Crafthouse, Leeds

The first thing I felt on arriving at Crafthouse was a slight pang of guilt. There are a good number of local, independent restaurants in Leeds at which I've been wanting to eat for years, and here I was rocking up at the sparkling new outpost of a thirty strong London based restaurant group.

The second thing I couldn't help but feel was a little bit impressed. They really have got the best location in town up there on top of the new Trinity development, and it's maximised to full effect as you rise up in the glass fronted lift and views of a compact, surprisingly complete looking urban skyline appear.

So it was with mixed feelings that I approached the meal. Good quality places to eat are always welcome, but would I have rather been somewhere else, maybe somewhere with a long standing commitment to the Leeds dining scene (although I should point out that the Head Chef here is from Yorkshire, even if the backing isn't)?

Things started on a positive note with some lovely mini loaves of warm, nutty wholemeal and too much butter. Then salad to start; chicory and Yorkshire blue, watercress, poached pear, roasted walnut. An assemblage of decent ingredients, though I'll stick my neck out and say that Yorkshire blue isn't my favourite cheese. I'm sure I should be praising the use of local products, but it's not got the depth of a good Stilton.

The best bit of my meal came next, a beautifully cooked sea bream fillet with uniformly crisp skin that split from the flesh like a delicate fish scratching. Generously proportioned too for a pre-theatre menu offering. Cauliflower puree, leek (or leak according to the menu) fondue and light shellfish sauce didn't really offer much in support other than being vaguely beige and creamy.

The set menu puddings were fancier in plating than starters and mains, caramelised white chocolate mousse and cherry sorbet looked and reportedly tasted fantastic. Iced lemon curd, blackberries, meringue and crispy pastry didn't quite work for me though, the intensely sharp and cold lemon rather drowning out the taste of the blackberries. Good pastry though, like what you'd find at the base of a well made vanilla slice.

I finished, as I'd started, with mixed feelings about Crafthouse. It's a very professional operation as you'd expect, service was good and there are obviously some talented people in the kitchen (that fish really was spot on, and the bread was great too), but I didn't love all of the food and the atmosphere, despite the views, feels a little corporate and calculated. I'd return, but not before making the effort to visit some of those other places on my list.

Almost forgot to mention prices (it was a work meal so I wasn't paying); the pre-theatre set menu is £22.50 for three courses, a la carte around £30-35. Wine? Not bad actually, plenty by the carafe at under twenty quid.


7/10

Level 5 Trinity Leeds
70 Boar Lane
Leeds
LS1 6HW

http://www.crafthouse-restaurant.com/

Derby Pyclet Company, Derby

Resurrecting and reinventing great local food; - that's the tagline on the Derby Pyclet Company's website. The great local foods in question are pyclets and Derbyshire oatcakes, the latter essentially the same as the famous Staffordshire variety.

But what the hell is a pyclet you might ask? If I wrote pikelet instead perhaps that will help, as that's what I'd always known them as in Yorkshire. Think of a flatter, broader crumpet.

They have a stall in Derby's original market hall (the city has two, an enormous modern one and its Victorian predecessor which has somehow miraculously survived redevelopment as something other than a proper market) where you can buy the goods to take away, or sit at the counter and order them to eat there and then.

I did both, pyclets for lunch and a bag of six (£1.50) for breakfasts and snacks in the week. You can keep it simple with butter and jam or go all out with a more substantial topping. Two with stilton, walnuts and honey (£4) made for a hefty lunch, they're not small these pyclets, that's a large dinner plate they're sat on.

If I'm a honest a little too hefty. The cheese was excellent stuff, rich and creamy, but a bit overbearing with the sugar hit and the soft, doughy innards of the pyclets. Not that I didn't wolf down the lot. The pyclets are still great though, they just benefit from an age in the toaster. Toast the hell out of them (twice on a medium high setting should do the trick) until the edges are lovely and crisp, the insides chewy and yielding, and they're a delight. Spread with butter, butter and jam, or butter and cheese.

I'll be back to try the oatcakes.

7/10

http://www.derbypycletcompany.co.uk/

A summer round-up

I've been too lazy/busy (delete as appropriate) over this summer to blog about everything liked I used to. This is probably a good thing in many respects, fewer boring posts about nothing much of interest being the outcome, although it does mean that I've tended to focus only on the positive, lacking the enthusiasm to write about the mediocre or downright bad experiences.

To redress the balance a bit, here's a round up of some recent eating and drinking. Some of it good, most of it not very. A theme if there is one: why put something on the menu if you don't know what it is or can't be bothered making it properly.

