The Lazy Toad – more visits

I’m not doing yet another review of The Lazy Toad just because we visited twice in one week.  It is because it is an absolute gem of a dining pub and the food is quite sublime.  I do not want to write about it too much, or indeed continue to praise its virtues to the highest for fear of not being able to get a reservation in the future.  But as the Western Morning Press had named it Devon Dining Pub of the year, I guess the publicity monster is ahead of me, and I will have to fight for the right to eat there.  It is well worth the effort.

Bampford Speke is north of Exeter and is a smart little village with a splendid 3 ½ mile walk along the meandering Exe.  That’s how we found this place – although our old pub walk book described the walk from The Agricultural Inn – which is what the Lazy Toad used to be in a previous life.  Clive Walker is Front of House, along with Lisa. Mo, Clive’s wife, is Chef along with Ian and others.

Visit One – just the two of us for Sunday Lunch.  Yes, I know you can get roasts and carveries for £5.50, but the Toad doesn’t bother with that level of competition.  It’s about £11 for their Roast Beef.  Janie describes it as the best Sunday Roast she has ever eaten out.  (Janie’s mum was a superb cook, and Pauline’s roast dinners had the extra touch that can only come from being done at home.  There’s love in the mix too.)  Now, having said that, you would have to say the whole team at the Toad invest significantly in the food and ambiance.  They make sure you are welcomed – and introduce themselves and ask your name too (and remember it). And they patently love what they do – and it shows.

A friend of mine who ran a dining pub in Marlow said that food that was fought over never tasted right.  She didn’t allow chefs to get angry or above themselves.  And I suppose what the Toad Team do is the opposite – nurturing and coaxing and sighing and enjoying.

We shared a starter.  Goats cheese soufflé with Waldorf Salad and leaves.  There was a bit of a tussle to savour each scrumptious spoonful and make sure you got your fair share.  And here’s the little extra touch.  Because we said “can we just share a starter” – two extra plates and two sets of cutlery silently arrived unannounced and with absolute Rolls Royce efficiency so that you didn’t even notice it had happened until the food arrived and you had plates to share it onto.  That’s why the place is so damn fine, and such a good experience.  Those little things happen all the time.  Look – things must go wrong occasionally.  They do everywhere.  But I bet it would be fixed faster and to everyone’s satisfaction in a better way here than in most places.

We shared a Lemon Mousse encased in chocolate with a cherry water ice.  Being greedy types we added a scoop of vanilla ice cream.  We had to do a bit of a walk afterwards – taking the rest of the wine home.  What a lovely lazy Sunday afternoon – dozing came easy.

We then went with Chris and Paula (and their daft and loveable dog, Harry.  He is a King Charles spaniel and lives with 3 cats.  Consequently he thinks he is a cat, and purrs.)

Saturday lunch was our chosen time.  Chris went for the Steak and Kidney pudding.  He was starting a cold, and this was comfort food at it’s most splendid.  He couldn’t quite finish all of the rather meaningful pastry, which meant we could all have a try.  You could probably work for 8 hours of dry stone walling after such a hunk of goodness.

Paula and Janie both had Plaice Fillets in a creamy and lemon sauce.  It was rather splendid again – with quite a bit of rich and fulsome sauce – a little bit like the old Sole Veronique?

And then I went off piste.  Pork faggots.  I did say to Clive that I wouldn’t have ordered it anywhere else with as much confidence.  My pushing of the envelope proved to be very successful.  Wow.  There was white pepper and thyme and lemon and, and, and  – sorry, it just got too exciting.

Look.  The vegetables are great, the pudding choice outstanding, and the starters quite orgasmic.  Just go.

The Lazy Toad at Bampford Speke is very, very special.

Go

Horse & Groom, Mortimer Common

Sometimes you just come across a pub by sheer luck.  We tend to use the Good Pub Guide – which does take a lot of the hit and miss of taking a chance out of the equation.  It is usually pretty accurate.  But this week we found a lunch time place just by saying “this will have to do”.  That’s how we came up with The Horse and Groom.

 

Mortimer Common is a pretty village south of Reading.  We were there to update our efforts with Old Bull and Bush – the treatment for our TV prog is out for consideration at the moment.   (see web site - www.oldbullandbush.co.uk )  Jay and I always had a rule when we set the company up – all meetings had to be in pubs!  That is our only rule in the business.  Bet you wish that was your Mission Statement!!

The specials included Rabbit Ballotine with dumplings.  The dumplings were the European variety – incredibly filling, and a surprise because they look like mashed spud!

