Month: March 2012

Weekday wonders: cheesy mini burgers with tzatsiki in pitta

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Found this post and realised it wasn’t published when it was suppose to be, some time in January. It is a great weekday supper though, so here we go:

It is Monday and back to work. For me, the best way to stay at good spirits on a Monday is definitely to eat something nice in the evening, but still something quite speedy so I have time to watch something good on TV or catch up with my friends.

These quick little burgers are tasty and filling, and is lovely paired with homemade tzatsiki, some baby spinach and toasted pittas. If you’re really hungry, why not put some potato wedges in the oven as well?!

To season the mince I used a spicy sea salt from Halen Môn which I crushed in my pestle and mortar before adding it to the mince mix, but feel free to use any spices you like, just make sure you season the mince enough. Just shape the mince to little burgers, fry them in butter and oil in a hot frying pan while the tzatsiki is developing its flavours and you pop the pittas in the toaster.

Beef mini burgers, serves 2

300 g beef mince

1 1gg

50 ml breadcrumbs

2 tbsp water or cream

3 tsp Halen Môn spicy salt or another spice blend + salt

cheddar cheese in slices

Mix egg, breadcrumbs, spices, salt and water/cream in a bowl and let the mixture swell for a few minutes before adding the mince. Incorporate thoroughlly. Shape the mince to small burgers and fry them in a mixture of butter and oil in a frying pan. First on high heat then on medium heat. Place half a slice of cheese on each burger while they are in the pan, so the cheese melts. 

Serve with the following:

Tzatsiki

Pittas, toasted

Baby spinach or other lettuce

Manicomio and Partridges, Chelsea

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One part of London I have always loved is Chelsea. It is so nice to walk along Kings road looking in shops, stopping for a coffee somewhere and just wander around.

I met Gaby here on Saturday for a late lunch. We walked straight to Manicomio, where I have been several times before. It is an Italian café with great produce, simple but well executed dishes and you can sit outside on the Duke of York square people watching. A perfect Saturday past time in my opinion.

Gaby had a simple but beautiful tuna salad with plenty of the perfectly cooked tuna, lettuce leaves and a oil based dressing.

I was so hungry that a salad wouldn’t cut it and went for a warm ciabatta with Italian salami and taleggio. It was simple but good produce and I loved every bite.

We then had a little wander around the food market on the square that is open every Saturday. We saw everything from fudge to Peruvian food and sushi.

It is the food shop Partridges who organises this market and we went inside the shop to have a look around as well. We have both been here serveral times before but because we went together, two complete food geeks, we could really take our time this once and we stayed in there for quite a while, looking at everything.

Among other things I was very surprised to see some Swedish products, both the thin biscuits above, from the same company that makes the best ginger thins, Annas as well as cookies from Gille (which I can easily live without though) and proper nice crispbread from Wasa.

I tried the chocolate and vanilla biscuits and they were really nice. Funnily enough the whole package disappeared down my tummy in just a few days.

Other things I had to buy was some proper tagliatelle, French yoghurts (citron and vanilla), some champagne truffels as a gift and truffle oil for myself.

What I need to go back for are the absolutely adorable Easter eggs from Charbonnel & Walker. They had some chocolate animals too that I don’t thing I can resist. Are they cute or what?!

Tsunami, West End

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I have been going on and on and on and on about Tsunami close to where I live, in Clapham, but there is actual a Tsunami restaurant in central London as well, on Charlotte Street. I ventured here on Monday with my friends Laura and Jess after Laura had seen a great 50% off food offer at Top Table.

We started with a lovely bottle of white (from Languedoc) and it was so nice sitting there chatting and sipping wine we ended up with another.

But we had some (I mean a lot) of food as well. I wanted the lovely deepfried prawns with their gorgeous dipping sauce and Laura chose the mixed sashimi salad which contained salad leaves, lovely melt in the mouth seared salmon and tuna with wasabi dressing.

All three of us then had sushi for mains, but a few different kinds. Both Laura and Jess tried the Tsunami special roll (the large ones on the pictures) but I went for my usual order of ebi fry rolls and spicy tuna rolls (top picture).

Laura and Jess also had dessert, but I was too full to join in. However I forgot to take pictures of the two fabulous desserts. (I blame the wine.)

Both Laura’s icecream and Jess’s chocolate fondant arrived with plenty of exotic fruits and looked spectacular.

