An Australian eats in London

Cooking class at The Spirit House, Yandina (Australia)

2009-11-08T17:34:00.014Z

So I mentioned that we went back to Australia a couple of months ago. We had lots of delicious Australian food - barbecues, fish and chips by the water, more Red Rock Deli chips than anyone should eat in a three week period. But the foodie highlight would have to be the cooking class I did with my Mum.

We decided on the Asian Home Entertaining class at the Spirit House in Yandina. The Spirit House is a beautiful mostly-Thai restaurant and cooking school set in picturesque rainforest-like surroundings on the Sunshine Coast, north of Brisbane.

If I'm going to do a cooking class, I like to do something that I don't know well and am not confident in. I don't really cook Thai food, so this class definitely appealed. The class was run by Annette Fear, the long-standing Head Chef at The Spirit House and co-author of three Spirit House cookbooks. Annette was fabulous - she is obviously well-travelled and hugely experienced and yet she was so friendly and approachable and not at all intimidating.

We started the class with a chat about the dishes we were going to make and Annette gave some background on them and told some lovely stories from her travels. We then all moved inside to start the preparation. My big take-away from the day would definitely have to be how much preparation is involved in Thai cooking. I think we spent most of the class preparing!

We were all given different jobs, from chopping piles of chillies to shredding green papaya and grinding fresh spices for a curry paste. Once all the ingredients were chopped and set aside in containers, the cooking began - although, to be fair, that part was quite quick!

Across the class, we made:

Steamed Prawn & Chicken Wontons with Avocado Salad

Spiced Crispy Rice Fish with Grapefruit, Fennel & Thai Basil

Massaman Curry of Duck with Caramelised Sweet Potato & Cashews

Young Coconut & Lime Sorbet with Red Papaya and Mint Salad

We started with the wontons, which were made with ready-made wonton wrappers (apparently, no Thai person would ever make their own - you would be specialised in this, so buying them is okay!). We had quite a production line set up to fill and fold the wrappers although I don't think Annette was too impressed with our technique!

The wontons were steamed in huge bamboo steamers and served with a light salad of avocado, tomato and cucumber and either soy or red rice wine vinegar for dipping. The wontons were excellent - really tasty, really impressive looking and deceptively easy to make. Great idea for a dinner party as you can largely make them in advance.

The finishing touches were then put to the main courses and we sat at the tables outside next to the pond to tuck into the whitebait salad and massaman curry.

I really enjoyed the whitebait - they were really tiny New Zealand whitebait and didn't taste super fishy. They were prepared simply, coated in rice flour and deep fried, so they were light and crunchy. They were served with a salad of grapefruit and fennel, two ingredients I am not all that enthusiastic about. They were nice enough in the salad, but even looking at the recipe now, I am struggling to get excited. It is a shame, as Annette was telling us that Thai salads are a really underrated side to Thai cuisine (except for the ubiquitous Thai Beef Salad!).

It was always up against stiff competition, but the salad did pale in comparison to the Duck Massaman Curry, which was - quite simply - wow! It is certainly not a low-fat meal, but the rich duck meat with the coconut curry sauce, roasted sweet potato and cashew nuts was a guaranteed winning combination. If you were making this yourself, it would be reasonably time-consuming, but again, is something you can make mostly in advance. You definitely need to serve this when there are more people to eat it with you - it was too good and too fattening to risk eating it all yourself!

Annette did explain to us that a Thai meal would normally be a number of dishes such as this curry and salad together. The different dishes balance each other out and means the Thai people don't eat enormous amounts of such a rich dish as the curry. It is quite a different approach to eating than we normally take in Western cuisines.

We finished up with a Young Coconut Milk and Lime granita served with Red Papaya. I've never liked papaya and still didn't like it now. The granita was very subtly flavoured, so this dessert was not all that exciting for me. Still, the granita is a flexible technique, which can be used to make lots of variations on a simple, light dessert that was appropriate after the curry.

All of this was washed down with a couple of glasses of wine, which combined with all that food, made the drive back to Brisbane then the Gold Coast rather long!

This was quite a different cooking class to what I've done previously. The food was stunning and really different, but because it was cooked by the whole class of 20 or so people, individually, we didn't get to do that much or even see everything. It was less involved on the cooking front than other classes. Still, Annette was great, the food was excellent and the surroundings are idyllic.

Massaman Curry of Duck

For the curry
4 duck Maryland, jointed and drumstick trimmed (could also use chicken or stewing beef)
3 cups coconut cream
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
6-8 pickling onions or golden shallots, peeled
500g golden sweet potato, peeled, cut into 5 cm pieces and seasoned
3-4 tablespoons Massaman paste (see separate recipe)
2-3 tablespoons light palm sugar
2-3 tablespoons fish sauce
4 tablespoons tamarind water (see separate recipe)
1 large red chilli, de-seeded and sliced
1/4 cup roasted unsalted cashews, roughly chopped

Heat a heavy based frying pan and cook the duck pieces until well coloured. Set aside.

Open the coconut cream without shaking and separate the cream from the milk. There should be about 1 cup of cream and 2 cups of milk. Place the milk in a saucepan with the duck pieces, adding just enough water to cover if necessary. Set the coconut cream aside to use later. Bring the duck to the boil without covering and then simmer on a low heat for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours. This duck can also be paced in a baking dish with the coconut milk and cooked uncovered in a moderately low oven (160 degrees). Once the duck is cooked, remove from coconut milk and reserve milk.

Meanwhile, place the seasoned sweet potato and onions in a large baking dish (with low sides) with the vegetable oil, toss well to coat and bake in moderate 180 degree oven for about an hour or until browning on the edges and cooked. Remove and set aside.

heat 1/2 cup of the reserved coconut cream in a wok or saucepan and simmer for about 5-10 minutes until the oil starts to separate. Add the curry paste and cook gently until the paste smells rich and fragrant. Add the reserved coconut milk, light palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind water. Bring to the boil, then add the cooked duck pieces, sweet potato, onion and 1/4 cup of remaining coconut cream. Simmer for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to a serving bowl and garnish with the red chilli, cashews and remaining coconut cream.

To make the curry paste
12 large dried red chillies, seeded and soaked in hot water until soft then chopped finely
12 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 cup peeled and chopped onion or shallots
2 tablespoons galangal, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of lemon grass, trimmed and chopped
3 tablespoons coriander root, cleaned and chopped
1 tablespoon salt

Spice mixture
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seed
4 cm piece cassia (hard cinnamon stick)
8 cloves
5 cardamom pods
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
1/2 teaspoon mace

Dry roast the coriander, cumin, cassia, cloves and cardamom pods in a fry pan over a gentle heat until just starting to color and smell toasted. Place in a mortar and pestle or spice mill with the white pepper and grind to a powder. Stir in the mace.

Place the paste ingredients in a mortar and pound to a puree. Mix in the spices. Store in a screw top jar or freeze in cubes and just thaw the cubes as required. Keeps for 6 months frozen.

Tamarind water
1 tablespoon of tamarind pulp
1/2 cup boiling water

Put tamarind pulp in a bowl, pour in boiling water. When cool, mash pulp with a fork and strain the liquid through a sieve. Retain this liquid, discard the tamarind seeds and skins.

The Spirit House
20 Ninderry Road
Yandina, Qld, 4561
Australia

Afternoon tea at the Ritz

2009-11-01T15:55:00.012Z

It seems like ages since I've sat down to write a blog post and well, it has been ages! It has been a long list of sorry reasons (we moved flats and decided to switch from BT to Sky, the process of which involved consecutive requests for cable tv, phone then internet - each involving 3-4 weeks between steps; we went back to Australia for a visit for three weeks; work has been crazy; excuses, excuses).

In that time, we've still been cooking and eating and doing lots of awesome food stuff, which means I now feel guilty and overwhelmed about what I haven't blogged! So, I am prioritising. Only the most interesting things that have occurred over the past few months will be recorded for posterity . . .

The first would have to be our afternoon tea at the Ritz. This was a Christmas present from my parents, which we finally got around to booking in about May this year, only to find that the first sensible time available on a weekend was in August! So, on a beautiful sunny August day, we headed into the London institution that is the Ritz.

The hotel is incredibly ornate and over the top, matched by the staff in their tails or white jackets and black bow ties. It all feels a bit like a stage set! Along with another 70 or so people, we were shown to our table for the 1.30 seating. The process runs like clockwork. They hold five seatings a day, seven days a week, turning people over every two hours, but somehow not making you feel like a cog in a system. Quite impressive.

Our voucher was for the champagne high tea and we were provided with our glass of Ritz champagne, while we perused the extensive menus of teas. I must profess to being not much of a tea drinker (and certainly knowing very little about different varieties). I decided to try something a little different in the Rose Congou, described as 'a black tea from Guangdong, China, enriched with rose petals giving a gentle, light rose aroma to the tea'. Kyle was less adventurous with his choice of Ritz Royal English, 'an exquisite Kenyan blend of malty Assam and the fine flavour of Ceylon'.

The white-jacketed waiters whisked the stands of food efficiently to each table while our tea was being poured and we got into the serious business of eating. Afternoon Tea at the Ritz is obviously hugely traditional, so you're not expecting anything unusual or uncommon here.

The sandwiches included cucumber (don't get it!), cheese, smoked salmon, ham, chicken and egg. They are all incredibly dainty, served as little fingers of crustless bread with simple fillings. Quite pleasant.

The scones weren't included with the first tray of food, but were brought around at the point in proceedings where one was supposed to have finished sandwiches and could move on to scones while they were still warm. Very efficient! The scones were exceptional. I often find scones a bit heavy, particularly with this much food, but these were warm, light and fluffy. We had lovely little pots of delicious strawberry jam and artery-clogging clotted cream, which were both traditional but very good! For me, the scones were the highlight.

We were now ready to move onto the top tier - the cakes. Unfortunately, by this time, I was already really quite full! This is a problem with afternoon tea - you start with sandwiches and run out of room for cake! But, I had to do my duty and persevered through a pistachio cake (average cake, decorated with amazing raspberries) and a truly exceptional chocolate gateau, made with rich, dark bitter chocolate. That was good. Kyle had the vanilla slice, which was okay - very hard to eat. Unfortunately, we had to pass on a fruit tart, blueberry mousse and a coconut macaroon. A tragedy. For some reason, the couple at the table next to us had ordered an extra cake to celebrate their anniversary. Needless to say, they ate hardly any and tried to palm some on to us!

Afternoon tea at the Ritz lived up to expectations as a truly English, rather posh experience. It is quite rare to go somewhere these days where people are all well dressed, but everyone really made an effort. I expected it to be more touristy, but the people there seemed to be couples or families celebrating occasions, so everyone was really positive. The staff were very friendly and helpful and the setting was most appropriate! It is expensive compared to other high teas in London, but let's face it, are you really going for the tea and sandwiches?

The Ritz
150 Piccadilly
London W1J 9BR

Bam Bou

2009-09-07T05:08:00.010+01:00

Bam Bou is a French Vietnamese restaurant not far from Tottenham Court Road. I had read about it some months ago and thought the menu sounded delicious – a combination of the strong, tasty flavours of Vietnamese food cooked in the somewhat ‘fancier’ French style. Or at least, that is my interpretation! However you described it, it has been on my ‘restaurants to try’ list for a while, so when I saw that Top Table was advertising a deal for 50% off food, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

The restaurant was already quite full at 7pm on a Wednesday night (the deal was only available Monday – Wednesday), but we were seated at a nice enough table for two in the corner. The menu was oddly laid out with white wines on the left, food in the middle and red wines on the right. Very strange.

Anyway, it was a really interesting menu with plenty of delicious sounding dishes, including prawns on sugar cane and pork, watermelon and cashew nut salad. It took us quite a while to decide and involved some serious negotiation. In the meantime, the waitress came over and, we thought, asked us if we wanted more time. We said yes. We thought they were being very generous when some edamame beans and giant prawn crackers arrived. Turns out, she asked us if we wanted some snacks to start. Still, they were very good, the edamame beans in particular are always a fresh, tasty nibble.

We finally ordered and our starters arrived quite quickly. Kyle had ‘won’ the first course and ordered the crispy-fried soft shell crab with chilli and lime. It was a generous portion of crab, crunchy on the outside making way for the soft give of the crab underneath. Almost more of a texture than a flavour, but that was more than made up for by the super-fiery chilli dipping sauce that accompanied it!
I chose the most non-date starter you can imagine (luckily we’re married, so that didn’t matter so much!) – Hanoi-style short ribs with chilli, garlic and red wine vinegar. This was also a generous serving of six ribs coated in a thick, sticky sweet marinade. The marinade was rich and delicious but it was all quite hard work and far too messy for public! Luckily, I was offered a couple of damp towels to clean myself up with!

Kyle’s main was the Sichuan-spiced duck breast with tamarind and chilli, cooked medium-rare, sliced thinly and beautifully presented on a bed of asian vegetables. The duck was soft and tender with the greens offering some variation in texture. The sauce was quite mild and could have done with a bit more kick.
While Kyle may have ‘won’ the choice for starter, I won the main and honestly – no contest! The Seared scallops, sweet pork and perilla cress was possibly one of the best dishes I have ever had. Four plump scallops sat alongside three big chunks of pork belly coated in a light, but sweet marinade. The scallops were excellent – well-seasoned, seared until caramelised and almost crunchy on top and with more flavour than I think I’ve ever tasted in a scallop. The pork was also good and the fact that it was pork belly was a pleasant surprise. The meat fell apart to the touch and the coating of sesame seeks offered a further flavour dimension. My only criticism – and this is nit-picking – is that the pieces were too big to be bite-sized and therefore elegantly eaten with chopsticks. Like I said, nit-picking. This was a classic, but very well-executed combination.

We also ordered some egg fried rice from the sides menu, which was also a good example of a typical dish. Lots of flavour, good bit chunks of egg and just the right amount of stickiness to be eaten with those chopsticks!

Seeing as food was 50% off, it seemed a waste not to have dessert. It is also one of the rare times I can remember Kyle looking at a dessert menu and instantly wanting something, that something being banana fritters. I must admit, I’m not a fan of bananas or of deep-fried desserts in general, so this was never going to be my thing. Kyle, however, thought they were fantastic! The pistachio ice-cream was not an obvious accompaniment and had a slightly odd flavour.
I chose the Vanilla and lime cheesecake with kiwi. The cheesecake was quasi-deconstructed with the buttery biscuit crumbled on top rather than forming the base. The cheesecake part was fairly standard and I had to really concentrate to detect any particular lime flavour. The kiwi was very strange – part of it looked and tasted canned. Can you get kiwi fruit in a tin? It wasn’t very pleasant.

Overall, the food at Bam Bou was generally very good and at 50% off, offered excellent value for money (all that food was about £30). The wine list was quite good with some unusual choices (we had a lovely Marsanne/Viognier blend) and service was attentive without being intrusive. I really enjoyed Bam Bou and I’m so glad we went – at full price, it would add up (fairly typical central London prices), but with this deal, it was a bargain for the variety and quality on offer.

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

Bam Bou
Percy Street
London W1T IDB

Sort of Knickerbocker Glory

2009-09-06T05:03:00.002+01:00

This recipe started out as Knickerbocker Glory made with stewed cherries, but I decided I couldn’t be bothered to stone cherries and substituted them for raspberries. I then decided the raspberries were too nice to do anything with and what was left was not really a recipe at all!

In the end, dessert was layers of fresh raspberries with vanilla ice-cream and half a crumbled up Flake, topped with grated dark chocolate and the other half of the Flake (it has been ages since I’ve had a Flake!). A step above kiddie food – yum!

Hot dogs with beer braised onions and warm potato salad

2009-09-05T04:55:00.003+01:00

We’ve moved into our new flat! Hooray! And most excitingly, it has a garden. I have been missing our outdoor life from Australia. Actually, that sounds grander than it is – I’m actually not a really outdoorsy person. We had a fairly small back deck on our house in Australia and I did like eating dinner outside, having barbecues etc. After nearly 2 ½ years of what feels like being permanently inside, I was very much looking forward to our own outdoor space.

I was rather optimistic about our move and had planned a potential barbecue meal for Sunday lunch. In the end, the barbecue wasn’t actually constructed until nearly 4pm and we still don’t have a gas bottle, so the barbecue meal had to be cooked inside.

I knew I’d be busy, so I hadn’t planned a particularly complicated dish. Nor was it particularly Australian, more American really– hot dogs on the barbecue. Still, served with onions that were sweet from slow braising in beer and a warm potato salad with a bit of Dijon mustard for some kick, it was a tasty first outdoor meal. And most importantly, it was sunny!

Hot dogs with beer-braised onions
Serves 4
Delicious magazine – August 2009
4 large frankfurters
3 large onions, sliced
125ml beer
1 tbsp butter
4 hot dog buns, to serve
Mustard and ketchup, to serve

1. Light / preheat a barbecue and a large, heavy-based frying pan. Prick the frankfurters all over with a fork. Put them on the frill and the onions in the pan, in 1 layer. Keep turning the frankfurters every 2 minutes until they are getting char marks, and keep tossing the onions in the pan. (I just simmered the frankfurters)

2. Put the frankfurters in among the onions and pour a couple tablespoons of beer over the top, causing the pan to sizzle. When the beer has evaporated, keep adding a little bit more at a time to the pan until all the beer has been used up.

3. When the onions are golden, add the butter and cook for a few more minutes until they turn an amble ale colour.

4. Split the hot dog buns (and I always think they should be toasted), add the frankfurters and onions and serve with mustard and ketchup (we also added some cheese).

Dijonnaise potatoes
Serves 2
Delicious magazine – August 2007

300g baby new potatoes, scrubbed and halved
½ bunch spring onions
3 tablespoons of dijonnaise (I just mixed about 3 tablespoons of mayo with a teaspoon of Dijon mustard to make this)
Handful of wild rocket

1. Boil the potatoes in a pan of lightly salted water for 12 minutes or until tender. Drain, tip into a bowl and cool slightly.

2. Add the spring onions, finely sliced, along with the dijonnaise and the rocket. Season and toss together.

Polenta with peppers and tomatoes

2009-09-04T04:50:00.001+01:00

I made polenta recently to go with some pork chops. It is an interesting alternative to the normal carbs, but invariably, I make way too much. This time, I decided to put it in a tray and refrigerate the leftovers in the hope that inspiration would strike.

A couple of days later, after a survey of what we had in the fridge, I decided to pan-fry wedges of polenta and serve them with a sort of stew of red peppers, onion, garlic and tomato on a drizzle of balsamic glaze.

I will admit, I am not a recipe inventor. I am mostly a follower of recipes and rarely cook without one. I was, however, quite happy with my efforts here. The peppers were sweet and juicy and provided lots of flavour for the rather bland base of the polenta. The balsamic gave it some tang and altogether, I thought it worked quite well. The biggest challenge for us when making up recipes is knowing when to stop adding ingredients and I think we did well. Along the way, I didn’t add olives, feta and chilli – all decisions I am happy with.

Polenta with red peppers and tomatoes
Serves 2

100g polenta, cooked according to packet instructions, spread out on a tray and cooled
Red pepper, sliced
Half an onion, sliced
Two tomatoes, cut into thin wedges
Two garlic cloves, chopped
Olive oil
Drizzle balsamic glaze

Heat the olive oil in a large pan. Add the onions and stir for approximately 5 minutes. Add the peppers and cook over a medium-low heat for a further 10 minutes. Finally, add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes or until everything is soft. Season well.

Meanwhile, heat more olive oil in a frying pan (a grill pan would be even better so you get the fancy lines) over medium heat. Cut the polenta into triangle wedges and pan fry each side for 1 -2 minutes (it is already cooked, so you just need to heat it through).

