Homa - Stoke Newington (Revisited)

Alistair's Brasserie was one of my favourite restaurants in N16; it was the place we went to celebrate anniversaries, new jobs, or just because we wanted a good meal. Ever since Alistair's closed last year, I've been on the look out for a new local restaurant to fill the void and I think Homa might just fit the bill. After the delicious breakfast we ate there last year, we finally made it down there for what turned out to be a great meal.

Rye and white bread

Dinner started with a basket of homemade bread, generous slices of nutty rye and fluffy white bread served with olive oil. Followed swiftly by a squid and chorizo salad with potatoes and green beans in a light herb dressing. It was lovely to look at but even better to eat. Chris ordered buffalo mozzarella with caponata (a Sicilian aubergine dish) and a toasted garlic croute. The rich and creamy mozzarella worked perfectly with the sharpness of the caponata, a simple but delicious starter.

Slow cooked squid with chorizo, green beans & potatoes

Buffalo mozzarella with caponata

For our main course we both ordered the lamb cutlet which was served with a lamb potato cake and onion puree. The cutlet was juicy and pink in the middle and the potato cake was deliciously crispy on the outside, filled with creamy potato and meaty chunks of lamb. I loved the sweetness of the onion puree coupled with the lamb, it was one of the best main courses I've eaten in the last year.

Lamb shoulder potato cake with lamb cutlet & onion puree

For dessert I opted for a chocolate fondant, the light but intensely chocolaty sponge surrounded a fantastically gooey centre with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream on the side. Yum. Chris's treacle tart tasted more of ginger than treacle, but was tasty nonetheless. Chris loved the yogurt sorbet it was served with, but I think something creamier would have worked better.

Chocolate fondant with caramel ice cream

Treacle tart with yogurt sorbet

Overall, I was really impressed with the food. They use good quality ingredients which are skillfully prepared and beautifully presented. I think in the early days Homa had some issues with service, but from what I've seen during my two visits over the last few months these seem to have been rectified. The staff are friendly and attentive and despite being busy the food was well timed. We paid a very reasonable £45 each for three courses and a bottle of wine to share, I'm already looking forward to my next visit!

Chorizo, Butternut Squash & Spinach Risotto

Ah Valentine's Day, possibly the least romantic day of the year. Flowers and a nice meal shouldn't be a once a year occurance; if you're lucky enough to be in a happy relationship, you should do something romantic for the person you love all the time. If you're single, you shouldn't be made to feel bad about it by the tedious status updates of the 'OMG, just received an embarrassingly large bunch of flowers' variety.

Last year Chris managed to dislocate his shoulder on Valentine's Day, so this year I was just glad he wasn't high on morphine with his arm hanging off. As Valentine's Day is renound for being the absolute worst day to go out for dinner, we stayed at home and I cooked us chorizo, butternut squash and spinach risotto. Packed full of flavour from my favourite ingredients, it's simple enough for a midweek meal but special enough for a treat.

Serves 2 hungry people!
150g risotto rice
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
500ml vegetable or chicken stock
100ml white wine
50g chorizo, skinned and chopped into small chunks
Half a butternut squash, peeled, deseeded
1 tbsp half fat creme fraiche
1 tbsp milk
2 handfuls of spinach

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees. Peel, deseed and cut the butternut squash into small chunks. Roast with a little oil and pepper for 45 minutes, until the flesh is soft
2. Meanwhile, gently fry the onion in a little butter until soft. Add the garlic and chorizo and cook until the chorizo has started to go crispy. Add the rice and cook for a further minute
3. Stir the wine into the rice, let it bubble away until it has cooked off completely. Gradually add the stock by the ladelful, stirring regularily, making sure all the liquid has bubbled away before you you add more
4. Once the butternut squash is done, add half to a blender with the creme fraiche and plenty of black pepper, wizz until you have a smooth paste. You don't want the paste to be too thick, so add a little milk to loosen it if necessary. Keep the rest of the squash warm in the oven whilst you finish the risotto
5. Once the rice has plumped up and only has a little bite left, stir in the butternut squash puree and spinach. Cook for a few more minutes, until the spinach has wilted. Divide between two warm bowls, topped with the roasted butternut squash and Parmesan

Homa - Stoke Newington

We both had Friday off work so we went for a great breakfast at Homa. I've been wanting to go for a while as it's always full and the menu looks fantastic. The restaurant itself has been beautifully done up, the huge windows let in plenty of light and the simple decor makes the most of the building. It has the perfect relaxing atmosphere for a lazy brunch. 

The breakfast menu is amazing, I'd happily eat everything on there. I was really tempted by french toast with poached pears and vanilla syrup or saute potatoes with chorizo and poached eggs, but opted for smoked salmon & wilted spinach on a toasted muffin topped with poached eggs and hollandaise, which is my favourite breakfast. Chris had toasted sourdough topped with Italian ham & cheese with poached eggs, cherry tomatoes and mushrooms. Both dishes were absolutely delicious. The eggs were perfectly cooked with a runny yolk and they were very generous with the salmon, really great. The coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice were also excellent. They use good quality ingredients, which are well cooked and presented beautifully, I'll definitely be back to try something else from the excellent menu.

