Delicious low carb idea for less than £2 a meal

Delicious low carb idea for less than £2 a meal

Having gone overboard at Christmas most of us are trying to eat more healthily during January and February. But it isn't always easy with up to 6 weeks between pay checks as we go into the New Year. I have a quick, cheap, warm and healthy dish that can be stored in the fridge after dinner and used for lunch the next day.

• 300g lean mince lamb or beef
• Chilli Con Carne sachet
• Romain, Cos, or little gem lettuce
• Tin of kidney beans
• A tin of chopped tomatoes

 Its cost me just £7.10 for the ingredients and I managed to get 4 meals out of it, that’s an outstanding £1.77 a meal

Optional

• Cherry tomatoes
• Bell pepper
• Dried chilli
• Generous squeeze of ketchup

• Brown the mince in a frying pan, there’s no need to use any oil as the fat released as the meat heats up will ensure it doesn’t stick.
• Add the sachet and cook until all the mince has browned

• Here is where you can get creative, you can add any ingredients you may have lurking around in your fridge, tomatoes, peppers, chilies
• At this point you will also need to add the kidney beans and tomatoes

Mince does take longer to cook then most people think and the longer it cooks the better the flavour. If I’m in a rush I’ll cook it for 25-30 minutes. If it’s the weekend and I’m pottering around the house I’ll usually leave it up to 2 hours on a low heat.

• As the mince cooks the liquid will reduce
• Make sure you wash your lettuce, I usually chop off the stalk and the tips.
• Top the leaf with the mince, you can also top it will cheese, jalapenos, salsa or just have it as it is if your avoiding carbohydrates.

Nan's homemade corned beef hash pie

Everyone has that one thing that reminds them of their childhood, For me its my Nans corned beef hash pie.

                             

Not only does it taste delicious, but with the pastry lid weaved pattern it also looks seriously appetizing. it looks difficult but iv included an image below which will show you how to lattice the top.  Or you could just roll out  a plan flat lid for your pie.

What you will need:

• Non-stick cake tin with removable sides

Pastry

• 400g plain flour 

• Pinch of salt

• 180g of cubed butter 

• 6tbsp very cold water

Pie filling

• 340g tin of corned beef

• 250g of potatoes boiled and cut into small chucks

• Handful of button mushrooms

• Sainsburys Chutney British Onion 200g

• Whole large white onion
• Boil the potatoes until they are soft, leaving them to cool once they are cooked.
• Brown the onions in a pan with a little butter, once they are soft add the mushrooms and a few minutes later add the corned beef. Once the mixture has come to together add some pepper and leave to cool.
• Once both are cooled down mix the corned beef and onions together
•  Place the flour, butter and salt into a large clean bowl
• Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs, working as quickly as possible to prevent the dough becoming warm
•  Add the water to the mixture and using a cold knife stir until the dough binds together, add more cold water a teaspoon at a time if the mixture is too dry

•  Wrap the dough in Clingfilm / plastic wrap and chill for a minimum of 15 minutes and up to 30 minutes
• Separate your dough into three equal parts, one will be used to create the top, and the other two parts used for the sides and the base
•  Roll out the base (2parts) into a large circle roughly 0.5 mm thick and live your baking tin, leave any over hang on the pastry until you are ready to bake

• Place the tin back in the fridge to keep cool.
• Doing the same with the top, roll out the pastry into a large circle roughly 0.5 mm thick.
• Use a shape knife to cute long stripes of pastry rough 1 cm thick.

The lattice looks complicated but it’s really simple once you get started. I’ve found a great illustration below to show you how to create the weaved pie lid.

• Make sure you do this over a grease proof piece of paper or foil, to make it easy to transfer this on to the top of the pie.
• After 20 minutes your filling should be cool enough to transfer into the base, use 200g of the onion chutney creating a delicious tangy layer on top of your filling.
• Place the lid on the top of the pie and bake for around a 1 hour at 180C

Enjoy the pie warm from the oven, or you can eat it chilled out of the fridge either way its delicious.

Putting pre-made curry sauces to the test

2 weeks ago, Loyd Grossman's team sent me some #getflavor goodies.

I'm no expert and definitely not a food snob, but I don't usually use pre-made curry sauces.

I live in an area where Asian and Indian spices are readily available and often use fresh spices to make curries from scratch. It can be a little time consuming and I've had a few not turn out so good, getting the right mix is definitely a skill.

The first thing I did when the sauces from Loyd Grossman arrived was look at the ingredients in the sauce, and to my surprise there wasn't one thing in the sauce that I wasn't familiar with.

Sometimes the sauces can have a lot of unnecessary extras. (E numbers and some other ingredients I can't even pronounce)

It was really simple, I used chicken breasts which I cooked for 4-5 minutes before adding the jar of sauce. I transferred curry to an oven proof dish and let it cook through in the oven, for me this enhances the flavour. I added some cherry tomatoes and half a teaspoon of chili powder only to give the sauce some heat, my husband and I love spicy food.

I added some cumin seeds to the rice as it boiled and some natural food colouring.

