Online butcher - Great British Meat Co

With time being a luxury now with having a young family, shopping for food has become a little ad-hoc. As such, I decided to order some meat online. Having ordered meat online a few years ago and was not blown away with the offerings I decided to do some homework and see if others had a better experience than me and where they bought from. The answer is yes although you have to know where to go as just typing into goggle 'online butchers' could be Russian roulette.

I saw a lot of people having tried Great British Meat Co where pleased with what they received so had a look on there website. Their website is easy to navigate compared with some of the other online butchers websites and good photos and description of the various cuts.

As I came across a cut of meat I would sit and think of a recipe. I could have very easily got carried away. With a list of meats in my basket and recipes flying around inside my head I hit buy! Well i ordered:
Beef Burger        (Hoping for some sun this Bank Holiday weekend - BBQ!)
 2 x 113g/4oz
 2 x 170g/6oz
Bavette        (Pan fried with chips and maybe a bernase sauce)
 500g
Lamb Shanks        (Slowly cooked maybe in wine)
 2 x 567g/20oz
Pork Chops        (Pan fried)
 2 x 227g/8oz
Whole Pork Belly        (Confied and served with black pudding below)
 1kg
Beef Stir Fry Strips        (Chinese stirfry)
 500g
Black Pudding
 420g
Pork Sausages
 8 sausages
Smoked Back Bacon
 500g
Whole Chicken        (Indian one pot)
 1.4kg
Pork Ribs
 1kg
Duck Breasts
 2 x 320g

With just over 7kg of meat the total came to £60.

I had the order delivered to work so it wasn't left out all day. The packaging was very impressive and once opened everything was still nice and cool (see pics). Plus a nice hand written card welcoming me to Great Britich Meat Co as this was my first order.

Having had a carnivorous few weeks and tried all the meats, would I order again... Yes. Obviously when time allows there is nothing better than a trip to the butchers. But as a better alternative to supermarkets this has to be it.

Order online from:
http://www.greatbritishmeat.com/

Few other online retails that are worth looking at were:
http://www.farmison.com/
http://www.pipersfarm.com/

Riverplate Steak House Leeds

“A PLACE WHERE YOU WILL BE ABLE TO HAVE A TASTE OF EXCELLENT ARGENTINEAN FOOD”.

And it certainly is!

We bought a voucher from Living Social Leeds; the deal was steak lunch for two with a starter each for £25. I’m not typically a steak lover but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good steak.
When my partner and I arrived at Riverplate (With a pram and baby in tow!) the staffs were very warm and welcoming and made a special effort to sort us a table out so we could place our pram next to our table and it was quite busy on a Saturday Afternoon. We sat at the back of the restaurant overlooking the river and it was a beautiful sunny autumn day and the restaurant setting was very warming with a rustic dinning feeling.

The waitress explained to us with our deal we could have any steak up to 300g and on the starters if we decided to opt for their “Famous House Ribs” it would be the small portion.

I ordered the Home-made Chorizo Criollo (£7.95) to start and the 300g Rib Eye Steak (£17.95) to follow, my partner ordered Riverplate’s Famous Garlic Prawns (£7.95) to start and 300g of Fillet Steak (£23.95) to follow, we ordered a portion of Home-made Fries (£3) to share along with a portion of Seasonal Vegetables (£3.70) and a Tomato and Red Onion Salad (£3.70).

When the starters arrived they looked and smelt great, the Garlic Prawns were in a lovely creamy garlic and chilli sauce with a splash of lemon drizzled on top, the prawns were nice and big and went well together with the sauce. My Chorizo sausage was moist and subtlety spiced.

When our steaks arrived with the sides these were certainly not shy portion sizes, I’m glad we actually ordered sides to share otherwise I don’t think we would of finished it all! The steaks were cooked to perfection, medium rare just how we like it and in my opinion how a steak should be eaten. They were so soft and juicy to eat packed with lots of flavour, I have to say though I do prefer the Rib Eye steak for flavour more than fillet but that’s just my personal preference! The vegetables were soft and buttery, the salad was fresh and the chips were amazing! We did manage to eat it all and I have to say we were left very satisfied.

