Author: jamesclay

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Christmas Dinner

It is traditional in our house to have the Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve. For the last few years we have had our big Christmas dinner (with all the trimmings) on the day before. That way I can relax and enjoy the cooking, the children will enjoy helping and eating the meal and there will be no rushing off to play with new toys…

On the big day itself we ate cold roast and we had a game pie in the fridge.

Tradition? Well it’s now our tradition and it’s perfect if you have children in the house.

For Christmas (Eve) Dinner we had a three bird roast, a small joint of beef and a boneless rolled shoulder of lamb. Though I think I may have overcooked them all slightly, the beef and lamb were very tender, however the three bird roast, though very nice, felt a little dry. The vegetable accompaniments worked well and the meal was enjoyed by all.

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Peas

I quite like peas. Cooked very simply, perfect. I do prefer petis pois over the bigger garden peas.

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Caffè Paradiso

On a recent visit to London, I was on Store Street in Camden when I decided I wanted to get a coffee and do some work. The Caffè Paradiso was one of many coffee shops close by, but I chose it, partly as it had free wifi, but mainly as it looked like it served decent coffee.

Well the wifi was free and reasonably fast. The coffee was also really good. I also had a plain croissant and it took a while to get some butter. Though the croissant was fresh, it tasted a little too much of almond as though it had been stored too close to the almond croissants.

What I like about these independent coffee shops is they have character and soul. They have a personality which is missing from the high street chains. Of course the reason why high street chains are successful is that they appear to offer consistency and reliability. Though generally I have had excellent coffee from most independent places I have been to, I have on the odd occasion been disappointed. I think this is the reason why people sometimes are a little bit wary of independence and go with a chain. Of course in some places you have no choice and you can only go to a chain. Regular readers of this blog will know from my posts on coffee that chains, which should be consistent can sometimes disappoint. So the next time I am in the area I will hopefully have a repeat visit to Caffè Paradiso for some excellent coffee.

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Bloomsbury Cafe

CoffeeSo there I was slightly early for a meeting in Gordon Square in the heart of London, I had time for a coffee, however the only place close by and I could find was the Bloomsbury Cafe on Gordon Street. It’s part of UCL and from what I could see it served coffee in cardboard cups. Without any choice I decided that I did want a coffee and went in.

I had a large Americano which cost a very reasonable £1.30 and really enjoyed it, it was a great coffee. Felt old sitting amongst the students, but I think that’s just life!

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Not quite Chocolate Brownies

Homemade Chocolate Brownies

When the kids want to bake we usually make small cakes, however this time we decided to make chocolate brownies. However things didn’t go quite to plan as we didn’t have all the necessary ingredients.

The basis for my recipe was this one from BBC Food.

Ingredients for twenty brownies

375g/13oz butter, plus extra for greasing
375g/13oz dark chocolate
6 free-range eggs
350g/12oz caster sugar
1 tbsp vanilla extract
225g/8oz plain flour
1 tsp salt
250g/9oz white chocolate, chopped
2 tsp icing sugar

The problem we had was that the only chocolate we had in the house was milk chocolate, oh and we only had three eggs!

In the end I decided to use the following ingredients.

6½oz butter, plus extra for greasing
6½oz milk chocolate
3 free-range eggs
6oz caster sugar
½ tbsp vanilla extract
4oz plain flour
4oz milk chocolate chopped

I preheated my oven to 180°C.

I put some baking sheet and greased it with some butter before placing it in a baking tin.

Placing a bowl on a saucepan of simmering water I added the butter and the milk chocolate.

Once this had melted, I set it aside to cool slightly. I whisked up in another bowl the eggs sugar and vanilla extract. I added the butter and chocolate mixture and whisked this up.

I then folded in the flour until it was combined and then stirred in the chopped chocolate.

I poured the mixture into the baking tin and baked it in the oven for about 25 minutes.

After letting it cool for a while, but whilst the brownies were still warm I cut it into squares.

Not quite like proper brownies, but still very nice.

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Another visit for Yo Sushi

Don’t go to Yo Sushi for two years and then I go twice in a week! After we enjoyed our meal last week, we decided to go again.

The first dish we grabbed from the conveyor belt this time was Crispy Salmon Skin ISO, classic Japanese made with crispy fried salmon skin. This was a mix of three textures, the crispy skin, the soft rice and the chewy seaweed. Very nice even if it was a challenge to eat.

