Bonnie Gull - Seafood Shack in the City

Last night I managed to tick another restaurant off my "must try" London eatery list. I first came across Bonnie Gull in an Evening Standard review, it sounded pretty good so I added it to my ever growing list of places to eat. Since then its popped up in blogs & review sites all over the place with nothing but praise, so when my mum said she was going to be in London this weekend for her birthday I thought this would be the perfect opportunity!

Starting as a pop up in a Hackney Pie & Mash shop & with a couple of very successful collaborations, Bonnie Gull now has permanent residents on Foley Street in Fitzrovia, with a new seafood cafe on the horizon opening soon in Exmouth Market.

It's a gorgeous teeny tiny seaside seafood shack in the city, the BT tower looms just around the corner but you could swear you were just steps away from the shore!

The interior is simple but effective, as you'd expect a seaside shack to be, all white & blue, with wooden clad benches & bar & with rope adorning the rustic walls. But there are some unique little quirks, namely the stacked crate shelving behind the bar surrounding the raw bar & the "Winkles" & "Clams" toilet signage which really add a special touch.

Booking is a must due to the size & popularity (yes, a popular & tasty restaurant in London that you CAN book at, shocking, I know) I was informed that the bookings come in 2 hour slots but they'll be more than happy to extend this if possible. 

Now... The most important part - the food!

Some seriously good seafood, all 100% UK sourced, the menu changes according to the catches of the day, with a feature blackboard on the back wall which tells you where each type of fish featuring on the menu has been caught - nice touch! 

We ordered the Crab & the Mussels to start. The crab starter was beautiful, half a crab with toasted sour dough & a pot of their special crab mayo - pretty hefty for a starter but that's never really been an issue with me, the more food the better! The mussels with cider, creme fraiche & smoked bacon, served with a big chunk of bread were also a winner, the sauce was delish!

I'm a sucker for a Bouillabaisse, so when I spotted that on the menu I was pretty much sold & was mega happy I did, it came piled with 3 different types of fish (forgive me ... I've forgotten which, but they were all good!) clams, mussels & the best squid I've eaten, It was so meaty & delicious, miles away from the chewy/soft calamari rings that are all too popular around London, this was proper squid, tentacles & all & it was good, really good! We also ordered the Plaice a la Menuiere, Mussels & samphire which was the biggest portion of Plaice I've ever seen, & the Beer Battered Haddock, Beef Dripping Chips, & Mushy Peas ... & we may or may not have also ordered a 2nd portion of the chips to share (they were AMAZING) 

We didn't indulge in dessert unfortunately as we had a rather large birthday cake to get through, I would definitely have gone for the Chocolate Brownie with Cherry Ice Cream if we had done though! Bet it would have been amazing. There was also an impressive looking selection of cocktails that were being churned out from behind the wood clad bar. which unfortunately I didn't delve into on this occasion, another good excuse to go back though! 

The staff are amazingly nice and were only too happy to apply a million candles to my mums birthday cake & sing along to "Happy Birthday", they definitely added to the overall experience with their friendly banter. 

So if you fancy a trip to the seaside but don't quite have the time and/or energy to leave the Capital , or you just want a great seafood meal then get down to Bonnie Gull for the ultimate Seafood shack in the city!

Magical pink ombre layer cake

Last week I made my first 6 layer cake :) ... i'd wanted to try one out for AGES but to be fair, couldn't be bothered! Seemed like a LOT of effort. But finding myself with a morning of nothing to do I figured i'd give it a shot & was surprised at how simple it was!

To make one you will need...

For the cake:

Have all ingredients at room temperature

9 medium eggs - lightly beaten

18oz self raising flour - sifted

18oz caster sugar

18oz butter

2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

For the filling:

Raspberry Jam

250g butter

400g icing sugar

tsp of vanilla extract

To cover:

500g butter

800g icing sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Gel colouring

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4 / 350F / 180C

Grease & line 6 8inch cake tins (I only had 2 so did 2 at a time!)

