Supper Club London

CONGRATULATIONS DAD!

2009-12-31T03:38:00.000-08:00

Something completely off topic but my Dad called me this morning about 8am sounding like he'd just been woken up. I thought that there was something wrong and was about to get some bad news when he said that he had been awarded an MBE. Apparently he received the letter about a month ago but was sworn to secrecy until today.

So, Congratulations Dad, it's long overdue for all the hard work you've done for charity and to help those less fortunate. I know it's not just me but the whole family who are so very proud of you!

Edward Craig Stevenson, Formerly Engineer of Medical Physics, University of Aberdeen. For services to Healthcare and to Charity

- Excerpt from the Scotsman.com

Katie's Carbonara

2009-12-20T07:43:00.000-08:00

Although the name suggests it, Katie did not cook this dish but I do want to say that Katie is a very good cook (we'll not mention her managing to burn instant noodles once. Not sure how long they were left on the hob to be able to get burnt?!)

The dish is one of her favourites but rarely gets it made well. It's so easy to get right that it's a complete mystery how any restaurant could muck it up.

Carbonara can be made pretty cheaply and can (or can't) be quite healthy.

I found this pasta while hunting for an alternative to spaghetti as I'm not the biggest fan of it. It's called Bucantini and can be found in most big supermarkets. It's just thick spaghetti with a hole running through the middle, which is perfect for carbonara as the sauce fills the holes.

We used double cream but you can certainly use creame fraiche which is something I'm starting to use more of (hitting 30 soon and beginning to take my health more seriously) A couple of small tubs of cubed pancetta are cheaper than a packet of bacon or bacon lardons and they have a slightly less salty, more aged flavour which gives the dish more depth.

Onto the recipe? ok, well don't blink...you might miss it:

cook enough pasta for the amount of diners until it retains a bit of bite (of if you like the life cooked out of it that's fine too) drain and put it back in the pot with a drizzle of olive oil. You can take it off the heat too.
Get a frying pan nice and hot then fry the pancetta, you don't need oil as there will be enough released from the meat.
Cut up some mushrooms, any will do but I like to use some chestnut mushrooms, and set aside.
Mix 1 egg per person, 150 ml cream, as much parmesan as you like (I like mounds of the stuff) and ground pepper. Once you've done that the pancetta should be almost crispy. Once it's to your liking drain the pancetta on some kitchen towel and dispose of the excess fat.
Return the pan to the heat and add the mushrooms that you cut earlier, remember? You don't want them too fried up but just softened as they'll act like little sponges, soaking up the sauce. Put the pancetta back in for a couple of seconds to reheat while you add the cream mixture to the pasta, add the pancetta and mushrooms, mix well and serve in some big bowls. It's important to say that you shouldn't have the heat on at this stage as it will likely turn the mixture to scrambled eggs.

Some hot garlic bread is a must with any pasta dish, we bought a baguette, cut into it and filled it with our own garlic butter. Just crush some garlic and mix it into some butter with a fork.

As I found out, eating this as you would normally...shovelling some into your mouth then sucking and slurping the rest leads to a very, very messy eating area. Remember; the pasta is fully loaded with sauce eager to adorn your table dressing and all it takes is your hungry lips to squeeze it out. This isn't a dish for a first date....or maybe it would be a good ice breaker. There's no pretense with spaghetti, it's a messy meal (if you're not Italian) you can't hide behind a dainty salad or a manly steak. It can be quick comfort food laden with cream and cheese or it can be a healthy fast, mid week dinner with reduced fat creme fraiche and ham as an alternative to bacon or pancetta. Whichever version you opt for there's no reason for you to have a terrible carbonara, it's too easy to get right.

Hyde Park Winter Wonderland /German Market

2009-12-07T13:39:00.000-08:00

German Market? No it wasn't. I've never seen any churroz at a market in Germany. To be honest it looked like the 'International Market' held in Aberdeen every month or so. A bunch of people arrive from continental Europe, stop at Lidl and stock up on crappy biscuits and olives, ditch the wrappers and put them in dusty old wicker baskets and label them as 'Homemade, authentic Bavarian mountain cookies'

