Monthly Archives: October 2011

Ma Boyles Liverpool

I’d never been to Ma Boyles, I’d heard about it, passing comments or quiet mentions between friends, talk of the Beaujolais run, fresh oysters and great seafood. Tucked away in the basement corner of tower gardens, you’d be fortunate to discover it by accident or pay it any attention. It was this idea that intrigued me, those quiet unseen places with a devoted followings, obscure, out of sight and in their own special way quite brilliant. I was hoping for that moment of walking into a seedy desolate backstreet pub only to discover a vibrant bar, great food and a welcoming atmosphere. I descended the steps slowly, a growing sense of anticipation and child like excitement gripped me, I pushed open the door and beheld what could only be described as a seedy desolate backstreet pub. Continue reading →

TriBeCa Bar and Pizzeria

The Building that TriBeCa currently resides in, has a varied past, for several years it was Ziba, one of the first quality restaurants to begin the revival of the culinary scene in late 90’s Liverpool. After that restaurant’s closure and reincarnation as the Racquet Club, it was, for some time, Shere Khan indian restaurant, which never achieved anything better than mundane. So a year or so ago, the venue reopened as TriBeCa, named after the fashionable and upmarket district of New York City, it promises a cool friendly atmosphere and great pizza, a combination few can argue with. Pizza, this rustic Italian dish, is a tricky skill to master, influences from far beyond Apennine peninsula have shaped this ubiquitous meal into forms of varying quality. So the real questions here are, does TriBeCa do it justice? Is their pizza worth spending your money on? Continue reading →

Lorraine Pascale Bakes Terrible Bread

Last week I was unlucky enough to witness Lorrain Pascal bake bread, during Home Cooking Made Easy, she made bread with a recipe that had me reeling with disgust. I often bake my own bread, for reasons of flavour and texture, quickly made supermarket bread lacks both of these and generally I find it an unpleasant food. The whole reason for baking my own, is to take time and produce something far superior to the rushed and flavourless pap that adorns supermarket shelves. So what did Loraine do that so troubled me? She made a bread with only 30-45 minutes rising time, I can guarantee this bread had almost no flavour and poor texture.

Good bread takes time, this is a fact, to make good bread you can’t rush, there are no corners to be cut that will improve your final loaf. I’m currently working with a recipe that takes at least 12 hours for the final loaf, or more if you want it to. It’s this time and slow fermentation of the dough that produces flavour. Now, I’m not suggesting you should all make a dough over the course of 24 hours, I know that practicalities determine something shorter. However, if you are going to bake your own, take a little bit of time to produce something different than the mass produces rubbish that is so readily available. I really wonder if Lorraine knows what she is doing.

So here is my recipe of Pain D’epi, its simple with an hour for the first rise and 30 minutes for the final prove, the minimum required. However, to stretch this out, say a first rise of 2 hours, would only help the final bread. If you did have the time, make the dough the night before you need it with only 2 grams of yeast, the leave to rise in a cool room or fridge over night. With more time the results will only get better.

  • 500g Strong white bread flour
  • 7g Active yeast
  • 10g Salt
  • 340g Water
  • Mix all the dry ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
  • Add water to the dry ingredient and mix to form a dough.
  • Knead the dough for 10 minutes until smooth.
  • Place dough back in bowl, cover with a tea towel and leave to rise for at least 1 hour.
  • After one hour take dough and divide into two equal pieces.
  • take one piece and form into flat rectangle.
  • roll rectangle into long sausage shape.
  • Do the same with other piece of dough.
  • Allow dough to rest for 30 mins, meanwhile put the oven onto gas mark 9 or 250°C
  • After 30 minutes the dough should have significantly increased in size.
  • Cut loaf to form correct shape, as shown in this video.

  • Bake in the oven for 20-30 mins until the tips of the cuts are very dark.
  • Remove from oven and allow to cool for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Cut dough, ready to bake.

Finished loaf

Tart Tatin

A true classic of french cookery, this caramelised apple tart has so many variations, and bastardisations, that a truly authentic recipe is probably known, and eaten, by few people. Made famous by the Tatin sisters in the early 20th century, the recipe being an ancient speciality of Sologne. It’s something I’ve never made before, and this combined with an abundance of apples from my mum’s garden, really left me with few options but to make my own. Continue reading →

Tartine Bread

Over the past few days I’ve been working on a method of bread making from my new book, Tartine Bread, its process revolves around using a natural leaven or sourdough. The book is very interesting and has a somewhat different approach to other bread  books I’ve read. Needless to say the bread looks fantastic and I’ve been hard at work trying to replicate Chad Robertson’s creations. It is perhaps not the easiest method for home bread makeing, but it is the most interesting I’ve found, my first result has been quite good but it’s something that will take a bit of work over the next few days. I’ll keep the blog updated with results.

