JamiesItalian - Bon Appetito

We had been watching the hoardings with great interest in St Albans, the ones around The Old Bell pub saying that Jamie'sItalian restaurant was coming soon. The scheduled opening was Sunday 5th February 2012 but I was fortunate enough to be able to attend one of the preview sessions for lunch the day before.  We paid for our meals but were given a 50% discount on the food since these preview sessions help the staff with their training. I asked my friend Ren Behan (a blogger with a great blog Fabulicious Food) to join me and we met at 1:00 pm ready for the Jamie experience.

I hadn't been to any other of Jamie Oliver's restaurants so I didn't have any pre-conceived ideas to cloud my judgement in any way.  I had never been inside the The Old Bell when it was a pub but have been told it was quite dark inside.

Jamie's Italian in St Albans is light and airy inside with plenty of tables (I believe it has about 160 covers) and the pace was fast and furious.  This was a training day which gives the staff a chance to go through their paces in readiness for the official opening.  They had similar sessions the couple of days before hand and Genarro Contaldo attended and even Jamie Oliver made a surprise visit on Friday. Too bad we missed him - it would have been lovely to meet.
Our waiter, Andy, was very keen and very knowlegable about the menu and the different ingredients and their origins.  We made our choices and sat back to take in the atmosphere.There was lots going on around us and all tables seemed to be full.  I liked the antipasto bar where all the starters are prepared underneath the high hanging hams and salamis.

We decided to have a carafe of house wine - a delightful and crisp chardonnay and proceeded to make our order.  I have never been that good at choice so it did take me a while to decide. 

Ren was quite keen to try the Bufatta Mozarella - this is made in one small village in Italy and has become so popular with chefs that the village is now struggling to keep up production!

I chose the crispy squid which is one of my favourites.  I must say that although the taste was good, it was not really that crispy.

On the main course menu I felt that chilli and lemon featured very strongly - I had the pasta with prochutto and lemon (I do love lemon which was handy) and it tasted fantastic but a bit dry for my liking.  I do like a bit of sauce.

Ren had the meatballs, which again was a bit dry for my preference but the taste and texture were both lovely.

We were feeling quite full up but thought for research purposed we should have pudding (that is my excuse anyway).  Ren had the chocolate brownie which was loaded with sauce, amaretti biscuits and fruit with a very nice home made vanilla ice cream.  ( I alway try the vanilla ice cream feeling that if they can get that right they can make any flavour!)

My pudding was a sort of Bakewell with peaches and a dollop of cream on top.  It was a lovely sponge pudding on a light base with a faint layer of jam.  There were large pieces of pieces of peach scattered through out and a good portion size.  I like to have something sweet but often it is too large and I end up eating it for the sake of it.

The overall presentation of the dishes was well presented and thought out.  We were very keen to look at the meals at the tables around us as well to get a better idea what was on offer.
The staff were keen to help but the overall service was quite slow.  I think however that you have to be a tad patient as this was a training effort.  I would hope that they tighten up on the service once they get into full swing.

Postscript: My friend Mandy went to the restaurant a week after the official opening and agreed with me that the food was lovely but said that the service was interminably slow.  Mandy said she had been talking to the waiter (who by description I think was Andy) and he said that they had two chefs walk out in the first week which is not a good thing.

I will go there again and look forward to some lovely food and hopefully better service!

That's a Different Kettle of Fish!

I used to think about buying fish for dinner but I would change my mind at the last minute, at the fish counter because I was afraid that when I got the fish home I wouldn't really know what to do with it. I hate bones in fish and preparing it at home meant the chances of getting a bone in your mouth was much greater!

I tend to order fish in a restaurant or on holiday to avoid the 'how shall I cook it' syndrome so when I joined Fish Fanatics and was offered by www.fishisthedish.co.uk to be sent some fish and a recipe I was rather nervous to say the least. The package of fish arrived last Thursday and was wild Scottosh haddock fillets (relief I didn't have to play with any bones) provided by Delishfish from Peterhead in Scotland (www.delishfish.co.uk) and a recipe for 'Shallow Fried haddock with French Beans' The fillets were vacuum packed for freshness and when opened smelled lovely and fresh and had not been previously frozen so the extra ones could go straignt into the freezer, and I have to say the recipe was fairly short and looked easy with only a handful of ingredients.

