Blackened Cajun Hake with Turmeric Coconut Rice

We have a state of emergency, after 4 months of near constant heat, the sun has retired for the next 9 months. Instead, we have been greeted with cold, wet rain and grey skies. This crisis has lead me to bring sunshine to the plate, imagining being somewhere tropical, with palm trees, bright white beaches and azure waters. Naturally with a cocktail in hand served with a tiny umbrella and perhaps one of those glace cherries. Ahh bliss. Instead I am writing this post from my bed, warm and toasty, while the clouds chuck down 4 months worth of rain on us. At least the herbs are getting a well deserved shower, I’ve been working them hard, they deserve some R&R, especially the Thyme.

I’m on a bit of a Turmeric kick at the moment, whether it’s in food or in a latte, I’m all about that glorious golden powder. According to studies, turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties, increases the antioxidant capacity in the body, helps to fight viral infections, eases menstrual cramps and helps relive IBS symptoms. Everything I eat nowadays bloats me and I basically look like I’m 5 months pregnant. It can be really uncomfortable and at times painful and I find that by having turmeric, it helps to ease the bloating.

Back to my quest for sunshine, I have been recipe testing turmeric coconut rice and I am ready to unleash this tasty number on to the blog. It’s basically like if rice and beans and sticky coconut rice had a turmeric baby. Man, is it good! Not only does it taste delicious. It’s neon yellow and radiates nuclear happiness onto the plate, bringing instant warmth and happiness.

I’ve made it here with blackened Cajun spices hake but you could serve it as a side to anything of have it on it’s own. Let me know if you give it a try and what you served it with.

Blackened Cajun Hake with Turmeric Coconut Rice

For the Rice

1 cup (250g) White rice

1 can (400ml) Coconut milk

1.5 tsp Salt

1 tbsp Turmeric

1 Medium red pepper, diced

230g Black beans, rinsed

1 Bay leaf

500ml Water

2 tbsp Toasted unsweetened desiccated coconut

Method

In a pot, combine the rice, coconut milk, water, salt, turmeric and bay leaf and bring to the boil over a medium high heat, stir occasionally.

Once boiled, reduce heat to a simmer until rice is cooked (20-25 minutes), stir every so often as you want the rice to get sticky.

Remove the bay leaf and stir in the red pepper and black beans, 5 minutes before the end.

 

For the blackened Hake

2 Hake fillets (100g each) or any white fish, pork or chicken would work well here too.

60g (4tbsp) butter

2 tbsp Cajun spice

Method

Pat fish dry and rub Cajun spice into both sides.

In a pan, melt the butter over a high heat, until it gets frothy and a warm golden colour.

Place fish, carefully in the pan and cook on each side for 2 minutes, basting constantly with the butter. The fish should be cooked on the inside and the spices should have blackened on the outside. Allow fish to stand for a couple of minutes and serve.

*Note do not put spoon used for basting in your mouth, you will burn all the skin on the inside and outside of your lips off and it hurts.

Lastly, you just need to serve the rice, top it with the fish and sprinkle some of the toasted coconut over the top. I promise, you will be instantly transported to a dessert island, cocktail in hand and glorious sunshine.

In other news, I have made another Chrissy recipe, the mushroom soup and while it tasted amazing, it wasn’t a pretty looking dish and for that reason alone, it doesn’t deserve a post of it’s own which leaves me with 34 recipes down and 68 more to cook!

Chloe

xoxo

 

 

 

Chicken Soup for the Soul

When I was a teenager, there was a book called ‘Chicken Soup for the Soul’, I think it was full of stories to make you feel all warm and good about life, I never read it nor had I ever eaten Chicken Soup. I still haven’t read that book however yesterday we had Chicken Noodle Soup and I can tell you this: It made us feel warm and good and nourished, so much so that we polished off the entire pot of it. My point is, don’t read the book eat the soup instead.

