Scrambled eggs with peppers

The weather is extremely bad in London these days; wind speeds up to 25 mph and heavy rain. Last week, we were stuck at a tube station for almost an hour as we didn't have umbrellas with us. Today, we woke up to dreary skies and a slight drizzle. Also, it didn't help that the weather forecast was for heavy rain in the afternoon. So it looks like a lazy day ahead for us.

Simple food was what we needed for brunch and so I made scrambled eggs with peppers, another recipe from my French cookbook. I guess its nothing really special despite the French label attached to it but still its filling and warm, good enough for winter brunch. Sautee some chopped onions in olive oil till soft and add chopped peppers and diced garlic. Sprinkle some paprika and fry for around 5 minutes till they are soft. Make sure that most of the liquid in the pan has evaporated. Add in a can of chopped tomatoes and season with salt, pepper and some mixed herbs. Simmer at medium heat for around 15 minutes till most of the liquid in the pan has evaporated and the mixture is thick. Add in lightly beaten eggs and cook at low heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly till the mixture has the desired mixture. Serve with parsley and grated cheese.

Chicken fricassee

Didn't do much cooking for the past few days as it was the new year weekend. There were people to meet up with for lunch, and generally, I was too lazy to cook when I have just spent the whole day outside, wandering the shopping streets. Incidentally, we discovered a pretty good pizza and kebab takeaway. So the only serious cooking I did was this French dish, Chicken fricassee. According to my French cookbook, a fricassee is a classic dish in which poulty or meat is first seared in fat, then braised with liquid until cooked. I modified the recipe as I wanted more vegetables in it, the celery and carrots are not in the recipe itself.

Anyway, to cook it, first sear chicken portions with butter over medium heat till they are golden in colour. Sprinkle with flour and turn the pieces to coat. Cook over a low heat for around 4 minutes. Pour in white wine, bring to the boil and add chicken stock. Push the chicken pieces to one side and scrape the base of the casserole, stirring until well blended. Bring the liquid to the boil and add bouquet garni and some fresh rosemary. [At this stage, I added the chopped carrots and diced celery] Cover and simmer over a medium heat until the chicken is tender. During this time, fry mushrooms with butter and 1 tsp of lemon juice over a medium high heat in a separate pan until the mushrooms are golden. Remove the mushrooms and add water, sugar and onions to the pan. Mix well. [The recipe actually requires small white onions but I am not a fan of eating whole onions so I decided to just dice a shallot for this] Simmer the onions, water and sugar for 10 minutes and pour the mixture over the mushrooms. When the chicken is cooked, remove it from the pan and discard the bouquet garni. Add the cooking juices from the vegetables to the casserole. Bring the boil and whisk cream into the sauce and cook for 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms and onions and cook for a further 2 minutes. Adjust the seasoning and pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Instead of having this with pasta, M made dumplings (from a packet mix) and added them to the casserole while the chicken is simmering. Thats the four lumps you see in the picture.

Sofra

The Christmas sales are now on, with massive discounts up to 70%, and of course I was dragged to Oxford St by M so that she could continue her shopping. I have already endured two days of this, once on Boxing day and on Saturday. [At least, I had a really good meal at Gold Mine with D and his gf.] So this is my third day trapped in the hordes. Interestingly, I didn't buy a single thing even though numbers and percentages were flashing at me at every turn. I guess all that I am concerned with is being fed.

So we went to St Christopher place to try out some of the restaurants there. Its a tiny area at the side of Bond St, with a number of high end stores populating it. M saw this Turkish restaurant Sofra and wanted to try it. We were hoping that its as good as Antalya, the Turkish restaurant in Nottingham but sadly it was not to be. M ordered Broccoli soup and Chicken tagine. For me, its the Borek platter and the Kofte.



The soup was alright, competent but nothing exceptional. M didn't like it as there was no cream in it.



My Borek platter consisted of a chicken and leek pasty, a corned beef pasty and a feta cheese and corianger pasty. Again, nothing really special and I think Antalya does it so much better.



M didn't like the chicken tagine as well. The chicken was overcooked, probably because it was braised in the tomato mixture for way too long.



I like my rice and I was trying to figure why it tasted so good. Trust the butter expert to tell me straight that the rice was cooked with butter. The kofte was savoury, its basically grilled minced lamb meatballs with herbs but I have this nagging suspicion that its premade, cooked from a packet as it didn't have a certain texture to it, it felt too crunchy, like a fish cake, the Chinese kind with all the preservatives. Again, Antalya does it so much better. I am starting to get a really strong craving for Antalya's food, I might go there when I go for my viva in Feb.

In all, a very average lunch experience. I prefer to look elsewhere for Turkish food especially since the service was absolutely atrocious. Aside from this restaurant, I have never seen waiters with no expressions on their faces whatsoever and a refusal to look you in the eye when you speak to them. At least, Chinese waiters look at you with utter disdain.