Holy Basil - The Street Food Collective

Today we made the fantastic discovery of Holy Basil while pottering around the Manchester Food and Drink Festival. We'd only nipped in briefly on an afternoon off, and didn't really have a plan about what to see/try. After the obligatory burger from the Savin Hill Farm stand at St Ann's Square we headed up to Albert Square to the main festival hub.
After wandering around the square a couple of times the place that stood out to us the most was Holy Basil. 
The menu was written on a white board at the back of the stand and their dishes included Beef Masaman Curry, Jungle Curry, salads and satay. It was the Masaman which took our fancy, which we were told would be ready in 5 mins. After a quick half pint of Chocolate Tom we returned for the curry.

We got to chatting with the stall holder, first about the ingredients - their kaffir lime leaves come from the chef's own garden and smelt like nothing we've smelled before. A far cry from the only ones we've managed to find - dried in packets in Sainsbury's. But then about the business itself.

Holy Basil Thai Street View Kompany is a member of the Street Food Collective (@streetsidefood facebook.com/streetsidefood) a group who want to and are bringing street food to Manchester. The stallholder explained that there are many countries around the world with street food cultures and Britain doesn't quite seem to match up, and in particular, Manchester. There are of course the occasional burger or jacket potato stands but that's about it. Holy Basil, along with a number of other stands at the festival appear at different food events or festivals but the long term hope is to convince Manchester council to agree to some sort of opportunity to let these street sellers have a more permanent outlet for their wares.

The food itself was fantastic. Very authentic - must be those lime leaves, along with the other ingredients! It was cooked to order. Even though the menu said beef masaman, we were offered either beef, chicken or vegetable (we went for the beef). The side orders were either noodles or steamed rice, and the whole thing was garnished with chilli and coriander.

The curry had a lovely balance of flavours, not too hot but with enough kick, and was a beautiful texture. The rice was cooked perfectly and presented beautifully.

We were told that another aim of Holy Basil is to successfully compete with the city's more usual lunchtime options such as the many sandwich shops, McDonalds or bakeries, by producing smaller snack sized options at prices which are comparable. For me this would be fantastic, as all their food (apart from the noodles) is wheat free, and it would be an easy lunchtime option rather than searching through the sandwiches, pasta salads, and pasties to find that expensive gluten-free option.

The festival is coming to an end in the next couple of days, but if you're in Manchester tomorrow, go and try out Holy Basil in Albert Square. And definitely definitely keep an eye out for them, and other Street Food Collective members events around the area.



How Nana used to make

For a while now, I’ve been searching for a raspberry bun recipe to recreate one of the treats that my Nana used to make. My Nana and Grandad had a set of cake tins which stacked on top of each other, each housing a different home made treat, whether it was rock buns, raspberry buns, or what we called “pasty jam cake cakes”. Of all of those it was the raspberry buns which has stuck in my head. The texture was crumbly, but not too dry, and each was dusted with sugar to give a lovely crust. There was always just enough raspberry jam on the inside, and we were always warned about eating them when they were too hot as the jam could burn your mouth.

I tried asking my Mum about the recipe, and she thought my Nana could have used a rock bun recipe, but wasn’t sure. I do remember making them, and the dough was pliable and you could easily wrap it round the jam to seal it in, and to me, a rock bun recipe wouldn’t do this. Via the internet I found a recipe which could work – and set about it with the hope of creating Nana’s raspberry buns.

Taken straight from the fantastic blog The English Kitchen:

225g of self raising flour (a scant 2 cups)

1 tsp baking powder
75g of butter (a scant 1/3 cup)
75g of caster sugar (a scant 1/2 cup)
1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
a little milk
raspberry jam

To glaze:
a little extra milk
a little extra sugar

Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter a large baking tray. Set aside.

Sift the flour and baking powder into a bowl. Drop in the butter and then rub it into the flour mixture with your fingertips, rubbing until the mixture resembles dry bread crumbs. Stir in the sugar. Beat the egg and stir it into the flour mixture with a fork, along with just enough milk to make a soft dough. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll each into a ball. Flatten the ball and place a dab of jam in the middle of each. Bring the edges of the dough up around the jam to cover it completely enclosing it. Flatten slightly and place 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Brush each with a bit of milk and sprinkle with more sugar.
Bake in the heated oven for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Scoop off onto a wire rack to cool. Cool completely before tucking in as hot jam can really give you a nasty burn!

