Well, I’m sitting here writing this last post for my well-loved food blog. I really have enjoyed my time inventing recipes, following them, not following them! There have been some catastrophes (the chocolate tube things for a World Cup Party, for example) but there have also been one successes: I still use the Herby Summer Lamb Stew recipe!

Looking back through the stats, I’m amazed how many people still visit the site...in the last two days there have been over 60 page views, people searching out recipes, reading the latest post, etc. I’m not getting rid of my love as even I still use it as a recipe index, but any of my new, food related posts will now be over on my more family style blog under the Bon Appétit tab at the top. I’d love you to come with me over there...as well as continuing the food and recipes, I also write a monthly piece called ‘Meet, Make & Munch’ giving ideas as to where to go, what you might like to make or cook, and what or where to eat. It’s fun, I promise! I’d love you to transfer to the new blog and follow me there too...it would be great to take you with me and continue on our journey!

As well as The Chimney House, I also have a Facebook page with a few more bits and pieces and incidentals!

I began Dire Bon Appetit in January 2009...it’s now November 2019 so it’s had a pretty good run, I’d say. Things change, evolve and grow, and the food blog has become part of an ever bigger, ever expanding life. With two smallish children, a three day a week teaching job and a husband who runs I simply didn’t have the time needed to do it justice. But now, a once a month post is just about manageable, and if I get more done then that’s great. A family-style blog works well for me at the moment, with food still playing a pretty big part of it!

So pop on over, write me comment, tell me who you are...I’d love to keep in touch!

And thank you...for the last 11 years.

If things didn’t change, we wouldn’t have butterflies.

Merlotti x

Holiday Lunches

There is nothing I like better than a lunch on holiday. With a little family, it means that you can stay in for the evening and the children can get into pjs etc and we can play a few family games before a slightly later bedtime. But it also means they’re not sitting in a restaurant waiting for a late dinner when they’re worn out, thus leading to whingey, grumpy behaviour (from them, and, in turn, me!)

So lunch out it is. We usually just about manage to get out of the apartment around 10/11am, meaning we arrive in time for lunch! Perfect. We have a look around the village, a browse in the shops or a wander along the beach before finding a restaurant. Actually, we usually know which one we’re going to here in Nice before setting out, and our day tends to be planned around it! We have a few firm favourites which never disappoint. Most offer a Menu du Jour which is set and a fixed price, often including main, dessert and, sometimes, a drink usually for between €15 and €20. For just the Plat du Jour (dish of the day) it’s around €10-€12 and there’s usually a small choice of three or four dishes. 

We’ve long learnt that this is often the best, not mention the cheapest option. Our 8 year old usually chooses a piece of fish with rice or chips, or a bowl of pasta whilst the two year old shares everyone’s. 

Most of our restaurants are not actually in Nice itself, but a short drive outside. One is in the middle of the university area hidden between flats...you’d never find it if you didn’t know about it! And none have instagram, few have Facebook, and none need either. No self promotion necessary; the quality of food and cooking literally speaks for itself. 

First we visited Cagnes-sur-Mer and ate at a Moroccan restaurant on the corner of the ‘front’. It produces the most amazing tagines and cous cous, all served in big sharing bowls from which you help your self and make up your own bowl. Alongside is a small bowl of flavoured chickpeas and some harissa. My husband had a lamb and apricot tagine, I had merguez cous cous. You help yourself to Cous Cous, pop on the sausages, ladle on some delicious carrot and courgette stock/soup and garnish with the  chickpeas and harissa. There is a chalk board with several ‘plats du jour’ all for €10...often there is something for everyone on here: a couscous, a meat, two fish and a pasta. The restaurant is called ‘San Marino’ and if you’re visiting, get there early!

Next on the ‘list’ was the restaurant on the port at St Laurent du Var, Paradis Marin. We’ve been visiting here for many years now and recently, the whole stretch of restaurants along the port has had a facelift with the kitchens, insides and outsides being redone. There are many to choose from but we tend to return here time after time. Again, we opt for the menu du jour for €18 which is a main course, plus a cafe gourmande for dessert, and includes a glass of wine or a beer. This time it was Merlu with a light hoisin sauce served with rice. The cafe gourmande is my favourite dessert as you get a few ‘tiny’ tasters of puddings, plus an espresso. Perfect! David had the menu at around €24, and choose moules, steak and iles flotants. F had a fillet of sea bass with frites and cc shared everything. They even brought the girls a little free taster dessert! 

Another great find, recommended by French friends, is hidden away next to the voie rapide by-pass. You’d never find it by accident ... you just have to know! And by the time we left yesterday, it was super busy inside with a vibrant, Thursday lunchtime atmosphere. We were the only ones mad enough to sit outside on the terrasse as it was still lovely and warm. There is a brilliant menu, and when you had a Mose at what others were eating, huge plates of sharing pasta, meaty, tasty brochettes and many other choices. We all had the menu again, this time priced at €16.90. It was an Italian cheese made with cow’s milk, baked with pine nuts and honey, and lots of bread to dip! Mains were a simple tomato pasta with pecorino...f had a bowl of this too and shared with cc: they only charged €8 for this and it was equally as large as our main portion)...with a chocolate mousse for dessert. Again, the girls also had a mousse each but they just charged for one on the bill. Booking is vital here. It was really busy on just a usual, workday, Thursday lunchtime. You’ll find it on Rue Robert Schuman and it’s called La Locanda, specialising in homemade Italian deliciousness! 