Stay tuned for the next thrilling instalment, in which I dine at Noma, go on a pintxo crawl around the backstreets of assorted small Basque towns, cook barbecue in Kentucky, hang out in Dalston's latest dens of vice/burgers, and buy a sausage roll from Gregg's in Stockport on the way home. Only some of this is true.

Baked, Derby

A bakery with café in Derby city centre. The bread is certainly worth another look....

..but the coffee was just ok. The flat white wasn't a flat white.

Soup, half a sandwich and slaw for about six quid. Half a sandwich isn't an unreasonable idea, but it seems a bit stingy to stick to it rigidly when it's cut from a very small loaf. a lovely nutty wholemeal loaf by the way, but nothing to write home about otherwise.

6/10

http://www.baked-derby.com/


The Swan, West Malling, Kent

Hi friends from work, this one's for you! The Swan was the dinner venue for our team meeting at the end of June. As with the previous dinner back in April we chose from the early bird set menu, but unlike on that occasion it was evident throughout that we'd gone for the budget option.

An asparagus starter was notable only for having hardly any asparagus in it. Three spears or thereabouts. Of the mains neither cooked to grey burgers nor a dry pork dish impressed much.

And Eton Mess for pudding was fine but had blueberries in it. Why put the only non-native berry in a dish that's supposed to show off the best of the English summer?

On a more positive note they have Curious Brew lager on draft, which is a wonderful beer. Beautifully clean, crisp and balanced. A glance at the website suggests the people in charge of the Swan and the people brewing Curious are one and the same; their core business being the Chapel Down Winery that arguably produces Britain's finest wines.

Maybe we were just unlucky at the Swan, the undoubted booze pedigree of the business might suggest they know a thing or two about food as well.

5/10

http://www.loveswan.co.uk/westmalling/bar/index.html


Smythson's Deli, Nottingham

A load of old rubbish.

The espresso in the coffee was good, potent yet smooth. Shame the milk was a mess. And it wasn't a flat white either (it was supposed to be, I'm not laying into a latte for not being a flat white).

A poor excuse for a sandwich. One word sums it up: meagre. I can't be arsed elaborating.

3/10

https://www.facebook.com/smythsons


Queen's Park Gelateria and Café, Chesterfield

This place is run by Frederick's, the dominant force in the ice cream world around these parts. Their vans are all over the place, which is no bad thing as their ice cream is good stuff.

They run the park caff in Chesterfield, which is also no bad thing. Instead of the tea and cakes set up you might expect in a park it's more of a pizza and ice cream and beer arrangement.

Pizza and ice cream and beer in the park? Don't mind if I do. A shared ham, pepperoni and mushroom (good chewy crust, surprisingly good pepperoni) and a double scoop pistachio sugar cone makes a very fine lunch. Pizzas 6-7 quid, ice creams 2-3.

7/10

http://www.fredericksicecreams.co.uk/page/queens-park-cafe-and-gelataria/


Harvest Moon Espresso Bar, Chester

A coffee that meets its description! About bloody time.

The flat white here was properly made and properly proportioned, so I'll excuse them serving it in a glass (maybe they've been to Manchester, they do that there).

I'm not really sure what to say about the food though. I can't work out what they were thinking. A not really a Reuben sandwich was still quite nice in spite of not really being a Reuben. The bread was top notch and it was as stacked as you could reasonably expect for the modest price tag.

Why smearing the inside of very good bread with cheap sunflower spread seemed like a good plan is beyond me, and why serving it with stale tortilla chips and a completely undressed salad of lollo rosso, bits of cucumber and carrot and some damp cous cous seemed like a good plan is even further beyond me.

6/10

https://www.facebook.com/HarvestMoonEspressoBar

Cool River Cafe, Matlock

A recent opening in Matlock, could this be the local coffee shop of my dreams?

In a word, no. A moist, walnut-packed wodge of carrot cake with a pleasingly cheesy icing was spot on, but the coffee was crap, the advertised flat white turning out to be an oversized bucket of weak latte. 

They're still finding their feet so I'll give this one another try. The savouries looked on a par with the cakes, but the coffee needs some serious work.

6/10 (8 for the cake, 4 for the coffee)

http://coolrivercafe.co.uk/

Six of the best salads of summer

It's petered out somewhat over the last fortnight, but at least we can't moan that there's been no summer at all this year. July was a corker, and although August has been cooler and damper so far it's hardly been a monsoon style washout like some of those in recent years, and for that we should be thankful.

