Day 32 - Eating in the Med

Today I started my new job, I was nervous I'll admit it. It's always a little strange going into a new office, especially when everyone there has been working together for some time. Still I got on with things and it seemed to go ok. I have lovely views from my window of the Oxo Tower and if I crane my neck, then St Pauls.  Hopefully I'll be happy here.

Anyway, what made the day less daunting was the fact I was due to meet up with some former fellow colleagues; H, T and J, later that evening at The Med Kitchen near Leicester Square. I'd managed to book a Toptable deal where we got 3 courses and a glass of vino for £15. I arrived promptly after striding quickly across from the other side of the river, while the others were slightly more tardy. However, we were on time for our table and as we were led to your seats, the ambience did seem lovely. Muted lights and candles were lovely and very welcoming after a busy first day. We perused the menu while animatedly catching up, sometimes I think if I were a waitress I would go spare at the time some people take to decide but on this occasion we were quite good, only asking for a couple more minutes. There was a good choice for all three courses, although they did ask us to decide dessert from the ouset, something which I find highly irritating. How do I know what I will feel like after the first two courses, it could be totally different from the start. However, the restaurant was actually quite busy, especially for a Monday night, so I chose to not let it spoil things.

I love meeting up with these particular friends because we always have great fun and lots of laugher. I've always enjoyed working with them too and I find it refreshing that even after all this time we still find time to get together over good food and wine for a gossip. We always had brilliant lunches when we worked together and in all my time working freelance last year, it was certainly one of the things I missed the most.

Anyway, back to the food. For started I ordered a goats cheese and caramelized onion bruschetta. It was served very promptly and despite a fairly unappetising appearance was actually rather lovely. So lovely in fact that I was more than half-way through before I remembered to take a photo.  Apologies for low light on all these pictures, my phone could really do with a flash! The T and J went for the duck parfait, which was good but didn't deliver glowing results. Finally H opted for a poached egg's Benedict style dish, I can't quite remember exactly but I think she said it was nice.

Caramelized Onion & Feta Bruschetta

For main I opted for steak hache with fries and salad, so essentially burger and chips. I asked for my meat to be done medium rare and they delivered a good result. The shoestring fries weren't on a par with the meat but moreish as fries always tend to be. I felt they were the end of a batch and could have been crisper and hotter. Three of us had gone for the steak hache but T being slightly adventurous went with the option I'd toyed with, a salmon fishcake and fries. It did look delicious and T said it cut the mustard.

Steak Hache & Fries

Finally, for dessert I had chosen a berry coulis with crème fraiche, while the others went for a crème caramel. The third option was a chocolate cheesecake and had I been able to chose after the main was served I would have quite possibly opted for this instead because the coulis was not especially great. It was over-sweet and with a blob of creme fraiche just dabbed on the top, it felt a little like I was just a load of jam.

Red Berry Coulis & Creme Fraiche

The whole meal was paired with our included glass of wine and another bottle of house rose. Nice but not memorable. We rounded off the dinner with teas and coffees and realised the hours had passed quickly. It was a lovely meal but if I had one criticism, it was that the courses came out very close together and there was no real time to catch our breath. We were served all three courses within an hour I think and this resulted in all of us feeling rather overful. It was also a little fruitless since we sat and talked for much longer anyway and courses could have been spread out more. I know they are under pressure to turn tables but on a Monday night when, although busy, not filled to capacity they could have slowed the pace a little.

We bid each other adeiu until next time, we are already planning one for March, and I'm looking forward to it already.

Day 31 - I Can 'Adobo' a Bit of That

Today, after a mammoth gym session and a longer than expected trip to B&Q with my sis A, which involved a quick tour around NW London (we did not get lost...we meant to go that way...), I rushed home to begin my next culinary quest with my slow cooker.  I'm thinking I should name it but is it a boy or a girl slow cooker... such decisions to be made when I am next bored on the tube perhaps.

