MPM: 24th February 2014

 

 

Gosh, can you believe it is nearly the end of February already?  How the year is flying by.  It's lovely that the mornings and evenings are starting to lighten and there was even a suspicion of sunshine at the weekend which makes me dare to hope that spring is on the way.  I usually enjoy the winter months but this one seems to have been particularly damp and drear. 

 

I think it was a couple of weeks ago when I last mentioned that we were trying to clear the freezer - well, it remains remarkably uncleared.  Still, I'll keep trying; if it gets much more icy I'll struggle to reach my mini Twisters.

 

Meal planning this week - unusually we look to be dining in seven nights out of seven.  Other than soup then, what will we be dining on?

 

Baked eggs with crusty bread

Chilli con carne

Salmon fillets with pasta pesto

Fish and chips - I'll be hoarding points for this, but it is utterly worth it!

Mussels with a creamy smoked haddock and whisky sauce

Corned beef stew with suet dumplings

 

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M's.

The Star Inn the City

After the sad demise of Jeff Baker's place last year, the York restaurant scene has been crying out for a decent higher end place to dine.  Enter Andrew Pern, the chef proprietor of the Star Inn at Harome - famous for one of the best gastropubs in the country and for being where D and I got married (although I notice that we are not yet name checked on their website).  If I tell you that the Star is where top notch, "proper" pub chef Tom Kerridge chose to celebrate his 40th birthday that might give you an indication of how splendiferous it is.  Anyway the Star now has a sister venue on the banks of the River Ouse in York and last night we toddled along to check it out.

 

The Star Inn had a Michelin star for years and is definitely at the fine dining end of the gastropub spectrum.  The York place is a bit less formal in terms of food and service and is the kind of restaurant that caters for a varied crowd - from large groups of revellers to romantic couples.  Impressively for such a large, airy building it manages to encapsulate the lovely cosy feel of the country place and the location is terrific - I can't wait to go on a summer evening and watch the sun set on the river through the huge windows.

 

Beetroot ravioli, goats' cheese

But, of course, big windows and a wood burning stove will only get you so far if the food isn't up to scratch - and thus it is with gread delight that I can report that the food was absolutely wonderful.  Just take a moment to go and look at the menu (I'll wait) - isn't it just jam packed with dishes that you want to bury your face in?  Andrew Pern has been a huge advocate of using local produce since way before it was trendy, and has a knack of sourcing amazing ingredients then treating them with an appropriate amount of respect and this shines through in the cooking.  I just can't decide what the highlight was - although the confit duck leg with chorizo "baked beans" might just edge it over D's scallop and pork belly combo.

 

Confit duck leg, chorizo baked beans

A minor niggle - no complimentary bread.  I am very fond of bread.  But I forgave them when the espressos arrived with mini chocolate tarts teetering on the saucers, all biscuit crisp pastry and a dark kiss of a filling.

 

Coffee, chocolate tart

So hurrah for York having a lovely new place to eat, drink and be merry.  The bar area is open to non diners which makes me very happy and a perusal of the breakfast menu, which is served from half eight in the week and from nine at the weekend, makes me even happier.  I can see this becoming a regular haunt, and while it may never quite replace JB's in our affections, it is likely to come perilously close.

 

The Star Inn the City

Lendal Engine House

Museum Street

York

YO1 7DR

01904 619208

Recipe corner: Hot and cold gin and tonic

This is the absolute perfect dish to serve as a palate cleansing pre dessert, if you are the type of person who likes to serve palate cleansing pre desserts.

 

You'll need one of those foamer canister things (we have an ISI Whip) but, given you're a person who is considering serving a palate cleansing pre dessert, you've probably got one.

 

Ingredients

 

150g sugar

150ml tonic water

 

4 egg whites

125ml lime juice

75ml gin

 

250ml lime juice

150ml gin

 

Serves 4, 8 pro points per portion

 

First make a sugar syrup by bringing the sugar and tonic water to the boil, and then allow to cool.

 

Mix 250ml fresh lime juice with 150ml gin and half of the cooled sugar syrup.  Transfer to the freezer, taking out to fork briskly now and then (obviously you will need to do this stage well in advance).

 

Loosen the egg whites with a whisk or a fork then add the rest of the lime juice and the gin and the other half of the sugar syrup.  Put all the ingredients into the canister.

 

Prior to serving, you want to warm the foam through; fill a large beaker with boiling water and sit the flask in it for 10 minutes or so.

 

To serve, put granita in the bottom of the glass (you may not need to use it all) and top with the warm foam.  You will need to move quickly as the granita will start to melt almost immediately.

A New York themed dinner party

D and I do not give dinner parties very often.  The cost, partly financial but mainly physical and emotional, is just too high. 

 

D is something of a perfectionist, you see.  No, forget about "something of".  He is a perfectionist.  He wants to produce multi course tasting menus which are on a par with those you might expect to emerge from a Michelin starred kitchen.  He sometimes forgets to take into account that a) we are not professional chefs, b) we do not have professional equipment but c) we do have day jobs and d) a very small kitchen indeed.  This makes him grumpy.  He feels he has failed his guests.  I, too, get grumpy - mainly because I just want to have another glass of wine and relax over my dinner.  Perfectionism is not an affliction from which I suffer.

 

Anyway, this weekend we designed a menu of dishes inspired by food we ate in New York.  Some worked better than others but overall, I thought it was pretty good and I think our guests enjoyed it too, even though Marco Pierre White Junior had a brief meltdown over some missing horseradish. 

