Warm Prosciutto and Blue Cheese Salad and BBQ Ideas

I have been all about the recommendations lately, and not giving much out about what I have been cooking… mostly because I haven’t.

In between decorating, enjoying the little bursts of sunshine and generally being quite busy I haven’t been cooking properly lately. There have been lots of Waitrose/M&S trips to buy food I don’t have to do anything with.

I need this break I think. It hard to get anything done in an evening if you plan on cooking properly and I am a girl who likes her early nights.

But anyway this is a little something I made for my girlfriends a couple of weeks ago and have been meaning to make again and make prettier and better so I could share it with you.

I have made it again, yesterday, after a few glasses of wine in the sunshine it’s the only thing I could think of, but it definitely wasn’t prettier so here you are. I am sharing with you anyway with a photograph from my phone. I hope that’s okay… it really is a good salad and another ‘boy-friendly’ salad, I had proof last night.

As this is a salad I am not giving you quantities you can make it for 1 or many, teeny or huge.

You need;
Rocket and spinach
Tomatoes
Mushrooms
Red onions
Potatoes
Blue Cheese
Prosciutto

So first I caramelised the onions, do take your time with this do it slowly and take at least 30 minutes, you might want to do this first. About 15 minutes in a sprinkled sugar on them and then stirred that in. Fry on a low heat with a little oil and stir and watch.

At the same time I put all the tomatoes on a baking tray with some olive oil and seat salt and black pepper again on a low temperature and left them in there while I cooked everything else. I used the best cherry tomatoes I could get my hands on but you can use any kind you like.

This was also the first time this year I tasted Jersey Royals, damn they are lovely. ut again you could use any potato you want, I simply boiled them because of all the other tasty (naughty) ingredients in this dish but you could also fry them up with the prosciutto. That would be good…

So those are the bits you need to cook, fry your prosciutto last then you just need to chuck your salad into the bowl, add those hot bits then the crumbled blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola this time and have also tried it with a Stilton) and lastly the Prosciutto.

And yes I did serve it with a huge lump of garlic bread. What?

*Since it is BBQ weather (finally) in Bristol here are some more sunshine worthy recipes for you to try this weekend.

Salads;
Apple and hazelnut salad
Strawberry and halloumi salad
Blueberry and goats cheese salad
Sweet Potato, pomegranate and halloumi salad
Asparagus and mozzarella salad
The perfect Caesar salad
Grilled peach salad
Griddled potato salad

Dips;
Guacamole
Hummous
Salsa

Bread;
Soft white rolls

BBQ;
Beef burgers
Bean burgers
Red chilli fish patties
Lamb Kofta

Or use my Portugal post for inspiration, all we did was BBQ and eat the pool…

Eating in Portugal

or this for a simple quick supper that lets you stay outside for longer

Pan-fried salmon and avocado salsa

Sunrise Taco’s – Bangkok

We hit Bangkok! Our last stop in Thailand, we spent 5 days here and you can read about our time here

One of my stand out memories was going to the club that you must visit when in Bangkok, it’s the one all my friends play when they come here, the hot spot I guess. Unfortunately no-one I knew was playing when I was there, I missed Die by a week… so annoying!

So the music wasn’t for us, but the DJ did play a Rhianna track so I was happy for all of 3 minutes and we had fun getting drunk with our friend Jack who lives in the city.

So on our way home we had to stop for some late night snacks, Jack said this mexican was a late night favourite, and I am always happy to eat Mexican food.

The place is in a square of full on neon.

I love places with tick-box menus. SO organised.

Chip me up.

I was drunk so it may not be the best Mexican, and you are in Thailand so you could go for late night street food but I loved the tacky neon… go visit after Bed; Sunrise Tacos

This is what we need at home, I know Bristol is a small city but there is no where good to eat after 11. NO where!

Correct me if I am wrong.

Flinty Red

This will be the second time I have told you all to go to Flinty Red, but in case you missed my first recommendation here is another one.

I love this place, it’s a lot like my favourite California restaurants, all about small plates and trying lots of little things and sharing with your dinner companions.

It’s very small, so you will need to book but they do have seating at the bar an idea I adore. It’s all very mediterranean.

My first order… you gotta get the anchovy toast, unless of course you hate anchovies… but even then you should try.

It’s a quick dish so ensures you get a nibble as soon as you’ve ordered.

I chose the ravioli as my first dish… the filling was fonduta di castelmagno which is an Italian cheese if I remember rightly.

It was insanely good.

My second pick was baked scallops with chilli, garlic, salt pork and fino.

Amazing. I love scallops, my favourite sea food by far.

We did pick some greens too, this Hispi cabbage was delicious. I am definitely going to try to cook some at home.

My husband picked the Onglet steak, barely cooked it was beautiful melt in the mouth meat.

Then in order to write a full blog post, we had to order desserts. My husband ordered Crème brûlée. A classic and a favourite.

I order the salted caramel mousse, I love salted caramel and salted chocolate right now. I cannot get enough. The mousse was ridiculously light and almost a foam, amazing. The chocolate part was even better, really thick and so rich.

So Bristol people if you haven’t been you really need to, if you have then maybe it’s time to go again!

Visitors this is a great stop if you are spending a day or night in the city, and a great date spot. 

Flinty Red

Lanta Thai Cookery School – Thai Green Curry

After enjoying my day at the Phuket Cookery School so much when we arrived on Koh Lanta and had a couple of rainy days I suggested that my Husband and I do one together.

This is another great set up and a lovely small class, we went to Lanta Thai Cookery School.

They grow their own vegetables and herbs here in their garden…

And the school is tucked away within an orchard (?) of rubber trees.

It’s a big beautiful open room with much smaller stations than I had seen before, a little more basic and you all prepped together on one big table at the same time as the teachers, which again was different that before but I liked this way of doing things equally.

We also prepped each dish before cooking anything.

I am a tidy prepper.

One of the great things about a small group was that we got to pick what dishes we wanted to make.

One thing everyone wants to learn on a Thai cookery course is how to make curry paste. I was given a recipe and a small lesson before but we didn’t actually make the paste.

This time we all worked together to make a big lot of paste which then got split between us to make our curries.

You need;
1 stalk lemongrass minced 
1-3 green birdseye chilies sliced
1 shallot sliced or 4 tbsp minced red onion
4-5 cloves garlic
1 thumb-size piece of galangal or ginger, thinly sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander/cilantro leaves & stems
1/2 cup fresh Thai basil
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp ground coriander
3 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp shrimp paste
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp brown sugar
3-4 tbsp coconut milk (enough to blend ingredients together)

To make the paste pound all dry herbs & spices together first in a pestle and mortar to form a paste, then gradually add the wet ingredients, stirring until smooth.

Your paste should look something like this, and is now ready to go. This is a great thing to prepare in advance to make quick weeknight dinners.

For two you need;
2-3 tbsp curry paste
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 tin coconut milk
4 chicken thighs (or two large chicken breasts if you prefer) cut into small bit size pieces
a handful of green beans or asparagus – or whatever vegetables you have to hand.
bunch of coriander or Thai basil

1. Heat a wok or large saucepan over medium to high heat.
Add 2-3 tbsp oil and swirl around and then add 2-3 tbsp of the green curry paste or to your own taste if you prefer it stronger. 
Stir-fry until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Do a taste check here and add more fish sauce for salt or more chilli if not quite hot enough etc.

2. Then add 1 tin of coconut milk, I use light at the moment and it’s (almost) as good, if a little thinner. Simmer this for a couple of minutes, add two kaffir lime leaves then start to add your curry ingredients, if you are adding meat do that sooner and then vegetables towards the end and cook through.

Garnish with Thai basil or coriander and chilli, serve with steamed Jasmine rice.

We also made the famous spicy seafood salad to start, very similar to the one I made before but without noodles, good recipe here

We also made a Pad Thai.

My Husband loves Pad Thai and will eat it anytime he has the option. We had eaten many by this point some great and some not so, the not so ones always tended to be a little too red/orange and here we found out why.

It looks this way when instead of making the ‘sauce’ from scratch a cheat version is used. So although the school didn’t teach us the proper method, we found out why sometimes it looked this way.

I also asked for tips while I was at Phuket Cookery School and will make this and share with you at some point soon.

 
Once again I got full very quickly and took my curry home to eat later. I was so glad I did as it was raining the BIG FAT Thailand storm rain that day.

See, check out those clouds, you couldn’t even see the top of the hills.

We went to Lanta Thai Cookery School and highly recommend it, the teachers are all chefs from various restaurants and can recommend spots on the island as well.

Phuket Cookery School – Panaeng Curry

This became on of my favourites in Thailand and I cannot wait to make this at home for friends.

You need, for 4-6 people;
First you make the paste…
5 black peppercorns
2 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
(if using fresh of the above roast first, if using dried that’ll be fine too)
6 big fried red chillies, de-seeded and soaked for 15 minutes
1tsp galangal finely chopped
1 tsp coriander root, finely chopped
1 tsp kaffir lime peel, chopped
1 tbsp garlic cloves, chopped
1 tbsp shallots
1 tsp shrimp paste

To make the paste just pound all of these ingredients together using a pestle and mortar… preferably a big one. Add the spices first then everything else one by one until a smooth paste is formed.

To make the curry you need;
2 tbsp + 150g coconut cream
2 tbsp of your curry paste
150g of pork or beef or chicken (I love beef) in small bite size pieces
1 tbsp palm sugar
1 tbsp fish sauce
pinch salt to taste
6 kaffir lime leaves, 4 torn
1 big red chilli, chopped for garnish
2 tsp roasted ground peanuts or peanut butter

1. Heat the 2 tbsp of coconut cream in a wok and when hot add the curry paste, fry until fragrant. Then add the rest of the coconut cream and bring to the boil.

2. Add the meat and continue to cook until tender, about 1-2 minutes. Do not let the meat get tough.

3. Season with the sugar, fish sauce, peanut butter and kaffir lime leaves for 30 seconds and remove from the heat.

4. Serve garnished with kaffir lime leaves, chillies and coconut cream

By this point the sun has fully broken through the clouds and it was hot. These children found a great way to cool off.