Street Food Chef - update

Well the Street Food Chef is going from strength to strength. It seems that people of Sheffield have grasped the opportunity to grab a freshly prepared piece of Mexico as they are out and about, and who can blame them? It's easy eating, reasonably priced and darn tasty. In case that isn't good enough reason to give this place a go, they have started using Moss Valley Fine Meats pork which is Made in Sheffield.

With the hangover from hell I was quite pleased to hear that Gav fancied a trip to Street Food Chef and I placed my order with him. Shortly after he returned with a bag of goodies.

Two pork burritos, a bag of nachos, some soured cream and.... GET THIS..... a bag of pork scratchings!  All for the barginous price of £9.50!

The burrito was very tasty.  It was packed full of shredded pork cooked with cumin (my favourite spice), rice, re-fried beans and salad. There was a lot of stuff in there, but don't worry; these rolls are expertly prepared so you won't lose any of the precious filling on eating! It was full of flavour too and just the right level of heat which left my tongue tingling a little.

Nachos were nice and crunchy, but the absolute highlight for me was the pork scratchings. Gorgeous! They were perfectly cooked, good and crunchy, but still a bit juicy from the fat. The thing that sets them apart from any other pork scratching is the taste. Presumably it's a by-product of the pork used in the burritos so it's full of cumin goodness.

Ahhhhh. I feel better already.

Market Day

Today is Market Day.

Sheffield Farmers Market is on Fargate today (towards the Town Hall side of things - after the continental market) and I went down first thing this morning to say hi to a few of the producers and to pick up some tasty wares. Here's what I came back with....

William's wedding cake and chilli chocolate brownies from Heavenlies. These are for the husband really as he does have a sweet tooth and I did promise him some cake. However they do look good and I may have to at least have a nibble!

Cracked Black Pepper Sausages and Sweetcure Thin Cut Back Bacon from Moss Valley Fine Meats. These sausages are fab. Really tasty and I like the subtle flavour of the black pepper as it doesn't drown the flavour of the meat.

Pressed Tongue from Halls Home Produce. Tastes way better than it sounds and a bargain at £1.50 a pack!

Mixed Gourmet Mushrooms from Autumn Harvest Mushrooms. These are a favourite in my house. They come nicely prepared so there's no cleaning to be done and they taste amazing - I have never enjoyed mushrooms as much! I'll be cooking these up with my Moss Valley Fine Meats bacon in an omelette for our tea tonight.

Then I popped down to Castle Market......

I picked up my fruit and veg. The courgettes, aubergine and mushrooms will be used for a healthy roasted veg salad in the week.

Horlicks Extra Mature Cheddar Cheese is my favourite and I also picked up 6 Free Range Eggs for 90p.

W Bunting & Son is my favourite butchers and I love their lamb cutlets, which I have chopped in half so that we can have one each. I cook them like steaks on the char-grill pan.

Talking of steaks.....

I picked up some enormous Rib-eye steaks too. They're sliced in front of you so you can ask for the size that you want. I wanted thick and juicy! I can hardly wait to have them, but they've gone into the freezer for next week when I'll serve them with salad and chips.  Mmmmmm!

Onto the Fishmongers where I got two rainbow trout. They're fresh so they've also gone into the freezer for next week.

Happy Easter

Christian I am not, but give me a 4 day weekend in celebration of Jesus coming back to life and I’ll celebrate with the best of them. This year I threw a dinner party on Easter Sunday. 9 diners, lots of food and lots of wine. Given it was a Sunday and I hadn’t had a proper roast dinner in a while I decided to do a typical, full on Sunday roast. No starters this time, just a huge array of meats, veggies and potatoes.

Roast leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary

Can you believe that until Easter Sunday I had never cooked a joint of lamb? Crazy as it’s my favourite meat. I went to W Bunting and Son and picked up a huge 2.1kg leg of lamb for about £18. It was enormous and far too big for my roasting dish, which meant that I had to send Gav out for a new one.  Of course, I completely forgot that EVERYTHING is shut on Easter Sunday (I forget every year) and we eventually ended up borrowing one from one of the guests.

I used this Mike Robinson recipe for guidance. First off I made a garlic and rosemary butter by mixing about 4 stalks of fresh rosemary (finely chopped) and 3 cloves of garlic (grated) into about 30g of salted butter.  I then seasoned it. I made some incisions in the lamb and pushed bits of the butter mixture into each hole and smeared the rest over butter over the meat. After leaving the lamb out for about an hour, (so that it could get to room temperature), I cooked it, covered in foil, for half an hour at 200C.  Once the half hour was up, I removed the foil and cooked it for a further hour.  I then let it rest for half an hour before serving.

Wow – minimal effort!  It was a little more on the done side of medium which was a bit of a disappointment as the recipe had said that the timing would produce a medium meat. However, it was still very tender and tasty. It went down well and there was more than enough for us all.

