Favourites List - February 2013

And as I hath forthtoldeth, so it hath cometh to pass....... We are in assessment season. A time of fear, anxiety and hardship. My poor students have just taken an advocacy assessment and an exam testing their drafting skills. They are also working towards a hand in of some written work and are preparing for some very taxing knowledge exams. They are stressed and tired. The tutors are in the middle of marking whilst teaching. We are all struggling to stay energised and enthusiastic. Thankfully, Spring is around the corner, and spirits will lift as the days get steadily longer and brighter. 

I am still very much minded to eat and cook Wintry comfort food. I am not yet ready for salads and light bites. So pastas, soups and stews remain what is going on down in this neck of the woods. 

My enormous headphones are more than earning their keep as earmuffs as well as delivering tunage to my frostbitten ears. 

So here are my selections for the month.  

Since Chinese New Year was earlier this month, on Sunday February 10th, I am using pictures from my trip to China with a theme of good luck and blessings. These prayer offerings are tied by people at many temples and shrines in China. These pictures were taken at the Daoist in the oldest remaining part of Chongqing.  

Blogs worth following:

An engaging blogger, perhaps not as snobby a the name suggests:  http://thefoodsnobuk.wordpress.com/

Dreaming of visiting Vietnam? Check out: http://stickyrice.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Jack Knight - the Knight of the Round Table:  http://theknightoftheroundtable.blogspot.co.uk/

Mummy I Can Cook blog: http://mummyicancook.blogspot.co.uk/

Recipes:

For Mardi Gras (AKA Pancake Day on Tuesday 12 February): http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/feb/10/nigel-slater-pancake-recipes

Warming Turkish minced lamb stew:  http://mediterraneanturkishfoodpassion.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/chickpeas-with-ground-lamb-kuzu-kymal.html

For food fans on a budget, a simple and cheap pasta bake: http://bluekitchenbakes.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/cheesy-mushroom-pasta-bake.html

Spicy sausage rolls with red wine sauce for very cold days by Nigel Slater: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/oct/21/nigel-slater-sausage-rolls-potato-wedges

Madhur makes Moghlai curry with beef (reckon you could use lamb equally well!):  http://www.mykitchentable.co.uk/index.php/2011/09/madhur-jaffrey-beef-baked-withyoghurt-and-black-pepper/

A good way of eating oily fish: http://www.domesticsluttery.com/2013/01/sluttishly-savoury-thai-salmon-curry.html

An alternative Pollo al Ajillo (Chicken with garlic Spanish style: http://azaharskitchen.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/pollo-al-ajillo-con-espinacas/

Tinned tomatoes - an indispensable staple in my house: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/25/tinned-tomato-recipes-fearnley-whittingstall

How to cook the perfect steak: http://thefoodsnobuk.wordpress.com/2012/11/04/how-to-cook-the-perfect-steak/

Angela Hartnett's simple pasta dish uses chestnuts. I can still find them fresh at my local Turkish grocers. Middle eastern and Turkish grocers also sell ready cooked packets of chestnuts. They are labelled Kestane Kebap. They are really useful and save work and hassle since they are also ready peeled! http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/jan/16/fettuccine-with-bacon-chestnuts-recipe

Ramen really seems to be all the rage at the moment: http://www.editer.com/food-drink/ramen-recipe/

Italian style tapas dish from Gwyneth's blog: http://goop.com/recipes/small-bites/zuchinni-fritti

Articles:

List of oily and lean fish for healthy eating: http://www.cookuk.co.uk/freezer/fish-oily-lean.htm

Where to get Fish n Chips in the Big Smoke: http://www.timeout.com/london/restaurants/londons-best-fish-and-chip-restaurants-1

A really interesting idea about how to make existing recipes leaner, healthier and 'cleaner' by ingredient substitution: http://www.thegraciouspantry.com/clean-eating/food-substitution-chart/

Food fraud; horsemeat, fake duck, dodgy halal meat and products which claim to be 

organic which are not: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-21381689

Alternative fillings for won ton wrappers: http://www.foodrepublic.com/2013/02/14/your-daily-lunch-hack-10-clever-ways-fill-wonton-w

A guide for all of us who can't tell our bhindi from our gajjar - Indian names for fruit and vegetables: http://www.tastyappetite.net/2013/02/glossary-of-indian-vegetable-fruits_8883.html

Films:

Red Lights

Toy Story 3

Blue Valentine

Music:

Ren Harvieu - Through The Night

Joni Mitchell - Blue

The Smiths - Hatful of Hollow

Stevie Wonder - Innervisions

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Turkish 'Kebab' Rice

Turkish food is unfairly underrated in the UK. Most people seem to think that it is 'only' about kebabs. This is unfair for two very fundamental reasons. Firstly, because Turkish food is about so much more; the superb sote dishes, such Guvec (casseroles and stews which are full of flavour); their superb take on pizzas (also known as Pide); one of my personal favourites, Lahmacun and their exceptional sweet and satisfying puddings (think sutluc, baklava and kadayif). Secondly, Turkish food is healthy and nutritious; all their meals are perfect balances of everything you need. And frankly their marinaded meats are to die for! If I were to say French food was only about creamy sauces, you'd tell me that I was incompletely and unfairly generalising, and you'd be right. Yet when it comes to Turkish food, these gross generalisations seem to be tolerated.

