House of Spice, Haddenham – “brilliant, amazing and outstanding”?

The House of Spice, Haddenham

Looking at review sites for this curry house, the comments were certainly very positive.  Words like ‘brilliant, amazing, outstanding’ appeared.  For me at least, a restaurant has to be pretty special to be described like this.  So, I anticipated an excellent evening ahead.  So here goes, here are my thoughts about the House of Spice…

• It’s a beautiful old building in a very picturesque Chiltern village
• There’s a handy car park behind the restaurant
• Service is friendly
• Food is relatively inexpensive
• You will find all the usual curry favourites here
• Popular with locals
• Nice big bottles of Cobra beer

But, on the downside

• Service is haphazard.  We were told the table was needed by 9:00 but we waited half an hour for our order to be taken.
• Food was dull.  We had three different curries but they all looked identical – brown.
• All a bit disorganised but perhaps that was due to the Christmas rush
• Ambience inside is not great

This isn’t going to be my favourite curry house, but certainly not the worst.  There’s not a huge number of restaurants to choose from in Haddenham which might explain its popularity.  This is a very ‘standard’ curry house which makes me appreciate the more innovative curry houses much more. This is not a meal of life-time.

My Christmas cake 2012

This year I have used the Delia Smith classic Christmas cake,  which you can find at http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/cuisine/european/english/the-classic-christmas-cake.html

I’m a big Delia fan and I have done this recipe (successfully) before.  I am pleased with the result this year, although we’ve not started eating it yet.  A few crumbs did drop off and we’ve nibbled those before I iced it.  The cake was made weeks ago (possibly at the end of October if I remember right) and has been fed weekly on a diet of rum.  I’m hoping it will still be moist.

Having watched the Great British Bake Off Christmas special last night, http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b013pqnm I was very impressed with the Mary Berry recipe.  My family wouldn’t like all the icing so I’d leave this out.  This is  a strong contender for next year’s cake.

So, here it is, all ready to go.  Tadah!

From the Delia Smith classic Christmas cake

The office Christmas lunch at the Plough, Cadsden

You may have heard of the Plough at Cadsden due to the unfortunate incident with David Cameron leaving a child behind there.  There are worse places to leave a child , but we were there for the office Christmas lunch.

It is difficult to accommodate all tastes for an office lunch but if you’re looking for a very ‘traditional’ lunch, you will find it here.  Although this pub/restaurant doesn’t go for the patterned carpet and horse brasses decor, this place is your traditional meat and at least 3 veg cooked lunch establishment.  No haute cuisine here, large portions of traditional pub food on the menu here.  Interestingly enough, if you so wish, you can have raw red onion for all three courses..

The Plough at Cadsden

For starters I had soup of the day.  We asked what flavour it was (after tasting some and being none the wiser) and were told it was vegetable.  That made sense as it was green so probably pea featured in it.  It did look quite home made but was balistically hot.   Whatever nuclear-powered device they had in the kitchen had been set to over-drive.  Nice on a cold winters day but denture-wearers beware of a nasty melting moment.

Main course arrived – roast turkey and most of the trimmings.  Again, nuclear-style volcanic heat.  No complaints on the volume of food which did defeat me and several others in my party. I’m not sure that the roasties had benefited from the nuclear roasting technique and were best left as canon fodder.  Topped off with a Yorkshire pudding but we had to ask for the cranberry sauce.

For pudding I had cheese and biscuits.  Hurrah!  it was cold.  Garnished with salad and of course red onion.  Again, it was the size of a main meal (just what you need after gobbling down a full roast turkey dinner).  If described as a ploughmans lunch, most people would not be disappointed.  A good substantial portion of cheddar plus brie plus stilton with a stack of biscuits, apple and just half of a strawberry.  Does this signify it’s a pudding?

Several of our group had Christmas pudding.  This looked good, but (you guessed it) was hotter than vesuvius.  Oddly, garnished with a sprig of holly dusted in icing sugar.  Why?  We did get a couple of people to try to eat the holly, remembering that Mary Berry says that you should be able to eat everything on your plate.  Perhaps not sugared holly though.

