quails egg scotch eggs

Had a dinner party recently, the main attraction of which was the starter, which was quails egg scotch eggs served with a salad of chestnuts and pancetta with rocket. Went down very well. Making the scotch eggs was very easy, if a bit fiddly. They take about two minutes to boil, but are very tricky to peel, because the shells are so thin they turn to a sort of powder, or sand. Quite nice to soft boil them as well, and have them runny. Anyway, just coat them in sausage meat and roll in breadcrumbs. I added sesame seeds to breadcrumb mix. One problem was the coating of sausagemeat opened and exposed the egg during deep frying. This may have been because I didn't coat the eggs in flour before applying meat, or it may be because of no beaten egg being added during the coating process. Will try applying these steps next time, but it didn't really matter, they were still lovely. Main course was individual chicken and tarragon pies with roasted veg. Ramekin dishes are big enough for these, just cut up some chicken and fry them with shallots, add stock, tarragon vinegar, creme fraiche and cornflour to thicken, put into pots and seal with puff pastry, then into the oven for about half an hour. Imagine you can do all the usual variations (mushrooms, bacon etc). The thing is they are very easy but look ultra-impressive. Dessert was wine jelly and cream and/or trifle. The wine jelly was my one serious failure, it just collapsed when out of the mould and looked like a plate of raw liver. Still tasted good. The trifle was madeira cake, raspberries, little bit of sherry, custard and cream and chocolate flake on tope. Simple but perfect, though I probably put in too much cake.

River Cottage Canteen, Bath

One of the restaurants set up by Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall, as offshoots of his River Cottage enterprise (the other one is in Axminster). The idea is a cheap and cheerful environment in which to serve quailty food, locally sourced, at low prices. The Bath one is part of the Komedia theatre in Westgate Street. We went there close to Christmas and it was nearly empty because of the snow. The manager said Bath was a ghost town. But we weren't very impressed by this restaurant. The tables are plywood, a bit like decorating tables, the chairs are fold away stools. One wouldn't mind if the food was in stark contrast, but my wife's ham baguette with mustard dressing was a sad looking thing on stale bread, the salad looked limp, everything a bit bleak. My pheasant, leek and bacon stew was luke warm, the mash too stodgy, the white sauce of the stew a bit gloopy, the pheasant disconcertingly pink (had thought it a dark meat). My daughter's cream tea came with a scone like a brick, no butter (the saltiness of which is an essential ingredient of a cream tea), and vey runny jam. And it cost a fiver. The whole lot cam to thirty quid. My half pint of cider was also luke warm, served in a very plain glass. It looked like a phial of piss. The hot chocolate was very good, however. But it was all rather drab. Wouldn't go there again in a hurry.

Borough Market

A covered market in South London near London Bridge Tube, one of the best food places in the capital, begins to approach the levels of delight of a typical spanish or italian market. Too much to go into here but to give some brief impressions, we made the mistake of viswiting the market having already eaten (in the members' room of the nearby Tate Modern, which was fine - a little box of Moroccan Chicken and potatoes, lots of flavoursome leaves but the thin slices of chicken were flavourless) - so were too full to actually eat anything. Spanish deli selling big haunches of parma ham, being thinly sliced before your eyes. Vacuum packs of sweet chorizo, of spanish black pudding and balls of the same. Huge dishes of thai curry and others being cooked, a contraption that toasted huge semicircles of cheese, the molten layer then scraped off to top potatoes or other things. Turkish delight of every flavour. Lots of parma ham, proscuito and salamis. German sausages. Lancashire black puddings. Melton mowbray pies (looked a bit palid and dry), whitby squid, vast drums of paremsan, every cheese you can think of. Lots of barnsley chops. Bakeries, butchers fishmongers. Go and explore, and go hungry.

marmaris

The Marmaris is a restuarant close to the Victoria Art Gallery in Bath, almost overlooking the Avon and the Poultney Bridge. From its window you can look across the river (you can't actually see the river, it's too low down behind the wall)to the wooded hills above the city. You could almost be looking out across the Golden Horn. Great food here, of the kebab variety, I had a mixed one, which had selection of lamb, chicken, lamb chop, and doner meat with rice and coleslaw. My partner had a shishka, which is basically lamb pieces cooked on a skewer (removed). The meat is nicely cooked. You get a free bowl of olives, chilis and crudites, pitta bread and chili sauce, and afterwards you get a free dish of fruit salad. The service is friendly and quick. Never have to wait long. There is a takeway section adjoining. Unpretentious (well, some little domed work with arabesques and what not) but atmospheric.

Pea Puree

Having been enthralled by Masterchef for the last few weeks, had no choice in the end other than to make a scallop and pea puree starter for dinner (there seems to be one in every episode). So went out to the Fishworks and bought eight Brixham scallops in their shells, for £1.20 each, and a packet of frozen peas. It was a great success. The pea puree is very simple - just simmer the peas in some chicken stock for a few minutes, then whizz in blender with some mint leaves. Fry the scallops in very hot pan with sunbflower oil and butter - probably a couple of minutes each side, at least until they had a brown pattern on them. I dusted these ones with salt and cumin before frying. The dollop the pea puree on a plate and arrange scallops on top. The peas have a real zing to them against the seaside flavour of the scallops, make the flavours dance around in your mouth, as they would say on Masterchef.

The Pump Room

A Bath institution, next door to the Roman Baths. Had only been here once before so decided to go again for a mother's day treat. Unfortunately, it being mothering sunday, the menu was a 'special' one, and consisted mainly of roast dinners. For the two course deal I had a main of roast pork followed by a pear and ginger crumble. The pork was very nice, on a bed of mashed something or other, and the roasted vegetables were excellent, but the meat was only lukewarm! And the crackling was tooth-enamel-tough. A bit disappointing. And the crumble didn't crumble at all, in fact it was like a Mr Kipling individual fruit pie, on a slightly grander scale, the crumbly top having solidified into a tough crust. The waiter was a witty chap, a French fellow with a shaved head, who kept us amused. 'I could come back in two hours', he said, after we hesitated over our choices. Then there was the pianist. They always have live classical music at this place, but it is the classical equivalent of nightclub deafening, and this slinky geezer at the keyboard with his byronic hair and his bow tie and tails could only trill and glissando like a poor man's Richard Clayderman, but we did enjoy his finale of a medley of tunes including the Muppet Show and West Side Story. Or my 9 year old daughter did, anyway. It was nice when he shut up and let us talk. The surroundings are the best thing about the pump room, and then you can watch, through the window, street performers on very high monocycles hold flaming torches between their arse cheeks. In fact the food is quite a distraction.

The Settle

I think this is the name of the very pleasant tea shop in Cheap Street, Frome, the famous street that has a watercourse running down the middle of it, which is occasionally the subject of grumbling letters to the local paper from people who claim it is a danger to health and safety, having blundered into it and soaked themselves up to their sock-suspenders, not realising that it is a local wonder that people come from miles around to see and enjoy. My own children used to race leaves and rose petals along its course when they were littler. The Settle restaurant, next door to one of the world's best bakeries (The Old Bakehouse), overlooks the leet in the way that a Turkish coffee house might overlook the Bosphorus, and offers some very pleasant meals. My wife had the famous Thai dumpling things, I've forgotten now, exactly what she had, but they were Thai something or other, a starter. I had the somerset sausages and mash, the sausages being very hearty and robust and meaty and flavoursome little things. It was spring at last, so no need for the large log fire, though it was a nice touch. The staff are quite friendly. The cakes always look very good here. The breakfasts are good, too. You should go there.