Who's a clever girl then?

My missus, that's who. She made these. We call them rhubarb hot dogs, but I think we need a better name!

It all started with choux pastry. The missus fancied making some to see if it's difficult. Turns out it's not that hard, she even made two different sorts - Raymond Blanc's choux pastry and Paul Hollywood's choux pastry.

Raymond Blanc's was a bit more doughy than Paul Hollywood's choux pastry, which was crisper, lighter and tastier.

With the pastry made and with forced rhubarb in season, and some inspiration from Rachel Khoo, the missus set about making these rhubarb hot dogs - or should we call them choux dogs? Hmm...

The rhubarb bit was easy, the stalks were trimmed to be just a bit shorter than the choux buns, generously sprinkled with golden caster sugar and then roasted in the oven for about 15 minutes at 200c. We left them overnight as Ms Khoo recommends.

The following day the missus made some creme patissiere. Apparently it's quite simple, you'll need:

6 medium egg yolks
100g caster sugar
40g cornstarch
1 vanilla pod
500ml whole milk

Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until light and thick then whisk in the cornstarch. Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the seeds and pod of the vanilla and bring to a boil. As soon as it starts boiling take it off the heat and remove the vanilla pod. Slowly add the warm milk to the egg mixture whisking vigorously all the time.

Pour this mixture into a clean pan and place over a medium heat, continuously whisking. The cream will start to thicken. When it does, take it off the heat. Pour it into a tray or shallow dish, spread it evenly and smooth, then cover with cling film to avoid it developing a skin and put it in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.

With the choux buns, rhubarb and creme patissiere ready, it's an assembly job. Cut your buns like a hot dog bun and pipe a layer of creme patissiere along the bottom. Put a stem of roasted rhubarb onto this layer and then pipe more creme patissiere along each side of the rhubarb.

They were delicious.

 

Taste

I have been thinking about Taste. 

Taste - Taste, gustatory perception, or gustation is one of the five traditional senses. Taste is the sensation produced when a substance in the mouth reacts chemically with receptors of taste buds.

Any mention of taste usually refers to 4 basic tastes - sweet, sour, bitter, salt - and the 'newly' discovered 5th taste, umami.

To me this seems like a thoroughly unhelpful over-simplification. I began to consider this after eating some Chinese food. One of the ingredients was sesame oil. I would describe sesame oil as having a nutty taste. I can't see how it could be described in terms of sweet, sour, bitter or salty. Or umami, if we believe the definition of umami as 'meaty/savoury'.

I started looking into the subject. The place to start seemed to the the 'map of the tongue' which most of us might remember from school. The idea being that certain area on the tongue are responsible for noticing certain tastes. This idea has since been shown to be cobblers - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tongue_map. I hope it isn't still being taught in schools.

If you take the bother to read that article, or others, (e.g. http://www.cf.ac.uk/biosi/staffinfo/jacob/teaching/sensory/taste.html) you'll see that it is now understood that all tastes are experienced by taste buds on the tongue, inner cheeks, soft palate, epiglottis and in the throat.

Then I started reading, and watching more stuff about Taste. This led me to Stuart Firestein. He is the Chair of Columbia University's Department of Biological Sciences and has recorded a number of videos about taste. One such video, particularly useful to me, explains the difference between taste and flavour. 

Seems I've been confusing, or at least not clearly distinguishing between Taste and Flavour. Flavour is a combination of taste, smell, texture (touch sensation) and other physical features (e.g. temperature). It seems Taste might be a bit of blunt instrument. It's useful to identify basic tastes, which would seem to correspond with food that is good for us (sweet, salty, 'umami') and food which is bad for us (bitter, sour).

But then I found an article which suggests that there might be 20 basic tastes, and that there's certainly strong evidence for fat as a sixth taste. That aside, it seems that of primary importance in Taste and Flavour is the olfactory system - which is how we smell.

When you start looking into how we smell, you come across some fascinating information. Here's another video from Stuart Firestein - The Evolutionary Paradox of our Sense of Smell.

I only really decided to start looking into Taste to see if there was anything out there which to suggest that it is more sophisticated than 4 or 5 basic tastes! I'm beginning to see that its much more sophisticated, and shouldn't really be seen in isolation, at least when it comes to food.

So how can I make use of tastes and flavours to make my food better? Actually, before I get there, it's worth directing to you to yet another video. I'll be honest, it's worth watching them all. This one explains what happens in the body and brain when you smell something. The surprising information here is that higher-brain functioning of smell happens quickly, with smell messages passing through only 2 synapses before being processed. It seems our bodies have developed in a way which places a very high priority on identifying smells.

Having looked at the senses involved with Taste I think I'm still a long way from understanding how to combine tastes and flavours to produce tasty food. More research needed, and that will involve trying to learn more about Niki Segnit and The Flavour Thesaurus.

Duck with lentils and cranberries

I've been having a break from blogging, largely because I've not been cooking anything out of the ordinary recently. And, as an amateur, I was beginning to wonder whether anyone trusts recipes from people who aren't well known chefs. I know I don't always trust them.

