Sunday Lunch at The Clocktower, Epping

         

The Clocktower in Epping (Essex), is a charming little place just off of the high street that serves good, honest food at an affordable price – in short a great spot for a Sunday lunch.

The boyf and I headed there recently and took advantage of their incredibly priced set Sunday lunch which is £14.95 for two courses of £17.95 for three – fantastic value.

I opted for the chicken liver terrine to start which arrived with a couple of slices of very unpretentious toast and an unctuous apple and raisin chutney. It wasn’t the prettiest plate of food but that couldn’t deter from the taste or enjoyment of the dish.

The pâté was smooth, rich, slightly creamy and very meaty and the sharp, fruity chutney complimented the terrine beautifully.  

Glen chose the grilled sardines which came with a genius mango and chilli butter and were served over a bed of rocket. Once again, this was a simple dish, but prepared perfectly and proved to be very satisfying. The tropical and sweet mango butter with the chilli kick running through, worked so, so well with the subtle flesh of the sardines. I think it would work particularly well if prepared on the BBQ with the butter drizzled over. Sardines make for a very economical meal (I’ve picked up six for less than £2.00 at my local fish mongers) and usually I just cook them in a little garlic butter but this fantastic dish has inspired me to try preparing them in a different way.

For our mains, we both chose the roast beef dinner but The Clocktower does offer a few roast options as well as other dishes such as a vegetarian feta and vegetable stuffed aubergine, a haddock dish and a confit duck too.

The roast beef was cooked more than I would choose or prepare at home, however it was still tender, well-seasoned and of high quality so there wasn’t any room for complaint over the lack of mooing on my plate. A rather enormous and tasty Yorkshire pudding, crispy roast potatoes and seasonal vegetables completed the meal and all were good.

Whilst there wasn’t anything remarkable on our plates, it was all prepared well and enjoyable, and for the price it really does offer spectacular value. The staff at The Clocktower are attentive and incredibly friendly and it’s this touch mixed with the genuine, home-style of cooking that made for a really pleasant meal for us.

There is just that almost comfort blanket feeling of a roast dinner that reminds you of home - and in our ever-hectic lifestyles today, the uniform rigidity of having a roast dinner every weekend just doesn’t exist anymore, so eating a roast out, feels like a treat.

We had just the two courses as the mains were rather large and with a couple of glasses of red, a beer and some water we have change from £45 and went home full and content.

A London Lunch No. 10: Wahaca – Mexican Street Food

So I’m heading to Mexico this weekend for this first time and on a recent holiday retail jaunt to Westfield Stratford with the boyf, we decided to get in the mood for the Mexican cuisine by heading to Wahaca.

The rapidly expanding chain has Thomasina Miers' name to it, and has been a firm casual favourite of mine for a few years – having spent many a lunch hour in the Covent Garden branch. This was the boyfriend’s first time at Wahaca and he has been quickly converted to this style of eating small plates as and when they arrive at the table, according to the varying cooking times.

We ordered some Guacamole with Tortillas and a Citrus Fizz each whilst we mulled over the menu. The guacamole was chunky, flavourful, citrusy and with that all-important chilli kick – absolutely delicious. The Citrus Fizz is like an innocent version of a mojito – sparkling water over crushed mint and lime – utterly refreshing and moreish.

We chose six small dishes – all priced very reasonably under the £4.50 mark. The first is my favourite – I cannot enter Wahaca without ordering it – the Pork Pibil Tacos. You get three mini soft corn tacos topped with the most delicious slow-cooked pork which is in a salty, smoky and meaty juice and topped with sweet, pickled pink onions and zingy coriander. It is completely unpretentious but one of the most satisfying little plates of food. We also had the Chicken Tinga Tacos – these again were topped with shredded, slow-cooked chicken in a barbecue style sauce topped with chilli and crema – and it was sensational.

 

We tried the Ceviche Tostadas as well, a first for me at Wahaca, and whilst it was pleasant enough, I probably wouldn’t repeat. Fresh and fragrant it was, but having eaten such great alternatives at Ceviche and Lima recently, it just didn’t live up to those standards. There was very little flavour from the scallops which was disappointing – Glen loved it though, so maybe give it a try.

