Karohemd's World

Lunch at José, 05/05/12

2012-05-07T16:25:50Z

On Saturday I met up with a friend at Jose Pizarro's sherry/tapas bar José for lunch. I had been to Pizarro (his restaurant) before and loved it but I fancied more variety this time. José is on a corner on Bermondsey St. There aren't any tables with chairs but counters along the windows with stools and a few tall bar tables as well as the bar itself. It's open all day on Saturdays from 12 noon and it will be packed very soon and it became apparent why very quickly.
Our first pick was "Pluma Iberica", seared iberico pork served rare. This might sound unusual or even dangerous but the quality of the meat is so high that the rawness is no cause of concern. On the contrary, cooking this superb meat any further would be a crime as it is wonderfully tender and flavoursome, almost melting on the tongue.
The other dishes we shared was a salad of radicchio with walnuts and blue cheese (well balanced flavours), sweet and tender squid with allioli and chilli, gently cooked chicken livers that were almost like paté and a fillet of seabream with morcilla (Spanish black pudding) and red peppers. The final reward was Crema Catalan, equally as good as the one I had at Pizarro. Everything was perfectly cooked, flavoured and seasoned, a joy to eat.
With two glasses of sherry and good conversation, almost two hours went past very quickly indeed.
Apologies for the lack of photos but it was a bit cramped and the food and company were just too good that I forgot, despite actually having a camera with me.

comments

[Dining] Dinner at Restaurant Sat Bains, 28/04/12

2012-04-29T23:10:25Z

Restaurant Sat Bains has been on my "to do list" for a while because his food always sounded and looked interesting when featured on TV, reviews or food blogs. A couple of months ago I mentioned my desire to visit and a friend who lives in Nottingham offered to come along and a roof over the head for the night so I took the offer and booked a table for yesterday.
When we arrived we were shown to comfortable seats in the cosy bar/lounge for our pre-dinner drinks. Sat Bains only offers tasting menus, one with seven and one with ten courses with optional matching "wine packages". We decided on the full experience of ten courses with matching wines and we also chose to share the duck egg, ham and pea dish, with which Sat Bains won the starter in Great British Menu 2007, as an additional starter.
Now I have to admit I have a problem, I simply lack the words to describe what followed. The horseradish amuse bouche in two parts, the "ice cream sandwich" and the pannacotta, were already oozing with a variety of perfectly matched flavours. This theme would continue throughout the menu and quite often change while eating a dish, especially when having a sip of the matching wine. In the case of the main, the flavour of the venison tartare developed black pepper flavours when eaten with the treacle bread (the darker of the two you see below). A few dishes tasted differently to what your brain told you they should taste like, especially the chocolate/olive/balsamic dessert.
After our main we were offered a cheese course which I asked to be served at the end (my German genes, I guess). This was not a traditional cheese board but two prepared cheese dishes, both excellent.
Service throughout was spot on, friendly, unassuming and happy to discuss the dishes. The sommelier's wine pairings were also perfect, enhancing, supporting or even sometimes changing the flavours of the dishes in an entirely pleasant way.
We must have made an impression because we were invited into the kitchen to have a chat with Chef Sat Bains who showed us the surprsingly small kitchen, introduced us to his brigade and talked about the food and his philosophy/approach to cooking. Not only did we get to meet this thoroughly charming and gracious chef but were also served an additional off-menu dessert, a treacle sponge with parsnip and apple. The sponge was quite big but so fluffy and light it was almost not there. With this we had a glass of sparkling sake which was again a wonderful match.
It was only when we left the kitchen that we realised that it was already 11 o'clock meaning we had spent over four and a half hours eating and drinking without really noticing the time passing as we were so involved in the whole experience. It wasn't over yet as coffee and chocolates were still to come which we took again in the lounge going full circle around the restaurant if you will. Called "chocolate log" this was again not what you would expect as you can see in the last photo below. Each shard of chocolate (from white to dark) was flavoured differently, a beautiful end to a wonderful experience.
And now, the photos. Rather tricky as the light wasn't brilliant but I think they give you some idea of what we experienced:

Horseradish amuse bouche

Bread

Duck egg, ham, peas

Scallop and leek

Jersey royals, dashi, onion juice, ham

Duck liver "muesli"

Loch Duart salmon, asparagus gazpacho

"Waldorf" salad

Roe deer, mushroom, pine, thyme, chocolate

"The crossover"

Sweetcorn, miso, passionfruit

Chocolate, coffee, olive oil, balsamic

Strawberry and cream

Cheese

"Chocolate log" and coffee

comments

Dinner at The First and Last, Cambridge

2012-04-27T00:41:50Z

The First and Last opened last year in Cambridge in the premises that used to be The Cricketers, reverting to the name of the original pub in that location. I've been a couple of times but for some reason haven't blogged about it yet. The menu contains both pub grub (things like burgers, fish&chips etc. cooked to a high standard) and dishes you would more expect at a restaurant.
I was in town this week for a photography group meetup (more on that in another blog post tomorrow) so dropping in at the First and Last for dinner beforehand sounded like a good idea. Everything sounded exciting but I wanted a lightish starter so went for the chicken roulade with asparagus and red onions.

Chicken mousse wrapped around asparagus spears, wrapped with parma ham and then fried. Nicely cooked, excellent flavours. The stewed red onions and dressed leaves worked well with the meat.

In the afternoon, they posted a photo of a hake on twitter so I knew what I'd be having as I love that fish and it's hard to find in the shops.

The beer batter was crispy and the fish was flaky and moist. The chunky, thrice cooked chips were superb, very fluffy inside and very crispy outside. The home made tartare sauce was lovely and I even liked the peas (no mean feat)! A huge portion, too, I had to leave two chips behind and sadly didn't have any room for pudding, something I will have to amend next time.

comments

[Dining] The Pass Experience at Cinnamon Kitchen

2012-04-26T00:19:06Z

The Pass restaurant is in Sussex and a bit tricky to get to from Cambridge so when I read that Matt would do a "popup" at Cinnamon Kitchen (a few minutes from Liverpool St. station), it sounded like an easy way of sampling his food. After a train and tube journey that took 40 minutes longer than it should have, I arrived at the restaurant in time for the welcome drink (a rather nice Bellini). The meal itself was at the "tandoor bar" in the main restaurant, a long low open kitchen counter with comfortable chairs (not barstools) behind which the chefs worked and were also happy to answer questions and explain what they were doing.

