Reduce to a simmer

Been off the blogging boil for a while recently, I guess llife gets in the way sometimes.

In the interveening period, Ive been keeping the culinary fires burning with reading up on recipes, food writing, observer food monthly articles and a few trips to some Bristol restaurants. One of the reastaurants of note, was Bistro La Barrique on Gloucester Road. Historically this has been my favourte city restaurant although I havent visited for nearly two years (shame on me!). Famed for its 'Petits plats' or tapas style french/mediterranean dishes, this place never dissapoints. The head chef, Michel Lemoine, has an uncanny ability to create small dishes which, for me anyway, encapsulate everything that is wonderful about french cuisine. So,as a birthday treat, both me and my better half sauntered our way into the restaurant.

I must admit I felt a little axiuous about the prospect of eating in a restaurant that I have been waxing lyrical about for so long and not actually visited for nearly two years - I didnt need to be so concerned. The restaurant itself is still nicely laid out, well lit (often not the case in many a eatery) and above all the service is impecable. Met by a familular face of the head waitress, we were shown to our table. She instantly noticed a minute smear on my wine glass and subtly replaced the glass without fuss (its things like that which make a difference in my world) and commnced to take our drinks order - a bottle of french cabernet from the tourraine. My girlfriend commented that it was the best wine she had tasted and immediately took a photo of the bottle for reference as I  tried to look as if i had chosen it knowingly  ( I hadn't!).

After much deliberation we ordered six 'petits plats'; Red onion and Goats cheese tartin; Sardine ceviche, Pork terrine, Boeuf bourguignon , a selection of olives and last but by no means least - a 'healthy' portion of Fois gras! Now im in danger of offending the yogurt weaving, dandelion chewing section of society - but i cant get enough of this french delicacy . Maybe it is cruel, maybe we shouldn't encourage the farmers to force feed our feathered friends, but if its that bad why does it taste so good?! My girlfriend, who had never tried it before, smothered a little morsel on some crusty bread and exclaimed...'OMG its like meaty butter!!' and immediately lathered even more on to the remaining  piece of bread.

While I waited for my try on the fois gras, I grazed my way through the ceviche and pork terrine - both deep in flavour and beautifully presented. The tartin was equally as flavoursome although I wasn't so enthusiastic about the bourguignon, which is probably our fault for not matching dishes appropriately. So once I had my foodie curiosity fulfilled, I made my way through the remaining fois gras. There are things in life which will always remain the same and never cease to bring a smile to my face -  being with friends and family, England winning at rugby and cricket, holidays, live music....and fois gras!

So feeling a little quesy after a filling of 'meaty butter', what best to round off a meal than a lovely dessert of apricot charfloutis, which thankfully we decided to share. My sweet tooth was sated approriatley, wine polished off and the bill requested. The total cost of the meal was approximately £70 which i thought was very reasonable.

We waddled back home, anticpating the inevitable fois gras side effects of an uncomfortable nights sleep - well worth it though!

Scrolling through a few foodie related articles I came across this blog on the BBC website involving a culinary style bingo game. I really like the concept of this although it is a bit limiting as you also have to travel quite a lot to be counted as a proper gastronought!

Perhaps a more UK or home based foodie game would be more appropriate....like monopoly (more on this later); pictionary; cluedo or even guess who?...

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/food/2011/08/gastro-tour-bingo.shtml

Now this is what I call a two fingers up to all food snobs....

A recent article I came across (see link below). Not sure I'll bet trying it out anytime soon, but it just goes to show if you think outside of the box you might come across a little nugget (excuse the pun!).....good on yer pal

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/264849/McNuggets-Then-I-suggest-the-Prosecco

Pukka Tukker?

My girlfriend took me out for dinner last night. Although she may wish she hadn't as I think she knows what a food bore I can be, especially where restaurants are concerned. Not that I’m over critical or a food snob or anything (or maybe I am!?) - I'm just fascinated by it. Some people spot trains, some do sports....I like eating food!

We decided to go to Jamie’s Italian in Bristol. Now at this point I must confess I'm not a massive fan of Jamie himself, especially the marketing  gravy train that he rides, but I do like his food and surely that's what counts (although I’m sure he's a top bloke in 'real' life!). So, with a modicum of excitement, trepidation and a forced wide open mind, we pottered down to

Park Street

to engorge ourselves in 'Oliver Land'.

Immediately I got the vibe of the place and was slightly surprised and encouraged by it. Instead of the overly marketed 'Oliver Land' that I was expecting (perhaps greeted by a Maître’ D styled as a Jamie Oliver impersonator!), there was a very polite and efficient front of house team who after letting us know there was a small wait for a table - emblazoned me with a flashing pager type gizmo which would alert me to the readiness of our table. So we grabbed a beer, took a seat in the foyer and absorbed our surroundings. For me it was much like a typical (but good) city centre restaurant, quite an industrial feel with 'authentic' Italian embellishments such as the hanging meats, fresh pasta, boxes of bread sticks (?), bottles of olive oil and such like. There were also a few sneaky Jamie books and the latest 'Two Greedy Italians' books lying around - but you can’t blame them for trying! Somehow I wasn’t convinced I was dining with The Cameron's in Tuscany - but I don’t think that was the idea (at least I hope so)!

Call me old fashioned, but when I go out to eat and expect to pay good money for a nice meal - I prefer a more personal touch from the front of house team. Instead we sat intently, looking up at a digital display board showing which table was ready next - like the waiting area of an Argos store. Although it somehow added to the excitement of the moment when our number flashed up on the digital display and we could go celebrate our good fortune and eat some food. But like Argos, the excitement was short lived when we realised that we would have to pay for our winning number at some point.

