Ha Noi Food Tales

It's the mopeds that are the surprise. Before we got to Hanoi in December I'd read a couple of bits on they net about how to cross the road and smirked. I can already do that! Then you're confronted with a seeming unstoppable river of thousands of mopeds and what you want is on the other side of the road. No lights or if there is no one pays them much heed. One way streets have bikes coming at you both ways as do the pavements. The essence of the instruction is walk out confidently and consistently into the road and you will get to the other side. I was jet lagged, hadn't slept for 30 hours or more so I wasn't entirely convinced.. But made it over had some bun with grilled pork made it back and had a little sleep. Out later that night we walked and crossed vastly busier roads and it struck me that we were all sharing the road - if you move at a considered pace and do nothing unexpected the moped riders factor that in and swerve around you as well as each other and everyone keeps moving.

After the flight there is the humidity and the scratchy eye tiredness. I booked a table at Cau Go so we could eat well without too much challenge. The room is lovely, five flights up above the lake and the manic river of traffic, gently lit and delightfully cool. Busy but not full with a fairly even split of locals and tourists. The proffered menu is long and broken into sections and it's so hard to make choices. In the end we start with deep fried tofu with ginger and lemongrass and fresh beef rolls topped with shrimp and a slightly too sweet dipping sauce.

We moved on to a slightly sour salad of morning glory and marinated beef, prawns sautéed with garlic and chilli, BBQ pork on sticks - meat on sticks is always a winner for me and a bowl of steamed rice with a separate bowl of ground toasted sesame seeds and peanut which is sensational, and will be emulated chez nous upon our return. Looking around it was clear that what the tables of tourists were ordering was different to the tables of locals who all had hotspots and soups, noodles and salads. But I have to say our inaugural dinner was very enjoyable, service was warm and helpful and the food was very good. Slept the sleep of the undead till dawn and woke to a cooler day.

Was excited for day 2 - we had a street food tour booked for a couple of hours in the middle of the day and I was hoping for great things - not just to eat well but also to understand how to eat here. Our fabulous guide Tu picked us up at the hotel around midday and we set off along a street of love hotels - inter generational families coexisting makes for little privacy, specially for couples wanting to be loved up. Rent by the hour, happiness all round. We jumped into a taxi and headed to 105 Quan Than for bun ca - fish noodle soup. I admit to being less than overjoyed at the idea, not a big fan of strong fish but I was nonetheless very curious to try. First we were taught how to sit on the tiny little red stools that are used everywhere at street places in Vietnam. You must crouch low then sit directly onto the stool to stop it collapsing. Don't wriggle about or the legs will break - this is not the furniture of my fat white western arse! The caff was busyish, just a concrete shell with the tiny table and chairs combo that I last sat on in infant school scattered about topped with plates of lime quarters, little bowls of fiery chilli paste and mugs of wooden chopsticks.

Tu grabbed a lime and rubbed the ends of the chopsticks hard, this is the way to be sure they're clean. He was trying to reassure us I think but Hanoi seems fairly clean generally and these little food stalls everywhere equally so. Mix everything everything everything says Tu, handing out bowls full of flat rice noodles, steamed fish and deep fried fish, lots of green herbs and sprouts, chilli and garlic and an astonishingly intense flavoured broth, then grabbing them back to demonstrate with chopsticks, mix mix mix like this. Knees up under our chin we slurped away till, two thirds of the way through Tu called enough! Onto the next or you'll never make it to the end.

We crossed a few roads, walking with conviction and no sudden movements, and up a few backstreets to a local market, quiet for lunch so most of the traders were stretched out behind their stalls having a little siesta while the fish swam in buckets and the great mountains of fresh greens sent out their gentle smell. Here you use herbs in great generous handfuls like the equivalent of spinach or cabbage not in the mimsy little snippets for garnish that we are much more used to in the west.

Tu explained what some of the unfamiliar ones were, breaking off sprigs and rubbing hard with his finger and thumb to release their different smells, all variations called mint, though some are redolent of fish or aniseed and not something I'd ever know as mint. We emerged out the other side of the market, past the fresh meat which you buy in just the quantity you need for the meal you are making, the stall holders prepping everything before you pay so you have only to cook when you are home.

Next stop was Pho Cuon Vinh Phong at 40 Ngu Xa Street for not cold beer to go with Pho Cuon - fresh rice wraps which I liked and Pho Chien Phong Xao Bo - puffed rice cakes with greens and marinated beef which was glorious - a brilliant mix of flavours and just fabulous textures of chewy crisp edged rice puffs, silky greens, juicy meat - highlight of the day for me.

