Chilli Wraps with Garlicky Greens
Another quick and easy dinner from the freezer of chilli with more of those garlicky greens I talked about yesterday. We usually have lettuce in Mexican-style wraps but the greens worked well, not as fresh or crunchy as the lettuce obviously but an interesting change. Since these were already in the fridge and the chilli was already in the freezer, this was just an assembly job with the addition of some cheese and squashed avocado.
Grey Goose – a Toast to Taste
Up until a couple of months ago, on the occasion that the subject of premium (i.e. expensive) vodka arose while we were chatting in the pub, my answer was always that it was a complete waste of money since vodka was for people who wanted to get drunk without tasting anything and if you mixed it with tonic or in a cocktail then you couldn’t taste it anyway even if you tried.
Then a coincidence came my way. I love coincidences; they make the world seem more interesting. For my wine (and spirits) diploma that I am studying, I was sent the subject for a coursework assignment: “The Premiumisation of White Spirits”. So I had to start studying the stuff. As part of it, I had to choose a particular brand on which to do a case study. I chose Grey Goose, a super-premium (i.e. even more expensive than premium) vodka produced in France* which is a huge seller in the US and is starting to conquer the rest of the world too. A few weeks later, completely out of the blue, arrived an invitation to a Grey Goose “Toast to Taste” event which sounded somewhat mysterious. So I had to say yes. For research purposes you understand, not because I would condone any of that sort of silliness. After all, they offered to send a car to pick me up so it seemed rude to turn it down.
So having arrived at work at an unreasonably small hour that morning to allow me to disappear early and get to the event on time, I was a little bleary eyed when I arrived and wasn’t really in the mood. That soon changed though. The car dropped me off in a lovely Georgian square and I started hunting for the correct door number. When faced with a rather anonymous-looking door, I wasn’t sure that I was in the right place until I spotted a brass plaque embossed with the Grey Goose logo. Nice touch.
I knocked and it was answered by a man wearing grey. I stepped inside and into a large but gloomy hallway that seemed reminiscent of the entrance of a hotel in a murder mystery novel. Along the right hand wall was an enormous floor to ceiling key rack hung with what must have been hundreds of keys. Some small, some big, some rusty, but all looking like they had a story to tell. I was handed a key with a red ribbon, told to stand near other people with red ribbons and led through to a tea room.
The tea room was light, airy, tastefully decorated and full of beautiful, impeccably dressed people sipping drinks and chatting amongst themselves. I felt like I’d stumbled onto the set of a stylishly Anglo-French film. Several people wearing grey flitted amongst the everyone else offering drinks, snacks and generally making sure that everyone had a good time. When offered a drink, I chose coffee and it arrived soon after in a perfect cup on a perfect saucer. So far so surreal.
After a few minutes of looking around and drinking my coffee, a lady appeared and summoned me to follow her. Then I realised why I was supposed to have been standing with other red-ribbon people (which I hadn’t): we were being led off to discover the “secrets of the house” together as a group with other similarly-ribboned guests. Down stairs into the basement, where we met the Keymaster. Behind him were three doors and he chose certain of us to go into each door after studying the keys that we had been given. I ended up in a French cafe with a woman sitting at a table reading a magazine. Interactive of course… I ended up in the role of someone she had met years ago and how she remembered the bread we had eaten and the water we had drunk on that day as if it was only yesterday. Having done my homework, I realised this was all about evoking the essence of Grey Goose’s ingredients: French wheat and limestone-filtered water. Very clever. Very memorable too.
Then back upstairs to the tea room, where cocktails had appeared. The cocktail du jour was Grey Goose Le Fizz which had been created by one of the Grey Goose “Brand Ambassadors”. Made with Grey Goose vodka (of course), elderflower cordial, lime juice and soda then served elegantly (naturally) in a Champagne flute, it was refreshing and very drinkable. Bit more chit-chat, bit more looking at the French pictures on the wall and the bottles of Grey Goose arranged here and there like object d’art. I tried an extremely delicious macaron and a couple of carefully prepared and expertly cut small sandwiches.
Soon the lady appeared and gathered us red-ribboned people together again and this time we were led upstairs where she handed one of the group a letter and motioned to us to enter a door. Enter we did, and we were in a large room where a woman was reclining on a chaise longue, reading a book. Soft music started to play, along with recital of a poem / narrative of how she loved to wander into the wheat fields and dance.
So she did. When we turned around, the other half of the room was full of wheat. Half of my brain was thinking “ah, very clever, more wheat worked into the story” and the other half was thinking “Wow, a wheat field inside a house! Inside a house!!!”. She danced around in the wheat field for a while and then the girl who had the letter handed it to her and she read it out. Poem about wheat. Then we filed back down to the tea room which I had started to think of as the “nexus” in a strange time-travelling world.
