Gastronomic tours with Swiss Cheese

Floyd's India is a somewhat entertaining TV show and book about Keith Floyd's food adventures in India. Unable to pronounce the names of the ingredients or follow a recipe, his preparations often look nothing like what we'd make at home. He's fairly amusing to watch, while at the same time clarifying why you wouldn't normally eat British food.

Made this yesterday, and I do have pictures, but currently no way to get them off my camera, so that will have to wait for later.

Ingredients:

• 250gm (8oz) shrimp. shelled, deveined and cooked (steam or boil it)
• 1/4 cup coriander/cilantro leaves chopped up (note the difference)
• 1/2 cup chopped romaine lettuce leaves (use the hearts for a different variation)
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• 3 Tbsp Maggi hot and sweet tomato chilli sauce (or equivalent - you need something sweet and spicy, so try mixing tabasco + tomato, or use thai sweet chilli sauce)
• 2-3 tsp honey (this is only if your sauce is too spicy for your liking)
• One navel orange (we use this for garnish and for its juice)
• A few mint leaves for garnish (optional)

Method:

1. Combine sauce, honey, shrimp, lime juice and coriander in a bowl and mix until shrimp and coriander are well coated. You should be able to smell the lime.
2. Add chopped lettuce on a large plate.
3. Add shrimp mix over lettuce.
4. Sprinkle a few drops of orange juice over the salad.
5. Garnish with orange rings and mint leaves.
6. Serve chilled.

It came out really well.

I tried out something new today. It's couscous based, but stir-fried in preparation. It came out fairly well, so I'm posting here.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup couscous
• 1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup peas
• 1/4 cup sweet corn
• 1/4 cup assorted raisins
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• 1 Tbsp basil leaves, chopped
• 2 Tbsp mint leaves, chopped
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp Chinese 5 spice
• 2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat the stock + 1Tbsp oil in a saucepan until it comes to a boil
2. Stir in the couscous, remove from heat, cover and keep aside
3. Heat a large skillet
4. Add 1 Tbsp oil
5. Add Chinese 5 spice and cumin seeds and fry for half a minute
6. Add in raisins, nuts, peas and corn and stir fry for 2 minutes
7. Mix in Couscous, mint and basil leaves
8. Stir fry until Couscous no longer sticks to your ladel (I use a wooden ladel)
9. Turn off the heat and continue to mix it for another 30 seconds

That's it. You can eat it on its own or with yogurt or as a side dish for a larger meal. For a spicier version, use Indian garam masala instead of Chinese 5 spice. It should serve 3 people as a side dish.

I haven't yet thought of a good name for this dish, so if you have any ideas, leave a comment.