Caramelised (Smoked) Garlic Tart

I love summer. I love barbecues. I love veggie foods. I love Ottolenghi. No, I really, REALLY love Ottolenghi. So the other Sunday I was in my element as I was able to express my love for all of these things over the course of a day culminating in a beautiful sunny afternoon spent barbecuing (sorry, watching Bailey barbecuing) and eating side dishes from Ottolenghi's veggie classic Plenty.

While Plenty is technically a vegetarian cookbook, I rarely think of it as such and I don't think many meat eating home cooks do either (correct me if I'm wrong). What that man can do with vegetables is little short of miraculous and I doubt many people miss the meat in these recipes. I would never say Plenty is my favourite vegetarian cookbook, that would be doing it a disservice, it is my favourite cookbook full stop.

Aside from being an awesome all round book, Plenty is stuffed full of recipes that are amazing for barbecue side dishes. A couple of years ago before we had the two crappy summers in a row, we had BBQs most weekends in our old house; the Very Full Tart was a firm favourite and it felt like I made the Green Pancakes with Lime Butter so often I could have done it in my sleep (you can make them in advance then throw them onto the BBQ for a few minutes to heat up. Winner winner, spinach dinner).

Well now the sunshine is back and I'm dusting Plenty off and revisiting its well-thumbed pages. The Caramelised Garlic Tart recipe is one I'd always looked at with a mixture of awe and fear, staring at the picture depicting the many millions of garlic cloves wide-eyed. "Oof," Bailey and I would say, "can a tart with that amount of garlic in really be nice?!"

This time we decided to be brave and give it a go. The Friday night before the barbecue, Bailey had a brain wave of sticking the three heads of garlic called for by the recipe into his new ProQ smoker. Genius. This also meant I didn't need to blanch the garlic as per Ottolenghi's recipe as they'd already softened up a fair bit.

We loved the Caramelised (Smoked) Garlic Tart at the barbecue, I got lots of compliments even though the pastry was a bit 'soggy bottom' - don't think Paul and Mary would have been too impressed. I think I needed a metal tart tin. The verdict from Bailey was that the tart was "amazing" and "as good as the meat". After a bit of consideration he decided he still prefers the Very Full Tart but only just. Maybe one time I will make BOTH and it will be the best barbecue side selection EVER. Oh and by the way if you haven't got a copy of Plenty, what are you doing? Sort your life out, buy a copy.

Recipe:

375g puff pastry
3 heads of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
220ml water
3 tsp caster sugar
3 sprigs thyme
1 tsp dried rosemary
300g soft goat's cheese
2 eggs
100ml double cream
100ml creme fraiche
Salt and pepper

Start by rolling out the puff pastry big enough to fit in a tart dish with a little bit of pastry flying over the sides to spare. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C or gas mark 4.

Place the pastry inside the tart dish before lining the pastry with greaseproof paper. Fill the paper with baking beans or, if you're a pauper like me, rice.

Blind bake the pastry for 20 minutes. Take the paper and rice out of the tart case then bake for another 5 minutes, or until the pastry is starting to look browned.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Peel the garlic cloves and pop them in a frying pan with the oil and fry on a high heat for a couple of minutes. Add the water and balsamic vinegar to the pan and bring to the boil before leaving to simmer away for 10 minutes. Add the sugar, rosemary and the leaves off the thyme sprigs plus a bit of salt then simmer the pan until the water evaporates and you have some fit caramelised garlic cloves.

Now put the tart together. Break the goat's cheese up with your hands and dot bits of it all over the pastry case.

Next add the caramelised garlic cloves to the tart base.

Next, take a jug and whisk the eggs, cream and creme fraiche with a bit of salt and pepper. Pour this into the tart case. Reduce the oven temperature to gas mark 3 / 160 degrees C and bake for 45 minutes, until the filling has set and the top is golden and lovely.

Decorate the tart with some lovely sprigs of thyme and serve! Thanks Ottolenghi... ♥

Liquid Brunch at Proof°

I always think Sundays are what you make of them. You can choose to wallow in a pit of hangover, self-pity and dread about going to work the next day, or you can go out there and make the most of your last day of freedom in the weekend. A lot can be achieved on a Sunday, and it is with that in mind that we made our way down to Proof° the other Sunday brunchtime following an invite from Linda, the deputy manager. Proof° also want you to make the most of your Sundays (and Saturdays) and as such have launched a new 'Liquid Brunch Weekender' menu of filled bagels, oysters and amazing hair-of-the-dog cocktails. We really were excited to try it all (with our brunch partners for the day - the lovely Manchester Foodies and Lady Sybil) as it sounded delicious and indeed the perfect antidote to a night of boozing.

