BUSH HALL DINING ROOMS

Last year while we had our house refurbed we stayed with friends just off Uxbridge Road and I found what is now one of my favourite pubs for food. However there was another place on Uxbridge Road that I walked past quite often that looked really good, and that was Bush Hall Dining Rooms which had only opened a couple of months before, and is part of the iconic music venue, Bush Hall, next door. Fast forward nearly a year and I finally got round to going there. Now I've discovered it I've actually booked it for my birthday meal next month as that's how much we liked it.

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A BOWL OF CHICKEN WINGS

I've posted a recipe here before (many years ago) for sticky, spicy chicken wings, but I wanted to put a slightly different, even easier, recipe, as the ones I cooked last night were devoured in minutes - even though there were so many of them!

I love easy dinners that can be whipped up when I get home from work and this is one of them. A little forward planning in the morning and they're even better.

Serves as many as you can share them with

800g free-range, organic chicken wings (I always buy free range anyway but when buying chicken wings, organic is essential - non-organic chickens get injected with drugs and hormones throughout their miserable lives. These drugs and hormones are injected into the wing, where they mostly stay. So if you're eating non-organic wings, then they're full of nasties - just don't!)
3 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp grainy mustard
1 tbsp Worcester sauce
Juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

In the morning, before you got to work, mix the honey, mustard, Worcester sauce, lemon juice, a splash of olive oil and salt and pepper together in a bowl. Add the chicken wings, mix well so they're all coated, cover the bowl and put in the fridge.

When you're ready to eat, preheat the oven to 200C. Once it's reached this heat spread the wings out on a foil covered baking tray, pour the remaining marinade over them, and put the tray in the oven. After 20 minutes of so take them out and pour off 80% of the liquid. Put them back in the oven for another 20 minutes so they have 40 minutes in total.

We ate ours with olive oil mash, and a watercress and avocado salad, but serve them with whatever takes your fancy, or hide in a corner and eat them all to yourself!

 

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MY TOP 10 RESTAURANTS

Over the past 3 and a half years or so of writing my blog I've been to tens if not hundreds of restaurants - some of which end up on here, others that don't. I tend to only write up a review of a restaurant here if it's one that I want to recommend to my readers, as my blog's about that, not ripping into places I haven't enjoyed. However there are also places that I've eaten at that I absolutely love, that for one reason or another haven't ended up on my blog. So as a quick and easy reference I wanted to put this post up to summarise my favourites. Most of these restaurants are in London, a few further afield (although all south of the M4 - I can only write about what I know!), and hopefully they're a good variety of food styles, prices and ideas. I'm going to continue the top 10 series (keep an eye on the new "top 10" button under my blog title), with more specific lists, but this one's my top 10 of all time (so far!)

The list is not in any order of preference - I can't do that as I just couldn't choose between them to pick my favourites in any order!

1. BARRAFINA - my absolute favourite London restaurant
    54 Frith Street, Soho, London, W1D 4SL

I love Barrafina for many reasons. I lived in Spain for a while and got a taste for great tapas. Barrafina bring this to London with each and every dish they produce. Top quality ingredients and excellent cooking mean the food here is second to none. The original restaurant (they've recently opened a 2nd site in Covent Garden) is small and set around a curved bar with 23 seats where you sit to drink and eat. There's no booking here, so although it's my favourite, it's not necessarily reliable for large parties or events where you want to eat at a particular time, but they do now do a private event space in Covent Garden that can be reserved for up to 60 people. Don't let the no booking put you off though, the queue moves pretty fast and the lovely staff keep you topped up with drinks and nibbles until you do get a seat. And a little tip for colder days - there are three or four tables outside the restaurant that don't get snapped up that fast - take one of these and watch the world go by under the powerful heat lamps that will keep you just as warm as if you were inside!

Top dishes - octopus with capers / courgette flower.

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A LITTLE LONDON LUSCIOUSNESS - 20th SEP

When I started doing pop up restaurants in November last year, I never once imagined that by August this year I would've done over 18 events already! Although I've stuck to my plan of 1 public pop up a month, I've had so many requests for private catering gigs that I've been cooking most weekends for the last 6 weeks! I absolutely love it - but also have a full time job, so have been exhausting myself a bit recently!! I decided to have a break from public pop ups in August, although ended up catering a hen do and a baby shower last weekend anyway.

