Mullins Brasserie, Margate, Kent

Great value meal at the European/Caribbean restaurant in Margate Old Town.

I had the three course set lunch menu for £12.95. To start, creole mussels. For main, jerk chicken with rice 'n' peas. And for dessert, steamed ginger pudding with toffee sauce.

 

All courses were delicious, I couldn't fault anything. I will defiantly be going back to try their dinner menu.

White Chocolate Cake made for a Valentine

 

9oz butter

5 oz white chocolate

9oz caster sugar

splosh of milk

6oz flour

4oz self raising flour

1tsp vanilla essence

2 eggs

 

Preheat oven to 170C/Gas 3. Grease then coat a tin with cocoa powder. I used a ring shaped tin but any shape would be fine. Heat the butter, chocolate and sugar on a low heat until smooth. Mix in the remaining ingredients and bake for about 45 minutes or until golden brown. Leave to cool.

 

To make the ganache, melt 200g dark chocolate together with 200ml double cream until smooth and shiny. The measurements don't have to be too precise. Cover the cake with the ganache and fill the hole with raspberries.

 

I then decorated the cake with broken Cadbury Flake and a white chocolate heart. For the heart, I melted some left over white chocolate, piped it into a heart shape and allowed to set.

Jamie Oliver's Orange Curd Tart

Really tasty recipe by Jamie Oliver. The recipe uses a lot of eggs though, so it's a bit indulgent. I've altered it slightly, just to fit round what ingredients I had.

6 egg yolks

200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

Zest and juice of 3 oranges

Lime juice (to make the orange juice up to 230ml)

4 eggs

250g butter

 

For the pastry,

100g icing sugar

250g plain flour

125g butter

Zest of 1 orange

1 egg

Splash of milk

 

Pulse the pastry ingredients in a food processor until it forms a dough and chill. Preheat oven to 180C/gas 4.

In a saucepan on a low heat, whisk all the filling ingredients apart from the butter. Keep whisking for 5 minutes until it starts to thicken. Add the butter in chunks and keep whisking for about 15 minutes until thick.

Roll out the dough and line the pastry into a 25cm tart tin. Bake blind for 15 minutes, then remove the baking beans and cook for a further 10-15 minutes until golden brown.

Fill the tart when still warm.

 

Definitely worth making.

 



Burger and Lobster, Knightsbridge, London

I'd heard a lot about Burger and Lobster from friends. I had a whole grilled lobster with a lemon butter sauce, chips and salad for £20. The sauce was delicious but the lobster didn't blow me away.

Good cocktails though. I had a very nice 'apples and pears' made with cider brandy, pear juice, prosecco and lemon. But at £9.95, was quite pricey.