Valentine's Day

Wed 30 Jan 2008

Valentine's Day is just around the corner ... if you need reminding. If you're silently panicking about a present then you can do worse than giving chocolate. In my capacity as an enthusiastic eater of chocolate, Hotel Chocolat offered some of the Valentine's selection to try. I was more than happy to accept - after all, as reviewer, I would have to eat the chocolates straight away!

I received the Love Selection - four different slabs (100g each) of chocolate, which retails for £12 and comes in a funky 'peepster' box/carry case. We started off with the 'Mellow Love' slab - crispy pancake pieces, cherries and milk and white (pink) chocolate. This was ideal for sharing as, while Andy loves white chocolate, I'm not a huge fan and could polish off the other part of the slab. The box also contains 'Deep Love' - the same thing but with the milk chocolate replaced by dark.

The other two slabs are 'Crostini Fruit and Nut', which is cranberries, sultanas, roasted almonds and crostini in milk chocolate and 'Praline Fusion'. This was easily my favourite out of the four: milk and white chocolate praline blended together, the block a gorgeous swirl of brown and gold. If you've just come in from a long, cold walk home it's very easy to eat almost the whole slab ...

This is the sort of gift you can give and, quite reasonably, hope to share (hmm, that might not be entirely in the spirit of Valentine's Day). After all, everyone has their chocolate quirks ... Of course, if you're looking for a gift for a new love, then this is a relatively safe bet as it would be a fussy chocolate eater who couldn't find something to enjoy here.

Hotel Chocolat is a UK owned business, with its own single origin cocoa plantation in the West Indies. I notice from the website that their chocolates are now available in the US. In the UK Hotel Chocolat does offer next day delivery, but it might be wise to place your orders sooner rather than later: you don't want to be buying twice as many post 14 Feb to make up for any oversight!

tagged with: chocolate, hotel chocolat, valentine's day

Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook

Sat 26 Jan 2008

My copy of The Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook arrived on Saturday morning! The launch itself isn't until the end of February but that needn't stop everyone rushing out and buying the book NOW!

This book is important because it's the one in which MY recipe is printed. Not only that, but my recipe has two pages to itself, as it has a lovely full page photo! AND, my recipe comes with a big 'Highly Commended' (there are only about seven recipes in the book that are highly commended ... not that I counted).

So ... once you've rushed and bought the book you should head immediately to page 146 and make the Japanese-style duck breasts with aromatic rice!

Obviously, I remain dead chuffed (I spent the whole weekend muttering 'highly commended' and then bored everyone at work yesterday) and I look forward to making some of the other recipes. I'm also really looking forward to the book launch itself. Sophie Grigson was the 'consultant editor' on the book, and there are plenty of celeb contributions. I also notice that there are quite a few recipes from people based in Yorkshire!

A proper recipe test and review will be forthcoming!

Round Up

Mon 28 Jan 2008

A quick round up for the end of the month ...

The bar on Millenium Square, formerly known as Cocoon (and even more formerly, Qube) has re-opened as a Wetherspoons - The Cuthbert Broderick. While the man might have influenced much of Leeds' architecture this pub will have to smarten up its ideas if it's to influence drinkers. When we popped in on Saturday afternoon it was certainly busy (and with the Ice Cube, is it any wonder?) but there were just two bar staff on and Andy's patience at the bar simply wore out.

We headed to the rebranded (again) Mr Foley's Cask Ale House (formerly Dr Okell's, more formerly Baroque). While the beers are still good, the menus are laughable - littered with spelling and factual mistakes. Though I did enjoy reading that frambozenbier is raspberries lacerated in lambic beer!

Finally, the current top five hits for Eating Leeds are:

1. the joint review of Napa and Felicini ... up one from last time, but a recent comment suggests that Felicini may have its off nights ...
2. down one, the sausage and bean casserole ... is it still cold and windy?
3. the baked eggs are steady ...
4. our visit to the city centre Viva Cuba is a new entry
5. Kendell's Bistro makes its first appearance ... and still receiving positive comments from readers

Honey and Soy Pork Fillet

Sat 26 Jan 2008

Aside from a few people wrapped in Australian flags in the city centre, Australia Day seemed to pass Leeds by. Not even really a celebration round ours, though we did make dinner from Australia Gourmet Traveller and we did drink Australian wine.

We ate ginger and soy pork with baby bok choy from the Gourmet Fast section of the magazine. To be honest, while I did follow the 'recipe' I'm not sure how many people buying AGT (or perhaps even reading this site) will need to be told how to make a honey and soy marinade. But here goes.

Mix together some honey and soy sauce. Add grated garlic and ginger. Mix well.

Take your pork fillet (tenderloin) and halve length wise. Marinate the pork in the honey/soy mix.

Cook some rice.

Fry the pork fillet, basting with the remaining marinade, until cooked.

Steam some baby bok choy.

When cooked, slice the pork fillet, serve on the rice and bok choy and serve sprinkled with some lightly toasted sesame seeds. Perhaps drizzle with a little sesame oil.

