Recipe: Bò Lá Lốt

By Leluu

La Lot (Betel Leaves) with minced beef, blended lemongrass, peanuts, garlic and chilli. Getting the perfect balance of sweet, sour and salty is crucial. These are great to make in advance for a dinner party because you can roll them and only bake them 20 mins before you are ready to eat.

Ingredients 

(For 8 - 12)
 
800g minced beef
50g sesame seeds
100g blended peanuts
2 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp fish sauce
6 lemongrass stalks 
4  birds-eye chillis - de seeded
4 garlic cloves
2 tbsp honey
1/2 tbsp pork flavouring granules
2 or 3 packs  La Lot leaves
1 tbsp sesame oil
 
Method
 
-Blend peanuts or cashew nuts until coarse
-Finely blend lemongrass, then add the garlic and chilli and continue to blend until all is fine grain.
-In a bowl, add lemongrass, garlic, chilli to the minced beef, nuts, honey, sugar, salt, pepper, pork granules  and sesame oil and mix well together with your hands.
-Test your mixture by frying up a mini burger. Adjust to your balance. If too salty add more sugar, if too sweet add more salt.
-Leave to marinade for 20 minutes in the fridge.
-Break the La Lot leaves off the stalks and wash thoroughly and dry.
-Spoon onto the leaves the mixture and roll - should make finger sized  rolls
some leaves will be larger or smaller than others.
-Place on a baking tray, drizzle with seasame oil and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for approximately 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Peanut Sauce
 
4 x garlic & 4 x birds-eye chillis - blend together
4 tbsp cider/ white wine vinegar
4 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp blended peanuts
4 tbsp fish sauce (Three Crabs brand)
Mix all the ingredients together, if too sweet add more vinegar, too salty more sugar, too sour add more sugar - balance your sauce to your taste.

You can eat these with vermicelli and herb salads, add to summer rolls or enjoy on their own.
If you can't get betel leaves, make patties/ burgers and have in a nice light baguette with thai basil, coriander and cucumber. It makes a delicious Banh Mi.

Pink Ballons

Last night: we did creative writing with Creative Writes. Before that, we had dinner. I cooked chicken and mushroom pie from Jamie's 30 Min Meals. Went down a storm. Everyone had seconds!

Creative Writes came to Fernandez & Leluu. Check out further dates and courses on their website: www.creativewrites.co.uk

Write 'free flow' in ten minutes without stopping, starting with: "I am thinking..."

"I am thinking of the pink ballons floating in the summer sky as I lay on the moist, silky green grass, long enough to tickle my ears. I hear the bees are buzzing and the sound of the lazy shore, reluctantly creasing onto the stoney beach. The world seems different when I am laying down, it looks like there is more space and everything seems a little more vast and people are further away than usual.

I am thinking that I can feel my back when I lie down as it sinks to the ground like a heavy stone and my head is like a rock, hard on the dry soil. I wish I had bought a cushion to perk me up.

The voices are far away. I can hear the people talking and laughing in the still summer heat. The flies are still buzzing and sometimes, a dog strolls past, panting away in a mixture of excitement for being on a walk and a resentment for its own heavy warm fur coat. Its dribbling over a ball and bounces proudly towards its owner, eyeing up the ham sandwiches from someone's picnic.

A roar of "owwuch" is heard in a nearby layabout and a girl is nursing her sore head. A boy comes running towards her and a football apologising frantically for kicking the ball in the unfortunate direction of her forehead. "Be careful arsehole" she yells with a grumpy look on her face. He tries not to look too amused nor react to the rolling laughter of his and her's companions. He doesn't want to seem rude.

I wonder if this is how we would all meet. By the chance of a ball, by the turn of a corner, by the beat of a fly's wing. Our choice is to just take action."

Restaurant Recommendation: Tohbang

By Leluu

The Grubworm and I usually have a quick bite together and he has recommended this place: Korean food in Clerkenwell Road, very close to Back Hill where I used to go to college at St Martins. I was of course dubious, because since I had traveled to Korea a lot, (Com Sa Me Da) I grew less and less in love with their food, too much kimchi and red pepper sauce on everything.

However, I do really love it when I am actually served really fresh, just made food and thats what they do here. We ordered, pork and vegetable dumplings which were massive and the filling was just moorish, flavoursome and the edges were nice and crispy.