 

On arrival - truffle popcorn and cheese "cookies".  The truffle and rosemary popcorn was a nibble we came across in our NYC watering hole of choice, Third Avenue Alehouse.  To recreate, I mixed the kernels with truffle salt and dried rosemary (not fresh - it just caught horribly when I tried it) before popping in oil.  I tossed the popcorn in butter melted together with truffle oil just before serving and sprinkled it with a little extra truffle salt.  This is a decadent, dangerously moreish snack - perfect with an aperitif.

 

 

 The "cookies" were our nod to EMP's black and white cookie nibble.  When we ate those, you see, we jokingly said that they tasted like the best Ritz crackers and Primula you could have.  So, er, our guests actually got Ritz crackers and Primula.  There were although shavings of apple and sharp cheddar in there.

 

 

Pan fried mushrooms and squash mixed with dried cranberries and then topped with a rich, thick squash puree flavoured with herbs.  This was our version of EMP's nod to New England in the Fall.

 

 

Momofuku pork buns - recipe here.  The pork, brined and cooked as per instructions worked like a dream.  The buns, it turns out, do not respond too well to freezing - they were fine, but a tad drier than we would have liked.  In future, I'd just make these the day before and pep them up on the day.

 

 

Smoked sturgeon sabayon drizzled with chive oil and served with cream cheese and caviar rye toasts.  The sabayon was taken directly from the Eleven Madison Park book and, predictably, tasted absolutely divine.  D used a milk frother when reheating it to achieve a light texture which worked beautifully.

 

 

I think the matching wine must have got to the evening's official photographer (who, to be fair, was also head chef, waiter and sommelier) as the photos become a bit fewer and further between at this point.  So, you don't get to see the carrot tartare where carrots were lightly poached in chicken stock and butter, roughly chopped to achieve the tartare texture (EMP use an old fashioned meat grinder) and then served with raw quails' egg yolks, and a selection of condiments.  Nor will you be able to note that horseradish was not among the condiments and thus it was the carrot was served to the sound jaw grinding.  I liked it though - it is such a fresh, clever dish.

 

For the meat course, it had to be our take on the classic American deli sandwich, the Reuben: home made corned beef on baked circles of sourdough bread, Swiss cheese, sauerkraut and lashings of Russian mayonnaise.  The mayonnaise was delicious - flavoured with tomato ketchup (it is sweeter than tomato puree), horseradish, grated shallot and dill.  D was unhappy with the presentation of this dish but it tasted like an absolute dream and it is difficult to make the elements of a sandwich look pretty.

 

For cheese we again took inspiration from EMP where we were served a single cheese alongside the beer in which the rind had been washed.  We went for Stinking Bishop with a Perry accompaniment which worked beautifully and, in place of biscuits, baked pretzels from Paul Hollywood's recipe that worked like an absolute charm - I would urge you to give them a go if you, um, like pretzels.

 

 

Onto sweet courses and D loves to do a hot and cold cocktail as a pre dessert - his layered g&t is a thing of genius.  The hot and cold Manhattan didn't work quite as well as there was too much alcohol in the granita for it to freeze properly but it still looked pretty and tasted delicious.

 

Finally, peanut butter and jelly cheesecake pots - I loved these, and I don't really like peanut butter.  We made bars from this recipe (highly recommended) but wanted to serve it slightly deconstructed in a more restaurant (pretentious) style, so layered pieces of it up with fresh raspberries and salted peanuts before topping with a drizzle of melted jam and some cream.  About a squillion pro points, wouldn't you say?  Well worth it though.

 

We had intended to sample some chocolate covered salted pretzels with coffee but everyone was reeling slightly by now so we decamped to the sofa to rub stomachs and hide from the washing up.  I ate one for breakfast the next day though and can tell you that they are rather good - now if only Dean and Deluca could be persuaded to open a Leeds branch my cup would runneth over.

 

We are hoping to tempt my brother and sister in law over when they are next up North as some of these dishes definitely bear repeating.  And D's frazzled nerves should have repaired themselves by then.  Of course, if he were writing he would tell you that he just can't get the staff, and he would have a very fair point.  It turns out I do bake a damn fine pretzel though.

Scales on Saturday

Weeks 1-19: -39lbs
This week: -0.5lbs
Total loss: 39.5lbs

I would have been happy to stay the same this week after last Saturday's stellar, and not entirely deserved, result. As it is, another small downwards movement which is very pleasing.

Onwards and downwards...

Happy Valentine's Day

I read this poem at our wedding. Every word still holds.

Invisible Kisses, by Lemm Sissay

If there was ever one
Whom when you were sleeping
Would wipe your tears
When in dreams you were weeping;
Who would offer you time
When others demand;
Whose love lay more infinite
Than grains of sand.

If there was ever one
Who when you achieve
Was there before the dream
And even then believed;
Who would clear the air
When it's full of loss;
Who would count love
Before the cost.

If there was ever one
Who can offer you this and more;
Who in keyless rooms
Can open doors;
Who in open doors
Can see open fields
And in open fields
See harvests yield.

Then see only my face
In the reflection of these tides
Through the clear water
Beyond the river side.
All I can send is love
In all that this is
A poem and a necklace
Of invisible kisses.

Recipe corner: Roast chicken and leek pot pie

I wasn't intending to blog this recipe.  It was just something thrown together with various odds and ends to use up the remains of a rotisserie chicken that we accidentally managed to purchase last week.

 

You may ask how one accidentally buys a rotisserie chicken to which I say to you, if one goes to their favourite bar for a quick drink after a very pleasant couple of hours at the cinema ("Inside Llewyn Davis" - wonderful) and that quick drink turns into three glasses of wine on an empty stomach then one is quite likely, alongside one's partner in crime, to cross the road into the shining beacon that is Waitrose and do a bit of tipsy shopping.  It is the middle aged, middle class equivalent of buying a kebab on the way home after a night downing Jaegerbombs. 

