Gigli

I've recently started to like blue cheese. It's one of those things that I think I should really like, an every time it's on offer I've tasted it again. After all, when I was younger I didn't like aubergines, carrots or swede and now they're all regulars. It certainly paid off with the blue cheese; I was recommended Stichelton and after trying a piece from Neal's Yard I was hooked on the blue stuff.

The selection of pasta shapes in the supermarket now is almost over-whelming. I'm a noodle kind of girl, so fettucini, spaghetti, linguine, tagliatelle and pappadelle are my usuals. On a whim, I bought Gigli. It's a frill edged, cone shaped pasta and is apparently excellent with cheese sauces. It held this sauce well.

Blue Cheese & Spinach Gigli

To serve 1

100gr gigli pasta
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 small leek, finely shredded
2 mushrooms, sliced
3 tbsp low fat creme fraiche
3 large handfuls of washed baby spinach
30gr (roughly) blue cheese - I used Cornish Blue

In a frying pan, sweat the leeks until they are softened. Add the garlic and the mushrooms, and fry gently. Put the pasta on to cook (I found it took about 6 minutes). When the pasta is almost done, add the spinach to the frying pan. Once wilted, add the creme frachie. Add the blue cheese, season and toss through the gigli pasta.

What sauces do you make for Gigli?

Tofu Tuesday - Braised Tofu & Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce

Tofu Tuesday seemed to dominate the blog recently, so I opted out of it last week. I found myself craving it though. Many people say tofu doesn't taste of anything, but this really isn't so. It has a unique taste, though not strong and it was this was what I missed.

I had a massive tapas lunch today, and so was feeling quite unmotivated as to what to cook tonight. I wanted to try a new type of beancurd, like perhaps beancurd skin but most of the recipes I found involved some deep-frying. Fine, but two deep fryings in one week is a touch excessive. Peng's Home-Style Beancurd really caught my eye, but as I had eaten an ungodly amount of pork for lunch, this will have to wait until next week. Something light and meat-free was the only way forward.

Braised Tofu & Mushrooms in Oyster Sauce

Serves 2

6 shiitake mushrooms, rehydrated in boiling water
1/2 a block of fresh tofu, cubed
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 carrots, peeled and sliced on the diagonal
1" ginger, chopped finely
1 spring onion, sliced on the diagonal
2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1/2 tsp five spice
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
Large pinch of sugar
1 tbsp cornflour, slaked

Heat your wok up until smoking and then add about 2 tbsp vegetable oil. Fry the tofu cubes until lightly browned, which will take about 10 minutes. Remove and drain on kitchen paper. Fry the ginger and garlic until fragrant, then add the carrots. Fry for 5 minutes, then add the wine. Once it comes to a simmer, then add the mushrooms, slicing off any hard stems. Add the five spice, oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar and stir it to coat. Remove to a saucepan with a lid, and then add enough boiling water to make some gravy (about 150mls). Put the lid on and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the tofu and simmer for a further 10 minutes. Add the cornflour and stir carefully. Simmer until thickened, and take off the heat. Garnish with the spring onion, and serve with white rice and some steamed greens.

This did just the trick. Despite the braising, it's still light and quite refreshing. The mushrooms are juicy and unctious while the carrots provide a sweetness to balance the intensely savoury oyster sauce. The tofu soaks up the five spice flavour of the gravy nicely. If I had any broccoli, this would work well braised with the mushrooms. Substitute the oyster sauce with mushroom sauce for a veggie-friendly dish.

Deep-Fried Delights

Much to the dismay of my waistline, I've gone from a mild dislike of deep-frying - some may have even called it a fear - to something of a compulsion. The Agedashi Tofu turned me. Prior to this recipe I'd regarded deep-frying as something beyond my realm. My first deep-frying attempt saw me try to make falafels. I'd gone as far as soaking the chickpeas, blending them up with parsley, lemon, garlic, all those aromatics. When it came to cooking them, I was excited. The oil heated up and I waited patiently - I even tossed a breadcrumb in to see if the oil was hot enough.

Alas, it was not to be. The falafels fell apart into a million little pieces, all fizzing away furiously in the oil. My (now ex) housemate snorted: "Well, you f*cked that up, didn't you?". He has a way with words. Well, due to the success (with just minor burns) of the tofu, it was time to move on. Time for deep-fried meaty things... like spring rolls.