A rabbit aside, here.  I was running a course at a local posh hotel this week, and we had dinner.  It was an all female senior management team.  I ordered roast rabbit for starter – and there was a huge protest from all the women! I hoped it was not serious – but they said I couldn’t have a pretty little bunny to eat!  So I had Ham terrine.  I like pigs, both to look at and eat.  But hey, it prevented being sent to Coventry…

Craig and Marcelle run both this pub and The Red Lion close by.  They also have an Michelin level place called The Eagle at Little Coxwell.  That level of food know how shone through in this dish.  Jay and I were really very quiet during lunch.  It was quite splendid.  What was even more impressive was the level of service at this place.  Attentive, attention to detail and a real love of people and food – all of this adds to the experience.  Well worth seeking out.

Doggie Bags

No, I’m not talking about those bags used to take away any excess food you ordered at the restaurant.  Yes, we have all had that ‘eyes bigger than belly’ experience.  Or indeed been surprised at the excessive portions the restaurant served.  But I’m not going to discuss them in great detail.  I am talking about those bags that are used by dog owners to pick up their pooh.  Yep – those doggie bags.

We have been on a walking holiday in Devon.  A lot of the walks are from pubs and are circular in nature.  This means you not only have somewhere to park the car, but also the huge incentive to get back in time for some lunch!  And I have written about some of the more memorable ones and will return to some more of them too.

The bad news is, I have been put off my lunch once or twice by seeing some of these bags on the walks.  I know that 99.9% of dog owners are responsible and altogether pleasant coves.  The imbecilic thoughtless and selfish gits who do half the job really do annoy me.  One owner had thoughtfully hung the well-filled bag over the handle of a kissing gate!  How awful is that?

Just a couple of thoughts here:

1. Who do they think is going to turn up and remove them?
2. Why do they bother putting the crap in the bag at all?

One county (Dorset, I think) has a poster campaign on popular walks that has the tag line “Flick it with your Stick”.  Loads of walkers have walking poles nowadays – and they are really useful for walking uphill, pushing brambles out of the path, checking puddle depths – and flicking excrement out of a path and help to fertilize the undergrowth.

Would the selfish bar stewards do this?  No, I think not.  You do see a lot of other waste matter on country walks of course, so as long as the dog has done it’s business in an area that doesn’t have the prospect of children rolling around, then flicking with a stick seems pretty OK to me.

Hanging your doggie bag like a trophy for all to admire proves that some people don’t deserve to own a dog at all.  And I hope I spy one doing it soon.  I’d just love to run up to them with it and say, “Think you’ve forgotten something”.  They’ve forgotten their brain and decency as well as their bag.

Trouble at The Crooked Billet! “Lasagne Wars”

OK – I knew writing a book may get me into trouble.  Our local is a real English pub.  Serves great food 7 days a week  we have been known to go Saturday and Sunday.  Bill and Anita Green have run this jewel of a place for 26 years.  Food every lunch time, and drinking in the evening.  It’s a one room pub, and this set up suits everyone.  So how did the Lasagne wars start?  Well, we popped into the Crooked Billet (Sheepridge Lane, Little Marlow), and Bill greeted us:

“Two Lasgane’s please – Anita.  Someone has ordered two lasagnes.  Oh, it’s off?  Sold out?”

I had no idea what’s going on by now.  Bill pulls out his Kindle.  He had downloaded “Can Men Cook?” from Amazon Can Men Cook and found the following line:

“Once you have learnt to cook this lovely juicy Lasagne you will never have a pub lasagne again”.

I understood his chagrin.  Actually loads of people will know Bill.  One of the best joke and storytellers around.  He was winding me up.  But it does feel like you might annoy some people.  Some will be offended by the rather naughty jokes in the book.  Some by the sex references. Many by the condescension.

But I didn’t expect to get into trouble for a throw away line about Pub Lasagne.

You will be pleased to know that the Lasagne at the Billet is top notch. As good as mine!  Anita also does a mean Chilli.  And the ham egg and chips, and the Sunday Roasts are really really good.  Book now, or next time I’m in I might be wearing the lasagne!

Just Cook

I’m involved in a very exciting project – Just Cook!  It is designed to help people with Ostomies – people who have had to have surgery to remove some of their gut or even their bladder, and have a Colostomy ileostomy or urostomy fitted to take it’s place.

Naturally, there are a few rules that have to be adhered to if this happens.  But a lot of the time, people can carry on with their normal diet that they had before their operation.  Sometimes there are consequences – like green leafy veg and salads can cause a very fast and watery flow.  Sometimes people will live with this, or avoid that food.  Everyone is different , I am finding.

There are some good points – you have to eat more salt, because you excrete more than if you didn’t have a bag fitted!

I am having to learn a lot from my nutritionist friends and colleagues and the nurses who do a sterling job looking after and advising their patients.  The first session is in mid April, and I am really looking forward to it.  Yes, a learning curve for me too – but there are ways around most things.  Apart from everyone wanting vegetarian options (and I never know what gas mark to cook a vegetarian on!!) – so suddenly Tofu is top of my shopping list – and the need to have no tomato seeds in anything (so have discovered strained tomatoes - called pasata – in all supermarkets…but never noticed it before).

