Nourished

Recent Vegetarian Recipes

Get your bake on…

Where to Eat…

A Few Thermomix Recipes

1 Michelin Star

Galvin at Windows, Mayfair

Just a quickie today :0) And be warned – the word fabulous is going to appear rather a lot!

Last night I had dinner at Galvin’s on Park Lane. We’d been at the Serpentine Party, and for once I was actually ravenous when we arrived at the restaurant.

Depending on your sensibilities, Galvin either has a fabulous location, way up in the Hilton and with breathtaking views over London, or perhaps has dizzying effects on your stomach as you peer over the edge. The restaurant itself is very nicely laid out, and with a multi-tier effect, you don’t feel the space so much. I assume it was laid out in this way to afford everyone a decent view out of the window…

The waiting staff were very attentive – the sommelier remembered having a little ‘discussion’ on burgundies with the Hubby the last time he’d been in – and the waitress brought us some piping hot bread straight out of the oven – yummy!

Now. Before I really begin – I really ought to remind you that I was RAVENOUS when we sat down, and that may have affected my use of so many superlatives – that and the gallon of champagne we’d had at the Serpentine!

The amuse was a tomato water – just fabulous…. Fabulous, fabulous – I’m definitely going to make the effort to make it having previously considered it too time-consuming.

I began with the pan-seared foie gras, spiced duck pastilla, confit lemon and date consommé. The foie gras was, yes, you’ve guessed it – fabulous. But actually the date consommé was even more incredible – I was spooning down to the last drop as the staff tried to take my plate. If I could have a flask of the stuff, I could climb Everest.

The Hubby had the terrine of foie gras, orange purée, spiced salt and toasted brioche. Now the Hubby is renowned in his search for a decent foie gras terrine – he’s had it everywhere and is usually disappointed. Here he thought the flavour excellent, he loved the texture (it looked very smooth), he loved the orange, and even the brioche looked crisper and more robust than the usual offerings. I didn’t even get a look in!

I then had the slow cooked fillet of beef, braised ox cheek, pomme purée and red wine jus. The ox cheek was deep and earthy, packed with flavour and a great contrast to the fillet. The mash was as smooth and silky as you’d expect, and the jus rich to the point of obsession. A proper ‘you can wipe your finger across it’ richness. And I did.

The Hubby had the real highlight though, Cotswold white chicken, tortellini, broad bean, wild garlic and jus gras. It looked stunningly pretty. The small amount I was allowed to steal was loaded with the garlic jus which tasted intensely of roasted garlic purée – smooth, delicious, full of flavour.

By this stage it was too late for pud, though they all looked delicious. We were brought some of the marshmallows, and the strawberry one’s were particularly tasty, without doubt the best marshmallow I’ve eaten.  I did also buy a bag of tea (!) – there were some amazing combinations, and I went for one with fennel seed, which aids digestion.  I thought it might be a decent Kümmel substitute.

So. If you find yourself in need of a really flavoursome dinner, I’d definitely try Galvin! It has a very cute bar which fills up quite late (I noticed that they shut the doors between the bar and the restaurant when it started to fill). If you like heights the view is sensational. Also, the atmosphere is very relaxed – you could come here with friends and enjoy dinner without feeling as though your disturbing everyone else – a definite plus in this calibre of dining. It’s going on my favourite’s list.

[I couldn’t possibly steal her pics, but unlike me, @ValerieFerman did manage to photo most of the dishes we ate! Here> Valerie’s pics of her meal at Galvin]

Galvin at Windows also participates in Galvin’s Chance – an employment programme for 18-24 year olds – have a look.  Galvin’s Chance Brochure




British

Corrigan’s, Mayfair

Choosing a restaurant in our house always begins in the most random way: Richard Corrigan has been on the telly quite a lot lately, what with Great British Menu and Saturday Kitchen, and the Hubby wondered why we’d never been to his restaurant.  He was adamant that he’d never seen Corrigan’s Mayfair on Upper Grosvenor Street, or heard anyone mention it.

To be honest, even though I knew it was there, I’d never actually seen it, and my ‘usual’ black cab chappie gave a me a breakdown of every building in the street but declared he’d never seen a restaurant there… So Corrigan’s is a bit like that building in Harry Potter – invisible to the uninitiated…  This makes entering the building even more of a surprise, because the interior is actually enormous, and must span the whole of the block.