Crackers were as cheesy as ever.  Teas and coffees ended our Christmas office lunch with a couple of after eights for just the select few.

If David Cameron is planning a return visit for a nice little traditional works Christmas lunch, I do think he would quite enjoy a meal at the Plough.   This is what an office lunch is meant to be.

Oxford Philomusica and Tasmin Little, Aylesbury Waterside Theatre

Conductor Marios Papadopoulos

My first trip to a concert at the new Aylesbury Waterside theatre, was a very pleasant surprise.  We had not heard the Oxford Philomusica perform before, but this performance of two ever popular works; Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, Op. 26 and Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade, Op. 35 drew us in.  This was only our second trip to the Waterside, but it is very convenient for us, a comfortable modern theatre and it is great not to trek back on the train after an evening show.  However,  we were a little wary that this could be less than the professional standard you would expect in London.  I won’t get too boring, but we had an unfortunate visit to see ‘Art’ at the Wycombe Swan years ago, which almost destroyed my interest in theatre completely.

But despite our trepidation, we all felt the performance was excellent.  Both pieces were very well-known and I would guess most of the audience knew every note by heart, which probably does not help the orchestra as deviating from the norm would be unpopular.  There were a few little twists along the way, but kept largely to the usual path.  Tamsin Little was very accomplished and seemed to interact well with the orchestra with smiles and encouragement to them at times.

I have not heard Scheherazade performed for many years and had forgotten quite how complex this piece is.  There are so many exposed passages for all sections of the orchestra, it really does show up any weakness.  We were very impressed by the orchestra leader – the solos were beautifully performed.  From a recording you listen to at home, you really don’t appreciate the complexity of this piece.

As we left the theatre, several of the audience mentioned they would be back for the next performance by the Oxford Philomusica in Aylesbury.  This concert certainly exceeded my expectations and I’m sure we will back to hear more.

Cabaret at the Savoy Theatre – starts weird, gets weirder, ends badly. It’s great!

Cabaret at the Savoy Theatre

From the minute this show opens, the weirdness starts.  Will Young appears at the centre of the stage peering through a port hole.  His performance is excellent and I’m not a big Will Young fan.

As the show goes on, the weirdness builds.  I particularly enjoyed the chorus who did look so sinister at times.    The costumes are also in the weird theme featuring plenty of leather shorts.  The set is quite minimal which personally I’m not keen on; but the orchestra play on a raised platform at the back of the stage with a screen that comes down now and again.

My only small criticism was that the show lacked a bit of sparkle on a grey, cold afternoon in November.  I’ve been told in the past that any matinee performance is not as good as an evening show and the performers ‘hold back’.  There are a couple of belting numbers in this show (particularly Sally Bowles), and I can quite see that giving it 100% every time would be draining.

The theatre was about half full which was  a shame as again, the sparkle is lost somehow when you’re dotted around the theatre.  The audience was somewhat younger than we normally see and perhaps this show just doesn’t appeal to the usual grey-haired crowd.  I’m not sure if I’d have taken my Granny to see this either!

This was my first visit to the Savoy Theatre and I must say the seats were remarkable comfortable.  The theatre is beautifully Art Deco (well worth a sneeky photo if you can get past the vigilant ushers).  Quite a bit of leg room and our seats in the stalls could not have been any better.   This does make a change from some of the older London theatres.

All in all, this was a great show – entertaining, thought provoking, excellent performances from the cast and an overriding sense of weirdness.  All that was missing was a small bit of sparkle.

Green tomato chutney

Home made green tomato chutney

Now that the courgette glut is over, I’ve turned my attention to the bullet-like green tomatoes lurking in the greenhouse.  It has been a poor year for tomatoes – both the quantity and quality of the tomatoes.  Having picked all the last remaining ones, the only hope is chutney.

I’ve chosen the BBC recipe, http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/green_tomato_chutney_41573 from James Martin.  It looked nice and simple and I made a very large quantity of chutney today.

