BBQ Chicken with Dirty Mashed Potatoes, Carrots and Corn on the Cob

There is a big sale on chicken breasts at Food Basics. And when the sale is over there is a 40 percent off sale of the remainder that is about to reach its "best before" date. Raul grabs four trays of 10 breasts each (average price per breast is 60 cents) and the freezer is filled. And there are lots of breasts ready for a feast on Justin's second visit. And lots for him to take home to eat for the week.

Raul rubs the chicken with pepper, Greek oregano and  paprika, and leaves them to marinate overnight. Justin is skeptical about "dirty" mashed potatoes until Raul notes that it just means that the peel, where most of the better nutrients are, is left on. By the time the potatoes are mashed (actually blended) they are so creamy and rich that the peel is more garnish than anything resembling dirt.

The corn is left in the husk and soaked for two hours in water. After that it is just a matter of placing them on the bbq and as the husk steams, the corn is cooked to perfection.

Everyone is eating happily when Raul notes that he didn't put any salt on the chicken and that he will not be offended if anyone feels they would like some.

Drew pops up, grabs the shaker and sprinkles his breast. Justin demurs that his is delicious and perfect and then surreptitiously puts a small amount in the palm of his hand and sprinkles it on the chicken. Raul just takes the container and shakes some onto his plate.

"Is the chicken ok?" asks Raul. "It tastes bland to me. But whenever I cook corn on the bbq the flavours are overwhelmed by it."

"The corn is overwhelmingly good," says Drew. "But the rest is just as good."

"Agreed," says Justin who has very generously saved some chicken for the dog who is also very complimentary in his gobbling.

Pound Cake

"It was an experiment, a science experiment," laments Raul. "A science experiment gone horribly, horribly wrong. There was a dozen eggs about to go bad . . ."

"Buck up," says Drew. "Even Bill Nye the Science Chef had the occasional mis-step." Beneath his flippant surface Drew is concerned. The pound cake - that wound up being a several pound cake though that may have had to do with Raul's not noticing that the recipe stated: Serves 16 - is the latest baking attempt that was less than successful and one more failure and Raul's fragile sanity may hang in the balance. Two lemon cakes were terminated when the texture was not perfect and the Dark Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread met a similar fate despite an attempt to turn it into biscotti. Drew had actually enjoyed the biscotti and was perturbed when every crispy slice vanished overnight, never to be seen, or savoured, again.

"It's the oven," continues Raul. "There are cold spots. I baked it for a half hour longer than the recipe called for and it burnt on the outside on one side but was still doughy inside. I have, you should know, baked successfully before."

"And this was a success," encourages Drew. "It's just a little heavy. But isn't pound cake supposed to be heavy?"

"Yes," says Raul. "But if we eat all this cake we will be heavy too. We'll be lying helpless on the floor with bloated bellies. Like the snake that swallowed the dingo whole."

"We could Mildred Pierce it and share it with the neighbours."

"We will not share that cake with anyone," asserts Raul. "It will be gone in the morning."

For the record the recipe comes from grouprecipes.com and the results are no reflection on their usual thoroughness.

Butter Cake Or 12 Eggs Cake

Ingredients: 
1 pound salted butter 
4 cups sugar 
12 eggs 
4 cups Pillsbury all-purpose flour 
1 ounce bottle lemon extract (Raul used vanilla extract)

Directions: 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. 
Cream butter and sugar together. 
Add one egg at a time, mixing well after each addition. 
Add flour gradually. 
Mix in lemon extract. 
Pour mixture into a large Bundt pan or Angel Food Cake Pan, greased and floured, to about 1 to 2 inches from the top. 
Bake for one hour or until cake tests as done. 
Allow cake to cool thoroughly.

By the time the cake is done, Raul is too discouraged to make icing from scratch so he heads across the street to Food Basics for some Betty Crocker Whipped Fluffy White Icing or, as Drew calls it, Betty Crocker Pop n' Spread. The cake is substantial but delicious and R&D valiantly eat as much of a large slice as they dare. "I can eat this for the next eight days," enthuses Drew fraudulently.

"It must have been when all the bubbles overflowed," obsesses Raul. "All the lightness flowed right out and burnt on the oven floor. With God as my witness, I will yet bake a perfect cake."

Stew with Big Fluffies

It is a rainy cold gray morning and Raul has his hands full with a stressful situation. What to do when under pressure? Drag out the pressure cooker and make stew.