Beat the butter & sugar together with an electric mixer on a medium speed 

until light & fluffy, about 5-10mins

Turn down the speed & add the eggs a little bit at a time, 

scraping the side of the bowl after each addition

Add the vanilla extract

Once it's all well combined turn off the mixer & 

fold the sifted flour in a bit at a time with a metal spoon

Now separate the mixture into 6 bowls & colour each layer a different hue/colour, 

best to use gel colours instead of liquid food colouring as it makes them more vibrant

Transfer the mixtures into the prepared cake tins & cook for 17-18 mins 

until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean

Leave to cool 

Trim the tops off the layers so they're nice & flat & even

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft & slowly add the icing sugar,

add the vanilla extract & beat until light & fluffy (about 5 mins) 

Layer your sponges with jam & butter cream within each layer

Lightly coat the whole cake with a layer of buttercream to lock in the crumbs & pop into the fridge whilst you prepare your coloured buttercream

As before mix your butter until soft & slowly incorporate the icing sugar & 

vanilla extract beat until light & fluffy

Split the buttercream into 3 bowls & mix in the different amounts

of colour so you end up with 3 hues of the same colour

Using a piping bag with an open star tip start piping swirls of your darkest colour working from the inside out, along the bottom of the cake, filling in any gaps with a little line of buttercream as you go along

Once you've finished the first layer change to a lighter shade of your colour & repeat the swirls, finally finish the top in your lightest shade until the whole cake is covered :) 

TA DAAA! Magical ombre cake! ... my swirls could do with a bit of practice but the colours just look so pretty no-one really cares if they're a bit dodgy! Practice shall i'm sure eventually make perfect :)

It's pretty massive by the time you've finished all the layering & buttercream so make sure you have a lovely bunch of people to help you eat it! 

From across the sea's

As some of you may know I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go and visit my lovely friend Lucy in Singapore earlier this year. She moved out there to work a year ago (lucky thing!) so me & a couple of friends went out to stay for a couple of weeks, with a cheeky trip to Thailand thrown in as a bonus. 

Whilst we were there we discovered something amazing... something which rivalled the view from the pool at the top of Marina Bay Sands, the gorgeous tree lined streets & the dim sum... and it came in the form of a very special sandwich. 

How I wish I didn't love food quite so much... ha! Anyway, I knew I wouldn't be able to do it justice, so as a very special treat today's blog comes all the way from Asia!

My weekend Ritual

It's the little things in life that can make our weekend that little bit more humble and warming. For me, it's a stroll to my local barista coffee house, 'Forty Hands'.

Located in the quaint, nostalgic residential district, Tiong Bahru. Forty Hands is Singapore's best kept secret. Now don't me wrong the coffee is wonderful, but it's not hard to find great coffee in Singapore.... It is in fact the sandwiches that make Forty Hands more than worth the visit.

And so I must tell you about the delight that is the Grilled Mediterranean Lamb Sandwich. Served in a large chunk of toasted freshly baked granary bread, the melted cheese, herby lamb, olives, sun dried tomatoes and onions create a to-die-for combination of delicious Mediterranean flavours. I can honestly say nothing beats the tastiness of this sandwich. It's the perfect hangover cure, pick me up or just general hunger filler!

Sitting on my balcony in the sunshine with one of these bad boys is surely the only way to start a wonderful weekend... There's just one thing missing, my bestest friend Carla to share the enjoyment with :)

Till next time...

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A weekend in the not so frozen North

Last weekend (i'm a bit behind!) myself & the boyfriend packed up the car and headed off up to Leeds to visit my Gran for her 80th birthday.

I'm not from the closest of families, we're all massively spread out across the country and don't get to see each other very often, so it was SO nice to find an occasion to get together.

We were so lucky with the weather, it was BEAUTIFUL, I think it's the first time I've spent any decent amount of time up there without wearing an minimum of 4 layers when leaving the house. We had an amazing birthday meal at a little country gastropub near Poole called the General Tarleton (King Scalops on pea risotto was the sure winner!) and went for a lovely afternoon stroll around the park after dinner.

Sunday morning we took an impromptu trip to a donkey sanctuary (as you do!) and spent some quality time with this little fella. He was SO adorable, I wanted to take him home. 

It really was the loveliest weekend!

Best Burger in London?...

This week I found my new favourite foody place in London. We'd heard the hype, we knew the back story & for some reason we're still trying to work out why we hadn't been before, but from the moment we arrived we knew we were in for something a BIT special.

Thursday night me & my dearest friend Lauren went to Meat Liquor, and it was AMAZING.