To serve, drizzle the balsamic glaze onto two plates. Lay the wedges on top and spoon over the peppers.

The most amazing hot chocolate

2009-09-03T04:45:00.002+01:00

I feel a bit like Gordon Ramsey – he always describes things as the most amazing. And possibly there are better hot chocolates out there, but this would have to be on the list. And it comes on a stick, so that’s quite exciting.

We bought these in Brussels ages ago and have only just got around to using them. It was one of those things where I always felt like I needed a slightly more special occasion to crack them out and there never was one. In the end, it was a random Sunday evening.

Basically, you warm a cup of milk and stir the great big lump of chocolate on the end of a stick into the milk until melted and enjoy. Really easy, really chocolatey, really good!

Moro, 8/10

2009-08-07T21:33:00.014+01:00

For our last couple of anniversaries, we have splurged on a really fancy meal out - Pied a Terre in 2007 and The Square in 2008. Both were exceptional meals (unfortunately before I started this blog) and a lovely way to spend our anniversary. This year, our anniversary fell two days before moving flats and three weeks before a visit back to Australia. With the finances already feeling a little pained, it was hard to justify a super-expensive, Michelin-starred meal out. In the end, we decided on Moro, a restaurant that always gets great reviews, including recently being recognised as the Best Restaurant in the 2009 Observer Food Monthly awards.

Being so close to my work, we were fairly early and so headed to The Ambassador across the road for a drink. The Ambassador is a restaurant (and the food smelled really good - I'd like to go here one day), but they were more than happy for us to grab a drink at one of the tables. There was a great wine list (I had a glass of Deutz champagne) and a few beers on tap (Kyle had a Budvar). The service was great and it had a really lovely vibe. Unfortunately, by the time we were ready to go, it was absolutely pouring down! Luckily, Moro was close.

We had a reservation, which you absolutely need - they were busy the whole time at both tables and the bar. There was a real buzz to the restaurant. We were shown to our table and given bread and olive oil, offered tap water and then asked if we had any questions about the menu. This was a bit of a theme for the night - our waitress was very intent on making sure we didn't order something we didn't like.

For starter, I chose the grilled squid, rocket and coriander salad with preserved lemon. The squid was so soft, it was silken in texture with just a few crispy bits on the edges. The rocket and coriander salad was coated in an oily, lemony dressing and dotted with pieces of chilli, adding a spot of heat to that soft calamari. The recommended drink was a glass of Tio Pepe sherry, which I have had before in Spain but struggle to order. As it was recommended, I decided to give it a go. It is an amazing drink - cold and oily to start, then immediately warm and exploding with flavour in your mouth.

Kyle's starter was the very simple para negra jamon with figs. As this contained only two ingredients, it was vital they were amazing. I think the ham was - it was so meaty, deliciously salty and almost tannic like. Two out of three of the figs, however, were a bit average. They didn't look that good and were slightly mealy in texture.

My main was the wood roasted pork with field and wild mushrooms and braised chard. I was warned by the waitress that the pork was roasted whole and cut into slices, so contained some fat and crackling - was that okay? I agreed it was, but when the dish arrived, I can see why she mentioned it. It was very fatty, but the fat was meltingly soft against the crunchy crackling and pork meat. It was a huge portion and was piled onto an equally large portion of chard. All of that was sitting on a pool of jus and piled with mushrooms. The mushrooms were really tasty, lots of flavour and meaty texture. Initially, the jus tasted similarly beefy flavoured, but the salt in the jus became increasingly overwhelming and ended up being the predomiant flavour in the whole dish. I do like salt in my food, but this was just too much.

Kyle's main was charcoal grilled sardines with salpicon salad and corn migas (fried corn breadcrumbs). We did have to ask what both of these accompiments were and the waitress also checked Kyle liked oaky wines before he proceeded with his order of an oaky white Rioja. The dish was very summery and almost like an over-sized tapas plate. The oiliness of the fish was balanced by the crunchiness of the migas and the freshness of the salad. And the oaky white Rioja went well.

After these enormous (well, mostly mine) main meals, dessert was a bit of a challenge, so we decided to settle for the malaga raisin ice cream and a couple of glasses of Pedro Ximenez sherry. In fact, in retrospect, this was also the anniversary of when we first discovered PX at Pied a Terre. Truly one of the most amazing drinks - liquid raisins. The ice cream was a perfect conclusion - light and creamy but with chunks of fruit and the odd hit of rum to give it a kick.

I think Moro mostly lived up to expectations. It can be a risk going to places like this that carry a lot of hype, but the restaurant did offer a great night out. It wasn't perfect - there were some problems with some of the food, the chairs were pretty uncomfortable and I did find it somewhat disconcerting that the couples sitting either side of us were Australian (do they group us?!). That being said, some of the food was really good, the service was excellent, the menu was interesting and the atmosphere was brilliant.

Food: 8/10
Drinks: 9/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 8/10

Moro
34-36 Exmouth Market
London EC1R 4QE

Dotori, 8/10

2009-08-03T21:25:00.008+01:00

I have written about Dotori before and we have been a few times, but this time, I finally convinced Kyle to have something other than the Katsu Curry. I was really keen to try the Japanese set menu, particularly the sushi and sashimi. This is probably not the kind of thing you should admit as a bit of a 'foodie', but I do find sushi quite intimidating. It is expensive and so difficult to just randomly pick off a list, but I do enjoy it when I have it.

The restaurant was quite full on a Sunday lunchtime and rather than share a table, we opted to sit at the bench at the window. The downside is that all your chopstick skills are on display for everyone walking past, so pressure is on not to drop anything!

The set menu started with Gyoza - hot, crunchy fried dumplings filled with chicken mince and served with a delicious soy dipping sauce.

The next course was a somewhat dramatic plate of tempura king prawns. The prawns were meaty and large enough to stand up to the crispy tempura batter. Another dipping sauce complemented this dish.

The next was the sushi and sashimi platter, beautifully presented on a traditional wooden board and comprised of 4 pieces of sashimi and a special roll. Neither of us have ever had sashimi before, so I'm glad this was good. There were two pieces of salmon, one tuna and one that we weren't sure of! The salmon and tuna were better than mystery fish and had an incredibly clean, fresh taste and a surprisingly firm pleasant texture. I really enjoyed the sashimi. The sushi was also excellent, in my opinion, although being far from an expert, I couldn't really say how it compares to others.

We had a choice for the final course between chicken teriyaki and seafood yakisoba. As the chicken teriyaki is my equivalent of Kyle's katsu curry, we went with the yakisoba. The thin noodles were coated in a delicious sweet rich sauce interspersed with plenty of big chunks of seafood, including prawns, calamari and mussels.

Unfortunately, the service was not quite up to its super-friendly standards on this day - the waiter seemed to be having an off day. Still, all of this food was excellent value at £25 (it would have included a coke or green tea as well, but we had Asahi instead, which was extra) and a brilliant way to try some different dishes from a Japanese menu. If you're a Japanese philistine like me, anyway!

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Dotori
3 Stroud Green Road
London, N4 2DF

The Drapers Arms, 8/10

2009-08-02T20:36:00.011+01:00

I rather fancied a drink after a particularly awful day at work and recalled a recent post by Dos Hermanos, where they raved about a new cocktail bar near Angel called 69 Colebrooke Row. After a suitably decadent cocktail (Blush - Rose Infused Wybrowa Vodka with Rhubarb Syrup, Perrier-Jouet and a Grapefruit Twist), we went for a wander up Upper Street and then off the beaten track to find The Drapers Arms, recently reviewed by Giles Coren. Amazingly, I managed to find it based on my memory that the street started with B and it was equal distance from Angel and Highbury & Islington tube stations.

The Drapers Arms is pretty classic gastropub fare and was a world away from 69 Colebrooke Row - from fancy stools and cocktails to mismatched chairs and real ale on tap. The daily menu was a typed one pager containing a selection of 'solid' dishes, nothing too fancy, good sound English fare. The wine list, however, was actually quite good and included three types of sparkling wine by the glass - to be commended, in my opinion.

We chose a table in the corner and were surprised to be offered table service. After placing our order, we were given some complimentary bread and butter, including one of the best sourdoughs I have tasted in such a long time. There was a real yeasty sourness to it that meant I ate far more than was strictly necessary. The butter, unfortunately, was unsalted. What is the point?

After gorging myself on bread, I moved onto the razor clams and a glass of prosecco, while Kyle opted for a pint of Spitfire and the devilled kidneys on toast. I've never had razor clams before so I can't comment on the relative qualities of this example, but for me, they were delicious. They were more remiscent of squid than, say, scalllops, with a pleasingly chewy texture. The accompanying red onion pickle was surprisingly good for someone who doesn't like uncooked onion. It had a softness and flavour that must have involved some lengthy soaking. The dish was fresh and summery and I really enjoyed it.

Kyle's starter was as far from fresh and summery as you can imagine (and to be fair, the weather was hardly fresh and summery!). The kidneys looked like little sausages on the toast, but carried an amazing depth of flavour from plenty of worcestershire sauce and mustard. They were served on more of that excellent sourdough, soaked through with the sauce. Very traditional, very good.

After our wonderful salt beef experiences in New York, Kyle found it difficult to go past the salt brisket served with mash, carrots and green sauce. The meat was soft and succulent and the very herby sauce cut through the fattiness of the meat.

I ordered the guinea fowl with bacon and mushrooms for main. What's that you say? That's not guinea fowl? No, that's what I thought too. This was most defintely lamb leg, which I had not ordered. I finally re-located our waiter, who agreed I had ordered the guinea fowl, took the lamb away and then came back to say apparently they're out of guinea fowl, don't know why they gave you the lamb. Slightly odd to be out of something and just choose the replacement yourself. In the interests of time, I chose to take the lamb back and the waiter agreed not to charge us for it. All well and good, but unfortunately the lamb was the least successful dish of the night. It was okay, but it was pretty boring and the lamb managed to have both excessively fatty sections and dry sections. I would never normally order something like as it would be too easy to cook myself and this proved why. Shame.

Still, it didn't put me off trying the chocolate cake with cherries for dessert. I wasn't quite expecting it to be literally served with cherries, but as cherries are so good at the moment, it was actually really lovely with the rich dense chocolate cake and clotted cream. The chocolate cake definitely made up for the disappointment of the lamb.

The Drapers Arms was a really lovely gastropub, with generally well-executed British food based on simple, seasonal ingredients and a good range of ales and wines. The atmosphere was lovely and the service was good (apart from the issue with my main, but I guess they compensated as much as they could). I would return to The Drapers Arms, but would definitely choose the more unusual dishes from the menu.

Food: 7.5/10 (But would no doubt be an 8 with the right dish)
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

The Drapers Arms
44 Barnsbury Street
London N1 1ER

Gooseberry Fool and Gooseberry Crumble

2009-07-27T20:44:00.005+01:00

I don't think we even get gooseberries in Australia. I'd certainly never seen them until I came to London. There are my Dad's favourite, cape gooseberries, known in the UK as physalis - a somewhat less pleasant name! But they are not even remotely similar.

Gooseberries look a little like grapes, but are apparently too tart to eat in their uncooked form. We tried these ones, though, and they actually tasted rather reminiscent of grapes and weren't too sour at all. Kyle thought they tasted a little like that equally rare and unusual New Zealand fruit, the feijoa.

They have a very limited season and are available only sporadically in our fruit and vegie shop. I can't really rely on them being there but bought a punnet two weekends in a row. So two very classic British Summer desserts in a row - Gooseberry and Elderflower Fool and Gooseberry Crumble.

The fool was a lovely blend of gooseberries, yoghurt and cream and was delicious served with some crunchy biscuits for texture.

The crumble was less successful. The gooseberries created so much juice that even though I poured a lot out, it still bubbled over so much that the crumble was quite soggy. I found the flavours pleasantly unusual, more tart than I expected from tasting the raw fruit. The excessive juice did taste delicious, all syrupy and sweet and the crumble (that wasn't drowned) was crunchy from the hazelnuts. Kyle, unfortunately, found the fruit a little too tart and the lack of crunchy crumble disappointing.

So overall, the gooseberries were a mixed result at best. The thing is, they are so rare, I'll probably cook them again next year anyway!

Gooseberry and elderflower fool
Serves 4

500g gooseberries
100g caster sugar
2 strips pared lemon zest
2 heads elderflower (optional)
3 tbsp elderflower cordial, or to taste
142ml pot double cream
150ml fresh ready-made custard
Sponge finger biscuits, to serve

1. Put the gooseberries into a saucepan (there is no need to top and tail them) with 2 tablespoons of the sugar, the lemon zest, and the elderflower heads, if using. Cook over a low heat until the juices start to run from the gooseberries, then cover and cook for 5 minutes or until the berries are soft. Remove and discard the elderflower heads and add the rest of the sugar. Turn the heat up a little and cook for 4-5 minutes to reduce the liquid a little. Remove from the heat when it's just beginning to catch on the bottom of the pan. Leave to go cold.

2. Remove and discard the lemon zest from the pan. Rub the fruit through a sieve into a large mixing bowl and stir in the elderflower cordial, to taste.

3. In another bowl, whip the cream until it just starts to form soft peaks. Carefully fold the custard into the gooseberry purée, followed by the cream, so that the mixture is nicely marbled. Spoon into 4 serving glasses and chill for at least 1 hour before serving. Serve with the sponge fingers.

Gooseberry and elderflower crumble
Serves 4

450g gooseberries
150g caster sugar
Elderflower cordial
1 small orange, zest and juice

For the crumble:

100g plain flour
100g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
50g blanched hazelnuts, toasted and chopped
Vanilla ice cream to serve

1. Preheat the oven to 220˚C.

2. First make the crumble. Place the flour and butter in a bowl and using your fingertips work together until a breadcrumb texture has been achieved. Add the sugar and the hazelnuts and work through the mix until fully incorporated and the topping has a textured uneven appearance.

3. Wash the gooseberries, remove the husks and pat dry with a clean tea towel. Top and tail them if necessary.

4. Heat a frying pan and add the sugar and orange zest, then add the gooseberries, orange juice and elderflower cordial. Place over a high heat until the gooseberries begin to release their juices, shaking the pan frequently. Divide the gooseberries among four individual ovenproof dishes.

5. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the gooseberries to cover them, tap the dishes on the work surface to remove any air pockets. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until the topping is golden brown and the gooseberries are bubbling up around the sides. Leave to stand for 5 minutes to cool slightly before serving.

6. Serve with a scoop of the vanilla ice-cream.

Chicken liver pate

2009-07-26T15:56:00.007+01:00

I recently made Delia Smith's Autentic Ragu Bolognaise again (it is still the most amazing ragu sauce recipe) and as per last time when I made chicken liver crostini, I had chicken livers leftover that I just couldn't throw out.

This time, I decided to try one of my favourite restaurant appetisers - chicken liver pate. Of course, I was completely disorganised, so had to find a recipe with ingredients I already had or could easily obtain in my local neighbourhood at 4pm on a Sunday (we have no large supermarket in the immediate vicinity). I decided to go with another Delia recipe, but with a few changes. I used nutmeg instead of mace, and despite going to 6 local shops, had to use prepared mustard instead of mustard powder.

The recipe required a bit of tasting and adjusting to balance the brandy, mustard and seasoning, but we were happy with the flavour in the end and I was particularly impressed with my cheat's version of clarified butter on top (I just held the spoon against the butter solids when pouring the melted butter from the frying pan onto the pates - worked really well!). The recipe made a lot, so we ate chicken liver pate several times for a week. Luckily, it was really good - smooth, rich and packed full of flavour. It was best with toasted brown bread (we also tried crackers) and was best once fully chilled but taken out of the fridge for 30 minutes to bring it up to room temperature.

I always suspected the reason this is on so many menus is because it is cheap, easy and really tasty. It definitely is all those things. The question now is whether I'll keep ordering it out when I know I can make it myself (and I know how much butter is in it)!

Chicken Liver Pate
Delia Online
Serves 6

225g chicken livers, rinsed, patted dry and trimmed
2 tablespoons cognac
2 level teaspoons mustard powder
1/4 level teaspoon ground mace
1 level teaspoon chopped thyme, plus extra for garnish
2 cloves garlic, crushed
salt and pepper

To make the pâté, take a medium-sized, heavy-based frying pan, melt about 25g of the butter in it and fry the chicken livers over a medium heat for about 5 minutes. Keep them on the move, turning them over quite frequently. Then remove them from the pan using a draining spoon and transfer them to a blender or food processor.

Now, in the same pan, gently melt 150g of the remaining butter and add this to the blender or food processor. Then pour the brandy on to the juices left in the frying pan (to capture all the lovely flavours), and pour that over the livers.

Now add the mustard, mace, thyme and garlic, season well with salt and freshly milled black pepper, and blend until you have a smooth, velvety purée.

Next, divide the between 6 ramekins (or pots). Then melt the remaining 50g of butter, pour a little over each one to seal, press in a sprig of thyme, and leave them to get quite cold.

Cover with clingfilm and leave them in the fridge till needed. Serve with toasted brown bread, cut into triangles.

Lamb biryani

2009-07-22T21:29:00.008+01:00

I had really been looking forward to seeing the Gypsy Kings at Kenwood House as part of the English Heritage Picnic concerts. The blurb on the website promised "a glorious summer's evening to remember" . . . "there's no better way to enjoy a perfect summer evening" they said. What they failed to mention is that there are probably better ways to spend a drizzly, cold summer's evening. Yes, of course, it rained. But in true stoic British fashion, we all packed our umbrellas in with our picnic blankets and went regardless!

Anyway, we did have a most unusual encounter. The family in front of us was big and loud and fun and had been eating all this wonderful looking and smelling lamb biryani all night. The contributor of the lamb biryani kept offering it around to the family and I couldn't help but think, mmm lamb biryani, I could eat some lamb biryani!

Imagine then how bad/excited I felt when towards the end of the night, she said we've got too much and turned around and offered us some. Of course, we declined, but she gave us some anyway along with a homemade chapati. It was delicious - better than any Indian restaurant she told us and she was right. Delicately spiced, soft tender lamb and amazingly for an outdoor picnic concert in the rain, still warm.

I was inspired. So, I decided to make some myself. A bit of internet research and I chose this recipe. The list of ingredients was long and the method even longer, but I was happy to invest the time. It paid off! This version was hotter and spicier than the first one and not as saucy, but the meat was meltingly tender. The depth of flavour was quite lovely and even though the rice looked quite dry, it was all very moist.

You would need to allow a good 4 to 5 hours to make this, but it makes a huge quantity (we have frozen lots of leftovers), so you get a bit of a return on your investment.

Lamb biryani
UKTV Food
Prep time: 1 hr, plus marinating and soaking Cook time: 1 hrs 50 mins
Serves 8-10

½ tsp strands Saffron
¾ tsp cardamom seeds
2 blades mace
4 Onions
6 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for deep frying
8 cm Ginger, peeled
6 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp Chilli powder
1 lime, juice only
750g Lamb shoulder, cut into 4cm cubes
Green cardamom
6 Black cardamom
5 cm cinnamon sticks
½ tsp Cloves
2 dried Bay leaves
1 tbsp Garam masala
3 green chillies, deseeded and sliced
200 ml Greek yogurt
450g Basmati rice
handful mint leaves
2 tbsp Butter

1. Soak the saffron in 2 tablespoons of hot water and set aside until ready to use.

2. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the cardamom seeds and mace to a powder and leave on one side; you'll need this later when layering up the rice and meat.

