An Ode to Summer and to Stonefruit

The dessert equivalent of a fruity snog from someone you rather fancy

This little piece is about the humble stone fruit. It's been a great season for apricots, nectarines, peaches and plums this year. Early summer as the days hinted at warmth I ate them as they were, early sunlight streaming through the skylight, hacking off pieces with a little paring knife while I distractedly read the paper.

As August progressed and the weather settled into a constant steady heat I felt they needed jazzing up a little, one sunny afternoon they accompanied a fruity Wensleydale from the local farmers market and some idle girly chatter. Another relaxed evening they happily plonked themselves in some honeyed Greek yoghurt stacked high with bashed walnuts.

As the season draws to a close and the nights get colder, they, just like I, deserve to be warmed up a little.

Last night I roasted a whole heap of them with some vanilla and served the hot syrupy, sweet and gooey fruits with some beautiful cold organic ice cream.

If you aren't salivating yet, I don't want to speak to you any more.

Also, here's the recipe.

Roasted Stonefruits for a Chilly September night (c/o BBC GoodFood)

Ingredients 

175g of golden caster sugar
1 vanilla pod (split in two)
5 cardamom pods
Zest and the juice of 1 lime
6 apricots, halved and stoned (no illicit substances here)
3 peaches, quartered and stoned
3 nectarines, quartered and stoned
I also added 2 plums because they looked lonely

First, pre-heat your oven to get a bit of warmth in your kitchen brrr. Next get out your trusty food processor. If you don't have one, then go buy one! Now! They are only around £30, you have no excuse.

Once you've returned back from John Lewis with your brand new food processor (welcome back and congratulations, you won't regret it), blitz your sugar, lime junk, cardamom pods (not the whole thing, just the seeds- I probably should have mentioned that earlier), your vanilla pod (callously split in two and hacked to pieces) and all your sugar.

Now, I know what you're thinking, holy fuck that's a lot of sugar. And you are right. But just go with it.

So whizz all of that together until your sugar goes all soggy and awesome and then pour into a baking dish over all your nicely cut up fruit. I added my desecrated vanilla pods into the mix as well, mainly because they cost me a bloody fortune and they make it look all 'Jamie Oliver'.

Stick it in your hot oven for about 20-25 minutes, keep an eye on it and move the fruit around if some are looking more sticky and brilliant than others.

I served mine with Green and Blacks Organic ice cream, and whole lot of laughs.

Bye bye Summer, Autumn, let's be 'avin you!

Foodie Sitting Still

I’ve recently discovered the wondrous joy of sitting still in my life. It has been a conscious effort to do so, a mysterious warm comfort blanket of stability, of knowing where I’m going to live and work for the next couple of years, of setting down roots to nurture into a sturdy oak upon which I can lean and read my Kindle. For a frantic frequent traveller who has been a post-doc in flux for four busy years. This feels remarkably nice.

I made the decision to sit still after a recent spate of awful travelling luck. It began in Stockholm, having been privy to a delayed flight and having the misfortune to arrive into Heathrow as bewildered as a baby deer as the whole terminal was in a state of chaos due to wayward plane catching fire resulting in a temporary shut down. You don't need me to tell you that Heathrow in crisis at 2am is not a fun place to be. The mania of fraught, worried and wordless Swedes, the screaming of understandably cranky children, the patience-wearing-thin-but-still-wearing-a-veil-of-politeness British Airways Terminal 5 staff handing out baggage reclaim forms to snatching dismissive hands, the bad Costa coffee. After dragging my sorry behind home at 3am sans suitcase, I was a bit pissed off.

I returned home 10kg lighter to find that to add insult to injury, some genius criminal mastermind had stolen the majority of my money and was living it up in Singapore. I imagined him/her gleefully withdrawing hundreds of pounds at a whim, presumably to sit in fancy hotels and drink Singapore Slings, glasses clinking in the hazy afternoon sunlight, the muffled sound of the busy city below punctuated with endless toasts: ‘to fraud!’, ‘to illegal cash withdrawal!’, ‘to the poor girl in her overdraft at the age of 29!’ . Or at least that’s how I imagine it.

A few days later after navigating a mind-boggling British Airways baggage reclaim system and eventually resorting to Tweeting them directly because it was easier (what have we become?), my sorry suitcase made it’s triumphant return, the slight squeak of the wheel mirroring my residual emotional trauma.

