Familjen restaurant, Gothenburg

When reading Charlotta’s Gothenburg guide, Emma and I liked the sounds of the Familjen (the Family) restaurant and booked a table for Saturday. We arrived already at 6pm, when the first session started, it was either that or 8.30pm onwards.

The restaurant had a cosy feel about it, and was decorated with both sofas and tables, red lights and very nice and familiar staff.

As soon as we sat down the tray above appeared with crisp bread, sourdough, butter and a mackerel spread. The bread was lovely and Linus adored the mackerel, I did not try it myself.

We all chose the same starter; forest mushroom soup with beef tartar and cheesy croûtons. The soup was nice, although a bit thin, and it desperately lacked salt. There were no salt or pepper mills on the table so I had to ask for salt at the bar. With added salt the flavour was really nice, but it could still have been a bit thicker.

The mains lacked no seasoning and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Emma and I chose hake loin with fennel, crab and tomato confit. I always think that fish needs a nice sauce, and that was lacking here, but I realised that it was not necessary for the dish. The lovely tomatoes burst and worked as the sauce and the flavours of this dish were suble but lovely. Linus chose the manliest maincourse;  valde en manligare varmrätt; veal entrecôte, red wine jus, roasted new potatoes and bread with bonemarrow. He really enjoyed it.

After two courses we were too full for dessert and decided to go home and make cocktails instead.

I thought this restaurant was good, but that it had potential to be even better. What I liked the most was the cosy athmosphere and the nice staff, but it should be more focus on the food really.

A weekend in Gothenburg and strawberry daiquiris

Early on Saturday morning I got ready to go to Gothenburg. It wasn’t even light outside when I got into the cab. After a nap on the plane I arrived before midday in Sweden and had a great weekend with my old friends Linus and Emma.

We started the weekend with a lunhc on the town, just ran into the first decent place to escape the terrential rain that followed me from Britain to Gothenburg. We also tried the best coffee in town at Da Matteo, well technically Emma did. Linus and I had hot chocolate which was lovely. I also met up for lunch with fellow food blogger Åsa at this place on Monday and really enjoyed my large sandwich on sourdough with turkey and porcini creme.

In the evening we had dinner at Familjen, followed by homemade strawberry daiquiris back in Linus’ flat. We then headed out to a bar and saw several thousand people running the Midnight Run through the town in the dark and the rain.

On Sunday we had a large brunch and then I met another food blogger, Charlotta and later enjoyed tacos back at Linus’ flat before Emma went back to Malmö. Thank you so much everyone for a GREAT weekend. You’re the best!

Strawberry daiquiris, 6 drinks

ca 400 g frozen strawberries

250 ml water

250 ml sugar

white rum

Start with the syrup, ahead of time. Mix water and sugar in a sauce pan and bring to the boil so the sugar melts. Leave to cool completely. Pour strawberries and the syrup into the blender and mix until smooth. Add rum after taste. Serve in glasses on a stem and perhaps decorate with one or two mint leaves. Enjoy! 

Summer’s last lunch?

Our dear friends Ian and Anna have moved to a new flat and last Sunday we came to visit for the first time.

The flat is large and light and situated just by the Thames. They can just open their doors to the patio, take a few steps further onto the grass and then they’re by the river. I probably don’t have to tell you how jealous we were, living in a flat without both balcony and patio.

With the doors wide open and the sun shining in, we enjoyed a lovely lunch. First salad, olives and garlic bread, followed by stuffed chicken breasts with feta and sundried tomatoes served with potato and broccoli mash, asparagus and green beans.

Ian had made a heartshaped cheesecake for dessert. Not heartshaped because he tried to be romantic or anything, but they had lost the regular tin while moving. 🙂

It was a perfect Sunday with great company and good food. Almost felt like it ended the summer, seems to be autumn from now on…

Corner Room

In Bethnal Green (zone 2), only one stop from Liverpool Street station, the chef Nuno Mendes has built his empire. He has taken over an old town hall, converted it into a hotel with his main restaurant Viajante, and the much smaller Corner Room.

