Birthday meal

So, it was the mother's birthday last week so the brother and I cooked a meal for her - obviously got to mark these occasions!
For starters, we did pan fried scallops on braised oxtail ravioli and asparagus with a marsala sauce. We made the oxtail by browning a large piece off in a pan, then removing it and softening a mirepoix. We added the oxtail back in with some marsala and stock to slowly braise it. When it was tender - about two to three hours later - we took the meat off the bone and added in the marrow and tasted for seasoning and deliciousness. All it needed was a touch of sharpness, so we added some sherry vinegar. I made the pasta by hand and have to say it was one of the best pastas I have made recently. It was the recipe from Giorgio Locatelli "Made in Italy" - well worth it, I must say.

For main, we had crisp roasted pork belly with fennel seeds, served with a courgette timbale and a duo of purées - butternut squash and pea. It worked well as a combination of flavours and was light following the starter.

For dessert I made a cherry clafoutis, following the recipe in a book I got for Christmas - Ripailles by Stephane Reynaud. It is a great recipe and makes delicious clafoutis, but that may have something to do with the quality of the cherries, they were stunning. I had also made a marscarpone ice cream to go with it and it was fabulous (although you don't need much of it) and thercipe came from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz and it is a marvellous book - I'm looking forward to trying the goat cheese ice cream with a tomato and thyme tart.

Obviously, with it being a birthday and all, we had to have some champagne. We had a Jacquesson Cuvee 730 and it was sublime and we followed it with a 2001 white Bergerac sec from Tour des Gendres, a vineyard that I love.

All in all, a lovely meal that I think was appreciated greatly and the mother had a good time which is the whole point.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day celebration started as normal with afternoon tea and christmas cake or mince pies - always delicious and I was allowed to make the cake this year. I followed the secret family recipe and the difference is that there is no marzipan or icing but the cake is made in November and fed every week with brandy (or anything else you fancy...)
Then we did a bit of prep for dinner, peeling potatoes, prepping veg etc and followed that up with PRESENT TIME! To accompany presents we had a cocktail maison - confit orange rind with campari and sparkling wine - I invented it after I had left over confit orange from my cupcake extravaganza, yummy. Then we all sat in the living room and opened our presents. I received some fabulous ones including an ice cream maker with built in freezer unit and Ripailles, a new book by Stéphane Reynaud and it is fabulous - I recommend it.

Now on to the important bit. For dinner we had a starter of Scallops on Black Pudding with a Jurançon Reduction. The black pudding was sliced into discs and then panfried in a little oil to get a crispy outside. The scallops were simply panfried for a couple of minutes on wither side and finished with butter and seasoning before being placed on the black pudding slices, around some mixed leaves. The reduction was made ahead of time by reducing a bottle of jurançon doux to a few tablespoons and then adding some stock and bringing it down again. The sauce was thickened by whisking in lumps of butter and seasoned to taste. Lemon juice should be added if needed. This was drizzled on the plates.

For main, we had roasted shoulder of wild boar, which had been marinated in rosemary, salt, pepper, a few juniper berries and red wine for a few days. That was served with celeriac and apple purée, shallots and potatoes roasted in duck fat and cavalo nero. The boar has a deeper and more intense flavour than pork and made an interesting alternative.

I had then decided that we should have a Grand Dessert to round things off (obviously I enlisted much help for this!) It comprised a passion fruit curd tart, an iced raspberry soufflé and a moelleux au noisette. This last was a variation on the often seen chocolate version, which I can't have, so I messed around with the recipe to great effect I may add.

All in all a delicious end to a wonderful day so thank you to all for my lovely presents and your scintillating company.

Christmas Eve

This year we spent Christmas Eve dinner chez moi, for a change, and to be a bit different, I did a tapas feast, with help of course. There were quite a few dishes, let me run through:

Salt Cod Croquettes

Chorizo in Red Wine

Roasted Aubergine Dip

Marinated Grilled Lamb

Tomato Salad

Marinated Artichoke Salad

John Dory with Watercress and Sherry

Piquillo Peppers with Raisins and Pine nuts

Spanish Crab Dumplings

Salsa Verde

 

It was a delicious assault of flavours, nicely balanced and all linked through sherry in various forms – joy in a glass! – including the manzanilla we drank.