Anyway, I digress, let's get back on track and what I chose to create for dinner this evening. Gerry is half Filipino and in a nod to her culture I decided to whip up a batch of Beef Adobo. It is the first Filipino dish I have created in the many years we have been together, not least because she and her family make such good food, so I feel I have a lot to live up to! I followed a recipe from my Hamlyn Slow Cooker Recipe Book, which I highly recommend if anyone needs inspiration for their slow cooking.

The below makes enough for 4 servings, half of which I froze for later in the week.

1. I started by browning 700g braising steak in 1 tbsp of oil.  I added it in batches so not to overwhelm the pan and to allow the beef to brown rather than boil together. I then removed it to a plate with a slotted spoon and set aside. 
2. I took a large onion, sliced, and added it to the pan cooking for around 3mins until it just started to brown. I then added a finely chopped garlic clove to the pan for 2mins before adding 2 tbsp of plain flour and mixed together.
3. Finally I added 450ml of beef stock to the pan, 4 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tbsp red wine vinegar, 1 tbsp caster sugar, 2 bay leaves, salt and pepper and brought it all up to the boil.
4. I added the meat to the slow cooker and poured the stock and onion mixture over the top, making sure all the meat was submerged below the level of the liquid. This was then cooked on high for around 6 hours. If I'd had more time I would have cooked it on low for 8 hours but careering around London took a little more time than I expected!
5. Just before serving I chopped 3 small carrots into thin batons and shredded 3 spring onions to garnish the dish.
6. Finally I mixed in the juice of 1/2 lime to the portions of beef I was serving tonight before spooning it over the top of freshly steamed jasmine rice. 

Hapunan ay Nagsilbi. Kumain na!

So what were the scores on the board from Gerry? '10 out of 10' and 'very authentic'! Brilliant. I was very pleased with the result, the meat was melt in the mouth and the sauce was deliciously rich with the tang of the lime just coming through.  Again, something to store in my slow cooker arsenal!

Beef Adobo

Day 30 - Japanese Kitchen

Today I made my first recipe from my new cook book acquisition. It is called Everyday Harumi by Harumi Karihara and features simple Japanese recipes. I'd heard great things about the author and seen her in action on 'Your Japanese Kitchen' shown on the NHK World TV channel. Harumi has often been called the Delia Smith or Martha Stewart of Japan and is well known for her satisfying home cooking. I couldn't wait to get started.

I had almost all the ingredients I needed and I just had get the raw chicken and prawns and then visit the Japan Centre to pick up the potato starch, mushrooms and all important dashi stock. I decided to go easy on myself first time out and made a pretty simple sauce which is suitable to serve as a donburi. The recipe was a Prawn and Chicken Ankake Donburi. Ankake is a typical Japanese sauce and can be served with a variety of different ingredients.  It forms the backbone of many Japanese housewives' recipes.

Just to make clear, this is not my recipe but is taken from Everyday Harumi by Harumi Karihara and is partly paraphrased for speed. It made enough for 2 servings:

• 125g boneless chicken thighs, cut into 2cm pieces
• 50g raw prawns, deveined
• sake - to marinade
• salt and pepper
• 50g shiitake mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 60g onion, cut into wedges and then halved again
• 100g pak choi, leaves and stem separated and both cut into 5cm-long pieces
• 25ml soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp sake
• 1/2 tbsp mirin
• 1/2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 200ml dashi stock (I used instant powder as I wasn't able to buy bonito flakes to make my own)
• 1/2 tbsp oil for frying
• the stem of a green leek (I sliced up the leek into long thick strips)
• 20g fresh ginger, peeled and halved
• 2 garlic cloves, slightly crushed
• 1 tbsp potato starch mixed with 1tbsp cold water
• rice to serve

1. In separate bowls, season the chicken and prawns with a little sake, salt and pepper.
2. Prepare all the vegetables as above and set aside.
3. Add the soy sauce, sake, mirin, sugar and salt to the dashi stock, mix thoroughly and set aside.
4. Heat the oil in a frying pan. When hot add the leek, ginger, and garlic, in that order, and cook until you can smell their aroma. Then add the chicken and prawns, followed by the mushroom, onion and pak choi.
5. Add the dashi mixture. When it comes to the boil, stir in the potato starch mix to thicken the sauce.
6. Discard the ginger, leek and garlic before serving (actually I left the leek in because I like it!)
7. Serve the anakake on hot steamed rice.

