HYKAEI: The One with the Comeback

Just when you thought the Instagram hyperbole was over

It is with great joy and shame that I return to the world of blogging. I have dragged my poor, unfortunate wordless soul back to a land of verbs and hyperbole and thoughts and food. Thus clearing the empty space I have left by my notable absence. Day after day of not writing the words of my life guru TES pounded in my head: 'It's not a blog if you write in it once a year'.

Correct TES. Correct.

Drama aside, I've been a bit busy with a house move and a new job (yay) and haven't had the time to write long posts about my recent American, Swedish and Scottish adventures. The longer the duration that I didn't write, the more difficult it became. Hampered by the fact that my internal cookery chip suddenly activated, I went on overdrive, rustling up seasonal bounties of fruits and vegetables in abundance.

I feel very guilty not to share that with you.

But not to despair, inspired by a technique from genius quickfire blogger CJS I have decided to write as I eat. Little and often.

So hello again world. It's lovely to be back. I will write shortly to tell you what I'm going to do with the last of the season's nectarines.

I bet you're on the bloody edge of your seat.

Much love HYKAEI x 

The Art of (Coffee) Happiness at The Bean

The art of frothy happiness

I've been spending a lot more time in Nottingham recently, mainly due to cleaning out my bank account on spontaneous trips to America, having lots of work on and freak weather conditions making me not want to leave the house.

My weekends have settled into a happy routine, Friday night laundry, Saturday morning brunch at home with the paper, Saturday night dinner with friends usually huddled around a heater with a glass of red wine, and Sunday at The Bean.

Since my return to the UK, a good cup of coffee, much like a good man, is hard to find. Just when I was on the brink of giving up the thought of ever experiencing frothy milked joy in this country, The Bean came upon it's glorious milky horse to come rescue me. Ok this is a little over the top, I've had two coffees from there today.

The location of this aforementioned wondrous place is nondescript, in fact, you wouldn't even give it much thought. Curiously tucked in a side street next to Sainsbury's, it's view and location isn't what you would call beautiful. However, on closer inspection, the place is perfect.

The formula is simple, expertly made coffees with great milk art (I'm a sucker for a milky leaf or heart), simple and cheesy toasted sandwiches and a happy, friendly atmosphere. I almost always sit downstairs amid the Sunday papers, but upstairs has a tranquil atmosphere where you could type away on your laptop for hours on end without being disturbed. If it's there I always go for the tuna melt washed down with a large cappuccino. And I nearly always end up staying for far longer than I anticipated.

I've taken many a coffee connoisseur there to obtain their opinion. International coffee lover DP commented that it had a mild, drinkable quality (the taste of the beans not overpowering). New Zealand arrival SI noted that there may well be some kind of illicit drug laced within the milk that makes it so moorish. You can't usually stop at one.

So, to an unexpected lovely place. The site of coffees with old and new friends and sometimes many solo hours of contemplation about life, love and what to have for dinner.

Thank you Bean for making my winter that little bit better

The Bean
1 Stoney Street, Beeston
http://www.coffee-beans.co.uk/

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!

On love..

In the most sentimental entry of this blog's history I report live to you from Sydney International Airport with a few words about love (I promise next week ill get back to talking about pastry).

This later part of my 20s has been marked by the loss and gain of great love. I'm coming around to the idea that life is a constant ebb and flow. People coming in and out of your life constantly, changing little or big aspects of you. Brief encounters, people who change your outlook or perspective, people who teach you things, those who show you a path that you don't want to go down, those that shock you, those that comfort you.

But what of great, enduring love? That bit is trickier, the quest for lifelong love. That bit may require sacrifice and compromise but never ever the changing of yourself.

Today I am lucky to have that perfect luxury, the enduring love of friendship, that higher order kind of love that doesn't judge or anger but rather supports, nurtures and changes you into the person that you were meant to become.

So to all those that I love dearly. I am grateful daily to you all for changing my life. I'm so happy to be part of your world.

So wherever you are reading this, on the train, at work (naughty), over toast and tea or wine and steak. Take a moment to be grateful for those you love because its these small moments of gratitude that form the beautiful patchwork quilt that is your life.

So with love, thanks and in the search for the perfect cheese toastie.

Goodbye for now Sydney.

How not to train for a half marathon: The aerobics class

It's been a running joke (pardon the pun) for the last two weeks (usually when i'm sitting happily with a slice of pizza and a glass of wine), when my training is going to start. I usually smile, laugh and say soon (trying to look serious). But it's always followed by the thought...when is my training going to start?

With that in mind I decided to get my cardio up to semi normal levels by attending a weekly aerobics class a mere 10 minute walk from my house, so no excuses.

It's funny how our perception of ourselves never map on to reality. In my head i'm wonderfully co-ordinated, positively graceful. Gliding through the world with the greatest of ease, salsa-ing my way through life doing a constant two step.

It's times like aerobics class when that illusion falls apart.

I arrived and the peppy, lovely perma tanned lady greeted me and handed me a form to fill out. After she was fully reassured that I wouldn't drop dead in her class, I stood amongst the usual characters, clasping what looked like a giant deflated balloon, bopping to the obligatory blasting house music, ready to get fit.

Five minutes in I caught a glimpse of myself in the window and realised how utterly and comically ridiculous I looked, flailing around in a crazy fashion, with not even my arms co-ordinated with the rest of the group. I began to get the giggles, feeling like Louis Theroux investigates the aerobics class or feeling like this may be great material for a short story. My giggles were compounded by the most remarkably fit old lady in front of me who was using her stretchy giant balloon as a ninja belt as she effortlessly sashayed backwards as I spun the wrong way and collided into strangers.

As the music continued from one bad dance track to another, hundreds of squats down and my heart rate up I began to feel a little euphoric. By the time 'We are young' came on and we were doing horrendous sit ups I started to feel positively giddy.

So as I happily bounced home, I thought three things: isn't exercise fun, i'm so uncoordinated and boy do I want quiche.

So that's what I had, but that's ok. The peppy lady with the freaky abs would say I deserved it.