jamesclay, Author at Time for a coffee

January 1, 2023January 1, 2024

Time for a Coffee: Top Ten Blog Posts 2022

In 2022 I wrote 236 blog posts. More than 2021 when I wrote 107 blog posts, in 2020 it was 120. In 2019 it was 58 blog posts, 2018 just 36.

At ten was Tasty Bao Buns was a review of a meal of bao buns I had at Master Bao in January 2020.

Dropping five places, the ninth most viewed post from January 2021 was about Truffled Cauliflower Cheese is no more… at M&S. It had disappeared, as I did want to get some for our Christmas lunch. Never saw it again in 2022 either.

Time for La Lola was the eighth most popular post, a review of my first visit to La Lola in St Nick’s Market in Bristol.

The seventh most popular post was about how the chain German Doner Kebab is opening in Weston-super-Mare. Well the post in January 2022 was about it opening, here we are year later in January 2023 and it still isn’t open.

Rising two places to number six was my review of Lidl Fritto Misto. Though I have bought the Lidl Fritto Misto from their Italy week quite a few times, the reality is that it’s okay, but not good.

The fifth place spot was another on German Doner Kebab not yet open in Weston-super-Mare.

The top post from 2020 dropped six places to number seven in 2021. In 2022 it was my fourth most popular post, and it was my review of some Lidl Sol Mar Cod Croquettes

Having been the most popular blog post for both 2018 and 2017, second in 2019, and dropping seven places in 2020, using from tenth place to third place was a post asking the question could you use Sirloin for Beef Wellington? This was a response to the high ranking of another post about using sirloin steak in a Beef Wellington rather than fillet steak due to the way people were (at the time) searching Google.

The post at number two, sticking there, was a review of Lidl Coffee Ice Cream. They are not huge tubs, but what you get is a tasty creamy coffee ice cream, with a little chocolate in there as well.

So the most popular blog post on Time for a Coffee in 2022 was German Doner Kebab still not open in Weston-super-Mare another post on the kebab chain.

Quite refreshing to see posts from 2022 being in the top ten.

December 31, 2022

Mozzarella, Tomato, and Basil Salad

This is a very simple salad, that is quick and easy to make.

I take a ball of mozzarella and break it into pieces. You could cut it, but I think tearing it allows the broken edges to capture the dressing. Then add some sliced tomatoes. I like using heritage tomatoes if I can get them, but at this time of year I try and get a fully flavoured tomato. I then add some basil leaves, tearing the bigger leaves in half. I then dress the salad with some olive oil, white wine vinegar, and then season with salt and pepper.

Simple, yet delicious.

December 30, 2022

Pie and Mash

Prior to flying out to Berlin I was staying at The Thistle hotel close to Heathrow Terminal 5. I picked this hotel as it was convenient to the airport and they had autonomous pods that carried you from the hotel to the terminal. They also served dinner. When I looked over the menu there was a choice of things to have. For my starter I had the smoked haddock fish cake. After a disappointing chicken burger I had had the night before, I looked over the menu for my main course. I decided I would go with pie and ordered the steak and ale pie, with creamy mash potatoes, garden peas, carrots, and gravy.

The plate did look quite nice, and was well presented. The pie crust was a little soft for me, but the filling was meaty and tasty. The mash was quite creamy and the veg was cooked okay. The gravy was a little thin for me, and I could have done with more, but it did help make the dish.

Overall I had really quite low expectations for this dish, but in the end did enjoy the dish.

The hotel was convenient for Heathrow, but the food is pretty abysmal, especially for the amount you are charged. It is like poor quality pub food, but at hotel prices. I think if I need to stay at Heathrow again, I would probably choose a different hotel.

December 29, 2022

Christmas Carrots

I did in the end make some festive carrots for our Christmas lunch, using some heritage red carrots.

Take a frying pan, this and fill with evenly cut carrots, either whole or halved in the main. To this add a large knob of butter, a splash of white wine vinegar, the juice from two clementines (you could use similar citrus fruit, or one orange).