The meal tasted as I expected because it was very warm and comforting.  It was the first time I cooked with potato starch and I find it a good alternative to cornflour as it is a much stronger thickening agent. I think that in future I might cook off the chicken a little more before adding in the stock and then add the prawns because it took a little longer to cook through then I think the recipe considers above. Although, perhaps I cut the chicken a little too big, who knows. One final thing to note is about the dashi stock. I chose instant stock as I couldn't find the raw ingredients to make my own. Obviously it is a fish stock and tasted as such.  Its always hard to make instant stock quite right when all the ingredients are in Japanese but I worked it out using the ever helpful Internet. 

Anyway, Gerry loved it and said it reminded her of her's mum's cooking, who is Filipino and makes delicious concoctions of this ilk. High praise indeed. Anyway, it's a good one to have in my cooking repertoire as it didn't take long to make and I can imagine would cheer up a particularly grey day!

Chicken and Prawn Ankake Donburi

Day 29 - Friday Night Curry

I decided to give my slow cooker another bash today after yesterday's slightly disappointing affair. Gerry had been through my recipe book and noted that she quite fancied a curry and since it was after all a Friday night I thought it was a good plan. I checked the cupboards and found I had just the right ingredients for a Kashmiri Butter Chicken.  There was a little bit of prep involved before I could add it into the slow cooker so I got cracking.

• First up, I roughly chopped 2 onions, 4cm of peeled fresh ginger, 3 garlic cloves and a quarter of a green chilli (seeds removed).  This was all whizzed up in a food processor until it made a fairly smooth paste. 
• I then chopped up 3 chicken breasts into bite size chunks, not too small though as I didn't want them to break away into nothing. I heated 1tbsp of groundnut oil in a wok and cooked the chicken pieces over a high heat until they were all nicely browned.  These were then drained and set aside on a plate. 
• Next I added 1oz (25g) butter into the wok and cooked the onion paste over a medium heat until it just started to colour. I then removed it from the heat briefly while I stirred in a symphony of spices - 1tsp crushed cumin seeds, 1tsp crushed fennel seeds, 4 crushed cardamom pods, 1tsp paprika, 1/4tsp ground cinnamon, 1tsp turmeric, 1tsp garam masala, 1/4tsp mild chilli powder and a few red chilli flakes. 

Spice Selection

• This mixture was cooked for a further minute until the final ingredients of 1/2pint chicken stock, 2tbsp tomato puree and 1tbsp brown sugar were added and brought to the boil, stirring all the time.
• I transferred the chicken to the slow cooker and poured the onion mixture and sauce over the top, making sure all the chicken pieces were below the surface of the liquid. I popped the lid on and cooked on low for just over 5 hours.
• Ten minutes before plating up I steamed some fine green beans and basmati rice to serve with it. 
• Finally, just before serving, I added in 2tbsp of half-fat creme fraiche to the curry to give it a nice golden appearance.  I garnished with some finely sliced spring onions and had intended to toast some flaked almonds to top it all off but promptly forgot! 

Dinner was served and my oh my, the second slow cooker attempt was so much better than the first! It was creamy with just the right amount of spice and it had a deliciously silky texture. Also, the quantity of ingredients I had used was enough for 4 people so half of it will go in the freezer for another time, which is certainly something to look forward to. Gerry said it's a definite keeper.  However, next time I would make one slight change and use boneless, skinless chicken thighs because I think it would withstand the longer cooking process better than breast and because it's simply a cut with more flavour. However, I used what I had and it still turned out brilliantly!  I'm a happy little cook tonight.

Kashmiri Butter Chicken

Kashmiri Curry & Rice

Day 28 - Salads & Slow Cooker Experiments

Today I visited my good friend, Crummy Mummy and her new baby. Even though I saw her quite recently, the little girl is growing so quickly and she is still the cutest thing in the world. Since it was such lovely weather we took advantage and went for a lovely long walk by the canal before going home and fixing a feast for lunch.

