Nourished

Recent Vegetarian Recipes

Get your bake on…

Where to Eat…

A Few Thermomix Recipes

Axis

Tribute Dish: Tony Fleming’s Duck Egg with Truffled Soldiers

This dish is based on one create by Tony Fleming at Axis.  Lovely dish, packed full of flavour!  In an ideal world you’d have a truffle around which you can finely shave over the finished product, but here you can achieve a pretty good effect with more accessible truffle products :0)  Now the point of a tribute dish is to try to achieve a similar effect using normal home tools – we’re not going to make our own stock – it’s not to do a perfect dish – it’s supposed to be fun! Don’t get too hung-up on the finesse of the thing, cook it – eat it!

Sauces

Onion jam: cook sliced red onions in a little bit of olive oil on a low heat for at least 30 minutes.  Once they have reduced to almost nothing, add a small amount of good chicken stock.  Reduce again until the onion mixture has a jammy consistency.  I added a tiny bit of red wine vinegar just to offset the sweetness of the onion jam. Set aside until you’re ready.

Chicken jus: reduce chicken stock until it has a demi-glace like sheen.  I like to put a drop of Madeira into mine.  You can add little butter just at the end to increase the glossiness of the sauce, but save that for the final reheat.

Truffled Brioche Soliders

Mushroom duxelle : chop two large field mushrooms into fine dice and sweat with a tiny bit of olive oil and butter under fully coloured, but not crisp.  I added the tiniest pinch of truffle salt, and a small drizzle of truffle oil at the end. Set aside.

Brioche soldiers : make your brioche according to your favourite brioche recipe (or buy a brioche loaf!).  When it has cooled, cut into large rectangles.  Melt a little clarified butter in a frying pan and when hot, cook the rectangles in the butter, but do not crisp and do not swamp with butter. Set aside in a warm place.

Plating Up

Put a circle of the onion jam into the centre of the plate (I used a ring to get the disc the right size).  Scatter a few warmed mushrooms around the outside edge of the plate in a circle.  Put a little warmed duxelle onto the top of the brioche soldiers on a separate plate, with a little napkin under it to stop the moisture from making the brioche soggy.  Put the fried duck egg on top of the onion jam (I cut my duck egg with a ring to the same size), and drizzle a little of the reduced jus around the plate.  Serve immediately.

Here is Tony’s much finer version, with truffles :0)

Ben Spalding

Tribute Dish: Ben Spalding’s Slow Cooked Duck Egg

I think we all know that I love Roganic, I certainly seem to talk about it enough :0)  One of my favourite dishes is the sous-vide duck egg, which Ben has served us in a couple of different ways.  Recently I was determined to make proper use of my sous-vide machine, which can often languish in the cupboard, unloved and unused.

Here is Ben’s sous vide egg, with soused vegetables and grains.   Of course Ben’s is much prettier and delicate than mine, but I was happy enough with that as a first attempt.  I need to be much tidier next time, and definitely use my mandolin for the onion rings!

 

British

Alan Murchison at Terravina, New Forest

I’m fortunate to live part of the week in the New Forest, with its outstanding produce, gorgeous landscape and free roaming pigs, ponies and cattle.  There’s an increasingly significant food and wine scene developing here, with a notable number of fine hotels and food festivals.

One of the most interesting is the boutique wine hotel Hotel TerraVina established by Gerard and Nina Basset. Gerard co-founded the Hotel du Vin chain, has an enviable international reputation as a sommelier, and has represented the UK on several occasions, winning the Best Sommelier in the World award in 2010.  Gerard is also a Master Sommelier, a Master of Wine, and was awarded an OBE in 2011 for services to the hospitality industry.  His wife Nina is equally talented and became an AA hotel inspector at the tender age of just 21.  They worked and met at Chewton Glen, another New Forest stalwart, and the opening of Hotel TerraVina saw their welcome return to the Forest.

When I heard that Alan Murchison, the michelin starred executive chef of L’Ortolan and the 10in8 Group was doing a pop-up at TerraVina, I knew I had to be at that dinner! Alan, Gerard and Nina are old friends, and between them they devised a menu which would showcase the talents and skills of both establishments.

We began with a glass of champagne, always a civilised way to start and evening and then Game Consommé: a good parsley tortellini filled with rabbit (I think), celeriac cream, a game consommé, and to my chums delight, little spheres of near liquid sherry.

Textures of Duck, Cherry and Mango: even the simplest looking dishes at this level are actually several days worth of work.  First the duck breast is hot smoked with star anise and orange; the foie gras is marinated in port, cognac and maderia; and the duck confit is seperately marinated in thyme, cloves, bay leaves and garlic before they’re cooked. The resulting dishes are then layered in alternate strips brushed with melted foie gras, inside a parma ham lined mould.  The terrine is rested in the fridge for 24 hours before being served with cherry, mango and lambs lettuce… The terrine managed to retain each of the three textures and flavours of the duck, but melded together perfectly.  With a disk of brioche served in it’s own stand to keep it crisp, the cherry sauce and cherries were tart and offset the richness of the duck.  The mango was a fine sliver of mango jelly, adding symmetry to the dish.  Pinot Noir, from the Land’s Edge Vineyard was jammy and rich, and not overwhelmed by tannin.
Goats’ Cheese, Salted Crumble, Celery, Apple and Walnut: Alan’s goats cheese is made by the lovely Sarah Hampton at Brock Hall Farm in Shropshire. Made with the milk from her pure Saanen goats, the perfect cylinder of curd was gently sour, but slightly savoury, and very creamy.  It was coated in a salted crumb which intensified the savouriness of the cheese.  It was served with a tiny variation on a Wardolf salad, with crisp apple, slivers of celery and walnuts, with tiny cubes of grape jelly and coriander cress.  There was also a drizzle of the most intense truffle honey I’ve ever tasted, overpowering on its own, but good with the curd.  Gros Manseng, from Domaine des Cassagnoles was green, flinty with grapefruit notes.

