Raymond Blanc & Me

I had a very special guest, Raymond Blanc, in my kitchen the other day. I will write more about it in the near future.

Photo Credit: Edward Smith/ Rocket & Squash

Bánh Xeo Recipe

 Bánh Xeo is a street food favourite of many Vietnamese - it is a light savoury crepe made with rice flour and coconut milk, to be eaten as its being cooked. it is served with an abundance of salad leaves and herbs. The crepe is placed on a lettuce leaf on your palm, then rolled up with lots of herbs and then dipped into a fish sauce based dipping sauce. Never before could I enjoy a salad so immensely. Everything should be prepped before the crepes are made so they can be eaten with your hands as soon as they are done.

For 15 x 20cm pancakes, Serves 5 - 6

Ingredients
Batter:
400g rice flour
10g turmeric powder
400ml coconut milk
800ml water
4 spring onions thinly sliced
A pinch of salt
A pinch of sugar

Filling:
500g king prawns - peeled
pork belly - thinly sliced
4 shallots - coarsely chopped
500g beansprouts
salt and pepper to season

Garnish:
lettuce
coriander
sweet Basil
mint

Dipping Sauce:
2 tbs premium fish sauce - (Three Crabs Brand)
2 birdseye chilli - finely chopped
2 cloves garlic –  finely chopped
2 tbs cider vinegar
2 tbs sugar
400ml  water

Method

Mix together the batter ingredients making sure that the mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
Prep salad and herb leaves for the table and make the dipping sauce by combining all the ingredients together. If you find that it is too sweet, add more fish sauce, if too sour, add more sugar, if too salty add a little water. Place dipping sauce into bowls for each person.

To make the crepe, heat a frying pan with cooking oil, then brown off a teaspoon of chopped shallots, then add a few pieces of thinly sliced pork belly and two prawns to colour off. Using a shallow ladle, pour on a thin layer of batter, add a handful of beansprouts and close the pan with a lid and wait patiently for two minutes to cook. Then remove the lid and cook for a further one minute, making sure the batter is crispy and brown. Then turn the crepe onto a half moon and serve immediately and continue to make more.

How To Burn A Fry Up

I first learned what the English ate for breakfast back in home economics class with Mrs Dooley when I was about eleven years old. Its all about timing, she would say to us wives-to-me, mother-of-children and discussed the general-rule-of-thumb-rule-of-how-to-be-a-woman, the best way to a man's heart is via his stomach, she'd roar. Easy as that, huh? I thought as I conspired my life with Matt Goss from Bros.

Bacon, eggs, sausages, bread, butter, milk, mushrooms, potatoes, carrots & hummus, was, as agreed (blindly by me), kindly sent to me (or someone called Hannanh Yeadon who apparently lives at my address) by Sainsbury's So Organic. There were no raspberries in stock! - A month prior, I had agreed (without much thought) to write a recipe for them on a specific date in return for "a range of organic ingredients". Its Sainsbury's, giant hand of God, I thought… how lovely of them to be in touch.

Hence, this post.

Usually, when I need to make an English Breakfast, I have not had much sleep the night before and am completely hung over so I am often burning everything, or one thing has gone cold and something is still burning in the oven, the scramble egg goes rubbery while I set the fire alarms off. With head hammering, I'd slip on a piece of bacon that had fallen off the counter onto the floor and someone laughs as they just sit there and watch or drink juice.

Or, I'd be the one sitting there drinking juice and watch it all slide downhill because a) they are still pissed/ hungover b) completely incompetent because i) they didn't hear the wise words of Mrs Dooley at home ec ii) they are rubbish in the kitchen iii) trying too hard to impress c) making a perfect fry up is quite hard.

So, its just best to go to the nearest cafe and order one for the same price as these ingredients. Fry ups are usually for soaking up last night's mayhem or when you stay at a hotel and someone else mucks it up.

Sometimes though, when you are in a relationship and no one gets drunk anymore or you live with someone because you can't afford to live alone, you can achieve these fry ups and feel really proud of yourself, as you sensibly read the Sunday papers and think about having a stroll along the canal and buy china from a vintage market.

Sometimes you just fancy one, because you do, because they are quite yummy. So here's how you make it and as rule of thumb, I always burn the best free range, organic, friendly farmed ingredients!


Ingredients
For two

4 x back bacon rashers 
2 x sausages
4 x toast bread (I prefer white, lighter bread)
some butter for the table
2 x eggs
some tomatoes (brought from my local organic green grocers)
some mushrooms
olive oil
cooking oil

Utensils
2 x medium sized frying pans
1 x oven proof dish
1 x anti splatter device (optional)


Method

1. Set table, don't leave to last minute

2. Lay out ingredients, open packets, have things ready

3. Turn on grill, 275 should do it

4. Make a pot of tea or coffee

5. Pour juice

6. Cut cherry tomatoes in half, and slice mushrooms, place on oven dish, season with salt, pepper and olive oil. Once the oven is heated, place dish inside and try not to forget they are in there (set timer 5 mins)

7. Heat two frying pans, pour some oil in when they are both hot enough

8. Get the toast in the toaster - ready - don't toast them yet.

9. Fry sausages in one pan on medium heat, turning occasionally for a few minutes.

10. Fit the bacon around the sausages and use the other pan if it doesn't fit.

11. Break open eggs and fry them. If the pan is nice and hot, they get nice and crispy on the edges.

12. Don't forget about the grilled tomatoes and mushrooms

13. Turn sausages and bacon.

14. Toast toast.

15. Don't forget about the mushrooms and tomatoes.

16. Remove bacon from pan and place on plate.

17. Remove tomatoes and mushrooms from the grill, place on plate.

18. Turn sausages

19. Remove eggs if they are crispy enough and place on plate

20. (you might have wanted baked beans with this) - quick put that in the microwave!

21. toast more toast.

22. Remove sausages, place on plate.

(23. place baked beans on plate).

24. congratulate yourself

25. Eat and discuss what happened last night! Or keep it zipped!

Here's what happened when Meemalee's Kitchen got the same gift.

Thanks Sainsbury's So Organic range. Thanks.