Wednesday 31 October 2012

Foodie Pen Pals-October

This was my first Foodie Pen Pals box and I was excited to see what I would receive. It's a bit like Christmas for foodies, only it happens every month. The idea started in the US by Lindsay who writes the Lean Green Bean and now the UK scheme is run by Carol Anne, aka This is Rock Salt. She manages to match up foodies and co-ordinate us all so that everyone gets a box and sends one to someone else. My favourite bit was actually the sourcing and buying of things for my own box to send to Joan, who is Carol Anne's sister, so I was under a lot of pressure to perform! You can read Joan's blogpost about my parcel here.

Sallie was sending to me and here is what I received:


  • The rather exciting sounding peppermint and licorice tea
  • Stuffed vine leaves
  • Poppping corn
  • Cheese & pumpkin seed crackers
  • Hazelnut cream wafers


And a cute card with a recipe for making popcorn!

The crackers have gone down very well with my OH, and I had a a little taste (I don't eat cheese unfortunately) and can testify to their superior crunch and seedy goodness. I love stuffed vine leaves, and these ones look excellent so that's Hallowe'en dinner sorted. I think we will put on a scary movie and pop the pop corn, and maybe jazz it up with some ghoulish spices, salt and butter-yum.

Thanks Sallie!

Foodie Pen Pals is a great idea and I'm already looking forward to next month when I can send another unsuspecting foodie some of my home-made treats *cackles*. Ok, enough of the Hallowe'en references, I'm off to make brownies with pumpkin puree!

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Giraffe Islington Tweatup


Cocktails and starters
Tonight I had the pleasure of attending a Tweatup at Giraffe restaurant in Islington. I've been to the restaurant a few times before, so I knew it would be good, but I wasn't expecting quite the amount of free food and drink we got. I met some cool people, who had also been chosen from Twitter.
The PR company running the tweatup must really like chicken, because there were at least 3 dishes which contained it, great for us non-meat eaters. The area manager from Giraffe was lovely though, and took pity on me, getting me a delicious salmon sushi rice salad. This was definitely the best savoury dish of the night, and I was confident it would take the crown as we worked our way through the new menu. Edamame beans were tasty and halloumi skewers a great idea, although I'd have liked a bit more halloumi and maybe some hummous dip for all the flatbread.


Salmon sushi rice salad-yum
The others partook in some chicken wings and duck tostadas, whilst we sipped delicious Skinny Ginny (gin with apple juice) and Louisiana Jam (strong SOCO & cherry jam) cocktails. Before I got too tipsy, the salad arrived to jealous looks from the others. Mango pieces mixed with avocado, spinach leaves, bamboo shoots and a healthy dose of smoked salmon were a great combination and the dressing was very tasty and tangy. I was getting very full by this point, but pushed myself to eat a few of the delicious sweet potato fries, which are reason enough to go to Giraffe in my opinion.

Just when we all feeling the strain, out came dessert, and what can I say but WOW. I'm not even a massive fan of dessert (actually, who am I kidding?) but the chocolate mouse crunch slipped down a bit too easily. Jude's fruit sorbet with fruit salad and strawberry coulis was a great, refreshing alternative for the dairy-free and health conscious, but I figured I'd already blown the diet so made head-long for the crumble, not expecting much. Man, was I ever wrong. That crumble (apple, almond and red cherry, served with vanilla ice cream) was the best I have ever eaten (sorry granny). Indeed, I haven't eaten a crumble since my grandmother passed away nearly 15 years ago, but she would be getting right back up to eat this one I am sure. Get yourself down to Giraffe pronto to try the new menu yourself, but save some sushi salad and crumble for me!

