Month: April 2015

Beer Battered Cod & Triple Cooked Chips & Chip Shop Curry Sauce

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There’s nothing better than proper Fish and Chips. Cooking this dish was the first time I felt completely in my comfort zone in the MasterChef kitchen, it brings back so many fond memories of home and my childhood (and I don’t doubt it does for lots of others too!) I even brought my own chip shop paper and chip forks for the show; I think it makes it taste better.  Pale ale gives a great flavour to fish batter. I use my cousin-in-laws’ home brew iota, which gives a sweet malty taste. My curry sauce is a take on the Chinese style curry sauce that everybody loved at the my local chippie. Serves 2 Ingredients For the fish: 2 cod fillets groundnut oil, for deep frying 100g plain flour, kept cold in the fridge until use 150ml pale ale, or your favourite lager ¾ tsp baking powder a pinch of salt For the skin-on chips: 3-4 large Maris pipers groundnut oil for deep frying malt vinegar and sea salt For the chip shop curry sauce: 1 small onion …

Clutch – Review

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CLUTCH Clutch, 4 Ravenscroft Street, London E2 7QG http://www.clutchchicken.com Fifth result down on a quick google search, after discount handbags, care repair advice and gig dates for a 90’s American rock band, you’ll find Clutch- ‘the home of guilt-free chicken.’ This restaurant’s website has been at a practically blank holding page for months now, but I can tell you for free that the fried chicken here is clean-tasting yet completely addictive. We ate more chickens than there were diners at our table on the night in question and no, I do not feel at all guilty. Right around the corner from Columbia Road, Clutch pops up out of nowhere, like a petrol garage in the desert. The building was once a dirty little East End boozer, but now, painted cartoon yellow, with a faux turf lawn and dolls house-style garden furniture out front, Clutch couldn’t be further than its former haunt. A chirpy and sour ‘Jay Z’ (cocktail) started our night off nicely – the making of which had so many different elements it resembled that classic Rowan …

Popty Ping – MasterChef and my homage to last year’s winner

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‘Popty Ping’ means microwave in welsh. Although there is not a microwave in sight in the below recipes, it does give a clue as to the inspiration for the Malaysian dinner party I hosted a few weeks ago for my nearest and dearest, in celebration of my upcoming TV debut. And the loose theme I chose was Malaysian, as an ode to last year’s MasterChef Champion 2014, the fabulous Ping Coombes. It was Ping’s flawless home-style Malaysian cooking and attitude to food that prompted me to submit my application! From the beginning her dishes were amazing, giving John and Gregg, and the viewers at home a real culinary lesson. She cooked from the heart, using flavours and techniques learnt from her family, and made everyone realize that you don’t have to dine out in expensive restaurants to know about amazing food. So I prepared a (maybe not so traditional) Malaysian feast, with a few of my own little touches too. Entertaining for a big group in a tiny flat takes plenty of planning and lots of …

The Rise of the Chicken Shop, how not to do it & a Chicken orgasm at Clutch.

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The chicken shop market is a crowded coop.  Gone are the days that fried chicken was reserved as fuel for gangs of teenage boys or a second dinner for drunks stumbling home. Just like the burger before it, and the chip before that, fried chicken has shed it’s ‘fast food’ reputation and been given a makeover. First came the dirty (Monkey Fingers at CHICKENLiquor and the like); American-style chicken burgers and wings, clogging you up with thick, sticky stuff, served in paper wrap on a big metal tray (or dogs bowl, or whatever looks the most filthy). As tasty as this face-plant inducing, cheese-drenched, bacon-suffocated cuisine is, this type of eating is not sustainable. I mean, it’s not the right type of food to set you up for for a quiet night, let alone a night of dancing (plus, you don’t want to add to that morning-after guilt with the regret that you scoffed all that greasy poultry). Now there’s a surge of ‘high quality’ chicken shops that achieve perfect balance – that amazing fried …