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Makes 8 - 10

200gr minced pork
1 tbsp dark soy sauce
A handful of woodear mushrooms, rehydrated and sliced finely
2 spring onion, sliced into shreds
1 clove of garlic, minced
2" piece of ginger, grated
1/2 bag of stir-fry vegetables
A handful of rice vermicelli or (preferably) glass noodles, soaked in boiling water for about 10 minutes
Rice paper
About 250ml vegetable oil for deep frying

Nuoc Cham Dipping Sauce

3 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp sugar
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 red chilli, chopped finely
A little diced carrot

Marinate the pork in the ginger, woodear mushrooms, garlic and the dark soy. Meanwhile, once the noodles are soft cut into 3" strands. Add to the vegetable ingredients. I used a packet of bog-standard Tesco beansprout stir-fry packet, to save on the chopping. Prepare a bowl of hot water to dip the rice paper sheets in.

Mix all the ingredients for the dipping sauce and set to one side.

Lay out a clean tea towel in front of you. Dip the rice paper discs into the hot water until they soften. When they have done, place carefully on the tea towel and dab dry. Cut the discs in half. With the straight edge facing you, place a little of the pork mixture in the centre on the edge. Add some vegetables and noodles, taking care not to add too much (it's trial and error). Fold the round edges in to seal the sides, and then start rolling it up from the flat edge. You should end up with a 3 or 4" long roll. Once these are all done, heat the oil up in a wok. Once hot enough (add a breadcrumb; it should sizzle) carefully place the rolls in, ensuring they don't touch each other. Fry until browned, about 5 - 6 mins in total.

To serve, I separated the leaves of a head of Little Gem, so that you can use the leaves as a wrapper to pick up the roll and to dip into the nuoc cham.

This was quite a fiddly process for my oafish fingers, but with some practice (and a helper) it shoudn't be too time consuming. It's delicious; the crunch of the rice paper wrapper is really complemented by the crunch of the beansprouts and vegetables, whilst the dipping sauce really lifts it. This only goes to confirm my new-found love of deep-frying.

Lemon Calamari and Cherry Tomato Salad

I stopped by the local market a couple days ago in search of some fresh fish. I was in the mood for bass but couldn't find it at the fishmonger. Montreal is a strange city when it comes to fish and seafood. Growing up in Paris (which isn't exactly a maritime city) I was used to the great abundance of local markets and the easiness to find great varieties of fish at anytime of year. Montreal, for a reason that I have yet to discover, offers very little variety of fish in most places, and what is offered is quite expensive. Frustrated at the sight of the fish available, I settled for calamari.

I found grilling calamari to be quite the experience. Being not incredibly awake while making lunch, I attempted to gently place the calamari on our indoor grill. The tentacles danced to the sizzling oil, and, for a second, I thought it might still be alive. Fortunately for me, it wasn't. I was clearly in no mood for a fight. It's surprising how easy, and quick, it is to cook calamari. It must, actually, be cooked in a couple minutes to prevent it from becoming tough and chewy, so it's really an easy solution for a quick meal.

Recipe (for 2)

4 calamari, tubes and tentacles
8 medium size cherry tomatoes
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
Extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed and minced
2 green onions, sliced
A couple sprigs of fresh thyme, picked
Salt and pepper to taste

Slit the calamari tubes on one side to open them up, and lightly score one side. Place them in a bowl and add half the lemon juice, the zest, the garlic, half of the thyme, salt and pepper and a good drizzle of olive oil. Leave to marinate while you make the tomato salad. Quarter the tomatoes and place them in a bowl. Add the sliced scallions, the rest of the lemon juice and the rest of thyme. Drizzle with olive oil and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

Get your grill on medium high heat. Once it's hot, place the calamari on the grill. gently pressing down so they don't curl up too much. After 1 minute turn them around. Make sure to pour the extra thyme and garlic over top. Cook for another minute. Remove from the heat and slice in bite-size pieces. Add to the tomato salad and toss. Adjust seasoning. Enjoy!

Seaweed Salad

I work near a branch of Wasabi and every time I get a sushi craving and I give in, this is where I go. There is much selection and I am often racked with indecision, mostly because I want it all. It's hard having a bottomless appetite when your wallet isn't accomodating.

I recently tried their seaweed salad and I was instantly addicted. Bundles of sesame flavoured stringy seaweed, slightly crunchy with a subtle nose-tingling heat from wasabi. It's texture is much like that of jellyfish that you get for dim sum. It's not cheap at £1.95 a box, so I set about finding out how to make it myself.

