Chiang Mai Noodles

Recently, I've spent a lot of time baking, this time though, I'm heading back to my savoury roots and sharing one of my favourite noodle recipes - Chiang Mai Noodles. Whilst the name suggests the Chiang Mai region in Thailand, the dish itself doesn't bear the traditional hallmarks of Northern Thai cuisine, for a start it uses copious quantities of coconut milk that isn't traditional in northern thai food, but regardless of it's authenticity, it is lovely, sweet, sour and creamy with a decent wollop of heat.

The recipe below should make 4 servings, but to be honest, I eat big when it comes to curries so I pop it into two big bowls, and work my way quite happily almost all the way through one. I've also added fried tofu (stop gagging) and beansprouts, which are not traditional in the dish, but add texture and taste to the dish - as with most of my recipes, play around with the flavours and ingredients you like.

Chiang Mai Noodles
2 large servings, or 4 smaller servings

• 250 grams fresh egg noodles
• 1 to 2 small red chillies, deseeded and chopped finely
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 asian shallots, chopped finely
• 2 tablespoons good quality red curry paste (home made if possible)
• 350 grams chicken breast, sliced finely into strips
• 1 tablespoon chopped palm sugar
• 2 tablespoons fish sauce (or to taste)
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 750mls coconut milk
• juice of half a lime
• small handful of chopped coriander leaves
• 4 medium green onions, chopped finely
• chopped red chillies for garnish
• packaged fried noodles to garnish

Method

1. Cook noodles for a few minutes in a pot of boiling water until cooked. Drain, drizzle with a little oil, toss and set aside.
2. In a mortar and pestle (or small food processor), pound the garlic, chillies, shallots and curry paste until a thick and chunky paste.
3. Heat a wok over medium to high heat, add a tablespoon or two of oil, stir in the paste mixture and stir constantly for a few minutes to cook out the raw taste of the paste, add the chicken and fry for a few minutes more until the outside of the chicken is cooked.
4. Add the palm sugar, fish sauce, chicken stock, coconut milk and lime juice and simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes until chicken is cooked through. (add tofu here if using). Taste and add extra sugar or lime juice if needed.
5. Place the noodles into individual bowls, scoop chicken pieces on top, and ladle curry soup on top. Garnish with spring onion, chillies, coriander and fried noodles. (add bean sprouts here if using).

Beef Pide

I've been to Turkey a couple of times, and I love grabbing a seat at a street side restaurant and ordering a Pide - the Turkish version of Pizza, combined with a bowl of ezme (spicy tomato salsa) it is serious comfort food. The dough is easy to make and lovely and crispy, and you can play around with the toppings, much like any other pizza. Traditionally the meat would be lamb, so use that if you like, I just fancied a beef pide this time round. The egg on top is optional, but delicious, it makes the Pide almost pie like, and for me adds both texture and taste.

You can also make the dough and bake it plain, with a few herbs and olive oil, to make bread for dipping.

Turkish Pide

For the dough

• 3 cups flour
• 50mls olive oil
• 1 cup warm water
• 3 teaspoons dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt

For the meat mixture

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 500 grams minced beef, or minced lamb
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon dried chile flakes (optional)
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 2 tablespoons chopped mint
• small squeeze of lemon juice
• salt and pepper to taste
• 4 eggs

Method

1.   Mix together the water, sugar and yeast and sit for 5 minutes until frothy. Put the flour, salt, and olive oil into a bowl and add the yeast mixture. Combine well, and knead for 5 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic. Put into an oiled bowl in a warm place for an hour to rise.

2.  Saute the onion and garlic over medium heat until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the beef, cumin, coriander, paprika and chile if using and stir until the meat is browned.  Add the tomatoes, and cook out the moisture. Remove from heat, add a squeeze of lemon juice and the parsley and mint, season with salt and pepper to taste and stir.

3.   Roll out the dough into 4 ovals, pinch the ends to create a boat like shape and place on a baking tray.

4.   Spread the filling onto the base, leaving about a centimetre around the edges, and fold the edges of the dough up to form a shelf around the pide.

5.   Carefully crack one egg onto each pide, breaking the yolk, and bake at 200 degrees celcius for 15 minutes until the egg is cooked and the dough is crispy and brown. Serve with a spicy tomato salsa.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

I love looking at the ingredients in my fridge, having a bit of time, and thinking about what I can cook. My main ingredient was raspberries, I tipped the Bacardi bottle upside down and it was sadly empty, so a Mojito was out of the question, I contemplated Creme Brulees, but thought the hours on the treadmill to burn them off wasn't worth it (I would quite happily eat them all), I'll save them for a dinner party. So....in comes muffins, the ultimate in share food, I could quality test one or two that afternoon with hubby, and take the rest into work the next day to share, not too generous though, as I needed two for breakfast (quality checking of course) before anyone else got a look in.

