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Alba Ristorante Part One

I was recently lucky enough to go to dinner at the Alba Ristorante in London with some friends., not just once, but enjoyed it enough the first time to go for a second meal.

I will review our meals over a few blog posts over the next few days (or well at least over the next week or so).

Unlike a lot of Italian restaurants I have been too, the menu here was not full of pasta and pizza, on the contrary it was very different and as a result much more interesting and refreshing.

For my first visit, I had the Smoked Duck Salad followed by the Calves’ Liver.

smoked duck breast with lambs lettuce & Italian orange slices

Well to give the dish, its proper name, petto d’amamtra all’arancia or in English, smoked duck breast with lambs lettuce & Italian orange slices.

The duck was very thinly sliced and had a delicate flavour which was slightly overpowered by the orange and the dressing.

However it was still delicious and I enjoyed it very much.

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Tough

For lunch today I popped into Debenhams in Bristol which I know is never the best place to go and eat (especially as there are more choices now with Cabot’s Circus open) however they do nice children’s lunch boxes which the children like.

I decided to try the Chicken Kebab on Flat Bread with Sweet Chilli sauce, which came in at £4.75

Well it was cooked fresh to order (so the sign said) and was one of the reason I chose it, rather than go for something which had been standing under the hot lamp for a while.

After about eight minutes it was ready (they use those buzzer things) and off I popped to pick it up.

Let’s just say it was nothing to shout home about, something I wouldn’t recommend to anyone and I would never buy it again.

The chicken was just plain tough, and was merely cooked chicken re-heated, hardly freshly cooked to order! It’s surprising how tough twice cooked chicken can be. Also not very much of it, just a single skewer. Why do places like Debenhams which for example were cooking gammon from fresh can’t do the same with the chicken? The flat bread was like a naan, but tough, almost stale in places. The sweet chilli sauce was way too sweet and didn’t really have any kick.

Overall I was very disappointed, I was expecting it to be much better than it was, my local kebab shop could do much better.

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T-Bone Steak

Went to the local pub on Friday night and had a T-Bone Steak, haven’t had one for ages.

The fillet was tender, but I was less impressed with the dish as a whole, lacking flavour and not cooked very well. The chips felt as though they were cooked twice and the salad lacked imagination.

This pub use to be fantastic with a great range of specials, alas now it is just a chain and the quality of cooking and ingredients has fallen considerably.

Having said that it was very very busy and the clientèle seemed happy.

Really need to find  somewhere else.

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Cheese straws

Considering how easy these are to make and taste so much better fresh I am surprised that people don’t make them more often.

Take some puff pastry.

Now here’s a question? Am I hypocritical for being surprised that people buy cheese straws but then go ahead and buy ready made puff pastry to make my own? Is that not just the kettle and the pot calling each other names?

Well yes I did use ready made puff pastry. I usually make straws after using the puff pastry for something else and there is some left over.

So I rolled it out, grated some parmesan onto it, folded it over, repeated twice more.

I then cut the cheesy pastry into strips about six inches long and half an inch wide.

These I then twist, hold each end and twist your hands in opposite directions to get a twisty cheese straw.

Brush with egg and scatter some more grated parmesan onto the top.

Bake in the oven for around eight to ten minutes.

Delicious.

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What no chorizo?

Only a couple of days ago I mentioned cooking Chorizo Frito al Vino using Tesco’s Cooking Chorizo.

You can imagine my disappointment that my local Tesco is discontinuing to sell the cooking chorizo.

I’ll have to start using the dried version.

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Wispa back for good

Monday sees the re-return of the Cadbury Wispa.

Wispa

After selling twenty million last year in a seven week trial, Cadbury have decided to bring the Wispa back again, this time for good.

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Curry Webcam

An Indian takeaway in North Staffordshire is offering customers the chance to see their food being cooked online via a webcam in the kitchen.

See the video (UK only).

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Chorizo Frito al Vino




I do like this dish which is simply the spicy Spanish sausage, sautéed in red wine.

I have started using Tesco’s Cooking Chorizo which is not as hard (or as chewy) as the traditional dried chorizo which you can buy from most supermarkets.

Just a note you are buying the whole sausage and not the thinly salami style sliced version.

Chorizo

My method is to cut the chorizo into slices about quarter of an inch thick. Fry in a large frying pan until sealed on both sides and just starting to go a little crispy. At this point I add the red wine (Spanish red wine is best, but I am sure you can use any good red wine).

Cook the chorizo for a few more minutes.

Serve as part of a tapas or with salad. The red wine with the chorizo makes a wonderfully spicy sauce which you can dunk warm soft bread into.

Photo source.

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Hot Stuff

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in his weekly Guardian column plays with hot stuff and does stuff with chillies.

There’s a lot more to chillies than how hot they are – the range and complexity of flavour from pepper to pepper really has to be tried to be believed.

Great article which shows that there is more to chillies then the mouth burning Friday night curry or the green ones available at the supermarket.