Quick, Easy, Tasty Chinese Chicken Stir-fry!
This dish is great for a healthy alternative to your regular chinese takeaway! Its yummy, it's quick and most importantly its easy! I've been to China quite a few times and also the man is chinese so we happen to have key ingredients such as soy sauce and use them regularly. However all the ingredients I've used in this recipe are very easily found in your local STA (Sainsbury Tesco Asda) so don't panic - I'm not going to throw in any rare mushrooms only found on the mountain ranges on mongolia and costs a mortgage to have shipped over just to use a smidgen in your stir-fry. That's not what I'm about. I'm about using regular, normal-people, affordable ingredients in quick and simple methods to produce great taste! Corny but true.
Quick, Easy, Classic Salmon En Croute!
So tonight is Salmon En Croute - my way i.e. Quick and Easy! Croute, being the french word for crust, En Croute meaning baking meat - or fish - in pastry. Et Voila! Think Beef Wellington but with salmon! I first came across this recipe last year while trawling through the Asda recipe website, yes I know - too much time on my hands...Anyhoo I tried it out and it worked perfectly so now I'm passing it on to you! The Asda recipe actually includes both salmon and prawns and it's very delicious but I've also experimented without the prawns and it's equally delicious! It usually depends on how much pastry I've got left in the freezer (it's quick and easy remember!) and if I remembered to buy prawns...
Quick, Easy, Tasty Balsamic Onion And Goats' Cheese Tart!
So I'm not the most talented cook in the world - I'm better at writing about my food than actually cooking it...but I like to have a go! I don't care if it doesn't come out 100% how I imagined it to be - or how the recipe said it should be - the important thing is the taking part! That's what I do best. So naturally I like recipes that are quick, easy and tasty...who wouldn't right?!?! Think: Delia's How To Cheat AT Cooking and Nigella Express...Hence my excitement at this recipe for a balsamic onion and goats' cheese tart which was introduced to me by my dear friend Lucy! Thanks Lu :) I may have tweaked it a little and the way I made it is written below.
Wallace & Co, to steal a quote it's "a delight...and I like it"!
Gregg Wallace, green-grocer and MasterChef presenter, has taken on his latest venture, Wallace & Co Cafe. It doesn't get tougher than this. On Thursday 14th January 2010, Gregg Wallace and Secrett's Direct graced us with Wallace & Co Cafe. Situated in the heart of Putney's chic high street, Wallace & Co is an inviting and bubbly cafe that really does draw you in from the pavement. Of course, being a regular at foodie exhibitions and a frequent twitterer, I'd heard about the rumours of such a project many months ago and was just waiting for the opening date to be announced! I begged the man to drive us down to the cafe that weekend so I could see what Wallace & Co had been working on.
Ideally located on Upper Richmond Road, Wallace & Co is easily reached by tube, bus rail and car - well done Gregg! First impressions from the outside were excellent. My decisions are always based on first impressions and if I don't like what I see within the first 3 minutes of being somewhere then the rest of the night is basically going to be hard work! However, I liked what I saw, a lot. The cafe is set back slightly from the pavement allowing it to have a lovely seating area which is going to be fantastic and lively in summer.
Ideally located on Upper Richmond Road, Wallace & Co is easily reached by tube, bus rail and car - well done Gregg! First impressions from the outside were excellent. My decisions are always based on first impressions and if I don't like what I see within the first 3 minutes of being somewhere then the rest of the night is basically going to be hard work! However, I liked what I saw, a lot. The cafe is set back slightly from the pavement allowing it to have a lovely seating area which is going to be fantastic and lively in summer.
The Average Lunch at The Average Don
The day before Christmas Eve I was whisked off for a (paid-for) team-lunch, this was exciting news because the company I'm currently working for is not a company known for skimping...quite the opposite in fact. I pondered for hours over where we might be taken and which culinary delights I would be able to experience...FOR FREE! I soon found out we would be gracing The Don with our presence. Located just a short walk from one of Bank tube station's many exits, The Don can be found down a small alleyway. This was a bit unnerving at first - I held on to my handbag a little tighter - but I followed my colleagues through some rickety old gates at the end of the uninspiring alleyway only to have my nerves settled by our arrival into a quaint and petite courtyard. Into the restaurant we ambled, coats checked and we were led off down some stairs. The restaurant is on two levels (which I think is split between the Bistro and the Restaurant - we went to the Bistro) and I didn't get a chance to see the ground floor level however the basement level was...interesting. The brick-vaulted prison that was the basement part of the restaurant was softened by the glow of antique walls lamps, bleach-cleaned and pressed tablecloths and the distinct glisten of silver plated cutlery. Despite the softening touches I still wasn't too keen on the setting. I spend a lot of time travelling underground on London's victorian tubeline and I certainly don't want to spend any more time than necessary under ground level...but there I was...underground...
