Salsa Verde Recipe Ingredients

  • 3 small cornichons chopped
  • 3 anchovy fillets rinsed
  • 1 big bunch of parsley chopped finely (None of those mini bags from the supermarket. Get a bunch from your local market)
  • Leaves from 2 sprigs of mint chopped finely
  • 1 garlic clove grated
  • 1/4 of a banana shallot chopped finely
  • 1/4 roasted red pepper from a jar chopped finely
  • zest and juice of half a lemon
  • 3 teaspoons sherry vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
  • A good glug of olive oil. You can add more later if needs be
  • Ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

You can either add everything to a food processor and blitz or I used a hand blender to make the mix slightly smooth. Don’t go too mental as you don’t want it too runny and still have a bit of texture.

This can be done a day ahead as it keeps well for a few days in the fridge. I used some leftovers with fried runny eggs on toast for breakfast the following day, which were lush!

Puy lentils with red wine ingredients

  • 1 tin of ready cooked green lentils
  • 1/2 carrot chopped finely
  • 3/4 banana shallot chopped finely
  • 1/2 celery stick chopped finely
  • 1 stock cube with 50ml hot water
  • 1 clove garlic grated
  • leaves from 2 cavolo nero stalks chopped into ribbons
  • glug of red wine or vermouth
  • Black pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Gently fry the carrot for a few minutes in olive oil on it’s own. Add the shallot and celery and cook for another couple of minutes.
  2. Add the garlic and cavolo nero and cook for another couple of minutes.
  3. Add the lentils,stock, water and wine/vermouth and stir.
  4. Cook on medium heat so that the veg and lentils take in some of the flavour, soften and the liquid reduces for about 10 minutes.

Serve with a medium / rare steak sliced in slithers and / or a large king prawn and a few dollops of the salsa verde

I wanted to jazz up my usual salted caramel recipe for pancake day and thought there’s no better way than to add some whisky from my favourite Japanese whisky distillery.

My brother bought me a new bottle of Nikka from the barrel so I decided to use up what was left in my other bottle, along with some added tonka beans I had lying around in the cupboard.

Nikka Whisky and Tonka Bean Smoked Salted Caramel Ingredients

  • 50ml Nikka From the Barrel Whisky
  • 100ml tonka bean infused double cream
  • 200g granulated sugar
  • 100ml of water
  • 100g unsalted butter (I used salted as that’s all I had in the fridge but I’d use unsalted and add the amount of smoked salt you need to taste)
  • Pinch of smoked salt. I used Maldron or you could use Halen Mon.

 

Nikka Whisky and tonka bean smoked salted caramel recipe

 

Instructions

  1. To make the tonka bean infused cream, take two tonka beans, snap them and drop into the cream.
  2. Cover the cream and let to infuse overnight. I found snapping them rather than grating the tonka bean, made it easier to remove the tonka bean after infusion.
  3. Add the sugar to a saucepan with a splash of water.
  4. Warm the cream up gently so that it doesn’t fizz violently when added to the caramelised sugar.
  5. Heat the sugar up until it starts to smell like caramel and starts to turn golden in colour.
  6. Take the sugar off the heat when it gets to the desired caramelisation but don’t let it go too dark as it will burn and taste bitter. It will carry on cooking after you take it off too so act quickly.
  7. Add the warmed cream to the sugar and the butter then whisk to combine. Be careful as it does splutter when you add the liquids to the sugar.
  8. When the butter and cream are added, pour the whisky in. If you put the whisky in too early it will just burn off.
  9. Add as much smoked salt to the caramel as you prefer and mix to combine.
  10. Pour the caramel into a container that allows you to spoon out easily.
  11. Use straight away once it’s cooled a little or put in the fridge.

You can add the caramel to pancakes like it did, drizzle over ice cream, add to your breakfast oats, top with toasted crumpets with nutella, use for millionaire bars, pour over waffles or just take a spoon and enjoy.

Middle Eastern Lamb Lollipops Ingredients

 

  • Around 8 lamb cutlets. I used Welsh Lamb from my local market in Cardiff
  • 1 tsp Aleppo pepper
  • 1 tsp Urfa Biber / Urfa Pepper
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon sumac
  • 1 salted lemon diced finely
  • 1 large garlic clove grated finely
  • 3 tsp pomegranate molasses
  • 3 tsp olive or rapeseed oil
  • 3 tsp vinegar (I used sherry)
  • 2 tsp sesame seeds

middle eastern spiced welsh lamb ingredients

Instructions

  1. Add all the ingredients into a bowl, minus the lamb and stir.
  2. Add the mixture to the lamb and use your hands to make sure everything is coated.
  3. Leave to marinade for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer.
  4. You don’t want the delicate herbs and spiced to burn on the direct heat of a pan so I grilled them for around 10 minutes in my airfryer on a high heat.
  5. It depends on the thickness but make sure they are still a little pink inside and not dried out.

