My Foodie London

I just came back from a very quick, whirlwind three day trip to London. I went with no agenda whatsoever, no to-do list (which is quite unusual for me). After exploring the lovely town and coming back to Dubai, I looked through all the food-related pictures I had taken and realized that most of them were of something sweet. I guess that says a lot about me and what I like to indulge in.

But here are some of my selections of what I think are the most scrumptious foods I came across!

Laduree- Harrods

When most people hear Laduree- Harrod's, they think of Summer 2010 when all of Khaleeji-land somewhat descended on this little cafe. Overdressed women and loud people were the norm. Sadly, now in February- it still is. But looking beyond the clientele that frequent Laduree, one can appreciate it for what it is. Although its pastries (and especially macarons) have been overexaggeratedly exalted, it has the most amazing French toast I have ever tried. As well as the best hot chocolate. Don't get me wrong- the pastries are wonderful in their own right, but are not phenomenally unique from those at other good pastry shops around the world. Nevertheless, their raspberry macarons are melt-in-your-mouth, eat-20-pieces-and-don't-even-realize amazing.

The Hummingbird Bakery

On Saturday morning, we headed out to Portobello Road for the amazing little market that takes place there on that day. One of the best things about Portobello is that apart from the cute little finds you come across, Hummingbird Bakery is right there! On Saturdays, their Portobello branch has no seating, but we picked up two cupcakes to have on the go- one vanilla on vanilla one, and the other a chocolate malt flavor. I can't believe I forgot how particular to Hummingbird the Red Velvet cupcake is- and so I didn't buy one. I really, really regret that now. The chocolate malt cupcake was an entirely new experience for me- I hadn't tasted anything like that. First of all, it had Maltesers on the frosting- which is one of my favourite chocolates. Second, the cake itself had a very caramel-ish flavour to it- which complemented the frosting perfectly.

Mrs. Kibble's Olde Sweet Shoppe

I love this store for the simple reason that it is an amazing small business (with only two branches) that was started around 4 years ago. It's just the kind of business venture that I like to see nowadays what with huge chain restaurants & cafes, corporations, and franchises invading the whole world. You get the most delicious candy in this store- specifically the English hard-boiled sweets. The truffles are very good, too. I discovered this branch one evening last March as I was strolling- it's hidden in a little lane right behind St. Christopher's Place (which is near James Street behind Oxford Street and Selfridge's).

Wandering through the streets

One of the funnest things to do! I found some amazing shop window displays on Regent Street this year (perhaps because of Valentine's Day!) The chocolate coated strawberries are from Godiva and the multi-tiered white wedding cake is from a cafe whose name I cannot remember- and don't think I even read. And the macarons- I don't know where they're from either. It's a patisserie on Regent Street near Piccadilly Circus on the right.

Fortnum & Mason

I had first seen Fortnum and Mason last year when I went into Hatchard's (a quaint little bookshop) that's right next to it. What attracted me instantly was the interesting and creative window displays. I never went in, though, because I was in a quite a rush. This year, however, I did. And I had not expected what was in store for me (pun not intended)! The ground floor is a food hall with all sorts of finds- exotic teas, amazing candies, and the like. The rest of the departmental store houses women's and men's clothing etc... But the entire store is reminiscent of days long gone. I guess it's because I read way too many Regency era novels- where the lady goes shopping for dresses in a lovely gilt and velvet carriage. The whole place is carpeted and has low ceilings. The staff (particularly the male staff) are dressed in long tail-coats and the items that they sell are all bespoke, elegant, and unique. This place also has the best vanilla fudge ever. I wanted to bring a whole box back to Dubai!

Harrod's and Selfridge's Food Halls

Found this quite amusing.

This would go lovely with an Alfredo sauce!!! Great for kids!

Pierre Herme, best caramel macarons... No pictures allowed but I still got one! The victory!

Jelly Belly! Sadly they've stopped their jalapeno flavour :(

Mmmmmmmmmmm!

Waiting for Harrod's Food Hall to open, Monday morning.

Randoms

Afternoon tea at Harrod's Georgian Restaurant

Garganelli with aubergines at Signor Sassi

Scrumptious tangerine. Best part: seedless!

Porridge @ HIX Selfridge's. It fills you up for the entire day.

Slug and Lettuce- Amazing food!

Sunday morning breakfast at My Old Dutch Pancake House in Kensington with my lovely friend Feryal!

My Love/Hate Relationship with Layered Cakes

I love eating layered cakes. I love looking at layered cakes. I love how creative they can be. I love photographing layered cakes. I love the IDEA of making layered cakes.

But...

I HATE the process of making layered cakes.

Something ALWAYS, ALWAYS has to go wrong whenever I attempt to create one of these lovely cakes. The problem is always almost with the icing. Or logistics. But today was, thankfully, one of my most successful attempts at making a layered cake. I converted my favourite cupcake recipe into a cake one and ended up with three separate cakes which I was then going to LAYER.

This, I find, is always the tough part. I made the same icing as I did for my red velvets in the last post. Then, I placed spread two of the cakes with the icing. After that, I layered them so there were three cakes all on top of one another. So far, so good. REALLY good actually.

Problems arose here:

I put 1/8th of a teaspoon of red food colouring to get a baby pink colour but apparently even that amount was too much.