Today is going to be a choice in Antibes. Usually we would go to Square Sud, a large French brasserie on one of the main squares, but having looked into reviews, we might opt for a little french place called Cote Terroir. I’ll let you know via fb which we chose!

‘Cheesy Bubble’ at Perrywood Garden Centre, Tiptree

I chose to have this winter warmer when I last visited Perrywood garden centre, although, there is so much delicious, hoe made food to choose from it can get quite stressful at times! With a range of daily specials and the usual panini, jacket potatoes and sandwiches you couldn’t be better provided for.
The ‘Cheesy Bubble’ special is simply a play on Bubble and Squeak. A hot bowl of silky, cheesy mashed potato with spring greens ribboned through it, topped with bubbly, melty cheese.

Peel, chop and boil potatoes in vegetable stock.
Two minutes from the end of cooking, add thinly sliced spring greens.
Drain, leaving a tiny splash of the cooking stock, then mash with a lump of butter and put a huge handful or two of your favourite cheese. I used cheddar and Red Leicester.
Add salt and pepper to taste, pile deeply into a dish and top with more cheese.
Grill until bubbling.

Honestly, I could eat this every day at the moment, especially since the weather has most def Italy dropped a degree or two this weekend.

And if you don’t fancy making it yourself, have a day out at Perrywoods and treat yourself to lunch. Definitely worth it.

Local Italian Produce

Since building my pizza oven, I’ve become a bit of a snob when it comes to topping ingredients for pizzas. I like to make my own Frito base tomato sauce and bubble it down over a few hours to thicken it up, but I’ve always struggled getting a good quality cheese or sausage to add to the toppings. I try to use Mutti as a tomato base, or a good quality tinned whole tomato, and first fry garlic and dried oregano in olive oil, before adding the tomato base. I then simply bubble on a low heat until it thickens to create a paste-y sauce. Mutti is available in Sainsbury’s but it’s a treck across town for me, so I was delighted when Just Italian Food opened a unit just round the corner from me!

Regularly importing delicious produce from Italy, they couldn’t be friendlier. There’s a huge range of dried pasta, Italian biscuits and other dried produce, but also a small selection of cheeses, salamis, nduja and other fresh produce. I even found a pizza flour I’ve been searching for for a while and couldn’t resist the buffalo mozzarella and Neapolitan salami! And if you can’t get down to the shop, which I highly recommend, if only for a wander and to get your taste buds going, then have a look at the website...delivery is free for local residents when spending £40 or more.

The shop is at Unit 19, Waterhouse Business Centre, just off Waterhouse Lane. Pop down there this weekend and say Buongiorno, or Ciao if it’s easier! 

The website can be found here or search Facebook for Just Italian Food. 

Chicken & Mushroom Pie

This super simple pie is a great dish for all the family. Both my girls love it too and served with some leafy green veg. is a perfect winter warmer.

I use this short crust pastry recipe from the bbc then simply make up a chicken and mushroom filling.

Brown off some chopped chicken thighs.
Add mushrooms on a high heat and a big knob of butter.
Season well and add a splash of water if they’re starting to stick.
Turn down the heat once everything is browned and cook through.
Sift a little plain flour over the top and stir in.
Add milk on a high heat a little at a time, making sure every drop is incoroporated before adding the next splash.
Once you have a thick sauce, add chopped fresh thyme and check seasoning again. Lots of pepper, a little salt. If you want, crumble in a stock cube too.
You can keep this mixture in the fridge for a couple of days if you wanted to get ahead.

Then line a pie tin with half the rolled pastry, use a metal one to ensure no soggy bottoms; stick the oven on 200; add the filling; lay the other half of the rolled pastry over the top and seal at the edges. Brush beaten egg or a little milk over the top and stab it a couple of times for the steam to escape. Pop into the oven, then reduce the heat to around 180. Leave until the pastry is golden brown on top, between 30 and 40 mins and check filling is piping hot before serving!

Chorizo, Beetroot & Ricotta Baguette

Another 'perfect for a weekend lunch' recipe idea here, again using produce sent to me for recipe ideas by Laverstoke Park Farm. I must say, I've really enjoyed eating cheese and black pudding for the last three days!

