Author: Hanna

Nigella’s sesame peanut noodles

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It is very probable that I am repeating myself, but I think the cokbook Nigella Express gets better and better everytime I pick it up. It contains plenty of weekday recipes, which  is great. And this recipe is from that book. I have made it many times, and you can eat it as it is or have maybe some chicken scewers with it. And it is perfect for the lunch box the next day.

Sesame peanut noodles, serves 4

Dressing: 

1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp garlic oil (or regular olive oil)

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp sweet chilli sauce

100 g peanutbutter

2 tbsp lime juice

Salad:

125g mange tout

150 g beansprouts

1 red pepper, sliced

2 spring onions, sliced

550 g cooked cool egg noodles

20g sesame seeds

4 tbsp chopped coriander

Mix the ingredients for the dressing in a bowl. Add everything but sesame seeds and coriander. Mix throughly. Add extra olive oil if it feels to dry. Add sesame seeds and coriander just before serving. 

Drinking out

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This week has been very different to a normal week for me, because I have been out eating and drinking both Tuesday and Wednesday and have drinks planned tonight as well. I love it though (although I’m tired) and I am certain that on Friday we will have a quiet night in with fresh prawns and a nice salad, and that I will have a looong lie-in on Saturday morning.

We went to a bar in Soho yesterday that is called Lab Bar (Academy) and they have really nice cocktails. To start with we had champagne, and then I had a wonderful passionfruit martini with the great name ‘Porn Star Martini’ and it had a shot glass of champney on the side. Around 10pm we realised that we were really hungry and we just went into the first place we passed by that looked decent. It can go totally wrong when you have that approach, but we were not disappointed with the pizzas we had in a place called Amalfi. That got both me and Carina thinking of the pizzeria back home in Beddingestrand (on the south coast) with the same name, and suddenly I was craving Swedish pizza. it sounds odd I know, and even though I can eat plenty of nice pizzas here, I sometimes miss the Swedish kind. It is definitely on my to-eat-list for the trip home this summer!

Tsunami, Clapham

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I have to post twice today, because I can not keep this to myself any longer: yesterday I had the best sushi in my life!

My friend Carina is staying with me while working in London this week, and last night we had a fab girl’s night out. First shopping in Covent Garden after work, then sushi and a glass of wine for supper.

And that is all thanks to my friend Gaby who I emailed yesterday asking for sushi recommendations, because I know she is great at that. After all, this is the girl who introduced me to Trinity. And I think you all know how I feel about Trinity. Pure foodie love. 😉

And now I have found another place to love – Tsunami. Gaby just told me that the chef is ex Nobu, so no wonder it was so good!

We arrived around 8pm and the place was nearly full, so I was glad I had booked before hand. The restaurant feels nice and cosy with an Asian touch, a perfect date venue by the way, and it was dimly lit and felt intimite.

Our lovely waiter for the evening was all charm and even sensed when we were about to pay, so we didn’t had to ask for the bill, he beat us to it by putting it on the table. Little things like that means a lot to me, and shows that the staff is on the ball and alert.

Worst iPhone photo ever, but I hope you get the idea.

It actually took a good while until we got the food we had ordered on the table, but it was of course freshly prepared and worth waiting for. We were blown away by the first bite. And half way into the meal we realised that we had to order more – that’s how good it was. So we did. A girls gotta eat, right?

Above you can (barely) see what we had, but I hope you can make out that it is nice sushi on the plate. The dim lighting and an iPhone camera was not the best combination… Anyway, for each maki roll we got six pieces so we started off ordering three maki rolls (salmon, spicy tuna and avocado and tempura shrimp) and two nigiri with scallops for me. The salmon rolls were really nice, and probably the best salmon rolls I have ever had, and yet they were not up for the competition from the other two rolls. The spicy tuna and avocado roll was excellent, served with a sauce on top and full in flavour, and even better (yes, it is possible!) was the tempura shrimp rolls. OMG, they were the best! They also had a sauce on top (a little similar to Rhode Island, but better) and absolutely lovely, Carina and I agreed. And the scallop nigiri was generous with the scallop and melted in your mouth. Lovely that one too.

Even though I am all nice adjectives, I am still struggling to explain just how nice it was, but I can say this at least: for every bite we were surprised by how good it was. By every bite. A nice experience I can tell you.  