 

Red Wine Poached Halibut, Tempura Oyster and Surf Clams: the halibut was perfectly cooked, the red wine poaching only covering the outer layer of the fish, it broke away into huge, fat, perfectly white flakes.  There was a rich and savoury shallot and onion puree, intensified with with madeira and brown gravy, with a roast onion rose, and umami-rich shards of braised oxtail.  The whole dish had very good savoury mouthfeel, but the umaminess didn’t overwhelm the halibut. I didn’t have the oyster I’m afraid, I do like oysters, but they really don’t like me.  It’s a shame as there was an oyster panna cotta made with mascapone and cream that I’d have love to have tried, and saw being prepared in the kitchen.  Pinot Gris, from Te Whare Ra was good, with some weight and just a hint of tannin, it stood up to the depth of the dish, and the lightness of the fish.



Smoked Sirloin, Bone Marrow, Kale, Garlic Cream: the smoked sirloin was prepared in a Big Green Egg which Alan had brought with him.  The flavour was complex, but delicate, and served with a rich jus, iron rich curly kale, a bone marrow croquette and a rich garlic cream. There were fine slices of barely raw cauliflower, and a rich cauliflower cheese too, and tiny jelly cubes of consommé, I think.  The garlic cream was incredibly flavoured, but very moreish and held its own against the other flavours on the dish.  All in all a very strong combination of powerful and rich flavours which managed to support rather than compete with each other – a delicate balance but one achieved here.  Château Lassegue, a Saint Emilion Grand Cru, was warm, rich, and complemented the rich savoury flavours of the dish.
Coconut and Mango: was a variation of the El Bulli reversed poached egg (which is cooked in a sodium alginate bath). I’ve had a couple of versions of this dish, but actually I prefer this one.  Instead of the entire egg being cooked in the bath, only the mango yolk was, and the coconut element was actually a coconut espuma.  It tasted of desiccated coconut (though I think made with coconut cream), and had an incredibly nostalgic flavour, it reminded me of the Spanish Gold sweet shredded tobacco we used to eat as children.  The yolk poured onto the espuma and my chum was highly amused, she thought it was great fun. Botrytis Riesling, from the Kayena Vineyard was sweet, light and clean, with notes of melon and lychee – it cut through the intense sweetness of the mango.

 

Chocolate truffle with peanut butter and ice-cream: A cube of chocolate mousse with a swathe of peanut butter cream, which more intensely of peanuts than I would have imagined.  It was served with a mascapone ice-cream, it was delicious, smooth, sour, creamy, it perfectly offset the richness of the peanut and the chocolate.

Chocolate, Lime Sorbet and African Amber Tea: the chocolate fondant was was served with a sorbet, shredded lime, a white chocolate sauce and tiny jelly cubes that I though tasted of Thai basil, but could just have easily have been the Amber tea.  It was refreshing, with a densely chocolate hit only achieved by a 70%+ cocoa chocolate.  Dolce Mataro, from Alella was rich, sweet, intense, and reminded me of some of the Sardinian dessert offerings.  My chum found it far too sweet and strong, but you needed something this big to stand up to the bite of the chocolate.

Overall the menu was carefully devised and built up the intensity of the flavours. There was a good combination of very traditional and modern techniques, and given the restrictions of working in an unknown kitchen, the team managed to deliver a very varied and delicious meal.  The wine pairings devised by the equally fabulous Hotel TerraVina team ratcheted up the enjoyment levels, and it was an excellent opportunity to have dinner devised by a michelin starred chef, and the worlds best sommelier.

 

Hotel TerraVina
174 Woodlands Road
Woodlands
Southampton
Hampshire SO40 7GL

L’Ortolan
Church Lane
Shinfield
Reading
Berkshire RG2 9BY

L'Ortolan on Urbanspoon

Champagne Moët & Chandon Rosé Impérial, Brut, France, NV 
Dinner Menu
Game Consommé
Textures of Duck, Cherry and Mango
Pinot Noir, Land’s Edge Vineyard, Hartford Court, Sonoma Coast, California, USA, 2007
Goats’ Cheese, Salted Crumble, Celery, Apple and Walnut
Gros Manseng, Domaine des Cassagnoles, Côtes de Gascogne, France, 2011 
Red Wine Poached Halibut, Tempura Oyster and Surf Clams
Pinot Gris, Te Whare Ra, Marlborough, New Zealand, 2010 
Smoked Sirloin, Bone Marrow, Kale, Garlic Cream
Château Lassegue, Saint Emilion Grand Cru, Bordeaux, France, 2004 
Coconut and Mango
Botrytis Riesling, Kayena Vineyard, Tamar Ridge, Tasmania, Australia, 2009 
Chocolate, Lime Sorbet and African Amber Tea
Dolce Mataro, Alella, Spain, 2009



