recipe Archives - Bidmead Bites

Bidmead in Berlin (again) – German Cheesecake recipe

20th March 2018 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

BidmeadBites visited Berlin back in 2015 and ate a bit of everything; from the classic Currywurst to Peruvian ceviche. Revisiting recently with my mum and sister, food highlights included some terrific Taiwanese dishes at Lon Men’s Noodle House and traditional frikadellen (meatball-esque German beef patties) back at Markthalle Neun, the cities funnest food market. But what I want to focus on in this post is cake. Oh, do the Germans know a bit about cake.

Cheesecake, to be specific.

German cheesecakes have a soft shortcrust pastry base and a filling which replaces the cream cheese used in typical New York cheesecakes with quark, a sort of strained cottage cheese which is then mixed in with butter, sugar and whipped egg white. Below are three different slices I tried, with a pastry base/a pastry base and crust/filled with gooseberries. All in the name of recipe research…

Cheesecake no. 1: @ Oliv Caf, Mitte

Cheesecake no. 2: @ Markthalle Neun, Kreuzberg

Cheesecake no. 3: Gooseberry filled at KaDaWe Foodhall

Looking to recreate this recipe at home, I took inspiration from a cheesecake recipe in a wonderfully old retro cookbook named “The Sainsburys Book of Puddings & Desserts” (published in 1980, and still one of my favourite baking books). The use of semolina and ground almonds adds richness to the quark, which is often sold in a very low-fat version. While the traditional pastry bottom in the German cheesecake is definitely a welcome addition, the labour intensive descriptions of handling this dough are less appealing. I anglicised the German recipe to include a traditional digestive base, because biscuits mixed with truck loads of butter is never a bad thing.

Find my tweaked German (ish) recipe below! I slightly overcooked mine, so I recommend keeping a beady eye of for the browning of your cake on the top. Once cooked, do try to wait until it’s fully chilled to eat – the wait is worth it I promise.

Retro German/English cheesecake

Use a 9 inch (23 cm) cake tin.

For biscuit base:

200 grams digestive biscuits
100 grams butter

For cake:

100 grams butter
150 grams caster sugar
Grated rind and juice of one lemon
400 grams quark
3 eggs, seperated
75 grams ground almonds
50 grams semolina (if you don’t have this to hand, you can just sub in the same amount of ground almonds)

Method

Before you start….Preheat open to 180 degrees. Line cake tin.

Firstly make your base. Either put biscuits in a big sandwich bag and bash with a rolling pin until you have fine crumbs, or put in a food processor to crush them up. Melt butter completely and mix in with biscuits, then press biscuits into base of tin until you have a nice compact biscuit base. Pop into warm oven for 10 minutes to cook, then remove.
Now for the filling. Cream the butter, sugar and lemon rind together until light and fluffy. Beat in quark gradually, then mix in the egg yolks and beat thoroughly. Add the almonds, semolina and lemon juice and mix well. Whisk the eggs whites until stiff and carefully fold into the cheese mixture.
Spoon into your lined cake line and bake for 50-60 minutes. Turn off oven and leave until cold (if you can manage to wait!).

An English/German lovechild take on the cheesecake

Bidmead back in Barranquilla – Feb 2018

21st February 2018 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Nearly three years have passed since I left Barranquilla, where I lived for 12 months while working as a British Council language assistant. As London’s bitter winter intensified, my thoughts wandered to the sun, salsa and downright lovely locura that is my beloved Barranquilla. It was high time I headed back.

Arriving just as carnival was about to commence, I danced, drunk and shook my stuff with the rest of the city, while also revisiting all my favourite Colombian foods.

I’ve published various Barranquilla posts while living there (fried ear and salsa dancing here, how to make your own ajiaco here – just search “Barranquilla” on the home page for more), and in fear of repetition I’ll keep this one brief. Here’s a snappy rundown of my top Barranquilla bites.

First stop was La Immaculada, one of the cities top fruteras, around since 1982. A frutera is the place to head for fresh juices and fried goodies (aptly named fritos).

Frutera Immaculada

Fruit juice and fried goods

What did I eat? A carimañola (meat filed pastry with dough made from yucca) and a dedito (cheesy finger), alongside nispero and mandarin juice, plus the obligatory ají (chilli) sauce.

Mondongo is one of my favourite typical soups and a perfect embodiment of the nose-to-tail approach within Colombian cuisine whereby no meat is left to waste. Made mainly from tripe, the slow cooking of the stomach breaks it down from chewy to smooth, with a rich meaty flavour. Accompanied by yucca, potato and plantain, the flavour is picked up by a sprinkling of coriander and a squeeze of lime.

