Our final "meal" in the US

Well 'meal' is maybe a little grand, our last snack in the US was at Orlando airport. There had been some sandwiches and wraps at the hotel before we left but K and I weren't so impressed and hence still hungry. I had a rather odd craving for a 'proper' hotdog and this is what I ended up with. I eschewed the proffered cheese on the chips as this seemed rather odd to me but then I'm sure other people would think that me liking malt vinegar liberally sprinkled on my chips would be weird also! I can assure you I haven't enhanced the lurid colour of the hotdog, this was as it came "au natural". I guess the luminious glow would be useful for nocturnal scoffing.
I wouldn't want one often but the hotdog hit the spot!
K (who possibly is the tiniest person in the world) couldn't decide what of the "fine" Italian fare to partake of so got a plate of tomato doused pasta and pepperoni pizza and garlic bread. Well she had a long flight!
She reckons that the pasta in particular was good. I think I ate better than K but then with all the tomato, what am I going to say?
This er "feast" was extremely different from my first meal in the US on this trip but we can't eat Michelin starred gorgeousness every day!

A culinary low!

I guess it didn’t really help that my last meals had been the earth-moving prestige menu at Gordon Ramsay and then N’s lovely husband A whipped us up a wonderful asparagus and cheese omelette to fortify us for the exertions ahead. And little did we know what culinary exertions lay ahead!

Any other food after that was going to be a let down and we had the luck to be staying at a hotel that was aiming for some all time lows in catering so the chances are we were going to crash and burn very soon! I won’t name the hotel and to be fair they had quite a challenge, there were over five hundred of us, we opted for the faster/cheaper buffet style delivery and I guess we weren’t there for the food so it was more of a refuelling operation. The various themed buffets (no I’m not sure what the themes were – I deduced at one stage that it was “Caribbean fusion nightmare” and the one with the blue tin plates was possibly some sort of “Cowboy tucker”!) were manned by friendly staff occasionally donning chef’s toques (clearly to give us more confidence in their offerings). In lieu of a menu each dish was labelled and here was the real inventiveness. After tentatively trying some more of the elaborate labelled dishes I realised that the skill was making the actual food bear little or no resemblance to its labels, in fact ideally the food should have absolutely no discernible taste at all but you had a small typed card to tell you what you should be tasting so you could conjure up those flavours. For example I was slightly alarmed by the "pineapple chicken with Scotch Bonnet" as I’ve always understood that the Scotch Bonnet chilli is the hottest blow-your-socks off chilli possible and asked the be-hatted chef how hot it really was. He declared it wasn’t hot at all which was odd, so one can only wonder whether the lip tingling, eye watering chilli had just been waved in the general direction of the chicken or that it was labelled as thus just to spice the description up a bit. I did eat some and when he asked whether I considered it to be too hot I had to admit I found it somewhat taste-free. In fact even the chicken tasted of nothing. He shrugged and said that a lack of taste was maybe better than it being too hot. Am I being too harsh?

Another dish that deserves a particular mention for being just wrong on so many levels was marked up as “mango bread and butter pudding with liquorice anglais” – as DD would say “what the…?” What particularly intrigued me was the lumps of red stuff – possibly strawberries but definitely not mango.

I made sure that I recorded this one for posterity. I can’t remember what I said about this after I'd tasted it but I think I was probably quite rude.

At lunch times we were to venture forth to the treacherous wilderness to partake of another buffet but instead of being outside our slightly humid underground bunker this one was in the full midday Florida sun – hmmm. Now I wouldn’t generally partake of mayonnaise or potato salad (if smothered in more mayonnaise) on a good day but un-iced bowls in that heat, surely a mistake for the more delicate constitution? The chicken sandwiches weren’t too bad after I’d removed the tomato and pickles but the seafood pasta was cold and rather flaccid and the risotto was also cold and just stodgy and to follow the general theme, tasteless. And the desserts just looked alarmingly shiny and sweaty in that sun.

On the penultimate night the most edible thing was the apple and blackberry crumble but it was Florida, it was hot, we were in a slightly steamy windowless room and it seemed a bizarre option for dessert in such a climate but it was all part of the incongruity of our feastings.

The weirdest vegetable accompaniment that night was yucca. I always thought that a yucca was a tall spiky plant that never looked particularly edible to me but if I’d known it was maybe I would have tried to nibble a leaf.

The problem was that not everyone was savvy to the labels so I was forewarned and availed myself of a tentative scoop but many wrongly identified it as the mimosa mash potato and were unbelievably disappointed on first mouthful. I thought “bland and mushy marrow like substance and mostly unpleasant!” and totally a different species to mash potatoes.

