Food Blogger meet-up at The Chiswick Moran

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Who fancies a night out in West London? Savour Chiswick is happening next month, and the Chiswick Moran Hotel have offered to host a food bloggers meet-up (#wldnbloggers), much like the ones we’ve done in the past.

Date: Friday 1st July

Time: 6:00pm for complimentary cocktail reception to launch the festival; 7:00pm for BBQ.

Cost: £30 per head including 1/2 bottle of wine

We’ll be out on the Napa Terrace (with contingency plan to move into the restaurant if the weather is as rubbish as it has been lately) and they’ll be serving dishes from the summer menu, below.

Chiswick Moran Hotel, 626 Chiswick High Road, London W4 5RY

Nearest Tube: Gunnersbury on the District line. Exit station left, walk straight up along Chiswick High Road for approx 400 metres and the hotel is directly opposite.

FRESH FISH

Skewered Tiger prawn, chorizo & pepper salad

Squid & crispy pork salad, pickled vegetables

Flamed whole sardines & baby mackerel, brushed with lemon grass & chilli butter

Grilled red snapper with Thai green papaya salad

Half or whole grilled lobster, mixed leaves & chips

Fish feast to share – Grilled lobster, tiger prawns, baby squid, sardines & red snapper, hot garlic butter, salad & chips

PRIME MEATS

Flamed Toulouse & chorizo sausage salad

Spatchcock baby chicken rubbed with cracked black pepper & garlic butter

Steaks:  19oz T-bone steak / 8oz Rib eye steak / 8oz Sirloin steak

Meat feast to share – Barbecued whole rib of beef & marinated chicken breast, coated with grilled chorizo & Toulouse sausage butter

The best of meat & fish, share with the whole table – Whole rib of beef, whole barbequed lobster, king prawns, squid & Toulouse sausages, big bowl of chips & salad

SWEET

Barbequed brioche, sweet chilli pineapple with crème fraiche

To reserve a place: please fill in the form below asap – including your full name for the hotel’s guestlist please

The Charles Lamb, Islington

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It’s a curious thing. Mention the Charles Lamb to anyone familiar with Islington and you get one of two reactions. It’s either an immediate grin and an ‘omigodilovethatplace’, launching into stories of sneaky after work pints and lazy weekend lunches, or blank. Nothing. 

To those of you in the latter camp, you really should give the Charles Lamb a try. It’s tucked away behind Angel but utterly removed from the madness of Upper Street.

We went in on a Saturday – the obviously named Map room (also known as the Cheese room, as the lead glass window once served as a shop front from which cheese was sold) and the bar itself were empty when we arrived as everyone sat outside in the sunshine. We walked around reading the art works, lots of typography pieces including some from New North Press, and Steven Kenny’s Please Don’t Feed Mascha signs.  They refer to the resident dog, whose art dealer owners have curated the wonderful collection on the walls. I liked the magnifying glass provided to properly examine the map of 1890s London poverty.

Darren, the very affable manager, talked us through the menu of the day and also told us a little more about their suppliers. They buy locally (including Exeter St Bread and McKanna Meats)  and seasonally as much as possible – many of the vendors they use call them on a daily basis to tell them what’s been caught or is good that day and they plan menus accordingly. As a result, the menu changes frequently and it’s a ‘first come first served’ mentality but their bar menu has some constants too. 
I started with a Fentiman’s Ginger beer as we were hot and sticky after the walk there, and the boy went for that traditional hangover vanquisher, the Bloody Mary. Turns out they liven it up with a dash of Caol Ila, which got the thumbs up – can’t bear tomato juice myself.
 
We started on foccacia with a delicious fruity olive oil, waiting for the first course. The Chicken liver pate from the bar menu was a very generous portion, and when we cracked the disc of buttermilk coloured fat on top there was warm, unctuous, velvety pate waiting underneath which came with heaps of cornichons and wedges of toast.
 