Mmmm…Mondongo, I’ve missed you (please note my fantastic nails too)

Returning to Barranquilla I realised how things we might consider as exotic at home (huge avocados, fresh coconuts and exotic fruits) are really just everyday alimentation for the costeños. Just look at this coconut lolly I had on route back from the beach – homemade and bought from someone’s front garden, this beats a pre-packaged Twister any day.

Beach life = eating coconut lollies

Or how about this lovely lady, serving half or whole avocados to accompany people’s fish lunches by the river? The sweetness and intense flavour of this avocado has thoroughly ruined any future avo-on-toast I may be tempted to buy while out for overpriced brunches back home.

Best avocados EVER

Want to stop to quench your thirst in the mid-day sun? Why not grab an ice-cold coconut, sold on the side of the road. Sit down, sip the juice, and then ask your coconut vendor to machete open the shell for you in order to enjoy the sweet and creamy flesh.

Casual coco frio on the side of the street

Being back in Barranquilla, I slipped straight into my old routines and felt quite quickly that I’d never want to leave. But as my ten days flew by, London and it’s grey but homely skies were calling. I’ll always have a bit of my heart tied to Colombia’s coast, and now will aim to head back more often. In the meantime, I’ll be looking to recreate some Barranquillero recipes in my Brixton kitchen, so stay posted!

“Quien lo vive es quien lo goza” – offical phrase of Barranquilla carnival

Chicken, sage & mustard bake, a quick midweek supper

4th September 2016 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

After I satisfied last weekend’s craving for some fried chicken livers (fried in a little butter, with red onion and fresh sage), said sage was left lurking in the fridge. As is often the way with fresh herbs, it’s quite hard to get through a big bunch of the stuff before it starts to wallow and wilt away.

Determined to use all of my 90p bunch of sage, I rustled up a mid-week supper; a chicken tray bake with sage, mustard and lemon, on top of sweet potato and red onion. I posted this dinner on BidmeadBites’s Instagram and it received several likes and some recipe requests.

Ever obliging to my lovely followers, here is the recipe. I used a half chicken which I had jointed it into four pieces. If the idea of jointing a chicken is daunting, you’d do well to watch this video here (thanks to a very retro Delia Smith).

Buying and eating a whole bird is not only cheaper, but more flavoursome – this tray bake includes not just plump breast, but dark meaty thighs and wings to chow down on too. However, if you find yourself buying some pre-prepped thighs and drumsticks, that will work equally as well here.

Ingredients:
– half chicken, jointed into four parts (equivalent to three thighs and two drumsticks)
– 2 medium-size sweet potatoes
– 2 red onions
– 1 lemon
– 2 tbsp runny honey
– 2 tbsp whole grain mustard
– 4 tbsp olive oil
– Generous pinch of salt
– 2 tsp ground black pepper
– 1 tbsp Worcester sauce
– Handful of fresh sage, leaves only, leaves cut in half

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 170 degrees. Peel sweet potatoes and cut into slices about 2 cm thick. Peel and quarter the two red onions
2. Place potato and onion on the base of your baking tray, and place chicken on top.
3. In a jar, or anything you can give a good shake to, mix honey, mustard, olive oil, Worcester sauce, salt, pepper and sage (reserve 4 or 5 for the end). Squeeze in the lemon, leaving the halves somewhat intact to be halved again and nestled into the corners on the tray.
4. Pour this lovely paste over the tray, massaging it into the chicken and making sure the veg get some saucy action too.
5. Give a good grind of black pepper and an extra pinch of salt on top, sprinkling the spare sage leaves on top and add one more splash of Worcester sauce.
6. Place tray in now heated oven for 40 minutes, giving it a jig around half way through, distributing some of the sauce that will have gathered at the bottom of the tray over the top of the chicken.

I served this with boiled Italian farro, which is a grain similar to barley, and some steamed green veg. It’d go nicely with a fresh green salad too, with a nice chunky loaf of bread to soak up the sauce.

My mother’s Jewish Chicken Soup

8th December 2015 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Since returning from the Caribbean coast of Colombia, where 27 degrees with a breeze is considered arctic, I am quite enjoying winter in London. However, recovering from my third sniffle of the season already, it seems that the cold and drizzle might be getting to me somewhat. Given that climate control is not a power I possess, I decided that the best way to warm up during the winter chill is from within – queue a big batch-cook of some good old fashioned Jewish chicken soup.

Having long been called Jewish Penicillin, this traditional dish is just the medicine to fight pesky winter colds. My mum, like any good Jewish mother, makes a mean chicken soup, and it’s her recipe I share with you today.

My mum’s chicken soup contains no spices and relies on the chicken and it’s bones (with the help of added stock) for flavour. You can add in some chopped parsley or dill at the end, but I think the beauty of the dish lies in its unapologetic blandness.

