Combinations 13: Garlic Buttered Prawns

Sun 10 June 2007

Combinations 13 is upon us (and I'm getting in early this month!). Hosted by Andrew at Spittoon, he's chosen the Garlic Buttered Prawns from Global Grub. I've already cooked some emergency pasta from the book, and reviewed it on Paper Palate, so the book's getting something of a thrashing but here we go!

The recipe is really simple - most of my time was occupied shelling and de-veining the prawns! Once they were ready, I heated some oil and butter in a fry pan and tossed them in, giving them a good stir every now and then. I followed this up with a splash of Thai fish sauce, some black pepper, 2 cloves of garlic and a squeeze of lemon juice. At the last minute I stirred in some chopped coriander. We served it on a simple lettuce, onion, tomato salad - undressed because you end up with all the lovely buttery, lemony, garlicky sauce from the prawns.

To drink, we opted for Domenico de Bertiol prosecco (around £7 from Hoults). It's a fresh, light, citrussy wine with some residual sweetness and it went really well with the prawns - the citrus cutting through the richness of the butter and prawns, the sweetness mixing well with the fish sauce and lemon. A very happy match.


It was horrible with the salad - if you ever want to experience a bad food and wine match, have some lettuce and onion and a sip of prosecco and you'll understand instantly how important it is to get the match right! Of course, if we'd made a slightly cleverer salad (rather than whatever was in the fridge) we would probably have been OK!

tagged with: global grub, combinations, prawns, seafood, prosecco

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Loch Fyne

Sat 9 June 2007

Loch Fyne sits in the now fully refurbished City Square. When I first moved to Leeds (the first time, in 2001) City Square was under scaffolding and remained that way for what seemed like an age. It's been open for a while and despite its proximity to the railway station and being surrounded by traffic it's a very pleasant place to sit out and have a coffee or some lunch.

And that's exactly what we did. Inspired by Loch Fyne's £11 lunch promotion we headed off to check it out.

The £11 lunch menu is quite short: a choice of four starters and four mains. You also get a glass of red, white or rosé wine. Andy started with the squid tentacles (mis-spelled on the menu) in chilli oil, and I went for the chicken liver paté with oatcakes. The squid was tender, tasty and had a good chilli kick. The paté was pretty good - and I actually really enjoyed it in combination with the oatcakes.

Our main course choices were grilled sardines with herbs and garlic and penne pasta with a smoked salmon cream sauce. As side dishes we had chips and a red onion and tomato salad. The sardines looked tasty and were quickly demolished. The pasta realy only deserves the description 'OK'. The sauce was a bit oily and salty and I found the dish rather cloying. I did like the addition of grainy mustard to the sauce, but I really felt I could have done a lot better myself at home. The tomato salad was also OK - after all, it was just tomato and red onion, but there was just a bit too much dressing for me.

The biggest disappointment was reserved for the chips. They were awful. They epitomised everything that's wrong about nasty pub oven chips. For a fish restaurant, sub standard chips are a disgrace. There's no excuse for not chopping some potatoes, frying them once and then frying them a second time on demand. None at all.

Of course, over two courses we also needed a second drink: a pint of San Miguel for Andy, a glass of sancerre for me (and improvement on the house rosé).

The total bill came to just over £30. For £11 you do get a lot of food, but whether you're inclined to eat it all is a different matter. The cheap lunch deal hasn't encouraged me to head back to Loch Fyne to spend more on the à la carte menu.

I have been told that Restaurant, also in City Square, is good but pricey. I managed to put one mate off Loch Fyne, who went to the Foundry instead and said it was lovely. Just two more places to put on the 'to do' list!

tagged with: leeds, restaurant, seafood

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