Pan-fried fish with mango salsa and courgette noodles - 20 minute meal

With a day off work and time on my hands, I decided to get creative in the kitchen. I wanted to make something quick, healthy and of course - it needed to be tasty too! I came up with a pan-fried fish dish with a mango, lime and ginger salsa, served alongside "zoodles" (courgette noodles) and avocado. I used mojarra, which is a very common fish here on the Caribbean coast, although any white fish fillet would do.

To make this quick and tasty dish, you will need:

1 fillet of mojarra (or any white fish you have to hand)
1 courgette
Salt, pepper and a touch of dried chilli
1 avocado

For the salsa:
Half a mango, cut into small cubes
1 quarter of red onion
A thumbnail of ginger, grated finely
Juice of one small lime
1 tbsp of soy sauce
Dash of fish sauce

Method:
1) Start by making the salsa. Combine all the salsa ingredients in a blender, food processor or small electronic food chopper. Blend until smooth - if a little thick, add in water until any lumps have disappeared.

Uncooked zoodles

2) Now get onto the zoodles. Cut courgette lengthways in half (for easier grating) and grate in long strokes to get spaghetti-like strands. Mix in generous seasonings of salt, pepper and a touch of dried chilli. Leave to one side.
3) Place some oil in a pan and heat gently, and now lightly pan fry fish until cooked through.
4) Place fish on plate, and in the same pan throw in zoodles. These need a very brief cooking - literally 1-2 minutes.
5) Place zoodles alongside fish, top with slices of avocado, and top fish with salsa.

A quick, delicious and healthy lunch, in under 20 minutes!

And there you have it. Jamie Oliver eat your heart out - try this Bidmead version of a quick 20 minute meal, and enjoy a tropical taste of the Caribbean coast wherever you are.

Travel BidmeadBites (Part 2)

Picking up where I left off, the Bidmead sisters travels around Colombia continued, as did my culinary adventures - kicking off with chontaduro in Cali. Eaten with honey and salt, the taste of this fruit resembles (as my sister so correctly noted)...baked beans.

Chontaduro - or a can of beans?

I happen to love baked beans, and therefore these went down quite well. However, eating what proclaims to be fruit while visualising beans on toast makes for a slightly odd attack on the senses. Still, the caleños love the stuff and I guess I did too!

In Colombia, carne reigns king. Baring in mind my sister is a veggie, headed to a restaurant serving typical caleño food (which happens to be particularly meat-centric), her options were limited to say the least. She could eat one thing on the whole menu of about 30 options, which was aborrajados (fried plantains with cheese). Did I feel bad?

Don't know about my sister, but I certainly wasn't going hungry! 

Clearly I had other things to preoccupy me, like this chuleta de pollo (breaded marinated chicken breast). I should mention this portion was to share with a friend, alongside another dish of lengua en salsa (tongue in tomato sauce). For those of you who are now squeeming - tongue is a delicious, tender and flavoursome cut of meat, which I urge you to try!

Champús...a no no for me.

Moving on to something a bit lighter, champús is a sweet drink prepared with the Colombian fruit lulo, orange, pineapple, dark sugar and...corn. It sounded good until the corn bit right? Despite its popularity in Cali, this drink was just not for me. Next time, I'll be keeping the corn on the cob and the fruit for the juice.

As our time in Cali came to a close we headed to Palomino, a small beach town on the Carribean coast, two hours from Santa Marta. Being back by the beach meant it was time for some fish. The great thing about fish in Colombia is the variety, and the option of lots of fish not found in England. This fish below is corvina, found mainly on the Pacific coast, and other tasty Colombian fishes include mojarra and lebranche, found more commonly on the Atlantic coast.

Corvina, rice, beans, yucca and salad

Leaving Palomino we skipped along the coast to my new-found home Barranquilla, and I was determined to show my sister the best of my city. It couldn't get more barranquillero than dinner in Cucayo. From the bright colours, old-fashioned signs and various adornments on the walls, it screams Barranquilla from the inside out.