Chorizo, Beetroot & Ricotta Baguette

Ingredients:

10-15 cm hard chorizo
half a red onion
three steamed beetroot - buy ready prepped, but not the vinegary ones!
handful baby spinach
baguette
black pepper
Laverstoke Park Farm Buffalo Ricotta
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
thyme leaves
extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Slice the chorizo at an oblique angle so you have ovals rather than rounds.
Fry it off in a little olive oil and add the sliced red onions. Fry until the chorizo is crispy and the onions are caramelised. They'll help each other out here!
Once ready, cube the pre-cooked beetroot and add to the pan. Heat through.
Grind over a little black pepper.
To serve, slice the baguette and add a handful of baby spinach.
Top with the chorizo, beetroot and onions.
Pour any remining pan oils and juices over the top.
Dollop ricotta across the mixture.
Now, this is the bit that brings it all together so don't leave it out...sprinkle fresh thyme leaves, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and a grinding of black pepper over the top.


Thank you Laverstoke Park Farm...not just for the produce, but for getting me back in the kitchen and inventing! I've loved it. 



Disclaimer: The products I received were complimentary for review and recipe development purposes. All opinions given are my own, honest and truthful.

Black Pudding, Pear, Potato and Ricotta Salad

I say salad, but this is a full-on, whole hearted meal that not only will leave you full of food, but also full of flavour. My previous post told how I was enjoying trialling some produce from Laverstoke Park Farm, and the recipe today includes the Black Pudding and Buffalo Ricotta from there. I have added quantities for ingredients as a guide, but I'm one of those 'choose as much as whatever as you'd like' sort of people, so feel free to go ahead and change!

Black Pudding, Pear and Ricotta Salad

Ingredients: Makes one large salad - serves two happily.

For the salad:
Bag of rocket leaves
12 baby new potatoes, halved
2 large pears, cored and wedged
2 thick slices of Laverstoke Park Farm black pudding, cubed
leftover bread (nice crusty loaf works best) torn into chunks
ricotta

For the dressing:
1/2 lemon, juiced and skin torn and squashed
1 garlic clove, crushed
black pepper
small handful roughly chopped fresh mint
several small whole mint leaves
extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar

Method:

Add the potatoes and all but one of the pear wedges to a roasting tin.
Make the dressing - combine the garlic, black pepper, lemon juice and skins, chopped mint, 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil and a splash of red wine vinegar.
Pour over the potatoes and pears and roast in a hot over until the potatoes are crispy and the pears are soft...around 20-30 minutes.
Meanwhile, fry the cubes of black pudding. Once beginning to crispen up, add the torn bread. The black pudding should produce enough oil to fry the bread in too without the need to add more.
Remove the potatoes and pears from the oven and drain off the juices and dressing into a small bowl. Add another 2 tbsp olive oil and a splash a red wine vinegar to the juices and stir to combine. Taste and adjust flavours as desired.
Once the bread has begun to turn to croutons, add the few whole mint leaves to the oil to crispen up.
Slice the remaining pear wedge thinly.
In a large serving bowl, combine the rocket, potatoes, pears, black pudding and croutons. Blob little bits of ricotta all over. Top with the crispy mint leaves, thinly sliced pear and drizzle over the new dressing from the small bowl. Grind some fresh black pepper over the top.
Eat warm.

I hope you like this - don't be put off by the long list of ingredients for the dressing - you'll have most in the store cupboard anyway. And once you've started the recipe, all else can be done whilst the potatoes and pears are in the oven.

Disclaimer: The products I received were complimentary for review and recipe development purposes. All opinions given are my own, honest and truthful.

Black Pudding & Buffalo Cheeses!

I was lucky enough to have recently been sent some delicious goodies from Laverstoke Park Farm to try out and see what I could do with! If you don't already know, Laverstoke is "2,500 acres of bio-dynamic and organic farming in Hampshire ... owned and run by ex-racing driver and Formula One World Champion Jody Scheckter. He wanted to create a farming environment that would follow nature as closely as possible, combining 21st century science, together with the most environmentally friendly farming methods available," with a view to creating "Better tasting, healthy food.
Without compromise." 

The cheeses are all produced from the milk of the Asian water Buffalo herd who graze freely on organic pasture, full of 31 different herbs, grasses and clovers. Meanwhile, their kitchen is one of the few in the UK who use fresh pig’s blood in their black pudding. This is made using a rare Scottish Hebridian style recipe that uses medium sized oatmeal as opposed to fat additives and has no added nitrates, preservatives or colours. Even reminding my 6 year old it's prime ingredient was fresh pig's blood, didn't put her off - she just loves black pudding!

I began my recipe ideas by trawling the internet to see more traditional pairings and recipes for the cheeses I was sent: Buffalo Mozzarella and Buffalo Ricotta. And also for the Black Pudding. Then I narrowed down what I'd like to do with it and began devising my own! Obviously, crusty bread is a big winner with both cheese and the black pudding, so that features heavily, but also the freshness and cleanliness of ripe, crispy fruit, such as pears and apples works well with both and cuts through the creaminess of the cheese. I always feel ricotta needs a little help to encourage the flavours to come through and develop too, so tend to add black pepper, thyme, lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil to this. In fact, a very simple recipe is to do just that and smear onto hunks of sourdough!

