Tamarind and Thyme

Food products aren’t really something I’ve blogged much about but lately there have been a few things I’ve been totally obsessed with and want to share with everyone. For that reason, I’ve scanned through my old posts and placed them in a new category you can see to the right of this page – Products. Needless to say, if I ever decide to write about something that a company has given me to try, it will be very clearly stated. However, today’s was not given to me; it’s something that I could have sworn I saw on Umami‘s blog a while ago but I can’t seem to find her post anymore.

In a nutshell, this stuff is like crack. Seriously. Tean’s Gourmet Crispy Prawn Chilli. As you would expect, there’s chili and dried prawns in there, all chopped up, and also shallots, garlic, dried anchovies, sugar, salt and MSG all mixed up and fried in oil. I’m not sure how they cook it or how they bottle it but it remains so so crispy. You can just about pick out the ingredients too – dark red chili, golden bits of garlic. It’s not very spicy but very savoury and incredibly addictive – I can eat it plain out of the jar but it really peps up plain rice and noodles and mediocre takeaway fried rice too. I bought mine at Wing Yip and I’m due for a new one: I can already see the bottom of the jar.

Recently, I was craving something on rice for dinner and Spam and eggs came up again as a suitable topping (I have a whole other post on my love of Spam). Now, you’re probably thinking – gosh, how could I better that? (Or I suppose you could be turning up your nose now and moving on from my blog…) Well, bring out a jar of this. Honestly, I could have skipped that egg and just gone all Spam and crispy prawn chili and rice (that should be considered one of the new classic culinary trios).

I reckon this condiment would also work in stir fries and other dishes. The first thing I did try to add it to was konlo mee – a dry noodle dish seasoned with various sauces (I think konlo is dry in Cantonese but please correct me if I’m wrong) – but I found that mixing it in with the moist noodles and wet sauces caused it to lose all its crispiness and hence, half its charm. I would suggest putting the crispy prawn chili at the very end and on top. Yum.

If you do want to make konlo mee at home, boil some fresh egg noodles (like the kind for wonton mee – or any dried egg noodle, even instant noodles), drain then toss them with your choice of sauces and oils to taste. May I suggest some combination of soy sauce, oyster sauce, dark sweet sauce, kecap manis, black vinegar, shallot oil, garlic oil, sesame oil, lard (!) to taste? It’s all just practice practice practice to find that combination that you like – I’m not suggesting you put all those ingredients in there, just try a few and add and subtract as you see fit. As a general guideline, you definitely want least one of the dark sauces and one of the oils in there by default. This is quite nice with some wonton or choy sum soup on the side and some sliced char siu on top. So delicious and it really reminds me of what I ate growing up.

Put a spoonful of crispy prawn chilli on top though and it’s just divine!

When we’ve been eating out more than usual, cravings for plain simple food, preferably home-cooked, take over. That happened last weekend and it was fish we wanted. And so it was off to our local fishmonger in the morning to see what was available and good. I’d originally wanted bream but when I saw the mackerel, I knew what I wanted to do with it. Two mackerel please, filleted.

At home, I set some rice cooking and started making a chayote and carrot salad with a Thai-inspired dressing. I then mixed together the ingredients for a glaze for the fish, which I fried very simply with just a little salt. The glaze was then simmered together until it thickened. By this time, the rice was cooked so in our bowls went rice, a fried fish fillet on top, some of the salad next to it, and the glaze served in a small bowl alongside.

This was just what we needed – simple food and as a bonus, it’s all put together very quickly. And what a great combination it was too – the ginger in the glaze went very well with the strong flavours of the mackerel and the mackerel, though cooked so simply, was moist and tender with a very crispy skin. The salad was refreshing and it turns out that chayote is a pretty good substitute for green papaya!

Mackerel Fillets with Soy-Honey Glaze
serves 2.

4 mackerel fillets (from 2 fish)
1 tsp sunflower oil
salt

For the glaze
3 heaping tsps honey
2 tbsps soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
1 tbsp warm water
1/2 tsp grated ginger

Combine the glaze ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Heat a nonstick pan over medium-high heat and then add the teaspoonful of oil. Use some kitchen paper to dry the fillets as best possible and then slide them skin side down into the pan (I did two at a time). Cook for 3 minutes without moving them. Sprinkle the tops with some salt and then flip the fillets and continue cooking for another 3 minutes without moving. Plate or set aside.

Pour out any excess oil and wipe down the pan if possible. Place it back over the heat and then pour in the glaze ingredients. Bubble away until reduced by half and then either pour into a bowl for serving or drizzle onto the fish if it’s being served immediately.

Chayote and Carrot Salad
serves 2 as a side.

1 chayote
1 medium carrot
a few sprigs of coriander

For the dressing
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp chili-garlic paste
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp warm water

Peel both the chayote and the carrot. Shred or grate both into a bowl (leave the middle of the chayote – there’s a seed, I think). Stir together the dressing ingredients and add as much as you please to the salad. Chop the coriander roughly, add to the bowl and toss together. Serve.

