To cook or not to cook, that is the question.

With so much going on in our daily lives, some of us find it hard to make space for the important things let alone identify what they are. I am one of these people.

I know that I enjoy cooking and I love being able to share this with you all, but it is very hard for me these days to sit down and give you some warm fuzzy things to read about and cooking ideas to inspire you.  I believed “To be inspirational to others, you need to be inspired”.

So as I type the words of my dear mother come to mind. Chicken should take 15 minutes to cook from raw to edible, any faster and your going to make yourself sick. So here I am utalising my 15 minutes.

I recently headed home to visit my family in Australia for my brothers wedding, it was a jam packed eventful 8 days. Which consisted of way too many hours sitting on my bottom watching movies! We got to see my big brother Mark walk down the aisle with his beautiful wife Emma and congratulate them on their new journey together. I also got to play all kinds of games with my beautiful niece Sofia Grace and was lucky enough to spend the whole time we were in Australia with her.  – She is so cute.

I spent lots of time with Mumma Bear and Pappa Bear who give great life advice and also know how to have a good time. Chill out with my Sister Rebecca and her Husband Michael and check out all the renovations that have happened while I have been away, as well as have a general catch up with everyone I care about.

So although I haven’t been blogging I did cook up a funky omelet with the help Sofia Grace and looking at how quickly she munched in down and wanted more I think the verdict was that it tasted pretty good!  (The secret was pancetta) J

We were rather spoiled for adventures while we were home, as we did manage to squeeze in time to go to Sydney and see some of my friends there and some of our adventures including riding a giant snail, sunbaking at Bondi and looking over the Anzac bridge.

  

Here are some pictures of my time In Australia in Griffith and Sydney. 

Check out this cute video of my nice :)

Feel free to make some comments and let me know what you think of the blog thus far, and if you want to set me some food challenges let me know! I am more than willing to give it a crack!

Later Kids

xx

Fun, Friends, Gnocchi and Street Parties

This weekend was the best weekend I have had in a while, I really let go and relaxed and relased all my built up tension and now I feel uber happy! I think it was the excess Prosecco and the silly wana twerk / pose / pretend we are in bling ring times = EPIC LOL's all round.

On Saturday I headed to my Camille's for a delicious prosseco breakfast she cooked up for Bec and I, in pre big party day feast.

Camille cooked us baby tomatoes in vinaigrette, with scrambled eggs on sourdough. Shortly afterwards we consumed 3 bottles of Prosecco decided it was time for us to make our way down to the end of summer Shoreditch street party where Frankie Knuckles DJ'd the afternoon away.

Babes, tunes, gin and laughs -Overall a great day/ night! - thanks Dolls xx

So your proberly wondering where does the food story come in? So..after reflecting on such a great weekend with my ladies Bec & Camille I was thinking of home and longing to eat some traditional Italian food the way my nonna cooks it!  With my thinking cap on and safe knowledge that I can boil  potatoes, I made gnocchi arabiatta the old fashion way! Potatoes, egg , flour and love!

After mashing the potatoes, mixing in the egg and flour, we rolled them out and chopped them up. Then I cooked them the way nonna had taught me..wait till they float to the top Cassie!
They were soft and yummy! Enjoy the pictures :)
 




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Kep, Cambodia - Home of the Kampot Green Pepper Crab!

Last night we took a trip down memory lane and went back to Kep Cambodia.  Some of you may or may not know that last year Stu and I backpacked around South East Asia, we travelled up from the Philippines, to Singapore, Cambodia, and Vietnam and back down to Thailand.  Kep is well-known fishmongers town, on the south coast of Cambodia just off the border of Vietnam, with more fishnets than the backstreets of Soho London or Amsterdam’s red light district. This town in particular known as Kep is renowned for its Kampot Green pepper.

Crab Wars in the sink!

Fact: Green pepper used to be the number one pepper in the world and is the key ingredient in many French restaurants.  Ask WIKI

2 crabs boiling up!

SO. I think you get where I am going for last nights theme dinner?  Kep – Cambodia. We did what we could with the blue swimmer crabs and the peppers’ we could find at ASDA and came up with these bad boys.

Between the crab fights in the sink, grating ginger on our new “fan-dangle” grater, we picked up the other weekend, we managed to successfully pull off one delicious pepper crab Cambodian styles, white buns, rice and all.