A quick idea is to add a big dollop of the ricotta to tomato based stews. This was the first thing I did as I was part way through cooking a sausage, chorizo, mushroom and paprika stew type thing when the produce arrived and I just couldn't resist adding a mild creaminess to it. Simply fry off chopped sausages and chorizo with olive oil. Add mushrooms, smoked paprika and a tin of chopped tomatoes. And, as usual, a pinch of sugar to counteract the acidity form the tomatoes. Bubble until thickened. Take off the heat, season well and add a large spoonful of ricotta, stirring through before serving. 

Black Pudding Huevos Rancheros

This very British take on a classic Mexican egg dish is very quick and easy, especially for a weekend brunch. 

Ingredients: Serves 4 as a small brunch portion

Half a red onion, sliced

2 crushed garlic cloves

Small piece of chorizo - cubed

Small piece of Laverstoke Park Farm black pudding - cubed

flat tsp smoked paprika

Can of chopped tomatoes

half tsp dried oregano

pinch of sugar 

4 eggs

 

Method:

Fry black pudding and chorizo in a tiny little bit of olive oil over a high heat.

Sprinkle over smoked paprika and toss in the pan for half a minute.

Add sliced red onions and crushed garlic. Keep the ingredients moving and fry until beginning to soften. Turn heat down lower and leave.

Once softened, add can tomatoes and dried oregano and a pinch of sugar. Keep simmering to reduce liquid. 

Once at your desired consistency pour into one large of 4 individual oven dishes, top with egg and bake until white is cooked and the yolk still runny.

Serve with crispy dippable bread.

Disclaimer: The products I received were complimentary for review and recipe development purposes. All opinions given are my own, honest and truthful.

Family Times

I'm back to it...the blog! But in a more manageable way. So, I'd like to introduce you to my new venture: a family / lifestyle blog, The Chimney House. This new blog will feature a monthly round-up entitled 'Meet, Make & Munch' with a focus on what me and my family have been up to over the last few weeks, highlighting any, well highlights, and giving suggestions on where friends, family and people could meet; what you could make, either with your little ones, or for yourself or the house; and what or where to eat! The make could be a munch, or, indeed the munch a make! Other aspects of the new site include my musings as a sleep deprived mummy, and, of course, a link to here. I'll continue to post recipes and solely food based posts on here and link to them from the new site, but they probably won't be as frequent as before! More time to focus on these little poppets!

Please hop over to The Chimney House and have a look around. Subscribe if you think it's something you might be interested in and keep popping back here to find those favourite recipes and new ideas.
Thanks for staying with me over the years...I hope you continue to enjoy this slimlined site and the new ideas over on The Chimney House too.
Merlotti x

Slow Cooker Chicken Burrito Bowls

I was asked for some slow cooker recipes that weren’t stew, so here’s the first. These may look like they have a lot of ingredients, but I think you should have most of the stuff to hand – and they’re really easy to put together. You can zshuz (?!) them up at the end however you like – I like to add grated cheese, chopped onions with coriander and homemade guacamole, then make wraps! But you can just as easily eat straight from the bowl.

Like many of my recipes, you can vary quantities, and ingredients to some extent, according to taste. And if you don’t have a slow cooker, you could do this in the oven in a lidded casserole. If you don’t have a can of corn, use frozen, or even peas. If you don’t have black beans, use kidney beans…it really doesn’t matter here if you switch things in and out.

This recipe makes 6 big portions.

Ingredients:

4 chicken breasts

1 can chopped tomatoes (or two jars of salsa)

230ml chicken stock

4tsp taco/fajita seasoning packet – I base mine on this recipe or chilli powder, cumin, salt

CHEAT: 2 packets microwave brown + wild rice (at £1 each, I don’t think they’re bad value)

can of black beans or 250g dried black beans

can of sweetcorn or small mug of frozen corn

peppers and red onions (optional) CHEAT:  I used sliced frozen peppers and slice frozen red onions

Method

If you’re using dried beans, rinse them well – I didn’t. It’s not a problem, but everything in the pot turns a purply brown if you don’t.

Put everything, apart from the rice, peppers and onions into the pot. Stir to combine and ensure chicken is covered. Turn onto low for 4 hours. Keep a check to ensure it doesn’t dry out and stick.

After 4 hours, the beans will probably still be hard and chewy on the inside…don’t worry.

Add frozen pepper and onions. Turn up to high for 2 hours.

Remove chicken and shred. Tip in rice. Stir together. Turn back to low for ten minutes to ensure rice is heated through.

This is a great ‘prep ahead’ meal. You can get everything out and bag it all up in one bag ready to tip in that morning. Easy! This recipe would also work really well in the Cook4Me although I’d definitely use tinned beans, not dried. I’d also only use half the stock. Since you’re using whole chicken breasts, I think about 15 minutes should do the trick, and you can always add more cooking time to get them to the shreddable stage!

I served it with soured cream, grated cheese and salsa and gave everyone warmed wraps to make their own burritos. Once the OH discovered they were actually very healthy, with beans, tomatoes, corn, peppers, chicken and ‘good for you’ rice, his rating of the dish climbed to an 8/10. And none of the goodness disappears from the slow cooker either.