The very first meeting of west London bloggers and tweeters took place at Alisan in Wembley and was attended by all of three people: me, Laissez Fare and Rahul. Thanks for coming, guys! Though turnout was small for this initial meeting, three turned out to be one of the optimal numbers when having dim sum as many of the dumplings come out in threes.

Alisan sits right next to Wembley stadium and the tables by the windows have a fantastic view. That day, we could watch as rugby fans streamed into the stadium for some match that I know nothing about. On major event days such as this, Alisan only offers a match day set menu, simplifying things for its kitchen but as kick off was later that afternoon, we were still able to order dim sum for lunch.

Wow, I just realised we ordered a lot, looking at the photos. I know of no other way to describe everything other than in my totally anal way – I need to label all my photos!

Jellyfish and shredded cucumber and bamboo mooli dumplings

Prawn cheung fun and fried squid cake

Taro prawn cake and pan-fried turnip cake

Char siu buns and sticky rice in lotus leaf

Har gau and pork and prawn shumai

Honeycomb tripe with five spice and chicken taro croquettes

Seafood mooli and spicy whelks

Chilled mango pudding, egg custard tarts, and mango and grapefruit tapioca pearl

Alisan seem to excel in the art of the fish/seafood paste – I really enjoyed the squid cakes and the surprisingly pretty taro prawn cakes. Of the classics, their har gau and siu mai were just average while the wu kok (taro croquettes) and sticky rice in lotus leaf were very good. Their turnip cake was fried with a bit of egg and Chinese chives and was superb with a very tender, creamy middle. Desserts were all excellent: the mango pudding served with chocolate chips (!), the egg tarts hot out of the oven and the mango/grapefruit/tapioca “soup” very light and refreshing and my favourite.

All that dim sum plus enough good oolong tea to drown us (they only charged us for tea for one) came to £20 a head. There were definitely some highs and some lows throughout the meal but I’m very keen to get back to try more from their long and creative menu; there was a fried rice that I’ve also got my eye on – the menu states it has XO tobiko, prawns and crab meat!

Let’s do this again!

ETA: Forgot to give credit where credit is due – thank you to Route79 for first recommending Alisan to me!

Alisan
The Junction Engineers Way
Wembley
London HA9 8

Hasn’t it been fantastic weather we’ve been having recently? A week ago Sunday, we took advantage of the sunny day and spent it in a very empty City of London, wandering past both good and bad examples of modern architecture interspersed with old churches. Bizarrely, we weren’t hungry until much later and by the time we thought about having lunch, we’d already found ourselves south of the river. There wasn’t much on the South Bank of interest (so many chain restaurants) but I’d heard good things about the restaurant in the Tate Modern and so off we went, up past the throngs of tourists.

It being a Sunday, it was still very busy when we got there but we lucked out and one of the most desired tables in the room, right by the floor to ceiling windows looking out over the Thames, freed up soon after we sat down. I asked to be moved and they couldn’t have been nicer about it.

Two thumbs up from the service throughout the meal too. Of particular note was our request for tap water and what came – a whole pitcher of it with ice and lemon slices. All restaurants should offer this!

Blai is a sucker for fish and chips when he sees it on a menu and so had to order the Deep-fried Cornish haddock with chips, tartare sauce and mushy peas (£13.25). The fish came encased in a beer batter crust, was extremely fresh, and came with a giant mound of thick cut chips that were enough for the both of us.

I too was in a fishy mood and opted for the Line caught pollack with aubergine caponata and aged balsamic vinegar (£14.50). Again, very fresh fish but it was on the small side as it didn’t come with any major sides. Luckily, Blai’s chips more than filled the gap.

Room for dessert? Of course – there always is! Our eyes were drawn to the Bitter chocolate financier, poached meringue with milk chocolate sauce (£5.50). I was nervous at first as most chocolate on chocolate desserts end up being just too much chocolate with our mouths crying out for something to refresh the palate. This, however, turned out to be one of the nicest desserts we’d had in recent memory. The chocolate sauce was of a thin, soupy consistency and the milk chocolate was scented with jasmine, which made for delightful drinking. This was absolutely gorgeous paired with the dark financier and the shreds of tart/bitter preserved orange peel.

While not as exciting as our chocolate dessert, the Bakewell tart (£3.50) was still excellent. Actually, it was one of the nicest specimens I’d ever had and it was served with a nice dollop of creme fraiche.

Of all the museum/gallery restaurants I’ve eaten at, I’d say this one moves to the top of the list. Does anyone else recommend other eateries at museums and/or galleries? – I like playing tourist in my own city! I don’t recommend the one at the National Gallery – we went there for tea on my birthday last year and we experienced some truly terrible service. Shame. But I’d highly recommend the Tate Modern. Sure it’s a little more expensive than the usual museum cafes but the food sure beats sandwiches and the view from up there is worth it.

