Iris

Iris - Eating out in Edinburgh

For the last week we were in Edinburgh, my lovely boyfriend treated me to dinner. I had the task of picking where to go, and thought I would search what Thistle Street had to offer. Thistle Street is a road running between George Street and Victoria Street and is packed with lots of lovely restaurants.

Eyeing up the menu, this definitely seemed like the best choice.  If you want to go there I would definitely recommend making reservations. We watched couple after couple walk in and ask for a table, and told to come back two hours later if they wanted a seat. Very popular!

For starters I opted for Pork Belly. The pork itself was in strips, lying on a small bed of salad. I think I received a fairly generous helping. It had a honey glaze, and looked lovely. The boyfriend had a smoked duck salad starter. He wasn’t particularly impressed with it, as there was very little duck on the dish.

The main meals were a lot better. I had roasted duck with raspberries and drambule. And oh my! It was so good. The duck was perfect. Very pink, and I was impressed with just how well duck and raspberries go together. The perfect combo. The boyfriend had a rack of lamb, rare again and cooked to perfection. We were very happy with the meat, the side however were a total let down, and I feel they kind of ruined the meal. Normally you would expect to be served a bowl of extra vegetables or something in addition of the meal. Not at Iris though. You have to buy sides as you literally only receive the meat. This wouldn’t be the worst thing in the world if the sides actually go with the dished, but they weren’t brilliant options. We decided that the sweet potato fries would be best, they did the trick, but I’m sure that Iris could come up with a lot more flattering sides.

After some deliciously tender meat it was time to fill the sweet pocket. I opted for Chocolate Key lime Pie. It was so good! I’m always a sucker for key lime pie, and the addition of chocolate made it too tough to refuse. It was wonderful. A raspberry sauce and icing sugar decorated the plate to make the whole thing look even better.

What I think:

The food was really, really good. The mains cost about £13 for the Duck, £17 for the lamb (bill totalled at £68 with drinks), which is what you expect to pay on Thistle Street. Desserts were good and pretty cheap.  When the waiting staff deliver the bill you are also given an envelope that goes to an Edinburgh charity for the homeless, which I think is a very nice touch. They could probably do with having more than two staff serving, as sometimes we were left for a while longer than we should have been to be asked about desserts/ serve desserts, but they were both very pleasant. I would recommend this place, but I would be tempted to check it out on lunchtime as you can get a three-course meal for 14.99. Barry bargain! Like I said at the very start, you need to make a reservation too. It’s so busy. Would recommend and give a 7.5/10 

Holyrood 9A

Eating out in Edinburgh

The Holyrood 9A

It’s August which means Edinburgh has sprung into Fringe life! Woooo! The biggest Arts festival in the world is on my doorstep (for the next two weeks, as I am soon to be moving!).

The boyfriend and I went on a date night on the 1^st Of Aug, which was the opening of the preview shows. We went to see David O’Doherty which was a laugh a minute. The show was at pleasance, situated around a step hilly corner from HolyRood 9A, a place you must check out if you like super brilliant quality burgers. They also have a large list of beer and ales.

After a good bit of pondering I decided that the “Pioneer” would be my burger of choice. A 6oz burger, sautéed rosemary scented wild mushrooms, crispy

bacon, Swiss cheese & Garlic mayo. It sounded dreamy, tasted dreamy, and was very messy to eat! The burgers are presented on a wooden block, with a cup of chips (very good size serving) and a small side dish of red cabbage coleslaw. The burger itself was so juicy and full of flavor, especially with long stems of rosemary running throughout for a big hit of flavor. The only thing I think could do with improving would be better chips, perhaps some big chunky wedges with lots of tasty herbs all over them.  The staff were great, very attentive, quick to serve us, and take our orders. The restaurant was clean, nicely presented with interesting artwork over the walls. It’s safe to say it’s not the cheapest burger place in Edinburgh, but I’m pretty certain few would do it better! 8/10 for sure!

Mediterranean Soup

Roasted Med-Veg Soup

I always try to have the very best intentions and cut down (I wish I could cut out!) on bread. So I often try to make soup for my lunch at work. It’s more filling, and it’s so much healthier to have a bowl of blended veg than bread and pork (also trying to cut down on meat)!

Vegetables about to be roasted. 

 Ingredients:

1 X Onion                                        600 ml vegetable stock

1 X Red Pepper                                400g tinned tomatoes

1 X Yellow Pepper                          2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar

1 X Courgette                                    Pinch of Rock Salt

½ Aubergine                                 Cracked Black Pepper

3 Clove of Garlic                          1 tsp. Smoked Paprika

1 tsp. Basil                                          Tomato Puree

Start by pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees.

Chop all of the vegetables.

Place in the baking tray with your seasoning, balsamic vinegar and a good glug of olive oil. Leave to cook for about half an hour.

Once out of the oven, place on the hob in a saucepan. Add the tomatoes and the vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, and then allow to simmer whilst covered.

It should be ready in about 20 mins.

What I think:

A lovely rich red, full flavoured soup. I normally end up getting out my blender to thicken soups up, but for this one I decided to allow the vegetables to stay nice and chunky. It looks wonderful, and it’s really nice to feel the textures of the veg.

Will be making again as it is very filling and tasty

Oh Calzone, you delicious pizza pie.

Calzone for dinner!

Is there much better than a calzone? It’s like a pizza, and a pie- a pizza pie! Yummy! With this in mind, the Boyfriend and I set out to make some.