Having said that, sometimes I want to cook something that I've thought of without referring to a set recipe. I like the creative process of thinking about a dish and how I could make it work. When I'm in that mood I'll Google the combinations I'm thinking off to see if they've been done before, just to confirm I'm not going to cook something stupid.

So yesterday I ended up googling lentils with cranberries. We had some mini duck fillets in the freezer and some lentils in the cupboard and I wanted to combine the two. Turns out lentils with cranberries isn't ground-breaking so I felt confident enough to give it a crack.

The basic idea was to cook some lentils with some dried cranberries, and to serve the little duck fillets on top. But I was worried about that being a bit dry and needed a sauce to bring it all together. Luckily we had some brandy left over from when the missus made mince pies and Christmas puds!

This cooks enough for two and is ready in about half an hour, including prep:

160g Puy Lentils
half a finely chopped carrot
a finely chopped large shallot or small onion
celery salt
cranberry sauce
duck fillets / duck breasts
a good slug of brandy
butter
olive oil
2 tablespoons of dried cranberries, chopped
dried thyme
2 bay leaves
Salt and pepper
Water

Start with the lentils as everything else can be done whilst they're cooking. Soften the carrot and shallot in a mixture of butter and olive oil. We've started cooking a lot more with butter, what a difference it makes to the taste of food! Add the dried thyme and bay leaves. After they've had about 5-6 minutes add the dried cranberries and continue to soften for 3-4 minutes. Then add the lentils and follow the pack instructions for cooking them.

When your lentils are about 5 minutes away from being ready, get a frying pan hot and fry the mini duck fillets in butter and olive oil. Cook them over a high heat so they get a little bit crispy but stay moist in the middle. If you're using duck breast just slice it thinly and fry.

When the duck is cooked, remove from the pan and drain on kitchen towel. If your lentils are cooked take them off the heat, check for seasoning and put them to one side.

Now you can make the sauce. De-glaze the frying pan with a good slug of brandy. Before all the brandy evaporates add some water. Then add the cranberry sauce, about a dessert-spoonful. Stir to get a smooth sauce, add more water if you need to. You're not after a lot of sauce, just a fine jus that'll keep the duck and lentil dish from being too dry. Season to taste.

When the sauce is ready, serve. Put the duck on top of the lentils and spoon over the brandy and cranberry sauce.

This dish started as something I reckoned would be ok, and turned out to be quite delicious. Even worth blogging about! We'll be cooking it again.

The simple things

Sometimes it's the simple things in life which give us our greatest pleasure.

Take eggs and bread. I've been converted to Burford Browns as I've never had a better tasting egg. The yolk is so rich, creamy and satisfying. It is perfect for poaching and superb when scrambled.

And then there's bread. We're lucky that there's been a revival of proper bread and that sourdough is so available.

There's a great edition of the Food Programme on Radio 4 all about sourdough. It really is worth a listen, as Sheila Dillon takes a couple of different sourdough starters into a lab for testing, to see what's going on with the bacteria. She finds out that there is a real difference between starters that can have a pronounced effect on the taste.

We've tried a few different sourdoughs. The Polish Bread Bakery in Avonmouth makes a sourdough that is light, slightly acidic and quite creamy. It makes a great slice of toast.

Mark's Bread in Southville make a range of sourdoughs, but I'm in danger of becoming addicted to his seven seed sourdough. The slow prove and the mix of seeds produces a heady scent and has a rich, nutty almost raisin-like flavour. It is magnificent.

So tonight's tea was simple. Scrambled eggs (Burfords) on a slice of sourdough toast with lots of salt and pepper. It was bloody lovely.

Atomic Burger

We ate at Atomic Burger on Friday. It's the second time we've been. I think it's pretty close to the perfect sort of place for a Friday night.

They have really gone to town with the decor. I have to remind myself that Star Wars wallpaper wouldn't look quite as good in my flat! That, and the missus wouldn't go for it anyway. She definitely wouldn't go for the large USS Enterprise mobiles and a scalectrix on the ceiling! Shame.

All that decor sets the tone for Atomic Burger, which continues with a US themed menu. The choice of burgers is really extensive and should offer something for everyone. If not Atomic Burger are happy for you to do swapsies on your toppings so you can tailor something more to your taste.

The first time we went, 3-4 weeks ago, we were hankering for big juicy burgers. The place was crammed so we ended up sitting on stools at a bench in the window being served by the owners. We couldn't have been looked after better. I went for Smokey & The Bandit, like my old Old Orleans favourite from years ago, the Sloppy Joe. Proper dirty amounts of BBQ sauce, cheese and Cajun spices. Spot on. The missus went for the Johnny Cash, overflowing with re-fried beans, hot sauce, American cheese and jalapenos. Close to perfection.

It was never going to be a long time between visits, and we ended up going again on Friday.

We booked this time to make sure we got a proper table. And it's just as well we did 'cos they were fully booked - again.

