Dudley's pancake house in Barnet

For the past two years, each time we have driven past this little restaurant I have wanted to try it as it looks so inviting.

Last week, on the way back from the hospital we popped in and were horrified at the prices. The pancakes were £10.45 each!

Jim ordered one with a combination of ingredients like mushrooms and ham etc and it was presented unfolded on a massive plate, but was actually no bigger than the ones they make in the mobile vans you see around the place, which are folded.

It was ok, but pretty tasteless and certainly not worth the money.

I opted for a homemade burger, which I asked for rare.  The patty turned out to be just over a cm thick and consequently very well done (but not in the good sense!).

With a cup of tea and a smoothie we paid just under £30 - a rip-off.

Won't be going there again!

Valentine's Day 2012

The evening started nicely with some pink bubbly, presents, balloons and an M&S cupcake each!

 Jim prepared the rack of lamb by trimming it and cleaning the bones.

Due to the fishmonger forgetting to put aside the scallops we had ordered, we chose some king prawns. 
Jim heated butter and oil and a wok and when it was lovely and hot, fried the prawns with some chopped garlic and chilli, that he had been drying. He finished off the dish with a squeeze of fresh lemon juice.
And they were finger-licking good!

Main course was the perfectly pink rack of lamb with a crispy rosemary and garlic crust - which I had unfortunately rather over salted!
We served it with a rosemary infused ratatouille, made the day before for maximum flavour, and deliciously creamy potato dauphinoise.

The climax of the meal was a pair of beautifully risen lemon soufflés, following a really simple recipe from the Gary Rhodes book of desserts, which he gave Sebastian for his 8th birthday, when we dined at his restaurant in Dolphin Court. Light and fluffy and a little tart, the perfect end to wonderful meal.


Can't wait for next year!

Perfect roast potatoes - every time

Raymond Blanc is certainly flavour of the month in the Bachelier/Moore household with his recipe for roast potatoes.

We have tried it 3 times since Christmas  (which actually sounds like an awful lot of roast potatoes in two weeks !) but the results have been perfect each time: lovely and crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside.


Here's what you do (the first bit can be done well in advance):

• Peel the pots and cut them into equally sized lumps. 
• Rinse them in cold water for a bit to remove the starch. 
• Put them into a large pan of salted BOILING water (I was always told that root veg should be cooked in cold water and brought to the boil, so this was a new one on me)
• Boil for 6 minutes, then drain.
• Shake the pan around it a bit so the edge get a bit mushed - for extra crispiness

• Put your cooking fat into a roasting tin and heat to GM 6-7 / 200 C (I have used duck fat and ordinary sunflower oil - both worked equally well)
• Put potatoes into the hot fat, stir around a bit and cook for 45-60 mins - or until lovely and brown, giving them an occasional shake.

Serve and enjoy!

Les Galettes des Rois 2012

This year we decided to make not one, but two galettes.


Sebastian used my tried and tested recipe, but Blaise wanted to have a go at the Raymond Blanc version, featured on his Christmas special, which contains caramelised pears.


The almond fillings were quite similar - one contained a little more ground almond, the other an additional egg white - they both contained quite a lot of booze: Amaretto.







Blaise's pears were gently fried in butter and sugar till soft and golden brown, but not completely cooked through.






Once the rounds of pastry were rolled, the biggest challenge was to encase the fillings without any leaking out. For the Blanc recipe, the pears are placed on a layer of the filling and then covered with a second layer.


We patched any holes up with spare bits of pastry and hoped for the best.


We used 2 small glass pebbles for the charms.






After a period in the fridge to cool, we cooked Blaise's first (which didn't leak at all)


And then Sebastian's (which leaked a lot!).


The results, however, speak for themselves. Two very delicious pies.


Final verdict: the addition of the caramelised pears ensured that the filling was really moist, so this will be the recipe we use from now on.

Blaise's Galette with pears

Sebastian's

And Seb got both the charms, so he is doubly King for the year !