Itihaas

Although the main reason I started a food blog was to build up a family recipe book, another significant reason was that I wanted to keep a record of some of the restaurants we eat at and the experiences we have there.  In reality, I have a bit of a repressed ambition to be a restaurant critic, so I suppose this is a manifestation of that ambition! 

When my mother and father-in-law came to stay over the half term break, we had decided to go out for dinner with them, partially as a belated birthday celebration for them both.  We ultimately settled on going to go to a place called Itihaas, which is an Indian restaurant (not a balti house!) in the centre of Birmingham (http://www.itihaas.co.uk/) which I had been to a couple of times before on work functions; however, this was the first time that I had been with family.

I really love the decor of Itihaas; it's got a colonial theme which makes it feel really warm and snug and is a million miles from the cheap and cheerful Birmingham balti house.  The other thing that I really rate the restaurant on is the attentive service; the waiters were always on hand when needed and were always happy to help.  I've been to restaurants that are far more expensive than Itihaas that have had much worse service.

 

Our food was really fantastic, and the portion sizes were crazy; the starters in particular could have been half the size and would stil have been big!  The stand out dishes of the night were Chilli Paneer (Indian cheese, stir fried with onion, chilli and garlic) and Paapri Chaat (crispy discs of pastry topped with chick peas and potatoes accompanied by yoghurt and tamarind chutney) for starter and Koila Murgh (tandoori chicken) for main.  The presentation of the Koila Murgh was really eye catching:



In reality though, everything we ordered was tasty and well cooked.  I think we could have chosen anything off the menu and had a great meal.

 

 

For dessert, we ordered chilli chocolate indulgence, sweet ginger cheesecake and mango cheesecake.  Unfortunatley, it was all so good that we forgot to take a picture until we had nearly finished!  A real favourite of mine was the kulfi (indian ice cream) that came with each dessert, particularly the pistachio flavoured one.

 

 

So overall, a really enjoyable night out with really good service and great food.  I have a feeling that this is going to become a family favourite of ours for years to come.

Chilli Sauce

Yesterday we had planned to have homemade burgers for dinner, but as I started to cook, I had a brainwave to make Kofte kebabs.  We had all of the ingredients to make the Kofte, wraps to put them in and salad to go with it, but were missing a vital component - chilli sauce; an absolute must for kebabs!  As a result, I decided to find a recipe and have a go at making a batch. 

The recipe (courtesy of bbc.co.uk) is as follows:

50g sugar
150ml water
2cm piece of fresh giner, peeled and finely grated
1/2 red chilli, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Splash rice wine vinegar
Splash fish sauce

1. Heat the sugar and water in a pan until it becomes a light syrupy consistency
2. Add the other ingredients and stir well
3. Heat and simmer gently for 4-5 minutes
4. Blend using a hand blender or food processer
5. Tweak the consistency by adding small amounts of water or reducing further

We were amazed by the results; it tasted fantastic and was really quick and easy to make and worked perfectly with the Kofte.  I just wish I'd made more......

Poppy's Cookies

Even at the tender age of 7, Poppy already loves cooking.  Up until recently, she was always content to be my little sous chef, but a few weeks ago she asked if she could cook something entirely by herself. At this point, I have to confess to being a bit of a busybody in the kitchen; I find it really hard to not interfere and offer hints and tips!  Most of the time this does not go down too well, so I had been given strict instructions to let Poppy get on with it all by herself even if it ended up being a total disaster!  Poppy chose a cookie recipe that she wanted to cook and after getting all of the ingredients and equipment out for her, I sat back and let her get on........

Recipe for Poppy's cookies:

150g plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp salt
25g ground almonds
150g light muscavado sugar
50g porridge oats
50g raisins
40g chocolate chips
150g melted butter
1 large egg yolk

1. Mix the dry ingredients together
2. Add the wet ingredients
3. Mix well with hands
4. Form into small walnut sized shapes, place onto a lined baking tray and flatten out slightly
5. Heat oven to gas mark 5
6. Cook for 10-12 minutes

Poppy proceeded to measure, weigh, melt and mix her way through the instructions.......

 

 

Then after 10-12 minutes of cooking, we got to see (and taste) the results:

 

The cookies were truly excellent and I honestly don't think I've ever tasted a better homemade cookie.

 

Even more important was the fact that Poppy had a fantastic time making them and loved being the queen bee in the kitchen for once.

 

A few weeks after this, I read a really interesting article in the Times about the attitude that the French have towards food with their children.  The whole point of the article was that there are far fewer problems with French children and food compared to Britain.  The article made at a number of points, but the two that really stood out to me were firstly about how the French allow their children to get really involved in cooking and secondly the fact that treats are not treated as evil, rather as treats. 

 

I feel really strongly about both of these points. 

 

If our children are not taught how to cook and not allowed to experiment, how will they ever be able to be self reliant and not just rely on ready meals?

