All posts filed under: Recipes

Pearl barley, cavolo nero, beetroot and Goats cheese risotto recipe

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I love pearl barley. LOVE it. And if I didn’t love it enough because of how tasty and versatile it is, I love it even more because it is so cheap. It costs roughly 50p for a 500g bag. I have had pearl barley dishes at some of my favourite London restaurants / cafes – Petersham Nurseries, Polpo and Meatballs to name a few, each dish different. Salads, stews, risottos, you name it. I have cooked it a fair few times myself too, most recently with lamb. A few weeks ago I was staying with a friend in Stoke Newington and she introduced me to the best green grocers I have ever come across. Situated on Newington Green, the appropriately and simply titled Newington Green Fruit and Vegetetables sells a wide (and when I say wide, I mean wide) range of vegetables, exitoc fruits, herbs and condiments. And the best thing is the prices. I bought a huge bag of veg for a mere £8, something that would have cost double the price in my …

REALLY GOOEY chocolate chip cookies

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Ok so I may already have a few cookie recipes on here, but NONE are as good as this beauty. Seriously, if you like gooey chocolate chip cookies, you’re in for a treat. The addition of golden syrup instead of egg doesn’t just make it sticky and sweet but also soft and utterly moreish. Ingredients • 125g unsalted butter, softened • 100g light muscovado sugar • 2tbsp golden syrup • 1 vanilla pod, de seeded • 160g self-raising flour • 200g dark / milk or white chocolate, cut into chunks Method Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C 1. Beat the butter and sugar together for around 5 minutes until pale 2. Mix the golden syrup into the butter and sugar with the seeds from the vanilla pod 3. Stir in the flour and chocolate chunks until just combined 4. Place the cookie dough on a lined baking tray. Roll it into balls and leave a few cm’s between each one, otherwise they will run into each other when baking and you will end up …

Bill Granger’s coconut bread

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Anyone that knows me will be fully aware that brunch is my favourite meal of the day. Why wouldn’t it be – it’s an excuse to eat sweet, sugary, cakey goodness for breakfast. So when I saw Bill Granger’s recent brunch spread in The Times Magazine, I got all excited and put the Coconut Bread recipe STRAIGHT to the test. The results were fabulous, utterly fabulous! Ingredients 2 eggs 300ml full fat milk 1 vanilla pod 310g plain flour 2 tsp baking powder 2 tsp ground cinnamon 230g golden caster sugar 150g desiccated coconut 75g unsalted butter, melted Butter and icing sugar, to serve Method 1. Preheat oven to 180C/Gas 4. Lightly whisk the eggs, milk and vanilla together. 2. Sift the flour, baking powder and cinnamon into a bowl, add the sugar and coconut, and stir to combine. 3. Make a well in the centre and gradually stir in the egg mixture until just combined. Add the melted butter and stir until the mixture is just smooth, being careful not to overmix. 4. Pour …

Sipsmith – Sloe vs Damson

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The summer has come to an end and Autumn is creeping in. And although I’m not overly happy about having endured the worst summer in two decades, I do love Autumn. The crisp sunny mornings and the beautiful leaves strewn across the floor everywhere you go put a smile on my face. I can’t think of a better way of celebrating the start of the season than by heading down to the Sipsmith distillery to try out the new seasonal spirits, Damson Vodka and Sloe Gin, which I did last week. We were slightly confused whilst walking down a beautiful tree lined street full of the kind of Georgian houses that everyone wants to live in. ‘Maybe the distillery is in a house’ I said to my boyfriend. But then we stumbled upon it, a small room the size of a modest garage with a giant copper distillery toward the back. We had reached the Sipsmith distillery in Hammersmith, the equivalent of Charlie and the Chocolate factory for booze and the first copper distillery in …

Home made Dim Sum – minced pork dumplings

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My first Dim Sum experience was shortly after I moved to London 6 years ago to embark upon my three year university experience. Well, I actually can’t say too much for a university experience but that’s a whole other story. ‘Lets go to Chinatown on Sunday to get Dim Sum’ exclaimed one of my course mates. Dim Sum I thought, what on earth could that be. Sure enough, when the bamboo baskets full of small pasta looking parcels arrived, I was a bit flabbergasted. I bit into my first one, a crunchy, pork filled morsel and devoured it in seconds. And so went the next and the next and the next until I was totally full and completely satisfied. Where I’m from (Nottingham), the most Cantonese we’d get was a sweet and sour chicken or beef in black bean sauce dish with a side of chips and curry sauce(!?) from the local take away on a Friday night. I don’t think Dim Sum exists in that part of the world! This is one of many …