Fragrent Yogurt Dip Recipe

  • A couple of dollops of Greek Yogurt
  • 2 small cornichons diced finely
  • 1 teaspoon mint sauce or jelly
  • Pinch of salt and pepper
  • Squeeze of lemon juice
  • Sprinkle of Sumac

Instructions

Add everything to a bowl and leave to do it’s magic in the fridge for at least 30 minutes

I put the cooling minty yogurt in a bowl in the centre of a large plate, surrounded by the middle eastern spiced lamb lollipops for dunking. No cutlery needed.

Shakshuka Ingredients

  • Tin of good quality plum tomatoes. Go for whole not chopped
  • 1 pepper chopped into chunks
  • 1/4 of a pack of feta
  • Bunch of parsley chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic grated
  • 1 red onion diced
  • 1 teaspoon cummin seeds
  • 1 teaspoon Paprika
  • 2 teaspoons tomato puree
  • 1 teaspoon mixed middle eastern spice (I got a meatball spice mix from my local world food market that I used or you can just stick with the cumin and paprika)
  • Sea salt
  • Black pepper
  • Dukka
  • 4 eggs
  • Sourdough bread
  • Real butter

Shakshuka recipe ingredients

Instructions

  1. Fry the onions in a bit of oil to brown for a few minutes.
  2. Add the peppers after a couple of minutes to the onions to give them a chance to brown as they don’t always brown with peppers due to the moisture they give off.
  3. When the onions are brown, add the garlic to the pan for a minute along with the tomato puree, cumin seeds, paprika and spice mix to cook out a little.
  4. Add the plum tomatoes to the pan and squash them in the pan. Mix everything to combine and cook on a lower heat for 5-10 minutes.
  5. Add half the fresh parsley and stir and then c.
  6. Make 4 wells in the mixture and crack an egg into each.
  7. rumble the feta evenly over the mixture
  8. Cover the pan with a lid so that the eggs cook on top or if you haven’t got a cover, cook for a few minutes then finish under the grill. Just make sure you leave the eggs a bit runny for dunking.
  9. Just before the eggs are done, whack 4 pieces of sourdough in the toaster.
  10. Take the eggs off the heat as they will still continue to cook in the mixture.
  11. Scatter remaining parsley over the mixture and a good measure of Dukka for extra crunch.
  12. Place the pan on a heat resistant matt on the table and either eat from the pan or divide between two bowls.

** Make sure you dunk that thick, toasted, butter drenched sourdough in the gooey eggs. **

I was recently asked back to try out the burgers at Burger Theory at Kongs in Cardiff. I’d been a few times in the past and did a blog post after my second visit to the pop up kitchen on St Mary’s Street. I’m glad to say that things have improved quite a bit since then as it was still new on the scene and I did have a couple of issues on both my first two visits.

I decided to take my younger sister and her boyfriend to see how it faired against some of the other burger places a 16 year olds frequent in Cardiff these days and to get a younger persons perspective. I was offered a £35 voucher towards food so I paid extra for the rest of the food and drinks on the visit. Seeing as I wanted to compare against how they had progressed since the 18 months after they opened I thought I’d opt for the same burger I ordered on my first visit the Kimcheese featuring Beef patty, melted cheddar cheddar, kimchi, pulled beef rib with black pepper glaze, chipotle mayo (£11.95).

I was going to order the cola ham hock dirty fries I’d seen on the menu previously but they were a special and been replaed by the “You have goat to try these fries”, which were a Caribbean take on dirty fries, which consisted of Fries loaded with goat curry, melted cheese, lime and coriander aioli, pineapple and scotch bonnet sauce, coconut flakes.

My sister opted for the Cheese theory with Beef patty with crispy bacon, melted cheddar, house pickles, Dijonnaise, house ketchup (£8.75) and her boyfriend went for The Sherriff with Beef patty with crispy bacon, melted cheddar, onion rings, BBQ sauce (£9.25).

