Something of a departure

Perhaps contrary to my Friday afternoon Champagne drinking ways, I have a much more practical side. The side of me that has to think about how the mortgage and the bills are going to get paid while I'm figuring out just how I can maximise my enjoyment of life - and shopping.

So where do we go for affordable wine...well, other than my trusty Sainsbury's and Waitrose deliveries (which can be very nice by the way), we tend to pop out to the nearby Co-op. I was very disappointed when my local 'around the corner' wine buying options shrank and Sainsbury's petrol station became unable to sell wine (some new law) and left me the choice of Oddbins (sorry, not a huge fan), Tesco (expensive, not very nice wine in the smaller shops) or the Co-op. So, we decided to try the Co-op - and we were oh so pleasantly surprised.

Now, don't get me wrong - this isn't wine that I'm going take to a fancy dinner party to impress someone. I'd take it almost anywhere else though - and we are happy to have some any night we happen to feel like having wine. There is always wine at 'half price' which goes for somewhere around £3.75 or £3.99 - white, red and, pleasingly, usually rose. We've had a summer full of rose bargains that were exceedingly pleasant and have already dug into couple of reds that would do a winter stew proud. Add this to other reasons to like the Co-op, fair trade and the like, and well, it's all good. Give it a try.

Friday Afternoon Champagne (Part 2)

Last Friday, girl-e and I decided to sample another champagne bar to compare our experience at Hugh's a couple of weeks ago. We decided to visit the Veuve Clicquot Champagne Bar at Malmaison on West George Street. The champagne bar is downstairs and just outside the bistro - it's really just a clever use of what might otherwise be a foyer or ante-room with ample nooks and crannies to display the distinctive orange-yellow branding of the Champagne House. Archtecturally, it's interesting as this was formally just the space between two buildings that's been enclosed and filled with comfy furniture - but still gives just a hint of the feel of being outside without being subject to the elements. The bar menu was extensive with cocktails and snacks - but we were pretty focused on the champagne. The list was short but nice - two Veuve Clicquot selections (NV Brut and NV Brut Rose), one lesser known Champagne (Mercier) and one prosecco. We splurged on the Brut Rose first (11.95 per glass). This is definitely a splurge - but this wine is gorgeous, elegant and balanced. If you are content to have one of something fabulous rather than several of something so-so then this is the ticket....gorgeous orange-y salmon-y colour, lovely summer berry nose with hints of sweet biscuits baking. Sadly, it was outside our budget to have a second glass but the Mercier NV brut was a very nice stand in at £8.95. Referring back to my comments in the previous post, it doesn't have to be from a well known champange house to be very enjoyable and a champagne bar that gets this wrong is very disappointing. The Mercier was lovely - soft, light and fresh with a more apple/pear/flower sort of personality than the berry fruits of the rose. To add to what was already an exceedingly pleasant experience, we ordered a single order of chips to split (since we sat in the bar for best part of 3 hours!) and these were stellar - crisp outside, soft inside, cut into thin strips, nicely salty. This was a very nice experience that I would be keen to repeat when I want to treat myself to something a bit special.

Friday Afternoon Champagne

Here I am this Friday afternoon, eating lunch at my desk, thinking about last Friday afternoon when I was sitting in Hugh's in House of Faser on Buchanan Street with girl-e. It was a very warm day and the dark chocolate brown decor of Hugh's seemed a lovely place to hide from the world. As an in-store cafe, it's a rather nice, quiet atmosphere for snacks, teas, coffee, drinks, etc.. Might also be a nice place for your other half to hang out while you get on with the business of wearing out your credit cards. We didn't try the food on this occasion so I can't say much here - but the menu was fairly thorough and I'm sure most would find something here. Some of it seemed oddly heavy (confit of lamb shoulder?) for what must be a lunch or snack destination - but perhaps I was unduly influenced by the heat of the afternoon in forming this opinion!

