Author: jamesclay

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Coffee and Croissant

Wanting a break whilst shopping recently we went to Patisserie Valerie for coffee and cakes.

The coffee was very nice, and for a change from many coffee places not in a huge vat of a mug, but more of a cup. I had an americano and it was very nice.

Time for coffee

If you are use to the Venti sized coffee servings that you get at Starbucks or Costa you would be disappointed. But for me the quality of the coffee was good and that to be honest is what really counts, not the quantity of coffee. My wife had a filter coffee and she enjoyed that.

There was a wide choice of cakes and I was tempted by many different varities. In the end I went with the almond croissant.

Croissant

It did taste of almonds, the almond paste was not overdone, though I would have liked more almonds on top and slightly less icing sugar. As for the other cakes, the toasted teacake was according to my son “not very nice” and having had a bite I had to agree. Something not quite right about it. However my daughter was overwhelmed by her huge plain croissant, so much so we had to get some more butter for it, which came quickly and with a smile. The waitress even offered to bring a bag if we couldn’t finish it; it was that large. My wife enjoyed her cinnamon danish pastry and I didn’t get a look in for a bite, even though I offered her a bit of my almond croissant.

With free wifi it’s a nice place to sit and work over a coffee, though as we found a nice place to take a break. The service was efficient and quick, and certainly so much better than the Café Rouge next door.

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Spicy Italian Chicken

A simple, quick way to cook a tasty chicken dish. I took some chicken legs and thighs in a bowl with some olive oil and a good sprinkle of Schwartz’s Spicy Italian.

Perfect Shake Spicy Italian Special Blend with red and green peppers, chillies, garlic and herbs, adds a rich spicy flavour to Italian-style dishes.

These spices are quick and easy and though yes doing it all fresh is so much better, that implies you have the time and money to do this. I don’t most of the time.

I also added some red wine and a splash of balsamic vinegar.

I then mixed the chicken in the wine, vinegar, oil and spice mix and roasted in the oven on a bed of onions and courgettes.

I served it with some small crispy roast potatoes and some steamed green vegetables.

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Chinese BBQ Chicken

This was a simple recipe that was very tasty as a result. It was based on the pork belly recipe that I made recently, but this time used chicken.

I took a splash of sunflower oil, balsamic vinegar, maple syrup (though you could use honey), chinese five spice and tomato ketchup. I coated some boneless and skinless chicken thighs with the marinade and left for about 30 minutes. You could leave it for longer, but I was hungry and trying to be quick!

I then roasted the chicken in a hot oven for about 15-20 minutes.

Once out of the oven, let rest for five minutes before slicing into thick slices.

I served it with a stir fry of vegetables and cashew nuts alongside some plain boiled rice.

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Fish and Chips

When travelling out and about I try as much as possible to avoid eating at motorway service stations. Either they are overpriced and overcooked, or they merely consist of fast food chains. One alternative is to eat at a supermarket restaurant where the food is usually a little better and generally much cheaper.

So it was that I found myself at a Morrisons supermarket last week looking for a bite to eat for lunch. As I hadn’t had it for a while I went with the fish and chips.

To be honest it was quite good and value for money at less than five pounds.

The batter was crispy, though for me a little too greasy, and the fish was only just overcooked. Generally I find in these places they well overcook the fish. The chips were crunchy with a fluffy inside. The peas were as expected frozen peas heated through and slighty overcooked as they were obviously cooked and kept warm over the lunch service period.

Well not bad, and to be honest what I expected from a supermarket café. Certainly it was better than what I would find at the motorway services.

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Chicken with lentils and peas

My original plan was to cook chicken with lentils in my usual manner, and as explained in this blog post.

However this time decided (as I was cooking) to cook something slightly different. Firstly the chicken wasn’t entirely suitable for grilling in my original recipe, as I was using skinless and boneless thigh pieces. So I went with cooking them in the pan that I would normally use for the lentils.

The chicken was added first and browned. I then added some pancetta, chopped red onion and some chopped courgette. This was then cooked for a few minutes. I then added some chicken stock. I let this cook for about ten minutes.

It was at this stage that I decided to change my recipe. I added some frozen peas and some chopped sun dried tomatoes, and let the dish cook for another five minutes.

I then added the tinned green lentils and half a pot of creme frache. This was then brought back to the simmer to ensure that the lentils are heated through and the creme frache mixed through.