Raul thaws some steak that was a gift from the lovely Princess Seraphina next door who is somehow convinced that R&D need fattening up so she often proffers food. Seraphina is also enamoured with the dog because of his ability to terrorize door to door annoyances - he is very good at scaring them away as long as the door isn't opened so that they can discover he is only eight pounds of sheer volume. "I thought you might use these," she said, "just in case you missed the sale."

Raul caramelizes a chopped onion. He then adds, chopped, two stalks of celery and two carrots which are also caramelized. The steaks are browned on the bbq and all is put into the pressure cooker with six cups of stock. The mixture is cooked at 12 psi for 30 minutes. The meat is cooled while the vegetables are strained out of the stock. He brings the stock to a boil and then makes and adds roux (flour and oil cooked slowly until it browns. He then adds four chopped potatoes, three cups of vegetables (frozen carrots, broccoli and cauliflower in this case) and the meat cut into cubes with salt, pepper and herbs to taste, and leaves it to simmer about 20 minutes or long enough for the potatoes to get tender and to make the Big Fluffies. 

Just before serving Raul stirs in a cup of frozen peas and ladles the hearty concoction into bowls. The dog who has been frantic with anticipation sits as patiently as he is able while the rich aroma fills the apartment - after all the meat was a gift thanks to his watchdog skills. The pressure cooker cuts the time down immensely - the meat is tender and the stew tastes as if it had been cooking for days, the flavour is intense and blended. Biscuits and stew, suddenly there is no stress or rainy day feelings.

Burgers with Bean Salad and Radish Salad

At the same time that Raul created the very successful and delicious radish greens salad he also, the original intention, worked on a radish salad. The one he chose is from food.com and claims to have a Scandinavian twist to it. Hopefully the caraway seed is not the Scandinavian flair because there was, surprisingly, not any caraway seed in the spice cupboard and Raul just leaves it out.

Radish Salad

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons white wine vinegar
2 teaspoons canola oil or 2 teaspoons corn oil
1 teaspoon caraway seed
2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
1 garlic clove, minced
1 pinch sugar
1 pinch salt
1 pinch pepper
15 -20 medium radishes (or shaved) or 15 -20 large radishes, trimmed and sliced thin (or shaved)

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, combine vinegar, oil, caraway, oregano, garlic, sugar, salt and pepper.
2. In a large bowl, toss radishes with vinegar-oil mixture.
3. Cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving.

Raul leaves the salad to marinate overnight and the result is very subtle with an earthy taste. "Maybe the dressing takes out all the peppery taste," muses Raul. However paired with burgers and bean salad there are more than enough flavours on the plate to satisfy all. But the next time radishes are purchased - and they will be, Drew still craves just a simple bowl of radishes fried in butter - the greens will be the most crucial part of the purchase. "Usually you would have a burger and fries but this is much tastier," says Raul. "And healthier." Drew agrees and the dog pouts.

Grillled Vegetable Paninis with a Radish Greens Salad

Raul returns from Food Basics with a giant bag of ruby red radishes. Drew loves radishes just sliced and sauteed in butter but Raul wants to make a summer salad. While chopping the radishes he has an inspiration, "Surely there must be something we can do with the greens?" A-googling he goes. Sure enough radish greens are, according to tasteofbeirut.com, "loaded with Vitamin C, calcium, protein and cancer-protective nutrients." There is a note that the greens require a lot of cleaning and trimming. Raul discovers it to be true - there is a lot of grit and the stalks have to be removed (there is an Indian stirfry that calls for radish green stalks that will have to be tried eventually - but worth the effort of being up to his elbows in cold water for 20 minutes.  Tasteofbeirut.com also offers the recipe, reproduced here, that Raul decides is the most interesting to try. 

Ingredients:

• 1 or 2 bunches of radishes, cut off the greens and use for a salad. Keep the radishes for the next day and either saute in butter or stuff in sandwiches or eat as a snack.
• 1 cup (or more) of garbanzo beans, fully cooked.
• 1 large shallot, cut in rings (or any other type of onion)
• a handful of dried cranberries (Raul substitutes chopped dates)

Dressing:

• 2 cloves of garlic, mashed
• the juice of one lemon
• 2/3 cup olive oil
• dash of salt, pepper

After washing the radish greens and drying them, place them in a bowl along with the other ingredients; prepare the dressing, whisk well and pour one tablespoon at a time over the salad and toss. Use the leftover dressing for another salad.

