Tamarind and Thyme

Last weekend, we hosted one of Blai’s good friends for lunch. He’s a serious chocoholic and I knew we had to have quite a chocolatey dessert. After a simple fresh tomato and sausage spaghetti, I warmed some brownies in the oven, scooped some vanilla ice cream, and drizzled over homemade hot fudge sauce. Hot fudge chocolate brownie sundaes! Thank you to the Amateur Gourmet for the original idea! I served a bowlful of strawberries and raspberries on the side to decorate one’s own sundae.

If you’re able to bake your own brownies and churn your own ice cream, this would be superb. However, we the time-pressed must opt for some quite ready made products. The ice cream was Green and Black’s vanilla while the brownies were Homestyle Two Bite, a brand I quite like from Canada and available from Whole Foods.

I first saw this recipe for hot fudge sauce over at Smitten Kitchen but I’ve tweaked it here for ingredients more easily found in the UK. It’s a tremendously thick and fudgy (almost chewy) sauce that’s wonderful on ice cream! Or even eaten cold with berries.

Hot Fudge Sauce
adapted from Smitten Kitchen

100g 85% cacao dark chocolate
3 tbsps unsalted butter
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup sugar (I used golden caster)
6 tbsps golden syrup
Pinch of salt

Melt the chocolate and butter in a double boiler (I set a bowl over a pot of water – then used the pot again for the next step). In another pot, boil the 2/3 cup of water. Stir in the melted chocolate and butter and mix until it’s all homogeneous. Stir in the sugar, golden syrup and salt. (I’ll let you in on something: I didn’t really measure the butter or golden syrup. I cut off three tablespoon sized chunks off my block of butter and as for the syrup, I squeezed in six tablespoonish dollops.) Boil for about 9 minutes, stirring from time to time. When the time is up, the sauce should be quite thick and fudgy. Serve on ice cream!

A couple weekends ago, we were looking for a place to have lunch in Chiswick when I remembered a little seafood restaurant, Fish Hook, tucked away along a side street to Chiswick High Street. They’ve got a little sandwich board out on the main road to direct the attention of passersby as you’d normally never even bother looking down that street. I’d once gazed at their menu and a local wandered by and enthusiastically recommended the place. Now seemed like a good time to try it. They do a set lunch at £12.50 for two courses and £15 for three.

The restaurant is bright and airy but we made the mistake of choosing the table by the window that was under direct sunlight. Ah well. We started with some water for the table – but there was a slight hitch in the service when the waiter sneered somewhat when we turned down wine. Geez, get over it. Yeah, I know that’s probably your money maker but sheesh, we don’t have to order it every time we eat out.

There is a choice between three starters, three mains and a couple desserts. One each of the starters and mains are a non-fish dish but it seemed silly to order these when the name of the restaurant indicates its specialisation and we’re surrounded by pictures of fishies. My brother started with the Grilled Cornish line caught mackerel with cherry tomato salsa and couscous which he enjoyed….somewhat. He’s not a great fan of raw tomatoes and suffered a little while eating them. Hahaha! Otherwise, the fish was fresh though the portion size seemed a little small.

Blai and I fared better with the Whitebait tempura with a pea velouté and mixed leaf salad. The whitebait was fantastically light and crispy while the pea soup smooth and….well, it’s pea soup and it tasted like it!

Both Blai and my brother had the Deep fried haddock with peas, broad beans, chips and tartare sauce for their main. This was some beautiful fish and chips! The fresh from the fryer battered fish sat on top of the lightly blanched peas and broad beans, keeping the fish from becoming soggy. The gorgeous chips and tartare sauce were both served on the side, the latter being a mix it yourself pile of mayo and toppings. I was very jealous of their choice!

There was nothing wrong with my selection though. I opted for the Grilled sea bream with mashed potatoes, courgettes, green beans and crab bisque sauce as I didn’t want to follow a fried starter with a fried main course. The fish was grilled beautifully, with crispy skin, and the potatoes and vegetables were faultless.

We were absolutely stuffed after this and didn’t try dessert. Though my brother’s starter seemed a little, when taking in the big picture (low price, fresh fish, well cooked, large main course), the whole meal was fantastic value. Only £12.50! For two courses! Service was a bit iffy (our sneering waiter continually bumped into our table… but the head chef himself served us a few of our dishes – he seemed like a nice guy!) but overall, it was a good experience. It’s nice to see a little independent in an area so full of chain restaurants.

Fish hook
6/8 Elliott Rd
Chiswick
London W4 1PE

You could call this breakfast for dinner, albeit a Mexican style one.

I made a batch of these quick beans with cumin and oregano but used pinto rather than black as in the recipe. At least, I think they were pinto beans… As they were cooking, I took my trusty potato masher and gave the beans a good smash here and there and ended up with pseudo refried beans. Of course, you could always make truly refried beans from any leftovers from the recipe.

