Russell's Fish and Chips

Well, well, well! Who would have thought Fish and Chips could match, if not better our favourite chip shop in The Cotswolds, Simpsons. But here lies Russell's Fish and Chip Restaurant and Take Away attached to the outstanding and award winning Russell's Restaurant in Broadway.

This little gem is tucked away down a little side street and really feels like a genius find when you're walking down the topiary pathway lit up by fairy light parasols, right up to the front door.

It was only a 5 min waiting time and the restaurant was packed! Obviously a popular abode. Despite being super busy the staff were friendly and helpful and obviously love work together creating a fun atmosphere.

The decor is spot on with a pirate ship and seaside theme and this continues through to their brilliant website which is well worth a look for the background stories of the staff, (sorry, crew!) and news of up and coming events. Great news Mums', you can even book a kids pirate themed Birthday Party! Or alternatively they cater for events for 10-100 people of any age.

I was impressed with the prices, thinking it would be much more, being a sister to such a prestigious restaurant and we were slap bang in the centre of Broadway. For £14 exactly I ordered 2 large portions of Cod and Chips which came in a lovely little brown box sealed with a Russell's logo sticker and came accompanied with homemade tartar sauce and a wedge of lemon. 

The verdict... Delicious!

Love the décor, love the packaging, love the food!

Millie and Meg x

Off to the Circus...

This should be an easy blog post to write. But we are finding it hard. Which is why a week after our visit we still haven't put pen to paper...or finger to keypad.

We just don't know where to start! We had heard it was good, but we didn't realise just how good! Don't get us wrong...it was not some sky high tent with acrobats throwing themselves from tightropes, caged lions and a beauty on an elephant type of a circus but that's not what we expected and that's not what we wanted! This was different, this was a little slice of magic. 

Chocolate Indulgence Courtesy of Crumbs

Well, I'm in France, if you hadn't heard me mention it before, and I'm getting fat. But that's ok because I am on my summer holidays and I'm sorry, but with the greatest wine makers; patisserie creators and cheese choices on my door step, I am not saying no!

So whilst I am feeling indulgent and in the spirit of the Great British Bake Off, I thought I'd make something myself. What better than rising chef and foody entrepreneur Luke Thomas' Chocolate Soufflé and Orange and Ginger Confit?  I found the recipe in this months issue of Crumbs Magazine along with another of his recipes and a feature on the man himself.

If you haven't got your hands on a Crumbs Magazine, you love the Cotswolds (or Bristol and Bath) and you love food... then where have you been for the last 2 years?! It is as easy as pie, no foody pun intended, as you can even flick through it on their website! FYI, Luke's recipe for the Soufflé in on page 54 of Augusts' issue.

I'm not going to take you through step by step, you can do it yourself. but here are some images to get you inspired!

First the recipe takes you through how to make an orange and ginger confit to go with your soufflé. YUM! However I had a "lost in translation issue"... well, I would like to blame that, but as you know orange in French is...orange. So more of I had a "should have gone to Specsavers" issue.

I had purchased Grapefruit. #oops and it was only when slicing open for the segments that I realised!

So after a little bit of Google research I found out that Grapefruit does in-fact go nicely with ginger, BONUS I thought! So I decided to plough through. But disaster struck around 10 minutes later. The grapefruit just fell to pieces in the sugar and water mixture ( I used the same quantities as recommended for the orange segments) and I ended up with a bitter slop. Luke, maybe you could help me out here...something to do with acidity of orange versus grapefruit and sugar to water ratios perhaps?

Onwards and upwards...to the Soufflé! Which, I will spoilt the ending for you, was a success!

The making part was made easy by Luke's simple instructions but I bet he could rustle one of these up with his eyes closed. I had to pay close attention to the quantities and the order to do things in as I know a soufflé can go easily wrong! I had never made a soufflé in this way before so it was a new method for me. The chocolate smelt amazing! After a whisk of the cocoa powder and flour and a melting of the beautiful Lindt 70% cocoa dark chocolate that I used, I was ready to put it to one side until the egg whites were whisked! A whisk and a fold later and...voila...ready to rock and roll!

One thing I will suggest is changing the timing depending on your ramekins. The size of my ramekins took longer than 8-10 mins. I risked them flopping when I decided to pop theme back into the oven. In addition to that I could have made more than 4 with the amount of mixture I had...So if you are using small ramekins you may find it makes around 6!

Hey presto. Another successful Crumbs recipe recommendation followed and succeeded. Give it a go.