Portobello Mushroom and cheddar crumble

Hi again,
a short post this time as I don't really have time to write up the recipe in full tonight. I do want to soon though as I had some comments on it that I wanted to share. This is more a post to prove that I did in fact cook this meal and that I'm not cheating on crossing off recipes from my list on my personal Cooking Challenge for 2012.

Bye for now,

Lettie
xx

Cooking Challenge update 12.02.12 Cardamom biscuits

Another 2 recipes to tick off the Cooking Challenge list - yippee!

Last night I made pasta, chorizo and cannellini bean soup (click here for the full recipe), which was really really tasty, and today my friend Amy came over and we baked cardamom biscuits (another one from Ravinder Bhogal). I had tried to make the biscuits previously but since I didn't have gram flour (otherwise known as chickpea or besan flour) at the time, I wasn't sure if they'd turned out right or not so I didn't want to tick them off the list without giving them another go.

I did a bit of research and found out that Tesco's sold Gram Flour so while my car was in the garage getting MOT'd yesterday I popped to Tesco's to get some. Unfortunately I didn't check how big the bags were so when I eventually found it I was a bit shocked to see it only sold in huge 2kg bags - the recipe only needs 50g per batch (!), so I think I'm going to have to find some more recipes that use gram flour...oops!

Anyway, as there were two of us baking I thought we may as well make two batches, so that we could each have some to give to our respective partners, and also colleagues, although in my case that might depend on how hungry Tom is when he gets back from work...

The last time I tried this my main issue with the recipe was that the biscuit mix seemed to be very dry and crumbly, so it was quite difficult to get it to a point where it was all coming together to be able to knead it into a good dough, but I wasn't sure if maybe the lack of gram flour was to blame for this. I think in the end I added a bit more oil and an egg to try to get it to bind better and they turned out ok in the end. But I was interested to see whether using gram flour made any difference or not this time.

Anyway, preamble over, here's what I used and how I did it:

Ingredients (made approx 26 small biscuits)
120ml - 150 ml sunflower oil, plus extra to grease (original recipe used 100ml vegetable oil, but I found it was too floury and wasn't binding so added more)
200g plain flour
50g gram (chickpea) flour
75g icing sugar
1/2 tsp crushed cardamom seeds
14 pistachios, shelled and cut in half lengthways

Method (NB. Just because we split the tasks doesn't mean this recipe can't be done very easily on your own!)
1. We preheated the oven to 180c and I greased a couple of baking sheets with some of the sunflower oil and some greaseproof paper.

2. While I was doing this, Amy ground up the cardamom seeds in the pestle and mortar (that she got me for my birthday as it happens), and I shelled the pistachios. If you've not used cardamom before, it normally comes in a jar of pods, so you need to split them open with a sharp knife and remove the seeds (ideally separating them from the inner bit that they are attached to), and then just grind them in a pestle and mortar.

3. Then I sifted the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and stirred them together with a whisk, while Amy halfed the pistachios for me.

4. Then we added 100ml of sunflower oil to the mix and Amy started mixing it with her hands. When we realised it just wasn't binding we added a little more oil and it seemed to do the trick. It was a lot easier to bring together, and then we could start kneading it into a firm dough as the recipe had told us to.

5. Once the dough was ready we took heaped teaspoons of the dough (my measuring spoons are like mini ice cream scoops so they were perfect for this!) and rolled the dough into a ball in our hands.

6. We then flattened each ball ever so slightly so it was still domed (the recipe said to flatten into a disc, but we made the first batch like this, and they didn't look right), and then pressed a pistachio half into the middle and popped it on the baking tray. I think the first batch we made yielded about 25 biscuits and the second one did about 27.

Second batch ready to go in the oven. I love the colour of pistachios.

7. Once we'd filled both the trays and used up all the mix we popped the trays into the oven. Now the recipe said to bake for 25 minutes until the biscuits are a nice golden brown. The first time we did this we set a timer to turn the trays around and swap the shelves after ten minutes, giving them twenty minutes in total, but I'm not sure if my oven is just a bit wonky, but the first batch definitely seemed a bit overdone and dry. So the second time, I set the timer for 7 minutes to swap them around, and then gave them another 7 minutes. After this point, i.e. 14 minutes, the larger tray of biscuits looked the right colour, but the smaller tray wasn't quite there so I gave them another couple of minutes in the hotter part of the oven. I think the key is to just keep checking them to make sure they don't overbake!!