On our last night we had a sit-down dinner and our plates were delivered sans labels so the fun of guessing our meal began. It looked prettier than most of our food up until now but I’m not entirely sure exactly what we had but we started with a slightly odd mushroom and spaghetti dish. This was followed by a green salad well once you'd skirted around the tomatoes and then to save the trouble of ascertaining if we wanted fish or meat we had both served with a very curious triangle of potato slices. Though I couldn’t really identify the fish but I think that the meat was beef.

And then the finale was a chocolate and strawberry concoction. It will come as a great surprise that the strawberries didn't really taste of anything! But I guess it looked okay and not all food can be like Gordon's food!

A virtual cake...

Okay I didn't bake it but I did sort out this rather lurid colour scheme! Hope you have a fabulous birthday back in chilly UK. Here of course it's just hot, hot, hot!

And today is also KK's half birthday - happy half birthday KK from your fairy godmother!

Two London's in one day

Today I jetted off from London to enjoy a fabulous meal in London. That is I flew from London Heathrow to New York JFK and went straight to Gordon Ramsay at the London, and despite the somewhat diva-ish some say crazy prospect of flying all the way to New York for one night for a meal, the resultant jet lag was worth it.

I arrived before A, N and bump – well they had a more troublesome journey from New Jersey than I had! I furnished myself with their finest Kir Imperial and made myself comfortable in the bar. On arrival, the receptionist kindly informed them that J was “waiting and sparkling in the bar” – as every diva should!

Here are some pictures of how fabulous the food would have looked if I'd been able to photograph my dishes with any light at all. You can see the elegantly ridged fine bone china, the design of which Gordon collaborated with Royal Doulton on. I think you MIGHT spot the difference between these and my own humble photographs!

After a brief aperitif we were escorted to the hallowed inner sanctum of the fine dining room to commence our much anticipated feast. Our maitre d’ was the lovely Jean-Baptiste Requien that we all recognised from Hell’s Kitchen and the F word. We had already decided that barring any bump-intolerant food we’d all have the menu prestige and so began our epic epicurean journey.

The restaurant is not extravagantly decorated but understated and ever so sophisticated, the metallic wall panels shimmer in an art deco way but the style is very now and much to my chagrin the lights are very dim – just fatal for food photography! The most vibrant part of the scheme were the obligatory red neon fire exit signs which were reflected the dining room. It did give it an interesting red accent which can be seen in the photo of the glass plate of bonbons. It did make me wonder if that’s why the lights were so ‘atmospheric’, would more dramatic lighting have bounced all over the room reflected in the panels and given the impression you were eating in a très chic fairground hall of mirrors. My London hairdresser assures me that this was all designed by a friend of a friend who also designed Madonna’s “crib”! The elegant dining room serves 15 covers so is pleasingly intimate without feeling at all crowded. We were most intrigued by the chairs, your standard elegant upholstered chair with the hidden surprise being that they could swivel in any direction affording a fine view of our refined surroundings. N was terribly impressed with hers and would have happily requested a doggy bag for it.

My usual anti-tomato stance was duly noted so after our first silken chicken foie gras and toast and tasty miniature onion and bacon tart we were given a blt and a beetroot crisp “sandwich” for the tomato hater. The blt was the star, a bacon and onion cream, chilled lettuce velouté, tomato gelée which I am assured was just the essence of a blt and the sensation of eating a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich which actually consuming one.

I had the less dramatic but very lovely marinated beetroot, ricotta, pine nut and Cabernet Sauvignon dressing which had the thinnest of beetroot crisps that shattered pleasingly when forked and then deliciously mingled with the ricotta and dressing.

The excessive anticipation had not been to no avail and despite the poorly lit photos; you can see we feasted on course after course of perfection. And that’s what Gordon excels in, beautifully presented, perfectly executed, and magnificently tasting sublime food - just heaven!

Next we tucked into a pressed foie gras and game with port sauce and pickled mushrooms. It is such a shame that the fabulous jewel like qualities of the little vegetable and purée accompaniments have been lost in translation. But they tasted wonderful and we had great fun identifying each one, a point to a jet-lagged J for picking out the little tiny dollops of puréed cauliflower. Just delicious!

Next we had one of Gordon’s signature dishes lobster ravioli with fennel cream and shellfish vinaigrette, though I’m fairly sure our menu actually said lobster tortellini. Whichever it is we enjoy a fat and silky soft pasta filled with succulent lobster with a very tasty sauce.

Here my menu goes even more wayward; I asked our waitress if we could have a menu to take away as it saves a lot of furious scribbling of courses. I was duly supplied with a folder of press-pack information on the opening and all the menus but ever so curiously not the actual menu we had. Almost but not quite!

