A taste of Indian in Devonshire Square - Cinnamon Kitchen

Location, Location, Location may be the mantra in the property market but when it comes to finding a restaurant for three busy women including a foodie, a veggie and a whirlwind, it’s pretty key.  Thankfully living in London, we don’t need to sacrifice taste for location and found a hidden gem at Liverpool Street.

Cinnamon Kitchen is the more accessible sister of Westminster’s Cinnamon Club – serving the same modern eclectic Indian without price tag.  Housed in contemporary space with indoor and outdoor options in Devonshire Square, it was a little empty as we arrived on a wet Wintry Monday night, prepared to catch up on love, life and career with perhaps a bit of food and wine on the side.

The wine – from the wide ranging and not overly pricey wine list – arrived quickly with a mystery amuse bouche.  Well, if we had been listening to the lovely waitress, it would not be a mystery but it was tasty, vegetarian and made us hungry enough to stop the character assassination and consider the menu.

Starters arrive quickly and we were soon tucking into crumbed Indian spice chickpea cake pieces with mango chutney which had a satisfying KFC crunch.  I adore Indian food but am woefully ignorant about the spice alchemy behind the flavors - that said, the chef in the kitchen is a genius.  Or at least he was when he was conjuring the sharing kebab platter that the meat eaters tucked into without too much jostling or fighting over choice pieces.

Pork isn't a more common Indian ingredient outside Portuguese inspired Goa but the beauty of the Cinnamon Kitchen is that they take inspiration from across this colourful continent.  And char-grilled honey and chili  glazed pork ribs are pretty inspirational as well as sticky, dirty and hard to share.

I'm not a cheesophile but Paneer isn't too bad.  Not worth swapping a good rib for but a great option for a veggie - especially when its done with a lovely spicy Indian tomato sauce with a kick of heat.  The final member of our Trio chose Tandoori spiced red deer with pickled root vegetable, yogurt sauce which seems a little wrong at Christmas but at least it wasn't reindeer.

An excellent evening with gorgeous food and excellent service!  Well, the waitress might have been a little heavy handed with the wine but we did drink it so I can hardly blame her for my thick head in the morning.

Lx

Don't forget to follow me @littleofwhatyou

Yakamoz - Turkish with warm feeling

Parties stress me out – I’m worried that no one will turn up; I am terrified I might poison someone and what happens if I run out of wine!  So, my heart goes out to anyone who starts their own restaurant as they must have all of those fears and more.  Especially, if you can obviously see that not only do they take huge pride in their business but that it is a little slow getting off the ground.

Having walked past Yakamoz (St James Street End of the High Street – 18 High Street, E17 7LB) several times, seen the delicious food and watched the staff anxiously waiting for customers, I really wanted to try it.  One of my best friends is moving to Manchester so when she wanted a catch-up which encompassed our friendship, I decided a pretty random night out would pretty much cover all that we have done together.

So, on a quiet Monday night, we bundled into the restaurant (after a bottle of bubbles) desperately in need of warmth and nice Turkish food.  The charming manager explained that there was a slight hold up with the licence but BYO was fine so we indulged in a bottle of ‘Sauvignon Blanc a la Lidl’.

Finally unwrapping ourselves, we looked around the restaurant which was decked out in what can only be described as rustic chic – traditional Turkish grill set up at the front, exposed brick walls and pristine white table clothes.  This suggests they may eventually do take-away's which would delight the sloth in me no end.

Turning my attention to the menu, I was very pleased to see such a variety of tasty Turkish dishes but between putting the world to rights and sipping our wine, it took so long to decide, that we just went for the hot meze platter, bread and insalata russa.

Fate had shined on us and when the meze arrived, it had all the hall marks of a glorious Turkish feast.  Red glistening Turkish sausage, crisp calamari, borek, falafel and meat balls surrounded a moreish dip which wasn’t hummus but was very very good.

The insalata russa was about the best I had ever had – just the right amount of mayonnaise to ingredients which were slightly crisp.

Having munched through this spread while putting the world to rights, we decided to share lamb ribs and another portion of insalata russa.  Okay, we were pigs but very happy ones.  The perfectly cooked lamb ribs came with two types of rice and a portion of mixed Mediterranean salad complete with baby pickled chillies (which was big enough to provide lunch the next day).

Speaking to the manager as we enjoyed our feast, we learnt that not only are the dishes prepared fresh and the chef is excellent (something that I can only agree with) but they offer a selection of fish.   We also learnt – although he didn’t say it – that Yakamoz is a restaurant which takes quiet pride in its service, food and place within the community – a place which leaves you with a lovely warm feeling.

