Taste of Cork

Taste of Cork

I do like to do nice things, and these often involve food, ok, mostly involve food. I can never pass up the chance to attend a food festival, so when a friend mentioned that Taste of Cork would be running for the first time this year in Ireland, I made sure that I would be there for it.

Taste of Cork, like Taste of London, showcases the best food that the area has to offer. It was in a fabulous setting, in the old city gaol, and on a beautiful day. We went along to the evening session, and keen as ever, arrived early to join an enormous queue. Well, to be truthful, I thought I was late as I had the time wrong, but, just as well!

Taste of Cork

Now, I’d done a little research, and some Cork restaurants that I really wanted to try were there, so I had already drafted a list in my head, determined to start first with Ballymaloe House and then the Ivory Tower, moving onto Bell Tower, Capella from Castlemartyr. There were some others that I was curious about but these were my top three, anything after that would be a bonus.

Potato soup with garden lovage pesto and chive flowers from Ballymaloe House

First impressions, the venue was great and it was more compact than Taste of London. This, for me, was a good thing, as I only saw a small portion of Taste of London in the time that I was there. Not that that’s a hindrance, next year I’ll just go twice! Nestled in at the base were two of the restaurants from my short list, so I went straight to Ballymaloe House to sample their wares.

Ballymaloe is famous for a few things, their restaurant, Darina Allen, Rachel Allen, Rory O’Connell, their cookery school and their passion for local irish ingredients. I wasn’t ready for a dessert yet, and given I had yet to have anything to eat, a starter seemed like a sensible option. On offer was potato soup with garden lovage pesto and chive flowers. It was pretty, delicious and very smooth, full of flavour, with the chive flowers offering a bold textural contrast, that at first I wasn’t too sure about. By the end, I wanted more.

Ballycotton mackerel with gooseberry sauce and organic Shanagarry salad

The main course available was Ballycotton mackerel with gooseberry sauce and organic Shanagarry salad, however by now, I already had my eye on swordfish from the Ivory Tower next door. The swordfish was served with mango salsa and banana ketchup. I was intrigued by the banana ketchup and wondered how it might taste. It sounds idiotic to say but it tasted exactly like you would expect it to taste - banana flavour with the texture and viscosity of ketchup, yellow of course. It was beautiful with the mango salsa and the swordfish. I fell in love and must try and find a recipe to replicate it.

Blackened Swordfish with Banana Ketchup and Mango Salsa

Next up, a browse around some of the stalls, a taste of the new Lindt chilli chocolate (yum!), some flavoursome irish strawberries, and some prosecco, to wash it all down. The English Market from Cork were there, a fantastic indoor food market that has been serving the city since 1786. There are lots of traditional butchers in there selling the likes of tripe, drisheen and spiced beef, fishmongers, cheese shops, a fresh pasta stall, the farmgate café, it deserves a blog post of it’s own so I’ll leave it for now.

At the Pig’s Back from the English Market had lots of wonderful irish cheeses at Taste of Cork, and I was quite pleased to see a girl there, that had served me at the market some months previously, quite nervously as it was her first day, she seemed to be enjoying herself, which was nice to see.

Irish Cheeses from On the Pig’s Back

What else did I eat? White bean soup with pork belly and chorizo oil from Capella, one of the stars of the evening. Definitely one restaurant to return to next time I am in Cork.

White bean soup with pork belly and chorizo oil from Capella

My next dish at the Ivory Tower added it to that list, with Venison Chimichurri with Chocolate and Chilli Sauce falling nothing short of divine, I didn’t want it to end.

Venison Chimichurri with Chocolate and Chilli Sauce from The Ivory Tower

Surely, I couldn’t handle another main? Well, they were small, and I just had to! There was roast fillet of pork with black pudding, potatoes, caramelised compote of apple and plums and marjoram juice from Orchid’s at Hayfield Manor in Cork City. Phew, what a mouthful, but the dish itself, regardless of the complexity of the title, tied together beautifully and was responsible for me buying lots of black pudding to bring back to London. A potato and black pudding sandwich with tender fillet of pork on the side - soul food.

Roast fillet of pork with black pudding, potatoes, caramelised compote of apple and plums and marjoram juice from Orchid

What about dessert? I kept it savoury and went back to the Ivory Tower for some pizza ice cream: tomato and basil sorbet, olive and parmesan tuile and it was great.

Pizza ice cream: tomato and basil sorbet, olive and parmesan tuile

What about the food I wanted but didn’t have the space or mental capacity to fit? Herb Coated Slaney Valley Lamb, Carmalised Onion Crushed Potato, Saffron Emulsion from Bell Tower, Capella featured as did the aforementioned mackerel witrh gooseberry sauce from Ballymaloe, the porchetta on the spit, gubbeen cheeses, clonakilty black pudding and the connemara smoked salmon.

Herb Coated Slaney Valley Lamb, Carmalised Onion Crushed Potato, Saffron Emulsion from Bell Tower, Capella

Porchetta

I am afraid I was pretty poor on the demonstration front but I did catch the end of Rory O’Connell who was very enjoyable.

Overall, it was a very pleasant evening with some outstanding food. I’d definitely recommend it and I’d go again.

Every now and then, I like to treat myself to something nice to eat from Harrod’s Food Hall. I really like Selfridge’s and Harvey Nichol’s also, but Harrod’s is so vast and decadent and full of treats. On a recent visit I spied a buffalo cheese that I hadn’t seen before - burrata - of which there where two types, one normal and one with truffle. I was so intrigued but I didn’t actually buy any, I was on a mission that day and was looking for borlotti beans. I went back the following week, but, to my dismay, there was no burrata to be had. It’s delivered on a Tuesday and always sells out on the day.

So, the following Tuesday, I made sure I got down there to buy some of this intriguing cheese, but there was none there! I waited impatiently for the lady behind the counter, just to check, and happily they had a box of it stowed away in a fridge. They didn’t have the truffle one so I got the normal one.

