Open tuna salad sandwich with poached egg

Open tuna salad sandwich with poached egg

• Tin of tuna, drained
• 2 tomatoes
• Handful of black olives
• Small handful of feta cheese, cubed
• Spring onion, sliced
• Wedge of cucumber cut into quarters
• Handful of mixed salad leaves 
• 2 eggs, break each egg into a small ramekin dish
• Bread of choice
• Salad dressing
• White wine vinegar

Serves 2

Method:

Cut off a couple of decent slices of bread, butter them and place onto your plate.  Top the bread with some salad and then put the tuna on top followed by the feta, cucumber, spring onions, olives and tomato, season with a few grinds of black pepper.

Bring a medium pan of water to the boil, add a few splashes of white wine vinegar and then tip in the eggs and cook for 3 minutes.  Remove the eggs with a slotted spoon and place each egg in top of your sandwich, drizzle over some salad dressing and serve.

This is quick and easy to make and is a super tasty lunch.  My local Co-op sells a mature cheddar and jalapeño bread which is what I used here, it is seriously good, go get some, trust me you won't regret it!  This is perfect when sat out in the garden with a nice cold glass of Pinot on the go, a great way to welcome in the summer to come!

Breakfast frittata

Breakfast frittata

• 12 chipolata sausages
• 2 large handfuls of grated cheese
• 8 cherry tomatoes
• 2 handfuls of baby spinach
• 10 eggs, lightly beaten
• Couple glugs of whole milk
• 1 small pepper, finely diced
• Salt and freshly ground pepper
• Couple pinches of Turkish pepper flakes (if you have them!)

Firstly lightly grease your tin, I have a small non stick roasting tin, 9"x12" and 2" deep which is perfect for this recipe.  Preheat your oven to 180 degrees, whilst this is warming up cut up your sausages, you want about 6 pieces from each sausage.

Crack the eggs into a jug, add a few glugs of milk and season with salt and pepper and then lightly beat.  Place the cut sausages into the tin and cook in the oven until browned through (around 10 minutes).  Once cooked, place the spinach over the top of the sausages and then pour over the egg mix.  Sprinkle the diced pepper over the top of the mixture followed by the cheese, gently push down onto the top as you want the egg mix to cover the ingredients.  Place the halved cherry tomatoes evenly around. Grind some more pepper over the top and sprinkle on some of the Turkish pepper flakes (optional if you have them!), return the tin to the oven and cook for around 30 minutes until the top is browned slightly and the frittata is firm to the touch.

I only call this breakfast frittata as I make this for my partners breakfast however it is perfect for any time of the day, brunch, lunch or dinner served with a nice crisp salad or some cheeky feta fries!  It is so versatile, you can pretty much put what you like in with the egg mix, mushrooms are another firm favourite for this dish, enjoy!

Breakfast frittata

Turkish Style Tuna & Halloumi Salad with Herby Salsa

Turkish Style Tuna & Halloumi Salad with Herby Salsa

• 2 tins tuna, drained
• 1/2 pepper thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, thinly peeled in to ribbons
• 1/2 cucumber thinly sliced
• 1/2 red onion finely diced
• 3 tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
• 500g sliced Halloumi
• Handful of chopped coriander
• Handful of chopped mint (reserve a pinch to garnish the dish)
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses (available from supermarkets)
• A pinch of Turkish pepper flakes (ordered mine from Amazon)
• Sea salt and ground black pepper
• 1 punnet of Sweet Chili baby beetroot
• Bag of salad

Method:

To make the salsa, combine the tomatoes, onion, herbs, pepper flakes, molasses and 4 tbsp of olive oil, mix together and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, fry the halloumi for a few minutes each side until golden and then set aside.

On a large serving dish empty the bag of salad and scatter over the carrot, peppers and cucumber.  Top the salad with the halloumi and the tuna and then drizzle on the salsa. Add the Sweet Chili baby beetroot around the edge.

This recipe serves 4 and whoever the lucky people are to share it with you, they will thank you, trust me!  We had this last night for dinner and the two of us polished it off, it was that good.  This recipe is perfect for this time of year and is great on its own or to go alongside a BBQ, this is what al fresco dining was invented for. 

 I shall be making this again in the next few days, thinking I may top with some poached eggs, what do you think?