Trio of desserts-omg

Monday 29 October 2012

Comptoir Libanais


I wanted to do a quick post about our tasty in-between-buying-shoes lunch yesterday at Westfield in Shepherd's Bush. I've eaten at Comptoir Libanais before, but yesterday's offering was extra tasty, and the photos came out really well. I'd not tried their tagine before, but fancied something warming now the winter chill has set in. Aubergine is my favourite veg (don't tell me it's a fruit-the whole fruit or veg conundrum is confusing enough!) so when I spotted a nice veggie aubergine tagine I had to plump for that. The OH went overboard as usual and bought a dip plate as well as a wrap for himself (not quite as visually appealing as the other 2 dishes, hence not shown here) with delicious baba ganoush and hoummus and labneh. The warm pitta and dips were really good, so I wasn't complaining too much about the extra kcals, and anyway, it's Winter so we're a long way off bikini-time.

I love Lebanese food and am really hoping I'll make it to Beirut soon to try the real deal. Until then, I'll keep making my own baba ganoush-which reminds me that I need to do a blog post about how successful my first attempt at the dip was! I'll be heading back to Westfield soon to hopefully try CL's breakfast efforts, the sumac fried egss have got my name on them!

Sunday 28 October 2012

Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

This is Nigella's recipe, and it is totally delicious! It's from her new book, Nigellisima and is available on her website. It doesn't look particularly special, but the texture is so light and fudgy, I was really impressed and will definitely be making it again soon. This recipe uses ground almonds and is perfect for a gluten-free friend, although you can replace the ground almonds for 125g plain flour if you like. I'll try it that way next time to compare, but the almonds did work really well and the taste was divine. Serve it with some ice cream and berries, or a coulis and plain yoghurt to offset the chocolatey-ness (or just dive in if you're a chocoholic like me!)

Ingredients:

  • 150 ml regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
  • 50 gram(s) cocoa powder (good quality, sifted)
  • 125 ml boiling water
  • 2 teaspoon(s) best vanilla extract
  • 150 gram(s) ground almonds (or 125g plain flour)
  • ½ teaspoon(s) bicarbonate of soda
  • 200 gram(s) caster sugar
  • 3 eggs
Method:
  • Preheat your oven to 170°C/gas mark 3. Grease a 22" springform cake tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
  • Measure and sift the cocoa powder into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
  • In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
  • Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a freestanding mixer with the paddle attachment (or other bowl and whisk arrangement of your choice) and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.
  • Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.
  • Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour this dark, liquid batter into the prepared tin. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean but with a few sticky chocolate crumbs clinging to it.
  • Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

Chocolate, apricot & hazlenut biscotti

I've never made biscotti before, but this was a really easy recipe, from the BBC Good Food website, my go-to place for ideas and tasty dishes that turn out well. You bake the biscotti in two stages, so you get a lovely loaf-style bake (right). Cutting this was the hard bit, even with a serrated-edge knife some on the loaf was breaking off (so I has to eat those bits) as I sliced into it, but I got there in the end. It makes between 20-24 slices so you need a big baking tray! If you like your biscotti really hard and crisp then do bake them for longer, mine were a little softer, but we liked them like that. The best thing about biscotti is they keep for ages-about 3 weeks in an airtight jar, so snack time is sorted for ages! 


Ingredients:

  • 2 medium eggs
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 250g plain flour , plus extra for dusting
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 25g chopped apricots
  • 25g toasted hazelnuts , roughly chopped
  • 25g chocolate chips
  • Method:
Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and line a large baking sheet with baking paper. Whisk together the eggs and sugar until light and fluffy. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl, then add the orange zest, hazelnuts and chocolate chips. Fold into the egg mix to make a soft dough. Tip onto a lightly floured surface, shape into a 25cm sausage shape with lightly floured hands, then transfer to baking sheet. Flatten to a 3cm thickness, then bake for 30 mins until lightly browned on top.
Remove and slide onto a chopping board, then reduce the oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Cut the log into 1cm thick slices and return to the baking sheet, cut-sides up. Bake for 10-15 mins until crisp, then cool on a wire rack. Will keep in a tin for 3 weeks.
Nutrition:
84 kcalories, protein 2g, carbohydrate 16g, fat 2 g, saturated fat 0g, fibre 0g, sugar 6g, salt 0.09 g



Tuesday 23 October 2012

Gluten-free pecan-crusted coffee cakes

These little coffee cake bites (without any coffee-don't ask!) are super easy to make and healthy! They are from an American website called Damy health which has lots of great allergen-free recipes to go with a diet and fitness plan you (presumably) have to pay quite a lot to take part in. So I focus on the free recipes, and I loved how these turned out, really gooey and sweet-the perfect treat to go with a cuppa (tea or coffee) I think. 

