The Beauchief

NOTE THAT HEAD CHEF CHARLIE HAS MOVED ON FROM THE BEAUCHIEF (WHO NOW SPORTS A COMPLETELY NEW MENU). I WILL BE TRYING CHARLIE'S NEW PLACE AS SOON AS I CAN AND A REVIEW WILL FOLLOW.

If you haven't read my review of the Samuel Fox, you must have at least heard me banging on about the place at some point.  I discovered it in December last year and managed to squeeze in 3 visits before the business went up for sale in March.  Naively I thought nothing of the sale (aside from a brief spot of day dreaming that I would buy it myself), and I just assumed that the chefs would stay put.

So…. Imagine my horror on hearing that the chefs were leaving.  Oh!  I had only just discovered some of the best food I'd had in years and its creators were leaving me.

Then…. Imagine my delight on hearing that the whole team of chefs were moving to The Beauchief on Abbeydale Road South, Sheffield.  It's, like, a fifteen minute drive out of the city centre.  I can even get the bus there.  Hell, I could walk there if needed (although, let's face it, I never will).

The restaurant opened last Thursday and I was so desperate to try it, but I held back.  I told myself that I should leave the team to settle into the new venue and with their new staff and that it was a bit too early to be rocking up demanding an excellent feed. 

Ha!  I lasted a week. 

It was Gav's fault really.  He sent me a cheeky text asking if I fancied going out for tea.  He'd suggested a few low key places in town; one of our favourite bars and a Chinese amongst others…. But I let my mind wander and before I knew it I was on the phone booking a table at The Beauchief.

Having never been before (not even when Christian was there) I didn't quite know what to expect of the place and neither Gav nor I had bothered dressing smartly.  Don't you make that mistake!  Not that there would be any sneering from the crew of waiters mind, just that this place is pretty grand and worthy of a bit effort, or just a little more than jeans, trainers and t-shirts.

We were warmly welcomed by Kelly (the resident manager) who instantly recognised us from visiting the Samuel Fox and on spotting the comfy Chesterfield sofas we had a drink in the lounge first.  There's a fair amount to choose from on the wine list, but thanks to my colleague, if I'm going for a white wine, I can now only guzzle sauvignon blanc as everything else is too bland in comparison.  It's got to be a New Zealand one at that.  Hmph.  Twenty seven quid later and I'm sorted with a more than satisfactory bottle.  My advice?  This is an expensive taste to acquire and if you're not already hooked on the stuff then I would just stick to the pinot, it's far less addictive (and less pricy).

I had read the menu about 37 times since it had gone online last week so ordering didn't take long. It also helped that a few favourites from the Samuel Fox had travelled with Charlie and his crew to The Beauchief and anyone looking for recommendations should go for the black pudding starter, the lamb main and the lemon meringue or the custard tart for dessert. I however, fancied something new...

We went through to the dining room; a beautiful space and a far cry from the Samuel Fox, (which was fair enough, but I never got on with those cork placemats).  There are stiff white tablecloths, high backed chairs, silver cutlery and lanterns with tall fat candles flickering away gently.

There are two sides to the menu; you can be innovative or classic.  Of course, being pure rock 'n' roll, we chose innovative all the way. To start I fancied both the pigeon and the venison, but as I knew that I was going to have a meaty main, I went for the tuna sashimi (£9).  Admittedly the tuna wasn't quite sashimi as it was cured and I forget the exact flavours (I'd intended on a bit of an update blog rather than a full blown review so didn't take notes) but I do know it was delicious.  Kelly told us that the ginger and sesame seed marshmallow is a bit like Marmite, in the way you either love it or hate it.  I disagree as I simply cannot make my mind up on this one.  I didn't like the foamy texture, but it worked well with the soft, smooth tuna and I did like the flavour.  Maybe it will grow on me….

