Gallipoli
We were over in North London yesterday and, having not done very much research on places to go for lunch, we ended up at Gallipoli on Upper Street. There are two branches not very far apart but the cafe is less formal and has a menu that reflects that, lots of little dishes and grilled meats rather than the tagines and baked dishes found at Gallipoli Bazaar. We’ve eaten here a couple of times before but not for a long time so this was a good excuse to return.
As there were three of us, we decided on a selection of the small dishes so that we could taste as many things as possible. In retrospect, we probably should have tried some more new dishes rather than sticking mostly to old favourites but that can go on the list of reasons to return.
The sucuk izgara (grilled Turkish sausage) was highly seasoned and generally thought to be good, I found the texture a little off-putting though: a little squeaky and chewy, like over-cooked chorizo.
The halloumi (or hellim as they call it) was just as halloumi should be, salty and squeaky and served on top of some grilled, Turkish bread with some salad alongside. The char-grilled flavour came across really strongly, much more so than when we’ve cooked it on a griddle pan or barbecue at home.
The broad bean dish (Zeytinyagli Bakla) came with a dill-yoghurt sauce which was sharp and fresh, it was good on it’s own but went particularly well the salty halloumi and spiced sausage.
The hummus was much smoother than hummus we’ve eaten before and usually we prefer a coarser texture but this was very good, full of flavour and another great contrast to the spicier foods we ordered – a happy accident really because we just picked a bunch of dishes that we like rather than thinking about what would go with what.
The kisir was the closest dish we could find to tabbouleh on the menu and was a lot like tabbouleh except with the addition of a tomato sauce and hazelnuts. I enjoyed the crunch of the nuts but wasn’t particularly keen on the tomato sauce.
We also had falafel but we don’t seem to have a picture of those. These were excellent and a much better example than those we made earlier in the week. These included carrot and broad beans which ours didn’t, not that I’m claiming that as the difference but I was surprised by the addition of broad beans.
This was the perfect amount for three of us for lunch but I’d like to go back and explore the grill menu, if the smoky halloumi is anything to go by then I imagine it’s all very good.
Chorizo and Butter Bean Stew
This was based on a recipe given to me by a friend and entitled “Tuscan Bean Stew”, we used chorizo instead of the suggested pancetta though which probably makes it less Tuscan and more Spanish, hence the renaming.
It was really good, much better than other versions of this we’ve attempted in the past. The small amount of chorizo adds lots of flavour and makes it a very economical dish. Quick too and versatile as I imagine you could add lots of different vegetables if you wanted to.
Chorizo and Butter Bean Stew
125g chorizo, sliced
1 onion, finely diced
1 stick celery, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
1/2 inch ginger, finely chopped
Celery tops
1 tin tomatoes
300ml chicken stock
400g beans (we used dried beans, soaked overnight and boiled for 1.5 hours)
Salt and pepper
Bay leaf
Start by browning the chorizo and then removing from the pan. Add the onion, carrot and celery and sweat for about 15 minutes, or until everything is very soft.
Add the garlic, chilli and ginger and allow to brown briefly. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, bring to the boil, reduce and simmer for 30 minutes.
Home Grown Tomatoes!
A couple of years ago, we tried to grow various sorts of vegetables in our garden but a freak hailstorm killed almost all of them except for a handful of tiny carrots. So, disheartened, last year we didn’t try to grow much in the way of edible plants. This year we weren’t planning to try much either, but the nice people at grownforyou.co.uk sent us six tomato plants earlier in the year in return for us letting them use a picture of the aforementioned tiny carrots on their web site.
However, we weren’t very good parents to the baby plants and only a few survived to be planted outside. Then they grew too big and we hadn’t staked them and they fell over and broke when it was very windy one day. One of the plants was particularly hardy though and even though most of it was horizontal, it still grew some little tomatoes. Today was the day that five of them looked ripe enough to pick, so that is our first tomato harvest in the picture above. There are still fourteen left on the plant, hopefully we’ll be nice enough to it for them all to ripen too. Just think how many tomatoes we would have had had we managed to be better plant parents!
Falafel Failure
We’ve tried to make falafel before. Only once. They came out a rather nasty shade of green, fell apart when we tried to cook them and eventually ended up in the bin. This recipe was recommended to us and, at a bit of a loss as to what to cook this evening, we thought we’d have another go.
These worked well until we came to cook them. They held together better than our previous attempts but were too soft and fell apart when we tried to eat them. They tasted quite good though and we both feel they’re worth another try. More flour, dried beans and less blending of the chickpeas are all things that might improve them.
The original recipe is here, we doubled the spicing and used fresh chilli rather than dried.
Keith Floyd’s Jambalaya
In honour of Keith Floyd, who sadly passed away this week, we thought we would cook something from his repertoire for tonight’s dinner. Not a lot of his recipes seem to exist online and many of those we found called for huge amounts of seafood which isn’t particularly in keeping with our current budget. We eventually found a recipe for jambalaya on the BBC website so that’s what we had this evening.
