My First Professional Experience

Hi Everyone! Hope you’ve been enjoying the first couple weeks of the new year. As I mentioned previously, I’ve taken up a new role back in finance. So with commuting and working, it’s been tough to find time to sit down and blog. So nearly a month later, I finally found a Saturday afternoon to share a few pictures of my very first professional experience.

Just one town over in Amersham, the Seasons Catering team were gracious enough to give me the opportunity to cook with them one evening at a private party. It’s a bit of a story how it came about, but needless to say I’m a big fan of the Seasons group which includes Seasons Cafe in old Amersham, another at the Rowan Garden Centre and their traditional Sweets shop also in old Amersham. Chris and I are frequent customers of the Cafe in old Amersham where we have brunch on the weekends. We love sitting up at the counter, reading the paper and having our huevos rancheros or super fluffy scrambled eggs on corn toast. It’s a really cosy place with a deli too – selling all sorts of treats, bread, pies, sandwiches and more.

Chef/Co-Owner Claire and I

So for my catering experience, I arrived a private home in Amersham to meet Claire and the team. It was so impressive how much equipment they brought with them! For about 60 guests, the team provided a pop-up bar and staff who served up a few different canapes and ‘small-bowl’ food. You are probably asking what I did – what is small bowl food?? It is apparently a new trend in the catering world. Rather than having a buffet, catered events are now offering small bowls of food served by wait-staff. As you’ll see in the pictures below, they are literally small bowls. The portion size is a few bites and is similar in size to Spanish tapas or Chinese dim sum. The staff serve them on trays and then pick up the empty bowls afterwards.. Got the concept? It’s brilliant isn’t it?! All the guests were well fed and were able to socialize and mingle about.

Right, the most important party – the food! The first canape we did was Coconut Crusted Prawns with sweet chilli dip. As you’ll see below, Claire is amazing at presentation. She had a collection of gorgeous platters and add a fresh touch of orchids, lemon grass and chillis.

Coconut Crusted Fried Shrimp

While these look simple, they were incredible. The coconut added such a great, unique flavor with the shrimp. I’ve only ever seen a coconut crust once before with chicken at a Caribbean place in L.A. If you ever order from Seasons, I highly recommend these! There were a few other canapes served that evening including Fresh Scallops Wrapped in Bacon and Lobster Bisque with Paprika Crositini. But I was too busy prepping to take more photos. But here are some of the small bowl foods we prepared that night..

Small Bowls of Bangers & Mash with Caramelised Onion Gravy

Small Bowls of Thai Green Chicken Curry with rice

Small Bowls of Tandoori Lamb, Pilau Rice, Mint Raita and fresh Poppadoms

There was one more dish that night that I didn’t get a chance to take a photo of.. And what a shame because I think it was my favorite! It was Duck a l’orange with Dauphinoise Potatoes. So all in all, you can see why I was so blown away by my first catering experience. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to help out with all the prep. Claire took care of all that and brought a lot of the food prepared. I just helped out with prepping and serving the dishes. But it was such a great experience. The team worked so well together! There was so much going on – from getting the timings right to ensuring all the dishes were being served hot and being cleared for more. The team even bring all glass, crockery and cutlery and even take it with them to wash up. So the customer’s experience is completely stress free!

To the Catering Team at Seasons, thank you so much for the experience and I hope to work for you again some time soon! In the mean time, I’ll see you around in the Cafe 🙂

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My Husband The Budding Chef!

So despite my love of food and cooking, there are times when I am delighted to sit back and let my hubby do all the hard work. Although I don’t let him into the kitchen often, when he does cook he does a darn good job! He’s a master at rack of lamb and toad in the hole, but not long ago he was so sweet and made his American wife a British Thanksgiving dinner. It was all last minute and he managed to find a turkey crown from a local butcher that morning. Now I must say my apologies to my Dad, my Mom and my aunts because I have to admit that Chris’s turkey was THE best turkey I have ever had! It was the most flavorful and moist turkey and that was without a brine.

Roast Turkey Crown

After very thorough research he tried a new (and very successful) method of cooking the turkey. He rubbed it all with a seasoned butter (just salt and pepper) and then painted olive oil on top to seal the butter in. He also used little pigs in a blanket (British versions are cocktail sausages wrapped in bacon) and tucked them into the edges with toothpicks/cocktail sticks. Simple and straightforward but with great results. After cooking it at 160C for awhile, he checked the temperature and it was about 140F (it should be 165F). So he removed the cocktail sausages and raised the temperature to 200C/400F for another 20 minutes or so until it reached 165F. While it rested under a foil tent, he got on with all the trimmings : duck fat roast potatoes, sauteed green beans, sage and onion stuffing, carrot and parsnip puree and super crispy Yorkshire pudding! I do have to note that the carrot and parsnip puree was sooooo yummy. He used one part carrot, two parts parsnip and just added a splash of milk and butter.