I'd been looking at the online menu all week trying to decide what I wanted, my eye kept being drawn to the Dirty Dog. A US style hot dog covered in beef chilli, cheese and fried onions.  I did consider going for a burger, but stuck to my guns. I'm glad I did, the dog delivered. The beef chilli on it was one of the best chillis I've tasted. This time the missus went for Cheech & Chong - a burger covered in beef chilli, nachos and cheese. Another hit.

The staff were really attentive and service was quick without us feeling rushed. We were going to linger over a pudding but the brownie I fancied had nuts in and had to be avoided, so instead we both had a coffee. The coffee was very nearly the tastiest thing we had in there! Apparently it's a bottomless coffee, that could be an expensive promise to keep with coffee that tasty.

Atomic Burger don't claim to make the best burgers in Bristol, but they're aren't many better.

The Glorious Oyster

This time last week we were starting our holiday. Bags packed, tickets checked and passports ready we were getting very excited about our trip to Sicily.

We thought we'd start things off with a nice little foodie treat, oysters and Champagne.

We hadn't really been into oysters all that much before we went to the Streat Food Collective event at Arnos Vale Cemetery. However, the highlights of that event for us were the BBQ & Jerk stall and the oysters from The Glorious Oyster.

The missus really went for the oysters and came up with the idea of starting our holiday with oysters and champagne, and luckily The Glorious Oyster deliver oysters! So we ordered 12 and a shucking knife. Is there a cooler kind of knife than a shucking knife?

Up until this point I had never shucked oysters. I've seen it on tele a couple of times and thought I'd be able to give it a go, but I was some way short of confident. But that's where the magic of oysters delivered by The Glorious Oyster really comes into its own.

Lyndsay delivers the oysters personally, and luckily for me she popped in to give me a shucking demonstration. I'm so glad she did, getting into an oyster must rank as one of the most dangerous bits of food preparation. I could just see myself at A&E with a shucking knife in my arm without the proper guidance, which goes something like firm hold, flat side up, knife into hinge, wriggle, twist, pop!

We chose to make our own dressings, which may have been a small mistake as Lyndsay's dressings are great, but we did have a sample sachet of Chipotle Tabasco which went really well. Sweet, smokey heat was a great match for the oysters, which were themselves succulent, creamy and delicious. I've never had oysters so good before, and when they are this good it's easy to see what all the fuss is about. Especially when accompanied by a nice glass of fizz.

Confit Duck Hash

This has been the last meal made with the confit duck we bought. I really can't stress what a bargain the £10 tin was. We got 5 pieces of duck, which has made 3 gorgeous meals - cassoulet, duck confit with white beans - and this hash. And we're still left with a good amount of duck fat for some proper roasters as we head into Sunday Lunch season.

As there's two of us and we got 5 pieces of duck we were scratching our heads for what to do with the last piece. Thinking about it now we could have made Michel Roux's duck and mushroom pudding, which will be on the menu when we next have some confit duck. Instead we chose to make a hash, it seemed like a good excuse to cook some spuds in duck fat.

That's how we started things. Peeled potatoes, enough for two, chopped and par-boiled. As they steamed dry I got the confit duck into the frying pan with some chopped shallot. The gorgeous fat soon renders and the meat begins to fry. As it's tender already it only takes a few minutes before it starts to fall apart which means you can remove the bones.

With the duck and shallots sizzling away I added the potatoes to give them a chance to get brown and crispy.

As it is, those 3 ingredients would make a very nice meal. But I really wanted to try and produce a really balanced dish and I thought that I needed to add something to cut through all the richness, so I added a couple of dessert-spoonfuls of chopped capers. That just about did it. A generous squeeze of lemon juice and some chopped parsley did the rest.

It was a lovely meal, the only thing missing was poached egg, duck egg ideally, but other than that it was a fine way to use the last piece of duck confit. I can't wait to buy some more!

Streat Food Collective at Arnos Vale Cemetery

On the face of it it doesn't sound like your ideal setting for any kind of festival, a cemetery. But we're talking here about Arnos Vale Cemetery.

The street food scene in Bristol isn't big, but with quality like the stalls on offer here it's bound to grow.

After a bit of a stroll around to check out the stalls we opted to kick things off with some oysters from The Glorious Oyster.

These are delivered fresh from Cornwall and served with a choice of dressings. The missus went for Bloody Mary which she loved, I went for Thai which worked very well with the raw oyster.

In fact, we enjoyed them so much we went back for more after we'd finished working our way around the other stalls. Second time round we kept it classic. The missus went for the shallot dressing, delicious by all accounts.

I loaded up with a few shakes of Tabasco, a squeeze of lemon and a hint of black pepper. For all that oysters have a delicate taste, it's surprising what they can match with.

It would be impossible for me to go to a street food festival and not eat meat. Luckily I had 2 great options at the Streat UK food festival at Arnos Vale Cemetery.

The sounds and smells of meat cooking over coals meant I was compelled to go to the BBQ & Jerk Stop stall.

We shared some BBQ Rum wings which were delicious, and a bargain at £3.50. Even the missus thought they were delicious and she has a weird thing against wings.

