Morning Summertime Smoothie

Smoothie’s and Park life

English: Gunnersbury Park. The pond and building are situated in the south eastern section of the grid square. This section of the park occupies about 40 percent of this grid square. The picture was taken from the south west side of the pond. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Wowza what a lovely bank holiday weekend it’s been. For once on a bank holiday the weather was sunny with just a few clouds in the sky over London. Our plan for the day was pretty simple, hit the gym in the morning (after a little lie-in) then pop to the Gunnersbury Park for the afternoon and chill out.

Mission accomplished! I love Gunnersbury Park and the silly thing is that even though it is just a short 20 minute walk from our flat I have only been a handful of times since we moved in. I’m not quite sure why that is. Maybe it doesn’t have the big draw appeal of the Central London parks like Hyde Park, Regent Park or St James Park, or the hipster chic of London Fields, but on a warm sunny day it’s a lovely place for a walk. Whilst most people seem to stay in the smaller area close to the main entrance and in easy reach of all the facilities I often prefer the quieter bottom courner where you are under the cover of huge old tree’s. It might not be the most glamorous spot but it reminds me of places I used to play in, in Harpenden as a kid.

Near the park entrance is a little pavilion cafe where you can get the usual tea, coffee and ice cream’s as well as cakes etc. It’s might not be anything special but it is also a perfectly nice place to stop off and rest your feat after a walk around the park itself.

The park straddles the boroughs of Hounslow and Ealing and sits between Acton and Brentford. Aside from a great expanse of park land to wander around and a large duck pond there are sports facilities for football, tennis, rugby and a pitch and putt golf course. Many years ago the Mansion and Gunnersbury Park Estate were owned by the princess Amelia and the Rothschild family. I am sorry to say that I still haven’t been inside the mansion itself but it is supposed to have beautifully ornate painted ceilings from its Rothschild days.

It’s a park that is more for wandering around, playing games and chilling out in rather than being seen in an uber cool place.

But before we went to the park or to the gym we started the day with an energising fruit and yogurt smoothie. This should make two servings.

Summertime Smoothie

Summer Fruit Smoothie

Fruit Smoothie

Morning Summertime Smoothie

Ingredients
1 Banana
1 glass Orange Juice
Frozen Mixed berries (means you don’t need ice)
generous scoop of fat free Greek Yogurt

Recipe
Pop everything into a blender and blitz till you have a lovely thick smoothie consistency, pour into a glass, garnish with a straw and enjoy!

*The quantities given are rough estimates of what we used to play around with it and adjust the juice/ yogurt portions to thicken to taste.

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The Jugged Hare, Barbican London

Barbican centre, Lakeside terrace

The sun is back out and it has been a really lovely weekend down here in London. It’s nice being able to go out without being wrapped up in a zillion layers.

Barbican centre. Terrace

Last night we went out to the Opera (very posh!) at the Barbican centre in the City of London, that curiosity of a city within a city.

Inside the Barbican

The Opera was quite interesting and was a somewhat unique presentation involving live actors as well as 2D and 3D film. Something more experimental like this could end up looking a bit gimmicky but they pulled it off really well. The Opera was titled “The Sunken Garden” and was written by David Mitchell of Cloud Atlas fame. In a similar way it felt disjointed in parts with a score to match. Sadly last night was the end of the run else I’d recommend going.

After we came back out into a relatively UN familiar part of the city, luckily on the courner was a nice looking gastropub, The Jugged Hare. From the outside and in it screams upper middle class gastropub and it’s assortment of mounted small animal heads adorning the walls reinforces this. Whilst there is a large main menu we elected to order from the post theatre menu which offer’s 2 courses for £22 and 3 for £27. There is a good selection of dishes on offer here and I really liked the face they serve wine by the carafe, perfect for when a bottle is a bit too much.

Braised rabbit legs, faggots, peas, bacon, grain mustard sauce

I started with the Wild boar and pistachio terrine, rhubarb chutney which was served with little crisp breads. Whilst the terrine was lovely and rich with flecks of green veg, I thought the star of the starter was the rhubarb chutney which had just the right tanginess to cut through the terrine. I thought the two worked well together a great paring and an imaginative use of rhubarb.

