Ginger Chicken Cakes & Spicy Lime Noodles

Today's post comes laden with good news... I am officially on my summer holidays! Yayyyyy! Although I haven't been at uni since March, I have been interning until last Friday when my time was up. I loved every second of it and I'm definitely planning on going back, but for now I am super happy to be back in the cocoon of my tiny seaside town with all my pals for a good few months.

With this in mind, it now means I can cook meals again, which means more food blog posts! Yay! I haven't done any in such a long time and seeing as that's what my blog was originally started for, I do apologise for that!

Today's recipe comes in the form of Ginger Chicken Cakes with Spicy Lime Noodles. I'm going on holiday next week so at the moment I am trying really hard to keep a controlled diet (for the obvious reason that I can then go totally off the rails on holiday!). This recipe was adapted from a canapé book that belongs to my Mum. I also used a Jamie Oliver dressing recipe from his 15 Minute Meals book, as a sauce for the noodles. So it's a bit of a mish mash of ideas, but isn't that what cooking is all about?!

To make this gorgeous, fresh dish for two people, you'll need:

For the chicken cakes:

2 chicken breasts - diced into small chunks

1 inch piece of ginger - chopped

2 tbsp fish sauce

3 spring onions - chopped

2 cloves garlic - crushed

Juice of 1 lime

Few twists of ground black pepper

For the noodle dressing:

2 tbsp soy

1 tbsp fish sauce

Half a red chilli - chopped

Half inch ginger - chopped

2 spring onions - chopped

Juice of 1 lime

1 clove garlic - crushed

2 nests of egg noodles (or any kind you like - I love rice noodles but didn't have any in stock)

Salad - if you fancy it

Start by pre-heating the oven to 200°C. Prepare all the ingredients for the chicken as listed above (chop things), and chuck them in a blender. Then you should press the button and blend it baby. You don't want it looking like a minging chicken smoothie - it should still have a bit of substance. I'd recommend just pulsing it a few times.

Tip it out onto your chopping board again and form it into the cakes. I managed to make 4 big cakes and a few baby ones out of my mix. You need to form them in balls, then slap them down onto the oiled baking tray. Try and make them thin, because you want them to cook nice and quickly but obviously you need them to be fully cooked! It goes without saying you should definitely have clean hands for this task. When the oven is hot enough pop them in for about 15 minutes.

Next, put a pan of water on to boil for your noodles. While this is getting up to temperature, add your dressing ingredients into a blender. (Use a different one from your first one if you can, if not make sure you wash the first blender properly before making the dressing. No one wants raw chicken dressing.) You can blend this up as much as you like because you're making a sauce. If you want, you could add a few tbsp of water in, just to make the dressing stretch a bit further, as I have to admit, there wasn't loads to go round. I'm going to do that next time I make this.

When your chicken has got about 3 minutes left and your water is boiling, chuck the noodles in. (You may need to cook your noodles for longer than 3 minutes- so check the packet). While they're cooking, I prepared a little salad on the plate - nothing fancy!

When the noodles are done, drain them, pop them back in the pan and pour the dressing in. Mix it all together so the dressing has got over all of it. Take your chicken out - make sure it looks done. Pop it all on the plate and enjoy!

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Trend Alert: Metallic Shoes

Right now I am loving metallic shoes. Courts, sandals, any heel size... love love love! I think they look great with a pair of boyfriend jeans and a casual white tee. Smart, comfy and so on trend.. its a perfect look.

Reference here

I've chosen five of my favourite silver babies below. I could easily snap them all up, but I think I'd get told off. For some reason, my parents seem to think I have more than enough shoes. Personally, I'm not sure if that actually exists. I am going to need a walk-in shoedrobe if I carry on like this though...

1. ASOS Santa Monica Slingbacks £25

2. Next Hologram Peep Toes £35

3. Topshop Gwenda Courts £58

4. Topshop Square Toe Sandals £65

5. Next Silver Two Part Sandals £28

Which are your faves? I think the classic Topshop Gwendas are just edging it for me!

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Blue Moon

My name is Betty and I'm a pinoholic. Yes, its been about for a while, but Pinterest has sucked me in big time recently. I love to sit for hours just searching through peoples boards creating this fantasy life in my head, full of white furniture and abs. Its also a brilliant way to make vision boards, to give you some focus on your life. Try making one.. its basically a shopping list for your life! Its also an immense way to spend a Sunday afternoon. Tea + sofa + pinterest = chill time.

