Monthly Archives: October 2011

A day at The Cook School Scotland

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I was lucky enough to get invited to try a class at The Cook School, based in Kilmarnock south of Glasgow. I decided to pick a class that I thought would be a challenge – game cookery has always frightened me because I never know whether it’s actually cooked or not, so I decided that was the class for me.

The day started with tea and scones in the dining room where you got to meet your fellow chefs for the day. Our class was being taken by Gary MacLean with Heather Hood helping out.

 Gary and Heather
I don’t know that you could have two nicer chefs as instructors (I haven’t met the other chefs of The Cook School though!). If you had any questions, problem or needed a hand, one of them was always close by to come to the rescue. It made the whole day relaxing and enjoyable rather than stressful as some people who are new to the kitchen may worry about. 
We then moved into the cooking area – everyone had a station fitted out with a newfandangled induction stove and cooktop (absolute bliss to cook on) with all your ingredients ready to go. Each recipe was demonstrated by Gary before you were let loose to have a go yourself. 
Gary demonstrated bread making (foccacia) and a vegetable tagine, and then we made the tagine.
Vegetable tagine (uncooked)
The tagine was a combination of sturdy root vegetables like squash, celeriac, carrot and pumpkin and was then slow cooked in the tagine at 140 degrees for as long as you could. The vegetables held together during the cooking process really well and really developed their flavour. 
Saddle of roe deer with walnut dressing and beetroot salad
This was my favourite dish to make – it was really easy but looks very flash, and would be a great dinner party dish to serve up as it is really quick. The walnut dressing was great, even though I added too much vinegar to mine! 
Apple tart tatin on the induction stove
Focaccia
I’ve made focaccia myself at home before but it didn’t rise as much as this one – Heather’s tip of the day was to add more sugar which gives it some extra rise. This was light and soft and a really nice accompaniment to the main dish of the roast pheasant. 
Roast pheasant resting from the oven (sorry for the somewhat gruesome photo!)
The roast pheasant was a real challenge – especially learning how to truss it. I’ve never bothered trussing poultry before when I roast it but I always will now – the legs can stop the breast meat from drying out when they are trussed. Also, I never realised how easy poultry is to carve when you take out the wishbone!
I don’t have a photo of the apple tart tatin and sadly I’ve eaten mine already – I will make another one and post a picture though as I think it was my second favourite thing of the day!
Roast pheasant with vegetable tagine

Gary showed us a range of game animals pre-processing to see what kinds of animals they get in, I haven’t posted the pictures here in case anyone is a bit queasy about that kind of thing – but leave me a comment if you do want to see them and I’ll add them in a separate post! The course made me a lot more confident about cooking game and I will be definitely be trying a different kind of meat when we have people over next. Scotland is a real treasure-trove of delicious meats and it’s a shame to stick with the supermarket standards. If you’re not sure where to get your meat from, The Cook School Shop can sort you out. They sell cooking supplies as well as game meats, cheeses and sauces.  
The cooking stations
The Cook School was a great experience and it was lovely to meet the chefs as well as the people enjoying the class. I really enjoyed sitting in the dining room at the end of the day and getting to sample the foods we’d made, as well as have a nice glass of wine. We got to take home our leftovers from the day, including our whole tart tatin which was lovely for dessert the following night, as well as a goodie bag with the recipes, folder and our apron home. The Chook School Shop has a great supply of hard to get items – including my long-lusted for panko bread crumbs. 
I had a brilliant day at The Cook School and would recommend the class to any level of cook – if you have an interest in game meats, this is the class for you. If you’re interested in the Market Kitchen class, Leila recently visited for that one, you can read her post over at Leil’Appetit to see the tasty things she made.

Thanks to Taste Communications for arranging my visit and to Gary and Heather for being so lovely and helpful.

