Mango lassies on Koh Lipe

I'm going to come clean straight away - this is a cheat post, because I'm not making or cooking anything here in Thailand. I'm also not eating bugs or anything else out of the ordinary. I am however drinking these mango lassies every single day.

That up there is the beach on Koh Lipe that I'm drinking them on (the quieter Sunrise Beach). If you want to make one of these healthy, refreshing, wonderful drinks this is what you need to blend: yellow mangos (much more flavour than their green counterparts), natural yoghurt, ice. That is all.

Minty strawbellini: a perfect summer cocktail

As my friends know, inventing cocktails is one of my favourite pastimes. I don't do complicated though. I tend to take a well-known cocktail and rework it with some local, seasonal ingredients. The "Bellini" cocktail was invented at Harry's Bar in Venice and consists simply of fresh peach purée and local prosecco

My version - the " Minty Strawbellini" - is more English. It includes fresh British strawberries and mint, mushed into a purée along with some good quality honey, and topped with pink cava or prosecco

Malty snickers iced-coffee aka probably the best iced-coffee in the world

After an impromptu barbeque last week, I found a freezer filled with mini Snickers ice-creams, which inspired me to make this particular iced coffee. I've been messing about with various recipes all this week, and finally today, I have arrived at the perfect one which I would like to share with you. I prefer to use instant coffee, using a strong-tasting filter coffee gives it a much stronger coffee flavour obviously, and I prefer it when it tastes more like a milkshake. The maca root powder adds not only health benefits, but also more maltiness. Just blitz all the ingredients down there in a blender until smooth and fluffy

Ingredients

1 cup of coffee

1 teaspoon honey

1 mini Snickers ice-cream

1 tablespoon maca powder

1 cup of almond milk

Handful of ice

Jamaican Summer beer cocktail

This is the most refreshing cocktail I've ever had, perfect for a Summer evening, or even afternoon. It is only beer after all (with the tiniest bit of rum). I adapted the recipe from the one I tried at The Rum Kitchen a few weeks ago, which, incidently, is a really fun place for a night out in West London

Ingredients

1 part ginger beer to 2 parts beer (Red Stripe is obviously ideal)

1 teaspoon (or more) Spiced Rum

Few drops of Angostura Bitters

Lime juice (about half a lime per big glass)

Croatian red wine - Plavac Mali

As I get older I really start to appreciate good wines. Not in a superior "look-at-how- sophisticated- I- am" kind of way, more in a natural " I-just-know-what's-good-now" way. Like with men. And this Croatian wine, it's really good. If you ever see a donkey like that down there, laden with bags, on a bottle of wine, I recommend you buy it

This wine is made from the Plavac Mali grape, which grows solely in Croatia, yet related to the South Italian "Primitivo". In my own, weird understanding of this world, this is the Tom Hardy of wine.  It's primal yet elegant; animalistic (farmyard in wine speak) yet sophisticated. Certainly not for people in search of conventional happy endings, but every sip will be interesting. Truly, my kind of wine

An entirely biased vodka tasting with unprecedented results

We all get a bit stuck in our ways sometimes, it's human nature to want to hold on to things we know, yet it's important to keep moving forward. And this is why my brother, my dad and me decided to have a vodka tasting. My brother felt that my dad needed it because all he ever drinks are Polish and Russian vodkas, proclaiming them the best without having had many comparisons. Me, I've been stuck on Grey Goose for a while now, and was sure that no other vodka compares. We were all surprised with the results. We chose 5 vodkas for entirely personal reasons. Belvedere, an upper echelon of vodka, which my dad favours; Żytnia: a lower quality Polish rye vodka; Grey Goose: my pure, French favourite; Chase, as this is apparently the best of the British; and Snow Queen, which has a good reputation and hails from Kazakstan and Ukraine (places we have family). We tasted blind and marked for various qualities, such as aroma, flavour, texture and smoothness, yet it was our overall impressions that we pooled together to find the winner, which was...

1. Chase - UK

And what a shock that was to a Polish family! I was convinced that what I was drinking was my favourite Grey Goose and gave it top marks for both flavour and lack of burn going down. It was almost creamy, absolutely delicious 

2. Belvedere - Poland

This is the only vodka where I visually noticed a difference in appearance - it appeared more blue in hue to my eye. It was also incredibly smooth going down, though slightly more bitter in flavour, which is not to my liking

3. Grey Goose - France

In a blind tasting, this was actually my dad's favourite and not mine. It was flowery and delicate with a  hint of bitterness. Smooth going down.

