Murdering my darlings!

I was asked a seemingly simple question the other day – “what is your favourite cookbook?” And it threw me, a dozen or so titles rushed into my head like little butterflies and then flitted out again. But as for a favourite, one that is above all others, that is very tricky! I’m not sure if I can really equate it to having to select a preferred child, but it feels so wrong somehow!
Firstly there’s rather a lot to choose from, I stopped counting years ago but it’s a few hundred maybe about five. They outgrew my bookshelves many moons ago and now they are stacked higgledy piggeldy in frankly rather a precarious fashion on top of one another and often challenge me when I wish to consult one from ‘the middle’. And I even had to buy a special step stool for reaching the uppermost level. But as I run my fingers along the shiny colourful spines the question again arises, which of all these delicious cookbooks is my number one? The problem is that some are old friends like Alastair Little’s Keep it Simple, Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food, John Pawson and Annie Bell's Living and Eating, Richard Corrigan's cookbook, Patricia Wells and Joël Robuchon's Cuisine Actuelle and Simon Hopkinson’s Roast Chicken and other Stories. Then there's the new kids on the block - Stéphane Reynaud Pork & Sons, Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home, Clotilde Dusoulier's Chocolate & Zucchini, Giorgio Locatelli's Made in Italy and the very new and very fabulous Simon Hopkinson's Week in Week out. There's books I like to consult when I'm in the mood for a certain sort of food - Mark Hix's British Regional Food, Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries, Margaret Costa's Four Seasons or Sophie Conran's Pies. Or maybe I wish to be reminded of a much loved particular dish like Gordon Ramsay Beef Fillet from Secrets, those little cheese fondues from Gary Rhodes' Keeping it Simple, crispy bacon and cheese salad and many other dishes from Nigella's Lawson's How to Eat or the poached egg inside a ravioli from Anna del Conte's Amaretto, Apple Cake and Artichokes.

I still haven't decided which I want to declare as 'my ultimate favourite' but here's twenty that I love for starters. Though the more I think about it, the more I want to alter my list. I always felt for the Rob character in Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (recreated so wonderfully by John Cusack in the 2000 film) when he is asked to name his top five records of all time. He is in a similar quandary and constantly reconsiders and refines and hones his list until he finally believes he has got there. And he is right, selecting tunes poses a particular conundrum, there's that song to remind you of that precious moment so long ago, the song to raise your spirits when a little blue and the song that always, no matter what you're doing, makes you stop and smile and maybe even send a little frisson or a little chill through your body. Okay, it's hard to convey the same sort of passion with cookbooks but many are my trusted companions and others are the ones I hope will join this select circle of friends and you have to admit - friends are extremely important so I must choose wisely!

A test for the Blueprint Café

Anyone who’s ever read my blog knows that I am a huge fan of Blueprint Café and Jeremy Lee. I love the seasonality and simplicity of the cooking. Each dish is always bursting with flavour from quality ingredients that have been elegantly assembled. I trust the Blueprint Café to entertain clients, to celebrate special events and most importantly to always feed us wonderfully. One particular client had reservations about the Blueprint, it wasn’t base on a previous experience but a belief that nothing good can come out of a kitchen in a restaurant owned by a man whose family made their fortune importing rubber. Well it is true, Terence Conran who once had Blueprint Café in his vast restaurant empire (now he has handed over the day to day running to D&D who took over most of the ex-Conran restaurants in a management buyout) and yes, his father did indeed import rubber but I’m pretty sure this didn’t permeate into the restaurant kitchens. Jeremy’s cooking had never conjured up images of burning rubber to me and I was hoping that I could demonstrate this to C eventually. Well this day had come and I climbed the steps to Blueprint Café with a degree of trepidation as this was a test for a place that I am very fond of and I desperately hope they won’t let me down.

There are five of us today and we’re all waiting with eager anticipation what delights our lunch will bring. H asked me what salsify and Parmesan was and I explained it was a particular favourite of mine here. They are wrapped in the thinnest of filo pastry jackets showered with gratings of Parmesan and baked. They are soft, savoury and a real revelation. I had my first salsify here, enjoyed the same treatment with asparagus in their short season and always enjoy them on every occasion. My glowing report seems to do the trick and H and K (plus bump) order a plate as a starter.

C and I both opt for the cauliflower and salsify soup and American J a salad. The cauliflower and salsify soup may not have set the world alight with its looks, though pale and interesting but had such a creamy, sublime flavour it was a true delight – yes, Jeremy has done it again! H and K really enjoy their salsify which is their first experience of this intriguing vegetable root which is a distant cousin to the sunflower. C was attracted to the salsify but I mistakenly likened it to asparagus, which I shouldn’t have done as salsify is so much softer, some say like an oyster. I’m not sure if either comparison is right but thanks to the Blueprint Café, I now know that I adore salsify.

