The Hangry Chef

Not bad for a pantry raid! I felt like making a cake on Saturday afternoon but seriously had zero motivation to put real pants on and go to the shops to buy any ingredients so it was kind-of a 'use whatever I have in the pantry' job.  I had a bit of a rummage and came out with some tinned sliced peaches in syrup that had been in there for as long as I can remember (still in date though so it can't have been that long!) and a tin of coconut milk... as I had used the last of our fresh milk making the must-have morning flat whites. In the fridge I found some eggs, vanilla and butter, and I pulled out my other pantry staples of flour and sugar. That was it! I had the basic necessities for a glorious cake! I ended up looking for a basic cake recipe and improvising as I went along and luckily enough the thing turned out super moist, the texture was an absolute winner! The only mistake I made was having the oven up a bit too high and I ended up over-browning the s

We recently had a working bee at our house to remove our old carpet and lay laminate floating floor boards. It was a massive job and it still needs a few finishing touches, it has ended up being a little bit stressful and needless to say I've sworn off DIY. I'm more suited to feeding the masses while they do they grunt work! So, wanting to make something relatively easy to eat but delicious and a little bit better then standard bread rolls, I decided I'd give Banh Mi sandwiches a try. They're Vietnamese subs, usually filled with cold cuts (such as pork meat), pate, pickled vegetables, coriander, cucumber and mayonnaise. I used slow-cooked pork belly, pickled carrot and radish, shredded cucumber and lettuce with coriander and sriracha aioli. You will need to prepare the pork two days in advance, as you need to marinate it overnight and cook it the day before so it has time to be pressed and left in the fridge overnight to set so you can easily slice it and fry it