International Women’s Day – 8 March

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centredinternationalwomensday

It’s International Women’s Day! Today naturally makes me think about how very lucky I am to live in a society where being female isn’t a ‘bad’ thing.

I am somebody that will never experience a forced marriage. I will never experience mutilation or mistreatment as a form of ‘custom’. I’ll never feel that I ‘can’t’ go for that dream job. I will never feel the disappointment or embarrassment of others if I one day have a baby girl.

I never take for granted where or how I live; it really is so much more than many women have.

The United Nation’s theme for International Women’s Day 2014 is: Inspiring Change. Other groups also choose their own themes to debate and explore. Thousands of events will take place across the world celebrating the achievements of women across many walks of life.

Happy International Women’s day 2014, women readers. Do you have a favourite inspirational female?

 

 

 

 

The Yorkshire Meatball Company

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This weekend, The Yorkshire Meatball Company flung open the doors to its flagship restaurant in Harrogate town centre. We popped along to the ‘Balls & Fizz’ launch evening, to learn a take a look around, learn about the owners and of course, to see what they can do with a humble meatball.

Owned by father and son, Gareth and David Atkinson, the restaurant concept is the first in the UK and they have plans to open a handful of further branches across Leeds. Gareth told us that is wasn’t the first business idea that he’s text to his father for consideration, but this is the one that became an instant keeper.

balls.jpg

Because who doesn’t love a good meatball? More people than ever it would now seem, as the menu covers most bases. The gluten-free ‘Birdie Balls’ were a surprising favourite of mine – light but filling, with a fine crunchy coating and a good amount of herbs. There are also chickpea-based ‘Fake Balls’ for the veggie diners. There are smoky balls, Yorkshire balls, fish balls, spicy balls, balls for dessert and balls for any time of day (Sausage brunch balls, anyone?).

The menu is easy to follow. A three-step plan allows diners to choose their balls, choose a ‘bed’ to put the balls on, and a sauce to cover them.

The dining space features a long wooden table, so that diners can eat side-by-side and perhaps even make a new friend or two. Design quirks include cute cheese grater and colander light fixtures;  a wall-sized chalkboard and framed family photos on the walls.

The Yorkshire Meatball Company has been built with on foundations of simplicity and fun. It celebrates a nation’s favourite supper with charm and thoughtfulness, whilst making diners feel more ‘New York’ than ”TV Dinner’.

The Yorkshire Meatball Company, 7 Station Bridge, Harrogate. Website: http://www.theymco.com/
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La Oliva, Harrogate

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I love the Harrogate dining scene, because you’ll usually find yourself tucked in the nook above a shop, or hidden down a cobbled ginnel. It’s fairytale food stuff.

What’s also decidedly dreamy is the amount of eateries that take the Tastecard. Great news for savers who want to slip out for a midweek morsel.

La Oliva sprung up like a tiny Catalonian flower a couple of months ago. There was no bravado, no toreador, definitely no breeches or cape; just a chalkboard, some cool lighting and the promise of knock-out tapas.

tapas la oliva harrogate

Tapas. The love/hate quandary of the hungry person. There’s the fear of ordering too little and feeling sad, or too much and chucking your cash away. It feels so ‘British’ too to grill the waiter about your thoughts. I have to admit after several years of working around tapas myself, I’m still unsure how much to ask for.

We ordered dishes, stopping only really when we kind of ran out of menu to point at. We ate it all anyway. I do love a good challenge.

They serve tapas the correct way. It was lovely service – borderline horizontal and the two man team (a quiet night), just milled around sampling wines on the bar, nibbling jamon Iberico…. remind me again why I didn’t beg for a job?

After being served a traditional quenelle of potato, prawn and mayonnaise to try, we shared iberico bruschetta, mild but tasty patatas bravas, delicious garlic prawns, chorizo in cider and some ham croquettes. It was simple, tasty food that whilst being more expensive than their tapas chain counterparts, really felt worth it.

We shared a giant ice cream profiterole, topped with toasted almonds. This was just like eating a posh, round Feast lolly. Oh, and our bill was topped with some rocks of white chocolate peanut brittle. A lovely end to my little stay on the continent.

