Little Seeds: New Orleans Tasting Menu

After too long away, I recently paid a return visit to Little Seeds Bar & Kitchen in Stone, Staffordshire. Tempted by their New Orleans Tasting Menu, I enjoyed an evening of delicious food.

I’m always on the look out for new eating experiences, whether newly opened cafes and restaurants or ones that are simply new to me. Especially in my role of Staffordshire editor at Great Food Club. But that can mean that I don’t go back as often as I should to those places I’ve already found and loved.

This was starkly brought home to me earlier this year, when somewhere I’d found incredibly impressive suddenly and shockingly closed down. Too late, I wish I’d found the time to eat there many more times. Not just because I loved their food but, even though I don’t know the reason for their closure, I couldn’t dismiss the thought that maybe, with a little more support, they might still be around.

Anyway, I’m now aiming to do better and go back to old favourites more often.

LITTLE SEEDS BAR & KITCHEN

Little Seeds Bar & Kitchen is a case in point. I’d first visited them about year ago, loved what they were doing and wrote about it here. But in the intervening twelve months I’d only managed to go back once.

That second time, I was wowed by their take on fish and chips: hake fillet with minted pea puree, beer pickled onions, crispy potato and warm tartare sauce.

The fillet of hake was stunningly fresh and cooked perfectly. The crispy potato a lovely contrast to the soft, moist fish and smooth, minty peas. The slivers of beer pickled onions were sweet and tart, with the exactly the right amount of crunch. I wonder how many more examples of great stuff like this I was missing?

I finally resolved to go back when I saw Little Seeds was offering, for one night only, a New Orleans Soul Food tasting menu.

NEW ORLEANS SOUL FOOD TASTING MENU

My knowledge of this sort of food is pretty scant. I enjoy cornbread, including making some pretty mean bacon, chilli and cheese cornbread muffins for the Columbo Bowl Chili Cook-Along (yes, that was a thing). Collard greens I’d recently eaten at another Stone restaurant, Smoke & Rye, and liked them. Hush Puppies I’d heard of, but didn’t really know what they were, and I never can remember the difference between gumbo and jambalaya.

So, with the prospect of some old favourites alongside things new to me, and knowing that we’d be in the safe hands of Little Seeds’ Head Chef and co owner Jake Lowndes, I guessed we’d be in for a night of great food.

APPETISERS

OYSTERS ROCKEFELLER

The first of our three appetisers was one of those dishes I’d heard of, but I had to Google oysters Rockefeller to find out what they were.

Having read that it’s a gratinated dish, I was expecting cooked oysters. This was fine with me as, although I’m not the biggest fan of raw oysters, I fell in love with crispy cooked ones after eating mounds of them at Moby Dick’s and Mac’s on the Pier on holiday on Cape Cod.

As it turned out, the Oysters Rockefeller at Little Seeds were apparently raw. I still enjoyed them though, with their herby, almost sweet dressing. My companion, ID, is mad about raw oysters so is probably a better judge of them than I. According to him, these were excellent.

HUSH PUPPIES

Hush Puppies are little deep fried balls of cornmeal dough, sometimes with flavourings including spring onion or sweetcorn. The name is said to come from the bits of fried dough thrown to dogs to keep them quiet: ‘hush, puppies!’

The ones we were served at Little Seeds came flavoured with beer and bacon. For someone like me who loves little fried morsels, these were a real treat. Crispy on the outside, soft and doughy within and studded with little nuggets of bacon.

A dab of, I think, mayo plus a few chopped chives on top brought a nice freshness.

JALAPENO & CHEDDAR CORNBREAD

Cornbread, in its simplest form, can be a little dull. But I thought this one was an excellent example of just how good it can be.

I always think individual cornbread muffins are better than chunks cut from a large bake, probably because you get more of that lovely crusty outside. So I was pleased that was what we got at Little Seeds.

They were well seasoned and with a good whack of heat from the jalapeno, including the slice on top. But they were good and cheesy too, with a nicely cooling coriander flavoured dip on the side.

ENTREES

CAJUN FRIED CATFISH

I was especially looking forward to this dish, which turned out to be my favourite of the evening. I admit I was a little wary as, believing catfish to be a freshwater fish, I hoped it didn’t have the muddiness I associate with non saltwater fish.

Happily, the fish was very subtly flavoured and tasted beautifully fresh. The crispy batter surrounding the moist flesh was some of the lightest I’ve tastest.

The collard greens were strongly flavoured: good and iron-y with little flecks of bacon or ham running through the dark leaves. The hot sauce had just the right amount of heat for me, leaving a noticeable tingle on the lips without blowing your head off.

SHRIMP, OKRA & ANDOUILLE GUMBO

The final savoury course, a tasty stew of seafood, sausage and veg plus rice and beans, had good flavour. I think it would have been better in a bowl rather than on a plate, but that’s nit-picking really.

I’d not eaten andouille sausage before and enjoyed the pepperyness of the thick slices. By the way, don’t confuse this with andouilette – the VERY strong (and in my experience, inedible) French sausage which sometimes includes pig’s colon.

Also in the mix were lots of little shrimp, tiny diced peppers and some nicely cooked okra – I’ve since learned that gumbo is apparently a West African word for okra from which the dish takes its name.

DESSERTS

BANANAS FOSTER BEIGNETS

This was a great little dessert. Caramelized banana, rich, smooth ice cream and a cinnamon and sugar-dusted pillow-like doughnut. Individually, everything was good. But, put a little of everything on your spoon, and it was REALLY good.

Of course, me being me, I couldn’t just eat something called Bananas Foster Beignets without looking up its origin.

Apparently, in the 1950s, New Orleans was a major port for bananas so a dessert of flambeed bananas, ‘bananas foster’, was created at Brennan’s restaurant. Rather bizarrely, it was named after the chairman of the New Orleans Crime Commission who was a friend of Brennan’s.

MINI PECAN PIES

It’s a shame my photo of the mini pecan pies which came with coffee is rather blurry, because they were lovely little things.

Pecan pie can be a little too sweet, but these were perfect. Crunchy with nuts on top, they were soft and moist within.

The pastry was excellent too: very thin and very crisp. How pleased we were to get two each!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED (AGAIN)

On my first visit to Little Seeds I’d found an excellent base of sound cooking on which I thought they’d continue to develop, in line with the old saying from which they take their name. Based on both my return visits I’d say they’ve fulfilled that.

Their New Orleans menu was imaginative and featured many things I hadn’t tried before. Front of house, co-owner Sophie continues to run a friendly but efficient customer service.

Aside from their themed evenings, Little Seeds’ regular menus feature plenty of choice. Currently on offer are their renowned buttermilk fried chicken and flat iron steaks plus venison faggots, crayfish risotto and vegan and vegetarian dishes like falafel or salt baked turnip. Breakfast, brunches and Sunday roasts also available.

Highly recommended.