Month: October 2012

Dinner at Terroirs

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Some places are mentioned frequently on the blog, and Terroirs is definitely one of those places. The reasons are many; the convenience from my office (3 minute walk), their great wine list and bar snacks, their food and friendly staff and the comfortable atmosphere.

When Therése was visiting, we had supper here on the Saturday and although the West End seems so different on a Saturday night than on a weekday, we had a very enjoyable evening.

First we started with olives. These fresh sweet olives are almost impossible to find back in Sweden, so it was a must for Therése.

We then had some small plates to share, and the first was this full to the brim charkuterie board with saucisson, duck rillette, cornichons and pork terrine with pistachios. Really good, but very filling.

Next we had squid with spinach, chickpeas, chorizo and aioli. Amazingly good and something I will cook myself as well.

Traditional mussels in white wine and they were big and juicy.

Lastly, my favourite; toast with girolles, bone marrow and red wine. Settles any umami craving possible and so delicious. Will be back for this soon!

Terroirs Winebar
5 William IV Street
London WC2N 4DW

Calamari with chipotle mayonnaise and padrón peppers

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My last house guest; childhood friend Therése, likes both tapas and calamari, so it was along those lines I was thinking when deciding what to have as a starter when she came to stay.

I have written about homemade calamari here before, and I repeat: so good, so cheap! And one can’t have calamari without some kind of dipping sauce, preferably mayo. I like to try different flavours on mayonnaise and this chipotle version was a winner. It worked really well with the paprika-seasoned calamari but also with the padrón peppers I picked up from Waitrose.

These peppers are fairly mild in flavour, but approximately 1 out of 10 can be quite spicy. I love these prepared in the simple manner of frying in plenty of olive oil and seasoned with plenty of sea salt. We had all this and some crusty bread to start, and it would be enough as a light supper really. We were pretty full when moving on to the maincourse.

Chipotle mayonnaise, serves 2

1 egg yolk – at room temperature

150 ml neutral oil 

1/2 lemon, the juice

1 tsp chipotle paste

salt

Beat the egg yolk with an electric whisk while slowly adding the oil, first drop by drop, then gradually more and more so it emulsifies and gets thick. Once you’ve added all the oil you should have a thick mayonnaise. Season with the lemon juice, chipotle paste and salt. 

A wine tasting with food

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Last Wednesday I went with my friend Emily to a wine tasting organised by one of her mother’s colleagues at The Avenue Cookery School. This was their first wine tasting, organised by Angie from the cookery school and Andrew from the Burgundy Portfolio, and Emily had helped spread the word.

What was so interesting with this particular wine tasting was the fact that the wines were paired with canapés perfect for each particular wine. It was so exciting to first taste the wines on their own and then with the food.

Unfortunately I only started taking photos half way through the tasting, as I was to embarrassed to leave my seat and interrupt to run out and get my phone from my bag in the room next door, but I got over it as you can see.

Once we arrived for the wine tasting we each got some sparkling wine to sip on while waiting for the others. It was a Crémant de Bourgogne (Dom. Agnès Pacuet) which I thoroughly enjoyed and even had several top-ups of. The two large tables were filled with goodies we expected was for later, but it was there for us to eat while we were mingling. So we helped ourselves to olives, crostini with Stilton, caramelized red onions and figs, charcuterie boards, and filled focaccia. All delicious!

When everyone had arrived we sat down and let Andew entertain us with stories and facts about the wines as he presented them. The first wine we tried, 2011 Petit Chablis, Dom. Nathalie & Gilles Fèvre was a light and fresh white what worked really well with both canapés it was served with. My absolute favourite was the brioche crouton with soft ash goat’s cheese and truffled pear, but the red pepper tarte tatin with tapenade and basil was gorgeous too.

Next up was another white; 2009 Bourgogne Blanc, Dom. Florent Garaudet served with mackerel tartar on an olive crouton with crispy skins.

We then tried two Pinot Noir side by side; 2012 Santeney “Clos de Hates”, Dom. Bachey-Legros and 2009 Bourgogne Grance Ordinaire, Dom. Guy Castagnier. The former was lighter and the latter, which I preferred, tasted more of berries. We tried them with honey soy glazed salmon scewers and thai chicken scewers with a coconut and green chilli dip.

We then got to try a wine from the Rhone Valley; 2008 Star Terre Grenache, Oroncio served with crispy duck pancakes in hoisin sauce with cucumber and spring onion. Both divine!

The last two canapés were sweet, put we didn’t try a single pudding wine. Instead we had a fruity rosé (2010 Bourgogne “Rose”, GAEC Felettig) with the caramelized banana tarte tatin, which was, although I am not that fond of bananas, delicious.

The last sweet, amazing chocolate fudge caramels with vanilla salt, was served with a really nice port ( 27 Grapes, Quinta do Portal). I like the idea of port and chocolate and will definitely try this at home.