We decided to order coffees seen as we were in no rush to get off and the staffs were certainly not rushing us off to take our table (Which is a pet hate of mine when eating out!). We were handed the menu again and couldn’t help having a peak at the dessert section, well we couldn’t resist and both decided to order a dessert each and coffee to wash it down with. I ordered the Banoffee Pie (£4.95) and a Latte (£2.50) and my partner ordered the Dark Chocolate Torte (£4.95) with a Filter coffee (£2.50). The desserts again were a decent size and sweet and decadent.

Overall we were in the restaurant about 2 hours and our bill came to approx £35 for all the extras we had (Including 3 soft drinks) and I have to say it was well worth it. It was a great relaxing atmosphere the service was excellent and the food was even better! The staff even helped us out with our pram on leaving the restaurant (Via the lift).

I would happily go again (and again!) and would definitely recommend this restaurant, especially for all you steak lovers out there!

Riverplate Steak House
36-38 The Calls
Leeds
LS2 7EW

0113 391 2792

Website


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Pulled Beef Chilli

During our visit to Cornucopia at the weekend I was in the mood to cook a chilli and saw a lovely looking piece of Beef Brisket from Snowden Hill and know exactly what recipe to cook!


INGREDIENTS

1.5kg beef brisket
1 large cinnamon stick
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 heaped tbsp dried oregano
2 fresh bay leaves
2 red peppers
2 yellow peppers
2 x 400g tins chopped tomatoes
400ml beef stock
3–4 red chillies, 2 deseeded, sliced
2 red onions, finely sliced
Red wine vinegar


METHOD
1) Bash the cinnamon, cumin, paprika and oregano with a mortar and pestle then rub into the beef. Season well, drizzle over a little olive oil and brown the brisket over a high heat.

2) Place the bay leaves, peppers, tomatoes and stock in a large pan and bring to the boil.

3) Meanwhile, add the chilli and onion to the pan with the brisket, cook for 5 minutes, then transfer  to the pan with the tomatoes, cover, and leave to simmer for 4–4½ hours. Be careful towards the end of the cooking time as the sauce thickens it can catch at the bottom.

4) The beef should be tender enough to pull apart using two forks. Add a little vinegar to taste and adjust the seasoning.
5) Serve with soft bread to mop up all that lovely sauce.

Cornucopia

Cornucopia (in Latin also cornu copiae) or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with produce, flowers, nuts, other edibles.

And it certainly was!


I was lucky enough to be invited down to The Corn Exchange for the BIG breakfast on Sunday morning to meet the producers, before the event opens to the general public.

For the breakfast we sampled some of the produce that was on offer from the stallholders, which included:

Breakfast Brownies from The Yummy Yank
Oat and Nut Granola's from Yorkshire Dales Real Food
Brioche from Sunshine Bakery
Primos own Smoothies
Preserves from Lianne Marie Binks
Also some preserves from Pudsey Pickles
Buffalo Sausages from  Snowden Hill Water Buffalo
Preserves from The Chilli Jam Man
Nanaimo Bar from Fayre By Alley

I must admit it was great to see and even better to taste what the local producer are working so hard for. 

We spend a couple of hours there walking around chatting, sampling and even buying. The sausage rolls from Sunshine Bakery, well i couldn't resit. Some chutneys from Pudsey Pickles and a lovely bit of Beef Brisket from Snowden Hill. (See what I did with it here)

For a list of all the stallholders check out Cornucopia's website.

If you missed it shame on you, but it will be back in December (22nd -24th) keep an eye on their website as it could be even bigger and better.

A big thank you to Cornucopia and the event partners!

Eastzeast - Riverside, Manchester

After a great night at Manchester MEN watching Peter Kay, four of us left the venue feeling a little hungry. The waves of people took us along Corporation Street. Once we were able to get to a quiet point we stopped to consult Google places. Within minutes of searching Indian Restaurants we were on our way to "eastzeast Riverside" following the directions on the phone. After 5 mins of walking we had found it, from first impressions it looked like a bar on a busy Friday night.

After going inside we enquired about a table for four to which we were told it could be up to a 20min wait. Whilst waiting we took a seat at the bar for a drink. The bar area was nice and airy with an intriguing frosted glass area, which was for private dining.