We started off with a round of cocktails and boy were these good. Predictably it had to be the Brunch Martini for me (they had me at 'marmalade') - a tangy, bitter number capable of waking up even the most hungover of tastebuds.

Bailey's Beet 'n' Bloody was a mammoth-sized tequila, beetroot spicy treat which is not only a good concoction to clean the beer fuzz out of your mouth, but also provides you with one of your five-a-day. Perfect.

Over the course of the visit we also tried a Holy Guacamole (creamy avocado goodness), a Morning Star Chelada (Estrella Damm based cocktail served with or without raw egg) and a Bright & Breezy (grapefruit tastic) - a very impressive selection and all delicious. Cocktails at Proof° really are a treat and this is the strength of the menu.

Holy Guacamole - I don't recommend munching the bird's eye chilli like I did

Food is simple but done well. I tried the Piscivore - a gorgeous light Barbakan poppy seed bagel filled with generous portions of smoked salmon and cream cheese with a bit of rocket, lemon and chives. I also loved the little pot of salsa you got to go with some crunchy tortilla chips that were served on the side. Lovely.

Bailey's Carnivore bagel was filled with dry cured streaky bacon, sun-blushed tomatoes, rocket and mayo. The bacon was bang on, so crispy and straight you could use it as a spirit level, making for a great sarnie.

Finally we were brought over a tray of fresh oysters and how could I say no? I'd never actually eaten a raw oyster so this was a first for me.

Initially I wasn't sure about the idea of oysters appearing on a liquid brunch menu - I'd have thought that on an intense hangover these bad boys could tip you over the edge. Fortunately this wasn't the case - my oyster was lovely and the Tabasco I liberally sprinkled mine with was just the ticket.

So a big thankyou to Proof° for inviting us in to try out their new menu, we have two enthusiastic thumbs up to give them for their Liquid Brunch. I should mention that the brunch is rather reasonably priced at a tenner for a bagel and a cocktail. The idea is splendid and I can't think of anywhere else doing anything like it; we recommend you go and let them clear your fuzzy heads. In our case it worked a little too well by not only curing our hangovers, but setting us up to spend the rest of the afternoon in the pub. Now that's what I call making the most of a Sunday.

Grasshopper Pie

Last weekend we were celebrating the scorching weather, the tennis and the arrival of Bailey's new ProQ with a delightful barbecue for our lovely mates. I decided I wanted to make a dessert, and I told Bailey that I fancied doing something light like a cheesecake but not a cheesecake, and something a bit American like a Mississippi mud pie but not a Mississippi mud pie.

Knowing that my Hummingbird Bakery book is a good port of call for such things, I had a flick through and as expected found an unusual looking dessert known as the Grasshopper Pie. Further investigation revealed that this dessert is based on the grasshopper cocktail. I love a good dessert that's based on something else (I do like to come up with my own such recipes when possible) and also this looked right up Bailey's street as he loves a bit of mint choc chip.

The Hummingbird recipe called for chocolate biscuits and in my eyes there really is only one chocolate biscuit worth mentioning and that's the almighty Bourbon Cream so I snapped up a packet of these for the base.

Just when I came home with all the required ingredients and thought it was all going swimmingly, disaster struck when we realised that our pie dish had disappeared and there was nothing for me to make the Grasshopper Pie in. Therefore I decided to make it in a springform tin; it resembled more of a messy cheesecake but aside from a disaster involving a load of the filling leaking all over the fridge it worked quite well.

I was really pleased with the end result of the Grasshopper Pie - although it wasn't much to look at (I would say making it in a pie dish would make it prettier), it tasted very light but sweet, the perfect antidote to having eaten a load of barbecue food. The Bourbons made for a nice crisp, not too sweet but solid biscuit base. Bailey even said it was probably his favourite of the desserts I've made him. Boom!

Recipe:
260g Bourbon Creams
170g butter
185g marshmallows
1/4 tsp peppermint essence
1/2 tsp green food colouring
600ml double cream
4 squares of dark chocolate

Start by lining a springform tin with greaseproof paper. Then take the biscuits and blend them up into a fine powder.

