Deliciously different

I needed a fresh start this week to kick start some much needed weight loss. I’d been following food blogger Deliciously Ella on Instagram, after hearing about her through friends, and bought her new app last week. She uses a vegan whole foods diet to help with an illness. I’m not about to become vegan anytime soon but the recipes sound and look delicious. The app has a detox section and I thought I could use it for inspiration.

http://deliciouslyella.co.uk/

I don’t believe in detox diets as such, our livers do that job for us, but I wanted to shake things up a bit so I thought trying something different could help. The main changes to my usual way of eating were dairy free breakfasts, eating bigger morning meals and smaller dinners, and eating less meat. I did have to start adding in meat and fish here and there though and have a couple of protein bars, because I was still lifting weights and my protein count was too low. I favoured Quest bars that week, as they are my favourite higher protein pre-gym snack (20g for a 200 calorie bar).

My first DE recipe was before the ‘detox’ week began and was my Sunday night supper. I love porridge and have it a lot, not just for breakfast. I’d recently started seeing lots of recipes and photos of baked oatmeal, which I’d not previously tried, but it looked like a delicious treat, a cross between porridge and my favourite pudding, crumble. DE’s baked oatmeal was made with bananas and blueberries (I didn’t have raisins). To be honest, I was a little disappointed. It was a bit too dry for my tastes, not the creamy oatmeal I love. Plus as much as I adore blueberries, my new obsession, I don’t like them warm. Sticking to normal porridge in future, which is a lot quicker and easier to make luckily!

On the first morning, I had a smoothie for breakfast. I could never do a full on smoothie or juice diet but I was interested to see how I would cope on having one in the mornings. I expected to struggle a lot with hunger, even more so because I had to drink it at home and therefore was having breakfast an hour earlier than usual. I started with the healthiest sounding smoothie on the app, the apple, pear, avocado and spinach detox smoothie. It looked like the unappetising green sludge found on most health freak’s Instagram feeds but to be fair it was pretty delicious. Very sweet from the fruit and creamy from the avocado (I discovered the joy of avocados in smoothies in Marrakesh last year, where it was combined with dates and almonds). Did it ‘make me feel beautiful?’ No Ella, I enjoyed it but it left me ravenous and anxiously awaiting my next meal.

That next meal was a rainbow salad with houmous and sunflower seeds. This was not dissimilar to my usual lunches, as I tend to opt for salads, though it did make me think about the variety of vegetables I could add and I wouldn’t normally have houmous so that was a nice change. The seeds and red pepper added crunch against the soft spinach and creamy houmous and avocado, and made it more satisfying to eat.

For dinner I had the warm sweet potato, mushroom and spinach salad. This was delicious for a simple meal and a photographic winner. The spices and apple cider vinegar (a new purchase) added plenty of flavour but I was already getting in a panic about protein so I added some prawns. Just to note here, that I am not protein mad, but I do heavy weight lifting and therefore must aim for a target level in order to maintain and grow my muscle mass. I was only at around 30g from the other meals so needed a boost.

For two breakfasts I made almond and cashew yoghurt. The yoghurt was made by soaking and blending nuts with dates and water. I added a little too much water to mine and it wasn’t thick enough but it had a lovely sweet taste. I topped mine with blueberries and some dried fruit and seeds. On the second day I also added cocoa nibs, which I had impulse bought in Holland and Barretts. Yuk! On their own they were very bitter but the yoghurt covered up the taste. Again, I did find myself getting hungry before lunch but having eaten twice my normal breakfast calories. I am usually much more satisfied from a simple bowl of porridge without all the faff of preparing and blending.

     

For the rest of my lunches I just had usual salads, but carried on with DE recipes for breakfast and dinner. The next breakfast was a banana and blueberry smoothie. The addition of oats, flaxseed and chia seeds to the fruit, along with some almond butter, made this much more satisfying than the previous smoothie and even more delicious. It didn’t look quite as bright and vibrant as Ella’s though!

For dinner I made a butternut squash risotto, which was delicately spiced and wonderfully creamy. I wasn’t convinced it would work using brown rice rather than risotto rice but I honestly couldn’t tell the difference. The portion looked small in the middle of my dinner bowl but I made sure to eat it slowly and fully appreciate every mouthful, which made it more satisfying. I am experimenting more with risotto and will be trying another vegetarian version tomorrow, with beetroot and goats cheese. The DE risotto involved some more new ingredients and I bought some tahini which I will be getting creative with this week. I couldn’t find any nutritional yeast and still not sure what the hell it even is but the risotto seemed fine without it!