When you eat out at Turkish restaurants, the main accompaniments are often salad and rice. This is a great combination, as you get fibre, vitamins, minerals and a dose of carbohydrates to keep you going along with your meaty protein goodness. It's a truly balanced meal, and one that is fairly low in fat since the meat is usually grilled.

If you have ever wanted to make the rice accompaniment, I have been experimenting with getting it right for some time. I first tried to write a recipe for it when I posted my Turkish Cypriot style lamb stew recipe (here http://snigskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/turkish-cypriot-style-lamb-stew.html). But it turned out to be a bit hit and miss, depending on the level of heat from the hob. Another issue was that I had no proper idea of how much oil to use (too much affects the texture of the dish. And there was some fragrance and flavour missing. 

So here is a revised version. You need a saucepan with a well fitting lid, and you need to use a ring on the hob which can be turned down to a very low heat.

Turkish Basic Pilaf (AKA 'Kebab' Rice)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 heaped tablespoon or around 30g orzo pasta (alternatively capellini corte)

130g Lux Baldo rice

1-2 bay leaves, dried

1 tbsp olive oil

250g or ml water

Method:

In a small saucepan (for which you have a good fitting lid), heat the olive oil. You only need a medium heat.

Add the pasta. 
 















Stir frequently and fry for 2-3 minutes, until the pasta begins to toast and change colour. Turn the heat down if you think the pasta will burn. Or take it off the heat completely. You do not want the pasta to turn more than golden brown. 

Now add the rice and bay leaves. Coat well in the oil and mix the pasta up thoroughly whilst stirring for another 2 minutes.

Now add the water. Bring to a light boil. Turn the heat down to a very low simmer. Mix all the ingredients very thoroughly. Put the lid on the pan. 

Cook with the lid on for 15-17 minutes. You may need to check it after about 10 minutes to stir. You want to ensure the rice at the bottom of the pan does not catch and burn.

After the main cooking time, check the rice is cooked and the water absorbed. 

If not, take the lid off, put the heat on the lowest possible heat setting you can manage, and stirring frequently, heat for a further 2-3 minutes.

Check that the rice is cooked; it should be by now.

Serve with grilled meats or Turkish stews and salad.

Roux at the Landau

Modern dining trends are great. I am all for the new generation of restaurants with a near obsessive interest in quality and authenticity. Often inspired by the founders' travels around the globe, these establishments try to capture the essence of some of the greatest travel and food experiences. Sometimes when you go out, you want to be transported to a quintessentially Andalucian tapas joint, or a Bombay Irani cafe or a Venetian bar. These are great places to eat, and have made the London restaurant scene the envy of the world. And if our restaurant isn't the envy of the world, it is only because the world has not yet realised how awesome it is!

But I digress, as is my habit. What I wanted to say is sometimes you want a little more space. Space to relax, with a big enough table that you aren't squashed. Time enough that you can properly chat and catch up and make an evening out of a meal. When those occasions call (as it recently did for Him Indoors and I when we wanted to catch up with one of my dearest old school friends), we needed to think long and hard about where we went. We didn't want a place with a 'no reservations' policy, or who knows how long we might wait for a table? We didn't want an establishment playing music so loud you can't talk, when the whole purpose of the evening was to chat, catch up and be sociable. We wanted a place with good food, an ethos where a good experience was key, and where the service was professional; attentive yet low key. We decided, eventually on Roux at the Landau.

Roux at the Landau is located at the Langham Hotel, Portland Place, literally across the road from the BBC's iconic building near the top end of Regent Street. Thankfully, it has its own entrance, so you don't have to feel the need to explain to the dapper and exceptionally polite staff that 'err.... umm..... I'm just looking for the restaurant. I'm not actually staying here....'! The restaurant, whose head chef (chef de cuisine) is Chris King, is run overall by Albert and Michel Roux Jnr. Chris King is the protege of Michel Roux Jnr, and worked at that pinnacle of restaurant perfection, Le Gavroche, for 5 years. So we were looking forward to a special evening of food, chat and a little luxury.

