Snow in Spain

Crumpets

Crumpets: Although you can buy quite good crumpets, I do think they're fun to make - especially on a cold snowy day when everyone's housebound. Once upon a time you could buy special crumpet rings, but egg cooking rings will do equally well provided you grease them really thoroughly.

METHOD

Heat the milk and 2 fl oz (55 ml) water together in a small saucepan till they are 'hand hot'. Then pour into a jug, stir in the sugar and dried yeast and leave it in a warm place for 10-15 minutes till there is a good frothy head on it

Meanwhile, sift the flour and salt into a mixing bowl, make a well in the centre then, when the yeast mixture is frothy, pour it all in. Next use a wooden spoon to work the flour into the liquid gradually and beat well at the end to make a perfectly smooth batter. Cover the basin with a tea-towel and leave to stand in a warm place for about 45 minutes - by which time, the batter will have become light and frothy.

Then to cook the crumpets: grease the insides of the egg rings well, and grease the frying pan as well before placing it over a medium heat. Arrange the rings in the frying pan and, when the pan is hot, spoon 1 tablespoon of the crumpet batter into each ring. Let them cook for 4 or 5 minutes: first tiny bubbles will appear on the surface and then, suddenly, they will burst, leaving the traditional holes.

Now take a large spoon and fork, lift off the rings and turn the crumpets over. Cook the crumpets on the second side for about 1 minute only. Re-grease and reheat the rings and pan before cooking the next batch of crumpets.

Serve the crumpets while still warm, generously buttered. If you are making crumpets in advance, then reheat them by toasting lightly on both sides before serving.

Dipping Sauces in Vietnam

I don't know any other cuisine where dipping sauces feature so prominently as in Vietnam's. In fact, a meal here in some instances has so many bowls and ramekins on the table that one needs one's focus in order to dip into the right sauce, much like playing an awkward game of cards with too many rules. At Hanoi's bia hơi establishments, for every four or five dishes ordered there will be a corresponding number of sauces coming to table, too.
Nước mắm (fish sauce) forms the basis of many but not all. It most commonly gets combined with water, vinegar and/or lime juice and sugar to form nước mắm pha, somewhat mistakenly referred to in the west by the generic name nước chấm, a term in Vietnam which is broader in meaning and refers to a wider range of dipping sauces, including nước mắm pha. I don't want to get weighed down in a semantic debate so let's just say many ingredients get added to fish sauce to make dipping sauces and this depends on region, dish and personal taste. Garlic, ginger, lemongrass, chilli, carrot, young papaya, even dill, are amongst the aromatics clipped, crushed, cut or shredded into fish sauce. Even alone, fish sauce is a remarkable ingredient to dip food into, giving both deep sea and salt. To be frank, if you can't stomach or don't like fish sauce, you cannot experience Vietnamese cuisine. It has a mild flavour profile compared to other dipping sauces used across the country.
Soy beans are fermented to make a brown sauce called tương, its most famous pairing being the south's delectable hand-rolled gỏi cuốn or fresh spring roll. Because this sauce is sometimes scattered with crushed peanuts, is is also frequently mistaken for peanut sauce. (Indeed, peanut sauce is also used for gỏi cuốn, as is hoisin sauce) At a famous goat joint in Hanoi, I remember a very white milky tương of soy beans, to which we added sliced lemongrass and chilli. Tương is a word, too, for sauces made of chilli or tomato. Soy sauce, so synonymous with Chinese cuisines, is also seen on tables here, be it with fresh chilli, garlic or lately, a slug of wasabi.
Vietnam is a wonderful world of sauces, clearly. But for my tastes at least, there is funk amongst the fine. Mắm nêm is another sauce derived from anchovies, the fish favoured in the making of nước mắm. While the latter is extracted in a longer process in a pure liquid form, mắm is thicker, murkier fish residue and liquid. This condiment at the table is completed with the addition of pineapple, garlic and, particularly in the centre of Vietnam, chilli. At a recent bia hơi outing in Hanoi, the mắm nêm served alongside our grilled beef was flavoured with ginger.