I'm sorry I can't sound more enthusiastic. There are a few things wrong with the recipe. Firstly, I'd say the proportion of honey to soy is grossly in favour of the honey (for 4 - 1/3 cup honey to 1/4 cup soy). In addition, because both the garlic and ginger are grated you get a rather too subtle ginger-y taste through the marinade. Personally, I prefer it when they're finely chopped: I think you get a stronger flavour and you get the mini-explosions of garlic or ginger when you bite through a piece. I think the addition of chilli (which I left out only because I was following the recipe) would go a long way.

Pork fillet is too expensive and delicate a cut of meat for this treatment. I think you'd be better off marinating a cheaper cut of pork, sliced up for a stir fry. You could flash fry it, and use some of the remaining marinade to pep up some fried rice - with plenty of vegetables. After all, just the bok choy will not get you much further towards your five a day ...

We served this with a Keith Tulloch 2005 Hunter Valley semillon (£9.99 Hoults). I was told that this was slightly botrytised and would have enough sweetness to match the marinade. If you'll pardon the pun - what rot! This is a bright, lime-yellow wine, with loads of lemon and lime on the nose and just the tiniest hint of honey. There's a touch of sweetness on the front of the palate which soon gives way to some mouth watering acid and even more lemon and lime. The wine comes in at just 10.5% abv - in the shop this gave some weight to the argument for sweetness, but in reality it's a reflection of a cool summer. I thought it was a smashing wine but it wasn't a good match with the food. Perhaps salt and pepper squid, served with plenty of lemon, or some fresh, fried garfish ... but not pork in honey and soy.

This was a shame, because the Caves de Turckheim gewurztraminer we had the other week would have been a far superior match. But I am a sucker for trying something new, and sometimes that is rather more miss than hit.

tagged with: pork, semillon

Cauliflower and Almond Soup

Thurs 24 Jan 2008

Winter is a good time for soups but this year I've been a bit slow off the mark. Still, what is better to have at home, ready to heat up and eat, when you come in from the pub, than a big pot of soup? AND it's healthier than the usual post-pub grub: pizza, kebab, curry ...

I spotted the recipe for cauliflower and almond soup in the Complete Traditional Recipe Book. Previously, I've made a carrot and almond soup which turned out to be a very tasty number, so I was confident that this soup would be a success.

As with many soups it's easy-peasy.

Melt some butter in your favourite soup-making pot. Coarsely chop an onion and sweat down, before adding a medium size head of cauliflower, also coarsely chopped. Mix through 100g of ground almonds and a 1/4 tsp of turmeric and garam masala to taste. Add vegetable stock and simmer until the cauliflower is tender.

When the cauliflower is tender, whizzy up to a good thick puree. I served with a generous dash of chilli oil. My chilli oil is based on sesame oil and the fragrant oil worked really well with the cauliflower. Thanks to the almonds the soup is very rich and creamy without the addition of cream. And the cauliflower means it is thick, with plenty of body, without the use of potatoes.

The original recipe actually used turmeric and nutmeg, but I couldn't find the nutmeg so, taking inspiration from aloo gobi, I opted to use garam masala as an unlikely substitute.

No matter how much I might have liked this simple but filling soup, I had forgotten that Andy doesn't particularly like cauliflower so it didn't receive a rapturous reception. Still, can't please all the people all the time!

tagged with: soup, cauliflower

Scores on the Doors

Thurs 24 Jan 2008

The other day while tootling around the internet I came across Scores on the Doors. This (rather scary) site is contributed to by 74 councils and gives the 'official local hygiene ratings' for over 67 000 food businesses.

Actually, you might want to think twice before checking out your favourite venue, but I've already discovered that it's brilliant for finding reasons NOT to visit certain places!

The search is a little sensitive but once you've found a venue be sure NOT to be guided by star ratings alone. One venue I searched for in Leeds scored only one star, but delving into the more detailed ratings revealed that hygiene was 'good' whereas 'structural compliance' was only 'fair' and 'confidence in management' was 'little'. Personally, I'd be more worried if the hygiene was poor but everything else was great!

Also - the ratings are all dated, so bear in mind how recent (or otherwise) the information is!

tagged with: restaurants, hygiene, food safety

The Lounge

Tues 22 Jan 2008

One thing I hear most about The Lounge is that it used to be good. About 6 years ago I had some good meals there, but the restaurant changed/closed/reopened and the bar became more expensive, the quality of the beer less good ... all very sad, as I had spent some good times there.

After a break of about a year and a half, I finally ventured back, in search of a pre-theatre meal. I'm not sure if there's been a change of management or ownership but things have changed and, on last night's visit, for the better.

I arrived straight from work and ordered a caffè latte. I could find a seat and it would be brought over. Marks for civilised to start off with! When my coffee arrived there was no problem starting a tab and I was left alone to read my book and inspect the menu.

I'd been hoping to order the warm salad of black pudding with apple and roasted onion that I'd spotted on the website, but it wasn't on the menu. As I was after something light I settled on a smoked salmon, cream cheese and rocket wrap. Andy's internet choice, toad in the hole, was available so when he arrived we were able to settle down to our drinks: a San Miguel for him and a small glass of competent (but possibly over priced) Chilean sauvignon blanc. What impressed me most was that the wine wasn't served freezing cold: I could actually smell and taste some gooseberries!