As a Champagne Bar (it was set up by a company called Champagne Bars Ltd which created a certain expectation), well, it was fine.The champagne section of the menu offered 6 choices by the glass (a not bad number) - 4 non-vintage 'white' champagne and 2 non-vintage rose champagne. For vintage, you need to order by the bottle. What disappointed was that we took our server's recommendation and tried a glass of the Boizel rose champagne. We were entirely underwhelmed - it was indeed pink but it was really rather bland, missing soft summer fruits or floral notes almost entirely. There are plenty of excellent quality wines that would have fit this price point - to have one that was so disappointing just made me wonder if they knew what they were doing. It could have been a less than stellar bottle so perhaps I am not being fair - but I don't really want to give it another whirl at £9.50 for 125ml. To make up for this defeat we had a second glass - Pol Roger non-vintage. This was every bit as lovely as I would have expected it to be so we were significantly cheered up by this (and at only 50p more per glass). All in all, it was pleasant - and I'd go back again if I were in Fraser's. I don't think I'd make a special trip though - and I might just order a coffee anyway. (Or a champagne cocktail, they has a most interesting selection of these!)

Don't get me wrong, a cool glass of Champagne to soothe a weary shopper is a spectacular idea - but every time I hear 'champagne bar' I get rather excited. Usually, though I am disappointed. I do realise that I might be somewhat harder to please than most in this regard and I also realise that restaurants and bars can be constrained in their purchasing by contracts out of their control and based on whatever fickle system of sales and distribution applies. But for me, I'd like to see some really well thought out choices: reliable, big name, non-vintage (they did achieve this) and maybe a vintage or two by the glass at a reasonable price, delightful and expertly chosen lesser known labels by the glass, non-champagne fizz by the glass (it's really about the bubbles isn't it?). I like sparkling wine and I am happy to pay a premium for high quality wine - but a cool glass of lovely prosecco would have done nicely rather than poorly chosen actual 'champagne' that wasn't worth it's premium price. We do know what these bottles cost in Oddbins so we understand the mark-ups - and I do know that we are paying for the location, the experience, the decor, the convenience, the service etc. But I could also just have a coffee. Was I somewhat unfairly put off by mediocre champagne? Perhaps. But while I will settle for mediocre wine in a pub (that's me with the ice in my vin de pays), I'm not there for the wine. I don't go to 'Champagne Bars' to be disappointed.

Warm Quinoa Salad

Once the weather starts to warm up, we, like most probably, adjust how we eat. Our thoughts turn to the light and fresh and we move further away from the rich and heavy. Of course, this doesn’t mean we are any less time or energy constrained than at other times of the year – and lighter and fresher doesn’t necessarily mean quicker! Sure a bag of salad, some dressing, some protein is easy – but I can’t eat that way every night, especially as this is what often passes for lunch. So my compromise the other night was a warm salad – warm as in ‘not cooled off yet’ really. I put 3 cups of quinoa and 6 cups of water in the rice cooker while I was thinking about what I might do and by the time it was finished, I had a plan….

I divided the quinoa into two bowls (since there was so much!) and gave both a toss with extra virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. (Key cooking tip - things like grains, beans, legumes, potatoes etc. absorb flavours much better when they are warm.) Into each bowl went a generous handful of chopped sundried tomatoes and a drizzle of the oil they were soaking in.

I added to the first bowl shredded courgette that had been sautéed in olive oil and garlic, steamed french beans (chopped into thirds), some chopped fresh green onion and a handful of chopped toasted hazelnuts. I used two medium sized courgettes – courgette is always a favourite vegetable for us. This was an excellent accompaniment to some very thin pan fried turkey breast steaks (seasoned with Zatarain’s Creole Seasoning for a bit of kick) and dash of moisture from a quick deglaze of the pan with some white wine. Even better (almost) was having this for lunch the next with a big dollop of soy yoghurt and a bit of extra oil and vinegar.

The contents of the second bowl went into the freezer. A week later it turned into a very similar meal – without the courgettes this time. This time I took turkey breast chunks and sautéed them with onion, garlic and olive oil, tossed them with the defrosted (and warm from the microwave) quinoa with some chopped green onion, more hazelnuts and a dollop of soy yoghurt. And again, there was enough left for a yummy lunch with some additional yoghurt and handful of sunflower seeds.

Classic gems: Stirred Eggs

I discovered the recipe below this weekend when flipping through an old paperback cookbook 'How to Cook and Eat in Chinese' by Buwei Yang Chao. The first edition was released in 1945 and the last edition in 1963 (although my copy was printed in 1972). As it turns out, this is really something of a classic. It is a Chinese woman's (who learned to cook while at medical school in Japan no less) attempt to make Chinese cuisine understandable to an American audience and offers explanatory sections about materials, utensils and preparation as well as recipes and menus. To underscore the classic quality, the preface to this book was written by Pearl S. Buck - within which she 'nominates' the author for a Nobel Peace Prize for the contribution this book has made to peace, friendship and understanding. Indeed, a quick Google search will tell you that Dr. Chao was first to use the description 'stir-frying' to describe the cooking method known in Chinese as ch'ao.

