At home Archives - York on a Fork https://yorkonafork.com/tag/at-home/ The best food, drink and lifestyle in York Thu, 02 Sep 2021 09:33:26 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.5 https://yorkonafork.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/cropped-yoaf_favicon-32x32.png At home Archives - York on a Fork https://yorkonafork.com/tag/at-home/ 32 32 Octagon Hotpot https://yorkonafork.com/2021/09/02/octagon-hotpot/ Thu, 02 Sep 2021 09:30:33 +0000 https://yorkonafork.com/?p=22559 It should go without saying that I’ve tried pretty much every kind of takeaway in York. I have regular go-to’s for most of my regular cravings and have taken a punt on an awful lot that haven’t quite measured up. At this point I suspect most regular delivery drivers in York have my address well…

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It should go without saying that I’ve tried pretty much every kind of takeaway in York. I have regular go-to’s for most of my regular cravings and have taken a punt on an awful lot that haven’t quite measured up. At this point I suspect most regular delivery drivers in York have my address well memorised. I’ve also sampled plenty of meal kits and at home offerings over the last year or so for obvious reasons but never a locally delivered experience that involves cooking for oneself using special equipment. Octagon Hotpot is a new business local to York which offers an at-home hotpot cooking experience that delivers all the equipment and ingredients you need to replicate an authentic hotpot experience at home. When they got in touch I was extremely eager to give it a go!

Cooking in a hotpot like this involves a central, shared pot of simmering broth in which fresh ingredients are cooked as desired by those around the table. The central, deep reservoir of this electrically heated appliance is split in two, allowing you to select a couple of different broths in which to cook your fresh produce. We were sent a large selection of meat, seafood and vegetables to sample along with a selection of dipping sauces too so after a good bit of table shuffling to fit it all in we had a whole lot of stuff to get stuck into!

Getting started was simple, pouring the broth into either side of the reservoir and hitting the power to get it up to temperature and getting the grill around the edge of the unit good and hot. I’d been a touch concerned that the nuances of establishing whether or not something was cooked would undermine the enjoyment of the experience but the accompanying instructions went through how long each ingredient would take to cook and the meat was sliced so finely that even the briefest exposure to heat would likely render it safe to eat. The ingredients covered meat, seafood, tofu and vegetables and were joined by a range of dipping sauces. From this we dipped our figurative toe in by dipping some slices of meat, trying the beef first with hugely satisfying results. The Octagon Hotpot broths we’d been sent were “Shabu Shabu” and “Golden Veg” which both started off with just the right amount of punch and were gradually enhanced by each successive thing that was cooked in it. The Shabu Shabu with kelp and bonito was particularly well balanced, while the vegetable based equivalent was subtler but well placed to let the ingredients speak for themselves.

We started by popping a few veg into the broth that would be less sensitive to overcooking while we found our feet then experimented cooking the paper thin slices of meat both in the broth and on the grill. Slices of beef and pork belly were delicious when grilled but further enhanced by cooking in the broth, cooking through pretty much instantly and handholding the broth to even greater depths of flavour. Bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms rewarded a slightly longer cooking time with bags of flavour while mushrooms with their unwrapped counterparts offering a subtler pleasure. Three different preparations of tofu jostled for greatest desirability, all delivering but none emerging as a clear winner from the group before we worked on a generous selection of seafood. Scallops cooked both in the broth and on the grill were all one would hope, mussels were well suited to lifting the mood and crab sticks were plentiful in number and flavour.

All the time we were cooking things in the broth it was further developing in flavour while also acting as a conversation point and focus for a meal that really felt like an event. With some startlingly flavourful dipping sauces in the mix too, this meal was an unqualified success. The selection that the guys at Octagon Hotpot were kind enough to send me added up to a nudge under £140 which fed three of us an indulgent amount before serving up enough leftovers for a second meal for three, making this unarguably good value, and as an opening offer, if you order £100 worth you even get to keep the hotpot! The simple nature of running YOAF and trying to get through as many different meals as possible makes repetition tricky, even when I really want to, but I’m already planning who to invite round for a repeat of this quite exceptional experience!

(Disclaimer: PR Sample)

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A new Magnet Kitchen https://yorkonafork.com/2021/05/10/a-new-magnet-kitchen/ Mon, 10 May 2021 09:09:21 +0000 https://yorkonafork.com/?p=22023 It’s tough to know where to start with projects for which you have no point of reference, particularly when there’s a significant amount of cost attached as well as the scope for budgetary creep. We’ve been thinking about replacing the kitchen in the house we moved to in 2013 for a good few years, and…

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It’s tough to know where to start with projects for which you have no point of reference, particularly when there’s a significant amount of cost attached as well as the scope for budgetary creep. We’ve been thinking about replacing the kitchen in the house we moved to in 2013 for a good few years, and the strange confluence of events that the last 12 months have delivered meant that it became more financially realistic. After a bit of research, we decided on a new Magnet Kitchen and set about the convoluted decision making process dictated by making significant changes to one’s home in the midst of a pandemic.