We fancied a chip fest so went for two standard fries (£2.95 each) and a side of halloumi chips (£6.50).

Soft drinks all round for the teens whilst I sipped on a pint of Tiny Rebel Cali till the food appeared out of the kitchen.

Kimcheese Burger at Burger Theory Cardiff

The Kimcheese burger had grown since my first visit and was an absolute whopper of a burger to be fair. I was close to doing a few tricep dips off the edge of the bun to allow my jaw to take it in for a bite. There was a lot of juice and I was glad I had my side of the table to myself so I didn’t drown the person next to me whilst I chomped away.

There was a decent amount of meat content with the patty, beef rib and combined with the other fillings it did taste really good. Again though there wasn’t much kimchi going on. I don’t think I had any of the advertised fermented Korean staple in my burger the first time I visited and I struggled to find much in it this time unless they had done a batch of their own quick pickled kimchi but there was none of the expected pungent condiment in my burger this time either. Apart from that I was pretty happy with the burger.

There was a bit of a mix up with the fries but probably due to me using the voucher to pay at the start for  part of the meal as the server wasn’t sure what to do with it. I ordered one portion of the goat curry dirty fries and two portions of the standard ones but two goat ones came out. They immediately gave us a serving of the standard and let us keep the other goat curry but wasn’t sure if I’d been charged for the two goat curries. I’d had £35 towards the food, which came to around £55 in the end so I wasn’t bothered too much about going back and checking with them or causing a fuss.

goat curry dirty fries at Burger Theory

The goat fries were amazing though and a great addition to the menu instead of the usual pulled pork or chilli beef you tend to find at most burger houses when opting for some dirty fries. They were a slow burner mind as the first couple of bites I thought oh, they aren’t too bad but a minute or two later I could of done with someone fanning me with a palm leaf whilst squirting my mouth with a super soaker 2000 filled with milk.

Not that I was complaining, I was expecting it to be hot spice wise but for me the meat could have been a tad warmer. They were pretty epic though.

halloumi fries at Burger Theory Cardiff

My sister has an obsession for halloumi fries and was very impressed with Burger Theory’s take on the deep fried slabs of cheese and so was I. Portion size was generous and they looked exactly like chips, I thought they had brought out two different thickness of potato kind at first until I bit into one.

She also smashed the Cheese Theory burger and gave it a massive thumbs up along with her partner who said it was the best burger he’s ever had. He attempted a stab at the goat dirty fries and like me thought they were fine at first but when the heat kicked in he bailed. They both enjoyed the standard fries, although they didn’t quite manage to finish them off. Not from lack of trying I might add, they were just stuffed from the burger and other bits and bobs.

The Verdict

I was a lot happier with my food compared to my first and second visit. The Kimcheese burger was still lacking on the Kimchi front though as I’ve always got a tub to hand in the fridge at home I was looking forward to a healthy portion in my burger.

The goat curry fries were a really nice change and if you like your spicy food, keep with them as they seem quite tame at first but they don’t take long to catch up with you when you’re least expecting.

I’ve heard rumours that Burger Theory will be opening up as a standalone restaurant in Cardiff in the near future so keep your eyes peeled on socials. I’m hoping they carry the bottomless burger brunch they do at the standalone Bristol venue to Cardiff too as that will be unreal.

If you’ve not been to Burger Theory before, it’s located at Kong’s Bar on St Mary Street, which is a basement bar next to Turtle Bay.

Miso and Japanese Gin mackerel ingredients

  • 2 fillets of fresh mackerel
  • 2 teaspoons miso paste (I used white organic miso from M & S)
  • Juice of 1/2 a charred lime
  • Small bunch of corriander chopped finely
  • 1 small chunk of ginger grated
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 chilli chopped finely
  • 6 teaspoons of Nikka Coffey Japanese Gin (Or sub for another Japanese Yuzu Gin)
  • 3 teaspoons mirin
  • 3 teaspoons rice wine vinegar

