It's
all about food and a bit of travel. Lots of cookbook reviews,
restaurant reviews, chef news, and food information. It changes
every day! If you can't find a restaurant review
or cookbook review here it's
because I have either not yet reviewed or did not like the restaurant
or book.
Please look elsewhere for negative reviews.
Contact: Chrissie Walker at
mostlyfood@live.co.uk
Monisha Bharadwaj
has perhaps the most successful Indian cooking
school
in
London.
She
has
written
numerous
popular
cookbooks
and is
recognised as an authority on Indian food.
'Healthy Indian in
Minutes' Now Released!
You might consider a
gift voucher for one of Monisha's fun classes.
Visit Cooking
with Monisha for more information or you can
email Monisha at monishabharadwaj@hotmail.com. What a
fantastic gift for the Valentines Day or Mothers Day.
13 February 3-6pm
17 February 7-10pm
27 February 3-6pm
4 March 7-10pm
13 March 3-6pm
17 March 7-10pm
20 March 3-6pm
Chef's Evening - Valentine's Dinner
Easy Indian Curries-using spices cleverly
Healthy Indian Curries in Minutes
Stylish Indian in Minutes
Easy Indian Curries - using spices cleverly
Biryani Masterclass
Indian Food Walk
Make the Moment
Divine!
With Valentine’s Day fast
approaching, take the opportunity to make the moment Divine and show that special someone just how much they mean to you.
Whether you’re rekindling an old romance, starting a new one, or
confessing to your crush, what better way to do it than with delicious Divine chocolate?
This year, Divine has combined two of their most sought-after flavours,
bringing us the Strawberry and
Raspberry Duo, which is available in Waitrose and www.divinechocolateshop.com
for £3.99 RRP. A beautiful package, containing a bar of creamy
white chocolate and real strawberries, together with a bar of 70% dark
chocolate with raspberries, making a fabulous gift for the one you love.
It’s not just the taste of the chocolate that makes you feel
good. At the heart of all Divine’s delicious range is the quality
cocoa, grown with pride by the farmers in Ghana who co-own the company.
By choosing Divine you’ll ensure farmers receive a better deal for their cocoa!
So whether it’s for giving, sharing, cooking or just indulging, visit www.divinechocolateshop.com
for a selection of irresistible gift combinations, because a Divine
gift makes everyone feel good.
There are 2 prizes of 10 delicious
bars of Divine chocolate to be won. Enter this competition to be
one of the lucky ones (UK residents only). Just answer this simple
question:
Which God is often seen as
the icon of Valentine’s Day? a) Cupid, b) Venus, c) Zeus
Email your answer, name and address to
mfj.competition@yahoo.com.
Closing date - 15th February 2010.
Browns Bar &
Brasserie are offering a fabulous Valentine's brunch menu for
two on
Sat 13th and Sun 14th February
at 13 of their restaurants.
Brunch for him and her for
£20 Choose from a Champagne Breakfast of either
* Smoked Salmon, Scrambled Eggs, Toasted Ciabatta
and fresh Strawberries with Greek Yoghurt
* Traditional English breakfast
* Eggs Benedict
* Eggs Florentine
With a choice of any of the drinks below to accompany your meal - Tea
and
Coffee
complementary
£20.10 for
2010: A Fantastic Offer from The Forge Restaurant
Set in the heart of Covent Garden, The Forge is one of three
restaurants in the area from owner Robert Seigler. It provides a
relaxed atmosphere complimented by elegant décor and excellent
service. In celebration of the turn of the decade, The Forge Restaurant
is offering a fantastic value 3-course meal for only £20.10. This
offer is available any Sunday or Monday and includes half a bottle of
the house wine and a coffee.
Critically acclaimed Chef, Andrew Barber, has created a delightful
menu, examples include: Seared salmon with herb risotto, Chargrilled
feather steak with chips and Bearnaise sauce or Caramelised cep and
artichoke risotto. For dessert choose from a range of tempting dishes
including Chocolate tart with pistachio ice cream, White chocolate
cheesecake with blackberries or Apple and blackberry charlotte with
custard.
The Forge Restaurant boasts exposed brickwork and large arched windows
which add to the rustic warmth of the restaurant, creating an escape
for diners from the bustling streets of Covent Garden. An expert
team, passionate about innovation, quality and service will ensure your
visit is exceptional whether you are visiting for a quick lunch or a
leisurely dinner.
Head chef, Andrew, comes with excellent credentials and is one of the
reasons the restaurant is such an overwhelming success: with a
background cooking in some of London’s finest restaurants, having
previously worked at Bleeding Heart and Tate Britain.
The wine list, artfully compiled to complement the food, is a work in
progress and continually growing. With 500 wines currently on the list,
and 40 available by the glass there’s something to suit all tastes.
The Forge restaurant is open from noon until midnight, 7 days a week,
offering diners the opportunity to sample their delicious food at any
time of the day. They also offer a pre or post Theatre, 2-course set
menu for £13.50 making it an easy choice for a great value
meal.
The Forge, 14 Garrick Street, London, WC2E 9BJ.
For bookings at The Forge Restaurant, call 020 7379
1531
or email info@theforgerestaurant.co.uk
Swissotel, The Howard and
the Lalique boutique in Central London invite love-struck
couples to experience a once in a lifetime fairytale for two on either
February 12th, 13th and 14th 2010.
The enchanted evening will begin at Thames side hotel, The Howard,
where the couple will be met by a horse-drawn
carriage set to transport them directly to the alluring Lalique boutique on Conduit Street .
On this occasion, the store will be closed exclusively and decorated to
create an intimate atmosphere. A 5 course gourmet dinner
with wine pairings will be served on the boutique’s fine cutlery
by a private butler, while a
beguiling harp player serenades the happy couple.
Lalique, known for its smoky frosted-glass sculpture, Art Deco crystal,
and unique perfume bottles has teamed up with The Howard, to extend
this charming opportunity to the public just ‘Once Upon A Time…’
After the romantic meal, a Jaguar
Limousine will take the starry eyed lovers back to The Howard
for an overnight stay in one of its
luxurious suites overlooking the River Thames.
The London Valentine’s Fairytale is priced at £2010 per person
and includes Champagne and in-room breakfast. For bookings and more
details:
Serhan Oezalkan
Tel: +44 (0) 20 7300 1827
Email: london@swissotel.com
On Sunday, February 14th 2010, Volupté heads
south of the river to the most famous nightclub in the world –
The Ministry of Sound, in a bid to raise money and awareness for the
VDay Movement.
Five rooms, bursting to the seams with live entertainment: a full
banquet and show in the Main Box, a full live vintage band, swing dance
lessons, taxi dancers, spoken word, live guest speakers, DJs, aerial
acts to leave you breathless, soul, funk…and much, much more...
“The V-Day movement is growing at a rapid pace throughout the
world, in 130 countries from Europe to Asia, Africa and the Caribbean,
and all of North America.
VDay is a charity seeking to stop violence against women, and has
become a global movement, having claimed Valentine’s Day as its own.–
www.vday.org
There are two types of ticket available for this year’s event:
The Volupté Valentine’s Extravaganza - which includes a 3 course
meal accompanied by a full, live cabaret show to entertain you whilst
you dine, plus entrance to the club. Enjoy your evening in true
Volupté style.
Price: £149.00 (Doors open at 5.30pm till 1am)
Tickets are now available from Volupté - 0207 831 1622
Club Tickets – which will include 5 rooms of mind-blowing entertainment.
Price: £25 (Doors open at 7pm till 1am)
Tickets are now available from Volupté - 207 831 1622 OR
Ticketweb - 08444 771 000
Sign up to the special database: www.vdayatministry.co.uk and you will
also be given the chance to win 2 free tickets to a Volupté show
in January or February 2010. Volupté have hundreds of tickets to
give away! Winners will be notified in January. (Terms apply).
Volupté is located at: 9 Norwich Street, London EC4A 1EJ.
Minutes form Chancery Lane underground station on the central line.
Ministry of Sound is located at: 103 Gaunt Street, London, SE1 6DP
0870 060 0010 www.ministryofsound.com
Ticket info and V day enquiries please contact:
Denise Farrell 020 7831 1622 or denise@volupte-lounge.com
www.volupte-lounge.com
or
Karen Farini 02078311622 or Karen@volupte-lounge.com
www.volupte-lounge.com
Floridita’s “Eat
Cuban” cookbook wins Gourmand World Cookbook of the year 2009!
Eat Cuban is a vibrant look at the food and culture of this atmospheric
country. Known for its cigars, music, cocktails and art, Cuba has a
colourful reputation and its cuisine is rapidly
becoming more and more popular.
This book is full of delicious and exciting recipes from La Floridita. Recipes are a blend of
traditional Cuban, French and Nuevo Cucina from Latin America, forming
a stunning combination of exciting flavours. Starters include such
delights as Red Snapper Ceviche with Coconut and Lime; and Chickpea,
Spinach and Tomato Broth with Chipotle and Swiss Cheese Flautas. Main
dishes have wonderful blends of flavours and include Criolla Stone Crab
with a Mojo; Char-grilled Chicken with Courgettes, Sultanas and Pine
Nuts; Char-Grilled Veal Chop served with a Chimchirri Dressing; and
vegetarian dishes such as Mozzarella, Sweet Pepper and Courgette
Quesadilla with Salsa Cruda and Sour Cream. Light bites, bar snacks,
side dishes and desserts such as Chocolate and Coffee Flan finish off
the book beautifully.
Eat Cuban also tells the story of Cuban food, travelling from the
opulent days of the 1950s to the austerity of the revolution and on to
the present day. This is a wonderful introduction to an exciting new
global cuisine.
To get your copy please click here
and visit the online shop.
VALENTINA’S MASTERCLASS – Dinner
party with a difference Valentina Harris
announced
the launch of her new website “Valentina’s Masterclass” www.valentinasmasterclass.co.uk
at a Dinner at Ransome’s Dock. Valentina,
author of some 20+ books on Italian
cookery, has teamed-up with www.auswineonline.co.uk
to offer this new service. Valentina and auswineonline are both based
in London
and have recently launched what is proving to be a very popular way to
hold a
“dinner party with a difference”. You
invite up to 8 of your friends to a “Valentina’s Masterclass” in your
own home. Valentina provides the expertise and skills to
teach you all how to make and enjoy the wonderful experience of home
made
pasta, risotto and original genuine Italian fish and meat dishes from
scratch. Wonderful food accompanied by a
selection of superb boutique Australian wines.
Valentina commented “The
difference about these masterclasses is that as well as the culinary
experience
we combine Italian food with a selection of fine Australian boutique
wines - a
completely new angle on the delights of food and wine matching. You
choose the
menu with our guidance, matched with our stunning award winning
Australian
wines”.
Gift vouchers for your friends and family are available. For larger
groups of up to 25, there is a
Central London venue available. These unique food & wine
pairing events can be a great activity for team building and corporate
entertainment.
Watch this site for reviews of Valentina’s new books: Pasta Galore,
published by Octopus, and The Food
and Cooking of Tuscany,
published by Anness.
The Brickhouse
restaurant and supper club has just launched an extremely good value five-course
menu
for a £25. Book for supper and enjoy live performances from
a whole host of acts, from cabaret to aerial acrobats, and sample
delicious cuisine by talented Head Chef, Matthew Reuther.
The five-course feast
starts with Confit Duck Croquets served with Pesto and Date Chutney,
followed by Pan-fried Salmon with Fennel, Cress and White Wine
Velouté. The third dish is mouth-watering Guinea Fowl with
a Parsley and Anchovy Crumb and served with Salsa Verde. The meal also
includes a full Cheese course served with a selection of Homemade Bread
and Biscuits. Polish off the perfect meal with a delicate pudding of
Summer Fruits, served with Champagne Jelly and Mascarpone Ice
Cream.
There is also a £25 five-course
menu
for
vegetarians
that includes Carrot Soup, Aubergine Roulade with Stilton Rice and Red
Pepper Coulis, Globe Artichoke served with a Mushroom Gratin and
Hollandaise, Cheese and the Summer Fruits Pudding.
Have dinner at The Brickhouse and enjoy a gastronomic and
visual feast that won’t break the bank.
Ruinart’s latest collaboration is with renowned
architect and designer India Mahdavi for the Ruinart Rose gift set.
“The gift box is graceful and delicate and when opened, a myriad of
cream, pink and gold paper ribbons cascade out with printed verses from
classic French poems on them, to read aloud to your partner, before the
exclusive and signed champagne flutes and bottle of Ruinart Rose are discovered”.
Weekend of foraging and
fishing with acclaimed Chefs and Restaurateurs
Mark Hix and Mike Robinson
Chef, food writer and
restaurateur Mark Hix will be
hosting this country weekend with a difference. This long weekend will
give you a chance to experience trout fishing, foraging for seasonal
treats in the countryside's natural larder and select wine tastings. Mike Robinson, who runs his
eponymous cooking school in Berkshire
and restaurant in Fulham, will be joining Mark to give a day of
foraging, game cookery, a venison butchery class and hosting the last
night's sumptuous dinner.
This weekend will teach you traditional survival sustenance,
whilst
enjoying
the
total
luxury of staying at Temple Guiting. With
creature comforts from beautiful accommodation to a relaxing massage on
the first evening of your stay, plus delicious meals throughout, the
weekend includes a hands-on cookery
demonstration, as well as making the most of the stunning local
area, including a Cotswolds pub lunch.
A
unique
combination
of
memorable
experiences
and
learning
new
skills.
Dates:Arrival: Friday 23 April 2010. Departure: Monday 26 April 2010
Duration:3 nights
Price per person: £1,500, based on two people sharing a suite.
Price includes:
All meals & wine, fishing, foraging and cooking classes with Mark
Hix and Mike Robinson, a wine tasting evening, trips and tastings,
massage, accommodation. www.sophieconrantg.com
For further information please contact sian@sophieconrantg.com 0777 585
6784
Iberica Food and
Culture
Michelin-starred executive chef of Iberica Food and
Culture is Nacho Manzano, who cooks at his restaurant Casa Marcial in
Asturias, in the top left-hand corner of Spain. He is especially well
known for his fish cookery and for his new take on traditional dishes.
He has become an international ambassador for Asturian cooking.
Head chef Santiago Guerrero is a charming young man from Madrid. He
trained both in Spain and in England and
has worked in Michelin-starred restaurants in Spain, as well as The
Castle Hotel, Somerset and The Waterside Inn. Before joining Iberica
Food and Culture he worked as the Executive Sous-chef and acting Head
Chef at L’Albufera restaurant in London's Melia White House Hotel,
voted best Spanish restaurant outside Spain by their Ministerio de
Agricultura Caza y Pesca. Quite an accolade.
Iberica is truly a Spanish centre. There is the ever-popular tapas bar,
a beautiful restaurant on the first floor, an art gallery on the
landing, a wine niche for small events and presentations, and a deli.
This might not be as big as Harrod’s Food Hall but it is stocked with
the best of Spanish foods and ingredients, many of which can only be
found in Spain or here at Iberica. It’s a measure of the respect with
which this amazing establishment is regarded. More deli news here in a
few weeks.
At Iberica's imposing 15-metre bar you can choose between fifty hot and
cold 'pinchos' and 'tapas' served from 11.30am till late into the
night. There are plenty of simple cold dishes, such as cheese and
charcuterie platters, shellfish and vegetable salads, croquettes,
sausages, tortillas, rices and main-courses which reflect some of what
regional and new Spanish food has to offer.
You can linger at the bar with a glass of Spanish wine or enjoy
leisurely tapas with a drink at a window table where you can watch
London pass you by. Prices start at an amazingly reasonable £1.50
for potato omelette with alioli sauce. The staff can suggest wine and
tapas pairings so you don’t need to be an expert on either Spanish food
or drink. Help is at hand.
We started our lunch with the Trio of Ham. This meat was carved wafer
thin from the whole hams displayed in the aforementioned deli. What
could be more evocative of fine food from the peninsula? Ham Croquets
and Cheese Croquets will be familiar to those who have enjoyed
leisurely hours in celebrated tapas bars in Madrid or even Barcelona.
These were creamy, rich and real Iberian comfort food.
Dried tuna ‘mojama’ with homemade thyme bread and almond vinaigrette
was new to me. A charming presentation on a slate platter. It’s the
attention to detail which sets this establishment above so many others.
Quality and care.
Stewed beef cheeks in rioja red wine with creamy chickpea purée
is a culinary stunner. This is a slow-cooked dish of tender and
flavourful meat. The sauce is glossy and rich and deserving of bread to
dip. A dish for a cold winter in London.
Fried fresh squid with alioli is one to fight over. The seafood was
tender with breading that was crunchy and light. The garlic mayonnaise
had plenty of punch and was a delicious foil for the delicate squid.
Black Rice with cuttlefish, prawns and alioli must be Iberica's
signature dish. I have had black rice in the past but it’s never had
either the colour or the flavour of this version. Most have been pale
grey and pallid, while this had a truly inky teeth-blackening lacquered
sheen. Seafood in every bite. A must-try.
Caleya´s caramelised rice pudding and Fried Milk were our dessert
choices. They showed two diverse faces of dairy-based sweets. Both were
creamy and rich but the textures were different. The Fried Milk was a
cube of white, set cream in a crunchy golden crumb. A delight to eat.
The rice pudding will be nothing like your mother makes... unless your
mum happens to be Spanish and an amazing chef. This was a light cloud
with a golden lining.
Iberica offers London's longest list of Spanish wines by the glass,
ranging from classics such as Cava, sherry and Rioja to many that will
be new to British clients. There is nothing worse than being obliged to
buy a bottle of your favourite tipple when you can only drink a glass.
The bar stocks a wide range of Spanish beer, cider, brandies, liqueurs,
Castile's sweet and dry anis, and Galician aguardiente. An ideal spot
to learn more about Spanish beverages of all kinds. They will also be
happy to supply you with Asturian sparkling waters, coffee and tea if
you need to work in the afternoon.
Iberica Food and Culture is a culinary ambassador. It seems to take
that role seriously. It takes pride in every aspect of its business,
both culinary and cultural. It isn’t just a fine tapas bar but an
inspiring departure from snow-laden skies. Iberica isn’t just Spanish,
it’s Spain, and remarkable.
Iberica Food and Culture
195 Great Portland Street, London W1W 5PS.
Phone: 0207 6368650
Emailana@ibericalondon.co.uk
Visit Iberica here
Mestizo Restaurant
I had my first little peek at Mestizo last year.
Just a cocktail and some nibbles but it was enough to give an
indication that
this was a spot to linger over and enjoy. A real meal was in order so
off I
went with guest in tow to see if that first impression was accurate, or
merely
an illusion encouraged by one too many of Mexico’s famous beverage. You might say you like “Mexican”
food. You might
have had “Mexican” food on trips to the US, and Taco Bell might be your
favourite fast food but, dear reader, your experience is probably a
faint
shadow of the real extravaganza awaiting you at Mestizo. Mestizo Restaurant and Tequila Bar
has a convenient
location just around the corner from Euston Square Underground
station, and a
few minutes’ walk from Euston main-line station. Its atmosphere is of
dark wood
charm but the impressive bar hints at fun times to be had. This
establishment
has a collection of Tequilas (over 130 at last count) enough to make
any
London-based Mexican quite home-sick. The restaurant has a cult
following
amongst the local Brits and, evidently, expat Mexicans. That has got to
be an
indication of this restaurant’s authenticity. It already has the vote
of those
in the know. Mestizo offers food that is hard or
impossible to
find outside Mexico. I wonder why these dishes haven’t had the exposure
of
other ethnic cuisines. It must be that Europe has only a slight
cultural
exchange with those countries that rest south of Texas and California.
Mexican
food has migrated to its neighbour to the North, but has often been
adulterated
in transit. Tex-Mex food might be vibrant and zesty but it isn’t a
patch on
food to be found south of the border. We started our evening with
cocktails. Mestizo
Spice got our attention. This was an amazing concoction of Casco Viejo
chilli-infused
reposado tequila, cherry brandy, crushed strawberries, diced red chilli
and lime.
It’s a tall delicate pink drink with a kick. I am not a cocktail
habitué but
this particular recipe evoked all that’s impressive about Mestizo –
good taste
and style. Our starter was a Mixed Antojitos
Platter which was
an assortment of flauta (crispy fried rolled tortillas filled with
chicken and
topped with lettuce, sour cream and green tomatillo salsa), quesadilla
(corn
pastries filled with cheese, served with sour cream and salsa roja),
jalada jalapeño
peppers stuffed with cream cheese, served with sour cream) - don’t miss
these -,
and tamales (steamed corn husks filled with masa and pollo con mole) –
an
authentic taste of Mexican comfort food. The Mestizo staff are charming and
helpful. Several
of them are Mexican and all of them can steer you through what will
likely be
an unfamiliar menu. Mole Poblano was my co-reviewer’s choice for main
course.
This is a classic dish of boneless chicken breast served with a
traditional
mole sauce made of dried chillies, herbs, spices, almonds and
chocolate, served
with beans and rice and some flour tortillas. Mestizo make all sauces,
beans,
condiments and salsas in-house. The tortillas, however, are produced by
a
specialist bakery, although Mestizo do make their own moreish tortilla
chips.
The chocolate sauce was savoury and well flavoured with a silky
texture. An
introduction to the subtleties of Mexican cuisine. Mole Huasteco (a traditional dish
from the state of
Hidalgo, Mexico) was new to me. It’s a boneless chicken breast served
with a
huasteco sauce, made from over 32 ingredients, including dried
chillies,
tomatoes, onion, almonds, garlic, sesame and pumpkin seeds. This is a
rich and
aromatic dish with an almost liquorice or aniseed finish. This must
surely be a
signature dish. If you only expect to make one visit to Mestizo then
order
this. Mestizo is a restaurant for convivial
gatherings as
well as intimate soirées. Many other guests had ordered the Taco
Tray. This is
for two or more and is evidently the meal of choice for groups or
couples. It
looks spectacular, like so many of Mestizo’s dishes, as well as being
fun to
eat. Perhaps a good ice-breaker on a first
date. The Mestizo desserts are worth saving
a chink of
space for. We ordered Flan Caresro which is the Mexican take on
Crème Caramel.
Light and sweet in a pool of caramel sauce. Pastel de Quesco y Coco is
a
cheesecake perfumed with coconut served with mango coulis. An exotic
end to a
memorable meal. I am sure it will turn out to be the first of many. The
Sunday
Brunch is said to be worth a visit. Mestizo is without a doubt one of
my top
five London restaurants. Restaurant review: Mestizo Restaurant and
Tequila Bar
103 Hampstead Road
NW1 3EL
London www.mestizomx.com
Phone 020 7387 4064
Email eat@mestizomx.com
Tike Grill and Bar – A taste of Istanbul
Tike (pronounced ‘tikay’) is an authentic
Turkish
restaurant in the City of London. It’s part of a small but classy chain
which
began in 1998 in Istanbul. Since opening their first restaurant the
four
cousins from Adana who together make up Tasty Med have expanded their
empire to
reach beyond Turkey into Greece, Ukraine and now England. Tike serves
traditional "charcoal grilled" barbequed lamb, chicken, kebabs,
authentic dishes, fresh salads and pide from the wood-burning oven. Fenchurch Place is an open square
just in front of
Fenchurch Street main-line station. It’s a stone’s throw from Tower
Hill and
Monument underground stations. Its location has made it a favourite
eatery for
city workers who can enjoy a quick lunch, a lingering mid-day meal, an
early
evening dinner or a convivial gathering before the homeward commute. Tike has become the meeting place of
choice for the
discerning expat Turkish population. They enjoy a taste of home at
amazingly
reasonable prices. There can surely be no higher recommendation than
the esteem
of those who should know more about Turkish cooking than I ever will. Located in a stunning Richard
Rogers-designed
building, Tike spans two floors and makes the most of the large windows
to the
front over both levels. The modern decor reflects the style of the
building, and
the ground floor has an informal atmosphere, set around the bustle of
the
popular bar and the open-plan bread oven which offers the prospect of
amazing
food to come. Inspired by the skills of the Turkish
baker, we ordered
Lachmajun. It’s a thin bread topped with minced lamb,
herbs and spices. Pide are
small pies stuffed with kisir cheese and vegetables, and still warm
from the
oven. A glass of fine Turkish red made a delightful start to the meal.
Tsatsik -
light yogurt dip with cucumber - and warm bread kept us company. Our tray of small dishes were soon to
arrive and
they were an attractive selection which offered an array of flavours,
fresh
light salads and creamy dips scooped up with more fresh warm bread.
Cherkez
Tavugu - creamed chicken breast dip with walnuts - was a particular
favourite
and a little different from the mezze of the more mundane Turkish
restaurants
in London. We continued with: Patlican Salad - charcoal grilled
aubergine dip
with lemon juice and a hint of garlic. Gavurdayi - finely chopped tomato,
parsley and
onion salad with a pomegranate juice dressing - was particularly
delicious. Hayirli - finely chopped
Mediterranean flat-leaf
parsley, onion and fresh herb salad - was fresh and well seasoned. Ichli Kiofte are handmade steamed
balls of cracked
wheat stuffed with minced meat. These were surprisingly light and
rather akin
to Lebanese kibbe but without the deep frying. A must-try. Pastirmali Houmus - hot chickpea
puree topped with
sliced cured meat which gave extra texture and flavour to a familiar
dip. Miutebel - warm oven-roasted
aubergine dip sprinkled
with crushed pistachio nuts. Creamy comfort. My guest was tempted by Iskender for
his “large”
dish - lamb ‘Tike donner’ served on a bed of grilled bread topped with
yogurt and
grilled tomatoes. This is a considerable plateful and probably enough
for two
with a selection starters. If you are a lover of kebabs then your head
will be
turned by this one. If there is a group of you then you might consider
the
striking ‘Meterlik’ House Special ‘1 metre long Adana kofte kebab’! A
real
crowd-pleaser. My main course was Tavuk Kiulbasti -
grilled
marinated chicken breast fillets - which were tender, juicy and
flavourful.
