Chicken and feta sausage rolls

March 29, 2013 by Briony

This recipe is my go-to saviour for when I need to make something to take a dish along to a party or gather. I am not a baker in the traditional sense (I could happily live a cake-free existence if required) so I always like to take something savoury. I also have a load of friends who are way better at making cakes than I’ll ever be!

A friend of mine suggested it to me, and after making it once I was hooked. These will convert people who will proclaim “but I don’t like sausage rolls!”. Well, if they like chicken, they will love these. I did start wondering whether a “sausage roll” is still a sausage roll if it’s made from chicken. Hmm, tough philosophical question … I’ll come back to that another day (or you can comment below and let me know what you think!)

Top view of the sausage rolls

500g minced chicken meat
1 small eshallot, finely chopped
grated zest ½ lemon
4 tablespoons chopped rocket
4 tablespoons fresh breadcrumbs
½ teaspoon chilli flakes
100g feta cheese crumbled
2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Combine all ingredients except pastry and egg and mix well with your hands. Season well with salt and pepper. Halve each sheet of pastry. Divide meat into 4 sausages the length of the pastry, and place one slightly off-centre on each strip. Brush one edge of pastry strip with beaten egg and then fold over the other to enclose sausage meat. Press down to seal with the back of a fork. Brush with beaten egg. Cut each roll into 2 or 3 smaller sausage rolls, and prick each with a fork. Repeat with the rest of the pastry and meat. Chill for at least 30 minutes. Bake in preheated 220°C oven for 25 minutes, or until golden. Serve warm. Makes 8-12.

Side view of the sausage rolls

The recipe is originally from The Australian.

In the UK it can be hard to find chicken breast minced, so I just buy breasts and put them in the magic bullet to mince them up. Works perfectly! I then do the same with the rocket and crumble the feta by hand. If you make these, be sure to comment and let me know if you loved them. These always go down a treat at a party!

Cookie, Glasgow Southside

March 27, 2013 by Briony

We finally managed to visit Cookie after many failed attempts (on our behalf!). We were able to get a seat without any problem on a Saturday around 1pm but it got a lot busier over the next two hours, so if you’re thinking of going for a special occasion I’d recommend booking in advance.

We were a bit confused by the menu, and I’ve read other people say this online. I put this down to the fact that their menu changes daily, and it’d be a bit of a waste to be printing out a new menu every day. Although, they could use the blackboards for this. Anyway, the point is that your waiter will tell you the specials of the day (two courses for £11.50) so make sure you pay attention!

There was a little more confusion as to whether we could order from the meals on the blackboard (we couldn’t) so we went for the lunch deal. We share the antipasti platter to start:

Antipasti platter to share

This had a generous amount of meats and cheese, as well as grilled vegetables underneath the rocket. We really enjoyed this and it was really nice and relaxing just grazing (I do tend to get a bit competitive when sharing food, thankfully Graeme has gotten used to this!).

Chicken with spinach bean stew/casserole

For main, we had the chicken and bean casserole. This was a large portion so I struggled to finish it after the antipasti. I am not the biggest bean lover but this dish was really nice and had a good balance of chicken to beans as well a refreshing spinach and some spring onion.

All their breads are baked in store daily, as well as the cakes. From the dining area you can see into the kitchen and have a spy on the calm, organised and tidy goings on. I was very impressed!

The waiter we had on the day was a little eccentric (“kooky” even, *boomtish*). He seemed a bit overwhelmed at times as he was taking care of all the tables in the restaurant with just a meal-runner to help him. The gentleman on the table next to us even commented on the service to us – but you know what, I like someone who is a little off-beat and not super slick. I think it can make the experience of dining out more fun and interesting.

One final word of praise – their cordials are served in a tea pot with a jug of water, so you can make it up to your own preference. Perfect for weirdos like me who like really weak cordial!

I can’t wait to go back to Cookie to try their dinner specials – they had a pea, wild garlic and blue cheese risotto which I am dying to try. It’s on the menu for a while longer (so they tell me via twitter) so I’ll have to go back soon!

