How to Cook the Best Budget-Friendly Cut of Steak

Steak is probably considered a more expensive choice of meal; something you might have as a weekend treat and as we start to feel the pinch of the increase in the cost of living, saving money on our weekly food shop has become a priority which might make you think that steak is off the menu. 

You might be forgiven for thinking that a cheaper cut of steak means that you're compromising on quality but that doesn't have to be the case if you buy from a reputable butcher and you cook it correctly. I recently ordered some flat iron steak from Swaledale Butchers which is much more budget friendly at less than £10 for 2 steaks. 

Swaledale Butchers say 'Flat Iron, a tender steak that boasts flavour to match the prime steaks. Cut from beneath the shoulder blade of the beast by our skilled butchery team, it is naturally lean, sinew-free and perfect to cook year-round.' 

I enjoy my steak medium rare so the following cooking instructions will produce steak that is cooked as such:

1. Take Flat Iron steaks out of fridge, remove packaging, pat dry with kitchen paper, pop on a plate and allow to reach room temperature

2. Oil the steaks and season generously with coarse sea salt and cracked black pepper

3. Heat a non-stick pan or cast iron skillet until smoking hot

4. Add the Flat Irons to the dry pan resisting the urge to move them and turn after 2 minutes

5. Once other side has cooked for 2 minutes, a rich golden crust should have formed. Turn every 30 seconds or so for a total cooking time of approx. 6-8 minutes

6. Remove from pan and rest for 8 minutes

7. Slice across the grain and serve

As you can see, I served mine with simple accompaniments of fries and tender stem broccoli and I think this works really well when keeping the meal as simple as possible. No sauce required because the steak was so flavoursome!

Cocktail Hour - Cocktails Delivered to your Door

gifted product - always drink responsibly

Weekends are quickly becoming same old, same old now aren't they? There's nothing to do, nowhere to go so I'm finding myself turning to food and drinks for pleasure because it's the only thing that can't be taken away from us (well, I guess they could but please don't!). Our Saturdays general revolve around deciding what takeaway sort of food we're going to have and to be honest I'm quite enjoying trying some of the places in the local area that wouldn't normally offer collection/delivery service. That's the thing with the pandemic, as horrible as it has been (and still is!) and it has presented challenges to businesses like no other, it's been amazing to see businesses adapting and new businesses popping up to meet the new demands of customers. 

Cocktail Hour are one such business who set up to offer premium quality cocktails delivered straight to your door. They offer a monthly cocktail subscription which is currently £49.95 at the time of posting. This includes 2 cocktails, snacks, a food and drink guide as well as a Spotify playlist for you to access which is perfect if you're looking to create a bit of a night out in your own house. 

They also offer one off cocktail delivery boxes like the one I received which are £19.95 and include 2 ready to pour cocktails and either a sweet or a savoury snack to go with them (because who doesn't love nibbles with cocktails?)

Don't get me wrong, experience-wise it's not cocktails at the Alchemist but as far as cocktails at home go, Cocktail Hour have you covered at a reasonable price. In my box there was an espresso martini, which happens to be one of my favourites anyway and it was delicious! I added some ice to the class before pouring and it was perfect; of the same standard as what you'd get on a night out. The Joe and Seph's blue cheese and celery popcorn was a weird one; it will be a love it or hate it kind of snack. When I first started eating them I was really unsure because the texture is odd and being blue cheese, the smell isn't fantastic but they became one of those snacks that I just kept going back for more of!

With Valentine's just around the corner, a Cocktail Hour box would be the perfect gift idea, especially as you could both enjoy it together. Either one of their sweet or savoury tasting packs or you could go for their Ti Amo Valentines Delivery box. Alternatively, if your partner has a favourite cocktail you could opt for one of the specific cocktail delivery boxes (they have White Russian, Negroni, Old Fashioned and Espresso Martini) all served with a selection of snacks. 

Hopefully we're not going to be stuck at home for too much longer but in the meantime but I highly recommend something like a cocktail delivery box to spice up your Friday/Saturday evenings!

