The Palomar

You know the way I’ve mentioned before what Mr Frivolitea says about pink neon signs…….

Well this was, yet again, a sign of really really good things. I mean, I knew it was going to be good, Our friend JB has been telling us for months that we need to go and it has just won the people’s choice in the Observer Food Monthly awards. However it exceeded my expectations. I loved everything about it. It’s elegant, it’s vibrant. We were given a seat at a table in the back corner. It was away from the heart of the restaurant which at first I thought might mean I was disappointed but actually our little corner was great. The Palomar is all about sharing dishes, something I particularly love, and it’s my kind of food. Described by the restaurant as the food of modern day Jerusalem, the only problem with the menu is that it makes it really difficult to choose! At least the great thing about a menu of lots of sharing dishes is that you can try more things.

We started with Kubaneh. A Yemeni pot baked bread served with tahini and velvet tomatoes. The bread had a rich brioche quality about it and the tahini, well, I’d buy it by the litre. It was rich and intense and absolutely delicious.

We choose to have beetroot carpaccio from the raw bar. The beetroot came with burnt goats cheese, hazelnut brittle, lentil tuille and pomegranate molasses vinaigrette. My favourite dish of the night I think. A dish that looked simple but was packed full of little bursts of flavour and texture.

We chose a Mackerel fricassee from the specials menu. It was served with a Tunisian fried bun, potato, cured lemon, capers and quails egg. I liked this dish but it was my least favourite of the night. I didn’t feel it had the same excitement of flavour and texture that the other dishes had.

We chose 2 dishes from the josper menu. Cauliflower steak ‘josperized’ with cured lemon butter, homemade labneh and toasted almonds. This dish came close to the beetroot dish for me as favourite of the night. I love cauliflower and this dish was a revelation. The flames of the oven really intensified the cauliflower flavour and the accompaniments, particularly the chopped tomato, made for a really interesting dish.

Finally Shakshukit ( deconstructed kebab with minced meat, yoghurt, tahini and pita). You can’t really go wrong with minced lamb can you? No, good, we agree.

After a bit of a breather, and another glass of prosecco…. The prosecco glasses were so beautiful, we just had to….. We shared a dessert. Jerusalem mess – Labneh mousse, almond crumble, strawberries, lemon cream, elderflower and apple jelly and fresh sorrel. This was my kind of dessert. The sharpness of the lemon cream and the intense bursts of flavour in the elderflower and apple jelly cubes were a delight. It was a perfect end to the evening.

I want to visit The Palomar again. There is so much on the menu that intrigues me and that I want to eat. Next time I’m going to book to sit at the bar. I can’t think of anything better than the buzz of eating food that has been prepared right in front of me.

Blanchette, Soho

I really wanted to try somewhere new on this visit to London and so decided to ask Twitter where we should try. Well Twitter came up trumps, thanks to our friend Tom’s contacts.

What a great place! Tucked away in Soho, a small place with big personality.

We sat at the bar enjoyed a glass of wine and a selection of small plates of fantastic French food.

I loved the relaxed, yet vibrant feel of this place. The food was in many ways simple but packed a punch. Classic flavours in smaller dishes enabling us to try more. We will certainly be back. I mean who can resist a glass of wine with frites and bearnaise sauce!

Our dishes:

Pork, duck and fig terrine

Sautéed tiger prawns with glazed shallots, parsley, garlic and Pernod. Warm marinated rare breed beef with charred peppers and aioli. Frites with bearnaise sauce.

Poached pear with blackcurrant, champagne mousse

Cookbook Challenge January week 2

I decided to choose ‘Spelt spaghetti, vine tomatoes and baked ricotta from Jamie Oliver’s Everyday Superfood for this week’s cookbook challenge.

I love roasted tomatoes and the recipe combined this with chilli, lemon and garlic. A winning combination.

I really enjoyed following the recipe and the baking of the ricotta. It works so well.

Very tasty dish that I will definitely make regularly. Though I’ll ensure I buy chillis with more of a kick!

Pairings

Some might think that in early January, not long after Christmas excess, we might have had enough cheese and cured meats and we’d avoid them for a while…..what foolish people. You can NEVER have enough cheese and cured meats and when you see that Pairings have a January offer of a bottle of wine and a platter for two for £25 how could you refuse? Exactly.

This was our first trip to Pairings and it’s a great way to spend an evening if you don’t want a full meal. I was really impressed with the quality of the platter and the choice available in meats and cheeses. The platter came with bread, honey, chutney, pickles and pork pie as well as our chosen meats and cheeses and it was great to see British cheese and cured meats in the selection.

We also ordered some harissa almonds, make sure you get some harissa almonds.

This is a great addition to the York food scene, an independent venture that’s well worth supporting.