Because we definitely had fish – possible cod sat astride some sort of Basque pepper mixture but the menu refers to striped bass with pak choi and caviar velouté but I know there was pepper. And the reason I’m sure about this is pepper is not an ingredient I am partial to as I always think they’re going to be squeaky, slimy and pervade my whole meal. And they invariably do- until now! Maybe I’ve hit the nail on the head. Years ago when I first read Jeffrey Steingarten’s “The Man who Ate Everything” I was impressed to read that his first task in 1989 on being appointed as food critic to American Vogue was to make his own black list of food phobia and develop a six-step program to eliminate them one-by-one. His technique for this was to find the most exemplary example of each “bête noir” and with continued exposure and each of the food stuffs being consumed in the best possible light he would finally find the good in each. And sure enough after six months of tracking down the finest exponent of each despised substance he was able to declare himself the perfect omnivore. Obviously when I first read this it gave me considerable food for thought, would I be able to take on such a gigantean task? My list is rather extensive, (see right) and I’ve spent many years studiously avoiding them. Could I ever learn to love a tomato? Maybe the answer is to get Gordon to cast his Michelin starred wand over each evil food and maybe, just maybe I could join the tomato adoring, goat cheese enjoying, curry worshipping masses – hmmm, I rather shudder at the thought! Maybe one day… but I’m not sure I have room in my life for such substances. But at least for tonight I enjoyed some peppers.

After that diatribe there’s little doubt which I plumped for our of a choice of mains of roast cannon of lamb with candied onions, confit tomatoes and marjoram jus or loin of venison with beetroot fondant, parsnip purée, creamed ceps and bitter chocolate sauce. Yes you’re right, I tucked into a stunning juicy venison loin with an accompanying little silver sauce spoon so I could savour every last drop of the delicious chocolate sauce.

It’s rare that I eschew cheese in a tasting menu but time and jet lag weren’t really on my side but the alternative – the palate cleansing roasted pineapple with crystallized cilantro (ugh, coriander in disguise) was actually zingy, refreshing and just perfect after the meat.

And then we had a soufflé – an apricot soufflé with Amaretto ice cream. What surprised us was it was quite an impressive size for a tasting menu – and just so light, cloud-like and melt in the mouth and was very good indeed.

And now there was nothing left to have some coffee, tea and to avail ourselves of the extraordinarily imposing and captivating bonbon trolley. This was a multilayered trolley stacked high with every gorgeous sweetmeat you can think of. There was dark chocolate with mouth-watering liquid mint centres, crunchy golden honeycomb, airy macaroons of every flavour and hue, a curious stained glass raspberry confection called a confoundment (possibly not called that actually!), intriguing Clanger shaped chocolate cones, boiled sweets, little crystallised ginger titbits… and so many, many more. We were the last in the restaurant so we thought we should select a few of the most delectable and then take up their ever so kind offer of a tour of the kitchens. I think we were possible the only to have this honour and enjoyed seeing the gleaming metal surfaces the night staff buzzing around (either setting up the mis en place for tomorrow’s service or preparing room service for the London hotel) There’s also a prestigious eight seat chef’s table to enjoy the culinary masterpieces in the heart of the kitchen.

I was trying to find an "if only..." to ensure my review didn't turn into gush-fest but other than personally craving more light so the photographs may have lived up to the food I can't find anything amiss. All the staff were so lovely, they made no attempt to chivvy us along though as we finally stood up from our table to explore the kitchen after every other diner had left we were informed that British diners took longer to eat than their American counterparts. They are extremely knowledgeable and can answer any queries about ingredients, provenance etcetera. As well as being extraordinarily well fed you feel cosseted nay thoroughly spoilt throughout the entire evening and don't really want to go back into the real world again.

I’m not sure that there are enough superlatives for Gordon Ramsay’s New York venture, I hope Michelin do the right thing by them later this year. I will be watching you Michelin!
I am awarding three utterly sublime forks with the addition of removing the esteemed and highly coveted diamond encrusted fork from Tom Aiken and awarding it instead to much worthier Gordon Ramsay at the London, it truly deserves to be my most supreme restaurant experience. Get a reservation if you can and go to London! You won't regret it I can assure you.

Regional feasting with Mark Hix

When I attended my previous Divertimenti evening - the fabulous Flavia Rowse's Festive Flavours of Perigold she highly recommended Mark Hix's chef table, and that was tonight.
And I can really see why she recommended the Mark Hix event. The point of the chef's table events is that twelve of you perch somewhat precariously (more so as the evening goes on and the wine flows!) on bar stools around "La Cornue" range cooker where the chef performs their magic. You can see exactly what their doing and ask as many stupid questions as your heart desires. My favourite of the evening was as Mark produced the scallop shells from the oven, he was asked if they'd been warming (correct answer!) or cooking (somewhat surreal answer!). Mark was able to keep a much straighter face that I did!

