A busy week...

As life often gets in the way of me posting all of my eating and drinking endeavours on here, I thought I’d pop up a bit of a short round-up of ‘what I’ve been up to’ this week.

I cooked a gorgeous Thai beef recipe I spotted in delicious magazine adapted ever so slightly. Firstly I cooked a 300g piece of rump steak that I picked up from Williams Butchers in Balgores Lane, Gidea Park (my favourite local butchers).

I simply rubbed in a tablespoon of green Thai curry paste into the steak and then pan fried for 2 minutes on each side (for rare) and then wrapped in tin foil to allow to rest. Next I added some sliced fresh garlic and ginger to the pan with half a chopped green chilli for a minute before adding half a tin of coconut milk and another tablespoon of green Thai curry paste and simmering for ten minutes. In the meantime I cooked some green beans and broccoli and some rice to serve alongside. Just before serving I popped the juices from the rested steak into the sauce and stirred. I sliced the steak which served two of us and piled on top of the rice with the vegetables before pouring over the sauce and throwing over some coriander. It was absolutely delicious and will be reappearing in my kitchen. 

On Thursday evening last week I attended a really cool Chilean art exhibition by the utterly beautiful artist Macay. I’m not the most arty person, so I won’t try and detail the work (too much) aside from saying that Macay uses women and other feminine beings such as birds and butterflies on girly backgrounds to make stunning prints. As well as a big outside display leading into the Red Gallery in Shoreditch, the gallery was dotted with intricate prints on the inside too. The evening was hosted by TRIO – a range of Chilean wines by Concho Y Toro that were served throughout the exhibition. The Sauvignon Blanc was fantastic, light bodied yet crisp with some citrusy zing in there, in short the perfect drink to start off my weekend. 

My best friend Larni and I have finally booked up our New York trip which we have been planning for the past eight months which is incredibly exciting. We go in nine weeks and are staying at The Waldorf Astoria which is exciting enough in itself – neither of us has been before so if you have any recommendations for this city, then please do pass my way. We indulged in a little retail therapy at the weekend at Westfield Stratford City, and after building up a bit of an appetite enjoyed some mezze at The Real Greek, washed down with a celebratory Mythos & Peroni or two. I have to say their ‘tiropitakia’ are immense – filo pastry filled with spinach and feta and the addition of leak and cream – gorgeous. 

With New York in mind I’m going to attempt to lose a little weight in the next two months in the lead up so have been eating a lot of what Glen likes to call ‘rabbit food’. Whilst there is only so much soup I can stomach, I never tire of a good salad and with the additions of zingy flavourful things such as lime juice, capers, anchovies, beetroot and peppery radishes (from my parent’s garden I might add) there’s no need to get bored. Here is a feta salad I enjoyed with only 50g feta, some lettuce, shredded red onion, half an avocado, an abundance of radish, a chopped pepper, some tinned sweetcorn and a few chopped cherry tomatoes with a good drizzle of olive oil, the juice of half a lemon some fresh snipped chives over the top and some oregano for some good, Greek measure – beautiful.