There were eight choices for the main course and it was a tricky choice. I would have happily devoured Plaice, leek & mussel broth, Onglet, watercress, mustard & horseradish, Grilled leg of black faced lamb, lentils & green sauce, Lemon sole, lemon & parsley butter, Sea bass & clam Chowder or the Roast partridge, potato cake & pickled damsons or even the Baked Middle White pork, mustard & parsley crust. I was tempted by the plaice, leek mussel broth or even the sea bass and clam chowder but then my entire meal might have been a little soupy. And I am not ready for an all liquid diet yet. Knowing Jeremy’s love of a fine and feisty mustard I thought I’d order the Middle White pork with mustard and parsley crust. K joined me in this, as we’d discovered recently that her bump seems to have gone off fish, well certainly fish that has been fried. We're not sure how it feels about lamb or mustard.

The rest of the table all go for the Lemon sole, lemon & parsley sauce. And it does look an excellent choice; the fish is spanking fresh and just glistening and unadorned. Our pork is extremely tasty also, so tender and melting. I am not too crazy about the beans however, but we have some tenderstem broccoli, new potatoes and spinach so I can leave the beans to one side and tuck into those instead.

Well I think the Blueprint Café passed its test today, the plates were pretty clean apart from K’s lamb at it turned our that her bump wasn’t too fond of the rich punchy mustardy topping served with the lamb. But then K’s bump seems to prefer chips (of the French fries variety), custard tarts and doughnuts rather than anything else. Today we don't have time for dessert but we're pretty full anyway so it's not a major sacrifice though the lemon posset, the vanilla & apple shortcake and the St Emilion au chocolat could be heard calling from the kitchen. But maybe next time!

Jeremy wasn't in the kitchen today as he was in Paris celebrating his birthday, but his kitchen exceeded itself as usual.

The good, the bad and the Gaucho

I love Gaucho's. Well I love their juicy Argentinian steaks, the warm, oozy cheese bread, their cow hide décor, the abundance of chandeliers (I'm a sucker for a chandelier) and of course the theatre that is the meat presentation. But there are some things I don't like about Gaucho. They are generally way too dark and possibly because of the gloom the service can be a little random. Maybe the waiters and waitresses genuinely can't see their diners are deficient of something or in one case are even there at all. I was told by American J to not be too harsh about our visit to the new Gaucho near London Bridge tonight but to make up for the superlatives I've heaped on them in the past I also want to tick them off for various transgressions.

Firstly, there were nine of us but they opted to seat us at a table which I would think would normally accommodate six but we're friendly and a round table is so much sociable so I'll forgive that. We got a few bottles of water but our waiter/waitress (we had several) didn't pour any for American J and then squirreled the remaining water away out of reach.

We had the slabs of meat show and tell and most of us opted for their fine steaks and we ordered a multitude of sides to share. I bucked my usual trend and opted for a rump steak with béarnaise sauce. The cheese bread was a fabulous as ever!

But it really started to go wrong when the steaks, sausages, fish and an allotment of vegetables turned up. Eight mains were laid in front of the grateful recipients but it was difficult to squeeze in all the side dishes. One spot that seemed to be the most accommodating was directly in front of H, in the space that we may have expected her steak to reside. But repeatedly the incredibly observant waitresses would plonk a dish in front of her. And each time I enquired "where on earth would her steak go?" Apparently the answer was nowhere as our smart waiting staff didn't seem to notice that even though there were nine of us there were only eight main dishes. Eventually someone conceded that an omission was made promised to conjure up the missing steak and H started on the fat chips. However when the steak turned up it wasn't even the one H had ordered so long ago. Cue more promising to resolve the mysterious steak swapping issue and recompense and in the mean time H had a few more chips. Eventually it was decided that as we'd nearly finished our meals that H would eat the wrong steak and wouldn't be charged. I asked what they were going to do about most of the side dishes now being cold. This threw them entirely and they mentioned something about a free dessert also.

Now as generous as this seems, surely when you go out with a group of people you want to enjoy your meal with the rest of them, not eat a late, incorrect steak with tepid vegetables and then be rewarded with a free dessert. I guess the only saving grace was as that H had been amusing herself by eating their rather fine fat chips she wasn’t too bothered with eating any steak after that.

As they were so very keen to order dessert we ordered a few for the table to share which were carefully squeezed in the centre. And then we though how are we to share these out. So we asked for a dessert plate, someone rushed off and duly grabbed a stack of plates but apparently straight from the dishwasher. Now typically when eating hot food I am very keen on a hot plate to maximise enjoyment but the contrary is also true when I am eating a cold dish. Well I don’t necessarily want a cold dish but definitely not one that is hot. And straight from the dishwasher will guarantee a hot dish and that’s what we had. And as we scoops the parfaits, the ice creams and sorbets they almost instantly wilted and melted on the hot dish. Hmmm not the finest finale!

I am still a huge fan of Gaucho’s, the excellent steaks ensure that but the service can be very haphazard so as much as I’d still visit I’d be loathed to inflict a possibly chaotic meal on a client. So Gaucho will remain a solely 'understanding friend' experience from now on.