More meat satisfaction came Bagel Boy.

I am simply a sucker for salt beef so I went for the New York Boy. Salt beef, American mustard, sauerkraut and gherkins on a sesame bagel. Very good, and at £4, another bargain.

It's a lovely place, Arnos Vale Cemetery, and all the better for being restored. Hopefully events like this will help bring people into the place, aside from those that inevitably end up here that is!

If you want know more have a look at the websites of Streat Food Collective and Arnos Vale Cemetery.

Duck confit, white bean mash and blackberry sauce with Pinotage

Despite the poncy title this little number was actually created out of leftovers.

We had some beans and some duck confit leftover from making the Cassoulet. Rather than make another cassoulet (and put on another stone!) I thought I'd try something a bit lighter.

So, the beans. Dead easy really. The beans had already been soaked so all I needed to do was cook them. An hour and a half or so at a steady simmer did that. After they cooled a little I blitzed them in a blender until they formed a smooth, creamy mash.

The bean mash was a bit bland, so I seasoned with a good bit of salt and pepper and some nice olive oil. However, it still wasn't quite what I was after. It needed something extra which had me reaching for the spice cupboard. I toasted some fennel seed and caraway seed, ground them in a pestle and mortar and added them to the bean mash. Much better.

The duck confit is very easy to cook. It's simply added to a frying pan over a medium heat and allowed to heat through. It's so tender it nearly falls off the bone as it cooks and the smell does wonders for stimulating the appetite.

When I was thinking about this dish I knew that it was going to need a fruity sauce to give it a lift. We have some cherry trees growing down by the river near where we live and I was really tempted to make a sauce with some of the cherries. But, we also have some blackberries growing in our garden which are really tasty and I thought a blackberry sauce would go nicely. Thankfully I wasn't wrong.

As is usual when I've thought of something to do but I'm not certain it'll work, I googled it to see if it had already been done. Yes it has. It's handy to get some hints and it helped to make sure I made the sauce savoury rather than sweet like a bramble jelly.

For the sauce I sweated off some finely chopped shallot in a little duck fat - I find it hard to now to consider frying with anything else - and a couple of bay leaves. After a few minutes I added some freshly picked blackberries, about a cereal bowl full, and a fair bit of black pepper. The blackberries broke down in a few minutes after which I added a splash of the Pinotage we'd be drinking with the meal. It seems the done thing really.

The final result was one very satisfying meal. The Pinotage went really nicely with it. I'd say it was medium to full-bodied so texturally it matched the meat and beans. There's a spicy note, which comes from the Pinot Noir in its heritage I guess and which matched the black pepper and other spices. It's also quite fruity and that marries with the blackberry sauce. It wasn't bad at all.

Cassoulet

I thought French cooking was difficult, but with the right ingredients we achieved an authentic tasting cassoulet without any hassle.

Right or wrong, I think the success of the cassoulet depends two things. The confit duck and the beans. Admittedly there aren't too many other ingredients in a cassoulet.

For the confit duck we used Succes Gourmand tinned duck confit. At £10 for the tin it seemed like a bargain as it contained 4 pieces - which turned out to be 5 when we opened the tin! Using tinned makes life a lot easier than having to make your own confit duck, and means you get a lot of the all important duck fat. Cassoulet starts with a generous portion of duck fat.

This recipe cooked a cassoulet that fed the two of us very well. You'll need:

2 pieces confit duck
Duck fat
2 handfuls or dried cannellini beans, soaked overnight (it might seem like a pain to use dried beans which need soaking, but the taste is much better than tinned)
1 chopped onion
4 cloves of garlic,chopped
2 sausages - use what you like, straight pork, Lincolnshire or Cumberland will work fine
Pork - you could use 4 rashers of bacon, but we used some pre-cooked ham hock, about 170g
Herbs - we used dried bay, thyme and sage.

Put the oven onto 180c, and on the hob melt a generous amount duck fat in a big pan that can go in the oven, or a casserole. Add the chopped onion and garlic and soften over a medium heat, you don't want them to brown. 

When the onions and garlic are soft add the soaked beans and herbs, cover with water and bring to the boil Boil for 10 minutes or so, skim off any scum. After 10 minutes put the pan in the oven for an hour.

Just before the hour is up melt some more duck fat and brown your sausages. Fry the bacon as well, if that's what you're using.

Remove the pan from the oven. Add the sausage, bacon or ham and the confit duck. Put the pan back in the oven for another 45 minutes or so. You want the beans soft and you might get a golden crust as well.

I thought cassoulet was going to be a lot harder than this. The hardest part is probably getting hold of duck confit, but you can buy that from Amazon! I think this is going to be one of those dishes that we end up cooking again and again.

Tapas and Rosè

If summer won't come to England we're just going to have to pretend, and what better way to pretend than to eat tapas and drink chilled rosè?

It has been a dreadful summer so far. Grey skies, low light levels, floods and only a brief break in the clouds once in a while. I almost hold myself responsible. I bought a barbeque back in early June and I think it's rained ever since.

