The kiosk has launched, My GT column, Clam chowder, packing the car

The kiosk has launched

Well finally, after months of frustration, the kiosk openend last week in Reading station.  And here it is! 

It was so exciting to sell that first little pot of food.  And so far so good; feedback has been great and sales are starting to grow – after all, 2 weeks ago, everyone would have gone somewhere else to buy their breakfast or lunch, so it’s going to take time…. I am under no illusion that this is no the case.

I’ve loved working at the shop; making coffee, using the till (which I am really useless at), encouraging people to trade up and get a dumpling or poached egg (our guess our healthy equivalent of ‘would you like fries on that?’).. it’s fun!

The thing that’s perhaps impressed me the most is the quality of the food we are dishing out – here’s an example of one of our one pot meals..   People are really loving them!

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted and, of course, let you know when our second location is on its way – not in the too distant future!

And thank you all who have supported this venture and followed its progress!

Gay Times column

My first gay time article came out yesterday – now that’s really cool.  I’m the monthly food columnist for the magazine – it’s a kind of food/lifestyle/commentary piece each month, hopefully injected with a bit of humour… let me know what you think!  The first one sets the scene, me and the reader – a first date….

Over the past year I’ve been asked to write a few journalistic pieces and I’ve really enjoyed it – although I never anticipated that a 400 word article could take so many hours to write – it’s all about getting the choice of words and rhythm right… it takes time!  Anyway, any feedback woul dbe gladly received.

A bit of cooking – clam chowder

I’ve not really had the chance to cook very much over the past few weeks but I did manage to squeeze in a clam chowder last week.  After the Leiths workshop I was running last week, I was presented with a load of leftover clams that were going to go to waste.  I happily snapped them up and made my clam chowder recipe.

Luckily, I had some smoked Lithuanian pork belly in the fridge (as you do), from my local shop, and added that as well – a perfect addition – you can just use smoked bacon in you don’t happen to have a Lithuanian deli around the corner.    Here’s the recipe!

Serves 4

30g butter

• 60g streaky bacon cut into 5mm strips
• 1 onion, finely sliced
• 1 leek finely sliced
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 500ml milk
• 600g medium floury potatoes (about 4 medium potatoes), peeled and cut into 1cm pieces
• 1kg clams, cleaned and scrubbed
• Salt and pepper
• 3 tbsp double cream
• Finely chopped chives

Begin by melting the butter in a heavy pan and then gently brown the bacon for about 5 minutes, taking care not to burn the butter.  Next add the sliced onion and leeks as well as the bay leaf.  Cook gently with the lid on the pan for about 15 minutes until the onions and leeks are very soft.

Next add the flour and stir well.  Continue cooking for a couple of minutes before adding the potatoes and then the milk to the pan.  The milk should cover the potatoes.  Bring back to simmering point and cook gently for about 15-20 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.  Make sure you stir the pan regularly otherwise things have a tendency to stick.

Meanwhile, put the clams in a deep separate pan with a splash of water.  Cover the pan and cook for 5-10 minutes until the clams have all opened.  Once cooked, allow them to cool a little before removing the meat from the shells.  Strain the liquor through a sieve lined with kitchen paper (this will remove all the grit) and reserve.

Once the potatoes are cooked, add the clams and the stained clam liquor and bring back to simmering point.  Then simply taste before adding salt (if needed) and freshly milled black pepper.  Finish the chowder by stirring through the cream and chopped chives.

Packing the car

I’m now off to pack my car full of paraphanalia for the allergy and gluten free show that we are at this weekend.  I feel sorry for my car!  It’s an absolute state… full of junk, dents and scratches and always at the mercy of my heavy handed antics with stewed!  Sorry car.  My goal is, one day, to have a car that’s not an absolute tip, something I actually enjoy beign in… maybe…

Kiosk update

The exciting news is that after umpteen delays and frustrations, our kiosk is finally being built!  In fact, it’s going to be ready, in theory, on Friday!  We’ve gone through quite a journey in the last few weeks from thinking it was all falling through, to it suddenly almost being ready.  And suddenly we’re running round like lunatics trying to get everything ordered.

The build so far!

Today we were in Reading handing out 250 of our 500 free pots that we’re distributing outside the station to tell people about the venture.  People are strange – so many just don’t want a freebie… what’s that about?!  Anyway, you can see the progress so far in the pic!

