North Star Delicatessen

Ah, the Morrises. We are quite the crazy family and I wouldn't have it any other way. Not sure the eardrums of the staff at North Star Delicatessen in Chorlton would agree, after our early Saturday morning breakfast visit yesterday.

As it was a special occasion - due to the fact we were lucky enough to have not only my parents but also my lovely Auntie Patricia visiting us overnight, we decided that the contents of our slightly bare fridge were unsatisfactory breakfast components. There was only one thing for it - rush out and get a good brekkie in us before our 10:30am house-viewing.

We decided that the North Star Deli would be the perfect spot for our breakfast: Roy and Aída had been there before for a posh Tea Pigs cuppa and had loved it, plus it was right on the way to where we were going and had plenty of nearby parking opportunities. 

As we were in such a rush, we were lucky to find the North Star was empty, which wasn't the case about five minutes later. Phew. We had a quick look at the menu before deciding on our breakfast options and putting our order in. The gentleman at the counter was very friendly and didn't seem to mind too much that we were doing the usual Morris family thing of shouting things across the room at each other. The only problem was that Bailey was deeply disappointed to hear that the chef hadn't arrived yet and therefore his American Pancakes dream could not be realised.

Despite about a million people at arriving at once and the staff seeming to be rushed off their feet, our food and drinks came out promptly. 

Me, Aída and Patricia had lovely Tea Pigs Earl Grey tea while Roy and Bailey had Cappuccinos. Bailey said his had the best frothed milk on top that he had ever had. Good stuff!

Me and Aída decided we would both have the Eggs Benedict with Spinach. This was really nice with smooth and tasty Hollandaise and perfectly poached eggs. The only downside was I found it a bit difficult to cut through my bread but I think that was my fault for requesting multigrain bread instead of the usual muffins.

Bailey, Roy and Patricia all went for breakfast sandwiches, which all came on toasted fresh bread. I was concerned that Bailey was going to be in difficult-to-please mode after his pancake disappointment but he thought his sanger was excellent.

Lightly toasted white bread with sausage and egg, Bailey found his egg was perfectly cooked and his sausages really tasty. The sandwich was also perfectly moist because of the runny yolk.

Patricia loved her Veggie Sausage and Egg Sandwich on wholemeal and kept saying how much she had enjoyed it later in the day. A very satisfied customer!

Roy was mega impressed with his Sausage, Bacon and Egg Sandwich on wholemeal. He loved the sausages and said that they were a real taste sensation due to the peppery flavour running through them. We will have to make sure that next time we are there we ask where they source those bad boys.

On discussing our breakfast later, our only complaint about our breakfast was that the service seemed a little disorganised when our breakfasts were coming out, however we could see the staff were really busy. Overall we thought our North Star Deli experience was great and we will definitely be returning in the near future - hopefully for one of their 'Join Us For Supper' dinner clubs which look amazing. Thanks for a top breakfast!

Baked Orecchiette with Tomatoes and Parmesan

Controversial I know, but one of my all-time favourite cookbooks is Jamie's Italy. I know he is one of the most unpopular chefs (and most popular at the same time) out there but I do love him and I think this book is just ace. For lovers of traditional Italian food like me and Bailey it is ace for simple, authentic recipes. My friend Hayley's fiancé's family is Italian and she says all the recipes are exactly the ones his little Italian grandma whips up; she also loves this book so it must be good.

With the opening of Manchester's very own branch of Jamie's Italian causing quite the stir, I whipped out the Jamie's Italy book and very much enjoyed revisiting its well-used, tomato-stained pages. 

Now many a person has taken the mick out of me in the past for my love of baking things in the oven, namely pasta, that don't need to be baked. Bailey often rolls his eyes when he sees me transferring what would otherwise be a rather nice and potentially classy pasta meal to our oven dish and grating with cheese ready for a good baking. So it's no surprise that one of my favourite recipes from Jamie's Italy is the Pasta al Forno (baked yeah?) con Pomodori e Mozzarella. 

We used to make this recipe quite a lot because they used to sell the Orecchiette pasta at our local Morrison's, but suddenly they stopped selling it. I would never bother trying to make this without it because, even though the sauce is really lovely and super rich with tomatoes, there's something about the Orecchiette that makes this dish super special - it's almost like a cross between pasta and gnocchi because it's so fluffy and slightly sticky, plus it seems to absorb loads of the flavour into its little shell shapes.

