Ooooh la la a La Strand

Although we do have a dining club at work, the majority of people care little about food, and normally my moans about the lack of options around the Strand falls on deaf ears. But I must admit that it is steadily getting better. In the last year or so, we've had a few good chainy places open up near work - Carluccio's, Wahaca, and to the joy of the males in the office, Nando's. I also really like Bedford & Strand, a lovely little wine bar place that does very good quality British grub.

There was also another little wine bar on William IV Street which I also liked, mainly because it used to serve proper British bangers as a bar snack with your vino. This place appears to have died since I've been away though, replaced by a littel French brasserie/wine bar called Terroirs. Matthew Norman nearly wet himself about this place in the Guardian a few weeks ago, giving it 9.5/10 (read the review here). Just the mention of duck scratchings was enough for me to go.

Unfortunately, it seems that the whole of London also read that review, and it's near impossible to get a table there at a decent time. Even on a Wednesday night, calling a few days ahead got us a table at 9pm, which inevitably meant a glass of wine at Gordon's beforehand, which meant I was a little squiffy when it finally was time for dinner.

Inside though, it is very buzzy and tres francais in appearance. The lovely shiny red tables are a little bit too close together, but it just gave us the opportunity to be nosy at what our neighbours were eating. The menu is roughly separated at bar snacks (e.g. duck scratchings at £2.50), charcuterie featuring some very happy pigs (£9 for the board), small plates (e.g. potted shrimp at £7), and plats du jour (e.g. sea bream with cockles at £14).

Greedy as ever, we wanted to try as many things as possible, so we went for a variety of small plates, a bit like French tapas really. The following, clockwise from the top left, are potted shrimp on toast, garlicky bacon and snails, and smoked eel with celeriac remoulade:

Bacon and snails again here, but the scallopy looking one is actually bone marrow with truffles, and the little pot are those very famous duck scratchings:

We also had a chorizo with piperade (spelling?), which is basically a very thick red pepper sauce:

Highlights of the meal was definitely the eel - such a good combination with the remoulade, which cut through the richness of the fish, and the portion just the right size to make you want a little bit more. I also now have a new business idea of packaging those duck scratchings and selling them in corner shops, for which I will probably face a law suits from people keeling over with heart attacks.

It was all executed very well, but like at St John, you do have to think about the combination of things you order. Our selection definitely had too many salty porky things, which would have benefited from a nice plain salad really. We also had a very unexciting crepe with cherries whcih was quite unspectacular.

Overall though, I'm just waiting for this to be less popular so it can be more of a easy place to pop by after work. I also love the fact that they do a good range of 500ml carafes of wine, which means if there are 2 of you, you can have a little bit more than a glass of wine between you without having to order a whole bottle.

Making ice cream

2 weeks ago, just before I returned to work, I had the slightly mad idea of inviting 25 people over for lunch. I've made an incredible number of friends over the years through my work with Habitat for Humanity, and I thought it might be a good idea to invite everyone I've met through Habitat for a bit of a catch up. We all come from very different walks of life, from people in the US Air Force to Yorkshire miners, and I do feel my life has been very enriched by being able to learn from such a diverse group of people.

I did become a bit obsessed as to what to cook everyone. I had initially thought of doing a barbeque, but obviously, the day came and it promptly started raining at 11am, so it turned into somewhat of an oven party. To be honest, most of the savoury food was good mainly because they came from excellent suppliers. The most special mention has to go to the sausages from The Sausage Shop in Trimley, Felixstowe. Rod and Diane of The Sausage Shop live next door to my family home, and their sausages are incredible! My parents have to export some to me every time they're in London.

The one thing I cooked that everyone loved was the ice cream. I really shouldn't tell anyone, but making ice cream is one of those things that seems very impressive, but is dead dead easy. And I don't even have an ice cream maker. This recipe is from the lovely Rosalind from The Cookery School:

Rhubarb ice cream (enough for lots of Habitat mouths)

For the rhubarb compote:
450g rhubarb
100g sugar

For the ice cream:
1 pint single cream
3 oz caster sugar
3 egg yolks

1. First make the compote. Clean the rhubarb, removing any tough bits and chop into inch long pieces. Wash it well, but allow some of the water in which it has been washed to cling to the pieces as this will provide moisture whilst cooking.
2. Place the rhubarb in saucepan and gently bring to the boil. Use a lid to keep the steam in the pan so keep it moist. Once it comes to the boil, turn down the heat and cook until the rhubarb collapses - remember to stir from time to time so it doesn't stick - it is very quick, only takes 5-10 minutes.

