Food Porn

Dumplings from Chop Chop: pork and prawn (front) and beef and chilli (back)

Chop Chop delivery: Aubergine and sweet and sour pork ribs, steamed rice

Dominos delivery

Ham, Pineapple and mushroom, thin base

Grand Marnier Cleme Brulee: Le Marché Français

Vanilla Slice, Le Marché Français

Eggs Benedict with tattie scones and black pudding: Urban Angel- Hanover Street

Flat White, date flapjack: Wellington Coffee

Bacon and cheese sandwich, Steak burger: dinner at home

They look so good together

Curry Night

Last night myself and my housemate S had 2 friends over for catch ups, drinks and dinner.

I was in charge of cooking and we were having CURRY.

In the morning I popped into the shop to pick up the naan, poppadoms, yoghurt and cucumber for the raita, and everything else I was hoping I would be able to use up from the kitchen.

I knew I had 600g of pork chops, and I wanted to go a vege one as well. This is literally how blindly I went into this.

I looked in the cupboard and discovered we had lentils. Having never cooked with lentils before I read the side of the pack for cooking instructions and decided on dahl... curry... of some sort.

I began with onion, diced celery, garlic and chillies which I sauteed in olive oil. To this I added differing amounts of various spices, of which I have only a vague recollection of, cumin, tumeric, curry powder, pepper, lemon salt (from Dahab) to coat the vegetables, then I put aside while boiling off the lentils.

 

I created the a similar base for the pork curry, added the cubed flesh, one aubergine and one sliced apple and fried off.

I'd used apple in the last pork curry I made, and after a long cook, it breaks down and adds a lovely sweetness to the sauce. I added the aubergine, just cause I love it, and was really keen to see what kind of consistency it would take on.

You know what I really love... when you've been cooking long enough that you have the balls to just TRY something, with the confidence that you could probably bring it back to life in a worst case situation. It's also the thing I love about recipe-free cooking.

My ballsy maneuver... coming up with a replacement for canned tomatoes, which would generally be added at this point, and of which I did not have.

Solution: tomato juice.

I let this boil down for a bit, tasted and re-seasoned. It was really nice.

After maybe 30 or 45 minutes I added the lentils to the curry base and stirred through with half a bag of baby spinach leaves, around a cup of red wine, a veg stock cube, hot water and seasoning, and brought to the boil.

At this stage I made up the table.

And prepared my accompaniments: raita: which is just yoghurt and finly diced cucumber. Chutney, home made by my friend Miss A, a tomato and onion salad and a banana and coconut salad.

It is at this stage I would like to give my sincerest apologies. I have either forgotten to take, or did take and somehow managed to lose all the completed meal photos. My head has been so foggy with the cold I have picked up. I literally spent 90 minutes doing a full system restore in the hopes I had just deleted them. I feel like a big dork.

After all the prep was complete I turned the burners off to allow them to cool, and hopefully trick the curries into thinking they had been left overnight (cause they always taste better the next day).

About half an hour before my housemate and guests arrive I warm the curries through, they both taste magnificent. The lentil curry has softened and the flavours developed. I add the remaining half bag of spinach, a touch more water and stir though.

The pork curry have become so rich. The flavours are all quite delicate, the sauce has become wonderfully creamy (despite the lack of any creamy product addition) and the aubergine has become almost at one with the sauce, but when you do locate a chunk it is pure bliss. I am surprised how tender the pork has become. And I am so pleased with the lingering spicy heat.

As my guests arrive, Miss C has heard about my man-flu... undoubtedly all the whinging I have done to anyone who would, and often to those who wouldn't listen... and brought me a sign to wear around my neck. I love this.

Once housemate S arrives I ask him to cook the rice, as cooking rice really scares me, and we just haven't gotten around to getting a rice cooker in the house. We put the naans in the over 5 mins before the rice is ready, and place the poppadoms on the table. The rice comes out quite sticky, but it is so tasty and works great as it stays together when shoveled up on a piece of naan.

My favourite was the creamy pork curry, but my guests love the lentil curry. All the food turned out great and I was so happy my guests enjoyed it all.