We snaked along a few small streets, mopeds coming from all directions, beeping horns till we made it to Yen Phu Cafe,43a Pho Yen Phu, a coffee (Ca Phe) and yoghurt place. Fresh cows milk is not much in evidence in Vietnam but the family that own this place use it make some seriously great yoghurt - we tried both the passion fruit, best I've ever had, and one topped with fermented rice which I thought may well be disgusting but was in fact a great match of flavour with the sourness of the yoghurt and the moment before becoming alcohol intensity of the rice. We climbed a narrow staircase at the back then walked hunched over to the window under strings of party lights to sit again on tiny stools and had local coffee - thick and rich, topped with sweetened condensed milk over ice for a great pick me up. Recommend it for a coffee fix.

Next stop was a little place selling a local speciality - sounded unlikely when Tu suggested it, and one I won't be repeating at home. Called egg coffee and egg beer it's basically egg white whipped with sugar, and the used to top hot coffee - not a good idea - or poured into the bottom of a glass and topped with beer - a truly awful idea. Anyone makes you the offer - just say no.

We wandered through the enormous wholesale market - lots of pound shop style tat in bright colours in tiny shops tucked up under the railway line. Everything is packed away in the eaves every night using ladders then brought down and displayed again next morning. The alley ways are narrow and mostly the mopeds are slower, and every few metres someone is burning one of the solid blocks of fuel and cooking noodles or meat on sticks or simmering soup. Our final stop was for Pho Tiu - another bowl of noodles, thicker this time and topped with pork and chilli and more garlic. Tu explained that garlic too is used as a vegetable, and I know that for the first few days at least I woke every day feeling like my entire head was made from garlic so much did I eat.

Was a great tour, saw many streets I'd never have been down otherwise and got a list of recommendations for other places to try as an added bonus. We tried the first one that night, not really hungry it has to be said - we took a taxi to the Sofitel Plaza up to the summit bar for cocktails and the most stunning view. 

Even that high the traffic looks busy and the horns keep beeping but the mood is relaxed and the service charming. It's not far from Quan Kien Restaurant, 143 Nhgi Tam Street, which Tu said is his current favourite place in Hanoi. Take your shoes off and go up a couple of stairs to an expanse of polished wood dotted with low tables and a scatter of cushions. There's not much English spoken but there is a good translation of the menu so we sat on the ground, giggled a little at the Insect Menu but didn't order from it, choosing instead rice sticks deep fried with chicken skin, grilled pork on skewers and the lovely young waiter who was pushed forward by the others whenever we needed help - I'm guessing he was the only one with any English, checked we liked spicy before he added tofu to our order and then pointed at some greens when I asked which were best so we added them too.

Soon we got lots of great food, and a couple of beers, the greens were like a cross between bok choy and broccoli and came lightly steamed with shreds of ginger - perfect. The chewy bits of pork were smoky and moreish, the rice, surprisingly, came as big fat logs, hotter than hell to start with but crackly textured and a little bit dry to eat. Liked the tofu, it all seems to be made in house wherever you end up in Hanoi, but was less keen on the sauce, but together it made for a great meal and a really enjoyable evening. Just a wonderful day all together.

Next day the last of the jet lag caught up with a sleepless night and acclimatising to the  local conditions meant I felt a bit queasy but well enough later to see the water puppets.

What a delight! Puppeteers stand behind screens in water three feet deep and, with puppets manipulated on the end of long poles, tell all manner of magical tales across the water while a small group at the side of the stage above accompany the with music, singing and a brilliant collection of sound effects. 

A good nights' sleep heals many things so I started the day with pho bo, which I slurped down with gusto, much to the  consternation of the man. Seems he really does believe soup should never be eaten earlier than lunchtime - but he's wrong. Had an interesting morning at the Fine Arts Museum, fascinating collection and the building was entirely empty except for us and another man with his young son, bliss indeed. After a tour of one of the many temples we had a fairly abysmal lunch at Au Lac, set up by Imagine Asia, our equally abysmal tour organiser. Waste of a good food opportunity. Spent a total tourist afternoon, wandering by the lake and into occasional shops before cocktails at Madame Hien in their lovely garden. The menu looked interesting so we returned there later for dinner. We ordered far too much, the food came in very generous plates, but it was interesting collection of food from the different areas of the country. North, central and south Vietnam are quite distinct culturally and food wise - the north being most savoury and quite straightforward, the centre is more complex and spicy and the south has the strongest tendency to sweetness in all things.