As soon as Gav's plate landed I was jealous as he had gone for the venison (£9). The meat was ruby red raw in the centre, the Parmesan ice cream was to die for (quite literally) and the tortellini stuffed with mushroom and truffle oil was bursting with flavour as well as that gorgeous, thick stench of the truffles. It looked stunning, but tasted better and although Gav gave me a little nibble, I'll be having a whole plate of that to myself next time, whether I'm having a meaty main or not.

And... onto those mains....

I went for the beef (£25) which was seared fillet served with a large cannelloni of pasta (with bite) stuffed with beef cheek and horseradish potato bon bons. Normally I don't bother with fillet as I think that the taste of a rib eye far outweighs the texture of the fillet, but this was a tasty bit of meat meaning I had the best of both worlds. The beef cheek cut is a current favourite of mine and this didn't disappoint and, although this is a rich meat, tomatoes were added to the shredded meat to give it a bit of a lift. There were a couple of dollops of mash and potato bon bons which were similar to mini croquettes (and good) and there was just enough sauce on the plate (one of my bugbears is excess sauce; I hate how it completely overpowers the flavours on the plate).

Gav had the hake (£17). A large piece of fish was sat on a fat crab ravioli in a puddle of a saffron bourride. 'What is a bourride?' I hear you ask. Well, according to Merriam Webster it's 'a fish stew similar to bouillabaisse that is usually thickened with egg yolks and strongly flavoured with garlic'. Whatever. It was loverly, rich and creamy and it worked well with the ingredients on the plate; adding to them, not overpowering them. Fish was perfectly cooked and the pasta had a little bite. All in all Gav was perfectly happy with his lot, as was I.

In some rather pathetic attempt to be healthy, we ordered a side of greens too. Green beans, mange tout and carrots cooked simply and well and served without any fuss were appreciated, not that we needed any sides to bulk up the portions.

Remembering the chocolate (£7) dessert from a visit to the Samuel Fox I was glad to see it here and headed straight for it. See it comes with a hot caramel sauce which is poured over the chocolate mousse, causing it to collapse in the middle and form a delicious puddle of chocolate caramel. It was good, very good.

Gav went for the liquorice (£7) which was a ball of iced liquorice parfait rolled in frozen berries served with crème fraiche ice cream. It was another good looking dish and we liked the uniqueness of the dish. The light and fresh flavours of the crème fraiche ice cream worked well with the richness of the parfait and Gav declared it a success.

The service was as good as the food and you honestly would not think that the team had only been working together for about a week. And, although the restaurant is pretty formal, Kelly will make sure that there's no stuffiness here. She wants chatter and laughter in her restaurant and I'm quite sure that once Sheffield gets to hear about the newest addition to the food scene, she'll get it.

Marvellous. Bloody Marvellous. Charlie and Kelly, Sheffield is all the better for having you!

Trumpers Tea and the Loose Tea Revolution

A while back the PR agency for Trumpers Tea got in touch to see if I was interested in receiving some free tea on the basis that they get a blogpost out of it. Being proper Yorkshire I do love a cuppa and, more importantly, I love a free cuppa so I agreed to the deal.

Not long after I started to regret my keenness; I like a cuppa, but I like a proper cuppa and the chances were that I was gonna get some herbal teas in this package. Now Earl Grey is as adventurous as I get. See, herbal tea, for me, is something that is as pointless as de-caff coffee and as half arsed as rose wine. How was I gonna get on with these fanciful blends?

More to the point, where was I gonna find the time to faff about with tea leaves and teapots? Yes, I will happily while away a few hours in the kitchen over a hot stove to create a culinary delight, but when it comes to a mug of tea, it takes me two minutes tops and I had no desire to add a second longer to this process.

Too late; the deal was done and before I knew it I was picking up my parcel of Trumpers Tea from the Post Office. I say parcel, this was more of a hamper to be honest. There were five little tea caddies, a biscuit, a tea towel and a mug infuser. Everything was beautifully packed in some green crepe paper with a few chamomile flowers thrown in to really pretty things up.

