Haven’t done a review for a while so here we go… This review actually should’ve taken place a couple of years ago, except for the fact that I got confused, and booked a table at the underwhelmingly shit Steak and Lobster, instead of Burger and Lobster.
Before I dive into the actual review, just for comparison, Steak and Lobster has a near identical (although slightly less interesting menu), obviously is based around the same ‘surf ‘n’ turf’ concept, but the interior is weird and sterile, the service was a bit shit, and the food was dead. Literally of course, the steak and lobster were dead, but going beyond that. Dead af. Bland and uninspiring. I’m not sure I could paint a less glowing picture.
So after this unintentional restaurant visit, I’d been pining for the real deal. Pining for two years in fact. And today was finally the day that I got my Burger and Lobster.
This is not acceptable lighting.
I can probably concede that the only thing Steak and Lobster did better was the lighting. I have a thing about poorly lit restaurants. Really does my head in, and the Burger and Lobster in Soho at least was like this. That is, however, pretty much where the negativity ends.
To start, the three of us shared the Lobster Croquettes. These were super creamy with a lovely level of spicy flavour from the bed of Chipotle mayo. The little avocadoey blob on top doesn’t add much but it does look pretty. These aren’t cheap. You get 4 croquettes for £9.50, and you can bet that we divided that last one up between us into incredibly precise thirds. But at the end of the day, it’s a lobster restaurant, so if you’re on a budget, just don’t bother in the first place.
I’d always thought that I’d end up having the Lobster Roll here, but ultimately after some intense social media stalking, I decided that the B&L Beast Burger looked exciting. It consists of a thicccc AF beef patty (medium rare ofc) with a solid chunk of lobster meat on top, gooey melting Brie, truffle and tarragon mayo, fennel and Chinese cabbage. It is such a satisfying burger. Part of me thinks the flavour of the lobster gets a bit lost when it’s served like this, but despite that I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. It really is a bit of a beast.
I was super tempted by the melty Gruyere Spinach on the side, but decided to be slightly less naughty, and opted for the tenderstem broccoli instead. As far as veggie sides go, it was nice and buttery, but obviously there are more interesting options. I did however, have to try one of my friend’s Truffle Chips of course. I was surprised that they were proper thick cut chips rather than fries, and if I’d known I might have been tempted myself, although we all agreed that despite the truffle smelling quite strong, there wasn’t much actual truffle flavour from them.
Finally we come to dessert, which I had told myself I wouldn’t have. But why stop myself if I change my mind? Gutted I didn’t get there last Easter for their Creme Egg Cheesecake, but rather than going for their plainer White Chocolate Cheesecake, I was taken by the Cranberry and Hazelnut Brownie with Vanilla Ice Cream.
First off, it definitely ticks the gooey box. It was super soft and melt-in-the-mouth. The hazelnuts and cranberries were both really nice additions, both in terms of texture and flavour. My only complaint would be the warmth of the brownie. Normally when something is served with ice cream on the side, it’s so hot that the two kind of melt together, and the hot-cold contrast works beautifully. With this dessert, the brownie seemed to be kind of lukewarm in the first place so that delicious contrast wasn’t quite there.
Service was great, super friendly, and the menu has a decent selection of mains combos.
There is probably a gimmicky element to the lobster craze, which accounts for the high cost of the food, but if you’re willing to look past the food as a trend, for me at least, it was a good quality, tasty meal. £25 for a burger with a small amount of lobster in isn’t ideal, but I’m in London, I know what I’m getting myself in for, so there’s no use in complaining.
As I often tell people with a sickly sweet smile at my place of work when they scoff at the pricing,’It’s fine, you don’t have to buy it.’ 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂
Paella is incredible. It’s one of the first foods from overseas that I remember loving. Holidaying in Spain fairly often when I was younger gave me loads of opportunity to get used to this beautiful seafood rice dish – surprising considering this was a time when I was incredibly fussy and actively disliked so many staple foods, even including plain white rice. I remember saying that I only liked ‘yellow rice’.
The highlight of my paella journey was probably having it for our Christmas dinner about ten years ago, and I can honestly say, with that incredible seafood, I didn’t miss the traditional roast at all.
There are many different varieties within Spain itself, paella valenciana being one of the most popular, and hailing from the city after which it’s named. You’ll find paella with a combination of seafood and chicken, some with either or, and sometimes vegetarian paellas are available.
Other variations that wouldn’t necessarily be classed as paella are arroz negro (black rice) which is made with squid ink, and fideua which uses short lengths of noodle-like pasta instead of rice. I’ve only ever had this once, but it was cooked by the abuela (Grandma) of the little boy I was looking after as an au pair in Barcelona. We went to stay in the grandparents house in Costa Brava for a weekend. She cooked this on the outdoor oven, and we sat in the sun by their pool (alright for some) enjoying this incredible meal. This was before I’d discovered my incredible appetite and I honestly struggled to deal with the amount of food they would try and pile into my plate, but they really did look after me.
I’m sure most Spaniards would be completely disapproving of any ‘paella’ recipe coming from elsewhere in the world, much as they were when Jamie Oliver added chorizo to his version, but you can guarantee that isn’t going to stop me from trying.
I browsed a selection of recipes online in the days before I was planning on attempting my own version, and so when it came down to it, I was able to wing this much-loved dish of mine.
When attempting dishes like this that are so adored in their country of origin, you kind of have to forget what people might think. Forget about how others might rip it apart, criticise every wrong turn. Just do it your way. Of course, if you are making any obvious major adjustments, it’s better to acknowledge this, and the fact that your version makes no attempt to follow the ‘traditional’ norms, but otherwise, you’re all good, and I don’t think I stray too far from tradition here.
Paella takes a bit of patience, but it’s actually very simple. My first attempt was certainly a raging success, even if I do say so myself.
Just promise me one thing – if you’ve bought one of those packets of frozen mixed seafood that no longer even bears any resemblance to seafood, not even an ounce of flavour, just don’t even bother with the paella. Not worth it hun x
Serves 2
1 red pepper
garlic
onion
Paella rice
Saffron
tinned tomatoes
pimentón
white wine
chicken or shellfish stock
peas
selection of seafood (mussels, squid, prawns etc.)
chicken thighs (optional)
lemon
Preheat oven to 180C.
Roast red pepper until it’s bursting from its skin.
Heat oil in pan and fry garlic and onion until fragrant and softened.
Add paella rice and coat with the oil already in the pan.
Add a small amount of the tinned tomatoes or normal salad tomatoes.
Add pimentón.
Make up the stock and add the saffron then pour into rice bit by bit along with a splash of white wine.
Add handful of peas and season.
Whilst the paella is cooking, cook the seafood (and/or chicken) separately if necessary and then add to pan when done along with the cooking juices. Prawns can cook simply by sitting on top of the paella, same with squid. Mussels should be washed and cooked along with a splash of white wine, garlic and butter until open. Use your common sense with anything else.
Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked through but still firm and there is no liquid left in the pan (if you overcook it the rice will go mushy so make sure you keep tasting as you go along).
Stir through the roasted red pepper and top with the seafood, ensuring everything is warm and cooked through.
Before serving squeeze lemon all over and serve with slices of lemon on top.
It may look like a lot of effort but actually the individual steps really aren’t. In terms of the ingredients, it can be as much or little effort as you like. Go for a simple chicken and/or prawn paella if that’s all you fancy. Or head down to your local fish counter to see what they’ve got in for a more ‘all-out’ dish like the one above, featuring mussels, monkfish, squid and langoustines.
Gonna end this one, bigging myself up a bit with something my friend said – apparently, after spending a year abroad in Barcelona, the flavour of the above paella that I cooked was better than any he’d had over there.
When I visited Morocco about 7 years ago now, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t that taken by the food. I entirely put this down to the fact that I was still in my fussy phase at 18, rather than the food actually not being good.