Munro’s, Glasgow West End

March 22, 2013 by Briony

We were invited the try Munro’s on Great Western Road recently. If you know the area, you’ll know the infamous Captain’s Rest closed down last year. After a huge refurbishment, it reopened as Munro’s, marketed as a craft beer bar – the current beer trend going around Glasgow (and the rest of the world!). They have a rotating beer list which means there is always something different to try.

When we walked in, I couldn’t believe we were in the same building as the Captain’s Rest. I’d visited the former site frequently – I loved their pizza deal, and they had some good gigs in the basement area below (this space is now the toilets). Munro’s is completely different – the layout and design have all been seriously updated, as well as some huge windows installed so the place is now bright and airy. There are heaps of different dining spaces for a bite to eat, as well as standing barrels for downing pints.

We started off with a couple of drinks – I had a glass of pinot grigio (£5.60 for a large glass) and Graeme had a pint of Pacer Pale Ale while we looked over the menu. I’d describe the menu as beer food – foods that are good to accompany a pint (or a few!). It is also pretty cheap! It ranges from beer bite buckets (all under £4.50), sharing boards (under £12) to pizzas (up to £9) and then hotdogs, burgers, fish n chips and chilli.

We decided on a few starters to share:

Whitebait with lime and tartare sauce £4

Mushroom Rarebit on toasted farmhouse bread £4

Firecracker chicken wings £4.50

We decided on the above for our starters. The whitebait was super hot and crispy, just the way whitebait should be served. I also really loved the rarebit – a good balance of cheese and mushrooms. I wasn’t a fan of the chicken wings because of the sauce – I really don’t like anything that is barbecue flavoured. I hadn’t realised from reading the menu that it was a BBQ sauce with the name firecracker but I know for next time! Graeme did really like these though so it’s just down to personal preference.

Meat feast pizza

Chilli Dog £7.50

Jalapeño poppers

Selection of sauces

Graeme went for pizza for his main, whereas I thought I’d try something different and have a hot dog. The jalapeño poppers were good although a touch on the too-hot side for me – they were also filled with cheese which was a nice touch. The hot dog was good – a standard hot dog in a soft bun with fried onions. The fries had a nice crunch to them without being oily and were really fresh. Next time I wouldn’t get the chilli with the hot dog – again, down to personal preference. Graeme’s meat feast was incredibly meaty – just check out the photo! The crust was super thin (just the way I like it) and loaded with topping – as well as being generously sized.

This is a really nice, welcoming, warm bar. If you’re a beer lover, you should add it to your must visit places in Glasgow. I would definitely go back to enjoy a pint, and it’s nice to know a beer bar serves good, cheap food in case you need something to nibble on. The service was super friendly without being imposing, and it was pretty busy on a Wednesday night – nice to see the locals checking out the refurbishment!

We dined at Munro’s as guests of DADA PR and were not obliged to write a positive review.

Eating the Cupboards

March 20, 2013 by Briony

I think I invented this, or at least gave something that already exists a new name. Before we left for Melbourne, we were furiously penny pinching and had heaps of food in the cupboards. So about two weeks before we left, we stopped buying food in an effort to run down our supplies, as well as save money.

To do this needed a little bit of planning.

1. I wrote a list of everything we had in the cupboard (pantry), fridge and freezer.

What’s in the cupboard?

2. I started thinking about what would go together. If you think about food as proteins and carbs, this makes it a bit easier to work out a meal. With the help of google, I would put a couple of ingredients in and see what it came up with. As you can see at the bottom of the list, I did need to buy a few things – tomatoes, ricotta and potatoes. But overall, I used what we had.

Recipes for the week

3. I then wrote down all the days of the week I had to cook for, and started slotting meals in. If you are cooking for two people, but the meal serves 4, make sure to put down the leftovers for your lunch the next day.

This was incredibly successful! It is best if you have an idea of how much of an ingredient you will use (for example, a 400g bag of spinach will probably be enough for a dinner sized meal for four).

Some of the meals we made were hideously awful, I’ll be honest. Mushroom and cabbage lasagne was probably the worst thing I’ve ever made. It doesn’t even sound nice! Others were a big hit – lobster risotto was surprisingly luxurious for a risotto made from soup and tinned lobster.

Overall though, it was a great experience and made me bit more inventive. I can be a bit lazy and resort to going to the shops, when I could think of something delicious for dinner from what we have. I had friends over a couple of days before we left, and they were impressed with the dips I served up from what we had in the cupboard, as well as home made breads.