Raul also adds cashews to the salad and though Drew finds the dressing a little lemony - so he adds some black pepper - the texture (slightly hairy as well as crunchy) and flavour of the radish greens is delicious, different and R&D curse all the times they wasted radish greens.  

To go with the salad Raul creates grilled vegetable paninis. He salts sliced eggplant and leaves for an hour before placing it, along with sliced red pepper and zucchini, on the bbq to grill until they are dried out, caramelized and have grill marks. He then bathes them lightly in balsamic vinegar, mixes in whole basil leaves, covers with plastic wrap and leaves them to steam until they cool. A hearty 12-grain bread and mozzarella cheese are a perfect complement and though Drew adds some Miracle Whip and a schmear of wasabi, the vegetables are full of flavour all on their own. 

"Without the cheese this would be a perfect vegan meal," notes Raul. Drew agrees but the dog shudders in horror at the concept of a meatless kitchen. "And tomorrow the radish salad!" promises Raul.

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

After the less-than-perfect, "A catastrophe!" corrects Raul, texture of the banana bread, Raul, while vowing to solve and correct the problem, retreats to a recipe he has already conquered. Drew's Mom is famous for, among many baking miracles, her oatmeal cookies. Raul was fascinated from the first bite, "Economical, healthy and tasty. Perfect." Drew's Mom sends the recipe via email and Raul works to perfect it (something he should remember before flagellating himself too severely about the banana bread). He discovers the importance of brown sugar (as the recipe calls for) rather than golden or white, whole wheat flour (as the recipe calls for) rather than all-purpose and, his own addition, the use of bargain priced but high quality Chefmaster Margarine (a trick he learned from a chance conversation at No Frills with a woman who claimed Chefmaster was the closest to ghee so ideal for cooking and high temperatures). At one point a tortilla press is pressed into service to create the perfect thickness and at another a giant wooden rolling pin is acquired from the thrift store to roll out the dough.

Raul also deviates from the original recipe by adding in chopped granola (courtesy of Drew's Mom who makes it from scratch) to add a nutty flavour, more fibre and nutrients. For this particular batch Drew casually inquires whether there are any dark chocolate chips left from the disasterous (but still being happily eaten) banana bread. There are and Raul stirs them in and then lives in terror while the cookies bake, "What if the chocolate is the culprit in the banana bread catastrophe?"

Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cookies

1 c butter or margarine

1 1/2 c brown sugar

2 eggs

1 t vanilla

2 c whole wheat flour

1 t baking soda

1 t baking powder

1/2 t salt

4-5 c old fashioned oatmeal (large flake)

or 3 c regular oatmeal

Combine in your amazing Kitchen Aid mixer :)
Roll out, cut in circles, bake at 350'F for 12 minutes.
Enjoy!!!

The cookies turn out perfectly: crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. The dark chocolate is a delicious enhancement but alas renders the cookies poison to the dog. "Another catastrophe!" complains Raul.

"Perfect," purrs Drew as he blithely munches in front of the miffed mutt. "More for me. I mean . . . How tragic! I'll give him some crumbs that are not contaminated with chocolate."

Dark Chocolate Marbled Peanut Butter Banana Bread

While shopping the endlessly fascinating aisles of Danforth Variety & Fruit Market Raul picked up a huge bunch of over-ripe bananas for a mere 39 cents a pound. Banana bread is in the offing. He googles and browses until he finds the most intriguing and sensible recipe in existence. The aforementioned recipe resides at What's Baking in the Barbershop? a very entertaining yet practical blog out of Boston. The recipe is modified from recipes found at Cooking Light so R&D feel safe in reproducing it here.

Ingredients:

-2 cups all-purpose flour

-3/4 tsp. baking soda

-1/2 tsp. salt

-1 and 1/2 cups mashed, ripe banana (about 3 medium to large bananas)

-1/3 cup low-fat vanilla yogurt

-1/3 cup creamy peanut butter

-3 Tbsp. melted butter, cooled

-2 eggs (or 1/2 cup egg substitute)

-1/2 cup sugar

-1/2 cup light brown sugar

-1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, combine the banana, yogurt, peanut butter, cooled melted butter, and eggs. Mix well until combined. Add both sugars, and continue to mix well. Next, add the flour mixture a little bit at a time and beat on low speed until just moist and combined.


Place the chocolate chips in a medium-sized microwave safe bowl, and microwave on high in 30-second increments, stirring after each time. Continue until the chips are completely melted and smooth; cool slightly. Add 1 cup of the banana bread batter to the melted chocolate, and stir until well combined.

