Black Olive Dip

It’s another warm weekend here in London. Keeping food light, healthy and not too heavy is the way to go.

Ingredients:

• 12 pitted black olives
• 2 tbsp natural Greek yogurt
• 215g butter beans, drained
• 1 tsp water
• 3 basil leaves
• 1 dsp olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, peeled
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:

1. Using a food processor, blitz all ingredients together until smooth. Serve with some dried oregano a drizzle of olive oil and a few olives.

Enjoy ☺️

Advertisement

Jo Jo’s Peri Peri. Richmond

Has been a cheeky go to during the odd, random day that I have been having meat. There’s just something about Jo Jo’s that is just so delicious that when I think of a take away my thoughts go straight to this tasty joint.

On numerous occasions when I have ventured through Richmond I have passed Jo Jo’s Peri Peri and there have been countless times when I have seen a queue of people outside waiting for food. This to me screams, ‘it’s got to be good’, and ‘I need to try this’. On the whole, I generally lean towards a good ol’ trusty Nandos when I’m in the mood for peri peri flavours but after having a cheeky scroll on Deliveroo and seeing its high ratings I thought… lets give this a cheeky go.

Since my first experience of Jo Jo’s, which has happened during lockdown round 3 I have placed a fair few orders with them and every time has been a real joy to indulge. So far, (I say so far because I’ll probably be ordering it again at some point soon) I have tried the hot, medium and lemon and herb sauces which are used when cooking the chicken. Out of these 3 my favourite is the medium, which I found tasted hotter than the hot and brought the most flavour to the ol’ palate. The lemon and herb was nice but didn’t quite hit those ‘tasty buds’ that I was looking for.

One thing I really liked with Jo Jo’s is that they package the chicken in these foil-lined food greaseproof paper bags which keeps in the heat of the chicken allowing it to stay moist and delicious. Additionally, they are generous with the peri peri sauce. I am here for the saucey sauciness, please don’t be handing out dry chicken, it’s just not the way forward.

Gosh… all this chicken talk, I think I know what I’m having for dinner. If you’re local, definitely try this place out!

Spicy Sweet Potato Fries

A tasty pick me up; rich in flavour and spiced with goodness; a carnival favourite for everyone. Enjoy them as a starter or side dish, and accompany with the dips from my previous post https://isaporidelmondo.wordpress.com/2020/08/01/plantain-chips-and-dips/

Ingredients:

• 2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into fries
• Olive Oil
• Maple syrup
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• Salt
• Pepper

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 7.
2. Once you have chopped the sweet potato, give it a rinse and pat down with paper towels, when dry put into a bowl.
3. Season the fries with the cayenne, paprika and season with salt and pepper; mix thoroughly with your hands.
4. Transfer the fries onto a baking tray, spacing them out evenly.
5. Drizzle on a little olive oil and maple syrup. Just as a little side note, the more drizzle the more likely the fries will soften, so if you fancy a crispier crunch apply sparingly.
6. Bake for 20-25 minutes (rotate occasionally) or until crispy.

Best served hot

Giggling Squid. Kingston

Reunited! Hare & Tortoise. Chiswick

Le Val. Kingston.

I can’t even put into words the sheer excitement I had to dine at Le Val. I flipping love the food there and recommend it every time. I have been going to this restaurant for many years now and has always been at the top of my list of restaurants to go to when I venture to Kingston.

As the lockdown rules have eased I had the chance to meet up with a friend of mine who recently moved to London. I have ranted and raved about this restaurant since they moved and when we decided to meet we thought it would be about time to dine there; wahoo!!!

Le Val has quite an extensive menu offering a selection of Lebanese dishes from cold and hot mezze to main courses, to express lunch options. I have tried a fair few things on their menu, just to put it out there, their houmous is the one!!! SO damn good. Anyways, my go to meal is the chicken shawarma wrap, which consists of chicken, salad, pickle and a garlicky dressing all wrapped up in a flat bread. This normally comes with a portion of chips and a soft drink of your choice at an incredibly affordable price. They also bring you a whipped garlic mayo and a chilli sauce, which when added to the wrap just makes a whole other party in your mouth come to life; it’s also so good to dip your chips into. I’ve only just had this meal and I am already ready for another round of this quality yumminess!!

I was one happy lady at the end of my meal and was so glad to go there after all the things that have been going on.

Fantastic meal, fantastic company, a fantastic day!

 

My First Bundt Cake!

I’ve never really had a massive sweet tooth, I am definitely a more savoury kind of girl; as I’m sure you’ve seen from my recipes they are more focused on more ‘main meals’ rather than sweets and desserts. To be honest, I don’t think I am very good at the whole ‘baking thing’, but hey, I do actually quite enjoy it and am willing to give it a go.

I was gifted a bundt tin a while ago now and hadn’t got round to using it. Of course, during this weird lockdown time I thought I’d do some experimenting and give it a whirl. For my first bundt cake bake I was quite proud of myself, it turned out better than I thought it would. I attempted to make a spiced bundt cake that consisted of ginger, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg-  delish, I know. There is definitely room for improvement though, I found that the spices were not as prominent as I’d’ve liked, the texture was soft but not as light (hence the icing to give it some added moisture) and the mixture rose a lot more than I thought it would; perhaps too much cake mix or baking powder. Considering the tin I have is smaller than the ‘standard’ sized bundt tins, the end result was bigger than I expected.

Now that I have given it a go I am slightly more confident to try again and to also try other bakes.

Hope you’re having a lovely friday 🙂

Carla x

Arthur’s Pizza. Twickenham

Le Relais De Venise – L’Entrecote. London

I originally found out about this restaurant from a food blogger that I follow on Instagram. It was actually the picture of the steak that had me thinking about this restaurant and I knew from that moment that I had to find out more.

So, as you do, I went straight into Google and typed in the restaurant. Turns out there are 3 restaurants, one in Soho, one in the City and one in Marylebone; I went to the Soho branch.

Upon arrival the waitress escorted us to our seats and said that there was no menu. They serve an entrecôte steak cooked at your choice of either: rare, medium or well done. Before the main dish you are served with a green salad with walnuts which is intended to be the starter part of the meal, however this was a bit vinegary to have on its own in my opinion, and so I kept hold of it to enjoy alongside the main meal. This steak is served with french fries and Le Relais sauce. The meat was cooked wonderfully and was very tender. Around half way through devouring the dish the waitress returned with a second serving of more meat and chips! I know, I couldn’t believe it either! (Good thing I was hungry).

Having the salad and steak-frites together is £24 (including the second serving), any drinks or desserts are extra. I think that for the price, the quantity and most importantly the taste was an absolute winner for me. I will definitely be recommending and returning to Le Relais de Venise in the future.