And so our trip to Turkish finished and as we waddled off into the night, having paid well under £40 for the feast, we realised that it rather summed up our friendship.  Moments of sheer randomness which turn out successfully in the end – occasionally scaring bystanders.

Will I go back to Yakamoz?  Most definitely, in fact, you will have a hard time stopping me!

Don’t forget to follow me of twitter @littleofwhatyou

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Size Does Matter with Bananas (Banana Ginger Loaf)

While bribery is very much to be frowned on, I have found that working in financial services, cake can go a long way.  Yes, teams powered by sugar are more productive and having checked on the Financial Conduct Authorities website, I look like being a ‘cake pusher’ hasn't been regulated out of existence.

That said, I personally hate fiddly recipes and don’t like sweet things but my suggestion of making a nice lasagne was turned down so I headed into the kitchen, committed to keeping my cool.  I chose to make a Banana Ginger loaf as not only did it look good and I had most of the ingredients but the recipe looked simple as it only had 4 steps.  It also came from a book that my Nan gave me and having worked on the radars on the Orkney isles in the war, I suspect she was rather a low-faff cook too.

Excited by the simplicity, I decided to make double the batter so I could spread the love (i.e. sugary bribery) far and wide!

Banana Ginger Loaf [makes one large loaf]

300g plain flour

4 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp mixed allspice

2 ½ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

200g soft butter

200g soft brown sugar

4 large eggs

6 medium well ripened bananas (mashed)

120ml milk

2tbsp golden syrup

4 tbsp chopped crystalised ginger

You start by sifting the flour, ginger, mixed allspice, baking powder and salt into a bowl.  This provides your upper arms with an excellent work out and the ability to cover all surfaces in your kitchen with a light dusting of ‘snow’.

Then add butter, brown sugar and eggs to the ingredients and beat thoroughly until well blended.  Sadly, this is when it started to go off track as I soon realise that a) there was a heck of a lot of batter in the bowl b) my bowl is a lot smaller than I remembered.  After all these years, I can admit that size does apparently matter.

Grabbing a cider (for inspiration) and my biggest pot, I began the ‘exciting’ task of slopping one gloopy mess into another dish.  My ladylike credentials buggered off at this point and I confess the loaf was not only made with love but certain levels of profanity.

Covered in flour and cross, I then added the bananas, milk and syrup to the mixture before adding the finely chopped ginger.  Pouring the mixture on myself and my kitchen I wrestled it into two greased loaf tins (10 x 28 cm) and muffin tin sheet.  There is a lot of mixture which really does keep on giving.

Put into oven at 160 C or 325 F for about 45 to 60 minutes – turning the temperature lower if the top gets too brown.  Remove from the oven and turn out once it has cooked slightly.  Avoid burning yourself – as I did – and present proudly to colleagues as ‘just a little something’ that I whisked up over the weekend in one of my minor domestic goddess moments.

Would I recommend that other low-faff bakers try it?  Definitely, if I hadn’t had size issues, it probably would have been far easier and for a relatively simple recipe it delivered a very moreish spicy banana ginger punch that even I liked

L x

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @littleofwhatyou

Jim Beam Honey Mushroom Sauce

Baby its cold outside but it’s warm in here!  Well, at least until the heating bill hits critical and I wrap myself (and naturally my feline masters) in thermals.  So what to have for supper in a sensible time frame?

As a South African I love steak so that was a no brainer but I decided to pep it up by making a sauce.  However, sadly being gluten-intolerant, the gloriousness of a roux-based creation was to be avoided and I looked into my fridge in a vain hope that the pantry fairy had visited.

No such luck but I did find mushrooms and sour cream!   And so children, this is how Jim Beam Honey Mushroom Sauce was born:

Take one pack of button mushrooms (cleaned and sliced), one good sized onion (chopped) and a garlic clove (minced)

Add a little oil to a frying pan and heat before adding the ingredients

Sauté until soft and turning the head down add about 150ml to 200ml of sour cream (this is around half of a standard pot so you can add more if you need more liquid)

Add one tot of Jim Beam Honey Bourbon, salt and pepper to taste before letting the sauce gradually reduce.

Serve with a steak cooked to your liking and veggies (green beans for me)

The sauce comes out with a nice hint of earth from the mushrooms, slight sourness from the cream and a hint of sweetness from the Bourbon – all of these can be exaggerated or reduced depending on your tastes.

This will create enough sauce of two servings (or one greedy person who has chips to dip).

Enjoy!

Lx

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @littleofwhatyou