Lets hope my head clears up before my next post.

Desperation Cooking

I really love desperation cooking. Sometimes the day before a food shop, most often when hungover. It really is an exciting challenge.

What is desperation cooking?

It's a phrase I made up... just now. But to me it's very similar to the Ready Steady Cook mystery bag

So, it's when you have almost nothing in the kitchen. No ready meals, or quick to defrost easiness. No prime cuts. No Pot Noodles to fall back onto. Yes: using noting but your food-skills you create a meal from... not much at all.

I have never had a problem with this. Its such a fun game to play (even when I have a foggy head, and only a few hours sleep). And this weekend I challenged myself twice.

Before I start, I must say we are very lucky in that we always have a well stocked spice cupboard, always have virgin olive oil, butter, onions- and this is a great help.

Saturday night dinner: Spicy Chinese Chicken soup with clear Sweet Potato noodles.

I had: stock cubes, canned carrot, mushrooms, chilli, chicken pieces, sweet potato starch noodles (a great item I discovered in the Asian grocery store: gluten free, and cheap as anything), sesame oil.

I created a gorgeous soup (good for re-hydrating, and filling the post-drink salt cravings). I simply created the soup base with water, stock cubes, onion, chilli, carrot and mushroom. Pan-fried the chicken pieces then shredded the meat. Added this meat and the noodles to the soup base and wha-la!

Lunch: Sunday: Pasta with squash, and tuna in a cream sauce.

This one was so tasty. Boiled off the gluten-free pasta and squash in salted water. Drained. Added creme fraiche, seasoned with tonnes of salt, pepper and cayenne pepper. Stirred through canned tuna pieces. It was just amazing.

I find this really easy to do. But know that most people can look at a cupboard or a fridge 75% stocked and find 'nothing to eat'.

Are you a desperation cooking expert?

Do you have any desperation key recipes?

Marks and Spencer Deli Butternut and Chilli Dip.

The Brits do so much food really well... not even kidding. The fruit and veg generally tastes better here, the meat is fantastic... though I have missed my dips. Chips (crisps) and dips. Have a wine: chips and dips, need a snack: chips and dips, just in from a night out: chips and dips.

I see so many varieties of hummus here, and a bit of tzatziki. But I just keep dreaming of the dips back home

Copperpot do wonderful dips, and this isn't even a quarter of their range.

On Coles' (Australian version of Sainsburys) website I was given a choice of 102 varieties of dip. This is one quarter of one of SIX pages!

So there was have it... I miss dip.

Have a bothered to make my own? No. Do I know how incredibly quick and easy is it to make dips? Yes. Do I have a blender? No.

I made either a foolish mistake, or a life changing choice the other day. I did my first grocery shop in M&S. For my Australian readers, I'm not sure if we have an M&S equivalent back home. It's like if David Jones had a very posh fresh food and deli attached. It's divine.

Low and behold, what did I find? Dips!

Certainly a few shy of 102. But proper dips. This one started me salivating as soon as I saw his name: Butternut and Chili.

This evening I grabbed myself some oatcakes (possibly the greatest dip/cheese accompaniment ever- thanks Scotland) and dived in.

Hello! Look at these colours. That orange, that's real butternut squash, spices and seasoned. That beautiful burnt red: chilli oil. Onions and peppers on top.

I am so happy to find this dip. I am surprised at how healthy it is. If I were to eat the hole pot (which may or may not have happened) it would still do less damage than the crisps that could have partnered it. (It's still a sometimes food.)

Cheese platters will come to life from here on out, I can feel it... and I do hope that M&S do more.

Oh Britain, you just make me feel more and more welcome everyday!

Illegal Jacks, Lothian Road, Edinburgh

Tonight the Filmhouse was showing Amilie. I had never seen it before but knew it was a well loved movie, so when my friend S asked me to join him, I jumped at the chance.

We opted for a bite to eat at Mexican fast-food-diner style restaurant, Illegal Jacks.

The Menu 

The restaurant is very casual. You order at the bar, they assemble your food and take it back to a booth.

I am pretty happy to announce they sell Brew Dog and Carona beers to wash it down.