For a main, I had Bibbimbap - Korean style rice cooked in a clay pot and served in the clay pot with pickles and minced pork with a fried egg on top. What you are meant to do is, mix it all up, careful not to burn yourself on the hot pot. The Grubworm a hot and spicy looking soup with silky tofu, tasted divine!

Korean food always comes with lots of condiments such as pickles and sauces. For 6.90, we had soup as well. Excellent value for lunch. I slotted lunch/ dinner dates in the diary and can not wait to come back here. Drop in. The food is great!

Tohbang
164 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU

Morning Glory

There is something comforting about escaping in a chick flick, no matter what. I am never far from being the likes of Julia Roberts, Meg Ryan or Reece Witherspoon; checking into Friends and Sex & The City every now and again, identifying with life's small issue of love, friendship and situations.

I went to see 'Morning Glory', a rom-com based around breakfast broadcast TV starring the delicious Becky (Rachel McAdams), who lands a job as Executive Producer on a failing morning show. Consequence has it that she pairs the grumpy veteran Anchor Mike Pomeroy (Harrison Ford) to Co-Anchor with diva Collen Peck (Diane Keaton).

I found the time passed nicely, rooting for Becky whose equally neurotic and work obsessed as I on a daily basis. A mirror for the aspirational someone with her 'father issues' touched upon and decidely put aside. Her determination and willingness to work hard is meant as a role model to every young twenty/thirty something and the moral of the story is that if you work your butt off, trying to achieve and make stuff happen then you will exclude love from your life and end up a lonely old crow like Mike Pomeroy and miss out on kissing the sub plot - Patrick Wilson - who would add the spice to any girl's dreams.

Dang! I'd drop work like a sack of potatoes if someone like him was interested in kissing me. Phrwoarrr! O! Sorry - am I supposed to be an independent woman in no need of man who makes fire? I am confused!

Moving on, however, the film was (as expected) flawed on many levels like how big studio movies do. Harrison Ford has never been funny nor ever will be; Diane Keaton - though a great actress has been wearing the same blouse in every movie for the last twenty years and has somehow type casted herself; the 'love' was very nice to look at but one dimensional, un-challenging and weak.

There were rarely laughs in the full cinema until the weather man is put on all sorts of rides from roller-coasters to parachuting to get the ratings up. I would say that was the only good laugh anyone got out of this 'comedy'. Nevertheless, enjoyable to watch at the time and forgettable in weeks to come. Must be difficult to make a success after something like The Devil Wears Prada.

The irony is, they were trying to make better Breakfast TV, you know like making donuts out of bran flakes, but the movie was certainly nothing better than a bag of chips - its a vegetable you tell yourself, tastes good, keeps you from being hungry and its very comforting - you always go back for it but it ain't gonna do anything good for you - just makes you fat and then you'll feel sorry for yourself because you don't have anyone like Patrick Wilson in a grey t-shirt you can shag and then walk over and he will just obey you and still lets you wonder off in your obsessive compulsive path of wonderment and come back when you're done trying to fix the world. Yay! : (

The other irony is, someone made Harrison Ford be in a chick flick!

A Brill Recipe Idea For A Dab Supper!

By Leluu

Just been to Fin & Flounder, Adam the fish monger there happened to ask if I have ever filleted a fish before. Of course I had, but badly, so I said, no. Simon is usually the one with all the chef skills. So he offered to teach me how to do it and it was entirely satisfying to use a fishmonger's sharp knife slicing through the body of a mackeral like a sworded samurai. Its almost animalistic to feel the flesh tear apart as if with your teeth.

Last week, I bought a carp from here. I had never eaten carp before because of course they don't really sell it in the supermarkets and all the fish mongers died out (thank you Fin & Flounder for opening up near where I live). So I pan fried a steak with some salt and pepper and ate it with some white bread and butter. My favourite simple food of all time.

And then, for further inspiration, I had a look at Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey due to a request for what to make at Vietnamese Cookery Class and found that he made fillets of fish, fried in tumeric and dill so we decided to make pouting and carp pieces in lemongrass with a sweet and chilli fish sauce

Ingredients for Sauce:

1 x Sour, Unriped Mango cut into thin sticks
4 Sugar
4 Fish Sauce (Three Crabs Label)
4 White Wine or Cider Vinegar
4 Cloves of Garlic
4 Chillis
Dill to garnish (optional)

Mix all together, add more sugar if too salty, add more sugar if too sour, add more sugar if too salty.

Ingredients for Marinade

4 Lemongrass Stalks finely sliced
4 Garlic Crushed
Pepper to season

Method
Marinade the carp, pouting or coley with lemongrass, garlic and black pepper and pan fry until golden brown in shallow vegetable or olive oil.

Place on plate, pour over the sauce and sprinkle mango and dill (optional) over the fish. Serve with steamed rice.

(BRILL. will have better pictures next time)

You can also use this sauce for a pan fried brill or any other sustainable flat fish like Dab. Brill is currently in season in the Winter and has more meat than say, Lemon Sole.

I've got to say, the Brill was the most favourite dish at the table. I can eat pan fried Brill  just with bread and butter but try out this sauce - its amazing. You can chose to marinade your fish in lemongrass or not - its great either, or.

Mackeral

This sauce is the basic secret to many Vietnamese dishes. A touch of lemongrass, or any other herb like dill, mint, coriander changes it ever so slightly.

Whilst we are talking about Dab, there is #OperationDAB, when you are at your fishmongers and supermarket, ask for Dab, ask for Brill, ask for fresh Mackeral (I only ever see smoked), ask for Coley, ask for Herring. Tell all your friends to do the same. Then they will bring in the good fish and we can help to reduce the amount of discard by fishermen not bringing back the Dab because no one is buying it.

If you haven't already done so, please Join Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's Fish Fight here and petition against Shark Finning. Every vote counts, we can each all make a difference to our seas and oceans.

London Fields Yoga

Yoga: I had been a couple of times in my life, OK maybe once or twice before, I can't remember, I just remember the chanting bit and how uncomfortable I felt, when I was surrounded by 20 other people chanting to words I didn't know and doing funny breathing business. It felt a bit like being in a weird cult.

So I didn't go back. Not just because of the chanting but because there were so many people in the class and I didn't know what I was doing and felt a bit shy because the teacher asked all the beginners to go to the front.

So there I was, falling over myself and couldn't balance for life on my toes despite wearing high heels for years, 8 hours a day.

That was until, I found Elizabeth - she is a beautiful, young, maybe twenty something who runs yoga classes in her loft apartment in London Fields, called London Fields Yoga. The only reason I went there was because she is practically my next door neighbour- I can be that! lazy! So I thought it would be perfect to roll out of bed onto her yoga mat or just pop along to one of her yoga opening hours in the evenings, which you can check out on her website.

I've had a lesson with her with one other person or with just me and her and it was really nice. Usually there are more students. We weren't chanting stuff I didn't understand, although we did do the 'uhmm's' which are fine because I can do just an Ohms and not an entire sentence at the moment.

We did all beginner things, they were hard and they were easy, but boy did it hurt afterwards and still a few days later - but a good hurt, like you can feel your body getting stronger, that its worked out. During the lesson, it was nice to just feeling your body - I only cycle and walk and run up and down the stairs so I had actually forgotten what bits of my body feels like. I felt my shoulders, the muscles down the side of my torso, my back, my stiff hamstrings - damn them! Even my face, my toes and my arms.

But mostly, after every lesson, I felt so rejuvenated and spiritually uplifted to have just been connected with my body. I know I totally risk sounding like a hippy, but now I understand what everyone's been going on about with yoga. I love it and I  especially really love having lessons with Elizabeth - she is so nice, constructive and patient, 'there is a thin line between tightness and pain,' she says as she sees me not pulling down hard enough, 'challenge yourself.'

The first beginner's lesson is free and you can get 10 classes for £90. Really good value for such personal intimate sessions. It's like having your own private yoga teacher. You can book private lessons or other therapies such as massage, reiko or mediation.
Highly recommended. Go!

Gideon's Terrines

By Leluu

I am a supporter of independent businesses and would source locally and independently as much as I can because I am also an independent business woman myself.

Thanks to TomEatsJenCooks, I came across Gideon's Terrines. Gideon used to live with both and I had heard many stories of homemade terrines and the gunk of blood and offal hanging around in Jen's kitchen as Gideon is boiling liver and baking hock.

I always imagined some sort of crazy scientist boy sweating away in terrine passion, in his white apron covered in gore, his wellies up to this knees, holding a butcher knife in his black gloves.

But Gideon's pursuit came about when him and his friends used to do cook offs, and every week, they would of course have to out do the other one. Gideon found his calling when he started to make terrines. To better this competition, he decided to make really intricate terrines and had such fun deciding what to put in them and how to layer them that he became obsessed with them ever since.