Soaking up the colours and cuisine in Cucayo

The food itself is also a tribute to all things costeño: traditional snacks such as matrimono, butifarra and various fritos feature, as well as typical sancochos (soups) and picadas (mixed plates). Me and my sister opted for sancochos (soups), mine of gallina (hen) while hers was a cazuela de mariscos (creamy seafood soup).

Cazuela de Mariscos, with coconut rice and avocado

Overall it was a great dining experience and a perfect place for my sister to get a feel of what Barranquilla is all about.

Some of the gorgeous cupcakes in Nancy Cabrera

Cucayo is owned by Nancy Cabrera, who is perhaps most famous for her cakes here in Barranquilla - queue a visit to her namesake cafe. Nancy Cabrera's reknowned trufa de chocolate is the crown jewel of many delicious sweet treats, so naturally me and my sister felt obliged to see what the all the fuss was about.

The famous trufa de chocolate (chocolate cake)

It was really quite the cake. Rich but not overly so, moist but not soggy, this chocolate cake has earnt its reputation. Me and my sister were big fans, and I will definitely be returning to sample the very beautiful looking cupcakes (nutella sounded particularly good).

Who knows what came over me, but even I ordered a veggie meal!

From savoury to sweet, and onto a sad but inevitable end to the holiday. For our last night, we headed to Arabe Gourmet, a highly recommended arabic restaurant. The menu was excellent, and despite tempting carnivorous options such as marmaón (israeli cous-cous with shredded meat or chicken) and arroz de almendras (rice with almonds, mince meat, chicken and spices), we ordered two vegetarian platters, which were a feast of falafel, hummus, tabuleh, babaganous, fattoush salad and stuffed aubergine.

Just like the aubergines we had consumed, we left stuffed, and very satisfied. I bid farewell to my sister the next day as I headed back to work, feeling rested and ready to get back to my life here on the coast. 6 months in and I've got plenty more eating (and cooking) to do here, so stayed tuned for the next post from Bidmead Bites!

Travel BidmeadBites (Part 1)

After a wonderful trip back home for Christmas, I hit the road and headed back to Colombia with my sister in-tow. Currently writing this post from the salsa capital that is Cali, here is a brief rundown of some of our culinary conquests so far.

We started off in Bogota, the countries capital, and the home of wonderful dishes such as ajiaco. As I've already eaten ajiaco several times, and even having made it myself, I was tempted by the more unusual bogotano foods, such as milk soup with a poached egg in it, known as changua.

My bowl of changua, and mixed emotions on it.

Traditionally eaten for breakfast, I have to say it was an odd morning mealtime experience for me. The bowl of milk made me feel I was about to eat cereal, but the poached egg evoked desires of toast and bacon. Next time, I might stick to porridge.

My love of meat and all things offal is well documented, and may even verge on excessive. However, my wonderful sister Anna avoids eating our furry friends altogether. While this may raise doubts about whether we really are even related, luckily she eats fish, which meant our stay in the Caribbean island of San Andrés was stress free, as we found ourselves in seafood heaven.

Lobster, chips, patacones and salad. And two very, very happy Bidmeads. 

Bring on this enormous lobster to share, cooked al ajillo (with garlic), on the idyllic island of Johnny Key, a 20-minute boat ride from San Andrés.

For comedy value, I'll include our New Year's Eve dinner in here. After having searched in vain for a fancy joint to enjoy our last meal of the year at (reservations, it turns out, may have been needed), we warmed up for the fiesta in no place other than the island's answer to KFC - KikiRiki, the local chicken shop.

.And there is my gorgeous pescetarian of a sister, wondering which is her fried fish, and which is my fried chicken. Bless her soul.

After much drinking, dancing, and general merriment on New Year's Eve, it's fair the say we weren't feeling our freshest the following day. Not to worry, as fresh ceviche from the seafood shack on the beach was there to nurse us back to normality - beats an English fry-up any day.

Accompanied by the countries best loved crackers, saltines.

Much like with the changua in Bogota, often there will be dishes I am told are traditional to a place, and no matter how weird they may be, my constant desire to sample new cuisines pushes me to try them.

Did I like it? Let me get back to you on that.

