Tag: chocolate

The Red Lion, Thurgarton

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Sitting somewhere between the midst and the aftermath of a global pandemic, there isn’t a huge amount to get excited about right now, but being back in a world where it’s (more or less) socially acceptable to go out to eat again is definitely something to be grateful for. 

The closure of bars and restaurants during the past few months has been a shock to the system, but it’s the closure of local, small town and village pubs that has really hit home for many. Such pubs, unique to us here in the UK and Ireland, are often community hubs, bringing together locals, and offering both spontaneous and ritualistic escapes from home and working life.

Finding a good village pub isn’t as straightforward as it might sound. If you’re not local, they may be slightly out of your way, meaning taxis or designated drivers are required, then you’re looking for a warm, friendly and comfortable environment, and finally, a solid menu. Chain pubs’ generic menus featuring microwaved curries and reheated brownies just won’t cut it – I want unique dishes, cooked from scratch, menus having been designed by chefs and managers who care about the produce they’re working with, and the plates they’re serving up. 

Running out of certain dishes and ingredients is always a good sign, as is having to wait a while for your food, and it’s for all these reasons that The Red Lion in Thurgarton, Nottinghamshire, was the perfect, homely, post-lockdown pub outing.

New social distancing measures mean that like all other pubs, bars and restaurants, its layout has had to change quite drastically, reducing the number of tables, and therefore eliminating that busy, intimate feel that you’ll generally find within pubs. But despite this, the tables that remained were full, with people also taking full advantage of outdoor seating.

Having browsed the menu beforehand, I knew it was going to be a 3-course meal kind of visit, and I’m often drawn to dishes on menus that stand out as being different, and therefore I try to avoid having staple favourites. Up until recently, cauliflower was a mystery to me – bland-tasting and ugly, I couldn’t understand how anyone could enjoy it, but as times change, I’ve definitely grown more of an appreciation for it, and so the cauliflower velouté starter was calling out to me.

The first few mouthfuls tasted surprisingly sweet, and took a moment to adjust to, but the smooth, velveteen texture was a real treat, enhanced by a delicious drizzle of curry oil and a crunchy bhaji to top it off. The portion was pretty immense – had I been cooking at home, this would’ve been my entire dinner, and so half the portion size would’ve meant more room to comfortably enjoy my main and dessert.

After spending some time going back and forth between a steak with blue cheese sauce or pork tenderloin for my main, fortunately this was decided for me when I learned the blue cheese sauce was unavailable. I’m sure this decision worked out for the best as the pork tenderloin was beautifully cooked.

With the slightest hint of pink within, it was soft and delicate, and could’ve held its own without a single sauce or garnish elsewhere on the plate. Having said that, the sauces and garnishes were great additions, particularly the creamy celeriac purée and caramelised apples, and the tenderstem broccoli added a flash of green to what otherwise would’ve been a pretty neutral-beige plate. The only part of the dish that I questioned was the black pudding purée; I’m a huge fan of black pudding and love the flavours, however, for me, as a purée it was just a little too thick and claggy. The black pudding was definitely still worthwhile, but perhaps would’ve worked better in another form, whether sliced, or as a crumb.

Finally came dessert. Having seen pictures of The Red Lion’s desserts online and on social media, I loved the high-end, fancy feel that they had to them. Still a strong portion size but with huge amounts of attention to detail, which ultimately created a beautiful-looking dish like the one below. 

This is a chocolate ganache with popcorn, cookie and cherry sauce, and it was this unusual combination of treats that intrigued me. Combining ganache, popcorn and a cookie sounds like it could end up quite a clunky, inelegant dish, but it was quite the opposite. To be honest I’m not sure the popcorn or cookie added anything flavour-wise, however they both enhanced the appearance and texture of the dish. The ganache itself was incredibly rich, but this was balanced by the beautifully sharp, deep red cherry sauce. I’ve never come across a dessert like this before on a menu, and its this kind of inventiveness that really excites me.

Realistically, you aren’t going to accidentally stumble across village pubs like The Red Lion without prior knowledge or recommendations, but hopefully that’s where I come in. It’s great to give the big chains, and packed city restaurants a miss for once, and head somewhere that local or not, really appreciates your business, and puts a lot of heart into the food they produce. Based on the food alone, The Red Lion can certainly be described as a gastropub, but one that is unpretentious and welcoming.

