Quick note for you all, you can now get individual courses at Bartram’s @ 698 over lunch-time, which is great if you love top-notch food, but don’t want 2 or 3 courses.
Starters are from £2.95, Mains are from £6.95 and Desserts are from £3.50, so you won’t exactly break the bank either!
The Dragon Hotel is holding a Gourmet Evening 6th July 2007. Make sure you are there for 7pm to be ready for the 7:30 pm. Here’s what you can look forward to:
Canapes and Welcome Drink
Pre Starter Soup
Oxwich Bay Lobster Ravioli with a Citrus Beurre Blanc and Buttered Spinach
Gower Salt Marsh Lamb Nicoise Style
Summer Jelly with a Champagne Sabayon
Chocolate and Crunchy Pecan Tart with Clotted Cream Ice Cream
Coffee and Petit Fours
£25.95 per person. Limited places are available.
Fair enough, it is a bit of a bind to get to the supermarket if you live on the West side of Swansea (though there are plenty of independents around to choose from). Currently you really only have the option of Sainsbury’s, which, last time I visited, no longer does a particularly inspiring range above the offer that Tesco provides.
The Tesco city centre site is, well, I think I would rather starve than try to park, and shopping is even worse. So what does that leave, Somerfield in Mumbles, and, mmmm.. nothing! Unless you venture to the Enterprise Park and you then have the choice of 3 hypermarkets. Oh yea I must mention the other Tesco parking phenomenon that is Fforestfach!
So Asda is tyring to fill the gap by opening in Gorseinon, and Tesco is angling at Pontarddulais (what is the deal with Tesco and Swansea -I have never seen so many Tesco’s in one place?), and over 5,000 people have petitioned against it. Considering this is supposed to be the graveyard of ambition, that’s a fairly vociferous objection!
I’d be happy to place a bet on the reason that Mumbles and Sketty maintain their individual retailers is because of the lack of large supermarkets. And what a joy it is to be able to stroll from shop to shop picking fresh, local (and most of the time cheaper) produce. I have to say though I struggle to do this often, as these independants tend to be closed by the time we finish our working day. But when I see the alternative that is (not) on offer where I currently live on the East side, I’m glad that 5,000 people have placed their objections.
Tell us what you think about the supermarket plans for West Swansea by leaving your comments!
Our latest Food Passion and Daily Cooks recipe for June!
Serves: 2
Preparation time: 1 hour
Cooking time: 10 minutes
INGREDIENTS:
• 1 whole red mullet, 400-500g, filleted
• 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely diced
• 1 garlic clove, finely sliced
• 1cm ginger, finely sliced
• 1 tbsp coriander leaves, roughly chopped
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 2 tbsp good dry white wine
• 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 bok choi
• soy sauce
• toasted sesame seeds
METHOD
1.) Drizzle some olive oil onto some tin foil and place one of the fillets on top, skin-side down. Please the rest of the ingredients on top of the fillet and then top with the remaining fillet. Leave to marinate for one hour.
2.) Close the tin foil to make a complete parcel and cook in a saucepan for 10 minutes
3.) Heat the sesame oil in a wok and add the ginger and the garlic for 30 seconds, and them remove and discard. Add the bok choi – stalks first and then the leaves – and season with soy sauce. Cook for another 30 seconds.
4.) Place on a large serving platter, open the foil and serve with bok choi with soy sauce and a scattering of sesame seeds on top.
Swansea now has a chef who will come out to your house, and cook the meal of a lifetime. What raises this chef above the rest? Well, apart from being trained by Raymond Blanc himself, she will bring absolutley everything that is needed for your special meal.
Your chef is…. is really ideal for special occasions, home dinner parties, and so on. When you cost it all out, it’s better value than going out, and how often will you get the chance to have your own chef, trained by a celebrity, in your house, cooking for you?
Alex Beard is truly passionate abut her food and I have to say, very professional. This would make a great present for someone you want to impress! If you’d like to know more, do visit her web page on Food Passion. You can also get a 5% discount if you mention Food Passion when booking.
Salary: £16k + basic depending on experience + bonuses
Location: Gower South Wales
Employer Type: Cafe/Bar Restaurant
Recruiter: Langlands Brasserie
Langlands Brasserie is a new build 200 seater cafe bar restaurant situated directly on Langland Bay beach front with panoramic south facing views over the Devon coast.
This is an ideal role for a passionate, professional and experienced chef who must have experience in a similar role and is used to operating in a fast moving high volume kitchen environment.
Duties will involve working alongside the Head Chef whilst taking full responsibility for the kitchen in his absence.