I made them for my Foodie Penpal this month, who was Joan, who requested healthy treats which is really what I am after too. They have kept well (we are still eating them at home) so I hope they reached her ok - it's hard to know what to send through the post!

So, here's how you do it:


Prep time: 7 Minutes, Cook time: 12-14 Minutes. Makes 12 large or 24 small Cakes (depending on size of the muffin tray)

 Ingredients:
225g Cooked Quinoa
180g Soft Pitted Dates, finely chopped
2 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
2 Tbsp Coconut Oil
2 Egg Whites
30g Ground almonds
2 Tbsp Agave Nectar

Topping Ingredients:
50g Pecans (Crushed)
1 Tsp Cinnamon
1 Tbsp Agave Nectar
1 Tbsp Coconut Oil  

Directions:
  1. Pre-heat your oven to 220c
  2. Place your topping ingredients into a bowl and mix thoroughly. Set aside.
  3. Place all coffee cake ingredients into afood processor and blend until smooth stopping to scrape down the  sides.
  4. Spray your mini muffin tin with a non-stick healthy cooking spray e.g. fry-light.
  5. Scoop batter into each muffin tin filling to just above half-way.
  6. Top batter evenly with mixed topping ingredients.
  7. Place in the oven and bake for 12-14 minutes.
  8. Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack.
  9. Remove from tin and try and restrain yourself to one at a time enjoy!

     Nutritional Content: (based on 12 cakes)
Kcals: 139 Carbs: 20g Fat: 6g Protein: 3g

Friday 19 October 2012

Shrimpy's

Shrimpy's retro wall, replete with glimpse of palm tree
Shrimpy's is a serious amount of delicious fun. It's kind of my new local, having literally "popped up" in what used to be a petrol station in a pretty obscure location at the back of King's Cross station. We used to run past it en route to Regent's Park, and it was such a bleak location, the last place you would expect to find a foodie haven. The re-vamp of the King's Cross area has been planned for a long time, and the area is fast gaining it's foodie credentials, with Eat St (now Kerb) providing excellent street food to hungry King's Place staff and customers, and Caravan catering to a weekend brunch crowd. Shrimpy's is the icing on an increasingly-delicious cake, taking up around half the space of what is now The Filling Station, where you can get pizza and drinks and sit overlooking Regent's Canal.

Seabass ceviche with plantains

With a curved, corrugated-cardboard style exterior, I wasn't expecting Shrimpy's to look as inviting as it did. Dimly lit, with an abundance of pineapple-shaped paraphernalia adorning the sills and counter, retro phrases and images have been painted onto the walls. The cocktails are retro-glam too, with a spicy margarita and a "blue-rinse" (a tequila and blue bols mix) amongst others. The food is south american-style. The seabass cevice starter we chose had a lovely tiger's milk marinade, tangy and delicious, but featured a lot of corn which seemed to be doing the rounds as it was on the table when we arrived. The seabass slivers were tasty, but there weren't enough of them in the dish, which had a lot of soft plantain chunks, sweet and tasty, to balance out the lime.

The piece-de-resistance on the menu is clearly the soft-shell crab burger, although lobster did feature and looked pretty good too. The crab burger was crispy and light, with good skinny chips accompanying it, but it wasn't amazing. My monkfish with quinoa, almonds and courgettes, however, was scrummy, and seemingly the healthiest options available. It didn't look that big at first glance, but monkfish is so meaty and filling that I was struggling by the end.


