Scandelights

Chicken a’la king, my version

Published on November 19, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

When sitting next to the same person all day every day at work, you come to know them quite well. Ria, who I sit next do, and I share most things, including recipes. One day when I found myself with a lot of leftover roast chicken she suggested I’d make chicken a’la king. Although I know it is a classic dish I had actually never eaten it before, or made it. So I got a quick run through of the recipe and added my own little touches. The result, a creamy lovely sauce with chicken, mushrooms and peppers served with pasta or rice. I have no idea if it actually resembles a proper chicken a’la king, but at least it was really tasty!

According to Ria the original recipe contains sherry but I didn’t have any at hand and added a splash of whisky instead.

My chicken a’la king, serves 2

100 g chestnut mushrooms, cut into quarters

1 red pepper, cut into pieces

1 tbsp oil for frying

2 large chicken breasts, already cooked and cut into cubes (alternatively start the recipe by frying raw cubed raw chicken)

250 ml cream

1 tbsp whisky

2 tsp sambal oelek

a splash of concentrated chicken stock

1 tbsp ketchup

1 tbsp maizena (or other thickening agent)

salt, white pepper

a handful chopped parsley to serve

Fry the mushrooms and peppers in oil until they’ve got some colour, about 5-7 minutes on medium heat. Add the chicken to the pan and fry for another minute. Add the cream and whisky and bring to the boil. Season to taste with sambal oelek, stock and ketchup. Add the maizena if the sauce needs thickening. Cook for another few minutes to thicken. Season with salt and pepper, scatter with parsley and serve with pasta or rice.

Breakfast at The Chelsea Quarter Café, Chelsea

Published on November 13, 2013November 14, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

I really should start a survey comparing London’s Eggs Benedicts. It is my absolutely favourite breakfast dish both at home and out. When I’m not sampling Eggs Benedicts I usually go for a croissant on the go. And yes, my breakfast choices are super healthy.

These eggs from The Chelsea Quarter Café on Kings Road were perfect. Consisting of a slice of toasted sourdough with proper ham (not the pressed version – shudder), perfectly poached eggs and bright yellow hollandaise they were a delight to tuck into.

The worst Eggs Benedict I’ve ever had was at Bluebird Café, also on Kings Road, which I didn’t expect at all since the restaurant is really nice. Hopefully the café chef was just having a bad day but that was a terrible breakfast; cold eggs, cold hollandaise and not very nice flavours. Shudder indeed.

The Chelsea Quarter Café, 219 Kings Road, London SW3

Baked butternut squash with chorizo and feta

Published on November 12, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

This simple yet very tasty dish was my supper on Sunday night. I kind of forgot about supper until it was half past eight and by then I couldn’t really be bothered to make anything time consuming as Homeland was about to start at nine. And luckily the oven pretty much cooks this for you. Just a little chopping required from the cook.

The combination of sweet, salty and spicy is always a winner but especially during the colder months as it really warms you up from within.

Baked butternut squash with chorizo and feta, serves 2

1 medium butternut squash, about 400-500 g

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp ground cumin

a pinch of salt

100g feta, crumbled

60-70 g chorizo, sliced/cubed

Wash the squash, cut in half lengthways and scoop out the seeds. Cut into large chunks, keeping the skin on. Drizzle with olive oil in an ovenproof dish and season with cumin, smoked paprika and a little salt. Roast in 200C for 20-30 minutes or until soft.

Add the chorizo and crumbled feta to the dish and put back in the oven for a further 10 minutes. Serve immediately.

Lunch at Flat Iron, Soho

Published on November 11, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

I love the rustle and bustle in Soho and that there is such an eclectic mix of restaurants. A new-ish restaurant I tried a couple of weeks ago has a very limited menu but offers, as the name suggests, flatiron steak. One of my favourite cuts; quite grainy fibers but very tender meat.

Like a lot of Soho’s restaurant, this is a first come, first serve type place with no table reservations. Arriving in the middle of the lunch rush we were lucky to nab the last two seats at one of the communal tables.

As soon as we sat down water and a bowl of popcorn appeared at the table. Awesome!

The menu is sparse with only the flatiron steak and sides or today’s special; a slowcooked beef stew. My colleague and I both went for the steak, cooked medium-rare as suggested by the waitress with chips, bearnaise sauce and a side of creamed spinach to share.

The steak was really nice and the chips crispy. The bearnaise sauce (which I am extremely picky with) got my approval, although it had a tad too much vinegar in it.

I really like this place. It’s unpretentious and what you see is what you get. And the food is well-prepared, very tasty and not expensive at all. It makes perfect sense to start this type of restaurant in recession. Good steak restaurants in London are, let’s face it, quite expensive and so many places offers very disappointing steak although for a better price.

To instead specialize in just one cut (but a great and affordable one) to keep the costs down is in my opinion, brilliant.

Flat Iron, 17 Beak St, Soho, London W1F 9RW

Christmas is not so far away…

Published on November 8, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

It is only about seven weeks to go until I go home for Christmas. I am so excited this year to have two whole weeks at home with family and friends. Last year I ran around like a crazy person trying to fit as much in as I could and ended up with the flu for several days and lots of fun plans cancelled. Lesson learnt, so this year I have only made a few plans and intend to listen to my body and make ad hoc plans as I go along instead.