The summit of the blogging mountain

Finally I’ve made it! I have reached the summit of my blogging mountain, it was a Herculean effort to records all those errant epicurean escapades and the last couple of weekends I have become rather a blogging machine to catch up. However I am quite giddy with delight that my blog is finally completely and utterly up to date.
I have back-posted amongst the many - all the cruise, the subsequent restaurant visits to the Fish Market and Plateau, the brief trip to Spain, birthday celebrations and more Clotilde fabulousness, Simon Hopkinson's gorgeous new book, another new Gordon Ramsay cook (table) book, my attempt at fast food, yet another Gaucho, three more visits to Blueprint Café, a sublime meal at Gary Rhodes 24, my first book launch party, why me and Leon can never be friends, numerous hastily rustled up and one ot two slaved over meals at home and the latest audience with Mark Hix at Divertimenti.
Next weekend I fly to New York on a brief business trip, though when they ask again on immigration if “I’m there for business or pleasure” I always say "it's mainly business but it would be rude not to do both wouldn't it! " And pleasure generally means more blogging to do on my return!

Sunday, Sunday so good to me...

I had some lovely surprise visitors today! D and MC were apparently in the area so thought they’d pop by. As they know my Virgo nature demands a bit of preparation before guests descend, or my hostess with the mostest skills falter somewhat. But despite the impromptu call they won’t be persuaded to let me feed them so I wait until they’re sadly back on their way home before rustling up some Sunday lunch for me. It’s definitely all autumnal today so I want a good bit of roast chicken and all the trimmings for a bit of internal central heating.

I have some sweet Chantenay carrots which please me especially by retaining their pleasing carrot shape. The plumptious chicken breast bronzes rather beautifully in the oven with a couple of roast roasties and the chipolatas adding that certain sausage-y hit. The Brussels sprouts are parboiled and then lightly sautéed to add a little nutty touch and then I have a pretty perfect roast chicken Sunday lunch. Shame no one is sharing it today!

A gently comforting ham hock

This ham hock in a parsley sauce with Chantenay carrots looked rather appealing, comforting and stress-free after a long week. I know that Nigella would just have conjured up something fabulous from her magic pantry whereas I grabbed this from Waitrose's as good as going out range on the way home. Though I did get the makings of more of a hands-on, home-made Sunday lunch so I don't have to hang up my apron and Global knives just yet.
Though I can imagine the domestic goddess herself raising a perfectly manicured eyebrow and tutting at the merest thought of having to resort to the dreaded ready meal but some of us really do have a crazy life and I still believe that a good ready meal would beat most takeaways hands down.
Though talking of her new rather irritating show, some of the recipes are great and they definitely did help me feed D, MC, LLcT and E(D) on a Friday night before Saturday turned up but I can't understand why we have to see her pretending to catch a bus (I don't believe it for one moment), putting her children to bed way before I think they would normally and meandering so slowly to school that it was probably break time before they'd even arrived. It's just very odd, why don't they just concentrate on the food? Do the programme makers think us viewers with our less than glamorous, show-biz free life need to believe that Nigella 'is really one of us' before we'd accept her advice on getting some tasty food rapidly on the table? I'm fairly sure I'm not unique in believing her new show doesn't quite hit the mark and the strange little 'mes en scène' is putting me off the food and that will never do!

I don't really get Leon

It is to my regret that I have to admit that I don’t get Leon
I love the concept, the healthy beliefs, the fact that you could eat here all day if you wanted to, starting with breakfast, lunch-to-go, afternoon tea and cake and then a candle lit dinner to finish. I like the décor, the squashy sofas and fairy lights. The diners all seem friendly, the sort of people that I’d like to hang out with. But I don’t like the food! It’s just a tad too wholesome for me. And I do lament that fact because I know I’m in the minority and I wish I could change my mind. Today I thought I’d try for one last time as last time I came in, I stared at the menu and left but today I was determined. It cannot be too difficult for someone as awkward as me to be accommodated in this much lauded eatery, or can it? Okay, it’s fair to say that there’s a list of food stuffs that I really cannot take namely tomatoes, yogurty dressings, mayonnaise, coriander, non-risotto rice, noodles, chilli and beans, chickpeas, Indian spices and coconut. I’m also not crazy about sweet potatoes, avocado or mint unless inside an After Eight mint.
So with that little list in mind I consult the menu. How about soup? Today’s choices are pinto bean, black bean and chorizo (I like the chorizo) or miso and soba noodle (hmm I’ll pass I think), what about one of the ‘bigger dishes’, I scanned the options – chilli con carne (no), Moroccan meatballs (beware lots of tomato!), roasted sweet potato falafel (again no), the Leon Gobi (more sweet potato, chilli, coriander and coconut milk – arghhh!), and then there’s the chicken. Chicken is normally a good bet – I think the grilled free-range chicken with herb oil and lemon sounds most to my tastes. But there is only one choice of accompaniment to complement all the bigger dishes and that’s brown basmati rice and open-sesame slaw. Uggh basmati and then brown, I’ve wandered in some sort of whole food personal hell! And the slaw, well it sounds better but I’m still not keen. I asked for the chicken without rice and slaw but the first one I was handed had both and the second just had lots and lots of slaw. Ah well, it is better than brown rice I think. I don’t know why I didn’t like the slaw, to me it taste yoghurt-y or mayonnaise-y or something I don’t like. I liked the chicken though! But I don’t like wasting all that food and the staff seem to find it just too strange that I don’t fancy either their brown basmati or slaw.
I know it's virtuous, supremely good for you and run by very earnest worthy people who care about the food they serve but it's just not me, I’m just not a Leon sort of diner it seems. I'll have to find my good-for-you fast food elsewhere.

