Recipe Time - Mexican Inspired Spicy Pasta Bake

This week I want to share with you a hearty dish inspired by the flavours of Mexico! If you make this, I can promise a spicy, flavoursome delight which will fill you up and leave you feeling nourished.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

300g Tubular Pasta, such as Penne or Rigatoni

1 Onion

1 Clove of Garlic

2 Green Jalapeno Chillies

50g Butter

50g Plain Flour

500g Whole Milk

150g Mature Cheddar Cheese, Coarsely Grated

1 x 400g Tin Red Kidney Beans, Drained and Rinsed

1/2 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 tsp Cumin

1/4 Cayenne Pepper

Black Pepper and Salt To Taste

Method:

Preheat the oven to 200°C (Gas Mark 6) or 180°C for a fan oven.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and halve the chillies lengthwise. At this point, you can decide how hot or otherwise you want your dish. For full on fire, slice the chillies into strips and add them to the onion mix. For a milder dish, core and seed the chillies before slicing. They will still add a very gentle heat and fresh flavour to the dish, though the potency will be gone. Personally, I welcome the fire, it is good for you apart from anything else, but the choice is yours.

Heat some oil in a large pan and fry onions, garlic and chillies until soft and just showing a little colour. Set to one side.

Add butter to the pan and melt. Remove from the heat and add the flour. Combine with a wooden spoon to form a roux before returning to the heat for about 10 seconds.

Pour in the milk. Some people like to do this in stages, making sure the roux is thoroughly absorbed at each stage to prevent lumpiness. However, I have found if I use a whisk to stir the mixture the roux and milk still amalgamate well, even if I pour all the milk in at once.

That said, you may occasionally want to run a spoon around the outside of the pan to make sure none of the mixture gets caught in the corners.

Bring the sauce to the boil over a medium heat, whisking vigorously all the time. It should thicken noticeably just before starting to boil to provide a beautiful glossy sauce. Add the kidney beans, cinnamon, cumin, cayenne pepper, onions, garlic, chillies, salt, pepper and half the cheese and leave to bubble very gently, stirring occasionally.

Cook the pasta according to packet instructions.  Reserve a few tablespoons of the cooking water and drain the pasta. Add water and pasta to the sauce and stir thoroughly to combine.

Pour the mix into an oven-proof dish, sprinkle the remaining cheese on top and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the top has browned nicely.

Serve and make you have plenty of beer or water on hand if you are not used to spicy food!

Restaurant Review - The Breakfast Club, Brighton

Hello there! Welcome to another week on The Hungry Seagull and this week I'm doing a restaurant review. Or is it a cafe review? In this case it is a very fine line for reasons which will become obvious once you start reading.

On the recommendation of a friend, I decided to visit The Breakfast Club in Brighton, one of several Breakfast Clubs dotted about London and Brighton.

I went with a guest reviewer, my YouTuber brother Charles, because he was staying with me and double the reviewers, double the review.

The Breakfast Club serves a variety of breakfast, brunch and general out-and-about food, from pancakes to burgers. The theme is undeniably American, specifically Californian, with plenty of smoothies and Mexican-inspired dishes such as nachos and burritos on the menu.

The decor is the same as the food, with the green ceiling and American diner-style furniture bringing to mind a Californian beach-side eatery. Although a little dark inside, bright lights ensure you can see what you are doing and the place feels relaxed and welcoming.

The staff were exceptionally pleasant. All smiled and could not do enough for us, including serving us water without even asking.

I ordered a cappuccino and the posh sausage sandwich with an added egg while Charles chose the breakfast burrito and the big breakfast smoothie.

Starting with the drinks, they were exceptional. I always treat a cappuccino as the bench mark of anywhere that claims to serve coffee, as the skill needed to heat and stretch that milk properly is a real test of the barista's abilities.

My cappuccino was smooth as silk with plenty of body. The beans were perhaps not outstanding, only very good, but then I was not in an artisan coffee shop so it feels churlish to complain.

Charles loved his smoothie. A giant glass of purple juice came to him with a light sprinkling of granola on top. A mix of strawberry, banana, oats, honey, yoghurt and milk, I tried it as well and agreed it was a fresh delight.

The food arrived a short time after that. My sausage sandwich was wonderful. Savoury sausage was bound to a rich, brioche bun by smoky cheese. A thin but punchy layer of sweet red onion chutney served as a perfect flavour counterpoint while the egg added a fresh note to finish the whole.

Charles loved his burrito but did not find it quite as satisfying as I found my sandwich. The burrito was mostly scrambled egg and chorizo accompanied by sides of salad, guacamole, red sauce and some sort of sour cream. So far, so good. However, for his taste, the scrambled eggs were a little too milky and he would have preferred the two chorizos to have been chopped up rather than left whole.

Yes. I said two. Which brings me onto one problem with The Breakfast Club - the portions are HUGE! Delicious as the food is, quality as the food is, there is perhaps simply too much of it. Charles ate his burrito on an empty stomach and, despite spending the rest of the day walking, could only stomach a light meal in the evening.

