The Delicious Miss Dahl - a kindred spirit

The Delicious Miss Dahl - a sweet new cooking programme that has completely captured my heart. I cannot fully describe what a wonderous thing it is to watch someone express the exact same feelings, thoughts and sentiments that I have. It's uncanny and magical all at the same time. I want to be Miss Dahl's best friend and spend sunny afternoons food shopping, cooking and eating together in her perfect, English-country-cottage-style kitchen.

This is more than just a cooking programme - The Delicious Miss Dahl is a life philosophy that encourages indulgence and romance. I feel like the follower of some obscure cooking cult. She makes me want to abandon all my responsibilities and while away my time blissfully re-creating the 'selfish day' that her first episode describes.

Casual cooking demonstrations are interwoven with anecdotes, history, poetry and shopping excursions to boutique antique stores. It feels like you are sitting in the kitchen with Miss Dahl, watching her cook and listening to her tell you stories about fishing with her grandmother and stealing liquor-filled chocolates from the Christmas tree.

A word of warning: this programme must be watched whilst eating something delicious. Otherwise, you will be tortured by images of her 'totally simple, straightforward yet honest food', such as buffalo mozzarella bruschetta with shaved fennel and courgette, roasted halibut with spinach and watercress sauce, sweet potato chips and rich chocolate pots with brandy-soaked cherries.

I probably should go to work but...the kitchen is calling me and I am completely inspired. Fluffly pancakes topped with sliced bananas and golden syrup await me!

To watch The Delicious Miss Dahl click here. For effortlessly easy and pleasurable food, her recipes are listed here.

Chelsea Buns - le flop de jour!

Call me paranoid but I think that my cookbooks are conspiring to thwart my bread-baking plans. I have upgraded my cooking scales and spared no expense on higher quality ingredients. Yet, no matter how religiously I follow the recipes, it has been one cooking disaster after another and I have spent the entire week assuaging my guilt and disappointment by eating my failures. I feel like an ancient Greek alchemist attempting to turn lead into gold. Who would have thought that baking bread is so difficult? Is this some secret dark art that I am endeavouring to learn?

Le flop de jour? Chelsea buns - spiral-shaped current buns glazed in icing sugar. I created a dough that can only be described as some sort of biohazard. It had an unnatural elasticity and alarmingly clung to everything that it touched, which made kneading near impossible. Sadly, a lot of good flour was lost along the way.

The finished product looks and tastes more like a bun from the dodgy end of Chelsea. Clearly, there is something very wrong with this recipe. But, I am quite ecstatic that I managed to produce something edible.

In other news, I am inching closer to perfecting my banana bread recipe. This time, I opted for muscavado sugar, my favourite type, which gave the bread that lovely sweet flavour I was aiming for. Next time, I think that the walnuts will have to go as they have an overpowering taste. Banana bread is my refuge as a failed baker. My place of anchor whilst I figure out how on Earth to make dough that does not resemble plaster. It's no wonder since, let's face it, this is a cake masquerading as bread! Of course, that doesn't stop me from eating slices of it thickly smothered in butter...

Traditional English Bacon Pudding

I am often asked the question - what is traditional English food? The obvious answer includes dishes such as fish and chips, steak and kidney pie, apple crumble and a traditional Sunday roast.

However, I like to throw in the more exotic-sounding dishes of my childhood. Namely, bubble and squeak, toad in the hole, jam roly poly and bacon pudding. Simply naming them brings back pleasant memories of endlessly sunny days spent riding my bike and eating delicious wholesome food.

Unfortunately, these English classics are not easily found in restaurants and they seem to be a dying breed in the modern English household. So, I have decided to revive them and keep the tradition alive, starting with bacon pudding - one of my favourites.

In my opinion, bacon pudding perfectly epitomises traditional English food - it's quite heavy, slightly bland and contains very few ingredients. I won't try to sell it to you. It's quite possible that the only reason why I like eating it is that I grew up on it (and, I just so happen to have a penchant for stodgy food). But, if you have a fearless stomach and adventurous taste-buds, read on...

Firstly, please allow me to introduce you to The Original Atora Shredded Suet. It's difficult to say exactly what suet is since the ingredients listed on the box are simply beef suet and wheat flour. Surprisingly, it has a macaroni-like shape and texture. Yet, when kneaded with flour and water it forms a dough that can be used to make dumplings, pastries and pies. What's even more amazing about suet-based food is that it can be steamed.

You can find the recipe for bacon pudding in the Food Forum, which was kindly posted by my dad. However, having cooked this dish disastrously as well as successfully several times, I have additional advice:

1) Use a quarter of the ingredients quoted for one person. This will make a pastry-like roll that is about 20 x 10 x 0.5 cm. Bear in mind that you need to fit the pudding into your steamer (or, makeshift steamer).

