Day trip to Paris, 2nd March 2024

Bread basket at Bouillon Julien - seven thick crust slices tightly packed onto a basket

Long story short: we had a chance to spend last Saturday in Paris, and so we did!

We were there for less than 12 hours. Yes, it sounds preposterous, but we embraced the absurdness of it with efficiency and organisation: we identified a few things we could do, but left ample margin to do so, booked a restaurant for lunch, and then executed with precision.

It really helps to live close to St. Pancras, so we could walk to the station and be there less than an hour after waking up. So, we were on time, and so was our train.

St Pancras concourse in the morning, and Tracey Emin's neon in the background. Our Eurostar train is to the left, waiting for us. A person wearing a high visibility vest waits by the travelator in the distance.
St Pancras concourse in the morning, Tracey Emin’s neon “I want my time with you” and our Eurostar train waiting for us
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50/50 cardamom buns

Cardamom buns cooling down on a rack

I loosely followed this recipe from Felicity Cloake, but either I didn’t have enough of some of the ingredients or didn’t want to sacrifice an egg for painting. So I did a few replacements and alterations, detailed below.

The results are surprisingly good, given it’s the first time I made these. The flavour is spot on, exactly what I want from a cardamom bun. They are moist and buttery enough, and the slightly coarser texture from the wholemeal flour wasn’t really in the way, with all that is going on, as there are already the big cardamom seeds interrupting any pretence of smoothness in the dough.

Also, since they have whole grains rather than being 100% refined flour, they are totally healthy 😆 (just ignore the sugar, and maybe the butter, eh??) 🥦🥬🥒

Cardamom buns cooling down on a rack
Cardamom buns cooling down on a rack
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Asian-Inspired Experiments

Tea-cured eggs and tofu

For whatever reason, this cold and dark month we having been craving Asian flavours. Perhaps it is the weather, or more likely, inspired by our Christmas present to ourselves; the new Fuchsia Dunlop book called “Invitation to a Banquet“.

The book is fascinating and we are working through it very slowly, savouring each chapter. One aspect that Fuchsia makes clear is that Chinese food is very misunderstood; for example most meals will have a balance of flavours, textures and ingredients, and when people feel unwell it is usually because they haven’t thought about this balance when ordering.

We are trying to bring this theme into our cooking, and also trying not to destroy the flavours of the underlying food but enhance them with Chinese flavours.

Experiment number 1: tea-cured eggs and tofu

We made a broth with a combination of black tea and various aromatics; star anise, soy sauce, sugar, cinnamon, bay leaves, and szechuan pepper. We marinated a block of tofu in one half of the broth, and marinated boiled eggs in the other half (after cracking the shells of the boiled eggs).

After 24 hours we were very curious to see the result, and prepared a dinner of rice, pak choi and peppers lightly fried in ginger and a touch of mushroom sauce, and then lightly warmed through the tofu and added the tofu and eggs to our bowl. The result was a light and tasty dinner!

The tofu took more of the flavour than the eggs but both had a delicious hint of tea broth slightly tickling our tongues! Beautiful – and not heavy either!

Tea-cured tofu
Tea-cured tofu

Experiment number 2: Szechuan-spiced fried tofu, broccoli in a ginger and mushroom sauce served with a chilli and soy dressing

We really enjoyed the subtlety of the ginger fried pak choi and wanted to apply the same method to other greens. So we steamed some long-stemmed broccoli in the microwave and then gently stir fried it with lots of fresh ginger and a touch of mushroom sauce.

We wanted some protein, so out came the tofu. First, we lightly dry-fried and ground about a teaspoon of Szechuan pepper. Next, we added the ground pepper to a couple of tablespoons of cornflour and a teaspoon of sugar. Then we diced the tofu, lightly patted it with a kitchen towel to absorb a bit of surface liquid and coated the tofu in the cornflour mixture. The tofu was then fried in a very shallow amount of oil, until it started to become slightly golden and crusty.

For the dressing, we mixed a bit of spicy chilli oil with soy and just a pinch of sugar.

Then we served it all together with some brown rice – delicious!

Szechuan-spiced fried tofu, broccoli in a ginger and mushroom sauce served with a chilli and soy dressing
Szechuan-spiced fried tofu, broccoli in a ginger and mushroom sauce served with a chilli and soy dressing

Experiment number 3: cheese and kimchi okonomiyaki

Now, this one is not particularly balanced! So not really following the principles mentioned by Fuchsia…but tasty anyway! And a Japanese comfort food classic!

We are still working through our beautiful kimchi, and had a brainwave one night when trying to think what we could make with whatever we had in the cupboards and fridge. We have okonomiyaki sauces from a prior experiment, so then it became quite easy to prepare!

We made a batter with eggs, flour, dashi and a bit of seasoning, thinly sliced up some cabbage and fried it, added grated cheese, kimchi and the batter to the pan, and let it cook through. Once cooked we added our various okonomiyaki toppings and then we were done!

It was pretty filling so someone had part of theirs for leftovers the next day…!

Cheese and kimchi okonomiyaki
Cheese and kimchi okonomiyaki

Homemade kimchi, and three good uses for it

A kilner jar, opened to reveal home made kimchi inside

Coming back to a cold and wintery London, we decided we wanted tasty, fermented and spicy dishes – and what better than homemade kimchi?!

There are lots of recipes online (particularly from Korean bloggers, like this one) so if you want to make your own, we’d encourage you to do some research online as a starting point.

For those in London, and would prefer a more hands-on lesson, we attended an excellent lactic fermentation workshop held by The Fermentarium a couple of years ago. As a result, we have made plenty of wonderful kimchi and sauerkraut since then!

This time, we kept the recipe simple.

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