It is a charming cookbook for its simplicity and its recipes as well as its 'of another time' quality (the use of several tablespoons of lard in almost every recipe might be an example of this). The recipe below is more of a description and is credited to the author's husband, identified only as R.Y.C., noting that this is the only thing he can cook well. I've shortened it slightly as it is rather long - but it is hard to edit as the whole thing is so utterly charming:

'Obtain:
6 average-sized fresh eggs (for this is the maximum number of eggs I have cooked at one time)
3g of cooking salt (or, as an alternative, 4 g of table salt)' [blogger's note - the only reference I can find that indicates that there might be a difference between these two types of salt says that cooking salt is a curing salt used for curing meats - unless I've gotten this wrong I wouldn't actually recommend that you season your eggs with it!)]
'50cc fresh lard, which will approximately equal the conent of 4 level tablespoonfuls
1 plant of Chinese ts'ung (substitute with scallion if ts'ung is unobtainable) about 30cm long by 7 mm in average diameter. (This ingredient is optional)' [bloggers note - scallions are what Americans call green onions or spring onions]

'Either shell or unshell the eggs by knocking one against another in any order. Be sure to have a bowl to catch the contents. With a pair of chopsticks, strike the same with a quick vigorous motion known as 'beating the eggs'. This motion should, however, be made repeatedly and not just once. Automatic machines, aptly named as 'egg-beaters' have been invented for this purpose'....

The author inserts a footnote about breaking the eggs at the bottom of the page: 'Since, when two eggs collide, only one of them will break, it will be necessary to use a seventh egg with which to break the sixth. If, as it may very well happen, the seventh egg breaks first instead of the sixth, an expedient will be simply to use the seventh one and put away the sixth. An alternate procedure is to delay your numbering system and define that egg as the sixth egg which breaks after the fifth egg.' ....

'The next phase of the operation is the most critical for the successful stir-frying of eggs. When the bottom part of the mixture becomes a puffed-up soft mass on contact with the heat, the uppoer part will remain quite liquid. Preferably using a thin flat piece of metal attached to a handle, the operator should push the mixture to one side so as to allow the uncooked portion to flow onto the hot fat on the now exposed portion of the bottom. (Sometimes this may be facilitated by slightly tipping the pan.) Quickly repeat this until 90 percent of the liquid has come in contact wiht the hot fat and becomes puffed. Then, still using the flat piece of metal, make the entire content of the pan revolve through 180 degrees about a horizontal axis. This delicate operation is know as 'turing it over', which in the hands of a beginner may easily become a flop. It can be done neatly and without waste only after repeated practice with different sets of eggs.

If the turning over has been successfully carried out, wait for 5 seconds, which is about the time it takes to count from 1 to 12., then transfer the contents to the bowl or platter, when the dish is said to be done.

To test whether the cooking has been done properly, observe the person served. If he utters a voiced bilabial nasal consonant with a slow falling intonation, it is good. If he utters the syllable yum in a reduplicated form, it is very good.' [blogger's note: R.Y C. was acutally a prominent linguist at the time so his identification of a voiced bilabial consonant is less odd than it may seem at first glance.]

I was so delighted by this that I thought it was worth sharing....any errors or misrepresentations are strictly my own.

Curry Wishes and Pakora Dreams.....

One of the best things about living in the City Centre of Glasgow is that we are surrounded by drinking, dining and shopping choices. We have been a bit extra lazy (or busy?) lately though and have been indulging more than usual in takeaway meals - and happily we are spoiled for choice. Our local favourite has to be the Balti Club on Woodlands Road, in the shadow of the Sainsbury's petrol station. At first glance, it's just your average neighborhood takeaway shop - but it is without a doubt a great choice for good, fast, fresh food. The staff are so nice and helpful and have been able to answer all my allergy questions. I've also never had anything from there that hasn't been excellent. OK - it's still takeaway food so to be consumed in moderation ideally - but what a great treat for those nights when you just don't have time/energy/inclination/etc. to cook.

