Category Archives: food+drink

food+drink

Beaujolais

We have Beaujolais Nouveau. As every year for the last few we have bought a couple of dozen bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau from Nick Dobson Wines. And today is release day, so our consignment arrived in the middle of the morning. I had to resist cracking open a bottle until this evening.
In fact what we have is a dozen bottles from each of two houses:

  • Domaine Philippe Deschamps, Beaujolais Nouveau
  • Vincent Lacondemine, Beaujolais Villages Nouveau

Over the years these two have produced some absolutely stunning Nouveau — in fact last year’s has matured brilliantly and we are lucky to still have some; it really is rather wonderful a year on, although I think it may not keep another year. Vincent Lacondemine also produces some gorgeous, regular Beaujolais Villages vintages.

Anti-Depressant
This is a photo I took of a Lacondemine bottle a few years ago;
it could just as easily be the one I opened a short while ago

So this evening we have tried the Lacondemine Nouveau. OK, you know immediately it is a very young wine. And maybe this year’s is a bit thinner and less fruity than the last couple of years — hardly surprising considering the appalling start to the summer; it has been a difficult year for wine growers. But it is definitely very, very drinkable.
We’ve just downed a bottle with some smoked duck, bean and pasta salad. But it would go well with something like a spaghetti bolognese, a hearty risotto, cheese, or just on it’s own!
I shall report back when we’ve tried the Philippe Deschamps, probably tomorrow — I wasn’t allowed to open a second bottle this evening. Humph!

food+drink

Pasta with Smoked Salmon & Broad Beans

Last evening I did yet another variation on my quick pasta recipe. This time with some smoked salmon and broad beans. It went like this:


Preparation: 10-15 minutes
Cooking time: 5 minutes
You will want:

  • Pasta (variety of your choice)
  • Smoked Salmon (at least 100gm per person; salmon pieces are fine)
  • Broad Beans (I used 2-3 handfuls of frozen baby BB; you could substitute frozen peas as in the image above)
  • 2-3 tomatoes (or some cherry tomatoes)
  • Medium (preferably red) onion
  • Garlic (quantity to taste)
  • Juice and zest of a lemon
  • Chopped parsley
  • Black pepper
  • Olive oil and/or butter

And this is what you do:

  1. First of all get the pasta and broad beans on to cook; you want them done in advance. When they are cooked take them off, drain them and keep warm.
  2. While the pasta and beans cook, roughly chop the onion, garlic, tomatoes and parsley. Cut the salmon into mailing label sized pieces. Zest and juice the lemon.
  3. Have the plates and the table ready.
  4. When the pasta and beans are ready you can start cooking the main dish which will take only a few minutes.
  5. Sauté the onion and garlic in some olive oil and/or butter (on a high heat) until the onion is just going translucent.
  6. Now add the chopped tomatoes and a good grind of black pepper; cook for a further minute or two.
  7. Before the tomatoes soften, add the beans and the lemon. Stir all together and keep cooking for a minute or so.
  8. Now add the smoked salmon, trying to stop the pieces sticking together, and again cook for a couple of minutes until the salmon is going pale.
  9. Now finally add the pasta and parsley and mix together gently. Cook again for a minute or two.
  10. Serve on warm plates, with optionally some parmesan, and a glass of white wine or champagne.

What a good, and easy, way to use up some left-over smoked salmon!

amusements, food+drink, topographical

October Plenty

October Plenty 2013 is on Sunday 20th October starting at 12 noon on Bankside, Southwark outside Shakespeare’s Globe. (Yes, that’s in London!)
October Plenty is an Autumn harvest celebration held annually in Southwark. Beginning on the Bankside, by Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, October Plenty mixes ancient seasonal customs and theatre with contemporary festivity, joining with historic Borough Market, Southwark and Borough Market’s Apple Day.