As it happened, my daughter Caroline and 2 1/2 year old grandson were coming to visit on Thursday for the weekend and Caroline loves fish but as her husband doesn't like it at all she is resigned to ordering it in a restaurant or holiday as well. If she visits in the summer I do try to get some fish for her to BBQ as a treat. So armed with recipe and haddock fillets I got to work making supper on Thursday night.

Shallow Fried Haddock with French Beans
(Recipe provided by Chef Allan Pickett, Head Chef, The Plateau Restaurant in London)
Serves 4
Prep time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 15 minutes

Ingredients:
1 or 2 haddock fillet per person (depending on size - ours were quite large so we had 1 each)
French Beans
80g butter
10g chopped almonds
20g plain flour for dusting fillets
1 Tbsp vegetable/sunflower oil

How do you do it?
1. Cook your French beans in boiling water and set aside.

2. Dust the fillets of haddock in flour.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan and shallow fry the fillets, you will see the flesh turn to opaque as it cooks, take it out and keep warm on a plate while you do the next part.

3. Add in the butter and allow to brown in the pan slightly then add your cooked French beans (chopped in half) and the almonds.

4. Put the haddock on a plate and spoon over the butter, almonds and French beans.

5. Add a lemon wedge to garnish.

6. Serve with boiled or roast potatoes (sprinkle some chopped corriander on top of the potatoes)

I was really pleased and surprised how easy it was to make this recipe and how tasty as well. I am looking forward to my next fish challenge. If you want to know more about 'Fish Fanatics' and 'Fish is the dish' (www.fishisthedish.co.uk) you can also find them on Twitter (@fishisthedish) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/fishisthedish)

Time to slow down!

Time to slow down!!

With a slow cooker that is.  I had a large piece of silverside beef in the freezer and wanted to make it for supper on Sunday night.  Because I was showing my products (My Secret Kitchen – www.mysecretkitchen.co.uk) at Woolmer Green Farmers Market on Sunday morning I wanted to get the dinner underway and cooking whilst I was out.

I defrosted the beef, rolled it in Lemon & Chipotle Sea Salt from My Secret Kitchen and browned it on all sides.  I put it in the slow cooker with about 3 Tbs water, put on the lid and went off for the morning.  I got home, tested the meat and left it cooking for the rest of the afternoon.  The beauty of the slow cooker is that you can just get on with your day and have a lovely result when you are ready.

When I got a minute I par boiled some potatoes and parsnips and put them into the oven with a little sunflower oil (on my Pampered Chef stoneware – www.pamperedchef.biz/partieswithHeidi) and when they were roasted to perfection served them with the beef (which just fell apart and all the great taste was preserved) and some sliced runner beans that were in the freezer from my father-in-law’s summer garden.  An effortless meal that was absolutely delicious. Result!! 

The Spices of Life

This year I intend to try to spice up my cooking and with the help of Schwartz (www.schwartz.co.uk) I plan to do just that.  Schwartz have a new range of recipe inspiration kits out now, in major supermarkets, and each kit has a recipe and all the spices in little pods that you will need to make the meal.  Schwartz sent me the range of their new kits to try and last night I made the Rosemary Roasted Chicken & Potatoes.

I resisted the urge to add a little here and there and made the recipe up according to the recipe card (cut-out-n-keep) and it was easy to follow.  On the back of the pack you are told what is included and what you will need to get.  I just had to buy the chicken thighs and baby potatoes as I already had the oil, honey, salt and onion in the kitchen.

I used my Pampered Chef Rectangular Stoneware Baker to cook the recipe (www.pamperedchef.biz/partieswithheidi) but it would work equally well in the Pampered Chef Covered Baker or any ovenproof tray or stoneware.

The total cooking time was just over 60 minutes and well worth the wait.  The full recipe is for 4 servings so Clive and I had it for brunch this morning too!! It re-heated very nicely and in fact benefited from the overnight keeping.

I served the dinner with a mixed salad with blue cheese dressing and a glass of dry white wine.

I will definitely be trying the other three recipe inspiration kits in the new range: Beef & Beer Stew with Herb Dumplings, Creamy Pan-fried Pork with Apple & Sage and the one I am looking forward to trying next Tray-baked Piri Piri Chicken. Who wants to come to my house for dinner?

