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.

St John - Smithfield

Well, went to Smithfield St John to celebrate a 30th birthday. We had the private room and there were 16 of us - much fun and 5 of us are called Jen so mirth ensued.

We started off with lots of bubbles (the birthday boy/lad/man works in the trade so much was there) and then had the Bone Marrow and Parsley Salad and Broad Beans with Berkswell. The beans were delicious, raw, fresh and green with so much flavour; offset beautifully by the Berkswell and some leaves. I have been anticipating trying the bone marrow for many years and it did not disappoint - oh my goodness me, so delicious and creamy and amazing. I implore you to go and try it - astounding. We then had roast lamb with white beans and rabbit fennel and bacon. Both were delicious but I got carried away chatting to people and didn't have much of them. Dessert was Eccles Cakes and Lancashire and Rhubarb, Meringue and Cream - delicious.

A wonderful evening at a marvellous place with great food, delightful company and a huge thank you to the people of St John who made it even better.

The Mojo is back

Well, I think my "cooking for fun" desire took a bit of a back seat ding the preliminary stages of planning the new venture - i.e. "cooking for work". I'm pleased to say, I think it might be back on today.

I went up to Moxon's Fishmongers in Clapham South today. Moxon's is undoubtedly one of the best places to buy fish in London, and you lucky people in East Dulwich now have a branch there too. Robin Moxon started off supplying fish to a large number of the top restaurants, he then opened, many moons ago, Moxon's Restaurant close to Clapham Common. It was a very sad day when this closed, as it was, in my humble opinion, the best place to eat in the environs. I mourned the loss of the place for a long while and then Moxon's returned, as a wonderful wet fish shop, Calloo, Callay! Anyway, sorry, slight ramble, I went up to order a sea trout for next weekend. It is a big birthday for a great friend and we are off, a group of six, to have a weekend of fabulous food, wine and company so more about that later. I decided to get some samphire as there was some outside and wondered in to be dazzled by the dispay. I asked Robin (always the best decision) what would be best, without hesitation he went for Turbot. I now have a couple of fillets of Tommy sitting waiting, some broad beans waiting for me to shell, some samphire, jersey royals, a bottle of white wine reduced to a few tablespoons and a lovely, vibrant chervil plant waiting for its first haircut. (of course there is a gin and ginger in play, try it, marvellous! and some wine cooling down). Join me later for an update and some photos for what came out of it all.
So happy it is back!

It's now 10pm, just finished dinner and it was delish. posting tomorrow.

So, the turbot was lovely, the salad of broad beans matched deliciously. Ahh, the joy is back again!

Good Food and Good Company

On Tuesday, the 6th, I went for lunch at St John Bread & Wine, and had a really lovely lunch, obviously helped along by the company too.

For those who don't know, St John, there are two, are restaurants created by Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver. The original, Smithfield, was opened in 1994, and this one was opened in 2003. Bread & Wine is based on plates that are shared - my favourite way of eating!

We got there on a beautiful day and there were only a few other tables there. we had a bottle of water and I chose a bottle of Irouleguy white. We then set about the difficult task of choosing. Three plates were decided upon: Beetroot, goat's curds and a herb which escapes me at the moment; Quail and Aioli and Blood Cake with Duck Egg (the best name ever). We meandered our way through the dishes with great joy, interspersing with lots of conversation, and then decided to share the Rhubarb Jelly for dessert.

The food was delicious, the wine superb and the meal memorable. Thank you.

Old Things and New Times

My grandmother has recently moved into a home, for want of a better word, so has moved out of the house she lived in for over thirty years. We spent the Easter weekend clearing the house and getting it ready for the new owners (we completed today, hurrah!). As you can imagine there was all kinds of stuff in there so much hilarity was had. Joan has always been an avid photographer so I know have photographic accounts of trips around the world from the twenties onwards. More on some finds later.
The house is in Middlesex, Northwood to be more precise. We went to eat in a couple of places up there and the food was traditional, old fashioned and good. The first place was Spanish and I started with a glass of sherry (very nice fino) and a small plate of tapas - a couple of slices of hot chorizo, a couple of caperberries, some peppers and a few boquerones - yum and should be done more often I think. The rest of the food was good if unremarkable but the veggies came on those silver dishes where they serve you from them, very old school. The second place was in Hatch End and Italian (something that doesn't seem to be lacking there!) and again, the food was good but unremarkable. The veggies came on the group dishes and they serve you, must be a North London thing...
Anyway, if you find yourself in this neck of the woods, you won't want for a decent meal.

Bruce and Bye

Today I went, with the members of my office, to the wonderful Chez Bruce in Wandsworth for my leaving lunch. There is a promotion running, organised by Hardens and the FT (Lunch with the FT 2008), where you can have , at Bruce's, a three course lunch for £19.50. It is obviously a shortened menu but, as always, absolutely delicious.