This would made an ideal light lunch if you don’t have time to graze on
small
mezze beforehand. Kiunefe - warm kadaifi with a soft
sweet honey
cheese filing and crushed pistachio topping - was one of the
traditional
desserts on offer from Tike. The threads of pastry were delicate and
syrupy. Enjoy
this with some dark Turkish coffee or a glass of tea. Irmik Helvasi is a traditional baked
dessert made
with fresh semolina and pine nuts, scented with cinnamon and with an
ice cream
centre. This was marvellously aromatic with a cold filling of real
Turkish ice
cream which our waiter told us was flavoured with mastic resin. A
delightful
change from strawberry or chocolate. Tike is a restaurant which has
already cultivated
loyal followers. Its transport connections give it a catchment area
which stretches
from the City to the far reaches of Essex. I have no hesitation in
recommending
Tike for its quality of food, its knowledgeable staff and its unique
design. It’s
impossible to visit just once. Opening Times Mon to Fri 11am-12midnight, last
orders 10.30pm The restaurant is closed at weekends
but can be
reserved for special events Tike Grill and Bar – A taste of
Istanbul 5 Fenchurch Place, London EC3M 4AJ Phone 020 7702 9965 Emailok@tikerestaurant.co.uk Visit Tike here
Tortilla Mexican Grill
I had a somewhat cautious invitation from the
management
of the small Tortilla chain. They had noticed from my previous articles that I
have been lucky enough to review some of London’s most swanky dining
spots. But
for me it’s all about the food: they had obvious pride in their eatery
and that
gave me the clue that this would be a fun and positive visit. We found the Oxford Circus branch at
Market Place. It’s
a tranquil spot just a few steps from the frantic bustle of one of
London’s most
popular shopping streets. Plenty of fast food down there, but that food
is a
mile away from the fresh, healthy and delicious offerings at Tortilla.
They are
presenting sustaining meals that you could eat every day and still feel
noble. This isn’t the Tex-Mex food that so
many of us have
encountered on visits across the pond. Tortilla takes its inspiration
from the
Mission District of San Francisco. This is Cal-Mex and relies on fresh
produce
and food that would be ideal to take to the beach. OK, so London is a
bit light
on sandy plages but you can still have a relaxing break in one of the
four
Tortilla restaurants, or take the food back to the office, spread the
beach
towel on the desk and dream for half an hour. The Oxford Circus branch is small,
comfortable and
stylish. Seats outside for smokers and those who want to bask in the
blazing
British sunshine, and plenty of seating on the basement floor to cater
for the
lunchtime rush and evening revellers. Simple wooden tables and chairs
with cream
banquettes are complemented by rich maroon tiles. Ordering your first meal might seem
to be a simple
proposition: the menu offers five meal choices, but then the fun begins. There
are more than 400 possible combinations and more if you include
Margaritas or
Mexican beer. You are the architect of your lunch or dinner so it’s
bound to be
one of the best you have had. I ordered tacos and they were light
and full of
flavours and texture. You’ll choose different combinations of fillings
and
toppings to create a totally unique meal. Mine was grilled chicken with
rice,
black beans, cheese and sour cream. I like a kick of spice so I had a
garnish
of hot salsa. This isn’t for the faint-hearted so be warned. The presentation was thoughtful.
Metal mesh baskets
are the order of the day rather than plates. They are supremely
practical but have
that touch of style which I find strangely lacking in polystyrene
boxes. One
finds a cosy corner to perch and adds, perhaps, a drop or two of a hot
sauce.
Grab a handful of paper serviettes before you start to eat: you might
need
them. My guest enjoyed a Burrito of
striking proportions (these
are said to have been invented not in Mexico but in Los Angeles in the
1930’s).
It’s a large diameter package of solid food. He had chosen a braised
pork
filling which he pronounced to be tender and flavourful. There were
pinto beans,
sour cream and guacamole, and salsa verde (medium hot) to add extra
piquancy.
This constituted a full meal and it wasn’t even the large version!
There are
eating instructions provided for guests who might be new to this casual
hands-on form of dining. Tortilla Mexican Grill has some of
the best value
food around. £5.00 will present you with a feast. The meats,
vegetables and
toppings are made fresh on the premises every day. The beans are cooked
for
ages to give them that authentic consistency. The tortillas are made by
a specialist
and they are steamed before serving so they are soft and moist. It’s
the attention
to detail that sets Tortilla apart. You watch your food being prepared
in front
of you but service is still remarkably quick. I shrink from calling it
fast as
that might conjure visions of red-shirted youths filling bags with
already
boxed and soggy fried goods. No, a good meal in a few minutes can be
yours at
Tortilla Mexican Grill. It will be my habitual halt when I need real
food in a
hurry. Tortilla Mexican Grill 6 Market Place London W1W 8AH Visit Tortilla here
Cuisinier
Gascon – Meals from a Gascon Chef
Yes, it’s true dear reader, that this reviewer does love
cookbooks. How often have I urged you to scurry off and purchase a
particular title? You might be shocked to hear that I am asking you not
to buy a single copy of this book. I can hear the gasp from the author
and the thud as the publisher’s body hits the ground. No, I am
suggesting that you buy two copies. This is such a stunner that you’ll
want a volume for the kitchen (likely to become smudged with sauce and
flavourful jus) and one for the coffee table to muse over. It would be
worth buying a coffee table just for that very exercise.
The author, Pascal Aussignac, is the celebrated head chef of Club
Gascon in London. He has been harvesting accolades and awards since its
inception in 1998. Club Gascon Group founder and Director Vincent
Labeyrie enticed him away from his successful career in France, to
cross the Channel. With missionary zeal they have expanded the
enterprise to several venues with different emphases and now there is a
Food Hall and Bistro. You can visit the Club Gascon site at
http://www.clubgascon.com/cc_intro.php.
Pascal has trained under the best chefs in France. He determined at the
age of nine to become a chef and he started work at thirteen. His first
weeks were spent dropping bottles on floors and food on guests but that
was evidently due to youthful nerves. He settled down to become well
respected by his peers. He has imported his love of fresh seasonal
produce as well as his famed originality to both his restaurant and
this book.
Well, what’s so appealing? Is this the first French cookbook to cross
my desk (kitchen work surface on trestles)? Well, hardly. It’s just
that Cuisinier Gascon – Meals from a Gascon Chef is so charming in
every detail. I love the typeface, the page design, and the outstanding
photography. Jean Cazals is responsible for the pictures and will be in
good measure responsible for the inevitable success of this gorgeous
book.
It’s a cookbook. The clue is in the name. It’s a book to cook from. The
collection of recipes reflects the culinary heritage of the south-west
of France. It’s a region I know quite well and it’s good to see so many
traditional recipes that I have enjoyed whilst there. Pot au Feu is a
classic but here it’s given a bit of a twist The author uses beef
cheeks and marrow bones to create a rich dish that will provide you
with two courses and a stock for another day. Serve the usual
condiments of gherkins or cornichons, crushed salt and mustard to add
more flavour notes. Don’t forget the baguette.
Cassoulet is a dish that stirs passions. There are any number of
recipes for this hearty dish of meat and beans but Pascal has offered
his mother’s favourite version. The recipe for Gasconade is included
and it is a mouth-watering roast delight. The combination of a leg of
lamb, anchovies and garlic might sound a little bizarre to the
uninitiated but it’s a classic marriage and made in heaven. The
anchovies melt and add an agreeable hint of salt rather than a taste of
kippers.
There are many must-try’s here, well, probably all of them. Nougat is a
speciality at Club Gascon and you’ll find the recipe in this book. Not
many ingredients and not expensive to make. Gateau Basque is a
custard-filled pie and would be ideal for either afternoon tea or to
finish a Sunday lunch. A dash of dark rum and a soupçon of
Pernod add a very French air. Delicious.
Cuisinier Gascon – Meals from a Gascon Chef is striking in both style
and substance. It’s a veritable treasure house of classic and
almost-classic recipes. A page-turner for any lover of fine food and a
book to be coveted by serious French food enthusiasts. I adored the
book and I am sure I’ll enjoy the restaurant.
Cookbook review: Cuisinier Gascon – Meals from a Gascon chef
Author: Pascal Aussignac
Published by: Absolute Press
Price: £25.00
ISBN: 9781906650209
Learn to
Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free
It’s a sad fact that there are more and more of us who
suffer from food allergies or intolerances. The symptoms
range
from
discomfort
to
life-threatening
inflammation
after
eating
offending foods. It’s an inconvenience for adults but upsetting for
youngsters. Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free comes to the
rescue with a raft of delicious recipes for not only cakes but a
selection of sweet and savoury baked goods, main meals and desserts.
Perhaps there is only one member of your family who has a food allergy
but it can create a problem for the cook. If you have to provide a
special meal for just one person then you have twice the work. Many of
us love cooking but it needs to be stress-free and, hopefully, fun. Far
better that everyone eats the same food but it needs to be delicious
rather than over-worthy with a healthfood garnish.
The author, Antoinette Savill, has also penned the best-selling Gluten,
Wheat and Dairy Free Cookbook so it’s fair to say she knows something
about the preparation of foods that will be safe for all members of
your family. This book does not, at first glance, read like a special
diet cookbook. It has lots of recipes that are adapted from traditional
favourites but there are many more that are cosmopolitan and good
enough for a dinner party. Food should be good for us but we shouldn’t
think of it as medicine.
Smoked Salmon and Dill Tarts would make a smart starter or light lunch.
The author suggests using a ready-made gluten-free puff pastry for this
one, although she has thoughtfully included a recipe for such a pastry
should you have the time or the inclination to get out the mixing bowl.
There are now many good-quality gluten-free products on the market, so
use them sans guilt.
I’ll eat squid at every opportunity. Seared Squid with Chorizo is a
flavourful Mediterranean recipe that has no special ingredients. It
just happens to naturally be free of those foods that tend to cause
problems. This recipe nicely illustrates that there are many dishes
that will need no adapting at all. You’ll make this and then realise
that there is other seafood that might work. This is a book to give you
confidence and ideas.
Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free is one of a good number of
books on the subject. The bookshop shelves are full of them but so many
of these are sponsored by food manufacturers. Yes, Antoinette Savill
offers particular brands that she has found to be reliable, but these
are only suggestions - you’ll find your own favourites. The recipes are
appealing and well-written and the advice is sound. Grub Street is a
publisher with a good reputation for quality cookbooks from
well-regarded authors, and this is another good-value, practical tome
from their battery.
Cookbook review: Learn to Cook Wheat, Gluten and Dairy Free
Author: Antoinette Savill
Published by: Grub Street
Price: £14.99
ISBN 978-1-906502-50-8
Food Presenting Secrets
If you are a regular Mostly Food Journal reader then it’s
likely you have a love of good food. It’s possible that you even enjoy
cooking. If either of those apply then you probably have an
appreciation of good presentation. It’s the first
thing one notices and we all know what they say about first impressions.
Some of us are genetically inept. We consider a well-presented meal as
one which has the burnt bits hidden under the sprouts, gravy that at
least moves, the blob of jam just in the middle of the rice pud and
perhaps an oily thumb print as decoration. It’s sad but true. We know
it doesn’t look appetising but have no idea how to elevate our culinary
offerings from mundane to marvellous.
Cara Hobday and Jo Dendury have penned a book which is full of
techniques (over one hundred in fact) to enable you to shine at food
presentation. There are expert tips and suggestions for ways to produce
garnishes that you’ll see in the best restaurants. They are not all
cheffy. Each technique is marked with its degree of difficulty so the
less-confident among us can practise level one for a while. Even these
easy exercises will stun your guests. Spaghetti of Vegetables is
colourful and attractive and a good way to encourage the kids to eat
something healthy. The secret is a julienne peeler. I have never
thought to buy one but I can see the application now.
The novice cook is supported with not only a raft of simple ideas but
also a wealth of step-by-step pictures. It’s the nature of the subject
that makes it so important to have good illustrations. What would have
sounded complicated in words is seen to be quite straightforward when
one can observe the process and when one learns that even a chef uses a
handy little gadget for this, or a crafty gizmo for that. As with many
things, it’s easy when you know.
Sugarcraft has always been a minefield for the beginner. It’s the fear
of molten confectionery that tends to put off many of us less daring
souls. Whilst it’s true that a healthy respect for anything at boiling
point is advised, it’s equally true that the end results of your
efforts will be impressive. The shape-forming techniques are quite
basic, it’s only the sugar temperature which is exacting. I’d start
with the Sugar Baskets, before advancing to Sugar Cages – stunning when
veiling a scoop of exotic ice cream or perhaps a lemon soufflé.
They are not overly taxing to make …but get somebody else to do the
washing-up.
Chocolate Piping is perhaps the most fun of all the presentation
techniques. The process is easy and it’s a great project for kids. A
few artful swirls of chocolate propped on a white meringue would look
stylish. A chocolate bee landing on a buttercreamed cupcake would be
charming. The possibilities are endless.
Food Presenting Secrets is a thoroughly sensible volume offering advice
on how to give your dishes that professional edge. Yes, the food should
still taste good but we also eat with our eyes. It’s the little touches
that make the difference. The equipment is minimal and you’ll already
have most of it – anything you need in addition will cost only a pound
or two. There is nothing here that is beyond the home cook. This is a
book that will give confidence to a novice and ideas to the more
practised. A gift-quality book from the ever reliable Apple Press.
Cookbook review: Food Presenting Secrets
Authors: Cara Hobday and Jo Dendury
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £14.99
ISBN 978-1-84543-335-2
St Pancras Grand
Restaurant,
Oyster and Champagne Bar
Today I have a review of a smart restaurant conveniently
situated about 2 hours outside Paris. Good transport links with easy
access to city shops. Superb food and waiters who speak English, and a
menu in English as well. Yes, that’s got your attention, my dear
Anglophone reader! Even better news is that, if you live in London,
you’ll be able to visit sans passport. Confused? Well, you wouldn’t be
if you noticed the title of today’s superbly written offering.
St Pancras train station was designed by William Barlow in 1863 with
construction starting in 1866. The famous Barlow train shed arch spans
240 feet and reaches 100 feet at its highest point. On its completion
in 1868 it became the largest enclosed space in the world. It is still
impressive to this day and is a marvel of Victorian engineering.
One of the most recognisable features of St Pancras station is the red
brick Gothic front facade which was created as part of a competition
and became the Midland Great Hotel. The inside of the station still
reflects that same brick along with painted metal beams and lots of
charm. The original building had 60 million bricks (Did Queen Victoria
ask someone to count them?) and 9,000 tons of ironwork as well as
columns of fourteen different British granites and limestones.
The St Pancras Grand restaurant has an associated Champagne Bar which
is situated opposite the restaurant itself, on the Upper Concourse.
You’ll not miss this amazing sight of a row of booths stretching for
yards (it’s Europe's longest Champagne Bar at 95.8 metres). Each one is
thoughtfully provided with blankets and under-seat heating for those
with frozen assets. Even if you don’t have time for a civilised meal at
the restaurant, a glass of fizz and a plate of smoked salmon is always
an option.
St Pancras Grand is the brainchild of Martin Brudnizki, the designer
behind Scott’s and The Ivy. The restaurant is either casually formal or
formally casual depending on your expectations. It has all the style
of (in truth, probably more style than)
the celebrated station brassieres
of La Belle France. The gold-leafed ceiling reflects a subtle and cosy
glow. The tables and chairs are in dark wood
and the large
hanging spherical lamps add an almost art nouveau air. The only hint of
impending voyaging is an imposing illuminated clock.
We headed for the warmth of the main restaurant and settled ourselves
at the Oyster Bar. There is a Whisky Bar at the opposite end of the
restaurant which was almost as inviting on a winter’s evening, but the
oysters and champagne found favour with us as The Grand has an amazing
offer of a glass of something special and some oysters. (‘Happy Oyster
Hours’ from 5-7pm everyday where they give free oysters with each glass
of wine or Champagne purchased at the Oyster Bar. Visit here to
see other offers.) To the uninitiated an oyster is an oyster is an
oyster. Not
so, and the knowledgeable staff are more than happy to introduce you to
an array of molluscs, all with slightly different characteristics.
A glass or two of Laurent-Perrier later, we found ourselves perusing
the restaurant menu. Head Chef, Chris
Dines, takes evident pride in his food and has sourced some amazing
ingredients. British charcuterie was our choice of starter. The Trealy
Farm meats were superb and as good as anything hailing from beyond
these shores. The choice of pickled onions from The Real Olive Company
as accompaniment was inspired. I am not normally a lover of a pickled
onion. I find them too acidic but I could have happily munched on a
jarful of these sweet vegetables. This starter was far more than cold
meat and pickles.
I was tempted by the Fish Pie. I had noticed that a few fellow guests
(both French and British) who were evidently regulars had ordered this.
It arrived as a rustic individual pie with a browned potato lid. The
fish in its sauce was tender and delicious and well flavoured. Comfort
food at its warming best. A dish of buttered leeks is included so my
main meal was complete.
My companion chose ham hock, which was served with well-textured
colcannon and a parsley sauce. The meat was falling from the bone in
red-pink shreds. A robust plateful of old-fashioned good food. The kind
of British food that we are at last returning to. The kind that
visitors didn’t know existed.
Amazingly we found space to explore the dessert menu. Chocolate Tart
with Vanilla Cream, and Burnt Cambridge Cream and Winter Fruits were
amongst the pud offerings. I was tempted by the Bramley Apple and
Blackberry Crumble and it was just as one would hope. Plenty of fruit
and a topping which was crisp rather than soggy. My guest, a man
famously afflicted with hollow legs, ordered Steamed Ginger Pudding
with Ginger Ice Cream. This presented ginger in all its guises. The
pudding was light, the ginger syrup revived memories of those exotic
little jars of preserved ginger one is sometimes lucky enough to
receive from Santa, the ice cream was seeded with amber crystallised
ginger. My companion was a happy diner.
St Pancras Grand restaurant is hidden in plain view. It’s there for all
to see but one needs to know where to look. No need for a cross-channel
jaunt. A quick trip on an escalator is all that’s needed for you to
discover a thoroughly British restaurant showcasing some of the best
produce we have to offer.
Restaurant review:St Pancras Grand Restaurant,
Oyster and Champagne Bar
St Pancras International Station
Upper Concourse, Euston Road
London NW1 2QP
Phone: 020 7870 9900
Visit St Pancras Grand here
Haché
Burger Connoisseurs Ltd
No, I make no apology, dear reader, for introducing you to
a burger restaurant, for that is exactly what Haché is. It’s a
family business, established in 2004 but they have certainly not
modelled themselves on the ubiquitous fast food chains. The food here
is strikingly different and appeals to adults with educated palates who
want good quality food served in a pleasant environment.
Haché pride themselves on using the best produce to make and
garnish their burgers. The beef is 100% prime Scotch steak. The
chicken, fish and vegetables are delivered fresh every day. Desserts
are made by Haché and the burgers are designed by Haché.
Yes, there are burgers here that are exclusive to Haché and well
worth
a
try.
There are only two Haché restaurants so far, one in
Camden and the one in Chelsea in the Fulham Road which was our
destination. The first thing one notices about a Haché
restaurant is, well, the restaurant. The fact that it was a real
restaurant was reassuring, and a very welcoming one it was. The tables
and chairs are in dark wood and rather reminiscent of classic tea
shops, but from waist height Haché is all glitz and crystal,
owing more to sumptuous Viennese coffee houses than a golden arch. The
Chelsea branch is a tranquil lunch venue for locals but the evening
finds it the favourite dining spot for cinemagoers.
We settled ourselves to peruse the menu, which was cosmopolitan and
imaginative. Haché Burgers are served on fresh Ciabatta buns
rather than the more typical soft sesame seed varieties of
Macwendykings the world over. This makes for a more substantial meal.
You can have a green salad instead of the bread if you are watching the
calories. The standard garnishes are Roquette, beef tomato, sliced red
onion and the house mayo, although you’ll be offered numerous other
toppings to complete your gourmet patty.
It’s the nature of a burger to be most often made of beef, and it’s
true that Haché offers a good selection of these, but there are
also several lamb burgers: Lamb Moroccan – chopped lamb with spring
onions, coriander and smoked paprika, served with a spicy Harissa dip –
will be the undoubted choice for my next visit. Fish lovers are also
catered for with Fresh Tuna Steak and Fish & Chips - beer battered
fish with tartar sauce served with chunky chips. There are a good
number of chicken dishes including Honey-Moutarde chicken burger with
grilled bacon and melted cheddar cheese. For a lighter poultry option
there is Chicken Caesar Salad and for vegetarians the salad section
also offers Grand Avocat - avocado, pine nuts, cucumbers, vine
tomatoes, French beans, roasted red peppers on a bed of mixed leaves
tossed in Haché dressing.
Tempted though we were by the aforementioned we each had our own idea
of what might make a suitable Monday lunch. My companion, in true manly
fashion, chose red meat. He was almost persuaded by the Steak Canadian
– bacon and mature cheddar cheese with perhaps a side order of onion
rings, but the waiter remarked that their Steak Catalan served with
chorizo sausage, fresh chilli and tomato jam was the most popular of
the beef burgers. This arrived cooked to medium as requested and proved
to be a good choice. The beef was flavourful and tender and the sausage
was well seasoned with paprika and a hint of warming spice.
Although I am not a full-time vegetarian I often choose the meatless
option. Most of the vegetarian burgers at Haché are
chickpea-based and I rather liked the sound of the Falafel Blue Cheese
burger. Our waiter suggested that the delicate texture would be best
enjoyed with a salad rather than the bun and I ordered a tomato and red
onion salad on the side. The cheese gave a tang to the soft and light
falafel. This was made into a burger shape rather than being the
traditional hockey puck or doughnut shapes found in Middle Eastern
snack bars. A surprisingly hearty plateful.
It’s the fate of a restaurant reviewer to self-sacrificingly indulge in
dessert even when one is not needed. Haché have a short but
thoughtful list of sweet delights including Chocolate Brownies served
with whipped double cream or Haché Ice Cream (said to be one of
the most popular puds), and the classic Eton Mess. We chose Banoffee
Pie but be warned – you need to have a sinfully big appetite for this
one. It’s a confection that is quite often found on restaurant menus
and is frequently a disappointment. This example was memorable in size
and sticky deliciousness. Have an espresso and take your time over this
one.
Haché Chelsea is a restaurant that introduces its clients to the
smart side of burgerdom. It’s about ingredients and effort. If you are
going to eat a burger then eat the best quality you can find. If you
take the trouble to eat out then find a restaurant that has ambience
and cutlery. Haché is a fine example of fun casual elegance. We
enjoyed our meal and will return.
Restaurant review:Haché
Chelsea
329 - 331 Fulham Road, Chelsea, London SW10 9QL
Tel 020 7823 3515
Email hache.chelsea@btconnect.com
Visit Haché here
Al Waha Lebanese
restaurant, Westbourne Grove
The residents of Westbourne Grove have long been spoiled for choice
with regard to restaurants. The standard in this neighbourhood has
improved over these last years but it’s still Al Waha which boasts a
full dining room every night.
This was my first visit to this restaurant but I had
already heard great things from the worthy and the wise
in the food industry. The welcome was warm. The restaurant was warm and
the mint tea was hot. Sipping that tea gave me time to relax and enjoy
the ambiance. Al Waha means "oasis," and that’s exactly what it is. It
exudes an ethnic but not overly themed charm. The walls are decorated
in a simple but stunning fashion with the work of celebrated
calligrapher Mouneer al-Shaarani. (It is he, I believe, who is
responsible for Al Waha's logo.) Arabic poetry, sayings and the Holy
Koran are the subject matter but even those of us who can read not a
stroke of the messages will be struck by their skill and beauty.
The proprietor is Mohammad Bader-Alden Antabli. He is a chef and a man
who has dedicated himself to providing the best of Lebanese food. He
has a ready smile and infectious enthusiasm for his dishes. He uses
traditional and often lengthy cooking methods to provide his guests
with an authentic taste of Lebanon. His standard dishes are far from
standard and the memory of his Dishes of the Day will last all month.
The amazingly extensive menu offers many dishes found in any typical
Lebanese restaurant but there is a world of difference in quality.
Mohammad has a hummous (Kawarmah Hummous) but here it is topped with
flavourful and tender fried diced lamb and pine nuts. It’s the texture
that sets this particular version apart. It’s silky and refined and
remarkably different from the more common, almost grainy paste found in
other restaurants.
Moutabel, also known as babaganoush, is an aubergine and
tahini dip. Yes, another Lebanese restaurant favourite but this one is
different, it actually tastes of something and that something is
roasted aubergines. The dip has a smoky flavour which comes from
charring the vegetables rather than baking them. It takes more effort
to make but the end result is a superior product and is good enough to
be a signature dish.
Kibbeh Maklieh is a bulgur wheat shell, stuffed with minced lamb,
onions, walnuts and pine nuts. These are formed into pointy-ended balls
and deep fried. They are a popular mezze item and should be crunchy on
the outside and meltingly moist and flavourful on the inside. These
were, and they were moreish.
Falafel is found on fast-food carts all over the world. If you love
those dubious nuggets then my advice is not to try the falafel at Al
Waha. It will spoil you for that inferior street-food. The mixture of
ground chickpeas, broad beans, garlic, onions and spices is worked to
an amazingly light consistency. Delicate is not a word often associated
with falafel but it does accurately describe Al Waha’s deep-fried
delights. A simple dish but remarkably well executed.
Sambousek are small pastries with various fillings. We enjoyed those
stuffed with minced lamb, onions and pine nuts, and the cheese tarts
were rich and buttery, tangy and flaky – a must for any vegetarian. And
there is a raft of other non-meat dishes: Fatayer, pastry stuffed with
spinach, onions, pomegranate, pine nuts and walnuts; Warak Inab, vine
leaves stuffed with rice, tomatoes, onions, herbs and spices; Fattoush,
mixed salad with herbs, toasted Lebanese bread, vinegar and a touch of
garlic (this was noteworthy); Moussakaat Batinjan, fried aubergines
with chickpeas, onions, tomatoes, garlic and spices; Salatate Al Rahib,
smoked aubergines, green peppers, tomatoes, spring onions and garlic;
Batata Harra, potatoes cooked with olive oil, garlic, red peppers,
spices and green chilli, are also sought after by vegetarians who are
so often overlooked by other cuisines.
Soujuk Sadah are Armenian lamb sausages, which have a hot vibrant
flavour tempered by tomato and slices of garlic with which they are
slowly cooked. Another of our meat-based selection was Kharoof Mahshi,
tender lamb with rice, herbs, and nuts, served with fresh cucumber
yoghurt salad. This was the Thursday special and worth pencilling in
the diary – my companion proclaimed this to be one of the best lamb
dishes he had tried in a long time. I have no idea if the other daily
offerings are so tempting but I’ll make it my mission to try them on
your behalf.