October Plenty is a collective celebration of the seasons, weather and food, in a public place, with access to everyone. The event is free, and happens whatever the weather.
There is loads more information about this event at www.thelionspart.co.uk/octoberplenty/. It looks as if it should be great fun; must see if I can get there.

food+drink

Chocolate Week and National Baking Week

Yes! The week of 14-20 October brings a double win as it is both Chocolate Week and National Baking Week. And what better excuse could any of my fiends have to bake me a yummy chocolate torte!
Chocolate Week promotes fine flavour chocolate, celebrating the work of top chocolatiers and chocolate companies. But of course there’s nothing to stop you all participating at home!


National Baking Week supports the Great Ormond Street Hospital, one of the top five paediatric research hospitals in the world. So the idea is that by baking and selling your results money is raised for the GOSH charity.
As always there is more information over on the Chocolate Week website at www.chocolateweek.co.uk and on the National Baking Week website, www.nationalbakingweek.co.uk.

food+drink

Tangy Lamb in a Pot

I declare another culinary triumph!
Yesterday we procured a boned and rolled large leg of lamb at the supermarket. English lamb and reduced as it was approaching its “end by” date. Thinking quickly what we could do with it, when we didn’t want to eat it that evening, I said “marinade it overnight and we’ll cook it tomorrow”. And so we did.
So I give you …


Tangy Lamb in a Pot
We used a 1.5kg boned and rolled leg of lamb.
For the Marinade (adjust this to taste):
tin of chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp of Worc. Sauce
wine glass white wine vinegar
wine glass olive oil
1-2 tbsp garlic paste
1-2 tbsp tomato paste
wine glass tomato ketchup
end of a bottle of HP sauce washed out with white wine
1 tsp very hot chilli sauce
tiny amount of salt
good grind of fresh black pepper
For cooking the lamb you also want:
large onion roughly chopped
several cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
12 olives
good handful chopped fresh herbs (whatever you have; I used parsley and basil)
salt & pepper
olive oil
The day before you want to eat this:
Mix all the marinade ingredients together well.
Put the lamb in a box or other container and stab it well.
Pour the marinade over the lamb and work it around a bit, cover and put the lamb in the fridge for 24 hours.
On the day:
Pre-heat the oven to about 160C (with fan).
Sweat the onion and garlic in a large pan (preferably the cast iron casserole you’ll cook this in) until the onion is going translucent.
Take the lamb out of the marinade and hold it to drain for a moment, remove the string holding it together if you wish, then add it to the pot and brown it on all sides.
Add the marinade, herbs, olives, and some salt & pepper.
Stir well and bring up to cooking heat.
(If necessary now transfer to a casserole.)
Put the lid on the casserole and cook in the oven for about 30 mins per 500gm plus 30 minutes (less if you like your lamb pink).
Take the lamb from the sauce and carve at the table.
Serve with vegetables of your choice, potatoes and some of the sauce — we had roast cabbage (I’ve not perfected this yet; recipe when I have) and small, new season, jacket potatoes.
It was tangy and tomato-y and really melted in the mouth. It shall be done again!

food+drink

British Food Fortnight

British Food Fortnight runs from Saturday 21 September to Sunday 6 October, timing which is deliberately chosen to coincide with Harvest Festival.
What do apples, venison, blackberries, oysters, crab, parsnips and runner beans have in common? Yes, they’re all in season during British Food Fortnight.


This celebration was conceived because although there are numerous food initiatives, projects and events across Britain, there was no overall flagship event bringing the whole of British food together. So the fortnight promotes all that is good about our home-grown food: more types of cheese than France, 350 types of potato providing a range of tastes and textures, and seasonal vegetables that provide just what we need at that time of year.
As always there is a lot more information and a list of events over on the British Food Fortnight website at www.lovebritishfood.co.uk.

food+drink

Herring

Another really nice evening meal; as always made up as I went along. We had Baked Herrings, vegetables pizzaiola and jacket potatoes with a bottle of really lovely Austrian hock. Apart from the wine, it was really super cheap meal too.
The potatoes were new season, small main crop Charlotte** — about the size of two hens eggs. Allow two per person. Bake on a baking sheet in the top of the oven at about 180C for an hour.


