Spaghetti carbonara

I have always assumed that carbonara sauce requires the use of cream, and so I was quite surprised to find a recipe that omits it. This is taken from the BBC website. I am just going to cut and paste the recipe here.

Ingredients
½ pack fresh spaghetti
¼ pack wild mushrooms
30g/1oz butter
2 egg yolks
50g/1½oz parmesan cheese


Method
1. Cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water for 3 to 4 minutes.
2. Fry the mushrooms in the butter, until they darken and release their juices.
3. In a bowl lightly beat together the yolks, parmesan cheese and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4. Stir the fried mushrooms into the egg mixture.
5. Drain the pasta, add to the sauce and stir immediately.

I added a bit of fresh parsley as a contrast to the richness of the cheese, and also to get rid of it since it's expiring soon. By the way, M says that this is fake carbonara as there's no cream. I am just going to ignore her.

Eat Thai

We were back at St Christopher's place today to meet M's friend from Singapore and we found a Thai restaurant there that we are likely to frequent from now on. It's called Eat Thai. Click on the title of this entry to get to their webpage. The restaurant itself has a simple layout; no gaudy statues of Buddhas or monkeys on tables or hanging on walls. It's just white, minimalist decor: tables and chairs; the bare minimum. You can tell that this is the kind of furnishing that I prefer.

We ordered special seafood cakes served with sweet chilli sauce, steamed king scallops with red curry paste, coconut cream, egg, palm sugar, fish sauce, basil leaves and kaffir lime leaves and green curry with chicken. There's not much I can say about the seafood cakes and the green curry except that it's competently cooked; for me, I can't tell the difference between exceptional green curry and average green curry. I can only tell when it's mediocre. The scallops, on the other hand, were impressive. The scallops were fresh and meaty. Served on their shells, they came with a rich red curry paste. I have never contemplated eating scallops with red curry paste and I was pleasantly surprised that it was an excellent combination. Egg white was drizzled on top of the paste and I think it was to tone down the spice. The basil and lime leaves added a further complexity to its taste, a natural freshness that contrasted well with the curry. In all, it's just that one dish that really impressed me. M and I wouldn't mind going back there again just to try out the rest of its menu.

Tomato soup

Had a nice dinner with L and J in Singapore the last time I was back and tomato soup was what I made as a starter for them. Fry diced onions, carrots and celery until they have softened. Add tomatoes quartered (as ripe as possible), garlic, a bay leaf, some mixed herbs and fry for a while. Add some chicken stock and simmer for 30 minutes. Puree the vegetables and return to the soup. Serve with basil leaves and warm bread.

Udon soup

For dinner, we had Udon soup and while it may look like I have cooked a packet of instant noodles, I am happy to inform you that the soup was made from scratch. Ok fine, I used the Yamasa Konbu Tsuyu Strait Sauce for the soup, added it to chicken stock. Its the sauce that you use for dipping cold japanese noodles. Fresh ingredients, mushrooms, carrots, pak choi, pork, egg, tofu, udon noodles and thats a complete meal.

Fifth Floor at Harvey Nichols London

Three or four years ago, my parents and I had a really good meal at the Fourth Floor at Harvey Nichols Leeds. Although,I have to admit, I have absolutely no recollection of what I ate that day for lunch, I just remember queueing up at 12 noon sharp as they don't take reservations. I guess this is one reason why I am writing about my restaurant experiences so that I remember the good ones to introduce to parents and friends. Anyway, we decided to try out the Fifth Floor at Harvey Nichols London to see whether its of the same standard.

We walked in for Sunday lunch. It wasn't full, which in London is a bad sign and so I was a bit apprehensive. The decor as M puts it, was space-age like, minimalist and very white and blue. So on to our selections. For our starters, I ordered a smoked duck salad with parmesan croutons, pomengranate seeds and shallot dressing and M chose the eggs benedict. For our mains, because of a miscommunication between M and I, both of us ordered the same thing, stuffed chicken leg with truffles and mushrooms, braised lentils and a cream sauce. For dessert, we shared a pineapple cannelloni, with passion fruit, white chocolate sticks, mango sorbet and a raspberry dressing.

Verdict: Excellent meal. Not as good as the Savoy Grill but still of a very high standard. My smoked duck salad was a excellent blend of flavours, the burst of sweet juices from the pomegranate seeds, the crunchiness of the parmesan croutons and the sweet and sour taste of the shallot dressing. All these flavours complement the smoked duck and the salad well. No one flavour dominated the taste buds. The duck was lightly smoked. In all, the salad was light, natural and a good start to the meal. M's eggs benedict was well prepared as well. The thing about eggs benedict is that so many things can go wrong. You can make a mess of poaching the egg, something, which has happened to me in the past. The hollandaise sauce takes a lot of work to prepare if you are making it from scratch. Some cooks make it too rich such that it overpowers the taste of the ham and the egg. The chef at this restaurant performed all these tasks admirably (and of course she should, for the price we are paying). The hollandaise sauce was just right.