Visit them at:

Southwell Road, Thurgarton, Nottingham, NG14 7GP 

 www.redlionthurgarton.co.uk

¡Comemos!

xo

The party you’ll never want to leave

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When I first moved to London just over a year ago, there was one place that I was immediately desperate to try.

Feasting my eyes on London’s foodie scene via Instagram, photos of colourful, innovative, incredible looking pie slices kept appearing week after week.

Those pies were dreamt up and brought to life by Claire Connor, the founder of A Pie Party (@apieparty Instagram), London’s most exciting dessert street food stall.

Claire now runs her dessert business full-time, working hard baking around the clock and coming up with new and exciting recipes that taste amazing and look equally as impressive. As a self-taught baker, Claire has perfected her pie pastry, and so with that solid foundation in place, she can experiment with a number of different flavours and concepts, many of which you’ll find out more about below.

It actually took me quite a few months before I finally ventured to Victoria Park Market in Bethnal Green where A Pie Party has been trading every Sunday for a while back, and the first time I went I naively arrived in the afternoon about an hour before closing, when most of Claire’s creations had sold out. The only thing I could get my hands on was the apple pie, with its generous filling and sweet, cinnamon taste.

I definitely learnt my lesson though, and every time since I’ve been there just after opening at 10, ready to get my hands on the goods.

Not only can you indulge in incredible pies, but A Pie Party also offers other desserts and treats such as cookies, brownies and Rocky Road. One of my favourite is the chocolate chip walnut cookie – possibly one of the biggest you’ve ever seen, but absolutely delicious.

A Pie Party’s second cookie, the Nutella filled chocolate hazelnut one is equally as ginormous as the choc chip and walnut. Only this one goes one step further – it is filled with Nutella. If you can’t finish this yourself, you should be ashamed. It is not for sharing.

A recent variation sees the same cookie filled with Black Milk Cereal’s Kinderella hazelnut cream. I liked the cream, but it didn’t ooze out in the same way as the Nutella, and there wasn’t quite as much packed inside. Still worth trying nonetheless.

One of the regulars that can be found on the stall is the blueberry pie. If you’re not in the mood for a super-indulgent chocolate treat, this fruity option could be the one for you. The blueberry topping is sharp and tangy, and the crumble topping adds a bit of a crunch to contrast the soft berries.

Rocky Road lovers are in luck as you can get your hands on both dark and white chocolate rocky road. I tried both of these in summer, and I couldn’t get enough of them when they’d started to melt slightly and go gooey in the heat. The white one looks beautiful but I surprisingly preferred the dark chocolate one. Would be handy if I were able to dislocate my jaw in order to get this giant slab of heaven in my mouth but sadly, small nibbly bites are the only way.

The chocolate chip brownie is equally as gooey. I really don’t understand the absolute animals who content themselves with dry, hard brownies, when you could devour a fudgey, creamy one. A much more manageable slab than the Rocky Road, this is one for all brownie connoisseurs.

A hugely popular special was the Cookie Dough Cheesecake Pie. One of the things I love about A Pie Party is the combining of different desserts in one – as in, cookie dough / cheesecake / pie. Those three together already sound like a dream. This one was flavoured with vanilla and so the cheesecake filling was very sweet, but in a good way, and the cookie dough ball on top was delicious.

A surprising favourite of mine was the Peanut Blondie Pie. I have resisted peanuts for years and years, always complaining that I didn’t like them, but Claire’s desserts have a strange power over me whereby I’m desperate to try everything despite them including ingredients/foods that I supposedly dislike. And I’m so glad I did give into this one. The blondie base was delicious and the peanut flavour noticeable but not overwhelming.

Next up are two staples that have been firm favourites on the menu for a while. Firstly the Biscoff Browie Pie, definitely a crowdpleaser, considering how long it’s been around. It has a gooey, fudgey base with a Biscoff crumb on top and is utterly indulgent.

The other, is a slightly more recent addition, but one that doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. The Bourbon Pecan Pie is completely different to anything else Claire has done. The base and pecans are sticky and sweet, and the whisky adds a complementary flavour that isn’t too intense (and that’s coming from someone who’s not a huge fan of alcohol-flavoured desserts).

A summer special that looked as good as it tasted was the Funfetti Birthday Cake Pie. Another dessert hybrid – birthday cake / cheesecake / pie, this one was up there with the best. The funfetti sprinkles added a prettiness to its appearance and the sponge base on top of the pastry was unique.