4. Żytnia - Poland

Although very good in offsetting salty and pickled snacks, and with a firm place in the hearts of all us Poles, it is entirely justifiable that this cheap vodka came second to last in our blind tasting. It is a different calibre of vodka, and not in a good way

5. Snow Queen - Kazakstan/Ukraine

I actually wretched as I shot this vodka down. We were meant to not be saying or doing anything that could influence another person's decision process, yet it was an involuntary reaction. The last time I had one like it was when I did a bong followed by a shot of rectified spirit at Uni. That time it had followed through, this time it didn't, but it wasn't pleasant either. It was probably completely unfair, as this vodka often ranks high in expert tastings and my brother actually quite liked it. But it is what it is, as they say - I wouldn't drink it again myself

Scandinavian cinnamon rolls and creamy mulled beer

The Cinnamon rolls were meant to be easy. Just a bit of dough, rolled up with some butter and cinnamon inside, only a few ingredients. Well, let me tell you the life lesson I learnt today: don't expect things to be easy. Apparently, the Dalei Lama himself says this quite a lot, and it's become my mantra of late. If life was nice and easy the whole time, then none of us would ever evolve. And yet, and yet... sometimes I do wish things were just a bit easier - those cinnamon rolls took a lot out of me. I was making them for a Secret Santa party and by the time I got there I was worn out from pummeling that bloody dough. Also, I stupidly added an extra egg when I should have just added some water to soften to dough, so here I will give you the correct amounts, that make the perfect cinnamon roll. If, like me, you find the dough too dry just add some milk or water, not another egg, which makes the rolls slightly harder than they should be once cooked. As the ingredients are simple and the recipe straight-forward, I used really good quality stuff, which made my cinnamon rolls tasty regardless - this is my trick when making something for the first time, don't skimp on the quality and you will always come out on top, even if your hands may be cramped and your wrists aching

Ingredients

700g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking ammonia

225g sugar

200g cold butter

2 eggs

50g softened butter

1 tablespoon cinnamon

Splash of water or milk

Sieve the flour, baker's ammonia and baking powder into a bowl, and mix together. Add 150g of the sugar. The rest of the sugar you mix with the cinnamon in a separate bowl. Cut the cold butter into small cubes and blend into the mixture with your fingertips, until it resembles fine breadcrumbs, then make a well in the middle. Break the eggs into the well, mix it together and make the dough, which should be stiff but not dry. If it is dry (like mine was), then add some milk or water until everything sticks together as it should. Knead the dough for a looong time. Perhaps if you have warmer hands than me, this will be easier for you. Finally, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for about 20min. Roll it out into a rectangle on a dry surface with some flour and trim the edges, so that it's a neat one. Spread the soft butter over the top and sprinkle the cinnamon mix over the top of that. Now roll it up into a log and cut into pieces about 1cm thick. Place on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for about 25min on 180 degrees C

We spent Christmas with my cousin in his family in Zakopane in Poland. We spent the days skiing and snowboarding, stopping of for mulled wines and beers, and grilled "Oscypek" with cranberry sauce. The "Oscypek" is a decorative, smoked cheese, typical of this area



The warm, earthy and spicey beers were my favourite, yet I also missed my dad's own recipe, which I begged him to make as soon as we arrived back in Warsaw. I can't get enough of this now, so I will share it with you while you've still got that Christmas feeling, yet are probably getting to the stage of being ever-so-slightly bored of all the stuff you've been eating and drinking for the past week. Separate the egg yolks and whites. Beat the whites with a pinch of salt until they form peeks. Better yet, get someone else to do this, while you blend the yolks with the sugar. Once the yolk mixture is reasonably smooth, add the honey. Now, gently heat the beer with the cinnamon and cloves, stirring all the time. Blend the yolks with the whites and start to slowly pour the mixture into the warming beer. Again, four hands are better than two for this, as you need to stir constantly. Whatever you do, do not let the mixture boil, or you will end up with sweet scrambled eggs in your beer. No one needs that. Once all the eggs are in the beer, stir for a couple of minutes or so while heating. Add the vanilla essence and stir some more. Try it to check the temperature. Once it's very warm - but nowhere near boiling - cover the pan and leave for a few more minutes to infuse, before serving in front of the fire. You're welcome. The measurement below serve four

Ingredients

4 beers

3 eggs

Pinch salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon honey

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1 teaspoon vanilla essence



Macha green tea and coconut milk smoothie

Before I fall asleep at night, or sometimes in the morning as I wake up, I think about what my favourite part of the last day was. It puts things into perspective for me and shows me what I love. And what I'm loving most right now are cold, sunny days; reading books that open my mind to a different perspective on life; that feeling of connecting to people that you don't get in groups; and looking after myself: eating well, but not feeling guilty if I overindulge, trusting myself rather than just doing what other people expect, doing what I feel like in that moment even if it means cancelling all my plans and spending the whole evening reading in bed; and making delicious smoothies, like this one here

