All things elderflower…

Here is a recipe for elderflower cordial. It’s free to go out and pick your own elderflower and there are so many yummy things you can do with it. I love making it into cordial which can be used for refreshing summer drinks. Lovely with some lime juice and soda water over ice but also makes a lovely gin cocktail which I’ll include the recipe for at the bottom. 

 
3 generous bunches of elderflower (flowers and stalks cleaned gently in cold water)

2 lemons

1 orange

2 1/2 kg white sugar

1 1/2 litre of water

85g citric acid (can be purchased in chemists or Amazon) 

Begin by peeling the zest from the lemons and orange and slice into pinwheels. 

Make a simple sugar syrup by placing the sugar and water in a large saucepan and gently heating until the sugar dissolves. Bring the syrup to the boil and remove from heat. 

Place the elderflowers, citric acid, zest and pinwheels in the sugar Syrup and stir everything together. Cover and allow to infuse for 24 hours.

Strain the syrup through muslin or a tea towel into sterilised containers. The cordial will last up to 6 weeks in the fridge.

  
 
Elderflower cocktail:

50ml gin

20ml lemon juice

20ml Elderflower cordial

3 fresh mint leaves and cucumber slices

Finish with soda water and ice 

(Omit the gin for a just as tasty non alcohol version) 

Dinerama

One of my favourite parts of London to explore is Shoreditch. Everytime I go I find some new quirky discovery and this time I stumbled across Dinerama. The people behind dinerama have already developed the cool concept of Street Feast in Dalston which is an on going foodie fest throughout the summer. 

Dinerama is like an outdoor street food food court made from all re furnished materials. It also has 5 different bars including a rooftop rum bar and a gin bar. Although I didn’t try any food (just the drink instead 🙂 ) it all looked SO good. We went when it was pretty quiet so Id love to go back in the evening when there’s a bit more of a crowd and atmosphere. Definitely one to visit throughout the summer.

   
         

  
 

Dinner for two in under ten…

This recipe of sea bass with chickpeas and cress is a quick and easy dinner recipe which can be made in under ten minutes (and for under ten euro). If you have good ingredients and good seasoning you don’t need any sauce to make a dish delicious….

What you need

2 sea bass fillets

1 can chickpeas

bunch of fresh mint

1 red deseeded chilli

1 lemon

bunch of cress leaves

olive oil and sea salt

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Season the fish with olive oil and salt. Strain the chickpeas and empty contents into a pot and cover with water. Bring the water to a simmer and allow them cook for 4 minutes and strain again.  Toss in olive oil and season with salt. Finely chop the mint leaves and chilli and finely zest the lemon.

Heat a little oil in a pan and once its piping hot add the sea bass skin side down. Press down using a fish slice so the skin doesn’t curl up. Cook for a minute or so and take a peek at the under side to see the colour of the skin. Once you have a golden colour remove the fillets to an oven tray and continue cooking in the oven for a further 3-4 minute until the flesh is no longer translucent.

Meanwhile dress the cress leaves with lemon juice, olive oil and salt. Finish the chickpeas by adding the mint, chilli, lemon zest and some juice. Add more salt if necessary.

Place both the leaves and chickpeas on a plate and finish with fish on top. Serve with thinly sliced lemon pinwheels. Enjoy, xx

A weekend in (food) pictures…..

There was a lot of eating and drinking done this weekend in London. And it wasn’t even a bank holiday over here. My family were here for the weekend so we ventured to a few of my favourite spots around London for food and drink throughout the weekend.

On Saturday we went to The Chiltern Firehouse for lunch. We arrived early so we could sit outside for a few drinks before lunch and although it was lashing rain it was so cosy sitting ouside by the open fire

                         

Ive been to the Chiltern once before for dinner and both times now the food has been so so good. We started with their famous crab donuts. I then had monkfish and a dessert of milk and honey. All so tasty! The service however was not the best but we didn’t let it take away from the good food.

       

  

We also popped into La Fromagerie for coffee which I have mentioned in a previous blog post as one of my favourite places to buy cheese. We stocked up on some goods for a cheese and wine night on Saturday night which was perfect after such a big lunch. The guy serving us gave us the nicest cheese and threw in some freebies as he knew I worked at Spring and they supply some of our cheese.

On Sunday evening myself and my sister went to Polpo which has just opened a new branch on Duke of York Square right by where I live (very happy about this). We ordered 3 small plates and some focaccia bread and it was the perfect amount. Each plate was so tasty. We had Fritto misto, ham hock and savoy cabbage and beef and ricotta meatballs. And of course some more wine just because we were on a roll 🙂

Such a great weekend, xx