Review - Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack, Brighton, UK

Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack was made famous by featuring in Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. I watched that episode and the restaurant stuck in my memory.

When it recently was time for my first visit to Brighton I decided that was where we should go for dinner. I guess it's debatable if it is smart to decide on where to eat based on the fact that the restaurant had featured on that show.

Since the show they have apparently done quite well and have moved to a, new, bigger location.

The fact that it was a bigger location was made quite noticeable by the fact that there was only two other diners when we turned up.

We were met by friendly staff and soon had our drinks in front of us.

We had already scouted the menu before turning up so we had made our minds up to try the 10 dish 'Soul in a bowl' menu.

This consisted of 10 different dishes, starters and mains, that gave us a good variety of samples from the different dishes on the menu.

Among the dishes were Soul Food classics like jambalaya, corn bread and gumbo. All dishes came in big enough portions for you to be able to sample them properly and we were definitively not hungry when we left the restaurant.

The quality of the food was a letdown though. The food was not bad in any way, but it didn't really reach any greater heights of excellence either. To be honest, I've had similar tasting food in Old Orleans and TGI Fridays. The one dish that really stood out and almost made the visit worthwhile on its own was the onion rings. They were probably the best onion rings I've ever had but I don't think that I could justify going back just to have them again.

I'm not sure if I had built my expectations up too high but the food failed to excite me.

I must say that the 30 - 40 seconds of 'gangsta rap' (complete with a couple of f-bombs) that was piped out over the loudspeakers was one of the more exciting things of the evening.

The fact that the prices were fairly decent probably keeps this review on the positive side. However, I don't think that I would have been happy to pay too much more for this level of performance.

I have no idea why but the restaurant has two, very different, websites. If you want to have a look at the menus etc you can find the sites here: http://www.mommacherri.com and http://www.mommacherri.co.uk.

Mikey says: None of the food was actually poor or unedible, it was just nothing that I'd go back for if I had other choices. You could find worse restaurants in Brighton, but you would not have too much of a hard time finding a better one.

Recipe - Bacon Wrapped Chicken Breasts stuffed with Mozzarella and Pepper served with Basil and Garlic Mash

I like cooking with chicken breasts, the variations are almost endless. This time I went for a slightly Italian angle to it all.

It wasn't until after I sat down today to get this post together that I realised that what I cobbled together for the mash could easily be made into a pesto, just add some pine nuts. Vary the amount of garlic to your own taste, I can only say that I don't expect to see any vampires for the rest of my life after eating my version.

Ingredients (per person)
Mash
Potatoes
Butter
Milk (or cream)
Fresh basil leaves, a couple of handfuls
Garlic, roughly chopped - to taste
Olive oil (as good quality as you can get)
Salt
Pepper

Chicken
1 chicken breast
Roasted red pepper
Mozzarella, sliced
Smoked streaky bacon.
Dried oregano
Salt
Pepper

Method
Pre-heat the oven to 200c. Boil potatoes for the mash.

Slice the chicken lengthways, but not all the way through. Open the chicken breast like a magazine, put some cling film on top and bash it with a mallet until considerably thinner.

Turn the chicken around, put a bit of roasted pepper on one half of it, add mozzarella, seasoning and spices. Fold the chicken together and wrap it with the bacon. Top the bacon with some more seasoning and spices.

Pop it onto a roasting tray in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes, or until cooked.

For the basil and garlic mix just add the basil leaves and garlic to a bowl or similar, add a glug or two of olive oil and blitz with a mixer until a nice and smooth paste is created.

Make mash your own preferred way and stir in the basil mix towards the end of the preparation and let it warm through.

Serve with a side salad.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Griddled Halloumi with Kicked-up Couscous

I probably shouldn't be referring to pigs during these days of swine flu but I think you might soon see some pigs take off from Heathrow. I'm actually posting a vegetarian recipe. You didn't see that one coming, did you?

I don't have anything, much ;), against vegetarians but I do prefer my food to have some kind of meat in it. However, it's not uncommon that the odd vegetarian sneaks past my quality control and I end up having to cook a non-meat alternative for the odd one out.