Fun exciting and potentially very helpful to the audience – what could be nicer?  Just

Cook – that’s what it’s all about.  Keep it simple, and do it from scratch. That’s our philosophy, and I know it will catch on! This is the set we are using for the event.

The Royal Oak, Marlow

We have been frequenting The Royal Oak (Frieth Road, Marlow on the road to Bovingdon Green), for about 10 years.  It’s popularity was built up around a stupendous character called Trasna, who got the ambience just right.  She was front of house and Maitre D’.  Or is it Madame D’?  Anyhow, she had a lot of great sayings  like “Never carry more than you can pack” and “be well mannered at all levels – the food will know”.  Now owned by James, David and Becky.  And they are carrying on the good traditions.

Food is single plate robust English Fusion.  They have a great idea called Small Plates – I’ve written about this before.  We did that 3 plate between two, one pudding between two thing today.  I can’t imagine ever thinking about this in a more formal environment - but here, nothing fazes. BLT salad with honey bacon hock, lettuce and mayonnaise;  Crispy shredded 5-spice duck leg with sesame bean sprouts;  Cornish skate wing, beetroot, & orange salad with crispy Monmouthshire pancetta.  Yes, they are bigger than starters, and fine for that.  The Pancetta was astonishing.  I couldn’t believe it was British.  The thinness, fattiness (obviously an older breed of pig, who hasn’t found out yet about thin being sexy – preferring tastiness as a virtue) was quite a revelation.  Different dressings, different sensations, and very different feels to all three plates.  It is the taste variation that is so satisfying.  There is love in this cooking.  And with these salads well on the way to your 5  a day!  OK – we could have main courses like Confit Pork Belly with bacon and sage potato cake, or slow cooked ox cheek bourginon with creamed champ.  But we were light lunching – and that was enough taste to entice.

You can see the style though – chef designs to make the whole plate complete.  It does make you realise that the days of a coterie of vegetables on a side plate are a bit passe.  That’s if you want a bit more modernity.  I don’t mind the “choice of seasonal veg” as long a s it fits a narrower menu than her.  But I do enjoy the effort of design that tries to make the dish a whole experience.

We treid to do that ourselves for pudding.  Warm pecan pie with Chantilly cream – and drizzled Creme Anglaise.  We added a scoop of Salted Caramel ice cream.  This proved to be a marriage made in heaven.  Quietly tucking in, admiring the crema on our coffees, we did resolve to return soon.

I love the attitude and style of The Royal Oak.  The food reflects the whole staff very well.

Check out their web site:

www.royaloakmarlow.co.uk

We chatted to James afterwards.  He just talked food – and you can’t fake that.  He seemed to like the idea of my book, Can Men Cook too – becasue there certainly is a difference between cooking and the whole chef thing.

Go.  It’s worth finding.

Can Men Cook?

Ok.  I’ve recently published “Can Men Cook?” on Amazon (link below)

Can Men Cook

One of the side effects from doing this had never entered my mind.  What happens now when you go to friends who have bought the book, and you are going to a dinner party at their house?  Now, I had thought of the obvious one – that we may get less invites because people might be intimidated.  Once they have read the book, they realise that is not the case – it really is a cook book to work from scratch if you want to, and not a chef style complication to be seen.  It is also designed to make you laugh at the same time.  One (woman) purchaser said “It reads like a cookery version of Top gear!”.  Fine with me!

But there is another side effect.  Part of the email invite to Pete and Pam’s was “And Pete’s going to do one of your recipes”.  Gee whiz - suddenly I feel the pressure!  What if it doesn’t work for him?  What if it tastes crap?  What if he ruined the kitchen and I am to blame?

When we arrived, I decided the only sensible option was to drink copiously.  Pam had done some brilliant grilled steaks (she is a fine cook, and her flapjacks are legendary!  Many a young football friend of their son, Tom, still remember them as a full time treat from 10 years before!).  Mixed veg, including asparagus, and lovely small potatoes, in their skins, finished off in hot oil in the oven,

So Pete decides to take the piss.  And said -”You know you said cheating good in your book – wel here it is!”  Tinned apricot, with a glace cherry on top, and condensed milk.  Silence.  Then huge guffaws of laughter.  (Those who know Pete Curtis will know that this is the hugest of guffaws).

What he actually made was a Lemon Syllabub.  And it was pretty damn good.  Buy the book if you want the recipe! There were a few disasters on the way.  Pete had followed instructions about covering the mixing bowl with a kitchen towel, but had used the mixer on fast and at an angle.  Pam followed the swearing, and saw Pete’s face completely covered in the mixture (and a lot of the kitchen was covered too).  So, out for more double cream, and finally success.

