Review - Scanpan CTX frypan

Have you ever realised that sometimes, cheap is not always effective?

In our life together, the Husband and I have accumulated some lovely bits & pieces of kitchenware – a Dualit toaster, some le Creuset pans, and a couple of really good knives. However, when it comes to that necessary item, the small frying pan, we have always taken the view that ‘non-stick’ never actually is, so we buy a cheap one in the supermarket, use it till it is thoroughly useless and get another one. The handles usually start to wobble fairly early on, and once my mum’s been to stay and applied her own special approach to the washing up, you know that it’ll have a limited life – limited more or less by the number of pancakes it is required for. Despite our best intentions, we have never got round to getting a proper pancake pan (I’d love one – there we go – that little nugget is out there now) – so the little frying pan is the one that gets pancake duty.

Anyway, that’s all well and good and then something comes along to shatter your little pre-conception that really there would be no point spending any more money on a little frying pan that’s going to be used from everything from eggy bread for breakfast to crisping up chorizo for a smart salad, and trying out a new way for fried green tomatoes.

A local cookware company, BayTree Cookware recently gave me the opportunity to ‘test drive’ a Scanpan CTX  8”/20cm fry pan . They already stock most of the Scanpan ranges and have just added this induction compatible pan range.

There is lots of technical information available about the pan on the BayTree Cookware website, and I won’t go into details about that here – you can look it up easily enough. What you want to know from me is what it’s like to cook with – and I can tell you that it is a gorgeous thing to have on your stove, both to look at (because let’s face it, that might be all some people do with it) and to create lovely things with.

Looks wise, the brushed stainless steel exterior is very strokeable, and the pan has a good weight when you lift it by its beautifully shaped, tactile handle. The handle, by the way, looks very firmly riveted on – there wasn’t a hint of loosening over the few weeks that I have been using it. Nick at BayTree did advise me that it was better to use a medium flame (I have a gas hob) than high, and though I followed this advice, some slight tarnishing has occurred to the base of the pan – but quite pleasingly so. I am reliably informed that this will easily clean off with any stainless steel cleaner. I didn’t test the assertion that the special coating on the interior of the pan was such that you could also use metal implements (on a non-stick pan – yes really, it says that), although I did prod the pork steaks with a fork a couple of times.

And is it non-stick? Is it ever. It has cooked me through any number of slices of eggy bread, pan fried pork steaks, crispy bacon, and green tomatoes without a hint of a stick or a burn, and then washed up like a dream. Although I have only been using it for a few weeks, I have reason to believe it would carry on in the same way for a long, long time.

Now in terms of price, you’ll appreciate that we’re not talking cheap here. It’s not something you could just go and pick up (or chuck in your shopping trolley in Sainsburys because it was there), and it would definitely be an investment – and on the basis of my experience, a worthwhile one!

Overall, therefore, if you are looking to spend money on a good quality, hard wearing small frying pan, I would say this was a good buy. Good looking and practical – definitely an investment.

The views expressed in this review are my own – I was not required to provide a positive review.

Dogcatcher* Cake

(* a cake for the people who help you catch your dog, not a cake to catch dogs...)

Please bear with me - there is a cake at the end of this post. However, I am in need of therapy.

So some of you may recall that I have a dog. A 3 legged springer spaniel, christened Fred, who occasionally answers to "Oi!" and by the time you are shrieking "come back here you bloody animal" it is way too late. Yes, Fred is a lovely dog at home, docile, clean friendly. On the lead he is good with other dogs - but not overly friendly, and not at all aggressive. He will let small children lie on top of him, and he never poos in the garden. But Fred has a weakness. Game.










Game can be small and furry (rabbits), feathered and flighty (pheasants) or blimmin' big (deer). He'll have a half-hearted go at a pigeon or a cat, but he's not really interested. The merest sniff of a duck, on the other hand, and he's away. You can appreciate that this is not actually that funny. He's already lost a leg in the pursuit of game, and you'd think he might have learnt, but clearly not. That he has hurt himself is one thing, but the thought that he might cause an accident and hurt someone else - running onto the road in pursuit of something for example, fills me with fear and dread.




The fact that he is so far gone is, of course, my fault. He is my dog, and my responsibility. I took him to puppy classes when he was very small, and then he broke his leg at 6 months old when I was about to start the serious stuff. He spent 6 months essentially housebound, while we tried to get the leg to heal. When eventually it was amputated, and he was able to bound free in the fields, it was such a joy to watch him that I kind of glossed over the fact that his recall (i.e. his desire/reaction to return to me on command) was completely and utterly absent when faced with something more interesting. And then it was too late. I had what the nice man at the gundog training centre called "an established chaser". My heart sank.