One of Tim’s memories was of cornflake crispy cakes that his Grandma would make. Since moving house, and re-discovering all the cooking books we have my attention was turned towards a rather battered copy of the Ladybird publication We Can Cook for something similar. I used to make a few things from this book all the time years ago, but mainly an adapted version of their “Golden Crunchies”. This was adapted by adding chocolate. This gave the resulting cakes a different, gooey texture than the normal chocolate crispy cake type things.

I’d made a batch recently when Tim asked if the next time I made them I could also include desiccated coconut since that was how his Grandma made them.

1 rounded tbsp sugar

2 cups cornflakes (or enough until the mixture looks right!)

25g margarine/butter

2 rounded tbsp golden syrup

100g milk chocolate

1 heaped tbsp desiccated coconut

Melt the margarine/butter in a pan with the sugar, syrup and chocolate.

Mix in the coconut then stir the chocolaty mixture through the cornflakes. Divide into paper cake cases.

Both the resulting cakes were how we remember them. The raspberry buns were the correct flavour  (thanks English Kitchen!), although the texture was a little more dry then I remember (possible gluten-free flour), and the crispy cakes were spot on it seems.

This got me thinking that all these recipes and ways of cooking need to be written down somewhere. Our Grandparents are no longer here to ask, as these things are all memories from our childhoods, which might have bypassed a generation of our parents.

I will be looking out for one of those stack-able cake tins, asking cousins and my Mum about things they remember Nana and Grandad making, and the next thing to try making (and to blog) is those pastry jam cake cakes! Yum!

Chicken and Courgettes with a Tarragon Sauce

Last year we had a fantastic meal at The Lamb Inn, Chinley and I was bowled over by the Tarragon sauce that I had served with my Ham Hock.  For a while now we have had taragon growing in the garden but for some reason it has gone unused, until now.  Tarragon is a fantastic herb that tastes quite different from how it smells.  This pleased Fran as when it is picked and chopped it has an aroma similar to aniseed which she does not like, however, added at the end of a dish and cooked down for a few minutes, the aniseed edge is lifted a little and you are left with a wonderful warm and savoury taste that is perfect with all meats and sits particularly well in a creamy sauce.

So this time while looking through the fridge to see what could be made for tea we decided on Chicken and Courgettes with a Tarragon Sauce.  Fran had some inspiration in a dish she had at Cafe Rouge called Poulet Breton, however we couldn't find a decent recipe for this so we trusted a little instict, kept it simple and did it alone!

Chicken and Courgettes with a Tarragon Sauce

What you will need (serves 2):

2 chicken breast fillets
1 medium leek (chopped)
1 medium courgette (thinly chopped)
30g butter
1 glass white wine
handful tarragon (leaves loosely picked and chopped)
double cream
salt and pepper

First soften the leeks in the butter over a medium heat
Then add the chicken and cook for 5 minutes
Then add the chopped courgettes and cook till softened (add a splash of water if dry)
Next add the wine and allow to bubble for a couple of minutes
Finally add the cream and Tarragon and stir through, allow to warm slowly infusing the dish with the Tarragon and add a little seasoning to taste.

We had it with home grown beans and mash and managed to make it stretch to 4 servings! It would work well with rice too.

The Tarragon flavour took me right back to the meal we had at The Lamb Inn and will definitely be a herb we use again soon.  It sits perfectly with a cream sauce and this simple recipe gives the impression of a much more defined dish that is still surprisingly quick and easy to make.

Enjoy

Persian Salad (Salad Olivieh)

Following a delicious meal at Rayhoon in Stockport and sampling flavours and dishes which were new to us, I decided to try and recreate one of the starters we had there.
It was the first time we'd visited that restaurant, and the food and atmosphere were great. We went on a Thursday night and they had a pianist performing all night which added to the ambience. The service was a little eratic, but nothing too bad really. The chef/owner even came out at the end of the night to apologise. We certainly didn't think the service that night was bad enough for the apology from the owner, but it was noted.
The food was very good, and as I've already said, we did try several different flavours, all of which were new to us. We will, no doubt, return, and then do a proper post about the place.