Suddenly my fears of signing myself up disappeared, especially on sight of that mug infuser. Made by Chatsford, it sits neatly in any mug, making loose leaf tea accessible to the busiest of people. I simply have to put a teaspoon of the tea into the infuser, place it in my mug, pour over boiling water, stick the lid on and let the tea infuse until it’s brewed to my liking. Fantastic – this I like.

The tea towel was from Betty Twyford, and although I am more sushi restaurant than aga kitchen I'm liking the contemporary, in a retro way, design. It's great quality too; 100% cotton and it will put my Primark samples to shame. The biscuit cleverly came in the shape of a tea-pot and was from One Jolly Girl who is Sarah Taylor. It was far too sweet for me, especially as it was coated in a thick layer of icing, but the husband enjoyed it.

On to the tea...

Not quite ready to try some of the herbal teas yet, I started with English Breakfast which is a blend of Assam, Kenyan and Ceylon teas. Now this is a proper tea, one that I can drink any time of day. It's robust and strong; the kind of tea you'd expect to find in a roadside cafe, the kind of stuff that keeps Britain going. Lovely Jubbly!

Next up was Trumpers Orange Roobios with African spices. At first I was a little nervous; it all sounded a bit fancy to me, but on reading Trumpers website I found that this can be drunk with or without milk, I eased a little as adding milk brings some familiarity. The tea leaves look completely different to others and it looks like it's made from petals rather than leaves. The warming orange and spice flavours do make this tea rather delicious and luckily for me, there is a familiar tea after-taste too.

Just the name Malawi Oolong puts me off the next one to be honest and, in all fairness, the leaves aren’t particularly attractive, looking a bit like floor sweepings. Having said this, the tea itself is a nice yellow-orange colour. The taste is very light and delicate with hints of floral notes. It’s a bit too light for me to be honest, although Trumpers do suggest that the tea could be served cold which could work for me as it would be good to have a bit of flavour and some antioxidants in my daily dose of water.

I have never got on with green tea in the past and I wasn't looking forward to trying this one. As with the Oolong the leaves really don't look appealing, although this is just because they are dried and once the water is added they are refreshed back into soft green leaves. Trumpers suggest that you should watch the uncurling of the leaves in a glass, but let's face it, no amount of theatre is going to make this stuff taste any better than it does. Having said that a little bit of honey does take some of the bitterness off and given that this tea has been said to help prevent cancer, I really should just get over myself and drink more of this.

The last time I had chamomile tea it was out of a carton purchased at my local Chinese supermarket. It was cold, sweet and delicious! Rather naively I didn't actually think that the tea was made with chamomile flowers and so I was quite surprised to find a selection of pretty daisy like flower heads in the tin. The tea itself is delicate and floral too; an easy drinker that is perfectly pleasant both with or without honey. Given that I'm normally asleep as soon as my head hits the pillow I won't be using this as a relaxant before bedtime, but it will be good when I need to de-stress a little.

So, what do I, a busy woman who is accustomed to drinking tea made from a tea bag think to all this loose tea lark? Well, firstly, by using a mug infuser, there was very little impact on the time spent making my cuppa. Not only is the infuser simple to use, it's easy to clean and just as convenient as the bog standard tea bag.  

Then there is the issue of the taste.  Owner of the boutique company Claire Trumper says “As the name suggests loose leaf is made with whole tea leaves and it smells, looks, feels and tastes completely different from tea leaves that have been cut and processed into tea bags. Almost all of the true flavours of the pure tea leaf are lost in this process.” This makes perfect sense to me and I think it can be taken as read that loose leaf tea  has more flavour than the bagged stuff.

Aside from the taste, there is also the look of the tea. Each one looks completely different; something that can't be appreciated when using tea bags. The Breakfast tea looks how it should considering its strong and robust flavour. It looks industrial, even a bit dirty and to me it looks 'Northern' which can only be another reason for me to love it. On the flip side the Roobios and the Chamomile teas look so delicate and pretty, you simply can't help but want to try them. And although the Oolong and Green Tea look pretty ugly in their dehydrated state, they undergo a significant transformation once they've had a good soak.

Of course, if you do have a bit of time on your hands then you could perform your own tea ceremony and here are Claire Trumper's top tips for the perfect cuppa...

