Je ne comprends pas?

I've been learning French for just over a year and a half but no matter how many verbs I conjugate, I still don't get it. And since I'm no longer studying French at uni, I'm trying to experiment with ways to keep the many liasons, pronouns, accents, inflictions, tenses, rules and the all important exceptions to the rules stuck in my non language-other-than-english brain.

Every week I strain my ears while listening to French podcasts, dying to understand conversations. I struggle to read Le Monde online, bypassing heavy news articles and instead attempting the easier articles on Lady Gaga and celebrity love scandals. I watch French movies hoping to catch a word I understand, all the while taking sneaky glances at the subtitles. And I even have taken to watching colourful, flashing youtube clips aimed at the under 5yr olds dedicated purely to French vocab. Although it all helps, nothing has really helped me to cement any knowledge... until I decided to explore the world of french food.

Up until recently I've always viewed french food as stodgy, meat heavy and laden with butter hence my hesitation. Then I started exploring French food blogs and am discovering what real French people eat on their day to day basis. I'm happy to report that most of the dishes I've found are based on a bounty of fresh vegetables and delicious things like cheese and pasta. I now trawl through French sources to find french recipes I can cook from. This has proven to be a much more exciting and successful way to learn my verbs. Granted, sometimes I get the verbs wrong and end up cutting when I should be grating but my progress is slowly starting to chug along.

So, ask me how to say leek or veal in French and I'm there, just don't expect me to know anything about le subjontif or plus-que-parfait. At least for now...

This dish is a delicious vegetarian meal that leaves your tum full and satisfied. Quinoa is a high protein, high fibre seed that is kind of like cous cous in texture. You can get it from most supermarkets or health food stores.

Eggplant Stuffed with Quinoa and Goats Cheese
Recipe adapted from Elizabeth Bard's, 'Lunch in Paris'

4 medium eggplants
1 tablespoon plus 2 tablespoons oilve oil
1 small red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 x 400g can of tomatoes
1/3 cup white wine
1 1/3 cups chicken stock
1 cup quinoa
sea salt
black pepper
pinch of cinnamon
a big handful of parsley, leomon thyme, mint, basil - use any herbs you like
250g soft goats cheese, sliced into 8 rounds

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Lay the eggplants on a lined baking tray and prick each a few times with a fork to allow steam to escape when cooking. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of olive oil over the eggplants. Bake for up to 1 hour, or until the flesh is tender (the skin should stay intact, but when pressed the eggplant should feel soft inside). Remove from the oven and set aside to cool partially.

In a pan, saute the garlic and onion in olive oil for a few minutes. Add the wine then the tomatoes, lower the heat to a slow simmer and cook down for about 15 minutes.

In another pan bring the chicken stock to the boil. Add the quinoa, bring back to the boil and cover tightly with a lid, lower the heat to a gentle simmer and cook for 15 mintues until all of the stock is absorved and the quinoa is cooked through.

Take each eggplant and cut a 15cm slit down the length of the eggplant. Open the slit carefully, and with a small spoon scoop out the majority of the soft flesh inside, making sure that you don't break the skin of the eggplant.
Put this flesh in a bowl, along with the cooked quinoa, roughly chopped herbs, salt and pepper and two thirds of the tomato sauce (leaving the rest to pour over the eggplants later.) Mix all ingredients to form the filling for the eggplant skins.

Stuff each eggplant until brimming with mixture and place tightly next to each other in an oven proof dish (make sure the eggplants just fit together as they need to support each other while cooking). Pour over the rest of the tomato sauce. Add 2 slices of goats cheese ontop of each eggplant and grill under a high heat for about 5 minutes. Serve with a salad.

My favourite French food blogs:

*On Mange Sans Gluten
*Le Sucreries de Bulle

*B Comme Bon
*Amuses Bouche

Cao Lau, How I Miss You

Over the past summer I spent 3 weeks travelling through Vietnam, and then a further 3weeks travelling through Thailand. Although neighbours, my experience in the two South-East Asian countries was very different from each other. Not only culturally and environmentally different, but the cuisine from both nations varied drastically.

However, there was one aspect shared by both countries that was very obvious. The culture surrounding eating is the same - the world stops 3 times a day for the Vietnamese and the Thai. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is a daily ritual that is experienced not alone by a desk, or on the train rushing from place to place but with others, sitting around a table, sharing food with each other in a very communal way. One of the best things about my trip was taking an hour of out each day to sit and eat a well prepared and well cooked lunch. It was a time spent not only eating, but reflecting upon the morning and pondering about where the afternoon would take me. The days felt much longer whilst travelling and I think these midday moments had something to do with it.

