Moussaka

In honor of Easter, I wanted to make something lamb based but thought that a leg of lamb might be a bit too pricey/fancy. So after a quick search, I settled on making moussaka - a Greek dish comprised of lamb mince and aubergines. Having never made this before, I was a bit nervous but luckily the Guardian had taken all the hard work out for me. Their weekly food column, "How to Make the Perfect...", by Felicity Cloake takes a dish and examines the different recipe tips and tricks before giving their verdict on how to make the perfect version. Her recipe had a manageable number of ingredients and was fairly simple to prepare - which are of course my main criteria for a first attempt at a dish.

Ingredients (ignore the chopped tomatoes)

Aubergine ready for the oven

Aubergine fresh from the oven

This version was surprisingly easy to make and had a great cinnamon flavor. The béchamel topping was equally easy and had the perfect amount of salt from the pecorino cheese. If you're looking for a dish that will  be warming but still spring-like, this is a great option. Also, by baking the eggplant first, this negates the need to salt them and also keeps the oil level of the overall dish much lower than other versions.

Layer 1: Aubergine

Layer 2: Meat sauce

Layer 6: Béchamel 

Finished result!

Recipe via www.guardian.co.uk

Prep Time: 30 min

Cook Time: 45 min

Serves: 6

Ingredients: 

2-3 aubergines, sliced lengthwise
1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp oregano
500g lamb mince
2 tbsp tomato puree, mixed with 150ml of water
150ml red wine
1 tbsp parsley
500ml milk
60g butter
60g flour
50g pecorino
1 tsp nutmeg
2 eggs
Salt
Pepper

Method: 

Preheat the oven to 180C / 355F.

Lay aubergine slices on a baking tray lined with parchment paper. Brush both sides of each slice with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the slices are soft and browned lightly.

Meanwhile, saute the onion in olive oil over medium heat until soft and translucent. Add in the garlic, cinnamon and oregano. Saute for a minute before adding the lamb mince. Continue to saute until lamb has browned and then add the tomato puree mixture and the red wine. Allow to simmer for 30 minutes or until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

In a separate pan, heat the milk until just before boiling. In another pan, melt the butter and add in the flour to make a roux. Slowly whisk this into the milk to form the béchamel sauce. Add the nutmeg, salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Allow to cool slightly before adding the two eggs so they don't scramble.

To assemble the moussaka, start with a layer of a third of the aubergine and top with half of the lamb mixture. Continue with these layers, finishing with a final aubergine layer. Top with the béchamel sauce. Bake for 45 minutes until the top is nicely browned. Allow to sit for 30 minutes so that the layers solidify a bit before slicing. Enjoy!  

Marbled Eggs

Marbled Hard Boiled Eggs 

Easter has always been one of my favorite holidays with great memories of my grandparents setting up (surprisingly difficult) easter egg hunts and having tasty dinners all together. Plus, there was always the added bonus of getting to wear a special hat to church for mass. This year, however, I'm on my own in London and not really celebrating in the more traditional ways. Therefore, I wanted to find a way to take some of the traditions and use them more appropriately for the situation. I settled on dyeing eggs since it was always one of my favorite activities and I haven't actually been able to enjoy it for a couple of years now. However, I can't really set up an easter egg hunt for myself (cheating!) so I found this technique online for marbling hard boiled eggs.

Ingredients

Cracked Eggs

Eggs in their food colorings

Essentially, you're dyeing the eggs as usual but cracking them before hand so the dye gets into the shell and colors the white of the hard boiled egg inside. I was really pleased with the results and with the fact that this technique only requires eggs, food coloring, vinegar and plastic bags... all things I usually have on hand. If you're looking for something fun or a little different for a party, these would also make really cute deviled eggs - something I'm considering for an upcoming wine and cheese party since my recipe for deviled eggs includes cheddar... I'll have a separate post on the recipes I use for that event (I like to serve some cheese or wine based food options alongside so that no one leaves hungry!). In this post, I'm also including my recipe for egg salad as an example of how you could also use these eggs to brighten up your lunches.