Crummy Mummy actually picked out a recipe which I love and have made once before, great minds think alike it seems!  She actually put a nice twist on it though as the original is quite a summery salad, whereas she made it a more comforting winter warmer.  It was a Warm Lentil, Roasted Vegetable & Halloumi Salad.

First, we chopped up a selection of fresh vegetables to roast including; one aubergine, cubed, one onion, chopped into wedges, one red pepper, roughly cut, and several halved cherry tomatoes.  These went in the oven with a good splash of olive oil at around 225C for around 30mins.  If we'd had more time we could have left them for longer at a lower temperature but with the wonders of fan cooking they were nicely tender when we took them out. Meanwhile, we simmered the green lentils for around 20mins until tender.  Next she made a quick dressing from a couple of crushed garlic cloves, lemon juice and olive oil and tossed the cubed halloumi in it, before giving it a quick sizzle in the frying pan until just soft.  Finally everything was assembled on the plate and served with a dollop of houmous to make it all slip down that little bit better. Perfect. No picture unfortunately as I practically inhaled it. Fresh air certainly gives me an appetite! It was a really lovely way to spend an afternoon, I love getting out of the city and nothing is better than whiling away the time with a good friend, who puts on awesome grub!

I planned out what to make for dinner that evening on the train home. I recently acquired myself a slow cooker and was very much looking forward to trying it out for the first time. I had left it a little late though, getting in at almost 5pm, so opted for something that I could still prepare in the slow cooker but required a shorter cooking time.  A risotto seemed like my best bet and since I'm not a big fan of the whole 'adding stock' process to stove prepared risottos (because it can be pretty laborious) I was keen to see if this method would work just as well.

I chose a simple green bean and pea risotto with the intention of serving with a pan fried salmon fillet.  The prep was pretty simple; 2 crushed garlic cloves, 1 tsp olive oil and one chopped onion went in a saucepan for a few minutes to soften. Then 200g arborio rice was added for 1 minute, followed by 2 litres of stock, bringing everything up to the boil.  Then it was just a case of pouring it all into the slow cooker and letting it do its thing for the next couple of hours on a low setting.  Once time was up I added 2 tsps of basil pesto and lay the frozen peas and green beans just on top of the rice.  This was then cooked for a further 15mins on a high setting.  It was served topped with the salmon fillet, which I'd pan fried for around 7 mins.

The end result? Well, maybe it was my ratio of water to rice, I didn't have quite enough rice for the amount of stock that I used but having read the slow cooker instructions it said to make sure the crock pot was at least half full, therefore I dutifully obeyed.  However, I think given its slightly mushy consistency there was too much liquid.  Also, although I'd added pesto and then another on serving it all tasted rather bland.  It wasn't really a patch on my normal risotto that I make on the stove.  Still lesson learnt and I will attempt another purely because I do love the fact I can sit back and let it do its thing while I busy myself with important duties such as TV watching. I think my slow cooker and I will become firm friends.

Green Bean & Pea Risotto

Day 27 - Seafood Delight

Today I went out for dinner with my two sisters T and A.  It was partly because we've not been out together in quite a while and partly a gift to my older sister, T, for her birthday.  We are all big fish fans, T in particular and since it was her treat I chose to go to the landmark seafood restaurant, Randall & Aubin in Soho.  It operates a no reservations policy and can fill up fast.  We met at 6pm outside the restaurant but it was still pretty empty and I always like to eat amongst people as it really adds to the ambience.  We decided to chance our luck and headed for a quick drink at a nearby pub, hoping that in half an hour or so it would be a little busier. Boy were we lucky with our timing!  The place was now packed with well-heeled workers navigating their way through the extensive menu. We snagged the last available seats and settled in. Seating is on high stools at marble counters running around the edge of the room as well as jutting out into the room, breakfast bar style. The place itself used to be a butcher's shop and this is evident in the original fixtures and fittings, that have been lovingly restored. I know people have complained about the style and volume of music in previous visits but from my experience on this particular occasion it was at an acceptable level and the choice was not intrusive by any means. We were able to chat quite easily without having to shout.