I had such a lovely evening and would love to do this again. Both the food and the wines were excellent and I really enjoyed trying the wines with the matching food, so I know how to think when pairing food and wine at home.

Footnote: I was not invited as a blogger to this event, nor asked to blog about it.

Zucca, Bermondsey revisited

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When I go to restaurants I know are really good, I don’t want to go with a big group of people because I want to keep the focus on the food. As the wine is flowing it is quite easy that you’re just having such a nice time with your friends that you forget about the food although it is amazingly good.

So when I went back to Zucca for the second time, I only had my best friend Emma as company so we could focus on the food as well as on the conversation, wine and the people around us.

 

 

To start we shared three small plates as we had trouble choosing. We had speck with rosemary crostini and gherkins. Very simple but very tasty. The pickled cucumber was delicious with it subtle flavours.

 

 

We also had a very creamy burrata with baked butternut squash and cumin. This was definitely my favourite, anything with that lovely silky burrata has my name on it!

 

 

Emma’s favourite was this plate of broccoli and cauliflower florets with chopped nuts and grated ricotta. Stunning!

 

 

We chose the same maincouse for the simple reason that neither of us would be able to handle the other person getting a dish that was better ones own. Us competitive? No…

This amazing linguine with mushrooms and parmesan was absolutely delicious to the last bite. This is what pasta should taste like!

 

 

After all that we were so full, but still temped by a scoop each of salted caramel icecream. It was definitely enough to satisfy the sweet craving after a big meal and we left full and very very happy.

 

Zucca
184 Bermondsey Street
London SE1 3TQ

 

A Swedish luncheon

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Yesterday I was invited to a Swedish luncheon in London’s Brick Lane, and I brought my friend Emily with me.

I don’t know what I expected from the lunch, but I was rather surprised of how nice it all was. First we were greeted by two ladies showing us in to a temporary red cottage where a large table was beautifully decorated in a nautical way. On one wall a slide show of Swedish scenery from the West Coast was displayed and at one end of the room we could see the chefs hard at work.

To start we had some elderflower cordial and were greeted by another lady chit-chatting to us about Sweden. Soon after our plates arrived showing an array of items smorgasbord style. We had a wonderful soup made from mushrooms and langoustines, Toast Skagen with langoustine, scambled eggs on crisp bread with mackerel, goat’s cheese crème with baked cherry tomato and two cheeses with quince jelly.

One of the chefs, Jenny, also came to chat to us, and told us about how they cooked the food (the soup contained smoked mushrooms for instance) and about where she was from.

It was a nice and efficient (I shouldn’t have doubted the Swedish efficiency either) event and I felt very proud of my country’s tourist board’s efforts.

I was invited to this event by SunVil, who organises travel to Sweden and many other destinations and the event itself was hosted by Visit Sweden.

Dinner at Yashin Sushi, Kensington – so good!

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Absolutely delicious prawn tempura roll with green beans and chilli ponxu jelly 

Since I was introduced to sushi ten years ago by my friend from Uni; Annie from Stockholm, I have really loved it. She took me to the first sushi place in our university town Lund, and I came back again and again, trying one weird fish after the other. And by the time I left Lund we had several good sushi places. So coming to London a few years later I expected a good sushi restaurant on every corner, and was quite surprised when that wasn’t the case. Instead there are plenty of chain sushi restaurants – some decent and some really terrible.

Luckily London has a few good sushi places too, and Yashin Sushi is definitely one of them, if not the best. Recommended by two colleagues I was really keen to try it when my best friend and sushi lover Emma came to visit. We rounded up a few more girls and we had a great time at the restaurant.

Deep-fried soft shell crab roll with avocado and sweet soy – amazing! 

Don’t be put off of the almost military sounding greeting as you walk through the door – the staff is friendly and efficient. The restaurant is small with a sushi bar and chefs at work on the ground floor as well as a few tables. Downstairs you find more tables and a small bar.

Yashin’s unique concept is that the sushi comes without soy sauce. Instead, the soy is already incorporated in the sushi. The ginger is also different to regular gari, here you have big lovely chunks of it, with no doubt pickled by the chefs.

And the sushi? Ama-zing! This is probably the best sushi I have ever had. We only had rolls (as they are the most fun) and ordered three of the five options on the concise menu as well as some salmon avocado rolls not on the menu, but still available.

Salmon avocado roll

All the rolls were deliciou and good in size. The rice had the perfect texture and was sticky enough not to crumble but still very fluffy. The rolls were moist and scrumptious and although all the rolls had fantastic flavours, I think we all liked the soft shell crab the best. Do not miss it!

Lovely deep fried asparagus roll with tomato sauce 

Yashin Suhi
1A Argyll Road
Kensington
London W8 7DB
Tel 02079381536

Dark chocolate pannacotta

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These little pots are the perfect ending to a casual dinner party. They taste fantastic but seem (and are) effortless. You make them ahead of time, and just reach into the fridge to serve pudding.

