Grindleton Gourmets.

The occasion was the weekend of my mum's 60th birthday.  We rented a spacious cottage and had a surprise party planned for the Saturday night.  On Saturday afternoon we stocked up at Booths (the Northern equivalent of Waitrose I think!)  We also visited an absolutely amazing specialist wine shop, D Byrne & Co in Clitheroe, to stock up on party booze. This is an award winning fine wine merchants and family business which has been trading in Lancashire for 130 years!  As well as every wine you can imagine, there are shelves full of every different kind of rum, gin, vodka, specialist beers and ales...cave after cave of alcoholic delights.  Obviously there is some super pricey specialist and exclusive stuff here, but also some brilliantly priced wines.  The shop is very atmospheric with walls lined floor to ceiling with bottles, many of which have hand written labels describing the contents.  No need for any "drink me" labels here!  I was convinced.  If you are ever in this area and you fancy a tipple, this is a must visit.
http://www.dbyrne-finewines.co.uk/

My next recommendation is the wondeful catering provided to us by Cathy at the Cobbled Corner cafe in Chipping.  Cathy is a midwife but somehow finds the time to run a successful cafe and catering business as well.  We wanted to cater for up to twenty people in a rented cottage so cooking wasn't really an option; no matter how well equipped the kitchen, not knowing where anything is makes it a nightmare!
Cathy turned up in a van with vats of chicken curry, Lancashire hotpot, and all the trimmings, with trifle and the biggest cheese board you have ever seen for pudding.  The food was delicious and is all homemade from locally sourced produce.  Cathy holds regular events at the Cobbled Corner, so again if you are in the area, pop in and try her hotpot, you won't be disappointed.
http://www.cobbledcorner.co.uk/index.php

Finally, to round off my trio of Lancashire delights, I'd like to point you in the direction of The Duke of York Pub, Grindleton.   They didn't bat an eyelid when I phoned up on Saturday night, somewhat tiddly, to book a table for 16 at lunch the next day.  We received a warm welcome on arrival and our coats were taken at the door.

The pub has various rooms but we were seated in a light, airy and spacious dining room at the front of the building.  I loved the printed curtains and blinds and a strip of mirror the length of one wall added to the spacious feel.  Lunch was busy but we were looked after, with attentive table service for drinks

The food was, I felt, far better quality than what you'd expect from pub lunch, two courses at around £15.50 proved very good value.  We were brought baskets of delicious home made bread to nibble on.  I had a starter of smoked salmon, with a salmon mousse and pickled cucumber, just the kind of taste bud tickler you want before Sunday lunch.
 
For my main I went for breast of Goosnargh chicken, with chanterelle mushrooms, savoy cabbage and rosti potato.
 
Lots of us had the roast Ribble Valley beef, I tried it and it was fantastically tender, served with cauliflour cheese and a home made horseradish cream, amongst other things.
 
Others tried the Fleetwood fish pie, and recommended it highly.  The Sunday lunch here offers a fresh, modern and inviting take on proper British pub food.  The Duke of York is well worth a visit and for us it was the perfect, sociable way to round off a great weekend.


A weekend in deepest, darkest Lancashire, perhaps not a place which you would consider to be a foodie mecca, but you'd be wrong!

http://www.dukeofyorkgrindleton.com

Methavalai Sorndaeng

 
Almost two months since our return from Thailand and I am still catching up on writing about the fabulous food we ate during our trip.  I can't go any longer without mentioning the restaurant we were taken to in Bangkok by Kriangsak Crosby and Pook Duangkamol.  The restaurant was called Methavalai Sorndaeng and is located right by the democracy monument and a stones throw from Khao San Road.  Pook apparently likes to take all her visitors here and we could certainly see why.  This is the only place I'd eaten in Thailand where I felt slightly under dressed in my sun dress; the place oozes old school glam, with white table cloths, traditionally dressed waiting staff and a live band complete with 40's style crooner.

Service was slick and the food was awesome; we ordered a wide selection of dishes, some familiar, some not; Pook was keen for us to try some of her favourites.  We sampled the pork and prawn parcels we had missed out on at Saffron, a dish of mussels in a fragrant broth, a banana flower salad which was arguably better than Saffron's, sesame pork titbits, shredded duck, green curry...I'm ashamed to say I can't remember everything we ate, but here are some pics..all the dishes were beautifully presented:

Following this feast we stumbled in a rather disorientated fashion down the chaos of Khao San, trying to cram as much of Bangkok as we could into the few hours we had left in Thailand.  I would recommend Methavalai Sorndaeng to anyone who wants high quality Thai food in glamourous surroundings with a sense of occasion.  Thanks again Krang and Pook for your hospitality, this was truly a memorable meal :-)

Have your cakes and try not to eat them all.

You may have noticed that I've taken a detour into baking territory of late.  My colleagues bought me a cake stand for my birthday in December, and this seemed to prompt other, baking related gifts for Christmas, including a silicone muffin tin and two baking tomes.

Heartened by the success of last weeks ginger cake, I decided to attempt some muffins for the first time.  The recipe was fairly simple, and called for walnuts, butter (four tablespoons of butter; how anyone measures this is beyond me, I just guessed) sugar, eggs and lemon zest, whizzed up in a food processor and spooned (slopped) into mini muffin cases (I bought some nice, blingy gold ones) then baked for twenty minutes or so.

Despite guessing some of the measurements, the muffins were really tasty!  Moist, light and lemony, with a slight nutty undertone from the walnuts.  Really easy too.  They looked a bit rough and ready, and I didn't bother with the recommended frosting, not out of laziness (well a bit) but because I'm getting a bit worried about the amount of cake I've eaten in the last week, so piling what is basically pure butter and sugar on top of my muffins seemed to be taking it a bit far.  Still, I'm quite enjoying this baking lark, and I'll be keeping you up to date with my efforts (and palming my experiments off on you).
 

The cake is lush...awesome!

I done a cake!

I have made a fresh ginger cake! Not sure what it tastes like yet but it looks and smells like cake, result.