I'm sure Germany produces a lot more than dragons carved from compacted sawdust but that was all they seemed to export. We followed the crowds along and found our way to the Bavarian section wherein there was a little man selling chestnuts, my eye (and nose) were drawn in, remembering the lovely little salty chestnuts that the man on Oxford St peddles. These ones looked fatter so I caught his eye and nodded, he quickly whisked a scoop into a little paper cone and robbed me of 2.50, well knock me down with a feather, you're not scared to charge. So I thought that they're here for a limited time and probably have to chug back to somewhere where they might have to live on these takings for some time...that was, until he thanked me in the broadest of Cockney accents. Continental European/German Market eh?
So that didn't matter, I was looking forward to these cheeky little chaps, sprinkle of salt and crumble off the husk...crumble off the husk, hang on a second this husk isn't coming off. I almost tore off my thumb getting into the damn thing and found that it was stone cold inside and not cooked at all. On further inspection they all had a stab mark on the side where I think he'd hoped that it would help it cook quicker. I went back and asked him if he had any cooked ones. No so mine went back on but chestnuts take ages to cook so it was never going to do. I gave in after trying another one and binned them.

I did have a twinkling that this was just a load of rubbish for the masses but I wanted to enjoy it and see what gems we would uncover. We made our way round the various beer and bratwurst stalls and found a great looking pretel stand so I got one and Katie got a spicy sausage of some Pepperami description...

So we stood watching the people going round the ice rink while eating Germany's best then wandered round a little more when we saw this monstrosity...

Lifting it's passengers up and dropping 2-3 times before releasing them towards the currywurst stand in a dizzy stagger.

Last time I went on one of these I was in Disney World, MGM Studios to be precise. Mum and I went on the Hollywood Tower of Terror and terrifying it certainly was. I never went on a roller coaster again!

Once pretzel and sausage thingee were done we went about scouting the various stalls and food on offer. I was sure I caught, out of the corner of my eye, someone with a bowl of Stovies but I couldn't be sure. Eventually we found it...an Aberdeen Angus Scottish stand serving burgers and Stovies. I opted for the Venison burger with cranberry chutney/jelly/sauce and onions. It was not too bad, a little dry as venison can be but meaty, not over done, sweet with the cranberry and a nice bit of texture with the onion. We sat down with the burger and a cup of tea to listen to a band playing a medley of 90's Oasis tracks. That done Katie had here eye on some currywurst.

Once the target has been selected there's no stopping her so off we went to the hapless sausage dealer. As I found out, the currywurst isn't actually a sausage but a regluar wurst cut into bite sized chunks clarted in a tangy tomato sauce and a sprinkling of turneric. A more horrific snack I cannot imagine, and it was a fiver! I had one chunk and Katie had 2 before giving it back to the girl and asking her to bin it. I cannot tell you enough how awful it was. Please don't stand at a wurst stall and wonder what a currywurst would taste like, it's not worth it.

On our way out we decided to relive our holiday in Coin, Spain last year and have some Churroz and hot chocolate. I got stiffed £6 for 2 hot chocolates which was a little rediculous seen as it came out of an push button machine that you get in all service stations. It did taste pretty good and when the Churroz was dipped in, it was great. Crispy batter with icing sugar and sweet hot chocolate. Ideal in the cold evening air.

Personal verdict: don't bother with the winter wonderland, it's a rip off, it's not authentic in the slightest and you will only come away feeling disappointed. The stuff for sale are things you will find for sale in places like Camden market, and probably the market stall holders too!

I might give a 'proper' hot chocolate a go soon. I'd like to try Churroz but I feel that they might be a little fiddly without the machine for dispensing the batter.

Sunday Brunch

2009-12-07T12:33:00.000-08:00

As you can probably tell, I'm not posting these on the day I write them. I'm a bit lazy and just post when I get a spare 5 mins. Happens that I left work on time tonight so I thought I would catch up on some well needed posts (judging by the content bare blog we've got going here!)

Well this weekend was relatively free, we went down the the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland or German Market, I can't remember what they called it officially but German it certainly was not...more on that later.

After doing the old-man Saturday job of hoovering (apparently Mr Dyson gets a bit uppity about people calling it a 'Hoover' as Hoover is a brand of vacuum cleaner and he sells vacuum cleaners not hoovers. But we all call it a hoover...don't we?)
So I vacuumed the car out and bought that stupid cockpit shine spray that, as it turns out, makes your steering wheel into a useless greasy disc. Nevermind, there's always brunch!!

I like to promote my local producer and attend the local farmers markets whenever I can but no matter how often I try I cannot hold any sausage maker above (sorry) Sainsburys, their Bramley apple bangers are gorgeous. Moist and ever so slightly sweet they don't leave you feeling like you've just eaten something still wrapped in cellophane. The casing is light but still retains the juice, there are actual bits of apple in there and they're not all the expensive...2 packets of 6 for 4 of your hard earned pounds.

