foodreviews – ¡Comemos!

Meat Me Halfway: Week 2

2nd Nov 2019Leave a comment

One month has flown by, and so we’re already at week 2 of my mission to reduce my meat and dairy intake.

I’m gonna go straight in there and say that I enjoyed this week a lot more. I think the meals I ate were more varied, and I focused slightly less on beans and pulses; my body ultimately thanking me for this as I felt less heavy and bloated.

I’ll kick things off with one of my absolute favourite things that I snacked on at work nearly every day.

I saw this recipe on @mrshollingsworths Instagram account and they looked amazing – peanut butter energy balls filled with raspberry chia jam. You never know if these kinds of things are going to work for you in the same way that they miraculously do on Instagram and recipe books etc, but I can confirm that these came out perfectly. Basically just a combination of oats, peanut butter and dates blended together. For the chia jam you can either buy it or make it yourself but you need to freeze it in an ice cube tray so that the little blobs are easier to work with. Once they’re frozen, you take them out and press the dough around the frozen jam in a little ball. The jam will then defrost so that when you bite into them, this happens…

Just delicious. And with the same Rachel Ama raspberry chia jam recipe that I used for her pancakes last vegan week. I’m looking forward to trying other variations of these little energy balls next time round.

Along with these snacks, I needed a more substantial main meal for my week of packed lunches and decided to take a risk, following a salad recipe. Just to emphasise, I am really not a salad person and just the word alone makes me shudder. But, being open-minded and all, I went straight to Jamie’s Veg book (which seems to be absolutely everywhere recently) and tried his Bhel Puri Salad recipe.

Biggest shock of my life. It was amazing.

First off, it was so vibrant in colour – I think perhaps the fact that it wasn’t such a green salad helped me to find it less off-putting. It’s certainly not a traditional leaf-based salad.

You’ve got red onion, radish, peanuts, pomegranate, and a whole load of crunch from the Bombay Mix and crushed poppadoms. Add all the spices and this really does form a solid meal that tastes as exciting as it looks.

A couple more Rachel Ama recipes followed, one a bit meh, one an absolute winner. I had a brunch of her Nut Butter Toast which was okay but quite basic I guess, but at least it’s something you can customise yourself in terms of toppings and flavours.

What did really impress me though was her French Toast. I’d never really thought of french toast as something that could be vegan, as I’d thought that the egg was a key component. The substitute for the beaten egg mix worked perfectly though and visually created the same yellow-brown hued appearance on the bread. The recipe also used sourdough which I was sceptical about as I thought (bare with me on this one), it might be too ‘bread-like’. As in perhaps a bit crusty etc but it turned out super soft and spongy.

Ngl I would gladly eat this in a restaurant. Credit where credit’s due.

So after this masterpiece and the PBJ balls, I felt like I was on a bit of a roll, but I did take a few steps back again with my attempted Mango Cococnut Chia Pudding breakfast topped with granola and coconut shavings. I made this the night before as Rachel suggests, thinking it would be ready to go, perfect for the following morning and giving me an extra 15 mins in bed as I didn’t have to make anything from scratch. However, this ‘pudding’ just didn’t do it for me. A question of taste I reckon. I’ve never enjoyed mango that much but I’m always determined not just to write off recipes containing it. But that, along with the coconut milk that had soaked into the chia seeds forming an almost gelatinous slime really didn’t go down well. I don’t think the recipe is bad by any means but it just didn’t work for me.

From one coconut recipe to another, her simple, straightforward recipe for Coconut Rice was a winner, and pairing this creamy, delicious side with Jamie’s Stuffed Curried Aubergine worked a treat.

Doesn’t look massively appealing here, but it was absolutely packed with flavour – I highly recommend trying this recipe.

Back to Instagram, and the vegetable I have a love-hate (like-hate is probably more accurate) relationship with, it’s @elavegan ‘s recipe for Kung Pao Cauliflower.

This didn’t end up being bad, but I think I would’ve enjoyed it more had I boiled the cauliflower beforehand to soften before pan-frying and roasting.

Then came the evening when for once I didn’t have a plan. It was my opportunity to wing something. I had some filo pastry that needed using up so decided to try a filo pastry pie. Instead of egg wash I used coconut oil which I read was a half-decent substitute, and so after lining the dish with a couple of layers of the pastry, I filled it with chopped walnuts, mushrooms, vegan pistachio pesto (featured in my last Meat Me Halfway post), and @iamnutokay ‘s vegan black truffle cheese. The end result actually turned out pretty well, and it was really tasty, despite the photo looking like an absolute mess.

I bought a couple of things from @iamnutokay at Victoria Park Market in Bethnal Green a few weeks ago. All their ‘cheeses’ are plant-based, and although the texture doesn’t particularly resemble actual cheese, it’s a great substitute that comes in a range of really tasty flavours. Along with the black truffle, I also bought a chipotle cheese, and both of them are delicious. Vegan ‘parmesan’ also seemed like an important staple so I grabbed a jar of that to keep me going for a while, to add to vegan pastas and risottos.

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Some of you may know that yesterday was actually World Vegan Day, and the evening before, on Halloween, I got last minute tickets to the Vegan Nights Festival at the Trewman Brewery in Shoreditch, London. I am going to do a separate post about that shortly, but I tried quite a few different vegan street food style meals with mixed results! A couple of amazing finds and some to be avoided, but more to come on that soon!

Restaurant-wise, I’ll take it back to Itsu, which is really great for vegan lunches. I also find their food so refreshing and energising, and they make rice box salads that are super filling. I don’t have any photos this time, but I still adore the vegetable gyozas which I had for a second time, and also was massively surprised by the mini avocado maki rolls. Not a huge fan of avocado, but for some reason, encased in sticky rice and nori sheets it tasted great.

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I still love the fact that two of the best biscuits out there (Oreos and Lotus biscuits) are both vegan, and so these make a great base for vegan shakes. From Ed’s Easy Diner, I got an oreo milkshake which was creamy and indulgent, and kept me going through a long night shift.

Again, not the most appetising-looking but I promise it tasted great!

Last but not least, I finally got round to trying Arancini Brothers, whose burgers I had first noticed on Instagram a while back, being astounded that they were vegan. I ordered a ‘nudie’ arancini pot along with a chorizo burger. Other than the arancini arriving cold which was disappointing, I loved everything about the food.

I didn’t get any chorizo flavour or texture from the burger to be honest, but the flavour was still beautiful. It was pretty spicy, and the whole concept of an arancini patty is amazing, especially if you’re not a fan of typical plant-based patties made from soya/beetroot/mushroom/lentils etc. The ‘cheese’ was just oozing everywhere, and so for me, this is the perfect example of how vegan food can be utterly indulgent. We’ve come a long way from immediately associating a vegan diet with greenness and health-obsessions.

So that’s pretty much everything. Like I said I found this second week a lot more exciting food-wise than the first week and there are a few meals here that I would actively choose over meat/dairy-based meals which is a good sign. It’s given me a new burst of enthusiasm for all the recipes that I’m going to try next time around at the end of November when week 3 comes calling.

Stay tuned for the Vegan Nights post coming as soon as I have the time. In the meantime why not research vegan eateries near you and set yourself the challenge of eating out at one of these plant-based spots this month. Go in with an open-mind, and…

¡Comemos!

Hello, this is London’s number 1 cheesecake expert speaking…

28th Aug 201928th Aug 2019Leave a comment

Sixteen years of my life I spent thinking I didn’t like cheesecake.

SIXTEEN YEARS.

I will never be able to retrieve those lost years, but what I can do is attempt to make up for the lack of cheesecake in my life.

According to the wonderfully useful and addictive Eaten app (see my previous blog post on how it all works), I am officially the number 1 cheesecake expert in London. You simply cannot argue with their statistics. Here’s the proof:

So what is it that makes such a good cheesecake? And what are the warning signs of a disappointing dessert of this kind?

We’ll leave the best until last so I’ll start with some of my least favourite efforts.

One of the most important aspects of the cheesecake is its base. A dodgy base = a dodgy cheesecake. A few months ago I got carried away in a whirlwind of Brazilian flavours at Temakinho in Soho, and couldn’t resist their passionfruit (or maracuja) cheesecake. The flavour itself was lovely and sharp but the base really let it down.

I need to taste the buttery crumbs with their gritty texture. A welded-together stodgy base like this just doesn’t do it for me, no matter how lovely it looks.

Another major factor is of course the creamy cheese filling. Unfortunately this one just wasn’t creamy enough and had an odd savoury cheese flavour rather than a sweet cream cheese.

Ultimately Temakinho had produced a dessert full of fruity flavour but lacking on the textural front (with that disconcerting actual real-life cheese cheesiness).

Some attempts find they have the opposite problems though. Take this banana cheesecake from Almost Famous in Leeds, for example.

An excellent biscuit base (if you can actually manage to get your spoon to the bottom of the jar), and a pleasant consistency to the cream cheese. HOWEVER… bananas. I love bananas. And I love desserts flavoured with actual banana. But the problem is, as it’s not as sweet as other fruits, once you combine it with cream cheese and/or whipped cream, the flavour is is not powerful enough to shine through. The texture of the actual banana pieces gets lost in all the creaminess and the overall flavour of the cheesecake becomes quite bland. I often find this is also the case with an average banoffee pie. Banana + cream is not enough. More sugar or an extra burst of flavour somewhere is needed to heighten the overall taste. A pretty cheesecake that felt good to eat, but didn’t quite hit the spot.

Moving up slightly, we find this dessert in a whole new form. The frozen cheesecake by Whipped in Covent Garden looks absolutely delightful. Their fantastic menu allows you to customise your flavours, and so I ended up with a Lotus Biscuit base, blueberry sauce, honeycomb and oreos. To be honest I think I panicked under the pressure of having to come up with my own flavour combinations, but this is what appeared before me…

This majestic beast was slightly overwhelming and I hadn’t expected it to be quite so tall. But not one to turn down a food-related challenge, I put in my best efforts to finish it. My thoughts on the idea of frozen cheesecake? I’m not sure if it’s a ‘thing’ . As in, is this frozen cheesecake? Or is it basically just ice cream/soft serve/whatever you want to call it with a biscuit base hidden at the bottom. I would argue the latter. That’s not to say it didn’t taste decent; the blueberry sauce with the ice cream (as I insist on calling it) tasted good, but ultimately I prefer the more traditional cheesecake-baking methods.

Ok we’re getting to the good stuff now, and a pleasant surprise up next. You may have seen this dessert already in my Chalida review from a few months ago. In it, I talked about my indifference towards mango, but also came to the conclusion that in this particular cheesecake, the flavour worked fantastically.

The base was very thin, but the creamy topping was so light that the ratio of base to topping worked really well. It was airy and non-indulgent with a lovely sweet sharpness. On top of that, you have to acknowledge the carefully thought-out presentation, producing a delicate-looking dessert, rather than dishing up a heavy, indulgent slab.

In complete contrast to Chalida’s mango cheesecake is another Whipped creation, and a super popular one at that. After the interesting and probably not recommendable combination I chose for the frozen cheesecake, I decided to play it safe with my baked option, going for their classic banoffee cheesecake.

Now, backtrack a few paragraphs and there I am going on about how banana doesn’t work in a cheesecake. Well, it can, and here’s how…

This is not a load of plain cream cheese with plain whipped cream, with a few bananas chucked in. This cheesecake has a strong banana flavour, complemented by gooey toffee, warm melted chocolate and a crunchy biscuit crumb. There are lots of elements all working together in your mouth. Contrasting textures, chilled cream cheese vs warm sauce, and extra sugar from that toffee and chocolate. Extra sugar doesn’t always sound like a positive, but when it comes to banana desserts, it really is a requirement.

The fact that the cheesecake is baked does give it a heavier feel, but really if you’re looking for a light, guilt-free dessert you shouldn’t be heading to Whipped anyway. It’s the equivalent of a vegan going for dinner at an Argentine steakhouse.

Another surefire way to success is to come up with original or less obvious flavour combinations. I love vanilla, strawberry, salted caramel… the list goes on, but sometimes the way to stand out on a menu is to be different.

This next cheesecake is apricot and white chocolate from The Tap and Run pub in Upper Broughton.

You’ll see that the ratio of base to topping in this one is slightly skewed, and ideally I’d probably have a slightly thinner base, but the stand-out for me was the apricot flavour. I’ve never seen apricot in a cheesecake before (although I’m not doubting that they exist), and that candied apricot topping was delicious. I have to say that white chocolate is quite difficult to include in desserts as it gets easily lost when combined with other more powerful flavours, i.e. the apricot in this case, but nonetheless this was a beautifully-presented dessert with a delicious take on the traditional fruity cheesecake.

Right, just a few more to go. And a really important point here is not to neglect the chain restaurant dessert. One of the nicest cheesecakes I’ve ever had was the lemon cheesecake with raspberry coulis from Zizzi.

It may not be the most delicate-looking but boy did it taste good. Lemon topping with raspberry coulis is a fantastic combination, and the portion is the perfect amount to avoid feeling like you’re going to roll out of the restaurant (although if you’ve also had a starter and a pizza like me, you may end up feeling like that anyway). But the point is, don’t turn your nose up at places like this. It’s great to support independent businesses and everyone loves a cosy, intimate setting, but personally I think the zizzi menu is pretty decent, and this certainly was satisfying.

Now to my top 2.

Heading for dinner at a fish/seafood bar, cheesecake was the last thing on my mind. Yet, the berry cheesecake at J Sheekey was stunning.

Not only is the presentation incredibly elegant, but that berry compote topping was beautiful. As much as I like chocolatey, caramelly style cheesecakes, you can’t beat the contrast of a thick creamy cheese topping with a light, sharp hit of fruit. I’ve used the word ‘sharp’ a huge number of times but there really is no other way to describe that taste and feeling when the sugary cooked fruit hits your tongue.

For me this cheesecake was second only to one. And that one remaining slice of delight is Crumbs and Doilies Apple Crumble Cheesecake.

The excitement for me was the originality. Not just a fruit cheesecake, not just an apple cheesecake, but an apple crumble cheesecake. This title led to high expectations. I didn’t want a cheesecake that just tasted of apple, I wanted to be able to sense the difference between the flavour of the fruit itself, and the flavour of the crumble dessert that we all know and love.

I was not disappointed. Texture-wise you can see just from the photo that we have a clear crumble topping, with an added sticky toffee style sauce. But it wasn’t just that. It didn’t have a generic, artificial fruit flavour, it really did taste specifically of an apple crumble. The cheesecake topping itself wasn’t the best texture I’ve had, as I prefer a very smooth creamy cheese, however, I have to give it to them for originality and flavour. I have never before seen an apple crumble cheesecake, and now I feel like I don’t need to. I’ve tried it, it was delicious, and now I’m ready to be wowed by something completely new.

This is not the end of my cheesecake marathon. It really is my go-to dessert and there’ll be plenty more for me to discover.

If you want to keep up with those future discoveries, you can check out my Instagram account: @foodtravelsldn, or my Eaten account of the same name, where you can also find my full list of cheesecakes ranked from best to worst.

Now close your laptop, put down your phone, find yourself a nice, big slice of cheesecake and shove your face in it. Immediately.

¡Comemos!