How to create the perfect antipasti

As I mentioned in my Shakshuka post, Tracklements challenged me to put together two recipes. This one is my second one! It may be bit of a cheat to call it a recipe as it's so simple but who can go wrong with an Antipasti? The chilli jam tastes delicious alongside the gooey camembert and fresh crusty bread. It's always the condiments in my opinion that make a cracking spread. The chilli jam, olive oil and balsamic vinegar all play their part. Picky dinners are my favourite type of dinner, the best kind to enjoy sitting in front of the telly catching up on your current boxset. It reminds me of the festive season where you spend the whole month of December eaten buffet food.

Here I have a selection of cured meats (chorizo always goes so well with cheese I find!), juicy sundries tomatoes, pickled stuffed vine leaves, crusty bread and the star of the show - a gooey camembert. Stick it in the oven for around 20 minutes to ensure it's melted all the way through. Add some rosemary or some garlic if you fancy jazzing it up a bit more.

What's your favourite antipasti selection? As always please do show me a picture on Twitter if you end up making it!

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Recipe: Shakshuka

Brunch is one of my favourite meals of the day. In fact I'd eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner! Tracklements got in touch with me to see if I wanted to collaborate on a couple of recipes with one of them being a brunch recipe. I immediately thought of creating a variation of a simple Shaksuka dish. There are so many different recipes out there but this is my favourite way of doing it. Ideally you would want running eggs but runny eggs are not my speciality but it tastes just as good like this. I promise!

Serves 2

Ingredients
2 tsp olive oil
2 cans of chopped tomatoes
4 eggs
1 green pepper, diced
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 pack of feta
1 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp of Tracklements fresh chilli jam*
Slices of crusty bread

Method
1. Heat the oil in a skillet pan before frying the onions on a medium heat until they are a golden brown colour. Then add the peppers. Fry until soft.

2.  Throw in the garlic, cumin and the fresh chill jam and cook for another couple of minutes.

3. Pour in both tins of chopped tomatoes, turn down the heat and let it cook for around 20 minutes. Try the sauce and add a teaspoon of sugar if you think it needs sweetening up.

4.  Make four wells in the picture before cracking an egg in each hole and seasoning lightly. Pop them under the grill for around 10 minutes until the eggs are cooked with a runny yolk.

5. Sprinkle the feta over the top and serves with lots of crusty bread.

As always, please do let me know if you make then and tweet me to show me the pictures!

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Restaurant review: Caravan, Kings Cross, north London

Located in Kings Cross' Granary Square - fast becoming my favourite place in London for dinner-, Caravan is housed within an old Victorian grain store. Giving off cool industrial vibe, the restaurant offers sharing plates of good, wholesome food with a great terrace out the front. I'd only been for breakfast but as we were in the area, we decided it was time to check out the full menu for an early dinner. What a great early dinner it was!

We opted for a pizza and three sharing plates which was more than enough to leave us feeling satisfied. So for the sharing plates? We pumped for wonderfully creamy jamon and smoked san simon croquettes with a slightly garlicky saffron mayo, a fresh Burmese chicken salad with ribbons of carrots and beansprouts topped with coriander and roasted cashews before finishing off with a warm Jersey Royal potatoes, watercress and pine nuts topped with a soft boiled egg. But the star of the show was the delicious chewy pizza topped with spicy ndjuda sausage, wilted spinach and sprinkling of chilli power.

All the dishes we tried were spot on and I think the £50 we paid for the meal - including a beer and cider - was great value for the quality of the food. It's a great place to go for an early weekend dinner, the atmosphere is buzzing and although the service was a little slow, the servers were very pleasant. I can't wait to go back and try even more of the menu soon.

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Restaurant review: The Diner, Camden, north London

I have a lot of nostalgia for The Diner so was delighted to be invited to the launch of the newly refurbished Camden branch. So my BFF and I trotted down after work for a lovely sunny evening on the rooftop terrace, enjoying far too much food and a bit too many cocktails for a Wednesday evening. Confirmed when I work up the next day for work with a bit of a sore head...

So what did we try? EVERYTHING. Highlights included the bacon wrapped crispy tator tots with a delicious jalapeño dip, WTF fries consisting of french fries with shredded tangy BBQ pork, oozing cheese, crispy bacon and topped with a perfectly fried eggs and chilli flakes, boneless southern fried chicken and flavoursome buffalo chicken wings with a creamy blue cheese dip. But my favourite were the tator tots loaded with crumbled blue cheese, beef chilli, lashings of sour cream and chopped spring onions. They were incredible and I really didn't want to share.

The Diner has has a great makeover, the roof terrace really is something special looking out over all the action on the high street. It's in a superb location, just a short walk from Camden Town tube station. The menu is always so consistent and pretty reasonably priced. A great choice if you find yourself in the area for a few drinks. Thanks so much for such a great evening guys!

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Recipe: Thai-inspired red curry meatballs

Wing Yip kindly sent me over a hamper to help celebrate Healthy Eating Week which starts today. Thai-inspired food is always my first choice when I'm looking to lighten up my meals. They're so easy to pack with veggies, low-fat coconut milk makes it still feel naughty and I find the dishes always so filling. The basis of this dish was taken from an old favourite BBC Good Food.