The herrings^^ we bought fresh this morning. They were really plump and meaty. They were done in a foil parcel in the oven with half a chopped onion, some chopped garlic and chopped fresh ginger and a good sprig of parsley. Add a couple of knobs of butter and if you wish a drizzle of white wine or lemon juice; salt & pepper. Cook for about 30-40 minutes.
Vegetables pizzaiola is dead easy too and a good way to use up left-over veg. I used some leftover roast carrots and some broad beans. Sweat half a finely chopped onion and some chopped garlic in some olive oil until the onion is going translucent. Add a small tin of chopped tomatoes, a good dash of Worcs. sauce, a good pinch of dried herbs, a tiny amount of salt and some pepper. Bring to the boil and add the vegetables. Cook for 10-15 minutes to reduce the tomato sauce and ensure the veg is really well heated through. If it is still a bit slack, or bland, add a squeeze of tomato purée.
Job done. Very easy. Quite cheap. And very tasty.
— oo O oo —

** Yes, potato varieties do matter. They aren’t all the same and it isn’t even as simple as “reds” and “whites” as it was in my childhood. We like Charlotte, which are a waxy variety; Estima are horrible and Maris anything are bland and boring. Try different varieties and see which you like. You will be surprised how different the varieties are.
boat

^^ What do you mean you’ve never eaten herrings? What not even a kipper? They were once the staple of the country: until we over-fished them. They are now plentiful again and not expensive. Herring are good clean fish because, unlike mackerel, they are not scavengers but feed on plankton, krill, etc.; and being oily fish they are good for you too. What is herring like? Try a cross between trout and mackerel. Or perhaps a slightly less pungent and oily sardine (to which they are related). Properly cooked they really do melt in the mouth.

food+drink

Autumn Rabbit

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We were at Eton College yesterday, and given lunch in the Masters’ Common Room (no not as flash as it sounds; it is normal catering fare, albeit the upper end). The upshot was that we didn’t need a big meal last night, so our planned dinner was delayed to today.
Back on Saturday we went to Norwich to see my aged mother and, as we often do, stopped at Elveden Estate Shop on the way home, which I’ve written about before (see for instance here). And wow, did we get some bargains!
First of all we snaffled a couple of gammon hocks. Yes, they’re cheap (under £4 each), but these were huge and there is a surprising amount of tasty meat on them if you’re prepared to do a bit of work.
Noreen then spotted a couple of ends of sausages. So we got three wild boar and three venison (large) sausages basically at half price because it was the end of the day.
We then grabbed the last pack of wild rabbit. A whole, jointed wild rabbit for about £3 has to be worth having. And this is what we ate tonight.
Add to that we bought a bunch of fresh “rainbow” carrots, three plate-sized field mushrooms, some local apples and some huge vine tomatoes.

Anyway this is really about the rabbit.
And before we go any further, no rabbits aren’t cute and cuddly. They can be a real pest and anyway the rabbit is only Nature’s way of turning grass into fox food.
So I give you a recipe I invented some years ago but haven’t done for a while …
Autumn Rabbit
There isn’t a lot of meat on a wild rabbit so one rabbit will feed two greedy or three normal people.  So adjust the following as needed. Yes you can use farmed rabbit, but it doesn’t have the same game-y flavour.
You will need:
a butchered and jointed wild rabbit
a large onion, roughly chopped
cloves of garlic (to taste)
2 windfall apples, trimmed and roughly chopped
2 good handfuls of fresh wild blackberries
half wine glass of gin or calvados
some fresh sage leaves
olive oil
knob of butter
salt & pepper
This is what you do:
Wash the rabbit and blackberries
Prepare the onion, garlic and apples and put in a large cast iron casserole with some olive oil and the butter.
Sweat/fry this for a few minutes, until the onion is beginning to go translucent.
Now add the rabbit pieces and brown them on both sides.
Throw in the blackberries, gin and sage leaves; season with pepper and a little salt and allow the casserole to come to a boil.
Put the lid on the casserole and transfer to the oven at about 170C (with fan) for about an hour.
You will now have a casserole of purple rabbit which you can serve with roasted rainbow carrots, jacket potatoes and a robust red wine.
It couldn’t be a lot simpler or very much tastier!
Oh yes, and those sausages were cooked on Sunday evening in an Italian-style tomato sauce and served with linguine on a plate-sized, grilled, field mushroom. And wow was that good too!

