Hot and sour prawn noodle broth

Noodles for 2 people (I used dried but straight to wok are fab for this)
Chicken stock (about 500ml)
250g raw prawns
Soy sauce (large dash)
Fish sauce (large dash)
Juice of one lime
1 green chilli, sliced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
Ginger
Caster sugar (about a teaspoon full)
Rice vinegar (a dash)
Any veg you fancy (I used pepper because that's what I had but green beans are good)

First cook your noodles and put in the bottom of a large deep bowl.  If you are using straight to wok noodles you can put these in the bowl as they are.

In a saucepan grate some ginger.  Then add all the ingredients except the prawns and the veg.  Simmer for a few minutes to infuse.  Taste and add a bit more of anything you think it needs.  It should be spicy and a little sour but with a hint of salt.

Then add the prawns and veg until the prawns are cooked and ladle over the noodles.  If you've used straight to wok noodles then the heat of the broth will cook them in a couple of mins.

Then slurp as much as you like - yum!

Slow cooked sausages with lentils

Serves 2 greedy people or possibly 3 not so greedy people.

Pork sausages x6
Large handful green lentils
1 leek, sliced
Few cloves garlic, sliced
1 stick celery, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
Squidge of tomato puree
Glass of red wine
1 bouquet garni
1 bay leaf
Mixed herbs
Black peppercorns
1 beef stock cube

I put all of the above into my slow cooker along with a bit of water.  Cooked on low for 8hrs.

Taste and adjust the seasoning at the end if need be.

This was really very tasty.  I was worried that the sausages would be a bit anaemic looking but as they were on top they actually browned a little bit.  The lentils kept their shape but were nice and soft.  Ideally I'd do this with puy lentils but not sure how they'd fare in the slow cooker.

Cheese sauce disaster

I was watching the Heston cheese episode the other night and was very taken with his cheese sauce recipe.

I normally make my cheese sauce using the traditional roux, milk and cheese method.  I find that this works well in things like lasagne where it gets a good cooking but not too well in some other things like macaroni cheese where I find it can taste a bit floury.

Heston makes his sauce by reducing white wine then adding hot chicken stock.  He then grates the cheese, coats it in a spoonful of cornflour and adds it to the stock mixture.  This should give you a smooth and thick cheese sauce.  On the tv it looked lovely and I very much liked the idea of not using any flour.

I thought I would use this method to make cheese sauce for cauliflower cheese.

Mistake number 1

I had a quick look at the recipe (a very quick look and decided to guestimate the quantities)

Mistake number 2

I got caught up doing something else and forgot about the white wine reducing on the hob until I smelt something burning and found that my wine had reduced to a load of grainy black mush.

I started again and reduced the wine that was left in the bottle.  I then added some chicken stock.  While that was heating through I grated some comte and coated it in a heaped teaspoon of cornflour.  Then I added it to the stock and stirred it through.

It was immediately apparent that this wasn’t right.  It didn’t thicken and looked a bit grainy.  So I mixed another teaspoon of cornflour in some water and added that, it made no difference so I added another.  This made no difference either so I went with what I had and poured it over my cauliflower and cooked it in the oven for about 20mins.

The end result was very watery and not in the least bit thick.  It tasted nice but I’m not sure where I went wrong.  I suspect that seeing as Heston is all about precise cooking that I should have measured my ingredients.  I shall have to try again.

Greens

I have discovered that I bloody love greens!

Greens are not a vegetable that I normally buy.  I don’t know why not really.  I love the irony tang and they are dead cheap.  For £1 you get enough for about 8 good sized portions. 

So far I have had them stir fried with chilli and garlic, stir fried in olive oil and steamed with chicken stock.  Next time I think I might add them to a chorizo broth.

Anyone have any good greens recipes to share?

Pressure cooker chicken stock

One chicken carcass

2 carrots, roughly chopped

2 onions, roughly chopped

2 sticks celery, roughly chopped

Bay leaf

Thyme

Parsley

2 cloves garlic, squashed

Black peppercorns

According to Heston, the pressure cooker is the secret weapon to good chicken stock.

I had a chicken carcass left over from a roast chicken so thought I’d give it a go.  Ideally you would wait until you had 2 or 3 carcasses to give you a nice meaty stock.  However, I don’t have a big enough freezer so had to make do with one.

All I did was to bung it all in the pan and top it up with cold water.  I then cooked it under pressure for about 2hrs all in.

The result is much paler than I was expecting (probably due to the fact that I only used one carcass) but it has congealed into a nice tub of jelly and has probably made about 500ml.  The results are not as chickeny as I would like.  Next time I think I might reduce it a bit to concentrate the flavour.

Random

Seeing dogs in the passenger seat of cars makes me smile.  That is all.

Slow cooked lamb with prunes

This is a lazy tagine style Sunday dinner.