Add some fresh mixed herbs. Cover the carrots with boiling water and turn the heat on.

Then let the carrots bubble away gently on the stove top for about 40 minutes. Once the water has evaporated, the carrots should caramelise in the remaining sweet and sour reduction, I always let the carrots brown slightly on the edges.

The result is tender, slightly pickled carrots, full of festive flavours.

December 27, 2022

Salt dry-aged British sirloin of beef

I blog about what we eat for Christmas lunch, mainly to remember things that worked well and for those that didn’t, not to repeat that mistake.

We have a tradition of having our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. We’ve done this for ten years now. We do this for a few reasons. On Christmas Day itself, the children are often too excited to sit down for a long meal, so don’t eat or enjoy the meal or the occasion. It also usually means I spend a fair few hours in the kitchen, which means I miss them opening and playing with their presents. I also find it quite demanding to spend as little time in the kitchen as possible, whilst creating a wonderful dining experience.

Having the meal on Christmas Eve means that we can both spend a bit more time preparing the meal (less stressful in itself) and enjoy eating the meal (as do the children). As a result for them it helps pass the time on one of the more exciting days of the year as they anticipate the arrival of a sleigh full of presents being pulled by eight tiny reindeer! Even though they are older now, we still maintain the tradition.

As to what we eat on Christmas day itself, well we have lots of lovely leftovers, cheeses, pickles, hot bread, etc…. quick and easy to prepare and delicious.

One of the three roasts I cooked, one was the M&S Salt dry-aged British sirloin of beef roast.

This was quite an expensive joint of beef, so I had quite high expectations for it.

After removing from the fridge for thirty minutes, the joint was seasoned and then seared in a hot pan before roasting in the over for seventy five minutes.

I let it rest and then carved the beef. It was a very tender roast and full of flavour. I did have some gristle running through the joint which I was not too impressed with.

Though it was delicious, we didn’t eat much of it, I think people enjoyed the turkey roast we had.

I am not sure I would get it again as a secondary festive roast. I think I would save for, say a Boxing Day meal.

December 27, 2022December 27, 2022

So did I make a mistake?

As to what we eat on Christmas day itself, well we have lots of lovely leftovers, cheeses, pickles, hot bread, etc…. quick and easy to prepare and delicious.

I blog about what we eat for Christmas lunch, mainly to remember things that worked well and for those that didn’t, not to repeat that mistake.

I wrote the other day about some hesitation about a Christmas roast I had ordered from M&S.

Think we may have made a mistake with the turkey roast we ordered from M&S. It looks like we ordered the M&S Collection Slow-cooked British Easy-Carve Three Bird Roast. This is a cooked joint, which you heat up in the oven. I thought it was going to be a fresh three bird roast, which we’ve had before from M&S. It’s not that I have a strong aversion to this kind of product, but I much prefer cooking from scratch (or raw) than heating a dish in the oven that is already been cooked.

When I picked up the roast I did think about replacing it with something else, but there wasn’t anything similar. So I kept it in the basket and headed to pay for it. I then joined the queue for the tills which stretched to the back of the shop. I thought this was going to be a long wait, but in the end the till moved very quickly.

It was quite a large box which I put into the fridge for cooking the next day.

When it came to cooking it, I got it out of the box, it came in a sealed plastic bag covered in netting.

The roast was then placed in the included foil tray and cooked for eighty minutes.

After cooking I let it rest for about fifteen minutes and then proceeded to carve the roast.

It was very easy to carve and didn’t fall apart, unlike some previous multi-bird roasts I have cooked in the past.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so what was it like?

Well it was loved by everyone around the table. The whole thing was well seasoned and it was lovely, moist, tender roast. It was delicious and full of flavour. I would certainly order it again for next year.

