Edible adventures with the little sister

So following on from my weekend (last week) with my family and then the little sister, this is what we got up to when she came to stay…

We made French toast or eggy bread.  The little sister had hers with cinnamon sugar and I added some crushed (and homegrown!) raspberries to mine…

We made ‘cheats’ wraps – seed flecked tortilla wraps filled with Moroccan style hummous, sweet potato falafel and homegrown lettuce.  Sadly only the salad was homegrown…

We also had a delicious girlie lunch at Tampopo (the little sister’s favourite) – we shared Vietnamese goi cuon, she ate yaki udon noodles and I ate pad Thai.  Sadly we ate it all too quickly and there are no photos to show for these delicious dishes.

However, we also grabbed some lunch from Selfridges which I did snap a few quick photos of before we devoured it.  A selection of Indian delights and a pesto, mushroom and cheese pretzel and a mango smoothie to share…

A vegetarian breakfast for a hungry sister – a fried egg, sunny-side up with diced vegetarian sausage…

As part of her final parting dinner we did a baked Camembert eaten with crusty white bread that we picked up at the Abbey Leys farmer’s market.  Recipe for how to bake Camembert (it’s really easy) here.

We also made to-die-for cookies.  These are Hugh’s 10 minute cookies from his River Cottage Everyday recipe book, and they are everything you want from a cookie.  They are moist in places but crispy in others, chewy, sweet, and bittersweet with dark chocolate…

And finally, just before we left to pop her on a train home, we whipped up a quick quesadilla.  Two tortillas pan fried in a little oil with grated cheddar cheese and chopped cherry tomatoes sandwiched in the middle…

I miss you little sister!

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Little sister visit: Part II (the dreaded Trafford centre)

Who would have ever guessed that a blog about eating locally would have involved a post about the Trafford Centre.  I am, however, only human, and I have a weakness for spoiling my little sister.  For a fifteen-year-old girl, especially one from the middle of rural Gloucestershire, there can be nothing better than a trip to the Trafford Centre when visiting ones big sister.

I am not really prepared for a visit to the Trafford Centre, I find it rather crowded and overwhelming, and far too stifling.  We had to refresh after a couple of hours and rehydrate with a quite good smoothie.

After a looooooooooong day, a couple of bags and quite a number of hours later the shopping part was over.  N finished work and met us for dinner, which was at the request of the little sister – Tampopo.  She revealed she had already read their menu online a number of times, and knew exactly what she wanted.

tempura vegetables

We shared some starters – Tempura Vegetables with plum sauce, and Goi Cuon (delicate spring rolls – not the deep fried version – filled with rice noodles and vegetables) with a soy and ginger dipping sauce.  My favourite of the tempura vegetables were the green beans, but as N pointed out that’s probably because they were mostly batter :0)  The Goi Cuon were so fresh and scrumptious, and by complete chance I have a book out from the library on street food which has a recipe for them – one to try soon I hope!

Goi Cuon

For mains N had Singapore Noodles – curry sauce with chicken and prawns.

Singapore noodles

The little sister chose a vegan Japanese noodle dish – Yaki Udon – with red peppers.

Yaki Udon

And I went for Chap Chai, which is Korean rice noodles with cucumber and shitake mushrooms.  De-lish!

Chap Chai

So, although this isn’t the homemade, seasonal, locally distinct food that I normally like to cook and eat, it was a fun night out and made the little sister very happy.

Little sister visit: Part I (food wants)

It’s about time to write about the lovely time I had last week when my little sister came to visit.  The time went too quickly and we really needed another day or so…but homework beckoned so she had to leave. 

Firstly, I must tell you that my little sister knows exactly what she wants (probably I do too), but in this case I am talking about food.  Her food requests went something like this…homemade hummous, sushi, fried halloumi sandwiches, baked Camembert, and most of the menu from Tampopo. 

the lovely little sister

So after picking her up from the train station on Wednesday, we headed straight for my favourite food shopping haunt – Chorlton.  We found all the necessary ingredients to fulfill the little sister’s wishes, before heading to Out of the Blue (Wilbraham Road, Chorlton), an utterly fantastic fish mongers.  They also have their own sushi chef, who can be seen most days in the store window busily creating the days sushi.  The little sister chose the veggie rolls and I opted for the mixed rolls.  The veggie rolls are small delicate mouthfuls, that include fillings such as cucumber, daikon, carrot, avocado, and red pepper – probably not authentic, but total heaven to a vegetarian country girl.  Mine were pretty much the same, but included tuna and salmon. 

Thursday lunchtime after a morning pouring over beautiful Etsy websites, we made some homemade hummous, defrosted some root vegetable soup and toasted some pittas. 

For my hummous, I use a can of chickpeas (drained and rinsed), a clove of garlic (roughly chopped), a teaspoon or two of cumin powder (more or less to your taste), a pinch of crushed dried chillies, a generous squeeze of lemon juice (if your hummous doesn’t taste amazing, add more lemon juice), and a good slug of olive oil (add enough to create a smooth paste).  I blitz all the ingredients together, and season with salt and pepper. 

Apologies for not giving specific ingredient amounts, but I really feel that my taste in hummous might not be yours, so just adjust the flavourings until you get it how you like it.

Check back this week for more food adventure with the little sister, including a Snickers (!) muffin and homemade chocolate croissants.