Dyed eggs 

Marbled eggs fresh from their shells

Blue

Green

Marbled Eggs Method

You will need: 

Hard boiled Eggs
Liquid Food Coloring
White Vinegar
Water
Paper towels
Kitchen gloves (optional)

After hard boiling the eggs, rinse under cool water until they have cooled enough to handle or leave to cool completely if you aren't in a hurry. When cool, tap on a hard surface to crack the egg all over it's shell. I was a little overzealous with my cracking for one of my eggs and as a result I had a colored egg and not a marbled one. The fewer the cracks, the more the marbled effect will show but that's entirely up to you. When ready, place the eggs in plastic bags designated by color (I only had three eggs so I used three different colors and three bags but you could probably add several eggs to each bag). Pour the food coloring in a few drops at a time until you feel the egg is well covered. I was very generous with my pours and the eggs turned out great although it seemed a bit wasteful. Twist the bag so that the food coloring won't slide out as you turn the eggs and make sure they're well coated in color. Leave the bags to sit for 30 minutes. When ready, remove the egg from the bag and give it a quick rinse with white vinegar to set the color. Next, rinse with water to remove the excess food coloring and place onto paper towels to dry. When ready, remove the outer shells and reveal the marbling! I wore kitchen gloves for this because there will be food coloring in the cracks of the shell etc and it can dye your fingers some interesting colors but that's entirely optional. Enjoy!

Ready to grate the egg

Grated Marbled Egg 

Finished egg salad! 

Egg Salad Recipe

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: N/A

Serves: 1

Ingredients: 

1 hard boiled egg, grated
1/2 stalk of celery, finely chopped
1 tbsp red onion, finely chopped
20g mature cheddar, grated
1 tbsp sweet pickle relish
2-3 tbsp mayonnaise or miracle whip (I use a mix of both)
Crackers or 2 slices of bread

Method: 

Using a cheese grater, grate the egg and cheese and add to your mixing bowl. Next add the celery, red onion and pickle relish, followed by the mayonnaise or miracle whip. Mix thoroughly and enjoy with crackers or make into a tasty sandwich. 

Dangerously Easy Brownies

I'm calling this recipe "dangerously easy" because it's the perfect treat to make with items you probably already have on hand... which means that after a bad day or when you're craving something chocolatey, you can have these ready in less than 45 minutes. Easy and delicious... but if you're anything like me, having sweets like this so easily on hand might be a bit dangerous! Anyway, I found this recipe on allrecipes.com and have made it a staple since it's so uncomplicated. You don't even need to use an electric mixer - a simple whisk will work fine. Also, I didn't have enough sugar the second time I made these and found that a mix of sugar, brown sugar and stevia was equally tasty so feel free to mix and match with whatever you have in the cupboard. Finally, this recipe fits an 8 x 8 square pan.

Ingredients

Batter

Finished product

Recipe via www.allrecipes.com

Prep Time: 10 min

Cook Time: 25-30 min

Serves: 9

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder

Method:

Preheat the oven to 300F/175C.

Whisk the melted butter together with the sugar, eggs and vanilla extract until well incorporated. Next, add the cocoa powder, flour, salt and baking powder. Give everything a good mix and then butter and flour your dish before pouring in the brownie batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!

Reading Half Marathon

If any of you lovely readers have been wondering why I've been neglecting this blog lately, well the answer is simple: I was training/planning for and freaking out about the Reading Half Marathon. I signed up for it in November when it was still sufficiently far away to seem like a good idea. However, the day finally came and I was feeling unprepared despite my training and generally extremely nervous since I've never run any kind of race before. I was also running on my own, which made me extra nervous when I saw how many groups there were who would be on hand to offer support to each other. However, I actually found that I liked running alone since I could take water breaks when I wanted to and just generally run my own race.

Caitie after the race

I'm very pleased to report that I not only finished but actually managed a quicker time than I had anticipated. Going in, I thought I would be lucky to finish close to three hours but actually thought I might go over that. Instead, I managed to stick to my goal mile time of 12 minutes per mile up until the 11th when I switched to 15 minutes per mile. I almost made it expect that the final mile includes a poorly placed uphill climb that I really struggled with since my legs weren't speaking to me by that point. I'm still not sure if they'll ever forgive me although they are getting their revenge currently as I'm too sore to move!

Final time! (Although my chip registered 2:48:10)

While this is primarily a food blog, I have been toying with the idea of including new and noteworthy happenings from time to time... as a different sort of "caper" if you like. I think this counts! And, not to disappoint, I also have a mini food post to include. Although I don't have any pictures of the food options, I thought it might be useful for other runners to hear what I had pre- and post-race in case they were curious (I know I was!). I doubt it was particularly wise or ascribed to any of the available advice out there but it worked for me since I had lots of energy, didn't cramp up and was generally pleased with my day.

Thursday: 

Thursday night I started thinking about trying to "carbo-load" for the race. I didn't really want to go about making spaghetti or something at all complicated. Plus, I wanted to try and use up as many of my groceries as possible since we were going out of town for the race. Therefore, I made a quick macaroni and cheese with some bacon lardons and green onions. (Recipe coming soon!)

