intermission: ahem . . . your attention please!

Musical notation photo by Marja Flick-Buijs

Do you like to sing in the bath or shower? Do you warble while you work? Are you passionate about music? Would you like the thrill of singing in a lovely, local choir?

Vox Holloway, a community choir in north London, is starting rehearsals of The Prophet by Harvey Brough, based on the Khalil Gibran book. We are looking for new members.

Rehearsals start Tuesday 23 April, 7.30pm, St Luke's Church, Hillmarton Rd, N7. All are welcome, no auditions, no previous experience required!

stir-fried sambal matah prawns and tenderstem® broccoli

stir-fried sambal prawns with
tenderstem broccoli

So often you come home from a hard day at the coalface (or in my case, slaving over a hot laptop in my study) and really can't be bothered to cook. It is so tempting to let someone else do the work by ordering a takeaway. Yet this quick stir fry takes less time to cook than it does to order and wait for a takeaway to arrive. It is simple, healthy (packed full of Vitamin C) and utterly delicious; full of fragrant Asian flavours. This was also a good way for me to put some of my sambal matah to good use - a fragrant combination of chilli, lime, garlic and lemongrass is the perfect match for prawns and broccoli.

Vaughan Thomas' sambal matah

Indonesian sambal matah

I do love a good chilli sambal and there are as many different sambal recipes across Asia as there are days of the year. Oh where to start? (Although in my case . . . where to stop!)

But I should really start at the beginning. I had started to follow a blog by an ex-pat Welshman, the eponymous Vaughan Thomas, who now lives in Indonesia and who charmingly blogs at Tales from Paddyview about life in the Far East. He very kindly offered me this authentic Balinese sambal recipe, which includes both shrimp paste and lemongrass.

the meatball magnate's prawn balls with vietnamese noodle soup - random recipe #27

The Bowler's spicy prawn balls with Vietnamese vegetable noodle soup

I feel the same way about books as I do about food - I like to explore, have adventures and I have a huge appetite. Unfortunately, like my waistline, my house is not a Tardis and there is only a finite amount of space for books. It was becoming ridiculous. I had moved house in order to accommodate my growing library. I had to make a very harsh choice and a lot of my books just had to go.

from ennui to delight: ottolenghi's hot and sour mushroom soup

Yotam Ottolenghi's hot and sour
mushroom soup

I associate a loss of appetite with Victorian invalid food. Blimey, a diet of bread and milk, beef tea and calves foot jelly would have been less likely to allow me to develop an "interesting" condition and more likely to have me fighting fit in a trice; anything to avoid having to eat such nastiness. That's not to say that I don't agree with Mrs Beeton's assertion that "gruel served in a tumbler is more appetising than when served in a basin or cup and saucer". What she fails to mention is that the tumbler should be empty and the gruel should be nowhere in sight!

a "normal-service-has-been-resumed" sausage sandwich with honey-mustard caramelised onions

sausage sandwich with honey-mustard
caramelised onions

A big part of my life has been missing recently. Not in a lost-in-action kind of a way, just "gone". My default position as food obsessive had changed, so no longer was I eating, dreaming, reading, singing and talking my way through all things food. I had, I am afraid to say, completely lost my appetite.

what's in season: april

purple spring crocus

Side by side through the streets at midnight,
Roaming together,
Through the tumultuous night of London,
In the miraculous April weather.

Roaming together under the gaslight,
Day’s work over,
How the Spring calls to us, here in the city,
Calls to the heart from the heart of a lover!

greek easter bread: tsoureki

Greek Easter Bread - Tsoureki

I find it hard to window shop or merely browse at Phoenicia, my local Turkish and middle eastern grocery in Kentish Town, north London. Inevitably I return home clutching a bag of interesting spices or a jar of preserved vegetables although without any clear idea of what I am going to do with it. The lime powder sat in my larder for over six months before it emerged dustily blinking into the light only to be lobbed into a cold drink for summer and my posh popcorn recipe (more of these another time).

another bit on the side: fennel and tomato stew with aleppo pepper

fennel and tomato stew

Sometimes it is nice to be ahead of the game even if you are completely oblivious to it. Reading a recent article in Observer Food Monthly on some of their favourite things - 50 Best Foodie Picks - at number 31 was Turkish Chilli Pepper (aka Aleppo Pepper or pul biber in Turkish). Turns out I've been fashionable for years without realising my foodie street cred.

a lazy girl's brunch: smoked salmon and poached egg open face sandwich

smoked salmon and poached egg with
beyaz peynir and asian pickle open face sandwich

At some point of an evening out with friends the conversation will inevitably turn to food. It probably always has done, but since I have started blogging about food it has got much worse and I do try to rein it in, but sometimes I just can't help myself. I don't mean "worse" as in "bad", I just mean that given my inclinations I could probably monopolise any and every conversation and turn it around to food. And it's not because I want to talk about what I've cooked, I love hearing what other people are eating and why. Besides talking about food is definitely far more interesting than any discussion of reality TV or the latest budget crisis. But on this particular night I was in for a bit of an unpleasant surprise.

a quick asian-style pickle: cucumber, tomatoes and red onion

a quick asian-style vegetable pickle

While my father's favourite sandwich of pickled beetroot and piccalilli is not for the faint-hearted, it was not enough to put me off pickles or chutneys; I grew up eating them with just about everything.

But one of my favourite accompaniments to a Malay curry was the small bowls of finely chopped cooling vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumber that were simply dressed with a little vinegar, sugar and perhaps soy or fish sauce. Although I have to confess it was as much for the prettiness of little bowls of brightly coloured vegetables as it was for the flavour.

a little bit of food philosophy and Indian potato kofta stuffed with dried fruit and nuts in a light curry sauce

ndian potato kofta stuffed with nuts and dried fruit i
n a light creamy curry sauce

I take my cues on food philosophy from one of the greatest of all food philosophers, Garfield, the cartoon cat, who with jazz hands held aloft, looks as if he is about to dive into a large dish of leftover lasagna and thinks "I eat, therefore I am." He is asked by his owner, Jim, whether he is rationalising another bout of gluttony. Garfield barely turns his head and thinks disdainfully "I don't discuss philosophy with pea brains"!