But that's the beauty of these evenings; you can ask any question, taste the raw ingredients AND taste the amazing finished dishes and then even squeeze in a spot of kitchen paraphernalia shopping. My purchases tonight were fabulous but as presents for others I can divulge no more.
On espying tonight's menu I had the first flick through to see if I'd have to negotiate around despised ingredients. Obviously I was on full tomato alert, knowing that Mark is an infamous seasonal British produce lover I thought I'd be on safe grounds but they always a danger of a special rare breed early tomato raising it's evil little head, but fortunately I was safe. Everything else looked perfect and that was just on paper. Then Flavia and Sarah (I'm really hoping I've remembered her surname correctly as Bell as she's going to open her own restaurant soon and I'm sure she'll be very famous) started bringing out the trays laden with incredible ingredients namely: the fattest scallops ever, plump little pigeons, wild garlic, vibrant chanterelles, glistening piles of red mullet and every wild bit of greenery you could think of. We were definitely in for a treat tonight.

Firstly the troops were mustered to start the dessert - a Bakewell pudding. This Bakewell pudding was as far removed from the Mr Kipling Bakewell tart version as possible, no white icing, no chocolate 'drizzles' and absolutely definitely no glacé cherry! We perched on our stools and admired the quantity of golden egg yolks that went into the mixture before being poured into the pastry lined pans before Flavia whipped it off to the back ovens. Mark Hix is a big fan of the happy little chickens of Clarence Court and I agree, they really do have the golden-est of egg yolks. I mention their hen cam where you can check out the happy layers (generally best at dawn or dusk!)

Then Mark turned his thoughts to the starter, luckily as we're all salivating now! The starter is scallops with sea shore vegetables. Sea shore vegetables sounds so evocative but not having ready access to a beach or a supplier that forages I probably won't be able to whip up anything involving sea beet or any of the other intriguing verdant sprigs but it is all food for thought. The scallops are just enormous and Mark removes the fat orange roes to sauté with oysters before liquidising and straining to make a very special beurre blanc. The shucked scallop shells go in the oven to warm (not to cook!) and then filled with the sea beet, sautéed scallops and delicious creamy beurre blanc sauce. We have this fabulous starter and talk about Borough Market, the judging on Master Chef goes Large, the Great British Menu (as Mark will be competing) and Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant in New York. The latter is of particular interest to me as I am visiting Gordon’s illustrious establishment tomorrow evening so I am fascinated to know what they’ve heard. I mention my impending mad dash to New York and certainly raise a couple of eyebrows. Apparently travelling to New York to go for a meal is somewhat diva-ish though I have to admit I’m not just coming straight back, I am going on to Florida the next day… so it’s the same country at least! But maybe it is still a slightly unusual mission!

Next Mark starts on the wood pigeon on toast with wild mushrooms. The pigeons are rubbed with butter and baked in the oven for only 10-15 minutes before he whips the breasts off and tops the coarsely chopped sautéed livers on toast which is served with lashings of wild mushrooms. I’ve been trying the wild garlic and it is a revelation. It looks very innocuous with its pointy green leaf but it can really pack a punch.

Mark fillets the glistening pile of red mullet and Flavia and Sarah have the inevitable job of pin boning the seemingly endless fillets. But as none of us are keen to stumble across an errant fish bone we are pleased with their administrations. Our next course is to be fillet of red mullet with golden beets and sea purslane. We’d been examining the golden beets without being able to identify them as they looked like potatoes that had gone a little brown or perhaps some fruit but none of us had recognised them as golden beets that had been cooked in their skins and then peeled. The striking red mullet fillet on top of the dark green wilted purslane and wild garlic with the stunning cubes of golden beet makes a vibrant, colourful and extremely tasty dish. We are being fed extremely well and finding out a lot about wild free food available around Britain. I only tasted samphire for the first time last year and am keen to eat it again when the season come round again.

I already have Mark Hix's wonderful and extensively researched British Regional Food Cookbook and I intend to try his Crab and Samphire salad from the East Chapter. With all that journeying around Britain and research I am very intrigued to see what Mark cooks for the Great British Menu competition when it returns to our screens.

But I digress, even though we're fairly convinced we can eat no more we finish with a delectable slice of the exceedingly good Bakewell pudding. This is indeed absolutely nothing like its Mr Kipling namesake. It is vastly superior!
And starts a discussion on the travesty of Mr Kipling's offerings being even considered to be a representation of the Bakewell classic. Though in his book Mark explains that there is a variation outside of Bakewell, the more commonly known Bakewell tart but this is in his words 'more of a French frangipane tart" - ummm this doesn't sound like Kipling version either, what no glacé cherry?