The Cook School is at 7 Moorfield North Industrial Park, Crosshouse, Kilmarnock, KA2 0FE

Gamba, Glasgow City Centre, Glasgow

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Gamba‘s website proclaims that it is the best seafood restaurant in Glasgow. But faced with competition from restaurants like Gandolfi Fish, Rogano and Crabshakk, that’s a big pretty call. We ate there last night. Want to know what we thought? Well, you’ll have to read on to find out!

Gamba has a long history in Glasgow, but as a relative newcomer, I didn’t know too much about it. I was really excited to go last night as I really love seafood and was somewhat overwhelmed by the choices on the menu.

The restaurant is warm and welcoming and decorated with seafood artwork. You really feel like you’re immersed in a proper seafood restaurant when you are surrounded with that many different kinds of fish and crustacean! Again, I was trying out my iPhone for the pictures, I think these ones look somewhat grainy but I will keep trying to perfect my technique!

I was facing a very difficult decision between two starters, as well as two mains. Thankfully we had an incredibly helpful waiter who was able to paint a picture of the dishes to add to the menu descriptions. I was considering the sashimi, but when he told me that Gamba is famous for its fish soup, and it’s been on the menu for the whole 13 years it’s been open, then I had to have it.

Fish soup, crabmeat, stem ginger, coriander & prawn dumplings £10.00

I can’t remember ever ordering a soup as a starter before. Normally soup descriptions are so uninspiring that I just skim right over them. This however, caught my eye even before the waiter mentioned how popular it is. I really loved this soup, it was intense, rich and well balanced with lots of crabmeat as well as plenty of dumplings. I had expected the dumplings to be encased in a wonton wrapper (being my experience of soup dumplings) but these were lovely, petite balls of meat that added an extra bit of interest to the soup.

Dressed Cornish crab, sweet paprika mayo, red pepper £13.50

Graeme isn’t as big a fish fan as me, but is getting there eventually!  As a result, he played it fairly safe with his first course and went for something he knew he would like.  The crab tasted fantastic, and there were satisfying chunks of claw meat included to let you know you were eating proper fresh crab.  The peppers worked great in conjunction with the mayo, and this was a nice refreshing way to start his meal.  Unfortunately Graeme isn’t the most delicate of eaters and ate all of the toast in about 3 mouthfuls, but he still had some bread left to mop up the rest!

Scottish Lobster thermidor (half) £24.00
I was trying to decide between the lobster and the scallops with teriyaki dipping sauce. As soon as our waiter told me that there was three different types of cheese in the thermidor, I was sold. He also recommended the hand-cut rooster chips as the perfect side to mop up the rest of the cheese sauce – in my mind these were absolutely essential to the dish otherwise I would have been licking the plate! This dish is what my dreams are made of – delicate, light lobster smothered in a well balanced and heavenly cheese sauce. There was so much lobster as well, it was a really generous sized dish and I was perfectly stuffed when I finished eating it. 
Fillets of Black banded bream, prawns, capers, almonds, parsley, lemon £17.50
Another relatively light meal for Graeme, but that certainly didn’t mean that it was light on flavour.  The almonds added a nice bit of crunch to the dish, and the supporting ingredients worked well together to enhance the relatively calm flavour of the bream.  There was a good amount of prawns as well, which was good to see.

Hand-cut rooster chips £3.00
The aforementioned chips – fantastic!
Chocolate & nutella tart, cream ice cream £6.50

Normally, Graeme jumps at the chance of having a chocolate dessert, and it’s pretty much guaranteed that whatever has the most chocolate will be automatically picked.  However, this one was picked with some trepidation, as strangely, he isn’t a fan of nutella at all.  He decided to take the risk, and we were certainly rewarded with a really tasty dessert.  Without being overly filling, the chocolate had a great balance to it, and the nutella wasn’t particularly dominant.  For something with that much chocolate in it you didn’t feel like it was a struggle to get to the end, and the pastry was really good also.  Much fun was had spinning the ice cream in the sauce on the top of the tart, which added to the fun!

