Lemon & Ginger Soba Noodles with Tofu and Salmon Gari and no Matcha ice-cream...yet

This month's country for Bloggers Around the World hosted by Chris at Cooking around the World was here.
Japan.  I love oriental/asian food generally but hadn't cooked anything specifically Japanese before so went on search on t'interwebs for a suitable clutch of recipes.  I had soba noodles in the cupboard to use up as well as tofu so picked this tasty sounding lemon and ginger recipe from Steamy Kitchen.
Incidentally there's a great recipe resource here on the Eat-Japan site that allows you to pick by ingredient type, seasoning, time needed etc.
I wanted to try more than one recipe out and in my travels I came across this baked salmon recipe with gari - the pickled ginger you get with sushi.  I love this stuff so this recipe intrigued me and sounded super simple and quick to make.  Turn oven on - lay salmon in greased dish and scatter gari over the top.  Bake.
I'm not going to put the whole soba noodle recipe here - you need to visit the link to check it out but with lemon, ginger, honey, cayenne, soy, rice vinegar and sesame oil in the dressing plus toasted sesame seeds

you know it's punchy and flavourful.  I halved the amounts of noodles and tofu as the recipe is for 4, although I realised afterward I used the amount of dressing that was for 4 peoples noodles on the halved amount - it was very well flavoured!
The tofu was tasteless - the recipe says to fry until browned - I'm now convinced (having never cooked with tofu before) that this is an unobtainable fallacy as no matter how high I turned my pan and how long

I left the tofu no browning was occurring.  It just started sticking instead.  :-( I think for tofu in future I'll stick to my instinct that says it needs a lot of marinading first to make it taste of anything.
The salmon I liked - but then I love salmon anyway.  I did find it a little on the sweet side but gari can vary in sweetness a lot - a different brand that I have a jar of at work is nothing like as sweet as the one I had here.  I think this dish would be improved vastly by using a less sweet gari but it was interesting to try as a flavour combination.
Lastly - it must be dessert surely?  Well - I had a sachet of Matcha (green tea) powder in the cupboard I've been looking to do something with for a while and after having had Matcha ice-cream once at the local 'Steaks n Sushi' restaurant which I had loved this seemed the obvious answer.  So - I found this very simple sounding recipe at Just One Cookbook - one of many great Japanese food blogs out there.  Then - I ran out of time.
This post should have been up yesterday and although I made the salmon and noodles yesterday I only got to writing it up now so....the ice-cream will have to be a different post.  I shall make it though and let you know how it goes.

Yesterday we had to scarf down the noodles - super yum we decided - then run to catch the rugby bus to see Chiefs beat London Irish 27-6 to get us into the top 6 that would mean we're in the Heineken Cup again next year.  Fingers crossed we can stay there!!

Light displays

No fireworks for us this weekend though we had a busy one.  We were at the Chiefs game against Gloucester on Saturday; sadly we lost 19-24 but we put up a valiant fight.

After the game the sky put on a good show for us; even without any fireworks.

Then we saw this on the way out - not sure where it landed from but I rather like how it looks.  :-)

Chiefs stormin on

It’s been a good start to the season for the Chiefs.  First proper game (after trouncing Connact 47-10 then local boys Cornish Pirates 58-3 followed by the somewhat closer 16-13 result against the Scarlets in the pre-season friendlies) was away to Leicester Tigers.  Tigers [Hwak ptooie] have been omnipresent at or near the top of the table for some time now and much as I’m not a fan, they are a force to be reckoned with.  However – whether it be due to having several (ok - 11) players out for the world cup, bad defending from them or damn good play from us [guess which I'm favouring] our opening game of the season saw us scrape a 30-28 win over the Tigers on their home turf.  Woop!  Only the second time they're been beaten at home in the last 3 years.  Not bad for a club starting their second season of the premiership that this time last year had been written off by all the bookies and the 'big boys'.  I wasn't there to see it being busy entertaining BBQ style at the time but was mighty happy when the Chap looked the result up for me.

After securing my season ticket for this year; with the grace of Great Aunt Joan, I was looking forward to the first home game against Newcastle last Saturday.  England had recorded a lacklustre win that morning against Argentina in their opening game of the world cup so we were up for something a little more exciting.  First try for us went over in the first minute - that exciting enough?!  We won against a valiant Newcastle side 32-15 to give us our first ever 5 point win and make us top of the premiership table for the first time ever in the clubs history.  So - all to play for against Bath tomorrow and yes - it's on the telly at 5.30pm Sky Sports 3 should you wish to join  me in cheering on the Chiefs.

