Carnitas! Arriba, Arriba!

Arriba! Arriba! Ándale! Ándale!

The catchphrase of Speedy Gonzalez ‘the fastest mouse in all Mexico’ should be heeded, and you should hurry hurry, now now! To make these amazing carnitas!

We have both been to Mexico and both absolutely fell in love with Mexican food. This recipe, from Waitrose, tastes very authentic and filled the house with the mouth-watering smell of slow cooked pork, great served on a hot summer evening with a bottle of cold beer! (Hot summer evening not guaranteed…)

Making your own tacos, carnitas and guacamole may sound a bit complicated, but we found the whole process quite straightforward and very satisfying!

Recipe is below the pictures.

2. Make the taco dough

4. Grind the guacamole paste

3. Divide the dough into balls

5. Roll the taco balls

6. Serve and enjoy!

Another Weekend, Another Michelin Star Restaurant

No, this isn’t a usual occurrence… But it should be!

This weekend we were at Hakkasan, Hanway Place, on the ‘Taste of Hakkasan’ menu deal of 4 courses and a cocktail for £38 each, not bad!

Hakkasan is one of the coolest places we have ever eaten in. We instantly felt like we were in a James Bond movie, so we settled in to our respected super villain personas and ordered cocktails (There was no skimping on the alcohol content of these by the way!)

Once these were under way, the starters were brought over. The waitress prepared and dished out the duck salad, and delivered the dumplings. Both were delicious and surprisingly generous for a starter.

The main courses were served in individual dishes and left to be fought over. They were nice, the sea bass melted in the mouth, but maybe a little small, as the starters were almost larger…

Two great deserts rounded off the meal, the first a popping, crunchy, chocolate covered ball of ice cream. And the second a trio of macarons.

Overall we had a fantastic experience at Hakkasan and would highly recommend it to anyone, especially James Bond.

Duck Salad Starter

Dumpling Starter

Main Course Dishes

‘Jivara Bomb’

Macarons

Amazing Homemade Cereal Bars

Why would you want to make homemade cereal bars, when there are supermarkets full of them?

This post will tell you why and give you the tools to go out and do it! While we can’t quite claim this will be lifechanging, it aims to at least be lifeslightlyimproving…

So, three reasons to make your own:

1. Did you know that shop bought cereal bars aren’t always actually that healthy? One bar can contain up to 20% of your recommended daily sugar allowance 😱. If you make your own you know exactly what’s going in to them!
2. Cereal bars can cost quite a lot, whereas most of the ingredients for your own can be bought in bulk quite cheaply.
3. And finally, you get a lot less satisfaction from buying a cereal bar than from making one!

Making them is also very easy, as the below steps demonstrate. We can’t claim to have invented this recipe as it is mostly based on a recipe from BBCs ‘Eat Well For Less?’ (A great watch if you haven’t seen it btw). http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/freezer_oaty_bar_14307

Ingredients:

• 225g jumbo rolled oats
• 50g almonds, skin on
• 60g mixed seeds (Although we just used sunflower seeds, as that’s all we had)
• 60g dried cranberries (Although we used raisins, also as that’s all we had)
• 50g plain or chocolate rice pops (Plain for us)
• 100g agave (Had never heard of this until this recipe, seems to be suspiciously like honey…)
• 100g peanut butter (We used smooth)
• 125g honey

 

Method:

1. Grease a baking tray and line with clingfilm.
2. Quickly blitz the oats and almonds in a food processor.
3. Mix up all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Although we found this to be a thankless task as all of the large ingredients always end up at the top, no matter how long you mix for.
4. Melt the honey, agave and peanut butter in a pan.
5. Mix everything together. (Worked much better this time as it was sticky.)
6. Put mixture in the tray, top with more clingfilm and squash it in.
7. Put in the freezer for an hour.
8. Chop into bars!
9. Eat and enjoy, safe in the knowledge that it is probably better for you than those evil ‘shop bought’ cereal bars that you swear never to buy again.

1. Grease and line the tin

3. Mix dry ingredients

4. Melt honey, agave and peanut butter

6. Put mixture in tray

8. Chop into bars (Yes we tested some…)

9. Put in cake tin to enjoy all week!

Benares, Better Than Your Average Indian Restaurant

What better way is there to spend a beautiful hot summer day, than sitting in a cool dim restaurant eating spicy food…

Only joking, regardless of the weather outside Benares is well worth a visit to taste some delicious Michelin Star Indian cuisine.

We first heard of Benares on Celebrity Masterchef a couple of weeks ago, where we make it our duty to investigate each restaurant featured. From these investigations we found the Benares set menu of 3 courses for £35 (available lunchtimes Monday – Saturday, and evenings Sunday to Thursday). We took the option of two pairing wines  (with the starter and main) for a further £16.

Before we ordered, the obligatory poppadums were delivered. These were not normal poppadums however, but were bitesize and melt in your mouth served with a mix of chutneys. There were obviously very moreish, so thankfully the moment they were finished, one of the waiters promptly restocked them!

The starters were both nice, we had the crispy masala squid and lamb pasanda. The dish of the day was the tandoori chicken main course. The texture of the chicken was incredible and unlike any chicken we have had before! Both of the deserts were very pretty, the cardamom and coffee pannacotta was good, however the cardamom flavour was very subtle (either by design or accident?) The cheesecake was sharp with a sponge base, but very nice.

As we went with friends, we were worried about how reserved the atmosphere would be in the restaurant – whether it was acceptable to laugh loudly and snap photos for blogging and Instagram… Thankfully the restaurant was busy with a relaxed atmosphere, and the staff were attentive without being too ‘in your face’.

Overall the food was delicious and obviously a level above your average restaurant, unfortunately it didn’t quite blow us away in terms flavour or spice.

Tandoori Chicken

Carom and Fennel Coated Pan-Fried Plaice

Cardamom and Coffee Pannacotta

Stem Ginger and Gooseberry Cheese Cake

Our First Post!! (Part 2)

So, Friday is finally here! As promised this means time for a homemade Hello Fresh curry, a well earned glass of wine and some crap tv!

Hello Fresh have made a clean sweep of recipes this week with another cracking dinner. We could happily have drank the beef curry sauce on its own.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be a great day, with a trip to London to visit Atul Kochhar’s Michelin Starred Benares restaurant. I’m sorry Hello Fresh but I think the curry tomorrow will probably be better… #eat

Our First Post!!

After quickly learning how to create a blog, we are up and running, taking our first shaky steps into the word of blogging! No idea what will come of this or exactly what it will entail but the longest journey begins with the smallest step and all that…

This first post is about our not so secret Hello Fresh obsession… (https://www.hellofresh.co.uk in case you’re interested.) So far this week we have made two particularly great recipes.

Yesterday we had Refreshing Pasta with Peas, Pancetta and Mint. Quick, easy and surprisingly tasty!

Today we had Pan Fried Paprika Cod and Fennel Moqueca. Have to say fennel is probably one of our favourite vegetables, it is very underrated.

One more recipe to go this week, Beef Kofta Curry with Sag Aloo, Friday night is curry night!