Full marks for Mark and his mellow fruitfulness

It was with eager anticipation I arrived at Divertimenti tonight.

I'd spoken to Mark Hix very briefly last night and enquired about his menu. He mentioned game and mushrooms and then asked if I could remember what starter he'd made when I last attended this event back in March.

And I had to admit I couldn't instead as all I could immediately recall was the red mullet. And that's for two reasons, well three - it looked so fabulous on the slab, the almost bejewelled rosy pink scales glistening enticingly, then of course the wonderful taste and finally before we had the joy of devouring it watching Flavia and Sarah painstakingly pin-bone them.

I do hope they're in for an easier time tonight. I did check the menu from our last soiree (I couldn't get a place from the summer one but I convinced myself that it would be positively awash with tomatoes so I didn't feel too deprived!)

There’s a typically fabulous Mark Hix style harvest of British seasonal produce laid on la Cornue’s range for our delectation.

The grouse looks dark and inviting, there is a forestful of plump, woody mushrooms, British apples all lined up for action and a curious pink coiled beast that I first think may be eel but it turns out to be huss. I am not familiar with this fish and frankly it hardly looks the prettiest of beasts lying naked there. However I am sure all will be revealed later.

As we get ourselves comfortable on the bar stools around the range, which is frankly a little tricky Mark starts preparing the grouse for the grouse on toast with wild herbs. He recommends this recipe as a good way to eke out one of our fine British game birds as they can bulked out with a rich pâté made from the tiny grouse livers (or if sadly lacking as ours were, supplemented with chicken or duck livers). There’s a momentary pause when it materialises that we have no bread for the toast but someone is quickly dispatched out to the far from mean streets of Knightsbridge to locate some. The grouse breasts are anointed with generous amounts of butters and popped in the oven briefly for only about 12 minutes whilst the stock for the risotto is started.

Mark’s recipes notes say that when they make this at Le Caprice they use lashings of carrots, leeks and tomatoes but he simplified our recipe for today and wisely removed the tomatoes. There’s a teaspoon of tomato puree that goes in which give me a momentary shudder but I rationalise that the tomato to butternut squash stock ratio is very low so I choose to forget I’ve seen it go in. I am seriously impressed by the effort going into the butternut squash risotto stock, all the squash peelings have gone in there with some carrots and a little saffron for yet a more orange-y colour. This mixture is allowed to bubble with the parsley stalks whilst we move back to the matter of the grouse.

With the bread crisis over were are served the very tasty grouse on toast with wild herbs which is a juicy grouse breast on top of the pâté (ours also have some of the wild mushrooms from the main course as the grouse arrived almost liver-less) topped with the shredded grouse leg and sprigs of the very English country garden chickweed, silver sorrel and lamb cress and finished with a ‘light drizzle’ of sherry vinegar and walnut oil. It is, not surprisingly, awfully good!
Our appetites whetted we look with eager anticipation at the risotto of butternut squash and Parmesan taking shape in front of us. The aroma is intense and tantalising; all the ministrations with the stock seemed to have paid off as we have a generous serving of a deep satisfying autumnal risotto. Top marks again!

Next it’s the turn of that ugly naked snake like fish. But any thoughts of ugliness are banished when I realise that it had one bone down the middle of its length and wonderfully ne’er a pin bone in sight. This could easily become a new favourite fish! I haven’t heard the name huss before but some of its aliases I have seen on menus like rock eel or possibly a little inaccurately rock salmon. I haven’t knowingly eaten a spurdog, smoothound, tope or dogfish. Huss is a second cousin to the shark with its wide apart eyes and sandpapery skin; fortunately neither is present in our specimens. The flesh is firm and meaty and lends itself well to a more rigorous treatment like a braise. Today Mark is serving us huss with red wine and wild mushrooms, highlighting the ability of the huss to take a meaty red wine gravy. The deboned pieces of huss are lightly dusted with flour and pan-fried whilst the wild mushrooms are sautéed. We are going to eat our huss with some creamy mash potatoes and I pixie-ishly evoke the name of the king of mash Joël Robuchon, and the normally unflappable Mark suddenly decides that the mash needs a little more treatment and sends Mary off to administer a buzz with a Bamix (hand-blender) behind the scenes.

I am sure it would have been lovely anyway but as Flavia was forced (for the sake of expediency) to squeeze the potatoes through the ricer when they were cold and it is often more a challenge and they aren't always as fluffy. The resultant mash, however, is very fine indeed and despite not having equal parts potatoes to butter, could stand alongside Joël’s nectar!

And the huss is really a delight also, this is definitely being added to my repertoire.