My last deliciously different dinner was roasted squash and pine nut quinoa, but I also added all the leftover veg in my fridge. Again this was very easy to make but a bit blander than the other recipes and I was hungry afterwards, though I think that was a build up of hunger over the week from eating less and exercising a lot.

My final detox breakfast was a banana , date and almond shake, which tasted more like a naughty milkshake than a healthy breakfast. As yummy as it was, it just reinforced my decision that porridge will always be the best breakfast for me!

After that week (well five days) of so called detoxing, I then had a girlie weekend away. Although I did relax and consume wine, chocolate, sweets, cheese and biscuits etc, I was more controlled than normal, determined not to undo my hard work. I was rewarded with a 1lb loss for the week (a great result for me). I will definitely be consulting my Deliciously Ella app for future recipe inspiration and incorporating at least one vegetarian dinner in every week. In fact, this week there will be two, with the risotto mentioned above and a DE carrot, lentil and raisin salad.

The great London burger showdown

For dinner tonight I had a BBC Good Food South East Asian twist on a classic burger and chips, a Thai turkey burger, sweet potato wedges and pineapple salsa (mine is served naked with salad).

It’s a tasty simple meal but doesn’t compare to the satisfaction of a proper burger. The best burger I’ve had recently was actually in Colombia, and I’ve had some great ones in the States (photo below is from Bill’s Burger and Bar in New York, great burger and awesome toasted marshmallow shake), but let’s focus on London and the many fantastic burgers on offer. I’m by no means a burger connoisseur so this is no definitive ranking of the best burger in London, but it’s my top choices.

Meat Liquor – This place has constant long queues but I went on the hottest day of the year while everyone was sunning themselves in the park, so walked straight in. I hated the restaurant decor and atmosphere; it’s dark, loud and more suited to a night out, hence the liquor part of the name I guess. The service was poor as well BUT this was the best burger I’ve had in London. Not a huge patty, but juicy and full of flavour. Also had some interesting starters and sides, particularly the deep fried pickles with blue cheese dressing which I did not expect to enjoy in the slightest (given that I dislike pickles and blue cheese) but I ended up wanting more.

Five Guys – I’m not sure this gets a fair ranking as I was pretty intoxicated at the time thanks to happy hour at the nearby Covent Garden Cocktail Club (great little place), so I devoured this burger like it was my last meal on Earth. You do have to queue here too but there are free peanuts while you wait, an excellent idea. This is no gourmet burger, more on the fast food side, but nevertheless it’s a good one. The standard is a double, so you get two tasty patties, which are great with all the toppings they pile on (various sauces, fried onions etc) though that meant it got a bit messy and a lot of it ended up down my front. I tried the Cajun fries but they were a bit too spicy.

Patty & Bun – P&B had been massively hyped up by my friends so I had high expectations which inevitably means I will get some level of disappointment, especially after queuing for 45 minutes on the street for the privilege. However, I think I am being unfair in my judgement here. The burger, the simple Ari-Gold, was still delicious, just not the best burger I’d ever had and that is what I had hoped for. The toppings (cheese, salad, pickled onions and special mayo) seemed to take over from the burger, as it was only a small patty but the soft brioche bun won extra points. Sides were standard fries and they do peanut butter choc ices for dessert, can’t go wrong there really. The restaurant was a bit small and cramped but played good old school music.

Byron – You can always trust Byron to deliver, which is why I’ve had eaten there more times than I can remember. What Byron offers in a burger that most other burger joints don’t, is size. Their burgers are big solid meaty burgers but don’t compromise on the important flavour and texture. They also have something different to offer on the side. I’m not a big fan of regular fries so I like other options and here you can get mac n cheese or courgette fries, though recently I have favoured the Caesar salad. I’ve tried a few different Byron locations and like how they are designed around the local area, more fancy on Haymarket, stripped back trendy in Soho and modern minimalist in Westfield.

Honest Burger – I went to Honest Burger in Brixton Village, where I used to live. The Village, a covered market place, really grew in size and popularity during my time in the area and has so many great places to eat. Honest had been recommended by Jay Raynor in his Observer column and coincidentally he popped in while I was there. There was a short wait but we were kept nourished with fantastic rosemary fries in the queue. The burger was on the Byron end of the scale, a solid honest burger.

