REVIEW Oundle Mill

Jodie and I visited Oundle Mill the other evening. It used to be Barnwell mill, and after a massive refurbishment project it has risen up as a cleverly designed, urban chic restaurant and hotel in the country.
We dined in the Upstairs restaurant with black tables and napkins, purple crushed velvet chairs, low beams and down lights on the rough stone walls. A glass sided kitchen let us watch the chefs at work when we could tear our eyes away from the food.
The staff are very friendly and from the welcoming receptionist to the waitresses in the restaurant we were looked after exceptionally well. I think the only thing that let it down was their lack of knowledge of the dishes they were serving. The amuse bouche- a superb spiced tomato juice was explained, but for the rest of the meal we were not told all that we were eating, which would have helped.
To start J had ham hock terrine with cabbage and beetroot. This was served so beautifully and artfully it was a shame to mess it up. I had hotsmoked salmon with cured herring. Again very well arranged; a parcel of salmon, a plouche of leaves and herring fillets laid at angles on top of one another.
The main courses took art to another level. J ate roasted cod with winter vegetables and braised oxtail. I had haunch of venison with chocolate parfait and red cabbage. All the componenants in both these dishes tasted really good. The parfait was smooth and rich, the venison cooked to a beautiful pink, the oxtail fell apart and the cod was as opaque as the thinnest of china. However, there were other items on the plates. J had a homemade canneloni, I am presuming stuffed with oxtail. The red cabbage, although perfectly piquant had a rissotto croquette nestling within it, and the venison was supporting a quinelle of pureed vegetable- I'm guessing sweet potato/carrot?. The dishes described on the menu did not need the extras, in my opinion, and although it was all really well cooked and presented, I felt the more subtle flavours were lost in the explosion of everything else.
I thought it felt like 6 chefs had all put their best dishes on one plate, with only a vague chat about what anyone else was doing.
The pre pudding was a an eggshell filled with meringue and a fruit mousse-made to look like a boiled egg. It was really lovely, but not knowing exactly what was in it was a shame. For pudding J had passion fruit souffle with a berry sorbet, and I had a banana parfait with banana fritters. The souffle left J speechless for a while, and when she did speak she just said "that's the best souffle I've ever eaten" High praise indeed. My parfait was spectacular- I was expecting a smooth ice, but the pieces of banana added a really good flavour and feel. The fritters were lovely, and a pleasant warmth against the parfait.
Petit fours were also homemade- rich and genorous portions. I would say the pastry chef excelled on that evening.
The meal came to £99 including two glasses of wine. We will be trying the downstairs restaurant, and possibly looking for more simple food. Take a look at the website www.oundlemill.co.uk they are very proud of the refurb, as they should be, and I hope they go from strength to strength.

Familiarity Breeds Nicknames

We had a discussion front of house this morning. It was started by Cappuccino man. His name is Bob. I have known his name is Bob for some time, and he visits us at least once a day, with his wife- Jacquie- and their two huge Irish Wolfhounds -Kerry and Marnie. They have been stopping for drinks and toast every morning for the last five years. I however cannot think of him as Bob. He is Cappuccino man. They used to be "The Cappucino People", but Jacquie now drinks filter coffee. We have always made up names for people, some not as obvious as simply what they drink. We have Rockmancake. Don't ask. We have Nice hand man, Apricot jam man, Crazy Lady, Birthday Lady, Crazy Cake Lady, Takeaway man- who now signs his christmas cards to us with this alias rather than Roy- and The Cat in the Hat.
We are also more likley to know the dogs names, than the owners names. We still refer to "Storms owner" even though we know it is their sons dog and we know they are called Jacquie and Ivor. "Stitch man" is actually Gordon, another father taking his sons dog out, but if I refer to him as Gordon to my staff, they would give me a blank look.
It is a strange phenomonon, but it must happen everywhere. It is the distinguishing feature, although we sell hundreds of Cappucinos throughout the day we know who we mean.
I asked Cappuccino man if he had names for us, the new members of staff that they haven't got to know yet, but he commented with a wry smile "you wouldn't serve me again if I told you".
I know some customers do have names for us- the smiley one, the bright one, the one with the dreadlocks, the other one with the dreadlocks, the little one and the one with The Hair. The one with the hair was a waitress who had a different style and colour for every week, indeed some customers came in and their first question was "what colour is it today?"
Within the staff we have changed peoples names around. It started by reversing first names. Jodie Became Eidoj, but is now Dojie, and Gemma became Ammeg. In her case this then became Ammeg and Chips, and sometimes shortened to Andchips. Bizarrely she answers even to that!Jamie became Majie, and we have had Shakey, Browney,Greeny and Jimbob Squarepants.
We are a simple people, but we are a happy people.

Cold Weather Food

I know it's January, and therefore should be cold but the lake has not frozen totally in the 5 years we have been in Ferry meadows. It does look amazing, even if the black headed gulls look somewhat confused!
For the last to years I have been teaching Gary the ranger how to cook. ( He's the one that is doing the guided dog walk on Jan14) We started off doing simple wholesome things for him to eat after a hard days work, but now we are getting a little more extravagant and it is more of a social thing for us, rather than a teaching thing.
Jodie joined us the other evening, and we all cooked vastly different things.
Gary and I cooked a Thai red chicken curry- lovely creamy coconut with the warmth of fresh chillies, lemon grass and lime leaves. We then made a North African lamb and vegetable Pillau. This was a new one to me. Marinate cubes of lamb in thyme, paprika, garam masala and garlic for a couple of hours, then boil it in plenty of water. Saute onions, carrots etc in some butter, add some rice, yoghurt and the lamb in it's stock, cover and cook for 20 minutes. It was a lovely melting, warming and fragrant supper- perfect for these chilly evenings.
Jodie made Aubergine parcels. This was strips of aubergine, boiled for 2 minutes. Lay two to form a cross on a board and on the overlap bit put a slice of tomato, some mozzarella and either a basil leaf or some pesto. Cross the aubergine over the top to form a parcel and then grill the whole thing. A beautiful starter, or have a couple with some green salad and you have a healthy, tasty meal.
Jodie also did a chicken and mango salad, smothered in a mayonnaise mixed with red curry paste, with fresh mango and served with an orange scented rice. More of a summer dish, I know, but after heavy Christmas stuff it was a really good powerful taste whilst being light.

I would just like to take this moment to wish Suzie all the best. She is one of our best customers, and a very helpful taster of new products, a job she does with heroic fortitude! She is recovering in hospital at the moment and trying to get our cakes on the NHS as a medicinal part of her recovery. Good luck with that!