Sour Dough Journey Begins

So I decided to get back into making bread recently, I have never tried sour dough bread but thought it would be as good a time as any to have a go at it myself. So it all begins with creating your own starter, after lots of reading and researching I came up with the following recipe

In a large plastic container weigh out 200g of strong white flour and then stir in 200ml of warm water, keep stirring until well combined. It then needs to be left out somewhere warm so that it can catch airborne yeast. I really did not believe that this was possible and it took 2 days before you really start to see bubbles appearing on the surface.

Each day you need to feed the starter with equal amounts of strong white flour and warm water, I used 100g of each every day for 9 days

After about 5 days I used water that I had soaked crushed red grapes in for over 24 hours, when I added this, the next morning the air bubbles and growth was amazing. I continue to do this every other week 

Many recipes I have seen say about throwing away half the starter when you feed, I have never done this yet and just continue to feed my starter weekly 2-3 days before I need it for a recipe

When not using my starter I leave in the fridge un-fed till I need it, the longest it has sat without being fed is 3 weeks, it soon comes back to life after just one feed.

Keep an eye out for my recipes using sour dough starter

Paella in the Sun

Late October cooking in the Spanish sun, gorgeous paella cooked for family and friends. i love cooking this dish it's so easy, great theatre cooking, eats so well with a jug of sangria

Weights are approx as I rarely weigh anything for recipes

Recipe
olive oil 300ml
2 diced onions and 6 cloves garlic
tinned chopped tomatoes
chorizo 200g
mixed peppers 1 of each red and green
green beans 200g
squid 200g
prawns (shell-on) 500g
mussels 1000g
tuna 300g
salmon 300g
chicken thighs and drumsticks 750g
paella rice 5-6 portions
paella seasoning 15-20g
pimenton Dulce 10g
fish stock 1 litre
chicken stock 1 litre
white wine 200ml
lemons 2

Method - Total cooking time approx 45-60 minutes, serves 6-8

1. heat large pan, i use a large paella pan but this also works with any large frying pan, but you will need a deep one
2.  once heated add oil to pan and then add chopped garlic and onions to pan, cook for a few minutes over medium heat without colouring
3. whilst onions are cooking in middle of pan, add chicken pieces to the sides of pan and cook on each side to colour
4. add chopped tomatoes on top of onions and then spread out over pan, stir every 30 seconds and continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes
5. spread onion mix to sides of the pan, add sliced squid to pan with sliced peppers and green beans (sliced on an angle), continue to cook for another 2-3 minutes
6. add the diced salmon and tuna to pan, mix together well and cook for another 2-3 minutes
7. meanwhile heat some oil in another pan and once heated add prawns and cook on both sides, as you do the first turn of prawns, add the mussels to pan followed by the wine. top pan with a lid and cook until mussels have opened. discard any that do not open. remove from heat and keep warm.
8. back to the main pan and now you want to add the paella rice, seasoning mix and pimenton Dulce, stir the rice and all other ingredients together, cook for approx 2 minutes
9. add both fish and chicken stock until all ingredients are completely covered, reduce the heat and continue to cook
10. DO NOT STIR PAN FROM THIS POINT FORWARD
11. as stock reduces you may need to add more stock and keep reducing the liquid until the rice is cooked through, i like to leave mine al dente
12. as the liquor is reducing and after about 20 minutes add the cut lemon wedges to pan and then start to place the mussels and prawns on to the top of the rice
13. once cooked you can add fresh chopped parsley and coriander to pan

You will be tempted to stir the pan whilst it is cooking, but please resist the urge to do this, the idea is for a base layer on the pan to catch and slightly burn, this helps to protect the rest of the dish and creates the much-loved burnt bits known as “socarrat” by paella aficionados

Prawns and mussels can also be added directly to the pan raw and cooked with the rest of the dish, if you do this add them approx 5 minutes after adding the stock

Serve with chunks of fresh warm bread and salad

Aioli stirred in to the paella is also a very tasty addition

Review Guy's American Kitchen and Bar New York

Service just does not exist, left for over 20 minutes before even a drink order was taken, then waited another 20 minutes for someone to come and take my food order, site was not even that busy!!