Well, we finally had enough and decided to just pretend that it's summer and decided to go Spanish with a few tapas inspired dishes.

Patatas Bravas - simple but effective. The missus (A) found a great recipe from the 'perfect' Felicity Cloake. The potatoes are roasted rather than fried. We've been having a lot of roasted new potatoes recently, by themselves with a gargantuan amount of salt they are insanely delicious. With a smoky tomato sauce and a creamy garlic mayo they are equally moreish and more suited to a tapas style tea. They were tremendous.

Another tapas staple - Padron Peppers. There can't be many things easier to cook. Put padron peppers into hot oil, cook until they blister, sprinkle over sea salt in obscene amounts, eat.

Squid is another favourite. We had some delicious cuttlefish recently at Bravas, a cool little tapas bar just off Whiteladies Road but which would not look out of place in Barcelona's back streets. The Spanish waiter lending it an even more authentic feel. We couldn't get our hands on cuttlefish, but did get some baby squid from the fishmongers on Gloucester Road. Simple seems to be the way with tapas so we just fried the squid and then squeezed over a load of lemon juice.

Our fourth dish wasn't strictly speaking tapas, but we simply had to include chorizo in some way and this chorizo and chicken liver salad from Tom Parker-Bowles seemed like a very nice way to do that. We get great chorizos rosario from Murray's on Gloucester Road. They release a fabulous oil when fried in a hot pan. When cooked, remove the sliced chorizos and add the chicken livers which have been dusted in seasoned flour. 3-4 minutes in the pan and the livers are done, crispy on the outside, smooth in the middle. We added them, the chorizos and some chopped mange tout to some salad leaves. The salad alone would make a great meal.

To complete the meal we went for a spanish rosè or rosado - Marques des Rojas from Averys. Made from Syrah (Shiraz) grapes it has a hint of spice which goes nicely with the chorizo. It's a deep pink, and could probably pass for a Pinot Noir in colour, and retains plenty of body so it pairs nicely with a range of food. It complemented all of our dishes - patatas bravas, squid, padron peppers and the chorizo salad. Versatility like that is really unusual, and would be hard to find in anything other than a rosado.

The 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony

With his clever and audacious ceremony Danny Boyle has created a new image of Great Britain.

I'm sure we were all nervous, "Please don't let it be shit", was my over-riding thought. With the world watching I would have hated it had we embarrassed ourselves. And for the first 15 minutes I thought that was going to happen.

The rural idyll, the peasants, the farmers and the pipes. Everything seemed to be leading towards some thoughtless, lazy, typical view of Britain as a green and pleasant land populated by gurning simpletons. Although I liked the sequence which showed us Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales nevertheless I began to cringe.

But then it all started to change. The dramatic transformation from countryside to industrial landscape completed by a stunningly staged sequence of the forging of the Olympic rings, rising slowly and steadily into the sky. No CGI manipulation here, very clever. At this point I began to think we could be in for something special.

And we were. Bond. And The Queen! The completely staggering inclusion of our Monarch may have been lost on anyone not British. But it can't have been lost on us. This is The Queen! I find it hard to believe that they managed to get her involved like that. The audacity and the cheekiness of it was perfect. This was a ceremony for us Britons. I was now beginning to feel quite proud.

What followed with the sequences devoted to the NHS, our literary history, music and technology showcased a diverse range of talent and industry of which we can be proud. This is what we do and we do it well. There is much more to us than fields and farming.

The ceremony was the most inclusive I can remember. From The Queen to volunteers from the working class areas of London and the four corners of Great Britain. Top to bottom, left to right, everyone was given not just a chance to join in, but a starring role.

All this within a brand new stadium built in a previously run-down area of London. Completed on time and full of promise of better things continuing for some of the poorest boroughs of our capital.

The entrance of the athletes was underpinned with a thoughtful intelligence and set to a terrific soundtrack which seemed to fan the flames of the excitement felt by the young competitors. Accompanying athletes of each country was their flag, naturally, and an unexplained copper petal, which led to the crowning glory of a terrific ceremony.

Britain's previous gold medal winners put their egos to the side and let the next generation of hopefuls parade the flame around the stadium and then light the copper petals of a large flaming flower. The petals then rose to create one giant fire containing a flame for each competing country. What a perfect message to give. Hats of to Thomas Heatherwick for that one.

Come, all of you, to London, to Britain, and join in this celebration of sport and endeavour.

And there we have it, our new message for the World. This is Britain, and it's Great.

Barbequed lamb with Cabernet Sauvignon

At last. AT LAST! Summer, finally. After weeks and weeks of grey skies, downpours and floods we finally get to Summer. And that means barbeque.

There's nothing finer on the barbeque than lamb, and to make sure the first one of the season set the right standard I asked Al from Wine Chateau to suggest the right wine,

"It has to be Cabernet Sauvignon", said Al. "There's some great wines around, but Chile in particular is producing some fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon right now. Try the Los Vascos, produced by Rothschild".