There’s a very good bar area, restaurant seating, and a private room off the main restaurant.  The room feels very like a ‘posh’ Cecconi’s, except with a great deal less bustle.  It was only about 25-30% full during our meal, although there was a function being held in the private room.  With a room like this, less bustle almost constitutes less atmosphere.  Given that we were asked twice to ensure that we were finished by 9.15, one had to wonder what they were worried about.  Did people suddenly hot-foot it all the way over to Upper Grosvenor Street at 10pm?

Thank goodness we were only offered one amuse – hurrah!  This was a little ball of mozarella in a sort of doughnutty/brioche in crispy parmesan breadcrumbs, smelled fabulous and pretty tasty.

To start I had a very lovely crispy duck egg, with English asparagus, mustard hollandaise and pea shoots.  It was very yummy and the runny yolk obviously worked very well with the asparagus.  The Hubby had the terrine of foie gras, which was constructed using layers of foie gras and thin slices of brioche.  The Hubby felt this dampened down the flavour of the foie gras somewhat.

As a main course I had the pan-fried john dory with a raw artichoke and apple salad.  This was very clean, and the acidity in the apple worked very well with the rest of the dish.

The Hubby had the red mullet with chorizo, salt cod and parsley.  The mullet was cooked very well, and the salt cod complemented it, and was well seasoned.  However with little salt cod and chorizo on the plate, there wasn’t a great deal of flavour.
Dessert anyone?  Yes, we would have quite liked dessert, but after waiting for some time for someone to give us a dessert menu, and then some time for someone to return to us, the urge had completely gone.  I had quite fancied the one with the salted caramel (clearly this years’ favourite flavour with chefs), but didn’t fancy waiting for it to arrive.
This highlights the one main drawback to Corrigan’s for us: the room is very good, the food is fine, yummy and seasonal – well done Mr Corrigan.  The staff however are pretty haphazard.  At one point I asked the Hubby if he felt we were sitting in the trainee section of the restaurant.  The older staff were extremely well informed, polite, adept, discreet – everything you would expect.  The junior staff were perfunctory.  I would recommend going in a slightly larger crowd as you may need to provide your own atmosphere.  To be fair, I would assume this place is heaving at lunchtime, and it may be a better first introduction to the restaurant.
2014 UPDATE: So funny to read this back now, I’ve been several times this year and the place has been absolutely buzzing, and we’ve had exceptional food – I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it now, and we’ve taken two of the function spaces for private parties this year, with a great time being had by all.  Just shows you, visit somewhere on a quiet day, and you can have a completely different perspective of a joint!  Go…. Go now… What are you waiting for?

Corrigan's Mayfair on Urbanspoon

El Bulli

discusses Snail Caviar with Clare, as handled at El Bulli

Just lately we’ve been debating the taste and function of snail caviar on twitter. This prompted my good chum Clare to dust off her notes from El Bulli, where she had eaten said caviar. This is an excerpt from those notes, and my thanks to her! 
SNAILS “A LA LLAUNA” : DICTAPHONE DIALOGUE

Craig: They’re soft and warm and you can pop them

Keiron: I taste rosemary

Erica. Its very subtle

Clare…oh my god, that’s good

Erica… you’re weird

Craig… they’re more like little bath salts…. they pop in your mouth if you try hard enough to squeeze them between your teeth

Darren… they’re really quite nice, the rosemary is fantastic, I don’t usually like snails… but…



_________________________________________________________________________

I think all we can conclude is that no-one hated them, and some people really rather liked them.  Do you still fancy trying them? Let me know how you get on :0)



Laverstoke Park

Fresh Lobster

For the last year or so I’ve been passing a little lane in the New Forest which says, “Fresh Lobster and Crab, Live and Cooked”.  I can’t think why I haven’t checked it out yet, although to date my experience of New Forest’s food producers has been pretty disappointing – there are a few amazing places like Laverstock, but lots of the produce seems to disappear straight to London.