Zizzi Ristorante, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow

February 11, 2013 by Briony

On Saturday night we were excited to attend the launch of Zizzi Ristorante in Royal Exchange Square. In the space that was previously occupied by Borders (facing GoMA), I was really interested to see what they’d done with the space. If you remember way back to nearly the start of this blog, we went to the launch of Zizzi in the west end and were delighted to be a part of the opening night.

We were greeted by pipers, a glass of prosecco and a photographer, so we knew we were in for an eventful night! The space is really beautiful – my memories of what it was like as Borders have faded but they have made great use of the space by lots of interesting artwork (again, supplied by graduates of the Glasgow School of Art) and contrasting colours.

The first part of the night we spent milling around, checking out the decor, menu and listening to some great music provided by The Jack Dames. We were then seated and treated to a three course meal sampling the new menu. The starter was a beautiful antipasti platter with calamari, arancini, garlic bread, tomato bread, olives and prosciutto. I love an antipasti platter and I particularly liked this one because it was really well balanced so there was perfect portions to split between two people (nothing worse than fighting over the last arancini!).

Antipasti platter

For mains we had the pollo proscuitto – chicken breast wrapped in prosciutto, and cassareccia pollo piccante. I really enjoyed my main (I had the chicken breast) – it came with a white wine sauce that went really well with the sides.

Pollo Prosciutto

I hadn’t tried cassareccia pasta before and really enjoyed it as it was a bit unusual - and we even got a bag to take home in our goody bag! The chilli on top meant you could control the level of spiciness to your taste buds - a great idea, and I though this looked great by adding a nice splash of colour to the plate. It was offset nicely with a creamy sauce.

Cassareccia Pollo Piccante

Then it was time for the trio of desserts:

Trio of desserts: torta cioccolata, torta limone and tiramisu

If I had to pick a favourite, I think I’d go for the tiramisu. I thought this was just perfect! The lemon tart had an awesome punch of lemon with the right amount of sweetness and the chocolate torte was rich and decadent. I think the trio is the perfect way to finish a meal and I wish that it was an option on the dessert menu! I would also love to try the sorbet next time we visit.

We had a really fun night on Saturday night. It was definitely a party, celebratory atmosphere and all the staff seemed excited to be there for the launch. I’m a big fan of Zizzi’s for its consistency and delicious food, and the meal didn’t disappoint. This restaurant seems like it might be marketing itself towards a more business clientèle - although time will tell how it goes. We’ll definitely be back after our trip to Australia!

The restaurant officially opens today, Monday 11 February 2013! Thanks to Zizzi for inviting us along.

More photos:

The artwork upstairs is a lovely tribute to the former Borders with book covers from Scottish authors – I really loved this (so excuse all the pictures!):

Portuguese Caldo Verde (kale and chorizo soup)

February 5, 2013 by Briony

I have become a bit of a soup addict, as I mentioned recently. I love how you can make a batch and it lasts for so many meals. And it’s a really lovely winter warmer, as everyone knows! I was recently contacted by Sunvil to make one of their supper club recipes - Portuguese Caldo Verde, or kale and chorizo soup.

Simmering away on the stove

I love kale, and Graeme loves chorizo so I was excited to try this recipe. It was easy enough to make as you can see from the recipe – it didn’t need too much attention while it was simmering away on the stove. As the chorizo cooks in the soup, it releases some of its spices to give it a lovely warming flavour.

This recipe made about 6 servings of soup which kept us going all weekend! Some simple changes you could make would be to use sweet potato rather instead of potato, and for a vegetarian friendly dish just omit the chorizo. You’d then want to include some paprika in with the onions to give it the flavour that the chorizo would normally provide!

Portuguese Caldo Verde soup

Thanks to Sunvil for sharing this recipe with us. I’m adding it to our folder to make again when we are back from Australia!

Sunvil provided a gift voucher to buy the ingredients with. Thank you!