Asian salad ingredients

  • 1 carrot julienned
  • 1 carrot sized daikon julienned
  • 1 handfull beansprouts
  • 2 inch thick cucumber cut into batons
  • 1 spring onion sliced thinly
  • 1 teaspoon black sesame seeds

gin and miso mackerel ingredients

Instructions

  1. Put a frying pan on medium to high heat.
  2. Slice a lime in half and put one half, flesh side down in the dry pan for a couple of minutes to char.
  3. Slice the spring onion and peel and julienne the daikon. Add both to a bowl of cold water to get some of the harshness out for a few minutes.
  4. In a bowl, add the miso paste, juice of the charred lime, chopped corriander, grated ginger, garlic powder, chopped chilli, Nikka Coffe Gin, mirin and rice wine vinegar and give it a stir. Put to the side for dressing the dish later on.
  5. Take the daikon and spring onion out of the water and pat dry. Peel then julienne the carrot. Add to a bowl or plate with the washed beansprouts, daikon, half of the spring onions and give a little toss to combine.
  6. Add a little oil to the pan and cook the mackgrel skin side down first. I used a griddle pan and the skin stuck to the pan after a minute but was cooked through so i pulled it off the fish and put to one side to add as a topping later on.
  7. Turn the fish after a couple of minutes. They don’t need too long as they can be quite thin.
  8. When the fish is cooked through, remove from the pan and place on top of the asian salad.
  9. If you removed the fish skin, chop it into little shards.
  10. Drizzle the miso dressing on top of the fish and top with sesame seeds, the rest of the spring onions and the crispy little shards of fish skin.

Asian Slaw Ingredients

  • ¼ red cabbage sliced thinly
  • 2 red onions sliced thinly
  • ¼ daikon julienned
  • 1 carrot julienned
  • ¼ cucumber cut into thin ribbons
  • Juice of 2 limes

I didn’t measure these but played around with little bits at a time till I was happy:

  • Drizzle of rice wine vinegar
  • Drizzle of rice wine / mirin
  • Drizzle of light soy sauce
  • Drizzle of dark soy (go easy on this as it can be really salty)
  • Drizzle toasted sesame oil

Top with:

  • Sesame seeds
  • Gochugarw flakes
  • Thinly sliced spring onion
  • Drizzle of honey
  • Chopped fresh coriander

Instructions

Sliced all the veg and add to a bowl. Add the seasoning and mix. Leave for at least 30 minutes and give one final mix before serving. Top with the sesame, gochugarw, spring onion, honey and coriander to serve.

Korean Air Fried Chicken Ingredients

The following are rough estimates as I didn’t measure

  • 3 teaspoons gochujang paste
  • 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
  • 2 cloves garlic grated finely
  • 1 thumb sized piece of ginger grated finely
  • 2 teaspoons mushroom ketchup
  • 1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil
  • 1 teaspoon gochugarw red pepper flakes
  • Juice of half a lime
  • 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar
  • 2 teaspoons mirin / rice vinegar

Instructions

Add everything to a bowl and mix to combine. Cook the chicken wings or legs in the oven until nearly done and coat them with the marinade for the last 5 minutes and put under the grill till cooked through and sticky.

I had this served with a pitta but would also work nicely in a freshly steamed bao or some griddled tacos.

Baharat and apricot lamb meatballs ingredients

  • 500g lamb mince
  • 3 teaspoons Baharat spice mix
  • 3 cloves garlic finely grated
  • 1 large shallot finely chopped
  • 50g dried apricot chopped into small chunks

Instructions

  1. I prefer to have my onions and or shallots browned before adding to burgers or meatballs to add a slight sweetness and take the harshness out of them.
  2. Chop the shallot and add to a hot pan with some oil to brown for a few minutes. Add the grated garlic to the onions and cook for a further minute mixing into the onions.
  3. Take off the pan and add to a bowl with the lamb mince.
  4. Add the Baharat spice mix and the chopped apricots to the bowl of mince then use your hands to mix the ingredients to make sure everything is equally combined.
  5. I prefer little meatballs that cook quicker rather than big meatballs that take ages to cook and end up being too dry so tear little chunks of the mix and roll into small meatballs. I made around 20 meatballs with mine so aim for around the same.
  6. I sometimes fry meatballs but it means you have to keep turning them so they don’t burn. I cook most of my meat in an airfryer these days as it cooks through nicely, is a lot quicker than the oven and they still have a nice crisp to them.
  7. Mine took around 10-15 minutes in the air fryer on around 190C.

Baharat and apricot lamb meatballs recipe

To enjoy as a guilt free kebab

  1. Shred some red cabbage
  2. Julienne 1 carrot
  3. Chop 4 spring onions
  4. Slice 2 large tomatoes
  5. Add to a bowl and squeeze a whole lemon over the mixture, season with salt and pepper.
  6. Make a quick mint yogurt mixing a couple of spoons of greek or natural yogurt with two teaspoons mint sauce, salt and pepper.
  7. Add some of the salad mix, a couple of meatballs to a toasted pitta and spoon some of the mint yogurt and if you’re feeling a bit of heat a few drops of your favourite chilli sauce and or a smudge of hummous.