My wrap was served with a small side salad and a tiny (but in my opinion, perfectly sized) portion of chunky chips. I was after a quick, light supper and this did the job admirably. Andy's toad in the hole was huge: a pile of mash, two sausages, plenty of gravy and a massive Yorkshire pudding. Perhaps not what you might conventionally think of as 'toad in the hole' but all the elements where there. I thought the gravy was a little salty and (dare I say it?) chemical-like, and Andy complained that the mash was lumpy (ah! but at least it was real potatoes then!), but he liked the sausages and the Yorkshire pudding went down a treat with both of us. If the Yorkshire pudding is bought in (and after discussion, we decided it's probably not) the Lounge is certainly making the effort and buying something good.

With the theatre beckoning there was no time for loitering and our final bill came to just shy of £25 (2 beers - £3.2o a pint, 1 small wine, 1 coffee and the 2 meals). If dining early, some meals are available for just £5 (and, yes, the toad in the hole was one) and there is also a 25% discount pre-theatre offer, if dining between 5 and 6:30.

While I still think the drinks might be a little pricey we'll certainly be making more use of the Lounge in future. In winter, it's a cosy venue and in summer you can do far worse than sit in the garden and drink Pimms!

1. The Lounge, St John’s House, Merrion Street, LS2 8JE, phone: 0113 244 4234

tagged with: leeds, restaurant, dining

The Potato - A Blog Event

Tues 22 Jan 2008

As I mentioned the other day, it's the International Year of the Potato ... and to me that sounds like the opportunity for a blog event!

Announcing ... The Potato.

For this event, you need to make a potato dish. However, if you can, it would be great if you can seek out a type of potato that you don't normally use, is new to you, or is known for being especially good for whatever you want to do. While you're unlikely to find too much potato exotica in your supermarket, you should be able to pick up something a bit different at a local farmers' market. If you do find something unusual and fancy some research into its history ... that's even better!

To get you started with varieties ... have a look here ...

Write ups by February 29 and the round up to follow early in March. Email me, and make sure you include your name, your blog's name and a permalink.

If you don't have a blog but would like to participate, please feel free to email me details of your dish/potato and a picture and I'll host your write up here.

tagged with: potato

Appellation

Today we have a guest review, written by Maureen Prichard. Appellation is in the Barossa Valley in South Australia, so a little far for UK based readers - but worth keeping in mind for any trips out of God's own county to God's own state!

Sun 20 Jan 2008

In January 1997, in the Barossa Valley, I discovered a little treasure of a restaurant called Pear Tree Cottage. Here chef Mark McNamara was creating a wonderful regional cuisine using products sourced mainly from the surrounding area. For the next five or six years Pear Tree Cottage was our destination for all sorts of celebrations and occasions, and the whole family was bereft when Mark reluctantly closed its doors.

We followed Mark’s career keenly thereafter and were delighted when he returned to the Barossa as Executive Chef of Appellation in 2005. Finally, David and I made it! We even arranged to stay in the Barossa overnight so that we could totally indulge, and indulge we certainly did.

Appellation is part of the Peppers The Louise vineyard retreat at Marananga, a very sophisticated five star complex. My fears for the occasion (that it might be a huge impersonal noisy restaurant and that Mark might not be cooking) were dispelled as we walked in the door. It is small and quiet, so low key that you don’t at first realise how impeccably designed it is. And we were greeted with the news that Mark was in the kitchen. Our pre-dinner drinks were scarcely in hand before he came out to welcome us. The warmth of that unexpected and personal welcome set the scene for one of our most memorable dining experiences.

We could choose between a tasting menu matched to local Barossa wines, or an à la carte menu which doesn’t discriminate between entrées and main courses. The dishes at the top of the list are lighter, while those at the bottom tend to be a little more substantial. We decided to go for the flexibility of the à la carte which allowed us to choose our wine from the formidable wine list (Appellation was 2007 winner of the Best Wine List in South Australia category of the 2007 Adelaide Food Awards) let me fit in dessert. After a great deal of deliberation we ordered.

While we were waiting for the first course (by this time getting very hungry), we speculated on the amuse bouche. Not one, but two arrived! The first was an exquisite triangle of avocado terrine encased in tomato and red pepper jelly with coriander oil – a miniature work of art that tasted as good as it looked. This was followed by a shot of tomato consommé with parsley, cucumber and coriander topped with olive oil foam. By now, our taste buds were well and truly amused.

For first course David had a tartlet of baby Williamstown yabbies and roasted peppers with a shellfish glaze and I had roasted spiced sweet potato with toasted pepitas, almonds and roasted cumin. These dishes represented such a contrast, the delicacy of the yabbies in their unctuous glaze against the spicy warmth and crunch of the sweet potato, but both were brilliant. Our second courses of grilled fillet of prosciutto wrapped snapper with baby caper butter gravy (“I had forgotten how brilliant snapper could be!” D) and twice-cooked belly of pork and spicy soya glaze (so rich but not at all cloying), were preceded by a cranberry and chinotto sorbet. We couldn’t believe it but things just seemed to be getting better.

At this point we decided to share the duck tasting plate. It consisted of liver parfait, rillettes and three slices of the most delicious red gum smoked duck breast with little toasts. It was too good to miss, and worked really well at this point of the meal.

All of this was accompanied by a 2004 Western Australian Cape Mentelle Zinfandel, which managed brilliantly to harmonise with the delicacy of the fish dishes, while standing up to the pork and duck. This was followed, preparing us for cheese and dessert, by a lovely red wine frappe – red wine granita topped with sparkling shiraz.

