Category: Travel

Devilled Cashew Nuts

Helloooo friends!  Ttoday’s recipe is nuts!  But not just any nuts.  These are devilled cashew nuts and damn they are the tastiest, most more-ish little morsels around!

Devilled Cashew Nuts

The recipe for my devilled cashew nuts is based on a recipe from The Daily News Cookery Book.  First published in 1929, this book is probably the book of Sri Lankan cooking.  It’s also bonkers in parts.  I have two copies of the Daily News Cookery book – one that was given to my mum as a wedding present and a new version that I bought in Sri Lanka a few years ago.  I would have loved to do a Julia and Julia cook through of this book but there are ingredients I would not be able to get hold of and some of the measurements are based on weird Sri Lankan things that no longer exist.  Chhudu anyone?  So I might take you all on a limited express  rather than a stopping all stations journey through this book.  

These devilled cashew nuts ( or cadjunuts as Sri Lankans call them) are relatively straightforward to make so are a good introduction to this book.  

They are also a  great little snack, but when combined with a beverage?  PER-FEC-TION!!!  😍

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Here is the recipe from the Daily News. 

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The recipe calls for ground saffron.  I tried to do this but I only had a small bit of saffron and it just disappeared into nothing while I was  grinding it.   So, what I did was to soak the saffron in a small dish of warm water and then, after about 20 minutes, I tipped the saffrony flavoured water over the nuts.   I’m sure this activated them or some such too.  I let them soak in the saffron water for about 4 hours then tipped them onto a sheet of paper towels and let them dry for around the same amount of time. 

Once dry, I rubbed in salt and cayenne pepper and then followed the recipe to cook them.  If you were in a hurry, you could grind the saffron as per the recipe or leave it out. 

The smell of the toasting cashews was heavenly!

And eating them still warm from the pan was a moment of pure joy!  It was hard to save some for my cocktail but, it was going to be a long while between drinks as I am doing dry February so I did my best to save a few for the sipping. And it was worth it!

Match made in heaven!  

I’ll post the cocktail recipe separately but damn it was good too!

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These Devilled Cashew Nuts are so easy to make and definitely something you’ll go nuts for

Enjoy!

And have a great week, 

 

Millionaire’s Ice Cream

Hello, people of the internet, welcome and hear me out.  Because today I am making a bold statement.  If you ever have to make the choice of cooking just one recipe from this blog, then, this Millionaire’s Ice Cream is the one!  It’s seriously THAT good!!!!  And so easy to make as well!

Millionaire's Ice Cream

I first tasted Millionaire’s Ice Cream in Cornwall on holiday last year.  At the time, I commented on Instagram that I had just eaten the best ice cream I had ever tasted.  Of course, the setting helped.  It was the gorgeous coastal town of Port Isaac.

Port Isaac

If you are a fan of British TV shows about irascible doctors, Port Isaac may look familiar to you.  The TV series Doc Martin is filmed here.  The town is renamed Port Wenn in the series.

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I have circled the  Doc’s house in the above photo. And right down the road from the Doc’s house is Mrs Titchell’s pharmacy, which, in real life is the local sweet shop, Harbor Treats. I first tasted the delight that is Millionaire’s Ice Cream At Harbor Treats.  Right away, I knew I wanted to make my own version of Millionaire’s ice cream when I got home!  And here’s the thing, for something that tastes so luscious and decadent, Millonaire’s Ice Cream is one of the easiest things you can ever make.

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That’s Bert Large, one of the locals of Port Wenn.  But, back to the ice cream.  Sure, you can make it more difficult by making all the components from scratch and I have added in links to each component to allow you to do just that if you so desire.  The only thing I made from scratch was the chocolate ganache.  And, to my mind,  mine was as delicious as the one from Port Isaac.

So let’s get started.

Start with a layer of crumbled shortbread biscuits.  Keep these a little bit chunky, you don’t want them to be as fine as if you were making a crumb crust.

Then a layer of vanilla ice cream.

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Then a layer of salted caramel sauce.  I used Bonne Maman but you can find a recipe here. Just splodge it on, it does not have to be perfect.

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Then, repeat each of these layers.  At any time during this process, if the icecream starts getting too runny, you can pop it into the freezer for about 10 minutes to allow it to firm up.