It was all so good and helped me miss home a little less. The only thing missing was a Honey Baked Ham which is a tradition with my family. And I haven’t seen any ham in the UK come close to the succulent juicy ham from the Honey Baked Ham store with a crispy sweet crust… Mmm.. But I can’t complain really as for the first time my Thanksgiving dinner was made all by my hubby 🙂

Thanksgiving - British Style!

So you might be thinking – okay – roast meat and trimmings.. Sure that’s nice.. But he really impressed me this past weekend when he made us Thai Fish Cakes! Not only did he make it all by himself but he used a couple different recipes to make his own version! Here are two recipes that he referenced – one from the BBC and another from Good Food.

Thai fish cakes is one of my favorite Thai dishes and something that always felt very daunting. We had some leftover frozen fish that we wanted to use and this turned out to be a great use for it! You just add the fish, egg, lemongrass, garlic, spring onion, chilli, coriander/cilantro, ginger (if you have it), some oil, fish sauce and lime zest into a food processor and blitz. Add it to a bowl and mix in some chopped green beans. The mixture was a little wet, so he added a couple tsp of plain flour to help bind it.

Heat about half an inch of plain oil (vegetable or sunflower) in a large frying pan. Don’t put it on your highest heat but just below it. Make a small patty at first to test the seasoning and oil temperature.

While Chris made the patties, I was flipping and frying them. My method here was to use a large round metal spatula with holes in it and a fork. The oil temperature was hot but not so much so that the oil was splashing out. Basically it was safe and I could stand close to it. After forming the patty, place it onto the spatula and slide it gently into the oil. If it won’t slide, flip it into the oil but use the fork to catch it with your other hand. Let it fry until you can see it browning up on the sides. Then turn it over. You will need to cook these until just before they look burnt. They’ll be a nice dark brown. Keep flipping them if you need to even the coloring. Let cool on kitchen towel before eating with sweet chilli sauce and some salad greens. Enjoy!!

Thai Fish Cakes

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A Bit of MY Soul Food : Pasta Edition

Some people love chocolate. Some people (eh-hem my husband) love candy. Some love cake or cookies or ice cream. For me, my biggest weakness is pasta. Whether it’s simple angel hair tossed in truffle oil and parmesan or it’s penne alla vodka, I love it all. I don’t discriminate too much with the ingredients I’ll cook/eat with pasta. Sometimes I want it simple and sometimes I just want to use up whatever leftover veg I have. There are a few go to ingredients like tomatoes (of course), garlic, onion, mushrooms and some sort of meat. If I have the time, making a lasagna from scratch is relaxing for me. Letting that sauce cook slowly to let the flavors really marry. Making that bechamel the way it should be and so on. Baked pasta dishes are great because usually it involves melted cheese and it just looks so pretty when it comes out of the oven. Also, I like that you can put it in the oven and tidy up before guests arrive! Both of the dishes today are baked coincidentally. But they seem appropriate as the season changes. Somehow I associate autumn with cozy casseroles and lots of starches!

Pastitsio

First up is a dish I made earlier this summer on a whim but that had rave reviews, so I took another stab at it. It’s a Greek type of lasagna called Pastitsio. It’s like lasagna in that it has pasta, meat sauce and is topped with a bechamel sauce. I did an adapted version of Ina Garten’s recipe but here’s another one and another. What makes this dish so delicious and different is that it has cinnamon. If you’re able to, you should use an authentic Greek cheese Kefalotyri, but I used parmesan like Ina did. Here are the changes/adjustments I made to her recipe:

• MEAT: I used ground beef and pork instead of lamb. Not only is ground lamb (mince) a bit expensive but also I was cooking the dish for someone who doesn’t eat lamb. Also, be sure to season your meat with salt and pepper when you’re browning the meat.
• TOMATOES: I didn’t have tomatoes in puree, so I just used my chopped tomatoes which was just fine.
• SEASONING: I really love the cinnamon flavor, so I added more until I was happy with the taste. I also added a beef stock cube to just add depth of flavor.
• BECHAMEL: I never buy whole milk and didn’t want to use heavy cream. I find bechamel can be just as good with semi-skimmed (2%) milk, and you feel a little less guilty!