Tagine and Cous Cous were frequently on the menu, and apparently neither of these satisfied me back then. Added to that was the fact that I was on a school ‘expedition’, so most of the meals that I was eating had been cooked for me by our hosts, whether that was Rashid’s wife in Taroudant or the amazing team who looked after us during our camping trek in the Atlas Mountains. Looking back now, this gives me even more reason to be in awe of the food. No choice, just delicious home-cooked (or mountain-cooked) meals dished up for us every breakfast, lunch and dinner. It really was a treat I should’ve appreciated more.
I’ve not really eaten much Moroccan food here either. I once had a tagine from Giraffe at Birmingham aiport, and despite having had some lovely meals from there before, it really wasn’t good.
Other than that, my inspiration for this probably has to come from my Dad’s leftover lamb stew, that we’d have the day after a Sunday Roast. For years I refused to eat it if it had apricots/dates in, as the idea of mixing sweet with savoury really didn’t work for me, but now that’s my favourite part.
I’ve finally come up with my own recipe for it, along with a side dish for mopping up all the sauces, inspired by Nadiya Hussain’s ‘Cheat’s Paratha’.
Of course it would be more ‘authentic’ to serve with cous cous, but ultimately you can choose whichever side dish you wish. This one’s satisfyingly indulgent, but I guess cous cous would be the slightly more health-conscious option.
A few disclaimers before I get to the point.
I don’t do recipe writing. It’s not my forte, but I do want to be able to share my successes. Because of that, my way of instruction won’t be the most precise – you’ll have to trust yourself to go with instinct sometimes, but the basic guidelines will be there.
Serves 2
For the stew
Ingredients:
1 onion
1 large clove of garlic
1 tin of chickpeas
1tsp tamarind paste
1tsp ginger paste
2 tsp rose harissa pasta
1tsp ras el hanout
1 ½ tsp cumin
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
handful of dried apricots
small handful of dates
leftover lamb
water
salt/pepper
Heat oil in a pan and add chopped onion and garlic.
When fragrant tip in drained chickpeas.
Add the pastes and spices, give it a good mix and cook for a few minutes.
Chop dried apricots and dates into smaller pieces (generally I’d chop apricots in halves or quarters and dates into thirds), and add these along with the chopped tomatoes and seasoning.
Chuck in the leftover lamb and add enough water so that everything is almost completely submerged.
Leave to cook on a low heat for preferably a couple of hours (if you’re massively impatient like I often am, a shorter cooking time just to reduce the liquid slightly will do)
This stew-style sauce should still be liquidy when ready – don’t expect it to reduce down completely. You are aiming for the perfect balance between a thick pasty sauce and watery broth.
For the ‘Paratha’
Ingredients:
Puff Pastry
1 chilli
½ ball of mozzarella
1 tsp chilli powder
As I mentioned before, this is inspired by Nadiya Hussain’s Cheat’s Paratha. Certainly not a paratha (type of flatbread) in the typical sense, instead of having to make the dough from scratch, here you are just using puff pastry. It ends up having the most amazing soft, spongy texture, and I’ve just added a couple of extra ingredients to make it even more delicious.
Cut your ready-rolled puff pastry into 2 rectangles (you probably want enough that when you roll it into a ball, it’s a fist size).
Roll each rectangle into a ball.
Finely slice your chilli, and tear the mozzarella lump into smaller pieces.
There is no precise technique to this next bit – basically divide the chilli/mozzarella mix into two piles – one for each paratha, and press the puff pastry ball into that pile, constantly pushing the dough around so that the chilli and mozzarella becomes incorporated into the dough. At this point you can also sprinkle over as much chilli powder as you can handle. You want to knead the dough/push it around for a couple of minutes so that the mozzarella and chilli are evenly distributed throughout the dough rather than just being concentrated in one area.
With a rolling pin, roll them flat into circles – I like mine quite thick, so I’d probably go for the thickness of two pound coins. If you’ve used rubbish, cheap mozzarella like me, don’t worry if the dough is incredibly sticky and wet, it might seem like a disaster but it will still work fine.
Heat a frying pan on high, and once rolled out, add your paratha to the dry pan. There’s no specific cooking time, but you want to leave it until it’s crisped up and is no longer sticky at all on one side, and then you can flip it to crisp the other side. A couple of minutes should be enough, but just monitor it and use your common sense.
When fully cooked, you should find that they are browned up on both sides but that the centre is soft and slightly gooey and when you pull it apart, the cheese should stretch between both sides.
Serve the stew with your paratha on the side for a cheesy, spicy dipping experience!
Would love to know if anyone ends up trying this, so please leave a comment or connect with me on Instagram @foodtravelsldn.
It’s been the year of the plant-based, Netflix’s Street Food sensation and the cancelling of Deliveroo for all eternity (at least on my part). But on a more personal level, it’s been a year of progression and big changes, and many of those can be linked to this very blog here.
I’ve managed to break down 12 months of memories, breakthroughs and generally excellent food into 20 highlights, so without further ado, here are the dishes and food experiences that have made my year.
1. Making fresh pasta
Thanks to inspiration from Gino D’Campo’s Gino’s Pasta, I ended up buying an inexpensive pasta machine from Amazon, not really expecting very impressive results. Admittedly, I have only used it twice, but the two dishes I managed to whip up have automatically made it worth the money.
I first tried Gino’s Ham and Ricotta Stuffed Pasta with Chorizo. It’s surprising how easy the pasta sheets are to make – literally just flour and egg, mixed together into your dough and then fed into the machine, ready to be flattened into usable sheets.
One of the first things I’ve noticed on both occasions is that once you boil the pasta, it becomes very slimy – I don’t know whether this is a tell-tale sign of it being fresh, and therefore a satisfying texture, or just an indication that I haven’t quite perfected it yet. Either way this dish was very tasty, and simple; the most difficult part probably trying to seal the little parcels without them flipping back open to reveal the filling inside.
My second pasta attempt (also Gino) was his spinach and ricotta cannelloni, so a slightly different venture to the parcels. In one sense this is even more straightforward, as the pasta sheets don’t need to be cut into shapes, just rolled up, but I’m still unsure as to how the rolling up and sealing of the cannelloni works, and so, although it didn’t affect the flavour, I ended up with about 38585 excess rolls on each pasta tube. Still delicious though with a simple passata tomato sauce.
2. Loaded Fries
How many times do I have to mention it? Potatoes are my least favourite carb. However, add a ton of mouth-watering toppings to a big tray of fries, and I’m sold. Loaded fries are becoming an increasingly extravagant dish, and so should probably only be indulged in once in a while, but I definitely have two highlights within this category.
The first were the beetroot fries from Seasoned, at Hatch in Manchester. Slightly less heavy on the toppings, these were incredibly striking what with the beetroot salt and creamy, beetrooty feta sauce. The flavour absolutely lived up to the appearance.
Secondly, and possibly the most unhealthy thing I’ve ever eaten was the New Yorker bucket from The Bucket List in Cromer, or Norwich where I tried them. The toppings seemed to be endless, from mozzarella balls, to bacon, to aioli to fried Brie (I think?) and plenty more, but these really were the definition of loaded fries. Interesting that neither of these highlights actually came from London – maybe the fry guys down here have a thing or two to learn.
3. My Mum’s Cooking
Very cringey but can’t be avoided. All I want to do when I go home is eat monkfish paella not paella risotto not risotto and slow cooked pork with everything on the side. No more needs to be said, I’ll just leave the photos here…
4. Annie’s Burger Shack
There’s not a huge amount on the food scene that Nottingham (my hometown) is known for, but one that cannot be missed, and that I only just tried for the first time earlier this year is Annie’s Burger Shack. The menu is incredible. It’s not the burger patties, or the buns that are mindblowing, but instead the incredible combinations of toppings and fillings that make these way more than your standard burger. I’m still desperate to try the Roast Dinner Burger featuring an actual Yorkshire pudding in/on the burger (and literally every single other one on the menu), but for the time being I’ll leave you with The Johnny Vegas Burger, that I devoured on my first visit: crispy bacon, toffee apple butter, black pudding, chilli jam an a mini Guinness jelly doughnut on a stick on top. It’s mad, but that’s the point.