British

Browns Hotel, Mayfair

Today the Breakfast venue is Browns. Arguably, the first hotel in London, established in 1837, the website says that this five star establishment welcomes guests that are ‘in the know’.   I have no idea what that means, so I must be completely clueless. Armed with that knowledge, I’m expecting to be greeted by a doorman extending a hand for some secret handshake, or worse expecting me to deliver a password, the failure to deliver either resulting in me being thrown out onto the street. Disappointingly, I’m asked for neither, and am shown to the Hix restaurant.

I’d describe the decor as corporate dining chic. Wood panneling, crisp white table cloths, with potraits and other art works adorning the walls, and olive green upholstery. It’s a long, light room and gives a feeling of space and openness.

I’m asked promptly if I desire drinks and ask for a cappuccino and grapefruit juice, in the absence of being offered anything more exotic. The breakfast menu is as extensive as you’d expect from a five star hotel. I regularly avoid buffet breakfasts, and there is one here which looks extensive and varied. I happen to notice an addition not listed on the website menu and decide to choose it: Poached Eggs on Mushroom.

Within a reasonable amount of time, the plate arrives. It looks very appetising, two portabello mushrooms large enough to support two poached eggs, with a reasonable amount of hollandaise sauce. Gliding the knife through it all, it reveals two medium cooked eggs, with nice runny yolks and firm, but well cooked mushrooms. All nicely put together, and well cooked, but I’m just a little disappointed. For some reason I had assume the strap line of green herbs referred to a herb butter, but in fact it was a herb crust.  As the egg sat on top of the crust, it went slightly soggy, and the flavour, though nicely cooked didn’t seem to marry well.  The combination particularly of the herb crust and hollandaise seemed quite alien to my tastebuds when combined with mushroom and egg – all the textures were too soft.

The room is comfortable and the service is discreet, but I struggle to make sense of how I feel about it. The food was well prepared and cooked, but I need more texture in my breakfast.  I decide I’m not a fan of herb crusted mushrooms which taste too… green… I don’t believe I’m gifted with synesthesia, so on a scale of 1 to 10, I give this a purple.

Brown’s Hotel,

Albemarle Street,
London W1S 4BP

HIX at The Albemarle on Urbanspoon

Restaurant

Mark Lloyd at Ben’s Canteen, Wandsworth

Ben’s Canteen sits on St John’s Hill, one of the busiest restaurant streets running between Wandsworth and Clapham.  Alongside The Ship down the road, the Canteen is a regular favourite of SW cooks, bloggers and foodies – I’d been hearing lots of good things about it. I’m not generally a burger and scotch egg kind of girl, not a surprise to my regular readers I’m sure, but when we heard that Ben was hosting a Mark Lloyd pop-up featuring game, our interest was definitely piqued.

The Canteen is in a good location, and has a large, lively and animated room, with doors which open out onto the street.  The staff are cheerful, attentive, and everything is relaxed and welcoming.  The specials board has lots and lots of variety on it, with everything from cod cheek to oxtail risotto, via a brunch, lunch and dinner menu.  The kitchen is run by Dave Aherne, and it’s a go-to local place for everything from your breakfast to your Sunday lunch.  It’s also very proactive at keeping its customers informed via Twitter and Facebook on the day’s specials etc.  On this occasion the menu was set in advance, and we would all be served at the same time.

To begin we had a pigeon breast spring roll – the pigeon may look a little pink in this photo, but I must apologise for the flash, I couldn’t find my normal camera!  The pigeon was perfectly cooked, gamey but light, good texture, not as fibrous as duck, much finer and more delicate.  The pigeon breast is wrapped in filo pastry and served with a smoked aubergine puree (the best I’ve had), candied red beetroot (sweet and smooth), a brandy soused date and a slice of soused yellow beetroot (the sousing liquor was a little too fierce compared to the finesse of the other ingredients).

The second dish was a partridge breast dusted in a spice mix, then pan fried.  It was served with pearled spelt (lovely, texture just right), tadpole radishes (small, intense, and a brilliant way of incorporating radish in a beautiful format), and a variety of micro leaves, including borage, which added a lovely light and bright note to the dish, and peppery nasturtium leaves.  The confit leg had an excellent flavour, but was too tight and dry, almost air dried rather than confit.  I spoke to Mark after the meal and almost the first thing out of his mouth was his dissatisfaction with this element of the menu.  Hubby thought the rest of the dish was so good, the confit should have been omitted altogether.


The main dish was venison, served with red cabbage, a thyme fondant, a very good celeriac puree and a bone gravy. The venison was a little too rare, which altered the texture, but the quality of the meat still shone through.  Under the cabbage was an excellent braised haunch, rich, deep and earthy.  The plate was beautifully decorated with radish flowers, and not swamped with gravy – a very good dish.