We were shown to our table upstairs and luckily I got to sit facing opposite the open style kitchen with a decent view of the culinary theatre. A polite waiter showed us to the fish counter and introduced the day's catch – plaice, bass, mackerel and sardines (which were blatantly Cornish pilchards but I’m not complaining about that, all the better for it really). I was slightly disappointed they didn’t have a wider selection of fish, but given the lateness of our arrival it was perfectly understandable.

Finally we selected our meals. A starter of fresh green (and ‘iced’) olives with tapenade to share. My girlfriend prefers the tapas approach to dining (and why not), so she ordered an antipasti combo of deep fried courgette flower stuffed with ricotta and crispy chili squid with aioli. For me it was a choice between the ‘bag of fish’ or the fish stew – I chose the latter.

The olives were simply amazing. Fresh, plump, emerald green, juicy and sweet – unlike any other olives I have eaten. The olives came with a black olive tapenade and ‘parchment’ style bread which was also wonderful. After a lot of ooo-ing and ahh-ing over the olives, the main arrived. The courgette flower and squid were both pretty as a picture as was my stew, which was topped with a slice of ciabatta for substance. As soon as my spoon delved into the broth and then hit the tip of my tongue I knew this was a ‘spicy’ fish stew - and when I say spicy, I mean as fiery as Vesuvius! I think it was supposed to be a Sicilian stew, so a spicy stew was always a given but I don’t expect the food to taste of the island’s volcanic past! I love spice and heat in food, but unfortunately this was too much, even for me. It completely removed all the taste from the fish, which I think I identified as skate wing, hake and possibly some bass, with some mussels in there for good measure. It seemed every mouthful was like running the chili gauntlet, but I persevered with it (like a true Brit!) until my throat could take no more.

It literally took my breath away, but not in a complimentary fashion. I have noticed in the past that Mr Oliver does like using chillies in nearly every single recipe of his, but I’m sure this was just a mistake by the chef on the day. Interestingly the guy on the table next to us complained that his ‘fish bag’ was over seasoned and overpowered by fennel and he couldn’t taste the fish.

This is not to say I found the stew totally unpalatable, the broth had a good depth of flavour (when no chillies were to be found) and the fish was perfectly cooked. I tried the courgette and squid too, which were both very tasty and the squid was also perfectly cooked (often found to be over cooked in many establishments).

The courgette flower was deliciously light and tasty and placed in a sea of a tomato sauce, which i wasn't sure added anything to the courgette, but it was nice all the same. The squid was also really nice and perfectly cooked, which is not always the case with squid and there was no hint of a rubbery texture. Our only complaint was that the meal was a little greasy, but that was our fault for ordering two fried dishes!

The meal came to approximately £60 including drinks, which I though was a little over priced, but given the celebrity status behind the place was not surprising.

Would I go back? Doubtful - maybe for a luncheon of their lovely antipasti. The place comes across as a very typical high street restaurant, which gets the media junkies through the door and serves pretty but vacant food, masked by an onslaught of over seasoning, flavours and chili! The child in me was disappointed that there wasn’t an ‘Oliver Land’ after all -  perhaps with giant replica of Jamie’s head with his tongue fashioned into a slide entering into a massive bowl of tapenade (too much?!). The adult in me persevered and I was most impressed with the restaurant layout and ambiance. I don’t think the place lives up to the hype and it certainly won’t set the culinary world on fire – but it will certainly torch your tonsils!

Anti protest chutney making

Like most people I was disgusted, appalled, saddened and above all embarrassed (for our beautiful country) by the riots that have been happening through out the UK this week Moreover I was saddened to hear some facebook friends announce that even though they don’t 'condone' the violence shown by the so called rioters - that they felt the sequence of events were a litmus test for the way the general public feel towards the government, recent public spending cuts and general austere times. Not wishing to get all political....but what a load of tosh!

So feeling depressed about the whole situation I thought id cheer myself up by making my annual batch of courgette chutney! A very middle class alternative to rioting, but for me possibly just as effective as what those little scum bags are trying to achieve.

I picked up and adapted this recipe some years ago and I have had a lot of success with it ever since, including a 1st prize award at a local village flower show...so very proud of myself! Basically its a general concoction of courgettes, tomatoes, onions, chillies, ginger, garlic, cayenne pepper, seasoning, dark brown sugar and of course vinegar… all simmered and melded together for about two hours.

Although it may put some people off, the general acrid smell of boiling vinegar and sugar filled the house with an air of home comfort and a pungent smell of satisfaction! Perhaps if some of those mindless kids would learn to make their own chutney we wouldn’t be in this mess.....viva la chutney revolution!

Mackerel bashing!

On a sunny day like this, what's better than a trip to the beach to cast a line? Unfortunately all I caught was this sun fish on my camera, but a treat all the same as its quite rare to see them (hopefully you can spot it centered on photo below).

Normally a below average fisherman like me can come away with a few mackerel for dinner, which I like to cook 'en papillote' (baked  in a parcel of tin foil and greaseproof paper) with a slice of lemon, dill, bay, seasoning and for a westcountry touch - a splash of cider, to steam the fish whilst baking.

For a more spicy approach, I slash the skin of the fish and rub with a spice mix which invariably I make up on the spot, but usually involves smoked paprika or chili powder, turmeric and cumin seeds emulsified with a drop of olive oil.

Bone idle cooking for a bone idle day of fishing, if you manage to catch any that is!

And in the beginning...

With food (and my new blog) firmly in the front of mind I came across these old photos of me whilst thumbing through some old albums at my mum's the other day (yes I was that goofy!). Photos like this remind me of how excited i used to get when cooking with my parents and grandparents...a feeling i still try to emulate even now. I guess the innocence of discovering food has been lost on most people (even me on occasion), especially as we grow older and are more likely to turn our noses up and something new or unusual.