5. Chalida Invite
I don’t really get many invites due to my Instagram engagement being so low, although this isn’t an issue as I’m always happy to pay for food I really want to try. Having said that, being invited to new Thai restaurant Chalida in Chinatown, Leicester Square was an amazing night this year. My friend and I indulged in the biggest thai feast, and the food was wonderful. My highlights of the meal included the Beef Massaman Curry and the Chilli Aubergine. It’s definitely worth a visit.
6. Baking!
It’s not that I’ve never baked before, it’s just that this year, I suddenly realised how much joy it brought me, and has consistently acted as a kind of therapy. When I’m in the kitchen I literally think of nothing else other than when it need to turn down the heat, or what seasoning I’m going to add. I still have kitchen disasters, but this year I’ve impressed myself with some of the outcomes of my baking. Here are a few favourites:
7. Italian pasta, and watching the svogline at work
The tortellini I had in Bologna (the best place in the world to try it) was sensational. One of the nicest things I’ve ever tasted, and as well as tasting it, I got to watch the experts at work. During the city food tour I went on, we went to watch the svogline (ladies who make the pasta), and it was incredible how quickly and precisely they worked, especially when making such tiny parcels. Obviously we got to sample their work afterwards with a glass of wine, and I didn’t mind that too much either.
8. Meeting Nadiya
If you didn’t already know that I met Nadiya Hussain (most wonderful bake off winner in the history of the world, soon to be MBE, and all-round inspirational powerhouse of a woman), then you’ve been hiding under a rock. Yes I embarrassed myself by getting all snotty and cringey and sobby, but hearing her speak about her life experiences live, in person, was really fantastic, and she is as beautiful as she is articulate and kind.
9. Maturing Taste Buds
Surprisingly I used to be an incredibly fussy eater when I was younger – I didn’t like the most standard things, like pasta, or Yorkshire puddings, or even cheesecake and doughnuts (I semi wish that were still the case lol). Over time, I’ve learned that actually I do like most of these things, and this year in particular I’ve been really open-minded in terms of still trying foods and flavours that I mentally perceive to be ‘not to my taste’. One of the most significant food groups is nuts. I’ve always hated the woody, dull flavours but now I’ll gladly throw them into my cooking and baking. I’ll put peanut butter in my curries, almonds in my porridge and even chuck some hazelnuts in with my broccoli! Raw tomatoes are also becoming slightly more palatable to me, so maybe 2020’s challenge will have to be cucumbers (vom, or maybe not).
10. Forman and Field
I love seeing where the food I eat comes from – admittedly some of those places would probably shock, and maybe even disgust me, but in this case, visiting Forman and Field’s smoked salmon factory was fantastic. From the enthusiasm and passion of those behind the family-run business, to the quality of the food they produce and serve, it was a wonderful day, and really interesting to see the whole process, from the salmon arriving into the factory, whole, to it leaving in neat little packages.
11. My First Roast Dinner Cooking Experience
On one of those lovely bank holidays earlier this year, my flatmates and I decided to attempt a roast dinner. About time seeing as I’ve never actually tried to cook one before. We were able to sit outside on our lovely patio in the sun with a bottle of wine, and thankfully the food turned out equally as well. The roast chicken was tasty and perfectly-cooked, the Yorkshires were slightly cake-like but still delicious, and accompanied by roast potatoes, parsnips, veg, gravy and stuffing, it really was a very satisfying feast, particularly as we’d cooked it all up ourselves.
12. Reading About Food
Not only do I love eating, cooking and writing about food, but I also appreciate reading about it and learning from that too. I currently have a huge list of food-related books on Amazon that I want to try and get through this year, some of which I stumbled across myself, some were recommended by Felicity Cloake at her Food Writing Guardian Masterclass, and others I took note of in the bookshop at KERB Seven Dials Food Hall. Speaking of Felicity Cloake, her book ‘One More Croissant for the Road’, about her combined cycling/food-sampling tour of France was one of my favourites. I wish there was more decent food-travel writing out there. I also enjoyed reading more scientifically about food and nutrition, although this can be quite dodgy ground as there are always people willing to use ‘scientific evidence’ to make bullshit scaremongering claims. Despite that, I really enjoyed ‘Is Butter a Carb?’, which approaches the nutrition side of things in a very matter-of-fact way without preaching about lifestyle choices.
13. Toffee Popcorn Pie – A Pie Party
You should know by now how much I love A Pie Party, and cannot wait for Claire’s new range in the New Year, but this special has honestly never left my mind. An absolute flavour/textural highlight on the food front this year.
14. Energy Balls
Thanks to Emma Hollingsworths, I discovered these super simple, easy to make, and incredibly tasty vegan snack balls. There are so many different variations I want to try, and so one of my New Year’s challenges will be to adapt a few recipes for these of my own. A perfect lunchbox snack.
15. Max’s Sandwich Shop
The first sandwich I tried from Max’s was life changing. The Ham, Eggs and Chips Sandwich (below) is the best sandwich I’ve ever had, but it’s not only been devouring his sandwiches from the shop that I’ve loved. I also bought his recipe book, giving you all the recipes for his best-loved sandwiches and fillings plus plenty more. The reviews for this on Amazon are hilarious and just go to show how many morons there are in the world, but I can tell you the focaccia recipe is fantastically foolproof. In case you needed further proof that this book is worth buying for any sandwich fiends, here’s my attempt at his Spaniard Sandwich, with everything made from scratch (to the left).
16. Ainsley
Before this year, when I thought of Ainsley Harriott, all that appeared in my mind were images of him in Ready Steady Cook that was constantly on when I got home from primary school when I was little. Now, however, I’m not listening to him in the background whilst playing with Bratz dolls, I’m following his amazing recipes and whipping up some wonderful meals. Ainsley’s Caribbean Kitchen is one of my favourite recipe books ever, and below are a few of the meals I’ve made so far.
17. Plant-based
My one week a month of veganism is going really well, and I plan on keeping it up forever. Rachel Ama has been a huge help on this journey with her interesting, original recipes, including the French toast and oyster mushroom jerk tacos below. In terms of eating out, my vegan highlights are the Cheezeburger burrito from Club Mexicana, the Seitan wings from Temple of Seitan, and the Philly Cheezesteak Sandwich from Jake’s Vegan Steaks.
18. Paella
One of the most exciting and successful meals that I made this year. I’ve always loved paella since I was very young, despite as I mentioned before the fact that I was very fussy. For some reason I didn’t like normal rice, but I did claim to like ‘yellow rice’ (saffron-infused paella rice). I wish I’d had more seafood in this paella but it still tasted beautiful. Look out for round 2 in 2020, which will be accompanied by my recipe for it.
19. Gadgets
I invested in some fantastic kitchen gadgets this year. From a new non-stick frying pan, to a slow cooker and egg wash brush, I’m acquiring quite a collection. The poached egg pockets I got from my Brunch Fest goody bag worked really well, and so if you struggle to contain your poached eggs to a presentable form, these pouches are perfect for a rounder, cleaner finish. I’ve also already used the multipurpose food processor that I got for Christmas, and it’s been amazing for the pastes I make from herbs, spices and veg to enhance the flavour of my dishes.
20. ¡Comemos!
Had to save this one until last of course. It’s been a year of ups and downs, but this blog has given me real focus. I’m proud of the work I’ve produced, and hope that there are at least a few decent reads on here. ¡Comemos! really is in its infancy right now, and so I’m looking forward to seeing what new material I have to work with in the New Year, and where I can take my love of food writing.
I hope your year has been equally as fruitful, and that 2020 is another year of progression, and growth.
Here’s to the little things that make us happy, and the dedicated work required to reap such rewards.
Okay, so that’s not strictly true; if my Bosch Multitalent 3 Food Processor lasts the entire duration of my hopefully long life, I’ll be slightly surprised to say the least, but even so, it’s certainly not a ‘use for a few months and then forget all about’ kind of gift.