Red Dawg Apache pulled pork flatbread with crackling

Red Dawg Apache pulled pork flatbread with crackling

• Pork belly (size will depend on how many people you are feeding so adjust accordingly)
• Flatbreads (1 per person)
• Handful of pea shoots
• Crumbled Feta cheese
• 1/2 sliced red onion
• Sliced peppers
• Red Dawg Apache sauce from www.angusandoink.com 
• Voodoo Mango sauce from Angus & Oink
• Phat Taco sauce from Angus & Oink

Method:

Place the pork belly in a lidded tin (the tin needs to be just big enough for the pork), pat the skin dry and rub over a few pinches of sea salt.  Heat the oven to highest setting and place in the pork (uncovered) for around 20 minutes or so until the skin is blistered looking.  Turn the oven down to 160 degrees, pour a small amount of water around the pork (just enough to cover a depth of around a centimetre), place the lid onto the tin and return to the oven.  You will need to cook the pork for around 3-4 hours depending on the size of the meat.  Periodically check the pork and top up the water as this will cook off, for the last hour add white wine to the tin instead of the water and then for the last 30 minutes turn the heat up to 200 degrees and cook the pork uncovered to really crisp up the crackling, once done remove from the oven and set aside.

When the meat has cooled slightly, using a sharp knife remove the crackling sheet from the top of the pork, once removed you can scrape off any fat that may remain (it should pretty much have cooked off though!).  Break the crackling into small pieces and leave to one side.  Using two forks, shred the pork in the tin (there should be no liquid remaining at this stage).  Once shredded, add a good few glugs of the Red Dawg Apache sauce and mix through, the idea is not to swamp the pork in the sauce, you just want to use enough to moisten the meat and for the sauce to impart its flavour.  

Heat your flatbreads in the oven according to the pack instructions, once heated, drizzle some Phat Taco sauce over the top of each and spread evenly using the back of a spoon.  Top each flatbread with the shredded pork, peas shoots, peppers, feta cheese and crackling.  Finish off with a drizzle of the Voodoo Mango sauce.

This is a great Saturday night dish, you can vary the toppings and the cheese, (I normally use grated mozzarella but had feta in at the time).  You can make this as spicy or as mild as you like for each flatbread made, it is always a crowd pleaser and the sauces really give a great kick and flavour.

If you don't have the time (or inclination) to cook the pork as above, you can cheat and buy one of those BBQ joints from the supermarket that have already been cooked so you just need to heat it through in around 30 minutes.  This is handy is you are in a rush, but I prefer the slow method, you can't beat a good bit of crispy crackling which you can only get through a long slow roasting!  

Boxpark - Chilango

Boxpark - Chilango

As my time working in Croydon is coming to an end, given my love of Mexican food, I thought it would be wrong not to pay Chilango a visit.  That said, this was my second visit, albeit this time I was eating, last visit a few months back, having stood at the counter for some time and been ignored by the 3 woman behind the counter who were too busy talking to each other, I ended up walking out!  To be honest, I wouldn’t have gone back after that  but the girls in the office were raving about it so I thought I should give it one more go.

My friend and I popped in just after 12 today, given that it was the start of lunchtime I was a bit surprised that we had to wait whilst they were cooking more chicken, but hey, they have a good sized seating area and we weren’t in too much of a rush so it was no biggy.  When the chicken was cooked we were called over and we both ordered The Chilango, which is hailed as their legendary chicken burrito with black beans, roasted tomato salsa, sour cream and cheese.  The chicken, rice and black beans are placed onto the flour tortilla before it is then passed to the next server who adds the toppings.  It was at this point it suddenly turned into the conveyor belt from The Generation Game (showing my age here!!), I didn’t understand what the girl had said to me and by the time I twigged I could have extra toppings, she had already wrapped up my burrito and it was ready to be paid for!  This turned out to be a shame as I like my spice, which effectively this now had none of as it just consisted of salsa, sour cream and cheese!  The guy on the till was friendly and polite, directed us to the cutlery and additional napkins and straws etc, after which we then sat to have our lunch.

On the whole we both agreed it was nice, not sure either of us thought of it as legendary though.  To be honest, if McDonalds did burritos this is probably what I would expect, it didn’t smack of anything special, which was a bit disappointing.  Not entirely sure if the chicken used is thigh meat, however my friend had several rather fatty/chewy bits of chicken which ended up in her napkin, thankfully I didn’t experience that but to be fair it didn’t actually appear there was that much chicken in mine.  All in all it was nice enough, for the money (£6.95) I would have expected a bit more chicken and would have preferred chicken breast over thigh (if that’s what is used!).  The unit is nicely set out, as mentioned above, plenty of seating and some funky art work, if I come back at least I know what to expect so I won’t miss out on any hot sauce etc next time!  There is a good choice on the menu, which includes salads, tacos, super nachos and nudos (all the flavour of a burrito but without the tortilla), and a variety of fillings, steak, pork belly and grilled prawns along with the mandatory chicken, give them a go, see what you think.