We started with rolls but unlike the ones we'd had so far these were very thin, cooked rice crepes stuffed with greens and prawns, so an interesting mix of cooked and raw, with the crepe particularly making it a more substantial dish than the fresh rolls we had the first night. I thought it was an Indian influence but in fact turmeric is used in Central Viet cooking and it was this that made the juice that went with tofu wrapped in banana leaf and deep fried. We were presented with a small package to unwrap to release the great smell of turmeric and all of it atop a raft of steamed greens, a lovely and very substantial dish. We had another version of grilled pork - yes I am addicted and this is proving a delightful country to get my fix which too was a generous serving so the final dish of morning glory with garlic was simply too much, a shame as it tasted great.

And that's it, Hanoi done apart from eggs sunny side up for breakfast before the four hour drive to Ha Long Bay.

Laksa with Tofu Puffs

Seems an age since I had any tofu. Set my heart on laksa, thinking I would marinate and fry some cubes of silken tofu for a topping then, once I got to Wing Yip I couldn't resist a bag of tofu puffs - those big yellowy chunks of deep fried tofu that look solid and ugly and in fact are textured like donuts but vastly lighter and utterly brilliant at absorbing liquid. Perfect! I fudged the spice paste with stuff I already had and ended up with a seriously good meal. The only trick is to fry the spice paste till it darkens and smells divine - it takes about 20 minutes, stirring often, till all the liquid evaporates and you are left with a rich fragrant base.

Laksa with Tofu Puffs

I have used herbs to garnish but you can add slivers of cucumber, fresh bean sprouts, halved boiled eggs and deep fried shallots - any of them will add something good to the finished bowl
Serves 3

For the spice paste
4 large dried chillies, soaked in hot water for 15 minutes
1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
1 knob of ginger - thumb sized, of course - peeled and roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
2 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons raw cashew nuts
1/2 teaspoon belachan - dried shrimp paste if you can get some

For the laksa
2 tablespoons peanut oil
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
500ml chicken or vegetable stock
400ml can coconut milk
2 tablespoons fish sauce
100g rice vermicelli thread noodles - thin like angel hair
10 deep fried tofu puffs, cut in half
100g green beans, topped and tailed and cut into short lengths
Juice of 1/2 lime
2 tablespoons chopped thai basil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves

Roughly chop the soaked chillies and put them into a blender with the rest of the spice paste ingredients. Add some of the soaking water and blend to a thick paste.

Heat the oil in a large pan and add the spice paste. Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, till most of the liquid evaporates and you have a rich dark fragrant paste. Add the ground turmeric and coriander and stir for another minute. Add the chicken stock and coconut milk and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and gently simmer the broth for 20-30 minutes. Add the fish sauce and check the seasoning - add a little salt if necessary.

Stir in the vermicelli and simmer for a few minutes then add the halved tofu and stir, then the green beans. Cook for a couple more minutes till the beans are just tender then stir in the lime juice to sharpen the flavours. Serve in large bowls garnished with the chopped herbs.

Takeaway Adventure

 Had a small adventure this week, food related of course. Rhone wines are running a campaign to encourage people to move outside their comfort zone in the way they pair wine and food and they set out a challenge to pair a couple of their wines with Chinese food - they weren't fussed about the region but they did want it to be takeaway. I am well versed in the pleasures of drinking red wine and eating Chinese but it's fair to say I seldom do takeaway. Love the idea - pick up a little something special on the way home and dinner is ready in the time it takes to open a bottle of wine. It's a fantasy lifestyle based on all those great American tv shows where the impossibly glamourous and  clever sit comfortably and chow down on take-out whilst exchanging witty conversation and never spilling a morsel. Count me in!

 On the few occasions I have tried my local takeaways however I have been less than delighted. The combination of tired, hungry and late is possible not the ideal starting point but peking duck and noodles and greens from Spring Way is good for the first couple of mouthfuls and then it's not. By the end hunger is replaced with aggravation at eating half of some crappy food and binning the rest.

Decided to extend the idea of trying something new to the food source as well as the wine match. I have heard about Silk Road in Camberwell occasionally, mostly good things, and it is not far from home. Twenty minutes to walk but half that on the bus home it's just that Camberwell is in a direction that I seldom travel and is a bit of an interchange and a bit randomly grotty and so is not on my radar. Time to find out if things had changed.

