Food in December

Happy New Year all!

Another month and year has flown past and there's been plenty of great food. Perhaps a little too much, but that's what January is for. I don't expect January to be full of wheatgrass and yoga, just maybe fewer mince pies and cream. Sadly, no festive Christmas burgers either. I have no real plans for January as yet in terms of baking, I should probably devise a form of plan, but for now here's the end of 2015...

At the start of December I popped over to Brighton for Afternoon Tea in Blackbird Tea Rooms, home to the best scones you'll find. Starbucks helped to spread the festive cheer and get me in the holiday mood by dropping off some #StarbucksBakes treats. I'm looking forward to recreating their fig and cinnamon loaf cake at home. Sadly I can only recall one burger this month, but at least it was an old favourite from Honest Burgers. The Christmas special burger included smoked bacon, deep fried brie, cranberry sauce and rocket - I'd have quite happily eaten it in lieu of Christmas dinner it was that good! I headed to Truc Vert with the girls for our first Raclette experience. Plenty of melted cheese and charcuterie, check out their Raclette Wednesdays through January for a great night out. I'm not one for takeaways, unless its Eat First. Homemade meals delivered straight to you to, all you need to do is heat up when you're ready. I ordered a turkey dinner with pigs in blankets for a work lunch treat on Christmas Eve, Eve! (Use my code  'DQ5FPASX' for £10 off first orders). And for something extra special, Williamson Tea's Kenyan Earth, a bright, full-bodied English Breakfast tea. The festive elephant caddie would make a great gift, or is great to keep for your festive brews.

And whilst we're rounding up the year, my favourite and most popular posts of the year:

• Food photography tips - a few little tips and tricks in food photography and styling ideas
• Super simple Churros DIY with Tefal Optigrill - grilled doughnuts are heavenly and if you haven't tried them already, they really should be a new year's resolution
• Cookie dough marshmallow brownies - perhaps the most lengthy recipe ever, but it involves cookie dough, marshmallow and brownies, gloriously good
• Bake Off Bake Along series - baking along with all 10 weeks of this year's GBBO, at times I felt like giving up even with only one recipe a week, but it was a great challenge to try new recipes

So that's it!

Here's to another year packed with fabulous food and lots of fun for you all xxx

---

National Burger Day Party

If you're under the impression that I like burgers, then I'm afraid you've got me all wrong. Hah! Who am I kidding? When it was announced that Mr Hyde would be bringing back National Burger Day and celebrating with a party again this year there was a lot of commotion on Twitter. Mostly between Flick, Lauren and myself.

Of course, to go to the party you needed to purchase a ticket and these tickets sold out quicker than it takes Flick to eat a whole crab with burger chaser. 

I woke up from my night shift slumber to find that I'd missed the boat and a ticket. We hatched a plan over Twitter that I'd stand on the other side of the fence and the girls would lob burgers over to me. Now, whilst this was all a joke, my sadness was not a joke. 

My lucky burger prayers were answered when our pleas were heard and a latecomers ticket was released just for me. Christmas had truly come early and I don't think I've ever Paypal'd my spondoolies over so quickly!

But enough of burger admin, and onto the only thing we all truly care about, the line up. A total of 18 special burgers and 2 desserts were on offer. And with each ticket, a pint of Kozel lager, a Jameson Pickleback and a Breddos Chilliback with Jose Cuervo. 

We hopped straight over to the bar, went for Kozel and Aperol spritzes to fuel our game plan. We heard early on that someone had managed 6 burgers. Even with their smaller special sizes for the evening (anything between 75g and 120g patties) that was some true dedication!

First up, Mother Flipper. Without a doubt The Candy Bacon Special stole the show. 

The patties (120g) are made from coarse mince, loaded with squirt of magical MF special sauce and American cheese. Topped with pickles, home-candied brown sugar bacon, shoestring fries to give a perfect crunch and gently squashed in a toasted brioche bun.

We then split to order our next choices, Le Bun for the girls after giving up on Burger Bear's worthy queue. For me, Lucky Chip and their Donald Trump Burger (as endorsed by Donald Trump, apparently)!

