Bistro 21 » Bistro Journal

Mother’s Day 2012 – Sunday 18th March

Karen — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 13:27:48 +0000

Treat your mum to lunch at Bistro 21.

As it’s a special day we will be open from 12.00 noon – 4.00pm on Mothering Sunday and serving our Sunday Lunch Special and A la Carte menus, throw in a glass of Champagne and make your lovely mum feel really special.

Sample menu:

Tomato and Mint Soup

Cheddar Cheese and Spinach Soufflé

Greenland Prawn and Smoked Salmon Salad with Avocado and Pink Grapefruit

Courgette and Ricotta Cannelloni, Pea Salad and Truffle Oil

French Country Pate, Apricot Chutney and Toast

Fishcakes with Buttered Spinach, Parsley Cream and Chips

Grilled Sea Bream, Black Olives, Capers and Tomatoes – Brown Butter

Breast of Corn-fed Chicken, Wild Mushrooms and Buttery Mash

Roast Rib of Beef with Yorkshire Puddings

Roast Rare-breed Pork with Apple Sauce

Steve Ramshaw’s Dry Aged Sirloin Steak, Mustard and Tarragon Butter, Hand-cut Chips and Mixed Salad (£4.00 Supplement)

Fresh Asparagus Omelette, Thin Chips and Mixed Salad

Crème Brûlée

Sticky Toffee Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Vanilla Panna Cotta, Wild Berry Compote and Pistachio

Three Farmhouse Cheeses

Knickerbocker Glory

2 courses £17.50 3 courses £20.00

Call us on 0191 384 4354 or reserve your table online now.

If you can’t be with your mum this Mother’s Day don’t forget that we have a range of gift vouchers that you can treat her with.

Click here to buy gift vouchers online.

Just in – Yorkshire Rhubarb

Terry — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:52:52 +0000

Rhubarb it seems originates from somewhere between the Himalayas and China and it’s said to have found its way to Europe as a result its root and its purgative powers. Apparently no one even considered eating the stalks until around 1800; probably no coincidence then that this is about the time that sugar became more readily available. By Victorian times, it had become very popular, with cookbooks regularly singing its praises as ‘a vegetable that can be eaten as a fruit’.
Once it was discovered that by keeping the stalks in the dark they grew longer, were much more delicate and a lot less astringent, an unlikely industry grew up around Wakefield in West Yorkshire dedicated to the cultivation of early forced rhubarb. The area later became known as the rhubarb triangle. At one point there were hundreds of small growers pooling their crops to ship over 200 tonnes daily out of Yorkshire. Today there are only 12 growers left still forcing rhubarb in this way.
One of the 12, Robert Tomlinson whose farm in Pudsey was established in 1850 tells me that in order to produce great forced rhubarb you need a good, prolonged cold snap to force the roots into dormancy. With the famous rhubarb ‘triangle’ sitting in the shadow of the Pennines, the shield provided by the hills helps create a fantastic frost pocket which aids the flavour of the rhubarb. Once the cold snap occurs, Robert digs the roots out of the field and brings them indoors into dark sheds where the temperature is raised slowly to stimulate the growing process. As it slowly cracks its way through the tight root bed in search of light this rhubarb doesn’t get a chance to photosynthesis resulting in an intense pink colour and a marvelously delicate flavour. It is then harvested by hand and as the sheds are virtually pitch dark, the pickers go in on hands and knees to extract each stalk individually.
At its absolute best at this time of year when there is little else in season; Yorkshire rhubarb always generates a creative stir in our kitchens. The standard English repertoire for rhubarb provides us with the very best of nursery food, crumbles, fools et al, but the delicacy of this early Yorkshire rhubarb opens up lots of other culinary avenues too. Maybe cooked to a chunky puree with butter and brown sugar to serve with duck or perhaps poached in sweet wine to serve with brown sugar meringues and Greek Yoghurt. This certainly isn’t the rhubarb I grew up with as a kid which came with a paper bag of granulated sugar as its only adornment.
Also great with rhubarb are:- ginger, dessert wine, grenadine, oranges (especially blood oranges), mackerel, duck, foie gras, brown sugar, custard, strawberries, cream, cloves, Greek yoghurt.

Chateau Musar Wine Dinner

Karen — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:58:11 +0000

Thursday 27th October 2011

Our next wine dinner has been announced and we are really looking forward to a visit from Ralph Hochar of Chateau Musar wines.

Chateau Musar is on the Mediterranean coast just to the north of Beirut. This winery was founded by youthful entrepreneur Gaston Hochar in 1930, in the cellar of an old castle overlooking the Mediterranean sea after a trip to France. This hobby quickly became a passion after an encounter with renowned viticulturist Richard Barton who was stationed in the Lebanon during the second world war.

Musar has been in the safe hands of his Bordeaux-trained son Serge since 1959. Over fifty years, Serge has trialled every vineyard and winemaking aspect, remaining true to a natural philosophy: ‘organic’ before the term was coined. The production of these exceptional wines has continued despite the war which has seen the winery suffer direct hits from shelling and the wine cellars regularly used as bomb shelters.

Terry Laybourne has created a special menu to showcase these fantastic wines.

Aperitif: Jaune Chateau Musar Rosé, 2008

Aubergine Mille Feuille

Jaune Chateau Musar Rosé, 2008

Fillet of Brill with Creamy Basmati Rice and Coriander Broth

Jaune Chateau Musar White, 2008

Assiette of Beef

Hochar Peres t Fils, 2003 and Chateau Musar, 2001

Vanilla Cream with Fresh Blackberries

~
Coffee and Chocolates

£55.00 per person

Please call us on 0191 384 4354 as soon as possible to reserve your table, places are limited at this event.

