Ingredients:

• Minced chicken – approximately 250 grams
• 1/2 Onion, chopped in to medium-sized pieces
• Green beans – sliced in to bite-sized pieces
• Baby corn – sliced in to bite-sized pieces
• Holy basil leaves – a good hand full
• 1 Tablespoon of crushed garlic

Sauce Ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon of fish sauce
• 2 Tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1/2 Tablespoon of dark soy sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar (palm or brown, preferably)
• Between 1 and 15 fresh, finely chopped red of green hot chillies (for example, Thai Finger Chillies) – obviously this is dependent on how hot you would like the dish to be

Add all of the sauce ingredients in to a bowl and mix.

How to cook:

1. Add a little olive oil (or vegetable oil) in to your wok and fry the garlic until it starts to change colour and look yellow
2. Add the chicken and cook
3. Once the chicken is cooked, add the onion, green bean and baby corn and stir for 30 seconds to 1 minute
4. Add the sauce
5. Check the taste and adjust if required
6. Add the holy basil leaves and cook for 10 – 20 seconds
7. Serve and enjoy!

This can also be made using Thai Sweet basil, which gives a completely different perspective of flavour and is fantastic, especially if you like aniseed flavour!

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Equipment needed; Shallow Baking tray, Large Sauce Pan, Sharpe Knife, Tin opener and whisk.

Ingredients

• 600g Potato
• 300ml Olive Oil
• 1  Onion
• 1 Fresh Chilli
• 400g Tin chopped tomatoes
• ½ tsp Sugar
• 1 pinch Pimenton
• 2 tbsp Sherry vinegar
• 1 Egg
• 1 Clove garlic

Method

1. Heat oven to 200c, Put 100mls of oil in a baking tray and place into hot oven  Peel potatoes, cut into 2cm square pieces. Put potato into oil and shake around, leave for about 40 minutes whilst making the tomato sauce.
2. Put 50mls of oil into pan and heat, peel and finely chop onions, finely chop chilli place carefully in oil and  cook until onions are translucent and soft, add tomatoes, sugar and pimenton, simmer for 20 minutes at the end add the sherry vinegar
3. To make garlic mayonnaise you can either make your own by combing the garlic and egg with 1tbsp of oil by whisking together then a further 150mls of oil drizzled in whilst whisking, or cheating and buying a good quality shop bought maynoaise and adding crushed garlic.
4. Plate up tomato sauce place potatoes on top with a dollop of mayonnaise.
5. Enjoy!

THREE TERRA COTTA PIECES SET; CAZUELAS & PITCHER $35.00

Cazuelas Earthenware Casserole Bargain Prices $12.50

Cazuelas Earthenware Casserole Bargain Prices $17.35

During a long weekend trip with my wife and daughter to Barcelona, a passion for the Spanish tradition of Tapas was enlightened.  A chance discovery of the La Boqueria food market (one of the largest in Europe} was an experience I will never forget.  The market is definitely not just there to provide a tourist attraction but to provide the people of Barcelona with the freshest, best quality, locally-sourced produce. The senses were bombarded in en

Within the market there are a number of Tapas stalls cooking small, exquisite dishes from the produce that is being sold around them. The freshness of the ingredient’s is unsurpassed and the variety of options seeming to be almost endless.

A Spanish waiter explained Tapa means lid or cover and the cuisines origins comes from inn keepers placing a slice of bread with ham or cheese on top over drinks being served, to keep out flies. The theory goes that the food offerings became more and more  elaborate with rival inn keepers competing to entice in clientele.

Modern Tapas is a mixture of small tasty dishes served in the earthenware (Cazuelas) or paella pan it’s been cooked in. Tapas can be eaten alone, shared one portion or as many dishes as you care to eat over any amount of time. All the traditional flavours of Spain can be found within tapas dishes. Wonderful fresh seafood, vegetables, meat, manchego cheese, Iberian Chorizo, Serrano Ham Paella, paprika, olives and tomatos. It is the ultimate in social relaxed eating. I hope to share with you some of my favourite recipes I have experienced whilst exploring this exciting cuisine.

Gambas pil pil

This dish is very simple but a really good way of showcasing large fresh prawns.  I love the simple pleasure of dipping bread into the oil the prawns have cooked in the combination of flavours is divine.

Equipment needed; individual Earthenware dishes (Cazuelas), knife.

Ingredients per individual dish

• 3-4 Tbsp of good quality olive oil
• 6-10 large prawns
• Clove of Garlic
• 1 Dried Red Chilli
• 1 Lemon
• Pinch of Pimenton (paprika)
• Basket of Bread

Method

1. Peel and devein Prawns.
2. Peel and thinly slice Garlic.
3. Add Garlic, chilli, and paprika to oil inside earthen ware dish. Place dish directly onto  hob, heat until hot but not smoking.
4. Carefully add prawns, cook  for 2-3 minutes till prawns are pink and starting to curl
5. Serve immediately in same dish being careful of hot oil, lemon wedges for garnish and bread for dunking
6. Enjoy

THREE TERRA COTTA PIECES SET; CAZUELAS & PITCHER $35.00

Cazuelas Earthenware Casserole Bargain Prices $12.50

Cazuelas Earthenware Casserole Bargain Prices $17.35

I was given this recipe by my sister in law, whose origins are from the fantastic Lisu Tribe in Thailand. Whilst in England on holiday recently, she made this delicious salad for lunch and everybody was bowled over by the great taste – so fresh, zingy and left you craving more! This recipe is extremely versatile – you can vary the levels of spice, add in differing vegetables (whatever happens to be in the fridge) and instead of using turkey as I have suggested, you could replace with quorn, tofu, chicken or pork. My sister in laws version was made with glass noodles that are available from Asian supermarkets but, we have on occasion made the salad with rice noodles which have also been fine. The salad can be pre-made and kept in the fridge for up two days and is perfect eaten cold or hot.