When we arrived the chefs (Matt Gillan, head chef at The Pass, Lewis Hamblet, executive chef at South Lodge and Sarah Payne, junior sous chef) were busy assembling the starter. I ordered a glass each of the recommended wines and after a short introduction to the dish by Matt, the starter was served.

There were two elements of duck in the dish (Curried gressingham duck breast, braised leg, blackened onions, pink grapefruit), hot slow cooked leg in a parcel and rolled up slices of dark pink breast at room temperature. This might sound slightliy odd but worked perfectly and the additional elements tied everything together adding texture and acidity. The wine, a Pinot Gris, worked well with the dish, even if you would expect a red with duck.

The fish dish (Roasted stone bass, spring onions, chick pea, watercress) was next and freshly cooked directly in front of me as were the spring onions. You could see how much are and attention went into cooking the fish and the result was brilliant: Crispy skin and moist, flaky fish with excellent accompaniments.

The main event was saddle of lamb, slow cooked belly (sitting underneath the slices of saddle), lamb fat gnocchi, lemon curd, mushroom. The meat had been cooked to medium in a waterbath and was then freshly seared and sliced. The belly had been cooked overnight and then pressed. The gnocchi and mushrooms were freshly fried as well. This dish is actually fighting with the lamb I had at Tuddenham Mill I had earlier this month. The basic idea was the same, a prime and a "cheap" cut of meat with interesting accompaniments but rather different in execution. I loved the contrast of the two cuts of meat, the juicy saddle and the soft and crispy belly (which wasn't greasy at all). The gnocchi were crispy on the outside, soft inside, the mushrooms had great flavour and the lemon curd (as weird as it sounds) tied everything together and provided the acidity that came from the yoghurt in Paul Foster's dish. Genius.

The dessert was vanilla and lime cream (inside the cylinder), mint gel, cucumber, mango, coconut sorbet. Lovely fresh, fruity and not too sweet flavours, some soft, some crunchy with the surprising element being the cucumber balls which had been steeped in a light stock syrup to give it some sweetness. Brilliant.

You can find more photos in this flickr set which will be expanded with a few more shots when I find the time over the next few days.

comments

[Product review] Billy Franks' Beef Jerky

2012-04-23T19:59:21Z

A different sort of blog post for me as I usually don't do product reviews as I either use fresh/locally produced ingredients or well-known brands.
I sometimes have a craving for a more substantial savoury snack so every now and then I get a pack of jerky or biltong from the supermarket. A while ago, I "met" Will Yates on twitter who produces his own home-made jerky in a variety of flavours. This month he offered a variety pack of all four flavours (BBQ, Teriyaki, Roast Beef & Mustard and the mighty Holy Fuck hot sauce) for a discount and I took the chance to order one and try it.
The jerky comes in 40g vacuum sealed bags to keep it in good condition. On ripping open a pack, you get a nice whiff of the flavour. The jerky is chewy but soft and nicely juicy. The flavours aren't that strong so you can still taste the meat which is clearly of good quality.
The Holy Fuck flavour I was slightly scared of. While I haven't had the sauce itself I've heard horror stories of it blowing the heads off even seasoned chilli heads. So I was surprised when that didn't happen to me at all. The effect is actually quite remarkable: When you bite into a piece of HF jerky, the heat sort of evaporates in your mouth (and your sinuses) which is a nice warm feeling. What remains is fruitiness as you continue to chew. It was clearly my favourite of the four.
So yes, if you fancy some jerky, you can't go wrong with Billy Franks.

comments

[Cooking] Sirloin steak cooked the Heston way, boulangere potatoes, new season asparagus

2012-04-21T23:59:54Z

After my light lunch, I fancied a nice piece of meat for dinner. I'm pretty confident in cooking steak my usual way (fast sear and then finished in a low oven) but I wanted to try the method Heston Blumenthal demonstrated in his last TV series.
The steak had quite a chunk of fat on one end so I cut that off, chopped it up and rendered it on a low/medium heat. There was enough fat to lubricate the steak so I didn't need any oil. It most likely helped with the flavour, too.
With the extractor fan on full and window open, I added the steak to the smoking pan and flipped the steak every 15 seconds (roughly, by counting, I didn't actually use a timer), seasoning with salt and pepper halfway through. After four times on each side, so for a total of two minutes, the steak felt as if it was done so I removed it from the pan to a warm plate to let it rest for five minutes. I poured off the fat as suggested in the linked recipe but made a standard red wine reduction instead to which I added the resting juices later.
After resting, the steak was just how I like it, dark pink throughout, wonderfully juicy and with a really nice crust on the outside, quite possibly the best steak I have cooked.
This I served with boulangere potatoes and fresh, blanched asparagus.

I remember watching this episode on TV and myself and many others on twitter found it a bit odd but it really works. I mentioned this to an American friend and she thought it completely normal. Different cultures, different ways of cooking steaks.

comments

[Cooking] Ballotine of salmon and asparagus, crispy salmon skin, lentils

2012-04-21T20:01:16Z

Last night I bought a pack of salmon fillets at the supermarket (from the saucy fish co.) because I needed something quick for dinner. The first fillet I pan-fried and had some leftover mediterranean couscous with it. Perfect quick evening meal.

This morning I had bought fresh asparagus from my greengrocer and thought I'd attempt something fancy with the other fillet for lunch:
I took off the skin, laid it flat into a frying pan, with a sheet of baking parchment on top and weighed down with a saucpan and then turned on the hob at medium heat. After five minutes, I turned the skin over and cooked the underside for a further five minutes. The result was a perfectly crispy piece of salmon skin.

