Monday, January 28, 2013

So many food adventures!

Since I accepted Amy's invitation to join the Leek Geeks, I have had so many food adventures!

We got to go to afternoon tea at the Ritz in London with Simon's grandparents, as part of his grandmother's 80th birthday gift.

There was a dress code: jacket and ties compulsory for gentlemen. Simon wore one too. (Ha!)



Look at all the teas! We had the traditional one, because you don't go to the Ritz to drink herbal tea.



They bring out the scones (on the middle level) just before you eat them, so they are at the perfect temperature when you are ready to eat them with clotted cream and jam. There were also sliced cakes from a trolley. Afternoon tea was actually quite a feast! They offered more of everything, too.




I also bought a new slow cooking cookbook in an attempt to do more interesting things with my slowcooker, and of course the first recipe I used was not a slowcooker recipe!

This is beef rendang, apparently a famous dish. You make a curry paste and simmer it with stewing beef and coconut milk so that it goes from this:



To this. With lots of time for evaporation, then more liquid and more time, and then toasted coconut, tamarind paste, and coriander. The whole process took about five hours.



We didn't have our dinner until 9 o'clock, but Simon was happy! I served it with basmati rice and steamed spinach. The next day I had tinned "Thai chicken soup" for lunch and it tasted like salty, slimy water. I think my palate is getting used to all this nice food!



Are we allowed to share recipes that come from books? I documented the process of making a gorgeous, flourless chocolate cake from the Ottolenghi cookbook, but I didn't know if publishing it here would be frowned upon.



And finally, we are obsessed with homemade pizza now! We keep the toppings constant (mozzarella, caramelised onion, mushrooms, feta, and olives) and I make the crust thinner and thinner every week! The same amount of dough that made a dinner plate-sized pizza in the beginning now makes a monster that barely fits on my baking sheet!

6 comments:

  1. YES PLEASE POST THAT FLOURLESS CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE PLEASE!!!

    STEP BY STEP I'd love to see it!

    I've always wanted to do "High Tea"...I didn't think it was worth it but you guys look like you had a lot of fun!

    xo keep posting Ana!

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    1. I really didn't think afternoon tea would be my thing but the food was really good and more substantial than I thought. I don't need to do it again but it was a great experience.

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  2. Yay pizza obsession!!!

    Haha gosh I love any picture of Simon with food. All of them make me chuckle. There's just something about Simon with a plate of food that looks so jolly.

    The tea looks so pretty! I went once to high tea with my mom and grandparents at a small Irish place and it was very nice quality but very casual, so the ambiance really didn't merit the pricetag. But the Ritz in London! Wow!

    And I say, yes, go crazy sharing the recipe from the book, just be sure to credit the author and maybe share a link to it on Amazon or something. Just that one you shared looks exciting!!

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    1. I am very lucky to have a husband who delights in food so much. I love cooking for him and seeing his reaction!

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  3. I drink herbal tea anytime, anywhere LOL!! High tea looks so friggin cool!!

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    1. LOL. We drink coffee anytime, anywhere but regular tea was a nice change! It was only afterwards that I saw in the fine print that they offer coffee, too.

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