Now I may be a bit partial here, but I do really like this restaurant. I first came here when it was Harvey's and have been numerous times since Bruce Poole has been in charge and it just keeps being great. The room is a well designed space, not too big or crowded, airy but still cosy. The staff are always friendly and it seems that nothing is ever too much trouble.

We were a table of four and started with some bubbles - a bottle of Pol Roger NV - lovely while we pondered the menu and subsequent wine choices. We had the following to eat: Foie Gras and Chicken Liver Terrine with Brioche, Wild Mushroom Tagliatelle and Salt Cod Beignets, Mussel Vinaigrette and Aioli were the starters and all were deemed delicious. The Foie was light and the brioche some of the nicest I've had for ages. The salt cod was YUM and came with my first samphire of the year so that made it for me.

The red wine arrived - a Shiraz Mataro from Pemberton in Australia, "Lilian" 1999 by John Brocksopp - and it was round and had good fruit but with a nice bit of age there too. Main courses were Rump of Aberdeen Angus with Fondant Potatoes and Spinach, said to be lovely but it disappeared before I could even snaffle a taste. Halibut with Mash, light and perfectly cooked fish, and I had Belly Pork with Caramelised Apples, Choucroute and crackling. So good, I shall be recreating this at home, or at least trying to... Desserts followed and they were Pink Grapefruit Sorbet - delish - served with a selection of biscuits, a brandy snap, a tuille, a madaleine and a piece of vanilla shortbread. A Chocolate Pudding with Vanilla Ice cream, which was deemed amazing and than Syllabub with Blood Orange Jelly which I will also be recreating.

All in all a wonderful lunch and I am so glad that Chez Bruce is my "local"!

Birthday Dinner

It was Johnny Bollinger's (the brother) birthday on Tuesday and yesterday we went out to dinner to celebrate. We, that is the brother, the mother and myself, went to Tom Ilic, a newish restaurant on Queenstown Road in Battersea. It is on the site of The Stepping Stone and latterly The Food Room and Tom used to be the chef at The Stepping Stone a good few years ago.

The restaurant has a very friendly atmosphere but it doesn't look as though much has changed decorwise. A big bonus is that they haven't tried to cram too many tables in so it feels lovely and open. The bread, both white and olive, we got on arrival was very good and came with some nice fleur du sel butter. We perused the menu, very nice sounding it was too, and chose some interesting sounding dishes - obviously we all had something different to try as much as possible.

I had Braised Pig's Cheeks with Chorizo, Garlic & Parsley Mash. It was a very well put together dish, there were thin slices of chorizo laid on the pig's cheeks and they added a lovely depth to the porkiness. The mash was a great foil to that and the slick of dark, sticky sauce on the plate. The mother had Foie Gras & Game Terrine with Fig Compote and Brioche, very nicely put together. The foie was soft rather than being straight-from-fridge firm and this made a good contrast to the firm pieces of game, the soft sweet brioche and the crunch of the fig. Bollinger had sautéed calf sweetbreads, oxtail ravioli, apple and parsnip purée, it was a very nice dish, just not quite as punchy as I was expecting... To go with that we had a 2006 Vouvray which was fine.
This brings me to my complaint. I know that I probably expect more from a wine list than some but this was a truly boring effort. It was a struggle to find something you wanted to drink, it was all fine and not fine in a good way, just exceeding boring, nothing exciting to make the food sing - hence not remembering the producer, not something I want to remember as I won't be drinking their wine again.

Main courses. Roast saddle & braised neck of lamb potato and turnip gratin, spiced aubergine was Bollinger's choice, it was nice adn tasty, looked very good on the plate (sorry about lack of photo) and the neck was outstanding. Mother had Seared scallops honey roast pork belly, jerusalem artichokes and hazelnuts which again was tasty, the scallops were cooked to perfection but there was a depth of flavour lacking slightly from the small amount I tried. I chose Venison creamed savoy cabbage butternut ravioli and candied kumquats which was, I think, the outstanding dish. The venison was tender and delicious, the cabbage was a good foil for the rich sauce and the ravioli was simple wonderful. The kumquat however, was entirely superfluous to the dish as I actually found it a little unpleasant to my taste; so I didn't eat it and really enjoyed my dish. We had a 2003 half bottle of Madiran with it, which was lovely.

We finished with some espresso, a glass of Banyuls and a glass of LBV Graham's. Tom came out to see a table in the restaurant who were, I am guessing, friends. I would like to thank Tom adn the staff as they were lovely and made the evening for us. The food was great on the whole, if with a few things I would prefer differently, but then that's my taste, and I would go back. Especially if they change the wine list and make it a bit more fun.

Changes

Well, having been employed in the wine trade for the last five plus years I will be leaving the company I work for on the 29th February. An auspicious day! I have been trying to decide what to do with myself and think have some plans. After taking a break - well deserved I may add - I shall do some part time work still in the trade. I have to keep my finger in as I do love it and the subject is fascinating. The big idea however, is to finally put my feet forward and set up a catering company. I'm going to start small and do in house catering for people with some event stuff, following on the the WoSA event I did, so fingers crossed all round. SCARY STUFF!