I blitzed a frozen banana (tip: peel and cut it into chunks before freezing) with some matcha green tea (I diluted a couple of teaspoons in a small amount of hot water first), honey, coconut milk and a couple of ice cubes. It took me less than a minute to down the whole thing, so I guess that my body needed it

Boho Mexicana, Spitalfields

While we're on the subject of going out, here's a great little place in east London. I came here with a few international girlfriends last week to eat dinner, drink Blueberry Mojitos and discuss life. It made me think about how much I love interesting women. By interesting I don't mean mysterious, hyperactive, weird or aloof - I sometimes think that these qualities disguise the fact that someone isn't particularly interesting. I mean people with a strong sense of themselves, who grow and develop like characters in a good book. Women who can be both kind and supportive, yet at the same time challenge my way of seeing the world. They're priceless and always I try to keep people like that in my world, because with them you will never be lost for long

Boho Mexicana was a lot of fun. The Blueberry Mojitos were criminally more-ish. I would not, however, recommend what I had to eat - the tamal de frijol bean thing. Unlike my company, it was lacking in something... Magda had a delicious, spicy baby squid dish (up there) that she shared with me - she'd made the best choice. The leche cake our charming Venezuelan waiter suggested did not disappoint. Price-wise I would put it in the medium bracket - aprox £35-45 with cocktails. The atmosphere is fun and fabulous, ideal for a girlie get-together, though probably not terribly romantic, what with the flirtatious south-American waiters and all

Evans & Peel Detective Agency/ Cocktail Bar

It's been a sociable time for little old me recently, and I've discovered some cool new spots, which I would like to share with you (of course). Last night a few of us went to Evans & Peel. A small, old-fashioned door off the Earl's Court Road leads to a staircase and down to a proper old-school detective agency. Have your cover story ready!

Once you get past the guy on reception, you go through to a wonderful, 20s-style bar. As you can see from the quality of my photos, it's very atmospheric. You'll need to order a little bit of food, as that's something to do with their license. We ate a warm pretzel and a smoked cheesecake, washed down with exciting new twists on classic cocktails. It was quite expensive at £9.5 per drink, but no less than what you'd expect from this kind of classy joint

The new detox rules

If you are looking for a detox where an Absinthe cocktail on the second day is allowed and you don't need to spend two weeks miserably brewing herbal infusions while your friends go out and have fun, then you've come to the right blog. My detoxes having been getting more and more relaxed over the years until finally we've come to this - Absinthe on the second day. I simply refuse to give up my life just because I want to get myself back on the healthy wagon, it's too short. So these are the new detox rules

Eat oats with fruit, yoghurt and honey for breakfast

Have 2 Nakd bars as snacks throughout the day

Eat various vegetables and grains for lunch

Eat Fish/Turkey and vegetables for dinner

Enjoy 1 alcoholic drink every 2-3 days

Drink 1 small coffee a day 

Drink as much Japanese roasted twig tea and green tea as you can

Avoid all processed sugar and foods

Snack on fruit, nuts and vegetables

Eat goat's cheese only 

Drink a glass of pomegranate juice daily

Take selenium (100 micrograms)

Meditate and Stretch every day

Walk in the fresh air

Bathe with tree tree oil and sea salt

De-clutter your living space

Do your paperwork

Jose in London Bridge

I have walked past here a few times now and always wanted to go in and sample the tasty-looking tapas - it looks just like a typical little restaurant you'd find in Barcelona. In fact, it is one. Except that it's in London Bridge. It's new and a real find, I haven't had jamon this good outside of Spain. My favourite dish was a shocker, as I would never, ever order baby potatoes with chicken. But it was the first time I'd tried romesco sauce, and it was a true revelation (it's the photo with my hand in it).

Other stuff was good too. Though Petey pointed out that the hake up there with the morcilla would have tasted better with the vegetable ratatouille-type stuff just above it, whereas the duck egg would have been better suited to the black pudding. He was right, of course. The joys of going to dinner with a chef... Actually, it was fantastic for me, because before our other friend, Tish, joined us, we managed to talk food for about two hours, and there's little I love more than talking food. Yet I always feel a bit guilty when I realise other people are not as interested as me in some cheese or cookbook I've been going on about for twenty minutes. But Petey is

And there's Tishy leaving the join in a typically dramatic fashion. The whole meal, for three, with plenty of wine was about £80. And there's a great cocktail bar just down the road, if you don't want your night to end here, but unfortunately I can't recall the name