Finally, a layer of chocolate ganache over the top.  This is the ganache recipe I followed. Then back into the freezer to allow everything to set.  A little smattering of sea salt flakes over that ganache will not go astray either!

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Get ready for YUM!!!!

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This ice cream will make you feel like a million dollars!

And don’t worry, in case you get too excited by the ice cream, the good Doc is on hand to keep things in check

Have a great week!

 

 

Pasties (inspired by Cornwall)

We have had a few wet days this week (not complaining if it will put out some of the fires that are burning out of control). But the rather damp summer weather reminded of being in England last year and most particularly our trip to Cornwall where it rained buckets for the first two days.  Which in turn reminded me of that great staple of Cornish food, the pasty!  These are everywhere in Cornwall, well all through England actually, but eating proper Cornish Pasties was the very first thing we did when we got to St Ives.  BTW, the people of Cornwall are tremendously possessive of their pasties.  It is for this reason that I am not calling my version Cornish Pasties.  Mine are more Cornish-ish Pasties.

Pastie

We had an odd discussion after I ordered our pasties at the bakery.

“What did you call them?” asked the fussiest eater in the world.

“Pasties”  In Australia, we pronounce these with a long A.  Pah-sties.

Apparently, the correct pronunciation is with a short” A”  like in “pastel”.  

I can’t get on board with this, even if it is technically correct.  They will always, and only ever be, pah-sties to me.  If you’re British or a pedant, knock yourself out with that short A.   For those of you not familiar with pasties or pah-sties, just remember that it is never pronounced  “Paste-ies”.  They are what strippers put on their nips and not delicious beef and veg cooked to perfection in a pastry case!

The pasties in Cornwall are crimped to perfection, each one the exact replica of its neighbour.  Mine were a little bit more….hmmmm…let’s call them individualistic.

The perfectly shaped pasty:

Picture via foreignpolicy.com

Mine:

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Pasties came about as food for Cornish tin miners.  Originally, the pastry was just to protect the meat and veg from the dirt inside the mines so I guess that a few misshapen pastry shells would not have mattered back in the day!

There is a great article from The Guardian about the history (and contents) of the pasty which you can read here.  My favourite bit of that article is the legend that the Devil was scared to cross the River Tamar from Devon because the women of Cornwall were renown for putting anything and everything into their pasties.  Imagine popping down to your local bakery for a Satan Pastie!  Although actually not quite everything – the carrot – which you will see in many recipes for pasties is a big no-no in the traditional recipes.  Potatoes, swedes and onions are the only veg your pasty needs!  It also needs LOTS of pepper.

Swedes are such funny things!   I only recently found out that the colour difference in the swede is due to the white part growing underground and the purple part growing above ground!

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I pretty much followed the recipe given by the Cornish Pasty Association except that I used bought shortcrust pastry!  Another legend says that the pastry needs to be solid enough to be dropped down a mineshaft (and land) without falling apart.  Mine were going from the oven to my lunchbox so I didn’t have to worry about their structural integrity so much!

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Let’s wrap this baby up and pop it in the oven.  While it’s baking away, let’s have a look at some of pics of St Ives and Mont St Michel.

This would be a great hill to have a picnic on.  Get some pasties to go and enjoy the view!

Here is another article from the Guardian about where and how to eat your pasties.  I actually think they are great for picnics as the pastry holds in the heat of the filling for a while.  As for condiments – ketchup and the more of it the better for me.  Maybe a teeny splash of tabasco with it!

St Ives

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This is The Sloop Inn where we stayed in St Ives.

Sloop Inn

And here is St Michael’s Mount.  You can only reach this at low tide otherwise the causeway is underwater!

Saint Michael's Mount

Let’s take a peek at our pasties…ah perfectly done!!!

What always astonishes me with pasties is how the meat and veg cooks exactly at the same time as the pastry.  You never get any hard lumps of raw potato.  It truly is like magic!!!! Now, where’s that ketchup?

Pastie

Cornwall is so beautiful.  I was really happy to be reminded of the trip and all the delicious food we ate there!.  I made these pasties way back in October and just writing about them has made me want to make them again.  Let’s hope the weather stays bad so I can get baking!

And finally, if you can’t get enough of pasties, here are some more facts….oops!  I just realised I crimped my pasties in the Devonshire way!  Good thing I said right from the get-go that these were only Cornish-ish (Cornish adjacent?) pasties!!!!