Soft shell crab burger
Since we shared a starter we had room for some dessert and were really hankering after the grilled black figs with almonds, honey and mascarpone, but they had run out. We went instead for what I'd describe as a pineapple eaton mess, or as they call it "meringue, hibiscus syrup, chantilly, pinapple". I'm not a fan of creamy desserts but this was gorgeous, and I'd have stolen it if it hadn't been my OH's birthday dinner! A crisp pineapple slice stood proudly in the top of crunchy meringue, whilst chunks of tangy pineapple cut through the cream. The hibiscus syrup was delicious, and the whole dish reminded me of my childhood, when Tony the ice cream man would serve me plastic cones full of soft serve ice cream with raspberry ripple sauce all over it. I only with Shrimpy's has been so generous with the sauce-I'd bottle it and sell it it was so good.

I'd read reviews that Shrimpy's was "sceney" so I was feeling a bit trepidatious when we first arrived, but the waiting staff were very friendly and relaxed, making us feel at home. I was really impressed just before we left when I overheared the maitre d' helping some walk-in customers, one of whom was in a wheelchair. She was quick to set up a table for them with easier access, and really went out of her way to help. I'll definitely go back to Shrimpy's - perhaps when I've saved up a little as it is fairly pricey - but for a treat it's a lovely place, with great decor, tasty food and super-friendly staff.

Wednesday 10 October 2012

Kerb-new street food venue for Kings Cross

The Kings Cross street food scene has really taken off since Central Saint Martins came to town. Eat St, a street food-traders collaboration has been really popular, especially with the workers from Network Rail and the Guardian who are well-placed on York Way. Kerb has been set up by some of the people who founded Eat St (which has now disbanded), and the launch party was last Friday. (Their website isn't really up and running as yet so check out their facebook page) I knew I should have gone down at 6pm when it opened but I was busy so didn't make it until nearly 8pm, seemingly peak time. The queues were massive, but I spied tasty-looking fish tacos from Luardos which I am definitely going back for soon. 


Healthy yummies with their v popular scallops

















The reliably good Sorbitium Ices were there, so whilst everyone else was heading for the savoury noms, I hit dessert straight off. Naughty me. I went for a bit of naughty and a bit of nice-date, sherry and almond ice cream and fig & red wine sorbet. The ice cream was like Christmas in a bowl-just like xmas pudding ice cream, and really creamy and delicious.The sorbet was a bit of odd thing to pair with (my fault) but also was a bit grainy, still a very festive non-dairy option though.

The bar was popular too (right) with mixologists mixing up treats for the rowdy Friday night crowd. 
I really wanted to try the doughnut bites with salted caramel sauce from You Doughnut but the line was really long, and they ran out of batter for a while there. Never mind, Kerb is back on a regular basis at lunchtimes and hopefully more evening slots too, so those doughnuts will be mine, eventually!

Tuesday 9 October 2012

Immensely chocolatey peanut-butter meringue layer cake

This is the most elaborate cake I've ever made, but it was so worth it. It's an amalgamation of 2 recipes, one is a crunchy milk chocolate-peanut butter layer cake (from American Food and Wine)  and the other was a chocolate layer cake from the reliably good BBC Good Food website. I made it for the OH's birthday and it made a great celebration cake - and it's certainly big enough for all the family! The ganache for the top and sides needs to be done well in advance so it has time to thicken up-mine was still a little runny.
The middle is a gorgeously crunchy combination of meringue, nuts and a chocolate-peanut butter-rice crispy set ganache. You need a serrated-edged knife to cut through it to get a clean slice, but if you like a bit of texture it's great, because it provides a nice contrast to the moist sponge.


