We have had another fantastic evening, it really is one of the best ways to enjoy one of these chef's special dinners though I can imagine it not being so fun if the guest chef lacks personality - no names! I know the places are strictly limited and get booked up very quickly so I better decide what to book for my next visit. Mark intends to come back in June (I think) but I am alarmed at the possible tomato-fest that may await me! I will have to check the schedule and choose.

Where have all the visitors gone?

To any "number of visitors to my blog" fans (er, that will be you M!), it seems that sitemeter, the good people who painstakingly count you all, are having some server issues. Apparantly we are being counted, but stealthfully.
I am sad to see how bereft I feel without it silently logging any passing web travellers and cannot speculate who was that mysterious reader from Ontario, why they googled what they did and how surprised they must have been when they got my site?
Ah the powers of modern technology, and how infuriating when we are reminded who's in charge!

Throwing some daylight on Blueprint Cafe

Today I got to see something I haven't seen for several years, Blueprint Café in the day. My last nine visits I think have been to the ever so lively cookbook club evenings presided over by the ebullient raconteur Jeremy Lee and the guest cookbook author of the evening. And as fantastic the evenings are I was curious to see how they performed on a normal lunch service.

And the answer is very well indeed! I can't boast many places where everyone seems to know my name, well maybe a couple of purveyors of fine sparkly things but not restaurants (I don't hang about in Cheers bar for example!) and it was really welcoming. Blueprint is a modern, serene restaurant which has an amazing view over the Thames. Normally I'd bemoaning that the ambient lighting was playing its usual havoc with my food blogging shots but it's light and I can see so I can take 'proper' pictures of the delicious food and it looks appetizing!

It was suggested that we started with a refreshing glass of blood orange juice and since becoming strangely addicted to Jeremy's fabulous dish of baked salisfy in filo pastry and lavishly sprinkled with Parmesan I had to suggest sharing a plate with another J. And she agreed that it may look deceptively simple but is dangerously moreish. We could have easily polished off some more but we had the main to come.

We selected the day’s two specials, another J tucked into the Lowestoff kipper, warm potato salad and a poached egg and seemed extremely delighted with her choice and I ummed and aahed at various options (I'm not used to having a choice at the Blueprint Café as cookbook nights have a set menu) before plumping for the baked Middlewhite pork with a mustard and parsley crust with purple sprouting broccoli and roast potatoes to accompany. There was plenty from the menu I would have liked to try, all seasonable and a pleasing nod to Jeremy's Scottish roots.

The pork was very tasty, very moist and succulent. The mustard in the crust was really feisty and was eye-wateringly good. I had a little taste of the kipper as well, another example of excellent sourcing. I am not sure I could have coped with all the bones though but another J seemed to dispatch them efficiently.

Ever though another J isn’t a dessert fan I convinced her that a spoonful or two of St Emillion au chocolat would round off our lunch perfectly and it did. And my, what a kick that Brandy in the scrumptious chocolate creation had, a good job neither of us planned to operate heavy machinery. Jeremy wasn’t in the kitchen today, he was back in Scotland but his touch is always prevalent in the Blueprint Café as is all the better for it. We really enjoyed our meal at Blueprint Café, if we hadn't had to go back to work I'm sure we would have been very happy to linger basking in the sunshine admiring the magnificent view being extraordinarily well fed and well looked after by Richard and his team.
I'm going to up my rating for Blueprint Café to three stylish and well lit forks, the highest accolade.

Sunshine salad

I’d been meaning to have a go at the Weekend Cookbook Challenge event ever since I first heard about it. Well I have a lot of cookbooks, in fact probably an obscene amount of cookbooks; the challenge for me would be to select ‘a’ single cookbook. The point of the event is to shine a light onto a hitherto unappreciated cookbook in your collection by reproducing a recipe from it. Food stylist Tami from Running with Tweezers opted for the theme of salads for the 14^th challenge. My first thought was to make my favourite salad which is an adaptation of one of Jamie Oliver’s from The Naked Chef. But this seemed to be cheating; I have been inspired by many of the recipes by Jamie’s first book so this is not the spirit of the event. So I resorted to my index cards. Before my cookbook collection got rather out of hand, I would catalogue each new addition to my collection by categorising all the recipes contained within that I was interested in. This was enormously handy, as when I desperately wanted to do something fabulous with say a cauliflower, I could consult my cards and get inspiration. If I ever get a spare month or so I will complete my indexing (or, in the modern parlance – tagging) and then I could always immediately lay my hand on any required recipe. Of course if I did reinstate this mammoth task, I should really go electronic as with the aid of a good search engine the sorting possibilities are endless. Oh, for a few spare few months…

Anyway back to Tami’s challenge, I checked out the salad cards, ignoring references to much-used cookbooks and concentrating on recipes that I could produce from the contents of my fridge. And then I espied the following from Simple Suppers by Hugo Arnold, a little paperback from 1996.