A Pie Party made an appearance at this year’s London Brunch Fest too, and you may have seen the exclusive pie featured on my blog post about the event. This special was a Bounty Coconut Pie, and I loved it. Sadly there are many people in this world who do not understand the true value of the Bounty, and often leave them untouched at the bottom of the Celebrations tub. But they are fools. Bountys are delicious, and what could be better than a creamy, coconutty brownie-based pie topped with one.

I’ll leave you with my all-time favourite to salivate over – the Toffee Popcorn Pie. This was one of the greatest desserts I’ve ever had; chocolate chip blondie base with toffee popcorn topping and chocolate drizzle sauce. I hope Claire brings this one back as it was incredible.

There is nothing formulaic about Claire’s desserts and that’s part of what I love. Yes, she has perfected her pie pastry, but every other element of the pies is entirely unpredictable. What will top the pastry next time? Sponge? Brownie? Blondie?

Her inventive, imaginative creations really do live up to the Instagram hype, but you know what? Social media hype isn’t enough. Yes, like the photos, react to the stories, but also get yourself down there to try for yourselves. You can get your hands on A Pie Party treats at Canopy Market, Kings Cross Friday-Sunday, Victoria Park Market every Sunday and Greenwich Market every Saturday-Sunday. If you live in the Battersea area, you’ll also find her on Deliveroo.

There is one last thing before I sign off…

Claire’s stall is wonderful, but what would be even better, is a permanent location in London where you could treat yourself to these slices of heaven everyday. A crowdfunding project is underway to raise the funds to open ‘London’s first pie bar’, serving sweet treats by day and cocktails by night. This would also allow Claire to expand her menu, offering things like ice cream sundaes which just aren’t possible on the market stalls.

This can only happen with the support of those who believe in the project. A small amount donated by lots of people could make all the difference, but time is running out. If you would love to support this small business and give it a shot at transforming London’s dessert scene, then head to: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/londons-first-pie-bar/comments#start to donate.

This campaign really needs our support, no matter how little you may be able to offer.

To see loads more of these original pies, that I haven’t been lucky enough to try yet, head to @apieparty on Instagram for droolworthy content. Follow this up with a visit to the stall and…

¡Comemos!

xo

Kitchen Therapy

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Everyone has shit days. Some of us combat that with a nice, long bath. Some go for walks, inhaling the fresh air. Others just curl up in bed.

All I want to do is bake. It’s what makes me happiest and is the perfect distraction.

Yesterday afternoon I went a bit mad and decided to complete 9 bakes one after the other. I don’t think I initially realised that this was going to take me a solid 7 hours from 4.30pm to 11.30pm, and had I known, I might’ve stopped myself, but sometimes not knowing what you’re getting yourself into is a blessing in disguise. After all that hard work, you reap the rewards – in my case, staring at 9 delicious sweet and savoury treats, ready to feed to everyone around me.

My supermarket run was slightly OTT and this isn’t including the ingredients that I already had at home. Does 5 packets of ready rolled puff pastry seem slightly excessive?

Bake number 1 was a BBC Good Food recipe for naan bread – something that I can easily freeze ready to defrost as a tasty side dish later down the line. The dough seemed to go to plan, and seeing it grow in size was incredibly satisfying.

I still can’t really believe how easy the naan was to make. Simple ingredients mixed together into a dough and kneaded and then dry fried and rubbed with butter. They smelt amazing, and looked exactly as they would from a restaurant or supermarket.

The nigella seeds give a really subtle yet tasty flavour, and these were softer than any naan I’ve ever had before ( and that was the day after they were baked). I highly recommend trying this recipe out yourself so you, too, can marvel at how surprisingly straightforward it is!

Next up we have a semi-failure. I tried a recipe from Nadiya Hussein’s new cookbook ‘Time To Eat’ and was aiming for a Banana Tarte Tatin with Malai Ice Cream. Let’s have a look at how it went down…

So not a complete disaster! The caramel was the main issue. It didn’t quite come out right (to be fair I’ve never tried to make it before…), and it saturated the puff pastry base with its seeping syrup. In terms of flavour I loved it, the bananas were tasty, the caramel was delicious and the chopped hazelnuts were a worthwhile addition.