The return of prolonged warmth for the first time in a while has given me a new found interest in all things salad-y. If it's cold (or possibly warm, but definitely not hot) and you can mix it up and bung it on a plate with the minimum of fuss, that's the dish for me.

Easy, colourful, refreshing, no hot ovens necessary, only grilled meat needed by way of accompaniment, these are my six favourite salads of the summer.

Pickled carrots and beets, mozzarella. A Nigel Slater idea this, and a very good one. Give strips of root veg a light pickling in lemon juice and wine vinegar, then serve with mozzarella and dress with olive oil and the pickling juices. Quite subtle this, mild and tangy with a great contrast in textures.

Peas, cucumber, feta, mint, spring onion. Lovely mix of gently sweet and sharp in this one. Any fresh, lactic cheese would do the job. Fresh peas are essential, don't use frozen.

Bread Salad. Read about it here. Still my favourite discovery of the summer.

Watermelon, feta and mint. Make sure you chill the melon before making it and you'll end up with the sweetest, juiciest salad imaginable. Save this for a genuinely hot day.

Peaches and Parma ham. Discounting the black pepper and olive oil this only has two ingredients so I'm not sure it really counts as a salad. Is it just a meal? An assemblage? Who cares when it tastes this good. The contrasts here are the thing, so make sure your fruit is chilled and your meat isn't. Cold, sweet peach flesh and warm, salty pig flesh is a match made in heaven.

Grilled onions and pomegranate. More of a relish than a full blown salad, but an excellent accompaniment to any sort of barbecued lamb. Toss a thinly sliced red onion in a teaspoon of sugar and the same of sunflower oil, then sweat down under a hot grill until you get some lovely caramelised bits. Throw in the pips and any juices from half a pomegranate. Sweet, sharp and slightly bitter, it cuts through fatty meat beautifully.

Caudwell's Mill Café, Rowsley, Derbyshire

What a pleasant surprise to eat a meal, at a place chanced upon with no prior knowledge, where they've actually made an effort.

I'll spare you the lengthy rant about how eating in this country, brilliant though it certainly can be, is still rubbish if you don't plan ahead, about how you could travel the length and breadth of the country dining in wherever was obvious and looked nice, and not eat a single thing worth the money or calories. It's true though.

The particular speciality in this well-touristed part of the world is the 'doing just enough to get away with it café or tea room'. Your choice of mediocre panini served with a small pile of limp leaves? Six quid, thanks. 

So anyway, it's a refreshing change to end up somewhere like the café at Caudwell's Mill (the mill itself is worth a visit if like me, you like old industrial stuff with levers and pulleys and whatnot) where serving food that's worth bothering with is obviously of importance as well as keeping the bottom line ticking over.

They serve vegetarian food, which I only actually noticed after standing in the queue staring at the menu for at least five minutes. For me, it's always an indicator of appetising veggie food when the lack of meat isn't glaringly and instantly obvious.

As well as the usual sandwiches and jackets, there are daily specials served with salads. Homity pie was a cheesy, garlicky, comforting pile of goodness on a nutty wholemeal pastry base. In winter I could eat bowlfuls of this (probably swimming in a whole tin of beans), but it worked well as a summer dish too with all the associated greenery.

The salads were great; simple stuff done well. Amongst them a nice crunchy coleslaw; apple and beetroot; something vinegary with chickpeas; dressed leaves; and sweet carrot and corn given interest with seeds of some sort.

There are home made cakes galore for afters, the chocolate and coffee looked particularly good. We shared a slice of lemon which wasn't the best choice, being a bit overdone around the edges.

Service was quick and friendly, and you can sit by the window with a lovely view of the river that feeds the mill, then the Derbyshire countryside beyond. Meals are eight quid and a far better proposition than your aforementioned six pound panino, cakes £2-3 and a pot of tea a very reasonable £1.50. Worth a visit.

7/10

Caudwell's Mill
Rowsley
Matlock
DE4 2EB

http://www.caudwellsmillcraftcentre.co.uk/Thecafe.htm

Pieminister, Manchester

What's the big deal with Pieminister? Am I alone in failing to see the attraction? As far as I can tell they seem to garner almost universal acclaim for what are some pretty average pies and some pretty good marketing.

I've eaten them at festivals before and not been impressed, but when I spotted the branch that's opened in Manchester I'd thought I'd give them another try.

Sadly my opinion hasn't changed. The moo pie (beef, pepper and ale) was just alright. The pastry, curiously limp and tasteless, seemed to have been made with durability in mind rather than flavour or texture. Anyone ever had an Aussie garage pie? A bit like that.

