‘Special’ by name, special by nature: Arbennig

The award-winning Arbennig restaurant is situated in Pontcanna not far away from the well-reputed Brød Danish bakery (which I’m sadly yet to visit, but it’s on my list) and Pipes beer (a personal favourite of mine), but well worth the wander out of town. I’d heard many good things about it from colleagues and fellow bloggers beforehand and even met the owner briefly when handing out roast dinners to the homeless with the Arbennig staff and other volunteers just after Christmas, but I was yet to dine there myself. So for Valentine’s Day this year we decided to take the plunge and try it out. We were not disappointed.

The set menu was short but catered well for different tastes, we thought, and sometimes I think there’s a charm in smaller menus as it allows more focus on the ingredients themselves and can result in dishes of a higher standard (see photo below).  All three of the starters were chosen between us, mine being the beetroot cured salmon with horseradish, blood orange and endive. I didn’t really know what endive was but I assumed it was the baby gem-like leaves when the dish came, which presented a good texture contrast. It was very tasty, the combination of beetroot and cured (rather than cooked) salmon worked really well, however I personally don’t like horseradish so that was my only issue. My father had the same and absolutely loved it, my mother had the garlic mushrooms and said it was perfectly balanced, not too heavy and a great start to the meal and my boyfriend thoroughly enjoyed his lamb ragu. Happy faces all round so far.

Beetroot cured salmon starter

Garlic mushroom starter

Lamb ragu starter

For mains my parents shared the treacle and mustard braised short ribs and I have to say, despite not being to my taste, they looked and smelled (much to my surprise) fantastic. The presentation really was spot on throughout, you can tell this is something Arbennig pride themselves with and they do it all without compromising portion sizes or flavour. The ribs were full of flavour, cooked perfectly with the meat easing off the bone and totally delicious, according to my parents. My father just wanted more! It’s worth mentioning here that the care taken in Arbennig to source their ingredients from local, fresh and often family-run suppliers really shines through in the quality of their dishes, these ribs being no exception.

The braised short ribs

My boyfriend and I opted for the roasted cod loin where the quality of the fish was also very noticeable, heightening the overall dish which was so bloody tasty we’d have it again any time. The ingredients complimented each other perfectly in every way, the zing of the lemon purée marrying with the fresh fish yet contrasting with the scorched baby gem. It’s such a good feeling knowing that you’re supporting local suppliers, within a local family-run business and the meals taste all the better for it. I love that supporting local is such a big thing in Cardiff and long may it continue if these are the results!

Roasted cod loin & Israeli cous cous etc.

Several glasses of wine and many comments on how fantastic everything was later, it was time for dessert. Again, all three of them on the set menu were chosen between us: my mother’s blood orange, biscuit crumble and almond meringue combo was another perfectly balanced combination, the meringue (my favourite) was just crumbly enough without breaking apart too easily and tasted incredible. My father’s rhubarb and almond tart was also impressive looking, well-balanced in flavour & texture and very satisfying. But the star of the show for me was the warm chocolate fondant with honeycomb and sorbet… Oh. My. God.

Blood orange, crumble & meringue

Rhubarb and almond tart

I’ve seen many a fondant go horribly wrong on Masterchef but, from that, I’ve got a good enough idea of what they’re supposed to be like; this was absolute perfection let me tell you. Held its own on the plate just until you dipped your spoon in to gently tear it apart and then out came the oozing, gooey, warm and gorgeous chocolate. I’m a huge chocoholic anyway and honeycomb is one of my favourite things to pair with it, so I can honestly say this is a serious contender for my favourite dessert ever. Perhaps even taking the top spot. The sorbet was the cherry on top, presenting that brilliant contrast between warm and cool, sponge and smooth and just all-round awesome-ness. I’d have it again tomorrow. And the day after, and the day after that… (Except I’ve given up chocolate for lent ☹ *cries*)

The work of art that was the chocolate fondant…

The service at Arbennig was just as fantastic as the food, too. The staff were very attentive, seeing to our every need or request, happily explaining anything we asked about and were genuinely interested in how much we were enjoying our experience. The place was a little chilly when we first arrived but warmed up when the other tables started filling up (and once our wine had kicked in). All in all, everything was perfectly balanced, very well flavoured and prepared and presented to a high standard. I can’t recommend it enough and can’t wait to go back to try the normal menu; by which I just mean not a set menu, as the restaurant menu itself changes weekly in line with what’s fresh and in season – isn’t that brilliant? Exactly how things should be, not to mention always keeping it interesting. Have you tried Arbennig yet? If not, what are you waiting for?

