Jamie's Italian

I have been meaning to try this restaurant but have been putting it off for various reasons. Firstly, I’m not overly keen on Jamie – his food and recipes are great but he irritates me intensely. So do I really want to give him more money? Secondly, I am generally underwhelmed by chain restaurants and would much rather each at a locally owned and run business that respond to what the local customers want not just do what is dictated from on high (I had a thoroughly depressing conversation with a waitress in Zizzi once about how little freedom they had). And thirdly, we seem to have a million chain Italians/pizza places in Liverpool already (Ask, Zizzi, , Pizza Express, Bella Italia, Olive Press...I am sure there are more...) some of which are nice some of which are pretty awful. Really, what was this going to add?

Our friends chose the restaurant this night so I decided to not judge the book by the cover, or the restaurant by the celebrity endorsement. I tried my best to ignore these preconceptions and go in with an open mind but I think I just left with my suspicions confirmed.

You are not allowed to book a table on a Saturday night so we arrived to find out friends had been camping out in the cramped bar space for 45 minutes waiting for their pager to buzz. Once it did the four of us were sat downstairs amongst quite stylish decor, the light was just about right, moody but not so dark that you can’t see your dinner or your friends. The server was friendly but didn’t bother us too much and we ordered reasonably quickly. They seem to be trying to convince us there is a fruit and veg market upstairs with a weird wall of awning and lots of fresh tomatoes. I think this is the ‘kooky’ Jamie element. The kitchen is visible taking up one side of the downstairs room. It hate it when restaurants do this – it looks like school kitchen (all stainless steel kitchens do) and it just added to the noise. And my, was it noisy. I really struggled to hear the conversation and there were only four of us, a bigger group and you’ve no chance. I think it was the combination of the music, the hard surfaces, the kitchen and it being a busy Saturday night but I felt like I missed half of the conversation.. I really do feel like my grandfather when I say this and usually I like a good buzz but this got annoying.

My lady friend and I shared a tasty bread board with some good tangy sourdough with a crisp dark crust, a good focaccia and a nice balsamic dip but not enough olive oil. We also shared the ‘Italian Nachos’ which were a bit unexciting. It isn’t helpful when restaurants compare dishes to other totally unrelated dishes from different cuisines.  Do they really think their customers are that unadventurous they won’t try it unless they associate it with something as widespread as nachos? To be honest, calling them nachos just made me wish we had ordered nachos. They were deep fried cheese ravioli – the cheese filling was tasty and tangy but as the pasta puffed up the filling seemed to get lost in the space. They were OK but very forgettable. Our friends had a mushroom fritti and a baked mushroom in a cheesy bread basket (which looked overcooked but my friend didn't complain so I didn’t want to ask). They were enthusiastic but I can’t comment on these as they are not close enough friends for me to ask to steal a mouthful!

For mains I had the Fish in a Bag. The fish seems to change regularly and it was Pollack this time. It came in a paper bag filled with cracked wheat (wonderfully crunchy though too much of it), tiny tangy capers, a bit of chilli and clams and mussels. The fish was moist and delicious and worked well with the tangy tomato sauce with slight warmth of chilli. The mussels and the clams had been sat in the wheat which seemed to have absorbed all of their moisture and they were shrivelled and a bit unexciting. The whole dish could have done with twice as much sauce, or half as much wheat, or somehow just a lot more moisture. And at £16 I would have liked more than two mussels and two clams. And at £15.35 I think the house white, a Trebbiano/Garganega, should have been a bit more exciting.

My lady friend had grilled garlic & thyme chicken with a tomato, olive, chilli & caper sauce. To be honest I don’t really remember there being much of a sauce but maybe it was in pot on the side and I didn’t try any. The chicken was moist but a bit mild on the garlic and thyme. It had a mild smoky flavour from the griddle but somehow the skin hasn’t turned crisp. Our friends had a ravioli from the specials which was supposedly delicious and a braised shin of beef that looked good. The beef came with ‘oozy Parmesan polenta’ – I don’t know about you but I’m not overly attracted by the word ‘oozy’ on a menu.

So yes, as expected the food is better than the personality but there was no escaping this was a chain. But yes I would say it is better than some of the other chain Italians in the city and I admire that he has decided not to include any pizzas on the menu (not even garlic bread!) in an attempt to differentiate themselves from the other chains. I would try it again, but I would hope there was a voucher or an offer as I am not really bothered enough about the Jamie brand to make it worth the extra few quid they pop each dish.

Little Frittata Muffins

I saw a recipe on the Slimming World website for a really dull looking egg and bacon thing in a muffin case. I started thinking about frittata and thought it would be a great healthy lunch. I often make big frittata for picnics served in slices or for buffets cut into small squares tapas style.

This is basically a small individual frittata cooked in the oven so none of that hassle cooking the top!  The slowly cooked onions made so so sweet it almost tasted like it had sugar in it. I had two for lunch with a salad of grated carrot, tomatoes and cucumber in a balsamic dressing. It is set to become a lunch time favourite.