Introducing Stew Crab with breadfruit. It may look like pulled pork, but this here is pretty much every part of the crab meat, stewed up. While I didn't dislike it, it wasn't quite what I had in mind, and it's slightly gritty texture was slightly off-putting. Still, glad to have tried some local cuisine before we left the island, we said goodbye to San Andrés and headed down to Cartagena.

I've already done a blog post on Cartagena, and what was now my third-trip to this wonderful colonial city provided even more great food to try.

If it were any fresher I'd have to have caught it myself.

This mixed seafood platter was perhaps my favourite meal of the whole trip so far. Eaten in the sun, with an ice-cold beer, on a boat we were sharing with friends, I took a moment to reflect. This seafood came directly from the sea onto our plate, and with food this fresh, nothing else is needed. A touch of garlic and sprinkle of salt was enough. Sometimes, it´s the simple things that are best. And that is a thought that could be applied to many things, inside and out of the kitchen.

On that note I leave you, as the salsa clubs of Cali wait for no women, not even the Bidmead sisters. Stay tuned for Part Two of this post, where I will write up what comida Cali has had to offer, along with my beloved Barranquilla, and one last trip down the coast.

Check out my Instagram @bidmeadbites for daily updates on what local treats I'm trying, all under the hashtag #travelbidmeadbites.

Eve and Anna climb a church somewhere in San Andrés...until next time!

BYOB, sea urchin, shish kebab and Michelin-starred meals - a week and half back in LDN

A famous English writer once said "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford” - and this Londoner couldn't agree more.

Despite having moved myself half way across the world, my hometown will always be in my heart. Coming back to visit for Christmas has been an absolute treat. As well as baking lots, hosting a Colombian themed party and, of course, eating my body weight in turkey and chocolates over Christmas, I have also been lucky enough to eat a lot of meals out. Here is a rundown of some of my recommended spots for those of you hanging around in this brilliant city.

Home Sweet Home ( although no...I don't live in Big Ben. But somehow Golders Green is a bit less impressive).

Bintang in Kentish Town is one of those places you can rely on. Good food, friendly staff and great value, it serves up tasty pan-Asian food with dishes which take inspiration from all corners of the globe (crab empanadas and roti breads feature amongst more traditional dishes such as pad thai and tom yum soup). I should also mention it is BYOB - an instant plus in my books, and with the most expensive dish on the menu at £13, Bintang is a definite cheap eat. Grab some friends, buy a bottle of wine and enjoy - recommended dishes include the gua boa rolls and the seabass.

The highly-recommended Gua boa rolls. Comes with either tofu, duck or beef filling - mmmm.

Atari-ya on James Street, just round the corner from Selfridges.

Amidst a day of Christmas shopping on Oxford Street, my mum and I bypassed the usual chain restaurants for lunch and took a chance on a small sushi bar just off Oxford Street. After battling the slightly confusing menu (as it would seem, you could essentially order any fresh sushi you fancied), we sat ourselves down in Atariya. 

Truely delicious, and yet shall remain nameless.

This deluxe mixed sashimi-sushi bowl above was a combination of tasty sushi rice, crunching veg and Japanese pickle, a wide array of sashimi, along with fish eggs, crab, egg omelette and even sea urchin (odd looking, rich and creamy tasting). It was a very good choice - such fresh fish and just a great mix of things I wouldn't have otherwise ordered. Along with two miso soups, edamame beans, six tuna rolls and two drinks the whole lunch was £28 pounds. For an authentic sushi lunch mid-shopping session at £14 pounds a head, Atariya proved to be a gem of a find. Nip in next time your in Oxford Street for some fresh and wonderful tasting sushi made to order.

You can never go wrong with a good ol' Shish kebab.