Diolch i chi a hwyl am nawr,

Charles xx

Note: this post was not sponsored, we paid for our meal in full and all views are my own.

Getting Saucy in the kitchen with Saucy Affair

Saucy Affair Raw Sauces are new and coming to the UK market. I was fortunate enough to be invited to try their sauces for review, so the following post is kindly sponsored by themselves (however the opinions are my own).

So, what are these ‘raw sauces’? The idea is that they’re simply blended fruit, veggies and herbs, no nonsense, making it easy to cook up something healthy in the kitchen with their ‘just coat and cook’ slogan. Admittedly, it is as simple as that. Upon checking I was also informed that due to these natural ingredients all sauces are vegan friendly, gluten & wheat free, lactose and nut free too. However, the only potentially questionable ingredient is guar/xanthan gum as there is some debate over the fact that although both are derived from natural substances, they have to be processed in some way to make the gum; thus questioning their classification as ‘raw’… But, from what I can gather, despite being largely indigestible neither tend to have negative impacts on the human gut unless consumed in large quantities, and I can only assume that the gum is there just as a preservative. So personally, I’m willing to overlook it (it’s already in so many things, including many dairy products) but if you’d rather stay paleo maybe skip this one out.

There are 6 sauce sensations to choose from: Teriyaki Malarkey, Cucumber Blunder, Smokey Cokey, Fiery Fiasco, Beetroot Cahoot and Tarragon Shenanigan. Each comes with recommended flavours and ingredients to pair with such as white fish, goats cheese, sausages etc. including several of their own recipes on the website. I chose to do a few of theirs and a few of my own in order to be a bit creative. Here’s what I found!

Teriyaki Malarkey

For this I used their Tofu stir fry recipe which was tasty, satisfying and very easy to do. All done in about 15 mins so really good for a quick, simple dinner and this sauce worked really well with both the stir fry and the tofu; all in all, I’d recommend and repeat this recipe. Tofu isn’t something we usually go for but I even got my boyfriend to like it for a change!

Cucumber Blunder

This one I did my usual trick of just chucking things together in a pan to see how it goes; I did follow their advice from the sea bream recipe and fried my cod fillets in the sauce on a medium-high heat, also throwing in some chopped peppers and green beans. I fried all this for 5-8 mins (by the end the cod broke apart into chunks but I don’t mind as long as it’s tasty) and served with creamy mash potato, which is my own secret recipe. It wasn’t very photogenic as you can see above but the sauce complimented the ingredients well without overpowering and the whole dish tasted delicious. Another thumbs up from me.

Smokey Cokey

A smoky BBQ-style sauce, I had this as a packed lunch stirred into pasta with chunks of Quorn sausages and some veggies in the mix. Some grated cheese on top would’ve been the icing on the cake to be honest but this sauce provided a good, smoky flavour without feeling too ‘meaty’ as I sometimes find with BBQ flavoured foods. I can imagine this sauce would go well with chicken wings (key word being imagine) though I wish I’d tried the mac ‘n’ cheese recipe on their website too, maybe next time.

Fiery Fiasco

Burrito bowls have been one of my favourite things to make recently for a quick, tasty dinner and easy meal prep for the following day’s lunch – you may have guessed from my Instagram. This time I used the Fiery Fiasco sauce instead of frying the onion & peppers in fajita seasoning, served with coconut rice and a dollop of mayo – recipe below. Take note of the two chilli rating on this sauce though, it gave a bit more kick than I was expecting! I really enjoyed this dish and the sauce worked well, but personally I don’t think I’d use it again as it was just a little bit hotter than I’d usually make. Perhaps if I tried their seafood fiesta recipe.