Teaching at Havelock School

As part of stewed!’s support of Trees for Cities, I’ve started going into a school in Southall to teach the year 4 kids about some of the vegetables that they’re growing in their edible playground.  I’ve got 10 sessions planned and I’ve just completed my second.

I’m teaching the kids all about root vegetables and it’s amazing how much pleasure they get out of the classes.  Plus, I’m really enjoying it too! I get a real kick out of seeing them learn and get excited about cooking, even something as simple as grating some beetroot!

So far we’ve managed to avoid any injuries, but I have to say, I could have chosen a far less messy recipe to teach them!  I chose the recipe for warm beetroot with cumin and feta that I’ve posted here on my blog and also published recently in the Sunday Times…. the kids seem to love the fact that they leave with red hands – hopefully theor parents are equally appreciative…   They actually go home with the fruits of their labour so hopefully their parents or guardian actually get to taste the food.  They also get the recipe so they can replicate it at home.

I’ll be posting some pictures as soon as we get the parents consent!

Sticky Pork with star anis and Vietnamese crayfish salad

I was up in Manchester last week and treated my colleagues to my sticky pork belly recipe with star anis and also a delicious hot, spicy, sweet and sour Vietnamese salad…

Sticky Pork

1.75kg thick-cut pork belly (skin on, boned), 2 inches fresh ginger, sliced, 4 star anis, 1 tsp black peppercorns, 150ml fish sauce

200g granulated sugar, 2 star anis, 2 cloves garlic, crushed, 1 1/2  inches ginger, finely chopped, 2 tablespoons dark soy sauce, 2 finely chopped spring onions

1. Cover the pork belly with water in a large pan; add 2 star anis, the black peppercorns, sliced ginger and 6 tablespoons of the fish sauce. Cook on a medium heat uncovered until simmering.

2. Once the water is simmering gently, leave on a low to medium heat for approximately 20 to 30 minutes until a skewer, when pierced to the centre of the meat, comes out piping hot. Remove from the liquid and leave to rest to cool before removeing the rind with a knife and cutting the pork into 2cm cubes.

3. Now make the sticky sauce; heat the sugar in a large pan over a high heat with 200ml of the stock from cooking the pork. Add 2 star anise and cook until the sugar caramelizes – about 10 minutes from boiling.

4. Once caramelized, add 1 more ladle of pork stock, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 ½ inches of chopped ginger, 4 tablespoons fish sauce and 2 tablespoons soy sauce and cook for a couple more minutes before adding the cubed pork.

5. Cook on high heat for approximately 15 minutes. The pork will let out its juices which will then reduce to create a thick sticky sauce.  Sprinkle with finely chopped spring onion and serve with wedges of lime.

Vietnamese crayfish salad

2 carrots, peeled & julienned or grated, ¼ Chinese cabbage, finely chopped, 2 medium turnips, peeled and grated, 1/2 cucumber, julienned, 200g fresh crayfish

zest & juice of 4 limes, 2 medium garlic cloves, crushed, 1 teaspoon honey, 2 inches ginger, finely grated, 3 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 medium fresh red chili, seeds removed and finely chopped,  ½ teaspoon sesame oil,

6 tablespoon coriander, roughly torn, 6 tablespoons mint, finely chopped, 2 spring onions, finely sliced,

Simply mix all the dressing ingredients together before mixing into the salad ingredients.  At the last minute, mix through the fresh herbs.

Pollen Street Social

I’ve been meaning to write a quick review of the Pollen Street Social now for over a week.

People have been mentioning the restaurant to me for ages, i’d just simply not got around to going. However, a week or so ago, I was lucky enough to be taken out for lunch at said restaurant and boy was it good!

We stuck to the set lunch menu which I thought was perfect. It can sometimes be hard to create interest in a very short, concise, lunchtime menu but this one did it well, sparking off just enough decision making conflict between the dishes in each course; a bit of a psychological battle in dish choosing is always a good sign, in my book.

After much deliberation, to start, I chose hot smoked hake with a slow poached egg, popped corn, and a wild garlic (I’m pretty sure that’s what it was) infused velouté. The dish was both beautiful and delicious; a brilliant balance of textures, flavours and colours and also full of drama as the vivid green velouté was poured onto my plate, creating a little slow poached egg island propped up with smoked hake foundations. Mm more please!

Next, my partner and I both had the ox cheek with polenta. Once more I was massively impressed with the taste, presentation and textures. Especially clever were the little marrow bones that came slice in two, filled with some kind of slow roast crispy marrow… I really should have asked how exactly it had been prepared but got caught up in the moment of eating! The Ox cheek was wonderfully tender but not too rich and claggy and it worked really well with the polenta.