Solution: I should add 1% of a drop at a time.

As I was icing the cake with a flat-bladed icing knife, crumbs from the cake were, well, crumbling off the cake and getting mixed with the icing. So it didn't look all that neat.

Solution: should I "sand" the cake with one of those fondant smoothener thingys?!

I find it VERY difficult to ice the sides of a cake. I try to cover the entire thing without making it look "transparent" but it just doesn't work! It took me a while to try and get it neat but it still wasn't perfect.

Solution: practice. Cliche, I know.

Also, I iced the entire cake on a baking sheet just because it was big enough to handle the mess. Transporting it to a cake stand was HELL. The upper two cake layers shifted and now it looks like the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

Solution: Try to neatly ice your cake on the stand itself.

I am determined to get this right. I will. I will. I will. SIGH.

ALSO, in retrospect, I realized that having white icing on the outside and pink icing work as filling in the middle of the layers would make for really good eye candy!

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yesterday, I made red velvet cupcakes without even knowing I did so! The recipe looked lovely to me and although it called for red food colouring, it didn't strike me that it was "RED VELVET CUPCAKES". Well first of all, it didn't have a cream cheese frosting (which is a good thing, since I'm not a major fan of it anyways). And second of all, I didn't know that red velvet cupcakes also had some cocoa powder and vinegar in it. (Only discovered that today at 7AM as I was flipping through some cookbooks...).

These cupcakes were called "February Cupcakes" and are this month's recipe in my foodie calendar from Marks and Spencer.

Here's the recipe, modified slightly by me.

Ingredients:

For the cake

150g butter

300g caster sugar

2 eggs

275ml buttermilk (Laban Up in the UAE!)

1 teaspoon red food coloring

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 tablespoon vinegar

250g plain flour

5 tablespoons cocoa powder

For the frosting

75g unsalted butter

250g icing sugar

75g sweetened condensed milk (my newest obsession- it's amazing to lick this off your fingers!)

75ml double cream

whatever decorations you want

PROCEDURE

1. Preheat oven to 180c and line two 12-hole cupcake tins

2. Beat butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, buttermilk, red food colouring, and vanilla. Stir in bicarbonate of soda and vinegar. Separately, combine flour, cocoa powder, and salt and then stir into the mixture.

3. Divide mixture into paper cases and bake for about 15 minutes.

4. For the frosting, beat all the ingredients together and ice only when cakes have completely cooled.

Spicy Chicken Pitas

This is one of our signature dishes at home and last night I finally learnt how to make it! It was much easier than I expected it to be. The best thing about it is that it's very versatile. You can make it with lamb mince instead of chicken mince and you can vary which vegetables you use.

Ingredients:

2 medium onions, finely chopped

1 garlic cloves, crushed

2 medium tomatoes, chopped coarsely

1 medium green capsicum, chopped

500g chicken mince

2 teaspoons soy sauce

3 teaspoons vinegar

2 teaspoons turmeric

1 tablespoon coriander powder

1 teaspoon garam masala (indian mixed spice)

2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 teaspoons chilli flakes

1/4 cup water

4 lettuce leaves, shredded

1 tomato, extra, sliced

3-4 chopped gherkins

1/2 cup chopped coriander

20 slices small white arabic bread

1/2 cup mayonnaise

Procedure

Heat oil in pot. Gently fry onion until softened. Add chicken and stir for two minutes. Add the soy sauce and vinegar, stir.

Add all the spices, stir until fragrant. Add water, mix well. Place lid on pot and cook for 10 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Then, add capsicum and cook for five minutes. Next, add tomatoes and coriander.

Slice the bread in half and lightly spread the inside of each with mayonnaise . Fill bread with chicken and top with lettuce, tomatoes, and gherkins.

Oatmeal and Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups old fashioned rolled oats

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/2 cup toasted wheat germ

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 and 1/2 cups raisins

Procedure:

Preheat oven to 180C. Stir together oats, flour, wheat germ, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt in large bowl.

Put butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about five minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Reduce speed to low. Add oats mixture; mix until just combined. Mix in raisins.

Use a teaspoon to roll out pieces of the dough and drop onto baking sheets lined with baking paper. Space well apart and flatten slightly with back of spoon.

Bake about 12-15 minutes. Let cookies cool on wire rack.

Creamy Leek, Mushroom, and Pea Pies

I was looking for something light to make today and came across this recipe from Australian Women's Weekly. It's light, healthy, and vegetarian. Only 200 calories per serving which is perfect for dinner!

I've made slight modifications to the recipe.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 clove garlic

1 large leek, sliced thinly

250g mushrooms, thickly sliced

2 tbsps plain flour

150ml vegetable stock

125ml low-fat milk

120g frozen peas

2 tbsps chopped fresh chives

1 tbsp mustard

3 slices wholemeal bread

cooking oil spray

Procedure:

1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Heat oil in large saucepan; cook garlic and leek, stirring until leek softens. Add mushrooms; cook; stirring, about 5 minutes or until mushrooms are tender.

3. Add flour; cook, stirring, 1 minute. Gradually stir in milk and stock; cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens slightly. Stir in peas, chives, and mustard; cook 2 minutes or until peas are tender.

4. Place mixture into Pyrex dish, top with chopped pieces of bread, spray bread lightly with oil. Cook, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until bread is browned lightly.