I split the fillet lengthways to create two equally thick slices, set them next to each other on a sheet of clingfilm, added a spear of asparagus split lengthways, seasoned with salt and pepper and rolled it up tightly, twisting the ends of the clingfilm. This I wrapped in foil in a similar way and poached it in hot water for about five minutes. After unwrapping (ow!), it came out rather well done but still juicy and flaky. I will need to reduce the temperature next time but for that I will need a thermometer...

I also had cooked some lentils in water and seasoned with salt and pepper and dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I sliced the ballotine (more difficult than it sounds with flaky fish) and arranged the slices on the lentils, with the skin on the side.
Despite the fish being on the well done side, everything tasted really nice and as a first attempt I call this a success. One of the more "cheffy" things I have attempted.

comments

[Dining] Lunch at Tuddenham Mill, 14/04/12

2012-04-15T14:16:45Z

On Saturday I finally had the chance to go back to Tuddenham Mill near Newmarket. My first visit was brilliant but in the evening the lighting is so low you can't really appreciate the prettiness of the food and we only ate a la carte so deciding what to have was really hard. So this time I went for lunch on a bright spring day and had an 8-course (counting extras) tasting menu designed by head chef Paul Foster.
As I was just a bit early I had some excellent elderflower cordial (made on site) in the bar, nibbling on parmesan twists and pork crackling.

As you can see, those aren't your regular pork scratchings but it's what's left when you render a piece of crackling fat very slowly indeed so all the fat disappears. Very light and crunchy.
Then I took my seat upstairs and the meal proper started:

Freshly baked bread and Lincolnshire Poacher butter.

The amuse bouche was very thin slices of watermelon with feta and fried pumpkin seeds and did its job (exciting the palate) perfectly because of the contrast of sweet/acidity from the melon, the saltiness of the cheese and the crunchy seeds.

Organic salmon 40°C, asparagus, peanut, chickweed. The fish was just cooked and especially when it's this good quality, that's all it needs. It is soft and retains its natural flavour. The asparagus was equally simply cooked and the peanuts added the crunch it needed.

Slow cooked hen's egg, hake brandade, bacon, watercress. What a way to raise the humble egg to new heights. It sounds quite rich but was surprisingly light. Lovely combination of flavours and a nice crunch of bacon on top.

Duck hearts, rhubarb, celery, wild rice. I'm a huge fan of poultry giblets and offal in general so this was great and one of the few instances I liked celery. The rhubarb was really interesting in this, too. This was one of those dishes that just keeps growing in flavour as you eat it.

The main event was lamb rump and shoulder, yoghurt, fennel, quinoa. The piece of rump was cooked on the spot pink and very flavourful indeed. There was a nice bit of fat on it, too. The piece of shoulder was slow cooked and fell apart at the touch. The braised fennel, quinoa, yoghurt, wild garlic and a leaf I couldn't identify tied everything together beautifully. Very easily one of the best lamb dishes I've had.

Goat's milk, tarragon. After the rich lamb dish, this was the perfect palate cleanser. The milk was set similar to a pannacotta but almost like curd cheese in texture and very light. The granita on top wasn't too strong in tarragon flavour and worked really well.

The main dessert was bitter chocolate textures, sea buckthorn, hazelnut, mint. There was soft mousse, crumbs and more solid bits of really excellent dark chocolate. The bits on the other side added a really good fruity tang and some texture. Sea buckthorn seems to a controversial ingredient as people seem to either love or hate it, a bit like coriander or marmite. To me it's fruity and tangy (I'm not a huge fan of just sweet desserts) but fellow Cambridge foodie @ythos doesn't like the "aftertaste of month-old corpse". ;)

At this point Chef Paul invited me to have a look around the kitchen where we had a chat about the meal while I had my final dessert, an egg custard tart with butermilk, apple and nutmeg (this is the reason there's no photo as I left my camera at the table). The salted Granny Smith apple brought down the sweetish taste of the tart again. The perfect, light finish to a fantastic meal.

Tucked away in a village outside Newmarket, Paul Foster is really pushing the boat out in terms of flavour. While he does use modern cooking techniques, there are no molecular gimmicks, foams or other nonsense. Paul demonstrates that you don't need luxury ingredients like truffles and foie gras to create a luxury dining experience as long as you treat the ingredients well to bring out the maximum of flavour. It's a bit of a shame this fine restaurant is so far out of the way but it's worth the effort and I encourage everyone to try it. Paul Foster's appearance on Great British Menu on BBC2 this week should help boost awareness, too.

comments

[Cooking] Mediterranean Tart

2012-04-11T23:02:00Z

In my previous "baking" post, I mentioned I'd try making a savoury tart with the shop-bought, ready-rolled puff pastry I bought Saturday (JusRol).
I'm pleased to say it worked really well as you can see below.
I didn't have quite enough left to fill my tray so I patched the last piece together with some offcuts from the weekend and it worked (although you can see the wonky lower right corner), scored a rim into the pastry, spread some diluted tomato puree on the pastry, arranged courgette slices, quartered cherry tomatoes and bits of crushed garlic topped with bits of goats' cheese and finishing with a drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, Maldon sea salt and a few grinds of pepper. Into my toaster oven for about fifteen minutes and out came this:

Photo taken on my phone and processed with instagram, I quite like it.

comments

[Dining] Third day of my birthday binge: Breakfast at The Hampshire Hog and lunch at Axis

2012-04-08T20:58:54Z

For my overnight stay I had more or less randomly picked a hotel just down the road from The Hampshire Hog, a "pub and pantry" I had been wanting to visit for while as I know the owner Ed on twitter and had heard good things about their food. Breakfast wasn't included in my stay so rather than subjecting myself to chain hotel fare, I walked five minutes to the Hog and I'm glad I did. The main room is bright and airy with rough wooden tables and mismatched chairs. When you look at the menu you realise it's a place where you could spend hours having brunch with a variety of dishes but I had lunch coming up at 12:30 and been told to arrive hungry so I only chose a portion of buttermilk pancakes with blueberries, banana and honey butter.