But these weeks leading up to Christmas scare me a little. So much to cram in – so little time. There is of course the practical things like buying Christmas gifts, meeting up with everyone before going home and the parties. It’s all fun although usually hectic. But I add another element of stress myself; the food. I know it’s silly, but a large part of my associations with Christmas come from the smells and tastes of my childhood Christmases.

So in the next seven weeks I want to drink plenty of glögg, make ginger biscuits, some sweets and eat said ginger biscuits with Stilton (do try it if you haven’t already – it’s divine!) and make (and eat) Jansson’s temptation and meatballs at least once.

Chocolate fudge cake

Published on November 7, 2013 by Hanna1 Comment

I baked this moist and lovely chocolate cake with fudge frosting for the office last month to celebrate the October birthdays and it certainly went down a treat among the colleagues.

I had also made a very straight forward vanilla cheesecake (with the muscovado substituted for regular caster sugar) and my mother’s oat crisps – a real crowd pleaser.

The recipe for the lovely chocolate cake is courtesy of Smitten Kitchen one of my favourite food blogs out there. It is really easy to make, very moist thanks to the buttermilk and not too sweet. It is also incredibly easy to spread frosting over as it doesn’t crumble. The frosting is quite sweet and therefore works well with the less sweet cake. However if you haven’t got a very sweet tooth I would recommend a less sweet frosting.

I am certain this will become a staple in my repertoire as it is so easy to handle and tastes great. The cake was demolished within a few hours but I am fairly certain it will keep for a few days in the fridge if not eaten immediately.

Chocolate fudge cake, serves 12

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen’s recipe.

230 g butter, at room temperature
380 g dark brown sugar
135 g caster sugar
4 eggs
475 ml buttermilk
2 tsp vanilla
345 g plain flour
115 g cocoa
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt

Fudge frosting:

55 g dark chocolate, melted and cooled
350 ml icing sugar (no need to sift)
115 g butter, at room temperature
2 tbsp single cream or whole milk
1 tsp vanilla

Pre-heat oven to 160°C. Line the bottom of 2 approx 21Ø springform with parchment paper. Grease parchment and sides of tin. Using an electric mixer, beat butter with sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at time, beating each in until just incorporated and scraping down sides of bowl. Add vanilla, then buttermilk.

Place flour, cocoa powder, bicarb, baking powder and salt in a sifter over the mixing bowl and sift ingredients in. Beat or stir dry ingredients into batter until just combined; scrape down bowl again. Divide batter between the two tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool in the tins then remove and leave to cool completely before frosting it.

Beat the butter for the frosting until light and fluffy with an electric mixer, then add the sugar and melted chocolate, followed by the milk or cream and vanilla.

Place one cake, upside down, on a cake plate and cover the top with half of the frosting. Place the next cake on top, also upside down, and cover the top with the rest of the frosting. Decorate and serve.

Dinner at Randall & Aubin, Soho

Published on November 6, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

London has plenty of cosy restaurants and one is certainly Randall & Aubin, bang in the middle of bustling Soho.

Randall & Aubin is a French brasserie with a lot of seafood on the menu. It is relaxed yet still a little bit decadent with oysters and shellfish plateaus on the menu. It is first come first served and usually packed with people, but if you get here around 6pm you usually don’t have to wait too long. Alternatively show up for a late supper when the crowd has petered out.

I came here with a group of girls celebrating an engagement. Luckily we got a table straight away and had a relaxed supper with a few bottles of cava, some nibbles and a main course each.

The photo above shows how hungry we all were; reaching out for the food as soon as it was placed on the table. That’s my girls! 🙂 We shared a half pint of shell-on prawns to peel and dip in mayo (that’s how we do it in Sweden too) and a few servings of their zucchini frites with basil mayo that are a-ma-zing!

Gaby and I were seduced by the specials on the black board and both thoroughly enjoyed the lobster roll in broiche with skinny frites. So fresh and juicy!

Laura chose the bouillabaisse traditionally served with croûtons and rouille.

And Jenny had the crab and lemon risotto that looked fab, although the portion was rather small…

We had a great evening here with wine, good food and plenty of fun chat. It is quiet enough to be able to carry a conversation but still bustling enough inside to remind you that you’re in Soho. I would recommend Randall and Aubin for a date, dinner with other couples or just a group of friends.

Randall & Aubin, 14-16 Brewer Street, London W1F 0SG

Lemon posset

Published on November 5, 2013 by Hanna2 Comments

So I finally got around to trying lemon posset – this – in my mind typically British pudding.

Tt is basically a pannacotta without gelatin; instead the acid in the lemon juice helps the fat in the cream to solidify so the mixture sets. The texture is even better than that of pannacotta and the sharpness from the lemon makes the dessert feel lighter than it actually is.