1. Put fresh water from the tap into your kettle- water left in a kettle looses it oxygen and the tea lacks flavour.

2. Warm the teapot, whilst the water is boiling, so that the leaves are warmed before the water is added- it enhances the flavour!

3. Add loose leaf tea to a teapot or mug filter- if using a teapot add one spoon per person plus one for the pot!

4. Add water just off boiling and brew for three minutes

5. Put milk into your cup first- it instantly cools the tea and stops china cracking

6. Put your feet up and enjoy! Don’t forget to pop your tea leaves on your compost!

So come on and join the loose tea revolution.  Whether your weapon is a teapot or a mug infuser, you won't regret it!

£15 (& store cupboard/fridge items) Dinner

When people are coming round for dinner I tend to go a bit crazy and I'll spend a fortune on ingredients to help ensure that I cook to impress!  However last night I decided to listen to the bank balance rather than my belly and I set myself the challenge of cooking dinner for four adults for less than £15.

Why £15?  I'm not sure, I just decided that £10 would be too hard and £20 would be too easy.  Choosing what I was going to cook was actually pretty easy.  Chicken liver pate was an obvious choice for the starter, a ham hock felt like it was pretty much the only option for the main and after a bit of a think apple crumble came to me as the perfect dessert.

With such a tight budget, I headed down to Castle Market to pick up my ingredients.  Luckily I have reasonably well stocked cupboards so I already had a few of the ingredients needed and I managed to do the lot for about £13.  Here's how....

Starter - Chicken Liver Pate

My chicken liver pate is amazing; even if I do say so myself.  It is packed full of so much butter that it just can't help but be amazing!  I say my, it isn't my recipe it's an Angela Griffin recipe and you'll find it here.  I served it with toast and some Country Market crab apple and slow vodka jelly which I just happened to have lurking in the fridge.

Ok, it doesn't look all that exciting, but trust me, it was gorgeous!

As for costs.... I bought a pound of livers for 98p, 250g butter for £1.10 and a small loaf of bread for 40p (on offer - it's normally 80p).  I already had an onion, some garlic, whiskey and mustard powder meaning that the course set me back by £2.48.

Main - Ham Hock

This ham hock is a bit of a staple in our house because a) it's cheap and b) it's delicious.  I often serve it up along with a more expensive cut when I'm doing a big Sunday dinner for friends.  You'll find the recipe here. I decided to serve it cold with some potato chips, sweet potato chips, salad leaves and tomatoes.  Making my own chips (baked in the oven) kept costs down and I wanted some sweet potato in there because of its vitamin C content.

Costs.... The hock was £1.89, sweet potato was £1.20, salad leaves were quite expensive at £3 (but it was well worth it as I managed to get some English watercress) and potatoes were 60p for 2kg (and I only used about 750g).  The rest of the ingredients; the honey, wholegrain mustard and tomatoes came from my cupboards and the fridge, as did all the ingredients used in simmering the hock (bar the carrot which I didn't use as I didn't have one).

Dessert - Apple Crumble

I wanted a dessert with some fruit in there - just to get some more vitamin C into the meal.  Thinking cheap, I went for bramley apples and I used this recipe simply because it used unrefined brown sugar which I happened to have in.  I did use more apples than the recipe said (about 3lbs of apples before peeling and coring) and I also stuck some dried fruit in the mix.  I served it with some Longley Farm single cream and it all went down rather well!

Costs... Apples were about £1.20, plain flour was 60p, butter was £1.25 and the cream was 82p.  The unrefined brown sugar and cinnamon came from my cupboards.

So there you have it.  Three courses of tasty food for four people for less than £15!  Ok, none of it was amazing, and the main could have been more exciting but it was enjoyed and I think I did quite well for £13!. Maybe next time I'll go for a stew or a curry, maybe the milk braised in pork or some pork cheeks or beef cheeks.... Hmmmm.... there will be more of these challenges ahead.

What are your favourite budget meals?

