Leeds Bucket List

September 22, 2014September 26, 2014 - Michael 2 Comments

I started thinking up my “last two weeks in Leeds” bucket list. I realised that it’s almost entirely food, and that there is no way I could possibly eat this much food in the remaining time I actually have left in the city. It’s looking something like this:

– ~~Bundobust~~
– One last pork pie from the Duck & Drake.
– Slice of Dough Boys
– Burger from Patty Smiths
– Last film at the Hyde Park Picture House
– Last pizza from Ecco
– Last ever Slam Dunk
– Whiskey Wednesdays
– Grab a cushion from the Little Button Co.
– Tattoo commemorating my time here (this is less time sensitive)
– One last Canal Mills.
– Get a pint from as many of the Leeds microbreweries as possible: Ilkley Brewery, Leeds Brewery, Kirkstall Brewery, Burley Road Brewery etc.
– Pickles and Potter/Hepworths deli
– Pitza Cano (for old time’s sake) & Box Pizza
– 4am Chicken Cottage/Little Oven
– ~~Last lonely Hearts & Souls club~~

What will actually likely happen is I just end up in Bundobust 5 times and drunk in the Palace.

Suggestions welcome in the comments below. Current suggestions from the Facebook pals were a mixture of sensible and life threatening:

– Roundhay Park/Tropical World
– Break in to cockpit and have my own gig
– Have sex in the field outside my house (like the couple he just saw out of his office window)
– Get a pint in the Duncan without being stabbed.
– Otley Chevin
– Knaresbrough

Current listening:

I need a better alarm clock

September 18, 2014 - Michael Leave a comment

Ah, holidays, those wonderfully stress-relieving times of year. When you only have a couple of things to worry about and a constant supply of alcohol & good food. Stress? What’s that? Or at least, that’s normally the case. This time around I had the most stressful start to a holiday I have EVER had.

I was due to catch the 5am train from Leeds to London Kings Cross, to give me ample time to get to Heathrow for our 11.50am flight. I was all packed, my alarm was set for 4am and I was tucked up in bed by 12 (having popped for a friend’s leaving meal earlier in the night, at which I didn’t drink).

I woke up at 7.13am.

Shit. Fuck. Bollocks. All of these profanities escaped my mouth as I jumped out of bed grabbing my phone and dialling my friend Tom (who I was making the trip with). He quickly checked some train times while I chucked on clothes, and discovered there was a train at 7.38am that would get me to London with a very slim chance of making the plane. I live a 15-20 minute walk from Leeds station. I managed to be out of the door and out in under 5 minutes. I didn’t even put socks on.

I made the train at 7.37.

We made the check in at 11.04 (check in closed at 11.05). And finally, made the gate at 11.28 (it closed at 11.30).

Never again.

Let me put the above in perspective. I never sleep right through. I always wake up every couple of hours. I’m an awful sleeper. I had a couple of very lough alarms set. When I know I have to wake up for something I usually wake up even more. I slept straight through for 7 hours. This just does not happen.

But, we made it. And that means you all get to endure me doing several blog posts about the trip and raving about deep dish pizza.

Don’t worry, I’m going to get some actual bakes up in between. Currently thinking of finally blogging about my ginger cake w/ dark rum drizzle and lime buttercream and also some pumpkin spiced cake.

I also have to move soon, which means giving my laptop back to work, and also may mean internet/baking downtime, so I’ll apologise now for any lack of updates. I have however added a new comment section using Disqus, and finally added some social sharing buttons. So share away.

Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies

September 2, 2014September 3, 2014 - Michael 4 Comments

First of all, I’m sorry. I’ve been really bad with baking updates the last couple of weeks. While I hope you all enjoyed my Scotland updates (you can see part 1, part 2 and part 3 here), I understand that they aren’t what you likely come to this blog for. I am warning you now that there will likely be one from my Chicago trip next week as well… featuring a lot of Pizza.

Anyway, before I get sidetracked rambling about pizza and my travels I thought it was time to do something a bit different. A week or so ago one of my closest friends put out a Facebook status declaring she wasn’t doing too good and asking someone to send her cake. So I am. She is currently doing a Paleo diet, which is something that I’m not even going to begin to pretend I’m an expert on. So she sent me across a few ideas she’d found while she herself had been doing Paleo cooking research.

I opted for Sweet Potato & Ginger Brownies. A lot of the Paleo recipes I came across asked for ingredients which I likely wouldn’t use again, unless I was to regularly do Paleo things. This meant that I wanted to be careful with what I was baking and not shell out for a heap of fancy ingredients. Being my first attempt at this sort of thing I also wanted to keep it simple. These Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies were just right. With the only slightly awkward (read: Expensive) thing I needed to buy being Coconut Flour. I opted for this recipe here.

Plenty of the Paleo recipes call for sweet potato or avocado, often both. They help replace a lot of the flour, butter and chocolate, the avocado being naturally oily and also creamy. The sweet potato being good to bake and help hold things together. A few other recipes that use these sorts of things can be found here.

Oh yeah and the big news? I’m moving to London at the start of October.

5.0 from 1 reviews

Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

35 mins

Total time

55 mins

Serves: 12

Ingredients

1 Large Sweet Potato (approx. 2 cups once mashed)
3 Eggs
57g Butter
60ml Honey
3 Tablespoons Coconut Flour
3 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
2 teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
75g Dark Chocolate, chopped roughly.

