Happy eats

Chef’s table, Bristol

I’ve often walked past this place over the years whilst in its catering company form with an enticing table display that one can see from outside. I always wondered what it would be like to eat in there if one could eat in there.

I’ll be gladly corrected but I only recently noticed during the recent Covid period that this place became a food serving bistro that is The Chef’s Table. As soon as I spotted it, I knew I had to find an excuse to go and try it.

And we did, as our first proper meal out since Covid started, and my expectations were more than exceeded.

Nestled in this unassuming corner of Avon Crescent by Underfall Yard is this intimate gem of an eaterie next to the Nova Scotia pub. Because of the Covid restrictions, they only had tables for 7 covers at a time with the kitchen in full plain view of the diners behind a glass partition. The menu was a seasonal feast which I understand changes every week with ingredients sourced from local producers.

As it was lunchtime, we opted for beers rather than wine. Serving a well selected choice of beers and ales from local breweries such as Moor beer in Bristol.

We had mixture of dishes from the printed menu and the specials, the latter of which proved to be very popular as we overheard they ran out of some of the specials.

We could see the freshly made trays of focaccia through the kitchen partition so of course we had to have some. The focaccia flaked and was still warm. You’re offered a choice of either light and dark balsamic to be added to your oil as a bread dip.

My mackerel was just rightly pickled and not too over powering. The creaminess of the crab meat potato salad complimented the fish beautifully. The lightly seared beef Thai salad had a beautifully balanced dressing. What can go wrong with a good old chicken liver parfait with crostini and onion relish which devoured in no time. We were particularly impressed that they actually provided you with sufficient pieces of crostini to go with your parfait so you didn’t have to end up eating the parfait on its on as you often do with this dish!

I learned that a rossini is a tower and a tower my fillet of beef certainly was! Topped with sauteed mushrooms and served on a bed of chicken liver pate and bread, the fillet of beef was beautifully seasoned and just cooked enough not to offend those that are medium beef eaters.

I was reliably informed that the cod and the chicken supreme were equally impressive based on the clean plates at the end of the meal.

The only criticism I would have of this place which are factors that a lot of modern restaurants suffer from are their acoustic and air flow. The minimalistic decor that is the trend, coupled with the intimate venue unfortunately made the dining room a cacophony of sounds and made it impossible to have conversations with your fellow diners without feeling like you’re shouting at each other. As the dining room filled with tables, the heat of the kitchen and the number of people in the dining room also made the restaurant feel rather stuffy towards the end of our meal. In a time when air flow is emphasised in indoor settings during this Covid landscape, it perhaps was not doing as well on this front but clearly this was a limitation on the property itself as it did not seem that any of the windows were capable of opening. Otherwise, we were made to feel very safe whilst on site with the lovely and friendly staff both donning their face masks and hand sanitisers were available for use.

All in all, I really enjoyed this our first proper meal out since Covid began and would return without hesitation.

🤤🤤🤤🤤

Happy eating!

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18/07/2018/07/20

Savoury loaf with pistachio, pancetta and prunes

I prefer savoury foods to sweet foods. So this is my go to recipe from Rachel Khoo‘s The Little Paris Kitchen for a savoury loaf. Perfect for tea time and goes down like a treat.

It’s a really easy recipe and do follow it and don’t over mix it otherwise it won’t rise much. One of the tips I have is once you’ve prepared the filling for your loaf, mix it with the flour mix and make sure any filling that is sticky, such as the prunes, are coated with flour to prevent them clumping together within the loaf.

The loaf can last about a week in airtight container but it probably won’t last that long!

You can also use different fillings, olives and parmesan work well.

Happy eating!

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09/07/2005/07/20

Larb moo – Thai spicy pork mince in lettuce leaf

A very simple and tasty dish – perfect on its own or with some rice.

This dish has a very distinctive flavour in the combination of lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar. Try it and you’ll see. It’s very moreish and you will be fighting over the last lettuce leaf to scoop up every fiery morsel.

The chilli is optional to be honest, make it as spicy or not as you like.

Have everything prepared before you start cooking the pork mince as it really doesn’t take long at all. This is definitely one of those dishes where it calls for a little fat in your pork mince if you can get it, I’m talking about choosing 10/20% fat rather than 2% fat pork mince. 500g should be comfortable for feeding two, you’ll wonder why you didn’t make more once you start…

Use the lettuce leaves as boats and spoon over that juicy pork.

See full receipe

Happy eating!!