It will now take a few weeks for the chutney to mature so it’s very difficult to know quite how it will turn out.  It does look good and rich but unlike some recipes, there is little in the way of spices to give it flavour.

It would be great to be an organised person who has batches of chutney maturing at different times.  Again, it’s feast or famine and a house smelling very strongly of vinegar.

Not such good shortbread

I have tried another new recipe for shortbread, with slightly poor results. Not sweet enough and overcooked. Try again!.

This recipe came from Lorraine Pascale at the BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/dreamlike_shortbread_99343.pdf  Big mistake making it with a cookie cutter.  Also, it is a very small quantity.  Quite tasty, but definitely not perfect shortbread.

Olive Limes restaurant in Tring

This is one of our all-time favourite restaurants.  We only ever come to Tring to go to this place but it’s well worth the trip.  This place was a ‘sister’ restaurant to the Coco Tamarind in Askett although the two restaurants are now independent, the menu continues to be identical.

Olive Limes is in the old bingo hall.  This doesn’t sound too promising until you see the beautiful old-fashioned bingo hall upstairs.  Downstairs the restaurant is a somewhat ordinary – no table cloths and a little bistro style. Upstairs, it’s Victorian high ceilings and fantastic architecture give the dining room a lovely atmosphere.

Service is great here.  At the week-end, the place is packed but if you fancy a quieter meal, mid-week is the time to go.  Staff are helpful and can advise on which curry to choose.  We love the mixed starters, chicken dhansak, spinach koftas (veggie), tarka dall (spicy with a dried chilli in the centre) and it’s well worth ordering the beautifully carved fruit for desert.  The chef can skillfully create smiley faces out of delicately cut mango and pineapple.  Quite a work of art and tasty too!

Good things about the Olive Limes are…

Beautiful dining room upstairs with a special atmosphere

Food, food, food.  Always delicious – the chef who you may see talking to guests in the restaurant is very good.  The flavours are lovely.

A good range of curries to choose from and good value as they easily can be shared between two

Good service.  Always quick to bring over drinks and popadoms when you arrive and happy to explain best choices to you.

The best ever apple crumble

We had guests last night and I decided to use up the last few cooking apples I have left over from making (courgette!) chutney.  I find the apples do smell a bit odd in the veg container after a while even if they are not actually going off.  Most people seem to like apple crumble, although it can be a bit heavy after a big meal.

I tried the ever-reliable Delia Smith.  Her recipes are plain and simple to follow and there’s no guess-work involved.  That suits me fine.  The best ever apple crumble can be found at

http://www.deliaonline.com/recipes/galleries/apple-pie-and-other-delights/best-ever-apple-crumble.html

As I only had bramley cooking apples, I used just this type.  If I was doing this recipe again, I would make sure that there was less water added to the apples as they did bubble up a little over the crumble as they were cooking.  This tends to make the topping a bit soggy in places.  Also, the nuts in the crumble were a nice unusual touch and my visitors instantly noticed them.

This recipe is pretty much a traditional apple crumble but with a few small additions.  I’d give this 3 out of 5.

Undercover courgettes

It is unbelievable how many courgettes I have grown this year and quite how fed up my family are having to eat them almost daily.  So, I’ve been looking at recipes to smuggle the courgettes into recipes without the famly noticing.  Commando courgettes so to speak.

Yesterday I tried the BBC Good Food recipe for chocolate courgette cake.  http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/633634/chocolate-courgette-cake

I was a bit dubious after trying a little of the mixture in the bowl, but after cooking, the courgettes are completely indetectible.  Both teenage boys are happily munching through the large cake and nobody has mentioned  ‘the c word’.

This recipe is a great way to get rid of yet more of the courgettes.  I used some slightly larger (almost marrow size) courgettes and peeled them and removed the handful of seeds first.  Courgettes were smuggled in completely successfully.

I did have to cook this longer than the 40-50 minutes suggested as it was very runny in the middle but the result is a nice moist cake and utterly delicious.

I would give this recipe a pretty respectable 4 out of 5