We finished off with cheese accompanied by Two Hands Gnarly Dudes 2005 shiraz for David – by this time my notetaking had taken a dive and I can relate only that he had two Australian cheeses, one a Heide gruyere, and a brilliant French blue. I had affogato (as good as you get in Italy) made with Appellation’s own vanilla icecream, amaretto and excellent espresso, accompanied by a Flaxman sticky.

We could not fault one aspect of our dining experience. All of the staff were knowledgeable and discreetly helpful, and the attention to detail was carried through to the expertly made coffee and the exquisite petit fours which I watched the waiter assembling while we had our pre-dinner drinks. During the course of our meal Mark paid two visits to the dining room and chatted with all his guests, a habit I am pleased to see he has carried with him from his Pear Tree Cottage days. He has lost none of his touch, just honed it to produce a menu based on fresh seasonal regional produce, which balances subtlety with surprises.

1. Appellation, Seppeltsfield Road, Marananga SA 5355, phone: +61 (0)8 8562 4144

tagged with: appellation, barossa valley, south australia, mark mcnamara

International Year of the Potato

Thurs 17 Jan 2008

I have found out that 2008 is the International Year of the Potato. And no, it hasn't been designated thus by some marketing people ... it has been the decision of the UN!

I like potatoes: they're cheap, versatile and good for you (even after you've thrown butter, cream, duck fat or cheese at them they are still a good source of vitamin C, protein and potassium - and the potassium will help you absorb the calcium from all the dairy ...).

They are also an increasingly important food for people in developing countries.

There are hundreds of different type of potato, so if you do nothing else to celebrate the Year of the Potato seek out a variety you've not tried before - or even grow it yourself!

tagged with: potato, UN, united nations

Almond Cake

Sun 13 Jan 2008

A recent acquisition has been The Complete Traditional Recipe Book and I was pretty keen to give something a go. Of course, by the time you get to Sunday afternoon you are thinking about cake (hmm, maybe I think about cake all the time) but I also wanted something a bit ... quick and dirty.

And I found it ... a plain, simple almond cake. So easy as to be trivial ...

Mix 225g butter with 225g sugar and then add in four eggs. Add 225g of self raising flour, 50g of ground almonds and ... that's it. If you have some almond essence to hand (I didn't) you might care to add a teaspoon of that.

Pour into a greased tin (I used a one pound loaf tin - and had some mixture left over for muffins) and bake. Now ... the recipe said to bake for an hour and a half at 160C. Because I have a fan oven I turned it down to somewhere between 140 and 150C. The muffins took about half an hour and my cake about an hour. So best to keep an eye on it and make a judgement call.

It's a simple cake, with a fine crumb. It kept really well - the almonds help to keep it moist, and it has served well as mid-morning snacks throughout the week. The book says that the recipe is reminiscent of eighteenth century cakes that would have been served with coffee. Of course, if you wanted to take it with your afternoon sherry or madeira I'm sure it would go just as well.

tagged with: cake, baking, almonds

WBW#41: Friuli-Venezia Giulia

Wed 16 Jan 2008

... hosted by Fork and Bottle.

I haven't done well with blog events recently but at the end of last year I decided to get enthused about Wine Blogging Wednesday. Not only is it an excuse to drink wine, but it might help with my forthcoming advanced WSET course (or something).

Which is why today saw me bombing around wine shops in Leeds looking for a bottle of white wine from the concisely named Friuli-Venezia Giulia region of north eastern Italy. I'd even been warned about leaving this til the last minute but I have to confess that Italian white wines are, um, not exactly an interest of mine - particularly pinot grigio ...

Bad planning has meant that I'm about to drink the same wine as Andrew over at Spittoon - le Fredis Pinot Grigio 2005. However, I haven't read his tasting notes - as soon as I saw that Oddbins (my final hope) had only one Friuli in stock I stopped reading!

Before tasting, a quick consult of the The World Atlas of Wine and wikipedia. It appears that the Friuli region offers the world three DOCGs, eleven DOCs and three IGTs (le Fredis fits into the latter category and is Venezia Giulia). The main grape grown is Friulano but there seems to be a lot of grapes grown too. The area is most noted for its white wines.

So - I was a bit disappointed to end up with an IGT wine and, what's more, one not made from one of the more obscure local grapes. My fault for not doing more research before heading into the wine shop ...
The wine ... a distinctly pale gold colour with a nose predominated by citrus, with floral and even toasty vanilla notes. Andy thinks it smells quite grassy and after a good hard think I can sort of see where he's coming from - not freshly cut grass, but how the grass cuttings smell when they've started to dry out.

On the palate, there's plenty of acid but more than a touch of residual sweetness, and, as the wine is aged on its lees, there is some toast too. I might be generous in saying medium length, so I'll temper that by noting that it's not a complex wine: the flavours don't develop and change.

Overall, not my cup of tea. I think the palate is too strongly skewed in favour of the sugar, creating an unbalanced* wine - and far too expensive for what you get (£8.49 at Oddbins). I'm quite disappointed because I love having my preconceptions (about wine) challenged - and it would have been fantastic to come away a convert. However, I've learnt some valuable lessons about wine blogging (don't leave it til the last minute and do your research!), Italian wine labelling and the wine regions in north eastern Italy - which means the exercise has been a success all round.

