Giveaway: Tickets to The Wine Show/Masterchef Live 2010!

Ahhh the sweet joy of being connected to the world again. I’ve been rather absent on the blog/twitter front for the last couple of weeks, and that’s because I’ve been back home in Malaysia. It’s not any normal trip, mind you. We’re moving after being in the same place for longer than I can even remember, so as you can imagine, there is a LOT of stuff. I kid you not. And of course, there was no internet access at the new place (and all of us who have moved know what a pain it is to get it sorted). It’s sometimes rather scary to think how dependent I am on the internet.

But no matter, the internet people (I don’t know what else to address them as) came by today – and YAY there is internet again! And don’t worry, this isn’t a post about how happy I am to be able to check my email compulsively again… it’s about a GIVEAWAY!

For those of you who haven’t heard of it, The Wine Show is a dedicated consumer wine show that gives visitors a chance to learn about, discuss, and buy a whole range of established wines from around the world. There will be hundreds of wines to choose from on the Show floor from a selection of Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference wines to wines from countries spanning Chile, New Zealand, France, Spain and also local varieties. And for those of you wine buying enthusiasts, do not worry about carrying bottles of wine on the tube journey home, as there will be a home delivery service on offer.

And this year, wine experts including Oz Clarke, Tim Atkin, Susy Atkins and Rob Buckhaven will be hosting tutored wine tastings in The Drinks Tasting Theatre. They will also be offering advice on how to pick out the perfect wine. This means that visitors to the Show will have the opportunity to not only taste and buy new and existing wines, but will also be educated on how to match food to wine at home and in a restaurant. Now for a wine dummy like me (I know absolutely squat about wine), this is perfect as my knowledge about wine truly leaves much to be desired.

And to make the day out even better, The Wine Show will be running alongside MasterChef Live, giving you the chance to combine two great passions – wine and food! MasterChef Live is a food extravaganza with celebrity chef demonstrations (including previous MasterChef contestants Mat Follas and Andy Oliver), expert advice, as well as the chance to master new skills and techniques. Fans of the show will also be delighted to hear that there will be a chance to see MasterChef judges John Torode, Gregg Wallace, Michel Roux Jr and Monica Galetti! (I love Michel Roux, he’s such a classic French cook. Plus I hear the food at Le Gavroche is to die for.)

And of course, that’s not all – there has to be some shopping as well (naturally). There will be a whole host of exceptional producers, delicious and unusual ingredients as well as the latest gadgets for sale at the show. I personally love shopping at food festivals/events/markets, and am really looking forward to buying some things during the show.

But enough of me rambling on about how fantastic these two shows are going to be. It’s not going to be much use if you don’t get a chance to go now is it? So, thanks to the lovely people at BBC, I’m delighted to be able to offer TEN pairs of tickets to The Wine Show & Masterchef Live 2010 at Olympia London!

So, how do you enter? Just leave a comment below and telling me why you want to win a pair of tickets.

• Tickets are for general admission only.
• Tickets exclude entry on Saturdays, are non-transferable, and cannot be exchanged for cash.
• Giveaway ends on Thursday 4th November 2010 at 23:59 (BST). Ten winners will be chosen at random, and tickets will be sent to the winners once they confirm their addresses.

Good luck!

**COMPETITION HAS NOW ENDED**

Congratulations to Sarah, Michelle, Lyn, Rod, Ms Odumosu, Kay, Alvin, Karin, David and JY, who have each won a pair of tickets to The Wine Show & Masterchef Live 2010! Have a wonderful time at the show!

Photos are courtesy of The Wine Show and MasterChef Live.

Byron: Hamburgers and A&W root beer floats!

Everyone loves a good burger. I mean, how could one resist freshly toasted buttery buns, sandwiched with a delicious hunk of meat (or even vegetables!) and finished off with lots of melted cheese? Pure heaven.

In fact, I’m such a burger lover that I even make my own from time to time. But you know what, making everything from scratch takes time. The burger buns themselves take a good few hours as they need time to rise and proof and all that. And that’s clearly not going to work if you have a sudden burger craving at six in the evening.