2) Allow the cooked onion and bacon mixture to cool down and dry before spreading it on the pastry. Otherwise, the moisture and heat from the mixture may cause the pastry to break when you roll it.

3) If you don't have a steamer, you can use a rice cooker by filling it with water and suspending the pudding above using something that won't melt or block the steam. Boil the water by switching cook and then turn it onto warm. You may need to repeat this a few times whilst cooking the pudding.

Serve with the usual mashed potatoes, boiled vegetables and gravy that accompany most English dishes. A simple dish that is simple to make...once you know how.

Banana Bread Cockaigne

The streets of Paris are lined with boulangeries, exactly the way I imagine Heaven to be. One has to wonder how Parisians manage to stay so slim when fresh bread and pastries beckon them at every street corner. I was completely seduced and did not hold back - life is too short to cut out carbs!

So, it seems only natural that my recent trip to Paris has inspired me to start baking my own bread. And, since I have a knack for acquiring over-ripe bananas, I have decided to perfect the art of baking banana and walnut bread. At this very moment, I am inhaling delicious lungfuls of bread aroma issuing from my first attempt. My stomach is purring in anticipation for what I hope will be a delightful Saturday morning treat.

I used a recipe from 'The Joy of Cooking' - an encyclopedia of everything related to food. It is certainly a joy to read but there is one slight drawback - the measurements are American - and this proved somewhat problematic. For example, how does one accurately measure a tablespoon of butter? Also, the recipe bizarrely calls for the flour, salt and baking powder to be whisked - an instruction I have never before come across and chose to ignore*.

My batter looked disturbingly cement mix-like. However, something magical must have happened in the oven as, 1 hour later, my optimism was rewarded with a picture-perfect loaf. I have to say, nothing feels more wholesome than baking your own bread. Having indulged myself in several soft and moist slices (some, with lashings of butter), I have determined that the bread is not quite sweet enough or banana-like for my taste. Next time, I will try using 1 egg, 1 cup of sugar and 4 bananas instead. I will keep you updated on my progress. This is going to be a tasty and satisfying experiment!

The recipe

Have all the ingredients at room temperature. Preheat the oven to 350F (~180c). Grease an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan (I used butter). Whisk together 1 1/2 cups of flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder and 1/2 teaspoons salt. Beat in a large bowl at medium speed until creamy 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup or 6 tablespoons softened butter and 3/4 teaspoons grated lemon zest. Beat in 1 to 2 large beaten eggs and 2 to 3 mashed bananas. Add the dry ingredients in about 3 parts, beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in if desired 1/2 cup chopped nuts. Scrape the batter into the greased pan. Bake the bread for about 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool slightly, then unmould. Cool completely before slicing.

*Although, I do wonder if this is to effectively lighten the flour or thoroughly mix together the ingredients. Your thoughts and ideas on these issues would be most welcome!

Restaurant recommendations in Paris?

Guess where I'm going this weekend? PARIS! I'm very excited about all of the delicious French food that I am going to (hopefully) eat. But, where should I eat? If you have any recommendations, even if it's just a little bakery, please let me know.

Dining at Chez Cho's

Before I begin extolling the wonders of Chez Cho's, I feel it's only fair to warn you that this is not a restaurant at which you can enjoy the delicious food that I am about to describe. My conscience is slightly burning with guilt but I just had to share my meal from last night with you...metaphorically speaking of course.

Chez Cho's is what my friends and I affectionately term the pleasure and privilege of dining at the home of our friend, whom I shall somewhat predictably name, Chef Cho. It's not just the food of fine dining quality that makes this such a special treat. I delight in having a front row seat at the stage that is the kitchen where the magic happens and I am transformed into a little child constantly asking "what's that?"

We began the night with an exquisite salad comprising slithers of marinated beetroot topped with goat's cheese, piped on top to resemble the iced gems of my childhood, with rocket and beetroot batons, generously drizzled in a sweet dressing of concentrated beetroot juice, red wine vinegar and toasted pine nuts. It was almost too pretty to consume. Almost...

Next, an experimental dish that I have been dying to try ever since I indulged myself by purchasing a jar of truffle honey at Borough Market*. What better use could be found than to slather it onto thick slabs of well-seasoned pork chops? The honey truffle jus was so good that I could have drank it from the roasting tin. Instead, I generously poured it over my juicy piece of meat and assortment of vegetables, prepared using professional techniques with French names that refuse to remain in my memory.