So, do we think that Gamba is actually Glasgow’s best seafood restaurant? Well, it wouldn’t be fair to say when we’ve not eaten everywhere. But we can definitely say that is the best we’ve eaten at so far, and I would highly recommend it – whether you’re a seafood lover or not.

Gamba on Urbanspoon

Competition!

With many thanks to Gamba, we have a cookbook to give away to a lucky blog reader! To enter all you have to do is comment on this post, and tell us what your favourite seafood dish is (links to recipes will be greatly appreciated!).

Terms and conditions
The competition is open from 17 October 2011 and will close at midnight on 31 October 2011.
Winners will be notified by email and also posted on The Glasgow Food Blog on 1 November 2011. If the prize is not claimed by 15 November 2011, the prize will be re-drawn.
The competition is open to readers worldwide.
You can only enter once.

Good luck!

Ottolenghi’s soba noodles with aubergine and mango

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I’d openly admit that I feel very uncomfortable calling eggplants aubergine, having called them eggplants for some 26 years previously. But because that’s what Ottolenghi calls his recipe, I’ll stick with it!

In the spirit of saving money, I recently borrowed Ottolenghi’s Plenty from my local library. I’ve discovered our library is an absolute treasure-trove of cookbooks and I’m planning on borrowing a whole bunch before I commit to buy. I’ve made quite a few recipes of Ottolenghi’s now, and not only are they all perfect in terms of the recipe, the flavour they deliver is absolutely amazing. If you’ve never cooked anything of his, you really should as you’ll be totally blown away by the taste.

Last night we made noodles with aubergine and mango. Soba noodles at our local Waitrose were pushing £4, and I’m not made of money so I just substituted vermicelli which we already had at home. If I was going to make this again I’d use a thicker noodle to help absorb the sauce, like an udon noodle.

This dish serves 6 as a starter and you can adapt it into a “meater” main by adding tofu. We made it for dinner – the vinegar sauce ended up being slightly overpowering for me after a while so I think it would be much better as a starter. Don’t let that make you think this wasn’t an amazing dinner though! We still have leftovers today so I think it could serve 3-4 as a main.

120ml rice vinegar
40g caster sugar
½ tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, crushed
½ fresh red chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
grated zest and juice of 1 lime
Sunflower oil
2 aubergines, cut into 2cm dice
250g soba noodles/udon noodles
1 large ripe mango, cut into 5mm thick strips
40g basil leaves, chopped
40g coriander leaves, chopped
½ red onion, very thinly sliced

First make the dressing. In a small saucepan gently warm the vinegar, sugar and salt for up to 1 minute, just until the sugar dissolves. Remove from the heat and add the garlic, chilli and sesame oil. Allow to cool, then add the lime zest and juice.

Vinegar dressing
Heat up some sunflower oil on a grill pan and grill the aubergine cubes in two batches. Once golden brown remove to a colander, sprinkle liberally with salt and leave there to drain.
Diced eggplant

Cook the noodles in plenty of boiling salted water, stirring occasionally. They should take 5–8 minutes to become tender but still retaining a bite. Drain and rinse well under running cold water. Shake off as much of the excess water as possible, then leave to dry on a tea towel.

In a mixing bowl toss the noodles with the dressing, mango, aubergine, half of the herbs and the onion. When ready to serve add the rest of the herbs and mix well, then pile on a plate or in a bowl.

Again, I was taking these pictures on my iPhone 4S with the help of the Camera+ app – I’m considering using this as my full-time food blogger camera because it’s not only discrete but it takes pretty damn good pictures, I think!
Let me know what you think of the photos, and if you’ve made this recipe! It’s wonderful and light with a big punch of tangy vinegar. You really need the mango in it as it is the perfect contrast to all that tang. 

