For when I don't cook!

Naturally I don't cook every day of the week, and living in London I have access to some of the best restaurants in Europe and I've found eating out to be very cheap here too!

So in a change from me talking about what I've made at home (although last nights chinese pork chops were awesome!), I'm going to give you a list of some of my favourite London restaurants at the moment!

Smithfield bar and Grill

Apart from Hawksmoor, this is one of the best steaks I have had in London, and much cheaper. Really awesome! They do good fish and cocktails too, definately worth a visit.


The Larder

Just up the road from Smithfield is the Larder. Really excellent British fusion food and some very good standard of cooking. Try the squid started and the duck confit with scallops and bok choi for main.

Cafe Des Amis

This one is a bit special, but you wouldnt know if from the price. They use quality ingredients and the dining area is lovely. This is one of my favourite for a romantic evening around covent garden.

Thai Thai

This place, situated in Old Street, is one of the best places I have eaten for the price. Authentic thai food, prepared and served brilliantly. No excuses, you have to try this!


Anyone got any other recommendations? I'm always looking for new places to try, and places with out there food so i can get new ideas to try at home!

Chicken and Cashew Nut Stir Fry

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cooking time: 10 min
Serves 4

This is one of my favourite chicken stir-fry recipes. The ginger and garlic provide the essentail flavour and aroma for this straight forward and quick meal. The cashew nuts add some crunchy variety and you can be very flexible with sauces. Replace the hoi sin with some sweet chilli and add cristpy basil for a thai flabour. Serve with steamed rice or noodles.

Note: Get good quality chicken for this as a cheap cut thats been injected with loads of water will harm the consistency of the stir fry and leave a bad taste. 


Ingredients

• 4 chicken breasts, thinly sliced into strips
• 100g unslated cashew nut split in half
• 1 clove garlic crushed
• 1 teaspoon crushed fresh ginger
• Handfull of carrots and mange tout
• Handfull of bean sprouts
• 1½ tablespoons corn flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon light soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon vinegar
• Splash of Dry white wine
• 1 tablespoon Hoisin sauce
• Sunflower oil
• Salt and peper to season

Method

1. Season half the corn flour with salt and pepper and dredge the sliced chicken in the mixture.
2. Drain the tinned pineapple and reserve the juice.
3. Mix the remaining corn flour with the sugar, soya sauce, vinegar, sherry and Hoisin sauce.
4. Heat half the sunflower oil in a wok or pan.
5. Add the cashew nuts and stir fry until golden.
6. Drain the nuts on paper towels and reserve.
7. Heat the remaining oil, add the garlic and ginger and stir fry for 30 seconds.
8. Add the chicken and stir fry for 2 minutes.
9. Add your bean sprouts, carrots and mange tout
10. Remove the chicken from the wok.
11. Add the sauce and cook until it thickens.
12. Add the chicken and cashew nuts and stir fry for 1 minute.

Crab Risotto

Crab risotto
   
Preparation: 10 mins
Cooking: 20 mins
    

This risotto recipe allows for alot of diversity with different types of seafood. I often use the same premise for Smoked haddock or crayfish. Tt is an interesting one because it shows how to make a fantastic dish with very few ingredients. Naturally uoi can go wild on seafood risotto, with loads of different fish, but I like to keep it simple and focus on one excellent flavour type.

SERVES 4

Ingredients:

• 350-400 g Risotto rice 
• 170 g Shredded crab meat
• 75 ml Extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Clove of garlic
• 1 Small onion (finely chopped) or two shallots
• 100 ml White wine
• 100 ml sieved tomatoes or passata
• 1 Litre of hot fish stock - 2 stock cubes - (I have to say that you often need more than 1 litre so have some extra stock handy)
• ½ tsp Cracked black pepper
• Salt for seasoning
• A small handful of flat leaf parsley (finely chopped)

Directions:

Firstly, be sure that you prepare the stock so that it is readily available when required. The best thing to do is to have the stock just simmering on the cooker.

Next, crab meat is usually preserved in brine. Put the crab meat into a small sieve and press the meat down with a spoon so that the brine goes through the sieve. Discard the brine and set the crab meat aside. Ofcourse you can use fresh crab meat, although it can be more expensive and harder to come by, so tinned is fine for the home cooked meal. Generally if I’m making this at a dinner party I use fresh, but for just me at home in front of the telly, I use tinned.

