London

I spent most of my early childhood living in the UK. Most of my family lived in London, including my grandparents, so we visited regularly from Bristol, where we lived. We moved from the UK when I was 7, and didn’t return for many years. Returning to London as a young adult, I was surprised by how nostalgic I was returning to places I had visited as a young girl.

One of the things I remember vividly, is the food – I’ll never forget lobster noodles at the institution that is Mandarin Kitchen, pastries from Harrods with my grandma and eating my first naan bread at Khan’s.

Here are a few of my more recent favourites from my trips to London:

• Xu Taiwanese Teahouse – Definitely try the cuttlefish toast with whipped cod roe and the 28 day aged middlewhite pork xian bing. They have a great range of house teas as well.
• Polpo – Pastas are delicious, and the zucchini fries are a revelation.
• Barrafina – Where do I even begin with this place. Hands down my favourite restaurant in London. Last time I was there I went 4 times; 3 of those times were unashamedly solo visits. Everything on the menu is delicious, but the seafood is spectacular. If the clams in white wine are still on the menu, definitely give them a go. There are queues for tables, I’d recommend going in a small group at lunch time if possible.
• Nopi – The vegetables are definitely the stars here. Favourite dishes were the heirloom tomatoes and the eggplant.
• Dishoom – The biryani is epic, as are the cocktails. There are epic queues for tables here, even on weekdays, so be prepared to wait for a table. It’s worth it though.
• The Delaunay – Do yourself a favour and order the chicken schnitzel. It’s the fanciest (and delicious) chicken schnitzel you’ll ever have!

My Chinese hotpot feast for beginners

Chinese hotpot (or steamboat as it’s more commonly known in my family) is the ultimate sharing meal. My mother’s hotpot is something amazing to behold; she spends days preparing the ingredients, and carefully planning each course. My version, you will be pleased to know, whilst nowhere near as epic as my mum’s, is much more manageable.

Before I get onto the food itself, here are a few hotpot basics for those of you planning to do this for the first time:

• You’ll need a large pot, and a single burner cooker placed in the middle of the dining table. There are heaps of different types of hotpot vessel out there these days. You can even get fancy pots with separators so that you can serve different types of broth – commonly used in Chongqing and Mongolian style hotpots.
• Let’s talk about broth – arguably, the most important part. My family are from Malaysia where Cantonese style hotpots are most common. Cantonese style hotpots are more seafood focused, with one type of broth. In my family, the broth we use is typically made from a mixture of chicken and pork bones.  You can use whatever kind of broth you like. In my recipe, I’ll be using chicken broth, because that’s what I had handy in my kitchen. If you go to a Chinese hotpot restaurant in Chinatown, you’re most likely to encounter a Chongqing style hotpot – typically involves a couple different types of broth, most commonly one spicy, and one non-spicy.
• Traditionally, you would use lots of different types of individual ladles to serve yourself out of the hotpot. You can source most of these utensils from your local Asian grocer. However, you don’t need all the fancy equipment. A large soup ladle and a few pairs of tongs will do the trick.
• Hotpot is a bit of a marathon. As you’ll see, the meal is served over a few rounds, with noodles right at the end. Make sure you bring your stretchy pants and pace yourself!

Hotpots are lots of fun. Change up the ingredients and try different things each time. This is a super basic “recipe” to give you a guide, something you can make your own.

As a rule of thumb, for 4 people (which is what my recipe serves) you’ll need broadly the following types of ingredients:

• 2 types of leafy vegetables (I always use Chinese cabbage / wombok as one of the two as it brings sweetness and depth to the broth)
• 1 type of firmer vegetable (I like to use tinned baby corn, my mum will typically use baby corn and fresh shiitake mushrooms)
• 2 types of noodles (I like using one white and one yellow)
• 1 type of tofu
• 1 type of seafood (I like to use prawns, my mum will typically use a mixture of fresh prawns, abalone and squid)
• 1 type of meat (I almost always use pork because I think it really elevates the broth)
•  2 types of fishballs (fresh fishballs are the best, but we don’t all have time to make our own fishballs – store bought work just fine)
• About 1 inch of fresh ginger (I like to cut them into slices)
• Spring onion
• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Chilli (whatever kind you like; sauce, oil, fresh chilli etc)