I went for the Raw candy beetroot, mint and feta salad (£6.50) while the boy ordered the Salt beef sandwich (£8) which had tongues of translucent pickle slices hanging out the side, and thick slices of juicy beef. The plan was to divide and share as usual but I found myself hanging on to the salad – this sort of thing doesn’t normally happen. The boy had a pint of the rather good Harviestoun Schiehallion to go with it – it won Best pilsner 2010 and was hoppy, rich, reminded me of a San Francisco craft beer.

We were persuaded into desserts, the pannacotta was particularly popular and when it arrived it was a full wine glass with glorious speckles of vanilla bean showing through. It emerged that I still hate pannacotta but I wouldn’t have been able to wrestle it away from the boy anyway and he really wouldn’t have had a look in at my frangipane tart with the sharpest imaginable red fruit coulis on top, which cut the sweetness perfectly.
When we were in there, a couple of lost tourists who’d presumably come up from the nearby Regent’s Canal came in and asked what local beers they had.  Darren replied  almost innocently ‘Well, pretty much everything in here is local’.    Then a woman came in saying she was looking for ‘Daniel and Charlie’ – Darren said he hadn’t seen them yet. Turns out she was referring to one of the regulars and his spaniel. We quizzed him about whether they do private hire (at the time we were looking for a pub to hold a party after our wedding) and he explained that as they are a local pub, and in a residential area, they only close the pub for regulars or neighbours. That way, he explains, if someone asks why they were closed on Wednesday night, he can say ‘Oh, No 15 were having a birthday party’ which is acceptable apparently.  All I can say is, Elia St and its nearby residents are very lucky indeed.
Thanks to Hannah at Story PR for arranging for us to visit.

Charles Lamb
16 Elia Street
Islington N1 8DE

José

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On the eve of the opening of José Pizarro’s eponymous new space, the man himself was good enough to throw open the doors to a bustling crowd and invite us down to sample the wares.

I think everyone has already described the space as ‘cosy’ – and that’s as much down to the service and the atmosphere as the bijou size of the place. It seats seventeen covers apparently, and the house speciality is small sharing plates. We guzzled gazpacho (given that I’m not a huge tomato fan, this even took me by surprise) and tussled over tortilla, accompanied by a great Cava and a Fino – will have to go back and study the lists properly. What a chore, eh?

With his strong focus on both the sherry selection and daily market specials, José has created a spot that you could pop into over and over again – just to make sure you’re not missing out, of course. We loved the hake with aioli, the croquettas, the manchego – and it went on and on. Plenty of justification for visiting again in the very near future.

Thank you to the gorgeous Hannah at Nourish for inviting us.

José, 104 Bermondsey Street, London, SE1 3UB

Open:  Mon-Fri 12:00-22:30; Sat 10:00-22:30; Sun 10:00-18:00

T: 020 7403 4902 (no reservations)

#BloggersBBQ at the Ship, Wandworth

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What: Food blogger meet-up

When: Tuesday 17th May, 7.30, for food at 8:00pm

Where: The Ship, 41 Jews Row, Wandsworth, SW18 1TB, @shipwandsworth

Cost: £25 pp to include canapés on arrival, platters of starters and mains from The Ship’s barbeque menu and a selection of summer desserts. Wine and sponsored beverages will also be included in the price.

Menu:

~ To Start ~
Smoked Fish Platter with Chili Squid, Chorizo, Pea and Fennel Salad and Oysters
~ Miniature Mains ~
Sliders with Bacon and Cheese in a Homemade Bun
Cocktail Sausages, Mustard Mayonnaise Dip
Butterflied Lamb leg, Rosemary and Chilli Jam
Trimmed Dingley Dale Pork Ribs, Smoky Coca-Cola Sauce
Prawn Skewers
Falafels, Homemade Sweet Chili Dip
Platters of Mixed Salad, Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese, Fries, Coleslaw and Nicoise Salad
~ Desserts ~
Summer Fruit Eton Mess
Hot Fruit Sundae

How to book: fill in this form and say you’re interested in the Ship meet-up.  The £25 will be payable in cash only please on the night.  You’ll get an email to confirm that you’re on the list.

