The Great British Food Revival

I just managed to catch the second half of today's great british food revival, about Michael Caines talking about carrots! I think he's 100% in saying the way most of us cook them is such a waste. I have to admit, i have a guilty pleasure when it comes to my carrots. If they're with a roast dinner (which they always are!) i leave them to the end, chop them up really small, dollop a teaspoon of mint sauce on them and douse them with gravy! I know it's gross, don't judge me. It's been a thing i've done since i was a child and i haven't got round to stopping yet. ANYWAY, i love the way my nanas cooks carrots, it's simple but they taste so much better than just plain old steamed carrots:

She cuts them into strips, and adds a pinch of salt, a large tablespoon of sugar and a knob of butter to a pan filled halfway with water. And of course the carrots! And just simmers them slowly until the water dissipates and the sugar and butter caramelise on the carrots, it's delicious. 

There are so many amazing ways in which you can cook them, like Michael Caines did, make a carrot and coriander soup, or carrot cake, roasting them, using them in salads, you could make carrot and sweet potato mash (a nice change from carrot and swede!). And last but not least, one of my favourite snacks is just some raw carrot cut into sticks to nom on.

How do you cook your carrots? I can't wait to try roasting them with some honey, or with garlic and rosemary!

Leek and Spinach Risotto

Serves 2 people

SORRY! I've not posted in so long it's unbelievable, but my camera SD card is at home and i'm at uni atm. But finally got round to making something, yay.

I was cooking for my friend as well so i had to think of something that didn't include mushrooms or tomatoes, so i was a bit stuck. But this turned out very well i think. And my friend loved it, yay. 

Ingredients:

1 shallot, finely minced
2 large garlic cloves, finely minced
1 litre of vegetable stock
6oz arborio rice
large glass of dry white wine
1 and a half large leeks, chopped up into smallish chunks
bag of baby spinach
olive oil
margerine/butter
salt and pepper
parmesan cheese/vegetarian parmesan

Equipment:

large saucepan
wooden spoon
chopping board
medium sharp knife

Method:

- Heat up around 2 tablespoons of olive oil in the saucepan. Once it's hot, throw in the minced onion, garlic and the chopped leeks. Sauté on a medium heat until the onions and leeks are softened (around 5-7 minutes).

- Once they have softened so they're no longer crunchy at all, add the rice. Stir through the mix until the rice is coated with the oil. Then pour in the wine! Let it simmer and stir occasionally until the wine has reduced and the liquid has been absorbed. 

- Now start adding the stock, one ladle at a time, waiting until the liquid has been absorbed before adding the next one. You have to stir pretty much constantly so the rice doesn't get stuck to the bottom of the pan. Every so often, check the rice by eating a couple of grains to check when it's done.
- Once the rice is mostly soft but still retains a small amount of bite in the middle, it's done! The rice should be quite loose and not overly sticky or gloopy, if it has become like this, add a little more stock to loosen it up.

- To finish, take it off the heat and stir through a large handful of the spinach, it will wilt from the heat of the risotto. Next, add a handful of grated parmesan cheese (or vegetarian alternative) and a large knob of butter/margerine. Season with pepper and a little salt, to taste. 

- Finally, serve into bowls and sprinkle parmesan over the top.

Et voila!

Noodle one Bangor (Wales, not Ireland) review

Sorry I haven't posted in so long! I have a few recipes lined up but stupidly i left my SD card with all the pictures on, so i can't post until i have them. Never mind!

Last Thursday all the girls from uni wanted to go for a meal. we'd originally decided on fat cats but we didn't think to book it, and it was so busy we had to go somewhere else. We were all pretty annoyed because we'd been looking forward to it for so long! We decided on noodle one because it was close to where we were, not like Bangor is a big place anyway, and i'm so happy we did!

Obviously from my review about wagamama's i love noodles. And i've been to noodle one a few times before, but i always opted for ramen. Now i have more of an idea about different noodle dishes, so i went for chili yakisoba with tofu and a side of vegetable gyoza. I'm slightly obsessed with anything with a bit of heat to it at the minute, so naturally i had to go for the chili, but they do one without as well. The gyoza came out first, and it was a nice touch that the woman who served us told us she'd made them herself! They were lovely, and came with a sweet chili dipping sauce. The sauce was nice but i thought it was a bit disappointing that that was the only type of sauce that came with all the sides. We ordered prawn crackers too and had the same dip with them.

