27 October - scrambled eggs and dinner at jamie's

There wasn't much in for lunch today and I had a fancy for eggs, so I nipped out and got some smoked salmon to make scrambled eggs into lunch. Lovely on some toast with some garlic chives snipped over the top.

This evening I was meeting up with a friend, but the place we planned to meet was closed for a private do, so we ended up in Jamie's Italian again. I went for chicken liver tortellini, which was quite nice, if a little dry, but my friend had Osso Bucco, which was so fatty and horrible, it actually made her feel physically sick! It's a shame that the food's so hit and miss (especially the meat so it seems), because otherwise it's a really nice place to hang out. With plenty of other good spots in Bristol with much better food though, I don't think I'll bother again.

13 October - food with friends

Today was a day for catching up with friends - out for lunch with one and another round for supper this evening. I "did lunch" with Ange at Jamie's Italian and I have to say, after our rather disappointing evening there a couple of months ago, they did much better with lunch. I had mushroom panzerotti (mushroom filled pasta) and Ange had truffle risotto and both went down really well. And it had just the vibe for a good lunchtime natter too.

Despite a rotten cold, Michelle made it round for supper this evening. With a bag of beetroot from last week's vegbox still unused, I sliced up a couple to make beetroot crisps (very finely sliced beetroot, lightly coated in oil, spread on a baking sheet and oven baked on a low heat for nearly an hour, then sprinkled with salt); a good pre-dinner nibble. Then I did the lamb tagine recipe we brought back from Morocco last year. Every time I look at the recipe with it's dodgy English and printing mistakes, it takes me right back to our morning of Moroccan cookery in Essaouira - it always comes out well too. Today, I used fresh Turkish figs instead of the dates from the original recipe and they worked really well.

• Mix together about 500g lamb neck fillet cut into cubes with a very finely chopped onion, a couple of cloves of garlic (finely chopped), 1/2 tsp ground ginger, 1/2 tsp turmeric, 1 tsp Ras al hanout, a pinch of saffron, some salt, a cinnamon stick and couple of tbsps olive oil. As I don't have a proper tagine, I put the whole mix into a wide heavy-bottomed pan with a lid instead.
• Cook over a medium heat for 15-20 minutes to brown the lamb and give it time to release its juices.
• Then add 750ml cold water (could have used a bit less), bring to the boil, turn low, cover and leave to simmer for an hour plus.
• Gently fry a good handful of blanched almonds in a little vegetable oil and add to the tagine towards the end.
• Crush together a juniper berry with a tiny chunk of gum Arabic (brought back from Morocco with us). Mix with a scant tsp of ground cinnamon, tbsp caster sugar and a couple of tbsps orange blossom water in a small frying pan.
• Bring this mix gently to the boil, then add the figs, cut in half, cut side down for a couple of minutes just to caramelise. Add the figs to the tagine to bubble for the last couple of minutes, then tip the sticky sauce over at the last minute before serving with couscous and today a simple grated carrot salad.

I was too busy chatting to take any pictures, but it all looked good and went down well too. The lamb was lovely and rich and flavour-packed and the freshness of the carrot offset it nicely. All round a really good evening.

17 July - jamie's italian

A branch of Jamie's Italian opened on Park Street in Bristol a while ago, but we've been avoiding going there because you can't book and there always seems to be a queue. But we thought that a rainy Sunday evening might be a good time to get in, so we took a big brolly and ventured out. We'd reckoned right and got a table straight away.

I'd been to the one in Bath a couple of times for lunch and really enjoyed it, so I was a bit disappointed as I looked through the menu and nothing jumped out. In fact, I really struggled to find anything I wanted to order at all. There was a lot of fish, of which I'm not a huge fan anyway and which I wasn't in the mood for tonight. Everything else seemed to involve chilli - in almost every dish, even including the vegetable side orders! I know Italians like a bit of punch to their food, but what's wrong with letting the natural flavours of the ingredients speak for themselves?

I started off with some crispy squid, which was nice - once I'd picked off the huge chunks of raw red chilli it was garnished with (and which wasn't mentioned on the menu - bit of a pet hate!). For my main, rather against my better judgement, I went for feather steak. The meat itself was pretty chewy and tasteless and it was only rescued by the sage garnish. It came with a tomato sauce which the waitress assured me was made of roasted tomatoes, but I'd be very surprised if the pile of sliced tomatoes I had were anything other than raw.

Tris had sausages and lentils which were much tastier, but would've been too peppery for my taste. As we chatted and tried to decide why we were unimpressed, we decided that perhaps had we popped in for lunch, it would've been fine - and we probably would've been been happy with different dishes - it just didn't quite cut it for a proper evening meal out.