Fish and chips at the seaside!

Disclaimer: This entry shouldn't be in a blog about cuppas and cakes but it was such an outstanding meal, it deserves coverage on the WWW.

Location: The Pearson's Arms, Whitstable, Kent
Date: 12 April 2009
Details: Battered pollock with double-fried chips, mushy peas and salad.

Notes: It's true, fish and chips tastes better at the seaside.

Duska and I decided to take the bus from Canterbury to Whitstable. Felipe and Guiliano fancied a spontaneous roadtrip so they accompanied us. We did attempt a walk along the beach but the prospect of fish and chips was too alluring. We had just missed the end of lunch service at this pub and the evening menu did not include fish and chips. What?? Duska explained our disappointment to the waitress who pleaded our case to the chef... and in the end, all four of us had fish and chips, hooray!

The fish was pollock instead of the traditional cod - isn't cod a protected species now? Whatever it was, it was fried in a thick fluffy batter. The chips were twice-fried - once in a medium-temp oil to cook them through, and then again in very hot oil to crisp up the outsides. We tucked into our eco-friendly white-fish + chips with gusto. The photo makes it look quite small but I had to donate one chunk of my fish to Felipe and half the chips to a salivating chap on the next table. And we couldn't even contemplate a pudding (which might have justified the entry on this blog). It was all washed down with Guiliano's excellent choice of white wine.

Whitstable is famous for oysters but try the traditional fish and chips instead - much more delicious!

Polumesec and Red Wine

Location: Duska's apartment, Canterbury

Date: 11 April 2009

Description: 'Polumesec' with red wine

Notes:

Duska decided to make some little cakes which her family make in Serbia. The name 'polumesec' means 'half-moon' which refers to the shape when cut out with a glass - see image below.
They're made with lots of ground nuts and sugar, and turn out more like sweets or a sort of biscuit than a cake. They firmed up overnight in the fridge but we still scoffed plenty on Saturday evening with a bottle of red wine.

Cutting out the half-moon shape:

Sharing the polumesec cakes:

Toffee Cupcakes and Ginger Hot Chocolate

Location: McKechnie's Cafe, Stratford-upon-Avon

Date: Monday 9 March 2009

Details: Hot Milk and Hot Chocolate, both with Gingerbread Syrup, and Toffee Cupcakes

Notes:

Celebratory hot drinks and cupcakes for Kiz's birthday. These cupcakes look incredibly professional - and that's because they are. Kiz bought them at a bakery in Tewkesbury to share with her students and the staff at Foxford School where she is directing a musical. (Not McKechnie's produce I'm afraid. Naughty.)

As one of Kiz's 30-Things-To-Do-For-Her-Thirtieth, she's listed "Have Ginger Hot Chocolate with Sooze at McKechnie's" so here we are ticking it off the list.

Lovely hot milk for me with the same 'Gingerbread' syrup, and the cupcakes were perfect - sickly sweet fat layer of icing and a fluffy toffee-flavoured cake.

Brownies and Ice-Cream with a Pot of Tea

Location: Häagen-Daaz Cafe, Leicester Square, London
www.haagen-dazs.co.uk/cafes/menu.htm
Date: Tuesday 3 March 2009
Details: Chocolate Macadamia Brownie with scoops of Dulce de Leche and Vanilla Caramel Brownie ice-creams with a pot of English Breakfast tea

Notes: My brother and I had such a disappointing Indian meal at 'Masala Zone' (opposite the Royal Opera House) that we had to erase it by having an outrageously sugary dessert somewhere else. After a foray into a ChinaTown 'Hello Kitty' emporium (where John bought two strange-but-cute plush dogs), we ended up in Leicester Square at this cafe which was buzzing and full of tourists.

We both ordered tea. John had a 'Cookie Crunch' - a tall sundae glass which was crammed with Cookies&Cream ice-cream, cookie pieces, hot fudge sauce and chocolate sprinkles. J plunged his spoon in and it oozed obscenely over the side. Yum. I had a Brownie Extreme - two (!) chocolate and macadamia nut brownies with 2 scoops of ice-cream - I swapped the set options to my favourites: Vanilla Caramel Brownie and Dulce de Leche.

I couldn't manage two brownies - good job too, because the plate was probably my entire calorie allowance for one day, a total sugar overload and entirely nutrition-free. Wahey! And tastes even better on someone else's expenses!

