Tis the season for cupcakes

The best gift you can give somebody is your time...this year I gifted boxes of home baked goods by yours truly to friends and family over the festive period! What says love like time, effort and cupcakes?

PROJECT RISE

60 home baked cupcakes by yours truly in the colours of the Philippines flag for PROJECT RISE, a fundraiser event held on 18th December at Vibe bar, London, in aid of the victims of Typhoon Haiyan. An event with an amazing line up of Joel Baker, Miraa May, Greeds, Cortes and Hayley Cassidy with the super cool Signature Sounds DJ crew on the decks - a fun evening of good music, food, and good vibessssss, if you didn't come you missed out on pure TALENT. 

If you were unable to attend the event you can still help make a difference in the lives of thousands of people, every little really does help so please support and donate here. 

Frozen banana, peanut butter and chocolate bites

I saw somebody post a picture similar to the one below and decided I had to attempt making  these seductive looking snacks. Super duper easy and super duper fast to make. Perfect as party bites/to satisfy your monthly chocolate cravings.

Ingredients:

- 2 bananas

- Roughly 150g milk chocolate

- Peanut butter

Method:

1. Peel bananas and chop into 1cm slices and place on a plate.
2. Spoon about half a teaspoon of peanut butter (I prefer crunchy for that extra crunch!) on top of a slice and place another slice on top creating a sandwich pressing down a little - do this until you run out of bananas.
3. Place cling film over the top and place in the freezer for roughly half an hour.
4. Put the milk chocolate in a glass bowl over the top of a pan of simmering boiling water and mix until all melted. Turn off the heat.
5. Get the bananas out - place one at a time on a teaspoon and using a tablespoon with your free hand, drizzle chocolate over the banana slice until fully covered. 
6. Place carefully back on to the plate leaving a gap between each.
7. Freeze for another half hour and ENJOY!

Perfect summer mint and mixed bean salad that'll make you say MMmmmmmmmm.

Have you ever seen/tasted/done/read something and thought to yourself, WHY ON EARTH have I never done this before? Why have I never had these flavours explode in my mouth? This happened the other day as I sat outside the serpentine gallery, melting as I sat in the sun on the framework by Sou Fujimoto and then just like that, this little bean salad was enough to knock me off my feet. Simple but refreshing. Of course being an eager little foody beaver I had to make it as soon as I got home...thank me for this later.

Ingredients:

200g fine beans, chopped in half
160g hard shelled peas
1 small red onion, finely chopped into cubes
1 tin of kidney bens in chilli sauce
4 cherry tomatoes, chopped into small cubes
Mint leaves, finely chopped

Juice of half a fresh lemon
Table spoon of white vinegar
Salt & pepper to season

1. Put the peas in to a bowl, pour in boiling water, cover with a plate and let it sit for 1 minute. Drain out the water and leave to sit in cold water for a few minutes until peas have cooled. Drain water and add to salad bowl.

2. Do the same with the fine beans, except leave to sit in bowling water for 5 minutes. Add to the salad bowl.

3. Add the chopped onion, tomatoes, mint, lemon juice and vinegar to the salad and mix until well combined. Add salt and pepper to season (don't be afraid to season well!)

4. Let the salad sit for roughly half an hour to marinate before serving.

5. Whether you serve it as a  perfect side with pasta, or as a salad with grilled chicken breasts on top...ENJOY.

Simple, dynamic white sauce.

It's 1.42am and I have a banging headache and can't sleep so I thought I'd share a quick recipe. Mix this sauce with pasta and baaaaaam. Or even just with a nice baguette/ciabatta bread. So according to BBC food recipes below is the ingredients for a simple white sauce that I adapted, of course I guessed my quantities (I reeaaaally couldn't be bothered to fish out the scales) but it turned out good. This one's pretty easy and quick.

Ingredients:

2 chicken thigh fillets (just because they're juicer) season with salt & pepper
Half a red onion

1. First chop the onions into small cubes.
2. To prep the chicken: clean fillets and cut into small bite size chunks.
3. Heat a pan, add a tablespoon of oil and cook the onions until soft.
4. Add in the chicken and cook until just cooked (roughly 5 mins)
5. Leave to the side and make sauce.

