The Horseshoe, Hampstead

I love going out for Sunday lunch as it feels like a real indulgence, especially as we can make a great one at home, but it is nice not to have to wash up! So my mom visiting for the weekend was the perfect excuse for a treat before she headed home on the train, we went to Hampstead as not only is it pretty but close to Euston station too.

We to The Horseshoe, a bright airy pub with a small but perfectly formed menu. I really loved the flowers in vintage milk bottles on the tables, the hand lettered names on the back of old wooden chairs and the green melanin table surfaces reminded me of school.

We started with some bread with the customary salted butter on the side and a lovely glass of Sauvignon for my Mom and the Malbec (my new favourite red) for me from the quite extensive wine list.

We all went for the beef roast with a huge yorkshire pudding. The beef was quite rare but still warm - just how I like it! It also came with crispy roasters, green cabbage and root veg mash - a unusual but yummy way to serve veg and meant a great combination of textures. My only complaint was the gravy, delicious but nowhere near enough - all Sunday lunches out seem to have that problem and you always end up asking "Sir, can I have some more?"

Rhubarb and Apple Crumble

After using rhubarb for the first time in a cheesecake the other day I had some left over and thought I would experiment with it in a crumble. The dessert is a little bit out of season as I usually save this kind of homely pudding for the cold winter months.

I used a recipe by Gordon Ramsey from BBC Good food but modified it to use some things leftover in my store cupboard.

Apple and Rhubarb Crumble

Ingredients

• 8 stalks rhubarb

• 3 Braeburn apples

• 150g unsalted butter

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 tbsp clear honey

• 2cm piece root ginger

• 1 Orange, juice and zest

• 150g flour

• 2 tbsp light brown muscovado sugar

Method

For the fruit filling, pull any tough strands of skin off the rhubarb - don't peel it completely or you won't have any colour left. Cut the stalks into fairly chunky pieces so they keep their shape and don't end up as a purée when you cook them. Peel and core the apples and cut them into similar sized chunks; we use equal quantities of each to balance the flavour.

Melt a knob of butter in a pan and sauté the fruit to drive off any extra water. If you don't do this now it will release a flood of liquid into the crumble and make it soggy.

Add the cinnamon, orange juice and zest and honey, grate in the ginger and keep cooking until all the liquid has evaporated. Cooking the fruit right through at this stage means all you have to cook at the end are the crumble toppings, which is great if you are serving them at a dinner party, as you can finish them off in the oven during the main course.

Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.

Tip the flour into a bowl and roughly chop in the remaining butter. Rub everything together gently to make it into crumbs and then stir through the sugar.

Pop the fruit into a roasting dish and sprinkle the crumble mixture over the top. Top with a sprinkle of brown sugar. Don't pack it down, just let it take shape naturally.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until nicely browned on top. I served mine with custard, but cream or crème fraiche would work well in the warmer months too.

Recipease: Mexican Street Food

Slightly hungover from the BBQ the day before I got up early and headed over to Clapham to participate in another recipease class - the cooking courses set up by Jamie Oliver and taught by his staff. I did the knife skills course a few months ago, which I loved so the guys at work got me a voucher for my birthday to try out another, so I went for the mexican street food course as I was hoping it would help me recreate Wahaca style dishes.

I turned up and was welcomed by a very friendly lady who was to be our teacher for the day and given an apron and a seat while we waited for the rest of the class to arrive. The set up is great as the class is only for 10 people and everyone has their own work station and your ingredients are ready to go. The teacher took us through what we was going to make for the day and showed us the first section of prep we had to do and then let us go on do it but was constantly on hand to offer tips and advice.

The dishes are inspired by Jamie and his distinctive cooking style, we were told to add as much chilli as we like and make it personal to our tastes. We used a lot of chilli. In everything!

We begun by making a fiery ceviche, raw seafood is cooked in the acidic

juice and zest of lime and lemon. We used tiger prawns (the only seafood that was cooked quickly in hot pan to add colour), scallops, coley and a squid tube, all from a sustainable sources. We then added passata, lime and lemon juice and zest, garlic, chilli, spring onions, mixed herbs (basil, coriander and dill), worcestershire sauce and cucumber. It is mixed together and marinated for an hour to 'cook' the seafood. Seasoning as added just before serving otherwise the squid will go chewy. It was so fresh and tasty, lots of different textures due to the various fish and strangely refreshing.

