Author: jamesclay

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Pizza Express

So there I was needing a bite to eat, I had had no lunch and it was looking like that working late that night I wouldn’t have a chance to get anything decent to eat and would have to grab a takeaway…. didn’t fancy that.

Luckily I had in my pocket some spare Tesco Clubcard Reward vouchers that were about to expire, so I thought lets use these, have a really nice meal, but where?

Well (from the title of this blog posting) you guessed I went to Pizza Express. Using the vouchers does restrict you to specific places, I had considered Café Rouge, but traffic was bad and to be honest did I want to be disappointed again? So the only place left from which to choose was Pizza Express. I have been to Pizza Express quite a few times before and have enjoyed my meals there. I also quite like their range available in the supermarket.

I did consider not going, as the place was empty (well it was late afternoon) and I wasn’t really wanting to be the focus of all the staff as the sole eater in the establishment, however time was against me and I was hungry!

As I was hungry I decided to have a starter and though there was a fair bit of choice, I went in the end for the Calamari Al Forno, breaded calamari with house dressing.

So no rings here then! More chunks of squid that were breaded and cooked. I did like the presentation and it was a nice portion, not too small and not too big. Alas the calamari was a little chewy, partly I guess as it was either overcooked (unlikely) or double cooked (more likely). The house dressing was a wet mayonaise with probably too much vinegar, but there was lemon for those that like me who prefer that. I did eat them all up and did enjoy it, it’s just I know that calamari can be so much better than this, however this is much better than a lot of calamari I have had at other places.

After my started I went with a Romana Pizza Pollo Pancetta.

This pizza has a stretched very thin base, similar to those (allegedly) you can find in northern Italy. The base was covered in red pepper (peperonata) sauce and topped with chicken, yellow peppers and what was suppose to be crispy pancetta.

Not this was really nice, what I did like was that it had flavour, wasn’t salty (as some pizza places to do with their pizza) and looked great. The chicken looked to be real chicken that was ripped and placed on the pizza, rather than processed pre-sliced chicken you can find on some pizzas. The yellow peppers were nice and crunchy. However one slight problem, the crispy pancetta looked like it had been replaced with proscuttio! It was neither pancetta or crispy. I didn’t complain as it was still nice, but it would have been nice to be told that this is what they had done.

I was quite full at this point, however the waiter pointed out that they had a selection of small desserts served with a coffee. Now that sounded just right. So I went with the Caffé Merenghina and my choice of an Americano.

The dish comprised os a small individual lemon pastry tart topped with a, in my case, slightly droopy meringue. The tart was great, not too sweet and not too tart and just the right size. The coffee was also decent.

The bill (I already had a coffee) came to just £21 which wasn’t bad at all in my book for a really nice meal. I will be going again.

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Hot buttered toast

Bread Toasts

There is something very nice about hot buttered toast. Whether it be for breakfast or afternoon tea (in front of a roaring log fire). Hmmm, now where’s the toaster!

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Pork leg steaks with a spiced apple stuffing

Most of the supermarkets now have a “cook at home” food, Waitrose is no exception and they have their “Easy to Cook” range.

We recently tried the pork leg steaks with a spiced apple stuffing.

Described as “succulent English pork leg steaks with a spiced apple stuffing, topped with apple butter and wrapped in English bacon” they looked really nice and sounded delicious.

It did sound tempting.

After cooking the pork according to the instructions, I sliced the steaks and they appeared to be quite tender.

The problem was the flavour or to be more specific the lack of flavour. Now most pork you buy doesn’t have much flavour, outdoor reared or free range generally does. These steaks lacked any depth of flavour. Not a problem, the spiced apple should enhance the pork as should the apple butter. Hmmm, well they didn’t the apple flavour was also missing and the spice though there, was so subtle you quite easily missed it.

It was a pity as this did some a really nice dish, but the lack of flavour and general blandness of the finished dish was very disappointing. Next time I think I will make it myself.

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Marlborough Cake

I bought a Marlborough Cake from Waitrose.

Basically a bread based roll with dried fruit and topped with sugar. It was a little dry and stale for me, I suspect it would be much nicer just out of the oven.

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Pancakes for Breakfast

Well it was pancake time again for breakfast, one advantage I guess of getting woken up early.

I make a simple batter of flour, eggs and milk, with a spoonful of caster sugar and some vanilla extract; and then cook using a hot pan. I have one just for pancakes, well I sometimes use it for omelettes or when I need an extra frying pan… shouldn’t really, but like any good cook, I need more pans.

I serve them with proper maple syrup. Personally I can’t stand the maple flavoured syrups you can buy, and will only buy the proper stuff. Yes it is expensive, but I would rather have the good stuff now and again rather than the horrible stuff all the time.

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Beef & Red Wine Casserole

Cooked a really nice beef and red wine casserole today. I find the key with any casserole is time.

I took some diced braising steak from Waitrose and in small batches browned it in a pan. The key here is to brown the meat to add colour and flavour to the final dish. If you try and brown too much in one go, you will be stewing the meat rather than browning. After browning the last batch, remove the final batch of beef and add diced onion, swede and carrot to the pan. You can add other vegetables depending on taste.

Saute the vegetables for a few minutes before adding back the beef. Stir and add some red wine. Now you could use a whole bottle of red wine, I used a small ¼ bottle of red wine. If you prefer ale then this would be the time to add the ale.

I then added some beef stock, I used the new Knorr Rich Beef Stock Pot to make the stock. Bring to the simmer and then place in the oven.

After cooking for at least two hours, topping up with stock if needed, I then added some pan fried pancetta and mushrooms. I let that cook for another 30 minutes before adding some home made dumplings made with suet and self-raising flour. This with a lid on the casserole dish was cooked for another 30 minutes.

Serve.

Was really nice and full of flavour.

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Boned Rolled Shoulder of Lamb

Sometimes despite all your best efforts, you fail to impress.

Though I know that shoulder is not the best cut of lamb, I hoped that a little slow cooking would make it tender.

However that didn’t work out as I hoped, though elements of the joint were tender, other bits were quite chewy or had a lot of gristle.

Another problem I had was that I bought this ready boned and rolled and as a result the “heart” of the joint was solid fat! Not particularly pleasant.

Overall I was disappointed, the last shoulder joint I had cooked was really nice, this wasn’t.

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Double chocolate loaf cake

The recipe for this delicious chocolate cake is from the BBC Good Food magazine.

Ingredients

175g softened butter , plus extra for greasing

175g golden caster sugar

3 eggs

140g self-raising flour

85g ground almonds

½ tsp baking powder

100ml milk

4 tbsp cocoa powder

50g plain chocolate chips or chunks few extra chunks white, plain and milk chocolate , for decorating

Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Grease and line a 2lb/900g loaf tin with a long strip of baking parchment. To make the loaf cake batter, beat the butter and sugar with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, flour, almonds, baking powder, milk and cocoa until smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips, then scrape into the tin. Bake for 45-50 mins until golden, risen and a skewer poked in the centre comes out clean.

Cool in the tin, then lift out onto a wire rack over some kitchen paper. Melt the extra chocolate chunks separately in pans over barely simmering water, or in bowls in the microwave, then use a spoon to drizzle each in turn over the cake. Leave to set before slicing.

I found that I needed to cook it for longer than 45 mins. I also used less milk than 100ml.

I also used extra white chocolate as I had run out of plain chocolate.

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Roasting Lamb

Lamb neck fillet can be tricky to cook, the last time I pan fried it, it was slightly underdone and slightly tough. Most of the time I prefer to roast it. I do add vegetables to the roasting tray to add flavour and keep the lamb moist.