Cheesecake-marbled brownies

It was my day off today, and to treat myself I wanted to make brownies. So I had a scan for alternative recipes and came across this one by Smitten Kitchen. If you are a food lover and don't follow Deb's blog - what's wrong with you?! She's always posting some amazing recipes, and I especially love the ones for a sweet tooth.

This is a quick and simple recipe and doesn't require much brain power so there's no excuse not to give it a go. Head to Smitten Kitchen to view the recipe.

Here's how mine turned out...

Heat It Up

If you fancy getting in the mood for Valentine's Day (or even if you'd rather show your affections on impulse), take a look at this list of restaurants which are perfect for a romantic rendezvous.

Top Table have compiled the list of bloggers' choices, including mine, which had to be none other than the ol' faithful, Andrew Edmunds!

The Chocolate Festival

The Chocolate Festival took place this weekend (10-12th December) at the Southbank and at first I thought I couldn't make it as I was working all weekend. But when I told my boss all about it he let me leave work early so that I had time to catch the last 30 minutes before all the cocoa delights were packed away!

I bought a few treats from the following stalls:

Ooh La La Chocolaterie - a box of twelve truffles including lemon curd and elderflower, vanilla and black forest.

Cocoapod - some cute Christmas themed chocolate lollipops with edible transfer patterns.

Jaz and Julz - a pack of chocolate orange flavoured organic drinking chocolate.

There was also a stall for chocolate art. White Fox supplied a fashionable selection of jewellery, shoes, socks and mittens.

There was also an impressive model of a steam engine on a choccy railway track!

The Chocolate Festival takes place in London, Oxford, Brighton and Kingston and the next one is in April, so make sure you check it out when it's back in town. As well as products to buy there are freshly made crepes and baked goods all involving chocolate so it's difficult to walk away empty handed.

My Top Ten

It's nearing the end of the year and the lovely people at Top Table recently asked me to give my Top 10 Restaurants of 2010.

So click on the link and check out which ones made it and why!

There are also lists from other brilliant food bloggers such as Gourmet Chick, Cheese and Biscuits and Hollow Legs. You can see which eateries are their favourites as well! (There seems to be a valid mutual love for Hawksmoor).

Rather Dishy

This may be a bold statement but what the heck, Dishoom is my favourite London restaurant this year. Why? I'm glad you asked...

[Apologies for the lack of photos, my camera was absent :( I shall of course take some on another visit but don't let that stop you from reading and imagining how gorgeous the food is.]

Dishoom is the sound effect in Bollywood films where the hero whacks a good punch to his enemy. Or, as it suggests on their website, can be 'popular slang usage of the expression “Mojo”; e.g. “He’s got that Dishoom” '. So, they've taken both meanings and incorporated them into the style and presentation of the food and restaurant.

The ingredients for the menu are designed to taunt the taste buds, rather than blow your head off with excessive heat. The dishes are designed to have authentic flavours and touch on traditional Bombay dining. The biryanis are cooked and served in a clay pot, and you can expect to see familiar things like bhajis, samosas and classic tandoori grills. The berry chicken biryani may seem like a decent sized portion for one person, but it's far more enjoyable to share and order a few small plates so as not to get too full on rice.

If you're a fan of squid I have it on good authority from calamari connoisseurs that the lime and chilli coated calamari is very tasty and worth ordering. I personally loved the Bombay sausages. Bitesize chunks of chipolata sausage smothered in a masala sauce.

The drinks are a particular highlight as well. Serving your everyday cocktails with a twist such as herb infused Bloody Marys, Mojitos with Chai - Chaijitos, and Bombalada which is, you guessed it, a Pina Colada with herbs and spices that give a little extra to hit the spot! Ooh er.

When it comes to the tandoori grills the dill salmon tikka was cooked with just the right amount of spice and had a crunchy outer shell from being cooked on charcoal but well enough to avoid the fish becoming dry. In fact it was soft and almost juicy on the inside.

There's a sense of pride in the air from the service to the design of Dishoom. It's spacious, luxurious, even the ladies toilets have the extra detail of traditional trinkets in glass cabinets. This paired with friendly and professional service makes the dining experience almost like you are being doted upon.

If you've not yet been, I urge you to pay Dishoom a visit.

Top Marks for Mooli's

This eatery has been on the blogs, tweets and food critics' lips as one of the best new places to eat at in London. I'd heard only good things about it so recently popped along to Mooli's with a couple of friends. As it happened, it was their 1st Anniversary and as a token gesture for celebrating this milestone with them, the owners, Sam and Matt, were personally handing out free slices of brownie. (Big imaginary appears above head).

Mooli's has a very select, to-the-point menu. It's designed to be tasty fresh Indian food on-the-go which meets the demands of a fast paced City but keeps authentic Delhi flavours in the food. This is something which somehow didn't already exist in London (or the UK come to think of it).