Coat a 9 x 5 inch (or 8.5 x 4.5) loaf pan with cooking spray. Swirl the plain batter and chocolate batter together with a knife in the pan (see the stages of this process below). Bake at 350 for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan for 10 to 15 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Of course the loaves are not allowed to cool for half an hour before tasting. The bread is delicious but the peanut butter/banana section has an odd texture - like a very firm pudding. Raul is devastated. "We should have waited to cut it," he wails. "And where did that faint taste of mint come from? This is way too heavy for the height - it fell. Maybe it was using crunchy peanut butter. Or the yogurt. Or maybe it needed to cook longer. Or . . ."

"Or maybe it's just delicious and don't worry about it," says Drew while he cuts himself a second slice.  

"I'll figure it out and get it perfect," vows Raul. "Or maybe someone will read this and have a solution. As God as my witness we will have perfect dark chocolate peanut butter banana bread." 

BBQ Chicken, Plaintain, Rice and Black Beans

It is Raul's birthday so Drew offers to cook whatever Raul would like. What Raul would like most is to cook some of his favourites himself. Drew pretends to pout but is secretly pleased. Breakfast is waffles with butter curls and real maple syrup. Lunch is burgers and, Drew's contribution, Drumstick ice cream treats of the plain vanilla variety because vanilla is Raul's favourite ice cream flavour. Dinner is more elaborate.

Raul skins and debones chicken thighs before rubbing them with Greek oregano, crushed red pepper and a dash from a birthday gift to himself of a giant jar - 650 grams for $2.29 at the Danforth Variety & Fruit Market - of Cool Runnings Plus Granulated Garlic Powder. He presses the thighs flat and sets them aside to marinate.

He chops four green onions (saving the tops for garnish), a third of a bell pepper and two cloves of garlic that are then softened at a low heat for five minutes. He then adds a can of black beans (drained), a dash of salt and cumin, a juiced lime and half-cup of water. The mixture is covered and left to simmer.

Plantain strips are fried and basmati rice bubbles in the rice cooker. When all is set to go the chicken thighs go on the grill and all is plated with chopped basil and the green onion tops as a garnish on the rice.

The chicken is spicy, the beans are tart, the plantain is sweet and the rice allows everything to blend. "Every bite is different," enthuses Raul. "A perfect birthday meal."

BBQ'ed (almost) Pork Chops, Broccoli, Carrots and Mashed Potatoes (and an apology for the photos)

It is Justin's first visit to the R&D kitchen so R&D are determined that everything will be perfect. So, of course, everything goes wrong.

Justin has picked the menu including his favourite meal from his childhood: mashed potatoes and Raul's special pork chops. Lunch goes fine with Raul bbq'ing burgers. The burgers turn out just fine and Justin is kind enough to leave a healthy portion for the dog who decides that Justin is his new best friend.

Dinner starts out well. Raul has purchased a dozen prime pork centre cut chops and he slathers them in Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce before they go in the grill. The broccoli is steamed, the carrots are boiled and the mashed potatoes are mashed (the only secret to Raul's mashed potatoes is that he uses an ice cream scoop to serve them to give that diner fancy look). The chops go on the grill and catastrophe strikes. "We're out of propane!" screams Raul as he tears at his hair.

"Propane, propane," laughs Justin, referencing a cult Trailer Park Boys episode while Drew begins an anticipatory dread of the process of hauling a refilled propane tank up the six flights (bbqs are allowed but it is illegal to transport propane in the elevator).

There is a lot of banging in the kitchen as Raul goes old school and pulls out two large cast iron frying pans to finish off the chops. At the last minute he reluctantly adds some Sensations Tequila Lime Habanero Barbecue Sauce to substitute, sort of, for the distinctive flavour of outdoor grilling.

The meal turns out just fine and Justin rates it a ten out of ten and everyone eats heartily - even the burger-bloated dog.

The second disaster is more minor but has repercussions that will live forever on the web. The camera battery is low so the photos of this momentous occasion are out of focus. So out of focus that no amount of Photoshop can salvage them beyond the embarrassing.

BBQ'ed Steak with Mango Salad, Bean Salad and Rice

After an evening out the night before, the festivities for the dog's fifth birthday (actually the date of his adoption - he is a troubled neurotic rescue but that is another story) are subdued. "It's not like baking him a cake would do any good," notes Drew turning a blind eye to Raul dispensing yet more treats into the rapacious birthday boy's jaws. The lunch of pasta fagiole had provided the dog with a feast of leftovers (bits of pasta and sausage) but his wide tragic eyes play on Drew's emotions. "What are we having for dinner?"