Some background on burrata for anyone like me that hadn’t come across it before: it’s a fresh cheese made from buffalo milk and cream from water buffalos. Traditionally it was wrapped in vine leaves, but now is more commonly wraped in plastic. When making it, the hot cheese is formed into a pocket, which is then filled with leftover mozzarella. Fresh cream is added before closing and wrapping in the fresh or synthetic leaves. The fresh leaves would have been an indicator of the freshness of the cheese, if the leaves were green, then the cheese was fresh, if not, it wasn’t.

What does it taste like? A really fresh and milky mozarella. Really delicious. I ate it with with large slices of heirloom tomatoes and some fruity extra virgin olive oil. It was wonderful and shall be adapted for many lunches and starters in the future.

There’s so many of us, and not many spaces where we can meet and share information bar on our blogs. I’ve started a Facebook Group for us - London Food Bloggers - along with Helen of Food Stories. Come join us!

I quite like festivals, they’re lots of fun. An opportunity to socialise, try new things, and, come the summer, that might even involve sunshine. This was the case yesterday with Taste of London, an annual food festival that takes place in Regent’s Park and showcases some of the best food that London has to offer. Added to that there’s tastings, talks and demonstrations.

It runs over four days, Thursday to Sunday. Sunday was the day we went, and fortunately for us, had the best weather. We got down there for the opening at 12pm, determined to get the most out of the day. It wasn’t so busy at this point, and almost the first thing I saw was the Aitkens brothers walking purposefully towards the stage, decked out in their whites & aprons, preparing for a demonstration.

We lingered a while, but we were keen to do some wine tasting. Unfortunately, we weren’t alone, there was already an enormous queue when we got down there, so we decided to grab a bite, a glass of wine and see what else was on offer. At this point it was incredibly busy (it had sold out), so a glass of Chapel Down Rosé Brut was most welcome. I am a very big fan of Chapel Down Wines, and am quite partial to their Chapel Down Bacchus, so I was really happy to get a chance to chat to them and taste some of their other wines, at 6 crowns or £3 a glass, an absolute bargain. My favourites on that lovely summers day were the sparkling wines: the Vintage Brut and the Rosé Brut.

Having missed one wine tasting, we made sure we were early for the Spanish one at 2pm. It was quite interesting but a little quick for my liking, I would have preferred to have a bit more time. I know a bit about wine, but am by no means an expert, so, it was a pleasant hour. Mind, I didn’t use the spittoon as much as I should, or atall. I didn’t see anyone else using it either!

Next up was a talk and book signing by Jay Rayner, the Observer food critic. He was very entertaining and had some tips for us amateurs. His favourite places to eat in London include one of my favourites New Tayyabs in Whitechapel (I really need to blog about this place - it’s also one of my favourites!) and one I really want to try Aiden Byrne at the Dorchester, especially after tasting some of his food at Taste, more on that later.

It was definitely time for some food by now. The choice was immense. It was very difficult! I chose to sample the Warm Salad of English Peas, Flaked Salt Cod and Young Shoots from Arbutus, the Squid Salad with Passionfruit Dressing from Benares, the Meen Kozhambu (a kingfish curry with rice and green beans) from Tamarind, the Beetroot Gazpacho with Avocado Sorbet and Vodka Jelly from Aiden Byrne at the Dorchester and the Spit Roast Belly Pork from Le Cafe Anglais. Worry not for my health or appetitie, these were small portions priced at £4-5 and spread out over a couple of hours. All of it was good but the beetroot gazpacho and spit roast pork belly were superb. The beetroot gazpacho was smooth, rich and fruity, the vodka jelly cut right through it and the avocado sorbet was a treat, I was genuinely upset when it was over. The spit roast pork belly was the best that I have had. Le Café Anglais and Aiden Byrne at the Dorchester are now next on my list.

What else? Live music including a very entertaining and very summery jazz band. Some cocktail competitions, cookery classes. The culinary glitterati were out in force, I spotted Atul Kochar, Gary Rhodes and Aiden Byrne.

There was so much on and so much to taste, it was impossible to do it all. What did I miss? Arthur Potts-Dawson from Acorn House gave one of the afternoon sessions, I would have loved to try the parmesan custards with anchovy toast from Le Cafe Anglais and everything on Aiden Byrne’s menu. The Canteen hog  roast was very tempting as was the Cinnanmon Club stand. I could list the things I wish I had tried all day, but there was only five hours and one stomach.

What’s the verdict? All in all a very pleasant day, with lots of opportunities to taste great food from great restaurants and new & old food products from producers, small scale and larger, at the producers market. Added to this the tastings, classes and demonstrations, it’s just impossible to choose what to do, five hours goes very quickly! We had lots of fun. It’s definitely worthwhile and I’ll go again.

Upcoming Taste experiences: Taste of Bath – 3-6 July, Taste of Birmingham – 10-13 July, Taste of Cork – 27-29 June.

More pictures of Taste of London on Flickr.

I am a little late with this one, I am possibly the last food blogger to write about Haozhan. I’ve wanted to go since it opened, but never did and I think this is because it is in Chinatown. This made me nervous, as, generally the best Chinese food in London is found outside of Chinatown. I like going there for their grocery shops, and, go frequently for sichuan pepper, spring roll wrappers and random treats. I enjoy the bakeries and their dairy free semi-savoury delights. But, with few exceptions, the restaurants are not great. However, I continued to read good things and I decided I should really try it.

Hoazhan comes with solid credentials - Jimmy Kong of New Fook Lam Moon opened it with Chee Loong Cheong, formerly of Hakkasan, in the kitchen. Hakkasan is one of Alan Yau’s famed establishments and one of London’s few michelin starred Chinese restaurants. It offers sophisticated Chinese fusion food, but, is in the upper echelons of my current budgetary restrictions, so it was good to get an opportunity to taste the offerings of a chef that had worked there.

I have been twice now, the first time for a friends birthday on a Saturday night, nervously as I had recommended we try it, but had no experience of dining there to reassure me. On arrival, we were ushered upstairs to a round table, and within a short while, we were ordering. It was very busy, full to capacity. The appearance is quite trendy and very different to most of the other restaurants on Gerrard St. The green and black is attributed to Feng Shui, the whole effect was very modern, clean and efficient.

