Avocado Supper Club

Avocados also known as the alligator pear, are considered a superfood as they have lots of health benefits. The avocado is high in protein and has mono-saturated fat which is the good fat. They are low in sodium and fructose but high in potassium, and essential vitamins and minerals such as fiber, vitamin K, B5, B6 and C and foliate.  

Eating an avocado a day helps to lower the risk of heart disease, maintain healthy cholesterol levels and helps the body efficiently absorb fat soluble nutrients. It also reduces arthritis symptoms and lowers the risk of certain cancers. It helps to maintain good eye health and also promotes weight loss.

Avocados can be eaten in salads, smoothies, added to soups and can be substituted as spreads or used in baking too.

Before you eat the avocado make sure your avocado is ripe, it usually takes avocados 4 to 6 days to ripen. You can tell when they are ripe by gently pushing down on them. A ripe avocado should give a bit when you add pressure, if the avocado is hard it means it is not yet ripe. You can speed up the ripening process of the avocado by placing it in a paper bag with a banana or apple. The ethylene gas released from the apples and bananas will cause the avocados to ripen faster.

red by Avocado fruit of life and Hello Fresh Kitchens in London. 

I was unsure as what to expect but believe me, I was totally bowled over with the entire evening. Look at the amazing menu that was served at the supper club.

The evening started with a masterclass and a demonstration by Food Stylist Colette Dike of Fooddeco in the art of Avocado carving.  

To carve the rose you peel the avocado and de -stone it after which you rub it with some vinegar or lemon juice to stop it going black. 

Next you slice the avocado as thinly as possible and then lay out the slices in a long line overlapping each other. Finally starting at one end you start to roll the slices to create the rose which can then be transferred to a rice cake or a plate.

You can serve the Avocado flower as a starter, drizzled with a vinaigrette dressing and garnished with chilli flakes, poppy seeds and rose petals. 

I really enjoyed creating and carving my own avocado rose which I was rather proud of as I had not done it before.

After the masterclass, we had a chance to mingle over more avocado inspired mocktails and cocktails before we sat down to enjoy a delicious avocado themed supper at a beautifully decorated table.

The starter of sweet corn fritters, served with an avocado centre, cherry tomatoes, feta cheese drizzled with tangy dressing and sprinkled with pumpkin seeds was absolutely amazing. I really enjoyed it as it had all the flavours and textures well balanced.

The main course was spectacular, an avocado bun served with a quinoa burger, avo mayo and sweet potato fries. It was very innovative way to use the avocado itself to sandwich the burger.

The highlight of the evening was the dessert, a vegan avocado and pecan chocolate brownie served with dairy free ice cream, chocolate shavings and raspberries. It was delectable and you would not have guessed that the brownie was vegan.

The meal was delicious and I am totally inspired by the recipes and hope to make more use of avocados in my recipes.

 I was a guest at the Avocado supper club and all the views shared in this post are of my personal experience.

Traverse 15~A bloggers conference and event.

I recently attended the Traverse 15 bloggers event which was hosted over three days at Kingston, a lovely market town south west of London. Traverse 15’s main focus was on travel blogging; however some food and lifestyle blogger friends and I decided to attend this event to broaden our horizons.

Friday Day 1

After checking into Hotel Antoinette, a short walk away from Kingston town, I met a bunch of friends for lunch to catch up with our news. After lunch, we decided to check out the town and did a spot of prop shopping before going back to the hotel to get refreshed and prepare for the evening activities.

Kingston is an amazing place by day with it has a large shopping centre and nearby historic places to visit. By night it turns into a gastronomical delight with its array of lovely restaurants lined by the riverside. We decided to have dinner at the Comptoir Libanais a magnificent Lebanese restaurant. The restaurant is beautifully decorated with stunning Middle Eastern props; there is also a selection of Middle Eastern groceries and spices for sale at the restaurant.

We decided to try a selection of dishes from the meze, so that we could sample a variety of different dishes. I must say the choices of vegetarian dishes on offer were excellent and I really enjoyed everything I tried.

After dinner we all made our way to All Saints Church for our first Traverse 15 welcome party and networking event. As we sipped chilled glasses of prosecco, we enjoyed meeting and chatting to new friends; this was going to be an excellent start to a fab weekend.