Wine Time at Scatchards

Wine can a bit like Tolstoy’s War and Peace, it’s dense, heavy going, riddled with complexities, can take years to truly grasp, and is quite often a tool for impressing friends and admonishing intellectual beatings. I’ve never read War and Peace; my copy bought from a second-hand shop, has the previous owners bookmark nestled at page 26, a literary feat I’ve yet to equal. I’ve not even read the first page, and if I’m honest, I never will, I feel like I should, but I wont. Wine can, at times, have the same problem, indeed in the past its myriad of complexities has been something I’ve wished to know about but never really had the impetus to achieve. Thus, for many years my wine buying technique revolved around only buying what was on special offer at Tesco, a method I would still set some store by.

Over the past few months I’ve been a regular at Wine Time @ Scatchards, Liverpool’s only independent wine merchant. Despite my initial fears of being bogged down in varied viticultural facts, I’ve been expertly guided through the world of wine by Jon Atkinson, a man with a deep passion and knowledge of wine, he may even have read past page 26 of War and Peace. I’m now somewhat of a regular at Scatchards, buying most of my wine from there, be it a reasonably priced quaffable bottle or something more elaborate for a special occasion.

Last Wednesday, I attended Jon’s regular wine club, hosted at the shop on Great Howard Street. This month’s event had a special guest speaker, Cathy Swift of Mentzendorff, giving us an expert introduction to the wines of Michel Chapoutier. For the excellent price of £10, we sampled eight different wines from the renowned and controversial French wine producer. My favourites of the night were Hermitage Blanc ‘Chante-Alouette’ 2007 (£41.75) a lovely rich white for a special occasion and a Luberon Rouge ‘La Ciboise’ 2009 (£6.99) that was a really lovely red at a fantastic price. The wines were introduced by Cathy with enough background to be interesting without overwhelming us with winey knowledge.

Wine Club Line Up

Since becoming a regular at Scatchards, I’m a bit more knowledgable about wine, I’ve also certainly been drinking better wine, without spending any more than I would in Tesco. Jon is always more than willing to share his knowledge of wine and help choose a perfect bottle for a meal, present or night in front of the telly. A visit to the shop always results in a little more understanding and a great bottle or two, just don’t ask for any Blossom Hill, this is a sure-fire way of darkening Jon’s generally friendly demeanour. I’m hoping that sometime soon he’ll find a wine that makes reading Tolstoy a little easier, then I could really impress my friends.

WINE TIME at Scatchards
Unit 1, 209 Great Howard Street
Liverpool,
L5 9ZH
0151 207 1134

Further Sourdough – The Best Loaf I’ve Ever Baked

Last week I posted a simple sourdough recipe, which got really positive reviews. I’ve already seen some photos of bread made by Aiden Byrne of the Church Green using this recipe, and I should get a few more from others in next week or two. I would love to post a small gallery of pics, so if you are giving sourdough a go please e-mail me the pics to put up here. Continue reading →

Chorizo Sausage Rolls

Gregg’s the bakers, are pedlars of lowest common denominator food, the cheapest sausage rolls, pasties and pies that you can get on our high streets. Yet, I bet everyone who  reads this has had one or more of their baked goods at some point. I know I have, I love a sausage roll or a pork pie, the convenience of fat soaked salt ridden delights is a combination few can resist. However if you find yourself in town and want a real savoury baked goodie then a Lunya chorizo sausage roll is the pinnacle in Liverpool. Alas these famed sausage rolls are not a regular occurrence at the Spanish deli, a close eye needs to be kept on twitter, for an announcement of their impending availability. I had missed out on two previous occasions, of the chance to lay my hands on the aforementioned snack, thus came quickly to the conclusion that I’d have to bake my own. Continue reading →

Lunch At Lunya

Lunya has been around for a year or two, establishing itself, not only as a respected restaurant, but also a well stocked and interesting deli. It’s rare for me to come across any negative comments about Lunya, indeed what I mainly hear is rave reviews. I’d been there once before and found the food to be very good, but with a few technical issues, the bread (as is typical for me) being foremost in my thoughts as something that needed work. This week, while wandering through town, a friend and I passed Lunya thinking about getting some lunch, the offer of three plates of tapas and bread for £9.95 proved too tempting to walk past. Continue reading →