This morning I am thinking pancakes…
So what are you having for breakfast?
Nice video on what the rest of the world have for breakfast.
Hmmm, choices, wonder what’s in the fridge?
Cooking the Turkey
Well the Christmas dinner was a real success this year, really pleased with the end result. I like to write about it so next year I can remember what we had, what we liked and what I should avoid.
We had a fair few extra people around so I cooked two roasts, one was the four bird roast from Aldi (which costs just £10) and a more expensive roast from Morrisons, comprising turkey breast wrapped around a smoked pork tenderloin and then covered in pork crackling.
Both roasts were simple to cook and were both full of flavour. Turkey can often be dry, but I managed to avoid that, but that was probably much more down to the style of the roast, it wasn’t a whole bird.
The Aldi four bird roast was a little skimpy on the goose and duck, but I did expect that for a £10 roast. The stuffing was okay, but was slightly overpowering and could probably have down with less herbs.
Alongside the main dish I served a range of vegetables, including a brussel sprouts with chestnuts and pancetta. Timing I find is quite critical with this kind of meal, so I had done a fair bit of preparation in advance, so things went smoothly. For example I had made and prepared my stuffing the night before, I had already trayed up the pigs in blankets and cocktail sausages.
Overall the meal was a success and enjoyed by all.
T-Licious
This tearoom in Chepstow is a real treasure and a lovely place to go for a pot of tea. It has character, personality, excellent customer service and delicious refreshing tea served from china teapots.
There is a quirky decor inside, but it adds to the atmosphere of the place. Due to the layout of the building the decor changes as you move through the building and into the garden. The chairs and tables don’t match, but that adds to the feel of the place.
The tea was really nice, as was the food, as a result the whole experience was just the thought of thing I like.
Pie with all the trimmings
I mentioned in a previous post how much I had enjoyed pie and mash at Pie Minister. The Pie Minister in the Oxford Covered Market on a Tuesday has a special offer, basically any pie with all the trimming for just £5, the usual price is £7.95 so quite a good saving.
Normally I can’t get in on a Tuesday as, you might well expect, the queues are quite long. I generally don’t have a lot of time for lunch, but also I don’t like queueing! However on a recent Tuesday I was lucky to get in quite quickly. The place was busy though. I went with the traditional steak and kidney or as they call it Kate and Sidney. This was served with mash, gravy, a side order of mushy peas and topped with cheese and crispy onions.
It certainly looked the part. I did enjoy the pie which was full of a rich delicious filling, big chunks of steak and kidney combined with a nice crunchy pastry shell. The mash was smooth and well seasoned, the mushy peas were also very nice. However I am not sure if the cheese added anything, there was something rather disconcerting about biting into a portion of hot pie with cold cheese, in some ways it was a little unpleasant. If I go again, though I will go with the mushy peas, I will avoid the cheese!
Four Bird Roasts
Over the last few years we have had our main Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve.
There are many reasons for this, the main is that we have found it makes the meal so much more enjoyable. The children enjoy it more, it feels that Christmas lasts longer.
Last year we went with the four bird roast from Sainsburys, which I really enjoyed, it was easy to cook, looked great and was quite tasty. The Sainsbury’s version of the four bird roast is a goose stuffed with turkey, duck and guinea fowl. I will say that this is basically a stuffed goose; it’s 62% goose, 9% turkey and there is 8% duck and 8% guinea fowl. I really enjoyed the roast, it was what I wanted, though I would like to have more of the other meats alongside the goose.
We had the four bird roast from Marks and Spencers in 2009, it was basically a stuffed turkey, the chicken, duck and goose only comprise 17%, but with 66% turkey it’s way too much turkey and at £120 is a little expensive for what is a stuffed turkey.
Though we enjoyed the roast, I did find that it contained a bit too much turkey, which is fine if you enjoy turkey, but as a result I do think at £120 it is a little expensive for what is basically a stuffed turkey. It isn’t a “proper” four bird roast, as in a turkey stuffed with a goose, stuffed with a duck and then a chicken. No, it’s a turkey stuffed with portions of the other birds.
According to my blog in 2010 we had a three bird roast, which to be honest I don’t remember.
