jamesclay, Author at Time for a coffee

December 21, 2022December 21, 2022

Festive Gravy

gravy boat — Image by ALEXANDER MILLER from Pixabay

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

Over the last few years I have taken a different approach to making gravy with our Christmas lunch.

In the past I would utilise the cooking pan that the roast meal had come in to make the gravy. It would have to compete for hob space with the vegetables and pan frying the brussel sprouts. It would all then be a bit of a stress to ensure everything was cooked and the gravy arrived on time.

So, now I make the gravy first! This does mean I can’t use the roasting pan, so I create my own roasting pan.

I use a roasting pan, into which I add some chopped root vegetables. These are usually carrots, onions, parsnips, leeks, as well as some mushrooms.

I also add some chicken, either wings or drumsticks. I add some olive oil and garlic to the pan. I then roast this in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, the idea is that the chicken is cooked and there are juices in the roasting pan.

Having taken the roasting pan out of the oven I place it on the hob, if required I add some extra fat, usually butter and let this melt before adding a couple of spoonfuls of flour. This is then whisked into the melted butter and cooking juices to form a roux.

I then add some port (or red wine) and chicken stock and let the gravy cook for a while. Strain and place in a saucepan or a bowl.

This can now be heated up later when you’re about to serve, you could even use the microwave if you are short of hob space.

I do find it easier to heat up the gravy than make it from scratch as I am about to serve hence making it first.

December 21, 2022December 21, 2022

Festive Carrots

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

I will be cooking some nice festive carrots, that I was inspired by a Jamie Oliver recipe I saw on a television programme a few years ago.

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 21, 2022December 20, 2022

Festive Red Cabbage

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

For Christmas lunch this year I am planning to make some festive red cabbage.

Ingredients

knob of butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely sliced or chopped
1 x 500g (or half a) red cabbage, shredded finely using a food processor (white core discarded) or with a knife.
2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
splash of Port
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3 tbsp soft brown sugar
3 eating apples, peeled, cored and diced
2 tsp redcurrant
2 tsp cranberry sauce

Method

Heat the butter and oil in a large lidded saucepan. When hot, add the onion and fry gently until softened. Stir in the spices and season. Add the cabbage and fry for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until glossy. Stir in the sugar, apples and Balsamic vinegar, add a splash of port. Cover with a lid and let it cook gently for 30 minutes.

At this point I set it aside while I cooked the rest of the lunch. Ten minutes before I served lunch, I put it back on the heat and stirred.

Stir in the redcurrant and cranberry sauce (you don’t need to use both, you could use one or none) and cook for a further 10 minutes. If you aren’t using the sauce, taste the cabbage and add a little more sugar if it’s too tart for your taste.

December 20, 2022December 20, 2022

Roasting potatoes

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

A key staple of our lunch is roast potatoes. Firstly you need to use the right kind of potatoes. It’s not as simple as buying any kind, the cheapest or whatever. I go with King Edward or Maris Piper.

After peeling and cutting into chunks the potatoes are blanched in boiling water for about 7-10 minutes depending on the size of the chunks. Now the size if dependent on how you like your roast potatoes and how long you have to cook them. Obviously smaller chunks means a shorter cooking time, whilst larger chunks though take longer are preferred by some people. We usually go with smaller chunks,

While the potatoes are being blanched, place the roasting tray into the oven, with a good splash of olive oil and one of sunflower oil. The key here is to heat the pan and the oil. I put the pan into the hot oven (with the oil added) for at least five minutes, though I usually do ten minutes. I usually heat the oven when peeling the potatoes and then add the pan with oil while the potatoes are boiling.

After blanching the potatoes, drain and the key here is to let the heat dry the potatoes. If they go into the pan “wet” they won’t crisp up as well. The next stage is to slightly “bash” the potatoes by shaking the colander or sieve, this will aid the crisping process too. Then remove the roasting pan from the oven and add the potatoes, turning them and maybe a little more “bashing”.

You should also ensure that the potatoes are not too crowded, in other words they need air to be crisp. Better to do two less crowded pans than one crowded one. I think this is critical for crisp potatoes.

Cooked for thirty to forty minutes (larger potatoes take longer). It is a good idea to turn the potatoes half way through to ensure a more even crispness. The end result should be tasty, crisp potatoes with a fluffy centre.

Ten minutes before end of cooking you can add some butter and rosemary for flavour.

December 15, 2022

Well, that was terrible!

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 prawn cocktail.

Over the menu there were quite a few choices, but in the end I went with the fried buttermilk chicken burger. This was described as a crispy golden crumbed chicken escalope, toasted brioche bun, pickled cabbage slaw, mayo, lettuce & tomato.

Sounded quite good, but this is what I got!

First impressions was that this might be okay, but it wasn’t.

On the good side, the chips were nice, the roll was fresh.

However, the chicken escalope was overcooked and was more crunchy than crispy. I would expect the 99p chicken burger from McDonalds would be better than what I got. As with my prawn cocktail I do think that they could have spent some time and effort to make this an outstanding dish, but they didn’t.