Having perused the menu quite a bit before we arrived I was pretty sure that we should order the Plat de Fruit de Mer.  On a quick side not, I seriously love looking at menus, be it for expensive dream restaurants or even the bog standard takeaway menus that come through the letterbox, for me it really is food porn!

The platter itself was a sumptuous array of  rock oysters, a whole crab, Atlantic shrimps, sliced diver picked scallops, whelks, Cherrystone clams, langoustine & green-lipped mussels. All served with horseradish sauce, tabasco and what seemed to be a red white vinaigrette. We ordered this for two, after deciding it would stretch to the three of us but to be on the safe side and to try out the meat offerings, we also ordered the Roast Pork Belly & Apple sauce which came with pomme frites. The food was simply delicious, the oysters were fresh and creamy, the mussels were enormous, the prawns juicy and the amount was wonderful and I really felt that we got our money's worth. The pork was tender and felt apart easily and the pomme frites were also wonderfully crispy, so delicious in fact we had to get another bowl!
 
In regards to the wine here, bearing in mind that my little sister works in the wine industry so is pretty well-informed of such things, it was a good selection but vastly overpriced. The house white starts at £16.95 which is pretty steep for what it was. We did, however, enjoy a couple of different bottles from Portugal and Spain.  Lovely but at the upper end of our price range.

Despite the fact that the main was very filling we couldn't resist dessert and opted for a lemon and raspberry tart and a cheese board.  The tart was nice and the cheese ok if a little hard.  It probably could have done with a little relish or something to go with it.  However, to sum up the food was delicious and the service attentive without being pushy.  We did have to wait a little while for our platter but I put that down to how busy it was.  We were also there quite a while and despite the queue we never felt like they were trying to hurry us to leave. It's certainly very popular and I can see why, I will certainly be frequenting this lovely little find soon. All in all, we had a thoroughly enjoyable evening and one we hope to repeat again in the not too distant future.

Plat de Fruit de Mer

Day 26 - New Month...New Start?

I had my second interview today and it seemed to go well, despite initial nerves. I walked back over the Thames and despite the rain I enjoyed the walk. I returned home and whipped myself up a quick ratatouille with bacon, served with a small jacket potato.  It was yum and made use of all the leftover vegetables which were almost on the turn in the bottom of the fridge.

Ratatouille:

1oz white onion, chopped
1/2 courgette, finely sliced
1 small can of chopped tomatoes
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 red pepper, diced
1tsp mixed herbs
1 rasher of lean bacon, diced

I softened up the onions with garlic before adding in the courgette and pepper to cook through. This took around 10mins. I added the chopped tomatoes and herbs and simmered for around 5mins. In a separate pan I fried up the bacon until crispy, obviously if you were a vegetarian omit this stage!  For speed alone I used the microwave for the jacket potato.  I popped this in when I was simmering the ratatouille for 5mins. Then it was all served up.  It was warming, moreish and very low in calories!

Ratatouille with Bacon

After lunch, I found out the interview *had* gone well and I was offered the job, which I accepted. It is a good thing, despite the fact it is still in TV. I always feel out of sorts being unemployed and it's working in nice offices and fingers crossed everyone will be friendly. Plus it will give me more money to check out the growing lists of restaurants I want to visit in London. I start on Monday.

I was home alone tonight so to have a mini celebration that I got the job I went to the gym with my sis - cool or what!  Then I came home, had a lovely glass of rose and rustled up a Malaysian beef curry. I followed a recipe over at a favourite site of mine, The Resourceful Cook and I have to say it turned out perfectly. I used rump steak instead though and sliced the beef slightly thinner to shorten cooking time. I also added some green beans and red pepper towards the end of cooking just to give it a little colour.  I steamed some jasmine rice to go with it.  Will definitely make again!

Malaysian Beef Curry with Jasmine Rice