Baklawa are the celebrated sweet pastries of Lebanon and we had a
selection of these sugary treats to munch along with our thick,
cardamom-perfumed coffee. But also try the Mouhallabieh, a Lebanese
milk pudding topped with rosewater syrup and ground pistachio nuts.
This is a light and refreshing dessert and made a delicious and
attractive end to our meal.
Al Waha is an award-winning restaurant and it’s easy to understand why.
Everything about it merits a compliment or an accolade. It oozes quiet
well-deserved confidence. Mohammad Bader-Alden Antabli provides guests
with what they expect... and then adds a bit more. My next visit, for
next there will surely be, will be on a Monday to sample Dajaj Mahshi
(succulent baked chicken on a bed of rice, herbs and nuts, served with
cucumber yoghurt salad), although Tuesday’s menu looks enticing...
Restaurant review:Al Waha Restaurant
Proprietor: M. Bader-Alden Antabli
75 Westbourne Grove, London W2 4UL
Telephone: 020 7229 0806
Visit Al Waha here
Loch Fyne
restaurant Twickenham
Formed in 1998, Loch Fyne Restaurants was established to
cultivate oysters in the clear, clean waters of Loch Fyne in Scotland.
The company has now grown to 46 sites and they employ over 1,200 staff
working all over the UK. They don’t sell just oysters but fish in all
its guises and even some meat dishes. They are committed to independent
producers who use sustainable methods to deliver high quality foods. We
are told that fish is good for us but we should all be concerned about
about fish stocks and sustainability.
The Loch Fyne restaurant in Twickenham is housed in a former pub. It
has retained much of its earlier character
with oak-panelling contrasted with light cream walls. The original bar
is still there although part replaced by a fish-on-ice display. There
are chalk boards, and heavy wooden tables and chairs to add still
further to the cosy ambiance. The layout of the old building might not
do the serving staff any favours but it allows the guests the
opportunity to find a quiet corner for an intimate soirée, or a
roomy spot for a group gathering.
Those aforementioned chalkboards offer the day’s specials which our
waiter informed us were some of the most popular dishes. It had a fish
pie topped with mash, and gravadlax which I always find appealing, as
well as smoked duck; but we wanted to try the regular menu. So we
ordered a fruity rosé (Savino Primitivo, Italy and exclusive to
Loch Fyne) and considered our selection.
The Loch Fyne menu had classic fish dishes like fish and chips, prawn
cocktail with brown bread and butter, and moules marinières, but
there is also innovation. How about Char-grilled South Coast squid with
bok choi and sesame dressing? Spicy prawn and squid noodles with
chilli, ginger and fresh coriander reflects the current desire for
fresh flavours and light ingredients.
My guest, a man with traditional tastes, ordered homemade potted
shrimps with mace butter and crusty bread. This had a charming rustic
presentation with the seafood arriving in a small preserving jar - the
sort with the rubber ring and the metal clip. The delicate shrimps were
well seasoned and the onion gave an agreeable sweetness. Potted shrimp
were a traditional Sunday teatime dish. It’s retro and comforting and
there was plenty of it.
Whitebait with lemon mayonnaise was my choice of starter and in keeping
with the fashionably old-fashioned theme of my companion. These little
fishes had been dredged in flour elevated with a hint of chilli and
were deep-fried till just done. Crisp, light and delicious. A squeeze
of lemon was all they needed by way of condiment.
Char-grilled Loch Fyne Bradan Rost (kiln roasted salmon fillet) with
mushroom, whisky and horseradish sauce was my guest’s main course. This
dish is said to have quite a colourful history. Our waiter says the
kiln roast salmon was originally going to be regular smoked salmon but
the smoke-house burnt down. The resulting fish was eaten by the workers
who proclaimed it to be quite marvellous, and so a fine dish was born
of an accident. The two batons of fish were almost mahogany in hue and
the moist flakes had intense flavour. This was deliciously foiled by
the creamy mild sauce, and a bowl of fresh buttery seasonal vegetables
completed the meal.
My main course was Scottish smoked haddock risotto with a soft-poached
egg. The egg was just right with a runny yolk of golden richness. The
risotto was pale and flecked with herbs. Note that the fish was white
and not the “yellow peril” of yesteryear, bright enough to read a book
by and filled with artificial colour. This Loch Fyne haddock, along
with the salmon, is traditionally smoked over oak chips from old whisky
casks. A romantic concept but that process really does impart robust
flavour.
The celebrated chalkboards put in another appearance with the dessert
suggestions. All the desserts are made in-house, and change with the
seasons and availability of fruit. Ice cream, Christmas pudding, apple
pie, crème brulée and sticky toffee pudding would have
been more tempting had the savouries been less substantial, but we
truly had been well fed. We chose the Scottish cheese platter to share.
We enjoyed a mature cheddar and a Scottish blue with oat cakes, grapes
and a homemade apple chutney.
Loch Fyne has a loyal following of regulars. It’s a restaurant with a
solid menu for fish lovers, and committed carnivores and vegetarians
are also considered. The quality of food was first-class and the
serving staff were knowledgeable about the menu, the specials and the
company ethos. An ideal spot to enjoy a glimpse of the seaside near the
River Thames.
Madsen, a restaurant in the shadow of an underground
station. (Yes, dear overseas reader, some London
Underground stations do cast shadows, at least when the sun is strong
enough to cast one.) OK, so not exactly in the shadow of but just
across the road from, and opposite the Lamborghini garage. The very
location held hope of something a bit special.
I have visited Stockholm and a glance at Madsen transported me right
back there. Tables outside stylish restaurants. Chairs draped with
blankets, freezing cold and flurries of snow. (How did Madsen’s
management arrange that?)
Mushroom-white walls, contemporary artwork, comfy banquettes offered a
refuge from the frigid conditions. This spot smacks of designed
informality. It’s evidently high-end but contrives to be accessible,
friendly and welcoming. Everything was as I had hoped and brought back
warm memories of lunches with my Danish auntie. Flickering candles,
heavy linen napkins and a beer called God lager (Hmmm, so that’s how
they arranged the snow – friends in high places!).
It’s a rare genre of eatery, being Scandinavian. We might feel we know
a bit about this cuisine as we have had the meatballs at IKEA, but
Madsen is the real thing. And how different can meatballs be? Very.
Consider a Smartcar (no hostile mail please, I am sure they are
admirably fit for purpose) and compare with the aforementioned
Lamborghini. It’s like that with meatballs.
But we didn’t start with meatballs. We tucked into smuchi. No I didn’t
say sushi. These are small, typically Scandinavian open sandwiches:
Smushi is a smaller version of the traditional Danish open sandwich
called ”Smørrebrød”. We enjoyed the thinly sliced roast
beef with remoulade topped with crispy onions, pickled cucumber and
fresh horseradish on rye bread, and “Hamburgerryg” which is succulent
smoked pork loin topped with tomato, potato and mayo. Each was served
on dark bread and might be described as small by Madsen but the
quantity of topping is sufficient to be considered a grown-up classy
sandwich. Our other starter was a Herring Platter, a medley of three
fishes: onion-, mustard- and Madeira-marinated herring served with
garnish and rye bread. This is a treat for any fish lover. Each
artfully arranged rosette had a subtly different flavour with a
presentation that was almost too good to disturb.
You will be disappointed if I don’t mention those meatballs. Madsen’s
(the restaurant is named after Charlotte Madsen who is the proprietor)
are several cuts above the average. Made from a combination of pork and
veal these light “Frikadeller” were served with potato salad, pickled
cucumber and rye bread. This was a surprisingly hearty meal.
My fish dish was another substantial plateful: “Stjerneskud,” fried
breaded filet of plaice on sourdough bread topped with steamed plaice,
asparagus, red lumpfish roe and mayonnaise. The ingredients are
presented in an attractive mound, not the over-engineered tower of some
too-self-aware restaurants. I often have the feeling that there are
chefs behind a two-way mirror watching the discomfort of diners as they
consider how to dismantle their order. The breaded fish was light and
golden and the plaice was cooked to opaque melting tenderness. Lots of
fish. Nothing mean or skimpy, just a good portion of delicious food and
attractive presentation. These dishes don’t pose, they beckon.
A lesser reviewer or mere mortal would have stepped away from the table
at that point but I felt I had to make another sacrifice for my art. I
ordered a cookie and coffee, and my guest manfully picked the Baked
Caramel Crème based on Madsen’s Choko stout, served with soft
vanilla ice cream. This proved to be quite a culinary triumph and
should be a signature dish. Granted, it doesn’t sound promising but it
is memorable, delicious and a must-try. It is a sweet concoction with
an air of ale, or is it a hint of stout with a creamy finish, or is it
rich and interesting and to be discovered for yourself? Yes, I’ll
settle for that.
My Kransekage Marzipan biscuit was almost a cake with a soft texture
and an almondy hit. Chocolate-dipped ends and a drizzle of icing made
this a little sweet fancy. An ideal light end to a lovely meal with
many surprises, and all of them pleasant.
Madsen is definitely as good as it looks. A discreet and charming
private dining room for a dozen or so can be used for celebrations and
corporate lunch/dinner meetings and at no extra charge.There is
attention to detail that sorts a great restaurant from a mediocre one.
I defy anyone not to be quietly impressed by this slice of Scandinavia,
transposed to West London. Its dishes are naturally healthy. You’ll
want to eat what Madsen provides because it’s delicious and it just
happens to be good for you. This is one of my favourite
recently-reviewed restaurants and it’s a pleasure to recommend it.
Restaurant review:Madsen Scandinavian restaurant
20 Old Brompton Road, London SW7 3DL
Phone: 020 7225 2772
Email: reservations@madsenrestaurant.com
Visit Madsen here
Toms Deli
Westbourne Grove still looks delightful even in a snow
storm. The lights of Toms (the Tom in question owns several other
London eateries and is also Terrence Conran's son) were welcoming,
although the light from almost anything other than a fridge door would
have been a relief in such conditions.
The Westbourne Grove locals love Toms as it’s been there since the
1990s and has become something of an institution. Nicole Kidman has
graced a booth at Toms as has Brad Pitt. Those booths are in fact made
from old Paris Metro seats. Claudia Schiffer has been spotted shopping
in the area and perhaps she stopped for coffee as well.
Toms is a deli and café with touches of old-fashioned sweetshop.
It is food-lover’s heaven offering every conceivable sweet or savoury
delight. It’s a small area that is artfully packed with temptation, and
it’s a place with three distinct but overlapping personas.
One is first introduced to the confectionery emporium which has goods
hanging from the walls and spilling from every shelf, counter, nook and
cranny ...and a ceiling carousel. The buyer for Toms must have the best
job in the world. There are continental chocolates nestling close to
jars of boiled sweets (think sherbet pips and humbugs). There are
bottles of designer cordials and boxes of Italian panattone. The
displays change with the seasons so expect an occasional bunny (sugary
not butchery) come Easter.
After passing through the front section of Toms one finds oneself on
the horns of a dietary dilemma. Some tea and a slice of one of those
cakes (these would have previously beckoned to you as you passed)
accompanied by a nice sit down... or a little meander around the
basement deli. OK, we did the deli first.
This is the savoury version of the aforementioned front-of-house – a
veritable Aladdin’s cave of things one would love to try. There is a
cold counter for salads, an amazingly good selection of cheeses, smoked
meats and some ready-to-eat meals, and all manner of take-away dishes
and sandwiches. There are eggs, fresh fruit and veg as well as a
surprisingly good display of high-end sauces, condiments. oils and
vinegars. This is a small space crammed with culinary Ooooh! and Ahhhh!
Next stop was the upper-floor cafe. It has more of a feeling of a
traditional teashop although the addition of those French booths adds a
quirky eclectic charm. The cakes are fresh and are difficult to pass
up. The lemon drizzle cake was a great choice although they all looked
good. If we had arrived earlier we could have sampled Toms breakfasts
(served until midday) for which they are so famous. Eggs Florentine,
Eggs Benedict as well as the Full English are on offer but come early
at weekends or you’ll be defeated by the queue. The lunch menu features
salads and pizzas, light bites and soup but this changes from time to
time.
Toms Deli is just what you would expect from a smart London district.
It offers classy foodstuffs in a stylish fashion. It has a worldwide
reputation as a spot to take in when “doing London”. Well worth a visit
for gifts for the gourmet in your life, for a cuppa and a cake or more
especially for breakfast.
Restaurant review:Toms Deli
226 Westbourne Grove, London W11 2RH
Tel: 020 7221 8818
Home Chef
Neven Maguire is an Irish chef and television personality
from Blacklion, Co. Cavan. He is also the head chef and
proprietor of the MacNean House and Restaurant. He is a well-known face
on Irish TV but is now making his mark in Britain.
MacNean House & Restaurant, Blacklion, was originally opened as
MacNean’s Bistro in 1989 by Neven’s mum and dad, Joe and Vera Maguire.
The bistro was named after the nearby MacNean Lakes. This was a real
family-run restaurant which had Joe and Vera as well as all 9 of their
children working for the enterprise. Sounds like an amazing training
ground - Neven began cooking at the age of twelve. He took over the
business as Head Chef and Proprietor in 2003.
Home Chef has immediate appeal. The type-face is clear and bold and the
book boasts a host of photographs drawn from the camera and talents of
David Munns. The recipes are well-written and for the most part devoid
of lengthy lists of ingredients. Yes, this a chef-penned volume but
this chef seems mindful of the constraints of the domestic kitchen and
the possible nervousness of the domestic cook.
Neven Maguire lives in the real world so he suggests using commercial
pastry from your local supermarket and I have even noticed the artful
use of microwave popcorn. There is plenty of advice and also lots of
simple recipes to engage the novice. The dishes are graded for
difficulty although even the most taxing 3-chef-hat ones should not be
beyond the scope of the majority of housewives / husbands.
This book offers something for every taste. There are classic, ethnic
and playful dishes to tempt the reader. Multi-Seed Wheaten Bread is
just about the easiest bread you’ll ever make. This isn’t a yeast-based
dough but uses bicarbonate of soda. This would be a lovely breakfast
bread but also ideal for an afternoon teatime. Walnut and Fig bread
uses dry yeast and is another simple loaf to make, and is sure to be a
delight with a nice bit of cheese.
Salmon Sausages are popular at the MacNean House and Restaurant. They
have been marked with 3 chefs bonnets but it’s just a matter of
following the recipe and success is assured. They look cheffy and
impressive but much of the work is done in advance making these a good
dinner-party choice.
Nutella Cheesecake is bound to be a winner. It is a simple preparation
of a baked cheesecake with a ginger biscuit base and a filling of
mascarpone, stem ginger and the aforementioned Nutella. The kids will
love to help make this, as well as eat it.
Home Chef is a sensible book with recipes that you’ll want to make and
will indeed be able to make. This is a book to use. A great gift for a
wedding, housewarming or to any aspiring chef.
Cookbook review: Home Chef
Author: Neven Maguire
Published by: HarperCollins
Price: £20.00
ISBN 978-0-00-730083-9
The Minichefs Cookbook
A couple of generations of children have missed out on
real cooking lessons in the UK. Kids might know all about nutrition but there are
many people who have never had the chance to learn how to prepare a
meal. It’s no wonder that the obesity rate has increased to
embarrassing proportions, and that many homes have a microwave at the
centre of the food prep zone, used mostly to heat up the take-away or
frozen dinner.
If we can encourage children into the kitchen then we are giving them a
shot at a healthier future. If we can convince them that cooking is
really enjoyable then their enthusiasm will save them money and, later
on, make them the most popular students at university. Yes, it is a
social activity as well as a practical life skill.
The Minichefs Cookbook is the paper incarnation of the cookery school
founded by Claire McAvoy in the Channel Islands. She has taught
thousands of children in their school holidays and weekends. Claire
emphasises that cooking should be a fun activity as well as
educational. Her food is accessible to novice chefs and her dishes are
just the ones that children like to eat.
The Minichefs Cookbook has a section for breakfast, lunch and dinner,
another for baking, and the final one for party foods. How about a
homemade ketchup. This is child-friendly on every count. The finished
product will last for up to two weeks in the fridge, thus giving your
little darlings plenty of praise opportunity from family and friends,
and even from that auntie you don’t often see.
Bugs Bunny Cake is a healthy version of a carrot cake. It contains
wholemeal self-raising flour rather than real rabbits, as well as
carrots, bananas and walnuts. But my favourite sweet treat from this
book is Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate Cheesecake. It does indeed have
several chocolaty ingredients including chocolate digestive biscuits,
coco powder and melted chocolate. You wouldn’t want to eat this every
day, although the kids might.
Bread-making is pure magic and always seems to capture young
imaginations. Honey Pot Rolls are bread buns baked in terracotta pots.
Don’t go trotting off to the shed. You’ll have to buy unused small pots
at the garden centre but then you’ll be all set to introduce your
children to the wonders of active yeast and rising dough. It still
gives me a thrill even though I can hardly even remember the menopause.
The Minichefs Cookbook is a delightful book full of ideas for food for
children to prepare and enjoy. This is a godsend not only to parents
but also to grandparents who have the joy of looking after younger
members of the family on long winter afternoons. Help is at hand. Don’t
tell the kids that it’s educational but rather allow them to chop, mix,
beat, spread and spill, and convert them to a love of good food.
Cookbook review: The Minichefs Cookbook
Author: Claire McAvoy
Published by: Grub Street
Price £9.99
ISBN 978-1-904943-77-8
The Mitre
The Mitre has a facade very much in keeping with its smart
Holland Park surroundings. It’s a 1930s building that has been used to
good advantage by the present owners. It has a surprisingly spacious
and light interior thanks to some large windows that overlook a
palm-planted courtyard garden. This space isn’t used by the Mitre for
outside dining but it’s an asset nevertheless.
Although covering a good few square yards The Mitre manages to feel
cosy with its chesterfields and leather chairs inviting the bar clients to
linger. There is a raised bistro dining area with booths for 4 or 6
guests as well as spacious areas for individual tables providing
flexible accommodation for couples and large groups. There is a
semi-open kitchen. That is to say you get a good look at the kitchen
through a long hatch rather than having the impression that you are
sitting at the chef’s table next to the dishwasher.
The staff were efficient and friendly although they had plenty to do
looking after several large groups; the waiters were knowledgeable,
enthusiastic, charming and calm, no mistakes or delays were evident and
that is quite an accolade at this festive time of year.
We ordered the Duck Board. This is a Mitre signature dish along
with its fish counterpart. It’s easy to see why it’s so popular. It’s
an ample starter for 2 people and it’s a marvellous thing to behold.
The duck board isn’t a plank to keep one’s feet dry but rather a thick
and rustic wooden board generously garnished with, well, duck. This is
duck in all its guises. Duck rillettes (shreds of duck in its own
delicious fat) with a couple of shards of duck crackling (more delicate
than the regular pork which you are more likely to have encountered),
crisp roast duck with a mound of spiced orange dressing, duck liver
pate, and slices of succulent duck breast prosciutto with a miniature
skewer of spicy pickled vegetables. A striking presentation of a
thoroughly inventive dish. The head chef, Pat Lynch, trained at Scott
of Mayfair and Le Pont de La Tour so it’s no surprise that the standard
is high at the Mitre.
Our main courses were chosen from a solid British brassiere selection.
My Yorkshire sausages with mash and onion gravy were a good example of
why these isles have such a good reputation for bangers. These
particular ones were the sort that one seldom encounters these days.
They had bursting skins and that rich stickiness that comes from a
well-cooked quality sausage. The onion gravy was full of caramelised
sweetness and there was enough smooth mash to turn the head of a
more-than-peckish rugby player.
My guest chose battered haddock, chips and mushy peas for his main
course. The fries were thick fingers - proper old-fashioned chips, the
sort that are big enough to have a fluffy interior. The mushy peas were
a cut above those often found in chip shops: these were light and
minty, and more of a purée than a mush. Remoulade sauce was
alongside by way of an improvement over mayo or ketchup.
Be warned, come with an appetite or you will not make it to the
desserts. These were a pleasing selection of treats. There was the
traditional apple pie but also plum crumble for fruit-lovers. I
couldn’t resist the sticky toffee pudding. Elsewhere, they are often
pale and dry with a skimping swirl of sauce. This little beauty arrived
on a large dish and was a glossy dark island floating in a sea of
liquid toffee. Worth every calorie.
The Affogato makes for a stylish end to a meal. Vanilla-bean ice cream,
a shot of espresso and toasted panatone. Pour the coffee over the ice
cream for a delightful hot-cold taste experience. This is a simple
dessert to prepare but it does rely on the best of ingredients. This
just doesn’t work with cheap and nasty ice cream and a chunk of toasted
white sliced. The version at the Mitre was just right.
The Mitre provided us with a warm refuge from a blizzard, an
imaginative menu, well-cooked food at decent prices. It’s a popular
spot and it’s easy to see why. No complaints from this reviewer.
Restaurant review:The Mitre
40 Holland Park Avenue, London W11 3QY
Telephone: 0207 7276332. www.themitrew11.co.uk
The
Complete Illustrated Food and Cooking of Africa and the Middle East
This is another fabulous volume from Lorenz Books. These
truly are some of the best-written and most practical
cookbooks
published.
Each
edition
has
a
wealth
of
step-by-step
photographs.
In
fact
there
are
650
pictures
that
will
show
you
cooking
techniques
and
the
finished
dish.
Even
experienced
home
cooks
appreciate
a
bit
of
graphic stimulus when confronted by a new cuisine.
For many the foods of Africa and the Middle East will be new. It’s not
European and it’s not Asian. It’s a cuisine, or more accurately a
selection of cuisines that holds many delicious surprises.
Food and Cooking of Africa and the Middle East offers 170 or so recipes
for starters, soups and mezze, fish, meat and vegetarian dishes as well
as sweets and breads, but the Snacks and Street Food section is a good
place to start. These are stand-alone dishes so, for the novice, there
is no worry about the composition of an authentic meal. Make an array
of these small savouries and you have an exotic buffet. Would make a
change from sausage rolls and ham sandwiches.
Tunisian Chicken Wings and Oranges are tempting and simple to make.
West African Akkras are made of black-eyed peas and are similar to
Falafel which is ubiquitous all over the Middle East. Grilled Keftas
are skewered meatballs served with a yoghurt and mint dressing. These
are not hot with chilli but rather aromatic with mixed spice, the sort
you use for Christmas cakes.
Vegetarians will find plenty in this book to hold their attention.
Classic Casablancan Couscous with Roasted Summer Vegetables would be an
ideal dish for a BBQ. Okra and Tomato Tagine would be a good
alternative. The meat-eaters can have some grilled lamb along with
either of these dishes so you should have no complaints.
Spiced Nutty Bananas from Central Africa make an exotic dessert. There
is a delightful texture contrast between the soft fruit and the crunchy
nut crust - an economic dessert to finish a southern African, North
African or Middle Eastern meal. A lighter alternative would be the
ever-popular Oranges in Syrup with orange flower water. Chill before
serving for a hot-weather dessert. Ghoriba are Moroccan almond
biscuits. They have the texture of crumbly shortbread and are a
traditional accompaniment to a nice cup of mint tea or some thick sweet
coffee.
Food and Cooking of Africa and the Middle East makes truly different
dishes accessible to the home cook. You don’t need to be confident in
the kitchen to attempt these simple recipes. A taste for culinary
adventure will allow you to enjoy lesser-known kitchen traditions.
Lorenz Books have, once again, given cooking enthusiasts food for
thought. It’s another amazingly good value, attractive and informative
book stuffed full of tempting dishes.
Cookbook review:The Complete Illustrated Food & Cooking
of Africa & the Middle East
Edited by: Josephine Bacon and Jenni Fleetwood
Published by: Lorenz Books – Anness Publishing
Price: £10.99
ISBN-13: 978-0-7548-1983-7
Cakes
It’s winter and we want to spend more time in our cosy
kitchens. It’s the season for celebrations and indoor entertainment and
cakes are often a big part of those events. Cupcakes are trendy and
smart and Afternoon Tea has had a well-earned renaissance.
Cake-making is back on the agenda.
Baking is different from cooking. Yes, it still involves you in a close
relationship with your oven but there is an additional indispensible
element: a good recipe book. Most of us can make a casserole from bits
found lingering at the back of the fridge married with some meat from
that forgotten corner of the freezer, but cake-making involves a bit of
culinary alchemy.
Don’t be alarmed, dear reader, there is nothing too difficult to
baking. Follow the recipe and pay attention to weights, or in the case
of this book, measures, and size of cake tin and all will be well. Once
you have mastered the basics then you can introduce your own
innovations in the guise of different fillings and icing.
Cakes offers 250 tempting creations including festive cakes, coffee
cakes (these are cakes made to be consumed alongside a nice cup of
coffee), fruit cakes and even frozen cakes for the warmer weather.
These frosty desserts are great entertaining puds as they are made
ahead. Stress-busters.
I am sure you have noticed posh cafes with arrays of extravagantly
decorated cupcakes. These are delicious but often a shocking price.
Make your own for little money. There are more than 25 alternatives
here to suit any occasion. Espresso Swirl Cupcakes really are coffee
cakes in every sense of the word. Have these with a strong espresso and
think of weekends in Rome. They take 20 minutes to prepare and you
won’t need a degree in catering.
The Breakfast and Brunch chapter holds many delights. Cake for
breakfast is a thoroughly civilised American tradition that should be
embraced by all. These cakes are not over-decorated and sugary but are
filled with good things like fruit and nuts. Think of these cakes as
huge power-bars, originally made by farmers’ wives for families who
started their day while the chickens were still dreaming. You wouldn’t
want to eat huge slices every day but they are ideal for slow weekends.
How’s about Apple and Cranberry Crumble Cake for early on Christmas
morning. Make the night before.
Upside-Down Citrus Polenta Cake is a tangy take on the more common
pineapple version, although that is also included in the fruit and
vegetable cake section. The polenta gives a different texture. There
are several versions of Carrot Cake with a selection of interchangeable
toppings. I love the traditional cream cheese frosting.
An old-fashioned teatime cake is Date and Walnut Cake. This book has a
version with a caramel frosting. I am not normally one for tinkering
with old favourites but I am persuaded that this icing really is worthy
of inclusion. Lamington Cake draws on Australian afternoon tea
tradition. The original Lamingtons were small square cakes but this
volume presents the same style of confection in the form of a whole
cake. More practical to make than the usual.
