Me and Ben recently spent a few stunning days by the sea in the beautiful coastal town of Weymouth. We stayed in an adorable caravan but spent most of the time exploring Weymouth and sampling a plethora of local treats and delicacies. The rain was shockingly bad but we didn’t let it stop us; luckily, when the rain came down, we were never far from a pub!

We ate in a lot of lovely places over the long weekend but for me, the standout meal was our dinner at Floods Restaurant. This is the number 1 restaurant in Weymouth according to Tripadvisor, high praise indeed! We tried to eat there on our first night but were told they were fully booked all that night and the next! Panic! I asked if we could possibly get a table for Sunday and we were able to snag an 8pm reservation. Success. I was so looking forward to it. I absolutely love seafood and seldom get the chance to sample anything near as fresh as I anticipated Floods would serve.

We arrived for our 8pm reservation and were shown to a lovely table for 2. The restaurant was very small with dim lighting and hushed murmurs from our fellow diners. We found it cosy and romantic, perfect for couples. There was a blackboard on the wall crammed with different options all based on that day’s fresh catches which we thought was a lovely touch. Although it did make it harder for me to pick what I wanted as some of the specials sounded amazing too!

I was delighted to see scallops offered on both the starter and main menus and quickly made the decision to indulge in my favourite food twice in one meal. Ben was also happy to see that there were a couple of veggie options for his starter and he was looking forward to the vegetarian main course of mushroom stroganoff – I had phoned up beforehand to enquire about the evenings offering as the online menu doesn’t specify.

For my starter, I chose the pan fried scallops, cooked in butter, garlic and white wine. The dream!

After I had removed the shell (love that presentation!) I was left with this.

The scallops were huge, tender and melt-in-the-mouth. I was wary of the coral having only ever had supermarket bought, coral-free scallops, but they were a delicious addition. The garlic butter was amazing and I made sure to soak up all the remaining juice with the fresh bread rolls we were served. I was in absolute heaven with this dish! I was gutted when I’d finished but I knew I had even more to come in my main dish!

Ben chose ale battered brie as his starter and was thrilled with the generous portion he recieved.

The brie was a creamy liquid inside the batter, oozing out teasingly when disturbed with his knife. It was served with a spicy homemade chutney, spicy and tangy, pairing perfectly with the creamy cheese.

For my main course I chose the monkfish wrapped in parma ham which came with even more scallops, balsamic glaze and a creamy, fragrant sauce.

This was an amazing dish. The parma ham infused the delicate monkfish with a lovely smokiness and the fish itself was cooked perfectly, flaking off underneath the ham with the gentlest nudge of my fork.

The scallops were once again served with the coral and were as delicious as the ones in my starter and the balsamic glaze was sweet, sticky and thick, just the way a glaze should be! We were served assorted spring vegetables and potatoes with our main courses and I particularly enjoyed the tiny roasted new spuds dipped in the glaze. This was a wonderful dish and has really made me want to start ordering fish and seafood more often when at restaurants. Normally I’m a steak girl but I need to remember how enjoyable and light fish can be.

When Ben was served his main course he was initially a bit put off by the presentation. I protested – how nice can mushroom stroganoff ever really look!? And we agreed they’d made a good effort with the shaped rice and sprinkle of paprika. He said it was absolutely delicious though and ate every last bite so I’m glad to report the appearance didn’t put him off too much! The sauce was rich and creamy with a strong earthy flavour from the mushrooms. We weren’t sure if the vegetables and potatoes went too well with a dish like this but he took some anyway!

Predictably, we were too full for dessert but they had 1 or 2 options I would loved to have tried, namely the chocolate pudding! And Ben wanted to try the lemon tart. We’ll just have to go back to sample them!

It was Ben’s birthday last week and as we were going to Weymouth for the weekend of his actual birthday, I decided to cook him a nice meal the Saturday before. I knew exactly what I wanted to make, something I’d been wanting to create ever since Ben became vegetarian 6 years ago…seitan! I found a recipe I liked the sound of and planned to adapt it slightly to fit in with our tastes. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find vital wheat gluten in any shop in the entire county of Hampshire so had to order it online from Veggiestuff.com – I ordered some geletin-free Haribo sweets from there for Christmas and was very impressed with the service.

