Do it Justice, Add a Lime

A rummage in the fridge produced a Butternut Squash and Red Pepper Korma.
This made for excellent warming, comforting food on a miserable and rainy day like today. To all those who feel like giving this one a bash, I shall inform you that by no means are you to skip out on the addition of lime in this dish. Do it justice, add a lime. :)

I made up my own stock for this, something I haven't done for a long time. I forget how much I enjoy cooking and making this dish up really reminded me of how much I love it, I find it so therapeutic. I find it much harder when I'm at home to cook like I used to as I no longer have to mission to Beanies (how I miss thou...) and explore whats in season, whats new, whats exciting. I am somewhat more removed from the whole process, since my mum is here I don't have to think about what meals I'm going to eat this week as she does a lot of cooking- although its damned tasty most of the time. Trying to break that habit.

This dinner left me smiling. I ate it with brown rice and mango chutney, and had a sneaky biscuit after.

Return.

Hello one, hello all.

I have returned, for more adventures in vegetarian cuisine, now both my life and I have stopped going crazy. Summer has been good, I have spent most of it half-living in Bristol with Jake and Joel and generally living the dream.
The best parts of the dream included WOMAD festival, and seeing Flying Lotus in a car park off a dingy alley in London. Apart from the music being utterly SICK, Jake and I then went for a wander between the hours of five and eight am in Central London, which was slightly foggy and almost completely deserted- very 28 Days Later- a very interesting experience. We even had a cheeky spliff by the houses of Parliament. ;)

This weekend we celebrated Joel's 23rd year of life. As always, I see a birthday as an excuse to bake an extravagant and experimental cake. This time: Lime, Chocolate and Chili Cake.
In terms of flavours this cake didn't quite turn out as I had planned, I was hoping for a more emphasis on the chili while this cake was predominately lime and chocolate with a kick of chili at the end, but then again I am fond of putting enough chili in dishes to make your nose run. I love the building intensity and slight pain you get before breaking through that pain barrier and getting a massive rush of endorphins. Perhaps then, since this cake was for the general consumption of the face-painted party-goers it was better as it turned out.

Much of the inspiration for this cake was drawn from the Dark Chocolate and Ginger Cake.
The basic premise of this it to bake a basic chocolate sponge cake but with added diced fresh chili. A lime syrup is then made by using equal amounts of lime juice and brown sugar- heat it slowly over hob, don't let it boil. Add the syrup while the cake is still hot and in the tin it was baked in. Cover with a tea towel and leave overnight.
I cheated slightly with the icing, since I couldn't source any essential oil of lime I was unable to flavour some chocolate myself, so I bought two bars of Montezuma's Chili, Chocolate and Lime chocolate. I melted this down with a tablespoon of butter to make the icing. I didn't half the cake and ice the inside as the syrup makes the cake itself very moist. I think its a slight pity the chocolate used was a milk chocolate and not a dark chocolate, dark chocolate is almost always better.
Despite my reservations about the cake -which are more aspects on how I think it could be made better and less complaints about the cake as it was- it was very popular with the guests, we managed to scoff the entire cake. A certain someone was spotted standing by the cake and slicing, eating, slicing, eating. It was a real compliment. :)

We ate cake and had our faces painted and got very sideways. As I said, we lived the dream.

BRB

"The real meaning of enlightenment is to gaze with undimmed eyes on all darkness."
Nikos Kazantzakis

Brb. xxx

Having Smarter Babies

Bad news update on the mint syrup:

I put it in hot chocolate but the syrup was so delicate that I couldn't taste the mint at all!

Sad times. I put it in my cupboard even though I'd decided never to use it but am a compulsive hoarder. (oh if only you could see my crafts stash...) Came back to it after I'd been away for the weekend and lo behold it had fermented (obviously not enough sugar) and exploded inside my cupboard. Cleaning it out was pretty grim, and it fucked a lot of the other things in my cupboard.

Anyway. I went to London for the weekend, and saw Rage Against the Machine who were pretty insane. Due to a stroke of luck I found myself yesterday afternoon in London with nobody to please other than myself. :) I spent a few hours looking around the Tate Modern- in a more appropriate mindset to concentrate on the works this time. I then chilled in Soho square, paid a visit to the exquisite Flat White coffee bar. Cited by those in the know as the best place for a cup of coffee in London, I treated myself to a flat white made from a coffee blend called Red Square which I loved but can't seem to find online. (Which is disappointing, I wanted to buy some.) Really chocolate and deep flavour. The atmosphere was good too, since its surprisingly small. This isn't a photograph I took, but its the coffee bar.

