These were inspired by the great minds at Thug Kitchen, these food writers like myself, try to stay healthy and are prone to saying f*ck quite a lot. You can also use vegan dark chocolate if that’s your thing.
Gorgeous on a hot day, or my own guilty pleasure is to have them while sitting on the sofa with a cup of coffee. But f*ck it, eat them how you like.
Makes 6
Ingredients
6 Lollipop sticks
100 grams Dark chocolate (you can use vegan chocolate if that’s your thing)
3 Bananas
1 Tsp. Coconut Oil
50 grams chopped almonds (peanuts,
or hazelnuts also work really well)
Method
Line a baking sheet or plate with grease proof paper.
Toast the nuts in a dry pan, and set to one side. (It’s worth taking the time to do this, as it really improves the flavour).
Chop the chocolate and put in a bowl over a pot of barely simmering water, and allow it to melt. You can also try melting this in the microwave, by give it blasts of 30 seconds at a time. Once the chocolate has melted, stir in the teaspoon of coconut oil.
While the chocolate is melting, peel the bananas and cut width ways. Stick the lollipop stick up the middle of the banana from the flat end.
When the chocolate is melted dip the banana in it, using a spoon to cover any bits that aren’t covered.
Sprinkle the chocolate covered bananas with the nuts, place on the grease proof paper and put in the freezer for 2 hours.
When frozen if you aren’t going to eat these immediately, but them in freezer bag.
When an old friend suggests going to Russia, sometimes you just have to say yes.
So with newly acquired visas, a rudimentary knowledge of Russian and the Cyrillic alphabet and a couple of clean pairs of under crackers we set off. (Do your research on getting a visa, depending on the type of passport you hold it can be really straightforward, or a total faff)
St Petersburg is a riot of multi-coloured buildings
St Petersburg is like no other European city you’ve seen before. It’s sometimes called the Venice of the North because of its canals and grand architecture. It has buildings in every style from Rococco, Art Nouveau, traditional Russian churches and palaces, through to vast soviet monolithic mega structures. The scale of the place and buildings will take your breath away.
How it all started
Around 1703 Peter the Great decided he wanted to create a European style capital city and navy. Not one to be wait about, he hired, European, architects, scientists and engineers, and enlisted 40,000 serfs to make this happen. The results are pretty impressive.
Onion domed churches hide in little side streets
Catherine the Great and the Hermitage
Catherine the Great deposed her husband (and heir to the throne) in a military coup in 1762. She then declared herself empress and set about fancying up the existing Winter Palace which is now the state Hermitage museum.
Catherine also started a world class art collection, modernised Russia and introduced education for girls, so in fairness there was a bit more to her than being just a power hungry little minx with a penchant for interior design.
One of the entrances to the Hermitage, tradition says that it’s good luck for couples to rub the toes of these statues on their wedding day.
If your taste in art is more 20th century, then you should allow plenty of time for the galleries in the General Staff Building (across the mains square from the Hermitage Palace, but part of the same complex). The art collection has more Picassos’, Matisses’, and Kandinskys’ than you can throw a stick at. Honestly, it could eat and sh*t any gallery in Paris, London or New York.
Catherine the Great’s private chapel in the Hermitage
You can buy tickets online to visit the Hermitage, and I would recommend this to avoid queues at busy times. Foreigners are charged more to visit the Hermitage. In fairness most Western visitors earn more than the average Russian, so I don’t have a problem with it.
Church of the Saviour of the Spilled Blood
An other fabulous building is the Church of the Saviour of the Spilled Blood. This might be most beautiful church I’ve ever seen. Surprisingly small inside, it’s covered in intricate mosaics that glitter in the candle light. It’s probably what heaven is like, if it didn’t have 40 tourists invading your personal space.
Coffee and dessert at the Kupetz Eliseevs Food Hall
Honestly, the food was simple, cheap and basic with very little that jumped out, apart from one place. On a wet evening on Nevsky Prospect, mainly to get out of the rain we stumbled into Kupetz Eliseevs Food Hall. Think of a Russian Fortnum and Mason, but in one of the prettiest art nouveau interiors you’ll ever see. Not especially cheap, but if you’re a foodie, you’ll love the selection they have on offer. I could have spent hours in this place.
