Hi all, sorry for the delay, my week off work was filled with car hunting then swiftly followed by illness. I'm happy to say I have lots to report back on!
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| This picture pleases me |
Josh and I ventured over to Birmingham recently to visit friends and I finally got to Handmade Burger Co. As you will tell from the following pics, this was not a diet day
The restaurant was clean and had a good atmosphere, I like the fact that the tables were distanced far enough apart so that I wasn't on anyone's lap. The staff were friendly and weren't all over us at the table so that we could enjoy our food.
Me and Josh opted for the following:
- Beef Burger stuffed with Wensleydale and Cranberries (£7.95)
- Blue Cheese and Bacon Burger (£7.85)
- 2 portions of chips (£2.95 each)
- Blue Cheese Mayo (3 Dips for £1.95)
- Garlic Mayo
- BBQ Dip
- Side of Guacamole (95p)
The dinner was really great overall and there were lots of positives. The highlight for me and Josh was the Blue Cheese Mayo! Massive chunks of blue cheese were balanced perfectly with the mayo! Josh had the Blue Cheese and Bacon Burger and he said that next time he would just have bacon burger and order extra of the blue cheese mayo as he felt the flavours were better. I loved the quality of the meat, it wasn't too greasy and was well cooked but still (yes i'm going to say it) moist. The burgers were also a good size and this is proved by the skewer that holds them together.
The chips came in a good size bowl and were nice and fluffy. 6 of us on the table had a portion each and the only thing that made me sad was the inconsistent size of the chip portions. I feel that when going onto the same table that should be important. Especially as me and Josh are both known for getting food envy!
My wensleydale and cranberry burger was great, good amounts of each filling crammed inside the meaty goodness. I think when I order it next time I may do so without the salad. I found that the onion overpowered the cheese and cranberry together. As I cut my burger in half I managed to get the flavour in the second half.
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| Mmmmm |
This is one small thing that I found that i didnt enjoy was the plates. As they were curved at the edge when I cut my extra larger burger in half i lost some of the filling :(
Although I am a fan of table service, on reflection I feel that the set up of going to the till yourself and re-filling your drinks adds to the rustic and homemade feel of the restaurant.
You'd think after our massive indulgence we would have left it there but oh no...
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| me and my friend rich indulging! |
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| Seano with Choc brownie |
Me and josh had individual sundaes - lemon meringue and strawberry cheesecake. Sean and Rich opted for Sharing sundae. I dare say that all 4 of us could have gone for it!
The Handmade Burger Co is great for meeting up with friends and having good home made rustic food. If you can eat go for the holy trinity - burger, chips and dip, you're sure to be a happy diner!
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| The Flag speaks true - I was stuffed! |
The recipe section
This week(ish) I tried out 2 new dishes. As ever one was far more successful than the other. Probably my fault, you can decide!
The winner. Josh has said that this is his favourite new recipe of mine
The recipe is above. I found this easy to make and really flavoursome, a great depth of flavour. I subbed the chopped tomatoes for pasata as ever, so this turned out more like a curry than a stew. I didn't have any complaints though from Josh or from guinea pig Goose. I didnt use the drumsticks as I am not a fan of bone chicken. We also halved the quantity as there was only 2 of us!
Some of the cooking bits:
Adding the spices to the onion and stirring in! My excitement was not premature as the scents mixed beautifully together - a sensation if you will!
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| Swirly colours mixing the peanut butter mixture to the onions and the spices To this you add the chicken (or turkey in our case) and cook for 30 minutes. |
In the recipe it says to add the sweet potato after this initial 30 minutes of simmering with the peppers. However, after doing this I would recommend putting them in at the same time as the chicken as I ended up cooking the mixture longer than the advised 1 hour 5 minutes to soften the potatoes further.
The finished product! I served this with basmati rice. As I am a carb fiend I always always over do the potato/rice mix. For this reason I would suggest something lighter like a pitta for the sauce and miss out the rice!
This recipe scored a fabulous 9/10. As I said before the stew turned out more like a curry, which is a happy coincidence as I dislike the word stew.Well worth the hour cooking time and the 15 minutes prep time!
The ' needs more work recipe'
So I felt a bit excited about this cooking malarky and decided to branch out the new recipe test to the girls as well as myself and josh! As we have a resident veggie (Loz) I went for a black bean chilli.
This was also a BBC Good Food Recipe but for some reason couldn't find it online so here's the recipe:
- 2 tsp olive oil
- 2 garlic cloves, chopped
- 1 large red onion 1 large white onion for me as i'm allergic
- 2 large red chillis, chopped
- 3 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1/2 tsp hot chilli powder
- 1 tbsp of tomato puree
- 2 x 400g cans of black beans
- 400g of kidney beans, drained
- 2 x 400g of chopped tomatoes 400g of passata for me
- 250 ml of veg stock
Now thanks to the wisdom of my local tesco (other supermarkets are available :P) There were no black beans!!! I had to go for kidney beans, chick peas and mixed beans (used for tacos)
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| Chopped onion garlic and chillis |
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| Yummy spice mix - such a nice vibrant colour and rich fragrance |
1: warm oil in your wok and once hot add the garlic, onion, chopped chillis and salt and simmer for 5/6 minutes
2: add the cumin, cinnamon, paprika and chilli powder along with the tomato puree. Stir well and cook the spices for a few minutes
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| Should look something like this |
3:Add the beans, tomatoes and stock. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30/40 minutes and season to taste.
Serve! Simple no?
As I mentioned above the mixture of beans i used and the passata instead of chopped tomatoes overtook the blend of spices a little. After 20 minutes of simmering I topped up the cumin and cinnamon and allowed to simmer for another 20 minutes. Fortunately this addition made the mixture less tomato-y and added some depth in the flavour. I think I may have expected too much from the recipe and was let down as I felt this was just a posh chilli rather than something a little different. It was however, easy to cook and can see the appeal when catering for bigger numbers or short for time. We served it with rice, pitta, tear and share garlic bread and guacamole. With this there was enough for 6 of us to be full!
This was Josh's least favourite so far and he gave it 6/10. The girls rated it 7 upwards. As I was disappointed I did only give it a 7.
If you have a go let me know what you think!
I'll be back soon with more recipes.
Eat, Drink and Be Merry.
H x
I like hand made burger too it's yummy :) both recipes sound nice xx
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