The recipe was sketchy and some ingredients where listed in the method but not the ingredients list so we weren’t entirely sure of the exact amounts required. We did a quick search of other recipes to find out what was needed and, during our research, we found that Keith’s recipe wasn’t particularly authentic or as appealing as some of the others. Still, that wasn’t really the point so we stuck to his recipe as closely as we could.
The end result? A bit random, not particularly cohesive and somewhat thrown-together, just like I recall most of his recipes being when I watched him on television as a child. I think we probably did him proud, even if it wasn’t the best example of this dish. Here’s to you, Mr Floyd.
I’ll leave you with our favourite quote on Keith Floyd so far, from the Telegraph obituary, kindly pointed out to us by a very dear friend:
“On one occasion he gleefully recalled serving a serially ungrateful diner a carefully cooked beer mat disguised as a breaded escalope of veal. The man ate it without comment but criticised the topping on his crème brûlée.”
The Harwood Arms
We had planned to have lunch at our local fish and chip shop but when we arrived, it was closed. We did what any reasonable people would do in such an instance and headed to the Harwood Arms instead. We’ve actually been meaning to come back for a while, especially since they currently have grouse on the menu, so this was a good excuse. There wasn’t any grouse on the lunchtime menu sadly but we still found plenty to tempt us.
I started with the kipper croquettes from the bar menu which were brilliant. Encased in the same golden crumb as their famous venison scotch eggs, these were crispy on the outside and full of soft mashed potato that was liberally speckled with sweet, smoky kipper.
Stephen opted for the air-dried Cumbrian ham, also from the bar menu. Since we’ve just got back from a week in Cumbria and not sampled this delight, it seemed like the right thing to do. It was very good, salty but not overly so with a subtle sweetness. There was rather a lot of it but it didn’t last long, particularly when paired with the excellent bread.
By this point we were both pretty full and a little worried about having ordered such a large main course. There was nothing we could do about it though so we just dived in and started eating, until we’d finished almost all of the roasted shoulder of roe deer that was in front of us. The meat was perfectly cooked and we didn’t really need the carving knife and fork we were presented as it fell off the bone, the accompanying celeriac mash with parsnip crisps and gravy was rich and creamy and worked well with the meat. There was also a vinegary-salad which cut through the strong flavours very well. We both enjoyed the mushrooms but didn’t think they added much.
A really good lunch and no doubt much better than the planned fish and chips. We’re already trying to work out when we can get back there to sample more of the bar menu.
And the Winner Is…
…Caroline! Congratulations, you win the bottle of Gordon’s gin and the glasses!
We ended up deferring to the PR company behind Gordon’s gin in the end as we couldn’t find a decent random generator online. I’ll be in touch.
Thank you to everyone who entered, this is the first competition we’ve ever run and we were both very excited by the amount of responses.
Lamb Chops, Roast Potatoes and Braised Broad Beans
Stephen very kindly cooked dinner on Saturday night since I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. In return, I offered to cook him dinner this evening. He chose lamb chops with braised green beans. I stuffed up by buying runner beans (because I love them and they won’t be around for too much longer) when I should have known he meant French beans, because he loves those. I also bought broad beans because, like the runner beans, they’re about to go out of season.
As I started to cook, I sliced the top off my thumb off on the stupid, overly-complicated bean slicer and, although I bravely soldiered on, it quickly became clear that Stephen was going to have to step in and help if we were going to eat before midnight. So, not only did I not cook him the dinner he wanted, I also had to get him to help. Rubbish.
I’m glad he did help though because, between the two of us, we ended up with a really good dinner. The lamb chops were coated in rosemary and garlic and then fried, the potatoes roasted, the broad beans braised and the runner beans simply steamed. Stephen made a really good gravy from the meat juices left in the frying pan too which we weren’t planning on originally but brought the whole dish together.
Braised Broad Beans
Bag of broad beans
3 shallots, finely sliced
1 clove garlic
1/2 small glass white wine
Salt and pepper
Lemon juice
Start by boiling the broad beans for about two minutes. Drain, rinse in cold water and remove inner shell.
Sautee shallots and garlic for about 10 minutes or until soft.
Add the broad beans, season and deglaze with the wine. Allow the alcohol to cook out, reduce and simmer for about 10 minutes. Check for seasoning, add a squeeze of lemon juice and serve.
Spaghetti with Leftover Salsa Verde
Stephen went out last night and, as it was so early, we didn’t have time for dinner. He decided on a quick dish of spaghetti with grated cheese, one of his favourite comfort foods. Just as the pasta was ready, I remembered there was some leftover salsa verde in the fridge so he threw that in too. It worked well, sort of like a fishy pesto.
L’Artisan du Chocolate Space Collection
Look at him! He’s so cute that he’s been in my possession for three days now and I still haven’t been able to bring myself to eat him. Actually, Stephen wouldn’t let me eat him anyway, such as his love for all things space-related. He used to collect space Lego, did you know that?
This is the latest offering from L’Artisan du Chocolate and is available in shops from today. As well as the cute spaceman, there are also some brilliant chocolate gingers which you can see at the bottom of the picture. I wasn’t so attached to those and managed to force myself to try them, the ginger hit works well with the bitter chocolate and the ginger fibres provide a pleasing mouth-feel. They come packaged in a really cool cardboard spaceship.
