I Funghi, I Gamberetti, il Porco e la Pasta

My former classmate Marlene is leaving for China in August to study in Hainan University. As she is going to be eating dogs, cats, rats and pandas for the next year, I decided to send her off with a dinner- Julian style (Italian cooking- as all my recipes are pasta based- due to the fact that I cannot cook rice up to the required standard)
William Cunningham had never met Marlene before so he was invited as well.
I christened the meal "I funghi, I Gamberetti, il Porco e la Pasta"- figure that out yourself!
The taste was heavenly, in some other life I might have been a cook. The ingredients included- pasta (obviously) Mushrooms, Prawns, Onions, Pork sausages- all these fried in honey tinted oil, as usual a chicken accompanied the meal, with some Australian Shiraz wine to wash it all down- Scrumptious
A friend of mine got me some plantains from London, cheaper in London than in Sunderland. I haven't had plantains as a student, so this was special.
Since Marlene was the guest of honour, she got the honour of eating with my sqaure plate- the highest honour that can be bestowed upon a guest.

Unfortunately, the only pics that exist of this meal are really unflattering and do no justice to my culinary skill, but I will make do with what I have



Click for a larger picture

Coconut

I was wandering through Tesco yesterday and came up to the fruit aisle, I was feeling odd and decided to get an exotic tropical fruit, my first thought was: Mango! but then I recalled that I usually get tummy trouble after eating it..I then thought about Avocado, but I had eaten that a few weeks ago...I scanned the aisle, and my eyes fell on this round, brown, hard fruit...with hair! yes The Coconut. I picked it up and checked out.
When I got home I picked the coconut and stared at it, I asked myself two questions. Firstly, with the absence of a hammer, how on earth was I going to break it open? and then How could I incorporate coconut into my meal?....I also asked myself other questions like Who was the first person to eat a coconut? I mean he or she must have been stranded on an island with absolutely no food, just coconut trees and large stones.
Well, Tesco advises to use the blunt end of a very large knife and hit the coconut at its widest point. I do not endorse this method, as it involves a large blade pointed at your face. If you wanna eat coconut, go to Tesco and get it, then go to hardware store and get a hammer.
Well, I tried the Tesco method and all it did was mess up the kitchen, with coconut hair flying everywhere. My flatmate Vishal (who is less scared of big knives) managed to half the coconut using this method, I then proceeded to break the halves into smaller pieces using our kitchen wall..it worked.
What was left was to seperate the endosperm (or Coconut meat as it is known, but I prefer coconut white....as it does not look like, taste like, or feel like meat) from the husk, this proved a daunting task, and involved us Googooling (notice the extra 'oo' after the 'l', this is to prevent you pronouncing it -Goog-Ling', and since 'Googleing' would add to confusion, I have come up with 'Googooling- Smart!)methods of removing the white from the husk...suggestions included getting 'Indian coconut scoopers from Calcutta'...we didn't have the time, but I had an idea. I decided to boil the pieces for about 20 minutes, this softened the white a bit, and it was much easier to scoop out.
I was eating the remnants of my whole chicken...actually it was still pretty much whole, just missing thighs and wings, so yes, I was eating that, and pasta. I grated the coconut and fried it with the breasts I had carved out, I also added some to the pasta, and it gave it a nice sweet tinge! Innovative!! So yes I had once again formed a new recipe "La Noix de Coco avec le Poulet et Pâtes" (never have recipe names in English it makes it sound normal...use a Latin language instead) which in English simply means "Coconut with chicken and pasta", now you see why French is better!

Unfortunately no pictures of this meal exist as I gobbled it up as soon as it was done.

Oh God I Love Cooking!

