A Crowne Christmas

Christmas is going to be hard. All these delicious treats around (both out there at parties and in my own kitchen as we make mince pies and gingerbread) really are hard to resist. And then there are the actual meals around Christmas with all the high carb options there.

I was overjoyed to see the Christmas Menu at Mosaic Restaurant, Crowne Plaza this year. I can get my fill of a wonderful selection of delicious low GI food, with the benefit that if I fill up enough, I can (hopefully!) resist the desserts.

The low GI food includes beetroot and vodka cured salmon gravlax (hold the crostini), oysters, seafood, forest herb encrusted sirloin beef, roast pork loin, and of course, turkey.

Crowne has also revised the menu at 3 Merchants. The grill options are fabulous, and there are also a wide selection of side dishes, but the nyam salad is also another great option. The prices are good too. The lemongrass chicken breast with lemongrass and coriander (and pink peppercorns), especially when pared with the kaffir lime and saffron cream sauce is a personal favourite and just 79,000 kip. 

 Then there are the steaks, the lamb, the salmon, the ribs... Just have to go back lots!

They have a lunch menu too. The last one had some great low GI options on, and hopefully the next one will too. They are changed roughly once a month so I'll hopefully be able to blog about the next one. In the meantime, here is the grill menu.

With the cold weather I’ve been making lots of gratins. I love leek gratin, but also the mixed veg gratin with broccoli, cauliflower, leeks, asparagus and mange tout is also a real treat.

I make the cheese sauce with cream cheese, milk and cream, plus a grind of black pepper and heat the ingredients all together before sprinkling it with cheese and grilling it. Really good. I’m also going to make a low GI version of moussaka in the next few days, skipping the potatoes of course. For moussaka I fry up some finally chopped onions, then set these aside once they are translucent. I then fry up some minced beef, and once it has coloured, I add cinnamon and oregano, some tinned (or fresh and roasted tomatoes) and the onions. If it needs some stock I sometimes add some regular beef stock – I make stock from beef, pork, chicken or fish bones and then freeze it in ice cubes so I can take out as much or as little as I want – or sometimes I’ll add a glass of wine or some black tea which adds an interesting smoky depth to the flavor. I roast or barbecue then peel some aubergines – eggplants – making sure to remove the seeds as these can be bitter. I then layer the meat and aubergines into an ovenproof dish. I buy cream cheese from Phonphet as it is much cheaper there than at the other western foodshops in town. I heat up some cream cheese with milk to get the right consistency, then add a grind of pepper and a generous pinch of nutmeg. Once it is ready, I take it off the heat and stir in 2 egg yolks. Spoon this over the meat and aubergine and (sometimes with, sometimes without grated cheese) pop it in a preheated oven till it’s bubbling and the top has turned golden.

I generally have it either with salad or with green veggies as it needs it to cut through some of the richness. You can also make this in individual portions and heat it up when ready.

Great in the cold weather.

Thanks to Crowne Plaza for the pics they provided.