jamesclay, Author at Time for a coffee

January 13, 2015

In the Birdcage

Walking up Corn Street in Bristol over the festive break and wanting a coffee, we decided to pop into the Birdcage. There are quite a few cafés and restaurants in this area of Bristol, so you have quite a bit of choice.

It looks like the building use to be a bank or similar, however once inside, the interior decor is very quirky, retro and quite refreshing if you are use to the decor you find in the main coffee chains such as Costa or Starbucks.

In the Birdcage

The lighting for example comprised a series of non-matching lampshades hanging together form the ceiling.

Shades

The furniture was mis-matched wooden chairs and tables, combined with leather sofas. Across the walls and in the windows were signs, old bicycles, even mannequins wearing old fashion.

In the Birdcage

This is very much a coffee shop, and though there were cakes available, the main attraction is the coffee. The coffee was certainly made well and quite nice.

In the Birdcage

I liked how after asking for coffee at the counter, we could sit down and they bought the coffee over. That is a much more relaxed experience than the busy somewhat hectic experience you can find, and I have certainly found in the chain coffee shops.

January 5, 2015

Christmas Four Bird Roast

I usually write a blog post about our Christmas lunch, in the main when it comes to the following year I can remember what worked well and what was less of a success.

A few years ago I spent over a hundred pounds on a four bird roast from Marks and Spencers. It was nice, but was very much a turkey with a little bit of goose, duck and chicken.

The Sainsbury’s version of the four bird roast is a goose stuffed with turkey, duck and guinea fowl. I will say that this is basically a stuffed goose; it’s 62% goose, 9% turkey and there is 8% duck and 8% guinea fowl. Like the Marks and Spencers’ roast it wasn’t cheap, but was half the price of the Marks and Spencers’ version.

This year I would have been tempted to get it again, however Sainsburys weren’t doing it this year. In the end I went with the Aldi Christmas Four Bird Roast again, which we had enjoyed last year.

Christmas Four Bird Roast

The Aldi four bird roast was a little skimpy on the goose and duck, but I did expect that for a ten pound roast. It was simple to cook, but I did let it rest for thirty minutes which seemed to help with carving and the meat was very tender and moist.

It was quite tasty, stuffing wasn’t anything to write home about, but I did supplement it with some homemade stuffing, as well as bacon wrapped sausages.

Overall a success and good value for a tenner.

December 27, 2014

Brussels with Chestnuts and Pancetta

I once again cooked this accompaniment to the Christmas roast we had this year. It is very simple to cook, has festive overtones and really adds something special to the humble sprout.

I peeled and halved the sprouts, now I know some people will think that what is he doing, sprouts are supposed to be whole! Well what I want in this dish is for the sprouts to be a similar size to the chestnuts. The sprouts were partially cooked in advance, by placing in simmering water for about five minutes, drained and plunged into cold water and left to one side. You can do this earlier in the day so freeing up hob space for other things.

When you are close to serving time, in a hot frying plan, add a splash of olive oil and add the pancetta. I went for smoked pancetta, as I much prefer the stronger flavour and it goes well with the similarly strong flavour of the sprouts. Cook the pancetta until is just going crispy. The add the partially cooked sprouts and the chestnuts. I used the cooked and vacuum packed chestnuts from Merchant Gourmet. These are already prepared and cooked and are quick and easy to use. Next year I might use fresh chestnuts and prepare them myself. You can season with some black pepper, but no need to add extra salt, as the pancetta bacon adds the saltiness to the dish.

Toss and saute the sprouts and chestnuts with the pancetta and serve with your favourite festive roast.

December 13, 2014November 1, 2020

Chicken Pitta

We went to Frankie and Benny’s for lunch. I wasn’t sure what I wanted so after looking over the menu I went with the chicken pitta. It came with fries, a hunk of sweetcorn and a (small) portion of coleslaw.

The chicken was grilled and then had some barbecue sauce added.

It was quite tasty all in.

December 6, 2014

French Sausage at the German Market

I have been to a few German markets in my time, but have to admit I rarely buy anything from them, usually it’s time, sometimes it’s price and other times what on earth are they selling!

Most German markets I have been too have had some beautiful Christmas decorations and bits, but there are also lots of food stalls.

On the odd occasion, though I make a purchase, this time I went with what was described as a French Hot Dog. They looked really quite nice cooking on the griddle.

The blackboard was chalked with £4 each or £6 for a double. What you actually got was a split sausage for £4 and the £6 was for a whole sausage.

It was served in a split section of baguette, along with grated cheese and french mustard mayonnaise.

So what was it like? Well to be honest it was a bit of a nightmare for street food. The sausage was fine, but the skin was really tough, making it very difficult to bite through. I also thought the sausage was rather too salty. The cheese was nice, strong flavoured, but the mustard was a little harsh. Overall a bit of a disappointment, and I thought for £4 was somewhat overpriced.

November 21, 2014

Lighter Flapjacks

I used the following recipe to make some lighter flapjacks.

150g unsalted butter
75g brown sugar
75g golden syrup
350g of oats
50g of rice krispies
50g of cashew nuts, or use peanuts

In a pan place the butter, sugar and syrup together. I find one way to measure the golden syrup is to put the pan on the scales, zero the scales and then add the syrup.

I put the pan on a low heat, better to take your time than burn the mixture. Once the sugar, butter and syrup are bubbling slightly take it off the heat and stir in the oats.

