Review – Cafe Grounded, St. George

Once again, reviewing one of our favourite local restaurants.  We discovered grounded a couple of years ago and have been popping in every couple of months for great pizza and fantastic desserts ever since.  Grounded is quite unassuming – it looks like a standard boho style little cafe.  But a look at the menu gets you thinking, as does the great range of beers and decent wine list.  Inside and out, there’s a relaxed atmosphere, though it can get a little crowded inside at times.

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I tend to order pizza, and this time, for the first time ever, i order a 12” Calzone… trina goes for a veggie one, and we get one of their fantastic garlic and rosemary flatbreads to share – oh and some olives (yes we were hungry…).  We also go for a bottle of their house rose, which is a great, light and sweet accompaniment to pizza.  This comes to about £40.

The calzone when it turns up looks like a giant Cornish pasty! It’s enormous – I'm sure it was a 12” base, but it looks like it’s been stretched over the toppings of what would normally be 2 pizzas!  Still, i manfully struggle through, though have to share a few mouthfuls with Trina to finish it!  Trina’s own is nice, though the chestnut mushrooms are a little overpowering, and the base is a little soggy.  This is a bit of a shame, as Grounded really do the best pizza bases i’ve tasted – but they can occassionally pile on the tomato sauce and the middle goes soggy – possibly the pizza stone isn’t hot enough or the oven is too full and the heat’s not even…  But otherwise, it’s tasty!  The rosemary garlic flatbread is as ever amazing.

On to a second bottle of rose, and then we decide to get some dessert to take out for ‘breakfast’ (i.e. we’ll eat it after the walk home when we don’t feel quite so piggy!).  I chose a the baked cheesecake with brownie base – really light and fluffy, beautiful texture and flavours.

In all, Grounded is a little more expensive than our other local eateries, but is a nice treat for a change, and the food is very high quality.  We’re moving to Southville soon, and are really looking forward to trying out Grounded’s sister cafe over there – i hope it’s the same atmosphere and great food – highly recommended.

Mushroom risotto

This is a very quick and easy risotto recipe – i’ve served it this time with pan fried cod, but it works just as well on it’s own.  A good risotto should be creamy and not too stodgy – add enough liquid so the rice is cooked (yes it will take a while), and it moves a little on the plate – you’re not, however, making cement! 

The first time i made risotto i firstly tried to do it in a wok, secondly put in twice as much rice as i needed to, and ended up stirring it in shifts with Trina for the best part of an hour – we got through two bottles of wine (admittedly only one went in the risotto…) and about three pints of stock! don’t do that…

Ingredients (serves 2)

1 white onion or shallot, finely chopped

7-8 chestnut mushrooms, sliced

2 rashers streaky bacon

1 generous tbsp olive oil

about 100g Arborio rice

4 cloves garlic crushed

1 large glass of white wine

about a pint of good vegetable or chicken stock, with some saffron mixed in for colour

50g butter

20g grated parmesan

seasoning to taste

1 tbsp chopped parsley

 

Method

Start by gently frying the onion and mushrooms until they pick up a little colour, then add the rice, making sure that each grain is covered in the oil – but keep it moving so that it doesn’t catch or burn. 

Add the wine and let the alcohol cook off, then add the garlic.  This is where the stirring starts.  You don’t need to stir constantly, but you do need to keep it moving otherwise the rice won’t cook evenly and you’ll end up with some cooked and some chewy.  Once the wine is almost fully absorbed by the rice, add about half of the stock, let it come up to temperature (low simmer), then, again, keep it moving. 

Once that lot’s absorbed, check the rice – you’ll need to use your judgement here.  The rice should be about half way, which will still be quite crunchy – add about half of the remaining stock, let that cook in then check again.  If it needs it, you can add the rest.  If not, add the butter, parmesan and parsley, and stir until it’s the right consistency – add a little more liquid if it needs loosening, but not too much – you also don’t wont rice pudding!

You can pretty much put any combo in this recipe – simply replace the mushrooms and bacon with your choice of ingredients.

At Last… poussin breast with gnocchi

For those of you (hopefully most…) who didn’t see my starless turn on Britain’s Best Dish, this is what I cooked – with the caveat that this one actually works, the gnocchi is not ‘horrible’ (Burton Race is a rude git), the sauce is the right consistency cos it hasn’t sat under lights for ten minutes, and the poussin isn’t dry for the same reason!! Oh, and rather than being cooked over almost two hrs, it takes about 40 mins… ;-). The really annoying thing is that we were told to plate up on a plate, and then i was criticised for not using a bowl! How dumb is that!

Ok, moan over. 

I think this is a good little dish, came about by mistake, but tastes great.  Given that it took me weeks to get the gnocchi like gnocchi, if i was you i’d resort to a packet (pictured…)! But I’ve included it below nonetheless…

Thanks to all the support and kind words from everyone over the process, including the ITV production team who were all lovely, even if the ‘stars’ weren’t!

Ingredients (1 serving)

1 whole poussin
1 tsp ras el hanout
1 tsp fresh oregano, chopped
6 cloves garlic
3-4 sprigs of thyme or lemon thyme
100ml good quality olive oil
2 banana shallots
300ml water for making stock from the carcasses
50g bacon lardons
200g chestnut mushrooms
100g butter
2 fresh bay leaves
2 glasses white wine
1 whole nutmeg
2 strands of saffron
150ml double cream
100g parmesan
salt and black pepper in mills for seasoning

For the gnocchi (makes 2 servings):

3 medium floury potatoes
small pinch of turmeric
250g plain flour
1 free range egg
seasoning to taste

Method

Remove the poussin breasts from the bird, leaving the last wing knuckle in place. Then break the carcass into two.

Mix together the ras el hanout, oregano, 2 cloves of garlic, a little bit of thyme, salt and pepper and a splash of good olive oil, and bash into a paste in a pestle and mortar.

Stuff the poussin breasts just under the skin with the herb and spice mixture.

Fry the carcass in a wide pan for a couple of minutes to brown, with one of the shallots (halved), then cover in water and bring to the boil for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, finely chop the other shallot, the rest of the garlic, the bacon and mushrooms.

Fry all the mushrooms and bacon and half the garlic and shallot in a pan half the butter, adding a couple of sprigs of thyme and one bay leaf. 

Once the mushrooms have browned enough, add 1 glass of wine and cook off the alcohol then add 1 ladle of the poussin stock and bring to boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, adding a little more stock as necessary. Grate in about half of the nutmeg and add a couple of strands of saffron.

In another pan, add the rest of the chopped shallot, garlic and butter and fry over a medium heat with the other bay leaf, then add the poussin breast, skin side down to brown off, seasoning to taste. Add the rest of the thyme.

Add the cream to the pan with the mushrooms and bring to boil until thickened (about 5-6 minutes).

Turn the poussin breast over and grate some parmesan on to the skins, then turn back over to crisp.

Once crisp, turn back on to other side and add the other glass of wine to the pan, leaving it to reduce.

Remove the poussin breast from the pan and rest it for a couple of minutes while cooking the gnocchi, then add the deglazed remnants to the sauce, stirring in.

For the gnocchi

Bake the potatoes in a microwave for about 8–9 minutes.

Peel the potatoes and push through a ricer. Season and add a tiny little bit of turmeric.

Add the flour and egg and knead it in.

To shape the gnocchi, roll the gnocchi dough into long sausages then cut them into 2cm sections. Lightly flour a fork with long tines. Then press the gnocchi pieces onto the tines of the fork and roll the dough back on itself to form a small, cylindrical, shell-like shape.

Place the gnocchi straight into boiling water and cook for about a minute. Drain and serve.