Melt the butter over a low heat. Add the butter to the biscuit crumbs and stir thoroughly. Put the biscuit butter mix into the bottom of the springform tin, spread out and press down with a spoon until you have a nice biscuit base. Place the springform tin in the fridge to cool for at least 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the marshmallows in the milk over a low heat. Once the marshmallows have melted, take the pan off the heat and add the peppermint and food colouring. Put the saucepan to one side for 15 minutes.

Take 300ml of the cream and whisk to soft peaks. Add the cream to the marshmallow mix and fold in carefully. Pour the liquid over the biscuit base and place in the fridge to set.

We left our Grasshopper in the fridge overnight but according to Hummingbird it shouldn't take more than around 2 hours to set. When you're ready to serve the pie, take it out of the tin and whisk the remaining cream to stiff peaks. Smother the top of the pie with the cream.

Grate the dark chocolate onto the top of the pie and serve, post-BBQ!

Grillstock Manchester 2013

Grillstock. "Meat. Music. Mayhem", apparently. A Bristol-born BBQ festival that'd had the punters coming back for more meaty treats since 2010. Last year Bailey became so fed up of reading about delicious meat that he couldn't get his chops around, that this year's original plan was to travel all the way down to Bristol. Then we heard that this wouldn't be necessary  - the Grillstock team had obviously realised that Manchester is ace, and that therefore it would be a great idea to bring the BBQ up to us lovely northerners.

Bailey had been looking forward to Grillstock since he ordered his tickets on the first day they went on sale back in something silly like February. It sounded like it would be the BBQ event to end all BBQ events with loads going on.

So you may be wondering what qualifies me - a meat-shy pescatarian - to write about a BBQ festival such as Grillstock. Well, before going to the event I too would have wondered the same thing.

I do have to say though that the event, although rather 'meat-heavy', was so well organised, so varied and most importantly so fun that the meatiness of it didn't stop me enjoying it but of course made it downright awesome for the meat-loving public who were there.

Bailey and I went down early doors on the Saturday with our lovely friends Craig amd Francesca. We were lucky that it was one of the most beautiful weekends Manchester had seen all summer and therefore our first port of call was the Brooklyn Brewery bar followed by a brunchtastic snack.

Bailey opted from a pulled pork roll from Red's True Barbecue and I plumped for a deliciously messy and cheesy mushroom burger from Burger Theory.

This would be only the start of the weekend's eating and drinking. On offer were also meaty treats from Grillstock themselves, a second excellent veggie option in the form of chickpea flatbreads which I indulged in twice, amazing tarts from Sweet Tarts and top nosh from local BBQ kings Fire & Salt BBQ Co. who served up the best meat Bailey tasted all weekend. This led us to wonder why more local meat champs hadn't been asked to take part, but I suppose at least Nando's weren't there.

Grillstock Brisket

Apart from having the opportunity to consume and imbibe a load of delicious food and drink, I really enjoyed the other stuff Grillstock had going on - the BBQ demonstrations were a particularly good way to while away the hours, that is, if sitting around drinking with your mates doesn't appeal!

My favourite part of the weekend however was seeing the different food-related competitions - it really is great to see people having fun with food. I love a good competition and judging by the crowds these events attracted, so does every meat lover in Manchester.

The first competition we watched was the Franks Red Hot Chicken Wing Challenge which I was very excited to see Craig take part in.

Having known Craig a fair few years now, I've learnt that this man does not shy away from a challenge. However I really did not expect to see him transformed into a super speedy wing eating machine. I really did think he was going to reign victorious here but he was pipped to the post at the last minute by an unexpected competitor. Still an extremely impressive effort.

The other competition I rocked up for on both days and that I (and the many, many other spectators that also rocked up) found the most intriguing was the Chilli Eating Competition.

This was basically where a load of mentalists came to eat raw chilli after raw chilli which got progressively hotter as the competition went on. One of the mentalists to enter on the Sunday was none other than Bailey himself. This really was an unforgettable experience for him (and me as a worried spectator) and while he was a bit disappointed that he didn't make it to the scotch bonnet, I personally was just relieved when the whole thing didn't end in tears.

So as you may have gathered, I thought Grillstock was bloody excellent. Considering this was an event that I wasn't even particularly bothered about going to, it turned out to be one of my favourite weekends in Manchester this summer! The organisers did a fabulous job of organising everything and there really was something for everyone (even pescatarians...). I really hope they will come back to us next year, you never know I may even take part in the chilli eating myself...