3. Slice 2 of the onions then sprinkle them with salt and set aside for 20 minutes. Squeeze out any excess water from the onions and pat them dry with paper towels. Deep-fry the sliced onions in hot oil until golden and drain on paper towels. Set half aside for garnishing the biryani.

4. Transfer the remaining fried onions to a food processor, pour in 3 tablespoons of hot water then purée; you should have about 2 tablespoons of onion paste.

5. Finely grate half of the ginger and combine with the garlic, chilli powder, and lime juice in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the onion paste and add the lamb. Mix everything together and leave to marinate for 1 hour.

6. Dice the 2 remaining onions. Heat 6 tablespoons of oil in a large casserole pan set over a medium heat and soften the diced onions for 5 minutes, without colouring.

7. Slice the remaining ginger into fine strips and set aside. Add the green and brown cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, and bay leaves to the pan. Fry for about 30 seconds, until you get a warm, spicy aroma.

8. Tip in the meat and its marinade and add the garam masala, green chillies, and ginger strips. Bring to simmering point and gradually add the yogurt, a tablespoon at a time. Cover and simmer for about 45 minutes, until the lamb is tender and the masala thickened; the sauce should be well-reduced and almost clinging to the meat.

9. Cover the rice with cold water and leave to soak for 20 minutes. Ten minutes before the meat is ready, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Drain the rice and add to the pan then cook for 5 minutes - it should be half-cooked and still have bite to it. Drain the rice in a colander.

10. Preheat the oven to 160C/gas 3. Put half of the hot meat in the bottom of a clean casserole pan. Cover with half of the freshly boiled rice and sprinkle with half of the ground cardamom and mace spice mixture and half of the mint.

11. Top with the remaining meat and rice. Scatter over the rest of the spice mix, mint leaves, and the sliced browned onions that you fried in step 3. Dot the surface with butter and drizzle over the saffron and its soaking liquid. Cover the biryani with wet greaseproof (waxed) paper and a well-fitting lid.

12. Bake for 40 minutes, until the rice is perfumed and perfectly cooked. Gently fluff up the grains with a fork and serve straight from the pan.

Pork kebabs on minted broad beans with feta

2009-07-22T06:39:00.001+01:00

One of my favourite British vegetables is broad beans. They are a bit of work, by the time you pod them, boil them and then remove the outer coating, but they are such a glorious bright green, so summery, with a lovely fresh flavour. This was a lovely recipe to highlight the broad beans. The pork and potato kebabs were fairly plain, so the broad bean, feta and mint salad was the star (it would be a great bbq salad). Just remember to allow enough time for all that broad bean prep!

Pork kebabs on minted broad beans with feta
Delicious website
Serves 4

1 pork tenderloin
3 baby new potatoes ½ lemon
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
Small handful of chopped rosemary
500g broad beans
Good handful of mint leaves
150g crumbled feta

Method

1. Trim your pork tenderloin and cut into 12 pieces. Thread 3 chunks of pork and 3 cooked baby new potatoes alternately onto each of 4 skewers.
2. Mix the lemon juice, olive oil and a small handful of finely chopped rosemary and use to brush the kebabs.
3. Cook under a hot preheated grill (or barbecue) for 10-12 minutes, turning once.
4. Meanwhile, boil broad beans in salted water for 4-5 minutes until just tender, then drain and refresh. Toss with a good handful of mint leaves, plenty of extra-virgin olive oil, seasoning and feta.
5. Divide between 4 plates and serve with the kebabs on top.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant, and Mozzarella

2009-07-21T20:46:00.006+01:00

Before we left Australia to come to the UK, we sold pretty much all of our belongings. Bizarrely, one of the things I was most sad to get rid of was all my old cooking magazines. I had a couple of years of Delicious and Super Food Ideas and while I couldn't justify keeping them, it was a bit sad to see them go. That became more critical when it appeared that one of the magazines I sold contained a Jamie Oliver pasta recipe that Kyle loved and was nowhere to be found on the internet.

From memory, we recalled the recipe included aubergine, mozzarella stirred through at the end so it just melts, tinned tomato and chilli. Every so often, I did a browse around the internet to try and find the recipe. It is the internet - everything is on there! Finally, my persistence paid off and I found the recipe on some pregnancy forum! It was slightly different to how we remembered, but it had been a while.

We were so excited and looked forward to the two year plus reunion with this dish. And it was disappointing. I mean, not bad but kinda bland. What was going on?

Jamie Oliver's language is always quite distinctive and the writer of the forum post had used a sentence that reminded me of how Jamie writes, so I decided to google that:

The mozzarella should be just about to melt and a bit stringy at this point cooked by the heat of the sauce.

Bingo! This post came up first (along with three others) and it turns out the recipe is from Jamie's Dinners (not that secret after all!) and the first recipe missed out the vital ingredient - chilli!

The lengths we go to to find a recipe! We haven't yet, but we will give this another try.

Rigatoni with Sweet Tomatoes, Eggplant and Mozzarella
by Jamie Oliver from Jamie’s Dinners
Serves 4

This is a dish I’ve had many times in Italy, on the Amalfi coast. It’s one of those dishes that tastes like home — it’s comfort food, and it makes you feel good. The interesting thing about it is that the cow’s-milk mozzarella is torn up and thrown in at the last minute so that when you dig your spoon in you get melted, stringy bits of it — a real joy to eat. You can eat this as soon as it’s made, or you can put it all into a baking pan with a little cheese grated on top and reheat it as a baked pasta dish the next day, if you wish.

Ingredients
1 firm ripe pink, black, or white eggplant
Extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
Two 14-ounce cans good-quality plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 to 2 fresh or dried chilies, chopped or crumbled, optional
Bunch fresh basil, leaves ripped and stalks sliced
4 tablespoons heavy cream
1 pound rigatoni or penne
7 ounces cow’s-milk mozzarella
1 piece Parmesan cheese, for grating

Method
1. Remove both ends of the eggplant and slice it into 1/2 inch slices, then slice these across and finely dice into 1/2 inch cubes. Some people prefer to season their eggplant with salt and let it sit for a while in a colander to draw out the bitterness, but I don’t really do this unless I’m dealing with a seedy, bitter eggplant. This dish is really best made using a firm silky one.

2. Now, put a large saucepan on the heat and drizzle in 4 to 5 tablespoons of extra-virgin olive oil. When it’s hot, add the cubes of eggplant, and as soon as they hit the pan stir them around with a spoon so they are delicately coated with the oil and not soaked on one side only. Cook for about 7 or 8 minutes on a medium heat.

3. Then add the garlic and onion. When they have a little color, add the canned tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Stir around and season carefully with salt and pepper. At this point, if you wanted to give the dish a little heat you could add some chopped fresh or crumbled dried chilli, but that’s up to you. Add the basil stalks, and simmer the sauce nice and gently for around 15 minutes, then add the cream.

4. While the sauce is simmering, bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and add the pasta, cook according to the package instructions until it is soft but still holding its shape, then drain it, saving a little of the cooking water. I like to put the pasta back into the pot it was cooked in with a tiny bit of the cooking water and a drizzle of olive oil and move it around so it becomes almost dressed with the water and oil.

5. At this point add the lovely tomato sauce to the pasta. By now the eggplant will have cooked into a creamy tomatoey pulp, which is just yum yum yum! Season carefully to taste with salt and pepper. When all my guests are sitting round the table, I take the pan to the table, tear up the mozzarella and the fresh basil, and fold these in nicely for 30 seconds. Then very quickly serve into bowls. By the time your guests start to eat, the mozzarella will have started to melt and will be stringy and gorgeous and really milky-tasting. Just lovely with the tomatoes and eggplant. Serve at the table with a block of Parmesan cheese and a grater so that everyone can help themselves.

Cranberry and White Chocolate Mini Muffins

2009-07-18T17:38:00.006+01:00

I rarely make things like cake and biscuits, mainly because I don't have room for lots of cake tins and if you make cakes and biscuits, you have to eat them all. Between two people, that can be a lot of cake!

We were invited to a barbecue (yay, barbecue!) at a friend's place and seeing the list of everything she had organised, the only missing item was a dessert. It is a fairly long train trip to their place, though, so it had to be something fairly portable. I happened upon some cute bright blue silicon mini-muffin trays in the market near my work and decided mini muffins would be perfect.

The next part was to find a recipe. In the end, I decided on these Cranberry and White Chocolate Mini Muffins, except that I used milk chocolate instead of white. They were pretty good in the end and popular at the barbecue. They were a nice balance between chocolate and fruit and not too sweet. They were also easy to serve and eat as finger food, easy to transport and the silicon mini muffin trays are easy to store - perfect!

Cranberry and White Chocolate Mini Muffins

Makes 24

100g plain flour
1 tsp mixed spice
50g demerara sugar
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g white chocolate chips
1 medium egg, beaten
150ml milk
50g butter, melted and cooled
75g dried cranberries

To finish
100g white chocolate
25g dried cranberries

Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C, gas mark 6. Line two 12-hole mini muffin tins with mini muffin or petit four cases.
Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Mix the wet ingredients, pour into the dry and stir for about 20 seconds until you have a lumpy batter. Don't overmix. Spoon into the cases and bake for 15 minutes. Cool on a rack.
To finish, melt the chocolate, scrape into a polythene bag and cool so it thickens a little. Cut a tiny hole in the corner of the bag. Drizzle the chocolate over the muffins and top with dried cranberries.

Chicken, ham and asparagus pie

2009-07-18T15:41:00.004+01:00

I actually made this pie ages ago, but didn't have a chance to blog about it before we went to NY. It was so tasty and easy to make, that I didn't want it to be forgotten. This is the perfect 'Summer' pie to make when you feel like pie, but the warmer weather doesn't justify heavy meat sauces and thick pastry. If you go lightly on the butter (and don't add cheese like I did), it is even quite healthy!

Chicken, Ham and Asparagus Pie
Olive magazine, May 2009 Serves 4

4 skinless chicken breasts
butter
100g asparagus
100g peas
100g ham, torn into pieces
100ml creme fraiche
1 tbsp gainry mustard
50g breadcrumbs

Brush the chicken breasts with a little butter and grill, turning once, until just cooked (I pan-fried them, but I think this would also be a great recipe for leftover cooked/roast chicken). Slice into chunks and tips into a shallow dish.

Blanch the asparagus and peas until just tender, then drain and scatter over the chicken with the ham.

Mix the creme fraiche with the mustard and dollop over the top, then scatter with breadcrumbs (I also grated some parmesan cheese over the top, but it probably didn't need it).

Dot with a little more butter and grill for 5 minutes until golden and heated through (I actually put this in a 180 degree oven for about 20 minutes and then under the grill to brown the top).

Skylight Diner (New York)

2009-07-18T15:12:00.007+01:00

Our last night in New York (which thankfully means my last NY post!). We went to a New York Liberty game at Madison Square Garden, where the crowd was full of hyped up children drinking giant cokes and eating hot dogs. I had the giant coke as well, so was also full of sugar and excitement at the edge-of-the-seat game and the energy in the crowd (well, sugar high at least!).

For the very last hurrah, I decided we needed to go to a diner. An American Diner. The Skylight Diner was only a couple of blocks away and was almost completely empty at 10pm on a Friday night. It really looked the part - long counter, bar stools, boothes, baseball on the TV behind the bar. According to the menu, the Skylight Diner was voted the #1 Diner in Manhattan by the New York Daily News. Lofty praise, indeed.

It mustn't have been for the service. We were served by an exceedingly grumpy old man, who was clearly upset that we had interrupted his baseball viewing. No cliched chirpy blonde waitresses with pony-tails in this diner!

I really wanted pie (said in an American accent - paih?). I really wanted cherry pie and it was on the menu, but apparently even though the menu listed about 10 different pies, in reality, they only had apple pie. That was okay, I like apple pie. I would have preferred it heated but grumpy old man was having none of that. Kyle ordered pancakes and I also ordered a hot chocolate.

The pie and hot chocolate arrived quickly and looked impressive. The pie was a gorgeous shiny pastry, filled with chunks of real stewed apple. It was delicious, but very sweet. The hot chocolate (one I removed the huge dollop of canned cream from the top) was actually surprisingly not too sweet and helped to balance out the sweetness of the pie.

Kyle's pancakes finally arrived and I was immediately jealous. Three thick, fluffy, steaming pancakes served with lots of whipped butter and maple syrup to dress them with yourself. This is where McDonald's got the inspiration for their hotcakes. They were so good! Luckily, they were really filling, so I sacrificed the end of my pie to help Kyle finish the pancakes.

The diner was really cool! I wish the service had have been better, but otherwise, I loved it! The food was lovely, huge portions for fairly cheap - all of this cost about $10. And they're open 24 hours. 24 hours of pie . . . as long as you want apple.

An awesome ending to our trip to New York (I prefer to think of it as the ending - the next day, we actually had the worst meal of the entire trip at Lindy's Diner - bad food, bad service, really overpriced). We had such a brilliant time in NY - so much to see, so much to do, so much to eat!

Skylight Diner
402 West 34th Street (at 9th Ave)
New York, NY 10001

Lombardi's Pizza (New York)

2009-07-14T21:37:00.007+01:00

There is a lot of commentary on the internet around the best pizza in New York. The original plan had been to go to walk across the Brooklyn Bridge and then go to Grimaldi's in Brooklyn, which is supposed to be very authentic. Unfortunately, the day we walked across the bridge was the day we had been to Bobby Van's for burgers and we were so full, there was no room to do any justice to pizza.

The back-up plan was Lombardi's on Spring Street in Soho. Lombardi's is the first official pizzeria in New York, first licensed in 1905. After a few hours of hard-core NY shopping, we rolled up to Lombardi's hot, tired, exhausted and in the mood for some pizza.

Lombardi's looks quite small when you first arrive and we queued for a couple of minutes, but it is bigger than it first appears. That being said, it was pretty busy at 4pm on a Friday afternoon, so I would imagine the queues on a Friday night would be significant.

The menu is pretty simple. The pizzas come in two sizes - 6 or 8 slices - with mozzarella, tomato sauce, basil and pecorino romano. There are then about 12 meat or vegetable toppings you can choose from at exponentially increasing prices. We decided to go reasonably authentic with just pepperoni.

The pizza arrived quickly and first appearances were good. The base was thin and crisp, with a few blackened bubbles that indicated a good hot pizza oven. The topping of melted cheese and crisped pepperoni looked and smelled delicious.

Luckily, the good first impression continued. The dough had an excellent chewy texture and yeasty taste and the topping was cheesy but flavoursome. I particuarly enjoyed the fresh basil, which give it a real burst of flavour. If I was going to criticise anything about this pizza, it could have had the topping spread out further to the edges. But that is really nit-picking!

In actual fact, it wasn't a million miles away from the Italian pizzas we have enjoyed in Italy, so to be honest, I'm a little unclear on the significant difference between New York and Italian pizzas. No bad thing - they're both excellent!

So another NY junk food checked off the list and it was definitely good. As I mentioned, we were there in the late afternoon, which suited our plans, but the feel of the restaurant was a bit 'churn and burn', definitely fast food. I'm not sure this is the sort of place to linger over a meal! The service wasn't anything special and the restaurant itself was just okay. But, Lombardi's is what it is and I'm pretty sure no-one is going there for the atmosphere! Everyone is going for the pizza and luckily, the pizza is well worth going for.

Lombardi's Pizza
32 Spring Street
New York, NY 10012-4173

Katz's Deli (New York)

2009-07-12T18:37:00.010+01:00

Next stop on the list of must-try NY foods - pastrami on rye. The most famous destination for this traditionally Jewish sandwich would have to be Katz's Deli on the Lower East Side, surely. Katz's is the site of the most famous scene from one of my all-time favourite movies, When Harry Met Sally. You know the scene . . . I'll have what she's having. Katz's does capitalise on this a little, with a huge sign hanging above the table in question and several photos of Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal around the place. But Katz's was famous way before that movie and the reason is their pastrami on rye (as well as the slightly dodgy slogan "Send a salami to your boy in the army").

The deli is very authentic looking. A huge counter stretches the length of the restaurant, where you can either order directly from the sandwich makers or take a seat in the area marked for table service, which we did. We decided to split a pastrami on rye and a bagel with cream cheese and lox, another NY classic.

A plate of very disturbing looking pickles arrived first. Still not sure about these, but all thoughts of the pickles were gone the moment the pastrami sandwich arrived.

Wow. Now that is a sandwich. A pile of warm, thick-cut pastrami piled on on bread. That was it. Our authentically NY server (he was brilliant) gave us the mayo we asked for but with the caveat that we wouldn't need it, because the mustard is so good. I'm not a huge mustard fan, but he was right. The slightly spicy mustard perfectly balanced out the rich, juicy pastrami. So good.

The bagel arrived next and was also piled high, this time with rich, fatty salmon and slathers of cream cheese. It was really good, but let's face it, this one you can make yourself fairly easily, so it struggled to compete with the pastrami.

I've since read reviews that say except for the pastrami, the food at Katz's is pretty awful. To that, I say, who cares! If you make one thing that good, that is sufficient to justify your existance. That and being the site of the best fake orgasm scene in film . . .

Katz's Delicatessan
205 East Houston Street
New York, NY 10002

Hill Country (New York), 8.5/10

2009-07-12T17:00:00.013+01:00

One of the things I miss desperately as an Australian in London is barbecue. At the moment we don't have a garden, and consequently, no barbecue, and I have been having cravings for eating grilled meat for a while now. I always thought barbecue was a quintessially Australian food activity, one we did better than anyone. However, very quickly upon being in America, I realised they have taken it to a whole new level. Cookbooks, cooking shows and food magazines all seemed to be about the perfect burger (fair enough) but also the perfect pulled pork, moist brisket or beef ribs - barbecue meats we haven't considered in Australia. They even have competitions! Australia is a competitive country, certainly when it comes to sport, but I don't actually recall any barbecue competitions!

Anyway, as a result, I was keen to try an American barbecue restaurant while in New York. I recalled a restaurant called Hill Country from some of my early reading, so on a warm Thursday evening, we headed towards West 26th Street to experience some authentic Texan 'cue in NY.

The rules are fairly complicated. You are given a meal ticket on entry and it is vitally important you don't lose this. You are shown to your table and your drinks waiter takes your order. In your own time, you join the queue for the meat.

There are a lot of choices, all sold by the weight - moist brisket, lean brisket, beef shoulder, prime rib, beef ribs, pork spare ribs, pork chops, sausages, chicken, beer can game hen, lamb chops and beef short ribs. Are you getting the idea? Not a place for vegetarians! It was all a little intimidating, especially as the guy at the counter keeps yelling (that's him in the photo - he looks kind of scary, doesn't he? And they had big knives)! We overheard what some other, more experienced customers were ordering, so when we got our yell - NEXT CUSTOMER! STEP UP!!!! - we were prepared. Or so we thought.

We asked for half a pound of moist brisket and half a pound of beef short ribs. Unfortunately, he heard beef shoulder and after some discussion (apparently the beef short ribs only come in a full rack), we opted for regular beef ribs and he threw in some of the shoulder that had already been cut in the confusion. All this was wrapped in a big sheet of butcher paper on top of some slices of white bread and we were shunted off to the sides and trimmings counter as the next customer was told to step up behind us.

The next choice was amongst the ten or so sides dishes. We chose Corn Pudding, Green Bean Casserole and Corn Bread. Feeling somewhat shell-shocked but with a tray full of good-looking food (they mark your meal ticket with the choices), we headed back to our table.