That was earlier in the summer, after a particularly harrowing incident involving a duck and an outraged lady landowner. It was not my finest hour: the dog only came back to me from romping in the ponds concerned because he had actually caught a duck - I may never have trained him to retrieve but it would seem that instinct requires him to return to me with his prizes. The early return of the dog was on this occasion marred by the fact that I was having to prise his jaws open and establish the state of the duck without letting said outraged landowner (think Daily Telegraph 'Social Stereotypes') see what had happened. Fortunately the duck was sufficiently alive enough to fly off so the absolute worst case scenario where he had injured the duck so that I would have a responsibility to dispatch it - did not arise.


The upshot of that incident was that I found myself confessing my inadequacies as an owner to Howard, springer spaniel whisperer supreme. Howard actually owns Fred's father, and everything he said about spaniel tendancies rang true. He clearly knew my dog. And he wasn't completely pessimistic about my chances of turning Fred. He gave me training exercises and suggested that it would take some months. Alternatively, I could use an electric shock collar. He reckoned 6 weeks, tops, and I would have a dog that not only came back to me, but would not actually run off more than about 30 yards from me. It was tempting, but it felt drastic.


I worked hard. I for-went all 'social' dog walking to spend intensive periods of time engaged with Fred in the various exercises. We made progress. My mum had him over the summer. She continued the good work, and by the end of August, I was feeling very positive. It was definitely improving. Yes, he would still run off, but less frequently, and when he did, he would respond to my call, and return, albeit his returns would occasionally be via a slightly circuitous route.


And then. Friday. With Pink at home poorly, I had to wait till a friend could come round so that I could walk him. As both the Husband and I had been ill earlier in the week, he hadn't had much in the way of proper walking, and I was keen to give him a good, long stride. All was going well, until an open field, 3 deer, and he was gone. And he didn't come back. Over the crest of a hill, in hot pursuit of the deer, and didn't reappear.


I spent 15 minutes scanning the countryside, calling, but no avail. I did the only thing I could think of doing - I called my boss.


Now, maybe your boss wouldn't be the first person you would call in a similar situation, but my boss is different. In the 'staff' section of the company website, the office dogs (Cassie, Meadow and Welly) are featured with their own individual biogs. You get the picture. And while they have impeccably trained labradors, and have been free with the 'labradors are born half trained, spaniels die half trained' comments during my travails with Fred, they are nothing if not sensitive to a canine crisis.


The company is based in the same village where I live and within minutes, Gill and her business partner, Alice plus Alice's husband were out scouring the countryside. While Gill & I took the north sector, Alice & Andrew took the south, and we found him. Well, Andrew found him. Fred had obviously given up the chase and had found himself at a point some way behind where he had left me. However, having found himself back to our original route, he had sat down to wait for me. It appears that Andrew had to do some persuading to get him to accompany him, but eventually we were reunited (me and the dog). I cannot tell you the relief. He'd been gone for nearly an hour.  I feel like the last few months never happened, and I might well not have bothered. You will not need me to tell you that Fred has shown not one jot of remorse, and actually chewed through his lead yesterday in a display of defiance...

Where I go from here as far as my dog is concerned is not for this post. All you need to know is that we are safely reunited and my lovely lovely friends require thanking. I posted a photo on Facebook on Friday of a cake I had made at the weekend which lead to a number of comments regarding the suitability of the cake for those who had been involved in the rescue operation. It was a gorgeous and lovely cake, but with pears and nuts, perhaps not the most indulgent thank you cake. It also had almonds in and Alice doesn't like almonds. Finally, in considering which cake to make, I reminded myself that Andrew is my chocolate hero. One of my personal highlights of scout camp over the last 4 years has been his chocolate contribution, sourced from a longterm contract with a major confectionary company...

So tomorrow, I will be taking this cake, along with my profuse thanks, to Andrew, Alice & Gill. And if you ever find yourselves in a similar situation, I suggest that this may be the cake to bake.

Dogcatcher Cake (with honey glaze icing)

150g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate
4 eggs
220g caster sugar
150g self raising flour

125ml runny honey
60 ml water
150g dark choclate
25g white chocolate
150g icing sugar

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and butter and line the base of a 20cm spring form cake tin.