Not that we really need anything else but there’s some apple fritters to finish, the original recipe called for Guinness to go in the fritter batter but today Mark used cider which personally I like with apples better. The little fritters balloon up like tubby doughnuts. Before we tuck in these puffy apple are dusted with cinnamon and caster sugar. These were much lighter than I expected with the apple almost souffléed inside the crispy cidery jacket. A fabulous finale to a very fine British autumnal meal – I am feeling full of mellow fruitfulness now and I don’t think it’s the good red wine! I was hoping to return to Mark Hix’s next foray at Divertimenti but his reputation preceded him and all the places have been snapped up. I’ll just have to cross my fingers that someone falls sick or something!

UPDATE: I almost forgot the hot news is that Mark Hix is planning a new restaurant venture in the vicinity of Smithfield Market. He is leaving behind his executive cheffing at the Ivy, Scott's et al after a long stint there (17 years I think) and will hopefully have a oyster bar and chophouse in his own name next year. I for one cannot wait!

A beaneater's beanfeast

The lovely C has sent me an invitation for the launch of the new cookbook Beaneaters and Bread Soup at an address in Hoxton called ‘the shed’. My taxi resorts to sat-nav, and delivers me outside what is indeed a shed fortunately decked out with the book title so it can’t really be missed. I do have a momentary concern on how I’ll get home from here but I can worry about that later.

I step into the sawdust strewn ‘shed’ and immediately spot the solid hunk of cured Tuscan ham being expertly carved to top some toasted over a brazier bruschetta rubbed with freshly sliced punchy garlic. It’s one of those impressive beasts that come complete with a wooden stand to clamp the leg steady whilst silky, rosy shards are shaved off onto a rather lovely hand thrown Tuscan platters. And it tastes really, really good!

To counteract the chill of ‘the shed’ the welder who normally occupies the space has constructed a large paella dish to house a charcoal fire. I noticed some discarded tomatoes in the greying coals and I can assume I’m in the presence of a fellow tomato dodger or heaven forbid, someone has placed them in the embers to toast for later – a ghastly thought! In the centre of the space are a couple of settees and an armchair swathed in Italian alabaster linen for those who wish to perch for a while. Normally the welder’s workshop is lit by stark strip lighting to but to create a little more ambience silver tipped light bulbs are strung from the ceiling. There’s also a lone glitter ball which I am guessing is left from a previous event as it doesn’t really scream ‘Tuscany’ to me.

We are celebrating the Beaneater inspired finest food producers of Tuscany and it seems only fitting that we get to sample some of that regions goodies. Some of the guests are showcased in the book of the night and have brought some of their wares. There are a stack of tasty sharp cheeses, packets of artisan-made pasta, salami and a veritable beehive of honey.

And of course toasted rounds topped with the eponymous beans are being proffered and after verifying the absence of tomato I accept one. But the welcome absence does create one predicament as the beans don’t really adhere to the bread and I unfortunately lose most of the beans on the first bite which I guess I’ll have to retrieve later. There are also silken white slices of lardo topping sliced tomatoes on more bruschetta, but I had to wait until the tomato was exhausted before I could taste the lardo though.

There’s an impressive turn-out here tonight, the great and the good from the world of food have found their way to the shed to honour Jason Lowe and Lori De Mori and I’m delighted to see Jeremy Lee tear himself away from his Blueprint Café stoves, Thomasina Miers – worthy winner of the first Masterchef goes Large and currently to be seen in Wild Gourmets with the occasionally naked Guy Grieve, Rose Prince who amongst other books has written the excellent New English Cookbook, Mark Hix, executive chef at amongst many The Ivy, Caprice, Scott’s and of course single handedly introduce his rabbit and crayfish Stargazy pie to the French ambassador and guests in the final of last years Great British Menu and Simon Hopkinson whose fabulous Week in Week Out (also resplendent with Jason Lowe’s glossy photographs) has just been released and already a firm favourite of mine. I did slightly ambush Simon so I could inform him of my continued devotion to his works. He looks slightly alarmed but takes it very well.

Jason Lowe and Lori De Mori are justifiably feted and Jason gives a few thanks to the producers who have delivered such a splendid Tuscan harvest. I was introduced to Giovanni Fabbri who has brought his bronze-die cut, slow dried pasta over. He also has an appointment at Harrods to see if they will stock his pale and interesting pasta. I only know all of this as he was kindly translated for me and regrettably I cannot speak a word of Italian.

After the Tuscan pig leg had been entirely denuded the brazier was extinguished but a tantalising aroma was still wafting around the shed. On further investigation it seems that someone has placed one of the demi-wheels of cheese into the dying coals. I thought it was an odd thing to do but then a very fine rosé has been flowing all night and perhaps someone had taken an objection to the tangy cheese. But it transpires that I was totally wrong as when I next circled back to the fire one of the Italian suppliers was scraping the now melting cheese off with a knife and smearing it on some torn off bread. It was a little sooty but I had to admire his raclette style!

As this is my first book launch I don’t know if our food was indicative of food at other book launches but I think we did rather well. I love the idea of carving the cured ham off the bone to order, it has certainly given me food for thought when organising catering for our next big event. And maybe it was a little challenging getting home but at least I was well fortified for the journey!