Enter Byron. They pride themselves on serving “proper” hamburgers. They have a few main principles that they stick to: “good beef”, “freshly made”, “cooked medium” and “proper buns”. The beef is sourced from small farms in the Scottish Highlands, and this beef is made into patties each morning by the Byron chefs.  And you know what, it shows. When you bite into a Byron burger, you know that it’s good beef.

But they not only serve good burgers: they also serve A&W root beer floats!! Drinking root beer truly reminds me of growing up in Malaysia, as this was always something I ordered when I went to A&W (admittedly I never went very often). A root beer float is basically a scoop of vanilla ice cream, topped with the root beer. Believe me when I say it’s ridiculously good. The photo above is just plain root beer, I didn’t get a float on that occasion – not exactly sure why. I never order any other drink when I go though, it’s always the A&W root beer. Possibly because it’s one of those drinks that isn’t always easy to come by…

The main event is of course, the burger itself. There are 6 burger options: Classic (6oz hamburger), Cheese, Byron (bacon, cheddar & Byron sauce), Skinny (bun free, with a salad on the side), Chicken fillet and Veggie (grilled Portobello mushroom, roast red pepper, goat’s cheese, aioli, and baby spinach). There’s also an option for a double patty, which I’ve never had because I honestly do not think that I could finish it all. I tend to order either the Cheese or the Byron, with an extra slice of cheese and a Portebello mushroom. The burgers range from £6.25 for the Classic to £8.50 for the Byron, and additional toppings cost £1.50 each.

As you can see, the meat is cooked medium – you get a beautiful flash of pink when you cut into the burger, just how I like it. I’m not sure if they ever serve up well done burgers, but I’m sure they could do so if you prefer your meat less pink.

Not only do they do great burgers, but they also do fantastic sides. These courgette fries (£3.00) are my staple side order everytime I’m at Byron. Lightly battered and deep fried – yum. Of course, I’m not going to say that this is healthy (because let’s face it, it’s deep fried), but at least it’s still part of your 5-a-day. My only whinge is that it’s sometimes very greasy, especially when you get right to the bottom of the bowl.

Onion rings (£2.75) – these babies are delicious, and have a thick layer of crispy batter coating each individual ring. They’re seasoned well, and are a great complement to the burgers. Again, possibly a touch too greasy, but then again I haven’t found a non-greasy onion ring yet. (If you do know somewhere with good onion rings, please let me know!)

You get a selection of sauces to go with your burger and sides – mustard (both French and English), tomato ketchup, and hot sauce. I love using a mix of ketchup and mustard, there’s just something about the sweet & spicy mix that just works so well!

So yes. I can safely say that to date, Byron is my “go to” place for burgers. I’ve tried burgers at Goodmans, Gourmet Burger Kitchen and Giraffe, but I still prefer Byron’s. Have yet to try the Bar Boulud burger though, which I hear is pretty darn good. I’m sure I’m missing out on some other burger joints, so do let me know if you’ve got a favourite burger place that I haven’t mentioned here – and you can bet that I’ll end up trying it!

Byron at the Intrepid Fox
97-99 Wardour Street
London W1F 0UD
020 7297 9390
http://www.byronhamburgers.com/

* They also have branches in Covent Garden, Islington, Canary Wharf, Kings Road, White City and Gloucester Road.

Passionfruit yogurt cheesecake & the winner of the CSN giveaway!

Every now and again you come across something that you know you simply have to make. Sometimes it’s a recipe you see in a cookbook, sometimes it’s something you see on the television, and sometimes it’s something you see on other food blogs. On this occasion, it was Stephane’s passionfruit tofu cheesecake that caught my attention. Tofu? In cheesecake? Definitely interesting, as I’d never heard of it before.

I still had some Total Greek yogurt at the time, so decided to try substituting the tofu for yogurt – and then prayed hard that it would work out. And thankfully, it did work. The yogurt provided a beautifully creamy texture to the cheesecake layer, and I could even tell myself it was “healthy” because I used fat free Greek yogurt and light cream cheese.

Instead of making them into mini cakes, I decided to make them into tarts. What can I say? I’m a bit of a rebel when it comes to cooking – I can’t stick to instructions and am always adapting recipes to suit my mood on a particular day. Having said that, I’m not someone who believes that recipes are something that need to be followed to the letter – I agree that it’s important when it comes to things like pastry, but when it comes to day to day cooking I believe it’s more than acceptable to tweak the recipe to suit your liking.