The pièce de résistance was dessert - a light and fluffy, yet sumptuous, chocolate soufflé. I learned that the secret to getting them to rise is to relentlessly whip the egg yolks and caster sugar, occasionally doing so over a saucepan of simmering water**. We held our breaths whilst excitedly watching them rise in the oven, as if observing the growth of an array of little mushrooms in real time. They were the perfect end to a perfect meal. I wish that everyone could have the pleasure of dining at Chez Cho's. But, with a little determination and practice (for those of you who don't often cook), these seemingly complicated dishes can be easily re-created in your home. It's undoubtedly worth a try.

* the truffles are placed in the jar infusing the honey with its deep and wonderful flavour.

** apparently, most cookbooks fail to point out that if you continously whip the mixture over the saucepan of simmering water, the eggs will cook! A fine balance of whipping them on and off the heat is required in order to get them to volumise correctly.

From France, with love

Drinking Fairmin Blanc Limé is like being carried away to a fragrant meadow on a wave of sparkling sunshine. Every sip of this heavenly blend of French white wine and Artisan lemonade paints pictures in my mind of succulently sweet strawberries, puffs of clouds floating across a bright blue sky and flowers dancing in a gentle breeze. It is, quite literally, a perfect summer's day captured in a bottle. And, I feel utterly glamorous whenever I drink it.

Where else would I make such a wonderous discovery but at Borough Market, London's treasury of gourmet food. My attention was captured by the arrangement of seductively vintage bottles on top of an old barrel, beautifully labelled with names such as Faustin, Elixia, and Fairmin. How could I resist this tantalising invitation? Somehow, I just knew that this would be something special.

Think I'm exaggerating? I urge you, nay dare you, to try it yourself and not fall in love. Three large bottles cost just £7.50, practically criminal considering how good this drink is. I cannot wait to return and buy every single flavour. My tastebuds are tingling with anticipation. In the meantime, my sun-basked meadow will just have to wait...

Cook, eat and run!

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of experiencing a unique cooking class for my birthday - cook (and eat) your own lunch with a professional chef in just 30 minutes! This deliciously fun idea, known as L'en cas*, has been brought over from Paris. And, it was every bit as stylish.

The class took place at culinary school, L'atelier des Chefs**, which offers a variety of hands-on classes from 'Dinner in an hour' to 'Grande Cuisine Masterclass'. I was immediately impressed and won over by the chic decor and sleek kitchen, which added to my you-are-special-and-deserve-this-fabulous-treat feeling.


Lunch of the day was Thai-style chicken and mango curry with basmati rice*** - a perfect remedy to my winter blues. Our chef, Andre Dupin, skillfully demonstrated how to prepare the fresh and exotic ingredients. To my pleasure, I learned the artful way of deseeding a chilli (cut off the top and rub it in your hands as if starting a fire with a stick) . Never again shall I scrape out the seeds with a knife!

The class was quite fast-paced but I thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere. For a moment, I felt like a real chef in a restaurant kitchen. And, even though I cook all the time, my heart swelled with pride as I plated my creation. Sweet mango and fragrant coriander played with hot chillies and tangy ginger in my mouth. It was a creamy coconut dream. I will definitely be back at L'atelier des Chefs for more...





* 'In case' (?)

**19 Wigmore Street, London W1U 1PH/0207 499 6580/info@atelierdeschefs.co.uk

*** recipe will be posted asap!

Mum's Chomporado

Chomporado - Filipino chocolate rice porridge. A beloved breakfast from my childhood.

For months, I have begged my mum to show me how to make it and she finally acquiesced on Sunday. I turned up at her home with a notepad, pen and camera, which were greeted with a disdainful glare. My mum doesn't believe in quantifying ingredients and following recipes. Instead, she prefers to cook by instinct and create delicious dishes as if by magic. And, it really was like magic...

We used cocoa, wonderfully shaped like little cannonballs, which my mum brought back from the Philippines. However, she says that it's perfectly fine to use powdered cocoa that you get at the supermarket. The food snob in me defiantly believes that the 'real' stuff is better.

The recipe: break down and mix a couple of the balls (or, the equivalent) with ~200ml of water in a saucepan over a medium heat to form a chocolate syrup. In the meantime, boil one cup of glutinous rice and one cup of regular rice in plenty of water (you may need to add water whilst it's cooking if the rice becomes very sticky). When most of the water has been absorbed, add ~10 large teaspoons of granulated white sugar and the chocolate syrup to the rice and stir vigorously. Taste the rice porridge and add more sugar, water or chocolate syrup to taste (my mum added several tablespoons of powdered cocoa mixed with hot water to intensify the chocolatey flavour).


et voilà! I am ten years old all over again.