8. When I took them out of the oven they were an even light golden brown colour, and cracked on top, and when I used the spatula to take them off the tray they seemed to be a tiny bit soft still, but they crumbled a little bit on the edges if we weren't careful, so I took that to mean they were done. NB. Don't try to use your fingers to transfer them to the cooling rack, as the biscuits will be flipping hot and you'll just end up burning yourself...trust me, I know.

9. I then left them to cool on a rack (I figured if they were a little soft in the middle that they'd set as they cooled).

Pretty, high contrast photo ;)

Having left them quite to cool while I typed up these two recipes, I've just tried one now, and they do taste better than the first batch (i.e.not overdone), however they are still a little bit too dry for my taste. I'd definitely need a cup of tea or something to go with them, but then I think I've always liked to have a drink with biscuits, so maybe it's just me!

I think if I tried them again I would maybe experiment with reducing the amount of flour slightly and adding a tiny bit more icing sugar and perhaps a bit more crushed cardamom, just to up the flavour a little bit. Don't get me wrong, they were nice and crumbly and had a gentle, subtle flavour, not too sickly sweet or overpoweringly aromatic, but I think personally, they could do with a tiny bit more sugar and just a wee bit more cardamom, but I suppose that's down to personal taste. Now I think about it, I'm sure I read somewhere that gram flour can come in a paste form so perhaps if I had gram flour in this format the mixture mightn't be quite so dry... hmmm, food for thought!

To round up, that takes the cooking challenge 2012 totals to:

8 recipes completed           64 recipes to go       46 weeks remaining

Anyway, I better get some other food in the oven now - Mum gave me some chicken, bacon and mushroom in the fridge to use in a stew / to roast so better get cracking!

Bye for now!
Lettie xx

Cooking Challenge update 08.02.12

Hi all, hope everyone is doing well.
It's been quite icy lately in the UK so I hope you're all wrapped up warm and being careful on the roads when you do go out. I don't know about anyone else, but my old car takes ages to defrost in the morning so I've taken to covering the rear-window with a proper plastic frost sheet, and covering the windscreen with some massive sheets of bubble wrap that have been in the back of the car since we moved house I think. I admit I did feel pretty damn stupid the first time I did it, but then I was laughing the next morning when it took a fraction of the time to get going for work, which equals more time staying wrapped up warm in bed! Yippee!

Anyway, speaking of staying warm, I'm home alone tonight as Tom's gone off to the climbing wall, so faced with the prospect of cooking for myself I had planned on just slobbing it with some simple pasta with leftover veg and Philadelphia cheese - I don't know why but I can never think of what to cook when it's just me eating - but as I started frying up the mushrooms and garlic and boiling the spaghetti I realised that I wasn't far off one of the Ravinder Bhogal recipes that is on my list for the Cooking Challenge. So the Philadelphia went back in the fridge and I ended up with my very improvised (I only glanced at the recipe really to use as a guideline) and not at all exact version of her 'Zesty Angel Hair Spaghetti with Garlic and Chilli'. Although it was completely fudged, it actually turned out quite nicely and even looked quite pretty :)

All I did was this:

1. I just cooked some spaghetti as per the pack instructions (I wasn't going to go out and buy angel hair as it's supposed to be a cheap recipe), and in the meantime, fried up some leftover mushrooms and a load of smoked garlic (about 3 or 4 normal sized cloves - mine were huge so only used 2) that my mother brought me from France for Christmas (she knows me so well).

2. I then squeezed out the juice of one already zested lemon that I'd had wrapped in clingfilm in the fridge since I baked a lemon drizzle cake a while ago and hadn't figured out what to do with it yet (I just love using up leftovers!), and then added a small amount of chopped red chilli to the mushrooms and garlic to cook.

3. Once that had had a little while to infuse the oil, I added the lemon juice and let that cook for about a minute while I drained and rinsed the pasta in cold water, then adding it to the pan of garlicky, lemony, chilli oil (it wasn't very oily to be fair but then again I didn't take note of the measurements from the recipe so I probably used too little), making sure it was all mixed in well so that the oil coated the pasta completely.

4. I then just popped it on a plate and topped with some grated Parmesan cheese (maybe a little too much this time ) took a photo and flopped down on the sofa, whacked the TV on and tucked in!

It took absolutely no time at all, and really didn't involve many ingredients (I just added the mushrooms as they needed using up) so I think it's one I'll be doing again, although I'll try to follow the recipe a bit more carefully next time.