• onions, sliced
• garlic, chopped
• potatoes peeled, quartered and sliced on a mandolin into little pieces
• red pepper, diced
• lean bacon, diced
• eggs, lightly whisked
• dried thyme
• (you could also add other veg such as mushrooms, or leave out the bacon to make veggie)

I sprayed some silicone muffin cases with Fry Light but I might not bother next time.

Soften the onion and garlic for 5mins until starting to soften. Add a dash of water if it starts to stick. Add the potato, pepper, thyme and another dash of water. Mix around so it is all coated and cover. Leave on a low heat for 10-15mins until the potato is cooked through. You could add the bacon at the start or throw it in now - it depends how cooked/dry you want the bacon.
Take off the heat and allow to cool for a while. Put the oven on at 180.
Pour the onion and potato mix into the eggs, mix well and season.
Pour into silicone muffin cases. It puffs up a little bit so don't overfill.
Place on a baking tray and bake for 10-15mins. Make sure there isn't any gooey egg visible when you poke the top.

(0 syns on Extra Easy)

Indian Fish with Sweet Potatoes and Raita

A weeknight tea made from what I could find in the fridge turned out to be delicious and healthy. Serves 2.

• White fish (I used the incredibly cheap and tasty Tesco Value river cobbler)
• Crushed garlic
• Finely chopped ginger (~cm).
• 0.5 to 1 tsp of: cumin seeds, coriander seeds, crushed chillis, garam masala, turmeric, black pepper.
• Juice of 1 lemon.
• 1 large white potato peeled, cut into large chips or wedges
• 1 large sweet potato peeled, cut into large chips or wedges
• More cumin seeds
• Half a cucumber
• dried mint
• few tbsp of 0% Greek yogurt or fat free fromage frais
• Fry light
• Something green to serve like broccoli, green beans etc

Boil the potatoes together for 5 mins until just beginning to soften but still intact. Drain. Spray a baking tray with frylight and arrange to potatoes on it. Spray with more frylight and scatter with a few pinches of cumin seeds. Roast in a hot oven (~220deg) for 20 mins or so until crispy. Turn half way through. The white potatoes will go crispier than the sweet potatoes. Don't worry about that.

Toast the cumin and coriander in a dry frying pan. Grind in pestle and mortar. In a small bowl mix the toasted spices, all the other spices, garlic, ginger, lemon juice and some salt. Spread over the fish and leave to marinade, but not for too long otherwise the lemon will affect the fish.

For the raita cut the cucumber in half length ways and use a teaspoon to scoop out most of the seeds. Finely dice and mix with the yoghurt, mint and season.

You could either grill the fish or I fried mine in more (dreaded) frylight for about 4 minutes on each side in a medium to hot pan.

Serve!

(0 syns on SW Extra Easy)

Slimming World

Depressingly I have recently joined Slimming World. It is very sad, dull and annoying but needed. These kind of structured regimes (like WW) work for me because the make me think about what I am eating. And I enjoy them because they force me to think about new ways of cooking and eating.

I will try to include the number of syns in recipes that I post.

Finally we managed to get to Spire in Allerton and the wait was worth it.

I’ve been trying to get to Spire, off Allerton Road, since the end of November when a friend recommended it. One look at the menu and I knew we had to try it, a menu full of game and fish will always get my attention. What with us being busy, Christmas and them never seeming to have a table on a Saturday night we finally sat down for dinner on a freezing Saturday in late January.

Walking in I was a bit disappointed; the decor is a bit dull (polystyrene ceiling tiles?!) and there didn’t seem to be much atmosphere. We were shown to the table by a rather rushed and bit standoffish waitress and a drink order taken. It then took them another 15mins to take our food order and about 5 minutes after this they brought some bread. Even the bread was worth the wait. The cute five inch diameter focaccia was sweet and warm and the basil oil accompanying it deliciously fresh.

When the food arrived I quickly forgave the lack of atmosphere and the slightly standoffish service as it was delicious. I started with a trio of duck with some crispy fried confit, a couple of very thin slices of pink breast with hoisin and a truly divine duck liver parfait. This is most certainly the most beautiful parfait I have ever had. It was pure joy and better that the parfait I’ve had in France. It felt like it had been whipped and was probably about 40% butter. It came with a little bit of brioche and the plate was finished with segments of tangerine, cucumber, fine slices of radish and some micro-leaves. These fresh accompaniments worked perfectly with the rich duck. They also had chicken liver parfait, elderflower jelly and toasted brioche on the menu which I definitely want to try.

Mylady friend had roasted diver scallops with cauliflower puree, crispy black pudding, red wine sauce. She reported the scallops were divine and even liked the crispy sweet black pudding (which she can normally pass on). Tthe cauliflower puree was a bit overwhelming. It tasted more of strong onion and garlic and not really of cauliflower.