Today I've decided to show you a collection of lovely images that I've spied on Pinterest, all in the glorious colour blue. Its the colour of the sea and the sky so inevitably its my favourite colour. I'll try to credit back to the original source, where possible, below.

Table

Palm Trees

Door

Wall

Illustration

Sea

Musicians

Bikini

Celine Tee

View Point

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Roast at Borough Market

Ask any Londoner that loves their food about Borough Market and their eyes glaze over as they slip into a daydream about the place. It's a haven for foodies like me. I think I could spend hours walking about the place, trying samples and thinking up ways to eat all the lush ingredients in front of me.

Top, jeans & bag from Next
Sandals from Primark
Sunglasses from New Look
Necklace from Wallis

As well as the famous market itself, Borough Market and the surrounding area is also home to some of the best delis, cafés and restaurants in the capital. While on my weekend in the city, we took a trip to Roast, a restaurant situation above the market for lunch. Unfortunately, it was on a Monday, so the market itself wasn't open.

However, that didn't deflect on what it was like on the inside. This fantastic room is made airy and bright by the huge Victorian style windows that surround the restaurant. Its modern and stylish, with the perfect amount of class and not a drop of pretentiousness or arrogance. There's just a love of good food and good wine.

For starters, my Dad and I both had the chicken broth with poached pheasant egg. It was really flavoursome and a superbly light starter.

Mum went for the scotch egg, obviously made there with fresh haggis and egg. She said it was fantastic and it definitely looked it.

For the main course, I went for bream pan-fried in parsley butter, with brown shrimp and capers. I really love my fish and I really loved this rich dish. I had it with some jersey royal potatoes, that perfectly matched the rich butteriness (yes, that's a word) of the fish. Served with a fantastic glass of bubbly (I asked for a glass of something fizzy and this is what they bought me, so I have no idea what it was but it tasted great).

Mum went for slow roasted pork belly.

Dad opted for the beef. They both said it was really fantastic.

After dinner, I fancied something savoury so ended up with a massive cheese board of Stawley cheese from Somerset which was brilliant but filled me up sooo much, especially after the richness of my main!

Mum had a sticky date pudding, which (surprise, surprise) was also great.

As you can tell, I can't rate Roast enough and would encourage anyone to go there and try it. It would be lovely on market day, to sit up high and watch the market, but I would say to book first to avoid disappointment. All the information is available here!

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Mad Hatter's Tea Party

Over the May Day bank holiday weekend I paid our lovely capital city a visit.

I went to visit some friends and to meet up with my parents, as it was my Dad's birthday. On the Sunday, my Dad had booked for the three of us to have afternoon tea at The Sanderson Hotel. However, it was no ordinary tea, it was a Mad Hatter's Tea Party!

We turned up had a table reserved on the terrace which in itself was breathtaking. Like a cool Japanese inside/outside garden. We were told everyone had been asking to go outside that day, so were pretty lucky to get a table there!

First of all, we were asked which tea we wanted. I had an Earl Grey and my mum had English Breakfast. The only thing I would say it to ask for extra hot water, or maybe slightly less tea as it was very strong. That's coming from someone who loves a good strong cuppa too!

We were presented with the menu inside little copies of Alice in Wonderland to let us know what would be having. There wasn't a choice, they just bought everything out, which is fantastic for indecisive people like me as I got to try everything!

For the savoury, we had four types of mini sandwiches and quiche. I'm a savoury fiend so I loved this the most. Especially the smoked salmon on rye bread. I also loooved the savoury scones with herb butter. So buttery and delicious.

However, there was a lot to be said for the sweets. They were all so interesting to look at and eat.

The 'Drink Me' potion was my favourite sweet. There were three different layers in the bottle, which you got a flavour of one by one as you drank it down. Just like the 'Drink Me' potion in the Alice in Wonderland story, this and the whole tea definitely made me get bigger... sideways, as they keep bringing you food until you say stop. I was not complaining!

I would recommend doing this afternoon tea as a treat for an occasion, like a birthday, as it is totally different from your average afternoon tea! For more information, check the website here.

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