TURMERIC GOLD REVIEW - COVENTRY RESTAURANT

Hello People,  5/10
TURMERIC GOLD (http://www.turmericgold.co.uk), sounds lovely, has an interesting setting, and the restaurant has won many awards, but sad part is, I am struggling to understand why. =s

This restaurant seems to be an extravangtly homely decorated restaurant, with bit of a rustic feel to it. As gorgeous as it was, with its vibrant velvet reds, and mahogany's, it is bit of an anti climax in terms of what they have to offer, and when I think about it, its a bit cramped and not for the chlaustrophobic - in other words just way to much going on. Nonetheless let's not talk about the decor, when we'r here to talk about food.

I can only assume that this place has won awards, because Coventry may have very little to offer in terms of a good indian restaurants/or good indian food. The prices are of a more middle-high end indian restuarant, but the menu dissapoints. So lets go straight to starters : -

                                                                           
So I ordered KING PRAWN BUTTERFLY: - Large Prawn delicately spiced, seasoned and coated with bread crumbs and fried. Served crispy.  I don't think I've ever been so dissapointed by KING PRAWN. This was served on my plate, as if I'd ordered a battered peice of plaice ON THE BEACH. The prawn had obviously mean cut down the middle and flattened, so it could be coated in breadcrumbs. It seems the breadcrumbs had herbs on them, but all you could taste was bread crumbs. The prawn was overcooked, and tough, which was actually depressing. The salad served on the side was just, cut up lettuce tomato cabbage and a wedge of lemon,. No dressing, not very fresh, and very dried up like an old apple.. The chutney/sauce served to go with the prawn, was a corriander/chilli mixture, and I wish there was more of it because it was about the only thing that was nicely balanced in flavour, and looked like refreshing natural spring green. I recieved a smidgen- even more depressing! It just doesn't seem right, in an awarded restaurant. It all fell bland overall.

                                                


So on the other side my friend orders the Mix Kebab:- Chicken tikka slices, lamb tikka slices, and sheekh kebab. I was hoping when I tried this I would be redeemed and think oh its my dish that went wrong, but I was mistaken. What a let down. Now I believe you can tell if a chef is good, if their sheekh kebab is good, but I was definitly wrong. The sheekh kebab was the only nice thing on this plate. It was very tasty to be totally frank, I could have eaten several, but the chicken tikka, felt like it had been dipped in tikka sauce, and the lamb tikka over cooked! TOUGH CHEWY LAMB IS NEVER A GOOD SIGN!!! This lamb was old, rather than using baby lamb to make nice succulent peices, or slow cooking the lamb, this chef clearly went for lamb = rubber approach. The funniest thing about this place is, that they try and decorate their food in a nice way, but it looks so mediocre, I'd prefer if they presented it to me on a sizzler with onions. Food did not look appetizing. I think if Gordon Ramsay was to try this food, he'd share my opinion. (tisc tisc)


By now I've started making my opinions for the chef. IS HE EVEN INDIAN I'M THINKING- and if so where is he from- Ticked of Bangladeshi chef in my mind, because bangladeshi chefs have a great idea of sizzlers, and charcoaled dishes.

SO TO MAINS: 2 GARLIC NANS, 1 ALOO BENGAN BALTI (potato, and aubergine), 1 CHICKEN KARAI.

OK so if you love garlic like me you'll love this places garlic nan. Its actually the first place ever where I've appreciated a garlic nan! There weren't as soft as I would of wanted, but I was so happy about it tasting garliccy for once I don't think I was to bothered- haha. Now both dishes, very spicy, it's not that we ordered them spicy either, this place is clearly heavy handed on the spice. The mains weren't bad, but I've had better. For what this place is charging in terms of their vegetarian dishes, and non-veg you'd expect better, tasting food, along with better quality.

The chicken in the chicken karai, was succulent, and soft, but it felt like it had just been dipped in the sauce. Karai is meant to have a distinct charcoal flavour, as karai is what can be described as an indian wok. The chicken had not been pushed around the karai, to give it that distinct karai flavour. It was edible, but not like OMG I'd have this again. The balance in flavours at this place needs some work.


The potato and aubergine balti, needed more aubergine!!! I mean if you're paying for a vegetarian dish,  why is the chef filling it with a tonne of potato. Once again very spicy, and nothing special. I didn't feel satisfied even though I was full. DISSAPOINTING!


I THINK THIS PLACE WAS A LET DOWN BECAUSE AS STUDENTS WE WERE PAYING £20 A HEAD ALMOST (INC DRINKS) AND ALSO BECAUSE IT'S WON AWARDS. If it won awards I definitly don't understand why, and for a Saturday night it was surely very quite, so I'm presuming the chef has changed.

