Tea for Me - a review of Adagio Teas

My working week is pretty difficult.

I only work part-time and I have been lucky enough to score hours that fit directly around my boys' school life, but as a result I pretty much never stop.  I'm forever rushing between work and picking up children, food shopping and making sure the dog has been walked.

Between blogging, work, children, dog, degus, baby and all the other bits and pieces, there are some nights where I manage to go to bed without even doing the basics, like feeding myself!

I am knackered!

It's becoming increasingly important to me that I take whatever time I can to look after myself a little bit more  after all, if there's no fuel the fire cannot keep burning.

I was delighted when Adagio Teas asked me to review their artisan tea collection: finally, a reason to give myself 10 minutes and enjoy a little 'me time'.

Usually a cup of tea is a last desperate attempt by myself to gain back some spent energy.

The kettle gets boiled.

The teabag is chucked in the cup unceremoniously.

The cup is filled.

The cup sits.

The filled cup waits.

And waits.

And waits...

The cup gets cold.

M husband comes home and finds several manky old cups of black tea sitting around the house (sometimes I manage to take the teabag out, sometimes I don't).

*Sigh*

I love a cup of tea.  When I can get one.

Here's a clever thing though:

Look!  You put gorgeous loose tea into the tea maker.

You wait a bit and watch as the water changes colour and smells amazing.

Then...THEN...!

Look!

How cool is that!?

I have to say it is very satisfying.  I certainly won't be forgetting about my tea any time soon.

It's also very easy to clean and completely see-through, so you get to watch as the tea infuses.

Adagio have an amazing collection of gorgeous artisan teas from around the world.

My favourite from the samples I tasted has to be the Earl Grey Moonlight; an odd choice for someone who 'doesn't like Earl Grey'!

The tea itself is so fresh and full of flavour; as soon as you open the re-sealable bag you are hit with the most amazing fragrance.

It definitely forces me to make my tea-time more of an occasion.

If you love tea, give them a little visit at www.adagiotea.co.uk

You wont be disappointed!

Disclaimer: I was sent a sample of Adagio teas to try, along with an IngenuiTEA pot to brew them in.  I was not expected to write anything positive and I have not been paid for this post. All words and thoughts are completely my own and I bloody loved the tea - it was so good!

Tingling my Tastebuds...a round up of recipes

I'm Veggie and have been all my days.

It was never a massive decision, more of a happening; being a vegetarian is something that happened to me.  I do not like the taste of meat.  I hate the texture of meat.  I therefore hate meat substitutes.

I am also fairly fussy; I'm getting better in my old age, but being a hater of certain textures, like mushroom and aubergine, it kind of narrows down my choices a wee bit.

I am very fortunate however to live in the golden age of internet, where I can make specific searches for recipes I can actually get excited about, which with my self-placed limitations can be difficult.

Here's a wee round up of recipes I've been drooling over this week, along with links to see for yourself.

1.Tomato and harissa stew with cheddar dumplings

Source:bbcgoodfood.com

I'm not going to lie - it's the dumpling bit that's doing it for me - check out the recipe here.

I'm a massive carbohydrate/cheese fan, but I love some spice too, so this ticks a lot of my boxes.  It pretends it's a bit healthy with all the veg and the chickpeas, but it's luring you in with the oh-so-yummy promise of dumpling naughtiness.

I've never tried harissa, and being a busy mum of three who rarely has time to shop alone, let alone search for something new, Id probably substitute in red and yellow peppers instead, which would still sit nicely in amongst the tomatoes and chickpeas.

2. Chickpea and Vegetable Curry

Source: The Vegetarian Society (www.recipes.vegsoc.org)

A veg curry is always my go-to favourite if I can't think of anything else, and it never fails to satisfy.  It's quick, it's easy and it's a really satisfying make, which if you portion up just right,can last a couple of days.

