Royal Oak at Riley Green

                            

STOP PRESS - Updated article 9th March 2013

The pub has now been fully re-furbished and has a full menu featuring some great local produce, we were kindly invited to attend the re-launch and to meet the Thwaites Shire horses too, who came out to celebrate the re-launch. We  were treated to some lovely Lancashire nibbles all washed down with some of Thwaites fine ales, of special note was the Wainwright caviar !

As you may have gathered here at Lancashire Food, we enjoy eating out and were excited to here that the team behind our favourite restaurant were taking on the tenancy of the Royal Oak at Riley Green.  This country inn is situated on the main road to Blackburn from Preston and Chorley, not far from Hoghton Tower, so its easy to find.

To the delight of Mr Lancashire Food this is a Thwaites house so the beers are good and his favourite brew "Wainwright" is available on draught. Chris and Mike  have introduced a menu which  focuses on quality , consistency and freshness, from local suppliers. The menu is currently shorter than they would like as they are planning alterations to the kitchen and dining areas in the very near future, but their is still plenty of choice.

Our visit was on a Saturday lunchtime and we were pleased to see that several other parties were already dining on entering the pub. We were warmly welcomed by the knowledgeable and polite front of house team and seated near the fireplace. 

We ordered drinks as we browsed the menu and made our choices. After a reasonable wait ( our waiter was keen to tell us everything is cooked from fresh) our food arrived. 

Mr Lancashire Food's choice was a steak and ale pie with the days choice of vegetables and twice cooked chips. The vegetables were deliciously tender and cooked from fresh and the pie well flavoured and packed with tender steak.

My burger was delicious, served in a muffin with cheese and tomato relish , the chips were amazing and the salad fresh and well balanced, no soggy sad lettuce here.

Both were well sized portions and good examples of pub food done well. We will be back and will be bringing friends next time who we are sure will enjoy the warm friendly pub environment and the great food and ales, the pub also welcomes families.

We did not give notice of our visit to the team and we paid for our food and drinks, just in case you were wondering.

Fabulicious Ices Blog Competition round up

Well despite really rubbish Summer weather (apparently the wettest summer for 100 years) we have had some fabulous entries for Lancashire Foods first  recipe competition. The brief was to share your favourite summer ice recipe and the winner would be judged by award winning local chef Chris Rawlinson. The prize for the winner was an Emma Bridgewater union jack cooler bag.

Chris Rawlinson is Chef Patron of The Red Cat, Chorley, despite only being in his twenties he has achieved numerous accolades including 

Michelin Guide Entry 2009/10/11/12

Awarded 2 AA Rosettes

Taste Lancashire Highest Quality Assured 2010/2011

Hi Life Best Platinum Restaurant Finalist 2010

North West Young Chef of the Year 2009

Lancashire Life Winners 2007 - 2008

and he also was a participant in this years Roux Scholarship.

He also has a particular flair for creating amazing desserts in his restaurant, many of which I have enjoyed as part of some great meals with my friends and family. If you are ever in the area make sure you book a table.

Chris thought all of the recipes sounded really good and were diverse and used lots of different ingredients, methods and flavours, so it was a difficult decision to decide a winner, but there is always only ever one winner !

So on to our WINNER -  from Laura at How to cook good food

Tea Ice Cream and Biscuits 

Wow, doesn't that look fab and who doesn't like tea and biscuits, Chris particularly liked  the marriage of the ice cream, tea and biscuits and thinks this works really well as a combination. Ever the chef he even provided a tip that personally he would create a tea infusion overnight and then strain and churn, this would leave a smooth tea flavoured ice cream and the crunch coming from the biscuits.

So the prize of the funky Emma Bridgewater cooler bag is winging its way to Laura , well done and thanks for taking part.

I can quite understand the difficult task Chris had in choosing a winner as the other entries are all equally delicious looking. So here goes with the round up

Raspberry Ripple and White Chocolate Ice cream from the lovely Jacq over at Tinned Tomatoes

What a great looking entry and its no churn too, which is great in a busy household or if like Jacq you have little ones, I am sure this recipe would be popular with all the family and would be a great way to get little ones to eat fruit.

Our next entry was from choclette8 who blogs at Choclogblog who entry was Blackcurrant Rose and white chocolate ripple ice cream.

This is a lovely summery combination of ingredients and features the delicious rose syrup to compliment the blackcurrants and white chocolate, Chocolette8 is an expert in all things chocolate , thanks for the entry.

Now we are popping over to Janine at Cake of the Week blog who entry was a yummy sounding and healthy(ish) Sugar Free Peanut butter and banana ice cream, I love peanut butter  so if I had been judging this would have been made favourite . She also provides a handy tip on an easy conversion on the recipe to a custard. Thanks for the great post .

An even healthier recipe came from my cake club chum Sue who blogs over at A little bit of heaven on a plate ,sent in Dieters' Blackcurrant and mint sorbet.

Sue's entry is a great dessert for anyone watching their waistline and will provide a delicious fruity end to any meal. What an amazing colour too ! Thanks Sue for the post.

Finally we have another entry from our winning blogger Laura at How to Cook Good Food, this time is a very child friendly Banana Shake Pop and an ode to the banana milk shake. This ice looks like fun and is super easy to make too, just buy milkshake and freeze in moulds.Looks like its popular too !

Kitchenaid !

My beloved mixer, after coveting Kitchenaid mixers from a far for a number of years, in February of this year for valentines day my husband purchased a Kitchenaid Classic mixer for me. For the uninitiated the classic is exactly the same as the artisan mixer, other than the bowl supplied is slightly smaller , it only comes in white not the funky colours of the artisan and most importantly is about £100 cheaper !

The mixer is a classic, my favourite local chef (Chris Rawlinson) has a kitchen aid classic , so has Ina Garten (Barefoot Contessa), so it comes well recommended. Its chunky , classic and will last you a lifetime, the design is fab as there are no awkward bits that you can’t clean and the different mixer heads are a breeze to swap over. Everything is metal, no plastic bits, I love love love it :-)

Must also say I bought mine via a family firm in Cumbria and they were fab, customer service wise as these mixers can be hard to get hold of.