While I adore Thai food, and it was in fact the cuisine that started my love affair with all things asian, I was quite disappointed with the food I ate while over there, not because it wasn't delicious, but because it wasn't the authentic Thai food I yearned for. I always found myself gazing enviously at the owners of the restaurants that we ate at. We had our food; which, while tasty, was what I have come to believe is the food the Thai people presume Westerners want to eat. And they had theirs; awesome whole steamed fish with rice, a searingly hot curry or an amazing smelling unidentifiable delicacy. And I understand completely why this happened, but I wish it wasn't so.

I only ate a few meals that satisfied this desire for a proper, real Thai experience. Not suprisingly, all of these were off the beaten track. The most memorable was in Bangkok at a street stall near Khao San Road, run by a man with a crazy hairstyle and facial hair to match. It was strictly vegetarian - but you could pick and choose your base sauce. Everytime I ate there I ordered the chilli and basil vegetables with tofu. It was amazing. I dream about this dish. I would go back to Bangkok just for this meal (and the shopping). Next time I go to Thailand I'm going to vow to try my hardest to sample more authentic, street-style, Thai cuisine because I know it's there it's just hiding away in the back of the kitchens of most tourist orientated restaurants.

The Best Vegetable, Chilli, Basil Stir Fry, Bangkok

Christmas Day: Bridget, Paris, Laura, Steph, Me

Daily Ritual - Mai Tai's + Happy Hour in Koh Phangan

Some of the best food that wasn't Thai... the infamous Handsome Sandwiches Burgers

In Vietnam there were 2 options. Street food, eaten on the street, or street food sold in a hole in the wall restaurant. Whether it was crunchy fried Nem Ran (spring rolls) wrapped in lettuce and mint and dipped in chilli sauce eaten on mini plastic stools in the gutter of a busy Hanoi street, or a bowl of beef pho (soup) eaten at a rural roadside pit stop during a 12 hour bus ride, or a vegetarian stir fry of incredibly silky tofu and tomato cooked by a 70 year old Opium smoking grandpa, every meal I ate in Vietnam was a true reflection of what the Vietnamese themselves eat and drink. Although I did pass on sampling the snake blood vodka, dog and probably about 98% of other meat dishes for my own personal reasons (visions of eating my own pet dog, for example) I feel as though I ate like a true Vietnamese.

Tom and I... and our backpacks

Coffee that could turn even the biggest non believer - condensed milk at the bottom = genius

Whole ginger and lemongrass steamed fish in Hoi An

My most memorable meal was in Hoi An, where the local specialty is a dish called 'Cao Lau' - bascially fat, short noodles with a few spoonfulls of beef broth at the bottom. Topped with generous amounts of fresh herbs and thin slices of tender, just cooked through beef and crunchy croutons. I'm still not sure what the croutons are (crunchy bits of pig skin? or fried rice paper?) but my god they added irresistable texture. Unfortunately (or fortunately) for me, the recipe for Cao Lau is a much guarded secret and you cannot buy the special noodles anywhere outside of Hoi An; true Cao Lau noodles are made using the water from the well in the centre of the town. You could try to replicate it using different noodles, but they truly are the star of the dish. I only managed to fit this dish in a mere three times during my 4 day stay but I really could eat this dish forever...and ever...
The funny thing is that I don't have one single photo of Cao Lau, because every time it landed on the table infront of me I tucked right in.

MEAT! at Ben Thanh Market



Banh Xeo - crispy Vietnamese pancakes in central market in Hoi An

Cleansing Tomato and Tofu Soup -Sapa

One of the best meals on the most entertaining boat cruise ever, prepared out the back of a tiny, rocking boat - Nha Trang

First bowl of Pho, HCMC

Bun Bo - Beef and vermicelli noodles in the Sapa Valley

$1 meal of Nem Ran, Hanoi Spring Rolls - Streetside Hanoi

Nem Ran in Hanoi

One of our favourite meals in Hanoi - tomato, tofu and spinach stir fry prepared by a grumpy grandpa whilst smoking a suspicious looking pipe, and eaten amongst discarded chicken bones, a drunk mother and son and plenty of stray cats

So the night before we left for our trip, Tom's mum gave me an amazing present - Luke Nguyen's cookbook, 'Songs of Sapa'. It could not have been a better gift because it got my tastebuds going in anticipation of the trip ahead. And now, after I've gone to Vietnam and know what I'm missing out on, I can attempt to recreate some of the fresh, balanced flavours at home.
Nine months later and still craving the culinary delights of Vietnam, Tom and I decided to make a nostalgic feast, using the cookbook but also our memory. Thanks to Luke's extensive recipes, we were able to reacreate our own Vietnamese banquet with the true flavours and textures of Vietnamese cooking.