WBW#41: Friuli-Venezia Giulia - le Fredis Pinot Grigio, 2005, IGT Venezia Giulia, Valter Scarbolo, Lauzacco, Italy - purchased from Oddbins, Headingley, £8.49.

tagged with: friuli-venezia giulia, friuli, italian wine, wine blogging wednesday, wbw

*Please bear in mind, this is my opinion. I am far, far from an expert on Italian whites and it's possible that pinot grigio aficionados will point out that this is how it's supposed to be. Which is cool because I'll know for next time!

PAGE 42 - soba noodles in broth

Sat 12 Jan 2008

Before Andy hit the kitchen I put together our starter, which was soba noodles in broth. This is actually a dish we've tried before (and liked) so I was pretty happy to find that the recipe was on page 42 of Cooking Japanese.

If your cupboard is stocked for Japanese cooking this truly is an easy storecupboard standby.

For the two of us, I cooked a handful of soba noodles in lightly salted water, rinsed them in cold and put them to one side.

I added a packet of dashi to about a litre of boiling water and ensured it was fully dissolved, before adding a quarter of a cup of soy sauce (yes, it sounds like a lot, but be brave). Add a tablespoon of mirin, a teaspoon of sugar and bring back to the boil.

Add the soba, ensure they're separated and serve immediately. Top with sliced spring onions and pass the shichimi togarashi. If you happen to be running short on your Japanese seven spice powder you could do worse than substitute some chilli flakes!

This is a fantastic, quick and warming soup. Load it with the noodles for more of a meal, or keep it simple as a light starter.

tagged with: soba, noodles, japanese, soup

Sushi Saturday

Sat 12 Jan 2008

I bought Alex a santoku for Christmas and I'd been itching to try it out, so I slyly suggested sushi for our dinner on Saturday.

Shel fell for my ruse, so we went to Leeds indoor market to buy some fish and then Wing Lee Hong for the other ingredients. We bought prawns and salmon from one of the many fishmongers at the market. No tuna, as the only piece of sushi grade was enormous (and £15/kilo).

Wing Lee Hong's chinese supermarket furnished us with rice, nori, wasabi, rice vinegar and mirin and we already had soy sauce an pickled ginger, so we were all set.

We'd been to a sushi making class about eighteen months ago and I had tried to make sushi once since then, which had been a complete disaster because I didn't get the rice right. This time I had the ever-faithful Cooking Japanese book which contains an entry on "Perfect Sushi Rice".

The recipe is pretty simple - cook a cup of short-grain rice with a cup of boiling water and a tablespoon of rice vinegar. When it's done, put it into a large, flat tray to cool and mix up 1.5 teaspoons of caster sugar, 30ml of mirin and a dash of rice vinegar. Mix this into the rice with short stabbing motions. I don't know why short stabbing motions are needed, but they helped me feel authentic.

There are loads of guides to making sushi on the web (including lots of video) so I won't add my methods here but I was pleased with the results: salmon nigiri, shrimp nigiri, salmon maki and salmon and cucumber maki.


I didn't get the shrimp to flatten out properly so there's still plenty to learn but I'll definitely be on the lookout for quality pieces of fish from now on - if Alex lets me borrow her knife again.

tagged with: sushi, fish, japanese

Daal Makhani

Thurs 3 Jan 2008

Any regular readers will know that one of my favourite things to eat is dall makhni at Shabab on Eastgate. You don't see it on many menus, and you'll probably see even fewer recipes for it. We also had a bit of difficulty tracking down the black lentils with which it's made. Andy asked around his work mates and managed to get hold of a kilo in time for Christmas (and yes, they were wrapped and put under the tree!).

Fortunately, we were set on the recipe front! The lovely Curry had a recipe in its Delhi & Punjab section. The big question was ... would it live up to expectation?

Like about a million (literally) other people around the UK I was recovering from the norovirus, so Andy was sent into the kitchen. Fortunately, he does a far better job at following recipes than me, so after quizzing him (and eating the finished product) I'm qualified to write the dish up!

Firstly, you do need a little planning, as you'll need to soak 250g of black lentils overnight. Ours ended up soaking for two nights with no discernible damage done.

When you come to cook, drain and rinse the lentils and then add to a saucepan with 1.5L of water and bring to the boil. Simmer for around an hour, so that the lentils are cooked but not falling apart. Our simmering was very mucky - there was a lot of skimming that went on and in the end we actually rinsed the lentils again after they were cooked! It might have been thanks to the extra soaking, but it took less than an hour of simmering. If you eat enough lentils you'll know when they're done. They need to give but still hold their shape, and they should be more creamy in texture than floury.

Once you've done any rinsing or skimming you want/need to do, add ginger and garlic pastes (or crushed ginger and garlic) to taste, along with salt and red chilli powder. This type of dahl tends to be quite spicy so be generous. Reduce the heat and add 2tbsp of tomato paste and a whopping 150g of slightly salted butter. Cook for another 15 minutes, stirring frequently to ensure that the mix doesn't split.