I had these for the first time in New York, with a cocktail in an air conditioned bar which felt like I’d arrived in heaven after pounding the streets on a hellishly warm day.
These make a great
little starter, or are divine with a glass of wine or a cold beer.
If you are
organised enough to have made the mushroom risotto a day or two before then
these are pretty quick and easy. Some
people like these with a marinara sauce, but I think these are delicious enough
on their own.
500 grams Mushroom risotto
100 grams Mozzarella
(dolcelatte also works really well)
2 Tbsp. Plain
flour
2 Eggs
*100 grams White
breadcrumbs (See food hack)
Olive oil for deep
frying
Salt and pepper
for seasoning
Method
Cut
the mozzarella into 1.5 cm cubes, or you can use the little mozzarella “pearls”
you can buy in some super markets
Take
a tablespoon of the cold risotto mixture in your hand and flatten it. Add a small piece of cheese and form the
risotto around it to make a ball. Do
this until you have used up all the risotto (it’s useful to have a bowl of
water handy to wet your hands and stop the risotto sticking.
Cover
and refrigerate for 30 minutes. Heat oil on a large heavy based pan or deep fat
fryer.
Put
the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper, which the eggs in a
separate bowl, and add the breadcrumbs to another dish
Heat oil on a large heavy based pan or deep fat
fryer.
Role the risotto balls in flour, then beaten
egg, and finally the breadcrumbs
Add the breaded risotto balls to oil and fry
until golden brown, remember to drain any excess oil on kitchen paper and
season with salt and pepper.
* Food Hack – When you’re shopping pick up bead that has been reduced because it’s going stale. When you get home, take 5 minutes and whizz the bread up in a food processor until it’s crumbs. Put these breadcrumbs into a large freezer bag and keep in your freezer. Bread crumbs are an amazingly versatile ingredient, that you can use in everything from gratins, deep fried crusts, stuffing or even thickening sauces.
Belfast is also home to two Universities. Ulster University has a campus right in the centre of the fashionable Cathedral Quarter. It also produces graduates from their hospitality and tourism degrees, who work in world class restaurants and resorts across the globe.
As part of student’s training, the University has their own restaurant (The Academy), which gives students experience of working in a fine dining establishment. The restaurant produces some of the best food I’ve eaten and is priced reasonably to cover running costs. Student are also trained to deliver Michelin star service.
The night I visited was a theme night based around game. The set menu included wood pigeon and venison with a quirky blackberry and lavender sorbet served in between as a palette cleanser. It took every ounce of reserve I had not to lick the plates.As part of student’s training, the University has their own restaurant (The Academy), which gives students experience of working in a fine dining establishment.
The restaurant produces some of the best food I’ve eaten and is priced reasonably to cover running costs. Student are also trained to deliver Michelin star service.
If you live in a city that has a hospitably/catering or culinary arts school, check out if they offer similar training facilities. You’ll eat extremely well for a reasonable price and provide students with a chance to gain experience with paying customers
I’m not vegetarian, in fact I love meat. However, I do have people in life who are, and there is some pretty damned tasty vegetarian and vegan food out there.
Eating meat everyday is also not great for our health, or the planet. So go on be brave and give meat at least one day off a week.
I live in Belfast, which is home to St George’s market (one of the best indoor market in the UK and Ireland). Chances are there is somewhere close to you that offers all sorts of food inspiration or tasty street food , so get out there and explore.
Do you love amazing food and getting some travel inspiration (or just living vicariously through others. If so, then welcome to Sunnyside Kitchen.
Life is too short to live on lettuce, but it’s still important to strike a balance. I try to keep to 80/20. Healthy food for 80% of the time and food that’s maybe not so healthy for 20% of the time ( what I like to call Pure Filth). If I’m honest sometimes it’s the other way round, but I try.
Recipes for this blog are a mix of old favourites and food inspired by travel.
Seaneen's Sunnyside Kitchen 