I then served the dish.

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Pork Belly

You don’t always have to use expensive cuts of meat to make a wonderful meal, sometimes the cheapest cuts cooked really slowly can have fantastic flavour and texture.

Turn on your oven to its highest temperature.

Place the pork belly in a roasting oven, season, and roast on the high temperature for about ten minutes, then turn the oven down to about 160℃ and cook for at least another hour depending on size and thickness. Cooking for longer results in a more tender piece of pork. However what I have been doing recently is cutting the belly into squares and coating in a spicy marinade before finshing off in the oven for another 15-20 minutes.

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Roast Leg of Lamb

Sometimes you don’t want a whole leg of lamb otherwise you will be eating lamb for the whole week…

Many supermarkets are now offering a partly boned leg of lamb, sometimes called a carvery leg of lamb. It is often cheaper and smaller than a traditional leg.

It takes less time to cook than a whole leg (obviously) and when I have cooked them found most to be tender and delicious and certainly better than a boned shoulder of lamb.

What I do find though is that as it is partly boned, though a little easier to carve, the meat does shrink a lot more whilst cooking and some of the meat can be a little tougher as a result.

I usually use rosemary and garlic, classic flavours, to enhance the roast. In the photograph you can see I roasted the joint on a bed of carrots and rosemary. The carrots raise the meat from the bed of the roasting pan and work like a rack. The carrots then make a great base for gravy.

I am interested in using other herbs and spices for the future. Morrocan spices are an obvious choice, but wonder if anyone out there has some winning and tasty ideas.

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Scallops with Noodles

Scallops with Noodles

One thing I like about cooking oriental (inspired) food is the speed. This dish took about ten minutes from getting into the kitchen to putting food on the table.

Now I did cheat a little by using a pack of prepared stir fry vegetables, you can (as I usually do) prepare the veg yourself.

Once in the kitchen I put some water onto boil for the noodles, that take two minutes to cook.

I got the scallops and cut them in half through the middle to “double” the number of scallops. This is a trick I picked up from Gordon Ramsay on making scallops go further.

I heated a large frying pan and added a splash of sunflower oil. I let the oil heat through I then added a dash of Chinese Five Spice before adding the prepared stir fry veg.

In another pan I cooked the scallops. They don’t take long and you don’t want to overcook them.

Once the vegetables are nearly cooked, in other words still crunchy I added the noodles and some oyster sauce.

I then placed the noodles and vegetables on a plate and topped with the pan fried scallops.

For a variation I would have added some cashew nuts for crunch and some squid and prawns to complement the scallops.

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Marmalade Roly Poly

I have cooked many things in my life, but this was a first for me, a traditional steamed pudding. Yes I have heated up shop puddings, using steam or the microwave. But this was the first time I actually started with basic ingredients, made the pudding, steamed it and ate it!

So why marmalade?

Well we didn’t have enough lemons for a lemon pudding. No strawberry jam so “dead man’s leg” was out of the question. No dried fruit, so no spotted dick. But I did have marmalade… well it tastes of orange!

150 self-raising flour , plus extra for dusting
70 dried suet
45g caster sugar
finely grated zest of a lemon (well my lemon was a little soft so didn’t get too much zest)
100ml milk
some spoonfuls of marmalade

For the dough, mix together the flour, suet, caster sugar and lemon zest with a spoon. Stir in some milk until the mixture reaches the consistency of a soft pastry. Gather together into a ball, but don’t overwork or it will toughen.

This I then flattened out onto a flour dusted work surface.

I then spread the marmalade over the dough. Now to be honest if you try and spread like you do with toast then it isn’t going to work. Think of what you would do with hard butter on fresh soft white bread.

I then rolled the dough up. You can use a bit of milk to seal the edges.

I placed the rolled dough onto some greaseproof paper which I then placed on some foil.

I made a parcel of the greaseproof paper and used the foil to ensure it would retain it’s shape and sealed the edges. Leave rool for the pudding to rise.

Place the parcel in a steamer and steam for an hour and a bit, until firm to the touch. Allow to rest for a minute or two, unwrap, slice and serve. Custard is the obvious accompaniment.

Now as you can see it didn’t come out exactly to the shape I thought it would.

However once sliced it looked okay.

It was delicious served with custard.

It did need more marmalade, however I couldn’t use all of the jar as I wouldn’t have any for my toast in the morning…