SRI LANKAN LUNCH: GODUMBA ROTIMEAL & DEVILLED POTATOS

 

Upon arrival, straight off the megabus (I can assure you there is nothing "mega" about it) to London Victoria I decided to grab myself some lunch.

Heading in the general direction of Buckingham Palace I passed several sandwich/deli style shops. My first thought was to stop in one of these for a grilled paninni - but with the average cost of around the £5 mark, I thought for just a few quid more I could stop for lunch in a nice looking Sri Lankan Restaurant I had passed on the coach just round the corner. About 5 minutes walk from victoria station I found it on Lower Grosvenor Place - the Sekara Sri Lankan Restaurant. A humble family run Sri Lankan and Indian cuisine curry house directly behind Buckingham Palace, with a reasonably priced lunch menu (average of £5 - £6 per dish).
I opted for the Godumba Rotimeal, which was 2 Sri Lankan flatbreads (one Plain and one egg) served with devilled potatoes.

The Roti were soft in the middle and crisper round the edges - the plain one was nice, but a bit bland. i much preferred the egg one (basically the same, but made with an egg inside), which was delicious. Both I had with the devilled potatos (potatos, onions, chili, curry leaves, and some spices) which provided a nice kick to accompany the flatbreads - all in all a very tasty and filling lunch. I had it in the restaurant with a nice pot of Sri Lankan tea - and ended up not costing much more than a quickly grilled paninni on the go. I ended up very stuffed and very happy with my lunch choice - most enjoyable!!!

please note the pictures of the food are not acually the food served as I didnt have my camera with me, but I took the time to find pretty identical looking photos of the food served to provide an idea of what it looked like.

GRAZE - THE NEW CRAZE!

At work - I work in an office environment during the day (need to pay for all the food I eat somehow!) - the latest craze is everyone signing up to Graze.com - basically it costs £3.89 a week and you get delivered (to your home or workplace) a box of treats. These are different each time but generally revolve around nuts, seeds, treats, olives, dried fruit, mini cakes & breads etc. Aslo if you dont like certain things then you can log on and select against their range (the website has the full list of over 100 selections - check it out at: www.graze.com) that you never want to recieve that item. In short its a tasty & generally healthy selection of 4 treats a week for £3.89 - and there is no long term subscriptions - you can cancel at any time.

As an idea of what you might get in a box here is what I received in my latest box:

Yaki Soba (soba peanuts, edamame beans, noodles & chilli broad beans)
Fig & Cherry Preserve (figs, cherries and plums)
Florentine (belgium dark chocolate, cranberries & pumpkin seeds)
Summer Berry Flapjack (rustic rolled oat flapjack with berry infused cranberries)

All were very tasty - so join the Graze revolution and get yourself signed up!
I'll leave you with their video advert:

THE BUDGET GOURMET: MUSSELS ON A BED OF SAMPHIRE WITH CHILI OIL

Our resident Budget Gourmet took a trip to Tescos reduced goods aisle. After a bit of a rummage through all things cheap and reduced, he spotted a bag of fresh Samphire - a very "in vogue" vegetable with fine dining restaurants - for the bargain marked down price of 75p. Then as if by magic a pack of shelled and cooked Mussels for 85p.
The Samphire was fried in butter for only a minute or 2 and the mussels heated through in a saucepan with a good squeeze of lemon juice. Arranged on the plate in a fancy way that would have scored points for presentation on masterchef, and drizzled with some chilli oil - anothe squeeze of lemon juice and a hearty grind of black pepper and........ voila! Fine dining on a shoestring! (very quick and simple to make too!!!)

RECIPE: LEMON PANNA COTTA

Today I decided to make some Lemon Panna Cotta's and here's how:

First thing to do is to put on a Black Keys CD on the Kitchen stereo - this step is not vital to the final taste of the Panna Cotta's, but none the less I feel it's very important.

You will need to rustle up the following ingrediants:

• Single Cream
• Milk
• 1 Lemon
• Sugar
• Leaf Gelatine

First off pour the cream into a saucepan, add the milk (about half of the amount of cream) then add the juice of half a lemon. This is best added bit by bit to the cream whilst stirring so not to split the cream. then add the zest of that hald of the lemon.