The ice cream fuck-up, however, was most definitely my fault. I’d forgotten that the point was to whip the cream so when I ran out of cream I added some greek yoghurt as a substitute. This then meant that it wouldn’t actually whip to the point of forming soft peaks, but I decided to freeze it anyway and see what happened. It has set to an extent, and actually tastes lovely with its hint of cardamom, but it’s not quite what I’d call ice cream.

Moving on to one of my favourite images of the 7 hour bake. Another BBC Good Food recipe and this one’s for mozzarella stuffed crust pizza, to which I chose to add chorizo and basil. Like the naan, the dough was really easy to make, although it didn’t puff up like the naan. It was quite tricky to try and seal the edges of the crust to hold the mozzarella in but these seemed to stick down once they were baked.

Not quite as photogenic once baked, but it is all about the taste really. More mozzarella and less tomato would’ve been good but the dough was so fluffy and delicious. The mozzarella in the crust seemed to disappear slightly so I’d pack that in a bit more if I were to bake it again.

Switching right back to sweet, and returning to Nadiya, we have the choc bar puffs. Simply put, a square of chocolate encased in puff pastry and sprinkled with cocoa powder. There really isn’t anything more to it than that. Super quick to make and couldn’t be any easier.

They were really tasty, but nothing mind-blowing.

Now on to one of my absolute favourite bakes. We’re sticking with Nadiya (because she is wonderful) and it’s her meatloaf roll. Inside we have beef/pork mince with hard boiled eggs lined up throughout and all that wrapped up in puff pastry.

Cutting through the crisp pastry to see the eggs perfectly lining the centre was so unbelievably satisfying. Not only that but the flavour was beautiful. Before wrapping the whole thing up, the pastry is painted with slightly diluted marmite – I only tried marmite for the first time last week and found it very odd-tasting, but the watered-down flavour brushed onto the pastry tastes amazing, and you’d never know what it was.

We now come to one of the ugliest bakes of the evening but by no means the worst-tasting. This BBC Good Food recipe was slightly dodgy in terms of making the pastry from scratch (or it’s just me…) but the filling was beautiful. Ignoring the burnt, mismatched crust, the centre of the pie stayed wobbly and gooey. It is ridiculously indulgent but such a delicious treat – so delicious (I hope) that a lovely user from the Olio App (anti-food waste app) came to collect half of it to take home for himself.

Can you believe I’m still going at this point? No? Me neither, but we’ve only got 3 left. And this one was cute. I love Le Creuset kitchenware, and I also love anything miniature so this tiny individual dish has always been a favourite of mine. I used it to create a BBC Good Food Pork, Apricot and Pistachio Pie. I have to admit, this is the only thing I haven’t yet tried, and it’ll be my dinner this evening, but it did smell wonderful. I love the combination or pork, apricot and pistachio, with the sweet dried fruit and crunchy nut combo. I have confidence that it’s going to be a very enjoyable meal…

Penultimate dish! We’re going all out now with triple chocolate cookies, dark, milk and white all in one. Now these were supposed to be gooey, but they struggled to set at all with the quantities of ingredients the recipe suggested, so whilst they are delicious, they’re pretty messy and fall apart quite easily.

……………………………………………..

Picture this. It’s half 11, I’ve been on my feet rushing around for 7 hours, the kitchen looks like a bombsite, and 7 hours of cooking has produced sweltering heat. Then finally, I take my last bake from the oven, I wait patiently for it to cool, before topping it with buttercream and the honeycomb I’d made 6 hours earlier.

The absolute relief. The satisfaction. The pride. I felt everything. I was excited and couldn’t really believe what I’d just done. And the last one was pretty good to be fair…

We’re finishing back with Nadiya, but this is from her earlier cookbook, ‘Nadiya’s Family Favourites’. It’s a banana sponge with peanut buttercream and honeycomb. The honeycomb struggled to set properly so it’s sort of improvised but still tastes good.

This is one of the lightest, most moist sponges I’ve ever managed to make and that’s impressive considering by this point my scales had had enough and would no longer even turn on. I therefore had to guesstimate all the quantities but looks like I got it pretty spot on.

I did then, suddenly find myself looking round the room thinking ‘What on earth have I just done?’. But I felt good, I felt productive, and I had well and truly taken my mind off of the less pleasant things that I had to think about.

Whatever works for you, find it and run with it. When you have a bad day, throw yourself into whatever makes you happy, whatever calms you, whether it’s active, indulgent or just plain lazy.

The kitchen is my therapy. What’s yours?

¡Comemos!

xo