A whole lot of kitchen (much more in other rooms, along with normal contents of this room)

We’d consciously waited until the New Year to start the design process in earnest in the expectation of hefty January discounts, which thankfully were fully realised as we just managed to sneak in a trip to the showroom the day before it was forced to shut again. With a deposit paid, we quickly were into the detail of the design process, collecting samples from the showroom that the salesperson was happy to drop into the boot of our car in an appropriately distanced fashion. That trip to the showroom before lockdown began gave us a good idea of the style we wanted, leaving mainly choices around colour and layout that were tackled through a virtual consultation. This used self-taken measurements of our kitchen to produce a render of the final design for the fitter to work from. As far as fitting, we decided to accept that handing that to Magnet would be the line of least resistance, turning it round in double quick time with the acceptance that it was likely to be at a premium price. With the presence of a three year old in the house, we felt that the expense would be worth it for confidence that it’d be turned around in week and coordinated by them, minimising disruption for us.

The next step was a test of nerve as the fitter came around for a pre-fit survey, checking that our measuring was at least close enough that the agreed upon design for our new Magnet kitchen would work in the space. Thankfully our numbers measured up, so to speak, and dates for delivery and installation were agreed upon. I’d little idea of the amount of space that would be needed to store an entire (non flat-packed) kitchen worth of kit and appliances, so was fairly nervous as a lorry arrived and box after box made its way into my conservatory, leaving it resembling a partially completed game of Tetris. Between that and the counter tops loitering in the hallway, the house looked fairly crowded for a few days but we just about retained access to the back door and the trip hazards on the stairs were manageable. We also relocated the fridge and kettle to the living room for a few days and arranged for now redundant appliances to go to charity. It should be noted that emptying the kitchen proved to be a predictably significant task, necessitating the sacrifice of the spare room to its contents for the duration. With all that achieved, we were ready to say goodbye to the kitchen we’d inherited upon moving into this house, which this process showed me I was surprisingly attached to after eight years of cooking.

The installation of our new Magnet kitchen began with a bit of car shuffling from our very understanding neighbours to facilitate the delivery of a skip before the fitter arrived to wreak havoc upon our unsuspecting kitchen. My lack of experience of this type of project had me a little sceptical about it being possible to turn it around in a week, but the fitter was confident and in a few short hours had devastated the old kitchen, turning the room into a shell ready to crack on with. I was a little surprised to have to pay extra to chip off the existing tiles, but double digit expenses were barely registering by now given the overall outlay.

In progress

The rest of the fitting went smoothly and was indeed completed in five days flat, leaving us with a functioning kitchen ready to be tiled by the end of the week, with the skip being removed double quick too. Mess was kept to a relative minimum and the fitter was friendly and helpful throughout. We had a minor hitch when we realised a spot we’d intended to house the cats’ litter tray would be too small, thankfully that was easily rectified as the space was perfect to slip another cupboard into, though I’m still hunting for a permanent home for the cat litter, much to the kitties’ annoyance!

The fitter worked well with the electrician, coordinating well without any need for unnecessary intervention from me, with some additional work to replace ageing light fittings undertaken without fuss for an agreed price. Most pieces of work undertaken in this house have turned up something substandard left by the previous owner, so the discovery of a few rather maverick bits of electrical work was hardly a surprise. It was a touch frustrating to have to foot the bill for rectifying this, but as it wasn’t possible to find it prior to installation it’s not something to be argued with, the electrician getting things back on par nicely.

So, after the promised five days we were indeed up and away cooking in our new Magnet kitchen with all white goods replaced by fitted items, sparkling new surfaces to fret over marking and more soft closing doors than you could shake a stick at. We were left with a minor but acceptable level of mess to deal with and were quickly into a throwing a spag’ bol together. The induction hob is proving itself monstrously powerful while usefully controllable, the oven is showing up its predecessor as rather unenthusiastic and the remaining appliances are a marked improvement on the previous incumbents in every way with one, temporary, exception.