Perhaps the most pungent of Vietnam's dipping sauces is mắm tôm, which renowned Vietnam food expert Andrea Nguyen describes as "stinky but stealthily good". Looking back through the blog at my descriptions of this sauce, I came across the phrases "purple poison", "fermented fishy rocket fuel" and "evil...purply concoction." Made from fermented shrimps in a process not dissimilar to that gone through for fish sauce, mắm tôm is not for everyone. Particularly apparent in the north, it is used as a dipping sauce for dishes as widely varying as bún đậu (fried tofu with noodles), Chả cá Lã Vọng (Hanoi's sacred fish dish) and thịt chó (dog meat).
In short, a book could be written on dipping sauces in this country. I've only scratched the surface of this essential element of the main cuisine(s) here, not even mentioning what occurs in remote and ethnic minority communities. That could be a book on its own, too.
It's not a project for me. I have enough trouble deciding which sauce to dip my tofu into.

Lackered seabass with Vietnamese greens

Ingredients

For the glaze:
6 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp agave syrup, we recommend Groovy Food Company agave rich and dark
3 tsp rice vinegar
1½ tsp cornflour
4 fillets ofsea bass, approximately 150g each

For the Asian greens:

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 cm piece offresh ginger
1 garlic clove
250 g mixedgreens, such as bok choy, sprouting broccoli and kale
2 tbsp vegetable stock, or water
sesame oil, for drizzling
soy sauce, for drizzling

1. For the glaze: Mix soy sauce, agave nectar and rice vinegar in a small saucepan. Mix 1½ tablespoons of water with the corn flour in small bowl until smooth and add to soy sauce mixture. Stir mixture over medium heat until the glaze boils and thickens slightly - this should take about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.
2. Preheat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Arrange the fish on a small non-stick baking sheet then brush with some of glaze. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until opaque in the centre.
3. For the Asian greens: Meanwhile, heat a little oil in a wok or large frying pan, add the ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute. Throw in the thicker stemmed greens and cook for a minute, add the rest of the greens and the stock and put a lid on. Cook for 2 minutes or until tender then take off the lid and add a splash each of sesame oil and soy sauce.
4. When the fish is cooked, bring the remaining glaze to a boil and then spoon over the fish. Serve with the Asian greens.

Healthy Detox Juice Recipes

 If you’re trying to get some harmful toxin out of your body and perhaps lose a few pounds, a healthy juice detox could... be the answer for you.

1. Watermelon Limeade

Servings: 4
Ingredients:
About 1.5kg of watermelon
Three quarters a cup of lemon juice
Honey (amount depends on your taste)
A few fresh mint leaves
Ice
Chop the watermelon into slices (remove the skin and seeds), then simply mix up all the ingredients (through a juicer) then refrigerate / add in the ice and mint. Finally stir in the honey and enjoy.


2. Carrot, Celery, Ginger and Parsley Juice

Servings: 2

Ingredients:
4 large sized carrots (make sure they aren’t peeled and their ends should be trimmed)
4 celery sticks with their leaves
Half a scrubbed beetroot
6 pieces of parsley (stem and leaves)
2 inch piece of ginger (unpeeled and washed)
Ice
Simply mix up all the ingredients (through a juicer) then refrigerate / add ice and drink cold.



3. Healthy Green Detoxifying Juice Servings: 2

Ingredients:
5-6 oz. of baby spinach leaves
2 apples (cored and halved)
Half a lemon
2 medium sized carrots (scrubbed)
2 celery sticks
2 inch piece of ginger (peeled)
Ice
Mix up all the ingredients (through a juicer); fill some ice into the glasses; pour in the juice and serve.



4. Vegetable and Fruit Mix Detox JuiceServings: 2

Ingredients:

1 Apple
5 medium sized carrots
5 stalks of celery
A bunch of spinach
Half a bunch of parsley
Cold pressed wheatgrass (quantity depends on taste)
 Simply mix up all the ingredients (through a juicer), add in the ice, they you are ready to enjoy!



5. Grapefruit, Papaya and Pineapple JuiceServings: 2

Ingredients:
8 oz. of grapefruit juice
Half a cup of papaya cubes
Three quarters a cup of pieces of pineapple
A pinch of finely chopped parsley leaves
Simply mix up all the ingredients (through a juicer) then refrigerate / add ice and then drink cold.

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Chilli