I found this packet in the Chinese supermarket, which seemed promising. No calories too, apparently...! I'm not sure how you'd incorporate it into pasta, as stated on the pack though.

Upon opening it, much of the seaweed inside was the normal wakame. There were also strands of red and clear seaweeds. It wasn't the stringy bundles as I'd hoped, but it made for a delicious vegetable side anyway.

Seaweed Salad

To serve 1

1 tbsp seaweed, soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes

1 tsp rice vinegar

1/2 tsp mirin

1 tsp soy sauce

1 tsp sesame seeds, lightly toasted

A few drops of sesame oil

A little wasabi (to taste)

Mix all of the above and dress the seaweed. Next time I'll add a little finely chopped spring onion. If anyone knows where I can buy seaweed like this, in London, please let me know!

Spaghetti with Broccolini, Sausage and Chili Flakes

I've always really enjoyed pasta lightly tossed with vegetables rather than swimming in sauce. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy a heart-warming slice of meaty lasgna from time to time, but when I am in the mood for something quick, flavourful and light, I always opt for simple pasta dishes like this one. I have been meaning to try the combination of a bitter vegetable with sweet sausage (especially since tasting sausage and swiss chard penne at Mario Batali's Otto in New York), so this is my take on that combination of flavors.

I have been in the process of moving apartments since I've been back in Montreal.. so the cooking has been minimal, and with minimal tools. It's always a nice feeling when good food comes out of your kitchen in minutes, made with few ingredients and requires very little cleanup.

Recipe
For 4

A bunch of broccolini, disregarding the stems
2 sweet Italian sausages, casing removed
1/8 cup of dry white wine
A pinch of chili flakes
6 garlic cloves, crushed and minced
Parmesan cheese to taste
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
A good handful of spaghetti

Cook the spaghetti in boiling water following the instructions on the box. Cut the broccolini into bite size pieces and steam for 2-3 minutes until soft. In a pan, add a good drizzle of oilve oil and the garlic. Start up the heat on medium low to gently infuse the flavor of the garlic in the oil without burning the garlic. After about 3 minutes, add the sausage (that has been taken out of its casing) and break up the meat with the back of a wooden spoon. The meat will start to cook and change color. Once the meat has just changed color toss in the broccolini and saute on higher heat. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper. Add the white wine and leave to reduce. Drain the pasta (but not excessively as some startch in the cooking water will help the sauce to bind together). Add the pasta to the pan, saute and adjust seasoning. Add the chili flakes, parmesan flakes and serve. Enjoy!

Fishcakes - A Leftover Treat

Mashed potato is one of the greatest comfort foods. I wonder if it stems from childhood, when all food was mashed for easy eating?

Last Sunday saw me laid up on the couch, full of self-loathing and quite hungover. One of these days I'll get bored of feeling rubbish and I'll pack in the booze... Maybe when I'm old. There was only one thing for it - mashed potatoes needed to be made. Of course I over-estimated my appetite and made far too much, but this wasn't a problem. Fishcakes can be a very cheap meal, depending on what fish you want to use. I never bother using fresh fish as I think it's a bit of a waste, but instead I used tinned salmon, tuna or smoked mackerel.

Spicy Fishcakes

Makes 4 large fishcakes

About 300gr mashed potato - this should be quite dry. If you're making this without leftover mash, steam or microwave the potatoes to get the driest mash possible.

1 tin of tuna, drained

2 spring onions, chopped finely

1 big red chilli, chopped finely

1" of ginger, grated

3 tbsp sweetcorn

1 tbsp capers, chopped roughly

A small handful of parsley, chopped finely

1 egg, beaten

Breadcrumbs & flour to coat the cakes

In a big bowl, combine the fish, potatoes, and the rest of the ingredients except the egg, breadcrumbs and flour. Mix thoroughly, and season with salt and pepper. Shape into compact patties. Put the beaten egg on a plate, with the breadcrumbs and the flour on seperate plates. Carefully dip the patties in egg, then flour, then egg, then in breadcrumbs. It's a messy business and you need quite a lot of breadcrumbs; I toasted two slices of stale bread and blended it finely.

Chill for 20 mins and then fry on all sides until browned. Then put the fishcakes in a preheated oven at 170 degrees, and bake for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve with a large wedge of lime (I also like ketchup...) and green beans or salad.