This recipe is a variation on last Thursdays one, the Orange Marinated Chicken. I basically just replace the chicken with some nice griddled halloumi cheese. Halloumi is actually really tasty if you griddle or barbecue it. I've made salads with it before and it's really useful to have around if you throw a barbecue and there's a risk of vegetarians turning up.

The couscous recipe is the same as I used in the earlier recipe and the spicyness in it contrasts really well with the halloumi.

I wonder if I'll end up with a vegetarian fan base after this post? Probably not. :)

Over to the recipe...

Ingredients (serves 4)
2 x 250g packs of Halloumi cheese, each cut in 6 - 8 slices
Olive oil

For the kicked-up couscous
4 portions of couscous, prepared and cooked as per the package
5 tbsp salsa
3 tbsp mango chutney
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

Method
Start by heating up your griddle pan (alternatively turn on grill in your oven)

Whilst the pan is heating up, prepare the kicked-up couscous. Mix the salsa, mango chutney, orange juice and coriander well in a bowl. Once mixed, fluff up the cooked couscous using a fork and then mix in the salsa mixture.

Cook the lightly oiled halloumi slices for about 2 minutes on each side, or until it starts to brown a bit.

Once it's all cooked, plate the couscous and place the halloumi on top.
Enjoy!

Local shopping idea: Just Trading of Wallingford

If you do live close by, or just travel past, Wallingford I hope that you take the time to visit Just Trading of Wallingford.

They have a great selection of fair trade goods, organic wholefoods, environmental products like washing liquids etc. It's also the only place I can think of where I can find my favorite licorice tea.

I can sometimes be a bit hesitant to go for shops like this. Some of them have a bit of that 'holier-than-thou' attitude that really rubs me up the wrong way. Not so in this shop though.

The staff (owners/workers?) are all very friendly and helpful and it's not in every shop you get the occasional offer of a cup of tea or coffee when you are just in there browsing.

You should really make sure to visit early-ish on a Saturday since that's 'fresh bread day'. The quality of the bread is very high and getting home with a still warm loaf of bread is a good feeling. I've been told that the Chelsea buns are of the highest quality as well.

You can find their site with more information here: http://www.justtrading.co.uk/

Besides, who could say no to a shop opened by Joyce Barnaby?

Oh, yeah - I haven't taken my own picture of their shop so I stole the picture from their site. I hope they don't mind too much... ;)

Mikey says: Visit them if you can, they're well worth all the support they can get.

Recipe - Exotic Falun Sausage (Falukorv) bake

You won't find the IKEA food court in any of the Swedish IKEA's but for us ex-pats they are quite a nice feature.

Walking around in the Milton Keynes branch the other day I realised that quite a lot of people don't really know what they're buying, or what to do with it.

I guess that lots of people have bought the strange sausage, (Falun sausage/falukorv) with the flower decorated casing and ended up not having a clue how to cook it.

I've previously posted a couple of recipes for what to cook with Falun sausage/Falukorv but here's another one. I'll soon follow up with some more since I did sort of buy a couple of them during my visit. ;)

Ingredients (serves 4)
500-600g Falun sausage, cut into batons
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 red peppers, diced
2 tbsp butter
2 ripe bananas, sliced
150g grated cheese
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
Curry powder
250 ml double cream

Method
Preheat the oven to 200c.

Fry the onion in the butter until it starts to soften. Put the onion in the bottom of a ovensafe dish. Then fry the pepper until that starts to soften too, and add on top of the onion.

Put the sausages on top of the vegetables, follow with the banana slices and finally the cheese.

Season with salt and pepper, add a generous dusting of curry powder and pour the cream on top.

Bake in the middle of the oven for about 30 - 40 minutes or until nicely browned.

Serve with rice and a green salad.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Orange Marinated Chicken with Kicked-up Couscous

I do like couscous but it can be quite boring if you just add water and stand back. I quite often add lemon juice and/or some chopped herbs just to spice it up a bit and make it a bit more interesting. This time though I decided to kick it up properly, and it made it much more interesting.

