Sidmouth - UK

Nice little town located on the UK Jurassic Coast, Sidmouth is quite charming.

We visited this town and had dinner there in July 2012.


The Anchor Inn

The pub menu is more or less the same as any other pub in the UK, but the difference is that the food here was good.

We were three eating here: the two of us, and my eight years old cousin who is also a foodie and a good cook*.

The menu at the time offered four different types of Fish and Chips: the Cod Fillet, the Haddock Fillet, the Plaice Fillet, and the Whole Tail Scampi. My eight years old cousin tried the Cod Fillet and because it was good and the portion was quite big (served with chipped potatoes, garden peas, and fresh salad), it was enough to satisfy our appetite. The only thing she wasn't fond of were the garden peas, because it tasted, and was, a bit weird. As she stated: "they are big and flashy green, it's weird!" which, in her defence, is the same in every UK pub ... I guess that's one of those weird British foods.

It was her first Fish and Chips and she was really pleased with the discovery, we even got the honor of a "it delicious! (in English ... oh yeah, I forgot to mention that she's French), and she also became very fond of coleslaw.

I had the Traditional Cottage Pie: the beef was good and perfectly cooked and the stew was excellent. The only down side was that it wasn't really a pie, they served it to you on two separated butter puff pastries, which was good - don't get me wrong - but not the traditional pie I expected.

Shyamal had The Anchor Burger with a 1/2 pound of beef burger, served with smoked bacon, melted cheese, sliced tomato and lettuce, and accompanied by homemade coleslaw and chipped potatoes. The burger was excellent, the beef was tender and overall the burger was juicy and extremely satisfying.

We all tried each other's dish and agreed that everything was good.

The staff was very friendly and even thought the pub was crowded, the service was fast and good.

For a relative touristy area, and compared to the other pubs in the neighbourhood, the prices were very decent. The burger was 9.25 GBP, the Fish and Chips was 8.95 GBP and the pie was 9.75.


*Note: Just as a side note that has nothing to do with the recommended places, but more with the cooking part of our blog, my eight years old cousin tried few of our recipes and made, by herself (aside from managing the oven) the vanilla creams, the quiche, the carrot cake, the yoghurt and chocolate cake, the chocolate mousse amongst some other recipes she creates.

Reviewed by Charline Leblond and Shyamal Addanki

Salmon with Sesame and Ginger

Salmon, salmon, salmon. Its not only good for you, but also easy and quick to put together for dinner. I have previously tried out Orange and Ginger Salmon; but for a bit of an Asian flair here is Sesame and Ginger Salmon. Served with a bit of rice, it makes for a lovely light and easy dinner.

Yes, you can have dinner ready in 20 minutes.

For two servings, you will need:

• One tablespoon of sesame seeds
• One half-palm size of ginger* (or slightly less if you use ginger powder, minced ginger, etc)
• About two or three tablespoons of soy sauce
• One teaspoon of sugar
• One tablespoon of oil

Of course, it would help of you had some salmon filets. I have served my salmon with rice, but I shall leave you to pick whatever side you would like to use.

Depending how much rice you are making, you might want to start the rice first. Check the package for instructions on how to cook your rice.

While the rice is cooking, start with your ginger. I used about a half-palm sized piece.

To retain some nice texture of ginger in the final dish, slice it into toothpick-long sticks. Don't fret about how thin or how thick to make them; it won't matter much at the end. I made three horizontal slices into the piece above before slicing it. You will also need one tablespoon of sesame seeds.

Lets start with the sesame seeds, roast them in a pan at medium-high heat with a bit of oil. You don't need too much oil as the sesame will ooze some of its own. Let your oil heat up well before adding the seeds.

You want to roast the sesame until it becomes nicely browned.

Now add your ginger slices.

Let the ginger become well browned, continuously stirring on high heat.

Now reduce the heat to a bit below medium and add your soy sauce.

Sprinkle a teaspoon of sugar and stir it in to the sauce, now we will let it simmer and reduce for a few minutes.

It is now time to cook the salmon, but if you are making rice on the side you might want to check the progress. There is no point in having your salmon ready if your rice is still cooking. Assuming the rice is ready, or whatever side you are using, you can add your salmon to the grill.