Now once I had been told where we were going, precisely one week before our lunch, I did my usual studious research. I love planning what food I'll be having, I love it so much to the point where I have researched possible ingredients for my possible choices to evaluate their possible deliciousness. But that's just what I do...and yes I do have too much time on my hands. The Don had a Christmas menu on their website and I had been told that this is what we would be ordering from. Excellent, I thought, as I read through the choices for starters, mains and desserts, scrumptious! For starters I was eyeing up a hearty sounding slab of terrine of Barbary duck and seared fois gras with a claret dressing (£7.95). This on the Christmas set menu was the clear winner for me - the other menu fillers included parsnip and apple soup, cured salmon or a tartlet with salad (yeh right!).
For mains I had settled on a fish. A delicious concoction of sauteed sea bass with poached fennel and a pernod butter! Yes please! And for dessert it was always going to be - the dark chocolate and crisp mint marquise with a coffee bean sauce...who can argue with chocolate?! Brilliant, I thought, I was ready to order and we weren't even at the restaurant. If there's one thing I learned from the girl guides it's: "Always Be Prepared", prepared I was, I had my entire lunch planned out. What could go wrong? Nothing, oh, except that maybe they might run out of what I wanted before I ordered...nah. Nothing could go wrong.
The Don running out of what I wanted before ordering was to be the least of my worries. We all sat around our brick-enclosed table, sipping on our various colours of wine and champagne (that's how I roll) and perusing the menu. Then I found out something that was to ruin the plan, my plan, my plan for my lunch. There was a....VEGETARIAN amongst us!! Damn! The Christmas set menu was anything but veggie-friendly. There was one potential veg option and I'm sure that even that sounded a bit slap-dash to the best of tree-huggers, wild mushroom and roast artichoke risotto...oh dear...There was some debating over the menu, what would the Vegetarian order, maybe they can order from the main a la carte bistro menu. We were quickly informed that the whole group must either order from the Christmas menu or the a la carte menu. WWWWhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt????!!!! I had already decided and my decision was based on the Christmas menu! You can't just change things willy-nilly, some people have made plans! The group was favouring the a la carte bistro menu as it seemed to put things a little more at ease with the Vegetarian. I looked at the a la carte bistro menu. It was just so inferior to the Christmas menu, I saw glammed up pub specialities such as fish and chips and The Don's award winning Lamb burger.
Luckily for me the duck terrine starter was also present on the inferior a la carte bistro menu so I did manage to choose that. It arrived and was quite delicious. I've never had terrine before and I quite liked the meaty quality brought to the soft terrine by the Barbary duck. The fois gras was divine! I've tried fois gras before but not like this and as sad as the whole process is about the geese and all, it tastes good. Let me just make this clear - I don't support the manufacturing of fois gras but once you start saying that you might as well start protesting about battery farms etc and there you have it, the Vegetarian wins. We can't let that happen so I tucked into the fois gras - it was already made so if I hadn't then the goose would have died in vain! So I tucked into my slab of terrine and towards the end of it I had a real appreciation for how rich these things can be!
Now for mains I had decided to try the Award winning grilled lamburger with caramelised red onion and french fries (£10.50). This was a considerable step down from what I was planning on ordering. It arrived and it was huge. The Don, like the company I work for, aren't known for their skimping! This was a huge portion! There was a mountain of fries and a huge burger in a bun in the middle. How un-sophisticated, I thought - yes I know, I'm a snob, whatever! Maybe I'm just becoming too accustomed the small portions of GBK. The burger itself was good, not excellent, just good. There's not a lot you can do wrong with a lamb burger. The onion marmalade was nice, not as nice as GBK, but nice. The fries - well they were fries, again nothing special about them, they just tasted like fries. Mains were ok.
Now it was time for dessert - since I hadn't been allowed much time to choose from the a la carte bistro menu I had to make a split 3 second decision on what I was going to have - I hate this. It wasn't a planned part of my lunch. I don't like impulse food decisions at restaurants. One had already opted for the chocolate, one had chosen the christmas pudding with cinnamon icecream, another settled on mango and lime mousse with mango coulis and the Vegetarian and another colleague asked for coffee instead. At least with dessert there could be no Vegetarian-shaped spanners in the works! I decided to be different, live on the wild side a bit, go a bit crazy! I chose a hot banana tatin with a prune and armagnac icecream. This was yummy! It was definately as good as it sounded. At first I wasn't sure...but the more I ate of it, the more I liked it. The fruits had retained their unique flavours yet were pleasantly warming and the armagnac icecream complimented the whole dish - as only icecream can do. However it tasted more of vanilla than of armagnac or prune, nevertheless it was a good choice, a wild and crazy choice, but a good one.
Overall I was not blown-away by The Don. It felt strange eating underground in a brick prison, I wasn't digging the gastro-pub style of food off the a la carte menu and I wasn't entirely impressed by the presentation of the food which seemed a bit scatty. However, the wine was delicious - I had a Hawes Bay Trinity red (2005), a rich, plummy wine with spicey undertones. So to concur, the wine was divine, the portions were generous and the whole thing was FREE! So really I can't complain - I didn't have to pay a penny.