CHECK OUT THE WEBSITE. I'LL BE UPLOADING PICTURES SOON.
RASH =) X

LAMB MINCE RECIPE'S

Hello everyone- sorry I havn't blogged any recipes in the last couple of days, but now I have to lamb mince recipes that you can try out, which are easy and both take under 45 minutes to prep and cook.

LAMB BURGERS (serves 4 - if you're hungry eat two)

Ingredients for Burgers : - FRESH PACKET OF LAMB MINCE/ OR HALF BAG FROZEN MINCE, garlic 4-5 large cloves, half a large onion, colemans mint sauce, paprika, tspn and half  of flour, burger salad as you wish. Read my step 7 if you want to do it how I do.

1. Take your fresh mince lamb, or frozen mince lamb (probably about 500-600 grams) and put in a large bowl.

2. Chop up garlic finely, and dice half the onion.

3. Put in a good tspn and a half of colemans mint sauce, and a half tspn of paprika, seasoning ( if you dont have a clue, it's rough about a tspn and 1/4 of salt)

4. Mix it all up, and scatter over a tspn and half of flour, this binds the mince well.

5. Split the mixture into 4 equal balls, and shape into burgers, and place on a plate. 

6. Take a frying pan, and put a tablespoon of oil in to coat the surface of the pan. Place the burgers in, on a medium heat, and cook for 4-5 minutes each side. Look for a nice colours on the burgers, they'll charcoal on some parts of the burger, then you can assume they are done. Mince does cook fast, but 10 minutes should be could on a medium to lowish heat.

7. Take your Baps, put in your filling, I find some cheese, then the burger, lettuce, cucumber, tomato, gerkins, mayonnaise and tomato sauce, makes a nice gourmet buger.

TIP : - ADD some fried onions, to make it really gourmet.

BON APETIT - Fun and easy- half n hour. to prep and cook

Spaghetti Bolognese (serves 4 )

Ingredients :-Lamb Mince fresh or frozen (500-600grams), 4 large cloves of garlic, half a large onion, 1 large carrot grated, honey, lemon, colemans mint sauce, paprika, a bit of red chilli powder (optional), can of chopped tomatoes in juice, oregano spaghetti for 4, sea rock salt (normal salt is fine but rock salt is nicer I find)

DON'T FORGET TO TASTE ALONG THE WAY- (NOT THE RAW MEAT- BUT ONCE ITS ALL COOKED, AND THE BOLOGNESE HAS COME TOGETHER)

1. Finely chop garlic, and dice the half an onion. Take a deep pan, and put in a table spoon of olive oil over a medium heat. Put in the diced onion, and then 3 minutes later put in the garlic. Once they have a nice pale golden colour, put in the mince. Fry so the mince goes all brown, and no pink remains.

2. Add the grated carrot, makes the dish slightly healthy, and fry for additional 4 minutes.

3. Add in the tin of tomato, tspn of honey, tspn of paprika, a good pinch of chilli powder (does bring out flavour- does not make it spicy) salt and pepper accordingly to taste, tbsp of lemon juice, and half tspn of oregano, and cook further for 5 minutes. (add some water if it gets to dry), let it simmer into a nice bolognese sauce, it should reduce into a nice meaty sauce-looking for thick rich colour of tomato around the lamb mince.

4.While you wait, Boil water, and put in spaghetti for four people, and cook.

5. Taste your bolognese, what flavours are you getting? You are looking for notes of balanced sweetness and zing. A nice meaty savoury flavour, with a very clean heat, and lemony honey sweetness, but overall still savoury. Put on a low heat let it simmer- or leave to the side.

6.Strain Spaghetti once cooked, and then wash in cool water because this washes away all the starch and stops spaghetti sticking together. Gives you that ultimate slippery feeling of spaghetti bolognese which you want!

7.Now put the spaghetti back in a pan, on low- medium heat, and you can mix in all the bolognese, but what i find is nice to do, is put in about half the bolognese sauce, into the spaghetti, and mix it in. This means flavour gets in and around the spaghetti. Everything is coated, and you can tell if you need any more seasoning etc. This does infuse flavour into the spaghetti. 

8. Serve, with some bolognese on top. (Everyone wins, those that want it on top and not just mixed in- pleases all)

TIP : - Garlic bread is an absolute killer with this dish.


Hope You enjoy it- If you try the recipe - let me know how it went- or did you do something different- let me know =)

LEBANESE FOOD RECIPE'S & CEDARS

THE FOLLOWING IS A LIGHT LUNCH, NICE AND REFRESHING ! NICE AND EASY.