Underachiever of the weekend....

Well, not so much achieved over t'weekend  - although chillaxin occurred!  The Chap ended up working unfortunately so the trip for cheaty plantlets was put off as was the shelf erecting.  I'm fully capable of putting shelves up myself but my drill has ended up on some sort of long term loan / theft by increments to a friend so I'd have to borrow the Chaps'.  Which means he would be most effronted that he wasn't doing the actual work himself and would insist on doing it; except he wan't there to do it and neither was his drill.  You see what I mean? 

Allotmenting occurred and I'll be heading there again after work to harvest some more perpetual spinach beet stuff and strawbs.  The beet stuff is great - some went to seed last year so it's been an early bonus crop - although supply is starting to outstrip our use of it!  I'll have to clear some space in the freezer and start making spanoptika or whatever it's called.  Always fancied trying it - never got round to it somehow.  Perhaps I should make it my entry to the 'Bookmarked Recipes' challenge Jacqueline over on Tinned Tomatoes is holding - I've got files full of recipes I've printed or copied off meaning to make and never got round to it... somehow it doesn't surprise me!

Anyway - lots more to be done this weekend although I shall be spending some of it attending the very good Exeter Respect Festival - a free weekend event with diverse types of music, arts, crafts, food etc. to celebrate the diversity of our fair city.  Good shout sez I!

Oh - and another good (if belated) shout - the Chiefs winning their final game of the season 21-8 against London Wasps to finish the season 8th in the table. Sweeeeet!  :-D

Paddy's day pasting

Chiefs took on London Irish in their home stadium the Madejski on Saturday. As this was the nearest game they had to St Patricks day the 'Exiles' [London Irish] had duly designated it their annual Paddy's Day Party with bands, inflatables and beer tankers galore. And tries galore. Against us. Oh. Dear. :-( The first was over the line within a minute of the start and the second followed 5 minutes later! Not an auspicious start and it kind of set the tone for the rest of the game as we missed a conversion and London Irish carried on scoring. We seemed to come back a bit after the half time break, managing to get within a single point but the end score was 39-17 to the Irish. A deserved win it must be said and we enjoyed our visit. The atmosphere was great and the fans welcoming, several stopping us to shake our hands after the game. The old man next to me certainly enjoyed himself though I must admit to only understanding about 1 in every 3 words he said to me!!

Rugby round up

There's been 2 home games over the last couple of weekends for the Chiefs with one loss and one win. First up was a local Westcountry derby V Bath on the 26th Feb. The start time for this had been pushed back to 8pm for the telly. This meant that we could watch the 6 nations games first [including watching England cream France] but meant we were all, er, rather tired by the end. [As attested to by fuzzy nature of the pic here!] Sadly we lost 9-12 in a penalties only game which saw our normally reliable Steenson miss a couple in the high winds. It was another packed crowd though for this sell out game; and according to rumour we statistically can't go down now despite stubbornly sticking at position 9 in the table.
Rather more happily our last game on March 6th was a 30-9 win against Northampton Saints including 3 tries scored by us in the glorious Devon sunshine. We narrowly missed out on a bonus point but were happy to add to the Saints losing run. (6th game in a row now.) We're still 9th in the table, but as long as it's the Premiership table we're in I don't think we mind too much.

Win v' the Quins

Saturday brought the long anticipated (for me) home tie against the Quins. The last time we saw them down here was when they got relegated back in 2006 and proceeded to storm through the National 1 teams with the Chiefs being the only game they lost. One I was there to watch in my Quins shirt with my mother and big sis who travelled down for the game. Typical huh!

This season Chiefs played the Quins at their home ground the Stoop back in September, losing 40-13 on that occasion so we had a fair bit to prove this time round.

The game opened with Quins piling on the pressure early, the first 10 minutes were a little hairy it must be said. However - we held them off and Steenson [Steeno...] kicked our penalties one after another to notch up the points leaving us 12-3 up at half time. The second half saw the first; and as it turned out only try of the game for Chiefs, along with a couple of other good go's for the line. Although we missed the conversion another penalty took us to a final score of 20 to the Quins' 6 - they having kicked a second penalty. The Quins did make a couple of good breaks for the line in the latter stages of the second half and they were nippy with it; I think their stamina was starting to tell at that point. We managed to keep them out though to emerge the victors. Considering Quins started the game 5th in the table to our 9th a 20-6 win isn't too shoddy at all.