The highest organisational and kitchen management skills will be needed to produce consistent, good quality food whilst maintaining good profit margins.
The role will involve all aspects of the day to day management of the kitchen including staff rostas and training, as well as ensuring all health, hygiene and safety rules are adhered to
You can apply for this job by Calling Steve or Paul on 01792 363100 or by sending a CV/written application to Steve Lishman at Langlands Brasserie, 87 Newton Road, Mumbles, Swansea SA3 4BN, ot to steve@langlandsbrasserie.co.uk
Working hours: long weekend shifts due to weddings (not split shifts)
Lower working hours mid week depending on events, maybe some weekday split shifts.
Experience req’d, must be fast and able to serve 100 to 150 people at major functions.
The two assistant chefs will initially be under the control and management of the existing team and take on more responsibility according to performance, with salary commensurate with responsibilities.
Accommodation available for rent if relocating.
Contact Food Passion on 07813 071069
Haddock is a particularly low fat fish and at only 197 calories per portion, this is a great but tasty low fat recipe. The crunchy horseradish herb crust gives the fish a welcome bite.
Serves: 4
Preparation time: 5 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Due to many requests for the Food Passion Insights to be posted, we will be adding them one by one shortly -here’s the first for those of you that missed out on the first edition!
I have always thought Swansea’s maritime quarter has retained a certain edge, one that more gentrified waterfront locations have long since lost. I’m not sure many people would want to hang on too eagerly to the pungent smell of fishnets drying on the side of the marina, but it brings the source of my food closer to my daily life, which I think is no bad thing. Especially so, since those news reports of children who apparently don’t know what a chicken is. Sometimes it is just nice to be reminded where your food comes from. It’s a shame then that what is left of the Swansea fishing fleet is kept so restricted to the public. Yes, you can view the boats, but one is kept just that little too far from the fishermen themselves to see and hear what is going on.
Immensely frustrated at this, I managed to persuade a pair of fluorescent clad gents to let me through the double gate leading to the fishermen’s jetty. Within minutes of introducing myself, that wonderful Swansea hospitality came to life, and I found myself aboard a surprisingly fresh smelling floating steel hulk, having been given a wonderful cup of tea by fisherman Peter Gwilliam.‘Why aren’t you at sea on such a beautiful day?’
‘No good’, he says glancing at the clear blue sky, ‘there’ll be bad weather shortly, a horrible south-easterly wind at Force 5 or 6’. I can’t see it myself, but it is part of Peter’s livelihood to know the weather, and sure enough as I sit here writing, the rain is truly coming down. After being caught out in a Force 9 electric storm not long ago, I guess he doesn’t want to experience that again too soon.
He flicks on an array of screens in the cabin, which I have to marvel at, as he demonstrates the 30-50m depth of the channel, the location of hitches (obstacles to you and me, including wrecks, anchors and even war mines), and where he catches his squid at Oxwich Point. ‘The squid disappeared for 9 years, after the Sea Empress disaster’ he tells me, ‘probably the detergent, but they came back last year for the first time’.Now you hear about the plight of fishermen on the news, but it doesn’t really sink in until they tell you face to face their predicament. A number are already selling their boats and moving on, others say it’s only a matter of time. It seems like a very sad resignation, for both of us. Some have suggested that there are good opportunities for working holidays, or for day boat fishing trips for tourists, but it must be difficult to make a jump from fisherman to tour operator.
Peter catches sole, plaice, ray, bass and turbot, and shows me his home-made shrimp pots, which he is hoping will see him through the winter. Much of his produce ends up on the plates of us Swansea folk, through Tucker’s fish market in the Swansea market. Today he has several large buckets of dogfish, a shark-like, brown fish. ‘We ‘shoot the gear,’ and the specially designed equipment allows no refuge for the fish. But this can have a negative effect on fish numbers as well.’ Ironically he points out a boat which has none of the trawling equipment anchored to the back. ‘This one just uses fine fishing nets, and has come back with a very good catch – we are considering doing this ourselves. Right now we just don’t get enough money for our fish, and the price of our fuel has doubled in the last few years.’
As I look around at the gleaming 10+ story buildings going up around me, the 
simplicity of Peter’s rusting steel boat, and his brother’s floating a few jetties down, scrubbing brushes on deck, strikes me as something which we may not see for that much longer.
Food Passion has teamed up with TV shows Daily Cooks and Saturday Cooks to give you seasonal recipes which you can use at your leisure, which have been created by celebrity chefs such as Anthony Worrall Thompson, amongst others. We will be posting recipes on a weekly basis, so watch this space for some of Britain’s best! If you would like to visit the Daily Cooks website, click here.