The same cannot be said, however, for the tin of Cartwright and Butler fudge, which lasted approximately 24 hours after having torn the wrapping paper from the giant box in which it was encased. In this instance, it definitely was just for Christmas.
I thought about whether to do this post, all too familiar of a vomit-inducing Youtube haul (I actually watch these all the time as there’s something addictive about them), but still I hate the ‘look at all this stuff that I either didn’t pay for, or I did pay for because I’m rolling in money for doing fuck all’ kind of posts.
I can’t decide if this is actually any different, but there are no Tiffany lockets, Michael Kors watches (sick face), or Gucci belts and handbags (actually just sick face all of those). Instead here you’ll find a selection of edible and inedible goodies that if you’re still reading, you might actually be interested in purchasing yourself.
Not everything Santa brought me was food-related (he very kindly gifted me some toothpaste, deodorant and make up wipes too – make of that what you will), but a lot of it revolved around the kitchen, and I simply wouldn’t have it any other way.
I should probably start with the aforementioned food processor then. It’s something I’ve wanted for a while (not necessarily that specific one but just something to mush stuff up). I already have a stick blender, and a smoothie maker, but nothing in between for mixing up larger batches of ingredients.
I did my research into how it all works last night, and there are a fair few exciting parts to this ‘MultiTalent’ gadget. The main processor bowl has various blades and attachments. Firstly, you have the standard choppy, mixy sharp blade that you’ll find in any standard processor (like I’ve mentioned before, we only use technical terminology here). It also comes with a plastic ‘blade’ which is designed for mixing up doughs, taking the effort out of strenuous hand-mixing (that’s where I get my bulging biceps from).
As well as those, there are two chopping disks. These sit just underneath the lid of the bowl, and so when you feed your ingredients through the funnel in the top, the blades slice them to the desired thickness (there’s a thick side and a fine side). The other chopping disk is used for speed-grating, and again, this blade has a coarse-grating side and a fine-grating side.
Remove the bowl, and you can add on the blender, ready for prepping smoothies, juices, sauces or soups. This add-on will probably get the least use of them all for me, as like I mentioned, I already have a specific smoothie maker, and my stick blender is perfect for soups, as you don’t even need to move the liquid from the pan.
Finally, what will be massively useful for me is the smaller add-on container. I often make spice/curry pastes for the dishes I cook up, and have been used to using the stick blender for that too. But when I’m literally just making a paste for a meal for one person, there’s so little of the mixture that it barely even reaches the blades on the stick blender. So this small container will be perfect for those kind of things – finely mashing up all those seeds, berries and bits of diced ginger and veg to create the perfect paste quantities for my main meals.
On to some of the edible goodies I found under the tree. First up is this Shawarma Paste by Belazu. I first found a love for Shawarma when I spent a few months living in Granada in Southern Spain. Every city has its own post-night out snack, and I would like to personally thank the Moors for bringing the hangover cure that is Shawarma from North Africa to the region of Andalucía. What could be more desirable in your inebriated state than a stodgy wrap, full of flavoursome kebab meat, salad and all the sauce.
I’ve never made anything along those lines myself, but you can guarantee I’ll give it a go now. It might not be in its Andalucían wrap form, but my mind is running wild with thoughts of all the delicious stews I could make that would benefit from this beautiful-scented paste.
Sticking with the Middle Eastern/North African theme, I unwrapped this lovely little jar of Steenbergs’ Dukkah. I had heard of it before, but truth be told, I wouldn’t be able to tell you exactly what it was, so here’s the Wikipedia explanation:
… is an Egyptian condiment, consisting of a mixture of herbs, nuts (usually hazelnut) and spices. It is typically used as a dip with bread or fresh vegetables for an hors d’oeuvre.
Having done some research, there seem to be a number of ways to cook with Dukkah. It can be used as a crispy coating for meat and fish (or even veg), or can be sprinkled over salads, eggs or toast for added crunch and flavour.
***
It’s customary in my house to receive some kind of Lindt chocolate at Christmas time (as if 24 days of Lindt advent calendar chocolate hadn’t been enough). I’ll actually be saving this milk chocolate bear ready for when I need chocolate to bake with. If I don’t want to overload myself with chocolate, I tend to put it to one side in the cupboard, and inevitably at some point I’ll be making a cake, hot chocolate or sauce that requires melted chocolate – and there it is, beautiful tasting, quality chocolate just waiting to be used up.
One thing that I’ve wanted to cook with for a while, but not necessarily had the patience to hunt down (it’s not actually that difficult to find at all) is liquid smoke. Perfect for BBQ style dishes, and actually also featuring heavily in many vegan recipes I’ve come across, this sauce has a unique flavour that can’t really be created from scratch using indoor cooking appliances. I think a big rack of BBQ ribs are in order now.
I was possibly most excited by this Doctor Seaweed, Weed and Wonderful, Smoked Scottish Seaweed Infused Rapeseed Oil. It may have an incredibly longwinded title, but it’s not that complex to use at all. It smells really interesting, and the bottle suggests drizzling it over fish or something along those lines to add smoky flavours of the sea.
As if my spice cupboard needed any further additions, Santa treated me to this cute little pack of nutmeg with a mini grater. First off, I LOVE the grater. Anything miniature has me whining and cooing about how adorable it is, but it’s actually quite practical too in this case. I still have a little bit of nutmeg left over from what my parents brought me back from Burma, but it is running kind of low, so now I have this lovely back-up ready and waiting. I honestly think nutmeg is my favourite spice. It just has the most beautiful warmth to it, and probably reminds me sentimentally of the bread sauce I smothered all over my roast chicken for years when I was (even) little(r than I am now).
It took me a while to work this next one out, and I’m still not entirely sure about it, but these are hot smoked paprika flakes. I’ve never used paprika flakes before, only ground paprika, so I imagine these will add a more intense burst of flavour. I do love spice (heat) so a sprinkling of this over avocado toast or something like that will be delicious.
Continuing on the paprika theme are these super cute mini paprika packets. Each one has a slightly different note – there’s smoky, sweet, and bittersweet. This is so useful for me, as I often follow recipes that ask for ‘sweet’ paprika, and all I have is what I consider to be ‘generic’ paprika so I just use that. Now I actually have slightly different concoctions of the spice that will add subtly different flavours to my dishes.
I think I now have enough saffron to last me a looong while, but who would be unhappy with that, as it’s the most expensive spice. I’ve also heard a fair bit about Brindisa being a great-quality supplier of Spanish ingredients within the UK – they have shops and tapas restaurants in London and so it’s nice to have something of theirs to try (literally off to browse their website right now…)
Another product that I’m happy to have a top up of is the Taylor and Colledge Organic Vanilla Bean Paste. I reluctantly (reluctant because of the price) bought some of this from Morrisons a few months ago, and I’m so close to running out, so it was a perfect coincidence that I found another little tub of it waiting for me yesterday morning. Obviously a tiny bit of vanilla bean paste or essence goes a long way, so this should hopefully last me a while.
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Buying Rachel Ama’s Vegan Eats earlier this year introduced me to the idea of using Moringa and Açaí powder in my vegan cooking. Obviously I’d eaten açaí a million times over in Brazil, but never thought of using the powdered form. Rachel makes pancakes using the ‘superfood’ that is moringa powder (the whole superfood thing is mostly bullshit, but still, it looks interesting), and also an açaí smoothie bowl using that powder. These Indigo Nutrition packs are pretty big and so despite probably being quite pricey, they should last me a while. I’ll be making both the pancakes and the smoothie bowl quite soon, and so you should you’ll be able to see those finished brunch items in one of my upcoming Meat Me Halfway posts.