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

• 3 Quorn sausages
• 1 tin chickpeas
• 1 tin black beans
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1-2 peppers, chopped
• (1 medium clove of garlic, crushed – if doing with normal fajita seasoning)
• Coconut oil
• Basmati rice ~130g or 1 mug-full (also works with brown but that takes longer, or can substitute for cauliflower rice)

Method:

Boil a kettle. Heat a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil in a pan over a medium heat; once melted add in the rice and stir around so that the oil coats it. Add boiled water and reduce to medium-low, simmering for around 10 mins* until rice is fluffy and most or all of the water is absorbed. (Remember to stir occasionally to avoid any sticking to the pan, but the coconut oil should help with this anyway).

Meanwhile, cook the Quorn sausages to your preference (I like to grill them on our panini press), this should take around 10 mins so *try to time it the same as the rice.

Whilst the rice & sausages are cooking, heat a little olive oil in a pan on medium-high heat. Add chopped onion and fry until softened. Then add chopped peppers and fry until onion starts to turn golden.

Drain the chickpeas and black beans and add to the pan. Fry off for about a minute then pour in the bottle of Fiery Fiasco sauce and stir to mix. If your pan has a lid, put the lid on and let it simmer and reduce for around 5 mins. Keep an eye on it and keep intermittently stirring.

By this point, the rice and sausages should be done, or nearly there. Remove the sausages from the heat and put onto a plate to cool for a few minutes. Drain the rice in a sieve to remove any leftover moisture and allow to steam a little.

Next, chop the sausages using kitchen scissors and stir the chunks into the sauce, which should now have thickened and be ready to go; remove it from the heat whilst doing this.

Serve with the coconut rice and a dollop of mayo or yoghurt and enjoy!

Beetroot Cahoot

This is another one I decided to make my own recipe with; there’s a little note on this sauce saying that it can be enjoyed cold as a ketchup, which gave me the idea of pizza, substituting the usual passata for Beetroot Cahoot. Seeing as it was #Veganuary at the time, I also decided to branch out and try a cauliflower base (taken from letscookvegan.videos), so this whole recipe can be vegan (and gluten free) if you skip the goats’ cheese.

Ingredients:

• 1 whole cauliflower (or cauli rice)
• 2 tbs Olive oil
• 1 tsp Sea salt
• ½ cup oat flour (made from grinding GF oats in a nutribullet/food processor)
• ½ cup GF self-raising flour
• ½ tsp baking powder
• Sprinkle of thyme
• Sprinkle of smoked paprika
• Toppings of choice (chopped peppers, sweetcorn, goats’ cheese)

Method:

Preheat the oven to around 200 degrees C. Chop the cauliflower into florets and use a blender or processor to turn into rice. Blanch the cauli rice in hot water then drain into a sieve, shaking as much moisture out as possible before shocking with cold water and transferring to a clean tea towel or nut milk bag, if you have one. Twist and ring out the bag/tea towel until the water is pressed out, then empty into a mixing bowl.

Add all ingredients and mix well with your hands to form a dough. Next, either line a baking tray (circular if possible) with baking paper or grease the tray with olive oil. Form the crust onto the sheet/tray, gently pushing about with your fingers and palms to fill the tray.

Bake for 20-30 mins, keeping an eye on it. The video I used says to overbake it, which I would’ve done had I not been in a rush and so would recommend for next time.

Once it’s browning nicely, take it out and spread the Beetroot Cahoot sauce over the base, using the back of a spoon. Add your toppings of choice and put back in the oven for around 5 mins.

When the toppings look done, take out and enjoy! Be careful because this base is very crumbly – or at least mine was; if yours works like the video it should be fine. This worked well as a combination, the base was really nice and the goats’ cheese really complimented the sauce, however the slight kick of horseradish was not to my liking so I wouldn’t choose this one again. My boyfriend liked it though so each to their own.

Tarragon Shenanigan

I originally had another website recipe I was going to adapt for this one, using the basis of the aubergine bake but swapping out the aubergine for butternut squash and the feta cheese for halloumi. Sadly though, for various reasons, I didn’t manage to cook with this one before its expiry date so I’m unable to give a full review. It did sound delicious and I truly am gutted because I hate to waste anything, yet had I realised sooner that the sauces are actually suitable for freezing I would’ve done that to ensure full usage. My apologies here, guys. I will be looking to try it out when it becomes available in stores out of curiosity.