Christmas Gift Ideas for Someone with a Sweet Tooth

I know it's tempting to buy all your Christmas gifts from the big brands and retailers but this year I really wanted to try and help raise awareness of the incredible small businesses out there that don't get anywhere near as much recognition as they should. All small businesses featured on here offer delivery within the UK so you can get your Christmas shopping done without leaving the house and knowing that you'll have made a small business owner's day just by choosing to place an order with them. 

This sweet tooth Christmas gift guide is for that person with a sweet tooth and there's a selection of sweet treats from across the UK. If you're worried about use by dates, give them a quick message on instagram or via email and I'm sure they'll get back to you (that's the beauty about smaller businesses, they actually WANT to talk to you and help where they can!)

Pixture and Mixture have a selection of different gift boxes full of your favourite sweets; you can go for a Signature mystery box (priced from £6), the Vegan Box (from £6.50) or you could go all out and get the Jumbo Mystery Sharing Platter (£20.00)

If there's a day when it's acceptable to eat donuts for breakfast, it's Christmas Day; Stupendonuts have got you covered with their box of 6 donuts posted - they look absolutely delicious (and you can pick your own 6 flavours which means you'll always get the flavours you want!)

Pretty Sweets have a gorgeous range of Christmassy sweet boxes like this white themed sweet box which contains snowflake jellys, snowman lolly, choc nibs, chocolate coins and lots of other festive sweet treats. I'm particularly fond of this particular business as it's very local to me in Doncaster and was a business set up during Lockdown 1.0. 

For the biscuit lover in your life, the Biscuit Baron have got you covered; they offer biscuit subscription boxes containing upto eight full sized packs of biscuits from around the world so they'll potentially get to try biscuits that you won't usually find in supermarkets!

If fudge and chocolate is more their thing then The Confectionary Lounge is a good place to start with their handmade fudge selection. They have lots of different flavours including Baileys, Cherry Bakewell, Salted Caramel and Beautiful Biscoff. 

If you've got a brownie lover in your life (to be honest, this would be my ideal gift!) then I'm sure they'd love to open a box of brownies from The Savvy Baker... I've not tried these yet but I have every intention of doing so very soon!

Keep your eye out for other gift guides featuring small businesses as I'll be releasing them over the next couple of weeks!

If you are a small business owner and would like me to feature your business in a gift guide please contact me: j.hewitt4468@gmail.com. These gift guide features are completely free of charge!

La Boca Doncaster Food Review

Good steak restaurants can be few and far between but I really wanted to share an absolute gem of a steak restaurant that I've found in Doncaster and it was all down to a happy coincidence. We have eaten at steak restaurants like Miller and Carter and Estabulo but both were booked up with the Eat Out to Help Out government scheme running; so I logged on to Open Table (an absolute must-have app, by the way, if you eat out a lot) and there was a table available at La Boca in Doncaster town centre. 

La Boca is a fairly new steak restaurant in Doncaster town centre, offering the finest cuts of meat with an Argentine inspired menu. The restaurant itself is quite small but perfectly formed; they've done a great job of making it Covid secure and the staff are wonderfully friendly. 

The menu is concise but there are some amazing-sounding dishes on there. We decided to get a starter each; Kev went for the Empanadas which are Argentinian pasties filled with spicy beef, served with a small salad, I went for the Provoleta which is an Argentinian baked cheese with a red onion and chilli marmalade.

As you can see, the empanadas are filled full of pulled beef and it tasted absolutely unreal; the beef itself was very flavourful but not too spicy. These were completely different to any other empanadas I've ever tasted because the meat was so generous. 

The provoleta was also gorgeous; I'm a huge cheese fan and I live for a good cheese pull so this was perfect for me. One thing I will say is that you need more bread, which I asked for and was given but if I were the restaurant I'd serve it with 4 pieces of bread rather than 2 because I knew before I even started that it wasn't going to be enough. 