Another Le Fizz and some chit-chat later (during which I observed that the Grey Goose logo was frosted onto the windows as well as being on the brass plaque outside) we were ushered in an elevator and up to the top floor. Here a “laboratory” had been set up and we were asked to smell things in jars, and write down thoughts and feelings while attached to a “monitor”. More about taste and smell and how it makes us feel. Which in retrospect is very interesting – part of what I wrote about in my assignment was the fostering of emotional attachments to brands.
Back down to the nexus and probably another Le Fizz I think and then listened to a talk by the Grey Goose maître de chai Francois Thibault. He’s the man who is in charge of Grey Goose production. Other vodkas, gins, etc, would have a master distiller but Grey Goose, being very French, has a maître de chai. All about taste and extracting the essence of the finest French wheat when making Grey Goose. And about Cognac. Grey Goose is bottled in Cognac and blended with limestone-filtered spring water from the area, so the Cognac association is heavily played. French. Luxury. Long history of premium spirits production. etc.
A somewhat surreal and all-round brilliant afternoon. I came away thinking that should I find myself buying vodka in the near future that it would definitely be Grey Goose. Then chastised myself for having been led astray from my previous standpoint.
A few days later not just a bottle of Grey Goose arrived by post but also little tasting bottles of their flavoured versions – Lemon, Orange and Pear. I mixed Kerri a Le Fizz which she really enjoyed (and ordered another of) and then played around with the others, making a delicious cocktail with the pear vodka. I gave myself the credit for inventing it but it turned out similar to one in the accompanying little recipe book and the ingredients weren’t dissimilar to the Le Fizz although the resulting taste was quite different: Grey Goose Le Poire vodka, elderflower cordial, small squeeze of lime, shake with plenty of ice then add a splash of soda. We didn’t have vermouth, so didn’t venture into martinis, but will certainly do so soon.
Grey Goose is available in Waitrose for £32 a bottle and in bars for probably considerably more. You may notice its blue-and-grey adverts around London as this event is part of its first big UK marketing campaign. I saw a lot of them on Westfield’s electronic advertising boards recently when walking through.
* Though some people think that vodka comes from Russia or Poland and is made from potatoes, it doesn’t actually have to come from anywhere in particular, nor be made from anything in particular. And although a lot of it does come from Eastern Europe, Absolut is of course Swedish and Finlandia… well… Finnish. Various others are made all over the world. It is often made from grain (wheat, barley or rye) and cheaper stuff from sugar beet.
Lamb Chops and Garlicky Greens
This was supposed to be a celebratory meal, cooked by me, to celebrate Stephen completing the latest module of his wine exams. I chose lamb chops because they’re one of his favourites and I was planning to make sautéed potatoes too but I got stuck at work and Stephen ended up both shopping for and cooking his own celebratory dinner.
There isn’t too much interesting about this since we eat it a lot but the garlicky greens are our new favourite vegetable and something we’ve been eating a lot lately. In fact, we (well, Stephen) cooked up a whole load of these tonight to use through the week. They’re good but they don’t require a recipe as such, just slice up some greens and rinse them. Soften some garlic in a little butter, add the greens, stir and then put a lid on the pan. Cook for about five minutes on a medium heat and then serve. Chilli works well with the garlic too, depending on what else you’re eating.
Chicken Tagine
Chicken tagine seems to have replaced ordinary roast chicken as our favourite Sunday lunch, well, it has for me anyway. I think it’s something to do with the fact that having disliked the flavour of aniseed for so long, I’ve finally grown to love fennel and now want to eat it at every opportunity. I love that the fennel, onions and preserved lemons seem to melt into the sauce in this dish, making an almost creamy sauce, without the added fat. Wonderfully comforting on a cold day.
I played around with this recipe a little, using both fresh fennel and fennel seed to produce a deeper flavour that developed both in the mouth as we ate and continued overnight so that the follow day’s lunch was even better. I also marinated the chicken for a few hours which I didn’t last time and, although I don’t think it makes a huge amount of difference, I think it does make some. Even more olives and preserved lemons this time too, to really boost the zingyness.
This is my favourite attempt so far, next time I’d like to increase the chicken flavour a little but I think that’s easily achieved with a better stock (I didn’t have much time to cook the stock this time so what I had was a little watery). It’s just over a week since we ate this and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it soon. If things go quiet around here again then you’ll know it’s because we’ve been living entirely on chicken tagine.
