Time for a coffee

September 23, 2022September 20, 2022

Barbecued Lamb

Last August I barbecued some joints of lamb on my barbacue.

Cooking joints of meat on a barbecue is not a simple process, you can have undercooked or raw on the inside and burnt and charred on the outside.

I used this process to cook two different kinds of lamb joint. I had a mini lamb shoulder and a boned half leg of lamb.

The first thing I did was to prepare the lamb by seasoning with salt and pepper and then marinating with rosemary, and some olive oil.

Though you can cook these kinds of joint directly on the barbecue, it can be quite challenging to ensure that the lamb is properly cooked, through, without burning or overcooking the outside. Part of the issue is that it is difficult to control the temperature of the barbecue unlike a normal grill. The key process is to recreate some aspects of a “normal” oven as opposed to the usual way of using a barbecue as a grill.

After the coals have reached cooking temperature, move them to the sides of the barbecue, so that when the lamb is placed on the grill, it is not over direct heat.

The lamb was then covered, I used a wok lid, but this is where a kettle barbecue comes into its own.

The end result was a properly cooked lamb, which was moist and succulent and full of flavour.

September 22, 2022September 19, 2022

Sin Gluten

On our recent holiday to Spain visiting the local supermarket I was impressed with the quantity and types of products that were labelled “sin gluten” or gluten free.

These were mainstream or “normal” products and not products found just in the gluten fee aisle. This made self-catering gluten free so much easier.

The types of things that were labelled included pasta sauces, salami, chorizo, fish, meat and a range of other things.

I do wish that labelling in the UK was just as clear, yes there are some (mainstream) products labelled gluten free, but normally I am there reading the ingredients list for those that contain gluten.

September 21, 2022September 19, 2022

Disappointing main course

I was attending a team away day at Ashorne Hill Conference Centre and it was time for dinner. As part of my job I will often attend events and conferences. Sometimes these will be in hotels and other times they are in dedicated conference centres. I usually have lunch, which usually defaults to some kind of buffet lunch. For some events and conferences I stay over and that means having dinner.

So there I was attending an “away day” at the Ashorne Hill Conference Centre near to Leamington Spa. It was a lunchtime to lunchtime event, so there was dinner in the evening. For my starter I went with the smoked salmon on a crumpet, with a poached egg and topped with hollandaise sauce and a chive crumb, which was rather nice.

My main course, though was rather disappointing. I had gone with the mushroom pasta carbonara.

Though this was a vegetarian dish, I could quite easily see the mushrooms replacing the pancetta or the guanciale. What I didn’t expect was the pasta, that pasta that was used was pasta shells or conchiglie.

Usually with carbonara, spaghetti is the most common pasta, but fettuccine, rigatoni, linguine, or bucatini are also used.

The garlic bread appeared to be made from naan bread!

The dish just didn’t work for me, it didn’t taste right and I didn’t like it (and I usually like pasta).

In the end I returned the dish and had it replaced it with some pork belly, which was much better.

September 20, 2022September 19, 2022

A disappointing roasted pigeon

I was staying up in Manchester. I was staying at the Macdonald Manchester Hotel. I had stayed at the hotel before in 2015, though back then I didn’t have dinner in the hotel. This time I was eating in the hotel.

Sometimes before eating out I will check out the menu and then also look at pictures on Google or Trip Advisor and see what the dishes look like.

So one dish I did quite like the sound of was the Roasted Pigeon. This was pigeon supremes, blueberry vinegar, with crispy bacon and mash.

I did find this image of the Roasted Pigeon on Instagram.

It looked like a really impressive dish. So you can imagine my disappointment when, after ordering the dish, I was served this.

Yes, these two things are not the same.

The mash was quite nice, the pigeon was a little too charred for my liking and, though I asked for medium, it was served well done. As a result it was a little tough and chewy. The bacon was rather sad as well.

Yes this dish could have been excellent, I was expecting what I saw in the photograph. What I got was a real disappointment.

September 18, 2022

Wild Mushrooms

After enjoying my Barnsley Chop, this time I went with the Wild Mushroom dish.

This was described on the menu as assorted wild mushrooms, asparagus, white truffle oil, port wine cream, mini fondants, puff pastry and tenderstem broccoli.

This dish had huge potential to be an outstanding plate of food, alas it wasn’t.

Well, firstly, I couldn’t find any mini fondants. the puff pastry was a little flat and I did struggle to find the wild mushrooms in the dish. Having said that I did enjoy the asparagus and the tenderstem broccoli. The sauce was nice, but I did struggle to taste the truffle.

