Hello!!

Russian week going well. Seems this time I planned more dishes than I needed for the week so I am gonna continue for a few more days to use up the ingredients I have bought. These are the dishes I made in the last few days. On Saturday night we had a lovely American couple who brought us home made chocolate chip cookies. I cooked the Iranian Zereshk polo, Joy made two Indian vegetarian dishes. I also made the beef straganof from our Russian week. I didn't take pictures of those obviously coz it's kind of vain to do that in front of your guests but I must say that Beefstraganof was awesome in my taste! finally achieved tender meat! I think the bashing of the meat was key! It was Jamie's recipe (http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/recipes-view.php?title=beef-stroganoff-1). 

Thank god I do sports otherwise I would have been one big fat Shirin with all this eating!!

Wednesday

Salad Olivier

http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/515406

Thursday

Chicken Kotleti

 http://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/main-course/chicken-kotleti/

Friday

Salmon Coulibiac

This felt wierd. rice in puff pastry! but it looked good and tasted okay. Just need some wet and juicy side..yogurt, cream or something

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/756634/salmon-coulibiac

Creme Caramel

Nothing to do with the Russian week. Just the desert for our Saturday dinner. I think the best creme caramel I have made so far. Somehow I nailed it this time. 

Recipe: secret :)

Planning the Russian week was a bit more challenging than the other ones. Finding the recipes that worked  took longer. But I am happy with the result. These are the dishes I have made so far.

Sunday

Plov

http://www.olgasflavorfactory.com/main-course/plov/

Monday

Pirozki stuffed with cabbage and eggs

The house smelled great when I was baking these. Aryan liked this very much and took it to school in his packed lunch next day! really good picnic food.

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/traditional-russian-pirozhki/

Tuesday

Borsch 

The color of this hearty soup is just delightful. Just cheers me up! Absolutely loved it. have loads left so welcome to pop in for some leftover :)

Hot and sour soup and chicken wrap with hoisin sauce were out last two dishes in our chinese week. Sorry couldn't take pictures. Our little Arvin has caught chicken pox so I am not as organized as I should be. Still managed to plan next week's food. We're heading to Russia!  Aryan chose Russia so he can scratch off a big area on our map. he has no clue! bet he won't be happy about all the cabbage and beetroot dishes. :)

The great thing about Chinese food is that it's very quick! I did not end up spending hours in the kitchen like with some of the other countries. They are great for sharing as well. This Chow mein was a bit too plain for me and Joy we I love my food rich and spicy but the boys loved it. Now we have just one more dish to go... a Duck wrap.. with hoisin sauce. I have to start thinking where to head next. Any ideas?

Tuesday

child friendly Chow mein :)

 Thursday

My very first attempt at dumplings! not bad! you can actually buy dumpling sheets from Chinese stores. they are nice and easy. Tasted great with sweet chilil sauce and Soy sauce. yum...

Here are the dishes I made in the last three days. My favourite is the Chinese braised beef one-pot. It was really simple, straightforward and the result was absolutely delicious. Loved it. Can't believe Aryan is eating this stuff!  I was really looking forward to cooking Pork in black bean sauce but it wasn't like the take away ones :) Was surprised as the recipe was by a Chinese chef so expected it to be really good but it was pretty bland. Joy helped me out with that one as I was knocked down with a terrible toothache. In the end he actually added a lot of stuff which made it a lot more tastier.... Today spent the afternoon cooking a few dishes for the next few days as won't be able to cook tomorrow.. dentist appt. and more pain probably.. But cooking, climbing, painkillers and my boys get me through :)

Monday

Chicken with sweet and sour sauce (fiery!! too hot for Joy even!)

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/291608/sweet-and-sour-chicken

Tuesday

 Braised beef one-pot with Pok choi

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/9646/chinesestyle-braised-beef-onepot

Wednesday
My favourite take-away dish

Pork in black bean sauce
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/porkinblackbeansauce_67795

4

Chinese Spring Rolls

Finally... I am back! not 100% though... still suffering from toothache. Food and cooking are not as much fun at the moment but I am determined not to let that stop me this week. I have done my planning and shopping. This time I visited the small Asian store on Lee high road to get a couple of ingredients. The Chinese lady was very helpful and I found all I needed.. So after a weekly shop from Sainsbury's, I headed back home and started cooking my first ever spring rolls. They were really good actually! Didn't take me long either. The spring roll sheets are not as fiddly as I thought they'd be. These ones are with chicken.

