Guerrilla brekkie

Nearly a month in, I'm still struggling to hit my stride with this kitchen. So far I haven't been able to manage anything too complicated because of the state of disarray it has been in.

This weekend we've moved some shelves in which has improved things big time stylee, so I've felt inspired to make a brekkie with more wow factor than Weetabix.

What you need (for two hungry peeps)

Two big handfuls of baby spinach

Two handfuls of chestnut mushrooms, quartered

2 eggs

big fat slices of Cholla bread (or any other bread will do)

soy sauce

a big teaspoon of thick cream or creme fraiche

chives

dill

mayonnaise

The do

For your eggs, bring a medium sized saucepan of water to the boil then reduce to a simmer.

In a small bowl, mix together about a tablespoon of mayonnaise with a big teaspoon of chopped dill. (Clearly this is no substitute for hollandaise but who really makes hollandaise at home?)

In a small frypan, heat a big knob of butter and fry the mushrooms over medium heat, when they are 3/4 done put the eggs in the pan of water to poach. Now throw half a cap of soy sauce into the mushrooms, fry for a further minute or so, take off the heat, then stir in the cream and dish out onto plates.

By now the eggs should be ready. Pop your toast down, quickly rinse out the mushroom pan, put it back on the heat, then throw the washed spinach into the hot pan and cook until wilted and soft. Dress with some olive oil and a squeeze of lemon. Plate it all up and you are good to go. Bonus points if you can juggle the coffee making as well!

Tunes
Adam and Joe (6music, Saturday 10-1)

New digs!

It's been so long since I last posted , I'd be amazed if any one was still checking in on this poor little blog! If you are, thanks, and sorry for neglecting you.

It's been a bit of a busy time for us - we've moved out of our little pad, been homeless for a bit whilst we made our new home habitable, screwed up my visa application so I was almost deported and FINALLY moved in couple of weeks ago.

So to christen the new kitchen in true Lily and Chew style, I have attempted to make savoury hot cross buns to commemorate the crucifixion of the big JC. All you need is a decent white bread dough recipe. Add a good handful of chopped chives and as much mature cheddar cheese and you can be bothered to grate, then leave to prove for about 20 minutes before separating into bun-like balls. With the tip of a sharp knife, mark a cross into the top of each one and sprinkle a little more cheese on top before baking for around 20 minutes at about 200 (our new oven is gas and I still have to get my head around the whole conversion thing).

Enjoy fresh out of the oven with LOADS of butter.

Summery insalata

Yippee! Tomorrow we are heading out to Kent to stay at the Keeper's cottage on the grounds of Leeds Castle, but first, I must conduct my pre-holiday ritual of using up what's left in the fridge. Take out would probably be a more practical option considering that with a toddler in tow I'll have to pack half the flat - but I really hate waste and quite enjoy the challenge of a clear-out dinner. Plus it's nice coming home to a fridge that doesn't smell like bin juice.

I have:

a bunch of carrots

mint

cherry tomatoes

a courgette

buffalo mozzarella (OK, so I cheated a little and bought this earlier in the day)

The plan is to make a souped up insalata caprese, the ingredient that really ties this dish together is the gorgeous buffalo mozzarella with its weird cooked chicken-like texture. Never ever use a knife to cut it! Ripping up a ball of buffalo mozzarella is a strangely satisfying activity that should be enjoyed whenever possible.

The do

Slice the courgette thinly and chop the carrots into bite sized pieces.

Fry the courgette with a little oil and salt in a frying pan until soft and a little charred. While this is happening steam or boil the carrots until they are just done, you don't want them to be too mushy. When everything is done, lay it all together into a big plate and sprinkle a couple of chopped mint leaves on top. Top with a some pinenuts, a handful of halved cherry tomatoes and the buffalo mozzerella, then drizzle a generous amount of good olive oil on top.

Enjoy with some super crunchy ciabatta and a big glass of red wine before you attempt the packing.

