Hands up who thought cake in a mug wouldn't work

Yeah I can see you! Yes! You! You didn't think cake in a mug in 5 minutes would work. Well to be honest, neither did I really...so I tried it myself. Have a look...





How did it taste? Like a really yummy chocolate cake actually! Not exactly light, but still a dense, rich and delicious cake! Fully decorated with icing, cream etc and it wouldn't have been any different from buying a supermarket cake.

On to the next one...

An ode to Halloumi

Halloumi, halloumi I love you truly. Does that work as a rhyme? Almost.

Anyway, halloumi. Where do I begin with my love affair with salty, delicious Cypriot cheese?

It first danced over my taste buds a few years ago at Mildreds. Simply grilled with some oven roasted tomatoes, wilted spinach and balsamic vinegar. The dish remains on the menu whilst pretty much everything else around it changes. A sign of it's popularity!

It seems there's a growing trend to use halloumi as an accompaniment. No no no! Halloumi is and always will be the star of any dish. It must be complimented with sweet and sharp flavours (hence why tomatoes and balsamic vinegar are such good friends with their Cypriot friend next door).

I like to have as the lead role in a simple salad of rocked and tomatoes, with a dash of the ever present balsamic. Perfect.

Now with the warmer weather setting in, why not try it on the BBQ this summer. It's high melting points means it's perfect for the scorching bars of the barbie, on some skewers with tomatoes, red onion, pepper and maybe courgette.

Yummy yummy yummy.

Muffin Monday

After my rant at all the Jamie haterz, I got obsessed with making the muffins I posted about in the very same rant! Check it out here.

So I made a whole bunch on Sunday. Now, I know Jamie has declared himself dyslexic, so I don't know if that has anything to with it, or I'm a complete muppet...but I followed the instructions exactly and the amount of muffin/cake mixture made for 24, not the stated 12 muffins! Not that I'm complaining!

I took a whole load into work and many were sceptical at first, but everyone who tried them loved them. Including Allie, who felt compelled to post the following on Twitter.



Amazing.

Follow me on Twitter here: http://www.blogger.com/www.twitter.com/tomstabb

Mildreds, 45 Lexington Street, London W1

This week I'm going MEAT FREE! Abstaining from all things animal. Well, not ALL things animal...just the flesh. I'm not a complete mental.

Me and the lady headed to a veggie favourite of mine, Mildreds on Lexington Street. I've been going there for years with mummy and daddy Stabby as they've been vegetarian for almost 30 years (I was even a card carrying member of the veggie club between the years of 11-18). I know! Whoddathunkit seeing as now I dive headfirst into trying any bovine beauty or clucking bird - making up for lost time I guess.

They've recently changed the menu and sadly it didn't quite live up to the high standards they've set themselves in the past. Maybe it's because every time I've been before I haven't paid and everything tastes that much better when it's not making a dent! Plus, Mildreds has always had a special place in my heart as ground zero for when I discovered halloumi. The fall out was immense and will last until the day I die. Grilled halloumi is one of the greatest things known to man and I'm so happy the starter of panfried cherry tomato, halloumi and wilted spinach dressed with balsamic remains.

With its narrow bar leading into the just as narrow dining room what's immediately noticeable about Mildreds is just how packed it is! I've only come on Saturdays before, so I was surprised at just how many people were already eating and how many were waiting to be seated. Never one to be put off by a half an hour wait (after all, a packed restaurant is a good sign!), we propped up the bar and waited to be seated.

Our shared starter of pumpkin and ricotta ravioli with a creamy forest mushroom white wine sauce was a faultless start. Light, deeply filled pasta pockets were complimented wonderfully with a flavourful, but never overpowering sauce which featured juicy chunks of wild mushroom.

After a lovely start our mains didn't quite match the promise. Sunblushed tomato and buffalo mozzarella risotto cake was lacking in the vital mozzarella department. I was hoping for oozing strings of cheesy gorgeousness as the cake was pulled apart. No such luck. I also don't remember tasting too much of the promised sunblushed tomatoes. But the risotto in the cake was rich and tasty enough and the dish was saved by the star of the show - the zingy and prickly grape mustard sauce.

My Sri Lankan sweet potato, cashew nut and spinach curry would be considered a good home cooked effort, but eating out you expect a bit more omph and spice, plus the dish lacked seasoning and any accompanying moping side - some naan would have been lovely. It was pleasant enough and I ate the lot being a fatty boom batty.

