Raymond Blanc’s Kitchen Secrets, or as I like to call it: The Downfall of A-dam

I’ve been trying to pin down why it is that I, and everybody else I speak to, likes Raymond Blanc‘s Kitchen Secrets so much more than other cookery programmes of late. I’ve discovered that it’s that Kitchen Secrets has somehow transmogrified from a simple culinary show to a truly brilliant sitcom. A sitcom where Blanc is undoubtedly the star. In fact, the only thing missing is the laughter track.

The Spice Club – Manchester’s First Underground Restaurant

Despite having only posted for the first time in months on Saturday, it was actually the previous Saturday night  that marked the return of this buttery blogger, at Manchester’s first underground restaurant: The Spice Club.  I was sent, rather excitingly, to a secret location at 7.30pm.  I was like a spy on a mission, albeit a hungry spy on a mission to seek out food.  My brief: to review Monica Sawhney’s ‘The Spice Club’ for Taste of Manchester.

I’ve been longing to go to a supper club, underground restaurant, call it what you will (I prefer ‘Secret Scrannery’, myself), ever since Jamie Oliver gawped, open-mouthed on his first visit to one in New York. 

My dear readers, I was not disappointed! 

Read my review of The Spice Club, here.

Food & Films – how to make perfect Cinema-Style Popcorn

Yes, films.  Not ‘movies’.   Films.

I’m a film-lover, though not quite a film buff.  I know who Mark Kermode is and how he styles his hair.  I saw Pan’s Labyrinth, before it was cool to know del Toro and agree whole-heartedly that Sex in the City is a pile of shit.

Best film so far this year? Aronofsky’s Black Swan,  for its pure insanity, being a film about ballet and ballerina’s insecurities (ex-ballerina here) Barbara Hershey’s eery performance, and for sheerly shitting me up.

Hang on a minute, I hear you cry, this is supposed to be a food blog and a post about food and films, not the other way around. It is. Honest. 

Bourbon Biscuit & Lemon Cheesecake

The Bourbon biscuit is a curious thing: visually it is a manly looking biscuit, sturdy even. Brown, uniform and embossed. To taste, it is overly sweet and yet slightly salty (as all biscuits should be in my eyes); the chocolate cream in the center couldn’t be any further removed from chocolate if it were to be made of wax (it could possibly made of wax, for all I know) and yet it is moronically moreish. In fact, the first thing I do with a Bourbon is to remove one of the two biscuit bricks and lick off the so-called ‘chocolate’ cement centre. Mm.

Vote Crumpet

Quite unexpectedly I have been nominated for the Dorset Cereal Little Blog Award this month.  If you’d like to vote for this little blog, please do so by clicking on the link below, or on the link to the right. Oh go on.




The un-birthday birthday cake. – The Gentleman’s Cake: Coffee & Walnut

What happens when the birthday boy can’t eat his cake? Easy. I eat it and it becomes my birthday cake. Only, it isn’t my birthday, so it’s my un-birthday birthday cake – hence the title of this post. 

Sweet Tooth Cupcakery & Milk Bar

 

Cupcakes. They’re American. I’m always dubious when a British independent business swathes itself in an American cloak. America is America, big and balshy, their service is overzealous and their portions are large. We Brits tend be reserved and languid, we’re about quaint tea rooms and polite, unobtrusive service and that is why I like it here. Of course I’m making sweeping generalisations, but Sweet Tooth Cupcakery and Milk Bar haven’t forgotten that they’re British doing American, thank goodness, and they seem to have the balance just right. 

Autumn: The Season Pies Were Made For – Steak & Ale Pie

Steak & Ale Pie

Every season has its culinary consort: winter has turkey and oranges, while spring provides lamb and broccoli and with summer comes strawberries, cucumbers and peaches.  Autumn then boasts pumpkins, squashes, berries and beef – all of which are the perfect ingredients for filling the humble pie.

There’s something about pie that always quietly suggests autumn. Succulent meat cosies up inside crisp pastry cases, a bit like us huddling indoors away from the cold.  Of course there’s the fillings too, all of which are in season in autumn: blackberry and apple, pumpkin, chicken and leek, pecan, rabbit and my favourite, beef (with ale – available all year round, fortunately).  

It being autumn, and cold enough to ditch the extra jumper we’ve all been making-do with and finally being able to justify putting the heating on, it’s time to make and eat pies. So instead of lolling around anticipating the winter blues, embrace the cold weather. Come indoors, take off your woolly hat and make a pie. How about this Steak & Ale pie, with a short crust pastry case, for starters?

Nearly the best tomato soup…

Alas I have picked the last of this season’s tomatoes today. They have come, since July, in all shapes and sizes and their colouring has ranged from ruby to vermilion, to orange, to a bucket load of sun-yellow fruits.  Being positioned in a north-west facing yard, I was surprised to have grown anything at all, but the tomato plants that I grew in hanging baskets and pots did well – no, mum, I didn’t sing to them, sorry!

It’s a berry nice area, actually – Blackberry & Elderberry Jam & an Oaty Crumble

Blackberry & Elderberry Jam

Not only do we have a community orchard, but sidle down any of the walkways around East Manchester and amongst the discarded mattresses, tyres and plant pots you’ll be amazed at what you can find.