Spinach & Lamb Curry with Coconut Dhal

For last weeks Sunday night dinner I decided to make an Indian feast. I love homemade curry, but I normally end up making it with Patak's paste for ease, so I decided to make it from scratch.

The recipes were both from Good Food, which always offers a good range of recipes. For the lamb and spinach curry I used 400g lamb rather than 600g and doubled the amount of spinach, but other than that I kept to the recipe. It had a good amount of heat, but maybe could have done with some extra cumin, coriander and turmeric. By not using an oily paste and adding plenty of spinach it tasted a lot fresher than your average curry. I only made half the lentil recipe, as I just wanted it as a side dish. I added twice the amount of water and cooked them for a hour until they were really soft, I also added a teaspoon of madras curry paste to spice them up a little.

Both dishes were really tasty and simple to make, it's well worth buying your own spices although I do still think you can make a great curry if you use a good paste. The left over lentils made a quick and easy Monday night meal, with some naan bread for dipping.

Lamb curry cooking:

Amazing lentil curry:

Finished lamb curry:

The Royal Sovereign - Clapton

Last night we went to our local pub, the Royal Sovereign on Northwold Road. It's a real locals pub and always has an interesting, although slightly odd, mix of clientele. They serve plenty of beer and larger on tap, have pool tables in the back, a large garden and a lively quiz on a Wednesday night. We opted for bottles of honey beer, Waggle Dance and I discovered that just one of these is enough to get me drunk. Oh dear.

They serve great pizzas freshly made in the open kitchen by the bar. We ordered two to share which were so big we couldn't finish them, for just £7-9 they're excellent value for money. We chose the vegetariana which was loaded with cherry tomatoes, aubergine, courgette, peppers and mushrooms and topped with fresh basil. The vegetables were fresh and there were plenty of them, although I'm not sure if aubergine goes particularly well on pizza? Our second choice was a chili beef, red onion and pepper pizza. It was sadly lacking in chillies, which was a bit disappointing as it could really have done with some spice to liven it up. However, it was still pretty good. The pizza's are infinitely better than those sold in the high street chains, and for the same price they're much bigger and topped with plenty of fresh and tasty ingredients. I won't be going back to Pizza Express anytime soon!

Veggie pizza:

Meaty Pizza:

Scrambled eggs with chorizo

On Wednesday night I played my favourite game of 'let's see what I can make from the random ingredients in my fridge'. The main ingredients I had were eggs and chorizo, I was going to make an omelette but decided instead to go for some scrambled eggs. I made a chorizo topping with red onion, garlic and thyme which goes surprisingly well with eggs. This recipe is great for a light dinner or a decadent breakfast.

Chorizo is one of my favourite ingredients as the delicious oil the sausage releases makes everything taste amazing with very little effort. Chorizo is a cured Spanish sausage, with an intense smoked paprika taste. Butternut squash risotto topped with chorizo, a little added to a traditional meatball recipe, or with a simple tomato sauce for pasta are all great ways of using this spicy sausage.

For the chorizo topping:
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, crushed
100g chorizo, chopped
Sprig of thyme, chopped

1. Add the onion to a heated pan, with a little oil and cook for 5 minutes until slightly softened. Add the garlic, chorizo and thyme and cook for a further 15 minutes until the onion is soft and the chorizo has released its paprika scented oil
2. Serve with scrambled eggs on toast

Onions & chorizo cooking:

Ready to eat:

Coq Au Vin

Whilst cooking is one of my favourite pastimes, lying on the sofa reading my book while someone else cooks for me is just as enjoyable. For Sunday dinner last weekend, Chris cooked an amazing chicken casserole. Coq au vin is great as you use chicken thighs and drumsticks which are not only much cheaper than breast meat, but also don't tend to dry out as much. I like to roast the shallots for half an hour before adding them to the sauce, as they soften and caramelise, making them even more sweet and delicious. Chris used a recipe from Delia Online; Nigel Slater also has some good recommendations for making the 'perfect' coq au vin. Served with plenty of mustard mash to soak up the delicious red wine sauce, it was an extremely tasty, if not particularly healthy meal.

Before adding the vin:

Served with mustard mash & broccoli:

Spiced Pork Medallions with Flageolet Beans

This is one of my favourite recipes of my mum's, so I decided to cook it for Chris to welcome him home from a long trip to Wales. Despite not looking particularly appetising it really does taste delicious. Mopping up the rich, creamy sauce with crusty bread is, to my mind, what comfort food is all about - yum!

Serves 4
400g pork fillet, trimmed and cut across the grain into 1cm slices
400g tin flageolet beans
1 tbsp plain flour
2 tsp paprika
1 large onion chopped
6 fresh sage leaves
200ml vegetable stock
100ml dry white wine
3 tbsp creme fraiche

1. Mix the flour and paprika on a plate and coat the slices of fillet in the mix
2. Fry the meat in hot oil until browned and set aside
3. Add the onion to pan and fry on a low heat until soft. Next add the wine and allow to cook off
4. Add the sage, drained beans, stock & meat and cook for 10 minutes. Add the creme fraiche, discard the sage and serve with warm crusty bread and tender stem broccoli

Cooking away:

It looks bad, but tastes scrumptious:

Fat Cat Cafe - Stoke Newington

After a late night watching the amazing DJ Popsox (!!) some serious brunch was in order to help wave goodbye to my hangover. After trotting down Church Street and eyeing up every menu on offer, I decided that a fry up was the only thing that would do the trick. We managed to get a table at the Fat Cat Cafe, which is often a mission in itself as it's very popular with the locals. It's a small organic cafe on the corner of Marton Rd, with big wooden tables and lots of posters for local events on the walls. There are also some small tables outside, although be warned that you often end up with soot from the road in your breakfast, lovely!