The hotel is magnificant from the outside with the old, authentic decor. This is the entrance to Viajante, the entrance to the hotel and Corner Room is around the corner to your left.

I haven’t eaten at Viajante yet, but I definitely want to, and hearing about the Corner Room, I thought that was a good place to start.

As the name suggest, the smaller restaurant is in one single, small corner room with different industrial lamps hanging from the ceiling and wooden cupboards on the walls. The foos is gorgeous, gourmet food but to very reasonable prices. Or how does starters for around £7, mains around £12 and desserts for £5, sound?!

You cannot book ahead, the restaurant operates a first come, first served policy which works well in such a small restaurant.

I expected the restaurant to be more popular than it was, so we arrived at twenty past six and were the only guests. Half an hour later most tables were full. Once you’ve sat down, the waiter tells you that you have a 90 minute slot, which is a good amount of time considering the waiting staff and kitchen being very efficient. Another nice tough is that you can have as much water as you like (still or sparkling for £1 per person.

As soon as we sat down the rustic bread basket arrived and two olives filles with sardines. I really liked it, but Nick pulled a face as he doesn’t like fish that much. That made it hard for him to chose a starter, as most of them contained fish or seafood.

He settled for the green beans in the end, as there was no fish to that dish on the menu. There was however, on the plate. But Nick is a polite guy and ate it anyway and really liked it, apart from the fish.

I, very fond of everything fish or seafood, opted for the dressed Devon crab with salad and an apple and cucumber jelly. Very tasty, in a demure kind of way.

The maincourse I chose was duck confit with girolles, shredded bread, green beans and a lovely soft egg. My stomach can’t really handle green beans, and I wasn’t aware it came with this dish, but I made an exception and ate it anyway. I suffered a little, but it was worth it. Again, suble flavours that really came together. As I said to Nick: “I don’t want this dish to end”.


Nick – the carnevore – chose skirt steak with a tomato salad and chimichurri  served on a slice of bread to soak up the meat juices. He was very pleased and I can confirm it was delicious. More full on flavours than my duck, but that suits a steak better.

Although being quite full I had to try one of the intriguing desserts and went for the goat’s cheese caramel with blueberries, brioche and shiso granita (shiso is an Asian herb, similar to mint, Google tells me).

This was a great supper, which we both enjoyed very much. I will definitely be back! It was also great value for money. Including all the food, 2 glasses of wine and the service charge the bill came to £65. Not bad at all, when eating this well.

Corner Room
Town Hall Hotel & Apartments
Patriot Square
London E2 9NF
Tel: 020 7871 0460

Broadway Market

London has more food markets than Borough Market. I like the one in Chelsea although it is small. .

A bigger one, but still a lot smaller than Borough is Broadway Market in Hackney, which I visited for the first time last Saturday, with Nick. Nick is my East London friend, who tries to broaden my horizons, and he did a good job taking me on this little outing.

We didn’t stay very long at the market, because the skies openend and I forgot to bring my umbrella. We rushed into a coffee shop where we had lunch and stalled for as long as possible, before we gave up and left. At least I had time to take some photos before the shower started.

It was a nice market, but I had expected it to be bigger actually, hearing it was better than Borough Market etc. It wasn’t better, but indeed smaller and with less fresh produce. In my book Borough Market will still be the best, but it was really nice to escape the tourists for a day.

 

Friday update and weekly menu

Wiie, it is Friday again! And for us it is not just any weekend, but a bank holiday weekend with Monday off. Poor Christopher is working the whole weekend, where as I will be going to Gothenburg, Sweden to visit my friend Linus. Best friend Emma is also going there, so it will be a nice weekend with old friends.

I haven’t been very outgoing this week, have just stayed in cooking, baking and sorting out other chores. Oh, and packed my bag for the weekend.

But I still have something nice to report, thanks to Time Out. A Swedish pop-up fika place is coming to Soho Square, last day today. There will be Swedish coffee and cakes and apples from my part of Sweden (the south).

If you need some inspiration for the coming week’s suppers, here is what we’re going to enjoy:

Friday: Nigellas seafood bake with potatoes and homemade mayo

Monday: pork cheek confit

Have a great weekend!