Serves 4

Ingredients
500g of organic lean beef mince
1 small knob of ginger, grated
1 egg
1 tbsp of sunflower oil
1 tbsp Mai Siam Thai red curry paste*
1 can low-fat coconut milk
1 bag of sugar snap peas
1 bag of baby corn
1 red pepper
20g fresh basil plus a little to garnish
Juice of one lime plus one to cut into wedges to serve
1/2 pack of Chinese noodles*

Method
1. Put the mince in a large bowl with the grated ginger, egg and season generously. Mix together well and shape into meatballs. Put to one side.

2. Heat the sunflower oil in a large wok and brown the meatballs for five minutes. Transfer to a plate.

3. In the same pot, add the curry paste, fry for one minute before pouring in the can of coconut milk. Bring to the boil to help create a smooth sauce.

4. Pop all the vegetables in the pan for ten minutes then return the meatballs to the pan. Simmer for around five minutes until the vegetables are cooked and the meatballs are warmed through.

5. Bring a bowl of salted water to bowl before popping in the noodles for two minutes. Drain once cooked.

6.  To serve, squeeze in the lime juice and season with salt and pepper. Tear up the basil leaves before stiring through. Serve over the noodles.

As always I would love to know if you attempt the dish so please do send me a tweet.

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The new spring menu at Cafe Rouge

When Cafe Rouge invited me over to try their new spring set menu, I couldn't say no to them could I? So I gathered my (very) pregnant friend who is now glowing for an early evening dinner to catch up on all the gossip and remark at just how we've managed to have the first baby in our group of friends. It was the perfect remedy for the Monday blues.

I'm a huge fan of fish so I had to plump for mackerel pâtè made with creamy crème fraîche and a hint of spicy horseradish. A side of pickled cucumber and a couple of slices of toasted rye and carraway bread finished the dish off. The portion size was perfect with the two slices of bread being the ideal amount to smoother on a generous layer of pâtè. My friend opted for a salty ham hock, pea and mustard terrine with a shallot and raison chutney paired with a couple of slices of toasted rye and carraway bread. It got her seal of approval from the first bite!

Still with mussels on my mind from my trip to the South of France, I went for the French classic of moules and frites. The creamy white wine sauce was absolutely delicious and perfect for dunking chips. I looked on envious at my friend's double cheese and sundried tomato tart, hoping to sneak a bite! Despite having groaning bellies we both went for dessert, determined to take one for the team. A couple of scoops of salted caramel ice cream for me and a light lemon mousse with a crunchy almond  tuile for her.

Service couldn't have been better and the menu was varied with something for both veggies and meat eaters to tuck into. Available from 12pm until close every day, it can be enjoyed any time of day. It's a great option if you're in the West End and need a quick meal before you pop to see a show. Thank you so much for having us Cafe Rouge!

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Restaurant review: The Hanoi Bike Shop, Glasgow, Scotland

Glasgow is a great foodie city, I don't think you could ever run out of places to eat. Hanoi Bike Shop, the only Vietnamese restaurant in the city, was just a ten minutes stroll from our apartment. Vietnamese is one of my favourite cuisines to eat so I knew we had to squeeze in a trip. Boy am I glad we did as it was glorious! Hanoi Bike Shop offers small sharing places, with the dishes on the menu all as locally sourced as possible and made from scratch.

We opted for some prawn crackers and a creamy peanut butter and chilli sauce to help us pursue the menu. They recommend three to four dishes per person so that's exactly what we ordered. Highlights of the meals included spicy chilli and cauliflower bites, dense sesame seed chicken livers, a flavoursome rich pheasant curry served in a clay pot and sweet honey and crispy salted duck leg. The dishes were so moreish and light with each one just as good as the previous. You really could taste the high quality of the food served with each bite. The portions were a great size for sharing plates - sometimes restaurants can be a little tight when it comes to small plates.

It was all really reasonably priced and service was attentive and informative. It was one of our foodie highlights of the trip and I'll definitely visit again if I ever find myself in the city. It reminded me once again why Vietnamese scores so highly on my tastebuds.

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Restaurant review: Yuu Kitchen, Whitechapel, east London

As soon as I looked online at the menu at Yuu Kitchen I knew I was going to take up their invitation to try their new dishes. It looked delicious! Located on Commercial Road in the East End, the Pacific Rim inspired restaurant specialises in sharing plates. The best kind of restaurant in my opinion because who doesn't like to try and sample everything on the menu?

To help stop our rumbling bellies as we pursued the menu, my BFF and I decided to order some addictive salted edamame beans and crunchy pork chicharron (pork scratchings) to wet our appetite. They were the perfect introduction to the menu and left us craving more. Our stand out items included the moreish sweet & sticky aubergine which left us desperately needing more as soon as it was finished, tender salt and pepper calamari, twice cooked pork belly bao with the perfect accompaniment of BBQ sauce and cucumber pickles and baby back ribs with a decent amount of heat, they just fell off the bone. A deep fried bao filled with creamy pistachio ice cream was such a game changer. It was probably one of the best things I have eaten in a long time. A revelation!

The menu was fun and inventive. It fully deserves its place in the London restaurant scene. We got to sit at the bar which I highly recommend. It was great fun watching the busy chefs work their magic and they were so helpful, answering any questions we had about the food. In fact all the staff couldn't be any more helpful. A Friday night very well spent - thanks so much for having us Yuu Kitchen. We had a blast!

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