Now all I have to do is get my hands on my own copy of Beaneaters and Bread Soup, I have ordered it but it is still winging its way towards me. On a quick flick through it looks like it will be another good bedtime book, I do love a cookbook with a tale to tell. I can't wait, if it's as tasty as the book launch I am surely in for a treat!

A very nice rice

I was determined to try our this Acquerello risotto I’d picked up at Harvey Nichols. And I had a hunk of the finest Grana Padano burning a hole in my fridge to eat with it. Acquerello risotto rice seems quite expensive but I was intrigued by the fact that it is irrigated by pure Alpine water and cultivated in a nature sanctuary in the Piedmont region of Italy. The unhulled grains of rice are left to age for a year to ensure a greater absorption with plumper, firmer grains. It will be interesting to see if I can detect a difference.

I decided to flick through Giorgio Locatello’s Made in Italy cookbook as he is such an aficionado of the mighty risotto and has dedicated a whole chapter to various ricey recipes. And his very first one is the classic risotto with grana cheese, and explains that back at home he would have used Grana Padana instead of Parmesan for cooking because of the crumbly texture and saved the Parmesan for the table. This is apparently also the risotto you would have been given as a child when you were sick. Not that I particularly feel the need for the ultimate comfort food but it all seemed a good sign and the a perfect way to showcase my new risotto and cheese.

And it turned out perfectly - with the cold cubes of French unsalted butter and Grana Padano used as the mantecatura making the exceedingly plump grains extra creamy. And there was also a pleasing little (all' onda) consistency with the required ripple like the waves of the sea. And most importantly, it tasted exceedingly good!

All this and Spain as well!

Not only have I finally finished blogging the entire Baltic cruise, but I've also committed to the computer screen my musings on eating chicken, chicken again, dining at the Terminus, Blueprint Café again and Plateau and all our various eating experiences on my long weekend in Spain, click here to get all the Spanish posts in one long stream.
I have been busy tapping away, haven't I? And yet there's still so much more to come.
Happy reading!

Anchors aweigh for the final days...

As promised, I have finally finished all the scribbling of my thoughts and wading through the photographs from our fabulous Baltic cruise. So if you want to know about our visit to the coast of Poland, our day in Berlin and all the remaining cruising escapades click here.

- Our last day in St Petersburg - from Russia with love
- A day of vegetable carving and piratical shenanigans!
- Our little taste of Poland
- An Italian meal as we sail away from Poland
- A decadent day of walls and chocolate in Berlin
- How we somehow managed to squeeze in some flammekueche
- A dinner with new guests
- A canal, an ice swan, too many pink drinks (maybe), some unused radio mics and a lot of sequins.

So the cruise is recorded for posterity, now it's just all the rest of the forking and travelling I've enjoyed to be caught up on.

A Gordon Ramsay coffee table (book)

I have really been looking forward to this new Gordon Ramsay cookbook to be released since the lovely C told me about this and Simon Hopkinson’s back in May. It’s not that I haven’t found his most recent books interesting and occasionally useful, I really craved to see him flex those Michelin starred muscles, throw a little daylight in on the magic and show us how he got his reputation (and I don’t mean for swearing a lot!). When Play.com confirmed that my order had been posted two days ago, the caveat that was due to the postal strike we are experiencing, it may take longer than usual. And I do know this already, my new Nigel Slater that was posted on the 1^st October has so far eluded me. This didn’t please me as I’m not terribly good at being patient and I really wanted to get my hands on this book. I’m fairly sure I read somewhere that there are two versions, one limited edition at about £200 in a metal case and of course signed by the great man himself and the non-bullet-proof version at a less scary price that I’ve ordered. But even the one that isn’t in a metal case is large and this turned out to be its saving grace as it was seemingly too hefty for currently rather snail-like normal post so a courier had to ship this to me. Result! And it was indeed rather large, my immediate thought was that I was expecting a coffee table book but if they’d sent four legs in the package also I would actually have a coffee table. I don’t really have time to look over it today so it’s a special treat for when I get home.

And it really is a treat; I feel that as I slowly turn over the glossy pages that I should be wearing white cotton gloves and the only sound should be a choir intoning “ahhh, ahhh, ahhh, ahhh” in a rather gothic fashion. This is the epitome of food porn, and I love it! It’s like the most gorgeous example of an Argos catalogue in action. If I get to dine at Hospital Road again, and I do so hope I do one day, will I be handed this on a giant silver platter and will I extend one painted nail at the photograph of my chosen dish and say “I want one of those, please”? And after reading the inspirational bon mots and drooling over the pictures (carefully of course and it somehow wouldn’t seem appropriate to mess up these hallowed pages) the recipes are laid out so you can recreate them yourself. Hmmm, just a little bit daunting. I am sure these recipes haven’t been sanitised much for the home cook, the level of difficulty probably should be declared as “do not attempt without at least 2 ½ Michelin stars, just don’t even go there!” instead of “many of the recipes are still challenging and demand skill and precision on the part of the home cook”. But buoyed by the fact that at least I have the matching crockery I am wondering if I am brave enough to tackle the challenge. If I were, and that’s probably a big ‘if’, I might go for ravioli of lobster, langoustine and salmon with a lemongrass and chervil velouté for a starter (no pressure here as I believe this is one of Gordon’s signature dishes) and then for the main maybe an oven-roasted Bresse pigeon wrapped in Parma ham with foie gras, creamed mushrooms and a date sauce. And if I haven’t collapsed under the strain of that performance I could round off the meal with palet d’or with chocolate and hazelnut ice cream and passion fruit ice cream which just has so many stages I’d probably die in the attempt.