Finally, stir in 1 tsp ground garam masala, 1/2 tsp of ground fenugreek leaves and 1/2 tsp of sugar. Check the seasoning and finish with 4 tbsp of cream.
We ate ours with some naan breads. The lentils keep their shape well and the mix does not collapse like some other dahls are prone to do. What was most impressive was how well the dahl reheated - either in the microwave or on the stove the lentils kept their shape and the rich, creamy mix ensured everything stayed moist and not floury or dry at all.

While this isn't quite like Shabab's it is a very good dahl recipe. The book indicates that these measurements will serve four - we had 3 dinners and 2 lunches out of it. I guess it all depends on how greedy you are!

tagged with: lentils

The Great Big Butter Cookbook

Sun 6 Jan 2008

Anyone who knows me will know how much I loathe the idea of processed substitutes for simple foods. I also hate anything with the words 'low fat' in front of it ... to borrow from Anna from This Life, what next? alcohol free beer?* oxygen free air?

So a book subtitled "because everything's better with butter" was probably written just for me! Before I received my copy I had an idea that this would be some kind of baking bible. Say "butter" and the first thing I think of is toast and the second thing is cake (followed closely by pastry and biscuits). But that's where I was utterly wrong. If you think about it - butter is (or should be or can be) used in so many types of dishes and a book which focusses on butter as the principal ingredient has a huge range of recipes to play with.

Unsurprisingly, The Great Big Butter Cookbook is a bit of a monster. It's a hardback and nearly 500 pages long - it has plenty of gorgeous, glossy photos but they're not overwhelming. Not every dish is illustrated and I think the ratio of pictures to recipes is about right.

Obviously, a recipe book is only as good as its recipes and our first test was the crispy chicken strips and the book scored a big tick on that front. The chicken was moist and tasty, the recipe was very quick to put together from basic ingredients (indeed, mostly storecupboard ingredients) and the result was as we were expecting.

The next experiment was the carrot cake. This is Andy's favourite type of cake and my least favourite. I've discovered this means I cannot cook it (one effort was so awful even the swans on the River Wey wouldn't eat it!) - so if The Great Big Butter Cookbook produced something edible it would be well ahead.

I chose to use one of my Christmas presents - a silicone muffin tray - rather than to make a whole cake, and I had to substitute part of the honey with some sugar, but otherwise I followed the recipe.

Preheat the oven to 170C.

In the food processor, combine 100g of butter with 1 cup of honey (about half a cup of honey and a quarter of a cup of golden caster sugar), 2/3 cup of plain yoghurt, 2 eggs and a 1 1/2 tsp of vanilla essence. Stir in 1 1/3 cup of grated/shredded carrot and follow with 1 1/3 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 cup of self raising flour, 2 tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and a pinch of salt. Ensure everything is combined well, spoon into muffin tin (generous tablespoon per slot) and bake for about 15 minutes.

Hooray! The little carrot cakes rose and were edible! They were actually nicer on day two, because they had become a little sticky (like ginger cake) and they kept quite well for about 3 days (covered with clingfilm).

I didn't make the cream cheese frosting (cream cheese, butter, vanilla essence and icing sugar) and, to be honest, I thought they were quite sweet enough. If I were to make this recipe again I'd definitely reduce the amount of honey used, and I'd also be careful not to over-process the carrot. Most carrot cakes seem to have quite a coarse, moist middle and mine turned out to be smoother with a finer crumb (which suited me, but may not please carrot cake aficionados).

Given the size of the book two recipes is hardly a representative sample, but I'm already lining up the sour cream raspberry muffins to try out!

The book itself is broken into sections (such as 'Breakfasts and Breads' or 'Baked Goods and Desserts') and also has a very comprehensive index. For non American readers there will be a few, small dilemmas (butter measurements are often given in sticks, cups or tablespoons, and you'll need to 'translate' the odd ingredient) but, having read through most of the recipes, you shouldn't ever really struggle.

Because the book is so comprehensive in coverage, I'd recommend for anyone who was interested in an all purpose cookbook. It doesn't really cover any techniques, and, while the recipes are clear and step-by-step it may not be suitable for complete kitchen novices (who could well be intimidated by its size rather than anything else!).

The other notable thing about this book is that, in the UK, it is retailing for just £11.99. For a book this size and this glossy - this is really cheap (another book I received on the same day which is far less glossy but a similar size retails for £25).

The book is also available through Amazon US.

tagged with: cookbooks butter cookbook reviewsbaking muffinscarrot

* Yes, I am aware this exists, though why anyone would drink it is also beyond me.

Angel's Share

Tues 08 Jan 2008

I can't believe how long it's been since our last visit to Angel's Share in Chapel Allerton!

We finally managed to get back to try the stone baked pizzas from the new menu. Since we last visited, things have been rejigged a little: the middle floor is now a lounge area and the top floor is the restaurant, with the ground floor remaining the bar.

When we arrived last night it was fairly quiet: there was a small group sitting at some sofas (eating the pizzas) and a few people at the bar. Nothing too rowdy at all. The bar itself has a good range of beers on draught - including one hand pull (Leeds Brewery Best). There's a huge selection of spirits and the wine list is reasonably extensive, and not too shabby on the 'by the glass' range.