Shake Shack – SS had been on my list since it opened its London branch, more for the shakes as I hadn’t heard great things about the burgers, but I was put off by the queues. My long-awaited visit ended up being in the last place I’d have expected to see one, Istanbul. The experience was exactly as expected. A small McDonalds style burger at four times the price, nothing to shout about, but the crinkle cut chips weren’t bad. The frozen custard (not a label I appreciate as I absolutely love custard but this is just standard ice cream) was really good though, and there was a fine line between the shake and the concrete, as even the shake was thick enough to require a spoon. They must have seen me coming, as the daily special was peanut butter, marshmallows and banana.

BRGR – This was a backup option, as the queues were bigger in all the burger places I wanted to go to that day. The burger was clearly nothing memorable, as I had to consult my Trip Advisor review to remember anything about it and it got a distinctly average three stars. However, the menu does offer a burger variation on afternoon tea, which sounds like a brilliant idea to me, so they may well get a second visit.

Tinseltown – aka Tinselghetto, a student diner which is incredibly noisy and tacky. The burgers are nothing special but they do amazing shakes in flavours you wouldn’t dream of, including several peanut butter varieties.

Still to try…I would like to go back to Burger & Lobster to sample their burger. I’ve been before and chose the good value lobster (shown below) over the over-priced burger (they are the same price), but next time I would go half and half. I’m also sad I’ve missed out on the Lucky Chip Breaking Bad days and hope they have another in future, for the chance to try the Jesse Pinkman burger with PB&J and bacon. I still can’t decide if this is disgusting or genius!

The brilliance of brunch

Today I was planning to have brunch at the Waffle House in St Albans, one of my favourite restaurants growing up and it still is to this day. A unique experience, sitting in an old water mill, or outside by the stream, with a menu full of waffles. Regulars include savoury ham, mushroom and cheese sauce, or sweet banoffi. There are daily specials too and they do gorgeous milkshakes. Unfortunately, due to bad time planning, brunch ended up being an incredibly bad bacon bap eaten whilst running across the park trying to spot my dad walking the St Albans half marathon.

Usually, brunch is the perfect meal, as it encompasses two other meals and therefore you are entitled to eat twice as much, which is usually necessary as I inevitably have the sweet vs savoury dilemma and they both win. Such as at Kopapa (Soho), shown below, where I wanted to try the avocado and goats cheese on toast for something a bit different, but I just couldn’t resist my beloved porridge, especially as it was made with chocolate and topped with figs and hazelnuts.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The problem with brunch is that I can get a bit bored with the typical options. Don’t get me wrong I love eggs and a decent fry up, but I can make them at home very easily, so when I’m out I like to see something unusual on the menu. That’s why I adore the brunch at Dishoom (Covent Garden). A soft bacon naan roll, complete with cream cheese and chilli jam, with a thick breakfast lassi of banana, mango, yoghurt and oats, finished off with the perfect Indian cuppa – a cup of comforting sweet spicy Chai.

Another favourite brunch of mine is the chorizo hash topped with poached eggs, which I’ve had varieties of at The Riding House Café (near Oxford Street) and Giant Robot (Clerkenwell, shown below). Riding House is one of my favourite brunch spots, I like the atmosphere and décor, plus they do an awesome PB&J smoothie (if a restaurant serves anything with peanut butter it gets extra brownie points from me). I didn’t actually have the Giant Robot hash for brunch as it was part of an all day menu but it did deserve an honourable mention in this category. They also do a cracking burger apparently.

An old favourite, that has unfortunately gone downhill recently in the service stakes, is The Modern Pantry (Clerkenwell). The restaurant has a nice modern setting and good range of savoury and sweet brunches. My favourite combination would be eggs with mushrooms and halloumi, followed by ricotta pancakes (not too much, contrary to the waitress’s beliefs). If you’re still not satisfied after those two courses, there’s a Tinseltown, aka Tinselghetto, diner just across the street where you can get nachos and a huge variety of exciting flavoured milkshakes (cherry bakewell was my personal choice). Yes we actually ate that much once.