After my money was returned, my credit cards reinstated, clothes unpacked and Buddhist abandonment of all possessions ceased. I made the decision to stop flying about for a bit and stay at home more.

The decision has been a rather fruitful one. I’ve begun to read more. I have time to make espresso and listen to the Archers on a Sunday (poor Lilian). I know vaguely what’s happening in Syria. I’ve swapped permanent shoulder damage from heavy bag straps to resting and reading in the bath. I've swapped consumption of dubious WHsmith sandwiches at a dingy train stations to crusty homemade bread topped with in-season crab and a dollop of glistening homemade mayonnaise.

So this weekend I will be sitting still and making Welsh Rarebit. The food of my people. Such a dish combines some of my favourite things: Wales, cheese and a lovely ale.

Recipe and obligatory insta-grainy photo to follow.

Bon weekend

2012: A year in food

Yep it's that time of year again, the end of one food era and the beginning of another. This year has been marked by not only things that I never thought i'd ever do (go to China solo, sign up for a half marathon, drive a car....) but also things that I definitely would do. That is eat, a lot.

So I thought I would share with you my personal food highlights of 2012.

Best breakfast out

My two stints in Sydney have made this one difficult but I'm going to go with the place with not only the nicest food but also the best memory. Bills. My breakfast here was a simple affair, a good old British meets Aussie fry up. Except each element is delivered to perfection, the scrambled eggs are of course legendary, the heart stopping slab of butter positioned between two perfect pieces of sourdough and the delicious sausages. Washed down with a much too small cup of coffee (pyramid scheme). Additionally to the food I have great memories of that breakfast, it was a warm morning, I was sat opposite a school watching parents drop their children off, I'd just read about how interconnected we all are in the world and I was exchanging eye contact with the barista who was far too good looking for his own good.

Runners up: Greek eggs at Demitri's Kitchen (Melbourne), a classic fry up at Boston Tea Party (Exeter, UK), simple but beautiful avocado and tomato at Elizabeth Bay Cafe (Sydney) and the £10 French platter at Enoterra (Shanghai)

Breakfast fail of the year: Element Fresh (Shanghai), 4 poached eggs, sausage and sweet toast...really?

Best breakfast in

Smashed Avocado on Toast

This year i've spent a lot more time in my self-proclaimed fabulous kitchen. I've spent many a solo Saturday taking in the papers and aeropressing the hell out of my coffee. But one breakfast moment in particular stands out, that's my smashed avocado on toast.

I think this one was so significant because it was my first weekend back after Shanghai and I had dragged my weary hungry self to Sainsburys for the first post-jet lagged feast. With hunger and greed ravaging my soul, I had eagerly filled my basket with treasures, some super fancy golden yolked eggs (I'm pretty sure laid by hens that were fed exclusively with organic feed from Fortnum and Mason), a loaf of sourdough, some beautifully ripe hass avocados and some Greek feta. As I began to consume my eggy masterpiece I had one of those moments where I wished that somebody had been around to taste what a wonder I had created. The best I could do was take an arty farty hipsomatic instagram of it and as my friend TES would say, promise to 'blog the shit out of it'. So here it is:

Best Scrambled Eggs when you haven't eaten scrambled eggs or decent bread for 2 months
Serves one greedy person

Really good quality room temperature eggs (3 if you are feeling crazy)
Cubes of feta
A handful of rocket
A splash of cream
Butter (the good stuff, I like the one that's flecked with sea salt)
A nice ripe avocado
A couple of slices of good white bread
A squeeze of lemon
A scatter of chopped fresh parsley

Toast your sourdough or whatever nice thick bread you have cut. Lavishly spread with that beautiful butter. Mash some avocado in a bowl with a squeeze of lemon, a bit of sea salt and some black pepper. Spread generously on your hot toast. Next melt some butter (I know, I know...) in a pan and add your eggs with your handful of parsley and splash of cream. Scramble until gooey, don't let them go too far, take off the heat and let them firm up a bit. Arrange beautifully over your bread with a scattering of feta for saltiness and a handful of rocket to make you feel better. Serve with a fresh pot of coffee, the newspaper and Etta James.

Best fancy lunch

M on the Bund Brunch (Shanghai)

Dessert Platter, China Doll (Sydney)

A tie between my hatted lunch at China Doll with blushing bride VC and Welsh hottie GPR. We were spoilt with cocktails, duck pancakes, delicate and tender sashimi and a flurry of desserts (pictured).