Faced with so many choices for places to eat in London, I've been trying to eat food that I know I won't be able to find in Barranquilla. And although Barranquilla actually does offer up great Arabic food, it is mainly based on Lebanese dishes - and while that is all delicious, I am a sucker for a Turkish (just check me and my meat mezze in Golders Green). Queue a visit to Kilis Kitchen, off Upper Street. A mix of Turkish, Syrian and Lebanese cuisine, here we enjoyed a set lunch, which offered a great selection of dishes, including old favourites such as Shish kebab and dishes I hadn't tried, such as a Kisir starter - cracked wheat with walnut and hazelnut, with a mixed herb sauce. Although the service was a little slow, at the price of £7.50 two courses, or £10 with dessert, I thought the food was excellent and extremely good value. Sadly we were all too stuffed for pudding, which was a shame as options included rice pudding, crumble and stuffed figs. Next time I'll save room, as I will definitely be returning.

Moving on from one set lunch to another, it would appear the Bidmead girls are suckers for some lunchtime value. However...here it gets a little fancy. Arbutus is a Michelin-starred bistro restaurant, where the kitchen's aim is to 'turn seasonal and inexpensive food items into affordable and interesting dishes'. At £20 for a set three-course lunch, this is accessible fine-dining which provides unique twists on classic dishes.

My choice of dishes included rillettes of pork for starters (similar to a terrine or pate), with the most succulent lamb for mains, topped off with a classic English custard tart to finish. My mum chose more or less the same while my sister, the fish-eating vegetarian, had sardines for starters and sea trout for mains, both of which looked (and tasted) exquisite.

Top Left to Bottom right - Rillettes of pork, sardines, lamb with goats curd, Sea trout, Custard tart and Pumpkin mousse with milk ice-cream.

While a Michelin-starred restaurant is hardly the first thing to pop up when thinking about cheap eats, Arbutus is a great place to be able to experience something a bit special. £20 for three courses is outstanding value when thinking about the quality of the food, and if you are looking for something a bit different I cannot recommend it enough. (It does get busy so booking is recommended, if not essential).

Overall, London has been good to me! Being back in a capital city with absolutely endless options of cuisines and eateries has been wonderful, and I've really enjoyed sharing all these great places with my friends and family. But for now, it's time to head back to the Caribbean coast, where the sea, sun and sand awaits. Until next time...

Fiesta Colombiana!

I've had an absolutely great time being back in the UK. I've been catching up with friends and family, soaking up all things British and enjoying what feels like a million cups of tea (and many a mince pie too!). As happy as I am to be reunited with these British delights, I also wanted to share a bit of Colombian cuisine with my friends here in London too.

Before leaving Barranquilla I hit up the supermarket to stock up on certain Colombian goodies. With a night out in London on the cards, I thought it was the perfect excuse to host a Colombian themed pre-party at mine.

I assessed what ingredients I had to hand (along with what would be available in the UK), and set out making my menu. To drink I chose typical aguardiente (think sambucca but smoother), agua panela cocktails (brown sugar water...in my opinion made to be mixed with rum), and juice from a fruit called borojo, as I had brought over the pulp.

To eat, chicken wings and traditional arepas were on the menu, made with corn flour which I bought from Colombia. These were topped with guacamole and tomato salsa, which also went nicely with the patacones al horno I served (recipe found here). On my local high street I even managed to find yucca, a root vegetable popular in Colombia. The yucca was boiled and served with fromage frais, which I hoped would be some kind of equivalent to the delicious costeño dip suero, which is a bit like sour cream.

When one of your desserts comes from a package, you know you're in for a classy dinner.

And of course - dessert was compulsory. The cake from my previous post featured, as did natilla - a traditional Colombian flan, made from panela, served with cream and strawberries. This came freshly from the packet, and I felt very retro chic serving flan with whipped cream.

To list all the recipes here would be far too lengthy, but really a lot of them were quite basic. The tomato salsa was simple but classic, from none other than the goddess that is Delia Smith (check out her recipe here). 

The chicken wings (seen above in the glass bowl) were marinated in a last minute concoction of what I deemed to be a 'Colombian-inspired' sauce, and they turned out to be really tasty.

To give them a go, you need:

'Colombian style' marinated chicken wings

-2 tbsp cumin seeds, ground
-2 garlic cloves
-Generous drizzling of olive oil
-A spoonful of chilli sauce (depending on how hot you like it)
-A tablespoon of crunchy peanut butter
-A large handful of coriander leaves
-Plenty of salt and pepper
-3 tbsp of thick greek yogurt.

