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

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

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)

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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:

• Prawn and chilli potsticker dumplings
• Pork potsticker dumplings
• Chilli salt squid
• Asian vegetables in oyster sauce

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)

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)

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!

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

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

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.