Sauce
25g butter
25 plain flour
600 ml milk
Salt and pepper to season
Handful of spinach
Handful of chopped mushrooms

1. Melt the butter over a low heat
2. Add the flour and mix in for roughly a minute (it'll be doughy)
3. Take off heat and gradually stir in the milk until combined and then put back on heat whilst stirring. You'll see it slowly thicken and become creamy.
4. Add the mushrooms and stir for a few minutes.
5. Now add in the chicken and onions and stir, add spinach and allow a few minutes for it to cook.

Season to your taste and ta-da. Quick, tasty, easy meal. Staple recipe!

Food as art, art as food.

(Chicken with ginger and spring onions)

(Vietnamese summer rolls with sweet potato fries)

(Tom Yum soup with vermicelli noodles)

 

(Salmon with a ginger, coriander and sweet chilli dressing)

(Homemade beef burger with sweet potato fries)

(Jerk chicken with rice and peas)

(Chicken strips coated in breadcrumbs drizzled with honey)

(Thai green curry)

(Above: A mini preview of my little home made food experiments)

I've just realised I haven't yet formally introduced this segment of the blog to you all, how very rude of me! Watching Eddie Huang's 'Fresh off the boat' series on Vice suddenly sparked something in me. Venturing through Miami, LA, Bay area and Taiwan exploring the well known and authentic food spots, delving in to the lives of real people, allowing them to tell their story through their food and recipes...I found myself nodding along a lot. In his own words Fresh off the boat is 'a cultural show told through the lens of food, putting on voices that have long gone ignored.' Somewhere along the line of the humour and wit of Eddie combined with the streets with the art of real food, with real historical background...I connected. In a sense, he's doing all the things I love combined; discovering food and culture and recipes whilst uncovering the stories of the people behind the food, in the midst of telling their story and connecting with them on a level.

For some people food is a basic survival mechanism; you eat, for the sake of eating. For me, it's a form of expression...it's art and life. When I was younger, I pretty much grew up in the kitchen, peeking over my mums arms (it's now over her shoulders) whilst she cooked up one of her tasteful dishes. I have a vivid memory of her making Chinese buns and me always asking for a little bit of the dough, to make my own creation. I've always been fascinated at how a few ingredients combined could create an amazing dish. With two parents who are amazing chefs (I promise I'm not being bias) it is only natural that I have been a lover of food since I could put it in my mouth, but it wasn't until starting university nearly 3 years ago where I began to put my own curiosity and ventures into practice.  

Whilst I have noticed many people dread the thought of going in to the kitchen to cook something to eat, leading to a quick ready made meal of some sort...cooking to me has become almost second nature. I spend much of my time in the kitchen, cooking and discovering new recipes, learning more each time. To me the presentation is just as important as the flavour...I guess I got that from my mama. Along with the cooking, a love of feeding people has also become natural...cooking is so much more than the physical, it's a form of love. It also teaches much about life; in order to perfect a dish, it will take many trail and errors and failed attempts, along with much patience and perseverance....just like anything we approach in life. I continue to learn about the art of food; what works well together, what doesn't, what might.

This section of blog will be dedicated to my journey with food. I hope every one of you who comes across this can take something and be inspired in some way...enjoy.

Moist banana cake

Prep time: 10 mins | Cooking time: 30 mins

If like me, you've spent forever and ever searching for THE perfect banana cake recipe, lightly crisp on top and beautifully moist inside...look no further. For the past few years after testing many recipes, unsatisfied, I finaaaaaally found one worth bookmarking via All recipes. I've used this recipe religiously since - below is the recipe I've adapted a little.

Ingredients:

• 125g butter
• 150g caster sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 190g self raising flour
• 50ml milk
• Sprinkle of demerara sugar

Method:

1. Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin (I use a cake tin). Melt butter, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat, stir until well combined.
2. Remove from heat and add mashed bananas and mix well.
3. Add the egg and mix well.
4. Stir in the flour, alternating between folding and stirring until well combined.
5. Add the milk and light stir in.
6. Pour in the prepared tin and sprinkle the demerara sugar on top.
7. Bake at 150c fan oven (or 170 C regular, gas mark 3) for 30 mintues until a skewer comes out clean.
8. Leave to cool for 5 minutes and enjoy with a cup of tea!

Note: An alternative is to make banana cupcakes for occasions - below are some I made for a friends birthday.