Cheat's Hoisin Chicken Stir Fry

Just a quick post to share the recipe for the yummy stir fry I made this evening. When I started uni I assumed I'd be eating pasta constantly but I've actually ended up making stir fries more often, probably because they're so easy to vary and most vegetables and meat work really nicely. They're also so quick to make whilst still being healthy so there's no excuse for slacking on cooking during the week.

I love Hoisin sauce and ended up experimenting one day when we didn't have any in the cupboard - flavour-wise it seems like a Chinese barbecue sauce to me, so I added some five spice and a splash of soy sauce to some ordinary barbecue sauce and ended up with a similar flavour. Not quite as good as the real thing, but a good make-do when you don't have any in (and cheaper too!)

All the amounts are approximate, I don't bother too much with exact quantities with things like this, so adapt according to taste! This serves two people.

Add oil to a wok, along with 2-3 crushed cloves of garlic, some chopped ginger, and a sliced onion. Add some chilli if you like (I use Very Lazy Chillies out of a jar).
Chop chicken into small equal pieces (pork goes well with the sauce too) and add to the wok. After a couple of minutes add any vegetables you fancy.
Meanwhile, cook noodles according to pack instructions, and make the sauce: In a bowl, add 1 tablespoon of honey, 2-3 tablespoons of barbecue sauce, 2-3 tablespoons of soy sauce, and half a teaspoon of Chinese 5 spice powder (feel free to add more, I'm not a huge fan of the aniseed taste it has so I don't use that much). The sauce is quite thick so add a splash of water to achieve the consistency you want.
When the chicken is almost cooked through, add the sauce to the wok and let it bubble for a few minutes. Add the noodles to the pan and toss together so the sauce evenly coats everything. Check the chicken is cooked through, and serve!

Lamb Meatballs with Greek Salad

I am well and truly ready for Summer now. I must admit, the thought of warm evenings with barbecues, summer dresses and maybe even getting some colour on my pale skin are preoccupying me more than work is. Going on holiday last month has also made me even more desperate to escape somewhere lovely after putting me in a travelling mindset.
Probably not gonna happen anytime soon though. However, while I can't be lounging on a beach in the Mediterranean, I can eat like I'm there.
I never used to be much of a fan of meat, tending to eat only chicken. Then I tried lamb, cooked perfectly, and have since embraced my inner carnivore. I don't like to do too much with it when I cook it, as I think it has a lovely flavour naturally.
Here I've made some meatballs out of lamb mince, adding just a bit of onion, garlic, tomato purée and seasoning. I served it with a fresh Greek salad drizzled with olive oil, some spicy chickpeas and pitta bread. A dollop of minted Greek yoghurt completed my mini Mediterranean feast.

The recipes below all serve two people. Everything can be easily multiplied however, and would make excellent side dishes at a barbecue or the like. Experiment with quantities of individual ingredients and seasonings to suit your own tastes. 

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For the meatballs:
250g lamb mince
1/2 red onion
1 heaped teaspoon tomato purée
1 clove of garlic, crushed
A sprinkle each of cumin and ground coriander, to taste
Salt
Pepper

Pitta bread and iceberg lettuce, to serve.

-Preheat an oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with kitchen foil.
-Place the mince into a bowl.
-Grate the onion, or use a food processor if available to finely chop the onion. Add to the mince, along with the tomato purée, crushed garlic, spices and salt and pepper to taste. Mix well.
-Roll the mince into meatballs of equal size and place on the tray. (I have made quite small meatballs - if you make larger ones just cook for longer).
-Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes, until just cooked through and still juicy.
-Warm the pitta bread through in the oven for a few minutes.
-Chop and rinse the lettuce.
-Serve with yoghurt, salad and chickpeas.

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For the minted yoghurt:
4 generous tablespoons Greek yoghurt
A few sprigs of mint
1 garlic clove

-Place the yoghurt in a bowl.
-Crush the garlic into the yoghurt.
-Shred the leaves of the mint and stir into the yoghurt.

