Le Cordon Bleu - Home Collection - Chicken

Oooo this one is a blast from the past! I remember buying this Le Cordon Bleu - Home Collection - Chicken from The Works over 10 years ago. They were two for £3 and I got the Quiche edition too (but that got charity shopped at some point). I've used the book a few times, not just for the recipes, but for the chef's techniques at the back. In fact, it was this book that taught me how to make chicken stock and a bouquet garni.

The book has about 30 recipes and each are marked up as 'easy', 'a little more care needed' or 'more care needed'. And yes, some of the recipes are a little fiddly or time consuming, but there are plenty of easy mid week meals which worked out perfectly for me.

First up was lime marinated chicken which was a chicken breast in a yoghurt, lime, chilli and coriander coating. It was incredibly easy and tasty and although I have done similar things to this before, I wouldn't have thought of using so much lime. I served it with an Asian inspired salad of beandsprouts, carrot, cucumber, mint and coriander which kept the dish light. And, as I'd used low fat yoghurt the chicken breasts were just 282 calories each.

Later on that night I started setting marinading some chicken wings in a Thai sauce to be cooked the next day. Again this was another easy one and the results were amazing. The marinade was heavy on fish sauce and honey which meant that the wings were very fragrant and very sticky. And despite the inclusion of honey there was only 365 calories per serving.

The next dish I tried was chicken jalfrezi. I must admit to being a bit of a fan of Patak's pastes, the pastes mind, not the sauces. Just coz they're so easy to use, especially when cooking in the week. Gav cooked this one and as we'd been shopping after work we didn't get in until 7ish and we didn't eat until about 9! It was easy enough and it didn't even call for any toasting and grinding of spices, so I'm not quite sure why it took so long... but it was worth the wait. It was very flavourful without a lot of heat (and I would stick a couple of chillies in if I do it again). It was also very diet friendly with 290 calories per serving (although he did substitute the oil for fry light and skipped the 30g of ghee that was supposed to go in half way through cooking).

For my final dish I wanted to go back and do an old favourite; chicken en croute. I have fond memories of this dish and I've used the recipe a fair bit (and used it as a base for alternative fillings). It's a bit fiddly and time consuming as there's a lot of pastry chilling time (although thankfully it doesn't seem to disapprove of the use of ready-made puff pastry). There is also a recipe for a sauce to be served with the dish, but I've never actually bothered making it. The chicken is delicious; essentially a posh pie and we all know how much I like pie right?!

I like this book. It's very well written, there are nice pictures of the finished dishes and there's quite a lot more for me to try including braised chicken and coriander roulade with turmeric and almonds, chicken fricassee and chicken Kiev. I'm glad that I've had opportunity to go back to this one and I'm kind of tempted to look into getting the rest of the books in the series.

Tamarind, Sheffield

NOTE THAT TAMARIND HAS NOW CLOSED AND MAVELI HAS TAKEN UP OCCUPATION.

I wasn't sure about Tamarind thanks to two very conflicting reviews; one from Sheffield Star and the other from The Sheffield Telegraph. Twitter didn't help either as conflicting opinions came rolling in. However, I had a Groupon voucher and, as I'd already paid for our meal (albeit at a reduced price), I was determined to give it a go.

I wasn't planning on blogging about Tamarind (hence the incredibly short post), but given the conflicting reviews out there I thought I'd add my tuppence worth...

It's alright. It's not amazing, but it was fine. Service was perfectly pleasant and the food was fine. The highlights for me were the lime pickle (which appeared to be made in house as it had fat pieces of lime that didn't make my face feel like it was about to disintegrate into itself on eating) and the cooking of the lamb.

We shared two curries, both lamb, one with chunks of the meat, the other with mince and they were tasty. They weren't very spicy or hot, but they had flavour and the meat was soft and tender (chewy lamb is always a bit of a disappointment).

Gav rounded the meal off with 'Indian ice-cream', or gulab jamun and ice cream.

I suppose the real test is whether I would go back. Hmmm, well, no. I probably wouldn't, but only because I already have my favourites for a decent curry and this place didn't quite hit the spots that East and West & Dhanista's do.

I think Sheffield Telegraph sum Tamarind up well... 'A pleasant evening all round without being spectacular' and I recommend it on the same basis.

The Hairy Dieters, Dave Myers and Si King

We all know how the Hairy Bikers are, don't we? You know, the Geordies who have hair and a liking for pies. Well they went on a diet and lost a shit load of weight and, quelle surprise, they released a book on the back of it all (along with a TV series).

