Picasso

Kings Road is not a good place to have a meal without proper planning. If you went there on a Saturday, with no idea where you were going to have your lunch, you would be just like us, wandering up and down the road like a bunch of lost sheep. At some point in time, we got so sick of the search, we just went into the nearest restaurant and had our lunch. The place was called Picasso and even though, it was situated along the bland row of fashion chains populating Kings Road, it was surprisingly good. Home cooked Italian food, rustic, simple and wholesome. I had the marinara, spaghetti with clams, prawns and squid. It had a rich tomato sauce, a sauce with actual depth unlike the stuff they serve at Cafe Nero and an enormous helping of seafood. M had the penne ragu. She said that it tasted just like the way her mom cooks it. So I assume thats good. So a good discovery in the middle of exorbitant shopping land. Unfortunately, the food left me extremely thirsty while I waited for M; she was doing her usual window shopping so I guessed they must have added a great deal of salt into the food. When we got home and ran an Internet check on the restaurant, we were amused to find that it is one that Gordon Ramsay frequents.

We also went to the Chelsea Farmers' Market. I was expecting something like Borough Market but as M puts it, its not even a real market. Its just an area with some shops and thats it. We went to an organic supermarket there(L, you will love it) and bought some organic icing sugar and caster sugar for our planned attempt to make carrot cake tomorrow. (Fingers crossed(Edit: sadly it didn't turn out that well, we will try again next week) I bought some white tea as well. I am really going into a tea craze, I have green tea, white tea, some flower tea and earl grey in my cupboards and I even bought a teapot today from Habitat. It was quite a good bargain, 6.80 pounds for a Bodium teapot with a detachable compartment for the teabags/tealeaves. Oh and I finally bought a coffee mug to replace the one I broke for my coffee machine.

For dinner, we ordered takeaway. Our very first takeaway meal at our London apartment. Not too bad, we actually resisted getting any takeaway for almost three months. But the craving for greasy Chinese food became too much for us to overcome and so we ordered it. I was also too lazy to cook anything for dinner after our day out. So we ordered from this restaurant, Taste of China, Chicken fried rice, King prawns and broccoli on crispy noodles and salt and pepper prawns. The chicken fried rice was good, the classic taste of takeaway fried rice. M had a huge craving for it. The crispy noodles was unfortunately not crispy anymore but the sauce was alright. Similarly, our prawns weren't crispy but again, the taste was the one we were looking for. Conclusion: the food is alright if you have a craving for greasy chinese food but the delivery time was too long for it to be a really good meal. That said, we might order from this takeaway again, dishes that would not be affected by the delivery time.

Pork chops with tomato sauce

Strangely, this week, I have been cooking food which I messed up the first time round for this blog with the use of the wrong ingredients. The last time I tried making this French dish, pork chops with tomato sauce, I used basil and that really had an adverse effect on the taste of the sauce. This time, its the right herb, tarragon and yes, the sauce is finally acceptable to both M and my tastebuds. The picture looks better too.

Mashed carrots / Spaghetti with chicken and tarragon sauce

This time, I got it right. The use of single cream instead of creme fraiche does make a huge difference to the sauce. Its now thick, with a smoother consistency as compared to the last time I cooked this. To make this more of a pasta dish rather than a chicken dish, I deboned the chicken portions, mixed it into the tarragon sauce before pouring it onto the spaghetti.

I wish I could take all my photographs in daylight as it really does make a difference but as long as one of us is working, its hard to do so. What I can do now is to take close up photos of my food as the surroundings can look very drab at night.

Chocolate fridge cake

Sunday is going to be our pudding/dessert making day (hopefully) from now on provided we can finish eating whatever we have made the sunday before. Instead of going out, we will just spend the day at home, messing up the kitchen with flour, digestive biscuits and syrup to produce (hopefully) something decent. Beginner's luck prevailed for us or perhaps the recipe we used is easy (lesson 101: pick easy dessert recipes), our first stab at making a cake was a success. We made chocolate fridge cake, a recipe we found on the bbc webpage (once again, click on the title of this entry for the recipe.) I first heard of such a cake, a flourless cake from my mom. She had seen it on the Jamie Oliver show but didn't manage to write down the details of the recipe.

The chocolate fridge cake tasted just like brownies with apricots and raisins within.

Sunday lunch: Souffle omelette with fresh herbs and cheese / Baked tomatoes

Food photographs tend to look the best in the daytime. Natural light just gives it a certain glow and its impossible to replicate it using a camera (I think). So today, we decided to make use of the fact that M doesn't have to work on Sunday to cook something nice and to make full use of the sunlight for our photos. As its sunday, brunch food is well in line with the day, we made omelettes with tomatoes. I said we as M actually did the most difficult task of all for the omelette, whisking the eggs BY HAND till they are stiff. I can't whisk. I honestly can't. I just can't master the strange circles I have to make with the whisk. She spent 20 minutes whisking it, heh and I only then realised that we had an electric whisk hidden in the depths of our cupboards. She wasn't exactly happy after that. Anyway, this is no ordinary omelette as you should have already guessed from the fact that M has to whisk the egg. I got the recipe from the bbc website, so you can just check it out yourself. Just click on the title of this entry. For the tomatoes, I drizzle some olive oil and balsamic vinegar, seasoned the tomatoes and baked them in the oven for around 10 minutes.