Aged beef patty (105g) drenched in bourbon and vanilla BBQ sauce, grilled onions, American cheese and huge hunks of pickles. Perhaps a little too sweet, but perfectly manageable in a small size like this. I'd have loved it even more with a squirt of mustard and some more crispy onions.

As pickle-fiends, Flick and I opted for a pickle party in our final burgers. Lauren went for Smokestak who's Brisket and smoked bone marrow burgers looked pretty damn impressive.

And the pickle choice of the night? PYT Burger's Pickleback Slider. Custom beef patty (85g) topped with applewood bacon, Jameson glazed and fried pickle chips. I could quite happily have a whole trough of fried pickle chips and they are glorious in a burger. With just a hint more Jameson and bacon, this burger would have been a good contender to knock Mother Flipper off the top spot.

Happy as clams (or pickles), the girls tuck into their patties.

As the night crept on, things got a lot darker. We negotiated our way back to the bar for a top up. Bypassing the offer of a Pickleback or Chilliback that came with our tickets (a shot followed by a chilli or pickle juice chaser!). 

At Scoopsy Daisy, we all shared The Fat Elvis. Peanut butter and banana ice cream topped with bacon dust. This was an unusual combination, even for a gal like Flick who mixes her condiments! I loved the ice cream, just perhaps not bacon dust with it, sorry Elvis.

And finally, a dessert made just for me (naturally) Crumbs & Doilies Filthy Burger Cupcake. Salted caramel butterscotch bun, PB&J brownie patty, Speculoos cheese, Biscoff mustard and Swiss meringue lettuce. Followed with a side of shortbread chips with Yuzu and Speculoos dips.

No other cupcake will be the same!

The National Burger Day party was amazing (even the part where Flick-penguin attacked us in a photobooth). I'm not sure I want to go to any other sort of party in future now.

Mr Hyde's own photos of the night are pretty good, here.

If you're planning a burger crawl or going to a food festival yourself, take wet wipes. Everyone will be your friend and you'll be able to eat more burgers, that's what we learnt!

Until next year, burger pals!

---

Review: Quorn BBQ, Healthy Protein

Hidden away behind Peckham Rye station, through a maze of outdoor food venues, bars and a rooftop cinema, you'll find the London Barbecue School. Host of this year's Quorn BBQ*, a chance to try some new recipes and products from their range.

The school offers a series of classes and events to enable you to be king (or queen) or the BBQ. You can learn anything from how to use a ceramic BBQ, cooking paella or just classic BBQ skills.

To start, owner Alastair prepped us by walking us through how to get these BBQs going and how to manage the temperature through the air vents. Its probably quite important to listen intently and to remember everything he says...for if you leave your BBQ lid open, the flames will roar uncontrollably! (Our group felt terrible for paying more attention to prosecco and pepper chopping than to his singed arms!!)

Once prepped with the how-to's, we set off into groups to make our recipes. First up, Swedish style meatball kebabs. 

Ingredients:

(Serves 4-6, 253 cals and 5.3g fat per serving)

300g pack Quorn Meat Free Swedish Style Balls
3 tbsp red pesto

3 tbsp tomato puree

3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

2 tbsp sugar

salt & freshly ground black pepper

142ml carton Greek style yogurt

1 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp fresh parsley/coriander, chopped

1 green or yellow pepper

1 red onion

6 cherry tomatoes

6 button mushrooms

kebab sticks (if using wooden sticks, soak in water for 15 minutes before using)

Method:

• Place the pesto, puree, 2 crushed garlic cloves, sugar and seasoning in a bowl. Add the Quorn balls and mix thoroughly to coat each evenly. Cover and leave in the fridge until needed. 
• Make the dip by mixing together the yogurt, lemon juice, herbs, remaining garlic and seasoning. Cover and chill until required.
• Cut the peppers into 2.5 cm pieces and the onion into similar sized chunks.
• Thread the peppers onto skewers/kebab sticks alternating with the Quorn balls, onion, mushroom and tomatoes using 3 or 4 balls for each kebab.
• Place onto BBQ and cook for a few minutes each side. Alternatively, line a grill pan with oiled foil and grill for 10-15 minutes on a moderate heat whilst turning and regularly turning and brushing with any remaining marinade.

Next up, my favourite, sausage and vegetable sticky skewers.