Stock

Living Social deals, they certainly are a gamble.  For me there are only two circumstances when a restaurant would use Living Social to drive their business.  The first is that the restaurant in question is an overlooked gem and they just want people to come in, see how great their eatery is and then tell their friends.  The second reason, which I fear is more common, is that the restaurant is not good and is currently in a tailspin of negative opinion caused by service and food issues.  The Living Social deal is then used as a defibrillator in the hope that a sudden influx of customers seeking a bargain meal will enjoy their experience and the business will rebound.  Even if that doesn't work at least the restaurant will look full and there will at least be some profits, however marginal, hitting the tills.  With this firmly in mind a Living Social deal was booked for Stock Restaurant along with our good friends Kate and Chris.

We had heard some lovely things of Stock from various Twitter buddies and I'd even spied a picture of Steve Coogan dining there, not only that but it had been bandied around in discussions about Manchester's most beautiful restaurant buildings.  Although everything was pointing to this to be a winner somehow it just hadn't made it on to 'the list' and it was only the bargain deal that tipped the scale.  It certainly is a beautiful building housed within the old Manchester Stock Exchange.  The domed ceiling is very impressive indeed when you first walk in, while we waited for our table for a few minutes we all just had a good gawp at it.  The whole restaurant has a very classic style to it and there seemed to be a good buzz of activity with smartly dressed waiters zipping here and there.  First minus point though was the absurd, giant fake flower in the middle of the table which perfectly obscured the entire face of the person sat opposite.

The next thing to hit us was the music which was being pumped out at a jarring volume.  Not only that but it was some of the weirdest music I'd ever heard piped in to a dining hall, the only thing I can compare it to is  music from a video game, particularly the early stages of some sort of adventure game.  Perhaps something that villagers would listen to as they collected their crops they had grown in their fantasy world.  For a very close approximation of what it sounded like just click here.

We ordered a bottle of wine which took quite some time to appear but when it was delivered by our waitress we discovered that she too had her own doubts about the quality of the restaurant.  She asked "Do you want to order your food now?", we all nodded politely and confirmed that yes we were ready to order which seemed to please the waitress as she said "good otherwise you'd be waiting another 20 minutes for me to come back".  Fair enough.  We got down to ordering only to find that all the fish specials were sold out.  I also tried to order the lamb rack.  Sold out.  This was Friday night at 8pm and a restaurant called Stock was out of stock of some of its major items.  Was this an underhand technique to ensure us lowly Living Social dealers did not receive the premium items from the menu or perhaps the fantasy villagers need to shift their attention from crop harvesting to hunting and fishing?  Either way this severely limited the menu for Jules and I had to rethink what I wanted and go for something I wasn't too fussed about.

Jules asked for the mussels with no pancetta but sadly this was delivered covered in a generous portion of pancetta.  It was sent back and did not reappear.  As we were finishing our starters our waitress noticed that Jules was still waiting for hers and enquired what had gone wrong, we let her know it had been sent back because it was wrong.  What was her diligent response?  An apology and assurance that she would nip off and sort it out?  Nope, she said "Now they can't even read!" and stormed off in the direction of the kitchen.  No apology.  Jules had to eat her mussels alone as we had finished ours by the time it reappeared.  They were also nothing to shout about.  Although the first plate had pancetta, it also had a decent portion of the sauce and cabbage which was distinctly missing from the second plate to be delivered.  They were OK but quite plain.

Apologies for crappy photo!

My tagliatelle carbonara was pretty good, nicely seasoned, well cooked pasta and not too heavy.  Better than Jamie's which I had eaten not too long ago but still not as good as many that I've eaten in old school trattorias.

Kate had selected the slightly wacky scallops and pineapple combo which was predictably weird but actually worked.  Chris on the other hand went for sardines of which 50% were good.  For some reason one of his sardines was delicious and the other was absolutely tasteless.

There was then a whacking great wait for the main courses, at least an hour but we were still having a good time so it didn't really bother us too much.  While we waited though I did hear the table next to us give the manager an absolute savaging over the quality of the food.  The gent in question was straight up refusing to pay for his meal as the quality was poor and he didn't believe the cut of meat he had received was as indicated on the menu.  The manager really didn't want to give any food away here but did relent in the end.  This did not bode well.