So what are we doing this year? Well the plan is still to eat the main meal on Christmas Eve, but what will be the centrepiece? Haven’t yet made a decision.
What are you having?
Pie and Mash
In all this cold weather there is something very comforting about pie and mash. Very much a comfort food, it’s not something I actually eat very often.
A chance discovery in the Oxford Covered Market introduced me to the delights of the Pie Minister. I am sure that it is supposed to be pronounced MIN-IS-TER, for some reason I have in my head it should be pronounced MINS-TER as in York Minster. I just think Pie Minster sounds much better than Pie Minister. It’s a lovely little place in the market and despite the fact it is called a market, this is not a stall, it’s a small restaurant (well probably more like a cafe) in the heart of the market. The Oxford Covered Market is a lovely quirky place in the heart of Oxford with lots of lovely stalls, shops and places to eat. If you ever visit Oxford then do visit the market.
Pie Minster on first appearances, feels more like a wartime soup kitchen, than a restaurant, there is a counter where you place your order. You can take away or eat in. If you want to, you can buy the pies to take away. Within Pie Minister there are communal benches with tables, that have a variety of sauces on them, as well as bottles of tap water and glasses. There are also bar stools by the window with space to eat.
Pie Minister offers a range of pies with a wide variety of fillings. From the traditional steak and kidney or as they call it Kate and Sidney, through to vegetarian pies such the Wild Shroom, with wild mushrooms, asparagus, white wine & cream.
On my first visit I went with the Deerstalker Pie, with British venison and outdoor reared dry cured bacon with red wine and puy lentils. This I had served on a bed of mash with gravy. You can add more trimmings, but I decided to stick with just pie, mash and gravy. It was quite reasonable at £6.00.
This was served on a tin plate, which added to that atmosphere of a wartime soup kitchen. The pie was really really good. Often when you have pie, it is either a small stew with a puff pastry lid (that is often cooked separately), or it’s a huge pie which you cut into find it’s full of space and there is a small amount of filling at the bottom. No the pie at Pie Minister was full of delicious filling full of flavour, the pastry had a good crunch. The mash was smooth and well seasoned and the gravy was not too thick and not too thin. It added to the dish and did not overpower it, it tasted as gravy should and didn’t appear to be made from a gravy packet.
I really did enjoy the pie and would certainly recommend Pie Minister. There are a fair few branches across the south and they also have a market stall that visits those farmers’ markets that are now a regular feature of most high streets.
Despite the service, the salad was quite nice…
Despite the time it took to arrive (see my previous blot post), I did enjoy the salad I had recently at Café Rouge.
The Paysanne Salad (£11.25) consists of grilled chicken with egg, bacon, avocado, tomato, French beans, and Parmesan, lemon & garlic dressing
I did feel the accompanying Dressing was a little sharp and I didn’t use very much of it. I am not sure I recall it even tasting of lemon. I think if I was going to cook it myself, I would use lardons instead of a sliced slice of bacon. This would have been much nicer.
I also thought it was a little pricey for what I had, I’ve certainly had better salads at Café Rouge for a lot less money. Though I am reminded that due to the poor service I didn’t actually pay for it!
Overall though I did enjoy the salad, it was fresh and tasty.
Well that’s ironic…
You may recall an earlier blog post about poor service at a branch of Bella Italia that I experienced. I did fill in the web feedback form, and Tragus the company that owns Bella Italia did respond with a really nice letter and some vouchers for use at any of the restaurants that Tragus own.
We had already decided that we wouldn’t go back to Bella Italia and so on a recent shopping trip to Cribbs Causeway we chose Café Rouge.
We arrived before 1pm and the place was very busy, but there were still some free tables. Cafe Rouge is one of the many eating places available in the food area at Cribbs. When Cribbs opened it was full of fast food places with lots of tables. A few years ago, the food area was redeveloped and fast food establishments, well not replaced, were supplemented with a range of restaurants including Carluccio’s, Cafe Rouge and others. This made it a much more attractive environment for eating out than before. Having said that remember it is a shopping mall, and so not quite a real alternative to a “normal” restaurant.