I love noodle one because it's really easy to mix and match, basically. You can choose to have different noodles if you wanted, and you also choose the dish you want, and then choose what kind of meat you want with it. The choices are crispy tofu (obviously not meat), beef teriyaki, shichimi duck, teriyaki chicken, and king prawns, and you can have any of them with any dish. Also, with the ramen, you can choose between vegetable or chicken and pork broth. My yakisoba was amazing, i couldn't find a single fault with it and i'll definitely be having that again next time i go. I can't remember what the other 5 of my friends had, but you can be assured there were no complaints! I already can't wait to go again.

I highly recommend going to noodle one for lunch or dinner if you're around in Bangor. There aren't many places to choose from, but this is my number one favourite restaurant and i wish i could go there every day. They also have a 10% discount if you take out! Definitely better than a takeaway.

Hope you enjoy!

p.s. if you love this review please hit the share button underneath!

Potato Dauphinoise

Serves 2 people

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes (e.g. maris piper)
Double cream
3 Garlic cloves
salt & pepper
butter or margarine for greasing
Cheddar cheese (optional)

Equipment:

Small oven-proof dish
Small knife
kitchen roll
bowl of cold water
speed peeler

Method:

- Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Take your small dish, and using a piece of kitchen roll, grease the dish with butter/margarine, and put to one side.

- Peel your potatoes using a speed peeler, or your knife if you prefer, whatever's easiest for you. Slice the potatoes thinly, around the width of a £1 coin at most. Try to make the potato slices as even as possible, or they will all take different times to cook. After slicing them, put them into the bowl of water to stop them from turning brown due to being exposed to air. Chop the garlic as finely as you can.

- Now to assemble! Start by sprinkling a small pinch garlic at the bottom of the pre-greased dish, then season the dish with salt and pepper. Now, take the potato slices out of the bowl and pat dry with kitchen roll.

- Place one layer of potato slices into the dish. Sprinkle more garlic and salt and pepper. Add another layer of potato, then more garlic, salt and pepper. Repeat layering until the dish is full (depending on the depth of the dish, 4/5 layers). Don't fill to the brim of the dish, leave around a 1cm gap at the top.

- Take the cream, and pour until the top layer of potato is just covered. Put into the middle of the oven, for an hour and a half. If you wish, 10 minutes before the dish is ready to come out of the oven, take it out and grate a layer of cheddar cheese over the top. Put back in for the last 10 minutes for the cheese to melt and crisp up.

Sorry there's a chunk missing, I couldn't wait to get into it! Enjoy.

Et voila!

Yo! Sushi Review

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! I've been so busy running all over the country visiting friends and having good times. I arrived back from London today where I was visiting one of my friends while she's at uni. 

While we were there, we were walking along the South bank of the Thames and walked past about a million restaurants and decided on Yo! Sushi. We've been meaning to go for 'real' sushi (not that stuff from supermarkets) for so long and I'm happy we finally got the opportunity! 

We walked in and were seated straight away. All of the staff were really nice and friendly and easily approachable. We were given menus and basically left to it! It's pretty self explanatory, there are different coloured dishes, corresponding with different prices, and they all go round the room on a conveyor belt. We were a bit overwhelmed at first, thinking 'do... do we just take things?' but once we got into the spirit of it, it was incredibly fun! It was nice to see everything going past trying to see what it was and then grabbing it before it went past us. It's quite easy to spend a lot though, by just grabbing everything you want. The dishes on the conveyor were all cooked in a kitchen in the middle of the room, and they were all cold/warm, and there were also hot dishes you could order from the staff that were always wandering around.

Now I need to remember what I had... we both shared everything we got though. We had vegetable gyoza (dumplings) that had been steamed and fried, that came with a vinegar and soy dip. They were gorgeous, I wasn't sure I'd like the steamed texture, but they were soft and not slimy at all. We had some cucumber maki (rice rolls with a filling and seaweed/nori on the outside), and some tuna and salmon nigiri (rice with slices of fish/meat/omlette). I literally have everything with soy sauce, my friend smothered wasabi and pickled ginger on everything, the rice is so much nicer than the generic stuff you get from supermarkets. It was a bit disappointing how we didn't see any hand rolls, because they kind of made the dishes in batches and they never made any! We had about 3 dishes of katsu prawns which were amazing, they came with a sweet (ish) fruity, sticky sauce and panko breadcrumbs (japanese breadcrumbs) are brilliant. We both ordered a hot dish of vegetable yakisoba, which are just noodles fried with vegetables and a tangy sauce. The sauce was supposed to be slightly spiced but i didn't pick any of that up. When we were both stuffed to the brim (for only around £10 each) we were trying to hold out for the chocolate ganache dessert, but that never came round either, it was slightly disappointing. It was probably for the best though, considering how much we'd eaten! The drinks were quite expensive, we had 1 large glass of rosé wine each, which were £5.80 each, but so worth it. 