Sprouting broccoli salad with quail’s eggs and Pecorino

Serve 4
1 dozen quail’s eggs
3 thin slices of garlic
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
4 handfuls of various salad leaves
110g mature Pecorino
450 g purple sprouting broccoli, trimmed of any tough stalk ends

Boil the quail’s eggs for 2 minutes, drain and refresh under cold water, peel and set aside.

Mash the garlic with a seasoning of salt and pepper until it becomes a pulp. There must be no whole bits of garlic, so sea salt and coarsely ground pepper is best for this. Stir in 5 tablespoons of olive oil and a dessert spoon of balsamic vinegar. Toss the leaves in this dressing. Peel the Pecorino into slivers with a vegetable peeler.

Cook the broccoli in a large pan of boiling salted water for 5 minutes, or until just tender. Drain and refresh briefly under cold water – it still should be warm. Toss the broccoli in with the salad leaves coat in the dressing. Distribute on 4 plates, scatter over the quail’s eggs and Pecorino and serve.

What clinched this recipe for me was with a little tweaking, and when do I not tweak, I could rustle this one up without a trip to the shops and it would highlight beautifully my remaining purple sprouting broccoli. I wasn’t sure if my last few quail eggs are still at their best so substituted them for a couple of D's favourite and now mine, Old Cotswold Legbar eggs as I thought their stunning golden yolks would add an extra dimension to the salad. And I’m really glad I did, I am sure Hugo’s original recipe is lovely but hard boiled quail eggs wouldn’t have given that lovely unctuous just soft-boiled mollet egg treat that I had. I only boiled the eggs for just over 4 minutes as I wanted them to be soft when I peeled them and then broke them up gently on top of the balsamic dressed sprouting broccoli and leaves. I replaced the Pecorino with Parmesan as that is what I had to hand but everything else I followed faithfully.

This was a lovely salad, I never tire of purple sprouting broccoli and it seemed rather virtuous with all that lovely greenery and sunshine-y yolks. And I just managed to get it done before the challenge deadline – just!

And then there was four

I think if I was happy with John and Gregg's decisions on MasterChef goes Large much of my joy of watching this programme would be lost. I wouldn't have all the yelling at the television and having deep, analytical conversations with D as to who's been robbed this time.
The six semi-finalists have been whittled down to four, and possibly the two I liked least (Hannah and David) from the six went through immediately but Steven and Ben did also. I was sorry that Harriet didn't make it, I love her enthusiasm for wild British food and her idea of a game restaurant seemed very interesting.
For whatever reason I can't really get my head round Hannah's cooking yet, and possibly Gregg agrees with me. Today's challenge was to create and cook the ultimate chicken dish, clearly something they've all been working on. Hannah cooked chicken, prawns and curry! Just the thought of it made me feel a little queasy but it must have tasted better than I could possibly imagine as she sailed through. Both D and I are fairly convinced that David is John and Gregg's golden boy, he can do no wrong. Even when he makes mistakes, he's not actually doing anything wrong! Though his Pan Heggarty looked rather tasty. Steven rather daringly served his ever so moist chicken on top of a mushroom risotto, which John always believes is actually two dishes and gets rather distressed about it every time. Has he not seen the show before?
The first cooking two team cooking challenges were rather interesting. Firstly they were pair up into two teams - Ben and David in team a and Hannah and Steven in team b. Then they had to produce ten servings of the same breakfast from a variety of enticing breakfast/brunch ingredients. Team a went for the classic fry up and came unstuck slightly with their unequal portions and Ben's extremely bizarre decision to drizzle maple syrup on their black pudding - er why?
Their second challenge was to increase the scale even further and prepare school dinners for 500 discerning hungry schoolchildren. I think they fared pretty well considering, but team a were caught short by underestimating the time it would take to fry 150 portions of fish. Team b should be applauded for managing to push so many chock full of vegetables pizza, and the children didn't seem to spot the amount of vegetables they'd been stealthfully fed!
I guess it will hot up even more tomorrow, I am assuming we won't lose another finalist until maybe Friday. I will have to rely on my glamorous assistant to deploy some modern communication method to let me know who leaves at I'll be a few miles up above the Atlantic when it all happens.
Personally I want Steven to win this time, I hope saying that doesn't put the kiss of death on him. We shall have to see whether I have jinxed him and how the rest fare also. Watch this space.

An omelette without a glass of wine

I was inspired to make this omelette for the first time on flicking through Henry Harris’s “A passion for protein” yesterday. I didn’t have such a fine cheese as Henry insists upon but I did have some Cheddar, fresh eggs, Worcestershire sauce and mustard so it seemed the perfect Sunday brunch dish. I was surprised initially by the amount of cheese but this isn’t just a mere cheese omelette, very nice that would be anyway but a Welsh rarebit omelette so the cheese ration has been upped. As you can guess with the tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, the egg mixture starts off by looking somewhat murky but had a great kick in its aroma. I popped my almost cooked omelette under the grill as I’m rather partial to the little soufflé effect it gives to the finished omelette. I guess it changes the texture a bit and perhaps stops the omelette being so runny. I don’t mind my omelette either firmer and gently souffléd or softer and creamier but today I went for the former.