Garlic girolles on toast (with an incredibly filthy vodka martini)

I have a confession to make. I though girolles were chanterelles for years. Until this very day actually, when I went to Borough Market with my dad and all became clear. Well, kind of. I'm still confused as to what chanterelles are to be perfectly honest- the ones I saw were very dark brown, and I though they were supposed to be rust-coloured. I clearly know my mushrooms better in Polish than I do in English, or French even. And even that doesn't mean I'd take anyone I care about mushroom picking, because I could all too easily poison them. If you have any people you don't like, however, who just love mushrooms - send them right this way, because I do so love mushroom picking

So here are my girolles sauteed in plenty of butter, with a couple of cloves of garlic chucked in, and some salt. Then served on a piece of lovely, seedy toast...

And that's an incredibly filthy vodka martini to wash it all down with. No one would dare to serve it this filthy in a bar, but that's just how I like it. It took me all evening to take a picture where this drink looks even vaguely decent. I must be drunk. I've also been musing on how a drink this beautiful and sophisticated can look so much like pond water... what does it all mean?

Moroccan mint tea

If any of my neighbours looked out of the window this morning and saw me kicking the door of my shed, they'd be forgiven for thinking that I don't particularly enjoy gardening. They would, however, be wrong. Despite my momentary anger at the shed door, the fact that I only do it every month (at best) and my considerable lack of green-fingered talent, it is something that gives me great pleasure. Today, for instance I found that some mint was growing near the rosemary bush. Where did it come from?

I took it as a sign that it was time to make Moroccan mint tea. I have been making this tea, ever since I went to Morocco in 2001. Of course, I've developed my own method by now, and it has been transformed into something that perhaps isn't 100% authentic, but is, nevertheless, delicious and refreshing. The main difference is that I don't sweeten it with sugar, but with honey. And I don't make it anywhere near as sweet as they do. It's a matter of taste, I guess. You take a green tea bag and put it in a pot with about three sprigs of mint and a tablespoon of honey, before covering with freshly boiled water. Allow to brew for about five minutes, then pour into individual teacups. Or small glasses, if you want to be Moroccan about it. If I'd found some pinenuts, then I would have toasted them, and let a few float on top, just like they did in Quarzazante, on the edge of the Sahara desert

Coffee shake

This shake wins the best summer beverage prize hands down for me

And that's coming from someone who doesn't particularly like coffee. You need a blender, some instant coffee, honey, ice cubes and good quality milk. The milk is key - I use full cream Tesco finest Channel Island Milk, which gives a rich flavour and a creamy consistency. You make a teeny, little coffee with a teaspoon of honey and then blend it with all the other ingredients until all the ice cubes have dissolved. It's the ideal way to start a summer's day. Or refresh you throughout. Or even to reward yourself on your return from work. Actually, the only downside is that once you've tried it, you'll want to drink it all day long

A few detox meal ideas

So these are the kind of things that I have been eating for the past week

That's some lightly smoked salmon with roast vegetable quinoa up there. I boiled the quinoa, and blanched the purple broccoli while the diced courgette and red pepper were roasting in the oven (with olive oil and chilli), adding the broccoli stalks to the rest of the vegetables for the last couple of minutes on high heat. The salmon was fried in some olive oil and served with a squeeze of lemon. This meal made me wonder why I don't just eat like this all the time - it's so easy and healthy

And here's my kale and mushroom bake. Sorry about the photo - I am still learning the art of taking good food pictures and my styling still clearly leaves much room for improvement. I blanched the kale and fried the mushrooms, then added the kale to the frying pan with a jar of chopped tomatoes, lots of fresh garlic, paprika and some garlic salt (my new BFF), and allowed to simmer for a bit. Finally, I put the whole thing in an oven-proof dish, cracked some eggs on top and baked in the oven until the whites were cooked, and the yolks runny - just how I like them

And here's some pak-choi with brown rice and smoked mackrel, in a tasty, citrusy broth. I stir-fried the pak-choi with garlic, chinese five spice and soya sauce, then added vegetable stock. Meanwhile, I cooked the rice, and grilled the mackrel (mainly the skin side so it would end up lovely and crispy) for about five minutes. I finished the whole lot with a generous squeeze of lemon. Can you see how big that bowl is? I think it may be a mixing bowl or a fruit bowl. It shows how much I can put away on one of my detoxes, and how little they have to do with fasting

And here's a guava, strawberry and oat milk smoothie, sweetened with honey - a nice breakfast idea!

