I’m back! I had a little over a week away in Chiang Mai, attending a workshop and having a bit of a holiday. Before my trip, I was very worried about my lack of Thai and how I would manage to get around town but I managed just fine. Everyone was very friendly and really did their best to help out if you’re having a problem. I saw more temples than you can shake a stick at and more dogs at those temples than I expected. And needless to say, I ate lots of Thai food! Of course, I’ve got to start my travel posts with the inflight meals that I ate; well, more like picked at.
The first leg of my journey was an overnight Qantas flight from London to Bangkok - about a 12 hour flight. Supper for me was pork medallions with a mustard sauce and sauerkraut. Not too bad. Not great either; hey, it’s airplane food. The highlight of the meal was the Bundaberg ginger beer that I got to taste - pleasantly gingery without the raw ginger taste.
In the morning, breakfast was served. I chose not to have either the muesli or the omelette that was on offer, opting only for the tray with fruit and juice. The fruit wasn’t very ripe and juice that comes in those funny little tubs always tastes strange. So, not much to report.
The second leg of the journey was Bangkok to Chiang Mai on Thai Airways. My transit at Suvarnabhumi Airport was an absolute nightmare as I was getting conflicting information about whether to go through immigration, which desk to go to, where to go. In the end, I had to sprint to make the check-in for my flight before it closed. The only good thing that came out of that horrific connection was that I met Katherine, who was going to the same workshop that I was attending. Hello, Katherine!
On the 1 hour 10 minute flight, we were served snack boxes with a mystery meat sausage roll and some juice drink. After my bit of exercise at the airport, I was ravenous and scoffed it all.
Luckily, we made it to Chiang Mai in one piece, checked in to our hotel and then went out for a first bite in Chiang Mai…
(I want to thank Boots in the Oven for their very helpful tips for my trip - thanks so much, Rachel!)
I just wanted to share a delicious combination that I learned from a Croatian friend of mine - cevapcici and ajvar. Cevapcici are little kebabs, usually made of pork and beef, and are traditionally eaten with ajvar, a mixture of chopped up roasted red peppers and aubergines, as well as a fluffy flatbread and a fresh white cheese.
I made these beef kebabs using a seasoning mix and found jars of ajvar at my local shop. Delicious! Do try ajvar if you can find it (the homemade kind looks more orange than red ) - it’s a lot of work making it by hand!
Well, I’m off again for a bit of travelling and I’ll be back in a little over a week’s time with food photos from another exotic locale! See you then!
Sometimes I suffer from a grave lack of creativity in the kitchen. The fridge is empty, that packet of taco mix isn’t looking so hot, and you’re hungry. It’s time to whip out that ever dependable recipe whose ingredients are easy to find at any local market (in my case, my local Middle Eastern shop with halal butcher in the back).
One recipe that I always turn to is the chicken escalopes from Tessa Kiros’ Apples for Jam. I’ve made them many times in the past and even made them for Blai’s parents once when they came to visit. It’s quick and adaptable to any wine-like liquid I happen to have in the house. This time, I served them with a braised broccoli dish with garlic and chili and anchovies and fluffy white rice.
Chicken Escalopes with Cherry Tomatoes and Capers
adapted from Apples for Jam by Tessa Kiros
serves 2
1 large chicken breast, sliced into 4 escalopes (get your butcher to do this)
flour for dusting
olive oil
2 large handfuls of cherry tomatoes
3 tbsps white wine/dry sherry/Marsala wine/water
2 tbsps capers, drained and rinsed
salt and freshly ground pepper
Heat a saute pan over medium heat and add olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the cherry tomatoes and remove when they’ve started wrinkling in the heat (watch out, they’ll splutter!).
Dust both sides of the escalopes in flour and lay in a single layer in the pan. When golden on the bottom, flip over and fry the other side. When that side is golden too, add the liquid (I used Marsala wine this time) and watch it bubble bubble bubble. Add the cherry tomatoes back in with the chicken, add the capers too, and season with salt and pepper.
Cover the saute pan, turn down the heat and let it bubble away slowly. It will be ready in a few minutes though it can hold there for longer if you’re waiting for something else to finish cooking in the meantime.
Serve with white rice or mashed potatoes - both work to soak up the lovely gravy.
I recently purchased these biscuits at the little Russian shop at the shopping centre near where I live. They might look like walnuts but they’re far from them. The walnut halves are a dense cakey biscuit and they’re stuck together with a caramelised condensed milk filling (isn’t that just dulce de leche?!). There’s also a single peanut in the centre, which adds a nice surprise.
They’re labelled on the back in English as “Grandma’s nuts with condensed milk and peanuts” and there are also names in German and Russian. The German name seems to be a direct translation but alas, I don’t read Cyrillic script and so have no idea if Russians also call them Grandma’s nuts (giggle). Does anyone know what they’re called in Russian? Are they still the nuts of Grandma?
Not really related, but my Shoot and Eat post on Londonist this month came out yesterday. Go and take a look - this time it features sweet treats from Cafe Ciao near Leicester Square.
At my farmer’s market this past weekend, I bought some fantastic savoury preserves from a stall run by a Miss Stoneham. I felt like sharing them with you…and no, she didn’t ask me to!
Her homemade ketchup (£3.50) is sweetened naturally with apple juice and is so fantastically tomatoey. It’s got the texture you’d expect of ketchup, really really thick, but has little bits in it, proving that it’s made of real tomatoes! Dinner that night involved roasted potato wedges, ideal for dipping!
We opened the bread and butter pickles (also £3.50 - these are her two most expensive items) the next day and had them with some Polish bread, omelettes, and cheese. A simple lunch but boy, were those pickles fantastic - not too sour, not too sweet. There were a lot of onions in the jar but those had lost all their sharpness and were mellow and sweet-sour. The cucumbers (giant slices) were so flavourful and deliciously piquant that I do wish the jar was bigger! I’m now feeling very inspired to make my own preserves but I have a slight fear of home-bottling. Perhaps this will be the year that I conquer this fear!
Miss Stoneham sells her wares monthly at the Acton Farmer’s Market. She also sells a variety of baked goods, both sweet and savoury.