And because I only have a limited number of tart cases, I used ramekins for the remaining cheesecakes (or in this case, cheesecake pots). I quite like how these turned out – the only tricky bit was scraping up every last bit of the biscuit base which was wedged into the groove at the bottom of the ramekins. I’m a HUGE fan of biscuit bases – I believe that it is a very important component of cheesecakes, and if I must be honest I think it’s my favourite thing about cheesecakes. Strange? Perhaps.

But before I get to the recipe, I have to announce the winner of the CSN Stores £50/$75 voucher giveaway! Thank you to all of you who participated, and after compiling all the entries – random.org has chosen entry #41 as the winner!

Congratulations, Leilani! You’ve just won yourself a CSN Stores gift voucher worth $75/£50! I hope you enjoy spending it.

Passionfruit yogurt cheesecake
Adapted from this recipe on Zen Can Cook
Makes one 8 inch cake/10-12 cheesecake pots

For the biscuit base:

• 15 digestive biscuits, crumbed
• 120g butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the yogurt cheesecake:

• 400g greek yogurt (I used Total fat free Greek yogurt)
• 450g cream cheese, at room temperature (I used Philadelphia light cream cheese)
• 3 tablespoons passionfruit juice (I used Tropicana orange passionfruit juice)
• 1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (I used 1 tablespoon vanilla bean paste)
• 1/2 cup heavy cream
• 2 1/2 teaspoons powdered gelatine
• 3/4 cup sugar

For the passionfruit jelly:

• 4 ripe passion fruits, juiced – reserve the seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon powdered gelatine

For the biscuit base:

1. Preheat the oven to 180’C. Butter an 8 inch cake tin/ramekins/tart tins. If using a ring line the bottom with aluminum foil and place on a baking tray.

2. Put the digestive crumbs in a bowl, and add the sugar, ground ginger and salt to it. Mix well.

3. Add the melted butter to the crumb mixture, and mix until combined. Transfer the mixture to the prepared tin/ramekin and press it down in an even layer. Bake until golden (takes approx 10 minutes – this may differ according to the size of your tin) and let it cool completely.

For the yogurt cheesecake:

4. Put the yogurt and the passion fruit juice in a food processor and mix until smooth. (I used a stand mixer)

5. Put the heavy cream in a small saucepan and heat until warm to the touch. Add the powdered gelatine to the warmed cream,  and stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat and set aside.

6. Put the softened cream cheese, sugar, salt and vanilla seeds/vanilla bean paste in the bowl of a stand mixer, and beat until fluffy.

7. Fold cream, followed by passionfruit yogurt mixture into the cream cheese mixture until incorporated.

8. Pour the cheesecake mixture into the crust, and refrigerate until set. This will take at least 6 hours.

For the passionfruit jelly layer:

9. Strain the passionfruit juice and place in a small saucepan over low heat. (I didn’t strain it)

10. Add the powdered gelatin and stir until dissolved. Remove from the heat and let it cool.

11. Meanwhile rinse some of the passion-fruit seeds and place on top of the set cheesecake.

12. Pour the passionfruit mixture on top, and refrigerate for at least one hour/until set.

13. Serve!

An Evening with Bill Granger

When I was younger, I always used to wonder what it would be like if I had a chance to meet a celebrity. I still remember watching Friends and wishing I could be part of the live studio audience. I mean, how cool would it have been to meet the cast of Friends, and see Central Perk and Monica’s apartment in real life?

Anyway, as time has gone by, I’ve found that the celebrities I’d like to meet have changed – not surprisingly, a number of them are celebrities in the cooking world. For those of you who are regular readers, you probably know that I adore Bill Granger. This naturally means that he is one of the people I would love to meet. So, when I found out that Bill would be hosting a promotional event for his new cookbook in Selfridges, I knew that I *had* to go, because who knows when I would next get a chance to meet the man in all his smiley-ness?