Family Meals–Cheat’s Cottage Pie

So, after asking you what you’d like to see on the blog, several people asked for quick, tasty family meals that don’t use too many ingredients. So I’m starting you off with my own ‘cheats’ version of a cottage pie. The cheat aspect is to use frozen, pre chopped veg. Now, now…don’t scoff. This is one type of food I’ve started relying on. Firstly, the taste. It’s just the same as the fresh. The price? Well, maybe twice the price as buying individual pieces of fresh veg. but there’s no waste as it simply sits there waiting for the next use. One thing I have found is that once defrosted, the veg does become watery. Because of this, I wouldn’t use it for drier dishes where you want a thick sauce, but for stews and stir-fries, the extra water just becomes a part of the sauce.

Ingredients:

beef mince

frozen chopped onions

frozen chopped carrots

crushed garlic

stock cube (I just used a little corner of one as was making for the kiddies)

hp brown sauce

red wine (notice, this didn’t bother me – for the kiddies!)

Worcestershire sauce

pepper

water

frozen mashed potato – yes, I know, but it only has in it the stuff you’d put in at home I promise!

Stovetop Method:

1 - Brown mince, onions, garlic and carrots in a little olive oil

2 - Whilst browning, make your stock – combine a large glug of brown sauce, small glug of Worcestershire sauce, half glass or so or red wine, beef stock cube, ground pepper and enough water to just cover your mince – add a little. You can always top up the pan later if there’s not enough. I used around 300g mince and made about 300ml stock.

3 - Sprinkle the mince mix with a spoon of plain flour, mix in.

4 - Pour your stock mix over the top, stir and let bubble down until the mince and veg are cooked and the liquid is reduced so you have a thick gooey sauce.

5 - Pour into an ovenproof dish, top with frozen pellets of mash, Grate cheese over the top and bake as usual – about 35 minutes on 180 should do. You just need to cook the mash and brown the top really.

Cook4Me Method:

Manual mode – browning, 3 minutes.

See 1 and 2 above.

Once browned, see 3 and 4 above.

Manual mode – quick cook, 7 minutes.

Once finished, see 5 above

So, hopefully that’s one to get you started, even if you already make a version of this, try with the pre chopped frozen veg…it honestly is so much faster!

Tefal Cook4Me

 

I've been experimenting with my new Christmas present over the last few weeks and am pleased to say, I'm definitely getting the hang of it! I used it last week, and this week in fact, for a healthy and hearty bean stew, which cooked in just 7-10 minutes. I also made a new years chilli, (10 mins) chicken sambal curry (4 mins) and monkfish with peppers (6 mins).

You may have guessed from these cooking times that my new toy is a pressure cooker. Yes, that's right, but not one of those 80s Prestige huge pans with a scary lid that went on the hob. No. An electric one. All shiny and new. A Tefal Cook 4 Me. And I may be a little bit in love. Yes, you still have all the prep. to do, and that adds more time. And you have to wait for it to preheat. But unlike my slow cooker, I can brown meats in the cooker itself, then go straight onto cooking in there, even tho it has to preheat again.

There is, however, a time and a place for it. If you want a really rich, flavoursome, homemade ragu, this machine will not give you that. If you already have amazing flavours ready to go in the pot, for example, a Thai spiced paste, it's perfect. Equally, if you cook things like bolognaise from a jar, it would dramatically speed up your dinner times.
The machine has several recipes pre-programmed into it, so you turn it on, find the recipe and the little screen guides you through what to do when. It's normally a case of prepping the ingredients, browning meat then throwing it all in to cook. The app, which is only available in the U.K. at present, has many more recipes to use and you can just follow the recipe on there and use the manual mode on the machine brown and cook. There is a new Connect model just released over here, and the app is designed to run alongside that and send the recipe direct to your machine. But I can't really see the point. For a start, it's much more expensive. And there's no extra effort or difficulty involved in using the manual mode on the machine. In fact, it’s slightly easier as the browning mode on manual starts a timer so you know how long you’ve been browning for, although I usually go on the look of it.

You can even use it to cook desserts, but I haven't braved those yet. I also don't think I've actually followed the recipes on the machine. For a start, I only use pastes for curries and everything else, like bolognaise, I make my own tomato sauce. I tend to make something I would usually make, find a similar cut of meat recipe on the machine and use that preset! So for my chicken sambal, I chop chicken, find the green Thai curry recipe as it also uses chopped chicken and coconut milk, brown meat and onions, tip my paste, coconut milk and green beans in, then use the preset time. For my chilli, I again used the chilli preset but used my own recipe. Occasionally with the chilli, the sauce is too thick for the machine to create the steam and pressure needed, so just give it a stir, try again, and add a bit more water if needed to help it on its way!

