Noya's Kitchen - Vietnamese Cooking Course

It's been just over a week since my last post (oh dear will have to get back on track) but I have finally got around to writing about what me and my friend Alice got up to last weekend! 

When ever Alice and I catch up we always do so over amazing food, whether we we pop to our favourite cafe in London for tea (YumCha), try out a new restaurant, or simply make something tasty at home. For a massive treat last weekend we went on Vietnamese Cooking Course at Noya's Kitchen. 

Alice and I spent the afternoon taking in the sites of Bath and then headed off to find Noya's house. As often happens when you attend a cooking course or supper club at someone's home you have a brief moment of 'hope this will be ok' just as you ring the door bell. However, just as normal, I should not have worried. Noya opened the door with a big smile on her face. She welcomed us into her beautiful home and immediately we knew we were in for a great evening.

Shortly after our arrival the rest of the people on our cooking class also arrived. We all took our places at a beautifully laid table and Noya told us what we would be making that evening.

Our menu was a follows:
Turkey mince Vietnamese spring roles with dipping sauce
Vermicelli rice noodle salad with Lemongrass chicken and beef skewers
Vietnamese chicken curry with sticky jasmine rice

Noya took us thorough ever step. It was amazing to see that just with a few simple tips from an expert that we all managed to produce authentic and delicious Vietnamese food.

Here are two of my favourite tips from the evening:

1) When rolling spring rolls you can create a 'glue stick' to get the pastry to stick together. You do this by cutting a section of banana and trimming off the skin around the edge, how simple is that! Although the spring rolls were delicious on their own but by putting some coriander and a mint leaf on a bit of little gem lettuce and then the spring roll on top the taste experience is totally different.

2) You can wrap meat fillings into leaves and to ensure they stay rolled up whilst cooking you keep about 1.5cm of the stem, punch a little whole in the wrap and tuck the stem inside, again so simple but effective. 

We had a wonderful evening learning all about these new foods and I for one cannot wait to try them out again at home. If anyone else fancies learning how to cook authentic Vietnamese Noya lists the dates of here cooking courses on her website. If, however, you don't feel like cooking but just eating delicious food Noya also runs a supper club which I for one and going to visit in the near future.

Bristol Food Connection

Just a few more photos to share the goings on over the Bank Holiday Weekend at Bristol Food Connections.

Ben and Sam tucking into home made burgers at the street food market. 

One of my particular favourites - sheep's milk ice cream - delicious. Made by Shepard's in Hay-on-Wye

BBC Food and Farming Awards 2014

The start of May sees a very exciting event coming to the UK - Bristol Food Connections - a festival celebrating all that is wonderful about individual cooks, restaurant owners, market sellers, farmers and above all the food they produce. Bristol is such a wonderful city with a diverse food culture and a community to support it.

I for one am defiantly going to make to most of this opportunity of living in a city that love food as much as I do. Thankfully I was off to a good start by being lucky enough to get some tickets to go to the BBC Food and Farming Awards 2014 held in the beautiful St George's. I went with two friends from work Sam and Charlotte (also big food fans) - and we may have got a little over excited by the whole event.

People were all dressed up and there were famous chefs and food produces from all over the UK in every direction you looked! Here are a few of my sneaky celeb shots - not terribly good I'm afraid as I felt a little bad taking them even though I am sure they are used to it.

It was a wonderful evening, so inspiring, really pleased to see recognition being given to those people who so tirelessly and passionately produce good food. But its not just about people who produce and sell food, awards were given out to individuals who are helping to make a difference be that by catering for hospice residents, sustainable fishing or promoting food waste in our country and what we can do to prevent it.

If you would like to hear the best bits from the awards it will be aired on Radio 4 this Monday (5th May) at 15:00 and the full list of winners can be seen here.

Ill keep you posted on more goings on at the Food Connection festival over the next few weeks - my stomach is already rumbling in anticipation!

Until next time

Emily

Our Week in France

So the Easter Holidays have drawn to a close and work has beckoned us all once more - but fear not another Bank Holiday is just around the corner. In the mean time I just wanted to share with you a few photos from our lovely week away in France.

The photo above is of our back garden in the sunshine. We live in a little hamlet with only a few houses. Our neighbours Christian and Michael have essentially a mini farm at the bottom of the garden. They keep sheep, chickens, pigeons, bees and fell all the forest for their own wood.

Here are a few of the chickens wondering past our gate!

Soon after we arrive Christian popped around and gave us some honey that had been freshly extracted from the hives that very afternoon - amazing or what. The pot on the left was the one she gave us (yes it is half empty as we got through it so quickly) and apparently is made of wild forest flower pollen. The one on the right is from the same hives we were given last August from Acacia flowers. So incredible that the same hive just using different pollen from different flowers can create such a variety of honey. Needless to say they are both delicious.

Whilst we were away the weather was so warm that the elderflowers are already out in full force so I was even able to make my first batch of 2014 cordial. 

We had some fantastic food during the week cooked for us by our experienced chefs! Recipes for these delicious Moroccan kebabs to follow soon - watch this space!

We saw some lovely local wildlife too - there was a little black bird nesting in the roof of our terrace, and a stunning Hoopoe nesting in our neighbours barn - they really are beautiful and have to be up there with my favourite birds. Even some wall lizards poking their heads out of the nooks and crannies enjoying some sunshine.