Friday:

I had a meeting on campus which lasted a few hours so I had to sort of make things up on the fly. For breakfast, I had coffee. This is pretty normal in my life since I'm ALWAYS running late. So by early afternoon, I was starving. I popped into Sainsburys on my way home and grabbed some bagels, mini packets of cream cheese, bananas, and salami. The salami was for my lunch (bagel with salami, cheese and dijon mustard) while the remaining bagels and the bananas were for the trip to Reading. Since we were staying in a hotel, I didn't want to have to rely on restaurant fare in case it made me feel a bit ill so I decided to take along some carb friendly options. For dinner on Friday, I was a bit naughty and had a curry since Sam was keen to have one. I regret nothing! It was delicious (chicken tikka masala, muttar paneer, and peshwari naan) and helped to take my mind off the impending race.

Saturday:

On Saturday, I was a naughty runner again by skipping both breakfast and lunch (unintentionally!) and then having a late afternoon snack of party treats (including cheeses, crackers, veggie and duck spring rolls, and other tasty treats) at our friends Katie and Dave's housewarming. While this was not a brilliant day-before-race meal choice, the party helped to keep my anxiety in check by distracting me so I think it was a good decision overall. After the party, Sam and I headed down to Reading and checked into our hotel. We stayed at the Hilton and would definitely recommend it for anyone running this race next year since it's a five minute walk to both the start and finish lines. If you're visiting Reading for any other reason, it might be a bit far from the city center though. Anyway, for dinner I had half a bagel and half a cheeseburger (again, naughty but it was they only thing on their menu that I felt like having). I also had lots and lots of water both with dinner and throughout the evening to try and hydrate for the race.

Sunday: 

Finally, race day dawned and I was up bright and early to get ready. I usually don't eat breakfast so eating at 7:45 was a major struggle. I managed to have half a plain bagel (I was so nervous the cream cheese was making me feel ill) and a banana. I also had a cup of coffee and two glasses of water. We left for the race about 25 minutes ahead of the start time and of course, that's when the heavens opened up and we got our first drenching of the day (it would continue to rain for the duration of the race). While running, I grabbed water at every stand since it was part of my race plan to break the race into four 3 mile races and to use the water stands (located at every 3 miles or so) as my break points so that I wasn't spilling it everywhere. This worked out really well and I'll definitely do this in the future!

Post-race, I had a lucozade that some nice military men where handing out at the finish, a bag of chips and a mars bar from my goody bag. Since we were one the train home, it was a little limited in terms of food choices but these were exactly what I needed: sugar to perk me up and salt to help after exercising. Upon getting back to my flat, I made probably the biggest mistake in my food choices in that I had another bagel with salami and cheese for dinner and called it a day. Upon reflection, I should have had something higher in protein to help my muscles repair themselves. Oh well, live and learn! (And be very sore...)

I hope this will be interesting or helpful to anyone reading this! I had a great time and am already thinking about signing up for another race... although that might require some serious negotiation with some very angry muscles... 

Couscous Vegetarian "Bibimbap"

Ok, first things first, this is not bibimbap. It is "bibimbap". The difference being that this is in absolutely no way authentic Korean cuisine. In real bibimbap, the starch is rice and there are several distinct toppings, which are kept separate until the diner mixes them all together. These often include: beef, cucumber, carrot, and other vegetables. My version is probably unidentifiable to Korean cooking fans but it was still delicious and allowed me to use up all my leftovers without getting hopelessly bored of them. I had couscous on hand so I went ahead and used that. And actually, I think I might prefer it to the rice since it left me feeling less stodgy and made the dish so much lighter. The real key to this dish is the Korean chili paste. I've raved about it before but it really changes this dish and makes it distinct from a stir-fry or just couscous and vegetables (both of which are tasty dishes in their own right!). It adds a little heat and totally changes the flavor of the dish. Be careful though: a little goes a long way! Also, I bought it a few months ago and it's still going strong in the fridge so the investment (it's cheap but might be a bit of a pain to find) is definitely worth it.