Saturday Day 2

Our venue for day two was Kingston University Business School. Registration started at 8.30 and it was a full day of work shops, lectures, panels and debates. We were initially concerned as to what we would learn from this travel conference; however our concerns were soon wiped out. In between the workshops and sessions we enjoyed cupcakes, coffee, lunch and drinks which kept us charged up throughout the day. The conference was very interesting and we gained a lot of knowledge from SEO to pitching to working with brands, accounting, photography and monetisation. It looks like future Traverse events will definitely be attended by food bloggers.

The day ended with a final recap of the day’s sessions and a very unique bar service, where drinks were ordered through tweeting! What a super end to a fantastic and educational day. Tired after the long day, we made our way back to the hotel to refresh before dinner and the Saturday night party at Kingston University Student Union. Sadly dinner at Little Italy in Kingston was rather disappointing and did not match the amazing experience at Comptoir Libanais the night before. However the Traverse 15 after party made up for it. It took me back years to my student days, drinking, loud music and fun!!!!

Sunday Day 3

Sunday morning was a day of experiences. Kingstonfirst had organised a wonderful selection of experiences in and around Kingston. These ranged from cookery classes to boat rides to Hampton Court, to beauty treatments and also historic guided tour walks. Sadly the weather did not work in our favour as it rained all morning and I was so glad that I had chosen to do the Thai cookery class at Busaba Eathai restaurant.

My friend Heidi and I made our way to the restaurant where we were greeted by Hesh, the senior Chef, at Busaba Eathai. After fuelling with hot piping coffee we donned our chef coats so that we could experience Thai cooking in a real working kitchen. 

This proved to be one of the best cooking masterclasses I have participated in. Being able to cook in a real working restaurant kitchen was a dream come true. I felt like areal celebrity chef in my white chefs coat!!  Hesh was an amazing teacher; the dishes we cooked with him were Pad Thai, Som Tam, Smoked Chilli Mushrooms, Thai Fish cakes and the Thai Calamari. The food we cooked for our lunch was packed with flavour and was so tasty it left a lasting memory on out taste buds.

After such an exciting cookery experience and elaborate lunch, it was time to enjoy a little bit of pampering and what better way to end a lovely weekend than to have a beauty treatment.  Heidi and I made our way to John Lewis Clarins department where we were greeted by our beauticians who pampered us with facial skin treatments and a mini back and neck massage. We left with a detailed personal beauty plans and samples of Clarins products so that we could continue to use the beauty regime our beauticians had prepared for us. It was a lovely relaxing way to end a really exciting, informative and fun filled weekend.

The organisers of Traverse 15 and Kingstonfirst did a fantastic job to make the weekend so successful. I am looking forward to next year’s event with great anticipation.

Friends of Glass ~A cookery session with Cherry Healey and a giveaway

Friends of glass is a movement of people who believe that glass is good for them, for their families and for the environment. There are many good reasons to use glass, it comes in many sizes shapes and styles. Glass, unlike other packaging materials, won’t release unhealthy chemicals and tastes into your food. It is Dishwater safe so you can be sure your storage containers are thoroughly sterilised and don’t harbour smells and harmful bacteria. It is environmentally friendly and glass is recyclable. Glass jars and bottles are perfect for storage, transporting food, for serving drinks at parties or simply using them for decoration. They make perfect pen pots, flower vases, and utensil holders. You can create many gift idea with them too.

A couple of weeks ago I was invited by friends of glass to attend a cookery session hosted by Cherry Healey. The cookery class was held at Michel Roux Jr. cactus kitchens cookery school in Battersea. This is the place where Saturday kitchen is filmed.

On arrival we were led to a lovely drawing room for a light breakfast of pastries and coffee and given our aprons. Once breakfast over, we were ushered into the magnificent kitchen for a demonstration of the day’s recipes with Cara the chef and Cherry Healey. The recipes on the menu were Mint Julep, strawberry smoothies, beetroot hummus, Butternut squash, wild mushroon and spinach pie in a jar and Autumn trifle with poached pears . All were recipes were created and served in jars.

During the demonstration we were able to sample the hummus and the smoothies and then we set off to our workstations to get hands on experience of creating the Butternut squash and wild mushroom and spinach pie in a jar and the Autumn trifle with poached pears . Chef Cara and Cherry Healey were very interactive during the cooking session in the cactus kitchen, which made the experience very enjoyable. I had lots of fun especially as all the washing up magically disappeared.