Food order was eventually taken some 40 minutes after being seated. If i had not been on holiday or so knackered i would have walked out long before this and gone elsewhere.

When my meal was finally delivered, everything came at the same time 2 appetizers and main course no rest, no break, no check back, rush them in rush them out and just count the dollars, such a shame when the food is so good, really ruins your night. Would not take the burger away and let me eat appetizers in peace. Dreadful customer service all round.


Somewhere not to return! Come on Guy make the whole experience worth while or repeat business will just fall away


The only saving grace for you was the joyful guy on the door, who sees you in what a character !!

Review Barbecoa - London

Second visit here and had I been paying I would have been very annoyed

Arrived nice and early for drinks in the bat, Virgin Mary very spicy but good, all wine very good. We sat about 30 minutes late as one of the party was late.

Pork scratchings and smoked nuts tried in bar, both ok although scratching needed salt

Orders taken all ok so far, pre meal bites ie breads delivered after starters not my idea of a pre lunch bite

Sweetbread starter very poor sauce too sweet and sweetbreads were tough
Pâté very good
Crab salad seen better in seaside restaurant this just looked like a plate of mess
Chicken wings and ribs all ok

Chateaubriand tender but absolute no taste, same for fillets, T-bone steak no better

All steaks were either over or under cooked, if they truly are aged then someone is doing it wrong because there was nothing different with these steaks than a standard supermarket one

Sides very poor- mac cheese no cheese and no sauce, mushrooms awful,Brussels sprouts even worse

Come on Jamie If you are selling yourself on the best steaks in London you have to do better than this- aged I am not so sure and if they are then they don't taste like it

You can get better for a lot cheaper

Katz Deli - Long waited dream visit!

Finally after many years of wanting too made it to New York, landed found hotel and went straight to Katz's Deli

Self service restaurant queue up order what you want at various food stations, see it all made in front of you, collect then go and enjoy. There are also some waited on tables

So worth the wait, not cheap but not too expensive although I did manage to pend over 50 dollars after my first visit, one soup, salt beef (corned beef) sandwich, pastrami sandwich, sides of pickles.

You could not go hungry here, look at the pictures, see the stack of meat wow I was in heaven, I looked over my shoulder to see a picture of Adam from man versus food, I think I did him proud.

Met the owner who also posed for picture and told me all about their practices, could not get better.

So good had to return before I left for home

Norma's @hotel meridian in New York

So much choice on the menu, this is one place to visit if you find yourself looking for a great breakfast joint

Very busy so expect quite a wait for a table close to an hour for me but it was worth it

Perfect fresh squeezed Orange juice, a free taster smoothie, very good

So many things tempted me, however one look around the diner and seeing the plate sizes I had to opt for one meal and not two, those hat have already seen my NY posts will know this came on the back of 4days of non stop eating.

My choice made banana and macadamia nut flapjacks with whipped brown sugar, looked scrummy tasted even better! I wish someone could shared with me then I could have tried so much more!!!!

Sandwich test

Lunch gets better

Seeded roll filled with sautéed mushroom and onions with Cajun spice and ground porcini mushroom powder, a great little find, this sauté mix sitting on washed watercress and spinach.

Then topped with warm roasted beef soaked in rich red wine gravy with horseradish and mustard, finally topped with shaved Gouda cheese

Eat as good as it looks!

Ice cream experiments

So been playing around trying to find best recipe for base, so far more custard to cream ratio seems to deliver the best results

Fresh shop bought ice cream or homemade is also better, as is using a thick double cream or even better clotted cream

Recipes so far:

Chocolate flavour, chocolate coated raisins, popping candy and pistachio

Banana based with marshmallows, honey roasted nuts and fresh strawberries

Vanilla based, popping candy, skittles and dried cranberries

Sorbets also work well, Cointreau and lemon sorbets tried so far

It's the base recipe I am still working on, will keep you posted

Cuisinart ice cream maker

Arrived today so let the experiments begin