We were called as our table was ready and shown down stairs. The seating area was deceptively large and busy for the time of night, the decor was nice and even had big palm trees dotted around, which we couldn't work out if were real or not.

Although we had said no to poppadoms they were bought to the table on the house with an impressive pickle tray containing the usual lime pickle, raita, mango chutney but also some not so usual ones like a very testy garlic chutney and a tomato chutney, all labelled on the bottom of the tray.

The starters where brought out very fast, 3 Onion Bhajis (£2.95) and 1 Lamb Chops (£5.95). The lamb chops had plenty of meat on them, they were nice and tender if a little too charred in places from the tandoori oven. The Onion Bhajis were fresh and light but had a very fiery chilli kick to them.

The mains soon followed, I had a Tiger King Prawns Biryani (£13.95) served with a punjabi raita and a hot curry sauce. I could taste the subtle spices in the rice and the sauce complimented it well, another plus to the dish was they weren't shy with the Tiger prawns. My dining guests had  Karahi Gosht Dopiaza (£10.95), Karahi Murgh Tikka Masala (£9.95) which wasn't the normal dayglow orange colour and a Prawn Rogan Josh (£8.95) to which we were asked if we would like tiger prawns or small prawns with the Rogan Josh. As the comment from across the table was "Mmm this is by far the best Rogan Josh Ive had in a while." I just had to have a try. The rich sauce with tomatoes was nice and thick and almost creamy. It was a very good Rogan Josh indeed!

The bill for the four of us came to just under £80. Very reasonable for the quality of the food being served. On our way out we noticed an ice cream and coffee counter so we couldn't resist in having one for the road. The quality and service of the whole place was great from walking into the bar to chilling in the ice cream and coffee lounge at the end. Definitely a great find from Google and certainly worth a visit if your over the Pennines and fancy a good curry.

Eastzeast Manchester Riverside
Blackfriars Street
Deansgate
Manchester
M3 5BQ

Website


Tel:0161 834 3500

Opening Times
Monday to Thursday: 5.00pm - 11.30pm
Friday & Saturday: 5.00pm - 12.00 Midnight
Sunday: 5.00pm - 11.00pm



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Weight Watchers Spicy Tomato And Butternut Soup

I'm not into fad diets but someone I know is ;) So once in a while we pull out the recipe cards and cook something healthy. Some of the recipes are either bland, boring or just don't work. This one however works a treat and will defiantly be appearing in my packed lunch for work this winter.

Serves 6

INGREDIENTS
6 large tomatoes
1 large butternut squash peeled and deseeded
2 large red onions
1 medium red pepper
1 stick celery
1 carrot
4 cloves garlic
1 red chilli-deseeded

METHOD
1) Preheat your oven to 190C/375F/Gas mark 5. Cut the tomatoes, squash, onion, pepper, celery & carrot into chunks-finely dice the garlic & chilli.

2) Place all the veg into a roasting tin -season with salt & toss together. Roast for 45 mins turning the vegetables every 15 mins or so.

3) Put the roasted veg into a food processor with 500 ml of boiling water and blitz until smooth (do in batches if necessary).

4) Add another 500ml of boiling water to the smooth soup. Bring to the boil and simmer for two to three minutes-season to taste. Now serve into warm bowls and enjoy.

My Famous Baked Snickers Cheesecake

This recipe is for everyone who knows me for my baked cheesecake. Especially Faye who has been asking for it for ages, so here you go...Enjoy! (I expect a pic to be posted soon)

INGREDIENTS
16 digestive biscuits
100g butter, melted
600g cream cheese
2 tbsp plain flour
175g caster sugar
vanilla extract
2 eggs, plus 1 yolk
142ml pot soured cream
2 bars of snickers, sliced

METHOD
1) Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4.

2) Crush the biscuits in a food processor (or put in a plastic bag and bash with a rolling pin). Mix with the butter. Press into a 20cm springform tin and bake for 5 minutes, then cool.

3) Beat the cream cheese with the flour, sugar, a few drops of vanilla, eggs, the yolk and soured cream until light and fluffy.

4) Pour into the tin, arrange slices of the snickers bar over the top. Bake for 40 minutes and then check, it should be set but slightly wobbly in the centre. Leave in the tin to cool.



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