Though we have three marina’s and are a seaside town, our only fishmonger opened and closed within a year. Despite his thriving Saturday market stall, there wasn’t enough business to support a shop. For a while it seemed busy, but if most people do their shopping at the huge Waitrose, or the Tesco, little suppliers die on their feet. What a shame!

But back to my lobster… I was passing the lane again, and decided if there really was a supplier of live lobster, I needed to meet them! I drove down the ridiculously tiny lane, and emerged at a little run down farm. Outside were two or three big boiling pots, and inside were probably five large crates of very fresh and kicking lobster. The staff were pretty helpful, if slightly shocked to see someone. They explained that they supplied most of the pubs and some of the restaurants in the area, with cooked lobster and dressed crab.

I was offered the pick of the crates – I knew I wanted girls, because the meat goes onto the tail, as opposed to the big fighting claw you see on male lobsters. The staff also showed me how to identify females from the tail alone – females have a feathery frill along their tail, which helps retain the roe. I was offered my lobster in a plastic bag, but that was just a test to see if I knew my business – lobster should never be bagged as they suffocate. I left with two lobsters in a box, happy to have found a new supplier.

Now how to serve them? I’m not massively keen on griddled lobster, although done properly it can be fabulous. I remember vividly picking a lobster in a Parisian restaurant the was poached in beautifully prepared broth of fresh market vegetables – utterly divine! I wasn’t sure I could replicate their vegetables though, and didn’t have enough variety in my own garden to ensure success.

Normally I’d have a look at The River Cottage Fish Book, but I remembered Ramsay having a book with a lobster on the cover – it was Ramsay’ Secrets. In it was a recipe very similar to Cecconi’s lobster, potato and pancetta salad – which I love. And Ramsay had a way of preparing the lobster I hadn’t come across before.

The traditional methods for despatching your lobster at home are:

  • Plunging it headfirst into boiling water
  • Driving a large blade through the cross indented on the back of the lobsters head
  • Putting it into the freezer for 30-120 minutes to send it into hibernation, followed by any of the above methods

For most home cooks, hibernation is the kindest way to prepare your lobster for it’s transition into yumminess – and don’t forget that a stressed lobster quite literally does not taste the same as a calm lobster.

Ramsay’s method involved ripping the lobster’s tail off (!). You sedate your lobster, then holding the head in one hand, you pull the tail away from the body (with a pretty strong tug), then push it back towards the head again, which I didn’t understand. I couldn’t bring myself to do this – so we sedated them, spiked the lobster through the skull – then the Hubby pulled of the tails. Actually, it’s pretty effective – it removes the black liver or tomally from the tail, and leaves it neat and clean. Another tip was to grasp the middle tail fin (scale? feather?), snap it up, the pull it out sharply – this removes the swim bladder /intestinal tract – again very effective…

Then it’s off withe the claws :0). You boil the claws for around five minutes, and the tails for just over three. Ramsay’s other great tip is to tie the tail together end to end, which keeps the tail straight, allowing you to cut perfect medallions, which it did. (Don’t forget you can keep your shell to make lobster bisque, or lobster oil).

I then cooked some pancetta in-between two roasting trays, which gives lovely flat and crisp shards, and boiled some charlotte potatoes. You serve the lobster with the potatoes, fresh mayonnaise, and herb salad, placing the crispy pancetta on top. It’s yummy!

If you’re eating in a restaurant that serves lobster, you might want to check that they have something like a Crustastun.  Lots of leading animal wellfare organisations support the use of a Crustastun and you you ask the kitchen if they have one.

How Crustastun works

The premise of Crustastun is straightforward. The lid of the unit contains an electrode and a damp electrode sponge. The base of the unit contains a tank of salt water, with another electrode.

The animal is placed belly down on a sprung tray in the unit. As the lid is closed, the shellfish and tray are pushed down by the electrode sponge into the saline solution. The operator then presses one of the stun buttons on the front of the machine and a current passes through the 13 brain centres of a lobster, or the two brain centres of a crab.

The stun current works by instantly interrupting the nerve function, so that the shellfish cannot receive stimuli and therefore cannot feel pain. This takes less than half a second. The prolonged application of the stun, for up to ten seconds, kills it.