Even if I use this machine once a week, it certainly does save time and was worth the money. When F asks when her dinner is ready, I can say ‘in about three minutes’, rather than telling her we just have to wait for the oven to heat up, etc. etc. It also means I can tip everything in and leave it rather than stand at the hob and try to stop CC emptying the cupboards at the same time as juggling a hot pan … never a good idea.

New Year, New Gadget!

Happy New Year to all…and yes, I’ll make the resolution again to cook and blog more, but don’t hold me to it!

Here’s hoping you all had a happy and healthy festive period and have since de-cluttered, found a fresh spring in our step and are ready to embrace January. If so, I have just the think to start the new year: a hearty but healthy bean and pasta stew / soup. I suppose it’s really a version of Italian bean or Peasant soup, made with whatever you have to hand and served on top of a slice of toasted, slightly stale country style bread. Ok, so it might not sound brilliant, but I promise it delivers on flavour.

Ingredients:

streaky bacon (leave out if you want a vegetarian version)

onion

leeks

carrots

can of chopped tomatoes

can of borlotti beans

500ml chicken or vegetable stock

pasta for soup (little pasta!)

oregano / dried mixed herbs

sweet paprika

slice country style stalish bread

Method:

Chop the ingredients into bite sized chunks

Brown bacon, then fresh veg in a pan

Add tomatoes, stock, herbs, paprika and pasta

Cover and simmer until pasta is cooked

Meanwhile, toast the bread.

Once the soup stew is cooked, season well and pour on top of the bread.

Easy – and perfect to warm you up on those colder days. I even blitzed it for the baby as I used homemade, very low salt stock…and a bit of bacon does no harm every now and then!

And as for the new gadget, it’s a Tefal Cook 4 Me…a sort of new-fangled one pot pressure cooker. I actually browned the ingredients in there, then threw everything else in and cooked for ten minutes. More on this amazing pot in a later post – I keep forgetting to take pictures of what I’ve cooked. Also this week, I’m looking forward to my last discounted Gousto delivery. Definitely getting back into this cooking malarkey!

Gousto–worth it?

I’ve been looking into all these new recipe box ideas recently and, in particular, the Gousto scheme, which I signed up for at Taste of London. I’d chosen this as there are options to choose your recipes from a selection, rather than just receive what is sent, and the fact that I got a great offer at the festival – first box half price, third free, so essentially. first three boxes for half price, making it just £1.88 per portion if you chose four meals for four people. Now, the Ella’s Kitchen baby food pouches are £1.40 each so this seemed a brilliant opportunity to give these a try.

Each week you choose from the selection of recipes. There are some tried, tested and rated recipes, and some brand new ones, meaning you’re not always cooking the same things every week. You can also put your subscription on hold and just log into order when you feel like it with no obligation to reactivate it. This seemed like a good idea to me so opted for this as soon as I signed up so I didn’t need to remember to cancel it, if you see what I mean!

The box arrived, finally, at just after 6pm, which is absolutely no good if you want to use it for that evening’s tea, especially if you have little ones who’re hungry, even though the box sticker said delivery by 5pm. Therefore, I’d advise you plan an alternative meal for the delivery day. The meat and products do last past the 4 days worth of meals – my delivery was on the 1st and the date on the chicken breasts was not until the 8th, so it does give you flexibility as to when to have them during the week.

Meats, fish and perishable items were stored in one half of the box in that lovely wool keep cool packaging, while veggies and other items were in the second half. Everything is pre portioned in sachets or bags which makes it really easy but does create an awful lot of plastic waste. Surely its not that important to have exactly 100g of carrot – one medium carrot would do the job, and be fine on it’s own in the box without the need to be wrapped in a plastic bag. Me and Effie had great fun un-bundling it all to see what we had, then decided to re-bundle it into meal kits as all the ingredients for all the meals come in one package, so you’ll need to sort out what foods belong to which recipe, which is made much easier by the inclusion of the recipe cards for each chosen meal.

We chose a Persian Lamb Quinoa Pilaf, BBQ chicken, Haddock Linguine and Bacon Wrapped Chicken. Cooking times varied from 20 minutes to 45 and, I timed as I cooked each one, were fairly accurate. All the recipes were tasty and pushed me to try flavours and ingredients I wouldn’t usually choose. The ras el hanout added to the the Persian lamb was absolutely delicious, and we enjoyed the Gentleman’s relish as part of the BBQ chicken sauce too. It certainly stopped me from cooking the same things week in, week out and meant I didn’t have to buy a whole jar or spice just for one recipe, as is so often the case if cooking Indian, Asian and African dishes. It was also brilliant not having to even think about what we would be having for dinner. I simply got our pre-prepared bag out from the fridge and followed the instructions. Yes, you still have to chop and actually do the cooking, but it’s easy. Either follow the recipe cards or use the app, which is well designed and intuitive.

And there’s no waste. Not one bit.