It was very good value as well, for our massive portions (we had five rolls and two nigiri in the end), two glasses of wine, a bottle of water and service charge the bill landed on around £50 for two. Not bad at all.

If you’re dying to go (and you should be) but don’t want to venture to south-west London, you can visit their branch on Charlotte Street.

Pannacotta with raspberry syrup

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On Saturday we had the unusual pheasant eggs as a starter and for the maincourse we ate a classic in our house; chicken cannelloni. It is such a nice dish, creamy and comforting and it works both for a dinner party and a weekday.

But even better was the dessert! I tried a recipe from the Swedish blog Matplatsen. For once I actually followed the recipe (well, the ingredients list) but I changed the method a bit. 🙂 The pannacotta tasted lovely with all the vanilla, and the slightly tart syrup really worked to balance the creamy richness. Try this!

Vanilla pannacotta with raspberry syrup, serves 4

500 ml cream

1 vanilla pod

50 ml caster sugar

2 gelatine leaves

Syrup:

100g fresh raspberries (or frozen)

50 ml caster sugar

1 star anise

Put the gelatine in a bowl with cold water to soak. Cut the vanilla pod in half and place it in a saucepan. Add cream and sugar. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes while stirring with a whisk. Remove from heat and divide into four containers.  Leave to cool then refridgerate for at least three hours. When they have set, make the syrup. Melt sugar in a pan, without stirring, when it has almost melted, add the star anise and raspberries. Simmer while stirring for a few minutes. Put the syrup through a sieve to remove the pits. Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool for a few minutes. Divide between the pannacottas and top them with a thin layer each. Place a raspberry or two on top. Refridgerate for another 30 minutes before serving.

Asparagus with poached pheasant egg

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If I see something unusual or interesting food wise, I usually can’t resist the urge to buy it. So when I saw these pheasant eggs at Daylesford Organic on Saturday, I just had to buy them. They also had the more common duck eggs and quail eggs, which I have tried before, but pheasant eggs were new to me.

The eggs are quite small (but a lot bigger than quail eggs), the shell is grey and hard compared to regular hen eggs. The flavour was a bit different too, even though it tasted like eggs. But if you compare chicken to wild birds and do the same thing to the eggs, then you can figure out what it tastes like.

Asparagus with poached pheasant egg, serves 2

8-10 green asparagus spears

2 pheasant eggs

white wine vinegar

butter

salt

truffle oil

Break off the ends of the spears. Place in a pan and cover with boiling water. Add salt. Cook for a few minutes until they are ‘al dente’. Drain. Fill another pan with boiling water and 1/10 vinegar. Set the heat so that it is simmering. Break one egg into a mug/cup and lower it into the simmering water. Cover with a lid and take out the egg after 2 minutes. Transfer to a bowl with cold water. You can either poach both eggs at the same time – break the eggs into different cups and lower them into the water after each other, or poach them one by one. While the eggs are poaching, heat up some butter in a skillet and fry the asparagus for a couple of minutes. Divide between two plates, add salt, place the egg on top and drizzle truffle oil on top. 

Portobello Market, Daylesford Organic and Hummingbird Bakery

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On Saturday I chilled out in Notting Hill with my friend Jenny. It was nice spring weather and a perfect day for a lazy stroll. 

I love cosy Notting Hill, and although there are plenty of tourists it is well worth a visit.

Portobello Market is the famous market on Portobello Road and the street starts just by the Notting Hill Gate tube. In the beginning of the street there are a few clothes shops, vintage shops and souvenir shops, but further along the antigue shops and the antique market starts. Further towards Ladbroke Grove is the fruit and veg market which has blossomed recently and now sell nice food (Belgian waffles, sausages, paella, falafel and so on) as well as cheap and fresh vegetables, nice flowers, breads, olives and other foodie bits. We both bought some lovely tulips and daffodils and a few different types of olives.

Before we got this far we stopped by the Hummingbird Bakery, because for once there was not a massive queue (sign from the universe?), so we went in and picked out two gorgeous cupcakes we would have later that afternoon.

The cosiest part of Notting Hill is around Westbourne Grove, here you find both a Burberry and a Ralph Lauren shop and lots of nice cafées.  We had lunch at Daylesford Organic, which also has a shop. I found pheasant eggs I just had to buy, and they had the cutest Easter chocolates, all organic. There is usually a queue to the cafée, but it is worth the wait. Although the service have been slow on both occasions I have been here, the food is really good and it is good value for money.  We decided on a cheese board each and were not disappointed. We got four large pieces of cheese, fresh nice bread, a chutney and apple wedges. Really nice!