As I'm currently trying to lose a few (quite a few) pounds I thought it might be a good idea to cook from this book this week. It begins with a short section packed with tips but the majority of this book is dedicated to recipes.

I kicked off the week with a purely vegetarian dish; mushroom, feta and tomato baked peppers. It was a pretty simple dish and the stuffing of feta and mushrooms was good and had a slightly creamy texture. With a simple side salad the dish was suitably filling yet only 401 calories per portion.

Roasted cod with Parma ham and peppers was probably my favourite dish this week. It's something that I've never had (cod is expensive to cook at home and I would never order this when eating out), but I enjoyed it. The Parma ham kept the fish moist and the peppers and courgettes completed the dish (and only 224 calories). I did skip the breadcrumbs and Parmesan (I was only using half the listed ingredients as cooking for two rather than four and I was not faffing around to make 5g of breadcrumbs).

The last dish I made was Spanish style chicken bake, except it was Spanish style pork bake as I was faced with the option of buying expensive free range chicken breasts or freedom food British pork medallions and the pork won out on price. It was tasty and I liked the fact that the dish relied on the juices of the tomatoes rather than any fat when roasting the veg, but I think it was a bit heavy on the potato side and I would stick more peppers in next time. Having said that, it was a tasty use of 370 calories.

So what did I think? Well, it's ok. There's nothing ground breaking in there. A lot of it is just simple food, along the lines of what I cooked this week, with the carbs omitted or reduced. For instance there's a chicken and ham pie that is a casserole with a lid of scrunched up filo pastry, a spicy bean and vegetable stew (I think I first made one of these when I was a student!), a risotto with only 150g of rice to go between 4 people and a few 'fakeaway' curries that look quite similar to any other homemade curry just without any rice. I think the most ridiculous recipe is the cajun spiced chicken with potato wedges and chive dip as there are 8-10 wedges to go between four people. Come on guys! The dish is only 284 calories - switch the potato for sweet potato and have more. Even if this recipe was doubled up there would still be less than 600 calories on the plate!

Most disappointing of all is the vegetables and salads section. A chilli salad bowl can hardly be called a salad when it's mince and a bit of lettuce served in a tortilla, good basic mixed salad is... basic and warm griddled vegetables is impossible as nobody I know has a griddle pan large enough to cook 2 red peppers, 3 courgettes and an onion at the same time (and we've all been roasting our med veg for years anyway). Having said that fennel and orange salad with harissa dressing sounds like a goer.

So, although the book aims itself at people who love food and want to lose weight, I'm not so sure. I think it works for families who want easy, familiar meals and need some help with portion control. As for me, I was eager to get stuck into the interesting flavour combinations that Hugh uses in Veg! See, dieting, for me, isn't about cutting back, but changing what I eat... so skipping the rice with a curry isn't going to work, but eating a plate full of fresh vegetables prepared in interesting ways with new flavour combinations is.

Come on then, I know that this is a popular book... what do you all think to it?

First Catch Your Pig! The Milestone

In 2010 a small Sheffield gastro pub exploded onto our TV screens and, although it didn't quite put Sheffield on the food map, it sure did our city proud. And on making it to the quarter finals of Ramsay's Best Restaurant in 2010 The Milestone decided to make the most of it by launching its début cookbook; First Catch Your Pig!

It was also around this time that I started this food blog (who knew I'd still be at it two years later, eh?) and, in an effort to soak up a bit of the local 'food scene', I attended the opening of The Milestone's sister restaurant; the Wig and Pen. It was an evening of nibbles, booze, oysters and a goodie bag which included, of course, a copy of their cookbook. Over two years later and despite having the book all this time I have to admit that I've rarely used it, so I have been looking forward to working with it as part of my mission to revisit all my cookbooks.

Written by Matt Bigland and Marc Sheldon (the owners) along with Simon Ayres and James Wallis (head chefs at the time) The Milestone keeps this book Sheffield by using the Regional Magazine Company to edit and design the book. And it's a nice looking book too; full of mouthwatering pictures of smartly presented dishes, along with a few snaps of the Milestone team and some rather beautiful pigs!

Unlike a lot of other cookbooks the first few chapters don't take us through the history of the restaurant, nor do they provide a bit of a biography of the chefs. In fact the only reference to the past is a short piece detailing the history of Kelham Island and the building in which The Milestone is located. The rest of the introductory chapters focus on the The Milestone's mission (essentially good food in a relaxed atmosphere) and the produce they use (including unusual cuts of meat, foraged ingredients and vegetables grown in local allotments). There are then some profiles of some local producers who supply the restaurant.