With the weather being a bit dazed and confused, quickly switching between sun and rain, it’s the perfect time to plough my way through the ‘Soupmaster’ chapter in the Cravings cookbook. I don’t know about you but I just don’t crave soup. I crave bread and chocolate and alcohol. Chrissy Teigen craves soup. I get we are all different but I can’t be alone with my Cravings? Maybe I should write my own Cravings cookbook and I can fill it with carbs, cheese, chocolate and booze. Would anyone buy that? I couldn’t promise that there would be pictures of me in a pair of hot pants, feeding Charles a hotdog but the recipes would be simple and I could do an offer and get local gyms to do a ‘free trial with the purchase of every book’ or I could pair it with a kitchen work out DVD to do while you are cooking ach recipe. Think I’m onto something here… This idea is trademarked do not try and steal it!

I must also inform you that I am currently writing this post with one eye as I woke up this morning with a swollen left eyelid, most likely punishment from consuming too much delicious soup. Karma comes at us in funny ways.

Right, onto the soup. My thoughts: obviously delicious. Both Charles and I remarked, pre-soup, that having pasta in soup is weird and that neither of us had ever had this before but we both ate our words and the pasta once we tried it. It’s pretty tasty. She calls for us to use ‘Roto Chicken’, you know that shop bought chicken that they cook in store on the rotisserie. My dad used to buy this for us sometimes and we would eat it on fresh rolls with mayo, which is in fact rather delicious. However, let’s be real here, I had some chicken breasts in the fridge and cooked these up instead. I just shredded them up after they had cooled and added it to the soup and I really don’t think it made such a significant difference. I am a great believer in winging it in the kitchen but I appreciate that not everyone is as aloof when it comes to cooking and like to do it by the book, that’s ok too.

So all in all, soup gets a tick and will probably make again. Also highly recommend getting this book. Honestly the recipes are so easy even the most inexperienced cook could cook their way through the book and be pleased with the results.

Did I tell you I messaged Chrissy on Instagram the other day? Very complimentary etc. and thought I had an in as she had liked a couple of my pictures in the past. Clearly we didn’t have the beginnings of a beautiful friendship as she didn’t respond to my message. Maybe she was Julia Child-ing me and isn’t impressed with the fact that I am trying to cook all her recipes (see Julie & Julia for reference). Who knows, I will just keep cooking. It’s for my enjoyment anyway!

33 recipes down, 69 still to cook!

Chloe

XOXO

Sweet Chilli and Mustard Salmon

I am writing this while I sit in a grey and desolate car park, which is located behind a movie theatre, eating my lunch which my dad would describe as ‘rabbit food’ aka chicken breast and vegetable sticks. I would rather be eating a deliciously satisfying burger or, to be honest, anything with bread. Instead I have dry chicken and a few sad looking sticks of veg. What a poor life decision.

Anyway, moving on from this sad lunch story, I wanted to tell you all about the next Cravings recipe I made but in order to that, I need to start at the beginning of the story: the great sambal oelek debacle! Samba what you ask? I know, I didn’t have a clue either. After much Google research between myself and Charles, we discovered that it was “a hot sauce or paste typically made from a mixture of a variety of chili peppers with secondary ingredients such as shrimp paste, fish sauce, garlic, ginger, shallot, scallion, palm sugar, lime juice, and rice vinegar or other vinegars.” Thank you Wikipedia.

Our adventure to track down the legendary sambal oelek begins one sunny Tuesday afternoon where I frequented an ASDA near my office, I know it’s an awful shop, I thought to myself if any place would have this mystical ingredient it would be here. After becoming very lost I stumbled across their World Food section, scanning the shelves I found nothing, in fact I looked on every conceivable shelf and left empty handed. This happened again in Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Tesco. I even sent out a plea for help on Twitter, which was duly ignored.

We came so close when we were in China Town, in London, where we found a Chinese supermarket but they had the wrong sambal. Eventually we stumbled across a WholeFoods, which we have never been into and looks amazing! Bring to Berkshire, and low and behold, there in the shelf was the sambal oelek. The heavens opened and I actually heard angels singing. We had found the lost ingredient!