That brings the current count to:

Recipes completed: 6  Recipes remaining: 66 Weeks remaining:46ish

We're not doing badly, eh? And I didn't even plan to cook much 'proper food' this week because of trying to save money :)

Anyway, I'd better finish up now as the battery on the laptop is about to go and I've got washing in the machine that needs to be hung up to dry (ah, domesticity...).

'Til next time,
Lettie xx

Vegetarian puff pastry tart

Right, here's another recipe that I cooked a few times over Christmas. It's surprising how such a simple dish can be so pleasing, but I think that's the beauty of puff pastry - anything that poofs up so much in the oven is pretty much guaranteed to put a smile on my face, even with ready-made pastry. The great thing about this dish, is that once you've done it once you can make up your own variations (the original recipe used courgettes for example) to suit your tastes. If you're cooking for kids, why not get them to pick and lay out the different toppings so it's even more fun!

I think next time I try it I might make meaty versions by scattering over some chopped up chunks of Frikadellen or even slices of cooked meat like salami, pepperoni, or chorizo, but the possibilities are endless!

Here's the link to the original Sainbury's recipe that I based mine on, and here's my version (it's been a while since I made it last, so I hope I've remembered the proportions correctly!!).

Ingredients

1 pack of chilled ready-made puff pastry (300g)
1 medium egg, beaten
2 tbsp olive oil
1 leek, finely sliced (I've also used roughly chopped onion before which gives a slightly different flavour)
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
4 tsp red pesto
2 tbsp tomato puree
3 - 4 tomatoes, sliced
80g closed cup mushrooms
1/2 tsp oregano
Salt & Pepper (to season)
2-3 tbsp sweetcorn (optional)
70g-100g mature cheese, grated (I've used alternately Red Leicester, Cheddar and Double Gloucester, so it's up to you which one you prefer, and how much you use depends on how cheesy you want it to be)

Method 

1. Take the pastry out of the fridge and leave in its packaging at room temperature for at least ten minutes. If you unroll it while it's too cold it might tear or crack.

2. Preheat the oven to 220c (mine takes quite a while to heat up so I tend to allow a good 15minutes for this in my cooking timings).

3. After the ten minutes is up, remove the pastry from the packaging and roll it out straight onto a baking tray. If it comes wrapped up with greaseproof paper, which it most likely will do, then there may be some excess which you can just snip off with kitchen scissors. Using a knife, carefully score an outline about 1 to 1 1/2 inches from the edge of the pastry sheet, making sure the knife DOES NOT cut all the way through the pastry to the tray underneath. This is what will create the lip or borders of your tart.

4. Prick the pastry all over (including the borders) with a fork, and brush the beaten egg over the whole sheet of pastry.

5. Once the oven is at the right temperature, place the pastry tray in the oven and bake for about ten minutes until risen and golden.

6. While that's baking, make the tomato base for the tart. In a small bowl, mix together the olive oil, the red pesto, tomato puree and chopped garlic.

7. When the pastry's had its ten minutes it should be golden and will have risen a lot like an inflated balloon. Remove from the oven and gently press down on the middle bits with a spoon to 'deflate' it slightly, and then spread the tomato base over the pastry within the borders you previously cut into it. Scatter over the sliced leek and if you want to add sweetcorn, you can do so at this stage.

Mmmm, love leeks.

8. Then you can add the sliced tomato and mushrooms. You can either just scatter them all over randomly, or you can be sad like me and layer it in (somewhat neat) rows. Presenting it in that way makes it look like you've put in loads of effort, when in fact it's possibly the easiest thing I've ever had to make. Sprinkle over the oregano, season with salt and pepper if you wish, and then top with the cheese.

Doing it this way makes me feel like a trainee chef in a Cordon Bleu school in France!

9. Return to the oven for another ten or so minutes, until the tomatoes and mushrooms have softened and the cheese has melted.

10. Et voila! Dinner is served :)

This can be eaten as a main course shared between two people either on its own, with a side salad, or some nice bread. This might seem like huge portions for just two people, but as it's such a light dish I find that there never ends up being much leftover. You can also cut it into smaller portions if serving as a starter (or even with a buffet, but it's nicest hot so you might not want it sitting out for too long).