Service, on the other hand, was very much what I have come to know in chinatown - abrupt and swift - but, unlike alot of its neighbours, it had a charm, and by the end of the night we were all laughing at the misunderstandings surrounding getting a birthday candle put in a dessert for the birthday boy. Reviewing the menu, it appeared to be fusion, blending influences from regional asian cuisines with Chinese cooking, there’s marmite prawns and cheesy lobster on the menu, the lobster is a step too far for me I think, but maybe one day I’ll try the prawns.

We ordered a selection of starters - standout were the chilli squid which was crisp, light and beautifully spiced and so full of flavour, the veggie mixed starter was good, if average and the coffee ribs were rich and flavoursome.

Mains went from fabulous to bizarre. I had a gorgeous homemade tofu dish and would have written this post if only to tell you about it - Haozhan tofu - four fried homemade tofu cubes, like a savoury custard with spinach skimming the surface, all topped with a scallop and some fish roe. A friend had curry prawns which were very spicy and came served in a huge round of bread. Bizarre and super spicy. I’ve already mentioned the lobster and the prawns!

For dessert I had the red bean pancake, which was just ok, nothing spectacular. The deep fried ice cream was fine but not amazing.

Impressed as I was with the savoury food, I wanted to bring another foodie friend there. I, the creature of habit and desperate for more squid and tofu, ordered the same meal. He ordered the chilli deep fried soft shell crab and the crispy shredded beef. My meal was spectacular as before but his was disappointing: the crabs were slightly burned and the beef was borderline - very sweet and average.

It was a shame, as the previous night was generally, a very positive experience. I’ll definitely go again, if only for the tofu.

2 courses with one glass of wine, 2 beers and tea was £60.

Haozhan
8 Gerrard Street
W1D 5PJ
0207 434 3838

http://www.haozhan.co.uk/

Correction (20th June 2008) - I had the chilli squid starter, not the chilli tofu. I am clearly just a little focussed on that tofu main course!

I love this time of year. By now I’ve been eating gorgeous seasonal asparagus for about 6 weeks. I should be getting sick of it but I never do. The end of the asparagus season would be depressing, if it were not for the start of the broad bean season with an overlap of a couple of weeks to facilitate gorgeous salads, or, for indulging in any number of dishes with broad beans in the starring role, as I did here.

I was at Marylebone Farmer’s Market at the weekend, rushing as always to get there before it closes at 2pm, and I was quite delighted to find that, as part of Marylebone Summer Village Fayre, it would be open until 5pm. There was the added bonus of new stallholders, albeit just for one week, including the Garlic Farm from the Isle of Wight with their amazing arrays of garlics and garlic products, including elephant garlic and green garlic.

Now green garlic is something that I haven’t had before. I know! What kind of foodie am I? I had read about it though, and was very keen to try it, so I was very happy to have the opportunity to purchase. I also bought some of the early season broad beans from another stall.

I thought I’d do a twist on a broad bean bruschetta that I do regularly, including green garlic this time and keeping it vegetarian. I would often include ham or anchovies, natural partners for the broad bean, but I wanted to experiment and try something where the green garlic and broad beans would dominate.

This doesn’t require a recipe, just a conversation - honestly, follow your tastebuds.

I used a half a kilo of broad beans in the pod, double podded and boiled briefly until tender, then plunged into iced water to stop them cooking and preserve that gorgeous colour and flavour. I then added a couple of teaspoons of chopped fresh mint, the juice of half a lemon, about twice that of a good extra virgin olive oil. Then add about 2 inches of the stalk of green garlic (substitute 1 clove normal garlic or a shallot), outer husk removed and the rest finely chopped, a couple of tablespoons of grated mature manchego (as mature as ou can get - substitute pecorino or parmesan). Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. That’s your bruscheta topping done.

I sliced some baguette diagonally to about half a cm in width. Toast lightly on each side, spread your broad bean mix liberally on top and drizzle some of your extra virgin olive oil over it, topping it with shavings of the manchego.

This is perfect summer food. Enjoy!

I was at a wonderful event the other night, and I really want to tell you about it but before I do, I want to clarify, for any new readers, that I am not one to write about something because I’ve gotten a freebie. I take great care to ensure that everything I recommend here is of quality and value. I don’t want to waste your time or mine, nor do I want you to feel that this blog isn’t worth reading as my reviews are unreliable, or, perish the thought, that I am easily bought. This event was great, and there’s a couple of things to recommend to you as a result, added to this, it was a really nice experience and one that I would like to share.

Ok, now on with the review!

I had the pleasure of being invited to a sake tasting event at Tsuru in Southwark, London. This was presented by Wakana Omija of the Akashi Sake Brewery Co., an artisanal sake and shochu producer and Tsuru, a Japanese restaurant and bar on Canvey St, in Southwark.

I love Japanese food, some of you may have noticed that, or have read earlier posts about my trip to Japan last year, I am also very fussy about it. The quality of food in Japan, in normal every day izakaya’s is phenomenal. The food is so fresh, and so expertly prepared. Everyone takes such pride in their work, and it’s so much cheaper than eating here, I have to ask, where exactly do we go wrong so often??

So, Tsuru noticed this gap, and aimed to recreate the Japanese everyday experience by offering food “honestly prepared by our chefs using the best ethically-sourced produce”. Added to this, they were offering us a tasting menu with sake from Akashi Sake Brewery Co. matched to each course. I would get to meet other bloggers in the flesh, as opposed to on twitter, or facebook, on their blogs or on mine. It sounded like a night that I couldn’t miss.

So, off I went, running from work to get there by 7pm, only getting lost twice in the process (er, how long have I been in London, 7 years?) and arriving a couple of minutes late. I was warmly welcomed and offered a choice of sake cocktails - a kappa saketini (tokiwa & honjozu with a slice of cucumber) or tokiwa rhubarb fizz (tokiwa, rhubarb, sugar syrup, soda and mint). First, I had the kappa saketini, which was really dry and refreshing, and deceptive! Danger, danger, it was like drinking Pimm’s, although, much stronger. Then, just before dinner, I had the takiwa rhubarb fizz, which was sweeter and more to my taste, being a bit of a rhubarb obssessive. All the while, we were snacking on edamame, with some of that lovely Japanese chilli pepper that I am so fond of.