We made a salsa verda, a chunky green salsa which uses whatever green herbs you have - we used coriander and mint mixed with garlic, green chillies, spring onions, tomatoes and lime juice. Both the salsa and cerviche was perfect served on top of our handmade gorditas.

Gorditas are a corn cake which I can only compare to a squashed scone that is deep fried, but they are described by Jamie as 'delicious little fluffy tortillas'. I found them a little bit stodgy and very simple but a perfect base for all the fiery toppings. The key when forming them is to make sure there are no cracks around the edges otherwise they crumble when fried.

And last but not least was the soft chicken taco cooked in chipotle sauce. The recipe is below as this was by far my favourite out of the amazing selection of dishes we created, it was so rich in flavour, with lots of depth and I think would impress friends at an informal dinner party - this is one I may have to make for you when you visit next Emily.

When everyone finished, we piled our food and a big wooden board and all sat down with a glass of wine (or beer in my case) and proudly tucked into our creations together. I demolished the chicken taco but managed to save a little of the salsa, gorditas and cerviche for the boyfriend to try when I got home - not a big fan of fish but he still thought the flavours were great!

Jamie's Chicken Taco with Chipotle Chilli Sauce - Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons whole cumin

• 2 teaspoons dried oregano

• 1 large dried chilli

• 4 cloves of garlic, peeled

• 8 chicken thighs on the bone - skins scored

• olive oil for frying

• 3.5 cups passata

• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• 1 heaped dessert spoon caster sugar

• 100g chipotle chilli sauce

• 4 flour tortillas

• 2 baby gem lettuce - washed and leaves picked off

• 2-3 limes

• small bunch of coriander

• 1 red onion - thinly slice

• 2 large tomatoes

• 2 strips spring onion - sliced on an angle

Method

• Put the cumin, oregano, dried chilli and garlic into a pestle and mortar and grind down (or pop in a small blender and whizz).

• Lightly oil the chicken and season with salt and pepper, then take 1/2 your dry seasoning mixture and rub all over the chicken.

• Add a lug of olive oil to a large pan and when the oil is hot fry the chicken on both sides until golden brown.

• Turn the heat down and add the passata, vinegar, sugar, chipotle chilli sauce and remaining dry seasoning mix. Turn the heat low, put a lid on the pan and simmer the chicken until cooked through. This should take 20 - 25 minutes, depending on how big the chicken is. Check it is cooked before removing from the heat. The sauce should be thick and sweet, if not remove the chicken and put the pan back on the stove and reduce the sauce until it is sticky and sweet.

• Next step is to assemble the taco. Remove the chicken from the sauce and pull the meat off the bone and discard the bone.

• Lay the flour tortilla on a flat surface and spread about a tablespoon of the sticky chipotle sauce like you would tomato sauce on a pizza base.

• Add the cooked chicken, spoon over some salsa verda, 2-3 baby gem leaves, corriander leaves, lime juice, chopped tomatoes, red onions and spring onions.

• Fold one edge in about an inch to form the bottom and then fold in both sides and wrap tightly, and tuck in!

Brazilian Bom Bom

I tried these little homemade sweets a few weeks ago whilst looking around a craft fair. They were so good I had to go back to the stall using them entice people in and ask the person who made them what they were (even though she was trying to sell jewellery not sweets!), she said they were a traditional Brazilian sweet called a Bom Bom.

So I have been searching the internet for a recipe and could not find one until I started researching Brazilian sweets and found out they also go by the name of Beijinho or Brigadeiros, I particularly wanted the flavours I tried already. The coconut and clove was amazing, a really unusual flavour combination but it just melted in your mouth and then a classic chocolate one similar to a truffle with chocolate strands as a coating.

I made these also for the BBQ and they made a great sweet treat for everyone's (slightly drunken) journey home.

