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Eating, cooking and everything in between

Review: Bibis Italianissimo, Leeds

Bibis has always had a happy place in my heart. It’s been a firm family favourite of ours for years! We used to eat here waaaay back in the day when they were on Greek Street when I was little. Me and my sister would turn up in matching name headbands and all the waiters would make a fuss over us, they sometimes had magicians, and the food was always excellent.

I’m pleased to say 20 years on and the food is still excellent, with speedy, polite table service and glitzy surroundings. We ate here recently for my birthday and I wanted to pay homage to this classic Leeds restaurant so many people forget about. 

To start, I had the prettiest peach Bellini while we opened presents. Bibis has a great little cocktail/drinks section before you get into the main restaurant which is really pleasant to sit in (and even more pleasant if people are giving you gifts!).

See? So pretty! They do lots of different cocktails, all made expertly at the bar. After this, it was time for the food. We shared two starters between three of us – deep fried courgette and calamari and a delightfu ball of mozerrella wrapped in Parma ham. 


The portion sizes are spot on (nothing worse than a huge stater) and both dishes were delicious. The batter on the fried courgette and calamari was perfectly light and crisp, served with a gorgeous creamy tartare sauce. The mozerella was the star of the show for me though. Wonderfully creamy cheese, wrapped in perfectly salty ham. There was a cheeky slice of tomato under the entire thing which added a welcome refreshing taste.


For mains we had Maccharoni a la Calabrese, macaroni with spicy Italian sausage and n’duja, the lasagna and I went for the slow cooked Angus beef in red wine with Parmesan mash. It was all absolutely excellent, though the macaroni was slightly under (a bit too al dente), but had a gorgeous, spicy sauce that was really impressive. The lasagna was perfect with layers of hot melty bechemel, perfect ragu and very fresh lasagna pasta. 


The beef however was the real star. I think it was a piece of brisket but it was hard to tell. It was falling apart, soft and melting into a wonderfully rich red wine sauce. The Parmesan mash was buttery and comforting and the perfect partner to soak up the gravy. Absolutely excellent.

We couldn’t face pudding, but Bibis have an excellent selection to choose from.

If you’re looking for a good Italian meal in Leeds, Bibis is definitely the place to go! Excellent food, great cocktails and great service. 

http://www.bibisrestaurant.com/

Mushroom, Leek and Leftover Chicken Risotto

It’s been quite a couple of weeks over here. I’ve managed to have food poisoning twice (from eating out) plus a tiny cold. So I’ve not been cooking that many interesting things, hence being a bit quiet on the blog front! I’m back to normal now and I’ve got a tasty risotto recipe to share with you.

Ok, ok, risotto isn’t that summery, but with little pops of green leek, soft mushrooms and tender leftover chicken it’s savoury and completely passable in hot weather. Top it off with plenty cheese and you have yourself a year-round winner.

You can leave the chicken out of this if you’re veggie, it was only because I had some hanging around in the fridge that it ended up going in. It would be completely fine without it.


Mushroom, Leek and Chicken Risotto

Feeds 2

  • Around 150-200g arborio rice
  • 1 pint chicken or veg stock
  • 1 glass white wine
  • 2 leeks
  • 100g mushrooms
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 50g Parmesan, grated
  • Olive oil

Chop up the leeks into small 1cm rounds. Wash thoroughly. Crush the garlic and chop the mushrooms. In a big saucepan, soften the leeks in some olive oil until they are translucent and just about to brown. Add another glug of olive oil, and then the rice.

Stir the rice in the oil until it becomes opaque and then add the glass of wine and a little of the chicken stock. Pop the bay leaf in. Keep the risotto on a low heat, stirring occasionally and adding the chicken stock a little at a time so the rice is always covered in liquid.

Meanwhile in a seperate pan, cook the mushrooms in a little oil until they are tender. Add these in when the risotto rice is almost cooked, along with the cheese and the chopped up left over chicken. Let simmer for another 3-4 mins or until the chicken is piping hot and then serve with extra Parmesan and cracked black pepper.