Spaghetti with girolles, dijon and cognac

When a friend gives you three tubs of handpicked girolles (by himself) you feel the responsibility. To not disappoint I paired the lovely mushrooms with shallots, dijon mustard, some creme fraiche and cream and some cognac and served it with nice spaghetti (from De Cecco, my favourite pasta brand).

This saue is rather sharp on its own, but perfectly balanced when served with pasta. Feel free to add some black pepper or parmesan when serving, but it is really good without it too.

Spaghetti with girolles, dijon and cognac, serves 2

300 g spaghetti

1 large shallot

ca 100 g fresh or frozen girolles

1 garlic clove

butter, oil

50 ml creme fraiche

100 ml cream

2 tsp dijon

3-4 tbsp cognac

persillade, salt, white pepper

Cook the spaghetti in plenty of salted water according to the instructions on the packet. Chop the shallot and fry in oil and butter until soft. Remove to a bowl. Chop the mushrooms roughly, fry in plenty of butter and oil on high heat for about 5 minutes. Lower the heat and add the pressed garlic. Add also the fried onion. Pour 2-3 tbsp of cognac into the pan and let it bubble away. Add cream, creme fraiche and mustard and let it thicken. If you fancy a stronger cognac taste, add 1-2 tbsp more. Season to taste with salt, white pepper and persillade. Drain the pasta and place in bowls. Top with the sauce and sigh of happiness. 

The best crumble

Before crumble used to be a quite nice dessert for me, one I didn’t have a relationship with. Something I didn’t crave very often and something that never really blew me away. But that changed.

I realised how nice a crumble can be when Gaby made it for me the first time. And the second time. I don’t know what her secret is, but her crumble is the best ever. Or at least it was until I encountered this recipe which is actually just as good as her’s.

It all happened one evening when Christopher and I were cooking with Jess and Chris. Jess wanted to make an apple crumble and without a recipe at hand we looked in Chris’s mum’s old Delia cookbook and used her recipe. Then we finished a whole crumble in like 5 minutes between the four of us. It was delish!

The flavour was awesome (sorry, have been watching too much Chuck) but the texture was a bit too sandy for my liking, so a few days later I was standing in my kitchen playing with the measures and this recipe was the result. It tastes just like the Delia-recipe but it contains a bit more butter.

Together with the raw custard, this is the perfect autumn dessert, and you can make it with whatever fruit or berries you have at hand.

Because of the brown sugar, the dessert feels autumnal and quite earthy, and would be perfect served after a casserole or game.

The best crumble, serves 4

8 plums or the equivalent in other fruits/berries 

100 g softened butter

200 g plain flour

135 g soft brown sygar

1 tsp baking powder

Grease a pie dish. Rinse the plums and take the stones out. Cut into wedges/slices and place in the pie dish. Measure all the ingredients into a bowl. Stir to combine with a wooden fork. Pour it over the fruit and bake for 30 minutes in 175C.  

Peking duck

Do you like Chinese food?! Before I moved to London and encountered real Chinese, I was not a fan. Chinese food in Sweden is not the same at all. As it is cheap and instead of other dodgy take aways it is basically anything covered in batter, deep-fried and served with sweet and sour sauce. That’s miles away from soft dumplings, the lovely turnip cake, succulent ribs or Peking duck.

Peking duck or crispy and aromatic duck, as it is also called is exactly that; duck with crispy skin and soft tender meat, seasoned with five spice, a certainly aromatic spice blend.

When I was cooking this at home, I thought I had five spice in my cupboard, but no. But after googling the spice blend I realised I had all the ingredients at home and with the pestle and mortar it took me only a minute to mix the spices together.

At first I rinsed the duck and placed it in a colander. I poured the water from a recently boiled kettle over it and let it drain. I then placed the bird on a wire rack in a large roasting tin, covered with tin foil in the bottom and placed it in the oven for about 40 minutes on a low temperature to crisp up the skin. I then brushed the duck lightly with olive oil and rubbed it with the spices. Back into the oven on a higher temperature and after an hour and 15 minutes it was ready. Just like with pulled pork, you pull the meat off the bone with forks serving it with the crispy skin.