As for our mains, stuffed chicken with truffles and mushrooms, the chicken was (I think) poached for a while before placed under a grill so that the skin is brown and slightly crispy. It was poached to the point where the chicken is just cooked and slightly pink. It was moist and very tender. The only problem I had with this dish is that it's just a tad too salty. I am not too sure whether I have tried lentils before in my life but I really like it, soft and slightly crunchy, it went well with the cream sauce. Interestingly, this dish is almost identical to the one we had at the Connaught, another one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants and on checking the profile of the chef at this restaurant, we realised that she had worked with him before.

The dessert was literally bursting with fruitiness, raspberry, pineapple, passionfruit, mango but it tasted natural and I did not suffer from a overdose of sugar.

So a pretty good Sunday lunch, it's 26.50 pounds for three courses which is not so bad for the quality of the food. If you go on a weekday, it's only 17-19 pounds. The service was excellent (the waiters and waitresses smile!) and I needed that after my experience with the waiters at Sofra.

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.

Burgundy beef stew

I don't normally cook beef, for health reasons, red meat and all but for the last few weeks, I have been craving for beef stew, probably the result of trying the one at Cafe Rouge and being of the view that mine is better. This beef stew is one of the first recipes I tried from my French cookbook. During that time, I had a housemate E who was allergic to chicken and couldn't try most of my cooking since I normally cook chicken 80% of the time. So I made this stew for us, one day. He really liked it.

So to cook this, fry some bacon/gammon till they are brown and remove from the pan. Add stewing beef to the pan and brown on both sides. Remove from the pan when done and add in diced carrots, garlic, celery and onions. Saute till soft and add in 1 1/2 tbsp of flour. Mix well. Pour in red wine (preferably Burgundy) and add 1 tbsp of tomato puree and bouquet garni. Bring to the boil and return the meat to the pan. Add enough beef stock to cover the vegetables and simmer for 3 hours. Meanwhile, saute some mushrooms in butter till golden and add them 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time. When cooked, remove the bouquet garni and stir in some fresh parsley.

Olive oil roasted chicken with mediterranean vegetables

Our Christmas roast chicken lunch was quite a success. The chicken came out of the oven, the skin crispy and savoury, and the flesh moist and tender. I can't wait to cook this recipe for my family and friends, should they visit.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Rub the chicken all over with olive oil and season with pepper. The chicken I used today was 1.175kg. Place a lemon quarter in boiling water and cook it for around a minute. Stuff the lemon inside the bird along with a sprig of thyme and some sage leaves. Put the chicken, breast side down, in a roasting tin. Roast for 30 minutes. Remove the chicken from the oven and season with salt. Turn the chicken right side up and baste with the juices from the tin. Surround the chicken with potatoes, mix well with the juices and return to the oven to continue roasting for 20 minutes. Add capsicums, (I used one yellow, one red and one orange capsicum), diced celery (2 sticks) and 6 garlic cloves (unpeeled). Drizzle more olive oil and mix in 3 sprigs of thyme and more sage leaves. Return to the oven and cook for another 30 minutes till the chicken is cooked, turning the vegetables occasionally.

Chicken tomato bake

Roast chicken meal is postponed to tomorrow lunch as per the orders of M. Instead, I modified my mom's baked rice recipe to make what I call, Chicken tomato bake. Basically, pan fry diced chicken, celery and leeks in olive oil till the vegetables are soft and the chicken is brown on both sides. Add in mushrooms and continue frying for around 2 minutes. Pour in a can of tomatoes, mix in some fresh parsley and season with salt and pepper. As is the case with baked rice, place cooked rice in a baking dish and pour in the chicken tomato mixture. Spoon in a layer of creme fraiche and sprinkle lots of cheese on top. Interestingly, we found out that if you use mild cheeses like mozzarella, you get a nice layer of melted bubbling cheese on top. But if you use medium cheeses like cheddar, you get a crispy layer of cheese. Anyway, bake in the oven at 200 degrees for around 15 minutes or till the cheese is brown.

M prefers this to the traditional baked rice as she doesn't like tinned soup. She thinks its cheating.

