Author: jamesclay

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Brasserie Blanc

In the far and distant past I remember watching a cookery programme (or probably a series) featuring Raymond Blanc. His restaurant, Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons, always came across as a place of excellence and I use to think if I ever had the money, the time and lived near Oxford then I would probably visit it at least once.

I was also given for a Christmas Present one year, his book, Recipes From Le Manoir Aux Quat’ Saisons which was full of amazing recipes and cooking techniques that to be honest I knew I didn’t have the skill or experience to even try! I just read it for the experience and knowing that even though I enjoy cooking, I am no chef.

I had seen his new chain, Brasserie Blanc, advertised somewhere on the web, but hadn’t ever sought out a branch. There is one in Bristol, but I had never been there.

“I am often asked what a Brasserie Blanc is. Well if the Manoir is a delicate waltz then the Brasseries are the Can Can. For sure, this is not a place for refined haute cuisine and three course meals. Rather, Brasserie Blanc is a place for relaxed enjoyment where I can offer you simple, high quality food that comes as close as possible to the meals that my mother prepared for me at home in Besançon and at a price that encourages you to visit us regularly. The real origins of French brasseries are lost in time and probably in several litres of beer but nowadays in France they are the bastions of good eating and drinking, locally and informally. I want my Brasserie Blancs to be a central part of the local community where you can have fun and enjoy particularly good food. So sit back and relax”

Raymond Blanc

So when out in Cheltenham with David Sugden recently looking for somewhere to eat, we saw it and having looked at the menu went in for a meal. Now David has already blogged about this meal and you can read that here.

Initially interested in the fixed price menu, both of us did indeed prefer the starters on the main menu. Asking the waiting staff and found that this wasn’t going to be a problem.

For my starter I went with the grilled squid and courgettes, parmesan and roquette salad.

The squid was fresh, had been grilled in chunks. It was very nice, though I felt there was a little too much chilli for me, but certainly not excessive enough to ruin the dish. The thinly sliced courgette worked well in the dish and I really quite enjoyed it.

For the main course I went with confit of pork, caraway cabbage, roast tomato sauce.

Now I have to admit I wasn’t sure what I was expecting, I am not sure I have even eaten duck confit, but I have read about it…. So when it arrived I was a little unimpressed. It appeared to be a reheated large slice of roast pork. It was on a bed of cabbage with caraway speeds, a very nice tomato sauce and a few roast potatoes. The pork had some flavour, but wasn’t what I was expecting and I don’t think I would order it again. Difficult to say whether it was good or bad, as there wasn’t anything I could compare it with. I did like the accompanying cabbage, and it went well with the pork, the sauce was good too.

For the dessert, we went with the cheese platter. Traditionally made, seasonal French and English cheeses specially selected by Eric Charriaux, “Premier Cheese Company” (Cabécou, Pavé Correzien, Deauville, Shropshire Blue). As David mentioned in his blog, there was a bit of theatre in the serving of the cheese. Apart from the slightly stingy portions I really enjoyed the different cheeses, but then I always like cheese and biscuits.

Overall I did enjoy the meal, it certainly was not the best I’ve had, but was very enjoyable, of course the atmosphere and the company was what made it more enjoyable. Would I go again? Hmmm not sure, possibly.

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Simple Pesto Pasta Salad

I do quite like pasta based salads which are basically can be best described as cold pasta! Though there is a little more work required than just letting cooked pasta going cold…

For this salad I cooked some fusilli pasta twists and after they had cooked, I immersed them in cold water. Iced cold water would be better, but I had no ice, so just plain cold water would do. This is for two reasons, firstly to make the pasta cold, ready for the salad, secondly to stop the cooking process. If you just cooked the pasta an let it go cold, it would go all soggy as it continued to cook after you drained it. So even if you intend to eat your pasta salad later, still plunge it into cold water to stop the cooking process. Just as an aside this is often how restaurants “cook” pasta. They cook the pasta until just about done, before plunging the pasta into ice cold water. They can then finish the cooking of the pasta when needed and it will only take a minute to finish the pasta before adding a sauce.

So with the cooked pasta I added a couple of spoonfuls of basil pesto and some chicken.

Mixed and served.

You could add some fresh basil leaves to up the basil flavour. Another option would be to add some cooked spinach.

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How to make Fried Butter

This is one recipe I will not be trying….

I blame this photograph from the Guardian on why I did a quick Google search and yes you’re right I won’t be trying chocolate covered bacon either…

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Breakfast Bread

It won’t surprise you, but most people who are happy to change what they have for lunch and dinner on a daily basis, are though more likely to have the same thing for breakfast everyday, with only the odd change.

Personally I do like having different breakfasts and will change what I have on a daily basis. Though I do find coffee and toast make more frequent appearances than other things.

I recently found these in my local supermarket and decided to give them a try.

It is Mission Deli Cranberry and Orange Breakfast Bread.

I do quite like fruit bread toasted for breakfast and have bought loaves of it in the past. I have also enjoyed the fruit toast available at Starbucks and as this seemed to be similar, even if not quite the same.