We will be serving aperitifs from 7.00pm and dinner starts at 7.30pm.

Please advise us upon booking if you have any dietary requirements.

Lunch Menu Makeover

Karen — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 15:24:10 +0000

With the kids going back to school we thought it was time to do some revision ourselves, menu revision. We’ve listened to what our customers have been saying to us and quite simply, a lot of you are such busy people that you don’t always have time or the appetite for a 3 course lunch. So you’ll now find an amazing new offer on our menu at lunch – a bowl of soup and a sandwich for only £10.50 or soup and a salad for £11.50.

If you’re really short on time you could even call ahead with your order! Our A la Carte and lunchtime special menus will still be available for those of you that want a more leisurely lunch; we’ve just added another option for those days that you’re in a hurry.

Take a look at the new menu here

Father’s Day – Sunday 19th June

Karen — Thu, 26 May 2011 09:35:30 +0000

Yes it’s that time of year again to show your dad just how special he is. Don’t panic of you haven’t arranged anything yet, Bistro 21 will be open from 12.00 noon until 4.00pm and we still have a few tables available so you can earn those brownie points by taking him out for lunch or dinner.

We’ll be serving our Sunday Lunch Special menu priced at £16.95 for 2 courses, and £19.95 for 3 courses, which always includes a roast rib of beef.

Give us a call or book a table online now.

Sample Lunch Menu:

Roasted Tomato and Red Onion Soup

Buffalo Mozzarella, Marinated Vegetables and Balsamic Dressing

Cheddar Cheese and Spinach Soufflé

Dill Cured Salmon – Mustard Dressing

Ox Tongue with Celeriac and Apple Remoulade

Spanish Mixed Grill – Chorizo, Morcilla, Serrano Ham Croquette, Grilled Tomato, Fried Quail’s Egg and Smoked Paprika Aïoli

Roast Rib of Beef with Yorkshire Pudding

Rare-Breed Pork with Apple Sauce

Breast of Corn-fed Chicken with Bread Sauce

Grilled Cod, Crushed New Potatoes, Spring Peas and Salsa Verde

Fresh Beetroot Risotto, Horseradish Crème Fraîche and Watercress

Steve Ramshaw’s Dry Aged Sirloin Steak, Café de Paris Butter, Mixed Salad and Thin Chips (£4.00 Supplement)

Crème Brûlée

Sticky Toffee Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce

Lemon Posset with Fresh Mixed Berries

Warm Chocolate Pudding – Pistachio Ice Cream

Three Farmhouse Cheeses

Blackberry Sorbet

The Broad Chare – A Proper Pub

Karen — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:20:13 +0000

At long last, The Broad Chare, Newcastle’s newest pub, is open for business and taking bookings and orders for this weekend.

The opening is the culmination of months of hard work and a creative partnership between Live Theatre and Terry Laybourne’s 21 Hospitality Group. It’s a food-led pub like no other in the city … a venue that will fill a gap and establish its own unique place in the market.

The teams are all in place with chef Chris Eagle and manager Steve Dunn expecting a lively start to trade from today. The menu – available as a download on this site – offers a great range of simple, locally sourced bar snacks along with a range of hearty main courses and a ‘dish of the day’ – and this Friday we are pleased to offer our own version of a classic, fish and chips.

The dish of the day on Saturday is Irish Stew and we’re doing Roast Beef and Yorkshire puddings on Sunday (from 12.50pm).

Come on down and share a snack, a meal or just a pint of beer – maybe our own pale ale, The Writer’s Block, brewed exclusively for us by Wylam Brewery.

http://www.thebroadchare.co.uk/

25 Broad Chare

NE1 3QD

0191 211 2144

Just In – Jersey Royals

Karen — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:49:09 +0000

Jersey Royals are often referred to as the Champagne of potatoes and their arrival is just around the corner. The Jersey season is short and runs from the beginning of April to the end of June, announcing the end of dark winter days and the arrival of springtime.

The Jersey has something unique in its combination of earthiness, butteryness and sweet digestibility. They also have wonderfully thin, flaky skins which need only the lightest of rubs to clean them.

This week we’re serving a Grilled Grey Mullet, Crushed Jersey Royals and “Acqua Pazza” on our fixed price menu.

Just In – Wild Garlic

Karen — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 13:45:43 +0000

Wild garlic first appears in damp woods and by streams in early spring. All parts of the plant are edible and can be eaten raw or cooked. The leaves have an aggressive garlic aroma but flavour wise wild garlic is much more subtle than it’s commercially grown cousin.

Wild garlic makes a fantastic soup and also goes very well with asparagus, cheddar cheese, lamb, new potatoes, mint, and broad beans to name a few ingredients.

The young shoots which look similar to chives work well in Asian style cookery or use the flowers in salads.

This week, we’re serving a Wild Garlic Soup with Chive Creme Fraiche.

Love is in the Air

Karen — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:53:16 +0000

Don’t forget to book a table for Valentine’s day this year. We’ll be serving our A la Carte menu as well as some special dishes designed for sharing.

Please give us a call or book online.

£5.00 Off at Lunch

Karen — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:42:13 +0000

Our £5.00 off at lunch vouchers were an amazing success before Christmas so we’ve brought them back! We’ve kept it simple; it doesn’t matter how many there are in your party, or which menu you choose from. All we ask is that you have at least 2 courses including a main course and that you fill out one voucher per person.

Click on the ‘Offer’ button on the home page to download your voucher now.