Tuesday 21 August 2012

How to Eat in Rome 2012 - Part 5 - Le Mani in Pasta

Woah... it's been a while since my last Rome blog. Apologies guys, but the small matter of an Olympic Food Challenge got in the way of normal blogging activities...

So, where had I left you? Ah, that's right, we'd had a miserable morning in the sun, a glorious indoor picnic and a well needed snooze to Family Guy on the telly. You'll be glad to know that once we awoke from our guilty slumber (and it was guilty; we were in Rome for God's sake), we felt 100% better, which was a good job as we were booked into Le Mani in Pasta for dinner.

And, by 'eck it was a good job we'd booked ahead (or rather asked our hotel to book) as the place was heaving and although I could hear a fair few American accents, there were plenty of locals being greeted with European kisses by the waiters.

We were sat on a table by the door (something the guy at our hotel reception had warned us about, and apologised for), but that was fine by us as we were closer to the air con unit! It was also ideal for watching all the coming and goings in and out of the restaurant; although bagging a view directly into the kitchen would have been ideal.

We were welcomed with a glass of prosecco (as was everyone) which was a nice touch, although it wasn't the best quality prosecco I'd ever had. Saying that the Frascatti we had (it's from the Lazio region, so we drank it whenever we could) was gorgeous (especially at ten euros a bottle).


Spotting a few pasta classics on the menu, we knew we'd just have to go the whole hog and have a primi course. Saying that, we were restrained with our shared antipasti of carpaccio of sea bass with truffles. Unfortunately my memory of the meal on a whole is wearing thin and I am reliant on some rather crap notes, but I do remember that this was a truly stunning dish.


Onto the primi and I had old favourite Spaghetti alla carbonara. Sadly, although the dish was pretty much spot on in terms of ingredients, I had two issues with it. A) I had asked the waiter whether I could have rigatoni (excellent for scooping up the eggy sauce and chunks of guinciale) and he had refused, determined that I should have spaghetti (which, let's face it, is a pain in the arse to eat) and B) some of the egg at the bottom of the dish was scrambled (not even I scramble my carbonara eggs!).


Gav went for rigatoni alla matriciana (yes, he was allowed rigatoni), and he wasn't totally blown away as his pasta had been cooked a little past the al dente stage. Anyhoo, it was tasty enough and there were some decent chunks of guinciale in there.

For secondi, despite the fact that we were in Rome rather than Venice, I could not resist the carpaccio di manzo (beef carpaccio), which, like the antipasti, was brilliant.


Gav went for Roman saltimbocca which is veal and prosciutto cooked in a wine sauce. Lovely, but again, something I can do as well at home (with ethical British veal too).


By the time it came round to dolce, I was stuffed, well and truly stuffed. Gav struggled through a tiramisu, and I only say struggle coz of the sheer size of his helping of this rich dessert as it was good.


I, on the other went for the lighter option of a limoncello....

The bill came in at 90 euros, which I didn't think was bad. We'd enjoyed the food, despite a couple of picky niggles, the service had been spot on and there was a great bustling atmosphere to the place. We would go back.

P.s. Apologies for the pics...

Sunday 12 August 2012

Olympic Food Challenge - South Africa - Bunny Chow with South African Malay Curry

For my final Olympic Food Challenge dish I really wanted to do something a bit special and something a bit tasty. As both Gav and I really do like a good curry, I was pleased to find that I could get away with making one for the last of my allocated countries, all thanks to the Malay people who were brought to SA as slaves. And, ok, I could have gone with a more traditional SA dish, a more indigenous dish, but come on, I's already cooked dishes from two different countries in Africa and I really did fancy a curry!



I used this recipe; as I liked the idea of apricots, yogurt, aubergine, chillies and mutton together in a curry. It also looked pretty easy to do and indeed it was. I followed the recipe pretty much to the letter (although I did soak the mutton in water overnight first, to help tenderise the meat, and I cooked it for about three and a half hours as just one hour was never gonna be enough for this meat).

The curry could have been served with rice, but I wanted to go a step further and do something a bit different, so when I saw this recipe for Bunny Chow I knew it had to be done. After all, what's not to like about the idea of using a hallowed out half loaf of bread as a bowl for a curry? More importantly there's some history behind this dish as it originates from times of apartheid.

