You should see the backblog. Its been almost a month since I returned from the far East and there is still a pile of x-rated food porn from Vietnam to get through on the blog. Then I also have to update Dakar Restaurant Reviews and think of something interesting to say on Kigali Restaurant Reviews. Its time for a rest and a brief return to normal random-crap mitherings on Jifflings.
Dobbies Garden Centres.
Mum and Dad Jiffler like to get their jiffling hands dirty down at th'allotment. Flanked by the sea, the Menai Straits, a medieval castle, with Snowdonia's giants striding handsomely in the background, they've been jammy enough to get hold of what could be the most beautiful plot in the world. The waiting list is 8 years long apparently. Well this sort of thing is fashionable these days.
Quite apart from the quiet enjoyment that comes from picking peas, pursuing bindweed, and brewing tea in the shed (activities which beat the daylights out of blogging), allotment ownership leads to afternoons spent visiting garden centres. Normallement, I couldn't think of anything more tedious, and as the car pulled in Dobbies garden centre in near Shrewsbury en route to Anglesey from a wedding in Hertfordshire, my hungover brain began to recoil at the anticipated boredom of bargain basement books, and composty smells.
I was wrong. Well I was right about the books and the compost, but I was wrong about Dobbies. Dobbies in Shrewsbury has a cafeteria, with proper coffee, fry-ups, and a selection of British cakes and pastries which made me gasp nostagically. Millionaire's shortbread, cream buns, egg custards, proper fruit pies. I made a beeline for an eccles cake, a large mug of coffee, and felt my hangover lift like a cloud.
It's not just about the cafe though. Dobbies boasts a classy deli concession just by the entrance. A place of Barkham blue, Cornish yarg, smoked salmon, meaty scotch eggs and massive steak pies. The sort of things my fantasy foodstore (Jiffler's Deli) would stock.
Here is the website. There are branches of Dobbies across the country, some with enormous farm food halls, so there is no excuse to put with Little Chef garbage again.
A mini-chorizo recipe.
Mrs Jiffler has just returned from Barcelona, bearing gifts of serious wine, cheese, jamon Iberico and chorizo. A bit of home-made tapas action was in order, and I remembered an old easy-peasy tapas dish that's worth a go. It might even work as a appetiser or starter to a more substantial racione.
Chorizo in red wine:
Ingredients:
A good, dry or semi-dry chorizo
A glass of Rioja
Fresh parsley
(zen quantities apply as usual, depends how many you're cooking for)
A few hours in advance, cut up up the chorizo into half-bite sized nuggets (I prefer them to look a bit rough and craggy, but chacun a son gout) and place them in a small ovenproof bowl, one of those little terracotta things will do nicely. Chop up a small handful of fresh parsley and mix with the chorizo. Pour over the red wine and leave the mixture in the fridge for 3 hours or so.
Pre-heat the oven to a medium heat, and take the chorizo mixture out of the fridge. The chorizo should have absorbed much of the wine and the dish may appear a little dry. Put the bowl in the oven for about ten minutes, or until the crags of chorizo are looking nicely crunchy around the edges.
Serve out of the bowl with crusty bread to dip into the wine mixture which will have seeped out of the chorizo, exchanging a little flavour along the way.
Dobbies Garden Centres.
Mum and Dad Jiffler like to get their jiffling hands dirty down at th'allotment. Flanked by the sea, the Menai Straits, a medieval castle, with Snowdonia's giants striding handsomely in the background, they've been jammy enough to get hold of what could be the most beautiful plot in the world. The waiting list is 8 years long apparently. Well this sort of thing is fashionable these days.
Quite apart from the quiet enjoyment that comes from picking peas, pursuing bindweed, and brewing tea in the shed (activities which beat the daylights out of blogging), allotment ownership leads to afternoons spent visiting garden centres. Normallement, I couldn't think of anything more tedious, and as the car pulled in Dobbies garden centre in near Shrewsbury en route to Anglesey from a wedding in Hertfordshire, my hungover brain began to recoil at the anticipated boredom of bargain basement books, and composty smells.
I was wrong. Well I was right about the books and the compost, but I was wrong about Dobbies. Dobbies in Shrewsbury has a cafeteria, with proper coffee, fry-ups, and a selection of British cakes and pastries which made me gasp nostagically. Millionaire's shortbread, cream buns, egg custards, proper fruit pies. I made a beeline for an eccles cake, a large mug of coffee, and felt my hangover lift like a cloud.
It's not just about the cafe though. Dobbies boasts a classy deli concession just by the entrance. A place of Barkham blue, Cornish yarg, smoked salmon, meaty scotch eggs and massive steak pies. The sort of things my fantasy foodstore (Jiffler's Deli) would stock.
Here is the website. There are branches of Dobbies across the country, some with enormous farm food halls, so there is no excuse to put with Little Chef garbage again.
A mini-chorizo recipe.
Mrs Jiffler has just returned from Barcelona, bearing gifts of serious wine, cheese, jamon Iberico and chorizo. A bit of home-made tapas action was in order, and I remembered an old easy-peasy tapas dish that's worth a go. It might even work as a appetiser or starter to a more substantial racione.
Chorizo in red wine:
Ingredients:
A good, dry or semi-dry chorizo
A glass of Rioja
Fresh parsley
(zen quantities apply as usual, depends how many you're cooking for)
A few hours in advance, cut up up the chorizo into half-bite sized nuggets (I prefer them to look a bit rough and craggy, but chacun a son gout) and place them in a small ovenproof bowl, one of those little terracotta things will do nicely. Chop up a small handful of fresh parsley and mix with the chorizo. Pour over the red wine and leave the mixture in the fridge for 3 hours or so.
Pre-heat the oven to a medium heat, and take the chorizo mixture out of the fridge. The chorizo should have absorbed much of the wine and the dish may appear a little dry. Put the bowl in the oven for about ten minutes, or until the crags of chorizo are looking nicely crunchy around the edges.
Serve out of the bowl with crusty bread to dip into the wine mixture which will have seeped out of the chorizo, exchanging a little flavour along the way.
Cheesecake.
In honour of man of the moment, chart topping comedian Peter Kay, let's finish with a gratuitous cheesecake shot. This little praline beauty came from a little tea shop in Central, Hong Kong. It nearly beat me.
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