After all that coffee and walking I was pretty hungry, and fortunate enough to be only down the road from a Hare Krishna restaurant called Govinda's, who served me some damn tasty curry.

On a reeaaaaaaally sad note, this week marks the end of my time in Broad Lane Court. It's been a weird year, thats for sure. Theres a lot of people here I'm going to miss, some who I'll see again in September, but others not. :(

But, we've got a house next year. It has a cellar and a gas cooker. The boys will be living in another house up a hill which looks wicked for sledging down when it snows. :)

Wickwickwickededywicked

Wins of the week:

Stuffed Pumpkin

Take a small pumpkin, as in one that looks like a reasonable amount for one person to eat. Slice off the top and scoop out the seeds. Replace the seeds with a stuffing mix. I used Tesco's sage and onion stuffing mix or something like that. Also put in lumps of gruyere cheese. I wrapped it in tinfoil, put it on a low heat and forgot about it for several hours. Came back (maybe 3?) later to find it cooked through, and the cheese melting. I removed the lid and grilled the top. Sliced it in half and served it between two with salad. (And thyme chips would have been there if I hadn't forgotten...)

Pear Slice

Slices of pears in syrup on shop-bought pastry. Drizzled with golden syrup and almonds. Baked and eaten with Jersey cream.

Fail of the Week: Faceplanting myself and fucking my arm when I got too cocky and tried to jump off a slackline.

Wins of next week:

RAGE on Sunday. Win.

Most Supreme Excellency Bagels

Most Supreme Excellency Bagels

-by Josh and Rhy

Toasted bagels with courgette and onion -fried with oregano, thyme, and chili- with a garlicy cheese sauce and baby spinach too.

For some reason this took us over an hour.

"Peas-in-a-bannaey-pod"

-by Dave and Rhy and Rosie

One for a the bbq. A twist on the whole 'slice a banana and put chocolate on the inside' thing. Except with malteasers. Wrap it in tinfoil and bake.

Also had the pleasure this week of more scrumptious coffee from Trevor, and courgette and mint soup.

Keepin' it Surreal

I was graced with the company of my good friend Alex over the weekend, the weather was wonderful and we went to see Mr. Scruff in the Leadmill- which was basically a houseparty with a wicked DJ set.

Given the nice weather I thought I'd live the Middle Eastern dream. Tzatziki, Hummus, Baba Ganoush and Falafel. All homecooked from scratch and served with toasted pitta and a green salad. The falafel fell apart a bit as I have no deep fryer, I hear they're a bastard to cook at home if you'd like balls of falafel as opposed to lumps. Baklava for desert. Sad times for the Arab shop and the Shisha bar underneath- they've been shut down.

Other things cooking recently include;-

• Thai Style Puy Lentil Soup
• Red Potato Gratin
• Mint Syrup- this is SO going in hot chocolate. Boil up mint leaves with some sugar and water in a pan. I thickened it with cornflour.
• Our Serbian chum Filip whipped up a banana and lemongrass curry with kiwi fruit.
• Myself, in the sun. FAIL

I have mostly been revising for my whole two exams, specifically today I have been mostly having a panic attack since I have failed to read any of the set texts for my english course.

Shit.

4/20

Gotta love a bit of Flying Lotus. If you're lucky enough to have Spotify check out his 'Los Angeles' record, its a 'every track on this album is truly wonderful' kind of good.

The quality of this is terrible, but nevermind: its a fucking lush track.

For dinner today I had a toasted bagel and a beer.

...and The Story of How We Met George

A much embraced dish in Broad Lane Court of recent days has been the highly satisfying Rice and Pea. I sat and watched and was aaaaaalmost jealous of the jerked pork the boys grilled in a George Foreman and had with it. (very nearly almost.)

After a few experiments, Jayk and I concocted a Sesame, Ginger and Soy Stir Fry. Which was so good I probably spent the next half hour thinking about it. (I tried it again with mixed beans, beansprouts, and tomatoes and it was good, but not quite as good.) Asian dishes have been the way forward for sure, I would write up the recipe for a wicked chickpea and mango curry if only I could remember it. :/

Finished Uni (huh?) Exciting summer (woo!)

