Moroccan Cooking Experience

I went to Marrakech last year. As part of the holiday I did 3 days of cooking classes - 2 days in the Riad I stayed in and 1 day up in the mountains with a family in the local village.

I learnt to make a variety of dishes, from the traditional method of making couscous to the all famous tagines.

No talk of Morocco is complete without mentioning its souks. The souks are absolutely amazing - beautifully presented food and spices and ooh so rich with colour. Who could imgaine that only a 2 hour flight from London - and you'd be in another world. Check other posts for Moroccan recipes.

Pret-a-Portea High Tea

I am going for a Fashionista/Sex and the City version high tea at the Berkeley Hotel for my birthday in April. Pret-a-Portea features a seasonally changing collection of cakes and pastries inspired by catwalk designs. The chinaware is designed by Paul smith. I am so excited, cant wait.

Seafood in Barcelona

Botafumeiro is an amazing seafood restaurant in Barcelona. The seafood platter shown above is to die for. Although I didnt spot any famous people, photographs covering the walls show that the place is frequented by famous people. Some of these include Bill Clinton, Cuba Gooding Jnr, Eva Longoria, Pierce Brosnan and not forgetting Ronaldinho who appears in more then one photograph. http://www.botafumeiro.es/

Hungarian Gerbeaud Cake

My flatmate Szilvia went home to Budapest for the weekend and came back with a treat her mum had made. This traditional Hungarian dessert tastes as good as it looks - with rich flavours of walnut and jam. Even the jam used was homemade. Hopefully I can convince Szilvia to get the recipe from her mum.

Borough Markets and Enrica Rocca Cooking School

Leading up to the holiday season, we decided on a cooking course as part of our work Christmas team event. After much research, I found the ideal cooking course, Enrica Rocca Cooking School. Check it out http://www.enricarocca.com/. It was the right mix of a morning out exploring the Borough markets followed by cooking up a feast in her kitchen in West London.

Borough Markets is a true mecca for food lovers. One could easily spend the whole day in there. The colours, sights and smells of fresh food and ingredients is truly fascinating.

Thai Green Curry

Now that you know how to make green curry paste here is a recipe for Chicken Thai Green Curry (Keaw Wan Kai) to get you going.

Ingredients (1 serving)
1 cup fresh Coriander Leaves
3tbsp Vegetable Oil
1 1/2tbsp Green Curry Paste
1 pinch freshly Ground Cumin Seeds
370ml Coconut Milk
2 tbsp Coconut Cream
1 Boned and Skined Chicken Breast, sliced
2 Green Aubergines (eggplants) - quartered
Sprig Pea Aubergines
1 tsp Sugar
1 1/2 tbsp Fish Sauce
2 Kaffir Lime Leaves (torn in half)
6 Thai Basil Leaves
1/2 fresh chilli thinly sliced

Method
In a mortar, pound the fresh coriandar leaves. Heat oil in a wok until very hot. Add the pounded coriandar leaves and fry for 1 minute. Add the curry paste and cumin powder and fry for another 2 minutes or until you get aroma. Lower the heat and add the coconut cream (tip: to get cream from the coconut milk can - put the coconut milk can in the fridge for 20 minutes. This allows the cream to settle up the top. Take a tablespoon and scoop out the cream). Let cook for a minute without stirring. Then add coconut milk a little at a time. Allow it to simmer for 2-3 minutes and then add the chicken and cook until done throughly.

Add the aubergines, sugar, fish sauce, kaffir lime leaves, basil leaves and chilli. simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl. Sprinkle with Thai basil and serve with Thai Jasmine Rice.

Tip - you can use baby corn, bamboo shoots and green peas if you cannot find the Thai Aubergines.

Thai Green Curry Paste

A lot of people tend to instantly think of curries when they think about Thai food. There is a lot more to Thai food then just curries however they do tend to be the more popular dishes. Thai coconut-based curries are numerous but the more well known ones are red, green, yellow, panang and masamam curries. Thai names for these are gaeng phet (red), gaeng kiow wahn (green curry), gaeng leuang (yellow), gaeng phanaeng (panang) and gaeng massaman (masamam).

Green curry is the only type of Thai curry paste made with fresh Thai green chilies and thus usually the hottest. All other types of curry paste are made up of dried Thai chilies.

Ready made curry pastes are widely available in Thai and most Asian supermarkets, but just like any cooking, making it fresh yourself gives you a totally different result, and this way you can also orient it to your taste.

What I would like to share with you today is a recipe to make fresh green curry paste.

The key ingredients for most Thai curry pastes are mainly wet and fragrant and include fresh chillies, lemon grass, galangal, garlic, shallot, kaffir lime leaves, cilantro roots and shrimp paste.

Green Curry Paste

Ingredients
15 large fresh green hot chilies
3 shallots, sliced
9 cloves garlic
1 tsp finely sliced fresh galangal
1 tbsp sliced fresh lemon grass
9 tsp finely sliced kaffir lime rind
1 tsp chopped coriander root
5 white peppercorns
1 tbsp roasted coriander seeds
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp shrimp paste

Method
Combine coriander seeds, and peppercorn in a mortar, pound well. Transfer to a bowl and put aside.
Pound hot chilies and salt together well. Add the remaining ingredients except shrimp paste, pound until mixed well.
Add the coriander mixture and shrimp paste, continue pounding until smooth and fine.

And you have yourself fresh green curry paste.

Bangkok, Thailand

I absolutely adore Thai food so on my way back to London from my trip home to Fiji in January, I made a point to stopover in Bangkok, Thailand for a few days, especially to learn more about this gorgeous cuisine.

For those of you that love to embark on culinary adventures like myself, the details are:
Blue Elephant Cooking School - http://www.blueelephant.com/school/index.html
Baipai Thai Cooking School - http://www.baipai.com/



I enjoyed the Baipai class more then the Blue Elephant one as it was set in a more authentic Thai home-style learning environment.

Spicy Grilled Beef Salad (Yam Nuea Yang)
I have a lot of Thai recipes that I plan to share with you but for my first Thai posting I have chosen the Spicy Grilled Beef Salad, solely because it is the most popular at my dinner parties, and not to mention the most healthy.



Ingredients - Per 1 serving
80 grams Beef fillet
1 tsp Seasoning Soy Sauce
1 Shallot - Finely Shredded
1/2 Tomato - seeded and finely sliced
1/2 Cucumber - seeded and finely sliced
1 Chinese Celery - roughly chopped

Dressing
1 Hot Chillie - finely chopped
3 cloves garlic - finely chopped
2 tsp Lime Juice
2 tsp - Fish Sauce
1 tsp Sugar (Brown)

Method
Marinate beed with seasoning soy sauce for 30 minutes. Then grill over medium heat turning regularly until it is medium or well done. Slice thinly and set aside. Prepare the dressing by mixing chopped chili, garlic, lime juice, fish sauce and sugar together. Combine beef slices, shallots, tomato, cucumber and chinese celery in a bowl and add dressing. Toss well and serve.