The pancakes were crispy on the outside, soft in the middle and the fruit were lovely, too. With it I had a pot of excellent Earl Grey tea (loose leaf, no less, from The Rare Tea Company). As the light was perfect to read by and I didn't have to check out of my hotel before midday, I spent another hour or so with a large glass of freshly squeezed orange juice. A perfect morning.

My lunch destination was Axis at One Aldwych in Covent Garden. I live in this slightly bizarre world where as a "foodie" on twitter and other social networks I'm in contact not only with other like-minded people but also chefs from around the country. They regularly post menu updates and photos of new dishes and are happy to chat with their followers so I had "known" executive chef Tony Fleming for a while. I even booked my table through him and he promised me an interesting menu after checking for any allergies or dislikes. As I will try everything at least once, I love this sort of arrangement when chefs offer to "cook for me" and I don't necessarily know what I'll be having and the chefs love it when they can exercise their ideas without restriction.

Axis is one of the two restaurants at One Aldwych and situated in the basement but has also its own entrance from street level via a sweeping marble staircase. The dining room is well lit and furnished with tables dressed in white and comfortable chairs. On my table was a personalised printout of my menu entitled "Surf and Turf Tasting" and it looked very exciting indeed. Again I asked the waiter to recommend a couple of glasses of wine to go with the majority of the menu and again his choices were perfect as was service throughout my almost three hour meal.
This was my meal:

"Lamb, Lobster, Pea" BBQ style piece of crispy lamb with soft meat and a piece of perfectly cooked lobster tail, brought together by the pea. The antenna, although inedible, was a nice touch.

"Scallop, Pork Belly, Prune". A soft scallop sitting on a piece of braised pork belly and prune puree. Rather soft and sweet but not overbearingly so and I loved the flavour combination of scallop and pork.

"Turbot, Duck, Broccoli". This combination might sound slightly strange but it worked really well. The turbot was roasted on the bone, the duck cooked dark pink, just how I like it. Some of the best broccoli I've had, too.

"Rabbit, Langoustine, Carrot". This was, to my mind, the most inventive dish. The loin meat was wrapped around langoustine which meant it was protected and remained perfectly moist. The other piece was slowly cooked leg meat. The carrot and beet leaves rounded off the dish nicely.

"Veal, Crab, Asparagus". The piece of braised rose veal had almost the flavour of beef and fell apart, a truly remarkable piece of meat. It sat on top of the best crab cake I have ever had, it was fresh and light with excellent flavour and flake. The asparagus was tender with a bit of crunch. Lovely.

"Gingerbread, Banana, Salt Caramel". An excellent gingerbread soufflé, fluffy and light and cooked thoroughly. The piece of banana was crusted with lovely caramel, the ice cream and the salted caramel sauce brought everything together. With that I had a superb Australian dessert wine called Xanadu (the only one I remember, I need to get better at this).

Chef Tony Fleming came out for a chat and gave me a quick tour of the kitchen and the other parts of the hotel. Many thanks to him, his brigade and the front of house staff at Axis for looking after me so well. I walked back to the tube and then to my train to Cambridge a very happy man and didn't need anything else that day, despite clubbing all night and celebrating with friends.

comments

[Cooking] Pork tenderloin, chorizo, morcilla, mash, purple sprouting broccoli

2012-04-07T19:57:21Z

My butcher had nice pork tenderloin portions so I picked up one and they also had cooking chorizo and morcilla (Spanish black pudding) which I thought would go well with it. I also picked up potatoes and sprouting broccoli from Les Ward across the court and my shopping was done.
I first sliced the chorizo and morcilla and fried them in a dry pan over medium low heat until the slices were crispy and a lot of the fat had rendered. I removed the sausage with a slotted spoon to a warm plate and seared the piece of tenderloin in the rendered fat until browned on all sides and then put it into a low oven to finish.
I deglazed the pan with a glass of cider, seasoned with salt, pepper and a bit of thyme and let it reduce down to a sticky sauce.
After letting it rest for a few minutes, I carved the tenderloin, arranged it on top of the mash, crumbled the chorizo and morcilla over and around it and drizzled with the sauce. A few Maldon salt flakes and a few twists of pepper were the only seasoning (apart from the flavour of the chorizo fat).
Served with simple mash and steamed purple sprouting broccoli.
The crispy chorizo and morcilla provided not only extra flavour but also texture. I was really happy with how it came out.

[Short URL to this post]

comments

Second day of my birthday binge: Lunch at Alyn Williams at The Westbury, 29/03/12

2012-04-06T22:01:14Z

For my birthday I usually treat myself to a new gadget or some camera equipment but as I didn't need anything this year, I decided to visit a few more restaurants than usual. On my actual birthday I went with a group of friends to Alimentum in Cambridge who treated me to a tasting menu of new dishes. I've written extensively about Alimentum's food before so I won't write a separate post but you can see the photos here. While everything was excellent, the halibut dish was everybody's favourite.
The next day I took a train down to London to have lunch at Alyn Williams' restaurant at The Westbury in Mayfair. I had read quite a few reviews both by journalists and fellow food bloggers who were all praising Alyn's cuisine. No wonder, really, as he'd spend the last few years as Marcus Wareing's head chef at the Berkely before he decided to set up his own restaurant at The Westbury so his reputation was already excellent.
The restaurant is set in a windowless but well lit room on the ground floor of The Westbury. The setting with well spaced tables dressed in white is elegant but not overbearing. Service was equally pleasant, friendly, efficient and invisible when not needed.
Considering the setting and area, one would expect a rather pricey menu but this is not the case. The set lunch menu is £24 for three courses, à la carte is £45 for three courses and the seven course (with two options for main) tasting menu only £55. This, considering the level of cooking and location, is a bargain (a service charge of 12.5% is added to the bill). Also, you have the option of replacing dishes from the tasting menu with one from the a la carte in case one isn't to your liking. As I'm unlikely to have the opportunity to go back soon I chose the tasting menu to be able to taste a good variety of Alyn Williams' cuisine. There are also separate à la carte and tasting menus for vegetarians.
As it was lunchtime and I don't process alcohol well during the day, I did not choose to have the wine flight with my menu so instead the sommelier suggested a glass of white and red each that would go well with the main sections of the menu. Just before my first course was served, Alyn Williams dropped by my table and said Hi before he went back to his kitchen.
Photos and descriptions of each course:

Canapés and bread. The former were just little bites (incl. very cheesy gougeres and prawn crackers) but full of flavour and a wonderful indication of what was to come. The bread was lovely, too, especially the dark sourdough which was the closest to German bread I've had in this country.