December 24, 2022

A disappointing fishcake

Prior to flying out to Berlin I was staying at The Thistle hotel close to Heathrow Terminal 5. I picked this hotel as it was convenient to the airport and they had autonomous pods that carried you from the hotel to the terminal. They also served dinner. When I looked over the menu there was a choice of things to have. For my starter I had the smoked haddock fish cake, which was served with a soft poached egg, and spinach.

I kind of knew that I was going to be disappointed with this dish, in the main because of the disappointing chicken burger I had had the night before.

Yes I was disappointed.

The fish cake coating was hard and crunchy rather than crispy. There was very little smoked haddock flavour.

It was a soft poached egg. I did think they might serve it on wilted spinach, no it was served on just some plain spinach leaves, which did wilt slightly from the heat of the egg.

I do wonder why they serve food like this, and why they think that they don’t need to worry about it. My guess is that most of their clientele were either people like me who have dinner as part of their hotel deal, or are staying there for one night before flying out and have little choice but to eat in the hotel, and don’t want to to travel somewhere else to eat.

December 23, 2022December 22, 2022

Cheese Games

Met up with some friends at The Stable Game Room for a coffee and a bite to eat (oh and to play a game).

The Stable Game Room has many board games you can play, as well as serving food, alcoholic drinks and coffee.

I had an espresso, which was a little harsh to be honest, so much so I had to add sugar and I generally never do that to coffee. However when I was in Italy in the 1990s I would see quite a few Italians do that, so still felt I was being honest with myself.

I wasn’t that hungry, so I had the Cheese Deli Board, expecting to share it with the table.

The board was quite plentiful with cheddar, red Leicester, stilton and brie. Alongside was apples, grapes, pickle, pickled onions and cornichons. With this came bread and crackers.

I had to ask for butter though. It was a big board and there was lots of cheese. I have to say though, the cheese was nothing to write home about, the sort of cheese you could find in any supermarket. The cheddar was quite bland in comparison to the mature cheddar I usually have. Nice to have some stilton with the dish.

For a little more money you can have a cheese and ham board. Not sure if this means the same amount of cheese and then ham, or less cheese and some ham!

Our table also had a couple of pizzas. They have a pizza oven and used fresh dough, so the pizza looked excellent and according to those that ate them, they were delicious.

Certainly would do a return visit.

December 22, 2022December 21, 2022

Festive Brussels with Chestnuts and Pancetta

As we approach Christmas I am reviewing my processes and recipes for Christmas dinner.

This dish is very simple to cook, has festive overtones and really adds something special to the humble sprout.

Peel and halve the sprouts, now I know some people will think that what is he doing, sprouts are supposed to be whole! Well what I want in this dish is for the sprouts to be a similar size to the chestnuts.

The sprouts are then partially cooked in advance, by placing in simmering water for about five minutes, drained and plunged into cold water and left to one side. You can do this earlier in the day so freeing up hob space for other things.

When you are close to serving time, in a hot frying plan, add a splash of olive oil and add the pancetta. I go for smoked pancetta, as I much prefer the stronger flavour and it goes well with the similarly strong flavour of the sprouts.

Cook the pancetta until is just going crispy. Then add the partially cooked sprouts and the chestnuts. I use the cooked and vacuum packed chestnuts from Merchant Gourmet. These are already prepared and cooked and are quick and easy to use.

You can season with some black pepper, but no need to add extra salt, as the pancetta bacon adds the saltiness to the dish.

Toss and sauté the sprouts and chestnuts with the pancetta and serve with your favourite festive roast.

December 22, 2022December 22, 2022

Have I made a mistake?

It’s difficult to see what else we could have ordered as their Christmas food ordering has closed and they no longer have their choices online. However doing a Google search I was able to bring up an online version of their brochure.

I can see that the page that the three bird roast was on was on the same page as two other choices, partridge, and pheasant, which are not slow-cooked. On the next page was a three game roast (which wasn’t slow cooked), but we’ve had that before, and wasn’t too impressed.

Yes, I can see now that the description does say slow-cooked. I actually don’t think I would have ordered it, if I had realised it was a slow cooked roast.

Well the proof of the dish will be in the eating.