Restaurant Reviews

Restaurant Reviews and Food Musings

Text

Fed up with celebrity chefs drizzling sauces over undercooked pieces of meat? I am!

I regularly dine out and am happy to share my restaurant experiences, and musings on food with you.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

William Sitwell Resigns From Waitrose Food Magazine Over Vegan Comments

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Protein Shakes Don't Get a Michelin Star

Jamie Has No More Money For Jamie's Italian

My sympathy to the staff of that chain, it sounds very much like Jamie will pull the plug if things haven't turned around.

Monday, October 29, 2018

Roast Pork and Stuffing



My good friend Derek Stott, of D and D Family Butchers, scored and chined this splendid pork loin (from a locally reared pig) for me.

I roasted it with my homemade herb and onion stuffing (placed under the meat for the last 45 minutes of cooking).

Oh, for added flavour, cook your gravy in the meat pan after you have taken the pork and stuffing out of it.

The pork was succulent, tasty and lovely and tender!

Friday, October 26, 2018

Corned Beef Hash (Oven Version)


 
Ingredients

-potatoes
-corned beef
-onion
-butter
-milk
-beef stock
-curry powder
-English mustard powder (a large amount)
-Worcestershire sauce
-cheese (grated)
-salt/pepper


Method

-cook and mash the spuds
-sweat the onion
-add all ingredients together
-bake for around 45 mins
-finish off under the grill

Marvellous on its own, or with fried eggs!

Tuesday, October 23, 2018

Thick Tomato Soup


Ingredients

-Tomatoes (chopped)
-Butter
-Onion (chopped)
-Garlic (chopped)
-Sugar (6 tablespoons)
-Parsley
-Smoked paprika (teaspoon)
-Red wine vinegar (200ml)
-Thick slice of good quality fresh bread (torn up)
-Salt/pepper


Method

-Sweat onions and garlic
-Add red wine vinegar and sugar, reduce by half
-Add tomatoes and cook for 20 mins
-Add parsley, paprika, salt and pepper
-Blitz
-Add bread
-Blitz again

NB: Posh chefs would then strain it.

I am not a posh chef, I eat it in its chunky form.

Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Fabada



Ingredients

-pancetta
-chorizo
-morcilla
-cannellini beans
-smoked paprika
-bay leaves
-garlic
-saffron
-chicken stock
-slat/pepper

Method

Put everything into a sealed casserole and cook in the oven.

Monday, October 15, 2018

Chicken With Garlic and Basil



Here is a simple, but flavoursome, recipe for chicken with garlic and basil.

Needless to say you should purchase your chicken from my chum Derek Stott, of D and D Family Butchers.

Ingredients

-Chicken quarters
-Potatoes
-Garlic (at least a head and a half)
-Thyme
-Basil
-Rosemary
-Bay leaves
-Olive oil
-Stock
-Onion
-Salt/pepper

Method

Slice the potatoes and place them in a roasting pan together with chopped onion, garlic (half a head chopped) and rosemary.

Blitz the olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper, basil, bay leaves and a whole head of garlic then cover the chicken with it.

Add the stock to the spuds, place the chicken on top and roast until cooked.

Voila!

Succulent, flavoursome and very splendid!

Friday, October 12, 2018

Falukorv - A Classic Swedish Dish



Ingredients

-Falukorv
-Cheese
-Tomato Purée
-English mustard powder


Method
Watch the video

Serve with baked potatoes and pease pudding

Wednesday, October 10, 2018

Chicken in a White Wine and Mushroom Sauce



My recipe, it's quite simple but very tasty.

Ingredients

-chicken thighs
-mushrooms cut
-onion chopped
-garlic chopped
-salt pepper
-brandy
-white wine
-stock
-flour
-butter
-milk

-olive oil

Method

Sauté onions, garlic and 'shrooms in seasoned olive oil

Add the thighs, and sauté a little longer. Add brandy, allow to reduce then add wine and stock.

Simmer for 45 minutes or so.

Then thicken with a flour, butter, milk roux.

Monday, October 08, 2018

Gluten Free Sausages



When I was buying my supplies of sausages, bacon and kidneys the other day from my chum Derek Stott, of D and D Family Butchers, I got to talking with him about the gluten free pork sausages that he also makes.

They contain no bread/rusk to bind them so the meat content is higher than a normal sausage.

Out of curiosity I bagged a couple of them as well, jut to test out.

As you can see from the video, in their uncooked state they are much pinker than a normal pork sausage.

I cooked them in the butter that I had sautéed my kidneys in the day before, for added lusciousness.

I had my doubts, when cooking them, that given the absence of binding agent they would fall apart or split. However, as you can see, they held their form and shape perfectly.

The texture was more crumbly than a normal sausage, but the flavour was most porkisome!

Sunday, October 07, 2018

Bacon and Sausages


Not everyone may realise but in addition to excellent cuts of meat, my chum Derek Stott (of D and D Family Butchers) also makes his own sausages on the premises (eg Kempton Breakfast, Pork, Lincolnshire etc).

I regularly buy his Lincolnshire sausages (a flavoursome mix of pork, and herbs) with, naturally, smoked back bacon.

Here is a fry up feast, where all the ingredients (apart from the fried bread and eggs) are roasted in the oven in the same roasting tray in olive oil.

I think it's resonantly self explanatory from the video as to what to do.

The result, when washed down with two cans of Red Stripe, is marvellous!