It’s almost easy to miss East Twenty Six, which is set back slightly from Exchange Street – or it would be, if not for its striking architecture and huge windows that flood the bar and restaurant with light. Continue reading
Moorish, Lower Goat Lane
There’s a little-known secret you can find tucked into the Norwich lanes – it comes in a sesame bun and with a side of crunchy-fluffy chips. It’s the Moorish vegan burger. Continue reading
Seasonal Eating in April
Longer daylight hours, fewer excuses for living on chocolate, and all the green veg in season: April has landed. The other new thing, as if it being light at 6pm wasn’t enough, is this seasonal eating round-up. We asked on Instagram if it’s something people would be interested in seeing, and the answer was a resounding yes – so here we are! Continue reading
Flourless caramelised white chocolate and mini egg cake
My contribution to Easter: taking a recipe that really really doesn’t need to be any sweeter, and adding Mini Eggs to it. It sounds gross, but most of what baking is is layering sweet things on top of each other. You’re supposed to introduce a savoury element, reduce the sugar where appropriate, balance the flavours (salt, acid etc.) in your baking to make sure the end product isn’t cloyingly sweet. Instead, I thought about the flourless dark chocolate cake and I wondered whether it would work with white chocolate and Mini Eggs. The result has the texture of a blondie, just a little bit gooier because of the lack of flour. You still get a crackly top – I always feel disappointed when I see a brownie/blondie without one so this was definitely a win-win situation.
The cake would have been too sweet if I didn’t caramelise the chocolate for an hour and a half, even if sticking your head in a hot oven every ten minutes to stir chocolate feels a bit OTT – caramelising the chocolate is necessary, especially if you’re going to add crushed up bits of chocolate that contain an indecent amount of palm oil and E numbers. If you can’t be bothered to caramelise the white chocolate and can’t justify buying a 2.5kg bag of it (smaller quantities yet to be seen), you could fold through crushed raspberries. Or save yourself the hassle, use dark chocolate, leave out the Mini Eggs and serve with a dollop with crème fraiche – it doesn’t get much more sophisticated than a flourless chocolate cake, and it would make the ultimate dinner party dessert. Continue reading
Chamomile buttermilk pie in a chocolate crust
Another day, another pie. I promise that my next post will not have a short crust casing! It might be something round, but that’s about as pie-like as it’s gonna get. As for the last of the pie chronicles, this one took me by surprise. It claims to be a buttermilk custard pie, but the taste is so similar to cheesecake that I have to question whether it’s custard at all. It’s not too sweet, thick and creamy and has a tangy flavour – pretty much everything you’d ask for in a cheesecake.
I infused the cream in chamomile before adding it to the rest of the “custard” ingredients for a very subtle tea-ish flavour. If you want something more pronounced, I recommend using Earl Grey or Lapsang Soushong.
I used the leftover chocolate pastry from the white bottom matcha pie as there was plenty leftover. It’s a system of waste not want not really, and since we’ve taken an interest in saving our planet recently (and for good reason – our sea mammals shouldn’t have to swim amongst our waste products) it makes sense to do a kind of ‘look what you can make with your leftover pastry dough’ kinda post. Continue reading
Beetroot Crème Egg brownies
Let me just round this off by saying that beetroot and crème eggs go REALLY well together. Admittedly, grated beetroot folded into a brownie and then topped with an overly sweet (and therefore only acceptable at Easter time slash all year) confection is a far cry from perfect – think savoury chunks that, better welcomed in a summer salad. Continue reading
Warwick St Social, Warwick St
Headed up by award-winning chef Alex, Warwick St Social is another Golden Triangle gem. The restaurant and bar serves up affordable lunch and dinner menus that change daily, with a contemporary edge that gives the food flair enough to impress without being overly showy, and some dishes that have come across from sister restaurant the Ingham Swan. Continue reading
Rhubarb kadaif pie
I don’t really eat pies with the filling in mind. For me it’s all about the pastry mixed together with custard and a bit of the fruit juices – that makes the perfect mouthful of pie and any chunks of soggy fruit just get in the way of my pleasurable experience. This winter though, I’ve become unhealthily attached to roasted rhubarb. I’ve been eating it with yogurt for breakfast, using it to make a British Bakewell classic and drinking rhubarb soda to pep me up for the last leg of the bakery shift. I’m even feeling a bit anxious for when this forced Yorkshire rhubarb season draws to a close, other roasted fruit just doesn’t offer the same texture and tartness – even if they are much cheaper. Continue reading
Redwell Brewery
Multi-award winning Redwell brewery has certainly been doing something right since its 2013 launch, having created a range of vegan-friendly beers and been handed the accolade for best can design at the Indie Beer Can Festival in 2016. Continue reading