My finished creations : 
Butternut Squash, wild mushroom and spinach pie in a jar and the Autumn Trifle with poached Pears. 

We were able to eat them whilst sipping mint juleps in the drawing room. To our surprise the friends of glass team had judged out trifles and I was really excited to win the 1st prize for my creation a lovely blue glass jar.

I came away from the class with lots of inspiration and ideas about presenting food in glass. You can see a video of our day below

I love glassware and here you can see some recipes that I have created in glass:

Date Milk Shake
Mixed Berry Smoothie

 

Moroccan Salad in a Jar

Peach Frappe

 

I had a lovely time at cactus kitchens and would like to thanks friends of glass for the lovely goody bag they gave me. Not only that but friends of glass have also given me a set of 6 glass jars as a competition prize for one simplyfood reader.

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The Art of good taste at Fruit Towers -Innocent Drinks.

I recently attended an evening learning about the art of good taste hosted by Innocent Drinks at their offices at Fruit Towers. Fruit Towers is an amazing venue with lots of open plan places for the staff to think, eat, drink and work and get their creative juices flowing.

On arrival we were greeted and treated with lots of canapes and presented with our own uniquely created mocktail. We also had the opportunity to explore the amazing fruit towers with its open spaces, staff areas, kitchens, lego wall and interactive room. Its an amazing place to work.

After our tour we split up into groups and did some taste and smell challenges using our five senses; sight,smell,taste,touch and hearing. We tried different foods whilst taking note of the impact they have on our senses.

We each tried the Ishihara colour recognition test to test our colour vision as colour is very important part of food . After this we took part in a sensory training course, where we were presented with  five different samples and had to identify them  by describing the samples as either, sweet. sour ,salt, bitter and umami, Those who identified the samples correctly were awarded an innocent sensory training certificate.

The highlight of the evening was an interactive talk and hands on tasting session by the authors of The Flavour Bible Karen Page and Andrew Dornenberg. We learnt about vegetarian trends in the US and how combining different foods with different spices give amazingly different results on your tastebuds.

Finally we were able to go into the Innocent kitchens and make our own fruit and veg smoothies in a smoothie making challenge. We were able to cycle our blenders to pulse our juices!! Very hard work indeed and not many of us realise the  process that goes into making a smoothie from sourcing the best ingredients to creating a perfectly balanced and eye appealing smoothie.

Did you know that innocent is celebrating the unique stories of devotion necessary to ensure only the best tasting fruit goes in to an innocent juice.

The farmers turn their mangoes by hand, every day for seven days, to make sure they are perfectly ripe and exceptionally juicy

By protecting their pears with a wall of icicles in winter, innocent can make sure the pears don’t frost overnight and grow big and juicy, ready to be blended in their apple, peach & pear juice.

Innocent takes the calyx off every single strawberry that they use in their innocent juices. (The calyx is the leafy green stalk that lots of other people just leave in.)

Innocent builds their pineapples a water bed so they don’t get bumped around or bruised. Bashed up pineapples don’t taste as fresh or pineappley, so it’s important to keep them comfy

AND FINALLY .......An innocent drink tastes good (crammed full of all that delicious fruit) which in turn does you some good. And the good keeps going: because innocent gives 10% of profits to charity, people around the world lead better lives as a result

Market Deli Range from Walkers.

On Tuesday I was invited to a launch event for the Market Deli range by Walkers. The Market Deli range is an exciting range of premium snacks featuring potato, tortilla and also pita chips. The flavours of the snacks are inspired by delicatessens both from the UK and Europe.

The evening started with some mingling with fellow foodies as we enjoyed drinks and canapés all inspired by the Market Deli range.We sampled lovely chilled gazpacho, cheddar cheese on sticks, bruschetta with Mediterranean toppings of chilli, tomato and basil, chorizo medallions on spoons, pita bread sticks with dips. All these lovely canapés were served with different spirits that complimented the different flavours of the Market Deli range.  Once fuelled with our taste buds tingling for more, we were led in small groups to sample the new Market Deli range.

