HANGAR

My absolute favourite french band (not just because they are completely yummy and french and come from Cap Ferret - my favourite place in France just off the coast of Bordeaux) called Hangar have just released their first album on itunes and I am so sad that you have to have french itunes to be able to download it...

My favourite song of theirs...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ksodo9W_17c

I was so completely lucky and over the moon to be able to see them in Bordeaux at the wine festival before I left in the summer and can't wait to go and stalk them again somewhere in the very near future...and maybe make them fall in love with me a little :)

PARIS

Next stop on my little dose of frenchieness was Paris. It's ridiculously easy to get from Bordeaux to Paris and pretty cheap too if you book online using 'idtgv'. The train is completely direct and stops only at Paris, taking just about 3 hours. Perfect. 

I stayed with OB, a friend from Leeds, in her gorgeous, very french and parisian apartment in Saint-Germain-Des-Pres in the heart of Paris and did lots of lovely frenchie things once again.

http://www.musee-rodin.fr/

Highlights of the trip were definitely cruising around the Marais and going to the Musee Rodin and seeing Rodin's masterpieces, followed by the Henry Moore exhibition, which should have definitely been visited before Rodin as his big fat blobs are nothing in comparison to the frenchman himself.

Loved loved loved the kiss and his rougher work, where you can see the stone that he has carved the figures from.

Some of them were very rude. GREAT.

Bordeaux

I LOVE BORDEAUX!

Went and stayed with Izzy for a long weekend. The sun was shining, the language was french, the people were french, the food was great (and vegan), lots of coffee and demi-peche etc etc. 

Parfait.

Went and climbed up the bell tour called Pey Berland and managed to resist breaking my veganism on the scrumptious macarons that France has on offer. I've never seen so many exciting flavours and colours - will definitely have to attempt perfecting macarons again...much harder than it looks!!

Can't wait to go back. No no I can't.

XX 

Sweet n Sour Pig

Granny asked me to make her some sweet and sour pork, so that is exactly what I did...

INGREDIENTS:

Sunflower oil for deep frying
450g pork fillet
1 tbsp sake
3 tbsp plain flour, sifted
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
2 red peppers, quartered and deseeded
1 bunch spring onions, trimmed
2 x 227g cans unsweetened pineapple chunks in juice
1 tbsp cornflour
1 tbsp soy sauce

SAUCE:
2 tbsp cornflour
100ml water
4 tbsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
6 tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
2 tbsp tomato ketchup

DIRECTIONS:

Cut the pork into 2.5cm cubes and lob 'em in a bowl before mixing in the sake and soy sauce.

To make the sweet and sour sauce, place 2 tsp cornflour in a small saucepan and put it over a low heat. Mix in the water, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and ketchup. Simmer gently  and stir until it has thickened, which should take about 3 minutes. 

Meanwhile, make the batter for the pork by sifting the flour into a bowl, adding the egg and beating until the mixture is smooth. Dust the marinated pork with 1 tbsp cornflour then mix into the batter . 

Heat enough oil to shallow-fry the pork in a pan until it is smoking hot. It is easier to fry the pork in two batches, for 2-3 minutes or until it is deep-golden in colour. Remove it from the pan and let it drain on kitchen roll.

Once the paper has soaked up some of the oil, return all the cooked pork to the oil for a further 2 minutes, whilst heating 2 tbsp sunflower oil in a pan. Chop the peppers and spring onions into 2.5cm pieces and drain the pineapple chunks. Once the oil in the second pan is sizzling hot, add the red pepper and spring onions, stir-frying for a minute, then add the  pineapple chunks, followed by the sauce. Bring the sauce up to a boil and as soon as it is bubbling, mix in the pork.

DONE. YUM SCRUM ALL CRISPY AND LOVELY. MMMMM

VEGAN

So I am a complete idiot and have decided to accompany Charlotte on her vegan adventure - I am doing it for a month to see how easy/difficult it is and whether I feel healthier/worse and it is basically a massive experiment! BUT am still eating fish as I think it would be unhealthy not to and fishy goodness is something that is really hard to substitute. (Eggs in cakes can be replaced with apple sauce apparently!!)