Chicken Tagine
Serves Four
Spice Mix
2 tsps cumin seeds
2 tsps coriander seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp turmeric
1.5 tsps ginger
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1 chicken, jointed
2 large onions, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, sliced
1 bulb fennel, sliced into eight pieces
Pinch saffron
6 preserved lemons, deseeded and finely chopped
Large handful of olives, stoned and halved
750ml chicken stock
Couscous or rice
Toasted, flaked almonds
Start by making up the spice mix. Toss the chicken in the spices and marinate overnight (if you have time) or for as long as you have.
Brown the chicken pieces in some oil over a medium heat. There’s no need to remove the chicken so when it is brown all over, just add the onions and allow them to soften (about 3 minutes) before adding the garlic and fennel. Cook for another 3 minutes or so and then add the saffron, preserved lemons, olives and chicken stock.
Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and cook with the lid on for 1.5 hours. This should be about the right amount of stock but check occasionally to make sure it hasn’t cooked out entirely. If you’re left with too much liquid then reduce it down by cooking without the lid on for the last half an hour.
Just before serving, add a large handful of roughly chopped coriander and serve over some couscous or rice, sprinkled with toasted almonds.
Venison Sausages
Oh dear, we ate this on Bonfire night, which is quite a long time ago now. I seem to have got out of the habit of posting again, sorry.
The most interesting thing about this was the fact that we used those strange purple potatoes but now I see they didn’t even make it into the picture. They were actually quite good, with a decent flavour and a good texture but I coudn’t get past the colour of them. They are marketed as being good for kids who won’t eat their vegetables but most kids like potatoes don’t they? I bought them for interest sake really (I’m a sucker for novelty) but I won’t be buying them again.
Halloumi, Avocado and Lentils on Toast
Today’s tube strike meant that any exciting plans we had for dinner where shelved fairly quickly since both of us got home too late and too tired to do anything other than the bare minimum.
The lentils, avocado and halloumi we had a couple of weeks ago was a huge success and it was the first thing we both thought of when we realised we needed something quick. We had some lentils in the freezer which just needed heating up while we mashed an avocado, fried the halloumi and toasted some bread.
What I really love about this is that it tastes like so much more than the sum of it’s parts, which are essentially leftovers with some avocado and cheese added. And it’s incredibly forgiving: no avocado? Skip it then, it’s just as good without. No halloumi? Of course, almost everything is better with cheese but the lentils work so well with the avocado and toast that you won’t miss is desperately if you don’t have it. You could even leave out the bread if you wanted to although I think it makes all the difference.
Indian Style Baked Salmon
The last thing Stephen and I said to each other last night before we went to sleep wasn’t “sleep well” or “see you in the morning” but “mmm, salmon”. Not the most romantic end to the evening but fairly typical. We swing from being incredibly organised about what we’re going to eat during the week to not having anything planned at all and, when there isn’t a plan, we often end up talking about what we’re going to eat for dinner before we go to sleep. This was one of those nights and somehow, we decided on salmon (which, coincidentally, is exactly what we ate this time last year, albeit in a different style).
Although I can’t remember how we decided upon salmon, I do remember that it had to be Indian style since we made a vat of dal at the weekend that doesn’t fit in the freezer. It was good dal but needed something spicy and rich to accompany it, which is exactly what this fish provided. We had some plain rice and some greens sauteed in garlic and lemon alongside the salmon and dal which rounded the whole dish out well.
Indian style fish isn’t something I’ve eaten a lot of and, when I have, it’s tended to have a curry-like sauce with it. This was a dry rub which I found slightly unusual to begin with but really enjoyed once I’d got used to the texture. It definitely needed a stronger fish like salmon to carry all that spicing but something like mackerel would work too.
Indian Style Baked Salmon
Serves Two
2 salmon fillets
1 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
3 cardomom pods
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/4 tsp turmeric
1/4 tsp dried ginger
Pinch of salt
Squeeze of lemon juice
Combine all the dried spices with the salt and pound in a pestle and mortar.
Squeeze the lemon juice over the fish before coating with the spices.
Bake at 250 degrees for 12 minutes.
Spaghetti Bolognaise
I had a little spare time on Saturday so decided to cook up a couple of things for the freezer. I think something may have gone wrong with my posting though because, according to the Dinner Diary archives, we haven’t eaten this since July 2009 which just can’t be right. I love spaghetti bolognaise and although I know I don’t cook it as often as I used to (it was a weekly staple for a long time, particularly during my student days), I can’t believe it’s been over a year since we last ate it.
This is probably closest to the recipe I used today although (as I mentioned in that post) it does change depending on what I have in the kitchen at the time. I also cook the ragu for more like four hours nowadays, to achieve the silky texture that comes from adding milk. I added a generous dollop of Marmite this time too, to provide some extra depth which didn’t seem to be developing.
I made a double batch this time so I can safely say that it won’t be a year until next time we eat it. In fact, I have some leftovers for lunch tomorrow which Stephen rather generously offered to me instead of somehow managing to keep them for himself like he usually does.