We strolled up Camberwell Road to The Bear for a beer in a different location to find it busy busy with the build up to quiz night. Resisted the temptation to join in, though the beer was good, and set off instead for Camberwell Church Street.

 Our timing was really good - the place was heaving but not overflowing, the early diners making way for the next ones. We rapidly ordered a selection a fine selection of spicy sounding dishes, food robust enough to match a decent red. Couldn't resist the idea of hand pulled noodles with lamb and serious amounts of chilli. Silk Road does a lot of lamb dishes, one reason I was curious to try. Also ordered double cooked pork, with home style aubergine and cucumber salad rounding out the veg. Added a couple of skewers of charcoal grilled ox tripe and lamb kidney simply for the adventure.

 We waited a little while amidst the hubbub of many happy people loving eating out on a Tuesday night.

 Got lucky the second we left as the 436 pulled up. Piled aboard for the 5 minute ride, grateful to be out of the rain and delighted with the warmth of our sack of food.

 There were two wines to try - first up was Camille Cayran - Cairanne which was a lighter than I was expecting, with some spice and summer berries but, surprisingly to me at least, not robust enough to be a good match for the big flavours of the food.

 So  I set  that one aside, loaded up the trays for a dinner in front of the tv type of takeaway night and hoped for better things with the second bottle, another cote du rhone this time from La Chasse. It was a much better match, a gutsier wine with licorice and pepper. It worked really well with the variety of dishes,

Fair to say the La Chasse was good at bringing out the richness of the skewers and the spices in the other dishes

 Loved the noodles a lot

 Serious chilli and lovely with it!

We finished the Camille Cayran cote du rhone next night with a silky bowl of leek and potato soup which was a much better match. Guess the lesson is sometimes the old ways are best  but it's always worth trying new things just in case!

Bun Noodles with Lemongrass Chicken Topping

I have been frequenting Vietnamese restaurants for many years, always with a great deal of pleasure. I can clearly remember the very first one - a tiny place in Glebe in Sydney in the early 1980's (yes I am that old!). I had never tasted anything like their chicken that had been marinated in honey and lemongrass, indeed I didn't even know what lemongrass was. It was such a great combination of flavours made sticky and smoky with chargrilling and served with noodles thinner than I'd ever seen topped with mint and coriander. A total WOW of a dish. Somehow they made huge flavours presented with an extraordinary delicacy. I was gobsmacked.

I visited this restaurant a few more times before I left Oz, always delighted by whatever I chose but completely unable to understand how this magic came to be. Over the years I have become a much better cook, gaining inspiration from far and wide with a serious penchant for Asian food. Indeed the book I have used most over the decades is Charmaine Solomon's Complete Asian Cookbook, but somehow I've never gone much past the chrystal spring rolls and the little deep fried parcels in the Vietnamese section, despite loving their lightness and genius use of fresh herbs and hot sweet chilli sauce.

I recently ought a copy of New Flavours of the Vietnamese Table by Mai Pham partly because I was tempted by the idea of cooking a bit more Viet food and partly because Fuchsia Dunlop, whose Szchewan food is thoroughly brilliant and has taught me so much, endorses it wholeheartedly on the cover. In truth I was hoping to learn something with this book about what underlies the cuisine rather than just have a couple of new recipes in the repertoire. Delighted to say that has happened quite comprehensively.

I had a little bit of very rare chargrilled steak leftover and I decided to make noodle salad. Browsing the book I came across bun - rice noodles with fresh herbs - which Mai Pham describes as the one dish that exemplifies just how flavours and textures are contrasted in Vietnamese cuisine.

To start, you shred lettuce and herbs, beansprouts and cucumber and mix them, without any dressing or oil or seasoning, and add them to the bottom of a noodle bowl. Cooked, cooled thin rice vermicelli is put on top. As I followed that instruction it came back to me the number of times I have ordered bun in restaurants and been confused and disappointed by the odd dry salad beneath a tangle of noodles that somehow never worked and yet is on every Vietnamese menu I've ever seen. I kept going though, and I am so glad. She describes how to create a complete bun meal, by making a hot topping for this then - and here is the the magic that transforms the dish - you make and add a series of garnishes and gently toss the whole lot together to make a most fabulous meal. I was so thrilled with the result I made bun again the following night, topping it with lemongrass chicken and again, it was bliss.