The filling was better, but still unremarkable. On the plus side there were large pieces of beef bound in a dark, marmitey gravy but on the down side there were only three of them and they were a bit chewy. Mushy peas were proper mushy peas but there weren't enough of them. The gravy was nice enough.

Still don't get it. You can easily find better in any number of pubs, bakeries and butchers. Six quid (I think, unless it was seven?) for pie, peas and gravy.

5/10

53 Church Street
Manchester
M4 1PD

http://www.pieminister.co.uk/eat-at/shops/

Sandwich Quest {Volume 3}

Some sandwiches I've eaten recently.

Hot Roast beef cob, Hambridges, Matlock

A traditional butcher's shop effort. Thinly sliced beef, overcooked to dessication then redeemed with a generous slop of dark, lustrous gravy. Satisfying and messy. Sturdier bread would be better, reducing the mess and turning less rapidly to mush. I'd have another though. £2.60.

Bread 5/10

Core filling 6/10

Secondary filling 3/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 3/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 7/10

Total 30/50

Doner sandwich, Munich

German doner kebabs are ace. Even the cheapo ones are a far better proposition than their British counterparts. Better salad, better bread and better meat. We win on the chilli sauce front though, spice fiends that we are. About 3 euros. Maybe 4. Can't really remember.

Bread 7/10

Core filling 7/10

Secondary filling 3/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 4/5

Service 4/5

S-Factor 8/10

Total 36/50

Toasted cheese, Bold Street Coffee, Liverpool

An expertly crafted sandwich, I wrote about it here.

Bread 8/10

Core filling 6/10

Secondary filling 4/5

Sauces/condiments 3/5

Value 4/5

Service 4/5

S-Factor 8/10

Total 37/50

Roast ham and pea hummous, Smythson's Deli, Nottingham

Rubbish. There's nothing worse than somewhere that gets your hopes up then doesn't deliver. A ridiculously meagre effort for around four quid. Roast ham and pea hummous sounds good on paper, and the ingredients might have even been good,  but it's difficult to tell when they're present in such stingy quantities you can barely taste them.

And look at the accompanying crisps and salad. Limp and miniscule, a complete waste of time. If you're in the area there's a Subway next door.

Bread 6/10

Core filling 3/10

Secondary filling 2/5

Sauces/condiments 1/5

Value 1/5

Service 3/5

S-Factor 3/10

Total 19/50

The Rutland Arms, Sheffield

This is going to be a very brief post, for the simple reason that it's boiling hot and I can't really be bothered. The sooner I finish the sooner I can return to lolling around drinking ice cold stubbies of cheap French lager with my tongue hanging out like an overheated labrador. Just the latter bit like a labrador by the way, you shouldn't give your dog lager, not even in this weather.

Anyhow I'm just about bothering because I've been meaning to rave about the Rutland Arms for a while now. It's a rare gem of a pub, a pleasing mish-mash of traditional and modern melded together to form something a bit special. Old school pub decor and layout, beer choices to keep both the trad cask crowd and craft nerds happy, a mixed clientele and a lively atmosphere.

The food is an interesting proposition too, managing to do classic pub grub alongside something a bit different but with absolutely no nods to current fads or fashions. There are pies, sausages and carb-fest booze soaking chip butties in various guises, but also keenly priced and creative sounding vegetarian and fish dishes that pop up on the specials boards. Salads that sound worth the effort too, now that the heat is upon us.

I was last there a couple of weeks ago when it was still a bit fresh out, so I had the pie; chicken, mushroom and stilton. I'll excuse the china bowl with a pastry lid format, 'cos it was very nice. Lovely crumbly pastry and a soupy, cheesy filling rammed full of actual proper chicken pieces, you know like thigh meat and stuff. Great work. Nice chips too, but the veg was a bit pointless.

About seven quid for the pie, and good beer at normal pub prices. A damn fine pub this, you really should go. I've only been in chilly weather, but I'm pretty sure there's a beer garden.

9/10 for the pub, and what the hell let's call it an 8/10 for the food.

Rutland Arms
86 Brown Street
Sheffield
S1 2BS

http://www.rutlandarmspeople.co.uk

Bread salad and fools

I haven't gone mad, honest. There is reason to the title of this post; it's simply the name of the two best things I've made to eat so far this summer.

Pair a bread salad with some barbecued meat, then make a fool for pudding. You'll end up with a perfect summer's evening meal that's delicious, good for you, frugal, and ridiculously easy to make.

These are the things to eat outdoors on one of those rare, balmy summer nights that only seem to crop up a few times a year, those you can't waste for fear of never getting another, those that make you accidentally neck a bottle of wine on a Tuesday for no reason other than that it's sunny and warm and that must be celebrated. You know the sort.

