Madeleine Shaw Event: Supper Club @ Harvey Nichols

Last week, Pamela, Nadia & I enjoyed a delicious evening of food with Madeleine Shaw at her Supper Club hosted by Harvey Nics. Her Get the Glow evening promised four plates and a pudding from her cookbook, cocktails and a talk about the new book, and I'd been looking forward to it for ageees. We were even more excited (read: giggling with massive grins on our faces) to see on the seating plan that our names were on Madeleine's table!

Green Goddess Bowl

We kicked off with soft poached eggs, avo, kale, sesame seeds and a gorgeous dressing. Look at that yolk! 

Mexican BBQ Grilled Corn & Quinoa with chilli salsa

The creamiest quinoa I've ever tasted (it was mixed with natural yoghurt). I'm not usually sweetcorn's number one fan but this was lush, the BBQ flavours brought it to life and the salsa was fresh and tangy.

Thai Beef Salad, salt & pepper cashews

This dish was my favourite. The beef was so tender and juicy, mixed with the chewy salted cashews and wilted greens the textures were spot on! Cannot wait to recreate this.

Spicy Salmon, Cucumber & Yoghurt

I loved this one - it looked so delicate but the flavours were punchy and there was a nice mix of crunch (the cucumber, the salmon edges) and smoothness (the yoghurt and the juicy meat).

Raw Chocolate Cherry Fudge, Vanilla & Coconut Dairy-free Ice-cream

This dessert was insane, I can't do it justice in words - the richness of the dense, yet almost gooey chocolate paired perfectly with cooling creaminess of the icecream. Yes I realise I'm gushing here, but I've attempted to make raw chocolate before and not gonna lie, it tasted rank, so this is a recipe I can't wait to try as it was incredible.

The evening was just what I needed; relaxed and chilled - a room full of people chatting over really, really decent & nourishing food. As well as the food being spot on, both Madeleine and her boyfriend Kieran were so lovely to chat to - a very humble happy couple!

I was gutted as I'd ordered the book from Amazon and it didn't arrive in time - it still hasn't arrived! - but once it's here I can't wait to start bookmarking recipes, especially the raw chocolate fudge...

Smoked Salmon & Egg Skillet

This recipe is similar to the smoked shakshuka recipe I did a while back but it's a variation I just couldn't not share with you. 

The dish is ready in about 10 minutes making it a great option if you're absolutely ravenous or are short for time. 

To serve one, you'll need; 

2 free range eggs 

50g smoked salmon

1/2 pepper (whatever colour you fancy, wild)

1/2 red onion 

1 garlic clove 

1/4 tube tomato purée 

1 tablespoon paprika 

Handful cherry tomatoes 

Chop your onion and garlic and sauté in a pan (I used coconut oil to fry mine in). Once they've browned, add in your sliced pepper and tomatoes and stir to keep them from sticking to the pan. 

Next coat the veg in paprika and mix to ensure the spice is distributed evenly. Then add in your purée. I also added in some boiling water from the kettle to help it form more of a sauce based consistency, which I'd recommend. How much you add is up to you, I reckon I added about 1/4 small cup. 

After two minutes or so, make two holes in the pan and crack your eggs in. You might have to push the ingredients about a bit to let the white of the egg cook quicker, but be careful not to stab your yolk. 

Then top with smoked salmon whilst the eggs are cooking. 

Voila! I served mine with broccoli..

Review: Bosu Body Bar, Chorlton

I am not ashamed to say that when Bosu opened last month, I was told I was technically their first paying customer; running in after work on their opening day to grab a Chorlton Green juice. I know, keen much?? Anyway. Since then, I've been back a handful of times and loved it! 

If you haven't been yet, hopefully this post will inspire you to get involved, you won't regret it...

That's the chicken protein box. Soo filling - the chicken is sitting on an array of delicious sides, from memory they were: rocket, home made 'baked beans' (my favourite), quinoa salad, sweet potato mash, honey roast vegetables, hummus, home made slaw and tomatoes with a little bit of peri peri sauce...

The mixture of flavours is spot on and everything works really well together.

Juice wise, I went for the Chorlton Green (kale, spinach, broccoli, cucumber, apple, fennel, ginger & lemon), and James had an Indian Summer (fennel, carrot, orange, ruby grapefruit, ginger, pineapple, turmeric).

We also got some deelicious protein balls for pudding - nutty, chocolatey, goey, crunchy, they were just what we needed after a savoury feast.

A few weeks before that, I went with the lovely Pamela, and I devoured the halloumi protein box; same amazing sides, just swapped out chicken for halloumi:

and, ohmygod, the best smoothie - a Muscle Up (peanut butter, almond milk, flax seeds, honey, banana & vanilla). It was divine.

There's seating available inside or outside, and they're open till 8pm most nights so if you can't be bothered to cook dinner after work it's a great option!

(I love the addition of workouts on the table, such a nice touch!)

I'm so pleased Bosu has come to Chorlton, and I wish them every success..

Pea & Pomegrante Quinoa

This summer inspired quinoa dish is a lunchtime favourite of mine at the moment - it goes with pretty much everything. So far either avocado, feta, smoked salmon or a basa fillet are my favourite pairing. It feels 'light' and tastes nice and fresh so it doesn't leave you feeling lethargic, but is also filling too.

To make 3 - 4 servings you'll need:

100g white quinoa
100g black quinoa
70g frozen peas
1 lemon
The seeds from one pomegranate

(You can use any sort of quinoa here, red would work too, as would white quinoa on its own.. I'm using black and white because not only does it make the dish look more interesting, I like how crunchy black quinoa is.)

Cook your quinoa as you would rice for about 12-15 mins. Squeeze half the juice of your lemon into the water into the pan for flavour. After the 15 minutes is up, add in your peas and continue to cook for a few minutes.

Then chop your pomegranate in half or quarters, pick out all the seeds and add to the pan of cooked quinoa. This is where it gets a tad messy, don't where white here kids - picking out pomegranate seeds is messy as, the juice gets everrrywhere.

Mix it all round and either serve immediately (drizzling the last half of your lemon juice on top) or transfer into tupperware and store it in the fridge.