La Oliva was a great place to chill and nibble through some well-cooked dishes. It is elegant, modern, humble – a perfect mix, without a single straw donkey in sight.

La Oliva, 13-15 Cheltenham Parade, Harrogate HG1 1DD.
Tel:01423 531422  @LaOliva_rest

Christmas Squeak

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Three days after Christmas is a strange old time for most people’s fridges. Chances are there are still umpteen foil-wrapped plates and tupperware full of god-knows-what. For me by three days, I’ve waved a cheery bye to the remnants of turkey (it’s not my favourite meat), and I’m faced with a plate of leftover mixed veggies.

Christmas Squeak

I’ve found a way to turn your soggy sprouts into blossom bombs of flavour, by blitzing your leftover veg and making this seasonal variation of bubble & squeak. I was inspired by my brother in-law, who made real b&s the other night, topped with a runny egg and lashings of brown sauce. I served mine with a rogue packet of chiplolatas that were hiding behind a box of cheeses.

It couldn’t be simpler to make Christmas Squeak:

Take your plate of leftover cooked veg – in my case it was a few roasties, parsnips, sprouts, a bit of mash. Blitz it in a blender. If you need to, use the tiniest splash of milk, but nothing more as the mixture can become very runny if you over blitz it. Heat a frying pan with a moderate glug of oil. Either tip the whole mixture into the hot oil and press down with a masher, or form smaller, flat patties and gently lower then into the oil. Gently press the mixture down frequently and carefully flip a few times to ensure a cripsy crust. The longer you cook, the crispier the squeak will become – mine took around 15 minutes.

(re)Kindling a love for books.

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kindle

I’m terrible at reading these days, I just never seem to find the time. It’s hard to believe that I graduated in English Literature. The thought of all that hardcore reading, with little choice of subject matter makes me queasy.

I am now faced with too much choice and too little discipline. Getting to a book store and browsing is barely possible at this time of life. The joy of owning books too is dampened, when they are used as colouring books or objects to shred with little hands.

So as a Christmas present to myself, I’ve invested in a Kindle Paperwhite. They are designed to do very little else other than provide a great e-reader solution, so there’s small chance of me wandering off onto Facebook, or buying a dress.

Digital books are cheaper, too. I feel better for the environment and for a literary person, I’m a bit weird because I hate clutter. Heaving bookshelves make me gasp for air and the fact that this little machine holds up to 1100 books, well… that’s enough for someone like me.

I will admit though that I feel bittersweet about owning a Kindle. Books, at the end of the day, are something that you form a temporary, yet intense bond with. Like a new partner, you can’t put it down. You pore over it and get to know it. You sink into it. Can you do this with a black square of plastic?

Perhaps it will work the other way; the Kindle becoming the trusty companion who’s in it for the long run. I may get to know its quirky bits, enjoy its consistency in my life. Perhaps it won’t be a bad thing that people can’t judge a Kindle by its cover. I can put on my deepest intellectual face, whilst enjoying something completely rubbish.

I’m excited to embark on this somewhat arranged marriage between Kindle and I. I might give it a name and just hope to God we get on alright.

Sweet potato, red pepper and feta soup

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I believe that feta makes it all better. The most virtuous of cheeses; even nutritionists struggle to slate it.

So if you imagine it’s a cold winter’s day (if you’re a UK reader, then it most likely is right now), and you want the nourishment of soup, with the moreish tang of of a crumbly cheese, then this is the recipe for you.

This meat-free soup is thick enough to hold its own as a main meal, or as a satisfying snack in a mug whilst catching up on a good omnibus (I mean, intellectual book).