A LIGHT LUNCH RECIPE ( 2 PEOPLE)

FATTOUSH SALAD (my personal favourite, a must have at Maroush, my take on it)

INGREDIENTS: - 2 Medium Tomatoes, 3 peices of Romano Lettuce, 1/4 cucumber, 1/4 onion, lemon, Mint (fresh or I however use Colemans Mint- quick and easy), Olive Oil, Parsley (your choice), Seasoning rock salt, and pepper. Lebanese croutons (separate recipe- my take)

1. Wash the Tomatoes, romano lettuce, and cucumber.

2.Roughly chop the lettuce, Dice the Tomatoes, and Diced chunks of cucumber; finely chop the onions and place in a large bowl.

3. Teaspoon and maybe a half more, of Coleman's mint sauce (this is good because it has a sweet flavour which brings out the salad well)

4. Table spoon of Olive oil, and 1/4 of fresh lemon juice.

5. Season, with rock salt and pepper. Taste.

TIP: ADD PARSLEY IF YOU WOULD LIKE, I DON'T, BUT TRADITIONALLY THEY DO.

Tasting is important, because you'll be able to tell if the flavours are balanced. If it's two sour, add a bit more salt and mint. This salad should have minty sweety notes, with a tang, but be bursting with flavour.

LEBANESE CROUTONS (OPTIONAL- NICE FOR A BITE)

INGREDIENTS: 1 1/2 cup FLOUR, WATER accordingly to make dough- SALT, VEGETABLE OIL

1. Take the 1 1/2 cup of flour and place in a bowl, and add half tspn of sald, add warm water, and make into a nice firm dough. Try not to make it sticky.

2.Take the Dough in two sections. Role out the first section quite thin, (about four pages thin)

3. Scoar the dough with a blunt knife in diagonals going one way, about 1 inch apart, now do this the opposite way, and it will make little diamond shapes. They don't have to be perfect.

4. Heat oil for frying, and take each little diamond and put it in the hot oil. FRY till nicely golden. Take them out and leave them on kitchen towel to soak up the excess oil.

5. Repeat this once again with the second section of dough. (steps 3 & 4)

6. Once cooled down, take a hand ful, and put it in the Fattoush salad, and there you have Lebanese croutons.

TIP: YOU can make these croutons and store them in an air tight container, and they remain fresh for ages. Add each time you make a salad, so it may seem like alot fo work but its once, and you can easily make 4-5 salads from 2 sections of dough.

BABA GANOUSH 

This is a great accompliment to the salad. It is Pureed aubergine, with sesame oil, garlic and mayonnaise- almost like a pate but not so thick. You can find it in the supermarkets, but not everywhere, in the dip section near the hummous. Its made by a company called Sabra, known as an Aubergine dip. If you don't want to go to the hassle of making it try and get you hands on this stuff. Take a good two dollops of baba ganoush in a bowl, add a bit of rock salt and pepper, a bit of olive oil, and lemon, and mix.

INGREDIENTS: - AUBERGINE, GARLIC GLOVES ABOUT 4-5, SESAME OIL, LEMON JUICE, OLIVE OIL, MAYONNAISE, AND SEASONING (serves 3-4)

1. Boil / GRILL / Oven the aubergine. To grill takes skill but tastes better and gives it a chargrilled effect. You take the aubergine and leave it on top of the stove, let it fire up. Keep turning it. It's not easy but it is quick, and worth it. Takes about 5 minutes. Or leave it in the over for about 25 - 30 minutes at 180 degrees celsius. Or Boil.

2. Once done let it cool down, then peel of the skin.

3. Chop it up and stick it a blender with garlic cloves, [dollops accordingly] probably 1tbspn mayonnaise, and a tbspn of sesame oil.

4. Season with rock salt, quater of a lemon, and olive oil.

5. Blend up, you don't want it to be super smooth.

6.FINITO.

TIP : I've never made baba ganoush from scratch, but when I do I will probably not use a blender for the dip, more so do it by hand, because aubergine mashes up easily, and grate the garlic instead.

FYI THE RECIPE IS BASED FROM WHAT I CAN TASTE, NOT STOLEN OF SOME WEBSITE. SO if you try it let me know. At the moment I just use the Sabra stuff. =)

TO EAT : - FRESH BREAD anything will do- you pick =), Two forks, rip the bread, put some baba ganoush on top, and with each mouthful a bite of the salad. SCRUMPTIOUS!