Farfelle with chicken and cherry tomatoes

So its Christmas eve lunch and M is busy at work. (I know its sad, we all think its sad). Left by myself, I didn't want to demean the occasion (as insignificant as it may be) by having instant noodles and also so that I can take photographs of my food in sunlight, I decided to make a proper meal. Obviously, I didn't want to mess up the kitchen especially since I am going to make roast chicken with stuffing and all for Christmas eve dinner, (M says that she will be home), the logical choice was pasta.

Place diced chicken in a bowl and mix well with diced rosemary and white wine. Season with salt and pepper. In a pan, fry onions at medium heat for around 5 minutes. Add in the chicken and fry till the chicken is white on both sides. Add cherry tomatoes, balsamic vinegar and paprika. Simmer for around 5 minutes till the chicken is cooked. Mix in cooked farfelle and diced rosemary. Season and serve.

Chicken with chorizo

For those who don't know what chorizo is, its a spicy Spanish pork sausage with a texture akin to that of Chinese sausages (lap chong) but with a stronger smoked, rather than sweet, taste. It goes very well with tomato based casseroles as it adds a rich complexity to the sauce. I have another recipe for chorizo, chickpea and chorizo stew but as M can't stand the taste of chickpeas, its going to be hard for me to cook it.

First, spread paprika evenly on chicken portions and season with salt. Pan fry it with olive oil till the chicken is brown. Be careful not to cook it at too high a heat as paprika burns easily. Remove the chicken from the pan and place in an oven proof dish.Fry sliced onions for a while and add garlic and chopped up chorizo. Fry for around two minutes and add white wine, canned tomatoes and bay leaves. Bring to the boil and pour the tomato mixture over the chicken. Bake the chicken in the oven at 190 degrees with a lid for around 40 minutes. Remove the lid and cook further for another 30 minutes. Serve with pasta and bay leaves to garnish.

Carrot soup

I used to dislike carrot soup although I suspect that is because I have never tried it before. During my Phd years, the school cafe served carrot soup once every week and without any other hot food to eat (only hot food is soup at the cafe), I tried the soup and I have fallen in love with it ever since. Chop up potatoes, onions and carrots and fry them with olive oil till softened. Add chicken stock, a pinch of nutmeg, lots of paprika if you like the kick, bay leaf and the juice of an orange. Simmer for around 40 minutes and puree the vegetables. Return the puree to the pan and the remaining liquid and reheat.

My last picture of carrot soup wasn't exactly that good as it wasn't taken in sunlight. These days, I am starting to develop this habit of cooking enough for three meals so that I have food for lunch as well as be able to take photographs in sunlight.

Fish soup

M doesn't like a lot of things. Vegetables, beef, lamb. The list goes on. Sadly, fish is one of them. Specifically, the cooked fish should not have any bones, it shouldn't taste fishy and she won't eat salmon or trout. Cooking for M requres adherence to a long list of rules and guidelines.

Anyway, fish soup is what I cooked for dinner. All it involves is frying some diced onions, celery and garlic. Add some white wine and simmer for 1 minute. Add canned tomatoes, a bay leaf and fish stock and simmer for 8 minutes. Finally, add diced fish ( I used a mixture of cod, haddock and tuna) and simmer yet again till the fish is cooked. Add some shredded basil and serve hot with bread.

Marcus Wareing at The Savoy Grill

We had a lovely lunch at The Savoy Grill, another one of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants. The weekend menu is quite good value. 25 pounds for three courses. M had the foie gras parfait, the wild mushroom risotto with poached egg and parmesan shavings and the blackberry trifle. I had the Scottish smoked salmon and gravadlax, served with classic accompaniments, roast rib-eye of Scottish beef with Yorkshire pudding, roasted vegetables, potatoes and beef sauce and the royal chocolate cake.

M really loved her foie gras. She said that it was light but with no concessions to the richness of the foie gras. The prune and raisin compote and the salad were excellent complements to the sweet taste of the foie gras. Interestingly, there may be some japanese influence on the dressing for the salad as we can detect some Japanese sesame oil in it. There's definitely a whole lot of mushrooms in the risotto. It was literally bursting with mushroom goodness. The risotto was light as well. Normally, you get a heavy cream-based risotto and after you eat it,you can't eat anything else. But this risotto was definitely light on the stomach. M actually finished all of it. The poached egg went very well with the risotto as the egg yolk gave a silky texture and an additional complexity in taste to the sauce. The dessert came on a trolley, with everything on the dessert menu laid out for all to see. Its perfect for M as it allowed her to choose the most aesthetically pleasing dessert of them all. Her blackberry trifle was made with real fresh blackberries, not the processed ones you see even in a pot of Marks and Spencer trifle pudding.