Sweet potato, pepper and feta soup

To make a big pan, you’ll need:

3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into four lengths
Half a bulb of garlic, crushed or chopped
Half a packet of full-fat feta (low fat is less tasty – it’s a false friend)
Vegetable stock cube
1.5 litres of water
Tbsp olive oil

- Heat the oil and gently sauté the potatoes and garlic for a few minutes. Meanwhile, pop the peppers in the oven to roast on around gas mark 7 for 20 minutes. Add the stock to the potatoes, bring to the boil and then simmer for around 15 minutes. By this point the peppers should be slightly charred and the skins puckered. Carefully take them from the oven and put in the stock pan. Boil the combined mixture for 5 minutes. Crumble in the feta and then blend to a smooth consistency. Season as required.

Hearty (& cheap) Minestrone Soup

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You have to take what you can from the miserable start to UK winter. For me, it’s the simple comfort of soup. It would just be silly to have most soups in summer or spring, so as the temperature drops, I drag out the heavy saucepan, turn on the radio and start souping!

minestrone

Incidentally this week too, I’ve been reading with interest about #jackspetition. Jack Monroe is a mum and anti-poverty campaigner. At one point she found herself with just £10 a week to feed her 1-year old son and herself. Her local Surestart centre directed Jack to the local foodbank, when they realised her situation. Jack’s petition has made headline news this week and I look forward to the updates on Parliamentary discussions.

So as a nod to Jack and her hard work, I tinkered around making a minestrone soup that is healthy, filling and cheap. It’s meat-free and the pasta and potato turn this into a proper meal.

Makes a big pan to fill around 6 bowls:

400g can tomatoes (as cheap as you can get)
3 big handfuls of dry pasta or snapped spaghetti (same as above)
3 medium white potatoes, peeled
3 medium carrots, peeled
2 sticks celery, washed
2 veg stock cubes
2-3 pints of water (for desired consistency)
2 big handfuls of peas
2 cloves garlic (optional but nice), crushed
Dried oregano or mixed herbs (optional but nice)
Any other frozen veg you like – I used broad beans for added chunkiness
Tbsp oil

Chop the potatoes and carrots into small pieces (say 2cm chunks). Chop celery into 2cm thins. Heat oil in a heavy pan, add garlic and gently sauté veg for a few minutes. Add the tomatoes, herbs, water and pasta, bringing gently to the boil. Reduce heat and pop the stock cubes in. Leave to cook for 10 minutes then gently stir. Add the frozen peas and any other veg, then cook for a further 15 minutes until pasta and veg are cooked through.

Jack’s petition has to date collected over 75,000 signatures. Add yours here.

Experiment #1: Bare-faced weekend

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People who know me will no that I’m no ‘make-up Mary’, but I do have a couple of cosmetics that I’d be fearful to live without:

Mascara for my tiny, virtually translucent eyelashes
Concealer for A LOT of toddler sleep deprivation
Blusher for my sallow, non-blushy skin tone

That’s all, really. But it’s like a religion to me. I decided to go completely bare faced for the weekend, to see if it made me feel less dependent on these three little things. I’m fascinated by dependency and addiction. Since I never followed the psychological side of my degree, I hereby call this my very first N&S mini experiment. An experiment needs a hypothesis, so here it is:

A complete lack of make up in the midst of a fairly busy weekend will have a mild to moderate impact on my confidence.

Here’s how it went down:

Saturday:

Country walk: Now I’d probably feel sillier going for a country walk in a full face of makeup. Chances are I do most walks without a scrap of make-up on (weird that I can’t confirm either way). There was something really quite nice though in knowing that there’s nothing between you and the cold wind. It felt clean. I noticed too that I had a cheery red cheeks after my 5-mile buggy push, plus a cheery red nose to match.

Supermarket: Again, I wouldn’t go to get groceries whilst purposefully caked in slap, but I did feel slightly vulnerable going to the supermarket, with my puffy eyes with dark circles to carry my shopping in. I thought to myself “at least Asher’s with me, so I have an excuse for looking this worn out”. Not good. Probably the low point of the exercise, but nobody seemed to give me the sympathy/disgust look I was dreading.

Sunday:

Friends: I only get to see my friends from ‘home’ once every few months, so I was apprehensive about greeting them with my weary visage. Luckily they are a lovely couple and not the type to say to me “hey, you look like death!”. Within a second of them arriving I was so busy chatting and making lunch, it didn’t enter my head once how I looked. I think that’s the sign of a good friendship too :) .

