Recipe: Healthy Chicken Tikka Masala

Here's one that is becoming a regular meal for us at home! A healthier than usual chicken tikka masala with a kachumba side salad.

You'll need:

Curry:
- two red onions
- coconut oil (for frying)
- chicken breast (two feeds roughly three people)
- a fresh chilli
- one large sweet potato
- a handful of spinach
- fresh coriander
- curry paste of choice (we used tikka)
- coconut milk
- tinned tomatoes

Salad:
- one red onion
- half a cucumber
- two tomatoes
- one lemon
- fresh coriander/mint

Method:
1. Dice onions and fry off in two teaspoons of coconut oil until very soft, then add the chicken breast (diced) and chilli, cook until browned.
2. In a separate bowl, cut the sweet potato into large chunks and microwave in a small bowl of water to soften. In the main frying pan, add two tablespoons of curry paste and stir into chicken.
3. Pour the coconut milk and tinned tomatoes over the chicken and onions, stirring to form a loose curry. Allow to simmer for 2/3 minutes.
4. Chop some fresh coriander and add both this and the spinach to the curry, followed by the softened sweet potato.
5. Allow the curry to simmer, and cook some rice to accompany it, if desired. In another bowl, finely dice all the salad ingredients, and stir together. Squeeze half of the lemon over the top and add a pinch of salt to taste.

Serve with mini poppadums, some mango chutney and natural yoghurt!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Smorgasburg, NYC

Saturdays                        Sundays

Williamsburg,                 Brooklyn Bridge Park,
90 Kent Aveenue,           Pier 5,
Brooklyn,                        Brooklyn,
NYC                                 NYC


So as anybody who has been to Smorgasburg food market will tell you, this place is an absolute MUST visit when in New York. With stalls from some of the best food in town there is something for everybody here, from ramen burgers to macaroons. Located on Brooklyn Bridge park right along the river with a mind blowing view of the NY skyline, this place gives off immediate good vibes. They also run a market in Williamsburg on Saturdays, we went to the Brooklyn market which was on a Sunday. The first thing we thought was, wow, is that really the queue? Each stall seemed to have a huge queue but we food found out why after a wander round. Being me, I literally could have eaten from every stall, they truly cater to everyone.

Choosing wisely I started with a lobster roll which I'd been after our whole trip! Redhook Lobster hooked me up big time with a Maine style lobster roll which. The toasted brioche roll and home-made mayo complimented the lobster so well, this filled a void in my foody life. We then split up and joined separate queue's to save time. Georgia grabbed herself some boneless wings from Dan & Johns wings which she considered maybe the best wings she'd ever had, safe to say I didn't see much of them! Meanwhile I was in the monumental queue for Home Frite after seeing so many people with them, the wait was well worth it! Home Frite sell hand cut tall fries served in a cone along with some amazing sauces. We went for the classic fries with garlic lemon aioli but they do have an awesome range of other fries and sauces. When we thought we couldn't queue or eat anymore we spotted a couple with some awesome looking ice cream sandwiches and we simply couldn't resist.  After about a 15 minute wait we grabbed ourselves a salted caramel sandwich and a rice crispies sandwich from The Good Batch ice cream stand. These really topped off our experience here and went down a treat with the beautiful sunshine we had that day.


There really isn't much more I could say in words to urge you to go here. There is so much to choose from and everything is fresh and made in front of you. Amazing food and a great atmosphere. Get down to Smorgasburg if you are in town!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Recipe: Sweet potato & parsnip rosti

 Hey guys, this is the second of hopefully many home cooked meal recipe posts to go up! This one was inspired by Joe Wicks a.k.a The Body Coach on Instagram who made a potato and parsnip rosti as part of his Lean in 15 healthy meal guides. So what we have here are sweet potato and parsnip rosti's, served with pan fried chorizo and a fried egg.