Although I've not tried this, I'm sure you could tart it up (excuse the pun!) with creamy dauphinois potatoes and maybe some asparagus on the side. If you've gone for the extra cheesy (more like pizza) version, then it could even go with something simple like peas and chips/boiled potatoes.

Smoky bacon and tomato soup (serves 2)

Hi there,

I'm trying to be a bit more proactive (i.e. bit less lazy) about getting recipes up on here, so I'm typing this one up as my steaming bowl of soup is sat next to me on our nice new dining table - no more eating off our knees (hooray!).

Tom cooked for us last night and ended up going a bit overboard on the veg... as a result we had quite a bit left over which I thought might be nice to turn into soup using my newest toy, a Salter hand blender :) This makes me very happy as I've wanted a hand blender (or as I like to call them, soup sticks) pretty much ever since my year abroad in France. But anyway, I digress.

The veg we had left over was just basic mixed veg (baby carrots, cauliflower, broccoli) and some peas that had come from the freezer so there were quite a few options when I looked on the BBC Food website, but really I wanted something I could use my blender with, and something a bit tomato-ey. We also happened to have some smoked bacon in the fridge so Ian Rankin's recipe for Smoky Bacon and Tomato soup seemed an ideal place to start. You can click on the link above to see the original recipe but this is what I used and what I did.


Ingredients (serves 2)
(original recipe served 1 so I just roughly doubled the ingredients)


1 to 2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
2 to 3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 slices smoky bacon (I didn't want to use the whole pack!)
1 pint chicken stock
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 soup/cereal bowl leftover veg (broccoli, baby carrot, cauliflower, peas)
5 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp red pesto (completely optional, I just added it to see if it brought anymore tomato-ey-ness, but I'm not sure if it did)

Method

My method was pretty much the same as in Ian Rankin's recipe, but here's what I did anyway.

1. Heat the olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan, add the onions and garlic and fry for 3-4 minutes until softened.

2. Add the chopped bacon and fry for another 3-4 minutes.

3. Add the leftover veg, stir in and cook for a minute or so.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes, 3 tbsp tomato puree, chicken stock (I forgot to actually stir my stock so the dissolved cubes were just sat at the bottom of the measuring jug...yuck!), and let it boil (not too vigorously) for 5 minutes.

5. After the 5 minutes is up, remove from the heat and puree using a blender. It took me a while as it turns out a bit, well, bitty, so I gave it quite a going over with the hand blender. I then added a couple more tbsp of tomato puree and the red pesto just to add a bit more flavour and blended it some more.

The result was a nice thick orange soup which tasted really nice, a good mix of smoky meat and rich tomato flavour, but...if I'm honest the peas didn't blend all that well so I was constantly finding teeny little bits of the outer shell of peas which were too small to be blended any further with the hand blender, but not small enough that I could ignore them. I'm probably just being fussy as it did taste really flavoursome, but after my first soup of the year (Roasted swede soup) turned out so well I don't think the consistency of this one was quite as good. I think next time I'll just leave out the peas.

[To add to this when Tom came home and tried the soup he disagreed with my criticisms and said it tasted awesome, and that it didn't matter that it wasn't perfectly smooth. At least I'll always have one satisfied customer :) ]

Chilli cheese toasts recipe

Sticking with the cheesy theme, this is one of my favourite snacks to make. The fact that everyone I've made it for has loved it has solidified its place in our house. I made it last night for Tom as he was working late and didn't want anything big by the time he got home, so it reminded me that it was time to share the love!

It's another from Ravinder Bhogal's 'Cook in Boots', and it's from the Chapter 'TV, remote control and a meal for one'. I also think it's quite a good one for a late breakfast after a night out.

Chilli cheese toasts

Serves 1

Ingredients

1/2 small red onion, finely chopped (I used white and found it just as nice)
1 tomato, finely chopped
1 green chilli (deseeded if you don't want it too hot), and finely chopped (you could use a shake of crushed chillis instead)
1/4 green pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
3 tbsp chopped fresh coriander (as I've mentioned before I'm not a lover of coriander, so I tend to just use a small amount of ground coriander instead)
2 tsp sweet chilli sauce or tomato ketchup (Aldi's do a yummy tomato and sweet chilli chutney which works brilliantly)
I also add 1/2 to 1tsp of pesto but that's completely optional
Ground black pepper
2 slices thick white bread
100g Cheddar cheese, grated

Method 

1. Preheat the grill to a medium high heat.

2. In a small mixing bowl mix together the onion, tomato, chilli, green pepper, coriander, sweet chilli sauce / ketchup, and pesto (if using). Season with pepper.