All whizzed in a blender, this made a lovely thick marinade for the wings. Coat wings in marinade from anything up to 24 hours before serving (the longer the better really), and then cook at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

Soon enough, the food was ready and the feast was served!

My retro flan and passion fruit sponge were accompanied by the very welcome addition of Celebrations - and now I really feel like it's Christmas. Overall it was a lovely evening spent with wonderful people, catching up and sharing a great variety of food (and drink...). 

Here's to Colombian food reaching London, and catching up with old friends. I intend on bringing back a few British treats to Barranquilla too, but fear the delights of Heinz baked beans may be lost on the Barranquilleros. Still, a girl can always try!

British Baking (with a Barranquillero twist)

Guess who's back in London for Christmas? After bidding a brief farewell to my beloved Barranquilla, I touched back down in London to spend Christmas with my friends and family back here in the UK. One of the many exciting things about being back home is being close to all the little things I love - especially my collection of cookbooks!

I do really love a good cookbook.

I spent an evening curled up in bed back with my old friends Nigel Slater, Nigella Lawson and Mary Berry. Having brought back various Colombian goodies with me, I could just envision one of Mary Berry's traditional English cakes with a new Colombian twist to it. And what cake is more traditional than the classic Victoria Sponge? Proving that often less is more, this simple sponge cake with just a touch of jam, cream and fresh berries is a much-loved classic and an iconic British bake. Dare I fiddle with this?

Fiddle I did, and to much success! Replacing the British strawberries with Colombian arequipe (dulce de leche to Argentinians,caramel to you and me), a touch of coconut and a passion fruit cream, here is my twist on the traditional English sponge.

Ingredients

For the Cake:
225g of butter (at room temperature, plus a bit extra for greasing the tins)
225g of caster sugar
225g of self-raising flour
2 level tsp baking powder
4 large eggs

For Filling:
200g Arequipe/Caramel
150g cream cheese
100g double cream, whipped
100g icing sugar
2 generous tbsp of desiccated coconut
Passionfruit pulp from 5 passion fruits

Equipment:
Two victoria Sponge tins
A good whisk!

(Have you noticed anything about the measurements for this cake? Equal amounts of butter, sugar, and flour. Add in 4 eggs and 2 tsp of baking powder and you have the backbone of about 100 delicious sponge-cake recipes. Learn these ingredients, practice this cake, and you have mastered a classic. How easy is that?!).

Method:

Line cake tins with cake tin liners or grease with some butter. Preheat oven to gas mark 4/180 degrees/350 Fahrenheit.

1) Cube butter and place in a large bowl. Add in the caster sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs (crack in one at a time).
2) Here you can use a hand or electric whisk to combine ingredients. You want to do this at a slow speed to gain a nice soft mixture which should drop off your whisk when lifted up.
3) Spread mix evenly between two tins and pop in your preheated oven for between 20-30 minutes, until cakes are starting to shrink away the sides and are springy when pressed. Take out and leave to cool - and when cooled the cakes can be removed from tins.
4) Now time for our filling! Get out your arequipe (or caramel, should the case be - carnation sell a
good ready made one), and spread with a smile on top of the base layer. If it's a little tough, a quick blast in the microwave helps its spreadability.
5) To make the icing, firstly whip your double cream until it is thick. Then add in cream cheese, your desiccated coconut, icing sugar and passionfruit pulp.

(To get your passionfruit pulp, simply put seeds in a strainer, and mush into the mesh with a spoon.)

6) Sandwich second sponge on top, and smooth over a bit more cream. Here your artistic license is at play - warm up and drizzle over some more caramel, dot on a few passion fruit seeds - whatever your heart desires!

A simple sponge cake tropically transformed into a coconut, caramel and passion fruit delight. Serve with a nice cup of English tea, or a shot of aguardiente (a Colombian alcoholic spirit) - that choice I will leave up to you!

Offally Good Stuff

Read any guide book that refers to Barranquilla, and you probably won't be stopping by. Often referred to as 'just a stop on the way to the far more agreeable Cartagena or Santa Marta' (Lonely Planet direct quote), Barranquilla is not one of the coast's touristic hot spots.