500g stewing lamb (mine was on the bone)
1 onion sliced
A handful of prunes
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 star anise
1 tsp cumin
Red wine (enough to come about halfway up once the ingredients are in the slow cooker)

Normally I would brown the meat and onions before putting them into the slow cooker but quite frankly I couldn't be bothered so I just put all the ingredients into the slow cooker and cook on low for 8hrs.  Serve with couscous or rice.

This smelt amazing as it was cooking and tasted just as good as when the meat had been browned.  It was dark and unctuous and sweet from the prunes.  You could add a chilli or some cayenne pepper if you wanted a bit of poke to it.

Slow cooked jerk pork with rice and greens

500g diced pork shoulder
2 tbsps Jerk seasoning
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 onions
1 red chilli
1 clove garlic
Greens
Basmati rice to serve

Brown pork in a pan then transfer to slow cooker.
Add onions to the pan and cook for a couple of mins.
Add the jerk seasoning (I couldn't find any so I used a large tbsp of Caribbean seasoning and a v generous glug of Reggae Reggae sauce) and cook for a minute.
Pour contents of the pan into the slow cooker along with the chopped tomatoes.
I also added a bay leave and some black pepper.
Cook on low for 8hrs.

When ready to serve prepare the greens.  Fry the garlic and chilli for one minute in some oil then add the greens and stir fry for 3-4mins until cooked.

Serve with rice.

This was lovely comfort food on a cold night with very little effort required.  If I had more time then I think I would make my own Jerk seasoning as I suspect it would give the dish a bit more oomph but this did the job.

Goats Cheese Pizzas

Another fridge tea.

I had a log of goats cheese leftover from Christmas.  I decided to make goats cheese pizzas.

I bought:
2 ready made thin and crispy pizza bases (I am a bad Gastro Girl) £1.20
1 pack Spanish ham £1.99
1 bag salad £1.50
1 garlic baguette £0.50
Total: £5.19

I had:
1 log goats cheese
Jarred red peppers
Mushrooms
Tomato puree
Parmesan cheese

I drizzled the pizza bases with some oil from a tin of sun-dried tomatoes, then spread them with tomato puree.  Topped with the ham, cheese, peppers and sliced mushrooms and grated a bit of parmesan on top.

Cook for 10mins at 200c.  Serve with salad dressed with balsamic glaze to complement the goats cheese.

Note to self: I did not need the garlic bread.  This was too much bread.

My Battle with Air-Con Face

This is obviously not a post about food.  However, I thought I would share my ongoing quest for the perfect dry skin cure.  I’m afraid that this is a long post!

The Problem

I have very dry skin.  I work in an air conditioned office where the air sucks what little moisture I have right out of my face leaving it tight, sore and flaky.  It also leaves me with fine dehydration lines under my eyes.  Read dehydration lines, not wrinkles!  It is especially bad in the winter when the heating is on and I have had enough.

The Search

For years I have been searching for the perfect moisturiser to combat my air-con face.  I have tried absolutely loads of products ranging from budget to ‘how much’!  Here’s a selection of the ones I have tried in the last 12 months. 

Eucerin Dry Skin Relief Face Cream 5% Urea - £10 for 50ml

This looks like the sort of cream you might be prescribed by a doctor.  It says it is for dry, tight, rough and scaly skin.  Sounded perfect.  This burnt like hell and I couldn’t use it.  I seem to remember that it smelt bad too.  I threw this one in the bin.

0/10

E45 cream - £3 for 125ml

We’ve all heard of this cream and this is the one that people always recommend when you say you have dry skin.  I have to say that I hate it.  It is not in the least bit luxurious and has an awful chemical smell (the smell lingers too so it is right under your nose all day).  I felt like I was rubbing some kind of industrial substance into my face.  It also sits on the skin and leaves you feeling greasy and sticky.  If it had worked I might have put up with it but it just didn’t do the job for me and my face was still sore and tight during the day with the added bonus that I smelt horrid.  I finished up the tub on my dry heels.

2/10 (for feet only)

Dermalogica Intensive Moisture Balance - £40 for 100ml

I used this cream for years when I was younger and I don’t remember suffering with dry skin the way I do now so I thought I’d give it another go.

I really like Dermalogica products.  There is nothing nasty in them, they are fragrance free and feel high quality.

I like this cream.  The texture is quite rich, thicker than a lotion but not heavy at all.  I remembered why I used to use it.  However, a few hours into the working day and my skin was tight, sore and flaky as usual.  I finished up the tube and moved on to something else.

7/10

Dermalogica Super Rich Repair - £40 for 50ml

 

This is part of their Age Smart range and is the richest moisturiser they do.  I was surprised by the light texture of this cream but I had high hopes.  Unfortunately, again it didn’t do the job for me.  It’s very expensive but it has quality ingredients and a lovely texture.  However, I’d rather spend my money on the Intensive Moisture Balance as I didn’t feel this was as good.  I also wasn’t keen on the packaging.  You can’t see how much you have used.  It does work though.  I was sure that there was still product left in the tub when this stopped dispensing so I took it apart and found that there wasn’t a drop left!