I really should have complained, but it was late and I didn’t think it was worth the effort. I am also not sure what they could do about it as well.

December 14, 2022December 13, 2022

Now you can get Pret at home

I am not really a fan of coffee from Pret, I think it’s probably more down to the fact they only serve coffee in disposable paper cups. If I am going to get a coffee out and about, and I am going to sit down, then I really want a proper china cup for my coffee.

However I noticed on a recent visit to B&M that you can get Pret Nespresso capsules. So you can drink Pret at home and you can use a proper cup.

Pret are not the only high street chain to do this, Starbucks, Costa and Caffe Nero also sell their capsules in supermarkets.

December 13, 2022

Ich bin ein Berliner

On June 26th 1963 President John F Kennedy gave a famous speech in West Berlin in which he declared “Ich bin ein Berliner”. It is one of the best-known speeches of the Cold War. Of course there is some view that he was referencing a doughnut, well let’s go to Wikipedia and see what that says about this.

There is a widespread misconception that Kennedy accidentally said a malapropism that he was a Berliner, a German doughnut specialty. This is an urban legend which emerged several decades after the speech, and it is not true that residents of Berlin in 1963 would have mainly understood the word “Berliner” to refer to a jelly doughnut or that the audience laughed at Kennedy’s use of this expression.

Despite that on my recent trip to Berlin I did remember that speech and I did have a few doughnuts.

Close to my hotel there was a doughnut shop close to my hotel and looking through the window these did look like really nice doughnuts. However at €4.50 each they were a little expensive for me. In the supermarket next door they had a selection of doughnuts roughly €1 each, much more in my price bracket for a snack and better value for money. Not that I could actually compare as I never bought one of the €4.50 doughnuts.

I did enjoy my doughnuts, usually with a cup of coffee.

December 12, 2022

Back to the 1970s

Prior to flying out to Berlin on a business trip 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, but for one meal I went with the prawn cocktail for my starter.

This was so 1970s, it was a bed of lettuce, cooked prawns and seafood cocktail sauce (or rose marie sauce) with a slice of lemon. Alongside was some toasted buttered brown bread.

Okay this was a 1970s dish, it wasn’t elevated in any way whatsoever. Now and again I do like a prawn cocktail, and this was a simplistic dish, nothing special and nothing to write home about. The prawns were quite bland, and as expected the rose marie sauce overpowered much of the dish. I would have preferred brown bread over toasted bread.

I wasn’t expecting anything special, so as a result I wasn’t disappointed. I do think that they could have spent some time and effort to make this an outstanding dish, but they didn’t.

December 7, 2022

Time for a German Flat White

I was staying in Berlin for a few days attending a conference. The last time I had been to Germany was in 1985 staying for a couple of days in Munich on the way back from a camp in Yugoslavia. This was my first visit to Berlin and the first visit to a unified Germany.

I had various meals and snacks while I was there in Berlin. Though when it came to coffee I usually used the coffee machine in the hotel, but I did have a nice flat white at a branch of Einstein Kaffee. I was out and about walking around Berlin and did quite fancy a coffee. I had seen a Starbucks, but I hadn’t travelled to the heart of Europe for an American style coffee. I had seen a fair few branches of Einstein Kaffee across Berlin, so when I came across a branch I headed in and ordered a flat white.

I did think about having a cake, but nothing took my fancy and they all looked quite expensive. So, in the end I ordered just the coffee.

The place was quite busy, but I found a stool and sat down to drink my coffee.

It was a nice coffee.

December 6, 2022December 6, 2022

Time for a German Breakfast

I had breakfast in the hotel and I did find it interesting what was on offer and what I could have. I had never had breakfast before at a German hotel.

So once I got my coffee and a (disappointing) orange juice, I headed to the service area to choose something for breakfast.

There was a kitchen that cooked omelettes and fried eggs to order. On the hot plates were Nuremberg sausage or Nürnberger Rostbratwurst. These were small grilled sausages with a distinctive flavour. There was also scrambled egg, which was nothing to shout about. I quite liked the cheese covered grilled tomato, the cheese certainly enhanced that tomato. The streaky bacon was overcooked for my liking. I guess if you like crispy bacon then you would enjoy this streaky bacon, personally I prefer my bacon cooked, but still soft. Though initially a little apprehensive, I did quite enjoy the mushrooms in a cream sauce.

There was a wide range of breakfast items available. I did expect to see cheeses and cold meats, but was a little surprised to see fresh salad alongside. That felt a lot more like lunch than breakfast. Next to the salad was a lovely selection of fresh fruit. Elsewhere there was yoghurts and cereal.

I really loved the bread selection, as well as a range of bread rolls, there was a great range of loaves which you could cut slices from. There was white bread, seeded bread and wholemeal bread. Along with the bread was pastries and croissant.

There was also a pancake machine, which you could use to make your own pancakes, to which you could add maple syrup.

This was a splendid selection of breakfast items and I really enjoyed eating breakfast at the hotel.