Ethnic Eating Experiment - Day 3

If yesterday's ordeal was incoherent, vomit-inducing and, frankly, useless, today was a complete joy. This is really what the experiment is about - trying things that I'd usually balk at, and being pleasantly surprised by their tastiness. Huzzah for East African bread (and apologies for early mispronunciation)!




Chickpea and spinach curry for lazy bastards

Serves 4

1 red onion, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons of curry powder
1 tin coconut milk
1 tin spinach (by the way - I now LOVE tinned spinach; it's delicious)
1 tin chickpeas, drained
1 tablespoon (or thereabouts) tomato puree
Salt, pepper, and olive oil
Injera bread

Heat a little oil in a saucepan or wok and saute the onion until soft. Stir in the curry powder, then add coconut milk, spinach, chickpeas and tomato puree. Season with salt and pepper, bring to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning and serve with injera bread.

Thank you to my two helpful and slightly tipsy helpers.

Ethnic Eating Experiment - Day 2

Yesterday I enjoyed a foray into Polish gastronomy, and discovered the joys of sorrel soup. But it was too easy.

So I decided to try and make my own sausages using halal meat from the ethnic food stores on Brick Lane. Turns out there's a reason somebody invented a device for this purpose.

(Parental warning - this video contains strong language and scenes of a sexual nature)





(The audio occasionally goes slightly out of sync - apologies)




I'm not going to write up the recipe for the sausage mix as it does need tweaking - the fat content was too low, and the spice balance wasn't quite right. I'd like to work on this (and perhaps invest in the attachments for my kenwood) and try it again - watch this space!)

If you fancy making your own sausages, for Pete's sake don't try my method. Read this article and we'll forget this whole sordid affair ever happened.

Investigation into London's rich cultural diversity, Day 1

POLSKI SKLEP
- Polish provisions on your doorsklep (sorry).

Yesterday I began a week of looking at what London has to offer beyond standard supermarket fare. The results are below. Be not alarmed by the video's duration, as always there is some music at the end - this time courtesy of the wonderful Beirut.



Polish shops for you - Click here to see where they are.

Oh - the recipe:

Serves 2 - probably costs 75p a head

1 jar of szczaw
A little chicken or vegetable stock
A little cream
An egg

Empty the jar of sorrel into a saucepan and add some stock. Simmer. You won't need to season the already salty soup.

Meanwhile boil an egg for 8 minutes.

Add a little cream to the soup and stir for a minute. Peel the egg and cut it in half, before serving on top of the soup in warm bowls.

OTHER IDEAS FOR SZCZAW


- The sharpness of sorrel makes it ideal for fish; try draining the szczaw and serving it warm with a smoked mackerel fishcake.
- A szczaw sauce/white fish combo is similarly a match made in the upper reaches of Elysium
- Try the patties on this Polish blog

Hit me with further sorrel-based ideas if you have any.

Pancakes

Turns out I'm half American. I already knew that but it's something I used to pretend I didn't. There was a time when being half American was something you kept quiet - like having a third nipple, or a verruca, or your family locked in the basement. But then a year ago Obama was made president, and all of a sudden I was proud of my roots. OK, I didn't go all-out, Randy-style nuts, but I was proud of my half-people - proud that they had proved the stereotype wrong, and so I put on some weight and got real stupid for a while to celebrate. 'Cause I'm one of them now.

A year later and my cousin Gep is staying at my parents', and I have an urge for pancakes - thick, sweet, doughy pancakes, drowned in maple syrup. They take approximately 4 minutes to make and even less time to eat. I would have put some chopped blueberries in the batter, but, alas, we had none.

Serves 4 fat Americans

300g self-raising flour
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 eggs, beaten
300ml milk
Butter
Maple syrup
Bacon

Preheat the oven to 60C.

Mix the flour and sugar in a large bowl (sieve the flour first if you can be arsed - at 8 in the morning I can't, frankly).

Stir the eggs into the milk, then make a well in the centre of your flour and pour in the wet mix. Stir until fully combined, but don't overwork the batter.

Melt a little butter over a medium heat in a non-stick frying pan, and add a couple of tablespoons of the mix. Fry for a couple of minutes, turn and fry for another minute or two. Keep warm in the oven while you make the rest of the batch, before serving with maple syrup and bacon. God bless America.

4 days to go until challenge week

And the winner is...

I must start by thanking all of you for your humorous, constructive, and carefully considered suggestions for my next challenge. I initially suggested that I would put a final shortlist to the vote. Perhaps this would be more fair, more democratic, more brave even. But ultimately I want a project that will enrich my understanding of food and of cooking. Gruesome as it was, the raw vegan diet forced me to think outside my comfort zone regarding the essential matter of cooking and eating - and that can only be a good thing.

So Fiona Beckett's suggestion that I live on Floyd for a week, while tempting, would be far too easy, and rather too close to my own gastronomic proclivities. Georgia's idea of only cooking food that appears in song lyrics was particularly alluring - I loved the idea of having a playlist that was linked directly to what I was eating that week. But it still wasn't trying enough.

I loved Ms. Alex's suggestion of throwing a dice to determine each meal - 3 nice options, 3 nasty. This might be one for the future. But for the time being it is the mysterious 'Nibbles' who has won my vote. This was their suggestion:

"Work your way round your local international delis/corner shops to find unusual ingredients. On many local high streets now you can find Turkish, Polish, Italian, Chinese, Asian, Halal... There is so much choice in Britain's ever more multicultural society. But most Brits don't know what ingredients to buy or what they can cook with them. It would be cool if you showed us how we can make use of this choice and add a dash of culinary mix to complement our cultural mix." .

How often do we shy away from strange ingredients? The same ones, again and again. How often do we feel intimidated because something is unfamiliar? I talk a lot about trying to get my friends out of their 'comfort zones', but, truth be told, I rarely saunter out of mine. Of course I try new ingredients - ox cheek, ackee, pig's ear, fish sperm (seriously) - but I tend to cook them in ways I am comfortable with, alongside familiar ingredients.

Every day for all of next week I will cook something that I have never cooked or eaten before. Perhaps we will all learn something. In the meantime, I want you to tell me which ingredients you're scared of, or, if you are feeling vindictive, dare me to go for something truly alarming. Roasted baboon, anyone?

Ta...

Thank you for all of your suggestions for my next challenge - some interesting ones, some terrifying ones. Results tomorrow.

A NEW CHALLENGE - YOUR SUGGESTIONS PLEASE

The vegan diet seems aeons ago, and I feel it is time I challenged myself once again. This time, however, I want the challenge to involve cooking. And eating. Lots of cooking and lots of eating. The question is, how masochistic am I? Or, more importantly, how sadistic are you? I don't want some cop out that I've chosen - I want YOU to decide for me.

Here are some ideas to get the cruel juices flowing:

- how much weight can I put on in a week? Not advised.
- only eating things that start with the letter 'm'
- only cooking James Martin recipes for a week
- cornershop week
- fast food week
- endangered species week


Give me your best shot. I wait with baited breath.