It was time to progress to our tasting menu. At this point our group was complete, consisting of Annie Mole, Tim, Dave, Lea, Chris & Hazel from Londonist and Rob & Sabrina from Qype. We started with some wonderful carpaccio of seabass matched with daijinjo, one of my favourite sakes of the night. It was very educational (sound too geeky? it was!), Wakana took great pains to explain the background of each sake to us, showing us the rice, explaining how each one is produced, then we would tuck in, exclaim, judge for ourselves, and rapturously agree that we were all big fans of this wonderful sake. Now, the sake was very strong, and this may have something to do with the rapture, but honestly, we were also enjoying it earlier in the night.

Next up was nasu dengaku, one of my favourites, aubergine with miso, paired with warm and room temperature honjozo. The nasu dengaku was wonderful, as good as I have had, and, the sake was delicious and very interesting to see the difference between the warm and the cold one. My personal preference was for the cold. Again, it was a great complement to the dish.

Where from here? Free range chicken yakitori. I was very happy to see free range on the menu, at their prices especially, let them be an example to other establishments. They were served with genmai aged sake, a richer, almost treacley sake, made from brown rice, all the others had had the husk removed to varying degrees. The interesting thing about this one was, that when they first made it, they didn’t like it atall. They left it in the barrel and rediscovered it some years later, at which point it had aged and was quite delicious. It combined very well with the yakitori, which while small, had quite a robust strong flavour, unlike the delicate fish at the start.

At this point, we were all very satisfied and chatting, and speaking for myself, I thought that was it, and was very pleasantly surprised when they produced an enormous platter of sushi. This sushi was very good and included my favourite hamachi. It was paired with honjozu genshu.

By now, the sake had taken it’s effect and I was in full chatter mode. I almost missed the brownies which would have been a crying shame! They were gorgeous, moist and rich and very very chocolatey.

Thanks to Rob and Sabrina for organising and thanks to Wakana and the lovely people at Tsuru for a lovely evening, I would heartily recommend it and will be going back for more sushi and to try their katsu curries (chicken: £4.95, crab: £6.95), which I’ve read are made with sauces that are cooked for 8 hours. I love a cook with an eye for detail and who does things properly, avoiding those shortcuts that are so easy to take. I have to wonder, how they can do it at their prices!

Sake happy bloggers

Be warned, it’s not open every night, although I don’t think that will last much longer once people get a taste for this place.

Tsuru, 4 Canvey Street, London SE1 9AN
Tel: 020 7928 2228

Opening times:
Mon-Wed 11.00am-18.00pm
Thu-Fri 11.00am-21.00pm

http://www.tsuru-sushi.co.uk/

http://www.akashi-tai.com/eng/index.html

Sake available at the Japan Centre in Picadilly, London.

One of the great things about blogging, is interacting with other bloggers - it’s inspiring, friendly and creative. There’s lots of ways of interacting - leaving comments, email, even just reading, but there’s also lots of memes lurking around, encouraging us to disclose more than say, our latest dinner recipe, or meal in Soho, and to participate in this wonderful thing we call the blogosphere, but I’ve fallen behind and have a few to catch up on.

So, now folks, it’s time for some extreme participative blogging. I am going to catch up on my memes. Brace yourselves, or ignore and wait for my next post. I promise not to take too long :-)

MEME 1 & 2

Trig from Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef invited me to participate in 7 Things About Me and Ginger from Dinner Diary invited me to participate in Five Things About Me. Both posts I really enjoyed reading, and it’s only fair I should return it. I am going to meet them in the middle and do 6.

Here are the rules (except I’ve changed 5/7 to 6 - does that make me a rule breaker? ;-):

1. Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
2. Share 6 random and/or weird things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
4. Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I wasn’t interested in savoury food until late adolescence and was obssessed with making sweets and cakes growing up. Favourites included: homemade turkish delight, coconut ice, lemon meringue, meringues, attempts at homemade crisps and pavlova.
2. With my sister and cousins, as chidren, we baked loads of cakes and sweets and setup a shop where we sold them to our friends and neighbours, then blew our profits on more sweets.
3. I was really into knitting as a child and knitted an aran tracksuit for my doll with mustard wool. Nice!
4. My first and only book was written and illustrated by moi at the age of, I think 8, and was titled “ALIENS ON EARTH”. Lol, still makes me laugh. I took it very seriously.
5. My first album was Silk & Steel by Five Star, on tape. I loved it.
6. I once got deported from Italy at the age of 19. I was living in Nice for a summer while at University, and decided with a friend to pop down to Italy but forgot my passport. It didn’t even occur to us to bring it, it was all very random, I think we decided to do it while walking past the train station - it was only a 45 minute journey. We found it incredibly funny, but the Italian police didn’t. I spoke French but not Italian and they spoke Italian but not French. Bring on the pigeon sign language and the giggles. They consulted the irish embassy and decided that we weren’t a danger to anyone bar ourselves. They saw the funny side eventually and consented to take a photograph of us at the station, I wish I still had it! We were sent packing with 2 other deportees (who incidentally didn’t find it so funny). In hindsight, bloody hell, what were we doing. I’ve been back to Italy a number of times since, and I don’t appear to be on a list anywhere, phew. Although, once they wouldn’t let me in to Italy, as they wouldn’t accept that Ireland was in the EU (in 1998!). We had travelled from Greece to Italy by ferry. The greek police found it hilarious, too funny to actually advise them otherwise and help us out. It took them 40 minutes to work it out. Fun times!

