Restaurant Review: Coin Laundry, Exmouth Market, London

Spending a Sunday in a part of London I don’t normally visit, as my university friends held a big pre-Christmas pub lunch at the Easton near Exmouth Market, I realised I was only a 15 minute walk away from the flat of my best friend from school. I live about an hour and a half away (by train/tube, not walking!) so thought it would be a shame if I didn’t get to see her as well, so sent a quick text.

 

She headed over with her boyfriend who suggested we meet in Exmouth Market; after trying a couple of places which were no longer serving food, we found ourselves in the Coin Laundry. It only opened in mid-2015 and reading some reviews afterwards made me realise we completely missed the basement which has a selection of board games and a regular programme of events.

 

The wooden tables and chairs reminded me a bit of being at school (which I think might be the idea as Coin Laundry describes itself as having a retro 70s vibe). The menu was possibly artisanal, possibly directional, definitely a bit retro and also a little strange. I’ve never seen a menu offering the following combination: fried artichokes and ricotta; lamb faggots and mint jelly; tomato soup and cheese toasty; ham egg and chips; cauliflower cheese steak; chicken kiev with butter leaf or romanesco cheese; rabbit Balti pie and coriander sauce.

 

Having had a big meal at lunchtime (albeit several hours earlier) I was at a bit of a loss as to what to order, and thought the cauliflower cheese steak (£10) sounded interesting and fairly light. I assumed it was cauliflower cheese perhaps baked in the oven and served as a ‘steak’, rather than it being steak with cauliflower cheese, but I was wrong on both counts – luckily the waitress explained what it was. It’s essentially a large piece (half?) of cauliflower, roasted, topped with crumbled cheese. It was very unusual and I enjoyed it though I wasn’t keen on eating the very hard stem so left quite a bit.
 

 

My friend is vegan and I think ended up having a salad with a side of chips and curry sauce; her boyfriend ordered the special which was half a roast chicken and it was absolutely huge; he didn’t eat all of it as he was keen to have dessert and had the pineapple upside down cake. The 70s vibe definitely came through in the dessert menu with the banana boat and black forest trifle, but I’d never heard of Yorkshire profiteroles before so decided to give them a go. They were, obviously, profiteroles made from Yorkshire pudding batter rather than choux pastry! I know Yorkshires can be served sweet, with jam, but these came with Chantilly cream which was a new one – and to be honest they still tasted a little too much like Yorkshire puddings for my liking!

 

Still, Coin Laundry is definitely a bit different and if I was in the area with my parents – who remember the 70s – then I might take them here!

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Sugar Flowers: how to make a carnation

I  recently took a short course in making sugar flowers at my local adult education college. We learnt how to make carnations, lillies, sweet peas and roses (about the ninth time I've done roses on a cake decorating course!) and also watched a demonstration of how to make frangipane. In the last class we could make whatever we wanted from the past few weeks to create our own bouquet.

 

It's amazing how different the techniques are for making different flowers and how much they do actually look like the real thing! For the carnations, we had to buy a carnation cutter; you can get them from cake decorating shops (online or in person) though I got mine from Amazon. You need to make sure you get ones with more detail around the edges as this helps make the flowers more realistic.

 

 

 

To begin you need to make the centre of the flower that the petals will go around. Take a length of florist wire, about 26 or 28 gauge (the higher the number, the thinner it is) and cut into three pieces. Take a small amount of flower paste in the colour you are going to make your flower, and one double-ended flower stamen (again you can buy all this from cake decorating shops or Amazon; I picked up a lot of supplies when I went to the Cake International cake show a few years back). 

 

 

Using pliers bend the end of the wire into a tiny hook, and thread the stamen through it so both ends are pointing upright. Take a tiny ball of flower paste, wrap around the bottom of the stamen and leave to dry.

 

Roll out some flower paste very thinly and use the cutter to cut out one petal (do one at a time or they will go dry; cover your flower paste in clingfilm or put it in an airtight bag while you are not using it).

Use a friller tool or ball tool to curl the edges of each part of the petal. Rest it on a foam pad to do this - a hard surface won't work.
 

 

Push the wire through the petal and bring the petal up to the top to meet the centre and stamen, and fold the petal in half.

Wrap one side of the petal in towards the centre and wrap the other side of the petal outwards so it looks something like this:

 

 

Repeat the process by cutting out a petal, frilling the edges and pushing through the wire. Don't fold this one though - sit it behind the petal you've already added and shape it upwards slightly.

 

Repeat with a third petal so it sits outside the other two and should look something like this. 

 

We also made a green calyx - the leaves that are attached to the bottom of the flower. You can buy a calyx cutter in different sizes or cut out the shape yourself freehand.
 

 

You need a small ball or raised part in the centre as you can see here:
 

 

Push the wire through so the calyx sits under the flower and curl the edges. Finally snip off the excess stamen so they don't stick too far out of the flower.

 

The largest carnation cutter I could find wasn't actually that big so I think these flowers would look great on cupcakes, or as a spray if you made several, to go on top of a larger cake - my mum likes carnations so I might have to do this for her birthday next year!