Messy but good-my ganache was too runny!
Ingredients
For the ganache: 
300ml double cream
300g milk chocolate, chopped

For the sponge: 

  • 175g self-raising flour , sifted
  • 3 tbsp 70% cocoa powder
  • 175g golden caster sugar175g butter , completely softened, plus extra for lining the tin
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1-2 tbsp milk
  • 100g 70% dark chocolate , melted and cooled

  • For the middle:
  • 25g ground almonds
  • 100g icing sugar
  • 2 large egg whites
  • 1tbsp granulated sugar
  • 260g smooth peanut butter
  • 25g slivered almonds (or chopped peanuts)
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 85g milk chocolate
  • 25g rice crispies 

Method (sponge & icing):
1. Make the icing first (it takes a while to cool and thicken). Put the chocolate into a bowl. Pour the cream into a pan and heat until simmering. Take off the heat and pour it over the chocolate. Stir until the mixture is smooth. Cool, then chill, until really thick but spreadable.

2. Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Butter and base-line 2 x 18cm sandwich tins with baking parchment. Take 3 tbsp flour from the full flour amount and put them back in the flour bag - the cocoa powder will make up the difference.


3. Put all the cake ingredients except the chocolate in a large bowl. Beat them together with an electric whisk (or whizz in a food processor) until you have a creamy mixture, then fold in the melted chocolate. Add a little more milk if the mix is too stiff - it should fall easily from a spoon.


4. Divide the mixture between the 2 tins and level. Bake on the same shelf in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until the sponge springs back when pressed. Cool for 5 minutes, turn out onto a wire rack, peel off the paper and cool completely. 


Method (cake filling):

  1. Trace a 9-by-13-inch rectangle onto a sheet of baking parchment and lay it on a large baking sheet. Mix the ground almonds with the icing sugar. In a bowl, using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites at medium speed until soft peaks form. Add the granulated sugar and beat until the whites are stiff and glossy, about 2 minutes. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the almond mixture. Spread the meringue on the baking parchment to fill the rectangle. Sprinkle the slivered almonds/chopped peanuts on top. Bake for about 20 minutes, until lightly browned and firm. Let cool.
  2. In a medium bowl set in a saucepan of simmering water, heat the peanut butter with the butter and milk chocolate, stirring constantly, until smooth and melted. Remove from the heat and fold in the Rice Krispies. Spread the mixture all over the meringue rectangle. Transfer to the freezer and let cool completely.
  3. Place the bottom cake layer on a large board. Spread some of the ganache over the cake. Invert the meringue filling (now hard) onto the cake and peel off the paper. Spread some more of the ganache over the filling, then top with the second cake layer. Refrigerate until firm, for at least 1 hour. Remove from the fridge and trim the edges of the meringue mixtures (use a serrated-edge knife) so the middle of the cake lies flat with the sponge. Spread the remaining ganache over the top and sides of the cake and refrigerate to set. Cut and serve.

New product review: Gnaw chocolate

I love finding new products, especially when those products include chocolate! Even better, Gnaw had me at "peanut butter" which is my absolute favourite thing, even more so than choccy itself. About 7 years ago when I took my first trip to the States, my friend and colleague who I was travelling with ribbed me mercilessly about my peanut butter fetish- I had to go to Macy's and buy an entire luggage set to get all the stuff I'd bought back home. Anyway, back to Gnaw. It's made in Norfolk (or Gnaw-folk) and it's handcrafted and yummy and cool and (wait for it) ethical. Yes. Everything I could ever want my chocolate to be.
So, they support red squirrels, which is pretty cool. And their bars are slim, tasty and filled with treats. Rocky Road is stuffed full of mini marshmallows and fudgy bits, the PB bar has tonnes of tiny bits of peanut in. There's real-life marzipan in the milk and dark bars. They even do sugar-free for the diabetics and dieters (that's me too, but I have to say the PB bar lasted all of 5 minutes and I still have most of the SF bar left in a draw...) I suppose I'm a bit of a traditionalist really when it comes to unadulterated cocoa-based pleasure, so I steered away from the bars studded with red jelly hearts. I'll leave those for you. Gnaw is currently available in a few select shops and from some independent online retailers. I suggest you get in quick, these guys are going to be big. And when they make their bars bigger to match demand, the peanut butter ones are ALL MINE. muhahahaha.