We were greeted well and shown to a table. We sat down and waited a short while before some menus were dropped off on our table. They were literally dropped on the table and before we could even say thank you and possibly order some drinks the waiter disappeared into the throng of the other tables. We were a little surprised, a little put out, but well they were busy… We didn’t worry so much, he would be back in a couple of minutes.
Ten minutes later we needed to get up and find a waiter. Despite trying to catch the attention of the waiting staff, we had to go and find one to take our order.
Now our order wasn’t too complicated, two dishes, one was the Paysanne Salad, the other was the Goat’s Cheese Salad. So we didn’t expect any problems.
We did feel we had been waiting for a while, and after twenty minutes, we noticed that the next door table had not only ordered well after we had, but now had their food, we got up again to ask where are food was.
After another ten minutes, I was getting quite annoyed, so for the third time we got up and asked to speak to the manager. Now she did listen, immediately offered us our meal for free, which we accepted. Within a couple of minutes our food arrived.
I do find it ironic that having received vouchers as compensation for poor service that when using them at a different restaurant expecting good service, it was actually worse! At least we didn’t need to use the vouchers.
Eat beautiful?
I hadn’t heard or seen an itsu restaurant or shop before, but I was out in Oxford and found their branch on Cornmarket Street. They have been in London for a while, since 1999 according to the website.
The blurb says
The early pioneers of Pret are the creative force behind itsu.
Years of listening and reacting to customers encouraged us to build a new type of food place dedicated to skinny but delicious food; sixty two dishes- light, green and good for you.
Apparently the secret to Pink Floyd’s breathtaking music is as much about what they left out as what they put in; a bit like itsu, less fat, more bounce.
There was a lot of choice and within the different types of food on offer lots of variation. It was quite difficult to decide on what to choose.
The salads looked great, well presented, as did the sushi. The food looked fresh and inviting. The shelves were well stocked and there was a lot of choice.
I was tempted by a box of sushi, but as the weather outside was cold and wet, I went with the chicken and rice “potsu”. It is described as chargrilled chicken, ithai sauce, kombu relish, brown + wild rice & seven veg.
It was rather nice, filling and tasty. The chargrilled chicken was full of flavour, and the vegetables were fresh and had a nice crunch. The sauce was very spicy and in some ways I could see how some people might find it overpowering, but I did like it. It was nice to eat something very different for lunch, something that wasn’t a sandwich or the ubiquitous panini.
It was an interesting environment in which to eat, there were raised communal tables with high stools. It certainly is a good place to go if you are in a group, and I am sure in a place like Oxford with lots of students they are trying to attract that market. The decor and colours are best described as bright and colourful, very different from the dark and wood you find in coffee shops.
I enjoyed the food, quite liked the environment and was inspired by the menu. I will certainly go again.
I rarely go with the chicken
When I go out to eat I rarely go with the chicken, not that I don’t like chicken, on the contrary I cook it a lot when I am at home, as you can see I have written a lot about it on the blog. The main reason I don’t choose chicken is that, it is something I do cook at home and where possible when eating out I prefer to go with something I don’t normally cook at home. I also don’t choose chicken is that often the dish is chicken in some kind of sauce, or topped with stuff. In these dishes, the chicken is not the star of the dish, merely playing a bit part to the sauce. Another reason I don’t choose the chicken, is that generally the chicken used in restaurants is bland and lacks flavour, at home I usually go with thighs and legs as they have more flavour.
So even I was little surprised with myself when I recently had dinner at the Brasenose Arms in Cropredy and I chose the chicken.
I will say it wasn’t my first choice, I did in fact want to have the roasted pork belly that was on the specials board, but that had sold out. So I chose the chicken, pan fried with lemon and oregano and served with crushed rosemary new potatoes and green beans, it was priced at £9.95.
The chicken was delicious, beautifully cooked and full of flavour, I liked the combination of lemon and oregano. I have to admit I was less impressed with the potatoes, they were nice, but were a little dry for me. I enjoyed the green beans. Overall I was really pleased with the dish, it was tasty, fresh and cooked with style and flair.
I liked the ambinance and friendly service that I had, I will certainly go again if I have the chance.