So with no more pop ups this month, my next date is Saturday 20th September. I'm teaming up with Urban Food Fortnight to put on a pop up using locally sourced produce. If you follow my pop ups you'll know that they are all about using sustainably produced, seasonal produce, sourced mostly from the West Country, where I grew up. However there's a different challenge with my September date, as all the ingredients I will be using will have been grown in and around London! Now this might not sound so appealing, but what I'm doing is teaming up with various allotment holders to use their lovely home grown fruit and vegetables, all of which are seasonal, and I am souring all of my meat and dairy from farms in Essex and Kent. It's an exciting challenge and one that's made me come up with a menu that I can't wait to cook...

The menu for 20th September is:

Fig and elderflower cocktail - made to order on arrival (non-alcoholic version if requested)

 

Grilled figs with chicory, apple, candied walnut and gorgonzola salad

 

Slow roast pork belly, fennel gratin, mustard creamy mash potato, buttered cabbage & rosemary and crab apple sauce, served with cider gravy

 

Raspberry mousse with shortbread biscuits

 

Cheeseboard with homemade chutney and rosemary and sea salt biscuits

 

Coffee or herbal tea with homemade chocolates

 

As always, dietary requirements can be catered for, so if you'd like to come but there's something  you can't eat or don't like on the menu, then just mention in the comments section when booking and I can email you alternatives to choose from.

 

Tickets for the pop up are £30 and include a welcome drink. It's bring your own booze on the evening so you can bring your preferred drinks with you. I provide soft drinks for those who want them. Tickets are available here - and have already started selling!

The pop up takes place at our lovely house in Acton - which is easily accessible on the Piccadilly line, or via the overground stations South Acton or Kew Bridge, which link to East and South London respectively.

If you're not quite convinced and want to see what other guests have said, you can read all my reviews here. And here's a couple of photos from my last events....

Walnut and cranberry bread for the starter:
 

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THE APPLE TREE - PATISSERIE IN ACTON!

I live in Acton. It's not the most happening place in the world, and the little strip of shops near where I live used to be made up of a few grotty corner shops, an electrics shop, a funeral parlour (!) and not much else. In the last year however we've had a mini Sainsburys open, as well as a really good fish and chip shop, and most recently a great pizza place that does small pizzas for a very reasonable £4 each. And then a few weeks ago I noticed something else had appeared - a tiny café called The Apple Tree. We popped in for a chat with the owners and to see what they were selling, and I was thrilled to find out that they sell fresh juices and patisserie cakes! I would've never thought we could get such nice cakes right at the top of our road, but now we can. I must've been in nearly 10 times since they opened as they are now my go to for cakes to take to parties, or just for a lazy pudding to have at home on the rare occasions I really crave something sweet.

The Apple Tree is run by a lovely husband and wife team, and the wife's mother makes most of the cakes at her local bakery. They sell a wide range of biscuits, tarts, cream cakes and slices, and also do sandwiches during the week. They've got good, proper coffee, fresh juices, and my favourite, a frozen lemonade which is like a fresh lemon slushy - perfect for the hot weather.

I picked up a few cakes for a friend's baby shower yesterday and they all got eaten, so that can only be a good sign! I snapped a few photos of some of what's on offer, but just with my iPhone so excuse the quality.

Crunchy buttery biscuits - think delicious homemade jammy dodgers:

 

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WOMAD FESTIVAL 2014

Last weekend I spent 3 fun-filled, sunny days in a field in the Cotswolds at WOMAD 2014 festival. I wasn't planning on blogging about it, so didn't pay too much attention to taking nice photos, but I loved it so much I just had to write about it here. I've collected photos off as many of my friends as possible so these are from all of our cameras and phones.

Normally I stick to one camping festival a year - the one I've totally fallen for - Boomtown. But this year it's the boy's mum's 70th that weekend meaning that I can only go for the Sunday. So to make up for it we had a look at other options and Womad seemed really appealing. Womad is a family festival for 40,000 people spread across beautiful Gloucestershire countryside, sprawling either side of the most amazing arboretum, which provided much needed shade over the weekend. We got the boy's brother and his lady to sign up, and my best friend and another friend and her 9 year old came too, as well as the boy's mum, who went with her friends.

We arrived on Thursday night and walked straight in with no queue. We picked a spot close enough to the main arena to camp, set up our canvas homes and cracked open the first of many weekend drinks before a quick wander round site to see what was happening (not much on Thursday night) so headed back to the tents for some rest before it really kicked off on Friday.

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MIRANDA GORE BROWNE'S BLACKBERRY CRUMBLE BISCUITS

One of the best things about my visit to the London Produce Show last month was getting the chance to watch some live cooking demos and sample the delights that were being made. The first of these that I watched was Miranda Gore Browne, of Great British Bake Off fame, who whipped up some seriously yummy blackberry crumble biscuits, that were then passed round for us to try. They were excellent, and I'm not normally a biscuit fan! They had the perfect balance of crunchy and soft with the freshness of blackberries and the sweet blackberry flower they were served with. I've already made a batch at home and they were nearly as good as Miranda's! If you want to try them for yourselves, then here's the recipe so that you too can make them.