Nachos, Glasgow Southside

January 30, 2013 by Briony

We caught up with friends recently and had dinner at Nachos Southside. I probably wouldn’t have known about the restaurant but their twitter person does a great job at social media, so I was intrigued to see what the food was like. I’ll be honest, I was expecting standard Mexican food (and I was ok with that!). When I looked at the menu the day we were going, I was surprised as there was a range of main meals I’d never heard of which sounded delicious.

When we got there, the restaurant was a lot bigger than I was expecting. I wouldn’t describe the atmosphere as fine dining (there is a big Inca temple painted on the wall) but it is casual without being cheap and nasty. Choosing what to eat was really tough! We eventually decided to get three starters (between two) and two mains. Next time I would probably just get two starters as this was a lot of food!

Chicken and Chorizo Tostados £4.50 Spiced chicken and chorizo on a toasted flatbread with garlic.

Calamari £4.25 Mildly spicy golden fried calamari served with salsa ‘n’ salad garnish

Loaded Shells £3.95 A trio of potato shells with Cajun chicken, chilli and Mexican cheese.

These were our starters. As you can see, they are not small portions! I loved the calamari – especially how much there was. This was a huge amount which I was not expecting, and it was lovely and crisp. The potatoes were great with the chicken being my favourite, and I liked the variety.

After the starters, I was worried about how I’d go with the mains. Thankfully we didn’t feel rushed and had some time for digestion between courses!

Camarones Escondidos £12.95 Grilled chicken breast stuffed with tiger prawns, topped with sautéed spinach and chipotle – wine sauce. Served with Mexican house rice and sautéed vegetables

Pabellon Criollo £13.95 Shredded beef marinated with onion, red and black pepper sauce, fresh garlic and chillies, served with rice and beans

The mains were absolutely heavenly – I had the chicken. This was really not the kind of food I was expecting and I was really pleased to see prawns (and shrimp) in abundance. The flavours were really enjoyable and I would love to go back to try this dish again! I also really loved the side of refried beans, which have been something I’ve always avoided. Graeme’s pabellon criollo was also lovely and had a beautiful creamy sauce with it. I have tried to find the recipe for this as I’m really keen to recreate this at home – that’s when you know you’ve had a great dinner!

Churros with chocolate dipping sauce

We even had room for dessert – we shared the churros between us. These were also delicious cooked to perfection and served with a rich but not sickly sauce.

We had a great meal at Nachos. All up it was around £50 for two people with drinks, which I thought was pretty standard for three (and a bit) courses! I would love to go back soon – and when we were there, I spied that they do tapas Tuesday and Wednesday. All their tapas are priced between £1-£2.95 which I think sounds pretty fantastic! They have also recently started doing takeaway, if you fancy. So we are planning on going back to see what the tapas experience is like. If it’s anything like their normal menu, we have a new favourite place to eat on the Southside!

(Note: sorry for the quality of the photos in this post – the restaurant was a bit dark and the pictures needed some editing to lighten them up!)

Glasgow is quite short of Mexican restaurants – what’s your favourite Mexican in Glasgow?

Book review – I Quit Sugar Cookbook

January 28, 2013 by Briony

I got lots of lovely nice feedback on Twitter about my I Quit Sugar post! Thanks to everyone who tweeted – your feedback was really nice and uplifting.

I thought I’d do a follow up post about what you actually eat on the I Quit Sugar programme. As I’ve been doing it for a while now, I am getting more inventive so will do a few of my own recipe posts in the upcoming months.

So here are a few things I’ve made, so you can get an idea of what you’d be eating if you gave it a try.

Coco-nutty Granola

Coco-nutty granola on pancakes (made from eggs, cottage cheese & oats)

Sarah has posted on her website the recipe for her granola – she says this is her most popular recipe from the Cookbook. I think this is because it is so easy, very delicious and easy to adapt to whatever you have in the cupboard. I have made this a couple of times, and I really enjoy it as well. It is great with yoghurt and berries for breakfast or a snack.

Straight out of the oven: coco-nutty granola

Fennel soup

Fennel soup with chicken, yoghurt and Parmesan

I was browsing the Cookbook as I had some fennel, but wasn’t sure how I could use it. To make this recipe I just needed leeks so I went ahead and made it. I am slowly becoming a soup addict – I used to find soup always left me hungry, but that was because I was eating the tinned variety. When you make your own soup and control what goes in, I find it is more satisfying. I made this soup and then added in some extras at the ended – shredded chicken, Parmesan and yoghurt. But the soup on its own was delicious and I can’t wait to make this again. I ended up with about 5 servings from this recipe as well and it freezes really well, which makes it great for when you forget to make lunch.