Ingredients:

(Serves 3, 243 cals and 1.1g sat fat per serving)

250g pack Quorn sausages

1 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1 rounded tsp wholegrain mustard

2 tbsp mango chutney

1 red onion, cut into wedges

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into chunks

cherry tomatoes

kebab sticks (if using wooden sticks, soak in water for 15 minutes before using)

Method:

• Mix the oil, lemon, mustard and mango chutney together in a bowl. Coat the sausages with the glaze, cut into bitesized pieces.
• Thread the onions onto kebab sticks/skewers alternating with the sausage, peppers and tomatoes.
• Place the skewers onto a BBQ and cook, turning frequently until the vegetables are cooked and sausages are piping hot throughout, brushing with any remaining glaze.
• They are equally good roasted in the oven 200c for 10-12 minutes.

Still feeling peckish?

How about some chilli burgers with chipotle salsa? 

Ingredients:
(Serves 2, 426 cals and 5.3g fat per serving)

For the burgers,
2 Quorn Chef's Selection Classic Burgers

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 ciabatta rolls

handful of pea shoots

1/2 red onion, sliced

2 tbsp sliced red jalapeno peppers

freshly ground black pepper

Corn salsa,

1 tbsp vegetable oil

200g sweetcorn

1 tsp chipotle paste, or to taste

1 tsp fresh coriander, chopped

Method:

• For the chipotle salsa, heat oil in a pan and cook the sweetcorn for 2-3 minutes, or until just starting to brown, stir in the chipotle paste. Cool then stir in the coriander and tip into a serving dish.
• Lightly brush the burgers with a tsp of oil and grill or BBQ for 8-10 minutes, turning frequently.
• Meanwhile, slice the ciabatta in half horizontally; brush the but side with the remaining oil and place on the BBQ or under the grill to toast.
• Place the pea shoots on the base of the bread, top with the Quorn burger and add some slices of onion. Finish with jalapeno peppers before seasoning with freshly ground black pepper.
• Serve with the corn chipotle salsa.

There's one recipe I didn't get a chance to make, southern fried chicken burger and roasted vegetable wrap. Using the Quorn meat free Southern burgers, some roasted peppers, courgettes and onion served in a wrap with yogurt dressing and some rocket leaves. It looked pretty tasty!

I thoroughly enjoyed the evening of learning my way round a BBQ and trying out the recipes. I'll definitely be making these again at home as a healthier alternative to meat!

It goes without saying, these recipes can all be made with actual meat...but if you've been thinking about trying Quorn, or even for ways to jazz it up, then have a go at these recipes.

To find out more about Quorn's healthy protein and for some more recipes, take a look here.

For more information on the London Barbecue School, take a shimmy on over here.

Special thanks to Micaela from Reprise Media, Quorn & the BBQ school for having me and for teaching me some BBQ recipes to pass onto you readers. I hope you enjoy making them as much as I did!

N.B, some images are my own and some are a fancy photographer's - allowing us to get hands on with the BBQs and have a drink or two!

Review: Burger Bear and Prawnography at the Magic Roundabout, Old Street

I like to think of Old Street roundabout as an octopus. All those exits are just so confusing. But with the promise of burgers, cocktails and a catch up with good friends I hopped to it and battled my way through the tube station. 

Perhaps a little disclaimer is needed. When visiting the Magic Roundabout, there is absolutely no need to engage with the battle of exits. Just head up the station steps, to the left and follow the sound of music to the entrance. Just look how happy Flick was to have made it!

The roundabout itself is home to a pop-up street food market for the summer. There you will find the likes of Burger Bear and Prawnography, some music and a bar.

The main attraction for me was Burger Bear, a shipping container burger bar funded through a Kickstarter campaign last year. A place that's been on my list for some time.  You'll find them dotted around town at Stokey Bears (Stoke Newington), Peckham (The Old Nuns Head) and in their HQ at Magic Roundabout.

Behold the Grizzly Bear: a cheeseburger topped with double oak smoked bacon and Burger Bear's bacon jam, delivered to your salivating chops in a brioche bun. As you can see, Grizzly cause quite a stir amongst the girls.

The perfect sized patty, pink, crispy smokey bacon and bacon jam that oozes out with each bite.