Seem to be stuck in a time warp,

Motivation < work = go to park

Pizza Stoning, Part II

This weekend in Broad Lane Court we have mostly been celebrating Josh's birthday, we pretty much started out on early Friday evening and continued until Sunday morning. Part of the celebration involved impromptu pizza-making on Friday night.
The five of us made light work of preparing the dough, cooking a sauce, preparing pizza toppings. And we were also all pretty impressed with how quickly we went from 'Shall we cook pizza?' to actually doing it, and even more amazed to leave the kitchen cleaner than we found it.... mysterious stuff going on here.

Pizza alla Genovese.

So Near and So High

Saw these guys in the Leeds Union last night. Very, very pretty and very chilled out. :)

Happy happy.

Sun is Shining

Once again I've not been cooking much of late, :( I have cooked some things- which I shall get on to later. Although when I say 'cooking' I mean cooking something exciting and new.

Do I have an excuse? Well... University work and my social life have both upped a gear, at the same time. Its been glorious; days in the park, reggae and dub nights, a secret Jazz party in the flat, watching films on the ceiling, slack-lining, barbecues... cooking has gone on the back-burner.

Despite all of this, I did cook an Aubergine and Chickpea Tagine, and served it with Almond and Lemon Cous Cous- add lemon rind and almonds to the cous cous as it fries-

...and pigged out on some baklava to finish. :)

If you're into graffiti art watch this, its fucking cool;-

Guilty Pleasures

Baked beans topped with mashed (cheesey, garlicy) potato on the top.In the oven...

... as someone who enjoys cooking this is a guilty pleasure for sure.

We've all been there, we've all done it, we all love it.

Like picking your nose.

"I don't think of a meal as an experience, more like a poo that I haven't had yet."

Baked eggs in Bread Rolls;

I thought I'd take a Guerilla approach...

The Chapter Arts Center has re-opened after its renovation. It has an interesting, vegetarian-friendly menu with a pretty decent range of imported beers. Cardiffians, please visit and drink beer.

I said last week 'No Cooking'.

I turned out to be quite wrong...

Glamorganshire Sausages

-I've made these a few times before. They're good breakfast food.

Red Potato and Kale Soup with Chili (From The Greens Cookbook)

Baked Eggs in Bread Rolls

Other things which have made me smile include bumping into old faces and hearing that this blog actually gets read by... quite a few people... it seems I've inspired a few people to get more into cooking, which is a huge compliment. Thank you guys. :)

No cooking today... or for a while

No cooking today, and probably not for a while.

I'm living at home, my mum cooks... the freezer is full of pizza and frozen chips if I get hungry.

Why bother?

Also I've managed to get a bit ill and have lost my appetite somewhat. :(

Although I did have some very tasty peppers-stuffed-with-rice-and-pumpkin with cottage cheese on the side, something Miss Pie and I whipped up. It felt very healthy. :)

I've also been drinking coffee.... lots of beautiful coffee.....mmmmmm................

In the meantime I'll put a few new things up on the sister blog, which I feel is lacking somewhat.

I've tagged everything up properly so you can use it like an online cookbook.

Exciting times!

Take me to where the good food is!

In the dark, dark, dark, dark...

Dinner party in Flat Two. Rhy cooks the chilli the night before, misses the near-disaster of mistaking cayenne pepper for paprika. Rhy has not labeled the spices in her rack as she feels she will learn more from smelling and tasting the herbs to get a feel for how they are- rather than just following a recipe when it instructs one to add this, that or the other. Rhy discovered a new life tip; do not ever ever ever get cayenne pepper up your nose. The recipe for the chili.

Rhy decided it would be an excellent idea to make black-bean-chili lasagna. Josh felt this was a good opportunity to use his pasta machine, they make pasta. Anoj looked on in wonderment.

While assembling the lasagna -with creme fraiche in place of béchamel sauce, and smoked cheese instead of parmesan- Josh and Rhy suddenly realise that they have actually undertaken quite a large culinary experiment- they have never cooked pasta before, nor have they attempted to fuse italian food with mexican in this manner. An expedition for sure. However, ten people were due to eat and the show must go on. A salad was also prepared to accompany the meal, Orange and Avocado Salad.

Thankfully it tasted pretty fucking good, agreed all the diners that evening.

A desert had been arranged -rasberry sorbet with almond biscuits. However, during the the interval of courses all guests felt their energies would be better spent if they re-arranged the kitchen slightly, brought in George's decks and had a party.

And that is exactly what they did.

