salmon and blackberry salad with blackberry dressing

salmon and blackberry salad with blackberry dressing

I had this glorious Chinese-style blackberry sauce on a piece of salmon recently. It's sweet and tart and, if I say so myself, utterly divine. The sauce actually works rather well with grilled chicken too. I suspect it would be lovely with pork chops too.

tamarind and honey prawns (assam prawns)

 tamarind and honey prawns (assam prawns)

I've used Malaysian tastes for my influence with this marinade. Nothing could be simpler, just sweet with honey and bold with the sour taste of tamarind. It is lovely with prawns but very good with chicken too.

malaysian crispy prawn fritters (cucur udang) with a sweet chilli dipping sauce

malaysian crispy prawn fritters (cucur udang) with a sweet chilli dipping sauce

There are many food bloggers who have a specific focus. While I suspect I am equally obsessive about food, I have always found it difficult to concentrate on one type of ingredient or cuisine. I always wanted to be a general practitioner rather than a specialist.

fragrant and soothing: thai coconut chicken soup (tom kha gai)

Thai coconut chicken soup (tom kha gai)

Tom kha gai is a rich coconut broth infused with galangal (kha), lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, topped with chicken (gai) and seasoned with fish sauce, tart with lime juice.

indonesian seafood sate lilit

Indonesian seafood sate lilit

A fabulous sate (satay) from Bali which can be made with a variety of different meats; I love the minced seafood version. What makes it different from the myriad of other sates from Indonesia (and satays from Malaysia) is that firstly it contains coconut and secondly it is not typically served with a peanut sauce.

basic thai red curry paste

a basic Thai red curry paste

While Thai red curry paste seems to be a universal of chilli-spiced Thai pastes, there are actually several different types, some of which are more spiced than others, including black peppercorns, cumin and coriander. But I'm keeping this simple. Not quite as simple as the nam prik pao paste that I use in my tom yum soup, as this includes galangal, lemongrass and shrimp paste.

it's easy being green: fish in sorrel sauce with sautéed potatoes

fish in sorrel sauce with sautéed potatoes

Sorrel is a member of the knotweed family, which is about as unappealing as it is misleading. Don't be fooled, it is a delicious sour-tasting herb, which goes very well with chicken and fish and makes a lovely salad herb. It is also perfect in soups or steamed or puréed and makes a great omelette filling.

wild leek, lemongrass and chilli paste

wild leek, lemongrass and chilli paste

The old adage that my mother used to drum in to me was "Rachel, don't play with your food!" In those far off days I probably heeded her eventually, little angel that I pretended to be. But these days I try to play with my food whenever possible. With the foraged food from my garden, I can experiment and take a few risks with this season's rampant wild leeks.

in memory of my father: seafood laksa lemak (malaysian spicy coconut noodle soup)

seafood laksa lemak (malaysian spicy coconut noodle soup)

If you are regular reader of this blog, you will know that I often talk about my father, Henry, a larger-than-life character who taught me so much about how to eat and enjoy food, although not about how to cook. (Frankly Henry's cooking skills generally served as a warning to others).

seafood chowder

seafood chowder

For the foreseeable future I shall be cooking for a friend of mine who is quite unwell. But while Chris is poorly, he hasn't lost his appetite at all; just his usual ease in swallowing. Feeling a bit helpless, I offered to make him soup and his eyes lit up. Poor old Chris had been living off baked beans and scrambled eggs, so he welcomed my intervention.

This arrangement is brilliant for both of us: Chris gets healthy, strengthening soups and I get to try out old favourites and make new discoveries. One of my first discoveries is that I don't hate seafood chowder at all.

nasi goreng (malaysian fried rice)

nasi goreng

It's not often that I turn from mild-mannered cook by day into my foodie crime-fighting alter-ego; righting food wrongs with a wave of my magic feather boa. I am not saying that the feather boa actually works, but I prefer it to a cape and too-tight knickers; to each super hero(ine) their own fashion-sense. It seems to work for me.

jerusalem artichoke soup with smoked oyster gremolata

jerusalem artichoke soup with smoked oyster gremolata

If you haven't planned on your Christmas menu, than you there is still time to rush and buy some Jerusalem artichokes. How can you not love the Jerusalem artichoke, which is neither from Jerusalem nor is an artichoke? Well if those reasons aren't thrilling enough, they are said to have all sorts of wonderful health benefits too (which may not be what you're thinking about at this time of the year, but you may well thank me later!

roasted halibut with chermoula sauce

roasted halibut with chermoula marinade

One of my favourite marinades is from Morocco. There are hundreds of variations of chermoula, a marinade typically used with fish, which is essentially a mixture of oil, herbs and spices which can be used with whole, filleted or grilled fish.

What you need is a good balance between the sharpness of lemon and sweetness of the honey. The herbs and spices should be quite subtle and aromatic rather than punchy. But whichever way you cook the fish, roasted, steamed or fried, it will taste fabulous as it absorbs these flavours.

hot-smoked salmon salad with mustardy crushed new potatoes and summer green vegetables

hot-smoked salmon salad with mustardy crushed new potatoes and summer green vegetables

It's too hot to think and too wet to shop (dear god, I think I might need water skis to get down to Kentish Town High Road). The cupboards are almost bare but I do have some fresh new potatoes from a friend's garden, lots of fresh herbs from my own garden and some rather wizened looking broad bean pods as well. 

perfect whatever the weather: nigel slater's smoked haddock, potato and bacon

Nigel Slater's smoked haddock, potato and bacon

Why Rachel, when your profile says that you love to cook seasonally, are you posting a dish which screams winter comfort in June? A reasonable question.

Well it is for several reasons, one of which is the bloody English weather. After a weekend away enjoying balmy sunny weather (I even managed to catch a touch of sun), I have returned to London to grey skies and a distinct chill in the air. It feels like 2012 all over again. Bah!

langoustines with creamy wild leek and chilli dipping sauce

langoustines with creamy wild leek and chilli dipping sauce.

Their bodies are fiddly to peel and I see their beady eyes glaring reproachfully at me in my sleep, but their flesh is so sweet and juicy that the langoustine really is worth the effort (and even a few nightmares!)

A lucky dip in my freezer picked out a bag of frozen cooked langoustines (nephrops norvegicus) but what to do with them?

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.

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.

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.

hamilton's fragrant thai prawn curry

hamilton's fragrant Thai prawn curry

One of the absolute pleasures of the internet is being able to read other people's adventures, whether it is a passion for history, a love of literature or, like mine, an obsession with food. Having your own blog brings additional happiness because other bloggers come and introduce themselves.

This is what happened when Hamilton Courtney from Home + Food came to say hello. I just had a look at his beautiful blog and was intrigued by his combination of both British and Thai home cooking, a result of his mixed family heritage. It definitely resonated with me and I would urge you to check him out.