The cinnamon in this dish is so fragrant and in a way you won’t be used to. Normally we think of cinnamon as something sweet for dessert. But when you smell this spice in a savory dish, it just all makes sense. The first time I made this, I didn’t have any eggs to add to the bechamel so it came out softer. The second time I added eggs and you’ll see the difference in the photos because it set more. Both tasted great but I think I’d prefer the one that was softer. Some pastitsio recipes use just egg yolks rather than whole eggs like Ina. I might try that next time..

My second dish is just something I threw together – Baked Gnocchi and Spinach in a Creamy Sausage Tomato Sauce. I’ve posted my basic tomato sauce in Recipes, and for this dish I used carrot but not celery. I also added creme fraiche (not cream), and some oven-baked Cumberland sausages I happened to have. In case you don’t know what gnocchi is, it’s an Italian potato dumpling that is soft, thick, gooey and so good. And like pasta, it’s a perfect way to use up any meat or veg you have. I had some leftover sauteed spinach (that had been seasoned simply with salt and pepper), so I placed that at the bottom of the baking dish. I cooked the fresh gnocchi (which I bought at Borough Market) very quickly for just a minute in boiling water. Normally you know gnocchi is done when it floats to the surface. But because I was going to bake it, I under cooked it. So on top of the spinach, I added the gnocchi and sausage tomato sauce. I topped it with parmesan and homemade breadcrumbs (leftover crusts from sandwich bread that was blended with oregano). And then baked it until it was golden brown! SO good. I served it with some roasted asparagus wrapped in parma ham. And as always, it was hot, creamy and had a bit of breadcrumb crunch. It was still good as lunch the next day too! Hope it inspires you to whip up a pasta dish in your kitchen tonight!

For some more of MY soul food, check out this post.

Baked Gnocchi

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Being a food tourist (UK Edition)

For the last couple of weeks, Chris and I have been showing my parents, aunt and uncle around the UK. As you’ll know from my blog, my family loves food. So it was only fitting that food was a central part of being a tourist with me!

We started in Birmingham for our 2nd wedding celebration with friends and family. We were blown away by our amazing caterers – Celebration Caterers– who fed us so well with the creamiest homemade pâté, incredible roast pork with the best crackling I’ve ever had, delicious vegetarian lasagna and much much more.

Homemade pâté with a clarified butter top

Served with rustic bread, mixed green salad and red onion chutney

Our next stop was to the Lake District to the family caravan. I couldn’t believe how lucky we got with weather! Loads of sunshine the first day and barely any drizzle the next. I promised the family that they were in for some of the best fish and chips and Cumberland sausages and they were not disappointed. You can’t really go too wrong with these classics!

Next stop – London!

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Post Wedding Diet Splurge

Now that I’ve been married for just over a month, there are a couple things I’ve been indulging in. Foods that I’ve had to deprive myself of in order to look my best on my wedding day. I’m not really a supporter of this method, but when your engagement is only a couple months long – you do what every bride needs to do! Anywho – more importantly – on to the food splurge…

Rao's Vodka Sauce

I think the foods I have missed the most have been sausages/red meat, cheese and pasta. I think that if I had to have one meal before I die – it would have to be Rao’s Penne alla Vodka with their famous Meatballs in Marinara on the side. The key ingredient to Rao’s vodka sauce – I think – is the addition of prosciutto. The sauce is creamy and luscious and if I could I’d probably get a spoon and eat it like soup! And pasta is always that much better when you add meat! And I think anyone who has had Rao’s meatballs would argue they are THE best. They are large, plump, juicy, moist and just so so tasty.. Sigh.. It’ll be awhile before I get the chance to have them again, so I’ll stop myself there.

Rao's Meatballs

But onto the dish I wanted to share – Sausage Chilli Pasta Bake. When I first started coming to the UK to visit my then-boyfriend, now-husband, I was surprised to learn of what were some of the “traditional” British dishes. I think Americans have this image that the Brits eat fish and chips and roast beef and Yorkshire pudding all day. What many don’t know is that Brits love their Chilli Con Carne often served over plain, boiled rice, their Indian curries and their Chinese ‘take-away’ (aka not to be mistaken for ‘take-out’).  When I think about what British foods I love (and also peruse my British Food Bible), I think of Toad in the Hole, Cornish pasties, Shepherd’s pie, Steak & Ale pie, Coronation Chicken, bangers & mash and scones with clotted cream.. Mmmm.. Just to name a few..

Bangers & Mash

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WHAT I’VE BEEN COOKING..