All in all, I enjoyed cooking with these sauces as a change from my usual routine. I don’t actually tend to use bottled sauces often and prefer to create my own, but as these are formed of humble, natural ingredients I made the exception. My personal favourites and those I would choose to buy in stores were the Teriyaki Malarkey and the Smokey Cokey; the first because the tofu stir fry was absolutely delicious and the second because I’d love to try it with mac ‘n’ cheese. I’d also have the Cucumber Blunder again to try with sea bass and roasted potatoes, so my advice to you is to have a browse on the website for some recipe ideas and pick up one or two bottles when you see them in stores and on supermarket shelves (which should be very soon!).

Have you tried any of these yourself? If not, which are you looking forward to trying? I’d love to know if you try one of the recipes above!

Diolch i chi a hwyl am nawr,

Charles xx

Special thanks to Saucy Affair for sponsoring this post with their tasty samples.

Saying goodbye to single-use plastic: Part 2

Although time has passed since the first post of this series, the pressing plastic problem has not changed. There have been some more highlights in the news, including the introduction of more freely available tap water throughout England to encourage water bottle refills and reduce purchases of single-use bottled water, as well as several other political promises made; but nothing legally binding yet. Blue Planet 2 did, however, receive an ‘Impact’ award at the National TV Awards which recognised the significant increase in environmental awareness both in the hearts of the nation and the Houses of Parliament, since its release. Carrying this impact with us, we press on in the quest to Say Goodbye to Single-use Plastic.

Source: an article by Bolojawan.com

Although part 1 was published after Christmas, I didn’t want to overload it with too much info so in this part 2 I’ll talk about some of the things that helped make my Christmas a little more eco-friendly – although there’s still a long way to go. Following my 5 things to remember at Christmas post we were then lucky enough to receive a restaurant gift voucher from one of our family members which, in my opinion, is a perfect example of a thoughtful, zero waste present. What better time for a discounted date night than January in the post-Christmas blues?

A shocking infographic showing the truth behind Christmas waste. Source: article by House Beautiful.

One thing that became apparent whilst opening presents was the sheer amount of waste that wrapping creates, considering that a lot of wrapping paper cannot be recycled as it’s reinforced with plastic and/or sprinkled with specs of glitter – side note: have you ever noticed that you use glitter once and then it never seems to go away? Yep, it’s a very harmful micro-plastic for that exact reason. Biodegradable glitter has in-fact been developed by ecoglitterfun but it will cost you a pretty penny so use it wisely (or avoid glitter altogether). I would say sorry to all the festival go-ers but I know that I was one myself this past year and I know for a fact that I wore glitter on my face at Glastonbury (pictured). This just goes to show, however, that these little changes do require time and effort but aren’t impossible. A group of Nurseries in the UK even banned glitter all together in their efforts to protect the environment, good job! Personally, the next time I go to some such festival I’ll factor in the extra money for eco-friendly glitter – or even chip in with a friend. I digress; the point is that looking at the huge pile of spent wrapping paper in front of us, my family and I agreed next year to abolish it and use newspaper, bags, tissue paper and string or even a nice fabric instead. Better still, focus more on intangible presents that don’t require wrapping.

As for eco-friendly presents, there were some handmade Welsh soaps wrapped in paper rather than plastic, several non-plastic kitchen bits including a bamboo chopping board, and a make-up removing cloth which, so far, has been my personal highlight and a real game-changer. My friend and I had this very conversation only a few months ago, wondering what we could do to eliminate the waste caused by our makeup wipes and cotton pads, yet here the answer was all along. There are a couple of different brands available now but mine is the Magnitone Wipeout and you literally just wet it with warm water and wipe (or rub) the make-up away (mine is very well used as you can see…) I was a little hesitant but it actually works a dream, even on thick eye makeup! I love it! Just goes in the wash with everything else when it needs a refresh.