Ok, I bet you are wondering why I rambled on for so long? It’s a core ingredient for the Sweet Chilli and Mustard Salmon I wanted to make. It’s a bit on the spicy side but the flavour is immense and I’ve already thought of a number of ways to use up my sambal, maybe with chicken or in a stir fry. Who knows?

Chrissy has an unorthodox way of cooking her salmon, skin side up (shock horror) but it works in this recipe because you are cooking the salmon in the sauce. You then stick it under the grill to crisp up the skin and to be honest, I’m not sure why we aren’t always cooking fish this way? The fish stays juicy and the skin is crisp and let me tell you, I’m not a huge fan of fish skin, unless it’s coated in batter and deep fried.

I served this alongside the cutest little hassleback potatoes (also from cravings) and voila, a delicious supper was served. Much better than this dire lunch I’m having.

It’s a bank holiday weekend which is very exciting!! What are you all up to this weekend?

32 recipes down, 70 more to go!

Chloe

Xoxo

Roasted tomato soup by a non-tomato lover

Hey Everyone,

I’m back! Probably about a stone heavier from the amount of food I’ve consumed over the past week but it’s fine, the calories were totally worth it! We had a lovely time celebrating Charles’ birthday over the course of 4 days, eating, drinking and generally being quite happy with life.

On Saturday, we went up to London and looked around all the art galleries and then had lunch at Kricket, which was awesome. Kricket is an Indian restaurant specialising in small, sharing plates. Between the two of us, we had four plates and 2 breads and we were super stuffed! If you haven’t been and are in London, I would definitely recommend giving it a try. If you had to have only one thing, have the fried chicken. It. Is. Amazing.

Last night we had my sister over for supper and it was a good, chilled evening. I obviously had to break out the Cravings cookbook for the occasion and whipped up her Roasted Tomato Soup. Now I need to let you in on a secret, I really don’t like tomatoes, in fact I have a vivid memory of being 5 years old, at crèche and gagging on a slice of tomato we had with our lunch. Disgusting. I think it’s mostly the texture that I’m not a fan of, the gooey, pulpy gross inners. However, in my later years, I have been getting more on board with the humble tomato and do have it from time to time. Obviously only fresh tomatoes have this affect on me because I’m fussy with tomatoes like that.

So, the Roasted tomato Soup was the bomb diggity, I used up all the tomatoes I had in my fridge, classic, beef and cherry and roasted them in a baking dish with olive oil, salt and pepper. You then cook down some onion and garlic, add in the tomatoes, stock and fresh sprigs of rosemary and thyme (out of the garden of course!). You simmer the soup for 25 minutes and then blitz it up. It turns into a delicious hearty bowl of happiness with an almost creamy mouth feel. So simple, yet so delicious, which is beginning to become a growing trend with this cookbook.

Tonight I’m making another Chrissy recipe, slowly ticking them off! Happy hump day peeps!

30 recipes completed, 72 left to go!

Chloe

xoxo

Vegetable Things, Duck (Breasts) and Chocolate

Hi Everyone (Anyone?)

So after I totally psyched myself out by crunching the numbers on how many Cravings recipes I have yet to do before the end of this year, I got hard to work in the kitchen cooking up all sorts of delicious vegetable things from the cookbook.

I had some duck breasts out for supper tonight, which I think I have cooked a grand total of 2 times (including tonight). Thank god for YouTube and Gordon Ramsey, dare I say, as without them I wouldn’t have known what the hell I was doing and they would have ended up dry and disgusting. There is much work to be done in the duck cooking department as the skin wasn’t crispy, probably due to the fact that I rested them skin side down after cooking which, in hindsight, isn’t the smartest idea. Oh well, life goes on.