A veg curry is the best - you can pretty much chuck anything in, add some chopped tomatoes or even some coconut milk and you can mix up the flavours no end.  I love a chickpea curry - there's something really satisfying and filling about one, and you can find the recipe for this one from the Vegetarian Society here.

3.Easy Pizza Dip with Cream Cheese

Source www.tinnedtomatoes.com

Oh holy monkeys, this really tickles my tastebuds and makes me drool a wee bit.  This is ridiculous - a dip which tastes like pizza, but one which you can dip vegetable crudites into and thus feel a little bit less guilty (just try to forget about the cheese!)

Have a look at this glorious recipe from my good friend Jac at Tinned Tomatoes.  This is definitely a good one to pull out when you have visitors or if you want to settle down to a good movie with some tortilla chips and beer; why no go all out? Heaven in a dish!

4. Greek salad with Feta

Source: Oh, sweet Basil (www.ohsweetbasil.com)

I LOVE a Greek salad.  I've been to Greece a few times now, and it's definitely my best and most favourite part about going there - you cannot beat the absolute freshness of the food and the zing of all the different fresh flavours hitting your tastebuds. Delicious!

Coupled with tzatziki and some frsh bread, this has to be my ultimate dish.  Simple, quick, but totally flavoursome - and healthy too. Have a gander at Oh, Sweet Basil's take on this classic, here.


5. Battered Halloumi

Source: www.planetveggie.com

Dear good god. Battered Halloumi for the win!

I did say I hate meat substitutes, but I think this is the closest I will ever come.  The texture of halloumi is odd.  It's squeaky.  It's a bit rubbery.

But boy, does it taste good in batter!

I've had battered halloumi a few times - it seems to be quite fashionable at the moment as the vegetarian opton of choice for bar and restaurants, but I am so very glad when I see it n the menu instead of bloody macaroni or stupid stuffed aubergine. Again.

Planet Veggie is right when she proclaims she now wants to 'batter all the things'. Check out her recipe here.

Long live battered halloumi!


Right, now I am very extremely hungry.  I'm off to do some cooking!

Digestive Art

Fancy an easy and no-fuss bit of baking time with the kids, but can't be bothered with the mess and fuss of a full-blown cake mix extravaganza?

Fancy letting the kids indulge in their own creativity while you 'supervise' and get to eat the proceeds?

Why not try some Digestive Art?

You will need:

1 pack of cheap-ass digestive biscuits (the cheaper they are, the more you get in a pack, the more time that the kids will be 'creating' thus leaving you in peace to indulge in some 'you' time!)

1 pack of writing icing in quite a few colours

Some sprinkles

A bowl of melted chocolate (or 2 if you are feeling like some white chocolate and some milk chocolate!)

Marshmallows

Method:

First, we put two marshmallows between two digestives and blipped them in the microwave for 10 whole seconds.  This made the marshmallows nice and squishy, providing a nice sticky centre (and the kids feel like they are 'baking', ha ha!)

Next, I loaded my 'baked' goods onto a plate, laid down some tissue and let them loose with some melted in the microwave hot chocolate.

They dipped, and wrote with the icing and covered the biscuits in sprinkles.

Busy, busy, busy!

Oh, the concentration!

Ok, I might have made one too - it was pretty fun!

M is for Mum!  My biscuit!

I have to say, this has been one of my favourite activities of the holidays so far - I sat around surfing the net, watching some comedy shows and kicked back while my children made me some delicious sugary treats!

Happy days!

Spicy Coconut Daal In A Hurry: Some Like It Hot

I love a good daal. It's a meal that ticks all the boxes - quick, easy, healthy, satisfying, cheap to make.

Oh and delicious!

Why not have a go at the extra yummy one I made tonight?

Spicy Coconut Daal In A Hurry

Ingredients

• 1 can chickpeas
• 4 tbsps red lentils
• 50ml Cocount milk
• 1 tsp Turmeric
• 1tsp Cumin
• 1tsp chilli
• 1 onion
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1tbsp oil
• Spring onion to garnish

optional extras: rice, poppadoms, mango chutney

Method

1.