Another incredible lunch moment of 2012 was lunch at M on the Bund with my wonderful Shanghai ladies. Not only was the food, view and atmosphere beautiful but also this was the moment, a week before I left, that I took the moment to appreciate the incredible experiences I had, and the amazing people that I had the pleasure of meeting. The fact that this moment also involved a Swedish smorgasbord and champagne was the icing on the cake.

Best absolutely mundane lunch

In my whole year my lunch highlight involves me crouching over my desk (which I made into a kitchen) in my little room in Shanghai, indulging in what might have been the best sandwich experience of my life. I think at this point I hadn't eaten decent bread, ham or cheese for a month and I had just discovered that you could get all of these things in my local supermarket just a hop, skip and a jump away. So I greedily constructed the best sandwich I've ever had, a slice of French cheese, some ham that I'm pretty sure on retrospect was a week out of date and butter all crammed in a huge crunchy and miraculously non-sweet baguette. I stuffed this with expensive salt and vinegar crisps imported all the way from the UK and for the first time in a month felt the culture shock melt away.

Best fancy dinner

Let's not beat around the bush here, my two best dinners out both involve Australia. The first, Porteno, two hatted heaven, specialising in meat but trumping with vegetarian delights such as quail egg salad with cauliflower puree. The second, one hatted happiness at Lolli Redini where I had a triple cheese soufflé foodgasm. Bravo Australia, you've done it again.

Notable mentions: The steak at Tonic (Nottingham), incredible pizza at brand new Scarpetta (Shanghai), birthday Yunnanese at Lost Heaven (Shanghai) and Duck at my beautiful friend's wedding (Corn Barn Exeter)

Best dinner in

Ronald McDonald eat your heart out

My stand out dinner also involves a solo Saturday night, for the whole week i'd had a hankering for a beautiful chicken burger. Having sneakily visited McDonalds that Tuesday for a McChicken Sandwich and still not satisfied, my attention turned to home made. I wandered around Waitrose hoping for inspiration and a few ingredients captured my attention, some beautiful fresh chicken breast strips, a packet of fresh breadcrumbs, some crunchy fresh rolls and some garlic mayonnaise. My dinner was set.

A Chicken Burger Supper for a blissful night in
Serves one girl with a hankering for a burger

A packet of chicken breast strips (you could do this yourself but I find this easier)
Either fresh breadcrumbs or a packet of panko (both are fantastic)
A crusty roll
A handful of whatever leaves make you feel better about yourself, I went for baby spinach
Half an avocado
Either homemade or really good quality garlic mayonnaise
Some mozzarella if you are feeling really naughty
An egg and some flour
Some skinny fries and Dijon mustard for dunking

Get yourself three bowls and whisk up one egg in one, some flour in another and your breadcrumbs in the final. Douse your chicken strips in flour, then egg, then roll generously in breadcrumbs. You could add some parmesan to your breadcrumbs here if you are feeling particularly mental.

Once you have coated your chicken heat some oil up in a shallow pan and fry each until golden. Pop them on a baking tray and finish off in the oven. Use your judgement depending on thickness, this should only take 15 mins max.

Prepare your lovely roll and get your chips cooked. Fill the roll with whatever you feel like. I added a strip of mozzarella, a smear of mayo and a handful of lovely peppery rocket. Add your hot chicken strips straight from the oven and serve with salad, fries and a dollop of Dijon for dunking.

Goals for next year

I have many food goals for next year, I want to visit Nottingham's very own Michelin Starred gaff. I'd love to eat a burger at Electric Diner in London. I want to try the new Scandinavian cuisine that is all the rage right now for my hopefully impending trip to Sweden and finally I'd like to bake my own bread and make some pate upon which to spread (if I can bear the sight of those livers).

So here's to an amazing year in food. I wish you all the best for 2013, may your plates be bountiful and your heart full of joy.

Lots of love and kisses
HYKAEI x

Cold Night Cookery Part 2: A Tomato Tart

I recently made a list of 29 things I wanted to do before I was 29 whilst cowering in a hotel room in the middle of a typhoon in China. The list was a whistle stop tour of philosophical whimsy (#24 change somebody's life, #21 discover Buddhism) to materialistic glee (#6 buy a fabulously expensive winter coat) to travelling wonder (#25 explore the icy North) to more time dedicated to food with friends (#14 throw an amazing party for friends). With the festive season approaching my flatmate and I decided that there wouldn't be anything better than to warm our beautiful home and host our even more beautiful friends with celebration of everything: of Christmas, of Nottingham, of being happy, of being together and being in the presence of wonderful food.