For dessert, an excellent fondant, perfectly cooked, and you can find Mark’s recipe here.  It was served with a cocoa sorbet (rich, dense, good texture) and a really great combination of raw rhubarb dressed in rosewater – this perfectly cut through the richness of the sorbet.

Overall I thought Mark’s menu was a great success and I look forward to following his progress.  Ben’s Canteen is a great, fun, go-to place.  I think your appreciation of it may depend on your age range – I think in my 20/30’s I’d have hung out here a lot!  In my 40’s, the wine list is just a tad light for me (chablis being the height of the burgundy list), though the wine chap had very good wine etiquette, a known bug bear of mine.  I’ll need to speak to the eponymous Ben (charming btw), and convince him to hold a case of something more serious in the cellar, and I’ll definitely come back to try some of the other dishes on the menu.

Ben’s Canteen
140 St John’s Hill
London SW11 1SL

Ben's Canteen on Urbanspoon

Pigeon Spring Roll, Smoked Aubergine, Candied Beetroot, 
Somerset Cider Brandy Soused Dates
 
Warm Salad of Spiced Partridge, Confit Leg, 
Radish Tadpoles, Pearled Spelt, Fennel Pollen
 
Berkshire Venison Fillet, Braised Haunch, Thyme Fondant, 
Celeriac Puree, Red Cabbage Pressing, Roasted Bone Sauce
 
Chocolate Fondant, Cocoa Sorbet, Rosewater and Rhubarb, Floral Salad

 

British

Axis, Aldwych

It’s best if I declare that I’ve been talking to Tony Fleming, the Executive Chef at Axis, for months now. In those conversations we’ve established that over the years I’ve been following Tony around London. I’ve eaten in almost every restaurant he’s has cooked in, and that list includes the Criterion, the Oak Room, Escargot, Richard Neat and the Great Eastern Hotel. When we did finally speak, it was because Tony appeared on ITV’s Britain’s Best Dish cooking a blackberry soufflé… Well. I’m a bit of a soufflé obsessive, so it was inevitable that this would be the thing that would draw us into conversation.

Since then I’ve been meaning to get into Axis to try Tony’s food circa 2012. As well as running Axis, the fine dining restaurant at No. One Aldwych, he also runs Indigo, and all of the food within the hotel. This is a daunting task given that the menu at Axis is updated frequently, and the hotel has a number of regular guests who would spot any repetitiveness.  Fortnightly there’s also the monthly Movie Night, where you can watch a film in the hotel’s private cinema, and then have a fixed menu dinner in the restaurant – the menu changes each time and is seasonal.

You enter Axis on the very corner of No. 1 Aldwych, then descend down the giant marble spiralling staircase, down into the rabbit hole… On one side there are large metal tree trunks running along the side, and there are eating areas on two levels, in two giant circles echoed by the circular balcony.   I like the space, though I don’t like the decor – that Art Deco interior would be the absolute ideal setting for some fabulous smoke filled Poirot set – but I digress…

We ate from a menu that was just a few days old, and following some consultation about what was proving popular. To whet our appetite we were given a tiny tartlett of goats cheese with anchovies, tangy, sharp, piquant anchovy with rich and savoury onion. There was also a plump langoustine served scampi style, like the scampi you always dream of, but rarely find, served in a little pool of intense tartare sauce.

The Hubby chose the scallops first, plump little spheres served on a chunky strip of Asian style pork belly. This sits on a cauliflower purée, with fine slices of raw cauliflower dressed in rock salt and olive oil. The pork belly is marinated in soy sauce, honey, citrus, cinnamon and 5 spice.  It’s then finished in the pan with the sticky sauce drizzled over the dish. I was quite torn between that dish and my own…


I ordered the duck egg with truffle soldiers. The egg is served on a bed of onion jam – it had that savoury cheek-sucking intensity that can only be achieved through long and slow reduction, in this case in brown chicken jus. Around the dish were scattered shemiji and pied bleu mushrooms, with peppery intense watercress. And the piece de resistance, the perfectly fried duck egg was placed on the top of the disc of onions, and then scattered with shaved truffles. To the side were crisp brioche soldiers, with a duxelle of mushrooms, topped with winter black truffles, and chives. The duxelle proved the perfect vehicle for the truffle, drifting the scent through the dish, without dominating it.  I loved this dish so much, within a few days I’d made it at myself, albeit a poorer home version.


Himself had the lamb barbecue lamb ribs, baked glazed shallot, grilled spring onions, onion purée and a shepherd’s pie croquette. I’m not a huge fan of lamb so he chooses it when he can. He thought it was the best lamb he’d eaten in years (it was Herdwick incidentally, from the lake district).  The croquette was made with the shoulder, before being mixed with mash, crumbed and fried.

