Paella Monday

It's one of my aims to try every independent restaurant that line the village-like Church Street in Stoke Newington - all quaint and sweet with an air of character that chains will never be able to recreate. One of my recent visits was to the very cute Blue Legume (http://www.thebluelegume.co.uk/), which is always bustling with people munching their way through mountains of mourish looking food. Having been delighted with a substantial Tricolore salad (and very reasonable too) and my mum's mountainess salad nicoise, I was ecstatic to find out they did a classic (and vegetarian) paella for 2 people for the bargain price of £12.95. So this week me and the boy tucked into a delectably juicy paella served in the traditional pan. I could not fault it - super chunks of chorizo and chicken, tender squid and calamari and saffron coated rice. I'd even say it was better than a paella I had in Barcelona and a definite step up from my recent homemade attempt when I had to substitute rice for broken up spaghetti - nuff said!


p.s. Their breakfast menu looks amazing too! 

Blue Legume's Paella

My (spaghetti) Paella

When only the basic will do

Don't get me wrong, I do love spending quality time cooking up a feast for dinner but on a drizzly Tuesday, after a long day at work, sometimes only the most basic and comforting meal will do. This Tuesday was exactly one of those occasions and the only thing my grumbling stomach desired was a good old spag bol! This was a basic and quick spag bol in all senses; I couldn't be bothered to buy or chop any other veg other than onions; I didn't have the patience to wait for red wine to reduce and I didn't have time for it to simmer properly as the first episode of The Hour was starting in 20 minutes on BBC 2. Despite the lack of time and care my speedy spag bol was just right (helped along with a good few splashes of Lea & Perrins and a generous sprinkling of parmesan) and made for the perfect evening sat in front of the TV. Truly delightful! 
Nx

Even my picture's lazy!

Breakfast of champions...or so I thought

Breakfast for me is not only the most important meal of the day but one of my favourites! I actually go to bed excited about the prospect of eating berries and apples swimming in a pool of honey flavoured porridge! Sad I know! I was even more excited than usual last night as my colleagues and I decided to treat ourselves to a delectable breakfast at the tucked away J+A Cafe in Clerkenwell. I decided upon the mouth-watering inducing mountain of sweet pancakes as the perfect start to a Wednesday. Unfortunately, I was rather disappointed when my mountain turned out to be a diminutive mound of minuscule pancakes. There was however a mountain of cream that didn't appeal as cream isn't the first thing I wish to eat in the morning, or almost never in fact! That said, I have to say the pancakes were rather tasty and delightfully fluffy, and the accompanying syrup was delicately sweet.

Don't let this put you off though, J+A is a lovely cafe that serves beautiful cakes, seasonal dishes and amazing cheese sandwiches with perfectly tart apple chutney.

Please note that these were not my pancakes! These are the type of pancakes I was hoping for!

Nicole x


p.s. Breakfast Tip - If you love peanut butter and you love porridge try adding a teaspoon of peanut butter to the mix plus a squeeze of honey and a scattering of diced apple. A pinch of cinnamon would be nice too! 

The odd one out

Maybe its a sign of my age, or maybe its a sign that I really should get out more but I have developed a slight obsession for the local fruit and veg store. So imagine my excitement when a friend invited me to peruse her new local grocers in Newington Green. My eyes widened with delight when I spotted trays upon trays of fresh fruit and veg, little gleaming gems of all colours, shapes and sizes. Buying fruit and veg in a local green grocers always trumps the supermarket. There's something homely and rustic about it. Not only is it a one-stop shop for local and seasonal produce, they're a treasure chest brimming with rare and wonderful goodies that your bog standard supermarket is unlikely to stock. Avoiding all the things I haven't the foggiest how to cook, and deciding that I couldn't be bothered to faff around with salsify, I decided upon a beautifully plump round courgette. This isn't the only thing I bought but I don't think onions would excite you much. I resisted the lazy urge to simply chop it up and bung it in pasta and made novel use of its roundness, see:

If you fancy trying it, here's what you do:Cut in half and scoop out as much of the flesh as you can without breaking the shell and set asideBash a garlic clove or 2, keeping the skin on and pop it in the shell along with a glug of olive oil and a generous sprinkling of sea salt and pepper. Place on a baking tray and put into a preheated oven (around 200) for about 20mins.While that's cooking make the basis of a basic tomato pasta sauce - red onions, crushed garlic and add the fluffy flesh of the courgette. You can stir in a tin of chopped tomatoes but why not add a spoonful of pesto or my personal favourite - Sacla Tomato & Olive stir through sauce. I also chucked in a few jarred artichokes - another grocery find and much cheaper than the ones you can buy in the supermarket.

Leave your sauce to gently simmer and cook up some orzo (rather small, rice-like pasta). You could of course  use any pasta but there's something novel about Orzo that makes this dish kinda special.

When the Orzo is cooked, drain and stir it through the tomato sauce and pour the filling into the courgette shells. Top with a sprinkling of cheese and pop under the grill until slightly golden. Alternatively, treat this like a soup and serve with cheese toast squares.

Nicole x