Put the olive oil in a large pan. Heat the oil and then add the garlic. Sweat the garlic over a gentle heat until it becomes golden in colour. When the garlic becomes golden, quickly remove it from the pan and discard it.

Next, add the onion or shalotts and sweat over a medium heat for about 3 minutes until soft, then add the rice.

Stir until the rice is coated with oil. You can see that the rice will start to become translucent. Keep stirring and sweat the rice for a minute or two add the white wine, keep stirring and let the wine reduce.

Now, add the stock and turn the heat to medium/low. The stock, which has been kept simmering in order to stay hot, should be added at the rate of a couple of ladlefuls at the time and when this is absorbed, add more stock. Carry on in this way for about 15 minutes. During this stage, do not leave the pan alone and stir regularly.

Now, immediately after the first couple of ladlefuls of stock, add the sieved tomatoes or passata and stir.

Meanwhile you keep going, adding stock as required and stirring (gently). Season with salt and pepper at this stage.

After 15 minutes add the crab meat into the pan. Stir to evenly distribute the crab meat. From now on, taste the rice every minute until the rice is cooked al dente, and season further if required. Regular but gentle stirring is required for the last minutes in order to avoid the risotto sticking to the bottom of the pan.

When the rice is perfectly cooked al dente, add the parsley and stir for a few seconds and serve. Garnish with grated parmesan as per taste. 

(please excuse the lack of pictures. After a number of attempts, I still find it very difficult to make risotto look appealing!) 

Wild Mushroom Tortellini

Tortellini great for a quick meal at home, but is also impressive for guests. Using gowgee skins makes the preparation of tortellini easier, a technique which many restaurants use, but can just as well make fresh pasta yourself and cut into. There is an endless selection of fillings and sauces that can be used for tortellini and while i prefer wild mushroom, try Spinach and Ricotta, or Chicken and Bacon.

Portions: 6 portions as a starter

Preparation: 30 minutes

Cooking: 15 minutes

Ingredients

Sauteed Wild Mushrooms for Filling

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 20g dried wild mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes, then finely chopped (reserve liquid)
• 200g mixed mushrooms, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• maldon salt and freshly ground black pepper

Filling

• 300g ricotta
• 75g grated parmesan
• 2 tbsp basil leaves, finely chopped
• pinch of grated nutmeg
• generous pinch paprika

Tortellini

• 36 gowgee skins (or make fresh pasta)

To Serve

• 100g Gorgonzola cut into small cubes
• truffle oil
• grated parmesan
• chopped basil

Method

1. Sauteed Wild Mushrooms for Filling: Heat the oil in a frying pan over a medium-high heat, add the garlic and half the dried wild mushrooms, sauté until the mushrooms are tender. Stir in the remaining mushrooms and thyme, sauté until the mushrooms are tender. Season with salt and pepper and allow to cool.
2. Filling: Place all the filling ingredients in a bowl along with the sauteed mushrooms. Mix with a fork until well combined. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Tortellini: Lay the gowgee skins out on a dry surface. Place a teaspoonful of the filling in the centre of each gowgee. Dampen around the edges with a little water and fold each gowgee in half and seal well. Dampen the corners and bring them together, pinching so that they are joined. Place on lightly oiled greaseproof or baking paper until ready to cook.
4. To Cook the Pasta: Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil, salting lightly. Place some of the tortellini in the boiling water and cook for 30 seconds until they rise to the top (do no overfill as they won't cook evenly). With a slotted spoon remove the tortellini and place in warmed bowls. Repeat this process until you have cooked all the tortellini.
5. To Serve: Scatter the gorgonzola over the pasta. Drizzle over a little truffle oil and accompany with grated parmesan. Serve at once.

Pork Shoulder steak with stuffed sweet pepper

This one is really good and provides that popular mexican feel to an evening. Anyone can cook a steak and stuff a pepper, but this one is all about the way you flavour the meat to make it really pop off the plate!