3. When the rhubarb starts to collapse, add the sugar and allow to continue cooking slowly until you get a nice rhubarby sauce.
4. Taste for tartness and add more sugar if necessary. I usually make sure it is a little tarter than you'd think as the ice cream is quite sweet, plus I do lack that sweet tooth. Remove from the heat and let it cool.

5. Make the ice cream: beat the egg yolks and half the sugar together until thick and creamy.

6. Bring the single cream and remainder of the sugar to the boil, careful to switch the heat off immediately after boiling point is reached.
7. Pour the cream slowly onto the egg mixture, beating all the time to avoid curdling. Then return the mixture to the saucepan you used to boil the cream and cook on a very low heat, whisking until the mixture thickens.
8. Be careful not to overcook the custard or it will curdle. It is 'cooked' when it coats the back of a metal spoon:

9. Cool the mixture to room temperature, then add the cooled compote into the custard. I normally don't mix it in too well to get more of a ripple effect.
10. If you're blessed with an ice cream maker, at this point, chill the mixture and then churn in your ice cream maker as per your manufacturers' instructions.
11. If you're relying on good old elbow crease, put the mixture into a freezer-proof dish and allow it to freeze until the sides are starting to set (takes about an hour). Remove from the freezer and beat well, beating down all the ice crystals. Return to the freezer.
12. Every hour or so after this, take the ice cream out and beat it thoroughly, and do this about 3-4 times. The more you beat it the smoother the ice cream will be.
13. Eat in small quantities - it is very rich!

The other variation I made was dime bar ice cream. This is inspired by the infamous G&D's ice cream parlour in Oxford, the site of all our guilty pleasures during my uni days. Instead of making the rhubarb compote, put 3 dime bars into a blender until you get this glassy looking sand mixture. It will smell incredible. Then add to the custard mixture when it has completely cooled, and freeze/beat in the same fashion.

Why have I never been to St John before?

I always get asked what my favourite cuisine is, and invariably I always say French or Italian. But I had a real think the other day, and I realised that it might be British food in a lot of ways. A lot it I guess is about the comfort factor - whenever I am travelling, I crave shepherd's pie and macaroni cheese - but I am also blessed with the incredible British options available in the London restaurant scene.

Somehow it took me a long time to go to St John Bread & Wine, even though the food is completely up my street, and it is more or less down the road opposite Spitalfields Market. I've walked past it so many times, even examined the menu online and drooled a lot. Now that I've finally been there, I totally intend to go there all the time. Every week. And this is why:

It is asparagus season, and whilst I was waiting for an extremely late Dave, I scoffed some down, simply served with a bit of sea salt and melted butter. And it was exactly as it should be - the asparagus so sweet it was probably picked that day:

When Dave finally arrived, we immediately ordered what was probably the most 'challenging' dish on the menu: ox heart, watercress, and pickled walnut. We are both big big fans of the duck hearts at Anchor & Hope, and wondered what these would be like. They were served almost like minute steaks, sliced very thin and flash fried - what you get is the most morish pieces of meat, very rich in flavour, a new favourite dish for me:

We also ordered the most perfectly executed smoked haddock, potatoes and boiled egg - there was a huge kick of horseradish in the dressing, the egg was still wobbling about. I cannot fault this, I could eat it everyday in my garden:

The only slightly less successful thing we had was their soused mackerel with soda bread. I was expecting it to be a lot sharper than it actually was, and the flesh of the mackerel had been slightly destroyed during the sousing process, with hardly any texture at all. And there was the fact that it does feel like half the dishes come with some kind of bread, which makes it all a little heavy and samey:

Also served with bread was their brown crab meat on toast. Heart attack on a bit of bread, so so rich, but extremely good!

We also greedily had some mussels with Alexander, which is a herb that tasted a little like nettle - the mussels done in a marinere style, the Alexander was a lovely accompaniment.

It all felt like British tapas, and there were a ton of other things on the menu that we didn't try! The table next to us ordered 2 more main course sized pigeon and venison, both of which looked divine. And we didn't have any room for pudding, even though we were severely tempted by the marmelade ice cream.