Tigers? More like kittens!!

That's more like it! A 35-10 home win comprised of 5 converted home tries versus 2 unconverted from Leicester who waited until the second half to score any points at all. It made it worth the bitter cold watching this game,; although the first half was notably better than the second. We're still 9th in the damn table though as this was for the LV cup not the Aviva Premiership. Our next game in the Premiership is home against the Harlequins on the 12th. Should be an interesting tie, especially as that is the team I supported since I was young. [I liked the shirts when I was about 5 and had no clothes taste!] Hmm - divided loyalties anyone?!

Random bits

It's been raining here - a lot. The ground is absolutely sodden, saturation point.I want to get stuff done outside!! Waah!!

The Chap is continuing to prove his cooking prowess with an adaptation of this Roast Vegetable and Bean Stew recipe - I don't have all the details though I know he used the veg he had, blended half (?) ish of the veg into the stock / cider and used red kidney beans; again as this was what he had in the cupboard. I can attest that it's blimmin scrummy!!

Not the best start to the new year for the Chiefs - their away game v Bath on boxing day was postphoned owing to the pitch being frozen. Our first home game of 2011 was v Leicester Tigers [hwak ptooie] on the 2nd January. Despite a valiant effort we lost though we held the Tigers to 15-22 giving us a losing bonus point. I'm afraid no pic of the score as the ground was that packed by the time I'd fought my way half way there [against the stream of people leaving] they had wiped it off. It's the fullest I've ever seen Sandy Park which bodes well for the future of the club.

Boding apart though our last outing was away to Gloucester on the 8th and another loss - this time 37-23 putting us down to 9th on the table. Not really where we want to be but there're another 9 games in the premiership before we start hitting the finals so plenty of time for us to climb back up again. Lets hope so eh?!

Last game of the year a win for Chiefs!

It was Chiefs' last game of the year at Sandy Park with a meeting with Newcastle Falcons for the Amlin Cup. Once again we romped away with it, securing a 36-10 victory over the visitors. A steady racking up of points cheered a cold and quieter than usual crowd. [I think we lost some supporters to the local football derby between Exeter and Plymouth on at the same time - pah - fair weather fans!] For those of us that were there though it was a 5-home-tries fest and balm for losing the previous week 24-12 away to Wasps. I was told previous to the game that due to injuries Newcastle were fielding their top team - within 20 minutes of kick off I was looking at the chap going 'really?' as they just didn't seem up to the job. Anyway, the next home game is on 2nd Jan against the might of Leicester Tigers [Ptooie]. Should be interesting! Before then there's Bath away on the 26th but unfortunately due to chrimble arrangements I'm unable to make that one. Pity as Bath's lovely but I'll be cheering them on mentally. Hoping for another good year for the Chiefs. They announced on Saturday that captain Tom Hayes had won Aviva Premiership Rugby Player of the Month for November. When you remember this includes all the guys playing internationally as well that's not bad going! Chiefs have also just been named the BBC South West's Team of the Year! Get on the Chiefs. :-D

Mid week (ish) round up

Couple of last bits from the weekend - once again Chiefs trashed the opposition; this time Sale Sharks succumbed 24-19. A far more exciting game than the previous weeks 15-9 against Leeds Carnegie - sadly my pic of that score was on the phone that vanished. That was an all penalties game whereas the Sale game was 3-1 try crowd pleaser. That puts us 6th in the table and was worth the extra layers and being out in the first few flakes of snow we've seen this year. Mental note though - next time tights under the jeans as well I reckon!

Sunday I made the roast to feed the 5 thousand - for 2 of us. Got a bit carried away and we had the nut roast I'd got from the veggie deli at Brixham chrimble fair, roast spuds, roast butternut squash, roast carrots, roast swede, roast garlic, sweetcorn, broccoli (calabrese) and boiled carrots, oven braised greens [celery, cabbage and half a tired iceberg] and yorkshire puddings. Oh - and gravy with a splash of red wine in. Phew!! I think we could have fed 6 of us really but it made a nice lunch for me the next day, and then dinner for us in the evening on Monday too! Wasn't totally convinced on the nut roast front - was a very 'bitty' texture that says 'chickpeas' to me. Not bad but I don't think I'd bother again. My oven braised veg went down well with the chap though.