For this meme I am going to tag:

1. George of Culinary Travels of a Kitchen Goddess
2. Sylvie of A Pot of Tea & a Biscuit
3. Becky of Girl Interrupted Eating
4. Su-Lin of Tamarind & Thyme
5. Kittie of Kittien’s in the Kitchen
6. Jules of Domestic Goddess in Training

MEME 3

Jeanne at Cook sister! invited me to participate in a spelling meme when she did JEANNE spells… “list one fact, word or tidbit of information that is somehow related to your life for each letter of your first or middle name”. Like Jean, I am going to give it a foodie slant.

So, here goes:

N - New potatoes, oh I love them! Especially the ones that grow around Dungarvan in Ireland where I grew up.

I - Irish food - it’s so much better than people think! Everyone assumes we only do pubs well, but, we have some wonderful restaurants too, at least in recent years. In my small town alone we have a fabulous restaurant - The Tannery. Cork has many fabulous restaurants too. We have gorgeous cheeses, wonderful seafood, fantastic beef and lamb (amongst others) and great local markets full of locally grown produce.

A - asparagus - one of my favourite vegetables. I am indulging now that it’s asparagus season, and shall blog something soon. Favourites: Asparagus and poached or soft boiled eggs, asparagus carbonara, asparagus risotto.

M - marzipan - food of the devil. I’ll never forget the horror of biting into some marzipan fruit and discovering that underneath the gorgeous bright exterior lay something quite horrible and gritty.

H - hungry - I am always hungry, even when I am full.

As there’s 5 letters in my name, I need to tag 5 people, so for this meme I am going to tag:

1. Trig from Aidan Brooks: Trainee Chef
2. Ginger from Dinner Diary
3. Wendy from A Wee Bit of Cooking
4. Margaret from Kitchen Delights
5. Julia from A Slice of Cherry Pie

I went to a friends yesterday for dinner and she made the most beautiful sweetcorn and roast red pepper fritters with salsa. I had to try and recreate something similar tonight and I am very happy with the results, so unusually, I am happy to blog immediately and encourage you to try them.

Sweetcorn fritters remind me fondly of a holiday in Australia a couple of years ago when I had them for breakfast and had one of those - why haven’t I had these for brekfast before! - revelations. They also remind me of my vegetarian years, when, not a fan of meat substitutes, I instead indulged in sweetcorn fingers and fritters and the like. The texture is wonderful, and each piece of sweetcorn is just bursting with flavour. With a side of avocado and tomato salsa, I challenge anyone to dislike this quick and nutritious evening staple.

I kept these simple, the fritter batter contains only sweetcorn, shallots and fresh coriander with a vibrant and flavoursome salsa of heirloom tomatoes and hass avocado on the side. I used frozen sweetcorn as this was really last minute and I didn’t have time to seek out fresh, but fresh sweetcorn would be wonderful in this recipe, if you have it. I used a wonderful heirloom tomato for the salsa but you can substitute with a beef tomato, 2 plum tomatoes, or some cherry tomatoes. I used shallots but you could substitiute spring onions or red onion. Can’t have dairy? Substitute soya milk or coconut milk - both work really well. If adding the coconut milk, I’d add some green chilli to the batter too and maybe some lime. I sverved some extra heirloom tomato on the side, it was too good not to!

Ingredients:

Fritters:
400g frozen sweetcorn, thawed
125g plain flour
1 tsp baking bowder
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
1 egg
100ml full fat milk
1 small shallot, finely chopped
some pepper

Salsa:
1 avocado, peeled and diced
1 beef tomato or the equivalent in cherry tomatoes (8 or so), diced
1 mild chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped
a squeeze of lemon
some extra virgin olive oil
1 small shallot, finely chopped

Method:

Make the salsa: mix the tomato, avocado, chilli, shallot and coriander and dress with the lemon juice and extra virgin olive oil to taste. One part lemon juice to three parts extra virgin olive oil should do the trick.
Season with salt and pepper and leave to the side.
Make the fritters: sieve the flour, baking powder and salt. Add the milk to the egg and beat lightly. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and slowly add the liquid, stirring as you go until you have a thick batter. When the liquid is completely absorbed, add the sweetcorn, shallot and coriander and mix well.
Heat some oil in a frying pan (skillet) over a moderate heat, and add a tablespoon full of the fritter batter. Flatten out and cook for a few minutes on one side until brown, then flip over and do the same.
Serve immediately with the salsa.

I would love to tell you that the chicken of the woods in this recipe was the result of an exciting day spent foraging, prowling the likes of Hampstead Heath, waiting for the yellow glow of a strip of funghi beaming from a tree. Unfortunately, this is not the case. These are from Borough Market.

I would love to know how to forage for mushrooms without being in fear of my life. I’ve bought several books, including a mushroom encyclopedia, but the knowledge that 300 people die in France each year from eating poisonous mushrooms, terrifies me. I will do it, but first I need to learn from a pro, someone who knows what they’re doing and can impart that information to me. For now, I’ll forage the obvious, nettles, wild garlic and the likes, and buy my wild mushrooms when I can.

Don’t underestimate the excitement contained in turning the corner of the market and spying a table in front of a shop laden with large misshapen fungi. I had to know what it was and I had to have it. I was curious as to what I would do with it. I thought, originally: Risotto? Tagliatelli? With garlic and butter on toast? Then I thought, well, it apparantly tastes of chicken, so why not deep fry it? I could make it a wild treat and accompany it with a homemade wild garlic mayo?

As for tasting of chicken - what next?? Everything seems to taste of chicken, how did this become our culinary benchmark? A fungus, tasting of chicken? I had to investigate. I must confess that I didn’t find it much like chicken atall, it didn’t have a strong flavour, and the texture wasn’t particularly chicken like. Ok, so it’s more like chicken than other mushrooms. This may be because it wasn’t as fresh as it could have been, so I will try it again before discounting the chicken connection. I am too intrigued not to!