For twists on classic breakfast dishes, I have enjoyed NOPI (Soho, pictured above) and M1LK (Balham, pictured below). NOPI is a lovely laid back communal dining area complete with open larder and bizarrely blinged up toilets. I sampled some pastries before enjoying a good old sausage sarnie but with fresh tomato relish and a fried egg with perfectly runny yolk. M1LK had more of a quick turnaround but served up the superbly named ‘Convict’, essentially a fry up served inside an English muffin. Perfection.

Next up…I would love to go for brunch (and everything else) at Duck and Waffle, but I don’t know where I would even begin to decide between the dishes: duck egg en cocette with mushrooms, gruyere, truffle and soldiers; Colombian eggs with grilled chorizo; or ox cheek benedict to name a few. That would definitely have to be a two courser, ‘Full Elvis’ Belgian waffle with PBJ, bananas brulee, Chantilly cream and all the trimmings anyone?!

Saturday night fakeaway

Takeaways are a rarity in my flat, mainly because I can’t afford the calories spent on them, but also because I am a lot more organised these days with food planning and easy options on standby in the freezer, so they aren’t necessary even when I really don’t feel like cooking. If I do get a takeaway it’s a real act of desperation and rebellion! I’m also now more likely to get a vaguely nutritious Banana Tree than a horrendous processed Dominos which will inevitably leave me feeling rough, even with attempt to make it healthier by adding salad!

I do still like to eat something a bit different for dinner on weekends though, something a bit more special, with takeaway style but all the benefits of a home cooked meal. Let me introduce you to the fakeaway. The term is used by the Hairy Dieters in their recipe books, so that might be where it came from, but I picked up the name and habit from my good friend and food buddy Chanel (aka Nom Nom Nelly, check out her blog at http://nomnomnelly.wordpress.com/).

A fakeaway is essentially a healthier take on a takeaway and can therefore be any version of your favourite cuisine. For me it is usually an Indian curry or Chinese noodle dish, occasionally homemade fish and chips.

For tonight’s fakeaway I thought I would try a new one, from ‘The Hairy Dieters – Eat for Life’ recipe book. Their diet take on a doner kebab, complete with my own take on chips, sweet potato wedges. And the verdict is…amazing! Juicy seasoned lamb, chilli sauce complimented by garlic yoghurt and crisp salad encased in a warm pitta with my favourite side. I had enough lamb and pitta to freeze three portions so this will be a regular in the future.

A love affair with Jamie O (part 1)

Jamie Oliver, cheeky chappie and all round good guy, apart from when it comes to naming kids (Buddy Bear and Daisy Boo, seriously?). His recipe books are my favourites and provide such a wide range of styles and cuisines. My introduction to his recipes was through Ministry of Food, making cooking simple and accessible to anyone, but my favourite has got to be 15 Minute Meals.

No they don’t take fifteen minutes and trying to rush through them can send me into a state of panic, leaving in its wake a mess you would not believe was made cooking for one person. However, they are still relatively quick to make and deceptively simple. The trick is in the preparation, having ingredients out ready and chopping the necessary in advance if, like me, you don’t have a gadget that does it for you. His suggested pantry list contains a lot of ingredients, but trust me each one really adds something. There are a few meals I have made more than once, initially skipping the less common ingredients, then subsequently going all out, and the second really were the winners on flavour.

So here is my rundown of meals I have made from the book with a quick review of each:

Chicken:

Chicken tikka, lentil, spinach and naan salad – I don’t find salads particularly satisfying for dinner so I like to make Jamie’s salads as big weekend lunches. I make this one without the naan as I’m not a big bread fan. The sweet yoghurt dressing compliments the spicy chicken and adds perfectly to the colourful salad base.

Spicy Cajun chicken, smashed sweet potato and fresh corn salsa – this was always going to be a winner with me. Love chicken, love sweet potato and love sweetcorn. The salsa is so fresh though I’m yet to add chilli to it (I am getting better with spicy food and experimenting more with heat).

Gorgeous Greek chicken, herby vegetable couscous and tzatziki – gorgeous is the right word. My first 15MM and left me wanting to make all the rest.

Thai chicken laksa, mildly spiced noodle squash broth – my absolute favourite and one that really proves my point about the importance of using all the ingredients and making a proper paste (the first time I just chucked them in the pan and had no lime leaves, fish sauce or coriander).