Vietvan Croydon

Vietvan - Croydon

Whilst I have been sampling the foods on offer at Boxpark I noticed a couple of stalls across the street, one of which being Vietvan.  As I'm off to Vietnam next month I  thought I would give them a go, get a flavour of what I can look forward to and oh my G, am I glad I did!  Firstly, I have to say Nick and Tracy who are the founders, what a couple of characters, bubbly, chatty and more importantly passionate about what they are doing, I knew from the moment we first spoke this was going to be an experience.

My friend Cheryl and I both opted for the lemongrass pork Banh mi, this is basically a fresh crusty baguette stuffed full of carrot, cucumber and salad, topped with the pork and drizzled with a basil dressing and sriracha sauce and topped with coriander and fresh chillies (amongst other things...sorry, I was drooling too much to take a note of the other extras lol).  Shortly after ordering the sodding gas cylinder ran out....noooooo, but clearly someone was looking down on me as Nick had just cooked some of the chicken, all was not lost, I would still get to sample some of the Vietvan foodie goodness.  I really felt for the guys as there was a queue forming and you could see those behind me clearly crossing fingers that there was enough cooked chicken to go around, to be frank though I was just glad I was going to get mine, sorry peeps, every hungry man for himself and all that! 

With my two Banh mi in hand I scurried back to the office (I had to, otherwise Cheryl would have inflicted serious injury on me, she does like her food!).  Well, what can I say, this was so tasty, the baguette, fresh and with a decent crunch, the veggies, vibrant and crisp, the chicken, cooked to perfection and tasty as hell, the dressings just added to the overall zing and boy did those fresh chillies give it that kick that you look for. 

 I can honestly say this is one of the best lunches I've had in a long time and at £5 for a good old portion, definite value for money.  They do salads as well with the chicken and pork and also tofu so a good choice for all, get yourselves along to Vietvan if you want to sample some good, tasty Vietnamese street food, you won't be disappointed.

I am truly gutted as I'm only working in Croydon for a few more weeks so my time to sample the foodie goodness on offer at Vietvan is very limited!  Keep up the good work Nick & Tracy and peeps, you need to check these guys out- take a look at their Facebook page.

Vietvan Salad

Lime & Chilli Chicken Burger with Greek Yogurt Guacamole

Lime & Chilli chicken burger with Greek yogurt guacamole

• Zest and juice of 1 lime
• Olive oil
• Small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2cm piece of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 avocado
• 2 tbsp Greek natural yoghurt
• 2 burger buns
• Lettuce and tomato slices to serve

Method: 

In a small blender blitz 1 tbsp olive oil, half the lime juice, coriander and garlic with all the lime zest, chilli and ginger, then season.  Pour this over the chicken and leave to marinate for 30 minutes.  Mash the remaining garlic, coriander and lime juice with the avocado, add the yoghurt and season, then mix thoroughly.

Heat a griddle pan until very hot, wipe any excess marinade off of the chicken and cook for around 5 minutes each side or until cooked through (cut into the chicken to check for any pinkness!).  Toast your burger buns and fill with the guacamole, lettuce and tomato, topping off with the chicken breast. 

This really is so quick and easy to prepare which belies how tasty this is!  Perfect with a good old portion of chips, just what you need after a hard day at work!  If it’s a bit carb heavy you can omit the burger buns and use lettuce to wrap around the chicken, guacamole and tomato (notice I didn’t say omit the chips lol).  Enjoy!     

Lazeez Lebanese Tapas

Beirut beef burger and fries

I was a bit undecided as to what to have for lunch so headed to Boxpark Croydon for a mooch around to see what took my fancy.  

I had decided to go back to Greek on the Street and get the chicken takeaway box however it was pretty manic in there so I headed off to check out what else was on offer.  Having done a circuit within Boxpark I decided to try out Lazeez who specialize in Lebanese tapas.  

There seemed to be a good choice on offer, a variety of wraps, salads, tapas, soup and the Beirut burger which comes with fries.  Whilst it all sounded very nice I opted for the Beirut beef burger and fries.  Before ordering, the staff member informed me it came with cheese. He said you could get cheese with the chicken option as well, but generally it’s just with the beef option, as it goes better. He asked about what salads I wanted in the burger, by my puzzled look he then said did I want the usual and sauces to which I said yes, it just seemed easier! 

