Ayurveda and Kerala, India

I've recently got back from an Ayurvedic and yoga retreat in Kerala, South India. For anyone who doesn't know what Ayurveda is there is more information here, but basically it is an ancient form of wellbeing and health which focuses on prevention rather than cure and if medicine is necessary using natural herbal options. The doctors train for longer than Western doctors and there seems to be growing research based evidence supporting this and similar approaches (unsurprisingly as much research is funded by drug companies there is tends to be more focus on chemical medicine). A large element of this is the way you eat with a focus on certain food suiting different types of people. The food is mainly vegetarian.

Whilst I was away I had a cooking course into how to make an Ayurvedic meal. The course was taken by the chefs from the hotels kitchen.





Apologies in advance for the quality of the photos but I didn't take my proper camera with me as I was packing light and it was pretty dark in the room we were in.

Dhal Maharajah

We started by making a Dhal Maharajah, which was a yellow lentil dish.

Pre-cook 100g of yellow lentils according to the instructions on the packet.

Then you need to add 1/2 tsp of cumin seeds to a little oil, add three cloves of crushed garlic, an equal quantity of grated gingered one large onion very finely diced. Sauté until golden brown and soft. Add 1/2 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp cumin powder, 1/2 tsp chilli powder and one tomato chopped finely. Cook the spices in for a few minutes.


Add the pre-cooked lentils along with a little of their cooking water. Put the lid on the pan and cook, stirring occasionally, until the lentils are thick.


Stir though some chopped coriander and serve.



Vegetable Thoram

Next we made a Vegetable Thoram. A Thoram means a dry dish which often has coconut in it.

Start by heating a little coconut oil in a pan and add to it 1tsp mustard seeds, 5-10 curry leaves. Cook until the mustard seeds start to pop and add 1/2 tsp grated ginger, 1 crushed garlic clove, a very finely chopped onion, 1/2tsp salt, 1/2tsp chilli powder and 1/2 tsp turmeric. Cook until the onion is soft.



Very chop finely chopping your vegetables, we used carrots, green beans, cauliflower and cabbage and add to the pan with a little water. Cook, stirring occasionally to ensure they don't burn until the vegetables are cooked through and soft. Stir in 2 tbsps of grated dried coconut (unsweetened desiccated coconut) and serve.




Lemon Rice

Finally we made a lemon rice. Pre-cook 100g of basmati rice.

Start by adding 1/2 tbsp if cashew nuts and 1/2 tbsp of raisins to a little oil. Add 5-10 curry leaves and 1/2 tsp turmeric powder and cook the spices in.





Stir in the pre-cooked basmati rice, along with the juice of a lime and 1/2 tsp salt and serve.




Here are some of the pictures of the buffet that the chefs prepared each day

One day I also went on a trip out to a local food market. I think my taxi driver thought I was mad, but as I've probably mentioned before I think going to a food market really gives you a feel of a places food and culture. It was only small but there were still many fascinating things. As I didn't have anywhere to cook I couldn't buy much but I did buy some mango for me and the driver. 

Pork escalopes with lemon and parsely

I eat almost anything but I'm really not the biggest fan of pork but this recipe is so simple and so good that it almost has me converted!

It was another recipe which my mum and I picked up during our cooking holiday in Italy. Matilde, the teacher we had was the queen of making something delicious out of a handful of ingredients, extremely good ingredients admittedly.

I always advocate buying the best quality meat you can afford. Maybe eating it less often or cheaper cuts to do so. It makes me sad thinking about how some of the poor animals are treated and I genuinely think decent meat tastes better. Not to mention the antibiotics and growth hormones they pump into factory farmed meat.

Start by taking some thinly sliced pork loin, place it between two layers of cling film and bash it flatter with a meat cleaver, rolling pin or something else heavy. You want to make the pork quite thin without breaking it completely. Dust with flour.

Take a hot pan and a little oil and fry the pork in batches, cooking for a couple of minutes on each side. Once cooked place on some kitchen roll on a plate and season well. Repeat until all the pork is cooked.

Return all of the meat to the hot pan. Add a handful of finely chopped parsley, the juice of one lemon and top with slices of lemon. Place the lid on the pan and turn the pan off. Leave to rest for a few minutes.