God, I’m still going. There’s actually quite a bit left. I loved the fact that instead of buying shitty crackers full of tat, my parents made crackers out of toilet roll and tissue paper with personalised things inside. My treat was this tiny tiny tub of Nutella, and you know what, I may never use it because it’s that cute. I don’t think I can even bear to open it…
I’d actually forgotten that I’d asked Santa for some mini tart tins, as when I was in Morrisons a few months ago, I saw that they did a pack of 2 for about a fiver, and so I couldn’t resist buying them. Well, now I’ve got 2 more, which is actually pretty helpful, as I think these ones are slightly bigger, and so would be perfect for making individual savoury tarts, whereas I feel like the ones I already have are a better size for sweet desserts.
The last set of food items came in the form of a hamper that came with the food processor. There was actually so much in here – all by Cartwright and Butler. There was a box of butter shortbread which were as expected – buttery and crunchy with a sprinkling of sugar on top. There was also the tin of fudge mentioned earlier (yes, that tin that I devoured in less than 24 hours). The fudge was beautiful and I’d definitely recommend that if you’re looking for a lovely gift for someone. Whilst the fudge came in a pretty greeny blue tin, the hazelnut truffles were housed in a lilac tin – both of which I’ll be reusing, filling them with other ingredients in my kitchen once I’ve eaten everything inside. The truffles weren’t exactly what I was expecting – I thought that truffles always had a soft centre, but these were solid throughout with a strong, bitter-flavoured cocoa coating. They weren’t unpleasant, but just not what I’d thought they’d be.
Savoury-wise, they’d included a packet of cheese biscuits, which were very moreish. I could say I wasn’t in love with them flavour and texture-wise, but then you’d question why and how I’d already managed to finish them all (:
Just a couple more bits in the hamper – a lovely little tin housing a big slab of cherry and almond cake. I sat in my room looking through all the bits I’d accumulated, wanting to try a little bit of everything, but unfortunately I didn’t have a knife up there. Instead of going downstairs to get one to slice a piece off like a normal person would, I peeled back the plastic wrapping, and just took a bite out of the side of the cake, shoving it in my face, eating it as if it were a child-size cake bar. Do not judge me. It was actually so lovely – there’s only half of it left, and I’m not sure whether it’s going to make it to my friends’ for New Year’s Eve or not.
The jar of rhubarb custards was super cute, and the mason jars are going to be perfect for making jam or something like that afterwards. I’m not normally a huge fan of sweets, but these will be nice for when I have a sweet craving but don’t want something too indulgent.
Finally in the hamper was a jar of apple chutney. I love chutneys so I’m very exicted about this. It smells amazing, and I love the thick, chunky texture. I haven’t decided what I’m going to use it with but I reckon it’d be a welcome side sauce for most things I’d cook.
I hadn’t heard of Cartwright and Butler before, but this hamper gives me the impression that their stuff is perfect for gifts, both in terms of taste and presentation, so it’d definitely be worth checking out their website (assuming they have one – I haven’t actually got round to that yet as I’ll probably want everything).
A couple of non-kitchen-related inedible items now, all still to do with food of course. The first is a book that I saw newly–released on Amazon not long ago. ‘This is a book for people who love hot sauce’ is a short and sweet A5 book all about, you guessed it, hot sauce. From the science behind the chemical processes involved and the Scoville scale, to the history, to the variations of hot sauce all over the world, it won’t take me long to blast through this book. I love hot sauce, and if you do too it’s a novelty read.
On the theme of books, I also got this beautiful blank notebook, which I’m going to use as my own personal recipe book. I’m going to fill it with a compilation of base recipes (think different pastries, staple sauces etc), and on top of that, once I perfect recipes of my own, or come up with ideas for potential recipes, I’ll jot all of those down in here too. I want it to be a book that I cherish, and one that I continue to add to for a very long time.
Before I disappear off to enjoy the last few hours of boxing day (before I head back to work fml), my final semi-related present was these incredibly comfy gym leggings from Gymshark. You may have no interest in these whatsoever, and why should you? But just in case you do get a little thrill from heading out for a run, or lifting weights in the gym after all that Christmas fun (there really is no need to feel like you should..), then these leggings have quickly become some of my Gymshark favourites. They fit true to size, aren’t too long for someone short like me, and are tight, sucking me in in all the right places, without feeling uncomfortably restrictive (like some of the other Gymshark styles).
So whether your New Year’s resolution is to cook more, eat more, read more or work out more, hopefully some of the items above that I was lucky enough to find wrapped up under the tree will be of interest to you.
I can’t wait to get to work in the kitchen with them, and no doubt over the next few months I’ll be adding even more to my gadget and store cupboard collections.
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas (or just a lovely, relaxing break if you haven’t celebrated).
The New Year may be just around the corner, but resolutions or not, we’ve still gotta eat, so…
We’re already 4 weeks into what I’ve decided is going to be a year-long series – sounds intense, but that’s actually only 12 posts and so I’m 1/3 of the way there already.
Again this time round, there has been an interesting mix of fantastic meals and some that were disappointing, but I’m quickly realising how diverse vegan food can be.
Vegan food used to equal bland veg and a bit of quorn but you’ll see so much variety in the things I’ve eaten, both at home and out.
This isn’t quite everything I had, as 2 meals a day plus snacks for 7 days adds up to a lot, and I waffle enough as it is, but I’ve chosen the most relevant and interesting (good and bad) things I ate.
I do love that I can flick through the non-vegan recipe books I have and find a few meat/fish/dairy/egg-free recipes. There are never loads, but enough to satisfy my vegan week cravings.
Take my first meal of Week 4 for example – yes, I’m back there again, it’s Nadiya. Soup is such an easy one to make vegan and it’s massively satisfying, both with its winter warming powers, and with it being surprisingly filling. This was a carrot, cumin and coriander soup – very easy to make (stick blenders are life-saving, and not at all expensive), with lots of curried flavour. Another example here of me using up some rubbish leftovers – literally just a bagel that had fallen apart shoved in the oven to toast and then dip.
One thing I love doing, particularly with vegan meals, is having a mini feast (oxymoron?), combining a few different recipes on one plate. It can be time-consuming and a fair bit of effort (and washing up) but it’s a great way to get in a load of different veg and healthy bits whilst making them a bit more interesting.
This one was a Rick Stein Mexican feast – 100% vegan. I think often with vegan diets people tend to combine a load of side dishes to make one meal and that’s what I’ve done here. I started off with his ‘Patty’s Green Beans’ in a kind of tomatoey, chilli sauce. I had those with the slightly more indulgent Cauliflower Fritters with Cashew Sauce, and to finish it all off, some Mexican Red Rice. I know cashews are often used in vegan pasta sauces etc but I’d never tried to make one myself. I was surprised at how easily the soaked cashews could be blended and reduced down into a thick, creamy mixture. I can’t say I loved the fritters, but I am always looking for new ways to cook cauliflower, as it’s something I used to hate.
The Mexican Red Rice was the highlight for me. It had so much to it– from the coriander, to the chilli, it really would be appropriate to use the phrase ‘bursting with flavour’. I didn’t see any one part of this meal as the ‘main’ component, but I don’t find that important, I don’t always feel like I need a meat replacement, and as previously mentioned, I’m pretty happy with a selection of ‘sides’ like these.
My first non-home-cooked meal came on a lazy weekend day when, for once, I just didn’t feel like cooking. There didn’t seem to be that many vegan options available to me on UberEats, but I did find somewhere I hadn’t heard of before, that after having a little stalk of on Instagram, looked like it had some great options. From Miranda Café I got their Peanut Butter Cacao Banana Bread and Seitan Reuben Sandwich with an Aztec Spiced Hot Chocolate.
The banana bread looked amazing in photos so that was what influenced me. It was nicely presented with a pot of berry compote on the side. To be honest, it was very dense and heavy, however, it tasted great. There was a gooey chocolatey centre to it, which added moisture, and the sharpness of the compote helped to combat the thick peanut butter on top. It is indulgent, but for an exciting vegan brunch, I would recommend it.