The main course was obviously what we really came for. We both went for the 10oz rump steak served with rustic fries, chimichurri and roasted peppers. All steaks are brushed with rosemary and paprika butter and cooked to perfections. We also paid extra for Diane sauce on the side.

That for me was the perfect medium rare steak, Kev went for medium which was also cooked perfectly. Obviously rump steak isn't the 'best' cut of steak but for me it is definitely the best value for money as the meat is tender and flavourful. There was a little bit of fat in mine which was inedible but this didn't spoil it for me at all because the rest of the meat was so tender. Until now, I didn't realise how well chimichurri goes with steak and it was the perfect accompaniment. The rustic chips were cooked to perfection and are far better than what we have had at Miller and Carter. You can tell that there's real care and attention paid to these meals and serving good quality food really matters to the staff. 

We saw other people in the restaurant who had ordered the mixed grills which have a mix of steak, lamb, chicken and chorizo which looked absolutely amazing and definitely something I'd consider next time but I would be loathed to choose anything but just steak because it was so good. 

There's a reason why this is the number one restaurant in Doncaster on Trip Advisor and I'm just sorry I have left it so long to visit! Due to the Eat Out to Help Out scheme, this meal only cost us £45 including 2 pints of Diet Pepsi which is almost half the price of Miller and Carter and I can honestly say that the quality of this meal far exceeds that. 

If you're looking for a good steak restaurant in Doncaster, I can highly recommend La Boca!

Sunday Lunch Around Yorkshire - Bishop's Bar and Bistro Review

I recently decided that there's definitely a market for rating Sunday Lunches in my area, yes we've got Trip Advisor, the semi reliable source for restaurant reviews but I think there's so much more to reviewing a Sunday Lunch than just a couple of lines and an overall mark out of 5, so treat this as the first of many reviews.

Finding the best Sunday lunch in Yorkshire will be a difficult job, I would imagine, but by looking at a number of aspects of each venue I hope to give you a properly rounded view of where's best for Sunday Lunch near you. When reviewing, I will be looking at 5 aspects: quality and choice of meat (obviously), quality and choice of veg, quality of Yorkshire pudding, eating environment and value for money.

Firstly, I'll be doing a review of Bishop's Bar and Bistro in Howden. I will start by saying that this meal was complimentary because I won it but there were no obligations whatsoever for me to review it, in fact I daresay that unless the owners read this review, they'll not know I even have a blog to share my view on.

Eating Environment

Space isn't a luxury enjoyed by Bishop's Bar and Bistro, I must admit, although the atmosphere and decor is lovely. As you can see on the photo, they have beautiful copper beer pumps mounted on a solid wood bar; I think they've gone for a rustic yet modern kind of look which I do think they've achieved for the most part. In the bar area they have some sofas and other comfy seating which can be used while you wait for your table and it does section off the main eating restaurant from the customers just in for a few drinks which is always a good idea I find, if possible. 

The restaurant area has wooden bench seating which runs across the back of the room which then has space for several tables to be positioned in whichever way suits the bistro at that particular time and they then have 4/5 other separate tables and chairs at the other side of the room. Quite rightly so, they have utilised every bit of space available but at peak times when the room is full it does seem very, very busy and ends up being quite a close eating experience with other guests. Not a huge issue for us as we were on a table for 2 in a bit of an alcove but if you don't like being close to other diners I would suggest you make the team aware so they can try and seat you accordingly.

Quality and choice of meat

As you can see on the menu above, they have 7 choices of main course: roast beef, roast lamb, roast belly pork, poached chicken, poached haddock, steak and ale pie and leek and potato pie (vegetarian option) which, for me, is an amazing choice for any pub or restaurant for Sunday Lunch and to have the option of lamb is also quite a luxury compared to some places so in terms of choices there's definitely plenty of them! You can also choose between 3 different sizes of lunch, small £8.50 (one meat), medium £10.50 (two meats) or large £11.50 (to be honest, I'm not sure whether this gave 3 choices of meat or just more of two meats). 