I placed the order Tuesday night and waited and waited and waited…and waited, for it to come. Saturday (the day of the dinner) I was up with the larks, obsessively checking out the window for the postman. At about 11am I saw him striding down the road in the rain in all his fluorescent glory and ran down the stairs to wait. Finally he arrived at our door and I watched as a letter, two flyers and a Domino’s leaflet dropped through the letterbox and onto the mat. No boxes or packages or anything remotely resembling vital wheat gluten. Hmm. On to Plan B!

Plan B was similar to Plan A but not nearly as exciting or innovative 😦 I decided to make a red onion pie to go with the already  planned accompaniments of purple sprouting broccoli and dauphinoise potatoes. I was planning to make the seitan into a roulade, stuffed with onions and mushrooms a la the Post Punk Kitchen one so I figured a pie wouldn’t be far off, just less ‘meaty.’ I chose to start the meal with a selection of bruchetta and finish with the ultimate dessert – chocolate brownie ice cream sundaes.

The end result was, if I do say so myself, pretty impressive!

First up was the bruchetta. These were so easy to make and turned out delightfully! I sliced up a fresh baguette and popped it under the grill to crisp up for a few minutes. I slathered on some pungent green pesto and topped half with sliced black olives and the other half with chopped onion, garlic and fresh tomatoes.

A lovely start to the meal!

Our main course came together very nicely and I was pleased that I had done most of the preparation beforehand and only had to put the finishing touches on after we finished our starter.

The pie started off as a block of chilled shortcrust dough before becoming this:

And then this!

I filled the pie with a mixture of herby caramelised onions, finely chopped mushrooms and quorn mince with a sprinkling of parmesan. I cooked the onions and mushrooms slowly and sauteed the mince in the pan and then let it simmer so it was all infused with the flavours of the herbs and earthy mushrooms. It looks dry in the photos but it was actually very moist and didn’t need a sauce to accompany it.

My dauphinoise potatoes were amazing, beyond all comprehension! I feel I have finally mastered the art of this cheesy wonder dish. Despite not being able to locate a mandolin to slice the potatoes as I was originally planning (see Dauphinoise Potatoes fail post) I very carefully sliced them really thinly and layered them up with a few grated cloves of garlic and seasoning. I then slowly heated up a 500ml tub of double cream (really low cal, this dish) with a knob of garlic butter and poured it all over the potatoes, covering them in a blanket of garlicy, creamy amazingness. The dish went into the oven on a very low heat and finally emerged, an hour or so later, looking like this:

I could tell it was going to be good!

Seriously, look at this.

The potatoes were cooked all the way through and there was no, I repeat NO curdling! The cream had developed into a thick, oozing sauce that held the potatoes together easily and would have lent itself well to a proper restaurant-style ‘stack’ of gratin, had I been so inclined.

I carefully cut out a very restrained portion for Ben and arranged it beautifully on a square (read: posh) plate alongside a slice of pie and some purple sprouting broccoli. He was very pleased with the result and so was I 🙂

One more potato close-up…ohhhh it was golden.

To be honest the potatoes rather rudely out-performed the pie and ended up being the highlight of the meal, very different from the usual afterthought status of the average potato side dish.

I think dauphinoise are the spoilt, pampered rich kid of the potato world. If they were a dog they’d probably be a Chihuahua – languishing in a monogrammed Louis Vuitton handbag with a diamond studded collar and a personal butler called Jeeves.

This was definitely my best cheesy-potatoes-and-pie combination and we both cleared our plates easily. No seconds though as we had a tub of Ben and Jerry’s, chocolate brownies, chocolate sauce and whipped cream waiting for us! The perfect ending to a fabulous meal.

Happy Birthday Ben! 🙂

(The vital wheat gluten has now arrived and is waiting to be whipped up into something stunning very soon!)

On one level, this blog is:

Polka Dot: n.

1. One of a number of dots or round spots forming a pattern, as on cloth.

Kitchen: n.

1. A room or an area equipped for preparing and cooking food

But on another, it is something altogether more interesting!

This blog, like so many others, was born by a simple but uncontrollable desire to write about the food I cook, purchase and most importantly, enjoy. In particular, a recent hop back onto the diet bandwagon and a renewed determination to lose weight and  feel good about myself has caused a resurge in discovering and cooking new recipes that are as kind to my waistline as they are to my tastebuds.

So, I will document these recipes here, as well as any other occasions involving edible items, from three course meals in glamourous restaurants to a cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit on a weekday afternoon.

In short, I love food and I particularly love good food and good food needs to be shared!

I hope you enjoy.