6/10

La Roche Posay – Rosaliac XL Rich - £14 for 40ml

This is described as a fortifying anti-redness moisturiser for dry and very dry skin with occasional to chronic redness and reactive skin with fragile blood vessels.  This probably describes my skin perfectly and was recommended to me by themakeupfairy. 

It’s also French and don’t French women have brilliant skin?

This is a lotion and is surprisingly light in texture for something described as rich.  It is green in colour, presumably to combat the redness.  It smells quite nice and goes on smoothly.  However, the texture of this just wasn’t rich enough for me.  My skin just sucked it up and I had to use a lot of it to feel the benefit.  I also felt as if it was actually drying my face a little.  Needless to say, it didn’t combat the air-con face.

4/10

La Roche Posay Nutritic 2.5% - £17 for 40ml

This cream aims to transform the four signs of dry skin: tightness, fragility, rigidity, roughness.

Again, this had quite a light texture but was richer than the Rosaliac cream.  It smelt quite strong but pleasant.

I was quite impressed with it but it didn’t stop my face drying up throughout the day.

5/10

Liz Earle Superskin £35 for 50ml

This is my most recent purchase and I was really quite excited about this one as it gets rave reviews.  I also like the fact that it is a natural product.

I like the packaging.  The glass jar is really substantial and nice enough to display if you wanted.  I couldn’t help wondering how much of the price went towards that rather than the actual product though.

This is a good quality cream.  The smell is not for everyone and some people say it smells a bit like fish.  I get what they mean but I think of it as more of a slight medicinal smell.  The smell goes away very quickly though so this didn’t put me off.

It has a lovely smooth, light texture and goes on really well.  I like it and it would be fine if I wasn’t in the air conditioned office.  However, again this did nothing for the air-con face and my skin was tight and dry by lunchtime easily. 

Many of the reviews say that one jar will last them for months.  Now, I probably use quite a lot of cream as my face really sucks it up but I’ve just run out of this after just under 6 weeks.  So for me, although I liked it it’s just not worth the money.  I’d rather buy Dermalogica Intensive Moisture Balance if I were looking for a cream in this price bracket.

7/10

Naked Skin Thirst Aid 12 Hour Moisturiser – £7.49 for 100ml

I like Naked products.  They use natural ingredients, are reasonably priced and smell lovely.  I already use their shampoo and conditioner and have tried some of their body moisturisers.  I got this half price in Superdrug.

This smells quite strongly of jasmine, which I like.  I imagine it could be a bit overpowering for some.  It has quite a rich, thick texture but disappears into the skin well.

It doesn’t combat the air-con face and my skin was dry and tight by lunchtime.

However, I have been using this at night and when I wake up in the morning my face feels really soft and dewy so I’ll continue to use this one.  Yay - success!

9/10 (based on use as a night cream rather than air-con face saviour)

The Solution

My next port of call was going to be Origins as I haven’t tried their products yet.  They do a mushroom cream for dry skin and I quite fancied this.  Again it was in the £40 bracket.  They also do a serum and I thought this could be the answer.  Given that none of the above products have worked I thought that rather than spend nearly £90 on another two products I thought I’d see if I could get some samples from the Origins counter in my nearest department store.  The girl on the counter was very happy to show me the products but said they didn’t have any samples.  I was not happy and thought I’d have to spend the rest of my days with a face like a shrivelled up prune L

What was a dry-faced girl to do?  I’d joked about just using olive oil on my face and I’d read about the oil cleansing method and been intrigued.  I did a bit of research on the internet and realised that there are quite a few facial oils on the market and lots of people swear by almond oil. 

I really didn’t know which one to try and was seriously considering the extra virgin olive oil in the kitchen when I remembered that I had a Burts Bees body oil at home.  In a last ditch attempt to make my face happy I thought I’d give this a go.

So the next morning I rubbed a small amount on my face and then used Liz Earle Superskin on top.  The Burts Bee oil is a mixture of sweet almond oil and lemon oil so smells lovely.  When I put the moisturiser on top it felt really dewy and sort of wet.

My face was obviously a little oily to start with BUT by lunchtime no tight face…late afternoon, no tight face…get home, no tight face.  The oil had sunk in and there was no oily residue left.  My skin was HAPPY!  Usually my skin flakes on my nose and is just plain sore and uncomfortable.  There was none of that.  I used it the next day and the day after and I have been doing so for a couple of weeks now.

I am a complete facial oil convert.  It works!  My skin is clearer, my dehydration lines are practically gone and there is no soreness or flaking.

The one I am currently using is not designed to be a facial oil so I think it is greasier than proper facial formulations might be.  You have to be careful not to overdo it and end up with greasy hair where it touches your face.  However, it works and if I’m a little slick on the train in the morning who cares!

Sainsburys are doing 50% off (£6.49) Betty Hula the Secret Anti-Ageing Wonder Oil at the moment.  This has won a few beauty awards and I have ordered one to be delivered with my shopping next week.  I’m hoping that this will sink into the skin a bit more but still do the job.  I will report back.

Does anyone else use facial oils?