Our waiter failed to note down our requested sweet potato chips, but by the time they arrived we'd more of less forgiven him as we were already stuffed and didn't really need them. Once again, they were ok, but I was really baffled is how a restaurant can charge £5 for cutting sweet potatoes into chips, cooking them and putting them in a bowl...late. Besides, my sweet potato chips are 10 times better. Here's the best (and only way) to have them: toss them in oil, salt, pepper and some paprika and roast for 25mins. BUFF.

Dinner ended with a delicious sticky toffee pudding that went in seconds. A very pleasing conclusion, although our waitress did try and charge us for an organic, rather than house Rose, but that turned out to be crossed wires rather than anything untoward. Shady minx. And she looked like Jamie Lee Curtis.



As we strolled into the night I couldn't help but feel satisfied. Satisfied is fine, but when you used to see on your school report 'Satisfactory effort' mum and dad were always a tad disappointed. You just feel that with a bit more effort you could achieve so much more.

Now where's the beef?

6/10 seems too harsh, while 7/10 is probably too much, so lets settle on 6.75/10.

Shared starter and pud, plus 2 mains, beer and wine cost £50. www.mildreds.co.uk

Butternut squash muffins with a frosty top

I bloody love Jamie Oliver. I really do. I owe this man a drink.

I hate people who have a pop at him. I really do. I owe them a slap in the face.

I have a lot of his books and I don't think one of his recipes has ever let me down - both in terms of simplicity and taste. His rosemary and juniper rolled Venison loin with potato and celeriac gratin from his Jamie At Home book is one of the best things I have ever eaten, and was easy to boot.

Plus he's a great guy. Look at the work he's done with Fifteen, trying to make school food better, trying to get the public eating good, home cooked food and buying fresh, seasonal English produce. All balancing a wife and 3 (soon to be 4) kids.

If you think all of those things aren't respectful and commendable then you're a plum. I don't like plums.

Why is it so easy for people to ridicule him? Is it because he (openly) failed at school? Are people are jealous of his success because they think themselves more intelligent than him? Or it because people who got worse grades than you can't possibly be multi millionaires!?

It's just NOT FAIR! This is meant to be meritocracy isn't it!?

Or maybe it's just the lisp?

Gutted. Just get on with your life. Here is a guy who is amazing at what he does, puts the work in and tries to make a difference for the better. If you don't like the Oliver boy then channel that anger into making these delicious muffins and do something positive. Like my good friend Jamie.



Jamie's Butternut squash muffins with a frosty top recipe

Atherton steps out to the crease

I think congratulations are in order. It seems a chef has parted ways with Gordon Ramsey without the media tears and tantrums!

Jason Atherton is current head chef at Ramsey's one-star Maze and is soon to step out of bosses' enormous shadow to launch his own, as yet, unnamed restaurant.

Rewind 2 years or so and I was nursing a truly horrific New Years Day hangover and in bursts my housemate and proclaims that we were off to Maze for Bloody Marys and bloody steak! Sadly I could only fully enjoy one of these (I had foolishly agreed for a charity alcohol detox that involved no drinking for 2 months). This was my first experience of Maze and their 'beef-board' brought to our table by a handsome, trim young man (who clearly never ate any of this stuff!), where you pick the cut and weight of the beef you so desire. I still have dreams about the Wagyu - one day I will have you my friend - but it was slightly out of my price range, so I plumped for the more reasonable Casterbridge onglet. Served with fries and Bearnaise sauce and served on the now commonplace wooden board, it was a hugely satisfactory start to 2009.

So what could be more promising than Sheffield-born Atherton - former student of culinary giants such as Pierre Koffmann, Marco Pierre White, Oliver Peyton and the first Brit to train at the world's greatest restaurant, El Bulli (Ferran Adrià), plus of course, Ramsey. It has all the ingredients for something truly special.



I'm also a huge fan of Atherton's recent publication 'Gourmet Food For A Fiver' (actually £5 a head, i.e, if the recipe serves 4 then you should be able to pick up all the ingredients for about £20). It's a relatively new book and I only picked it up recently, but it is already well thumbed and it reads beautifully, has tantalising pictures of every recipe, plus a new spin - plating up tips.