Upon testing the dishwasher, the fitter alerted us to it sounding an error code that wouldn’t clear with any tweaks he could make. This resulted in a 12 day wait for a Zanussi engineer to attempt a fix as our Magnet sales person seemed reluctant to take ownership of the issue and replace the unit as one might reasonably demand when a supplier delivers a faulty product. When Zanussi’s engineer did visit, he pronounced it unlikely that I’d heard the error code I had, though replaced the part that would have triggered it and left proclaiming things resolved. That was certainly the case for a good few hours but was an all too transitory state, prompting a bit more to and fro between Magnet and Zanussi who had another engineer out in another 12 days. It’s unfair to get too exercised about things not landing right first time, these things happen and really it’s all about how they’re dealt with. Thankfully this time round, the fix was more effective and everything is back on track in terms of functionality, though it’s surprising and disappointing to not have received any follow up from Magnet at all either on this specific issue or our broader satisfaction with the new Magnet kitchen.

After a little wait for tiling to be started after the tiler in question was unlucky enough to become unwell for a little bit (no, not Covid) we were all finished and left to admire our finished kitchen, with which we’re extremely happy. We could certainly have completed the project for significantly smaller outlay but with a three year old in the house we really wanted someone to take ownership of the project and coordinate delivery and installation including plumbing and electrics. This was largely the case and turning the bulk of the project around in five days really helped minimise the disruption to our lives, though it’s a shame for the final interaction with Magnet to be negative. It’s naive to expect problems to never occur, but it’s frustrating to pay for what I perceived to be a premium service and not see that deliver the extra mile when something untoward occurs. Saying that, it’s a joy to cook in our new Magnet kitchen and I have no doubt you’ll be seeing it in the background of many social media posts in the coming weeks and months!

Note. I’ve steered clear of mentioning costs too much in here as it’s an unusually large kitchen for the size of house and there are so many variables. For reference though, it’s pushing £19k including 18 units and fittings, full suite of Zanussi white goods, light fitting replaced with spots, making good previously ropey electrics, cleaning and sealing the floor and a good deal of complex tiling.

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Aktar Islam at home https://yorkonafork.com/2021/04/16/aktar-islam-at-home/ Fri, 16 Apr 2021 07:31:11 +0000 https://yorkonafork.com/?p=22061 Some of the at home experiences I’ve tried over the last year have provoked wildly varying perceptions of value amongst my peers, some relishing the opportunity to indulge at home and some assuming that savings hadn’t been passed on and that prices were too high. One box that’s available nationwide comes from Opheem in Birmingham…

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Some of the at home experiences I’ve tried over the last year have provoked wildly varying perceptions of value amongst my peers, some relishing the opportunity to indulge at home and some assuming that savings hadn’t been passed on and that prices were too high. One box that’s available nationwide comes from Opheem in Birmingham fame and packs in value that’s impossible to argue with. Aktar Islam at home offers a range of curries and sides that can make up a feast a decent sized group or a selection to freeze for several meals. While the dishes change regularly, the value doesn’t seem to…£70 for 8 dishes and 3 sides from a Michelin starred kitchen is quite remarkable.

This value along with praise from much of the press has led to a predictable supply shortage so we had a few weeks in which to anticipate the Aktar Islam at home delivery, which on first sight represented phenomenal value. It’s billed as a generous feast for four but with eight portions each hitting around 500g, it’d comfortably do four very generous meals for two. We started by sharing a Goan fish curry, which required the most effort to prepare. This amounted to no more than searing a couple of fillets of fish before pouring over curry sauce to finish and when plated up with a good sprig of coriander and one of the four included naan breads, it was a really superb entry point to the selection. My very high expectations for this were comfortably exceeded at the first time of asking, rich deeply flavoured curry sauce and fresh fish meeting perfectly judged spicing for a blockbuster start.

Goan Fish Curry, Naan(The tiler is coming this weekend!)

Mutton Korma and Chicken Madras both did a superlative job of distancing themselves from the typical British curry house versions of these dishes, the Korma being very far from the luminous blandness that you can end up with and the Madras having generous amounts of heat without turning into a test of endurance rather than enjoyment. Both of these dishes exhibited a striking balance of big flavours and more nuanced flavours, definitely a cut above.

Seyal Gosht & Achari Aloo

For another meal we coupled Seyal Gosht and Achari Aloo, with slow cooked beef brisket and new potatoes headlining. This pair had a fierce heat that was pushing toward the limit of my moderate tolerance for spice but also predictably bold flavours that lived up to the spicing. The potatoes cooked in Bengali pickling spices working themselves up into a memorable dish while the brisket had been cooked as slowly as needed to realise the meats potential.

