Ale #3 Roosters 5 Spice Pumpkin Ale

Appearance: Golden ale

Aroma: Spicy with a slight hints of pepper

Flavour: Multi spiced - cloves, ginger, cinnamon, allspice and nutmeg with pumpkin undertones

Why its on here: Its Pumpkin conditioned!!! Twitter on Friday was flooded with rumours about Roosters latest offering, a five spiced pumpkin ale served from a huge pumpkin. Pubs lucky enough to have delivery, (that I'm aware of) of this beery beast included Mr Foley's and North Bar in Leeds and the Tap on Sheffield Rail Station. I was lucky enough to be in range of Mr Foley's when I heard about their delivery so I duly paid them a visit. It was well worth it, not just for the novelty value but because it was an excellent beer. Not overly spicy and very smooth with the occasional sweet note. I could have willingly sat and drank it all day.


Check out their website of how it was done: Roosters Pumpkin ale

Bakewell slice

Having received a subscription of BBC Good Food as a housewarming present, the cover recipe of this months issue has been taunting me since it arrived so I thought I would have a go making it.







Bakewell Slice
Pastry
225g of Plain Flour
110g of Butter
25g caster sugar
2 egg yolks
pinch of salt
few Tbsp of water.

5 Tbsp of Raspberry Jam
100g frozen raspberries
25g Flaked almonds

Sponge
200g Butter
200g Caster sugar
100g Ground almonds
100g SR Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1/2 tsp Almond extract
4 Eggs, beaten

Method
Pastry
Mix flour, salt and sugar together, rub in butter until mixture resembles bread crumbs
Add the yolks and a couple of tbsp of water and bring the ingredients together with a knife until a soft but not sticky dough is formed. Add more water if needed.
Wrap tightly and rest for half n hour or so in the fridge.
Roll out and place in a lined traybake tin.
bake in the oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 8-10 mins until very slightly coloured.

Dot the jam over the pastry, the heat of the cooked pastry should soften and spread the jam, and scatter raspberries over randomly

Sponge
Add all the ingredients to a bowl  and mix well with an electric hand whisk
Spoon over the raspberries and smooth out.

Pastry before oven

Raspberries and jam

Just before the oven

Scatter over flaked almonds and bake in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 30 - 40 minutes.


Verdict: Sweet, soft almond sponge with sour raspberries, delicious with a cup of tea or reheat gently in an oven and serve with custard.

Test Space Kitchen 2, Leeds

After the delightful experience of the first Test Space Kitchen, I was quite happy to find out the next one would have a fish and seaside theme.

Here's what the line up looked like this time:

Marvel at the giant knickerbocker glory!

Compete in the extreme jelly-eating competition!

Gasp in wonder and delight at our very own Sunshine Bakery’s award-winning cup cakes!

Laugh (heartily) at rib-tickling comedians!

Risk health and dignity in the game of Super Secret Shots!

Taste the delicious twisted fish & chip stylings of Fish&, created by Andrew Critchett and Fiona Rotheray!

Play the well-know Hit Things With Other Things game!

Throw caution to the wind with Russian Roulette Vol-au-Vents!

Listen to fantastic, fruity and downright filthy sea shanties!

Enjoy a special, seaside-themed YouTube DJ set by the wonderful Tim Ineaux

The location this time was in another room of the stunning Temple Works and was a bit more informal this time with a variety of tables and stools instead of the lines of tables of the first. This time around they seemed to be concentrating on the entertainment more than the food, which was the centre piece of the whole event last time.

The entertainment prior to the meal consisted of several, end of the pier, style stalls including a coconut shy, minus the coconuts, but with the more than satisfying range of smashable ornaments with Sunshine Bakery cupcakes for the crack shots (Me! woop!). Another stall consisted of 6 shots with a dice to decide which one you would receive, I was lucky and ended up with Butterscotch Schnapps and a black vodka. The final stall consisted of a roulette table with various canapes, again I appeared to be lucky, avoiding the spiked chilli canapes.

Random Shots

Canape Roulette

My prize cupcake

Kinckerbocker Glory

The food this time around consisted of fish and chips with a twist courtesy of Fish&, apparently there were different batters. The one I received was lemon flavoured but there was a chilli one floating around. It was very tasty, crispy batter with soft flesh. Afterwards Indie Ices came round with Mango Kulfi ice lolly's which were really lovely and then the huge Knickerbocker Glory was served which was very very sweet but tasty.

Entertainment after the food came in the form of amateur comedians, which were quite amusing. Especially when one of them decided to set an 'official' world record by rolling a Malteaser down a measuring tape into someones mouth. Guess who was the unwilling recipient  of the Malteaser!! There was also one of the greatest responses to being heckled I've seen, dragging them up to play rock, paper, scissors. Genius.