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For the Greek Salad: (Adapted from GoodFood 101 Mediterranean Dishes)

1/2 red onion, sliced

4-5 Vine ripened tomatoes, quartered

1/3 cucumber, sliced and then quartered

Olives and Feta cheese (I bought a mixed selection from Tesco deli but use whatever you fancy)

1 teaspoon Oregano

Olive oil

-Prepare the onion, tomatoes and cucumber and place into a serving dish.

-Sprinkle over the oregano.

-Drizzle over a tablespoon or two of olive oil. The olives I purchased already had some dressing on so vary the amount you add depending on this. 

-Stir to combine. 

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For the chickpeas: (Adapted from a recipe tweeted by @TheBoyThatBakes)

1 tin of chickpeas

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2 tablespoon cumin

1/2 tablespoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon garlic salt

A pinch of pepper

A bit of chilli powder, to taste

-Preheat the oven to 180C. 

-Mix all the ingredients together and spread out onto a baking tray.

-Bake for 30-45 minutes.

These are quite dry by themselves but add a different texture to the meal when mixed with the yoghurt and salad.

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Hopefully this should satisfy my holiday cravings for a little while at least... 

Easter Nest Cakes

As it's not long at all now until Easter (where the hell is this year going?!) I decided to make some Easter-themed cakes - i.e. smother some sponge with a horrendous amount of chocolate.

The sponge cake for this recipe is the same as for my Victoria Sponge cake, again made in a rectangular baking tray. This means the cakes aren't too rich and over-chocolately, and the chocolate buttercream is flavoured with orange to give it a lighter taste reminiscent of Spring/Summer. This is then covered in chocolate sprinkles and whatever little Easter goodies you like to give the 'nest' effect.

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Ingredients

For the sponge:

110g butter/margarine

110g caster sugar

2 large eggs

110g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

100g icing sugar

50g butter/margarine

1 teaspoon orange extract
2 teaspoons good quality cocoa powder (I used Green & Blacks)

To decorate:
Chocolate sprinkles
Chocolate eggs

-Preheat the oven to 180C(160C fan oven)/350F/Gas Mark 4.

-Grease and line a deep rectangular 20cm x 30cm baking tray.

-Cream the butter and caster sugar together with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.

-Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

-Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl, then gently fold a third of this at a time into the mixture using a metal spoon, until you have a smooth batter.

-Fold in the vanilla extract.

-Pour the mixture into the baking tin, gently smoothing the top with the back of a spoon.

-Bake for about 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, and the cake is a light golden brown colour.

-Leave to cool.
-Using an 8 cm round cutter, cut about 6 rounds from the cake (there will be cake left over for nibbling!)

-Make the chocolate buttercream. Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the cocoa powder and orange extract and continue to stir until smooth.

-Cover each cake with buttercream. I'm not the best at this at all so it ended up looking very messy; this actually works for this recipe though, as it gives the 'nest' effect straight away.

-Now time to get decorating! Use a mixture of dark and milk chocolate sprinkles on the top and sides of the cakes, leaving a small space in the centre to place the chocolate eggs.

-Add any other decorations that you fancy.

Victoria Sponge Cake

OK, so this isn't the traditional looking Victoria Sponge exactly, but if you're in need of some light as air cake, perfectly sweetened buttercream and lots and lots of jam this has everything covered.

A little while back I was in a position where I had no idea what to do with myself, and the only thing that could distract me and make me feel better was an afternoon spent baking. For certain reasons the only thing I wanted to make was a Victoria Sponge. However, I don't have two small cake tins, just one large round tin, and I am terrible at cutting cakes into two equal slices. And I had to make this cake the best I could. So instead I used the cake tin I normally use for brownies, flapjacks and the like. 

Cutting the tray of cake in half I got two pieces of cake that were almost equal in size and thickness, that I smothered in layers of buttercream and raspberry jam, and dusted with icing sugar. I'm not saying this is the prettiest cake in the world, but it looked good to me, especially in comparison to my past cake disasters! 