To pair with the luscious breasts, my main girl Chrissy was there for me. I knocked out 3 recipes tonight (4 if you include the garlic olive oil, which I need to do again for a dish later down the line). Firstly I made thyme roasted carrots. You start by taking the carrots, which I sliced lengthways as they were quite thick, coat them in olive oil, salt and pepper and fresh thyme, which I got from our garden that Charles lovingly tends to. The carrots are then roasted for about 40 minutes and come out tender and juicy, the thyme giving the apartment a wonderful fragrant aroma.

Next were smashed potatoes with roasted garlic. Now let me just say something about the roasted garlic, which is kind of like confit garlic, it’s super easy to make, just add olive oil and garlic together and warm it over a very low temperature. That’s super simple HOWEVER, peeling the bloody garlic was a NIGHTMARE. I don’t know if I’ve bought shit garlic but honestly it took me forever to peel 15 cloves and the skin was sticking to my hands. Ugh, horrid. Anyway that aside, to make the potatoes you boil them up with lots of salt, then when cooked you add the garlic and smash it up with a masher. You then heat up some cream and butter with salt and pepper and add that to the potatoes. Seriously, let me tell you, these are delish, I could have eaten the whole lot but then my jeans wouldn’t have fit me and I’m already in my work out leggings (I’m not planning on working out, they’re just stretchy).

Finally I made buttery glazed green beans. This, I will admit, I found a bit strange. You basically make a sugar syrup, add the green beans and then cook them until the green beans are tender. You then finish it with butter and flaked almonds. I’m not a massive fan of sweet vegetables, back home in South Africa, they make glazed carrots and I just don’t get on with them. However, I will admit that the green beans added a sweetness that paired well with the duck so it was a happy marriage of flavours.

I finished the evening meal with a bit of bang and made a cheeky chocolate fondant. I came across the recipe on YouTube, while Charles was watching one of his boy movies and I had some chocolate in the cupboard so really, it was meant to be. the recipe makes 6 but I split the quantities in 3, and it worked perfectly for the two of us. I was, still am, pretty chuffed with myself. I will link the recipe here, I highly recommend. It took me about 20 minutes to make! I whipped up some leftover cream I had from the potato recipe and made a red berry sauce which I cobbled together by throwing a handful of frozen berries with some sugar and water and cooked until it became almost jammy and then strained it through a sieve to get rid of the pips. I usually find my ideas while doing mundane tasks, like the dishes, they don’t always pay off but thankfully this one did and my chocolate fix was satiated.

Like I mentioned in my last post, I have my grandparents over this week and then it’s the birthday celebrations for Charles so we won’t be seeing much of Chrissy this week. Until next time friends.

29 recipes completed, 73 left to go!

Chloe

xoxo

Cravings Challenge Update

Hi Guys,

I was watching Julie & Julia last night, again, which was the inspiration behind me starting my Cravings Challenge. I must admit that as of late I have been lack lustre in the Cravings Challenge department, partly due to the fact that I was lazy and also because I could feel my waistline expanding at a rapid rate and I wasn’t loving that. So now that I have my waistline back to normal, I need to really pull my finger out and get busy cooking if I want to meet my deadline of completing this cookbook by the end of the year. Watching Julie & Julia gave me the jolt that I needed and I’m raring to go again!

It’s Sunday morning here and after what feels like an eternity of sunshine, the weather in the UK has gone back to grey and sombre clouds. I’m sitting in our living room/dining room, listening to jazz tapping away at this keyboard, while I should be cleaning our apartment as we have my grandparents coming to stay this week. I must admit that the cleaning side of being a domestic goddess is not my strong point and I do it rather begrudgingly.