Cold Ham

As I feared not having enough food (as if!) I cooked a Ham Hock the day before and served this cold and sliced. Click here for an old blogpost of the recipe I used. I just skipped the sauce.

Cauliflower Cheese

As a couple of veggies were joining us, I made a huge cauliflower cheese which I thought they could dig into and the meat eaters could have as a side. I did consider making something with tofu or getting some veggie sausages, but I figured out that as long as I kept all the sides vegetarian then there would be plenty and the caulie cheese would provide the protein.

First up I made a cheese sauce. I heated up a pint of milk, along with 40g butter and 40g plain flour whilst stirring continuously. Once it thickened up, I stirred in about 150g of extra mature cheddar cheese, ¼ tsp of nutmeg and ½ tsp of Dijon mustard. It wasn’t quite as thick as I wanted it, but I’d run out of cheese so I added some corn flour. I then poured the sauce over a large dish of two heads of cooked cauliflower and cooked it at 200C for half an hour. The sauce still wasn’t quite as thick as I would have liked but as I’d used extra mature cheddar it was cheesy enough.

Spinach

I washed two big bags of spinach, put it into a big pan along with 2 cloves of garlic (finely chopped) some salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil and about 100mls boiling water.  I then just let this cook away on a low heat for about 10 minutes. 

Broccoli and carrots

Chopped and boiled.

Mash

I never boil potatoes for mash now. I bake them whole for about an hour in a hot oven, scoop the innards out and mash with some butter and seasoning. I generally make it ahead and just warm it up in the microwave. This mash is tasty and has a good texture; so much better than the stuff made with boiled potatoes.

Roast Potatoes

I boil chopped potatoes for 10 mins, heat up sunflower oil in a roasting dish, add the potatoes along with some chopped garlic (about 4/5 cloves) and some dried rosemary (about a tsp). I then roast them for about an hour at 200C, spooning the oil over them every 15 mins or so. I love roast potatoes and I do love my roast potatoes!  They are quite possibly the best bit of a Sunday dinner!

Stuffing & gravy

I am ashamed to say that these were shop bought. Firstly because I wanted them to be veggie and secondly because I don’t really have the room to deal with making gravy just as I’m serving everything up.

Dessert – Chocolate Fudge Cake

I used a recipe from 1 Mix, 100 Cakes which I bought from M&S.  It seems that they have now stopped selling it, but you could buy it from Amazon. However I don’t recommend it. Recipes call for all ingredients to be dumped together in a bowl and beaten. This isn’t good and results in a heavy cake. So I use the recipes, as guidance for the ingredients, but ignore a lot of the method!

I left some unsalted butter out to get to room temperature and warmed 55g of dark chocolate in a pan and set it aside.  I then creamed 175g of the butter with 175g dark muscovado sugar. I use my hands to do this as I find it’s the quickest and easiest way. I then whisked up 3 eggs and added this to the mix. I used the whisk to mix the eggs in. I then added 175g of sifted plain flour with a tbsp of flour along with 2 tbsp of milk and 1 tsp vanilla extract. I continued to use the whisk to mix everything up.

Next I added the melted chocolate and mixed that in. I then spooned everything into a greased and floured 9 inch round silicone baking ‘pan’, smoothed it over and cooked it for 50 minutes. Once cooked I left it to cool and then got on with making the frosting. The frosting is just 100g of dark chocolate and 55g unsalted butter heated together with 175g icing sugar, 1 tbsp milk and 1 tsp vanilla extract then mixed in.

Once the cake had cooled I sliced it in half spread half of the frosting on top of the bottom layer, placed the other layer on top and then spread the rest of the frosting over. This with double cream also went down well. We then consumed far too much wine, played some cards and got told off by a neighbour. Good night then.

Guests went home with Toy Story eggs.

All Seasons at Castle Market was selling them – 4 for £1!

What did you get up to?

So much for the good weather!

A good old thunder storm is needed once in a while isn't it?  It freshens things up again, gives us chance to breathe and it waters the gardens for us! 

We finally got our break in the sun today. The sky went grey, thunder started to rumble and the rain started to bounce.

At first I thought little of it. Then someone tweeted that it was hailing. Then it started hailing here too.

Of course, hail is nothing new, but it's April and about 22C out there. It only lasted for about half an hour - then sunshine resumed.

Here are some pics, and a video, which looked way better on the camera. 

More to Life than Food? Maybe.

Spring is the new summer here in the UK and for the past few years we've had better weather in April than we have for the rest of the year.  Come July and August the flood warnings will come out, but for now we're happily forgetting to put sun lotion on, eating charred burgers and dreaming of beer gardens.

Of course it's causing havoc for those who rely on seasons being as they should, but I am quite selfishly enjoying the sun and temperatures hitting 20C.