Welsh Rarebit Omelette
From Henry Harris’s “a passion for protein” - serves 1

3 free range eggs
½ tsp Dijon mustard
¼ tsp English mustard
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Dash of Tabasco
100g best mature Cheddar (Quick’s, Montgomery or Keen’s)
15g unsalted butter

Break the eggs into a bowl and beat well. Stir in the remaining ingredients, except the butter, season with salt and a good milling of black pepper and mix together.

Heat the butter in a non-stick or well-proven pan, when foaming, pour in the egg mixture. Using a spatula, move the mixture about so it forms curds of soft egg.

When most of the egg has set into curds, leave the pan well alone for a further minute to let the mixture set. Then tilt the pan and fold the omelette over.

Slip it out onto a plate and serve immediately.

What seemed very apt was when I sat down to consume my delicious and tangy omelette Chris Patten’s two part documentary In the Footsteps of Elizabeth David started on television. I had set Sky+ to record it later but here I was getting a sneak preview and I was eating an omelette. I all seem very appropriate even though I wasn't accompanying my omelette with a glass of wine.

I like so many others have always been inspired by Elizabeth David’s writing, not only have I really enjoyed here books but loved to hear them narrated on long car journeys with M and D. I loved hearing the references to Elizabeth trying to purchase a few antiques in Miss. D’s chaotic antique shop in Ross-on-Wye where Elizabeth and her lover closeted themselves in a little English hotel to attempt to escape the constraints of rationing in the dreadful winter of 1946. She bemoans the food provided by the hotel as “produced with a kind of bleak triumph which amounted almost to a hatred of humanity and humanity’s needs. There was flour and water soup seasoned solely with pepper; bread and gristle rissoles; dehydrated onions and carrots…I need not go on” Encouraged by her lover to write she “started to work out an agonized craving for the sun and a furious revolt against that terrible, cheerless, heartless food by writing down descriptions of Mediterranean and Middle Eastern cooking. Even to write words like apricot, olives and butter, rice and lemons, oil and almonds produced assuagement. Later I came to realize that in the England of 1947, those were dirty words…”

What I hadn’t realised about Elizabeth David was the dreadful experiences she had before then. How she visited the fabulous city of Venice at the beginning of the war but her only thought was whether she would be shortly shipped off to a concentration camp as they accused her and her actor lover of spying. After meeting and marrying her husband in Egypt, who was unfortunately never her intellectual equal, she didn't settle down and live up to her gentile Sussex upbringing, which is probably good for us as I'm not sure if the infamous sensuality and passion that suffuses her writing would be present if she had. And we all be the poorer for that!

Stephen Fry is also talking about his love of Elizabeth David's work and talks of her relationship with 'the lusty old libertine' Norman Douglas who was considered a epicurean sensualist. He had a dodgy past but Elizabeth met him when she was 24 and he 72 and believed that she may have been in love with him and got much of her inspiration for proper ingredients cooked simply.

I look forward to the second part of In the Footsteps of Elizabeth David next Sunday, when no doubt we'll get further revelations.

A bun-less cheeseburger

Knowing that over the next couple of weeks I’ve got some serious foodie treats to look forward to, I thought I should exercise a modicum of restraint this weekend. And really by that I just thought I should impose a low-carb regime for a few days, not in an evangelical Dr Atkins sort of way but just steering clear of pasta, bread, risotto and my beloved potatoes way. I thought a flick through Henry Harris’s “A passion for protein” might inspire me as the tagline of “high protein, low carbohydrate recipes for food lovers” rather appealed.

My first thought was a cheeseburger with field mushrooms replacing the traditional seeded bun. Henry Harris makes an extraordinarily fat veal burger and tops it with Reblochon cheese, red onion and watercress. My interpretation was to cook a juicy Aberdeen Angus steak burger and serve it with a few sautéed leeks and topped with Cheddar and some mixed leaves. The mushroom stalks were removed, chopped finely and sautéed along with a little sliced leek. I opted not to melt the cheese on to the burger as sometimes this can make the cheese just melt away into an oily mess and also photographing melted cheese can just be a greasy disaster.

I drizzled a tiny bit of Belazu balsamic vinegar onto the leaves which mingled enticingly with the meaty mushroom juices. This was an utterly delicious if not traditional burger and I didn’t miss the bread for once. And just in case you think this is a monster burger, I promise this is a small side plate to seat my somewhat teetering burger.