This is all interesting stuff, but I buy a cookbook for the recipes and it's good to see that the majority of this one (over 3/4) is dedicated to cooking. Flicking through the recipes it's easy, for the home cook, to feel a little intimidated. All the dishes are dressed for service in the restaurant and they all look stunning! Having said that Marc and Matt introduce the book by saying that they think there's something for everyone; 'from the no-frills basic cook to the die-hard foodie'. And, once you look past the likes of Sous vide venison loin, nettle and haunch wellington, watercress purée, beetroot fondant, braised baby gem lettuce and game gravy (the dish that got The Milestone to the quarter finals no less) and rabbit loin, carrot purée, sautéed lettuce with rabbit leg, courgette and pigs tail cannelloni and a rabbit jus you do realise that there are some pretty straight forward recipes in there too... and as I'm no chef (and I have the world's smallest kitchen) I decided to cook some of those simpler dishes.

I kicked off with Salmon with a cardamom crust, sautéed new potatoes, cucumber and caper dressing as it sounded like a fresh and tasty option to serve up after overindulging over the Christmas period. The recipe was easy to follow; essentially there was a cardamom crust to make up, a warm salad of potatoes and cucumber and a dressing, so once I'd figured out the timings for everything it was just a case of getting the components of the dish ready.

I don't think I've ever combined cardamom and salmon together before, and I was intrigued to see how the flavours would work. Despite there being a quite a lot of herbs in the crust (parsley and coriander) the cardamom came through quite nicely and it didn't clash with the flavour of the salmon. It's a recipe that I would use again, although I might be tempted to add a bit of chilli to the crust. The warm potato and cucumber salad was fresh and light thanks to the caper dressing and the inclusion of the potatoes made the dish a meal. I actually added some watercress to the plate, but this was mainly because I had some that needed using up. In short this was a smart looking yet easy and well balanced mid-week tea and it will be repeated.

The next day called for more fish with Mackerel cooked in a bag with aromatics. Cooking in a bag is a something I've never actually done before (I know! I normally roast or grill my fish) and I'm glad that this recipe made me finally try it. The aromatics included cardamom, star anise and coriander seeds and with pak choi and chorizo also thrown into the bag, this was an incredibly simple dish especially as I didn't bother with any sides. It was great for a mid-week tea and I'll certainly try it again but I might experiment with different fish and spices depending on what I have to hand.

Come Friday and I was in the mood for something a bit stodgy and comforting so I was quite glad that I'd planned for Butternut squash and orange risotto. Recalling a squash risotto that Gav had cooked a while back I was pleased to see that this recipe called for the squash to be made into a purée which is then stirred into the cooked risotto (and thereby negates any opportunity to have raw chunks of squash in the dish). This did, however, mean that it took a little longer than I would have liked, especially as my squash took over an hour to roast. Onto the risotto itself and the instructions go a little off piste. There's mention of wine in the method, but not in the ingredients list and there's mention of herbs in the list but not the method. Thankfully I know how to make a risotto and these omissions didn't phase me.

I'll admit that I didn't really expect this one to work; butternut squash with orange? And tarragon? It sounded like a recipe for disaster, but it was delicious. Absolutely gorgeous... so much so that I urge you to buy the book for this recipe alone! The squash and orange complemented each other perfectly and the Parmesan gave a good level of creamy depth to the dish. It was beautiful and I would not change a thing when doing this recipe again (and there will be a next time!).

For a super casual Saturday night tea, I fancied giving the Yorkshire rarebit with Henderson's Relish a whirl. Of course, had I followed the recipe to the letter, I'd have made my own bread, but I just couldn't be bothered I'm afraid so I used shop bought (tut tut!). The recipe was easy to follow; it's essentially Welsh rarebit but with more beer and no cheese... oh and there's hendos rather than Worcestershire sauce.

The lack of cheese did concern me (the lack of cheese always concerns me), but I kind of thought that the extra beer would make up for the lacking cheese and it did... to a certain extent but if I make this again,l there will be some cheddar thrown into the mix.

Come Sunday and I finally had a bit more time to cook so I decided to make the most of the day by cooking the Beef Bourguignon - slow cooked ox cheek, herb mashed potato and Bourguignon jus as it takes over 8 hours. It's also one that Gav has tried in the past so I knew how good it was.