Barbequeing lamb doesn't require much of a recipe really. Get a barbeque hot, put some lamb on it (we used chops) and cook. Lamb always seems to respond really well to the heat and smoke of the barbeque, taking on a lovely red tinge in places, and the fat crisps up nicely and becomes very,very tasty.

Lamb is also very versatile, you can go so many different directions with it. We stuck to the Med, pairing it with some roasted and stuffed peppers, spiced spinach and chickpeas and hummus.

Al's recommendation of Cabernet Sauvignon is spot on. The wine at first is very fruity with a taste of lots of red berries and cherries. But after some time to breathe the tannins develop to deliver a dry finish. It's a great match with the lamb, which is quite a sweet meat. The sweet fruit of the wine matches nicely. There's also a hint of smoke and spice which complements the char-grill from the barbeque.

What a perfect start to Summer. The grey skies seem a long time ago, and the future seems rich with the promise of more great food and wine.

Gnocchi and cheese sauce with Pinot Gris

Simple but effective, this Italian dish with an Italian inspired wine is an unassuming yet elegant meal.

Al runs www.winechateau.com. We've been tweeting about food and wine matches. After all, who better to ask what wine to drink with your meal than a guy who runs a wine company?

Al's first suggestion, Roast Chicken with Napa Valley Chardonnay, was a winner. So I asked him what he'd put with something simple like gnocchi with a cheese sauce,

"Pinot Grigio would be a nice match", said Al, "but if you want something a bit special, try a Pinot Gris from Oregon."

My only experience of American wine until now had been red from California. Some of it is excellent, Zinfandel in particular. And Chardonnay clearly does well in the vineyards around Napa. But I wasn't familiar with wine from Oregon.

"The Wine by Joe Pinot Gris is an excellent wine, I'm sure you'll enjoy it", said Al. How right he was.

We cooked for 2, using the following recipe.

500g pack of ready made gnocchi
3 small shallots, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
splash of white wine
2-3 tbsp mascarpone
1-2 tbsp creme fraiche
150g Taleggio, chopped into small chunks
splash of olive oil
Small handful of fresh parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

Get a pan warm over a medium heat, add a good splash of olive oil and soften the shallots and garlic. After 3-4 minutes add a small glass of white wine, around 150ml. We used the Pinot Gris we were going to drink with the meal.

Reduce the wine by half. Add the mascarpone and creme fraiche and stir until melted.

At this point, start your gnocchi. It depends on what it says on the packet, but it should just be a case of adding it to boiling water and cooking it for a few minutes.

Add the taleggio to the sauce and stir until melted and combined. Season with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper. You probably won't need to add any salt, but it depends on your taste.

When the gnocchi is cooked, drain it and add it to the cheese sauce. Serve with some freshly chopped parsley.

Obviously the cheese sauce is rich, but the creme fraiche keeps it from being too rich, and the soft, doughy balls of gnocchi make the dish simple and comforting. However, the classy Pinot Gris transforms the dish, like Cinderella going to the ball.

I'm not normally one for appreciating white wine, certainly not the colour of it, but this Wine by Joe Pinot Gris is beautiful, like the flesh of a freshly cut apple, and there is a hint of green apple in the taste. Its clean lines cut through the richness of the cheese sauce and give it lift. It also opens up and enhances the aromas of the dish, so you get a real experience of it from your olfactory senses. 

There is also a very enjoyable contrast of hot, creamy sauce with cool, crisp wine. However, the fruit of the wine stops short of being dry so the contrast doesn't go too far. It is a wonderful combination.

The best cheese for burgers

I found it tonight - the best cheese for burgers. Taleggio.

It's got a tang a bit like blue cheese, but nowhere near a Stilton or Roquefort. It's creamy and buttery a bit like good mayonnaise. And it's kind of nutty. Burger cheese perfection.

Roast chicken with braised lettuce and peas and Napa Valley Chardonnay

It's funny what can happen when you use Twitter. I've been in touch with a range of people I simply would not come across in my normal day-to-day life.

I've been in touch with a guy who makes handmade pasta in Shepton Mallet, the chef at my favourite local restaurant, a blogger who lives in Australia and Al. Al runs www.winechateau.com, a wine merchants in New Jersey.

I'd been tweeting about my latest cooking and eating experiences, posting links to my blog, and Al got in touch to say he liked it. We exchanged a few tweets and then conversation (is it conversation on Twitter?) turned to a subject close to both our hearts - food and wine.

Most of the time my posts are just about food, either what I've cooked or what I've eaten out somewhere. Rarely do I blog about food and wine together, which seems odd when I often make a point of seeking out a nice bottle to go with what I'm cooking.

This seemed like too good an opportunity to miss. Surely Al could give me some guidance on what wine to put with food. Thankfully he obliged.

His first suggestion was for roast chicken with a Napa Valley Chardonnay - like this one (available from www.winechateau.com). So that's what we tried.

