Dragon's back

Today I walked along the Dragon's back trail on the east of Hong kong island, a 2 h hike along the ridge of the low mountains there. It was lovely, with amazing views, but quite steep at times. At the end of trail was Shek O beach, where I stayed a couple of hours, and endulged in lots of watermelon and mango. And some Laughing Cow cheese cubes as snacks on the way... I bought them. all the time when hiking on Borneo, as they're not very sensitive to heat. That taste of processed cheese flavoured with ham and tomatoe also really reminds me of summers camping with my family. Can't go camping etc in Sweden and not bring cheese on tube (crayfish, prawn and ham are some of the flavours)... 

What else have I've been up to? Not much, I was planning to go up to the Peak yesterday, but gave up when I saw the very long que. Instead spent the day walking through markets and relaxing in Kowloon park reading Aijvide's last book (thanks Elisabeth!)

I'm leaving early tomorrow morning to go to Guangzhou in China, from there I hope to be able to get a bus to Yangshuo at 1pm. I get to Guangzhou at 9 am, hopefully that will be enough to find the bus station and buy a ticket... What could possibly go wrong? Except that I'm geographically challenged, not sure where the bus is leaving from, exactly when it's leaving, where I can buy a ticket, and I can't read, speak or understand the language? Fingers crossed all goes as planned!   

A hungry Swede in Hong kong

I've been a worthless food blogger recently, way to busy w work and moving to have time to cook anything remotely intersting.I've left UK yesterday for 6 weeks in hong kong, china and laos. So for now the food blog will be a travel blog. My guess is that it will still be pretty foodcentric.

I got into HKK about 6 h ago, and it feels great being back here. I feel a bit shattered, despite sleeping/slumbering for most of the flight here. Btw, def recommeds air new zealand, great service, seats and food.

I got into the hostel, Yes Inn on Hong kong island, where I've stayed before, had a shower and headed out for dinner. I went to temple street market, where there are lots of street restaurants serving cheapish sea food. I had lovely razor clams w chilli and blackbean sauce, and pak choi w garlic (one of my all time favourite dishes). Got no pictures of the food as forgot to bring a camera (anyhow not sure how to upload images as am blogging from my iPhone). After dinner, a beer, and browsing through the touristy night market looking for new headphones, it was def time to headset back and into a proper bed.

Tomorrow I need to get more info on train/bus tickets to yangshuo, and then I think I might revisit a couple of markets or maybe head to the beach, or maybe up to the Peak. Thinking of doing the Dragon's walking trail on Mon, will see. Looks like it will be nice weather while I'm here, 27C and sunshine. Must rememer sunblock or I'll burn like a crisp, and the lobster look really doesn't suit me....

Spicy sausage and kale bulgur salad

I've never tried curly kale. For some reason I've been a bit intimidated by the thought of cooking with it, as I don't really know how to use it. Anyway, curly kale is supposed to be very nice and also very nutrious, so when I was aimlessly wandering around in Waitrose trying to find something to cook for dinner, I thought that I should try something new and use kale. But what to eat and cook it with? I knew that you can steam and stir-fry kale, and that I had a lot of bulgur at home, so I decided on a warm salad with kale and spicy sausages. Spring has finally come to London, but it's still been freezing in the mornings so if I'm having a salad it has to be a warm one.

I'm very happy with my first attempt of using kale, turns out it's easy to use, with a nice taste, cheap, and apparently good for me, so I will defentely try it again.

Spicy sausage and kale bulgur salad (4 portions)
200 g curly kale
1 large leek, chopped
1-2 red chillies, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cm fresh ginger, finely chopped
200 g plum tomatoes, halved
1 lemon, zest and juice
400 g spicy sausages, I used Waitroses sweet chili pork sausages, but merguez or chorizo would be really good as well
2 dl bulgur, you can substitute the bulgur for quinoa or couscous
5 dl chicken or vegetable stock
salt and pepper

Add bulgur and stock to a pot and cook on low heat for around 10 min until soft. If there is any water left, drain it and fluff the bulgur with a fork to separate the grains

Fry the sausages in a frying pan. For pork sausages like the ones I used, fry them whole and then slice them. If you use chorizo, you might want to slice them first and then fry to them to get them a bit crispier and release some of the fat.

Steam the kale lightly for 1-2 min. I think it's easiest to steam using the microwave. Just add kale, and a couple of tablespoons of hot water

Fry the leeks, chillies, garlic and ginger for a couple of minutes in a large frying pan. Add the kale and tomatoes and stir-fry for another couple of minutes until the kale is soft and starts to wilt.

Stir together the vegetables and bulgur with the lemon juice and zest.

Serve the kale and bulgur topped with the fried sausages.

Asian soups in Vancouver

I came back from a conference in Vancouver a couple of weeks ago. It was a great meeting, with lots of interesting science, and Vancouver was a great city to visit. To be in a city and be surrounded by sea and mountains, fantastic! Vancouver is known to have a big Asian population, and there is lots of Chinese, Korean and Japanese shops and restaurants. I've really indulged in great, and cheap, Asian food. In particular lovely soups, like the won ton soup above that I had at Hon's wun tun house in Vancouver's Chinatown, or the udon noodle soup with spicy pork and kimchi below that I had at small Korean restaurant, Donburiya, on Robson street in downtown Vancouver.


Here is a couple of pictures of beautiful Vancouver, with the view of the mountains from Stanley park and from the harbour and seawalk around the city.

