Food & Drink Round-Up February 2020

In this post I share some of my food and drink highlights from last month, bringing together the best of the blog and my social media during February 2020.

Includes: some favourite ways to eat eggs, when a meat substitute’s not really a meat substitute, a fruity, spicy discovery, anticipation of a new venue, dog friendly eating out, a cracking full English breakfast and more.

CHOCAO

Chocao, a small batch cacao gin liqueur made in Staffordshire, was officially launched in February. But I gave readers a sneak preview and my own personal take on the blog.

The ethically produced liqueur is the result of a collaboration between two great local independent businesses: Seed Chocolate and The Staffordshire Gin Company.

Read my post about Chocao here.

TURKISH EGGS (TWICE)

One of my current favourite breakfast, brunch or lunch dishes is Turkish Eggs.

Basically eggs on top of yogurt, you might think it’s a strange combination. But I love it.

In the ‘proper’ version, you put yogurt, some garlic and salt in a bowl over simmering water and heat it a little. To serve, a softly poached egg goes on top, along with a swirl of butter and/or olive oil that’s had some chilli pepper (traditionally, Aleppo pepper) sizzled in it.

Absolutely gorgeous with some crunchy toast alongside.

But I’ve often made a sort of cheat’s version. I don’t bother to heat the yogurt and garlic, and serve it with boiled eggs, a drizzle of olive oil or melted butter plus some hot chilli sauce.

In the one you see above, I used Daddy Cool’s Reaper Ketchup. It’s got lots of heat but without the over-sweetness you get in many ketchups. It was lovely swirled through the cooling, creamy yogurt.

DADDY COOL’S

As I mentioned in last month’s round-up, I got to hear about Daddy Cool during a Facebook discussion on one of the important issues of the day. Is red or brown sauce best on a bacon sandwich?

From that conversation, Daddy Cool very kindly gifted me the bottle of Reaper Ketchup and also one of his Broon Sauce.

I admit, at first, I wasn’t sure I’d like the Broon Sauce, described as a ‘fruity beauty’. I’ve always favoured that mass market brown sauce (also with Daddy on the label) over the one with the Houses of Parliament on the bottle – mainly because I prefer a spicier rather than fruity brown sauce.

But I loved Daddy Cool’s Broon Sauce. Yes, it’s fruity, but that hit of chilli really balances things out.

I especially liked it on a breakfast frittata: browned diced bacon, sausage, sliced mushrooms and onion mixed into the beaten eggs along with a little defrosted frozen spinach. When the frittata was set underneath, I popped it under a hot grill to cook the top, a bit of grated cheese over for the last minute or so.

You’ll find Daddy Cool selling his handmade, small batch chilli sauces, chutneys, marinades and more at artisan and makers markets or you can buy online.

EGG FOO YUNG

Sorry if you don’t like eggs, but here’s another egg-based highlight!

I started making sort-of Egg Foo Yung ages ago as a quick and nutritious solitary weekday lunch. But, after realising that Chinese cookery is a serious gap in my culinary knowledge, I then started edging it towards the more traditional version with the inclusion of Chinese rice wine for instance.

However, almost as soon as I headed in the direction of authenticity, I discovered a tweak that, while gorgeous, nudged it into Chinese American territory: pouring over a savoury, tangy three minute sauce. Now I love Egg Foo Yung even more!

Get my Egg Foo Yung recipe here.

TAP STEAKHOUSE

I rarely order steak when I eat out. So it was rather out of the ordinary when I went out for steak two Saturdays in row recently.

The first experience was pretty dire. But the second, at The Tap Steakhouse in Stafford, was a much happier experience.

There, the food was hearty and good value at this refurbished pub with an emphasis on locally sourced meat.

Read my review of The Tap Steakhouse here.

FRESH CREAM DOUBLE CHOCOLATE MUFFINS

At the end of January I posted my recipe that took homemade muffins to a new level: Fresh Cream Muffins. In that post the muffins were studded with juicy sultanas and, split in half, filled with sweetened whipped cream and lemony preserve.

They were so good that at the beginning of February I used the same principle to make these Fresh Cream & Jam Double Chocolate Muffins.

Yes, I know presenting delicate, pretty cakes isn’t my thing. So they’re a bit messy. But they tasted so good!

I wrote about Double Chocolate Muffins last year: rich, moist chocolate cake, studded with chunks of dark chocolate and topped with a drizzle of melted chocolate. Here I turned them into a sort of Black Forest Gateau of a muffin, although with blackcurrant rather than cherry jam.