For the salmon, a bit of oil in a frying pan and just leave the salmon a few minutes on each side ... you can check the progress as it cooks up the side of the salmon filet.

By the time your salmon is done, the sauce will have reduced enough and is ready to serve.

Plate your rice, add a salmon filet, and spoon the ginger and sesame on top of the fish. If you like, you can spoon some of the infused soy sauce on the rice.

There! Less than 20 minutes and such an easy way to prepare a healthy dinner.

*Tip: Don't throw away your ginger, refer to our "Let's not waste anything!" page, and check out few ideas on how to use your ginger.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki

Orange Ginger Salmon with Roasted Red and Orange Peppers and Butternut Squash.

Phew, that was a long title.

Here is an easy dish to prepare, very light and refreshing, and it matches autumn.

I'm using red and orange bell peppers (or capsicum, if you prefer) along with some butternut squash, because I think they make a lovely accompaniment, based not only on colour but also on their slight sweetness, which offsets the ginger and orange in the salmon.

For two people, you will need:

• 2 filets of salmon
• 2 oranges
• A piece of ginger root* about as long as your little (or "pinky") finger, peeled. Use ginger powder if you prefer, or ginger paste from a bottle. Nobody is judging.
• 1 red and 1 orange pepper; or any combination you wish. Don't use green, the taste won't go well with the rest.
• Butternet Squash; I got two packets of cubed squash, about a handful each.

Begin by thinly slicing the peppers. I like them in long strips. Feel free to dice them up as you like.

Next, arrange them on a pre-heated baking tray, along with the cubed butternut squash, and drizzle some juice from one of the oranges. I just love the colour combination already!

Toss this in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for about as long as it takes to make the salmon. If that makes you nervous, then lets say roughly 15 minutes, you can keep checking on it if you like.

The next step is to chop up the ginger. The picture below is not to show you how much ginger I used, rather how I chop my ginger. First, I cut the ginger piece I want to use, then I slice it in half to make it easier to manage. I then peel the ginger piece and slice it into "matchsticks". This makes it much easier to chop them into small cubes, then I finely dice them up further.

Raw ginger is really sharp, and we want to soften it a bit before putting it on our salmon. So I added it to a pan with a bit of olive oil to let it cook.

For the orange rind, I just use a grater. Some people like to peel the skin and finely chop it up. Either way works just fine.

Once the ginger is browned in the pan, add the rind of both oranges directly in with the ginger and mix them up. The orange helps to take that edge of the ginger without losing its own identity. The two go quite well together really, and I now I'm imagining other orange-ginger combinations ... stay tuned!

Next, squeeze out about two tablespoons worth of the juices from both oranges into the pan. When you add the juice, you want to be ready to toss the ginger and orange rind around so that they can absorb the juice, or it will just all sizzle away. It might make it easier to squeeze the orange into a cup, then pour the juice in.

Now reduce the heat and let this sit and absorb all the flavours. I added a bit of salt and pepper as well, but they aren't absolutely necessary.

We are ready to grill that salmon. Add a bit of oil to your griddle or any pan you like, the most important part is that you wait for it to become quite hot before you add your salmon, your salmon should sizzle when you place it in the pan.

If your salmon has skin, take your knife and cut some slits into the skin, then add it to the pan skin-side down.

The fun thing about cooking salmon is watching the heat cook the salmon, and seeing the salmon turn light pink up the side. When it is about halfway up the salmon, flip them.

About now, it should be time to get the vegetables out of the oven, we are almost ready to plate.

Add a bit of butter to your ginger and orange topping and stir it in.

Finally, plate the salmon and vegetables, and spread the orange-ginger on top of the salmon. Thats it!

You might have noticed that I did not season the vegetables at all. I personally feel that the wonderful flavours of the bell peppers and squash should stay just as they are, but feel free to season as you like.

*Tip: Don't throw away your ginger, refer to our "Let's not waste anything!" page, and check out few ideas on how to use your ginger.

As with all the other recipes we put on this site, this is meant to be easy to follow. We are hobby chefs who love to cook, and we are always up for learning new techniques. If you know of anything in this recipe which can be done a different way, whether for increased ease of preparation or better taste, please add a comment below!

Whipped up by Shyamal Addanki