Although I’ve heard good things about the desserts at Pollen Street, I foolishly stockpiled the calories for the dinner I was having later! How foolish of me if the petit fours were anything to go by; upon arrival of my coffee, along came a mini chest of drawers, filled with different types of home made sweets and chocolates.

Next time, when i go back for a second visit, I won’t be missing out dessert!

Roast red pepper, aubergine and feta frittata

This was meant to be a quick dinner… But it actually took a bit longer than anticipated. But it was delicious!

Ingredients

For 4 normal people or 3 greedies!

8 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 medium aubergines cut into 1cm dice
3 red peppers, roasted with olive oil for 40 mins at 180c until the edges darken
1 courgette cut into 1cm pieces
75g cooked spinach, squeezed of all its moisture
1 onion, finely sliced
1/2 red chilli, finely sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
2 tsp zaatar
150g feta, crumbled
6 beaten eggs
1 finely sliced spring onion
Maldon Salt and black pepper

Fry the aubergines in 4tbsp of olive oil until cooked and nicely browned. It’ll take about 10 minutes. If you’ve only got a small pan, you’ll need to do this in a couple of batches. Add a good pinch of maldon salt.

Once browned, empty into a bowl. Next add another tbsp of olive oil to the pan and fry the courgette for 5 minutes until browned at the edges but still firm. Again, salt towards the end of cooking. Add to the aubergines.

Now add a further tbsp of oil to the pan and fry the onion for 5 minutes till softening, before adding the garlic and chilli for a further couple of minutes. Add to the other cooked vegetables.

Roughly slice the roasted red peppers and mix into the other veg along with the spinach. Stir the zaatar and feta into the veg with the beaten eggs. Season some more with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Heat the remaining oil in a non stick pan, wide enough to allow the egg and veg mix to form about a 1.5 inch layer. Pour in the egg and veg mix and cook on a medium heat for about ten minutes until the edges are browning. Finish it off for five minutes under a hot grill.

Allow to rest for a couple of minutes before turning out onto a board, sprinkling with spring onions and serving!

More delays, 2 days in Bristol, delicious scallops. Lemon poppy seed cake

The past week has been a really busy one. I’ve been in Cornwall seeing my Guide Kids, Bristol mentoring studnts, and I’m now on yet another train to Manchester. All this travel keeps things interesting for sure, but I’m looking forward to sleeping in my own bed!

More delays

Unfortunately I’m battling a bit with bureaucracy and the Reading station kiosk is still no closer in opening! We’ve not even managed to get a date yet to start the build… Fingers crossed we’ll take a few more steps forward this week…please cross yours as well!

I’m genuinely extremely frustrated and for someone with as impatient a character as mine, this is no good, I tell you!!

Anyway, as always, I shall keep you posted…

2 days in Bristol

I’ve just come away from a 2 day stint mentoring students in creative workshops where groups had to come up with sustainable ready meal ideas. It was a bit like the Young Apprentice and I was really impressed with what some of them came up with…. Grow your own salad packs, a sustainable sushi company, local seasonable burger companies… Some really good stuff!

When I was at school, sustainability was never anything we thought about let alone were taught so this is a fantastic project led by Your Green Future . Essentially, they’re highlighting the importance, to young people, of thinking sustainably in life and of thinking how choices they make can impact on the environment and on their future. I was really happy and proud to be a part of it and even happier that a couple of them had even tried a stewed! pot before!!

Delicious scallops

During my trip down to Cornwall this weekend, I went to a lovely little restaurant called Ben’s Cornish Kitchen in Marazion. The food was great! I especially liked my scallops on lentils with a fennel purée and my main course of local venison with a mushroom ragout. Really delicious! Thanks Ben!

Sorry about the shadows in one of those pictures….

Whilst in Cornwall I also did a fair amount of cooking. Sonya and Jo had loads of poppy seeds in their store cupboard so I made a lemon poppy seed cake.

I’m a huge fan of sweet lemon things so this was going to be an all time favourite of mine, i could tell. It also took me back to my days in St Andrews when i worked at The North Point Cafe making cakes like this!

This is the recipe!

