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Showing posts from 2014

Chorizo and butternut squash chilli

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Another recipe using up what we had in the fridge, with the addition of sour cream and coriander! Ingredients (serves 2): 60g chorizo, cut into rough chunks 1/4 butternut squash, peeled, de-seeded and cubed 1 red onion, diced 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped 1 red chilli, finely chopped 1 can of tinned tomatoes 1 can of cannellini beans, drained and rinsed 2 tsp of chilli powder 1 tbsp of brown sugar 1 cup of water Sour cream and coriander to serve For the rice... 2 cups of rice 4 cups of water 1. Fry the onions in a little oil until softened. 2. Add the garlic, red chilli and butternut squash and fry for 5 minutes on a medium heat, stirring often. 3. Add the chorizo and chilli powder and fry for a couple of minutes, coating the ingredients with the chilli. 4. Next add the tinned tomatoes, cannellini beans, sugar and water, bring to the boil and leave to simmer for 20 minutes, adding extra water if needed. 5. To make the perfect rice, place

Grilled halloumi salad served on a crisp tortilla wrap

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Ingredients (serves 2): For the baba ganoush... 1 aubergine 1 garlic clove, crushed 2 tbsp tahini 1 tbsp olive oil Juice of half a lemon And the rest... 2 tortilla wraps 150g halloumi, sliced 1cm thick 1/2 red onion, quartered 2 lambs lettuce leaves, sliced into strips 50g pomegranate seeds Small handful of pine nuts, toasted Small handful of mint, roughly chopped Olive oil 1. Pre-heat the oven to 220 degrees. 2. To make the baba ganoush, prick the aubergine all over with a fork and roast in the oven for 45 minutes, then remove from the oven, lower the oven temp to 140 and allow to cool. 3. Once cooled, peel the aubergine and blitz the flesh in a food processor, adding the garlic, tahini, oil and lemon juice. 4. Place the tortilla wraps on a baking tray and generously spoon over the baba ganoush, spreading all over and leaving about a centimetre baba ganoush free.  5. Lay the chopped red onion over the top as if you were decorating a pizza, and

Roasted cod and chorizo

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I've made this dish twice now, once with diced pancetta, and once with chorizo. I'd say just make use of whatever you can find in the fridge! Personally I prefer the chorizo, but you could easily chop up the left over bacon from your weekend fry-up! Ingredients (serves 2): 2 cod fillets 60g of chorizo ring, roughly chopped 3 medium potatoes, quartered 60g green beans, trimmed  Handful of black olives, halved 2 tbsp olive oil Juice of 1 lemon  Pinch of chilli flakes Salt and pepper 1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees. 2. Boil the potatoes for 10 minutes, then add the green beans and boil for 2 more minutes. 3. Drain the potatoes and green beans and add the chorizo and olive, then shake it all around. 4. Tip the contents of the pan onto a baking tray and place the cod fillets on top. 5. Season the whole tray with the chilli, salt and pepper, then splash the olive oil and lemon juice all over. 6. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes, then serve, p

Mum's pork crackling

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For those of you who have seen THIS , here's how you make it... Ingredients (serves two hungry people) 500g pork belly 1/2 tsp salt 2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into perfect roastie sized spuds 1 large carrot, peeled and cut lengthways 1 large parsnip, peeled and cut lengthways 1 large red onion, quartered A couple of sprigs of thyme 1. Pre-heat the oven to 140 degrees. 2. Score the skin of the pork belly creating a criss-cross pattern and rub salt all over. 3. Grab an oven proof dish or roasting tray and place a wire rack on top for your pork belly to sit on. 4. Place the pork in the oven and roast for 3 hours. 5. Prepare your veg by parboiling the potatoes for about 6-8 minutes in boiling water until the edges become fluffy, then drain and fluff up the potatoes some more by shaking the pan with the lid on. 6. After 3 hours, turn the oven up to 200 degrees, add the veg and thyme to the roasting tray underneath the wire rack and coat with the pork fat that has

Polpo - a Venetian tapas style restaurant

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I think I've found it. The restaurant that I would literally order almost anything , and greedily want EVERYTHING  on the menu, just to have a little taster of every single flavour combination it offers. This beauty of a restaurant showcasing this wonderful menu is  Polpo , which serves up Venetian tapas style sharing plates in various locations across London. The menu is fairly sizable and once you've confirmed with the waiter what is an acceptable number of dishes to order * (avoiding that embarrassing restaurant moment where you over-order and a continuous stream of food begins to head towards your table, whilst you frantically start eating, stacking plates and hiding the evidence...) Anyway, when you've found that number, the menu is simple - you fancy meat, fish, or veg? Little nibbles or bigger plates? Completely up to you, and if you make the mistake of not ordering enough then fear not - just order more and it will come out as and when it's ready.

