jamesclay, Author at Time for a coffee

August 6, 2011

Chestnut Mushrooms

In the dark and distant past the only mushrooms I bought were those white ones and on the odd special occasion I would get little white button mushrooms. More often used as texture rather than flavour for most dishes I would cook.

However it is now much easier to get a wider choice of mushrooms in your local supermarket. You can even get wild mushrooms in some.

For chinese cooking I do like using Oyster and Shitake. They are very different to your traditional closed and chestnut mushrooms so add an exoticness to any chinese cooking.

For all other times I use mushrooms my preference is for the Chestnut, mainly for flavour, but also for texture. I either use them as part of a recipe or cook them on their own. I do like to roast them with other vegetables to accompany a roast dinner. To cook them on their own I like to use a really hot pan and a little butter. On a low heat they will become soggy, on a higher heat they will shrink and the flavour will be really enhanced.

So what’s your favourite mushroom?

August 5, 2011

Tartine Marocaine

On a recent lunch at Café Rouge I decided for my main that I would go for the Tartine Marocaine, an open sandwich of sautéed spicy merguez sausages & caramelised onions with houmous and crisp chicory on grilled sourdough bread served with a minted crème fraîche.

Those of you who have read my other blog posts on Café Rouge will know that one of the things I like about the place is that they have the merguez sausage.

This is a different dish to the times I have had it before. The sausage was great as were the onions. I was less enamoured with the chicory, but it was fresh and crisp. The bread was slightly on the thin side, but with the houmous worked well.

I did enjoy the dish and it worked well.

August 4, 2011

Assiette de Porc

On a recent lunch at Café Rouge I decided for my starter to have the Assiette de Porc, slices of saucisson and cured pork loin with French bread. It’s one of their Petits Plats dishes which are £3 each (or four for £10).

According to the website it should look like this.

This is what I got.

Though the French bread the the cured pork loin were good, I was less impressed with the saucisson. According to the picture it should have been slices of a proper saucisson. What I got was mini saucisson sausages that had been sliced in half. I guess you could call them slices of saucisson, but wasn’t quite what I was expecting. They also didn’t taste that good, felt like they had been cut some time ago and as a result had oxidised. I expect it was prepared either earlier that day, or even the day before and stored in the fridge.

I also had to ask for butter for the bread! That should have really come with the dish.

I did like the dish though.

August 3, 2011

Fried Eggs on Toast

I have talked about scrambled and poached, but now and again I like the idea of fried eggs on toast.

Very tasty they were too.

August 2, 2011

Tribute

Tribute, a “premium cornish ale” was a really nice pint of beer. Good flavour and not too much gas.

August 1, 2011

Chicken Korma

Sometimes time is against you and you aren’t at home and need something cheap and quick to eat. Supermarket cafes are not always my first choice for somewhere to eat, but if you are on your own, don’t want to spend too much money and don’t have the time then they aren’t that bad.

This is a Chicken Korma curry I had recently at Morrisons.

No it wasn’t fantastic and nor would it win any awards, but then I wasn’t expecting fantastic. It was as you might expect pre-cooked and heated up in the cafe kitchen. It was pleasant enough and the naan bread was fresh and hot. The rice unfortunately suffered in been reheated and was crunchy in places, it really needed to be freshly cooked in my opinion.

July 31, 2011

Grilled Chicken

I do like grilled chicken, however I don’t like my grill! I would love to have a proper commercial salamander grill, I am reminded on a regular basis that this is a standard domestic kitchen, and not a restaurant kitchen… So the grill we do have is built into the oven and is not separate. So if I want to grill I need to leave the oven door open and that I don’t like from a safety perspective, especially with young children running around. So the other day as I had the time I would be able to ensure that everyone else in the house wouldn’t be grilled.

I decided to do two types of grilled chicken.

Firstly I took some chicken thighs and with a marinade of olive oil, white wine vinegar and mixed dried herbs mixed and coated the chicken before placing them on the grill pan

I then took some chicken drumsticks and in a bowl added some Schwartz’s Spicy Italian spice mix, olive oil and balsamic vinegar and coated the legs.

I turned the chicken a couple of times and each time I would brush the chicken with the remaining marinade from each of of the bowls.

The result?

Well the chicken had a wonderful flavour and was beautifully moist and tender. I really do like the taste of grilled chicken and these were just right.

July 30, 2011

Scrambled Egg on Bagel

A nice simple breakfast that I have now and again is scrambled egg on toasted bagel.

I take a small pan, and turn the heat on. I add a small knob of butter and let that melt.

I slice a fresh bagel and place it in the toast.

I beat two eggs in a cup and pour it into the pan. I don’t add water or milk.

I then push the toaster down.

The way I cook the eggs, is once the bagels are down in the toaster, I stir the eggs with a fork. After about a minute I change over to a spoon. You probably could use a spoon from the start, but as I used a fork to beat the eggs in the cup, that’s what I usually start with!

The key is to keep the heat low to medium or you may find that you have a scrambled omelette rather than scrambled eggs. I then use the spoon to “scrape” the cooked egg from the bottom of the pan, which is then replaced by the liquid egg.

At the point the bagels pop up in the toaster generally the eggs are done. They will keep cooking even after the heat is turned off, but you can use this to your advantage to finish cooking the eggs. You need to be careful not to overcook the eggs as they will become rubbery.

I don’t generally butter the bagels and they don’t really need it. Add some freshly ground black pepper and you’re done!

July 29, 2011

Lamb Kebab Baguette

The last time I went to Caffe Gusto at the Mall I was impressed with the quality of the food and friendly staff. Back then I ordered I ordered the Shish Kebab in Pitta Bread with an Americano.

The lamb was reasonably tender, nicely cooked and well flavoured. The fries were really nice and the salad was fresh. Overall I had an excellent meal and was pleased with what I had. I would go again.

So when I was at the Mall recently and looking to get some lunch I decided once more to go to Caffe Gusto. This time I ordered the Shish Kebab in a Baguette with an Americano.

The lamb again was cooked nicely and was tender. As before the fries were nice and the salad fresh. However I don’t think the dish really worked for me, but that wasn’t the fault of Caffe Gusto, more mine for ordering what I did. I think the problem was that the baguette was quite crusty and as a result the lamb fell out as I ate it. Might have been okay with the bread on the side, but as a sandwich type meal it didn’t work. So if you are going to order this dish, go for pitta bread and don’t go for the baguette!

July 28, 2011

Quick Roast Chicken

I do enjoy roast chicken, but sometimes I don’t have the time to roast a whole chicken.

When time is against me I will roast legs and thighs, which can be done in under half the time.

I do like to roast my chicken with “stuff”, usually onions, mushrooms, tomatoes and other things I can find in the fridge.

Why legs and thighs?

Well I find that the meat on these cuts of chicken are full of flavour compared to chicken breast.

After the chicken is cooked, I usually remove the chicken from the roasting pan, let it sit for a while. In the meantime I add cubes of bread to the roasting pan. These soak up the juices and crisp up, a great accompaniment to the chicken.

Alongside my roast chicken we had roast potatoes and steamed green vegetables.

The courgette was home grown and tasted great.