The accompanying breads and rice continued the strong showing, Hyderabadi style milk loaves being soft and light, incidentally work very well for a bacon sandwich pepped up with sriracha and coriander. Naan breads and aromatic basmati rice held up their end of the bargain too.

Chicken Madras

I’d ordered this on the back of almost hyperbolic praise from a number of people I know to be have good taste which turned out to exactly praise that this box deserves. The combination of value, quality, convenience and flavour is hard to argue with, making this a true highlight amongst the at home offerings that the last year has necessitated. It’s comparable in value to the local curry house while throwing in a big whack of refinement too, which admittedly isn’t always desirable. I’ll certainly be grabbing one periodically to keep the freezer stocked with top notch curries at quite remarkable prices.

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Little Weighton Kitchen https://yorkonafork.com/2021/04/06/little-weighton-kitchen/ Tue, 06 Apr 2021 11:10:59 +0000 https://yorkonafork.com/?p=22031 Recipe boxes are one of the services that has seen consumer appetite increase while we’ve been spending more time at home. The major presences such as Hello Fresh and Gousto have entrenched themselves at the fore of the market while other more niche players leverage restaurant brands to replicate dining experiences in the home. Sitting…

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Recipe boxes are one of the services that has seen consumer appetite increase while we’ve been spending more time at home. The major presences such as Hello Fresh and Gousto have entrenched themselves at the fore of the market while other more niche players leverage restaurant brands to replicate dining experiences in the home. Sitting somewhere between those two extremes is Little Weighton Kitchen, which is now offering nationwide delivery on the recipe boxes that it produces from its home near Market Weighton and which are embellished by the use of quality Yorkshire produce.

Little Weighton Kitchen is an offshoot of village pub The Black Horse, which can rather predictably be found in Little Weighton and sounds similar notes of quality, locality and sustainability to sibling Little Weighton Kitchen. Thanks to a slick website, it doesn’t take long to get up and running with the service, picking from a selection of recipes that regularly rotate into something new to try. My fancy was tickled by Prawn Thai curry, Tandoori Salmon and Pork Piccata and after a few decisive clicks and a few days of anticipation, I was thanking a now-familiar delivery driver for the latest object of his labours.

Thai Prawn & Aubergine curry

Branding and packaging was attractive, easily navigated and well segregated to get everything into the fridge/cupboard in double quick time, so later that day I got straight into the Thai prawn & aubergine curry which packed in tomato and spinach for maximum sense of health. Cooking this one involved a not-unreasonable amount of chopping and grating before assembling the results of that effort over heat to cook through, and it turned out to be the first meal eaten outside in 2021, fully deserving of the accompanying glass of wine. I bulked it out with some noodles to make sure it satisfied our appetite. Next up was a Tandoori salmon dish served over roasted sweet potato and with the elements of Kachumber salad (tomato, cucumber and red onion) roasted to form a bedding. This was another easily constructed and tasty dish, but the final dish of the trio I’d chosen was the star of the delivery.

Tandoori Salmon

Preparing Pork Piccata had me flour and sear pork medallions to serve over a bed of grated celeriac and finely sliced cabbage which had been softened over shallot and garlic with a hit of mustard dressing, which was also used to accent the pork. Tenderstem broccoli added freshness to the plate while more bold flavour came from a caper & parsley butter that the pork’s residual heat had turned into a dressing. The quality of the pork here shone through without being overwhelmed by the slaps of caper and smacks of lemon, all backdropped by the earthy celeriac into a very serious plate of food.

Pork Piccata

Little Weighton Kitchen is a welcome Yorkshire voice in the burgeoning recipe box world. It may not be conspicuously cheap but the quality of the ingredients and the supply chain it supports speak for themselves. The dishes are intelligently constructed and instructions written with a welcome dose of common sense in mind, offering a good mix of accessibility and willingness to put you to work where there’s reward to be had. This taste of it has also piqued my interest in The Black Horse so, in due course, I’ll have to make my way there for a little more Little Weighton.

(PR product, no charge made)

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The Bay Tree Stillington https://yorkonafork.com/2021/03/22/the-bay-tree-stillington/ Mon, 22 Mar 2021 11:57:02 +0000 https://yorkonafork.com/?p=21922 Generally when I’m invited to check out a new spot I have a fair idea of what I’m in for, either through prior association, general reputation or obvious pointers toward quality (or the opposite on occasion). It’s a bit harder to form a judgement at the moment though without access to quite the same level…

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Generally when I’m invited to check out a new spot I have a fair idea of what I’m in for, either through prior association, general reputation or obvious pointers toward quality (or the opposite on occasion). It’s a bit harder to form a judgement at the moment though without access to quite the same level of networking, chatting and general meandering that tends to provide much of my intelligence, so I wasn’t entirely sure what to make of an invitation to check out The Bay Tree Stillington when they messaged some months ago. For various reasons, both pandemic related and more mundane, it’s taken some time to take them up on the offer, but on Mother’s Day I finally found myself pointing the car toward Stillington to pick up a meal.

