Hi all!

I’ve recently started a brand new job as a UX designer, and I’m trying to learn some html and css to expand my skills for work. So I decided that my first project would be a little site redesign! As well as making a few aesthetic changes to the theme, the new site is also more informative and better for browsing. I’ve added a proper about me page, as well as a lot of links to all kinds of categories, so if you are really interested in Italian food, or desserts, you can go straight to all the right posts.

I hope you like it!

700. Poulet en Papillotte

En papilotte is a really simple, healthy and yummy way of cooking chicken. You get chicken breasts, put them on a big sheet of greaseproof oven paper (or you can use foil too), add whatever veggies you want, pour over a splash of white wine, and then season it with salt, pepper and herbs. Then you scrunch the paper up into a parcel so that it traps all the steam in, and put it in the oven for around 25 minutes. Keeping all the steam inside the package means that the chicken is insanely moist, and also keeps in all the flavour. You can do the same thing with fish, or just vegetables too.

Also, woohoo, 700!

700 down, 1096 to go

699. Rogan Josh

A while back my family and I went to an Asian buffet restaurant. And by Asian I mean Asian. They had Indian food, Chinese food, Korean food, Thai food, Japanese food and probably a bunch more. There was so much I wanted to try, but I didn’t want to totally overload my plate so I got little tiny bits of everything. One of the curries I got was rogan josh, which is a lamb curry with a rich, red sauce. The meat was chewy (which is why I don’t usually ever order lamb curries unless I know the place is amazing), but the sauce was great.

699 down, 1097 to go

698. Selsig Morgannwg

For those who don’t recognise it, selsig morgannwg is Welsh. It means Glamorgan sausages. Since moving back to Cardiff I’ve loved seeing all the Welsh again. It’s a weird language, but it’s a pretty awesome one, it still looks like it was invented hundreds of years ago and hasn’t changed since. Glamorgan sausages are actually a vegetarian dish. You mix caerphilly cheese with breadcrumbs, spring onions and seasoning, coat them in egg and more breadcrumbs and then pan-fry them. I served mine with roasted tomatoes and rocket. Yum.

698 down, 1098 to go

697. Short Ribs

First off, apologies for this crazy awful picture. The room was dark, and I hate my Blackberry. I can’t wait to get rid of that piece of crap phone, get myself an iphone and join the real world. Anyhow, for my birthday meal I ordered short ribs. This is weird for me as in the past I never would have ordered beef in a restaurant. First off I never ate it at all, and then even when I started it was pretty much steaks or get out. Now though I eat almost all kinds of cow.

697 down, 1099 to go

696. Skordalia

Skordalia is a Greek version of mashed potatoes. They are made extra soft and creamy and are flavoured with a whole bunch of delicious garlic. I used John Torode’s recipe which basically involves boiling the potatoes and some garlic cloves in milk and olive oil rather than water until they are soft. When you drain them you keep the liquid, mash the potatoes up and add as much liquid as you need back in. They were really great and made a great alternative to regular mash.

696 down, 1100 to go

695. Soda Bread

I made this really weird salad. I had a bunch of salad veggies, and some leftover roast pork, and some cauliflower which I figured I could roast with some spices on, and I mixed it all together and threw some hot sauce on it and had a chunky slice of soda bread on the side. I’m pretty sure none of those things are classic flavour combinations but hey, it worked out tasty in the end. Soda bread is a nice change to regular bread as it’s dense and soft and a little sweet.

695 down, 1101 to go

694. Soupe au Pistou

I was on a bit of a soup kick lately. Well, ok, let’s be honest here, I’m on a bit of a soup kick always. I’m the weirdo that orders soup in middle of summer. Soupe au pistou is one of the many awesome Mediterranean soups packed with lots of chunky veggies and beans, and this is topped off with a big scoop of pesto. Pesto is great. I could eat pesto all the time.

694 down, 1102 to go

693. Spring Vegetable Soup

There are a lot of variations on spring vegetable soups, but the one that is specifically mentioned in my books is a Lebanese green vegetable soup that is flavoured with lemon juice and dried mint. It was very quick to make, super healthy and tasted delicious so it basically ticked all of the boxes for a great lunch. I fried onion and celery until it was soft, then added peas, green beans, broad beans and courgette along with some chicken stock and boiled it for around 5 minutes until the vegetables were cooked. Finally I just added a squeeze of lemon juice and a generous pinch of dried mint and it was ready to eat.

693 down, 1103 to go

691. Star Anise and 692. Allspice

I like oatmeal, but I tend to get bored of having it just plain with milk and a bit of sugar on top, so I’ve been trying to think of ways to make it more exciting. On this occasion I decided to give it a spiced apple twist. I finely chopped some green apple and added it to the oats before I started cooking, I swapped out the milk for apple juice, and I flavoured it with some cinnamon, allspice, and star anise. It was pretty good so I am going to continue experimenting!

692 down, 1104 to go