The first nibble...

So I like many others got The Giraffe Family Cookbook for Christmas - thanks Mum! It was on my Wish List so I would have been as angry as a Giraffe with a sore throat if it hadn't turned up in my stocking.

If you weren't as lucky as me you can get it on Amazon (other good booksellers are available...)

The first recipie I decided to cook from it is one that is a favourite of mine at the Resturant so I was so glad to see it in the book - Sushi Brown Rice Salad with Smoked Salmon - Page 60. Unfortunately I had to miss out one of the ingreedients - Mouli (white radish) as I couldn't get it from Tesco's or Sainsburys - any ideas where to track it down?  My cucumbers were crescents as opposed to the specified diamonds - couldn't work out how to make a diamond from a deseeded cucumber! I reckon the result was pretty much spot on to what I've been served in the resturant.  I give you my version...

A big thumbs up all round - although Mr & Boy reckoned it needed more salmon or the addition of some prawns to fill them up - greedy pigs!  I especially liked the black onion seeds - not an ingreedient that I'd ever used before.  Lovely flavour and fab colour contrast.  Can definately see me using them again alongside sesame seeds (famous last words - they'll probably end up going out of date alongside all the other strange things in my spice rack bought for one specific recipie!)