Foodporn - Fish'n'chips at The Boathouse

As January tends to be a fairly quiet month, post the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, we got in the car and traded city-life for a week on the channel island of Guernsey. 

Not only is it a beautiful place, with stunning coast lines and actual fresh-air (says the Londoner excitedly), but there are also some great options for getting your food-porn on and I may have just found what could be the best fish'n'chips around. 

The setting was The Boathouse, a charming restaurant by the harbour with a yummy brunch menu, creative seaside decor and a view of the docks. 

The plate was beautifully presented. Being lactose-intolerant I tend to be the one scraping batter and trying to get my hands on what little fish is left, but this one was a thick chunk of real and tasty fish with a thin layer of crusty batter. Absolutely scrumptious!

The boy had a heavenly looking fish pie with a slightly crust top. Yum!

xo

Foodporn: Lactosefree Apple Pie Nigella-style

One of my new years to-do's was to get more adventurous with my cooking, which considering the amount of foodporn on my Instagram seemed like a good idea. 

Luckily Christmas brought with it this little gem :). 

Watching Nigella romance food on TV, with her passion, her real-ness and her epic desserts (!), has definitely inspired me to get into trying more new things and find confidence in my cooking attempts.

Her recent book 'Nigelissima' certainly doesn't disappoint as it's packed with creative ideas, classic Italian goodies, quirky mains and scrumptious dessert, all with simple and easy-to-follow instructions (if I can do it anyone can! No... Seriously.). 

First up, home made Apple Pie!

I've loved this gem for as long as I can remember. It's up there on the top-list with the blueberry pie, cupcakes and strawberries with cream (it's a dessert. It just is, simple or not). 

Nigella's Italian Lactose-free Apple Pie (recipe serves 8)

100g Butter (Lactofree, either from Arla or the Dairy-Free range)

250g Plain Flour

2 Teaspoons Baking Powder

Pinch of Salt

150g Caster Sugar

2 Eggs

Zest of 1 Lemon

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

75ml Lactofree Milk (room temperature)

3 Apples (Nigella suggests Pink Lady but any crisp ones work well)

1 Teaspoon soft brown or Demerara Sugar

1/2 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon

1x Springform Cake Tin

Start by setting the oven to 200C, and butter up that springform tin. 

Mix up the butter and sugar until it's pale and creamy.  

Mix in the egg, and then add the flour, baking powder, salt, vanilla, lemon zest and milk. Mash it up to a batter with a soft consistency. 

Halve one of the apples, peel it and chop half into small cubes. (Be strong at this stage, don't eat the batter!! You can lick the spoon at the end!)

Mix this into the batter, and then pour your mixture into your springform. Then add the remaining apples (skin on) arranging them as you please. 

Mix up your cinnamon and demerara sugar together and sprinkle this evenly over the art piece. 

Once you're happy in the oven it goes for 45 minutes. Then leave it to cool down in the springform for about 1 hour before popping it onto a nice serving platter. Voila!. 

Yum! Enjoy the fruits of your labours, preferably with some (lactofree) cream or vanilla sauce. 

 xo

Christmas Food Porn - Mulled Wine

Last weekend we had a few friends around to kickstart the Christmas feeling with food, merryness and decorations. 

While us ladies decorated the tree and nattered on the sofa, the men were busy creating a feast of a Christmas Roast with enough food and yummyness to feed the block. Eventually the smell of cooking tempted us to join them and through a team effort (most cooking credits to the head chef, Mr D) we had ourselves quite an epic little dinner party.

After some post-food sofa lounging (including a lot of snoozing, the best part of the home made meal; rolling onto a cosy sofa nap), A and I headed into the kitchen to have a go at making some mulled wine with the dessert (lactose-free crumble curtesy of masterchef K). 

Being Swedish I had of course popped by Scandinavian Kitchen (10 minutes walk from Oxford Circus if you're London based) for supplies. Stocked up on Lussekatter and Annas Pepparkakor, and found these goodies. 