Brief synopsis - butter, celery generally but I used white cabbage too and this worked, veg stock. Preheat oven gas 6. Melt butter in pan. Chop veg into size bits you want. I left the celery 3-4 inches long and shredded the cabbage and lettuce. Saute off in the butter gently for about 10 mins. Put in ovenproof dish - ceramic not metal. Pour stock over and bang in oven for 20-30 mins dep' how crunchy / not you want the veg. Somehow I find something very comforting about this. Mind you I'm one of those few people who actively like celery, even celery soup. You can vary this how you want dep' on veg in the house, what temp' other stuff's in the oven etc. Add cheese too for a more 'full meal with protein' style of dish.

Lastly we have today finally got the snow that's been promised us for the last week. It was distinctly grey this morning though rather than being bright and blue and pretty which was a shame but I suppose you can't have everything. I'm glad to have my DM's and at least I work inside unlike the chap - brrr!

Testing, testing...

Seem to be having probs getting anything posted on here at the mo. :-( This is just a test then. Ooh - and I can tell you that Chiefs did very well at the weekend beating Wasps 29-6 at home. Unfortunately I had to miss this game as had a wedding do to go to but it was by all accounts a blinding game.

Where does it all go?

Time, that is.

I realised the last time I posted the results of a Chiefs home game was back in September - slack or what! Well then - I will let the pictures tell you the scores; and weather, for each match.

Firstly we had Newcastle Falcons on 18th Sept. A win of 22-17 with a true nail biting finish as Newcastle made a last ditch surge and the fans counted down the clock.

The next home game was against Montpellier for the Amlin cup on 9th October. This was our opening game for the European Challenge cup, as opposed to our home nations Aviva . It also proved to be our first loss on home soil, with the French club proving the stronger for most of the game. A late surge gave us hope but sadly we'd left it a bit too late so ended on 13-20.

Most recently we hosted London Irish last Saturday, 23rd Oct. A tight game; with the points gained solely from penalties, it saw a tit-for-tat notching up on the scoreboard in 3 point increments. Half time saw us 6 all and in the final quarter we were winning 9-6 Sadly we gave away some stupid penalties for a final score of 9-12 to London Irish. A tough game this; and combined with the away results of losses to Leicester [hwak ptoo], Harlequins and Northampton Saints sees us go from 3rd on the board after the Newcastle game to (as of today) 10th. Not where we want to be at all. However, there's another 7 months to the end of the season so let's hope we can hang on in there in the premiership. As they say in the stands 'Oggy Oggy Oggy - Chiefs Chiefs CHIEFS!'

What a game!

Saturday was the opening game of the season for Exeter Chiefs Rugby Club. It was also our first game in the premiership; at home, against SW rivals Gloucester. We had a lot to prove having just joined the premiership, especially as prior to the game the bookies were giving 4-1 on favourites for us to get relegated again. Grrrr...
5 minutes in and we scored the first try of the game; the season; our premiership run, on our own home turf. Nice.

5 minutes later and Gloucester had answered with a try of their own, failing however to convert it. In fact I don't think their man got any of his kicks that afternoon, including one that bounced off the post. Oops!

Half time saw us nicely placed at 16-5, having gathered more points from various penalties courtesy of the kicking of Steenson. Or 'Steeeno' as he's known in the stands. :-D

Gloucester scored another try in the second half (once more unconverted) whereas we garnered our points solely courtesy of their infringements. However Chiefs gave a great second half, almost scoring a second try and seeing off the Gloucester opposition; despite some mighty tackles! Suffice to say the final score of 22-10 had us gleefully mentally rubbing the bookies faces in it and looking forward to a great season ahead.

I think it's fair to say that prior to the game many of us weren't too sure how it'd go, and I certainly thought the result would be a hell of a lot closer than it was. How happy I am to be proved wrong!

If you're about when the Chiefs are playing at home I urge you to take the opportunity to see a premiership rugby game in this excellent stadium if you can. If you're further afield you'll just have to rely on my sketchy match updates!! Lol - not really, for a far more comprehensive match report see the Chiefs site, although it may be slightly more biased even than mine was! :-D

New rugby season is nearly here - Woop woop!!!

And with it our first season in the giddy heights of the premiership!! As a warm up we had a friendly against Cardiff Blues on Saturday 21st August. We hedged our bets a certain amount in the first half but a late surge saw us achieve a respectable 21 - 26 by full time. Next up is the first game of the new season with a SW grudge match on our home turf against Gloucester. Should be interesting!
A very big up to my very good friend who has gifted me a season ticket this year - you are indeed a star kind sir. :-D I reckon it's so he can have someone to go with but hey... it's a lovely gesture that made me grin like an idiot. Looking forward to the season ahead - you can do it boys!!