Hash

Sweet potato, pumpkin seed crush

The best way to describe the hash recipes is that it’s just a mix of a variety of vegetables and nuts in whatever combinations you like. The first hash I made pretty much followed Sarah’s recipe and had sweet potato and pumpkin seeds in it and topped with yoghurt. It looked more like a dessert than a dinner! I put it in a bowl and struggled to finish it – it was really filling. It is also great to use up whatever you have in your fridge like herbs with a nice refreshing lemon dressing. This also makes a great, quick lunch to take to work if you have cooked the vegetables in advance. You could also add in bacon bits, shredded chicken, cheese or tuna to add in more protein.

Crushes/pesto

Pea and almond crush

I am addicted to crushes and pestos now. These are such a great way of eating more raw vegetables while still having a snack or meal that fees like a treat. I have it on toast, mixed into a hash, used as a pasta sauce, as a dip or as a pizza base. They are versatile and could really be used for anything! My husband isn’t a huge fan of the pea crush but I really like it – it has a tangy zing from the lemon and Parmesan.

Sweet stuff

The Cookbook also has a section of sweet treats – sugar free desserts to enjoy without feeling guilty. I made the cheesecake which we took to a friend’s house a while back. The judges were split – two of us liked it, and two didn’t. It was very savoury! It was the first time I’d used stevia and I don’t think I put enough in. I also can’t get used to the taste of stevia and will try xylitol when I finish our carton of stevia (we are currently using it up to make mojitos!).

The Cookbook warns about going overboard with the sweet stuff – so these are sometimes treats, not daily ones! Thankfully I don’t have too much of a sweet tooth so just make do with a small piece of 70-85% chocolate when needed.

Hopefully that is a useful insight into the recipes in the eBook. There are loads more! Generally, the recipes contain lots of nuts, coconut, vegetables and avocado. Some ingredients I haven’t been able to find in shops (such as almond flour) so some recipes I haven’t been able to try. But overall, I like the recipes and they are generally really quick and easy to make. I preferred reading the eBook and then the Cookbook to see all the things I could eat. I think they are much better when read in conjunction as they help you stay on track and remember why you’re trying to quit sugar.

If you’re interested in I Quit Sugar, you can check out the bundle using this link, which as I mentioned in my last post is an affiliate link, meaning I get some money because you buy the book via me. The eBook and Cookbook are both 50% to celebrate Australia Day until Tuesday 29 January – so get in while it’s super cheap!

I’ve got lots more posts for you this week – including my long overdue review of Nachos Southside and a couple of cookbook reviews! Let me know if you have any questions on IQS below, or via twitter.

(All the images here are photos I have uploaded to instragram, in case you were wondering about the filters!)

Chillies West End, Glasgow West End

January 23, 2013 by Briony

We had the pleasure of being invited along to try out the new menu at Chillies West End recently. I have a friend who is a huge Chillies fan, so I was intrigued to find out what he loved so much.

I somehow have managed to never go to Woodlands Road, despite being in the West End a lot (and we got married at Park Circus). Seems like a really nice area so I’m keen to venture back. Chillies had quite a decent sized dining space so it wasn’t crowded and we were able to relax without feeling rushed. The waiter also told us that they don’t have a liquor licence, but we were welcome to pop along to the bottle shop and get some wine if we liked.

I was driving, so had a strawberry smoothie (I can’t remember the exact name). The waiter was really helpful and made sure it didn’t have milk in it so I could drink it without feeling sick.

Strawberry smoothie

We then started on the tapas menu. As I’ve said before, tapas really suits me as I like eating lots of different things (short attention span!). We ate all of these:

Alloo ki Tikki £2.10 Potato cakes packed full of punchy flavours; green chilli, ginger, garlic and coriander. Served with a tangy tamarind and yogurt dip.

Mini Popadoms & Dips £2.10 The old favourite shaped by our chefs into a manageable mouthful. Accompanied by our homemade spiced onions & mango chutney.