Transport: Overground to Wandsworth Town train station. Exit the station and turn left. At the busy roundabout, cross towards McDonalds. Jews Row is behind between the Mercedes garage and bus depot, on the riverside.  Buses 44, 28, 295 and C3 pass nearby, or East Putney and Parson’s Green are 20-30 minutes’ walk away.

Thanks to the Ship for accommodating us again. They’re reserving the area between the outside bar (which will be open) and the river, which is covered in case of less than summery weather, and has heaters and fairy lights.  If it’s anything like the Christmas lunch, it should be a cracking evening!

Quick “Granola”

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Weekend breakfasts are a big thing around here. However, trying to lose some weight – possibly gained through pancake eating on a recent trip to the US – means that breakfasts now need to involve a lot more fruit and a lot less bacon. Bah.

Almost made muffins this weekend, but even that seemed like a lot of effort. We had the ingredients for porridge, but no desire for it. A quick google for ‘quick granola‘, something else I’ve been craving since our recent trip, resulted in this. I also received some Kerrygold Honey Spread recently which I wanted to try.  As an Irish ex-pat, well, Kerrygold is butter in our house. Apparently this stuff is lower-fat than butter – yes, I know that’s all relative – but it has enough sweetness to lift the granola too. Of course, butter and honey, or agave, would work well too.  No, it’s possibly not the healthiest option in the world. But it meant I ate a lot more fruit than I would had alongside a bacon sandwich.

Ingredients

  • 40g butter or honey spread
  • 2 tbsp dried cranberries
  • 2 tbsp sesame seeds
  • 2 tbsp pumpkin seeds
  • 1 cup jumbo oats
  • 1 apple
  • 3 tbsp organic low-fat yoghurt
  • fresh fruit to garnish
  • cinnamon, to taste

Method

  1. Peel and roughly chop the apple into a bowl, and spoon over the yoghurt to stop the apple from browning and pop it in the fridge.
  2. Melt the Kerrygold spread in a heavy frying pan, then add the oats, pumpkin seeds and sesame seeds and coat well.
  3. Stir in the cranberries, then turn the mixture out on to a lined baking tray to cool for a few minutes.  Sprinkle with cinnamon (and perhaps some crunchy light brown sugar). If you’re doing the butter and honey route, you could pop the tray in a very low oven to let it crisp up even more.
  4. Assemble the ‘quick granola’ on top of the apple and yoghurt, and add whatever other fresh fruits you’ve got to hand.


Jamie Oliver: Fifteen London and Recipease

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Over the past couple of weeks I’ve had the pleasure of running into some of the very wonderful Jamie Oliver crew.  A couple of weeks ago we gathered at Fifteen, lured by the promise of what turned out to be, frankly, the finest Hot Cross Buns known to man.

There they are in all their sticky glossy gloriousness. We had the privilege of sitting with the lovely Kenny, master baker at Fifteen who’d also made delicious candy-coloured rhubarb and ginger jam which we piled on high, before I proceeded to pillage the vast brunch menu, and order….

Yeah. The fruit plate and the porridge. I was obviously having some sort of healthy epiphany (short-lived, natch) but it was actually very good and here’s where I think Fifteen scores very highly – it does a proper brunch. By that I mean there are decent Bloody Marys – ok, not unlimited but let’s not run before we can walk here –  and a wide range of food options from sweet to savoury with the traditional hangover cures in the middle. I did slightly wish I’d followed Louis‘ example and had the eggy brioche though because actually, I think anything coming out of Kenny’s kitchen is going to be superbly good and just having his sourdough bread toasted and spread with jam and salty butter all morning would have been an absolute treat.  We lingered through to almost lunchtime – we’ll go again and it would be great if the breakfast was served longer at the weekend. For weekdays, they have free wifi too….

I lived around the corner from Fifteen when it first opened and Jamie Oliver started spreading his mission about getting ‘hard to reach’ young people into professional kitchens and training them to be fully qualified.  It’s hard to believe that that was ten years ago.  Now the empire spans Cornwall and Amsterdam too. Jamie’s passion for cooking, and equally food education is legendary. Recipease is another part of his mission.