Equipment needed: Wok/Frying Pan, Spatula/Wooden spoon,, Tongs, Large Saucepan, Large Bowl

Ingredients:

• 1tsp cooking oil
• 250g Lean Turkey Mince
• Stock cube.
• 300g Glass Noodles
• 1 Onion
• Dried chilli 1-2sp or 1-5 fresh red chillies
• 200g Bean sprouts
• 1 Carrot
• 3 Tomato’s
• 4 Spring onion
• Cucumber Half
• Handful of Coriander
• Salad Dressing
• 4 tbsp Fish Sauce
• 4tbsp Lime Juice
• 1tbsp Palm sugar/Brown sugar

Method

1. Soak noodles in large bowl of cold water for 5-10 minutes. This reduces cooking times and prevents noodles sticking together when cooked
2. Put a small amount of cooking oil in Wok/Frying pan, medium heat. Peel and dice onion, add to wok, add chilli and cook till onion, soft and translucent.
3. Season turkey mince, I like to do this with a chicken stock cube which really improves the meats flavour. Add turkey to wok, cook through then add garlic.
4. Remove noodles from cold water and place in large saucepan of boiling water for about 8 minutes
5. Whilst noodles are cooking, wash bean sprouts drain and place in large bowl, add diced cucumber and tomato, sliced spring onion and peeled and shaved carrot.
6. Test noodles are cooked, they should still have a bit of firmness, drain and add to vegetables in large bowl, add the combined onion and turkey mince.
7. Finally combine the fish sauce, lime juice and sugar and pour straight on to salad ingredients.  Add chopped handful of coriander at the last minute. Mix with salad tongs.
8. Enjoy!

*Tip roll lime on hard surface before extracting juice, this will produce far better results.

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ELECTIRC WOK $15.99

Joyce Chen 14″ Carbon Steel Xylan Non-Stick Wok with Birch Handle $11.49

Hand Hammered Iron Wok round bottom Pow handle 36cm14″ $71.99

Asian Traditions Wok Pan 13 1/2 in. with lid – NIB $5.99

New Aroma 5qt Professional Wok $9.99

Grill Zone 43012 Nonstick Grill Wok with Handles $14.95

Taylor & Ng 7 Piece 14″ Preseasoned Round Bottom Wok Set 12174 $37.94

NEW Aluminum Non-stick Wok 11 Inches – Sarten Hondo De Aluminio Anti-adehrente $19.99

West Bend Electric Wok Complete with both racks and Tempura Power Cord $24.99

Sweet ‘n’ sour is, by nature of it’s title, a combination of flavours that leaves your palet semi-confused with each mouthful, yet somehow they combine perfectly to perform a merry dance across the taste buds; just fantastic!

The problem with most traditional take away sweet ‘n’ sours is that the sauce seems somewhat radioactive in colour and ever-so slightly plastic in flavour. This recipe provides the ability to create a really fresh combination of flavours, whilst not compromising on aesthetics or aroma and, from start to finish, takes a mere 15 minutes or so to cook. I cooked this for my daughter and she ate every last mouthful, which in my eyes is a great testimony to the recipe – a big thank you to the cooking school in Thailand from which I was fortunate enough to learn this from.

Ok, the ingredients are as follows and as with every other recipe, feel free to ad-lib:

• 1/2 Onion, cut into bite-sized pieces
• Several tomatoes (nothing scientific here, as many or few as you wish), cut into bit-sized pieces
• Several bite-sized pieces of pineapple (again, down to personal taste)
• 1 Pepper (red, green, yellow or orange) cut into bite-sized pieces
• Chicken – usually I use 2 or 3 thighs, de-boned and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 1 Tablespoon of chopped garlic
• 1 or 2 Spring onions sliced into approx. 1 inch pieces

Make the following sauce in a seperate bowl:

• 1 Tablespoon of fish sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of sugar (palm or brown)
• 2 Tablespoons of tomato sauce
• 1 Tablespoon of lime juice
• 1 Tablespoon of soy sauce

If you wish, you can spice up the sauce and add an extra dimension to the dish a little by adding chopped, dried chilli – I tend to include 2 or 3.

And on to the cooking:

1. Heat up your wok with a little oil and fry the garlic until it turns yellow
2. Add the chicken and stir-fry until cooked
3. Add the onion and pepper and stir-fry for about 30 seconds or so
4. Add the sauce and stir in
5. Add the pineapple and tomato and stir in
6. Add the spring onion and stir in
7. Turn off the heat and sprinkle in some freshly ground black pepper

Serve imediately with either steamed basmati rice or medium noodles and enjoy!

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