I served with green veg and salad.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo so I'll have to make it again sometime soon.

Vegetable Thai Green Curry Soup

I love Thai green curry, especially a recipe I learnt when I was in Thailand (I really must write a post on it next time I make it) and at this time of year I eat soup for lunch most days. I had a small amount of coconut milk in the fridge so decided to combine the two and make a slightly more soupy vegetable curry.

I started by dicing the vegetables to a size easy to eat with a spoon, far smaller than I would for a true curry. I then heated the coconut milk with the water, added the green curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, sugar and soy followed by the veg and cooked until the veg were all fairly soft but still holding their shape. I finished by squeezing in lime juice and some sliced red chilli. You could also top with fresh coriander if you had some. I also normally add some torn kaffir leaves but forgot!

Here it is cooking in the pan


Recipe

Makes two generous bowls of soup and is easily doubled/halved etc. You can also substitute the veg for whatever you have in the fridge that you think would be tasty

1/2 tin coconut milk
2-3 tablespoons of green Thai curry paste to taste
1 tsp fish sauce
1/2 tsp sugar (or natural sweetener)
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp fresh ginger grated
1 courgette
1 red pepper
1 large carrot
2 onions
1/2 red chilli
Juice of 1/2 lime
3-4 torn kaffir leaves (if you remember!)
A bunch of torn coriander (if desired)


Dice all of the veg

Heat the coconut milk with the curry paste, ginger, fish sauce, ginger and sugar.

Add the veg and cook until it is soft but still holds its shape. Approx 20-30 mins

Add the lime and kaffir leaves. Serve topped with slices of red chilli and corriander

Tiramisu Cake

This morning I went for brunch at Bills Produce Store in Covent Garden with a large group of friends. As it was such a lovely day afterward we went to sit in the park to enjoy the sun. I made a cake for us to have a slice with a takeaway coffee.

I started by a basic vanilla sponge sliced into three layers. I brushed each layer with plenty of strong, sweet coffee and a good dusting of cocoa powered. For the frosting I used a recipe I got from the course I went to in Italy mentioned in my soup post http://www.cookitaly.it/recipes.htm (recipe below) and put it between the layers and all over the top and sides of the cake.

I dusted the top with a little cocoa powder, icing sugar and gold glitter.




Mascarpone Frosting
1. Separate the egg white and egg yolk from one egg
2. Whisk the egg white into stiff peaks
3. Whisk the egg yolk with 2tbsps of sugar
4. Stir in 250g mascarpone
5. Whip 250ml double cream
6. Fold the double cream and ye egg whites into the mascarpone mixture

Eric Lanlard Cupcake Masterclass

Yesterday was my birthday and as a treat I had the day off work and booked on an Eric Lanlard Cupcake Masterclass with my friend and mum. We didn’t really know what to expect, but turned up early at Cake Boys so we could have some lunch before hand. The food was tasty and good value and as it was a lovely sunny day we sat outside to make the most of the last few days of warmth.

The course is actually run by Eric. He started by doing a quick demonstration of how to make decorations for the tops of our cupcakes using silicone mould and petal paste using moulds similar to the photo below and then how to paint and decorate them with edible food colouring and edible glitter.





There were lots of moulds to choose from. Once we had made 12 each and they were fairly dry we painted and decorated.

Eric then produced huge bowls of frosting and boxes of cupcakes for us all to decorate and take home. The frosting was a vanilla cream cheese frosting and we had a choice of colours, white, pale pink and pale green. He then showed us three methods to pipe the frosting onto the cakes and topped with the decorations made at the start.

We also did some of the cakes with half pink and half green icing in the bag to get a two tone effect.

Here are the cakes that Eric made:





Here is my slightly less professional attempts!









We got to take home our Cake Boy aprons and Eric kindly signed a copy of his recipe book that I had been given for my birthday.

All in all we had the most fabulous day and I would recommend to anyone who is interested in baking and cupcakes.

Autumnal Soups

I intended on posting this last night in order to keep up with my aim of writing a post everyday for a week but unfortunately ran out of time.

I always love soups, especially for lunch, but as the weather starts to turn autumnal soups come into their own. Warming and filling they are decidedly satisfying.

I made three batches of soup which I have optioned up and put in the freezer to take out for lunches either at work or home.