So while I procrastinate, I thought it would be a great idea to do a check in to see where I am up to with my Cravings Challenge and what the long road ahead looks like until completion. So far I have completed 26 recipes out of the 102 which are in the book, some of these recipes are sauces and I can definitely make meals out of what is left by adding the sides to the main courses. We have 141 days left of this year so 76 recipes to do. Easy right??? (Say yes!!) My plan of action is to see what we have in the house already and what I can make from the book using the ingredients we have and then plan in the rest of the recipes into coming food shops. Let’s face it, buying little bits here and there is expensive and this girl is on a budget! I also need to find a skillet pan to make the dutch baby pancakes, which I am beyond excited about, if you have any recommendations of where to get one, please let me know.

It’s also Charles birthday this week and he has requested the Capon burger, onion rings and mac and cheese. He has explicitly told me that the Capon burger is the best burger he has ever eaten in his life so I’m looking forward to making that one again for him. He’s amazing and deserves all of the carbs for his birthday.

I’m going to finish off this post with images of the recipes I’ve made but haven dedicated full blog posts too (mostly out of laziness!). I apologise for the quality of the images they are raw and unedited as I lost them all when I reset my phone and can’t download them off of Instagram (rookie error!)

Caprese Salad with Crispy Prosciutto

Lemony Rocket Spaghetti Cacio E Pepe

Super Tuna Melts

Pad Grapow Chicken

Shrimp Summer Rolls

Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms and Peas

 

I hope you have a fantastic week, whoever you are reading my blog 🙂

Chloe

xoxo

Food for Thought: Self Worth in a Virtual World and Spicy Tomato Skillet Eggs

I was looking at some successful foodie blogs this morning in a bid to soak up some professional inspiration to better my blog and make it feel a bit more clean cut and less waffle-y. While I respect everything that these bloggers have achieved through their work, none of it really felt like me and it got me thinking, why try and change who you are when the best thing you can be in life is yourself.

We live in a world where social media surrounds us and we have all the information we could ever possibly need at our fingertips, I can’t help but feel that our generation and generations to come are missing out on the simple things in life. We spend so much time comparing ourselves to others and self-criticising and with all the social media Apps at our disposal, it’s so much easier to do when your ‘self-worth’ is judged by the amount of followers you have or the number of likes you get on a picture. This sort of ‘cyber world’ that these platforms create are unrealistic and I fear will have a detrimental effect to some further down the line, when the social adoration fades away and you become irrelevant to the masses.

I’m totally guilty of the mindless scrolling on my mobile, when I should be focusing less on what’s going on in the virtual world and focus more on being present in the moment. I think we should all try and take a break from these little devices, put them away when we get home in the evening from work, where most of us stare at a screen all day, and take time to relax and spend time with yourself and the people you love. Spend time making memories.

I have been trying to be more mindful, focusing on my personal health and well being and working on loving myself. We are our own worst enemy and biggest critics. It’s awful when we should spend our time being our biggest supporter, the inner you should be wearing a killer cheerleading outfit and waving those pom poms so fast they become a kaleidoscope of colour! If you are like me and you like to be chilled, I highly recommend taking some time out for yourself and do the things you love. To work out, I like to do a yoga session, I’m not big into gyms or public displays of exercise (PDE – Is that even a thing?) so follow routines on YouTube, my favourite being Yoga with Adriene, I obviously like to cook and take photo’s (with my husbands guidance as he’s the photography expert) and if it’s all a bit much and I need to zen the f*** out I meditate. There are loads of guided meditation podcasts on Spotify to listen to. I find even just 5 minutes of breathing work helps me out. Seriously guys and girls, this modern world that we live in can be tough.

I think I will park that thought there for the moment and move on to a bit of something I worked on yesterday morning to relax me and get me into the weekend groove. Charles and I are going on a killer detox next week and I wanted to have a sort of food blow out this weekend and cook some good old comfort food from Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook Cravings. If you have been reading this blog for a while now, you will know that I am on a mission to cook every recipe in her book. A daunting task and not great for the waist line but super easy and tasty to boot.