With that in mind I excitedly started menu planning, I was most excited about a deliciously simple pesto tart a la my ideal man (if he was straight) Nigel Slater.

A Tomato Tart for a Room full of your lovely friends (v)

Ready rolled puff pastry (one block)
Home made or good quality pesto from the chiller (I used Tesco's finest- award winner apparently)
A variety of interesting tomatoes (I used on the vine beefy ones and little mini yellow and red piccolo) . Room temperature please. What are we animals?
Some fresh basil- torn
Some mozzarella (a variation on the original recipe)

First of all flour a baking sheet and plonk your ready rolled pastry on top. Take a moment to bask in how easy that was. Take a knife and lightly score a 2cm border around the pastry like you are carving out a pastry photo frame (where I like to display my best snaps).

Now grab your delicious award winning pesto and slather the whole lot generously in your little picture frame until you start salivating. Next slice your tomatoes how ever you darn well choose and scatter in a thin (but not too thin fashion). That sounds vague, and it kind of is. But it's OK  Now scatter over your basil with a nice twist of sea salt, fresh black pepper and dot with torn mozzarella.

Take another moment to bask in culinary smugness before bunging it in the oven on a moderate heat. Remove when the pastry around the outside has risen and is looking golden and awesome.

The tart was a roaring success, as was the party of many highlights. I particularly enjoyed the Serbian home brew, the conga line and the realization that Mariah Carey's 'All I want for Christmas is you' will melt the heart of even the most cynical hipster.

So a very Merry Christmas to one and all. May your festive season be filled with warm houses overflowing with love, happiness and bloody delicious tarts.

Cold Night Cookery: Vegetable Lasagne

If you don't like this, I don't like you

With the nights drawing in and the cold weather howling outside my window every morning I have decided to do something wild and spend more time at home. Over the last 12 months most weekends have been spent jumping on expensive trains to visit loved ones around the country. While I have enjoyed every minute of these visits, my winter plan was to spend more time enjoying my home, taking in some music, having lots of baths, writing and of course cooking.

This Friday night was a rare gem, my housemate and I were miraculously at the same place at the same time on a weekend and we also had a lovely visitor. No better time to cook my extra special vegetable lasagne.

In our household growing up we didn’t eat a lot of minced meat, my dad couldn’t really stomach it and my mum followed suit so rather than fry minced beef for our lasagnes and and chillis we either used vegetables, and later on in my childhood, Quorn.

Quorn is a marvellous thing when added to hearty meals, adding bulk and if you ask me actually tasting nicer than mince (I hate the look, sound and smell of minced beef cooking). So in my endless quest for the perfect vegetable lasagne I have finely tuned and crafted the ingredients until I have found the ultimate combination of taste, texture and nutritional value (ish, ignore the cheese).

The inclusion of the soft jarred peppers in oil is a 2012 revelation as a result of doing my weekly shop at Sainsbury’s. Sainsbury’s own jarred peppers are wonderful, slightly charred and sitting in a delicious, delicately flavoured oil that I like to keep and add to other dishes. I personally can’t have a vegetarian lasagne without a courgette or two and I couldn’t explain to you why. The jury is out about how to chop them and it depends on my mood. Sometimes I want a fine dice, sometimes I want them a little more chunky, other times I go for circular cuts to fully absorb the flavour. Tonight I’m feeling circular. I don’t usually use aubergine (or eggplant to the foreigners), tonight I feel like it. I’m probably going to layer it with the pasta after separately chargrilling it, maybe slopping it about afterwards with some olive oil and basil. We’ll see how we go.

I’ve experimented with different kinds of pastas, blindly believing that fresh is best I recently used fresh sheets to find that they disappointingly shrivelled up when I added them to the hot sauce, like they were ashamed of their long durum wheat yellow bodies (it’s Friday afternoon, it’s getting a bit abstract). So now I’m of the mind-set of screw you fresh pasta and I’m back to good quality dried stuff, sometimes I go for the green, today its traditional.

The cheese sauce is quite possibly the glue that holds the whole wonderful construction together; I obtained this wonderful recipe from my mother who can’t half make a mean cheese sauce. I understand that I’m supposed to be making a béchamel but who cares, I’m adding cheese. I’m also sprinkling the top with cheese and blobs of mozzarella. Lighten up, it’s Friday.

