Freakin' love me a farmers market.

It has been 6 months. 6 months of London life; a move, a new neighborhood and culinary experiences that have ranged from the informal drunken joy of discovering the new local chicken shop to culinary-gasiming over the raspberry souffle cloud of dreams in high heels courtesy of Micheal Roux at the Langham.

A few weeks ago I had the joy and merriment of discovering my new local farmers market in Queens Park. (I now live in Queens Park. Or alternatively I say Kilburn. It depends on how fancy vs 'urban' I feel that day.) This pretty much involved my flat mate and I running around eating every cheese sample available and spending far too much money on purple cauliflowers.



We were keen on something Thai for dinner but didn't fancy the usual chicken or prawn vibe so decided to go a little left field and bought some duck from a raather nice man at the farmers market. To accompany it I made a thai green curry vegetable broth. It was a real Sunday treat and serving the duck as such ensures you get the rendered down crispy duck skin vibes everyone loves.

Serves 2 with leftover paste.

2 duck breasts, skin scored and seasoned
1 tbsp flavourless oil

For the curry paste:
2 lemongrass stalks
2 kaffir lime leaves
stalks of a bunch of coriander
3 fat garlic cloves
2 inch piece of ginger or galangal
zest of 1 lime
2-3 hot thai chilles
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 red onion

An assortment of vegetables , I used aubergine, cavolo nero and cauliflower
Tin of coconut milk
1 chicken stock cube
500 ml water
palm (or brown) sugar
lime juice
the leaves from the bunch of coriander, chopped
2 more lime leaves finely shredded
fish sauce

Steamed rice

Pre heat oven to 200˚C

Blitz all the ingredients for the paste in a processor or bash it up in pestle and mortar.

Now get the duck on. Place it skin side down on a medium heat in a frying pan for 6-8 minutes until golden brown, pour off the fat regularly and then seal the other side for 30 seconds.

Now on a rack in a roasting tin in the middle of the oven roast the breasts for 8 -12 minutes (8 for rare, 12 for medium, cook it anymore and you don't deserve to eat it because your a bad person)

While the duck roasts take two table spoons of the paste and sweat in the oil until fragrant. Add the cubed aubergine, stock cube, water, coconut milk and shredded lime leaves then leave to simmer until the aubergine is nearly cooked through and the sauce has reduced by about a 3rd. Now throw in the cauliflower, broken into florets and the cavolo nero shredded for the last 5 minutes.

The duck should be about done now, whip it out and leave to rest for 10 mins.

When the veg is cooked balance the sauce. Taste it, think about it and then pimp it with the sugar, fish sauce, lime juice and coriander and even freshly sliced chilli if required until you have a salty/sweet/spicy/sour dreamy harmony.

Serve the veg and sauce on a bed of steamed rice and top with the sliced duck breast.

Noodle Soup (Again).

Living with my Dad is acting like culinary kryptonite at the moment. Most people laugh at me when they learn that my average day involves my Dad and I pinging each other emails across London with subject lines such as 'yummy' and 'lets make this' followed by an evening of cooking and watching  the Good Food channel, all the time discussing how friggin' awesome what we've cooked that day is. If I say so myself we are probably the best fed pair of workers in SW London - at the moment Monday seems to be the day for our version of the Olympics.

There are a fair amount of noodle soup recipes on this blog. This is something I refuse to apologise for because, you know what? There is about to be another. This one sits somewhere between Vietnamese, Thai and Schezuan (I think) and was the product of one of mine and my fathers rather elaborate Monday evenings. It is a feast of textures and layers of flavor and is yours to do what you will with, whether you want it more lime-y or chilli hot etc.

Serves 2

For the Chicken:
4 x Chicken thighs, skinned, boned and blitzed in the food processor
2 tbsp flavorless oil
a good handful of sesame seeds
1 tbsp of runny honey

For The Paste:
1 stick of lemongrass, outer woody leaves removed
thumb sized piece of ginger
2 fat garlic cloves
1 hot red chili

For the noodle soup:
1/2 tin of coconut milk
500ml good chicken stock
juice of 2 limes
2 tbsp soy sauce
bunch of mint finely chopped
a few spring onions shredded
2 bok choy
1/2 a red pepper in slices
rice noodles for two

Firstly get a frying pan on to heat to get screaming hot  - while you wait blitz the ingredients for the spice paste in a processor.

When the frying pan is hot fry the chicken in the oil, smashing it up into the consistency of a course mince. Keep frying and tossing until it goes golden and crunchy.

Add the sesame seeds to toast off and then for the last 30 second stir in the honey ensuring it coats the chicken. Turn out onto some kitchen paper to drain off any excess fat.

Now in a big pan or wok in a little more oil sweat off the spice paste and when fragrant add all the liquids and the noodles. When the noodles are nearly done add the other veg to lightly soften.

Ladle into big bowls and top with the chicken, mint and spring onions.

Thai Sweet Corn fritters and Tom Ka Soup.

This is two components of a sharing platter at one of my favorite Brighton restaurants the vegetarian mecca that is Food for Friends. I bought my dad the cookbook a while back after he took me there for lunch and have been DYING to cook these recipes eversince.

Him, my sister and myself went to a friend’s for Easter Sunday lunch and we were asked to proved the starter and this is what we (meaning I) put together.

It is SO worth finding your way down to a local Asian food market and getting yourself the fresh kaffiar lime leaves, lemongrass, galangal and tom ka paste. It really adds a freshness and vibrancy to the final product that you will never get from the freeze dried varieties you can get from Waitrose etc.

Also I apologize for the quality of the photos – I’d left the camera I usually use in Brighton so was reduced to using my sister’s iPhone.

Adapted from the food for friends cookbook:

Serves 6

For the soup:

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

3 sticks of lemon grass, outer leaves removed and chopped

25g galangal or ginger, chopped

1 red chili chopped

1 small white onion, chopped

1 small bunch of coriander, leaves and stalks chopped

30g green curry paste

70ml water

1 veg stock cube

1 tin coconut milk

1 tblsp tom ka paste

3 tbsp tamari

50g palm sugar

2 kaffir lime leaves

juice 1 lime

handful coriander leaves

In a pan heat some oil and sweat off the onion, garlic, lemongrass, ginger, chili and coriander.

When that is soft, add the water, curry paste and stock cube, simmer for 15 minutes then ass the coconut milk and tom-ka paste.

After 15 minutes further simmering add the rest of the ingredients, mix well and blend until smooth.

Serve with a final squeeze of lime and scattered with black roasted sesame seeds.

For the fritters:

2 sticks of lemongrass, outer leaves removed and  bruised

4 tsp of ginger/galangal

3 cloves of garlic

4 kaffir lime leaves

small bunch of coriander

1 tblsp thai green curry paste

juice 1 lime

salt and pepper

600g fresh sweet corn, lightly steamed.

2 tbsp sugar

1 egg, beaten

a little plain flour

In a processor wiz up the first 8 ingredients then tip into a large bowl with the sweet corn, egg, seasoning and enough flour to create a very stiff batter:

In some vegetable oil fry dollops of the mixture, flattening them out a bit and only flipping when they have had enough time to properly set and brown on the first side:

Drain on kitchen paper and serve with a garnish of julienne of carrots, spring onions, green mango, and toasted cashews drizzled with some lime juice.