The Snug

One of our favourite places to meet after work on a weeknight is The Snug - a petite little bar famous for its cocktails. With a cocktail menu larger than it's food menu, it's become very popular with the local professionals, foreign students taking their parents out and groups of women at the start of a "girls night out". We like to go in and try a different cocktail or two each time, but Dan is particularly fond of a good mojito, and good these mojitos are! (See the picture above.) I personally prefer vodka or gin based cocktails and especially the ones combining both and the martinis are served just the way you like them - and very potent.

Rarely found in England, The Snug also boasts of table service - perhaps to cater to its multitude of American patrons and as if to listen to demand, the menu sways slightly to resemble a menu that you would easily find across the Atlantic. With delights such as breakfast pancakes, brownies and Mexican quesadillas, the food tries hard, but unfortunately falls short of the type of standards that the cocktails achieve.

All in all, a plesant and relaxing non-smoking bar with friendly and mostly attentive service, The Snug is a great place to come for a much sought after cocktail - just be prepared to pay for them. We will continue to visit The Snug on a regular basis.

The Snug
01223 367684
67 Lensfield Rd
Cambridge, CB2 1EN, United Kingdom

IMBB25 - My very first!

I was considering not entering this months IMBB international food blog event, as I didn't think that I would have the blog up in time, nor the stale bread to do it. But, as Dan is a whizz on the graphics side of things, the blog was looking great by Saturday night. So, with a loaf of overdue multigrain bread in the cupboard and a few apples in the fruit bowl that had been in there longer than I care to admit, I decided to give it a whirl.

With multigrain bread and apples in mind, on hand I also had some mixed dried fruit. From various thoughts of inspiration came Autumn Pudding.

The main inspiration and shape was from a traditional English Summer Pudding and I thought that this might be the solution substituting the berries for apple, but when I discovered that the Summer Pudding wasn't cooked, it didn't quite appeal to me as much. That's when I remembered that we used to make stewed apple and sultana toasted sandwiches as children, I therefore, stewed the apples, buttered the bread and created the pudding.

I was really nervous through the cooking as I wasn't sure if there would be too many juices and cause the bread to go soggy. But patiently, after only about 25 minutes and after digging around the edges with the knife, I decided that it was probably about right and if it was in for any longer it would probably burn.

It turned out exactly as I expected - like an elegant-looking stewed apple toasted sandwich and if swathed in custard would've been the perfect treat on an Autumn evening when the apples are at their best, and comfort food is becoming more desirable. The multigrain bread also gave it a lovely, crunch texture on the outside, but I'm sure any type of bread will work. Of course, it's only Spring now, but I'll be recreating this recipe come Autumn!

Autumn Pudding

5 small apples (peeled, cored and sliced)
about 1/4 cup of mixed dried fruit
1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 cup of water
juice of half a lemon
7-8 slices of the bread in your cupboard buttered on one side.

Place the apples, the dried fruit, brown sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stew on a medium heat until the apples are soft. Add the lemon juice and mix through gently. Cut the crusts from the bread and line a pudding dish, pressing the edges of each slice together to create a firm seam. Make sure the buttered sides are facing out. Put half of the stewed apples in the base of the pudding, straining the liquid with a straining spoon. Place another slice of bread on top of the apples (I thought this would be a good idea, as it will give it more stability and soak up some of the juices). Top with the rest of the apples and spoon some of the juice over the top. Seal with 2 more slices of bread - butter facing out, and cook in a 180 degree oven for about 25-30 minutes or until well browned on top.

Once cooked, remove from the oven and let sit for about 5 minutes. Turn out onto a plate and serve immediately.

Basic Bread

There's nothing better than Basic Bread straight from the cooker.

I'd been hankering to bake some bread for a few days, and on Friday night, I decided it was time. Especially since I'd already decided that we were having soup for dinner - and nothing goes better with fresh soup than a loaf of freshly baked bread straight from the oven.

I'd seen Jamie Oliver cook this recipe on his various shows and thought that it was basic and easy and that I'd give it a whirl. He also uses it as a base for all of his other types of bread: foccacia, stuffed bread, baguettes etc, etc.

Probably the best thing about it, is that it only uses 5 ingredients and there is minimal washing up to do. Basically, the dough is prepared on the bench top by making a well out of the flour and filling the well with the rest of the ingredients (water, yeast, salt and sugar). The bread rose perfectly (thanks to the use of my airing cupboard) and handled like a dream.

The bread worked wonderfully and had that real sense of being proper bread. I've made bread before - many times, but there always seemed to be something lacking - this was just right.

The soup I made was a leek, potato, pea and spring green soup - using 3 of the ingredients from our vege box. It was a wonderfully tasting, subtle soup, which, on hindsight could have done with a touch of garlic.

The Basic Bread Recipe