We vacillate between the set meal deal for 2 for around £14 - and more food than we can manage in one meal - or a pizza (for him) and a kebab (for her). Don't judge me for the kebab - I get a chicken tikka kebab (chunks of marinated, chargrilled ckicken) served with sauce and salad and no bread (sticking with the gluten free theme). No mystery meat slices for me - just fresh, tasty chicken served with a most excellent chili sauce. The meal deal is a real winner too although hardly revolutionary in a curry-soaked city such as our own - a serving of pakora to split, plus poppadums and onions, plus rice and naan, plus two main course curries. Our favourites are the bhoona and the achari - I particularly love the achari as it has just the right amount of tasty pickley bits and just the right amount of chili goodness.

I would be missing something important as well if I didn't wax lyrical just a bit about the pakora. The batter is crispy and not too thick or bready and the assortment of pakora to choose from is fantastic. You get your 'regular' chicken, mushroom, vegetable type pakora - although the latter is notably more fluffy (this is a good thing) than crispy - as well as an array of unusual choices such as spinach and jalapeno, spinach and brie, caluiflower and cheese, etc. You can also order (with 24 hours notice) a party pack of 50 or 100 pieces (for £10 or £18 respectively) which seems like a great idea for entertaining!

More favourite cookbooks...

Since we are on the topic, I thought I'd mention what is probably my favourite Chinese cookbook. I say probably as these things can be a bit fluid - I've got more than a few cookbooks lying around and so tend to shift loyalties a bit as cookbooks move into and out of favour. A sign that it's a real gem though is that I always come back to it.

That's what happened this weekend when faced with a pork loin that I had defrosted but had no solid plans for. I re-discovered 'The Breath of a Wok', a book I have turned to time and again for simple but interesting Chinese dishes. The book focuses on 'wok hay', which is a cantonese expression and, if I understand it correctly, is the secret something that a well-seasoned, well-used and well-loved wok can impart to a dish. There are lots of instructions and anecdotes along the way - indeed the first 50-odd pages of the book detail the selection, seasoning and care of a 'proper' wok in great detail before turning to a large section on stir-frying and a section on other cooking techniques at which a wok can excel such as steaming, smoking, braising, etc.

Each chapter starts with an introduction of several pages and each recipe has an introductory paragraph. These are always my favourite cookbooks as I love these stories about food and family - especially when they come from a culture that is not my own. I love the photos as well - they reflect cooking techniques, completed dishes, family members and famous guests such as author Amy Tan.

So what did I make on Sunday? Stir fried pork with scallions (green onions on this side of the Atlantic) - super simple, no unusual ingredients (assuming you have the basics of Chinese cooking in your pantry such as soy sauce, sesame oil and either rice wine or an adequate substitute - I use dry fino sherry) and perfect. The only change I made is to toss in a bit of extra chicken stock and corn flour to increase the amount of sauce - but, as I've been told by my other half, Sunday is a day for gravy!

P.S. I've gone the 'proper' wok route before and there are many rewards to be had for the love and care invested in a good wok - however, I tend to use either a Le Cresuet cast iron wok or a non-stick'wok-style' pan and am perfectly happy with the results - at least until I can replace the ceramic hob in the kitchen we inherited in a our current flat!

Vegetarian Cookbooks

One of my favourite things to buy is cookbooks. I don't necessarily use each one often, and I rarely follow recipes to the letter, but I love having the books to refer to, even when it's one I was slightly disappointed by after I'd bought it.

I use meat cookbooks as well as vegetarian ones, as I can often just substitute the meat ingredient with Quorn or tofu. This works particularly well with certain ethnic foods, where the recipe isn't so reliant on the natural flavours of meat. Some are even more useful to me than actual vegetarian cookbooks. For example, I have Simon Hopkinson's The Vegetarian Option, and though it's lovely and I really like the way it's organised (grouped by ingredient rather than course), it's often far too fancy and involved for my humble ambitions.

By far the best vegetarian cookbooks in my collection are Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone and Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (a gift from my sister who accidentally bought 2 copies). They are both visually sparse (Madison's contains some photos but Bittman's is pretty much just text), they are packed full of simple, straight forward cooking and advice, and are equally appropriate for those new to vegetarian cooking as old hands. MBK has given me a copy of Madison's Greens Cookbook, which I haven't had a chance to really sink my teeth into (so to speak).

