Archives for May 2011

Mini Bubble and Squeak

May 30, 2011 By All That I'm Eating

As one of those people who would rather sit down and pick at fifteen different dishes instead of a complete meal a BBQ is perfect for me. I wish I had the energy to create authentic Tapas on a regular basis but until then I am finding all sorts of little things to throw into the standard BBQ line up. Potatoes will always crop up in some form or other at a BBQ. Chips, baked, in salads, boiled and any other form you can find. I wanted something that hit the potato spot but that was also a little different; mini bubble and squeak. As usual, this dish is made from ingredients I get from my local farmers’ market. I call these mini bubble and squeak but call them potato cakes or what you will. They have potato, a hint of onion, a bit of earthy cabbage with a golden, crispy, salty outside and delicate white fluffy middle…what more could you want?

Ingredients

You will need (for 6-8 small potato cakes):

500g potatoes
Small bunch spring onions
Handful spring cabbage
Small handful chives
Salt and pepper
Butter for frying

Method

Start by peeling and then boiling the potatoes until soft. Drain the potatoes and leave them to cool. While they cool, chop the spring onions, cabbage (as much or as little as you like) and chives. I like to put the chive flowers in too if not just for the colour. Mash the potato, mix in all the other ingredients and season. Take small handfuls of the mixture, form into balls and then squash to make them flatter.

Heat some butter in a pan until foaming. If you want the outside golden and with the slight saltiness you must use butter, it’s just not the same with oil. I do add a little oil to stop the butter burning but not much. These little cakes like to soak the butter up so have some spare to dot around the pan. Place the cakes in the pan, you may have to do more than one batch, and wait until they are golden until you turn them over. Turn them too early and you might end up with a right mess.

They are done when they are golden brown enough for you. Keep the heat low/medium as you don’t want any burning before browning. A treat for a BBQ but great with anything else too.

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Forbury’s Restaurant and Wine Bar at Reading

May 23, 2011 By All That I'm Eating

I have spent much time wandering around Reading trying to find somewhere half decent to eat that wasn’t the London Street Brasserie. I feel like I exhausted the Brasserie a long time ago and if you’re wondering, they do fantastically good puddings. I wanted good food at a reasonable price and I found exactly that.

Forbury’s looks a bit pretentious from a distance but when you read the blackboard outside you’ll find you can have 3 courses for £14. For that price, you can’t complain! It’s a really airy, modern, light space with all these newfangled flower arrangements and the like but what they are truly about is wine. What I am truly not about is the waiter being so obviously uninterested in us when we declare that despite being in a wine bar we’d rather not have a glass of wine. He looked like he was about to vomit each time we raised our offensive soft drinks to our mouths.

There were so many tempting things on the menu I couldn’t decide what to have. I decided to start with Gazpacho. I’ve never had it before and thought that this would be the perfect place and time to do so. I was fully aware that it was a cold soup but despite this knowledge it was still a complete and utter surprise. It looks like tomato soup, it smells like tomato soup, they’ve given you a soup spoon but none of this prepares you for the first mouthful. It’s a strange and wonderful sensation and was lovely. Vibrant, fresh, clean and delicate Gazpacho is definitely something I will have again.

The main course was Spring vegetable risotto. I was craving asparagus, courgettes and peas and the risotto did not disappoint. It was exactly what I wanted although a bit more generosity with the Parmesan would have made it a little better. There was what looked like turf planted on top of the risotto but it turned out to be tarragon. Fortunately there wasn’t an abundance of it as too much aniseed can ruin a meal.

By this point I had consumed tomatoes, various green vegetables and a little rice. I was feeling a little bit well behaved, threw caution to the wind and ordered dessert. It was a bright mango parfait. Two very generous slabs were consumed with gusto. It seemed to have little pieces of toffee or honeycomb along with pistachio embedded in the parfait. This was surrounded by mango and raspberry coulis and raspberries themselves.

Things got a little weird at the end of the meal. The sun was shining, the birds were singing and tea and coffee was being enjoyed amidst much merriment. Suddenly this bubble was burst as, without warning, the bill was put on the side of the table. The bill had not been asked for. There are restaurants where I wish the bill would turn up as I’m so bored of waiting and trying my hardest to get the attention of the waiter. On this occasion, we were the only people in the restaurant and they couldn’t have made it more obvious they wanted us out.

I am very confused about this meal. Considering the meal was £14 for 3 courses I was pretty impressed and I’d love to go back and sample some of their A La Carte menu it all sounded incredible. However, the service did not match up to the food. If you’re in Reading and bored of the restaurants on the riverside, venture out a little. You’ll be surprised what you might find.

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Baked Asparagus with Bacon and Cheese

May 16, 2011 By All That I'm Eating

As asparagus is only around for a short time, it’s a good thing it’s so versatile. This is another recipe combining classic ingredients in a really easy, quick way. You will need a bunch of asparagus, 4 or 5 rashers of bacon and a good handful of strong cheese.

Start by placing the asparagus stem down in a pan of boiling water for 4-5 minutes. By placing them stem down the thicker, woodier stems are boiled while the fragile tops steam. While the asparagus boils, cut the bacon into pieces and fry. read more

Recipes – where do you keep yours?

May 4, 2011 By All That I'm Eating

A dear friend of mine bought me a blank recipe book for my birthday 4 years ago. She must have had foreknowledge of what was to come! It is a place for favourite recipes, creating new combinations and exploring ideas. Now, I have probably 4 pages that have not been written on but I’ll never buy a new one, I’ll just keep adding pages to this one. The book is severely thumbed but I think this makes it look well loved.

So where do we all keep our recipes? My recipe book has been written in by me, my Granny has filled in her favourite baking recipes and I have leaflets and clippings from so many places. Because of the various additions over the years and the different people who have contributed to it, this recipe book is inexplicably treasured. I also have many old cookery books, late 1890’s and onwards and things have not changed much. These old recipe books are full of newspaper cut outs and notes from the previous owner. I have one book from 1936 which belonged to a lady called Eileen. She has written in many recipes including lemon pie and ham soup. Some of the recipes have notes on top of the originals where amounts or methods have been changed.
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