Pressure Cooker Pulled Beef Brisket

I first ate pulled beef maybe 5 years ago at a restaurant in Leeds called Cattle Grid which has since shut down. They did pulled pork or pulled beef sandwiches for £5 at lunchtime, with chips and slaw. I’ve never had as good pulled beef since! With a huge craving in tow, I set about trying to recreate it. You can slow cook this if you don’t have a  pressure cooker, or even just put it in the oven on a very low heat.

As a side note, some of you might know I got a new job in March at High Street TV, who produce the Pressure King Pro (or PKP). It’s something we developed ourselves and is a really neat piece of kit. This post is 100% off my own back, I really like the product and can’t imagine my life without it now.

Anyway back to the beef. You need a nice bit of brisket – ours was just under 2kg. Look for plenty marbling, this means it has lots of fat running through it which will keep it moist and delicious. 


I marinated this overnight in some mustard, BBQ sauce, sugar, smoked paprika, cumin, garlic, salt and pepper. Wrap it in clingfilm in the fridge and give it a rub and a turn after 6 hours or so. Then it’s into the pressure or slow cooker, make sure you brown it on all sides first. Then I added a mug full of water and set the PKP to ‘meat’ for 1 hour 15 and it was falling apart. If you use a slow cooker I’d allow 4-5 hours, same in the oven. 

When it’s ready, shred the beef using two forks and it should come apart quite easily. Keep the cooking juices and add a little cornflour to them to thicken into a gravy, if you want, or just pour over the beef to keep it nice and moist.

Serve in bread buns with homemade slaw, or if you’re feeling wintery like I was, just add to a big plate of mash.

High Street Falafel Salads: A Review

‘Never say no to a free lunch’ is one of my life maxims, and courtesy of the lovely folk at Greggs, I’ve been eating falafel salads all week! They asked me to compare their latest range of summer salads to their some of the others in the market. I chose falafel simply because I absolutely love it, making eating it all week pretty easy!

Monday – Greggs Falafel, Harissa, Roast vegetable and Grain Salad  


The falafels themselves are excellent, just the right amount of crumble, and a yummy savoury taste. The salad leaves were all really fresh and there were some lovely chunks of sweet roasted red onion in there too.  Packaging wise Greggs have nailed this – it’s easy to transport (no leakages), made mostly of cardboard (yay environment), and comes with a plastic KNIFE as well as fork. On the downsides, the yoghurt and harissa dipping sauces were both a bit too vinegary for me, coupled with the vinaigrette on the couscous and pearl barley it made the whole salad a bit well… vinegary. A sweet chilli dipping sauce might have been a better option. Vinegar aside, the salad looks excellent, tastes pretty good and looked very fresh.

  • Taste 4/5
  • Value for Money 5/5
  • Freshness 5/5
  • Nutrition 4/5
  • Aesthetics 5/5

Total score: 23/25

Tuesday – Pret a Manger Sweet Potato Falafel and Smashed Beets Veggie Box 

I don’t like beetroot so this wasn’t off to a great start, though it did look lovely and colourful in the box with a big old dollop of beetroot hummus right on top. I did try some for the purpose of fairness but it wasn’t for me so I scraped quite a bit of it off. If you like beetroot though it did add a nice sweetness. The rest of the salad was tasty with a pleasantly zingy green dressing. The sweet potato falafel had lovely, slightly curried flavour to them (probably from the turmeric) but you only get two which is a bit mean.  Brown rice and quinoa made for a tasty and nutritious carb, and I really liked the addition of pomegranate. It looses points on freshness though, the two avocado slices means this salad didn’t look fantastic after I took it out of the fridge, and the packaging just wasn’t as nice as Greggs.

  • Taste 4/5
  • Value for Money 3/5
  • Freshness 3/5
  • Nutrition 5/5
  • Aesthetics 2/5

Total score: 17/25

Wednesday – M&S Bulgar Wheat and Falafel salad 



This one was a winner on all fronts apart from the falafel. The bulgar wheat was delicious, with lovely fresh veg mixed in. There was a little corner of hummus hiding under it which was delightful, plus the crumbled feta on top took this salad to another level. The falafel itself was really sad though, it was soooo crumbly it had actually already broken up in the box before I ate it, so it wasn’t in lovely rounds any more – just in little pieces. Packaging and appearance wise this looked great, with the cherry tomatoes giving a lovely pop of colour. Shame about the falafel though.