There are lots of great looking recipes in A passion for protein, I will definitely make the asparagus, lamb’s lettuce and smoked salmon salad with tarragon dressing (without the unnecessary tomato) when English asparagus is back in season and I will also have a go at the stunning looking baked crab with tarragon hollandaise (the original recipe has tomato in the hollandaise again but it seems entirely redundant to me!). Henry says of the crab recipe “this is really very, very rich… very, very decadent… do I really care – no, not when it tastes quite this good”. It sounds fabulous to me!

And tomorrow I really fancy whipping up his piquant Welsh rarebit omelette. Bread, what bread?

The semi-finalists go large

After six weeks of intensive cooking, we have the six 2007 semi-finalists for this year's MasterChef goes Large namely Ben, Steven, Harriet, William, Hannah and David. I was happy with the first four semi-finalists but I wanted Hayley (I think that's her name) to beat Hannah last week and this week I favoured Gillian rather than the eventual winner David. I don't really know why but I just thought Gillian's barley and wild hare risotto and partridge with my new favourite salsify was more interesting than David's herb-crusted halibut and pigeon salad though only slightly and I guess it was a close run thing. D wanted David to win so she was happy with decision.
D, LLcT and myself like to try and work out who we think will win each week and are very pleased when we are proved right on our first decision. The rule is you have to choose your eventual winner before you've seen them cook, to make it a little harder. The entrants this week were all back from last year's competition and I was surprised how many I actually recognised.
Next Monday the six semi-finalists immediately get reduced to four by John and Gregg. How tough to get so far and then only get one more day to cook. Because I favoured the first four our of the six finalists, I guess I am rooting for them but they are all great cooks and I will be glued to the screen to see how they fare. I will be in the US for most of the final so I will have to catch up on Sky+ on my return.
I noticed that many other blogs have been talking about this show as I guess some play our game of trying to predict the winner but I found one blog who used the Invention Test mystery bag of ingredients each day to make their own random meal in 40 minutes and was really impressed by such interaction. That's a real commitment to a TV show!
She did it with last year's daily ingredients though and unfortunately was too busy to recreate the experiment again this year. THough it must have been a real challenge and she did say how strangely obsessed she became. I will have to see if anyone has painstakingly listed all the mystery ingredients this time and maybe I could join in, or at least I could plan a few virtual menus.

Buttery, creamy butternut squash

I tried the roasted butternut squash and shaved Pecorino risotto from the M&S “eat well” range and it was really pretty tasty. I would have liked it with some crumbled pancetta or smoked bacon and surprisingly for me a little chilli kick like the lovely Strada version but this makes a very fine comforting vegetarian version. Butternut squash has such a fabulous texture for soups and melds so beautifully with a nice creamy risotto. Another success in the rather extensive “eat well” line, I think.

A dark Italian

On leaving the theatre after A and I had enjoyed a performance of The History Boys, we were keen to find something quick to eat and the first likely place we spotted was a Bella Pasta. Actually the golden-arched place was the first establishment we saw, but the word "unlikely" springs to mind!
I haven’t eaten in one before but as long as I can avoid the dreaded tomato, I’m sure I’ll be able to find something tasty. It’s pretty late so we opt just for some shared cheesy garlic bread followed by Torta Caprino - Baked goat's cheese and spinach tart fresh from the oven with dressed mixed leaves and tender oven roasted vegetables for A and a Rigatoni Alpina - Chicken and pancetta bacon in a creamy cheese sauce for me. A had chosen her tart based on her beloved spinach but seemed to find it rather unpalatable, I think she expected the tart to be hot or at least warm but it was cold. I guess I had a similar shock when I ordered a gorgeous plate of beef Carpaccio in an Italian restaurant outside of San Diego and was very surprised to find that it was frozen. It seemed such a waste because I couldn’t really taste the meat. Obviously I’d personally be pretty disappointed if there was goat’s cheese in my meal but one assumes that A doesn’t feel as bad about it as I do.

I fared much better with my fat pasta tubes with smoky pancetta and lashings of Parmesan. Lovely creamy comfort food that really hits the spot! We had arrived Bella Pasta rather late so no dessert and we even had to run to catch the last train after our meal. It seemed okay for a quick bite, it was another dark and ambient restaurant. I’m clearly going learn to whip out a Magilite torch at the key photo-snapping moment as trying to inject colour into my almost black photos in Photoshop is proving rather a challenge. I enjoyed what I had today but probably really didn’t taste enough to give them a fork rating – I'll do better next time.

Update: I'm slightly alarmed by the pasta photograph above. I tried to clean up the plate as the image was so dark but now the pasta tubes look like they're hovering rather bizarrely over the curiously luminous plate. Hmm, not my best work!