Blackened chicken, San Fran quinoa salad – another great weekend lunch and I love the combination of the sweet mango, creamy avocado and salty feta. The problem for me with this sort of recipe is the need to find other meals that use up those ingredients.

Golden chicken, braised greens and potato gratin – aka chicken, cheesy potatoes and peas, a pretty standard win-win combination.

Beef:

Sizzling beef steak, hoi sin prawn and noodle bowls – an Oriental take on surf and turf, with sticky sweet prawns combined with juicy steak and crunchy noodles.

Beef kofta curry, fluffy rice, beans and peas – cooking the curry as written, I found the portion size a little small for my liking but the flavour was still there. I served mine with a chapatti instead of poppadoms to suit personal taste.

Grilled steak, ratatouille and saffron rice – one of my favourites. I usually cook up a big batch of the ratatouille and freeze a few portions. It’s important for me to buy good quality steak to make the most out of these recipes and I prefer to cook mine for 2-3 minutes on each side.

Korean fried rice, steak, mushrooms and pickles – I found this dish on the dry side give the combination of steak and rice with no sauce. I’d rather just have the steak and eggs with no rice and pickled vegetables just aren’t for me.

Black bean beef burgers, noodles and pickle salad – I find the burgers fall apart quite easily, I probably used too much black bean sauce, but despite that this still made for a good beef stir fry.

Cajun steak, smoky baked beans and collard greens – the BBQ sauce recipe is used in a couple of Jamie’s meals and it’s packed full of sweet spicy flavours. The smoky beans are fantastic with the juicy steak and salty bacon veg.

Pork:

Glazed pork fillet, Cajun-style pepper rice and BBQ sauce – another use of the tasty BBQ sauce, topping soft pork combined with colourful vegetable packed rice. For the recipes that call for cooked brown rice, I just cook rice as standard just before starting to cook the bulk of the meal.

Pork steaks, Hungarian pepper sauce and rice – this was my first time cooking with fennel, perhaps even first time eating it. I thought the flavour could be overpowering, but the apple and peppers balanced it out and the passata mellowed it.

Lamb :

Lamb meatballs, chop salad and harissa yoghurt – I decided to serve my meatballs with couscous rather than with salad in wraps and again, I found the portion a bit on the small side, but still the usual great flavours.

Turkish flats, shred salad, feta and herbs – so much flavour packed into a tortilla wrap, one of these would make an awesome lunch but perhaps not enough for a dinner (can you tell I like my portions on the larger side?!).

Fish :

Grilled Cajun prawns, sweet potato mash and Holy Trinity veg – I couldn’t get hold of shell on prawns (saved on mess anyway) but I loved the crispiness from grilling them. The cheese adds a whole other dimension to the mash but I overdid the fresh chilli (still learning) which ruined the veg a bit for me.

Killer kedgeree, beans, greens and chilli yoghurt – a wonderful one pot dish mixing smoked fish, eggs, rice and veg.

Seared Asian tuna, coconut rice and jiggy jiggy greens – coconut rice became a staple of ours in Colombia and I couldn’t wait to try it at home. That was my favourite part of the meal as I found the tuna a bit overpowering and didn’t have all the ingredients to complete the dish as it should have been.

White fish tagine, carrot, coriander and clementine salad – the elements of this dish all worked really well together and I particularly liked the sweet crunchy salad.

Pasta:

Chicken cacciatore, spaghetti and smoky tomato sauce – I don’t eat pasta very often as I usually find it quite boring and this fell under that category. Good tomato chicken pasta, nothing extraordinary.

Fettucine, smoked trout, asparagus and peas – I preferred this pasta dish, probably because of the creaminess and flavour from the fish, which was actually salmon in mine because I couldn’t get hold of any trout.

Chicken pasta, herby 6-veg ragu – somewhere in between the above two dishes, with more texture and taste from the vegetables than the first one.

Soups and sarnies:

Grilled mushroom sub, smoky pancetta, melted cheese and pears – wow what a sandwich! Unfortunately I couldn’t get a ciabatta loaf so used a baguette which was too small and everything fell out but I loved the combination of the honey roasted pears with the juicy big mushrooms and nutty cheese.

Veggie:

What can I say, I’m a carnivore!

I’ve got some pork and lamb mince in the freezer and I have some recipes in mind for those to try. I’d really like to experiment with fish some more too but the smell permeates the flat and puts me off!