I had to leave early due to a prior commitment but apparently later on there were dancers with candyfloss.

Another good evening courtesy of Test Space Kitchen, its a pity that this is the last one. 

Roundhay Fox, Leeds

Right, where to start with this one.
The Roundhay Fox is a nice looking pub next to Roundhay Park and Tropical World. Traditional in design and very large with multiple rooms away from the large bar. We headed up there a couple of weeks ago for Sunday lunch.
When we got there the pub was rammed and there the problems began. After eventually finding a table a rather nervous waitress came over and took our drinks and food order. The drinks themselves took 20 minutes to arrive, after again asking for them. When they did arrive we were told there would be a 30 minute wait for food, surely this information would be better when the actual order was taken? 40 minutes after the actual order the starters arrived and we were told that the wait time for food had increased to an hour but because we had ordered earlier we might be ok.
I do not blame the waitress for the bad service at all, it was her first day, obviously thrown into the deep end with little training and didn't even have a finish time for her shift.

For my starter I ordered minestrone and pumpkin soup which can only be described as very bland, lacked any seasoning and the pumpkin was non existent. My main of roast beef was better, the beef was well cooked, juicy and pink and the gravy was delicious. Shame about the packet Yorkshire puddings though but by this point I was happy to have any food. We decided to skip dessert having been there for two hours already. The final bill for four came to around £50.

I think the problem with this place is the menu or menus. They had essentially three on the go. The usual everyday menu, the fixed price Sunday menu and a roast menu on a blackboard. Now to me this is idiotic. The kitchen would have to be huge to cope with that amount of choice especially for a place this big. Surely a better option would be to have one Sunday menu consisting of different roasts and a few veggie options and concentrate on making them brilliant, with real yorkshire puddings for example, they are already part way there because the beef and gravy was worth returning for.

It's a shame really, I was looking forward to eating here, I may try again for an evening meal but I will give Sundays a wide berth in future.

Roundhay Fox
Princes Avenue,
Roundhay,
Leeds,
LS8 2EP
01132 693352
 

Random Continental-style Dinner

After trying and failing miserably to get a booking for one of the restaurants me and the Other Half wanted to visit, we decided to have a few beers then head to the local supermarket for a stay at home dinner, here's what we left with;








Meat:
Italian Prosciutto, French Saucisson with herbs, Chorizo, Sliced pork loin with herbs
Cheese
French Goats Cheese, Applewood smoked Cheddar,  Pecronio
Veg
Sundried Tomatoes, Olives, Rocket
Others:
Breadsticks, Crackers, Garlic and onion dip, Ciabatta


Total came to £22, bit pricey you may think but considering we would have spent more than that eating out and there was easily enough for four people it wasn't bad at all. Sandwiches for the next few days I think.

Quite nice way to spend an evening working through tasty meats and cheese

Mixed Bean Chilli

The second recipe I have attempted from BBC Good Food Magazine in an attempt to liven up my evening meals.











Mixed Bean Chilli - serves four
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Red onion, roughly chopped
1 Yellow Pepper
1 Tbsp Cajun spice mix
2 x can mixed pulses
400g can of chopped tomatoes
150ml Vegetable Stock
1 Tbsp Dark chocolate
4 Tbsp Sour cream

Fry onion and pepper in the olive oil for 5 minutes
Add Spice, Pulses, Tomatoes and stock.
Cover and simmer for 15 - 20 minutes
Remove from heat and stir in dark chocolate until melted.
Ladle into bowls and top with Sour Cream

Serve with whatever you like really, I made wedges again (I might be addicted).

Verdict: Proper winter warmer, filling with a lovely spice burn.

Moroccan Chicken with Rosemary Wedges

My diet has become rather boring recently mainly because I am rather lazy when it comes to cooking for myself, so armed with the latest issue of BBC Good Food Magazine, I have decided to try out a few new recipes and then stick them on here.

Moroccan Chicken with Rosemary Wedges.

This serves four but can be divided or the rest can be saved for another day.
4 Chicken Breasts
Splash of Olive oil
1 Tbsp Honey
1 Tsp ground Cinnamon
1 Tsp ground Cumin
400g Chopped Tomatoes
150ml Chicken Stock
Zest and juice of half a lemon
Salt and Pepper

Heat oil in a large frying pan, fry chicken in honey until golden.
Mix in the spices, stock, tomatoes, zest and lemon juice.
Bring to the boil and simmer for around 10 minutes.

Wedges
as many potatoes as required
sprinkle of rosemary
2 Tbsp olive oil
Salt and Pepper

Chop potatoes in wedges and mix with rosemary and olive oil in a bowl
Cook in pre-heated oven at 200 degrees Celsius until golden brown

This is supposed to be served with  rice or couscous but I had Spuds to use up.

Verdict: Simple yet very tasty