The complusory condiments are plum sauce (hoisin sauce), sticks of cucumber and spring onions and chinese pancakes.

As usual I had ordered my food from Waitrose but they failed to deliver my pancakes. After a tour around the local shops I realised I had to go to China town to find them. It was certainly a pleasure to walk around a large Chinese food shop and of course I ended up buying more than what I intended.

It was a lot easier to cook the peking duck than I expected. I found inspiration from fellow food blogger Hanna, and actually Jamie Oliver, but still cooked it my own way. Hanna’s approach to crispy skin was certainly more hard core than mine, but both methods worked. 🙂

Peking duck, serves 2-4 portioner

1 duck

water from a recently boiled kettle

olive oil

salt

bought five spice blend or your own mix (2 star anise, 1 part sechuan pepper, 1 part fennel and slightly less of cinnamon and clobes. I also added some freshly grated nutmeg. Blend together in a pestle and mortar. )

Accompaniements:

1 cucumber

1-2 bunches spring onion/ salad onion

hoisin sauce

Chinese pancakes

Rinse the duck and place in a colander. Pour a recently boiled kettle over the bird, turn so all of the bird gets in contact with the water. Drain for a minute or two. Take a large roasting tray, cover the bottom with tin foil. Place a wire rack on top and place the bird on it. Place in 120 C oven for 40 minutes. Take the roasting tray out of the oven and brush the bird all over with olive oil. Add salt and five spice. Turn the temperature up to 175C and put the duck in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Turn occasionally so the bird crisps up all over.  You want the duck to have crispy golden brwn skin and the juices to be clear.

Leave to rest for a few minutes, then pull the skin and meat off the bone using two forks. Serve with the accompaniements and steamed pancakes.

Salt & Brygga in Malmö, Sweden

The last night in Sweden Daniel and Maria treated us to dinner at a cosy organic restaurant in the West Harbour in Malmö.

Although I used to live in Malmö before I moved to London I have actually never been to Salt & Brygga before. A shame, because I really liked the place! But it is still going strong after 10 (!) years, so I think it will be around for a while longer so I can come back.

The menu is based on local seasonal produce and they are, we later learned, quite fond of garnishing the food with edible flowers.

They offer an a’la carte menu but also three set menus, with the dishes from the a’la carte but a bit cheaper, so if you know you are having three courses, I highly recommend one of the set menus.

Out of those, all four of us chose the same one, the meaty option. It would be nice to see a set menu with bort fish/seafood and meat, but it was either or here. We were still happy though, meat lovers as we are.

The starter was spickeskinka, basically locally cured ham that is quite salty. It came with a smoked cheese creme, red and yellow beetroots, an egg yolk creme, caviar and fresh horseradish. It was very nice, but trying a bit too hard. The smoked cheese didn’t taste enough I thought, and the salty caviar was not needed with the already salty ham. The beets were perfectly cooked and went nicely with the dish and I really liked the egg yolk creme as well. All in all a good dish, but keeping it simpler could have been even better.

The main course on the other hand was pure perfection. Three types of meat (cutlet, leg and sausage) and perfectly cooked. The sausage had a nice earthy taste of cumin and almost a bit spicy. I say almost, the other three agreed that it actually was spicy… Nice, anyhow. Served with all the meat was a carrot purée (will have to try this at home), girolles and pointy cabbage, a jus and the most wonderful deepfried goat’s cheese (beautifully soft and creamy on the inside and crispy on the outside.

The dessert was a homage to crispy rhubarb with buttermilk sorbet, a lovely vanilla-flavoured creme, petit strawberry meringues and cardamom jelly. The latter was redundant as it didn’t taste much of anything, but a nice idea though.

All four of use really enjoyed the lovely meal in the relaxed restaurant. A Monday night in Malmö is always quiet, but still the restaurant was half full – definitely a good sign.

I would dare to say this is one of the best restaurant in Malmö, and it is well worth a visit! Thank you Daniel and Maria for a lovely evening with excellent food and wonderful company!

The last picture is of the Turning Torso, the landmark of Malmö.