It was brilliant just to get into the spirit of picking dishes and finding out what everything is, and you could easily keep track of how much you were spending. The only problem i encountered was trying to grab the attention of staff to ask for a hot dish or for the bill, but there are 'help' buttons that you can press that will get the staff's attention and get them to come over, but we didn't realise until we'd been sat waiting for who knows how long. If you've only ever had supermarket sushi, GO HERE because it'll change how you look at it forever.

Simple Goats Cheese and Beetroot Salad

Serves 1

I just whipped up this salad for lunch. It's so much more satisfying than the beans on toast my boyfriend had! So quick and simple to do. 

Ingredients:

large handful of rocket
1 small  cooked beetroot
around the same amount of goats cheese as beetroot
little bit of olive oil
balsamic glaze (from a bottle, naughty)

Equipment:

ovenproof dish (I used a tin plate)
small knife
bowl

Method:

- Pre-heat the oven to around 180C. Using a small knife, chop up the beetroot into smallish chunks and put onto the ovenproof dish. drizzle with a small amount of olive oil and put into the middle of the oven.

- Meanwhile, take a large handful of rocket and place into the bowl. Cut up the goats cheese into small cubes, and sprinkle over the rocket. 

- After 5-7 minutes, take the beetroot out of the oven (n.b. roasting the beetroot is optional, I prefer it warm). Place the bits of beetroot over the rocket and goats cheese. Finally, drizzle the balsamic glaze (you could also use a balsamic reduction, but I don't have a recipe for it yet) over the top of it all, and enjoy.

Et voila!

Miller and Carter Steakhouse Cheshire Oaks

On Thursday (30th September), me and my family went to have an impromptu meal out. As Cheshire Oaks is very local to us, it doesn't take much to drive down there and have our pick of many delicious restaurants. I personally LOVE going out for meals and could go out every day, but I don't think my bank account could really handle it.

We decided on going to the Miller and Carter Steakhouse, primarily because my mother eats nothing but steak, and as it was my treat (more fool me...) there was no competition. We walked in the door and we all pleasantly surprised; it wasn't what I was expecting at least. Very spacious and filled with tables, but not too cramped. We were shown to a table (a booth, lucky us!) and offered drinks straight away. Obviously I ordered a large glass of the strongest rosé they had. 

The service was very good, our drinks arrived pretty much straight away and not soon after, a waitress came to take our order. Now, it being a steakhouse, I wasn't expecting much choice for me (a bit like at Hickory's) so I was pleasantly surprised when I was spoilt for choice! I ended up sharing calamari with my brother, along with an order of garlic bread for us all for a starter, and for the main I ordered the spring onion risotto. My mother ordered an 8oz sirlion steak with sides of chips and vegetables (which turned out to only be french beans), and my brother had a burger, as always! 

The calamari was very nice, it came with aioli, pretty standard. It wasn't chewy and there weren't tentacles (which I didn't mind because I don't like them). My main of spring onion risotto was quite loose, but I think there was a fair amount of cream in it. It was nice, a little too creamy for my taste, I don't usually like cream in risotto, so it was slightly too rich for me. It came with 2 small goats cheese fritters with complemented the onion in the risotto, the tang of the goats cheese was amazing! 

We finished the night off nicely with some cocktails, of course! Me and my brother both opted for long island iced teas. With it's 5 different alcohols, how can you possibly go wrong?

The price for the food was very reasonable, however drinks were little on the steep side. However, the night was worth it and you couldn't really ask much more!

Home Made Pizza

Makes 4 large pizzas

Ingredients for dough:

500g strong white bread flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
1x7g sachet dried yeast
1/2 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
350ml lukewarm water

Ingredients for base:

400g tinned tomatoes
tomato purée
salt & pepper
1-2 clove(s) garlic

Ingredients for toppings:

pesto
sundried tomatoes
mushrooms
goats cheese
mozzerella
parmesan
rocket
spinach
blue cheese
beetroot
balsamic vinegar
cheddar cheese

Method:

- First things first, make the dough. Sieve the flour into a large mixing bowl and add the salt, mixing it through.

