Hanoi Bike Shop

For a long time we knew we would head up to Skye for our honeymoon, however 'Manchester to Skye' is quite a journey to do in one leg so we got to thinking about a place to stop along the way.  The most obvious choice to people I spoke to was Edinburgh, however that would mean drifting to the east when really we wanted to minimise the number of miles and stay west.  So we thought, why not Glasgow?

We do enjoy visiting cities and it gives us a chance to go for a walkabout with not too much planned and just see where the night takes us.

As it was a Monday night though, we didn't want to be stuck as many restaurants it seems like to close on a Monday.  So we pre-booked a table at a restaurant in the West End.  The place looked great on the website but when we got to Glasgow we bought ourselves a travel card for the metro and went to find it.  For us, it was just a little too far away from the hustle and bustle and with the great number of alternatives on offer nearer the station, we decided to cancel our booking.

While wondering back and popping into one of many charity shops along the route we happened across a wonderful discovery.  The Hanoi Bike Shop sits down a little street just opposite Hillhead Station on the Metro.  It describes itself as a Vietnamese Canteen and sells street food(esque) dishes alongside some standard Vietnamese dishes.  Having spent a fantastic holiday in Hanoi a few years ago we were very excited about this find.  We peaked inside and it looked homely enough - obviously trying to re-create the street food feel but under cover, it is a canteen after all so I understand what they were trying to achieve. The only thought for us was whether it was quality enough to be our 1st honeymoon meal.

After much discussion, wandering past the menu in the window, more discussion.... looking at other places, wandering back again, we decided that as we were going to spend 3 nights in a very high-end dining establishment that is The Three Chimneys then a more modest start to the holiday would be fine.  And besides which, we didn't want to eat somewhere that we would immediately compare to the Three Chimneys - as that isn't fair on any restaurant.

After returning to the hotel to freshen up, we returned to rather fuller restaurant to that which we had looked at before.  This was a very good sign for a Monday night.  We asked for a table for 2 and were seated at a table near the counter complete with a selection of condiments such as fish sauce and chilli sauce destined for the Pho should we have ordered it.

We were told that the dishes listed as starters were suitable for sharing as part of a mini banquet which is how we wanted to eat.  The dishes we ordered were great - although I fear we may have ordered more than we really needed but its best not to go wanting I suppose:



From the top our dishes were; Bun Cha; Mustard Greens; Rare Beef and Kohlrabi salad; Coconut, Lemongrass and Lime leaf curry with Bike Shop Tofu, Aubergine and Potato; Pho Bo; Prawn Crackers and Peanut and Chilli dip; Orange Pannacotta-style dessert with Spiced Oranges; Vietnamese Drip Coffee.

We really enjoyed the experience and think that if you go you should do so with an open mind.  There have been a lot of reviews that seem over critical on its authenticity.  For us, we can understand what the proprietors are trying to achieve and think they have done well in introducing some fabulous food to a market that may not have experienced it before.  The dishes are a little too refined to be street food and the drip coffee not quite strong enough compared with the drip coffee I once had sat on a little plastic chair down a back street in Hanoi!

Never the less, go there for the fun of it, the quality of food on offer and also the Hanoi Beer which is also delicious.

Therssy's Village Black Pepper Mix

Following a long period away from the website - we now have a one year old daughter and 2 weeks ago got married!  I think that can constitute as a busy time of our lives.  We are now getting into a routine which sees both of us working full-time and Olivia in full-time nursery.  

This might provide an opportunity to kick-start the blog which is what I intend to do.

As I just said, we recently got married and as Olivia is so young we chose not to take a long honeymoon.  Instead we called on the services of nanna, grandpa and grandma, packed a couple of bags and headed North.  We had a fantastic night in Glasgow visiting the fascinating Hanoi Bike Shop.  Then we went even further North, onto the Isle of Skye, up to the North West of the Island for the main part of our holiday which was a 3 day break at the amazing Three Chimneys.  These wonderful places will each feature in their own post shortly.

First I wanted to share a little discovery with you.  Fran had mentioned to me that if we ever visited Skye, we must go to Portree and find a place called Skye Batiks.  The website will tell you more but it wasn't the tie-dyed clothing Fran was interested in it was the Sri Lankan curry mixes they sell.  Apparently they used to have a shop in York which is from where Fran hails and she had memories of a black pepper mix that she insisted I tried. Well we found the shop, bought a few items such as a hand crafted puffin for Olivia, but most importantly we found the curry mixes.

A couple of nights ago I tried using the Black Pepper Mix and I have to say it was fantastic.  There is a recipe on the back of the packet which I followed very loosely.  It suggests Chicken or Beef so I chose Turkey Thigh (frugality bites after paying for a wedding).  Because of this I cooked the meat in stock to tenderise it before adding the coconut milk.  Also, some of the other ingredients were changed slightly according to what was in the house, note the garlic! Here is exactly what I did:

Ingredients:

Therssy's Village Black Pepper Mix
500g Turkey Thigh - diced
2 Tomatoes - coarsely chopped
2 Medium Onions
1 Green Pepper
1 large clove Elephant Garlic
200 ml Coconut Milk
1 tsp Crushed Garlic
1 tbsp White Wine Vinegar
250 ml Chicken Stock
Vegetable Oil
Salt (to taste)

Add the curry mix to the meat, tomatoes, salt, vinegar and ginger and mix thoroughly.









Gently fry the onions, garlic and peppers until lightly browned.








Add the meat mixture and cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes.  Add the stock and simmer for 20 minutes.








Add the coconut milk and simmer for a further 20 minutes.  Serve with rice.