I tried getting Heidi Swanson's cookbook, Super Natural Cooking, but it was out of stock at Amazon for so long I cancelled my order. Now she's working on a new one, so my interest is piqued again, but her blog is so good, I tend to rely on that quite a bit. Through her blog, I came across Bryant Terry's Vegan Soul Kitchen, which I love for many reasons, not least because of the fact that it has multiple recipes for Hoppin' John, a dish I grew up with (due to my Texan father's influence probably), and find very comforting.

And last, but not least, I love Denis Cotter's Wild Garlic, Gooseberries and Me. I can only dream of having access to some of the amazing produce he talks about, but now that we have a Waitrose on Byres Road, at least I can have Cavolo Nero, which is one of the key ingredients in the rich butternut squash mole recipe in the book. This mole is so good - I made it for Thanksgiving last year and I think everyone who came is going to probably buy the book on the strength of that single recipe. We had it with cornbread stuffing on the side, and the combination was perfect.

'Pork' fried rice

A rice cooker is one of those appliances that I'd considered getting, but didn't think I'd use all that much. My sister gave me one as an anniversary present back in June, and I pretty much never looked back. I can't actually remember the last time I cooked rice - or any grain for that matter - on the stove.

And the beauty is, once you put the rice on, you can then go off and do other things, and you don't have to think about it again until you're ready to use it, because the cooker knows when the rice is done, and will automatically switcher over to a warming function. Last night I put rice on, added some garlic, dried coriander leaf, chile and a bit of tomato paste straight into the rice cooker and the result was lovely, moist, spicy, aromatic brown rice. By the time it was ready, I had decided to make fried rice, and my vegetables were all chopped and my eggs were beaten and ready to scramble.

Sainsbury's had delivered Quorn bacon style chunks instead of bacon style rashers at the weekend, and I had no idea what I was going to use it for, but a last minute I realised it would make a suitable substitute for the meat you find in pork fried rice. As the rice was so flavourful, all I had to do was throw in the veg and add soy sauce, sesame oil, and a dash of rice vinegar. It was one of those lovely, improvised meals that often end up better than the ones I meticulously plan.

Bibi’s Cantina

I’ve lived in Glasgow for over seven years and I can only remember a handful of times when I’ve eaten a decent Mexican meal (not including own cooking – which I quite like!). I’d walked by Bibi’s Cantina a year ago and had never motivated myself to try it. But, having decided to go for lunch last Saturday, I was not disappointed.

The Cantina is located on the outskirts of the trendy part of the West end, a few minutes walk from Partick Station going away from town. The outside of the building isn’t particularly memorable, but it is bright and airy for the size of the room. The walls are plastered with the usual kitchy Mexicana pictures and illustrations, but there’s enough white paint and wall space to pull it off.

Eager to try as much as I could on the menu, my partner in crime and I, shared our food choices. Our starters were fried jalapeno peppers stuffed with soft cheese and simple nachos, nacho chips smothered in cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole and jalapeno peppers. The one piece of criticism I would give to the starters was for the nachos. While it was very tasty, with what you could tell was a very flavourful homemade salsa, the cheese wasn’t very melted and was piled in the centre of the dish rather than all over the chips. But, that wouldn’t stop me from ordering it again.

My partner’s main course was chicken burrito, while I ate the chicken fajitas. The burrito was tasty and filling, with a good mix of flavours. There was ample salsa and sour cream on it, but the side salad didn’t quite seem to match food flavours. I think a side of rice and refried beans would have really complimented the food and tied it all together, as long as it isn’t the stodgy lump that’s usually served... so perhaps the side salad was a nice change. The size of the burrito was good for a lunch, but probably not enough for a main meal at night (though we were there at lunch so hopefully a dinner portion would be larger).

My chicken fajitas were excellent. The chicken was marinated in tequila and lime juice and came served on a sizzling platter with a mix of grilled peppers, onions and chilli peppers. At first I wasn’t sure that three small tortillas would be a large enough portion size (I have big eyes when it comes to food) but actually, it was just right. There was a big serving of the usual toppings, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and cheese, and was more than enough for my needs. The flavour of the chicken and vegetables was scrummy and well worth a try.

I’ll definitely go back to Bibi’s Cantina and recommend it to others – whether veggie or meat friendly. There seems to be a good mix of veggie and meaty dishes and the service is fast and friendly, and the prices very reasonable (£8.95 for a two course lunch). Since I was only there for a lunch I can’t offer any opinion on a dinner meal ... but the margarita mixing machine was spinning when I was there and I’m keen to try some. Girls night out anyone?