If I had paid, I don't think I'd recommend The Don. It was nice but for the price if I were you I'd go to somewhere else. Why not go to Gaucho - flawless steak, service and atmosphere! Read my previous blog post for more information!
The Don
20 Saint Swithin's Lane (that's the dodgy alleyway!)
London, EC4N 8AD
Tel: 020 7626 2606
Now once I had been told where we were going, precisely one week before our lunch, I did my usual studious research. I love planning what food I'll be having, I love it so much to the point where I have researched possible ingredients for my possible choices to evaluate their possible deliciousness. But that's just what I do...and yes I do have too much time on my hands. The Don had a Christmas menu on their website and I had been told that this is what we would be ordering from. Excellent, I thought, as I read through the choices for starters, mains and desserts, scrumptious! For starters I was eyeing up a hearty sounding slab of terrine of Barbary duck and seared fois gras with a claret dressing (£7.95). This on the Christmas set menu was the clear winner for me - the other menu fillers included parsnip and apple soup, cured salmon or a tartlet with salad (yeh right!).
The Don running out of what I wanted before ordering was to be the least of my worries. We all sat around our brick-enclosed table, sipping on our various colours of wine and champagne (that's how I roll) and perusing the menu. Then I found out something that was to ruin the plan, my plan, my plan for my lunch. There was a....VEGETARIAN amongst us!! Damn! The Christmas set menu was anything but veggie-friendly. There was one potential veg option and I'm sure that even that sounded a bit slap-dash to the best of tree-huggers, wild mushroom and roast artichoke risotto...oh dear...There was some debating over the menu, what would the Vegetarian order, maybe they can order from the main a la carte bistro menu. We were quickly informed that the whole group must either order from the Christmas menu or the a la carte menu. WWWWhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaaattttttt????!!!! I had already decided and my decision was based on the Christmas menu! You can't just change things willy-nilly, some people have made plans! The group was favouring the a la carte bistro menu as it seemed to put things a little more at ease with the Vegetarian. I looked at the a la carte bistro menu. It was just so inferior to the Christmas menu, I saw glammed up pub specialities such as fish and chips and The Don's award winning Lamb burger.
Luckily for me the duck terrine starter was also present on the inferior a la carte bistro menu so I did manage to choose that. It arrived and was quite delicious. I've never had terrine before and I quite liked the meaty quality brought to the soft terrine by the Barbary duck. The fois gras was divine! I've tried fois gras before but not like this and as sad as the whole process is about the geese and all, it tastes good. Let me just make this clear - I don't support the manufacturing of fois gras but once you start saying that you might as well start protesting about battery farms etc and there you have it, the Vegetarian wins. We can't let that happen so I tucked into the fois gras - it was already made so if I hadn't then the goose would have died in vain! So I tucked into my slab of terrine and towards the end of it I had a real appreciation for how rich these things can be!
Barbary duck terrine and seared fois gras with a claret dressing - FIT!
Now for mains I had decided to try the Award winning grilled lamburger with caramelised red onion and french fries (£10.50). This was a considerable step down from what I was planning on ordering. It arrived and it was huge. The Don, like the company I work for, aren't known for their skimping! This was a huge portion! There was a mountain of fries and a huge burger in a bun in the middle. How un-sophisticated, I thought - yes I know, I'm a snob, whatever! Maybe I'm just becoming too accustomed the small portions of GBK. The burger itself was good, not excellent, just good. There's not a lot you can do wrong with a lamb burger. The onion marmalade was nice, not as nice as GBK, but nice. The fries - well they were fries, again nothing special about them, they just tasted like fries. Mains were ok.
The Award-Winning Lamburger...
Now it was time for dessert - since I hadn't been allowed much time to choose from the a la carte bistro menu I had to make a split 3 second decision on what I was going to have - I hate this. It wasn't a planned part of my lunch. I don't like impulse food decisions at restaurants. One had already opted for the chocolate, one had chosen the christmas pudding with cinnamon icecream, another settled on mango and lime mousse with mango coulis and the Vegetarian and another colleague asked for coffee instead. At least with dessert there could be no Vegetarian-shaped spanners in the works! I decided to be different, live on the wild side a bit, go a bit crazy! I chose a hot banana tatin with a prune and armagnac icecream. This was yummy! It was definately as good as it sounded. At first I wasn't sure...but the more I ate of it, the more I liked it. The fruits had retained their unique flavours yet were pleasantly warming and the armagnac icecream complimented the whole dish - as only icecream can do. However it tasted more of vanilla than of armagnac or prune, nevertheless it was a good choice, a wild and crazy choice, but a good one.
The scrummy banana tatin!
The dark chocolate and crisp mint marquise
The mango and lime mousse
The spiced christmas pudding - minus the top of the tree biscuit...I was seconds too late...
If I had paid, I don't think I'd recommend The Don. It was nice but for the price if I were you I'd go to somewhere else. Why not go to Gaucho - flawless steak, service and atmosphere! Read my previous blog post for more information!
The Don
20 Saint Swithin's Lane (that's the dodgy alleyway!)
London, EC4N 8AD
Tel: 020 7626 2606
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