 

So anyway, we ended up with a rotisserie chicken that we hadn't quite planned for, and it did for a few sandwiches but there was meat left that needed using and I thought, what about a nice pot pie.  I am firmly of the opinion, incidentally, that a pie is only a pie if it has pastry all the way around it.  A pot pie, on the other hand, is what a lot of pubs serve up under the guise of a pie, that is, it just has the pastry on top.  It is a lot more diet friendly, obviously, and feels naughty without being too many points (or calories).

 

It is important though that the filling is rich and savoury and has enough sauce that it will bubble up around the sides of the pastry and dribble down the sides of your beautiful new Le Creuset ramekins.  This filling fits the bill perfectly. 

 

 

As I said, I wasn't intending to blog this recipe.  But then I had the final portion of pie filling for lunch today (the amount of chicken I had stretched easily to three) mixed with pasta and topped with a bit of cheese and I thought it was utterly scrummy like that too. 

 

Ingredients

 

110g roast chicken, mixed, roughly shredded

Onion, finely chopped,

Carrot, finely chopped

2 leeks, sliced

Tsp dry thyme

2 tbsp white wine

 

20g butter

20g plain flour

400ml chicken stock

Heaped tsp Dijon mustard

 

100g puff pastry

 

Makes 3 pies, 8pp per pie (chicken filling is 4pp a portion if eating without pastry)

 

Put a large, non stick pan over a low heat and gently start to cook the onion and carrot pieces, with a good pinch of salt so that they will sweat.  Meanwhile, rinse the leeks to remove any grit from the layers and do not dry too thoroughly - the residual water will help steam the veg.  Transfer the leeks into the veg plan, season well with salt, pepper and the thyme.  Pour in the wine and allow to bubble off to nearly nothing.  Continue to cook gently.  The carrots may still be on the al dente side when you come to make the pie filling but don't worry - they will finish their cooking in the oven.

 

In a second pan you can prepare the sauce.  Start by making up the chicken stock and have it standing by.  We use Knorr stock pots but any decent stock will do.

 

Melt the butter and then add the flour and stir briskly to make a paste.  Add the stock a splash at a time, combining well at each stage.  Sometimes it will feel as if the sauce is not going to come together - the flour paste will appear as lumps in the liquid.  Be firm with it - vigorous stirring and it will amalgamate.  Keep going until all the stock is added.  Allow to bubble briefly, finally adding some more seasoning and the mustard.

 

You can now combine the sauce and the vegetables and stir through the chicken.  Transfer the mix to three ramekins. 

 

To finish off the pies, preheat the oven to 180.  Cook the chicken mix for fifteen minutes and, while it is in the oven, roll out the pastry on a floured surface.  Cut out circles that fit on the top of the ramekins, using any trimmings to make leaves for the pie top.  Or birds.  Or splodges.  Top the pies and bake for a further fifteen minutes until puffed, golden and delicious.

Meal planning Moanday

Last week I wrote that I had been really enjoying my food, blah blah fishcakes, positivity abounded. This week I’m feeling a bit more…subdued. I’m closing in on a three stone loss since October last year, but, I must admit, the novelty has most definitely worn off and some days last week felt like a bit of a slog. A meal out on Thursday night and a decent loss on Saturday roused me up slightly, but I’m definitely just trying to get through one day at a time at the moment. Which is fine – there are going to be periods where things are a bit like that and doggedness rather than finesse is what is required.

I think my main goal for the remainder of February is to try and start some sort of exercise routine. Nothing too strenuous by any means (I am nothing if not intensely lazy), but I know from experience that there are few things more helpful to fight against mild dolour (is that an oxymoron?) than a bit of movement. Also, that there are few things that one feels less inclined to do when one is feeling sluggish and grey and sulky. Which is precisely why one should do them.

Onto eating. Dinner party on Saturday (if it goes to plan it is going to be top notch and I can’t wait to share some pictures with you! If it doesn’t go to plan then my parents will be eating takeaway fried chicken from the end of the road) which means Sunday will be a light, leftovers kind of a day. Tomorrow I’m out at my book group so I’ll be grabbing a quick sandwich beforehand. One night will be soup night (that’s a thing now). So three days left to plan…

Chicken and leek pot pie, celeriac mash

Salmon with curried mussels

Smoked salmon bagels with Valentines fizz, possibly followed by Gu chocolate pots if points allow

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M’s.

Weigh in...Saturday?

Weeks 1-18: -34lbs
This week: -5lbs
Total loss: 39lbs

Slightly late weigh in this week as I decided to check out a meeting that is, quite literally, within spitting distance of the house. Early impressions are good and a Saturday weigh in definitely appeals. I miss the alliterative blog title though.

So a good loss this week despite a couple of...hiccups with tracking. And by hiccups I mean...absence of. But I would dearly love to hit a three stone loss by the end of February so back to it today with a renewed sense of purpose. This is where I find attending meetings really does help - it's like hitting a mental reset button every week.

Onwards and downwards!

Recipe corner: "Surprise" tarte tatin

This is the kind of recipe that doesn't sound like it should work.  But Yotam Ottolenghi is a food writer who inspires trust and with good reason - this tart was absolutely delicious, both fresh out of the oven and after a couple of days reposing in the fridge.

 

The other thing is that it is not too bad on the points front.  Pastry is, of course, never going to be a low calorie food, but you can quite easily build it in to the daily quota with a bit of planning and by rolling it out relatively thinly.  I would suggest using a piece slightly heavier than specified below because you will need to trim it when fitting it over the topping.  But 120g was the amount we actually ended up using once those trimmings had been weighed out and so the amount I have used when calculating the points.

 

D was head chef for this one and he says next time he makes it he will double the amount of caramel to get a slightly thicker layer, so I've doubled the amount of butter and sugar specified in the original recipe below. 

 

Ingredients

 

200g cherry tomatoes

500g new potatoes

1 medium onion, sliced

120g hard goats' cheese

120g puff pastry

Tbsp olive oil

80g sugar

20g butter

Fresh oregano

 

Serves 4 generously, 13 pro points per portion

 

First you are going to dehydrate the tomatoes.  Slice in half, arrange on a baking tray, season and sprinkle with a touch of balsamic vinegar and put them in a low (about 120) oven for 30-40 minutes. 

 

Meanwhile cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for about 20 minutes, until tender.  Leave to cool, and, when possible, slice into discs. 

 

Cook the onion in the oil (reserving a little to grease the tart tin) over a low heat until soft.

 

Onions!

Potatoes!

Tomatoes!

Now all your component vegetables are ready, you can assemble the tart.  Start by using the reserved oil to brush over a 22 inch cake tin and line with parchment paper. 

 

Heat the butter and sugar together in a small pan over a high heat stirring briskly until they become a deep amber colour.  Pour into the cake tin and tilt it carefully so that the whole surface is covered and sprinkle over the oregano leaves. 

 

Layer the sliced potatoes over the caramel, close together as per the picture of the top of the post.  Then fill the gaps with the onion and tomatoes, and finally lay over the slices of goats' cheese.

 

Roll the pastry out into a disc that is about an inch larger than the size of the tin.  Gently lay it across the cheese and vegetables and tuck the edges in around the potatoes so they're nice and cosy.  Bake for 25mins at 200 and then turn the oven down to 180 and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until the pastry is puffy, golden and, obviously, cooked.

 

Remove from the oven and give it a couple of minutes to catch its breath.  Then you need to invert it onto a plate so that the caramel layer is topmost.  A certain amount of dexterity is required so ask a responsible adult / husband.

 

Serve, perhaps with salad.

 

 

 

Recipe corner: Steamed buns a la Momofuku

I so wanted to call this post something along the lines of "My lovely buns".  Because I really do have the sense of humour of a prurient twelve year old boy. 

 

I also wanted to give it a gorgeous photo that would be an adequate reflection of quite how tasty these little beauties were.  But you know the score with regards my food photography skills by now.  So here are my steamed buns with prawn cakes:

 

 

Sexy, huh?  But then, the originals were not renowned for their great beauty:

 

 

I must admit, I was really, really happy with the way these turned out; taste and texture wise they were dead ringers for the ones we ate in Momofuku.  And OK they were David Chang's recipe but still, we've all seen that round on Masterchef where the contestants all get given exactly the same recipe and still manage to produce entirely different, often substandard, plates of food. 

 

If you haven't experienced these buns before they are quite hard to describe - they have a dense, damp texture and a slight sweetness to them and they are incredibly delicious and even more incredibly moreish.  I think that they are most commonly served with pork. On Saturday, we wrapped them round peppery little prawn cakes that D made by whizzing up raw king prawns, flour and plenty of seasoning.  The following day we went a bit off piste and had them with halloumi and sweet chilli sauce which may have been fusion gone mad but turned out to be seriously yummy.

 

They dry out fairly quickly once steamed but are easily revived - just brush them with water, put on a plate loosely covered with cling film and microwave on medium for about a minute. 

 

Ingredients

 

240ml warm water (I used a ratio of 1 part boiling to 2 parts cold tap)

1/2 tsp active dry yeast

3 tbsp plus 1 pinch sugar

2 tbsp skimmed milk powder

420g plain flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Tbsp sunflower oil

 

Makes 16, 3 pro points per bun

 

Stir together 60ml of the water with the yeast (make sure that this is brought to room temperature first if you have kept it in the fridge) and a pinch of sugar.  Leave this to stand for 5-10 minutes until it starts to foam.  If it doesn't foam it means the yeast hasn't woken up - this could be to do with the temperature of the water (check it is not too hot) or the age of the yeast itself.  I watch Bake Off and therefore know these things.

 

While you are waiting, stir together the flour and the rest of the sugar in a large mixing bowl. 

 

To the foamy mixture add the rest of the water, and the skimmed milk powder and give a quick whisk to combine.

 

Gently stir the liquid into the flour.  The original recipe suggested using a fork, I used my Kitchen Aid on a low setting.  Keep going until the dough begins to form - it was soft to the touch but by no means sticky - and make sure that all the flour becomes incorporated.  Now turn out the ball onto a floured surface and knead for about five minutes (you could use a dough hook for this stage, but kneading is fun! It's like Play Dough for grown ups!)  You'll know that you're getting there when the dough takes on a pliant, elastic feel. 

 

Oil a large bowl and place the dough in there, turning it to ensure an even coating in the oil.  Cover with cling film and place in a warm spot for 2 hours, during which time it should roughly double in size.

 

Once this is done you need to give it a good pummelling which will make it deflate a little.  Transfer it to a lightly floured surface, flatten it out and sprinkle with the baking powder, then gather it up into a ball with the powder in the middle.  You now need to knead for another five minutes or so to ensure the baking powder is incorporated - again, you could use the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer to do this.  Recover the dough and leave to stand for another half an hour.

 

We're nearly there, campers!  Now it is time to shape and steam the buns.