For 2 people we used the following:

4 chicken thighs
1 lemon, chopped into wedges
4 cloves of garlic
splash of olive oil
salt and pepper

2 little gem lettuce cut into quarters
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 good handfuls of peas
1 small onion, or large shallot, finely chopped
200ml good chicken stock
4 tablespoons creme fraiche
1 small knob of butter
splash of olive oil

Put the chicken thighs in a roasting pan, drizzle over some olive oil, season with salt and pepper and place around them the wedges of lemon and cloves of garlic. Roast in the oven at 180c for about 30 minutes or until the juices run clear when you skewer the chicken.

Whilst the chicken is roasting, get going with the lettuce. Put a small knob of butter in a pan with a splash of olive oil and soften the chopped onion or shallot over a medium heat. Then put the lettuce quarters on top, cut side down, and cook for a couple of minutes. Then, pour over the stock, put the lid on the pan and lightly simmer for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes lift out the lettuce quarters with a slotted spoon, leave to stand whilst you reduce the cooking liquor over a high heat. When it's reduced by half, add the creme fraiche, mustard and peas. Turn the heat down and warm the peas for a minute or 2.

Plate the lettuce and chicken and spoon the pea, cream and mustard sauce around them.

The wine, of course, is a great match. The maturation in oak means it's full-bodied, which compliments the meat and the rich sauce. The natural chardonnay flavours of citrus and crisp apple work nicely with the lemon the chicken has been roasted with. And there's a  minerality which goes well with the lettuce.

So, thanks Al. Just goes to show what Twitter can do.

Eat a Pitta

I think St. Nicholas Markets in Bristol is seeing the birth of a new food success story - Eat a Pitta.

The Glass Arcade at St. Nicholas Markets is a consistently popular place for Bristolians to eat, with good reason. Caribbean, Italian, Portuguese, Moroccan and English food is on offer.

And now the latest addition, Eat a Pitta. Who's success seems to rest on a 75 year old Algerian recipe for falafel. Dan Levy, owner of Eat a Pitta explains,

"The falafels are my grandmas recipe which she has held for 75 years. She is originally from Algeria but now resides in France. The recipe has always been in the family so it was natural for me as a chef, to go back to my roots as this is the kind of food I grew up eating. I do think this kind of food is street food so when the stall became free in St nicks I jumped at the chance."

Taking a chance like that is a big step, and one that Dan receives help with from The Princes Trust. I asked Dan how they support him,

"The Princes Trust were able to help me get my business off the ground early in 2011. I was unemployed at the time. They gave me advice and a lot of help with my business plan, although their help is not financial. I have a business mentor through the trust with whom I meet every couple of months for advice and support."

It is definitely a successful combination. Eat a Pitta seems to have the longest queue in the food court on any day of the week and Dan is pretty pleased with that,

"The business has got of to a great start. A lot better than I foresaw in fact. I would like to grow the business, perhaps even into a franchise, I feel it has the potential to achieve that."

It is hard to argue with that. Eat a Pitta seems to be the right thing at the right time. Although if you're Dan the right time would seem to be being at Grandma's for tea,

"As good as mine are, she somehow seems to always make them that little bit better than me. That's grandma's touch I guess."

And so, to the falafels themselves. They're constantly frying them so they're perfectly cooked, crispy on the outside and moist and light in the middle. To make sure that the falafels are as fresh as possible, Dan and his team give away free samples to anyone who wants one. 

To go with the falafels there's a choice of freshly prepared salads. Huge platters of colourful carrots, red and white cabbage and onions. Dishes of hummus and tabbouleh, and a selection of pickles and chillies. And on top of that a choice of tahini, chilli and olive oil and lemon dressings. There's also the extra chilli jam for the brave.

It's a delicious and satisfying meal that is completely guilt free.

When you listen to the news or read a newspaper it seems like there's nothing but bad news at the minute, so it's great to see a new business start so successfully. I hope the success continues. 

A salad of nectarine, feta, mint and seeds

Talk about hot off the press, I'm writing this straight after having eaten this fantastic salad, whilst waiting for my missus to cook our main course of gnocchi with sage butter. We're keeping things simple tonight!

This salad is very, very tasty and can be made in minutes. For 2 people I used:

2 Nectarines
A bit less than half a block of feta (DOP of course)
A few leaves of fresh mint, finely chopped
Some freshly toasted sunflower seeds
A good drizzle of lemon juice
Same again of olive oil

Take the flesh off the nectarine as neatly as possible, if you want to plate up something that looks attractive at least. Arrange the slices on a small plate. Sprinkle over a little freshly chopped mint. Crumble over some feta, don't be shy, the dish needs the salty taste for balance.

Then drizzle over some lemon juice and olive oil, I'd use more olive oil to help make things savoury. If your nectarines are really ripe they're going to be very sharp and sweet so the feta and olive oil are really important.

Finally, scatter over some toasted sunflower seeds, hopefully whilst they're still warm, and serve.

The mint works really nicely with the nectarine and seems to calm any flavours which might be too sharp. Both the mint and the nectarine contrast nicely with the feta and olive oil. The seeds give a satisfying nutty crunch.

There we go, job done. Just in time as well - dinner is served!

