the gourmet student

So today I decided to make one of my favourite home comfort meals - Thai Style Seafood Pasta.

Nothing beats having a big bowl of gloopy soupy luscious seafood pasta that you can slurp up, it’s very comforting and homely for me.

Its an original seafood pasta recipe updated with some of my favourite ingredients - ginger, lime and chilli, a splash of the orient to spice things up a little and give this old classic a modern twist

Serves 2

Ingredients:
- bad frozen seafood
- 250g pasta
- 1 red onion
- 1 chilli
- 1 knob of ginger
- 1 lime
- 1 bunch coriander
- 1 glass of white wine
- 2 cloves garlic

1) finely chop up your onion, garlic, chilli, ginger and coriander

2) heat up some oil in a big wok, then throw in your onion garlic chilli and ginger on a low heat for about 10 minutes

3) then fill up a large glass of wine and pour this over the pan. then pour another glass and keep this for yourself (cheeky!)

4) turn up the heat slightly to burn off the alcohol and let the mixture bubble away for 5-10 mins

5) now fill up the kettle and set it to boil, and pour over the pasta and cook for 12 mins

6) whilst the pasta is cooking pour in the seafood mix straight into the wok

7) whilst this is all hapenning squeeze your lime into the wok and 2/3 of the coriander

8) now once the pasta is cooked, drain the pasta and add to the wok

9) serve up into bowls with a sprinkling of the leftover coriander and enjoy!

Bon Appetit!

So this is one of my favourite favourite favourite meals of the entire year! It’s tradition in our household to cook this meal using the turkey leftovers from christmas dinner.

It’s a spiced turkey and pomegranate wrap with crunchy cashews and mint and coriander. And it’s bloody delicious!

Serves 3/4 People

Ingredients:
- 400g leftover turkey meat (brown meat if possible)
- bunch mint leaves
- bunch of coriander leaves
- bag salad
- 1 pomegranate
- handful dried cranberries
- 1 handful cashew nuts
- 8 tortilla wraps
- 2 teaspoons five spice
- large squeeze honey
- 1 large knob of ginger
- 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
- half a red onion
- juice of a lime
- 1 chilli
- olive oil

1) add the brown turkey meat, cranberries, five spice, cashew nuts and honey into a pan and heat gently

2) add the mint, coriander with the salad bag

3) make the dressing for the salad, begin by mixing the lime juice with the pomegranate juice, then grate the red onion and add this, a glug of olive oil, the soy sauce and grate the ginger and capture the juice. mix this all together, and pour over the salad

4) remove the meat mixture from the pan and add this to the salad, and serve on a big platter with wraps

dollop a spoonful of the delicious mixture onto the wraps and enjoy! bon appetit!

So on boxing day as is tradition we took a lovely long country walk followed by a big pub lunch and copious amounts of wine. Our choice of pub this year was The Five Horeshoes in Henley.

To start I ordered the Moules Marinière, which was absolutely divinely creamy and rich.

Then I ordered the venison burger with chips and horseradish sauce, which was absolutely gorgeous and filling.

It was a lovely meal and I’m still full now. Sign of a good meal, right?

So today I made one of my favourite things in the entire world, my famous soy sauce and sweet chilli sticky chicken salad with lemon and coriander cous cous and a deliciously fresh and zingy mango salsa.

It’s so simple and easy to make, and it’s so delicious and fresh, perfect for a light supper or a meal to share with friends at a dinner party.

Ingredients:
- 1 chicken breast
- 1 red onion
- 1 lime
- 1 large handful coriander
- half a red chilli
- half a mango
- 150g cous cous
- 1 lemon
- bag of salad
- splurge of sweet chilli sauce
- splurge of soy sauce

1) First we’re going to make the mango salsa. Chop up the red onion, mango, chilli and coriander into very very tiny pieces and mix together

2) squeeze the lime juice over the salsa and mix

3) now that the salsa is made, we’re going to make the cous cous. add boiling water to plain cous cous so it just covers the surface, then leave for 5 minutes. then, add the lemon juice and more coriander

4) now comes the chicken. chop up into small pieces and throw into a sizzling wok. once browned, add the soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce.

5) Now open your bag of salad onto the plate, then add the cous cous on top, then the mango salsa, and when the chicken is cooked add this on top.

bellissimo!

so mother and father came up to visit me at uni today, and they brought my beautiful english springer spaniel rosie as well! It was such a lovely surprise.

They came round to my house for a cuppa tea and catch up, then we headed to ‘The Fighting Cock’ pub in Moseley, Birmingham.

The pub is a really old quaint traditional pub with modern decor and interiors. It’s a really nice layout and atmosphere. Highly recommended.

So to start we ordered a trio of starters:

- crispy fried whitebait with tartare sauce
- pan fried chorizo with toasted bread
- salt and pepper calamari

and for main I ordered the most amazing avocado, smoked bacon, dolcelatte cheese burger with crispy fries.

yum.

this was all washed down with a flagon (or two) of mulled wine.

tis’ the season to be jolly after all !

sorry it’s been a while guys!

now that its getting closer to winter, i thought it would be fun to rustle up a good winter warming soup, perfect to warm up after a long day!

Ingredients:
- bag of parsnips
- 3 onions
- 5 garlic cloves
- 2 tablespoons mustard
- 100 ml single cream
- 1 pint vegetable stock
- sprinkling cumin powder

1) firstly peel and chop up your parsnips and set them onto boil for 15-20 mins (until soft)

2) in the mean time, chop up your onion and garlic, add it to a pan with butter and gently brown

3) boil the kettle again and prepare your vegetable stock

4) when the parsnips are done, drain them and add them to the onion/garlic mixture

5) add the cumin powder and mix around for a few minutes

6) pour the onion/garlic/parsnip into the blender with the veg stock, cream and mustard

7) blitz away (remember to put the lid on!)

8) when it’s all lovely and smooth, return to a pan to heat up

9) serve piping hot with warm buttery toast

parfait!

considering the weather has taken a sudden turn for the worst, the wooly hat, mittens, scarves and wellies are back out again, and what better way to compliment a long winter walk with the dogs than my heart warming witner veg soup ?!

this is the birthday cake i baked for my beautiful baby niece who turned three today :)
it’s a chocolate cake, with strawberries and cream in the middle. and it was yum!

so last night i quickly whipped up a sticky sweet honey and soy glazed pork stir fry. scrummy :)

so this was the main course for my mother’s birthday meal, a gorgeous steamed thai-style fillet of salmon, served with steamed veg, and coriander rice. deeeeeelicious !

so it was my mother’s birthday on Wednesday, and I cooked her a lovely meal, starting with salmon & creme fraiche blinis served with ice-cold champagne (of course!)

so I treated myself to my favourite breakfast the other day - gooey poached eggs on mustard toast!
so simple but so delicious, the mustard and egg really goes well together :)

this was the main course i ordered. now unusually for me this was a veggie dish. however some of my followers had requested more veggied dishes so here is one !
it was a gorgeous spicy butterbean, carrot and chickpea burger, served on a toasted ciabatta with melted cheese on top, accompanied by a refreshing potato salad, and a delicious bbq pickle!

this was our second starter of the evening, a salad with crumbly, strong mature stilton, beautifully spiced poached pear and lightly toasted walnuts. the flavours all complimented each other wonderfully and i gobbled this starter up!

so i went to my favourite pub ever (again!) with my parents, and had a beautiful meal.
this was our first starter, it was the crunchiest, softest calamari, served with a gorgeously garlic aioli mayonnaise, on a bed of peppery rocket.

delicioso !