Here are some belated photographs of Jake's birthday;-

In the Devonshire Cat;

The cake;

This post will unfortunately end on a sad note. Fudge, my much-loved and frequently-escaping hamster passed away this week. He liked eating peas and humus on toast. We rescued him from underneath floorboards, found him inside walls... we ripped out skirting boards and almost drilled a hole in my bedroom wall when he escaped. He made some of the most extravagant escapes I've ever seen, using shoes and hats, coat-sleeves, plumbing to his advantage, once he even got out from his hamster ball... on the same day he managed to climb out of his hamster house and get stuck- I had to cut him out. I'm impressed he got into his house and reached a point overnight where he got too big to climb back out.

He was a lot happier when my parents devoted an enormous portion of our living room to a permanent play-pen for him.

I'm really going to miss you Mr. Fudge. :'( :'( xxx

Skagliatelle

First things first, I figured if I had a follow box on the right people might be able to actually follow my blog?

Smartsmartsmart one Rhyannan! You'll be tying your shoelaces by next week.

I will also make it look less template-y once I stop having SOMUCHFUCKINGREADINGTODO.

AND ALSO I cooked Tagliatelle with courgette, cream and herbs and it was scrumptious. One to cook again for sure.

This weekend I shall:

Be cooking for nine people. We are having another end-of-term dinner party, although this is more of a its-a-halfway-through-the-term-and-we-off-but-will-be-back-in-three-weeks-but-fuck-it-lets-eat-and-drink-wine-anyway party. :)

I believe Mr Rack will be aiding the cause and creating sheets of lasagna from scratch, Jake was pretty keen to get involved with the deserts and I will be making a chili as we're going to have black-bean-chili lasagna for mains. Served with an avocado and orange salad.

Still thinking about desert... thinking a lot about deserts.

Whatever happens, it is going to be good.

There's a Party in my Mouth and Everyone is Invited...

...except you.

I have a bit of a love affair with ginger. Although not the prettiest looking object in the world it is an incredibly versatile spice. I really love the smell and the warming fiery taste of ginger. Taste aside, ginger has many medicinal properties too- it aids digestion and helps to quell nausea, it stimulates your circulation, helps remove toxins from your body and contains essential oils to make your skin look nice. It comes as no surprise then, to learn that ginger is allegedly an aphrodisiac, and in South-East Asia ginger is used to "gain the affection of a woman."

Nifty eh? (But then again- who wouldn't want a man with lovely skin?)

This week I baked a Dark Chocolate and Ginger Cake for Jake's birthday.

I can say in all honesty that I feel I have once more outdone myself. This cake was supreme, it was fiery and rich and moist and it tasted exactly how I imagined it in my head, it had the perfect icing-to-cake ratio (VERY important when it comes to cake!) and I think I probably had an orgasm in my mouth when I ate it.

We presented it to him with a honorary birthday spliff in place of candles, had some tea, had some cake, had a smoke. It was yet another of our "Life is good" moments for sure.

We then continued the celebrations at The Devonshire Cat- a pub that offers an impressive wide range of imported beers. They have a beer menu, they serve specific beers in specific glasses in order to show off their flavour best- as beer should be. The Belgian beers are becoming a favourite of mine, admittedly I am very new to the world of beers. In Belgium, they make the glasses for the beers and then produce the beers to go with the glass- thats how important it is to get the right beer in the right glass. I tried out a Ara Bier which was very good, it had a very strong and distinctive flavour. It does make me want to go to Belgium and become a fat prick sitting on my arse eating their good food, drinking their good beer and admiring how pretty everything is- the film 'In Bruges' really makes me want to go to Bruges but I'd like to think that people will not be so careless as to cascade themselves down high churches while I'm eating my lunch.

The celebrations of Jake's birthday spilt over into the weekend, several of us hopped it down to London to see Luke Vibert. (who was very, very good, my ears are still ringing)

While in London I took the chance to visit the repute Caffé Vergnano and tried out the coffee. They had a beautiful and very unusual espresso machine, although they sprinkled "1882" on the cappuccinos which looked tacky and a bit piss. I always think chocolate sprinkled on top of coffee ruins the look unless its put on the espresso prior to the pouring of the milk. But hey! I'm a bit of a snob. While on the topic of coffee I would like to congratulate Trevor from my beloved 'The Plan' café, as he came fourth in the UK Barista Championships this year. He is officially one of the BEST people to make your coffee in Britain. I suggest you try it.