HK Diner - Bristol

I've been getting itchy feet again. The missus and I spent most of this morning talking about getting away again and almost craving to be in Malaysia. During our travels of 2010-2011 we ended up spending a lot of time in Malaysia as we used Air Asia for getting around which has Kuala Lumpur as its hub.

I was initially quite worried about eating in Malaysia and South East Asia generally. I've got a really bad nut allergy and have been hospitalised with a severe reaction before. I've had to jam an inch long needle into my thigh after unexpectedly eating nuts at a wedding in Castle Combe which is a few miles away from ambulances based in either Chippenham or Bath. Having a similar experience abroad would not be pleasant.

I found the first couple of days in KL quite stressful and became convinced that I was going to eat nuts, if for no other reason than most of the food would be cooked in nut oil. Eating in normal restaurants felt impossible. However, we got very lucky with the staff at our hostel who spoke excellent English and understood the whole nut allergy thing. They explained that most places now use palm oil for cooking, as a result of Malaysia being the prime producer of palm oil. They also wrote me a note to give to waiters to explain my allergy. This opened up a whole new world.

After getting a bit more relaxed I dove right in, eating from hawker stalls and nasi kandar places with confidence and great satisfaction. The food in Malaysia is fantastic. There's searing hot curries from the Tamil Indians, rich and varied regional cuisine from the Chinese population and the deeply satisfying dishes of Malaysian cuisine including Nyonya dishes from around Melaka. I was in heaven. If it didn't have nuts in it, I ate it. There were times in some kampung buffet restaurants where we had no idea what we were eating, revelling in strong new tastes, eye-watering sambal, rice cooked with coconut and pandang leaves and jungle greens.

It was a struggle to come home when we did and we have both yearned to return ever since.

And so it was that today we spent most of the morning today getting very excited at the thought of heading back to Malaysia, if only for a couple of weeks, in the new year.Which, naturally, led to a huge craving for the sharp, sour, sweet and hot taste tastes of Asian food.

We decided to walk into town as today the Portway was closed for Bristol's Biggest Bike Ride. It seemed like a non-event but it did mean we could walk in to town with loads of traffic noise.

We couldn't decide where to go and eat and ran through the options as we strolled along. We considered the Vietnamese place on Gloucester Road but didn't think it would be open. We thought about eating at a Thai place but that wasn't really what we were after. And then we remembered the place on Park Street that does Malaysian food - which turned out to be the HK Diner.

My missus loves Nasi Lemak so her mind was made up pretty much before we even sat down. I took a bit longer to decide. Until I get familiar with a place I need to be careful because of my nut allergy and so didn't feel I could be as adventurous as I would like. What did immediately spring out at me as Achar Awak - pickled spicy vegetables which are a Nyonya cuisine staple. To go with that I went plain and simple - rice with 3 meats.

Although my first serving of Achar had been sprinkled with peanuts it was swiftly changed to one without. And it was delicious. The missus was transported by her generous portion of Nasi Lemak, with authentic tasting coconut rice.

My meat with rice was very good. The duck was the most tender duck I've ever had and melted in the mouth. To say I was pleased by getting a whole duck breast would be an understatement, and it went really well with the spicy, sour pineapple from the Achar. The BBQ pork was moist and tender and delicious, and the crispy belly pork was really rather good as well. The portion was quite literally more than enough.

The sounds, smells, tastes and sights took us right away from Bristol, back to Malaysia. 20 quid on lunch seemed well spent for such a journey.

Do Ottolenghi recipes work?

Like most people who like cooking I've ended up with an Ottolenghi cookbook. I'm very happy about this. The recipes sound enticing, the pictures look great and the heritage is all there. But actually cooking the recipes, that's a different story.

My first venture was marinated turkey breast with cumin, coriander and white wine. In the little bit of blurb that goes with the recipe it suggests that the same sauce would work very well with lamb. The first clue that all may not be as it seems is that sentence, "would work very well with lamb", not 'does work very well with lamb'.

And it didn't. The marinade hadn't penetrated the meat at all despite the recommended 24 hour marinading time. In fact, the marinade seemed to have diminished the taste of the lamb. Heating and reducing the marinade to achieve a sauce wasn't successful either.

Maybe my mistake was to try this with lamb rather than turkey, but the recipe did say it would go well with either. Perhaps I'll try it with turkey one of these days, but turkey just isn't a meat I think about eating very often.

Undeterred I had a crack at another Ottolenghi recipe from the same book (Plenty) - Puy lentils with sour cherries, bacon and Gorgonzola. It's not an everyday sounding dish, but not one which demands the use of unusual ingredients that are hard to get a hold of.

Again, the write-up is rich with promise - "the sweet, sour and salty flavour...make a heady starter". All very enticing, and simple enough to make. But the end result just doesn't deliver. Interestingly this dish does not receive the glossy photograph treatment, perhaps because it doesn't look great - essentially a bowl of lentils with some blue cheese on top. The flavour? What you'd expect, sort of. You can taste everything, the lentils, the bacon, the sour cherries and the cheese. But I'm not convinced that they work together as a dish. I wouldn't cook it again, let's put it that way.