A slab of this (this was definitely a comfort eating moment so don't judge!) with a cup of tea, and while nothing might have changed I could deal with it all a little bit better. 

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The recipe for the sponge is adapted from the Vanilla Cupcakes from Eat Me! - the mix can be split between muffin cases to make 12 cupcakes

Ingredients

For the sponge:

110g butter/margarine

110g caster sugar

2 large eggs

110g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the buttercream:

100g icing sugar

50g butter/margarine

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Jam

Icing sugar, to dust

-Preheat the oven to 180C(160C fan oven)/350F/Gas Mark 4.

-Grease and line a deep rectangular 20cm x 30cm baking tray.

-Cream the butter and caster sugar together with a wooden spoon until light and fluffy.

-Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

-Sift the flour and baking powder into a separate bowl, then gently fold a third of this at a time into the mixture using a metal spoon, until you have a smooth batter.

-Fold in the vanilla extract.

-Pour the mixture into the baking tin, gently smoothing the top with the back of a spoon.

-Bake for about 25-30 minutes until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean, and the cake is a light golden brown colour.

-Leave to cool.

-Once cool, remove any greaseproof paper and cut the cake in half, giving you two roughly 10cm x 15cm pieces. 

-Place one half on a serving plate and spread with jam. The amount is entirely up to you, but in my opinion the more generous the better (especially with the raspberry jam I used - it's delicious!)

-To make the buttercream, cream together the butter and icing sugar until smooth, then add the vanilla extract. Taste to make sure it's the right sweetness.

-Turn the remaining cake half upside down and spread with the buttercream. Place on top of the jam covered half.

-Sift icing sugar all over the cake to finish. 

Berlin

I've just got back from my trip to Berlin. It was an amazing week that I can't wait to do again when I get the chance. Berlin is an incredible, diverse city that I fell in love with almost instantly.

First up, the area where we stayed - Theodor-Heuss-Platz.

Our hotel was only a two minute walk from the U-Bahn stop, which made reaching the centre of Berlin really easy. The public transport in Berlin is really good, and tickets are valid on most of the underground and bus services, so finding somewhere to stay shouldn't be difficult as the city is very well interconnected. The underground is also a lot less crowded than London, so if you're used to that, travelling through Berlin is a doddle.

We stayed in the Ivbergs Hotel Berlin Messe, not much to look at from the outside but lovely inside, with a buffet breakfast that had a variety of hot and cold options - definitely got our money's worth here, we barely needed to eat for the rest of the day!
When we did get hungry though, there is a 'Wurst & Doner Ecke' nearby which does pretty damn good kebabs (probably still just as unhealthy as over here in England but a lot tastier!) and Berlin's famous currywurst - definitely worth a try! Don't worry, there are healthy options in Berlin too, such as loads of sushi places.

Theodor-Heuss-Platz is just outside the Charlottenburg neighbourhood, where the Schloss Charlottenburg can be found.

This palace is stunning, with a huge garden behind it. We were lucky to get to walk around it on a sunny morning when there were only a few people around.

Towards the centre of Berlin is Potsdamer Platz, a chance to see both the old and new of this area. Wandering around Berlin it's hard to believe how different and divided this city was just over 20 years ago - there's still plenty of construction going on as proof it's a work in progress but the atmosphere is one of openness, fun and modernity.
After you've left the U-Bahn station, you are just a short distance from the Sony centre, along with a collection of cinemas and restaurants.

We treated ourselves to a meal at Josty's, a restaurant inside the Sony Centre complex serving delicious German food. I had the goulash followed by apple strudel, both beautifully presented and tasting as good as they look.

Even though the Sony Centre is very modern, you don't have to go far to discover Berlin's history: a few remnants of the Berlin Wall are around this area. We took a short walk to Topographie des Terrors, which also has a stretch of the wall and a very interesting free exhibition on top of what used to be the Gestapo headquarters. The Kulturforum, containing five art museums, is also around Potsdamer Platz. 