LION HOUSE TEA ROOM, LEEK

After shopping in Leek one Saturday, I paid my first visit to The Lion House Tea Room on Russell Street.

What a wonderful, quirky place!

I loved the mismatched china mugs, plates, teapots, spoons and whatnot. And despite being a dog rather than cat person I even liked the cute feline salt and pepper pots.

Mind you, the Lion House Tea Room is also very dog friendly: our boy even got his own china plate with some biccies on.

I ate an enormous plate of double oatcakes with sausage, bacon and cheese (well, it was breakfast AND lunch).

Other half had a sandwich with lovely thick-cut ham, fresh salad and coleslaw.

Very happy to highly recommend the Lion House and, of course, I’ve added it to my guide to Dog Friendly Eating & Drinking in Staffordshire.

PANCAKES, PANCAKES & MORE PANCAKES

Shrove Tuesday, or Pancake Day, fell in February this year. But it was a complete coincidence that I finally managed to perfect my recipe for American-style pancakes using up sourdough discard just before the big day.

Hating waste, it pains me to have to throw away some of my starter.

Regular sourdough bakers will probably just take out the amount of starter they need to bake, feed the starter then do the same next time. But I only bake sourdough once per week if that, meaning I may have to discard some starter and feed the remainder for several days before it’s ready to use.

These light and fluffy pancakes were the result of several experiments to use up the starter discard. Which meant I’d eaten a hell of a lot of pancakes well before Pancake Day arrived.

But it was worth it. On the day itself we had pancakes with tahini and date syrup drizzled over; a combination that’s also great with porridge.

Get my recipe for Sourdough Pancakes here.

COMING SOON: THE FLINTLOCK AT CHEDDLETON

Over the last month or so, wonderful looking food like the chicken dish below has been popping up in my social media feeds.

They’re from Thom Bateman, currently of BBoxFood and I was thrilled to learn that he’s going to be opening up a restaurant in my village!

The long-standing Castro’s in Cheddleton closes in March. But the good news is that Thom will be taking over the site. It’s hoped that the new restaurant, The Flintlock, will open in June 2020.

About ten minutes’ walk from where I live, I’m so excited about this! Especially since hearing that Thom is going to be using some great local suppliers, including outstanding meats from Dunwood Farm.

WINTER COMFORT FOOD: STEW & DUMPLINGS

Some proper winter comfort food was called for in February. We had storms, torrential wind and rain, plus a fair bit of snow where I live.

So I posted my recipe for Beef & Bean Stew with Dumplings: tender cubes of beef plus cannellini beans in a gravy thickened with veg, topped with light & fluffy suet dumplings.

It’s exactly what I want to eat in Winter. To up the comfort factor even more, try it with a big bowl of sautéed greens on the side, finished with a splash of cream.

POTTED BEEF: OLD FASHIONED, SIMPLE. BUT SO GOOD.

My Homemade Potted Beef recipe continues to be one of my most popular blog posts. Google potted beef, and the top three are the Hairy Bikers version, mine and Waitrose’s. Excuse the bragging, but at the time of writing only mine has 5-star reviews 😀.

So I thought I’d take it along for my February appearance on BBC Radio Stoke’s foodie show The Takeaway.

Spread on my homemade sourdough bread it went down a storm with both Robin Grey and Michelle Daniels. Robin, a relative youngster compared to Michelle and I, had never tried it before.

I loved that this old fashioned, simple food can still be appreciated.

WHEN IS A ‘MEAT SUBSTITUTE’ NOT A MEAT SUBSTITUTE?

As I’ve said many times, although I’m an omnivore I’m not one of the anti-vegan brigade.

But what does annoy me are companies and supermarkets who jump on the plant-based bandwagon and push inappropriate substitutes for meat.

A case in point is this ‘spicy no lamb shawarma jackfruit’. It’s in Sainsbury’s Plant Pioneers range and I spotted it in February.

Reading the pack, you’d think that jackfruit is a perfectly acceptable substitute for lamb. But I don’t think it is.

The £2 pouch (non-recyclable plastic, packed in Thailand) contains 150 grams of which 52%, or 78 grams, is jackfruit.

But, nutritionally speaking, jackfruit is better thought of as a source of fibre or carbohydrate, not a substitute for meat. You get less than 2.4 grams of protein per serving of jackfruit. Compare that to 78 grams of lamb which, depending on the cut, will give you 12-15 grams of protein.

In other words, jackfruit is not something you should probably stick inside more carb in the form of pita bread. Which is exactly what the pack suggests you do.

REDUCE FOOD WASTE: GETTING THE MOST FROM A CHICKEN

One straightforward food change we can all make is to stop wasting so much.