First up and with the memory from The Red Tomato in Toronto still fresh, was the moist brisket. This one was served without sauce, although the Hill Country Barbecue Sauce was on every table. To be honest, it didn't need it. The meats are all cooked in a dry-rub style and are slowly smoked over oak they bring in from Texas. Which all means, packed with flavour and deliciously soft and moist. The brisket was the best. The ribs were tasty, but a little difficult to eat - beef ribs are enormous bones! As you served yourself on little paper trays, it was quite hard to deal with the ribs. The freebie beef shoulder was very tender, but had less flavour than that amazing brisket. The corn pudding was an unusual taste - sweet, but with underlying chilli heat - and the green bean casserole was served in a creamy mushroom and onion sauce. The cornbread was also a little unusual, with an almost cake-like texture.

I absolutely loved Hill Country, but I'm not sure how much was the food and how much was the experience and the atmosphere! The brisket was exceptional, everything else was quite good, but the vibe of the place was so much fun and so different. It was like walking into a different country!

We topped off a really fun night with a visit to Top of the Rock at the Rockefeller Centre, for amazing nighttime views of New York. What an awesome city!

Food: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 10/10
Overall: 8.5/10

Hill Country
30 West 26th Street
New York, NY 10010

Bouchon Bakery (New York)

2009-07-09T22:52:00.011+01:00

According to The S.Pellegrino World's 50 Best Restaurants for 2009, the best restaurant in the Americas is Per Se in the Time Warner Centre in New York, run by Thomas Keller originally of The French Laundrey in California. The restaurant offers a 9 course tasting menu for $275 (there are also some additional courses including foie gras for $30 and Australian truffles for $75) and it is notoriously difficult to get a reservation. Needless to say, we didn't go. We did have a look though - very subtle.

Thomas Keller also owns the Bouchon Bakery on the third floor of the Time Warner centre (Per Se is on the fourth), where you can sit down to sandwiches and salads for around $20. We didn't go there either. We did, however, have coffee and cake from the 'takeaway' outlet of the bakery, which was a comparative bargain at only $10 and means in a remote and distant manner, I have partaken of the food of the best chef in America.

There are a few small tables around the bakery and some with an exceptional view out the full glass front of The Time Warner Centre across Columbus Circle and up West 59th Street. With some careful loitering, we managed to snag one of these tables.

The choice of cakes was impressive - beautiful macarons, croissants, pain aux raisin, tarts, muffins. It was fortunate the queue took a while, as I took a while to decide. In the end, I opted for a sticky bun and a fig and hazelnut croissant. The croissant was lovely - full of sticky fig paste in the middle, wrapped in light pastry but with a heavy hazelnut and almost streusel topping. The sticky bun, however, was glorious. It looked pretty ridiculous and over-the-top, but was somehow not too sweet, despite the cinnamon swirl, the caramel sauce and the huge number of pecans on top. Delicious! The super-strong coffee was the perfect accompaniment to some excellent sweets and one of the best views in New York.

Bouchon Bakery
Third Floor
Time Warner Centre
Ten Columbus Circle
New York, NY 10019

Grand Central Oyster Bar

2009-07-06T21:25:00.007+01:00

The Grand Central Oyster Bar is located in the beautiful Grand Central train station on East 42nd Street. The station is a restored early 1900's building, seemingly packed with as many places to eat as trains, but the famous one is the Oyster Bar with its long counter where you can watch the oyster shuckers do their thang. Unfortunately, as you come into the restaurant, it is so overwhelmingly enormous, that we somehow ended up being seated in the main restaurant section and missed out on the oyster bar.

The main restaurant was packed and loud on a Wednesday evening, with people around us tucking into huge plates of oysters, lobsters and crabs. It still strikes me as a little unusual going to a train station for your special seafood meal!

We were there primarily for one reason - the New England Clam Chowder. But first, we decided to try some oysters . . . we were in an oyster bar, after all. There were some 30 different types of oysters on the menu, which is updated daily according to what is available. The oysters all came from North America, with quite a few from the New York area. Unfortunately, we didn't recognise any, so just had to pick randomly. We chose two Plymouth Rocks (Massachussets), two East End (Long Island, NY) and two Wellfleet (Massachussets).

They arrived quickly (before our drinks even) and were nicely presented on a bed of ice, with lemon wedges and little tubs of ketchup and vinegar. I must admit, I'm not a huge fan of oysters. I tend to find they are best eaten quickly without concentrating too much, particularly on the texture. For that reason, I usually prefer smaller oysters and the Plymouth Rock ones were pretty huge, so definitely not my favourite. The other two were smaller and were really fresh tasting and not unpleasant at all.

But as I mentioned, it was all about the Clam Chowder. When it first arrived, I was a bit concerned - it didn't really look that exciting, but luckily, tasted delicious. Thick, rich and creamy with chunks of clam thoughout. Although this wasn't the best example I've ever had, clam chowder is a strong contender for the best type of soup, I think.

We weren't at the Grand Central Oyster Bar for long (we had had a huge lunch at Gramercy Tavern earlier, so weren't particularly hungry), but it was one of those NY foodie adventures that are fun to experience.

Grand Central Oyster Bar & Restaurant
Lower Level, Grand Central Station
East 42nd Street
New York, NY 10017

Gramercy Tavern (New York), 9/10

2009-07-05T21:06:00.018+01:00

Before we went to New York, I spent quite a lot of time researching where we could go for one really special (i.e. expensive!) meal. It was a difficult decision, given the huge number of restaurants in New York and the stratospheric prices some of them can reach. I eventually decided on Gramercy Tavern, located downtown on East 20th Street, between the Union Square (home of the Union Square market) and the Flatiron Building. I was keen to try the tasting menu and, to mitigate those prices somewhat, we chose to go for lunch.

We arrived a little early and were greeted by three people at the front door. This could have been intimidating (they had rung earlier to confirm the reservation and advise us of the dress code), but they were all very friendly as we chatted about the change in the weather.

We were shown to our table and offered the menu, which I had already previewed on their website. Choosing the tasting menu made things easy and we were just left to select the wine. I was pleasantly surprised to see wines recommended for only around $25 a bottle and we selected a sauvignon blanc from Bordeaux, which was crisp, cool and dry - perfect for that humid New York weather we'd been discussing. We were also offered a choice from the bread basket, which included the best olive bread I have ever eaten. The bread in NY has been so good, I can't stop eating it even when I know I have five courses coming up!

The first course was Calamari and Carrot Salad, Toasted Pine Nuts and Preserved Lemon Vinaigrette. I must admit, this is not something I would have ordered. I'm not a huge fan of carrot and to be honest, the dish sounded quite boring. It was anything but. The Calamari had the most amazing texture - soft and silky as it slid over your tongue. I have no idea it could have been cooked to have this texture - I'm almost inclined to think it was prepared ceviche-style and just marinated in lemon juice. Brilliant, anyway. The carrot and pine nuts offered crunch and resistance and the dressing was perfectly balanced. This was an appetiser and a half.

It was, however, immediately topped by the next course - Soft Shell Crab with Ruby Crescent Potatoes and Spring Onions. I love soft shell crab. In my opinion, it is absolutely the best way to eat crab - no messing around trying to pull bits of meat out of tiny cavaties. You just get in there and eat the whole thing. This was deep-fried with a crispy coating and served with a mayonnaise potato salad, which cut beautifully through the fattiness of the deep fry but didn't overwhelm the delicacy of the crab. I think I eked this dish out in tiny mouthfuls.

Course number three was Fluke with Sugar Snap Peas, Wild Rice and American Caviar. For me, this was the least interesting course. I didn't know this fish, but we saw it on quite a few menus. It is apparently a flatfish from New Jersey, so very local. The fish had a nice firm texture and a light flavour. It was complemented by the very fresh peas and a lovely, rich jus. The American Caviar was a bit of a non-event.

The final savoury course was Guinea Hen with Heirloom Cauliflower and House Cured Pancetta. On the "interesting" scale, it was somewhere between the Crab and the Fluke courses . . . unfortunately, maybe slightly closer to the Fluke. The Guinea Hen had lovely crispy skin, but was a touch on the dry side, and the Cauliflower and Pancetta, while looking impressive, were a little muted on the tongue. Perhaps to be expected from what is essentially a tarted up dish of chicken breast and cauliflower puree.

Next came an uncredited pre-dessert, a strawberry cheesecake. This was WOW! For such a tiny amount, the strawberry flavour was intensely powerful. The topping was light and fluffy, you barely felt it as your teeth moved through topping into the crunch of the biscuit base. It had the prettiest little sugared violet on top and some lovely strawberries and coulis on the side. Dessert was going to have to be good to top this.

The dessert was the first course where we had a choice, in this case, between fruit and chocolate. Now on the surface, you would think the chocolate would be a slam dunk, but the fruit was rhubarb and I love rhubarb and the chocolate was mousse, which I can generally take or leave. Luckily, we decided to have one each and swap. Unluckily, I started with the chocolate, which meant I had to give it up halfway through.

The chocolate mousse was a dark bitter chocolate log, almost truffle-like in its texture. It was served with a small dollop of salted caramel (really unusual, but good), a wedge of peanut brittle wafer and cream. This was quite incredible - it was like the dessert was teetering on the edge of being savoury and for someone who doesn't have much of a sweet tooth, that was quite exciting. The chocolate was rich and bitter, the caramel salty, the cream buttery. Giving this up halfway through was really hard.

The second dessert was a rhubarb merangue tart with rhubarb sorbet. It was really lovely, but especially following the chocolate, a little too sweet. The reason I like rhubarb is because it is a little tart but with the merangue, coulis, creme anglais and biscuits, this was a little too sugary to be my favourite. When Kyle gave me the last bite of the chocolate mousse, well . . . Now that's love.

Finally, to finish, we had coffees and petit fours. The petit fours were an earl grey tea ganache tart, a tiny rhubarb macaroon and an orange truffle. I'd been eyeing the ganache tart on someone else's table and it didn't disappoint - it was definitely my favourite.

At that was the end of our extravagent and impressive New York meal at Gramercy Tavern. I must admit, some of the food was just okay, but the dishes that were good - the soft shell crab, the strawberry cheesecake, the chocolate mousse - were sublime. I can forgive a couple of forgettable dishes when there are some extraordinary ones as well, but in retrospect, you do have to 'mark' it down a little for two of the five dishes being merely average.

We had such a great time at Gramercy Tavern. The service was nothing short of brilliant the whole time. We always felt comfortable and looked after and even had a little 'relationship' going with our waiter, but not so much that we felt crowded. The room was lovely and just nicely busy. This is a restaurant I would definitely recommend for a special New York experience.

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 9/10
Service: 10/10
Ambience: 10/10
Overall: 9/10

Gramercy Tavern
42 East 20th Street
New York, NY 10003

Bobby Van's Grille (New York), 8/10

2009-07-01T19:55:00.011+01:00

Unlike Toronto, we did go to New York with some ideas of what to eat. Perhaps unusually for my travel eating, this involved largely fast food - burgers, hot dogs, pizza, bagels. I know New York has lots of fancy restaurants (and we did that too), but the things it seemed to be famous for are junk, albeit junk food taken to new levels.

After wandering around downtown, including that financial mecca Wall Street, we decided to have a late lunch at Bobby Van's Grille, which is apparently home to the 5th best burger in New York (according to the New York Times and the Burger of the Month club).

It also has the added coolness factor of being in an old bank vault.

Being right around the corner from Wall Street, the majority of their clientele are likely suits with expense accounts, so it was fortunate that we arrived in our touristy clothes a little later than prime lunchtime. After deliberating whether we were too scabbily dressed to be able to enter, we went in anyway and the staff were very nice (to our faces anyway!). Luckily, as we were there for the burgers, which they talk up, at least we didn't have to pretend to be considering the posh part of the menu.

We were offered a choice of cheese, including American (that lurid yellow stuff), cheddar, swiss, blue and possibly some others, and bacon. Kyle chose the lurid yellow one, while I opted for swiss. Kyle ordered bacon, but either they didn't hear or it was forgotten, but it probably wasn't necessary anyway. We both ordered the burgers cooked medium rare and a couple of their draught beers to accompany them (a Brooklyn Dark Ale and some sort of wheat beer).

The burger was a soft white bun wrapped snuggly around the large ground beef patty, which was at least 5cm thick and weighed 12oz. And I have to admit, the yellow cheese did look the All-American part. The other half of the burger bun was topped with a large piece of lettuce and a thick slice each of tomato and raw onion. The burgers were accompanied by fries, onion rings and a pickle. The plates were enormous. This was a lot of food - when we'd finished, there was probably still a whole meal left!

So how did it taste? The burger patty was well-seasoned and satisfyingly beefy. Unfortunately, mine was cooked medium at best, maybe even bordering on medium well. Kyle's was cooked perfectly medium rare, with the juices soaking beautifully into the bun. The salad on the burger was quite hard to eat and the enormous slice of raw onion was removed immediately. We tried some of the Bobby Van's Steakhouse sauce, but found it quite sweet and lacking in good barbecue sauce spice. The pickle tasted like a cucumber in vinegar, which I know it is, but is that a good thing? The fries were quite good, with plenty of crunch, but the onion rings - revelation! I don't think I have ever had onion rings outside of a bad fast food chain, so therefore only bad onion rings. These were amazing - soft, sweet onion (do they boil them first or something?), lightly and erratically coated in a crunchy batter. The burger was good, the onion rings were amazing.

Overall, I think this was a pretty good burger experience in New York (we also tried to go to the Shake Shack on our last day, but when we arrived there were about 100 people in the queue - literally - and we had a plane to catch), but perhaps the expectations were too high. At any rate, I feel truly burger inspired now and I can't wait to try and make those onion rings!

Food: 8.5/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Bobby Van's Grille
25 Broad Street
New York

The Red Cat (New York), 9/10

2009-07-01T16:19:00.012+01:00

After four lovely days in Toronto, it was time to move on to New York. It was funny being in New York. The whole place is like a movie set or like being in every TV show you ever watched - Seinfeld, Friends, Sex in the City, Ugly Betty, Law and Order, 30 Rock . . . they all happen here and it is like every thing and every person has been staged to be part of the New York set. It was absolutely brilliant!

By the time we arrived and checked into our hotel, we had enough time to make it to the 4.30pm cruise around Manhattan Island. I really enjoyed seeing the whole city from this perspective and the accompanying commentary was really interesting and informative. Somehow, the time disappeared and it was time to choose a dinner destination. We have a bad reputation for being able to walk around for ages trying to decide where to eat. In New York, that city full of more places to eat than you could ever imagine, this could be really dangerous! As it was getting late, we decided to choose a restaurant out of our guide book - The Red Cat in Chelsea.

We arrived at 10pm for dinner on a Monday night. The restaurant was mostly full, but no problem for us to get a table for dinner and we weren't the last to arrive either. I know I've been living in London for two years, but being from Brisbane, I still find this kind of thing exciting. I mean, arriving at a restaurant at 10pm on Monday night? Except for the casino, can you even do that Brisbane???

The Red Cat was a really cool restaurant - dark red walls contrasted beautifully with the crisp white tableclothes and the lanterns used for lights completed the funky image. Our waiter was also pretty funky with those trendy black-framed glasses and goatee. Luckily, he was also enormously helpful. The list of wines by the glass contained pretty much all wines that were new to me, so I asked for a recommendation of a dry white and he suggested the Airen "mas Que Vinos" 2008, Bodegas Ercavio (La Mancha) and offered us a taste before we committed. The wine was cool and crisp - exactly what I was looking for.

To start, I chose the proscuitto and parmesan croquettes with pea sprouts and olive oil aioli. The croquettes were beautifully crispy on the outside with a flavoursome and soft cheesy middle - delicious.

Kyle's appetiser was potato pierogies (a type of dumpling) with snow peas, bacon, shitake mushrooms and white wine butter.

Having tried skate wing recently at The Chancery with only limited success, I was keen to give it another go. This version was served with sauteed greens, hazelnuts and lemon brown butter. Most importantly, it was served off the bone, which was so much more enjoyable and infinitely easier to eat. The fish was soft and delicate and the lemon-butter sauce complemented it perfectly. The hazelnuts provided crunch, but in my opinion, there were too many and they started to overwhelm the fish.

Kyle opted for the calves liver served with swiss chard pie. I found the liver relatively mild tasting and pleasantly soft in texture, nicely offset by the crumbly shortcrust pasty of the vegetable pie. Kyle also just mentioned that a real highlight of this dish was the base of melted tomato it came on.

As we were coming to expect, the meals were really quite large serving sizes (although the excellent piece of sourdough bread I ate probably didn't help!), so we had no room for dessert. It didn't matter really, as this was already a fantastic first NY meal. Did I mention how good the service was? Halfway through our meal, funky waiter's shift finished, but rather than just disappear, he told us he was leaving, introduced us to our new waiter and wished us a pleasant evening. That sort of service helps to limit the pain of leaving that 18% tip!

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 9/10
Service: 9.5/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

The Red Cat
227 Tenth Avenue
New York City 10011

The Rebel House (Toronto), 7/10

2009-06-30T13:46:00.009+01:00

As I mentioned previously, I hadn't really planned anything food-wise for our trip to Toronto, but it is quite interesting how quickly you can pick up on 'local' dishes. I had noticed a dish called 'poutine' was on a number of menus and also being sold at the food carts in Toronto, so when I picked up a copy of a free Toronto magazine that included an article on a gastropub that had one of the best examples in town, it seemed like a suitable choice for Friday lunch. Add to that, the gastropub apparently had a great outdoor space, ideal for the now sunny weather, and it was only about 200 numbers away from our location on Yonge Street, it seemed like a good idea.

I've since learnt a couple of things. Firstly, Poutine is actually a Quebecois dish, so not particularly local and Yonge Street is the longest street in the world. Literally. It was in the Guiness Book of Records and stretches an incredible 1896km. So even though we were at about number 800 and our destination was 1068, it still took quite some time to get there.

Luckily, when we arrived, the pub was really cool. It wasn't very big, with perhaps seating for 20 inside and around 30 outside, but it was pretty full with a buzzy atmosphere. We snagged a seat in the courtyard, which was lovely and shady in the warm weather. The drinks menu comprised quite a few unusual beers and the Waupoos County cider - hard to go past, really, with a name like that. The cider was light, tart and very refreshing.

Only two days into the holiday and I was already starting to crave fresh food, so ordered the appetiser size spinach and apple salad with cajun chicken. Kyle chose the meatloaf sandwich and we shared a serving of the famous poutine. Poutine is essentially chips with gravy and fresh cheese curds. This example came with homemade kettle-style chips, homemade gravy, fresh cheddar curds and mozzarella cheese.

For an appetiser size, my salad was massive, but unfortunately quite bland. The colour of the cheese in Canada is a really quite disturbing yellow colour and the salad was covered in this. There was also supposed to be a creamy maple dressing, but it didn't really have a lot of flavour. The almonds provided a nice crunch and the pieces of apple were pleasantly crisp, but were cut too small to offer much flavour. Even the cajun chicken was somehow a little bland.

Kyle's meatloaf sandwich, however, was very good. The meatloaf was moist and flavoursome and the toasted French bread was a good vehicle for the meat. The only downside was the accompanying salad, which was served undressed.

And then there was the poutine. I'm not sure about this dish. To me, it looks like a heart attack on a plate! And that disturbing yellow cheese made another appearance. I'm told the best examples are in Quebec, so maybe benefit of the doubt?

Unfortunately, the food we ate at The Rebel House was a little disappointing, which is a shame because the pub was cool, the service was lovely and it was such beautiful warm weather, so I really wanted to love everything. Maybe we just chose badly . . .