And the best thing was the price. It is extortionately cheap for what it is. With two glasses of wine, all the above came to less than £60 - none of the dishes we ordered was more than £7, and slightly bigger main courses are around £9-12. I haven't added a new 'London favourites' restaurant onto this blog since I started it, but this is going in!!!

Brunch with a twist

My foodieness did experience somewhat of an acceleration when I started working, mainly because I started being able to afford going to nicer places, and buying nicer ingredients to play around with. And one of the things I treated myself to was a little cookery course. The Cookery School on Little Portland Street offers intermediate classes for people who knew how to cook, but wanted to explore food groups a little further - during the 6 week course, you learn more about sauces, fish, poultry etc. and you cook enough during the class to share it all with a glass of wine at the end. It was utter bliss, if only they did an advanced class.

Lindsay, as a result, is one of my original foodie friends. Lindsay and I first met doing Habitat together in Oxford, and somehow ended up in the same job starting the same day. She was my wonderful partner in crime in this cookery course, and we've shared a passion for food ever since even though she moved back to Boston. She is coming back to London next year, and when she visited last weekend, I wanted to show her how diverse London food still is.

So brunch with Lindsay was already an exciting prospect, but even more exciting was that I was going to meet her husband to be. I racked my brains for somewhere interesting, and then I remembered Providores on Marylebone High Street, probably the most exciting place to go for brunch. They have the usual eggs benedict, fry ups etc. but there are also some very cool fusion dishes. No wonder there is always a long queue of yummy mummies outside on a Sunday.

I chose what I guess is one of their signature brunch dishes, 'turkish eggs', which is yoghurt with 2 poached eggs drenched in chilli oil. Sounds disgusting, but what a genius combination when you have a bit of granary toast to make dippy soldiers with:

It is extremely rich, almost like having a bowl full of egg yolks and cream. As you can also see in the picture, it was accompanied by the most amazing black pudding. If you're squeamish about black pudding, you won't like it, because you can definitely tell it's made of blood. Rich and melt in the mouth.

Lindsay had their sweet potato and potato frittata esque thing - I can't quite remember the name:

Again, the combination of flavours exploded in the mouth. It is topped with a bit of creamy cheese and some onion relish, lovely combination of creaminess and sharpness and then the softness of the egg. And finally Lindsay's other half Jeff had the slightly more standard French toast with bacon:

Providores is also where I had probably my favourite ever starter: seared scallops with salted coconut milk with plaintains. Sounds disgusting, but it all worked! I really hope they still have this on the menu, because it is a perfect example of how fusion food should be, challenging without being silly. I ate that dish nearly 5 years ago now, and I still remember it so well.

Discovery in Brixton

I managed to find myself in Brixton the other week, where I used to think was a bit of a food dessert. I've heard very good things about that pizza place in the market, but it's never open at a decent time, and I guess the other place I know to go to is Ichiban. But Debbie recommended the most wonderful place, shame it is so far away.

Upstairs Bar is a little French place on Acre Lane, and the entrance is quite misleading. There is some sort of cafe on the bottom floor, and you can only find your way in by going round the side and buzzing yourself in. But once you get inside, it all gets very Clapham rather than Brixton. It is essentially a two-tiered affair, with a trendy bar with very nice sofas on the first floor, and a teeny restaurant on the second. I guess it sits 30 covers, and I guess the tiny kitchen couldn't really cope with more.

It is very sensibly priced - well under £30 for 3 courses, although the choices are limited to 3 for each course. But I did really like the fact that they are quite brave about the choices - quite adventurous given the length of the menu, no chicken and no beef main course for example. It feels like they are quite confident in their cooking. And I would say they have lots to be confident about.

Starter was a salmon tartare with scallop ceviche - very simple, the ceviche just a little bit too heavy on the citrus for me:

Main was panfried seabream with potatoes and a creamy dill sauce. It was the kind of sauce that made you want to be very unladylike and lick the plate afterwards. It was a bit mahoosive though given that there were two types of potatoes (steamed and crisped up) - all in all very nice. The other main option was a tenderloin of pork and some vegetarian creation.

Only disappointing thing was the pudding, of which there was more choice. Our lemon tart was really very tart, and for some reason I expected it to be hot. The raspberry sorbet was also very tart. Made my teeth ache, we struggled to finish it even though we shared:

If this was my local, I'd be here all the time. It is one of those places where the owners there, it's very cosy and homely, yet the food is of a very good standard. Definitely a spot if you're at the Ritzy in future.