For the rainy days - Tom Kha Gai or Thai chicken soup

                         And yet again I arrive at work looking like a half-drowned rat with Kirsty McCole singing in my ear '... but the wind blows right through you, it's no place for the old'. Neither it is for the young, I think, as mothers fights to keep their pre-schoolers upright in the buffeting wind. 

                        It makes me wish for something warm, something sunny and light. I remember the bruised stalk of lemongrass I've left to steep with ginger and green chili. And I smile, today's gonna be a good day after all.

Skinny Tom Kha Gai

Serves 4 to 6

1 packet chicken quorn pieces

1 stalk of lemongrass

1 thumb-sized piece of ginger

1 lime

1 green chili 

100g baby corn

100g sugar snaps 

1 carrot

2 spring onions

1 tsp red Thai paste

a handful of fresh coriander

2 vegetable or chicken stock cubes

1 tin half-fat coconut milk*

1,5-2L boiling water

1. Start by preparing the broth for the soup - bruise the lemongrass stalk ( I just usually beat it with a rolling pin) and put into a pot, add sliced ginger and sliced and deseeded chili. Cover with boiling water, add red Thai paste and let them steep for 30mins (I've prepared mine in the morning and left for work :) ).

2. Slice the carrot and roughly chop the rest of the veg.

3. Bring the broth back to the boil then reduce the heat to simmer. Remove the lemongrass stalk. Add quorn and stock cubes, grate the zest of the lime and squeeze the juice. Let it simmer for around 5 mins s the quorn might soak up the flavour from the broth and pour in the coconut milk.

4. Add chopped veg, simmer for 2 mins and serve immediately.

The soup itself might seem a bit watery but with the amount of veg and quorn it's hardly noticeable after serving. The soup the be re-heated but the veg lose their crunch :(

* To make it even more skinny you can make your own coconut milk by steeping desiccated coconut in skimmed milk or water ( 1 part of coconut to 2 parts of fluid) and then everything whizzing it in a blender. Or you can buy a can of coconut water.

And so it begins - sweet potatoes and rain.

Glasgow is a strange place. Yesterday I got to work totally drenched, trailing puddles of water behind me. Today I had to shove my hoodie into my backpack, finally enjoying warm sun. It was as perfect day as it gets - lazy, sunny and full of good food.
It's one of those things I love about the city - you can find wee shops and cafes that turn out to be a true chest of wonders. One of those places is The North Star, just a small walk up from the Botanical Gardens, on Queen Margaret's Drive.
The place itself is tiny, six tables are a hard squeeze but noone seems to mind. Don't bother asking for a menu - it's written all over the place, literally. Long list of sandwiches and coffees adorns the wall above the oh-so-tempting cake stands and you can't help but glance at them, unable to decide which one looks more delicious.

I can vouch for the orange and polenta cake - it was all I've ever hoped of it to be: moist, full of flavour and slightly crunchy on the edges.


As for myself - I always look for new flavours, things to try, to experiment. Like sweet potatoes. I've never tried them before moving to the UK. I only remember them as one of those things that would show up in big supermarkets, exotic, overpriced, noone had any idea what to do with them, noone would buy them and so soon they'd disappear.
I don't remember what was the first sweet potato dish I've eaten - wedges? soup? but I could remember that sweet moistness, delicate texture, almost silky. I had fallen in love right there and then and now I have a list of things I want to cook using them, today's choice came from this blog. Another happy chance that I've just stumbled upon. I have slightly modified the recipe to suit my taste better :


Baked sweet potatoes with goat's cheese and roasted red grapes

2 small to medium sweet poatatoes
60g soft goat's cheese
1 cup red seedless grapes
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnammon
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
pinch of sweet paprika
1 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp maple syrup + extra for drizzling
a drizzle of olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Poke holes in the sweet potatoes using a fork or a metal skewer and wrap them in tin foil. Bake them in the middle of the oven for 1h-1,5h (original recipe calls for 45-1h but I've found out that's way too short, leaving the potatoes too crunchy to be mashed properly), until tender to touch.
Take out of the oven, slit through the middle and leave to cool enough to handle. Scoop out the flesh into a bowl.
Turn the heat to 200. Prepare the grapes - lightly drizzle them with olive oil and sprinkle them with salt and pepper, toss to coat evenly. Pop them into the oven for around 25mins till they start bursting.
In the meantime prepare the potato mash - add cinnamon, nutmeg, 50g of goat's cheese, honey, syrup and paprika to the bowl and mash everything with a fork. Add salt and pepper to taste, more paprika if you fancy.
Scoop the mash back into potato skins and pop into the oven for the last 5 mins of roasting the grapes to re-heat. (I've put them at the bottom of the oven in a baking tin lined with some tin foil, made the skin go slightly crispy at the bottom, without burning it).
Take out of the oven, scatter with the remaining goat's cheese and roasted grapes, serve drizzled with extra maple syrup.

I think the honey makes it all a bit too sweet, slightly smoky and burnt taste you get from maple syrup accompanies the potatoes better.