Two types of cheddar, red leicester and stilton.

A while after we had to bring out the cupcakes when we found a bench in a park. We had decided on one Red Velvet and one Sticky Toffee cupcake, and greedy as we are, we decided to share them. They were both lovely, but I think the sticky toffee cupcake won in the end with the bits of toffee on top. Tough decision though! 🙂

From left: Sticky Toffee and Red Velvet

I can also recommend a few other places to eat in Notting Hill. On Portobello Road are:

Electric Brasserie – next to the Electric Cinema. I have only been here for drinks but the brunch seems great (and popular) and behind the bar they mix bloody marys and smoothies after another.

Gail’s – Nice sandwiches on nice bread as well as lots of other baked goodies, sweet as well as savoury. No restrooms though, but still nice.

Westbourne Grove:

Ottolenghi – We had a peak in here and it looks amazing! Have to go soon…

Rainbow trout with parsley potatoes, baked beetroots and hollandaise

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I like buying fresh fish, and a reasonably priced fish here in the UK is the rainbow trout. I buy most my groceries from Ocado, and trough them you can buy fresh fish prepared on the day by their fishmonger. Perfect! I love the trout fillets with the skin on, I think they taste great but they are also easier to cook. I just panfried the fillets and served them with ovenbaked beetroots, summery potatoes with parsley and a deep yellow hollandaise. I have started to buy freerange eggs from a friend of a friend’s farm, and they have a deep yellow yolk. Best eggs ever!

Rainbow trout with parsley potatoes, baked beetroots and hollandaise sauce, serves 2

2 rainbow trout fillets with the skin on

persillade

5-6 potatoes (Maris piper)

a knob of butter

2 tbsp chopped parsley

2 fresh beetroots

olive oil

Sauce:

2 egg yolks

100 g salted butter

1 lime

1 tsp vinegar

salt, white pepper

Peel the beetroots and cut into wedges. Place in an ovenproof dish, add olive oil, salt and pepper. Bake for 1hr in 200C or until soft. Peel the potatoes and cut into 2-3 mm thick slices. Rince, put in a pan and cover with water. Add salt. Bring to the boil. Drain. Place in an oven tray, add dollops of butter (approx 2 tbsp) and chopped parsley. Bake until soft and golden, 200C, about 30 mins.  

Melt the butter and leave to cool a little. Mix vinegar, lime juice and egg yolks in a sauce pan.

Fry the trout fillets skinside down in oil/butter until the meat around the sides seems cooked. Turn over and fry on the other side for a few minutes. Place skinside down again. Sprinkle persillade on top and squirt some lime juice. Turn off the heat.

Skala rödbetorna och skär i klyftor. Lägg i en form, häll på olivolja, salt och peppar. Baka 1h 200 grader. Skala potatisen och skär i 2-3 mm tjocka skivor. Skölj, lägg i en kastrull, täck precis med vatten, salta. Koka upp. Häll av vattnet. Fördela i en form. Klicka över smör (ca 2 msk) och strö över persilja. Baka tills mjuka och gyllene, 200 grader ca 30 minuter.

Smält smöret och låt svalna lite. Blanda vinäger, limesaft och äggulor i en kastrull.

Stek forellfiléerna med skinnsidan neråt i olja/smör tills kanterna ser genomstekta ut, vänd och stek andra sidan. Vänd igen, pressa över lite limejuice och strö å lite persillade och vitpeppar. Turn off the heat.

Put the sauce pan in a double boiler or on a very small flame. Whisk while adding the butter little by little until it is all incorporated. Be careful not to get the sauce too hot, and don’t stop beating as the sauce might split. Season with salt and pepper. 

Chocolate muffins with muscovado and dulche de leche

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I had some dulche de leche left over after making the cake. About 100 ml or so, and since I dislike throwing away food, I thought it was best to use it up. I made some chocolate muffins and added a dollop pf dulche de leche to the bottom of the case. They were really scrumptious and disappeared quickly when I took them to work. 🙂

The recipe is related to this one, but the texture is completely different because of the muscovado sugar. I think the other recipe works better as a whole cake, whereas this batter I would only use for muffins.