Italian sausage pasta ingredients

  • 4 Italian sausages, skin removed and rolled into little meatballs (I got mine from Cardiff Indoor Market)
  • 3 cloves of garlic grated finely
  • 8 field mushrooms or 1 large cut finely
  • 1 large shallot cut finely
  • 8 leaves Cavolo Nero
  • ½ tub of Ricotta cheese
  • Enough spaghetti for 2 (I’ll leave that baffling science to you)
  • Grated Parmesan for seasoning at the end
  • Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
  • White Truffle oil

Instructions

  1. Put a pan of salted water on to boil for the spaghetti.
  2. Cut the sausages and squeeze out the mixture from the skin and roll into little meatballs
  3. Chop the shallot and mushrooms finely.
  4. Grate the garlic
  5. Cut either side of the stalks of the Cavolo Nero just leaving the leaves then slice into small strips
  6. Add the Spagetti to the water and cook to packet instructions usually around 8 minutes depending on brand and whether you use fresh. Cook for a minute less to leave a bit of bit to the pasta. I used a hollow spaghetti, which was thicker than normal spaghetti.
  7. Add the mini Italian sausage meatballs to the pan with some olive oil to brown. After 4-5 minutes on medium to high heat, add the shallots and mushrooms and add a little butter or oil to the pan so they don’t stick.
  8. Cook for a further 2 minutes then add the Cavolo Nero to the pan whilst mixing to combine. Add the garlic to the pan stir it into the other ingredients making sure it doesn’t burn. Make sure the meatballs have cooked through but the Italian sausage does sometimes have a slight pink hue compared to your British banger. Just make sure it’s boiling in the middle.
  9. Reserve some of the starchy pasta cooking water then drain the pasta.
  10. Add the spaghetti to the pan and toss a little with the rest of the pan. Add the Ricotta cheese and a little of the pasta water to thin the cheese and help it coat the pasta. Keep tossing the mixture and stirring to make sure everything has a nice even coating of Ricotta but add a little more water if needed.
  11. Divide into two bowls. Grate some fresh Parmesan on top, a sprinkle of salt and black pepper to taste and if you like a little drizzle of white truffle oil. I got my little bottle hand sized bottle from M & S.

Tuck in!

Mac n cheese ingredients

  • 400g elbow or macaroni pasta
  • 250g of mixed cheese (I used up leftovers from 5 different cheeses from xmas including smoked, brie, mature cheddar and parmesan)
  • 1 leek thinly sliced
  • 100g good quality bacon
  • 1 teaspoon mustard powder or 2 teaspoons of ready mixed English or wholegrain depending on taste
  • 750ml whole milk
  • 2 cloves garlic smashed
  • Plain Flour
  • Real butter
  • Salt and black pepper to taste

Optional

Panko Breadcrumbs to give extra crunch in the oven.

Instructions

  1. Add the pasta to boiling salted water and cook for a minute or two less than the packet says. Drain and add a few nobs of butter to the pan of drained pasta to coat it and stop it absorbing too much of the cheese sauce and becoming bloated later on.
  2. Chop the bacon into chunks and cook in the oven for around 10 minutes to brown slightly along with the sliced leeks then remove to cool.
  3. Make a roux by adding a couple of nobs of butter to a warm pan with a about 2 tablespoons of flour and stir to mix. Cook for around a minute and start adding the milk gradually a bit at a time for it to thicken. Keep on a medium heat to warm the milk and for the roux to thicken for a few minutes.
  4. The mixture will go from light to really start thickening very fast so take it off the heat when it starts to thicken and keep stirring. Add the mustard and cheese to the mixture and keep stirring to combine. I added a teaspoon of mild chilli powder at this point too along with some salt and pepper.
  5. Taste the mixture and play around adding a bit more milk if it’s too thick, more cheese if not cheesy enough, or whatever else you want to give it a kick.
  6. Add the cooled pasta to the cheese sauce mix and stir to make sure it’s evenly coated. Empty into a casserole dish, level out and sprinkle with more cheese. Scatter bacon and spring onion and the breadcrumbs if using these.
  7. Either bake straight away in the oven on around 180C for around 20 mins or refrigerate and use later or the day after.