British Sausage Week

It was British Sausage Week this week. Here's a little bite (which actually turned out to be a rather large and very filling bite) a friend and I put together for lunch, off the cuff.

Just simply:

Sausages (oven cooked)

Houmous

Spinach

Baguette

Ketchup

What a banger!

Hotdog - Simian Mobile Disco

3 Hour Lasagne

There's no doubt about it, a lasagne is one of the most comforting dishes ever. Especially one that takes 3 hours to make. If you've got time to burn get involved in some of this...it's a guaranteed classic.

Ingredients:

For the ragu

500g pork mince

500g beef mince

3/4 of 1 large onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic

4 sticks of celery, finely chopped

2 carrots, finely chopped

2 x 400g can of chopped tomatoes

500ml red wine

200ml beef stock

2 x stem of rosemary

3 ball of mozzarella, sliced

handful of grated Parmesan

4 strips of anchovies, sliced lengthways

For the Bechamel sauce

1 1/4 pints of milk

pinch of ground nutmeg

1/4 onion

2 x bay leaves

50g butter

50g plain flour

How to make:

Cook the onion, celery and carrot on a medium heat for 15 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the crushed garlic and rosemary and fry for another 2 minutes.

Add the mince and cook until the juices from the meat have absorbed. Then add 400ml of the red wine and cook for 45 minutes.

Once the meat has absorbed the wine, add the tomatoes and beef stock and simmer for 2 hours adding the rest of the wine in stages. Season with salt and pepper.

15 minutes before the ragu is ready, heat the milk in a saucepan along with the 1/4 onion, nutmeg and bay leaves.

In a separate pan, melt the butter and mix together with the flour. Then add the milk in stages to the butter/flour mixture. Whisk thoroughly until all or most of the lumps have gone. If there are too many lumps after about 5 minutes, sieve the bechemal sauce into another pan.

In a glass or casserole dish, layer up the lasagne as follows: lasagne sheets, ragu, mozzarella, Bechamel sauce, lasagne sheets, ragu, anchovies, mozzarella, Bechamel sauce, lasagne sheets, Bechamel sauce to cover the top layer, then scatter the remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.

Put in a preheated oven set to 180, gas mark 4 for 30 minutes.

Enjoy!

Hummingbird Cupcakes

So I've finally attempted to make something from the Lantana cafe. I decided to go for the ever expanding popularity of the Hummingbird cupcakes. And here's how they turned out...

I had a slight tinker with the recipe as I was only able to make 12 rather than 24, but it worked out fine and the cupcakes were soft, golden and moist enough on the inside thanks to the banana and pineapple. The cream cheese topping could have been more stiff, which means I will of course have to make them again to get it right.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plain flour

1 1/2 cups demerera sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

75g unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 bananas, diced

1/2 can of pineapple chunks, drained

25g pecan halves, chopped

How to make:

Preheat oven to 160. Line 12 muffin wells with paper cupcake liners.

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl.

Stir in melted butter, eggs and vanilla until just combined. Gently fold in pineapple, banana and pecans.

Fill the muffin wells about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake until golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean, about 25-30 minutes.

Leave the muffins in the pan to cool for 5 minutes and then gently remove them from pan and let them cool completely on a wire rack before frosting.

For the cream cheese frosting:

50g unsalted butter, softened at room temp

100g cream cheese

1 tsp lemon juice

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups of icing sugar

With a wooden spoon (or electric mixer), beat cream cheese, butter, lemon juice and vanilla until light and creamy. Beat in the powdered sugar until well combined and paste onto the cupcakes. Finally, decorate with some pecan halves.

NB: you could use walnuts instead of pecans.

Inamo

So, I turned 25 quite recently and had the abundant task of choosing somewhere to eat out with my family. Now there are a few things to consider when picking a restaurant to satisfy my lot:

1) Portions must be filling

2) Atmosphere needs to be lively (but not raucus, let's not be silly now)

3) Menu must be varied

While pondering this I remembered Inamo. You can safely tick off all three requirements, and then scrawl down a few extra. I visited this restaurant months ago and knew I had to go back, if only for the battleships. You heard me, battleships! I'll get onto that in a mo, but let me tell you that relying on a waiter to get your order right need not happen my friend. Nope, you can order your food and drinks all by yourself. Each table has a projector above it which projects the menu onto the white table, and you control it with a small mousepad. It's worth remembering to pace your orders so that you don't get served everything at once! [note: this works successfully unless you are my father who failed to listen to this advice resulting in him receiving three main dishes at the same time, includine this pork dish]

And it doesn't stop there. You can play around with the table by changing the image projected onto it; or how about booking a cab if you've had a few too many beverages, or plan out where to head next with the interactive map? But the best thing has to be the games, which takes us back to battleships. You can play against the person opposite you while you wait for your food, brilliant!

Usually the idea of gimmicks and entertainment at a restaurant puts me off as it means not enough attention is given to making sure the food is a decent standard. But I was really surprised to experience some of the best food I've eaten at a restaurant in a long time. No, really.

Between seven of us we had quite a variety off the Oriental fusion menu, and by no means did any of it disappoint. The prices might seem high, but the food matches those prices. We had the aromatic duck pancakes (which the waiters shred for you once they've served it), the Thai red curry, the baby crispy prawns - with an extremely light batter and the Berkshire pork neck. I shared the duck leg with pancakes with my sister, which was lovely and tender. I also had some grilled black faced lamb chops with moromi miso and kim chi which was cooked to perfection, mostly pink with a bit of bite around the edges.

