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!!

Frugal freebies and a Delia

Fistly I have just seen over on KittyKittyWeaselFish's blog that next weekend the 20-21st April the National Trust are having a free weekend.  Go to their site here to download a voucher for up to 4 people; 2 of them adults, for a load of their special places all over the UK.  I fancy going to Killerton, which is only about 7 miles from us but we haven't seen it yet and as they have their regular farmers market on that saturday too it's a double bonus reason to go.  :-)
Another freebie next - on Facebook Heinz currently have an offer here where you can get a free packet of tomato seeds.  Lord knows the last thing I need is more seeds but hey - they're free!  Sounds like a nice variety - the pack (which arrived in a super-fast-for-a-freebie 8 days) says they are San Marzano - 'a plum shaped Italian variety specifically bred for bottling, cooking or producing home-made sauce and puree.'  I'll give them a go - if the rain lets up this year that is!

Lastly I wanted to share my frugal Delia bargain - chuffed to spot this in a local charity shop at £1.99.  Considering full price it was £17.99 on the back I think that's a pretty good buy.  It's about frugul food and although I don't generally go for Delia; finding her *OCD prep and didactic delivery somewhat irritating, I'm not arguing that her recipes are generally pretty good.  (*I got gifted a copy of Delia's Christmas years back and find the entire planning everything hour by hour from 3 days in advance a leetle bit too much.)
This is a reprint of a 70's book she did which immediately interested me with my love of old/vintage cook books and it's been issued in a lovely hard bound cloth covered edition with some beautiful photography.  So it ticks my 'food porn' box too - I just need to find somewhere on the groaning shelf of cook books to wedge it in now... 
(Excuse the curious easter chicks/egg tree still up - I like decorations m'kay?)

Bonus find

Look what I found on my way into work.  I love blue glass too.  How fab was that?!

This image found on-line here makes me chuckle inside every time I think of it - really cheered me up yesterday after another day of evil office 'politics' - AKA back stabbing.  Is it really so much to just want to get on with my job?  Anyway - this is currently my 'go-to' pic to brighten my day.

Another rather wonderful find was at the continental market on in Exmouth last weekend.  A cheese bus!  How fantastic - I think I may have found my true calling.  :-)  We stocked up on cheese and also got some rather lovely olives, toulouse and merguez sausages (him), geranium soap (me) then watched the rugby in a local pub.  A weekend of win.

'Baking' for insomniacs - quick (non-baked) breakfast muffins

By muffins here I mean English ones - hence the 'breakfast' in the title - not the overpumped cake mix ones that seem to come in childs head sizes nowadays.  Ooh wait - I had this rant before right?

This recipe also isn't technically baked but it was made at some godawful hour of the morning. Just gone 5am really but as we switched to BST yesterday technically it was just after 6am. Either way my brain was WIDE AWAKE so that was that.
Now this month I have been tardy with my blog challenges – random recipes should have been in 2 days ago although in my defence it was with some surprise I realised it was April 1st today and not March 31st – oops! One of the other challenges I like is Turquoise Lemon’s ‘No Waste Food Challenge’ which for March was hosted by Elizabeth’s Kitchen and had the theme of eggs.

 One of the *freebie books I downloaded to my kindle some time back was the intriguing ‘Many Ways for Cooking Eggs’ by Mrs S.T. Rorer, a book from the late 1800’s / early 1900’s written by the cook for a substantial household it seems, and I think, in America. It’s one of those old books that have been converted to a digital format by volunteers who don’t want to lose these historical records. I’m fascinated by old cook books as much for the social history they tell you as for the (sometimes hilarious) recipes and thought I’d have a quick skim through that in search of an intriguing egg recipe. Although it’s packed with really random ways to serve eggs they all seemed to take the form of ‘make a sauce with X in it, hard boil / shirr etc your egg. Serve on sippets of toast in a platter and cover with the sauce and send to the table at once.’ Not really the inspiration I was looking for. Until I happened upon the ‘Eggs Benedict’ recipe and saw that it gave a quick muffin method that’s then cooked on a flat griddle on the hob. This was more like it. So – quick non-baked breakfast muffins it is for my entry (if they’ll still let me link in) to March’s egg themed no waste food challenge.
Made 8 muffins
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1.5 cups plain flour
0.5 tsp salt (after tasting the first one I’d up this to at least a full teaspoon)
1 tbsp melted butter
2 tsp baking powder
 >I then also added 0.5 tbsp wholegrain mustard to the mix for 2 muffins and a whole lot of ground pepper and some finely grated strong hard cheese to the mix for another 2.