Melt the butter and dark chocolate in a bowl over a simmering pan of water. Separate the eggs and whisk the yolks with the sugar in a large bowl until light and foamy. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl (I used my Kenwood) till they are doubled and airy. Pour the melted butter/chocolate onto the whisked yolks/sugar and whisk together. Sift in the self raising flour, fold in the egg white with a metal spoon, then pour carefully into the tin. Bang the tin down a couple of times to get the mixture to even out in the tin, and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool completely, then make the icing. Put the honey and water into a smallish pan and bring to the boil. Chop the chocolate finely, take the honey/water off the heat abd add the chocolate. Swirl the pan around a few times to get the chocolate melting, leave for a couple of minutes then whisk. Start sifting in the icing sugar - start with half, whisking the mixture, and carry on adding the icing sugar till you get a thick glossy icing. Allow the icing to cool down till it is thickened and spreadable - and spread it on.

Allow to cool and serve with lashings of gratitude.

Foccacia

 Friday - the end of a long week, made longer by a particularly trying day - Pink off school, dog doing a runner after some deer... it wasn't good. A relief then that supper was going to be an easy soup and pud affair. To go with the bacon, sweetcorn and red pepper chowder that I was thinking of, I decided to knock up some foccacia. The rosemary in the trough outside the kitchen window is looking lovely at the moment, and this bread is a simple way to let its flavour shine.

It's  very straightforward bread to make, and I love the involvement, pushing your fingers into the rectangle of puffy dough to make the little holes, drizzling the olive oil, sprinkling with herbs and salt and making something delicious with very little effort.



Ingredients:

for the bread -
500g strong white flour
1 sachet powdered dried yeast
10g fine salt
325ml warm water
1tbsp olive oil

for the topping -
olive oil
sea salt
3 springs of rosemary - 'leaves' only, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped




Method:

To make the dough. mix the flour, yeast & salt together in a large bowl. Mix the olive oil and water together, pour into the dry ingredients & mix with a fork, or your hand until you've got a very rough dough. You can then either knead this by hand or in a mixer with a dough hook till the dough is smooth & silky. This could take up to 10 minutes if you are kneading by hand.

Shape the dough into a ball, and leave to rise in a clean bowl. Some people will coat their dough lightly in olive oil to do this. I didn't bother this time. You will need to cover your bowl for the rise - I usually use 2 plastic carrier bags - over the top of the bowl.

When the dough has doubled in size (a good couple of hours), tip the dough onto a lightly oiled baking sheet and press into a rectangle about 25 cm by 35 cm. Cover with a clean tea towle and leave to rise again for about half an hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 250C or as hot as it will go. When the rectangle of dough is puffed up and airy, poke deep holes across the suface with your finger tips.

Drizzle reasonably generously with olive oil across the top of the dough, then sprinkle the chopped rosemary, garlic and sea salt over the top

Bake in the oven for 10 mins at the high temperatue, then reduce the tempoerature to 200C and bake for a further 10 minutes till golden and delicious looking.

Leave the bread to cool for at least 10 minutes - it tastes better warm, then tear apart and eat.



I'm linking this up to the lovely Herbs on Saturday challenge for September hosted by Karen at Lavender & Lovage.. This is a simple recipe, but the rosemary is definitely the star flavour of this bread.

Courgette, Spinach & Potato gratin - with leftovers for lunch!

What do you eat for lunch? If Twitter is to be believed, there are plenty of people sitting down to delicious plates of this and that, created in their own home specially for the purpose of lunch. Not me. I am a big believer in breakfast (I growl if I don’t eat in the morning) and supper/tea/dinner (whatever you like to call it – an evening meal) but during the week, at least, lunch gets a bit lost. 

The children and the Husband usually take a packed lunch. School dinners are £2 a piece and although the kids like them, and I think they are OK-ish, Blue & Pink are always STARVING after they have eaten a carefully balanced 2 course meal at school and I just don’t consider them to be value for money. They are allowed one a week. Packed lunches for them, then. 

Pink is never happier than with a plastic tub of cold pasta and a hard-boiled egg. For all that she’s my veg eater, I struggle to get her to eat anything other than a couple of carrot sticks of cucumber (in whatever form she has specified – sometimes slices, sometimes chunks – it’s always as well to consult her for fear of an earful after school) in her packed lunch, and she’s not big on fruit, so unless there are raspberries or pears to hand she will get her fruit in smoothy form plus whatever fruit filled cake I have to hand (today it was pieces of apple & date slice made for pud the other day, leftovers sliced up and frozen pre-clingfilmed to prevent me picking for convenience.