- In a mixing jug, add the oil and sugar to the water, then add the yeast and mix thoroughly. Leave it alone for a few minutes until it starts to froth up. Make a well in the centre of the flour and begin to incorporate the liquid mixture in slowly, mixing the flour into the liquid with a fork.

-Once the dough begins to form, turn out onto a well floured surface and begin to knead with floured hands. Knead the dough until it forms into a springy ball (about 10 minutes). Once kneaded, leave to rise for an hour in a floured bowl (flour the top of the dough as well), covered with a damp cloth. 

- While the dough is rising, prepare all of the other ingredients, starting with the pizza sauce. Mince the garlic finely and sauté in a little oil in a saucepan, for a minute or so on a medium heat. Add the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée and salt and pepper, and simmer until reduced to a thick sauce, then take it off the heat.

- It's also a good idea to lay out all of your ingredients and get them prepared so it's easy to just throw them onto the pizza base once it's onto the baking tray. For the pizza I made, I used goats cheese, beetroot, rocket on one half, and mushrooms and pesto (from a jar, oops) on the other.

- 15 minutes before the dough has finished rising, pre-heat the oven as high as it will go, with a baking tray inside it to heat up as well. 

- Once the dough has risen (after about an hour), knead once more on a floured surface to 'knock it back', for about 5 minutes. This dough should portion into about 4 medium pizzas. In my experience, I've found it easiest to do one pizza at a time. So, roll out the dough with a floured rolling pin into whatever shape you wish, be it square, round, oval, triangle, whatever, just make sure it's thin! 

- When it's thin enough, take the baking tray out from the oven, dust with flour, and transfer the base (carefully!) across to it, then go crazy with toppings! Add the sauce first, then all the toppings you desire, and finally the cheese on top. Try and do this as quickly as possible so the tray doesn't cool down too much.

- Once all the toppings are on, put into the oven at 200°C, until golden and crispy (about 15 minutes ish?)

Et voila!

Mushroom risotto!

Serves 2 people

Ingredients:

1 shallot

2/3 cloves garlic (depending on how much you like garlic)

Chestnut mushrooms (chopped/sliced)

Dried mixed mushrooms

Olive oil

Butter

White wine (1 small glass)

Parsley

Arborio/risotto rice (6oz)

Vegetable stock (1 litre)

Parmesan cheese (freshly grated)

Method:

- Boil kettle for hot water to reconstitute mushrooms, pour over mushrooms in a bowl and leave for 10-15 mins. After this time, remove the mushrooms and squeeze them out to get rid of the excess water within the mushrooms, but retain the stock to be used for later.

- Meanwhile, finely mince shallot and garlic and fry for 2-3 mins in oil and a knob of butter until the shallot begins to soften. Add most of the chopped chestnut mushrooms and fry for a further 2-3 mins until they have begun to soften as well.

- Pour in the rice and stir to coat with the oil in the pan. Then add the glass of wine. Pour some more wine into the glass, and drink it!

- Simmer on a medium heat until all the rice has been absorbed. Using the mushroom stock first, add 1 ladleful to the pan and simmer until it has been absorbed. Repeat this with first the mushroom stock, then the vegetable stock, until the rice has softened but is still al denté (has a bit of bite).

- While the rice is cooking, take the remaining chestnut mushrooms and fry in a frying pan with a little oil and butter. Also chop the reconstituted mushrooms up.

- Add the reconstituted mushrooms once the rice is ready and stir in. Then finely chop some parsley, stir in with a handful of parmesan, another knob of butter, salt and pepper to taste.

- Split into bowls and top with the fried mushrooms, a sprinkle of grated parmesan and chopped parsley.

 

Et voila!

Okay, so...

I have about 5 drafts of posts that i need to post, and i can't at the minute! Reviews and recipes are cominggg.

Hickory's smokehouse (Chester) Review

Yesterday, it was my brother's birthday, so obviously we went out for a meal (looks like it's not just me in my family that wishes they could go out for food every day, we'll use any excuse). It being his birthday, chose the restaurant and landed on Hickory's Smokehouse. This place aaaalways reminds me of Man V Food with Adam Richman because of all the authentic american 'que!


Bearing in mind i'm pescetarian, this wasn't the best place to go for a meal for me, there was very little choice as not surprisingly, most things were smoked meat. I had 3 choices, vegetable fajitas (i hate all mexican food), a whole sea bass on the bone, or a salad. Not the best choice... I ended up going for the sea bass because my boyfriend promised he'd help me remove the bones (i should probably know how studying marine biology and everything...), however, last time a situation like this arose (holiday last year, paella with crab claws) it ended disasterously, there was crab shell everywhere.