We loosely followed this recipe, with the addition of a few how–to video’s on youtube on how to clean a crab and remove the apron. Check this recipe out!

 Hello in Cambodian - Sous-dey! 

 I did learn from our last crab adventure that, chicken broth or stock is a good way to get the crab soft & juicy. - In case you wanted to know!

In other #cassieskitchen news, I am very happy and excited about my new job, I have been at Covent Garden for 3 weeks and I am learning so much and taking it all in! 

Big shout out to Stu this week, he brought me an Ipad so I can blog more now, as I am not at home as much anymore!

Check out more pics here of the latest  adventures of #cassieskitchen on pinterest.

FYI if you are a candy crush addict check this out. Bloody hilarious. :)

Later kids xx 

Cass

SUGAR CRUSH!!!!

Breakfast on a Spoon, Cider, Prosecco, and Gate Crashing.

It’s been a full week since my last blog, and yes I know that’s a poor effort. In my own defence it has been a crazy week! I started at  a new company in Covent Garden, I attended a bar opening, went on a 2 hour hunt for the best fish and chips in Stratford, attended my first after work drinks, followed by gate crashing a 16years old girls epic house party, (I decided to meet my neighbours at 12am). Stu and I also went on an overnight trip to Birmingham to attend a cider festival, and on our way there we realised that I had the location wrong, and instead we found ourselves at an International Food Festival where we ate and drank the day away.

All in all, I have been 1 busy munchkin.

Not a bad last resort!

So, with so much going on, I have been a little lacking in the cooking department, but I promise NOT in the eating!  I have been spoilt for choice all week starting with Stu cooking me creamy garlic prawns for dinner one night. Another night, with a suggestion from one of Stu’s colleagues we went looking for the “best” fish and chips in Stratford, with what felt like hours of walking on an already empty stomach we finally located our destination @ 10pm. 


You know those places that scream “ DON’T EAT HERE” in flashing lights out the front? That’s what we encountered, so with sad smiles on our faces we turned around and decided to go to our trusty Westfield, where most places had already stopped serving and we stumbled upon a pizza shop. It was actually a blessing in disguise, as we had the special of  the day which was a truffle, salmon and capers pizza, made with truffle oil base, and a Mediterranean anchovies and tuna salad.

This week I also attended the opening of the Duke of Wellington in Notting Hill. Now, that's a cool venue it has recently been refurbished and I am really looking forward in going back and checking out all the different rooms!

As it was the opening night that had so much free food for the patrons to sample, so I manage to eat my through a delicious array of nibbles, including breakfast on a spoon (see picture)
(I think it was a mix of pancetta and bacon base with an egg fried on top) – AMAZING! 

I also sampled the Pork Lollipops – pork belly on sticks dipped in applesauce, cheesy potato croquettes, and crab meat and watercress served on crispy pork skin. (Also the free gin)

All the dishes were very delicious, the venue-looked great also with its eclectic mix of furnishing and funky art – Check it out, it’s a nice bar and the prosecco is cold J

So I tried to organise for us to do something special over the long weekend as we were suppose to go to the Bath, after a few FAIL! moments and some utterly useless brain activity on Saturday we decided to make the trip up to Birmingham for the weekend to attend a cider festival I found online...

Turned out I should have checked Google maps, the place was 1.5 hours from Birmingham. "Insert FAIL! x 5 for the weekend)

So we decided to make the most it, we went on our own cider festival and did a bit of a pub crawl starting at 11am, and ending when we had devoured too much food at the International Food Festival we stumbled along.  In saying that, turned out Birmingham to be a blessing in disguise.

Here we enjoyed homemade chocolate, chocolate cannoli, French garlic roasted potatoes and chicken in a garlic red sauce, masala chips, chorizo, poppadoms, and finally what I had been waiting a week for, English fish and chips served with mushy peas!

The festival was a great break from London and even though I can't read a map, we ended up having a really good time, we also purchased this really cool grater! I tried it out last night with the garlic :)

So, as I have been quiet on the #cassieskitchen front, I did cook dinner tonight, and it was an oil based sun dried tomato and pesto fettuccine.