This morning I woke up and made her perfect tomato sauce (at 8am no less), so that I could make this beautiful Spicy Tomato Skillet Eggs with Proscuitto. Honestly, it was like heaven to our tastebuds, a little bit spicy and a little bit salty, with Charles’ homemade bread to mop up the sauce. Amazing! It’s kind of like an Italian Shakshuka.

I’ve also been working on my food styling and with all the natural light from the beautiful sunny weather we are having in the UK, it makes for amazing shooting conditions. I’m really happy with how these shots turned out.

So that’s all for today but I hope that what I wrote about the pitfalls of social media and being present resonates with you a bit and you are more conscious of living in the moment and try not to be so dependant on the little devices for self love, that you work on finding it within yourself.

Chloe

Rhubarb and Custard Crumble Tart

Wow, It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted a blog.

To be honest, I haven’t really been inspired to write, I guess you could call it writers block. I can only write a post if I am 100% in it and life has just been going by, so fast.

So what have I been up to? Well I  started my new job, we have been planning holidays and pottering around in nearby towns at local food markets. It’s been nice, relaxing and new.

This weekend we were in Henley, which is a beautiful town on the river Thames. Great boutique-y shops, market stalls and a great big park along the river where you can watch the boats go by. We tried out some pastries from a stall called ‘Brown Bread’ and let me tell you! They had some amazing stuff!! I’ll post some pictures below for you to salivate over but if you ever come across one of their stalls, get something! They are phenomenal!

 

Today my mother-in-law gave us some rhubarb from her garden. Rhubarb is a funny thing, it kind of looks like celery but it tastes amazing, tart but sweet when cooked properly. I wanted to make something to incorporate the fresh rhubarb and was trawling Pinterest when I came across a recipe from Delicious magazine for a rhubarb and custard crumble tart. I will post a link to the recipe below but let me tell you, roasting rhubarb is a total revelation! It retains it’s beautiful pink colour and intensifies the flavour.

Try the recipe here

Today I have made:

• Pastry from scratch
• Custard from scratch (The recipe calls for orange zest but I only had grapefruit so used that instead and also added a bit of the juice to the custard. HIGHLY RECOMMEND!)

 

Needless to say I am feeling pretty chuffed! If you love rhubarb, you NEED to make this! It tastes like a crumble with custard! OMG Yummy! We just polished off a slice in record time!

Oh, and for those of you who have been reading my posts for a while, I’m still doing my Cravings challenge. Last week I made the phenomenal ‘Zucchini Lasagne Bolognese’. I sometimes have a hard time with wheat, cue bloating, so to use courgette or zucchini was a pleasant change and I am quite well renowned for making a damn good Lasagne, if I can say so myself. I am so confident in my ability to produce a great lasagne that it was the first meal I ever cooked for Charles. I’m going to say I pulled it off because he has managed to make it through my cooking, experimental and all, for the past 7 years! Kudos to him 🙂

I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Chloe

 

 

A Little Get to Know Me and another Chrissy Recipe

Hello lovely people who read my blog!

So the reading and Sex and the City Marathons continue into week two of my garden leave, which has left me with an expanded vocabulary and a craving for a Cosmopolitan. Waiter!

Someone asked me the other day why I was putting myself on the internet by doing this blog. To me it’s just a hobby, a creative outlet to share the things I love to all 12 of you that read my ramblings. It also got me thinking that I haven’t actually shared that much about myself on here. So I thought I would share a few bits about me so we can get to know one another.

My name is Chloe White and I am married to the most amazing man, who puts up with all of my hair-brained ideas, experimental cooking and dislike of doing the dishes.

I think I’ve always loved cooking but it wasn’t until I worked in the world of hospitality and Michelin stars that my inner foodie awoke and thanks to my husband this goes hand in hand with my love of good wine.

I was brought up in sunny South Africa, on the coast and nearly a decade ago I moved to drizzly England. Despite the constant rain and grey skies, I love it in the UK and I now think of it as home.

I am also still working my way through Chrissy Teigen’s cookbook Craving’s which leads me onto the next part of my blog. The best meatloaf I’ve ever made, thanks to Chrissy.