Food: 6/10
Drinks: 8.5/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 7/10

The Rebel House
1068 Yonge Street
Toronto, Ontario
MW4 2L4

The Red Tomato (Toronto), 8.5/10

2009-06-28T16:43:00.009+01:00

It can be tricky turning up in a town and finding a decent place to eat without any prior research. As our visit to Toronto was around a wedding and there were other people from Australia there, we weren't quite sure of the plans and so hadn't really organised anything. However, we found ourselves looking for a suitable dinner spot after the day at Niagara Falls. I had amused myself on the drive back reading the tourist descriptions of the local restaurants ( My favourite: "And remember, if it tastes like yo mama's, it's Joe Mamas!") and had decided on a Creole restaurant called N'Awlins. When we got there, however, it was really quite expensive, so we wandered along the 'Entertainment strip' of restaurants and happened across The Red Tomato. It was offering two courses plus a drink for $24, the menu looked good and the restaurant looked cool and fairly busy, so we went in.

The restaurant is downstairs with a second restaurant on the ground floor. The Red Tomato part was very funky, with red booths and dim lighting from the funky lamps and wall lights. Our waitress came over immediately and was bright and cheerful (the service in Toronto was almost always incredibly bubbly, helpful and wonderful). The two course menu was a choice of 5 mains, followed by two desserts and a choice of wine, beer or martini. I opted for the Shiraz from the Niagara region, while Kyle chose the Steam Whistle pilsner.

The choice of mains was impressive, including lobster and seafood linguine. In the end, we negotiated to try the brisket and the veal chop and share. Usually when you do this, though, the meal that lands in front of you is so good, it can be hard to give up, which is what happened here. I ended up with the brisket, slow oven-roasted for six hours until it was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth tender. I haven't had brisket before (but it wouldn't be the last time on this trip!) and this was a revelation. The sauce was a rich, thick smoky barbecue, a little oily around the edges, but the brisket was so moist and tender, I was completely enraptured. And then I had to give it up halfway through. That was hard. I should mention that the brisket was served with a mushroom and spinach risotto, which was okay, but didn't really go with the brisket at all and seemed more like a standalone dish.

While it was hard to give up, at least the veal chop was quite good. We don't really eat much veal in London and haven't had veal chop in a couple of years, so it was at least different. The meat was a little dry but was rubbed with a mix of rosemary, thyme and pepper, which was quite tasty. The accompaniment to the veal was gnocchi with asparagus and red pepper in a brown butter sauce. Again, while good, as John from Masterchef would say, it wasn't really coming together as a dish.

Both of these meals were huge (that was the other thing about Canada - every meal was enormous), so when our berry shortcakes arrived, I really didn't think I'd be able to eat any. Unfortunately for me, it was delicious - light, fluffy sponge cake sandwiched with light whipped cream and topped with a blend of tart raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrents. I don't even like cake particularly, but this was an ideal light, fruity dessert that cut through the richness of the meaty main courses.

For a complete punt, I was hugely impressed with The Red Tomato. They offered a good fixed menu in a super-touristy area but backed it up with really lovely food. While there were some odd matches in the main courses, the individual components were consistently good and the service and atmosphere spot-on.

Food: 8/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

The Red Tomato
321 King Street West
Toronto ON M5V 1JF

Wine tasting in Ontario, Canada

2009-06-28T15:45:00.013+01:00

I have to admit, I know scarily little about Canada. I know it is big, there are lots of lakes and it gets very cold in Winter. Unfortunately, that is about it - a bit embarrassing really! We were heading to Toronto for my lovely friend Tenille's wedding, so spent a few days getting to know this fabulous town. One of the things we realised when planning the trip is that Toronto is very close to Niagara Falls, surely a tourist must-see! We hired a car and after some extensive faffing around (our luggage was delayed overnight in Chicago, but then turned out to have been delivered to the hotel already etc etc), we picked up our hire car and headed towards Niagara Falls.

One of the things I absolutely had not realised about Canada, is that they have quite a wine industry. I knew about Ice Wine, that complicated wine made when the grapes stay on the vines until they are frozen to around a temperature of -10 degrees, but had no idea at the extent of the industry. I picked up a wine map of the region and was shocked to see at least 100 wineries around the Niagara Falls area! Tenille had mentioned that her favourite is a winery called Thirty Bench, so with no other influencing factors, the decision was made.

We were greeted by the extremely effusive Janice. She started to tell us a little about the winery - small lot producer, hand-picked grapes, hand-made wines, Silver Award at the Riesling du Monde in France for the 2007 Triangle Riesling etc. She eventually drew in breath to say she was expecting some other guests for a 1pm tasting and would we mind waiting 10 minutes until then? We were happy to wait, sipping on a taste of the 2008 Winemaker's Riesling (light, refreshing, only slighty sweet, very drinkable) and wandering around the winery.

The winery itself is very beautiful, even in the unseasonable foggy cold weather we were experiencing. Apparently, on all but about 10 days a year (including the one we were there on), you can see Lake Ontario beyond the vineyards of the winery.

The other guests arrived and we commenced the wine tasting. The tasting cost $10 each for approximately 4-5 wines. Janice suggested we share the wines between the two of us, so we could taste the full range. The tasting lasted for about an hour, during which we tasted the winery's three remaining Rieslings - Triangle, Steel Post and Wood Post. I am not typically a fan of Riesling, still scared about the potential sweetness of the wines, but there was nothing sweet about these. They were incredibly light in colour, but packed a powerful citrus punch, in the case of the Steel Post, it was really too powerful, leaving a slightly unpleasant lime tang in the back of the throat.

We moved on to the Chardonnay, which Janice had us try out of both regular Riedel tasting glasses and then compared with Riedel Chardonnay glasses, which were squat, round and had a very open top. The difference was quite astonishing! The first one you would pass over as quite pleasant, if somewhat indifferent. In the correct glasses, the wine opened up in flavour, tasting buttery and yeasty, almost reminiscent of the flavours in Champagne.

We then tried the Thirty Bench Rose, which was a disturbing bright pink colour, but tasted better than it looked. It would have been the perfect picnic wine (with more appropriate picnic weather!). Next up was the Pinot Noir, which was probably my favourite of the still wines we tried - light in texture, but packed full of fruit flavour. We then tried the Merlot and two back vintage blended reds, both of which I thought were a little dusty in flavour.

Finally, we came to the grand conclusion - the Riesling Ice Wine and the Cabernet Ice Wine. Canada is the world's largest producer of Ice Wine and the region around Ontario is considered perfect - long warm Summers followed by very cold Winters. These wines were not cheap - $75 and $90 respectively (about £50 and £60) for 375ml bottles, but they are exceptional. Janice advised to hold the wine in your mouth for about 13 seconds 'until it changes'. That is actually reasonably difficult to do, but the wine did change in your mouth as it warmed up, becoming fuller and richer. To be honest, I didn't really like the Cabernet version (Kyle did), finding it a little too acidic, but the Riesling version was exceptional and like good tourists to Canada, we left with a bottle of this wine. Now we just have to work out an occasion good enough to open it for!

This area was absolutely stunning and the wines were impressive and varied. If you're ever in the area to see Niagara Falls, leave some time to visit a local winery, as I'm sure you'll be pleasantly surprised. Oh, and of course, the Falls were absolutely spectacular too!

Rabbit with petit pois, cider and lettuce

2009-06-15T21:31:00.000+01:00

When I bought the pigeon breasts recently, I also bought a whole rabbit from the Manor Farm Game stall. I have cooked a whole rabbit once before but I bought it pre-jointed, so I must confess to being a little disturbed by the look of a whole rabbit when I took it out of the bag. Now, I do know that it is good for meat-eaters to understand that meat is really an animal and I agree with that. I'm not even adverse to it - I've been to an abattoir and a feedlot and I've jointed a chicken before, so you know . . . I'm not too bad. But this was a whole new level and probably one of the most unpleasant 'cooking' activities I have ever undertaken. I won't go into details, though.

It does, however, make the resulting meal even more disappointing. I chose this recipe for Rabbit with petit pois, cider and lettuce from Valentine Warner, author of What To Eat Now, thinking it sounded very French, very slow-cooked but reasonably summery for a casserole style dish. In reality, the rabbit was dry and tough and the sauce was fairly bland. I served it with ever-reliable Jersey Royals - they were good. Otherwise, this was far from successful. Very sad.

Now that's a kebab!

2009-06-14T18:50:00.007+01:00

One of the best things about London is the seemingly endless, somewhat random events that pop up . . . well, randomly. We happened upon the Cultural Summer Fete in Clissold Park - not a particularly revealing name but it sounded like there might be some good food, so we dropped in for lunch.

The 'fete' was certainly odd - a Turkish themed gathering of second-hand clothes stalls, jewellery stalls and the occasional food seller. There were a few disturbing doner kebab stalls, but these were immediately overshadowed by the hog roast kebab. Kebabs don't normally sound like a good idea in the daylight hours (not even hungover!), but in theory, if the pitta bread is good and the salad is fresh, all they really need is some decent meat, which the hog roast absolutely was. The meat was soft, succulent and incredibly tasty. Now this is a kebab!

We followed it with some poppy seed and cinnamon rolls (bit too dry) and some baklava to take away (juicy and not sickly sweet).

I also bought some lovely looking spices and was convinced to try a walnut and grape juice log, which looks . . . interesting.

Despite the randomness of the Summer Cultural Fete, there were definitely a few culinary highlights!

Homemade Hash Browns

2009-06-14T09:08:00.004+01:00

I would rarely do a full English breakfast, but we were heading to the races for the day and timing-wise, lunch was going to be a hassle, so a big breakfast seemed like a good compromise. Inspired by the sweet potato rosti I made to go with the pigeon breast recently, I decided to make hash browns as something a little different.

The recipe was quite simple, but probably took longer to cook than I would have anticipated (resulting in a bit of a last minute rush for the train to the races!), but the hash browns were really delicious and definitely added some variety to the standard cooked breakfast. With good smokey bacon, scrambled eggs and roasted vine tomatoes, this kept us going until about 6pm. Although, it may have been assisted by a few pints (!) of Pimms!

Homemade Hash Browns
Olive magazine - June 2009
Serves 6 (we made half)

800g waxy potatoes, peeled
onion, thinly sliced (I only had red onion, but I think a brown onion would be better)
clove garlic, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
4-5 tablespoons oil

Grate the potatoes. Tip into a tea towel, squeeze out any liquid (be careful - there is more liquid than you think! I managed to leak it all over the floor moving to the sink) and put in a bowl. Stir in the onion, garlic, egg and seasoning. Divide into six and shape into patties. Heat a little oil in a frying pan and cook each pattie over a low heat until golden. (This took about 20-25 minutes with the lid on for me).

Serve with the regular breakfast accompaniments.

Pigeon breast with sweet potato rosti and red wine sauce

2009-06-07T12:17:00.004+01:00

We recently went to the Foodies Festival at Hampton Court Palace as a poor substitute for the Taste Festival (we'll be in Toronto when Taste is on). While the weather was stunningly amazing, the festival was quite disappointing, mainly because there was nowhere to just sit and enjoy the food and drinks on offer - rather defeats the purpose, I would have thought.

Anyway, enough complaining! While I was there, I bought some pigeon breast from the Manor Farm Game stall. I have eaten pigeon before, but never cooked it and it seemed like a good opportunity to try a more unusual meat.

After a bit of internet searching, I decided to use this recipe for Pigeon Breast with Sweet Potato Rosti and a red wine sauce, but substituted baby spinach for the cabbage.

Unfortunately, I overcooked the pigeon slightly, but despite this, we enjoyed it. The meat is (obviously) very gamey and rich, so doesn't need a lot of strong flavours to accompany it. The red wine sauce just lifted it nicely, but with the downside that it made the rosti a little soggy. Overall, I would get pigeon breast again, but would probably try a different recipe.

The Chancery (8.5/10)

2009-06-01T21:30:00.014+01:00

The Chancery was a last minute choice from TopTable on a Thursday night, to celebrate my promotion (yay!). It is located just off Chancery Lane (you may have guessed from the name), somewhat hidden on a side street of a side street. The restaurant was pleasantly busy, with most tables eventually filled, but the tables were nicely spaced so that the restaurant was full, but not crowded. The floor to ceiling windows also meant it was also lovely and light, perfect for the beautiful Summer weather we have been enjoying. I should also mention that as this was an unscheduled visit, the photos are from my camera phone, so a little blurry - apologies!

We started with some excellent bread and salted butter at perfect room temperature, before an amouse bouche of gazpacho. The cold tomato soup was ideal for the weather and packed with tomato and garlic flavour.

The TT deal was for three courses for £25, rather than the usual £34.50 (£24 for 2 courses). Of course, as per usual, I found it impossible to go past the foie gras, especially as it was served in my favourite way - a slab of foie pan fried in butter, so that it is smooth and creamy inside and slightly crispy without. Exquisite. The advertised salad of cranberries and hazelnuts also included, somewhat bizarrely, sweet corn and apple. The corn rather overwhelmed everything else, but despite the odd combination, was refreshing and tasty.

Kyle started with the seared scallops with aubergine pakora and curry spices. The scallops were excellent, well-cooked with lots of flavour. The pakora, however, was another odd addition, being rather remiscent of a bit of deep-fry from the local Indian takeaway. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it does seem a little inappropriate as an accompaniment to delicate scallops.

My main was the roast skate wing with fondant potato, cockles and watercress puree. I haven't had skate wing before, so was a little surprised by all the bones, but once I worked out how to eat it (scrape the meat off rather than try to cut through), it was very enjoyable. Very delicately flavoured, with a lovely brown butter crust. The highlight, though, was the amazingly intense sun-dried tomatoes scattered over the dish - yum!

Despite the summery temperatures, Kyle opted for the rather wintery traditional British dish of calves' liver and onions with smoked potato cream, but he enjoyed it. The roasted garlic cloves were a lovely surprise.

We also received a lovely little chocolate mousse as a pre-dessert, which was intensely chocolate-y, but fluffy and light. It almost made me regret that I had chosen the chocolate brownie dessert . . . until I had my first bite, that is.

Chocolate brownie always seems like such an easy, obvious choice, but so good. It was somehow simultaneously dense and light and came with a mint-chocolate sauce and mint ice-cream (I love mint!). The brief regret of double chocolate was forgotten instantly.

Unfortunately, Kyle finished with the most disappointing dish of the night. The cheese platter looked quite attractive and reasonable value, containing a blue cheese, goat's cheese, a cheddar and two soft cheeses as well as some toasted fruit bread and grapes. Across the board, the cheese was bland and too cold. Shame.

The night finished with petit fours (pretty average), some unnecessary excitement when the waitress knocked a candle into my handbag (took me quite some time so scrape the candlewax off later) and then more petit fours as an apology (we didn't enjoy them the first time). All in all, not a brilliant ending!

Despite this, I really enjoyed our evening at The Chancery. The service was generally very good and there was a perfect atmosphere - enough people to create an environment, but not so that it was too loud, busy or big. With the exception of the cheese plate, the food was also very good and quite good value with the TT deal.

Food: 8.5/10
Drinks: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 9/10
Overall: 8.5/10

The Chancery
9 Cursitor Street
London EC4A 1LL

The Modern Vegetarian: Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava

2009-05-27T21:21:00.012+01:00

This month, Delicious magazine and Waterstones hosted the first book launch for the genuinely charming and enthusiastic Maria Elia, who's first book is The Modern Vegetarian. I am most definitely not vegetarian and neither is Maria, but it is one of those areas of cooking with great potential, but frequently boring options. I mean, there are plenty of lovely vegetarian pasta and risotto recipes as well as the odd curry, but the alternatives are often limited. This book, however, changes that drastically. Maria's recipes are less 'vegetarian' and more just happen not to contain meat.

The evening was lovely - Maria demonstrated her carrot pancakes and a carmelised onion, tomato and feta baklava. Both were stunning and I went on to re-create these myself. She also demonstrated her impressive creativity and natural flair for flavours, by suggesting alternatives to dishes off the top of her head. Take the carrot pancakes - make them 'Thai' style by adding chilli, lime juice and fish sauce to the houmous, that kind of thing. The sort of thing I am patently not good at, being a religious recipe follower. Consequently, I appreciated that the book also includes this kind of commentary. It is particularly helpful for vegetables, where they can be out of season or simply not appropriate to the season, it was great to see comments such as try peas or broad beans instead of the butternut squash.

The book is divided into sophisticated starters, sensational mains, sofa suppers, stylish sides and stunning sweet. Besides being an impressive use of alliteration, this is a practical and useable categorisation. There are lots of beautiful (tempted to say stunning!) photos in the book, although unfortunately, not with every recipe. The recipes are, however, well laid out and easy to read although a guide to overall cooking time would be helpful.

I have tried a few of these recipes over the last week, two successes and one disappointment. We'll start there and work upwards.

I made the Butternut Squash and Rosemary Polenta Chips with homemade aioli from the stylish sides section to go with my very not-vegetarian steak. Maria did mention she likes salt, but these were so salty so as to be rendered almost inedible, which was a real shame. I would make them again, but with about a quarter of the salt.

The next attempt was much more successful. Maria made the Carrot Pancakes with Houmous and a Feta Salad at the event in a cold canape version, which is a great idea. I made the full-sized version with warm pancakes, slightly different but equally delicious. We used some lovely baby carrots from the market to make the carrot pancakes, which are really more fritters and were packed with flavour - chilli, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, ground coriander, fresh coriander and chickpea flour (I believe these are also gluten free due to the use of chickpea flour). These are then topped with roasted carrot houmous and finally a salad with feta and orange segments. While this was an astounding number of flavours and ingredients, the final product mellowed and came together beautifully. A really delicious vegetarian lunch or starter (although I think it would be very filling for a starter).

I also made the Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava - sounds good already. This seems to be a a bit of a speciality of Maria's - she varies the fillings of her savoury baklavas and serves them at her restaurant. This dish was amazing. There is no other word! It is quite sweet from the caramelised onions, cinnamon, honey and dates, but balanced by salty cheese and crunchy filo pastry. It took much longer to make than the recipe indicates, but was worth the wait!

Tomato, Feta, Almond and Date Baklava
From The Modern Vegetarian by Maria Elia
Serves 6

100ml olive oil
5 spanish onions, halved and finely sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
pinch of granulated sugar
bunch of dill, finely chopped (or 3 tablespoons dried)
8 vine plum tomatoes, skinned and roughly chopped (reserve half the juice)
3 teaspoons tomato paste
1 packet filo pastry (9 sheets)
150g melted butter
60g blanched almonds, whizzed to a crumble
100g medjool dates, stoned and finely sliced
250g feta cheese, crumbled
6 tablespoons clear honey

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.

Heat the olive oil in a large-bottomed pan. Gently fry the onions over a low heat, add the garlic, cinnamon and sugar and increase the heat. Fry for about 6 minutes, until carmelised (I found this was more like 20 minutes). Add the dill, tomatoes and half of their juice and the tomato puree and cook for a further 5 minutes, until reduced (again, more like 15 minutes).

Unfold the pastry and cut in half; keep it covered with a damp cloth to prevent it from drying out. Brush a baking try (approximately 30 x 20cm) with melted butter, line the tin with a sheet of filo, brush with butter and repeat until you have a 3-layer thickness.

Spread half the onion mixture over the pastry, top with half the almonds, dates and half the feta. Sandwich 3 layers of filo together, brushing each with melted butter and place on top of the onion and feta mix. Top with the remaining onions, almonds, dates and feta and again top with a 3-layer thickness of filo. Lightly score the top, cutting diamonds or squares, brush with butter and splash with a little water (I found it easier to brush with butter first and then score the top). Place on a baking tray and cook for 30-35 minutes until golden (I cooked it for about 45 minutes and then got sick of waiting!).