With the discount our bill came to around £90 for the three of us, including 2 bottles of wine, which was very reasonable. Thanks for that, Top Table.

Tsunami
93 Charlotte Street  
London W1T 4PY

Instead of dessert…

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My best instead of dessert tip involves alcohol. Not bad, huh? 🙂

If you ever get the post dinner low bloodsugar and fancy something sweet but don’t have any dessert at hand, then just open a bottle and pour some of its content into a glass with ice.

Amarula on the rocks, is even better than Bailey’s on the rocks, and just hits the spot.

Amarula cream is a creamy (duh) liqueur made from the Marula berries that grows on trees in South Africa. A colleague who grew up there told me that when the fruit ripens it produces alcohol and when it falls down the tree the animals eat it and get all drunk. If you don’t believe me (her) check this video out!

Cream of corn soup topped with crispy chorizo, grated cheddar and spring onions

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The soup season will soon give way for the salad season, but before it is completely over I would like to serve you this delicious soup.

It is a pretty straightforward cream of corn soup, but topped with lovely crispy chorizo, grated cheddar and salad onions. It is the ultimate soup topping for this particular soup and for some reason I picture a cowboy making this in his battered metal saucepan over an open fire. I don’t know why this image pops up but it might have to do with the slight texmex-vibe the combination gives off. To make this connection even more visible, try serving it with tortilla wedges fried crispy in butter. Delicious!

Cream of corn soup topped with crispy chorizo, grated cheddar and spring onions, serves 2

1 can (400 g) tinne sweet corn

200 ml water

1 tsp concentrated vegetable stock

75 ml cream

salt, white pepper

a dash of sherry vinegar

Topping:

1/4 chorizo, roughly chopped up

2 salad onions, chopped

2 tbsp grated cheddar

To serve:

1 wheat tortilla, cut into six triangles/wedges

1 tbsp butter for frying

Rinse the sweetcorn and drain. Place in a saucepan and add the water and stock. Bring to the boil and let it simmer for about 5 minutes on medium heat. Fry the tortilla pieces golden brown in the butter. Drain on kitchen towel. Fry the chorizo pieces in the same frying pan. Drain on separate kitchen towel.

Mix the corn with the water until smooth. Pour it back into the pan. Add the cream and vinegar. Bring to the boil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Pour into bowls and top with grated cheese, chorizo and spring onions. Serve with the fried bread.

Scandi tip #16: The Moomin Shop

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Did you ever read about Moomin by Finnish Tove Jansson when you were little? I certainly did and I still find the Moomin family very cute. We watched the cartoon on telly as kids as well, and I think the characters are just adorable. Especilly Little My who is angry all the time.

A little while ago a new shop opened in the Covent Garden Market, full of adorable Moomin merchandise. I can’t wait to check it out. For more info, see what Time Out has to say.

The Bolingbroke, Clapham

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You might remember that I wrote about The Stonhouse pub not long ago, and The Bolingbroke is one of its sister pubs in the same area. It is however situated closer to a high street and seems to be packed with people everytime I go there.

I actually went here for food for the first time before Christmas, with my friend Anna. I had mussels that were really good, but I didn’t feel it was a spectacular meal worthy of mentioning here. But after being back on Saturday, this time woth my friend Sinead, I’ve had to reconsider.

I really like this place. It is laidback and cosy, the food is hearty but has some finesse, the service good but relaxed and you just feel comfortable here. We arrived around half eight in the evening and the place restaurant was full with merry people.

We ordered a bottle of wine and went straight for the maincourses since we knew since before that the portions here are huge, big enough for a big working man to survive on. Sinead chose an open pie with sweet potato, kale and barley. It was enormous and looked really good. The vegetables came in a small copper pot on the side, which was nice and cute.

I went for the stuffed rabbit with spinach and hazelnuts served with a potato fondant and carrots. The rabbit was really good, the potato fondant was ok but consisted of a little too much onions. Again the portion was gigantic, but we did our best.

After a breather we were ready to try the desserts, but one to share was definitely enough. We settled on the chocolate fondant with honeycomb icecream. And it was fabulous, the creamy centre of the fondant was just right and worked perfectly with the icecream. Yum!

I really like this place, it is exactly what a pub should be about; a cosy interior, friendly staff, hearty and good food and a decent winelist.