Back to ginger: coffee and ginger? Could probably work very well with the right blend. :)

If you're into ginger and getting drunk I also suggest you try Crabbie's Ginger Beer, either on its own or with the supreme Ginger Tam's Whiskey. Ginger Tam's is really something, its halfway between a mead and a whiskey in taste with a kick of ginger (mmmmmm) to finish. Good straight, or with ginger beer and lime. Saying that, most whisky is good with ginger beer and lime.

In other news I have, of late: come to the conclusion that often the only remedy for being stoned is to get more stoned, had a very entertaining mission to the massive Tesco with Josh, had a very entertaining night in London and returned to Sheffield by noon the next day- 8am coaches for the win, been affiliated with an amusing but close-shave incident involving a Greek Orthodox Church incense burner/a shitload of frankincense setting off a fire alarm, gone to the hairdressers for a 'trim' and hacked all my hair off, knitted a pair of gloves, crocheted some juggling balls, cooked a curry...

...AND have managed to keep on top of reading huge piles of wank otherwise known as 'Shakespeare and Renaissance Drama'.

I am officially amazing.

Returning to normality... kind of.

After a slight lag in my cooking experiments I am, at long last, back on form.

I've been pretty broke recently- I still have no job and I am too disorganised to have called up the company who owe me £500 or open up a student account so I can have an overdraft. Last night, I had a very old raw carrot for dinner. :(

Please take this moment to observe a photograph of Jono in Beanies;

However, I successfully got my act together a little bit, and have procured enough money to allow me to buy food for this week.

I'm going a little East, on the menu we have;-

Cream of Jerusalem Artichoke soup.

-Something simple as I have been dying to experiment with Jerusalem artichokes for a while now. They're in season so now is the time to do it. -Huzzah! Figured keeping it simple would help me get a better idea of the taste of Jerusalem artichokes.

Curried Sweet Potato with chili, lime and coconut.

-Yum yum yum yum yum yum. I think yellow split peas will be most excellent if I cook them into some dahl to go on the side. Coconut and coriander rice is also something I'll try to serve it with. I find rice very hard to cook without a rice cooker, there is definitely a knack to it if you want it light and fluffy.

Red Thai Curry

-I have some Thai curry paste I made myself in the freezer, Thai curry needs coconut milk which I will have left over from the Sweet potato curry, so all is well.

Pumpkin, Tomato and Gruyere Bake

-Not at all eastern. But probably delicious.

Think this sounds expensive? I paid no more than £15 for my food for the week today.

Thank GOD for Beanies.

Also, Jake and I are going to cook plum and raspberry crumble tonight, with custard. :)

I've missed eating good food so much! :D

There are things in there, there's a tea-bag growing.

Hello one, hello all;

I have not had many culinary adventures this week, most of my spare time has been taken up with house-hunting and so any food I've eaten had been something quick, easy and not exceptionally noteworthy.

In other news, we have found a house that we're happy to sign for. It's in a great location and the house is a good size- it has a gas cooker, hooray! I plan to grow mushrooms in our cellar. I bought a book, and I've got a button-mushroom grow kit under my bed.

There is nowhere where I can regulate the temperature in my halls of residence though so that shall have to wait until new-house time. Mushrooms must be kept between 16-20 degrees centigrade, in my halls it is either pissing freezing or boiling hot, there doesn't seem to be much middle ground.

And then, of course, I can grow the kind of mushrooms that make me smile. Manically.

Despite the mushroom-cultivation setback, I HAVE been growing some herbs on a windowsill. Coriander, basil and parsley. I get very excited when I see each day they're grown a tiiiiiiiiiiny but more.

Not much of an update, but I felt I ought to keep in the swing of things.

Pancakes and the UK Barista Championships

Too much coffee;

CoffeemanWill doing his coffee thing;-

Mr Calvert jumped aboard the coffee ship;-

Shrove Tuesday this year was good. I ate a lot of pancakes and also got to drink some decent, free coffee at the UKBC 2010. :)

I had pancakes twice actually, for breakfast and dinner.

I suggest flaked almonds, honey and single cream in a pancake.

Also: Something I whipped up for lunch today

Also: On a (slight) aside, I made a coat. I needed one as it can get quite cold up here and I had no really warm, snug coats. Could I find one that looked good in a shop? Nope.

So I made one.

Boom.

ALSO::

I will be off to see Rage Against the Machine come June 6th.