Beijinho de Coco (Coconut Little Kiss)

Ingredients

• 1 (14 ounce) can sweetened condensed milk

• 15 g butter, plus more for pan

• 20 g sweetened flaked coconut

• sweetened flaked coconut for decorating

• whole cloves for decorating

Method

Bring milk and butter to a simmer in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Continue to cook, stirring often, until the milk has reduced to half and thickened, about 20 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in the 1/4 cup coconut, and allow to cool a bit before pouring into a buttered bowl.

Chill in the refrigerator until cold, about 2 hours.

With buttered or oiled hands, form milk mixture into tablespoon-sized balls, and roll in coconut flakes. Stick a clove into each beijinho as decoration.

Remind people to remove the clove before eating.

Brigadeiros (Chocolate Fudge Truffles)

Ingredients

1 14-ounce can sweetened condensed milk

4 tablespoons cocoa powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

Method

Pour the condensed milk into your heaviest pot. Stir in the cocoa powder and the salt.

Cook, stirring constantly, over low heat. Keep the mixture barely at a boil to prevent burning and sticking.

Cook for 10-15 minutes, stirring, until mixture becomes very thick and shiny and starts to pull away from the bottom and sides of the pan.

Remove from heat and stir in the butter and the vanilla.

Chill in the refrigerator for 20 to 30 minutes.

With buttered hands, roll the mixture into 1 inch balls.

Roll each ball in the chocolate sprinkles, and place in a paper liner.

Chill until ready to serve.

Homemade BBQ Burgers

For the BBQ I also went all out and made three types of burgers - Garlic, Chilli and Coriander and melt in the middle mature Cheddar.

The most popular by far was the chilli and coriander which are really simple to make.

Homemade Chilli and Coriander Burgers

Ingredients

• 1 pack of lean beef mince

• 1 red onion, finely chopped

• 1 egg yolk

• 1 chilli, finely chopped

• large handful of coriander, chopped

• plain flour for dusting

Method

Combine all the ingredients, apart from the flour, in a bowl and mix together well. I always use my hand to really get the ingredients to stick together.

Take a fist sized amount of the mixture and form into patties. be sure to compress well with your hand to stop the burger falling apart on the BBQ.

Roll them in flour to stop them being sticky to handle, this will also help them stay together.

Place on the BBQ, turning regularly until cooked through. Serve on a bun with cheese and your favourite relish.

Triple Ginger & Rhubarb Cheesecake

In preparation for our last ever big BBQ before all us housemates leave to go our separate ways, I got busy in the kitchen preparing some tasty treats to eat on the day. It began with the triple ginger cheesecake with roasted orange rhubarb on top - a recipe found on the website for BBC Good Food.

I felt very middle class in Waitrose purchasing rhubarb and crystallised ginger - things I have never bought before!

The cheesecake was really easy to make as it was not one you bake and the rhubarb was really simple to prepare, just roast for 20 minutes in orange juice, zest and sugar.

You have to love ginger to enjoy this cheesecake but judging by how quickly it was demolished at the BBQ everyone seemed to like it! My one housemate Claire even said it was her favourite thing I have ever made, what a great compliment for something so simple.

Triple ginger cheesecake

• 200g ginger biscuits

• 100g unsalted butter

• 400g full-fat soft cheese

• 50g icing sugar

• juice 1/2 lemon

• 1 tsp ground ginger

• 100g Greek yogurt

• 50g crystallised ginger , chopped

• 400g rhubarb

• 1 orange

Method

Trim 400g rhubarb into 2.5cm pieces. Place in a roasting dish. Sprinkle with zest and juice 1 orange and 3 tbsp caster sugar. Cook for 10-15 mins in a 220C/fan 200C/ gas 7 oven until just soft. Leave to cool.

Whilst waiting for the rhubarb you can get on with the cheesecake. Whizz together the biscuits or crush in a sealed bag until you get fine crumbs. Gently melt the butter, then mix into the crumbs. Press evenly into a 20cm loose bottomed round cake tin. Chill in the fridge while you make the filling.

Put the remaining ingredients into a food processor and whizz until smooth. Spread over the base, then smooth the top with a knife. Leave in the fridge overnight to set. Remove the cake from the tin and top with roasted rhubarb or your choice of fruit.