I'd gone for a lamb shank for my main.  As soon as I saw it I knew it looked a bit dry and tough.  My first impressions were correct as the meat fell off the bone in one piece and intended very much to stay in one piece, it took some dedicated effort to dissect the meat with the standard cutlery provided.  This is not what I want from a lamb shank and it was clear that this had been hanging around somewhere hot drying out for some time in the kitchen.  Any chef or waiter worth his salt would have been able to tell it was cack just by looking at it and it should never have left the kitchen.  The mash had a nice flavour but was really lumpy.  The best bit about the plate was the jus which was subtle but tasty, I would have killed for some fresh bread to get at that jus.  The presentation did not help as it just looked like a rosemary explosion.  This dish costs £18.95 on the menu, flabbergasted.

Jules had opted for the black risotto with crispy squid which she really enjoyed despite the slightly claggy risotto rice.  The dish was saved by the squid which was top notch and the crispy batter was a delight.  This plate too had been subjected to assault by herbs as it was obscured by raw greenery.

Kate had gone for the filet steak and requested it medium rare which she too enjoyed despite the fact that it was nowhere near medium rare, there wasn't one iota of pink to be seen.  So as a general comment every main dish was overcooked and they all arrived very late which leads me to believe that it was sat under a hot lamp for quite some time.  Again if anybody had cared to look at our food or inspect it to see if it was good to send out they would have quickly discovered it was not up to scratch but my general impression was that no one cared which is a shame as they did have some good flavours in their food.

There was then another big wait for the plates to be cleared.  Followed by another big wait for someone to come and provide dessert menus.  As we had been there for hours at this point and my confidence had been drained severely I ended up having to call someone over to get them.  It was at this point our Stock hating waitress was substituted for a lean, mean waiting machine.  He had both the demeanour and the general appearance of Jason Statham and from our first meeting everything about him told me that he was capable of the same level of uber violence as said action star.  His eyes never stopped darting around the room as if he was expecting at any moment a gang of heavily armed goons to crash through the windows indiscriminately firing sub machine guns here, there and everywhere.

I ordered the creme brulee and it seemed to come as a genuine surprise to Statham, in fact judging by his reaction I would say he had never even heard of it before.  Chris ordered tiramisu and it was the same deal, the waiter even asked to look at the menu so he could copy the spelling of the dessert down correctly.  Luckily it got easier from there as Kate went for the chocolate cake and Jules ordered the pavlova.  I have to say that his manner of dealing with us was so gruff we actually started laughing a bit although this was partly because it was so unbelievable and partly to diffuse the tension he was creating.  Once he had our order he consulted with the despondent waitress who then tried to approach us, he commanded her to stop any attempt to communicate with us by firmly saying (quite loudly) in his gruff manner "I've got this!".  Moments later Statham emerged from the kitchen nervously looking over his shoulder, perhaps he had just disembowelled a terrorist with a chef's paring knife.  He literally slung our desserts at us, mine actually skidded across the table away from me.  It was all teetering on the edge of resembling a Fawlty Towers episode.

We have a new camera phone now!

My creme brulee was not like any creme brulee I had encountered before.  There was a very thin layer of caramel served very cold and the custard below was in fact a very thick coffee mousse.  Pleasant enough but not quite what I expected.  The ginger cake it came with didn't work at all and was quite hard to break with teeth alone.

Jules' pavlovas looked very pretty but they too were almost impenetrable.  The caramelised bananas were not caramelised, they were just warm.  Once you managed to break the pavlovas down with a bit of jaw action they were quite tasty.

Kate really enjoyed her chocolate cake which was also quite tough but the ice cream was a stand out element.  Luckily Chris' tiramisu was easily penetrated, I would have been worried if it was tough, but it was just a pretty average tiramisu.  Getting out of the restaurant proved to be as difficult as the other elements of the service.  All the waiters and the manger had gathered at the exit of the restaurant despite the fact there were still a fair few tables in.  I had to try really hard to get someone's attention so that we could get our bill.

When the bill did arrive they had decided that they would automatically put a service charge on.  This was quite displeasing when you consider we were only a table of four and the service had been some of the worst I had ever experienced.  There was one thing about the bill that made me deliriously happy though, I hadn't paid full price.  At the price we paid I was disappointed and would not be returning but had still got plenty of laughs out of the crazy service, at full price I'd have been having a strong word with the manager just like my fellow guests had done earlier in the evening.  As we left I still would have loved to show my displeasure to the manager but he was too busy chatting with his waiting staff with his back to us at the door.  The dome had lost most of its grandeur now.