Sadly I couldn't find any cheeks so I decided to use beef skirt instead. Given that this is another cheap stewing meat I didn't alter the cooking times or any of the recipe. I would like to say that the skirt worked just as well as the cheek, but it didn't. Don't get me wrong, the meat fell apart at the touch of the fork, was tender and delicious, but beef cheek is amazingly melt in the mouth tender when cooked like this (it's cheaper than skirt too!).

The recipe was easy to follow and it was quite nice to cook this on a Sunday afternoon as, apart from reducing the Bourguignon sauce at the end, it just cooked away in the oven. Unfortunately I reduced the sauce a little too much which meant that there wasn't as much as I would have liked, but what there was, was really good. It was rich and salty and perfect with the mash and savoy served alongside.

Given the food I've cooked over the past week I'm really glad that I've finally spent some time with this book. And with starters such as Pea pannacotta, shoots, seeds, soil and flowers (looks easier than it sounds) and Salmon cured in botanicals with a cucumber, lime and Hendricks gin chilled soup and desserts of Chilled peach and champagne soup with strawberry pannacotta and White chocolate pave and cherries, sherry and maple syrup reduction I know that First Catch Your Pig! has more to offer.... imagine the dinner parties I can throw with this at my side!

How to Eat in Rome 2012 - Part Seven - Checchino dal 1887

Checchino is located in the Testaccio neighbourhood which is the historical home to Rome's central slaughterhouse and, in turn, home to a lot of restaurants specialising in offal. Given that this restaurant is known as the best of its kind, and my interest in offal, I was keen to try it. With its pricey menu and my high hopes, I booked us in for the last night of our holiday in the hope that it would be a good way to round off our time in Rome...

I was surprised to find that this restaurant (one that charges 63 euros a head for the tasting menu) was located opposite a open air car park. Hardly glamorous, but, we weren't in the most glamorous part of town. We were a little early so we were shooed away by the waiter... always a little hurtful and embarrassing  but something I have witnessed before in Rome. However, this waiter didn't crack a smile and welcome us with open arms once the clock struck 8 (our reservation time). Instead he continued to ignore us, busying himself with laying tables, making us wait around like a pair of dicks for a good ten minutes. Hmmmm not a great start!

Despite the awkward start to proceedings we were determined to enjoy ourselves and make the most of our experience at Checchino, so we ordered the Historical Tasting Menu, a glass of prosecco each and a bottle of frascati to share. The prosecco was lovely; packed with apple flavours, just how I like it. 

Very shortly after we placed our orders our first course, trotter salad, arrived. Its appearance at our table was worryingly quick, especially as it was served at room temperature (where had it been standing since it had been prepared?), but I reminded myself of the good reviews this place has received and tucked in (and thinking back, I don't think chilled trotters would have worked). The fatty chunks of trotter 'meat' were served with a salad of very simple ingredients (as is the Italian way). To be fair the salad worked well with the fatty trotters and the salsa verde cut through some of the fattiness... but I don't think I want to eat trotters prepared this way again.

Our next dishes were pasta dishes and I was surprised (and disappointed) to find that they were served together. A taster menu needs to be a relaxed affair of small dishes; receiving two carbohydrate packed dishes at once did not suit me.

Rigatoni with pajata was something I had been looking forward to. It's lamb's intestines, still filled with the milk from its mother which results in an almost ricotta filling. Sounds vile yeah? Well, you know me, the weirder a dish is, the harder I will work at making sure I get to try it. The dish wasn't particularly attractive, thanks to the pieces of intestine that looked like rubber tubing, but it was good. The pajata had a strong, offaly taste which added depth to the tomato sauce, but it is something I wouldn't want to eat without a sauce due to the intense flavour.

Bucatini alla gricia was the second serving of pasta. If you've read Part Six of my Rome blogs you'll already know that bucatini is one of my favourite pastas. You'll also know what cacio e pepe is and this was similar but with the addition of guanciale (which is essentially pancetta made from the jowl). The pasta was well cooked and the pieces of guanciale were quite chunky which is always a bonus. I was, however, starting to fill up!

But there was no respite, and as soon as Gav had finished his last mouthful and before I had taken mine, the waiter was there ready to take our plates. I surrendered mine on the basis that I probably didn't need to clear my plate, but this was just another example of being rushed through our meal.

Next up was Coda alla Vaccinara (oxtail). Having cooked this dish before I knew exactly what to expect and was actually a little disappointed that there were no surprises; it was no better than the version I had made at home. A side of chicory was, however, a welcome addition, especially as it was cooked with chilli.