Cakes is a stunner of a book. The photographs are magnificent and there
are plenty of options for those of us who have specific dietary needs.
Gluten-free, egg-free, dairy-free and even sugar-free recipes are all
noted. You don’t need to be an expert baker to enjoy Cakes. Another
winner from the stable of Apple Press. A lot of book for the money.
Cookbook review: Cakes
Authors: Rachel Lane Carla Bardi
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £16.99
ISBN 978-1-84543-341-3
Zilli Light
I have chosen to be a cookbook and restaurant reviewer
because I have a passion for food. Am I the best cook in the world? No.
Do I write with the poetry and romance of The Bard? Almost. Am I an
authority on ethnic Italian food? No. So why do I think
that I can have a good shot at reviewing Zilli Light? Because I have
been reviewing with a friend from Italy.
It’s been reassuring to cook cookbook food with someone who has cooked
that style of food professionally. Like every Italian, it seems, she
sets very exacting culinary standards, and she has proclaimed this book
to be one of the best outside Italy. I’m in no position to make that
proclamation myself, but I will say that it’s an interesting book for
any English-speaking cook outside Italy.
Aldo Zilli is a man frequently seen on British TV, where he has
presented his food in a witty and accessible manner. This current book,
Zilli Light, has a focus on healthy Italian-biased fare with
suggestions on how adopting a different eating strategy could help you
to eat less. Have five small meals each day rather than the usual three
more substantial ones.
This hasn’t the feel of a “cooking for health” book. The recipes
present dishes that are family-friendly so you’ll not be accused of
child cruelty and the husband won’t be telling his mates that he is off
for a burger ‘cos the wife’s on a diet. This is crowd-pleasing food and
good for you when, to quote the ads, used in conjunction with exercise.
Lamb stuffed with Couscous and Pinenuts is the recipe my Italian friend
chose for us to cook together. It isn’t traditionally Italian. Aldo
found this on a Greek island. He encourages you to change the recipe to
suit your own taste but his original takes some beating. It’s a simple
dish to make with the most complicated element being the tying with
string after stuffing. The finished result of our efforts was tender
flavourful meat which was served with just a couple of fresh vegetables
and additional stuffing.
A classic Italian dish and a favourite of mine is Fettuccine Vongole.
This clam and pasta recipe is usually made with wine but Aldo leaves
that out preferring to rely on the freshness of ingredients for
flavour. A clean-tasting dish and ready in minutes. Clams are not
expensive these days but they still somehow seem luxurious.
My favourite recipe from this collection is Baked Honey and Ricotta
Cheesecake. Yes, OK, so it’s a treat and you wouldn’t want to eat this
every day (oh, yes you would) but it’s a cheesecake with character. The
addition of chopped candied fruit is a departure from the more usual
New York Cheesecake and adds rather a festive note.
Zilli Light isn’t your stereotypical health-food book. There is nothing
over-worthy. No self-sacrifice but no tears either. It’s about eating
good food in a responsible manner. It’s about portion control and
common sense. You might not eat only from this book but it’s well worth
reading and the advice is good. A great book for those with gaining a
healthy lifestyle as a New Year’s resolution.
Cookbook review: Zilli Light
Author: Aldo Zilli
Published by: Simon and Schuster
Price: £20.00
ISBN 978-1-84737-556-8
Tatra Restaurant
This is an undiscovered gem. The jewel in the crown of an
otherwise unpromising West London street. One does not normally mention
the Goldhawk Road and fine cuisine in the same breath but here it is
and it’s outstanding.
Tatra is a smart restaurant that deserves to be full. It is just a few
yards from the bustle of Shepherds Bush Green. It is simple and
contemporary. The interior is in fact designed by one of the
proprietors, Sylwia Judycka. She confesses to not being a trained
restaurant designer but has done marvellous work transforming the space
from iffy red and white to restful and sophisticated mushroom tones.
Notice the abstract art on the brick wall? That’s another of Sylwia’s
masterworks.
This is a light restaurant during the day. High ceilings still display
hints of Victorian moulding. There are candles in niches which change
the ambiance from daytime restful retreat to night-time buzz. This is a
place that is at its liveliest in the evenings, and on Sundays when
it’s full of Poles out to enjoy a good family meal with tastes of home.
The menu is an Eastern European culinary tapestry. There are dishes
aplenty from Poland, but Russia and Hungary are also represented. There
is even a nod to Siberia. There is comfort writ large on every page but
this is classy comfort rather than nursery food.
You need know nothing of Eastern European food to find a satisfying
meal here. The staff are more than happy to lead you through the dishes
giving good advice about the origin and ingredients of each one. The
advice of this reviewer would be to come with an appetite.
We were visiting a Polish restaurant so vodka seemed a good idea. There
is an extensive vodka menu and that was no surprise but that list
includes a good number of home-infused vodkas. No, the management don’t
buy unmarked bottles from a bloke behind the Shepherds Bush Empire. The
chef makes these himself with each one being lovingly babysat for two
months till it reaches its age of maturity. We had pear vodka and it is
to be recommended. It’s made with fresh fruit and captures the very
essence of pear flavour. This vodka tastes more like a pear than does
the real thing. It is served in a frozen thick glass to add even more
Polishness to the proceedings, as if that were necessary.
While we waited for our starters to arrive we were presented with a pot
of spread and bread. The aforementioned paste was made from lard. OK, I
have probably just lost half my readers but I will tell those of you
remaining that this is a taste from the past. Hands up who remembers
bread and dripping? If you do then you will find this to be equally
delicious. For those poor unfortunates who have never known that joy
then I can tell you that this Polish counterpart is a light and almost
creamy spread with subtle hints of onion and apple. I loved it all
those years ago and I grew up to be a restaurant reviewer, so let’s not
have any prejudices here.
So we ordered our starters. I knew dumplings were big in Eastern
Europe. That is to say they are very popular and I assumed they would
be big. My Siberian version, Pelmeni, were something of a surprise. One
would expect Siberians to be tucking into football-sized creations
after a day mowing the tundra but these were small and delicate like
hexagonal ravioli. The filling was pork and veal, and the sauce was of
garlic butter and spring onions which was plate-lickingly delicious. My
guest had Russian dumplings which were of a light and flaky pastry with
a flavour of braised onion and bacon. These looked very attractive and
were proclaimed to be moreish.
I ordered Leczo which is a rich goulash with dumplings. These
particular dumplings were different from the starters. They were not
filled but were the lightest and most melting of any dinner dumpling
you could imagine and a bit like a potato gnocci in texture. They were
a foil for the vibrant stew of tender meat and peppers. The perfect
meal for a cold British winter.
My guest ordered Golonka, pork shank with braised cabbage and potatoes.
This is a striking dish of mahogany hue and fit for any hearty eater,
or two modest ones. The meat had been slowly cooked and could be eased
from the bone with the merest breeze from an opening restaurant door.
The cabbage, although braised, was in no way slimy (a culinary term oft
used to describe British cooked leafy vegetables). It had bite and was
a good companion to the ample quantity of meat.
It’s difficult to focus on dessert when one has so over-indulged in
previous courses but we were tempted by the knowledgeable and charming
waitress into trying a slice or two of Polish Christmas cake. This was
nothing like a British Christmas cake of brick-like consistency with
perhaps a marzipan reindeer as garnish. This was a roll of light pastry
filled with a sweet poppy-seed paste. It was delightful and was helped
down by a good cup of tea. It’s not a usual menu item but well worth
trying at this time of year. I would recommend the crèpe filled
with raisins, almonds, rum and cream cheese for the other months.
You should visit Tatra now before it becomes famous, moves to Mayfair,
triples the prices and takes bookings for weeks in
advance. The husband and wife team of chef Robert Kusy and Sylwia
Judycka (who seems talented at everything else) are passionate about
their restaurant and it shows. It shows in the thoughtful menu. It
shows in the attention to detail. It shows in their choice of staff,
and above all it shows in the quality of food. They are not managers.
Tatra is Robert and Sylwia's dream. It’s their business and it is bound
to do well. This is one of my top three restaurants reviewed in 2009.
I do rather worry when I am presented with a vegetarian
cookbook. So many of them in the past have been unappealing to all but the most
committed vegetarian. Those folk who were at Glastonbury the first time
around, wore multi-coloured, ill-fitting, voluminous knitted jumpers
and were still in sandals in January.
Thank goodness for the new trend in vegetarian food. We can now eat
well and not notice the absence of meat. Beige has been replaced by
vibrant colour. The sense of “this must be doing me good” has been
replaced by exclamations of “this is so good that it CAN’T be doing me
good”. Terre A Terre – The Vegetarian Cookbook is a stunning example of
what the best vegetarian cookbook should be. The kind of book that
graces the shelves of those of us who are still tempted by a bacon
sandwich.
This is a volume gorgeously illustrated by the photographs of Lisa
Barber. The food styling is stunning but consider it merely serving
suggestions, just as they say of the pictures on those packets of
frozen cod. You are not expected to become a chef. Look at the recipes
and consider how you would like to eat these dishes... but do eat these
dishes.
It’s a rollicking good read. The authors, Amanda Powley and Philip
Taylor (they have a restaurant in Brighton of the same name), have
written a cookbook full of wit and passion. The food is enticing and
truly original. There are exotic flavours and fresh tastes. There are
amusing departures from traditional dishes and a good few culinary
revelations. The section headings bring a smile and have encouraged me
to take up cartooning. Black Bean and Cellophane Frisbee sounds almost
Simpson-esque.
It’s a Quacker is a cheering composition of soda bread, celeriac soup
with boiled duck eggs perched on wilted spinach. Each of the components
could be presented with many other dishes. Here they are assembled to
make a light lunch but the eggs could be served with any bread, the
soup could be a starter for a more substantial meal and the soda bread
goes with everything but dessert.
And talking of desserts, these are amazing. I see many cookbooks that
are filled with nothing but afters and there has been much to tempt me,
but the puds here are in a class of their own. These have provoked
outbursts of “oooh, have a look at this” and “damn the diet”.
A real winner is Boiled Eggs and Chubby Soldiers. Doesn’t sound like a
dessert although the word Chubby gives a clue. Think cream. Think
passion fruit curd. Think pineapple soldiers. (For non-British readers
I should explain that soldiers in this context are batons of fruit for
dipping.) Assemble so that the curd represents the egg yolk, the cream
the dome of the egg and the pineapple acts as your morning toast.
Sophisticated enough for the most culinarily discerning adult but the
kids will love it as well.
Terre A Terre – The Vegetarian Cookbook is a thoroughly engaging book.
It’s full of surprises. It offers delightful recipes and will change
attitudes to non-meat cooking. One of the best of this year’s crop of
cookbooks.
Cookbook review: Terre A Terre – The Vegetarian Cookbook
Authors: Amanda Powley and Philip Taylor
Published by: Absolute Press
Price: £20.00
ISBN 9781906650049
Koto – A culinary journey through Vietnam
So, what does Koto mean? Is it Vietnamese for Brussels
sprouts? No, it stands for Know One, to Teach One. This is a
grass-roots charity that sets out to help street kids in Hanoi. It
provides them with vocational training in cooking and hospitality.
These children will hopefully find employment as chefs and waiters in
the now-blossoming tourist industry. The royalties from this book will
go to the Koto organisation.
OK, so you have contributed to a noble cause but then you are stuck
with the book. Is it going to be left on the coffee table as a
conversation piece? Will it replace the missing foot of your grannie’s
old sideboard or will it be a cookbook that will hold your attention?
You, dear reader, will be pleased to know that it’s the latter.
There are relatively few cookbooks about the food of Vietnam. The
country has had many problems over many decades including a war that
you might have heard about. Promotion of the national cuisine has been
towards the bottom of the agenda. These days however, there are many
visitors to the country and there is more interest in the culture, art
and cooking.
Koto is an attractive cookbook but it is also a charming introduction
to Vietnam. The photographs by Michael Fountoulakis show tempting food,
and faces that in themselves tell stories. There are 80 or so recipes
that will still further add to your armchair adventure.
The authors, Tracey Lister and Andreas Pohl, take us on a journey
through the regions of Vietnam. They introduce us to the people, we
glimpse their lives and we enjoy the food. The dishes are traditional
and they have endured for a reason: they are delicious. The Spring
Rolls of Hue are light and refreshing with the flavour of aromatic
herbs. Braised Oxtail with Five Spice is rich and warming for these
cold winter days. The ingredients are all easily found in every
supermarket and the cooking techniques are simple.
My favourite recipe is perhaps Squid filled with Pork and Noodles. This
is not a spicy dish but rather relies on the freshness of the meat,
seafood and herbs. Serve with the classic dipping sauce (recipe in this
book) for a taste of authentic but accessible food from this
little-known food haven.
Koto is a book for the would-be traveller, the recently-returned
trekker and those who have a passion for good food. It’s a marvellous
invitation to visit this new long-haul destination.
Cookbook review: Koto - A culinary journey through Vietnam
Authors: Tracey Lister and Andreas Pohl
Published by: Hardie Grant Books
Price: £16.99
ISBN 978-1-74066-663-3
Front Room at
Flemings Mayfair
Opened in 1851, Flemings Hotel in Mayfair is one of
London’s oldest hotels. It was converted from six Georgian townhouses
but now this historic building has been restored to a tasteful and
luxurious haven.
Flemings is a chic discreet townhouse hotel set in the heart of one of
London’s most exclusive areas, Mayfair. The hotel and apartments are
tucked away in a quiet, romantic street off Piccadilly, two minutes
from Green Park and a short walk from the hustle and bustle of the West
End. Flemings is just a few minutes’ walk from the designer stores of
Bond Street, Regent Street and Jermyn Street, and close to Buckingham
Palace. London’s theatre district is within easy reach. Guests have
considered Flemings to be one of Mayfair’s ‘best kept secrets’- till
now!
Following a multimillion-pound refurbishment masterminded
by interior designer Grant White, the truly amazing interior of the
hotel now offers a unique combination of both contemporary comfort and
cosy Georgian charm. It has all the amenities you would
expect from a prestigious hotel, with the addition of The
Front Room for a special afternoon tea.
The Front Room at Flemings is London’s new elegant and striking destination
for
all
those
in
need
of
a
restful
but
stylish
retreat
from
the
rigors
of
shopping
and
for
those
in
search
of
afternoon
tea,
cupcakes,
Champagne
and
canapés.
The Front Room is like no other front room you would have encountered.
It’s a long way from your Auntie Winnie’s parlour with
magnolia walls and a set of plaster ducks. No Green Lady hanging over
the gas fire. Think elegant, contemporary and intimate.
The refurbishment of the old library has been inspired. The designer
set out to create “an elegant luxurious cocoon" and it has worked in
fine style. The shelves of leather-bound books are still a feature but
the walls are now black and silver, and mirrors magnify the impact. The
furniture is opulent velvet – the sort that encourages one to linger –
and arranged to suit couples as well as small groups. The view is
exquisite, onto a terrace of Georgian townhouses. One is transported to
scenes from Dickens or at least the Quality Street tin.
Magical.
The Front Room offers its guests layer cakes and cupcakes
from the Primrose Bakery. Jude Law has nailed his
colours to the mast and states “I defy anyone to find a better
cupcake”! These are almost (but not quite) too good to eat. They are
visions of pastel icing with delicate decorations of tiny pink sugar
rosebuds, chocolate beans and colourful sprinkles atop thick
buttercream. These cupcakes are said to be the best around and it’s
hard to argue with that.
The tea here is exceptional, different from your typical limited
selection available elsewhere as it is supplied by Dammann
Frères. The story begins in 1692 when King Louis 14th of France
ordered that only particular teas sold by a nobleman named Damame could
be sold in French cafés. In 1925 Robert and Pierre Dammann
created the company that was to become the celebrated Dammann
Frères.
In 1932 Dammann Frères became the official supplier to Compagnie
Generale Transatlantique, the French equivalent of P&O for luxury
cruising. They continue to select teas from all over the world to
create new and vibrant blends. They now have 3200! Try Passion de
Fleurs. Have this with your cupcake but drink it sans milk.
Prices: Traditional Afternoon Tea £23
Chocolate Afternoon Tea £26
Savoury Martini Afternoon Tea £29.50 (including Gin or Vodka
Martini)
Champagne & cupcakes (opening price for January only):
£13.50 for a glass of Perrier Jouët brut champagne and
a large cupcake. Small cupcakes are available but I’d treat myself to
the deliciously indulgent big one.
Tea/coffee & cupcakes (opening price for January only):
£8.00 (pot tea/coffee and large cupcake)
£7.00 (pot of tea/coffee and small cupcake)
£6.00 (pot of tea/coffee and slice of cake)
Dress Code: smart casual
Opening times: 8am - 8pm and open to non-hotel residents
8am - 12noon (teas/coffees and pastries),
12noon - 6pm (Champagne and cupcakes),
6pm - 8pm (Champagne and canapés)
Bookings for Front Room are
essential: Tel: + 44 (0) 207 499 2964 - ask for the restaurant.
Many thousands of tourists visit Turkey every year. They
bask on the beaches, perhaps hire a boat for a holiday afloat and enjoy
grilled fish in seaside restaurants. They have a glimpse of Turkey and
its people but it is, in fact, just a meeting with the modern
globalized facade – a shadow of a rich and ancient culture.
The Bazaars of Istanbul marvellously captures these narrow shopping
streets in both photograph (300 colour illustrations) and vivid
description. Its 200 or so pages hold a wealth of images of both past
and present and show why the bazaars are still, to this day, so
captivating.
The authors Isabel Bocking, Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt and Moritz
Stipsiez bring history to life as they chart the changing fortunes of
the bazaars. They weave a colourful tapestry of turmoil, intrigue,
craftsmanship and industry.
Istanbul straddles East and West. It has held strategic importance in
many a war and revolution and has lost much of its exotic charm over
the centuries, but it still has lots to offer those who are looking for
disappearing vestiges of former glory. It’s still there to be
discovered and relished.
The city has many bazaars, the most celebrated being the Grand Bazaar.
This has been the venue for buying and selling goods from the far
reaches of the world for more than 550 years. For those of us who are
more used to seeing shop signs boasting “established in 1991” that’s
quite impressive!
The bazaar is called Grand because that is exactly what it is. It
contains nearly 3500 individual shops, 40 warehouses and has 61 streets
and alleys. You’ll be advised to take a map with you (one thoughtfully
provided in this book) or, if lost, ask directions from one of the
25,000 (yes, 25,000) people who work there. It’s likely you’ll find a
shop assistant when you need one.
The Bazaar has evolved over the centuries. It has been ravaged by fire
and earthquake. Many of its original features have been lost but there
have also been moves to protect those which remain, and to ensure that
the Grand Bazaar does not represent just an extremely big Mall selling
designer fakes (they are here in abundance) from neon-garnished
boutiques.
There is still plenty to delight the discerning shopper who wants to
have a truly Turkish experience. There are rugs to admire. This volume
has a page dedicated to the symbols found on authentic Turkish rugs.
Take a cup of coffee or tea with the shopkeeper and ask questions. He
will undoubtedly want to sell you a carpet but he will likely be
equally enthusiastic about telling you of the history of his business.
This book will have you drooling at the objects on sale. Yes, there are
tacky tee-shirts but there are lots of handicrafts still to be found.
Leather work, ceramics, intricate metal work, jewellery and prayer
beads all compete for the buyer’s attention. Visit a Turkish bath,
smoke a traditional water pipe, a hookah, and have a genuinely Turkish
meal. The authors even give a selection of recipes for you to replicate
the experience in your own home.
The Egyptian Bazaar (only 350 years old!) is the place that will draw
you like a magnet if you are a consummate foodie. Here you will find
those evocative piles of spices that we so associate with eastern
emporia. There are dried fruits and more importantly, tea and coffee.
There are many sayings woven around each of these drinks. Of tea it is
said, ‘A conversation without tea is like a night without a moon.’ A
somewhat less romantic saying about coffee runs ‘Coffee should be as
hot as a girl’s first kisses, as sweet as a night in her arms, and as
black as the curses of the mother when she finds out.’
The Bazaars of Istanbul is a sumptuous volume which gives a real
flavour of the most fascinating part of one of the world’s most
fascinating cities. A must for anyone who has already visited or who
plans to visit Istanbul.
Book review: The Bazaars of Istanbul
Authors: Isabel Bocking, Laura Salm-Reifferscheidt and Moritz Stipsiez
Published by: Thames and Hudson
Price: £35.00
ISBN 978-0-500-51447-4
Le Colombier
I started thinking about food on my journey to Le
Colombier. I started thinking about engineering, haulage and transport when I arrived at
Le Colombier. How did they manage it? Had they transported a bit of
France to Chelsea? Was the original restaurant removed in sections from
some smart Parisian street? Was the furniture stacked into a UK-bound
lorry? Could the traditional zinc-topped bar have been liberated from a
French bistro by a man with a van?
Well, no, dear reader, the owner Didier Garnier established Le
Colombier in 1998 in an existing building that fits the part of a
Parisian Brasserie so well. It’s a vision of cream with blue accents.
The restaurant is in every way authentically French. It isn’t French
“themed”. It doesn’t have accordion music playing in the background.
The staff are French and the menu is French. It IS French.
Le Colombier was a welcome haven after our short but freezing walk from
South Kensington underground station. The restaurant was full with more
guests arriving to enjoy an evening in the private dining room on the
1st floor (up to 30 for a seated lunch or dinner). You wouldn’t know
there was a recession. No hint of credit being crunched or even
slightly mauled. As the evening progressed it became evident that many
of those convivial clients were regulars.
Although Le Colombier is without a doubt charming and elegant the
atmosphere is relaxed. It has the sound of a restaurant being enjoyed.
That is to say, a buzz of conversation that indicates that people feel
at home. A smart restaurant, yes! A stuffy one, no.
Didier has had years of experience running the St Quentin group of
restaurants and he even comes from a family of restaurant owners. His
passion for food is evident. The menu reflects brasserie-style dishes,
changing frequently to take advantage of the best produce available.
Didier isn’t a man to shy away from culinary innovation, though.
There are many starters here that you would expect from any good French
restaurant. Oysters, Foie Gras and smoked salmon; but Sardines La
Quiberonnaise Millésime 2007-Vintage is the one to try. It’s
2007 Sardines, Lemon, Onion and Toasted Poilane Bread. How come the
aforementioned sardines are awarded a vintage? Well, they are in a tin.
Yes, preserved and presented like fine wine. Might sound strange but
this is an amazing must-try item. France and Spain have long
appreciated fish and shellfish in tins, jars and bottles. These are
high-quality foods that have an entirely different taste and texture
from their fresh counterparts. They take flavour from herbed marinades
to create rich and tempting morsels. My guest proclaimed these sardines
to be one of the most delightful hors d'oeuvre he had eaten in ages.
Simple as so many great things are.
My warm goat's cheese salad was everything a good one should be, and a
great deal better than most I have had in either France or the UK. The
cheese was tangy with a creamy sauce. The salad was crisp and
well-dressed, and the basket of real French bread and sweet Echire
butter made a satisfying accompaniment - at no additional charge.
The main courses are all served with their appropriate vegetables so
there are no ‘extra’ costs for side dishes. Le Colombier is just
amazing value for money. There was a very good selection of fish dishes
including sole, monkfish, and salmon with Hollandaise sauce (only
£18.20) which I have ear-marked for my next visit.
Today I ordered loin of lamb which was amply garnished with Provencal
tomatoes and courgettes. The sauce was bread-dippingly divine. The meat
was tender with real flavour and cooked to melt-in-the-mouth perfection.
My guest tucked into the dish of the day, which was a ragoût of
rabbit. This is an underrated meat and too seldom seen on menus. When
it’s good it’s unbeatable but when it’s bad it’s horrid. This bunny was
moist and flavourful with potatoes that were crumbly and aromatic. This
was a substantial plateful.
The dessert menu offered lots of well-loved favourites such as
Crème Brûlée, Tarte au Citron and Mousse au
Chocolat but I couldn’t resist Crêpes Suzette. There were two
generous pancakes with zesty orange and a good shake of Grand Marnier.
You’ll not find better. It’s a standard dish but no less delightful for
that.
My guest chose Chaud Froid aux Amandes. These are scoops of ice cream
with slivered almonds and a hot chocolate sauce which arrived in a jug.
There were many minutes of quiet and content nibbling as we both
contemplated two very fine French meals.
The wine list was everything you would expect of a fine French eatery
at home or abroad. Our bottle of Le Colombier de Chateau Brown (no
relation to the restaurant) was perfect with both our main courses –
ruby in colour, fruity with a soft palate, and under £30. On the
dessert menu were interesting selections of dessert wines, Calvados and
Marc.
Le Colombier is an amazingly well-priced gem. There are no hidden
extras and no nasty surprises when the bill arrives. The food is
glorious and the surroundings will beam you across the Channel. It’s no
surprise that this restaurant is so popular. It will add two new names
to its list of habitués. We will return!
A la Carte menu available:
Monday to Saturday 12.00 noon to 3.00pm and 6.30pm to 10.30pm
Sunday 12.00 noon to 3.30pm and 6.30pm to 10.00pm
Restaurant review:Le Colombier
145 Dovehouse Street,
Chelsea Square, London SW3 6LB
Tel: 020 7351 1155
Visit Le Colombier here
Hotel Chocolat
Angus Thirlwell and Peter Harris started a catalogue-based
chocolate business over 15 years ago. They made their brand of
exclusive chocolates available to the British public and in 2004 the
first Hotel Chocolat shop
appeared on the high street. Their Tasting Club has attracted
well over 100,000 regular members, who can enjoy new selections of fine
chocolates every month.
The best ingredients have aided their success. Their West Indian cocoa
plantation, Rabot Estate, grows cocoa for the business. The restoration
of the historic Estate continues with new trees being planted and
record quantities of cocoa being harvested. For the last 20 years cocoa
farming in St Lucia has been in decline, so Hotel Chocolat now
guarantees to buy local cocoa at prices 40% above the norm. Interest in
cocoa has returned and the company has already helped create one
hundred new jobs.
Both Angus and Peter are committed to real chocolate and that
commitment has paid off. They were recently
awarded Emerging
Retailer of the Year by Retail Week and in 2007 Hotel Chocolat was
officially confirmed as a Cool Brand. Well how cool is that!