The Lansdowne Bar, Glasgow West End

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After the baking competition at the Lansdowne (see this previous post!), we were invited along for dinner and jumped at the opportunity! We went along last night for dinner before going to see The Blood Arm at Captain’s Rest. I also took the photos on my new iPhone 4S (which yes, I waited most of the day for) – let me know what you think of the quality of the pictures!
The Lansdowne has a great atmosphere at night, it’s tucked away on Lansdowne Crescent, just off Great Western Road. It has a real local feel, filled with people who live nearby and know what a gem of a pub this place is. The dining area is curtained off and has a nice intimate feel but still bustling with people coming and going to the bar and the conservatory. We were warmly welcomed by assistant manager Barry (who came third in the baking competition!) and had great seats in a booth. 
We had decided to go with the salt and pepper squid for starters, but the lovely chef came out quickly to tell us he wasn’t happy with his new fish supplier and recommended changing our order. This kind of service is really greatly appreciated, so we decided to go for the antipasti platter. 
Antipasti platter – £12
In my mind this was a bit different from your usual antipasti – the bread was lovely and light and it was accompanied by pesto, which I think made the starter a nicely balanced dish rather than being weighed down by too much meat.  

Venison haunch with dauphinoise potatoes, parnsip puree and chef’s gravy – £16 
The gravy the vension came with was absolutely delicious, really meaty and rich but not sickly. Thankfully we’d ordered the chunky chips as they were perfect for mopping up the gravy. The dauphinoise was great, although I prefer mine slightly more creamy and then venison filled my craving for a delicious, gamey piece of meat. 

Parma ham, rocket, parmesan and pesto – £9
An excellent, old style, rustic pizza absolutely chockers with herbs – which Graeme loved. The ham was a lightly flavoured parma ham which meant the pizza was really well balanced. Also, the pizzas are huge and could be a challenge for one person to down in a sitting (especially after a starter!).
The Lansdowne is the kind of place you wish you lived close enough too to visit every day. With main meals starting at £7, and the venison being the most expenisve at £16, you can eat really well for really cheaply. If you like a warm, welcoming place to have a delicious meal, then you should pop down to the Lansdowne to check it out. 
Thanks to Barry for making us feel at home and a really enjoyable meal. We look forward to coming back again soon! 

Lansdowne on Urbanspoon

The Lansdowne Bar: Bake Off!

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On Friday I was lucky enough to be invited along to judge the baking competition at the Lansdowne in the West End. The event was being run to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support and together with Evelyn from Top Tier Cakes we had the lovely task of tasting 12 delicious cakes, brownies and cupcakes. 
Lots of beautiful cakes
There was quite a few really lovely cakes, but the toughest part of the day was picking between the top three.

Look at this beauty! I think this was my favourite for the fact it was so unique: a black velvet cupcake. This was absolutely delicious and was baked by the Lansdowne Assistant Manager Barry! The downside was that the black food colouring turned your mouth and tongue black: in my opinion, the taste was totally worth it. These cupcakes came 3rd overall!
These babies came in 2nd place – so pretty! Raspberry and honey cupcakes – and they had some orange zest through them too. The whole raspberries in the mix were a real highlight. These were baked by Alison McKenzie – congratulations!

Shockingly, I don’t have a picture of the cake that came in first! It was a chocolate cake with just the right amount of ganache and was impossible to fault, hence it winning first! If I can find a picture online, I’ll upload it. First place was won by Emma Briggs.

The Lansdowne raised over £300 on the day by selling these delicious cakes which I think is an amazing effort. Thank you so much to the Lansdowne for inviting me along to judge, it was an absolute honour. 

Lansdowne on Urbanspoon

The Grill Room at the Square, 29 Glasgow, Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow

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I need to openly declare that I am immensely biased about 29 Glasgow at the start of this post. We had our wedding reception at 29 in June, and if I could marry a venue it would be this one. Of course our wedding day was the highlight of my life (apart from our second wedding day in Melbourne), and that’s why I love it so much. I’ll even admit I was quite nervous going back on Sunday night for The Grill Room at the Squares new Wicked Steak Club as I had such magical memories from our wedding day. I needn’t have worried.