As most of my previous posts I'm afraid I haven't got a 'proper' recipe'. I have a tendency when cooking to cook by tasting as I go and experimenting with flavours I know complement each other, borrowing from memories of recipes I may have followed at some point in the past.

The first soup I made was a Spiced Pumpkin Soup with Mint Yoghurt. I started by peeling and roasting a pumpkin with 2 onions and 3 cloves of garlic (I know this sounds a lot but once roasted it takes on a lovely sweet and mellow flavour). I then added this to a large pan with some homemade chicken stock I had in the freezer, some ground chilli, cumin, corrinader, turmeric and garam masala (which I had dry fried for a few seconds first) and seasoned it well. I left it simmering for about 30 mins and the. cooled slightly before blending it until smooth. Taste to check the seasoning and add more if needed.

It's great served with a generous blob of mint yoghurt (I use Greek yoghurt mixed with chopped mint and seasoning).






A couple if years ago I went on a wonderful cooking course in a farmhouse in the hills just north of Rome, Italy http://www.cookitaly.it/recipes.htm

Twice daily the cook came down from the village to teach us to cook and this soup is one of the recipes I've made many times since. The original had a small potato in it added at the beginning and some risotto rice added about 15 mins before the end so feel free to revert to the original. The result is a very thick, filling soup so could even be eaten as a light dinner.

You start by frying a diced carrot, onion, celery tops and a clove of garlic in a pan. Once slightly browned and softened add a cup of dried green lentils, about 5 diced cherry tomatoes, seasoning and about a litre of stock. Simmer for about 45 mins, checking if more liquid is needed every so often. It should be thick by the end but you don't want it to dry out or burn on the bottom of the pan. About 5 mins before the end add another 5 diced cherry tomatoes and a handful of chopped parsley. Check the seasoning and serve.






The final soup I made was a Chicken, Vegetable and Barley soup. I love barley anyway and think it's a wonderful grain but in something like this simple soup it comes into it's own.

I started by sautéing finely diced carrot, onion and celery as a base (the same idea as an Italian sofritto) I then added a crushed garlic clove, a cup of barley, seasoning a handful of shredded roast chicken (don't worry you really don't need a lot) and about a litre of brown chicken stock (this is made by taking the carcass from a roast chicken and putting it back in the own until the bones and any remaining chicken are quite brown. The carcass is then boiled in plenty of water for an hour or so to make a very tasty stock. You can also add veg to the stock pot but on this occasion I didn't). Cook this for about 45 mins until the barley is soft. Check every so often that there is enough liquid and add more water if necessary. About 5 mins before the end add a handful of chopped parsley.

Sorry for the less than pretty serving bowl but this was ready to go into the freezer when I thought to take a photo!

L'Atelier des Chefs

I recently went to a cooking course at L'Atelier des Chefs on Wigmore Street, London I didn't really know what to expect but it was fantastic value and we all had a great night. The group were all varying levels of experience but we all still went away learning something.

We made two courses. The first was sea bream with provencal vegetables and for desert saffron and pistachio cake served with orange and cinnamon cream.

I decided to try the main course for dinner at home. I didn't have any sea bream but substituted sea bass and then made the veg.

Basically you an aubergine, courgette, pepper and finely chop an onion and two cloves of garlic. Start by frying the onion first and then add the garlic and the vegetables add a couple of swigs of thyme and rosemary and season. Once the veg is soft add a small amount of chopped tinned tomatoes or passata and cook for about 10 mins.

Pin bone the fish and fry skin side down until crisp and just cooked. In the lesson we were told to start with oil in a cold pan, then add the fish before putting it onto the heat. The chef said this prevented the kitchen smelling of the fish as much as it cooked and it did seem to help. We didn't turn the fish over as the filets are thin enough to cook through without doing. It also allows the skin to get very crispy.

Serve the fish skin side up on a ladle of the veg and drizzle with balsamic glaze - yummy!

Here is a picture of the veg...



The chef also said variations were good such as putting cumin seeds in and serving with Moroccan chicken and that it was also good with lamb.

Here is a link to the L'Atelier des Chefs website where you can book courses and find lots more recipes http://www.atelierdeschefs.co.uk/

Recipe adapted from L'Atelier des Chefs.