As you can, see the detox has been going really well. That was until Saturday night came round and I got a little too friendly with a bottle, or three, of rose. The headache I had the next day was out of this world - I couldn't figure out if it's always like that, or if the that fact I'd been detoxing made it worse. Nevermind,  I forgave myself, took a paracetamol and put that episode - fun as it was - behind me. Now, I am back to detoxing until Easter

The Giant Robot, Clerkenwell

I almost didn't come here, as I couldn't get through to anyone to book a table. In the end, I called another Rushmore group restaurant and booked a table through them - so that's a good tip if they forget to turn their answering machine off again. Once we got there, the staff were incredibly friendly and relaxed, so all was forgiven

It was a hot day, so we drank Mimosa cocktails, which were lovely and refreshing, and actually felt quite healthy. But perhaps that's just by my standards! We ate asparagus with salsa, a breakfast salad, with delicious black pudding bits in it, and eggs benedict. I can't fault any of it. The vibe was very New York, laid-back and cool. It made me feel cool too, so I will be back for sure!

Finger food: hummus, pastries and greek salad

I love eating outside! The weather was so crap all day on Friday, and then as we left work, the sun came out - what a miracle! I had a couple of old friends, Rob and Jim, coming over for dinner, and decided to cheat a bit and just do mezze-type finger food, and concentrate on the vodka martinis rather than spending lots of time in the kitchen. It took me just an hour to put everything together before they came round, and then we went for drinks in the courtyard for half an hour while the pastries were baking in the oven. We ate moroccan style humus (without tahini) and pitta chips, pastries with feta and spinach and moroccan-spiced lamb, and a greek salad.

Ingredients - hummus:

Tin of chickpeas

Half a teaspoon cumin

Half a teaspoon paprika 

Juice of half a lemon

Salt

About a tablespoon olive oil

With the hummus, I just blended the chickpeas, lemon juice, salt and spices in a blender, slowly adding the olive oil into the mix. I wanted to use dried chickpeas originally, as I prefer their flavour, and even soaked some overnight, but then I realized that I would need to cook them for ages and promptly changed my mind. You may think I was being lazy, but it was a Friday night, and sometimes the priority has to be to have a good time! I cut the pittas into strips and stuck them in the oven for about 20 minutes on 100 degrees C, while waiting for my mates to come round. For the greek salad up there, I just used cucumber, tomatoes, feta and onion. Dressing was the simplest possible - lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, which I put it on immediately before serving. When my friends arrived with the ice, I made dirty vodka martinis, with an unusual spelt vodka I picked up in Poland. I have recently learnt that I needn't have spent lots of money on the vodka, because the best vodka martinis I have tasted, at Milk and Honey in Soho, are made with Wyborowa - a cheap Polish rye vodka - apparently the rye cuts through the brine really well. Still, mine were pretty good too. I make dry ones, so all you need is vodka, and olives in brine. They say you should never shake a martini, so I just stirred the vodka ice, and brine for a minute or two in the cocktail shaker, and drained into a chilled glass. I can't say how much vodka and brine I used exactly - I like it quite dirty, so I'd say about 2 parts vodka to 1 part brine, but it's entirely up to you

Ingredients - pastries:

Feta and Spinach

Packet of puff pastry

Bag of fresh spinach

200g feta

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and pepper

Butter for sticking

Moroccan spiced lamb 

(Adapted from A new Book of Middle-Eastern Food by Claudia Roden)

Packet of puff pastry

Half an onion

300 grams minced lamb

Cinamon stick

Teaspoon grated fresh ginger

Pinch of paprika

Salt and pepper

2 eggs, beaten

Olive oil for frying

Butter for sticking

With the feta and spinach pastries, I simply shredded the fresh spinach and blanched it for 5 minutes. When you drain it, make sure you get as much water out as possible, by squishing it with a fork. Then put it in a bowl, with the lemon juice and feta, and keep squishing, adding the salt and pepper at the end. My Greek friend who taught me to make these folded them in little triangles, but I find that you don't get that much filling in there, so I do squares - putting the mixture in the middle,  folding once over and sticking the sides together, into a pillow shape. For the lamb pastries, you brown the onion for about five minutes before adding the minced lamb and spices. You use a fork to break the meat up while it is cooking and it needs to cook for about 10 minutes. Then turn the heat off and pour over the beaten eggs. Use the same fork to push and blend the eggs into the lamb mix. Then allow to cool for at least 15 minutes. I was supposed to roll this into cigar shapes, however, wanting to put as much lamb in as possible they turned into sausage roll shapes. The thing with pastries is that anything goes really - as long as you get the filling right, they will taste lovely. I cooked them at 180 degrees C for half an hour. This recipe will make 24 pastries all together, which was way too many for just three people, but they are quite nice cold the next day too