Tate Modern Restaurant
Level 7 of the Tate Modern
Bankside, Southwark
London SE1 9TG

This past weekend saw us girls have a picnic along the Thames in Richmond. The weather was gorgeous, wasn’t it? All that sun and warmth sure seems like a long time ago… Mirna, our friend who is Hong Kong bound, had recently returned to London from her native Croatia and had packed her suitcase full of food for our planned picnic – I think she packed half the shop in there!

That afternoon, while waiting for a tardy picnicker, we paid heed to the rumblings of our tummies and started by tucking into these rich salty flaky pastries called čvarkuše. They’re traditionally drinking snacks (salty salty!) though I could have them anyday! Though flaky, they’re much denser than puff pastry and scattered throughout the insides are bits of pork scratchings. We were too nice – we saved one piece for the latecomer!

When the trio finally came together, we selected a nice grassy spot by the river and laid out our things. And what wonderful things emerged from Mirna’s bag! She’d brought burek, a pastry similar to phyllo but thicker wrapped around a filling and baked. We tasted three kinds: meat, cheese (made with a fresh farmers cheese) and zeljanica (cheese and spinach). My favourite was the meat, but perhaps mainly because there was cheese in almost everything we’d sample that day and I was getting a bit cheesed out. From that Wikipedia article, it seems that this burek shape originates from Bosnia.

Another similar dish we tried was her mother’s homemade štrukli, a layered cheese and pastry dish (the leftmost container in the top photo). I do believe the cheese is mixed with egg and some cream too which again makes for a very rich dish! We added to that richness still by eating it and the bureks with dollops of creme fraiche.

Apart from these pastries, there was also a platter of cheese and meat that Mirna had lovingly put together that morning. There was a dry sheep’s milk cheese, paški sir, that reminded us of pecorino romano. There was a smoked cheese, dimsi, that was my favourite – very eatable in large quantities. The meat was a cured pork loin, pečenica, that was very lean and full of meaty flavour; it’s not dissimilar to the cured loin in Spanish cuisine.

A wild boar pate rounded out these cold treats – a most delicious spread that resembled pork rillettes.

Everything we ate with a corn bread (kukuruzni kruh) she’d also trucked back in her check-in luggage – that’s determination! This bread is entirely unlike the cake-like American dish of the same name – this is just a bread made of ground corn flour. That corn gives the bread a pleasing yellow tinge and tasted fantastic and not at all like maize. What a great picnic that was – thanks again, Mirna.

But wait, that’s not all! Mirna has brought other treats from home in the past – all of which I’ve wanted to blog but just never got round to it. One was this chocolate/hazelnut sweet called Bajadera, made by Kras. It just melts in your mouth and reminds me of a cross between Nutella and a ganache – lovely stuff. I was quite pleased and surprised to find it recently at my local Middle Eastern shop too. Kras’ biscuits are equally excellent – there must be crack in them or something; I polished off half a bag in under 10 minutes once.

And how can I forget this fantastic dried fig and orange jam?! She’s never without a jar for us when she comes back from her trips home and I can eat this out of a jar with a spoon. So good. You’ve got the crunch from the fig seeds, the sweetness of the figs and a slight tanginess from the orange; this is seriously gorgeous stuff. If you do come across it, I’d seriously recommend you pick up a jar (there are other brands apart from this one, I think).

And about a month or two ago, Blai and I tried a little cafe in Acton that serves food from the Balkan region – Cafe Vardar. It’s not really a place you’d run into as though it’s on the main Uxbridge Road, it’s a little far off from any of the main shopping areas and is actually situated inside a pub building. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Anyway, we got in and ordered cevapi and sarma, all the while texting Mirna with updates and advice. Cevapi is their word for kebabs (cevapcici is the diminutive) and what came out was a small pile of extremely meaty small kebabs (like skinless sausages?) served with ajvar (I blogged about that here before) and chopped onions. Oh yes, it was good. We must’ve had gloriously oniony, meaty breaths after this lunch and I’m looking forward to ordering it again but with a side of chips! I’ve also been told to try the cevapi at Mugi in Ealing Common so watch this space.

The sarma turned out to be huge cabbage rolls, filled with meat and rice – tasty but very heavy things. Unfortunately, they got a thumbs down from Mirna when she saw the photos as there was too much of the rice filler. Homemade ones are mainly filled with lots of meat and very little rice. Still, they were cheap! This and the cevapi and two drinks came to only £13.

Thanks again, Mirna, for all you’ve taught me about Croatian food. Something tells me I have lots more to taste!

Cafe Vardar
King’s Arms
The Vale, Acton
(corner of The Vale and E. Acton Lane)
London W3 7JT