OK, but how about this chocolate. I guess those thousands
of Tasting
Club members should have given me the clue that these chocs were going
to be very good. Hotel Chocolat’s Tasting Club first started 10 years
ago and since then members have been tempted by over 1,500 different
recipes. I was bound to find at least a few chocolates
that I would
like.
We taste-tested the Sleekster Christmas Selection. (They
have more
Christmas gift ideas at - "Christmas
Chocolate
Gifts” and "Chocolate
Box
for
Christmas") I love any chocolate that includes the word
Sleek in the title. There were 30 Christmas-inspired delights here and
they were a bit different from your usual collection. The shapes were
festive including miniature Christmas trees, ornaments and robins, and
the flavours were thoughtful with a nod to traditional Christmas spices.
My favourite filled chocolates included:
Cranberry and Almond – this has a crunch from roasted
almonds. The
juicy cranberries were a delicious touch. Covered in a good 50% cocoa
milk chocolate.
Cinnamon Praline is milk chocolate and hazelnut praline spiced with the
evocative flavour of cinnamon. This is chocolate-covered Christmas for
me.
A liqueur chocolate is a Christmas evening essential. Orange Liqueur
and Vanilla has smooth chocolate and vanilla ganache, softened with a
good belt of alcohol in the guise of orange liqueur.
Champagne Sparkle is another one for the adults. A milk chocolate and
cream ganache has a good dash of marc de champagne. A pretty white star
chocolate sprinkled with edible gold for a touch of luxury.
Hotel Chocolat make high quality chocolate for all occasions and for
every member of the family. Their web site
will give you plenty of info. www.hotelchocolat.co.uk
There are numerous shops all over the UK but visit some London branches
of Hotel Chocolat at:
5 Montpelier Street
Knightsbridge
London
SW7 1EZ
4 Great New Street
Holborn
London
EC4A 3BN
Hotel Chocolat
163 Kensington High Street
London
W8 6SU
Christmas, for many of us, is a celebration with family
and friends. Most of the traditional festivities revolve around food.
We think of Christmas dinner with all the trimmings. Turkey, duck,
Moroccan stuffed lamb, traditional roast goose. What was that about
Morocco?
This amazing little book contains, as it says, 200 Christmas recipes.
Many are what you would expect from a Christmas cookbook but there are
lots of innovations. It starts off with Christmas Fare which includes
roast meats, accompanying vegetables, Christmas puddings and desserts.
There is a real international flavour to enable you to have a
traditional Christmas meal but drawing on traditions other than your
own. Melanzane Parmigiana is a delicious aubergine and cheese dish with
a tomato sauce that would be a marvellous side dish with classic roast
turkey.
The Centrepiece Cakes chapter offers a rich Christmas cake but there
are people who hate fruit cake with a will known to few. For those
unfortunates there are such delights as the very French Buche de
Noël, Italian Panforte di Siena and a Christmas stocking made from
Madeira cake.
If small cakes are more appealing then there is a chapter of festive
ideas. Baby Panettones baked in ex-baked-bean tins are a charming twist
on the original large loaf. Making edible tree decorations will keep
the kids amused for ages. They can help to make the cookies and then
ice them. It’s doubtful that many will get as far as garnishing your
tree but you’ll have marvellous memories.
The Edible Gifts chapter has some marvellous and unique ideas. Lime and
Passion Fruit Curd is an exotic treat and too good to give away. The
passion fruit gives an interesting texture to this spread. There is
also a recipe for the regular lemon curd and a mixed citrus curd. These
last up to a month in the fridge.
Perhaps the most valuable chapter for the over-indulged turkey lovers
is Leftover Turkey Ideas. These birds do seem to last. Christmas is the
only time of year that most of us eat turkey and we don’t want to waste
any, but there are only so many turkey sandwiches one can eat. Try
Rigatoni with Turkey and Pesto. Turkey and Green Pepper Stir-fry is
flavourful, quick and easy but Turkey Tetrazzini has my vote. It’s a
pasta dish for 4 which uses only 12oz of meat.
200 Christmas Recipes is just about the best value Christmas
cookbook around. 200 simple recipes with 200 pictures for less than a
fiver. This would make a great gift, although my copy will be staying
with me.
Cookbook review: 200 Christmas Recipes
Published by: Hamlyn – Octopus
Price: £4.99
ISBN 978-0-600-61938-3
Cookbook Cafe –
Sunday Brunch
It might not be any longer the Biblical day of rest but it
still tends to be the day we ear-mark for special events, loved ones
and unwinding. We might treat ourselves to a bit of a lay-in, enjoy a
delicious meal, have a read of the Sunday papers, catch up with family
and friends, perhaps a walk in the park... relax with...Errrr, so what
was that about lovely food? If we are all soaking up the culture of the
weekend periodicals and strolling around then who is doin’ the cookin’?
I have, dear reader, the solution to the dilemma. You’ll get your walk
in the park (Hyde Park) and you’ll even find some reading matter in the
guise of a cookbook or two. Visit the Cookbook Cafe at the
InterContinental Park Lane for Sunday Brunch.
I can hear it now: a chorus of “Has our favourite
reviewer
won
the
lotto?”
“Does
she
think
we
are
made
of
money?”
I
have
taken
leave
of
neither
my
senses
nor
much
hard-earned
cash.
You
will
be
pleased
to
learn
that
the
aforementioned
brunch
is
amazing
value
for
money
(under
£50
per
head)
at
an
unbeatable
location.
The Cookbook Cafe is a contemporary restaurant with huge windows onto
one of the best corners of one of the world’s most vibrant and exciting
cities. It’s bright and welcoming although the split-level dining area
helps to create a cosy ambiance with tables arranged to be convenient
and appealing to both couples and groups.
Hotel brunches so often disappoint. Perspex cylinders containing
long-lingering and soggy cereals flanking half-hearted congealing
attempts at a full English fry-up represent the breakfast section,
whilst a slowly-drying quiche and curly cold cuts might launch the
lunch element. The Cookbook Cafe brunch, however, draws a line in the
sand and dares pretenders to compete.
The staff were welcoming and attentive. The champagne and Bellinis were
in continual supply along with Bloody Marys and fruit juices. There was
plenty of advice about the dishes on offer and the food was, quite
simply, marvellous. There were salads and vegetable dishes enough to
warm the heart of any committed vegetarian, fish aplenty and meats to
satisfy the most carnivorous of visitors. The rustic display of
starters offered some simple and standard fare, and the buffet was no
worse for that, but we were tempted by other less-common platters.
Seared tuna is a pricey item on regular restaurant menus but here it
was laying in ranks. It was perfectly cooked and looking like a tray of
semi-precious stones. The nuggets of salmon with a hoisin glaze were a
vision of glistening mahogany; a sea of smoked salmon was quickly
replenished when there was even the slightest risk of the tide going
out.
The cheese board was small but enticing. Cashel Blue and a Cornish brie
tempted me. They were presented in perfect condition. The smoked turkey
actually tasted as if it had really been on nodding terms with
smouldering wood, and the pumpkin was sweet and tender enough to have
been invited to garnish the dessert display.
After devouring a plate (well, three) of starters, it was on to the
cooked selection. Brunch to me means New York, and New York is Eggs
Benedict. This was made while I waited and was everything this simple
dish should be: creamy, tangy and moreish. My guest chose a traditional
roast with all the trimmings. The lamb (a joint of beef was also
available) was detached from the bone with tongs! He is a Yorkshire lad
who proclaimed the accompanying Yorkshire puddings as being “reet
champion” (translation: As good as you’ll find in Barnsley.) The
chafing dishes also offered a mixed seafood casserole aromatic with
dill, seasonal vegetables, boiled potatoes, exotic aubergines, and duck
in cherry sauce which is a must-try.
I have mentioned desserts in passing but I wasn’t and you won’t be,
passing, that is. I am not typically a lover of sweet things but the
array of tarts, cakes and brulees was too tempting. My companion opted
for an individual lemon meringue pie and a raspberry brulee which he
described as smooth and delicately crusted. I chose the white chocolate
torte which was rich and creamy and a cut above other versions of the
same confection I have recently encountered. All the desserts here are
made by the Cookbook Cafe chefs.
Cookbook Cafe Sunday Brunch is the best brunch I have had in many a
long year. No exclamations of “How much???” when the bill arrives.
You’ll know exactly how much before you lift a fork. Great value for
money. This is the spot to celebrate your son’s exam results, your
auntie's return from Tierra del Fuego or just Sunday.
Opening times:12.30pm till 4pm on Sundays
Restaurant review:Cookbook Cafe at the InterContinental
1 Hamilton Place, Park Lane
London
W1J 7QY
tel.: 02073188563
The Soup Book
It seems to come around faster every year. Winter, that
is. Should I bracket that along with policemen looking younger and Arial 10-point computer
typeface looking smaller? Whatever it is, this is once again the season
for soup.
The Soup Book features over 250 soup recipes and it’s true that there
are some designed to be served chilled. The majority, however, are
those traditionally served piping hot and are ideal for either a
starter or as a meal in themselves. These are, for the most part,
economic recipes that will make the best of seasonal ingredients or
home grown produce.
If you have a patch of land reserved for growing food then you will
have often been confronted by a glut of something or other, a surfeit
of something else, and a hill of something soon to be compost.
Everything ripens at the same time. A good tomato season for you will
doubtless mean the same for everyone, so there is little chance of
giving many away. Soup comes to the rescue.
Money is tight these days. We need to cut out the waste and buy fresh
veggies and fruit when they are at their best and cheapest. Soup allows
you to transform a bag of Brussels sprouts into a meal that the kids
really will eat (don’t tell them what’s in it). Yes, you can eat that
Halloween pumpkin, and tomato soup does not have to come out of a tin.
Editor-in-chief Sophie Grigson has penned over 20 cookbooks and has
made numerous appearances on British TV. She has marshalled the
culinary forces of a good number of worthies of the food industry to
compile this collection of soup recipes. Darina Allen, Raymond Blanc,
Monty Don, Thane Prince and Alice Waters are among the illustrious list
of contributors. They all know a bit about cookin’ so you are assured
of a good read.
This is a proper cookbook. That is to say, it’s one you’ll use. It’s
attractive and bright with a wealth of striking photographs by William
Reavell. The recipes are simple. It is, after all, soup. Lots for
summer veggies, winter veggies, pulses and nuts, fish and shellfish as
well as poultry, game and meat. There is even a chart to show you
exactly when British vegetables are in season. There is a recipe
chooser to point you in the direction of specific soup groups:
vegetarian, chilled, hearty, healthy, spicy, main meal and quick soups
are all listed.
Roopa Gulati has contributed several recipes to this collection and
Kichidi is one of my favourites. It’s a spicy butternut squash and
lentil soup with warming and aromatic flavours. Only 15 minutes
preparation time. This can be frozen for up to 3 months so make lots to
store away.
The second of Roopa’s recipes that deserves a mention is Mussels in a
Ginger and Chilli Broth. These molluscs are good value but classy. They
always seem somehow luxurious and this recipe adds ‘exotic’ to the
description. A real winter winner.
Marie-Pierre Moine offers a French classic in the guise of Pot au Feu.
It takes a bit of time to prepare but it’s a substantial meal rather
than a snack. This version uses braising steak so it won’t break the
bank. Serve it with the traditional accompaniments of coarse-grained
mustard, gherkins and horseradish.
The Soup Book offers every imaginable recipe. There are those everyday
standards, but also lots with an international flavour. Plenty for
spice lovers as well as those who want light fresh tastes. This book is
packed with ideas for dishes that are delicious but easy on the purse.
A great gift for anyone who grows their own food. A book for the
kitchen rather than the bookshelf. Outstanding value for money.
Cookbook review: The Soup Book
Authors: Various
Published by: Dorling Kindersley
Price: £16.99
ISBN 978-1-4053-4785-3
Game – A Cookbook
Yes, dear reader, I know that your natural inclination is
to scroll on by this review because you will assume this book isn’t for
you. No you are not a vegetarian, but anything called Game is the
reserve of the upper classes, the rich and those who love the taste of
overpoweringly strong meats.
OK, you have read the first paragraph so just stick
with
me
and
be
introduced
to
the
true
story
of
Game.
There
are
tales
of
horror
aplenty
but
these
are
mostly
myth
and
prejudice
rather
than
fact.
Broadly, game can be considered animals and fish that are not farmed.
They include animals which are hunted for their meat, and fish which
are caught to eat. They are, by their very nature, free-range and
should therefore have a high culinary profile.
A number of game animals or birds have a bit of a bad press. The
prospect of eating a pigeon will have much of the British population
reeling in repulsion. We are not encouraging you to eat those scraggy
misfits with nasty habits who loiter around inner-city bins. No, rather
the chubby and delightfully flavoured inhabitants of leafy countryside.
Rabbit has long been a ticklish subject. It was more popular decades
ago but the combination of myxomatosis and Watership Down rather put
paid to that. It’s still a meat found in chill counters all over
Europe, where people prefer flavour rather than cartoons.
At last a book with some recipes for squirrels! Yes, they also live in
town but they have a healthy diet of nuts and berries and my bulbs.
They might look cute but consider them as vermin with good PR. Shave
that fluffy tail and what have you got? A rat! Whilst I wouldn’t eat a
rat, a squirrel with a nice life-style would definitely have an
invitation to dinner.
Trish Hilferty and Tom Norrington-Davies have written an amazing book
on all elements of game and the cooking thereof. It’s written with
humour and passion and also common sense. It encourages the reader to
appreciate the finest meat on offer. Game of all kinds can be found at
reasonable prices or free if you know the right people. The recipes
don’t contain lengthy lists of ingredients and the cooking techniques
will hold no terrors.
Every sort of game has its recipes. Wild boar, venison, small game
birds like quail, various fish, and hare are all represented, and Wild
Duck Ham is one of the many must-trys from this tome. This couldn’t be
easier to prepare but it is stunning, festive and unique. This will be
gracing the Christmas evening supper table chez nous, and will probably
make another appearance at New Year.
Pigeon b’stilla is a traditional Moroccan pie. It’s either a savoury
dish that contains sugar and almonds or a sweet dish garnished with
meat, depending on your viewpoint. It sounds bizarre but it works and
is well worth making. It’s rich and exotic and will be a change from
your usual lamb tagine.
Game – A Cookbook should become a classic. It contains not only recipes
for all manner of game but also recipes for the trimmings and
condiments. The book has more than 150 recipes so there’s not much the
authors have overlooked. You’ll be able to cook and present game with
confidence. The flavours are not overpowering but you will, perhaps for
the first time, taste real meat. Flavours that have almost been
forgotten. I am enjoying this book immensely. It would make a fine
Christmas gift for any enthusiastic cook. A good-value stunner.
Cookbook review: Game – A Cookbook
Authors: Trish Hilferty and Tom Norrington-Davies
Published by: Absolute Press
Price: £25.00
ISBN 9781906650100
The Golden Book of
Cookies
It’s that time of year again when we start to think about
heavy-duty cooking and baking for friends and family. We plan the Thanksgiving
menu (if you hail from the US) and the Christmas meal and we even
consider a nice bit of baking.
Somehow the holiday season brings out the Martha Stewart or Delia Smith
in so many of us. We might shy away from a rolling pin for much of the
year but I guess it’s the warm cosiness of the winter kitchen that
encourages us to have a go.
Cookies are biscuits. That’s to say a biscuit is to the British what a
cookie is to an American and an American biscuit is a British scone.
The word Cookie is derived from the Dutch word Koekja meaning small
cake. Cookie-making was taken to America by European emigrants and took
off in a big way. Perhaps the pioneers found it more practical to make
thin, quickly-baked cookies than more elaborate cakes as they travelled
across the uncharted wilderness.
The Golden Book of Cookies is just about the most magical cookbook I
have seen since the last Golden cookbook by Apple Press. Last time it
was The Golden Book of Chocolate and this new volume is just as
gorgeous. It’s a mammoth 700-page work which shimmers with gold edges
and belly jacket. It oozes old-fashioned quality and charm but it isn’t
an ornament. This is a book to be used.
The chapters are divided by type of cookie, starting with Cut Out
Cookies, finishing with Tartlets and Tea Cakes, and considering every
other conceivable cookie in-between. There are 330 recipes so there can
be few that have been overlooked.
This book is impressive and engaging. Each cookie has a page for its
recipe and another full page picture. I love this format. It gives
confidence to the novice baker and plenty of new ideas to the practised
cook. The recipes are clear and the level of difficulty is indicated
(none of these are difficult to make – they are just cookies).
My favourite Cut Out cookies from this collection (to be honest I have
a few) are Cardamom Stars. These are ideal at the end of an Asian meal.
Just serve with a cup of tea for a light but exotic finish. Cookies are
made in advance so they are dinner-party stress-busters. The version
here is star-shaped but the authors won’t know if you use any other
shape. A glass tumbler is a good stand-by cutter.
Cranberry and Pecan Squares are very festive but simple to make. A box
of these would make a lovely gift for a foodie. Find a decorative tin
or box and get the kids to give you a hand in the kitchen. Gingerbread
People (they were only ever gingerbread men when I was small but let’s
be PC) will be enjoyed by the little ones. They can do the icing.
If you are a lover of a Macaroon then The Golden Book of Cookies is for
you. There are more than a dozen recipes here including
chocolate-glazed, Sicilian, with nuts, with fruit, and with spice. Be
cautious when eating macaroons. It’s easy to over-indulge and you’ll
want to leave room for some brownies.
The Golden Book of Cookies is a sumptuous tome of gift quality. This
would be well received by any food lover, enthusiastic baker or
cookbook collector. It’s a joy to read and to use. A real stunner!
Cookbook review: The Golden Book of Cookies
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £20.00
ISBN 978-1-84543-340-6
Feast Bazaar
I am not a lover of any particular ethnic cuisine. I have
no national preferences. It’s all about taste. I do, however, find
myself drawn to the food of India (we in Britain have had a love affair
with food of the subcontinent for generations), North African
food (my years living in France have introduced me to the dishes of the
Maghreb) and Middle Eastern food for its subtle flavours and amazing
food history. Feast Bazaar is a book that I find enticing.
The author, Barry Véra, is a British-born transplant to
Australia. He was trained as a chef in France and has worked for some
of the best in the UK. He now has his own restaurant in Brighton,
Melbourne, as well as a popular TV series called Feast. This book is a
paper representation of Barry’s culinary adventure for the series.
Feast Bazaar considers the food of Morocco, India and Syria. These
disparate countries have many historic links and also culinary
similarities. All of them have a rich culinary heritage and the food is
delicious. The book arrived and I could not wait to start leafing
through the recipes and involve myself in the adventure.
The food of India draws me like a magnet. The recipes here include so
many of the classic standards. This book would be a good introduction
to Indian cooking with its easy-to-follow recipes. Simple staples such
as Masala Chai (spiced Indian tea) give a sample of the warming spices
so typical of dishes of the subcontinent. A delicious drink, and making
it yourself is a lot cheaper than buying a commercial instant mix from
the supermarket.
Bondas are a popular snack in Kerala (and in this home in West London).
It’s a preparation of seasoned mashed potato which is then coated in a
chickpea flour batter and deep fried. Barry proposes these for
breakfast, but make small ones and you’ll find they also work well as a
starter for an Indian meal.
Tchoutchouka Salad is Algerian, but food migrates in North Africa just
as it does in Europe. It’s a salad of roasted peppers with garlic and
spices. Use red, green and yellow peppers for sweetness and colour.
It’s good with grilled fish or chicken or as part of a selection of
salads at the start of a Moroccan meal.
Gazelles Horns are crescent-shaped pastries that are served as a
dessert or a snack with tea or coffee. They are one of the most popular
Moroccan cakes and are found in every North African tea shop... even in
France. They are quite expensive to buy so save some money and make
your own.
The cuisine of Syria isn’t as well known as that of Morocco but it
shares many ingredients. Hummus with Fried Lamb and Sumac is a good
illustration of the similarities. This is a substantial dish which only
needs a green salad and some bread alongside.
Cinnamon Lamb Pizza with Oregano is a typically delicious Syrian snack.
Yes, a snack if you only have a slice, but this is a meal in itself.
This recipe calls for mozzarella although I have seen it without cheese.
Feast Bazaar is a fascinating cookbook and travelogue. It contains many
recipes that are traditional national dishes. They are iconic but
accessible to the home cook. Vibrant ingredients will entice any food
lover to look beyond their habitual culinary horizons.
Cookbook review: Feast Bazaar
Author: Barry Véra
Published by: Murdoch Books
Price: £17.99
ISBN 978-1741960761
Chill out at Winter’s Hot
Spot -
The Howard, London, goes Chalet Chic!
Restaurant Review
The Howard has a superb location. It's just across from
Temple Underground station and has a magnificent view of the River
Thames. A favourite hotel with this reviewer who has enjoyed not only
its location but its friendly staff, quality food and attention to
detail.
Swissotel The Howard, London now tempts us with some truly Swiss charm
with the addition of a traditional Swiss Chalet. It sounds improbable
but there really is a bit of rustic Switzerland in the heart of London.
It’s a shame that for most of us Switzerland conjures only thoughts of
pointy chocolate and big dogs with barrels of booze, but there is also,
for some, that other impression of après-ski culture, log fires,
broken legs and fondue.
The winter is here and this chalet beckons. Cold-weather entertaining
is about comfort and convivial evenings with friends. What could be
more sociable than an evening around a gently bubbling pot of delicious
cheese - and I talk from delightful experience.
The Howard has a Swiss chalet complete with traditional Swiss furniture
especially imported from the Alps to Central London, the décor
looks authentic with genuine antiques and red gingham tablecloths. The
fireplace has a flickering faux fire which invites visitors to linger
with an after-dinner drink or coffee.
The Fondue will be the best you will find either in or outside
Switzerland. You will be presented with a non-ending supply of bread
and some cured meats which complement the dish so well. There is a
green salad to help you feel virtuous and some surprisingly good Swiss
red wine. We were two hungry diners and were unable to finish our
fondue. The pot looked a modest size but this is rich stuff and
although one of my favourite meals, I was unable to eat another bite.
If there was such a thing as a doggy-bag for fondue then I would have
been content to carry my supper home on the Underground.
For dessert we were offered Apple Strudel or Zuger Kirschtorte, which I
can recommend. This was a cake of three layers of wafer interlaced with
cream and its sweetness was a marvellous foil for the savoury
cheesiness of the main meal. Trust me, you will not walk away from the
table with even a chink of empty space. If you still have a mind to
enjoy something special then treat yourself to a Coffee Luz. This is a
liqueur coffee with a punch. Take the bus home... or stay the night at
The Howard.
Other restaurants might suggest a Swiss theme but we would be comparing
the sound of a cuckoo clock to the William Tell Overture. This is a
smart hotel that nevertheless offers value for money. There are few
places in Central London where one can eat to a standstill for
£23.00 per person.
Situated in a quiet oasis close to London’s Embankment, the Swiss
Chalet at Swissotel The Howard, London, will also be available for
parties and corporate entertaining for 35 to 250 guests. This is a
party venue with a difference. OK, so if you want black-painted walls
and defrosted frozen nibbles then go to the place around the corner
from the office where you have spent every Christmas for the past five
years. OR, do you want some casual style and a bit of a winter
adventure? The Howard offers great packages for business events and
groups.
Until 31st March 2010, the chalet will be open for couples and small
gatherings every Tuesday evening from 6pm to 10pm. I’d book now, as
this is bound to be a hit for the holiday season.
Some restaurants are good, there are a few that are
noteworthy, there are others that have memorable food and more that
have striking decor but it’s rare to find a restaurant that can boast a
brace of exceptional attributes. La Porte des Indes is that almost
unique establishment, having both gorgeous food and stunning
surroundings. After just one year of business the restaurant was
nominated for ‘Best Indian Restaurant’ by Carlton London Restaurant
Awards and was awarded ‘Best Indian’ and ‘Best UK’ Restaurant by the
Good Curry Guide.
But why “La Porte des Indes”? Yes, you are quite right, dear reader, it
is French. You might know of The Gateway to India which is a monumental
arch in Mumbai, and La Porte des Indes is French for very much the same
thing. The restaurant presents dishes from many regions of India and
draws on the culinary heritage of French India in particular.
The Union Territory of Pondicherry includes four enclaves located in
three states of South India. It is also known as The French Riviera of
the East (La Côte d'Azur de l'Est) and was considered as part of
France from 1814 till 1954, the date at which it joined the rest of the
by now independent India. The French connection is still evident in
accent, food and architecture.
I was expecting something a bit special. I had done my homework and was
struck by the fact that nobody
that I had talked to had anything other than high
praise for this establishment. La Porte des Indes remains as an
example, in my opinion, of how to get it right. It’s not the cheapest
food around but it’s delicious, well presented and the ambiance is
truly remarkable.
Just a few minutes from Marble Arch station, La Porte des Indes
occupies a corner plot at a quiet intersection. It’s something of a
Tardis of a building having around 350 covers. Although looking smart
and like a French Cafe from the outside, the inside opens to the most
amazing scene. It’s a two storey former Edwardian ballroom. The ground
floor balcony restaurant opens onto a lower level with a 40-foot
waterfall and a sweeping marble staircase for good measure. Palms add
to the exotic décor which is strikingly Indian-colonial but it
is tasteful rather than kitsch. One’s eye is caught by a painting here,
a wood carving there, a Mogul mural or two, and a glass-domed roof.
Panelled walls and ornamental coving remind us of days when the British
building industry offered an alternative to mediocrity and stippled,
artexed ceilings.
The Jungle Bar on the lower floor is well worth a visit. It has a
tradition of peanut shell-throwing started by some of its celeb
patrons. It has a relaxed and convivial atmosphere with a hunting theme
incorporating tiger-skin rugs and animal paintings recalling the days
when one would travel the Empire to shoot anything with fur or
feathers. There is a good selection of exotic cocktails here to start
your evening. Rain Forest is a non-alcoholic cocktail of freshly
squeezed apple juice, orange juice and root ginger. Refreshing with a
definite touch of the Orient.
La Porte des Indes has a menu that is out of the ordinary. Yes, there
is Chicken Tikka Masala and Vegetable Biryani but take advantage of
your visit and try some less familiar fare. There are dishes here that
you won’t find anywhere else. Head Chef Mehernosh Mody and a battery of
other chefs execute regional specialities with flair. The presentation
of the food is nothing short of magnificent.