The first stunner: braised beef cheek, crab and onion consommè, served in a cocktail glass. The fresh crab worked really well with the strong beef.

This was probably the most beautifully presented dish I've had. A perfectly cooked scallop with an oyster on top. It was fresh and yet deep in flavour. Truly high level cooking. Marvellous.

A little extra course of smoked egg with truffled soldiers. Rich egg, crispy soldiers with added truffle flavour. Fun little dish.

Foie gras semi freddo, pickled carrot and liquorice. I'm not a huge fan of foie gras for various reasons and briefly considered asking for this course to be replaced but I was intrigued by the combination so I tried it and it was fine indeed. The richness of the foie was cut by the liquorce powder which wasn't too strong in flavour and balanced beautifully. The pickled carrots were perfect with it.

This cod dish was another example of the high level of skill in Williams' kitchen. Simple in principle yet spectacular in execution and balance of flavours.

The meat main was pigeon, seared breast and a croquette of slow roasted leg. Needless to say, this was also cooked on the spot with perfect sides. I wouldn't have needed that rather mean looking steak knife.

My meal slowly winding down, the pre-dessert arrived, a passion fruit "cheesecake", a brilliant combination of crunchy, sweet and tangy. Just a little portion (that is a normal tablespoon next to it) but perfect as a palate cleanser.

The main dessert consisted of a button of very dark caramel covered in chocolate, apple and walnut ice cream. I'm not a big fan of caramel but this was outstanding as it wasn't too sweet. You can't just see it in the photo, the disc of apple wasn't solid but consisted of long strips wound into a disc. It was soft but still had a little crunch and was lightly spiced. The walnut ice cream was smooth and worked perfectly with the other components.

At this point I was already thoroughly stuffed but on my way to my table I had walked past the cheese trolley which had a lot of the type of cheeses I love so I couldn't say no when the waitress asked me if I wanted some. The cheeses were perfectly ripe and kept in top condition. An excellent end to a wonderful meal. Now really full I had to decline the offer of coffee but the waitress kindly gave me a little box with four truffles to take with me.
After a quick tour of the kitchen and a brief chat with Chef Alyn, I paid my bill and staggered contentedly back to the tube which would take me to my hotel in Hammersmith.
In the evening, I saw the excellent Pokey LaFarge at Bush Hall and back at the hotel afterwards the truffles were a perfect night cap. Needless to say, I didn't actually need dinner that evening.
[Short URL to this post]

comments

[Cooking] A tentative attempt at baking

2012-04-06T17:00:23Z

As a general rule, I don't bake. There are three main reasons: I don't have a proper oven, baking is a precise science which doesn't go well with my intuitive approach to cooking and a real cake is just too big for just one person. I've made crumbles before because the mix is just equal amounts of flour, sugar and butter so easy to scale down.
Today I tried something else. I bought a pack of pre-made, rolled puff pastry from the chiller cabinet (JusRol), cut a piece of pastry for a tartlet, scored a line for a rim, arranged some sliced apple dusted with cinnamon on it and shoved it into my toaster oven. Out came this:

It was a little overdone (will need to watch more carefully next time) and dry (an extra layer of filling would have done nicely, or thicker apple slices). Also, the pastry is a litle salty so a little dusting of sugar should do the trick there.
All in all, not bad for a first attempt. I'll be attempting a savoury version tomorrow as I have cherry tomatoes and goat's cheese.

comments

Dinner at Colette's, 17/03/2012

2012-03-18T17:56:39Z

I first had a taste of Russell Bateman's food when he provided the main for the Tommy's charity dinner at Alimentum last year and since then I'd been wanting to visit Colette's the restaurant he heads up at The Grove hotel in Watford. After a series of public transport failings (half an hour for a bus, signal failure outside Cambridge), I made it to the hotel just in time for my booking. Kyle (who used to be sommelier at Alimentum) kindly gave me the grand tour of the sprawling building with its various lounges, bars and restaurants, all held in a simple, elegant style. I also had a quick peek into the kitchen before taking my seat in the restaurant. This is also held in mostly white with very low lighting (fellow food bloggers, take heed) and widely spaced tables dressed in white cloths.

I'm going to keep this review relatively short as there is a lot to go through (counting all the extras, I had 16 courses) and let the photos do the talking. In every dish the ingredients were perfectly cooked/prepared, stood out on their own while harmonising wonderfully with the others on the plate and offered an interesting mix of textures, just what you want in a fine meal. The following spectacle of culinary delights took almost four hours. In addition to a glass of champagne with the canapees, I had a different wine with almost every dish (a few were paired with the same wine) so I think it was a total of 12 glasses. Not very big ones but definitely enough to make me very happy by the end.

Canapees: White ham, pork and mustard, crab, samphire on squid ink biscuit

The bread deserves special mention. Not only is it freshly baked on the premises but it's served in a warm linen sack with hot baking beans in the bottom that will keep the bread warm. The butter and olive oil were superb, too.

A pea based amuse bouche. Lots of clean, fresh flavours.

Scallop, peanut, radish, lime. If I had to pick a favourite dish, this would be it.

Jerusalem artichoke, truffle, truffled soldiers

Spicy braised pig's cheek, coconut. This was served with knife and fork but could easily have been eaten with a spoon so tender was the meat.

Foie Gras terrine with apple and celeriac

Another fish dish: Cod with heritage carrots

8 spice squab, Grove honey, apple

Salmon cut of lamb leg, Jalfrezi spices, sweetbreads, glazed aubergine

A small cheese course. just one variety (Colombier) but this had everything I love about cheese, elements of brie, blue and washed rind.

