Tummyrumble

Quick and easy cooking in a wok

When it comes to quick and easy cooking, nothing beats the wok as a tool. Coming back to London after Christmas, I brought with me one of my old cookery books, one I found in a used book store somewhere ages ago. It is called "Food in a Wok", and contains exactly what it says on the cover.

Main reason I brought that book back is that when it comes to my day to day cooking like lunches and dinners during the week the most important keywords are just those: "quick" and "easy". In the weeks I usually cook for myself, don't have much time for fancy recipes, and I also want to make sure that I make enough food to get left overs for my next lunch or dinner minimising the time I have to put into my solitary cooking while optimising the value for money (cooking for one person, making one meal only every time, gets ridiculously expensive in the long run...).

Face it, cooking for yourself with the purpose of simply making a decent meal is the most boring kind. To me a big part of the enjoyment of cooking is to see other people respond to it. Good or bad, the instant feedback on people's faces makes it a great learning experience every time (and if it turns out good, it is also a nice little ego boost). When the only one who can give feedback is you, it gets sort of boring. And dining in front of a mirror looks silly.

Using the wok lets me make big batches of healthy, interesting and tasty food, while still having fun in the process (or rather, the short time spent on it weighs up for the fact that I am dining alone). That's why I love this cookery book. All the recipes are simple, straight forward, takes no more than 15 minutes to half an hour to make (excluding time for marinating, which is the secret of some of the really tasty recipes) and are based on every day available ingredients.

Today I made a particularly good dish, with some modifications to the original recipe. Already looking forward to eating the rest of it for lunch tomorrow...

Strada - second best pizza I have ever had in London

Went to Strada on New Burlington Street (off Regent Street) with J last night, and had a very pleasant experience. This is indeed a top notch Italian restaurant franchise (there are several Stradas around London) and Pizza Express could do good looking to these people for some pointers.

Venue looks fabulous, all done in deep red and dark woods and decorated with fresh fruits and beautiful vegetables in big glass bowls. There is an open kitchen area where you see the chefs working and shuffling pizzas in and out of the big ovens. Despite it being early a Wednesday evening, the place was rammed when I arrived but yet not loud or annoying.

Learned a new expression today

Today is no fun travelling by tube in London. Since one of the few true luxuries I indulge in is a monthly zone 1 and 2 travel card I usually rely on the tube network to take me where I am going, so when it breaks down it is a bit annoying.

Today the tube network is broken, not by any act of God, but by the act of the tube attendants. Or more accurately, failure to act... To be fair though, I was unlucky this morning. Disturbances are minimal, only 20 tube stations are closed, which leaves about 90% open. Unfortunately two of the three stations I needed this morning for my weekly coffee session with lovely B were among the 20...

I am not sure what they are fighting for, but apparently it can't be very important since most of the attendants obviously decided to go to work as was it any normal day. London Underground is getting some flak for "running an unsafe network" though, what with not enough attendants around, but I felt just as fluffy and cuddly taken care of as usual. Yes, I like the tube.

However, I am rambling. Thing is, while waiting on the platform at Elephant & Castle I learned a new expression. Interesting, how a simple rephrasing of words can make something incredibly negative in the public eye (as in those who will suffer from not being able to get off at their right stations) can be made to sound positive and for the common good.

"Industrial action."

Taste the words. "Industrial action." No, it is not a "strike", that sounds so dreary and as if it has a bad impact on commuters' everyday life, please from now on when you announce that people may get late to work or will be forced to walk several miles in the cold and rain we usually get in London in January use the phrase "industrial action", it will make people feel so much better.

Well, you can't say that London Underground doesn't care about their customers...

URL: BBC News - Tube strike has 'little impact'

Tip from a cookie baking newbie

Just tried the recipe for blue cheese and walnut cookies that Pille over at nami-nami posted a while ago since I have a bunch of glögg (and no, I don't really think it is the same as mulled wine, glögg is something particularly Swedish) I need a poor excuse to drink. Waiting for cookies to cool off a bit now, think they will be well tasty.

Here's a beginner's tip though: leave ample room for cookies to grow on the baking plate...

Look ma, the cookies grow! Run away, run away!!!
Originally uploaded by Manne.

...or you'll end up with one big cookie, like me.

URL: nami-nami - Blue cheese and walnut cookies

When blogging bleeds over to real life

This is so cool. One of the food blogs I really like and regularly read is nami-nami, by Pille who originally comes from Estonia. A while back she blogged about a very Estonian variety of roasted and ground grains called kama.

Obviously Pille has added me to her blog roll, 'cause the reason I found that page of hers (the post is six months old) was that I found the address among my referrers, somebody clicked through to my blog from that page. Very random. Kama sounded really interesting, and since Pille wrote that she sometimes brings that stuff back to Edinburgh from Estonia and offered to send some to anyone who is interested I left a comment. Just a few hours ago she emailed and said she actually have some kama in a "chocolate bar" variety that she could send me.

You can even find kama in 'chocolate' bars - and this product is unique to Estonia. Namely during the Soviet era in 1970s, the price of cocoa beans increased and these became almost unavailable in Soviet Union. The main confectionery factory in Estonia, Kalev, had a witty worker who tried replacing cocoa flour with kama flour. The result was obviously not a chocolate, but it was nevertheless delicious and became very popular in Estonia.

How cool is that! I love having stuff sent to me, can't wait to see what it tastes like. Report to follow. Thanks Pille!

URL: nami-nami - Cooking Estonian: KAMA