 

First cut out squares of parchment paper approximately 3 inch square.  The buns will sit on these in the steamer, so you need one for each bun.  Roll the dough into a log shape about 16 inches long and then divide into 16 equal pieces.  Take each piece between your two hands, and use your palms to flatten it into an oval shape, then use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll the oval out so that it is about 6 inches long and 3 wide.  Now, using a pastry brush, brush one half with sunflower oil and fold it in half so it is the shape of a capital D - but do not pinch the edges together.  As each bun is shaped, cover loosely in cling film.  Allow them to stand for another 30 minutes or so, in which time they will rise very slightly.

 

The buns are now ready for steaming.  Sit some form of rack over boiling water, place the buns (sitting on their parchment paper) over the steam and cover for about five minutes, during which time they will puff up a little but not alarmingly so.  You may well have to do this in batches, unless you have the world's largest steamer.  Wrap the steamed buns in a clean tea towel until they are all done.  They do not need to be eaten straightaway (see above for revival tip) and can be frozen at this stage for future use.

 

Feel incredibly clever and incredibly smug.



Meal planning, and why Breaking Bad is not good for your health

I am feeling a tad…delicate this morning, I cannot tell a lie. And I have resorted to considerable quantities of blusher in order to look, y’know, alive. I blame Walter White and family. The sheer stress created by the final season of Breaking Bad is driving us both to drink - I managed to consume all my remaining weekly points yesterday in liquid form. And we ended up eating Chinese nibbles for tea rather than a proper meal so as to limit time away from the screen. Which was nice (I love sesame prawn toasts) but not all that balanced.

Anyway, it means pappardelle with butternut squash and mushrooms is on the menu for tonight, so that’s something to look forward to.

Last week, we didn’t actually go out for dinner on Thursday as planned – I was having a minor sulk because the scales gently reminded me that you can’t go away and eat your bodyweight in scones and still expect to lose weight. Salmon with pasta pesto at home instead and very nice it was too – one of my absolute favourite midweek suppers. We’re going out this week instead – hurrah! Then D is out for a curry on Friday night so I am going to have tortellini tossed in butter and Parmesan, and a Malteser bunny if I have the points left. And the weekend I’m leaving clear-ish as we’re going to be practicing some bits and pieces for our New York themed dinner party (note to self: must buy truffle salt). So only a few other meals proper to plan:

Mushroom and halloumi “burgers” (halloumi in the fridge needs using up. The fact that I will have to buy all the other constituent ingredients is neither here nor there.)

Fresh soup (of course – broccoli and stilton this week)

Beef massaman curry with basmati rice

Now, if you will excuse me, I think I just got my first hangover hunger pang. The rest of the morning will be spent trying not to go and buy a bacon sandwich. More meal planning fun over at Mrs M’s.

Return to the Drunken Duck

January is so unremittingly grey, isn’t it?  I don’t suppose it helps that I work for the civil service, whose favoured decorating choice of gruel tones matches the current sky exactly.  But the lack of sunshine is beginning to drag – I’ve even taken to swigging a foul tasting iron and vitamin supplement every morning in an attempt to perk myself up.

 

D and I decided that a brief escape somewhere was entirely necessary to soothe away our January blues.  We first visited The Drunken Duck in Ambleside last year on our way to L’Enclume, and, on the strength of a very decent lunch, identified it as a place to which it would be prudent to return.  It turns out that they offer exceptionally reasonable midweek deals and so it was Monday morning found us striking out for the Lake District instead of heading into the office.  Hurrah.

Whilst (being a fully paid up tea drinking typical Englishperson) money is not an area that I like to dwell on too much on this blog, I really do have to marvel at the incredible value offered by the Duck on this occasion. For two hundred and fifty of your English pounds the two of us got not only bed, breakfast and evening meal but lavish afternoon tea on arrival and lunch before departure, arriving home as plumptiously well fed as a couple of foie gras geese (as sadly confirmed by the Scales of Doom the following day).  The quality throughout was unfailingly good – perhaps not haute cuisine but rather warm, generous, heartfelt, extremely accomplished comfort food all served up in a breathtakingly beautiful location.  And there was a pub cat called Dotty who curled up in front of the fire with us while we indulged in a post dinner single malt.  I think there is a room in Heaven that looks a bit like that.

Food wise, as I said, all good.  Afternoon tea, consisting of sandwiches, scones and a variety of cake, was fabulous with passion fruit and chocolate macarons being particular highlights and an appropriately lavish amount of cream arriving to smear on the scones.  I was also gratified to see the delicately trimmed crustless sandwiches.  It's just not afternoon tea if there are crusts.

 

 

Dinner was also excellent.  Our stand out dish of the evening was a kipper scotch egg with brown sauce – a stroke of absolute genius, perfectly executed. 

We shared roast duck for a main course.  The leg, in particular, was intensely flavoursome.  The breast could have been a little pinker for our tastes but it was still crispy skinned and succulent and the accompanying honey roast parsnips were positively ambrosial.

Even our greed has its limits and so we opted to share a dessert – Arctic roll with plums and pink peppercorn meringues.  A good reimagining of a childhood favourite and those fiery little meringues were an interesting addition.

The feeding by no means ended there – we waddled down for breakfast the next morning where we forced (forced, I tell you) ourselves to partake of Eggs Benedict and pancakes with bacon and maple syrup respectively – it simply would have been rude not to do so.  I was all for hunkering down in the lounge with a book at this point but we both felt that it would be a shame to come to the Lakes and not partake of some fresh air – albeit with a side order of drizzle.  So we donned waterproofs and went for a plod around Ambleside.  Which appears to completely shut down in January. 