Meat Liquor started off as a mobile burger van called The Meat Wagon owned by Yiannis Papoutsis. When it was stolen he hatched the idea of opening the pop up restaurant "Meateasy" in order to save up enough money to buy another, however it turned out to be such a success that they went & opened up a permanent restaurant just off Oxford Street... & so Meat Liquor was born!

We weren't really sure what to expect, we'd heard good things but were worried it wouldn't live up to the amazingness we had going on in our heads. Although, when we rounded the corner & were hit by a smell that made us instantly dribble, we knew there wasn't much chance of us leaving dissapointed.

It was about 9pm on a Thursday evening & with Meat Liquors strict no reservation policy we found ourselves joining the back of a small queue outside the nondescript grey building. The only branding, a red neon slatted sign spelling out "Meat".

About 10 minutes later there was still a slight wait but we were told we could wait at the bar & have a few drinks.  They didn't have to ask us twice & 5 mins later we were standing, jam jar cocktails in hand, taking in the sights and sounds (sights being a selection of amazingly attractive male bar staff, and sounds being REALLY loud music). The cocktail list has been carefully put together by the guys at Soul Shakers - I had a Space Gin Smash (Gin, Lemon Juice, Sugar, Apple Juice, Elderflower cordial, Mint & Grapes) ... it was seriously good!

Jam Jar Cocktail anyone?

The interior has been designed by interior architects Shed & Graphic Design company I Love Dust.  A huge domed ceiling supported by pillars is daubed in crazy black & white murals of animal heads splatted with red paint, giving it a crazy slaughter house feel. This, paired with the low key lighting of red neon signs & the music blasting from the speakers leaves it feeling less like a restaurant and more like a back street American dive bar, perhaps not for everyone, but me & Lauren were loving it.

Graphics by I Love Dust

After about a 10 minute wait we were shown to our table & perused the menu. Simply put together it comprised of a selection no nonsense American diner food, burgers (beef/chicken), cheesesteaks and hot dogs, a few side orders and a selection of "Rabbit food". Both me & Lauren went for the Bacon Cheeseburger & we shared sides of cheese fries, onion rings & coleslaw. It arrived all together on a tray with a kitchen roll to mop ourselves up with afterwards. The burger was a meaty masterpiece, the onion rings were MASSIVE, the chips were a huge portion smothered in fried onions & cheese, & the coleslaw was literally the best coleslaw i've ever had in my life. We were left probably about a stone heavier after demolishing the mountain of food, but it was totally worth it, what with the amazing food & the incredible atmosphere.

Greasy Masterpiece

Clearly not a place to go if you're on a diet, or if you want a nice quiet intimate meal with friends and family, but it's amazing no frills food, a great atmosphere and great value for money, despite being in central London. We paid £24 for 2 for a giant tray of food, & cocktails start from £7, well worth a visit!

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Cookies

I'm a total sucker for anything involving a combination of peanut butter & chocolate, so when I came across the recipe for peanut butter & chocolate cookies in my Hummingbird Bakery recipe book a few years back it was clearly going to be a winner. 

I think this is the first Hummingbird recipe I tried out & it's been used time & time again for all number of occasions, they're literally the best cookies i've ever tasted & everyone who's tried them has just fallen completely in love, they're soft & chewy, taste amazing and are amazingly simple! 

To make you will need :

225g unsalted butter at room temperature
200g caster sugar
200g soft light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
240g crunchy peanut butter
340g plain flour
2 1/2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
75g dark chocolate, chopped

Method :

Preheat the oven to 170C (325F) Gas 3.

Prepare two baking trays with baking parchment paper on.

Put the butter and sugars in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment and cream until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well and scraping any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula after each addition. Turn the mixer down to a slow speed and beat in the vanilla extract and peanut butter.

Add the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and mix well until a smooth dough is formed. Stir in the chocolate until evenly dispensed.

Arrange 6 equal amounts of cookie dough on each prepared baking tray. Make sure that the cookies are spaced apart to allow for spreading while baking.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 10 minutes or until golden brown around the edges and quite flat. Leave the cookies to cool slightly on the trays before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies should be soft and chewy.

They're very soft when they come out of the oven so the bit about leaving them to cool slightly on the baking tray is important as they firm up as they cool down.

I also always make half the batch with chocolate & half without as I find some people are fussy about the two mixed together (I'm still not sure why I'm friends with some of these people :p they're clearly insane but I do try to keep everyone happy!)

Enjoy! 

(I know you will!)