For the main course I followed this up with a bit of bunnicide in the form of Braised rabbit legs, faggots, peas, bacon, grain mustard sauce. This was my first time trying Rabbit and I have to say it was a lot like chicken. I had always thought it would be a very game falvoured meat but it was a lot less strong than I thought. The real star was the grain mustard sauce which brought the dish together for me. Whilst the peas and bacon and the faggot were nice too they needed the sauce to mesh it all into one dish.

If you are in the Barbican area and looking for a pre/ post theatre meal then this is a good place to go. I would say that once you add in either a carafe or bottle of wine it becomes a bit expensive and the waiters ask you what type of bottled water you want as soon as you sit down. I know it’s their job but you do feel made to say “still” or “sparkling” instead of plain old tap water.

Hope you all had a good weekend too.

Soup recipe: Spicy Chorizo and Red Lentil

 Soup: Spicy Chorizo and Red Lentil

Red lentil soup with Chorizo (Photo: russellskitchen)

Red lentil and chorizo soup (Photo: russellskitchen)

Red lentil and chorizo soup (Photo: russellskitchen)

Frying chorizo (Photo: russellskitchen)

Chorizo (Photo: russellskitchen)

Fried Chorizo (Photo: russellskitchen)

Damn. The sun came out at the weekend. I know I should be happy that spring is finally here but it means I’ve ended up being a bit late to the party for sharing this recipe. The winter and the bad weather were dragging on so long that I thought that when I got around to posting this recipe it would still be cold and wintry outside, so a big bowl of warming soup would be just the ticket. It’s a lesson in getting myself a bit more organised when it comes to posting and make sure I get things up when they still make sense to. That said I loved this soup, and like lots of soups it is really easy to make in just a few simple steps.

I found this recipe whilst browsing through the BBC Good Food site, follow the like to the original recipe. What I liked about this recipe was that it just takes a handful of ingredients which I usually have lying around in the cupboards and a in few easy steps and you have a big bowl of flavoursome warming soup. The only thing with making soup at the moment is that our stick blender is still missing, the bottom wizzy bit went walkabout ages ago and hasn’t been seen since, and we have to use the proper big blender. This means letting the soup (or anything else) cool down a bit before blitzing it, so in effect you are reheating it, meaning you can’t do it again later or tomorrow.

Red lentil and chorizo soup (Photo: russellskitchen)

Well that just means I have to eat it all at once and as this is such a tasty meal that’s not a problem. I served it with some bread and I think that’s always the way to go with soups. Having made it before if I made it again I’d add some dried chilli flakes to give it a bit more of a kick, because I love the spicy. I also added a bit of extra garlic which I add to almost everything I cook, it is supposed to be good for you!

Please let me know if you try this out and feel free to share your favourite soup’s with me!

Red lentil and chorizo soup.

Frying chorizo (Photo: russellskitchen)

Ingredients for 4 servings

1 tbsp olive oil , plus extra for drizzling
200g cooking chorizo , peeled and diced
1 large onion , chopped
2 carrots , chopped
pinch of cumin seeds
5 garlic cloves , chopped
1 tsp smoked paprika , plus extra for sprinkling
pinch of golden caster sugar
small splash red wine vinegar
250g red lentils
2 x 400g cans chopped tomato
850ml chicken stock
plain yogurt , to serve

Optional – 2 tsp dried chilli flakes

Red lentil soup with Chorizo (Photo: russellskitchen)

2 cloves of garlic

Recipe

Prepare all the ingredients and have them to hand. Heat the oil in a large pan. Add the chorizo and garlic cook until crisp and it has released its oil. Remove with a to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan (keeping the oil’s) Fry the onion, carrots and cumin seeds for 8-10 mins until soft and glistening.

Add the garlic and fry for 1 min more. Scatter over the sugar and paprika, cook for 1 min, then splash in the vinegar. Simmer for a moment, then stir in the lentils, and pour over the tomatoes and chicken stock, stir,

Red lentil and chorizo soup (Photo: russellskitchen)

then simmer for around 30 mins or until the lentils are tender.

Blitz with a stick blender until smooth-ish but still chunky (or allow to cool then wizz in a blender).

Serve scattered with a drizzle of yogurt, the fried choriz and a sprinkling of paprika.