The main courses were also brilliant. I chose roasted chump of Lancashire salt marsh lamb with a herb crumb, pressed garlic and cumin potato, carrot puree. The lamb tasted of the amazing garlic lamb my grandmother used to make and made me incredibly happy, nostalgic and a bit sad. The pressed potato was tasty though the garlic and cumin wasn’t overly evident but the lamby sauce/jus and the carrot puree was divine. The puree was vivid orange, smooth as anything and so sweet, earthy and buttery I could have spread it on toast. My other half had Goosnargh chicken breast with creamed savoy cabbage and smoked pancetta, crispy potatoes, mustard and thyme sauce. The chicken had been cooked in a water bath and then the skin seared so it was beautifully moist. And the creamed cabbage with pancetta was lovely – a smoky, rich, creamy, sweet and very satisfying base for the chicken. The potatoes weren’t overly crispy and a few more would have gone down well. We also had a side of onions rings (well we had to try as many dishes as possible) that were crispy and huge.

We shared a pudding of apple tarte tatin with caramel and vanilla ice cream (well when I say ‘shared’ I probably ate about 80% of it). The apples were great, they hadn’t turned to mush and the caramel just rich and sweet enough. The vanilla ice cream was a good one and worked perfectly. The only criticism would be the pastry, which tasted nice, was a bit flaccid and flat under the apples, it could have done with my puff.

The only thing letting the evening down were the rather unfriendly and uncommunicative staff though this improved as the evening went on.

All this, an espresso and a bottle of very tasty house Chilean sauvignon blanc only came to £72. Incredibly good value for the best meal I have had in Liverpool for a long time. They also do early evening and lunch deals and I will be going back as soon as I can find an excuse.  

Photos

Right this blog is really dull and pointless without photos of food. I keep getting half way through a meal and realising I haven't taken a photo. i will try my hardest to remember to photograph food before I wolf it down. In the Lakes post I had to resort to googling for a decent picture of the lake as it looked so dull!

A little trip to the Lakes....

For my lady friend's birthday we spend the weekend in Keswick. As well as a trip on the launch and playing crazy golf in the drizzle we ate out a couple of times; some good some bad.

First of all I must mention the apple doughnuts from Brysons on Main Street. I am obsessed with these doughnuts. The generous thick silky icing, the soft dough, the tangy apple puree (like the stuff you ate as a baby) the whole thing is just perfect to me. So we ate one each for a late breakfast on the launch as we went round Derwentwater. Perfect!

We had lunch in Treeby and Bolton on Lake Road. The menu looks very tasty and I could have eaten most of it - interesting open sandwiches, Morecambe Bay shrimp salad, smoked cheese, meat and fish platters platters, crepes and some amazing looking scones.  It is a really nice venue but we ended up having a pretty unexciting meal.  We shared a fish platter and a smoked duck salad. The platter was ok and included slightly bland smoked salmon, rather salty hot smoked trout and prawns in marie rose that just tasted generically 'fishy', all accompanied by some pretty standard salad. The smoked duck was quite tasty and worked with the sweet but tangy damson chutney. It came with more raw red onion that anyone could eat and some slices of creamy smooth brie but as a salad it really didn't all work.  The bread however was phenomenal...some delicious, tangy dark dark rye bread and a piece of white bread with seeds. The bread was the highlight of the meal but overall we left pretty disappointed.

Dinner well and truly made up for lunch time. After drinking a bottle of birthday prosecco rather swiftly we tottered down to Lakeland Spice at the bottom on Main Street.  Our first choice had been Morrels but we rang to book too late (there was a jazz festival on) but I am pleased we ended up in the Indian. When we got there, 15 minutes late as time just vanished after we opened the prosecco, it was heaving and roasting. The wait was worth it as after 10 mins they sat us in a booth. There is something wonderfully snug about a dinner date in a booth!  The decor isn't very exciting a little orange and felt a bit like a restaurant in a Travelodge, but the friendly and quick (but not too quick) service was more important.

We started with some poppadoms and chutneys/raita etc, which appeared on our table literally the second the waiter finished talking our order. We were trying to be healthy so shared an onion bhaji which was nice, sweet and crispy but nothing amazing. The main courses were the highlight. On a recommendation from my mum I had a Prawn Jhal Jul (sp?) which was amazing. It contained a really decent helping of juicy king prawns, lots of onions and garlic and had a wonderful sour hot kick to it with a lot of large pieces of green chilli.  I can't get excited about tomato based curries so the nice thick sauce of onions really worked for me without the richness of cream or coconut. The good, fluffy and doughy peshwari naan was the perfect accompaniment.  My lady friend had a good tandoori chicken tikka kebab (juicy and smoky with a good balance of spices and the wonderful red colour - for some reason I like the dye!) with a basic salad, raita and a garlic naan.  The house white was a very drinkable bottle of Chilean sauvignon blanc and the bill came to £45. Not the cheapest but definitely the tastiest Indian meal I have been out for a long time. I wish I could get takeaway like that in Liverpool.