And then we were back to the Duck for lunch.  I was struggling at this point – four months of Weight Watching has reduced my capacity for gluttony considerably but I (wo)manned up and got stuck in to an absolutely gorgeous smoked haddock and Lancashire soufflé which was feathery enough to allow me to pretend that it was a light option, but, in reality, cheesy enough to be a fitting final hurrah of indulgence.  D opted for cod with Indian spices which looked and smelled excellent.  We turned down pudding regretfully – I had the scales to think about and D had to drive back to Leeds with no time for an afternoon snooze. 

 

I guess it is a real measure of how much we liked it that we started talking about our next visit before we had even left the car park.  We plan to maybe stay a bit longer, research some proper country walks (mainly to build up decent appetites) and continue our on going although sporadic quest to discover if the centre of Ambleside has a decent pub.  The Drunken Duck is an absolute dream of a little bolthole and definitely succeeded in brightening January’s last few dark days.

And, anyway, I want to spend some more quality time with Dotty.

 

 

The Drunken Duck Inn

Ambleside

Cumbria

LA22 0NG

First bump in the road

Weeks 1-17: -34.5lbs
This week: +0.5lbs
Total loss: 34lbs

So, the inevitable happened and today, for the first time since getting my WW groove back at the end of September, my weigh in card has a gain recorded on it.

That it was a fair result, there is no question. We spent most of Monday and a good portion of yesterday overindulging in the Lake District in a beat-the-January-blues mini break. There was no time to pull it back and the relative paucity of the gain speaks volumes for my efforts earlier in the week.

I am also going to pat myself on the back for going along to the meeting at all, knowing full well what the result was likely to be. Certainly in the past I would have been guilty of skipping it. Well done me.

But, of course, there is a slight pang of disappointment at the end of my losing streak. And what Lesley would call the crooked thinking begins to creep in – the “you might as well have one more night off” type of impulse. I am not yet finding it easy to be spurred on by failure, I am a natural sulker and wallower. But, this is a journey and not one that is likely to be short or easy or straight lined. Next week I want to come on here and write that I laughed in the face of defeat and zipped on into that new stone bracket (a pound and a half away now). And I think, I think that I want it more than I want to indulge in further off-piste eating.

MPM: 27th January 2014

 

 

 

I am so enjoying my day to day food at the moment.  As someone who writes what purports to be a foodie blog you’d have thought that was a given.  But I fell a bit out of love with cooking and meal planning in 2013 and it’s lovely to have it back as part of the regular routine.  It is also lovely to be looking forward to all of the yummy things that I am going to be eating in any given week – although possibly slightly sad that on a Monday morning I am already salivating at the thought of my Saturday supper!

 

And, having rhapsodised about rediscovering a love of home cooking, two evenings out of seven this week we are eating out.  Well, I am nothing if not inconsistent. 

 

So, in vague order...

 

Surprise Tatin (leftovers from Sunday night), salad

 

An obligatory soup night

 

A curry night.  I’m cooking a couple of old favourites that I’ve posted on the blog: cumin spiced chicken and a simple, zero point mushroom curry as well as a shallow fried version of these spiced potato “burgers”  

 

Steamed buns (a la Momofuku) with spicy prawn patties

 

Pappardelle with butternut squash and chanterelle mushrooms

 

As always, more meal planning fun over at Mrs M’s.

This time last month...

I can’t believe it is one month since Christmas Day, when I was presented with a New York guidebook in a box.  One month since I discovered, via a series of obscure clues, that my New York based general knowledge is utterly pitiful.  Although would anyone here have known who Allen Stewart Konigsberg was?

 

I’ve primarily talked on here about some of the meals we had.  My thoughts on New York itself are…well.  I’m not quite sure.  It is a wonderful city, and one to which I would (I will) return again and again.  Blisteringly vibrant, it sweeps you up with its sense of immediacy and bustle.  And I love that it feels strangely familiar, where so many of its aspects have appeared so many times on well loved television shows that they’ve become inscribed on my consciousness.   But the scale of it is just so big, so sprawling and yet so soaringly tall, that it can be – it is - overwhelming.  I don’t think I could live there, for all I joked to D about settling down in a Greenwich writers’ commune.

 

But yes, I definitely need to go back.  Aside from anything else (and let’s be really clear what is important here), there are so many things that I never got round to eating!  We were, for example, frustrated in our final day quest for a slice of proper baked cheesecake – the carefully selected bakery had sold out when we arrived (we took some solace from their cupcakes which were very good indeed.

 

Cupcake!

We dipped our toes into the (mayonnaise) pool of NY deli by taking a trip to Katz’s.  It had to be done but I think both of us feel that we wouldn’t go back – while the juicily pink beef in the Reuben sandwiches was, undoubtedly, very good, the sandwiches themselves were not necessarily special enough to counterbalance the slightly scary experience.  Next time, we want to check out Barney Greengrass “The Sturgeon King”, whose deli apparently inspired a couple of the dishes we ate at EMP.

 

Reuben!

I can’t believe I didn’t get round to having a hot dog!  And while we did have pizza, I don’t think it was an example of NYC’s finest.  Mind you, if you want somewhere to escape the press of crowds around Times Square, Osteria al Doge is a welcome retreat and not ridiculously priced considering its location.   Worth going for the deadpan waiter alone.  But in terms of street food in general – a bit of a fail this time around, definitely an area to sample more widely. 

 

Pizza!

Oh, and thank you for the tip Beth, I now actually NEED to sample crack pie.  I may end up making some at home it looks…just…D, meanwhile, quite fancies trying to get into David Chang’s two Michelin star joint.  He is currently buying lottery tickets with feverish resolve.

