You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Reviews’ category.
Roaring log fire at the Cat Inn
When you spot that a cosy pub in a beautiful part of the world will be hosting a vegetarian night, what can you do but book a table and plan to spend the day in the area?
The Cat Inn is in the sleepy Sussex Village of West Hoathly and welcomes locals, diners and walkers alike with a roaring log fire and an excellent menu. When we called in for a break during a walk, we were delighted to see they were hosting an evening with a special vegetarian menu and providing us with an excuse for a visit!
Our starters were a delicious and richly flavourful borscht (a Ukrainian beetroot soup) served with sour cream and feta and watermelon salad, which turns out to be a gorgeous combination! For mains we had a rich and satisfying wild mushroom tart, with rocket salad and a great mixed platter of felafel, tabbouleh and fatoush (a Levantine bread salad) with a butter bean hummous. we loved both, but we noticed that the other item on the menu, a curry served with naan and popadum seemed to be the most popular amongst the other diners!
Our desserts were both gluten free – a chocolate torte served with blood orange sorbet and an almond cake with pistachio ice cream. I would say the almond cake won the awards as it was wonderfully moist, but the rich chocolate of the torte demands a special mention.
It was a very successful evening and the menu showed imagination and a willingness to experiment, while clearly paying respect to a clientele who may be suspicious of a whole meal out being vegetarian! I would however like to encourage the Cat Inn and other restaurants and pubs to put their thinking caps on and come up with other veggie menus – it certainly didn’t seem to keep people away from the Cat Inn anyway!
As well as this lovely pub, the area is full of fantastic views, historic houses and open spaces galore. We visited the National Trust house, Standen, a late victorian home designed Arts and Crafts movement member, architect Philip Webb. Both house and garden were calming and inspiring, with views across the Sussex countryside. We also walked in Ashdown Forest, which, aside from being the largest free public space in the south east of England, is famous as home to Winnie-the-Pooh!
Standen - the house seen from the croquet lawn.
The Standen drawing room
Evening falls over Ashdown Forest
Lake Orta
After a long weekend in Stresa on the shores of Italy’s Lake Maggiore, it’s official: I’ve fallen in love! I know it’s not a new discovery, but this really is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Blue shimmering waters surrounded by majestic mountain peaks receding into the mist. Gorgeous!
Isola Bella, Lake Maggiore
It was one of those trips that just fell into place, with beautiful sunny weather, and unually for vegetarian travellers, great food at every turn. Each day seemed to bring another delicious lunch in a yet more spectacular location. There was a real sense of seasonal eating here, with much use made of local mushrooms, pumpkins and root veg. There were top quality simple meals of pasta with tomato sauce, fresh bread and salad, but also unusual dishes of herby polenta and sweet pumpkin gnocchi. We only had four days, but as well as Stresa we visited Arona, also on Lake Maggiore and Orta San Giulio on Lake Orta. We ate well everywhere and below is a list of recommendations.
Sunrise over Lake Maggiore
La Piazzetta, Piazza del Popolo, Arona (http://www.lapiazzettadiarona.com)
Overlooking Lake Maggiore to the Rocca de Angera on the far side. The had a special 3 course mushroom menu here and we had a wild mushroom tagliatelle as well as gnocchi in a rich tomato and mozzarella sauce.
Al Buscion, 18 Via Principessa Margharita, Stresa
We stopped in here twice for pre-dinner drinks and nibbles. It has a great atmosphere and excellent wine list.
La Botte, 6/8 Via Mazzini, Stresa
Excellent herby polenta with garlicky roast vegetables and a rich wild mushroom risotto.
The New Bar, Isola Superiore dei Pescatori, Lake Maggiore – on the far shore of the island from the ferry port.
Another spectacular location on the lakeside with views over to Verbania. A simple meal of pasta and tomato sauce, mozzarella and basil panino with a goats cheese salad and bread.
Cafe Torino, 23 Piazza Cadorna, Stresa
Great value pizza with salad and bread, served with style in a lively atmoshpere.
Trattoria Due Piccioni, 61/63 Via Principe Tomaso, Stresa
Top class cuisine with knowledgable and friendly staff. We had Tortino Rustico, an eggy savoury cake with grilled courgettes and Gnocchi with pureed pumpkin topped with crumbled amaretti, sweet and intriguing.
Ristorante Due Santi, Piazza Motta, Orta San Giulio
An even more sublime view over Lake Orta towards Isola San Giulio accompanied by another simple, but perfect meal of pasta, bread and salad.
For a more detailed article on our trip see here.
Isola San Giulio, Lake Orta
Having eaten in the Brighton restaurant Food for Friends a while back, I was excited to get my hands on their recipe book written by Jane and Ramin Mostowfi with Kalil Resende.
And this is indeed a gorgeous book full of recipes with amazing depth of flavour and exciting ingredients. The book is also clear about which recipes are gluten-free or suitable for vegans.
Many of the recipes are for special occasions only, as you will need to get in special ingredients and take some time over preparation. I was looking for a recipe to try which contained more everyday ingredients and I found Sweet Potato, Garlic and Rosemary Gratin. Now this recipe did require quite a bit of effort, not least in the extra washing up, but it delivered in terms of flavour, which was rich and rounded without being overwhelming. It was delicious in other words! The dish is supposed to finish up as a kind of cake which you cut into slices to serve. I didn’t manage that I must say, maybe I wasn’t diligent enough about pouring out the juices half way through cooking, which seemed a such waste to me! You may also have to be inventive with the instruction to use a second baking tray the same size, as most of us without restaurants don’t have that luxury! Still none of that affected the taste, so we were happy diners anyway!