It is a truly aspirational and beautiful book; I can only hope that a soupçon of Gordon’s brilliance rubs off onto me.

More cheese, Gromit?

Harvey Nichols have been a little lax with their planned monthly food events, unfortunately they changed their minds about running them every month as they turned out to not be so economically viable so we haven’t had one for a while. But fortunately there was a cheese and wine event tonight as I was able to check it out. The main star attraction was a couple of huge wheels of aged Grana Padano. The salty tangy cheese is chipped off in crumbly chunks and is very enjoyable with with crisp white wine choice. There's some great menu ideas in the little booklet that came with the goodie bag, we got a tomato and chilli relish (which has already found a new home), a cheese grater, and some oaty biscuits.
As well as this fine Italian cheese we have the opportunity to taste some great English cheeses, Spanish Manchego which is served with a slightly thinner slice of quince on the top (I believe the prefect ratio is 2/3 Manchego and 1/3 quince) and also some interesting choices from Portugal. There is also a raclette on the go which is smeared onto some waiting bread which reminded me again that I had intended to get one of these contraptions.
I also picked up some other Harvey Nix treats - rustic looking Italian vacuum packed gnocchi for the store cupboard and this new risotto rice I read about that comes in a can I think this might be a winner with my hunk of Grana Padano.
The next Harvey Nichols food event is the Festive Fete on the 19th December where we'll get to indulge in a plethora of festive fayre. It sounds like a good evening!

The gorgeousness of Gary's food

I haven’t had the pleasure of Rhodes24 for a while and I wondering how it would fare against the opulence and sublime food of Rhodes W1. It certainly seems worlds apart from W1, there are no Swarovski chandeliers glittering over our table, the walls aren’t shimmering with eau de nil mother of pearl instead we have wall-to-wall navy pinstripes and pink shirts. Our view is the “erotic gherkin” and the streets below but today swathed in mist as the rain clouds have descended upon us.

There’s no tasty little amuse bouche at 24, which I’ve always lamented about though now I know that W1 more than compensates for this omission I can forgive them. We peruse the menu and as usual it’s a tricky choice, there doesn’t seem to be an option to have the entire menu reduced to tasting portion size and delivered to us so a decision has to be made. Inexplicably I am drawn to the garlic cream potatoes that come with the rack of lamb, mutton with summer vegetable casserole. But this dish is for two and as happy as K is to share it with me I am slightly concerned by the summer vegetable casserole, it could be some horrible ratatouille complete with the dreaded tomatoes or maybe not, but we never did find out. But we do discover that we can order Gary’s famous mash potato on the side so the pressure is off. A-A has been convinced of the stupendous-ness of the Gary mash already and goes for the sculptural seared scallops, shallot mustard sauce and mash potato for a starter. I’ve enjoyed this classic before and try and explain that the conical tower of mash potato is reminiscence of a little anaemic Clanger (the pink whistling creatures that inhabit the moon with the soup dragon!) and am met with very blank looks. I guess the Clangers didn’t really make to in either Australia or France. Clearly they both had deprived childhoods!

K is feeling the need for a healthy starter today and opts for the very Popeye friendly verdant spinach soup with warm garlic toasts.

I am attracted to the rich, unctuous glazed lobster omelette thermidor. Though it is a close call as I dither between the scallops, the lobster or the warm smoked egg with poached egg hollandaise and slow roasted pork belly or the smoked haddock and baby leek fish pie instead. I adore the glazed lobster omelette thermidor, it’s cheesy, lobster-y and delicious.

For our main course both K and A-A select the poached organic chicken with creamy broad beans and wild mushrooms. A-A had originally opted for roasted veal sweetbreads with morel mushrooms and mash potato before realising that it was sweetbreads. Unfortunately even though it looked very pretty they both thought the chicken was a little bland, the vegetables fared better but they said they could have made this at home. Okay that’s a fair point but you could probably say that for all the dishes, if you really had the skill and plenty of time. But the chicken is possibly one of the least complex dishes on the menu and it's such a shame they were a little disappointed.

At least they enjoyed the silky smooth talents in the mash department!

I am, however, delighted with my choice of the roast beef fillet with red wine onions, oxtail hash, and poached egg Béarnaise. Perhaps I could recreate this myself by I’d much rather Gary or his minions conjure this up for me.

This is a transcendent piece of cooking, ever time I’ve encountered Gary’s mastery with eggs (single ravioli containing a perfect poached egg yolk on my first visit to City Rhodes or the awe-inspiring soft boiled egg baked in the finest of breadcrumbs at Rhodes W1) I have been stopped in my tracks with such brilliance. The poached egg released its golden elixir which mingled with the béarnaise then flowed over the oxtail hash and into the rare beef juices. Just truly gorgeous! Gary has done it again! And of the course, the mash is perfection also.

