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.
Venison and Red Wine Pie
On our way back from the New Forest, we tried to buy some venison for dinner but couldn’t find any anywhere. Each shop we tried told us that they were expecting their delivery shortly but nothing had arrived so far. In the end, we gave up and bought some from our local butcher when we got back to London. It turned out that their supplier was actually from the New Forest and it seemed silly to be buying such a local product around the corner from where we live but at least we tried.
We decided we would make pie, it’s Stephen’s birthday and pie is his favourite. Since I didn’t bake him a cake, I decorated the pie instead which I think he probably preferred. Our pie dish is rather too large for two people though (which I mention each time I use it but always forget until it’s too late), hence the sinkage. It didn’t affect the taste though which was richly meaty with a background warmth from the ginger and juniper. This would have worked well as a casserole too but why you would want to eat casserole when you can have pastry I don’t know.
We would usually have mashed potatoes with pie but we had been talking about boulangere potatoes recently so decided to have those. It didn’t seem like an obvious pairing to me (we usually eat these with grilled fish or meat) but it worked well with the soft potato being the perfect vehicle for the redcurrant-heavy gravy. We were planning to roast some parsnips to go alongside the pie but ended up slicing those and adding them to the potatoes which worked brilliantly and resulted in less washing-up too.
Venison and Red Wine Pie
Serves Two
500g venison shoulder, diced
Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
1 large onion, sliced into half-moons
2 stalks celery, chopped
250g mushrooms, chopped into bite-sized pieces
Sprig of thyme
2 bay leaves
1/2 tsp dry ginger
1 tsp coriander seeds, crushed
Glass red wine
500ml beef stock
1 tbsp juniper berries, crushed
Start by tossing the venison in the seasoned flour and then brown in batches until the pieces have taken on a dark colour and the outsides have begun to char. Remove to a plate.
In the same pan, add a little more oil if necessary and soften the onions, celery and mushrooms with some salt and pepper and the thyme for about 5-7 minutes. Add the bay leaves, ginger and coriander, stir so everything is coated and cook for another couple of minutes.
Return the meat to the pan with the onions and mushrooms and add a glass of red wine. Bring to the boil and allow to bubble until the alcohol has evaporated – about a minute or so. Add the stock and the juniper berries and season. Once everything has reached boiling point, reduce the heat and simmer for about three hours.
Remove the meat to a pie dish and leave to cool completely, fishing out and discarding the bay leaves and thyme stalks. Leave any excess liquid in the pan for the gravy.
Top the meat with pastry, wash with egg (we didn’t have any eggs hence the slightly anaemic look to our crust) and then bake at 175 degrees for about 30 minutes.
Venison, Red Wine and Redcurrant Gravy
1 tsp mustard
1 tsp redcurrant jelly
1/2 tsp red wine vinegar
100ml red wine
150ml beef stock
To the leftover cooking liquid add the mustard, redcurrant jelly, the red wine vinegar and the red wine. If you don’t have a huge amount of liquid then add the red beef stock too. Bring to the boil, reduce and simmer for about 15 minutes.
Taste as you go and adjust to your liking, you want it to be reasonably sharp with a good kick from the mustard so that it works as a contrast to the richness of the pie filling.
Thicken with cornflour if necessary.
Hotel Terravina
I first heard about Hotel TerraVina online some time last year. It’s a boutique hotel situated in the New Forest and was devised by the people who put together the Hotel du Vin chain. The emphasis is on good food and wine (two of our favourite things) and while staying there, you can also learn the art of sabrage.
When we were in Champagne a few years ago, we saw lots of people taking the tops off Champagne bottles with swords but never got the chance to try it ourselves. It seemed like the perfect birthday present for Stephen so I booked it and tried to keep it a secret until the day arrived.
I’m not very good at keeping secrets but I managed this one and on Wednesday afternoon, we drove down to the hotel where we were greeted warmly by the staff before checking into a beautifully decorated bedroom with a view over the nearby forest. The rooms are all named after different types of wine and are all individually decorated, many with roll-top baths in the rooms. The emphasis is definitely on quality with handmade toiletries from nearby Wiltshire in the bathroom and bespoke furniture in the bedroom made by local craftsmen.
As lovely as the room was, we were keen to investigate the well-appointed bar that we had spotted on our arrival. After perusing the open-faced wine cellar, we chose a glass from the extensive and well-researched wine list that specialised in Californian wine. Not the nasty, over-oaked type that was once associated with California but the perfectly balanced, full-bodied examples that we both love. After finishing our wine, we were led outside where Stephen was shown how to use the sabre to remove the Champagne cork by one of the hotel’s expert sommeliers. After the short lesson, it was Stephen’s turn and he did a great job of taking the cork off while making the whole thing look very easy.