                                http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/chickenandvegetables_89282

Revisiting China

Finally ready for next week's foody adventure. I am gonna go back to China coz I think we didn't do China properly! Last time I just used ready made sauces and stuff from Sainsbury's... This time round, I'll try more authentic stuff and hopefully get my ingredients from a Chinese store....need to plan my dishes now... Suggestions please?! You never know! You might get a chance to taste them :) 

It was a bit busy last week so I couldn't update the blog on a daily basis. We did make a few more Spanish dishes. Also had a lovely Spanish lady and friends as our guest on Saturday night who cooked us two lovely dishes. (with peppers and squid). Aryan loved the squid. I also made Jamie Oliver's chickpea, spinach and chorizo soup which was okay. I mashed it up later for kids. Big hit with Arvin. Haven't got photos of all dishes. I haven't decided where to go next. We still have  leftovers...so we'll wait a bit. But any suggestions?

Croquetas de jamon

Hairy Bikers' Spanish meatballs 

We were away on Sunday so I cooked my next dish on Monday. This was a Spanish style chicken bake. The recipe was the hairy bikers'. It was very very easy. Perfect for when you have guests, coz you don't have to do anything once its in the oven. The chorizo makes it smoky and delicious.  http://www.goodtoknow.co.uk/recipes/535184/hairy-biker-s-spanish-style-chicken-bake

 Spanish 

We are back with the first dish of our Spanish week. I was going to start on Monday but ended up doing the week's shop on Saturday. Fresh fish and sea food couldn't wait until Monday. So our first dish had to be Paella. It took time.. lots of chopping and of course debearding the mussels... The recipe was Jamie's favourite Paella. I would go with more rice next time. But it was delicious. Aryan loved it. Arvin tried a piece of squid out of the whole lot on his plate but refused to eat the rest. He refuses most things these days anyway. Always have back up food for him :)

Turkish - the rest

I got really busy over the last few days and couldn't visit the blog but here is an update of the rest of our Turkish week. I must say I absolutely enjoyed our Turkish adventure. Could live there just for its food :) We're going back to Iran this week since It's Persian new year! will post pictures soon xx

Borek - Feta Cheese and pine nuts

Kofta with Pitta and yoghurt

Menemen 

 Veggie Dolma (vine leaf parcels)

Thursday

Ahh..loved this. It was just perfect. very simple but comforting.  off to do a bit of climbing now.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1944/turkish-lamb-pilau

Lamb Pilau with apricots, mint and pine nuts

Wednesday

Our scratch world map has arrived and gone on the wall above our dining table. Every country we've done is scratched away. Aryan very excited about it all.  Love it!

Wednesday : Imam Biyaldi. 

Belated Tuesday Post

Went climbing straight after yesterday's dinner so didn't have time to post.Yesterday I made Pide. The Turkish pizza.The dough didn't rise as much I thought it would.. but it tasted ok. Aryan finished a whole one. I had another one (cold this time) after coming back from climbing. Was starving! Loving the smell of the house... Its familiar.. garlic..herbs... 

Pide with beef and herbs

http://www.food.com/recipe/stuffed-pide-turkish-pizza-477418

 Monday

Courgette and Feta cheese Fritters

Husband coming late tonight. throat is still very sore...and one very tantrumy toddler. Is this a sign of  the terrible twos.. never had that with Aryan. Didn't feel up for cooking today but had to feed the kids..and had to think of a child-friendly Turkish recipe. So found these courgette fritters in a little book. They came out nice and the kids had a little, although they had more of a butternut squash soup I had made for Arvin (that's all he wants to eat these days). It's just hard doing anything be it cooking or checking mails if your little one is not at his best. Even the good old TV wouldn't work... Now feeling tired.. sipping tea and honey..hoping the boys would sleep well.. oops! spoke too soon! Arvin just woke up... 

Goodbye Thailand!

We finished our Thai week with this simple Beef and Broccoli stir fry ready in less than 20 mins. I had never tried this vegetable 'Kailan' or 'gai-lan' which seems to be the Chinese Broccoli. I found in the Chinese supermarket See Woo. Amazing place! I also used fresh noodles for the first time which had to be soaked in hot water. Lots of firsts in the Thai week which I like! The recipe from a cook book I have at home. If interested, let me know and I'll send it your way. 

We're heading to Turkey!! Love it!  I have just ordered a scratch world map! We're going to stick it to the wall above our dining table and scratch away each country we try. Bet Aryan would love it. Excited about next week!

