Alchemy on the Southbank

Looking for something to do this Bank Holiday Monday? Perhaps just to celebrate that our trains are running or to grab a spicy hangover cure? Head down to the Southbank Centre to their Alchemy event (an annual festival showcasing the best of dance, music, theatre, design, fashion, comedy and literature from the UK and South Asia). 

Street food heavyweights - KERB (@kerb_) are providing a fantastic pop up market celebrating the best of South Asian food - cuisines from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Afganistan.

Here are a couple of highlights that we tried today. 

I am obsessed with Dosas - a thin, crispy pancake made from rice batter and black lentils, and Dosa Deli always deliver on the goods. Today we had their Chilli Cheese Dosa, which is so moreish and delightfully crispy!

Ladle & Skillet had a great Afghani offering -  Bamyan Lamb or Kabull Chickpeas. We went for the lamb box (griddled lamb neck, slow marinated in garlic, lemon, coriander and chilli with peppers and onions), which was served with a gorgeously soft organic flatbread. The lamb was beautifully tender and even the salad was soaked in rich lamb juices.

One of my favourite dishes came from The Peckish Peacock in the form of a Pakora Snack Box. Most delicious pakoras I've ever tried - crunchy, buttery, rich and lip smackingly good. 

There's a great selection of drinks to finish your May bank hol - a cocktail bar, a selection of refreshing beers, coffees and Square Root sodas. If you're a tea lover like myself, there's Good & Proper Tea or Teala to choose from. With today's warm weather, I tried Iced Teas from both stalls. The Classic Southern Iced tea from Teala was refreshing and tangy with black tea, whereas the Iced Tea made with Darjeeling and a splash of Elderflower from Good & Proper was sweeter and milder.

We finished off with a couple of sweet treats. Good & Proper Tea have a nice little selection of baked goods - we went for the Coconut Barfi, little squishy morsels of coconutty goodness.

Spotting the words VIETNAMESE ICED COFFEE, we also grabbed ice lollies from The Ice Kitchen. Their Vietnamese Iced Coffee lolly was the best ice lolly I've ever had. Rob had the fresh mango lolly, which he described as frozen squished up mango. Win win.

So get yourself down to Alchemy tomorrow and try the fantastic food and bevvies they have to offer! Special mentions also to Kothu Kothu, who do incredible Sri Lankan Rotis - try the Mutton, and Horn Ok Please who offer a great selection of delish veggie street food.

 

Taste of London 2014

I went to Taste of London last week. For those who aren't familiar, Taste is a restaurant festival showcasing some of London's most exciting places to eat. Each restaurant has 3 or 4 showstopping dishes on the menu for you to try. Plus lots of bars, foodie stalls and giveaways!

I did spend most of my time wandering around completely wide eyed but I managed to snap a few pics to share with you.

Starting with Meatliquor. You know I love Meat Liquor, and Meat Market and Meat Mission. All the Meat boys endeavors. We had Cheeseburger Sliders and Monkey Fingers (buffalo chicken strips) - juicy, moreish and meaty.

 

From Plum and Spilt Milk, I had an Elderflower and Berry Jelly with Clotted Cream. I'm not normally a jelly fan, but this was fantasticly fresh, fruit and indulgent.

We had fresh Strawberry ice cream Gordon Ramsey's Maze, covered in popping candy! Almost looks too good to eat.

Next up was Italian fare from L'Anima. They were shaving huge truffles everywhere! 

I tried the Burrata (my favourite cheese at the moment) with pomodoro and anchovies. I was a little disappointed by this one - the cold tomato sauce left a little to be desired.

 

 

There were lots of chefs to fangirl over. Here are some that I took photos of :) 

 

Thomasina Miers

Michel Roux Jr.

 

 

Gizzi Erskine

We also saw Monica Galetti and Valentine Warner. I was grinning like an idiot with excitement.

Time for a VIP champagne break with Laurent Perrier and a free promotional recipe book. 

Next onto my newest obsession - Duck and Waffle. I had Barbecue Crispy Pigs Ears. They were so tasty, but I couldn't eat the entire bag. Luckily I saved it and we shared them later in front of the telly. It was very romantic.