Lemon poppy seed cake

You will need a loaf tin and…

150g butter
2 tbsp olive oil
100g sugar
2 tbsp honey
3 eggs
2 tsp baking powder
100g plain flour
50g ground almonds
Grated zest of 4 lemons
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbsp milk
4 tbsp poppee seeds

For the syrup
Juice of 4 lemons
4 tbsp granulated sugar

Preheat your oven to 175 degrees and line your tin with non stick paper.

Now cream the butter, oil and sugar and honey together until light and fluffy. It’s easiest to do it in a machine or with an electric whisk.

Beat the eggs together and slowly add tablespoons of egg to the butter and sugar mix, beating well in between each addition to ensure all the egg has been incorporated before the next lot goes in. You need to do this slowly otherwise the mixture will curdle.

Now sieve the flour and baking powder into the mix and fold in gently along with the ground almonds. Make sure everything is well incorporated but don’t overwork the mix. If you mix it too much, the gluten in the flour will develop and your cake will be chewy, not spongy!

Now carefully fold in the lemon zest, vanilla, milk and poppy seeds. You should have a speckly mixture that falls of a wooden spoon when tapped.

Now put it into your lined tin and level out the mix. Pop in the oven for about 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Don’t check it before 40 minutes otherwise your cake will sink!

Remove from the oven.

Now make the syrup. Put the lemon juice and sugar in a pan. Heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Now increase the temperature and boil for about 5 minutes until the liquid has turned syrupy.

With a skewer, make lots of holes in the lemon cake. Then, using a spoon, drizzle all the syrup evenly over the cake.

Allow to cool completely and then slice. It’s delicious!!

All systems go!

Right, the good news is that it’s looking like we’ll start building our kiosk early next week!… Which means opening up to the public around 19th or 20th March!  Only 6 weeks late….  Bureaucracy, I blame bureaucracy…

We’ve been super organised so now it’s a question of ordering everything that’s on a massive list!  Just hope we’ve not forgotten anything….  Will update you as soona s I know more.  Not much sleep will be had, I fear!

Photoshoot for the Times

So this weekend I was cooking, cooking, cooking for the Times newspaper.  They’re running a 2 page spread in T2 shortly on yours truly but they wanted 5 exclusive recipes!  So, that meant a lot of food needed to be made and eaten at some point!

After much deliberation, I chose to feature slow baked lamb shoulder with white wine, lemon, oregano and garlic; chicken with Toulouse sausages, bacon and puy lentils; braised duck with apples and grapes; fish stew with fennel, orange and chilli with a tasty hazelnut and orange gremolata; a tasty beetroot number that was perfect for the piece.  Here is a sneak preview of the fish stew….

I also discovered I was quite a decent food stylist.  having seen all the tricks of the trade during the photography of my cookbook, I was well equipped to make the food look delicious!  I might try food styling for my next career!

I’m currently awaiting an interview with the journalist and the article will, I believe, be featuring in the next couple of weeks.  It’s very exciting!  I’ve never been in the Times before.  If you like the sound of any of the recipes, then make sure you invest in a copy as soon as it comes out!

Oh and thanks to a few mates who came over on Monday, there was nothing left of the fruits of my labour.  very tasty indeed.

Your Green Future 

As well as opening a kiosk, next week I’m off to the University of West England to partake in a 2 day event.  I’ve been asked to be a food mentor for students trying to come up with ethically and environmentally sound ready meals!  Should be interesting….

Also on that note, we are just finalising when I’m off to Havelock school in Southall to start teaching kids about the food they are growing in their edible garden.  I’ll be reporting on that as soon as it happens.

One of the best things about having started my own business is the variety of things I now find myself involved in.  i think I have said this before.  Who would have thought I’d be advisign students on ready meal development and teaching primary school kids what to do with a beetroot.  It all makes me smile!

To end this short post I wanted to pose a question… We’ve been so focused on what we think we should be sellign in our kiosk, we may have forgotten somehting key!  So, if anyone has any great ideas for what we should sell in our kiosk, then let me know!!

That’s all for now!

Dinner at the Bull and Last, the great bowl search

Reblogged from Alan Rosenthal's Blog:

Last night, my family celebrated my dad’s birthday. My sister and I decided, prior to the event, to take control and booked the Bull and Last on Kentish town road in London. Or maybe it was Highgate road- anyway its close to Gospel Oak station….

The food was great! For once, somewhere where nothing wasn’t quite what it should be. Ok, Dad’s fish soup was a little thin but had great flavour.

Read more… 359 more words

This doesn't seem to have posted to facebook via my phone. So I am trying again! Sorry for all those who get it twice....