Dishoom Restaurant

Dishoom is a Bombay Café in the new St. Martins Courtyard development Covent Garden. It’s very cool inside with a slick black chequered floor and mirrors lining the walls, which really reminded me of Pastis in New York without the red. However, it’s on a closer look that you begin to notice the amazing 1970’s photographs and magazine covers from India that line the walls. Plus if you take a trip downstairs, past the cavernous booths and on to the toilets, you will notice some wicked retro Indian soap boxes and other amazing toiletries in store!

I am a massive fan of Indian food and, as anyone who has eaten their way round India knows, there’s a whole world of delights out there apart from curries. Dishoom is the first place I have been to in the UK which showcases that so well. The friendly staff helped us out with the menu, which is divided up into breakfast, wraps, soups and salads, small plates, grills, biryanis and breads.

Dishoom Interior

We had a feast. We started with lovely, sweet and sour calamari with lime and chilli, cooked perfectly so each bite was beautifully soft and tender. Next came Dishoom chicken, which was a reminder of just how amazing Tandoori chicken can be. It was mouth wateringly moist and had a lovely kick to it. This was accompanied by Dal Makhani or black dal, a Punjabi classic and my favourite of all the dals. It was very creamy and rich and went down well with the lovely naan breads. Next came grilled masala prawns with lime, tomato and coriander. The spicy prawns were cooked perfectly; juicy and sweet with a slight crunch to them. We finished off with a caramel mango Kulfi, which is like an Indian version of the retro milk pop ice lollies, but way more tasty. The food really interested me and it’s all based on sharing small dishes, which is a style of eating I really enjoy. You never get food envy and you can try more dishes!

Dishoom Food

The whole thing was very cool; the restaurant was wicked and the staff were great as really knew the menu, which helps if you haven’t eaten like this before. The restaurant was completely packed with happy eaters and the prices were very easy on the wallet so you could really explore the menu. All in all successes, I loved it, definitely get yourselves down there!

www.dishoom.com

12 Upper St Martins Lane, London WC2H 9FB

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Pixley Berries 2010

by John Gregory-Smith

Pixley Berries make delicious blackcurrant cordials using loads of fresh fruit and not much else. They have just updated their existing range to make them taste even better.

The range consists of three lovely flavours including Blackcurrant and Ginger, Blackcurrant and Raspberry and the perfect original Blackcurrant. Unlike most cordials these ones are not made from concentrate, instead they contain over 60% fruit juice, a little water and sugar and no additives or weird preservatives.

They really do taste wicked and have a very fruity flavour compared to Ribena or another brand. If you are off the booze or bored with water they are definitely what you want to be drinking. However, if you’re not, add a splash into a glass of Prosecco, they go together really well.

www.pixleyberries.co.uk

Available at Waitrose with 25% off until August 3^rd

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Kitchen's Tot Talent

Are you a Delia in the kitchen and a Britney on the dance floor? Sounds like an unlikely combination but Kitchen’s Top Talent is here to show that the nation’s hospitality workers are a multi-talented bunch! Sponsored by Hederol, the Kitchen’s Got Talent competition is offering three members of the hospitality industry the chance to win £1000 by posting (potentially humiliating) clips of their top talent on their website. Sounds tempting enough to get them singing in the kitchen doesn’t it?

Competition is tough though, you should see how they’ve done,  the entire staff of the Michelin-recommended ‘The Cinnamon Kitchen’ have uploaded a stirring rendition of a Bollywood classic while the kitchen porter from ‘The Restaurant’ at St. Pauls has sung a hilarious cover of the Chaka Demus & Pliers’ classic ‘Tease Me’ that has had the office rolling all day.

The competition is voted by the public who choose their most unforgettable clip. That means (much like its namesake) you don’t need to be talented to win Kitchen’s Top Talent – just memorable! So what are you waiting for, get voting!

Click here to see the videos and VOTE!

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Sir Steve Redgrave

By John Gregory-Smith

Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave has decided to help us stay hydrated by becoming the spokesperson for the new Juice Doctor isotonic drinks. These drinks are designed to help the body retain essential fluids once absorbed and…..boring! Basically they taste great, contain only 20 calories per 100ml and have not a single artificial colouring, flavour, preservative, salt or sweetener in sight so you can drink as many of them as you like.

Juice Doctor

If you find drinking water a bit dull give them a go they come in apple, lemon, berry and tropical flavours and are available nationwide at £1.15. They have even designed a handy Y’urindicator on their website so you can see if you are properly hydrated, don’t worry its available to download and print so you don’t have to use your computer for reference!

www.juicedoctordrinks.com

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Warm Chorizo and Goat's Cheese Salad

With the International Cheese Awards taking place this week in Nantwich in Cheshire, here is a lovely cheese based recipe from Gary Rhodes.

A British cheese won last year, let’s hope we can do it again this year!!