 Now for my absolute favourite thing I ate. A creation by Andre Garrett. This was a Peanut Butter Parfait with Chocolate Mousse and Meringue Topping and a secret core of salted caramel. Heaven.

 

We finished off our summer excursion with a cocktail. I had the French Spring Punch, which tasted like an alcoholic lemonade. Perfectly refreshing in the summer sun.

Yorkshire Special: Salts Diner

I am currently having a mini holiday in Yorkshire, visiting my Mum and Stepdad and enjoying the fresh air of the Dales. So I wanted to give you a bit of a 'Yorkshire Special Edition' this weekend, starting with this post and a couple more to follow...

After picking me up from Leeds station at the crack of dawn yesterday, we travelled to Saltaire - a beautiful World Heritage village in West Yorkshire, somewhere that they've been looking at relocating to. Saltaire is a Victorian Industrial village that was founded by Sir Titus Salt, who began a huge textile mill in the area. He then gradually built up a village for his employees, providing them with schools, churches and accommodation. 

We visited Salts Mill, which is now a tourism site surrounding the history of Titus Salt and his legacy. They also have fantastic book shops, cook shops, housewares and an antique/vintage store. It was fab! We ate lunch at Salts Diner, which has a huge David Hockney connection (David Hockney lived in Bradford and Salts Mill holds a very large collection of his work). 

Salts Diner had some of the nicest restaurant design I'd seen in a while. Their logo is an illustration by David Hockney of one of his beloved Dachshunds and their menu was really innovative and interesting a beautiful. We didn't each a huge meal here, just having a light lunch. But I did further enhance my Arizona Green Tea with Honey addiction (in the US you can get a huge half litre can for about 60p). 

My mum and I shared one of the Pizza Specials, which was Butternut Squash, Goats Cheese, Beetroot Relish and Caramelised Onions and we had this was a seasonal salad. The pizza dough was delicious, really nicely flavoured and the toppings were perfectly balanced. There was a very subtle sweetness from the butternut squash and caramelised onions and these were matched beautifully with acidic goats cheese and earthy beetroot. One of the best pizza combinations I've tried for a while. The seasonal salad was more than just a handful of standard leaves, which I really appreciated. There were pickles, olives, radishes, peppers and the dressing was lovely. It definitely held it's own. 

So Salt's Diner was a winner! Tonight we're off to Shear's Yard in Central Leeds, which I am extremely excited about. I'm going to do some sort of stomach enhancing yoga stretches now to prepare. 

Lancashire Hot Pot

The lack of warm weather (is it June already?), is really starting to get to me. When the sun does come out, it's generally accompanied by a bitter wind and my summer clothes are still safely packed up in the top of my wardrobe. Although Lancashire Hot Pot is the perfect meal for cold, winter nights, I think this year's "summer" allows us to extend the cosy menu for a little bit longer.

Lancashire Hot Pot is both one of mine and Rob's favourite dishes. It is the easiest dinner to cook and tastes fantastic. We've both explored different recipes for this classic and between us have come up with our ideal version. With about 10 minutes of prep, plus an hour and a half in the oven. You can put your feet up and turn the TV on whilst you wait for the oven to work its magic.

Lancashire Hot Pot

Serves 2

Ingredients

400g Lamb Neck Fillet

1 Large White Onion

2 Sprigs of Fresh Thyme

1 Large Baking Potato

250ml Lamb Stock (preferably homemade)

Salt and Pepper

20g Butter

Method

Preheat your oven (non fan) to 180C.

Chop your lamb neck into generous chunks and season with salt and pepper. 

Finely slice your white onion.

Mix the lamb and the onion together and put into a deep casserole dish.

Place your fresh thyme on the top of the mixture.

Using a mandoline (or your awesome knife skills), slice your potato width ways as thinly as possible.

Make up your stock and pour over the filling until it just reaches the top of the lamb. It's best to err on the side of caution with the stock as you don't want your pot to be too watery. Don't worry if you have some left over. We used a homemade lamb stock (made up from lamb carcass, carrots, onions, butter and herbs), but a stock cube or stock pot would also be fine.

Lay your potatoes on the top. Slightly overlap them so you're covering the entire dish.

Sprinkle some black pepper over the top and dot bits of butter onto the potatoes.

Bake in the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes. If the top is becoming too crispy, cover it with a lid or tin foil.