Hi All. As I don’t have class today, I’m finally taking the time to catch up with my backlog of recipes and dishes I need to share! Before school started a couple weeks ago, I was keeping myself busy with making new healthy dishes. I also had to work my way through our cupboards and all the various pastas, grains and seeds/nuts I’ve accumulated. So here are a couple dishes but many more to come! Links to recipes are below but you can also go direct to the recipe pages.

Chesham High Street Market

First up is Scallops with Sauce Vierge. So for a couple of weeks, I was passing by the fish monger in the Chesham high street market, looking but never buying anything. But I finally gave in and bought some of the beautiful, fresh, giant scallops which is really one of my favorite seafood dishes. I wanted to be a little different though as scallops are very often wrapped in bacon.  I also had seen sauce vierge come up in many cookbooks/sites recently. It’s such an easy thing to make and is so versatile. The key though is to have a really nice extra virgin olive oil. If extra virgin is too strong for you, then use a milder olive oil. I didn’t use red wine vinegar, but some recipes call for it instead of the coriander seeds. Since scallops aren’t exactly the most affordable seafood, I made this dish as a starter with three scallops each. We mopped up the rest of the sauce with some fresh bread. But you could easily turn this into a main dish by serving on a bed of angel hair pasta. The sweetness of the scallops and tomato together are so nice. If you want contrast, some red chili flakes would actually be quite nice. And if you can’t get scallops or don’t like them, you can always serve with some large grilled shrimp or chicken. Hope you like it!

Scallops with Sauce Vierge

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Cooking For One – Part 2

This time around I decided to stop being redundant and put up my recipes first. This way on my posts you can look at the more important thing – the pictures 🙂

Next up in my cooking for one was a spinach salad. Spinach just happen to be on sale the other day, so I bought two huge tubs of it and it lasted me more than a week. Basically I’ve been super loaded up with iron these days. But I never get tired of it somehow. I love it in a salad, or sandwich or sauteed. And I might just stop using frozen spinach if I can help it. The flavor just isn’t the same. Anywho – you can find the recipe here.

This time I tried something a little different and made my super basic balsamic vinaigrette with white wine vinegar instead. As you can see I’m not super creative when it comes to salad dressings. I stick with my basics because normally when I feel like a salad, it’s a last minute thing and I want it to be simple. I also used some of the leftover chicken I bought on sale (and used in the last post). Because I didn’t want to mess up my Dad’s grill, I decided to just quickly pan “grill” it. I pounded it thin since I find it cooks faster and I like to take little bites. Seasoned it with garlic salt, black pepper and chili flakes. After cooking, I sliced into strips, used some in my salad and saved the rest for another day.

Healthy chicken fajitas

Chris arrived the next day and because I had so much darn chicken I decided we were going to have fajitas! In the spirit of being healthy, I decided I would make my own seasoning since it’s pretty easy to look up online and allowed one less ‘store-bought’ thing in our meal. I didn’t really measure and kind of just threw in an assortment of ingredients I found in various recipes online (the basics really). Find the recipe here.

For veggies, I decided to go a slightly different route since I’ve been reading lots about how bell peppers give you heart burn (aka make you gassy, not exactly romantic). Even though it is a summer squash, I’ve recently read about the benefits of eating zucchini (or known in the UK as courgette). It’s low in calories and a good source of vitamin A.

Healthy, homemade chicken fajitas

I also used mushrooms since (1) Chris and I both love them, (2) they also have great health benefits like being low in calories and a good source of potassium, and (3) we were at Costco and decided to get a huge box of them.

As you can see, we had a corn salsa with our fajitas. I decided to omit the black beans and bell pepper this time to make it a little lighter.

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Cooking For One – Part 1

This past Tuesday, my parents headed out for a little trip down under and left me in charge of our three little dogs. Of course, I was very excited since this meant I had the kitchen all to myself for 10 days. It was only after they left that I realized I’d be cooking for one. This is quite a challenge, but I was determined to take advantage. I wanted to balance making things I’ve been craving and be healthy at the same time. Also since I’ve been eating loads of Vietnamese food recently, I absolutely had to feed my craving for Italian. Now my real craving for Italian would be Carbonara with homemade pasta at Mario Batali’s Otto Pizzeria at One Fifth or the gnocchi with marinara and roasted garlic cream sauce at Supper in the East Village (both in New York). Sadly, I couldn’t magically transport myself to NY and those dishes aren’t exactly healthy.  

First, I searched the kitchen to see what my parents left behind for me. It is SUCH a difference using a kitchen in a house versus a flat, especially my family’s house. The pantry never ends AND they have two refrigerators!  

Using just items in the kitchen, I was able to whip up a nice salad.  

