dear you!

it's holiday time for us now and we solemnly intend to spend it somewhere with no cellphone reception or internet access. such places still exist (we're told), so that's where we're going to be for the next three weeks, in case you urgently need us .

see you on the flipside then, and in the meantime - Bon appetit!

mary had a little lamb

just a quick one to keep you interested (not that we need extra entertainment these days, with the olymipics - luckily - behind us, the para- version just starting and the glorious summer weather outside). it's not the perfect time to be in front of a screen any more than you necessarily have to in order to pay your holiday bills, so i'll make this one quick:

a nice idea for a summery canape of a confit (or slow cooked) leg or shoulder of lamb. all the bits on the spoon need to be fridge cold, apart from the meat that we serve lukewarm, warm or hot, according to personal preference.

this is with a special dedication to one of the greatest chefs I know, Tyler Torrance
who among other things taught me how to confit

- shoulder of lamb slowly cooked with fennel, smoked garlic, mint and viognier (recipe coming soon);
- grain mustard and wild garlic aioli;
- black truffle olive oil;
- pepper, salt, fresh mint.

Bon appetit!

club sandwich...

... is something I try to avoid, while eating at pubs and bars. i try to avoid eating at pubs and bars even more. however, as i was waiting for my spring lamb to cook yesterday, i knocked up one that turned out so (soooo!) good that it made me wanna clone and hug and kiss myself. 
here:

in the background a lovely light 2010 syrah from the south of france

my club sandwich:

- lightly toasted and then buttered quality wholemeal roll;

- back bacon carmelised with aged aceto balsamico;

- chicken breast char grilled with tarragon and light sesame oil;

- slow fried egg - quite well done;

- slice of norwegian jaarlsberg cheese;

- carmelised spring red onions;

- fresh basil, heritage tomato, crushed peppercorns, sea salt, olive oil.

Bon appetit!

fishy afternoon

i desperately craved oysters recently - and so the other week we decided to take a road trip down to Brighton, where i had them last summer in a charming little restaurant overlooking the sea. this time it was not to be though, as it turned out after we walked for like miles (uphill!) to finally get there. we must have looked rather disappointed by the lack of oysters on the menu, so the cute young waiter attempted to save the day by offering us some mussels instead. 'they're pretty much the same thing' - he stated confidently, thus amusing us to such extent that we decided to stay after all and enjoyed our dinner on the terrace that commanded spectacular views over the English Channel. half way through the second bottle of Pinot Grigio we were pretty sure we could see the french coast looming in the distance... all thanks to young daniel's (our waiter's that is) equally charming and entertaining silliness.

the next day, on our way back to london, we stopped for lunch at a lovely, lovely, lovely! hotel called Gravetye Manor just on the outskirts of East Grinstead (click here to see them!), which we expected to have oysters on the menu (they did not). 

the splendid Gravetye Manor

part of the fancy Relais & Chateaux club, Gravetye Manoris a stunning property with breathtaking gardens and views, excellent service (no false modesty - i know enough to hardly ever rate a restaurant service excellent!)  and a good, if a bit uninspiring menu by a former sous chef of the Michelin starred Mark Raffin - who left Gravetye in 2010 to open a gastro pub just down the road. the current menu, though appropriate enough, is a far cry from what Mark used to cook. (on a side note - i don't think i have ever heard of a sous successfully taking over from his predecessing head chef and keeping the high standard of the food. i don't mind being eventually  proved wrong on this one). to be fair though - that glorious afternoon Chef Ruppert Gleadow was accommodating enough to knock up an off-the-menu lobster and truffle salad for me, in the absence of the ever so elusive oysters. this was good, which sadly cannot be said for the rather bland, athough properly cooked garden beans risotto that Nick had. 
all in all - our visit to Gravetye Manor was well worth the detour en route from Brighton - we ended up spending the better part of the afternoon there - chilling, eating and drinking tea. the price tag for this experience was quite reasonable too, we thought.

back to oysters then. after our unsuccessful quest down south - we finally (and quite ironically) found them in a great fishmongers shop just next door. what a discovery! 'the fish paddler', run by a very nice and well rounded chap called Roger, has all you might wish for - from fresh caught wild black sea bass, scottish lobsters, atlantic cod, some farmed fish - to (often humongous!) king scallops, fresh oysters  and even marsh samphire! he's more than happy to order to your request too - I, for one, am getting some dover sole delivered on monday. (click to visit 'fishpeddlar's' web-page)

'the fish peddlar' in Wimbledon Village

this afternoon, after a lovely Wimbledon Common jog, we showed up at Rogers to get some scallops, samphire and a dozen devon portland oysters (those are close to perfect - as they first line-farm them in an eastuary and then transport to open sea farms where they get their lovely sea saltiness). the oysters, judging by how excruciatingly hard they were to open, must have been caught and delivered to next to our doorstep this very morning (hail the underappreciated bliss of nowadays' goods delivery systems). anyway - all that we bought made for a delightful, fresh and protein rich petit lunch, which we enjoyed listening to some  Saint-Saëns. we struggled a bit with the wine choice though , as in the absence of a decent Muscadet it was tricky to pick something that would go with both the fresh saltiness of the oysters and velvety sweetness of the scallops (had we gone with, say Wagner as a musical background, i would have served frozen vodka and be done with it). we ended up going for a very well chilled 2010 Mosel Riesling Auslese, which - albeit decisevly off dry - did not kill the oysters and went just beautifully with the scallops and the roasted pine nuts in the salad !

so, here goes (drumrolls...) our lunch:

our fishy petit lunch today

on the (frozen!) plate above:

- chilled carpaccio of king scallops with truffled plum chutney, black truffle oil and sea salt;

- lukewarm salad of marsh samphire + pine nuts roasted with scallops roe and chilli;

- fresh dover portland oysters

Bon appetit!

late night dinner with dear friends

it was so late at night that we cooked tonight, that i can only explain it by us having had numerous bottles of wine and a lovely picnic in Wimbledon Common which made us hungry and careless enough to go into the kitchen at around 10pm...


the dear friends:

marcien the unforgiving

nick the unknown

the late night dinner:

- crispy skinned sea bass& tarragon, baby asparagus&wild mint risotto, sherry vinegar pickled beetroot, back bacon crisps;

- vanilla and aged balsamico sherbet, wild basil, carmelised red grapes;

- slow cooked spring lamb shoulder steaks, marinated el greco and carmelised red onions and aubergines, red lentils al dente, mint sherry balsamic lamb jus

Bon appetit!

a tiny idea for midnight munchies - home made ice cream. voila!

flavours present:

- valhorna 70% chocolate and mexican chilli sprinkled with sea salt,

- tart cherries and wild peppermint;

- lemon, lime & corriander

flavour not present due to not having made it as far as till midnight:

- aceto balsamico & blanched crushed walnuts

there actually is a secret to making ice cream in a simple way, but normally these require a lot of patience or a lot of investment (ice cream makers can be reeeealy pricey bastards!)

Bon appetit!

a random brunch

after waking up at 7am, I finally give in to hunger around 1pm...

full english with mediterranean twist:

- scrambled eggs, very slowly cooked on butter in a small thick-bottom saucepan, then finished with a touch of single cream; 

- haloumi cheese grilled with extra virgin olive oil and rosemary;

- fried back bacon;

- sesame oil toasts;

- shaved parmesan, plum tomatoes, fresh basil, sea salt, crushed brazilian peppercorns.

= HEAVEN!

Bon appetit!