Fancie - Rough Cuts and Offal Night

Last night we headed to Fancie's cafe on Ecclesall Road for one of their Food Nights; their rough cuts and offal night in fact. I hadn't planned on blogging it, but the food was so pretty that I couldn't resist a quick post...

First up was Yorkshire Faggot with mushy peas. These rich and offaly balls brought back memories of eating faggots with salt and vinegar whilst on holiday in Porthcawl for Gav; I loved the light and crisp onion ring.

Devilled Kidneys came on toast. Cooked in a wholegrain mustard and cream sauce with a hint of chilli these were delicious and the offal flavour was much milder than I had expected.

Pigs Cheek Croquette with spiced apple and black pudding was a great way to serve up this unusual cut. The meat was soft and tender and encased in a breadcrumb coating. Raw chunks of apple and flecks of black pudding added texture and spice.

Lambs Liver was a little overcooked for my liking, but the flavour was still good and it worked well with the sweet onions. I especially liked the use of the bacon in the dish.

Seared Onglet and Slow Cooked Beef Cheek was delicious. The cheek was cooked until soft and melt in the mouth tender and, not having had onglet (or hanger) steak before, I was surprised to find that it was also quite tender, despite it being served on the rare side.

On finding that Lamb Sweetbreads were on the menu, I'd hoped that they would be cooked as I like them; gently pan-fried and NOT breaded and deep-fried. I could hardly believe my luck when the plates arrived as they had been cooked to perfection (as far as I'm concerned anyway). Sauce gribiche was a new one on me, but on finding that it was a bit like egg mayo with capers and pickles running through it, I liked it.

We rounded the meal off with Lemon Posset served with blackberries and pistachios. Although it packed a good lemon punch, it was still a rich final course and I had to admit that it defeated me... and Gav had to finish it off for me!

The food had exceeded all of my expectations; Fancie had not only managed to cook up some tasty dishes, but they looked fabulous too - no mean feat when we're talking offal. Service had been efficient, friendly and helpful throughout and the atmosphere was spot on. There was a nice bustling feel to the place, thanks to Fancie's suppers rather than the offal menu (will offal ever be 'cool'?!), and we shared our large table for four with the only other couple eating from this menu. They were less au fait with offal and it was nice to them enjoying new tastes whilst sharing a few cooking tips.

It was a fabulous night. You'll be glad to know that there are more to come too and with themes such as sushi and Italian, there must be something for everyone...

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Grilled Red Masala Mackerel

Being the free range poultry and organically farmed salmon kinda girl that I am, I was simply over the moon when HFW declared that it was 'OK' for us to eat mackerel again. It is, quite simply, my favourite fish. Smoked or fresh, grilled or fried, I love the stuff, although I gather that a lot of people don't, and I guess that's because it has a very strong flavour. However, some people moan about mackerel being too fishy, but as it tastes unlike any other fish I have tasted I don't really get this. 

Anyhoo, I like it and it's pretty cheap which means that we eat it quite regularly. Today I picked up two decent sized fish (and had them filleted) from Anthony Andrews at Castle Market Sheffield for about £3.30. Bargain.

I normally bake mackerel whole, with a few herbs and slices of lemon stuck in the cavity, or I pan-fry fillets and serve them with a salad or some rhubarb. But today I wanted something different and I Googled Indian mackerel recipes with the hope that something would catch me eye... and it did!

The only change I made to this recipe was that I used fillets rather than whole fish as I wanted to keep tea light and we just had a fillet rather than a whole fish each. Oh, and I used dark muscovado sugar instead of jaggery. I served the fish up with a simple salad of iceberg lettuce and finely sliced red onion, cucumber and tomato and I'm pleased to report that it was delicious.

The masala paste was sufficiently hot and it worked well with the strongly flavoured mackerel. The simple salad was a good coolant when required! I think I'll be doing this one again - and I'm glad that I now have an easy recipe for a hot paste that I can use with other fish as well as chicken. I think it'd make a good dip too.

Are you a mackerel fan? And, if not, why not?!

Leftover roast chicken, pea and lemon risotto

I had quite a bit of chicken leftover from our dinner on Sunday and rather than just throw it into a curry I decided to split it, bag it up and stick it in the freezer until I knew what I wanted to do. And today I decided that some of it was destined for a risotto... Yes, yes, another risotto... but this time I wasn't cooking. Gav's much better at risottos than I am so I left him in charge of the kitchen.

He followed this recipe which was easy enough and the end result was really tasty. The lemon made the dish really light and almost zingy, but risotto lovers will be glad to know that this is still a wholesome meal. Best of all we have enough left over for our lunch tomorrow and there's still some chicken left in the freezer!

