Carrot and Ginger Soup

As a student, I am always looking for recipes that are delicious, cheap and healthy, all at the same time. I recently came across this recipe for Carrot and Ginger Soup from Sainsbury's and it has become my latest addiction.

When I first made this I was overwhelmed by the fact that such a simple dish could be so delicious. The warmth of the ginger is perfect for this bitter November chill, here in Northern England.

I simply sautéed some onions, then added half a kilo of chopped carrots and 2 tablespoons of finely chopped ginger with some stock. After boiling for about 30 minutes, I added some butter, honey and seasoning and then, blended.

Despite the ultimate deliciousness of this dish, I love to make food look a little bit more interesting. I have decided to dress the soup with a drizzle of cream, a sprinkle of paprika and a few sprigs of fresh thyme. I always try to avoid using dried herbs to dress a dish, they really cannot compete with the fresh!


P.S. Again, thank you for your patience. This final year of university is eating up much of my time. Please stay tuned to this blog as I shall be jetting of (again!) to somewhere far away and I am hoping to share many of my photos and food experiences with you all!

Argentine Thumbprint Cookies

Argentine Thumbprint Cookie broken in half

Recently, I have become a keen drinker of Mate. Despite the fact that Mate suppresses the appetite, I always enjoy a sweet accompaniment, just as I do with my tea and coffee. Argentines are famous for their love of intense flavours and their love of dulce de leche, as I mentioned in a previous post. They drink their Mate very bitter. I drink Mate differently from the Latin Americans, with more water and much less yerba, in order to accommodate my sensitive palate.

Yerba Mate

I have always thought that 'thumbprint cookies' were cute. I had a browse on the internet and found that there are not many thumbprint cookies with dulce de leche. Argentine alfajores (which I sampled in Barcelona) generally consist of two shortbread cookies joined together with a filling of dulce de leche and dusted with desiccated coconut. I decided to transfer this idea into thumbprint cookies (as they are just adorable).

Argentine Thumbprint Cookies before cooking

I followed a shortbread recipe that I found on the internet which called for equal parts of butter and flour. The dough felt extremely oily so I added in some more flour before I shaped the cookies. Unfortunately, the cookies turned out a lot bigger and less 'adorable' than I had anticipated/hoped for.

Argentine Thumbprint Cookies

I tried again and this time managed to burn them. They were still worthy of being eaten, but definitely not worthy for the blog.

Dulce de leche centre

So, I tried for a third time and finally I had success! I creamed 125g of butter with 55g of sugar. I then mixed in 180g of flour and shaped the dough into small balls. I coated the balls with desiccated coconut, placed them onto a baking tray and pushed my thumb into the centre to create 'bowls' for the dulce de leche. After baking them until they were golden brown (around 10 minutes at 180°C), I filled the thumbprints with dulce de leche and added an extra dusting of coconut. They were small, cute and very tasty.

Argentine Thumbprint Cookie

Is anyone else, out there, a Mate drinker?

The Last of Spain

Cactus decoration on the tables of Cafe Flamingo in Barcelona

Eeek! Yet another month has slipped by without my posting here. I can only apologise once again. Readers, I am so sorry! I have now returned to Leeds for my final year of university and time is flying.

The infamous Sagrada Familia

After four weeks of Spanish school in Barcelona, I left the city for a nearby town, Granollers, to visit my other Spanish friend whom I met in California. I then went back to Barcelona for a final few days of summer sunshine before returning to England.

Coconut and pistachio ice cream

As I promised (although a little late), I have some photos of edible treats that I sampled outside of the host family home during my time in Barcelona.

One of my favourite foodie places in Barcelona is La Boqueria, the famous food market just off of Las Ramblas. Not only is it a total indulgence for the eyes, but the market sells meat sticks for only 1 euro each! My friends were a little worried about my over-excitement with the 1 euro meat sticks, but I honestly think that they are one of the greatest finds in Barcelona. Bite-sized portions of 6 different types of meat. Perfect for a decision-struggler, such as myself. I think my excitement for these lasted for hours, they truly made my day!

The incredible 1 Euro meat sticks from La Boqueria

Marzipan friends at La Boqueria

Hanging display of chillis at La Boqueria

One bar called Cafe Flamingo's, near Las Ramblas, was discovered by one of my 'roomies' which we visited on several occasions. They served a beautiful range of free tapas with cocktails from 7-10pm. The tapas included a variety of bruschetta, sandwiches, olives, nuts and pretzel snacks. Everything was so simple yet so delicious! I found their impressive selection of bruschetta toppings to be a great inspiration for any dinner party that I may host in the future.