Lemongrass Chilli Chicken
From Luke Nguyen's 'Songs of Sapa' Cookbook
(I like to add ginger to this recipe as well as chilli, lemongrass and ginger are the three flavours that absolutely epitomise vietnamese cooking to me)

*for recipe click here

Hanoi Spring Rolls - Nem Ran
From Luke Nguyen's 'Songs of Sapa' Cookbook
The accompaniments are just as important as the rolls themselves - place each spring roll inside a big iceberg lettuce leaf, with a few sprigs of fresh thai basil and vietnamese mint. Roll up, dip into chilli vinegar and eat!

*for recipe click here

Crisp Silken Tofu in a Tomato and Black Pepper Sauce
From Luke Nguyen's 'Songs of Sapa' Cookbook

500g firm tofu cut into large squares
200ml vegetable oil
1 tablespoon finely chopped garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped asian shallots (I used half a spanish onion instead)
1 bird's eye chilli, thinly sliced
4 really ripe tomatos, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons fish sauce
3 spring onions, cut into 5cm lengths< 2 coriander sprigs, to garnish
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Pat dry the tofu cubes with paper towel. Pour the oil into a wok and heat to 180 degrees of until a cute of bread dropped into the oil browns in 15 seconds. Add the tofu in two batches and deep-fry for about 3 minutes, until crisp. remove the tofu with a slotted spoon and transfer to a paper towel to drain off excess oil.

Drain away the oil used for deep frying, keeping only about 1 tablespoon of oil left in the wok. Return the wok to medium heat and add the garlic, shallots (or onion) and chilli. Stir fry for 1 minute until fragrant. Add the tomatoes, 1/2 teaspoon salt, the sugar and fish sauce, then cook for a further 5 minutes, stirring until the tomatoes start to soften and break down.

Add 100ml water to the wok, bring t the boil, then reduce the heat to a slow simmer for 10 minutes. Add the crisp tofu, spring onions, and 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, tossing gently to combine and simmer for no longer than 1 minute as you want to keep the crispness of the tofu. Garnish with coriander and extra spring onion.

*I served all of my meals with steamed jasmine rice, and two dipping sauces; fermented bean and chilli vinegar, and alongside of a bowl full of fresh thai basil and vietnamese mint.

What Everyone Should Eat for Lunch

I've recently stumbled upon a lot of spare time.

To cut a long and boring story short, I decided to abandon my uni studies for this semester because the degree I have been doing for the past year and a half has only caused me lots of angst and stress for all the wrong reasons (I have made great friends though). Instead, I decided to do something I've been wanting to do for ages and apply for design courses at various other uni's and will, fingers crossed, start fresh at the beginning of next year. But until then, I'm cruising...

Which will sound amazing to some, but this is somewhat unfortunate for me because I'm not the biggest fan of spare time. I like to be doing things. I don't know whether this is a good attribute or not and I've definitely tried to fight it over the years but all my attempts have failed.

On the plus side I now have the time to make lunch. And I mean like a proper, sit down in the sun, with a plate of lovingly prepared food, lunch. I guess there always is a silver lining!

Roasted Cauliflower with Tarragon Mustard Dressing
(serves 1 - but I eat a lot)
Roasted cauliflower is amazing. Seriously. Something about adding heat and a bit of burnt crust turns this bland, boring vegetable into a flavour explosion. And carrots are so good at the moment, roasting them only intensifies their sweet flavour. This would also be good as a side dish.

1/2 a head of cauliflower, cut into big florets
1 carrot, cut in half and halved lengthways
Olive oil
1 tablespoon chopped fresh tarragon or 1 teaspoon if using dried tarragon
Few leaves of fresh parsley, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons dijon mustard
1 teaspoon seeded mustard
little bit of lemon zest
1 teaspoon verjuice, or white wine vinegar (in this case add a smidge of honey into the dressing too)
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and plenty of pepper

Par cook carrots in the microwave until just soft (don't do this to the cauliflower as it cooks through in the oven). Place cauliflower and carrots on a baking tray, drizzle lightly with olive oil and bake in a hot oven for about 10-15 minutes until soft, crispy and the carrots are golden.

Meanwhile to make the dressing, whisk all of the ingredients together and season to taste.
When the vege is cooked, put into a bowl while still hot and pour over the dressing. Eat warm!