I used fresh raspberries, and love fresh raspberries, but this is a recipe that is great with frozen as well, and to be honest they hold their texture well.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Muffins

• 3 cups flour
• 4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 150 grams white chocolate (chopped) or chips if you can get them
• 225 mls milk
• 150 mls cream
• 125 grams butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg
• 250 grams raspberries, fresh or frozen (be gentle with fresh raspberries)

Method

1. Pop the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a bowl and whisk or stir to mix and aerate the ingredients.
2. Add in the milk, cream, butter, vanilla essence and egg and mix briefly.
3. Add in the chocolate and raspberries and stir very briefly to combine, but keeping a few of the raspberries whole.
4. Bake at 200 degrees celsius (380 degrees Fahrenheit) for 15 to 20 minutes until a skewer comes out of the muffin clean.

into the muffin tins

after baking

Stuffed Peppers (Biber Dolmasi)

Across the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean kitchens they stuff things, from vegetables to vine leaves to bread and pasta - they enhance the flavour by changing the texture and taste of the original ingredient to create something awesome.

There is something so refreshing about a whole pepper stuffed with a fragrant rice mixture, filled with crunchy pine nuts, succulent currants and finished with the clean flavours of lemon and mint, and a good glug or three of good quality olive oil. I've made a vegetarian version, but traditionally this is a meat dish, using ground beef or minced lamb. The filling can also be used to stuff other vegetables like eggplant and zucchini, or popped into vine leaves and steamed. 

Finally, don't be shy with the olive oil, I've used 3 tablespoons in cooking the rice, but added extra to the cooking dish.

Rice Stuffed Peppers

• 8 small peppers (capsicums)
• 1 cup rice
• 1 cup water or vegetable stock
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 small fresh tomatoes, or 2 tomatoes from a can of tomatoes, chopped finely
• 1/3 cup pine nut, toasted
• 1/3 cup currants or sultanas
• 1 teaspoon all spice
• pinch cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 cup fresh mint chopped finely
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• juice of half a lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

1.   Heat the oil in a pan over medium heat and add the onion, cook for 10 minutes stirring until onion has softened and add the rice. Stir to coat the rice with the oil and add the water or stock.

2.   Cook until the liquid has been absorbed and then add the remaining ingredients. The mixture will be slightly uncooked.

3. Cut the top off the peppers, and carefully remove seeds and membrane, leaving the peppers whole. Stuff with the rice mixture and place the top of the pepper back on, or a slice of tomato (which is more traditional). Put them into a dish that allows you to stand them up so they don't topple over.

4.   Empty the juice from the canned tomatoes into the dish, squeeze the remaining lemon half on top and drizzle in some more olive oil. Cover and bake at 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30 to 40 minutes until rice is cooked. Alternatively, stand the peppers in a saucepan, add water to come one third up the peppers, drizzle with olive oil, a squeeze of lemon, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes until cooked.

5.   Serve with fresh lemon, thick yoghurt and chopped mint.

Homemade Chorizo Sausage

I can't get decent chorizo sausage here in Doha, to be honest I can't get any chorizo sausage here, so I decided to make my own. I used pork mince, as I had some in the freezer but for all my Halal friends, you can make it with chicken mince instead.

Traditionally it's made with oregano and cumin, but you can use whatever herbs and spices you like, I had some smoked paprika so chucked that in as well. The recipe below makes a fairly mild chorizo, if you like it spicier, up the chillies or leave the seeds in, if you like it very mild, reduce them.

I made free form chorizo, basically the meat mixture without casings, so it's not a traditional sausage, but rather a mixture that can be used on a pizza, in a Mexican chili, wrapped in pastry or in this case, on a tortilla with the typical Mexican fixings like sour cream, salsa, and a dollop of habanero sauce. 

Mexican Chorizo Sausage Meat (in tortillas)

• 500 grams minced pork (or chicken)
• 10 large dried chillies, seeds and stems removed
• 2 large cloves of garlic, chopped roughly
• 1 medium red onion, chopped finely
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar, warmed in a pot
• 1 tablespoon cumin
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
• to cook, olive oil and 1 teaspoon sugar, plus tortillas, salsa, sour cream, lettuce, red pepper and chili sauce

Method

1.   Place the chillies in a glass bowl, and put the onions and garlic on top. Pour on the warm vinegar and cover with plastic wrap, let sit until the vinegar cools to room temperature.

2.   Pop the mixture into a blender and blend until smooth.

3.   Put the pork mince, oregano, cumin, paprika, salt and pepper into a bowl and pour on the pureed chili mixture, Mix thoroughly with your hands until well combined. This is the basic chorizo mixture and can be frozen as it is ready to use in recipes (unless you started with frozen mince, then you should cook it before freezing).

4.   To cook the chorizo, heat some olive oil in a pan over medium to high heat and fry the meat mixture until cooked, taste and adjust seasoning - I added some ground black pepper, some sugar (to offset the vinegar), and some chili flakes. 

5.  Served spooned onto tortillas and add toppings to taste.