I think it was the mixture of beef mince and chorizo sausage that took this to the next level, with hardly any other ingredients and the focus solely on the meat (apologies for the use of that phrase for any other people whose minds are in the gutter).

I served it with braised red cabbage and sweet potato mash.

It was soooo good! I’m just annoyed that I was too greedy to get a great picture. Good excuse to make it again!

Hope you all have a great week and bank holiday weekend (UK)!

Chloe

 

Prosciutto Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breasts with John’s Crispy Roast Potatoes

Hi Everyone,

So I’m currently on what they call garden leave, which is basically me working my notice period from home without doing any work. I’m not quite sure how I am going to fill the next four weeks but this is one of those rare moments in life where you can take a break from the mundane and do the things that make you happy.

It’s now 3 o’clock on a Tuesday and I’m watching Sex and the City while writing this blog. I’ve spent the day recipe testing, eating and working out and I feel utterly relaxed and chilled out, which is something I only ever feel on holiday. I feel happy.

Anyway, enough about my feelings, we’re all here for the food.

A few weeks ago we had my cousin and her boyfriend come over for Sunday lunch and I turned to Chrissy for some inspiration. While thumbing through my beloved Cravings cook book I came across ‘Prosciutto Wrapped Stuffed Chicken Breasts’ which I paired with ‘John’s Crispy Roast Potatoes’

Wow wow wow! The best recipe I have made from this book so far. Dead simple to make, bloody tasty and a great way to release some pent up aggression.

They say a picture’s worth a thousand words, so I’ve put some in this post for you to feast your eyes on and if you’re still reading this and don’t own the Craving’s cookbook, you need to get it NOW! You don’t even need to leave your house for it. Buy it on Amazon.

I’m off to put the finishing touches on my ‘no bake peanut butter chocolate oat bars’ for which I will write about soon if they turn our well!

Hope this week is good to everyone

Chloe

Sesame Noodles with Crispy Pork

Over the next few days Charles and I will be living it large in Cyprus, sipping on our all-inclusive cocktails while we soak up the Mediterranean sun. I am currently suffering from full on belly bloat party due to the fact that I have made mostly calorific recipes from Chrissy’s book and also because it’s cold and grey and miserable out here in the UK and I need comfort food. Don’t worry, I am taking my cute new one piece swimsuit with me (to cover up my carb baby).

For the sake of my Cravings challenge I am coming to you with a brand new post all about these scrumptious Sesame chicken noodles from Chrissy Teigen’s Cravings cookbook. Which are so unbelievably simple to make, you could make them drunk at 2am in the morning.

In fact I have made these twice but put my own spin on it by adding spicy, crispy pork instead of poached chicken, which in my opinion added extra flavour and texture. I loved them so much that I think you should try it out to, see below on how to make them.

     Sesame Noodles with Crispy Pork

     Ingredients

     250g pork mince
2 cloves garlic
Tbps Siracha
1/2tsp Chinese 5 spice
1/2tsp Red Chilli Flakes
2 Egg Noodle Nests
60ml Sesame Oil
60ml Tahini
3tbsp Soy Sauce
1tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1tsp Honey
1/2tsp Cayenne Pepper
100ml Chicken Stock
1tbsp Lime Juice
Handful of crushed peanuts
Coriander for garnish

    Method

    1. In a large frying pan, fry the pork mince over a medium-high heat until browned. Add the garlic, Siracha, Chinese 5 spice and red chilli flakes and continue to cook until the pork starts to turn slightly crispy (about 15minutes).
2. While the pork is cooking, cook the egg noodles according to the packet instructions.
3. To make the sesame sauce, in a bowl mix together the Sesame oil, tahini, soy sauce, vinegar, honey, cayenne pepper, lime juice and then slowly add the stock until the sauce reaches the consistency you desire. The stock just loosens the mixture up as it can be quite gloopy.
4. Once the noodles are cooked, add them to the sauce and mix until all the noodles are coated in the delicious sauce.
5. Place the noodles in bowls, top with the crispy pork, peanuts and coriander and enjoy!