I've only made one meal from the book so far - a gorgeous lamb steak with butternut squash, pecorino and pine nuts, but much like Atherton, the book and his new restaurant; it could end up being not only one of the best, but one of my personal favourites!

COOKING GETS SLIGHTLY TOUGHER YEAR AFTER YEAR!

Another series of Masterchef over and another very worthy winner has triumphed. Dhruv Baker, 34, was simply magnificent through pretty much the entire series and wowed not just the judges but myself with his gorgeous looking food - how it must have tasted I can only image (and hope to discover one day if Dhruv's career goes the same way as 2009 winner Matt Follas who now runs his own restaurant, The Wild Garlic in Dorset) and Greg even described him as having the 'palate of an angel'.

The first time Dhruv walked into the Masterchef kitchen he looked a potential winner and his first dish of duck with upwards of 20 herbs and spices marked him out as one of the contestants to beat. He went into the final against the very talented food blogger, Alex Rushmer, and paediatrician Tim Kinnaird. But they didn't quite cut it I'm afraid.

Here's Dhruv's winning menu:

Starter: Spiced lobster with baby fennel, celeriac puree, saffron buerre noisette & fennel chilli mayonnaise
Main: Roasted loin of venison with spiced confit chestnuts, carrots, curly kale, venison jus and chilli chocolate oil
Dessert: Masala tea ice cream with spiced Sauternes poached pear and chocolate truffle

Sounds good huh? Actually, shall we have a look at his main?


Masterchef is probably my favourite show on telly when it's on. I haven't missed an episode for at least 3 series and the idea of John and Greg finding a genuine cooking talent with the desire and passion to change their life is quite inspiring!

I actually got riled up when they had such complete morons 'competing' in the early rounds of the latest series. ARGH! Give me a go! I can do better! And I really want to give it a go, but I guess Masterchef is primarily an entertainment programme and suffers from the same pitfalls of X-Factor - you need the embarrassingly rubbish people as well as the talents to make the format entertaining.

Who knows, if I got the chance to work in a professional kitchen I may just love it! I love those moments when you're slaving over the cooking, sweating, you're hot and bothered, but then it all comes together and you turn out a perfect meal. It's almost euphoric. I really wish my uncle still had his pub in Devon. I'd love to head down now and spend a week doing work experience in his kitchen. I think I may have missed my best opportunity.

Well, I've applied for the next series so we'll see if I get a lucky break this time around. I really want to do it and I think I could do well! Bring it on...

I WANT COOKING TO GET TOUGHER!



Read about the Masterchef final here and follow Dhruv on Twitter here.

Chocolate cake in 5 minutes

I love cake. You love cake. Why? because it's fucking amazing.

It's about 4pm and you're slap bang in the middle of the post lunch/pre-dinner limbo. You want a snack, but all you've got on your desk is an apple and some nuts. BOR-RING.

You want cake. You want a moist piece of chocolate cake and nice cup of tea to boost your sugar levels and make you a happy bunny.

But you just don't have time to bake a cake. It takes too long. You're too busy doing whatever it is you do. Plus, you can't afford/be bothered to go out and find a nice patisserie and buy a slice of cake for about £3/4!

What if I was to tell you you could have some delicious homemade chocolate cake in just 5mins time? You'd think I was a mental. Well you'd be WRONG!

Please see here. Amazing.

If you can't be bov'd to click a link. Here's a run down curtousy of www.dizzy-dee.com

4 Tablespoons cake flour
4 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons cocoa
1 Egg
3 Tablespoons milk
3 Tablespoons oil
1 Mug

Instructions:

Mix flour, sugar and cocoa:

Spoon in 1 egg

Pour in milk and oil, and mix well

Put in microwave for 3 minutes on maximum power (1000watt)

Wait until it stops rising and sets in the mug

Tip contents out of mug onto saucer and enjoy!

Another new blog

Hello,

I've decided to start a new blog.

It's pretty obvious that most blogs become inactive because people that start them don't really have anything important to say or they aren't writing about a subject they are passionate about.

Obviously I don't have important to say, but I am passionate about food. Cooking it and eating it. So why not blog about the exploits of making me a fatty boom batty?

It's easy, just check the Food/Cooking box on StumbleUpon and let the world of the webs take you on your journey. But also I'll blog about what I'm eating and where.

Yumtimes.