Summer in the city - lunch at Turtle Bay, Preston

Turtle Bay, Preston sits in the heart of the city near to the Harris Museum and next to the iconic flag market, famous for its warm and friendly relaxed vibe, Turtle Bay is a popular spot in the city and we were recently invited along to sample their new summer menu.

Harking back to the days when the venue was a record shop ( yes I'm that old ... and yes I remember it as a record shop) part of the interior is decorated in homage to its roots, I loved this area, each Turtle bay has similar relaxed Caribbean styling to its decor, rough plasterwork, bare concrete, sheet steel and of course the colours of the Jamaican flag.

                                         

Later in the post there are more images of the fab interior, which screams summer and warm tropical breezes, which put us in a sunshine mood despite it being a typical Lancashire June day outside i.e. 14 degrees and overcast. The welcome was warm and friendly and the team eager to please.

So lets get down to the the food and drinks, the menu has been tweaked to reflect the change in season and the hopefully rising temperatures. 

Drinks - Mr LF was disappointed to discover that the Guinness West Indian Porter he so loved last time we visited was no longer on the menu, so instead he chose the Jamaican Pale Ale, brewed by The Bay especially to complement the jerk dishes at Turtle Bay. 

                                                          

I chose the Elderflower cooler, a refreshing mocktail with elderflower cordial, cucumber ribbons, fresh mint and lime juice topped up with soda and lots of ice. Delicious and very summery.

                                                     

On to the food, starters -  the Classic chilli beef patty for Mr LF, a crisp turmeric spiced pastry parcel, with a ground spiced beef filling and scotch bonnet chillies, served on a plank with baby gem lettuce cups of cooling house mayo.

My choice was the Jerk Pit chicken wings, three wings of chicken, spiced and marinated for 24 hours before being pit grilled,  the skin was a little flabby but  overall a tasty dish served with a choice of glaze, I plumped for pineapple. Sweet spicy and tasty, and very messy... no knifes and forks here.

Mains now, Jammin Lamb burger, a pit grilled lamb and mutton burger, served on a sweet pineapple glazed bun with crispy baby gem lettuce, sliced tomato, fresh mint and onion salad, herb mayo accompanied with spicy fries and Caribbean slaw. Juicy lamby and tasty, but  it wasn't very spicy.

My choice was the Avocado, butternut squash and mango salad, I chose pit grilled garlic and chilli prawns to up the protein content of my dish, I was slightly disappointed (only 4 prawns but they were whoppers) and not very spicy but well cooked. The salad made me smile with crispy gem lettuce, sugar snap peas, beets and juicy avocado and mango, coconut shavings and a citrus lime dressing, very summery and colourful.

                                                   

Dessert time, well it would rude not to, Mr LF loved the sound of the Cayman upside down rum cake, this is Turtle bays equivalent of sticky toffee pudding, warm vanilla rum cake, with rum caramel sauce and vanilla ice cream. 

             

I liked the sound of the Spiced Rum and chocolate pot with coconut ice cream, Richly spiced decadent chocolate mousse served with refreshing coconut ice cream, the portion was very large and not very glamorously presented but it tasted very very good, just a little large portion wise given the richness of the pudding. I loved the enamel dishes used , they just look so rustic

                    

Here are more interior shots for you to enjoy

                                

                                         

So That's all Folks ! until next time

                                        

Turtle Bay Preston,

Crystal House,

Birley Street, 

Preston, 

PR1 2AQ

We dined on a complementary basis after being invited to give a review, all thoughts, views, opinions are our own. We were not expected to give a positive review.

Greek Orzo salad

The first time I ate Orzo (or the Greek equivalent (kritharáki)) was over 20 years ago on a very hot day in Delphi in Greece, home of the legendary of oracle in a stunningly situated taverna overlooking the gorge.  So that's how an orzo based Greek salad came about plus we have a couple of cucumber plants which are producing legendary quantities of fruit, so a Greek influenced pasta salad it had to be.

Delphi was the one place in Greece I would like to return to as it situated in the mountains, so its a little cooler than the plains and there was history at every turn, plus the views were amazing. Our hotel simply furnished overlooking that impressive gorge,I can't for the life of me what it was called but its probably still there as its that sort of place.