 

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Restaurant Review: Armadillo, Gatwick Airport

Flying to Edinburgh for work the week before Christmas I left extra time at the airport thinking it would be busy, but I got there in record time, and had plenty of time to kill even before my flight was delayed by an hour and a half.

It was early in the morning so I needed breakfast and wanted to try somewhere I hadn't eaten before, and spotted Armadillo.

It styles itself as offering 'the sunshine flavours of Santa Fe' (New Mexico) ; the menu looked really good, offering everything from fruit salad or yogurt and granola to corn fritters with smashed avocado. I had the chorizo benedict (£9.95) with two poached eggs, spinach, chorizo sausage on toasted bloomer bread with chipotle hollandaise.

The sausages were on the side and I think it would have worked better with a slice of chorizo but even so it was very good, with almost perfectly poached eggs (not as good as the ones I had at the Zoetry hotel in Mexico!)

And the sauce was delicious, a bit spicy but not too much as you don't want anything too powerful before getting on a plane!

To drink I had something called armadillo juice, a blend of mango juice, passion fruit juice, lemon juice, orange juice and grenadine which was delicious and a great way to start the day.

The waitress took a little while to take my order, and in fact took the order of someone who had come in after me first - perhaps I didn't look ready! The food came very promptly though which was good even though I did have ages until my plane and the waitress was very friendly. The best part was when the bill came instead of a chocolate I got a little pot of jelly beans! I'd definitely eat at Armadillo again when I'm travelling from Gatwick.

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Meal Planning Monday 2016 Week 2

I've decided to start doing #MeatFreeMonday but it won't be easy -  I’m a pretty fussy eater and there are a LOT of vegetables I don’t like. Mushrooms, peas, green beans, (baked beans for that matter), sweetcorn (ever tried to pick it out of a tuna sandwich?),  the list is pretty long. There are some vegetables on the other hand which I love, including broccoli, cauliflower and butternut squash, that work brilliantly in a variety of recipes. There are also vegetables which I don’t particularly enjoy but in certain recipes are OK so I thought it was about time I tried to eat more of those.

 

My fiancé is even fussier than I am so it will be quite a challenge, so I’ve decided that I will have a ‘Meat Free Monday’ every Monday in January – and then see how it goes – and do my best to find meat-free recipes that he will like. And if I can’t (or I want to make something in particular that I know he won’t eat), then I will make him something with less meat and certainly no processed meat (though if I’m desperate a margarita pizza will do!). If you have any suggestions for vegetarian meals for people who don’t like a lot of vegetables, please let me know!

 

Monday
Dinner: roasted cauliflower steak for me, cheese omelette and chips for him

Tuesday
Dinner: herby chicken breasts with garlic mash

Wednesday
Dinner: smoked salmon pasta

Thursday
Dinner: tuna steak with broccoli and couscous similar to this recipe for me; gammon for him

Friday
Dinner: burger and chips for an end of week treat

Saturday
Lunch: with friends who are coming for a bridesmaid dress fitting. One is vegan but my fiancé is a big meat-eater so I have to put a bit more thought into it! We also won't be home until at least 1.30 after the fittings so need a quick lunch and the only thing I can think of is soup that I can make in advance! Does anyone have any better ideas?
Dinner: TBA - not sure who is staying to dinner

Sunday
Lunch: giant crumpets (which I found in the supermarket at last!)
Dinner: sticky Chinese pork based on this recipe

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Cinnamon Puff Pastry Twists

These are super easy and quick to make so if you are catering for a crowd or throwing a party, or just need something sweet that won't take long, they are just the thing.

It's not a recipe as such but a few very simple instructions. Roll out some puff pastry to a rectangle on a lightly floured surface.

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a baking tray with grease proof paper.

Mix 2 tbsp melted butter, 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon and spread over the puff pastry, pressing down.

Cut the pastry into strips then holding each end, twist it a few times.

I'm sending these to Tea Time Treats, hosted by Jane at The Hedgecombers and Karen at Lavender and Lovage.

Place each twist on the baking tray and bake for about 15 minutes. Serve either warm or cold.

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Spiralizer Saturday: Orange Chicken with Spiralized Sweet Potato

I got a spiralizer for my birthday last year and have used it a few times but like any kitchen gadget, it gets forgotten about or overlooked in the haste to put dinner on when it's already gone 7 and I've only just got in from work.

I think it's a great gadget though and has encouraged me to eat vegetables I've never even tried before. Every time I've tried to lose weight I've utterly failed (I don't eat all the things I put on this blog myself, before you say that's the reason!) but I'm getting married in June so am going to make a last ditch effort. If I end up being the size that I've been for years on my wedding day it's hardly the end of the world, but I would like to be a bit (OK, a lot) smaller!

So I've decided to launch a new blog challenge throughout January (and perhaps beyond - I'll see how it goes) called Spiralizer Saturday. Every Saturday I will host a linkup where you can share your Spiralizer recipes - or if you don't have a spiralizer, you can buy ready-spiralized veg (Tesco has carrots, butternut squash and courgette spiralized in tubs) or use a julienne peeler. Scroll to the end for the link-up.