Ingredients needed;
- 1 medium sweet potato
- 1 parsnip
- 2 eggs
- half a chorizo sausage (or as much as you like)
- coconut oil
- salt & pepper

Begin by peeling and grating your sweet potato and parsnip then mix together in a bowl along with one egg, salt and pepper. Lay out your mixture on a chopping board and use a cookie cutter (I used a small glass) to cut out circular discs. Put a pan on a medium/high heat and once your coconut oil has melted pop your rosti's in. Cook for 5-7 minutes turning every minute or so to cook the mixture throughout. After 5 minutes of cooking slice your chorizo and cook it on a medium heat in a separate pan. After cooking your rosti's for about 10 minutes they should be good to serve, however use your judgement and cook for a few more minutes if necessary .

Plate up your rosti's and serve with a fried/poached egg along with your chorizo. I like a bit of fresh chilli to garnish for a wee kick. For veggie's you could also swap out the chorizo for some wilted spinach or sautéed mushrooms. Enjoy!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Dalston Street Feast

Hartwell Street

Dalston

London

E8 3DU

So a friend from work suggested the Dalston Street Feast and I'm so glad we went, what a gem! Georgia, myself and the crew from work headed down there a few days ago and I nearly died with excitement after looking the place up on the train there. The place is only about every Fri/Sat 01/02 May - 25/26 Sep and had a huge queue when we arrived! It's £3 entry after 7pm and we queued for about 5-10 and boy was it worth the wait. The venue is an abandoned warehouse type place with an awesome refurb. As well as a bunch of awesome food places there are plenty of bars and places to relax, it was night time and the open fires made it super cosy. Unfortunately by the time we arrived and got in it was really dark and quite poorly lit so a lot of the photo's I took ended up being no good, I plan to go back in the day light! 

It was so hard to chose what to eat here, I really felt I could have eaten from every stall. Georgia and I started on the buffalo wings from The Orange Buffalo. Super fresh hot wings covered in a really good and quite buttery style buffalo sauce. Very messy, very tasty. A few of the gang grabbed a bunch of soft shell taco's, including fried fish and chicken. Although I didn't try these, they looked amazing and I am assured they were delicious. 

I spotted somebody with some epic  looking fried chicken that literally stopped me in my tracks, after doing some investigating we found the place, Mother Clucker.  The queue for this place was all over the place, and we ended up waiting a while for our food, however we worked out why. Every piece of chicken they sell is marinated, coated and fried to order. Easily some of the best fried chicken out there, it had such a deep smokey flavour and was steaming hot, served with some sort of chilli mayo. 

As I was being such a fat boy, I couldn't resist getting more, so I headed over to Bleecker St. Burgers. I got a double cheeseburger with bacon, feeling heavy at this point. Although I was a bit gutted the burgers were not served on brioche buns as I'm a huge fan, the burger certainly did not disappoint. The patty was juicy and bloody, just how I like it, and the bacon just topped it off. Epic burger, gutted It was too dark to get a decent snap. Now craving some sweet goodness we headed to You Doughnut! The queue was HUGE for this place, again, worth it. All of the dough was being made in front of you and every batch made to order, with each order customisable. We had vanilla sugar, salted caramel sauce, sprinkles and vanilla ice cream. HOT DAMN these doughnuts killed it. I scooped every bit of it out of the box.

I cannot urge you more to visit one of these street feasts. We went to the Dalston market however there are spots in Lewisham and Shoreditch. I'll post the website below, check out some of the food there and I promise you won't be disappointed. You may catch me at one, I can't wait to get back.

http://www.streetfeastlondon.com/where

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Schiller, NYC

 131 Rivington St,
 New York,
 NY 10002,
 United States



Schillers was another place on our list whilst in the big apple, It was a recommendation from a friend of Georgia's actually! We'd contemplated the menu for the first couple of days of being there and I'm so glad we actually went! Really understated from outside but such nice décor. Inside it had a kind of industrial feel and all of the furnishings had a real shabby/reworked look, we loved it. Throughout our time there we felt the staff to be super attentive and maybe borderline too much, but I think that's a bit of an American thing (more in my upcoming post on NYC dining). All of the staff seemed super friendly and happy, although there did seem to be a lot of them for a fairly empty restaurant. I found this quite often whilst there, that a lot of restaurants seemed quite overstaffed, who knows if that's a good or bad thing!