Then we have the Reuben sandwich. Typically a Reuben sandwich features salt beef and sauerkraut, but obviously that wasn’t going to be the case with this one. The first thing I had to do was to remove 2/3 of the salad. Now I’m not scared of a few leaves, but this sandwich contained a whole forest of them. It was pretty ridiculous (maybe this is a tactic places use to hide a potential lack of filling??). Once I’d removed that though, I was ready to dive in. The actual flavour was good, and there was a nice crunch from the seitan patty (decided I love seitan), and a slight ooze from the melted cheese. I enjoyed it, but I’d firstly say more cheese would be fab, and secondly I’m not sure about calling it a Reuben, because it bore little resemblance to one in my mind.
Finally the hot chocolate. I’ll keep it short and sweet (unlike the drink). It tasted like warm cinnamon milky water. Very overpriced. Get your hot choc from Pret. The end.
Okaaaay, meal prep for the week and how many times do I have to say – ‘and back to Nadiya?’. She has a fab recipe for an Indian 5 spice veg stir fry so this was a great opportunity to use up loads and loads of leftover veg. After prepping it all, I was convinced this would easily feed me for 5 meals, but crazily once I’d cooked it, I only managed two. It was, however, delicious and very satisfying – and that’s just veg!
We move on to treat time. Or should I say Doughnut Time, with their wonderful vegan doughnuts. So they brought out a sort-of new one. They’ve had the MEGA (large, birthday cake-sized doughnut) Chris Hemsworthy on their menu for a lifetime, and they finally created an identical mini version, aptly named Liam Hemsworthy, after his younger brother. This is a red velvet dough with a cookies and cream buttercream, chocolate drizzle and topped with chocolate cookie pieces. It’s not too intense as it doesn’t have a filling inside, and the buttercream on top is delicious.
God, you are going to get bored of me, but back to Nadiya!!! This one wasn’t planned, I just made a few changes to my meals and so had to hunt for something vegan in my cookbooks that I had all the ingredients for. And that’s how I ended up making her Red Lentils with 5 Spice Soda Bread. The lentils were delicious and creamy, and the soda bread would’ve been perfect for scooping it up if I’d perfected it. The bread did actually taste decent, it just looks a bit of a dodgy effort (not sure why it resembles a jacket potato…). To go with those I had Rachel Ama’s Curried Cauliflower with Coconut Raita which was okay but not mind-blowing. Another effort in my cauliflower research.
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I love that Ainsley Harriott has a whole section in his Caribbean Kitchen book dedicated to vegetarian and vegan recipes, and it’s honestly one of my favourite books. Tofu is dodgy territory for me – I remember making Nadiya’s tofu with edamame bean salad months ago and surprisingly enjoying it, but anytime I’ve tried to cook with tofu since, I’ve found the texture tricky to stomach. Anyway, I decided to be brave and try his Ginger Beer Battered Tofu with a spicy tomato sauce, and I had James Martin’s Green Beans and Broccoli with Hazelnut (vegan) Butter on the side. The batter was so easy to make, and cooked so well. The crunchiness of the batter was so essential to me being able to enjoy the tofu. The veggie side was also super tasty, now that I’ve managed to get over my fear of the woody flavour of hazelnuts.
Now it’s sweet treat time again (because once a week is absolutely not enough). I went back to Mrs (Emma) Hollingsworth as I’ve loved her vegan energy balls that I made before, and her recipes are so simple, requiring very few ingredients. If you’re looking for easy vegan treats, which would be perfect to prep for lunchboxes, you can find all her recipes on her blog, although she has just released a book too.
I made her Choco Banana Crumble Sandwich, and despite it not looking as pretty as the one she made, it was a great combo of crunch from the oats, smooth, creamy chocolate and the added banana flavour.
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How could it be vegan week without some input from Rachel Ama? As well as her Curried Cauliflower, I also made her BALT sandwich, which is smoked aubergine, tomato and lettuce. I loved the smoked aubergine but the tomatoes I’d bought were so bitter, I didn’t really finish it, so it’s a very simple and potentially tasty easy lunch but just make sure you have half-decent veg!
More successful was her Vegan Full English, which I actually made post-vegan week because it appealed to me so much! This is another one of those oxymoronic mini feasts, and the washing up I had to do was mega, but it was worth it. As well as the thinly sliced smoke aubergine, I had avocado, fried plantain, and chilli oyster mushrooms. Not stopping there, she cooks down some tomatoes with spinach for an extra health kick, and my favourite part – the beans on toast. Despite apparently being a bit of a British staple I never eat beans on toast (not that I dislike it), but putting it all together myself made it so much nicer. You top your buttered toast with the tomatoey, spicy haricot beans. This meal will keep you full for a while, whilst giving your body a whole load of nutrients.
Okay, a couple more meals to go, and this one might be my favourite. After the first part of my double shift, I headed to KERB Seven Dials Market in Covent Garden, where Club Mexicana serve up a delicious vegan menu of Mexican street food. I had a Cheezeburger Burrito and Loaded Nachos. Nachos aren’t ever really my favourite to be honest, but I wanted a side dish, and although the tacos looked amazing, I didn’t feel like a taco on the side of a burrito would really work well. The nachos were good, they looked amazingly colourful, and had flavour with a great puffed-up texture to the tortilla chips, but my mind wasn’t blown (nothing against the nachos, like I said, I never really get that excited by them as a dish). The burrito, however, was another story. Lots of places tend to describe certain dishes and flavours as ‘chee[z]eburger’ without much justification, but this burrito honestly tasted like one. The burger mince substitute was delicious, and very convincing, and I could’ve drank burger sauce… This is definitely my top recommendation for this week, whether you’re vegan or not. Ignore how bad the picture is, I was way more bothered about shoving this food in my face than how it was going to look in a photo on my blog a week later.
Okay, last and kind of least (feeling a bit queasy thinking about it), is the Ortolana Pizza from Rossopomodoro. I’d never tried their pizzas at all, let alone the vegan ones, but they seemed to have a few options to choose from. This one was topped with aubergine, capers, spinach, vegan cheese and I can’t remember what else. Actually the base/crust was great, perfect balance of doughy but not too doughy (we only use the official technical terms here), but yeah the toppings made me feel a bit gross afterwards. Maybe it was the lack of tomato sauce, I’m not sure. What this does suggest though, is that Rossopomodoro has the potential to produce a great pizza because they’ve got the base down, but maybe the main non-vegan range is where it’s at.
There we go. 4 weeks down. Next time round I’m gonna head to ByChloe which I have heard wonderful things about, so I cannot wait for that, and you will have to wait slightly longer for my next instalment of fabulous vegan recipe testing, but end of Jan I assure you I will be back here with the lowdown.
If you fancy trying any of the recipes or places mentioned above then it has to be Club Mexicana’s Cheezeburger Burrito, Rachel Ama’s Full English or any of Mrs Hollingsworth’s sweet snacks.
I’m signing off on the vegan adventures for the next month. Until then…
One (in my opinion, not particularly heavy) fast-food meal = calories equivalent to two hours of cardio?
Did I want to know that?
Probably not.
Should I be aware of that?
Possibly.
So today’s piece is more topical. I don’t tend to address news stories here, but what with this one being strongly-connected to a lot of the things I do like to talk about, things that are constantly on my mind, this one seemed sensible to address.
You’ve probably already heard, but in a nutshell, news emerged last week that The Royal Society for Public Health has suggested that food products should be labelled, not only with the number of calories within that item, but also the amount of exercise it would take to burn off those calories.
They believe that people don’t really understand the reality behind the number of calories we’re consuming, and what that actually means for our bodies.
Research from Loughborough Uni has now backed this up, following trials in which people eating food with ‘Pace Labelling’, as it’s called, ended up consuming around 200 calories less daily.
All this stems from the fact that around 13 million adults in the UK are considered ‘obese’ (Diabetes UK study) and that not enough is being done to combat this.
So that’s the idea.
But that’s only the half of it.
Of course, drastic measures like that are going to go hand in hand with a backlash of opinions, generating a huge amount of controversy, and it’s tricky to know where to stand on the matter.