3. Toast one side of the bread under the grill, then layer the vegetable mix over the untoasted side of the bread.

4. Flash under the grill for 3 minutes so that the onion softens slightly.

5. Top with the cheese, and cook until bubbling.

6. Serve immediately with a generous helping of trash TV (Ravinder's words, not mine!)

My mouth is watering just looking at this...

ENJOY!

Hangover food (Masala omelette and homemade hash browns)

I need to preface this recipe with the reason behind my eventual cooking choice.

Long story short, my boyfriend had a very bad hangover this morning, and regardless of the fact that I wasn't feeling particularly sympathetic (amongst other unimpressive acts, he'd left our front door unlocked), I did feel as if I wanted to cook something that would help bring him back from 'Zombieland'. So I turned to Ravinder Bhogal's "Cook in Boots" to see if I could find some inspiration. After about half an hour drooling over recipes I didn't have the ingredients or energy to cook, I decided to combine two recipes from her 'Hangover Food' chapter.


The Masala Omelette I've cooked on several occasions but I'd never tried the hash browns before, and I thought since Tom really likes hash browns it would be pretty good hangover food. It turned out really tasty in the end and definitely filled us both up, and Tom did indeed seem a lot more alive after eating it (and was able to keep it all down, which is a definite plus!!). Now I can't say it cured him completely, but then again I haven't seen him as drunk as he was last night in about 2 years so the fact that he's up and about at all is a miracle.

Omelette might be a bit flat but probably due to being in the oven for too long

Now I didn't quite get the timing right to have both parts of the dish ready at the same time (partly because one of my two mixing bowls was otherwise engaged - ewww); instead I had to prep both dishes one at a time and keep the omelette warm while the hash browns were cooking, but what I thought I'd do was write down what I did this time, with comments on how I'd get it right next time at the end of the post.

Again, as with most of my posts I didn't follow the recipes exactly and I changed/added ingredients according to what I had in the fridge so this is what I used and what I did.

Ingredients

Masala Omelette (serves 2)
1tbsp vegetable oil
1 leek, sliced
1 handful closed cup mushrooms, stalks removed and quartered
1 v. small shake of crushed chillies (less than 1/4 tsp, original asked for 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped)
1 small tomato, seeds removed and chopped
5 eggs
1 splash milk (optional)
1 tsp garam masala
1 shake ground coriander (the recipe asked for 1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander, but I'm not much of a fan, so never have it in the house)
sea salt and black pepper to season

Onion hash browns (makes 12, so there were a few left over!)
NB. Original recipe used cumin, but again I'm not a big fan so I left it out
500g peeled and grated potatoes
1 small onion, grated (or whizzed through a mini-chopper if you've got one :p )
2 shakes ground coriander (original recipe asked for 4 tbsp chopped fresh coriander)
1 shake crushed chillies (approx 1/4 tsp)
1 heaped tbsp plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
vegetable oil for frying (original asked for olive oil)

Method

1. Soak the grated potatoes in cold water for extra crunch. At this point I set it aside and left it while I started preparing the omelette. I'll comment at the end on how I would improve the methodology.

2. Preheat the grill to hot. Heat the vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan and add the leeks, the chilli, and a tbsp of the chopped onion from the hash brown ingredients. Fry until soft, and then add the tomato and the chopped mushrooms and fry for another minute.


3. Meanwhile, beat the eggs (they need to be quite fluffy or it might end up a bit flat like mine) and season with the garam masala (it will turn the eggs a browny-green colour but don't be put off!), salt and pepper. Add the splash of milk at this point if you like and whisk in along with the ground coriander.

4. Pour the beaten eggs into the frying pan and tilt the pan so the egg sets evenly. Once it has set underneath (silicon spatulas are great for lifting up the omelette and taking a peek), slide it under the grill and leave until it's just set on top. (After this point I had to keep my omelette warm in the oven at a low heat)

5. Meanwhile, drain the potatoes then squeeze out as much excess water as possible.

6. Put the potatoes into a large bowl with the rest of the chopped onion, crushed chillies, ground coriander and mix well. Fold in the flour and mix in the egg.

7. Heat 1 tbsp of vegetable oil in a non-stick frying pan (I used a griddle pan and it worked just fine as long as you tilt the pan to make sure the whole surface is covered).