The stir in the rice crisps and nuts, now I should add at this point I actually used coco pops, but the principle is the same. The cereal provides a lighter crunchier texture to to the flapjacks. The nuts provide a harder crunch to the flapjacks.

This recipe uses more oats than my previous recipe, so these flapjacks are less rich and sticky. Place the oat mixture into a lined tin, press it into place with a fork or the back of a spoon.

The flapjacks are baked in a pre-heated 200ºC oven for about ten minutes or until the edges are browned.

Leave the flapjacks to cool in the tins, or they will fall apart. After they have cooled, cover in melted chocolate, let it set and then serve.

November 20, 2014

Crispy Chilli Squid

Over the last few years I have written various reviews of crispy squid from various restaurants. I find that how places cook and treat squid gives a comparative indication of the quality of the cooking.

I do cook squid myself, but most of the time I either stir fry or griddle the squid. This time though I decided to cook crispy chilli squid.

I took the squid and cut it up into what I can only describe as one inch squares and included the tentacles. These were then tossed in seasoned flour. The flour had black pepper and dried chilli flakes added. This is then left for about thirty minutes. The combination of flour and the wet squid results in a kind of tempura batter, without needing to add anything else to the flour.

Crispy Chilli Squid in flour

The squid was then quickly deep fried in hot oil. The squid was drained on kitchen paper.

Crispy Chilli Squid

It was served with a sweet chilli dip. For added heat add some freshly sliced red chilli to garnish.

October 20, 2014

Dinner at the Brasenose Arms

The last time I stayed at the Brasenose Arms in Cropredy I went with the chicken. I really enjoyed the meal, it was beautifully cooked and full of flavour.

On this visit, and having missed lunch, I was feeling quite peckish, so decided to treat myself to a starter as well as a main course.

There was a nice choice of starters and I was tempted by the mussels, however I had a suspicion that these would not be fresh mussels, but from a sealed bag (as one gets from a supermarket). That’s not really a surprise, lots of places do that, they’re also not too bad in terms of flavour, nowhere near as good as fresh, but okay. So in the end I chose the grilled halloumi – Cypriot cheese grilled and served with oven roasted cherry tomatoes, olives and tsatsiki.

The cheese was nicely cooked, crisp edges, good texture and flavour. It looked nice on the plate and was tasty.

For my main course I decided on an 8oz Sirloin. There is a large selection for the mains and in addition there are specials available too. At the time I was there they had a track of ribs as the special. The steaks are all supplied locally and come with frites and mixed leaf salad, with a choice of either red wine and caramelised red onion, or peppercorn sauce.

The steak was cooked well and had a great flavour. It was tender and tasty. My only slight criticism would be that the menu talked about frites, but my steak came with maris piper chips.

I did order the red wine and caramelised red onion, thinking that this would be a sauce, but it was chutney. It was nice, but I did think I would be getting a red wine sauce for the steak so was a little surprised. Next time I would go for the peppercorn sauce.

I didn’t have a pudding, but they have a really nice selection and from the ones I saw going to the tables of other diners, they looked really nice.

Also should point out that they have a nice selection of beers to go alongside the food.

As with my last visit to the Brasenose Arms, I had a really nice meal in a pleasant environment.

September 21, 2014

Plain and Fruit Flapjacks

I used the following recipe to make some plan flapjacks and some that contain fruit and nuts.

150g unsalted butter
50g brown sugar
100g golden syrup
250g of oats

In a pan place the butter, sugar and syrup together. I find one way to measure the golden syrup is to put the pan on the scales, zero the scales and then add the syrup.

I put the pan on a low heat, better to take your time than burn the mixture. Once the sugar, butter and syrup are bubbling slightly take it off the heat and stir in the oats.

Place half the mixture into lined tin using baking parchment (or a greased tin). I then added the mixed fruit and nuts (well what I had in the cupboard was cranberries, raisins and cashew nuts) into the oat mixture, before placing that into another lined tin.

The flapjacks are baked in a pre-heated 200ºC oven for about ten minutes or until the edges are browned.

Leave the flapjacks to cool in the tins, or they will fall apart.

September 16, 2014

Fancy a salad

There are many places to grab lunch in Oxford, I have walked past the Art Café quite a few times as it is quite close to where I work.

The Art Café in Boon Square in Oxford, as well as being a café also does a takeaway service. I’ve not yet eaten upstairs, but have had the odd sandwich from them too. They have a nice selection, with a range of breads, interesting fillings and they are quite tasty too.

This time I chose the Chicken Pesto Salad, which includes chicken breast, mixed salad leaves, green pesto, mozzarella and pinenuts.

It did look very nice. It comprised a bed of a variety of crisp lettuce leaves, quartered tomatoes, slices of cucumber, some slices of chicken and mozzarella. On top was, what I thought was a small amount of pesto, enough for the chicken, but not really enough for the salad, and a scattering of pinenuts.

Probably the best way to describe the salad was okay. It wasn’t disappointing, neither though was it good. It was a good sized portion for the price, however I think the main issues was that the salad, as in the lettuce and tomatoes looked good, but lacked flavour. If there was more of a dressing, this might have made up for the blandness of the salad.

Overall I much prefer the sandwiches and baguettes they sell at the Art Café and I am not sure if I will get a salad again.