On to our delightfully simple recipe, which makes an ideal accompaniment to grilled chicken or fish or as part of a mezze or salad selection for a barbecue or party

What you need

• Roughly 1 dessert bowl - Orzo pasta - cooked and cooled by rinsing in cold water 
• 1 Red onion, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 whole Cucumber -peeled and chopped in to small chunks
• Tomatoes - chopped into small chunks or cherry halved
• Feta cheese - crumbled
• Bunch of fresh basil
• Freshly ground pepper
• 4 tbsp Olive oil 
• 1 tbsp Lemon juice
• 1 tsp Honey
• 1 tsp Mustard - I used Dijon

What you do

• Cook the orzo pasta according to the instructions on the packet, once cooked rinse under the cold tap to cool rapidly.
• Place in a large bowl with the chopped onion, cucumber and tomato
• Crumble the feta cheese over the top and tear the basil leaves also on the top
• Quickly mix the olive oil, lemon juice,  honey and mustard in a separate bowl to form a dressing, my tool of preference is a small whisk, season with some freshly ground pepper
• Pour on to the contents of the large bowl and toss to ensure everything gets coated with dressing
• Ta dah ! your salad is ready. Chill if you like and it keeps for a couple of days in the fridge.

We are linking up this post to Recipe of the Week over on A Mummy Too

                                                               

And Simple and In Season over on RenBehan, a linky for seasonal food

And we will also be linking up to a few other challenges later in the month once the linky's are live

No Croutons Required hosted by Tinned Tomatoes

                                                                 

Meat Free Mondays over on Tinned Tomatoes

                                                            

And also to Pasta Please created by Tinned Tomatoes and hosted this month by A Mummy too

                                              

French bean, tomato and cumin salad

I love using fresh seasonal produce in recipes and its even better if that produce is freshly picked from the garden. As per usual I am fighting a loosing battle with the courgette plants in the garden and it was whilst picking the a fore mentioned vegetable, I spotted that my lovely golden french bean plants were starting to crop. I find French beans are always better eaten young and the golden variety we are are growing this year is pleasantly waxy.

This is a great dish to serve along side a grilled steak or chicken fillet or just on its own with other salads and has a pleasant aromatic spiciness which is lovely warm or cold, it also usefully uses a few small tomatoes too homegrown if you have those too. It would be a great take along dish for a bbq or party, much more exciting than the standard coleslaw.

What you need

• French beans - topped and tailed (not too large pods)
• Butter - a good sized knob
• Tomato - 1 large or couple of small - chopped 
• Clove of garlic - crushed
• Freshly ground cumin - 1 tsp ish
• Salt - pinch
• Pepper - to taste
• Fresh coriander leaves

What you do

• Simmer the prepared beans in a little salted water until tender, but still with a little body.
• Drain the beans and place in a small frying pan and cook with the butter, garlic, chopped tomato and cumin.
• Cook for a few minutes until the tomato pieces are softened, remove from heat, season to taste.
• Serve strewn with fresh corainder leaves

I'm joining in the foodie fun this month over on Tinned Tomatoes for No Croutons required.

                                                            

We are also linking up to Eat your Greens over at Allotment 2 kitchen

And finally we are linking up to The Spice Trail who's theme this month is Beach BBQ, hosted over on Bangers and Mash.                                                          

                              

Rocket, roasted tomato, basil and feta salad

This salad is seriously amazing for two main reasons firstly its tastes great and secondly as it uses plenty of rocket (arugula for our American friends), the reason why I like this is because we have a forest of of rocket growing in the vegetable garden. I enjoy rocket salads as our homegrown wild rocket has a spicy Parmesan cheese edge to its flavour so its great in combination with other Mediterranean salad ingredients. This salad is a mish mash of Italian and Greek flavours and screams languid hot summer days to me.

I am sure I can almost here Spanish guitars and feel Balearic breezes through the trees.....

I am sure if you didn't fancy roasting the tomatoes that some good sun dried tomatoes would be nearly as good in this dish, plus you could swap out the feta for local goat cheese, serve with chilled white wine and good bread, simple grilled meats or fish and good friends.