 

These are seriously comforting and the noodle and sesame sauce is such a great base for endless toppings or just great on their own.
Let me know if you give these a try and whether you enjoyed them as much as we did!

Chloe

Cravings Challenge Breakfast Edition

So I’ve told you before that brunch is my jam! I know it’s the one time that makes drinking in the morning acceptable, apart from when you’re on holiday and there is no time segregation to your day. However in our house, the drinking is left until later in the day so that we can make it to 7pm without falling asleep on the sofa.

My usual go to brunch has always been avocado, toast and poached eggs. It’s a cult classic for us brunchers but I’m telling you, Chrissy Teigen has changed the brunching game! She is also the reason my jeans are getting tighter and the reason I have to get up an hour early every morning to do circuit training in the living room. Nevertheless, they say you are what you eat so this weekend I am a mixture of eggs, cream and parmesan. Could be worse.

This weekend, I’ve conquered two of her breakfast dishes, which have been glorious culinary delights and combinations of ingredients I would have never thought to throw together. I have also come to the realisation that these recipes are for the weekend. You know, you diet between Monday to Friday and you’re an A+ student at it but when the weekend comes, you let rip and you eat everything in sight. I know I’m not alone here.

So this post is going to be split in two and we’re starting off with Parmesan skillet eggs which we had on Saturday. Before I delve into the workings of this dish I need to add a disclaimer, my heart only starting beating normally at around 3pm due to the copious amounts of fat involved in this recipe. My cholesterol must have spiked and I probably would have been tested for some sort of disorder if a doctor had seen me then but you know what? It was worth EVERY SINGLE BITE!

These beauties are called skillet eggs, I’m not sure whether a skillet is an American thing? Pretty sure we just call it a cast iron pan? Whatever the answer is, I don’t have one so I had to make do with Charles’s crepe pan, which is also perfect for frying bacon in. This is a mixture of double cream, parmesan, salt, pepper and herbs which you then add to a buttered ‘crepe pan’ and allow the cheesy mixture to bubble away. Once bubbling nicely you crack 4 eggs into the centre of the pan and wait until the egg whites are cooked and the yolks are still runny. By this time, the parmesan would have started to go a golden brown and start to crisp up. We ate these directly out of the pan, with some toasted soda bread to dip into the yolks. It’s like a cheese Shakshuka! YUM!!

 

Chloe White’s Kitchen Blog

Sunday’s agenda was a more healthy approach, minus the cream and the butter but whatever it includes tomatoes and I know these are definitely healthy, I have had a second opinion on this! So what did we have? Cheesy, cheeseless scrambled eggs with burst cherry tomatoes and garlic roasted bacon. You mix cream, eggs and seasoning together and cook these on a low heat – seriously I nearly lost the plot making these and had to use my extreme will power to NOT TURN UP THE HEAT! I was stirring them for at least 15 minutes before they started to look like they were even cooking!! While the egg saga is going on you need to roast some slices of bacon, I use streaky, with some chopped garlic. Does anyone else have a hard time peeling garlic or am I just doing it wrong? Seriously, when you’ve managed to peel the garlic and roast the bacon for 10 minutes, the end result is to die for! You then need to make your burst cherry tomatoes, which is simple, just heat a frying pan until its sizzling hot, add oil and your tomatoes and turn them every couple of minutes until they are blistered and starting to pop. Then just pile everything on top of each other and dig in. This is definitely a recipe for when you have some time on your hands and aren’t ravenously hungry.

 

Chloe White’s Kitchen Blog

I’ve been doing some recipe testing of my own these past few weeks so can hopefully get some of these up in the next week. Until then have a great week!

Chloe

Also,  BIG SHOUT OUT to my husband Charles for taking all my beautiful photo’s for me!