Ingredients 

• 4 litres chicken broth (preferably no salt added)
• 1kg of prawns (I used fresh banana prawns)
• 1 kg of pork spare ribs
• 1 x small wombok (roughly chopped)
• 6/7 x bok choy bulbs (each bulb quartered)
• 1 x tin of baby corn (drained)
• 500g of fresh tofu (avoid silken tofu as I find it doesn’t hold in the broth as well, I like to cut the tofu into large pieces so they hold shape, and are easy to fish out of the broth)
• 450g of hokkien noodles (cooked and drained)
• 250g of rice vermicelli noodles (cooked and drained)
• 2 x packets store bought fishballs
• About 1 inch of fresh ginger (I like to cut them into slices)
• 2 x spring onion

Condiments to serve

• Soy sauce
• Sesame oil
• Chilli (whatever kind you like; this time I used chopped fresh chilli and also sambal belacan*)
• 4 x garlic cloves (chopped fine)
• 1 x bunch fresh coriander (roughly chopped)
• 1 x lime (sliced into wedges)

*Sambal belacan is a Malaysian chilli condiment. It is super spicy and is traditionally made with chillies and fermented shrimp paste. I always have a jar in my fridge! 

Method

The following “rounds” are suggestions only. You can do as many rounds as you like – completely up to you. Just make sure the food is cooked through before serving.

• Round one. Add half of the broth into the pot, along with half of the ginger, the spring onions and about half of the garlic. Bring to boil, then add the pork spare ribs, half of the wombok, and half of the baby corn. Keep the broth on a low / medium flame. You can if you like, add in about half a cup of Chinese rice wine at this point. It brings a real depth of flavour to the broth. Once pork is cooked through, round one is ready to serve i.e. everyone digs in to serve themselves. Make sure you get some of the delicious broth. Turn the flame down to low while you eat so that all your delicious broth doesn’t evaporate away. Add condiments to taste. I prefer not adding too many condiments to the broth itself, so that everyone can add the condiments they like to taste to their individual serves. I also keep the broth pretty low in salt so that everyone can add their own soy sauce to taste.
• Round two. Add half of the bok choy and the rest of the wombok, half of the fish balls, tofu, the prawns and about 2 cups of fresh broth, the rest of the ginger, and the rest of the garlic to the pot and bring back to the boil. Once the prawns are cooked through and the fish balls float on top of the broth, round two is ready to serve. By now the broth will be tasting epic. Try to resist filling yourself up on broth at this point, you have noodles to come!
• Round three. Add the rest of the bok choy, the rest of the baby corn, the noodles (both types), the rest of the fish balls and the rest of the broth to the pot. Once the fish balls float on top of the broth, round three is ready to serve.

Spaghetti Puttanesca (well, kind of)

Have you ever gotten home later than expected, starving, and realise that you have next to nothing in your fridge? This is the recipe for you. It’s incredibly simple, takes next to no time to prepare, and you probably already have most of the ingredients hanging around in your pantry. This is also a really handy speedy pescatarian recipe to have up your sleeve if you, like me, are trying to reduce your meat intake.

Why the “well kind of”? Well, traditional puttanesca sauce has much more ingredients; capers, anchovies, garlic, and does not include tinned supermarket tuna! This is my super easy cheat’s version.

This recipe makes enough for 3-4 meals (if served with a large side of veggies), or 2 very hungry people without sides.

Ingredients 

• Spaghetti (dried, about 250g)
• 1 x cup olives (pitted)
• 1 x onion (diced or sliced)
• Tuna in chilli oil (tinned, I use two 95g tins, Sirena is my favourite brand to use, but any brand will do; don’t drain the tuna the chilli oil goes into the sauce)
• 1 x celery stick (diced)
• 1 x tin chopped or crushed tomatoes
• 2 x tablespoons vegetable oil
• Olive oil to serve
• Cracked black pepper to serve

Method 

• Bring a pot of water to boil for the spaghetti. About 4 cups of water should be enough. Add a large pinch of salt and one tablespoon of vegetable oil to the water.
• In a large pan, heat one tablespoon of vegetable oil and add onion and celery. Cook until softened on a medium to low heat.
• The water should have started to boil by now. Add the spaghetti to the water, and cook according to packet instructions. Depending on the brand / thickness of spaghetti you use, this should take about 7-10 minutes. I like to boil my spaghetti until it’s just undercooked, and finish it off in the pan with the sauce.
• Add the tinned tomatoes to the pan, along with the olives and tuna. I add the chilli oil from the tuna tin as well. I then add about half a cup of water from the spaghetti to the sauce, and stir through.
• The spaghetti should be just about cooked by now. I drain the spaghetti in the sink, and then turn off the heat on the sauce. I then add the drained spaghetti to the sauce and toss it around to finish. All done!
• I like to serve the spaghetti piled high in a bowl, with a drizzle of olive oil and cracked black pepper.