Gideon is an architect by day and a terrine maker by night and weekends, "I love the versatility of a terrine," he says with a smile that runs from ear to ear, "and I love the way that, when you slice through, the interior can look completely different from the exterior or even reveal hidden layers of ingredients and flavours that can be very unexpected.  That was part of the thought process behind the Ham Hock terrine.  I loved the contrast of the bright green leaves and the pink flesh of the ham with veins of green parsley jelly running throughout.  You can create some really beautiful compositions."

I love that someone gets so passionate about something specific. Its like the Tracklements guy, who couldn't buy the mustard he really wanted to eat, so he made his own, jarred it, sold it and now has over 50 pickles and condiments. I hope this for Gideon - its wonderful to see something budding.

"I also revel in the fact that anything can go into a terrine - fish, meat, veg and the pieces of ingredient can either be large chunks, minced, battoned, whatever shape you need to create the desired cross section.  I'm currently designing some vegetarian terrines which I'm hoping to take to the market this weekend.  I think beetroot would be a great ingredient to use for its colour.  I could imagine staining Vietnamese rice paper a dark dark crimson with beetroot juice, lining a terrine with the paper and filling the inside with layers of spiced colourful veg.  Would look amazing when you cut it open".

I bought the rustic, duck and peppercorn and ham hock terrines for my Sunday morning breakfast and I absolutely love the intricate flavours of the high quality cuts of pork. I love the way, you can see the different ingredients and how pretty appetising it looks on my bread and how it all collates to how much love Gideon has put into his amazing project.

He also does preserves in beautiful jars of Pork & Cider, Venison & Armagnac, Duck & Juniper. Gideon's Market stall is in the School Yard bit at Broadway Market, London Fields in Hackney on Saturdays.

Look, he is even there when it snows - that is dedication for you. Bring him a cup of tea, see the smiles for yourself and buy Gideon's delicious, succulent, finger licking terrines.

Facebook: Gideon's Terrine
Twitter: @GideonsTerrines

Letter From Lovinia

Buried under a rug was a hand written envelope address to me, just my first name. Immediately, the rush and thrill of seeing mail that is personal and not a bill made me scurry my hands, tearing the envelop to threads.

When I had the boutique in Earlham Street, I got a ‘real’ Valentine’s card from someone who called themselves – ‘Black Butterfly’, a lovely hand written card with the nicest compliments, made my world glow all day, (and years later, I remember) thinking that someone out there thinks of me. But then, a dark cloud lingers, of not knowing whom bears these feelings and why they do not choose to reveal their identity. Are they a creep? Are they the love of my life? I still don’t know.

Getting real post has become so very scarce. When I was a teenager, I used to have many penpals– I wish I didn’t have the habit of throwing everything away, as how I would love to read what the 12 year old me wrote all those years ago to a Bros fan in The Seychelles to the ones in Austrialia, Thailand, America, Germany and so on.

Every morning, I would scoot to the letter box like a little hare to find at least four letters in my hand and read them like love letters on the bus to school as if they were from Matt & Luke Goss themselves.

Before email, I could smell the paper of my boyfriend and touch his handwriting and the adrenaline would tingle in my stomach like thousands of fish, swimming in circles. Same thing happens now with email, text etc but nothing beats a handwritten letter from a lover, a relative, a friend, a stranger…

This morning, I found a card, under the rug. My dogs must have played around with the mail as they always do find that hatred for the postman. It was from Lovinia. She had attended the supper club a few times over last year. She always bought friends, lovers and colleagues and it was always so lovely to see her. She even helped at the supper club and we had become friends. And because she is also from the Far East, we are more like sisters.

With the note, she had sent me a voucher to treat myself to a manicure and pedicure. Immediately, I felt a mammoth sensation of love, of friendship and honour hugging around me. Girlfriends are just the best, always there to fill in the gaps of love in your heart. Thank you Lovinia.

Big Fish Fight: Fin & Flounder

By Leluu
Firstly, please note that I am not a fish expert and I am writing this post with what I have gathered from documentaries, literature and talking to fishmongers.

Trout Stock (Simon's Photo)

We've always known that the world is devastatingly low on fish. If man does not change their ways, one day, 40 years or less, there will be no more fish stocks left in the world - if we were to carry on the way we are carrying on.

The story of fish is so huge, and the policies are wildly complicated and there is so much to learn about what is actually going on with our oceans, fish, fishermen, livelihoods and societies.