Using the freshwater drowning method, a crab can take 12 hours to die

This method has been researched by Dr David Robb of Bristol University, UK. Dr Robb has scientifically established that a current of 1–1.3 amps, applied for five to ten seconds, is required to stun and kill a shellfish. Crustastun uses a typical current of 4–6 amps to ensure that shellfish die quickly, with an absolute minimum of distress.

The electro-stunning technique is in stark contrast to killing methods such as freshwater drowning, where a crab can take 12 hours to die, depending on water temperature. During this time the animals produce stress hormones such as cortisol, which adversely affect meat quality. Crabs and lobsters dispatched using Crustastun produce meat of noticeably better taste and texture.


The key components of the Crustastun


The typical current profile when stunning
a crab during a 10 second stun cycle.
The current peaks at 8 amps, even
though a current of only 1.3 amps is
required to successfully stun the animal.

Fish

J Sheekey’s, Covent Garden

Last week we went, yet again, to J Sheekey’s.  It’s one of my absolute favourites – the staff are always polite, prompt, if sometimes a little brisk – but I like that….  It’s part of the atmosphere, and means they’re doing their job.

There are a couple of ways into the restaurant – I prefer going through the customary greeting by the doorman, into the tiny lobby – but you could go in through the oyster bar if you wish.  There’s a teeny tiny bar which serves all manner of things in old fashioned martini glasses, and every available space is covered in photos of bygone stars…

In fact you’ll invariably spot a photo you hadn’t noticed before, and be whisked away on some reminiscence of the role they were playing, the production or film they were in…  The restaurant is made up of a series of interconnected rooms, all crammed with little tables, all crammed with very animated diners.  This is why I don’t mind the brisk staff, you get the impression it’s all run on a very tight and strict schedule – there’s no room for dilly-dallying.

The play we had been to see, Prisoner on Second Avenue, had finished phenomenally early, and we wandered up from The Strand, thinking that we could sit in the bar until our table was ready – not a bit of it – there way a queue out of the door…  We wandered off to peek into the antique print shops in the next alley, and came back at 10.15…  This time we were greeted by name (so they were obviously paying attention earlier – always a good sign), and shown to the end room…  I have to say I’ve never noticed the division of Sheekey’s into the Gods and Wasteland you see in places like The Ivy…  I’ve eaten at some point in every available table for two, four and six! Naturally the Hubby knew someone on the next table, so it was already quite late by the time we ordered.

Now, food: Sheekey’s is the sister restaurant to Scotts, and so you find most of what they do here too…  You can eat oysters, caviar, tons of fresh fish, the odd nod to the meat eaters, and veggies – but fish is why we’re here!

As a starter I had little scallops, with crushed peas, pea shoots and crispy pancetta – absolutely yummy – one of my favourite combinations; the Hubby had devilled whitebait, which came out in a huge portion, with a serving of fresh tartare sauce to the side – he often has this – and says this is the place to eat it.

I can honestly say that I don’t eat fish and chips, never have and ordinarily probably never will – but I eat it at Sheekey’s and at Scotts.  The haddock has a casing so crisp it shatters with your fork, and it’s served with crushed minted peas and chips – delicious!

This is what the Hubby chose, and I did gaze in his direction, but he ignored my fluttering eyelashes.  No matter, I had one of my other favourites – the sole served off the bone, with really good bernaise sauce.  I had my usual herb green salad – can’t go to a Caprice Holdings restaurant without that – and the Hubby had his parmesan courgettes.

The food was perfectly cooked: the bernaise was both unctuous and light, the sole practically melted in the mouth.  The Hubby’s fish and chips really did look delicious, and he tucked in with gusto.  It’s difficult to say much more about it, really: I have never had a bad meal at Sheekey’s – I have never had any issues with the staff at Sheekey’s – it’s a fabulous restaurant!

If you’re going to go to one of the Caprice Holdings restaurants for the food (!), it has to be Sheekeys!  If you’re going to celebrate your wedding anniversary, or significant birthday, it should be Scotts.  If you’re taking your easily impressed aunt from Blackpool, and you want to show off – may as well go to the Ivy – I don’t want you cluttering up Sheekeys for the rest of us…

J Sheekey on Urbanspoon

Basics

talks food…

My web site is primarily dedicated to my obsession with the Renaissance, and with the Medici family in Quattrocento Florence…

However if you asked most of my friends what I was particularly passionate about, they’d probably choose food… I have hundreds of books in every cuisine, and own every ridiculous gadget you could possibly con foodies into buying – from dehydrators to sous vide machines and water baths, and vegetable peelers for soft fruit (which are actually very good if you come across them).