The Original India Garden

Groupon is great isn't it?  All those dirt cheap deals certainly are tempting and I've had my fair share of cheap trips to the hairdressers and meals out thanks to these guys.  Having said that, I haven't always had good experiences and I have some pretty poor meals (see my reviews of Orchid Thai and Parthenonas), so I am generally pretty sceptical when buying a deal for a restaurant I haven't visited before.

A couple of weeks ago a deal for The Original India Garden (note that the website is out of date but you get the gist) landed in my Inbox and although I had never been before and had heard nothing good about it, the temptation of two starters and two mains for £8 was just too much. After a few tweets I gathered that The Original India Garden was generally viewed as ok and this Sheffield Telegraph review sang the restaurant's praises.  In fact, that review sealed the deal and I signed over my £8.

I'll admit to still being a bit nervous about the place and, to be fair, I was expecting a bad meal and some amusing material for Twitter and the blog.  As we walked into the restaurant we felt like we had stepped back in time about 15 years.  Pink tablecloths, garish carpet, fussy blinds at the windows and waiters dressed in shirts and ties; it had a real nostalgic feel to the place, and I was becoming increasingly worried about the food I was about to eat!  However, the place was pretty busy for a Wednesday evening suggesting they must be doing something right.

Our waiter takes our voucher and explains that that we can order anything up to the value of £19.40 as long as we have a starter and a main course each.  We order wine; a large glass of the house white, the husband has a coke as he's driving.  The wine's ok, but at £3.50 for a large glass it was acceptable.

We start with a couple of poppadoms and a pickle tray.  The pickles come on a little carousel and there's the usual affair; sickly sweet mango chutney, a yoghurt, a tart lime pickle and an onion salad.  It had been years since I'd had poppadoms as I usually get my curry fixes at East and West or Dhanista's - neither of which would ever serve anything as British as a pickle tray.

For starters I had a couple vegetable samosas.  The pastry was thicker than I had expected or would have liked (a friend later informs me that this is the Bangladeshi way to make samosas), but it's totally free of grease despite being fried and the filling is tasty.  There's a bit of salad to the side, nothing fancy, just iceberg and some insipid tomatoes, but it's fresh so it gets eaten.

The husband went for tandoori mix.  There was a couple of chunks of chicken and lamb and a small lamb shish kebab.  The meat was tender and tasty and again there was a bit of salad to the side.  So far so good and we started to look forward to the mains.

We decided that we would share mains and we went for chilli masalla and rupchall, both with lamb.  The chilli masalla was described as being hot and spicy and although it did have a nice level of heat (and it caused the husband's eyebrows to sweat a little) I wouldn't describe it as hot and spicy.  This isn't a bad thing as such; it's just worth noting that the hot dishes are nothing to be scared of.

The rupchall was nice and tasty with spinach, coriander, peppers and chilli and despite it being cooked in ghee there was no oil slick.  In fact, it was all fresh tasting and delicious.  We had some pilau rice (which was fine) and a garlic nan (which was too doughy and bland for me) and we were stuffed by the end of it all.

Along with the bill comes a warm face cloth (yeah!!) and a mint chocolate (double yeah!!).  All in all it comes to about £32 and because of our voucher we only had to pay £12.50.  Bargain.

So, to sum up, the food was fresh tasting and pretty good for British Indian food, the service was very efficient and attentive, the place was spotless (these guys are rightly proud of their 4/5 starts for hygiene and are obviously trying for 5/5) and the prices are very reasonable.  Will I go back?  Probably not, just because there wasn't anything amazing about our experience and it's a bit out of our way, but I would recommend to anyone in the area wanting a safe bet for a reasonable curry.

***

Sorry there aren't any pictures by the way, the lighting was really poor.

A Seasonal Dinner

Every so often I like to go a bit crazy, push the boat out and put on a fancy dinner.  There's always a theme; generally I go Italian, but this time I wanted to keep things British, and seasonal at that.


Now the end of March isn't the most exciting time for British food, but with purple sprouting broccoli, mussels, kale, celeriac, carrots, lamb and rhubarb in season, there was plenty to work with.