Bibi’s Cantina
599 Dumbarton Road, G11 6HY
Tel: 0141 579 0179
info@bibiscantina.comwww.bibiscantiina.com

Solomon's Mine (so back off)

Stop what you're doing! Get off the net! Head down to Queen of Sheba, a new and totally brilliant restaurant in Glasgow's St George's cross. Not hungry? Who cares, you'd be stuffed halfway through the main course anyway.

Me and Girl-e were going to get the usual Friday night takeaway, although we've gone through something of a local restaurant trial seperation since we last dropped in on our local Italian; instead of seafood spaghetti, they gave me a Carbonora which was actually a soup-based dish served in melted Lurpak instead of water. She still likes the pizza.

Last minute change of plan - we head to fast food powerhouse Asia Style in St George's road, but seeing as they're off ushering in the year of the Tiger, we go next door; stepping through a front door straight out of a B & Q sale and into a beautiful, but quirkily unpretentious interior with mushroom-like woven tables and cute stools which leave you only a foot off the ground.

Still reading? Get down there and give them your money before they shut down. The place was deserted but for our smily waitress wearing, presumably, Abyssinian national dress. No alcohol, (byob) so I sip some fragrant black tea with a spoonful of sugar and we order a starter and main.

I never see oxtail on menus; my starter is similar - a clear, oily broth with shreds of lamb on the bone. Girl-e has Sambusa parcels with lentils. Very nice, but the mains are the thing, and I'm disappointed that we don't eat them as intended - everyone present dining off the same giant pancake.

Why did we ever eat anything that was less than 100% meat? Meat which includes not-meat is a sickening thought when you think about it - I've just eaten a plate of raw beef, and now I feel I could fight a cow for more. It arrives on a delicious sour pancake the size of a Turkey platter called an 'Injera'. The waitress warns me what I'm getting, and right enough, it's a mere flash in the pan away from standing round, eating grass and taking few life-changing risks. Has it been seasoned? What is the taste of beef, anyway? Prepared this way, the blood and fat take on a flavour of their own; the texture is only as surprising as sushi.

We get a spoonful of fiery spice, as powder and blended with butter, which we dip as we go along, eating with our fingers. Girl-e orders a combination of lentil stew and spinach on fried onions and can't finish hers, either; excuse the bland description, it was nice when I had a spoonful of the leftovers just now. There are several vegetarian options to run through when we come back.

Why did we eat all those curries and pastas? Why do we even heat things up? Our idea of a guilty pleasure is a plate of meat slurry with mayo on a bun. I get through half of the main and get the rest wrapped up, and I'm still on a protein buzz.

I'm off to Google Ethiopia now, it's gratifying Glasgow finally has one of their restaurants. I do know the Queen of Sheba was married to the great King Solomon. I'm going back with friends, soon. It's the taste of ... civilisation.

What was your special V-Day treat?

'Special' days often seem to revolve around food - often, it's not so much 'did you have a nice day', but rather 'what did you eat (or drink) that made it a nice day'. Nothing wrong with this in my opinion; the consumption of food and drink can be tremendously sensual experiences and provide sensory memories that are very evocative of important and enjoyable moments in our lives - and what better day to highlight this than Cupid's own holiday? It's certainly as good a time as any for sparkling rose wine, luscious chocolates, long lingering brunches and aphrodiasic-laced dining.

Seems as if every restaurant in Glasgow seemed to be on this bandwagon with their special menus for lovers over the weekend - multiple courses for inflated prices says the cynic in me - but a lot of people enjoy this no-fuss, save your energy for other things approach to a romantic dinner out so these restaurants must be doing something right. Of course, for some, the important part of the night might not be the dinner but rather a show, a night of dancing, a film or etc.(!) and dinner is just something that you do when you are out for the evening. I struggle to frame the world in this fashion but I realise that this is just my perspective!.