Cheese was great.  The fourth bottle probably a mistake.  Drinking and chatting with Jo-Jo, daughter who arrived home from college at 9, was great fun too.

And here’s the dish:  Splendid!  Well done Pete – and thanks to you both. Can men Cook?  Certainly!

Gloucester Old Spot – a great gastro-pub

The Gloucester Old Spot is in a village called Elmstone Hardwicke.  I think this sounds too much like that great Glen Campbell classic “Like a Rhinestone Cowboy”  So, I never miss the opportunity to sing “Like an Elmstone Hardwicke’ whenever we pass through the village.  Sad, I know.  No-one laughs.  But it makes me smile.

Have a look at the web-site

http://www.thegloucesteroldspot.co.uk

As you can see, a lovely looking pub.  The main dining room is a Baronial Hall, complete with large country house paintings.  Quite a setting – and they do hire it out for any sort of function.

Food is great modern British.  And biased towards the staple of medieval diets onwards – the pig!  (Look, The Gloucester Old Spot is not going to be a vegetarian restaurant, is it?) (But they do have excellent vegetarian options).  Starters and mains were the fancied combination of all 6 diners in our party.  It feels savoury, not sweet as a place.  Soups – parsnip and nutmeg – went down well.  Poached egg, ham and hollandaise – dreamy and timed well.  Seared pigeon breast – actually cooked through for once – which I prefer (and chefs will accommodate your needs here).  Mains – Guinea fowl with home-made haggis – how wonderfully wintry!   I had to have the Old Spot Pork Belly – boned and slow cooked.  It was honey on a plate.  And robust.  Grilled plaice fillets with a parsley and lemon crust with a chowder made of mussels, smoked haddock and leek had me searching for an excuse to swap meals.  Isn’t it annoying how often that happens? It was just cooked, and infused beautifully

Unusually, the choice of vegetables is included – choose 2 of chips, Dauphinoise potatoes, seasonal veg or salad.  The robust duaphinoise went wonderfully heavily with our pork belly.  Coffee was as good as we could manage afterwards!

Book.  It’s worth it.  They do a two course lunch for 12.50 during the week, too.  And there may be Gloucester Old Spot on the menu!

Christmas Food – in February?

We were due to visit our friends in Cheltenham (old neighbours actually) on 27th  December after our Family meals in the South East.  We had a bit if mild food poisoning, so had to call off.  So when we went last weekend, Judy had kept the menu the same – so we had our Christmas food mid February!

The main course was an all in one pot sort of dish.  Chicken, chorizo sausage (with a kick of heat), chick peas tomatoes and a bit of chicken stock.  At Christmas it would have been left over turkey.  Judy had fried the chicken first with a bit of garlic and onion.  She de-glazed the pan with some lemon juice and a bit of white wine.  In the oven dish, then cooked (covered) at 170 deg for 45 minutes.  Lovely with some extra vegetables.

Pudding was a rather more OTT affair.  Judy is renowned in the whole of the Cheltenham area for her Pavlova.  Her slightly chewy but fluffy meringues are indeed a thing of wonder.  This pudding was built around three frisbee sized meringue biscuits, and the sandwich layer between filled with Bailey’s enhanced whipped cream.  The top was made very festive with gold hundreds and thousands, and broken up pieces of after eight mints pushed into the surface.

This is not exactly a nutritionists delight.  But it was Christmas after all!

Mike opened the second bottle of red to help the cheese go down.  We slept well.

View through a frozen window

Pot Luck

What does Pot Luck mean? It feels like a go with the flow sort of meal. Anything goes, sort of style. I was speaking to a friend the other day who finds cooking a bit of a chore, but has to follow a recipe for everything. She cannot imagine the sort of cooking challenges they have on Masterchef, where contestants are presented with a set of ingredients and told to ‘go create’.

That is the essence of the fun for me. We had some strange bedfellows that were only just past their sell by dates (I will rant about that in another post!). Some cooked and thin cut beef, a few small potatoes, wrinkly mushrooms and a leek. Pristine food? Yes we had some fresh sping onions (should we change the name to salad onions as they are now available all year round?) and half fat creme fraiche.

I cleaned up the spuds and left their skins on. Halved them – so they cooked quickly, then boiled. The confloption ( a new word!) to fry up included the leak, and mushrooms. Discoverd a few mini tomoatoes too – so they got chucked in. I shredded up the beef, and added it when the other bits were done, and switched the heat off (after adding some mustrard and balsamic squirt). Spuds? Drained, added the chopped up spring onion, some parmesan, a nob of butter and a large spoon of creme fraiche. Served the spuds under and the confloption on top, like as if the potatoes were pasta.

The great thing with using up stuff that a lot of people throw out is the meal feels free – because you have saved the ingredients from composting!

Pot luck? Well, the plate felt like it got lucky too!