La Perla
After we went to the market last night we had planned to go to Wahaca for dinner.  Stupidly, we didn’t book and as it’s only just opened it was busy. All was not lost though as we ended up just up the road at La Perla We had to wait a while for our table but when we soon forgot the wait when we started to eat.
Between the five of us we had a selection of prawns, chorizo, jalapeno peppers and pork belly to start. This was followed by fajitas, burritos, enchiladas and red snapper. All washed down by Pacifico beer and vanilla and pear tequila.
As we were wandering around Covent Garden we realised just how many great restaurants there are that we still haven’t been to, we decided we’d make more of an effort to head into town for dinner. Next week we’re going to book Wahaca. I wonder if the chef is as good at making fajitas as this guy?
Fantastic Four
Richard from Superfood has tagged us to answer the Fantastic Four meme. This posed a bit of a problem because there are two of us so, we decided we’d give two answers each per question. There were initially five questions which seemed at odds with the whole Four thing so we’ve left one out.
Four places you’ve lived
G: I was born in Kent and lived there until I was 18 and ran away to London to go to University, I went back home to live for a little while after I graduated but soon came running back to London.
G: Stephen and I now live in South West London having moved here from North London just under a year ago. We live within walking distance of a great butcher, deli and fishmonger now.
F: I was born in Cape Town in South Africa and lived there for 25 years, until I moved to London. I enjoy going back on holiday and love the range of fish and seafood available there.
F: Shepherd’s Bush… lived there for a couple of years. Interesting for its range of Middle Eastern supermarkets.  Other than that, it wasn’t hugely interesting food-wise apart from a northern Thai restaurant that served really good food but usually took ages and eventually I gave up going there.
Four places you’ve been on holiday
G: I went to South Africa with Stephen last year and had a brilliant time. It was hot and the food was great, really fresh and tasty.
G: We went to Barcelona earlier in the year and ate some amazing food, and drank some great wine too 🙂
F: Hmm since Kerri went first, she’s stolen some recent joint holidays, I’ll have to take the others.  Luckily for me we’ve posted about these visits so I’ll just link them:
Four favourite foods
G: This is difficult, my favourite food change all the time but I’d say fresh bread with oil or unsalted butter and chocolate always feature. Not particularly exotic!
F: Thai Jungle Curry. I used to love jungle curry but haven’t had it for a while so would probably find it too hot to taste now. I’ll have to embark on a chilli-eating regime to train myself.
F: Roast Chicken and stuffing and roast potatoes and gravy and vegetables, preferably green leafy ones.  Quite a comfort food type meal for me. We often have it on our first night back at home after being away on holiday.
F: Cheese.  Of many varieties, especially aged soft cheeses.Â
Four places you’d rather be
G: Somewhere hot. We’ve not had great weather this summer and I really miss the sunshine and the barbecue opportunities.
G: Lying in bed, drinking tea and eating toast while watching Saturday Kitchen and planning food to eat for the weekend.
F: In Kalk Bay in Cape Town eating Snoek (hmm maybe that should have been one of my favourite foods…)
F: At Borough Market, shopping on an empty stomach (dangerous I know, but fun)
I tag:
Covent Garden Night Market
Both Stephen and I were really excited to read about this and went along last night to check it out. There were of course the predictable hordes of people and tourists but this didn’t put us off, we both used to work there until very recently so were used to this. What was really disappointing though was the lack of stalls. I’d read in various publications that there were 60 something stalls there but last night there were maybe 10-15. Not sure if this is because there was also a Children’s Week event happening but it was a shame, these stalls were all squashed into one small section of the market too making it even more over-crowded.
There were different stalls to those at Borough Market which was good and we did manage to find some uncooked chorizo which, oddly, we struggle to find but otherwise, I’m not sure if I’d go rushing back.
Chicken Stuffed with Tapenade and Sundried Tomatoes
Tonight we made our own tapenade and used it to stuff chicken breasts. We added some plump, juicy sundried tomatoes to counteract the strong flavours of the tapenade and then baked the chicken in the oven. Served with some new potatoes and our usual vegetables for this time of year – runner beans and purple sprouting brocolli.
My timing was a bit out when cooking and we had to put the potatoes back on because I’d taken them off too early. They still turned out strangely; they were a lot waxier than we’d thought they would be. Also, the chicken breasts were touching each other in the dish and so were underdone where they touched and had to be put back in for a while longer. Looking at the picture though, it all looks slightly pink still… hopefully that’s just a trick of the light or we might be feeling ill soon!
All that aside, they tasted really good and we started thinking of other things to cook with tapenade soon as we only used half of it.