For our part, we had our Valentine's dinner in. I always agree to cook our Valentine's dinner if we can agree something fairly simple that still seems a bit special - and the beautiful flowers I received for my V-Day surprise made me not mind cooking in the slightest. Yesterday's dinner was a lovely beef stew that spent the day in the slow cooker - such an easy recipe: brown beef (1 kilo), throw in chunks of carrots (around 6 medium), chunks of potatoes (around 6 large potatoes) and thinly sliced onions (1 large onion), add several tablespoons of chopped fresh rosemary (around 3 - less if you are not so keen on rosemary as we are) and a liquid brew comprised of ketchup (1/2 cup), boiling water (1/2 cup), red wine vinegar (1/4 cup - I acutally used closer to 1/2 a cup as Ilke the tanginess) and soy sauce (about 3 tablesspoons - could also be replaced with worcestershire sauce for those who can) and seasoned with salt and pepper. Sounds odd maybe but it's delicious - the resulting gracy is rich and tangy without any significant tomato overtones. I also threw in about a 1/3 of a bottle of red wine that was left from the previous evening and thickened everything at the end with a cornflour slurry (being gluten challenged) after about 5 hours on high in the slow cooker. Thickening could easily be have been done by dusting the beef with flour prior to browning the chunks as well. No fuss, little muss - and leftovers for at least one more day. Plus I had a happy hubby who got to dip bread into rich, tasty, beefy gravy at the end of the meal which won me the biggest kudos of the day!

Hope your V-day was as nice as ours...If you had something special, please tell us about it the comments - we'd love to hear about it.

Does it have to be Champagne...?

Well, sometimes it does - but not always. Being honest, I'm always going to pick a fine champagne, preferably a vintage offering or a prestige cuvee (think Dom Perignon or La Grande Dame), if I'm given a choice. But since the world is not beating down my door to pour me prestige cuvee and I can't afford to buy it myself on a regular basis, I'd rather make 'alternative' bubbly choices than drink mediocre Champagne. Now don't get me wrong, less expensive Champagnes can be wonderful, too. The odd supermarket bottle comes up trumps, such as Oudinot from Marks and Spencer or Waitrose Brut NV.

Winemakers around the world make sparkling wines that are wonderful - if not downright excellent - and I'd rather drink one of these any day of the week than suffer insipid champagne - or worse, never drink sparkling wine unless my budget allowed! Around the world styles differ; many climates for example allow for much riper fruit and therefore produce wines (if you will allow me to generalise) that are softer, more lush and less acidic. For many, this is perfect - my own other half much prefers sparkling wine like this. Some seek to emulate Champagne using the same grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) or using the same traditional winemaking methods (Methode Champenoise) and many have their own long(ish) traditions of making sparkling wine with various grapes and methods of production being employed: to name but a few, Prosecco or Asti (Italy), Cava (Spain), Cremant (some other non-Champagne regions in France), and even Sekt (Germany). The 'new world' gets in on the act, too and countries such as the US (California, mainly), Chile, Australia and New Zealand produce a dizzying array of sparklers to suit many budgets and tastes. Califonia makes some stellar sparkling wines, notably in wineries owned by French Champagne houses for the most part - if you ever see Roederer Quartet, available from Majestic and Waitrose, I'd stock up as it is an absolutely lovely wine. It has the most 'champagne-like' characteristics of any new world sparkler that I've tasted but does not lack it's own particular charm either.

So, what made me think about this today - surprisingly (or not) it isn't the arrival of Valentine's day and the need for pink bubbles - but rather it was the most wonderful glass of Prosecco that I had the other day. girl-e and I went to Nick's Italian Grill on Hyndland Road to celebrate payday and treat ourselves to lunch and we started with a glass of Prosecco that blew me away. It may have just been the right wine at the right time - but I found its fresh lemony-creaminess immensely enjoyable. As for our lunch, it was fine (read: unremarkable) and service was pleasant if a bit clumsy (we seemed to have at least 4 servers). They seem to be going for a New York kind of vibe - but there's no way to replicate the buzz of New York in leafy, west-end Hyndland. It was, however, a nice place for a drink - and probably a nice addition to the neighbourhood. I may not go out of my way again (it's a bit gluten heavy and lacks much in the way of veggie choices to truly please the likes of us)- unless I crave the Prosecco, that is!

Could I have survived January without my rice cooker?

The sun is finally coming out.....! Ok, so we had snow yesterday...but today (at least the earlier part) is beautiful. This is the kind of day that re-affirms the notion that Spring will indeed arrive. I do find that Winter in Glasgow is a bit tough for me having grown up somewhere where there is rather more daylight (and sun!) during the Winter. This lack of daylight makes my personal circadian rhythms go haywire and I'm not much use for anything throughout most of January.