Bun with Lemongrass Chicken

The first time you make it unfamiliarity makes it seems like a faff, but in truth it is not really very complex and the result is effort rewarded a thousand times over

Serves 2

For the noodles
150g thin dried rice vermicelli
50g red or green leaf lettuce, shredded into centimetre wide strips
A handful of fresh bean sprouts, topped and tailed
About a quarter of a long cucumber, peeled, deseeded and cut into matchstick strips
2 tablespoons Asian basil leaves, cut into thirds
2 tablespoons of perilla leaves, fresh mint or coriander, roughly chopped

Bring a large pot of water to a rolling boil. Add the rice vermicelli and stir gently to loosen them. Cook for about 4 minutes until the noodles are white and soft but still slightly resilient. Drain and rinse under cold running water. Gently fluff the noodles and set them aside for at least thirty minutes. The noodles should be dry and sticky before serving.

Gently toss together the lettuce, bean sprouts, cucumber and herbs and divide the mixture between 2 bowls. Top each with half of the noodles. The bowls are now ready for the topping.

For the garnish
Spring onion oil
60 ml vegetable oil
5 spring onions, green parts only, cut into thin rings

Heat the vegetable oil in a small pan over a moderat heat. Add the spring onions and stir for 10 seconds. Immediately remove from the heat and transfer the oil with the spring onions to a small bowl. Place in the fridge for 10 minutes - this helps the spring onions stay green. Remove and set aside at room temperature till ready to serve. This sauce will keep for a couple of weeks in a sealed jar in the fridge.

Toasted Peanuts
3 tablespoons raw shelled peanuts, skins removed

Heat a pan over a medium heat, add the peanuts and stir for a few minutes till the peanuts are fragrant and starting to colour. Tip them into a mortar and pestle them lightly till they're roughly crushed.

Nuoc Cham - Dipping Sauce
2 Thai bird's eye chillies
1 garlic clove, sliced
3 tablespoons sugar
170ml warm water
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
5 tablespoons fish sauce

Cut the chillies into thin rings and put them into a mortar with the garlic and sugar and pound into a coarse wet paste. Transfer to a small bowl and add the water, lime juice and fish sauce and stir well to dissolve. Garnish with more chopped chilli and shredded carrot if desired.

For the topping
1 large chicken breast, skinned and thinly sliced
1 stalk lemon grass, sliced into very thin circles
1 thumb sized knob of ginger, peeled. Cut half into very thin dice and shred the other half into thin matchsticks
1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
Half red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 tablespoons fish sauce
Juice of half a lime

Mix the sliced chicken with the lemon grass and the thin ginger dice and set aside for 30 minutes to marinate. heat the oil in a wok and add the garlic, ginger shreds and red onion and stir fry for about 30 seconds. Add the chicken and toss over a high heat till it has cooked and turned white. Add the fish sauce and lime juice and toss to combine.

To serve, divide the chicken topping between the prepared noodle bowls. Garnsih each with half a tablepsoon of Spring Onion Oil, 1 tablespoon of peanuts and about 60ml of dipping sauce. Toss several times before eating.

Devour with the most enormous pleasure!

This Week... I Wanted, I Bought, I Made

And truth be told probably found it in the freezer or the drawer in need of using up. New Year, isn't it, and I really do need to clear the stockpile of  lovely bits and pieces, so for the next month at least they are my starting point. I am determined to be good.

So, Friday we shall have grilled pork chops (freezer) with mash and carrots and peas, a meal I really lovely for its simplicity and how gorgeous it is on the plate and in my mouth. Already this plan has gone to pot! Woke early with jetlag and changed my mind to Viet beef and noodles for Friday supper. Went to the market and Ginger Pig had sirloin on the bone for £8 each - as I asked for a slice of rump for noodles they offered me these instead - with the offer of cutting me rump if I really wanted some. Didn't! So I had nothing for dinner - remembered bacon and peas in the freezer so it was pasta - using tiny little ditali from the cupboard so very quick - with bacon, onions and peas with a little creme fraiche.

Saturday we may start the day with porridge as the man and I have been to Oz where the sun shines practically daily so our blood is warm and our bodies are surprised to find themselves back in the dark dank winter chill of  London. Off to Suffolk for the weekend, there was a change of plans so breakfast was toast from a loaf from the freezer and dinner will be the fabulous steaks with a simple salad. Still thinking dal - lentils in the cupboard - and rice with roasted spiced cauliflower when we get back Sunday night, as it's an easy thing to put together and works a treat cold for lunch. Even without going away it was a good idea, specially with the pretty purple rimmed  heritage carrots in lunchboxes.

