Eating out and soup making

Howdy, Bloggers! 

As I write this I'm absentmindedly dipping my hand into a bag of Joe and Seph's gourmet popcorn, a product I cannot recommend more for sublime flavour and crunch. I'm eating the peanut butter flavour right now but my other favourites include salted caramel, espresso and the  caramel macchiato and whiskey. You can order online at joeandsephs.co.uk and you can buy it at selected places, mainly in London. 

I feel it's time to talk about the food I've eaten whilst I'm out, partly because I've been to some cracking places recently but also because that way any locals can pop along and see what all the fuss is about - local economy and all that jazz.  

Last weekend my family and I went out for dinner to celebrate my brothers new job and that I have finished university. We went to a place called The Buck and Bell in Long Itchington which is a classic gastro-pub with jazzed up versions of classics like burgers and fish and chips and also do some stunning original dishes. My dad had a gorgeous Asian spiced squid salad followed by pork belly with black pudding mash.

My mum and I shared a platter of parma ham, smoked salmon, baby stuffed peppers, crayfish tails and warm bread with oil and balsamic vinegar (truth be told I'd have been more than happy with just the bread, oil and vinegar as it's one of those combinations I cannot get enough of but the ham was delicious and the crayfish tails were plump and juicy and gone in moments). For my main I took advantage of my parents generosity and went for a rib-eye steak (rare, always) with garlic butter, hand cut chips and salad. The steak arrived, perfectly cooked - if I'm in France I have it blue but English waiters always look at me as though I'm a crazy person if I do it here. The chips were crispy and golden and the garlic butter was garlic-y enough to get strong flavour without overpowering the meat. 

I'd definitely eat there again as there's loads of things on the menu I'd like to try but I need to be in an adventurous mood to take me away from that perfect steak.

I also went for lunch with a friend of mine at the restaurant he works at, The Star and Garter in Leamington Spa. Similar to The Buck and Bell in the classics and exciting twists. My friend dared me to try brie, a cheese which has never appealed to me despite my family being connoisseurs of all French cheese. He also forced me to eat corned beef hash which was also really tasty. I went for a burger this time as I like to see classics done well - no point being able to poach and fricassee a ballentine of rabbit if you can't make a good burger. There was a truly epic barbecue sauce that came with it which I went a bit mad with, spreading all other the meat. My friend had the moules mariniere from the specials board and I am not ashamed to admit that I dunked my chips into that mariniere sauce it was so good. 

Definitely going to bring friends and family back here to eat as the food was brilliant and well priced. 

Since I'm on my slim-fast diet (the burger was 700 calories, 300 of which I burned off cycling 9 miles that evening so I was still in my limit) I decided that I would dedicate today to knocking up a pot of minestrone soup. Since I'm a bit of a fussy eater, I puree the veg down before adding the (trimmed) bacon and (whole wheat) pasta. 

I really enjoyed chopping up all the veggies with my music blaring in the background. The base vegetables for the soup are one red onion,  three garlic cloves, three large carrots and 4 sticks of celery and then today I added a leek and a yellow pepper. I have used courgette in the past and cabbage works well too. I chop all these finely and put them into the largest pot we have.

 I then tipped in two cartons of chopped tomatoes with basil and oregano, a vegetable stock cube and enough hot water to just cover all the veg. Leave it to bubble with the lid lightly covering it for 20 minutes. Once the vegetables are soft, use a stick blender to puree the soup. Then finely dice and cook about 75g of trimmed, smoked bacon and add it to the soup. Boil a small pasta shape of your choice (today I used broken up spaghetti) for 5 minutes, drain and stir into the soup. The moisture from the soup will cook the pasta through. Taste for seasoning - I like mine on the salty side so I add a couple of teaspoons of marmite and let it melt in. Serve with warmed pita bread. I've roughly worked out that this much soup does 6-7 bowls and each bowl is around 150 calories. 

Another calorie controlled meal I'm a fan of is a medium sized baked potato cut open and forked fluffy and then two heaped teaspoons of reduced fat sour cream and chive dip dolloped in. It's creamy and delicious but is only around 200 calories. 

So I'm off for another 9 mile cycle with Daddy Watt followed by my lush homemade soup for dinner. I'd love to know what you're eating since If you're reading this you must have some interest in food!!

Much love, Bloggers, get sharing!! xxxx