All posts tagged: foodie

Lamb burgers with fennel & red chilli & harissa burger sauce

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These lamb burgers are foolproof, fiery and flipping easy to make with a few little secrets to guarantee your burgers are juicy and don’t fall apart when you cook them The burger sauce is spiked with harrissa, an amazing chilli paste made of roasted red chilli peppers, garlic, rose petals, cumin and other spices – it’s one of those ingredients that’s worth spending a little more money on. It’s great spread on bruschetta or pizzas, stirred into fajitas, beef chilli or even homemade dips, but it works an absolute treat in a burger sauce with mayonnaise, cool yoghurt and that classic burger sauce staple American mustard. Makes 4 lamb burgers 250g quality lamb mince (20% fat) 1 small white onion, finely diced 1 red chilli, finely chopped 1 large clove garlic, crushed 1 tsp fennel seeds 1 tsp cumin seeds 1 small handful of fresh breadcrumbs 1 egg yolk plenty of salt and pepper 4 soft seeded buns 1 gem lettuce Harissa burger sauce 2 tbsp yoghurt 2 tbsp mayonnaise 2 tsp harissa 1 tsp American mustard (optional) Saute the onion in …

Brighton Be Beautiful: Bardsleys, The Chilli Pickle, The Lion & Lobster & Coggings & Co.

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Oh I do like to be beside the seaside. So much so that last weekend I played away from home (cheated on my glorious sandy hometown of Swansea) and enjoyed a weekender in Brighton. I was fortunate enough to have plenty of suggestions and advice from a network of food lovers and twitterers, so ‘the ol’ food itinerary’ was pretty chocker block.  Alex has been away with me enough to know that ‘free time’ doesn’t really feature in my holiday itineraries – but what’s leisure time when you get the chance to taste the best food around with me, eh? BRIGHTON BITES 1. For the perfect fish & chips – Bardsley’s   Now, I spent the best part of my early teenage years working in a cracking local chip shop on the seafront in Swansea. During the summer of 2008, I think mushy peas were the only vegetable in my diet and my lunch of choice was curry and cheese on chips with chilli sauce (oh to have the metabolism of a teenager again.) So I know good fish …

Summer in Provence at Aubaine

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Last Monday, I was lucky enough to travel all the way to sunny Provence (through the medium of food and drink) for ‘a celebration of Summer in Provence’ at French restaurant, patisserie and boulangerie Aubaine. I was invited by fellow food blogger and Indian food extraordinaire Binny, of Binny’s Kitchen. One of my favourite Indian inspagrammers (inspirational instagrammer!), her website has recipes for the most delicious, homecooked Indian dishes you’ve ever seen. We only met recently at a Find Your Feet charity event, where I picked her brains about her own food blogging and supper club experience. I love meeting like-minded foodies at foodie events, over conversations about food – it’s a topic I will never be bored of! We were introduced to loads of different little tasters that bursted with the flavours of summer. From brioche buns filled with mushroom duxelles (like a creamy mushroom pate), steak and chips on skewers, chicken terrine wrapped in ham and plenty of fine French wines. Below are some of my personal favourites from the night, and some ideas I will definitely be taking home …

The Big Food Fight

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Of the 481 accounts I follow on Twitter, aproximately: 200 are chefs 150are  restaurants 81 are food writers 50 are food fanatics and a fair few MasterChef contestants are thrown in there too. I am bombarded with tweets about new places to eat and new things to try. From the short-lived ‘Cronut’ hype of 2013 to the recent gravy-dipped burger trend that I keep bloody hearing about, its safe to say nobody’s stuck for choice when deciding what’s for dins. Take the beloved beefburger: Cool person 1: ‘Have you been to (restaurant title including one or more of the following words: dirty, bun, burger, cow, liquor, meat, patty). It’s the best burger in London!’ Cool person 2: ‘I beg to differ.. you’ve gotta try (another restaurant title including one or more of the following words: dirty, bun, burger, cow, liquor, meat, patty). Cool person 3: ‘What about (yet another restaurant title including one or more of the following words: dirty, bun, burger, cow, liquor, meat, patty)? It’s the bomb!’ Well, which is it then people?! Are these new places ‘WE’VE GOT TO TRY’ actually that special? Are …

Cooking with matcha

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I have recently rekindled my love of green tea after discovering matcha – a powdered green tea made from specially selected green tea plants, which are shade grown for a few weeks before being ground up. The result is a clean, smooth-tasting tea that doesn’t have that horribly bitter after taste that first put me off regular green. It’s really easy to drink and has helped me through many a starvation lull on one of my fast days, as i’m currently trialing out the intermittent fasting (or the fast diet) in an attempt to (pun-alert) have my cake and eat it too (sorry.) But I’m more interested in matcha being used as an ingredient in cooking. The first time I tasted matcha was in a life changing dessert at So Japanese, Soho. This place was recommended to me by an ex colleague for its unbeatable sushi (and at a reasonable price for sushi) but I would also highly recommend the Japanese desserts. The Matcha & White Chocolate Cake with Black Sesame Ice Cream & Fruit Mousse   This was ordered …