What you need

• Rocket (Arugula) - a good handful for each person
• Basil- a few sprigs - leaves picked off
• Feta or goats cheese - 1 block serves about 4 - chopped or crumbled
• 6 - 10 baby plum or cherry tomatoes - halved
• Extra virgin olive oil ( extra virgin rapeseed would also be good)
• Sprig of fresh thyme - leaves picked off
• White wine vinegar / balsamic vinegar / red wine vinegar
• Pinch of sugar
• Salt and freshly ground pepper

What you do 

• Heat your oven to 220c
• Toss the tomatoes in a little of the olive oil and place in a small oven tray, sprinkle with the thyme and a little sugar and season with salt and pepper.
• Roast for about 30 minutes or so until the tomatoes are slightly charred and soft (like in the bottom image)
• Cool ( you can store in the fridge for a while if you like, no snaffling !)
• iMake a dressing of the pan juices, a good slug of olive oil and some vinegar (you are going for 6/1 oil to vinegar ratio), taste and adjust seasoning if needed.
• To assemble the salad, toss the rocket in the dressing , then top with the cheese and roasted tomatoes and drizzle with a little more of the dressing.
• Strew with basil leaves
• Serve immediately and devour greedily.

I'm linking up to Simple and in Season, created by Ren Behan and hosted this month by Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary.

                                            

I am also linking to Extra Veg created by Fuss Free Flavours and Utterly Scrummy and hosted this month over at Maison Cupcake.

First Garden salad, hot smoked salmon and jersey royals and rabbit proof fence

Over the last few days we have been busy in the vegetable garden, sowing, planting and fencing (to keep pesky Peter Rabbit away from the vegetables, just hope it works), I noticed that finally we have enough rocket, sorrel , flat leaf parsley, early lettuce and salad burnet to have a green salad from the garden for lunch.

Supplemented by some left over jersey royal potatoes (which incidentally you can serve hot or cold, I like both ways ) and some hot smoked salmon (the best comes from DelishFish their honey roast is awesome), I quickly whipped up a light complementary dressing using about a tablespoon on EVOO ( extra virgin olive oil), a little lemon juice, a 1/2 tsp dijon mustard, a few drops of honey and some fresh or dried dill. Whisk it all up and taste for seasoning and balance. Oh and I snipped over some chives too.

There you have a great easy lunch, very healthy and tasty too ! 

                                             

This post fits perfectly with the brief for Herbs on Saturday a great blog campaign run by the lovely Karen at Lavender and Lovage and this month hosted by Anneli at Delicieux

 

Prosciutto, rocket and chestnut mushroom salad

I love Italian food so here's a salad inspired by Italy, we make this mainly when the rocket from the garden is growing like mad, but it can be made anytime of year if you can get hold of some nice fresh peppery rocket.

Ingredients

• Fresh Rocket, a good handful per portion
• Chestnut mushrooms - finely sliced
• Parma Ham or air dried prosciutto
• Parmesan or Grando Padano - grated finely
• Good quality extra virgin olive oil
• Good quality matured balsamic vinegar

Method

• Serve on a plate with the rocket in the centre
• Parma ham around the plate, ripped in to large pieces
• Scatter the mushrooms randomly across the salad
• Grate the cheese across the whole dish
• Sprinkle with olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Delicious, served with goats cheese bruschetta or plain bruschetta, you'll have amazing depths of flavours.

Chicken, green bean and courgette salad

The harvest from the garden is starting to slow but we are still battling a couple of gluts, mainly green beans (well actually purple beans as they are Blue Lake) and courgettes ( both yellow and the more traditional green), we still also have a pretty good selection of salad leaves growing too. Inspired by a recipe in River Cottage "Vegetables" this is a versatile lunch dish which has the comforting warmth of the beans and courgettes to lift it on these cooler days, the addition of  cooked shredded chicken ups the protein content, but can easily be omitted if you require a vegetarian dish.

Ingredients

• Shredded cooked chicken
• Mixed salad leaves (spinach, rocket, lettuce leaves, maybe a little mint)
• Cucumber
• Courgettes - sliced 
• Green beans, cut into bit sized pieces
• Olive oil
• Lemon juice
• Honey
• Salt and Pepper

Method

• Arrange the salad and shredded chicken on a plate
• Cook the green beans until tender
• Mix the olive oil, lemon juice, honey and salt and pepper in a jar to make a dressing, taste 
• Fry the courgettes until softened and lightly coloured
• Add the beans and courgettes to the salad leaves and then drizzle with dressing
• Serve immediately

Grilled Halloumi and herb salad

I know halloumi isn't made in Lancashire but hey I am allowed to try other classic dishes from other countries. I wanted a cheese that would stand up the robust flavours of a herb salad. I love the way in southern Europe they aren't afraid to use herbs as a salad ingredient, which impart a lovely herbal background to the salad. Absolutely delicious and a salad that will transport to the Mediterranean in moments.