Leftover veggies getting a Korean style makeover

Frying my egg

Couscous ready for toppings

Veggie layer goes on

Next: Fried egg and chopped raw bell pepper

Finally a fairly unattractive blob of sauce

Prep Time: 3 min

Cook Time: 15 min

Serves: 1

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of cooked couscous
1/2 - 1 cup of leftover grilled/roasted veggies
1 tsp sesame seeds
1/2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tsp oil or butter
1 egg
1 tbsp red bell pepper, chopped
1 tbsp Korean chili paste
1/2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp vinegar

Method:

Measure the couscous into a bowl. Boil water in a kettle or on the stove and pour over the couscous until the water level is about a centimeter above the grains. Cover the bowl with a plate and allow to steam for fifteen minutes until all the water is absorbed. Meanwhile, over medium heat, add the leftover vegetables to a pan and allow to reheat. Add the sesame seeds and sesame oil after a few minutes and toss to coat. Allow to saute a further few minutes until hot. In another pan, melt the butter over medium-low heat and add the egg. Fry until it reaches your preferred consistency. Add the vegetables to the couscous and top with the fried egg and the bell pepper pieces. Finally, mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl and add to the couscous mix. With a spoon, mix the ingredients in your bowl to evenly distribute the egg and the chili sauce mix. Enjoy!

French Onion Soup

Continuing the French theme from my last post, I decided to share my favorite recipe for French Onion soup. I'm not entirely sure how authentic this is but it seems pretty close to what I had in Paris and it's the recipe my Mom makes... therefore, it's authentic to me! I think this might have originally come from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook that every mother (in America at least) seems to own - we even have the edition my grandma Dorothy Guido used. It also happens to be the cookbook I'm currently coveting so if it goes missing from my Mom's kitchen, she'll probably know who did it... 

Ingredients

Onions ready for slicing

Anyway, one of my favorite things about this soup is how quickly it comes together. This is followed at a close second by the fact that it's surprisingly cheap as well. Wine can be expensive but since I don't drink red wine, I just get the little sample size bottles since that seems to be the perfect amount for this recipe and that way I don't have any leftover. Also, at less than 2 pounds each, they don't break the budget either. As far as the beef bouillon goes, use whatever you feel comfortable with since I know different brands have different sodium levels and that can really impact the final dish.  

Pre-melting of the cheese

Prep Time: 5 min

Cook Time: 30 min

Serves: 6

Ingredients: 

1/4 cup butter
3 large onions
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 sample size bottle of red wine (or 1 cup)
1L water
2-3 beef bouillon cubes
1 baguette 
1 package of swiss cheese

Method: 

Over medium heat, melt the butter and add the sliced onions. Let them saute for a few minutes and then add the sugar and cook for about five minutes further. Once the onions are nicely softened, add the flour and mix well to incorporate with the onions and pan juices. Cook for two minutes and then add the water, wine and beef bouillon cubes. Turn the heat up to high and bring to a boil. When the soup is boiling, reduce the heat and let simmer for about ten minutes covered. When ready to serve, slice the baguette into rounds (approximately an inch in width). Place on top of the soup in each bowl and add slices of the cheese. Either pop under the broiler or in the microwave until melted. Enjoy! 

Bon Appetit: Paris

After a pretty crazy week, I finally had time to sit down and get this post organized. It's by no means meant to be an all encompassing guide to food in Paris - it's just what we enjoyed while we were there. We spent four days wandering around the city and had a really lovely time. Since we had both been there before, there wasn't any pressure to do the super touristy stuff so it ended up being just a relaxing city break which was exactly what I needed. Of course, that said, there was still tasty food to be had!

Caitie at the Louvre

Rue de Commerce

Thanks to my lovely flatmate here in London, Laure, we were able to stay at her adorable studio flat just off of rue de Commerce. This area is quietly perfect with lovely shops and restaurants and only a short walk away from the Eiffel Tour. And yet, it never felt touristy at all. Everyone you see in the shops or on the streets actually live there and are just going about their day to day activities. It was perfect and we really can't thank her enough! With the cold weather and the lovely bakeries, cheese shops and other tasty treats available, we decided to eat in most nights and the result was delicious! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get photos of many of the shops because they weren't open on our last day. A particular favorite was Eric Kayser, an artisan bakery, which has the most amazing walnut bread. I wish we had one in my neighborhood in London! Although, that said, I would probably get very, very fat. Sigh.

Tasty artisan bakery

Dinner most nights

Day One: Latin Quarter and St. Germain

These are the fifth and sixth districts or neighborhoods in Paris and are very close to Notre Dame. If you take the metro, you'll probably end up walking through these areas in order to get to the cathedral. On display was a lot of different types of seafood, including mussels, lobster and oysters.

Street corner seafood

Oysters on parade

After a wander around Notre Dame and checking out the Shakespeare & Co. Bookshop, we decided to stop for lunch in a restaurant on rue de la Huchette. I was craving cheese fondue because I had tasty memories of it from a trip to Paris during high school. And yes, I know it isn't really a French dish, but it's still delicious. I remembered that this area was where i had enjoyed it previously so we set about finding a restaurant that served fondue. This street had lots of fondue on offer so we popped into one of the many cafes. 