Flick was a little jealous that she'd had to wait for her own meal from Prawnography and had to watch me devour the Grizzly. I offered to share my chips to ease her hunger pangs whilst she waited eagerly, camera in hand.

For Flick and Gianni, a rather large Spider Crab was presented from Prawnography. Prawnography brings fresh sea food from our coasts to the trendy Magic Roundabout-goers. On the night, the BBQ in the fisherman's hut wasn't quite warm enough so the girls waited with great anticipation for things to warm and for Mr Crabby to be cooked (whilst watching the bacon jam from my burger drip down my face). As a reward for their staying power, the Prawnography bunch kindly bought over some scallops wrapped in bacon fresh of the grill (my turn to be envious).

Here, Gianni takes the first whack of a leg and splatters both Frankie and I in crabmeat. I'm sure there's worse things in life. Although I'm not sure Frankie will ever live it down.

And as for drinks, by 7pm one of the cocktails had sold out, so seemingly popular. Between us we covered the rest of the cocktails they did have on offer. At £8 each I think its a fair price for the area, just unfortunately needed a little more alcohol in.

Take a visit to the Magic Roundabout and reward yourself for braving the tube station exits.

To find out more about Burger Bear, take a look here. Or here for Prawnography.

Its probably worth noting that during the evenings you're looking at a burger-disco situation. If you're meeting a friend to have a long catch up, take a megaphone or write secret notes to each other. But either way, the food will be worth it.

Find my gorgeous gal pals here: Flick, Frankie and Gianni, they're a mega talented bunch and Frankie's review is a good laugh (here).

Food in July

Bakes Box: salted caramel chocolate cake

Right in time for the new series of Great British Bake off, the new Bakes Box* launched last week. Each month, Amanda will send you a brand new recipe with the ingredients you need to make a showstopper cake. Not only does it come in letter box friendly form, everything is measured out ready, and the step-by-step tutorials on her blog take you through exactly what you need to do. 

Its like an online cake club community, and I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's salted caramel cakes over the coming weeks. 

Burger Bear: Grizzly Bear burger

Inspired by Mike's spreadsheet of London restaurants...I've been meaning to put my own list together. I have a more informal approach: Zomato bookmarks, Bloglovin' saves and a few notes on my Evernote app. But this is a very serious business and I need to merge all of this into one place to navigate a little easier.

But enough of burger-admin and onto the good stuff. Burger Bear has been on the burger-list for a little while and when the girls suggested heading to the Magic Roundabout to visit Prawnography...I was swayed only by the idea that I could go against the flow and get myself a burger.  Meat over seafood for me please!

Burger Bear's Grizzly Bear ticks all the boxes; messy, brioche, pink, mustard, crispy bacon, melty cheese. Perhaps a new winner on my existing burger list. 

Marshmallow brownies

When a colleague threatened that my brownies (in lieu of a shift swap) would have to be better than 'so-and-so's wife's', I threw my apron into the ring and pulled out all the stops. I often find it hard to persuade the average person that modern brownies are so much different (read: better) than those from supermarkets that we're used to. Brownies should be fudgey, gooey and very rich and not the cakey, firm nonsense people are used to. 

I rustled up this batch of brownies with giant jet-puffed marshmallows which created lots of air pockets. This ultimately lead to my favourite, post-oven brownie flop. Sounds bad, right? Wrong. You need those bad boys to puff up in the oven, form a shiny crust and then to flop as you remove them from the oven. The result: SUPER gooey extravaganza. 

For this batch, I used my favourite recipe (here) and added 12 giant marshmallows, evenly spaced into the bottom of the tray before baking.

Image courtesy ofRachel Phipps: gin and watermelon juice with fresh basil.

A blog I've been enjoying recently is Rachel Phipps'. It refreshing to read an honest opinion of something, and that is exactly what her review of Dinerama is. 

There's a notion that people blog to get free meals in exchange for a few Tweets or writeup. In reality, its not that glamourous. You'll spend more time in front of a computer screen than you realise. But when you enjoy writing and eating out, why not? 

An article I found this week talks about taking your passion and spending every evening and weekend on it. If you weren't passionate about it, then you probably wouldn't have enough to write about it/could give up all the time.

I guess what I'm trying to say is, paid or free doesn't really make the difference. Honesty does. Why spend time giving a false review of something? 