Many chicken soup recipes call for skimming off the fat which rises to the top as the chicken bubbles away. Us Bidmead’s leave it be, and I’m a firm believer that it’s this beautiful golden fat itself that adds to the soup’s medicinal properties. As for the use of instant matzah ball mix, it’s like my mother always used to say – there are some things you should cheat at. Maths tests, no, making matzah balls, yes.

(This recipe serves about 6 hungry people)

MY MOTHER’S JEWISH CHICKEN SOUP

INGREDIENTS

¾ whole skinless chicken, cut into about 10 pieces (I got my butcher to do this, and saved a thigh, leg and breast for cooking at a later date)
2 carrots, peeled and cubed
1 leek, with all the white part chopped into little cubes
1 onion, finely chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped and cubed
5 tbsp chicken stock concentrate in 2 litres of boiling water (by all means use homemade if you have. This concentrate equates to the strength of about 2 litres of normal chicken stock).
Pinch of salt
1 sachet of instant matza ball mix (makes 12 matzah balls)

METHOD

Heat 1 tbsp of rapeseed or sunflower oil in a large pot. Add celery, leeks, carrots and onions and cook on a medium heat for 5 minutes. Do not brown – you just want to sweat them, not cook them.
Add in the chicken and stock, and make sure all the chicken and veg is covered in the liquid.
Once this reaches a boil the heat turn right down to a gentle simmer and leave for about 45 minutes.
After 45 minutes, remove the chicken pieces from the liquid and leave on a plate to cool down while the soup continues to bubble away.
About 15 minutes later, the chicken should now be cool enough for you to shred it into very small pieces. (Here I like to nibble on the bones and giblets – personal choice). Add chicken back into pot.
To make the matzah balls, you simply need to add one egg to a sachet mixture and leave for 3 minutes. Then wet your hands and roll into 12 mini balls. These double in size so don’t worry if they look small. Add the matzah balls into the soup and let it all simmer for just a little bit longer – 15 minutes is fine, although half an hour is better.
This soup can be garnished with chopped up parsley or dill and goes brilliantly with some freshly ground pepper on top.

As good as any medicine, my mother’s chicken soup

Coconut milk and Chia seed porridge inspired by 26 grains

13th October 2015 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

To say breakfast is my favorite meal is a bold statement, as quite honestly any time of day where I can consume food fills me with delight. But there’s something about this morning meal, with its endless possibilities, that I really do love. It’s a time of day where you can eat bacon and eggs or a bowl of hot, steamy porridge, but also quite feasibly have pancakes and syrup too…what’s not to like? Sadly, when your alarm is snoozed one too many times and you’ve perhaps not left quite enough time to get yourself ready in the morning, breakfast is all too often eaten in a rush while dashing out the door, or even (shock horror!) skipped altogether.

Humble porridge, however, cooked for just a couple of minutes in the microwave or slowly simmered over a gentle flame, is a solid breakfast option for both busy work mornings and lazy weekend lie-ins. Make it with water, milk or cream, this simple combination of oats cooked in liquid is a winning breakfast any day of the week.

Somewhere stepping up their porridge game to absolutely dizzying new heights is 26 grains. What started as a pop-up providing bowls of nourishing oats and grains has now taken roots in Covent Garden, tucked away in Neals Yard. I’ve followed them on Instagram for a while now and have long admired their beautiful bowls of cooked oats, quinoa, and other grains, served in both sweet and savoury dishes.

26-grains

While porridge purists (my mother being one of them) will try and tell you any divergence from the classic oats cooked in water is all wrong, I’m with 26 grains and their adventurous take on what a bowl of porridge should be. I like to add chia seeds to my oats, and will always eat them with a dollop of greek yogurt on top, often with some kind of fruit and seeds too. I’d consider myself quite the expert when it comes to all things oaty, yet it’s hats off to 26 grains in the porridge stakes, as their concoctions put my plain yogurt and fruit toppings to shame.

On my visit, breakfast porridge bowls included Banana Cacao made with almond milk oats and topped with coconut yogurt, cacao nibs, banana and maple syrup as well as other tempting options such as Blackberry Bay, again cooked in almond milk, served with a blackberry compote and topped with almond butter, apple and bee pollen. A sucker for any touch of salt with my sweet, I opted for the Salted Caramel Pear, where my oats were accompanied by barley and cooked in coconut milk, topped with cinnamon greek yogurt and then salted caramel pears and a pistachio sesame sprinkle.