I also made sag aloo by boiling some potatoes, then frying them in the pan with some butter, garlic granules, curry powder and a little salt. Once the butter was absorbed I added 200g of spinach.

The sauce was great, although I didn't marinate the chicken as I usually would, it had a strong flavour that didn't have a powdered curry taste. Its was really fresh and fruity without being sweet. I will be picking up a few of these as a quick curry alternative.

Swahili sweet bread

These delicious, sweet, soft, breads are from West Africa and known in Swahili as Mandazi.

They are my husbands favourite, so after watching my mother in law make them a few times I gave it a go myself.

They are really easy, and can be used instead of naan breads with a curry based meal.

You will need:

2 cups of self raising flour 

3 quarters of a cup of caster sugar

1 teaspoon of yeast

1 teaspoon of cardamom powder

Half a cup of milk

Half a cup of luke warm water

Mix all the dry ingredients with an electric whisk.

Then add the water and milk to bring the dough together.

Once the dough has come together leave it to rest in a warm place for 2 hours.

This will make your Mandazi light and fluffy.

Once your dough has risen you will need to divide it into roughly 4 equal portions.

Cut the ball into 4 and shape them into balls.

Then you will need to divide each of the 4 balls into 2.

 This will give you 8 portions.

To make them into the the triangle shape 

use a rolling pin to flatten the dough ball, and then cut them into quarters.

Don't forget to flour the side so that the dough does not stick to the kitchen surface.

Continue to roll out and cut the dough balls untill you have used all of the dough.

These will need to be deep fried.

I put my electric cooker between 4 and 5 the top setting is 6.

Use a little piece of dough to test the oil, if it floats to the top after you drop it in your oil is hot enough.

Place the dough gently in to the hot oil, it will sink and then rise to the top.

Use a spoon to gentle splash the oil over the top this will puff out the bread.

When it turns golden brown flip it over and do the same on the other side.

It should take about 90 seconds to cook each one.

They shouldn't be greasy and have a similar texture of a doughnut.

Enjoy!

Quick and easy Banoffee Pie

This is so easy and so quick but ridiculously  delicious, everyone will love it.

You will need

• A loaf tin
• Tin foil
• 1 banana
• Half a pack of digestive biscuits you could use ginger nut of both
• 350g of salted butter
• A tin of Carnation caramel
• 300ml of Double  or Whipping cream
• 45g of dark chocolate

1. Line your tin with foil making sure there is excess over the sides of the tin, this will help you lift the pie out once its set. Put the tin in the fridge until you are ready to fill it.
2. Melt your butter in a pan on a low heat.
3. Crush your biscuits. You can use a blender to make it fine, or place the biscuit in a double food bag and crush them carefully.
4. The butter should now be completely melted, add the biscuit and make sure the butter is thoroughly mixed in.
5. Line the bottom of your tin (1cm thick)  with the biscuit mix making sure it’s pressed in firmly. Place it in the fridge to cool down whilst you prepare the toppings.
6. You will need an electric whisk to whip the cream into soft peaks unless you have a bakers arm, being careful not to over whip it or it will split and you won’t be able to use it. As you’re whisking it check it every 5 seconds after it starts to firm up.
7. Slice the banana into 1 cm thick pieces and place on top of the biscuit.
8. Layer the Caramel on top of the banana (2cm thick layer )
9. Layer your cream on top this should reach the rim of the tin.
10. Place this back in the fridge.
11. Melt a tea spoon of butter and the chocolate in a pan, on a low heat.
12. Use the chocolate to decorate the top of you pie
13. 
    

You could grate the chocolate on top if you don’t want to melt it. its great either way.

This should take you around 15 minutes and you can leave it in the fridge for up to 3 days.

if it lasts that long.

Great places to eat out in London, without the price tag.

 I love discovering new places and it doesn't always have to cost an arm and a leg for you to have a good time or for it to taste good. Some of my most enjoyable times have been spent at little restaurants who really care about what they cook. There's nothing I enjoy more then meeting up with friends or getting to know new media partners over great food and drink.

If you ever find yourself stuck for places to eat and you’re fed up with the main stream chains, (you just thought of Nandos) here are a few places you can go to grab a quick bite or chat up with friends.

You can eat at the places mentioned below for £20 per person or less.

Meat mission

15 Hoxton Market, London N1 6HG

Open until 12am Meat mission offers a range of meaty indulgent beef burgers from The Dead Hippie (my fav) to The Buffalo Chicken Burger. Accompanied by wicked sides like tobacco onions, and monkey fingers (not literally monkey fingers) you won’t be disappointed by whatever you order. (I take no liability if you are)

The inside is full of stain glass windows and re-purposed old wooden tables. The ceiling is waky and has a Gilbert and George feel to it (Google them... weird) it’s a place of novelty with the food to back it up.

If it isn't cheat day or you're on a strict diet, there are no healthy options. It's full on meat sweats and beer here.

