The Hundred House, Norton - Game Night

The Hundred House is a local favourite of ours, it has 2 AA rosettes and prides itself for using local produce as well as herbs from their beautiful gardens.  We had gone in for a bite to eat earlier in the month and seen the game night advertised, being a big venison fan we booked it.  The price was £26.95 for three courses including bread.

Mark and I had the same starter of Mini Beef & Venison Burger, Moydens 1665 Smoked Cheese, Dill Pickle Relish served in a Brioche Bun.  The burger was really tasty and juicy, with a relish that complimented it perfectly, my only gripe about the burger was the brioche was a little dry.

For main course Mark had Wild Boar Faggots seasoned with Thyme & Parsley, Braised with White Wine Tomato, Beans & Bacon, as Mark said they weren't just faggots, they were really tasty and juicy with perfect accompaniments.  I went for Roast Hauch of Venison, Turnip & Prune Gratin, Cavolo Nero, Juniper & Port Wine Sauce - I know venison for starter and main, it is my favourite and you don't see it that often so I have to make the most of it when it's there!!  This was beautiful, the venison was cooked to perfection and sliced lovely and thinly, there was just enough sauce - quite often in some of these restaurants they just drizzle a little on to make it look pretty and there is never enough.  Here, there was enough to make it look good (ie not flooded in sauce) but also enough to taste good.

For dessert we both chose the same which was Rich Dark Chocolate & Blueberry Roulade with White Chocolate & Mint Ice Cream.  The desserts at The Hundred House have never excited me, we have probably been at least 10 times and never once have I seen a dessert that jumps out at me on the menu and I am a dessert person.  The choice was this, apple pie or pannacotta.  This was nice but it wasn't amazingly tasty like the starters and mains tend to be, the ice cream was very good and I am not normally keen on ice cream but the roulade was just a roulade and nothing special. 

It was a lovely night, nice food, cosy fires - looking forward to game season and another game night as we will be back again!

Tricolour Cupcakes Attempt Two

So I decided that I would be using this method for the day and I didn’t have a practice first!

For the cupcakes:

150g (5oz) butter, softened

150g (5oz) caster sugar

100g (3½oz) self-raising flour

2 level tablespoons cocoa powder

3 medium eggs

2 tablespoons milk

Few drops of vanilla extract

For the frosting:

75g/3ox marg/butter

175g/7oz Icing sugar

good slug of Baileys

Oven - gas mark 5 or 190°C or 170°C fan.  15 – 18mins

I divided the frosting into three bowls and coloured then red and blue and left the other plain.  This method involves four piping bags!  Put each colour into separate piping bags without a tip attached.  Then flatten the icing in the bags so that they all fit in another piping bag with the tip attached.

It was tricky to keep an even pressure and not squeeze too much of the one colour so I just had to continuously push the icing down the bags.  Otherwise I didn't waste any icing like the last lot and I got the result I was looking for.  Am just dissappointed in the cases which have gone a bit floppy - need to stick with foil perhaps.

 

Tricolour Cupcakes

I have volunteered to do some cupcakes for an event at work celebrating the Olympics.  I saw some fantastic cupcakes with three colour icing and though that would look fab. http://thecupcakeblog.com/tag/jubilee-cupcake/

Today I tested one method of three colour icing to see what it looked like.  I used a standard vanilla cupcake and vanilla buttercream recipe.  For the cakes though I split the mix into three bowls and coloured them pink (didn’t have any red), white and baby blue.  They looked fab when cooked.

Onto the icing, the buttercream was split the same way and coloured as the cakes were.  This method I decided to put all three colours into the same piping bag, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t be overly satisfied with the result but wanted to give it a go.

However I wasn’t too disappointed in the results, it wasn’t exactly what I was looking for which I expected, although it looked quite nice.  I did find I would have wasted a lot of buttercream as you couldn’t get all the colours evenly into the bag, as it was a test I didn’t wait till I had got all three colours piping through and just piped the cakes right away (only for our consumption so it didn’t matter what they looked like).  If I had been doing them properly there would have been a fair bit of wasted icing.

Quick Lemon Meringue Pie

Have been wanting some lemon meringue pie and found this easy recipe which is yummy. I did cheat and used a ready made case.

Ingredients
1⁄2 x 375g packet sweet pastry
For the filling:
397g can condensed milk
2 medium egg yolks
Finely zested rind and juice of 2 lemons
For the meringue:
2 egg whites
125g caster sugar
24cm (91⁄2in) round enamel pie plate

Method
Set the oven to 220°C/425°F/Gas Mark 7 and place a baking sheet in the oven to heat up.
Roll the pastry out and line the pie plate. Prick the base and pinch the edges to pattern them. Chill for 10-15 minutes.
To make the filling: Mix together the condensed milk, egg yolks, lemon rind and juice. Pour the mixture into the pastry case.
To make the meringue: Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then gradually whisk in the sugar. Spoon the meringue on top of the pie, either leaving it just in the centre or covering the top of the pie completely.
Place the pie on the hot baking sheet and turn the oven temperature down to 190°C/375°F/Gas Mark 5 and bake for 30-35 minutes, until the meringue has turned a light golden colour and the pastry is cooked.