  • Taste 5/5
  • Value for Money 3/5
  • Freshness 3/5
  • Nutrition 4/5
  • Aesthetics 4/5

Total score: 19/25

Thursday – Starbucks Falfel and Quinoa Lentil salad


This had to be the worst of the bunch. Lots of falafel, but it was very dry and bland, and the only dip provided was a beetroot hummus which didn’t add anything to the moisture. The quinoa was extremely minty and didn’t taste of much else. The cucumber was nice and fresh and probably the only bit I really enjoyed. Overall, this was really disappointing and I ended up getting some crisps from the canteen instead!

  • Taste 1/5
  • Value for Money 2/5
  • Freshness 4/5
  • Nutrition 4/5
  • Aesthetics 3/5

Total score: 14/25

Friday – Boots Carrot and Coriander Falafel Salad 


Not being a coriander fan, I didn’t expect to like this one but I was pleasantly surprised! The falafel was really flavoursome and the bulgar wheat was pleasantly simple and not covered in horrible minty dressing like the Starbucks experience. A nice little pot of mint dressing meant I could control the flavour myself. The salad also came with shredded carrots which were nice and fresh. The only thing was it was a little bit on the small side, I was definitely hungry after this one! But seeing as it’s part of the Boots meal deal you can treat yourself to a snack too.

  • Taste 4/5
  • Value for Money 5/5
  • Freshness 4/5
  • Nutrition 4/5
  • Aesthetics 2/5

Total score: 19/25

My Dream Kitchen

They say the kitchen is the heart of the home, and for me, this really rings true. I spend maybe 75% of my home life in the kitchen! Sadly our current kitchen is VERY small and difficult to fit two people in, so it means we either end up cooking alone or constantly get in the way of each other. We also really lack storage space (all our pans are shoved into a drawer) and have no dishwasher. So now that we’re getting closer to buying a house, I’m thinking quite carefully about what my dream kitchen might look like. Of course, we haven’t found a house yet, but I can dream, right?

Lots of countertops

I like to have lots of surface room for chopping, rolling, and assembling dishes. There’s only two spots in our current kitchen for this kind of activity and one is right next to the sink so it’s super not ideal. My dream kitchen would have marble or natural wood counters (for the perfect insta shot, obvs). I love the idea of having flowers in the kitchen so even just a space big enough to display flowers would be great.


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A dishwasher

OK so I don’t know if this is just me but I really struggle with the smell of eggs once they’ve been cooked and eaten. Like the leftover egg smell on a plate after you’ve rinsed it. Eugh. It smells like wet dogs to me and I sometimes find myself re-washing things to try and get rid of the smell. We really need a dishwasher to get everything squeaky clean and not slave over the sink every night.


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Pan storage

At the moment all our pans are somewhat ‘shoved’ in a drawer under the oven. They’re out of the way, but they all clang together, fall out of the back of the drawer, and generally are a mess, so it’s not really working. I’d love to have somewhere to store our pans neatly and easy to reach, either on display or just… yeah.. neater!


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Storage in general

Some people fantasise about walk in wardrobes. I like to think about walk in pantries.  I would absolutely LOVE a pantry for storing all those cupboard or room temperature things like sauces, flours, pasta, rice, root vegetables… in a big walk in pantry.

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Spices everywhere

We have a big problem with spices at the moment which currently live in a little cubby next to the hob. They’re handy for cooking in this location, but also completely exposed to steam on a regular basis, so our powdered herbs and spices tend to clump together which is a nightmare. We also can’t easily see what we’ve got – which led us at one point to own three different jars of cumin. A kitchen with space for a beautiful spice rack would be perfect.


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I could go on all day! Check out my other kitchen ideas on my Dream Kitchens Pinterest board. What would you have in yours?

Tuna, Rice ‘And All Things Nice’ Stir Fry

Growing up we had a fairly fixed weekly meal plan. Soup Mondays. Fish Tuesdays, baked potato Wednesdays and ‘ricey thing’ Thursdays.