We both went for a medium with beef and belly pork. 

Unfortunately, you can't actually see the beef as it's hidden under the slab of belly pork but it was definitely there. The belly pork itself was beautiful, obviously it is a fatty meat so please be aware of this before you order but the fat makes the meat beautifully tender and flavoursome. The crackling on top wasn't the best I've tasted but I ate it nevertheless because for me, there's something strangely appealing about a layer of cooked fat on top of pork. 

I was slightly disappointed with the beef, but only because it was sliced so thinly, thin slices will suit some and not others though! I just prefer a thicker cut. It was still lean and tasty though so I can't fault it on that basis. 

Yorkshire Pudding

The Yorkshire definitely looked and tasted homemade which ticks a box straight away and it had properly risen to pretty impressive heights. Was it the best I've ever tasted, no, purely because maybe the mixture was a little bit thick as it was quite a stodgy pudding, less crispy and more stodgy but it was also by no means a bad Yorkshire!

Choice and Quality of Veg

In my opinion, the veg really can make or break a Sunday lunch and luckily, Bishop's Bar and Bistro delivered on that side of things aswell...

In separate serving bowls, we had carrots, brocolli, leeks in a creamy sauce then cauliflower cheese and I think they were honey roasted parsnips and carrots. All veg was cooked to perfection and I love the fact that they offer leeks in the creamy sauce - I'm not 100% sure what the creamy sauce was but it was gorgeous! The cauli cheese was also really tasty and had obviously been finished off under the grill or something to give that browning on the cheese. We could have had more veg, if we'd wanted but it was more than enough for us two to share!

Value for Money

I couldn't do a review of Sunday Lunches up north and not make a comment about value for money because it is something that most of us look at regardless of what we're buying. As I mentioned earlier, they do have 3 different prices for Sunday Lunch at Bishop's Bar and Bistro; between £8.50 and £11.50. I realise that we didn't actually pay for ours as it was a competition prize but if we had, it would have been £10.50 each which I think is more than reasonable considering the quality and amount of food we received! It's definitely not the cheapest Sunday lunch you'll find but as we all know, it's often a case of 'you get what you pay for'

Would I recommend Bishop's Bar & Bistro? Absolutely, just make sure you book in as they do seem to get very busy and make sure you give any seating requests on booking and I'm sure the team will do their best to accommodate you!

Afternoon Tea at Betty's York

Betty's in York is infamous for having a huge queue outside; there are only certain criteria for being able to book so most people just turn up on the day and quite rightly so because it's one of the iconic places to eat out in Yorkshire. If you haven't heard of Betty's it's a gorgeous traditional tea room which was established in Harrogate in 1919 and eventually opened 5 other tea rooms in various other places in Yorkshire, including York. For me, although it originated in Harrogate, I always associate Betty's with York.

They serve all manner of gorgeous treats from Yorkshire Cream Tea to Steak and Ale Pie, but let's be honest if you have to treat yourself to Afternoon Tea at Betty's least once in your life. Their Afternoon Tea consists of 4 crustless triangle finger sandwiches (Salmon & Prawn, Roast Chicken, Roast Beef and Egg), A sultana scone with jam and clotted cream and a selection of 3 mini cakes (I got brownie, pistachio macaroon and a raspberry tart) all washed down with a few china cups full of their finest tea (made with proper tea leaves, you get a strainer and everything). 

I'll be honest when I went I was expecting to want something else to eat when I got home but what you get is surprisingly filling (I even saved a cake and asked them to box it up for my other half, he thought I was being really nice, but really, I was just too full to eat it haha). Sitting in Betty's is not something I'd actually put my other half through but I'm definitely planning to take my nana at some point (72 and never been to Betty's, she'd LOVE it).

It's not cheap, but for all the tea and cake lovers out there, it's a definite must! Afternoon tea isn't cheap at £17.95 (2012 price) but it's not something you'd do every weekend and we all deserve a treat once in a while so next time you're in York or Harrogate, seriously consider a visit!