As you can eat in the bar we opted to grab a quiet spot and stay downstairs. The pizza menu runs from a margherita (£5.50) to a king prawn and garlic number (£8.50), with a bit of everything in between. While the choices do include a few standards there's also some more interesting choices available. Andy opted for The Spaniard (chorizo, Serrano ham ...) and while I was tempted by one topped with meatballs, by the char-grilled vegetable option or even by one of the spicier pizzas, I finally decided on the Serrano - Serrano ham, mascarpone, and topped with a rocket salad.

Because I was hungry I decided I also wanted some chips with chive mayonnaise and sweet chilli sauce. These turned out to be quite redundant, as I was very quickly full of pizza, but the sweet chilli sauce was rather tasty and I forced myself to eat quite a few ...

The pizzas themselves were really good - thin, crispy bases, topping generous AND all the way to the edge and the salad not drowned in dressing. My only reservation would be the price. The Serrano was £7.50 and I'm not entirely sure that's not a touch too much. Having said that, unless you're particularly hungry/greedy, you're unlikely to need more than the pizza. Indeed, Andy reported in as 'still full of pizza' this morning.

I've already been asked how the pizzas compare to those at brb. I think the situation is probably level pegging in terms of quality of food, though brb's Thursday lunch deal (pizza and drink for £5.50) nudges it ahead purely in terms of price. Having said that ... the service in the bar at Angel's Share last night was fantastic. The barman who took our drink and food orders was affable and chatty - but also efficient. When our food was delivered we asked if we could order more drinks and he was more than happy to bring them over to us (mind you, I wouldn't try that trick on a Friday night!). Our table was cleared swiftly when we finished eating and there were cheery farewells all round as we ventured out into the wind and rain.

It definitely won't be a year and a half before my next visit ... if I can't enthuse Andy about a breakfast out, I might have to compromise on Sunday lunch ...

1. Angel's Share, Stainbeck Corner, Chapel Allerton, LS7 3PG, phone: 0113 307 0111

PAGE 42 - Crispy Chicken Strips

Sat 5 Jan 2008

I recently received a copy of The Great Big Butter Cookbook. It's a very large book and, because butter is used in pretty much anything you can imagine, it contains a diverse range of recipes.

So, for a trial recipe or two, I thought I'd be generous and allow Andy to choose. He didn't look that interested in going through the almost 500 pages of recipes so I told him to pick a page number between 9 and 469. He chose ... 42. And so, Project Page 42 begins.

Page 42 plays host to crispy chicken strips with sweet and sour dipping sauce. I was having visions of pots of hot oil, emergency trips to Wing Lee Hong and hours of hard work. So I was more than pleasantly surprised when I read the recipe. The only thing we had to buy was the chicken breast and this recipe has just cemented itself as an emergency supper favourite. I am not kidding - it was really easy!

The only ingredient we couldn't track down (and we did make an effort) was buttermilk. To approximate this, I used ordinary milk with a squeeze of lime juice.

Preheat your oven to 200C.

Start by mixing some milk, hot pepper sauce (to taste) and lime juice (just a squeeze) and adding the chicken breast sliced into strips. Let this sit for around 10 minutes or so - while you prepare the crumb.

Take breadcrumbs and mix without about a third as much polenta (cornmeal), some grated Parmesan cheese (to taste) and black pepper (and salt, if you really must).

Melt some unsalted butter.

Have ready a baking tray. Remove the chicken from the milk mixture, coat well with the crumbs (if you were really keen you could do a double coat - but I think the great thing about this dish is how quick and hassle free it is, so let's not complicate things) and arrange on the tray.

Once all the the chicken is on the tray, drizzle the melted butter over the chicken. I used a table spoon and just sort of waved the butter over the meat. Because of the crumbs and the baking tray you don't need to cover each piece of chicken with melted butter: it spreads itself around.

Pop in the oven for 8 minutes, then turn over the chicken strips, baste the other side with more melted butter and return to the oven for another 8 minutes. If one side is looking a little anaemic, give the chicken no more than 3 or 4 minutes on that side.

While the chicken is cooking, make the dipping sauce. You really need to bear with me here. When I read the recipe for this I thought it sounded ... well ... awful. In the spirit of Project Page 42 I soldiered on.

Mix some apricot jam with some vinegar and mustard.

I know.

Now, we have some lovely apricot jam made by Laura, our host at Il Nido in Tuscany in the summer, so we were using good stuff, and the recipe says to use dry mustard, but we didn't have any so I substituted Dijon. Andy thought it wasn't spicy enough so we added some hot sauce. And it was REALLY GOOD.

Thanks to the milk, initially, and the butter while it's cooking, the chicken remains lovely and moist. It was so moist and tender we were able to cut our strips into pieces with the sides of our forks! However, it doesn't come across as greasy at all - just juicy.

To drink? Well, we made a bit of a mistake on that front. I chose a Turckheim Terroirs d'Alsace Gewurztraminer (Sables et Goulet). The choice was made on the basis that gewurz is usually a pretty natty pairing with spicy food. However, the spice in this dish is more mustard spice than chilli spice and, while the sweetness of the apricot jam was probably the only thing that saved the match, it was not an inspired choice at all. Which was a shame, because the wine was fantastic: incredibly floral (think honeysuckle) nose, with a honeyed palate, plenty of acid for structure, a gorgeous golden glow in the glass ... it was like a glass of sunshine on flowers. Yes, I did rather enjoy it!

