Graze Inn, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield

Graze Inn is the most recent opening from the Thornbridge stable, who seem to be taking over pubs, bars and restaurants in the city with increasing frequency. To my mind this is generally a good thing, as my experiences so far suggest they run a quality operation.

It's not my favourite one of the bunch, the sleek modern styling isn't really my cup of tea and all the grey felt a bit cold and unwelcoming on a snowy January day. The menu is a bit of mish mash of current foodie trends, with a particular focus on rotisserie chicken and 'British flats', as in the same thing 'invented' by Jamie Oliver proto-chain Union Jack's a year or so ago. That thing being a pizza, basically.

Now that I've finished being snarky about the concept I should point out that this is another good quality operation. Who actually cares if I don't much like the menu or decor if the food is worth eating?

A basket of bread with oil and vinegar was an unexpected treat, not something you'd expect at a casual restaurant where main courses are under a tenner. Best of the three were the slices from a nutty granary loaf.

A half rotisserie chicken with a choice of any three sides is keenly priced at £9, the chicken not being of the very finest quality but cooked well with bronzed skin and moist flesh, even throughout the breast.

The sides were all good too, the pick of the bunch being more-ish sweet potato fries and a well dressed salad. It was nice to have a bowl of proper frites for the regular fries too, rather than the chunky irritations that are so hard to avoid these days.

Service was efficient and the bill just £26 for a whole chicken, six sides, a pint of well kept ale and a large glass of Sauvignon Blanc. To sum up, it's a bit like a new chain place opened by any of the usual corporate suspects, but with better food and better booze at prices that are more than reasonable. And that can only be a good thing.

7/10

315-319 Ecclesall Road
Sheffield
S11 8NX

http://www.grazeinn.co.uk

Kebab week: Tikkas

And finally, to round off kebab week (belatedly, I should have called it kebab fortnight) I bring you tikkas. Apparently the word tikka means simply bits or pieces, so anything will do really. Get some meat, or perhaps even some cheese, marinade it, skewer it and grill it. The essence of a kebab, Indian style.

My recipe isn't agressively spiced as I like something fairly gentle with chicken. It's fragrant rather than fiery, with the flavour of ginger and garam masala to the fore. Chicken thighs are best for this as they're moister and tastier, although they can sometimes go a bit rubbery when you grill them the marinading should take care of that. As an alternative a bit of liver would also work well.

I served these with chapattis, home made raita and a spiced carrot and fennel salad.

This is enough to serve 2 people

For the chicken

400g (about 4) chicken thighs, each one cut into 3 or 4 pieces
large thumb ginger
3-4 cloves garlic
juice large lemon
1 tsp salt
100 ml thick natural yoghurt
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp hot curry powder

 For the carrot and fennel salad

1 head of fennel
2 carrots
1 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
sunflower oil and salt

1. Throw the chicken pieces into a bowl with the lemon juice and salt. Grate or crush the garlic and ginger and add them to the bowl. Give it a good mix then cover and put in the fridge to marinade for at least an hour, or up to 4.

2. After at least an hour throw in the other marinade ingredients with the chicken (the yoghurt, garam masala, curry powder and turmeric). Give it a good mix up then cover and put back in the fridge to marinade for at least an hour, but overnight will be just fine.

3. Remove the chicken from the fridge at least an hour before you want to cook it, and thread the pieces onto skewers.

4. Make the carrot and fennel salad by thinly slicing the fennel and grating the carrot into a bowl, then heat a tablespoon of oil in a pan and throw in the cumin seeds and mustard seeds. Leave them in the pan until they start to crackle and smell fragrant, then take them off the heat before they burn. Leave to cool for a couple of minutes then stir them through the carrot and fennel and a grind of salt to taste.

5. Heat up the grill and grill your kebabs until they're tender inside and a bit charred on the edges. It will probably take around 7 or 8 minutes in total.

6. Serve immediately with warmed chapattis or naan, the carrot and fennel salad and some home made of shop bought raita.

That's it for kebab week. As well as tikkas I've made koftas, falafel and satay. All delicious in their own way but my favourite has to be the kofta, you just can't beat lamb when it comes to kebabs. Over and out, I'm off for a doner...

Kebab week: Chicken satay

This week on Northern Food I shall be celebrating one of humankind's greatest inventions. Not the wheel or the steam engine; not the internet, sliced bread or the Dyson vaccum cleaner; not even the flushing lavatory.

The pinnacle of civilisation is this: the kebab.

Two points of order: firstly I'm using a fairly loose definition of the word 'kebab' as propounded by the internet Oracle. Secondly there will absolutely, categorically not be any processed doner meat involved.