Red lentil and feta lasagne

I'm going to move out of my flat in West Hampstead in about a month's time. As I'm putting all my stuff in storage for the first 6 weeks while I'm lucky enough to go traveling in China and Laos, I'm trying to finish off all the food in my cupboards. Feels a bit unnecessary to pack lots of dry goods like rice and bulgur in boxes to store for two months, and believe me, I have enough stuff that needs to be packed as it is....

This recipe come about so that I could finish off my red lentils, some leftover red wine, and because I was in a mood for comfort food, and to me lasagne is for sure all about delicious comfort.

Red lentil and feta lasagne (4-6 portions)
2.5 dl red lentils
1 can of chopped tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 large yellow onion, finely chopped
0.5 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp oregano
a pinch of sugar
a pinch of dry flaked chili
2 dl of chicken or vegetable stock
2 dl of red wine
250 g of fresh or dry lasagna sheets (if you use dry lasagna sheets, you can speed up the cooking time in the oven by
5 dl milk
1 tbsp flour
1 tbsp butter
300 g feta cheese, grated
olive oil
salt and pepper

Saute onions and garlic in a little olive oil in a large frying pan for a couple of minutes.

Add the lentils, wine, stock, sugar and spices. Let simmer for 20-30 min until the lentils are soft. Add more water if the sauce starts to go dry before the lentils are cooked. Add salt and pepper to taste. It shouldn't be too salty as the bechamel sauce with feta will be quite salty

Make a bechamel sauce: Start by melting the butter in a medium sized pot, then add the flour and stir on low heat to form a paste.

Add the milk and bring up to nearly boiling, all the time stirring to avoid the sauce to burn. Continue to simmer, whilst stirring, on lower heat until the sauce reaches desired thickness.

Add 2/3 of the feta cheese to the sauce and stir until the cheese is dissolved. Remove the pot from the heat, and add nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste.

Layer lasagna sheets, the lentil sauce and bechamel sauce in a oven dish. Top with a layer of bechamel sauce and the remainder of the feta cheese.

Cook for 20-30 min in the middle of the oven.

Enjoy with a fresh salad like rocket, spinach and watercress with a little olive oil and lemon juice.

Lemon coconut biscuits

Since I moved to the UK I've really developed an addiction to biscuits. Today I'm working from home and really fancied something sweet, but our cupboards were completely devoid of even the tiniest crumble of biscuits or sweets, so I decided to bake something instead. This is an easy recipe based on what I could find at home. These biscuits are heavenly, melt in your mouth delicious, with a light lemon flavour and a bit of crunch from the coconut.

Lemon and coconut biscuits (15 biscuits)
100 g butter
0.75 dl sugar
zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp baking powder
1.5 dl flaked coconut
1 dl ground almond
1.5 dl flour

Preheat the oven to 150C.

Cream butter and sugar, stir in lemon zest and baking powder.

Stir almond, coconut and flour into the butter mix.

Roll out the cookie dough into a 2-3 cm wide log, and cut into 1 cm slices.

Transfer slices onto a buttered baking sheet and flatten slightly with a fork.

Bake for around 15 min.

Let cool slightly and devour with a cup of tea or coffee.

Mustard chicken with savoy cabbage and broccoli

I've had major cravings for vegetables during last week. I hate this time of year because the choice is so limited for fresh vegetables. I refuse buying anemic and expensive tomatoes! Walking around in the grocery store I decided to make use of what I could find that's at least more in season like cabbage and broccoli. This is a very easy and colourful dish, partly inspired by a recipe by Jamie Oliver in the last number of Delicious.

Eating this, I can't understand why I used to hate cabbage when it is so tasty. Maybe because most of my experiences was my Gran's cabbage stew (sorry Gran, I still can't eat Kålpudding), which the rest of my family likes, but there is just something with that very strong smell of cabbage... Anyhow, here the savoy cabbage is just very gently cooked to keep that vibrant green colour and slight crunch, and the smell, well it still smells a little, it is cabbage after all, but it is worth it the second you try you're first morsel.

I served this with only the greens, chicken and a mustard cream sauce, but you could also half the amount of cabbage and serve with boiled or roasted potatoes or toss pasta with the mustard cream sauce.

Mustard chicken with savoy cabbage and broccoli (4 portions)
4 chicken fillets, butterflied
2 head of savoy cabbage, cut in wide shreds
1 head of broccoli, or 500 g of sprouting broccoli
4 tsp Colman's mustard powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
juice and zest from 1 lemon
2 leeks, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
water
salt and pepper
olive oil
1 tsp butter

Mustard cream sauce
2 dl single cream
1 tbsp coarse mustard
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
pinch of dried tarragon
pinch of dried rosemary
0.5 chicken stock cube

Mix mustard powder and smoked paprika, and pat the mix onto both sides of the butterflied chicken fillets. Season with salt and pepper.

Saute the onions and garlic for the sauce in a small pot. Add the cream, mustard, herbs and chicken stock. Simmer on low heat for 10-15 min. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken until golden and cooked through. Squeeze over the lemon juice over the cooked fillets.

Saute leeks and garlic in olive oil for a couple of minutes in a large frying pan, add the cabbage and lemon zest and fry for a couple of minutes on medium heat. Add a couple of tablespoons of water and keep stirring the vegetables until the cabbage is cooked but still crunchy. Season with salt and pepper.

Steam the broccoli. I think the easiest way is to steam it in the microwave. Add the broccoli to a plastic deep dish or bowl, add a couple of tablespoons of water and cover with a plastic microwave plate cover or lid. Steam on full effect for a couple of minutes until cooked but still crunchy. Drain, replace in the bowl and add a teaspoon of butter to glace the broccoli.

Serve the sliced chicken fillets with the savoy cabbage, broccoli and mustard sauce.

This was a lovely dinner, and also a great lunch the day after.