Don't be fooled by the ''Liqueur Bar" signs, this place has a serious food menu too. The brunch menu had a really nice mix of your standard brunchy things like Eggs Benedict to a more extravagant steak and eggs. Georgia went for the blueberry pancakes with bourbon syrup and I chose the Huevos Rancheros. The found the portion size to be really realistic in comparison to some of your more gargantuan US sized portions (no offence!). We both really enjoyed our food, and as per I polished off what pancakes Georgia couldn't finish, the bourbon syrup was amazing! With the pancakes at $12 and Rancheros at $13 I found it awesome value for money. The coffee had a real nutty/oaky taste to it and was nothing to shout about but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Overall I would definitely go again and recommend you do if you're in the area. It's situated right near a whole bunch of other café's, coffee shops and shopping locations so swing by, I hear their cocktails are amazing too!

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

Food: Buvette, NYC

 42 Grove St,
 New York,
 NY 10014,
 United States




Another snippet from our trip to the big apple! We ventured to West Village to a little place we'd heard of called Buvette. This quaint little building was unfortunately covered by scaffolding when we arrived but a lovely plot nonetheless. The maître d  took our names and wrote it in chalk on the door frame whilst we waited outside in the glorious sunshine for a table. We only waited about 5-10 minutes, do dramas. The inside is quite small as are the tables, cutlery and just about everything else, but very cosy, there was a very French atmosphere that I really digged.

We both grabbed latte's that tasted pretty damn good compared to a lot of the coffee we'd had on our trip (sort it out NY!). I opted for the Croque Madame, which was a first for me and Georgia went for the fresh waffle and berries. I have to say, I'm a HUGE breakfast guy, maybe working at The Breakfast Club has done that to me, and my Croque Madame was honestly one of the nicest things I've ever eaten. I could not have been more impressed. Georgia was slightly more underwhelmed by her waffle, as it was fairly plain and a bit pricey for what it actually came to, although I am a fan of quality over quantity. The price was definitely something to consider, with the waffle at $16 and madame at $17, which I was happy to pay.

The service was great inside and regardless of the queue of people outside we were not rushed in the slightest to leave, although we were given our bill without asking, something I'm going to come to in a blog post soon on my general dining experiences in NY. I would recommend going here even if it's a bit of a travel from where you are staying, I'm certain it will not disappoint.

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate

food: penelope, nyc

  159 Lexington Ave,
  New York,
  NY 10016,
  United States



So back in 2011, Georgia and I were lucky enough to be taken to New York as part of a business trip at 6th Form. Part of this trip involved us heading to Penelope's for breakfast, and we fell in love instantly. We have both just returned from a 5 day trip to NY, which seems to be becoming our home from home and this place was first on our list. As you enter the first thing you notice is the lovely décor and friendly atmosphere, along with the warming smell of fresh coffee. Georgia and I visit here every time we are in NYC and the food and service never ever disappoints. The menu is fairly simple and not too big which I love as when it comes to breakfast, too much choice can be frustrating. The pancakes are an absolute must for us every time, so Georgia chose those. As I know work in a place that serves up hundreds of pancakes a day, I opted for something savoury (although I still got a seeing to the leftover pancakes). I chose the chorizo egg sandwich, with chorizo, scrambled eggs, roasted peppers and cheddar served in either an english muffin or toasted croissant. I went for the croissant as I'd never had a savoury one before. Georgia had a latte and I tried their filter coffee (all the rage in NY), neither disappointed. The latte was actually the only decent coffee with milk we had in our time in NY.

When it came to paying our bill we where happy as usual as the menu is quite reasonably priced. The buttermilk pancakes are $12 and the chorizo egg sandwich was $11. Service wasn't included in the bill which I love as I think that tips should be earned. Our service was great so we were happy to leave a nice tip. 

Definitely worth a visit if you're in the area, don't forget to give the dog a pat as you leave.

JIM

Instagram/Twitter: @whatjamesate