Probably the best way to describe them is as similar to naan bread with fruit. I popped them in the toaster and when they popped out put some butter on them.

So what are they like?

Well on the positive side, the bread is soft and is very nice when warm. However there wasn’t enough fruit in it for my liking and as someone who doesn’t actually like much fruit in his fruit bread, that’s saying something. I also found them quite salty, and I was using unsalted butter. My final point is that the bread was quite smooth on top and as a result buttering them was quite a challenge, basically the butter melted on the hot bread and slid off… So though I enjoyed the bread, it needed more fruit, less salt and I need to work out how to spread butter on them.

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Birra Moretti

Lunch

Having enjoyed a recent lunch at Belle Italia I had a beer alongside it. I ordered a Birra Moretti and a very nice beer it was too. A a 4.6% abv pale lager. Very refreshing and a great accompaniment to the Italian food.

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Selezione Classica

A quick lunch at Bella Italia was on the cards and not fancying pizza or pasta I went with a sharing platter all to myself…

Our selection of oven baked lemon & rosemary chicken wings, spiced meatballs, calamari, mini garlic filled calzoni and lightly battered courgettes served with flamed pepper and lemon herb dips.

I have talked before about platters, sometimes they consist of a bundle of stuff that was thrown into a deep fat fryer. This one from Bella Italia was more imaginative than most.

The chicken wings were, as I expected, reheated from cooked, but you could smell and taste the lemon and rosemary. The problem with reheating is that it changes the taste and texture of the chicken. Freshly cooked chicken wings are much more succulent and have more flavour and when you have had freshly cooked, you are always disappointed with the reheated versions. These, though reheated, were very nice, and it was also a nice change not have them covered in a sweet sticky sauce.

The meatballs were nice and spicy and were something I wasn’t expecting to find on the platter. They came in an earthenware tumbler and were covered in a pleasant tomato sauce.

The calamari were typical of the calamari at Bella Italia, covered in flour and deep fried. Slightly overcooked for my liking, but it was proper squid and not just rubbery rings as you find at some places. I do like calamari.

The mini garlic filled calzoni were simply small pizza bases, with garlic butter, folded and baked like a calzone pizza. Soft on the inside, but with crunchy edges, the garlic was subtle and complemented the bread.

The lightly battered courgettes, reminded me of a dish I had ordered on Kefalonia. Chunky strips of courgette, covered in a batter and deep fried. These were crispy on the outside and the courgette was lovely and tender, almost melt in the mouth on the inside. Really nice.

Overall I enjoyed my platter and would be happy to order it again.

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Thorntons Caramel Shortcakes

Though I like caramel shortcakes, they can be a bit rich and sickly. When I saw these Thorntons Caramel Shortcakes on special I decided to give them a try.

They are smaller than your average shortcakes, caramel and a layer of chocolate. As a result you don’t feel so icky when you have one (or two).

I much prefer them chilled, they are less sickly and the chocolate goes all hard and adds a nice crunch as you bite into them.

Thorntons also do flapjacks and brownies in the same range, however I’ve not tried the flapjack, the brownies aren’t too bad, but don’t come close to the caramel shortcakes.

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Fudge

I quite like fudge, even the hard stuff you buy from most sweet shops.

Today though I was lucky enough to find a proper fudge shop that sold real crumbly freshly made fudge in Minehead.

Roly’s Fudge Pantry is a really nice little shop and I thought it was a one off, but looking at their website with shops across the UK and a few in the US, not the one off shop I thought it was… No it’s a franchise!

Though their clotted cream vanilla fudge was fresh, sweet and creamy. It melted in the mouth and was delicious. They had a large range of flavours, but I am a bit of a traditionalist so went with the plain stuff.

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Traffic Jam Coffee

 

One of the “enjoyable” aspect of commuting using the M5 is that Friday afternoons during the summer months the motorway generally becomes one big car park. My one hour drive home from work can take twice as long and sometimes it has taken over four hours!

If I have a chance, I will stop for a coffee either at the services or sometimes Cribbs Causeway. This recent Friday was no exception so with the traffic basically stopped I came off went to Cribbs to go for a coffee. After very little thinking I went to Paterissie Valerie.

It’s certainly not the cheapest place for coffee, but the service is good, there is free wifi and the coffee, which is made from Illy is very nice.

I ordered an Americano with cold skimmed milk and after a short wait I had my coffee, which was excellent. I settled in with my coffee, my iPad and went through a bundle of e-mails that I hadn’t managed to do when I was at work.

The hard bit I think was not ordering any of the cakes which all looked very nice, and I have enjoyed one or two at previous visits. Not tried the savoury menu yet, but may do so one day.

So next time the M5 becomes gridlocked, I might just well go and get another coffee from Patisserie Valerie.

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French Picnic Lunch

Picnic lunch

This photo appeared in David’s photostream recently from his holiday in France. It reminded me of the typical French picnics I use to eat in France when I was young and on my last visit there (back in the 1990s). There is something very French about a French flute or baguette, pate, cheese and fresh tomatoes. Maybe some saucisson sec or other dried salami. Washed down with a small bottle of French lager or possibly a glass of red wine. Just hungry thinking about it.