I’m still haunted by the image of seeing, many years ago now, a woman on some TV programme carving the breast from a roast chicken, serving it up to her family for Sunday lunch, then chucking the rest, untouched legs, carcass and all, straight into the bin.

There’s zero chance that will ever happen in our house!

Apart from anything else, local free-range chickens are not cheap. Nor should they be. The costs associated with producing them are higher than quick, intensively reared ones and farmers deserve to be paid fairly for them.

This is what I did to a roast chicken I cooked in February, after we’d eaten the breasts with roast potatoes and coleslaw:

1. Poured fat from the roasting tin into a jar. Kept in the fridge for cooking potatoes, eggs, greens or just about anything else that will benefit from its rich flavour.
2. Took the skin from the legs and wings then ate it. Cook’s privilege!
3. Removed the meat from the legs, wings and carcass. Put in the freezer for another meal.
4. Poured boiling water into the roasting dish, scraped up any browned bits then poured the tasty, fatty water into my Instant Pot pressure cooker.
5. Added the picked bones, carcass, bits of skin etc. to the pressure cooker. Added an onion, garlic cloves, 1 carrot, 2 bendy celery sticks, green end of leek, peppercorns, touch of salt. Cooked on high pressure for 80 minutes. Strained, cooled and froze the dark, rich stock in batches.

Oh, I nearly forgot: number 6. Let the dog lick any remaining chicken traces from plates, chopping board and pressure cooker so not a smidgen goes to waste.

MILK DELIVERY: LOCAL, FRESH & PLASTIC -FREE

If you’re concerned about the environment, another thing that’s probably going to do more good than buying plastic-wrapped fruit from Thailand disguised as meat, is to switch from supermarket plastic bottles of milk to local milk in glass bottles.

In February I had my first milk delivery, from Wheat Brothers in Cheadle.

I’d held back switching to home delivery as the amount of milk we need varies a fair bit. Sometimes we’ll use less than a pint of milk per week. Other times I’ll need 4 pints just for my Homemade Yogurt.

But Wheat Brothers deliver three days a week to my village and you can message your order to them up to 7pm the night before. That gives me the sort of flexibility I need, so I decided to give it a go.

I’ve been really pleased with the service so far. And of course the milk is local, fresh and plastic-free

TOFU: WHY DO I PERSIST WITH IT?

Tofu is the sort of thing that, if you do want to replace some meat in your diet, isn’t too bad (nutritionally speaking, anyway) in that at least it does have lots of protein.

However, it still won’t give you all the nutrients that meat can nor in such an easy absorbable form. Of particular concern is Vitamin B12 which is vital for healthy nerve and blood cells. There’s no plant-based food which naturally has Vitamin B12 in sufficIent amounts.

I’m not a massive fan of tofu anyway, so we don’t often have it in our house. Other half likes it though, so we do eat it occasionally, especially if we’re sharing a dish at a Thai restaurant.

I think it’s much improved if you can get tofu crispy. So in February I made the dish you see above.  I browned cubes of smoked tofu in a pan and finished it off in the oven. For the last few minutes I tossed it in some homemade peanut-chilli sauce. Other half liked the flavour but said it was overcooked. I thought it was the best tofu I’d had: probably because it tasted a bit like fried smoked bacon rinds!

Mind you, given there’s so many other things that I could eat, I’ve no idea why I keep putting myself through the ordeal of tofu.

FIVERFEST & THE TOTALLY LOCALLY LEEK BURGER

15th – 29th February was Fiver Fest, when loads of independent businesses in Totally Locally towns had amazing £5 offers.

So it was rather ironic that on the first day of Fiver Fest I was sitting down to a £5 deal that you can get all year round.

The weather was pretty foul while we were shopping in Leek, so we stopped for some respite and lunch at The Roebuck.

Other half and I both went for the famous Totally Locally Leek Burger. All its ingredients are sourced within a hundred yards or so from the pub. And at £5 it’s an absolute bargain.

There’s a quality burger using beef from Meakins butcher’s, the best bun ever from Live Love Loaf, skin-on chips, onion rings and relish. All the veg is supplied by Gerald Harrison’s greengrocers.

I had one of my favourite beers to go with it too: Titanic’s Plum Porter.

VEGETABLE SOUP + LEFTOVERS

I think simple vegetable soups are really underrated. Apart from the taste, they’re a good way of using up any bits and bobs in the fridge which you can supplement with tinned and/or frozen veg.