Large King Scallops in a Saffron Sauce are delicate and succulent. My
guest and I mopped the fragrant yellow juices with onion and garlic
naan. Roasted Chilli Seekh Kebab offered flavourful heat which was
tempered by Chard Pakoras and Paneer Kebabs. All were served with
chutneys designed to enhance the aromatic qualities of each starter.
The Roast Black Cod at La Porte des Indes is as good as you’ll find
anywhere. It’s marinated in fennel, chilli, mustard, honey, tamarind
and vinegar (an indication of a touch of Portuguese influence perhaps).
It’s wrapped in banana leaf before being flame-grilled giving an end
result which is meltingly moist.
Duck isn’t often seen on Indian restaurant menus but here it is at La
Porte des Indes, giving a nod to its French connection. Magret de
Canard Pulivaar are well-flavoured perfect-pink duck breast fillets
served with a tamarind sauce. It’s said to be unique to the Creole
community of Pondicherry so this will likely be your only chance to try
this dish outside India.
Lotus Root Jaipuri is crunchy and addictive and should be sold by the
bagful in Harrods’ food hall. Rougail d’Aubergine is another house
speciality. Smoked and crushed aubergine, chilli, ginger and fresh lime
combine to make a side dish that doesn’t have searing heat but is
nevertheless robust enough to work with the tamarind sauce coating the
Barbary duck.
Perhaps my favourite dish of the evening was Poulet Rouge. It’s one of
La Porte des Indes’ signature dishes and is moreish in the extreme.
Chicken is marinated in spices, grilled, shredded and presented in a
creamy and rich sauce. It isn’t a hot and fiery dish so it’s just right
as an introduction to the milder but nonetheless authentic face of
Indian cuisine.
Desserts at Indian restaurants so often disappoint. La Porte des Indes,
however, offers a Pistachio and Rose Kulfi which is to die for. It’s
perfumed and exotic and perfectly matches this palace of a restaurant.
They have a good selection of sorbets as well; Rose and Lychee, Indian
Tamarind, Pomegranate and Imperial Passion Fruit, but they also do a
surprisingly good chocolate mousse served in a folded-leaf cup. The
mousse might hail from France but the presentation is pure subcontinent.
La Porte des Indes is like no other Asian restaurant you might visit. I
am very much taken with its food and exotic atmosphere. I can think of
nowhere better to spend a cold London night than basking in the colour
and warm vibrancy of the long-gone raj. I’ll be back for another
evening... or perhaps Sunday Brunch... or maybe a lunch.
Restaurant review:La Porte des Indes
32 Bryanston Street, London W1H 7EG
TEL: +44 20 7224 0055
Caribbean Food Made
Easy
Levi Roots (his real name is Keith Graham) was brought up
till the age of eleven by his grandparents in
Jamaica. He lived in a house full of extended family where cooking was
a continual process. He moved to London to live with his parents and
eventually had a successful career as a musician, and was indeed
nominated for a prestigious MOBO award in 1998. He has performed with
James Brown and Maxi Priest. He has his own range of Caribbean foods, a
Caribbean cafe and takeaway, and every summer runs his popular stall at
the celebrated Notting Hill Carnival.
Although we have a sizable Caribbean population in Britain we don’t
have many Caribbean restaurants. You’ll find some in the largest cities
but almost never in smaller towns. If you live in an area with an
Afro-Caribbean community then you’ll probably have access to
supermarkets that sell pre-prepared patties and Jerk Sauces but
Caribbean Food Made Easy shows that you don’t need too many specialist
ingredients to make authentic dishes.
I am a Londoner so have had a little experience of Caribbean food. I
have been known to make quite a reasonable breakfast with fried
plantains (cooking bananas). This book, however, offers a raft of
authentic and adapted recipes made from high street ingredients that
won’t break the bank. These are all-year-round dishes that will
introduce some tropical pizzazz to summer alfresco dining as well as to
cold and wet winter nights when some warming spice is in order. The
chapters include One Pot Suppers, Fish and Seafood, Roasts and Grills,
Street Food, as well as Desserts.
Levi draws upon his Scottish ancestry with his Mctumplings. These are
traditional fried “tumplings” flavoured with vegetarian haggis. Serve
these with Caribbean Salsa Verde (recipe in this book). Another version
is the Banana Tumpling with a hint of cinnamon. Serve these as a side
dish for fried chicken (remember fried bananas with Chicken Maryland?
Very retro.), or as a dessert spread with butter and jam.
A must-try from this book is Honey, Grenadine and Ginger Roasted Lamb
with Pomegranate and Mint Salad. This is no more difficult than making
your regular Sunday roast but the addition of an exotic marinade
elevates this dish into something a bit special. Have some roast sweet
potatoes along with this for a taste of warmer climes.
If you are looking for a truly special first course then you wouldn’t
go far wrong with Devilled Crab Gratin. If you can make a white sauce
then you can make this. Levi suggests serving this in individual crab
shells but gratin dishes or ramekins work just as well. A simple but
smart start to any dinner party. If Levi ever owns a posh restaurant
with crystal and linen then this would be his signature dish. None of
us would be able to afford it so take the opportunity to make it at
home yourself.
Caribbean Food Made Easy is an attractive book with easy to follow
recipes... and I like these recipes. Each one has something to commend
it. Full-on flavour or decadent sweetness or light freshness... it’s
all here. A great companion to the BBC TV series of the same name... So
when is the Notting Hill Carnival, then...?
Cookbook review: Caribbean Food Made Easy
Author: Levi Roots
Published by: Mitchell Beazley - Octopus
Price: £17.99
ISBN 978-1-84533-525-0
Food Network Favourites
Ahhh, those were the days when I could sit and watch
American TV all day long. Hundreds of channels and
about a dozen that any thinking person would want to watch. Harsh
words, them, but true. My habitual viewing was the US Food Network. I
drank in the programmes which introduced me to new recipes and a new
style of cooking. It’s a shame that I now find so little to inspire me
on the UK food channel. I am almost word-perfect for all of Rick
Stein’s series, good though they are, and Market Kitchen lacks the warm
and human charm of Jeni Barnett’s Good Food Live. Here is a book,
however, that reminds me of my days of enthusiastic viewing.
Food Network Favourites has recipes from some of my preferred American
TV chefs. A few of the celebs seem a bit chubbier than I remember but
the style of food is the same. Paula Deen is new to me but I love her
Southern cuisine. You’ll need access to some American packaged mixes to
make some of the recipes but you’ll have no problem finding the
ingredients for Paula Deen's Scallops with Crème Fraiche Mash.
Classy but simple. Tomato Pie takes little effort but the result would
make a lovely light lunch or a starter for a more formal meal. Artful
use of mayo for the topping.
Alton Brown was my big Food Network find. He has the approach of a
scientist... or at least a mad professor. Think Heston Blumenthal with
laughs. Red Snapper en Papillote is a smart dish although you can use
any firm-fleshed, non-oily fish. Your fish will cook inside a parchment
paper envelope. This is probably a good dish for a novice cook as the
fish is almost guaranteed to be moist. Alton also has a recipe for
English Muffins which we in England would call a crumpet or a pikelet.
These are traditional yeast batter fried breads with convenient holes
designed to hold melted butter.
Emeril Lagasse is a real character. He is passionate about food and is
as popular as Gordon Ramsay is in the UK... only nicer. He has his own
range of food products but offers you his Emeril’s Essence Creole
Seasoning recipe here. Duck Pastrami is a unique concept. Think
marinated salmon and you’ll have the idea. The duck is coated with the
seasoning mix and soaks up the flavour for 48 hours then is slow
roasted, and matured in the fridge for a week. Slice thin and serve as
hors d’oeuvres.
Food Network Favourites will be welcomed by my American readers who
will enjoy the printed version of their cooking channel heros, but it’s
also a book that showcases modern American food. It’s not all fast
burgers, pizzas and hot dogs. Bobby Flay, Dave Lieberman, Giada de
Laurentiis, Mario Batali, Michael Chiarello, Rachael Ray, Tyler
Florence and Wolfgang Puck offer some inspiring recipes.
Cookbook review: Food Network Favourites
Authors: Various
Published by: Meredith Books
Price: £19.95
ISBN 978-0-696-23707-2
500 Red Wines
and 500 White Wines
Life was easier back then. A bottle of sherry for
Christmas or when the vicar was coming to tea, some
brown ale for dad on Saturday night and a bottle of Hirondelle wine to
drink in the kitchen at parties. Now we have choices and viticultural
aspirations...but what to buy?
I offer you two reviews rolled into one. Apple Press continue with
their marvellously practical 500 series, now considering red wines and
white wines. Christine Austin has penned 500 Red Wines. She has an
established career as a wine writer and also as an international wine
competition judge. Natasha Hughes and Patricia Langton are those
responsible for 500 White Wines. Natasha is a UK-based food and wine
writer and lecturer on wine appreciation. Patricia is also a food and
wine writer with special interest in Spain, Chile and Argentina. She is
based in London.
Each of these chunky volumes is packed with information you’ll need to
boldly go into the wine merchants and to return home with something
delicious, appropriate for your meal and the right colour. These books
are compact enough to take with you on your bottle-hunting raids so you
won’t have to commit everything to memory before you hit the high
street. Good wines are to be found at reasonable prices but you need to
know which are good value and which are just cheap. Each wine listed in
these books has a price guide, on a scale from economic to astronomic.
There are useful chapters on grape varieties, growing
grapes, making wine, regional specialities, keeping
and storing wine, and even those colourful tasting words. You’ll soon
be able to recognise a cheeky little floral nose and wax lyrical about
the chocolatey spiciness.
Many of us like a glass of wine with a meal. Red wine is said (this
week) to be good for us in moderation but food and wine pairing is a
mystery to most of the population. These books give you ample advice
about wines to choose and this will be particularly welcome if you want
to have a bottle of something special from the restaurant cellar. You
know you’ll be paying an arm and a leg for your glassful so a bit of
fore-planning could save both fiscal and emotional embarrassment.
500 Red Wines and 500 White Wines are a couple of the best wine books
for the beginner. Pick a wine and taste. Read the description and
you’ll find that there is more to your bottle of Vin de Pays de l’Aude
than you had realised. You’ll become a discerning drinker and avoid
expensive mistakes. Great value for money and a must for anyone who
would like to learn more about wine.
500 Red Wines
Author: Christine Austin
500 White Wines
Authors: Natasha Hughes and Patricia Langton
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £9.99
500 White Wines ISBN 978-1-84543-330-7
500 Red Wines ISBN 978-1-84543-331-4
Easy
Baking - Australian Women’s Weekly
This is one of a series of slim volumes with large page
format from Australian Women’s Weekly. This is a
publisher whose books are prized by those who want books to cook from.
The reason for that is quite simple: Australian Women’s Weekly
cookbooks have recipes that work. They are triple-tested, which is more
than can be said for recipes written by some celebrity chefs or
celebs-turned-chefs.
When we were small we might have been enticed into the kitchen when an
adult was baking. It’s hard to get kids enthused about making a
casserole, but the prospect of a bowl to scrape, a wooden spoon to lick
and a cupcake as the final product is often the first step to a love of
baking.
Easy Baking - Australian Women’s Weekly presents 110 or so pages of
bright and attractive baked goods, with additional pages of baking
tips, advice on cake pans (yes, size does matter) and a glossary of
ingredients. This would be a marvellous book for a novice cook as it
doesn’t assume you already have the keen and practised eye of a
professional baker. The recipes are clearly written and supportive. The
more experienced cook will find lots of sweet treats and a couple of
savoury ones to add to their repertoire.
The chapter titles hint at the style of this informal cookbook: Baking
for the cake stall, for kids’ lunchboxes, for morning tea, with the
kids, for afternoon tea, for celebrations. Everything is
child-friendly, being either just the sort of baked goods that kids
like to eat or that they would enjoy making. There are lots of small
individual cakes as well as biscuits, muffins and slices. The larger
cakes just cry out for little hands to drizzle, sprinkle or frost them.
I have several quick and easy favourites from this book. Pear
Frangipane Galette takes only 45 minutes for both the preparation and
the cooking time. It uses bought shortcrust pastry so this is a great
standby dessert. Keep some pastry in the freezer for emergencies. I do
and I don’t know why I feel guilty about doing it. Find a good quality
pastry, though.
Chocolate Caramel Slice is a must-try. It’s a simple recipe in three
stages. It needs refrigeration before eating so this is no instant
snack. The recipe suggests that it serves 16 but I think that’s just
the number of squares when cut. These won’t stay in the tin very long
even in a household of 2.
Easy Baking - Australian Women’s Weekly is a good solid cookbook with
recipes that you know you can trust. A couple of ingredients might be
unfamiliar to cooks not hailing from the Antipodes but substitutions
will be obvious. Terrific value for money.
Cookbook review: Easy Baking - Australian Women’s Weekly
Author: Australian Women’s Weekly
Published by: ACP Books
Price: £6.99
ISBN 978-186396863-8
European Festival Food
This is a book that you’ll find on the shelf in the
cooking section of any good bookshop. You’ll flick though
the pages. Your shopping bag will then be placed neatly on the floor
between your feet. Next a glance around for one of those squidgy sofas
to rest for just a short while as you browse. You might be lucky enough
to have found a bookshop with a coffee shop. A wander through even just
a few pages and you’ll likely be addicted. I assure you, dear reader,
that if you are in any way a consummate foodie or a serious cookbook
collector then you will want to own this book.
Be warned, this is not a glossy coffee-table tome full of appealing
shots of delicious food. No moody or romantic stills of mist-enveloped
valleys nor toothless natives in national costume doing something
ethnic with a sheep’s bladder. This is cover-to-cover writing of the
finest sort.
Yes, European Festival Food is a cookbook, but Elisabeth Luard has
worked her usual magic. Winner of the Glenfiddich Award for Best
Cookery Writer and Winner of the Glenfiddich Trophy, she has long been
respected for attention to detail but also for her style. This is
literature, with food as its vehicle. It’s not a dry and worthy
textbook but a thoroughly accessible good read. A book for bedtime as
well as the kitchen.
Elisabeth is well placed to write of the food of Europe. She has lived
in a lot of it, and has learnt to cook traditional dishes in the
kitchens where those dishes have always always been cooked, from the
(mostly) women who have always cooked them. This book is a veritable
archive of culinary history but it’s also a social history describing
festivals that are less often celebrated.
The pages are awash with charming stories and legends that help to put
the foods into context. Christmas Eve offers Mince Pies if you are in
England. Records of these go back to the 16th century so it’s likely
they existed before that date. The mincemeat really did contain meat in
those days, but now only suet remains to remind us of the original
ingredients.
European Festival Food does not only catalogue religious feast days but
also other annual celebrations. The Glorious Twelfth is noted
throughout Britain as not only my father’s birthday but the first day
of the grouse season. No surprise that there is a recipe here for the
aforementioned bird, roasted, and with its accompanying bread sauce and
fried breadcrumbs. There is a cod festival in Lofoten, an island off
the coast of Norway, and pig-killing festivals seem to be popular in
every country that ever owned a pig. Whenever man has celebrated or
commemorated an event then food has played a major part.
This is another terrific book from Grub Street, one of my favourite
publishers. It’s a gem of a volume that offers seasonal recipes which
have stood the test of time. They are a marvellous collection,
presenting dishes from the cold wind-swept north of Europe with its
Viking heritage to the soft warmth of the south with its more exotic
influences. A masterwork.
Cookbook review: European Festival Food
Author: Elisabeth Luard
Published by: Grub Street
Price: £20.00
ISBN 978-1-906502-45-4
Bake me I’m Yours –
Chocolate
You have gotta love a book with a title like that. It’s an
attention-grabber but it’s what’s between the
covers that will intrigue you.
Tracey Mann must be one of the UK’s most respected cake makers and
decorators. She has had her work featured on covers of numerous
magazines and has made wedding cakes for such “worthies” as Tom
Parker-Bowles. It’s evident that Tracey has both skill and imagination.
It’s all about style. Tracey gives tips that elevate your sweet
creations into something stunning. Surprisingly simple when you know
how: a matter of using the aids that professional cake decorators have
known about for years. The things that make the difference between the
rustic homemade and something that would not shame a wedding reception
at a five-star hotel. Yes, you can do it.
Tracey has a battery of basic cake recipes, although she won’t know if
you use your own favourite ones. It’s the decorating techniques that’s
the reason you’ll buy this book. They are amazing but accessible to the
home cook. Transfer sheets are the key to several of Tracey’s
sophisticated productions. These sheets enable you to create
multi-coloured finishes or ornaments which are striking and edible.
Chocolate paste is a combination of chocolate, glucose and water. This
is the culinary equivalent of Play Dough and can be formed into flowers
or modelled into pleats or ribbons. To get a regular beaded effect then
use a Beadmaker. This is a mould which creates a string of perfect
beads from chocolate paste. There are any number of moulds to enable
you to add three-dimensional decorations to your cakes.
Christmas is fast approaching and Tracey has a novel idea for easy but
beautiful tree decorations. Use tempered chocolate (instructions in
this book) to cover a festive patterned transfer sheet. Tracey suggests
using white chocolate and a holly or red gingham transfer, but there
are many transfer sheet designs so you could consider a holly-shaped
decoration with perhaps a contemporary transfer, or a traditional
snowflake transfer with a geometric cutter.
Bake me I’m Yours – Chocolate is a small-format book with 25 different
chocolate projects. This would be an ideal stocking-filler for a
chocoholic who loves to cook. It’s good value for money for such a
smart little book. Decadent and delicious ideas.
Cookbook review: Bake me I’m Yours – Chocolate
Author: Tracey Mann
Published by: David and Charles
Price: £9.99, $14.99US
ISBN-13: 978-0-7153-3163-7
Diabetes
Recipes from Around the World
Approximately 200 million people worldwide suffer with
diabetes and there are millions more who have
diabetes but are not yet aware of it. It’s an increasing problem, with
more younger people than ever being victims. It’s a serious disease but
it is still possible to enjoy life and good food even when diagnosed
with the condition.
Managing diet is key to minimising damage and limiting drug use. But if
your meals are dull and boring then you won’t stick to your regime.
Diabetes Recipes from Around the World offers over 100 recipes for
dishes that will help you manage diabetes, and they are dishes that
will be enjoyed by the whole family. Food should be fun as well as
being healthful.
Jane Frank is a nutritional therapist and has penned two other books:
The Basic Basics Diabetes Handbook and Eat Smart Beat the Menopause,
both published by Grub Street. She would seem well placed to give
advice about eating properly but advice about healthy food is not the
same as showing you how to cook the tastiest of dishes. Diabetes
Recipes from Around the World is a tool you’ll enjoy using.
This book has some lovely recipes. Nothing beige and sacrificed to the
god of bland here. They are a truly international bunch with the
occasional adaption to make for a diabetic-friendly dish. You family
will not notice that these are healthy foods. They might notice that
your repertoire has improved, though.
Thai food is exotic and different. It has rich mouth-filling flavours
and it’s a bit posh. Thai Fish Cakes are a traditional classic and here
they are served with a Sweet and Sour Cucumber Sauce. You can use any
white fish and even coley which is so often overlooked and underrated.
This is 18% carbohydrate and low GL. Each recipe has a nutritional
breakdown and a GL level - handy for diabetics but also for others who
have specific dietary needs.
Seared Salmon Fillets with Spicy Soba Noodles hails from Japan and is
an easy dish to make but good enough to present to your guests. Serve
with a garnish of Wasabi and pickled ginger for authenticity. It’s
worth getting Soba Noodles for their unique taste and texture. They
work particularly well with the salmon or even in a clear broth for a
quick winter lunch.
Diabetes Recipes from Around the World has, in my opinion, some of the
most tempting dishes for those who must keep an eye on their food
intake. They are vibrant, flavourful and well-balanced. Good for all
the family. Good value for money.
Cookbook review: Diabetes Recipes from Around the World
Author: Jane Frank
Published by: Grub Street
Price: £12.99
ISBN 978-1-906502-06-5
LA’s
Original Farmers Market Cookbook
This is one of those cookbooks that gives a warm glow. You
don’t have to be from LA. You don’t even have
to be American to be able to appreciate a book about a spot that just
oozes food-related delight. LA’s Original Farmers Market Cookbook is a
picture-book with recipes. A cookbook and travelogue. An invitation to
temptation.
JoAnn Cianciulli is a successful food writer and producer of
food-related television programmes. She is a New Yorker now living in
Los Angeles who has been enjoying the charms of the Farmers Market for
over 10 years. It has inspired her to capture the best of dishes on
offer and to tell something of the warm and colourful history of a
popular LA institution. It’s been around since 1934 so it’s doing
something right.
When we in Britain think of farmers markets we conjure visions of a few
stalls selling mud-garnished carrots, small punnets of soft fruits, and
over-priced designer lettuce, with perhaps a hot-dog stall and a tea
urn for refreshments (although the number and quality of UK farmers
markets is fast improving). The farmers market at 3rd and Fairfax in
Los Angeles is more generously proportioned than most of its UK cousins
and also sports a wealth of casual eateries which have supplied the
recipes for this book.
The food is an ethnically diverse mix that reflects the makeup of the
visitors to the market, be they locals or tourists. There is something
for every taste and I find the collection of recipes quite appealing.
If you are a lover of pizza then you will want to try Patsy’s Special.
The crust is a soft New York style with a bunch of my favourite
toppings which includes anchovies, an addition that I know is not
always popular but which does introduce a saltiness to cut the fat of
lots of cheese. This pie was a regular snack for the likes of Frank
Sinatra and Jo DiMaggio so you’ll be munching a slice of history.
Another slice, or should I say ladleful, of Americana comes in the
guise of Seafood Gumbo with Cornbread Muffins. This is provided by The
Gumbo Pot which specialises in Cajun cuisine from New Orleans. This is,
in my humble opinion, some of the best original American food around. A
fusion of African and New World flavours – a combination of shrimps and
okra. This is a surprisingly easy dish to make at home. It’s delicious
and looks amazing.
LA’s Original Farmers Market Cookbook presents the best of real
American food. That’s not to be found in the swanky yet anonymous
restaurants mushrooming in every large city. This is food that reminds
us of Hollywood movies, of mom-and-pop diners and the multitude of
ethnic origins of twenty-first century Americans. I’ll be spending my
next US vacation at 3rd and Fairfax.
Cookbook review: LA’s Original Farmers Market Cookbook
Author: JoAnn Cianciulli
Published by: Chronicle Books
Price: $22.95US, £15.99
ISBN 978-0-8118-5568-6
Paul
Gayler’s Little Book of Salads
In the Summer we eat lighter and fresher. Gone are the
hearty casseroles and rib-sticking pasta bakes, to
be replaced by salads. Yeah, but it’s boring, I hear you cry. But it
doesn’t have to be. There is no excuse for bland, limp and lifeless
salad. Think vibrant! Think zesty! Think of what Paul Gayler might do
at a time like this!
Most of you will be familiar with the smart Lanesborough Hotel chef,
who has oft graced these internet site pages. You will probably have
also seen him on British food TV where he has promoted his original and
exciting cuisine. In Paul Gayler’s Little Book of Salads he turns his
attention to, unsurprisingly, salad. Not the iceberg, tomato and
cucumber of yesteryear but more complex and all-year-round-tempting
dishes that are nevertheless simple to make.
Salads are healthy and quick. They are welcomed in warmer weather but
there is a whole raft of salads that are ideal for winter meals. Roast
Potato Salad with Smoked Salmon uses Jersey Royal potatoes, has some
bite in the guise of gherkins, and richness from the fish. Keeping with
that theme Truffled Potato Salad is a visual stunner. No, the potatoes
are not covered in chocolate nor are they garnished with expensive
fungi. Truffle potatoes are a variety of purple potato which helps to
create a dish that is not only delicious but attractive.
Perhaps my favourite from the Winter Warmers chapter is Warm Lentil
Salad with Goat’s Cheese and Anchovy Toasts. Anchovies give a salty
tang without overt fishiness. Combined with the goat’s cheese they
offer a taste of warmer climes when the wind is whistling and you want
to spend an evening tucked up with holiday brochures.
Exotic salads work whatever the temperature. Spiced Chicken and Mango
Salad nods to the Subcontinent for inspiration. The mango (Alphonso for
preference) adds a light perfume and the green chilli offers a hint of
heat. This would be wonderful served as part of an Eastern barbecue
with perhaps lamb kebabs or chops.
Paul Gayler’s Little Book of Salads offers recipes that are accessible
to home cooks and which have a touch of this chef’s usual innovation.
Nothing is difficult. It’s salad for goodness sake! A great little book
with plenty for the vegetarian and meat-eater alike.
Cookbook review: Paul Gayler’s Little Book of Salads
Author: Paul Gayler
Published by: Kyle Cathie
Price: £7.99
ISBN 978-1-85626-840-0
One Pot of
Jam from Your Microwave – Quick and Easy
Foulsham & Co. might not be the largest cookbook
publisher around but they present some of the best small one-topic
books. I have reviewed several other of their Quick and Easy series and
they have all been
clearly written and informative. One Pot of Jam from Your Microwave is
another to join the ranks of worthwhile cookbooks.
A few years ago your average microwave cookbook was something to be
shunned. They were full of recipes that gave inferior results and used
strange and nasty plastic articles that would cook bacon or make crisps
(that never did work). My microwave has been used little apart from
heating drinks, thawing frozen goods and warming up leftovers. Whilst I
am grateful for the facility it has seemed a rather under-utilised
kitchen gadget.
One Pot of Jam from Your Microwave is quite a revelation. You can make
preserves in the aforementioned coffee-heater! Note that I say
preserves rather than jam because this volume contains recipes for a
raft of chutneys, pickles, butters and the like. The selection of
bottled delights is far wider-ranging than the predictable strawberry
jam. OK, so the cooking method involves the microwave but the recipes
are inspiring. This stands up well in comparison to any other book on
preserves.
Regular supermarket jam isn’t expensive but if you can put your hands
on some free fruit then even the common blackberry jam is worth making
yourself. I promise you will taste the difference. Check out the price
of the more exotic shop-bought confections and you are looking at
remortgaging the house or selling the kids. We are all periodically
tempted by those beautiful jars, as a thank-you gift or to look smart
on the breakfast table when the in-laws are staying. One Pot of Jam
from Your Microwave offers some suggestions for preserves that will
make you look like you have won the lottery, and how proud you’ll be to
proclaim that it’s really ‘fait maison’.
