So it's been a rather long time since I last had the opportunity to blog! For a few reasons- my Dad was very suddenly, very poorly (and now thank goodness better), our wedding was all of a sudden very soon, and then after all of this we had very much needed couple of weeks on honeymoon- so you see, not much time for writing about eating (although plenty for the act of eating, naturally)- and lots of verys, clearly.
So the first thing to say is that my Dad is fixed (and now bionic) thanks to the staff at Cheltenham General A&E, Critical Care Unit and Cardiac Ward- who are are amazingly talented and compassionate people. Secondly- I am now Mr B's, Mrs B! We got married and it was just fabulous. I will have to write a blog about the big day and thank all of our incredible local suppliers properly, everything from the venue, flowers, cake, catering, string quartet and band were all exceptional. And then came the honeymoon! 24 hours in Rome, followed by 10 nights in rural Sardinia- it was just perfect, and again Sardinia and Rome certainly deserve a blog each, the food and wine in both places were amazing!
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| Sneak preview of Sardinia- this is just breakfast, but what a breakfast! |
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| Contemplating life... and my next meal. |
So just a quickie today to say happy Father's days to all you Dads out there- but especially to my Dad, and my new Dad in law! I cooked them a proper Sri Lankan feast today- chicken curry, pandanus leaf rice, paripoo (Dahl), malung (coconut stir fried cabbage), pol sambol (fresh coconut chutney), Indonesian peanut eggs, spiced ribs, home grown salad, aubergine sambol and some bread for dipping. You know, just a light lunch... Childhood favourites for my Dad (and me!), and a well received (phew) exotic introduction for my in-laws. All recipes can be found in Charmain Solomon's 'The Complete Asian Cookbook' that I am so often raving about!
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| Aubergine Sambol- amazing little bright yellow and cream 'Garden Egg' aubergines picked up in Canton very cheaply. |
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| Peanut Eggs- family fave! |
Then for desert I made shots of indulgent chocolate orange mousses topped with Hotel Chocolat chilli choc buttons, and pineapple macerated with mint and sugar on the side. This also went down a treat, I'm pleased to say- and was an ingenious way to use up flumps.. Yes flumps. We had big Kilner jars of sweets at the wedding and whilst these were pretty well devoured, we still seem to have enough sweets to stock a small tuck shop. I remembered Nigella has a marshmallow based choc mousse recipe- and I'm pleased to report that it works excellently with flumps and the zest of an orange. We then had the opportunity to show off our fancy new Nespresso skills, by insisting everyone had a coffee to finish!
So apologies I've not been about (so to speak)- but it's good to be back in the blogging saddle. Can't wait to share more food based chatter about our wedding and honeymoon- I'll catch up soon!
In the meantime, I leave you with fried chicken. The day that Dad had his final operation and all went to plan, Mr B and I went to Chucks opening night and gorged ourselves silly on the immense Welsh, free range chicken wings. The buffalo wing sauce was our person highlight- the frickles were pretty lush too. It was a noisy, smokey night in a warehouse- and yes there was a few first night type hitches with timings, but we had a great time and I hear that they have sorted out waiting times now too. Finger licking good.
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| @ChucksCDF I NEED the recipe for buffalo hot wing sauce! |