I'm sure I've eaten a bread salad before and enjoyed it, but I can't remember ever making one. What an oversight. This is one of those dishes where a seemingly run-of-the mill set of ingredients combine to make something unexpectedly marvellous.

A few fridge and store cupboard staples, half a loaf of stale bread, mix it all up, leave it for a bit and.... ooh that's good. Remarkably good. Sweet tomatoes, the fresh crunch of cucumber, oil soaked chewy bread, peppery basil. It's more-ish, very more-ish.

I've made two this week, the first a proper panzanella (give or take a couple of ingredients), the classic Tuscan version with basil. The second was a more makeshift affair with olives and parsley in place of the basil. Both were great.

Panzanella (Tuscan bread salad), enough for 2 as a side or 1 as a main dish

Half a loaf of crusty bread, a day or two old
about 6 small ripe tomatoes
about a third of a large cucumber
3 spring onions or half a red onion
a handful of basil leaves
extra virgin olive oil
red wine vinegar
salt and pepper

Makeshift bread salad

Exactly the same as above, but substitute the basil for parsley, the red wine vinegar for white wine vinegar, and add 7 or 8 fat green olives.

Both versions are made in exactly the same way: Cut the bread into 2cm chunks and chop up the vegetables into slightly smaller pieces. Throw the lot in a large bowl and pour in a good splash of oil and vinegar. I'd say about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil and one of vinegar. Season with a good grind of pepper and a quick grind of salt. Mix the whole lot up and leave it for a few minutes. Tear the basil leaves up a bit then add them to the bowl. Mix again then taste to check the seasoning. Add more oil/vinegar/salt/pepper as necessary. Leave for another 10 minutes or so then serve.

On to pudding. I'm in love with our native British fruits, which I think are the finest in the world. I'm absolutely sure about this and have waffled on about why on here before. All you lovers of sweaty tasting tropical specimens are wrong.

At this time of year the obvious choice is a ripe, in season berry served unadorned with cream, but that's not really an option when you have a glut of sour, tougher fruit that needs heat to make it palatable. What you need for gooseberries or rhubarb is a fool. In cooler weather a crumble would be the thing, but in the heat it has to be a fool. A bloody lovely great fool of nothing but fruit, cream and sugar.

Gooseberry or rhubarb fool, enough for four

About 250g gooseberries or rhubarb
2 tablespoons or so of sugar
250ml double cream, or creme fraiche also works well

Stew down the fruit in a pan with some sugar. You don't want any bite left to the fruit but you don't want a puree either. Stop when it's half mush and half still discernable berries or pieces. Taste it and add more sugar if you think it needs it. Leave to cool down until it's no warmer than room temperature. Whip the cream until it stands in soft peaks, then stir in the fruit. Spoon into ramekins, glasses or whatever you want to serve it in then put them in the fridge for twenty minutes or so. Serve cold straight from the fridge.

Devonshire Arms, Baslow, Derbyshire

I've been pretty underwhelmed with the dining options since moving to a small town in Derbyshire. This wasn't entirely unexpected, the more rural areas of the country just can't match the offer of the cities at the budget end of the market, the end where my eating out firmly rests at the moment. 

The big northern city combo of bargain Asian restaurants and a highly competitive casual drinking and dining market mean that it's easy to eat well for under twenty quid, all in, including a drink or two. Down here there are plenty of good options in the high end pub category, but when the average main course is upwards of fifteen quid alone, you're no longer in the cheap and cheerful range.

It would be daft, of course, to criticise the Peak District for not being Sheffield or Manchester. I'm not expecting to get Vietnamese food, but what has so far been disappointing is the pub food. There are loads of non-chain pubs in the vicinity, but sadly a lot of them aren't really serving anything better than a chain, and in some cases are dishing up something far worse. Rule of thumb: if the only chicken you have is in the freezer, and it's been there for god knows how long and has gone all grey and fibrous looking, then maybe take it off the menu. Just a suggestion.

So Sunday lunch at the Devonshire Arms in Baslow came as something of a surprise. Very nice food, served by some nice people who actually seemed to give a shit. Well done them.

The Sunday roast wasn't perfect, because they never are in pubs, but it was a good effort. Thick slices of pink beef rump, good gravy, a Yorkshire pudding that was fresh and pliable rather than ancient and fractured, and accurately cooked veggies. Only the roasts were a bit of a let down, being almost devoid of roasty brown goodness.

