Rye Barley With Courgette, Feta and Roasted Red Onions, Topped With A Mint, Pea,Coriander Caper and Fresh Lime Dressing.

This one doubles up as a healthy, easy mid-week meal or the perfect accompaniment to a BBQ/ Weekend Roast. This would then have to include BBQ'ing/roasting some good quality meats, maybe some lamb chops, steak...a few meaty burgers (obviously you should cook your veggie option first so not have any accidental meat juices in the meal!) Corn on the cob or thick cut halloumi slices are a great option and the veggie boyfriend would be more than pleased with this! Just showing you quite how versatile this salad this can be!

 If you're trying to diet or are just trying to eat healthier, then consider this a good option. You definitely won't be left feeling hungry with this salad but equally you won’t suffer a stodgy carb coma either!  The veg count as one if not two of your five a day per serving and what's most important is that you're eating fresh vegetables and loads of them. This is a serious contender for best 'grainy salad dish!'

 On another note I love anything that has red or white wine vinegar in it, it adds to the fresh sharp taste to the herbs and combined with lime, helps make salads even zestier! Make this a must to have in your cupboards for the summer, it's perfect for all dressings and salads.

  

Rye Barley With Courgette, Feta and Crispy Roasted Red Onions, Topped With Mint, Pea, Coriander, Caper and Fresh Lime Dressing.

 Feeds- 4-6

Ingredients

250g of Rye Barley - cook in water or vegetable stock for 35mins. For every cup of grain add 1.5 of liquid. Cook on high for the quickest cooking time.

50g of Frozen Peas

2 x Courgettes, roughly Sliced onto circles

1 x Red Onion, cut in half then sliced into semi circles

1 x Lime, cut in half and add just before serving

1 x Handful of fresh mint

1 x Handful of fresh coriander, finely chopped

1 x Small jar of capers in vinegar  

1/2 Pack of feta, crumbled

1 x Pack of asparagus, sliced in half lengthways

1 x Medium red chilli, finely sliced

1 x Soft boiled egg per person (boil for 5-6mins)

Dash of white wine vinegar

Salt & Pepper

 Instructions-

Get the oven turned on high - 200 degrees.

While the oven's pre heating, put the barley in water or vegetable stock (I prefer using stock as it adds more flavour whilst the boiling water from the kettle speeds everything up) on the hob and start cooking it. It's quite a hard grain so allow at least 35 minutes for it to cook. Keep the heat on medium to high and top up the water/stock if need be. Taste the grains at around 30mins; they should still have a tiny bit of crunch but be soft enough to enjoy.

 Slice the red onion and courgettes as instructed above and add a dash of rapeseed oil, salt and pepper and roast on high - 220 degrees in the oven for 25/30mins. You're aiming for some crunchy onion bits but no burnt ones. Ten minutes before serving the courgettes and onions add the sliced asparagus.

 Boil the kettle once again and add to a pan to boil the eggs. I use an egg timer as it seems to work every time. Alternatively concentrate on your attention span and watch the clock for 5-6mins!

TIP- Add the eggs once the water is boiling and use fresh eggs. You'll get the perfect soft boiled egg this way.

 Add all the capers, fresh coriander, mint, peas, feta and white wine vinegar to a large bowl along with the cooked barley. Next add your roasted courgettes, onions and asparagus. Mix thoroughly and serve immediately before adding a soft boiled egg to each serving.

Garnish with chilli and extra coriander.

 This would works as a solo veggie meal and also teams up really well with lamb chops and anything bbq'd!! Just couldn't help myself!!

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Well & Bucket-- One To Try

Well & Bucket | 143 Bethnal Green Rd E2 7DG |

The Well & Bucket

This places had me with the tiles alone....I have a weird thing for tiles and the fact that they've managed to rescue/dig up the originals makes me happy. The colours can't be beaten and although there's a good few missing across the walls the majority of the puzzle's there. The charm and atmosphere has been  artfully restored, the sky light and copper bar brighten and warms the place making it a good day time boozing spot too. 

If you're not into the 18 variations of beer they have on tap, or the array of oysters, then I think you'll still find something amongst the fries and curry sauce or the sliders (mini burgers) they offer. Whether it be the braised beef, pork belly, ginger beer chicken or the oxtail chilli cheese dog there's something and with the option to mix it up -it's 3 mini burgers for £7 you can pretty much try them all. They are however a bit mean on the veggie option only offering just the BBQ aubergine with a pistachio lemon slaw, I say give the veggies an alternative other than fries!!

I defo liked this place and I'd defo go again and if I fed the veggie boyf first, he'd probably come too.

Not that I made it down there for cocktails but I had a peak and am massively interested in the late night cocktail spot downstairs...

Home Made, Half Fried, Oversized Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli With Sage Butter

Sundays Labour of LOVE

Home Made, Half Fried, Oversized Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli With Sage Butter

If you're vegetarian and love food then you need to know how to make this yourself...it's a labour of love, but veggie or 

not there's no one doesn't drool at the sight of this. I'm drooling just thinking about the last double portion I scoffed!

Previously I have shied away from any especially labour intensive cooking, I'm too impatient and ordinarily want to be eating just ASAP so maybe save this one for the weekend or perhaps if you want to impress at a dinner party. Just so you know quite how committed I am to this dish, I spent an entire day making enough for 75 portions for the last Get In My Pop-Up!! Committed!! Once you've mastered it, it takes no time at all.

I've included some small tips in here that make all the difference and if you happen to come across pasta '00' flour then stock up, it can be a pain to get hold of unless you're in Waitrose!