I tried to get as many of the ingredients from the Sheffield area as I could and I managed to get the majority from Castle Market, including the mussels and the rhubarb.  I ordered my lamb from Sheffield butchers John Crawshaws on Twitter and I picked up the rest from Waitrose.


Of course a standard 3 course dinner was never going to be enough and although I reigned myself in from serving a pre dessert (earl grey panna cotta would have been a good one) and a cheese course, I wanted to do an amuse bouche.  With all the hot weather we've been having I wanted something summery and refreshing and I came up with the idea of a gin and tonic jelly.


Amuse Bouche - G&T jelly


After a bit of research I found this recipe for a G&T jelly with lemon.  Wanting to try something a bit different I peeled half a cucumber and pressed it through a sieve into the gin and tonic mix instead of using lemon juice.  I also finely sliced some cucumber to go into the bottom of the shot glasses before pouring the jelly mix in.

They looked really good and went down well too.  I used Tanqueray Number 10 gin, not Hendricks, but the cucumber still worked well and although the jellies smelled quite innocently of cucumber, the gin was pretty strong and this jelly is certainly for the 18 plus only!


Starter - Mussels with Bacon, Cider and Leeks


Mussels are such an easy dish and they always look a bit fancy, fancier than their £3 a kilo price tag anyway!  I got my mussels from Castle Market and I was really impressed by them.  Most of them were pretty clean, there were no cracked shells nor were there any dead ones.  


I kept them in a bowl in the fridge, with some damp kitchen towel covering them and they seemed happy enough staying there overnight.  The majority of them stayed closed whilst in the fridge but when I took them out to clean them, they perked up a bit, opening up to say hello.

I cooked them to this recipe and they were delicious served in bowls with some bread to mop up the juices.  They were messier to eat than I remembered and I think finger bowls or hot towels would have been good accompaniments.

Only after we'd scoffed the lot I realised that I'd forgotten the parsley, but as I'm not a fan of the stuff, I didn't miss it.


Main - Rack of Lamb with Kale, Carrots, Celeriac mash and Purple Sprouting Broccoli


We're just creeping into lamb season and wanting to try something a bit more special than a leg of lamb (my favourite Sunday dinner) I decided to go for a rack.  I had ordered my racks from John Crawshaws and I was pleased to see that they were the perfect size and perfectly trimmed.  I used this recipe to cook them; it worked well, although 200g of breadcrumbs was just a tad excessive!  I served the lamb rare which worked for everyone as demonstrated by the clean bones that came back into the kitchen.

I steamed purple sprouting broccoli, cooked kale with some oil, water garlic and salt and pepper, and roasted chantry carrots for sides.  I also made a celeriac and potato mash by baking potatoes, scraping the flesh out and mashing together with some boiled celeriac.  I find baking the potatoes for mash preserves the flavour of the potato and as the celeriac is always a bit sloppy, I needed a dry potato base.


I cheated when it came to the gravy (my kitchen is tiny and I am not going to start faffing around making gravy on top of everything else) and used a ready made pot from Waitrose.  I didn't like it to be honest; it had mint in it and I just hate mint with lamb.


Dessert - Rhubarb and Ginger Syllabub


I haven't had rhubarb in years and I've never cooked with it, but as I grew up in a town practically within the rhubarb triangle and it's in season, I had to have a rhubarb dessert.  I liked the sound of this recipe; it looked pretty straight forward and it's a dish I could prepare a few hours beforehand.  


I followed the recipe to the letter, apart from straining the rhubarb a little after cooking, as it was very wet and it was gorgeous!  The ginger worked well with the rhubarb and the cream whipped up with mascarpone and icing sugar was always gonna be a hit.

Shame it was 597 calories, but you know what?  I enjoyed every single one of them!


All in all it was a success and there isn't anything I would have done differently.  Yes, I spent all Friday night making jelly and washing veg and all day Saturday cooking, but I love it!  


What's your favourite dinner menu?