Another first for me was the Potato and Chorizo Quesadilla. This had a lovely smoky taste running through from the chorizo and the melted cheese made it feel quite naughty but very, very nice. I have to say this, like a good slice of pizza, tastes oh so much better if eaten with your hands – it’s one of those kind of dishes.

Our final two dishes were the Marinated Chicken Taquitos and the Green Rice – both of which were good. The taquitos had the most fragrant, moist and tasty chicken inside and were topped with a refreshing citrusy green salad and a generous topping of crumbly and delicious Lancashire cheese – gorgeous. The rice is a beautiful looking little plate; blitzed coriander and onion make for the unmistakable flavours and colours of Mexican cuisine – once again showing that a simple dish can be so, so good. 

‘Simple yet satisfying’ is the mainstay of Wahaca and it never disappoints for me. I have enjoyed many a lunch at the various outposts and I’m sure I will continue to do so. There are tons of Mexican restaurants and burrito bars in London these days and I have tried a good selection, but what Wahaca has above most that I’ve tried, is you don’t come away with that awful bloated feeling and I think this had a lot to do with the quality of the ingredients and the freshness of everything used. Oh and with change from £30 for a very enjoyable and filling lunch for two I just don’t think you can go wrong.

If anybody has any recommendations for foodie or otherwise things to do in Cancun or the Riviera Maya in Mexico please do comment below.

A London Lunch No. 9: Pilpel – Falafel heaven

A friend and fellow blogger Leila of Swallower of Lives introduced me to Pilpel last summer and I really should thank her for that!

Falafel and hummus are the stars of the show here – it’s a great example of sticking to a small selection of lunch options and executing them very, very well.

You can either opt for a filled pitta or my preference which is a container, filled with your choice of salads, dressings and either hummus or falafel, or if you are anything like me, both.

The salads include everything from cucumber, pickled cabbage, tomatoes, feta and those Middle-Eastern staples of chickpeas, tabbouleh and an irresistible smoked aubergine that I’ve never tried outside of Pilpel which is frankly divine.

The falafels themselves are fantastic – crispy and with crunch on the outside, but moist on the inside and filled with flavour. The hummus is immense – hence why I never opt for the either/or situation – it just has to be both. They also offer guacamole if you fancy mixing it up as well as labneh which is also incredibly moreish but my preference is a good drizzle of tahini and some chilli sauce for a bit of fire.

Pitta comes with the container option and believe me that it’s always a very filling and satisfying lunch.

Everything is priced around the £5.00 mark so it offers good value for money in the centre of the city too – a definite lunch recommendation.

The Pilpel I visited is located on Brushfield Street just off of Spitalfields Market but has another concession inside the market, as well as a branch at St Pauls.

Chilli and Prawn Chorizo Spaghetti

A quick and simple pasta dish that's guaranteed to cheer you up mid week and can be cooked and on the plate in twenty minutes. Packed full of chilli heat and smoky paprika from the chorizo, offset by the delicate prawns, it's a real effortless crowd-pleaser.

1 onion, diced

1 crushed garlic clove

1 sliced red chillies with seeds left in (or removed if you'd like a milder version)

100g raw prawns

2 mini cooking chorizo sausages

2 tbsp chopped parsley

Saute the diced onion and garlic in two tbsp olive oil and once softened, add the chilli and continue to cook for a further five minutes to flavour the oil.

Chop the chorizo into thin coin shapes and add to the pan and allow to cook through for a further five minutes, tossing occassionally.

Cook the spaghetti according to the packet instructions and just before cooked add the raw prawns to the pan. Turn once the prawns have coloured - shouldn't take more than a couple of minutes.

Before draining the pasta add 2 tbsp of the water to the pan and stir through. Add the drained pasta to the pan and stir through so it's all coated in the flavoursome oil. Finally stir through some freshly chopped parsley before serving.

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Olive Oil Cake

Love her or loathe her, Nigella Lawson's cookery books and TV shows always provide me with at least a couple of dishes that I end up making time and time again. In her latest book, Nigellissima, my new fail-safe recipe is a flour and butter-free chocolate cake. The flour is replaced with ground almonds and the butter with olive oil and I originally made this to try out for my friend Steph who has recently discovered she is gluten intollerant. I've since made it three times as it's bloody good.