Leave to cool a little before serving, then drizzle each portion with honey (not too much, it is already quite sweet). Serve hot or cold with fennel salad or some tzatziki.

Crispy courgette flowers with ricotta and mint

2009-05-27T20:32:00.013+01:00

As I've mentioned previously, we visited the Stoke Newington Farmers Market on the weekend, which in a gross oversight considering how close it is, I had never been to before. The market is on every Saturday and is only for local producers, who come from within 100 miles. All the produce is organic, biodynamic or wild so is guaranteed to be seasonal, fresh and hopefully tasty!

While this is all good stuff, the best part for me was spotting these courgette flowers. I haven't seen courgette flowers since we were in Tuscany in 2007 and the owners of our villa also had a farm and provided us with some lovely produce. That was my first experience with courgette flowers and I had to ask Christine to show me what to do with them! That time, we just dipped them in flour and fried them quickly in olive oil. Crispy, fresh and delicate.

This time, I turned again to Jamie Oliver, that reliable guru of seasonal cooking. His recipe is relatively classic - I have had courgette flowers stuffed with cheese in restaurants - but with the twist of being deep-fried in a light and crispy batter.

To be fair, this was not an easy recipe. Opening the flowers, snipping out the stamens and then piping the ricotta cheese mixture in was all quite fiddly. I am still quite new to deep-frying, so that was also a little stressful. The outcome, though, was absolutely worth every minute and every bit of fuss.

The contrast in textures was spot on - the batter light but with a good crunch contrasted beautifully with the creamy, warm cheese. The chilli and mint provided a bit of bang and the courgette flowers were the vessel that brought it all together. Wow!

If you did want to make this for an impressive dinner-party starter, the courgettes and batter could both be prepared in advance, leaving only the 'dunking' and frying to be done last minute. The leftover ricotta mixture was also lovely on crackers, so little treat for the cook!

Crispy courgette flowers stuffed with ricotta and mint
From Jamie at Home
Serves 4 (we made half)

200g good quality crumbly ricotta cheese
pinch of ground nutmeg
small handful of freshly grated parmesan cheese
grated zest of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh mint, leaves picked and finely chopped
1-2 fresh red chillies, halved, deseeded and very finely chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
200g self-raising flour
350ml decent white wine or sparkling water
8 courgette flowers, with courgettes still attached
vegetable oil
optional: a small piece of potato, peeled
optional: a few sprigs of parsley (highly recommended)
2 lemons, halved

Beat the ricotta in a bowl with the nutmeg, parmesan, lemon zest and most of the chopped mint and chilli. Season carefully to taste.

To make a lovely light batter, put the flour into a mixing bowl with a good pinch of salt. Pour in the white wine and whisk until thick and smooth. At this point the consistency of the batter should be like double cream or, if you dip your finger in, it should stick to your finger and nicely coat it. It it's too thin, add a bit more flour; if it's too thick, add a little more wine.

Open the courgette flowers up gently, keeping them attached to the courgettes, and snip off the pointed stamen inside because these taste bitter. Give the flowers a gentle rinse if you like.

With a teaspoon, carefully fill each flower with the ricotta mixture. Or, as Jamie prefers to do (me too!), spoon the ricotta into the corner of a sandwich bag. Snip 1cm off the corner and use this as a makeshift piping bag to gently squeeze the filling into each flower, until just full. Carefully press the flowers back together around the mixture to seal it in. Then put the flowers to one side (the leftover ricotta can be smeared on hot crostini as a snack).

Now for the deep-frying bit. Have tongs ready for lifting the flowers out of the oil, and a plate with a double layer of kitchen paper on it for draining. Pour the oil into a deep fat fryer or large deep saucepan so it is about 12cm deep. Heat it up to 180 degrees or, if using a saucepan, put in the piece of potato. As soon as the potato turns golden, floats to the surface and starts to sizzle, the oil is just about the right temperature. Remove the potato from the pan.

One by one, dip the courgettes with their ricotta-stuffed flowers into the batter, making sure they are completely covered, and gently let any excess drip off. Carefully release them, away from you, into the hot oil. Quickly batter another one or two flowers and any parsley leaves - but don't crowd the pan too much otherwise they'll stick together. Fry until golden and crisp all over, then lift them out of the oil and drain on the kitchen paper. Remove to a plate or board and sprinkle with a good pinch of salt and the remaining chilli and mint. Serve with half a lemon to squeeze over. Eat them quick!

The Fox Reformed (8.5/10)

2009-05-25T18:10:00.006+01:00

We had visited the Stoke Newington Farmers Market in the morning and wandering back up Stoke Newington Church Street, decided that lunch was on the cards. On a warm and sunny Saturday, the primary criteria for a lunch destination was a pleasant outdoor dining area. The Fox Reformed is a wine bar with a pretty small garden, but being quite empty and in the sun, qualified perfectly.

While perusing the menu in the window, some friendly locals decided to offer their 2p worth: "Nice place if you like pretentious food". Thanks for that. To be fair, the menu was not exactly Summer lunch in the sunshine (sausages and pork belly featured), so the choice had to be the burger. It sounded very promising - homemade bun, organic beef burger, caramelised onions and mozzarella served with fries and salad. I suppose this could be considered a pretentious burger.

While The Fox Reformed is a wine bar and has a very good wine list (they also run monthly wine tastings), given the glorious weather, we decided to start with our first Pimms of the Summer (we may have been inspired by the rather bossy sign in the window - Have Garden, Drink Pimms). I love, love, love Pimms. It is such a typically English drink and has come to truly epitomise the English Summer for me. This was a good strong version with plenty of fruit and was the ideal drink for the sunshine.

The burger arrived fairly quickly (sadly, there was almost no-one at the Fox and no-else eating) and looked as promising as it had sounded. The homemade bun was lightly toasted and almost scone-like and was a lovely vessel for the main event - the medium-rare (without even asking), juicy, packed-full-of-flavour burger. I have been reading all these blogs that rave about burgers and I'm not sure I've had many burgers that qualify for that level of raving. I think this one does - plenty of fresh herbs and garlic and really well-seasoned. The caramelised onions were sweet and the mozzarella added a lovely texture. Even the sides were lovely - crispy, crunchy chips and super-fresh salad with a delicious pesto dressing.

For a spur-of-the-moment choice based on the fact that they had a garden, this was an outstanding meal. I would definitely consider going back, but given their menu, probably more for dinner and wine.

Food: 9/10
Drinks: 9/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10

The Fox Reformed
176 Stoke Newington Church Street
London N16 0JL

Little Sardegna (9/10)

2009-05-23T17:18:00.008+01:00

Little Sardegna is not quite our nearest local restaurant but located literally five doors away, it is certainly handy for a quick mid-week meal out. We have been quite a few times now and typically, the time I decide to write about it, it wasn't up to its usual exceptional standards, but it was still very, very good.

It is a pretty small restaurant with at best maybe 24 seats and no matter when we go, it is almost always full, which is great to see in a surburban restaurant in these credit-crunched times. The menu is largely pasta and risotto, but there are usually a few meat and fish specials, such as tagliati or sea bass. I always find it hard to go past the pasta and in particular the Malloreddus and Papparedelle al ragu - both excellent.

Upon arrival, we were greeted by the super-friendly, very Italian waiter (and I'm sure he is the owner) with some foccacia, crispbread and olives. The foccacia is new since last time and is dense and chewy with plenty of garlic. The olives are marinated in olive oil and fresh herbs and are so more-ish, I have a tendency to eat far more than I should, knowing the portions of pasta that await.

We started with sharing the antipasto plate, comprised of various salamis, breasola and proscuitto crudo as well as some excellent pecorino and ricotta with honey. Everything on the plate is of excellent quality and is is light enough to compensate for all those olives I ate.

I tried to branch out this time and chose the Salmon Ravioli with Courgette and Prawns in a tomato sauce. The pasta was perfectly cooked and tasted fresh, but I found the salmon filling a bit too 'fishy' and the dish was overall far too rich. They have reduced the portion sizes since we were last here from insanely ludicrous to just slightly more than you reasonably need, but with such a rich filling, I found it a bit much.

Kyle opted for the always reliable Malloreddus with Italian pork sausage mince and as usual it was excellent - subtly spicy and porky. The Malloreddus are a typical Sardinian pasta shape, which I have seen likened to gnocchi. It is, however, more like pasta and is a great shape for soaking up the sauce.

We finished off the meal with a complementary glass of limoncello, which is very sweet and only mildly lemony (a shame really, because more lemon than sugar would mean that I could get to drink Kyle's!) before undertaking the long walk back to our flat . . . about 30 metres away.

Little Sardegna is an outstanding local restaurant. The service is consistently brilliant (even when you're not there, the waiter says hello when you walk past) and the food is excellent and very good value. At £35 for both of us including a bottle of the house red, if you can get a table, this is a reliably good Italian neighbourhood restaurant.

Food: 9/10
Wine: 8/10
Service: 10/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 9/10

Little Sardegna
170 Blackstock Road
London N5 1HA

Sausage, fennel and red wine risotto

2009-05-20T21:41:00.005+01:00

This was certainly an unusual combination for a risotto. I've never made risotto with red wine before, but this was really delicious. Rich and creamy, as good risotto should be, but with a punch from the sausage meat and fennel. Yum!

Sausage, fennel and red wine risotto
Delicious magazine - May 2007
Serves 4

1L (4 cups) vegetable or chicken stock
1 tbs olive oil
50g unsalted butter
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 tsp fennel seeds
4 skinned pork sausages
2 tbsp tomato paste
small bunch of thyme, leaves picked
1 1/2 cups (330g) arborio or carnaroli rice
150ml red wine
75g parmesan, grated
baby rocket leaves and extra parmesan, shaved, to serve

Place the vegetable or chicken stock in a small saucepan and keep at a low simmer.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil and half the butter in a large, wide, non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until softened. Add the fennel seeds and stir until fragrant. Add the chopped sausage meat, tomato paste and thyme leaves and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until meat is browned. Add the rice and stir for 1 minute to coat the grains in the butter. Pour in the wine and cook for 2 minutes or until the liquid is absorbed.

Add a ladleful of stock to the rice and stir continuously until absorbed. Continue adding the stock, 1 ladleful at a time, stirring frequently and making sure the stock is absorbed before adding the next ladleful, until the rice is al dente. This will take about 20 minutes (you may not need all the stock). Sir in the remaining butter, cover and set aside for 2 minutes.

To serve, stir in the grated parmesan and season to taste with sea salt and black pepper. Divide risotto among plates and top with rocket leaves and shaved parmesan.

The not-so-humble potato

2009-05-20T21:09:00.011+01:00

The Jersey Royal potato is all the rage in England at the moment. It is a type of potato only grown in Jersey in the UK, its uniqueness confirmed by being one of the few vegetables in the UK to have PDO (Protection of Designation of Origin) status.

We tried them for the first time about a week ago with pan-fried salmon and English asparagus and almost immediately went back for more, this time for a Jersey Royal, Leek and Goat's Cheese Frittata.

Who knew a potato could taste so good and so different from others of its kind? The Jersey Royals had a creamy texture and real flavour. They truly shone in both of these dishes. Jersey Royals apparently last for only a few short months, so I can see some intensive potato eating in our immediate future . . .

Definitely a defining moment in our English culinary adventures!

Chargrilled Salmon with asparagus in a lime vinaigrette
From Delicious magazine - June 2009
Serves 4

Even apart from the amazing potatoes, this was a really delicious dish. Quite quick and easy to make (takes about 30 minutes), but really fresh and packed with flavour. Importantly though - not too much flavour! I was a bit worried about the ingredients in the vinaigrette being overwhelmingly strong, but mixed together and then with the asparagus and the potatoes (I threw everything in the dressing), it mellowed beautifully.

500g new potatoes, halved (Jersey Royals if you can get them)
4 x 125g salmon fillets, with skin
Olive oil
250g asparagus, halved lengthways and cut into 3cm lengths
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Grated zest and juice of 1/2 lime
2 tbsp drained capers, chopped
1 small garlic clove, crushed
1 tbsp finely chopped flatleaf parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped tarragon

1. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water until tender. Drain and return to the pan to keep warm.

2. Heat a griddle pan over a medium-high heat. Rub the salmon fillets with oil and season. Cook skin-side down for 3-4 minutes until crisp. Turn and cook for a further 2-3 minutes or until just cooked.

3. Meanwhile, cook the asparagus in a pan of boiling salted water for 1-2 minutes until tender. Drain, refresh in cold water, then toss with the remaining ingredients and season.

4. Divide the salmon among plates, top with the asparagus mixture and serve with the potatoes.

Jersey Royal, Leek and Goat's Cheese Frittata with tomato vinaigrette
From Delicious - June 2009
Serves 4

350g Jersey Royal or new potatoes, scrubbed
30g butter
3 tbsp sunflower oil
200g young, thin leeks, sliced and washed
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
6 large free-range eggs, beaten
150g chevre blanc goat's cheese, skinned and crumbled

For the Tomato Vinaigrette
4 tbsp olive oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
250g tomatoes, chopped and cored
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp white wine vinegar

1. For the vinaigrette, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a pan and add the garlic. When it starts to sizzle, stir and add the tomatoes and sugar. Season well and cook for 4 minutes over a high heat.

2. Cool slightly, then transfer to a food processor and whizz to a puree. Pass through a sieve set over a bowl. Whisk in the vinegar and the remaining olive oil. Set aside.

3. Cook the potatoes in a pan of boiling salted water for 10-20 minutes, depending on their size. Drain, then slice. In a large ovenproof frying pan (about 24cm), melt the butter with the oil over a medium heat. Add the leeks and cook until softened. Mix in the potatoes.

4. Preheat the grill to high. Mix the parsley into the eggs and season. Pour over the leeks and potatoes, then crumble over the cheese. Cook for 4 minutes over a medium heat until it firms up around the sides. Grill for 3 minutes until puffed up. Serve hot or cold with the vinaigrette.

Sake Tasting

2009-05-19T19:01:00.004+01:00

After reading about the Sake Tasting at Tsuru on the Food Stories blog recently, I broached the topic with a few of the girls at work, who were - to my surprise - really excited by the idea. We booked ourselves in for the next tasting on the 12 May and looked forward to what promised to be an unusual tasting event.

I have to admit - I was a 'Sake Virgin', as our host Ngaire Takani deemed us, so wasn't quite sure what to expect. We tried four different Sakes (and were fortunately given some notes), two by a brewer called Akashi-tai and two by a brewer called Sawanohana, who is apparently trialling their product in the UK on us guinea pigs. Considering how low in alcohol sake is (15-17%), I found it tasted very strong. I don't drink spirits generally and this definitely reminded me of sipping a spirit more than a wine.

Along with our sake, we ate edamame beans, marinated chicken skewers, potsticker dumplings, three types of sushi and an incredibly rich chocolate brownie. The food was all excellent, very fresh and full of flavour.

Unfortunately, I guess, while Ngaire was incredibly knowledgeable and the cause of promoting sake is an admirable one, I didn't really enjoy it that much and probably won't rush out to buy any. That being said, it was an excellent night, the food was great, the drinks were drinkable and educational and I would highly recommend both the Sake Tasting and the restaurant itself.

Tsuru
4 Canvey Street
London
SE1 9AN

Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni

2009-05-19T18:22:00.010+01:00

I have been trying to cook more vegetarian food lately. Not for any great political or health reason, but just because it seems like a good thing to do and a way to create more variety in what we eat.

I remembered Jamie Oliver cooking this Incredible Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni on the Jamie at Home TV series and as he is wont to do, he raved about how much everyone - meat eaters included - would love this dish. I must admit, if it wasn't a JO recipe (his recipes are consistently good), I doubt I would ever have tried this. I mean, mushed up cauliflower and broccoli? Doesn't really jump out at you, does it!

But Jamie comes through again, ever reliable. It was a reasonably easy, if somewhat time-consuming dish to make, but as it was a Sunday, I enjoyed pottering around the kitchen to create a really yummy end result.

The broccoli and cauliflower are boiled and then pan-fried for about 20 minutes with lots of garlic, anchovies (okay, not 100% vegetarian), chillies and thyme.

When they are soft, they are mashed up and cooled and then piped into cannelloni tubes. The mixture doesn't look particularly good, but was actually quite tasty. It would probably make a nice dip or spread on crostini at this stage.

The sauces are passata, plus a 'quick white sauce' of creme fraiche and parmesan. A whole bunch of basil goes on top with lots of mozzarella and more parmesan before it is all baked into a steaming, cheesy, enormous dish of pasta. It is quite funny - cauliflower and broccoli are hardly the most flavoursome ingredients in the world, so you get the impression that everything else has been chosen to pack as much flavour in as possible. Oh, did I mention it is probably the most fattening dish I've made in a while with all that cheese and creme fraiche?

But never mind that, it was super tasty, quite unusual and made so much, that we were eating it for days! I served it with watercress dressed in lemon juice and olive oil, which also deserves a mention. Watercress is another one of those very British ingredients I read about all the time and my fruit & vegie shop finally had some. Bit disappointing after all the hype, actually - just tasted like random salad leaf. You win some, you lose some . . .

Incredible Baked Cauliflower and Broccoli Cannelloni
From Jamie at Home
Serves 4 to 6 (or 2 for a very long time!)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
500g broccoli, washed, florets and stalks chopped
500g white cauliflower, washed, florets and stalks chopped
olive oil
7 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
a small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
25g tin of best quality anchovies in oil, drained and chopped, oil reserved
2-3 small dried chillies, crumbled
500ml passata
red wine vinegar
500ml creme fraiche
200g Parmesan cheese, finely grated
16 cannelloni tubes
a small bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked
200g mozzarella cheese
extra virgin olive oil
salad leaves (Jamie says rocket, we used watercress)
1 lemon

Preheat the oven to 190C. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil and drop in the chopped broccoli and cauliflower. Boil for 5 to 6 minutes, until cooked, then drain in a colander, reserving the cooking water.

Heat a wide saucepan, pour in a couple of good glugs of olive oil and add the garlic. Fry for a few seconds, then add the thyme leaves, anchovies, anchovy oil and chillies and continue frying for a few seconds more before adding the cooked broccoli and cauliflower with around 4 tablespoons of the reserved cooking water. Stir everything together, put a lid on the pan leaving a little gap, and cook slowly for 15 to 20 minutes, sitrring regularly. Remove the lid for the last 5 minutes to let the moisture evaporate, then use a potato mashed to crush the veg. Take the saucepan off the heat, taste the vegetables and season carefully with salt and pepper.

Spread the mixture on a baking tray to cool. Meanwhile, get yourself another baking dish or roasting tray (the right size for fitting the cannelloni tubes snugly side by side - test this by actually laying the tubes into the dish, then remove them and put to one side) and pour in the passata with a pinch of salt and a swig of red wine vinegar.

Now, to make a really quick and easy white sauce, mix the creme fraiche with half the Parmesan, a sprinkling of salt and pepper and a little of the reserved cooking water to thin it down.

Spoon your cooled broccoli and cauliflower mixture into a large sandwich bag and cut off the corner. Twist the top of the bag and squeeze it to pipe the filling into the cannelloni tubes. Fill the tubes up and place then in a single layer on top of the passata. Lay the basil leaves over the cannelloni and spoon the white sauce evenly over the top. Season with black pepper, sprinkle over the remaining Parmesan and tear over the mozzarella. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until golden and bubbling on top.

Dress the salad leaves with a squeeze of lemon juice and about three times as much extra virgin olive oil. Serve the cannelloni with the salad (Jamie suggests crusty bread as well, but we didn't need it).

