Borough Market and A Mexican Breakfast.

What is a Mexican breakfast? Thinking spicy cornflakes?

You'd be wrong.

Mexican breakfast food really isn't that different from Mexican dinner food... They still eat tacos, burritos and churros. This particular Mexican breakfast originates (once again!) from 'Jamie's America', and is absolutely great if you've got a long, energetic day ahead of you. Mine actually defeated me... which is uncommon. It's also pretty cheap as a large and delicious meal goes, and not unhealthy in the slightest. This recipe has tomatoes galore, and as tomatoes are believed to have anti-carcinogenic properties... you should eat as many as you like! It is a combination of onions, tinned tomatoes, garlic, chillies and fresh tomatoes for the sauce which you simmer down until it is lovely and thick - adding the fresh tomatoes once the sauce has thickened by layering them on top. You then make a well in the centre of the sauce and crack an egg into it, which poaches in the sauce.  Served in a lovely toasty tortilla where you can wrap the mixture up or eat like a tostada.

Yesterday I was transported to, LITERALLY, my own personal heaven. You know... if I constantly had money and didn't mind being a heffer. We spent our afternoon in Borough Market, on the South Bank, looking at the most amazing produce and drinking hot mulled cider - from the New Forest - My home :)

So here is a selection of the goods we arrived home with...

The Bounty!

Chocolate Tarts.... VERY sickly but amazing.

Rosemary Foccacia, Chorizo Piccante, Chipotle Chilli Ketchup, Olives, Avocados....

Sea Bream!! More on these to follow...

Iberian Ham, Three different cheese, MORE olives, pesto, shrimp, dressed crab, anchovies

GO TO BOROUGH MARKET.

Winter Comfort Food.

I am, readers, fully aware that it's summer. Supposedly. This week has been most miserable with wind and rain, I felt as though a good warming soup was in order. Back to good ol' 'Jamie's America', we discovered a soup in the New Yoark (phonetic), section made by a guy called Ali, an egyptian man. It was called My Astoria Soup.

A slightly Mexican feeling, tomato and pepper delight including new spices called Zahrat and Sumac, two great flavours that I do encourage everyone to try out. Sumac is a type of berry and it's most available in it's dried and crushed form. Zahrat is a mixture of sesame seeds, Thyme and Sumac berries. So lots of Sumac. The great thing about this dish is that it's really full of flavour whilst being cheap, vegetarian and healthy. You don't even miss meat, and that means a lot coming from me - the meat whore. It's also surprisingly filling, as it contains Bulgar Wheat, a great source of fibre and you can serve it with toasted tortillas or crusty bread to fill you up. There is no spice in the recipe really apart from the cumin, but we added one long, red, fresh chilli to the mix as we like our spicy food.  This gave the soup a really nice heat. 

Rob (other half) cooked this tonight and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was extremely tasty.

Jamie's America wins again. 

Do have to admit though, that I have also scoffed on asparagus wrapped parma ham, and some iberan ham. I don't regret a thing. Om nom.

Keeping the Marriage Alive.

Good evening blog readers. It's raining in London, but that doesn't stop me from enjoying a good date. Yes, this evening I was accosted and taken out by my dashing other half (we are not married by the way, he won't even take the hint. HINT HINT.) We decided to pop on the tube to Westfield as it is on our line and has a large amount of tasty food places in a small area... although this can often be bad, as both of us are extremely indecisive. Especially when so much deliciousness is involved.

So tonight, as the boy was paying (*sigh* should have dug my feminist heels in VS. *teehee* girly giddyness), he decided on 'Mandaloun', a Lebanese restaurant that, from the outside, looked buzzing with young, fashionable people smoking shisha pipes and enjoying delicious mezze. 

Now, I'd like to point out that I absolutely love mezze cuisine, and the ability to eat lots of different, small dishes. It's the ultimate 'try a bit of everything' menu, which is great for me because I ALWAYS want everything on the menu.
There was a member of the front of house staff stood right by the entrance, however she barely acknowledged us. We stood there politely for about 5 more minutes until she looked again and we tried to signal that we'd like a table for two. She asked in a mumbled voice 'Shisha?', to which we replied that No, we were here to eat. She gestured for us to go inside, where the host took notice of us and lead us to a nice table for two at the back.

There were lots of lovely, comfy looking booths in the main part of the restaurant, along with beautiful hanging lanterns, but it felt wrong to ask for one of those lovely, big, comfortable and cushy booths for just the two of us, despite that fact that I love to eat in booths. It's great for couples who are still in love and actually appreciate being close to each other and sharing food. But we settled for the small wooden 'for two' table.