Catching up

Having been incredibly bad at posting, I'm going to be catching up now on all the photos and experiences I have stored up.

First to get described is my big birthday that was in 2007. It was one of those "milestone" dates so I decided to celebrate it by getting as many of my friends as I could to come down to a place very dear to me in North Cornwall and have a bbq on the beach. Now, normally this would be fine, my birthday falls in July so the weather tends to be pretty decent but oh no, not this year. I got down a bit early so I could settle in to the cottage, make sure I had all I needed and revel in being back at home.

Some of my friends from London arrived the day before so we got them settled in a house up the road, being rented from friends , and then we went down to the beach to have a pre dinner glass watching the sunset. Then we went back and had dinner round my lovely table in the cottage. Dinner consisted of a wonderful leg of local lamb, roasted with garlic and rosemary, and served with a dauphinoise and some braised leeks. We rounded that off with a blackberry and apple crumble - delicious! - and we also consumed a goodly amount of wine, getting into the party spirit obviously...

The day dawned not so brightly, but I was not to be deterred so had already got plans in place to use the cowshed as was, parking as is, as a shelter for the food and people; luckily everyone was up for a good time! We went for a quick trip to the local fishmongers to get a couple of extras for the bbq as all the rest of it I had prepared already.

We then headed down with all the supplies to get set up. The barrel bbq was put in position and the table laden with all goodies. We had a few salads - potato, tomato and green - lots of bread and sauces and some smoky bourbon ribs. Then we had some marinated mackerel and Larry the Lobster, it was all delicious and cooked to perfection by bbq chef extraordinaire Andy. The, at times, torrential rain was not noticed so much as we had plenty of liquid refreshment ourselves.
I hope that everyone had as much of a wonderful time as I did and the day ended beautifully...

Friday Night: Grandma's birthday tapas, but what do we eat?

So, tomorrow, although actually it's Monday, is Grandma's birthday. She's 342 this year which is pretty cool in itself, but I'm off to take her round an orchid farm in the morning. This is what she loves, along with photographs. There have been many long afternoons in her house with her showing me her shots of the better restaurants along the Loire and down the Ligurian coast which seems to be where she spent the 50s and 60s.

It's tapas tomorrow, and so we (this is me and the mercenary (city lawyer) brother who we shall call johnny bollinger, who can also cook a little too) have put together some bits and pieces...



Croquetas of smoked cod (should really have been bacalao, but we ran out of time), cannellini bean dip, which may end up a little like waxy houmous with chilli and lemon, and which is slightly borrowed from running with tweezers, for which thank you so much (hyperlinks will follow when I learn how it works; I'm new, indulge me), prawns grilled with saffron, pimienton, garlic, chilli and lemon (this was going to be quite an exciting idea with lots of nutmeg, but then we remembered that johnny's uncle is allergic to nutmeg!), roasted tomatoes (quite what is the deal with heirloom tomatoes - have you been keeping them in the attic for a couple of generations? If so I may pass) with garlic and anchovies, some polpettini of aubergines, basil and mozzerella (proper stuff, in case you doubted), a ligurian broad bean salsa which may be italian but is gorgeous enough to get on this post, and some mushrooms which probably will get done with sherry vinegar and saffron, but who knows...

With all of this you would imagine (well I would, and mr bollinger is kind of stroppy about this) that there would be some rather special wines being drunk. Well there might, but there aren't. It's a dry show, mainly because we have to be back in town by about 7pm to watch mr sheridan stomp on a sea bass. next time, promise...

Which sort of brings me on to the prep process. People have to eat, (even johnny b, although he will do a decent job of pretending he doesn't and that man can live by wine alone). So tonight there was a very pleasant bit of aged sirloin, charred to within an inch of its life and still bleeding in the middle, that we cooked with a very smoky and savoury SA chenin (Jean Danieel Signature) and then ate with a nearly feral 1998 Musella Amarone. Something for next time is what you should eat with and what you should drink from...

Roast Chicken

Last night, after quite a hectic day at the office, I needed something easy but tasty to cook. I had a Packington Poultry http://www.packingtonpoultry.co.uk/ chicken in the fridge (bought from the Butcher and Grill in Battersea http://www.thebutcherandgrill.com/) and so decided that roast chicken would fit the bill nicely, leaving leftovers with which to make soup.

I stuffed the chicken with a quartered lemon and some seasoning, put some olive oil, salt and pepper on the skin and sat him on top of some floury potatoes. There were gorgeous smells coming from the oven as the chicken went temptingly brown and crisp and the potatoes developed sticky, crunchy corners.

I needed something green to go with it all so I chopped some leeks and cooked them in my new birthday pan with a splash of white wine. When they had melted, I took them off the flame and stirred in a tiny bit of butter. Glossy and gorgeous.

The chicken was delicious (and it did go well with the wine Mr Seychelles), had so much natural flavour that just oozed through the slight citrus hint.

Exactly what I was after.