The mayonnaise is really straightforward, if time consuming. I promise that it is worth it! I made a small amount as I wanted to make it by hand and didn’t want to spend all night doing it. Even at that I have two blisters to show off tomorrow. I used beautiful Burford Brown eggs with large golden yolks, so if you’re not using these you might want to use less oil. I used the egg white leftover from the mayonnaise to coat the fungi. To coat I used panko (japanese breadcrumbs) - they are fantastic, but if you can’t get them, it’s fine to substitute normal mushrooms. I pureed some wild garlic with some walnuts in a small amount of olive oil. This was the result of an experiment earlier in the week, and for my taste too strong for a pesto, but really good with the mayonnaise. You only need a small amount so, if you are making it only for this dish use about 5 leaves and 3 walnuts, blanch the leaves for 20 seconds in boiling water to take the sharpness off them, and grind them with with the walnuts in a little olive oil in your pestle and mortar and add it to the mayonnaise. I would forgive you for using shop bought mayonnaise if you don’t have the time :-)

Ingredients:

Fritters:
Chicken of the Woods, cut into slim segments (I used two medium ones, use as much as you want)
Some seasoned flour (plain flour seasoned with S&P)
1 egg white (add another egg if you have alot of fungi)
Some panko (or normal breadcrumbs)
Oil for frying (I used groundnut)

Wild Garlic & Walnut Mayonnaise:
1 large egg yolk
50ml extra virgin olive oil
60ml groundnut oil
1/4 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Roughly (depending on your taste): 5 wild garlic leaves and three walnuts, ground in a pestle and mortar with a little olive oil, as above

Method:

Firstly, make the mayonnaise. Add the salt, mustard and vinegar to the egg yolk, and whisk adding the oil a drop at a time. (Promise! It’s worth it!). Be careful to add it slowly as it may curdle otherwise, it’s not worth the risk. As you add the oil, it will start to get thicker, you can start to add it a little quicker then but not too much. When you’ve added all of the oil check the seasoning. Add the wild garlic and walnut mixture to taste.

Coat each slice of mushroom, firstly in the flour, then the egg white and finally the breadcrumb. Heat some oil until a piece of bread cooks on adding to the oil. Add your fritters to the oil and cook until golden brown, turning halfway through if necessary. This should only take a couple of minutes.

Drain excess oil and dry on kitchen paper. Season. Serve immediately with the mayonnaise.

Finding something new to cook with is always exciting. I love prowling food markets and shops looking for that new ingredient or spice. My most recent discovery is fregola sarda (or fregula sarda), a toasted pasta from Sardinia, similar to cous cous but coarser, and because of the way it is toasted quite nutty. Like alot of Italian ingredients, it is exclusive to its area, and is relatively unknown outside of Sardinia. It is also still handmade, something I would like to try sometime in the future when I have time to spare.

I have been cooking with alot of grains recently: pearl barley, farro, wheat, rye. They’re perfect for light summer lunches or side dishes, and fregola is a welcome member of this summer arsenal. With no strong flavour of its own, It combines well with almost anything, and is traditionally served with the likes of clams. This sounds wonderful and is on my list to try, but today, I felt like giving it a London twist, using seasonal produce for a nice light lunch.

Accompanying the fregula in this dish is English asparagus, absolutely bursting with flavour at this time of year. The season is short so I am making the most of it. A punnet of heirloom tomatoes from the Isle of Wight tomato stall at Borough Market accompanied, these incredible tomatoes are juicy and succulent with thick meaty flesh, and absolutely wonderful for this purpose. The final main ingredient is goats curd, a fresh cream cheese made from goats milk that is really light and delicious. I saw this for the first time when I visited Australia (Sydney) some years ago. It’s a great place for food, fresh ricotta and other culinary gems are so easy to come by, it was here that I first had goats curd and have lamented that it’s not available here since. Earlier this year I spotted a large bowl of it in Neal’s Yard Dairy in Borough Market and I’ve been using it since. I use shallots as a base ingredient, I used half an eschalion shallot as they’re quite large. If you don’t have any shallots you can substitute red onion or spring onions (scallions).

Ingredients:

100g fregola sarda
8 spears asparagus, woody ends discarded and chopped into 1 inch segments
1 large heirloom tomato (approx size of a beef tomato, substitute two plum tomatoes)
Half eschalion shallot or one normal shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons goats curd (substitute soft goats cheese if unavailable)
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
Dressing: 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
S&P

Method:

Cook the fregola for 10-12 minutes in boiling water until al dente. For the last two minutes add the asparagus, they will cook in this time. Drain and run under cold water to arrest the cooking process, put to the side.
Remove the tomato core and seeds and dice. Mix with the shallots, fregola, asparagus and parsley and dress. Season to taste.
Add the cheese, I pulled small chunks off with my fingers and dropped them onto the salad.
Enjoy!

It’s National Tomato Week this week, so what better week than this to celebrate this wonderful fruit.

Bright and cheery, it’s a regular visitor to my table, whether for breakfast in huevos rancheros or homemade baked beans, or for an evening meal in clam linguine, prawn curry, mutter paneer or homemade pizza. Not just a pretty face, tomatoes are packed with antoxidant goodness, lycopene in tomatoes is thought to have anti-cancer benefits and is associated particularly with a lower risk of prostate cancer.

I made a trip to Borough Market yesterday morning to visit the Isle of Wight tomato stall, it’s a wonderful, colourful place full of tomatoes of varying shapes, colours and sizes. The Isle of Wight gets more sun than any other part of the UK and so they produce beautiful flavoursome tomatoes there. I opted for some startling (and enormous!) heirloom tomatoes to cook with this weekend.

Unfortunately, I’ve no recipe for you now as I am about to head out the door for a bank holiday Sunday brunch, so, I thought I’d share some of the lovely recipes from other blogs and the web with you, so that you too, could celebrate the tomato.

Smitten Kitchen has a lovely Cherry tomato and green bean salad.

There’s gorgeous pasta with fresh tomato-avocado sauce at the Traveller’s Lunchbox.

Beyond the blogs and in traditional print, Mark Hix has a recipe for Slow roast beef tomato with goat’s curd and pickled walnuts in the Independent and Allegra McEvedy has a recipe for Fasoulatha in the Guardian.