Caprioska cocktail at Cafe Flamingo's

Delicious free tapas with cocktails at Cafe Flamingo's

A couple next to La Fuente Mágica [The Magic Fountains]

Despite the hot and humid weather, my taste buds were crying out for a sample of chocolate caliente con churros [hot chocolate with churros], as I had walked past so many places that advertised this irresistible treat. It was a hot September afternoon when I finally got around to sampling it and, as much as I enjoyed it, I was perspiring during the entirety of it. Nonetheless, the rich, almost-custard-like hot chocolate was really something to experience. The churros were not soft or sweet, contrary to what I had anticipated. I was expecting a doughnut-like texture but they were quite hard and crunchy. I did enjoy these, but next time I would definitely eat them in winter rather than summer!

Chocolate caliente con churros

I have been experimenting in the kitchen over the past few days and hope to post about it soon. Sorry, again, for my lack of commitment to this blog. I really hope to get back into the habit of frequent posting! Thank you, again, for your kind patience.

A palm tree between the side streets of Barcelona

Flaming shots from the bar El Gato Negro

Montserrat mountain top monastery

Hola from Spain and a taste of Argentine Cuisine

Beautiful Almunñécar at sunset

Granada from San Nicolas view point

Dear readers...

I am afraid that this post contains yet another apology. After spending three weeks at home, I am now in Spain for the rest of the summer. I stayed with a friend in the south for a few days and I am now in Barcelona attending Spanish school. The month seems to have flown by without my posting anything here, and for that I am deeply sorry! Please bear with me and my large "appetite" for life!

As I am currently living, and eating my meals with a host family, I haven't sampled much of the local Spanish cuisine in restaurants. However, my very thoughtful Argentine boyfriend surprised me by paying for a meal for myself and two friends to visit an Argentine restaurant close to where I am staying here in Barcelona. It was delicioso! I had never experienced Argentine cuisine before and I was very impressed. So, of course, here are some photos of the delicious Argentine cuisine that my friends and I enjoyed the other night...

Beef empanadas

The inside of the beef empanadas

Grilled vegetables

The empanadas were completely packed with flavour. The filling had a hint of spice, the meat was so soft and succulent and the pastry was moist but not too heavy. One of my friends decided not to eat all of the pastry as she didn't want to fill up so... I ate it, of course! The grilled vegetables were surprisingly delicious after appearing to be quite a plain dish. The fine slices had a slightly crisp texture and charred flavour.

A few glasses of Argentine red wine to accompany our meal

Entraña: Grilled Argentine Skirt Steak

Asado: Grilled Argentine Rib Steak

My boyfriend recommended that we ordered the Asado and Entraña for mains. We thought that the Asado would have had more flavour because the meat was still on the bone, however, we found the Entraña to be the more flavoursome. It was all that one could have asked for in a steak: juicy, salty, flavoursome, succulent and ever-so-slightly chewy. I felt overwhelmed with every bite. The outside of the Asado meat was oily and crispy. I enjoyed just listening to one crunch into it!

We shared the three desserts on the menu. These were chocolate cake filled with dulce de leche, Argentine alfajor and pancake with dulce de leche. I found all of these desserts to be too sweet for me. It is a fact that Argentines love sabores intensos [intense flavours] so these are very typical Argentine desserts. Also, I believe that dulce de leche was invented in Argentina, that's probably why they love to eat it with most desserts!

Chocolate cake filled with dulce de leche

I have also taken many photos which I wish to share. I hope you enjoy them. During the next few weeks, I hope to experience some Spanish cuisine outside of the house. If and when I do, I promise to share with you all!

La Fuente Mágica [The Magic Fountains]

The street in Barceloneta

Curved chimney at Gaudí's Casa Mila

The church at the top of Mount Tibidabo

Fiesta de la luna llena (full moon party) on El Prat beach

"W Cosmopolitan" at The W Hotel

Inside Freixenet Bodega

Another curved chimney at Gaudí's Casa Mila

Park Güell at night

Thank you again for your patience. I send all of my love from Barcelona and hope that everyone is enjoying their summer. Besos!

Ben & Jerry's Sundae Festival

A beautiful day in Clapham for eating ice cream

After a rather miserable couple of weeks of weather in England, the sun finally shone for Ben & Jerry's Sundae Festival in Clapham Common, London. Some of my friends that had been before told me that they had managed to eat a total of seven ice creams - I was definitely hoping to consume even more!

My friend and I began the challenge with a scoop of Fairly Nuts: caramel ice cream with praline almond clusters and caramel swirls.

Fairly Nuts

Whilst the ice creams were still in our hands, we went straight into another queue for our second ice cream - Cherry Garcia: cherries and dark chocolately chunks.