No pictures I'm afraid; just trust that it looked good.

Roast chicken dinner

Roast chicken dinner. It ain't the most complex of meals, but it can be one of the most delicious, in a homely and comforting way. Get lots of veggies on the plate and it's healthy too.

To be honest we don't have roast chicken all that often, I will only buy free range and a whole chicken can be quite expensive (and large) just for the two of us. And yes, I know that we can get a few meals out of one chicken, but sometimes I just don't have the time and well, sometimes, I just can't be bothered with the faff.

Well, this weekend I had a tenner for our food and as we both ate leftover meals from the freezer on Saturday (hare ragu and pea & ham soup) this meant that I could buy something fairly decent for lunch today. I was struggling to decide what to go for when a friend gave me a huge bag of fresh herbs from her garden along with some radishes. This inspired me to do a herb roast chicken with a herb stuffing and sautéed radish tops (along with roast potatoes and carrots).

I essentially followed this recipe for the chicken except I minced the herbs with the garlic and a little olive oil and smeared that both under, and over the skin. I also used this recipe for a veggie stuffing. Radish tops were gently wilted in butter with garlic. Potatoes were roasted (with garlic and rosemary) and carrots were simply boiled. And, thanks to a weekend of dog sitting (and having to cook a chicken for his dinner) I had juices ready to go for gravy (I know, I know, but if you saw the size of my kitchen, you would understand).

Beautiful! The herbs came through in the chicken really nicely and the stuffing is only just a little bit morish (although I may experiment and put nuts and dried fruit in next time).

We had a leg and thigh each which was more than enough and after picking the carcass I've got plenty of leftovers for the week ahead. And, to make the absolute most of my chicken I'm currently boiling the carcass up (with the one from yesterday) along with a carrot, an onion, a few celery leaves and some of the herbs. It smells gorgeous and will make a lovely stock for soup later in the week. I've also managed to salvage two bags of stuffing and a bag of gravy for the freezer!

Beetroot and Feta Frittata

As part of my mission to save a few pennies, I've rediscovered the art of the packed lunch. Not that we're talking any old packed lunch (my days of soggy sandwiches and a bag of crisps are long gone); instead we're talking interesting, healthy(ish) and tasty meals. Salads are a current favourite, but I'm open to different ideas and when someone suggested quiche to me on Twitter recently I went one step further and went for a frittata.

Last week I made an aubergine, sweet potato frittata which was bloody good, but quite faffy as I char-grilled slices of aubergine (I wanted them to be soft and cooked through, but not soaked in oil) and roasted the sweet potato first. Today's effort was less faffy as, despite various websites telling me that beetroot takes 2-3 hours to cook, mine took 30 minutes. And, although I'd managed to get 50p knocked off my beetroot on the basis that the leaves looked a bit tired, I decided to stick them, and the stems, into the mix. The end result looks fab... shame I now have to wait until tomorrow's lunchtime to try it!

I started off by chopping the stems off a bunch of four beetroot, quite close to the tubers themselves, but leaving a little stump, and I washed the leaves and stems. I then scrubbed the beetroot (i.e. not peeled), leaving the roots intact (it helps prevent the colour bleeding out) and I roasted them, whole, with a drizzle of olive oil in a hot oven for half an hour or so.

In the meantime I took a large frying pan and gently fried off a diced white onion until soft, then added the beetroot leaves and stems and cooed through. I then whisked up 6 eggs, added about 150g of cubed feta and set the mix to one side until the beetroot cooked. Once cooked through (use a skewer to check) I sliced the beetroot and added it to the onion, stems and leaves and gave it a good mix. Then went in the egg and feta mix and I stirred everything up, with the pan off the heat.

Taking my trusty (name that cannot be mentioned) pan I put this on a very low heat, poured the egg and veg mixture in and let it cook for 20 mins before finishing it off under the grill for another 5.

At £3.60 for two portions, it's not the cheapest packed lunch I've ever had, but it's perfect for a treat at the end of the week!

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So, you know the score... further frittata suggestions please!

Pea and Ham Risotto

So... the ham hock lives on! 

After my pea and ham soup yesterday I was pleased to find that I had enough ham left over for a decent sized risotto. Some fear risotto, but I'm not too sure why. Although I don't think David Lamb's sharp intake of breath on learning that one of the Come Dine With Me contestants is making a risotto helps matters. Yes there's a bit of stirring involved, yes it takes time, but no, you don't have to stand over it as it cooks, just check on it every 2-3 minutes or so (which in these open plan times means that you can still watch the telly).

