codheadred

So decided to give this place a go having walked past loads of times, took Mrs H along at teatime for the £20 for 3 courses offer, bar and room are smart, Mrs H unsure about glass "features" dividing lobby from restaurant but I liked them, each to their own I suppose. Drinks in the bar to kick off - where we were well looked after by friendly young staff (as we were throughout), made our choices and moved into the dining room, it was early doors due to the offer being from erm 5 till 6.30 ish and to be fair the room started to fill up as we tucked into our starters, We were drinking a Viognier which was french £25ish and enjoyable. Mrs H went for the mushroom soup which was "nice", I had a pigs cheek on some cauliflower puree and something else I cant remember, looked very pretty (can a pigs cheek look pretty?? -this one did did to me) and tested better. Onto the mains I had hake on lentils, chicken breast and butterbeans for Mrs H, as I am greedy we had some chunky chips which were lovely, Mrs H declared her chicken "nice", the fish and lentil dish was really well put together and just delicious. I had the cheese and Mrs H had the sticky toffee pudding which was "excellent" - all in all we had a great time the cooking was as good as I have had in Liverpool, We'll be going again.

Chilli, garlic and oil and fry em up, ginger if Ive got it and soy sauce they are great straight off the allotment

Cross Scythes Sheffield Went here at the weekend http://cross-scythes.com/menu.php 5 of us plus kids, hot sandwiches and chips were the order of the day, standard sounding stuff but done really well steak and onion, roast beef and horseradish, homemade chips were fab, desserts were better than the usual pub fayre cheesecake especially - will go again! Couple of pints Timothy Taylors landlord made a good start to a day out.

Great Pics looking forward to this blog (love Wellington!)

A pint of boddingtons from the Mount Vaults Fleetwood, unfortunately the Mount Vaults is shut and they dont make Bods in Manchester any more.. so I'll have a large glass of Talisker instead..

its not the place I thought it was... just looked ah its on Nelson St, I went there a while back maybe have another look..

Mac D I have been past chilli chilli a few times on the way to the station I will definitely try it, I wanted sichuan friday but settled for another trip to delifonseca rather than drive to Manchester.

Ask at your butchers they should be able to help

Yep for me cold hands and switching knives (from blunt to sharp) increase the likelihood of a cut, as a blunt knife affects cutting technique and its generally the sharp one that gets you. However I took 2 finger tips (just the very ends) spectacularly on a meat slicer once. I wont do that again. Concentrate!!!!!

Loved the sandwich bar.. great pics Dandelion and Burdock bitters - oooh what would you make with that? Ive had some Mawsons D&B cordial sat around for some time for when I am feeling nostalgic, but thats a temperance favourite from east lancs.. Steven

So Puff pastry just seemed a lot of effort for something that can be bought of a good quality it worked but why bother??? focaccia to locatelli's "easy method" again seemed like a lot of effort but the results were excellent. Not sure if either conform to the technically challenging question hmmm. So for me getting the timing right as part of a menu can be the most technically challenging thing its about the getting the choices of individual dishes correct so a menu works and thats where the challenges arise. I am confident and experienced enough to make a number of dishes and put together a workable menu, but should I throw in new untested recipes or techniques then issues can arise, or if I choose to make a risotto and the guests are late, or put game birds in too early. Regardless of all that I've just realised the answer is actually a chocolate fondant but thats down to timing again. edited as I cant spelll

Really enjoyed reading this blog Shelby, thanks very much!

Revived this topic given the time of year.. So I got a biggish granite pestle and mortar which is fab, and I got an electric knife sharpener which sounds suspect but is very effective. What did you get??

I want a bourgeat frying pan and a knife sharpening kit

Regrettably the worse meal was at mine I had a group of friends round night before my wedding, for 6 I prepared an ox tongue (brined for a week, refreshed in clean water for a day and simmered for 4 hours), Which was supposed to be sliced thinly with a green sauce as starter. I also prepared an oxtail and guiness stew prepared in the pressure cooker with creamed potatoes. Where did it all go wrong? Well as a tongue "virgin" perhaps i should have cooked the dish the day before rather than trying to peel then slice the bloody great thing in a sort of gameshow stylee whilst the guests intermittently came in to laugh/offer support/derision/ sympathy. Certain brave souls offered comment on tasting "fibrous yet fatty" was about the best it got. mmmmnn yes so scratch that as a starter and off it headed to the bin. I thought I was on safer ground with the oxtail - I degreased the sauce once in the freezer, the meat was tender but very fatty so once wasnt enough, it should have been degreased 2x and the meat seperated from the fat and bones, (I was told they wanted it on the bone - they didnt) Even my f**king mash had lumps..So we all got drunk and ate the pile cheese I had as a fallback.. Thank God Still the wedding went well