NEXT A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS!

Last October I started doing a monthly pop up restaurant/supper club at our home in Acton Town and I've absolutely loved every minute of menu planning, food sourcing and all the cooking and preparation involved in putting on these events, as well as meeting all the lovely guests who've come to eat my food.  

My next pop up is on Saturday 29th March 2014, at our lovely house, in Acton Town, West London (Piccadilly line). The menu for the night is:

STARTER – Salmon three ways - beetroot cured with capers, sashimi with spring onions and pan fried with soy glaze

MAIN – Bavette steak, dauphinoise potatoes, greens and red wine sauce

PUDDING – Rhubarb hazelnut crumble, homemade stem ginger, hazelnut ice cream (this is the same pudding I served at my February pop up, but it went down so well, and rhubarb season should be made the most of, so I'm serving it again in March!)

CHEESE – Montgomery cheeseboard, spiced chutney and herby salted crackers

COFFEE and HERBAL TEAS served with sticky chocolate balls

If you'd like to come along but there's something on the menu you don't like, just let me know in the comments section of the booking form, and I can make you an alternative.


Tickets are available HERE.

You can come on your own, bring a date, grab some friends, or book out a whole table for however many of you there are! It's £30 a head for the evening, and it's bring your own booze, so feel free to bring a bottle of your favourite!

I do my public pop ups once a month, and the next one after this will be April 26th. Link to tickets and menu is HERE.

Hope to see some of you at one of my pop ups soon!!

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VALENTINES BLOG LOVE

Valentines Day is the one day of the year when I don't want to cook for myself and the boy! So rather than a load of lovey dovey Valentines pink recipes, I thought I'd share the love by telling you about some of my favorite blogs I read. I read a lot of blogs, from food to lifestyle to travel and beauty, and obviously I really like all the blogs I read (otherwise I wouldn't read them!) but I can't list them all here, as there are tons I really like. However, these are some of my favs that involve food, that I hope you can enjoy too.

My FAVORITE blog of all of them is Manger. Mimi lives in Medoc in France with her beautiful family and their 14(!) dogs, where she cooks my idea of food heaven, with the most incredible looking produce. Oh how I would love to spend a weekend at their house!! I was going through her blog pulling some photos to put in this blog, and I literally saved tens of photos as I just couldn't decide between them.

Just look at that meat:

 

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LEFTOVER CHEESE RECIPES

I'm not sure about you, but leftover and cheese aren't normally 2 words that go together in our house!! However, there is normally that bit of rind that ends up at the back of the fridge - not enough cheese on it to put it on a cheeseboard, but still too much to warrant throwing it away!

So here are a couple of ideas of what you can do with any of those nearly just rind bits you've got lying around.

First off, CHEESY POTATOES.

400g potatoes
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh herbs
Leftover cheese (I used cheddar, brie rinds, a small piece of reblochon and some of the Montgomery Ogleshield I had)

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Start off by parboiling your potatoes - you want them nearly cooked, so chop into bite size pieces and boil them in salted water for about 10 minutes.

Once boiled, drain and add to a tray with plenty of olive oil, salt and pepper. Now take all your leftover cheese (including the rinds) and slice thinly. Spread over the potatoes, and bake for about 15-20 minutes, or until the cheese is bubbling and potatoes a little golden.

Chop whatever herbs you have to hand - I like to use parsley and basil but you can use whatever soft herbs you have. Sprinkle over the cheesy potatoes and serve. I served ours with leftover pulled pork and an avocado and tomato salad.

Perfect grub for Sundays spent watching movies!

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LUNCH AT CHOP'D

Quite a few years ago I was in the Canary Wharf shopping centre, shooting a commercial for O2, and one of the assistants went to get our lunch. She came back with boxes full of fresh, locally sourced goodies from a place called Chop'd and I've never forgotten it. It was such a novel concept to be able to choose your own ingredients and create such a brilliant salad for lunch.

Fast forward about 8 years, and Chop'd now have 9 stores across Central London. I was invited to try a few of their current salad combos for myself and popped into the store in Selfridges to see what's changed since my last visit.

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