We tasted potato chips in four flavours:
Cornish mature cheddar
Wiltshire cured ham, mature cheddar and farmhouse chutney
Balsamic vinegar of Modena (Aceto Balsamico di  Modena PGI)
Flame grilled Spanish chorizo and roasted Onion

Next we tried the tortilla chips:
Anglesey sea salt with cracked black pepper
Roasted red chilli with Mediterranean sundried tomato

And finally we tried the pita chips:
Roasted garlic with Mediterranean herbs
Roasted red pepper with English tomato

Each of the flavour combinations has been well thought out and created using the finest ingredients such as cheddar cheese from Cornwall, aceto balsamico from Modena  and sundried tomatoes from the Manisa region in Turkey. My Favorite was the pita chips, they were crunchy yet soft with a lovely texture.

The range is perfect as an indulgent snack to be served with drinks or just enjoyed on its own or with dips. All the Market Deli range are available in sharing size bags of 165g and retail at £2.39, the potato chips are available in smaller single bags retailing at £0.83.

Once we had sampled all the amazing Market Deli range, the evening was further inspired by watching a cookery demonstration by the Michelin star chef Tom Aiken. The cookery demonstration carried forward the theme from the  flavours of the Market Deli range. The first dish Tom cooked was macaroni cheese, this was no ordinary macaroni cheese, it was luxurious. The white sauce was enhanced using Cornish mature cheddar with mustard, marjoram, sundried tomatoes from Turkey and Wiltshire cured ham and baked in the oven. Although I did not sample this as I am a vegetarian, my food blogger friend Heidi Roberts from Kitchen Talks gave it the thumbs up.

The second dish that Tom cooked was also inspired by the Marker Deli Range, this time it was a delicious cold soup Gazpacho. Flavoured with roasted garlic, herbs, tomato juice, sundried tomatoes, fresh tomatoes and seasoned with lashings of salt and pepper, it was packed with Mediterranean  flavours and tasted delicious.

I had a wonderful experience attending the event, and would like to thank Walkers for inviting me. and sending me home with a lovely goody bag of the Market Deli Range to enjoy at home. This post is a pr collaboration and all views and opinions expressed are my own and unbiased.

This final picture is of Heidi and my self posing with the Michelin chef Tom Aiken.

Mex grocers Mexican evening at Lupita East

I have recently been cooking Mexican cuisine for the Flavours of Mexico event at simply.food. The cuisine is very veggie friendly with many vegetarian dishes that are both tasty and delicious. I love the spicy flavours that are part and parcel of Mexican cuisine and they are perfect to satisfy my Indian palate. Some of the Mexican dishes I have prepared are Quesadilla, Mexican Rice Arroz Mexicano, Fajita, Mexican veggie tart, Mexican corn salad and Tortilla wraps with beans

Couple of days ago I was invited together with two of my food blogger friend to a "Discover the taste of Mexico" evening by Mexgrocer.co.uk an online shop for authentic Mexican ingredients.The evening was hosted at Lupita East a wonderful Mexican restaurant in the heart of London's Liverpool street.

The evening started with drinks as we mingled amongst other foodies and we met out  hosts Katya Torres de la Rocha the CEO of Mex grocer and also the head chef Marco Cuervo of Lupoita East. We were invited to scrutinise their amazing range of authentic mexican Ingredients. The range included some finest and unique Mexican  products such bottled cactus, cactus tortillas, blue corn tortillas, an array of different chilis and sauces together with flours, refried beans and many other Mexican Ingredients.The range was spectacular, some even being gluten free and suitable for vegetarians.

Marco shared some wonder knowledge of Mexican cookery with lots of tips and advice on Mexican cookery, we learnt the secret of how to make a perfect tortilla wrap to how to roast and pound chillies for a delicious Habanero sauce. His passion for his native land Mexico oozed in abundance and his passion for Mexican cookery was very apparent in the lovely Mecicaanapes we sampled.

The canapes were Guacamole artesanal, ripe avocados pounded in a mortar and pestle, with tomatoes, onions and fresh coriander and served with crunchy tortillas chips made fresh in the Lupito Kitchens.Next we tried the Chicharron de Quesco, a crispy rolled cheese.Tostadas de Nopales was an amazing canape and one I have never tried before, it was tender baby cactus served over refried beans and a fresh salsa Pico de Gallo.In addition we tried the Harbenero sauce and warm chrispy cheesy tortillas. the sauce was smoky and fiery and simply delicious. It was seriously delicious and I have fallen in love with it.