What is a ricey thing? You ask (rightfully so). It can be a number of things – this dish is also known as ‘tuna, rice and all things nice’. The beauty of it is that it can be anything!  The constants are rice, tuna, an egg and soy sauce. The rest can be up to you, and whatever you have leftover in the fridge. Some rules though: tomatoes aren’t quite right. Aubergines haven’t been successful in the past. And stay away from potatoes unless you’re into double carbs. Apart from that, the pan is your oyster.

Growing up the vegetables for this dinner would be chopped the night before and left in containers in the fridge, layered in the order they would need to hit the pan. Like all stir frys, you need to make sure you add the hardest vegetables first to get them cooking, so that it all cooks evenly.

This particular version featured carrots, cabbage, red peppers, onions, peas and mushrooms.

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What I Eat in a Day

I’ve been meaning to do this post for a while, inspired by fellow blogger sophielaetitia! I love seeing what other people’s routines are around food. For me, food completely structures my day and I’m constantly thinking about what I’ll eat next. I always eat breakfast, and then start counting down to lunch pretty much the moment I finish my morning commute. I like to take interesting lunches to work to look forward to. Then after lunch it’s all about pondering what I’ll have for dinner. And then repeat!

No two days are the same, but here’s the typical things I usually eat.

Breakfast

I used to be really bad at having breakfast. For maybe 2.5 years I was a desk-eater, and usually opting for Belvitas or a sugar-packed ‘breakfast bar’. Don’t get me wrong those things are delicious and I still buy them but as I’ve started to exercise more I’m making more of an effort to incorporate fruit and protein into my diet.

 

I’ll usually eat a mishmash of fruit and yoghurt with various additions:

  • 3-4 tbsp low fat Greek yoghurt
  • 2 tbsp rolled oats
  • Handful blueberries, strawberries or a banana chopped up
  • 2 tsp flax seeds or superfood seed mix
  • Drizzle of honey

Sometimes I add a crushed up ginger biscuit (or any biscuit lying around) to entertain my sweet tooth, and/or some Ritter Sport Fine Extra Dark chocolate chopped up (seriously the BEST dark chocolate I’ve ever had).

That’s Monday-Friday. If it’s the weekend, it will usually be all about EGGS. We don’t get up til 10/11ish so we’ll make a big delicious brunch with eggs, cured ham, mushrooms, asparagus… whatever is in the fridge. Gary makes the perfect poachies.

Snacks

Like any office worker, I love my snacks. I try to keep them healthy, but I cannot say no to afternoon chocolate with a cup of tea. During the morning I’ll usually have a banana with a cup of tea around 10.30-11ish, or I take a big bag of clementines into work and eat those.

I also keep a snack drawer of things that don’t go off, it’s usually more full than this, but I was actually eating some left over Easter egg chocolate at the time of writing.

Lunch

Lunch is usually leftovers or meal prep from the weekend. I try to have different things every day because I get bored. So Monday might be a slice of this delicious quiche (pictured) with salad, Tuesday could be a tuna sandwich, Wednesday might be quiche again.

I do a lot of meal prep and think carefully about my lunches during the week so I’m not caught out – we only have a small cafeteria downstairs that isn’t very nice so it’s essential I bring something every day.

Some of my favourite recent lunches have been:

After lunch I like to drink a green tea to settle my stomach, and I usually have a bit of dark chocolate or other small treat just to curb my sugar cravings. I don’t believe in ‘bad’ or ‘good’ foods but I try and keep sweet treats in moderation.

Dinner

In Yorkshire we call this ‘tea’ and in our house it’s usually very unorganised. I’d love to say I cook something beautiful every night but honestly on weeknights it can be a real struggle. Depending on gym routine, if I’m not on a rest day I will eat when I get back from the gym, and it will usually be something quick and high protein like scrambled eggs and wholegrain toast, chicken and pitta, avocado and poached eggs, or leftovers from the freezer.

If it’s a rest day and I have time, I’ll cook something a bit more adventurous like Sweet Red Pepper and Goats Cheese Pasta or Sweet Chilli Salmon with Spicy Vegetable Noodles, or use up any extra veg in the fridge with a spicy stir fry. We don’t eat much meat in the week but I’m always conscious of hitting my protein intake so I tend to pad dishes out with egg or fish.