Tunes
Butterfly House The Coral

Monday night...

An Elvis-sized thanks to all who came on Monday night, we had a super fun time and I'm especially glad that all the food was eaten too. Here we are wielding some pizza-sized biscuits with Diddy Wah and the man of the evening.

Fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches

This delicacy was one of Elvis's favourites

What you need

2 loaves of white bread, with crusts cut off

approx 5 bananas, mashed

1 big jar of sunpat smooth peanut butter

lots of butter

The do

Make sandwiches using the mashed banana and peanut butter, then fry in a heavy based frying pan with a big knob of butter until golden brown on both sides. Cut into quarters.

Also, a big thanks to the amazing Kelly V and her ace-o-rama cupcake socks for all her help. You totally (jailhouse) rock!

Come and get it!

Here's your chance to try some authentic Lily and Chew cuisine absolutely FREE. We'll be serving up some kingly delights at Diddy Wah's Elvis tribute night, tomorrow from 8pm at the Haggerston. Hurry, because like the great man, it can't last long.

Fact: Did you know that towards the end of his life Elvis was consuming 100,000 calories PER DAY?! Dude!
Thanks to Kelly V for pointing me in the direction of this article written by none other than Dr Karl Kruszelnicki

The King is dead, long live the King

It’s Elvis night at the Haggerston, Kingsland Road this coming Monday, August 19th.

Come down and celebrate the life and death of the King with the incomparable DJ Diddy Wah. Get there early and try some special dishes created just for the event by Lily & Chew – absolutely free3.

Fried peanut butter and banana sandwich anyone?

Last weekend...

Just had the most glorious weekend - picnic under a nice shady tree on Parliament Hill on Saturday, then on Sunday a little trip to Arundel to see the castle and have a walk around.
If you ever find yourself hungry and thirsty in Arundel, check out The Black Rabbit - it's a cute pub on the River Arun, about 20-30 minutes walk from the station.
It was a very warm day, and after the walk to the pub all I felt like was a burger and a pint. But alas there was no veggie burger, the closest thing was a mozzarella muffin which turned out to be exactly that.

Half a sorry soggy supermarket English muffin underneath three small pieces of grilled veg with mozzarella melted over the top, accompanied with new potatoes, which I ended up swapping over for fries. As Ja'mie from Summer Heights High would say..."Random!"
I feel like I can't be too critical as the menu amazingly boasts six vegetarian options. It's just that mushroom stroganoff, lasagna, chilli and curry aren't dishes I fancy eating when I'm hot and bothered, but maybe that's just me. The ice cream on the other hand was deeeelicious. I was very, very pleased with my choice of honeycomb and strawberry.

Vegetarian food aside, the venue and service is lovely. They have a big outdoor seating area next to the river where you can enjoy some choice ales until it's time to walk back to the station and snooze it all off on the train ride back to the big smoke.

Les Perez touchdown in London

Some dear friends of ours are visiting from Australia and last night I cooked dinner for about eight of us. Congregating around a big table with old friends with plenty of food and booze is most definitely one of the nicer things in life - my kitchen is too small for me to go all Babette's Feast, so dinner had to be a very simple affair.

With my ice cream maker in storage somewhere in Cricklewood, this summer I've been getting into cheats homemade ice cream. My mum used to make this in the late 80s by mixing some cointreau and a smashed up Flake with shop bought vanilla ice cream.

I made two types using some of the alcohol collecting dust at the back of our liquor shelf - the more we drink now, the less Jasmine T will have to hand when she starts mixing up her own cocktails. I have some Frangelico which I'm going to mix with chopped hazelnuts and Drambuie which I'm going to soak some raisins in before adding to the ice cream.

Cheats ice cream

What you need

2 large flat plastic containers

2L shop vanilla ice-cream (best you can afford)

couple handfuls chopped roasted hazelnuts

couple handfuls of raisins

3 tablespoons Drambuie

3 tablespoons Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)

ice cream cones (less washing up)

The do

Place raisins in a bowl and add the Drambuie, leave to soak for a couple of hours.