Homemade Dim Sum

2009-05-10T16:22:00.009+01:00

The Asian food cravings continue and this time I decided to try and make my own Dim Sum. I found an Asian supermarket on Seven Sisters Road recently - about 20 minutes walk away, so close enough to support any significant Asian food shopping requirements.

My Dim Sum menu was:

I have never made dumplings before, so it was a 'fingers-crossed' dish, but both turned out well. It was a bit time-consuming to make, but my always helpful kitchen hand and I managed to make about 30 odd dumplings without really knowing what we were doing and amazingly, they all held together! The dumplings are fried for a couple of minutes (the 'potsticker' part of the name) and then effectively steamed in the frying pan with a bit of water until cooked through. This is such a great way of cooking dumplings as you get a real contrast of textures - crispy on one side and soft and chewy on the other. You also don't need any fancy equipment, although this meal did necessitate the use of literally every pan and plate we own!

The dumplings tasted pretty authentic, I think! The prawn dumplings benefited from the strong flavour of the coriander, so stood out more than the pork dumplings, but both were really enjoyable.

The chilli salt squid was also a new one for me. I have always been a bit nervous about deep-frying, but after a successful first attempt with some corn fritters a few weeks ago, I was excited to give this a try. It was quite a simple recipe - squid coated in seasoned cornflour, deep-fried and tossed with salt, pepper, chilli, coriander, spring onion and fried garlic. But it was absolutely delicious. I really like calamari and this was fresh and full of flavour with a really great texture. My only complaint is that it got a bit cold while cooking the squid in batches.

Finally, in the spirit of eating the occasional vegetable, I used a Nigel Slater recipe for asian vegetables in oyster sauce. This was the easy part of the meal with the chinese broccoli and pak choy boiled and mixed into a sauce of sauteed garlic and ginger with oyster sauce. Simple, but tasty. The only problem was that the leaves were full of water, so after they were drained and the sauce mixed in, heaps more water came out and diluted the sauce. Next time, more emphasis on draining!

I am really quite proud of this meal - a few new techniques, lots going on and some serious timing concerns, but it all turned out pretty well. Dim Sum (or Yum Cha) is probably one of those things that you're just better off going out for, but it is nice to know you can do it yourself, if you want to (if you can be bothered!).

Prawn and Chilli potsticker dumplings
New Entertaining (Donna Hay)
This recipe makes 30 dumplings - I made half.

500g green (raw) prawn meat, finely chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 tablespoon shredded galangal or ginger
1 tablespoon chopped coriander leaves
1 tablespoon chilli jam (I used sweet chilli sauce)
2 tablespoons Chinese cooking wine
1 tablespoon soy sauce
30 round wonton wrappers
1 tablespoon cornflour
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup vegetable or fish stock (I just used water)

Combine prawns, shallots, galangal, coriander, chilli jam, wine and soy sauce in a bowl. Place 1 tablespoon of mixture onto each wonton wrapper. Mix cornflour and water to for a smooth paste and brush edges of wonton wrapper with paste. Fold wrapper in half, gather up edges like a fan and squeeze with fingertips to enclose filling.

Heat oil in a frypan over high heat. Add dumplings and fry bases until they are golden. Add stock (or water) and cover frypan. Allow dumplings to steam in stock for 3-4 minutes or until tender. Remove lid and allow stock to evaporate. Ensure bases of dumplings are crisp. Remove dumplings from pan and serve immediately with extra chilli jam.

The Ginger Pig, Brighton (9.5/10)

2009-05-06T21:19:00.013+01:00

The Ginger Pig was recommended to us by some local Brighton-ians (?) at dinner the previous night. They were pretty confident about it, so despite having a rather large full english breakfast at the lovely B & B we stayed at, we decided to go there for lunch before heading back to London.

The Ginger Pig is at the other end of Brighton from the Brighton Pier and is just past the lovely coloured huts, well a bit further past than you might think. We walked back and forth and back and forth, thinking we must have missed the street. So if you're going, keep going, it's further than you think.

I started with a glass of local Sussex English sparkling wine called Bloomsbury, which was excellent, reminiscent of champagne with a yeasty taste and plenty of bubbles. It wasn't cheap (6.50) a glass, but it was very good and it was great to see an English sparkling wine by the glass on the menu. Kyle had a Sussex Best ale, which he also enjoyed.

The Ginger Pig is classic gastro-pub. It is all very wooden and natural looking (although amazingly the chairs match, which is unusual for gastropubs) and has a pretty cool rotating door. There is a specific restaurant section, but as we got there so early, we had sat on the pub side. They were happy for us to stay there for lunch though, and as soon as we said we wanted to order, brought menus, bread (really good sourdough) and olive oil and set the table for lunch.

The menu was daily and seasonal and there was also quite a few specials on the blackboard in the restaurant (a bit of a pain when seated in the pub section).

We started with a chicken liver pate with pear chutney and toasted sourdough to share. The pate was rich and creamy and a lovely colour pink in the middle. The pear chutney cut through the richness perfectly, being sweet with just a hint of mustard at the back of the throat. It was a pretty significant serving of pate, but could have done with more toast and chutney. I love chicken liver pate anyway, but this was delicious.

We were still so full from breakfast, that we decided to order starters as mains as well. I chose the crayfish risotto, which was also quite a reasonable size portion. The risotto was so creamy, it was almost as if they had added cream or creme fraiche to it! The crayfish taste was subtle but very tasty. I really enjoyed this. Kyle chose from the specials board what was described as a salad of suckling pork, fennel, apple and black pudding. I think this description really undersold this dish as it was not really a salad. It was, however, a brilliant combination of ingredients - meltingly tender pork, crumbly, well-seasoned black pudding with an uncredited piece of roasted fig and the 'salad' part of fennel and apple. Really good and it looked beautiful on the plate. I also couldn't resist trying some of the dripping chips, which were excellent - thick, super-crispy coating and fluffy on the inside.

Despite being insanely full already, I had already spotted the rhubarb and custard tart on the dessert menu. I have already explained my fascination with rhubarb so I couldn't really pass this by. As it turns out, the rhubarb was a barely noticeable thin layer underneath the heavenly light custard filling. The pastry was a little soggy, but that just made it easier to leave behind. The filling was worth it.

We didn't actually see a full wine list, but just ordered a glass of Argentian Malbec-Shiraz from the blackboard. I would also rave about the service, which was friendly and efficient. Nothing was too much trouble and they had no problem with us ordering starters as mains.

All in all, this was a brilliant restaurant. For the quality of the food, it was very well-priced. We may have only had starters, but it was quite a lot of food in the end and cost less than 30 pounds including a decent tip (there was no service charge). Highly, highly recommended. So even though the previous night's dinner was pretty average, it was worth it to have had a recommendation to The Ginger Pig.

Food - 9.5/10
Service - 9.5/10
Wine - 8.5/10
Ambience - 8/10
Overall - 9.5/10

The Ginger Pig
3 Hove Street
Hove (Brighton)
East Sussex BN3 2TR

A boring dinner at the Gallery Restaurant (6/10)

2009-05-06T21:08:00.006+01:00

We weren't very organised on the Sunday night in Brighton and the first two places we tried to go to for dinner were booked out. We ended up at the Gallery Restaurant, which looked pretty cool. It was a converted townhouse, so had lots of little nooks where the tables were scattered around.

Bad start - our table hadn't been cleared from the previous guests and we had to ask for it to be done (and then give the waiter some hints on how to use the spray and wipe!).

I decided on the scallops to start and Kyle went with wild mushrooms and stilton on brioche. The scallops were tiny and bland, the other dish was cheese on toast.

And quite frankly, from that point, we pretty much gave up. Kyle ordered a seafood pasta for main and I had duck fillet with avocado salsa. All pretty boring and blah, blah, blah . . .

The only thing that redeemed the night, was that we ended up chatting with the other couple in our little nook (well, commiserating over the boring, disappointing food really) and they recommended a place for our lunch the next day. Lunch at The Ginger Pig will form the basis of a separate post . . .

Food - 5/10
Service - 6/10
Wine - 7/10
Ambience - 6/10
Overall - 6/10

The Gallery Restaurant
28 East Street Brighton BN11HL

Brighton rocks!

2009-05-05T21:31:00.004+01:00

Apparently, the thing to eat by the English seaside is not ice-cream, it's not watermelon, it is . . . rock. What??

Rock is basically just really hard boiled sugar candy, as far as I can tell. This one was pineapple flavoured, but a little bland. Crunchy, sticky, sticks to your teeth. Odd beachside tradition, but perhaps inspired by the beach?

Deep-fry by the seashore in Brighton

2009-05-05T21:04:00.005+01:00

Brighton has long been on the list of places to visit in the UK, so we headed there for the last two days of the first May Bank Holiday weekend. The weather was, at best, patchy and largely just cold, but the place was pretty crowded.

After a marathon and unpleasant bus trip down (never again), we finally found ourselves at a pub about to partake in some deep-fry. The standard would, of course, be fish and chips, but it was already nearly 3pm and the thought of fish and chips didn't really appeal. But as a close second, whitebait, calamari and chips (with some salad to minimise the deep-fry guilt).

To be honest, it was actually pretty good. Washed down with a couple of coronas by the English seaside, wrapped up in coats and scarves . . . aaahhh! And of course, watching the interesting Brighton population wander past.

Asparagus Dip

2009-05-05T20:48:00.003+01:00

I really do love the seasonality of food in the UK. It seems every week there is a new food-to-be-eating-right-now and the food to be eating right now is asparagus. Well specifically English asparagus, but beggars can't be choosers.

I came across this recipe for asparagus dip and it seemed a good way to embrace the food of the minute. It was actually a really nice, healthy starter and the asparagus was most certainly star of the show. I am keeping an eye out for English asparagus, so there maybe more asparagus in the future.

Asparagus Dip
For the dip:

5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bundle asparagus
6 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For dipping:

2 bundles of British asparagus for dipping

1. Snap the woody ends off all 3 bundles of asparagus and wash in a sink full of cold water to remove any soil and grit.
2. Steam for approximately 8 - 10 minutes until tender.
3. Set aside 2 bundles for dipping.
4. Place a single bundle into a blender with the chopped garlic, yoghurt and salt and pepper. Blend until smooth.
5. Serve with the 2 bundles of asparagus spears.

Wild Honey (7.5/10)

2009-04-26T21:20:00.008+01:00

Aunt Victoria and Uncle Patrick were in London from Australia this week. Of course, that means I have to come up with a restaurant idea (the thought of cooking mid-week in our small flat was immediately dismissed). Always tricky to balance a number of considerations - type of food, style of restaurant, price point. It seemed to me that it would be nice to do something 'British' as we are, after all, in Britain and the next day was the English national Day, St George's Day.

So after reading some good reviews (such as on London Eater, who named it his 'eat' of 2008), I decided upon Wild Honey. Good quality British food, good ingredients well executed, impressive wine list, reasonable price, centrally located. Ticked all the boxes.

No photos this time, unfortunately, but bear with me . . .

I started with a warm salad of purple sprouting broccoli, goat's curd and smoked pork belly. Purple broccoli is one of those ingredients I see around a lot, but my fruit and vegie shop doesn't have any, so we don't get it. In actual fact, it isn't all that exciting. It tasted just like broccolini, but looked a little brown at the top. The salad was nice enough but nothing really amazing. Kyle, however, had the warm smoked eel, beetroot tart and horseradish which was exceptional. Really delicious. Neither of us had ever tried eel before, but I am now definitely keen to go again. Rick, smoky, oily fish cut through with the horseradish on a crunchy pastry base. Yum. This turned out to be the highlight of the night.

For main, I had the slow cooked English veal 'blanquette'. I didn't really know what this would be but Wikepedia now provides this handy and approriate description. After two guilt-enducing veal meals in Venice, I thought I would attempt to redeem myself by having some more 'animal-friendly' English veal. The dish was very pleasant - the veal was tender and flavoursome and the accompanying vegetables of baby leek and cabbage were tasty. The dish was served in an attractive copper pot, but with a plate that you had to dish it into yourself. Erm . . . what is the point of this please? Kyle's main was the soft polenta with portobello mushrooms, pecorino and olive oil. It was fine.

To finish, we shared some cheese. Wild Honey has a proper cheese board in the French cheese trolley style. Kyle chose the cheeses for us and they included a Comte, Brie de Meaux, a blue and another smoky style French cheese (can't really recall the details). They came with some crackers, grapes and honey. The cheeses were all good served at the perfect temperature and the honey was a nice, location-appropriate touch.

My expectations of Wild Honey were very high, I will admit. So it is possible that is why I thought it was just okay. It wasn't cheap, but I wasn't expecting cheap, I was expecting excellent food. The service was quite good (the two girls on the door were in particular very friendly and passionate about the restaurant) but a little patchy at times. The wine list was very long and there were a lot of choices by the glass (250ml carafe). In the end, we chose a bottle of Cotes du Rhone, which was nice enough.

Ultimately, I feel like I missed something. I probably wouldn't go back due to the 'lots of restaurants in London' issue and maybe that's a shame. It wasn't an embarrasing restaurant to have taken people too, but I was kinda hoping for something wow, you know?

Food: 7/10
Wine: 8/10
Service: 8/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 7.5/10

Wild Honey
12 St George Street
London W1S 2FB

DIY Thai

2009-04-20T20:45:00.007+01:00

I have been craving Asian food recently. Perhaps it is the hint of Summer in the air, perhaps it is an excess of British food, but I decided I had to cook some sort of Asian meal this weekend. And if you're going to cook an Asian meal, why not make it a Thai feast?

We started with Pork Larb in Little Gem Lettuce cups. This was really tasty - lots of typical Thai flavours, such as chilli, fish sauce, lime juice, mint and coriander, so was packed with flavour. The lettuce made for a refreshing almost juicy contrast and the toasted ground rice (something I have never had before) provided perfect crunchy texture. Fun to eat, good to look at and tasty to boot, this is a great starter.

Main was Noodle, Chicken and Aubergine Laksa. I'm not a huge fan of laksa, but this really appealed and was also delicious. The red curry paste we used could have been stronger (or we could have used more) and we added some dried chilli flakes to boost the heat. The chicken was meltingly tender, the aubergine sweet and soft and the fresh basil really leapt out of the dish. This could have changed my mind about laksa.

After all this richness, a light dessert was all that was needed, so the Fresh Pineapple with crushed mint and lime sugar was perfect. It really was just fruit +. Unfortunately, I made the mint and lime sugar a bit too far in advance so it went a bit brown and clumpy, but still tasted good. Seeing as this takes, oh, 30 seconds to make, there is really no need for advance preparation.

I was very pleased with my Thai feast - lots of strong, fresh flavours and some really different dishes (for me, anyway). Unfortunately - or is that fortunately? - I still don't think it has cured my Asian food cravings. Stay tuned . . .

Braised artichoke pasta

2009-04-20T20:08:00.007+01:00

If the magazines have been inundating me with roast lamb recipes, it seems the bloggers choice for must-cook food of the moment is artichokes. In the last few weeks, I have read about artichokes here, here and here, among others. And then there was the posting from Smitten Kitchen for Artichokes braised in lemon and olive oil. Smitten Kitchen appears to be becoming my favourite source of new and unusual recipes. Her style of writing and photography is readable, pleasant to look at, passionate and practical and this recipe certainly demonstrates those characteristics.

So artichokes had been on my mind and when I saw a pile at the fruit and vegie store on Saturday, I was vaguely interested. They were pretty second hand looking - if Deb thought hers were rough, they had nothing on these - but they offered them to me for free (I did say they weren't great!), so it seemed a good opportunity to practice on this intimidating and complicated vegetable.

I have only ever tried to cook an artichoke once before and it was a dismal failure - I had no idea what I was doing and ended up throwing the artichoke away. Deb's pictures were so helpful and the method of cooking them first and then removing the choke made life much easier. Still, we were surprised at how much of the artichoke is thrown away. We had quite a production line going between us, but this is still a high-maintenance vegetable - it took nearly two hours to cook this. Our lunch of artichoke pasta was quite late in the end!

And they are lovely, very mild flavoured and absolutely not remotely similar to bought artichokes. Unfortunately, the effort to result ratio is a little distorted, so I don't think I would do this all that often.

The Dervish, Stoke Newington (6.5/10)

2009-04-19T18:47:00.006+01:00

The Dervish is a Turkish restaurant in Stoke Newington and is quite attractive with myriad different coloured latterns hanging from the ceiling. The restaurant was a third full at best on a Saturday night, but the Turkish music and dim lighting ensured a certain amount of atmosphere.

The menu was pretty standard Turkish fare - meat, kebabs, grill. The difficulty with Turkish restaurants is that the main meals all seem pretty similar and for me, the variety and action is all in the appetizers. So it was at The Dervish.

We ordered the mixed Meze to start, which comprised a broad bean salad, black-eyed bean salad, couscous salad, potato salad, roasted aubergine, houmous, a youghurt dip, felafel and borek. Almost everything on this was quite nice, fresh ingredients and quite a few different tastes despite how similar everything sounds. It was served with bread, which was quite disappointing - Turkish bread is a favourite of mine and this was pretty dull.

Kyle's main was spicy Turkish sausage with pita bread, yoghurt and 'special sauce'. My main was grilled lamb cubes with . . . pita bread, yoghurt and 'special sauce'. So, yes, they tasted pretty much the same. The sausage was reminiscent of chorizo and the lamb was like a nice piece of barbecued meat. While you can't complain about any of this, it wasn't all that special.

They didn't have the wine we selected, so we just went for the house red, an Italian Merlot, which was quite nice.

Service started well but then really fell off towards the end. I was going to get dessert but by the time they finally came back, I couldn't be bothered. Considering the restaurant was pretty empty, there isn't really an excuse for that.

All in all, The Dervish was okay, but considering how many Turkish restaurants there are in the area, I wouldn't bother again.

Food: 6/10
Wine: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 6.5/10

The Dervish
15 Stoke Newington Church Street
London, N16 0NX

TV Filming of Food Fight

2009-04-19T18:30:00.003+01:00

Second super blurry photo of the week! This one is the TV set of the new Channel 4 show Food Fight, which we went to the studio audience for this week. Last time I did this, I vowed never to go again. As entry is not guaranteed, you queue for two hours in the cold before finally being let into the studio. Last time we saw the 'comedy' show Argumental, which really wasn't very funny, but when the offer of seeing a food show came along, I found myself tempted once more.

The wait was awful, no doubt. Luckily, the show was quite good. It was hosted by Sue Perkins (we saw her with Giles Coren in a show where they ate the food from the Second World war) and she was absolutely hilarious, really made it. Team captains were Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (looks exactly the same as on TV) and Ruth Jones (apparently she opened the first UK gastropub) and guests were Neil Morissey and Fay Ripley (from Cold Feet).

The show is basically showing off their foodie knowledge and was reasonably interesting, but not earth-shattering. I'm not sure how it will present on TV, but Sue Perkins is probably good enough to carry it.

Bill Granger cooks for Delicious

2009-04-19T18:14:00.004+01:00

Delicious magazine is apparently running monthly cooking demonstrations in conjunction with Waterstones bookshop. This month the Aussie with the teeth, Bill Granger (yes, that blur is Bill), was doing a demonstration at Waterstones Piccadilly. They have a brilliant demonstration theatre with a full kitchen and mirrors above the benches so you can see a reflection of the demonstration. It was quite a small crowd, perhaps 70 people, so was a lovely intimate atmosphere.