Giant Robot at Latitude

So last weekend we packed our tents, wellies, crates of Strongbow and port and headed off to our first ever Latitude festival in Suffolk. I was expecting good things as it is smaller than Glastonbury with loads of bands I couldn't wait to see, a comedy tent and Giant Robot - one of our favourite eatiers from near where I work that had a pop up restaurant there too.

We booked before we left for the festival for the Sunday lunchtime, I thought by this time we would be suitably hungover and want to have a sit down meal, be waited on and be undercover from the forecasted thunderstorms! We turned up to find a giant cog archway that led into the little undercover restaurant where they very kindly found us a bigger table for an extra two friends we found along the way.

Just as we were sitting down, another of the many rain showers started and we sat undercover feeling smug as we watched people diving for cover. The menu was a mini version of the one in the restaurant with a selection of favourites such as meatballs and a separate hot dog menu by the people from Trailer Happiness in Notting Hill.

I went for the meatballs with spaghetti and some green beans on the side - the first vegetables I had seen all weekend! The pasta was perfectly cooked, sauce was full of flavour, the meatballs substantial and the cheese on top made my day. With a hangover from three cider filled days this was the perfect meal to get me going again!

The sausages with lentils are also worth a mention - again a really hearty meal that hit the spot for our friend, Chris.

On the side of the restaurant was the BBQ run by the folks at Trailer Happiness who specialised in hot dogs that were so good, one of group went back for a second helping.

This was a much needed meal to get us through the last bit of the festival, leaving us feeling very content and ready to drink a little bit more cider...

Holiday Eating - Part 4

To complete our holiday week off we went to visit the boyfriend's family down in Dover, Kent, where I knew we would be treated to lots of food (especially if his Mom had anything to do with it!)

We went to visit the picturesque costal village of Deal where we walked along the pier to have breakfast in a little cafe overlooking the sea called Jasin's.

Whilst walking around the town I also spotted this great hand painted sign for the local sweet shop. The Sugar Boy is very traditional with rows of jars of old fashioned treats which provided lots of sweets for Charlie and the Chocolate factory film.

In the afternoon we headed out for a vineyard tour and tasting at Terlingham Vineyard, the smallest one in the UK with its own winery. The wines are produced on site by hand, the grapes are harvested from the southern facing slopes - the climate and soil are similar to that of the champagne region in France.

We tried the two whites and a red and ended up purchasing one of the whites - the Saxon Shore 2009 which was awarded bronze in the national competition, we consumed it all later that evening.

I also went to my first village fete I can remember and it lived up to expectations! Bunting, a coconut shy, bric n brac sale, brass band and...

...and a great spread of cakes and sandwiches by the local community.

25p for half a homemade tuna sandwich - bargain!

Not sure what it is.....

....but I like it!

Images via ffffound.com

Holiday Eating - Part 3

On our return from the Isle of Wight we went out for a friends birthday to a Teppanyaki restaurant in Camden, Sin Nin. I have never never been to one before and it is described as a theatre of Japanese cuisine.

You all sit in a horseshoe shape around a big hot plate, a chef comes over and performs for you - throwing eggs in the air and catching them in his hat and setting the whole cooking space alight!

It is a bit pricey but a great experience, we went for a sushi and sashimi platter followed by a 'Tokyo Teppanyaki' meal to share. The tuna and salmon sashimi were full of flavour but the sushi was a bit tasteless which was a shame even though the ginger and wasabi perked it up. It was beautifully presented on a wooden board as you can see below.

Our chef then got down to the series business of cooking our main meal in front of us, he started with the egg fried rice which more than made up for the tasteless sushi as it was some of the best rice dishes I have ever eaten! Whilst we watched we tucked into miso soup.

Whilst we waited for our rice to cool, the waiter got on with the meat, we had the choice of three meats so we went for chicken, steak and tilapia - a white fish fillet.

The chicken was by far my favourite as it was flavoured with terikyaki sauce. I was thinking I will definitely try to make it at home and I found this recipe on BBC food.

Teriyaki Sauce

Ingredients:

• 4-5 tbsp dark soy sauce

• 1 limes, zest and juice

• 1 small chilli

• 2 tbsp maple syrup

• 1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped

• 1 chunk of ginger, finely chopped

• bunch of coriander, chopped

• extra lime juice

Method:

• Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the ginger, garlic and chopped chilli.