Trout en papillote with fennel and dill

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Cooking fish en papillote (in a parcel) is one of my FAVOURITE ways to both cook and eat fish. It's really simple to do, and very hard to muck up! It keeps the fish moist and full of flavour and is a relatively healthy way of cooking fish. Plus you can make it a one pot dish by cooking your veg in with it too. This recipe is with trout, but it can work with almost any fish. Ingredients (serves 2): Two fillets / whole trout (whatever you can get your hands on!) 1 fennel bulb, thinly sliced 1/2 the juice of 1 lemon 2 large potatoes, thinly sliced (no need to peel!) Several sprigs of dill Olive oil Salt and pepper Baking paper or tin foil 1. Preheat the oven to about 180 and boil the potatoes for 5 minutes, then allow to cool slightly. 2. Place the trout on a sheet of baking paper or tin foil and rub with the olive oil and lemon juice (including inside if the fish is whole). 3. Place the potato and fennel slices on top of the fillet (or inside if whole) and season with

Sri Lankan Prawn Curry

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Leave my boyfriend to go spend the last of our Sri Lankan Rupees before boarding our flight home is usually asking for trouble and I have to be honest, some of the ingredients I'm still a little puzzled by and have no idea what to do with them! But for a select few along with whatever I could find in the cupboard and fridge / freezer, I put to use what I learnt at a Sri Lankan cookery class in Mirissa , and cooked up a deliciously fragrant, cheap curry. Ingredients (serves 2): 1 red onion, diced 1 garlic clove, crushed 2 inches of ginger, grated 1 green chilli, sliced 2 tsps of turmeric 2 tsps of brown curry powder (from Sri Lanka) 1 cinnamon stick, broken into bits (from Sri Lanka) 4 green cardamom pods (from Sri Lanka) 1 cup of frozen prawns (or your chosen meat / fish) 1/4 of a butternut squash, peeled and cubed (optional) 1 tin of coconut milk 1 cup of rice 1. Fry the onion in a tablespoon of olive oil until softened. 2. Add the ginger, garlic, chilli and spi

The other Tooting Chicken Shop

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Anyone who has recently moved outside of Zone 2 will know that there are certain areas estate agents push (and push) and whether you choose to believe their spiel about it being "an up and coming area" or "the next Shoreditch" is up to you. My past experience with a certain group of Coca-Cola supplying rahs, is that most of the time they are telling a load of rubbish and will almost certainl y drive you to an area you didn't ask for, for a price you didn't agree.     So it took me by surprise to find that actually, Tooting is pretty up and coming. I'd been to the Tram and Social before, but anyone who's walked the short walk between there and the station, knows that the choice of shops are really limited to Wilkos and a take-away chicken shop. But dig a little deeper and just around the corner you will find several trendy bars and a chicken shop of a different kind.  With a continuous stream of hungry customers forming an orderly queue

Mum's kedgeree - Thai style

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When I was younger there were a few staples that my mum used to cook for my family of six. Her specialties were the usual roasts, pork and apple casserole and bangers and mash... One dish that she used to make has fallen out of fashion, but remains a classic - kedgeree. This is a recipe that experiments a bit with tradition, using simple Thai ingredients to add a bit of edge to the usual curry flavour. It's traditionally a breakfast dish, but works just as well as an evening filler. Just remember to keep the windows open as you cook it! Ingredients (serves 2): 200g smoked haddock fillets 2 hard boiled eggs, roughly chopped A few knobs of butter Olive oil Fresh coriander - stalks chopped, leaves for garnish 1/2 tsp turmeric 1/2 tsp ground cumin  1/2 tsp ground coriander 1 tsp of lemon grass, sliced 1 small red chilli, chopped 1 garlic clove, chopped 1cm ginger, chopped 2 cups of rice  1 tsp fish sauce 1. Place the fish in a saucepan a

The great Italian feast

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Before you read this, I must warn you, as soon as you start to feel like you want to go to this restaurant, book it - book it right now. It is an extremely popular restaurant and you could wait weeks, months to get a table there. And it's really easy to see why. So first, the details: Al Boccon di'Vino Richmond http://www.nonsolovinoltd.co.uk/ And where do we start? Firstly, there's no menu. Which as a massively indecisive foodie, this is a dream. Just sit back, a glass of wine in hand, and wait for course after course of deliciously fresh Italian food to be presented in front of you. Now bear in mind, when you sit down you'll probably not find your feet for another five hours. This is for two reasons: one, due to it's huge popularity the seats are back to back and getting up seems like a massive mission, especially when, two, you eat so much you will literally have to roll out of the restaurant when you finally reach course 15!! Yes, 15 courses.

The bright lights of Xquisite

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So I had just moved to Tulse Hill and couldn't wait to try the local restaurants. Two weeks in and I had already tried four - it's nice having a new kitchen don't get me wrong, but spending two weekends shifting boxes and building furniture, cooking is the last thing I want to do (ok maybe not the last, but you catch my drift). Before even moving here I already had one place in mind that I wanted to go, Bubbas - a Caribbean restaurant in the old station building. I had heard pretty good things about it and it had been on my list of places to go for a while. So you can imagine my disappointment to find that it had closed, sadly due to the owner passing away. But it would appear that in the very same building, a new Caribbean restaurant had taken it's place: Xquisite . So it's Friday night at 8.30pm the restaurant should be buzzing with customers yes? No. Peak serving and barely anyone in sight, I was intrigued to find out why.  Walking in we found t

Lamb & aubergine curry with pomegranate

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This curry is verging on tagine, but that all depends on how much spice you add to it. With the pomegranate in this you can definitely afford a bit of extra spice! If you go too far, just add yoghurt! Ingredients Oil for frying 250g cubed Lamb 1 large onion, diced 2 garlic cloves, crushed 2 fresh green chillies, finely chopped Bunch of fresh coriander, stalks finely chopped, leaves left for dressing Half an inch of ginger 1 tbsp chilli powder 1 tbsp garam masala 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 tbsp ground turmeric  4 large tomatoes, roughly chopped 8 cherry tomatoes, halved 4 baby aubergines, halved and sweated Tin of coconut milk  A pint of stock (lamb if you have it, chicken if not) Bag of spinach 1 pomegranate Basmati rice to serve Method   1. Fry the lamb in the oil on a low heat until golden brown. 2. Set aside the lamb and in the same pan soften the onions. 3. Once the onions are softened, add the garlic, ginger, coriander stalks, chilli