Bircher muesli

As part of my attempts at healthy eating I’ve been following a healthy eating plan. One of the suggestions is bircher muesli, here’s my version.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

50 g porridge oats ( I use stringer porridge from a local farm in Bishop Wilton)

1 apple, grated

15g pumpkin seeds

15g sunflower seeds

15g chopped almonds

1/2 tsp cinnamon

100g natural yoghurt

100ml water

A handful of blueberries and raspberries

Method:

Put the apple, oats, cinnamon and half the almonds and seeds in a bowl and mix.

Add in the yoghurt and water and mix together.

Cover and chill overnight.

To serve:

Divide the muesli between two bowls, add the other half of the almonds and seeds and top with blueberries and raspberries

Kale crisps

As always in January I attempt to plan healthier meals and snacks. Here is one of my favourites

1 bag of shredded kale

1 tbsp rapeseed oil ( I use local Yorkshire rapeseed oil)

1 tsp Salt flakes
Spread the kale over a couple of baking trays. Make sure it’s a single layer.

Drizzle the oil over the kale and sprinkle on the salt.

Bake in the oven at 200c for approximately 15 minutes nice and crispy.

Leave to go completely cold before putting in an airtight container so that it doesn’t lose its crispiness.

Cookbook Challenge January Week 1

So it has begun, it is week one of the cookbook challenge and I m slightly regretting planning to cook a new recipe on the first day back after the holidays and on the same night as I needed to go and do the food shop….. But I did it.
I’ve chosen Everyday Super Food by Jamie Oliver as my book this month.

For this week’s recipe I chose Bombay Chicken and Cauli Poppadoms, Rice and Spinach. I’m going to try and blog each week showing some photos of the process not just the finished product. I really liked this dish, it was simple to make and had bags of flavour. It also gave me opportunity to start using my thermomix more as the recipe included making a mint dressing

and a marinade to make for the chicken.

I particularly liked the addition of cauliflower to the dish.

This is defintely a recipe I’ll add to the regular midweek meals list!

Here’s the finished dish and the photo from the book.

Coppi

I’ve been wanting to try out Coppi for a while. We have been to Bartali, its little sister on the North Coast, and I spend most days jealous of the executive chef Jonny Phillips’ Instagram feed! I am pleased to say that Coppi did not disappoint.
What I love about Coppi (and Bartali for that matter) is the flexibility of the menu. If you want a big meal, 3 courses, then you can have them, but the cichetti and pizzetta allow for flexible eating and an opportunity to try lots of things. That’s important when you are indecisive like me.
We chose the crispy artichokes and chilli Mayo from the cichetti specials and five other cichetti dishes: Sicilian lamb and pistachio polpettina, feta fritters with truffle honey, goats cheese and smoked tomato pesto arrancini, crispy pork belly and pickled radicchio and duck ravioli fritti and truffled porcini aioli.

We also couldn’t resist the portavogie prawns, lemon and garlic butter, grilled focaccia and rocket from the starters section and the duck, hazelnut and truffled honey Pizzetta.

Everything had bags of flavour, simple yet brilliantly executed and the portavogie prawns were so delicious that I to restrain Mr Frivolitea from licking the plate! My only comment is that all our cichetti were deep fried and that wasn’t clear from the description. That isn’t a criticism as it tasted fantastic and it certainly wasn’t greasy or oily but I might have chosen differently to ensure variety had I realised.

We rounded the meal off with a perfectly boozy and light tiramisu and I had a glass of prosecco. The bill – £40 for two people. You can’t go wrong with that. We will certainly return and Bartali is definitely on the list for a revisit in the summer!

The Cookbook Challenge

I love my collection of cookbooks and I enjoy nothing more than an afternoon on the sofa, flicking through recipes. The problem is I don’t always use them and challenge myself to do new things.

Mr Frivolitea and I had been chatting about our plans for 2016 and one plan we had made was to try one new recipe a week. A couple of friends on Facebook starting discussing the same thing!

So…. A Facebook group was born. A place where we can encourage each other to stick to the challenge but also discover the books that people use and celebrate the results!

Why not join us….. https://www.facebook.com/groups/129597497415126/

Haptik (again)

If you’ve read my previous blog about Haptik then you will know that I love this place. I really admire the commitment of Johnny and Rachel to bring quality coffee and a local art space to Newtownards. I love the feel of the place and I love the fact that lots of local people of all ages have embraced it and go regularly.

On previous visits, Haptik had not yet served a breakfast or lunch menu so our visit this time was a great excuse to try some food.

We had Mike’s fancy cheese on toast with mushrooms and spinach. Mike’s Fancy Cheese Co. is an artisan cheese maker local to Newtownards and the main reason for choosing the dish.

Oh my! It was delicious, the cheese was complimented by the mushrooms, onions and spinach in a creamy tarragon sauce and a sprinkling of nuts and seeds.

The menu at Haptik is small, creative and seasonal and as you already know the coffee is spot on.

We will keep going as often as we can!