Not just beautiful, this porridge was filled with interesting flavours and quite unlike the plain oat and milk affair I’m used to consuming. Feeling inspired by 26 grains amazing oats, I wanted to come up with my own porridge recipe…but not before I had read up a bit on how to make the perfect bowl of porridge. Turns out I’m not the only one with a keen interest in oats either; The Porridge Club have a whole website devoted to it, and you only need to read Felicity Cloake’s article on The Guardian to see how much opinions vary on what makes a ‘perfect’ bowl of porridge.

I based my own recipe on what I had tasted at 26 grains and also the grains of knowledge (get the pun) I had learnt while reading up on the perfect porridge recipe. I’ve opted for a mix of coconut milk and water, as I think using just coconut milk is a bit rich for an everyday breakfast. A top tip is toasting the oats before you add in your liquid, not only because it creates a lovely popcorn-esque aroma around the kitchen but because it does seem to enhance the overall flavour of the oats. Felicity Cloake recommends it, and from her extensive porridge recipe research I think we’ll take her word as gospel.

I’ve added chia seeds to my porridge recipe because they’re really fashionable and I want to be a trendy blogger. Just joking – I happen to like the texture they add in their weird, gelatinous way of swelling up which gives the porridge a smooth, voluptuous feel (this all sounds a bit sexy now, doesn’t it?).

Try making this porridge today – just 10 minutes on the stove with minimal effort creates a breakfast bowl you won’t want to miss.

Coconut and Chia seed Porridge

(Serves 2)

100g oats (the general consensus here is that they should be posh, jumbo rolled oats. Probably right, but I used Aldi’s basic instant oats. Shhhhhh…)
400 ml coconut oats
200 ml water
2 tbsp chia seeds
1 pinch of salt

First let’s toast those oats. Place pan on heat and add in oats. Toss pan around making sure oats don’t burn, but keep on flame until you get a lovely, pop-corn like smell in the air.
Once you feel the oats are sufficiently sun-kissed (2-3 minutes max), add in your coconut milk and water mixture. Don’t worry that it seems like loads of water! Stir around and wait for the liquid to start bubbling.
Now that we’ve reduced the liquid down, it’s time to add in your pinch of salt and sprinkling of chia seeds. Here you could also add in a nut butter or some frozen berries to add flavor and texture too. Stir around and wait intil most of the liquid has gone and you can see your porridge ready.
Just leave the porridge a couple of minutes to cool down, and you’re ready!

I went for greek yogurt with a drizzle of honey on top, as well as half a sliced banana and pomegranate seeds too.

A ménage à trois you won’t want to miss – Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Brownies

14th May 2015 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Sad, sad news people. The absolutely incredible 3 nuts Cookie Dough Peanut Butter I bought in New York at Smorgasberg market ran out last week. I was enjoying it in so many ways : spread on toast, mixed into my porridge, as a key feature in some very delicious chia seed puddings, and in all honesty, more often than not just straight from the jar and into my mouth.

But every cloud has a silver lining, and I managed to pull myself out of my nut butter mourning and launch into recipe creation mode. Looking to recreate the brilliant combination of cookie dough, chocolate chips, and peanut butter, this recipe is a combination of all things good and yum…

Say hello to Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcakes with Cream cheese Cookie Dough icing.

Sweet cream cheese cookie dough icing meets rich cocoa brownies. The rest is history.

The touch of cream cheese with the cookie dough makes for a very smooth, spreadable icing. And it couldn’t be simpler to make! To make the icing I literally whacked everything in my blender and mixed in the chocolate chips at the end. The icing is sweet (of course), but ended up as the perfect topping for the rich chocolate brownie recipe I chose to follow. Taken from the incredible food blog smitten kitchen, this brownie mix uses just cocoa powder rather than melted chocolate.

I tweaked smitten kitchen’s recipe slightly with the addition of swirls of peanut butter (chunky, please) and I opted for a mix of white and brown sugar, as I felt this would provide a good sweet balance against the rich cocoa flavor. I choose to make my brownies in cupcake molds, because…why on earth not?

Peanut Butter Brownie Cupcakes with a Cream cheese Cookie Dough topping

(This recipe is adapted to make 6 cupcake sized brownies, so if using 8×8-inch square baking pan, you’ll need to double it)

– 70 grams unsalted butter

– 60 grams of white caster sugar mixed with 60 grams brown sugar (1 cup)

– 30 grams cocoa powder (this is a little less than 1/2 cup)

– 6 teaspoons of chunky peanut butter (a spoonful for each cake)

– A wee pinch of salt

– 1 egg

– 30 grams self-raising flour (again, a little less than 1/2 cup)

For the Cream cheese Cookie Dough icing

– 1 1/2 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

– 1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened

– 40 grams brown sugar (1/3 cup)

– Drizzle of milk (if needed. Play this by eye, only adding if it seems too thick).