I’ve driven past The Bay Tree many times, with it being on the route I tend to favour from York to Helmsley, but never have I stopped by to investigate. It’s a handsome building that I was lucky enough to have a peek inside when I popped by to collect the Mother’s Day menu that we’d be sampling. The balance for any country pub that wants to serve up top notch food needs to strike is between that and providing welcome for those in the local community who want a refuge for a quiet drink. Obviously I’ve not been able to see the building in action, but it’s easy to imagine the space developing just the right balance of conviviality and respect for a good meal. There’s also an attractive and good sized outdoor space that should stand The Bay Tree Stillington in good stead throughout the transition back to normal opening practices.

We were sampling a Mother’s Day menu of two courses per person that was still appetisingly warm even after the drive from Stillington to our home in the south of York. Amongst the starters was a Salmon Tartare that I couldn’t resist which came with a hearty, well judged shot of capers, cured egg yolk and salsa verde. This one also addressed one of the presentation issues inherent with at home offerings by using gem lettuce as a vessel to contain the tartare, keeping everything in place during the transition from package to plate and then mouth. There’s not really anywhere to hide with a tartare; the balance of ingredients is really everything and the use of a bold flavour such as capers could be a trap but instead was as artfully balanced as it was presented. The other starter was a chicken liver parfait, equally well executed and presented with pickles and relish to bring it out of itself, a faultless brace of dishes to start that neatly solved some of the disadvantages of a meal transported to the home.

Main courses consisted of roasted pork belly to represent the more usual Sunday offering along with a seared salmon fillet from the Mother’s Day menu that moved away from the more sterotypical Sunday lunch offerings. The salmon came with potatoes and sea veg to form a plate that was given much further life by a crayfish and wine sauce, which elevated things to a truly memorable level. Salmon and potato were clearly excellent produce that had been given the chance to reach full potential but a good sauce can really bring a dish to a new level, something particular true of this dish. The large amount of crayfish thrown into the mix thanks to that sauce really took this dish to quite significant feelings of luxury, really setting out a marker for quality.

The pork belly from the more usual Sunday roast menu was equally beyond criticism, with quality and quantity in abundance. The central meat element was perfectly tender while retaining an armour of perfectly crunchy crackling to separate it from masses of vegetables and a Yorkshire pud. It’s hard to draw out highlights of the accompaniments but cauliflower cheese shouted loud along with mash in which I picked up a pinch of truffle, roasties bit the right notes of tradition and some fried greens threw a bit of a crunch into the plate. As with the salmon though the final flourish that pushed the dish over the top toward greatness was the sauce, this time a deeply flavoured, almost pearlescant gravy chocked with presence and flavour. As with the fish dish, the quality of the sauce inflicted the indignity of plate licking on one of us. This was a uniformly superb meal with every element over achieving and going beyond expectations. I may not have been totally sure what was waiting for me in Stillington but I know what to expect when I pay a return visit to enjoy eating in: intelligently presented dishes that have been developed to their full potential to pack in improbable amounts of flavour. The Bay Tree Stillington is set for a very bright future as dining in becomes a viable option again.

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You do Yuzu! https://yorkonafork.com/2021/03/17/you-do-yuzu/ Wed, 17 Mar 2021 14:06:15 +0000 https://yorkonafork.com/?p=21920 While it’s hardly been an easy time, it’s not all been horror stories for the last 12 months. While it’s been undeniably grim for the majority, there have been opportunities for the right kind of businesses with the right kind of attitude to grasp the virus-soaked nettle and make waves. This is exactly what Yuzu…

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While it’s hardly been an easy time, it’s not all been horror stories for the last 12 months. While it’s been undeniably grim for the majority, there have been opportunities for the right kind of businesses with the right kind of attitude to grasp the virus-soaked nettle and make waves. This is exactly what Yuzu have been doing over that period, serving up their range of baos, gyoza, curries and various specials from a couple of locations for delivery throughout the pandemic in York, and occasionally for dine in as the situation allowed. They’ve now settled into what looks to be a productive partnership with Brew York and are really spreading their wings. One of the newest experiments from them is the You do Yuzu at home kit, which I was lucky enough to be amongst the first to sample and is now on sale.