Final, leg 1: Chiefs v Bristol

Last night was the first leg of the final against Bristol for a chance for either Bristol or the Exeter Chiefs to go up to the Premiership. So just a wee bit important then.

A sell out game meant 10,000 supporters crowding into Sandy Park stadium and it was pretty busy. Not impossible to get around though and as is generally true with rugby all very good natured.

Well, it was a tough game with neither side wanting to give anything away. We spent most of the first half in our own half of the pitch but managed to prevent Bristol from scoring a try. Half time came with an equalising penalty for Bristol leaving us both with a measly 3 points apiece. Both teams had attempts at a try in the second half but none were allowed after consultation with the video ref; Exeter managed to ground the ball first a couple of times right in front of where I was standing to our great relief.

The match ended as a low scoring 9-6 to Chiefs, all points scored from penalties in an uncomfortably close game.Next Wednesday we're up to Bristol although unfortunately I'll have to watch that leg in the pub. We'd have liked to go with a bigger margin but if we can just hang in there as we did last night, prevent Bristol from passing and running then maybe we can win by not necessarily being better than the opponents but by preventing them from winning.

[Oh dear, that almost sounded like our dumbass farce of a recent election...]

All still to play for then.

Sat 08.05.10: Chiefs v Bedford Blues plus a sating of stomachs

The all important semi-final was here. Would we make it through for a chance to prove ourselves in the 2 legged final and beat Bristol for a chance at the Premiership? Damn we hoped so!

Bristol had easily beaten London Welsh on the Friday night so we knew they would be the foe to face in the final. Having the most points over the season they got choice of home / away for the legs and had opted for away first followed by home meaning if we won today we'd be seeing them at the Chiefs ground for the first leg weds 19.05.10.

First however - we needed to win...

Well - it was a bit of a one sided try fest for us again much like last week. Like last week our opponents; the Bedford Blues only had a penalty given 3 points most of the game. Like last week they got a try near the end (but didn't convert it). This time theirs was a 'proper' try though and very well done too. We won comfortably 37-8 this time as attested to by the score board here.

One of their players was unfortunately stretchered off the pitch after being knocked out cold by a tackle. I wish him well.

Now - bring on Bristol!! The games this time are mid-week evening games, not ideal for your average supporter especially with one leg being played away, I suspect the insidious fingers of the TV people there. At least it's only Bristol though, it could have been Doncaster!

Well - what do a lot of sports fans that have been thirst-quenching all afternoon need on a Saturday evening? That's right - a curry! My friend shouted me a lovely indian with some of our fellow spectators at The Ganges in Exeter. I've been here before but some time ago and it's been recently refitted. I have to say the interior is stylish and welcoming and the food was great. Service was polite and generally fast, except when our first drink order got lost in translation! I had the veggie Palak Kootu; a spinach, coconut and dal (lentil) dish with mustard, garlic and curry leaves. It was truly lovely with the mushroom rice I also ordered. Probably didn't need Saag Aloo with it but myself and my friend are addicted to this (he especially so since a stag night he was on where the groom stole his and only owned up after my friend had argued with the waiter) so if there's Saag Aloo available, and especially if there's a dearth of spinach deficient welsh stags about, we will order it. We even took a photo to send the aforementioned offending welshman. :-D Cost us £115 inc tip for 5 of us; 2 drinks each, poppodums with dips, main, 4 x rice, 3 x veg and 2 x peshwari naan so not too bad for a restaurant meal either. Thoroughly enjoyed and recommended if you need somewhere in the area.

Sat 01.05.10: Chiefs v Nottingham

Chiefs being Exeter Chiefs - the local rugby union team. We're currently in the Championship which is one down from the top flight Premiership. They've switched to a new play-off format this season with the winner of Group A playing the 2nd placed team in Group B and vice versa. Basically we were through to the Semi final unless Nottingham beat us by 50 odd points but a win for us meant we got to pick a home semi for the following Sat 8th May. Well, we won pretty convincingly as the score board shows. I felt a little embarassed for Nottingham as their only try was a penalty try - not even a true 'run the ball over the line' try. Ah well. Onwards for us and the prospect of the semi final at home against Bedford in a weeks time. If we get through that then the final is most likely to be against Bristol. They came down last season and unfortunately for the last few years it's held true that whoever comes down one season seems to invariably go back up the next; a cycle we'd truly like to break this year. Fingers x-ed!