A palate cleanser: Mango and papaya salsa, yogurt foam, passionfruit

The tiniest slice of cheesecake ever but it was great. I couldn't have eaten a normal slice, anyway.

Lemon parfait and little meringues

Jivara chocolate, thyme ice cream, Seville orange, black pepper to finish.

There were some petit fours, too but I had to pack up quickly to catch the last train from Watford Junction so didn't get a phot. They were pretty and delicious, like everything else. There are a few more photos on flickr.

Many thanks to the teams front and back of house at Colette's for looking after me so well. I won't forget this meal anytime soon.

comments

All the desserts at Alimentum

2012-03-11T21:23:51Z

The last time we were at Alimentum, a friend said that she wanted to go at some point and only eat desserts. That gave me an idea so as it was her birthday last week, I arranged just that and it turned out the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon.
We started proceedings with an Espresso Martini (which I neglected to take a photo of, oops) and we opted to have a starter so we didn't only have sweets.

Sweetbreads and chicken wing confit with wild garlic. Brilliant little dish with crispy sweetbreads and very soft chicken wings. On to all the desserts.

"Black Forest Gateau" Obviously not the rich cake from the 70s but taking the various elements and presenting them in a modern way. The sponge was as light as a feather and the cherry elements varied from sweet to tart, all balanced beautifully.

Next, we shared a portion of the Battenburg which I had last time so have a look here for a description.

On to two dishes featuring white chocolate. On the left a white choc parfait (the ball) with passionfruit and on the right a white choc pannacotta with rhubarb. In both dishes, the tartness of the fruit/vegetable was counteracted by the sweetness of the white chocolate, creating a wonderful balance. Each element on its own would have been too sweet or too tart. We only had one of those and swapped halfway through.

The pernod foam with pineapple and fennel was next. Again, a photo and short description are in this post.

Then, the killer: A chocolate and passionfruit terrine with honeycomb. A very rich, dark chocolate ganache with more passionfruit elements. The honeycomb crumbles on top provided a light crunch rather than sweetness. Superb.

During the final course we again shared two dishes: On the left, a blackcurrant mousse with crumble and vanilla ice cream. Very light, very fruity and flavourful. On the right, a Crème Brûlée with caramelised cassia bark, black cherry sorbet and almond tuile was a sweeter dish but not overpowering. The layer of melted sugar on top was almost transparent. Beautiful.

I am going to amend this with the wine list if I manage to find out what we had (a different one with each course, except the pernod foam), I can't remember them all, my memory became kind of hazy after a certain point. I think I have to take photos of the bottles on my phone to help my memory along.

Huge thanks go to the staff at Alimentum who not only went along with this crazy idea (apparently this was the first time somebody had requested an all dessert menu which I find hard to believe) but made it a very memorable afternoon indeed.

comments

Torea wine dinner at Alimentum, 07/03/12

2012-03-08T21:48:08Z

On Wednesday I attended a special dinner at my "local" restaurant Alimentum where Stuart Smith of Torea Wines in New Zealand introduced their range of wines while Alimentum's chefs had designed a tasting menu matching dishes to those wines.
Before each dish was served, Stuart Smith talked a little about how each variety was grown and made which provided some interesting insight for wine novices like me.

Here are the dishes and the accompanying wines:

Salmon, squid, squid ink risotto, pink grapefruit and roast salmon broth. The fish was beautifully, just barely cooked and the rest of the ingredients offered good contrasting flavours and textures, all tasting fresh and light. The wine was the 2010 Sauvignon Blanc, light and fresh, yet quite a few things going on there.

Rabbit lasagne, tarragon and mustard purée. Another light and fresh dish with subtle and soft rabbit meat. The purée wasn't as strong as it sounds so well judged. With this we had the 2009 Chardonnay, a bit heavier and deeper than the Sauvignon but still light, another good match.

Spiced duck breast, pastilla of leg, cumin and carrot purée. The menu also said golden raisins but I had pomegranate seeds. I didn't mind because they worked really well with the soft meat, best piece of duck I've had in quite a while. The wine was the 2010 Pinot Noir, also a good match as it was a little bit spicy but not heavy.
I didn't take a photo of the palate cleanser as it was the pernod foam with fennel that's currently on the tasting menu and a bit hard to take a good photo of.

The dessert was Baked apple terrine, Granny Smith sorbet, Aspall's cider foam. This was another brilliant dish with different textures and temperatures and varying flavours from cinnamony and sweet in the terrine to sharp in the sorbet. With this we had the 2010 Pinot Gris which while a good wine on its own was a bit too sharp with the dessert. Most people at the table agreed but that was just a minor negative point to the whole evening.
[Short URL to this post]

comments

[Cooking] Pork belly, boulangere potatoes, spinach

2012-03-03T20:56:36Z

My butcher had some nice looking belly pork today so I picked up a piece.
I first scored the skin, rubbed some salt into it and let sit for 20 minutes or so before wiping off the resulting moisture. The flesh side I rubbed with salt, pepper and thyme and then sat it in a roasting pan with a slosh of cider in the bottom. First I cooked it on the highest setting for about 20 minutes to get the skin going and then turned it right down to roast gently for about 4.5 hours.
I had first intended to serve it with mash but GigerPunk, a twitter friend, mentioned he used to cook belly pork on top of potatoes and onions which sounded like a brilliant idea. So I sweated off some red onions which I alternated with sliced redskin potatoes in an ovenproof dish, adding some well-seasoned chicken stock cooked with more cider and the juices from the roasting tin. This I roasted on medium high for about half an hour and then added the belly on top to roast for another half hour or so until the crackling blistered. I removed the dish from the oven to rest while wilting some spinach in butter, seasoned with salt, pepper and nutmeg. The finished dish looked like this:

I'm really happy with how this came out. The crackling was crunchy, not chewy at all and the meat was soft. The fat had almost completely rendered but could possibly have done with a little more cooking. Still, not bad for a first attempt.

comments

[Cooking] Pan roasted cod loin, chorizo, braised greens, beurre rouge

2012-02-27T20:59:04Z

Very quick dinner tonight:
Chopped a cooking chorizo into little chunks, cooked them in a pan on medium heat until crispy and the fat had rendered. I removed the chorizo and cooked the cod loins in the rendered fat (around 3 minutes on the presentation side and another 2 after flipping and turning off the heat), seasoned with salt and pepper.
Then I deglazed the pan with a slosh of Fino sherry and whisked in a few knobs of cold butter until emulsified to make the sauce (a bit like a beurre blanc but red from the paprika in the chorizo, hence the above name).
Served with the chorizo sprinkled over, braised spring greens, fresh baguette and a glass of Fino.