The ingredients are a simple combination for each choice of mooli, making your decision on what to order far easier, or at least I thought so. (A bigger pops over my head.) For example, the chicken option consists of mildly spiced chicken, apple, mint chutney and yogurt. This is the mooli I ordered and was very pleased when the wholesome warm silver bundle was served. It's an equivalent of a burrito in terms of quantity and concept. Something portable, sizeable and full of healthy, tasty ingredients. The only thing that might be a little frustrating is that it can be a bit messy to eat - but all the more reason to eat it up! Plus it makes the act of eating more enjoyable, having to lick your fingers and grapple with stray bits of salad. (Another in my book).

The other highlight from their celebratory evening were the £2 drinks. Wine, beer or mojitos all for two quid - yes please! (The mojitos are £4.85 normally which is still reasonable for Soho).

The special thing about these mojitos are the flavours: lychee, pomegranate and guava. I opted for the pomegranate one and was offered the option of added chilli for some warmth. As it was a cold night there was no excuse not to try it, and boy was it worth it. Little tip though, give it a good stir so that you don't get intermittent hits of chilli. (Brilliant combination, ).

This is decent fast-food that can also be eaten leisurely and an ideal model for expansion. I could definitely imagine a few more Mooli's restaurants making an appearance around London, and hope this happens in the next year because bundles of Delhi joy can never be a bad thing.

In short. Top marks Mooli's!

Indulge at Langan's

After a gorgeous meal at Odins near the start of this year I recently paid a visit to its sister restaurant, Langan's Brasserie. Langan's is the larger and more popular of the two and just as enjoyable to dine at.

We booked in for a Saturday evening which was obviously busy, yet the waiters seemed to make us feel as though we were the only table they were serving. One slight inconvenience was that because the restaurant is very popular, they appear to have crammed in more tables than needed which meant the isles in between were very narrow to walk through.

But enough of the grumbling, it's only a minor detail to the whole experience. When it came to ordering, there was no hanging about so I won't waste any time letting you know what we had.

I started with potted crab which was fresh and lemony with the white meat at the top and then the deeper flavour crept through as I dug into the brown crab meat and cayenne pepper at the bottom of the pot. It was well chilled and went well with the granary bread, though I would have also welcomed toast to spread the crab meat onto. Seeing as it was September, this seemed to be a good way to give a last hurrah to the summer.

My Mum had the duck liver paté with toast and a redcurrent sauce. The paté was beautifully smooth and complimented the crunch of the toast.

Another stunning dish was the spinach soufflé with anchovy sauce. The soufflé was cooked to perfection but the thing that stole the limelight had to be the sauce, which was rich and buttery but balanced out with lemon and a kiss of anchovy. (Not a full on snog that you might expect from something as strong as anchovy.) I thoroughly recommend it!

Onto the main courses then. If you're like me and tend not to order a chicken dish because you eat the feathery free-range bird most of the time so order something you wouldn't regularly cook, then good for you. But, I have to say that I was rather envious of the roast maize fed chicken with thyme and sage stuffing on this occasion. A healthy hunk of half a chicken modestly accompanied by a rasher of bacon and a thin gravy was so tasty that I felt guilty for automatically dismissing it. I'm also usually hesitant when ordering a roast. Anywhere. Mainly because you tend to get ripped off on quality of the ingredients and quality of cooking. But to see it done properly is a pleasing thing.

A couple of the fish dishes offered a lighter dish but were still full of flavour including the salmon and spinach fishcake with parsley sauce.

The grilled lemon sole with parsley butter was also finely cooked and seemed a decent sized portion. However, the fish dishes aren't enough on their own so be prepared to order some extra sides. The leaf spinach, red cabbage and green beans were prepared so that they gleamed from the bowls. Be warned though, the mashed potato isn't for the faint hearted. It's extremely indulgent with either a lot of cream or butter in it.

And on to my main dish - the Saturday Special, grilled Scotch fillet steak with Bearnaise sauce.

I went for the standard choice of medium-rare, though I'm sure I would've been happy with just medium as well. This fillet steak was a challenge to finish (which I did), but a damn tasty one. The meat was a proper melt-in-the-mouth moment with a tender seal around the outside without that tacky texture you can sometimes get with steak if it hasn't been cooked well. The Bearnaise sauce was nice and thick and the tarragon and pepper softly shone through to make sure it wasn't too buttery. Pretty damn good to dip the steak, or a chunky chip, into.

Let's just take another moment to look at it.

Phwoar!

The desserts we had were the rice pudding, spotted dick with custard and a chocolate cheesecake for me. The spotted dick was light and quite crumbly with a lovely vanilla custard.

The cheesecake I had was delicious but I was sadly beaten by the sheer size of the slice. It was quite a thick texture and after the crab and steak to start it was a bit overambitious. If it had been half the size it would have been spot on.

Generally you can forget M&S for indulgence because Langan's is utter extravagance. Maybe next time I shouldn't be so greedy and just go for two courses...