8. With wet hands, shape roughly 2 tablespoons of the potato mixture into a flat fritter and carefully slide into the frying pan. Cook the hash browns for about 3 minutes on each side until nice and golden brown and crispy-looking (again silicon spatulas are great for peeking underneath to see how they're getting on). Be gentle when turning them as if they're not brown enough underneath then they can fall apart pretty easily.

9. Drain on kitchen paper, and repeat with the rest of the mixture, adding more oil as necessary (be careful how much you put in as it can spit!). My pan could fit about 4 fritters at one time so I cooked them in 3 batches, although depending on how quickly you can shape and add the fritters you may have to turn some of them sooner than the rest of the batch.

10. Once they've all been cooked, remove the omelette from oven, divide in two and serve with as many hash browns as you can handle!

Notes for next time

Since it actually takes a little while to shape and fry the hash browns, next time I would probably try doing it the other way round, i.e. preparing and frying the fritters first and then popping them in the oven to keep warm while you cook the omelette, as this didn't actually take very long at all. I might also try halving the recipe for hash browns as it was quite a lot of food with the omelette as well, so this would reduce the frying time as well. I think they'd also be really nice served with tomato and onion chutney as well, so shall remember to add that next time.

I'll let you know how it goes next time I try this particular combo!

PS. Admittedly the colour of the omelette might not be very appealing to some of you, but I promise it was really really nice. And if that doesn't convince you, Tom just commented that the photo I just added makes it look a bit like doner meat. Next time I might just let him suffer...

Cheap Pad Thai Noodles & Mushrooms recipe

Hi again,
I was in the middle of writing a new post, when I realised it was waaay past lunchtime and I should fix something for myself. I've gotten into bad habits lately and have not been cooking much from scratch so wanted to get back into it and try something new, but also something quick that wouldn't leave me with an ever growing hole in my stomach. So I turned to a favourite book "Simple Suppers" (Ed. Gina Steer) that was a housewarming gift from my friend Adz (he's possibly the only one who reads my blogs so thanks Adz!). After flicking through the meat sections absently, I decided I couldn't be bothered to defrost any meat, so given we had a huge amount of mushrooms in the fridge that needed eating, plus my mother had just given me some ready to wok noodles she wasn't going to eat, I chose the Pad Thai Noodles with Mushrooms recipe.

Now I need to make this clear from the off, I didn't have all the same ingredients as the recipe so this is a slightly different but probably cheaper version of the book recipe, that can be made with stuff you will probably have lying around in cupboards so shouldn't have to go out and buy extra just for the one meal. The original recipe was for four people but I adapted it to make a large dish for one, or two smaller snack portions. It might not actually be Pad Thai now I've adapted it but it certainly is tasty!

Ingredients
150g ready to wok noodles
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled, finely chopped
1 medium egg, lightly beaten
140g mushrooms, washed & stalks removed (the original recipe used shiitake, oyster, field, brown & wild mushrooms, but I just used Aldi's basic £1 a box mushrooms!)
1 carrot, grated
5 tsp lime juice (lemon juice in original)
1 1/2 tbsp rich soy sauce (original used Thai fish sauce - this is where I imagine the biggest difference between the two recipes is)
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsb cayenne pepper
1/2 to 2/3 large white onion, roughly chopped (original used 2 spring onions)
1 dessertspoon crunchy peanut butter (original used chopped peanuts to garnish so I probably used too much peanut butter time, but it was still nice)

Method.

Heat a wok or large frying pan. Add the oil and garlic. Fry until just golden (I overdid mine just a bit but still worked out ok). Add the egg and stir quickly to break it up.

Cook for a few seconds before adding the noodles and mushrooms. I also added the grated carrot at this stage. Scrape down the sides of the pan to ensure it all mixes with the egg and garlic.

Add the lime juice, soy sauce, cayenne pepper (it's small but mighty - I wasn't expecting much of a kick from such a small amount, but it was definitely enough!), sugar, and the onions (next time I will most likely add this in at the same stage as the mushrooms), stirring quickly all the time. At this point I added in the peanut butter which was very thick so needed a fair bit of mixing and stirring to get it thoroughly mixed in with the rest of the food. Again it might be better to add this in at an earlier stage, but I think it turned out pretty nicely as a first attempt :)

Cook over a high heat for a further 2 - 3 minutes until everything is heated through.

Turn on to a plate and munch away!

It didn't look much like the original picture in the book but I've enjoyed it so far!