Home-grown and another trip to the fantastic Roger Hickman's!

Today we were suppose to be heading to London to go to Jason Atherton's new restaurant Pollen Street Social and catch up with friends, but unfortunately due to the recent riots we decided to stay away. A quick look around my garden before heading to Roger Hickman's in Norwich proved fruitful spotting my first sweet pepper and a bumper crop of tomatoes!

We then went out to Roger Hickman's, Norwich's finest restaurant (in my opinion). I've reviewed it before and you can read that here. It was a shame we couldn't make it to London, but lunch at Roger Hickman's definitely cheered us up! We've been twice before and it just keeps getting better. Lunch today was simply sensational and incredible value at only £20 a head for the set menu. You can clearly see why this restaurant won the Good Food Guide restaurant of the year for the East of England.

We started with an amouse bouche - pea and mint soup, which was silky smooth and full of flavour. The starter was one of the best starters I've ever had a warm salad of fillet of beef with truffle and pickled mushrooms. The fillet of beef almost melted in your mouth, and combined with truffle was simply divine.

A main course of Pork Belly, Pork Loin, with cabbage and bacon and mushrooms in a creamy but light mustard sauce was superb. All the pork was cooked to perfection and the dish was beautifully balanced.

Dessert was also a show-stopper! Poached cherries with cherry jelly and chocolate mousse, with an added spark of popping candy. A really great dessert to round off a superb lunch. Service each time has been impeccable and they can always cater for gluten free, this restaurant really deserves all the plaudits it gets.

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A Mexican Classic: Fajitas!

I've not eaten fajitas in a long time as the tortillas they sell in the shops may read 'corn tortillas' but are bulked out with wheat flour. But my girlfriend managed to source these fantastic gluten free tortillas at www.mexgrocer.co.uk. And what a find they were! As they are pure corn tortillas and not bulked out they taste really authentic. Having been to Mexico, they really brought back memories of the tacos we used to get from street vendors in Puerto Escondido! They do come in batches of 30 but are great value and freezable.

We used a BBC Good Food recipe for steak fajitas which was very tasty. The recipe uses rump steak, which was full of flavour and great value. If you like it spicy just up the pinch of cayenne pepper. We served them with a tomato salsa, guacamole and sour cream. An awesome dinner which took no time at all to make!

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Moroccan Chicken Wings with Herby Quinoa

Chicken wings tend to get over looked, but with the right marinade they’re extremely tasty… and cheap too! My girlfriend made this fantastic recipe for Moroccan wings as featured on BBC Good Food. The recipe uses Harissa, which is made form chilli, spices and citrus which originates from Tunisia and has a delicious warm and smoky taste. You can get in the supermarkets and a little goes a long way. With the syrup and citrus used in this recipe there’s a great balance of sweet and savoury flavours. We followed the cooking instructions in the recipe and grilled the wings but these would be a great addition to any barbecue.

As you can see from the title we substituted the couscous for quinoa a grain which has the advantage of being gluten free. It takes around 15 minutes to cook, but once done, just follow the same instructions as the couscous. A fantastic and simple dinner!

Full link to recipe:

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1358637/moroccan-wings-with-herb-couscous?binderbox=showlogin

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Perfect Portugese Piri Piri

Having just got back from the Algarve, I couldn't wait to share this recipe! Frango Piri Piri (Piri Piri Chicken) is hugely popular in Portugal and when it's done right, I can see why. Unfortunately, our first experience of Portuguese Piri Piri wasn't a good one - a touristy restaurant in Albufeira where the chicken was dry and tasteless. However we then found a recipe in our villa which tasted incredible full of flavour and with a tasty kick to it. We did both chicken and prawns on the BBQ in this marinade. Anything between 2 and 6 hours in the marinade is plenty. You can obviously cook this in the oven but for best results it has to be the BBQ!

Piri Piri Chicken - We did thighs, wings and breast on skewers!

Piri Piri Prawns! Chorizo and Steak also great on the BBQ!

Recipe - Piri Piri Marniade
Mix together the following and smother over chicken, prawns or whatever else takes your fancy:
250ml olive oil
Juice of 4 lemons
1 tablespoon of Piri Piri powder or Cayenne Pepper
5 teaspoons paprika
5 teaspoons ground cumin
5 teaspoons dried oregano
4 crushed garlic cloves

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Eating out for Gluten Free Pizza!

A really quick post aimed at the gluten free readers! Restraunts are rapidly catching up with changing dietary requirements and now Bella Italia do gluten free pasta and pizza. I've tried some great gluten free pasta at both Jamie's Italian and Carluccio's but gluten free pizza was a first. They were really quite good as well, I had the Pollo Picante, a tasty chicken and chilli pizza with a thin and crispy gluten free base. My girlfriend also went for the gluten free pizza base, (mainly because I usually eat any leftovers!) with pepperoni and she said she wouldn't have known the difference. It's just really good to be able to go out for a pizza now and again rather than having to make your own (although there are some great pizza recipes). Hopefully more restaurants will follow this trend!

