Asian style Sea Bass

Who knew the UK is an island?! Well, I'm just kidding but in all seriousness so many people forget! We are completely surrounded by beautiful coastlines boasting hundreds of different fish, mollusks and crustaceans of all types. But did you know most of our produce is being shipped to the Mediterranean? Why? Because Brits just don't want to eat it, there isn't a demand for this protein as their is abroad. Which is a shame, because so many people see crabs, lobsters and oysters as a delicacy. But years ago, all these fish were readily available at such a reasonable price to us here. When the demand slacked, the produced moved and began being shipped away. Here's to celebrating gorgeous fish. 

A good piece of fish, funnily enough, will not smell fishy! This is just a misunderstanding that I had as a child. I hated the stinky smell of fish and rightly so. A good fresh fish will smell of the sea and far from that pong. Unless its doused in some Thai fish sauce (which my mum never used sparingly).

I defy you to get this recipe wrong. If you can burn an egg then maybe take a few steps back! 

Recipe:

1. Slice 1 tbsp of ginger, 2 spring onions and a tbsp of coriander.

2. Fry your Sea Bass, skin side first to brown. Then sear the other side.

This will give you a crispy finish with a juicy, soft flesh.

3. In a small saucepan, warm 2 tbsp of sun flour oil.

4. Once hot, add ginger and spring onion. This is just to remove the raw edge.

5. Cook for 1 minute add 1 tbsp of soy sauce and serve.

6. Garnish with coriander.

This recipe is so simple, but so delicious. If you love spicy Asian food, don't forget to add some chili flakes or a few slices of fresh chili. It's such a quick and simple dish, but full of flavour. You can plate this up individually as I've done. But more traditionally with Asian food, it's each dish on one plate. You get a small bowl of boiled rice and go nuts. The best way, obviously. But you gotta fight for the most popular food or you'll loose out. Be on your toes in Asian house holds, haha!

Until Next Time xo

DIY: Wagamama Oyster and Chilli Spiced Salmon and Udon

If you haven't been to wagamama's then you've probably been living under a rock. Well maybe thats a slight exaggeration, but this Japanese restaurant I would say is the Asian answer to Nandos. A meal costing roughly the same, while being healthy, tasting fresh and with fast service. Your quickly seated in and amongst other dinners to give a more friendly and informal feeling. Or rather my initial reaction a few years ago, saving on space and cramming more customers in. Apart from my mums grudge of paying for Asian fast food, when she could do it herself to her taste, I love a guilty Waga's. But I just warmed my bones up from the frosty, wasteland that is Cardiff city and couldn't bare to leave the house. Sorry Waga's, you just weren't worth dawning the gloves, hat and balaclava again, this time. Time to DIY my favourite recipe.

It was painful cutting this gorgeous slab of fresh Salmon in half, but there was no way I could handle that whole thing. Unless it was in sushi form. Then, Yes. Good bye salmon, hello belly.

As with the majority of Asian cooking, the biggest portion of your time is taken up by prep, once you've got this down. The rest is literally in the wok and serve. 

So, chopping celery diagonally. 1 whole onion diced. 1 segment of garlic diced. A big handful of coriander chopped and some bean sprouts washed.

Gently fry off the onions, garlic and celery. 

Add udon (or noodles of choice)

Add 100ml of boiling water, simmer until moist noodles.

Gently fry off salmon in separate pan.

On high heat add sesame seeds, bean sprouts, coriander and oyster sauce.

Plate up, garnish with more coriander, fresh chilli and wedge of lime.

Until Next Time xo

Don't forget to enter my giveaway!

300 Follower Diva Giveaway

A few days ago I hit 300 followers on my twitter account, @ericahenderson! I'm so chuffed, my GFC hasn't worked since I got my blog, so I've been keeping track of my followers through twitter. I wanted to say thanks and hold a giveaway for all you lovelies! 