The You do Yuzu at home kit throws together enough bao buns and gyoza for an evening of gluttony along with a couple of bespoke beers from Brew York to enjoy with the fruits of your labour. Having had the pleasure of Yuzu food both eaten in and at home, I had a good baseline to understand how my efforts would measure up as I set about unboxing my evening’s bounty. The packaging is as smart as you’d expect, with everything neatly fitted together in a diminutive package and beers chilled ready to go, so it wasn’t long before we were up and running with our dinner. Getting the six baos together doesn’t take much in the way of skill, heating through the pork filling in a pan while bringing the buns up to temperature in a steaming basket; a process easily substituted for a blast in the microwave if your kitchen is less cluttered with kit such as steaming baskets than mine. With that done, we popped the gyozas into the pan we’d used for the meat, after a quick wipe, for them to develop crispy bases while we assembled our baos.

The finished baos were variable in standard of presentation to some degree, though improved from first to last effort, reflecting the delicacy of the job the professionals do day in, day out. There was more filling provided than I could cram into all the buns and I think I did a reasonable job of making them attractive enough to wolf down pretty quickly. Inevitably, presentation is going to vary in the final products between recipients but there’s everything you need here for an entertaining evening putting your own spin on your Yuzu fix. Everything tasted indistinguishable from the delivery options and this “You do Yuzu” kit represented a nice saving on the usual take out prices.

Yuzu has done a brilliant job of identifying and developing its niche over the last tough year. Their partnership with Brew York looks set to flourish with them also collaborating in Leeds and Pocklington and, while takeaway demand is bound to drop in the short term as we enjoy our freedoms, the temptation to get yourself a treat at home isn’t going anywhere. You do Yuzu is another way to enjoy their delicious and great value dishes that puts a different and fun spin on things.

Disclaimer: PR product

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Pan Sushi https://yorkonafork.com/2021/03/13/pan-sushi/ Sat, 13 Mar 2021 18:06:26 +0000 http://yorkonafork.com/?p=21875 Pan Sushi is a small, family run business that operated in Wetherby and the surrounding area to deliver its unique take on sushi to a loyal customer base. While they offer up the usual sushi staples such as Maki and Nigiri they also offer a range of “Fusion Sushi Rolls” that take things in a…

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Pan Sushi is a small, family run business that operated in Wetherby and the surrounding area to deliver its unique take on sushi to a loyal customer base. While they offer up the usual sushi staples such as Maki and Nigiri they also offer a range of “Fusion Sushi Rolls” that take things in a rather different direction. I’ve been keeping an eye on these guys for a little while and heard some good reports. So when they scheduled in a drop in York, I was very happy to take the chance to sample these rather original creations.

Collection from The Crooked Tap in Acomb affords the opportunity to pick up some drinks to go with your chosen dishes, or just grab and go. After a quick catch up with the lovely people from both Pan Sushi and The Crooked Tap I was on my way home ready to tuck my bounty into the fridge while Baby Fork was tucked up in bed, her being asleep being something that contributes to the ability to relax during a meal. I’d collected a selection of four different types of fusion rolls, Surf & Turf, Fish & Chips, “Woods” and Winter Cabbage & Sprout slaw which came accompanied by a generous selection of pickled ginger, wasabi and soy sauce to pep things up according to your taste.

In truth I wasn’t totally sure what to expect from a couple of these dishes, and accordingly how well the sushi rice seasoning and traditional accompaniments would pair with the unconventional flavours here.The Winter Cabbage & Sprout Slaw was the most subtle of the quartet with shredded cabbage and carrot being joined by that most under-appreciated vegetable the sprout to give a nice challenge of bitterness. “Woods” packed in mushroom, garlic and truffle under a big hit of Sriracha and crispy onions that did their best to overwhelm the forestry flavours without succeeding. Fish and Chip Sushi could fall into depressing gimmickry but instead trod closer to amusing fun than eye rolling silliness, with a delicacy leant to the presentation by a pair of matchstick sized chips on top of each roll; a smack of tartare sauce rounded these ones off. Hogging the visual limelight was the Surf & Turf Sushi which placed a tempura shrimp at the heart of concentric circles of sushi rice and a steak strip cooked rare with wasabi mayo hustling things along further. These substantial bites sparked some friendly debate about who should get most and delivered on the visual promise, which would have been wasted if the steak hadn’t been cooked well. I could spend many an evening grazing on these!