A few flour tortillas were heated up in my frying pan and the same pan was then used for frying a few eggs. Onto the plates went a couple of tortillas, a few large spoonfuls of the beans, some grated cheese, the fried eggs, sliced avocado and a sprinkling of chopped coriander. Can’t forget the salsa and sour cream on the side! It took almost no time at all and satisfied any Mexican food cravings I had!

I love Indian food. (Wait a minute, I think I’ve started a post like this before…yes, I have!) Whether it’s from the north or the south, I’ll eat it – I love the complex combination of spices and the variety inherent in every meal – the rice, the breads, the curries, the chutneys, the pickles. This love has obviously be traced back to my origins – growing up in Malaysia and Singapore, Indian food holds a place in everyone’s hearts (along with Chinese, Malay and Western foods).

However, this wasn’t true of Blai….at first. Understandably, he wasn’t terribly fond of any Indian food at first, his stomach being unused to the multiple spices and chili heat. I remember an early Valentine’s Day between us when he took me out to eat Indian food. It sounds a bit odd but to me, it was particularly romantic seeing that he was willing to put aside his qualms for my happiness. As for any romance that night? Well, I did end up horizontal but it was only to facilitate my rubbing of my distended stomach: I’d overeaten!

So when Blai suggested going for Indian food one night, I was shocked! He’d actually expressed a craving – something he’d never had for this cuisine. Still shocked, I listed all our usual joints but then remembered a place that was suggested to me by a few of you on this blog – Shilpa in Hammersmith. Thanks for the recommendation, Alex and Claire! That’s where we went!

I ordered a little something to pick at while our main dishes were cooking – Cocktail Masala Vada (£2.50), fried Bengal gram dumplings, spicy coconut chutney on the side. These little morsels went down easily enough, especially with the delicious chutney alongside. (The blurry thing in the photo is the sixth masala vada being taken off the plate by Blai – action shot!)

The first curry we ordered was the erachi mappas (£6.50) – boneless lamb cubes cooked in erachi kootu (a blend of spices). This was a mild coconutty dish with quite a few lamb chunks in there – quite tasty and lovely with the paratha we ordered.

As there was a strong fishy presence on the menu, I also opted for the Kerala fish curry (£6.50), with lots of coconut milk and kerala cocum. We were totally swooning over this one – creamy and coconutty and wonderfully flavoured and spicy. The bowl was licked clean.

For sides, we first ordered a neai choru (£3.00), rice with onion, spices, bay leaves, garam masala, cashewnuts, sultanas and ghee. And boy, did we taste that ghee – this was some fantastic rice.

I had to have an appam (£1.75), a fermented crispy-edged, soft-centred pancake with coconut milk. It was so nice we had it twice to sop up both our lovely curries.

Likewise, I also had to try their Kerala paratha (£1.75), a Keralan delicacy, so says the menu. This was the closest thing I’d had to a Malaysian/Indian roti canai (which really reflects how most Indian food in Malaysia is from the south – they are mostly Tamils); it was gorgeously flaky.

For dessert, we shared a pistachio kulfi (£1.90) – as good as any I’ve ever had. But really, I can’t say I’ve ever had a bad kulfi…

We also had an ada pradhaman(£3.50) – a hot sweet dish of flat rice flakes (This was in our case; other bases are also used), coconut milk, jaggery, raisins and cashews. This piping hot mixture was extremely sweet but quite comforting. This took our stomachs over that edge between comfortably and uncomfortably full.

And once again, I had to roll back home after I’d overeaten yet again at an Indian restaurant. Big surprise then.

Shilpa
206 King Street
Hammersmith
London W6 0RA

My tummy has been upset. I could only look at the photos of the Thai beef salad I made and feel my stomach gurgle. Babies should gurgle, not stomachs. I’m feeling better but I’m sipping on some ginger ale right now.

Anyway, this was a dinner I put together after a craving for both steak and Thai food hit on the same day. The temperature was also hot hot hot and I had a rare wish for a salad. This Thai beef salad is light on both the stomach (though not upset ones) and the wallet as a little steak can stretch to feed a couple people.

Do adjust the dressing to your liking – the amounts of lime juice, fish sauce and sugar should be modified to your tastes. This ratio is what makes me happy.

Thai Beef Salad
serves 2.

200-250g sirloin steak
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 small smashed garlic clove
chopped chillies
1 head little gem lettuce (or any other mixed leaves or lettuce)
2 tomatoes or a good handful of cherry tomatoes
half a cucumber
mint
coriander

Grill or fry the sirloin steak to your preferred doneness – I kept mine to be medium-rare. Sprinkle with a little salt and set aside to rest.

Prepare your dressing: mix together the lime juice, fish sauce, sugar, garlic and chilies and dilute with water to taste.

Prepare the vegetable part of the salad. Separate the leaves of the little gem, tearing up any large pieces, slice the tomatoes in any way, shape or form that pleases you, ditto the cucumber and finally tear up some mint and coriander. Arrange all this pleasingly on a platter.

Slice the steak across the grain and arrange on top of the salad. Drizzle over the dressing and serve the salad with some white rice (sticky is even better!) on the side as a light dinner.