Back in the not so good old days in Africa black people (and immigrant Malaysians & Indians) weren't allowed to eat in restaurants so they had to have takeaway. Of course they didn't have Tupperware back then and so the idea of using hollowed out loaves of bread was born. Thought to have originated in restaurants in the Durban area, bunny chow is still popular now; in fact every year there's an annual competition dedicated to finding the best bunny chow (just a shame it's sponsored by a large drinks company).


How was it? Pretty bloody good actually. The gravy was rich and tasty thanks to the inclusion of a fair few spices, some tomato puree and plenty of yogurt. The meat was just about tender enough (so please don't try and cook this for any less than 3 hours, unless you use lamb/chicken), the aubergine was lovely and creamy and the apricots and jam added a real sweetness to the dish.

With 3 gold medals, 2 silver and 1 bronze South Africa haven't done bad at all (although they didn't do enough to beat Yorkshire did they?!).

Well, that's it. I've done my 7 dishes, I'm watching the closing ceremony and I'm just waiting for something akin to post holiday blues to set in. See, despite what I said in my first Olympic Food Challenge post I have been well and truly sucked in and I have loved every minute.

Britain, we've been fabulous - let's try and keep it that way!

Olympic Food Challenge - Guinea - Yétissé de Poulet

The Olympic Food Challenge has been a complicated affair, for Olympic Food Challenge Master, Ewan that is (thankfully my only responsibility has been cooking a few dishes and writing a few posts). Imagine all those countries, all those bloggers and all those posts to manage; it's enough to drive anyone insane. And just as everything seemed to be going so well, I managed to throw a spanner in the works by discovering that two of us had been given Guinea-Bissau!

After a bit of searching through various spreadsheets, it became clear that Guinea was missing from everyone's allocated countries and that the fault for the error lay firmly at Excel's door (with that stupid auto-fill function that wouldn't recognise Guinea as a country in its own right).

Ewan was embarrassed by the mistake, I, however was pretty god damn happy. Finding recipes for Guinea-Bissau hadn't been easy and the best I had found was a chicken, peanut and tomato dish. Having cooked something similar for the Congo, I didn't really fancy this one. Interestingly, fellow blogger, Lil Miss Squirrel, managed to find a tuna and avocado recipe which looks a bit tastier!



Getting a new country gave me new hope... hope for something a bit more interesting than boiled chicken and peanuts. I dropped onto a rather useful website which lists about 18 recipes from Guinea, and after dismissing Bouille (or porridge with lemon juice) and anything with goat (I was cooking on a school night and didn't have the time for the slow cooking this meat requires) I went for Yétissé de Poulet

Ok, it wasn't entirely different to the Congo dish as I still had to boil the chicken and there were tomatoes involved, but I liked the fact that it meant that I could cook with okra (a new one for me). I was also intrigued by the cassava... until I googled it that its. It seems that cassava contains cyanide and could potentially kill you if prepared incorrectly. Now, I am a competent cook and I've never killed anyone so far, but I didn't really fancy taking on this risk, no matter how much I love this challenge... so I used two potatoes instead.


How was it? Well the chicken (which I'd skinned by the way) was juicy and tender (this boiling lark works wonders!), the aubergine was creamy, (but I'd probably stick another one in next time) and the sauce was a bit bland (and really oily, despite not taking any notice of the instruction to add 250mls of oil, and it could take a couple more chillies).

The rice, for me, was disappointing as I hadn't prepared the okra properly causing it to produce more slime than Slimer himself. Only after eating the dish did I google about cooking okra and I learnt that sitting the okra in water (which I did to wash the stuff) and chopping it (which I did, along with scrapping some bits of dirt off) were all big no-no's. Having said that the recipe calls for the okra to be mashed before it's mixed with the rice, so maybe it was supposed to be slimy after all. Anyhoo, the husband liked it!

Overall the dish wasn't a real winner and although I talk about changes that I would make to the dish when I cook it next, I'm pretty sure there won't be a next time. And... given the athletes eat so much bland and oily food, it's not too surprising that they haven't won a medal yet.

Sunday 5 August 2012

Olympic Food Challenge - Iran - Koresht Gorme Sabzi & Persian Rice

When I first saw that I had Iran, I though 'What the hell am I gonna do for that', then the brain got into gear and I remembered Iran used to be called Persia and I've had Persian food before. Admittedly, it wasn't very good, thanks to the restaurant I visited, but I had the gist of the cuisine.

