Pages

Wednesday 31 July 2013

Julia's 15 Minute Meals

Actually it probably takes less than 10 mins, and that is a win in my very lazy book. This is some sort of egg-fried noodle concoction, and it tastes pretty damn fine, even if I do say so myself!



Ingredients:
Noodles - Any will do but I used dried Nikko egg ones from the oriental shop near me, they take 3.5 mins to cook
Veg of choice - today I had 1 carrot and half a courgette, cut into thin strips using a peeler
Egg
Soy sauce
Roasted sesame oil
Fresh ginger
Garlic (I have the lazy stuff in a jar)
Coriander to garnish (oooh fancy), I also added in some radishes because I had some to use up and why the hell not? :)

1. Bring some water to a boil for noodles
2. Meanwhile, prep veg, and pre-heat frying pan/wok with a bit of sesame oil
3. Add noodles to the water
4. Fry up the veg in the sesame oil for a couple of mins, then add a generous slosh of soy sauce
5. Into the veg grate a bit of fresh ginger and add a bit of garlic, however much you like, and stir, cook for another couple of mins
6. Drain noodles once they are cooked, add to veg
7. Stir together well, then crack in the egg
8. Allow the egg to cook for a few seconds then break it up and mix it in with the noodles and veg
9. Mix in fresh radishes and lots coriander
10. Done! Although I would highly recommend adding a drizzle of this stuff, it is immense:


Monday 29 July 2013

Pay Out

I'm not going to claim any great success with this gardening thing, but some things have actually grown! I am very excited about even the smallest harvest, and everything definitely tastes better when it  is eaten only minutes (or seconds!) after being plucked from the plant. I will persevere :)



Sunday 21 July 2013

Fish and Chips

Dorset is one stunning beast when the sun is shining. The best thing to do is take a little walk and escape the masses populating the main beaches. It is amazing how the crowds thin out as soon as there is a little effort involved. I much prefer the beaches around Lulworth and Durdle Door as they are pebbly, sand drives me nuts, it gets everywhere! What a lovely weekend, good people, good weather, good food.






Thursday 18 July 2013

Spanish Sun

I was lucky enough to score a trip to a conference in Valencia in Spain (expenses paid, woop!) a couple of weeks ago. It was absolutely scorching! I then returned to similar weather in the UK, so it seems we are actually getting a summer this year :). Anyway, I'd thought I should make the most of my time in Spain, so much exploring was done. It is a really lovely city, there is a picturesque old town with lots of appealing architecture, including some very old churches. The city is on the coast too and there is a massive beach with plenty of restaurants serving the ubiquitous paella. The hotel and conference centre were out of the main town a bit, but there is a very efficient (and air conditioned!) metro so it was very easy to get around, without me having to make too many awful attempts at Spanish. I did entertain some waiters though with my appalling pronunciation!





A sexy glass of sorbet lemony goodness

Not a bad view from the hotel room :)


Sunday 7 July 2013

All the Animals

I took a trip to Bristol zoo a few days ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it! They don't have many big animals as it is quite small, but the collection is great and all the enclosures seem to be well thought-out and of a good size. They have plenty of reptiles too, which fascinate me. The aquarium is also very good, they have some really interesting species. Of course there are plenty of charismatic apes and other monkeys, and the sealions are also brilliant to watch, they have tunnels going under the pools so you can see them swimming around. A bonus Gromit was spotted too :)

Blue spiny lizard juveniles 




This guy kept eyeballing me!

Standings Day Gecko


The sealions really seemed to like swimming upside down!

Gromit as a mandrill :)