Verjuice has recently become available to British home cooks and chefs alike. This versatile product is made from the unfermented juice of unripe wine grapes, pressed from the green-harvested thinnings that, we are told, are high in acid and low in sugar. Its versatility as a flavour enhancer makes it an excellent alternative to lemon juice, vinegar or wine in your cooking.
Opus, Birmingham
Opus is located in the heart of Birmingham city centre’s business district and the ambience is perhaps slightly more suited to corporate hospitality rather than intimate romantic liaisons. Nevertheless, the powerful combination of excellent food and fine wine should be enough to satisfy those who are dining as a twosome. The most important reason for choosing Opus is the quality of the food.
Warm Jersey Royals salad with asparagus and basil dressing with salmon
Warm Jersey Royals salad with asparagus and basil dressing with salmon
Linguine alle Vongole (Linguine with Clams)
‘Bada-Bing!”… ‘Fuhgeddaboudit”… Ok, I’ll stop, but Linguine and clams always make me come over all ‘New York-style Mafia boss-ish’. It is one of my all time favourite dishes to eat. After years of hearing about it in Mafia movies, I felt compelled to see what all the fuss was about and I tell you, I fell head over heels in love. Silky strands of ‘Al-Dente’ pasta bathed in a rich, white wine, garlic and clam-studded sauce with emerald flecks of parsley and just a hint of chilli
Ocean Spray Cranberry and now Blueberry too launch in 3D
To be fair these new Ocean Spray commercials are better than the last ones featuring acidic women from Crouch End hinting at problems ‘down there’. These feature two mentally-challenged Americans standing waist deep in a cranberry bog. Perhaps they are applying the berry to their parts externally? They didn’t succeed in putting me off Ocean Spray though, so that’s a result of sorts.
Garlic Connects Friends
It was a snail that introduced me to garlic. My mother was from England and my father was from Slovakia so spice and punch came in the form of mustard, black pepper or sauerkraut. Olives, capers and anchovies never appeared on our table. Since then garlic appears so frequently in my recipes that I use garlic scapes, the immature flower stalks of hard neck garlic, as my logo.
Michel Roux: Pastry – Savoury and Sweet
Michel Roux has spent his life up to his elbows in flour and butter. He is one of the few world-famous chefs who is perhaps known for his patisserie skills above all else. He began, as he explains, at the age of 14 with 4 a.m. starts six days a week as a tourier – the person who prepares, rolls and shapes the dough for the day’s work amid a morning mist of airborne flour particles.
Rockliffe Hall Gourmet Breaks. A taste of the North
Kenny Atkinson is a Great British Chef with a Michelin Star to boot. He’s now head chef at the new 5 star country house hotel Rockliffe Hall in County Durham and Nick Harman went up to sample the delights of their Gourmet Break, admire the historical setting and avoid the fabulous spa if he possibly could.