I was very interested to try and bag a table for this event, where for a very limited period they would serve their menu from 50 years ago at the original prices.
My husband and I both had fingers poised at 10am on the dot but the website crashed. We just couldn’t get through. I tried calling the restaurant in Winchester (nearest branch to us) but a recorded message just said bookings for this event would only be taken online via the link.
After the disappointment described above, I had signed up as a party interested to know more about the 50th anniversary celebrations. In due course, I received an email containing a voucher for £19.75 (the restaurant empire was founded in 1975) off the bill if dining before April. I’d never dined at a Rick Stein restaurant before and we are fans of his TV series, so I thought, why not?
We booked to have lunch at Rick Stein Winchester. Nice dining room on the high street. Service was just right - friendly without being annoying.
My husband went for the set menu, but I had his starter, which was a grilled mackerel fillet with tomatoes, capers and really good quality olive oil drizzled around it. He had a starter of sashimi - sea bass, salmon and scallop. We loved the starters.
For mains, he had grilled sea bass fillets with (I think) a fennel mayonnaise and steamed new potatoes. I had the Indonesian seafood curry with pilau rice and a salad of green beans and young coconut. This was Asian food interpreted by an Englishman but delicious nevertheless.
I enjoy his travel shows on BBC, especially the Long Weekends series. I’m glad you got to go to the restaurant, and that they offered a coupon for the trouble you had booking the special menu was kind of them. Glad that you enjoyed the place!
Points for cooking the seafood IN the curry! My current pet peeve is something advertised as a curry, but what arrives is a piece of grilled or sauteed protein perched atop a curry sauce.
Agree with @iluvcookies – glad that you had another chance at the it, and that you enjoyed the experience.
Just had an email with another Rick Stein 50 years celebration offer: Lobster Thermidor (half a fresh Cornish lobster) with salad and chips for £19.75. Limited time offer with booking conditions. I’ve gone ahead and booked us in for a weekday lunch with this offer. Fingers crossed it’ll be nice and good value.
Confession: I’ve never had Lobster Thermidor before.
3 Likes
BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
6
What would be traditional. In the UK, almost anything is served with chips. And it’s what would be called frites or fries elsewhere. The things known as chips in North America are called crisps in the UK.
I think rice or mashed potatoes would be more common with Lobster Thermidor. It’s a rich and fancy dish with a sauce.
I have made it several times. It’s rare to see it on menus in Canada these days.
A few old fashioned seafood restaurants have had it on the menu when I’ve visited Philadelphia and Boston.
Long history, from 1891
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BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
9
I agree, but I also think it stands on its own, needing nothing.
I was introduced to it in a French restaurant here in Ottawa that used to do a superb job of it, but without cheese, so it seems strange when I see it with cheese; in any case, I don’t like cheese in my seafood dishes.
BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
11
Thanks for the Newburg recipe link; a nice, fast, easy recipe. I would use Butterfish, which I would butter-poach, together with the lobster. Also, I would use heavy cream instead of light, and serve it in puff pastry. Darn, this is making me hungry!
I have used the same sauce with halibut or haddock, too.
1 Like
BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
13
Any thoughts on substituting saffron for the paprika? A former favorite French restaurant (unintentional alliteration) used to make what is essentially that recipe, but with a yellow sauce, and I used to enjoy it (but not any more), so it would be great to try to recreate it.
BTW, that restaurant used to offer a selection of bread, and I used to get white baguette to mop up the sauce, but then they changed to having sourdough bread only, which I dislike at the best of times.
I think it would work with a little saffron or turmeric.
I know you avoid most peppers. Leave out the paprika, if that works best for you. It isn’t essential.
Some of the Newburg recipes call for a little mild curry powder. The yellow color in the sauce at the restaurant may have been from turmeric in curry powder rather than saffron. That said, both can be nice in a cream sauce.
Another rich lobster dish that’s even more simple. Delicious.
1 Like
BarneyGrubble
(Fan of Beethoven and Latina singers)
15
Sounds really good, but it seems a waste to not use the shell as there’s so much flavor in there; I use it to make a bisque that I use as a sauce for lobster ravioli.
This (the Dublin Lawyer recipe) sounds ace. I wonder if I can find some not too expensive frozen lobster to test this recipe. I find it really hard to wrangle a whole lobster. Or maybe I can adapt the recipe with large prawns?!