Separate the eggs. Beat the milk into the yolks, then sieve in the flour bit by bit and beat this in. Add the salt and butter and beat in. Finally beat in the baking powder. The recipe calls for level teaspoons; my BP was out of date so I used slightly rounded ones.

In a separate bowl beat the whites vigorously – I did mine by hand and got them to what I believe would be called ‘soft peaks’. Fold them into the yolk/flour mix.
Cook in very well greased muffin rings on a griddle. I don’t have a griddle so used the frying pan I know has the most even heat distribution. Added a little olive oil and keep re-greasing the rings between batches; due to the size of the pan I could only do 2 at one.
The mix rises as it cooks – if you overfill the rings it will spill over the top! Oops!

About 2/3 full is right I found. Once the underside is nicely golden brown and the mix has risen ease a small knife around the inside of the ring before turning the whole thing over. Then carefully using a glove/ cloth etc ease the ring off – you’ll need to use something like the handle of the knife to press the muffin out from the ring at the same time.

>Once I had the second batch in the pan I split what mix was left and added the wholegrain mustard /cheese and pepper as mentioned above so had 4 plain and 2 in each flavor. I used to love the cheese and pepper muffins S’burys used to do so this is very exciting for me! You could also try adding a pinch of herbs or spices too – endless possibilities.

I had a plain one with a little cheese melted on. Very good indeed and pretty quick and easy – in fact it’s the cooking that took me the time – and cost me a few burnt finger tips – be careful breakfast buddies!
*It’s now 77p. In my version this recipe is 52% of the way into the book.

'There I fixed it' - boring biscuits blinged

Although neither the Chap nor I have much of a sweet tooth occasionally the urge takes you.  I succumbed a few weeks back and (lured in by the price) picked up a multipack (5x normal packs!) of what turned out to be disappointingly flavourless boring biscuits in a local shop.  I guess at a quid for the whole lot I should have known better...  Now; I'd managed to get rid of the majority at work and the Chap has had a few and even I have occasionally dipped back in - more in that hope that something magical has happened to transform them in the interim into something you'd actually want to eat but alas no, they remained boring, dry and tasteless.
So today - inspiration struck!  Also everyone wittering about chocolate as easter is nearly on us.  So it got me thinking that chocolate can brighten pretty much all foods up right?  (And for anything it can't handle we have cheese?)  So - lets Choc-O-Late up those boring biscuits people! (Imagines that to a snappy little tune and a happy dance that swoops us over to a demonstration table.) 
Melt choc in the microwave. (I used S'burys basics dark chocolate that I had in the cupboard.)  Don't melt your choc on full power as it'll burn it.  Half power and patience my dears.  Then 'drizzle' over the biccies with a spoon.  Ok - more like 'fat lump' it on the biccies but I'm not about to do that pro-chef flicking it thing - it'd only mean me cleaning chocolate off the walls afterwards right?
Then add whatever bling you want / have to hand and ta-da - no more boring biscuits for us and with all that choc lovingly lumped on they should taste somewhat better.  Win!
You could even make something like these to give away (perhaps utilising better biscuits though) instead of overpriced and over packaged eggs.  They take no time either so ideal for a last minute thing if you forgot.  Just need the time to set - not a problem in my frigid kitchen at the moment I can assure you!

Enjoy easter whatever version of it you follow / don't.  We're not doing choc eggs but hopefully the Chap will like the biccies.  I will be decorating my 'artistic twigs' with various painted eggs just because, hey, it's an excuse right?  Who said an art degree was a waste of time...

The weather, again!

For the n-th time in the last few months it's torrential rain and the river's up over the paths again.

Seriously bored of all the water now.

Even this duck's had enough and is trying to keep his feet dry!

It's probably my fault for saying I wanted to do things in the garden next week.  *Sigh*

At least we're lacking the snow that's clobbered other areas round the country.  Stay warm and dry folks!

It's been a while...

I haven't posted for ages!  Slack!  All I say is I plead busy-ness.  Got sent to Brighton for work last week for 3 days.  Nice to catch up with some work peeps I haven't seen for ages.  Blimey it was nippy though but at least the sun came out.

Also had a visit home to Dorset for Ma's birthday.  Had a little peek at big sis's allotment and a rather nice meal at The Thimble Inn in Piddlehinton.  A pub with it's own stream round the outside! 
Outside a different pub I spotted this.

I'm intrigued to know what 'pie' pie is I must say!
I'm looking forward to next week as I've booked it off work and have a list as long as at least both of my arms of things I want to get done round the house and in the garden.  Fingers crossed the rain holds off for a few of the days at least!