I knew it had to be lamb and I had visions of something with pomegranates. Finding a recipe with the former ingredient was easy, but with the latter, was not. So, I ditched the pomegranates and went for a herby lamb stew with Persian rice.

But, before we get to all that, here's a quick note on their involvement in the Olympics... Save for a 30 year gap, Iran has been in the Olympics since 1900 and if it wasn't 22.44 on a school night I'd spend some time finding out why they had that 30 year gap... can anyone else fill us in? Anyway, Iranians/Persians like to wrestle, lift weights and do taekwondo. I suppose I'd never really thought about it before, but I don't think I'd have put them down as a wrestling country...

File:Flag of Iran.svg

Now, the lamb recipe called for dried fenugreek leaves and dried limes and I had never used either so I was unsure where I would get them (and I'd only heard of dried limes because of some arrogant prick who'd left them in his dish to trick people into eating them on Come Dine With Me a couple of years ago). Thankfully Ozmen supermarket on London Road (Sheffield) stocked both the limes and the leaves, and at very reasonable prices too (certainly reasonable when compared to the prices I'd have had to pay to order the stuff online).

I used this lamb recipe and it was pretty straightforward, although I had to just guess what I was supposed to do with the shallots (I decided to stick them in at the same time as the herbs - I think these recipes are out to get me). The quantity of herbs was a bit of a guess too. I decided to use a whole large bag of spinach and coriander and about half a large bag of parsley (as I don't like the stuff). I appreciate that this doesn't really help, just go with big quantities; I did.

As the stew was cooking I was pretty concerned about the amount of citrus in there. I used three dried limes and if you've never used them before, you'll just have to trust me that their flavour is INTENSE. There was the juice of two lemons in there too. Thankfully my fears faded away as the dish cooked and the end result was pretty delicious. The lamb was tender, the herbs were soft (that parsley had lost some of its intensity) and the citrus flavours had settled into the dish nicely.

Persian rice was another concern for me as the second stage of the cooking process involved cooking rice with a bit of butter and no water. Anyway, I trusted this recipe and I was right to do so. I did vary it slightly as I fried off some sliced shallots in the butter as it melted and added some saffron too. This was also a good decision, although I do think I should have fried the shallots for a little longer. Also, next time I'll either cook the rice in the butter for a little longer, or at a slightly higher heat as there wasn't much of a crust on the bottom.


All in all, it was a success. The lamb made six servings which means that I've managed to stick some in the freezer for another day. Bargain.

Saturday 4 August 2012

Olympic Food Challenge - Honduras - Baleadas

Geography is not my strong point and I hadn't even heard of Honduras, never mind about knew where it was or what type of cuisine I would be faced with. On checking a map, I was glad to see it lies close to Mexico. After all, we all like Mexican food don't we?

Sadly Honduras is yet to win a medal, but I don't care. Today is all about Team GB as we won six. Six medals in a day. And three of them were won between 9.00 and 9.45 tonight thanks to Jess Ennis, Mo Farah and Greg Rutherford!



After a bit of research I learnt that baleadas are very popular in Honduras; so much so that there are a few fast food chains specialising in the things. They're quite similar to the Mexican taco and make for great street food.

Although I probably could have got away with buying tortillas, they wouldn't have been right (as they make them with wheat flour not corn flour in Honduras) and I hadn't wimped out on anything else so far so wanted to go the whole hog and make my own.

I followed this recipe which resulted in a very sloppy mix so I ended up adding quite a bit more flour; enough  to create a dough I could manipulate. Cooking them was pretty easy, just make sure you use a non-stick frying pan (and very, very little oil) and flip them over once they start to bubble up.

I then made some refried beans using this recipe, which is the only one I could find claiming to be Honduran. It was pretty dull to be honest as there were no herbs or spices to be added. Also, I wasn't clear what type of beans I should have used. I guessed pinto beans would be a good bet, but I couldn't find any so I just went for borlotti beans.

I also grilled some hickory smoked sausages, made some scrambled eggs, grated some cheese and diced up a tomato. Once everything was ready I spread the refried beans onto a couple of tortillas, piled up the rest of the filling ingredients to cover half of the tortilla and folded over.