Clam linguine is one of those dishes that I love but am extremely fussy about. Hang on, isn’t that every dish? I digress… I won’t order it out unless I am absolutely certain that the restaurant is reliable and uses fresh clams (fresh = very fresh) and not tinned or jarred clams.

Now, I have had many a “discussion” with friends about this. They think I am a snob, but, hey, clams come in a shell, so why not eat them that way? With seafood generally, the fresher the better, that fresh sea taste, like the salt air, and none of the fishiness that arrives when the fish are out of the water too long.

I really struggle with anything that isn’t extremely fresh, and although I hate to admit it, I really can’t stomach alot of tinned fish. For this reason, I always go to good fishmongers when I can, like in Borough Market or Steve Hatts on Essex Rd in Islington.

I distinctly remember the first time that I had clams. I had been eating mussels for some time but was a bit squeamish about other unknown shellfish. On holiday in Croatia, whilst island hopping and on a visit to a gorgeous island called Vis, we had the most lovely seafood experiences. Fabulous fresh seafood and lots that I hadn’t tried before. Fish there is sold as either white fish or blue fish, white fish being the deep water fish like hake or pollock, whereas the blue fish swim closer to the surface and are a bit cheaper, like mackerel. When you arrive at most restaurants they bring a platter of fresh fish and you choose which one you want them to cook for you and pay by the weight.

We ate in one restaurant there, as we had started talking to someone across the road from it when I noticed a fisherman nearby gutting a large white fish, it turned out that his daughter owned the restuarant and this very fish was destined for the pot, immediately after gutting. How could I resist? It was delicious, a leerfish barbecued over hot coals, with oil brushed on it using herbs as a brush.

It was another lovely local restaurant down the road where I had the clams, larger than palourde and full of meat as they were wild not farmed, they were cooked simply in tomatoes and wine and served with crusty bread, still the best way to eat them in my mind.

Back to the linguine. Clams are a little high maintenance, although this is balanced by how quickly they cook. Before using, soak in several changes of cold water for 5 minutes at a time, so that the clams release any sand contained within the shell. Then scrub the outside shell, they’re usually pretty clean, you just want to get rid of any excess grit that may affect your lovely pasta dish. This really is worth the time and effort.

I treat my clam linguine simply, like the clam dish mentioned above. Some shallots and garlic, sautéed in olive oil, followed by diced, peeled & seeded tomatoes, then some white wine and the clams, stewed with the lid on until the clams open, and finally some lemon to lift the flavour and some parsely to finish.

On this occasion, I got some palourde (or carpetshell) clams from Borough Market. You can get clams at any good fishmonger, and I’d recommend that you treat yourself to some.

Some notes on the recipe:

• I like this dish fruity so I use alot of tomatoes, feel free to decrease if you don’t feel the same. Alot of recipes use more clams and less tomatoes, you could do this here too and easily increase the amount of clams (up to double) and at the end remove some of the meat from the shells so that you are not fighting with the shells while eating.
• To peel the tomatoes, score a small cross at the bottom, barely piercing the skin and cover with boiling water for 15-30 seconds or so, as soon as you see the skin start to peel back.
• You’ll need a dish with a tight fitting lid for the clams.

This dish, as always serves two or one hungry person. I was hungry tonight :-) The recipe follows.

Ingredients:

200g linguine
200g palourde/carpetshell clams, washed and scrubbed as above

200g tomatoes
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 shallot, finely chopped
a handful of fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped
a small glass of white wine
the juice of half a lemon
a knob of butter (10g or so)
S&P

Method:

Sauté the shallot and over a medium heat in some olive oil until transparent but not brown. Add the garlic for 30 seconds or so, stirring and taking care not to burn it.
Add the tomatoes and cook for 3 minutes or so.
Cook the linguine according to packet instructions, if you start now, they should be finished together.
Add the white wine, and cook for a few minutes until it’s reduced in volume by a half or so.
Add the clams and put the lid on the pan. Wait for 5 minutes or so, and check, most should be open by now but if they’re not, give them another couple of minutes.
Once most of the clams are open, discard any that remain closed (this is really important).
Add the butter and allow it to melt, then add the parsley. Add the lemon juice to taste, taking care not to add too much, you want it to complement not dominate.
Add a couple of tablespoons of water from the linguine pot, your sauce will have reduced considerably by now.
Season, and serve immediately
Enjoy!

Apologies to anyone who comes to my online kitchen looking for some recipes, I have been very remiss of late. There’s a few reasons for this:

• I have relocated to Battersea, this is the year of being topsy turvy and moving frequently, it seems.
• Shortly after relocating, some mice came to visit. Some big mice. That liked to run along the worktop. I hate mice, apart from them being unsanitary, they completely freak me out. There is no logic to this whatsoever, I know they’re smaller than me and I can do them more harm than they can me. It must be a phobia, I completely freeze when I see them and I wish I could say scream, but it’s more of a panicky croak. In summary, I steered clear of the kicthen for a couple of weeks.

I started to miss my lunches. I am used to bringing in something tasty and healthy but, whilst my house became the mouse house, I started to use the company canteen again. Our company canteen could desperately do with a Jamie style overhaul. It offers: hot things in bad sauces, pasta that’s been cooked for (I would estimate) an hour in bad or weird sauces, cold fish fingers in the salad section (YES: salad section) and random bits and bobs. It’s saving grace is the said salad section with the likes of grated carrot but that gets tired very quickly, say 3 days. Let’s just say, the company canteen is not my favourite indulgence.

So, I braved the kitchen - be very proud of me. For 2 weeks, if anything brushed off my skin, I immediately thought MOUSE and jumped or ran. I scanned the counter, peeked behind the door, opened the cupboard and peered in expecting to be face to face with a fat grey mouse. But, there was none there. So, I proceeded to concoct something, fresh, flavourful and quick for work. Something to match this lovely weather and to satiate my lunch time appetite. I made a delicious salad with israeli cous cous, feta, tomato, black olives, parsley and pine nuts with some lemon to lift the flavours.

The recipe is very simple and quick. I think it will become a picnic favourite. This made one large lunch.