One of the consequences of this is that our diet goes out the window - and I don't even mean our good intentions or our January plans to revamp our lives here, but rather our descent into lazy cooking and processed food (which of course as we all know makes things worse!). If it takes longer than 10 minutes to either cook or to toss into the slow cooker, I can't manage it. I've eaten lots of microwaved plates of refried beans with rice, salsa and guacamole, scrambled eggs and rice, refrigerator surprise fried rice, etc. You get the picture - it only takes a minute to get a big batch of rice into the rice cooker - and I can take a nap knowing that it will click over to the 'keep warm' setting until I am ready. What would we have been eating if it weren't for the rice cooker? I dread to think....

As appliances go, the rice cooker is probably the one that I would be most unhappy to live without. Sure, I can manage the absorption method - which makes perfectly nice rice - but it's never as perfect or as easy as the rice cooker. And I don't really like the boil and strain menthod as the texture always seems wrong to me. There's also not very much like that first moment when you open the rice cooker after it's finished and you get that blast of freshly cooked rice smell - the very smell of comfort and warmth. It doesn't matter if it's white, brown or wild (as long as the liquid measurement is right) or even if it's another grain such as quinoa, millet or buckwheat, it's easy and it's always right. I've even made risotto in the rice cooker with a fair amount of success.

There are many different kinds of rice cooker on the market these days. Some are multi-use appliance that may double as slow cookers, steamers or even pressure cookers. Some are very simple with nothing save a button that toggles from 'on' to 'warm' to 'off' - and some operate using something called 'fuzzy logic' and have lots of buttons on the front. Mine is somewhere in the middle - no inserts for steaming or other secondary uses but has fuzzy logic (which if I understand it, seems to enhance the machine's ability to decide when the rice is done with more accuracy) and just the right amount of buttons to be understandable on the front.

If you have a rice cooker and haven't fallen in love with it yet, check out Beth Hensperger and Julie Kaufmann's book 'The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook'. I have a lot of cookbooks, too many for most of them to live in the kitchen in fact - but this one does. I pop it open several times a week.

Do you have an appliance that you would hate to live without?

Do you De-Tox?

I don't know about you, but I've already heard any number of colleagues, friends, acquaintances, people on the bus, etc. state that they are doing a de-tox at the moment - what this actually means however is likely to be completely different on a person by person basis.

'Tis the season I suppose - the ritual cleansing after the ritual face-stuffing makes a certain amount of sense - and the start of a new year is as good a time as any to reflect on changes that we might want to make in our lives. I won't admit to a detox programme - but we have banished the sweet treats from our house, lowered our meat intake, backed off on wine with dinner most nights and generally had a think about how to make ourselves feel a bit better during these dark, winter days. A few weeks of carb-craziness is certainly enough to prove that this is not really the best way to weather the weather we are being subjected to at the moment and I do find that it is easier to under-indulge after a period of over-indulging.

My personal plan is to do more yoga - sounds simple enough to start with and has the added bonus of making you more 'mindful'. Carving the time out of each day can seem challenging but even just 20-30 minutes gives a benefit. Paying a bit of attention to how I feel physically and spending time thinking about my body and what I put into it is something I should probably pay more attention to all year round.

So, readers, what is your January plan for health and well-being? Are you off the coffee, banishing the take-aways, living on hot water and lemon juice, on a fresh juice diet ...? I'd be very curious to hear about your de-toxing ideas. Of course, feel free to chime in if you've already fallen off the proverbial wagon as well!

For those of us who could use a little support in coming up with interesting, healthy menu ideas, Cooking Light Magazine comes to the rescue. This is an American magazine but has a lot of information and recipes on its website and manages to promote healthy eating without taking all the fun and pizzazz out of it. It CAN be healthy and still taste good!

Happy New Year!

I hope you and yours had a lovely holiday season and ate and drank all the wonderful things that make the winter festivities special to you. We had lovely and quiet (if a bit cold!) holiday season this year. I made a fairly traditional christmas dinner sized for two (no brussels sprouts for us though), baked christmas hams for other family events, baked some cookies (my first tentative foray into gluten free/dairy free cookie baking) and drank some nice wine. The cookies were a mixed success - although I did bake amazing buckwheat based chocolate chip cookies from one of Karina Allrich's recipes (the gluten free goddess).

I hope that you all have a safe, happy and prosperous 2010 and I look forward to sharing new culinary adventures with you!