Saturday's Climb and Crab Cakes

Took Aryan climbing and he gave me the best mother's day present by climbing all the way to the top of the wall this time. Something he had thought was almost impossible for him. He worked hard for it and faced his fear of height and made me one proud mommy! Came back home and made these lime and lemongrass crab cakes.Still full of cold so didn't taste much but Joy and Aryan liked it. Arvin is yet to try...I always leave the chillis out for them.

Came down with a nasty cold and couldn't cook yesterday but tried to get back on track today. Made this veggie red Thai curry. It was quick and simple but a bit too sour for my taste. We had it with Jasmine rice. First time tried Tofu! It's nice!

Tuesday (2nd day of our Thai week)

Prawn Pad Thai

This was a success with the boys! It was so quick and easy as well. I used Jamie Oliver's recipe http://www.jamieoliver.com/magazine/recipes-view.php?title=prawn-pad-thai

Aryan had a whole plate and said he absolutely loves the Thai week! We'll see what he'd say by the end of it though! lots of leftovers so tomorrow's lunch sorted.

Hello there!

I am a mom of two boys and live in South East London. I love a bit of adventure and normally head to the mountains or the rock climbing wall to have some. But you can't do that whenever you want when you are a mom! So I thought about going on an adventure right at home! A foody adventure! I realized we normally buy the same stuff from the same supermarket every week and cook more a less the same stuff week after week. Now I am Iranian and my husband is Indian. So apart from Persian and Indian food, we did also cook a lot of British, Chinese, Thai and etc. But still not much variety especially if you have a kid who'd live on plain pasta if it was up to him! Yes I have one fussy boy! So this new year I decided that every week I will cook one country's food. . There'd be a meal from the chosen country for each day (tea or dinner) and two meals on the weekends. I want my kids to try different flavors, learn about various food cultures from around the world and have an open mind when it comes to food. We started with British food as we live in England. Then moved on to Persian, Indian, Austrian (having lived there for some time), Chinese (around Chinese new year), Italian, American (coz my boys were desperate for burgers), French (coz it's very elegant :)) and now Thai! Yes week 9! Sorry The blog idea came to my mind a bit late... and I am all new to this! ! but hey!... Welcome to my foody adventure!

Here are the photos of the last 8 weeks' dishes! 

Week 1 British

Fish Pie

Cornish Pasty

Sunday Roast

Chicken Pie

Jacket Potato with cheese and beans

Jacket potato with Prawn

Week 2 Indian

Bengali prawn curry

Vegetable Pakora

Dosa (not very successful)

Chapali Kebab with home made roti

Lamb Biryani with Raita

Chicken Tandoori

Coley Korma with fluffy rice

Dal Makhani

Aloo Gobi

Naan

Week 3 Persian

potato and minced beef Kotlet

Kabab Koobideh

Cauliflower Kookoo :)

Barley soup

Zereshk polo 

Pasta Iranian style with Tahdig

Ghorme Sabzi (Herb stew) with Shirazi Salad

Ash-e Reshte (noodle soup)

Istanbuli polo (a simple rice dish with tomatoes and potatoes) 

Week 4 Austrian

 simple Schinkenfleckerl and a spinach and feta cheese strudel

one of my all-time favourites - the wiener roastbraten -

Faschierte Laibchen

Wiener Schnitzel

Alt wiener Suppen topf

Week 5 Chinese

 sea bass. Apparently fish symbolizes abundance in the Chinese new year.

Prawn stir firy

Chicken with Peking lemon and ginger sausce

Week 6 Italian

Spaghetti with mussels cooked in basil and white wine sauce

Sicilian-style fish stew with ciabatta

oozy mushroom risotto (from Jamie's 30 mins)

Macaroni and cheese ( 4 different cheeses)

Minestrone soup with crusty bread

Pizza - this is a cheat though coz its from Sainsburys :) its still Italian :)

Week 7 American

Here's our very much awaited Burger with Aryan's American flags.

Chicken, sausage & prawn jambalaya (from Louisiana)
Big success. really recommend it!

BBQ chicken with slaw

Sloppy Joe

Sticky spare ribs with roast potatos

crab and sweetcorn chowder - goodbye America! :)

Week 8 French 

a potato Gratin - Aryan ate a big portion of this! he never ate anything creamy before! I am so glad I am doing this!

Mussel Stew with fennel  in aioli sauce

ratatouille

Salad Nicoise

A french dinner , Coq au vin and a mushroom and leek quiche

Cheese souffles in their glory

sunken glory!

Beef Bourguignon eaten unceremoniously!

Week 9 Thai

The shopping

Salmon with cucumber