 

Canape: Fresh olives, stuffed with veal

Olives are often an acquired taste and we frequently find the preserved variety are too sour or salty. These fresh olives had a mere hint of bitterness; the real flavour of the olive unadorned by preserving agents, but with a hint of fruit. The olive's texture was firm, and the veal stuffing soft and toothsome, providing a wonderful contrast. A teasing hint at the food to come. 

Poached duck breast with savoy cabbage 'rillettes' and walnut juniper dressing

Usually 'rillettes' means you receive a pate-like dish. Commonly made of pork, the meat is cooked in fat, very slowly with copious amounts of salt. The meat is then turned into a pate or paste by slicing or shredding and then combining it with the cooking fat. However, here the rillettes are a vegetable pate made of finely chopped savoy cabbage. The cooked duck has been finely sliced and has been gently cooked to keep its consistency and flavour. The presentation of this dish is just astonishing. It is art on a slate.

Classic salmon and scallop cervelas with shellfish butter sauce

Again, we have a traditionally French dish, given an original twist. This time, cervelas, which would usually be a sausage made of pork and beef (often with bacon), has been made of seafood rather than meat. The balance of salmon and scallop is well observed, because it would have been easy for the stronger flavoured salmon to  dominate the delicate scallop. But, we are in the hands of a master, so no danger there. The cervalas was gloriously yielding, soft and tender. The shellfish butter sauce gently reminds me of the sea; tasting "of the sea" but not at all fishy. 

Spit roast chicken with pecorino-basil gnocchi and young artichoke ragout

The chicken is one of the smaller ones; not those tasteless rapidly grown ones whose flesh is open textured and full of water. It has been roasted such that it is still moist and flavourful. The gnocchi are breadcrumbed and not quite what I was expecting. My only criticism is that I can barely taste the basil, one of my favourite herbs, evoking sunny days spent in Italy. But the artichoke ragout is gently cooked and coats the chicken and gnocchi, bringing out their textures and flavours with a complimentary flavours.

Butter roast beef chateaubriand, fondant pink fir apple potatoes and Roquefort hollandaise

Rich and satisfying, the beef is delightful. With the creamy deliciousness of the Roquefort hollandaise, this is not a dish where you consider the calorie count, but one to chalk up as a decadent treat for yourself. Pink Fir Apple potatoes are rare, overshadowed by Anya and other small potato varieties. It's a slight shame that there were not more of the actual potatoes served, since they are nutty and delicious.

 

French and British Artisan cheeses

First, let me show you the selection. Other than Le Gavroche (whose cheese selection takes up a table top on a rolling trolley of at least 4 feet by 2.5 feet!!), I don't think I have ever seen such a large array of cheeses to tempt the most varied palate. Oozy, young, mature, hard, soft, blue, goats milk, lambs milk, cows milk; all tastes are catered for. Onion marmalade, pickle and quince jelly are all supplied

Ice cream sundae du jour

Served theatrically in a bowl of ice, this is spectacular. Very high quality ice cream, it needs the ice to allow you enough time to eat it without turning into slush! Topped with thin, delicately baked biscuit, this dessert selection of our guest was demolished with relish.

The desserts were enjoyed with glasses of Chateau de Cerrons dessert wine. Indulgent, but it complimented both the ice cream and cheeses with its cool, sweet raisiny tones.

I didn't take pictures of the Petits Fours. The lights were fading and flash simply ruins all attempts at food photography. Besides, my dinner companions were getting more than bored on my insistence to take photos of every single dish, often more than once. I can vouch for the fact that the forest fruit jelee was intensely flavoured with fruit with just enough gelatine for firmness, the mini-palmier light with a hint of chocolate  There is a choice of coffees or a variety of teas, all of which are a very high quality. 

Turning to the service, I cannot fault it. It is kind, polite, attentive yet unobtrustive. Sometimes I find too much attention a little intimidating. And I really don't like snootiness, which I have experienced both in London and elsewhere.  Here the courses are not rushed, guests are given the time to eat, chat and settle down. You aren't faced with the next plate of food as soon as you've finished the last. This is exactly how I like it. There was no hint of the pushy and sometimes aggressive table turning which blights so much of the London high-scale market. We were not rushed in any way, even after we'd paid the bill but wanted to finish off our teas and coffees.

For such an upmarket restaurant (the dinner guest that Him Indoors and I brought along exclaimed 'Fancy!' as one of her impressions of the place), there is little pretension about Roux at the Landau. The service is unbelieveably polite but with a kindness and charm that is sometimes absent from 'posh' eateries'. There is none of the typical pressure to choose 'still or sparkling' water. Good old London tap water is brought to you without any sniffy attitude, which many London restaurants should note. We customers are already paying top banana for our meal - with wine - so we don't see any reason to pay between £5 and £9 for plain old H₂O! 

Overall, my assessment is that the food, wine, surroundings and service here are amazing. It does, however, come at a price. It isn't excessive, for what you get. I just think it is a place for you to choose the suitable occasion for - then relax and enjoy in the care of experts in their field.