Pudding actually was perfect, at least it was as far as I'm concerned. Lemon posset, lemon sorbet and ginger biscuits. I thought the double lemon approach might have been citrus overkill, but it wasn't, it was divine, rich and creamy offset wonderfully by sweet and sharp. And anything can be improved by the addition of ginger biscuits.

Including service we paid exactly twenty quid each for two courses and a drink or two, great value for the quality and locale. I liked it here, but I'll still have to dock them half a point for the lacklustre roast potatoes.

7.5/10

Nether End

Baslow

Derbyshire

DE45 1SR

http://www.devonshirearmsbaslow.co.uk/

Pizza

It was time to put my locally windmilled flour to the test with a batch of pizza dough, the first I've made in ages. I was impressed, it made a good strong dough with plenty of elasticity and a crust with a noticeably more pronounced bready flavour than you get with a mainstream commercial flour.

Margherita

The tricky thing with home made pizza is how best to bake it. I've had the most success with a pizza stone heated in an oven on the highest setting for a good half hour, but I've mislaid the bloody thing so had to make do with a thick baking sheet.

English summer pizza bianco - Jersey Royals, asparagus, Lincolnshire Poacher

The results weren't half bad, a few nice bubbles in the crusts and even a hint of charring in parts. Crunchy edges but a little bit soft and chewy inside. Perfect pizza is pretty much impossible with a domestic oven, but these were still far better than a bought in supermarket effort.

Spicy pork (leftover meatball mix), peppers, chillies

Photos of my topping choices are scattered through this post. I usually keep it simple with pizza but don't mind getting slightly experimental on occasion, as long as I don't break the three golden rules:

1. Don't overdo it.There is such thing as too much cheese. Soggy pizza is not a good thing.
2. Don't go Asian. Duck and hoi sin sauce is not a pizza topping.
3. No pineapple.

This is a fairly standard pizza dough recipe, essentially basic white bread plus a little olive oil and sugar.

For the dough
500g strong white bread flour
1 x 7g sachet of fast action yeast
1 scant teaspoon salt
2 level tablespoons olive oil
1 dessertspoon sugar
a pint of lukewarm water

Thyme butter flatbread

What to do
Mix the yeast, olive oil and sugar in a jug with the water and leave it for a few minutes. Sieve the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and make a well in the middle. Pour the wet stuff into the flour well then steadily mix it all together with a fork or spoon to form a dough. You might need more water or more flour depending on whether it's too wet or too dry.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface then knead it for at least ten minutes. Put the dough into a bowl, cover it with cling film or a clean tea towel and leave somewhere warm for at least an hour. After an hour it should have doubled in size.

Pull off chunks of dough and roll or stretch out into thin pizza-ish shapes, about 2 or 3 millimetres thick. Top with whatever tickles your fancy and bake in your super-hot oven. They were taking around 7 minutes in mine.

This much dough should make around 5-7 pizzas depending on how big they are. It will keep in the fridge for a day or two if you don't use it all at once.

Good things to eat [volume 15]: Bakewell farmers' market

Bakewell has one of the best farmers' markets I've been to anywhere. It's big, with over seventy stalls selling pretty much anything you could wish for, so much so that you could realistically do a big shop there.

That's not something you could say about many of its competitors which although worthwhile can tend to have too narrow a focus (usually sausages, mediocre cheese and ostrich burgers galore, all of which you'll find at Bakewell too if that's what tickles your fancy). Another plus point is that the prices here don't seem as inflated as at some others.

We bought a big bag full of goodies there yesterday, proof of the variety on offer is the fact that I bought no pies, no meat and only one piece of cheese! Next time around I'll be having some Stichelton (which has its very own dedicated stall), a pie or two from one of several good looking options and perhaps something smoked from the gorgeous smelling everything-you-could-possibly imagine bunging in the smoker stall.

Here's what we bought: pink fir potatoes, a rye loaf, beers from Staffordshire Brewery and Thornbridge, flour from a working windmill, potted beef, rhubarb, radishes, Lincolnshire poacher cheese, an assortment of mushrooms and a black pudding pickled scotch egg.

If what I've eaten so far is anything to go by there's some damn fine stuff on sale at Bakewell, everything has been excellent.

Lunch yesterday was the scotch egg from a Staffordshire based company alongside a handful of radishes (peppery! Yes they taste of something) and tomatoes, with a thick slice of rye spread with potted beef.

The egg was a revelation. Make a scotch egg with a pickled egg and it's like putting the acidity you need from sauce or relish INSIDE THE EGG. Oh yes. It just works, especially with the iron-y richness of some good black pud. Well worth two of your pounds.