To kick off the challenge I'll share something I made recently: orange chicken with spiralized sweet potato.

To serve 2, you need:
2 sweet potatoes
2 chicken breasts
juice and zest of 1 orange
150ml chicken stock
1/2 tsp cornflour

First here's a quick description of how to use a spiralizer if you haven't seen one before (or got one for Christmas but haven't used it yet!). Mine has three blades to choose from for different thickness noodles. Peel the sweet potato and slice off the end so it sits flat against the blade; insert the spikes on the handle into the other end. As you turn the handle, the sweet potato rotates and is sliced into ribbons. Make sure you have a bowl or plate underneath the spiralizer to catch them!

I ended up with quite a pile of noodles - or what I have seen called 'voodles' - vegetable noodles.

To make the chicken, pan fry the chicken breasts in the orange juice and stock. When the chicken breasts are cooked, remove from the pan and add the cornflour, mixed separately with 1 tbsp. water. Stir and simmer the liquid until it thickens.

The sweet potato noodles take literally just a couple of minutes to cook - any more and they will turn to mush. You could briefly bring them to the boil in a pan of water or you can fry them, or even cook them with the chicken in the orange sauce. I did mine in an inch of water in a saucepan.

Serve the chicken on the bed of sweet potato noodles and pour the orange sauce over the top - a very healthy low carb meal!

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USA Travel Review: Mississippi - Yazoo and Natchez

I never finished my USA travel reviews after the part I did on Memphis, as they take a lot longer to write - but there are definitely some useful tips I can pass on for anyone planning a road trip!

The next stop on our trip was Natchez, Mississippi, but as it was a 5 hour drive from Memphis we decided to take our time and stop for lunch. I'd had a look at the map in advance and thought Jackson was too large a city for a brief lunch stop and found somewhere called Yazoo City; there were some restaurant reviews on TripAdvisor that looked decent. I had picked out Stubs, a sort of diner on the edge of town. I had a shrimp po'boy which reminded me a bit of a fish finger sandwich! My fiancé had mozzarella sticks and a grilled cheese sandwich and his mum had fried green tomatoes and fried okra, which she said was very good - the portions were huge and the prices really reasonable - we paid $50 including a 20% tip.

Even though the portions were large the desserts looked so good we decided to indulge; I had a Boston cream pie, my fiancé had a chocolate pie and his mum had lemon meringue pie. Stubs does good pie! The service was friendly and it seemed like a good local neighbourhood, family kind of place that was just as welcoming to travellers passing through.

 

On the way out of Yazoo City the road we needed was closed and there was no detour so we ended up getting lost in quite a rundown area in torrential rain then going back the way we had come, adding about 40 minutes to our journey!

The terrible weather made driving slow and it was 5pm before we arrived at the Oak Hill Historic Inn in Natchez - my mother-in-law had wanted to sit outside on the verandah but the weather meant there was no chance of that!

The B&B was fairly expensive and we were only there one night, and with arriving at 5 and needing to leave early the next morning (before breakfast) we may have been better off staying somewhere like a Holiday Inn. The owners were very friendly and insisted on carrying our cases up a pretty steep staircase and they made a real effort, making us mint juleps when we arrived, offering home baked cookies and making sure we had coffee and muffins in the morning since we were on a tight schedule and had to miss breakfast.

mint julep, served properly

We had two adjacent rooms on the top floor; one had a double and a single bed and one had a queen bed, so this would be a good option for a family. Once again both beds were really high but they had provided steps which I found quite fun, not being used to climbing up steps to get into bed. The house is about 150 years old and decorated in period style with lots of interesting ornaments and objects like a stuffed owl. They have three cats, but they kept themselves to themselves and I only saw them because I went looking for them!

The owners gave us a leaflet about historic houses around Natchez - of which there are many, several of which offer guided tours. You can stay in them as well but my mother in law stayed in a similar place once before and every time she came out of her bedroom found a party of tourists walking around! As we didn't have time for a tour we followed a suggested driving route around town to see a lot of the houses from the outside (they are set back from the road and you can drive up to them); we also went to Five Points, the site of an old slave market which has information signs to read and some shackles still in the ground to mark the spot. There is space for a few cars to park nearby and it was deserted while we were there.

We asked the B&B owners where they recommended for dinner and their suggestion was excellent: the Magnolia Grill  which is right on the river near a steamship which made for some nice photos.

The restaurant isn't cheap but the menu had so many things I wanted  and was very good. I had tuna cooked medium rare, which came with crabmeat and a choice of two sides so I had broccoli (I hadn't seen much green veg so far on this trip!) and a baked potato with sour cream which was absolutely delicious.

My fiancé had a cheeseburger and said it was the best one he'd had on this trip so far (and he'd had a few!). His mum had a pasta dish that came with chicken, and she asked for it without chicken explaining she was vegetarian and when it came, it had no chicken but did have bacon sprinkled on the top! Luckily she isn't a full vegetarian and does eat bacon and I'm sure they would have changed it if not.

 

 

Coming next: the reason we had to leave before breakfast - the Honey Island Swamp Tour - and New Orleans.

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