Blue likes his sarnies. This term he has shown an interest in making his own. Ham, cheese, chutney, tomato and lettuce. It’s amazing. In the time it takes him to make 2 sandwiches, I can make Pink’s and the Husband’s lunches, add the extras (cake, anything tasty I might have in the freezer like pie etc) empty the dishwasher, put a load of washing on and make breakfast* for everyone. Still, with such an important job to focus on, it stops him dripping round wondering aloud why I won’t allow him to watch TV/play on the computer before school…

The Husband, lucky man, gets an eclectic mix of whatever might be in the fridge, or sandwiches – depending on which office he is working in or whether he might be driving over lunchtime. If he’s really lucky there might be soup.

And that leaves me. I work at home so the fridge is at my disposal, but more often than not, I use the time I take for a lunch break to get ahead for tea, put the washing out, waste time on Twitter conduct important social media dialogue, or – if I am pushed for time, to be honest, just work right through. I eat, don’t get me wrong, but often it doesn’t even get as far as a sandwich.

Today, though, well today was a good day lunch-wise because last night, we had a lovely supper and there was enough left over for me to have today. Admittedly, I ate it cold, out of the dish it had been cooked in (we don’t have a microwave, for complicated reasons relating back to the days of Blue’s chemotherapy, and it seemed like a waste of electricity to turn the oven on just to heat it up, although if I had been making a cake, things would have been different…). And it was mighty tasty. I would almost suggest you made it just to eat cold, but it was even tastier hot last night, so I won’t.

I would be guilty of a sin of omission if I didn’t tell you that I was inspired by a guest post on The Claremont Road Kitchen’s blog the other day for Courgette Gratin. I was going to make that straight, but then I noticed that the spinach in the veg patch needed a good pick. And then I wondered about turning it into a main meal in its own right…

Courgette, Spinach & Potato Gratin

Serves 2 as a main meal (with enough leftover for a lunch!) or possibly 4 as a ‘complete’ side dish

 Ingredients

1 onion, sliced, 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped, 250g courgette, sliced reasonably fine, 250g spinach stalks, sliced into approx. 1-2cm slices, 250g washed spinach leaves, roughly chopped, 300-350g cold cooked new/salad potatoes, Freshly ground salt & pepper and nutmeg to grate, 1 tbsp plain flour, 150 ml milk, Dijon mustard to taste, handful of fresh breadcrumbs, 50g grated cheddar

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200⁰C. If you haven’t already cooked the potatoes, wash, put in a pan which has a steamer attachment, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. While the potatoes are cooking, use the opportunity to steam the spinach leaves till they have wilted, then remove, chop a little more and squeeze out the water. Set aside.

Once the potatoes are cooked & cool enough to handle (or if they are already cooked and you are effectively using up leftovers like I was) thickly slice the potatoes and layer in the bottom of your gratin dish, which you may have buttered.

Heat a splash of olive oil and a knob of butter in a frying pan and cook the onions and garlic on a gentle heat for 10-15 minutes till softening nicely. Add in the courgettes and chopped spinach stalks and cook on a low heat, covered, for 10 mins or so. The spinach especially will release some water, so after 10 mins, remove the lid, add some freshly ground salt and pepper and a good grating of nutmeg, and carry on cooking for 5 more minutes to get rid of some of the liquid. Put the milk in a small pan and heat up. If you haven’t already cooked your spinach leaves, do this now, either in a steamer, or in a pan with a lid over a low heat. You only need a tiny amount of water – just what stays on the leaves after you have washed them to be honest. They will only need a few minutes.

Back to the frying pan – stir in the flour, then the hot milk and keep stirring to make a sauce which coats the veg. I added a bit of the grated cheese at this stage. Chop up your spinach leaves, squeeze out excess moisture, then spread on top of the potatoes. Tip in the courgette & spinach stalk mixture, spread on top of the potatoes/spinach leaves, sprinkle on the breadcrumbs and the rest of the grated cheese, dot with some small pieces of butter and pop in the oven for 20-25 minutes till bubbling and golden.

*’make’ in the loosest sense of the word, you understand – might stretch to porridge or eggy bread, but usually consists of me throwing bowls, spoons and cereal packets onto the table, while swigging desperately from my cuppa trying to replenish my caffeine levels

Blackberry Cupcakes

So here's a thing - Blackberries. I am medically incapable of walking passed a blackberry bush without picking. 

