In Greece and toothless

Having arrived more than a week ago and sampled LOTS of food, today I finally had to remove a wisdom tooth... I am very thankful that my common sense kicked in when I booked the appointment and I decided to book it for the end of the holiday - though I now can't stop thinking of all the food I still haven't sampled! So not only am I sore and swollen, but I also can't console myself with food! Oh well...

Once I return to the UK in a few days I plan to upload lots of pictures of delicious home made Easter feasts and some samples of delicacies I tried during my stay. For now just a small teaser:

Alexi's 'nameless' awesome desert

A fast and delicious desert with a biscuit base and a cream, yoghurt and lemon zest filling. Recipe will follow shortly, once I get the acurate measurements off the cook.

Enjoy the long weekend! x

Off to Greece for Easter

I am off to Athens in a few days time to spend some time with my family there and enjoy the great seasonal food (artichokes, greens, lamb etc). I m hoping to be able to post again soon from there, but until then I suspect I will be busy packing and preparing for my first flight with a baby! That should be interesting...

I will be taking some pictures of home cooked delicacies, desserts from patisseries and definitely souvlakia! Hopefully I will manage to convey my love of Greek food and convince some of you that it is just as good as other Mediterranean cuisines! :)

Mother's Dumplings

This morning I decided to go to North Cross market in East Dulwich for a little family outing. One of my favourite stands there is Mother's Dumplings. They do lovely home made lunches - often involving dumplings as the name might imply... Today I went for the roast beef with salad and roast potatoes. It was rather delicious and at £4.50 the portion could almost feed 2!

It came with 4 different salads: Broccoli and chilli, lentil and artichoke, Moroccan carrots and wild rice. All absolutely delicious, though my favourite was the lentil and artichoke one. The beef was perfectly cooked, though it lacked slightly in flavour, and was served on top of a rocket, parmesan and pesto salad. The roast potatoes were absolutely yummy and I could have eaten a whole tray of them! All in all a pretty successful lunch box!

They are at North Cross market in East Dulwich every Saturday. This is their facebook page if you want to find out more: http://en-gb.facebook.com/people/Mothers-Dumplings/100001829416099

Peach and Plum 'Grown-up' (Gluten-free) Crumble

This recipe idea came to me when I wanted to use up some peaches I bought the other day. It's a combination of a crumble and my baked peaches recipe - which is where the 'grown-up' element of alcohol comes in. I made it gluten-free, as I happened to have some gluten-free flour in the cupboard... This flour makes it a little more dence than normal flour would, but the taste is there!

For the crumble mixture you will need 300 grams of plain (gluten-free) flour, 150 grams of butter at room temperature, 150 grams of sugar, a little ground cinnamon and 3 tablespoons of oats (optional). Mix all the ingredients in a bowl till you get a crumbly texture - be careful not to overmix, as it will turn into dough. 

Butter a pie dish or Pyrex and the add the chopped fruit (I used 4 peaches and 5 plums - approx 700 grams of fruit). Sprinkle 100 grams of sugar over the fruit (if the fruit is ripe and sweet, add less) and then pour 2 tablespoons of rum (or more if you wish!) over the fruit. Cover with the crumble mixture and then bake in a pre-heated oven (180 degrees for a fan oven) for 30 - 40 minutes or until the top is looking golden. Serve with ice cream, cream, custard or nothing at all! 

Lentil and goats cheese salad

My dinner tonight took 25 minutes from start to finish (not including the 3 minutes it took to take the pictures!). 

I washed and boiled the lentils for 20 min with some oregano, tiny bit of chili, bay leaf and some pepper.  While they were boiling I washed the rocket and the tomatoes and then I just put it all in a bowl together while grilling the goats cheese for a few minutes. I then drizzled with some balsamic and olive oil and served with an olive grissini or any other bread you might like. Slat and pepper to finish and eat while still warm. 

It was the healthiest meal I 've had in a few days and was rather tasty too.

Some pictures of yummy food

When I was writing my first post yesterday I realised that I don't have many pictures of my recent meals in restaurants or at home – even though some are extremely memorable. The main reason for this is that I love food SO much, I would rather eat it asap, than take a picture of it. In any case, I thought I might upload some pictures of past meals,just to get the visual juices flowing a little and make my blog a little more interesting. 

So here are some examples of great food I had in the past year when I went traveling before the little one arrived. And I promise to make more of an effort with pictures from now on!

Cooking course in Thailand (March 2010).(Both pictures are of the food my husband prepared, as his was much more presentable than mine!)

Deep fried marinated prawns wrapped in rice noodles (the marinade was made with chilli, coriander root, lime and lemongrass I believe).

 Sweet and spicy seafood soup with prawns, squid, lobster and mussels.

San Fransisco travels in February 2010.

In-N-Out Burgers - otherwise known as the best burgers ever! Perfect ratio of filling to bun and just perfect all around! mmmm

                                                                                   

One of my favourite restaurant dishes: mushroom porridge at Coi restaurant. It was so earthy and creamy and mushroomy, and rich, yet fresh with all the flowers and herbs.

My first post - how exciting!

I have always loved food. Always! OK, so when I was little I didn't actually eat that much, but I still loved what I did eat. I even enjoyed blue cheese at the age of 10! When I came to the UK ten years ago I started discovering more about food with my then new boyfriend (now husband). We fell in love with each other and with food and its been like that ever since!

We just recently became parents and I have to say that my love for food had to go on hold for a while . Early pregnancy sickness and late pregnancy tiredness didn't allow for too much eating - though we did have two fantastic meals when I was five months pregnant at the Ledbury and Gauthier! I am only just getting back to grips with the idea of cooking and eating things other than cake and biscuits.

In this blog I intend to talk about delicious meals I get to enjoy out, as well as sharing ideas for quick and easy meals that other mums (or generally busy people!) can cook at home and eventually meals I will start preparing for my little one, once she is ready for solids. I hope you enjoy reading my blog and I hope to be able to continue writing it!

The hungry mama x