We then moved onto the first dessert of the meal. Being in Europe the cheese was served before the dessert (something I despise, but when in Rome and all that). Pecorino Romano was served with honey; a new one for me, and one that I will repeat. 

I didn't finish all the cheese and we decided to share the dessert which was a chocolate, ricotta and almond cake. It was delicious; really moist and chocolatey and given how rich it was, I was glad we'd shared a piece.

So how was it? Well, all in all my time at Checchio dal 1887 was the most disappointing restaurant experience I have had in years.  The food was average to good, the atmosphere was dire (people don't eat dinner until 9.30pm in Testaccio) and the service was rushed. In fact, it wasn't just the speed of the service that annoyed. Neither of our waiters offered to talk us through the history of the dishes (we were eating from the historical tasting menu!) or even bothered to crack a smile... until it came to paying the bill that is... when one sprung into life with tales of his time in Edinburgh (which just made me think he was after a tip). The service wasn't helped by the fact that one of the owners was swanning around. He was overseeing the service, no doubt, but added no benefit to my experience and just pushed me that bit further into total discomfort.

But it wasn't just the snooty attitude that annoyed; our waiters would rarely take our cutlery between courses and on one of the odd occasions that my fork was taken, I had to ask for a replacement when the next course was delivered (I remind you that this was 63 euros a head, before wine - fresh cutlery should not be too hard a task)! The actual restaurant wasn't up to much either. The outside tables were adorned with plastic pot plants in bright yellow plant pots (yes, seriously!) and the bathrooms were dirty, musty and covered in mould.

It's not often I feel ripped off when eating out; I will happily pay good money for good food and service, but this wasn't on. The bill must have been in the region of 170 euros and we had been ripped off.

How to Eat in Rome 2012 - Part 6 - Il Goccetto and Ditirambo

Well, our last trip to Rome must have been about 6 months ago and although I was initially doing quite well at blogging the meals we had out there, the Olympic Food Challenge got in the way. With three dishes to cook and blog each week, Rome soon slipped down the list of priorities and with only the last day to cover, I soon forgot all about it. Then I read David Downie's article about Il Goccetto and it brought back memories of stumbling across it on our last day... and these memories have forced me into action!

 

Il Goccetto wasn't new to us, as we'd hunted it down on our first trip to Rome in 2009 (thanks to David's 'Food, Wine, Rome'; my favourite guide/bible to Rome), but we stumbled across it again, totally unexpectedly, on our last trip. Remembering the evening we had spent here nearly three years previously, there was no question as to whether we would pop in for a drink. We would have stayed for lunch too, as we'd had a mighty fine selection of cheeses the last time we were here, but we had already booked ourselves into Ditirambo for lunch.

Il Goccetto is a small bar but it is a real find for wine lovers. The walls are lined with shelving stocked to the brim with bottles of wine and the food is of the nibble variety, perfect for sharing over a glass (or bottle). The staff are friendly; the clientèle are a mixed bag from office workers to retired gentlemen and the very odd tourist or two (in this case, just us).

We made our selection from the small chalkboard of the day's offerings by the glass and, although I can't remember what we had, I do know that we could have had more...

Ditirambo was recommended in Elizabeth Minchilli's Eat Rome app and it was the praise for the pasta dishes that had sold it to me as a lunch destination. The restaurant was small and crowded with tables set quite close to each other and with both locals and tourists eating here the atmosphere was buzzing with chat of a variety of languages.

I am now fully reliant on my notes as my memory has worn very thin... but I do recall enjoying our time here. We enjoyed the food, the atmosphere, the friendly service and the wine. My notes tell me that we'd ordered some antipasto but this had been served alongside our pasta and salad dishes; annoying, but not a deal breaker for a casual lunch.

And it had been good antipasto with slices of potatoes and truffles being the highlight. Cacio e peppe (cheese and pepper) with bucatini (the most amazing pasta; it's like spaghetti but it has a hole running through the centre of each strand) was as good as any I've ever had (or made). For me, bucatini is a real (and rare) treat as the structure of the pasta adds good texture to the dish, especially when it is cooked al dente.

Gav had some hand made pasta with a rabbit and tomato ragu. My notes say it was amazing, so I guess I'll just have to go with that! In an attempt to be healthy we also shared a salad of fennel, orange and pomegranate. Bizarrely I do remember this dish, for its simplicity and freshness... in fact I'm sure it's one I was going to replicate at home...

Sadly I have no idea what the bill was, but I would guess it would have been about 45 euros.