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.

Coffee Cake

The other weekend I went in search for a satisfactory place to have a spot of brunch in Crouch End, a hub of quaint cafes and boutique shops, so you'd think I'd have no problem finding somewhere. But no, the one I selected was a bit of a disappointment. I won't dwell on it as I don't really want to waste space on this little blog with places I've not enjoyed, but serving bog-standard wholemeal sliced bread from the local supermarket with warm chargrilled veg, causing it to go soggy and limp? Doesn't cut it I'm afraid.

Afterwards however, what really rubbed it in was when I wondered past another cafe called Coffee Cake, full of promise and delightful treats from both the savoury and sweet camps. This meant only one thing, returning to Crouch End to pay this place a visit in order to make up for the lacklustre effort I'd just experienced. So this Saturday I trundled my way back to the village within London and made a b-line down Broadway Parade for Coffee Cake. Upon entering, I couldn't help but feel a little like a kid in a sweet shop, and would've quite happily run up to the counter and scoffed my face with the dangerous looking deserts, had my sensible side not kicked in and made me head for a table in a reserved manner - damn you sensible side! 

The menu is listed on the several blackboards on the brick walls though it's more enjoyable if you go and investigate what's on display to choose what you want. I opted for the crayfish and spinach tart with black-eye-pea, farro, spinach and garden pea salad, which came to around £6.50. Not a winner on the budget front, but so very worth it. My friend had some of the baked salmon with chili and a choice of three salads: I think sweet potato, a Bhutanese red rice one and mozzarella, spinach and fig salad. There were about ten different tarts and quiches, eight different salads, sour dough breads and pastries and that doesn't even touch upon the breakfast menu. (I spied the people next to us having generous portions of eggs Benedict). 

Pretty much everything you see on display is available for take-away, which is an added bonus as it meant I could take home a gorgeous looking sweet thing that was probably terribly bad for me. I didn't do things by halves either when ordering some of the apple and rhubarb crumble. How was I to know I'd be given a portion of epic proportions?! I'd like to think I couldn't possibly have eaten the whole thing myself had I not offered some of it...but deep down I know I would've polished the lot.

I'd recommend heading here either for brunch or a large late lunch. The staff are very welcoming, it's quite family friendly as well as an ideal place to catch up with a friend, and surprisingly it doesn't get too busy even for a Saturday. My only qualm would be that the coffee is more bland than blend, and wasn't hot enough when we received it - I probably should've gone for one of the freshly made juices or smoothies. Ah well, next time me thinks.

Beast of Burger

Having an urge for a burger usually hits me in quite an impromptu way, with a slight jab to the stomach and resulting in an uppercut to the head - which usually means I must eat a burger. Soon. This urge came across me this afternoon, which meant I had the time to go and buy ingredients for said burger rather than taking a trip to somewhere like Camden to score at Hache (which I must blog about soon). 

So if you're anything like me and need a quick failsafe reliable recipe for a hearty burger to use you as a punching bag, then try this one for size...

Makes 4 beastly sized burgers

Ingredients:

250g of beef mince

1/2 a red onion (or 1 small one) - finely diced

1 large clove of garlic - crushed

2 spring onions - chopped

A few sprigs of fresh parsley - chopped

1 large egg - beaten

Salt and pepper for seasoning

A few pinches of dried chili

Splash of red wine

How to make:

Heat a knob of butter in a pan and cook the red onion, garlic and chili until soft. Add to a bowl and mix together with the mince. 

Mix in the beaten egg a little at a time.

Add the spring onions and parsley.

Season with salt and pepper and add a splash of red wine to the mixture.

Split into 4 patties. 

Preheat the grill to 180 and cook the burgers for about 25 minutes - turning every 10 minutes or so.

Use a knife to cut into the middle to check if they're cooked. If the juices run clear and no blood escapes you're ready to serve.

(Before a good grilling)

If you so wish, serve with a bun, tomato and salad in the classic fashion. Though I just had it sans bun with salad and some flakes of melted mature cheddar.

Tea Total

As a big fan of tea, it's often hard to find a good place to visit for a pot of brew to help wind down, and I'm too often bitterly disappointed with the bog standard English Breakfast tea in most cafés. Help is at hand though if you favour loose tea leaves with a taste that packs a punch, in the form of a little tea shop called Yumchaa - yum cha simply meaning 'drink tea' in Cantonese. There's a branch in Camden, however there's another quaint dwelling on the corner of Berwick Street/Noel Street, where I happened to pass and promptly enter!

On first entering the shop I was taken by the displays of hearty cakes and muffins, until I gave a sharp double take when I caught a glimpse of the rows of teas on offer inside tiny-tiny milk jugs. But what's more is you can sample the tea options before you decide on what to drink, with nowt but your nose. At £2 a pot it's more than good value, with various infusions of black, green and fruit teas. I've enjoyed both the Regent's Park fruit tea and the Earl Grey Blue Star, but whichever takes your fancy you're equipped with a one cup teapot (though it generously gives 2), strainer and mini milk jug if you require it.

The decor is homely and calm but at the same time quite vintage with white-washed cabinets and heavy wooden tables, plus they always seem to be playing great music to fit the tone - Al Green and Otis Redding on my last visit. The staff are friendly and helpful if you're struggling with which tea to try, the Regent's Park tea was a recommendation of which was spot on. I'm yet to have tea with someone else at Yumchaa, but so far have enjoyed the experience of going on my own that I might find it a little less special to share. That may be selfish, but it's hard to find a great place to unwind with a book or paper.

Oh yes, those cakes I was on about....

Sushi Centre

That subheading probably comes across like I'm referring to a large place where much activity occurs involving a mass of Sushi with (pro)portions to settle a hundred growling bellies, but as much as I'd like such a place to exist, I'm going to lead you down a path to a humbler restaurant at Centre Point.

Yes, odd as it may sound, the Centre Point Sushi Cafe is a must for anyone who loves Sushi. I'm not talking about pre-packaged or conveyor belt basics here, I'm on about the expertly rolled, cut, cooked and presented Sushi in an authentic league of it's own. I've visited this restaurant quite a few times after first being taken on a recommendation - that person deserves a whopping kiss on the head for suggesting this little gem - and on each occasion it's consisently impressed. It's another place tucked away, (you may find this a running theme with my posts as I find that generally, well, the best ones are), tucked away within Centre Point, on St Giles Street, above a Korean grocery store. The unlikely location is probably the reason for the minimal amount of customers, but this needn't bother you, you've got a vast menu to consider.

Prices are good value for the quality of food served, the only problem you might have is curbing your orders, the Sushi here is far too moreish for its own good! However, if you are sensible and only want to select a few dishes may I recommend the salmon Teriyaki, chicken katsu and Tamago Nigirizushi (omlette topped). 

But if you really want to treat yourself, they do plates of 6 piece Makizushi rolls with various fish options including an impressive softshell crab - just be cunning about the way you eat these little displays of art.