Chocolate Cylinder with Apple Pie Ice Cream

Location: Fat Cat Bistro, Solihull

Date: 21 February 2009

Details: Chocolate Cylinder dessert with Apple Pie Ice-cream, with a cup of hot water

Notes:

Amanda and I splashed out on lunch at this posh Solihull bistro. I'd just closed a dormant account at NatWest bank so we used the closing balance of £22.40 towards our lunch. Not that it went very far towards it... The lunch deal was rather confusing because it offered a cheap price for two courses from a handful of things on their regular menu. Various lumps of meat were included but not a salad, which is surely cheaper to produce... Weird.

The cylinder thing was very odd - very heavy, like a hefty dark chocolate mouse. There were two circles of gritty solid chocolate at each end. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do with it. Probably the best thing would be to chop it into thin rounds and share it around.

The ice-cream was delicious - and tasted like apple pie. Very clever. I only managed to eat half of the chocolate log-thing but the ice-cream was hoovered up quickly, despite the weird slate plate which was scratchy under-spoon. Not good.

Afternoon Tea at Burj Al Arab Hotel

Location: Burj Al Arab, Dubai
Date: 20 January 2009
Details: Jasmine Green Tea, sandwiches, desserts, patisserie.

Notes:
My friend Clare's parents had bought her 'Tea for Two' at the Burj as a Christmas present so she generously took me along. The security was very tight - we had to be checked in at the gate by guards before even getting over the moat...

The tea began with a glass of fizz (fruit juice for Clare) and a bowl of fruit salad. We were then presented with this Burj-shaped stand containing our food:
Top two tiers: mini sandwiches. We chose the vegetarian option which involved the creative use of mushrooms, roasted veg and salad. The breads were all different types from ordinary white to mini ciabatta. My favourite was the tasty brown light bread.
Green tier: Miniature crème caramels with shortbread and some unidentifiable fruit cakes (bit dry). The crumbly shortbread goes beautifully with the smooth crème caramel.
Bottom tier: Dinky patisseries


We took over 3 hours to enjoyably chomp our way through this delicious 'meal'. The view was spectacular, out across the coast and the whole city. Not for sufferers of vertigo! The staff were fab throughout, friendly and quick, and enthusiastic about helping most of the customers who wanted to talk photos. I'm not sure how this hotel claims to be a "7-star" but maybe the unusually good service is worth an extra star. A memorable experience, nothing like a stuffy Afternoon Tea at an English hotel.

Recipe: Easy butter shortbread with chocolate chunks

Adapted from Mary Berry's 'Simple Cakes' book in attempt to copy the delicious Marks & Spencer chocolate chunk shortbread cookies…

Recipe: Easy butter shortbread with chocolate chunks

Ingredients
8 oz (225g) plain flour
4 oz (100g) caster sugar
8 oz (225g) butter, at room temperature, cut into small chunks
4 oz (100g) semolina
Optional:
2 oz (50g) chocolate chunks/drops
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla essence
+ an additional 1 oz (25g) caster sugar, for dusting

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C / Gas Mark 3. Line a baking tray with parchment.
2. Mix the flour, sugar and semolina in a large bowl (with the chocolate chunks and salt if using). Then add the butter (and vanilla essence if using) and mix it into the dry ingredients, using your hands to bring the mixture together to form a crumbly dough.
3. Tip the dough into the tray and press it down to a 1 cm thickness with the back of a spoon. Ensure the mixture is spread in a thick even layer. Sprinkle the top with the additional caster sugar.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes until pale golden. Check it after 20 minutes to make sure it doesn't go too brown. Allow to cool in the tray for 5 minutes.
5. Cut the shortbread into squares. Lift them out and cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes

• Butter or better quality margarine both work. Butter spreads (Clover, Flora Buttery etc) work the best - a good flavour and easy to mix in. Butter is more solid than marg so it results in more robust biscuits but they can seem a bit too heavy.
• If you don't have semolina, use cornflour or just more plain flour. I've tried it with both coarse and fine semolina and both work fine. The biscuits are slightly crunchier with the coarse semolina.
• The salt and vanilla essence are added to boost the flavour but can be omitted.
• Cadbury's Chocolate Chunks work very well in this shortbread - Morrison's sell them in the 'Home Baking' aisle.
• If the mixture doesn't fill the baking sheet, press it down as directed and square off the end.
• Alternatively you can form the mixture into a stickier dough by adding milk or water, and then roll out and cut into shapes (see image showing the dough cut into shortbread rounds).
• The biscuits last for a week or so kept in an airtight tin.