Have a great week everyone!!!!

 

 

Broccoli & Stilton Quiche – Rye, England, 2019

I’ve been having a few holiday blues.  You know that time where the last one feels like a long time ago and the next one seems like a long way away.  So,  I thought that it might help my malaise to revisit some of my favourite meals from holidays past.

Rye was our first stop on our holiday this year and I ate an incredibly tasty Broccoli and Stilton quiche from the Rye Deli.

Broccoli & Stilton Quiche1

Rye is such a pretty town and full of antique and retro shops.  Well worth a visit!  If you are heading to the UK and want a great quiche and some cool glassware!  I bought some repro Babycham and Martini glasses. And some gorgeous vintage Laura Ashley cups and saucers.

 

Rye Glassware

The only things is…a bag full of glassware and a Broccoli and Stilton quiche are not good bag fellows.  I spent the day shopping and loading myself up with all the gorgeous glasses.  Meanwhile, my lovely quiche was getting squished to bits in my bag. It still tasted delicious but was certainly not in the pristine condition in which I bought it!

Broccoli & Stilton Quiche2

I love quiche but tend to veer towards the classic Quiche Lorraine or a Spinach and Feta quiche as my go-to’s.  The Broccoli and Stilton Quiche squashed and battered though it was after a few hours of being pummelled in my backpack was a revelation.  Such a tasty combination!

And also so pretty! I love how the swirls and branches of the broccolini (which I used instead of broccoli) look like little plants, making this quiche look like some sort of whimsical garden

Because I was trying to keep it British, I used a recipe I found on the Ocado website.   However, in all honesty, this recipe was not as good as my original quiche from the Rye Deli.  I think it was the onions. I don’t recall any in the OG version but do like the way the rounds of the spring onion play off against the straight stems and the flowery whirls of the broccolini. So, my recommendation would be to halve the amount of spring onions and cook them off a bit first.

Apart from the antiquing and the fab quiche, great fish and chips and a v good bookstore,  Rye has some great olde worlde pubs

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.A very cool castle, complete with stocks for anyone misbehaving!

 

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And literary cred galore!

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My only peeve with Rye was that we arrived just after 9:00 pm.  And everywhere except for the fish and chip shop had closed or stopped serving food for the night.  This was in the height of holiday season so it was kind of surprising.  Having said that, the fish and chips were great so all was not lost.

If you can’t get to Rye, you can always get a taste of it by making a Broccoli and Stilton Quiche!  If you can get to Rye, get there before 9:00 pm!

Have a great week!

 

 

 

Holiday Plans & Flag Cocktail 1

 So, just this last week I sent off my passport for a visa for a place where the flag looks kind of like this!

Flag Cocktail

Need a few more hints?  

Yep, if they approve my visa, I’m off to Russia in August!  

I’m so excited!  I’ve been watching as much of the World Cup as I can – not so much for the football but for the travel stories and the scenery. 

I’ll be visiting Moscow:

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And St Petersburg:

St Petersburg

But back to the cocktail.  I am both obsessed by and fascinated with the pousse-cafe style cocktail where various liqueurs are layered over each other.  They always look so pretty.  This recipe was called The Electric Flag and I had to include the original version of it here because it so quirky.  (Doh!  I can’t remember where on earth this recipe came from either!

Yep, this little drink here is 150% cocktail!

I used kirsch instead of grappa for my version.  I also didn’t knock it back in one but sipped it over the course of the evening.  It’s strong!  If you are also sipping, make sure you mix it well before you do.

Otherwise, it’s all alcohol at the start and plain sickly sweet grenadine at the end.  The mix of the three together is lovely though!

I’m going to be spending the next few weeks delving into some Russian literature – starting with one of my favourites.

Russian Flag Cocktail

I’ll follow this classic with a wonderful piece of fantasy by dipping back into the Night Watch Series by Sergei Lukyanenko…this is an AMAZING series with Russian Vampires.  The first book was also made into a crazy good film a few years ago.  The sixth instalment of this series came out last year but I am going to save that for when I am in situ.  Meantime, I’ll reimmerse myself into this world by re-reading the earlier books. 

Have a great week?  Are you watching the World Cup?   Who do you think will win?

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