I knew the potted beef was good, as I'd already eaten about three free samples while we were still at the market. It's just everything it should be; well-seasoned, great texture (mix of meaty shreds and smoother bits) and actually tastes of beef. Good work Granny Mary. They're pushing it a bit charging three quid for a small jar though.

Finally, the rye bread (£1.95) was from the Loaf, a bakery based in Crich with a second outlet in Matlock. It's an open textured loaf with a proper bit of heft and chew to the crust. I've also tried their fruit teacakes, which were excellent; dense, soft and chewy in a good way, the exact opposite of the rye loaf. These guys can bake.

I was well chuffed to see the mushroom stall, I don't think I've seen such an extensive mushroom selection anywhere outside London, where the stall on Borough market is brilliant but stonkingly expensive. Here a 200g assortment was a very reasonable £2.50.

The 'shrooms showed up in last night's tea, a platter of superior stuff on toast to accompany beer and football. Mushrooms fried in olive oil with garlic and thyme; grilled asparagus and anchovy butter; and more of the potted beef with sliced radishes.

I've yet to open it, but I already know Lincolnshire poacher is a very good cheese. Think of a fine, nutty mature cheddar in flavour, maybe a little sweeter, but with a smoother texture. Excellent for toasting or to go with beer.

Next up: beer, cheese on toast and baking bread with my locally milled flour.

Bakewell farmers' market is held on the last Saturday of every month. Details here:
http://www.derbyshiredales.gov.uk/leisure-a-culture/markets/bakewell-farmers-market

Wellington Fish Bar, Matlock

I'm immensely chuffed to report that my new local chippy is really rather good. The odds weren't really stacked in its favour: it's not in Yorkshire, or by the seaside, I don't think they fry in dripping and they don't serve haddock. Given that a combination of at least two of those things equates to my dream chip shop, the Wellington had to come up with some otherwise impressive goods.

Which it did, with some style. There may be no haddock, but there's also no pre-cooked fish sat sweating under heat lamps. Every cod (or plaice) is fried to order. I watched as my medium cod was filleted, battered and dunked in the fryer while I waited. An extra five minutes or so to stand around, but very much worth it.

The fish, a hefty beast a good inch and more in girth, flaked beautifully under its extra thin casing. I ate every morsel of the batter, not something I do often as I tend to leave the soggy underside.

Chips were rather more-ish, a gargantuan 'couldn't possibly finish it portion' imperceptibly disappearing as I repeatedly just had one more. Chips and curry sauce: standard. Check.

It's safe to say I'll be going back. Probably too often for my own good. Medium cod, chips and peas costs about six quid. Small would satisfy most. Don't order large unless you're a giant or excessively greedy.

9/10

26 Wellington Street
Matlock
DE4 3GS

Coffee outside the core

Just remembered I have a blog. Once upon a time I used to update it several times a week, with [exciting and informative] [rambling and tedious] (*delete as applicable) reviews of all manner of drinking and dining establishments across the north.

That's gone slightly awry for two reasons; firstly I haven't been eating out much, and secondly I've just moved to Derbyshire, which in case you hadn't noticed isn't in the north. So my blog is now both inappropriately named and lacking in subject material, which isn't a great recipe for success.

The upshot is that I did consider retiring it, but only for about ten minutes. Who cares if it's increasingly off-topic, I like writing it. Onwards and upwards then (or at least sideways, hopefully), to the subject of coffee outside the larger cities.

I know I can get coffee that I really bloody love in Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester and anywhere else you'd realistically term one of our major cities (London, Bristol, Glasgow etc). Beyond those? It seems to me to be more of a struggle. I can usually find somewhere good but not great.

Good is still a far better prospect than the chains though, whose general awfulness I was reminded of on my motorway travels this last week (boobie prize for utter shite goes to a Starbuck's flat white: burnt coffee, cheesy milk, wrong texture, almost three quid).

Here are two of the better places I've found. Both are good, neither are great. Suggestions welcome for great coffee away from the city?

Coffee Evolution, Huddersfield

A single shot cappuccino was a pleasingly small size and made with a dark, strong espresso blend. Bitter but not burnt. No flat whites on offer.

Coffee cake had properly buttery icing but was a bit dry. Good value at less than two quid for the coffee and around two quid for the cake.

7/10

9a Church Street
Huddersfield
HD1 1DD

http://www.coffeevolution.co.uk/

Peli Deli, Matlock

The sign above this place proclaims 'amazing coffee' which sadly isn't true. It's well-made, pleasant coffee but a couple of notches below amazing.