Finally to finish off some quintessentially French scenes from the UNESCO Citadelle de Blaye!

Hope you all had a wonderful Easter. 

Patisserie with Francis - Macaroons

We are back in the Medoc in our little corner of French paradise for Easter (so apologies for lack of post recently we have been enjoying the sunshine!)

An early start for another cookery course with our dear friend Francis and his daughter Cecile.  The demonstration kitchen has now relocated to the garden making it quite divine.  Our task today was the elusive macaroon - we now have the technology!

On arrival we commenced with coffee and freshly baked Palmiers, sugar encrusted pastries lightly caramelised and absolutely yummy.  The volume of butter and sugar is a worry but, oh, they are delicious.

Our first macaroons (we made three flavours) were cafe.  With confidence we embarked on caramel sale and the third batch were chocolate, filled with chocolate ganache.  Shall I go on!

After several hours our lunch arrived giving us time to reflect on our labours and enjoy true Medocan hospitality.  Today it was boudin fait mason and a scrummy lapin casserole, washed down with a light rose wine.

Did you know that macaroons can be kept for up to three days in the fridge.  Just retrieve them 15 minutes before needing them.  The other bonus is they can be frozen and defrosted for about 2 hours.
The result is perfect and makes entertaining so much easier.

The pictures, I think, speak for themselves.

If anyone would like more information regarding the above please leave a comment below and we will do a special post with some recipes.  Or, indeed, if you would like information on the chamber d'hôte which Francis runs with his wife Marie-France click here, again let us know.

Un Petit Peu de Pâtisserie

So this weekend saw another birthday celebrate. This time it was the birthday of my partner Lawrence and we had a weekend full of celebrations. 

So to start off with I spent pretty much the whole of Friday in the kitchen making French Pastries. You already know my love of croissants and all other things to do with French food.

A wonderful friend of my family (Francis) who was, until his retirement, a fantastic pastry chef in the Medoc region of France (obviously he is still a great chef!). He has indulged both mum and myself in cooking courses to show us how a real pastry chef works. He taught us the basics of choux pastry and the numerous things that can be done with it. So mum and I had a go on our own. 

We made three things:
1) Chouquettes
2) Lemon Eclairs
3) Canelés De Bordeaux

Chouquettes are simply choux pastry balls that are typically just cooked with rock sugar on the top, or filled with cream or creme patisserie depending on the occasion.

These eclairs were of my own invention, I decided to for something a bit different from traditional flavours. These eclairs were filled with lemon cured laced cream and covered with lemon icing.

Canelés are a regional speciality of Bordeaux (a place fond to the hearts of our family) and have a soft custard centre and a dark caramelised crust on the outside. Serve one up with a lovely cup of hot coffee, a complete winner!

If you are interested in the recipes and fancy giving any of the above a go do leave a comment below and ill do some special posts with a run down of all the instructions.

After a day of baking we then went back to visit our favourite chef Jules at the Secret Supper Society in North Oxfordshire. We had such a fantastic time for my birthday in October that Lawrence was keen to go again. Needless to say the food was yet again fantastic  - better than what you get in so many fine dinning restaurants! I packed up a little box of my pastry treats to give to Jules as a present - from one food lover to another what is better than a present of food! She quickly ate one up and really like them, if her food is good enough for Raymond Blanc and my pasties good enough for her I think I am onto a winner!

Until next time.

Emily

A trip to the London Transport Museum

February is a month full of birthdays in my extended family. One this weekend and another the next. This of course means an excuses for celebrations, presents, cake and days out. This week was the turn of my boyfriends mother so I went up to London for a visit. 

Instead of a present I decided to go for some classic flowers. So I brought some and arranged the below bouquet - nice to bring some spring colours and smells into the house and don't they look lovely! Note to self must start investigating flower arranging as a future craft.

As our day out treat we decided to go to the London Transport Museum which I've wanted to go to for a long time. I'm a big fan of old travel posters (several already adorn my rooms at home). I've seen many examples whilst browsing the internet but it was lovely to see so many first hand at the museum. 

Here is a little selection of a few favourites.

What struck me most whilst wandering about was the history that the tube has seen over the last 150 years. I often feel that we take the London transport system for granted when we follow each other into the rat runs that lie beneath the city. Of course it's primary function is still to get millions of people from A to B, but we should remember that it has also seen us through two world wars and it's construction results from some amazing advances in technology. My favorite fact of the day was learning about how many of the tunnels were constructed using the "shield" designed by Brunel. This device allowed a number of men to dig out a small section of tunnel whilst being followed by those laying bricks around the tunnels edge. Once each stage was completed the shield would be jacked forwards a few more inches and the process would start all over again. Very slow work but it saved the lives of many men. 

So next time your are in London, if you get a chance, do head over the Transport Museum, get your fix of London history why climbing aboard old buses and tubes. If you don't get the chance simply take some time whilst wating on a tube platform to appreciate the feet of engineering the Undergroud system is and all the history that has travelled through those dark and mysterious tunnels.

Until next time

Em xoxo

NB. Photos on this post were taken on an iPad Air and a Samsung Galaxy S4 (so sorry if they are a bit fuzzy!). All the posters are property of the London Transport Museum and can be found in the museum collection. Reproduction of over 5000 prints can be purchased online in the museum shop.