Work Charity Lunch

Today is Comic Relief and to raise some money we do a charity lunch at Design Bridge where I work. People volunteer to cooks different dishes, they are all laid out and for a £5 donation you can come and have your fill. We are also splitting the money raised to help in the aftermath of the Japanese natural disaster.

The turn out was impressive with loads of different salads (including one of mine inspired by Emily's take on a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall Tabula Kisir), chicken pie, chilli, vegetable curry, quiches, bruschettes and loads of sausages!

For dessert there was a great selection of cakes, scones and brownies. The atmosphere is like a school canteen without the lumpy mash potato but with lots of yummy things to choose from, everyone sits together in the kitchen and gets stuck in!

I am throughly stuffed now but it is good to know it was all for a good cause, we raised a huge£460! Plus a big thank you must go out to Casey for organising everyone and making sure we didn't end up with just cakes and Lisa for the great photo's.

Culinary Cupid

Sean was on a late shift so I wanted to cook him a special breakfast and lunch and send him off to work with more than just an average sarnie.

My Eggs Benedict was ok, Sean spotted the ready-made hollandaise sauce hidden at the back of the fridge (fail), I over cooked the eggs (fail), but I toasted the muffins to perfection (result). To be honest I'm not a morning person and Sean is the King of Poached Eggs so I think I did pretty well for a first attempted. Lunch was much better as I managed to cook his Filet Mignon rare and artistically stacked the chips and mushrooms with the precision of Gary Rhodes (well sort of).

I sent him off to work with two pretty good looking baguettes and a bundle of homemade shortbread. Not sure if will make his shift go any quicker but hopefully ease the pain a little.

J+A Cafe, Clerkenwell

To celebrate Mat's recent promotion we popped to J+A Cafe in Clerkenwell for lunch. We sat upstairs in the slightly more formal dining room but it still felt relaxed with the communal table and amazing cake display.

I went for the butternut squash, courgette and red onion filo pastry tart, these are so simple to make and very yummy, I am definitely going to add this to my recipe repertoire. Mat went for the club sandwich, a humongous triple deck of chicken, avocado and bacon with the bread in the middle toasted. I love this place and will be going back again! I also had a cupcake to take away...

Dollar Grills & Martinis

There are loads of lovely places to eat in Clerkenwell but we always end up going to the local for a Friday lunch but we were brave and tried somewhere different and the gamble paid off! We went to Dollar Grills & Martinis to try their £6 winter lunch menu and with a choice from steak and chips to chicken chipotle burgers with jalapeño mayo we were spoilt for choice. Plus it is really cool, all black walls, chandeliers, retro lights and neon, apparently the martini bar downstairs is fun too.

An all-woman restaurant

After a visit to the brilliant Budapest zoo we had worked up quite an appetite so we headed round to Bagolyvár - a quaint restaurant staffed entirely by woman serving Hungarian classics with a twist. The owners of the posh restaurant next door, Gundel decided that Budapest was lacking home cooked food in a family atmosphere so they restored the building next door, called it 'The Owl's Castle' and employed only women to cook, serve, decide on the menu and buy the produce.

We had the bargain set menu, which consisted of the best vegetable soup I have ever tasted, loaded with butter, cream and lots of seasoning.

This was followed by quite an unusual dish of chicken and chips but the chicken was covered in an apple and cinnamon sauce. It was weird but it kind of worked in the way that honey and mustard chicken does.

The service was lovely and the meal cheap, it set us perfectly to relax in the thermal baths nearby.

Tomorrows Lunch

Been back to my cookbooks to make a Tabula Kisir from 'River Cottage Everyday' and cookies from Canteen's 'Great British Food'.  

Tabula Kisir is described as ‘Turkish, herby, spicy, bulghur wheat’. I didn't have bulghur wheat so I substituted it for a box of Quinoa that's been lurking at the back of the cupboard for months making this healthy lunch a super healthy lunch. 

It's a salad made by mixing the cooked Quinoa in a dressing containing tomato puree, dried chilli, cumin, lemon juice, paprika and olive oil. You then mix in roasted walnuts, tomatoes, red onion, parsley, mint and peppers. 

Anyway it tastes yum and makes up for the fact I'll be consuming cookies afterward :-)