Finally to top it all off a lovely glass of red wine at room temperature. Pinotage should do it tonight. Ah. What a week. Oh and I appreciate I haven’t updated you on the running training for a while. Yeah..it’s going um....well....

Cheerio

HYKAEI BEST vegetable lasagne for a cold Friday night with friends

(Serves 6 or 4 hungry people)

Quorn mince (one bag)

2 onions or 3, whatever

Some garlic, diced, sliced, jarred. Whatever you have the energy to do with it

A couple of big jars of passata and a tin of tomatoes (preferably organic)

Some soft peppers in oil (I like Sainsbury’s own)

Olive oil

1-2 Courgettes and maybe a nice looking aubergine

A ball of mozzarella

Some fresh basil

Either dried or fresh lasagne sheets. I used fresh the other day and they weirdly shrivelled when I put them on the hot sauce so maybe go with some good quality dry ones

For the sauce

A block of good cheddar (just some nice mature/extra mature- nothing too extreme otherwise it will be overpowering)

Milk

Butter (real butter please not margarine). I like the French stuff

A little flour

Method

Firstly chop your onions up to a relatively fine dice, they should at least not be huge. Get a bit of olive oil going and fry until tender, adding some garlic until your kitchen starts to smell like mamas kitchen (I also appreciate the irony that Italians don’t EVER use garlic and onions at the same time). At this point add your veg, if you chopped the aubergine into small chunks add this now, you’ll probably need more oil, these things drink oil like Jamie Oliver on a slow day. Also add your courgettes ensuring that you have the heat high enough to get some colour on them all. Now it’s time to add the Quorn, ah magical, from freeze dried to mince in 0.2 seconds. Done.

Now you need to start adding your tomato based things to the mixture, either chop your peppers up or just throw them in whole adding a bit of the oil as well for good measure (not too much). Pour in your passata and tomatoes, a bit of water if you like and even some tomato puree if you want to go tomato crazy. Leave this to bubble away like a tomato sauce nightclub for a little while, use your instincts, if it starts thickening and looks awesome, it’s nearly done. Tear up some basil and add some seasoning, sometimes I add sugar sometimes not, always a bit of pepper, maybe salt. See what you think. You can EVEN throw a bit of your glass of wine in for depth of flavour.

If you are layering your aubergine like me then use this moment to fry in batches and set aside.

Right sauce DONE, set aside.

Now you are on to your cheese sauce, you need to watch this because it will cook quite quickly and then you will frantically need to construct your masterpiece (two people are better than one). First of all you need to make a roux. I never have exact measurements for this, just throw in a good old dollop of butter, a fair slice from your beautiful French stuff. When it starts to melt add a couple of heaped tablespoons of flour. I never add enough at this stage so don’t listen to me, add more. Stir until it makes a paste and now you need to add your milk whilst whisking, you can add some nutmeg at this stage if you want to be traditional. I never do, that stuff gives you hallucinations. Again this is a judgement call, it should be relatively thick now and this is your moment to throw in handfuls of salty amazing cheddar until the sauce can barely take no more.

Now to construct, layer sauce with pasta, a smidge of sauce, eggplant and repeat until you slather the top with cheese sauce. Dot with torn mozzarella and basil and sprinkle with the remaining grated cheese (stop eating it). The key is to make sure all of the pasta is covered by liquid or it won’t cook.

Time to select a wine, gutsy Pinotage wins!

Put it in a hot oven, make yourself a simple green salad, cut some bread and dunk it in olive oil, and pour yourself a glass of red.

I saw you eating that leftover cheese sauce!

Bon appetite!

A Weekend in a Welsh Kitchen

The long weekend was looming and I decided to take a trip back home to catch up with family and friends. I arrived back ravenous and in need for some serious lunch, thinking that my mum would present me with her usual speciality of a mug of sugary tea, marmite on toast and a chunk of smoked applewood cheese (not that I'm knocking that lovely treat). Instead I arrived home to my mum busy grating beetroot and chopping flat leaf parsley and informing me that we're going to have the ultimate steak sandwich. What a treat.