I'm kicking things off with a South-east Asian classic, a kebab usually eaten as a snack or more often, in Europe, as a starter. An appropriate starting point for kebab week.

Chicken satay, little nuggety bits of charred yet juicy chicken in a salty sweet marinade, dipped in a spicy peanut sauce. These are very delicious, and exceedingly more-ish.

I use chicken thigh meat which won't dry out so much as breast and is tastier anyway. I think chicken livers and hearts would also be good if you can get your hands on them. The recipe is probably inauthentic, but it's easy and tastes great so who cares.

This makes enough for about 6 skewers.

For the chicken

3 tbsp dark soy
1/2 tbsp jaggery (palm sugar)
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbsp oil
salt
2 cloves garlic
1 small lump ginger (2-3cm)
1 tsp turmeric
2 chicken thighs (about 100 g each)

for the peanut sauce

1 1/2 tbsp crunchy peanut butter
1 1/2 tbsp shop bought tamarind sauce
1 tsp garlic ginger mush
1 tsp tsp chilli powder
water to loosen

1. Mash the garlic and ginger to a paste, set aside 1 tsp worth of it then mix the rest up in a bowl with all of the other marinade ingredients except for the chicken.

2. Using scissors, cut the chicken into small pieces about 2 cm across and throw into the marinade.

3. Mix up well and leave to marinade for at least 2 hours, ideally 12.

4. Mix up all of the peanut sauce ingredients in a bowl including the leftover garlic/ginger, then add water and keep mixing until you get a sauce. It should be runny enough to coat the back of a spoon with the excess running off, not sitting there in a big splodge.

5. When you're almost ready to eat thread the chicken onto kebab skewers and grill on the highest setting as close as possible to the heat (or better still, barbecue) until done. They should only take a couple of minutes.

6. Serve immediately with the peanut sauce and cold beer.

Coming soon - stay tuned for falafel. 

Cà ri gà (Vietnamese chicken curry)

Vietnamese curries are often an altogether subtler affair than Thai ones. This is almost a curry and coconut flavoured chicken stew. It's mellow and soothing with only a gentle heat, but not at all bland. The chicken releases its goodness during cooking to create a lovely savoury-sweet coconutty broth, and the spices provide fragrance.

Served with crusty french bread (baguettes made partially with rice flour are very popular in Vietnam) or steamed rice it's perfect when you're feeling jaded on a cold winter night.

I'm not going to claim this as a wholly authentic Vietnamese dish, but it definitely bears some resemblance to what you'd find in that part of the world. I mention this as authenticity and whether it matters is something I've been thinking a lot about recently, there's a very interesting post and discussion about it here and it ties in to my experiences searching for good Thai food in Leeds.

I'd love to hear any opinions on this. Does authenticity matter? Has the word become meaningless when used to describe food? Should restaurants describe their food as authentic when it isn't? How do you define what's authentic in the first place?

Back to the recipe, which will serve 2 generously and takes around an hour and a quarter from start to finish.

What you'll need:

4 bone-in chicken thighs
1 medium-sized onion
1 large carrot
a few potatoes
1 tin coconut milk
1 tbsp curry powder (I use Bolst's)
1 tsp turmeric
1 small cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 tsp black peppercorns
3-4 large cloves garlic
1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 tsp palm sugar (optional)
Fish sauce (I'm sure you can get Vietnamese fish sauce but I used Thai)
steamed rice or a baguette to serve

What to do:

1. Brown the chicken over a medium heat in a deep frying pan or wok for 10-15 minutes, then remove it from the pan and set aside. While the chicken is browning chop the onion.

2. Drain off most of the chicken fat from the pan, leaving just enough to fry the onions in then return the pan to the heat. Add the cinnamon, star anise and peppercorns to the pan and fry for a minute or so.

3. Add the onions to the pan and sweat them for around 10 minutes.

3. While the onions are sweating grate or finely chop the garlic and ginger and cut the carrot and potatoes into large pieces (keep them big otherwise they'll disintegrate too much). Open the coconut milk.

4. Add the garlic and ginger to the pan and fry for a minute or so, then add the turmeric and curry powder. Continue frying, stirring constantly for another couple of minutes. If it starts to stick loosen with a splash of the coconut milk.

5. Pour in the coconut milk then fill the empty can with water and pour that in too. Throw in the chicken, potatoes, carrot and palm sugar.

6. Simmer for around 40-45 minutes, until the chicken is starting to fall from the bones and the potatoes and carrot are soft.

7. Taste the sauce and season with as much fish sauce as you like.

8. Serve with crusty bread or rice.