Take the ice cream out of the freezer and leave out for around 10 minutes. Transfer the ice cream into the plastic containers add the ingredients and mix in with a rubber spatula. Put the lids on and return to the freezer.

You can do this with anything - fruit, chocolate, nuts. Just bear in mind that adding too much alcohol will prevent your ice cream from freezing.

For dinner (serves 8): boil up two packs of angel hair pasta, then 3 minutes before the pasta is ready, throw in a bag of frozen peas and half a bag of broad beans. In a separate small pan, gently heat a big glug of olive oil with some thinly sliced garlic for a minute or so. When the pasta is done, drain it, add the garlic oil, then toss the whole lot with the juice of a lemon, a handful of chopped mint, a handful of torn basil, two handfuls of parmesan and two packs of crumbled feta cheese. Season with olive oil, salt and pepper and marvel at the quivering mountain of steaming pasta before you.

Tunes
Alas I cannot swim Laura Marling

Happy birthday to Carters and Kelly V

It was Carter's and Kelly V's birthday last Wednesday and to mark the occasion I whipped out my newly acquired copy of Delia's Book of Cakes for a fast simple no-faff sweet treat that I could take down to the pub without too much drama.

I decided to make her Chocolate fudge brownie recipe and as per usual I couldn't help meddling - I increased the chocolate and flour quantities and added orange blossom water and pistachios.

Things started to go a little pear shaped when I realised I didn't have the correct tin, I used the smallest one I had, but it was still waaaay too big. I ended up with brownies that looked like they'd been run over by a steam roller. In the end I sandwiched them with some hazelnut spread and it was all good. The moral of this story...use the right tin and all will be fine.

Chocolate, pistachio and orange blossom fudge brownies

What you need

A 18x28cm baking tin

90g dark cooking chocolate, preferably unsweetened, I used Green and Blacks cook's chocolate
110g butter
2 medium eggs
225g caster sugar
90g plain flour
1 level teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
110g pistachio nuts (hold back about 5 nuts for garnish)
1 tablespoon orange blossom water (you could add more, but taste as you go so it doesn't end up tasting like shower gel)

Garnish
1 punnet of raspberries
Green and blacks Hazelnut chocolate spread

The do
Line a rectangular brownie tin (18x28cm) with silicone baking paper. allow the paper to come up a good 5cm above the rim of the tin.
Melt the butter and broken up chocolate pieces together in a heatproof glass bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Stir in the remaining ingredients, then pour into the lined tin and bake for around 30 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, divide into approx 15 squares and transfer back to wire rack.

Chop the remaining pistachios as finely as you can. Spread a little hazelnut spread on the top of each brownie, sprinkle with a little pistachio dust, then place a raspberry on top

Warning: these brownies are evil. Diabetics beware!

Post-hummus perfection

I have been trying to make perfect hummus for YEARS. Every incarnation has had some sort of problem - too thick, too much oil, too garlicky, too bland. I've tried various recipes and that yielded no success either. Last night I went completely off road and I finally stumbled on a winner - it's a total bastardisation of how hummus is usually made, but hey, it tastes good so who cares?

What you need
A hand blender with food processor attachment, or a food processor
1 can of chickpeas, drained
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 clove of garlic chopped
1 tablespoon tahini
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
some boiled water
salt

The do
In a frying pan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and fry the garlic for a 30 seconds on medium heat, throw in the spices and drained chickpeas. Fry for a little longer, moving the chickpeas around the pan coating them in the oil and spices. When it starts to smell nice and spicy, take off the heat and transfer into the food processor. Add the tahini, a generous pinch of salt, a glug of olive oil, lemon juice and a splash of boiled water and blitz until smooth, adding more water as needed to achieve the right consistency. Taste and add more salt if needed.

This is great with some salad, tomato and halloumi in a wholemeal pita pocket.

Tunes
IRM Charlotte Gainsbourg