So as last weekend was delightful we decided to go for a 'stroll' on the Sunday.  We debated going down Eccy Road and through all the parks but that wasn't enough for me.  I wanted to get out, out of town, away from all the hustle and bustle and into the countryside.

So, there's not a great deal for me to say about our day out.... apart from;

a) It was round the reservoirs at Ladybower
b) It was a 6 mile long walk
c) It took us about 2 hours at a leisurely pace
d) I was glad to find clean toilets half way through the walk and
e) My legs hurt by the end of it.

Now a photographer I am not, but I took a few snaps and thought someone might like to see them!

Views

 

Sheep and adorable lambs

Christmas Tree!

Old phone box

Duckling (trust me, it is)

Pheasant

Glider

Is it wrong that the lambs made me feel a little peckish?

Apologies and Zerboni Taste

UPDATE - THIS RESTAURANT IS NOW CLOSED.

Apologies, I feel as though I have been neglecting this blog recently and I’m sorry for that, but I am still here, the blog is still alive and I do have a new post.

For fear of repeating myself, I’ll assume that you all appreciate my love of Roman food. Given this, imagine my delight on finding a little Italian run by true Roman, Marco Zerboni, in Sheffield! I’ve been here a couple of times and enjoyed delicious carbonaras (even one with al dente pasta on request). So, when the husband suggested going there for an evening meal, I jumped at the chance! They open on Friday and Saturday nights as a bistro and having already tried Marco’s pasta, I was keen to try more.

We went for a couple of drinks first. A nice pint of Staropramen at the former Olive Bar on Division Street, (which is now owned by the Bowery guys and will have a formal opening do at the end of April) and a strong Beefeater 24 G ‘n’ T at the Wick at Both Ends. Suitably hungry and armed with our bottle of wine from Tesco (Taste is BYOB) we grabbed a cab to Eccy Road.

The restaurant was quiet. There was only one small group in so we had the pick of the tables and we chose to sit by the window over looking Eccy Road. The menu is tapas style with dishes ranging from about £2.50 to £7. We were advised to choose 4/5 dishes. We also decided to go with some bread and olives to start.

The bread selection was good and it was served with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. There was a decent heap of olives with some cute little picks decorated with Italian flags.  

In all fairness I would have preferred to see fatter juicer olives, but they did what they said on the tin and all in all it was a nice appetiser. For mains we decided to have a couple of larger dishes along with a couple of the smaller ones. It was a good plan as we had ample food, but not too much.

Cod with beans was delicious. The sauce was creamy and rich. I think there was cheese in there along with tomato and herbs. It went down well.

The meatballs with spare ribs were even more delicious!  The meatballs were tasty and the spare ribs were tender with the meat falling off the bones. The tomato sauce was also good and better than any I’ve tried to make at home. 

The smaller dishes made were good as side dishes. We had peas with pancetta and spinach with Parmesan. Both were as good.

 

We decided to have a little break before dessert and I nipped outside for a cigarette. There was a lot of commotion going on as someone had collapsed in the street and both an ambulance and a police car had arrived. Marco was very intrigued by it all and came to see what was going on. He recognised me after the Exposed blog, which I’d emailed out to him, and we chatted briefly before he was collared back in to get on with some cooking!

Once seated back at the table, we decided to order the selection of desserts. This is a dish of 5 different desserts drizzled with chocolate sauce and a pot of cream. It’s perfect for sharing – especially for those who can’t decide what to have.

There were two cakes, one with dates, the other with carrot and orange. There was a profiterole, a coconut macaroon and a chocolate brownie. All were good; the carrot and orange cake and the brownie were my favourites.

We also had an espresso each which was a good choice after all the alcohol we had consumed. The bill came to about £37 which included corkage for our wine and was pretty reasonable. So Marco’s done it again…. another fantastic meal was had!  

Next I want to try his Sunday lunches and I know I’ll be back for more pasta!

The Wig and Pen - Exposed blog post

The Milestone will not need much of an introduction following their Ramsey’s Best Restaurant 2010 fame. They came tops in the British category and got as far as the semi-finals. Even though they were knocked at this stage they had put up a damn good fight and held their own.

Even prior to all this, The Milestone had been one of my own favourites for a while, although I will admit that I did start to get a bit wary following the whole Ramsey madness  I started reading more negative reviews. 

There have always been a few with the usual complaints (portion size etc), but I was beginning to wonder whether fame had gone to their heads. 

Also their menu changed; completely. It became more gastro pub and less a la carte leading to fewer interesting dishes on the menu and I lost interest.

Then the Wig & Pen on Campo Lane closed its doors.  Now this was truly a sad day for me. I’ve got a lot of happy memories of the Wig & Pen. Drinks at lunch or after work with colleagues, lunch with the parents (who loved it because it had been in the Guardian) and evening meals with the husband had all been enjoyed here. 

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