Outside of Christmas, one of the things I wanted to talk about in this post is washing up. In the first post I talked about my coconut hair, biodegradable scourer and since then I’ve made a few other changes to my washing up routine – or, at least, tried. In terms of ditching the sponge, that I have done. I’ve employed the use of microfiber cloths I already had but wasn’t using, for washing up and general cleaning in place of sponges and kitchen roll (which, by the way, isn’t always recyclable so I’ve ditched that too. Same goes for tin foil.) This works really well and I can’t complain, although I am conscious that this may be a plastic fibre issue to tackle at some point down the line… let’s hope not.

Christmas present soap

Attempt at homemade washing up liquid

As for washing up liquid, however, I was super keen to make my own after seeing several recipes online, as I talked about in part 1. When it came to it, sadly I’m not sure it made the cut (pictured above). In theory it’s a simple combination of soap, vinegar, water and some essential oils but in reality the lack of lather in comparison to the usual shop-bought washing up liquid made it hard to tell whether it was actually doing the job, and seeing my cutlery dry with soap spots was the final (non-plastic) straw for me. So unfortunately, we had to emergency swap back to normal for the time being, though we tried to pick one that’s supposed to last forever and ever until that annoying little kid on the advert wants to build his bloody toy rocket. At least he’s reusing.

Moving home recently was another opportunity to seek out eco-friendly/non-plastic alternatives to things normally bought for the house, such as making sure I bought a metal rack for the draining board (as oppose to the many plastic options out there) and hunting high and low for a suitable, sustainable foot stool (we are short people, we can’t reach the top cupboards). The perfect little footstool was finally found in TK Maxx – see photo below; I wanted a wooden one with character that we could keep forever and ever and, seeing as my boyfriend loves orcas, that’s exactly what I found!

Our perfect, adorable orca stool 🙂

Time for another DIY project: homemade antibacterial spray. Antibac wipes are yes, very convenient but not only contain plastic fibres like many other types of wet/makeup wipe, they also get flushed down the toilet (for some reason completely unbeknown to me; they are NOT ‘flushable’, the packaging lies) and cause all kinds of drain blockages, bursts, contribute to littering and even help form ‘fatbergs’ as we’ve seen in the news because they do not decompose. Anyway, I kept aside a spray bottle of old antibac that would otherwise have been recycled and made up my concoction. This one works an absolute treat: water, white vinegar, lemon juice, lavender oil, tea tree oil. That’s all there was to it! Wine vinegar is a naturally brilliant cleaning agent especially for stainless steel and glass, whilst lavender and tea tree oils are naturally antibacterial and add a little extra scent to mask some of the vinegar. My boyfriend still thinks ours smells too vinegar-y, but it’s only when you’re actually spraying and wiping it down, once dry the odour doesn’t linger. Personally I’ve been loving using this spray and would recommend anyone to try it at home, it’s so simple and so effective! And amazing to know that you’re only using natural ingredients so there’s no itchy skin from chemicals afterwards (no nasty testing on animals either!).

There’s plenty more I could write here, but better save it for next time… The key points this time are:

• Use up what you already have first to save waste, or perhaps even give it away
• Dedicate a little time researching the best eco and plastic-free alternative (or, at least, single-use-plastic-free) and it will pay off
• Take the opportunity to make a sustainable swap when it presents itself i.e. moving home or replacing something
• Don’t be afraid to talk to others about this, not just friends & family but bars and restaurants. There are plenty out there looking to make a difference, which I’ll do a separate post about soon but The No Straw Stand is a good place to start.

If you’re still just starting out on your plastic-reduction journey, here’s an article from earthyandy on some small, simple steps to get going.

Also, update on the bamboo straw teething problems from last time: since making sure I always have one or two in my handbag it has become much easier to implement and I no longer fear making a fuss by asking specifically not to be given a straw with my drink. If I have more than one on me then usually a friend borrows one too, double-win. I recently got asked about them when putting my own straw in my drink at a bar, which just goes to show that interest can spread and there is hope for a Straw-Free Cardiff. More on this to come…

Do you have any advice on favourite eco-friendly products? Have you been trying to cut down on plastic and live more consciously too? Stay tuned for more next time! (And if you haven’t watched Blue Planet 2 yet, seriously what have you been doing?! Catch up here).

Diolch i chi a hwyl am nawr,

Charles xx

Note: none of the links in this article are sponsored.

Source for Featured Image: Justin Hofman photography.