 

The salt cod croquettes were the ones I have previously made. They are both pretty easy to make and delicious, if a little laborious. You soak the salt cod for a couple of days, changing the water a few times a day. Then, cube it and put it in a pan with a mix of milk and water and a few flavourings – bay, peppercorns and suchlike. Bring this to the boil and simmer for five minutes at the most. Strain the cod and when you can touch it, flake it into a bowl, removing the skin and bones. Set aside. Make some choux pastry and then add the cod to this along with flavourings you wish – parsley, a touch of garlic, some lemon, it could go on. This mix can then be refrigerated until you need it. You they fry off the croquettes in batches by dropping small quenelles into heated oil, drain after they have turned a golden brown on all sides. {This recipe is adapted from Modern Spanish Cooking, the cookbook from Fino, by Eddie and Sam Hart – thank you for a great book.}

 

Most of the other dishes are adapted from generic recipes. The aubergine was a variation on Baba Ganouj, with some sherry vinegar used – I got some wonderful Pedro Ximinez balsamic like vinegar from Brindisa.

The only slightly odd one was the crab dish. I wanted to make crab gyoza as I had some gyoza wrappers and I really enjoy them. The brother and I set out to make a Spanish-ified filling for them. Cooked off a finely chopped banana shallot and some garlic and set it aside to cool. To that we added some sherry vinegar, some parsley and chervil, a touch of smoked paprika and some saffron. We then adjusted for seasoning and set it aside. It fell to me to fill them and they went well, not as elegant as the pleated ones you see in restaurants but that’ll come with practice I guess.

 

We then had some cheese – just a touch – and delicious it was too. We followed that with some dessert. We had two, a Clementine and Muscat jelly made by the mother. It was delicious and came out of the December issue of Waitrose Food Illustrated – well worth a try. The other dessert was borne out of the brother’s desire to make something flavoured with lemon and cinnamon. We decided to go for a syllabub. Now, powdered cinnamon in syllabub didn’t strike me as a great plan so I put the zest and juice of four lemons in a jam jar and added three broken cinnamon sticks and left it to infuse for a week or so. We then followed Elizabeth David’s recipe for a syllabub – it is exceedingly good but also must come with a warning not to operate any machinery or try to form any conscious thought due to the alcoholic nature – 4floz sherry, 2 tablespoons brandy, juice and rind of a lemon, 2 oz sugar and 300ml double cream. Dissolve the sugar in the liquids and then slowly add the cream in whilst whisking. Whisk until it holds soft peaks )this takes quite a while so use an electric whisk if you have one or if you aren’t He-man).

 

And that kind of put paid to the rest of that evening, the brother and I waved off the rest of the party and set to a bit of clearing up and then collapsed, to rest up until tomorrow and….

 

 

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

Christmas – Borough Market

The festive period has been and gone and I hope that you all had a wonderful time. We all did, spent with family and full of good times and, obviously, good food.  I’ve been writing this before posting – disastrous problems with changing broadband suppliers and being without internet for a while – joy – so I know how long it is getting. This will be a few instalments I think, or it will be the longest post in history, am getting a bit carried away by the memories.

 