The edges end up a little crusty and crumbly and the centre is really delicious, rich and moist - more like a pudding than a cut and keep cake, yet it lasts for up to a week and remains just as moist for that long.

150ml regular olive oil

50g good quality cocoa (I use Green & Black's)

125ml boiling water

2 tsp vanilla extract

150g ground almonds

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Pinch of sal

200g caster sugar

3 eggs

Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees and grease and line a 23cm spring form tin.

Sift the cocoa into a small bowl and whisk in the boiling water till you have a smooth, chocolatey paste that's still slightly runny. Whisk in the vanilla extract and set aside to cool a little.

In a different bowl combine the ground almonds with the bicarb and salt.

(Nigella advises using a an electric mixer for this next step but I don't have such a luxury and so stick to the old fashioned method). Beat together the eggs, sugar and olive oil vigourously for about five minutes until you are left with a pale, aerated and thickened mixture.

Continue beating and slowly add the chocolate paste until it's all mixed in then finally fold in the almond mixture until all combined.

Pour into the tin and bake for 40-45 minutes. A knife or skewer should come out mostly clean, with the odd sticky crumb.

Allow to cool a little before turning out of the tin and then sift over a tiny bit of icing sugar if you fancy.

As I said this is a really lovely, rich yet moist cake, but as with all baked things, can be greatly improved with a big dollop of cream. Enjoy!

Bread and Butter Pudding

 

This is a recipe from The Dairy Book of Home Cookery - my Mum's oldest recipe book, an absolute relic that was a gift to her from my lovely Great Nan, or as she was known to me Nanny Bridge (for Bridget).

It is a basic recipe that anyone can make and is a great way of using up old bread and making a classic, stodgy British pudding - perfect for today, St George's Day.

6 slices of white bread

50g butter

50g mixed fruit

100g caster sugar

Pinch of mixed spice

2 large eggs

1 pt milk

Cut off the crusts from the bread and spread both sides of each slice with butter, generously and then cut into triangles.

Put a layer of the bread on the bottom of a greased, oven-proof dish and sprinkle with some of the mixed fruit and sugar and a little sprinkling of mixed spice. Then repeat the process until you have used up all of the bread.

Beat the eggs and milk together and then strain over the bread and leave to stand for about an hour.

Place into a pre-heated oven at around 180 degrees and bake for around 45 minutes, or until the pudding is set and golden brown.

Serve with custard, cream or ice cream for a classic pudding.

Chicken Kiev

 

The chicken kiev has been having a bit of a moment recently and when Felicity Cloake wrote about making the 'perfect' method recently on the Guardian Word of Mouth Blog, I decided to give it a go myself. Taking tips from this piece and my brother Daniel who makes them regularly, I had a bash and the result was lovely. Sadly some of the glorious garlic butter managed to escape despite by best efforts, so if anybody has any tips on keeping it in please do share them!

4 chicken breasts

100g butter, softened

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Bunch of chopped parsley

2 eggs

100g plain flour

3 slices of white bread blitzed into breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper to taste

Firstly in a bowl mix the butter, garlic and parsley till combined and then pop into the freezer.

Get three bowls at the ready - pop the flour and a generous sprinkling of salt and pepper into one, the breadcrumbs into another and in the third beat the two eggs.

Use a mallet or a rolling pin to bash the chicken breasts until they're all a similar thickness to make sure they cook at the same speed.

With a sharp knife make an incision into the side of each breast. To keep the meat as moist as possible, I tried to make the little pocket almost as long as the breast, keeping about a 1cm border from the edge. Then take the garlic butter from the freezer and use a teaspoon to cram in as much as possible into the pocket. Press firmly shut and squeeze to try and stop that butter escaping during cooking.

Firstly coat the chicken in the seasoned flour until fully coated, then do the same in the beaten egg. Finally coat in the breadcrumbs.

Heat a smidge of butter in a pan and once hot place the chicken into the pan. Cook for 3-4 minutes on each side until nicely browned and then transfer to an oven-proof dish and pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until cooked through and then serve with your choice of accompaniments - for me this will always be chips!