This curry mix was fantastic, not too spicy but with a warm pepper kick to it and a lovely sweet blend of cinnamon and cloves.  I'm not very au fait with Sri Lankan food but this had an almost Moroccan feel about it - probably the use of the cinnamon that I found to be very moreish and I can't wait to try the other mixes we bought.  I can see we will be ordering more from the website when we have finished these (which won't take long).

Onion Bhaji

I found this recipe on the Internet and think there are a few similar examples but loved it and thought I would share it with you.  I tinkered a little bit with ingredient quantities and as I have tried it a few times now, I am fairly happy with the final version.

These bhajis are supposedly healthier as they are oven baked.  I suppose they are a bit healthier than deep fried bhajis but there is still quite a bit of oil used which is important for the authentic taste.  Anyway, I didn't cook them in an attempt to be healthy but rather a way of making our home cooked curries a little more interesting.  It certainly worked as they are delicious.

To make 4 bhajis:

Ingredients:

3 medium onions (half chopped against the grain and half the other way)
1.5 tablespoons of Gram Flour
1 tablespoon tomato puree
Ground Cumin
Ground Coriander
Chilli Powder
Ground Ginger
Ground Turmeric
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Butter (to grease the dish)

What to do:

First you need to make the onion mixture.

Gently fry the onions in a little olive oil for 10 minutes.  Add half tsp of cumin, coriander, chilli and ginger.  Add 1 tsp of turmeric.  Continue to cook for a further 2 minutes and remove from the heat.

Next, mix the gram flour with half a tsp of cumin and half a tsp of coriander, salt and pepper.

Then, add the onion mixture to the flour, mix in the tomato puree and enough water to make the mixture wet but not sloppy so it can be shaped into a bhaji (2 or 3 tbl spoons). 

Divide the mixture into 4 and place onto a buttered oven dish with a spoon.  Flatten with the back of the spoon to make about 1 inch thick.









Bake for 25 minutes in a preheated oven (160 degrees c), brush with a little olive oil and return to the oven for a further 20 minutes or until golden brown.  Trust me - you will never buy bhajis again.

Jumbles

Its been a while, we know, but little people tend to take over lives, and what cooking we do is often something tried and tested, or a vegetable puree for little mouths, or just heating something up which we've batch-cooked previously. So in reality we have been cooking, but not so much that is interesting to write about!

However the other day, after wanting something quick and easy to snack on, I came over all Mary Berry. I felt the need to fill up the cake tins with lots of tasty home baked treats.
I went off to the library in search of some baking books. I came across The Great British Book of Baking which had so many recipes I wanted to try, I had to take it out.

The first recipe I tried was "Jumbles".
The book gives a little write up about where the recipe came from and about how the "flavourings" can be adapted to suit whatever you have in the cupboard. I chose white chocolate chunks and chopped hazelnuts.

The picture above is actually of my second attempt at these biscuits, as yes, they are supposed to be biscuits.  The recipe says to place a spoonful of the mixture onto a baking tray to cook, but either the use of a fan oven for baking is beyond me, or it is the gluten-free flour not acting as normal, or maybe even both, but they all joined together and ended up as a massive burnt offering which took a lot of perseverance with a spatula/chisel to get off the tray.
The more successful batch (pictured) was produced by adding that spoonful to the bottom of a silicone muffin tray. They did end up more cakey, than biscuity, but this is not a complaint, as they were lovely and even though only temporarily, they did provide a filling for the cake tin.

Recipe (taken from The Great British Book of Baking)

125g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
50g light muscavado sugar
1 medium free range egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
175g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
flavourings: up to 100g

Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5
Gently melt the butter in a pan large enough to take all the ingredients. Remove from the heat and stir in both the sugars. Using a fork, beat the egg with the vanilla in a small bowl until thoroughly combined, then stir into the butter and sugar. Sift the flour and baking powder into the pan and stir in. When thoroughly combined add your chosen flavourings.

Using a tablespoon, scoop the mixture on to greased baking trays, setting the biscuits well apart to allow for spreading. Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 to 12 minutes, until the jumbles are a light golden brown colour and just firm.

Remove the trays from the oven and leave to cool for 3 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container.

Dorowat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew)

Dorowat (Ethiopian Chicken Stew)

Although it has been a while since we last posted, I can assure you we have been cooking.  The pressure of having a very young child to take care of is taking it's toll and the blog is the one that has suffered.  Mainly we have been cooking tried and tested recipes but every now and again we have searched for something a little different.

We have used the slow-cooker quite a lot recently too as it is good to prepare food during Olivia's morning snooze, hit the button and have tea ready 8 hours later.  This recipe is an absolutely fantastic example that we found in Making the Most of Your Slow Cooker. 

We changed things only very slightly so this is basically the recipe as stated in the book:

Vegetable Oil
3 Medium Onions (chopped)
3 Garlic Cloves (chopped)
1 tsp Minced Ginger
200 ml Vegetable Stock
250 ml Passata
3 Hard Boiled Eggs
6 Skinless Boneless Chicken Thighs
Salt and Pepper

Spice Mix (crushed and mixed)

5 Cardamon Pods
5 Cloves
1/2 tsp Ground Turmeric
1/4 tsp Ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Method:

Pre-heat the slow cooker
Cook the onions over a medium heat for about 10 minutes
Add the garlic and ginger and cook for a further 2 minutes
Add the stock and passata and cook for a further 10 minutes till thickened a little
Add the spice mix and stir through and season
Transfer the sauce to the slow cooker and add the chicken thighs whole and push them down to just be submerged.
Cook on medium for 5 hours
Add the boiled eggs and cook for a further hour

We had this served with rice and flat breads and thought it was fantastic.  It had a lovely dark colour and a sweet and spicy flavour with just enough heat.  The boiled eggs was a new one on us but it seemed to work well.  In fact we enjoyed this dish so much we might do a little research into Ethiopean cuisine and see what delights we can discover.