These gorgeous 3 necklaces and a bracelet are a few items I love this season! The giveaway is open internationally, it's worth £35 and will run for 1 month. Thank you readers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Until Next Time xo

Baileys And Nutella, Surprise Cake

I thought I'd do something nice for a friend, since I was working late on last weeks game. Grandslam! And I had no way of getting home, she kindly let me crash with her for the evening. (Did anyone else see the chaos that was a celebrating Cardiff city? It was brilliant and hectic!) Since her birthday was coming up and no one would be around due to Easter recess, I planned a little surprise for her and baked my first 2 tier cake. Proud moment. Haha. 

Wild Garlic Canapés: Gourmet-Home made

You probably already know my new found obsession with the Hairy Bikers and just their love for real food. The best thing I took from their trip to Italy was just how fresh the food can be! James tells me all the time about being in Greece and getting fresh veg and olives almost just picked before you eat them! I'm still dreaming about having a garden full of food, on a sunny bit of land. One day. But on my walk today, we found some gorgeous wild garlic! It was like heaven, literally they sprung up everywhere so quickly! I did the same walk last Thursday and it was all leaves, now its green! Anyway, my Auntie kept talking about some gorgeous wild garlic crisps, that work perfectly for canapes. Oh yes.

Polyvore

I just discovered Polyvore, I love it! It's great to put together outfits that inspire you and things you want to buy.. when you can't. Fashion is my guilty pleasure simply because I shop way to much and I already have too many clothes, shoes and bags. But this is just dreaming for me.. until I have a great paying job. Then I can get what ever I want!

Red Velvet Cake

When I first tried red velvet I fell in love, it was so moist and just had a different taste that I couldn't quite put my finger on. Turns out it was buttermilk, which on its own taste like the midpoint of milk and  yoghurt. Which really isn't very nice, but in the cake itself it works a treat. When making this cake I completely forgot that I put a very light and fluffy Swiss Meringue dirty ice on. So when I stuck my royal icing on top... well it just did not work. It ripped and started to dent and pimple. Ooops.

Ciabatta Bread

After eating about 30 different cupcakes, my Auntie came out with 'You should make bread, everyone makes cupcakes. Make bread, I love bread!' So I thought, fuck it! I love bread too! Well maybe not that much, but a cold meat stuff sandwich is a pretty good damn lunch. Plus having so many people tell me about all the preservatives and chemicals they put in food these days, I'm trying to make more things myself and keep it simple. Fresh and REAL ingredients. This didn't quite pan out this time because I wanted to keep student budgets in mind and ease, so I picked up a mix from Lidl. But without this it would be roughly the same price, just flour and some dry active yeast!

Mother's Day Cupcakes

This post is slightly late in the making but you've still got time!! Mothers day is on Sunday if you have forgotten, but it's hard to with all these adverts everywhere! If you were thinking of getting your mum something from of the shelf... something she could probably predict, or useless cheap pamper box sets don't bother! This is much cheaper, more heart felt and delicious.. of course!

Chicken in 15 minutes

I've been obsessed with Jamie's 15 minutes meals recently. Fast food, but healthy food. I seem to have no sense in planning my meals, I'm either spending ages planning a meal and waiting around to get hungry or just in a complete rush and end up having something crap to eat like a pasty. This wouldn't be so bad if I'd made them myself and froze them or something.. (hrmm maybe I'll give that a go actually!) But if you didn't already know, most store bought pasty's can hide up to around 30g of fat per pasty. Yeah! If you've been following my twitter  then you'll know I've been walking a lot recently and it's so painful to feel refreshed and fit then eat something greasy and well not that flavourful. This trick I got from watching Mr Oliver. It's something I maybe wouldn't do to every meal! But it's just amazing for a faster cook.

LuLus, My favourite items

If your an avid follower you'll know I love stumble upon and searching the web yesterday, I found this gorgeous new website! The clothes are just amazing with matching accessories and not your everyday style. Here are a few of my favourites, have you guys found any new websites to shop from recently? Obviously apart from the staple - ASOS ;)