I chose the butter poached loin of hare, jugged leg, root vegetable purée, game chips and watercress – a witty take on the hare and his daily diet.  The loin of hare is coated in dehydrated trompette de morte, which adds a piquant layer to the dense and soft meat.  I haven’t eaten hare for some time, and it’s delicious.  The texture is that of very good venison, but the flavour is much lighter, and has a grassy quality, it’s actually rather a delicate taste.  The root vegetable purée (made from separately roasted parsnip, celeriac, swede and carrot) provides a sweet and creamy hit to contrast to the peppery watercress and crisp chips.  The jugged hare has the texture of pulled pork, but is much more intense.  Marinated in red wine, then braised in stock and the marinade, it’s  thickened in the final moments with the blood from the hare – an intense little morsel.  The green watercress purée compliments the grassiness of the hare.  Hidden amongst the dish are cubes of pommes Anna, the potato scented with thyme, and is genuinely the best pommes Anna I’ve had.  Given that I make a truffle scented one, I don’t make that statement lightly.

Of course I was going to have the soufflé, it was inconceivable that I’d have anything else, except there were some amazing alternatives on the menu: morello sorbet with pistachio foam (with the chocolate tarte), and  on the specials a textures of rhubarb: jelly, foam, sorbet, crisps and crumble…   The soufflé was perfectly cooked, of course, I would expect no less of Tony.  I wasn’t utterly convinced about the balance of the spices in the soufflé itself, but when I discussed it with Tony, neither was he.  The Hubby felt the nutmeg was slightly too prevalent, but as the dish has only been on the menu for two days, it’s still a work in progress.  I’ve also documented elsewhere my dread of cooked banana, but actually the banana ice-cream was fine and came with a crisp shard of sugar craquelure, and a delicious swirl of salted caramel which complimented it perfectly.  I look forward to eating the final version.


The Hubby, feeling particularly generous after his two perfect dishes, decided to indulge me and order the dessert tasting plate containing my morello cherry sorbet. Beautifully sticky toffee pudding, clotted cream, and toffee sauce; cookies and cream parfait, mocha cappuccino, warm berries and dark chocolate cookies; and the bitter chocolate tart, pistachio foam, morello cherry sorbet. Each element of the dessert was a tiny dense hit of very intense flavours. I tried the tart which has such a high cocoa content you could fly to the moon on that tiny wedge, but is lightened by the pistachio foam – lovely.

During the course of the evening we took time to look at our fellow diners, and there is an amazing mix in the room. From the family in the corner, to the suits in the other half of the room, the entire space was packed. On the table next to us was a chap on his 71st stay, and he was greeted like an old friend by the head waiter Henry Knight. Henry brought him things he thought would interest him and they chatted with a familiarity that comes from a long and genuine relationship.  I don’t think I’ve considered the relationship a hotel restaurant has with its regulars before, especially when it comes to keeping the menu seasonal and interesting.

I have to say, even though I had eaten Tony’s food before over the years, I was genuinely, genuinely impressed by his menu. How is this place not a destination restaurant?  I spoke to a well known food blogger and we discussed how, particularly in with hotel restaurants,  good restaurants can fall through the ‘word of mouth’ cracks.  With a regular stream of hotel guests, they’re not quite as reliant on that kind of business.  However, this is as accomplished as many of the restaurants we eat in, in you can see from my list, that’s pretty good company to keep.  Next time you want to try something new, get down to Axis.  I’ve already been back to the Lobby Bar, the Hubby has already booked himself in for a business dinner with clients.  This place is going straight onto our favourites list.

Addendum: I really wanted to try that rhubarb dish before it went off the menu, so I popped back to Axis – the best £8 I’ve spent in ages – what an absolute delight!  There’s a delicious little pot of rhubarb crumble, scented with vanilla; a rhubarb purée; a beautiful rhubarb foam made of rhubarb purée, sugar and gelatine; delicate mounds of intense jelly; sorbet, and dehydrated rhubarb crisps.  The combination is light, absolutely mouthwatering, and very refreshing.  The absolutely pièce de résistance are apple blossom flowers.  What an absolute revelation – they are mouthwatering, crisp, zingy, scented – who knew? I’m going to be going around my garden raiding those trees that have a great abundance of blossom.  Only on for another week, get it while you can – a scent’sational dish!

Axis on Urbanspoon

Axis
One Aldwych
London
WC2B 4BZ

Starters  £9
oxtail, wild mushroom and horseradish
consommé, spring onions, parsley
welsh rarebit on toast, plum tomato salad (v)
chicken liver parfait,pickled radish, poached quince, hot brioche
roast beetroot, baby carrots, English mozzarella, bitter leaves, lemon thyme dressing (v)
deep fried pig’s trotter, braised head, celeriac purée, lentil jus
endive salad, roast walnuts, blue cheese, honey mustard dressing (v)(n)
selection of english charcuterie, piccalilli, garlic toasts (£3 supplement)
fried duck egg, onion jam, mushroom and truffle soldiers
 
seafooD  £13
lobster ravioli, salad of sea vegetables, basil oil (£2 supplement)
dressed crab cocktail,watercress salad, Granny Smith apple, crab bon-bons
seared scallops, oriental braised pork belly, soy sauce, cauliflower and coriander
smoked and poached scottish salmon, avocado and lime mousse, pickled baby vegetables
 