Ingredients

Half a Chorizo                      Half a large onion/ 1 small onion

1 X Red Pepper                    1 X Green Pepper

60g Mushrooms                    Garlic cloves X 2

1 X 400g tin of tomatoes       Tomato puree

Handful of spinach                Grated Mozzarella

Rosemary                              Basil

Pesto                                     Salt and Pepper

Pizza base mix (it’s not considered cheating when you need to knead anything for a good 10-15 mins!)

Above Image: Calzone mix cooking
Bottom Image: Calzone waiting to go in the oven.

How To:

Start by pre-heating the oven to 180 degrees.

Make the pizza base dough (all the instructions are on the side of the box. If not, mix flour with yeast until you get a dough like consistency. Roll out on a floured surface, and knead for 10 mins). I added in some rosemary and basil to add flavour to my base, and make it a wee bit prettier! Roll it out, and leave to rest on a pizza base tray for about 10 mins.

To make your sauce use your tin of tomatoes, and handful of herbs and tomato puree and crushed garlic cloves. Bring to the boil and allow to simmer away whilst everything else is cooking.

In a pan heat Onions in olive oil. After they brown add in peppers & chorizo (these both need time to soften).  Give to just under 5 mins and add in your mushrooms. Allow this all to stay cooking for another 10 mins.

In the last minute, add in your spinach. Then get 1/3 of your tomato sauce mixture and stir in to your calzone filling. Do this whilst on a low heat.

(You are holding the other 2/3 of the tomato mix to use as a tasty dip later! Mmmm)

Get your base and spread a good slather of pesto on half of the base.  Then carefully place your filling in the middle (The tip here is to not go too mental, if it is overfilled, it will leak out whilst cooking. You don’t want that!). Sprinkle a generous portion of mozzarella cheese over the mix, and then fold over the pizza base. Get a fork and press down along the edges to keep everything inside (just like a pasty!), and then brush over with a little milk. Sprinkle some more herbs over the calzone, place in the oven for 15-20 mins until base is hard and golden!

The finished piece! So delicious. 

Summer salad

Avocado, Melon, Lime & Chicken Salad.

There has been a little bit of sunshine recently, which has called for some lighter meals. Being such a big fan of avocado, I try to include it wherever I can, and thought that it would work well as a chicken salad, and what do you know? It did!

Ingredients:

4 X Boneless Chicken Things, chopped

1 x Lime

2 X Avocado, chopped

A pinch of Paprika, chilli, cumin

10 X Cherry Tomatoes, halved

¼ cantaloupe Melon, sliced

Spinach leaves (2 handfuls per dish)

This is so easy to make. Start my cooking your chicken things in a little bit of olive oil. Season with all three spices, and then squeeze the lime juice all over the chicken.

Prepare the salad of spinach, avocado, melon and tomatoes. Then add chicken.

That’s all there is to it! Super easy, Super colourful, Supper yummy!

Eating out in Edinburgh

Eating out in Edinburgh

A sea foodie dream.

LA FAVORITA

The best thing about Edinburgh has to be the big collection of amazing restaurant’s dotted across the city. On Saturday night The Boyfriend and I jumped into the car and set off to Leith Walk- an affordable part of town with restaurants, take-outs and worldwide food stores to suit all the corners of the Earth.

La Favorita is an Italian restaurant, with incredible food and very attentive, friendly staff.  They make homemade desserts, handmade pizzas, and have an impressive array of pastas, meat & fish dishes, and risottos.

The menu is rather large, with an assortment of mouth-watering dishes throughout. The portions themselves are rather large; lucky for us we had a table where we could see a lot of dishes going out and realized that bruschetta, as a starter would work best between the two of us. So glad we did that as there is no way I could have managed a whole dish for just a starter! But oh my! It was wonderful. A beautiful selection of seafood on white bread accompanied with a little salad and some olives.

Gluten Free King Prawn & Scallop Pizza.

 Due to the huge menu the boyfriend and I spent ages to make a decision on our main meal, and still hadn’t decided what to have until we had finished the starter, ooops! After a lot of dithering between pizza- pasta, pizza- pasta we decided to treat ourselves to huge pizzas.  Again, there was a huge selection that all sounded delicious! Boyfriend chose a pizza with slices of steak on it (I kid you not!). It looked sensational! He was even asked how he would like the steak cooked, very impressed!  I went for a ‘blue mare’ (I think that was it’s name!) gluten free pizza, which was covered in mozzarella, king prawns and scallops. It was wonderful! There was a lemony zest to the pizza that gave it a lovely fresh feeling. The gluten free base was not anything I had tried before, but something that did really interest me. It didn’t have as much crunch as a regular pizza base, but I think overall the taste from it was better. The pizzas were huge too, I was shocked at how much pizza I could get for £11-£12! 

Close up of Boyfriends steaky pizza!

Overall this has to be one of my favorite restaurants in Edinburgh, and one of the most affordable! The meal that left us absolutely stuffed came in at under £30. Pretty good value when you also factor in the fact that we got out left over pizza (in my case half of it!) put into a pizza box for the next days lunch! I can’t wait to return and try their pasta dishes, I had a look at some other people were eating and they looked so good! Another thing I am desperate to try are there desserts! They all looked so authentic and delicious! But If I could only manage half of my main I don’t think there was any real chance of a dessert! I was very impressed by everything here, the restaurant was clean, had a vibrant buzz about the place and the staff were so nice, Super friendly, and smiley and not in a way that seemed false at all. The service was fast, polite and it felt like a treat to be there! All over 10/10!