food+drink, personal

Grand Day Out

Today we went to Oxford. Just to meet up and have lunch with our friend Gabriella who is here from Sweden for a few days. We were all surprised to realise that the last time we met was in Washington, DC almost exactly 4 years ago! Which is somewhat scary. We all said the others hadn’t changed.
The friends Gabriella is staying with had recommended a Chinese restaurant called Shanghai 30s in St Aldates, almost opposite Christ Church (which is where Charles Dodgson, aka. Lewis Carroll, taught mathematics).
If you weren’t looking you’d miss the restaurant. It is in a slightly shabby but ordinary looking building, through a communal door and up a slightly seedy passage and stairway. Inside it is very definitely Chinese-colonial 1930s.


Do not be deceived, though. The food is everything the outside isn’t: sumptuous, delicious, slightly unusual, sizzling hot and beautifully presented.
We started with the Hors d’Oeuvre Platter (to share): Qi Family’s Almond Chicken; Champagne Spare Ribs; Crispy Ji-Li King Prawns; Veggie Spring Rolls. These were definitely finger food, but so hot you couldn’t pick them up. OK, so Spring Rolls are Spring Rolls, and everyone does King Prawns in Filo Pastry, but these were good. The Almond Chicken was basically minced chicken patties rolled in flaked almonds and fried — an unusual (to me at least) idea and very yummy. The ribs were marinaded and cooked in a honey and champagne BBQ sauce; individual portions wrapped in foil — seriously sticky and seriously yummy.
Then we shared a selection of main courses:
Sizzling Seafood in Black Pepper Sauce — prawns, squid, scallops; very sticky; very tasty.
Tsingtao Beer Duckling — slow cooked duck with black mushrooms & peppers.
Pork a la Shanghai — belly pork with ginger, garlic and vegetables in a rice wine sauce.
Pak Choi with Black Mushrooms
Noodles (with all sorts of additives: meat, prawn, squid …)
Jasmine Rice
Somehow we all then managed a pudding, if only crispy fried ice cream!
OK so we didn’t push the boat out with the drink (just a couple of bottles of sparkling mineral water and I had a couple of small beers). But at under £35 a head (including service) for something which was really delicious was very reasonable. If we’re in Oxford we shall certainly go back.
Added to which I spent the meal looking at this painting:

Shanghai 30s, Oxford. Rating: ★★★★★
When we eventually managed to regain full vertical hold, we meandered through Oxford, just enjoying what had turned into a lovely sunny afternoon. And, following a diversion into the Oxfam Bookshop, we adjourned to the King’s Arms for a drink before saying our good-byes.
Basically it was a lovely, relaxing lunch and afternoon; full of chat, catching up and some gorgeous food.

environment, food+drink

National Allotment Week

5-11 August is National Allotment Week.
National Allotments Garden Trust and the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners will be teaming up with local authorities to recognise the importance of allotments — not just locally, but nationally too.
Following on from the success of the 2012 event they are bringing back their ‘Party on the Plot’ and inviting allotment societies across the country to dust off their bunting and BBQs, spread the word and hold a jolly good knees-up!


Too often allotments are thought of as places that only grow the humble potato or everyday carrot, but in truth they offer a cornucopia of delicious treats, including some of our most delicious fruit: strawberries, raspberries and gooseberries; blackberries, plums and apples.
Allotments need protecting from development plans and budget cuts, so now is the time to get involved and help ensure they survive.
As always there is more information on the National Allotment Week website.