Week of comfort - A good roast

For all the 'comfort' this last week, I still got ill and had a few days of just working and sleeping. A good roast an undeniable essential for the winter. 


What better place to go than the brand new Allpress roastery / cafe on Redchurch Street in Shoreditch. 


photos to follow.. 

Week of comfort - Chorizo stew

Continuing on our journey from yesterday.. stew!

What can I say, this Chorizo stew is an absolute winner every time. Quick to throw together and popular for all kinds of visitors who may materialise on your doorstep (seems to happen a lot more frequently during these winter months...). A quick trip to Brindisa Borough Market yielded all the condiments required to really make this stew sing.

Chorizo and chickpea stew (Adapted from Nigel Slater's recipe in the Guardian)



You will need:
- 250g dried chickpeas (one cans worth)
- 2 medium onions
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 Choricero pepper
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 3 carrots
- 2 tsp hot smoked paprika (picante if possible)
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 2 tins of crushed tomatoes
- 300ml water
- 250g cooking chorizo - See the selection at Brindisa

Peel the onions and chop them roughly, then put them in a heavy-based casserole with the olive oil. Let them soften over a moderate heat, occasionally stirring them.



Put the Choricero pepper into a bowl and cover with 300ml of boiling water, the pepper will soften and release some flavour into the water, so make sure you save for later.

Peel and finely slice the garlic and add it to the pan. Peel the carrots, cut them into large dice, then stir them into the onions and garlic and leave till the onions are soft and pale gold.



Stir in the paprika, cayenne and tomatoes, then pour in the drained chickpeas and fresh water and bring to the boil. (If you are using canned chickpeas, drain, rinse and add them now.) Tuck the cooking chorizo into the stew. Season with salt and black pepper, then, as the mixture starts to bubble furiously, cover with a lid and turn the heat down so that the stew simmers calmly for 45 minutes. An occasional stir will be to the good.

Serve the dish now if you wish, but for a more intensely smoky stew, remove the lid and continue to cook for 20 minutes in a hot oven at 180C/gas mark 4 till lightly crusted (this last bit is definitely worth the wait)

Ladle out into bowls or deep plates and eat with plenty of toasted bread. ENJOY

Week of comfort - Street Kitchen - Spitalfields

Man it got cold this weekend. As we hurtle towards the end of day light savings and depressingly low amounts of daylight become the norm, it is time this week to start looking inwards and focus on some comfort food (and wine) for the months ahead.



Starting outside, Street Kitchen is undoubtedly one of the great successes of the 2010 London Restaurant Festival. There are already a bunch of reviews have already been written about the tasty food on offer so I won't write much else but will instead direct your attention to this great little film shot by touch food.



Two comments though:
1. The food was of a high quality and amazing value for money. I must say that I felt rather smug nibbling on smoked salmon with parsnip puree whilst watching another victim of regular Spitalfield food stalls dredge her way through a rice and curry (sauce only by the looks).

2. The staff were incredibly friendly, up for a chat and very knowledgeable about what they were serving up - even after weeks of preparing the same few dishes!



Thanks again Street Kitchen - hope to see you on a street near me soon.

The Hackney Pearl, Hackney Wick - Plenty Simple

I thought I would take advantage of what seemed would be the last of the decent weather this year to head down to the Olympic Park and grab some shots of the venues as they near completion.





I stopped in to the Hackney Pearl on the way back to grab a drink and a bite. I love the tables and chairs they have chosen, gives it a real living room feel.







I'll be back to grab a proper meal and sample their well selected wine list soon.

Creperie du Monde - Chatsworth Road, Clapton

Last week I wrote about the sudden increase in eateries across parts of London previously deemed undesirable. The inspiration which I alluded to in the post was a recent article by Tim Harford, aka the Undercover Economist entitled 'How a nice cup of coffee worked wonders for a corner of Hackney'.

I'll save my analysis of the inner workings of economic regeneration and gentrification until a later date as I am rather more interested in the place, somewhere I had never been- Chatsworth Road, Clapton.

London Towpath Festival

A small celbration was organised this weekend past for Warchild - A charity for children affected by war. What started as a small gathering for five or so food stalls turned into a packed event with the late return of summer.

Meatwagon and Jamon Jamon were majoring on the hot food with Chocstar providing postres y dulces.  

Paella from Jamon Jamon

Meatwagon were overwhelmingly popular on saturday and quickly ran out of supplies soon after they opened on sunday. Fortunately their man with a van was able to deliver the goods and they were grillin in no time. The cheeseburger was definitely worth the wait, one of the best I have had in London!

More photos from the sunday here

Congrats to all the organisers, hope to see more stuff like this in the future.

Meatwagon pulls in at the London Towpath Festival

More photos to follow from this afternoon, but here's a quick taster of the massive burgers on offer courtesy of the Meatwagon

London Restaurant Festival goes competition crazy

Ok, so I thought that I was covering a one-off the other day when I reposted the London Restaurant Festival competition from Greedy Diva.

However this was nothing compared to today's offering when I tuned into the internet airwaves to find not one but three (3 - three - III !) competitions giving away tickets to the American Express 10-10-10 events on sunday.

First up was our reliable Greedy Diva promising two tickets to the sold out Modern Pantry lunch featuring Anna Hansen and Frances Atkins.

This was quickly followed by a twitter link from Gourmet Traveller, whom for her first competition is giving away two tickets to the Rivington Grill event on the same day, featuring Tim Hughes & Simon Wadhamon will be teaming up with Shaun Hill for an amazing match up.

But it wasn't over yet. The widely reknown London Foodie had yet to play his hand offering an equally stunning lunch at Arbutus featuring Anthony Demetre and Tom Kerridge (from the Hand and Flowers).

These are three stunning and once a year kind (if not a lifetime) experiences that any true foodie should have, so if you are not blessed with copius amounts of currency, enter using the links above. Your palate will certainly thank you for it, and so will your +1!

Coffee Shots - Choice Cafe's in Sydney

Sydneysiders are mad about their coffee, really mad. To the point where everyone drinks it all the time (more than tea!) and is very particular about what they like. One one such morning I saw a builder come in, grab a ristretto followed by two city workers after their long blacks and so on..

Toby's Estate was pivotal in changing coffee for Sydneysiders, established in 1998 it now sports a number of Cafes around Sydney and Melbourne, on top of this they also roast their own coffee, train barista's and even sell green beans for a growing number of home roasting enthusiasts.

Coffee Shots - Sydney pt1

Coffee and Friand @ Cafe XXII

22 Union Street
Pyrmont, Sydney

Marching east - The E5 Bakehouse

The centre of the UK's food and wine universe will always be in west London. Every week, considerable column inches and blog posts are dedicated to eating their way through the latest culinary developments.

Over in the east, previously undesirable locations ( mostly within Hackney) have exploded with life as an ever increasing amount of trendy twenty and thirty something's working in creative industries make the march eastwards. Restaurateurs, enthusiasts and innovators (as Tim Harford labels them) have swiftly followed. Many have plucked up their courage and gathered their pennies (or the pennies of others) to launch their own ventures.

London Restaurant Festival

The London Restaurant Festival Arrives in town next week. Running for two weeks from 4th-18th October, participating restaurants will throw open their doors, welcoming Londoners to choose from more than 800 establishments with specially devised festival menus.

Greedy Diva will be bringing you the latest updates and has teamed up with sponsors American Express to give away two tickets to the Big Quiz hosted at Le Cafe Anglais and overseen by quizmaster Rowley Leigh

To enter, leave a comment here or send an e-mail to greedy.diva@yahoo.com.

Deadline is 6 October 2010