Serves 6/8

Cooking Time 1hr

Pasta Ingredients-

 (You can just use the '00' flour but I find this combination works well)

350g of '00' Flour/Pasta Flour

150g of Strong White Flour (usually used for baking- you should be able to pick this up anywhere)

4 x Medium Sized Free Range Eggs 

1/2 x tsp of salt

2-3 x tbsp of water - depends on eggs size and consistency once all mixed

Fine Semolina - use to stop the pasta from sticking together or going sloppy once you've added the filling- flour doesn't work in the same way.

2 x Egg Whites - use to stick your ravioli together

TIP- You can make the fresh pasta the day before or two if you have to, I find that if you're going to do the fried version that there's no harm in cooking them once you've made them then frying them up just before you're ready to serve.

Instructions-

If you have a mixer then use the K beater to combine all of the above. The mixture should turn to crumbs when adding small amounts of water. Do this literally a teaspoon at a time until it turns to bigger crumbs before coming together into bigger doughy lumps. Don't worry that it's not in a smooth ball at this stage. Take it out of the mixer and roll/knead it together into a ball as best you can. I find using the ball of your hand works best plus you get to really work those arm muscles.

-If you don't have a mixer then heap the flour up and make a well in the middle, crack the eggs into it and use a knife to mix the flour and eggs. Using your hands, bring the mixture together and knead until in a rough ball.

The trick here is to then wrap it in cling film and leave it to rest for a minimum of 30 mins or up to 3 hours. It then miraculously comes together and you only need to gently knead it a few times before it's ready to roll out. 

If you have a pasta machine, roll it through each thickness setting twice. If you don't then you need to aim to roll the pasta out so it's as thick as a penny, it should be slightly transparent. 

Ingredients for the Spinach and Ricotta filling-

250g Spinach - thoroughly washed

300g Ricotta

1 x tsp of Nutmeg

1/2 Lemon Zest

Salt & Pepper - Black & White

Filling Instructions- 

Cook the spinach on a medium heat until it all wilts and then transfer to a muslin cloth or tea towel. Squeeze as much water out of the spinach as possible, then combine all of the above ingredients and mix thoroughly.

TIP- Make sure the filling is completely chilled before adding to the pasta.

For as little pasta wastage as possible make semi circles pasta shapes or squares if you really don't want to waste any at all. For semi circles add a teaspoon of the filling before folding the pasta over the filling and cutting it into a semi circle. Make sure you brush egg white on the pasta before folding so that the pasta sticks whilst leaving as little air in there as possible. For circles or squares just add the mixture to the pasta and brush a wash of egg white around the filling before placing the pasta on top, pushing out any air and cut with a knife into a circle or use the top of a large wine glass.

Cook in boiling water, with a dash of oil and salt. Cook for 4/5 mins

Drain the water off then add to a hot pan with a mixture of oil and butter (just so the butter doesn't burn.) Add 4/5 sage leaves and fry on one side until crispy. Serve with the sage butter drizzled all over.

When I made a big batch I found it easier the make the sage butter separately- just butter rock salt and sage leaves- this way the sage leaves didn't burn.

If you fancy a sprinkle of parmesan then go for it- you can buy vegetarian style 'parmesan' here http://bookhams.com/cheese/twineham-grange.html, plus an extra sprinkle of lemon zest finishes this off perfectly, and be generous with the sage butter!

OBSESSED WITH THIS DISH!!!

Curry Tonight, Breakfast Tomorrow.

Don't waste hard work and a good meal...I made  a few veggie curries and even though I wasn't hungover (I think!) I cooked the left overs up for breakfast the next morning. Best thing I've ever done!

Here's how to get the best out of you left over curry. 

I combined the rice, sag aloo and spicy jalfrezi in one pot, tasted great!!! Made sure I heated it thoroughly and then got the creamy scrambled eggs on the go.  

Coriander And Red Onion Scrambled Eggs

Feeds 4/5

Cooking Time- 10mins

Ingredients

6x Free Range/Organic Eggs

1/4 Pint of cream or milk

1/2 Tub of cream cheese or the equivalent of mascarpone  

1/2 x Red onion- finely sliced (reduces cooking time the finer it's chopped)

1 x Big handful of finely chopped coriander

Salt & pepper (white and Black)

For the best scrambled eggs I always add either cream cheese, cream or mascarpone, I don't like them snotty sloppy but defo creamy and a bit sloppy. On this occasion I added red onion- cooked it up a bit prior to adding the egg mixture and two big dollops- probably half a tub of cream cheese-I was feeding 5 of us! I also added a good sprinkle of chopped coriander, salt & pepper.

Tip- DO use a non stick pan and DON'T use a whisk, use a spatula instead so you get good lumps and not weird fluffy eggs!

Serve this up on top of you heated curry and add a sweet mango chutney or whatever you fancy and if you can handle it add some chopped fresh chilli and a bit extra fresh coriander and any sour cream or extra cream cheese that you have.

YUM 

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The Olde Bell Inn- Near Henley On Thames- LOVE IT!! Perfect For A Bank Holiday Wknd!

The Olde Bell- Henley On Thames

http://www.theoldebell.co.uk

We packed our bags and headed out to Henley, on the promise of propper countryside, delicious food,  log fires, plenty of red wine and this place did not let us down one bit. 

From the moment we arrived we fell in love with everything, the smell of wood burning, the beautiful old  building, tiles, intricate fabrications and the delicious food. What more can you ask for on a bank holiday weekend or in fact any weekend! If you're looking for a quiet night or couple away this is your spot. We in fact didn't have that quieter night, the red wine was to good to resist...

See it for yourself...there's nothing that doesn't look great here, perhaps just the pic of us with the dogs!!

We'll defo be booking again, such a treat! The rooms, the restaurant, the food was all pretty much spot on :-)