Jamie Does... Andalucia

As it was a beautiful weekend, I made Jamie's Moorish Pork Chops out on the barbecue. This recipe is taken from his Jamie Does... book and from the Andalucia segment. My husband occasionally likes to "treat" me and buy me recipe books. Luckily for him, I love cooking and he loves eating!



There is a marvellous butchers on North End Road by Fulham Broadway and these delicious chops only cost me a pound each. Every time I go, there is always a massive queue but it's well worth the wait. To make this recipe, you really do need to find the biggest chops that you can lay your hands on as you need to stuff them with sherry soaked raisins for the filling.

To accompany the chops was a bean stew flavoured with rosemary from our allotment but I still found the stew to be a little bland so I melted in a few ripe tomatoes as well. I found this gave the dish the necessary balance.

Here's the dish plated up as well as a peek at the delicious sherry raisin stuffing. It really was a stunning combination of flavours!

The perfect Dan Tat

Dan Tat are Chinese custard tarts. They are a bit like Pasteis de nata in the fact that they have flaky pastry but Dan Tat are not caramalised on top. Some Dan Tat are made with shortcrust pastry but in my opinion, they just aren't as satisfying as the crunch you get with puff pastry ones.

Unfortunately, good Dan Tat are becoming increasingly difficult to buy now in London. The place I used to go to was the Garden Bakery on Little Newport Street but when Rosewheel closed down a lot of shops and threatened to put a Tesco in, the Garden Bakery alas was no more and their excellent Dan Tat vanished!

And so the hunt began.... Around Chinatown, the Kowloon Bakery ones are fairly decent but erratic in the flaky goodness and a lot of the others do the shortcrust ones. Boo.

So far, the one I tend to buy from is the Far Eastern Bakery but only if it's early enough in the day and they're out of the oven HOT.

The best ones these days tend to be from restaurants that have a decent pastry chef and last week I sampled the ones at Royal China in Canary Wharf and oh my, they were GOOD!

A gorgeous barely set custard that was encased in perfect puff pastry that had a little crunch and then melted on the mouth. I can't wait until I try them again.

I have also as yet, yet to find a reliable Dan Tat recipe. If anyone has one, please do forward!

Welcome to the Food of Ip

Those who know me know that food is not just a source of fuel for me but an all encompassing passion and obsession and woe betide anyone when a Hungry Ip is around!

However, rather than complain about how hungry I am, I learnt to cook from quite a young age and love to try out new recipes. I also like to ferret out little gems of places to eat where it's not about the decor but all about the food.

This blog will be about my culinary musings, adventures and I hope you'll enjoy the journey with me.