Rue de la Huchette

Pizza

Surprisingly watery fondue

Fondue accompaniments 

Potatoes for fondue

While it wasn't the best fondue I've ever had, it was still a great lunch. Sam really enjoyed his pizza and I found that all the accompaniments that came with my fondue were more than enough for me. This street also had a few Greek cafes and other lunch options. I know it might seem touristy because it's so close to Notre Dame but the prices were actually decent.

Day Two: Louvre, Palais Royale, and Champs-Elysees.

Neighborhoods one and eight on the map, these are arguably the most popular areas with tourists since they include not only the world famous museum but also one of the most famous shopping streets in the world. The cafes and brasseries in this area can be a bit obscenely priced so we really took our time to check out a few options before heading into Cafe Palais Royal. With the freezing temperatures, we were both looking for something warm and this restaurant had omlettes, pastas and of course French Onion soup so we left very happy. Laure also recommended Cafe Le Nemours nearby for lovely sandwiches and other lunchtime treats.

Omlette

French Onion soup

Day Three: Marais

Our third day in Paris happened to fall on a Sunday, so, acting on a recommendation from Laure, we headed over to the Marais neighborhood since it's shops and restaurants were open (unlike a lot of other areas in Paris). I can't stress how adorable this neighborhood is - it doesn't actually feel like it's part of a big city. Lots of lovely bakeries and cafes, plus some great shopping options. The museum of European photography is also located here and I was disappointed to find the line was just too long for us to visit (maybe I should actually say the weather was too cold for us to wait in a massive line!). This neighborhood also has a high concentration of Jewish delis and restaurants and we were lucky enough to wander into the Purim celebrations. These included music and dancing in the streets and general good cheer. Also on offer in this neighborhood is Victor Hugo's home and the place where the Bastille stood (now a roundabout...).

Want all the cakes!

Amazing challah breads just waiting to be eaten.

Macaron tower

Chez Marianne

For lunch, we had hoped to check out Chez Marianne, a Jewish deli/restaurant that had been highly recommended by both Laure and our guidebook but unfortunately they were pretty swamped. So, we wandered along rue de Rosiers until we found a sit down place that looked tasty. On offer along this street are copious amounts of falafel but most of the cafes are take away shops which would have been nice in the summer. We popped into Mi-Va-Mi, the "authentique falafel" and "best of the street" because it had indoor seating. Despite our less than gourmet reasons for selecting it, Mi-Va-Mi didn't let us down with fantastic falafel and shwarma. I really don't think you could go wrong with any of the falafel options on this street though, given the long lines at every window.

Mi-Va-Mi

My falafel platter

Shwarma pitta

Purim party

As a treat, we decided to pop into an artisan eclair and truffle shop on our way back to the metro. L'eclair de Genie had more options to choose from than I had ever seen before. I went for strawberry while Sam made the (slightly) better choice with his lemon meringue version. I highly recommend a stop in if you're wandering around this neighborhood and looking for a treat!

Eclairs 

More eclairs!

Day Four: Montmartre

Our final day was spent in Montmartre, home of the Sacred Heart Basilica and far, far too many stairs. After hopping off the metro at Abbesses, we found we were a little peckish and so popped into Le Saint Jean, which was close to the tube. Although I was worried since it had a bit of a chain restaurant/pub feel, we were definitely not disappointed. Sam even declared his "toast burger" as the best he'd ever had while my steak was perfectly cooked and served with a delicious blue cheese sauce. There are also loads of restaurants up near the church so if you're not hungry right away they might be a better option.

Le Saint Jean

Tasty steak and frites

Perfection

"Toast Burger"

Final Food Thoughts: 

There was one element of our food experience in Paris that really stuck with me because I found it so surprising: the wealth of foreign foods on offer. I know, this is probably not a shocking thought when we live in a world that is so globally connected that Goldfish crackers were on sale in Chennai, India. However, when I visit Rome to see my parents, I'm always amused at how little outside influence can be seen in the restaurants or grocery stores. For example, our local shop has ONLY Italian foods on offer despite being a reasonably sized place. The restaurants in our neighborhood follow a similar trend: the vast majority serve only Italian dishes. We do have one sad little Chinese restaurant but it's pretty terrible. In Paris, it was the complete opposite. Supermarket shelves had a ton of Italian items (and my precious Goldfish of course!) and the restaurants in Laure's neighborhood ranged from French brasseries to Chinese, Japanese and even Korean.