Today, however, we went down to Islington Farmers Market and bought some Onion Marmalade sausages and black pudding (boudain noir) from Downland Pigs Ltd in the Wiltshire countryside where David Wilkinson personally oversees the production methods so that you can be sure the porker has been treated the best that it can.

It was pouring rain and we were getting a little soggy so we bought a bottle of Bramley & Cox apple juice from the chap at the Chegworth Valley stall to heat with half a cinnamon stick (heaven on a rainy sunday) and headed home. Gladly we took the car and not the Vespa today, Katie is very vocal when she's not at optimum warmth and moisture levels :)

Anyway...home, dried, heating on, apple & cinnamon on the stove and it's on to brunch. The bangers get ovened, the black pudding gets fried and finished in the oven and the great big free range eggs get fried in very hot oil to crisp up the edges and leave the yolk 'just cooked' - perfect for dipping my soldiers!
Along with that I cook a couple of hash browns (sorry they're supermarket frozen which is something I will have to try making) the result...really great sausages, relatively healthy compared to the greasy nonsense I've had lately.

We've been looking into holding a market stall some weekend soon and it's looking likely to be around the Kentish Town area. I'll post before so that you can keep an eye out for Katie and I!

Squeal, little piggy!

2009-12-07T11:53:00.000-08:00

Pork...the other white meat, that is what this weeks experiment centred around. I really love pork, with its amazing versatility, ability to take on fantastic flavours from almost any herb/spice/marinade/sauce and finally I love it because it can come to the party all dressed up or arrive casual as you like and still be brilliant.

When we were in Padstow, Cornwall I had a great pork belly dish that the chef had apparently soaked in a cure/brine for 5 days. I decided to try my own version. So after researching numerous brines on the web and books on our shelf I opted for a simple water, salt, muscavado sugar, juniper berries, peppercorn, cloves, star anise and bay leaf solution.
Mr Pork Belly happily sat in there for 5 days and came out having taken on a darkish hue and some wonderful aromas.

Cooking times and temperatures were a matter of personal preference but I went with the 'longer is better' approach, not to the extent of our friend Mr Blumenthal but still for a good 3.5 hours at 130oC.
I've got a baking tray with a V-shaped wire rack but I still laid the pork on a bed of onions. After it ended and the pork was done I finished off the crackling under the grill.

Served simply with some boiled brussel sprouts and chestnuts the meat was really good. The crackling, I think, should have been done differently as it turned out a bit too much like the toffee on a toffee apple :s

Anyway, I was pleased with the taste of the meat...might make the solution stronger next time, but I'm happy that I know where to make improvements.

I broke my tooth on a pretzel

2009-11-22T14:36:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in our front room, looking out at the torrents of water running down the street glad that I'm not the man sweeping the leaves out of the gutter. Fortunate as I am to be able to sit here eating a wonderfully soft piece of warm multiseed bread covered in slightly salty butter and sticky, sweet raspberry jam.

I am fuming about one of my rear molars which decided to split itself in two and escape down my throat while I was snacking on some pretzels the other day. That means more work done on my teeth and another huge bill after only visiting the dentist last week, I'm considering falsies.

So I'm busy looking into the price of Dentugrip while Katie is rubbing breadcrumbs (no breadcrumbs isn't our cat) she is making dumplings to go in our stew for tonight's dinner. We're using an amalgamation of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall/ Jamie Oliver and Anthony Bourdain recipies using;

Dumplings

115g Homemade white bread breadcrumbs (bread was a little stale, mum says this is better for crumb)
115g SR flour
115g Shredded suet
Some parsley & thyme (small bunches) chopped finely
2 eggs
Salt & pepper

Stew

Braising beef
Shin of beef
Depending on what cuts you prefer mix the meat up how you like. I'm using 2 fist size pieces of shin and about 500g of braising
2 carrots
1 onion
1 celery stick
1 bouquet garni
250ml Stout or ale

I've just chopped the meat into large chunks and places in the pot with the carrot, onion, celery, juniper berries x3, peppercorns x5, a bay leaf, a star anise all topped with water (interestingly star anise is used in the production of Tamiflu and according to Wikipedia there was a shortage of Star anise in 2005 due to increased Tamiflu production. 2005 you say?? Didn't swine flu come about in 2008/9. Makes you wonder.)