Effie ate them all, as did CC – I just made sure I kept a smaller pan aside, or removed stuff before adding salt, for her, then mashed or blended into a rough, textured puree. I chose recipes for 4 people to include the children and because I have a husband who eats double portions. I was a little worried that 1 chicken breast was sent as a serving for two people, but each one was huge and fed us adequately, especially with other ingredients padding it out, such as the huge amount of coleslaw and potato wedges! I had enough Lamb Pilaf for two huge adult meals that night, plus we both had second helpings, and two lunch portions the next day.

Will I be using this after my three half-price boxes? Probably not on a weekly basis: at full price (£60 for four meals for four people, £3.75 per portion) I feel that I can do similar much cheaper myself. But throw in the time taken to shop, the idea that you don’t throw anything away, the new recipes each week and the fact that you don’t have a three year old pot of ras el hanout in the cupboard, wondering what to do with it, I will certainly be using it on those busy weeks, especially when I return to work at the end of February.

And they sent me a big bag of free popcorn too!

If you want to try, simply click this link and get £25 off your first box…

https://www.gousto.co.uk/join?promo_code=HANNA188010 

Or go to the website and click the ‘have a special code?’ link under the menu button on the homepage and paste in this code: HANNAH188010

Taste of London: The Festive Edition

I’ve coveted tickets for the Festive Edition of Taste for the last couple of years, but finally got my hands on some via a Big Green Egg Facebook competition this year – winning a pair to the Tobacco Dock extravaganza. And boy, was I excited!

I packed up the children and the grandparents, ensuring Papi was driving, and took us off early on the Sunday morning for the 40 minutes drive to Wapping. I wanted to begin by taking my 5YO to the Beas of Bloomsbury gingerbread man decorating workshop in the Patissier’s Pantry, which was free, but you needed to book after arrival. Luckily, they managed to squeeze us on an end as it was already fully booked ten minutes after the doors had opened, and what fun we had!

We then headed through the lower ground floor, sniffing out smoky aromas from the Big Green Eggs and choosing places to visit later on, before heading for the Great Gallery where we found 3 restaurants, many stalls, and plenty of seating. The LO enjoyed a Chicken Schnitzel Sub from Tom’s Kitchen, followed by Crispy Cod Cheeks from Tredwells. We had the Icon Dish of Smoked Rare Rump Cap from here too, which was delicious, our own portion of Cod Cheeks since monster had eaten the first plate, Adobo spare ribs and a Crispy Pork Belly Taco from Mole Taco Bar. All washed down with a couple of glasses of Prosecco, which was to be found everywhere!

Next was a wander round the stalls, stopping particularly at Pan-n-Ice to order Oreo and Nutella ice cream rolls made in front of our eyes! I think the stall holder was a little fed up with having to demonstrate what it was all about without people actually ordering, so didn’t realise we really did want an ice cream from him. The grumpiness did fade in time!

View on YouTube

By the end of lunchtime, the whole building was buzzing. Live music, a dj, delicious smoky aromas all adding to the festive atmosphere. By far the tastiest morsel was something I grabbed on the way past … a Big Green Egg cooked Pork Belly Bun from Kurobuta. This really was just scrummy. My mouth’s watering just looking at the photograph again! I nearly went back for seconds but had lost the rest of my family by this stage so thought I should really catch up!

To top if off, a hot mulled cider, oh yes, and a little chat with Marcus! A thoroughly enjoyable day…just fantastic. Thank you Big Green Egg. The perfect start to the Festive Season.

ASK Italian, Chelmsford … A Review

What, with all these new chains opening up in Chelmsford, I can barely keep up! But one thing that will set a good restaurant apart from the others, since the food is is usually comparable, is the service. One of my main bug bears is the fact that there aren’t more independent places here, but when there are, it seems they struggle to get the service right too. Take for example A Canteen. It used to be a fab little place, perfect for a hungover weekend brunch. Then they expanded … too fast: huge premises, wildly long opening hours, three menus throughout the day at first, and new staff, who were awful. And the food went downhill too – with so large a choice, the chefs just couldn’t do it all, And the lack of communication between front of house and kitchen is still very poor.

Anyway, I digress. At many of the new chains, I have also experienced poor service. From tables not being served at the same time, some people having finished before others were served and the excuse being, “Well, we are very busy”, to poor knowledge of product from the waiting staff. At the press night at ASK, however, the staff and service was excellent. Way above anything else in Chelmsford. Staff were trained at the Billericay and Colchester restaurants for several weeks beforehand and comprised a mixture of experienced and new, which just seemed to work. Now, I know it was the press night and everyone was on best behaviour, but from product knowledge, personal experience and professionalism, to asking if we wanted the remnants boxed to take away without us asking, they were really superb. Difficult to find staff this good in when the market is saturated with new restaurants. We even received an email to say my partner had left his rucksack and that they had it safe for us to collect!