My Scottish smoked salmon was sadly nothing exceptional. Perhaps, my tastebuds are not developed or it could just be that they have been messed up by copious quantities of smoked salmon i have had at buffets in Singapore. I can't tell the difference between the smoked salmon you buy at the supermarkets and the ones smoked by the cooks themselves. Of course, we don't really know whether they smoked it themselves. Still, I always enjoy smoked salmon and the potato salad went well with it. My roast beef however was exceptional. The beef was tender and juicy. When you have a bite of it with the sauce, you could tell the difference between the beef gravy and the taste of the beef itself. Its quite possibly one of the best roast beef I have had in my life. Its certainly comparable to the ones I have had at Lawry's in Singapore. My royal chocolate cake was brillant, not too sweet, just the natural taste of the cocoa and dark chocolate.

M considers this her favourite restaurant in London so far and I have to agree with her for the price and the quality of the food

Chicken stew

M cooked today! (I am checking whether there's a blue moon outside.) Ok, there is an actual valid reason for this. Its my birthday and she decided to cook dinner for me as a gift.



Once upon a time, in our nottingham days, when we were still young and she, particularly carefree as she was a student then, she was a better cook than me. And this chicken stew with dumplings is what she used to prove her point then. That and her magnificient mushroom soup. So it is nostalgic for me to have this again. It has been 6 years since she has last cooked a proper meal for me. Hopefully,it doesn't take another six years for her to cook next as she is actually still pretty good at it.

Fish! Borough Market

Its back to Borough Market again. Its my birthday today and M decided that we should go to one place in London where we will both enjoy ourselves rather than go to yet another designer warehouse sale where I will be left bored and cranky in a corner, kicking at dust bunnies.



So we spent the afternoon browsing through the wares at the stalls. We bought more escargots, eggs fresh vegetables, onion bread and extremely expensive French cakes picked out by the extravagant one herself. There's really so much here for foodies, olive oil, wine, truffles, cheeses, organic juices, fresh pasta, tofu and meats everywhere. Its one place I will definitely bring my parents to when they visit me.



For lunch, I wanted to try out this fish and chips stall I saw at the corner of the market. On closer scrutiny, I realised that they had a restaurant next to it, serving seafood. (what else?) And being in "I don't feel like walking around and eating my food" mood, M and I decided to try the food there. As you can see from the picture above, the restaurant is called Fish! Borough Market.



M had the grilled scallops wrapped in pancetta on a roasted mushroom with salad and roasted cherry tomatoes. The scallops were fresh and well cooked with a strong grilled taste. I love that taste. (M: not bad.) The only problem with it was the price, an exorbitant 17 pounds but I guess that's the price you have to pay for scallops and M really loves scallops.



I ordered the fish and chips. The cod was competently cooked with a light batter. Nothing really special about it. It could do with a bit more salt and the fish, I suspect, wasn't that fresh as it had a slight fishy taste. The chips on the other hand, were excellent and you could tell (hopefully, I am right) that they were freshly cut. The best part of the meal was surprisingly the mushy peas. I am not a big fan of mushy peas but today, i finally found one that I really enjoyed. Savoury with a hint of lemon and mint. I don't mind going back here again just to try out the rest of its seafood dishes. I have this strong suspicion that the rest of their dishes are much better than their fish and chips

Summer tray baked salmon

M has to work overtime tonight and thats why salmon is on the dinner menu. (M doesn't like salmon, not even smoked salmon). This is another of Jamie Oliver's recipes, from Jamie's dinners to be precise. Cook some mixed vegetables, such as peas, beans, cauliflower and carrots for about 5 minutes. For me, I just used a packet of Bird's Eye frozen vegetables. Drain and place the vegetables in a baking tray. Add some butter, olive oil and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Place the salmon steak, seasoned with salt and black pepper, on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle some dill and basil over the fish and vegetables and cook in the oven for around 10-15 minutes at 230 degrees.

Potato, rocket and cheese soup

I first had a bite of rocket/roquette at the No 5 Bistro in Bath with my parents and I have fallen in love with it ever since. I just love its peppery taste and the sensation of oils released onto your tongue when you chew on it. Sadly, M isn't a great fan of it and so I don't get to eat it that often. But there's one of M's rules that I managed to exploit which is that if she can't see the vegetable in its full solid glory, it is more likely than not that she is willing to eat it. And so the end result is this soup, potato, rocket and cheese soup where the rocket has been dissolved into. It tasted just like broccoli and stilton soup but thats probably because I chose to add cheese to the bbc recipe. We had it with Waitrose ciabatta. Wonderful dinner for a winter night.