Anyway back to food and off the subject of sickness. Star anise is used a lot in Chinese cooking to tenderize the meat without imparting much of it's strong taste and also helps digestion which is something the Chinese and Indians participate in but us westerners tend to neglect (apart from the obligitory cuppa after pudding)

So the stew goes into the oven (150 C) for about 2.5hrs and I can get on to the next experiment...curing a pork belly.

I've made a wet cure of 3.5pints of water, 12 juniper berries, 12 peppercorns, 12 cloves, 3 bay leaves, about 150g sea salt and 150g mixture of golden castor and muscavado sugar. The smell is wonderful as the mixture gets to the boil. Gas off and it's left to cool before immersing the belly in the liquid (in a non metallic bowl remember!) weighed down.

With Katie origianlly being from Hong Kong, I've had my fair share of pork belly but when we went on a trip to Padstow, Cornwall earlier this year I had the most fantastic, tender and tasty pork belly I have ever had. it came served on a bed of puy lentils and roasted parsnips.
Getting the recipe from the chef was a difficult task and he wasn't too keen to let it all go. I did manage to get that he had soaked it in a secret brine for a while, washed it and soaked it in a second brine, the contents of which stay safely locked in his recipe book but I'm giving my version a go so we'll see how it works out.

So with the stew in the oven, the belly immersed, weighted, wrapped and refrigerated it was time to make some soup! There were some big, fat baking potatoes needing to be used up and some leeks in the fridge looking like they would soon be past their best so what else is a man to do but make some gorgeous leek & potato soup. There are plenty of recipes, from your basic leeks, potatoes and water to the more flamboyant Jamie Oliver versions. I opted for a middle of the road version where I used some leeks, shallot, potato parsley and thyme. Boiled it up then liquidised with about 150ml of creme fraiche.
I then put it back on the heat for a while to reduce slightly and couldn't help a wee bowl with a couple of chunks of Isle of Bute Cheddar in there.
I think a cheese like Keens Farmhouse Cheddar would have been better as it's got a slightly more farmyard flavour but the soup was ideal on a day like today. It was thick and creamy with enough pepper in there to give it a warmth but not burning.

Like my granny used to say on the subject of her own Scotch Broth... "it'll ging roon yer heirt like a hairy wurum" (translated from Doric means 'it will go round your heart like a hairy worm') it doesn't put the best image in your head when you're eating but you get an idea of the feeling

Our unctous beef, veg and stout stew with Katie's herby dumplings

A seed is planted

2009-10-25T10:46:00.000-07:00

We're into food in a big way; he loves to cook and I love to organise and host. We've both worked in the restaurant business before but never owned our own which, some day, we would like to do, however, we don't want to leave the security of our jobs just yet and restaurant rents are waaaay out of our budget.

The idea was simple, have people over for dinner. That's it! In times of recession (hate that word) we look to new and inspiring ideas. Big companies are opening "Pop-up" restaurants looking to make quick money from an exclusive one night only event. There are underground, anti-restaurants scattered across the capital serving up a variety of delights and we want to create something better, something permanent and something personal which we can build on. Where people can relax, eat, drink and enjoy an evening with new people.
We're not forcing anyone to socialise, this isn't a networking event or mixer party. This is, at it's heart...Dinner at ours.

Our dream is to eventually create a restaurant chain, but not like the restaurant chains you all know and hate. None of your Chiquito's, Frankie & Bennys boil-in-the-bag everything, Maccy-D's or KFC's mistreated chicken. No this is going to be different, a restaurant that you will be happy going to whether you are in Finsbury Park or Aberdeen because you'll know the quality will be top notch and the produce will be the best we can get our hands on.

Let us know what you think of the idea. We're going to be setting up our first Supper Club London night very soon so please give us any feedback/ideas/advice, it will all be taken on board and much appreciated.

The first one is going to have a slightly Oriental theme inspired from our travels around Asia. Some of the dishes on the menu will be our home made Thai Fish Cakes, moreish Black & White Sesame Prawn on Toast and Coriander Squid in Longjing Tea.

*By the by, the header isn't our house. Stunningly set on an island in Ha Long Bay, Vietnam where we went in 2008 I would dearly love to have a holiday home there but we actually live near Finsbury Park, London. We have the Victoria Line and the Piccadilly Line within a 10 minute walk and our front room looks into the park.