Cherry Garcia

My friend and I then went exploring. There was plenty going on inside the festival grounds including a helter-skelter, coconut shy, Pimms bus, toe wrestling, "Mystic Moo", two performance stages and plenty of food and drink stalls.

Helter-skelter

We quickly moved onto our third ice cream - Chocolate Fudge Brownie: chocolate ice cream laden with chocolate brownie pieces.

Chocolate Fudge Brownie

This was the first time that I had ever tried Chocolate Fudge Brownie. I think that this is because it is a classic flavour and I always try to go for the newest or most unusual, so I had always avoided it. I was surprised how much I loved it!

I must admit that we started to feel a little bit sick at this point, so we then went for a more refreshing choice of Jamaican Me Crazy Sorbet: chunky pineapple sorbet with passion fruit swirls.

Jamaican Me Crazy

This was very refreshing and certainly cleansed our palettes in preparation for more rich and chocolately ice creams. Next up, after a quick rest, was the Chocolate Macadamia: chocolate and vanilla ice creams with fudge covered macadamia nuts.

Chocolate Macadamia

We were both surprised by how much we liked this one as it seemed like such a simple combination. We both really enjoyed the fudgy and chocolatey macadamias.

We then felt desperate for some salt to balance out all of the sugar that we had consumed, so we shared a bowl of chicken and chorizo paella.

Chicken and Chorizo Paella

It had a collection of meaty, salty and spicy flavours with chewy rice and tender meat. We could have eaten a bowl each, but we were only half way through our target of ten ice creams, so we needed to leave some room for the rest!

After the paella, we were ready for another drenching of sugar and cream. We tried one of Ben & Jerry's new ice creams - Coconutterly Fair: chocolate ice cream, coconut caramel swirls and chocolately covered caramel crunch.

Coconutterly Fair

This, surprisingly, wasn't as coconutty as I had expected.

We really wanted to try a 'wich (Ben & Jerry's ice cream sandwich) and were trying to find the ladies who were handing them out. During our search, we saw a short queue for Caramel Chew Chew: caramel ice cream with a caramel swirl and chocolatey covered caramel chunks, so, of course, we tried one.

Caramel Chew Chew

This was very caramelly indeed.

By this time, the festival was drawing to an end and the queues were becoming fairly short. The next stop was Baked Alaska: vanilla ice cream with marshmallow swirls and white chocolatey polar bears.

Baked Alaska

I am not a huge fan of overly-sweet desserts, so, unfortunately, this ice cream being too sweet for me, ended up in the bin.

Baked Alaska... in the bin

I hate wasting food but I just couldn't finish this one - sorry B&J!

We wanted something more refreshing and went in search of the Berry N'ice: strawberry ice cream with real strawberry pieces.

Berry N'ice

We thought, originally, that this was another sorbet but it turned out to be an ice cream. It had a wonderful fresh strawberry flavour and, even though it was an ice cream and not a sorbet, it was rather refreshing. After this we sampled the Strawberry Cheesecake: strawberry cheesecake ice cream with strawberries and cookie swirls.

Strawberry Cheesecake

Uh-oh, another sickly sweet ice cream. Having just had the Berry N'ice, we could really tell the difference between these two strawberry ice creams. After a few licks, this one had to be binned too...

The last ice cream of the day was Phish Food: chocolate ice cream with gooey marshmallow, caramel swirl and chocolatey fish shapes.

Phish Food

I am not sure if I am just more tolerant when it comes to chocolate, but I somehow managed to finish this without a problem, after having just rejected the Strawberry Cheesecake.

The Phish Food completed our total count of eleven ice creams! Not all of them were fully devoured, however, but most were, and all were sampled.

The bins were all overloaded with ice cream cones

At the beginning of the day I was very excited to see Pieminister. During Glastonbury last year, I consumed two of their pie meals (the Matador and Heidi pies) within the same hour. I was completely overwhelmed by their deliciousness. To my delight, because it was near the end of the day, Pieminister were selling their pies for only £3.50 with all the works! They were out of Matador pies (steak, sherry, chorizo and green olive) so I went for a "Blue Moo" (steak, stilton and rosemary) instead. I have no idea how I managed to consume this, with the minted peas, mash, crispy onions and "groovy" (gravy) after all of that ice cream, but somehow I did!

Blue Moo Pieminister Pie with mash, minted peas, crispy onions and "groovy"

My friend also ate a pie meal and we then waddled back to the station. I am pretty sure that we looked pregnant with our giant food babies!

What a wonderful food day indeed. Were any of you there?