After dinner I’ll usually round off with a camomile or herbal tea, often with a bit of honey if I’m craving sugar again. If I’m still hungry I’ll have some toast or biscuits with it. Or chocolate. Or all three.

That’s it! I’d love to hear what everyone else eats – let me know 🙂

Griddled Mediterranean Tofu with Vegetables

Now THIS is a recipe that will give you a hankering for summer. Long days, al fresco dining, BBQs wafting through the air… yes please! It feels like so long since we’ve had good weather but now we can see the sunshine again a bit more and it’s so exciting.

We’d usually be thinking of our summer holiday this time of year but with trying to buy a house this year it’s something we’re delaying so we can save, or at least go for a cheap last minute deal. So instead I’m living my summer vicariously through FOOD.

Nothing says summer like griddled vegetables, spicy harissa marinades, no siree. The leftovers also double up as a great lunch.

Don’t be put off by the slabs of tofu. The marinade makes it taste gorgeous and combination of pressing before griddling gives it a nice crisp texture, a bit like halloumi. Speaking of, you could trade the tofu for halloumi, but it wouldn’t be anywhere near as healthy. 😉

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The Olive Branch, Roundhay review

One of the things I love about living in North Leeds is the amount of bars and restaurants right on our doorstep. It’s so easy to step out for food if we can’t be bothered to cook (yes that does happen sometimes!) and a lot of the choices are quite healthy too.

We usually go to Banyan but felt like going further afield this weekend, so decided to go to The Olive Branch. Having been there once maybe 18 months or so ago for lunch, we wanted to see what their dinner offering was like and we weren’t disappointed! 

The Olive Branch is on Street Lane and is relatively small, seating maybe 8 tables or so, so do book if you want to go! It serves Turkish food with a great range of vegetarian options as well as ‘pides’ or Turkish pizzas.

We started with the garlic sausage, or ‘Sacuk’ and the babaganus dip. 

The garlic sausage was a really savoury, slightly spicy beef sausage served with mushrooms in a tomatoey ‘juice’. This was absolutely delicious and a really nice change from the usual chorizo I feel like I order and eat all the time in Mediterranean restaurants. The babaganus dip had a beautiful smokiness from the aubergine and tasted really fresh.

Next up for the mains, we both went for lamb kebabs. I ordered the Adana and Gary went for the Shish. Mine was minced seasoned lamb, formed around the skewer, whereas Gary’s was cubes of meat that had been marinated.


Both dishes were fantastic and served with rice, salad, wonderful cacik (a tzatsiki-like sauce) and salsa. The Adana was the perfect texture, not dried out at all, and expertly seasoned. The Shish was cooked to perfection, still slightly pink in the middle and a lovely cut of lamb, not chewy at all. 

My only complaint would be that the salsa could have been a lot hotter as this would have really brought some more life so the plate, but that’s just me I like a bit of spice! 

For around £40 we enjoyed a reasonably healthy, authentic Turkish meal with a glass of wine and a sparkling water. If you’re looking for something different in Roundhay that’s set away from the usual hustle and bustle this is a great place to try!”

Sweet Potato and Cauliflower Fritters

I don’t know why I decided to make these on a Monday night, after a full day at work and a gym session, it just happened. I definitely didn’t think they’d take long to make, and truth be told they don’t, but it’s really hard to make a small amount of mix, and then you need to factor in cooking it all. This recipe made around 18 fritters.

These babies were the solution to a food problem: a lone, large cauliflower taking up too much space, and two sweet potatoes in the cupboard that just needed some love. I knew there must be a delicious way to combine cauliflower with sweet potato, and it turns out, it’s this. Keeping the mixture quite wet means that you get lovely crispy bits of potato that extend past the fritter itself making it almost like a baji. Alternatively if you wanted something more like a pancake you could keep adding more flour until you get a sticky consistency.

Make sure you have a good hour set aside, a decent food processor or grater and lots of cloths to wipe up with. Let’s get frittering!

 

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