Light Main courses  £14
potato, caramelised onion and goat’s cheese tatin, sautéed spinach, tomato and coriander dressing (v)
steamed fillet of sea bass, stuffed with crab and soft herbs, cucumber, fennel and dill salad, raspberry vinaigrette (£4 supplement)
 
side orders  £4
tomato salad                                    green beans and shallots
french fries                                       crushed charlotte potatoes
wilted spinach                                  purple sprouting broccoli
 
main courses  £19
roast cod, parsnip and honey purée, home-smoked cod kedgeree, spiced fish velouté
loch duart salmon, crispy smoked pork belly, braised kale, bittersweet onions, red wine fumet
roast halibut, smoked duck gnocchi, purple broccoli, jus gras (£4 supplement)
slow cooked celeriac, cumin fried spinach, lightly spiced vegetables, lentil dahl, green chilli and cauliflower bhajis (v)
roast chicken, truffled macaroni, crispy Worcestershire cured ham, figs, Madeira shallot jus
braised beef bourguignon, smoked bacon, mashed potato, red wine sauce
roast rump of herdwick lamb, barbecue lamb ribs, baked glazed shallot, grilled spring onions, shepherd’s pie fritter (£4 supplement)
char-grilled 35 day aged galloway rib-eye, slow cooked tomatoes, button mushrooms with dauphinoise or beef dripping chips and peppercorn sauce or béarnaise (£5 supplement)
haunch of denham estate venison, red wine apple purée, creamed cabbage, braised shank boulangère, chocolate oil (n) (£3 supplement)
butter poached loin of hare, jugged leg, root vegetable purée, game chips, watercress (£4 supplement)
 
dessertS  £7
tarte tatin of apple, butterscotch ice cream, cinnamon and raisin caramel

floating islands, vanilla custard, honeycomb
gingerbread soufflé, banana ice cream, caramelised bananas
cookies and cream parfait, mocha cappuccino, warm berries and dark chocolate cookies
bitter chocolate tart, pistachio foam, morello cherry sorbet

sticky toffee pudding, clotted cream, toffee sauce
lemon tart, confit lemon
selection of british cheeses  £9
with oatcakes and Granny Smith
dessert sampling plate  £11
Sticky toffee pudding, clotted cream, toffee sauce
Cookies and cream parfait, mocha cappuccino, warm berries and dark chocolate cookies

 

    Bitter chocolate tart, pistachio foam, morello cherry sorbet

British

Spuntino, Soho

I’ve been trying to get along to Spuntino for some time now, and let’s face it, hundreds and hundreds of people have managed to get along before me to write about it. Still, Nicola and I are both ardent food lovers, and there’s always something to be learnt by having the experience first hand. We pitched up in Rupert Street straight from the Hockney exhibition, and spotted Spuntino just in front of us.  Rather marvellously its artfully dishevilled window treatment was propping up two fluorescent and garish policemen, which somehow utterly set it off to perfection. How I wish I’d taken that photograph!

Being a Russell Norman joint, the restaurant interior is kitsch, with a large bar dominating the room, around which wraps a NY diner style counter with high stools. There is also a further table at the back of the room in a little alcove. The bar itself is set up with various bottles containing spirits, mixers etc, and given the amount of space set aside for this, you definitely know that a good deal of the action is actually about the mixology and the drinks.  Menus are paper place mats, and the daily specials are written on by hand.  We didn’t have to wait, and went straight to a table. (Just a reminder that they don’t take bookings).

We decided to have some things individually, but some things to share.  We ordered the truffled toast, of course, a slider each, and a couple of vegetable dishes.

The pickled vegetables were crisp, with a good variety of fennel, beetroot, carrot, etc, and weren’t over pickled. You could still taste the inherent flavour of each variety, and it was interesting to compare the way in which the flavours matched certain veg better than others (for me, anyway).  I particularly liked the fennel, which really works as a soused veg, I’ll be giving that one a go at home.  The gentle aniseed flavour balanced nicely with the pickling liquor.

The stir fried olives really weren’t to my taste, but I know some people who rave about them.  Stuffed with anchovies, covered with breadcrumbs and fried, they were just a little too overpowering for me.  I’m sure it was the temperature, that mid-heat point where you awaken the ingredient, but don’t necessarily let it shine.

The truffled egg toast, much raved about, really wasn’t as fabulous as I was expecting either.  So difficult when you’ve read people rave about a dish, to be served a hard piece of bread, with bland cheese, with no discernible truffle taste.

But then our sliders arrived, and suddenly the kitchen had redeemed itself in my eyes.  The pulled pork slider was chunky, and succulent, but spiked with little crispy bits too… The pickled apple was just a fabulous addition, not only fulfilling that pork/apple combo, but offsetting the richness of the pork, and adding just a little juiciness to the slider.  Delicious.

Roast cauliflower with chermoula and smoked almonds was just bizarre.  I associate strong tastes with chermoula: pungent, powerful, sometimes acidic and scented, here it was just flat. The cauliflower was fine, but the almonds just looked as though someone had thrown a handful onto the plate.  Broccoli with an anchovy dressing was no more successful to be honest.  The dressing may have been nice, but I couldn’t really tell – the broccoli (which was actually good fresh broccoli) was waterlogged, all the flavours became waterlogged too…

Then yet again redemption arrived in the form of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  I’d happily cross London for this, which given everything that had gone before, is saying something.  The frozen parfait is salty and sweet, smooth, creamy cold… Sandwiched with what appears to be crushed raspberries in a loose jam, it’s topped with crushed peanuts and brittle – very moreish!