Food is Medicine

"The time has come for colds, and overcoats

We're quiet on the ride, we're all just waiting to get home

Another week away, my greatest fear

I need the smell of Summer, I need it's noises in my ear..."

- Jesse Lacey

That's correct, I am still whingeing about winter. However, today I decided that since we are half way through, I need to chin up, get on with it, and embrace winter with a half glass full attitude.

Soup is best friends with cold weather. It's one of those dishes that instantly fills the stomach and warms the toes (which is important for someone like me who gets chilblaines...embarrassingly so). Tonight instead of making a depressing, stodgy casserole which would only encourage laziness and gluttony, I decided to amp up my regular minestrone soup to help me take on a sunnier disposition.

Chock a block with the greenest and healthiest of vegetables, Minestrone Verde is also probably the prettiest lookin' soup out there. Who needs cold and flu tablets when one bowl of this will set your immune system up for the whole sick season? This soup could not come at a better time - tomorrow I leave for a 5 day camping trip with my friends to the Splendour in the Grass Festival and have been slurping on this like an athlete carbo loading for a marathon as I shudder to think what a weekend of solid alcohol consumption, lack of sleep, dagwood dogs and squealing will do to my body.
Not only that, but the beautiful freshness of the soup helps in reminding me that there's only a couple more months until I can revive my body and soul in the sun once again...

Minestrone Verde with Broccoli and Feta Pesto

(any green vegetables can be added to this soup, anything works, and all measurements are variable - if you absolutely love zucchini add more, or use parmesan in place of feta in the pesto if you hate feta)


for the pesto:

half a head of broccoli, lightly blanched in boiling water for about 1 minute
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 cup loosely packed basil leaves
1 tablespoon of walnuts
50g persian feta

In a food processor, add the walnuts, basil, broccoli, garlic, salt and pepper. Blend until roughly chopped. With the processor still going, slowly pour the olive oil into the blended herbs to create a thick paste. Add more if it becomes too thick. Remove pesto from processor and hand stir some crumbled feta through it so you get bursts of salty feta in the pesto.

for the soup:
1/2 bulb of fennel, finely diced - keep the little green furry leaves from the top of the fennel to garnish the soup as they give added flavour
1 brown onion, finely diced
2 zucchinis, halved lengthways and sliced into small chunks 1 bunch of asparagus, woody ends removed and cut into 3cm long sticks
1 bunch of broccolini, cut into 3cm long sticks
Handful of baby spinach or bok choy
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained
1 cup frozen or fresh peas
1.5 litres vegetable or chicken stock
1 cup water
Handful of dried spaghetti, broken in half
Fresh basil leaves
Fresh mint leaves

In a deep pan on medium heat, saute off the onions, garlic and fennel in some olive oil, salt and pepper until translucent and slightly golden. Add a dash of white wine at this stage if you like. Now add the zucchini and fry off for a few minutes as these will take the longest to cook out of all the vegies and I think their flavour benefits from a bit of browning. Now add the stock and water, and bring to the boil. Add the broken up pasta and boil for about 4-5 minutes.

In the last few moments, add the asparagus, broccolini, chickpeas, spinach, peas and fresh herbs. These bursts of green vegies give a beautiful colour to the soup and I use a lot of herbs because not only do they colour the soup but they give a delicious, fresh flavour.
Serve in bowls, with a spoonful of the pesto on top. Add some grated parmesan, serve with crusty bread and you're set. Hello summer...nearly.

Vertigo, Sharks and Tabbouleh

My dad is learning how to fly.

...An aeroplane, of course. Last week he said to me that it will be great when he get's his pilot licence because he can, wait for it, "take me on scenic flights above the ocean!".....Are you kidding me?

I have two great fears in life - heights and deep ocean water. And for that reason, this aeroplane trip will never happen. Sorry Dad. I'm sure it would have been great and everything but I can guarantee you I will spend the whole flight with my eyes closed, clutching your arm so tight you may not even be able to fly the plane. We may crash. It would never end well for us both.

While I was in Thailand in January I semi-conquered my fear of deep seas. After a failed snorkelling attempt in Vietnam that involved a lot of water retention and scratches on Tom's arm, I got to Thailand and was determined to get in the water... and stay in. I forced my lovely friend Steph to hold my hand as we jumped off the rocking boat into the dark water. I forced her to hold it as we swam a few metres from the boat. I forced her to stay nex to me as I could hear the faint drum of oncoming shark music in my head (you know the one). I clutched Steph tighter. My throat constricted and I started manically laughing in terror. People who were gaily snorkelling around me stopped and stared at the commotion.