– 35 grams flour (1/4 cup)

– 70 grams mini chocolate chips (2/3 cup)

Baking the Brownies

1) Get the oven on, and set it to 190 degrees. Grease chosen mold for brownies.

2) Now we want to melt our butter into our cocoa – traditionally done in a heatproof bowl over a pot of boiling water, I actually managed this just fine in a microwave. Blasts of 20 seconds are recommended, just to check you aren’t burning anything. Once combined, add your pinch of salt to the chocolate butter combo.

3) Now we want to add the egg. Use a wooden spoon, and stir in gently.

4) Once the egg is mixed in, it’s time to add in the flour. Fold in until it can no longer be seen, and then your brownie mix is ready! Pour into baking tray/cupcake mold, and on top on each cake nestle in a teaspoon of peanut butter, so that the surface is flat.

Making the icing

1) Place cream cheese, butter, sugar and flour in the blender. Whizz on high speed for about 10-20 seconds until you reach an even consistency. If it’s looking a little lumpy, here’s the time to add in that drizzle of milk.

2) By now you should be seeing a clear dough-like texture. Remove from blender and stir in chocolate chips (and plenty of them).

3) Once your brownies have cooled completely, bang your icing on top.

Now these look good.

But I couldn’t help add in just a little bit more chocolate for good measure. I melted some chocolate in the microwave, and swirled it into the icing…

Because chocolate, on top of chocolate brownies and chocolate chips is never a bad idea. Make these cakes and make some special people very happy. Or…

Just be one very happy baker and munch them all on your own!

Peanut butter, cookie dough and brownie. The sexiest ménage à trois I can think of!

A huge thanks to my lovely roommate and the all-round likable human Juan Kattan for some of these lovely snaps. You can check out some more of his photos on his Tumblr blog.

Dinner for 80?

15th March 2015 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Colombia is a country of contrasts. Hot Caribbean beaches, deep, dense jungles and cold, steep mountain ranges. African-influenced music such as champeta plays next to the indigenous music bambucco, with some modern day reggaeton thrown in the mix too. While these are differences to be celebrated, Colombia also possesses less desirable contrasts, such as the stark comparison between the rich and the poor.

Thankfully, there are many charities within the country working to help change the situation of millions of families who live in poverty. One such organisation is TECHO, who work to provide emergency housing for families living in sub-standard housing conditions.

I’ve already written about some of the work I have done with TECHO here, and my most recent experience was the task of feeding 80 hungry volunteers during a weekend of construction with four families in Puerto Colombia, down by the beach here in Barranquilla.

I had to provide two breakfasts and one dinner and my job involved planning the menu, managing the budget, buying the food and of course…cooking it all too! Another volunteer and I worked together to achieve this mammoth task. We came up with a menu of well-loved Colombian classics, two of which I’ll share with you all today.

The breakfast on the first day was huevos pericos served alongside bread rolls. This is a classic Colombian breakfast dish and is a quick, easy and nourishing option that is just a tad more exciting than your everyday scrambled eggs recipe.

Spice up your scrambled eggs with the recipe here below!

Eggs for 80

Huevos Pericos (serves 4)

Ingredients
– 6 eggs
– 3 finely chopped tomatoes
– 2 tablespoons olive oil (replace one of these with butter if you like your eggs a bit richer)
– 2 strands of spring onion, finely chopped
– Salt to taste

Method
1) Add in oil (and butter if using) to the pan while it heats up. Once the pan is warm, add in chopped onions and watch and stir until the start they change color.
2) Add in chopped tomatoes with a good pinch of salt. Stir around with onions for about 5 minutes, until tomatoes are looking cooked but not mushy.
3) Now crack eggs straight into the pan and mix around, and when starting to scramble turn off heat. Stir around a bit more, but don’t let them dry up – runny eggs are best!

This can be served with some chopped coriander stirred through, or sprinkled on top.

Breakfast on the second day was a very traditional dish called cayeye – boiled guineos (smaller, green plantains) mashed up with butter, salt and cheese. Added suero (a kind of sour cream) is optional, indulgent and completely recommended! Sadly, in the sheer mayhem of boiling 80 bananas and grating over 5 kilograms of cheese (all before 5:30 am this is), I forgot to take any pictures. So you’ll just have to trust me when I say this is one breakfast dish you should try!

Ingredients for Cayeye – photo credit not my own, taken from food catering company aldimark

Breakfasts done, what’s for dinner? The much-loved Colombian dish arroz con pollo (chicken and rice). Tackling such a classic dish, I did my research talking to various mums/grandmas/cleaners and cooks in order to get their top tips. Everyone has their own little tricks for making this dish, and here is a compilation of those pearls of wisdom to help you try your hand at this classic Colombian eat.