Luckily for us the Orecchiette love was rekindled recently when I spotted a packet on the shelves of the Barbakan Deli one morning when we were having our brekkie there. I snapped it up there and then and decided to attempt create an alternative Jamie's Italian in our own home, just while we wait for an opportunity to go to the real one.

Unfortunately as we were having a bit of a budget week I had to make a few tweaks of the recipe and some not-so quality tomatoes went into there but, call me a pleb, you couldn't really tell.

It came out very yummy and I was very pleased with the deliciously tomatoey sauce with a bit of a chilli kick. I had to really restrain myself from eating the portion I had put aside for my packed lunch for the next day, but I'm glad I did because I got to enjoy it all over again. I was very pleased with myself when Hayley tasted it in the staff room and said "That is exactly like what Keiran's grandma makes". Yeah boy!

Recipe:

2 onions

2 cloves of garlic

2 dried chillis

A pinch of chilli flakes

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

1 carton of passata

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

500g Orecchiette pasta

100g Parmesan

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Start by preparing the Orecchiette according to the packet instructions. Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Finely peel and chop the onions and garlic, crumble the dried chiilis and add them all to a hot frying pan with the chilli flakes. Cook over a low heat for around 10 minutes until softened. 

Add the tomatoes and passata to the pan with the onions and things. Bring them to the boil then simmer for around 20 minutes so it gets all lovely and rich. 

Take the sauce off the heat and blend to make a nice sauce.

To the sauce, add half of the parmesan cheese and the white wine vinegar.

Drain your cooked Orecchiette pasta off.

Add the Orecchiette to an oven dish before pouring the sauce over the top and mixing up. 

Sprinkle the top of the pasta with the remaining parmesan before placing into the oven for around 15-20 minutes or until all the cheese is lovely and bubbly.

Serve with some crispy dressed salad leaves! Nom!

Herman Friendship Cake

Ten days ago I was very lucky to be given a very special responsibility by one of my year 8 pupils. A little bubbling tupperware box containing the starter for a Herman German Friendship Cake.

Having read about the Herman craze in an article in The Guardian, I had been hoping someone would be so kind as to present me with a tupperware of yeasty joy, but nothing could have prepared me for the excitement of it actually happening.

Attached to Herman was a set of instructions telling me all about my new friend and the journey we would be embarking upon for the next ten days. My Herman needed to be looked after and fed on milk, sugar and flour before being divided into four parts. Three of the four parts would be given away to friends, while the last part would be used to bake a yummy sourdough cake. Essentially, Herman is a much more delicious version of a chain letter.

I was keen to get started. The year 8 in question told me somewhat anxiously that it was imperative that I get Herman to a safe place where he could sit peacefully without his lid on. I rushed into the staff room and placed him on the window of the kitchen, with his instructions clearly displayed next to him, should someone mistake him for the remains of someone's lunch and wash him up.

Of course everybody in the staff room was rather confused, some even disgusted by my tales of Herman. A yeasty cake mixture that had been passed around friends for weeks, months, years, decades even?! Everybody thought I had gone bonkers.

By the end of my working day, Herman had gone so bubbly he was barely recognisable from the mixture I had left just hours earlier.

Once home, I followed the instructions telling me to rehome Herman into a large mixing bowl, give him a stir and leave him covered by a tea towel.

Over the next few days I continued to care for Herman as instructed. Some days I would come home to find him absolutely jam-packed full of bubbles, other days his pungent yeast aroma was so strong that it would fill the dining room!

Finally, on Day 8 came the big day when Herman had to be divided into four. I almost felt a little sentimental sending Herman's babies away but I was excited to pass them on and hear about new Herman adventures taking place. The lucky recipients? Firstly, my lovely colleague and fellow baking fanatic - Hayley. Secondly, a pupil in year 9 who is already a master baker and dreams of becoming a wedding cake maker when she is older. And finally, Eilis - Bailey's boss's daughter who loves cooking and baking. Perfect!

Finally yesterday was the big day for my Herman and I couldn't wait to get home and bake him. I followed the original recipe and added a cup of sultanas, two teaspoons of cinnamon and two chopped apples.

I was a little worried that Herman's batter seemed terribly dry compared to other cake mixtures I had worked with but actually once I'd spread him all out in the cake tin he seemed fine.