LAST NIGHT

So good afternoon those who are reading - if any one is. Today's agenda is to describe what my experience of Cedar's Lebanese (Leicester) was in comparison to London's Maroush.

Now outside Cedar's it really isn't much of a looker, it's a bit student holiday 'cheap place to eat looking.' However, not to put you all of right away, once you get it in, this place oozes charisma, style, and the decor is modern, with a traditional lebanese layout. Lovely.

Hummus (chickpea dip),

Moutabal (aubergine pureed with sesame paste, lemon, garlic), (It's okay, but baba ganoush at Maroush is definitly a winner)

Warak Inab Bezeit (Vine Leaf rolls with rice, tomato, onion, mint, lemon juice and olive oil), (YUM)

Tabouleh (Mixed parsley, onions, tomato, crushed wheat, seasoned with mint, olive oil and lemon juice) (surprisingly balanced- really not overpowering)

Lebanese pastry things, one filled with lamb, and one with halloumi cheese, parsley and onions. (nice for a change up on the pallete)

Oh and LEBANESE PICKELES- which are just gerkins in my opinion haha

COLD MEZZE was all for £5.95, so I'm not knocking it for value. Now in comparison to Maroush it is lacking, but when you're in the Midlands and need a fix this is pretty great. I was also shocked about the Tabouleh, in other words the parsley salad. I'm very partial to parsley, I don't know why personally, nonetheless this salad was absolutely refreshing-Astounding what a bit of lemon, and mint can really do. The salad went down really well with the dips, and the hot mezze hummus shwarma chicken (£5.50)(not that I would order this again, but try it once.)Quick FYI, Maroush does make great FRESH lebanese bread, as Cedars do microwave ready made lebanese bread- or something like that I think. Also it's sad but Cedar's don't do 'baba ganoush'.

Mains were the highlight. We couldn't quite tell how hungry we were so we ordered 2 sandwiches and one more hot mezze-

Battata Harra- Fried cubes of potato, served with garlic onions, Green chilli, coriander and pepper (tasted alright, a bit like indian food, but bland in that it needed salt and probably lemon) (spicy dish so not for the feint hearted) £3.50

Shish Taouk-Grilled chicken cubes, with garlic sauce, pickles, lettuce and tomato. Wrapped in Lebanese bread (absolutely scrummy) £3.25 each ( brilliant)

The Sandwich was brilliant, I've been craving it for ages, because I love the garlic sauce around tender cubes of grilled chicken. This deffinitly does measure up to Maroush sandwich -deffinitely!! Throw out the greasy kebab's and grab one of these. Cheap and cheerful, and always hit the spot.

The Overall food cost would have been about £23 pounds for two people [super value especiallly for a date, or romantic dinner setting]- more than enough food, because we COULD NOT finish what we bought =\. Another FYI : We also got margharitas which bumped up the bill, but funnily enough a margharita does wash all that food down nicely, and if you're a non alcoholic- grab a bitter lemon, should do the same trick.

So there it is, last night's account of dining, Lebanese cuisine, and for all those people that havn't tried Lebanese food, hopefully I've provided you with some fun things to try at home, or when your out.

Right I better be off, I hope You've enjoyed the blog.

Rash =)

ME, FOOD & BLOGGING

So My first official BLOG. 

I think I'll take this time to describe how I plan to use this little food journal of mine. I've found that in the last year, that I have been cooking a lot more. Most probably, because I spend a lot of my time, at my lovely(who added that verb in himself) boyfriend's university, planning out what to eat and what to make.

Cooking somehow does manage to relax me, (minus the stressing out about everything being perfect), but it allows me to get away, into my imagination and away from it all into FOOD HAVEN. Although I cook more than I should study, I found that having to cook for myself has let me create little quaint recipes. Some long, some short, some impressive and some not haha.

So the important bit, I realised that in  my mind I can almost taste what two flavours (even opposite) can taste like, or what type of magic they can combine, to make the simply irresistable dish, leading me to experiment. So now I get to share all the recipes my mind creates with you all- well if anyone's reading that is.

Tonight however I have dinner plans. After much deliberating, I thought lebanese food would be nice. Not being in London though Lebanese food isn't as accessible. So I GOOGLED, and found Cedars, in Leicester. Now the menu's similar to Maroush (LONDON), but will it do the job of satisfying the craving????

 Have a look if you can't wait. =)

http://www.cedarslebaneserestaurant.co.uk/index1.html

http://www.maroush.com/pages/home.htm

Rash =)

P.S those who havn't experienced Lebanese cuisine tomorrow's BLOG will be about the food along with some fun simple things you can do at home. - I'm still a beginner to Lebanese food, so this should be fun !!!