Chicken Pakora £2.80 The finest, freshest Chicken breast dipped in a delicately spiced batter and fried until golden and crispy. Especially tasty immersed in chilli dip.

Tandoori Sizzlers Minced or tikka pieced lamb or chicken infused with bold, spicy flavours and served still moist and sizzling on a hot plate.

Butter Chicken £4.95 Tender, choice chicken breast finished in our tandoori oven before being served in a delicious, tomato based buttery sauce thickened with ground cashews. Simply delicious!

Gosht Nimbo Nariyal £4.95 Lime and coconut add an exotic flavour to our fresh, boneless lamb; at once refreshing and delectable!

We easily ate all of it! The only thing that I didn’t love was the last dish, but I think it was just my tastebuds as Graeme liked it. The butter chicken was delicious and we were fighting over it. The standard Indian dishes all exceeded expectations – like the pakora and the tandoori. I also thought the food was really good value – all of the above comes to around £22 which is great value for a dinner for two.

The restaurant itself is really nice inside. It’s quite casual but without a cheap feeling to it. It was busy for a Saturday night and the tables were getting turned over quickly – not that the staff made us feel rushed.

I would much rather make the effort to eat here than phone a takeaway. I think that Chillies was a great restaurant, and I can see why it has a good reputation with my friends!

The Glasgow Food Blog dined as guests of Chillies West End and were not asked to write a positive review in return for the meal.

The Hanoi Bike Shop, Glasgow West End

September 23, 2012 by Briony

When I saw the opening of The Hanoi Bike Shop mentioned on the 5pm blog, I was pretty damn excited. I love Vietnamese food, and really missed it since moving from Melbourne to Glasgow. Just a couple of months ago, I resorted to made Bahn Mi – Vietnamese rolls – at home (they were amazing, by the way). I’m so happy I can now buy them in Glasgow.

We headed there on Saturday – they only opened on Thursday. Now, I’ve been to a lot of places when they have just opened, but I honestly wouldn’t have been able to tell – service was friendly and enthusiastic and the place looks great.

We started with a couple of beers – Hanoi, and Saigon. Personally I loved the Saigon but it was lunchtime so just stuck to one beer.

The Hanoi Bike Shop beers

Then to make the decision on food – the menu isn’t huge, but I still had a lot of trouble deciding what to get. I really wanted to try the Pho but couldn’t go past the Banh Mi this time. We also got some rice paper rolls and the Dia Dung Com as a side – Vietnamese sausage with picked vegetables and bread.

Vietnamese sausage and pickled vegetables – £3.95

Prawn rice paper rolls – £4.50

Both these dishes were great. The Vietnamese sausage was really tasty, and I loved that the pickled vegetables were served in their own little jar. Every dish came with lashings of coriander – probably my favourite herb so I was in heaven. The rice paper rolls were packed with filling and went perfectly with the dipping sauce.

There is one thing I haven’t yet mentioned which made me love this place even more. On all the tables they have a little squeezy bottle of sriracha. This is my new all-time favourite spicy sauce and I make it at home. I covered everything I ate with this to give it an extra kick.

On to the Banh Mi!

Banh Mi – lemongrass and sesame marinated beef – £6.50

Banh Mi – pork and woodear mushroom pate – £5.00

Wow is pretty much all I had to say – these were great. I tried both and loved them – the pork has a sweetness to it whereas the beef was definitely more savoury/umami. They were absolutely chok-full of ingredients but were easy to eat once you jammed everything in there. A Banh Mi can really have any mix of ingredients but I would say it is essential to have lettuce, coriander, pickled vegetables and some kind of protein (whether it be meat or tofu). The only one tiny thing I would ask for next time is for mayonnaise on my roll as that is my personal preference!

We had a great time visiting The Hanoi Bike Shop – and I would have loved to stay on longer but we had places to be (visiting the National Museum of Roller Derby exhibition called The Revolution on Roller Skates!). I can’t wait back to try the Pho and some of the other dishes on the menu that we saw neighbouring tables eating. This place has definitely brought something new and interesting to Glasgow, and is high up on my new favourite places to eat.

The Glasgow Food Blog

A blog about restaurants and eating in Glasgow, Scotland

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