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CARNABY STREET EAT, SUN 20th JULY

This Sunday, 20th July, Carnaby Street is going to be transformed for a free, one-day food festival. From 11am - 6pm the street will be packed with outdoor stalls run by local restaurants who'll be serving up street food versions of their best dishes. There'll be live music, free workshops, face painting and live cooking demos by Hardeep Singh Kohli throughout the day.

Over 40 of the top restaurants in the area will be out on the streets giving you the opportunity to sample their dishes from only £5 per dish. Restaurants that will be present on the day are Antidote, Camellia’s Tea House, Carnaby Burger Co., Cha Cha Moon, Choccywoccydoodah, Comptoir Libanais, Dehesa, FlatPlanet, Johnny Cupcakes & Crumbs and Doilies, Joho Soho by Cinnamon Soho, Kua ‘Aina, Leon, Liberty, Masala Zone, Moosh, Mozzino & Katia Kitchen, Pizza Pilgrims, Rosa’s Thai Café, SACRED Café, Shampers, Shoryu Carnaby, Speakeasy Espresso and Brew Bar, Retreat, Stax, The Detox Kitchen, The Diner, The Life Goddess, The Rum Kitchen Carnaby, Urban Tea Rooms, Whyte & Brown, Wright Brothers Soho and Zebrano.

We had a sneak peak preview of some of the establishments who will be involved on Sunday's extravaganza, and you're in for a real treat.

Oysters from Wright Brothers' very own oyster farm in Cornwall.

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THE SHED, NOTTING HILL

Every so often I come across a new restaurant that surprises and delights me. It surprises as I always assume that because I've only just found it, it must be brand new (rarely is) and it delights me as I have a new place to go for amazing food in London. The Shed in Notting Hill is one of these.

I only found out about The Shed last week whilst googling potential spots for a mid week girly dinner, and called and booked the only table they had left, which was at 6pm. It didn't matter that it was so early though - I work not far from Notting Hill so knew I could get there in time and I'd been saving myself for food all day... if only my dinner date had got there on time too! By the time she arrived it was quarter to seven and I was already 2 drinks down. I don't want to moan though, it was strangely nice to sit there on my own whilst waiters and waitresses in checked shirts buzzed around me getting the place ready for what was to be a full house on a Tuesday night. I'm working with a food festival later this year, so while I waited I made some notes for that, as it's rare I've got any time to myself at the moment.

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GRUB CLUB CHEFS' SUPPER

If you read my blog, or come to my  pop ups, you'll probably know I'm a big fan of Grub Club. One of the founders is now a friend, and I sell tickets for my supper clubs and pop ups exclusively through their site, as they are lovely, they look after us really well and are there to answer questions and support all the way. So when I got an email inviting me to Grub Club chefs' supper I RSVP'd yes immediately. Not only was it a great opportunity to give feedback to the team behind Grub Club, but it was SO nice to meet other people doing the same as me - working full time and doing a couple of food events a month - and bounce ideas off each other, as well as pick up a few tips from the more seasoned professionals!

The pop up hosts who were there were:

Brixton Kitchen - using fresh, seasonal produce, these 2 lovely ladies run a monthly pop up in Brixton. Their produce is so fresh that they only announce their menu a few days before, but book for this and you won't be disappointed. Their next event is this Thursday, but it's sold out - so check out their next event on Thursday 14th August.

Bidoche - Bidoche means 'meat' and that's what this pop up is all about - lovingly prepared, slow-cooked, cured or marinated meat all served in a cool Clapton venue. The next Bidoche is Saturday 9th July.

Fab Cuisine - serving modern European dishes, Fabrice is a trained chef who has worked in some major London restaurants, but now serves up food at pop ups in Battersea to 30 people a time. He doesn't have any dates in the diary at the moment, but keep an eye on Grub Club for information about his next pop ups.

That Hungry Chef - another highly trained chef, Pratap is throwing his last event of the Summer, an 8-course globetrotter taster menu, in Holloway this Friday, 11th July - get your tickets now before they all go! Pratap also now makes and produces delicious relishes and curry sauces, all available on his website.

Mondsey - trained in patisserie but refined in Malaysian cooking, Mondsey host their 3rd Malaysian 6 course feast of a pop up in their home on Saturday 19th July (the same night as my next pop up - oops!!ha!) near Tower Bridge.  