Arroz con Pollo (serves 4)

Ingredients
– 250 g (1 cup) of white rice
– Stock cube of chicken stock
– 3 cloves on garlic, chopped
– A fair bit of salt (various pinches, we will say)
– Trisazon spice (now I doubt this is hanging around in Tesco. It’s basically a mix of cumin, garlic, paprika and red colouring. Use these 4 and you should be good!)
– 1 teaspoon tomato puree
– 3 carrots, grated
– Half a bunch of coriander, chopped, with some leaves reserved for serving
– 1 green pepper, cut into small cubes
– 1 red pepper, cut into small cubes
– 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
– 1 large onion, finely chopped
– 2 chicken breasts

Method

1) First cook the chicken. Place breasts in a pot with the first 3 chopped cloves of garlic, the stock cube, and cover with water until all of the chicken is submerged. Boil for about 30 minutes until the breasts are cooked through, and remove chicken to cool on a plate but reserve this chicken stock (you will use it to cook your rice).

2) Now, in the water you cooked the chicken in, you’re going to cook your rice, adding in the grated carrot for colour. Make sure there is exactly twice as much water as you have rice – if you haven’t got enough chicken-y water for your rice, add in more plain water. Likewise, if you’ve too much water, drain some out. Simple!

3) While the rice is cooking, shred your chicken breasts with two forks. Save aside, and crack on with the veg.

4) Cook onion in a separate pan until it starts to take a golden colour and then add in peppers. Add salt and spices and garlic. Cook for another 5 minutes, and then add in tomato puree. Add in shredded chicken, chopped coriander and give a good stir for about 1-2 minutes.

5) Checking your rice is nice and cooked (about 20-25 mins), it’s time to mix it all up! Add cooked chicken and veg to rice, stir it all up and taste. A bit pale looking? Try a squirt of tomato ketchup! Not feeling flavorsome enough? Add some more spices. Serve with a sprinkle of fresh coriander, and enjoy.

Arroz con pollo is a great feed-a-crowd dish, and if I managed it for 80, this recipe for four should be a breeze!

Overall, the weekend was a tough, long, but unforgettable experience. It was my third time participating in a construction with TECHO, and it never ceases to amaze me how in just two days the lives of families can be transformed so positively. So after you’ve hit the kitchen to cook up these two Colombian classics, please also take the time to read up about TECHO and the work it does across Latin America.

Until next time, where BidmeadBites takes a brief holiday away…stay tuned to find out where to!

Pan-fried fish with mango salsa and courgette noodles – 20 minute meal

23rd January 2015 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

With a day off work and time on my hands, I decided to get creative in the kitchen. I wanted to make something quick, healthy and of course – it needed to be tasty too! I came up with a pan-fried fish dish with a mango, lime and ginger salsa, served alongside “zoodles” (courgette noodles) and avocado. I used mojarra, which is a very common fish here on the Caribbean coast, although any white fish fillet would do.

White fish in a mango sauce with courgette noodles

To make this quick and tasty dish, you will need:

– 1 fillet of mojarra (or any white fish you have to hand)
– 1 courgette
– Salt, pepper and a touch of dried chilli
– 1 avocado

For the salsa:
– Half a mango, cut into small cubes
– 1 quarter of red onion
– A thumbnail of ginger, grated finely
– Juice of one small lime
– 1 tbsp of soy sauce
– Dash of fish sauce

Method:
1) Start by making the salsa. Combine all the salsa ingredients in a blender, food processor or small electronic food chopper. Blend until smooth – if a little thick, add in water until any lumps have disappeared.

2) Now get onto the zoodles. Cut courgette lengthways in half (for easier grating) and grate in long strokes to get spaghetti-like strands.Mix in generous seasoning of salt, pepper and a touch of dried chilli. Leave to one side.

3) Place some oil in a pan and heat gently, and now lightly pan fry fish until cooked through.

4) Place fish on plate, and in the same pan throw in zoodles. These need a very brief cooking – literally 1-2 minutes.

5) Place zoodles alongside fish, top with slices of avocado, and top fish with salsa.

And there you have it. Jamie Oliver eat your heart out – try this Bidmead version of a quick 20 minute meal, and enjoy a tropical taste of the Caribbean coast wherever you are.

Fiesta Colombiana!

19th December 2014 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

I’ve had an absolutely great time being back in the UK, catching up with friends and family, soaking up all things British and enjoying what feels like a million cups of tea (and many a mince pie too!). As happy as I am to be reunited with these British delights, I also wanted to share a bit of Colombian cuisine and culture with my friends here in London too.

Before leaving Barranquilla I hit up the supermarket to stock up on certain Colombian goodies. With a night out in London on the cards, I thought it was the perfect excuse to host a Colombian themed pre-party at mine.