Trying to avoid waffling like my A-Level French style compulsory discursive essays (intro-points for-points against-conclusion-DONE), I’m going to dare to address both sides and see where my thoughts lie, but apologies for said waffle in advance…
I’ve basically already summarised the benefits, explaining the gist of the news story above, but just to reiterate, intention of Pace Labelling = a reduction in the number of calories consumed, through educating people about what those calories actually mean for their bodies. Equating calories to exercise highlights just how “overindulgent” some foods can be (although that word in itself is pretty problematic but more on that later…) and therefore helps us to make healthier choices for ourselves.
It’s designed to be about awareness. Obesity is real, and that’s undeniable. How to combat it is obviously a very tricky topic, as it can be caused by so many different issues, from mental health, to lack of nutritional education, to other health issues, and even genetics.
For me, the intentions are wholly positive. This is coming from a place of genuine concern – however…
Over to the other side…
The news was immediately met by outrage and even more grave concern by a number of bodies and individuals.
Renee Cherry’s reaction to this for Shape magazine makes the very important point that calories aren’t necessarily what matter. What’s more important are the nutrients that you’re getting from those calories, and so it could be more beneficial to your body to eat a product with a higher calorific value, because it contains more ‘goodness’ or essential energy within.
Image via bbc.co.uk
On a similar nutrition-related level, no two people’s bodies are the same when it comes to energy consumption and usage. We know that generally speaking men need more calories than women, and that children need fewer than adults, but that doesn’t take into account the fact that each of our bodies reacts differently to different foods, diets and exercise routines, and so one set of dietary choices that works for person A could mean malnourishment or excess weight for person B.
These arguments against the new recommendation are relevant, but even louder to voice their opinions are those speaking out against the danger they pose to mental health and the risk of eating disorders.
The idea that food = guilt is a damaging one. This is often a key factor in disordered eating, along with the idea that we must immediately compensate for whatever we’ve consumed. There will absolutely be people who see a food label, link X amount of calories to X amount of exercise and either exercise literally to within an inch of their lives, or just avoid food altogether in case they don’t burn it all off.
‘Calorie’ has become a bit of a dirty word. We don’t want calories. We don’t like them. But we NEED them!
This whole idea, despite being well-intentioned, risks demonising the very basic, essential-to-life concept of eating.
Whilst I am completely against the idea, I really do think the reasons behind it are so important to consider, and if this is such a terrible idea (which it kind of is) we need to think about kinder, less damaging ways to educate ourselves and avoid potentially life-threatening food choices. It sounds dramatic, and slightly hypocritical, but we know that consistent poor dietary choices on a daily, monthly, yearly basis can be that dangerous, in the same way that under-eating also can be.
It’s a difficult one. And I’ve voiced this before on a more personal level. The vast majority of us will have at some point associated guilt with food. The idea that food = guilt can be dangerous, but I can’t help but think that if I personally didn’t feel any guilt ever, that would be pretty dangerous in itself, and I certainly wouldn’t be in the shape I’m in now. Being aware of the fact that there are negative consequences of eating Big Macs every day forever is kind of important really, isn’t it?
Food addictions and unhealthy food-related relationships are in some ways, slightly more difficult to address than addictions like alcohol, smoking and drugs, because we absolutely need food. Not eating would be even more dangerous than overeating and so abstinence is impossible. And therefore for many people, the fact that their one vice is something that is essential fuel to staying alive is incredibly complex. You cannot just give up eating because your choices are causing your body to suffer. It requires the most difficult form of self-control.
So I’m very torn.
Food doesn’t always have to be that deep, but we can’t avoid the fact that relationships with food are becoming more and more complex, and so much of that can be put down to irresponsible chains and franchises, with money symbols floating around in their eyeballs.
Another news item that has been a hot topic recently is the issue regarding chains such as Starbucks, Pret etc serving special hot drinks ranges (particularly during autumn and the festive season), whereby those drinks contain literally half your allowance of daily calories. Despite saying earlier that the focus shouldn’t necessarily be on calories, when 700 of them are coming from one hot drink choice, you can be sure you’re not getting much nutrition from that.
theburgerguide.com
The same also applies to supersize double and triple stacked burgers, or even those burgers replacing buns with entire doughnuts (anyone else remember seeing those?).
These things are delicious. They are indulgent. And they’re fun. But they’re becoming commonplace and that’s something that I find difficult to stomach (pardon the pun).
The drinks thing is currently more relevant though so we’ll stick with delving a bit deeper into that. This uncovering came from Action on Sugar’s latest report, and examples currently on sale include Starbucks’ Gingerbread Latte, which when made with oat milk contains 523 calories, and the most shocking menu item – their Signature Hot Chocolate with Whipped Cream (again, with oat milk), containing a quite frankly disgraceful 758 calories, and 23 teaspoons of sugar.
I’m not really a coffee drinker, but love a good hot chocolate, and it genuinely terrifies me that I could easily have ordered that, thinking that I was having an innocent little drink. 758 calories. And it’s just liquid.
This is completely and utterly irresponsible from the biggest player in the hot drinks chain game.
When I go out for dinner, I don’t want to be worrying about calories and holding back. And so I won’t. But I also don’t want to be fearful that I might order what I think is an innocent drink, but that actually contains over 1/3 of my daily recommended calories. IN ONE DRINK. To me that’s a madness, and everyday coffee shops like Starbucks and Pret need to start acting more responsibly when it comes to their menus – either being more transparent about how calorific they really are, or making a conscious effort to reduce the amount of dangerously-disguised items on their menu.
So do I have a solution? Is there one??
Obviously I don’t because I’m just little old me – opinions without solutions, however, compromise is going to play a huge part. More nutritional education would be a solid place to start, but a kind of education devoid of fear-mongering, tying together body positivity and healthy mindsets with the science behind our choices. And this really should start in schools.
Having said that, the biggest step towards a solution would need to come from the food industry itself and that’s not going to happen easily. They have their priorities. Capitalism is the only thing to say. Ultimately the consumer’s best interests are not at heart. So it’s on us to make those choices. It’s about finding the balance between avoiding calorie counting whilst also being sensible enough to make choices that aren’t going to lead to significant health problems at some point in life.
I don’t want to stress anyone out. I don’t want to stress myself out. It shouldn’t be a battle, but I know for myself, at least, often it is.
The more we talk about different relationships with food, the more we can understand the way our brains and our stomachs relate to each other, and perhaps in time, this kind of open dialogue will help us to come up with the compromise required to make progress.
Be wise to what you eat. But remember that we need food to survive. Food is essential. Look for choices that make you happy and respect your body. It’s all about balance, not avoidance.
I’m still working on it. If I find any more answers, I’ll let you know.
Second year of uni. Food plan for the weeks ahead sorted. £80 Morrison’s shop delivered.
(Yes £80 – this is what happens when you don’t drink that much)
This was the way things went every month. Stock up and then by the end of the month my food supply would be depleted ready to start again.
Or at least that’s how I expected it to work. But my food plans would change constantly and after weeks had gone by I would find heaps of gone off food in the back of the fridge, all of it ending up in the bin.
And I didn’t really think much of it.
Fast forward a few years however, and lots has changed. Now, to me, food waste is criminal. It’s very rare that I end up throwing stuff away, and that’s how it should be.
This is a sort of guide with a number of suggestions and recommendations on ways that you can make the most of what’s in your cupboards, but also help to reduce commercial food waste.
On a personal level, Nadiya’s Time to Eat was what started my full on appreciation for my freezer. So many of the foods I’ve thrown away over the years would’ve been perfectly edible had I frozen them. Your freezer is your friend and the sooner you realise that, the less waste you’ll end up with.
The current contents of my freezer are as follows:
Cardamom Ice Cream
Gingerbread Fondant Cups x3
Vegan Sausages x4
Chips
Edamame Beans
Peas
Shortcrust Pastry
English Muffins x2
Bacon x3
Squid
Smoked Salmon
Broad Beans
Focaccia x1
Croquettes x1
Vegan Fries
Bagels
Shellfish Stock
Some of the things on this list are obvious – where else would you keep ice cream? But others have meant I’ve preserved food that otherwise wouldn’t have made it.
Take the Gingerbread Fondant Cups for example. I made dessert for two people. When it comes to buying ingredients, just making two little fondant cups isn’t really worth it, so I ended up with about nine. There was never any chance of me eating 9 in one sitting, so they’ve now been resting in the freezer for a few months, ready for me to dish up as dessert if I ever have guests over, or for my flatmates.
Making sure you freeze in practical portion sizes is essential. If you tend to just be cooking for one, don’t freeze 3 chicken breasts together – you’ll come to regret it when you only want to defrost one.
My freezer is also a saviour for bready carby products – bagels, muffins, and all sorts of actual bread. Okay, so it’s never quite the same after being defrosted, never as soft and fluffy, but it’s edible, and when you slather it with fillings, the bread really isn’t the star of the show anyway. The focaccia I made the other day is waiting patiently until I delve back into my Max’s Sandwich Shop book in a month or so’s time – and because that’s already sorted, the sandwich recipes I want to try will take me ¼ of the amount of time what with not having to make the actual bread again.
This is one of the sandwiches I made for lunch this weekend with a portion of the focaccia I’d frozen weeks ago. All that remained was to whip up some guacamole and fry an egg!
You can also make the most of slightly stale bread by blending it to breadcrumbs or toasting cubes of it for croutons. This is a much better option than buying packets of these straight from the supermarket.
Another thing that I’m not afraid to do is freeze leftover food that I’ve bought from stalls and restaurants. I currently have my loaded fries from Temple of Seitan sitting in there after I couldn’t manage to eat them the other week as I’d already had 4 wings, a burger and Mac n Cheese lool. I’ve done this before with fries from Truffle, which tasted just as good heated up weeks later. The alternative is wasting perfectly good food and in my mind that’s just not a option. There should be no shame in taking home leftovers when you’ve been out to eat – this is much more responsible than overordering and then allowing it all to be thrown away. It also means you’ve got food ready to be reheated for an evening or lunchtime when you’re in a rush and don’t have time to cook something from scratch.
Saving them for a rainy day.
And the final point to add on the topic of freezing things is that many unappealing-looking scraps can be turned into something useful before or after being frozen.
Example number 1: Shellfish stock
I recently made a crab curry and found myself left with all shell and claws. Instead of binning them straight away, I boiled them into stock with a few other added ingredients, and have now frozen that stock ready for when I make a squid stew later this week.
In the process…
The finished product
Example number 2: Vegetable soup
This one might not sound that appealing but it was so satisfying to make. I froze a load of veg scraps – parsnip peel and cauliflower stalks etc and once I had built up enough, I boiled them, eventually blending the scraps into a smooth soup. You could just make stock, but why make stock and end up throwing the scraps away again when you could actually just blend them and use them as the substance for an entire meal. The idea of eating vegetable peel and stalks doesn’t sound massively appetising but it made for a really satisfying meal.
Before the blending
Example number 3: Aquafaba mayo
I was surprised to learn during my vegan week (from Rachel Ama) that vegan mayo can be made using aquafaba, or the liquid that comes from tinned chickpeas. Instead of draining the liquid when making a chickpea curry, I kept the liquid in a sealed bag and froze in, later using it to make the mayo.
The point is, if you do your research, there are plenty of ways to think outside the box when it comes to using your freezer to its full potential to limit the amount of food waste you’re producing.
And it’s not only vegetable waste that we can avoid. Fruit that is past its best can also be utilised to make tasty snacks. One of the most obvious examples is with bananas. Overripe bananas that are too mushy to eat are perfect to bake with – whether its cupcakes, muffins, or of course, banana bread. Other fruit works in a similar way – it might not taste great eating it on its own, but you don’t need or even want the freshest fruit when it comes to cooking it down for a compote, or baking it into cakes etc.
If you don’t fancy all that added sugar from baking, try making smoothies or shakes instead. Blend the fruit alone, or add milk or crushed ice (or even ice cream if you want to indulge) for the perfect pick me up in the morning. Once again, the fruit does not need to be on top form for this, as it’s going to be blended to a pulpy mush anyway.
Although most often I cook just for myself, that doesn’t stop me from wanting to try cooking bigger joints of meat, so I often find myself with lots of meaty leftovers. I tend to freeze the meat in smaller portions but there are so many things you can do with leftovers like this, whether it’s chicken, beef, lamb, pork or something more exotic. Using a food processor, you can blend smaller chunks of meat into mince. Obviously the texture ends up being quite different to shop-bought mince but it works in exactly the same way, and often has more flavour.
One of my favourite things to do is use leftover meat in a pie. I made a lamb roast dinner a few months ago, and with the leftover meat, I made a harissa lamb pie filling which was delicious.
After the pie there were still leftovers, so wanting to use up the lamb in as many diverse ways as possible, I added it to a greek lamb orzo dish. Another time I used some leftover brisket as the filling to some deliciously cheesy eggy bread. Adding your leftover meat to stews and curries is another perfect, and very easy option, and the possibilities really are endless.
As well as the things you can do in your own kitchen, there are now a number of really useful apps you can use on your phones and tablets to help reduce waste in your local community. Here are 3 of my favourites:
Too Good To Go
A large number of cafés, restaurants and even supermarkets are now using Too Good To Go to reduce their end of day waste. You can browse the app to see which locations will have waste at the end of the day, and how much it will cost (significantly reduced prices of course). You never actually know what specific items you will receive in your mystery bag, as because it’s a sort of pre-order system, the businesses cannot predict what they will have leftover, but they generally tend to give you an idea of the things you can expect to receive. Collection only.
Karma
Karma works in a similar way to Too Good To Go, except businesses upload individual waste items live as they have them, and so you will find food ‘to rescue’ even first thing in the morning. Also, rather than committing to buying a surprise goody bag like in the previous app, with Karma you can choose to buy specific dishes. You’ll even find street food style businesses on this app. Again, it’s collection only but each establishment will let you know when you need to collect the food by. More often than not, the food items are half price.
Olio
Saved my favourite until last! Olio does work alongside businesses but it’s designed more so for normal people like us who have food in our homes that is perfectly good to eat but that we’re not going to use. Instead of wasting it, you put up a post on the app, showing what food you are trying to get rid of with a short description, and when it will be available to collect from yours. People can then contact you if they are interested in collecting the item and you can arrange the pick up. A lot of the time people will leave the item securely wrapped outside the property so that you can collect it even if they’re not home, and I’ve done this at mine so I don’t have to worry about whether I’m going to be in or not. The food items can be brand new and unopened or even half used. This might sound odd, but why let half of a loaf of bread go to waste, or even half a bottle of ketchup if it’s perfectly good to use and it saves you from buying a whole new one! I really recommend using this app, and certainly not turning your nose up at it, as I reckon if we all properly thought about how much food we throw away on a yearly basis, it would be shocking. I’m still delighted about the fact that it saved me a few pounds the other month when I needed some strong bread flour and a lady living about 10 minutes from me had a whole unopened packet going for free. Result.
Most of my suggestions above are probably pretty obvious. Use your freezer. Sounds silly, but every time you’re about to throw something away, just think, is there another way I could use this? Might I want this for a dinner or packed lunch next month? Do I know someone who might want this? Of course there’s no point in filling your freezer with a load of things you are never ever going to go back to, but if that’s the case, you need to question what you’re buying, and how much of it you actually need in the first place.
Bottom line is we’re throwing far too much away. There are constant talks of shortages of this and shortages of that, but how can we be suffering shortages at the same time as wasting so much??
The moral of the story is think very carefully about what you’re buying and what you actually need, and do challenge yourself to try one of the apps or recommendations above this month, and see if you can reduce your waste.
As I often like to reiterate – food waste is for losers.
¡Comemos! 