The flat white started with a good, velvety texture but reverted into latte territory before the too large cup was finished. Flavour-wise there's a hint of fruitiness, but it's too gentle and needs more oomph.

A mini Victoria sponge was a great little cake; moist sponge, fruit-packed jam and a generous wodge of buttercream. £2.40 for the coffee, £2 for the bun. Just realised I wrote about this place back in January, this time round it was better.

7/10

Crown Square
Matlock
DE4 3AT

http://www.pelideli.com

The Cod's Scallops, Wollaton, Nottingham

Silly name, outstanding product. That is the gist of the Cod's Scallops.

The finest fish and chips I've eaten in a long while, in the Midlands. Who'd have thought. I'm not being Midlands-ist but it's rare to find such mastery of the beef dripping art outside God's own county.

Look at that fish, pictured in glorious widescreen technicolour just for you. Burnished and golden, it screams eat me! Eat me! Imagine the pleasure as your teeth fracture the delicate batter shell and release the sea-steam, the fatty goodness gently coating your lips like the salve of your dreams.

Take another look. Here's an extreme close-up.

I didn't have to imagine it, I lived this dream. And you can too, if you go to Nottingham.

Sorry, got a bit carried away there, but it really was very good. The chips were excellent as well. Peas and curry sauce standard.

£5.90 for fish and chips. 80p for peas or curry sauce. Marvellous.

9/10


170 Bramcote Lane
Wollaton
Nottingham
NG8 2QP

http://codsscallops.com/

Damson, MediaCity, Salford

On arriving in the new Damson restaurant at MediaCity what immediately strikes you is the view. A sweeping cityscape seen through floor to ceiling picture windows, virtually none of which can be any more than fifteen years old. The area is starting resemble a coherent city quarter, alive with people and not just buildings, which isn't something that can be said about many attempts at large scale regeneration.

The jury remains out on what benefit the regeneration bandwagon brings to the area at large, you don't have to travel far from the shiny new world of the Quays to end up in some of the North's most troubled urban quarters, but whatever your thoughts on this you have to admit it looks impressive.  I just hope that the BBC and other new tenants have at least attempted a local recruitment drive.

Whatever employment policies are at work, there are certainly a whole bunch of media types in situ who categorically weren't here before. Luckily for them the highly regarded Damson (original restaurant across town in Heaton Moor, I've never been) are giving them somewhere better to eat than the chain dross that's occupied the remainder of the restaurant space on site.

Luckily for me and my work colleagues too, as we just happen to have considerably less glamorous premises two minutes around the corner.

We all ate from the pre-theatre menu, a short list of four starters, three mains and four puddings. It's not fixed price, so depending on your choices can range from only £16 up to £27 for three courses.

After some decent bread and very good quality butter I started with white onion and thyme risotto, wild mushrooms with parsley and garlic, smoked pancetta powder. The beautifully made risotto spoke for itself but I'm not sure the pancetta powder added much other than a hint of saltiness.

Grilled fillet of haddock, Asian greens with shitake mushrooms and a lemongrass and coriander broth was an accurate, delicate bowl of food. I usually avoid Asian dishes in European restaurants, because they tend to be a bit rubbish, so this was a pleasing surprise. The rich, fragrant coconut-based broth had the balance of a good Thai curry, just one with the intensity dial turned down a few notches.

Best of all was pudding, and it's not often that I say that. Pistachio financier, chocolate ice cream, sweet and salty popcorn sounded like it needed a dollop of cream in place of the popcorn, and arrived with an unappetising brown smear across the plate. First impressions were completely wrong though as it tasted divine. The vivid, powerful hit of chocolate melded with the nutty financier like a dream and the popcorn was much more than an irrelevance, adding a nice change in texture and that all important, addictive bit of salt. There really is a lot to be said for putting a little seasoning into dessert.

Everyone else enjoyed their meals too, on another day I'd have happily chosen three different courses from the same menu. How does Smoked haddock scotch egg, avocado puree, chorizo and red pepper dressing followed by Slow cooked pork belly, Bury black pudding and Lancashire cheese hash brown, spiced apple puree, honey pickled white cabbage and then Mango and passion fruit mousse, spiced roasted pineapple, poached kiwi and coconut granita sound? Good to me.

Service was excellent throughout our meal. I couldn't tell you how much the bill came to, I wasn't paying and we had a few drinks, but the three courses I ate would set you back £20. Recommended, for both the food and the view.

8/10

Damson MediaCityUK
Orange Building
MediaCityUK 
Salford
M50 2HF

http://mediacity.damsonrestaurant.co.uk