I assessed what ingredients I had to hand (along with what would be available in the UK) and set out making my menu. To drink I chose typical aguardiente (think sambucca but smoother), agua panela cocktails (brown sugar water…in my opinion just made to be mixed with rum) and juice from a fruit called borojo, as I had brought over the pulp.

To eat, I thought of chicken wings and traditional arepas, made with a special corn flour which I bought over from Colombia. These were topped with guacamole and tomato salsa, which also went nicely with the patacones al horno I served (recipe found here). On my local high street I even managed to find yucca, a root vegetable popular in Colombia. The yucca was boiled and served with fromage frais, which I hoped would be some kind of equivalent to the delicious costeño dip suero, which is a bit like sour cream.

Desert in a packet = classy

And of course – dessert was compulsory. The cake from my previous post featured, as did natilla – a traditional Colombian flan, made from panela (dark sugar) which I served with cream and strawberries. This came freshly from the packet, and I felt very retro chic serving flan with whipped cream.

To list all the recipes here would be far too lengthy, but really a lot of them were quite basic. The tomato salsa was simple but classic, from none other than the goddess that is Delia Smith (check out her recipe here).The chicken wings (seen above in the glass bowl) were marinated in a last minute concoction of what I deemed to be a ‘Colombian-inspired’ sauce, and they turned out to be really tasty.

To give them a go, you need:

‘Colombian style’ marinated chicken wings

-2 tbsp cumin seeds, ground
-2 garlic cloves
-Generous drizzling of olive oil
-A spoonful of chilli sauce (depending on how hot you like it)
-A tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter
-A large handful of corriander leaves
-Plently of salt and pepper
-3 tbsp of thick greek yogurt.

All whizzed in a blender, this made a lovely thick marinade for the wings. Coat wings in marinade from anything up to 24 hours before serving (the longer the better really), and then cook at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Soon enough, the food was ready and the feast was served!

My retro flan and passion fruit sponge were accompanied by the very welcome addition of Celebrations – and now I really feel like it’s Christmas. Overall it was a lovely evening spent with wonderful people, catching up and sharing a great variety of food (and drink…).

Here’s to Colombian food reaching London, and catching up with old friends. I intend on bringing back a few British treats to Barranquilla too, but fear the delights of Heinz baked beans may be lost on the Barranquilleros. Still, a girl can always try!

Plantain, how do I cook thee? Let me count the ways…

20th October 2014 by Eve Bidmead Leave a Comment

Commonplace in many Latin American and African cuisines, the plantain is a member of the banana family. Its color varies from green to black depending on its ripeness and although inedible raw, this starchy vegetable lends itself to a wide array of both savory and sweet dishes when cooked. Here in Colombia you can’t go far without finding some platano somewhere along the line and recently I’ve been testing out a few recipes. Starting with ripened plantains, here are two variations of how they can be served, either savory or sweet.

The other day, getting home tired and hungry, I routed around for some dinner. Faced with these simple ingredients:

I could feel a good late night dinner calling. To make this savory, stuffed plantain, you will need:

The ‘Jacket Plantain’

(Serves 1 hungry person)

-1 yellow ripe plantain

-2 tomatoes, finely chopped

-1/2 onion, finely chopped

-1 can of tuna

-1 avocado, sliced

-1 lime, for a bit of juice squeezing

-Adobo seasoning (this is just a mix of paprika, oregano, salt and pepper. Use these if you have!).

Method

1) Slice off the ends of the plantain but keep the skin on. Place plantain in the oven, heated to 190 degrees. Leave to cook for 20 minutes and get on with your filling.

2) Heat some oil in a pan and cook the onion until it takes on a translucent color. Add in your seasoning followed by the tomatoes and cook for 10 minutes.

3) Open and drain the can of tuna, add it into the pan. Stir in with onion, tomato and spice mixture. By now your plantain will be cooked – take out of oven, carefully peel off skin and slice in the middle to open up like a book.

5) Place in your tomato tuna filling, and finish with a squeeze of lime juice and avocado slices.

Your stuffed savory plantain – a quick 20 minute meal

That’s dinner done then! But what if you’ve already had your dinner and are looking for something sweet to finish it off? Well here is potentially the easiest dessert recipe ever. With a similar cooking method to the ‘Jacket Plantain’, this sweet dessert contains the wonderfully exotic flavors of coconut, papaya and mango.

Plantain Split

(for four people, a plantain each, adjust accordingly)

-4 ripe plantains

-1 mango, cut into chunks

-1/2 papaya, cut into chunks

-1 can of coconut milk

-2 tbsp brown sugar

-Handful of desiccated coconut for sprinkling

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 190 degrees, cut the ends off the plantain and place them in their skins in the preheated oven.