Monday we're at the Royal Court to see the Beckett trilogy, so dinner out somewhere. Tuesday we shall have a Vietnamese style vegetable curry - I have tofu sheets in the cupboard and an open book on fresh veg as the fridge is post holiday bare. Actually had a little of the steak left from Saturday so made Viet herbed noodles topped with stir fried steak and it was gorgeous. I really enjoyed making this salad, actually called bun in Vietnam which I do find slightly confusing. The salad is a mix of shredded lettuce with sprouts and cucumber and herbs that goes into the bottom of the bowls undressed - no jokes please about naked buns!. The cooked fine rice noodles go on top and then the stirfried meat goes in on top of  that. I made a couple of little bowls of condiments which is what really made the meal - spring onion oil, toasted crushed peanuts and a bowl of nuoc cham, a hot/sweet/sour chilli sauce. Once all three were added you toss the whole lot together and it was amazing. Also made me realise what I should have been doing in Vietnamese restaurants when I've always felt slightly disappointed to be presented with this.

Wednesday omelette with black eye bean salsa - got a bag of beans already cooked and frozen. Bun was so good last night defrosted a chicken breast and cooked it with ginger and lemon grass and made the noodles again to use up the herbs and beansprouts I'd bought for last night, 

 Thursday I really fancy spaghetti with a simple tomato sauce with lots of Parmesan and a big salad. Instead it is vegetable curry to use the other half of the cauliflower and the last of the beansprouts and a tin of coconut milk from the cupboard.

At the market I bought coffee from Monmouth - £12.50 then went to Ginger Pig and bought the steaks and some eggs - £17.50. At L'Artisan du Chocolat I bought a bag of misshapes for the man £2.50 and, after asking a guide where to find them bought olives from the recently moved Fresh Olive stand £3.50. At Gastronomica I bought a lovely piece of Pecorino £9.20 - while I was being served a woman came and asked to try the provolone, I was amazed to see her simply stuff it in her mouth as she walked away without so much as a thank you. Milk and yoghurt at Neals Yard - £5.05 and I was done, except for the hot chorizo roll from Brindisa - a delight at £4.95

Bought more in the week, creme fraiche for the pasta at the Lidl newly opened round the corner. Lettuce and carrots from Oval farmers market, and cauliflower from Brixton farmers market as well as spinach and coriander, cucumber, lemons and limes, passionfruit, clementines, ginger, chillies, lemongrass, beansprouts and Thai basil from Brixton market.

Thursday I got a new vegetable juicer, possibly a mad notion given how difficult it is to buy decent veg but I've been hankering for juice lately. So went to Brixton again and bought beetroot, carrots, peppers, apples and more ginger, theplan being to have juice every evening when the man returns from hunting and gathering instead of beer. We'll see how that goes!

I made as well a chocolate mud cake from a recipe in the Graun only because, you understand, I had salted butter and lots of chocolate in the fridge. I used passionfruit instead of limes and it was gorgeous to eat and a big hit when the man took it into work. Think he may regret sharing so generously.

Crocodile Steaks

Never smile at a crocodile

No you can't get friendly with a crocodile

Don't be taken in by his friendly grin

He's imagining how well you'd fit within his skin

My mother used to sing that to me when I was a kid. She spent her working life teaching five and six year olds and her spare time coaching them to be brilliant in Eisteddfod, with the result being that her face took on such a wonderful animation when she sang these kind of songs, and hearing her sing this one in particular made all within earshot squeal with terrified delight.

Crocodiles are ancient creatures, possibly around even at the time of the extinction of the dinosaurs, and as they move so smoothly between water and land you can almost see evolution in progress. I've seen them in the wild as well as in zoos around the world and mostly they are very still, so you'd hardly notice them at all. I was intrigued by them at Berlin Zoo on a long ago visit and stood watching a group of them for 20 minutes or more. I swear none of them moved a muscle apart from an occasional blink. Then it was feeding time and a keeper stood on a bridge above them and threw down hunks of meat - there was an immediate frenzy of thrashing limbs and snapping jaws. I was on the other side of a glass wall and I was TERRIFIED. Others may claim to imagine handbags and shoes when they see them but me? Nooooooo. I'm way too busy making sure I'm not smiling.