Peel and chop onion and garlic and whizz with tomatoes until they are close to a paste-like consistency. 

2.

Heat oil in frying pan and add the spices (turmeric, chilli and cumin).  Fry briefly before adding paste.

3.

Let mixture fry for a minute before adding 4 tbsps lentils.  Stir them in, then pour in the coconut milk.  Turn the heat down slightly and allow mixture to cook until lentils soften.

Add the chickpeas and cook through.  If required, add some more coconut milk to stop mixture sticking to the pan.

4. 

Serve immediately with rice and poppadoms.

A cheap and cheerful meal with just enough spice.  Add some more if you like - I like mine with a kick, so I tend to add a fair bit, but what I love about this is the fact that the coconut milk evens it out for those who aren't so keen.

Yum!  What's your favourite curry?  Do you like it hot?

Chop-Chop, Haymarket, Edinburgh - Dumplings to Die For!

When someone asks you to review a restaurant which has been awarded the AA Rosette 4 years in a row, voted Britain's favourite Chinese restaurant 2 years in a row in the TsingTao Legacy of Taste competition and also the Pagoda this year in March for being in the top 32 Chinese restaurants in the U.K, you don't turn it down.

I was dying to see what the fuss was all about.

Jac and Stuart get settled with some TsingTao!

I was lucky enough to be invited along with the gorgeous Jac from Tinned Tomatoes and the lovely Stuart from Cakeyboi to see why Gordon Ramsay himself had cause to visit in his quest to find Britain's best local restaurant.

I volunteered to drive for the evening, so we all hopped into my ever-reliable Aggie (That's my car.  Yes I named her.  Makes it easier to drive motorways at night if I think we are a team!) and drove from Dundee to the Haymarket restaurant, our stomachs rumbling at the thought of Unlimited Banquets.
Which is a thing on the menu at Chop-Chop by the way. (Are you excited yet?)

Situated across the road from Edinburgh's Haymarket Train Station on Morrison street, we found parking directly outside and moseyed on in, to be given a very warm greeting by the manager, who was extremely friendly, taking the time to make sure we were properly furnished with drinks before explaining the menu for us.

As a fussy vegetarian (I don't like mushrooms, I'm not fond of tomatoes and I really don't like aubergine - I am every restaurant manager's nightmare.  I'm the one who asks for the dishes to be modified.) I was very pleasantly surprised that not only was there a huge and varied vegetarian menu, but we were also not limited to trying just one dish! And there was not a mushroom in sight.  Check out the Vegetarian Menu  for yourself - it offers an amazing choice, and is all very tasty.  I had a hard time trying to pick!  Luckily, the manager helped us out by recommending the Unlimited Banquet, with vegetarian substitutes. 

As the menu helpfully explains:

If this is your first visit here, we would like to explain our Chinese style of serving. In China, diners order collectively and share all dishes, which are brought to the table in random order as soon as they are ready. In this way, mixing the textures and flavours of the dishes adds to the enjoyment of the meal.

The plates began to arrive quite quickly.  At first we were presented with some very fresh salads.

From the off, I knew it was going to be hard to choose a favourite!

First up, the Cucumber Salad, consisting of shredded cucumber Chinese leaves and glass noodles which was fresh and delicious, served in a tangy vinegar and lemony dressing with a  hint of mustard.

Crispy, savoury and extremely moreish!

Hot on it's heels came the moreish Crispy Shredded Potato.  I cannot at this point iterate how important it is to have a wee practice with your chopsticks before attempting to eat.  I'm not talking a lot of practice or classes or anything, but even just a wee bit before you dive into fine shredded potato.  Because it gets a bit messy and embarrassing if you don't know what you are doing, and yes, we did have a few comedy moments.

But once we got going, there was no stopping us!

I am very sure that if you preferred a fork and knife by the way, you could ask for some.  Eating with traditional chopsticks definitely added to the overall experience. And I became a bit of a pro by the end!