And you know what – I’m so glad I decided to go, because I had a blast (and so did R and Mowie, whom I brought along with me)…

The event was held at Mark Hix’s restaurant in Selfridges, which is on the first floor and overlooks the shopping area. It was actually rather strange to see people shopping in the background whilst we were eating our food! It was co-hosted by Bill and Mark, who appear to be pretty good friends. Despite it being the first event held in the restaurant, it went very well, and there was lots of banter between the two chefs which made for a very enjoyable evening.

The food that was served on the night was based on recipes in his new cookbook Bill’s Basics (which of course, I brought along in the hope of getting it signed).

Warm bread and butter that we snacked on whilst waiting for the appetizers to appear. The staff were quite strict about not allowing people to be seated until 7pm, and as such there was a short period of waiting whilst everyone was shown to their seats.

An appetizer of Maldon oysters with fresh coriander and chilli dressing. Now, I was slightly apprehensive when I saw this on the menu, because I am not a huge fan of oysters. Call me strange, but I find them a tad too slimy for my liking. However, after a bit of ooh-ing and aah-ing, I decided to try one anyway – and it actually tasted rather good! All credit to the coriander and chilli dressing which managed to make the oyster taste a lot less fishy.

A starter of lobster and saffron risotto. This was one of the dishes in Bill’s Basics that stood out for me, and I’m so glad that it was included in the menu. The risotto was beautifully cooked, and the wonderful aroma of saffron wafted up my nose with every mouthful. And of course, the lobster was a very welcome addition – it was cooked well, was very fresh, and complemented the saffron risotto. I’ve since tried to recreate it at home, stay tuned for that blog post!

And then the mains appeared – roast chicken with chestnut stuffing. The star of the dish was by far, the chestnut stuffing which (according to the cookbook) contains fennel, pancetta, chestnuts and sourdough bread chunks. Fennel is such a revelation, I have only recently started to cook with it and am loving its versatility. The chicken was lovely and tender, but unfortunately did not have crispy skin – something I always look out for in my roasts. But the roast potatoes – they were amazing. I’m a massive potato fan (I have an entire cookbook dedicated to potatoes), and these were done extremely well. Crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside.

Autumn slaw – one of the two sides served with the roast chicken. I’m not a huge fan of coleslaw (never have been, and never will be), so this was just an “okay” side for me. It did have a nice twist of having raisins in it though.

Everyday green salad – this was a standard green salad, nothing exciting but I admittedly wasn’t expecting all that much from it anyway.

I always look forward to dessert, and I could not wait for this brown sugar pavlova with figs and blackberries to come to the table. In between the main course and dessert, our friendly waitress told us that the pavlova looked amazing, and that she was hoping that there would be some extra plates for the staff post-event. (I hope she did manage to try some, because she was terrific.) I think I let out a little gasp of delight when this was served because it was plated so prettily. A great dessert: crispy pavlova shell giving way to a soft fluffy interior, coupled with the sweet blackberries and figs = heaven. The figs weren’t as sweet as they could have been, but that was the only thing I would want to change about this dish.

In between all the dishes, Bill was a perfect host and worked his way around the room. He went to every single table, shook everyone’s hand, and had a short chat with each person at the event. He also took the time to sign copies of his new cookbook – and it wasn’t just a plain old signature, because he took the time to personalise it. How can you not love him?

There was also an informal Q&A session during the course of the evening, where we found out that this was the first cookbook that he’d written entirely in the UK (and that he’d been living here for the past year!!). He also said that the best question he’d ever been asked was “Are your teeth real?” – to which the answer is “yes”.

My signed copy of Bill’s Basics – I smile every time I open the book to see this! (that’s not sad, right?) He also very kindly signed my copy of Bill’s Open Kitchen, which was the first ever Bill cookbook I owned.

Mowie, Bill, and me! I was so excited that we managed to get a photo with him that I even sent a copy of this to my parents, who don’t really know who Bill is… oh well. Now they know.

All in all, it was a fantastic night – great service, delicious food, and Bill Granger. Now I can cross one person of my “to meet” list!

p.s. I think Bill is currently in Australia on a similar promotional event blitz, so if you’re a fan, I highly recommend attending one of his events! You won’t regret it.

For those of you living in UK/US/Canada – have you entered my CSN Stores £50/$75 gift voucher giveaway?