Cherry and Apple smoothie

Refreshing summer cherry and apple smoothie.

Ingredients:

10 ripe cherries
1 pink lady apple
1 tablespoon lemon juice
12 ice cubes
2 cherries for garnishing.

Method:

1. De stone the cherries and add them to the Optimum 9400 blender
2. Cut the apple in quarters and remove the core and add it to the blender
3. Add the lemon juice and ice cubes.
4. Blend the smoothie starting on slow speed and gradually increasing speed. Blend for 60 seconds.
5. Pour into serving glasses, garnish with a cherry and serve immediately.

I made my smoothie in the Optimum 9400  blender, it is a great blender that will create amazing smoothies, ice creams, sorbets, smooths, nut milks  in a jiffy. It also grates, slices and grinds.
The Optimum 9400 is currently available at a special price of £ 329.00, it comes with a 30 day money back guarantee with free return postage of you are not totally satisfied with it. To read more about it and purchase one you can check my review here. 

Mixed Berry Ice cream with Cassis

Mixed Berry Ice cream with Cassis

Preparation time – 30 minutes

Chilling time –12 hours

Serves- 6

Ingredients:

200 grams /8 oz mixed berries - blackcurrants,raspberries,blackberries,strawberries

200 grams / 8 oz mixed berries - blackcurrants,raspberries,blackberries,strawberries for folding into ice cream and garnish

397 grams/ 16 oz sweetened condensed milk

125 ml fresh double cream

1 tablespoon sugar (optional if berries are little sharp)

1 tablespoon Cassis –blackcurrant liquor (optional)

Method:

1. Wash the 200 grams of berries and chop up into bite sized pieces.

2. In a blender jug add the chopped berries and add sugar. Blend to a coarse texture to form berry compote.

3. In a bowl add the condensed milk and the cream and whip till light and fluffy.

4. Fold in the berry compote.

5. Pour the mixture into a tupperware container and place in freezer.

6. After 3 hours take the ice cream out of the freezer and stir with a fork to break any ice crystals.

7. At 3 hour intervals repeat this process twice more (In total 3 times)

8. After the third time take the ice cream out of the freezer and allow stand for 5 minutes.

9. In mean time reserving few berries for garnish, chop the remainder into bite size pieces. To the berry mixture add a tablespoon of cassis- blackcurrant liqueur and mix together.

10. Fold the berry pieces into the ice cream.

11. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop ice cream into serving bowl, garnish with the reserved berries.

Serve immediately.

NB- Alternatively you can skip stages 5-7 if you have an ice cream maker. 

Baby corn and Broccoli Rice-Chinese Style

Delicious Chinese style rice that is easy to make and perfect accompaniment to any curry.

Ingredients:

240 g cold boiled rice

6 broccoli florets cut into smaller florets

8 baby corn cut into small  one cm rounds

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon soya sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 green chilli cut into thin slices

1 red onion cut into thin slices

1 clove garlic cut finely chopped

Method:

1. In a wok add the oil and heat it up.

2. Add the onions and garlic and sauté for a minute.

3. Add the broccoli florets and baby corn and sauté for 3-4 minutes until the vegetables take on a little colour but are still crisp.

4. Add the salt, pepper, green chillies and soya sauce and stir fry for another 30 seconds.

5. Add the cooked rice and toss all the ingredients together until the rice is mixed with the vegetables and is warmed through.

Transfer to a serving place and serve hot.

Submitting to:

In my VEG BOX ~ Sweetcorn event by citrusspiceuk

The Brasserie -Tower Hotel

I was recently invited to Tower Hotel to sample their new summer menu with a few of my foodie friends. London is a lovely city and a fantastic place to visit. The Tower Hotel is in prime location, overlooking the River Thames and St Katharine’s Dock and alongside two world Heritage Sites – Tower Bridge and the Tower of London.

Upon arrival we were welcomed and greeted with, glasses of chilled Prosecco and amazing fruit mocktails in the wonderful open air bar located in the hotel gardens. We mingled, enjoying foodie talks with our host whilst sipping drinks and appreciating the spectacular views in the warm summer evening. As the evening drew, and our tummies began to rumble we were led into The Brasserie at the Tower Hotel. Our table was positioned prominently near the window which meant that we were able to continue enjoying the spectacular views of London by night while we enjoyed our meal. We munched on fresh warm bread with some dips whilst we waited for our meal to be prepared.

 The restaurant has a wonderful and varied menu, majority of the dishes are cooked using the freshest seasonal ingredients that are locally sourced. The restaurant is also planning to grow its own herbs and some vegetables in their rooftop garden in the future too.

 I was a little worried about what choices I would have on the menu as I am a vegetarian, my worries soon vanished as the Brasserie caters for vegetarians. For my starter, I chose the grilled vegetable and goat cheese tart which was very tasty. It was made of a thin flaky layer of pastry topped with tomato and olive salsa, cress lettuce, and toasted pinenuts in a balsamic reduction.

The second course I selected the Ricotta ravioli with spinach filling in a basil cream sauce and tomato salsa. It was presented beautifully, however I found it a little dry and for my taste I felt it needed  just a little more seasoning.

For my third course I had the classic pea and mint risotto. The risotto was perfectly cooked, it was rich and creamy and very delicious. 

All the food was accompanied with red and white wines that were matched to compliment the dishes. Each course was enthusiastically introduced by the head chef Kamaldeep Singh.

My taste buds had really been tickled with this gastronomic feast and I really thought I would not be able to eat any more. I soon changed my mind when the dessert arrived. A trio of three desserts, a white chocolate panna cotta, a summer berry cheesecake and pistachio ice cream. All three were delicious and complimented  the entire meal really well.

The desserts were served with a margarita shot and the evening meal was completed with tea and coffee.

I was invited as a guest at the Tower Hotel, I would like to convey my thanks to Tower Hotel for the lovely meal and hospitality, all the views expressed in this review are my own. 

My rating for my meal:

Location -5/5

Hospitality -5/5

Food- 4 /5

Total - 14 /15

And finally this is LONDON BY NIGHT isn't it just beautiful??

Round Up ~In my VEG BOX ~Spinach.

Here is a round up of all the lovely spinach  recipes received this month.Thankyou to Chef Mirelle for guest hosting this event.

An InLinkz Link-up

Announcing event In my VEG BOX ~Sweetcorn

The month of July (1st July -31st July2014) In my VEG BOX we shall have Sweetcorn. This event is all about cooking with Sweetcorn.

To Participate:

1. Prepare any vegetarian recipe using Sweetcorn (eggs allowed) please link your dish using the linky below by entering your Dish Name and Post URL
2. Please link this event announcement with your entry, this is mandatory.
3. Use of logo is not mandatory but it helps to spread the word if you can use it.

4. Multiple entries are allowed, archived are only allowed if reposted and updated with this event link.

5. Please make sure that you follow this blog via googleplus, google friend connect or face book so that you can get regular updates of future events in this series and also so that you can receive notification of the round up of the event.

6.In the event of problem using linky you can email me the entry at simplysensationalfood@gmail.com

Please use this format:

Your Name: Recipe
Name Recipe URL
Image no larger than 300 pixels.

An InLinkz Link-up