I waited around 15 minutes for my order which when you consider they make it fresh to order is not that long, that said, a few people who placed orders after me got theirs ahead of me!  The guy behind the counter went to hand me an open tub of fries and my burger; given I had ordered takeaway I would have expected the food to be bagged up. I had to ask for a bag at which point the staff member put a lid on the pot of fries and placed them along with the burger into a bag.  

By the time I got back to the office to eat I was starving and looking forward to getting stuck in to my lunch.  This is pretty much where my eager anticipation ended!  There was a decent amount of fries within the tub, however upon opening the burger wrapper I couldn’t help but feel this didn’t quite look like the burger advertised in the restaurant.  On taking the top bun off to inspect the contents I wasn’t quite expecting to see the charred excuse for a burger not to mention no cheese either.  I took one bite of the burger; there is a big difference between chargrilled and carbon,  this kind of reminded me of the burger that gets left on the BBQ and sits there for the duration, neither appetizing in taste or in appearance! 

  I had just paid £8 for this, which to be frank on the basis of what I received I don’t think is good value for money so I decided to take it back as it clearly was inedible.  On returning they did offer to make me another one which I declined as I couldn’t wait a further 15 minutes, they also pointed out that the burger is chargrilled, however I pointed out there is a difference between chargrilled and charcoal which is what the burger resembled!  

I’m not entirely sure if this is the norm or I just got unlucky, I hope it was the latter, if not the promise of “meat cooked over a charcoal grill and sprinkled with herbs to give it natural taste and flavour” is clearly not a true representation of what is actually on offer.           

Just incase anyone feels I am being slightly unfair, I have attached a couple of photographs.  I do hope this is a one off but I can only go by my own experience, sorry if it’s not a true reflection of the usual standard but at the end of the day each burger, wrap or salad should be as good as advertised.  Would I go back? Not in a hurry! Here is my burger and the advert....can you spot the difference?

Beirut Burger from Lazeez

Exotic Mango Coconut Cheesecake

Exotic Mango Coconut Cheesecake

• 140 g Sweet Coconut Biscuit Crumbs
• 50 g Unsalted Butter, Melted
• 5 Leaves Gelatine
• 100 ml Coconut Milk
• 280 g Philadelphia Light
• 90 g Caster Sugar
• 275 ml Whipping Cream, Whipped Until Thick
• Finely grated zest of 1 Lime
• Fruit from half a mango, cubed
• 50 ml Of Mango Puree

I'm more of a savoury kind of guy, however I have my moments and will make desserts and boy am i glad I made this one. Whilst its a cheesecake, it was light and fluffy, and kind of mousse like. Perfect for a dinner party, and not to heavy after a starter and main course. will definitely be making this one again. 

To make the base:

Combine together the biscuit crumbs and melted butter and press into the base of an 20 cm loose-bottomed cake tin and chill whilst preparing the filling.

To make the filling:

Soak the gelatine in a bowl of cold water until softened, then drain well. Meanwhile heat the coconut milk until warm. Add the softened gelatine and stir until melted. Mix together the Philadelphia and sugar until smooth. Gradually whisk the gelatine coconut milk into the Philadelphia mixture and then fold in the whipped cream and lime zest. Spoon the mixture over the biscuit base and smooth the surface. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until set.

To decorate:

Just before serving, decorate with the mango cubes and mango puree.

Tuna fishcakes

 Tuna fishcakes

• 300g potatoes
• 160g tin of tuna
• Olive oil
• Small handful chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 large egg
• 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp plain flour plus extra for dusting
• Sea salt and black pepper

Method:

Firstly peel the potatoes and cut into small chunks.  Cook in boiling salted water for around 10-15 minutes or until you can push a skewer through with no resistance.  Drain the potatoes and leave to steam dry in the pan.  

Once you have let the potatoes steam dry for a few minutes, mash them up in the pan, spreading them evenly around as you want the mash to cool.  Once cooled, add the drained tuna, egg, tbsp flour, chopped parsley, good pinch of salt and a good few grinds of black pepper.  Zest the lemon into the pan and then mash and mix everything well until it is all combined.  Dust a large plate with a little flour, divide the potato mixture into 4 and then lightly shape and pat into circles.  Put the fishcakes onto a clean plate dusted with flour and pop into the fridge for around an hour in order that they firm up.

Heat a couple of tbsp of olive oil in a large pan over a medium heat, add the fishcakes and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side or until crisp.  

I served these fishcakes with a nice side salad, topped with mayonnaise and a few splashes of Kankun Habanero Sauce, coupled with a rapeseed vinaigrette dressing and boy did these go down well, filling and tasty and a def must make again!  These can be made with salmon but I personally prefer tuna.

Recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver