food, reviews and of course coffee
I kind of really wanted to roast a whole leg, however I didn’t have the people to eat it coming round… so in the end I went for a small boneless leg joint.
I placed the joint on some garlic and rosemary, before seasoning the lamb with olive oil and ground black pepper. No salt as I don’t really use salt in cooking any more.
Once place I do seem to frequent a fair bit, is Bella Italia. Mainly as it is convenient and also they accept Tesco Clubcard deals. Yes it is a chain and they probably use some kind of step system for cooking, but compared to some traditional Italian places I have eaten it isn’t that bad.
One thing I seem to order from the menu a lot is the calamari.
They coat it in parmesan before deep frying it. Sometimes it can be overcooked (not how I like it) but generally they do get it right.
I also quite like the pasta and pizza at Bella Italia too.
Earlier this week I mentioned the starter I had had at Café Rouge. It was part of the fixed price menu, for my mains I had Beignets de Cabillaud, which is deep fried cod goujons served with French Fries and remoulade sauce.
So it’s fish and chips!
I did enjoy this dish, I liked the fries, the batter was cripsy, the fish had flavour, the sauce was tasty.
I think I should have ordered a salad to go with it, but if the rocket leaves were anything to go by on the starter than maybe it was a good idea I didn’t.
This dish almost made up for the disappointment of the starter.
Jamie Oliver once more cooks on the BBQ, this time prawns.
An interesting article from LA about how some coffee shops are not just getting rid of free wifi, they are getting rid of wifi full stop!
Coffee shops were the retail pioneers of Wi-Fi, flipping the switch to lure customers. But now some owners are pulling the plug. They’re finding that Wi-Fi freeloaders who camp out all day nursing a single cup of coffee are a drain on the bottom line. Others want to preserve a friendly vibe and keep their establishments from turning into “Matrix”-like zombie shacks where people type and don’t talk.
I do like to go to coffee shops and have been known to use the wifi. I agree though that sometimes you go into some coffee shops and everyone is huddled behind their laptops using Facebook or similar. Coffee is about the conversation.
Photo source.
Found this at my local Tesco.
It’s a packet of unwashed wild rocket.
Certainly felt a lot fresher than the stuff in bags (and I hope a lot less chemicals too).
Of course the obvious thing to do is not buy the stuff, but grow my own rocket.
Though I always have reservations about Café Rouge there is one item on the menu that I do like that always tempts me to try the place again, and that is Merguez aux Lentilles de Puy or grilled spicy Merguez sausage on a bed of puy lentils in a ceramy sauce and topped with a rocket salad.
They do a very good merguez sausage and it is always very well done, well cooked and nice and spicy. The lentils were quite good too.
However the dish was let down by something as simple as rocket leaves. They were not fresh, old and somewhat manky! A disappointment using not just old rocket leaves, but ones that looked as if they were verging on going off.
Once more Café Rouge disappoints, I need to learn from this.
Last week I mentioned how disappointed I was with Jamie Oliver’s Italian Sausages. Well this time I was trying out his pesto.
To be honest I was a lot more impressed.
Unlike other pesto I have used, this had a lovely smooth flavour, you could taste the basil, you could taste (and feel) the pine nuts, the parmesan was not overpowering as it sometimes can be in pesto and the olive oil was subtle without the harshness of cheap oil you find in some cheap pesto.
It worked well with the linguine I had.
I will be buying it again.
Jamie Oliver, I do like your Pesto!
The traditional way of cooking pork belly is to slow roast it in the oven for a couple of hours.
I placed the belly pork on the root vegetables and seasoned it. I then placed this in the really hot oven, turning the temperature right down to 160. I then left the pork to roast for about two hours. This may not seem long, but it wasn’t a huge piece of pork like a leg joint.
Sometimes though you don’t have the time…
Another method I use is to score the skin on the belly and then cut the pork belly into one inch cubes (3cm). Place the cubes of pork on a roasting tray, and cook for about 30-40 minutes in a hot oven. Ensure that the pork belly is really dry before putting it in the oven. I seasoned mine with black pepper. You don’t need to add salt, but it does help to remove some of the moisture.
The end result is tender pieces of tasty pork with a crispy crackling.
I served mine with salad and crusty bread.
Had a nice coffee at Caffe Nero, an espresso.
Out of the many chains you can buy coffee from, I do quite like Caffe Nero.