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Time for a Buttermilk Chicken Burger

I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.

I had initially decided that I wouldn’t have a burger, as I have eaten quite a few burgers recently. However I haven’t had a chicken burger for some time. Reading the description, fried butter milk chicken burger with red-hot sauce, blue cheese sauce, pickled cabbage slaw, lettuce, mayonnaise, tomato, pretzel bun, I wasn’t sure I was going to like that.

I did think about modifying the burger and getting rid of the sauces, but in the end I went with what was described. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but I do like to try new things and see how they taste.

It arrived and it did look quite good.

Time for a Buttermilk Chicken Burger

The pretzel roll was a nice change from the brioche roll which seems to have become the standard across gourmet burgers these days.

The chicken was nice though it wasn’t as crispy (or crunchy) as I would like. The sauces I thought might be overpowering actually weren’t.

The accompanying chips were crisp and tasty.

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Toasted Panettone

A quick breakfast for me was to take a panettone, sliced and toasted. It can toast rather quickly so I use the lowest heat setting on my toaster.

A spread of butter, a double espresso, and a great quick tasty breakfast.

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Cavelo Nero

Cavelo Nero

One of the regular dishes in out home is cavelo nero. My usual process for using this vegetable is to take the leaf and cut the stem out. I then cut it into bite size pieces.

Using a large frying pan or a wok, I heat a little olive oil and then add some pancetta. Once the pancetta has cooked off I had the cavelo nero leaves.

These are cooked until softened.

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Gluten Free Couscous

Looking for gluten free versions of wheat based dishes was always challenging, but becoming less so.

We have always enjoyed the prepared salads from M&S, but alas most of them contain gluten.

I had been looking for a pack of gluten free couscous for a while, so when I saw a pack of Clearspring Organic Corn Couscous this looked like a solution.

It was really easy to prepare I added 100ml of stock to 65g of the dried couscous and left for five minutes. I then used a fork to fluff the couscous. I added some diced cooked Mediterranean vegetables and seasoned with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper.

I was really impressed, it had the texture of couscous and worked really well.

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Time for some fish and chips again

I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.

I recently had fish and chips in a different hotel which I had enjoyed. So I decided to order it at the Doubletree.

It was described as traditional fish and chips with garden peas, chunky chips and tartare sauce. I received an excellent looking plate of food.

I wouldn’t have said the chips were that chunky! However it was nice to have the lemon as well. The fish was well cooked, the batter was excellent, lovely, light, and crispy. The chips were nice as well. Overall I really enjoyed the dish.

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Grilled Cheese Sandwich

Made myself a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch the other day. I took two slices of sourdough bread, to which I added slices of Emmental and Mozzarella cheese.

I put my frying pan on a low to medium heat. I added some sunflower oil, I placed the sandwich in the frying pan, then put a lid on the pan.

The plan is that you melt the cheese before the sandwich finishes browning on both sides. When I first tried to do this, I had a lovely crust on the bread, but the cheese hadn’t melted. I found a lower cooking heat and a lid, would melt the cheese and you would have a lovely crust.

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Nachos

I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant.

I decided to go for a starter, choosing the nachos. I quite like nachos and have had them back home. These nachos were described on the menu as tortilla chips with sour cream, tomato salsa, guacamole, jalapenos and cheese.

I was quite surprised by the size of the dish, it was a large plate of nachos and I was unable to finish all the nachos!

The nachos had been toasted, so the cheese was melted. The sour cream, tomato salsa, guacamole, was all fine. I didn’t eat too many of the jalapenos though.

Overall a simple dish, which was quite tasty.

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Double Espresso

I was working in London and wanting a coffee so headed out to one of my usual haunts, Coco di Mama on New Square.

I ordered a double espresso and took a seat, always like it when they bring the coffee to you rather than hanging around by the counter until they’ve made it.

The coffee arrived in a real china cup with a square of delicious dark chocolate on the side.

Double Espresso

This was an excellent double espresso and I enjoyed the chocolate too.

Great tasting coffee and friendly staff.

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Steak and Chips

I was staying at the Doubletree Hilton in Ealing and was eating in the hotel restaurant. I had a look over their menu. There is something about hotel menus that can be rather depressing. Sometimes you find places that inspire and bring joy. Other times you think, I should have gone out to eat!

Now I will say having had steak and chips a fair few times recently at hotels, this dish was just a little disappointing in comparison.

The menu didn’t indicate the weight or the size of the steak, but I got what I felt was a rather thin piece of sirloin steak. The chips came in a small metal fryer basket. Alongside were some roasted cherry tomatoes on the vine, a roasted field mushroom and some watercress.

Having said it was a little disappointing, the accompaniments were all rather good, I think the dish was just let down by the main act. The steak was rather bland and lacked flavour. It was rather thin as well. It was cooked medium rare as ordered, but apart from that I was not impressed.