Street food suppers

This week my feet have barely touched the ground, or the inside of my flat.  Last week was the same.  With court hearings looming and understandably anxious clients, I have had a string of long days and late nights (and even two nine and a half hour meetings on consecutive days).  By the time I have reached the comfort of my front door at the end of the day, breakfast but a distant memory, I have needed dinner within minutes.

In weeks like these (they do not happen that often thank goodness), I sometimes make the mistake of substituting supper for cereal.  But even a bowl of my homemade, packed with nuts and fruit, muesli leaves me feeling dissatisfied, cheated of dinner and adds to the general malaise caused by long hours, stress of the work and lack of sleep (a feeling quite at odds with the satisfaction of an early morning bowl of the same muesli).

So this week, despite the long hours and tiredness levels hitting high on the lack of sleep scale (and a social life resigned to the shredder when the week began), I determined to cook properly.  Which is not to say I was expecting anything fancy, just fresh, homecooked food each night, in order to keep my spirits raised and prevent myself plunging into the depths of despair generally caused when deprived of dinner (or anything that can legitimately be called dinner) for an extended period of time (by which I mean more than one night). 

The answer was street food.  Food that could be put together quickly and easily with the minimum of fuss, but was packed with fresh ingredients and mouthfuls of flavour.  My recipes took me from south-east London to the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, Marrakech and back to London again.  Stuffed pitta breads, a Thai noodle and prawn salad and the final recipe, which is my version of English street food, slow roast tomato pesto and poached egg on toast. 

The English do not have a strong culture of street food (unless you count hotdogs and they're American...).  We play host to a fine array of street food from all four corners of the globe (as is in evidence at The Rye pub on Peckham Rye Common this week and next, which is showcasing 16 days of fantastic street food courtesy of Eat Street.  I popped by on by way home on Wednesday when I was too speechlessly tired to cook and was treated to a delicious dinner of tacos laden with tender, juicy, sweet pork marinated in orange and achiote with tomato and chilli sauce, followed by the most wickedly wonderful chocolate brownie sundae - with nutella ice cream- thanks to Buen Provecho and Choc Star respectively) but we do not have our own signature brand of street food.  Below are the recipes I've cooked this week, including my inspiration for English street food - a big hunk of English bread, topped with slow roast tomato pesto and finished off with a poached egg (a sort of posh English breakfast adapted for street eating).  All of the recipes can be put together in minutes and will brighten even the hardest of working days. 

Enjoy x

Carrot, beetroot, radicchio and feta salad with a coriander and cumin dressing

1 carrot
1 beetroot, cooked

Radicchio leaves

Feta

1 lemon

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp sesame seeds

Olive oil

2 pitta breads

Grate the carrot and the beetroot and chop the radicchio finely.  Chop the feta into small chunks.

To make the dressing, crush the cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar and lightly dry fry them.  Crush the coriander seeds.  In a jar/jug/mug mix the cumin and coriander seeds with a squeeze of lemon juice and approximately three times as much olive oil.  Season.

Dry fry the sesame seeds.  Arrange the carrot, beetroot, radicchio and feta on a plate.  Pour over the dressing and top with the toasted sesame seeds.  Toast the pittas and serve.

Prawn and glass noodle salad

1 bundle glass noodles

1 carrot

Handful of baby spinach leaves

Cucumber

Mint

Coriander

Handful of raw prawns

Zest and juice of 2 limes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 clove of garlic, crushed
1 red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced
A dribble of fish sauce

Zest and juice the limes.  Marinate the prawns in the zest and a tablespoon of juice (just while you are preparing the salad).
To make the dressing, mix 2 tablespons of lime juice with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce, the sugar, garlic, chilli and a dribble of fish sauce.  Adjust the lime juice and olive oil to taste.

Slice the carrot into thin ribbons using a vegetable peeler.  Chop the cucumber into thin strips.  Finely chop the mint and coriander.

Cook the noodles according to the instructions.  Fry the prawns for a couple of minutes until pink.
Arrange the spinach, carrot, noodles and cucumber in a bowl.  Pour over the dressing.  Top with the cooked prawns, mint and coriander.

Slow roast tomato pesto and poached egg on toast
This recipe uses slow roasted tomatoes, which are best cooked in the oven on a very low heat for several hours.  This is obviously not practical after a long day so cook the tomatoes the weekend before.  They will keep in the fridge for a couple of weeks. 

20 cherry tomatoes

Dried oregano

Olive oil

Parmesan, grated
1 garlic clove
Basil leaves
Olive oil
2 eggs
Bread for toast

Preheat the oven to 90 degrees C.  Half the cherry tomatoes and place, cut side up, on a baking tray lined with baking parchment.  Sprinkle over some dried oregano, a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Cook for 4-5 hours until the tomatoes have dried and shrunk and have an intense and sweet tomatoey flavour.  Leave to cool and store in the fridge until needed.

To make the pesto blitz the tomatoes with a small handful of grated parmesan, 1 crushed clove of garlic and a few glugs of olive oil.  Season with salt and pepper and stir in some finely chopped basil. 

Bring a pan of water to the boil and add a splash of white wine vinegar.  Reduce the heat to the lowest possible setting so the water is calm.  Break an egg into a ladle and then holding the ladle just above the surface of the water tip the egg very gently into the water.  Repeat with the second egg.  Leave the eggs until the white is set.

Toast the bread.  Top with the pesto and a poached egg.  Season.  Smile.  Sleep.

Zzz zzz zzz