Everyone else got meat dishes my boyfriend ordered the pulled pork, which Adam Richman always seems to make look so nice, even to me! It comes with baked beans and chips on the side. He said it was way too rich for him, but the portion size wasn't that big so i'd have thought it'd even out. My seabass was nice, it was cooked with lemon and rosemary, it was a bit plain, maybe i just don't like sea bass in general. We also ordered a side of onion rings and they never arrived! Our fault for not telling them again i guess.

If you're a lover of BBQ, i'd definitely recommend, but vegetarians and picky people be wary of this place, and definitely peruse the menu before you go.

Mini Spa Break and Aiden Byrne British Grill Review

Sorry I've not posted any recipes yet! I'm moving house currently so all of my stuff is packed up. Bear with me though, I'll be cooking loads in a short amount of time (:. For now, here's another review.


My friend and I decided we needed a couple of days away, so we managed to book a cheap spa break near where we live. It was pretty relaxing, I've never had a back massage before, but the ambiance was ruined slightly when I pointed out that the staff probably thought we were a lesbian couple. It was pretty hard to take anything seriously after that.


While we were there, both dinner and breakfast were included in the offer, so we got to dine in Aiden Byrne's British Grill at Craxton Wood Hotel in Ledsham. We'd booked the table for half 8, and by that time we were ravenous after a hard day of doing nothing. The menu is very limited, seeing as they didn't have ANY vegetarian main courses. Thankfully I eat fish as well or I'd have been stuck... so I ordered fish and chips while my friend had cottage pie.


The food arrived nearly an hour after it was ordered, and the restaurant wasn't busy at all! There was a huge group of people so maybe that contributed, but considering we were starving when we got to the restaurant, you can only imagine how hungry we were an hour later. We didn't notice too much because we were having a nice gossip so the time flew. The food itself was nice, as was expected. Nothing special though. Fish and chips is just fish and chips really. We both ordered dessert as well, I had the triple chocolate mousse, which was the BEST dessert I've ever had. My friend had the sticky toffee pudding and I think she regretted not getting the mousse too, it was actually amazing! And it didn't take an hour to get to us, which is always a bonus.


If staying at the hotel then the restaurant is worth going to, but I wouldn't make the journey there specifically.

Wagamama (Cheshire Oaks) Review

Last Saturday (14th July), me and my boyfriend were celebrating our 4 year anniversary and we decided (I forced him) to go out for a meal. Normally we'd go to a brasserie or Italian, because they're always a fail safe, but I'm currently in the midst of a noodle obsession, so I managed to drag him to Wagamama. I've never been before, but there's a similar place where I go to university; every time I want to go my friends refuse because 'Wagamama is so much better'. I guess i wanted to see what all the fuss was about.
So anyway, we went. When we got there it was busy so we had to wait awhile (you're not allowed to book for parties under 6, I checked). When we sat down, a waitress came over within 5 minutes to take our drinks order. The wine list wasn't very extensive, and I wanted to try saké, but my boyfriend wouldn't share with me so maybe next time...
We both ordered ramen noodles and sides, he had the seafood ramen and duck gyoza (deep fried dumplings), and I had the vegetarian one, Saien Soba, and prawns deep fried in panko breadcrumbs. My ramen was delicious, the portions of ramen are HUGE because it's broth and noodles that comes in a huge bowl, so I barely got past the half way mark. And I'm finally mastering chop sticks (though I'll never get how people eat rice with them O:). I tried some of my boyfriend's seafood ramen as well, but it was more plain than mine. The broth was vegetable, instead of fish so there wasn't much of a seafood taste about it... it also came with smooth dory which I've never had before, but I was sadly disappointed by it. It didn't have much flavour, so it wasn't helped by the lack of flavour in the soup too. But the squid was cooked perfectly and not rubbery in the slightest. On the plus side, he said his duck Gyoza were AMAZING, and he'd go back just for them! I couldn't try them, being vegetarian 'n' all. Well, technically pescetarian now (:.
There were about 12 things I wanted to try on the menu, so I'll definitely be going back again. I already know what I'm going to have next time I go. The one thing I will say is, don't go there on a first date, slurping noodles is less than flattering.


Ciao.

Hello.

Hi. I've decided to make a blog about food. My obsession and how it came about. About cooking, baking, restaurants and chefs. I've been meaning to do it for some time and was a bit apprehensive at first, but here we go. It'll take a while to get properly up and running, so bear with me! Hope you come back and see how good it's going to get.