I floated and waited for the shark to lurk up behind us....

Shockingly, nothing ate me. Just lucky, I guess....In the end I calmed down and had an awesome time swimming around amongst the fishes and coral. Though not as much fun as Bridget who actually CHASED AFTER A SHARK (what a freak).

Which brings me to my next tummy wrencher - Today I semi-conquered my fear of heights by going rockclimbing. And by going rockclimbing I mean slowly crawling my way up the easiest green coloured runs on the walls, constantly looking back down to the ground for re-assurance. A girl of about 12 scuttled up the wall next to me, not forgetting to pause and giggle at my shaking arms.

However, I have managed to demolish my fears without facing premature death. Next I'll be climbing off cliff-faces, just you wait...

Tonight, to celebrate (just because I can always find a reason to celebrate with food), I made my favourite snazzy tabbouleh, which is only snazzy because it features posh pistachios and lush pomegranate seeds.

I've never fully understood why people buy tabbouleh from supermarkets when it's so insanely easy and cheap to make at home. And what's more you can muck around and chuck in extra goodies to spice things up a little.
No bulgur? Use quinoa, whole buckwheat or cous cous. Wanna be extra healthy? Add some crunchy pumpkin seeds or pepitas. And experiment with dressings - I added the leftover pomegranate juice to a traditional lemon/olive oil mixture for a change.

Anywho, I think the point I'm trying to make here is to try different things (foods and experiences) even if they intimidate you, or you may get eaten in the proccess.

Pomegranate, Pistachio and Green Olive Tabbouleh

2 cups roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
1/2 pomegranate
1/2 cup lightly toasted unshelled, unsalted pistachios
a few sprigs of fresh mint, chopped finely
1 lemon
1/2 cup burghul
about 20 sicilian green olives, roughly chopped
3 spring onions, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons olive oil
Salt

Boil some water and, in a bowl, completely cover the burghul. Leave to soften for 5 minutes, and drain when the wheat is cooked through.
To de-seed the pomegranate - before cutting in half, get a rolling pin or something of the sort and bang on the fruit quite forcefully a few times. This action loosens the seeds inside so when you cut the pomegranate open the seeds can be shaken out easily (be careful though, pomegranate juice is bright red!). Reserve some of the juice in a dish to combine with lemon juice, olive oil and salt to make an easy dressing.

In a bowl add the chopped parsley, mint, olives, pomegranate seeds, toasted pistachios, burghul and spring onions. Pour over the dressing right before serving and enjoy.

I had this salad with garlic lemon roasted chicken and a side of hommous, but it's just as good eaten on it's own...

CORN

It's everywhere. It's in everything.

Corn is used to make fabrics, medicines, fuel, fishbait; is turned into alcohol and drinks; is the base of most lollies and sweets; is even represented in modern art; is one of the most traded commodities on earth and is the namesake of an American hardcore rock band...

But most importantly, corn tastes bloody good steamed, shoved on a stick, rolled in butter and sprinkled with salt.

I have a somewhat unhealthy relationship with corn. Every single day throughout highschool I would steam a corn cob in the morning, wrap it in aluminium foil and take it for lunch. Yes, this daily ritual did make my bag smell but it was an addiction too delicious to give up.

Corn Pikelets with Roasted Tomatoes and Pesto
(adapted from delicious. magazine)

For the pikelets:
2 eggs
200g fresh ricotta
1/2 cup buckwheat flour
1/2 cup self raising flour
1/2 cup buttermilk (or just normal milk)
3 corn cobs, kernels sliced off
2 spring onions, finely chopped
Salt and pepper


For the pesto:
1 cup basil leaves
1/3 cup almonds
2 garlic cloves, minced
Small chunk of parmesan cheese
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper
20 cherry tomatoes, still on vine

Whisk eggs and add in milk, salt and pepper, flours and spring onions. Lightly break up the ricotta and fold into the mixture along with the corn kernels. Set aside.

To make the pesto, blend together all ingredients, pouring the olive oil into the mixture slowly as it blends to aid in the emulsification.

Roast the tomatoes, still on their vines, on a tray in a hot oven for about 10-15 mintues until blistered and slightly wiltered.

While this is happening, heat a small amount of oil in a medium pan. Dollop pikelet sized amounts of the corn batter into the pan. Brown both sides, and put onto a lined tray to reheat in the hot oven with the tomatoes roasting away inside.

Serve pickelets with roasted tomatoes on top and a drizzle of the pesto on the side.