Ingredients:

100g israeli cous cous
3 spring onions, sliced
50g feta, crumbled
12 or so black olives, stoned and chopped
12 or so cherry tomatoes, chopped - I used juicy san marzana - highly recommended!
25g toasted pine nuts
a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley
half a lemon & some good extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Cook the cous cous according to packet instructions (for about 10 minutes in boiling salted water usually).
Drain and cool, dress in some olive oil so it doesn’t stick.
Combine with the other ingredients and dress with 1 part lemon juice to 3 parts olive oil.
Season with S&P and serve.

Another year, another stylish restaurant opening from Alan Yau. The entepreneur and restaurateur, native of Hong Kong, has taken London by storm in recent years with a succession of well received asian restaurants including two michelin starred restaurants (Yautcha & Hakkasan). He started with Wagamama in 1992 which he sold in 1998 when it comprised 2 restaurants. These were followed swiftly by Satsuma (for the Royal China Group), Busaba Eathai, Hakkasan, Yautcha, Sake no Hana and now Cha Cha Moon.

Famously, he was very unhappy with what happened with Wagamamas. It was a hostile buyout and he is quoted as saying that that was “was like seeing your baby brought up by strangers with different values”. He is seeking to make amends with Cha Cha Moon. It is intended to be the Chinese Wagamamas serving healthy, casual fast food.

On approach, Cha Cha Moon is even more startling and modern than previous offerings with bright panels of lights on the walls, broader than at Yautchas, a pretty neon sign by the door. The kitchen is open and, as you walk in, behind red glass, which lends it a surreal and exciting effect. Stylish, modern and in a great location, it’s a similar formula to some of his previous establishments offering communal eating on long wooden tables and food served swiftly as it’s ready. The menu, on first glance apperars very traditional, serving the likes dan dan noodles & szechuan wontons.

It was quite empty when we arrived at 7.15pm, I can only assume that not many people know that it’s there yet, and we had no trouble getting a table. In fact we had a large table to ourselves. I took a couple of photos until someone ran over quickly advising “no photos allowed”. I obliged and put my camera away, but really, it’s a little silly. Especially as I already had taken some ;)

We ordered a beer and a shibuya casual cocktail. The cocktail, made of lychee, sake and martini bianco, was delicious. It was also very pretty with four raspberries nestling on some white foam on top. To eat we ordered jasmine tea smoked chicke lao mian, seafood ho fun, szechuan wonton and spring onion pancakes.

I really enjoyed the chicken, it was delicately flavoured and light, and the noodles were flavoursome especially when blended with some nice accoutrements inluding a beautiful light bowl of light soup/stock. The seafood ho fun was extremely fresh and contained scallops, prawns and squid but the sauce overwhelmed. I am not a fan of black bean sauces generally, so I am sure this is why it disappointed on that front. Why order it then? It wasn’t my dish but my dining partners, he also was underwhelmed. The szechuan wonton was tasty, but not as firey as one I previously had at Angeles, a traditional szechuan restaurant in Kilburn in London. The spring onion pancakes were very flavoursome and a nice accopaniment.

Overall judgement? It opened only last weekend, and so, while they are perfecting their craft, all food on the menu is £3.50. Bargain! Therefore, I can’t really judge the food just yet, it wouldn’t be fair. First impressions are that it’s cheap, stylish, central and quick. I think it will be good for that stopgap on a busy evening or a quick sociable bite with friends.

Cha Cha Moon
15-21 Ganton St, Soho, W1F 9BN
020 72979800

28/05/08 Visited Cha Cha Moon again and had Sigapore fried noodles which were delicate, light and beautifully seasoned. Choi Sum on the side was well seasoned and flavoursome. Spring rolls were disappointing. More photos added to the post. I managed to take some this time! :-)

This little blog is one year old. Or, was one year old last Friday, but the bank holiday intervened, then work and since then the sunshine, so, I am celebrating late :-)

What a year! When I started I had no idea how it was going to work out, but 121 posts later, it’s now my favourite hobby. It’s forced me to be creative with my cooking, and the other wonderful food blogs out there are so inspiring on that score.

Where did I think this blog would be one year later when I wrote my first post? I was quite nervous so I did it entirely anonymously, and those early posts were quite brief, but, as I settled into it, I loved doing it and found I spent so much time thinking and arranging what I was doing around it. All in a positive way - promise!

I never would have thought that 12 months later I would have 13,922 views in one month! Nor did I think for a second that someone at the Guardian Food Blog (Word of Mouth) would blog me, or that a colleague of theirs would interview me. I was suprised and flattered to see two of my photos blogged at Slashfood (here and here). I was delighted to win the photography competition run by lastminute.com for London Restaurant Week and am very much looking forward to indulging in that lovely prize. The lovely people at Trusted Places interviewed me - you can watch the video here.

Most importantly of all, I’ve loved the gorgeous feedback from my readers.

Guardian article photograph

All good? Surely not? Well, there is a downside. Lots of cooking & overeating whilst bad before, is now like an extreme sport. Not the healthiest of pursuits (but lots of fun!). So, there has been some corporal expansion which needs to be dealt with *soon*.

Have I delivered what I promised in that first post? I hope so, but I have lots of ideas for improvements in the future. I want to travel more and learn more. I want to photograph better. First stop: a better camera.

For now, I am very happy and very grateful. Thank you for coming by and making this such a lovely experience for me.

Recently, Walid from Trusted Places got in touch about doing an interview for The Trusted Places Blog. If you don’t know Trusted Places, you should. It’s is a community based reviewing site that allows you to post reviews, setup your own community of reviewing friends and it indicates people with similar tastes as you which can be really good if you are scouting new bars and restaurants! It has received fantastic acclaim in the press and has been listed in the top 25 UK startups in the Register, the Top 10 British Dotcoms to watch in the Guardian, the 50 Best Travel Websites and website of the week in the Times Online and on and on.

I really like it, I tend to look there for reviews of new places (as well as blogs of course!) and I’ve been a member and user of their site for a while, so, I thought that it might be fun to go down a