Month: September 2016

Cooking Cabrito Goat Meat and ‘Goatober’

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Growing up in Cyprus, we were quite literally surrounded by goats – we didn’t eat them (that we knew of!), but we ate cheese produced from their milk on a near daily basis. I was therefore so saddened to learn recently that a huge number of male goats (estimated 40,000 per year) are killed at birth because they are simply not needed. Goats cheese is in such high demand that goats are being bred for the female goats to continue to produce milk. There’s an interesting article about this on Munchies here, if you’d like to read more into this (and I recommend you do). Now a number of companies, such as Cabrito, are encouraging people to eat goat meat and to ensure these billies aren’t dying in vain. I recently tried out goat meat for the first time at Gourmet Goat in Borough Market – an absolute must-try if you’re in the area. It was delicious with a unique and very ‘meaty’ flavour. After this, I was keen to try it out at home, …

Dinner at Naughty Piglets, Brixton

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So many people had recommended ‘Naughty Piglets’ in Brixton to me. They said I’d love it – lots of tasty small plates and a great selection of wines and beers. Brixton is also fairly close to where we live, so one Friday evening a few weeks ago, Tim and I decided to give it a try. It’s a very popular place and seeing as we’d left it fairly last minute, we could only get a table for 6.30pm, but that wasn’t really a problem. You can book to sit in either the bar or restaurant, so we’d booked the latter. Naughty Piglets, set up by husband and wife team Joe and Margaux Sharratt, describes itself as a Charcoal Grill Restaurant and a ‘Natural’ Wine Bar, using market products and following the seasons, serving simple tasty food made with care as well as pouring low intervention wines. When we arrived we didn’t realise quite how small it would be, but small can often be a very good thing. There were lots of tall bar tables surrounding the …

Dinner at DSTRKT, Soho

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Some of my friends and I were recently discussing when we last went to a club. We were in Spain for a friend’s wedding, where it’s completely customary to head out to a club at 1am at the very earliest, which is technically the start of your night. I first started going out to clubs at the age of 15 when I lived in Cyprus and would dance happily away until the early hours, before taking a dip in the sea with my friends then heading home as my parents were waking. This was also very normal over there. But we’re all pushing 30 now (if not a year or two over) and decided we must have become old before our time, because none of us could remember the last time we went to a ‘proper’ club!! Pubs, sure, but not clubs. This was all quite coincidental, because a few weeks ago I was invited to review the menu at DSTRKT. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, DSTRKT is a very fashionable …

Discovering Barraka and Whichit in Spitalfields

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I was recently invited by friend and fellow blogger Chris Osburn (aka Tiki Chris) to an eatery near Liverpool Street station called Barraka. There were two reasons for this event – firstly, to experience Barraka’s excellent food and hospitality, but also to learn about a new company called Whichit, who Chris has been working with, and I will discuss later in this post. The team at Barraka kindly hosted the evening and served up a number of dishes from their menu for us to try. The definition of ‘Barraka’ in Moroccan is ‘Blessing’ and the owner explained how it was always a tradition in his family to‘bless’ people with good energies and food. The cuisine served at Barraka is a fusion of cultures and influences, with wraps, baguettes and salads filled with everything from halloumi, to chorizo, to chicken schnitzel! They describe it as ‘Mediterranean Street Food Made Fresh’ which seemed spot on to me. They were also very keen to sing the praises of tahini, which I am all for! Houmous is so popular in the …

Pimms Ice Lollies

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One of my favourite summer drinks is Pimms, and I’ve been known to drink it for the rest of the year too. In fact, we served a ‘Winter  Pimms’ at our wedding in February last year. This weekend it was particularly hot outside so I thought I’d try out making some Pimms ice lollies – I didn’t look up any recipes so it was definitely an experiment, but thankfully one that worked! I filled each lolly mould with a couple of centimetres of Pimms, topped up with sparkling water. I also dropped some frozen fruits into each one. They overflowed a bit when they were in the freezer, as you can see from the photo above, but otherwise they worked perfectly and were incredibly refreshing – although definitely not suitable for children, they were pretty strong! I’ll definitely be making them again, as well as thinking about what other ways I can use Pimms for. Do you have any Pimms-related recipes? Let me know in the comments below. _______________ I was sent some Pimms to …

A Day Out At Malton Food Lovers Festival

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I can’t believe I’m only just getting round to writing this, but in May, I went to a great food festival with my Mum when I was up visiting in Yorkshire. It took place in Malton (a quaint market town about 30-40 mins drive from York), aptly named the Malton Food Lovers Festival. My Mum and I love any excuse to wander around a food market and this one didn’t disappoint, with all different types of cuisines, crafts, live music and performances. It was incredibly busy, so not particularly easy to take lots of photos of the food stalls, but here are a few I managed to snap. There was so much amazing produce on offer – I ended up buying two pheasants, a rhubarb liqueur and Yorkshire halloumi cheese. We stopped for a tea and scone at one of the permanent restaurants on the square, and watched the world go by. There were also a number of live cookery demonstrations taking place with celebrity chefs such as Rosemary Shrager, but unfortunately we just didn’t …

Competition: Getting the most out of your herbs with NuCasa

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I recently tried out a new Typhoon oil infuser and mezzaluna from NuCasa. I adore cooking with fresh herbs – it completely transforms a dish and I always use fresh herbs whenever possible. In Spring we planted lavender, rosemary and thyme in the garden, and it has been fantastic being able to pop outside and pick some for our cooking adventures. I’d been wanting to try out an oil infuser for some time now – I love flavoured oils and so being able to do the flavouring bit myself sounded like a lot of fun. The infuser from NuCasa is attractive to look at and very lightweight. The bottle and removable infuder section are made from mouth-blown, hand-finished glass, making each one unique! The bung is made from silicone and has a twist open and closed function, to keep the oil as fresh as possible. I filled mine with fresh rosemary, which was perfect for our Sunday roast lamb – I allowed it to infuse overnight and it was lovely! I also tried out a …