So what is the Wicked Steak Club? Once a month (sometimes once every two months, depending on the time of year) The Grill Room will present a guest steak in a 4 course menu for £40 per head, or £32 if you’re a member of 29.

The guest steak last night was from Cairnhill Farms, based in Ayrshire and the steak was accompanied by a menu designed by head chef David Friel.

Also: apologies for the photos – I didn’t want to put the flash on, and the restaurant can be quite dark! So please just squint and use your imagination.

We ate:

Freshly baked home made bread
Sometimes restaurant bread can be delicious, and yet nothing to comment on. This bread was flavoured with lemon and dill and was absolutely delicious. A very generous sized loaf for two people to share – I had to stop myself scoffing down the whole thing as I knew I wouldn’t be able to eat the steak if I did! 
Hot and cold smoked salmon open sandwich with pineapple and mango salsa, coriander crème fraiche
I think this was a great accompaniment to a steak main – it was light, fresh and packed with flavour. The coriander crème fraiche was absolutely delicious. 
Lemon sorbet
A lovely palette cleanser – too icy for my sensitive teeth sadly! Graeme enjoyed both of them though. 
Cairnhill Farms extra matured 8 oz fillet with steak sauce, creamed cheese potato, caramelised onion and wilted spinach
This picture does no justice to the meal whatsoever! The steak was cooked perfectly and was up there with the best steaks I’ve ever eaten (Rockpool Melbourne being the other). The caramelised onion didn’t float my boat to be honest (but it generally doesn’t, I don’t like sweet with my savoury) but the creamed cheese potato was what my dreams are made of. Words can’t really express how delicious the steak was – let’s just say that even though I was incredibly full, I was still chowing it down until I had to admit defeat (granted, I probably only had 20 grams to go as well). 
Ice-cream and jelly dessert
After that immense steak, jelly was the only thing I could manage and so this dessert was excellent. 
I loved the Wicked Steak Night at 29. It was really well run and the sales manager of Cairnhill Farms spoke at the beginning of the meal to give us an insight into just what makes their meat so special. The night is also excellent value – on the a la carte menu, a fillet steak is normally £32 on its own, so to pay £40 for a 4 course meal is a pretty fantastic deal.

Are you tempted to go to the next Wicked Steak Night? It’s on Sunday 4 December – hopefully we’ll see you there!

The Grill on the Square on Urbanspoon

October Unprocessed 2011: first few days

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Ok, so perhaps we haven’t quite started this challenge. As I only decided to do it a few days ago, we are completely unprepared food-wise. I think throwing “good” food out for the sake of a challenge like this is a terrible waste, so we are currently chomping our way through all the processed food we have in the house so we can make a fresh start.

We also had a weekend filled with having guests over (Friday night), eating at friends house (Saturday night) and eating out (Wicked steak night at 29 last night).

But as of today, I’m determined to give up what I class as evil processed food: chips/crisps, takeaway, soft drink.

Today I’m eating: supermarket bread (soon to be replaced by home made) with vegemite (processed), milo (processed) with milk (processed but acceptable). Lunch is leftover home-made corn fritters, I think all the ingredients are acceptable (leftover veggies and some parma ham), snacks are fresh fruit. I have dinner sorted as well, a Waitrose ready-made potato and leek soup, which to me is very lazy but it does count as unprocessed as it is quite close to a home made version.

Hopefully I’ll have time to make some bread tonight actually and then we can really get under way. I actually like starting it gradually as it makes it easier to think about what to replace and what to buy at the shops tonight, so I can be a bit more prepared while still not being too wasteful. I’ve made a rule that all dairy is ok as I don’t realistically think I could give up milk and cheese (although I will try to cut down on cheese). I’ve also realised if I owned a Thermomix I could totally romp this challenge in (more reason to start saving for one).

Are there any other Glaswegians taking the challenge? So far Sad Barm seems to be doing quite well!