Instructions

Peel and dice the sweet potato. Place in a pan of boiling water and boil until tender.
Mash the potatoes until smooth.
Preheat the oven to 180 °C(160 °C fan assisted) prepare and line a 9x13 inch brownie tin.
In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the potato, butter, honey and vanilla.
Add the dry ingredients and mix well, then stir in the chocolate.
Pour into the prepared tin and spread into the corners.
Place in the middle of the preheated oven and bake for 30-35 minutes (a tooth pick inserted into the middle should come out clean).
Remove from the oven and place on a rack, only removing from the pan once cooled.

The Mulligang Pt.3 Feat. Cafe Fish

August 19, 2014 - Michael 2 Comments

The Mulligang Pt 3: Café Fish

For those who don’t know, Café Fish is one of the best fish restaurants in the country. Everything they serve is 100% freshly caught that day. Which means that the specials change often and sometimes they may not have something. Out of thanks for me sorting the cottage the group all graciously said they’d pay for my meal, which was wonderfully kind of them.

To start I went for Queen Scallops with Garlic Butter and crusty homebaked bread. They were delightful, as scallops when cooked properly should be. Melting wonderfully in the mouth.

I was sorely tempted to go for the Smoked Salmon Poached Quails egg but the scallops won over simply because I’d had smoked salmon the day before. My friend Mike had this though and assured it was great.

For main I was spoilt for choice, but eventually went for Grilled Halibut with Crab, Avacado & mint salad and brown crab aioli. The fish was possibly the whitest I’ve ever had. You just can’t beat properly fresh fish. The flavours worked perfectly and it looked superb.

A selection of the other mains people ordered included Lobster, fish pie (hands down the best I’ve had, if a tad heavy) and Seafood Stroganoff.

For dessert I had the Chocolate pot (which I usually do when I go to café fish), it’s small, intense and smooth.

The meal was fantastic, I think everyone enjoyed what they chose. The staff were friendly and accommodating as usual. Managing to fit 9 of us in as well as coping with a couple of Vegans well in a place that is usually so fish focused. One of the things I love about Cafe Fish is the fact that while the food is great, the atmosphere is always relaxed. You always get a mixture of people from those dressed up and treating themselves to people straight off of a boat or a walk.

After the meal we piled into the minibus and drove to the west of the island in search of a sunset. We just about managed it, and watched it go down over Treshnish point.

The next morning they all left, leaving me to myself for a full day until my parents arrived. It was perfect to unwind so I used it to read and write up the first in this series of blog posts.

Unfortunately the day my parents arrived I caught a stomach bug so despite a trip to Ulva, my last day on the island was a bit tarnished. It also meant we had to cancel a second outing to Café Fish and my trip to Ulva Boathouse café wasn’t as indulgent as I’d hoped.

The Mulligang Pt. 2

August 16, 2014 - Michael Leave a comment

It’s time for the second half of my Mull post. The Monday through to the Tuesday of the week.

After the more quiet day of the Sunday after the driving up, I’d planned in a more hectic itinerary for the Monday. Including waterfalls, a walk, beach, distillery, Café Fish and sunset chasing. This meant that we needed an early start (about 9.30). So, rolling out of the gate at about 10.45 while the rain was still coming down, we drove out around the loch towards Ulva. Just past the Ulva school you reach Eas Fors. A breathtaking set of waterfalls that run under the road, culminating in a 100ft fall into the sea. With the amount of rainfall the island had endured over recent days the falls were completely bursting.

I may have slipped a couple of times, because I thought “hey, I don’t need to wear my walking boots just to see a waterfall”. Vans, don’t wear them in rain. But it’s ok, I’m still alive.

From here I’d planned for us to jump back in the minibus and up to Treshnish point, where we’d do (part of) the walk that heads out around the end around the headland, getting views out towards the Treshnish isles. We were exceedingly fortunate and as we started walking the sun poked its head out and stay all the way through for the rest of the walk. We walked out for about an hour, took up camp on the end of the headland for lunch and walked back again. A few of the people in the group aren’t strong walkers for one reason or another so we decided to keep it short. It also meant we could fit more in.

After this we drove a little further around the coast to Calgary beach. Which is one of the island’s famous white beaches. Being summer it was a bit busier than I’m used to (I’m usually up out of season), so we didn’t stick around for long before heading to Tobermory, where we managed to get to the Distillery bang on 4pm for a whiskey tasting. A potter around Tobermory (I grabbed myself a candle from the Isle of Mull Soap Company and a few others got some odds and ends from the Isle of Mull Chocolate shop).

I grabbed an ice cream from Isle of Mull ice cream and a couple of friends got Deep Fried Haggis from the fish and chip van by the pier. Eventually it was time for Café Fish. Which I’d been going on about for most of the holiday. I was desperate for it to not disappoint. The review is in the next post.

The Bearded Bakery

Bake | Explore | Eat

Christmas Recipes

Leeds Bucket List

I need a better alarm clock

Sweet Potato Paleo Brownies

The Mulligang Pt.3 Feat. Cafe Fish

The Mulligang Pt. 2