Just a phone photo while I was eating.

comments

[Dining] Porklife, The Bull Highgate, 22/02/12

2012-02-25T18:38:55Z

On Wednesday I took a train to London and then a tube to Highgate to take part in Porklife, a celebration of the pig by last year's Masterchef winner Tim Anderson and co-finalist Tom Whitaker.
The two nights only event was held at The Bull, a lovely brewpub in Highgate. I arrived well on time so could pick the table with the best light. People arrived very slowly so we didn't get started until after eight but I had my kindle so waiting wasn't so bad.

Tim and Tom appeared briefly to introduce themselves and then headed to the kitchen again.

The first course was the "little board" with deep-fried crumbed brawn and a spicy Korean mayo, a blood pudding roll (genius idea), a shotglass of "pea soup" and "hoggis". The first two were my favourites, the brawn soft with a crunchy coating and the roll with a well flavoured, crumbly black pudding. The hoggis (pork haggis) came with pickled neeps and whisky tatties, sitting on a biscuit. This was a nice idea but could possibly have had a bit more flavour. The pea soup contained bone marrow and pulled smoked hock. Very tasty indeed but probably not that healthy. ;o)

The "Soup and Sandwich intercourse" consisted of a nicely flavoured broth with pulled pork, savoy cabbage and butter beans served in a glass tumbler and rillettes of smoked hock, slithers of homemade guanciale wedged between thin toasted slices of bread. Especially the guanciale was superb but I enjoyed every element.

Then, the main event. First, there was a complimentary pint of Old Major, a "Bock Ale" created by Tim and the Bull's brewers specifically for the event. It wasn't as strong as a German Bock but had the typical sweet notes and a nice hint of smoke. I liked this a lot, if they sold this in bottles, I'd buy it regularly.

The main board had a portion of smoked, slow cooked belly which apart from the smokiness was rather similar to what you would get in Germany. Then there was slow cooked jowl with excellent meat wrapped in a rather tough skin. The spicy andouillette sausage would have been very nice if it hadn't been for a rather sharp sourness which put me off a little. The fact that it's offal stuffed into the large intestine didn't bother me at all.
Then there was a salad with crispy bits of ear and trotter, peanut, chilli and a fish sauce dressing. This was mainly a texture thing and pleasant enough. Other accompaniments were a fennel cream, barbecue sauce, apple mash, cornichons and a sort of coleslaw (called parsnip and celeriac remoulade) I really liked as well as a handmade caraway pretzel that tasted very similar to the ones from our baker in my German hometown.
There were some timing issues serving the mains, various items arrived a bit late but I was lucky that my food was still warm, I think a table or two were less lucky. Granted, there were a lot of items, though and I really enjoyed most of them.

By that time I was thoroughly stuffed but the desserts were still to come and of those I got a double helping for some reason.

The cinnamon sponge wasn't stodgy and a little bit sticky, just enough for me and the boozy cherries were a nice contrast. The rhubarb jelly could have been a bit tarter for my taste (I don't have a sweet tooth) but the vanilla and fennel ice cream was lovely with just enough aniseedy flavour to make it interesting. The bits in the ice cream was "crackling praline with walnuts" which, strangely enough, actually worked.

I briefly considered trying a shot of Chauvinist Pig, Tim's bacon infused bourbon but I had to walk back to the tube and then my train and wasn't sure what it would do to me. ;)

I also had a brief chat with Tim and Tom afterwards. They are both really nice blokes who clearly love what they're doing and were happy to chat about the food and beer and things.
While there a few hiccups along the way and not all dishes worked brilliantly, it was a great celebration of the allegedly so humble pig. Pork doesn't have to be just loin, chops and big roasts but you can use every part of the animal to make something tasty, you just need to spend some more time on the more unusual cuts.

A few more photos on flickr

[Short URL to this post]

comments

[Dining] The Punter, Cambridge

2012-02-24T18:08:50Z

I've written about The Punter in Cambridge before (apologies for the horrible phone shots), which is my favourite gastropub in Cambridge, not least because it's on two convenient bus routes so I can get there easily from work and then home. I've been a few times since the post linked above and the food has always been superb. It's on the pricier end of the scale for pubs (starters 3-8, mains 11-14.50, puddings 5.50) but the quality of the food is worth it and the £5 lunch specials are hard to beat. The place also feels more like a restaurant than a pub as the bar on one end of the pub is rather small.

Last night I had a bit of time to kill before a gig I was shooting so I had dinner again:

Deep-fried whitebait with chilli mayo. Crispy, crunchy little fishies served whole (but without heads) with a nice kick from the mayo. I think they serve this as bar snack, too.

Rolled, slow-cooked breast of pheasant with a generous slice of dauphinoise with mushrooms and leaves on top and a nice jus. The meat was very tender and flavoursome and the sides were perfect. A joy to eat.

The dessert was a rather decadent "chocolate terrine". Good dark chocolate, similar to a chocolate pot in texture with a nice bit of tart fruitiness from the passionfruit jelly.

I fully intend to make a visit to The Punter a regular affair.

comments

[Cooking] Kaiserschmarrn as an alternative for Pancake Day

2012-02-21T11:54:52Z

It's Pancake Day in the UK but I'm not a huge fan and always preferred the thicker, fluffier version called Kaiserschmarrn (Wikipedia has a few theories as to the origins of the dish).
There are of course as many recipes as there are families for this dish but the below works best for me. Good quality free range eggs are essential, not just for ethical reasons but also for the colour.