 

and if crisps, biscuits, chocolates etc are treated as evil (as many schools treat them - might need to do another post on this!), how can we expect children to take a balanced and sensible view to consuming them when they get their own independence?  In my view a balanced diet should be just that - balanced.  There is room for treats, as long as they are enjoyed sensibly.

 

Anyway, I was so happy with how much fun we all had, either making, watching or eating, that I think this will be a regular occurrence as Poppy continues to grow.  I'm not sure if I have the courage to let George loose yet though........

 

 





Poppy's Pasta

I cannot believe that I have not contributed to my blog since April 2012, so my new year's resolution is to fulfil the aims I had set myself with the blog by writing more posts and recording my food memories.

I have missed some fantastic opportunities to blog during the second half of 2012, but when I planned with Poppy to do some cooking over the Christmas holiday, the opportunity was too good to miss!

I love cooking with Poppy, she has such enthusiasm for food and we always end up having a fantastic time. On this occasion we decided to make pasta which was quick and easy and would also give our neglected pasta machine an airing!

Our basic pasta recipe is as follows:

700g 00 grade flour

10 medium free range eggs

(We made half of this)

1. Put the flour in a bowl and make a well in the centre

2. Put the eggs in the well

3. Using a fork, gradually incorporate the flour from the sides of the well until most of the flour is mixed in

4. Using your hands, (or dough hook attachments on a hand blender) bring the ball of dough together

5. Tip out on to a floured work surface and knead until smooth

6. Roll out using either a rolling pin (really hard work!) or preferably a pasta rolling machine

7. Cut into desired shape - our pasta machine has an attachment to make linguine or tagliatelle, so we made tagliatelle

8. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil and cook for 3 minutes, keeping the water rapidly boiling throughout

We had a really fantastic time making this, and in reality Poppy did most of the hard work; she measured, mixed and operated the handle if the pasta machine. We served the tagliatelle very simply- tossed in olive oil with a sprinkling of finely grated Parmesan. Quick, easy and so beautiful. What made this experience even better was that George decided half way through that he wanted a piece of the action and ended up having a wonderful time fiddling with flour, pasta dough and trying to work the pasta machine!

With the left over pasta, I decided to make ravioli.  We had limited ingredients, so I had to do a bit of a Masterchef invention test.  The recipe for the filling was as follows:

Sundried tomatoes in oil (about 12, roughly chopped)
1 crushed clove of garlic
2 sprigs of thyme leaves
1 tablespoon of creme fraiche
2 tablespoons finely grated parmesan

1. Gently fry the garlic and thyme for a couple of minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, creme fraiche and parmesan and season
3. Turn off the heat and leave to cool

I then used the remainder of the rolled out pasta to make 4 large ravioli.  These were boiled in salted water for 3 minutes and then served with a drizzle of olive oil, some freshly ground black pepper and parmesan sprinkled on top.  They really tasted great and were not bad for a last minute invention test!

Without getting too heavy, this experience (along with many others not recorded here!) only served to reinforce my thoughts on cooking with children and the positive benefits it can have.  I am certain that if the government wants to reduce childhood obesity, then they need look no further than trying to get children into the kitchen with their parents - I know it's idealistic, but I am certain that society would reap the benefits in the long run.

Anyway - this was the final result:

Introduction

I have been meaning to contribute to our family blog (fourcrazycrosses.blogspot.com) for ages now, but have really struggled to think of anything to write that Diana has not already done a fantastic job of recording.  I still wanted to record our wonderful family memories, but from a completly different angle from what had already been done.

This morning, I was driving home and had a fantastic idea - I would create a family blog centred around food! 

Why?

As my family and friends know, I am obsessed with food - cooking it, eating it and talking about it!  I read cookery books for pleasure, love planning and cooking our family meals and am always first in line when food is being dished up.

As a result of this, lots of our family memories are inextricably linked with food.  If you name a day out that we have had as a family, I will probably have a memory of food linked to it.  So my blog would use our food memories to chart the lovely times we have together without replicating anything already recorded.

On top of this, I thought that a food based blog would give me the opportunity to share some of the recipes for the lovely things we cook as a family and in the process put down all of the tips that I have accumulated from my 21 years(!) of life so far. 

Thirdly, I wanted to pass on my cooking ideas and experiences to my children; almost like a mother's cookbook passed down through the generations, but this time coming from dad.  I am a firm believer in educating children about food and cooking and so this would be a good chance to have something firm to give to them one day.  Poppy (my daughter) is my very willing sous chef and so I hope she will be able to use my thoughts here to guide her culinary experimentations when she is all grown up.  George (my son) is too young to safely handle a knife at the moment, but I also hope that he will grow up to love food and cooking too.

So the main aims for my posts are:

1. To record our family memories through the medium of food
2. Share my favourite recipes/tips/ideas with the world at large
and (probably most importantly)
3. Pass on my love of food to my children

I also love photography and detest cookery books without pictures, so where possible, I will try and support all posts with some snaps!

Here goes nothing.............