At the weekend, I took the dog on a walk that I often do after I've dropped the children off at school, but I went the opposite way round - obviously, because I was starting from home, and noticed that there were some particularly juicy-looking blackberries, almost ripe for the picking. Yesterday was a write off as I was feeling poorly and the dog got short rations walkwise, but the sun was shining this morning and so as well as laden down with bookbags, wellies & cagoule for Blue's welly walk to the river, and a trombone, plus the dog on his lead, I cunningly packed some plastic tubs, in a reasonably sturdy bag that I could carry the tubs in and keep control of the dog (who is not a very blackberrying-friendly creature, being as he'd much rather be off in the hedgerows chasing pheasants, grouse and whatever else is around).

  

I was rewarded with 2 armfuls of scratches, 2 shins-full of nettle stings and over a kilo of yummy blackberries. Gorgeous and plump - just the thing.

 

I haven't yet thought of what to do with the bulk of the stash. Jam, probably, and crumble are the likely candidates. However, I was tempted  earlier by Anyone For Seconds? recent post, and I had in the back of my mind a Good Food recipe I remembered for Strawberry & polenta cupcakes. I liked the idea of making a blackberry coulis to use in the cakes, and remembered that the polenta in the GF cupcakes gave them a lovely crunchiness. Unfortunately, a quick exploration in the cupboards failed to reveal any polenta, although I can't for the life of me remember when I used it up. However, I had some semolina, so used that instead. The coulis and light brown sugar gave the cakes a more wholesome appearance, and I think the lemon zest, and juice in the icing really lifts the flavour. If you find some blackberries, please do have a go.

Blackberry Cupcakes

 makes 12

Ingredients:

For the Coulis:
250g plus 3 handfuls of blackberries
50g icing sugar
1tsp vanilla extract

For the cupcakes:
140g softened unsalted butter
140g mixed soft brown sugar and caster sugar
grated zest of a lemon
85g semolina
2 eggs
140g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1tbsp milk & 1tbsp coulis, stirred together

For the icing
100g (or thereabouts) of icing sugar
1-2 tbsp coulis
lemon juice, to taste

Make the coulis - put all the ingredients in a small pan, with 100ml water, bring to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes then whizz/blitz the mixture and then push through a seive to get any seeds out. You need some of the coulis for the cupcakes and icing, the rest would taste lovely stirred into yoghurt etc - or freeze for another day.






Line a 12 hole muffin tray with cases and switch the oven on to heat to 180C

Make the cakes: cream together butter, sugar & lemon zest till light and fluffy. Seive together the flour and baking powder. Add in one of the eggs to the butter, beat in, then add in the semolina and beat in. Add in teh second agg, beat in the egg, then stir in half the flour & baking powder mix and add the milk/coulis mix. Stir in and add the last bit of the flour. Don't over mix.

Chuck in a couple of handfuls of blackberries, stir in briefly, then divide the mixture between the cases and bake for around 20 mins.

When the cakes have cooled, make a glace icing - seive the icing sugar and stir in the coulis, a little at a time, along with some lemon juice, to lift the flavour, until you have a glossy, gorgeous coloured icing to ice your cakes with. Ice the cakes, top with a blackberry and devour.


 Like my Courgette & Coconut Loaf cake, I am linking up here to SImple & in Season hosted by Feeding Boys & a Firefighter.

Cauliflower & Pea Pesto Pasta

Today has not been good. 

I started feeling ill last night and had to retire to bed. This morning, the Husband was also suffering, although the children appeared to be fine. I had a stomachy viral thing a couple of weeks ago, and I suspect it is the same thing, back again (it would be entirely inappropriate to suggest that my lovely boss's husband might have poisoned us with his burgers at a BBQ on Saturday night - when I eventually had to go off line this afternoon and retire to bed for an hour before picking the kids up, she was the one that threw up her virtual hands in horror and ventured the possibility -  although I hear their dog is also poorly...)

Anyway, virus, dodgy burgers - it doesn't matter. The Husband has spent most of the day in bed and we are both feeling washed out. Tea was not looking hopeful as I had forgotten to order any fishfingers in last week's online shop - we are all out, and I'm not so up myself in the food stakes that I can't see the benefits of having a pack in the freezer for 'C.B.A.' * days and emergencies. If the kids had had a school dinner, I would have bunged them some cheese on toast, but today was a packed lunch day, so awash with maternal guilt, I needed to give them something nourishing.

Salvation then in the form of a small cauliflower and inspiration from Jac over at the Tinned Tomatoes blog where she had been testing out some whizzy new gadget and made pesto out of raw cauli and peas. I have no such whizzy new gadget but I know a good idea when I see one - and I do have a hadnheld whizzer**.