Bill is as relaxed as you'd expect, but is a little more . . . erm, masculine in person. And those teeth - impressive! He cooked four dishes from his new book, Feed Me Now:

Chocolate coconut slice
Marinated chicken wings with satay sauce
Hotcakes with caramelised bananas
Curried prawn stirfry

His recipes are all very simple, aimed as they are at busy Mums mostly! I'm not really in this category at the moment, so didn't buy the book. It was a lovely looking book, well laid out with easy to read recipes. Topics covered include family suppers, breakfasts, comfort foods, food for friends.

Overall, the event was very worthwhile and it is worth keeping an eye out for future similar events. It cost 6 pounds and included 1 1/2 hour cooking demonstration, a glass of wine, a Delicious bag, this month's Delicious magazine (which I already had) and a Bodem 6 cup coffee plunger (we have a coffee machine). Lovely gifts but fairly useless for me. Still, my friends all got some lovely freebies this week!

Roast beef sandwiches

2009-04-19T18:10:00.003+01:00

Inspired by the leftover onion gravy from the Easter roast lamb and also by the steak sandwich from Smiths of Smithfields, we made these awesome sandwiches with roast beef from the butcher, rocket, parmesan and onion gravy on granary bread. Really, really good!

Roast lamb for Easter

2009-04-19T17:59:00.006+01:00

In the weeks leading up to the Easter long weekend, I was bombarded with magazine articles and emails about roast lamb. Clearly it is the thing to eat over Easter in the UK. So, as an Australian eating in London, I felt a certain obligation to follow the trend.

I'm not a big cooker of roasts. I have a habit of overcooking them, perhaps because I buy smaller ones for less people, but I generally find it all a bit disappointing. So it was with some trepidation that I selected my leg of lamb from the butcher on Easter Saturday.

With the recent mint sauce triumph in Venice in mind, I also decided to make a mint sauce. I selected a recipe from UKTV Food, which seemed appropriate.

I have to say, I was pretty happy with how this turned out. I ignored all instincts to keep it in for longer and it was a lovely rosy pink colour. I served it with goose-fat roasted potatoes, beans, the mint sauce and an onion gravy. The mint sauce tasted nice, but the one in Venice must have been boiled and reduced to be as thick and sticky as it was. I'll have to try again.

Happy Easter!

The other St Johns - Archway, North London (9/10)

2009-04-12T11:35:00.021+01:00

It is interesting sometimes the random methods you use to choose a restaurant. This would have to be one of the more convoluted examples. In October last year, we spent half an hour in a 4WD hurtling through the Wadi Rum in Jordan with a guy called John. We had one of those standard conversations you have with someone that you will only spend such a short amount of time with.

John: "So, where are you guys from?"
Us: "Australia, but we're living in London at the moment."
"Oh yeah? Whereabouts?"
"North London, Highbury."
"Ever been to a pub in Archway called St Johns?"
"No, we've been to St Johns in Clerkenwell? Archway is on our number 4 bus route though."
"My brother is the owner (chef? Little hazy on the details), its really good."
"Cool, we'll have to go one day."
[Everyone returns to staring out the windows at the endless sand dunes broken up by a few rocks and camels]

Fast forward six months and we're standing out the front of The Olive Tree, a Greek restaurant just around the corner from us. They've apparently just won Best Family Restaurant in the Islington Gazette Restaurant Awards and the window is covered in promotional blurb about the awards. So later at home, we try to find more information about it on the Gazette's web site, but no luck. We did, however, come across a review for the Lord Palmerston Pub in Archway (still not there, but soon, I promise), which sounded good, but looked a bit dodgy in the photos. Further googling of this pub brought up a reference to another pub also in Archway. Yes, we've made it - St John's. Distant alarm bells rang back to that conversation in the desert and we decided to give it a go. I did say it was convoluted.

We reserved a table for a Saturday night and were told we had a two-hour time limit. I can understand for the restaurant why they do it, but I do find time limits annoying. Eating out is supposed to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience, not a clock-watching one. That's work.

Anyway, we arrived a bit early to have a drink in the bar. The pub was absolutely nothing special from the outside, but on the inside was strongly reminiscent of other London gastropubs we've been to, such as The Eagle in Farringdon and The Westbourne near Notting Hill. There seems to be some gastropub rule where the furniture has to be as plain, rustic and as mis-matched as possible.

We started with a pint of Pride for Kyle and a glass of Cava for me and then decided to sample one of those strange British culinary creations - the Scotch Egg. I've been interested in trying one since reading the Dos Hermanos blog. This being my first Scotch Egg, I can't really say whether it was a good example or not, but it is certainly bizarre. A hard-boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, coated in breadcrumbs and deep-fried. The strangest part is that it is served cold, so it is really quite stodgy and heavy. None of the ingredients screamed flavour so the accompanying salt and pepper and mustard took over. Not the greatest thing I've ever eaten, but it certainly looked interesting!

After this not so light appetizer, we moved into the restaurant proper, which was a much fancier, high-ceilinged room decorated with a clutter of drawings and paintings (unfortunately it was also a lot darker, so the photos are pretty bad from here on in). We were immediately presented with some delicious chewy bread, unfortunately let down by another one of my restaurant pet hates, unsalted butter. I mean, what's the point? It tastes like nothing. Luckily that lovely salt came in handy again.

The wine list was quite extensive with a strong leaning towards French and Spanish wines. About 8 whites and reds were available by the small glass (125ml), 1/2L carafe or full bottle as well as another 15 or so just by the bottle. We ordered a bottle of Guelbenzo, a Spanish wine comprised of about seven grape varieties, including syrah, tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon and a few others I hadn't heard of. It was surprisingly light in taste considering the dark colour, but had a wonderful dry finish from lots of tannins.

We had seen the menu already in the bar, which was quite good, as in the restaurant they only had it on a blackboard, that was quite hard to read. It was a daily menu, which always seems a good sign to me, that you will have fresh seasonal ingredients. This was supported by another blackboard listing the provenence of a number of ingredients. There was a surprisingly heavy weighting towards fish (4 out of 9 mains) and as we had been eating more fish pie than we care to mention all weekend, neither of us were that keen to go fishy again.

I decided to try the Cheddar, pea and wild garlic tart to start. I have been reading a lot about wild garlic at the moment - apparently you can find it growing anywhere all over England, but perhaps not in North London. My little fruit and vegie store also doesn't stock it, so I was keen to give it a go. The pastry of the tart was excellent - buttery and crumbly. The filling was also good with only a very mild taste of garlic and lovely texture from the burst of baby peas (frozen, I assume?).

Kyle's starter was scallops with black pudding and asparagus veloute. The scallops were quite small, but did come with the roe on, which Kyle enjoyed. The scallop/black pudding thing seems to be quite a fashionable Masterchef combination but did work well.

As an Australian eating in London, one of the things I don't have very often here is steak. It is generally very expensive and without a barbecue as home, I rarely cook it either. So when I saw a good old Rib Eye and chips on the menu, it seemed like a good option. I asked for the steak medium-rare and it was beautifully cooked with a lovely charred flavour (Oh, I do miss barbecue). Unfortunately, there was quite a lot of fat that hadn't quite rendered out, so it was a little stringy in places, but otherwise tender and delicious. The chips were big and fat, perfectly crunchy on the outside and fluffy on the inside. The steak was served with a traditional bearnase sauce, which was quite mild (the charred steak flavour overpowered the sauce) and a woefully inadequate amount.

Kyle's main was a pork chop served with chorizo, beans and kale. The beans and kale in the slightly sweet sauce were delicious, but the chorizo was quite tough and the pork chop, while well-cooked and tender, was somewhat drowned out by the other strong flavours in the dish.

The dessert menu included quite traditional British desserts, such as Bakewell tart, cheesecake and chocolate fondant. There was also a selection of six British and French cheeses at 2.50 pounds each, which I thought was a great idea for serving cheeses. From this list, Kyle chose a Reblochon Fermier, a soft mould ripened cow's milk cheese, and a Saint Maure de Touraine, a medium soft goat's cheese. The cheeses were served with crackers, chutney (which completely didn't go with these two cheeses) and oddly, half an apple and half a pear, just like that. The goat's cheese was the star - rich and creamy with a distinctive but not over-powering goat's cheese flavour.

I opted for the Chocolate Pot with Coffee Cream, which arrived looking like a cafe latte. It was the perfect end to the meal - intense, smooth chocolate, just the right side of rich that it didn't overwhelm.

We had such a lovely night at St John's. The food was proper gastropub, very traditional but with lovely seasonal fresh ingredients. The service was excellent all night and the atmosphere was great. They didn't end up kicking us out after two hours, which was good, but the restaurant was really busy the whole time - every table was full and a number did turn over twice. Good to see in these credit crunch times. Overall, top place, would definitely come back.

Food: 9/10
Wine: 8/10
Service: 9/10
Ambiance: 9/10
Overall: 9/10

St John's
91 Junction Road
London N19 5QU

Fish Pie with Prawns and Cheesy Leek Mash

2009-04-11T14:30:00.007+01:00

I had been faintly entertaining the idea of making that classic British dish - fish pie - since I saw a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall program where he was 'teaching' some non-cookers how to cook by making what looked like a very complicated recipe! He was obviously copying Jamie's thing, but I think he missed the point.

Anyway, so Fish Pie. I have never made a fish pie and as a concept I'm not even that excited by it (I have never ordered it at a restaurant for example), but for some bizarre reason, I really wanted to make one. I decided Good Friday would be a fitting occasion, seeing as I have this inexplicable religious hangover for eating fish on Good Friday even though I'm not religious and then I go and blow it anyway by eating chicken and pork at Dotori. Oh well, surely the thought counts and it is a good excuse for making the fish pie.

After much internet trawling, I settled on the recipe for Fish Pie with Prawns and Cheesy Leek Mash topping. I guess you could call this a traditional recipe with a bit of a twist (the twist being a few more calories in the cheesy mash). The recipe was a bit of a challenge for my small kitchen - I think we used almost every dish we own and every saucepan twice!

But in the end, we had a lovely layer of cod, smoked haddock, prawns and boiled eggs, over which to pour the sauce made from the milk the fish had simmered in. This was all topped by the cheesy-leek mash (which on its own was delicious) and then grilled until brown.

I did actually like the fish pie, but it was very rich and I think I over-salted it a little. I served it with just some simple peas and they were necessary for cutting through the richness. All the fish had nice bite and using prawns that I cooked instead of pre-cooked prawns gave them better flavour and texture, I think. The eggs are an unusual (although apparently typical) addition - it was always a bit of a surprise when you bit into the egg - and the mash was superb as a topping. It's not the prettiest food in the world, but all in all, I enjoyed this British classic although I don't think I will make it too often . . . all those calories!

Great new local restaurant - Dotori (8/10)

2009-04-10T16:24:00.011+01:00

I subscribe to the Time Out newsletter and give it a quick read every week to see if there is anything interesting happening. My interest was most piqued when I saw a restaurant in Finsbury Park in their Cheap Eats feature this week. The restaurant in question is Dotori and is less than 10 minutes walk from our flat. We went for lunch on Good Friday, a day that is as dead as Christmas Day in Brisbane, but seems quite buzzy here in London.

The restaurant looks very different to everything else around it. I mean, let's face it, the area around Finsbury Park Station is far from salubrious! Dotori is quite small but beautifully decorated with rice paper lanterns and bamboo on the walls. There was only one other couple in the restaurant when we arrived around 1pm, but by the time we left at 2pm, there was a queue. I think the Time Out coverage had been seen by quite a few locals!

They pretty much have two complete menus - a Korean and a Japanese. The Japanese was quite familiar, with sushi, sashimi, teriyaki and bento boxes. The Korean menu was all quite new to me. The waiter was fantastic. He recognised our indecision and offered a recommendation of the Korean Hot Pot, which I decided to go with. Kyle went with his original choice of Japanese Pork Katsu.

But first, we were given these salads. Now I realise this is just iceberg lettuce with some shavings of carrot and capsicum, but the dressing was amazing. Sweet, but salty and very moreish - I think it was probably soy and rice wine, maybe rice vinegar. I did ask what it is, but apparently it is the chef's secret. I wanted to drink the rest out of the bowl, but managed to restrain myself.

To start, we shared a plate of Crispy deep-fried dumplings, stuffed with chicken mince and served with a soy dipping sauce. The filling of these was a little bland, but the wrapping was perfect - light dough, crispy on the sides and they looked beautiful lined up on the plate!

My Hot Pot was really interesting. It was a mix of rice, seafood and raw vegetables (mushrooms, zucchini, carrots, beansprouts) that came in a really hot stone pot (hence the name!), which cooks the vegetables and keeps the dish super hot for ages. It looked so pretty when it arrived and then the waiter mixed the accompanying chilli sauce into it before I could take a photo. Oh well. This was a really tasty dish, very fresh ingredients and a nice amount of heat in the sauce (although I only used a small amount, but I guess that variability is good).

Kyle's dish of Katsu Donburi was described on the menu as Deep-fried pork in breadcrumbs and egg in special sauce. I don't know that I've ever really liked Katsu much, but it is normally served with a rich curry sauce and is all quite heavy. This one came with the 'special' sauce, which was light and really sweet (reminiscent of the salad dressing - more rice wine perhaps?) and was absolutely delicious and huge! The sticky sushi rice it came with was also excellent.

All of this came with Miso soup and we also tried Hite, a Korean beer, which was crisp and resfreshing - perfect with the mild spice of the hot pot in particular.

All of this came to a bargain 21 pounds, which for food of this quality and quantity is outstanding value. I really enjoyed this - the restaurant is lovely, the food was excellent and the service was friendly and helpful. There are also so many things on the menu I would like to try and it is only 10 minutes walk away! So, in summary, we will definitely go back. What a discovery! Good on Time Out.

Food: 8/10
Drinks: 6/10
Service: 9/10
Ambience: 8/10
Overall: 8/10

Dotori
3 Stroud Green Road
London, N4 2DF

Beef and Bean Burritos

2009-04-10T16:17:00.004+01:00

I have made these Beef and Bean Burritos before, but they are really easy and tasty and even seem reasonably healthy, so I thought they deserved a mention. Good mid-week meal.

Limoncello Strawberries

2009-04-10T16:14:00.003+01:00

I had quite high hopes for this dessert - Strawberries with basil and a Limoncello and sugar syrup and I guess it wasn't bad, but I don't think I'll make it again. It was more like a weak cocktail than a dessert!

Daffodils!

2009-04-10T16:10:00.002+01:00

These beautiful daffodils were a bargain at 2 pounds for 4 bunches! They look so 'Spring'!

Tonight we're having chicken . . . no, prawns

2009-04-10T15:37:00.012+01:00

So the plan was to make the Devil's Chicken Thighs with Braised Leeks from Smitten Kitchen on Saturday night. A nice slow-cooking dish when we didn't have any other plans on a Saturday. Somehow, though, it ended up being 8pm before I even realised (British Summer Time has started and it is light until so much later - it has really thrown me!).

I decided to persevere and as instructed, we started the Braised Leeks first. The leeks were pan-fried and then braised in the oven for 30 minutes with some shallots, white wine and chicken stock. All good ingredients and as promised, they looked and smelled amazing.

So the leeks were braising away when I turned to the chicken part of the recipe to read 'marinate for 4 hours or overnight'. Whoops! I do recall reading that part, but somehow it slipped my mind . . .

So with the leeks braised and the chicken marinating, in a rare spontaneous food moment, I decided to make Sunday's dinner on Saturday and vice-versa.

The plan for Sunday's dinner was to make something to go with the lone bottle of Riesling I have had for ages. I'll admit - I'm scared of Riesling. I imagine it to be sweet and quite gross actually. But it is so fashionable - you read about how fabulous it is everywhere. So I must have bought this bottle in an attempt to overcome my fear and all that has happened is it has sat there while cartons of wine have come and gone around it. So this was it. I chose a recipe for Spiced Shrimps with sautéed spinach.

It was a bit weird, to be honest. Strange sauce made with red capsicum, basil, garlic and lots of oil, so the whole dish was really oily - you can see it on the plate. The prawns in the chilli flour were not bad - they were a little crispy with a nice bit of heat, but overall, I don't think the dish really worked. If I did make it again (which is unlikely), I wouldn't serve the oil from the sauce - I would use a slotted spoon to just get the bits out.

So not only was the meal bad, but I also didn't find the Riesling all that crash hot. It was a Dona Isidora from Argentina and I did find it too sweet. It wasn't crisp like a Sauvignon Blanc or rounded like a Chardonnay. It was somehow fruity in a bad way. I'm not converted. But the hype must be about something, so I probably will try Riesling again.

Anyway, back to the chicken thighs and braised leeks. The original plan was to have the chicken on Saturday and then leftover leeks on Sunday. I decided to go with part B of that plan anyway, particularly since Deb raves about the leeks on their own.

She recommended serving them with all sorts of accompaniments, but we just had some nice ciabatta and butter and it was honestly enough. The leeks were, as advertised, divine. So much flavour for such a simple dish - this one is definitely repeatable.

And then finally, it was time for the chicken. Deb does admit that the recipe involves a lot of faffing - and she isn't exaggerating. So after marinating the chicken overnight with vermouth, onion, chilli and thyme, it is pan-fried until brown and crispy-skinned. The chicken is then slathered in a mixture of sautéed shallots, more vermouth, Dijon mustard, egg, thyme and tarragon. Fresh breadcrumbs mixed with browned butter, thyme and parsley are piled on. The chicken is then baked on top of the braised leeks for about 45 minutes. So yes, it is definitely a lot of mucking around.

Luckily, the dish was delicious. The chicken was amazingly tender but with a crunchy breadcrumb topping for contrast. You could taste the distinct flavours of the vermouth and mustard, which were quite unusual. We already knew the leeks were outstanding, so with the chicken, this was a really good dish. I would have to be reasonably motivated (and much more organised) to make it again, but I'm glad we did it this time - really tasty . . . and even worth the wait!

Strawberries and bubbles

2009-04-05T18:37:00.001+01:00

It wasn't quite warm enough, but these strawberries were amazing and the sun was out, so strawberries and bubbly in the park it was!

Crostini and Bruschetta

2009-04-05T18:32:00.003+01:00

I couldn't let those leftover chicken livers go to waste now, could I? And I found a stray tomato in the fridge, so crostini and bruschetta seemed an obvious choice.

No real recipe here. I diced the chicken livers into really small pieces, melted some butter in a frying pan and cooked the liver really quickly with some finely diced shallot, adding a splash of brandy, finely diced fresh sage and seasoning at the end.

The bruschetta was de-seeded chopped tomato, with basil and olive oil and left to marinate for about 30 minutes.

I brushed some ciabatta slices with olive oil, baked them in the oven for 10 minutes, piled the toppings on and hey presto (is that the Italian version of et voila?), a really tasty appetizer.

Can I compete with the Italians?

2009-04-05T18:21:00.004+01:00

We arrived back in London from Venice at around 2pm, a bit tired and a bit sad that I only ate pasta once. So I decided to make my own. Having been a little disappointed with my recent attempt at Beef Ragu, I decided to up the ante and look for a recipe with more ingredients, more cooking time and more WOW factor. I found it in Delia Smith's Authentic Ragu Bolognese. This recipe had plenty of good ingredients - two types of mince, bacon, chicken livers, heaps of tomato paste, red wine - and a whopping 4 hours cooking time! How could you go wrong?

You couldn't really. I served the sauce with some egg tagliatelle and parmesan and it was gorgeous. Rich deep flavours of meat and tomato and you could definitely taste the flavour of the chicken livers (if you're not a big fan of chicken livers, I'd probably suggest reducing the amount, but don't leave them out altogether!). This was a great recipe for anyone with serious Italian pasta cravings! And of course, it made an enormous amount, so you can freeze it and have it over and over again.