For the non vegetarians there were many more canapes; Cochinita Pibil Tacos, this was made with slow roasted pork, served on corn tortillas with refried beans and red onions pickled with Habanero chillies. The chef was very kind and made us vegetarian version of this which was delicious.The other two non vegetarian canapes were Tacos Gobernador - soft corn tortillas with marinated prawns and Tinga de Carne Tostadas- shredded beef cooked with smoky chipotle chilli served on a bed of lettuce, creme fraiche and ranchero cheese.

It was lovely to spend the evening with my two friends Jagruti of Jagrutis cooking Odyssey and Tina of The Spicy Pear sampling the canapes that awere really delicious and enjoying the warm hospitality of Mexgrocer.co.uk and Lupito East. The evening was very informative and delightful and we thoroughly enjoyed our education and insight into authentic Mexican cuisine

 I would like to thank Mexgrocer.co.uk and Lupita East for inviting me and my friends to this lovely event and also for the wonderful goody bag that they gifted us. I have been inspired and I am going to make the amazing Habanero sauce as soon as I can get the correct chillies.You can purchase authentic Mexican grocery from the Mexgrocer.co.uk and to sample the amazing food you can visit two amazing restaurants Lupito East and Lupita Central.

Innocent Inspires -An evening of good taste.

Yesterday  I attended the Innocent Inspire event which took place in the Crypt under St. James Church in London with a few of my foodie friends, Sylvia Filozof, Manjiri Chitnis and Fiona Mclean.

"Innocent Inspires series"s are a series of inspirational evenings that are tailor made by Innocent to give you a sensory night of good taste.The focus of the evening was to understand why does taste matter,how does it work,what's the perfect combination and how can good taste  transform your life and career?

The venue was transformed in to an inviting and cosy atmosphere with beautifully set table, cosy candlelights, flowers in jam jars, ample Innocent Juices and a lively buzz of excitement.We were greeted at the door with a delicious raspberry, lemon and rose water mocktail that smelled divine and even tasted sensual. This was just the beginning of the evening. The evening kicked off with an introduction by Innocent and followed by a wonderful talks from the guest speakers while we munched of foodie treats.

Florence Knight head chef at Polpetto Restaurant, Florence talked about seasonal foods and how she gets inspiration from them in her cooking. She served us an amazing ice-cream which had a combination of pepper, caramel and sliced peaches.

The second talk was Ms Marmite Lover - the undergound supper club queen. Ms Marmite lover is one amazing woman with a fantastic personality. she is really entertaining with an awesome sense of humour. I could have sat and listened to her antics all evening. From her talk I learn't the importance of carbs in our diet. Apparently carbs release serotine a happiness hormone so we should all be indulging in them when we need to be happy. During her talk it came as no surprise when we were served up marmite and toast and virgin bloody Mary's made with tomato juice and marmite!!! Needless to say I hate marmite and was not brave enough to try it although looking around our table there were many empty bottles so it must have been good!!!
As we listened to the speakers we were constantly supplied with crudités and dips by the Dip society.I got my first taste of a spicy Beet dip and houmous made with rapeseed oil. Both were delicious.

The next speaker Bombas and Parr - jellymongers extraordinaire continued to entertain us.I was so amazed to see how a person can be so passionate about jelly!!!It was interesting to learn how one can make a career from making giant jelly models and selling the idea to the world!!! Our taste buds were  tickled with a jelly tasting session, but before it was served  we had to chant for it to appear!!!Sadly being a vegetarian I did not try the jelly although it looked delicious and was very wobbly just like a jelly should be!!! I learn't that the upcoming trend is to have jelly at weddings and funerals too!!! Finally cup cakes have a rival!!!

The next talk was by Emilie Baltz a transatlantic food designer, her focus was on smells and taste and we were taken on a sensory journey by smelling vanilla pods and biting into figs with ear plugs in our ears!!!The sound of the bite into the fig and the smell of vanilla gave taste and smell another dimension.

Last but not least we had a wonderful talk by Ollie Dabbous chef- owner of the game changing Dabbous.What can I say about this young man?? He received his first Michelin star only after 1 year of opening his restaurant, he is the most sought after chef in the culinary world.

The evening ended with Q&A with all the speakers and a lovely goody bag of Graze box, Innocent Juice, a box of mints and some vouchers together with a very unique bill for the event.

I would like to Thank Innocent Inspire for inviting me to this event ,it has certainly awakened my senses and understanding of good taste.