Hawksmoor, Seven Dials
Writing about Hawksmoor is not an easy thing to do. It’s a popular place and most people that are interested in food have already written about it, in a far more eloquent way than I can ever hope to achieve. I was planning to just let the pictures do the talking but the beautifully atmospheric lighting in the restaurant resulted in some pretty terrible photographs that don’t even come close to doing justice to the excellent food we ate on Sunday.
Regarded by almost everybody as the best steak in London, we visited the new Seven Dials branch on the last day of their soft opening which meant we got to eat enormous amounts of steak at 50% of the normal cost. And incredible stuff it was too.
The new restaurant is located on the site of the old Watney Combe brewery (which I didn’t know anything about until I read it on the website) on Langley Street in Covent Garden. It’s a cavernous, underground space that has been beautifully refurbished with many salvaged features, including parquet flooring from Christie’s auction house and proper London Underground tiling.
What particularly impressed me, (apart from the well-sourced, incredibly-flavoured, expertly-cooked, perfectly charred, beautifully tender, melt-in-the-mouth steak), was the care and attention that had been given to the rest of the menu. As with the original Spitalfield’s outpost, the cocktail list is extensive and quirky. We were here for Sunday lunch though and, apart from a couple of spicy bloody mary’s to start, were sticking to wine. That wasn’t a problem though since, as expected, the wine list was well thought out and reasonably priced.
On the food menu, there was plenty of fish to choose from if that’s your thing and an impressive selection of starters and side dishes. The steak is, of course, the main reason for visiting but the attention to detail applied to everything else lifts this place from “just†a steak house to a fully-fledged and faultless dining experience.
Starters of corned beef and clams in bacon broth stood out as being both accomplished and just innovative enough; this was good food, cooked well and without any unnecessary fiddly bits added.
The beef-dripping chips were easily the best I’ve ever eaten and the bone-marrow gravy was inspired. The two together created something akin to a Sunday roast and made me wonder if perhaps I should have ordered that instead. Stephen opted for the anchovy butter with his which resulted in a more traditional steak-and-chips affair but it was none the worse for it. He bucked the trend of the table and ordered the ribeye steak instead of the sirloin chosen by the rest of the group and it was a good decision. A slightly deeper, beefier flavour with an excellent charring from the Josper grill and the deft hand of the chef in charge. I couldn’t finish my steak so they wrapped it in brown paper for me to take home which made for a pretty good lunch the next day.
I would have happily paid full price for the food we ate on Sunday and hope to return soon to sample that Sunday roast. In the meantime, the bar is beautiful in its own right and well worth a visit. Quite how you’d manage to go there for a drink and not end up eating in the restaurant or at the bar though I don’t know. Which is no bad thing, in my opinion.
Hawksmoor.
Seven Dials,
11 Langley Street,
London.
WC2H 9JG
Black Eyed Bean Curry with Red Lentil and Moong Dal and Chapatis
A meat-free dinner is pretty rare in our house and I would hazard a guess that it’s actually never happened before on a Saturday night. Saturday night is usually all about treating ourselves and being indulgent and, as much as I love pulses and lentils, I don’t consider them to be indulgent.
The reason for this austerity? We were both feeling a little over-fed after the extravagances of the last couple of days and have a meat-tastic lunch planned for tomorrow.
We weren’t however prepared to eat just steamed vegetables and both agree that Indian food is the best suited to this kind of eating so, while I got on with cooking for the freezer, Stephen found a couple of recipes to go with some chapatis. The lentil and dal dish is from Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cookery and the bean curry is an amalgamation of things he found online, most similar to this BBC recipe but with increased spicing.
They both worked well and would have been fabulous accompaniments to rich, meaty curries but on their own, they were slightly too bland to get excited about.
Moong Dal and Red Lentils with Browned Onions
Serves Two
85g moong dal
85g red split lentils
1 pint water
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 tbsps vegetable oil
Pinch of ground asafetida
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 dried, hot red chillies
1/2 small onion, sliced into half-moons
Combine the dal and lentils and rinse. Drain and add to a saucepan. Add the water and turmeric, stir and bring up to a simmer. Cover but leave the lid slightly ajar and simmer gently for 45 minutes or until the pulses are tender, stirring occasionally. Add the salt and mix. Leave covered on a low heat.
In a frying pan, add the oil over a high heat and add the asafetida, followed immediately by the cumin seeds. Allow the cumin to sizzle for a few seconds and then add the chillies. Once they have turned dark red (after just a few seconds), add the onion. Stir and fry on a medium-high heat until the onion turns brown and crisp.
Add the contents of the frying pan to the dal and then serve.