"I don't know," says Raul. "I haven't thought that far ahead."

"We do have mango salad and bean salad in the fridge. That's practically a meal right there."

"We should add a protein. What's in the freezer?"

Drew rifles through the packed freezer and considers several options before settling on an inside round steak that he had purchased, 30 percent off because it was just about to reach its "best before" due date, and frozen several weeks ago. "I could thaw this," muses Drew. "It probably just needs a little marinade to liven it up."

"No wasabi," warns Raul.

Drew runs the steak under warm water and as soon as it is pliable he places it in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. After a applying a shake of salt, a heaping of pepper, a slathering of Mrs Dash and celery salt on each side of the steak, Drew douses it with red wine, covers it and leaves it to sit. "Add garlic," advises Raul. So, even though the dog reacts badly to garlic, Drew adds a teaspoon of chopped garlic and admits that it is much more aromatically appealing.

Raul makes rice in the rice cooker and then grills the steak and plates the food. The steak is not as tender as hoped - "Too well done," says Raul pointedly; "Always happens when it's been frozen," rejoins Drew - but the combo of flavours is intoxicating. Drew leaves a good helping of steak and rice for the dog who gobbles it up and begs for more. Two more helpings of rice go down the gullet of the ravenous birthday celebrant. "He is happy enough he could probably have been made to wear a party hat," thinks Drew aloud.

"No party hats," states Raul. "Especially on a helpless dog."

Pizza

"I'm combining two recipes for dough," says Raul. "It is important to research and that will save time in the long run. My mom used to send me for dough at the bakery. Every Saturday for a year that was my job, go for dough and then make pizza for everyone. This recipe is from ricardocuisine.com with some advice from lidia added. And some thoughts from my all time favourite cooking website cookingforengineers.com. I'm adding the water in two portions ten minutes apart - for proper bread making you first create a sponge and then it picks up the water properly so there are no lumps. And Lidia says not to roll the dough out, just pat it down. Why spend all that time inflating it and then flatten it out?"

Pizza Dough à la ricardocuisine.com

Preparation time: 10 min
Waiting: 1 h
Output: two 35-cm (14-inch) pizzas

310 ml (1 1/4 cups) water, lukewarm

15 ml (1 tablespoon) olive oil

15 ml (1 tablespoon) honey

680 ml (2 3/4 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour

10 ml (2 teaspoon) instant dry yeast (or pizza yeast)

2.5 ml (1/2 teaspoon) salt

1. In a bowl, combine the water, oil, and honey. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, with a wooden spoon, or in a stand mixer (using the dough hook), combine the flour, yeast, and salt. Add the water mixture and stir until it forms a soft ball. Knead the dough for about 3 minutes in the stand mixer or on a floured surface.

3. Place the dough in a clean and lightly oiled bowl. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm and humid place for about 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size.

Use the dough immediately or cover with plastic wrap. Keep in the refrigerator for up to 12 hours. Otherwise, freeze it.

The pizza dough spreads evenly and smoothly. Raul covers it with a thin layer of ketchup. He then adds a mixture of shredded mozzarella cheese, grated Parmesan cheese, Greek oregano and Onion Crunch. He then sprinkles the pizza with sliced mushrooms and pre-cooked Italian sausage which he is delighted to announce were 40 percent off. A sprinkling of black pepper and the pizza is ready to go into the pre-heated oven at 500 degrees. "The whole key is to have it hot," notes Raul. "That way the crust puffs and is crunchy. Normally a pizza oven is 700 degrees but we'll just have to do the best we can. There was a guy who was able to achieve 700 degrees by over-riding the latch system on a self-cleaning oven . . ." Drew gets ready to get between Raul and the toolbox but then remembers that this oven is not self-cleaning.

Fourteen minutes later the cheese is bubbling and the crust is golden brown. "It's a bit sweet from the ketchup," remarks Drew. "And the Onion Crunch."

"You can feed it to the dog and run down the street for takeout pizza," replies Raul.

"The dough could not be more perfect," says Drew crunching contentedly.