Ingredients: (1 person as main for dinner, 3 for dessert)
Eggs (3 large, 4 medium or 5 small)
milk
plain flour
caster sugar
icing sugar
butter
raisins or similar (optional: soaked in rum or whisky)

Method
Separate the eggs, whisk the yolks with ca. 3tbsp of sugar, add about two parts milk and then about 3 or 5 tbsp of sifted flour (whisk in the flour one by one until it's the consistency of double cream). Beat the egg whites with a small pinch of salt to stiff peaks. Let the batter rest/expand for about 20 minutes then fold in the beaten egg whites until incorporated.
Heat a large, thick bottomed frying pan (cast iron is ideal), melt enough butter to generously cover the bottom, pour in the batter. Turn the heat down to medium after about a minute. When the underside starts to brown, chuck in a handful of raisins into the still liquid batter. Cook until just set on top or the bottom is dark brown and turn the pancake over. Let brown for a bit then break up into bitesized pieces with your spatula, turn the heat down to low and continue frying for about five minutes or until cooked through. Plate generous portions and dust with icing sugar.
Instead of turning over the pancake, you can also put the pan onto the top shelf of a hot oven (top heating element/grill only) and cook the upper side that way.
Serve with apple sauce or other fruit compote/preserve and possibly some ice cream. :o)

comments

[Cooking] Spiced blood orange ice cream

2012-02-19T14:50:00Z

It seems Kavey gave me the ice cream bug so yesterday I made another batch. I had five blood oranges in my organic box this week and thought those would make a great base. I first zested them with a grater, then cut off the peels as close to the flesh as possible without leaving any white pith behind, blitzed the lot with my stick blender (quick and easy way to juice oranges) and strained the juice through a sieve. I cooked down the juice with the zest, some sugar, a stick of cinnamon, a piece of star anise, two cloves and the seeds and husk of a vanilla pod to a thickish syrup (probably about 200ml). Into that I whisked a 300ml tub of double cream and set aside to infuse for half an hour. After that I took out the whole spices and brought the temperature up again. Meanwhile I whisked three egg yolks in a bowl with about three tablespoons of sugar until foamy. Into that I carefully whisked the juice/cream mix and then transferred the custard back to the saucepan to finish cooking while stirring, taking care not to boil the mix (or you'll end up with scrambled eggs), until the consistency was right (the custard coats the back of a wooden spoon and won't run when you run your finger through it). It tasted really strong, almost mouth puckeringly tart so I hoped the flavour would be strong enough for the end product. I poured the finished custard into a freezer tub and let it cool down to room temperature before putting into the freezer and forking through every half hour or so.
And lo, the finished ice cream tasted fantastic, really tart, just as I like fruit ice cream to be, almost too tart on its own. I could imagine this going really well with a chocolate mousse or a sweet crumble. ETA: It was perfect with chocolate brownies. :o)

This is another entry for Kavey's Bloggers Scream For Ice Cream challenge (click the thumbnail below to go there):

P.S.: In German, the process of cooking the custard is called "zur Rose abziehen" which literally translates as "pull off to the rose" because when you blow at the back of a spoon coated in custard it will fan out in a pattern that looks similar to a flower. Try it (if you care about those things maybe only if you're going to eat the ice cream yourself and don't serve it to others) to see for yourself.

[Short URL to this post]

comments

[Cooking] Monkfish, Chorizo, Romesco Sauce, Couscous

2012-02-16T23:37:59Z

They had some reasonable looking monkfish at the fishmonger's so I picked up a piece. I filleted it, cut the fillets into chunks and marinaded them in pimenton and olive oil for a while. While the fish was marinading I made a sort of romesco sauce from a red pepper and some cherry tomatoes cooked down in olive oil with tomato paste, pimenton, garlic and dried herbs, seasoned with salt and pepper and then blitzed with a stick blender.
For the fish, I sliced two small cooking chorizos and fried those in a dry pan over medium heat until crispy and the fat had rendered. I removed the chorizo and then fried the fish in the rendered fat until browned on all sides and moved the pan to a low oven to finish for a few minutes.
In the meantime I steamed some broccoli florets and cooked the couscous with vegetable stock, olive oil and lemon juice.
When the fish was done I set it aside on a warm plate to rest while mixing the pan juices into the sauce. I then plated the fish on the couscous, drizzled the sauce over and around it and added fried chorizo slices. After I'd taken the photo I realised I'd forgotten to add the broccoli. Never mind.

[Short URL to this post]

comments

[Cooking] A simple picante cheese spread (or dip)

2012-02-13T20:01:33Z

Ingredients
150g tub of soft goats' cheese
drizzle of good extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp of finely chopped red onion
2 finely chopped cornichons
1/2 tsp of hot pimenton (smoked Spanish paprika)
grind of pepper
salt according to saltiness of the cheese, you might not need any

Method
In a bowl, first stir the oil into the cheese to loosen it and then add all the other ingredients, seasoning to taste (taste it first, you might not need salt if the cheese is quite salty already).

[Short URL this post]

comments

[Cooking] Two simple bunny dishes

2012-02-13T13:21:00Z

While browsing the meat shelves at the supermarket for ideas I randomly found some diced rabbit (from Gressingham, the farm with the lovely ducks) on offer so I bought two packs.
One pack I turned into a simple stew with leeks, carrots, cabbage and potatoes (dusted the meat in seasoned flour, browned it off, sweated off the leeks, filled up with chicken stock, let simmer for an hour and a half, added the potatoes and carrots, cooked for another 20 minutes and then the cabbage to cook for the last 10 minutes. The result was a lovely, thick stew with tender meat. Simple phone photo of a rustic dish in a rustic plate (click for big):

From the other pack I made an Italian style ragu (meat browned off in olive oil, tomato paste, can of chopped tomatoes, Italian herbs, smoked paprika, salt and pepper, simmered for two hours until the meat fell apart), served with penne and freshly grated parmesan. No photo, you can imagine what a plate of pasta looks like. ;)

After quite a few barren weeks I seem to have my cooking mojo back and produce things that are worth blogging about. More towards the end of the week, hopefully.

comments