Back in the warmth of the bar and while enjoying our Champagne, we were presented with the evening’s menu which had a good selection of both meat and fish dishes (there were probably some vegetarian dishes too but we didn’t register those) with a heavy bias on seasonal and local produce. We struggled to choose as everything sounded wonderful and it was obvious that a lot of time and thought had been put into creating a compact menu with quality ingredients.
I opted for the lasagne of crab and langoustine to start and Stephen chose the loin of rabbit. The presentation of both dishes was beautiful and the flavours certainly didn’t disappoint. Crab and langoustine lasagne is one of my favourite starters and the execution of this dish was stunning. The basil added a slightly unusual note that I hadn’t come across in this dish before but, coupled with the lemongrass, was a fragrant compliment to the sweet and perfectly cooked fish.
Stephen’s rabbit dish was heartier than my fish but was well balanced and just the right size to not be too heavy. Even though I’m not a big fan of beetroot, I could tell that this worked well with the earthy rabbit and was a great nod towards the change in season.
Neither of us could decide between the pork and the venison main courses so we had both with the intention of sharing. I preferred the venison and Stephen the pork so the decision was made for us quite quickly. The standout for me was the slow roast venison which just melted in the mouth. We fought over that as we did the black pudding that accompanied Stephen’s pork: a great combination and one I’ll definitely try again at home.
By the end of the two courses we were both reaching capacity but were so enjoying our time in the restaurant that we ordered a plate of cheese to share which we polished off with some dessert wine. I can’t remember what all the cheeses were but they were the perfect way to finish off a brilliant meal.
Things got a little hazy after that, for which I’ll blame the absinthe fountain. It was great fun and made even more enjoyable by the knowledgeable and charming barman who was happy to answer our questions. The full English breakfast we ate the next morning was definitely required to heal our heads and was prepared with just the same level of care and attention as the food had been the night before.
It was a brilliant trip and I can’t fault the food, the wine or the service. Since it was a gift, I can’t reveal the price here but it was great value and if you’re looking for a slightly unusual way to celebrate then I would definitely recommend the sabrage break. The hotel also offers a number of other wine breaks often with visiting winemakers which we hope to return for next year.
Spaghetti with Tomato Sauce and Scallops
Stephen cooked this last night and I’m sure he won’t mind me saying that it didn’t turn out quite as planned. He had intended to use prawns but couldn’t find any and used scallops instead. The delicate flavour of the scallops didn’t really stand up to the tomato sauce and they became a bit lost, which we should have realised really. It would have worked well with prawns though so perhaps we’ll give this another go next week.
While this was far from a disaster, one thing we did learn was that blitzing the tomatoes before cooking them results in a really creamy sauce. Possibly too creamy when paired with fish but brilliant with the bacon. In a different dish, the addition of some cheese with that sauce and that bacon would have been great.
Smoked Mackerel with Butter Beans and Kale
I cooked these beans on Sunday with the intention of adding some white fish today. At the last minute, Stephen suggested we have mackerel instead and that worked out much better than I imagine the white fish would have.
The mustard in the beans cut through the oiliness of the mackerel very well and the smoky fish was complimented by the sweet leeks. The kale was leftover from Sunday and just stirred through as a bit of an after-thought but actually brought the whole thing together, adding a bitter, iron-like note which complimented all the other flavours.
Having the beans and the kale already cooked meant this was more of an assembly-job than anything else, we tend to keep smoked mackerel in the fridge anyway and there are usually beans of some variety in the freezer so I can see this becoming a regular dish. Great for lunches too.
Butter Beans with Leeks and Mustard
Serves Four
250g dried beans (or you can use tinned)
Olive oil, for cooking
2 leeks, sliced
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Olive oil, for dressing
Salt and pepper
2 tsps mustard
If you’re using dried beans, then cook these. Timings can vary but allow up to two hours and check often to make sure there is enough water in the saucepan.
While the beans are cooking, soften the leeks in some olive oil. You want them to brown a little and start to caramelise, about 25 minutes.
About five minutes before the leeks are cooked, add the garlic and cook for five minutes.
Add the leeks to the beans and stir so that everything is mixed. Add some olive oil, the mustard and season.
Slow Roast Shoulder of Pork – Leftovers
We only cooked a quarter shoulder yesterday and even though we ate plenty, we were still left with enough pork to serve another four people. A pretty good position to be in, in my opinion. I love leftovers and try as often as I can to make sure we have some, if they don’t get used for lunches the next day then they’re useful for dinner.
The addition of Stephen’s Special Sauce to the leftover pork turned a good thing into something brilliant. The flavour of the sauce managed to permeate the already-cooked pork really well which is not always an easy thing to achieve. Heaped onto to warmed wraps and loaded with lettuce, peppers, spring onions and cheese made for a speedy and satisfying dinner.