Happy New Year

Well that is the end of another year and now we are at the exciting place of the first day of a new year.  Another chance to get it right, to wipe the slate of 2011 clean and really make a difference in 2012.

I want to say a big thank you to everyone who has read my blog and those who have commented on it too.  Hopefully 2012 will bring in more readers and lots more topics to discuss.  I had been very busy in the lead up to Christmas which meant the blogging slowed down a bit but there are lots of topics in the pipeline so please keep on reading and enjoying.

I got a new camera for Christmas from my husband so that the photos on the blog should be a much better quality (It even has a category for food photographing!).

Once again Happy New Year and please keep reading and pass on the link to your friends too.

Heidi

Spices - Sophie Grigson

The publishers Quadrille (www.quadrille.com) sent me this gorgeous book to review this week.  I have long been a fan of Sophie Grigson having watched her on TV and bought a couple of her books in the past so I was delighted to see her book Spices.  Sophie has written quite a few book on her favourite subject, cooking which is not surprising as she is the daughter of the late, great Jane Grigson who started the cooking revolution in the 70s.

This book is both a visual delight and an educational compilation.  Spices are found in just about every home across the globe and form part of the flavours and cooking of most cultures.  Each spice has its own flavours, evocative powers of memory to transport you straight back to food and occasions from your past.  A spice can mean childhood to one person and holidays to another.

In this book Sophie gives you a practical guide to the wealth of spices at our disposal and dedicates a chapter to each of the familiar spices and some not so well known.

The best way to become comfortable with spices is to experiment, using a little more each time to build to an intensity that you are satisfied with and that provide the desired results.  They are not intented to overpower but to enhance what you are preparing.

In this book Sophie Grigson takes you through exactly what is a spice, how to buy, store and use spices and then proceeds to educate the reader all about them.  The spices are grouped into aromatic, nutty, hot, warm and sweet and scented bitter & sour and blends

All the favourite members of many cupboards are there eg, cinnamon, corriander, cumin, poppy seeds and vanilla as well as the more unusual you may never have heard of or tried like fenugreek, sumac and kalonji.  There are also spice blends like garam masala, ras-el-hanout and za'atar.

Each chapter gives a history of the spice, some hints and tips and then follows with recipes that make your mouth water just reading them. For instance I read that each vanilla plant in Madagascar is pollinated by hand to get over the fact that the only insect that pollinates the vanilla plant lives only in Mexico where vanilla originally comes from.

With the colder weather on it's way I know that I will keep warm reading about and trying some of the spice recipes in Sophie Grigson's new book Spices.

Russell Hobbs

Tonight was originally supposed to be a bloggers event put on by (www.circle.com) Circle Beaconsfield for Russell Hobbs (www.Russellhobbs.com) in London and I was all geared up to go but it got cancelled for some reason.  I was going to include the two products I have been sent in by Russell Hobbs in the relevant blog so have decided to tell you about them now anyway.

I was looking to get a new hand mixer and saw the Russel Hobbs one used at a blog event in the summer so I asked them if I could try out theirs.  I really like it.  It is a good weight, some hand mixers are so light they don't feel like they have any power at all.  The one is from the new Allure range and is a pleasure to own.

It has removable beaters and dough hooks and 350w of power.  It has 6 speeds and an LCD screen with visual timer.  the instruction booklet that came with it was easy to read and understand and has quite a few easy, contemporary recipes with no frills.

The brushed chrome finish with black accents fits in really well in my kitchen (deor of cream, black and red).

They also sent me the new allure 2 in 1 salt and pepper grinder. It takes 4 x AA batteries which were not included but were easily installed and once installed you are ready to grind.  It has ceramic grinding heads with adjustable grinding size option.  It is also brushed chrome finish so matches the hand mixer beautifully.  The grinder system comes with a horizontal stand for storage.

I have however decided to put black pepper corns in the one end and My Secret Kitchen Szechuan Pepper Pot in the other.  In my house all salt grinders get clogged up due to condensation which is rather annoying.  This is a common result with salt grinders in our house.

I was hoping to view some more of the Allure range tonight but will just have to wait.