• Add the zest and juice of the lime and pour in the soy sauce. Add the maple syrup and cook for 1 minute or until reduced and sticky.

• When the sauce is reduced you can pour it over cooked chicken, salmon or prawns, Serve with noodles and squeeze over extra lime juice and coriander.

Holiday Eating - Part 2

After our few days in London we headed down to the Isle of Wight for some glamping in a yurt. We hired our accommodation from The Really Green Holiday Company, they are set in an apple orchard near Freshwater, on the site is also a farm shop selling rare breed meat from the IOW, lots of ciders and serving lunch daily from 12-2. The people who owned the place were lovely - showing us how to use the wood burning stove and BBQ, as well as telling us to help ourselves to the vegetables and herbs being grown in the area. As we only stopped two nights we didn't have chance as we ate out all the time!

For our first night we went to a highly recommended local pub - The Red Lion was voted 'best pub' by the Isle of Wight Good Food Guide 2010. A really welcoming pub full of locals and tourists a-like, people brought there dogs in for a drink, the whole place was very traditional and we were surrounded by flagstone floors and worn wooden tables. They had a great selection of ales but we went for wine.

As we are on an island there was lots of seafood options on all the menus we saw so I went for the Moules Marinière and it was a mountain of mussels served with lots of crusrt bread to mop up the tasty sauce!

Mat went for the lamb shank, mashed potato and vegetables, the lamb just melted in the mouth. The portions were huge and were stuffed but we couldn't resist something sweet before the drunken walk back to our yurt.

So out came the chocolate sponge pudding with custard...

The following night we went to On The Rocks, a restaurant in the nearby port of Yarmouth.

It features the Black Rock Grill experience, all the meals are served on sizzling hot volcanic rocks and you cook the meat how you like. We both went for the surf and turf, a local beef fillet steak with my seafood favourite scallops, served with a greek style salad, fries and dips.

It was was quite an experience, you cut up the meat in to smaller portions to cook quicker and take it off when you feel it is ready. It was decorated with sweet pea flowers which took away the man-ly edge to the meal.

I cooked my steak perfect which was easy as the meat was so good, very plump and juicy! We washed it down with our new favourite red wine variety - a Argentinean Malbec by Trivento.

So after our meat fix the night before we went for yet more seafood at a quaint restaurant in Yarmouth before heading home for the ferry. The Blue Crab is really cute with fish and sailing ornaments dotted throughout and painted pale blue, it was very relaxing after the sizzling experience the night before! Homemade fish and chips for the boyfriend and sea bream fishcakes for me but we were jealous of another tables huge seafood platter!

After eating all that fish and seafood I realised I did not know much about which fish I should eat without damaging the environment, so since being back I have signed up to Hugh's Fish Fight and started my research into sustainable fish, the guardian has a great article here.

Holiday Eating...

A week off from work and staying in the UK meant that me and the boyfriend have eaten non-stop for 9 days! We began our holiday with a few days in London, on the Sunday we took a leisurely stroll up to Queens Park for a visit to the farmers and for brunch to help me fend off need for breakfast pancakes that have been craving about for a few weeks.

I have mentioned the farmers market in a previous post but we went for some of the tasty salad, more flavourful than any supermarket brought stuff and fishcakes with lime, chilli and coriander. The fish had been caught on the Friday, made it into fishcakes on the Saturday and eaten on the Sunday. Fresh!

We also popped along to a bar/restaurant/brunch place called The Alice House, it has a sister establishment in West Hampstead that we have visited for drinks. It is really cute, the decor is bare brick walls, nice artist prints and comfy sofas. We sat in the Library by the window to people watch.

I went for the pancakes with bacon and maple syrup, with some scrambled eggs on the side and managed to convince Mat that it is a winning combination by forcing him to try it! He went for the classic fry up but said I could definitely make the salty sweet pancakes for him in future - how kind of him!

We also popped along to the local Sainsburys and spotted the Jamie Oliver range of cookbooks out in paperback, plus they were 2 for £12 so we picked up four in the hope of expanding our recipe repertoire but if not they make a pretty set on the shelf!