My meal was much lighter though, as I watched a pile of about five washing-up sponge sized pancakes topped with lashings of bacon whizz past me, I think it may have been the smallest dish on the menu. Even then, it did me quite well for breakfast and lunch.

The size of the portions is reflected in the price with the burrito costing £9 and my sandwich £7.

This is not overpriced. As I say, the food was excellent quality and one would never complain about paying for that in a restaurant. However, a light breakfast to set you up for the day The Breakfast Club is not. I would say that if you go along, treat yourself to a fantastic brunch and skip a meal because you will not need to eat again until the evening.

The Breakfast Club is a great place to eat, with fun decor, lovely staff and fabulous food. But beware the portions sizes, you do not want to go in there if you are after a continental, coffee-and-pastry-style cafe.

Overall * * * * * - Fantastic food served with a smile.

Food and Drink * * * * - Superlative tasting food and drink is slightly let down by the sheer quantity of it, too much for just breakfast.

Atmosphere * * * * * - With a really fun Californian vibe, you know you've found somewhere to relax and enjoy a good meal.

Service * * * * * - Extremely friendly and attentive, could not ask for more.

Price * * * * - For breakfast, the prices do seem quite high. The reason for this is the size of the portions so, while expensive, it is good value for money.

Would I Go Here Again? - Yes.

Book Review - Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham

This week I'm kicking off the book review section of my blog. I'm starting with my latest acquisition, Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham.

Unsurprisingly, it's a book about Mexican food. Cruz and Fordham run Benito's Hat, a chain of Mexican restaurants in London which aims to serve up authentic, modern Mexican food.

This approach translates to the book. It feels AMAZINGLY authentic. This due to more than the use of the occasional vegetable I've never heard of (chayote, since you ask). The book is littered with little boxes explaining various ingredients' relevance to Mexican cuisine and each recipe has a little story attached to it, shedding light either on the history of the dish or the life of Cruz, the head chef.

The recipes themselves feel authentic. They feel timeless and unfussy, enduring classics, while there's a certain rugged, rustic quality to them too. The soups are chunky and the refried beans are mashed, as opposed to blitzed with some modern gadget which would looked laughably anachronistic in a Zorro movie.

My attempt at scrambled eggs with chorizo

The book is beautifully presented. Achingly so. The cover is a riot of green, magenta and gold and every pages is a different colour. The photography is fabulous, setting the food off with a careful selection of side dishes and Mexican-style tableware.

It's a perfect size, a little smaller and squarer than most recipe books, meaning it sits beautifully in the hand.

My attempt at a chicken quesadilla

I would have to criticise the book on the number and complexity of its recipes. At under 150 pages and with plenty of photographs, it is hardly extensive. There is only one burrito and one quesadilla recipe and no recipes for red or green rice.

The recipes tend to be on the simple side. To call it bish-bash-bosh cooking would be unfair, particularly as Mexican food veers that way anyhow, but some of the dishes really did not require vast imagination to construct.

That said, they are still lovely and some of the spice mixes required skill to conceive.

My attempt at an oatmeal and cinnamon drink

To road test the book, I tried three recipes. I made scrambled eggs with chorizo, a chicken quesadilla and an oatmeal and cinnamon "drink" (this served very nicely as an evening meal!).

First, some caveats. I had to adapt all the recipes slightly to suit my specific purposes. I used taleggio for the eggs, because I was out of cheddar, used quorn instead of chicken for the quesadilla because I couldn't afford well-looked after chicken and used honey instead of agave syrup for the drink because I didn't want to shell out for a bottle of sweet stuff I was unlikely ever to use again. Oh, and I forgot to put garlic in my quesadilla's marinade.

However, if there is one thing the friendly style of the book's prose encourages it's a flexible attitude to ingredients so I don't feel too bad. Besides, quorn is awesome.

The recipes worked out great. Each one was full of flavour and deeply comforting. Nothing required a fire extinguisher to the mouth yet compromised nothing in terms of taste, especially the wonderful marinade for the chicken quorn.

Real Mexican Food is a lovely book. Authentic, attractive and friendly, it is a great guide to a fabulous world cuisine. However, the book could have done with more recipes to make it truly great.

Overall * * * * - A good introduction into Mexican cooking but not without a couple of flaws.

Presentation * * * * * - Absolutely fantastic photography, design and prose style.

Quality of Recipes * * * * - Delicious and comforting, the recipes work well in the kitchen and feel extremely authentic.

Range of Recipes * * * - The book covers most of the basics but is hardly a thorough and rigorous examination of Mexican food. Could have been longer and some of the recipes were really quite simple.

Price * * * * - At £18.99 RRP I don't feel cheated but neither to I feel like I found a bargain. A fair price.

Will I Take This Off The Shelf To Cook From? - Yes.

I have been reviewing Real Mexican Food by Felipe Fuentes Cruz and Ben Fordham, published by Ryland Peters & Small (2012), ISBN-13: 978-1849752589