I don’t doubt for a moment that a good bunch of people will turn their noses up at the concept of fusion sushi rolls bringing in steak, truffle and chips amongst other things, but I’ve enough of a sense of humour to relax into the concept and take it as the good fun coupling that it is. Right now we need all the enjoyment we can get and an evening exploring these strikingly different dishes is certainly good fun. Keep an eye on Pan Sushi’s social media channels for more York pop-ups.

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The Blue Barbakan Takeaway https://yorkonafork.com/2021/03/09/the-blue-barbakan-takeaway/ Tue, 09 Mar 2021 15:37:48 +0000 http://yorkonafork.com/?p=21852 Who’s had enough of eating at home now? Bored of cooking? Life turned into a never ending race to keep the dishwasher fed and laundry at bay? Itching to get back out and about into the wilds of York’s hospitality scene? Sentiments I think many of us can identify with. It’s only a few torturous…

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Who’s had enough of eating at home now? Bored of cooking? Life turned into a never ending race to keep the dishwasher fed and laundry at bay? Itching to get back out and about into the wilds of York’s hospitality scene? Sentiments I think many of us can identify with. It’s only a few torturous weeks until we get some freedom back on that front so we still have to content ourselves with deliveries and take-outs, the latest of which to cross my path was The Blue Barbakan Takeaway meal.

The Blue Barbakan is the relatively recent expansion and relocation of The Barbakan, the name changing when it took on the premises formerly occupied by The Blue Bicycle, which never reopened after the 2015 floods. The Blue Barbakan has been, regardless of location, a favourite of the independent food scene in York for many years, winning fans for its hearty portions of well realised regional dishes. I’ve been many times over the years and never been disappointed, even on a recent trip during which they had to navigate a power cut in the middle of service! I obviously leapt at the chance to try The Blue Barbakan Takeaway.

The Blue Barbakan Takeaway is available for collection or delivery through Just-Eat, though be sure to check the restaurant’s social media for offers should you order directly. At the moment that includes three courses for £20, easily one of the best value at home meals in York right now. Our delivery arrived as promised, piping hot and ready to get stuck into. To start with, we shared a platter of ham and sausage with pickles and still-warm caraway bread and a portion of their legendary pierogi, filled with spinach in this instance with a few more pickles scattered across and a soured cream dip. Obviously cold ham travels just fine but thankfully the pierogi made it in one piece too and were indistinguishable from those served in the restaurant despite the journey.

Potato pancake with goulash is one of my favourite dishes at The Blue Barbakan and the transition to my dining room was smooth, not sacrificing any of the depth of flavour in the goulash or the well judged crust on the pancake that really edges it up the priority list when ordering from The Blue Barbakan Takeaway. Desserts at The Blue Barbakan have always been strong and both the cheese cake and salted caramel tarts that arrived packed in plenty of sugar highs in portions that were big enough to keep us going into the following day.

Short of sending someone to wash up after, there’s not a lot that The Blue Barbakan could do to improve this meal. Dining in their restaurant is a convivial experience that offers good value, great consistency and top notch food and they’ve done a great job of transplanting everything they can into food to enjoy at home. It’s certainly whetting my appetite for a return to the restaurant and I absolutely recommend tiding over your restaurant cravings with a treat from The Blue Barbakan.

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Berenjak Bazaar kebab kit https://yorkonafork.com/2021/02/17/berenjak-bazaar-kebab-kit/ Wed, 17 Feb 2021 16:09:30 +0000 http://yorkonafork.com/?p=21080 At the moment we’re building our weeks around treats, each trip to town for a sandwich or receipt of a takeaway representing a landmark of interest in the days that merge together a bit too much. The latest recipe kit to catch my eye is the Berenjak Bazaar kebab kit, which earned high praise from…

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At the moment we’re building our weeks around treats, each trip to town for a sandwich or receipt of a takeaway representing a landmark of interest in the days that merge together a bit too much. The latest recipe kit to catch my eye is the Berenjak Bazaar kebab kit, which earned high praise from none other than Jay Rayner. As I’ve pointed out before, a happy side effect of this lockdown is the sudden national availability of these sort of meal kits so I got an order in a little while ago and before long found another delicious parcel deposited on the delivery table in the porch.

Berenjak is, in more normal times, a restaurant in Soho characterised by hearty rustic dishes that should hopefully translate well to the home environment. I plumped for the basic Berenjak Bazaar kebab kit that offered a brace of kebabs each for two people along with lavash bread, a dip and components of a simple dressed salad. Ordering was very simple and £30 was a very fair price for a generous meal for two, especially given that the kit included the kebab skewers necessary for cooking the meats.

