Tastes of Tennessee

In October we went to Nashville, Tennessee on another adventure. We went to explore the real America and that’s exactly what we found!

So many highlights I can’t tell you everything. Here are just a few…. Ryman Auditorium and Grand Ole Opry, the famous Studio B recording studio, Country Music Hall of Fame, pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, meatloaf, bbq pork ribs, beef brisket, pulled pork, biscuits and gravy, grits, stromboli, pecan pie, bourbon and Samuel Adams, Southern fried chicken and chicken fried steak. Yep that sums it all up nicely!

It was a city that smelt of barbeque meats and music was everywhere. They even pumped music onto the pavements while you waited to cross the street. In the suburbs little wooden houses had porches and rocking chairs just like the Waltons and everything was decorated for Halloween.

If you don’t know what chicken fried steak is it is a steak tenderised with a meat hammer, floured and deep fried like southern fried chicken. If you see a picture you’d want to order it immediately!

Back home I was inspired to find an American pancake recipe. I tried 2 methods, one with buttermilk and one without. I preferred the buttermilk pancakes as they had a lighter texture a bit like a crumpet. I served mine  with crispy bacon and authentic Canadian maple syrup drizzled on top.

Here is the recipe for the buttermilk pancakes.  150g self-raising flour, 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon caster sugar, 2 eggs lightly beaten, 310ml buttermilk (or however much you need to make a thick batter). Mix together ingredients and spoon onto a hot dry frying pan. Once bubbles start to appear on top and the bottom is golden brown flip them over the cook the other side. Serve stacked high with crispy bacon and drizzled with maple syrup. This beats lemon juice and sugar everytime!

Summer memories in the depths of winter

Well Well, it’s 2013 already. The time hasn’t gone too quickly I’ve just packed at lot more in to the last 6 months than I expected. I’ve been super busy at work, travelling, baking, plus lots of eating, shopping and spending money. It’s been fun and frantic and so something had to give, unfortunately it was my blog which was dropped. But never mind, the internet lives on and my blog is still here. I’ve been snapping my successful dishes and I have lots of news from my travels. So where do I start….. All the way back to July.

We went to Cyprus on holiday and had an amazing time, the weather was superb. Cyprus has a very rich history spanning across the Romans, Greeks, English and Turkish invaders. You can see influences from all over the Mediterranean, North Africa, Turkey and Arab countries.

We sampled some incredible dishes. Our favourites were beef stifado, lamb kleftiko and homemade pitta with garlic butter. When we came home I recreated a beef stifado and it was stupendous. Since the summer I have made this four or five times. It’s a dish that can be enjoyed all year round, especially when chilly weather sets in. If you like full flavours I urge you to try this. It’s lovely with rice and veg or potatoes.

The base of the recipe comes from Good Food beef-stifado but I substituted vegetable stock cube once for a beef one and didn’t have any shallots once so I softened a large chopped onion instead. It always works out perfectly.