The Welcome Home Ultimate Steak Sandwich (a la my mum/ a la Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals)

Ingredients

1 large good quality steak (rib eye or rump) quite thick
Some jarred red peppers in oil
Lots of flat leaf parsley finely chopped
3 big dollops of horse radish
A long baguette or rustic bread (we used a half baguette toasted)
A drizzle of olive oil
A splash of balsamic
Lots of salt and pepper
Some sprigs of thyme
A large handful of rocket or other peppery leaves

First you need to get your baguette or rustic bread, slice it down the middle and drizzle with olive oil instead of butter. We toasted ours so that the olive oil sank deliciously into the bread. Next get your three big dollops of horseradish cream and smear all over one side of the bread. Top with a handful of rocket and get on with your dressing.

To make the dressing upon which to set the steak simply get a few jarred peppers in oil and finely chop with the parsley adding a splash of balsamic and a nice twist of salt and pepper.

Now it's time to prepare the steak. Get your slab of beautiful meat and generously season on both sides with salt, pepper, a drizzle of good olive oil and some sprigs of thyme. Warm up your scalding hot dry pan and flash fry the steak for around 3 minutes per side before taking out to rest upon your dressing. Leave it for 5 minutes or so for all the juices to escape before rubbing the steak into the dressing and juices to coat well.

Now lift your steak up, set aside the dressing underneath into a pile and carve the steak on an angle avoiding any tough chewy bits. You should have a nice medium cut with only a flash of pink.

Assemble the delicious pieces of steak (trying not to eat it all like I did) on to the sandwich topping with your reserved dressing. Cut into three nice generous pieces.

We had ours with a simple green salad, some grated beetroot topped with parsley and feta and some large field mushrooms quickly cooked in the oven topped with a chunk of cheddar. Bloody delicious.

My Mum's Moussaka and Garlic Potatoes (Vegetarian)

Garlic potato aftermath

As a child I used to hate this dish, I thought the gooey soft aubergines looked like weird insects and the whole dish was beyond my palate. Now as a fully fledged member of the adult community I can see the absolute genius  of a simple white sauce with egg yolks that somehow tastes as delicious as if I had grated half a block of Davidstow but mysteriously contains no cheese whatsoever. The vege sauce is quick to assemble and this amount will feed 4 with some leftovers for scooping cold out of the bowl the next morning for breakfast (I'm destined to turn into Nigella).

Ingredients

One chopped white onion, lots of garlic chopped, a bag of quorn mince, oregano (fresh and/or dried we used both), lots of quartered fresh tomatos, a couple of tins of tomatoes

A couple of aubergines, sliced and salted

Flour, butter, milk and two egg yolks

A bag of small baby potatoes, whole cloves of garlic (skin on), one lemon quartered, a little oil, salt and pepper

First make your 'meat' sauce by frying one chopped onion, lots of chopped garlic and then a bag (or as much as you like) of quorn. When the quorn has some colour and the onions have softened add the oregano and chopped and tinned tomatoes with generous seasoning and leave to simmer.

Meanwhile get on with your potatoes, fill a saucepan with cold water, add your potatoes and skin on garlic cloves and boil until softened.

Now it's time to fry your aubergines, do so in batches turning often so that they don't catch. They will absorb a lot of oil, my mum uses sunflower but you can use olive oil. Some people salt the aubergines first and others don't. We do..because we love salt. When you have finished frying your delicious aubergines set them aside.

Now, get a deep oven safe dish and pour in your faux meat sauce and layer your aubergines on the top and start on your white sauce. First, make a simple roux by melting butter (or margerine to keep the fat down) and adding flour to thicken into a paste. Slowly add the milk and stir or whisk into a creamy sauce, if it is a little thick loosen with some more milk. You can add a touch of nutmeg or some cheese if you like but we don't. Now it's time to add the egg yolks while the sauce is off the heat. Stir in carefully and make sure you don't curdle or scramble. 

Pour the sauce over your assembled mousakka and bake in the oven until the top is golden.

While this is baking remove your potatoes, ensuring they are soft and heat up a little oil in a pan. Squeeze out the garlic cloves making a nice garlicky oil and squash the potatoes a bit quickly adding them to the hot oil. You can add some herbs here if you like and salt and importantly lots of delicious lemon juice. Fry until crispy and delicious and serve with salad and a scoop of delicious moussaka. 

Vegetarian perfection....

Get Well Soon Jerk Chicken

Following my epic 4 and a half journey home ready for various get togethers I was struck down with a bit of a cold, feeling like I had Bambi legs I reluctantly cancelled all my plans and decided to spend the day drinking steaming cups of tea in my pyjamas. The perk of my day was our decision to make a nice spicy chicken dish for lunch.