I ordered the Salmon & Tuna sashimi, three slices of premium Yellowfin tuna and three slices of premium Scottish salmon. I had anticipated that both my wife and I would eat this dish, but in the end I ate it all, as she didn’t feel like eating raw fish that evening.

We then went for some hot dishes. Once more we ordered the Soft Shell Crab Tempura, which was described as soft, tasty and tender soft shell blue crab fried in a crispy and light batter with tempura sauce. I do like crab but this dish is mainly about texture, there wasn’t a strong crab flavour, but is quite nice. We also ordered the Chicken Teriyaki, grilled chicken in a sweet, sticky soy based sauce was very good, delicious and the sauce was just right.

Still feeling peckish we then ordered a couple more dishes, the hot pepper squid we had the week before and also tried the Chicken Katsu Curry, chicken katsu with rice, a mild curry sauce and Japanese pickle. This reminded me of a dish I had in bento box in Auckland in New Zealand.

The best way I can describe it is as a breaded chicken burger, fried, sliced, placed on rice and then covered in curry gravy! It wasn’t a horrible dish, but certainly wasn’t one I would order again or would recommend.

Overall we did enjoy the meal, the service was good and it’s an interesting environment in which to eat as well as interesting food.

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Flying for a coffee

I’ve decided I’ve really gone off Starbucks coffee, I find that it is over roasted and I’ve not really enjoyed that coffee drinking experience. So there I was at Bristol Airport at 6am thinking I want a coffee, I could choose between Starbucks and Soho Coffee Co.

I don’t want rehash my previous visit to Soho, but as I didn’t feel like drinking Starbucks I went with Soho. The experience was as it should be, the service was polite, fast and efficient and as for the coffee, it was really nice and I enjoyed it. When you have a nice experience it does make you want to go back.

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A flat Flat White

It's supposed to be a Flat WhiteI was less than impressed with a Flat White I recently had at Starbucks, it was flat and insipid. I wonder though how much of that was because it was in a paper cup? I’m not a great fan of coffee in paper cups and where possible I will “drink in” so I can have a proper china cup.

I still find it a little incredulous how much we pay for coffee in paper cups these days, we think it’s somewhat normal!

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Time for Yo Sushi

I haven’t been to Yo Sushi for a while now, even though I enjoyed the meal I had there the last time I was there in 2009. I didn’t think it was that long ago!

Out on a evening shopping trip out with my wife, we decided that we wanted to get a quick bite to eat and as both like sushi, decided that we would go to Yo Sushi.

The first dish we grabbed from the conveyor belt was Assorted Fish Maki, two each of salmon, tuna and prawn and chive maki. These were very nice. I then picked up a plate of Avocado Maki, alas these were quite bland, but did have a nice texture.

We then ordered some hot dishes, which means as we could see into the kitchen we knew were freshly cooked. As might be guessed by regular readers of the blog, I went with squid, well I like squid. The Spicy Pepper Squid, is described as hot coils of spicy pepper squid topped with red chilli. I personally thought it was overcooked and a little chewy, but really enjoyed the dish, the chilli was a nice touch and added some heat to the squid.

The Chicken Teriyaki, grilled chicken in a sweet, sticky soy based sauce was very good, delicious and the sauce was just right. We could have probably eaten three of this dish, but in the end had just one. The grilled chicken was tender and there is something I have alway enjoyed about grilled chicken. This was well complemented by the sticky teriyaki sauce and dressed with sesame seeds.

As I was intrigued and had never had it before, I ordered the Soft Shell Crab Tempura, which was described as soft, tasty and tender soft shell blue crab fried in a crispy and light batter with tempura sauce. I do like crab but had not had soft shell crab before. This dish was mainly about texture, there wasn’t a strong crab flavour, but was quite nice.

Overall it was a really nice meal, though we preferred the hot dishes. We thought it was quite reasonable for the price we were charged.

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Anyone for a doughnut?

Despite my reservations about Krispy Kreme Doughnuts I recently bought a box of them for my team at work (as a reward).

Slightly concerned about the Christmas specials, as it is really nowhere near Christmas. I really should have picked my own selection for the box, but as I was in a bit of a hurry I got a full box with a selection already in, which included the tree and snowman.

Personally the one I had was a little too sweet and sugary for me, but the rest seemed to go down well.