Nicola had a burnt sugar cheesecake, with prunes soaked in alcohol.  I didn’t taste it, but Nicola said that it tasted exactly how you would imagine it would.  I think she preferred my peanut butter sandwich.

I’m still not sure what to make of Spuntino, as many others have reported the service is very, very casual, but individually people were nice, smiley, happy and attentive.  A lot of the time though it appeared to be some sort of staff social club.   I appreciate this is a contradiction, but for me the whole experience was a contradiction.  I loved Mishkins, but this one sort of passes me by…  I think the best thing to do is to go in when you have a hangover, or you’re really setting out to get one.  I imagine under those circumstances it will absolutely hit the spot. But the slider, and the peanut butter sandwich are absolutely worth going in to try, and may just mean I give it another go.

Spuntino
61 Rupert Street
London
W1D 7PW

Spuntino on Urbanspoon

British

The Wolseley

My guest today suggests we meet at the Wolseley, a venue I have been to before, but only because of its proximity to Green Park tube station.  The favourite haunt of footballers, politicians, hedge fund managers, tourists and journalists, it inspired A.A.Gill to create his book Breakfast at The Wolseley.  The Wolseley quotes Gill’s introduction on their web site, he writes “Breakfast is everything. The beginning, the first thing. It is the mouthful that is the commitment to a new day, a continuing life“.  I wholly subscribe to this.

The Wolseley is so named after Wolseley Motors Limited commissioned a car showroom in 1921. However, the Italian architecture, marble floors and grand setting, did not do enough to stop the company going bankrupt in 1926. Between 1927 and 2003 it was a branch of Barclays Bank, until Chris Corbin and Jeremy King turned into the venue it is today.  Previously at Caprice Holdings, and now Rex Restaurant Associates, Messrs Corbin and King do have an eye for a commercial opportunity.

Walking into the dining space itself, it’s a picture of frenetic activity, a loud hubbub of conversation and of business being done.  One immediately thinks of an old railway station café, or worse given the closeness of the tables, the layout looks like a speed dating venue.

I order a fresh grapefruit juice and cappuccino. Within five minutes the drinks arrive and I order The English, with my eggs poached.  In the times I have been here, I will say, this venue has the best cappuccino of any I’ve had before.  Beautifully presented with a heart shaped chocolate flourish in the foam, the right temperature and creamy consistency, I always have more than one and this time is no exception.

The English duly arrives and I realise I hadn’t spotted it included baked beans. Now, I do occasionally like baked beans, but they overpower everything else in terms of taste – everything tastes of beans. There is also half a tomato, a mushroom, two poached eggs, a Cumberland sausage, a piece of black pudding (about a quarter of a sausage of black pudding), and several rashers of bacon.

I try the black pudding first as there’s such a small amount.  It falls apart on the first touch, so is difficult to eat on its own.  However, is does have a strong flavour and is very moist, but it needs to be more substantial to get a true sense of it. The eggs are strangely inconsistent: one is cooked perfectly as a medium egg with a nice runny yolk, but the other overdone with a solid centre; the sausage looks good, but lacks any real flavour other than meat; there’s a perfectly cooked mushroom, not too soggy, firm and tasty; and the bacon is slightly burnt, adding some level of caramelisation to it.  It’s nicely smoked, with a salty flavour, which I liked a lot. I leave the tomato, as I always do – cooked tomato is one of my pet hates.

The plates are cleared immediately and we’re asked if we would like anything else.  I suspect this is to encourage us to move on, as the restaurant is now at capacity. I order the bill and it’s settled very efficiently. Forty minutes from the time of entering, to the time I’m back outside on the pavement needing a short walk to clear the indigestion. An old Tommy Cooper joke comes to mind: ‘Two giants sitting on a wall, one says ‘I ate a clown for breakfast this morning, I feel a bit funny now!’.

Clement Freud once said, ‘Breakfast is a notoriously difficult meal to serve with a flourish.’ I don’t necessarily agree: I think that the experience is down to well-prepared, high-quality ingredients, in relaxed and ambient surroundings. The Wolseley has everything in terms of ingredients, but you do get the impression of hurried preparation in line with the hustle and bustle of the restaurant itself.

I subscribe to AA Gill’s sentiments about breakfast, but I just can’t marry those comments to the indigestion induced speed with which The Wolseley deals with its clientele.  This is rather ironic given the quote is on The Wolseley’s own breakfast webpage, but it should be no surprise really, given that they turn around 1,000 covers a day.  No doubt I will return, as it’s in a great location, but next time perhaps for just the continental breakfast or fruit bowl I think.

The Wolseley
160 Piccadilly
Mayfair

London
W1J 9EB

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British

The Abbeville Kitchen, Clapham

It’s cold, and John and I are standing in the street, shivering… We’re right in the middle of Abbeville Road, and we are completely surrounded by restaurants.  We’re supposed to be here to try a new restaurant, but John mentions that he’s heard good things about Abbeville Kitchen.  We look at the menu.  Wow.  Good olives, charcuterie, etc, looks very inviting.  John insists we look at the other menus, although I’m sold on the first glance.  Nearby is very appealing food, well plated food, but really we’re after chat, and variety, and lots of picky things…

We return to the Abbeville Kitchen and of course opt for the table right next to the open kitchen, which I think the staff perhaps found a little disconcerting.  We on the other hand, want a good look at what’s going on around us. The room is all wooden floor, wooden tables – it’s functional, comfortable.