I got to do a lot of the shopping for it and spent a very happy morning in Borough on Monday the 22^nd. Borough was quite quiet of shoppers but pretty full of tourists so it was nice to see the friendly faces of the stall holders I’ve become familiar with, it is always a pleasure to be in Borough, if not a challenge not to walk away with far too much produce… I had a list of cheeses to buy, carefully given by the brother and the mother (they are well aware of my ability to buy enough cheese to feed 50 rather than five) so did this first. I went to the Stichelton stall – if you like blue cheese and have never tried this then I urge you to if you see it. It is an unpasteurised cheese made close to Stilton and is, in my opinion, creamier and just, well, try it and you’ll see. I then went to get some parmesan, you should never be without it and there is a great stall – The Parmesan Cheese Company – that always has lovely blocks of golden promise to brighten even the dullest day. Only two more cheese stops. There is a stall called Mons Fromagerie in the old market, by the Boston Sausage stand, which specialises in French cheese and the brother had spotted an interesting blue the week before. It is a Malzieu blue and it has a lovely mix of sharp and salty qualities. Then it was off to Neal’s Yard for me. On the way, I got distracted by Monmouth and had to stop in for a coffee and then sip this whilst queuing to get some more beans. Heaven and very reviving. At Neal’s Yard there was a bit of a queue (when isn’t there) but there was a lovely surprise at the front, where you got a sample of cheese, Hafod, a welsh cheddar style cheese very delicious and not as punchy as Montgomery’s, a favourite of mine. I finally made it and started my acquisitions. I got a piece of Mrs Kirkham’s Lancashire, a tarragon Perroche and a bit of Caerphilly. I then headed on over to Brindisa to pick up a few essentials for the plan on Christmas Eve and was also picking up a bit of Monte Enebro, a marvellous goat cheese, and this is from someone who was so against goat cheese only a few years ago. Then I had a bit of a thought, the bags were beginning to get a bit heavy and I still had all the meat to collect and the veggies. I figured I would get the meat, drop the bags at the car (I know, bad me driving in but you try carrying all I’ve mentioned, nine kilos of meat and a load of veg back on the tube and train and let me know how you fare…) and then return to peruse the veggies at leisure. So, it was off to the Ginger Pig for a gammon, and I have to say, after the boiling and glazing, that was the best gammon ever, and just to be in the fridge for sandwiches etc, some lamb fillet and a few racks of lamb too. Again, it’s a place where I have to have a list, otherwise I would be tempted by the array on display. Then I popped next door to Sillfield Farm to get our turkey equivalent for this year, more on that later.

I managed to get that load back to the car; I’m not sure how without losing a shoulder but I didn’t. Then I headed back to get the veg, herbs and fruit needed that I hadn’t already got or figured would be more readily available there. I love shopping for food almost as much as cooking it, it’s the anticipation you build up, choosing the ingredients and knowing what you are going to do with them, imagining how it will taste and feel in the mouth, ah….

The Tapa Room

Last Friday, I headed up to Marylebone High Street to meet a couple of people for lunch. We went to The Providores & Tapa Room, the London restaurant of Peter Gordon. The Providores is the upstairs restaurant, really nice, I ate there a few years ago, and the Tapa Room is downstairs and a bit more relaxed. The wine list here is full of gems that you just don't see that often so is well worth an explore. We had the Mount Difficulty Pinot Gris 2007, a lovely lemony drop that you should grab if you have the chance. The food is of the "small plates in the middle of the table to dive into" philosophy - heavenly. We had the Pimientos de Padron - another must in my book, chilli roulette, fabulous! The Tapa Plate, which features grilled chorizo, guindilla chillies, marinated olives, grilled artichoke, spiced fig preserves, babaganoush and Manchego Villarejo cheese, those figs were an explosion of sweet and spice. Watermelon and feta salad with pomegranate dressing, basil and toasted sunflower seeds, the perfect palate cleanser. Deep fried New Zealand baby kumara with sweet chilli sauce, smoked kelp and crème fraiche; kumera is something I hadn't heard of before but is like a cross between sweet potato and plantain, I shall search these out myself again. Smoked Dutch eel and Parmesan croquettes with saffron aioli - my choice and so delicious. There is so much more on the menu that sounds so good, but we were defeated by then and split a dessert to go with coffee. The raspberry bavarois and Oloroso jelly trifle with kaffir lime leaf madelines and vanilla cream was a taste sensation. The Oloroso married so well with the softness of the bavarois. The madelines were very nice but could have been a touch more zesty and the coffee was superb.

Well worth a visit in my book but there is no reservation system so get there early or be prepared to queue for a while. I know I'll be back.