Project Page 42 - an initial success. The Great Big Butter Cookbook provided a quick, practical and tasty supper. Everyone happy!

tagged with: chicken, butter, alsace, gewurztraminer

(Chocolate) Christmas Cake

Sun 23 Dec 2007

I start this with a confession: if you are hoping for a photograph ... I forgot to take one! However, I suggest that you take a peek at my shot of Nigel Slater's chocolate brownies, as this did not look fundamentally different (except that I cooked it in a round tin).

In the run up to Christmas I managed to fit in a lot of cooking which was helped by the fact that while my own Christmas Eve soirée was cancelled I volunteered to do some cooking for my friend Jenn. Amongst other things I grandly, and vaguely, offered to 'do' dessert.

My first thought was to make Slater's chocolate brownies, but they're in danger of becoming ubiquitous so I thought I'd try Shaun Hill's chocolate cake from The Crisis Cookbook. Crisis is a UK charity for single homeless people and chefs such as Joel Robuchon, Ferran Adrià and Heston Blumenthal have donated recipes to create this book. It costs just £5 and is available from Amazon and Marks and Spencers.

Anyway, Shaun Hill is currently chef at the Walnut Tree in Wales, and he was one of the Michelin starred bright lights in the Shropshire town of Ludlow. The cake is simplicity itself ...

I was supposed to melt 225g plain chocolate with 100g of unsalted butter - unfortunately, too much chatting and not enough attention to detail meant that I ended up using more like 125g of butter. This did not adversely affect the end product (it was more than edible and looked fine), but I wouldn't recommend making the same mistake. It made the mixture particularly oily and slick and caused rather a lot of stress!

Separate 4 eggs and whisk the whites until stiff. Into the food processor with the yolks, which were whisked with 225g icing sugar and about a teaspoon of vanilla essence. Finally, 2 tbsp of corn flour were whisked in and the mixture was given a good long beating. Hill's recipe states that the mixture should be whisked until it lightens perceptibly. I suspect in reality this will mean whisking until you are fed up with the noise from the food processor or whisk until your arm is sore.

The melted chocolate and butter mix was added and well combined, before the egg whites were folded in.

With the oven pre-heated to 190C, the mixture went into a base lined 18cm round cake tin and was baked for around half an hour. You don't want the cake too cooked ... a little undercooked and the centre will be gooey (and that's a good thing). My cake rose beautifully while cooking and then gracefully collapsed back onto itself as it cooled. The end result was dense and fudgy and rich.

At the party, we served it cut into small squares with a drizzle of cream. And there were no complaints!

tagged with: baking, chocolate, cake

Sukhothai

Thurs 28 Dec 2007

I mentioned a little while ago that a new Thai restaurant had opened in Headingley and it wasn't going to be long before I headed over the road to check it out. I've eaten at Sukhothai in Chapel Allerton and really enjoyed it so I was hoping for good things.

The executive summary? Things were good.

The starters chosen were spring rolls (poh piah tod), chicken toast (khanom pang gai) and crispy noodles (mee krob) - along with the obligatory prawn crackers, chilli sauce and some cold beers.

The last three of these you pretty much cannot go wrong with and, while I was a tad disappointed with my rather small and pastry intensive spring rolls, the chicken toast received a definite thumbs up as did the massive portion of crispy noodles. So maybe I am wrong to like my spring rolls larger, bursting with a varied, spicy filling and to have the wrappers crispy the whole way through, rather than slightly doughy in the middle.

Whatever reservations I had over my starter were laid aside for the main courses. With three of us we managed a good selection: duck red curry, beef in spices fried with garlic and black pepper and a mixed seafood stir fry.

These were all generous servings and were all enjoyed. While I had tastes of the duck and the seafood stirfry my own choice had been the beef and it was delicious. The slices of beef were large enough to have some substance to them, but not stringy, tough or over cooked. The sauce had (for me) a great mix of chilli and black pepper heat, and there was just enough of it to warrant a bit of extra rice at the end for mopping up without drowning my steak.

The service was efficient and friendly and although the restaurant was busy we never felt rushed. This doesn't mean we dawdled over our meal for hours (and to be honest, with work the next day we didn't want to) and the pace might be a little frenetic for a weekend but we never wanted for drinks and never had the sense that they were trying to turn over tables as quickly as possible. This is commendable because, when we left, there were people waiting to be seated. We managed to test out the service by leaving behind a bag of shopping. One of us rang the restaurant while another raced back to retrieve it. Apparently when Andy arrived back at Sukhothai the waiters had the bag ready to hand over and recognised him immediately.

It is unfair, but rather easy, to draw comparison between Sukhothai and its near neighbour, Jino's. Jino's is casual, cheap, cheerful and basic - it's BYO policy with free corkage says it all. Sukhothai is a far more formal affair: dark wood, uniformed waiting staff, and a wine and beer list. Realistically, diners should go to the two restaurants for two completely different reasons. The restaurant that might suffer is Sala Thai on Shaw Lane ... one that I haven't visited for a long time and think I should head to soon ...

1. Sukhothai, St Anne's Road, Headingley, LS6 3NX, phone: 0113 278 1234

tagged with: restaurants, leeds, thai, west yorkshire