After having filled the house with unusual and even offensive pongs for the last 9 days, it was finally Herman's time to shine as his gorgeous cinnamony sweet aroma filled the air. I couldn't wait to taste him!

I have to say although I'd had lots of fun with Herman I didn't actually have very high hopes for him as a delectable cake but he sure proved me wrong! Bailey and I cut ourselves a slice each to have with an evening cuppa not long after her came out of the oven. He was really tasty!

Quite dense and crispy with juicy apples, Herman was more like a dessert than a cake, especially as we had him warm - we lamented the fact that we didn't have any vanilla ice cream to go with him. He was moist, packed full of flavour and perfectly sweet. He also really filled me up - after our second slice Bailey and I commented that we were really rather full!

I took the rest of Herman into school today, if only to prove all the naysayers wrong about Herman and he actually went down really well. He was eaten all up in the space of 15 minutes and only one person said she wasn't too sure about him and she admitted she thought it was because she had been into Hayley's stationery cupboard when her Herman was ponging the place out on the day of the handover!

I would definitely recommend all you baking lovers to get your hands on a Herman as looking after him is so much fun. If you want to start spreading the love straight away, starting your own Herman is also a possibility - I searched Google for a Herman Starter recipe and there are absolutely loads around. Happy Hermaning!

The Spice Club

Finally the night Bailey, Jeni, Steve and I had all been waiting for! Saturday was our long anticipated trip to The Spice Club - Manchester's original supperclub!

  

Having booked our place at The Spice Club months ago, we were all really excited about going. We had heard only excellent things about their deliciously authentic home-cooked Indian food and knew we were in for a good night. 

On arrival we were warmly welcomed by Monica and Anita and shown to our beautifully laid table where ornamental elephants displayed our name cards. A lovely touch!

We met the other guests on our table and any feelings of shyness soon disappeared as soon as Steve noticed that he recognised one of our fellow diners - Leeds-based foodie and blogger Jini (check out Munchy Medic here) from the previous night's One Show feature on the Clandestine Cake Club! Cue me asking "Are you off the telly?" and the banter began! 

A glance at the menu and everything sounded delicious. We started off our meal with a delicious Homestyle Indian Lemonade - spiced, sweet and fragrant. Monica then came in and gave a really heartfelt introduction, explaining how our lovingly-cooked vegetarian Punjabi meal would consist of traditional family recipes handed down through the generations. Cue even more giddiness and excitement. 

The delicious starter of Pyaaz Pakora was then brought out looking lovely.

These spiced fritters were delicious - perfectly crispy and very moreish - it was hard to pace myself with these delights as I wanted to just hoover them up. The tamarind chutney and mint yogurt drizzled over them was the perfect accompaniment. 

After Jeni and I had gone to have a nosy in the kitchen to see where all the magic happens (amazingly clean and tidy!) our mains were brought out. There was an excellent selection of different dishes in communal serving bowls for us to share out as a table which was really nice as it added to the sociable element of the Spice Club experience.

There was a great selection of mains including Shahi Kofta Massala, Paneer Mattar, Band Gobi Aloo and Pindey Cholay served with Carrot Raita, fresh chapattis, rice and salad. 

The mains were excellent and went beautifully with the perfectly cooked rice, freshly-made chapattis and the refreshing Raita. I absolutely loved every dish but I think the definite favourites around the table were the Shahi Kofta Massala and Paneer Mattar. The crispy Kofta were amazing - pleasing all the meat eaters and veggies alike with their perfect texture and beautifully rich onion and tomato sauce. The homemade paneer was unlike any other paneer I'd tried before - so smooth and soft, and not at all chewy. I also really enjoyed the flavoursome Band Gobi Aloo and Pindey Cholay, although the latter wasn't quite as popular as the other dishes which meant I got to eat loads of it - yay. 

The whole time we were eating our mains, our hosts were so lovely and attentive, checking if we wanted seconds of anything and bringing us what seemed like endless hot chapattis which we gratefully received. 

Next up was a beautifully-presented dessert of Strawberry and Mango Sorbet. Not only did it look great but it tasted fantastic too. The mango sorbet was smooth and fruity and was a great combination with the yogurt and sweet strawberry sorbet. There was a really lovely crunch in there too from some crumbled biscuit, and it was great to see the moment that everyone around the table got to the basil leaf in their dessert as everyone suddenly went "Ooh!" 