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05/07/2005/07/20

Roast lamb shoulder joint with anchovies, garlic and capers

roast lamb, roast potatoes, carrots and suede

Can’t beat a good ole’ roast lamb on a Sunday. Also can’t go wrong with pairing anchovies, garlic and capers with lamb. So this recipe is for a stuffed lamb shoulder joint with the delicious anchovies stuffing.

boneless lamb shoulder, anchovies, garlic and capers

I used a boneless lamb shoulder joint but you can also debone your own (lamb) shoulder if you want, I went for the easy route this time. Prep your shoulder joint by making small shallow cuts on the surface of the lamb where the stuffing marinade will be smeared on shortly. Prepare your trivet in your roasting tray, I usually use roughly chopped onion, carrots or celery, any vegetables that will create a layer at the bottom of your roasting tray so that your meat can sit on the vegetable bed rather than directly on the tray. It helps the juices from the meat run down during cooking which can be used for making the gravy later.

To make the stuffing, chop up some anchovies, 3-4 cloves of garlic and around 10-15 capers then place these in a pestle and mortar with some ground sea salt for the mixture to grind against. Add a glug of olive oil (or use some of the oil from the tin of anchovies) to the stuffing mix before pounding this mixture with the mortar until you get a rough paste.

Now spread roughly half to two thirds of this stuffing on one side of the lamb shoulder joint, massage it in. Roll up your shoulder joint and use some cooking string to hold the joint together. Place the joint roll on top of your trivet in the roasting tray and spread the remaining anchovie mixture on top of the joint, like a crust.

Pre-heat your oven to 200C, pour approximately 1 cup of water into the baking tray before placing a piece of foil loosely over the joint on the tray. This will create a little steam within the foil and your crust won’t be burnt to a crisp. Once the oven has been pre-heated, place the lamb in the oven and turn the temperature down to 180C to cook according to the weight of your joint. In the last 30 minutes, remove the foil for the remainder of the cooking time to allow some browning.

At the end of the cooking time, remove the meat onto a pre-heated tray and cover tightly with foil to allow to rest for 15-20 minutes whilst you prepare the gravy and everything else. Carve and serve with roast potatoes and veg of choice.

roast lamb stuffed with anchovies, garlic and capers

Happy eating!

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17/06/20

Wing’s Diner @ Small bar

This is one of those places where I’ve been meaning to go to for ages and before the lock down, it was always so busily impossible to get a table that I never got to go. But I kept hearing good things about it.

I finally had a chance to taste their food recently during lock down of all times and I can see why they’re so popular.

Wings has started doing an online booking system during Coronavirus lock down where you order ahead from Monday of that week for a timed collection slot between Thursday and Saturday that week, or until the food runs out. This also meant I had a guaranteed slot to try their delicious Asian fried chicken.

It works rather well, you simply make your order online on their website like you would any online food order, select a day and time slot before paying. When you turn up at the venue, it’s all very well signposted where you’re supposed to pick your order up from (the door on the right). The white, smaller door on the left is for buying your favourite tipple from the small bar selection, served in what looked like 2 pint milk bottles.

We ordered the Korean burger, Malaysian burger, chicken wings, Dirty Chicken fries and some kimchi slaw.

I can probably give the kimchi slaw a miss but everything else exceeded my expectations. When I saw the burgers I had an initial pang of fear that it may be yet another sloppy, dirty burger that seems to be all the rage at the moment where you cannot hope to eat one of these burgers without the sauces and juice going everywhere.

To my surprise, the burgers held together really well. The Korean burger consisted of a fried piece of chicken dressed in a sticky Korean sauce which I think is gojujang based, with a bit of the kimchi slaw (maybe if you’re getting the Korean burger anyway then don’t bother with the separate kimchi slaw). The chilliness of the sauce worked very well in the burger.

In contrast, the Malaysian burger was a fantastically crispy piece of fried chicken with peanut sauce. Most importantly, the fried chicken remained crispy throughout. A classic flavour combination that you cannot go wrong with.

It was on the chicken dirty fries that we got to taste their saracha mayo and it was a very well blended flavour of chilliness (from the saracha), a little bit of tanginess which I can only assume is from lemon juice or something, and mayo. This sauce was doused over a piece of katsu chicken over fries. (You can choose other sauces for your dirty fries)

All in all, it was a lovely bit of normality being able to try a new eatery again. I just hope I’ll be able to get a table once all of this is over. For now, cluck and collect!

Happy eating! 🤤🤤🤤🤤

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