Snigdha, Him Indoors and our friend paid proper money - AKA pictures of the Queen - for their meal.

I've won a Versatile Blogger Award!

I was very pleased when I was recently nominated for a Versatile Blogger Award by music aficionado, blogger, and all round good egg Simon Hetherington. Simon is the brains and talent behind a blog called Simon Sometimes Says, which you can find here: http://simonsometimessays.wordpress.com/

 

Simon is also one of my most constant twitter correspondents, with whom I've traded all sorts of wonderful musical inspiration and knowledge (his username is @Hethersimon, so get following!).

Details of "The Versatile Blogger Award" can be found here, including a selection of posts from other nominees: http://versatilebloggeraward.wordpress.com/

The Versatile Blogger Awards have some special rules. The nice people set it up aren't too fussy about them, since when they set out the rules on their blog have prefaced them with "If you choose to obey them". But it seems a little ungrateful to play the game without playing by the rules. 

So, I have to do the following:

- Display the Award Certificate on your website

- Announce your win with a post and link to whoever presented your award

- Present 15 awards to deserving bloggers (this feels like a lot…)

- Drop them a comment to tip them off after you’ve linked them in the post

- Post 7 interesting things about yourself 

So here is the Award, in all of its emerald glory:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is my list of 15 highly deserving bloggers:

http://www.mykidsreallyeatthis.com/

http://www.foodifancy.com/ 

http://www.kaveyeats.com/

http://comfortbites.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ubersuperbakes.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.quickindiancooking.com/

http://lizzieeatslondon.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.hownottodoafoodblog.com/

http://mummyicancook.blogspot.co.uk/

http://thelambshankredemption.blogspot.co.uk/

http://www.bongcookbook.com/

http://www.pukkapaki.com/

http://www.theravenouscouple.com/

http://www.leluu.com/

http://theknightoftheroundtable.blogspot.co.uk/

Now I have to post 7 Interesting things about me:

Seriously? I have to write as many as 7? This will be tough.....

1. I am 5 foot 1. That makes me a munchkin. It also means I am the same height as reggae and dub pioneer Lee "Scratch" Perry, apparently. I have also been told I am the same height as Kylie Minogue, but I am not as enamoured of her music, so I don't like to mention it. I cannot currently confirm Prince's height, but would be happy to be as vertically challenged as his Purpleness!

2. The most extreme thing I have ever eaten was a barbequed and marinaded red ants' nest in a village in Cambodia. During the food shortages of the Khmer Rouge era, people in rural areas experimented with eating insects to ensure some protein intake. I don't recommend it, the formic acid is rather unpalatable. Worry not, the recipe will not be making it to my blog!

3. The second most extreme thing I have ever eaten was a "Hundred Year Egg" as a dare in Chiang Mai, Thailand. The nice guy at our hotel had some in his packed lunch, and thought that as a lily livered foreigner (or 'farang' in Thai), I wouldn't dare try one. Well, I did! And the strangest thing about it was that it didn't actually taste as 'eggy' as a regular hard boiled egg!

4. I am obsessed with music, from the mid 1960s to the present day. I love the Beatles, whose music is always there as a source of comfort, inspiration and happiness. The musician I most admire is Jimi Hendrix for his innovative style, mastery of the instruments and skill at incorporating finger shredding solos into songs without sounding bombastic. That his influence still can be felt in the axe practitioners of today only reinforces his standing as the greatest guitarist that ever lived. Sorry, Johnny Marr! 

5. I own a horrible number of albums, mainly on CD, but also on vinyl. I have arranged my CD collection like a record shop; alphabetical order (by artist surname) with little tabs. It sounds like I'm a librarian style neat freak, when actually I am chronically disorganised - but alphabetisation is the only way when you have more than 600 albums!

6. Although I am now a Senior Lecturer at a London law school, I am by training and trade a Barrister, and I am a member of the Inner Temple. This means that when I was formally admitted into the profession (what we name "Called to the Bar"), it was in the Temple Church, as made famous by The Da Vinci Code. Following the success of the book and film (I confess I am not a fan), the place is now a very popular visitor attraction, whereas back in the day when I was training, it was almost deserted.

7. I love food from all over the world and consider myself to have truly international tastes. However, if push comes to shove, my all time favourite cuisine would be Thai food. I love the combination of the main four flavours combined in each dish. I think their salads are flavour bombs which make eating lots of veg and having a low fat meal a doddle. Although their use of chillis and heat can sometimes be incendiary, it is never gratuitous. So Thai is number one in the Snig's charts, followed by Indian, Italian, Chinese and French making my top five.

So thanks to Simon for his very kind nomination. I am chuffed and deeply flattered!