Les Greedy Cochons - all you can eat melty cheese... what's not to love! Food bloggers turned pop up hosts, Les Greedy Cochons are doing their next raclette night in Camden Market on Thursday 17th July.

Quinto Quarto - a man of many talents, and the proclaimed King of Gnocci, Adalberto hasn't got any dates live on Grub Club at the moment (I'm sure they'll come soon) but he's fed hundreds of people already at his seven course Italian feasts, which have included game, fish, festive and new year's eve themes.

Social Pantry - Alex's Clapham based pop ups were such a success that she's set up a catering company and has now started up The Social Pantry Café in Lavender Hill, where she serves delicious and healthy breakfasts, brunches and lunches - their salads look divine. 

BOBs lobster - another pop up turned permanent business, BOB's Lobster serve up their seafood feasts in East London from Tuesday to Friday, and also roam the streets serving seafood delights straight from their VW van.

And I can't write this without a quick mention for my own pop up! I run monthly pop ups, serving homemade, British, seasonal produce made into a four course feast, at our home in  West London, details of the next one on Saturday 19th July here. I'm also available for private catering gigs so please do get in touch if you want to enquire about an event you'd like food for, email me via the link in the sidebar of my blog.

So not only did I get to spend a wonderful evening with these amazing chefs, but Grub Club also persuaded their very own Hugh to cook up a Mexican inspired feast for us too - we were spoilt with ceviche, followed by carnitas - one of my favourite things - which is pulled, spiced pork, wrapped with salsa, sour cream and various levels of chilli sauce depending on your tolerance!

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MY NEXT POP UP with HOPE FOR TOMORROW

I can't believe it is July already!! This year seems to be whizzing by SO fast. But that's a good thing, because it means that it's nearly time for my July pop up! On Saturday 19th July I'm hosting a four course dinner at our house, all in aid of a wonderful charity called Hope for Tomorrow. Hope for Tomorrow are a charity that provide support for cancer patients by bringing treatment closer to home. They raise money to build mobile chemotherapy units that can be driven to more rural, hard to reach areas, therefore saving poorly patients grizzly car journeys to and from the hospital for treatment. Hope for Tomorrow work with the NHS to make sure the mobile units get to those that need them. If you want to read more about their truly amazing work you can visit their website here.

My pop up starts at 19:30 on Saturday 19th July and will take place at our home in West London (in between Chiswick, Acton and Ealing). Hopefully if it's nice outside seating will be in the garden, as that's what we did at my pop up last weekend and it was so great to be out there.

The menu for the 19th July is as follows, but if there's something on there you don't like/can't eat but you still want to come, that's no problem at all - just mention in the comments section when booking what it is you can't eat and I will email you a few other options to choose from.

Summer berry fizz cocktail (non-alcoholic version available)

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Pea and broad bean mousse with herbed goat's cheese and homemade bread

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Whole salmon, braised fennel, baked and dressed aubergine, posh potato salad and Summer vegetable glut salad

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Blueberry sour cream cake with salted caramel creme fraiche and crystallised summer berries

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Somerset cheese board with homemade seedy biscuits and chilli tomato chutney

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Coffee or herbal teas, served with homemade chocolate balls

All my ingredients are the best quality I can get and everything is then homemade by me for the pop up. While the coffee and chocolate are clearly not British I use as many seasonal, British ingredients as possible.

Tickets are £30 for all the food and a cocktail and can be bought HERE. It's bring your own booze on the night, so you can bring as much as you like, and I provide soft drinks if required.

Hope for Tomorrow is a very dear charity to me which is why I've chosen to raise some money for them. All proceeds from the pop up on 19th July will be going straight to Hope for Tomorrow, and will also be match funded either by the company I work for during the week, or failing that, by myself.

My next pop up after 19th July will be on Saturday 20th September - details to follow - as I'm having a little break/already doing too many catering gigs in August!

I really hope some of you can make it along for a Summery four course feast of an A Little Lusciousness pop up!!

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SUMMER with ROSE D'ANJOU

Rosé has always been my Summer wine of choice. I think it's hard to beat a glass of crisp Rosé, served perfectly chilled on a long summer evening. So when I was invited to a Rosé tasting I jumped at the chance - particularly, as although I drink it quite often, it's probably the wine I know least about when it comes to varieties and flavours.

So on a sunny Wednesday evening a few weeks ago I jumped on the tube across town to the Queen of Hoxton where we celebrated pink pleasures from the region of Angers, France.

Having got over the embarrassment of saying to lady on the door "I'm here for the Rosé evening" and responding that my name was 'Rosie', I hot footed it up the many flights of stairs to find the roof in all its evening sunlit splendour.

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