Destination Italia

Alright, so this past weeks destination was Italy, the initial destination was suppose to be Slovenia, and from there make my way to Italy. However, Slovenia is a tiny country, and with tiny countries comes tiny amounts of recipes on the internet. To put it in other words, trying to find a Slovenian recipe that I can a)pronounce and b) lacks horse meat is a bit like trying to find some in  Vancouver who despises kale and yoga. It's near impossible. So I made the decision this week to head to Italy after a long week at uni and curl up on the sofa, with books on how children's rights are a load of bollocks in practice but grand in theory.

I chose to make a Risotto, this week with chicken breast and broccoli. I've made many a risotto before, and every time I make one I tend not to touch them for about a month or two after woulds....namely because I always make way too much and after eating the stuff for two week straight I am quite ready to banish it to the back of the classroom. That being said, the wonder full thing about Risotto is that provided you have a chicken (or veggie stock), white wine,Arborio rice and parmesan cheese you can put what ever you want in it. I opted for mushrooms, peas and sun-dried tomato and large quantities to even out the obscene amounts of rice and stock in the pan that I added. I took a chicken breast out of the freezer marinated it using the contents of the fridge which included, basil, dijon mustard, garlic, splash of tomato paste, salt pepper and chilli flakes and threw it in a pan along with some halloumi to add texture.
 
Plating was a night mare because in the wise words of one of the biggest influencers on my food obsession, my dear Lorenzo Schober, " you cannot make risotto look good, it always looks like shit."So here is my attempt at poshing up a un-poshable food.

Around the World in a 192 dishes and a hand full of cockups: Destination number one Hungary.

Once again, it's been bloody ages since I wrote anything and once again, I am writing something that I have no obligation to write because I don't feel like writing something I am obliged to write if I want to complete my university degree. As most of you know reading this,  I have a pretty terminal case of wanderlust, which I largely blame being the product of two adventurous parents. As always I am broke, and wanting to travel, the simplest of ways to save money is to cut out food and live in a shack. Unfortunately, when you live in a country which is wetter than England on one side and colder than mars on the other, that doesn't really work. So on a bus ride from LA to San Francisco, I made the decision that this year I was going to travel to every country in the world through food. It's a way to develop my cooking skill, as well as my photography and slow my progression of wanderlust. Wanderlust is like a degenerative disease such as Parkinson's or Alzeimer's, it never goes away and gets worse with age, but you can consume things that slow the progression.

At least, this is the case for me and so the year of travelling the world through culinary creations starts here, in "Hungary"with the famous Goulash, a beef and paprika stew served with potato dumplings and a nice blob of sour cream. I also served it with a side of mushrooms and green beans. Some of you might be asking why I started with Hungary....well the only reason is because I had a spontaneous craving for goulash....that's about it really and so after reading a recipe about as closely as I read my assigned readings for school. I attempted to make a pot of goulash, and like all things in life it wasn't perfect, mainly because I like spicy things and underestimated how spicy adding large quantities of  paprika, cayenne pepper and chilli, which if nothing else will kick start my metabolism.

So for my friends wanting to try something new hearty and delicious, I would highly suggest cooking some goulash up. One more piece of advice I will give you, if you are making it after a busy day, buy mince beef instead of stewing beef, they both cook quickly... but stewing beef is designed to cook it for a long slow period of a minimum 2 hours of time so it melts in your mouth...... whilst i was waiting for this my appetite consumed my brain and i subsequently ended up saying sod it and proceeding to eat cooked tough beef giving my upper molars a workout they were not especially use to. My jaw line is now without a doubt the most chiseled part of my body.