Category: stuff

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Jamie Oliver Italian Sausages

If you are a regular reader of the blog you will know that I am a bit of a fan of Jamie Oliver. However I have been avoiding buying any Jamie Oliver products as I was concerned that my expectations would not be met.

However having put off buying anything I saw in my local supermarket some Jamie Oliver Italian style sausages. Coarse pork with red wine, prosciutto and herbs. They sounded and looked great.

After watching Jamie’s Great Italian Escape I was hoping that he would have bought what he learnt into this range of products.

I pan fried them, they browned and cooked fine.

I served them with some pasta and a green salad.

So what did I think?

Well…

They were certainly meaty, a great texture.

However I was disappointed with the flavour. It wasn’t sausage enough and it wasn’t Italian enough either. The flavours needed to be stronger in my opinion.

The key question is will I buy them again?

Sorry no.

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No more blue ice cream

There is something about blue food (well here in the UK anyhow) that means it doesn’t really appeal.

There never use to be blue smarties before someone noticed that the Germans had blue smarties!

Druckers, the coffee chain, use to sell a variety of Italian ice creams, one of which was a blue banana flavoured ice cream.

Why it was blue, I do not know, but blue it was.

Now I don’t like blue ice cream, but someone in my house does, he is three! He has been asking for it!

It appears after asking that Druckers won’t be getting anymore in. I did try Patisserie Valerie, both it and Druckers are owned by the same parent company, and after a web search I did find that at one time, Patisserie Valerie also sold blue ice cream. It now appears like Druckers that they don’t sell it anymore!

So no ice cream that is the colour blue. What am I to do?

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Tunnocks

Every so often, usually about once a year, I have a craving for a Tunnocks chocolate covered caramel wafer biscuit.

Available in packs of four from most supermarkets, unlike a lot of other things I crave, I am never disappointed.

I eat the four wafer biscuits, if I am good over a week, or if I am silly on one evening!

I do enjoy them, but then that is that. No more for another year.

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Roasting Duck Breasts

One of the problems with roasting duck breasts and duck is the amount of fat that comes off it. This is a good thing in one way, but can spoil the roasting process.

You can of course roast the duck breasts on a rack of some kind, so that the fat collects in the bottom of the pan but the duck is kept above it.

The process I use combines pan frying and roasting.

I score the skin of the duck breast and heat a frying pan on a high heat.

Do not add any oil to the pan and place the duck breasts in the pan skin side down.

Once the skin is crisp, transfer the duck breasts to a heated roasting tray and place in the oven and cook until the duck is cooked to your liking.

Some prefer their duck rare, I personally like it a little more done myself.

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Pistachio Ice Cream

I have always had a passion for pistachio ice cream. I use to have it as a kid in France and loved it.

It was always a challenge to find it back in the UK even over the last few years it’s not something you see. I have it now and again in (proper) Italian restaurants and even Druckers has a nice version.

So when I was in Sainsburys the other day looking for Carte d’Or Lavazza Latte Macchiato ice cream I saw they were stocking Antonio Federici’s Pistachio ice cream.

This looked very nice. Yes it was expensive and was quite a small tub in comparison to the other “luxury” ice creams in the freezer, but I like pistachio ice cream and this was pistachio ice cream.

I took it home and rather than try it straight away I put it in the freezer for a special occasion.

I followed the instructions to the letter on the day I decided to have some.

The result?

Was it heaven?

Ah….

No…

I so did not like it, I so did not like it so much that I not only threw the tub away, I also didn’t even finish the bowl I had scooped for myself.

So what was wrong, I hear you ask?

Well it certainly did taste of pistachio, it really did taste of pistachio, very nutty, very nutty indeed. It was quite a non-sweet taste, almost savoury-like. I think that was the issue for me, it was too much like pistachios and  not enough like pistachio ice cream.

Don’t get me wrong, I like pistachio nuts, but this ice cream didn’t do it for me.

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Sanpellegrino

I have been enjoying cans of Aranciata Sanpellegrino; that’s fizzy orange to you and me. I much prefer it over Orangina and certainly it is much nicer than Tango!

I first had Sanpellegrino in Italy, since then I have had it in many Italian restaurants. This is the first time I have seen it in my local supermarket.

Very nice, and not too sweet or strongly flavoured.

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Seafood Ramen

Recently at Wagamamas I had the seafood ramen. It is ramen noodles in a vegetable soup topped with grilled smooth dory, prawn, squid, kamaboko, wakame and seasonal greens. garnished with menma and spring onions.

Very nice it was too.

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Not too keen on the ketchup

I mentioned before how impressed I was with the new crisps (potato chips) from Burts with no added salt, but unlike other unsalted crsisps they have flavours; plain, ketchup and vinegar.

They are really nice crisps and if you are trying to keep your salt intake down a nice choice if you like crisps.

However…

I have decided that though I like plain and vinegar, I am not such a fan of the ketchup flavour.

Think in future I will go for the unsalted only crisps.

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Arctic Roll

Production of Arctic Roll, the retro ice cream dessert, was halted in 1997, but in 2008, Birds Eye chose to revive the brand because the recession is fuelling a demand for comfort food.

Business Correspondent Ian Reeve went to the north Yorkshire factory that is making nine million of them a year.

Watch the video.