There are quite a few preserves here that deserve a mention. Bird of
Paradise Pineapple Jam in reality contains no wildlife and is safe for
vegetarians. It’s a tropical mix of pineapple, apple and persimmon.
Mango Jam with Orange is another option if you love flavours of the
Orient. My tip would be to buy your mangoes from an Asian grocer. Much
better value.
My favourite recipe for gift-giving is Dried Apricots in Amaretto. This
has all the hallmarks of a holiday season success. It’s simple to make
and good enough to keep. Dried Figs with Vanilla in Calvados also falls
into that category.
One Pot of Jam from Your Microwave – Quick and Easy is a book for
anyone who has ever wanted to try their hand at making jam, pickle,
chutney and flavoured vinegars. I am impressed by the recipes, that are
some of the most imaginative around. Good value for money.
Cookbook review: One Pot of Jam from Your Microwave – Quick and Easy
Author: Sonia Allison
Published by: Foulsham
Price: £8.99
ISBN 978-0-572-03490-0
What’s for Dinner?
I try and be a polite considerate reviewer, ever mindful
of the needs of my discerning reader. I tend to
avoid authors from non-catering backgrounds with small publishers. I
would hate to say something negative about someone’s life’s work, their
passion, their literary baby... so I don’t publish the review.
Here I was, once again, with the prospect of a culinary non-starter and
I knew this one had some 650 pages. So the bad news might be that it’s
another no-review, the good news might be that there was a lot of it!
Well, dear reader, you will have your review of What’s for Dinner?
because I think it’s quite marvellous. This falls into the ‘sensible’
category of cookbooks, those that are practical and usable. You might
think that every cookbook would have those aforementioned
prerequisites: no, they don’t.
The author, Romilla Arber, is a hard-working mum of 4 children. She
found that she was wasting time on numerous shopping trips because she
was always missing that key ingredient to make a dinner for the family.
She could browse numerous cookbooks but that would also take too much
time so she wrote her own book that would give both her and others the
tool to shop and cook in a timely fashion and avoid wasting time and
ingredients. You can visit Romilla's site and download shopping lists
for each week’s recipes.
(http://www.whatsfordinner.org.uk/shoppinglists) Tuck the list into
your purse/wallet and all your troubles will be little ones - you still
have to do the washing up.
This is the most amazing work for a first-time writer. To be honest, it
would be an amazing work from even a veteran writer. What’s for Dinner?
is a weighty tome but devoid of padding. Its text is clear, recipes to
the point and the photographs attractive, but it’s the format that is
appealing. Each day of the year has its recipe and those dishes
represent the way most of us eat these days... or at least the way we
should eat if we could cook. Hold that thought - more of that later.
The most difficult part of providing meals is just deciding what to
cook. You can learn to cook and those techniques will serve you well,
but you need to have an idea of what to cook for dinner. Your array of
lavish and celeb-endorsed cookbooks are great bedtime reading but let’s
be real, you need a battery of good recipes and someone to tell you
that tonight’s the night for Smoked Haddock Pie ...or they would be
telling you that if this was the first week in April. Romilla Arber is
the lady who will take the stress out of decision-making.
It’s no good having a cookbook that gives you a recipe for each day if
you just don’t like the food. You won’t use the book and therefore it’s
a waste of money. What’s for Dinner? has recipes that cover the whole
spectrum of British taste. There is a liberal sprinkling of curries,
recipes adapted from existing cookbooks and Romilla’s own family
recipes. OK, so I wouldn’t eat the Liver and Sausage Burger (mental
note: Don’t accept invitation to dinner on first Monday in January) but
that’s all - one out of 365 recipes (plus extra recipes for treats each
week) is pretty good going. All other dishes are delicious, quick,
economical and I’d be happy to cook and eat all of them. There are few
cookbooks that I would say that about, and to say it about such a large
one is no faint praise.
Romilla has founded the Food Education Trust, a charity dedicated to
educating adults and children in the basic skills of cooking. All
proceeds from the sale of “What’s for Dinner?” will go to the Food
Education Trust and will provide home economics-style classes to both
adults and children as well as supplying necessary cooking equipment to
schools. You are reading this review so you are obviously interested in
cooking. Glance around any supermarket and you will see, usually, young
women with perhaps a couple of kids and a shopping trolley piled high
with high-fat, high-sugar pre-prepared foods. If this lady knew how to
cook then she could save money and feed her family better. Cooking is a
life skill and one of the most important ones. Yes, it’s a skill that
anyone can learn. You don’t need chef’s whites and an Aga to turn out
good meals. I wholeheartedly support anything that promotes cooking at
any level.
What’s for Dinner? is a book you’ll buy for yourself because it’s a
good, solid cookbook. But consider it as a gift for anyone you know who
would like to eat better but professes to not having enough time. This
is outstanding value for money.
Cookbook review: What’s for Dinner?
Author: Romilla Arber
Published by: St. Christopher’s Publishing
Price: £24.95
ISBN 978-0-95479-314-2
World Whisky
Who knew? There are many hundreds of whiskies. I had
suspected that there might be perhaps a hundred
from small distilleries in Scotland and Ireland and a few in the US.
World Whisky lists over 700 whiskies from as far afield as Japan (the
Japanese have a reputation as whisky “enthusiasts”) and Australia.
I am not a Scotch drinker and when questioned I’ll deny that I like
whisky at all, but it’s a lie. I do quite like Irish whiskey which has
a different palate of flavours from Scottish whisky. There are those
who would let nothing but Mellow Corn Whiskey across the cabin
threshold so I guess it’s all a matter of taste, or lack thereof; Corn
Whiskey said to be best when consumed young but others say it’s just as
good if you keep it for a week or so.
World Whisky is a book to be savoured by the connoisseur but will be
equally welcomed by those who would like to be. Whisky is a drink to be
sipped, lingered over and appreciated. Although not a lover of The
Water of Life (uisge beatha in the Celtic tongue), I can understand the
attraction. Whisky is collected like fine wine, and anyone interested
in such a hobby would do well to invest in this book. There are ample
Tasting Note pages for you to create your own list of memorable bottles.
Each of the 700-odd whiskies has a history and taste profile. Old
Hokonui from New Zealand has a colourful past. It sports a
skull-and-crossbones on the bottle, giving it the air of the illicit
which I am sure has added to its popularity.
Yes, this volume presents the quaint and iconic spirits, but it is a
serious work and equips the reader with all he or she needs to choose
whiskies that will bring comfort to long winter evenings. You’ll learn
about the manufacture and evolution of the wee dram but, more
importantly, you’ll understand why each glassful tastes the way it
does. There is even information about which glasses to use, although
some folks say that whisky would taste good even drunk from an
envelope; but that’s the voice of desperation.
World Whisky is a hefty 350-page comprehensive guide to whisky: its
various classes, its paraphernalia, its past and its future. It’s a
fascinating story and illustrates the reason why whisky has remained
the beverage of choice for so many discerning drinkers. Great value for
money and an ideal Christmas gift.
World Whisky
Editor: Charles Maclean
Published by: Dorling Kindersley
Price: £16.99
ISBN 978-1-4053-4172-1
Tea and Crumpets
Well, the name is tempting but add a subtitle of Recipes
and Rituals from European Tearooms and Cafés, and my attention is captured!
Tea is a drink (or beverage if you hail from North American shores),
yes, that’s true, but it’s also an institution, an event, a ceremony. A
mug of tea, a doorstep sandwich and a doughnut (don’t write in – I do
love them) does not amount to Afternoon Tea... even if you are drinking
and eating the aforementioned items during those hours after lunch
(that’s dinner if you are from some parts of England) and before dinner
(supper if you are from those same parts of England).
Afternoon Tea is a rather formal pause. The table will be heaving with
a selection of sandwiches and other small savouries, a cake to slice as
well as small individual cakes, perhaps also some biscuits (those flat,
crunchy things - cookies). This is somewhat different from High Tea
which included a cooked dish and salads and was usually consumed late
afternoon or early evening.
The author of Tea and Crumpets, Margaret M. Johnson, presents us with
recipes for the best and most classic of Afternoon Tea delights. These
are baked goods familiar to European teatime enthusiasts and include
many traditional favourites from some of the finest venues in Britain,
Ireland and France.
Cucumber sandwiches are a famed afternoon tea staple. Margaret offers
Claridge’s Hotel’s version. The classic sandwich has the crusts removed
and can best be described as delicate. These dainties would not fill a
rugby player but work perfectly with all the other morsels on a
three-tier stand. Perhaps crusts were as offensive as piano legs to
genteel ladies of centuries past.
Crumpets are the stuff of many a Victorian childhood dream. They come
equipped with holes that beg to be filled with soon-to-be-melted
butter. Not perhaps a healthy option but if you are going to have a tea
party then you should do it well. Crumpets are made with a yeast batter
poured into crumpet rings on a skillet (griddle). You could use egg
rings or plain cookie (biscuit) cutters. It’s a simple recipe with a
unique result.
Traditional scones (a bit like American biscuits – not cookies) are
equally “evil”, being, if you are a purist, loaded with clotted cream
and strawberry jam. They are perhaps the most celebrated of the teatime
array as they also hold centre stage in another British institution,
the Cream Tea, which consists of just scones with their garnishes, and
cups of tea of course. Most British or Irish tea drinkers will take
their regular beverage with a little milk but never cream. Or have
those flavoured and aromatic teas without milk, but perhaps add a slice
of lemon.
Queen Victoria loved Shortbread. It’s another of those iconic afternoon
tea items. They are buttery and rich and come in a range of shapes and
sizes. They are not difficult to make but they should never be
overcooked. Just done with next to no colour is the secret.
Dundee Cake is another contribution from North of the Border. This is a
hearty cake that is a must for those cold afternoons when rib-sticking
fare and a roaring log fire (look, this is my review so I can conjure
up a log fire if I want one) are in order. Spicy Marmalade Loaf is a
lovely alternative and has Dundee orange marmalade as a key ingredient.
Oranges don’t grow in Scotland but that country does make some of the
most delicious marmalade.
Tea and Crumpets is a travelogue of smart tearooms. It’s a book that
will be welcomed by those who would like to participate in the revival
of a tasteful tradition. Tea taken at a posh hotel is a marvellous
experience, but a real tea party in one’s own home is a pleasure. Get
out your grandmother’s bone china service and charm your friends with
an artful display of culinary elegance. It’s easier than you might
think.
Cookbook review: Tea and Crumpets
Author: Margaret M. Johnson
Published by: Chronicle Books
Price: $19.95US, £12.99
ISBN 978-0-8118-6214-1
Backroads of
the California Coast
It’s a change to write a travel book review about a place
to which I have been. California held much
promise and did not disappoint. It is a state that deserves to be
explored at a slow pace. You’ll get the best from this trip if you take
time to venture off the beaten path.
Perhaps, dear reader, I should say that you don’t need to venture off
the beaten path. Rather you want a path that has already been beaten by
adventurers, prospectors and settlers, and leads you to spots that hold
charm, beauty and historic elegance. Karen Misuraca has written
Backroads of the California Coast in order to assist you in your quest
to find that ideal and overlooked spot.
A travel book would be sorely lacking if it didn’t have a few nice
snaps. Garry Crabbe has done a stirling job with the photography for
this volume and there are more than just a few pictures – every page
has striking views, amazing seascapes, quaint buildings or glimpses of
wildlife.
Backroads are a series of books that offer scenic vacation routes for
those who want to know more about a particular state or region.
Backroads of the California Coast has that same format with the book
divided into three parts: The North Coast, The Central Coast and The
South Coast. Each of those sections covers the highlights and the
must-sees but equally includes those fascinating points of interest
that might easily be missed by the untutored traveller.
The North Coast leads you to, amongst others, Muir Woods and the Golden
Gate. The Central Coast suggests a visit to Hurst’s Castle which is the
once-seen-never-forgotten home of William Randolph Hurst. The Neptune
swimming pool is a piece of ancient Rome transported to the Californian
hills. There is a dining room of magnificent splendour with crystal
goblets and a ketchup bottle.
If you only have time to visit one section of the Californian coast
then take the South Coast. This has a real feel of Spanish California
with its missions and ranchos. Old San Diego is a place you’ll not want
to miss. Yes, there are the inevitable tourist shops but also so much
that is truly historic and worthwhile.
Backroads of the California Coast is an attractive guide for the
independent traveller. If you are even a little tempted by a trip to
California then take my advice and read this book before you go. It’s a
journey planner full of inspiration.
Backroads of the California Coast
Author: Karen Misuraca
Published by: Voyageur Press
Price: $21.99US, £13.99
ISBN 978-0-7603-3343-3
The Cook’s Guide to Meat
This is the second book in the new Apple Press series of
Cooks Guides, which it has been my pleasure to
review, the first being The Cook’s Guide to Fish. The Cook’s Guide to
Meat has the same hand-book-size and leatherette finish as the fish
guide and also enjoys the benefits of the same illustrator, Jane
Laurie. I feel she deserves as much acclaim as the writer, as her work
is so much a part of the success of the book.
The author, Jennie Milsom, was trained in French Culinary Arts and
Wines and Spirits, and has been a chef as well as a writer of features
and recipes for several magazines. In 2004 she became deputy cookery
editor of Good Housekeeping Magazine. This is her first book.
If you are at all interested in food, and meat in particular, then I
would recommend this book. It’s rare to find a book of such beauty and
detail, and containing so much practical advice. Meat is expensive and
few of us have money to burn, undercook, ruin or waste. You want to
present meals that are tasty and tender and to do that in the most
cost-effective way.
There have been a host of health scares over the last decade or two.
Many of us are concerned about animal welfare and we need to know that
the meat on the plate came from healthy and content animals which were
dispatched with the minimum of stress. Best advice is to find yourself
a good butcher and ask questions. The Cook’s Guide to Meat shepherds
you (this book considers sheep, cows and pigs) through choosing the
best meat and enables you to talk to the nice man behind the counter in
a fashion that will convince him of your knowledge of the subject.
There are hundreds of cookbooks which will offer recipes for meat
dishes and list “diced pork” or “slices of beef”. If you know the
cooking method to be employed then you will be able to buy the most
appropriate cuts of meat for the dish. You wouldn’t want to use
silverside for a stir-fry as it demands long slow cooking. Fillet on
the other hand is tender but will cost more. It’s horses (a rich, lean
meat prized by the French) for courses!
The Cook’s Guide to Meat offers advice on cooking each cut, describes
its flavour and where on the carcass the meat might be found. If the
particular cut has aliases then these too are noted – one person’s
tenderloin might be another’s pork fillet. There is a list of useful
utensils for cooking meat. I’d say a meat thermometer is indispensible
if you intend to prepare joints of meat. Such a gadget gives a novice
cook a bit of confidence and has saved this experienced cook from more
than one disaster. Buy one that has a probe that is inserted into the
meat before it reaches the oven. Set the temperature and then the alarm
will tell you when your joint has reached juicy perfection.
The Cook’s Guide to Meat is part of a soon-to-be classic series. A book
that is lovely to look at and packed with information that will save
you money. A marvellous gift.
Cookbook review: The Cook’s Guide to Meat
Author: Jennie Milsom
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £12.99
ISBN 978-1-84543-332-1
The Farmer’s
Wife Cookie Cookbook
If you are a regular visitor to Mostly Food Journal (and
why wouldn’t you be?) then you will be familiar with
the series of Farmer’s Wife cookbooks. They are compiled from original
recipes found in the magazine of the same name, published between 1893
and 1939 in Minnesota.
Cookie baking is an ideal introduction to kitchen pursuits. The virgin
cook has no fear with regard to baking biscuits (British term for
cookies). One might worry that a pastry case is a bit too crunchy. One
could have second thoughts about launching into soufflé
production lest they not rise. Well, with cookies the worst has already
happened. For the most part, you want the aforementioned crunch and
something flattish.
The Farmer’s Wife Cookie Cookbook concerns itself with sweet
confections, some of which might be considered as cake or dessert. Bars
and Squares have long been popular in the US and have taken hold
world-wide. Lemon Bars are my favourite from this chapter. It’s a
rather curious recipe demanding a first baking and then the addition of
beaten eggs, sugar, lemon juice and baking powder. The end result is a
tangy bar with a soft top. Just right with a nice cuppa tea.
Crullers are included in this book. It’s not a word commonly heard in
Britain. Although a cruller sounds like it should be a wild seabird it
is in fact a variety of doughnut: a deep-fried sweet pastry dusted with
sugar. These are usually made in strips or braids rather than rounds.
Funnel Cakes are also a glimpse of pure Americana. These comprise a
cake batter run through a funnel directly into hot oil. Think of a thin
delicate version of churros. A favourite at State fairs and such
gatherings.
Maple Syrup Cookies have my vote as a must-try. When it comes to that
rich liquid Maple syrup, to know it is to love it. It has, unlike most
sweet syrups, a real flavour. Don’t substitute corn syrup or Golden
Syrup or the end result of your labours will be entirely different from
that intended. Delicious perhaps, but a shadow of a real Maple Syrup
Cookie.
The Farmer’s Wife Cookie Cookbook is a book to be used. The
measurements are by volume as one would expect from an American
cookbook. This should hold no terrors for the European cook. It’s a
practical method and simple. The recipes have probably been tested by
generations of cooks who would not have had the luxury of modern
kitchen equipment. This is a charming book offering delicious goodies.
Cookbook review: The Farmer’s Wife Cookie Cookbook
Edited by: Lela Nargi
Published by: Voyager Press
Price: $15.99US, £10.99 UK
ISBN 978-0-7603-3513-0
Cook Express
This is another from the presses of Dorling Kindersley
that offers great value for money. Here we are again
with a cookbook for those who have neither the room nor inclination to
own a whole raft of cookbooks. If you have next to no time to cook then
chances are you will have even less time to leaf through a shelf or two
of recipe books, however gorgeous they might be.
Cook Express is designed with the strapped-for-time in mind. The
recipes are quick to make but also quick to find. There are handy
recipe choosers to allow you to find just the right dish for your
purposes. Fish starter in less than 15 minutes, Meat main meal under 30
minutes, etc. Each entry has a photograph, preparation time and cooking
time. Healthy options and suitability for freezing are also indicated.
The Everyday section of the book offers fast food without the need to
interrogate the takeaway (take out) flyers. You’ll not need to resort
to pre-packaged or frozen ready meals, and you’ll be eating healthy
fresh foods that won’t break the bank.
Pasta has long been prized as the instant home-cooked meal so it’s no
surprise to find lots of examples in this volume. You’ll not be
restricted to eating spaghetti with a bottle of tomato sauce and a
black olive for garnish. How’s about Pasta with Crab and Lemon? Only 5
minutes preparation and 10 minutes cooking. Macaroni Cheese with Red
Onion has the same 5 minutes for preparation and 20 minutes for
cooking, and you’ll be pouring a nice glass of red while it’s reaching
bubbling, golden perfection.
It’s often difficult to entertain when time is short so Cook Express
devotes about half its space to cooking for friends. Most dishes here
can be prepared in 10 minutes or so and the maximum would be 30
minutes. There are some suggestions for feeding a crowd in the Big-Pot
Gatherings chapter, with recipes for 8 servings still with only 30
minutes preparation for the most time-consuming.
Desserts can so often be fiddly and long-winded, and to present a
semi-frozen Arctic Roll from the box is such an anti-climax. Cook
Express has great ideas for cook-and-freeze-ahead desserts for those
who are attached to the icebox. Just defrost and reheat. OK, so there
might be 30 or 40 minutes of cooking time but you’ll be eating your
main course and not watching the crumble brown.
I have been inexorably drawn towards the end of the book where lurks a
list of Indulgent Puddings. Chocolate Amaretti Roulade will take half
an hour of your time to make and only 20 minutes to cook. The No-Cook
Desserts chapter offers Dark Chocolate and White Chocolate Mousse, and
Banoffee Pie which only takes 15 minutes to assemble.
Cook Express is a complete one-stop extravaganza for those in a hurry.
The 700 recipes in this 500-odd page tome will save you sufficient time
for you to reinforce your bookshelf, although this volume is liable to
spend more time on your kitchen counter than amongst your personal
library. Lots of practical and delicious dishes to suit every taste and
budget.
Cookbook review: Cook Express
Published by: Dorling Kindersley
Price: £25.00
ISBN 978-1-4053-4132-5
World Cheese Book
It’s days like this when I think that being a cookbook
reviewer is the most marvellous occupation. I have
been presented with 350 or so pages of unadulterated and odorous
delight. Every page I view increases taste-bud activity to the point
where a triangle of something in silver foil will just not cut the
mustard.
This is the most comprehensive encyclopaedia of cheese that this
reviewer has thus far examined. The author, Juliet Harbutt, has done an
excellent job of seeking out fine and fascinating cheese from every
corner of the world. This is a volume that does not just concentrate on
the obvious cheese-producing regions but also takes the path less
trodden to Eastern Europe, Israel, Japan and even Brazil.
It should come as no surprise that cheese is a popular foodstuff for
the majority of the world. If there is an animal giving milk then there
is sure to be a cheese producer nearby. The range of texture and taste
is amazing and this versatile product is used for both sweet and
savoury courses.
You don’t have to be a cheese connoisseur to appreciate this volume. We
all notice cheeses in even the regular supermarket. What do they taste
like? What do you do with them? Any good for cooking? World Cheese Book
lists cheeses by country. It gives a short description, tasting notes
and how to enjoy. There is also an at-a-glance information box which
gives location, age, weight and shape, size, milk, classification (soft
white, for example) and producer.
It’s the photographs which are striking. Each cheese has a shot showing
the whole cheese or wedge of cheese but there are also close-up shots
showing the texture and marbling. If you are searching for a pretty
cheese then go for Monet made in California and described as “a true
artist’s palate that reflects the beautiful gardens that surround this
coastal California Dairy.” It’s like a fine piece of porcelain
decorated with marigold and viola flowers: not a classic cheese but a
visual stunner. A soft, fresh cheese available all year round.
For a cheese that is best described as different then try Norway’s
Gjetost. This is a caramel-coloured cheese that tastes ...well, of
caramel. It is the dairy equivalent of Marmite: you either love it or
hate it. It’s very much an acquired taste but worth trying if you get
the chance. I probably wouldn’t include this as part of an
international cheese board, though. Savour its “delights” alone or with
a slice of spice cake.
World Cheese Book is an absolute “must have” for any cheese lover or
those who would like to know more. There is plenty of information about
cheese making as well as indispensible advice on selecting cheeses for
the perfect cheeseboard, and its accompanying wine. This would make a
marvellous Christmas gift but I would consider presenting it to your
loved one at the start of the festive season rather than on Christmas
morning. Allow them the benefit of this book’s wisdom before they do
the shopping. They will thank you for it. This is amazing value for
money!
Cookbook review: World Cheese Book
Author: Juliet Harbutt
Published by: Dorling Kindersley
Price: £16.99
ISBN 978-1-4053-3681-9
Sicilian Food
Originally published in 1989 it was out of print for ten
years or so. This new edition reminds us why Sicilian Food has been considered a
classic.
Mary Taylor Simeti arrived in Sicily fresh from college in America. She
worked as a volunteer at a centre for community development for $75 a
month. Her interest in cooking came through necessity rather than love
of the subject. Mary came from a well-heeled family in Virginia where
they enjoyed the services of a cook. This was probably a marvellous
environment to sample well-cooked food but hardly one that was going to
prepare anyone for doing the job themselves. Marriage to a Sicilian
eventually gave Mary the inspiration to look into the culinary history
and delightful confections of her adopted home.
Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the largest
region of the modern state of Italy, but its relationship with the
mainland has been tempestuous. Italy had once been a group of separate
states ruled by France, Spain, Austria and other foreign countries,
until Guiseppe Garibaldi unified Italy and drove out the foreigners.
But Sicily was renowned for its delicious food before Italy was even a
twinkle in the eye of Garibaldi.
Sicily enjoys marvellous produce that has been noted and coveted since
the time of Homer. This volume considers the food heritage and presents
recipes from cooks, books and monasteries. There is much that is
recognisable as Italian but which might well have originated in Sicily.
Pasta is first seen in Italy at the time of the Arab occupation, not on
the mainland but in Sicily.
So let’s look at a pasta dish. Pasta Paolina Style (pasta alla Paolina)
was invented by the friars of the Monastery of San Francesco di Paola
in Palermo. It has both cinnamon and cloves along with anchovies and
tomato sauce. Quite an exotic departure from the more ubiquitous pasta
garnish of the tomato and herb-flavoured sauces of Italy.
The monasteries have played quite a part in the culinary tapestry of
Sicilian food. They have preserved ancient recipes that reflect good
taste and some quaint humour. Minni di Virgini (Virgins Breasts) are
much-prized small cakes – sometimes with a cheeky cherry on the top.
Sfinci Ammilati (Honey Puffs) are light balls of fried dough steeped in
honey. These were also filled with an egg custard or ricotta to
celebrate saints’ days.
Not everyone in Sicily was a nun or a monk. The island would be empty
by now if that had been the case. Ordinary folks would enjoy Roasted
Sweet Peppers (Pepperoni Arrostiti), Potato Croquettes (Croche di
Patate) and Chickpea Fritters (Panelle) which were all popular street
foods, and they would make lovely light lunches with just some green
salad and a dressing of fruity olive oil.
A classic this book might be, but it’s readable and witty. The recipes
are broad-based, covering peasant fare as well as elevated and noble
dishes. It’s a social history as well as a cookbook and would be a
great addition to any serious cookbook collection.
Cookbook review: Sicilian Food
Author: Mary Taylor Simeti
Published by: Grubb Street
Price: £14.99
ISBN 978-1-902304-17-8
Guinness
Paul Hartley has penned several brand cookbooks including
the Lyles Golden Syrup Cookbook and the HP Sauce
Cookbook (both
reviewed on this site), Marmite Cookbook and Heinz Tomato Ketchup
Cookbook. It’s probably safe to say that Paul has an eye for iconic and
popular products.
Guinness – An Official Celebration of 250 Remarkable Years offers us
firstly the history of “the black stuff”, “Girder”, “Liffey Water”, and
it is indeed a story worth telling. Any product that has lasted two and
a half centuries deserves a volume celebrating its longevity. There can
surely be only a handful of brands that have endured while the world
has changed so much.