The only area that let them down was the service. It started off well, but tailed off towards the end as the staff stood around chatting. Our plates weren't cleared until after we paid the bill, even though we'd been finished for around 20 minutes. After unsuccessfully trying to catch the waitress's eye I went up to the counter to ask for the bill, when it didn't materialise I had to ask again. There were only 4 tables and 2 members of staff so I would've liked them to be a little more attentive, especially when they added a 12.5% service charge to the bill at breakfast. It's a shame as every other aspect of the meal was perfect, but as the food was so great this won't stop me going back again soon. It says a lot about a restaurant if the breakfast is so good it makes you want to go back for dinner!

Salmon & poached eggs:

Fancy ham & eggs:

Creed tucking into his brekkie:

Trattoria Da Luigi - Stoke Newington

A few weeks ago, after a Friday evening pint in the newly refurbished (and very nice) Daniel Defoe we headed to Trattoria Da Luigi on Church Street for some dinner. It's a tiny Sicilian restaurant, serving a wide range of pizza, pasta and meat from the grill. The walls are covered in posters and photographs of family and customers, which gives it a local feel you rarely get in London.

I made a bit of a mistake by ordering venison ragu ravioli, which I really wasn't a fan of, but to be honest I think it's more a case of personal taste than bad food. In my mind I was imagining a rich, tomatoey, meat sauce, whereas what I got was more like a course pate with a cream sauce. It wasn't terrible, it just wasn't quite what I was expecting.

Ravioli

Chris ordered a pizza with spicy Sicilian sausage, buffalo mozzarello and jalapenos which was every bit as delicious as it sounds. The base was thin and crispy around the edges, but lovely and light in the middle and the toppings were very generous resulting in some serious food envy. The moral of the story is, when in doubt, order pizza.

Pizza

The food is of a similar standard to Il Bacio, but I prefer the relaxed atmosphere in Trattoria Da Luigi and the fact that it's not quite so busy. I'd definately go back next time I'm in the mood for pizza, but I don't think I'd go for pasta again as so rarely are pasta dishes in the UK any better than what you can cook at home. Best of all they serve San Pellegrino Limonata, which is the best lemonade in the world, fact.

Home Made Pizza

A few weeks ago we decided to make our own pizza using a Jamie Oliver recipe. It was a bit of a disaster, as the dough was so sticky that it was impossible to handle. I'm not sure if this is how it was meant to be or if we measured out the ingredients incorrectly, but I think it probably could have done with some extra flour. When it came to rolling the mixture out, I couldn't stop it from sticking to the surface and rolling pin which made it difficult to get the base thin enough. Transferring the pizza base to the baking sheet without it falling apart was also a bit of a mission. When we got the first pizza out the oven we realised we'd forgotten to flour the baking tray, so we had to saw it off with a knife. Despite all this, the toppings were really delicious; it's just a shame the base was too thick as it meant it was stodgy in the middle and hard rather than crispy on the edges. I'm not sure if there's anywhere you can buy good quality pizza bases, as choosing your own topping makes for a much better pizza, but the hours we spent trying to make the bases meant it probably wasn't worth the hassle. If you're better at making pizza dough than I am, the toppings below are delish:

Tomato sauce:
250ml passata
4 garlic cloves
A good handful of basil, chopped
Plenty of seasoning

1. Simply mix the ingredients together and spread over the rolled out base

Chili beef topping:
250g beef mince
2 green chilies, diced
1 ball mozzarella
Half a red onion, sliced
Half a red pepper, sliced
4 mushrooms, sliced

1. Fry the beef until browned, add the chilies and cook for a further minute
2. Top the passata with chili beef, add the sliced vegetables and dot with the mozzarella. Drizzle with Tabasco to taste

Goats cheese topping:
Half a butternut squash, deseeded, cut into small chunks
A few sprigs of thyme, chopped
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp redcurrant jelly
Goats cheese, sliced

1. Roast the butternut squash with the thyme and some oil, for 45 minutes or until soft.
2. Meanwhile lightly fry the red onion in a little oil until soft. Add the balsamic vinegar and let it reduce, add the redcurrant jelly and allow to melt into the onion. Take off the heat and allow to cool.
3. Top the pizza with the roasted squash, balsamic onions and slices of goats cheese - tasty!

Chili Beef Pizza:

Plenty of Tabasco:

Goats Cheese & Butternut Squash Pizza:

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:

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:

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:

White Chocolate Panna Cotta with Berry Compote

After eating salad for dinner on Saturday evening, it only seemed right to have something outrageously unhealthy for dessert. The main ingredients for panna cotta are double cream, chocolate and sugar, so there really isn't anything healthy about it!

The recipe is one of my mum’s, I’m not really sure where she first read it, but a lot of her favorite recipe’s come from Good Food. It’s super easy to make and only takes a moment to dish up which is perfect after a few glasses of wine. With 2 pots of double cream, it’s quite heavy, but the sharpness of the berries cuts through the richness.

Serves 8

100g Green & Blacks white chocolate, broken up into squares

600ml double cream

200ml semi-skimmed milk

50g caster sugar

4 gelatin sheets

For the berry compote:

500g bag frozen summer fruit, defrosted

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp caster sugar

1. Add the cream, milk, sugar and chocolate to a pan, put on a low heat until the chocolate has melted. Meanwhile soak the gelatin in cold water
2. Take the mixture off the heat and add the gelatin, stir until it has melted, this shouldn’t take more than a few minutes
3. Pour the mixture into individual ramekins and leave to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours
4. To make the compote, add half the fruit to a pan with the water and sugar. Simmer until the berries have begun to burst, add to the rest of the fruit and serve with the panna cotta 

Panna cotta: