Courgette Spaghetti with Lemon and Pine Nuts
A slightly unusual Sunday lunch for us, we tend to stick with the traditional roast in the Winter months and barbecues in the warmer Spring and Summer. We do have a barbecue planned for later today but Stephen had a pasta craving so, pasta with the last of Dan’s courgettes it was.
While the pasta is cooking, fry off some garlic in olive oil until it just begins to colour. Add the courgette strips (we used a vegetable peeler for this) with some salt and cook until they’ve softened and all the water has cooked out. Add some grated lemon zest, the juice of half a lemon and a grind of black pepper before finishing with some good olive oil. We added some toasted pine nuts too.
There was a slight bitterness to this, probably because we left the courgette a little too long before eating but itt was well balanced otherwise and made a lovely, light, Summer lunch.
The Harwood Arms
There have been many good reviews of the Harwood Arms in the last few months and, given that we live within walking distance and haven’t visited, last night’s dinner was long overdue.
The room itself is lovely, open and bright with high ceilings and big windows; a combination of new and old decor lends a comfortable and familiar feel to the space. This is more restaurant than bar really with the majority of the room filled with mismatched tables and chairs but Stephen and I were lucky enough to grab a sofa in the small area by the fire so we could have a pre-dinner drink while waiting for our friends to arrive.
The great thing about dining with good friends is the opportunity to share dishes and taste more of the menu, which is what usually happens when we eat out with these particular friends. When it came to ordering last night though we all ended up with pretty much the same dishes which led to some discussion about changing our order, my stance is firm on this though: always go with your first choice otherwise you’re inevitably disappointed and regret the last minute change of mind.
One thing that wasn’t likely to change under any circumstances was the ordering of the much-talked-about venison scotch egg. Stephen said it was the best he’d ever had and it certainly looked good, a great crust giving way to a moist, meaty interior before revealing the perfectly-cooked egg at the centre.
I opted for snails to start. I’ve only really seen snails on French menus before so I was excited and intrigued to see how the Harwood Arms would treat them. The presentation was different to the French style and it took me a little while to work out the right technique for releasing the buttery snails from their shell but, once I’d mastered it, there was no stopping me. The first one was a little rubbery but the other four (sadly I had to give one to Stephen) were great; larger than their French cousins, meaty with plenty of garlic butter and crunchy breadcrumbs and a sliver of bone marrow which further enhanced the meaty flavour.
My main course of cod with crayfish and Jersey Royal potatoes had the potential to be good but sadly wasn’t brilliant. I was hesitant about ordering cod given the sustainability issues but couldn’t resist the lure of the crayfish which I love and which the Harwood Arms is known for. The cod itself was very small and, given it’s size, there were far too many potatoes, many of which were over-cooked and I don’t think they were seasoned at all. The sauce was tasty and would have been great to mop up with the potatoes but it was just too thin so remained in a pool with the leftover potatoes at the bottom of the dish. And the dish itself was just ridiculous. It looked attractive (apart from the many chips around the edges) but was almost impossible to eat out of, unless you had ordered something like a risotto or a pasta dish. Far too difficult to try and cut fish and potatoes without ending up with a big mess in the bowl.
The boys both went for the braised shoulder of lamb which was very good indeed, perfectly seasoned and moist, intensely lamby in flavour and with the right ratio of potato and vegetable accompaniments. They weren’t so vociferous in their complaints about the dish as I was but they did agree that a plate would have been better.
And then, unusually for me, dessert. I was really keen to try the Earl Grey tea ice-cream as I hadn’t had it before and I’m glad I did. It was unusual at the first taste , slightly spicy and very aromatic but it softened as the ice-cream melted and went perfectly with the home-made garibaldi biscuits.
So, aside from my complaints about the crockery, the lack of seasoning, the small portion size, the undercooked and too-abundant potatoes and the too-thin sauce; I actually really liked the Harwood Arms. Everything else we ate was very good, the room was lovely, the atmosphere was relaxed and the staff were attentive without being pushy. I’d definitely go back, particularly as it’s so close, but next time I’d order something without potatoes that’s easy to eat from a bowl.
Hamburgers
After finally getting our hamburger recipe just the way we wanted, we decide to test them again to make sure we were correct in our measurements and were able to reproduce them. We also quite fancied having burgers for dinner.
I think I was a little too heavy-handed with the mustard this time, and not heavy-handed enough with the salt. I need to blot the grated onion before adding it to the meat to remove some of the moisture and must remember to mix it thoroughly so the seasoning penetrates all of the meat. 500g of meat between two may have been just a little too much meat as well.
We also started experimenting with lamb mince, using rosemary, parsley and dijon mustard. This was a partial success but needs less rosemary next time.
So, almost there but not quite. I don’t think it’s going to be too much of a hardship to keep on going until we get it just right though 🙂
PS – the best thing about the evening was the lovely bottle of white Burgundy that we drank – not really a barbecued burger sort of wine, but we didn’t have a lot else to choose from at the time.
Spiced Potato Salad
Not strictly dinner as we’re out this evening but this was Stephen’s lunch, made with more of Dan’s potatoes and served with some smoked mackerel.
We started off by steaming the potatoes and then dressing them with oil and some salt and pepper; next we added some turmeric, cumin seed, coriander seed and chilli powder. It was at this point that he realised he was almost making sag aloo which reminded us that we haven’t had it for a while so, watch this space.
Pea, Broad Bean and Bacon Salad
I’m not entirely convinced that salad is the right term for this dish, given that the vegetables were pretty heavily outweighed by bacon, cheese and bread fried in olive oil but, as I can’t think of anything better, that’s what we’re going with.
Very easy to put together, just steam the peas and broad beans and then double-pod the beans. Fry the bacon and the bread, tear up the mozarella and mix together with the dressing (olive oil, lemon juice, Dijon mustard, salt and pepper and some finely chopped mint).
Although simple, this was a great dish for a hot evening. I didn’t have to have the oven on and only had to stand in front of the hob for a short time. It was more substantial than just a green or mixed salad too which means we won’t be raiding the cupboards later on.
Sipsmith Distillery in Hammersmith
Hidden behind a rather unassuming but freshly painted blue door on a quiet residential street in Hammersmith is something quite extraordinary – London’s first new copper still distillery for 190 years. This is the brainchild of Fairfax and Sam who, with their master distiller Jared, distil hand-crafted vodka and gin here at their curiously but cleverly named Sipsmith distillery. We were privileged to be able to pay them a visit yesterday evening along with several other London food and drink bloggers.
For those who don’t know a lot about distilling, vodka is a neutral spirit – essentially alcohol (ethanol) from an agricultural source and water. Which sounds very simple, but the process that is used to arrive at this spirit can have a profound affect on its taste and the best quality vodkas are neutral, yet have a distinctive character. Mass produced vodkas are made in industrial continuous stills made out of stainless steel, which don’t afford much character to the resulting spirit and also result in harsh flavours which are usually removed by filtering. Using a copper still however, removes a lot of the harsh flavours by the action of the copper itself as the spirit flows through it.
Copper pot stills each have a life of their own, each giving a slightly different unique character to spirits that are distilled in them. At Sipsmith they have named their still Prudence and although there is a reasonable, family-related reason behind the name, it does imply a wonderful irony. Water is also very important here and they source their water from Lydwell Spring, which is a source of the River Thames in the Cotswolds. Apart from being a good source of pure spring water, it also seems very appropriate for London-based distillery; water from the Thames itself has rather murkier implications.
When distilling in a pot still, a certain amount of spirit will be produced over a length of time. The first part of the spirit that is produced is generally harsher or lacking in flavour and is discarded; this is called the head. Similarly, the last part is also discarded; this is called the tail. The middle section is what is worth drinking and this is called the heart of the run. At Sipsmith they found that the first 40% of the heart was the best and it had a very smooth, buttery character that was so good that it would be criminal to mix it with anything else and dilute it. So that first 40% is all that they use for their vodka and because of its purity, it does not need to be filtered.
The rest of the heart is not wasted though; it goes back into the still to be re-distilled and goes into making their gin. It is obviously still very high quality spirit, but because gin is flavoured with several different botanical ingredients that all add their own aromas and texture, getting that buttery character that went into the vodka is less important. And here they only take 55% of the heart of the run when the gin is distilled, in order to keep only the flavours that they want to give the gin its character.
The EU definition of London Dry Gin is that it is gin that has been distilled with the flavourings introduced during the distillation process itself rather than added afterwards. If you add flavours afterwards then it’s just plain gin. And the main flavour should be of juniper, which is hard to measure in practice of course, but is generally true.
In addition to the juniper, all gin manufacturers will have their own, sometimes secret, mix of botanical flavourings that they add. Coriander seed is very popular, second in importance only to the juniper itself and at Sipsmith they also use lemon peel, sweet orange peel, almond, orris root and licorice root. These are all added during the distillation process, so their gin does qualify as London Dry Gin. The resulting character of the Sipsmith gin is fully flavoured, an old fashioned style of gin, with the distinctive and slightly bitter juniper coming through strongly, backed up by the earthiness of orris root, the fleeting spicy sweetness of the licorice and the top notes of the citrus.
After the visit, we were treated to a lovely chilled glass of gin and tonic, which we sipped while enjoying the sun on the patio (aka pavement) outside. Altogether a wonderful experience and great opportunity to see the inside of an artisanal distillery. After the explosion of micro-breweries in the US, a number of micro-distilleries have started to pop up too; hopefully this pattern will follow in the UK too to mix things up (apologies for the unintentional pun) in the world of spirits. Sam and Fairfax have started something remarkable here and I am sure it will not be long before you see the chic yet aptly old fashioned labels of Sipsmith’s Barley Vodka and London Dry Gin in a bar near you.
Where’s My Pork Chop?
Where’s My Pork Chop is Dan from Food Urchin‘s little side project. He works nights and doesn’t often have time to prepare something decent to eat in the evening so wondered if he could convince fellow bloggers to swap a portion of something tasty from their kitchen for some wine or something similar. I hate to think of anyone going hungry so was happy to get involved, when Dan said I could have something from his allotment or some of his sourdough starter I was even happier.
Stephen and I were out last night so didn’t have time to cook anything specifically but, as luck would have it, one of Dan’s requests was our bean chilli which we just so happened to have a portion of in the freezer. I tucked that into a cool bag, stopped off to buy some bread (he didn’t have a toaster for pitta bread and I didn’t want to risk poisoning him with reheated rice in this weather so settled for a crusty roll) and some cheese to grate on top and began my journey.
Dan arrived shortly after me with a suspiciously large carrier bag which looked rather heavy. It was indeed heavy because it contained a huge amount of potatoes, courgettes, courgette flowers and curly kale, all home grown and picked this morning. I was beginning to feel really bad about the fact that I’d just plucked something from the freezer when he hit me with a jar of sourdough starter too. I felt even worse then but also incredibly excited about the prospect of making my own sourdough at home.
When I got home, I set about cleaning up the vegetables and sorting out Velma (the sourdough starter, as named by Dan, daughter of the ‘mother’ Veronica) which sent me into a bit of a panic: I didn’t want to kill her on the first day. Luckily, Dan came to the rescue with some very clear instructions so she’s been fed and watered and is sitting happily in the kitchen.
Having fed the newest member of the family, I started to think about what we were going to eat this evening. I wanted to use some of the vegetables from Dan’s huge carrier bag while they were still so fresh so settled on a potato salad, some griddle courgettes and, rather aptly, some pork chops.
Before that, we had the beautiful courgette flowers to attend to. We decided against stuffing them as, having never eaten them before, we wanted to taste as much as we could without masking the taste with other flavours. I made up a straightforward batter and added just a little cheese to it and then Stephen did the scary deep-frying. They tasted faintly of courgette but it wasn’t a strong flavour. Dan’s suggestion of stuffing with mozarella and anchovies would have been very good but I’m glad we got to taste the flowers relatively au-naturel.
I kept the potato salad simple and just added some light olive oil, salt and pepper and some red onion that I’d steeped in lemon juice to sweeten. These were the real star of the meal, the potatoes were firm with a sweet and earthy flavour and they tasted really potatoey.
The courgettes were also treated simply with just a brush of olive oil and a little seasoning once they came off the barbecue. Like the potatoes, they were sweet with a pleasing bite in both taste and texture.
The pork chops were marinated for a couple of hours in our current favourite marinade of oil, lemon juice, salt, garlic and oregano before being grilled on the barbecue .
I’m not sure I’ve eaten vegetables as fresh as these before and you could certainly taste the difference. I’ve never been able to smell potatoes when I’ve washed them before, as I did with these and, I have to admit, I’m not the biggest fan of courgettes usually but Dan’s might have just persuaded me otherwise.
I think we definitely got the better deal here: not only did we have a really tasty dinner this evening, I also realised that I like courgettes and we still have lots of lovely vegetables to keep us going through the week. We owe you a drink next time we see you, Dan!
Barbecued Lamb
Another sunny weekend so, somewhat predictably, another barbecue. We spent the weekend in Kent with my family and Stephen butterflied this leg of lamb and marinated it overnight. A generous glug of oil, some rosemary and oregano, garlic and some salt and pepper was all that needed before this went onto the coals for about 45 minutes. Cooked through more than we would do normally so that my nieces could enjoy it too. Served with pitta bread, salad, tabbouleh, tzatziki and hummus. My family always have roast potatoes with a barbecue too, probably because my mum’s are so good so, in order to preserve tradition, we did those too.
We probably wouldn’t have had those at home but they went surprisingly well with the lamb.
Barbecued Lamb Chops
The picture didn’t turn out that well because I got the white balance on the camera wrong, but that obviously didn’t stop them being really tasty. An impromptu barbecue this evening, I bought some lamb chops on the way home and we cooked them simply with some rosemary, garlic and salt. Just a few minutes each side on the barbecue and they were done. We kept the lid on the barbecue to try to keep in more smoky flavour as we have been doing quite a lot lately and it worked out well. We served them with some taboulleh.
These were double loin chops which we have had a couple of times before and found them to be good; better value than a rack based on taste and quantity vs price. They were certainly good value on the taste side of things today. We bought these from our local deli and they are from Bretby.
Beefeater Distillery Tour
I don’t know much about gin, apart from that I like the occasional gin and tonic and I really don’t like Bombay Sapphire, so was really looking forward to visiting the Beefeater distillery and learning a bit more about how gin is made. The distillery isn’t open to the public and is based in a beautiful old building in Kennington where it’s been made since 1957, the opportunity to wander around somewhere that would normally be off-limits was something else to get excited about.
The tour was run by the master distiller, Desmond Payne, who has been with Beefeater for 15 years. Before that he was at Plymouth gin for 25 years so he really knows his stuff. He took us on a short tour of the distillery where he explained how they make Beefeater gin before guiding us through a comparative tasting.
During the distillery tour, Desmond explained that the definition of gin is something along the lines of “predominately flavoured with juniper”, the juniper is therefore (obviously!) one of the most important ingredients. Desmond tests 150 varieties each autumn to ensure quality is maintained in the Beefeater gin. Aside from the juniper it’s really up to the distiller what other botanicals they add, Beefeater use the original recipe which is x years old and contains: juniper, orange, lemon, almond, orris root, licquorice, coriander and angelica seed root. They make 2.4 million cases of the stuff a year.
The comparative tasting was one of the most enjoyable parts of the afternoon for me, we tasted six different types of gin and I was surprised at just how different they were. We’ve been drinking Tanqueray and Hendricks at home lately but not at the same time so I haven’t really been able to compare the two, apart from recognising the distinctive cucumber note in the Hendricks. Tasting the gin without tonic to confuse the flavours was also something new to me and allowed us to really understand what the different botanicals add. Initially, I found the Beefeater to be slightly rougher than the other examples and really enjoyed the Plymouth gin we tasted directly after the Bombay Sapphire. Coming back to the Beefeater having tasted all six varieties, I was aware of how punchy the botanicals were and just what they added to the overall flavour; the Beefeater was definitely more subtle that the showy, upfront Bombay Sapphire and generally had a lot more character than the Tanqueray. The Plymouth was my favourite though, well balanced with complex layers of flavour, smooth and with a long finish.
After we’d finished our tasting, we enjoyed a Beefeater Gin and Tonic in the bar which was wonderfully refreshing on what was a hot afternoon. The addition of orange to the glass was unusual but really helped to bring out the orange note in the Beefeater gin without overpowering the other flavours.