Sake is synonymous with Japan, Whisky with Scotland and tea with
England, but Ireland has Guinness. It’s available around the globe and
is recognised even when poured. The distinctive dark brew with the
clerical collar has decorated bars on every continent and has tickled
the taste buds of almost every nationality.
This beer is in fact porter. No, dear reader, it doesn’t contain Port.
It’s named after the men who hauled vegetables and other foodstuffs in
London’s many markets. From 1799 the Guinness that we know today was
the only beer brewed by the company. Its association with food might
have started in Covent Garden Market and the like but it continues with
recipes using Guinness, and there are 18 or so fine and traditional
ones in this volume.
Steak pie with ale has been tempting diners for many a year. This has
become a classic dish because it works, so it’s no surprise to find
Beef and Guinness Puff Pastry Pie. Paul has added dried figs to this
version which helps as a foil for the slightly bitter beer.
A must-try from Paul Hartley’s collection is Guinness Honeycomb Ice
Cream. This recipe doesn’t need an ice-cream maker so there is no
excuse not to make it. It’s a simple dessert using Guinness and those
familiar chocolate-covered honeycomb bars. You know, the ones that are
a bit crunchy.
The section in Guinness that charts various advertising campaigns is
fascinating. We no longer consider Guinness as Good For You although
that was used as a persuasive slogan for a while. The Guinness for
Strength poster proved so popular that frequenters of “the local” would
ask for a pint of “girder”, making reference to the iron-beam-carrying
chap on the ad.
Guinness is a book full of evocative images and a story of vision. It
would be a great gift for anyone who enjoys the drink, who enjoys
cooking or who has an interest in advertising.
Cookbook review: Guinness
Author: Paul Hartley
Published by: Hamlyn-Octopus
Price: £9.99
ISBN 978-0-600-61988-8
The Cook’s
Guide to Fish and Seafood
I see many cookbooks every week and hundreds every year.
Most are very nice, some are inspiring, there
are a few that would be better left as trees, and then there are the
gems.
Apple Press have done it again! This publisher never seems to put a
foot wrong. They present books that are marvellously practical but also
attractive, but they might just have surpassed themselves. The Cook’s
Guide to Fish and Seafood is one in a new series of books that will
become heirlooms.
Strong words, them. I am going to stick my reviewer’s neck out and say
that these small books, described as handbook-sized in leatherette, are
a must for any serious cook but also for any serious cookbook
collector. The author, Wendy Sweetser, trained at the Cordon Bleu
cookery schools in both London and Paris. She has penned fifteen other
food- and drink-related books as well as being food editor and feature
writer for OK, The London Magazine, and Period Living.
Most of us love the glossy, celeb chef cookbooks. What’s not to love...
mostly. But The Cook’s Guide books offer an in-depth look at culinary
subjects. They are well written but it’s the illustrations that are
striking. Food photography has reached amazing degrees of perfection
but no camera can present its subject in such charming detail as can
brush, watercolour and pen. The artist, Jane Laurie, has skills that
add character and elevate this volume to gift quality.
Elevated though these books surely are, they are far from simple
coffee-table dust-magnets. These are food manuals to read, learn from,
and to delve into. The Cook’s Guide to Fish and Seafood considers...
well, fish and seafood. Each fish has its illustration, and its
characteristics are described; its habitat, availability, cooking
method and substitution suggestions are all mentioned.
We know that fish is good for us but there is often the underlying
question, Are the stocks sustainable? The Cook’s Guide to Fish and
Seafood includes farmed fish where available, and notes when wild
varieties are in season. This helps the shopper to make informed
choices.
The Cook’s Guide to Fish and Seafood offers advice on choosing fresh
fish, equipment, storage, trimming, scaling and gutting, filleting and
skinning. It’s a marvel of a book that will be appreciated by cooks and
cookbook collectors as well as fishermen. Great Christmas gift and good
value for money.
Cookbook review:The Cook’s Guide to Fish and Seafood
Author: Wendy Sweetser
Illustrator: Jane Laurie
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £12.99
ISBN 978-1-84543-333-8
500 Casseroles and
Stews
You must by now, assuming you are a regular reader, know
how much I enjoy this 500 series from Apple Press. These chunky little
volumes are packed with recipes
and photographs. They offer a wealth of information and support for the
novice and a raft of ideas for the more experienced home cook.
Rebecca Baugniet, the author, has written two others in the 500 series:
500 Pies and Tarts, and 500 Pizzas and Flatbreads, and was food
consultant on two more. She is a freelance writer living on Canada’s
West Coast. She has penned a book which offers both traditional and
contemporary dishes and with 500 recipes to document it’s safe to say
that nothing much has been overlooked.
The colder weather will soon be with us... unless you live south of the
equator in which case I wish you a wonderful summer. We are drawn to
the fireside or the chair nearest the radiator and we yearn for warm
and hearty fare. Casseroles and stews are some of the most practical
and the least labour-intensive dishes around. That should be music to
the ears of those who are either strapped for time or long to be a
stranger to the inside of a kitchen.
These dishes are quick to prepare. They might take a bit of time to
cook but you don’t have to sit with the food. They use, mostly, one
dish and they often improve with keeping overnight. Entertaining
couldn’t be easier: make your main dish the day before. Feeding a crowd
can be economic as casseroles can take advantage of cheaper cuts of
meat.
Risotto isn’t a dish that one might immediately consider as a candidate
for a book entitled 500 Casseroles and Stews, but on reflection it’s
reasonable to include it. The International Favourites chapter offers
Italian Risotto with Scallops. This is a one-pot (with 5 minutes use of
a frying pan) meal and very stylish. It only takes 20 minutes or so to
cook and the preparation can be done in advance.
Quick and Easy Casseroles lists the traditional Cottage Pie. This is
Shepherd's Pie but made with minced beef rather than lamb. Hamburger
Stroganoff is another recipe which has good-value minced beef as its
key ingredient. Nothing wrong with that but get the best meat you can
afford. An alternative would be Minced Turkey Stroganoff.
My favourite from this book is Chilaquile Casserole. This is vibrant
and zesty and a Mexican-inspired layered dish which, although
vegetarian, is gutsy enough for carnivores to appreciate. Makes a
change from the ubiquitous tortillas or tacos. It’s comfort food with a
difference.
500 Casseroles and Stews is a book for cooks. Yes, it’s attractive but
it’s a book to use. The recipes are well written and consider
vegetarians and meat-eaters alike. The dishes are tempting and simple
with options for posh dinners with friends as well as family meals.
This is a lot of book for under a tenner.
Cookbook review: 500 Casseroles and Stews
Author: Rebecca Baugniet
Published by: Apple Press
Price: £9.99
ISBN 978-1-84543-328-4
Paul
Gayler’s Little Book of Ice Creams and Sorbets
Paul is the chef at the Lanesborough Hotel in London. It’s
considered a “Destination” hotel and has a
restaurant to match that status. This man is a familiar face on British
food TV and is also an accomplished cookbook author.
All of Paul Gayler’s books (I have reviewed several to date) have been
innovative but I have been at pains to point out that they have not
been “chefy”. That’s a term that smacks of criticism and usually
indicates that the recipes are over-complicated and fussy. I am,
however, persuaded to use just that word for Paul Gayler’s Little Book
of Ice Creams and Sorbets.
No, dear reader, this writer has not changed her style of review. I
have not turned overnight into the Gordon Ramsay of the cookbook review
world. This time I use “chefy” as a compliment. These recipes are not
at all long-winded or fiddly but the chef has presented his culinary
credentials in the form of amazing combinations of ingredients and
textures that would have been difficult for a civilian to invent.
Paul Gayler’s Little Book of Ice Creams and Sorbets is an adult dessert
cookbook. The first few recipes are standards and one would expect to
find them here, but once settling you into a warm (or cold in this
case) sense of familiar security, Paul takes a detour.
The Ice Cream chapter starts innocently with a simple Vanilla Ice
Cream, but on closer inspection even this has a few exciting
variations. Paul suggests the addition of some lavender, Earl Grey tea,
lemon curd, dried breadcrumbs and rice pudding. You might be tempted to
linger, but turn a page or two and you’ll find more
soon-to-become-favourites.
Eggnog and Orange Peel Ice Cream could take the place of Christmas
Pudding chez nous. Dark rum in almost anything is good in my book and
it always reminds me of the holiday season. Keeping with the Christmas
theme Paul offers a Christmas Bombe. This looks like a mint-green
Christmas pudding but it’s a confection of ice cream and candied fruit.
Goats Cheese Ice Cream is rich and tangy. Paul uses regular milk in his
recipe but that could be replaced by goat’s milk to make this an ideal
dessert for those who are intolerant of cow’s milk. An alternative
frozen treat would be Coconut Milk, Yogurt and Red Chilli Sorbet.
Sophisticated and exotic.
How’s about Balsamic Butter Ice Cream? Paul serves this with Citrus
Fruit Salad and Passion Fruit Jelly (recipe in this book). Sweetcorn
Ice Cream would be quite a conversation piece. Black Pepper Ice Cream
is another show-stopper. I think this might go well with strawberries -
a different take on the traditional strawberries and cream.
Paul Gayler’s Little Book of Ice Creams and Sorbets packs a punch. It
might be a little book but it’s well worth the equally small price.
Paul once again showcases his skills and ability to think successfully
outside the box.
Cookbook review: Paul Gayler’s Little Book of Ice Creams and Sorbets
Author: Paul Gayler
Published by: Kyle Cathie
Price: £ 7.99
ISBN 978-1-8562-843-1
No-Oil Cooking
There are many of us now who are overweight and an
increasing number who are clinically obese. In some European countries that figure has
increased (no pun intended) to 25% of the population. That is a
staggering statistic.
We have more overweight people and the weight by which they are “over”
has also increased. The reasons for the rise in weight-related disease
are simple: modern lifestyle and eating habits. We drive more and walk
less. Our jobs often require little movement apart from fingers
sprinting across computer keys. We don’t think we have time to cook
healthy foods and we choose more and more fatty, pre-prepared foods or
takeaways (takeouts).
Sanjeev Kapoor presents us with recipes that are both oil-free (that is
to say no added oil) and are still delicious and satisfying. He is
India’s most celebrated chef and food industry guru. Sanjeev is
increasingly recognised by a discerning overseas audience as an
authority on Indian food and his books and TV series Khana Khazana have
long been popular. No-Oil Cooking has his touch of exotica and common
sense which will be appealing to every nationality of reader.
Cooking with no added oil isn’t difficult... but it’s important to have
recipes that have that taste and mouth-feel that at the end of the meal
give us the sensation of having had “proper” food. It’s no good eating
an oil-free meal and then tucking into a huge box of chocolates because
you feel empty.
The chapters cover everything from drinks to main courses to sweets and
everything in between. The recipes listed don’t read like worthy, noble
and boring healthfood dishes. This is tasty food that just happens to
be good for you. The whole family will enjoy these offerings so you
won’t be confronted with the perennial problem of cooking one meal for
the health-conscious folk and a different one for those who just live
to eat. One meal fits all!
Garlic-Flavoured Rasam is my choice from the Beverages, Soups and
Salads chapter. This is comfort food that is, thankfully, good for you.
It is easy to prepare and that preparation only takes 10 minutes. The
cooking time is just 30 minutes, without constant attention.
Corn Bhel couldn’t be simpler and is the ultimate healthy snack.
Sanjeev uses Green Coriander Chutney and Date and Tamarind Chutney for
this delight and he gives both recipes so you’ll have no excuse not to
make it.
Vegetable Seekh Kebabs would be a great addition to any barbeque. They
would be welcomed by vegetarians who are so often overlooked on these
occasions but it’s also no-guilt munching for those who are looking for
a healthy option. These are so tempting that you’ll need to make enough
for the meat eaters as well.
No-Oil Cooking offers fast, no-fuss food that is full of flavour,
colour and texture. Your body will thank you and so will your family.
Cookbook Review: No-Oil Cooking
Author: Sanjeev Kapoor
Published by: Popular Prakashan
Price: Rs 295
ISBN 81-7991-279-5
La Porte des Indes
Cookbook
Some of you, my dear readers, might be able to translate
that title with ease (education is a marvellous
thing). The Gateway to the Indies is my stab at it but why is it a
French title for a book of Indian food? The subtitle is The legacy of
France in Indian regional cuisine and, yes, there is indeed a region of
India that was a little piece of France ...till 1954.
I had already some idea about Pondicherry as my father had spent time
there in the 1940s (his friend, Taffy, being “deported” to India for
having a liaison with the daughter of a civil servant) but I had no
idea that the French food connection had lasted so long. It’s subtle
but unmistakable.
There are in fact deux Portes des Indes restaurants, one in London and
the other in Brussels, where it originated. Not probably the city with
the closest of Indian connections but evidently one which was open to
new culinary trends. La Porte des Indes is part of the Blue Elephant
empire and has the same sumptuous decor, that has become the trademark
of both restaurants.
The vibrant driving forces behind both the restaurant and the cookbook
are Mehernosh and Sherin Mody. The book has also benefited from the
skills of food and travel writer John Hellon and we have the gorgeous
results of their collaboration. It’s contemporary, bright and full of
amazing close-up shots by celebrated photographer Tony le Duc.
But the food is the star. There are familiar dishes but even these have
been given the La Porte twist. I hadn’t expected to see Chicken Tikka
Masala, which has become a cliché of Anglicised Indianish food.
This dish, however, is something a bit smart and has a sauce of
turmeric yellow. A cut above the original.
A signature dish of La Porte des Indes is Poulet Rouge (Chicken in a
Creamy Red Sauce) but it is easy for a home cook to make this dish.
It’s rich and stunning and just what you’ll cook if you want to impress
on a budget. Chicken thighs are economic and the other ingredients are
readily available in your local supermarket.
Duck is one of those archetypical French ingredients so here we have
Magret de Canard Pulivaar (Roasted Duck Breasts in a Spicy Tamarind
Sauce). The meat might make you think of romantic bistro meals in Paris
but the marinade and sauce are all Indian. Madame Lourdes Swamy of
Pondicherry is the originator of this recipe.
This is a restaurant cookbook so it has a chapter devoted to cocktails,
and just the names will transport you to the subcontinent. Monsoon
(Midori, melon vodka and champagne), Tamarind Martini (gin, limoncello
and tamarind puree) are just a couple and there are also some lovely
desserts.
Indian restaurant desserts are often a disappointing bunch but La Porte
des Indes Cookbook has some unique and classy ones. Payasam (green
lentils and tender coconut pudding) is a stunner but it would demand a
visit to an Asian supermarket. Chocolate and Chikki Kulfi is Belgian
Chocolate and Praline Ice Cream and a true liaison of two of the
world’s classic culinary cultures.
La Porte des Indes Cookbook is something a bit special. It’s modern and
full of innovation but it cherishes its French/Indian roots which have
combined to create a cuisine with touches of both. A joy to read and to
cook from.
Cookbook Review: La Porte des Indes Cookbook
Authors: Mehernosh Mody, Sherin Mody and John Hellon
Published by: Pavilion
Price: £20.00
ISBN 1-86205-643-9
Dal and Kadhi
Sanjeev Kapoor is the Indian chef with the golden touch.
His acclaimed TV series, Khana Khazana, has
enjoyed a 15-year run, has won the Indian Television Academy “Best
Cookery Show” and the “Indian Telly” awards year after year, such is
the popularity of this man.
Dal and Kadhi presents regional comfort food at its best and the book
is as delightful as the food. Each recipe is accompanied by a
photograph by Bharat Bhirangi who has a talent for showing these dishes
in a mouth-watering fashion. You’ll be planning your next meal before
you leave the bookshop.
What could be better than a flavourful dal or kadhi to eat with rice or
roti? Your meal might be humble or you could add a dal to an array of
other dishes to make a sumptuous and satisfying spread. They range in
texture from the rich and substantial to the light and refreshing to
suit the season or the occasion. These are the dishes that people miss
when they leave home and crave when they are in far-off countries.
This book offers 45 recipes that you will want to add to your culinary
repertoire no matter what your home region. They are a broad-based
selection of recipes so there is sure to be something to please every
palate. Dal Makhni is perhaps the most celebrated both in India and
overseas where it has become a restaurant speciality, although seldom
cooked in an authentic style. Maharashtrian Kadhi is a traditional dish
and represents India’s culinary diversity in a most delicious way.
All these dals and kadhis are tempting but as with life in general
there are firsts among equals and I have picked a few that are
particularly tempting. Rajasthani Baati ki Dal is made with split green
gram (dhuli moong dal) and Bengal gram (chana dal) and the resulting
dal is served with traditional baked balls of dough.
Bhindi ni Kadhi is bound to be on my list as I love ladies’ fingers
(bhinda/ bhindi). This is a soupy combination of yogurt and gram flour
(besan) flavoured with spices. The vegetables remain a little crisp
giving the kadhi an interesting texture.
Dal Hari Bhari contains spinach and fenugreek leaves, onions and
spices, and Sanjeev uses it to tempt those who would not normally enjoy
green vegetables. This would be an easy meal when served just with rice.
Dal and Kadhi is an Aladdin’s cave of ideas for quick, tasty and
healthy dishes. One expects lovely books from Sanjeev Kapoor and this
is another in that collection that never disappoints. You don’t have to
spend a lot of money to enjoy good food. This book will show you the
way in fine flavourful fashion.
Cookbook Review: Dal and Kadhi
Author: Sanjeev Kapoor
Published by: Popular Prakashan
Price: Rs.250.00
ISBN 978-81-7991-415-1
The Blue Elephant
Cookbook
This must surely be the most celebrated of Thai restaurant
empires. It would be diminishing the class and
the quality of the group to describe them as a chain. This is far from
the KF Mac Hut of the Thai food world – think sumptuous and exotic and
thoroughly impressive.
The Blue Elephant has a fine reputation wherever you might find it. and
the cookbook now allows its followers to replicate its dishes in their
home kitchens. Those who have never had the pleasure of visiting a Blue
Elephant will soon appreciate the attraction.
Thai food in general has gained worldwide popularity over the past
decade. More of us have the opportunity to travel to Thailand and also
to visit Thai restaurants in our home countries, and we want to try
those dishes for ourselves. The Blue Elephant Cookbook will offer you a
marvelous array of recipes that represent the very essence of Thai food
with all its vibrant flavours.
Blue Elephant recipes are authentic, attractive and tempting. They are
not over-taxing for the competent home cook, and the ingredients are
all availiable either from your favourite supermarket’s Asian food
aisle, from a specialist Thai food store or by mail order via the
internet. You’ll not only learn how to make soups, starters, salads,
main dishes and desserts but also curry pastes and sauces.
Thai Fish Cakes will be instantly recognised by travellers returning
from sun-kissed Thai resorts. They are delicately soft with a crunch
supplied by a garnish of peanuts and refreshing lettuce. Serve this
with Cucumber Sauce (recipe in this book) and you have a delicious
snack or light lunch, or combine with other dishes as part of a Thai
buffet.
Stir-Fried Seafood with Garlic and Peppercorns (Seafood Krathiam Prik
Thai) is elegant and flavourful and would be an ideal “special” meal.
OK, the prawns, scallops and crab are not cheap but this recipe makes
the best of that seafood, and the finished result is stunning. The base
is Blue Elephant Special Sauce which you can easily make and freeze for
future use.
Tuk’s Duck Salad (Laab Ped) is a dish devised by the aforementioned Tuk
who is a chef at the Blue Elephant in London. The duck is grilled and
flavoured with a spice paste and garnished with fried shallots,
chillies, fresh coriander and salad. A simple dish to prepare but it
has great impact.
The Blue Elephant Cookbook is a jewel of a volume and definitely among
my favourite Thai cookbooks. It will be snapped up by lovers of classic
Thai food as well as those who are regular diners at The Blue Elephant
restaurants. A lovely book.
Cookbook Review: The Blue Elephant Cookbook
Author: Chefs of Blue Elephant.
Published by: Pavilion – Anova
Price: £14.99
ISBN 978-1-86205-303-8
Royal Hyderabadi
Cooking
This is a collaboration between two of India’s finest sons
of the culinary arts. If you have not heard of Sanjeev Kapoor (Sanjeev
is
probably
the
most
celebrated
of
Indian
chefs,
presenting
Khana
Khazana
on
India’s
Zee
TV)
then
you must have been living under a rock with no access either to
cookbooks or the internet, for surely you would have read my previous
review of his work! Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi is an expert on Hyderabadi
cuisine, and Sanjeev's respected friend and colleague.
But what is Hyderabadi cooking? It will be a mystery to most
Westerners, who are very unlikely to have encountered it, and it is
revered by Indians, who might also have trouble tracking down authentic
dishes. It’s truly courtly, special and grand but at least this volume
makes those dishes more accessible to the home cook... and what home
cooking that would be!
Royal Hyderabadi Cooking is an elegantly presented volume with stylish
photography by Bharat Bhirangi illustrating every recipe. The book has
a modern feel with the food being the rich focus in a minimalist
setting. Although the ingredients look a lengthy list for some dishes,
it’s mostly spices that are commonly found in the domestic larder.
Apart from being a striking cookbook, Royal Hyderabadi Cooking is also
something of an archive for a style of food preparation that is
disappearing. The authors have been lucky enough to recruit the
indispensible aid of two national culinary treasures who have lifetimes
of expertise. Begum Mumtaz Khan is considered a living legend and is a
member of the Jagirdhar families of the last Nizam, and has actually
tasted the food from the Royal kitchens. She has conducted cooking
classes and hosted Hyderabadi food festivals.
Ustad Habib Pasha has a passion for Hyderabadi food and a wealth of
experience. He has worked in Hyderabad’s most famous restaurants and
has been generous to our authors with his knowledge, revealing the
secrets of aromatic blends of herbs that help to give this cuisine its
distinctive flavour.
There are so many striking recipes to discover here but I have a few
favourites. Murtabuk is a layered stack of chapattis with a filling of
minced chicken, eggs and spices and is served in wedges as you would a
savoury birthday cake. It was Begum Mumtaz Khan who taught the authors
how to cook this to perfection.
Thikri Ki Dal is a delicious and comforting dal which contains amongst
the spices, onions and ghee... 2 three-inch pieces of earthenware! The
thikri are heated till red hot and then plunged into the food. They are
removed before serving to avoid damage to either guest or crockery.
This method is said to impart a distinctive and earthy flavour. Truly
unique.
Double Ka Meetha is a sweet and syrupy dessert that would be a fitting
end to a Royal Hyderabadi meal. It’s a confection of bread, nuts, cream
and saffron and simple to make. I wouldn’t reserve this for just
Hyderabadi meals, this would be welcomed anytime by those with a sweet
tooth.
The title suggests something sumptuous and rich and that is just what
this food is all about. Royal Hyderabadi Cooking presents recipes that
are regal and festive but accessible to the home cook. Amazing!
Cookbook Review: Royal Hyderabadi Cooking
Author: Sanjeev Kapoor and Harpal Singh Sokhi
Published by: Popular Prakashan
Price: Rs.250.00
ISBN 978-81-7991-373-4
Low Calorie
Vegetarian Cookbook
You should expect something special when you are presented
with a Sanjeev Kapoor cookbook. Low Calorie
Vegetarian really is something a bit different and this could start an
exotic diet trend.
Sanjeev is probably the most celebrated of Indian chefs, presenting
Khana Khazana on India’s Zee TV. It’s been airing since 1993 and its
600th episode is now just a memory. He has won several awards such as
the Best Executive Chef of India Award and the Mercury Gold Award at
Geneva, which has earned this man international as well as home-grown
respect.
Low Calorie Vegetarian Cookbook is just one of many cookbooks from this
charming, handsome and charismatic man. Each book is welcomed by an
adoring audience who have been impressed by the author’s skill on the
small screen. It’s said that Sanjeev never repeats a recipe and will
not need to for several decades; such is his volume of work.
Low calorie carnivorous and low calorie vegetarian recipes have often
seemed to fall into one of two categories: boring or boring with
vegetables. But Sanjeev’s book will strike the right chord with many
readers who want a low calorie diet that offers food with taste and
texture. If you don’t enjoy the food that does you good then you will
fall back into the same old unhealthy eating habits which got you into
your chubby mess to start with.
Low Calorie Vegetarian Cookbook is about flavour, and Sanjeev has a
collection of recipes that will tempt even those with no health or
weight issues. This is good food with intriguing combinations of spices
and fresh ingredients. There are Nutrition Information charts with each
recipe to enable the home cook to make the best choices to achieve a
balanced diet.
The recipes are broad-based and you don’t have to be a lover of
traditional Indian food to appreciate the dishes. Sanjeev has French
onion soup but his version raises the bar with French Onion and Garlic
Soup. Spicy Pineapple Boat is light and refreshing but with a little
kick from green chillies. For those who want a cool and summery salad
then Minted Mushrooms should fit the bill. This is a dish of mushrooms,
tomato, cucumber, mint leaves and a dressing of low fat yogurt, and the
addition of lemon juice provides a tang.
However delicious the European-inspired dishes might be, most of us
will be looking for that unmistakable taste of the subcontinent and
it’s here in glorious profusion. Spinach and Cabbage Parantha is a
flatbread with aromatic cardamom and spicy red chilli powder to
complement the vegetables incorporated into the dough.
Desserts are not forgotten. Kesari Phirni is a lovely dessert of
Pistachio nuts perfumed with saffron and cardamom. The sweetness comes
from a sugar substitute such as Equal or Splenda so you can indulge
with no guilt.
Do I have a favourite recipe? Well, you know I do and its Mushroom Dum
Biryani. This is a rice dish made with the traditional method but have
no fear, it’s not difficult and the results will impress both Western
and Asian friends. I’ll make this dish often, not because I have a low
calorie diet (although perhaps I should) but because it’s delicious and
simple.
A Western cook will have no problem finding the spices in local
supermarkets or from one of the many online Asian stores. The cooking
techniques are not taxing and you don’t have to take a trip to Mumbai
to kit out your new Asian kitchen. This is a fascinating book with
recipes that will encourage you to make, eat and enjoy flavourful and
healthful meals.
Low Calorie Vegetarian Cookbook is the first of Sanjeev Kapoor's books
that I have had the pleasure to review, and there are more to follow.
This volume is bound to be a success with readers from every continent.
Cookbook Review: Low Calorie Vegetarian Cookbook
Author: Sanjeev Kapoor
Published by: Popular Prakashan
Price: Rs.250.00, £11.69, $25.00US
ISBN 978-81-7154-888-0