Rounding off the meal was a lovely cup of traditional Indian Elaichi Tea with a little Indian biscuit. I was such a greedy idiot for deciding I would "just try a corner" of the biscuit, but it was so crumbly, buttery and delicious I had to finish it off before I got my tea.

Still, the tea was lovely - milky with subtle flavours of cardamom. A really lovely way to end the meal.

So I have to say the evening at The Spice Club did not disappoint! Having heard such great things we had gone with really high expectations and the food really impressed us. However, it wasn't only the food that we loved, the atmosphere created by our hosts was really excellent - we all felt so happy and relaxed that we really just had a lot of fun! I can't remember the last time I had so much fun in a restaurant so if you like eating out, a trip to The Spice Club is a must. We really want to thank Monica and her family for inviting us into her home and showing us such a good time, as Bailey wrote in the guest book, The Spice Club "puts 99% of restaurants to shame" and is a great night out not to be missed!

Kosmos Taverna

The other week we paid a mid week visit to Kosmos Taverna just down the road from us in Fallowfield.  We had passed the place loads of times and were always interested in its old school appearance, we love old school Italian trattorias as the food is always hearty and this looked just like the Greek equivalent.  On top of that some of our buddies had recommended it to us so expectations were high.

When we arrived the place was pretty empty but we still received a warm welcome and were shown to our table and provided with the menu and the list of daily specials.  Jules had already had a good look at the website menu so it didn't take long for her to make her mind up and go for the vegetarian mezethes which was a 3 stage meal made up of Kosmos Spicy dip, Melintzanosalata, Houmous, Tabbouleh, Mixed Salad, Olives, Feta Cheese and Pita Bread,Spanakotyropitakia, Halloumi, Courgette Rissoles, Falafel, Revithia, Stuffed Vegetables,Vegetable Kebab and Cracked Wheat Pilaf.  It wasn't such a quick decision for me but I ended up going for the Chicken Saltimbocca served with a sage and butter sauce and roast vegetables.  I had seen the traditional veal version of this dish cooked on Masterchef Australia last year and thought it looked amazing.  I went for the dependable halloumi for my starter.

When the starters arrived we tucked straight in and we were not disappointed.  Jules' Greek salad looked great to me despite my aversion to salads.  We shared the pitta bread, houmous and tzatziki and I have to say all three elements were the best I had ever tasted.  The pitta bread was crispy on the outside and lovely and doughy in the middle, absolutely perfect.  I simply do not understand how they got so much flavour in the dips and the tzatziki had a really creamy texture to it while the houmous was super smooth.  My halloumi was pretty standard but as it is one of my favourite cheeses it still went down pretty easy.

Next came my main course and Jules' second 'stage'.  Jules' dishes were the courgette fritter, beans, falafel, feta parcels and stuffed tomato.  Everything was pretty tasty and looked really appealing especially the stuffed tomato which was full of flavour with a great crunch to it from the seeds.  The only complaint was that there was nothing really to tie the dishes together so it would have been better served with the first 'stage' with the bread and the dips.

My dish was slightly different.  For starters it was a huge piece of meat, intimidating even to look at! Tucking in to the meat it was really really nice, well cooked, moist and wrapped in a super salty slice of prosciutto ham.  Despite this, due to its size, it got really boring as I waded in to it.  The problem was made worse as both the sauce and the vegetables were really bland.  I didn't manage to finish the plate as it ended up feeling like a chore.

At this point it sort of felt like the meal was over but Jules still had one 'stage' to go which was one plate of roast vegetables and a portion of wheat pilaf.  It arrived just as I was finishing my main course so the timings were definitely a bit off as I just had to sit and watch Jules finish her meal.  These final dishes were also a little disappointing as they were pretty plain, not a great climax to the meal.  In fact the roast veg were exactly the same as the ones served with my main course so essentially it was a plate with two side dishes and no main.  Quite odd!

So all in all it was a real hit and miss affair.  Amazing starters, disappointing main courses and the timings of serving the mezethes were off.  Add on top of this that the restaurant refused to honour a Livingsocial voucher as advertised and it was a bit of a shame as it took the shine off what was a very friendly service.  The fantastic starters won't be enough to get us back through the door I'm afraid.