Frikkinggggggggggggggg YES YES YES YES YES.

Hopefully this time I won't be in a car crash and get towed into Slough.

This past week has been most excellent.

I shall leave you all with something only Jake would say;-

"OH NO! Ohhhhhh SHIT! I spilt Chai Tea all in my drawer....... its gone all over my origami!"

Pizza Stoning

A dear friend of mine, -Josh Rack- is in possession of a pizza stone, pizza stones are excellent for getting the base of a pizza crispy and thin. Last night we had a pizza-making bonanza.

It took us six hours to produce three pizzas, although this includes dough-making and two strategical pizza stoning breaks. Which although slowed pizza-production considerably definitely added to a greater appreciation of the finished product.

We made a pizza sauce with ancho chile in it.
Recipe here!

Josh made, a new potato, mushroom and smoked cheddar cheese with egg pizza.

The smoked cheese works really well with potato and also the pizza sauce we'd cooked.
Slice the potatoes very finely so they can cook through in the oven.

The egg was also very good, I've never had egg on a pizza before. It was almost a disaster as we cracked the egg over the pizza halfway through cooking. I pulled the stone out of the oven just enough to let Josh pour it over the top, but somehow a mighty globule of egg white managed to slip off the pizza....off the pizza stone...all over the bottom of the oven....slide out the bottom of the oven...all down the kitchen counters...resting at last all over the kitchen floor.

Despite that, most definitely one to make again.

Puy Lentil, Pumpkin, Spinach and Goats Cheese Pizza was my pizza of choice.

I cooked the lentils with a bay leaf in advance, drained them and seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil and freshly grated parmesan cheese. The pumpkin was also poached slightly as I didn't slice it thin enough to cook in the oven. I think roasting them would have been nicer but it was 12.30 at night so we didn't really have time. I can't really complain however, as the pizza worked very well as a whole. The lentils make it really very filling although I only used a handful of them on the top.
The spinach was fresh and sliced into long strips, it was pretty good to weave this in with the other ingredients.
And goats cheese is always, always good on pizza.

I was really very full and I'd only had a few slices of pizza- it was pretty amazing how large a difference few lentils and a bit of potato makes to a meal.

Josh taught me some very good pizza-making tips, one being to oil the pizza base with olive oil as it helps the pizza to crisp up. We even managed to work in a few very crunchy air-bubbles into the crust.

Yum yum yum yum yum.
I'm thinking pizza-making should be a more regular occasion.

ALSO THIS WEEK:
There was a disaster with Jake and two cheesecakes he tried to make for his girlfriend for valentines day.
Let's not talk about it any more than that.

Chile Rehab

I have put myself into chili rehab.

After buying some superb dried ancho and chipotle chilies from The Cool Chile Company I have -for the past fortnight- put them in pretty much everything I have been cooking. I made some really wonderful pumpkin with chili and mint soup, a Catalan (cabbage and red peppers) soup, black bean chili (really fucking good, very smoky) on top of the regular chilli in every day cooking. As much as I love spicy food, after two weeks of eating little but I began to get quite ill. As it turns out, chile speeds up your metabolism. Mine is already super-fast hence I can stuff my face quite happily and never manage to put on weight, thus for the past few days I was suffering from some quite crippling stomach cramps and being always, always hungry.

I hate throwing food away, but there was no room to freeze these very tasty dishes since....yep, my freezer was already full of foods I'd been cooking, chili-ing up and freezing. (Red potato and Kale soup with chili, amazing.) So I spent another day or so eating this food that was making me really quite ill but MMMM it was so nice.

I'm loving the chipotle chilies, they're a smoked jalapeno chili. They lack the bitterness I find most jalapeno's have. (Although maybe I've only eaten bad ones.) They are quite spicy but the it is a very complex spice that builds and fades away very pleasantly, especially when used in conjunction with the Ancho Chili. If you're interested in learning about Chipotle chilies check out;- http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/Articles/Chiles-1024/chipotle.aspx

Anyhow, after getting quite sick I put myself into chili rehab, which I am actually finding a bit difficult. Day two, and I have cooked a very nice orange and carrot stir fry, along with a superb puy lentil and chard soup. Links to recipes;-

CARROT AND ORANGE STIR FRY

CHARD AND PUY LENTIL SOUP

Also, I have been invited to see the UK Barista Championships on the 16th. VERY excited about that. Excited enough to skive off University for it.