Ingredients:

2 Pork shoulder steaks, with reasonable fat marbling.
3 Long sweet peppers
Parmesan cheese
Jalepenos
Shallots
Garlic
Tomato Puree
Parmesan cheese

For the Rub and Marinade

1/4 tsp Smoked Paprika
1/4 tsp Nutmeg
1/4 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
1/4 tsp Dried Oregano

1 Lemon
1 Lime
Olive oil

Stuffed Peppers
Chop peppers in half lenghtways, and deseed. Fry up the thinly dived chalottes, jalepenos and crushed garlic in a tiny bit of olive oil and put in a generous helping of tomato puree, until you have a reduced chunky mixture. Spoon mixture into the peppers and cover in Parmesan cheese. Put on a baking tray into the oven for 15 minutes until piping hot and peppers are beginning to slightly wilt.

Pork Shoulder Steak
Marinade Steaks in the juice of a whole lemon, a whole lime and 3 tsp of olive oil for a minimum of 3 hours. I generally do it in the morning before leaving for work.
Take the steaks out of the marinade and drain excess juice. For the rub, mix the herbs and the ground paprika, nutmeg and cayenne pepper together and get messy! Make sure the rub coats the steaks thinly and evenly. Once done put the steaks on the grill pan, searing the outsides quickly and then turning regularly until cooked through.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream and some roughly chopped parsely to dress.

Enjoy this one! I did when I had it about twenty minutes ago!

Prawn & Mushroom Spaghetti

This is a really simple “TV meal” that I often eat on my own, but the depth of flavour is good and the meal very satisfying. I’m doing the recipe for one, so just multiply your ingredients accordingly.

Ingredients

150g Raw King Prawns (fresh, not frozen), peeled

100g Button Mushrooms, washed

1 medium red chilli, finely chopped, seeds removed

1 small clove of garlic, crushed

1 TSP oregano, finely chopped

Butter

100Ml White wine.

Spaghetti

Method:

Heat up a pan with a knob of butter and throw in the prawns to fry off. Fry until they turn pink. At this point you need to put your mushrooms and garlic in. The button mushrooms should be small enough to go in whole, which allows them to become a receptacle for the light sauce and bring in loads of flavour. After the mushrooms are go in, throw in your chopped chilli and sprinkle the oregano. As the mushrooms start to brown lightly (which is when their best flavour will start to come out) slowly start adding your wine, stirring regularly. When all the wine is in, let to reduce and put a handful of good spaghetti or linguini into some salted boiling water.

As spaghetti becomes al dente, the sauce should have reduced sufficiently. Place strained spaghetti and sauce into the one pot, mix around and then put on the plate. Et viola! Simple and really tasty. Serve with a nice Pinot Grigio.

Seared Tuna with Green Tea Soba Noodles

I First had this dish at the Taste London Festival a few years back and the subtle but quality flavour blew me away. I had to make it myself. This is the cornerstone of any oriental themed dinner party starter, and also relatively easy to make.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

Tuna steaks, 4, about 125g each

4 tbsp of Sesame oil,

Green tea soba noodles, 250g available from most ethnic food stores, Waitrose, or online

4 tbsp of White sesame seeds,

2 Baby Courgettes, cut into small cubes

Handful of Spring onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp of finely chopped chives

Sauce:

4 tbsp of Lemon juice,

3 tbsp of Soy sauce,

Root ginger (chopped), 3cm

3 tbsp of Mirin, a Japanese condiment similar to Sake, available from all supermarkets.

1 tbsp of Sugar,

Method:

1) Boil the noodles in salted water until al dente. Drain. As we are not going to use the noodles straightaway, leave in a bowl of cold water.

2) Drizzle the tuna with 1 tbsp sesame oil and season. Roll in the sesame seeds until coated. Heat a non-stick frying pan to very hot. Sear the tuna on both sides. Keep warm.

3) In a saucepan, sauté the courgette until soft. Then, put in ginger, mix well, followed by lemon juice, soy sauce, mirin and sugar. Stir and mix well. Add in some water if necessary.

4) Drain soba noodles and add in to the saucepan. Mix and make sure the sauce is well coated.

5) Slice the tuna very thinly.

6) Divide the noodles into 4 shallow bowls; serve slices of tuna on top. Drizzle extra sauce from the saucepan.