As an avid Tweeter, I have increasingly begun to follow other food bloggers and feel constrained by my main blog – it wasn’t established for me to discuss food – food would immediately swamp every other entry – food is one of those daily, all consuming activities. You won’t read a Renaissance text book every day, but if you’re a food fanatic you will be thinking about food, where you can buy those special items, and the next opportunity to cook for your chums.

In my experience food fanatics can be broken down into two groups – there are those who love the process of consuming food, trying different foods, and sharing the details of their consumption… Other fanatics are consumed with the details of the food – its origin, its history, the techniques involved, the way it has been presented. I’m the latter.  In reality I don’t live to eat at all, but I’ll happily ‘eat’ my way visually through a cookbook, and derive real satisfaction from it.

I’ve decided to blog about food because whilst there are millions of food bloggers out there, there are millions of food bloggers out there with whom I’d like to converse :0) Let’s see where it goes? Let’s see how long the journey is :0)

Journal

at The Bertinet Kitchen : Sardinian Cookery

I recently attended a Sardinian cookery course at The Bertinet Kitchen in Bath.
 

Richard Bertinet is famed for his unconventional bread cookery techniques, which involve incorporating air into the dough, rather than whacking it out at every opportunity. The cookery school is based on two floors, and Richard runs a number of bread courses on one level, while a variety of guest chefs teach on the first floor.

Our course was led by Silvanna de Soissans, who’s a very cheerful and colourful Italian, with her own blog and catering business. Before we began the business of making lunch, like all good foodies, we started with coffee, and toast for those who wanted it. {Silvanna went on to set up the Foodie Bugle, one of my favourite sites, and I’ve since written an article for her – I adore her!  I regularly buy the beautiful kitchenalia in her on-line shop…}

Silvanna had brought the most amazing array of herbs from her garden, which given the weather we’ve had to date was no mean feat – there were amazing bunches of parsley, basil and mint. After admiring her gardening prowess, we learnt briefly about the historical influences on Sardinian cookery… Where Sicily was invaded by many different cultures, and chose to embrace these culinary influences into their own cuisine – apparently Sardinian’s sought refuge inland, and kept their culinary history intact. I’m not entirely sure why they did – most of the books I have since acquired on Sardinian cookery reflect what Silvanna taught – that the food is born out of poverty, and uses ingredients generally considered ‘poor’ by other regions.

 
Our course taught four meals: a gnocchi dish (made from durum wheat, rather than potato), a prawn dish cooked with peas and pancetta, a slow cooked lamb dish, and the most delicious orange and potenta cake (the thought of which still makes me salivate weeks later).
 
The gnocchi, known as Malloreddus (little bulls), uses saffron to add colour and flavour. Malloreddus are ribbed using a fork, are small in size, and generally served with a sauce. ours was made with pancetta and tomatoes, reduced to a fairly thick consistency. It’s as salty as you’d imagine.
 
After assembling the Malloreddus we took a quick coffee break – Silvanna had brought in the most magnificent array of biscuits for all of us, and one basket quickly disappeared down the the grateful students in the bread course.
 
The orange and polenta cake was an absolute revelation – the process can be quite laborious – you need to assemble different elements of the cake in different bowls, before finally combining. However the end result is the most scented, moist and delicious flour free cake you’re likely to eat. (I will e-mail Silvanna and see if she’ll let me post the recipe).
 
Will I be cooking Sardinian food any time soon? Probably not, although I expect that orange cake will make a regular appearance at my table.
 
Will I return to the Bertinet Kitchen – absolutely – we had great fun. I already had some experience of the team as I buy my yeast direct from the BK’s website… The staff were all friendly, charming and helpful, and we were able to purloin some of the most delicious foccaccia from the course going on downstairs. I’m going to attend the week long bread course as soon as I can fit it into my diary :0)