Now, cauli is one of the things that Blue really doesn't like - so what possessed me to order one is beyond me, especially when we have a garden full of fresh veg - perhaps I was wanting something to add a little variety to the beans/courgette theme that we've got going on at the moment... Anyway, he doesn't like cauli and he doesn't like cheesey sauces. It is a source of great regret that I cannot serve great vats of cauliflower cheese up - or if I do, he just picks round the edges. I have been half-heartedly trying to tackle this by stealth - largely relying on Hugh F-W's Macaroni Peas - but it's not been one of my more succesful campaigns. Inspired by the Tinned Tomatoes post, then, and with nothing else planned, I thought "Here goes nothing" and began to create a pesto type pasta sauce using steamed cauli and the end of a bag of frozen peas. I didn't even have any garlic, but a good handful of pine nuts, some basil and rocket that I managed to find in the greenhouse, and some cheese, plus the able assistance of Pink, and we produced something that both kids ate and enjoyed. I think I would too if I didn't feel so pants.

Cauliflower & Pea Pesto Pasta

The sauce will serve about 4 but I've used pasta quantities for my 2 kids

150g pasta
1 small cauliflower, broken into florets
100-200g frozen peas
handful of basil & rocket leaves
handful of pine nuts
good grating of cheddar cheese (you could use parmesan just as easily)
olive oil
 

Bring some water to the boil in a large pan which has a steamer (if possible). Add the pasta to the water, then put the steamer on top with the cauliflower florets in it and put the lid on. When the cauli is on the crunchy side of beign cooked, add the peas for a couple of minutes so they cook. Remove the steamer and allow the pasta to continue cooking.

Add the steamed veg to your blender (I use a plastic tub which my hand held whizzer fits into). Chuck in the basil, rocket and pine nuts, and the grated cheese, a slug of olive oil and a spoonful of pasta water and blend. You may need to add more oil or pasta water depending on your preference, and some salt and pepper, again according to taste. Eventually you will have a pale green pesto-type sauce. 

Once the pasta is cooked, stir through as much of the sauce as you want and serve.

 

 Oh yes. The bacon. I forgot about that didn't I? Well, I'd be lying if I hadn't seen it in the fridge and decided to cook some for them as a 'sweetner' - not that I didn't think they'd eat it or anything, but Blue is especially fond of a bit of bacon. Then again, aren't we all?? ***

____________________________________________________________

*Can't Be Arsed - of course

** I belive the technical term is a 'stick blender'

***(Unless of course you're vegetarian/vegan or otherwise don't eat pork, so please accept my apologies, and pretend you haven't seen that last picture).

Cambodian Wedding Day Dip

On Thursday night, I went to a ‘bring and share’ supper with a group of friends. What to bring? What to share?

Well, ever since I got my hands on Veg Everyday, I have been dying to make the Cambodian wedding Day Dip, but either the occasion hasn’t presented itself, or, when it has, I’ve managed to forget about the recipe temporarily.

Anyway, I had my memory refreshed when I saw the last round up of the Bookmarked Recipes Challenge and the next thing I know, there’s an occasion to make it.

 

 

 

It’s  truly delicious – as good as I imagined it would be: spicy but not overpoweringly so (although I’ll admit to using a whole, milder chilli including seeds, as opposed to half a hot red chilli specified in the book version of the recipe) and although it doesn’t taste particularly mushroomy, the mushrooms are definitely there. The recipe appears on the Channel 4 website, and you can access it here .

 Time was tight when I made it, so I’ll admit to chopping my mushrooms in the food processor, and may have slightly overdone it, but in the end it all turned out fine. It’s not the most beautiful thing to look at in the initial stages of preparation, either,  and I had to watch it to make sure it didn’t stick and burn on the pan during the bubbling phase (once the coconut milk is added). I used the juice of a whole lime and a couple of splashes of light soy sauce, and sprinkled the top with some chopped coriander. I also took along some ‘easy crispy pitta’  – pre-heat the oven to 200C, slice up the pitta breads width ways, spread out on a baking sheet and pop in the oven for 10 mins or so till dry and crispy.

 

I was the subject of some interrogation when I added the dish to the spread – there were a couple of wrinkled noses (I had hoped to avoid saying that it had mushrooms as its major ingredient), but I think nearly everyone tried it and it all disappeared – no hope of taking leftovers home and feeding them to the Husband.

It would be a great thing to serve at a drinks party or as a starter – definitely one I will come back to.