Uyen and I went down to take a knife skills class (apparently the most popular class they run at the Clapham Junction location). The rather brilliant Annegrete, a professional chef who used to work at Fifteen, put us through our paces for the two hour class.  This was after having a good mosey around the very well curated selection of homewares and merchandise in the shop – you really could drop serious cash here.  The classes are reasonably priced – £30 for ours including cooking our own lunch, and a glass of wine thrown in, plus you get 10% off in the shop afterwards.

What were the most important things I took away from the class? Well, apart from how to prepare prawns properly which was a bit of a bonus, there was the following:

  • how to properly and efficiently sharpen knives – dull equals dangerous
  • move the hands and the blade, keep the food steady
  • make sure the food is stable and set in place
  • place a damp kitchen towel under your board to keep it stable
  • how to rock chop, tap chop and cross chop safely (no slap chop necessary here thank you)

Some on Twitter asked how basic the class was.  Well, the skills are basic but I think a lot of us who consider ourselves competent in the kitchen are probably not as fast or indeed as efficient as we could be in terms of knife skills.  We all thought we’d progressed pretty far during the class and then Annegrete proudly told we’d done well, and with six months’ practice, we’d be great. Gulp.

Being able to cook is such a fundamental life skill but where do most of us pick up the basics? Well, probably at home, if we’re lucky, or we pick up things from books, blogs and TV. I did suffer through a couple of years of home economics in secondary school but I can guarantee they never let us near anything useful like knives. In Jamie’s Dream School currently showing on Channel 4, he seems to be doing his own, more useful take on home ec – i.e. here’s how to chop properly – so that you can cook a meal that’s faster and cheaper than a take away. That’s real home economics to me. Bless Jamie. Long may his mission continue.  (Watch his chopping demo here)

The Trattoria at Fifteen London is open for breakfast and brunch 7:30am to 11:00am Monday to Saturday, and 8:00am to 11:00am Sunday.

Recipease, Clapham Junction, Battersea, 48-50 St Johns Road, SW11 1PR

Thank you to the fabulous Hannah Norris at Nourish and the crew at Recipease for inviting me.

Golden Biscuiteer Bunnies

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I had an idea to make some biscuits to welcome in the Year of the Rabbit – well, mostly I just wanted to make biscuits.  Bake something. Partially because I find baking particularly conducive to ‘thinking time’ where my mind wanders off and it’s a great stress-busting exercise as well as being productive.  Not forgetting the fact I also have a ridiculously sweet tooth. However, baking generally tends to be easier, and less stressful, when you haven’t forgotten to buy eggs.

The Biscuiteers book came to the rescue with an eggless recipe for Treacle Spice Cookies which I tinkered with to make these golden bunnies.  I was so excited when I bought this book – not for the gloriously embellished slices of sugar themselves, more for the comprehensive range of base biscuit recipes (10 in total) because many doughs simply don’t hold up to rolling and cutting. The book itself is more of an artist’s primer in some ways with lots of technique and decoration ideas, and you’ll have to like sugar. Or pretty food. But as usual with Kyle Cathie, it’s beautifully photographed and designed.  It probably wouldn’t be the most used cook book on your shelf but hey, just take it down occasionally and look at the pictures.

Ingredients

  • 200g plain flour
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ginger
  • 25g Golden caster sugar
  • 25g light brown sugar
  • 100g butter, unsalted (not softened)
  • hefty pinch of sea salt
  • 50g Golden Syrup

Method

  1. Sift flour, baking powder and spices together and then mix in the sugars.
  2. Rub the butter in with your fingers as if you were making scone, until it’s like breadcrumbs.
  3. Make a well in the centre of the incorporated mixture and add in the Golden Syrup and combine to an evenly-coloured dough.
  4. Divide into two pieces, shape as discs and chill for at least 30 minutes.
  5. Preheat the oven to 170c/350F/Gas Mark 4 when the dough is chilling, then cook for 14-18 minutes.

These keep remarkably well. I was going to make a lemon cream filling – but none of them survived long enough to be sandwiched.

The Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits by Harriet Hastings and Sarah Moore is published by Kyle Cathie, ISBN 978 1 85626 941 4.