Concert: A rare Sunday night trip to Leeds to watch Andrea Bocelli belt it out. You can imagine it was no student gig; there was a tonne of perfume, elegant dresses and of course, many beautifully done-up faces. I popped a nice frock on but stuck to my no-make mantra. Admittedly it felt weird queuing, but when i was sat down and we were lunged into pre-concert darkness, it did occur to me that those ladies now looked no different now to anybody else.

It was a mixture of relief and regret to go back to my 5-minute ritual on Monday morning. Working in a client facing job, I feel it’s my duty not to scare people with my ‘toddler-chic’, but I did also learn this weekend that life goes on irrespective of how I look. Lack of make-up did not have an impact on my weekend, infact it was quite nice!

Hypothesis refuted!

Express Lunch Menu at PizzaExpress

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Going to a restaurant in your lunch hour can be tricky business for a few reasons:

- Getting there takes up precious minutes of your hour
- It’s busy in there and the food takes too long
- It can be expensive and you wonder if you should have just grabbed that quick sandwich

PizzaExpress has launched a lunchtime menu across the Leeds area that overcomes all these problems. Dishes on the menu start from just £3.45, and there are all the old favourites on there, such as dough balls, pizzas and pastas.

The Panino, polenta sticks, the Padana, dough balls

The Italian Meat Panino, polenta sticks, the Padana pizza, dough balls

What I like the most about this new menu is the introduction of The Panino (£4.95) – a signature PizzaExpress dough pocket filled with a choice meats, cheeses and leafy goodness. It has all the taste and more of a pizza, yet much more virtuous, with its crunchy side salad.

I shared The Italian Meat Panino with a colleague, alongside our mutual PizzaExpress ‘must-have’ – the Padana pizza. This pizza features goat’s cheese, caramelised onions and garlic oil; neither of us could ever grow tired of it. Naturally we had to order dough balls (just to add some extra lunch time garlic), and some polenta chips.

The PizzaExpress Express Lunch menu is great for a tasty lunch in a hurry. There’s the option to takeaway too. It’s available at restaurants in Harrogate, Castleford and Leeds.

www.pizzaexpress.com

 

Duck a l’orange

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Duck: a purplish brown meat of exoticism and mystery, which didn’t land on my plate much as a kid. Roll on twenty years or so and it’s quite a different story, with farm-reared duck legs on our supermarket shelves for less than the price of cheap chicken cuts.

So why are duck legs feared when they are now so widely available? Well, they are swathed in thick, fatty skin, they are tough as boots unless cooked correctly. There’s not much hype either about duck legs being ‘easy to cook’.

duck a l'orange

duck a l’orange

I now have a formidable French arm to my family, in the form of my husband’s aunt and uncle (see this post for more on this subject). I’m always too scared to cook for them, but since they are massive fans of French cuisine and the reassuring expense of Marks and Spencers, a few times we’ve bought pre-cooked

duck a l’orange from the food hall. I decided to research and compile my own recipe that would be cheap and easy to make, yet hopefully please a Parisian palate.

To serve 4, you’ll need:

4 duck legs
1 large orange
1 cup of Orange juice
0.5 tsp cinnamon powder
A couple of shots of Cointreau (for the sauce, not the chef!)
0.5 cup red wine (optional)
Tbsp plain flour

Preheat oven to gas mark 4/150c. Gently pan fry the duck in a little oil, skin-side down until brown. Meanwhile slice the orange into rounds and line the bottom of a casserole dish. Place the duck on top. Mix liquids and pour over the duck. Cover and cook for 2.5 hours, basting occasionally. Once the duck is falling off the bone, pour the juice into a saucepan and sieve in the flour. Whisk gently on a low heat to thicken. Return it to the pot for a rustic effect, or serve on the side.

Serve the duck with green beans and potato. You could go one step further and serve with a dish of warmed plain crisps. Apparently this is a very French thing to do, and it really does work well in giving a bit of crunch to the dish.