With veganism you obviously have to cut out all meat as it is a continuation of veggies, but also all dairy, eggs, and any products that come from animals - which even includes honey if you are being strict. Chocolate and sweets are definitely off the menu.

I so far haven't found it too hard as my diet consists of mainly vegetables anyway, but I think the cheesy lack and chocolate drought will get to me in a week or so.

VEGANNY-YUMMINESS

To cater for my silly new found habit I have been looking up new recipes and I found a yummy one called 'COCAS' which are a flatbread type pizza thing...

I can't remember the recipe off the top of my head, but will get mummy to send it to me and post it later. It was basically flat bread which consists of flour, yeasty water, a slosh of olive oil and a big pinch of pepper, that you kneed for a minimum of five minutes and then leave to rise to double it's initial size. The topping was onions that you sweat with previously soaked raisins and then lots of spinach, topped with anchovy fillets and pine nuts and all baked in the oven for 20 minutes ish. Pretty simple and yummy with salad etc...very summery.

The best things that I have found so far being a vegan are that you learn what is in everything that you eat, as I have even been checking whether there is any animallyness in everything, as you never know...you can get extract of pork in cheap orange juice!!

TBC...

Pumpkin and Roasted Chestnut Risotto

ZUCCA

Pumpkin is one the foods typical of Ferrarese cooking and they use it for everything...their most typical dish is capellacci di zucca which is similar to a ravoli stuffed with pumpkin and it is completely delicious and irresistible. They even make pumpkin ice cream which is surprisingly yummy but a little bit sickly after a whole cone/cup of it. 

One of the yummiest combinations I have had recently was pumpkin and roasted chestnuts in my risotto...it goes ridiculously well and the halved/quartered/crumbled chestnuts with the mushy pumpkin gives a great texture...

Ingredients:

chunk o pumpkin

4 cloves of garlic

big handful of chestnuts (different to conkers as I later found out after thinking that I had been eating roasted conkers every christmas in front of the fire!)

risotto rice

wight onion

stick of celery

 wine/vermouth

about a litre of veg stock

couple of sage leaves

couple of sprigs of rosemary

parmesan

Chop up your pumpkin into inch like chunks, leave on skin as it softens and is a really nice texture in the risotto. Put into baking tray with garlic still in skin, generous pinch of salt, pepper and a few glugs of olive oil. Roast for about 20 mins at a good high heat.

While the pumpkin is roasting away, heat olive oil in big pan over mid-ish heat. Add finely chopped onions and celery and let them soften. Add a couple of handfuls of rice and keep stirring it until it turns slightly translucent (about a minute) then chuck in a big glass of wine/vermouth and keep stirring so that the rice doesn't catch and stick to the bottom of the pan. Let the booze boil off before adding the first ladle-full of stock. Keep stirring and when the rice absorbs the liquid add ladle after ladle of stock to repeat the absortioningness. 

Whilst stirrin' away, pierce each chestnut with a sharp knife before chucking them into a hot pan. Keep shakin' them for about 5 minutes over a good heat and then take off and peel.

Before adding the last smidge of stock, smush in the scrummy roasted pumpkin and garlic, add your erbs and chestnuts, followed by the last ladle of stock and a bit of salt and pepper. 

Finish off with a load of parmesan. Yum.

XX

TRUFFLES

This is the easy peasiest truffle recipe in the world and they are super yummy and rich and scrumptious...

Makes 10-15 (depending how big and fat you make them)

Ingredients:

300g dark chocolate

small pot of yoghurt/double cream/creme fraiche

150g milk chocolate

cocoa powder

hazelnuts, crushed and roasted

Melt the dark chocolate over a low heat. When melted, add the yoghurt or cream and stir vigorously with a whisk. (The air that you let in thickens it faster.) Put the chocolately goodness in the freezer for 20mins-30mins until it is set enough to be able to be rolled into ballz. Melt the milk chocolate. With a teaspoon, scoop up a ball of trufflyness and roll it between your palms into a perfect ball. Roll the truffle next into either the melted milk chocolate, the cocoa powder or the roasted, crushed up hazelnuts. Bosh, done. 

As they have yog/cream in them, they need to be gobbled up as quickly as possible, or kept in the fridge. 

Yum scrum. X