Wanting to stretch my ham hock to the max I decided to make one big enough for four, which means that I have managed to get four portions of pea and ham soup AND four portions of risotto from a £1.89 piece of meat. Bargain!

To make my risotto I heated up some olive oil in a large pan, added one, finely diced, white onion and cooked it until soft. I also added some fresh thyme. Then went in 300g arborio rice and a good old slosh of white wine. Once the rice had soaked up the wine, I started adding the stock, which I'd been keeping warm on the hob. I used vegetable stock this time and I have been kicking myself all day for not saving the leftover stock from cooking the hock yesterday. Don't you make that mistake! Anyway, 300g of rice will need about a litre of stock.

I added the stock ladle by ladle, waiting for each one to completely soak into the rice before adding the next. I think, all in, it probably took around 20-25 minutes until all the stock had been soaked up into the rice. About halfway through this process I added some chopped up wild garlic. 

I then made a bit of a balls up as I wanted to split the risotto into two portions, one for the freezer, before adding in the cooked hock and peas (re-heating meat more than once is bad, in case you didn't know). So I made the risotto, split it and then added semi frozen peas and my cooked hock to one half. And, as I had to wait for the the peas to cook and the ham to warm up, the risotto overcooked. It suffered a further disaster as I added too much cheese (yes, you heard right - too much cheese - there is such a thing). It didn't help that it was cheddar and not Parmesan... so it was all a bit stodgy as the cheese made the already gluey overcooked risotto stickier. It also kinda drowned the ham flavours.

It was still tasty, but next time I will add the ham and peas at the same time as my last ladle of stock, or even at the penultimate ladle, unless I'm freezing again, in which case I'll cook the peas and ham separately before stirring in at the last minute. I'll also invest in some Parmesan...

What was I saying about fearing the risotto?!

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So, what are your favourite risotto combos? I asked Twitter and got some interesting responses including...

"Yellow beetroot and vanilla" (@RutlandArmsChef) and "Smoked haddock, cheddar and a soft poached egg hiding in the middle" (@PaulDCocker), but perhaps my favourite sounding combo has to go to @Luke__Hood for his "Smoked Haddock, Chorizo and Manchego risotto with quail eggs lobbed in." 

Magnificent... and here's the recipe..."Cook risotto. Fry chorizo til crunchy. Save oil. Flake in fish 5 mins before end. Grate in Manchego 1 min from end. Top with chorizo bits. Poached Quail egg on too. Drizzle with chorizo oil. Sorted :)"

Sorted, indeed!

Pea and Ham Soup

I probably should start this with a bit of an apology, as it's been a while since my last post. To be honest, I didn't realise people kept track of the blog, but it's nice that you do and I feel suitably told off for leaving it so long.

See thing's have been a bit funny recently. I've made a decision that will change the future as I know it and I'm feeling rather pleased and excited about it all. I've also been feeling incredibly self-indulgent. I've cleaned the flat, I've tried to cook as much as humanely possible, I've started reading and I've even painted my toenails. With all this, poor old Feast and Glory has been pushed to one side, but it's only been a month and I'm back. I even have some ideas for improvements, so there may be some changes in the future. I fancy a new look and I want Feast and Glory to look a bit more professional... so, as they say... Watch this space!

In the meantime I wanted to share a recipe with you. I'm currently trying to shop on a budget of £30 a week which includes breakfast, lunch and dinner. It does not include booze, cleaning products or meals out (of which there are probably around three a week). It's not a fixed figure, if I need to go over it one week, that's fine, it's just a little challenge I've set myself because I could do with saving some pennies and I find that living on this kind of budget encourages me to cook more. And, it's going quite well. We've had a lot of vegetable based dishes and I think a vegetable curry is my current favourite cheap, but healthy, meal, but there's also room in the budget for fish and meat. And remember that we are still indulging when eating out, so it really isn't all that bad at all.

This week's top budget meal is the pea and ham soup. I've been a fan of ham hocks since I first discovered them when I started this blog back in 2010 and I've wanted to do a pea and ham soup for some time, just never got round to it. With hocks being £1.89 and split peas being £1 for 400g at Castle Market, it was inevitable that I would be making it at some point soon.

I used this recipe which was incredibly easy. The only change I made was that I didn't soak the peas overnight (I forgot), but they were soft and yielding after the two and a half hours of cooking, so I wouldn't bother soaking next time either. The end result was pretty damn tasty; as good as any other pea and ham soup I've had and I was especially pleased to get 4 servings out of it, plus extra ham for a pea and ham risotto that I plan on making tomorrow. Next time I will add more split peas, maybe the whole 400g pack as I prefer a thicker soup. I also won't blend all the peas as I would like some kept whole to add texture.

So, what's your favourite soup recipe?