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.