The Waffle House St Albans

For those in & around St Albans who like a yummy breakfast/lunch I'd strongly recommend The Waffle House. I've only been there for lunch myself, but the breakfast menu looks AMAZING - think Organic scrambled eggs, free-range back bacon, sautéed field mushrooms and griddled tomatoes, or Free-range back bacon, fried banana and griddled herby plum tomato on a wholemeal waffle, thats a dribble inducing breakfast if ever I heard one!

When I last went with the boyfriend we set ourselves the challenge of devouring both a savory main waffle as well as a sweet dessert waffle - I had Hummous & Avocado wholemeal waffle - Fresh hummous layered with wild rocket, sun-dried tomatoes and organic olives, drizzled with a sweet chilli and balsamic dressing and topped with an avocado fan (It was SO good) followed by a Hot Dutch Apple Waffle - Delicious bramley apples cooked with plump sultanas and mixed spices.

The boyfriend had Ham, Cheese Sauce & Mushroom Waffle - Free-range ham layered with our Lancashire cheddar cheese sauce and button mushrooms sautéed with Tamari followed by a Spiced Fruit Waffle - Mixed dried fruits coated with sweet spices then baked into the waffle with sliced bananas & cinamon sugar.

Hummous & Avocado

Hot Dutch Apple

I would only recommend attempting both if you haven't eaten for a couple of days, it was tough going & I had to give up half way through my Hot Dutch Apple Waffle, the boyfriend however, finished off not only BOTH of his but my left overs as well. His eating abilities never cease to amaze me!

Seriously though... go, its so good, the building is set in an old watermill & has out door seating if summer ever decides to grace Hertfordshire, it's super pretty & near the park so you can go for a nice stroll  to walk it off afterwards!

Breakfast Cups

Today was day one of my 3 week holiday, I could SO get used to not working. Before I jet off to Singapore and Thailand I am spending some quality time with the boyfriend, so today we spent the morning shopping, went for a run and then I finally got to make one of the brunch recipes i've had stashed away for when I finally had time to cook in the middle of the day!

We made, bacon and egg breakfast cups.

I originally found the recipe on one of my favourite foody blogs - www.spoonforkbacon.com which incidentally is the home to the majority of the brunch recipes i'm dying to make, including "Baked apple cinnamon french toast" which looks AMAZING.

But yes, the breakfast cups were the first I came across, although it appears to have disappeared off the blog now!

So these are basically bacon egg and toast in cute little cup form! 

To make 6 you'll need:

6 Slices of bread

6 Rashers of bacon

6 eggs

Salt & Pepper

Muffin Tin

Method:

Preheat the oven to gas mark 6 (400 degrees)

Grease 6 holes of your muffin tin

Flatten out your bread with a rolling pin and cut a circle out the middle using a cookie cutter, a glass or a knife... I went with knife, and press into the muffin tin to create a little bread cup.

Grill/fry your 6 rashers of bacon until almost crisp, place a rasher into each bread cup and crack an egg over each. 

Season with salt and pepper. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for 20-25 minutes until the whites are just about set, run a knife around the edge and pop out of the muffin tin using a spoon. 

There you have it... breakfast cups, such a cute way of serving bacon and egg, and super yummy! 

I love brunch. 

Breakfast Eggs-press

I received the best gift from a friend at work the other day. After this was first bought into my life I kept seeing it everywhere I went!... Seriously, it was haunting me. I was clearly meant to have one of them in my life. So you can only imagine my excitement when I walked into the office to find one on my desk... Squealing was involved.

I, Carla Michelle Anne Leclezio am the proud owner of my very own Breakfast Express Train.

 Yes... A train you eat your Breakfast off. Amazing no?! It comes in three parts, a carriage for your egg, a carriage for your soldiers and a carriage for your seasoning. The PERFECT device to carry your dippy egg breakfast. 

It's made out of bone china with magnets that connect the three carriages and real working wooden wheels that will guarantee you have a wheely eggciting (sorry) time over breakfast.

Unfortunately it's quite an egg-stravagent (last time promise) purchase at £60 but sure to provide hours of entertainment over the breakfast table!

A beautiful creation by Reiko Kaneko, who I have fallen in love with recently, her table wear is to die for! Check out her website ... www.reikokaneko.co.uk, but beware, you'll probably want to buy pretty much everything on it. I warned you!