La Pasta Africano

Yesterday, my flatmate Vishal and I, while shopping at ASDA decided to have a cooking competition. We were to go head to head and create an original recipe, cook it and present it, and an independent judge will taste and assess the food and declare the winner.
Well, being the Cook that I am (if I wasn't doing PR, I'll be doing Theology or Culinary Arts) I created my second original dish, aptly named: 'La Pasta Africano'(pasta is a running theme in my cooking)
The Recipe is as follows:

1 Tin of Sardines
1 fruit of avocado
Dried carrot and Swede
Canned rings of pineapples
White sauce
Small fry-able parts of chicken breasts
2 chicken breast fillets
Pack of salted peanuts
Stir fry vegetables
Mateus Rose wine
Mushrooms
Fusilli Pasta

Procedure

1- Grind the peanuts in a grinder
2- Chop and fry the mushrooms, and add the ground peanuts
3- Fry one breast in the mixture
4- Fry the other breast in the mashed flesh of avocado
5- Boil the pasta
6- Mash the sardines and add to the white sauce, add a dash of Rose wine
7- Bring the sardine sauce to boil
8- Stir fry the stir fry vegetables, add a healthy dash of Rose wine
9- Mix the stir fry vegetables, the carrots and swede with the boiled pasta
10- Serve in a large plate, generously apply the sardine sauce over the pasta
11- Fry three rings of pineapples for about 2 minutes in low heat, with some pepper
12- Garnish the dish with the pineapples
13- The chickens are also on the plate...

After all that, your dish should resemble this:


If it does not look like that then you have done something wrong. Eat your mistake (if edible) and start over again

New Year, New Julez

Yes Yes Yes, Guess who's back in the town, Me. I just spent Christmas over at my cousins in London, spent most of it: waking up at midday, eating chocolate, turkey,chicken, and beating Christopher in PS2 boxing...till my thumb couldn't move. Christmas was lovely. New Years Eve wasn't!
Mos Def William was over in London and we were supposed to meet up at the London Eye to watch the great fireworks. Well lets just say I've never seen so many people in my life, the streets of London were packed with people walking in different directions, mostly going toward Big Ben or The Eye. I was on the tube, hoping to connect and meet up my friends, only for the driver to announce that the following stations were closed due to overcrowding. Dammit!! Damn you Murphy, Damn You!! So I get out, it's about 23:30, I start walking towards the Eye, thinking I'll just stroll through, Oh how wrong was I, all of a sudden I was met with a sea of a thousand heads, English, American, French, Nigerian, Japanese, all of the world had gathered in different parts of central London to welcome the New Year. But I don't wanna see a darn clock, I wanna see fireworks!! There I am, unable to move any further, it's 23:50 now..I am by Big Ben, If I attempt to go toward the eye, I'll be welcoming the New Year while walking down a lonely street.
I had to concede, I texted William, told him I couldn't make it. I brought up my weary head and watched as the Hand struck twelve. Goodbye 2007, Hello 2008. The crowd were jubilant, champagne and beer were sprayed. Children and infants were in the crowd, they got their first taste of alcohol.
As expected the police presence was heavy, but fights erupted. Crowd + Alcohol = Fighting.
The fireworks started, I could only hear sounds and see a bit of light. I brought out 'Sophie' (my camera, I changed her name, since 'Shaniqua' was too 'ethnic') and took a few shots of Big Ben.
After that disappointment, I walked back to Victoria to get a bus back home, long story short, I waited for 2 hours to get a bus. Finally got home at 4.00am.

That was my New Year. The next day I met Mos Def and his friends and we went to an Italian restaurant, after much debate whether to go Italian or Indian...see the two restaurants were side by side, and we stood outside, debating if Rajeev or Antonio had better food. We settled for Antonio, and it was Goooood!! Run by real Italians, not British counterfeits (and they had accents!!..lol) anyway the food was great, my starter was a bunch of small dead fishes....I'll post the pics when I get my hands on it.

And here I am, back in the North East, back in cold Sun-derland. My laptop cord is acting up, have to get a new one tomorrow.....work begins again!

La pasta di formaggio di Julian

Today I finished my much talked about essay on the USA as a terrorist state, an essay that I am very proud of.
I went with the essay to my lecturer, Dr. Amir Saeed to see if he had any final words, he read it and seemed content. He told me my essay was amongst the 'elite' ever written in the module.
SO with a big smile on my face.. I chose to celebrate. I got the usual pasta stuff, mix vegetables and chicken portions, and grated cheese. Food aside, I went to wilkinsons to get a new 'square black plate' you know, tryna be all modern.
I then created my new dish, the recipe I will keep a secret. It tastes heavenly...ohh so good. Since it was pasta, I decided to give my new dish an Italian name, hence: "La pasta di formaggio di Julian", which translates literally as "The pasta of cheese of Julian"...you get the point!
I still have one more essay to do before I can finally put my feet up!