This recipe is a bit vague and can be adapted, you can add different amounts of savoury or sweet depending on your taste. The addition of pineapple juice cranks the sweetness up ten notches so if you aren't into that sort of thing then omit.

I'm not really into chilli heat but do crank it up for this, I loved the spicy note in the back of my palate mixed with the sweetness. Mmmm.

We served it as some bizarre French bistro fusion with some crusty baguette and a few buttered new potatoes. Rice and peas would be a nice accompaniment if you fancy being a little bit more Caribbean. Whatever you like really, now if you'll excuse me I'm going to get back to feeling sorry for myself.

Ingredients

3 chicken legs skin on (or you can use breasts, whatever you fancy the most)

(For the sauce) A teaspoon of all spice, as much rum as you can handle, a drizzle of honey, pinch of fresh or dried thyme, two scotch bonnet chillies (if you can handle it), nutmeg, garlic 5 spring onions chopped

A teeny bit of fresh pineapple juice

Season your chicken legs and pan fry until golden (watch your hands those things go a bit nuts!)

Whizz together all the other ingredients using a blender and pour over the chicken

Place in the oven for around 25 minutes until gooey and saucy.

Delicious

Pre-gig Hawaiian Chicken

After enough sleep to revive Margaret Thatcher and hardly leaving the house I was starting to feel a little better. My parents had purchased me a ticket to go and see 1960s band The Zombies for the evening before heading back to Nottingham the next morning. We decided on a nice light early dinner, scouring the cupboards my mum decided to make something that I hadn't had for about 15 years, her own recipe Hawaiian Chicken.

Ingredients

3 chicken breasts or a whole chicken or shredded up cooked chicken
Half of a fresh pineapple ideally or tinned if you can't be bothered to chop
Some diced cooked ham
A tin of sweetcorn

Pineapple juice (not too much)

An array of diced peppers, I used little sweet ones and big ones
Some fresh chillies as hot as you like
A diced white onion

Season and pan fry your chicken until crispy and delicious. Remove to a large baking dish and add your onions and peppers until soft and releasing a nice liquid. Add in your pineapple and pour over the chicken reserving the sauce in the pan. Now it's time to add to your sauce, pour in the pineapple juice adding a little touch of cornflour if you like to thicken. Taste and season, we added a little more salt at this stage. Pour over the sauce and bake for about 15 minutes. When it's done stir in some sweetcorn with a little butter and chopped ham into fluffy white rice and serve.

So after a weekend of abysmal weather, about 5 pounds heavier and not doing very much apart from cooking I had a wonderful time. I learnt that Nuts in May is one of the funniest TV shows of all time ('I want to see the zoo she said I want to see the zoo'), 'Do you want to come and see my etchings?' is a sexual come on and Psychedelic 60s music is back.

Also, as you can see I got my wish...1am post-gig cheese on toast with my mum. I love you Wales, goodbye for now.

Home sweet home

Welsh Christmas Reflections

It's my first Christmas at home for two whole years, airfares from Australia sky rocket at Christmas (pardon the pun) and I never had enough time off to make the long trek home worthwhile. So this year I am determined to make the most of it by living in the festive moment and appreciating every second.

My favourite food writer and chef Nigel Slater has the same ethos as me about Christmas, it's a time of year that always evokes memories, the smell of the turkey and brandy butter, the real pine Christmas tree because I always insisted that anything else wasn't really Christmas.

This year I took the time to appreciate the little rituals that I craved when I was away, one such ritual being the decorating of the Christmas tree, a seemingly small task steeped in memories. Handmade baubles from when I was nine that still catch the light, decorations that were bought with loved ones gone by. All little time capsules to the same cold day many years ago. The baubles seem to hang there as festive mirrors to the past helping us to remember wonderful times of the past, make us appreciate the present and think about the future.

Every year I make a culinary contribution the most noteworthy being the famous glazed ham of 2008, sticky with fortified and freshly squeezed citrus fruits served with simple salads and crusty bread. This year inspired by Nigel's thickly rimmed specs and beautiful words I will be attempting his lemon curd trifle adorned with crystallised violets and crushed pistachios with a homemade mincemeat sponge soaked in brandy and laden with cream.

As i'm burning the custard and curdling the curd (isn't that the point?) i'll take extra time to appreciate the moments this year, feeling very lucky not to be travelling and seeing new things but for once to be home enjoying the familiar.

Merry Christmas and Nadolig Llawen from Wales