Birthday Dinner

It was my birthday recently and I was taken for dinner by my family - asked for a list of places I'd like to go and then not told where we were going.

We arrived at Ambassade de L'Ile, a new outpost of Auberge de L'Ile, a renowned restaurant on the outskirts of Lyon, somewhere I always wanted to eat at when I was there for university but not possible on a student budget.

Ambassade has received some mixed reviews since it opened, generally seeming to focus on the decor, deemed by most to be terrible. I think that, yes, it is over the top and not what one would have at home but it does fit this interior. We were greeted warmly and offered a drink whilst we perused the menu, glasses of Ruinart Rosé in fact and some tasty amuses. We all decided to go for the tasting menu, it is served to the entire table and at £90 for eight courses, it is priced as you would expect. The wine list is a joy. There are some very expensive bins but go to the slightly esoteric areas and there are some very reasonable listings.
All I can add to previous reviews of this restaurant is that I think you should go and make up your own mind. I had a wonderful birthday dinner there, the food was very good, very little I didn't agree with and the place and people are great. They do a £30 lunch menu which I would be interested in trying too.

Go, enjoy and see what you think.

Holly and Otters

Very happy 30th birthday to Gareth.

Much fun was had at Holly Frindle - a beautiful Lubetkin designed house situated next door to Whipsnade Zoo. Jen and I met for breakfast so we could do the last minute shopping and prep, collect the hire car and recover from St John the night before. We met at Breads etc on Clapham High Street, both a little the worse for wear and had some toast and tea. After about an hour of procrastinating and breakfast we had made our lists and set off to do some shopping - on the grounds that we probably shouldn't drive just yet...

We headed off to Moen's on the Pavement in Clapham. It really is a very good butcher. We bought some côte de boeuf, bacon for breakfasts, pork pie, cheese and asparagus. Then we headed a few doors down to Macaron, a really lovely patisserie, for some bread. We then took a little walk over the common to Clapham South to visit Moxons. I'd ordered a wild sea trout and he was beautiful; we also picked up some scallops for an amuse.

Then we headed back to Jen's to drop off the heavy shopping, get a few bits from the local market and then go and get our vehicle. Having accomplished those tasks, we headed to my house to collect all the bits from there and make a couple Pan Bagnat. Pan Bagnat is a Niçoise sandwich, our version was: take a sourdough loaf, chop off a lid and remove the inside. Moisten the crust with olive oil and some red wine vinegar. Layer in the following ingredients - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, olives, boquerones, tuna (I can't remember if there was anything else) and then put the lid back on. wrap this in cling film and weight it down so that it squishes and all the flavours merge - we put it in a bag under a Le Creuset of sausage pasta sauce. Jen made these so expertky while I rushed around packing up stuff. We then went back and picked up everything else before heading to Paddington to pick up the other four members of the group (we were late).

We drove up the M1 to Holly Frindle and upon arrival, unpacked and set about making dinner. It was then we found one of the things we'd forgotten to pack - wine glasses, oops! Dinner consisted of pasta, the fennel sausage sauce, bread and salad accompanied by some delicious red wine - very needed! Games ensued.

Saturday was the day of fun. We breakfasted - I'd made some bread and it over rose during our shopping excursion :

Then we packed up lunch - Pan Bagnat x 2, pork pies, piccalilli and cherries, some wine and water, and headed over to Whipsnade. Lots of lovely animals were seen especially the sealions, the noisy, chatty otters and the 16 week old baby elephant and we lunched. Back home, we set up for dinner. The menu was as follows:
Amuses of Scallop on Chicory with Chilli Jam and Proscuitto
Sea Trout baked in Newspaper with mayonnaise
Cote de Boeuf with bearnaise, asparagus, courgettes and jersey royals
Cheese
Jelly (blood orange and cardamon and lime with grapes) and Ice cream (lemon and basil)









Games ensued:


Sunday was more relaxed and a drive back up. More games on the mini table though:

Fabulous weekend, thank you one and all.