And more importantly, how good does Rachel's gin and watermelon juice with fresh basil look?!

Some extra links:

To get your first box for £10, use the discount code 'MYBAKES'. Find out more here.

And a little shameless plug, for any of you that have ever met me - you'll know exactly how much I love to share the brownie love. Stay tuned on Twitter, I'm looking to send out some brownies to some friendly Twits...because that's how much I love you all!

Review: Hide and Seed, Putney

This review is perhaps a little overdue. But I've been thinking a lot about my favourite burgers recently, naturally, and realised I'd missed this gem. 

Alex from Zomato kindly offered me voucher to try Hide and Seed in Putney knowing full well how much I love burgers.

Located just 5 minutes walk from East Putney station on the district line, or 15 minutes walk from Putney High Street, Hide and Seed is part of Lodge Hotel. The restaurant itself is situated on the ground floor, just off the lobby. The elegant dining room has a relaxed library style and a wall of black and white sporting photos, all very modern (if a little dark).

Whilst perusing the menu I ordered a cocktail from the bar. I'd like to say that it had bourbon, raspberry and prosecco in, but since I have the memory of a goldfish and there's no trace of their cocktail list online, I can't say for certain. The drinks list is quite substantial in terms of the bar's own cocktails and some classics.

We opted to get stuck into the mains straight away and both went for burgers. For boy, the hide burger (£14.50) and for me the seed burger (£12.50). Boy's hide burger was an 8oz patty with homemade BBQ sauce and a brioche bun. I managed to steal a few bites! It was cooked perfectly medium with a good balance of BBQ sauce. There was no doubt this patty was freshly made and hand formed. I'd definitely go back to enjoy one to myself.

In order to try something different (I do love my beef burgers) I opted for the veggie equivalent. The 'burger' itself was a little disappointing; breaded potato, carrots and peas. But the toppings made up for it. The burger was covered in a generous serving of melted cheese and the bun loaded with some fresh leaves, avocado slices, onion and gherkins. There was some of their homemade BBQ sauce but I feel that it could have done with something punchier, like a chilli jam. Not necessarily a bad thing, but when I say the bun was loaded with extras, it really was. This is the first burger I have ever eaten fully with a knife and fork, far too messy to pick up. Perhaps the bun could have been bigger to allow for the generous amount of toppings?

Onto dessert, we both had our eye on the same thing; chocolate textures (£7.50). But, in the name of research, I ordered the Pink Panther cake (£7.50) for myself allowing Boy the chocolate honour.

Boy's chocolate textures was served on a small slate tile, scattered with a few different components: layered chocolate mousse, a chocolate profiterole and chocolate crumbs and was decorated with fruit and chocolate work. There was a lot going on! Again, I stole a little taster. The mousse was a good balance of light and rich between the layers and the presentation was great.

I have mixed feelings about my Pink Panther cake. Again, the presentation was outstanding. There was plenty of fresh fruit, a drizzle of coulis, some shortbread crumbs, a scoop of homemade ice cream and even some spun sugar. The cake itself was a gorgeous looking 3 layer sponge, sandwich between fresh cream and had a pink frosting topping. The sponge perhaps wasn't as light and fluffy as it could have been; perhaps had been stored in the fridge and had left it a little dry. The pink frosting was a little too sweet but there wasn't too much of it and the ice cream always helps.

We visited late in the afternoon, 5pm, on a Friday and it was completely empty. I'd have expected a few people to be at least seated for Friday afternoon drinks, but there was only a small group sat at the bar itself just round the corner. I'm sure it would have picked up as the evening went on, especially with restaurants south of the river becoming increasingly more popular.

It did mean that, as hungry as we were, we got through our meal quickly and enjoyed an early evening stroll through town. The waiter was very friendly and attentive with just us to serve.

I'd definitely recommend Hide and Seed to anyone looking for cocktails and/or burgers in the area. The hide burger in particular. I should imagine its also a good restaurant for hotel guests fancying some of their small plates, or perhaps a wine and cheese board night cap.

Zomato kindly offered me complimentary vouchers to go which was a lovely gesture. All views are my own - I was not asked to feature this on my blog, just wanted to recommend cocktails and burgers!