Taste of London 2014

Time again for the annual "Taste of London" and guess what? It didn't rain for a change!

We had a lovely time with too much food as always.. forgot to take photos of them all - guess i was too hungry :-)

Here is a selection of what i did take photos of...

Stripbar & Steak at the Malmaison - 18th of June

We celebrated our wedding anniversary on the 18th of June and i had originally booked this restaurant called "Canvas" but the day before we were due to go there i get a call and guess what? They've had a gas leak! Restaurnat is closed for a week and with that our reservation goes out the window..
After trying a few favorites like Roka and SushiSamba with no luck we decided to go out and have some steak instead and found a great offer at Stripbar & Steak at the Malmaison - 50% off the whole a carte menu! Yes please.

The Malmaison is a little boutique hotel situated on Charterhouse square and the restaurant is in the basement.. very dimly lit, music playing, banquettes and neon signs.... very friendly welcome by Fabio, the manager.

I had a lobster cocktail to start and hubby had a trio or cocktails (shrimp/prawn/lobster) We also had some interesting cheesy bread

For main we had steak (yeah, really!) I had a 350 gr steak which i could not finish but it was good. We had some Mac'n'cheese, spinach and some tomato salad on the side..

With 50% off this was really worth it. They also do a great sounding brunch menu.. might be back to try it out!

Duck & Waffle - 15th of June 2014

An old friend of mine was in London last weekend so we went out for a late lunch / brunch at Duck & Waffle.. such impressive views from up there!

I had the smoked salmon with warm flatbreads, gherkins, capers and creme fraiche - which was lovely. My friend had the ox cheek benedict and we shared the beetroot salad. Food was great and at a decent price too.

We also shared a decadent sounding waffle with home made nutella, banana, ice cream & peanut crunch - sounded good on paper but did not live up to expectations.. we even left some!!!

This was my second time here but i would definately go back again.

 

And here is a shot of the view /the Gherkin - and us! :-)

 

Home made chocolates with salted caramel and chocolate ganache!

I have some friendly bake off's with one of my bosses (male!!) at work - so far we have made macarons and cheesecake.

He is heavily into making chocolates - so our next date has been set for our chocolate making challenge (14 July) which means that i am now practising at home with my amazing new magnetic chocolate mould from Fat Daddios - perfect for chocolate transfers to make the chocs look professional. I used some slightly retro looking gold transfers in the bottom of my mould.

Check out the moulds here - they are FAB!
I followed the instruction for the tempering of the chocolate from Lindt and it worked a treat. I used dark 70% chocolate since that is the easiest to temper and for a filling i cheated and used a ready made caramel from "Bonne maman" (the same people who make those yummy jams :-) i just added some sea salt to make it tastier and not so sweet. I half filled the moulds with the now salted caramel and then i added a dark chocolate ganache on top (made from cream and dark chocolate) before "closing" the praline with more tempered chocolate.

I was sooo pleased with the result. Check them out! Fingers crossed they look and taste as good when i make them for our bake off!!