There was a huge selection of food and wines to choose from, which is always great, but we thought it easier to order the 'Grand Mezze' selection for 2 people. This came to £44.00 for the two of us, as well as this I ordered a large house Lebanese Red and my other half ordered a Mango Juice. The food came pretty quickly, despite having to wait a while to place our order. But where was my wine? I enjoyed those few strong sips before a meal that inevitably always make my meal more enjoyable. We tucked in regardless. We were presented with a selection of hummus  falafel, stuffed vine leaves, pitta breads, salad, minced lamb parcels and filo pastry parcels. The vine leaves were beautiful - they were moist and flavoursome, and I very much enjoyed them. The hummus (it seemed there were two different varieties - a smooth and a chunky one) were also nice. There was also a sort of moussaka sauce with onions and peppers which was very tasty, despite the fact that neither of us like aubergines. But the rest was a little disappointing unfortunately. The falafel and parcels were very dry... OH! My wine has showed up - great! I really could of done with that about twenty minutes ago. At least now it will help with the dryness of my mezze items... oh? Oh. It is extremely rough. Plus it's also a small glass when I asked for a large. Always disappointing.


We were then presented with the second part of our mezze.


I'd like to point out that the waitresses that cleared our table and brought our food were very lovely and smiley.

The main part was a mixed grill of lamb and chicken shish and donor meat.
The lamb shish was INCREDIBLE. Perfectly cooked with a tender and succulent pink middle. The chicken shish was passable, but the donor meat was all too greasy for me. My date had turned from beautiful restaurant wine and dine to glorified kebab shop outing. Shouldn't I have at least done a few tequilas prior?

This all came to about £65.00... including a 12.5% service charge, which I think was downright cheeky seeing as we didn't have one permanent waiter/waitress to give it to and our drinks were incredibly late. I don't think that Mandaloun is somewhere I would be returning to... My boyfriend did enjoy it though, which is good at least :)

We then journeyed to 'The Bull', and I ordered a LARGE Cabernet Savignion, cuddled up in a cosy chair and relished in the warm, smooth taste of my wine. A good ending to the evening.


I would also like to point out that my boyfriend, fantastic and handsome as he is (*vomit* I Know, Right?), returned home today with not only the intention to take me out for dinner, but a chocolate tart. Not any chocolate tart, but a 'River Cottage Deli' chocolate tart. YES! It was so delicious. The pastry was a deep, dark and rich chocolate, and the filling was so smooth and perfect that I could have died... or orgasmed... or both. I thoroughly suggest that everyone has a chocolate tart for breakfast.

Mole

Today I cooked a mexican tradition - Mole. I decided to use chicken, following a recipe from 'Jamie's America' - a really fantastic book by Jamie Oliver, full of incredible and delicious dishes from his journeys from across the pond. Mole is a sauce that comes in many different varieties (black, red, green and so on), and is a great representative dish of Mexico. It's often used for big celebrations such as weddings and can often be eaten as early as 9am, despite its rich and spicy flavour.
This recipe gets it's richness from the large amount of dark chocolate that the recipe involves, along with cocoa powder. Mole is a dish that takes many years to perfect, and so the best way to create it is to follow the recipe of someone else who has already perfected it and then make changes for yourself.
The sauce is great for dipping in juicy meats (everyone loves a bit of juicy meat) or crusty bread. I served my Chicken Mole with a big chunk of crusty bread (for the boys) and a big side garden salad. The salad was made up of gem lettuce, tomato and sweet baby peppers. I doused it in a vinaigrette of my own creation.

This consisted of:
3 tsp garlic olive oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Fresh thyme
Salt and Pepper
A splash of lime juice
A drizzle of honey

Very quick and easy.

The Mole dish takes a fair while to cook depending on how many you're serving as you have to boil your chicken thoroughly, and the sauce requires blending (yes, I did get sauce all over the kitchen counter... and myself). The waiting pays off however, and I was left feeling a bit tingly afterwards - not sure whether that was the heat from the chillies or something altogether more erotic.

Introduction to Georgie 101

So I became on of those people who writes a blog. My boyfriend is giving me disapproving looks.
But I miss writing, and if I start writing novels or plays I never finish them - my attention span is too short or I become distracted by a.) the fridge or b.) something shiny.
Since I've started this blog, I guess I should tell you a little about myself. I'm short ( so short that it's a defining characteristic), live in London (will work for food, wine or Kurt Geigers), and am not naturally ginger. Not that there's anything wrong with being ginger. I live with a boy and he likes tools and to be cooked tasty food. On the plus side he's a pretty impressive cook himself.
I love cooking and I love trying new foods and flavours. Normally, trying new things gives me an instant panic attack... but not with food. It's one of the most pleasurable things in life. Why anyone would consciously choose to buy and eat a Mcdonalds when you can cook a wealth of delicious and equally cheap things, I do not know.
I'm quite a dab hand at savoury foods but when it comes to baking I'm a bit of a nightmare... It's all a learning curve!

So this blog is for me to share my thoughts and my food with you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.