And the food wasn’t too bad either! I’ve never been to an Ask before and was pleasantly surprised. The new mixed antipasti board was delicious, the tomatoes served at room temperature rather than straight from the fridge, so they actually had taste, and the mozzarella was soft, squishy and simply delicious. I chose a pizza with mixed salami which was exactly as expected…crisp and tasty, as was the super thin garlic bread we chose to accompany it. The OH decided on a meatball pasta, which was ok. A little more sauce would have gone down a treat as it was a bit dry, but came with a lovely side salad instead of having to order this separate and he ate it all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But the real star of the show was the Etna Dessert – I'll let the picture speak for itself, but if you go, you must leave a pudding space for this!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The interior is the right side of industrial with open piping in the roof space but nicely finished wood and metal surroundings. There are a combination of booths and tables and plenty of space to fit buggies…always useful for a girly lunch!

Here’s what ASK had to say about the opening …

“The new restaurant features seating for 140 guests, with capacity for an additional 60 covers outside in the warmer months, overlooking the river Chelmer. The imposing glass frontage floods the restaurant with light during the daytime and showcases a very impressive hand built wooden staircase.

Serving a range of dishes from starters such as Butterfly King Prawns, Antipasti boards and Dough Balls to mains including stone baked pizzas, pasta and salads, busy Chelmsford shoppers will be spoilt for choice at ASK Italian. One of the highlights has to be the very ‘instagrammable’ Chocolate Etna dessert where hot toffee sauce is poured over a dark chocolate cup at your table to reveal a hidden scoop of vanilla gelato on top of a hot chocolate fondant.”

We’ll see how they cope over the festive period, but if you fancy it, all 3 ASK Italian Christmas menu options are available to view online here

Classico – 3 courses for £18.95

Festivo – 3 courses for £22.95 or 2 courses for £14.95 (Mon-Fri until 5pm)

Super Festivo – 3 courses for £24.95

I’ll be visiting again next time I’m in town for lunch…here’s hoping the service is just as good!

Disclaimer: Our meal was complementary for review purposes. All opinions given are my own, honest and truthful.

Our Local Butcher … at last!

Something Chelmsford has needed since I moved here over 15 years ago is a decent butchers. A couple are in and around...the farm shop on Moulsham St. has a selection of meats and Lathcoats farm shop on Beehive Lane also sources and sells local meat. There are a couple of butchers in the market and a few  independents in most of the surrounding areas, such as the Vineyards at Baddow and the shops at Galleywood.

Now, Stock is much further out than 'Chelmsford' and his new butchers is just on the far side of the village, based at Stockbrook Farm Shop and Nurseries. Its’ here that James has opened up a little butchers counter. Although small, he is happy to make up or prep. ahead anything available for you to collect, or order your leg of lamb for Sunday roast in advance. And with a new delivery scheme set up, there's really no reason not to.
I visited this week and was pleased to see quite a big range of meats, including several pre-prepped options, such as hunters or lemon chicken, fresh stir fry or stuffed lamb noisettes. These sauced and pre-prepped options are always homemade from natural, store cupboard ingredients and perfect to pop straight into the oven. The meat is sourced as locally as possible, with pork from Wicks Manor and other meats from Hanningfield and Great Leighs. James has developed relationships and struck up friendships with Smithfields Market, London, and ensures all meat is high welfare, even if it's not always possible, due to demand, to ensure it's as local as he would like. Talking of local, nearby customers are also currently given a 5% discount!

 

I chose four lamb noisettes and a chunk of rib eye which James chopped in two for me and was pleasantly surprised they only came to £15! I would have posted pictures, but we gobbled them up far too quickly! the steak was great, and I’d advise you to cook quickly on a high heat first to sear the fat and begin to melt it down, then finish them off in the oven to medium. I usually eat my steak rare – as in, just touched the pan rare – but with a ribeye, it’s important that if you want the full flavour, you need to crispen the outside fat and melt it down to make the middle moist. As for the lamb, I fried this. On a high heat to begin to, again, brown the far, then on a lower heat to begin to cook the middle. I ate this pink and it was delicious. I served it with potato dauphinois, baked tomatoes and mushrooms and roasted vegetables. They were utterly delicious.

 

You'd definitely be advised to follow James Facebook page, Our Local Butcher, and new website to view the full range of meats, and to check out recipe ideas and meal suggestions from him too. The delivery service has just begun, with different areas of Chelmsford being covered on different days. Free delivery for orders over £25 and a £5 charge otherwise.

This seems like the perfect answer to fresh, local meat for me, until they invent chilled meat lockers on every road anyway (!) , and I’m already looking forward to this week’s visit. 

Photographs taken from Our Local Butcher website.

Spicy Pumpkin Soup

I always struggle to use up the bits and bobs of pumpkin that are leftover from carving. Doesn't everyone just scoop out the seeds and gunk and leave most of the flesh inside, or is that just me? Anyway, this year, I had a few pieces that I refused to throw away, so topped them up with other things to make soup. It was sooo easy.

Fry off the leftover bits of pumpkin along with a peeled and cubed sweet potato, a few stalks of chopped celery and a red onion. That's it. Once beginning to soften, add a stock of your preference and simmer until cooked through. Blitz in a blender and serve to your little monsters. For a spicier kick, throw in some chilli flakes and chilli powder. That's our post rainbows, pre trick or treating tea made then!