You can see the final product here 

Singapore Crab-tastic in my belly #cassieskitchen

From talking about going to Billingsgate markets at 4am for the past month, Stu an I decided to make the trip when we woke up at 8am on Saturday, after a quick brush of the teeth, some doubt about our timing and a ribbon added to the hair (I thought It may have "looked" like I did my hair), we were on our way!  Unless you're not aware, the market shuts at 9:30am and most the stalls are already empty and cleaned by 9am.. we got there at 9:20am. 

With 4 stores open and what looked like a successful day for the fishmongers  (due to the immensely large styrofoam castle we walked through) we went on the hunt for some squid tubes, so we could get our Salt-N-Pepa on.  After some distraction of pretending to be a giant fish and spotting some baby shark, we were completely engrossed in our adventure we forgot what we went there for, and managed to buy a kilo of fresh prawns and 4 blue swimmer crabs! 
Distracted again once the seafood was in the fridge, It was time to assess the day and go out and play "shopping" at +Westfield and postpone the crab cooking till Sunday. 

I have never cooked any sort of shellfish before, so a quick google and an assessment  of my cupboard told me that I had found the correct recipe. A few minor adjustments, using what I had, I managed to whip up this delightful and delicious dish.

Way better than a Sunday roast :)


Check out my Pinterest for the final product shot and recipe! Or follow me on Instagram for step by step updates on my next culinary adventure!

 #cassieskitchen 

Night kids

“Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out!”

So anyone who knows me knows that I “follow”, and really enjoy anything to do with Jamie Oliver. I think he is inspiring in the way that he cooks, and socially he is really working to improve food awareness and reeducate people on the importance of eating healthy on an international scale. Add that to his smart and sexy venues that not only serve amazing food, but also include delicious cocktails you really do have a winning combination.

I am relatively new to cooking, there was a stage in my life (not that long ago) when I use to eat boiled eggs, smoked salmon and cereal every day. Sometimes when I wanted something “special” I would change it up and eat a hot spud with sour cream… I know tasty stuff!

So when the food craze started and  Masterchef, My Kitchen Rules, Jamie’s 15 minute meals and Kylie Kwong cooking programs where everywhere I looked on TV, I started to get really into trying out some of my own dishes. Once I got my head around “seasoning” I finally started cooking yummy food. Strangely enough I developed this habit of following it with a proud shout off “Jamie Oliver, eat your heart out!” There’s not much more I can say about this, other than, yes I made it up, no I don’t know what the literal translation is, BUT it’s something that should be understood as, “check this out Jamie Oliver, and see how good my food is!”

His efforts in challenging society by campaigning on key issues are widely recognized, especially with his work on obesity issues in schools, and apprenticeship programs for unemployed youths. Not only does he work with young people he also runs a 10 week course through Jamie’s Ministry of Food in Australia focused on teaching adults basic cooking skills, how to grocery shop, and provides them with the knowledge and confidence to take their skills from the program and use them at home. 

I feel these are fantastic programs, and what an opportunity for these people to be involved in! How many other chefs and international faces are putting their heart and soul into aiding and helping with these issues? I can’t think of anyone, other than the guy who did supersize me – and that was a different ball game.

Food for thought.

So, as this is my blog I would like to say thank you Jamie Oliver. You inspire me to cook healthy food everyday, you make me want to challenge myself to learn new skills, try new things in and out of the kitchen and share them via social media.

I made my second lasagna on the weekend. My mum hands down makes the best damn lasagna I have every tasted, till I made this one.

I made the sauces from scratch, I completed the meat sauce the night before,  so it had a richer flavour (see pinterest for ingredients). I then boiled down the spinach, created my béchamel sauce, then worked on my layers.

I do admit I did get confused, and with Stu aiding me with a quick Google of my friend Jamie, I realised 3 important things

1 – don’t put a lasagna strip on top

2  - add basil and tomatoes to the top with LOTS of cheese

3 – cook with foil for the first half hour then remove afterwards.

I didn’t follow an exact recipe, my style of cooking is a bit loose, I have a sort of “mix a bit of this and a bit of that” style, working off what my Mother and my Nonna taught me growing up.

I let it sit to cool, and then served it up later on to my friends for dinner on Saturday.

Spinach Lasagna = bloody lovely, naturally I declared once the verdicts where in (and their was no more left)  “Jamie Oliver eat your heart out”

Thanks for the tips JO.

Check out Food 4 Stu & I and CCAD88 for more recipes and pictures of delicious discoveries!