2) While they are cooking, get on with making your coconut cream. Pour coconut milk into a bowl and add in brown sugar. Either with a whisk, hand whisk or blender, whizz up milk until it takes on a thicker texture. Once it looks like it has a bit of body, it’s ready.

4) Now pour/spoon over coconut cream, and pile on fruit. Sprinkle generously with desiccated coconut, and a touch more cream for good measure.

5) When plantain skins are black (20 minutes or so), take them out of the oven and (just like for the jacket plantains) peel them and open up like a book.

A tropical treat for any day of the week! Feel free to play around with the fruit you use to fill your plantains. Maybe you could go for some berries? Perhaps even some chopped up oranges with a dash more sugar would go well. It’s a really easy dessert and a nice spin on a well-loved classic.

Banana split? Try this plantain version for a more tropical twist

For the next recipe, I have looked to common food trends for inspiration. The popularity of dishes such as spaghetti squash and cauliflower crust pizza highlights how we can use vegetables to substitute certain carbohydrates. While traditional pizza and pasta is wonderful, a slightly lighter substitute every now and then is a nice way to try out new recipes, as well as being a healthy option. This next recipe replaces rice with green plantain and works really well – give it a go and see what you think!

Plantain Fried Rice

(serves 2)

-1 large green plantain, chopped into little cubes

-1/2 onion, finely chopped

-1 red pepper, finely chopped

-1 green pepper, finely chopped

-Half a can of sweetcorn

-Drizzle of honey

-Salt and pepper

-Dash of chilli sauce

-Lime zest (a tad)

Method

1) Firstly you want to chop your plantain really small. I managed this with a box cutter, which pushes vegetables through a grate, but this could be just as easily done by hand.

2) Cook your onions for 2-3 minutes, just to give them a bit of colour. Then, add in your plantain, tomatoes, red and green peppers. Add in salt and pepper along with lime zest.

3) Stir well and make sure it doesn’t burn. As you don’t want this to be greasy, if it looks like it’s sticking to the pan add in some water.

4) Cook for a further 10-15, add in sweet corn, and just before taking off the heat add your drizzle of honey and chilli sauce. Finish with a squeeze of lime and that’s it!

A Caribbean twsit on an Asian classic

Continuing on with our green plantain and healthy alternatives, we arrive at the popular dish that is patacones. Patacones are fried plantain rounds that often sit alongside many other fritos, which are a typical street food. Cheap, tasty and filling, these fried snacks will certainly keep you bouncing until lunch.

Patacones are not once but twice fried green plantain rounds. While delicious, they obviously aren’t the most health-giving food out there, so I took on a challenge. Could I make healthier, baked patacones, without making any colombian abuelita shudder in disgust at the very concept?

The much loved Colombian frito

The answer? Yes! Easy to make, and far better for you than the original, these baked patacones will allow you to sample some Colombian food while watching your waistline. For this recipe you will need:

Baked Patacones (plantain chips)

(serves 2 as a side/starter)

-1 green plantain

– Drizzle of olive oil

-Salt

-Lime…

And that’s it! And as if this wasn’t simple enough, we’re even going to use a microwave. If you don’t have one, just stick it in the oven, but for double the time.

Method

1) Cut off the ends of the plantain, and slice the skin down the middle length ways, so steam can escape.

Microwave at full force for 6 minutes, or in the oven at 200 degrees for 12-15.

2) Once cooked, remove the skin of the plantain. Chop diagonally into 3-4 cm slices and use whatever you have to hand (a pan, a chopping board, a glass) to flatten each slice into a flat round.

3) Place on a baking sheet, generously cover with olive oil, salt, and a squeeze of lime juice. Bake at 200 degrees celsius for 15-20 minutes, turning over once or twice.

(Below is a step-by-step picture guide – you can see how to slice the plantain before it goes in the microwave/oven, then how to cut it diagonally, along with the flattening into actual patacones).

And out come delicious, crispy baked patacones! Sure they taste different to their fried siblings, but they are still darn good. These serve as a great base for a whole range of toppings – try your hand a typical Colombian hogao (a tomato and onion sauce) or why not make some guacamole? Equally you could try some cooked up mince meat, or even a poached egg. Or, serve as they are, with another shake of shake and squeeze of lime.

With four different recipes, ranging from savoury to sweet, you’ve got no excuse not to give these dishes a whirl. Put down your dreary old potato and try something more exciting. Rich in vitamin C and A, plantains are paleo-friendly and are incredibly versatile and easy to cook with. So what are you waiting for? Head on down to your nearest international supermarket or large supermarket and get cooking!