One of the starters we ordered to share between our party was Salad Olivieh, or Persian Salad. According to the menu this was "a combination of shredded chicken, gherkins, potato, egg, peas in a light coating of mayonnaise "a feeling of pleasure and fulfilment"". Interesting description. So all the ingredients we need to recreate it.
I since looked up Persian Salad on the internet and found a few recipes, all with the above ingredients, but with the addition of lime juice, and some with added carrot.
I decided to stick to the menu version.

Persian Salad (in a pre-served state)

We've actually started to notice a few mentions of Persian food here there and everywhere. A couple of issues ago, there was a recipe in Good Food Magazine, and in the September issue of delicious. there is a feature about blogger Sabrina's passions and a rather delicious looking recipe. Plus since visiting Rayoon, I've since heard of another very good Persian restaurant in the Stockport area. Maybe this is the flavour of things to come? Certainly could be in our house.

Summertime Cake

The title of this post should really read experimental summertime cake.
It was experimental for a few reasons;
a) Gluten-free flour was used in a standard recipe, although using Doves Farm Self Raising has worked well in the past;
b) We have just moved house, to a house with a lovely new kitchen complete with a fan oven. My only use of a fan oven was at school for part of either GCSE or A-Level Home Economics. We were experimenting with different sugars (Sugar subsitute Canderel, Fructose and normal sugar) and their reactions in a standard fairy cake recipe. Everything was prepared and cooked in the same way, but my left over mixture went into bun cases in the teacher's fan oven. The result was black-crusted buns, with runny centres. Not the greatest influence a fan oven could have had on me! The rest of the experiment went well - in the normal oven!
c) It was a large-ish recipe and I normally split the batter into two tins, but I thought I'd cook it altogether and slice it afterwards.

After various pieces of advice about how to cook with a fan oven, I thought I'd might as well give it a go. Some people said to reduce the temperature and cook as normal, and others said to cook for less time. I even referred to the oven manual, which did give some time and temperature indications for different things. But I couldn't decide if my normal victoria sandwich cake should be classes as Chocolate Cake or Risen Cake. Plus the manual indicated timings and temperature by weight, but there was no idication what the weight measurement actually was! So I thought, I'd go the for normal temperature, and keep an eye on it.
Plus my other frames of reference for most things basic yet culinary, the Leith's Techniques Bible or the Dairy Book of Home Cookery (were fan ovens around when that was written?) were packed away in a box somewhere waiting for the shelves to be put up.

Basic recipe:
150g Sugar
150g butter
3 eggs
150g self raising flour (sieved)

Filling:
Mascarpone
Double cream
Strawberries and blackberries

1. Cream the butter and sugar together.
2. Add the beaten eggs with a little of the flour, and beat in.
3. Stir in the remaining flour until combined.


Anyway, once made, the cake went in. And I kept an eye on it. It went in at around 180C, which is about Gas 4. I usually cook cakes for around 20 mins at Gas 4 so with the excellent oven timer (also new to us in this house). I then prodded it a bit, it seemed to be cooked, but then started to sag in the middle. So I put it back for a little longer - about 10 minutes more. After that time it seemed cooked, was a little more browned and the edges had become crumbley.

The cake was then cooled thoroughly and I attempted to slice it. It kind of worked, but the two pieces definitley were not even. But in my defense, since it sagged in the middle, the slicing would always be a little dodgy.
I filled it with the mixture of mascarpone, whipped cream, and summer fruits of strawberries and balckberries and the same on top. Admittedly these were all shop bought - we are hoping to go to a pick your own or foraging at some point soon.
The cake itself was rather dense and a little dry, almost like a shortcake texture. I don't think this was entirely down to the gluten-free flour, probably to do with the baking time and temperature. But the rich cream and sharp fruit balanced the dryness and made it feel it more like desert rather than cake. Lovely.

Thankfully now the cooking books have been unpacked and there will be more experimental baking until I get used to this oven.