This week, Channel 4 are show-casing documentaries called The Big Fish Fight with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Gordan Ramsay, Jamie Oliver & Heston Blumenthal to engage and shock the public into their campaign of  the awareness of the world's diminishing fish stocks.

I've watched ‘Hugh's Fish Fight’ a fascinating, shocking and gripping documentary about common fisheries policy and saw how the reality of the matter is, fishermen and scientists are not seeing eye to eye. The fishermen are at sea, throwing away tons and tons of cod that seem to be in abundance (and not scarce) because it is illegal for them to bring back to shore more than their year's quota. The footage has bought outrage and anger in me – I had always known that this happens but I have never seen it in the light of day like that. (Not sure how I could have coped seeing it in real life.)
 
It was sobering enough to watch the powerful The End Of The Line, a film made by one of our guests, Christopher Hird. "Where has all the fish gone? We've eaten them!"
 
It points out the destruction of sea beds being trawled about 7 times in a year. Imagine if a farm land is trawled so much, how would anything ever grow back? This has completely changed and messed up the sea’s ecosystems.

What to do? We love fish, eating fish is just one of the greatest pleasures. But we must do it with so much more consciousness than ever.

We often buy fish and discards from Richard Hayfield, the owner of my local fish shop on Broadway Market, The Fin & Flounder. He has been educating Simon and I on how fish is caught, who catches them, where his fish comes from, which sort of boat it was caught on, what is endangered as well as about fish discards.

By-catch can be anything from blue fin tuna, dolphins, whales, sharks and turtles but they all have to be thrown back into the sea - dead and wasted. If miles of net is cast into the ocean, you can not help what is being drawn in.

Photo By Simon Fernandez

Photo By Simon Fernandez

Photo By Simon Fernandez

Photo By Simon Fernandez

Once we bought Tope which is a shark from Fin & Flounder. It was not intentionally caught, it was a bycatch and got caught up in the nets as do all things under the ocean. Of course, we would never use caught shark or any endangered fish but we bought the discards that are allowed to be sold from Fin & Flounder because they were caught on day trip boats, which  are small fishing boats –who are only allowed to sell their by-catches.

The shark was absolutely delcious - just pan fried. The beautiful fish would have been thrown back into the sea - dead - for the seagulls if caught by anything other than a day boat. To thinks tons of it is thrown back.

Richard buys fish from Cornish families. You can view more about here on Hubbub where it all comes from. The day boats don't usually reach their quotas and end up throwing fish away because they target better as they do not just trawl the ocean/ sea. Is this the way forward?

He has all knowledge of fish and sustainability and is an extremely interested and passionate about what he does/ his business. We need more fish shops like these, and yes, the fish comes with a price tag, but we mustn't forget that fish is scarce. The price is right for what you are eating.

Richard ensures that the fish they sell is sustainable by following advice from local fishermen and recommendations from leading bodies on sustainability. For example, MCS / Pisces Responsible / Seafish. They will always try to source via seasonal, hand dived, day boat and line caught fish and avoid bottom-trawled, beam-trawled or dredged which are the most destructive.

The variety of fish in this little fish shop is just inspiring for any keen cook. I love going in there and deciding what to cook for lunch or dinner as a special treat or just meal for one or for the supper club. Sometimes, Richard advises me on any by catches for some experiments and adventures in cooking.

Photo By Simon Fernandez

Photo By Simon Fernandez

We must prevent from buying fish from places like giant supermarkets who only sells about three types of fish: tuna, salmon and cod as if they are the only fish you can eat. This causes so much of a domino effect. The issue is so huge and complex that I am having trouble of where to think, what to write and how to say it. If we are going to eat fish, we have to wipe our consumer ignorance clean, we have got to eat a more diverse range of fish!

I may be niave and do not know too much about what is happening. All I know is to throw dead fish back into the sea is WRONG! There are many nations who have nothing to eat at all (sometimes because the richest countries in the world are coming to their shores with massive ships and stealing their fish) and how could that help levels of fish? How could this make sense to any of the decision makers and scientists?

We would like to plea to all our readers to click on this link, Hugh’s Fish Fight and join the campaign.

 http://www.fishfight.net/

And if you have another 2 minutes, please kindly copy and paste the sample letter on Client Earth’s website, print it and sign it and send it to your local MP to to sign the Fish Fight EDM. You can easily find the name and address of your MP by entering your postcode. Its so easy! Lets try to make a difference.