Oh so many beautiful...apartment blocks?

But for that, I love it. Barranquilla is a real coastal Colombian town, where the local phrase is 'cogerla suave',  meaning take it easy (unless you're from a Spanish-speaking country where coger has quite a different, naughtier meaning, but we'll ignore that for now). Life is relaxed, and people like to dance, spend time with friends and generally enjoy themselves. And what better way to enjoy yourself then a night out on the town, dancing away to the sound of salsa.

La Troja - a Barranquilla Landmark.

La Troja is a Barranquilla institution and was described perfectly by a friend here as 'an attack on the senses'. It's loud, bright and crowded - and an incredible amount of fun. Playing purely salsa, if you're looking for an authentic barranquillero night out, this is the place to come. The crowd is mixed, and you're just as likely to find a group of young ex-pats here as you are a solitary salsa-dancing senior. It's the kind of 'anything goes' type of place, which makes me love where I live.

A few beers down...

Perhaps another one of my main draws to La Troja is the atmosphere around it. If you can't grab a table inside, head out to the off-licence in front, where there is always a massive crowd chatting, dancing, and generally soaking up the salsa. Also surrounding it are an array of street food stands. While the majority might head for a simple chuzo en palo (meat skewer with potato), the more adventurous of us head elsewhere.

Think of it as a Colombian late-night Maccy D's.

You'll find me at El Piqueteadero, where my love of all things meat has found its match. Forget your typical Friday night drunken kebab, because here the party-goers late night food of choice comes in the form of pigs ear, lung, intestine, tongue...if it's a piece of meat you'd never consider eating, you're likely to find it here, deep fried and served alongside tiny boiled potatoes.

Cutting up some tongue,with a bit of intensine to the side and lung infront.

These often neglected parts of meat are known as offal (or 'variety meats') in English and visceras in Spanish. The term offal refers to just organ meats, but can also be used to describe cuts such as ear and tongue. There are two different types of offal, labelled either 'red' or 'white'. Offal such as liver, heart, tongue, lungs, kidney and spleen are labelled as red, due to the fact these parts are more 'meat' like. Cuts such as intestines, stomach, brains, and sweetbreads come under the white category, due to their appearance and slightly more foreign taste and texture.

No donner kebab here I'm afraid.

However, be it red or white, the idea of eating an animal's insides seems to creep a few people out. But listen up meat eaters. If you're perfectly happy to buy a pre-packaged, pumped up chicken breast in the supermarket yet squirm at the idea of getting down to the butchers and buying some blood sausage, I'd have a second think. In this day and age we don't need to eat meat. We can find all the necessary protein and vitamins we need through other sources, and the process of feeding animals reared for meat creates an enormous amount of pollution. There's also of course the ethics behind it all, but I don't feel this post quite warrants discussion on that. If we choose to continually kill animals for food, I think it is important to make full use of the meat available. A great documentary on the meat industry is Get Vegucated, and if you want to know more on the topic I really recommend it. 

                               

If you'd eat a sirloin or rump steak, you're eating a cow's arse. I ask...how far is that from eating its kidney or liver? Or, if your like me and want to try it all, opt for some black pudding (morcilla), pig ear, sheep lung (bofe), cow tongue, a sausage called longaniza and intenstine. Well...at least that´s what my bowl from El Piqueteadero consisted of.

My picada, a little bit of everything.

While it was good to try it all, I established a few things. This was not the finest black pudding I had eaten, pig's ear is surprisingly delicious, lung isn't my favourite, and tongue is almost too much like a normal cut of meat to even earn it's offal status. I´ve now visited La Troja on numerous occasions, and even if not to eat there I will always pass by and have a chat at El Piqueteadero. Perhaps it's odd that I'm now a recognised face at the fried offal stand, but otherwise how would I check out the variety of odd things on offer, and know what is still left to try? As it stands, testicles and cow udder is my next nibble of choice. Stay tuned for that!

Bollocks in a bowl. Well, not quite, but on the list for the next time!