Ingredients

• Halloumi, sprinkled with smoked paprika
• Cucumber - chunky chopped
• Tomatoes - chunky chopped
• Mixed salad leaves - torn into large pieces
• Rocket - torn
• Flat leaf parsley - torn , small handful
• Mint - 10  leaves , each torn into 3 pieces
• Olives - black or green, whatever you have
•  Extra virgin Olive oil or  cold pressed rapeseed oil - 2 or 2 tbsp
• 1 clove of garlic crushed
• Honey - 1tsp
• Lemon juice - 1tbsp

Method

• Assemble your salad in a large bowl
• Mix the oil, lemon juice, honey and crushed garlic in a separate small bowl, this is your salad dressing
• Now grill the halloumi until golden on both sides
• Tosh your salad with the dressing, place on your serving plate
• Top the salad with the halloumi slices

This salad would also be lovely served with lasagne or moussaka.

I am also using this post as my entry for Herbs on Saturday challenge hosted by Lavender & Lovage and this month by guest hosted by Bangers and Mash 

Peasant Salad

This salad is a great easy standard that never disappoints, its a warm salad for those summer days when the weather refuses to play ball and is unseasonably cool. Since our new hens arrived egg production has rapidly increased so this salad features boiled eggs too, you can use what ever you have in the fridge and whatever is growing in the garden or you have been able to nab from the hedgerow.

Ingredients

• Bacon - either pancetta cubes or smoked streaky chopped in to small pieces
• Boiled egg - 1 per person - quartered
• New potatoes - ruffords / jersey's or similar - just make it local if you can - boiled until soft, keep warm
• Cherry Tomatoes
• Cucumber
• Salad leaves - rocket, lambs lettuce, purslane, etc
• Mushrooms - chopped finely and fried in a little oil until soft.
• Olive oil or rapeseed oil
• Balsamic vinegar or your favourite fruit vinegar

Method

• Assemble your salad leaves , boiled eggs on a plate
• Quickly fry your bacon till crispy in a little olive oil, then add the mushrooms back to the pan to warm through
• Drain your potatoes and put on your plate
• Scoop your bacon and  mushrooms  using a slotted spoon onto the plates sprinkling all over the salad
• Add balsamic to warm pan along with pan juices, swirl and then use to dress salad
• Delicious :-)

Celery, apple and Lancashire Cheese salad

Celery is a pretty underrated vegetable. Most the recipes you see it in are for some form of waldorf salad , well my hubby doesn't like nuts so that crosses most of them of the list straight away, most also feature mayonniase too. I like the combination of celery and apple so I thought I would combine this with a good Lancashire cheese and see what I got.

Fenland Celery is a hierloom variety , that has a beautiful nutty mellow flavour and is crunchy and not at all stringy, so special that protective geographical indication status has been applied for.

The resulting salad was delicious and crunchy, dressed with rapeseed and balsamic vinegar.

Sweetfire beetroot, goat cheese and rocket salad

As one of the lucky bloggers taking part in the #thinkyouknowbeetroot campaign from lovebeetroot  here is the first recipe using one of the samples I have been sent to play with. Any regular readers of my blog will know that I enjoy finding novel ways of using ingredients. I was lucky to already to have a supply of fabulous local goats cheese from Capra Products, the last of homegrown wild rocket and a few tomatoes from the garden. Sweetfire beetroot is baby beetroots marinated in a chilli olive oil dressing, so the beetroot has a slight chilli piquancy, I mixed up a quick olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing ( I use Gift of Oil black label) to pull the dish together.

Ingredients

• Salad Rocket
• Sweetfire Beetroot
• Goats cheese
• Tomatoes (optional)
• Balsamic vinegar
• Olive oil

Method

Place the beetroot on your serving plate, sprinkle with rocket, crumble the goats cheese and drizzle with your dressing. Delicious, simple lunch ideal served with crusty bread to mop up the lovely dressing.