Mels Cafe Bar and Garden

One of my favourite things about moving to a new area is discovering all the new local eating places. While we were sad to wave goodbye to our favourite local breakfast spot, we now have the good excuse to go out a lot to hunt down our new favourite local.

While not quite local, Mels is already hitting our list pretty high for its great breakfasts. So far we've been twice and it has yet to disappoint. Both times I have been pretty predictable and ordered the full English, although they do have plenty more on the menu.

As you can see, the breakfast is definitely generous! The home-made beans tasted pretty good (and I am someone who doesn't really like beans), while everything else was cooked to perfection. My only quibble would be the potatos - yes they tasted very good and I liked them, but they aren't exactly hash browns (which is what it said on the menu). I have a real thing about hash browns, and these aren't what I would call them, but then I went on that font of all knowledge which is also known as wikipedia and their definition does also fit so maybe I shouldn't be such a dick about it.

Anyway, the food was pretty good, and I loved the music and laid back vibe so I would definitely pay it another visit. They do food throughout the day and also serve booze so maybe I'll also give it a go one night as well.

2 full English Breakfasts with coffee came to £22.00

MELS CAFE BAR AND GARDEN
573 GARRATT LANE,

EARLSFIELD, SW18 4ST

Monday – Saturday 9.00am – 11.00pm
Sunday 9.00am – 10.30pm
Breakfast, lunch & dinner

http://www.melscafebar.co.uk/index.php

Roasted Chicken and Vegetable's with Delia's Harissa-Style Dressing

Roasted chicken and vegetables must be one of the most fool-proof things to make. At one stage I got into the habit of making it at least once a week, bagging up the left-overs to bring into lunch. Having made it so often though, I felt I needed to change it up a little to give it a bit of an extra kick. Using Delia's Harissa-Style Dressing from this amazing recipe gave it that much needed extra dimension.

The recipe is pretty simple (serves 4, or 2 with left-overs for lunch):

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Chop up a large selection of veggies into bite-sized pieces. To be honest, you can pretty much chose whatever takes your fancy and is to hand. I used aubergine, sweet potato, a red pepper I found lurking in the fridge, courgette and onion.

Roast the veggies for 20 mins, before putting into the oven on the shelf below 2 chicken breasts. I rubbed mine with some Ras el Hanout to give it a bit more flavour. Roast for another 20 mins.

While the chicken and veggies are cooking prepare some couscous to the packet's instructions (I allowed for about 200g) and make the harissa dressing by mixing together 110ml extra-virgin olive oil, 1 rounded teaspoon cayenne pepper, 2 level tablespoons ground cumin, 2 heaped tablespoons tomato puree, and 4 tablespoons lime juice.

Once the veggies and chicken have roasted, slice up the chicken into bite-size pieces and mix together with the cous cous, veggies and the harissa dressing and serve.