The 'Fat Cat Breakfast' comes with everything you'd expect; poached eggs, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, beans, tomatoes and toast - all free range. The eggs were perfectly poached with a soft yolk, the bacon was thickly cut although not crispy enough for my taste, and the sausages were deliciously meaty. They serve their homemade baked beans in a small ramekin dish, I suppose this is to prevent the bean juice from splurging over the rest of your food, but I find it a little strange eating beans from a thimble. I also can't help but think that whilst their beans were lovely and rich, most people would happily just eat Heinz baked beans, which would save a lot of time and effort.

For £7.50, it's a great breakfast which will fill you up until dinner time. They serve all the breakfasty goods you'd expect (eggs Benedict, scrambled eggs on toast, porridge etc.) and also have a good lunch menu. The staff are always friendly but can be quite slow at taking orders and bringing over drinks, although on Sunday they were very speedy.

Hangover cure breakfast:

Toffee Apple Bread & Butter Pudding

Due to a leaking pipe, I spent 2 days of my Easter break waiting around for the plumber. This gave me plenty of time to catch up on 90210 and for cooking tasty treats! I love traditional bread & butter pudding but this version is even better, the apples are a delicious addition and the toffee custard makes it even more sweet and moreish than usual.

I only made half the recipe below and it served 5, so unless you have lots of people coming over or you want to eat bread & butter everyday for a week, just do half the recipe!

Serves 8

50g/2oz butter

6 apples, peeled, cored and cut into wedges

175g/6oz golden caster sugar

568ml pot double cream

400g brioche loaf, cut into finger thick slices then into triangles

100g/4oz raisins

4 egg yolks

1. Heat the butter in a non stick frying pan until sizzling. Add the apples and 150g of the sugar. Cook over a high heat until the apples are caramelised and juicy
2. Stir in the cream, bring to boil and cook for one minute. Strain the apples and collect the cream in a jug
3. Layer an ovenproof dish with brioche, apples and raisins. Finish off the top layer with brioche and raisins
4. Whisk the egg yolks into cream and ladle over the pudding. Sprinkle over remaining sugar and bake at 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 for 35–40 minutes until crisp and golden
5. Serve with cream or ice cream

Apples cooking:

Before it went in the oven:

Cooked bread & butter pudding - tasty:

The Tea Rooms - Stoke Newington

On Wednesday we went for tea and cakes at the lovely Tea Rooms on Church Street in Stoke Newington. It's a very sweet, little tea rooms serving an incredible array of delicious cakes. I opted for carrot cake, which was incredible. I hate to use the word 'moist' to describe it, but it was very, well, moist! Chris had a chocolate and almond cake which was pretty tasty too. They sell dozens of types of leaf tea, served in mismatched cups and saucers. Due to the Royal wedding it was decked out with union jacks and bunting, and they were selling cupcakes with Kate & Wills on (I'm not sure how appetising a concept this is).

Amazing carrot cake

At the weekend they serve traditional afternoon tea with finger sandwiches and scones, which judging by the cakes we ate must be pretty good. The waitresses were very friendly and the prices are reasonable considering how delicious the food is. It manages to retain a quaint British feel without being stuffy, the perfect destination for an afternoon treat!

Royal wedding cupcakes

Pea Risotto with Flaked Salmon

In an attempt to eat more fish, I decided to cook salmon on Thursday evening. You're meant to have two portions of oily fish per week but normally I struggle to eat one, I'm not sure why as I love salmon, trout, tuna and mackerel. I suppose it's because fish isn't something I'd normally pick up for a quick and easy dinner and it can often be quite expensive. Whenever I make the effort it's always worth it, so I'm going to try to post a few fish recipes a month in a bid to help get some more tasty fish into my diet!

This is a recipe of my own devising, but I'm sure it's hardly original! It's just a basic risotto, with the addition of peas, courgette, lemon and creme fraiche. It's worth using petite pois rather than garden peas, as they're so much sweeter. It would also have been nice with a little pancetta, but Sainsbury's in Stokey was sadly lacking.

Serves 2
2 skinless salmon fillets
100g arborio rice
1 small onion/3 shallots, finely chopped
2 garlic gloves, crushed
1 courgette, chopped
200g frozen petite pois
100ml dry white wine
500ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp creme fraiche
1/2 a lemon, juiced
25g grated Parmesan

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a pan and slowly cook the onion and garlic until golden. Add the courgette and allow to soften. 
2. Meanwhile put 3/4 of the peas, the creme fraiche, seasoning and a little stock into a food processor and whizz until smooth. 
3. Stir the rice into the onions and allow to cook for 1 minute. Next add the white wine and wait for it to be absorbed by the rice. Gradually add a ladleful of the stock to the mixture, stirring continuously.
4. Continue adding the stock to the rice until it is tender. When the rice is almost done, mix the pea puree, whole peas and Parmesan into the rice. Turn the heat off and put a lid on the rice, leave to steam for 3 minutes; this should help to make the risotto creamy (according to my madre).
5. Flake the salmon over the top, either using pre-prepared roast salmon or cooking it yourself. Serve with a green salad.

Risotto cooking:

The finished article: