Mother's Day at The Grand Siam, Eastwood and then back home for lots of cake

My main meal. Chicken Pad Priew Wan, packed full of fruit and vegetables - today carrots, peppers, spring onions, cucumber, sugar snaps, pineapple, but I've also had it with lychees in too. The sweet and sour sauce is lovely and light and sweet and sharp, really fresh and light with fluffy egg fried rice in a cute heart shape and crispy chunks of juicy chicken.

I have been very lucky this week. "Did you know the Thai is open on Mother's Day?" my husband asked, I did know and was very happy when he suggested we book and invite the "Nanas" to come with us for Sunday lunch. Then trying to arrange what to do on Friday night while our husbands werte out watching Morrissey perform, my friend said "Can we go to the Thai? There's still lots to try on the menu!", so yes, I have been twice this week.

You can find my last blog about the evening menu here and their website here and on Friday we enjoyed our favourites, the Grand Siam Platter for starter (a platter of the best of their delicious starters, served with a selection of dipping sauces) followed by a Gaeng Mussaman Neau Tun a combination of succulent chunks of beef, soft potato, crunchy cashews and vegetables in a rich and spicy sauce. We left extremely full and satisfied.

After completely over indulging then I was glad when we arrived today to see the lunch menu was on. 

2 courses including boiled or egg fried rice where appropriate and a cup of tea or coffee all for just £7.95. You could also order additional dishes as my hungry husband did and the dessert menu was available too.

The service at the Grand Siam is always second to none, the ladies there are lovely and always ready to help or explain and that's what helps to make eating there so enjoyable.

The lunch menu is a lighter, more concise version of the evening menu, so no big platters, which was good as it forced us to have something different for a change, for example my husband had a spicy soup "Tom Yum" and my father-in-law had some crispy, spicy chicken wings "Peek Gai Laou Dang".  As does sometimes happen when faced with lush food, I forgot to get my camera out until we were well under way!

Mums choice, halfway through her chicken satay "Satay Gai". 3 skewers of juicy chicken, with a thick peanut sauce.
All the starters were served with a side salad of shredded cabbage and beautifully cut leaves made from carrots. 

The last of my 3 super crispy, duck spring rolls "Poh Pia Ped" packed with strips of duck and vegetables and served with hoi sin sauce for dipping

Then it was time for the mains, below are the ones I captured, the portions were appropriate for lunch time. In the evening main dishes and rice are served separately in lovely little bowls and pots set over burners to keep them warm amd if you wish you can swap and share with your other diners. Lunch time though, you get your own dinner including your rice or noodles all served on a plate together as a meal.

Lauren's regular dish "Pad Se-Eiw", thick ribbon noodles with pieces of chicken (you can have pork, beef, prawn or bean curd instead as you can with many of the dishes) crunchy broccoli, carrot and cauliflower all stir fried with egg and soy sauce.

Stir fried noodles with chicken and bean sprouts, Pad Mee Jay Gai.  

Special fried rice Khaw Pad Pe-Sed, my mum had this and she enjoyed it, my husband had it in addition to his meal as he was hungry and enjoys his food and my dad had it and thought it was tasty but he would have loved to have had a sauce with it, he likes his food saucy. 

Kaeng Daeng, my husbands choice, a red curry paste and coconut milk curry with beef, warm and spicy and served with fragrant rice and his extra portion of egg fried rice, he enjoyed what he had but had been disappointed that the beef mussamen curry had not been on the lunch menu as that's his favourite.

The "Nanas" getting their Mother's Day goodies, Lauren had made them a selection of gifts - necklaces and decoupage monograms, flowers and pictures. 

Back at home attention turned to coffee and cake. I had whipped up a couple of offerings before we went out.

Chocolate and Raspberry Sponge

 As always I weighed 4 large eggs, which came to 275g. I used this weight to measure all the other ingredients, butter, caster sugar, self raising flour (except I substituted 30g of the flour for 30g of cocoa powder) and mixed them all together in my food mixer with 1 tsp of vanilla essence. The oven was heated to 180C and I had greased 2 8" tins. I divided the mixture between the two tins and baked for 25-30 minutes until the sponges were firm to the touch and a skewer could be poked in and come out clean.
While the cakes were cooling, I whisked a 284ml tub of Elmlea Double Light with 100g Lindt 72% chocolate which I had melted and cooled and 5 tablespoons of icing sugar. When everything was cool enough to assemble I chose one sponge to be the base and coated it with a thick layer of the cream mix, leaving about a third for the top of the cake. Taking a punnet of washed raspberries I covered the base in rings of raspberries, again saving half the punnet for the top of the cake. Once the base was complete, I topped it with the remaining sponge and repeated the steps with the cream and raspberries. Finally I melted another 50g of the Lindt 72% chocolate and drizzled it over the cake as a finishing touch.
The cake was rich and creamy, sweet with chocolate, but balanced with the sharp little raspberries which brought an injection of fruitiness. The sponge was really fresh and soft and very difficult to cut the small pieces that everyone was requesting after their lunch! This is a cake for big slices.

Coconut Squares

This is one of my favourite cakes, I always thought it was called a Madeleine but it's not, Madeleine's are something completely different, so I guess it's just jam and coconut sponge.
I used a Mary Berry tray bake sponge mix, 225g butter, 225g caster sugar, 275g self raising flour, 2 level tsp baking powder, 4 large eggs, 4 tbsp milk and I added a tsp of vanilla essence.
I used a greased and lined tin 12 x 9" (30 x 23cm). I made sure the lining came right out to make lifting the sponge out afterwards much easier. The sponge was baked at 180C for 40-45 minutes until firm to touch, golden in colour and a skewer inserted came out clean of any cake mixture. Again once baked, I let it cool. Whn cooled, it's ready for me to spread the top with jam, ideally raspberry but I only had strawberry, then sprinkle with dessicated coconut until you get your desired result.
I trimmed off the crusts (which me and Lauren will enjoy with a cup of tea) and cut the cake into fairly even squares.
When we ate it, it was super fresh, light and fluffy. I think a stronger jam would have been better. The sponge would have been nice with a touch of lemon for a change.

All in all we had a lovely day, another round of memories to cherish.