Black Pepper Tofu

A little while ago I was lent a copy of Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi.  I was told by many people that it was their favourite cookery book, filled with superb recipes that I would love cooking.  This news filled me with joy and I was salivating at the prospect of some vegetarian Middle-Eastern food inspiration.

I'll be honest, my excitement died down pretty quickly.  I don't know what it was but none of the glorious recipes made me want to cook them.  Yes the dishes all sounded great.  If I'd been offered any of them in a restaurant I would have been more than happy.  But, as with so many other cookery books, Plenty would have been destined to loiter, unused, on our book case, if it was ours.  Because it was borrowed however, we were determined to find a recipe that we liked the sound of and wanted to cook.

One of the recipes that we'd picked out was for Black Pepper Tofu and, as we had half a block of tofu left over from making Pad Thai, we thought we would give it a go.  The recipe was simple enough.  Crispy fried tofu was added to fried onions, chillies and garlic.  Sweet and light soy sauce were added next along with some sugar and the key ingredient, ground black pepper.  A handful of spring onions was all that was needed to finish the dish.

I have never been so glad that I hadn't added more black pepper to a dish in my life.  I had reduced the quantities of the pepper and the chilli but the dish was almost unpalatable.  The first couple of mouthfuls were great but, unlike the peak and trough heat that you get from chillies, the black pepper was unrelenting.  Every mouthful needed to be washed down.  It's fair to say we won't be cooking this again, but we still have a couple more recipes from Plenty to try before it is dismissed totally.

Turkey and Pak Choi in Hoi Sin Sauce

Yesterday I told a tale of my dislike of following recipes.  I know that this means I will never make a good baker or pastry chef, but I can live with that*.  Being free of the Olympic Food Challenge means that I can cook by feel and taste again without having to continually scroll up and down websites with a dripping wooden spoon in my hand.

The end of the OFC also means that I can shop for food the way I love to shop for food.  I am always armed with a list when I go shopping but it is often vague giving me carte blanche to pick and choose what looks best or is on offer.  The catalyst for tonight's meal comes from the "reduced to clear" category of impulse buys.

 I really like pak choi, we have grown it in the past but we tend not to buy it as it is usually airfreighted into Blighty and we try to watch our food miles.  Having saved a pack of choi from the supermarket vegetable graveyard I raided the freezer and found some turkey steaks that were quickly thawed and sliced and a stir-fry was born.

*not having a sweet tooth has some advantages.

Olympic Food Challenge: Kyrgyzstan - Beshbarmak

Where do you start with Kyrgyzstan?  Before doing the research for the Olympic Food Challenge I would like to think that I'd have been able to find it on a map, but beyond that I knew nothing of the country, their culture or their cuisine.

I'm still not altogether genned up on the country's history, but I do know that Beshbarmak is one of those meals that are reserved for high-days, holidays and celebrations.  We are celebrating the food of Kyrgyzstan and that is enough for me.

The Kyrgyz were a nomadic people until around 100 years ago and their food is still entrenched in those traditions.  Simple food with few ingredients is the way forward and Beshbarmak is no exception.  The recipe I found called for lamb or beef and as Z is not a lover of lamb we opted for beef.  We got a wonderful piece of shin from B & J Callards and began the slow cooking process.

There are definitely two stages to Beshbarmak.  Firstly you cook your meat with some onion for a couple of hours and then you make a basic dough that you simmer in the meat stock.  I'll admit to being a little underwhelmed at the thought of this dish.  In fact, if it wasn't for the Olympic Food Challenge, I wouldn't have bothered cooking it at all.

But then I would have missed out on a fantastically wonderful dish.  We added half a green pepper to the finished dish, but other than that we were true to the recipe.  The noodles were a cross between pasta and udon noodles.  The shin beef was perfectly cooked and the broth, oh the broth.  I won't go as far as suggesting that you drink it out of tea cups*, but it is delicious.  I suggest you try this for yourself.  If you are interested you can find the recipe I used here.

*which is the Kyrgyz way

Olympic Food Challenge: Philippines - Chicken Adobo

After last night's horror show of pigs trotters, I needed something a little less interesting for tonight's Olympic Food Challenge meal.  The first thing I noticed when researching Filipino food was that every list of food contained Chicken Adobo.  As it topped the list of their national dishes and didn't contain pigs trotters, I decided to give it a go.

Chicken is marinated in vinegar and soy sauce for a couple of hours and then poached in the marinade.  Once the chicken is cooked, it is removed and the remaining liquid is reduced to leave an intense sauce.  I served the Adobo with stir fried noodles and vegetables because I have started to crave light and healthy food.

The Filipino team only consists of a handful of people for the Olympics this year.  Even though they have been competing since 1924 they have only won nine medals, but they can go home safe in the knowledge that they have left a firm favourite behind in Chicken Adobo.  The sauce is so intense, salty and sharp.  After the heavy food we have eaten recently it was like manna from Manila.