Overall I did quite enjoy the dish, but this a mediocre plate of food and I wish it could have been better.

September 16, 2022

Airport Coffee

Well to be honest I had quite low expectations about the coffee I ordered from Soho at Bristol Airport.

However in the end it was okay, even quite good. I didn’t have a huge amount of time following a long queue in security. So with no queue at Soho and an imminent announcement about the gate, I ordered a macchiato.

It was prepared well, good coffee and some foam. I enjoyed it. It did mean that I didn’t need to order a coffee on the plane! Now that would have been a very different story.

September 15, 2022

It’s back…

I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoyed Lidl’s Italiamo Italian Style Coffee Ice Cream. So I was pleased to see that it will be back next week (from the 22nd September 2022) in their stores, along with the lemon and amaretto versions as well.

Still good value at 99p a tub.

September 13, 2022September 12, 2022

Nice smoked salmon starter

I was attending a team away day at Ashorne Hill Conference Centre and it was time for dinner.

As part of my job I will often attend events and conferences. Sometimes these will be in hotels and other times they are in dedicated conference centres. I usually have lunch, which usually defaults to some kind of buffet lunch. For some events and conferences I stay over and that means having dinner. I have had some outstanding food at some conference venues. I had been to Ashorne Hill Conference Centre before, last year I had an okay meal of crispy chilli beef, chicken, and cheese and biscuits.

So there I was attending an “away day” at the Ashorne Hill Conference Centre near to Leamington Spa. It was a lunchtime to lunchtime event, so there was dinner in the evening.

For my starter I went with the smoked salmon on a crumpet, with a poached egg and topped with hollandaise sauce and a chive crumb.

I did think the crumpet was an interesting choice, but overall I really enjoyed the starter. The smoked salmon was excellent, the poached egg was cooked perfectly and the sauce and crumb just added to the dish.

A really lovely way to start a meal.

September 12, 2022

Chewy Flapjack

This is quick and easy recipe that results in delicious, moist, sticky chewy flapjacks.

150g unsalted butter
75g brown sugar
75g golden syrup
200g of oats

In a pan melt the butter, sugar and syrup together. I find the easiest way to measure the golden syrup is to put the pan on the scales, zero the scales and then add the syrup.

Once the sugar, butter and syrup are bubbling take it off the heat and stir in the oats.

My preferred oats are the Mornflake Whole Jumbo Oats.

Place the mixture into a greased tin (or lined using baking parchment) and bake in a 180ºC (160ºC fan) oven for about 10-12 minutes or until the edges are browned and the mix is bubbling. If you cook for too long the flapjacks will be harder and not chewy.

I cool the flapjacks on a wire rack.

I quite like chocolate flapjack, so sometimes I melt a bar of chocolate and cover the flapjack.

September 5, 2022

Barnsley Chop

It was a Monday evening, so I didn’t expect the place to be that busy. There were quite a few people eating in the bar, so I did think that there might be some people eating in the restaurant. When I arrived the restaurant was empty, but it was late, and I was hungry.

The restaurant is called The Scottish Steakhouse and if you go to the hotel website it says:

True to our Scottish heritage, the beef we serve comes from fully accredited Scottish farms and supplied to us by Scotbeef, suppliers to the highest quality retailers in the country. The beef is then traditionally aged for a minimum of 21 days on the bone and hand cut by highly skilled butchers using time-honoured techniques, delivering the perfect Scottish dining experience.

However the menu actually says:

All our steaks are from the North West England! Straight from Dukesmoor Farm who have a range of superior and traditionally reared British cattle.

So, which is correct? Well who knows, I suspect the menu is now right.

Looking over the menu, I decided that I would have something from the grill. I do quite like a nice lamb chop, so went with the Barnsley Chop, which the menu said was served with grilled mushrooms and roast cherry vine tomatoes.

I did ask if the dish came with chips, I was told it came with fries, but did I want chips, I said I was happy with fries. I thought they might be extra. Well when I got the bill they were an extra, I didn’t mind as I wanted some fries, but didn’t appreciate the confusion.

My meal arrived promptly and looked very nice.

Overall it was a nice plate of food. The chips was nice, as were the mushrooms and tomatoes. The lamb was cooked well, was tender and tasty. I think the lamb could have been better seasoned, but that was a minor comment.

Thought the initial service left a lot to be desired, the service after the meal was friendly and excellent.