What you'll need

A bottle or two of Red Wine (the cheap stuff works fine here)

1x bag of Annika's Glögg spices

(or Cinnamon, Dried Ginger, dried Orange peel, green Cardamom pods & cloves)

80g Sugar

Almonds

Raisins

Pour the wine into a pot, along with your sugar and the spices. 

Heat it up to just before boiling (we don't want to see any bubbles) and let the sugar mingle in nicely. Stir.

Keep it on for a good while (we left it on heat for about 15/20 minutes) and preferable then leave it on the side for an hour or so before re-heating slightly. 

(During this time entertain yourself with silly ness and dancing around the kitchen floor.)

As we went for the quick turn-around we skipped the cooling period (oops). 

Add some almonds and raisins in your glasses, and pour in the wine. 

If you fancy a bit of a kick, add a bit of aquavit or snaps in there as well. 

Voila. Then enjoy your friends' dessert magic and put on a cosy Christmas movie. All set!

xo

'P'

Mac'N'Cheese Londoner Style

Obviously, as anyone who's ever glanced at my Instagram can tell, I'm a big foodporn supporter. And if you're ever stuck for inspiration for a (often naughty, but ever so yummy) new recipe adventure, 'The Londoner' is where it's at. 

So on Sunday, when the man suggested we explore some new Mac'n'Cheese options, I of course had to try my hand at Rosie's recent One Pan Fondu M'n'C. 

Granted, the idea (as I repeatedly pointed out) is to minimise the washing up and general messyness, but as we're a house hold of one avid cheese eater and one lactose intolerant lady (sorry) we ended up doing doubles with pans galore. 

The original recipe can be found here, and to sum it up basically involves: 

Dry Pasta of your choice (400g feeds 4 people)

1x fist full of Cheddar

1x fist full of Gruyere Cheese

1x chunk of Parmesan (1/3 size of the others)

Bacon (and Chicken if you fancy it)

Two cloves of thinly sliced garlic

Two mugs of hot vegetable stock

One mug of milk

(For my lactose free variant I swapped the Cheddar and Gruyere to Two fists of Arla's Lactofree goodness - As parmesan is aged you can go right ahead without too much tummy trouble as any cheese going on 12 mnths/hard will have rid itself of most of the lactose)

We also added chicken with the bacon (fry up with the garlic while your pasta boils up). 

Boil up your pasta with the stock and milk (10-12 mins). 

We didn't quite feel it was thick enough so sprinkled in some flour as well. 

Add in your cheese and mix it up baby!

Add the bacon (and chicken) and your pasta. 

Stir. 

At this point you can go ahead and serve it up, but we popped it in a big tub, sprinkled some breadcrumbs on top and let it crust in the oven for an extra couple of minutes. 

Yum!

xo

'P'

Dairy free Chocolate Chips

A little while ago I was diagnosed with lactose intolerance, among other things. Initially the cupcake, chocolate chip cookie and all other such desserts-loving part of me was rather upset, but fortunately there are some options. 

Back in Sweden there has been a boom of lactose free products over the past few years. Cream, Milk, Butter,  Yoghurt, Creme Fraiche, whatever your heart desires. Most of these from the lovely people at Valio and now Arla who are pioneering the lactose free research. Not only that, but it is already quite common that you'll find lactose free pastries and options in restaurants and cafes. 

As I'm living in London though, there needs to be some options when my imported Swedish stock in the fridge runs out. One of my favourite home made yummies has always been Chocolate Chip Cookies. Incredibly easy to stir up and only takes about 20-30 minutes. 

May have ran out of patience and space and made some giant cookies.

Yum!

xoxo

'P'

#momentsbypeach

Morning at Chelsea

So last week we got called out to Chelsea's training ground for a quick chat with one of the players. Nothing much in terms of earth shattering news, but it was a jolley good morning with the team and I got to practise some non-existant reporting skills on Demba Ba.

This was all quickly followed by some FTP:ing and a mouth watering lunch at Gusto!

The. Best. Lemonade. 

xoxo

P

#momentsbypeach