I served mine with blueberries for added freshness but Tom Kerridge’s fennel biscotti seems like a divine pairing. After watching his BBC series on proper pub food I completely trusted his recipe to be perfect – and it was.

Lemon posset, serves 6

After Tom Kerridge’s recipe.

425ml double cream

125g sugar

2 lemons, juice only

Bring the cream and sugar to the boil in a pan. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the lemon juice and mix thoroughly. Pass through a fine sieve and set aside to cool for five minutes.

Skim off any air bubbles from the surface and pour into six serving glasses. Transfer to the fridge for at least two hours, or until set.

The weekend is here…

Published on November 1, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

I’m a bit of an on-off kind of person. Either I’m super busy socially going like a whirlwind from one thing to the other and love the pace of it. Or I’m at home a couple of evenings in a row, not in the mood to go out, watching a good series on my iPad, cooking every night and going to bed early. Then I’m in the mood for another stretch of busy busy.

To mix these up so that every week was in moderation would be far too sensible (and boring).

So this week I spent Monday evening baking for the office (with one eye on the telly watching the last episode of Tom Kerridge’s proper pub food), Tuesday I met up with my friend Laura for drinks, Wednesday I had dinner and bubbly with the girls at Randall & Aubin in Soho (and lunch at Flatiron, reviews to come) and yesterday it was birthday drinks for Ro! Tonight I’m having a few girls over for dinner, tomorrow I’m going out for cocktails and on Saturday I’m having brunch with a friend from Uni I haven’t seen for a while. And maybe I’ll squeeze in some shopping too. Although this might sound a bit exhausting I know I can cope with it all so long as I get to sleep in on the weekend. If I have to set my alarm on Saturdays and Sundays though I feel like I missed out on a whole weekend.

I am not a morning person so making up for the rough awakenings of the alarm clock Monday through to Friday is the reward of sleeping until I wake up and lazy around in my PJs before starting the day at the weekends.

Have a great weekend!

Mushroom ravioli with trumpet mushrooms, girolles and sage butter

Published on October 31, 2013 by HannaLeave a comment

It was a while ago I made pasta but last Saturday I had a whole day to potter around the kitchen so out came the pasta maker.

I’m still quite amazed at how easy it is to actually make the pasta. Making ravioli out of said pasta is a little fiddly but not difficult at all. And it is so very delicious!

The filling with shallots, garlic, mini portobello mushrooms, dried ceps, parsley and ricotta is simply divine and easy to make. Served with fried shallots, trumpet mushrooms and girolles as well as sage butter this is such a satisfying autumn dish. Ideal for dinner parties (you can make it ahead) or a romantic evening at home with a significant other.

Hanna’s mushrooms ravioli, serves 2-3

double batch of pasta dough

polenta

3 tbsp butter, for frying

3 small shallots, finely chopped

1 large garlic clove, grated

300 g mini portobello mushrooms or other flavourful fresh ‘shrooms

2 tbsp dried ceps (porcini) covered with hot water and drained

2 tbsp chopped parsley

salt, black pepper

75 g ricotta

To serve:

1 handful dried trumpet mushrooms and girolles, covered with hot water and drained

1/2 shallots, finely chopped

50 g salted butter

5 sage

parmesan, finely grated

Melt the butter in a large frying pan on medium heat. Add onions and garlic and fry until translucent for about five minutes (be careful not to brown it). Add the mushrooms (both dried and fresh) and fry until nice and golden and all the juices have evaporated from the pan. Add the parsley and season generously. Leave to cool completely. In a food processor pulse the mixture until it is finely chopped (but not a mush). Mix with the ricotta and adjust the seasoning. Keep in the fridge until needed.

Make the pasta dough according to the instructions. After it has rested divide it into 3-4 pieces. Flatten each piece out and run it through the pasta maker, twice on the 0 setting and once on every setting up to 5. Sprinkle your work surface with polenta (for the pasta not to stick) and place the pasta sheets on top. Measure with your ravioli stamp how close you can place the dollops of filling on one pasta sheet and place teaspoon sized dollops of the mushroom ricotta mixture on that sheet. Dip two fingers in water and ‘brush’ the surface of the pasta, all around the dollops, with your fingers. The water will act as glue between the pasta sheets. Carefully place another pasta sheet on top of the one with the filling (brush off the polenta first). Start at one end and carefully encase the filling in the pasta, making sure there are no air bubbles and that the pasta sheets stick in between the filling. Use your ravioli stamp to cut out the ravioli. Place on a plate or baking sheet sprinkled with polenta. Cover with clingfilm until needed.

Repeat the process using up all the pasta dough, including the scraps left from cutting out the ravioli.

To cook; bring a large pan of salted water to the boil. Add the ravioli (if a lot cook in batches) and let it cook for 2-3 minutes (they should rise to the surface). Remove with a slotted spoon and transfer straight to the deep serving plates.

While the pasta is cooking, fry the shallots and mushrooms in some butter. Season. Place the rest of the butter in a small saucepan and let it melt. Add the sage.

Spoon the sage butter on top of the ravioli, scatter the mushrooms around and top with plenty of grated parmesan. Serve immediately.