After exploring Potsdamer Platz we wandered through the Tiergarten towards the Brandenburger Tor. For most of the week we had lovely sunny days so could really appreciate the green parts of Berlin. The Tiergarten is huge so we only saw the east part of it (just another excuse to revisit Berlin!).

After walking through the Tiergarten we came to Pariser Platz, the square where the Brandenburg Gate is. Being quite a tourist hotspot, there's usually people dressed up in military gear for photographs and other street entertainment such as dancers. There is also souvenir and coffee shops so you can sit outside and enjoy the view. This is possibly my favourite part of Berlin; the gate is truly stunning and the square is usually bustling but not crowded. 

The Reichstag is just behind the gate along with other government buildings and is again a very impressive sight. We popped back to these at night as well which I recommend if you can. They're lit up and the River Spree runs past the Reichstag; very peaceful at night. 

Following Unter den Linden brings you to sights such as the Berliner Dom, the Humboldt Box exhibit and eventually to Alexanderplatz. The Fernsehturm (TV tower) is located here, where Berlin can be observed from the highest point in the city. We tried to visit on a Saturday afternoon initially; bad idea as the queues were massive so we waited until the Monday morning and pretty much walked straight in. Planning your visit here is essential unless you don't mind waiting around for a while. 

Alexanderplatz has a pretty big shopping centre, and is usually one of the busiest parts of Berlin; however from a tourist point of view I didn't find much that interesting round here, in comparison to the rest of the city. 

Friedrichstrasse runs perpendicular to Unter den Linden, and seems to be the 'Oxford Street of Berlin' i.e. designer shops such as Louis Vuitton. Following the road south brings you to Checkpoint Charlie and associated exhibits. There's also paving slabs that mark the path of Berlin Wall which are quite obvious around here. 

If you fancy a change from the not so pretty side of Berlin's history, I recommend a visit to the Currywurst museum, which is around here too. Yep, a museum dedicated to Berliner's favourite food, including a wurst-shaped couch, a chance to make currywurst electronically, and a sample of the sausage in lightly spiced tomato sauce at the end of the visit. A fun way to spend some time which kids will probably love (I'm just a big kid at heart!).

Sunday was spent mainly in Prenzlauer Berg, where they have a decent flea market on during the day full of handmade jewellery, food and general nik naks. After exploring the market we wandered to a nearby cafe for 'Kaffee und Kuchen' - any tradition that involves cake should definitely be acted upon in my opinion. 

Towards the end of the holiday, we checked out the East Side Gallery, which is the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall remaining, and covered in different artists' work. It was repainted recently in 2009 so the artwork can still be enjoyed at it's best.

My fiancé is also a fan of ice hockey, and there happened to be a play-off game on at the 02 World arena between the Eisbären Berlin and the Kölner Haie. Not that into ice hockey myself but the atmosphere was brilliant, and they go all out with introducing the Berlin team, complete with fireworks!

Potsdam is just outside of Berlin, roughly 40 minutes from the centre by train or tube. We spent the best part of a day here, seeing the many different palaces here, including the extravagant Schloss Sanssouci and the Neus Palais. 

The whole area is absolutely beautiful, surrounded by forest and rivers. There's also a small town centre with cafes and shops, perfect for a day trip to contrast with the bustle of Berlin.

Ich Liebe Berlin!

Seaweed, Spaghetti & Sharks

Just a summary of some of the little things in my life this week...

I bought one of the fresh face masks from Lush last weekend, BB Seaweed, which is apparently good for most skin types. Great for me as my skin is the whole mix of oily, dry and occasionally sensitive.

As it only lasts 'til the end of the month and you get quite a lot in the tub I've already used it three times, which is more probably more than I should to be honest as it has little exfoliating bits in, but I don't want it to go to waste (not for how much it cost!). I haven't used face masks in a while so it's made a nice change to try this one out.