We all are in a bit of a hurry but a few phone calls are made, K unfortunately has to rush off to another commitment but A-A have a small stay of execution so we decided we can squeeze in a spot of dessert. And especially as A-A seemed a little désolé after her chicken and I am keen that they redeen themselves so we see what they on offer. A-A fancies the warm chocolate pudding, with chocolate sauce and lemon sorbet but that requires a 15 minute wait which we can't afford so we have to move to plan b. I am devastated to see that the infamous Jaffa cake puddings have departed from the menu and ask what the Rhodes 24 signature pudding plate would offer us instead. And to my delight I hear bread and butter pudding, crème brûlée and fabulously a Jaffa cake pudding. Well actually I only hear Jaffa Cake Pudding so that clinches it! We are under strict instructions to eat the dessert plate in the designated order – bread and butter pudding, Jaffa cake pudding and then the crème brûlée as a finale. Gary Rhodes’ bread and butter is legendary, it’s his signature dish but when the chocolate mists descends on me I cannot see anything else apart from chocolate and on previous visits the Jaffa pudding had generally lured me in. But I have been denying myself a real pleasure as this bread and butter pudding is blissful. Obviously it originated as a frugal dish to use up yesterday’s stale bread and some milky custard. But this is totally another class, the touch of orange, the melt in the mouth texture, the rich, rich custard, this is a dessert dreams are made of. We both eat in a stunned silence! Then the Jaffa cake pudding, as fabulous as ever and frankly a more manageable size. We just manage to eat some of the crème brûlée , which was soft and lovely but totally eclipsed by the other two stunners.

And then there are the petites fours. Oh my, there isn’t the merest gap to squeeze in the insy winsy lemon meringue pie and teeny weeny chocolate muffin. I know the policy here about letting their food leave the premises in the hands of a careless diner who could leave it languishing somewhere and then eat it past its best and possibly make themselves ill. I am willing to take the risk and if I manage to sneak these out I will be relieved of them the moment I set foot in the office and I am positive no one will suffer in the process. But how will I get them out intact? Fortunately I am persuasive enough to procure a piece of foil and ‘if on my head be it’ and ‘if I am discrete’ I can smuggle them out. A few minutes later after fashioning a bizarre foil tent-shaped handbag the petites fours are nestled on the top on my bag, though frankly I don’t really think ‘discretion’ is really the word!

And surely enough on arrival back to the office these dinky little treats are wolfed down very quickly and were most appreciated by the eager recipients (including K who had a delayed dessert in the shape of a dinky chocolate muffin.)

Gary has done it again, apart from A-A and K's chicken (which fortunately I didn't choose) it was all momentous. I was supposed to have been going out again to eat tonight but I cowardly backed out (sorry E, but Marcus will do us proud next month I promise!) and it's a good job I didn't, I really couldn't eat a whiff of a waffer (sic) thin mint after all this delectableness. Gary, where are all your deserved stars?

Another crab

I originally got these Crab Farcis (from the Just for... Seafood lovers range for the Little Big Food Company) for M and my first meal back in little old England after the cruise but she had a major yen for pizza so I called Basilico to feed us. Fortunately as they had already been flash frozen I knew I could squirrel them away for a solo pleasure on another day instead.

They are succulent crab meat in a white wine sauce with herbs and topped with crunchy golden breadcrumbs, serves in a real crab shell, which is actually great as I don't feel the need to hold onto and feel pressure to find storage space for the crab shells as I do the M&S ramekins. And M, you may be pleased to hear that they have just started stocking them on Ocado, in case you're interested.

And after a spell in the oven it turned our rather tasty with a little bit of French bread smeared with a generous dollop of French butter. Délicieux! I was transported to a French bistro for a while though I am not sure if they'd have Gordon Ramsay range of Royal Doulton china to serve it on, maybe something a little more rustic!

Sunday lamb lunch

Sunday lunch should be compulsory! It rounds the previous week off and fortifies you for the next. It's a great opportunity to gather around a table and commune.

But Sunday lunch is also an essential solo occupation. If you’re preparing food just for one it can be too easy to grab something quick, eat it off your lap or worse still stood up in the kitchen and forget about the importance of the ritual of a ‘proper sit at the table meal’. I need little encourage to dress the table on any occasion but a Sunday lunch definitely deserves a little more effort. Candles seemed a little superfluous at lunch time but white linen with pearl accessories seemed to do the trick.

And then there’s the crucial consideration of what to serve. I had a yen for lamb today and the perfect solution seemed to be a couple of cutlets spread with a dollop of Dijon mustard and then topped with breadcrumbs mixed with chopped rosemary and thyme. I only had a crust left and as I not partial to a crust (I always think it should just be for the ducks), I whizzed it up in the Bamix and put it to better use. Sorry ducks!

It hardly seemed the merest effort to make the herby crust for one and I knew it would pay me back in taste. The tender stem broccoli was steamed then draped in a little creamy sauce with plenty of chives and to finish, a comforting mound of mash. What more could I ask for?

Happy Sunday!