The menu isn’t huge, but what’s on here is here for a reason. Products look to be very carefully sourced, and everything looks appealing. We decide not to have mains, but to order a variety of dishes. We have huge, plump Gordal olives, Marcona almonds, a plate of charcuterie, and John has a duck heart salad.  The bread includes, I think, baguette, ciabatta, and focaccia. My bit of baguette smells good, properly proved, nice mouthfeel, as they say.

The charcuterie includes finocchiona, Iberico ham and Italian ham.  The Iberico is exquisite – packed full of flavour, complete melt in the mouth texture, as silky and as fine as you’d want it to be. The finocchiona is denser, not as good as the one I get from Natoora, if I’m truthful, but it has a complete honesty about it.  (This is probably where I discover that it *is* the one I get from Natoora)

I don’t try John’s heart salad, but it looks delicious – well, I steal a bit of bacon from it – and it’s good.  He shows me the duck hearts, they are beautifully cooked, and pink in the middle.


My own obligatory green salad is very well dressed and seasoned, a hint of mustard to tickle the tastebuds, but not enough to overwhelm it.  It also has a really good variety of leaves, a good balance of bitter and delicate.

We stay for hours talking, and the charming staff keep topping up our filtered water, bring excellent coffee and sharp, proper lemonade. I think about all the people I want to bring here, and when we discuss it later, John has been thinking the same thing.  It’s a great place.  We visited at lunchtime and it wasn’t terribly busy, but judging by the constant prep taking place in the kitchen I’d say this place probably does good business at night.  I hadn’t checked out the drinks list, but I will do next time I’m in.  Oh, and they appear to do amazing things with prosecco – I see from a past menu they had spiced clementine and when we visited they had quince prosecco.  Now how delicious does that sound?

The Abbeville Kitchen

47 Abbeville Rd
London
SW4 9JX

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1 Michelin Star

The Lanesborough, Belgravia

Breakfast number two of the week and today the venue is the Lanesborough on Hyde Park Corner. An impressive 19th century building which is now a small, but luxurious hotel, in the heart of London. Originally built as a hospital (St. Georges) in the 18C, it was demolished and rebuilt in 1827 by William Wilkins. The hospital itself transferred to Tooting in 1980, and the building fell into disrepair until 1991 when it was refurbished and re-opened, and now is arguably the most expensive hotel in London.

I’ve been here many times before, though I’ve never stayed overnight, and I’ve certainly enjoyed the hospitality of the restaurants and bars – the library bar is a favourite of mine. On entering the hotel I’n directed to Apsleys, the restaurant. Taken over by Heinz Beck in 2009, it is his first restaurant outside of Italy and was awarded a Michelin star in 2010 (the fastest for a London restaurant at the time).

The last time I was here was for dinner before the refurbishment, then, it was a colonial style greenhouse with pastille coloured 80’s styling, with a very loud piano playing in the centre – we expected to find George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley hiding behind the palms with fake tans and shorts. Now it has the feeling of a light, open, Italian venue, with a Titian-esque artwork as a centrepiece.  I assume this is to announce the ‘rebirth’ of the restaurant itself (although for some reason the artwork has go-faster stripes).

The menu is extensive and they even encourage you to be creative and go ‘off menu’.  Given my recent disappointment, I know I’m going to go down the Eggs Benedict route again. The orange juice is already in the waiters’ hands, so I accept the invitation and give my order.

I assume the go-faster stripes on the centrepiece give the illusion that orders are being handled much more quickly than they are, and we wait what seems to be an age. All three of us have ordered eggs, so I assume only one egg chef is on, or they are out the back squeezing a couple from the chicken. Finally, the dishes arrive.  Again the food looks great, though as I found to my cost yesterday, looks can be deceiving.  I look more closely…

Two nicely formed poached eggs on top of an abundance of ham, and one half of a largish muffin. A decent, but not overwhelming amount of hollandaise with a pinch of paprika. My knife glides through the egg revealing a medium cooked egg with a yolk that flows down over the ham and muffin, but is not indiscreet enough to damage the texture of either. The ham is a honey roast ham, organically sourced, and full of flavour; and the muffin is nice and fluffy. The hollandaise, is creamy, but could do with just a touch more acidity – but I feel I’m splitting hairs now.

I enjoy the venue, the eggs Benedict were good. The service, other than waiting for too long, was fine and I leave in good humour  – joking with the staff as I leave.  One tells me his favourite egg joke: 
How do Monsters like their eggs cooked – Terri-fried.

Update:

I had breakfast again this morning, and things have definitely deteriorated since my last visit.  Eggs were undercooked, the staff kept trying to sell us pastries every five minutes and I had to ask for juice three times.  A glass of grapefruit juice finally arrived, but had been watered down.  I also had to ask for a cup of coffee twice, and finally got it at the end of the meal.  The bill also had to be requested three times!  17/9/12

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