Recently I went to a food and wine pairing with wines from Touraine in the Loire, with the talented winematcher Fiona Beckett hosting the evening. Matching half a dozen dishes  with two wines each it was interesting to compare not just the wines but also the way they changed with the food. With sole goujons and chips - apparently sauvignon blanc has been voted a great wine pair with one of Britain's favourite dishes - I liked the grassy freshness of  the Domaine Guenault, Famille Bougrier 2011 on first sip but was surprised at how much it brought out the flavour of the food. I was too quick with my quaffing to follow Fiona's suggestion of trying it first just with the fish then adding lemon juice and trying again but with the lemon there was a proper balance of the wine's acidity with the citrus. Might have to move on from my go to pairing of beer and chips!

Over the course of the evening the assembled group of invited bloggers tried a variety of reds and whites with different foods. I am always a bit uncertain about how to make the matches but Fiona was both incredibly knowledgeable and quite reassuring. She makes the point that as you cook you taste, and the choice of wine is simply part of that tasting process rather than, as I tend to think, a separate activity. Wine can obviously improve the experience of food, and she explained that the way food is cooked is usually more relevant than the base ingredients, so the strong flavours of the smoked venison with a red wine reduction we had towards the end of the tasting really needs the robustness and slight funkyness of the Henry Marionnet, Vinifera 2010, a great balance of  flavours of food to wine, and my favourite wine of the evening.

The last wine of the night was lightly chilled Domaine Paget Sparkling Rosé, a wonderfully unsweet slightly berryish richly pink glass of fizz. After the evenings tuition we were invited to make our own matches with a brilliant array of berries and fruits, brimmimng bowls of chantilly and mascarpone, piles of pretty biscuits and an assortment of chocolate in various forms. I laid out an attractive selection plate and set to with gusto. Though I'm not really a fan of white chocolate it was okay with the wine, the raspberries were a better match, I liked the sharp tang of the lime segments though you wouldn't do a lot of them!

It is part of developing what Fiona describes as a palate memory - honed by trying wine and food in different combinations and different situations and remembering what you like. The last element to successful matching is just being appropriate - a cheap simple wine is a quaffable match to a plate of pasta, a wildly expensive rare vintage is the obvious starting point for an entirely different menu, the wine determining the food in this instance.

In the end my dessert of choice for the rosé was probably the simplest food on my plate - juicy slices of nectarine with a light grind of black pepper - the rich sweetness of the fruit and the tiny prickles of heat was a great match for this rosé, sumptuous enough to match the bubbles and wonderfully clean after taste - refreshing on a surprsingly hot summer evening.

At home on the weekend my cousin and her husband were visiting from Australia and they came to visit with their son and his wife, the lovely J&M - a perfect excuse to chill the pink bubbly. I paired it with mostly savoury things and I loved the way it matched the richness of the guinciale in particular.

There was also a bottle of Morrison's Touraine Sauvignon Blanc, 2011, that was paired on the tasting night with a prawn and noodle salad and it worked well with the chilli and seafood. Once home I went round and round wondering what to match it with, settling briefly on something lemony and chickeny then deciding  there must be something better. Watching Celebrity Masterchef the other night the contestants were given crocodile as one of  the mystery ingredients, to some consternation it has to be said. The man grinned with delight and said how come we never have crocodile? For me it was the eureka moment.

I'm not sure if crocodile is technically seafood or land creature - fish or fowl? - but it is definitely a white flesh that is more robust than delicate and extremely lean with it. I bought a couple of tail fillets - pieces you understand, not whole tails - from the Exotic Meat Company at Borough (they do mail order) and marinated them for a few hours before flash frying them. I made a bowl of fresh cabbage salad and added a tablespoon of  toasted desiccated coconut and served it all with plain basmati.

Marinated Crocodile Steaks

Serves 2

2 crocodile steaks from the tail - though thinking about it if it's not the teeth then crocodile is mostly tail
Juice of 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small green chilli, thinly sliced, deseeded if you don't like it too hot
1 tablespoon grated ginger
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unflavoured vegetable oil

Put the crocodile steaks into a flat bowl, mix the juice, olive oil, chilli, ginger, garlic and salt until well combined and pour over the meat. Rub well into both sides of the flesh then cover and refrigerate for a couple of hours.

Warm the vegetable oil in a fryng pan over a high heat. Add the steaks and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side till lightly crusted and cooked through. Serve with rice and cabbage salad and a chilled glass of sauvignon blanc.

I'm delighted to say the wine worked a treat with it all, really bringing out the flavour of the meat and making for a great end to a really enjoyable weekend.

Have to include this photo of the handsomest dog in the world - Eddie came along for the excitement - and was definitely intrigued by the rosé!