So, how were they? Well, they were tasty, and I was pretty impressed with the tortillas, but I think they missed the fresh and zingy flavours of a tomato salsa. See, they were crying out for a bit of chilli, coriander and some zesty lime.


They were good for reheating though as I discovered when Gav came home from his 12 hour shift. I just filled a couple of tortillas with some of the cold ingredients, folded them over and stuck them in the oven for about 12 minutes. Perfect!

Thursday 2 August 2012

Olympic Food Challenge - The Congo - Muamba Nsusu and Fufu

The Congo; it gave us Um Bongo, set the scene for The Heart of Darkness and it boasts an awfully big river. Until recently, that was all I knew about this magical land (and I think there's no denying that the midst of the Congo is pretty magical) but having been landed with the country as part of the Olympic Food Challenge I was forced to find out a little bit more...

Wikipedia is always a good place to start when it comes to this kind of thing and, although I didn't read the whole article, I did catch that the Congo is the eleventh largest country in the world, that it's financially poor but considered to be the richest country in the world in terms of its natural resources, that it has the second largest rainforest in the world and that it's had about 5 different flags since the 60's.

Sadly there's not a lot to say about the Congo's experience of the Olympics. They have no medals and this year they have sent 7 athletes to compete in just 3 sports (running, swimming and, of all things, table tennis).

Flag of Republic of the Congo

Thankfully, despite the Congo being all magical and mysterious, I found the task of picking a recipe relatively easy. There's a fantastic site called The Congo Cookbook and it's packed full of recipes from across the whole of Africa, including 14 from the Congo itself. I then picked the easiest recipes in terms of techniques and ingredients and ended up with Muamba Nsusu (Congo chicken soup) and Fufu (mashed yam).

Noting that the chicken recipe asked for a natural peanut butter (i.e. handmade with only peanuts and salt), I thought I'd have a go at making some myself. I didn't go the whole hog and roast my own peanuts, like this recipe wanted me to, I just bought some pre-roasted and salted peanuts, blitzed them up in the food processor and drizzled in a bit of sunflower oil at intervals until the nuts formed a paste.

I was stunned at how well that worked out and I'm looking forward to having some on hot toast at breakfast tomorrow. @Craig_Middleton suggests that I give it a go with pistachios.... and serve that on chocolate brioche. I might just have to do that one day!

Anyway, back to the Congo... I kind of went into cooking these dishes a bit blind. I had no idea what the soup/stew was supposed to look like and I had no idea how long any of this was going to take, so I just went for it and started boiling the chicken and the yam at the same time (which is a good job coz they took about the same amount of time).

The recipes aren't the best as they're really short and don't give much away. The chicken recipe even told me to fry off the onion and chilli and then forgot to tell me what to do with it. I was sure I just needed to stick it into the stew, but thought I'd better check. This then led me to Google the recipe in order to find new version and this one assured me that my thoughts were right. It also made me feel a bit sad that I hadn't noticed it earlier as it sounds a bit more exciting than mine!

I used 8 chicken thighs (skinless but bone in) and set them off to boil in a pan of plain boiling water. I then made my peanut butter and fried off a diced onion and one sliced chilli in some palm oil and set it all to one side once softened. Once the chicken was cooked through (it probably took about 40 mins), I took the meat off the bones and set it to one side (keeping the cooking broth simmering away). I then spooned some of the peanut butter into a bowl (say about 3-4 dessert spoons), added some of the broth from the chicken pan (say two ladles worth) and stirred through before adding half a tube of tomato puree. That was all mixed into the broth along with the chicken, onions and chilli and simmered down until it had thickened up.

As for the yam, I boiled it (skin on) until it was soft (and the nice thing about this meal was that although the yam took forever to cook, it didn't really matter as the chicken was quite happy bubbling away patiently), peeled it and mashed it with a shit load of butter.


So, how was it? Well, the chicken was pretty damn tasty. The meat was really tender from the poaching, the sauce was rich, thanks to the tomato purée, and creamy, thanks to the peanut butter. I would, however have liked a bit more heat as, although I used a whole chilli (seeds and all), it could easily have taken another.

The fufu however was a different matter. It was pretty dry (and I really did put a lot of butter in there) and had an unusual taste; not horrible as such, just not nice enough to make me want to have it again. I'm glad I tried it though; the name alone is enough to make me love this dish (although I do have a friend who calls a certain area of her body her fufu!).