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Return to the Last Wine Bar, Norwich

I originally reviewed the Last Wine Bar in Norwich on 5th February where it was severely let down by poor service. On that occasion I was asked to fill out a card with my details and they said they would 'see what they could do'. A couple of months later, a letter arrived through the door stating that I had 'won a 3 course meal for 2'. Either, I flukely won the prize draw or they gave it to me so that we would come back. You can make your own mind up! I think I'd have much rather they had acknowledged the poor service delivered on the first occasion and asked me to return. In the end however, who am I to turn down a free meal?!

My girlfriend and I went back with high hopes, the food had been really good the first time round and surely the service couldn't be as disastrous. It was much improved, in fact, we had to take a break between our main and dessert as they had been so prompt throughout. On the other hand, it wasn't perfect. There were a few tempting specials on offer but instead of these being delivered with a true knowledge of what they were serving they were read by the waitress off a scrap of paper she had in her pocket. Only a minor niggle but just detracts from the overall experience.

Seared scallops on a bed of sweet potato and kaffir lime purée with curried popcorn.

The food was again good. I started with one of the specials, seared scallops on a bed of sweet potato and kaffir lime purée with curried popcorn. The scallops were cooked perfectly and the purée was smooth and light and had a real zingy flavour. The popcorn was as random as it sounded though, it tasted great and was a nice idea but just felt a bit out of place with the overall dish. My girlfriend had the char-grilled king prawns, vegetable curry, cumin popadoms and mango salsa which she said was 'very tasty and a nice balanced dish'. I then wanted the roast cod with crab velouté but as I'm gluten free this wasn't an option because, 'the chef thickens all his sauces with flour'. So instead, I opted for the lemon sole with caper, and sundried tomato butter, served with new potatoes. The fish was again beautifully cooked and the butter a beautiful accompaniment but it's a shame the butter wasn't on both sides as eating the second half of the fish was a little bland. The sirloin steak, with Dijon mash, watercress and a balsamic and red onion jus was my girlfriend's choice and received a good write up. For dessert I had a raspberry and basil panacotta which was good if lacked a little wow factor. My girlfriend opted for the passion fruit cheesecake with passion fruit syrup. The cheesecake was described as a 'little bland' but the passion fruit syrup was 'wonderful' so another decent dish.

Char-grilled king prawns, vegetable curry, cumin popadoms and mango salsa

With the bill only coming to £23, this was pretty incredible. Had I been paying full whack, I think I may have been left with a slightly sour taste in my mouth. The service was much improved but at these prices it should be at the top of it's game. Likewise, there were some good dishes and a few that just didn't quite hit the mark. At the moment, this restaurant is being outclassed by better establishments in Norwich.

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Jamie Oliver's Italian, Glasgow

The Jamie Oliver brand is going from strength to strength, I've got his pans, flavour shakers, pestle and mortar, cook books and I even saw Jamie Oliver tomato plants in homebase! There was a question on the TV show Million Pound drop the other night asking which celebrity chef out of Blumenthal, Ramsay and Oliver hadn't won a coveted Michelin star. The answer is of course Jamie Oliver, but that's not what Jamie is about. Jamie's Italian was exactly what the naked chef is all about, great food, great flavours, served in a relaxed atmosphere.

Jamie's empire is expanding rapidly and there are now around 18 restaurants up and down the UK. We went to his Glasgow restaurant in the very impressive old GPO building in George Square. We went around 2.30pm and only had to wait a few minutes for a table. There is a real buzz the moment you walk in and the smells were fantastic. We opted for the seasonal meat antipasti plank to share, which was a selection of seasonal cured meats, Italian cheeses, pickles and a crunchy salad. Highlights were the buffalo mozzarella which was superbly creamy and the curly pickled green chilli's which were packed with heat and flavour. The presentation was stunning, with the plank placed across two large tins of chopped tomatoes!

For main course I went for a special of blood orange, chargrilled artichokes, creamy gorgonzola and toasty pine nuts. This was a great, perfectly balanced salad, the only criticism would be that I was expecting more chunky artichokes where as the waitress claimed these were finely sliced through the salad which meant the flavour was masked. The gorgonzola and blood orange were a fantastic combination. My girlfriend, knowing I'd want to steal a taste, went for the carbonara but with gluten free pasta! All the main pasta dishes are available with gluten free pasta which was as good as any normal pasta. The carbonara was creamy and the smoked pancetta gave it a delicious flavour. All in all Jamie's Italian was fantastic food and at an affordable price, who needs a Michelin star?

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