The Chicken Shop

Rotisserie chicken

The Chicken Shop is a brilliant alternative to that other "Portuguese" place that offers chicken and is slowing going south on quality. The menu here is simple you can choose from whole, half, or a quarter chicken smokey bbq or chilli flavor. Then add your sides fries, slaw, corn on the cob, and a generous avocado salad.

The Chicken shop launched their largest site in Holborn a few months ago and it gets extremely busy every lunch time. You can’t book so if you are going for lunch make sure your there just before 12:30.

The Holborn branch is underground and has a huge open rotisserie where you can see the hot flames grilling the chicken to perfection.

It’s a great little place, you can pop in or sit down and take your time.

The Apple pie is amazing! 

The Rum Chicken

1st Floor, Kingly Court, Carnaby, Soho, W1B 5PW

I literally spent about 4 hours here a few weeks ago catching up with colleges and friends, over some proper Jamaican food and some punchy rum cocktails.

It’s a fun little place in a great location. As there were 6 of us, I got to try out everything on the starter menu. No! I wasn't the annoying person asking if I could try everyone's food, we ordered all the starters and shared them between us.

I absolutely loved the fish fitters and veg patties, which were cooked with proper corn flour.

I wanted the Mutton, rice and peas but due to stuffing myself silly on the starters  I went with the Salmon Rainbow Salad. Roasted pumpkin, sliced red onion, red pepper, juicy mango, avocado, toasted coconut flakes & a mild scotch bonnet and lime dressing. A-may-zing!

The place its self it colourful and playful with reggae music playing in the back ground.

Perfect spot after an afternoon of Oxford street shopping.

Morito tapas & mezze
32 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE

 I love tapas, not so much the sharing part but the, I get to try everything part.

Morito, does little plates of absolute gorgeousness.

The menu changes on a weekly basis which keeps people going back, its not in the slightest bit formal if anything a little bit uncomfortable but the food they cook is worth stirring on the slightly wobbly stall. Which I'm guessing is the rustic feel they were going for.

 It can get really busy  during lunch times, so arrive early. 

The Chiltern Fire House

You have probably heard of the Chiltern fire house in Marylebone. If you haven’t, what rock have you been hiding under for the past 18 months? Recently visited by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Kate Moss and Lilly Cole. The Chiltern fire house is probably the hottest (see what I did there) restaurants in town.

I was lucky enough to go for dinner on Wednesday, and even had a table next to the lovey Karren Brady from The Apprentice. Annoyingly, we just missed Jennifer Aniston with her fiancé Justin Theroux, they arrived for dinner with the rest of the cast after the UK premier of Horrible Bosses 2 in Londons Leister square.

The Chiltern Fire House is a great spot for a special occasion and prices aren’t as bad as you are probably thinking.  Although if you are planning a visit you will need to book well in advanced as there can be up to a 2 month waiting list.

The restaurant itself is beautiful and has the right balance of being both open plan and intimate. They even have the cooking station on display.

The menu changes on a weekly basis so there is always an excuse to revisit.

In the world of media, lunches, dinners and just generally eating out is what we do. Crab doughnuts are talk of the town at the moment and I've been told (one too many times) that I have to try them at The Chiltern fire house.

 We ordered drinks and some of the nibbles while we waited for our starters. We had corn bread fingers, Crab doughnuts (obviously) and deep fried squid. 

The grab doughuts were little fluffy balls of crabby delighfulness. The rest was pretty standard in taste and there wasn’t anything particularly great about them, although it was all cooked really well. 

My starter on the other hand was jam packed full of flavour, I was going to go for the Hay roasted Pigeon grilled salsify (Root veg) and liver paste.

But instead I had Grilled Octopus, aubergine, daikon (mild-flavored winter radish) and mushroom. It was also sprinkled with pine nuts and a crunchy garlic flavor topping.

My starter was rich without being over powering, all the flavors  worked in complete harmony with each other making it one of the best starters I've ever had. The Octopus was cooked within an 8^th of a millimetre to perfect. The tips of the octopus were crispy and the base was tender, the little picked onions and the mushrooms added depth to the dish it was gorgeous.

Did you know that octopus is massaged before it's cooked, it apparently enhances the flavour and texture. One of my friends told me over diner, she grew up in Turkey and used to go out on the fishing boats. (Every day is a school day) 

Roast Duck, celeriac, walnuts and chervil, was the main dish I chose.

I like to choose things that contain Ingredients I wouldn’t really cook at home.

I discovered I don’t really like roasted duck leg, it was the dark flavor of the meat I didn’t particularly in enjoy, the duck breast on the other hand…..

The skin was crisp and the breast meat was pink, moist, seasoned perfectly  and tasted incredible. I took my time to eat my plate of food and truely  enjoyed every bite.

Both of the dishes that I had felt like they had been cooked with so much care and looked as good as they tasted.

We had some fine French bean d and a side of spinach. The spinach has cream, garlic and shallots mixed in and was finished with nutmeg. (try it at home)

This place was a gem and defiantly lived up to its expectation. I could find a single fault. The waiters were certious and attentive, the vibe was great and the food imaculate.

I will defiantly be going again.