Weigh In Wednesday: 22nd January 2014

Weeks 1-16: -31lbs
This week: -3.5lbs
Total loss: 34.5lbs

I think I might have to make these posts monthly. While I love the accountability aspect, there are only so many ways that one can write "I stood on some scales. They read a number that represents the force of gravity on my, in relative (although not actual) terms insignificant, person. I was happy/sad (delete as appropriate."

But yes, a good result this morning. Half a pound more and I'll hit the two and half stone mark. One pound more and I'll be into a new stone bracket, which is always a nice milestone.

My daily points allowance is reducing at a rate of knots though. I lost another one this morning. I'm going to have to start being a lot more savvy with my choices - I'm already feeling quite hungry quite a lot of the time and if there is one thing that my brief flirtation with fasting taught me it is that I am not nice to know when I am hungry.

MPM: 20th January 2014

It's the start of the week so it must be time for...


Yes, another Monday has rolled around. Why are weekends so short? Mind you, complaining seems churlish when I had a particularly nice one. I finally got to see my future second husband (professionally known as David Tennant) on stage and very wonderful he was too, although I was unsure about certain aspects of the production (Richard II at the Barbican for the theatre lovers among you). And, after all of the faux medieval excitement, it was home to an absolutely beautiful confit duck leg (thank you, D) and a day of watching Breaking Bad, barely moving from the sofa.

There are currently two separate threads to our meal planning. The first is that the freezer needs a defrost, so I need to try and base as many meals as possible around the contents. This may involve doing a full inventory at some point. What it may not involve is any particular interest or creativity. The second is that we are planning to cook a New York inspired menu for my parents in February and some of the dishes will need practice runs, so may well be popping up over the next couple of weeks.

This week:

Fresh soup (this seems to be appearing a lot of my recent meal plans and it doesn’t make for the most interesting reading, I know, but we just happen to really like fresh soup)

Chicken fajitas (chicken breast and wraps from the freezer, refried beans from the store cupboard)

Spag bol (mince from the freezer)

Corned beef stew (last of our homemade corned beef from the freezer – although fear not, D will be working his magic on a new brisket soon)

Haggis, neeps and tatties with caramelised onion gravy (it’s Burns Night this week!)

“Surprise tatin” from Yotam Ottolenghi’s “Plenty”

More meal planning fun over at Mrs M’s.

Food for Thought: CBT and weight loss

It’s been a while now since I finished my sessions with Earnest Ross and I have been meaning to commit some of my thoughts to virtual paper ever since, but life and Christmas and travelling and all sorts of things got in the way.

 

It has not escaped my notice that since September I have been on the most sustained and successful weight loss drive in the history of this blog.  Not quite the history of Seren – I’ve achieved the nirvana of goal weight a couple of times – but unlike these other occasions I am relaxed, I have eaten out, been on holiday and generally tried to make dieting (I hate that verb but it is the most appropriate in the circumstances) a part rather than the focus of my life.

 

Now this could be down to a number of things.  But I do think it is, in no small measure, down to some of the work that Earnest Ross and I did. 

 

I believe that people who are overweight often fall into one of two, very broad, categories.  There are those for whom nutrition and the actual calorific worth of food are something of a mystery – who genuinely do not know that the whole pizza that they eat for supper contains a day’s worth of calorific content.  Then there are those for whom food and drink are weapons and armour against stress, misery - generally, any negative emotion.  These people know full well the calories in that pizza and they eat it anyway.  And I, and I think many of the people who read this blog, fall firmly into the latter fold.

 

Now there are many lessons to be learned about identifying the cycle of emotion, thought and action that lead to people making these destructive decisions.  And we talked a lot about self compassion and the strength and conviction it takes to practice it.  But, for me, the thing that really stayed with me is something Ross said in one of our later sessions.

 

He said: “We need to hold our stories loosely.”

 

I love that phrase.  I love the idea of holding my stories loosely.  The stories of my past. The fact that I have always been “the fat girl” in my head and the sad floundering when I wasn’t, physically, her anymore and didn’t quite know what to do with myself.  The stories of disappointments in love, of career paths that didn’t quite wend the way I expected them to, of confounded expectations.   They are there, lightly clasped in the palm of my hand, but they none of them define me or my future.  I do not have to do what I have always done, or to seek solace where I have always sought it.

 

And while I am not so naïve as to think that the battle is over and done with, still I feel the most tremendous sense of optimism, especially at the beginning of a brand new year, that by holding my stories loosely it will give me the strength and the freedom to write shiny new ones full of health and hope.

Foodie Abroad: Third Avenue Alehouse

Given that we were going to be in New York for New Year, we initially pondered the possibility of going the whole hog and spending it in Times Square.  We were quickly disabused of this notion.  It’s horrible, we were told.  You arrive at five, you’re not allowed to carry liquids, you can’t leave to go to the loo, it’s cold, it’s crowded, it’s unpleasant.  I think that we were both secretly quite pleased to let go of the scheme and resolved to spend the evening in a warm bar instead, watching the ball drop on the TV.  And we went to see the spike that the ball would be on.  So that counts for something.

 The Third Avenue Alehouse did not look like anything special from the outside but it was a couple of blocks away from our hotel, and we popped in on the way back from a long day of museums not expecting anything in particular.  But by a very happy accident, as sometimes happens on holiday, it turned out to be one of our favourite locations and somewhere that we already talk of in wistful tones.  It may be the wrong city, but everyone secretly wants to find a Cheers when they go to America, don’t they?  You know, a bar where everybody knows your name?  Third Avenue Alehouse was ours. 