Add 2 or 3 heaped teaspoons of sugar (depending on how much of a sweet tooth you have). Heat the saucepan on a low heat to keep the cream from curdleing and add 2 leafs of gelatine. Keep stirring with a wooden spoon until the gelatine has dissolved and as soon as it has remove the saucepan from the heat and allow to cool. Once it has cooled a little (but dont let it set) pour into glasses or ramakins and place in the fridge to set for a few hours. When ready to serve add some more lemon zest to the top from the other half of the lemon and provide a big spoon to gobble it down with!!!

GREGG'S FAVOURITE PUDDING

 

We all know that Gregg Wallace (from Masterchef) loves a good pudding - he even has a book out on his favourite puddings (see pic above). We thought it was time to get the definitive answer of what Mr Wallace considers to be his actual favourite pudding of all time, so 2 Greedy Mancunians took to twitter to ask the great man himself........ with no hessitation came the one worded reply "Crumble" - so there you have it another mystery solved!

If you enjoy a good pudding, or just love Gregg then go out and buy his book - or if you really really love Gregg then you can get one of these (temporary) tattoos we came across on the internet in this article! (see photo & link below) Enjoy!

Right think we might go and rustle up a nice Crumble - the question is Apple or Rhubarb???

http://www.blogandbuysale.com/2011/03/greg-wallace-tattoos/

CHURCH STREET CHIPPY

I have lived in Dukinfield, Tameside for about 7 years, and I am sad to say I have only recently discovered this delight ,the Church Chippy is a cock stride from my abode, which is handy.

The Church Chippy is a little gem of a place, I sampled its delights on a Friday evening, when I couldnt be arsed to cook. When i got there the place was rammed, it took me a good half hour to be served but it was well worth the wait.

The menu was a delight to study while I was waiting, I noticed the fish is cooked to order, so its not left warming under a light bulb, so it was mine turn next, I decided on a traditional rag pudding, chips peas and gravy (you also get a choice of gravy, I went for the mince and onion one), I also had a can of vimto and a buttered muffin (yes I know some people dont call them muffins, but where I live you do)

I ran home home with my bag of delights like a little child, I couldnt wait to get back and eat this feast on my lap whilst watching the oneshow, the taste of the rag pudding was out of this world, moist with plent of gravy inside, the chips were just right not soaked in to much oil, and the gravy, well I could of just eaten  that on its own, all mopped up with a nice muffin and washed down with can of Vimto.......BEAUTIFUL!!

So if you are ever passing Dukinfield, make sure you stop at the Church Chippy, Church Street, you will regret it if you dont!

WESTFEST

Saturday the 1st September - the first day of the West Didsbury festival "Westfest" - a local celebration of the businesses and eateries of Burton Road & the surrounding area. Most of the restaurants had set up outside stalls and were offering some tasty treats (with many free tasters).

We started outside the "A taste of Honey" deli where we had a small free taster pot of potato curry. After a stroll in the glorious sunshine we noticed a bit of a queue outside Frankies Fish bar - yes they were giving out free cones of fish & chips & rum punch - having eaten there previously I knew it was worth the queue for their delicious fish & chips - a good start to our foodie day!

 

Next up, after a wander up and down the road perousing the stalls, i noticed that the Wok & Flame Chinese had some free & rather tasty spring rolls with sweet chilli sauce on offer.

 

 

After all these appetisers we though it might be time to get some lunch! So we headed down to the Thyme Out Deli on Nell Lane - who were having a BBQ along with some live music

 a chap with a guitar singing songs for everyone as they munched on their juicy burgers! Oh and how good the burgers were too!!!

 

£4 for a proper thick juicy burger with fried onion & proper chunks of freshy cut cheese straight from the block. Whilst waiting for the burger to be cooked we nibbled at the free tasters - some pieces of pork pie & some of the most delicious chicken liver pate ever! Might have to nip back there at some point to purchase a tub of their amazing pate! The burger was divine.

  

 

We then had a quick stop off at home (round the corner) to digest our food & a cup of tea. On the way back out we stopped at the Dish Ran Away With the Spoon who were out selling cakes - I indulged in an Eton Mess cup cake that was pretty damn tasty.

 

 

We then wandered up to the Drawing room - a small drinking establishment with an excellent jukebox & fantastic cocktails. After 3 or 4 cocktails and a vote on where to go for dinner we decided on Piccalinos - however they were full til 9.30pm, so we went for a curry at the Dhoop Shack. I'm very glad we ended up there as the curries were great - the fish curry and "mum's chicken" in particular were truly delicious. A splendid end to our day/evening at Westfest.

 

www.westfest.org.uk