• Red Beets (canned)
• 1 Apple
• Shallots
• Avocado
• Blue cheese
• Basic Balsamic Vinaigrette
• Croutons (made with olive oil, not butter)

While it doesn’t sound like the healthiest salad in the world, I was getting lots of dietary fiber and vitamin B with my beets, one of my five-a-day with the apple, and good monounsaturated fat with the avocado. * Note – my salad recipes will start going up in my Recipes section. 

Beet, Apple, Blue Cheese Salad

Next up for breakfast was fruit. As part of Tet, there was loads of fresh fruit around the house. Strangely, I realized I had never cut up a pineapple before. So I had a little fun trying to avoid poking myself. The smell of fresh pineapple is so delightful. We also had a fresh mango which usually makes my throat itch but I absolutely love. Since there was so much pineapple I figured I’d only add a little banana and orange juice then blend away!  

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My First Homemade Pizza

In celebration of Naples earning the right to label its pizza as “Traditional Specialty Guaranteed” (an EU trademark), I thought I’d give it a shot at making my own. Coincidentally, I’ve also started reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert. In the last section I read she went to Naples and gave a delicious description of eating pizza there, and it made my mouth water. Now I set out with the best intentions – thinking oh I’ll make a healthy pizza! I even bought whole wheat pizza dough from Fresh & Easy!

But let’s face it – pizza is not the same without cheese. And cheese isn’t exactly the healthiest thing to eat (if you love it as much as I do). And if you’re gonna make a pizza, I feel like you’re really cheating yourself if you go for fat-free which doesn’t have much flavor. So I splurged on the cheese and went healthy on the dough 🙂

My brother’s instructions (he’s a chef) for preparing the dough was to first knead the dough on a surface dusted with flour. And because I wanted thin crust, he said to pick it up by my finger tips and hold the dough by the edge and kind of rotate it while thinning the edges. Somehow I completely forgot this advice and just went straight for kneading the middle with my knuckles. But I was having too much fun to worry about not eating thin crust – so I just went with it! My main concern was that it would fit perfectly in the round pizza dish I was using.

Anywho – my main objective here is to share my yummy pictures with all of you and hope it’ll inspire some of you to go out and make some pizza for yourself!

Ingredients

• Pizza dough from Fresh & Easy (not sure what other groceries sell it these days)

** You could always be brave and make your own! I found an Alton Brown recipe

• Pizza sauce

** I was feeling a bit lazy and didn’t have a lot of time to put into my pizza sadly, so I cheated and just bought it at Fresh & Easy since it was right next to the dough. But you could easily make a simple marinara, add oregano, let cool and blend.

• Mozzarella cheese of course!

** I added some ‘Habanero cheese’ that was on sale at the store the other day, so added it in for a little kick!

• Mushrooms
• Black olives
• Sweet onions

** At the last minute I decided to caramelize these a little with balsamic vinegar.

• Sausage meat

** Any sausage will do really or any meat you’d like. I browned it in a pan with a little bit of chili flakes before putting it on the pizza.

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Healthy Superbowl Snacks

While I’m not a crazy football fan, as a foodie the superbowl is always a great excuse to pig out. However, in the past few months I’ve been trying to eat a healthier diet while allowing myself to still splurge a little. So last minute eats on the big game day included:

• Nacho cheese dip with jalapeno peppers (not healthy but Mom craved it)
• Corn and black bean salsa
• White corn tortilla chips (store bought but baked in the oven adds a little crisp)
• Orzo with feta, olives, zucchini and sausage
• Cuban pork with black beans and rice (courtesy of my aunt, Bac Oanh)

Don’t get me wrong – I was dying for some buffalo wings and potato skins! However, our snacks were equally satisfying. Click on the links above for the recipes. Unfortunately I haven’t asked Bac Oanh for her recipe of Cuban pork, but the other recipes are very simple and just something I threw together. You can eat the salsa with fajitas, tacos or burritos or even on top of some grilled chicken. My recipe doesn’t include avocado, but if you have some around throw it in! The orzo can be made with many variations. It can also be made with whole wheat penne too. Maybe add some spinach in as well. A good trick for using spinach (frozen or fresh) with pasta is to put it in the bottom of your colander and drain your cooked pasta over it. This way your spinach is defrosted or wilted and you can mix it all together easily. Add some toasted pine nuts for crunch!

Hope all of you who splurged on barbeque and creamy dips had some for me!

Ingredients for the salsa

Corn and black bean salsa - usually made with cherry tomatoes but didnt have any that day

Orzo with feta, olives, sundried tomatoes, zucchini, yellow bell pepper and spicy smoked sausage with jalapenos!

My aunt's Cuban-style pork!

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