Sweet Potato, Garlic and Rosemany Gratin
Serves 6
4 cloves of garlic
1 tstp salt
1 tsp black pepper
150 ml olive oil
1 large sweet potato
3 large white or red potatoes
3 tbsp rosemary finely chopped
1 tblsp thyme leaves finely chopped
Preheat the oven to 180C / gas mark 4 / 350F. Blend the garlic, salt, pepper and oil together in a blender. Place the resulting mixture in a large container. Finely slice the sweet and ordinary potatoes, and put the slices into the container. Add the chopped rosemary and thyme and allow the potatoes to infuse with the oil and garlic mix for 10 minutes.
Line a 2cm deep baking tray , approx. 25cm x 15cm with baking paper. Put the potato mix in the tray, pressing it down into the corners to make sure that there is an even amount across the tray. Cover the surface with another piece of baking paper and cook in the oven for 35 miutes. Take it out of the oven. Get another tray the same size and press down on top of the gratin to squeeze out excess juices, tip the trays to allow them to drain. Then put the gratin back in the oven for another 20 minutes or so, until golden in colour. Check the middle with a knife to see if it’s cooked.
Turn the gratin upside down ove a choppping board and lift the tray off. Then carefully remove the paper and trim the edges.
the collapsed gratin!
If you’re like me, then you’ll understand that skiing can often mean struggling down a slippery slope while experienced skiiers and small children whizz past at 350 mph! And if you’re a veggie then you’ll know that eating in the French Alps can be a similarly trying experience.
Well last week at Serre Chevalier, I managed some great fun skiing, despite the lack of snow at the time, all in brilliant sunshine. And it turned out that there are some excellent places to eat veggie food too!
The slopes at Serre Chevalier
The best of the mountain restaurants was undoubtedly the Cafe Soleil at the top of the telepherique from Chantemerle. After discovery on our third day, we made sure we came over every day for our lunch. It is mostly a self- service restaurant with galettes and crepes, pizzas, paninis etc, as well as a wonderful salad bar and a dessert bowl – fill up your bowl from the selection of desserts available – see how it’s done below! On our final day we were treated to a jazz band playing in the snow as part of the Briancon jazz festival. We lingered long over our lunch that day!
- the dessert bowl at Cafe Soleil
In Chantemerle itself, we were treated to some fabulous haute cuisine at Triptyque, which lists it’s address as ‘en face de l’eglise’! The restaurant is in the centre of the old town, but has a modern interior and serves a modern inventive menu. To start we had Crumble Vegetarien, which was a creamy mousse of aubergine and goat’s cheese, topped with chunks of spicy crumble, served in a glass bowl. The main course was Wok Vegetarien, a less intriguing, but nonetheless excellent noodle dish with vegetables in a richly flavoured sauce. And for dessert we had Soupe d’Ananas, a whole new taste combination for me, which consisted of two layers of creamed pineapple, the first flavoured with ginger and the second with basil, all served with an excellent vanilla ice cream. This light dessert was a revelation as the flavours worked so well together, and I’m planning to work on a recipe for something similar!
the Jazz Band at Cafe Soleil, Serre Chevalier
An important part of a ski trip to Serre Chevalier has surely got to be a visit to the spa in Monetier les Bains. The naturally heated mineral waters are now housed in a modern take on the traditional roman baths, with a large pool at the centre and a steaming outdoor pool. In keeping with the ancient Roman tradition there is also the opportunity to dip in and out of the different water temperatures of the frigidarium, the tepidarium and the calderium, as well as saunas and steam rooms. This was all wonderfully relaxing and set us up for an excellent pizza later in Brasera in the old part of town. The real log fire there was also welcome.
the outdoor pool at Monetier les Bains
We were staying in Villeneuve and in the old town of La Salle Les Alpes we enjoyed some great cooking at the British run Mojo on the Rue de la Guisane. They had a couple of veggie dishes, a Thai Red Curry and a Linguine. And over in the new Centre Commerciale in Pre Long, our favourite spot was the Jardin creperie, which we ate in a couple of times as it offered a selection of veggie gallettes and salads.
Serre Chevalier really lived up to it’s promise with beautiful old villages, great skiing and some really good food!
the old town of Les Salles les Alpes
The Moosewood Restaurant is a collective run operation in Ithaca, NY, which was first set up in 1973. The collective has also published at least 12 cookbooks and their fresh and ever changing approach to vegetarian and healthy eating has been highly influential.
Unfortunately I’m a long way from Ithaca and unlikely to eat in the restaurant any time soon (anybody out there want to offer a review?), and I had previously only glanced at copies of their cookbooks, but I have been seriously impressed by this, their latest effort and would be happy to recommend it to anyone looking for exciting healthy recipes, as well as for vegetarian, vegan and raw food.
As well as the trying out the recipe below, I made a version of their Sweet Potato Pie, which tasted much sweeter and richer than the healthy ingredients might lead you to believe, and I’ve lined up a list of recipes to try next: cauliflower tabouli, raw broccoli salad and vegan cornbread.
This recipe for Pomegranate-glazed Tofu was a revelation! Absolutely delicious and destined to become a firm favourite, both as it is, and, as is my way, inspiration for further experimentation.
Pomegranate-glazed Tofu
Pomegranate-glazed Tofu
1 cake of firm tofu (about 16 ounces), cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tblsp olive oil
1 cup pure pomegranate juice
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
1 tblsp soy sauce
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp grated orange zest
1 tsp minced fresh rosemary
In a large skillet on medium-high heat, warm the olive oil. Add the tofu cubes and cook for about 3 minutes per side until lightly golden.
Whisk together the pomegranate juice, garlic, soy sauce, mustard, orange zest, and rosemary. When the tofu pieces are golden, pour the sauce over the tofu and continue to simmer for 3 to 5 minutes until the tofu has absorbed some of the sauce and the rest has reduced to glaze.