You can use your favorite store bought salsa (I used Hot Bonesuckin' Salsa from bonesuckin.com - you can get it at Waitrose here in the UK) or make your own. It all depends on how much time you got and how much of an effort you want to make.

The marinade I used is one I use quite often for both chicken and pork. Try it with pork tenderloin, it really works well. The thing I can say, give it proper time to marinade - over night is ideal.

Enough waffling, over to the recipe.

Ingredients (serves 4)
For the orange chicken
4 chicken breasts
2 - 3 garlic cloves, peeled and smashed
Salt
Freshly ground pepper
Freshly squeezed orange juice

For the kicked-up couscous
4 portions of couscous, prepared and cooked as per the package
5 tbsp salsa
3 tbsp mango chutney
3 tbsp freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped

Method
Marinading the chicken
Put all the ingredients for the chicken in a plastic bag, making sure to cover all the chicken breasts, and marinate in the fridge for a minimum of three hour

Cooking
Preheat the oven to 200c.

Put the chicken breasts in a ovensafe dish and pour the marinade over it. Cook in the oven for 20 - 30 minutes or until cooked.

In the meantime, prepare the kicked-up couscous. Mix the salsa, mango chutney, orange juice and coriander well in a bowl. Once mixed, fluff up the cooked couscous using a fork and then mix in the salsa mixture.

Once the chicken is cooked plate up the couscous and put the chicken on top.

Enjoy!

Tortilla Pizza

Here's another one of my really lazy recipes.

I think that I needed to clear out some veg from my fridge the day I cooked this and took the photos.

I just diced and sliced some veg, fried it for a bit so it was cooked. Then I poured the mixture onto a tortilla. Topped off with some grated cheese and in under the grill until the cheese melted.

Quick. Easy. Tasty. That's all you can ask for some days.

Enjoy!

Lamb Kebab Redux

I had some leftovers when I cooked these lamb kebabs the other day. Well, saying that - I had to force myself not to eat them all the first night just so I could create this post the next day. ;)

As you might understand from the initial post, as well as this one, I really like the flavours in these kebabs. They taste as good, if not even better, reheated the next day.

While the kebabs were being reheated in the oven, I popped open a couple of pitta pockets and spooned in some of the garlic free tsatziki.

Once the kebabs were nice and warm I sliced them and added into the pitta pockets.

This could be the best way to serve these kebabs if you are going for them at a barbecue or picnic.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Hot Dog and Pepper Fry-off

This yet another one of the dishes that I come back to every now and then. It's quick and tasty, a perfect no-brainer to quickly cook after work.

You can cook this with as much, or little, kick as you want. Me, I go for quite a bit of hot sauce on this one.

Recipe (serves about 4)
Olive oil
1 package of Hot Dogs, cut into pieces
1 red pepper, cut into slices
1 green pepper, cut into slices
1 yellow pepper, cut into slices
1 onion, halved and cut into slices
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsps water
Hot sauce (Tabasco or Frank's) to taste

Method
Fry the hot dog pieces in olive oil until they start to brown. Set to the side.

Fry the peppers and onion in the same pan you used earlier for about 5 minutes. Put the sausage pieces back into the pan together with the oregano, salt, water and hot sauce.

Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and cover the pan and simmer for about 5 minutes allowing all the flavours to come together.

Enjoy!

Recipe - Tomato and Chorizo Soup

This is a really nice soup that you could either serve as a filling lunch or use as a starter. I guess you could serve it in really small bowls as part of a 'tapas evening' as well.

As always, freestyle it to suit you and your tastes.

I served this with some fresh crusty bread.

Recipe (serves 4 - 6)
500g uncooked chorizo, chopped into bite sized chunks
2 tbsp olive oil
3 onions, halved and sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 - 2 small red chillies, seeded and finely choppped
1.5 l chicken stock
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
4 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

Method
Start by frying off the chorizo until it starts to brown lightly. Put to the side.

Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat and cook the onion and garlic until it starts to soften. Stir in the cumin, paprika, chili, chicken stock, tomatoes and half the parsley.

Bring this to the boil, add the chorizo and reduce to a simmer. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir in the remaining parsley and serve.

Enjoy!