some point in my youth I learnt that if you want your cakes to taste nice you need to get decent vanilla extract (or essence) and you should never EVER use vanilla flavouring. I tend to prefer to use Nielsen-Massey vanilla extract, which is quite expensive, but comes in a 60ml bottle rather than a teeny bottle- it looks a bit like this:

and can be bought in most supermarkets, however curiously, because it has an alcohol base, you do have to get a staff member to ID you when you go to the self service checkout in Tesco. When a recipe calls for a teaspoon I tend to use half a cap full (although I quite often add a bit more for taste).

Anyway, I found Delia's recipe incredibly simple AND delicious and her advice on timing was curiously useful - when you make a baked cheesecake you want it to be not quite cooked inside as it continues to cook when you take it out of the oven and so an hour is about right - I tend to take it out when the edge of the top goes slightly golden brown and starts to pull away from the edge of the pan, but the middle still looks quite yellow.

The second time I made this recipe I decided not to just pile fruit on top since I found that the fruit was quite bitter and the cheesecake wasn't quite sweet enough to counter this. As I was making it for a picnic party I decided to go all out indulgent by buying a toffee sauce from waitrose (http://www.waitrose.com/shop/ProductView-10317-10001-2019-Waitrose+Toffee+Sauce) and chopping up some pieces of fudge (next time I might try food processing). The end result was incredibly tasty and was rapidly devoured by everyone in attendance.

Which reminds me, I tried coronation chicken for the first time ever and discovered it was absolutely delicious- the lady who made it said it was from an original recipe from 60 years ago that uses apricot jam - I must try and get a copy and try it out. I'll let you know how it goes!

Sadly, this recipe is no longer available from Waitrose so I've managed to find it after a bit of searching:

Serves: 6-8
Ingredients
For the base:
200g pack Waitrose shortbread fingers
50g butter, melted

For the filling:
300g essential Waitrose Creamy Soft Cheese
350ml Waitrose crème fraîche
175g golden caster sugar
25g plain flour
3 large Columbian Blacktail eggs, beaten
1 dessertspoon Ndali Vanilla Extract

For the topping:
200g fresh raspberries
200g fresh redcurrants
Icing sugar

You will need a baking tray and a 20cm sandwich tin at least 4cm deep with a loose base, or a 20cm spring-form cake tin, greased and lined with a circle of Bake-O-Glide or baking parchment. (If the tin is less than 4cm you will need to line the sides as well, making sure Bake-O-Glide or parchment is a couple of centimetres above the level of the tin.)

Method
Preheat the oven to 150ºC, gas mark 3.

1. First blitz the biscuits into crumbs in a food proces or then tip them into a bowl and add the melted butter and give it a thorough mix. Next press the crumbs evenly into the base of the lined tin using the back of a metal spoon to give it a smooth surface.

2. Now make the filling. In a bowl, mix together the cream cheese, caster sugar and flour. Then stir in the crème fraîche, beaten eggs and vanilla.

3. Pour the mixture over the biscuit base and place it on a baking tray in the lower half of the oven. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, by which time the cheesecake will be barely coloured; it should be just set firm on the edge but still slightly wobbly in the centre. Remove from the oven and allow to cool (the surface may crack a little but don't worry) before placing in the fridge for several hours to firm up.

4. For the topping, remove the redcurrants from their stalks by holding each string at one end over a bowl and use a fork to strip the currants away from the stalk.

To serve the cheesecake, arrange the raspberries and redcurrants all over the surface and dust with icing sugar.

Note on ingredients
Half fat cream cheese and crème fraîche can be used in the recipe if preferred.

Delia's spoons:
a useful point to remember is 2 teaspoons equates to 1 dessertspoon and 2 dessertspoons equates to 1 tablespoon

Recipe: Pea and mint soup

The other day He was complaining that while all of my recipes are delicious, they are somewhat unhealthy. He makes a fair point, I'm pretty good at making tasty, delicious unhealthy food. In order to correct this I decided to make pea and mint soup, however I didn't really like the sound of any of the recipes I found on the internet - some of them seemed too complicated, some of them seemed to have stupid ingredients and some of them just sounded gross. I decided to bite the bullet and just invent my own recipe - I have enough knowledge to do that surely?

Here's what I came up with:

2 shallots
1 carrot
Some celery
3 gloves of garlic
Frozen petit pois
500ml Chicken Stock (still warm)
Some mint

Firstly put all of the fresh vegetables in a food processor until finely chopped - you can do this by hand, but it takes forever so a food processor is a life saver.

Fry the vegetables in some oil in a large, deep saucepan until the shallots change colour and look translucent. Pour in all of the stock and some peas until you have a mountain of peas that is just coming to the top of the water. Heat through for about 20minutes - half an hour, until the peas are cooked through but not losing their colour (when peas are over cooked they go a dull green).

Meanwhile, in the cleaned food processor, chuck a handful of mint leaves and blitz until finely chopped. Add the hot pea mixture from the pan and blitz until it is a soft, lumpy texture. This may take a couple of goes - the second time i made this I turned on the blender and soup squirted out the sides so don't overfill it!

You should find you have a tasty soup- remember to grind in some salt and pepper and even a bit of chilli if you want your soup to have a kick. I serve this with some par-bake bread rolls. I've also tried double the quantities and it freezes well.

Enjoy!