Thou shalt have a fishy in a curry dishy

Well. It has been faaar too long since I posted on here, especially as I promised you more foodie goodness over a month ago! Well, as I said last time my boyfriend came to visit for a week in February and I was planning on trying out lots of lovely new recipes on him (the way to a mans heart is through his stomach after all!). The recipe below is what I had planned to make for our valentines meal the night he was due to arrive, the day after valentines day. Anyway, I got a phone call midday on valentines day telling me to look out the window....turns out he'd planned all along to surprise me and arrive valentines day! Of course my reaction was "well I've not got anything in for dinner!", but alas he had already booked a table and sweeped me off my feet for one of the nicest 3 course meals i've ever had, and certainly the most romantic. So this is the meal I made as our second valentines! 

Fish Curry

This recipe is based from one in 'Step by Step Curries' by igloo books, one of my January sales purchases from The Works (I spend way too much in that place!). For anyone just starting out in making curries I defo recommend this book, it's easy to follow with step-by-step pictures, and from my experience I can say the curries are very tasty!
I halved the recipe as it serves 6.

ISBN: 978-0-85780-689-5

 
It's a simple but very tasty curry to make, and can be made as mild or as spicy as you like. I didn't just use shrimp, I also added a fish-pie mix of fish with some baby sweetcorn to give it a bit more substance. The mixed fish sort of disintegrated into the coconut milk as it cooked, making it thick enough to spread over some naan bread. For those who aren't a big fan of coconut you may still like this as the creaminess is offset by the curry spices and white wine. The recipe did say to add saffron and fish stock, however as I am a poor student I cannot afford saffron, and the fish I used made the fish stock a bit redundant really!

The thing about this recipe that I am most proud of myself for achieving is the part with the tomatoes. You're probably thinking what is the big deal. Trouble is....I HATE tomatoes! I love tomato soup, ketchup, tomatoes in sauces etc....but to me they are an ingredient that needs to be smothered in herbs and garlic and, more often than not, cheese. So the fact this recipe asks you to soak 2 in boiling water and peel/deseed them was a big ask of me, but alas, I did it! I instantly scrubbed my hands so I didn't get any tomatoey juice anywhere, but I did it, yay!
 

 So here's the finished meal, served with rice and naan bread. It was warming but not overly spicey, and very moreish! I defo recommend this. I can tell you me and my boyfriend were practically drooling over the smell of it cooking! I suppose if you're not a big fan of fish you could substitute in chicken or quorn/veg if you're a veggie lover.





I have some lovely new recipe kits from thespicery.com which I'm hoping to start using in the next month or so, and look out for my first restaurant review, exciting stuff!

Update. Plus Food.

Turns out my timing for starting a blog was pretty poor as I have been non stop the last few weeks! So since I last posted I've been busy sorting out lots of wonderful issues with my house (not fun), but on the plus side I got my ears pierced (finally manned up) and have just had my haircut so it now has a lovely fringe.
One of the reasons why I wanted to start this blog was because in recent months I've found a real passion for cooking, especially Asian/foreign cooking. One of my FAVE films is Julie and Julia, based on a blog in which the former works through Julia Childs' 'Mastering the Art of French Cooking' in just one year. Living in a student house and being on a budget restricts me from tanking through a recipe book in a particular time, so I thought I would instead post as and when I've cooked something particularly tasty. My boyfriends coming to visit next week and have loooooads of delicious food planned for whilst he's here, so I should hopefully get some yummy foodie pics to post after that! 
Until then.....
Some recipes/improv food I've made recently

 A quick and tasty lunch; bacon noodle salad. I tend to use supermarket brand instant noodles without the seasoning, fry up some bacon, cut it up and mix it in, then mix in some lettuce. Rocket is a tasty alternative to basic green leaves. Use a seasoning of your choice, I either use Knorr Aromat or Soy Sauce (low salt).

 An absolute fave of mine, and a real treat when tiger prawns are on special offer; Indonesian style Stir-fry. It's simple; fry up some mange tout, baby sweetcorn, red pepper and onion, toss in the prawns (cook for longer if raw), add a sauce of your choice and voila! Serve with noodles or rice. You can get lots of ready made stir fry sauces, I'm a big fan of Blue Dragon sauces myself. They are not too difficult to make from scratch, it just depends if you want to stock up on the different spices. The sauce i've used here is a supermarket own one called "Nasi Goreng", but is essentially soy sauce, garlic, fish sauce, onion and chilli.

Who doesn't love a good pizza? I bought a packet dough mix from the store for very little, and then went all out on the toppings. This particular one was inspired from my trip to Sorrento a few years back, the toppings being mostly parma ham and a VERY generous helping of fresh mozzarella. The tomato base itself was very simple to do. I boiled down a value tin of chopped tomatoes with some onion, garlic and oregano; a mix that gives that truly authentic Italian taste. I know you're probably dying to know why on Earth I've ruined a perfectly good pizza with a bunch of green stuff. Well the green stuff in this photo is actually Rocket (you may have noticed I'm a fan), it's slight peppery taste really complements the other toppings. It also happens to make a fantastic BLT.

Check back for more yummy recipes soon enough! x

Getting back into it

I've made jewellery on and off for maaany years now, but never seem to got round to making any last year. Three weeks into 2014 and I've already made five pairs of earrings and a necklace, here's hoping it continues!

If you are interested in purchasing any of the items below, please comment!

The first thing I made this year whilst cuddled up with a film (The Great Gatsby I seem to remember), was this woven necklace in deep reds and blues. The pendant is a large glass structure in similar shades of blue, set with blue and red flowers in the glass

Over two further crafting sessions (again in front of the telly) I made these five pairs of earrings

 These two pairs are drop earrings comprised of glass beads with flowers set in them. Both are made using silver plated earring hooks












The next two pairs are a similar wire wrapped style, with glass beads at the centre of the wire. I make these in a variety of colour combinations, I chose these colours as they are fresh and delicate ready for when Spring is (finally) here





















This is DEFO my favourite style of earring to make. They're slightly more fiddly to make, more so than the wire wrapped ones above, but I think the finished results is worth it. The flower/beads used are all plastic, making them extremely lightweight and comfortable to wear. Again I make these in a variety of colour combinations, all of which match the spring/summer theme.