I had already decided I was going to get tacos. And since trying pizza with haggis, I made a note to myself to, whenever possible, take haggis as an option in any international themed food.

This photo does no justice

  The plate had so much heft as I carried it back to the table.

I decided to use my graphic design skills to show the side-view of said taco.

There's not much that goes into the making of a taco. But these ones were really good. The chili had a much drier consistency than I am used to- and it works! The haggis was wonderful. The small gripe was that the lettuce was a little wilty.

I ordered sour cream as a side, which went wonderfully.

S's Chili bowl also looked fantastic and he said it tasted it too.

I did manage to see another customers burrito being constructed, and all I can say is that the burrito is probably worth starving yourself for a while beforehand!

Will definitely be back for a on-the-go meal. I'm not convinced with the school-cafeteria style ordering, but I think as a fast, cheap eat, it takes a lot to beat this place.

Hilton Dahab: Food

This holiday was my first taste of an 'all inclusive' package. All inclusive is food and drinks. Yes including alcohol.

When I was researching places to stay, it was really hard to find anywhere that anyone said 'the food is awesome'. Hilton had mixed reviews.

So as far as the food went. Buffet breakfast was served from 7am till 11am. Lunch was served at the beach bar from 11 till 5pm. Dinner was again Buffet, served from 7pm til 10pm. Room service was available 24/7. And they had 2 A La Carte restaurants, one Italian and one seafood. But due to the hotel only having a 30% capacity, neither A La Catre restaurant was open.

The buffet dinners, served at 'Mirage' had an international theme each night.

As I arrived on Monday at 5pm, my first meal was a dinner... The night's theme was french. I was shown to my table and given one of the most hideous glasses of wine ever (incidently, I steered clear of wine for most of the week after that).

As I made my way up to the buffet, I was actually impressed with their selection, and tried pan-fried liver for the first time, and really enjoyed it. Had two delicious stuffed quail, again a first. Then realised that I didn't have a starter, so my post-main starter was flatbread with hoummus and tzatziki. Then a selection of sweets.

Breakfast day 2.

The breakfast selection was fine. Many breads, pastries and cereals to choose from. A selection of juice. Brewed coffee and tea brought to the table. A bar of fruits and yoghurts. And a continental selection of cheeses and cold meals with some salad items.

The hot selection (sans-bacon) was generally the same most days and has a chopped up beef sausage and onion nosh, grilled tomato and cheese, french toast, and usually a bean concoction.

 This is the view from the inside window table. But for most of the week I sat outdoors in the sun.

 The best part of the breakfast buffet was the cook-to-order area. This lovely chap would do omelettes, with your choice of onion, cheese, peppers and tomato. Eggs cooks to your liking, pancakes, fresh felafel and my favourite of the week: waffles.

I really started to miss bacon by the end of the week. But overall a good breakfast buffet.

Day 2 I decided to try the room service for lunch. This was not included in the free food items and was added to my room bill. I ordered a Greek salad and filet steak.

 Unfortunately, both items were quite average. The Greek salad was really flavourless, and was predominantly iceberg, not-quite-ripe tomato and the feta tasted like cloud... Ie, you could see it there, but when you put it in your mouth, you tasted nothing much at all.

The steak, served with rice and veges was nice. But it was a slow cooked steak, tender and flavoursome, but slow cooked, nonetheless. The veg and rice were fine.

Needless to say, I didn't bother with room service again.

 I can't remember the theme for this nights dinner. But this may have been my favourite dish of the week. It was a baked fish and garlic potatoes with and artichoke salad, and a salsa. Every bit of fish I tried in Dahab was amazing. Dessert was lovely too!

.

 

Kyloe: Edinburgh's Gourmet Steak Restaurant

Last night I caught up with a friend for drinks, who (correctly) surmised that I would be feeling a bit down after my holiday.

We had a couple of pints and a bit of chat at The Outhouse, which I must say is a great little pub. Cool, without being pretentious. Cheap drinks. Indoor and outdoor seating.