Crab Spaghetti
We bought a dressed crab yesterday at the same shop we bought the lamb and, not really knowing what to do with it, used it for crab spaghetti. We’ve done this a couple of times before with tinned crab and it’s tasty, quick and easy to throw together with just a few store-cupboard essentials (garlic, chilli, oil, crab, lemon juice, some green stuff and spaghetti). We were interested to try it with fresh crab to see how it compared.
The result? I think the version with the tinned crab wins. This was just a bit soggy and tasteless really, almost a waste of good spaghetti. Not sure if the crab wasn’t very good or if something went wrong in the cooking / assembling process.
Salt Marsh Lamb
Today we returned from a weekend in Suffolk where I played cricket (and we won!) and on the way back to London, dropped in at The Food Company at Marks Tey. There we picked up half a leg of salt marsh lamb (amongst other things) and cooked it when we got home.
Kerri spiked the lamb with garlic slivers and rosemary leaves and we had it with some sauteed potatoes, runner beans and purple sprouting brocolli. Usually we have roast chicken when we come back from being away, but we didn’t go that far this time and weren’t away for very long. And besides, we had the excellent salt marsh lamb.
The lamb was very tasty, fully flavoured and succullent despite the fact that I think I left it in for slightly too long. Every time we have it, I think that we should never have any other sort of lamb again. There is loads left over for lunch too!
Prawn and Squid Stir-fry
Having decided that stir fries can be a tasty and quick way to comply with our healthy eating regime, we tried another one tonight. This was a Thai style stir fry with prawn and squid. We added vegetables (yellow pepper, baby corn and mange tout) to an existing recipe. The recipe called for insane amounts of chilli, so we toned it down a bit. Here is an ammended version:
8 raw prawn tails
4 smallish squid
half a red or yellow pepper, cut into thin slices
a handful of mange tout
a handful of baby corn split vertically
2 birds eye chillies, seeded and chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped
2cm or so ginger, grated
1 tbsp Thai fish sauce
1 tbsp lime juice
1/4 cup chicken stock
vegetable oil for frying
Pound the shallots and lemongrass in a mortar and pestle until almost paste-like (or use a food processor!). Add the ginger and pound a bit more to combine.
Heat a wok and add the oil. Fry the paste and the chilli for a few minutes until aromatic. Add the vegetables and stir fry them for a bit, then add the chicken stock and stir some more. Turn down the heat and put a lid on the wok for a few minutes until the vegetables have softened a bit.
Turn the heat back up and add the prawns and squid. Stir fry for a few minutes until they are done. Add the lime juice and fish sauce, then stir and turn off the heat.
Serve with jasmine rice.
Bulgaria
So Bulgarian food..we weren’t sure what to expect really but thought it might be a little like Greek food. I suppose it was really, lots of grilled meat and salad. Lots of salad. Salad which is basically big chunks of tomato, cucumber and celery with grated white cheese on top, an olive and a sprig of basil. Sometimes there were slices of pepper too. We were offered this everywhere we went so it’s obviously a local speciality. The cheese is a little like Feta but firmer and saltier.
Below is a selection of food we ate at the wedding we attended, starting with salad (obviously!)
This was more salad, attractively arranged to look like a fish:
Selection of dried meats:
And Stephen’s plate of food which included some grilled meats, some potaotes and a stuffed vine leaf:
And some of the cocktails we enjoyed.
Europe (I can’t remember what was in this but it was the barman’s own creation and consisted almost entirely of alcohol….we had to let all the ice melt and top it up with water before we could drink it)
Little Planet which contained a whole orange!
Sadly there are no pictures of the Bulgarian Mojito which uses sage instead of mint 🙁
Finally, some Turkish Delight we bought from the supermarket:
Chicken Salad
Not very imaginative but a good way to use up the leftover chicken on a warm day. This salad was made particlarly good by the adition of a perfectly ripe avocado and a simple dressing of lemon, oil and Dijon mustard. I forgot to buy carrots though and Stephen took the yellow pepper for the version of this he made at work, otherwise it was perfect 🙂
Roast Chicken
We’re just back from a long weekend in Bulgaria, so what was the first thing we decided to eat? Roast chicken of course, it’s tradition now 🙂
We ate some interesting food in Bulgaria, mostly grilled meats and chunky salads. We’ll post some pictures when I can find the camera lead.
The roast chicken was exactly what we needed, quick, easy and tasty. We served it with some rosemary roasted potatoes and some lemony leeks.
The only difficult thing about roast chicken is that we eat it so often that it’s difficult to make it look interesting, this was my best effort after three hours on a plane.
G