Mixing our own sauce at the table for the next instalment of our meal - the famous dumplings! - added to the theatre of the occasion; a marvellous touch.  Soon we were mixing vinegar, soy sauce, chilli and garlic in the little dishes provided to dunk those delicious dumplings into.

Jian Wang

Jian Wang brought the recipe for her now famous dumplings over to Edinburgh from her home region of Changchun in North Eastern China. Jiao Zi, as they are called in Changchun, became so popular here that Jian built a factory, distributing them to Chinese supermarkets throughout the UK and even on P&O cruise ships.

Chop Chop restaurant was born in 2006 and with the dumplings, as well as other fresh, healthy and authentic ingredients at the fore, became a roaring success.

Soon our table was groaning with a vast array of dishes.  The dumplings of course were outstanding.  Clearly made and cooked just before they came to our table, they were full of flavour, and dipped in the sauce they burst into even more life.  They were simply amazing.

I also ate some of the Aubergine, which until now I would never have had - but here I had loads!  Very savoury and fried, it was actually delicious.  I even had seconds.  And thirds!

Other dishes brought to our table were, Stir Fried Potatoes, Tender Green Beans and Chilli, Stir-Fried Beansprouts, Tofu and coriander, some nice and sticky Boiled Rice and tasty, fresh, Prawn Crackers.

And the best thing about the Unlimited Banquet?  It was UNLIMITED!

You can re-order any of the dishes at any time, so no need to worry about etiquette when you find a dish you really love - you are free to consume as much of it as you can manage.

But remember to save room for dessert!

Jac perfecting her chopstick technique - concentration is key!

When handed the dessert menu, we were pretty stuffed.  But the bar had been set so high in the main course - could the dessert match the standard?

I often find in Chinese restaurants, the dessert falls behind, but in Chop Chop, this was certainly not the case!

Top of my list comes the Baked Mongolia, a dish which took slightly longer to be prepared for us, but was completely worth the wait.  Served as a pastry, the Baked Mongolia is hot, but with melted cold ice-cream which pours out of the middle when cracked open.  The result is a delicious mix of hot and cold sweet - a Chinese version of Baked Alaska.

Baked Mongolia

Stuart was desperate to taste the Sugar String Apple - caramelised apple pieces in a sugar coating.  On arrival, it looked amazing.  Steaming hot, we were told to dip each piece in a ready-made bowl of iced water to crisp up the coating before eating. It did not disappoint!

Sweet, but not sickly, the apples were moist and very, very, very tasty.

Mixed fruit dumplings coated in fine powdered sugar. MMmm!

More dumplings were available for dessert - both Mixed Fruit (which were very fruity and full of flavour) and Peanut ones too.

Jac was extremely keen on the Peanut Dumplings - fried dumplings with peanut butter, raisin, sugar and sesame seed filling. 

As we were served with a taste of all the flavours of ice-cream - Mango and Lemon Sorbets as well as real Chocolate, Vanilla and Strawberry ice-creams, we took the opportunity to pair all of our desserts with them.  The ice-cream itself was amazing, and would not have been a disappointment to anyone who ordered.  Real ice-cream with real flavours - no skimping on quality.

When we eventually managed to fit in our last dumplings it was almost a sad affair.  We gazed fondly at the leftovers, unable to pack another morsel in.  It was a flawless and faultless service with some of the best food I have ever eaten, and I do not say this lightly.

As someone with quite a fine palette I am quite sensitive to greasy, heavy food and very fussy when it comes to taste and even texture, but I cannot fault my experience at Chop Chop.

Clean lines and beautifully presented

The food was healthy, well-presented and nothing was too much of an effort.  As someone who has spent a lot of time working in the service industry, I know good service when I see it, and it was certainly prevalent in this restaurant - the staff were attentive and helpful to all of their customers and everything ran smoothly and effortlessly.

