I'm 26! OLD.

Hi homies! I turned 26 this week, I'm pretty surprised to be 26. Kind of thought I'd be at least living in a house with an oven by now.

I went back to Wales for my birthday, first time in a year. I did a bunch of nice things!
Hung out on a foggy beach!

With some mutts! (they had a pretty good time)

The beach is pretty good, saw some crabs and a jellyfish.

This is circle dancing and should only be attempted by my mother and some other nature lovers, in a forest, in the sun on the day after my birthday.

This is near my house, and it's pretty awesome. There's wind in Wales, the air in London is pretty still but here it'll smack you in the face so you can't breathe for a second.

For my birthday, my sister gave me this book. It is DREAMY. There's so much to make that I had to make something while in the presence of an oven, I chose the moroccan carrot salad and the stuffed cabbage. It doesn't sound like much but it was a killer dinner and it's pretty flipping easy. I've modified both recipes slightly.

The moroccan carrot salad makes about enough for 4 hungry people, the cabbage about the same too! That's convenient isn't it?

For the carrot salad you'll need:

750g-1kg of carrots. That's about  8-10 normal sized carrots
olive oil
1 red onion, chopped
1 tsp caster sugar
3 crushed garlic cloves
1 chopped green chili
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground coriander
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
a big bunch of roughly chopped fresh coriander, as much as you can grab in your sticky fist

Cut the carrots up into sticks, or little discs, or semi circles, however you like 'em.

Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, then add the carrots and turn down the heat. Let them simmer in the water until they're tender but don't let them lose their bite, you don't want a soggy salad. Remove from the heat and drain and leave to cool.

Chop the onion, chili and garlic. Put a couple of tbsp of olive oil into a large pan and saute the onion until soft, then add the carrots to this, followed by all of the remaining ingredients and spices (apart from the fresh coriander). 

Make sure it's all thoroughly mixed in the pan, then remove from the heat and season well, then leave to cool in a big bowl.

Now the cabbage! You'll need:
150g basmati rice, about half a cup
1 medium white cabbage
60g pine nuts, about 1/3 cup, roughly chopped
Bunch of fresh mint and a bunch of fresh parsley
3 crushed garlic cloves
100ml dry white wine, just under 1/2 a cup
100ml vegetable stock, just under 1/2 a cup

See, now in the book, good old Yotam tells us to cut the cabbage in half, then peel the big leaves off. Don't listen to Yotam when he says this. It makes it way trickier, just grab your cabbage and peel the big leaves off until you've got the amount you want. We ate 2 of these each so that's your guide, although I actually ate 3 so whatevs.

Put the rice in some water and cook it as you normally would until it's soft and done. Drain it, then put it back into the pan (not on the heat). To the cooked rice add the pine nuts, fresh herbs and the garlic and some salt and pepper and taste it and see how good it is, it's GOOD.

Grab your cabbage leaves and a pan of water. Bring the water to the boil, then place a couple of cabbage leaves at a time in the water until they go a little floppy. Then grab them out of the water and run them under the cold water tab for a second so that they don't cook any longer. Pat dry.

Holding a cooked leaf in your hand, scoop some rice out of the pan with a spoon and place in the centre of a leaf. 

Fold the edges around the filling, then place edge side down in a baking dish.

In a jug, mix the wine, stock and some salt and pepper in a jug, then pour over the cabbage leaves making sure to cover as much as possible. Place in the oven at 180C/Gas mark 4/350F until almost all of the liquid has gone, or until the cabbage is browned.

SO GOOD.

Ps, I re-joined twitter. Again! I know. Hit me up @nimnam.