The desert didn't disappoint either. The black sticky rice with fresh mango was gorgeous, but a good one to share as it's very sweet. I've had a similar dish in Bali which I loved even though I'm not a huge fan of rice pudding. The mini chocolate desserts were delicate and looked so cute.

And what meal isn't complete without coffee and tea afterwards?

I went for the chamomile flower tea which came in a gorgeous pot and glass cup. I can't remember the company who produce them, but you can purchase the glassware on their website. I'll try to find out who it is and pop it on here when I do.

Lamb, Walnut & Pomegranate Tagine

I cannot stress how delicious this is...but what trumps the taste is the fact it's so simple to make. I cooked this the other day and my flatmate demanded I should make it again soon (I'm scared of what will happen if I don't). *pretentious alert* If flavours were Hollywood actors, this meal is Ocean's Eleven, a mix of a-list and underrated combined to pull off the unexpected with such audacity you can't help but love it! I'll let you decide who should be the pomegranate...

Ingredients:

Lamb - 750g shoulder joint (usually 1/2 shoulder)

2 tbsp plain flour - seasoned with salt and pepper

1 red onion - peeled and diced

3 cloves of garlic - peeled and finely chopped

1/2 stick of cinnamon

75g walnuts - chopped

2 bay leaves

1 pomegranate - de-seeded

500ml pomegranate juice

How to make:

Dice the lamb and toss into the seasoned flour until all pieces are covered.

Heat about 2 tbsp olive oil in a large pan on a medium heat. Add half of the lamb pieces to the pan and cook for a few minutes until they've evenly browned. Remove from the pan and do the same with the remaining lamb pieces. Add the first batch of cubes back to the pan and turn the heat down.

Add the chopped red onion, garlic, cinnamon stick, walnuts and bay leaves to the pan and stir thoroughly with the lamb. Cook for up to 5 mins until the onion is translucent. Stir regularly to avoid anything sticking to the pan.

Add 250ml of the pomegranate juice into the pan and simmer very gently for 1 hour. Add more pomegranate juice in stages and a little water when it starts to get thicker.

When ready remove the cinnamon stick and bay leaves and sprinkle with some of the pomegranate seeds.

To accompany the lamb tagine I made a puy lentil salad and used the remaining pomegranate seeds like so...

Cook the puy lentils for 20 mins in boiling water. Add more water if it starts to dry up.

For the dressing stir together 2 tbsp olive oil, juice from 1/2 a lemon, 1 tsp ground cumin, salt and pepper.

Once the lentils have cooked and cooled off slightly, mix them with some spinach, cherry tomatoes, pomegranate seeds and the dressing.

Reliable Risotto

Almost everyone has their own 'old reliable' when it comes to risotto (and I'm about to boast mine). I don't think you can ever go wrong with an oozy prawn and mushroom risotto quite frankly. So here it is:

Ingredients:

1 small onion - diced

knob of butter

3 or 4 handfuls of arborio rice

1 litre of chicken stock

g king prawns

a handful of frozen garden peas or soya beans

2 handfuls of oyster mushrooms

a glass of white wine

a handful of grated fresh Parmesan (save a little for sprinkling at the end)

fresh parsley - chopped

How to make:

Melt the butter on a low heat and add the onion and cook until soft and translucent. 

Add the rice and stir with the butter. 

Pour in enough stock to cover the rice and bring to the boil on a medium heat.

Simmer until the rice has soaked up the stock then add some of the white wine. Pour in some more stock, simmer until most of it has absorbed, and add the rest of the wine. 

After about 10 mins add the king prawns. 

Keep adding the stock in stages until the rice has swelled to a tender state. This should take roughly 20 mins, but taste the rice to check it's tender enough (and still has a slight bite to it). 

In the last 5 mins add the oyster mushrooms, peas/soya beans. Once they've almost cooked through fold in the fresh chopped parsley and grated Parmesan and cook for a couple of minutes.

Serve and sprinkle with the rest of the Parmesan.

 Et voila!!

Canteens get Class

I consider canteens quite the underdog of eateries. Commonly associated with schools and workplaces, they've also become accepted into the dining culture, mainly due to the infusion of Asian cuisine and now canteen restaurants like Wagamama, Cha Cha Moon and Busaba Eathai are popular and reliable choices.

I think this is down to three things:

1) prices don't make you limit your order

2) service is pretty swift

3) they have great atmosphere

Point 3 is one of the most important as it's what a canteen is all about. Lively, an eavesdropper's dream and full of satisfied faces. Though the great atmosphere probably has a lot to do with points 1 and 2. Which is where Canteen (a canteen called Canteen) differs. It's prices are high but reasonable for the organic local produce they cook with. It's much larger which means you're not squashed up with other diners - not so good for eavesdroppers; and service is at a regular pace. It's essentially a restaurant disguised as a canteen. So once you accept this it becomes an enjoyable meal.

The menu is mostly modern British food. I went for the lamb and mint pie, mash and cabbage with gravy at £10.50. Seems a bit steep, but tastes great and really fills a hole!

I'm not much of a fan of macaroni cheese, yet theirs was surprisingly light, and had just the right amount of crunch to the golden  brown top.

 

Verdict: too much class and pleasantries to be a true canteen, but very worth a visit if you appreciate free range and organic produce.