We made our farewells and headed for home, very full and very happy.  Even a long drive home in the foggy, misty dark didn't dampen our mood - we all spoke enthusiastically about the food and none of us had a bad word to say.  In fact, we were all waxing lyrical about how we were going to return and bring our partners next time.

I must admit, I did feel bad going without Dave.  And he was very jealous when I returned home and told him of my amazing experience.  I did console him with the fact that I joined the loyalty scheme though.

No charge for joining and offering 10% off every meal, Sunday to Thursday, 5% off every meal Friday and Saturday and up to £5 off per guest with the Celebration Vouchers they send you on both you and your partners birthdays AND your anniversary, there's a strong chance we'll be back.  I am seriously looking forward to convincing anyone who'll come with me to return.

*Disclaimer - I was asked to review Chop Chop.  In return I was given a free meal at the restaurant. All of my views are my own and I remain honest about my experiences.

Quick Self-Pickled Onions - Jazz Up Your Salad in a Pickle!

 

Right!  It's Bikini season again!  Back to the salads!

 

Joke! 

 

My bikini days are well and truly over - there's not a hope in hell of me ever squeezing my butt back into my bikini.  No thank you!  It's tummy-control and well-tailored, carefully chosen one-pieces for me now.  Possibly covered by a t-shirt.

 

I do always feel more like a salad once the lighter nights approach and there's something about all that sunshine (har de har) that makes me want to at least pretend that I might wear a bikini again some day.

As a life-long vegetarian, I eat a LOT of salad, so I'm used to finding ways to spice them up.  My favourite at the moment, what with my crazy busy schedule and the fact that my washing basket currently resembles Mount Fuji are these quick and easy self-pickling onions.  Ridiculously moreish and tasty and an amazing alternative to fatty salad dressings - these Quick Self-Pickling Onions will help you out of that dull salad groove in no time!

 

Best served fresh (cannot really be made up and kept for later else they go a bit soggy), these onions are tangy and feel a lot more indulgent than they actually are.

Simple Ingredients:

1 red onion
A healthy glug Balsamic or Malt Vinegar, depending on preference
Sea Salt

Method:

Chop your onion and place it in a bowl.  Pour vinegar in until it half-covers the onions.
Get your hands into that bowl and press the onions in, making sure that all of it gets a good covering. 
Salt the mixture quite well and using your hands again, mix and rub the salt in.
Leave the concoction to stand for about 10 minutes, giving the vinegar and salt time to penetrate and mix with the onion.

Serve over salad leaves or add to a sandwich for an extra kick!  Delicious!

What's your favourite way to perk up your salad?

Dirty, Awesome, Dippy, Sexy, Moreish, Chocolate Sauce

Looking for that perfect chocolate dip to accompany you at a BBQ?

Tired of unsatisfying chocolate sauces that leave you sad and unfulfilled?

Look no further.

This Dirty, Awesome, Dippy, Sexy Chocolate Dipping Sauce is set to get you searching for a spoon so you can not only drizzle it over marshmallows and strawberries, but guzzle it up like the stressed-out, chocolate craving individual you are.

Steady on, soldier.  You are but three steps away from creating perfection.

You need:

1 Large(ish) bar of chocolate (light, dark, milk, white, it's up to you; whatever floats your boat)
A  teaspoon of butter
A splash of full-fat milk
A drip of single cream

Method:

Set up a bain-marie with a pan and a Pyrex bowl.  Fill pan with water, letting it boil, then cool to a simmer.  Place bowl on top and melt chocolate.  When chocolate has melted, add a splash of milk, a drip of single cream and a good teaspoon of butter. Stir like the chocolate-gorging demon you are.  Watch for the mixture to become glossy and smooth in consistency.

Pour into a bowl and serve straight away before you guzzle it all, you naughty person, you!

Serve with fruit - sumptious strawberries, randy raspberries and brazen blueberries.

Or crisps.  Ready salted.

Alright - come on!  I'm no that classy!  I would be scooping this up with ready salted! Yum!