Once reaching tipsy, I asked G if he was feeling peckish at all. I was craving steak. He said he'd be keen for a bite, and I suggested Kyloe, as I remember'd seeing a voucher in one of the freebie magazines around town. A quick Google check, and we discovered that they were doing 2 courses and a glass of wine for £20. We tried to reserve a table, but they said it wouldn't be required.

Now any restaurant that claims 'gourmet' or 'the best...' generally also claims that they can charge whatever they like for food and drink. And also we had no idea of what they 2 for £20 would entitle us to, but we cabbed up town and tried our luck.

The restaurant has a really interesting fusion of western bar and upper class dining. With cow hide as far as the eye can see. This, offset against lovely ambient lighting, views down Princes Street and up to the Castle and hints of stainless steel.

The menu

We were brought a loaf of piping hot bread, served with real butter and a lentil pate. The bread was divine, but the standout was the lentil. We inquired as to what was in it, because it's richness suggested that it must have a meat product in it. But no, in essence it was lentil, oil, salt and pepper. It was very, very tasty.

We asked the waitress if instead of getting the 2 glasses with our meal, if we could have a bottle subsidised, she said this wouldn't be a problem. And we ordered a bottle of the house red £15. As someone who drinks red once in a blue moon, I was really surprised at how easy to drink and delicately flavoured it was. G, who 'knows' reds was also impressed. We also ordered a bottle of still water £4 (I KNOW!)

The 2 for £20 menu was actually quite expansive, and offered anything off the standard starters menu. I chose the Steak Tartare. A dish I had wanted to try as long as I can remember, but really didn't want to waste the experience anywhere that I thought might let me down. And Kyloe certainly didn't. For those not in the know, steak tartare is in essence raw beef. And (anyone who has read any of my blog would know) I LOVE beef, I LOVE steak. This dish was simply heaven. I was served as a small turret, topped with an egg yolk. The combination of the beautiful, delicate raw steak, the sharpness of the capers, hints now and again of the sea salt flakes with rich creamy egg yolk, this dish was almost too much. I could have walked out after my starter, put my hand up, claimed best-meal-ever, and that would me that. 

G had ordered A board of Scottish Charcuterie, in essence a selection of cured meats. It looked delicious. It was served with bread, pickles and what we thought were olives, but were in fact the biggest caper-berries I had ever seen!

For main, we had both already decided steak, and to be honest, I didn't even look at the other items available for mains. We each ordered the Rump, mine rare, G's medium rare, and shared a selection of sides. As standard, the steak comes with a salad and shoe string fries. To this we added creamed spinach (a favourite of mine since my mum introduced me to it not so long ago), Beef dripping chips (um, YUM) and grilled mushrooms. As well as Red wine and blue cheese sauce.

We were content. Or so we thought, until we saw a mountain of the most perfect looking onion rings float past us to another table. So we ordered those too!

The steaks and endless sides came to our table in good time. Everything looked incredible. I dived straight into the onion rings, and they lived up to every expectation. The beef dripping chips were good, though nothing groundbreaking, they could have used just a bit more crunch for my liking, maybe a double fry.

The steaks themselves were divine, each cooked perfectly. The sides were perfect compliments to our meal (though I didn't really touch my shoestring fries). The sauce was very rich, but went really nicely with the meat. The spinach lived up to my mum's recipe. And well, when ISN'T the marriage between beef and mushrooms perfect? 

I really REALLY enjoyed our main!

As the waitress came to collect our plates, she looked impressed with our effort.

She offered us the dessert menu. As usual, completely not required, but accepted nonetheless.

She mentioned that the chocolate tart was wonderful, and G happily agreed to try. I ordered the banana creme brulee and an expresso martini.

Much to my dismay, the desserts were HUGE. But the brulee was perfect, warm and creamy with a solid crunchy top. G looked very happy with his dessert.

Overall, Kyloe provided an exceptional meal.

We asked for the bill, but realised, our 2 for £20 budget had been blown out of the water. I don't think the prices are ridiculously over the top, but I think next time, I will have to note the prices of each side (around £4 each), the sauce (£2 per serve) the water (£4), and of course the desserts and cocktails, but that was expected.