Dining Alone at Harvey Nichols

I'm not great at updating social media with all the changes in my life, so for those of you who know me I'll try to catch you up.

If the last thing you heard was that I was living in the Midlands, you're out of date: I moved to Bristol about a year ago, and I like it very much.

If the last thing you heard I was living in Bristol and going out of my mind looking for work, you're out of date: I found a job, and started working in Bath a couple of months ago.

If the last thing you heard I was working in Bath, you're out of date: just like bloody buses, you wait for ages for one then two turn up in quick succession. I start a new job in Bristol on Monday.

All of which means I am now ending a year of tumult, confusion, and oppressive 'free time'. The past couple of weeks I've been twiddling my thumbs a little, not quite knowing what to do with myself before I start the Next Big Chapter, so I decided to treat myself. I took myself to lunch at the Second Floor Restaurant at Harvey Nichols in Bristol.

I've never been for a fancy meal on my own before, so I did what I always do and put on an air of confidence that clearly said 'I do it this all the time, and what are you looking at, Mr Big Stuff?'. I was able to practice this beforehand by wandering around the make-up counters on the first floor looking for all the world like someone who would spend £25 on a single tube of lipstick, and definitely wasn't there to play with the testers then bugger off.

To their credit they hardly looked surprised at all when I asked for a table for one. The restaurant is spacious, with tall windows looking out over Quakers Friars and Cabot Circus, and decorated entirely in various shades of gold. The last time I was there the temperature was a shade too warm and the music had an intrusive thumping bass that made the whole atmosphere a bit weird and oppressive. This time the cooler temperature and far more agreeable Jazz standards being played meant the whole 'total gold' thing didn't feel nearly as aggressive as it did before.

I went for the Set Menu for September, which is a very reasonable £20 for three courses.

I started with a duck terrine, with a nicely dressed salad, thin, crisp bread and plum and ginger chutney. The duck was tender with decently sized chunks of meat, and each ingredient was exactly in the right proportion to the others. The chutney was pleasantly sweet, but I could have done with more of a gingery punch.

My main was slow cooked pork belly with rainbow chard and what the menu said was 'pickled apple puree' but turned out to be slices of apple poached in something like mulled wine. The portion was a little smaller than I was hoping, but I guess rich people don't eat much. The pork belly was delicious, but it is, as you know, a salty meat. The chard was earthy and well cooked, but a little oversalted. The sauce was rich and would have tied the whole dish together if it hadn't been slightly over reduced, leaving it a little salty. Salt was a theme, is what I'm saying. The three small slices of sweet apple were the only thing that saved the dish. It had clearly been made by someone who knew what they were doing, but took their eye off the ball where seasoning was concerned.

Pudding was a cider brandy parfait with 'apple and olive oil crisps'. The crisps turned out to be thin triangles of pastry, about the texture of a poppadom, sprinkled with cinnamon. I can't say I could discern either apple or olive oil, but they were very tasty nevertheless. Both the parfait and and the apple caramel it was served with were delicious - the highlight of the meal.

I'd be happy to recommend this place to anyone, and the set menu which varies month by month is excellent value, but the 'simple food cooked well' ethos doesn't allow much room for error, and I can't say this was error free.

I very much enjoyed my sole dining experience, although I did feel a little rushed. I guess the wait staff would usually wait for a lull in conversation before clearing plates, but since I was on my own (and the restaurant was largely empty), plates were cleared as soon as I was done and the next course brought out soon after. I barely had time to touch my bread rolls (which were clearly home made and very nice). I sat down at 2pm, and had finished my dessert by 2.40. I was hungry though, so I didn't mind too much.

So don't be put off eating on your own. Just bring something to read, and work up an appetite.

Creme de Mure

I must admit, I've been lazy recently. No particular reason, I've just gone through one of those periods where I don't feel quite so much like cooking something fancy, and I'm more likely to fall back on an old reliable recipe rather than something interesting or new.

But! Spells of apathy can't last forever, and time changes all things. Tides turn, seasons change, sunrise, sunset, circle of life, like the circles that you find, in the windmills of your mind, etc. The thing that has brought me out of my slump is the coming of blackberry season.

I moved to Bristol about this time last year, which meant that when blackberry season came around I had no idea where to find the best spots to pick them. But I play the long game, and I've been keeping my eye out for months. This time around I knew exactly where to go, and have successfully cleaned out, like, so many blackberries. If blackberries were a new species of human/vampire type deal, I would be the I Am Legend guy. They would speak of me in hushed tones as the Bringer of Death, Maker of Pies.

And now I finally have enough for me to make Creme de Mure, or blackberry liqueur. Ages ago Pete gave me 'How To Make Your Own Drinks' by Suzy Atkins (her off Saturday Kitchen) that had a recipe for Creme de Mure in it, and this is the first time I've been able to try it out.

Her recipe requires:
1 1/2 kg blackberries
2 litres red wine
1kg sugar
70cl vodka or brandy

This is meant to make 2 1/2 litres, and she recommends drinking within 6 weeks. However. As you know, I prefer to treat recipes as the opening offer in a negotiation, and therefore subject to amendments. My thoughts on this recipe were as follows:

1) 2 1/2 litres of a liqueur is a lot to get through in 6 weeks.
2) Blackberries are free.
3) Wine and vodka are not.

My conclusion was to use about the same amount of blackberries, but only one bottle of wine, and amend the amount of vodka and sugar as I saw fit. That way I'd produce less liquid over all, it would be more blackberry-y, and it would be cheaper. This is how it went:

Creme de Mure (Bronners Style)

You will need:

1 1/2 kg blackberries
1 bottle of red wine (Suzy says to use something decent, but then she would say that, wouldn't she?)
50cl vodka (actually, next time I'll probably up this to 70cl)
350g sugar

Wash the blackberries, getting rid of any twigs and bugs. Put them in a large tupperware box or any other receptacle large enough that can still fit in the fridge. Mash with a potato masher and add the whole bottle of wine. Stir a little, then put on the lid and keep in the fridge for a day or so. Suzy says 48hrs, but I'm a busy woman and only left it a day.

After they've macerated pass the wine and blackberries through a sieve into a large pan and add the sugar and vodka. I think I worked the blackberries through the sieve a little too hard so I did get a lot of extra liquid and some pulp in the final mix, but it doesn't seem the worse for it.

Heat through without boiling until the sugar is dissolved and the liquid has thickened and turned slightly syrupy. Store in sterilised bottles.

This ended up making 2 litres,  but as I said I may have forced more blackberry juice into it than perhaps I should. It has a little warmth of alcohol but is a bit weak, which is why I'd recommend upping the vodka. Or, you know, following the original recipe. Either way. On the other hand, I've mainly been drinking this in cocktails where I add more spirits anyway, so it all works out in the end.

Speaking of which...

The Bramble

You will need:

2 measures creme de mure
1 measure gin
dash of lemon juice (optional)

Pour everything over a tumbler of ice and stir. Drink. Drink it up.

Ooooh, this is nice. Not too sweet, fruity and refreshing. I've seen and tried a number of other cocktails that use Creme de Mure, but in my opinion nothing really matches up to this. Go. Drink it up.