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Mango Salad and Bean Salad

A slight head cold has put a damper on the long weekend's festivities and menus. Big bowls of Pho soup with extra herbs and garlic have lessened the symptoms butsuddenly there are hunger pangs. Drew offers to put together basil chicken but Raul builds on the idea. And builds on it. Suddenly the kitchen is a hive of activity. The chicken breasts are sliced and stuffed with basil leaves, mozzarella cheese and prosciutto. "The mark of a great chef is the ability to keep the whole thing from falling apart and for the contents to stay inside the chicken breast," pronounces Raul as the mini-processor whirs, turning toasted bread and buns into crumbs. The crumbs are cooled and stirred with grated Parmesan cheese and Greek oregano.

"I wanted to cheat and wrap the breasts in prosciutto," says Raul. "And I thought of twine or toothpicks but that feels like cheating. I hope this works." The breasts are dipped in an egg and milk mixture then rolled in the crumb mixture. This process is repeated repeatedly until Raul is sure that all is sealed tight. The results are placed on parchment paper on a cookie sheet and baked for 40 minutes at 350 degrees.

While the chicken is cooking Raul creates a mango salad using Drew's Mom's recipe for bean salad. He slices an half an onion, half a red pepper and two large mangoes into strips, adds the vinaigrette solution and puts it in the fridge to marinate and cool. "I was thinking of a mango salsa," he says.

"Isn't a salsa usually spicy?" queries Drew. "Salad is fine by me especially when it is this delicious. And look! The chicken held together. Well there is one little extruding blob of cheese . . . But it is delicious."

"Yes. And all from scratch," says Raul proudly.

"Yes, you are a great chef," agrees Drew.

Dinner and a Show: Dining at Mysteriously Yours

R&D do not dine out at restaurants very often - partially budget constraints but mainly because Raul enjoys cooking so much. When there is an opportunity it is embraced whole-heartedly and when, for work purposes, there happens to be a meal involved: all the better. This is R&D's fourth visit to Mysteriously Yours Mystery Dinner Theatre, 2026 Yonge St and Raul begins planning his choices before they have even left the apartment. Or he has even seen the menu. "Salmon or chicken, salmon or chicken," he ponders. "I know you'll go for the beef."

R&D began attending Mysteriously Yours when Drew was invited to do theatre reviews of their productions but this is the first time that they will be casting critical eyes and tastebuds on the culinary offerings. Dinner theatre has a bad reputation for the food being an afterthought - the show takes precedence, everything must be prepared and served in large quantities and quickly, the average dinner theatre patron is not gastronomically adventurous, etc - but this has never proven to be the case at Mysteriously Yours. Executive Chef Rossy Earle takes pride in her offerings and also sells a line of specialty products under the banner SupiCucu including a popular Diablo's Fuego hot sauce. Officially the food is labelled "fusion" reflecting Earle's Panamanian heritage, unofficially it means that familiar dishes have just a little more bite.

The current production is Upton Abbey which could loosely be described as Downton Abbey played for farce and with the addition of a few murders and a character based on Columbo. To this end the menu - and cocktails - have been tweaked to reflect and upper class British sensibility, more Upstairs, Downstairs than Coronation Street or pub fare. It is a warm summer evening so both choose to start with a Baby Spinach Waldorf Salad ("cherry tomatoes, grapes, celery, walnuts & apple vinaigrette"). "Fresh and lively," enthuses Drew though he notices that both eat the grapes first rather than blending all the flavours. They can be picky eaters.

Raul has the Chicken Lyonnaise ("with caramelized onion gravy, buttermilk red potato mash & green beans") while Drew, as Raul predicted, has the Braised Beef Pot Pie ("boneless beef rib, potatoes, mushrooms & vegetables braised in stout, topped with pastry"). The chicken is moist and tender and the gravy has a nice little after bite. The green beans absolutely glow with goodness and are cooked just the far side of al dente so that they are firm but don't quite crunch. The pot pie bursts with flavour and is packed with more meat and mushrooms than potatoes - no filler - and somehow the pastry remains flaky and light despite mass production.

Desserts arrive during the first intermission and Drew is extremely pleased, for the fourth time, with the Chocolate Brownie ("served with Triple Sec chocolate ganache"). He muses that he should have perhaps got into the theme of the evening and gone for the English Trifle but a chocoholic has to do what a chocoholic has to do. Raul is equally pleased with the Apple Crumble Tartlet ("with caramel sauce & whipped cream") and announces loudly, with a pat on his stomach, that it is surprisingly filling.

The service is, as always, impeccable, efficient and friendly (thanks Adrian) and the show is hilarious. Add in a delicious meal and Mysteriously Yours turns out to be a bargain. Raul crunches the numbers and pronounces the evening a smashing success.