But they still impress. The chocolate flavour is rich the texture thick and creamy so you don’t need many spoonfuls to satisfy a serious chocolate craving. With the addition of salt, I think chocolate becomes even more flavoursome and delicious – so do try this.

Dark chocolate pannacotta, serves 4 (small portions)

350 ml double cream

2 tbsp caster sugar

1/2 tsp gelatin powder

70 g dark chocolate

Heat up cream, sugar and gelatin in a saucepan. In the meantime, chop the chocolate. Remove the cream mixture from the heat as soon at it has started to bubble. Add the chocolate to the mixture and stir to dissolve. Let the mixture cool a little before pouring into little cups. Leave to cool, then refrigerate for at least 4 hours. Sprinkle on some sea salt or vanilla salt before serving. 

Avocado mousse and chilli prawns

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Isn’t it funny how ones view of vegetables change over the years? As a child you think of different ways to avoid them, especially at school where the green vegetables more looked yellow and not very appetizing, and even at home, I tried to avoid the peas.

Then during the teenage years you realise, that all those healthy things you battled with your parents over are actually really nice. You might still avoid the peas, but the broccoli, root vegetables and salad companions you really like. Like avocado. Probably still my favourite vegetable. I mean, you can eat it as it is with only some salt. You can have it in salads. You can make guacemole (oh hello!).

Or you can make this simple yet wonderful starter. When I made it for my flatmates and visiting best friend the other day they seemed very impressed, which is nice, but it is rather simple to make. But you do need a trusty food processor or a really good stick blender.

I love things I can prepare in advance, unfortunately this is not one of them, but it is a swift operation getting it done, so I don’t mind.

To follow this starter we had the wonderful lavender chicken with roasted potato slices, a reduced jus from the cooking juices and green beans. That went down very well too!

Avocado mousse with chilli prawns, serves 4

150-200 g raw tiger prawns

1 tbsp neutral oil

2 tsp chilli flakes

some lime zest

salt & pepper

The mousse:

2 ripe avocados

100 ml creme fraiche

3 tbsp olive oil

1 lime, juice and zest 

5-6 drops Tabasco

1/2 tsp Worchestershire sauce

salt & pepper

Decoration:

limeslices cut into quarters

crushed rose pepper corns

chopped parsley

Marinate the prawns in a bowl while you make the mousse. Cut the avos in half, remove the stone and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Mix the avo flesh until smooth in a food processor. Add the creme fraiche and olive oil and incorporate. Season to taste with lime, Tabasco, Worchestershire sauce, salt and pepper. 

Fry the prawns in a hot frying pan until pink on both sides. Pipe the mousse onto the plates, add the prawns and decorate. Serve with crusty bread. 

Heston’s salted caramel popcorn icecream

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I am not one to buy ready made meals very often, and when I do, I usually get very disappointed with them. Even if they don’t taste bad, I knew that I could have done it better myself. And some really do taste awful.

And then we have the nutritional value of processed food and the additives, to put us off. But most important is the taste.

That is why I quite like the idea of the Heston Blumenthal for Waitrose range of ready meals. When looking at the ingredients most are non-processed ingredients that you would use yourself, and I do hope the taste is there.

So far I have only tried the icecream, which of course was delicious. I am a sucker for salted caramel, and this is a fun ‘very Heston’ flavour. Reading the ingredients list there are some things you wouldn’t find in homemade icecream, but I find it more important that say the Shepherd’s pie contains nothing processed than an icecream.

Broccoli parmesan fritters

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Just like Deb at Smitten Kitchen I love fritters and her recipe for broccoli parmesan ones is really good. Eating them on their own their nice enough, but serve with a super easy sauce with creme fraiche, parmesan and lemon zest and this is amazing. Promise!

Eat these for lunch, supper or cook them for your friends at brunch. Just make them, ok?!

Broccoli parmesan fritter, serves 4

Adapted after  Smitten Kitchen’s recipe.

ca 225 g broccoli

1 egg

65 g plain flour

30 g grated parmesan

1 small garlic clove

1/2 tsp salt

black pepper

oil for frying

Cut the broccoli stem into pieces and divide the crown into florets. Bring to the boil in salted water and let it cook for 3-4 minutes if you like them firm, a few more minutes if a bit softer. Drain. 

Beat the egg in a bowl and add the cheese, garlic, flour, salt and pepper. Mix the broccoli in a food processor or mash with a potato masher. Add to the mixture.

Fry in oil on medium heat. Serve with a cold sauce. 

Cold sauce with parmesan and lemon

200 ml creme fraiche

2 tbsp grated parmesan

1/2 lemon, the zest

salt and pepper

Mix and serve.