Chocolate muffins with muscovado and dulche de leche, makes 12

100 ml dulche de leche

100 ml caster sugar

200 ml light muscovado sugar

150 ml plain flour

2 tsp vanilla sugar

3 tbsp cocao

150 g melted salted butter (or unsalted + 1/2 tsp salt)

2 eggs

Put cake cases in a muffin tray. Place 1 tsp of dulche the leche in the bottom of each case. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the melted butter and eggs. Mix and pour into muffin cases, fill only to 3/4. Bake for 20 mins or until they just set, in 175C. 

Syria: Dead cities and Palmyra

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When we travelled around the country, the last place for us to visit before we returned to Damascus was Palmyra. The place is amazing and something everyone should get to experience. We werw incredibly happy that we had saved this place to last, because if we had seen this earlier on the trip, we would probably end up disappointed with a few other sights, like the abandoned Byzantine cities outside Aleppo; the dead cities. This is why I will show you the photos in the same order we saw these two places. And I sincerely hope our pictures will make Palmyra justice. It is an amazing place.

The dead cities have been abandoned a long long time, but were well preserved. There are quite a few of them, but we only visited the two closest to Aleppo. When we were there, it was just Christopher and I and our driver who stayed with the car. At least that was what I thought, until I ended up walking into a farm situated just behind the city. They even used the ruins as stables for their sheep.

Palmyra was founded in ancient times, and had Roman influences although it was its own empire with their own mythology. I believe the city was discovered as late as the 1970s and it was only a few years ago that a team of Japanese archeologists discovered some tombs a bit further away. Palmyra is a vast city and very well preserved. It feels like you have travelled back in time when you walk around these magnificient old buildings and columns. The small (modern) town that exists today only live off turism, and before the old Palmyra was discovered there was nothing here apart from sand. Quite a lot of sand we noticed when we got caught up in a small sandstorm the last day.

Syria: More food

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Most of our time in Syria we stayed at cheaper backpacker hotels, although nice and clean ones. Most of these hotels served the breakfast on a metal tray (charming, I imagine that is what you get in prison) with freshly baked bread, hardboiled egg, olives, butter, jam and a fruit. And tea or coffee with that. One of the hotels, which was a little bit more lika a B&B, served breakfast in the family dining room, and without the metal trays. Instead we had fresh smoothies, a few different kinds of Syrian pastries, baguettes and lots of different toppings. And hardboiled eggs of course.

B&B style brekkie

When we stayed at Beit Zafran, the nice hotel, the breakfast was amazing. My stomach was not great so I only had a little, but Christopher ate and ate.  

We sat on the rooftop terrace, that was covered, but the sun was still shining on us. It was only us and another two people having breakfast late, and the service was outstanding. Outstanding. The freshly squeezed orange juice was served in champagne flutes, and we had the choice of tea or coffee. We chose tea, and as soon as we had a sip or two the cup was refilled. They probably refilled our teacups six times in half an hour. The bread basket was filled with sliced baguettes and croissants straight from the oven. We had a croissant each and then new fresh ones appeared.

Apart from lots of different cheeses, vegetarian paté and jams, there was fruit slad, Syrian semolina, olives, dips and sauces, and probably a lot more. I forgot the camera in the room, and my sunglasses, but I hope the description will do. It was lovely!

The chef who we had cooked with a week before came to say hello and chat a little. A nice touch, and all of the staff seemed genuinely nice. 

When we didn’t order mezze in nice restaurants, we went crazy for the schwarma. So tasty! The crispy outside is the best bit. The best schwarma place we found in the otherwise quite boring town of Hama. We just stumbled upon it, saw how popular it was and were not disappointed! Second best was a place behind the Umayyad mosque in Damascus. They recognised us in the end and let us pay after we’ve eaten instead of before, because it was quite likely that Christopher would have a second one.

Some days we planned poorly and couldn’t find lunch when we were somewhere remote, so we always tried to have some snacks in our bags.

We also tried Western food. When my stomach was really bad I thought food I was more used to would upset my stomach less. We found a nice Italian restaurant that was recommended on a blog, so we had pizza. It was really nice, but a bit too cheesy.

This is the last blog post about Syrian food. For now. I’ll come back when I have started cooking Middle Eastern food myself.