 

It wasn’t just the fact that it served an excellent range of artisan ales (D particularly enjoyed the coffee porter).  Or the fact that I spied one of my favourite wines, Wither Hills Sauvignon Blanc, lurking in the fridge the first time I hopped up onto one of the comfy bar stools.  Or the range of whiskies that would put many a Scottish bar to shame.  Or the friendly staff who were happy to chat and laugh at the English girl who didn’t have a clue about American football (“But why do they throw it backwards?”).    Or the to die for, truffle and rosemary popcorn (I’m quite upset that I didn’t get round to sampling the mac and cheese pie).  It was all of these things in conjunction with the fact that it so quickly felt like a little bolthole in a bewilderingly large and frantic city. 

 

 

So, New Years Eve 2013 found us propping up in the bar in our home away from home, astonishing Louis the barman with our drinking “fortitude” (he was so impressed that he gave us a free drink when we rolled in the next evening!)  It may not be quite as iconic as Times Square, but I couldn’t have asked for a nicer corner of New York, nor better company, to enjoy it.

Woe in Wednesday

Weeks 1-15: -29.5lbs
This week: -1.5lbs
Total loss: 31lbs

Despite being resolutely on track, I was convinced that this week was going to be my first gain. I was mentally composing this post as I walked in to work this morning along the lines of “Every journey has its hiccups”, but kept finding myself breaking off to mutter “Snassun frassun” and scowl at random passers by.

It’s daft, isn’t it? We know, logically, that our bodies aren’t machines and that weight loss, for all that the basic biology is calories in versus calories out, never seems to work on a straight line basis. We comment on blogs when fellow dieters post a gain or stay the same to the effect “Keep going! It will all come good!” genuinely meaning it. And then it happens to us and we sulk mightily. Or, at least, I do. I apparently sulk when I only think that I’m going to gain. God knows what will happen when I actually do (and I use the word when rather than if advisedly.)

But, this week at least, the scale gods have looked down on my efforts and lo, they were pleased. My weekly points have been re-set (hurrah!) and D is making very tasty sounding Sicilian cod for tea. All is currently well in the WW World.

Foodie Abroad: Momofuku noodle bar and The Spotted Pig

Some people list iconic sights to see when they go on holiday.  Us – we list restaurants.  If ever I wonder how I managed to obtain quite such a remarkable state of plumptiousness, I need not look much beyond my NYC to-do list.  Which basically read:

See stuff. 

EAT.

D is very good at picking places in which I want to eat based on descriptions and hearsay alone so I tend to trust his instincts on this.  He came up trumps as usual as evidenced by a fabulous lunch and brunch on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day respectively.

Momofuku noodle bar was an unassuming kind of place from the outside.  We arrived early and killed time in a coffee bar a few doors down.  Although it didn’t take reservations, the area was so quiet that I was in no particular rush and couldn’t understand why my dining companion was getting twitchy as the clock edged towards noon.  At about two minutes past we went back.  And got the last seats in the place.  Five minutes later and the queue was out of the door.

Momofuku is famous for its pork buns and these were undoubtedly absolutely delicious.  The buns themselves are steamed, which achieves a very particular, pillowy texture, and then filled with sliced of melting belly pork, cucumber and a punchy hoi sin sauce.  We had one each and could quite happily have scoffed more – although I am not sure that I didn’t prefer the spicy shrimp buns, where the pork was replaced with a punchy little prawn cake.  We’re going to try and make these at home, so I will report back if I have any success.

 

Buns! - shrimp

Buns! - pork

D then manned up to tackle an enormous bowl of pork ramen – seriously, small children could have swum in it.  I opted for chilled spicy noodles which were tossed in enough chilli oil to provide instant lip augmentation but very tasty nonetheless – I loved the addition of candied cashews which provided interesting sweetness and crunch.  Again, the portion size was redonkulous, but it enabled me to ask for half of the bowl “to go” and I think I uttered a little keen of delight when this was delivered to me in a quintessential brown paper bag. 

 

Ramen!

Noodles! (buried)

Despite nursing noodle babies we had been told that desserts here were not to be missed so we forced (forced I tell you!) ourselves to try out the Captain Crunch cake truffles.  I have no idea what these little golden balls of deliciousness actually were but they were sweet and squidgy and wholly lovely. 

January 1^st was a somewhat different kettle of fish – not least because we had been shipping industrial quantities of booze the night before.  We abandoned any pretence of budgeting and staggered, bleary eyed, from hotel room into the cosy confines of a taxi cab to head for Greenwich Village and, that most American of institutions, brunch.

The Spotted Pig calls itself a gastropub, and the chef owner, April Bloomfield, is a Brit so clearly knows what that entails.  It tends towards the gastro side of the genre – this is no scabby local where you could pop for a pint and a packet of scratchings.  It felt rather…well, cool for want of a better description, which is not an adjective I’ve ever associated with similar places in this country, but there you go.  The staff, while friendly, were a bit…young?  Trendy?  Slightly annoyed to be working at noon on the 1^st January?  Something made them appear a tad disinterested.  I’m going to forgive them for that though because they served me the best cheese toastie EVER.  Although they called it grilled cheese.  I’m not kidding, this was AMAZING.  Look, see the capitals I am using because it was JUST THAT GOOD.  It was just bread and cheese of course but the raw ingredients must have been stellar and the cooking was just bang on – I think it was fried rather than grilled.  That, and a stiff Bloody Mary, and I was almost ready to face the day.  D’s burger looked rather luscious too.  But oh, the grilled cheese. Heaven. 

Burger!

Toastie!

Look at that beauty…(*author drifts off quietly into a (literally) cheesy daydream...)

Momofuku Noodle Bar

171 1st Ave,
New York,
NY 10003,
United States
+1 212-777-7773

The Spotted Pig

314 W 11th St,
New York,
NY 10014,
United States
+1 212-620-0393