The ingredients are all natural and include honey, aloe vera and rose. It also includes little strips of seaweed, so even if it's doing nothing to my skin, at least I can be safe in the knowledge that I look attractive while it's on! I recommend these as a treat to get occasionally, as they cost £5.75 per tub and you have to use it up within about 3 weeks or so. This has been leaving my skin smooth and soft after use though, so if your skin needs a bit of extra attention to get it back on track I'd recommend getting one of these and using it for the month. Do be aware that this one is exfoliating though as I said - overdoing tends to lead to breakouts with me sometimes.


Last night I made spaghetti carbonara, though as we didn't have any bacon in (shocking I know) I used chicken instead, and added an onion. So not exactly the traditional recipe but yum nonetheless. I don't have any photos, I was too hungry for that I'm afraid! But the recipe I followed is the Good Food one from their pasta and noodle book (it's possibly on their website as well). I love these books, the recipes are straight forward and perfect for everyday cooking. I pretty much taught myself to cook with these when I moved to uni!

I've heard people can struggle to make carbonara at home, but I've always used this recipe and never had problems. Adding a splash of the pasta water to the sauce seems to be the tip to getting it right.


I'm also still in my post-gig obsessive phase and haven't stopped listening to Rammstein since seeing them last week, so I'll sign off with a live video of one of my favourite songs by them, 'Haifisch' (German for Shark).

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Rammstein - 02.03.12 Nottingham Arena

Wow, where the hell do I start with this post?! I knew before I saw them that going to a Rammstein show was definitely going to be a memorable experience, but I'm still in awe of everything from this gig. The thought process and hard work that must go into making their shows such a spectacle is incredible. I had seating tickets so I'd be able to see the pyrotechnics and get a good view of the stage too. I've even more glad I did as they also had a mini stage set up in the centre up in the middle of the standing section.

Firstly, the intro was brilliant - a walkway lowered above the crowd connecting the main stage to the smaller stage. The band entered from a door on the side, walking through the audience carrying a flaming torch, an England flag and a Rammstein flag.

They started off with Sonne and carried on with a set list spanning their discography. There was so much going off, so many different effects and props were used, I need to go and see them again just to be able to take more of it in!

The first part of the gig consisted of some of their classic songs on the main stage. The keyboardist, Flake, spent most of the time either on a treadmill while playing, in a rubber dingy surfing the crowd, or in a huge pot trying to dodge a flame thrower aimed at him by Till Lindemann as part of Mein Teil. All while wearing a sparkly bodysuit. Amazing.

The focus of the show then switched to the second stage, with guitarist Richard Kruspe on the small stage playing keyboard while the rest of the band travelled across the walkway (reminiscent of the Mein Teil video) to join him for a three song set. As they're normally on a large stage with a bunch of pyrotechnics going off, they can feel a little bit distance from the audience, so it was a nice change for them to be playing right next to each other and the crowd. 


The band left the stage before returning for the first of their two encores. Assuming they were only going to do one, I was a tad disappointed when they left the stage after Ich Will, as I'd been looking forward to seeing Engel performed live, so was very happy when Till returned to the stage wearing the huge metal wings that make up the song's effects. 

The last song was Pussy, and I must admit they've won me over with this song now. Not that I thought it was a bad song, just not one of their best so I couldn't see it working as a finale. However, their performance was incredible, and the sense of humour in the song writing really shows through in the live version, making it a fun way to end a mind blowing show.


If there is one criticism of this gig, it's only that Rammstein put on such a fantastic, elaborate show that sometimes you forget that at the end of the day they're a bloody good rock band playing awesome music. You're almost torn between getting into the music completely and just staring in awe at everything else that's going off. 


Even if your not much of a fan I would definitely recommend going to see these guys if you get the chance, just for the theatrics and pyrotechnics. Not only are Rammstein brilliant musicians, they're amazing performers that definitely know how to put on an entertaining two hour show.