 

Prawn and Noodle Salad

I have been thinking of  late about what it takes to put a meal on the table. So not just the chopping and the stirring but also the planning and the shopping and assembling and then the chopping and the stirring and - finally - the washing up, the clearing away, the cleaning of hob and benches and floors and the making sure that all the dishes and pots and plates are returned to their rightful place. I'm wondering about the balance - what makes it worth it and how much that influences what I choose to make and then whether I make it again.

I have been known to remake something that didn't work the first time in the hope that I will crack it the next time, so it's not always about taste. I have been known to really like something and never make it again as it's simply too much faff, so - again - it's not just about taste. I have been known to make something that is an enormous amount of faff, tastes great, and I mentally file it away to be made for special occasions only. It does get made again, and enjoyed, and mostly I am thinking I'm glad I don't make that every week... So - once again - not only about taste.

The last category is things that I'm expecting to be relatively straightforward that turn out to be an enormous faff which taste amazing and - with knowledge aforethought - I put straight on the menu for next week because I loved eating it so much that all the effort required in the washing up and the chopping and the extra trip to find the right noodles or sauce or particular veg or whatever is as nothing to the pleasure of  this food. Which is entirely about taste! There are some dishes that bring so much pleasure, such delight in every mouthful, that whatever it takes makes it worth it.

Such meals are remarkably rare - possibly fortunately! - but are a real joy to come across. We had one such last week, a Japanese inspired prawn and noodle salad that I've been meaning to make for weeks but, for one reason or another, it wasn't coming together. Then Friday I bought some wonderfully sweet prawns from Shellseekers and was sure that dinner would be whipped up in about 20-30 minutes. Ha!

The recipe comes from a recent cookbook purchase, Citrus and Spice, by Sybil Kapoor. It's a seductively lovely book written to match each month of the year and it's very evocative of the movement of flavour with the progress of time through the year. It's one of those books where you think mmmm, that sounds good, or yum must make that about pretty much every recipe. This was the first thing I'd made - there will definitely be more - and because the prawns were already cooked and nothing else was complicated or unknown I just assumed it would be really really quick. What I should have factored in was the book has a foreword by Heston Blumenthal, whose food I adore but, in truth, everything I've ever made from his recipes has taken vast amounts of time - again almost invariably worth it but it is already in my head that this will be slow before I set out. His admiration for the book and the cook is well placed, but it is a hint of what might be involved!

Buckwheat Noodles with Nori

This is included in February but will work all the way through spring and onwards

Serves 2

Sybil Kapoor notes that the nori adds an addictive ozone note to these noodles which will ensure that you feel virtuous and healthy as you slurp them up. She's right.

2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh ginger
2 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons Japanese soy sauce
2 tablespoons mirin
6 small spring onions - I used 2 very large ones
170g Japanese soba (buckwheat) noodles
150g peeled, cooked North Atlantic prawns
1 teaspoon plus 2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
2 medium eggs beaten
1/2 tablspoon sunflower oil
7.5g toasted nori sheets - a sheet about 12cm x 8cm

Put the ginger, sake, soy sauce and mirin into a small saucepan. Set over a low heat and slowly bring up to a simmer, then cook for 2 minutes. Leave to cool while you prepare the other ingredients.

Trim the spring onions and finely slice their pale green stems. Place in a large mixing bowl.

Bring a large pan of unsalted water to the boil. Gradually add the noodles, making sure the water doesn't stop boiling. Cook according to the packet instructions until al dente. This is usually about 5-7 minutes. Drain and rinse thoroughly under the cold tap.

Meanwhile, pat the prawns dry on the kitchen paper and mix into the spring onions. Set a non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Whisk a teaspoon of sesame oil into the eggs. Add 1/2 tablespoon of sunflower oil to the pan and, once hot, add the beaten eggs and cook as a very thin omelette. Fry for 2 minutes or until cooked through. Tip the omelette out onto a wooden board and, as soon as it is cool enough to handle, roll it up and slice it finely into long thin shreds. Mix it with the prawns and spring onion.

Hold the sheet of nori with some tongs and wave it across the gas jet on the hob or over an electric plate to just warm it through. Snip the nori into small pieces and add to the prawns with the well-drained noodles. Whisk 2 tablespoons of sesame oil into the soy dressing and mix it into the noodels.

Serve immediately and be prepared for fabulous.

How much washing up is too much washing up?

I am so very glad I did make this unknowing - if I'd thought about the time involved without eating it first I  might never have done it and my culinary repertoire would be the worst for it. What's your tipping point for making - or not - new things?