This one I made in February one weekend lunchtime was based on thick soups like French ribollita & Italian minestrone. Besides loads of veg there was smoked streaky bacon and some of that homemade chicken stock from the freezer.

We didn’t eat it all though and, as I hate food waste, I saved the rest for lunch a couple of days later.

I’m tempted to say that this was even better than both of the original meals.

One more reason to #LoveYourLeftovers.

DOG FRIENDLY UPDATES

In February I updated my online guide to Dog Friendly Eating & Drinking in Staffordshire.

The guide features my personal recommendations, so you won’t find every dog friendly venue listed, but I’ve still got loads more to check out.

Newly added venues included The Greyhound Inn Warslow, The Tap Steakhouse and in Leek Monty’s Fish & Chips, The Old Mill Smokehouse & The Lion House Tea Room.

Thank you to everyone who’s sent their own favourites. I’ll try to get around to them all eventually.

QUICK NOODLES

Towards the end of February, I managed to sprain my knee slipping on wet slabs in the garden. Needing to rest and elevate it, that meant long cooking sessions were out of the question.

These lunchtime soba noodles with peanut-chilli sauce weren’t quite as quick as prepping a Pot Noodle. But they’re still pretty fast when you multi-task. And at least they include fresh veg.

I listed the easy steps on Facebook and Instagram. The sauce is just peanut butter, sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, lime juice. Veg-wise there’s carrot, peppers and spring onion.

NATIONAL TOAST DAY

I don’t know who thinks these things up, but 27 February was apparently National Toast Day.

Looking at some of my favourites, it was clear that I’m a savoury person. Only one of the six images I posted on the day was wholly sweet –  and only that if you don’t count the salted butter under the homemade Rhubarb, Apple & Ginger Jam.

There was peanut butter & jam, scrambled egg & mushrooms, cheese & chutney (chutney under or on top of cheese), the already mentioned jam & butter, plus potted beef.

I also absolutely love homemade white sourdough toast with nothing but lots of butter on it. Strangely, I don’t ever seem to have taken a photo of that though.

ONION BHAJI WITH TAMARIND & MINT CHUTNEY

Because of my injured knee, I couldn’t do much food photography. Certainly not the huge number of shots I usually take so I can select the best for my blog posts anyway.

Luckily though, I’d already completed the photography for my Onion Bhaji recipe and also a Tamarind & Mint Chutney to go with it.

I’d done these in the same photoshoot as my Aloo Bonda potato balls and Coconut & Coriander Chutney when we’d had an Indian thali feast.

So all that was left to do was edit the photos and make my selection for the final blog post.

I almost always have several posts on the go at various stages of completion.  I think that’s not a bad idea if you ever decide to start a blog yourself. If you get a bit of a block about one post or find you need to get more images, you can always get working on another.

A TEN ON TEN ALL DAY BREAKFAST (AND A CORRECTION)

The last day of February saw me back at Cafe Apollonia in Leek.

I’d first gone in January and I think it was their perfect, fluffy American pancakes that set me off on my own journey to create some equally as good. I’d also seen that their All Day Breakfasts were very popular and looked rather tempting, so I had to go back to try one of those.

Well, it turned out to be one of the best full English breakfasts I can remember in a good while.

For £7.95 I got a big plateful that did me for both breakfast and lunch.

My photo really doesn’t do it justice, but there were great quality herby sausages, excellent bacon, a cheesy oatcake plus free-range egg and baked beans.

The mushrooms and tomatoes, often my least favourite part of a breakfast, were perfect for my taste. The mushrooms had been properly browned, not those watery things that look like they’ve been boiled. The tomatoes (instead of half a large and cold one that’s barely been shown the frying pan or grill), were small, juicy and with a nice bit of charring.

On this second visit, I also realised I’d made a mistake in last month’s round-up. I’d assumed the place wasn’t dog friendly as they have an assistance dogs notice on the door. This tends to mean that ONLY those dogs are welcome. But there were a couple of pooches downstairs and when we asked staff about it, they confirmed the cafe IS dog friendly downstairs.

This is great news and I’ll be adding Cafe Apollonia to the next update of my online guide to Dog Friendly Eating & Drinking in Staffordshire.

I hope you enjoyed my highlights for February. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to hear about my March food & drink.

All images © Moorlands Eater & not to be reproduced without permission

Disclosure

I was not charged for the bottle of Daddy Cool’s Reaper Ketchup or Broon Sauce. However, as always, my comments are honest, based on my own experience.

Where I give opinion on a meal, product or service which has been provided without charge, then a disclosure such as this will always be included in the post.

Read more about working with Moorlands Eater on my About page here