I decided that firing up the barbecue in February would be a step too far given the amount of snow on the ground so pushed my grill to its highest setting after I’d prepared the kebabs, a simple process aided by a instructional video and a rubber glove to avoid staining one’s hands. The process of cooking them took a few logically ordered stages with tomatoes first to be scorched under the hot grill before the kebabs were similarly treated and sides made up concurrently. Then finally placing the breads at the top of the pile to warm through. Nothing we had to do involved any particular skill or required the use of judgement borne of experience, just the ticket for this sort of meal.

To remove the meat from the skewers I followed the instruction to effect a heat shield using a piece of bread and the resulting spread was both inviting and eye catching as it came to the table for dishing up. The portion size was well judged and the whole thing felt like the feast I expected it to. The kebabs were deeply, richly flavoured and I’d managed to get a decent bit of char on the outside without drying them out, and with the charred tomatoes and the light flatbreads these wrapped together into a very enjoyable experience. The accompanying Mast-o-musir dip was quickly mopped up with more flatbread to extract all the enjoyment possible from this shallot and yoghurt based dip, and the red onion salad was a welcome crunch of sharp acidity.

These aren’t dishes that I would generally think to cook at home, which are easy to produce to a high standard and good value with the convenience of delivery thrown in. It’s hard to think what more you’d expect from a recipe box such as this and at only £30 it’s good value too. One side effect of eating at home so much is increasingly pent-up demand to eat out, that combined with a strong desire to visit London again means I’ll be looking to pop along for a meal at Berenjak and compare my efforts to the real thing.

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Ban’s Kitchen recipe kit https://yorkonafork.com/2021/02/13/bans-kitchen-recipe-kit/ Sat, 13 Feb 2021 18:19:16 +0000 http://yorkonafork.com/?p=20967 Recipe boxes are all the rage at the moment, with examples on offer from established operators who have a nationwide footprint as well as smaller concerns servicing their local customer bases and everything in between. I’ve tried a good number of these over the years and rarely been disappointed by the mixture of convenience and…

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Recipe boxes are all the rage at the moment, with examples on offer from established operators who have a nationwide footprint as well as smaller concerns servicing their local customer bases and everything in between. I’ve tried a good number of these over the years and rarely been disappointed by the mixture of convenience and indulgence, with them entering my consciousness more and more over the last 12 months for rather obvious reasons. Thinking back to the beginnings of the UK’s experience of this pandemic, one of the most timely responses was from Zaap Thai who produced a whole range of restaurant standard ready meals in impressively short order. Their latest offering under the at-home banner is the Ban’s Kitchen recipe kit, designed to help you to produce your own Thai masterpieces.

My experiences of the Zaap Thai branch in York have been very good but the standard of the ready meals really impressed me, particularly given the abbreviated timeframe in which they were introduced, so their entry into the recipe box market was intriguing. The Ban’s Kitchen recipe kit boxes are each designed to offer a particular Thai dish and clock in between £19 and £26 plus shipping. I plumped for the Massaman kit and looked forward to getting cooking. The kit includes the majority of the fresh ingredients you need, though you need to add your own protein, garnishes, stock and rice. It’s noteworthy that the quantity of the dry ingredients delivered are far, far in excess of what’s needed for one meal though, which comfortably compensates for the slightly curious absence of rice.

The instructions included with the Ban’s Kitchen recipe box are durable enough to last a good few cooking sessions worth of spills and easy enough to follow without the need to extend one’s mental facilities too far. I augmented the included potato, carrot and onion with some chicken breast and after a very manageable amount of chopping, stirring, cooking and simmering I was ready to dish up and garnish with generous amounts of coriander (I’ll hear nothing against the stuff). The results lived up to the promise of enabling us to “cook the perfect Massaman curry at home” with the mild balance of sweet, salty and tangy well achieved and comfortably competing with takeaways or restaurant dishes. I was even compelled to ponce the rice into a bit of a shape to serve.

In all honesty ‘recipe kit’ is something of a misnomer here. While it includes some of the fresh ingredients needed to bring the meal to the table, the quantity of the dry ingredients will let you cook the same dish repeatedly with the addition of onions, potatoes, carrots and your choice of protein. The building blocks of curry paste, fish sauce, palm sugar and star anise will envelope many more than the included coconut milk. It’s almost more appropriate to describe this as a ‘Thai store cupboard in a box’ with a convenient recipe thrown in. I’ve made Massaman from this on more occasions than I can bring to mind now, it suiting leftover turkey particularly well, and absolutely recommend trying it for yourself if you’re missing Thai meals out at the moment.

Disclaimer: PR Sample with no charge.

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