Gary’s Warm Chorizo and Goat’s Cheese Salad with Rasberry Vinaigrette:

For the Salad

100g-200g (4-7oz) mixed or single variety salad leaves
2-3 spring onions, thinly sliced
225g (8oz) British hard goat’s cheese, broken into chunks
300g (10oz) chorizo sausage, peeled and cut into 1cm (1/2 inch) thick slices 

Method

Simply whisk together 4 tablespoons olive oil, 2 tablespoons raspberry vinegar, a pinch of caster sugar and ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix together the salad leaves and spring onions and gently toss with the goat’s cheese.

Heat a large frying pan with a drizzle of olive oil. Fry the chorizo, turning, for 3 to 4 minutes. Spoon the sausage into the salad, whisk any fat released into the vinaigrette and drizzle over the leaves

For more inspiring dishes which incorporate some of the 700 British Cheeses, visit www.britishcheese.com

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Hornitos Reposado

By John Gregory-Smith

Hornitos Tequila has been looking for a tattoo artist to design their new limited edition tequila bottle. The winning design for the new bottle will be on exhibition at a pop up tattoo parlour on Sunday 1^st August.

The pop up tattoo parlour will be at Dray Walk Gallery, off Brick Lane, London E1 from 12.00pm-6pm and you will be able to see the winning designs and get complimentary cocktails and temporary tattoos. The Graffiti Kings, London’s authentic underground, urban designers, will be also doing loads of interactive live graffiti.

Entry to the Pop-Up Tattoo Parlour is free, with tastings and temporary tattoos, available free of charge too, taking place alongside the competitions that will be running throughout the day.

HORNITOS TEQUILA POP-UP TATTOO PARLOUR

Sunday 1 August 12:00-6:00pm

Dray Walk Gallery, off Brick Lane, London E1

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Strawberry Cheesecake

Get down to Selfridges Food Hall this Friday (30.07.10) for National Cheesecake Day and grab a free sample of some strawberry cheesecake from the English Cheesecake Company.

I’m definitely heading down for the perfect lunch break pudding stop. But don’t worry if you can’t head down then, the offer runs  from 12-6pm and if a pot isn’t enough you can buy a larger clice (or even a whole cake) in the flavor of your choice… Drool.

www.englishcheesecake.com

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Lemons, Almonds and Raspberries Cake

By Sarah Adams

Earlier in the year I planted some Nasturtium seedlings and I am now overrun with the little flowers! They make the perfect decoration for any cake, the bright yellows and reds inspired me to continue this theme when I was choosing the flavour. This cake is a little slice of summer and will quite happily travel and sit in the sun until devoured!

Ingredients: Cake
Makes 8” round cake

150g plain flour
45g ground almonds
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 lemon zest only
4 large eggs
265g caster sugar
115g whipping cream
105g unsalted butter, melted 

Nasturtiums

Pro Tip: Let your eggs come to room temperature, you will get more air into them that way, also the fresher the better! 

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to gas4/180°C and line your tin increasing the height so that it is at least 4” high.

Place all of the dry ingredients (including the zest) into a bowl and stir thoroughly. Whisk your eggs and sugar together for 5 minutes and then fold your dry ingredients into the eggs carefully, followed by the cream and then the butter.

Pour into your tin and bake for 35mins or until a skewer comes out clean. Finally leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes and then turn out onto a cooling rack to cool completely.

Ingredients: Decoration
1 punnet of raspberries
35g Almonds skin on
Candied lemon zest
Nasturtiums 

Lemon icing:
1 lemon juice only
250g icing sugar 

Preparation:
Make the icing by mixing the juice and icing sugar together, add more of either to get the right consistency

Have fun decorating the cake how you wish!

Sarah Adams © 2010

Click here for Sarah’s scrummy recipe…

Foodlovers Market

By John Gregory-Smith

Food Lovers Britain, an amazing website promoting the best small british food producers, has just launched a new market in soho. The market features loads of wonderful producers selling all sort of delicious food that you won’t find anywhere else. The market runs from 9am-4pm every saturday on the corner of Rupert Street and Winnett Street in Soho.

Local Soho restaurants including Polpo, Hix, Garden Zilli and Quo Vadis are also offering Saturday Market Menus using the amazing produce straight from the market.

Click here to read more about it..

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Gordon Ramsey

By John Gregory-Smith

In the spirit of summer, good old Gordon Ramsay has joined forces with Top Table to offer some great discounted dining at nine of his restaurants in London until the end of August.  The menus will feature delicious, sesonal British food.

You can treat yourself to an amazing £30 lunch at Claridges,  £28.50 dinner at Maze, £25 lunch at the recently re-opened Petrus and £18 for two courses at the York and Albany.

What a great excuse to try some really amazing food at some of the best restaurants in London, at very un-London prices. I recently had the lunch menu at Petrus, which I really enjoyed. The staff completely spoiled us and I thought the food was really well done, sorry AA Gill. 

To book any of the restaurants involved CLICK HERE…

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