Another Food Blog

I was putting together a quick lunch and opted for pasta. I had some Giovanni Rena’s cappelletti with prosciutto crudo and cheese. I popped some in salted boiling water for 3 minutes, and drained it. Then I drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. But wait a moment! This had the wrong consistency, and certainly the wrong smell. I looked at the bottle. Oh dear, out of my three different types of virgin olive oil, I had picked up a fourth. It was in fact Grappa di Amarone, an Italian liqueur coming in at 43 percent alcohol!

Hmm. What to do? I reached forward to rinse it off under boiling water, then paused. Why not go ahead anyway? I might discover a great dish. I added my olive oil and a few turns of pepper, and tipped it into a bowl. How was it? It was like pasta with grappa poured over it. It was nice enough and certainly different. No, my mistake didn’t lead me to discover penicillin or some exotic must-have dish, but it was pleasant enough, if somewhat eccentric.

I decided to try one of Nigella’s Express recipes and fancied something a little sweet. Fortunately, I had caster sugar, golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda, so 100g of the first and four tablespoons of the second went into a pan, were mixed, then heated until a uniform bubbling liquid the same colour as maple syrup. This off the heat, and I whisked in one and a half teaspoons of bicarbonate of soda, which instantly made it a fluffy, airy mixture. This then poured directly onto some re-usable baking parchment and left until cool, as in the picture. Then it was peeled off and cracked into shards, ready to eat. Sweet and delicious! I bet this is fantastic mixed with vanilla ice-cream. Nigella, by the way, calls this ‘Hokey Pokey’, claiming that ‘Cinder Toffee’ is the Newcastle name for it.

This one is a vintage fortified shiraz from d’Arenberg. It’s a McLaren Vale ‘04, at 17.5 percent. The back label tells how lovingly it was made, but taste is what matters. It’s not very good, I’m afraid. It’s too sweet, slightly furry on the tongue, and with no sign of the sharp clean tang that characterizes a good vintage port or Madeira – or which notably contribute to the appeal of Grant Burge 10 year old tawny. Furthermore it advertises a sediment, and comes as a dark wine in a dark bottle – difficult to decant. I must invite friends round to sample the strange taste (and finish it off for me).

The Terrace was a great discovery. It’s a restaurant in the middle of Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the largest public square in London, and named after the nearby Lincoln’s Inn, one of the four ancient Inns of Court. The restaurant’s chef, Patrick Williams, has previously worked at the Ivy, the Mirabelle and the Criterion. It was a pleasant sunny day, and my table was at a window overlooking the tennis court. There’s a section outside, but it seemed less quiet than inside.

I began with spiced salmon with a warm potato salad in saffron mayonnaise, and very good it was. I went on to have the pan-fried seabass, which came with rissoles made up of tomatoes and peppers with a spring onion dressing. I thought it just right for the day, though I couldn’t manage all of it. The wine was a Marlborough New Zealand sauvignon blanc whose label I didn’t get a good look at. A first class lunch at a rather pleasant place to eat.

Or the budget equivalent, at least! Seeing as the Reserva Cava was enjoyable, I thought I’d try the Rosé Cava from Tesco. It clocked in at 12%, just right, I’d say, and had a familiar if slightly bitter nose, and a very fruity body, mostly of redcurrants. The fizz was sufficient, although short-lived, and the finish was a bit metallic, but otherwise perfectly tolerable. Definitely recommended at its £3.99 price tag and something that looks great poured into flutes on your outdoors summer table, which is precisely how I enjoyed it, having just repotted a rose bush and watered the herbs.

I never usually think of steak as an option, but Sainsbury’s had two thin Irish steaks at £2.99, and I’d had an awful lot of seafood recently. I thought that the simplest is sometimes most effective, so I ate one of them flash fried with a salad. The salad had lettuce, purple onions, cherry tomatoes, cucumber and cheese. I added a boiled egg only after tossing the rest with some Caesar dressing, and added sea salt only to the egg.

I flash fried the steak in a little oil, giving each side only seconds to brown. Thin though it was, I managed to get it a reddish-pink in the middle. It was moist, tender and juicy, and I ate it with Dijon mustard. The wine was Hardy’s shiraz/cabernet blend at 14 percent.

I’d bought some plums on the market at £1.50 for 2 lbs, which gave me 11 of them. They were large and dark, ands I stewed them with a spoon of caster sugar to make a huge bowl. After the steak and salad I ate some cold stewed plums with goat’s milk yoghurt. This was a very simple meal, but it was very effective. And very nice.

The leek that I had carefully watered and cared for was ready for the pot. It had spread light green shoots across the draining board and behind the taps. I decided to ring the changes on my leek and potato soup. I chopped up the leek and simmered it for 10 minutes with black pepper in a pint and a half of water and half a vegetable stock cube. I added powdered mashed potato (my usual cheat), but not as much as usual, just enough to give it that furry, potatoey feel to the tongue. Then I added a good measure of lemon juice and two dollops of crème fraiche light. When this was all mixed in I let it stand for an hour before re-heating to serve it.

It was different and no less pleasant. It actually conjured up the Greek soup avgolemono, even though lemon was about the only ingredient in common. It was tangy, creamy, and tasted strongly of leek, as you might suppose, but very lemony as well. I’m adding this as a regular variation on my leek and potato soup.

It was a bottle, for £1.66 at Tesco, of Henney’s Frome Valley Dry Cider. I chose it because of its intensely golden colour and its 6% alcohol content. I was right in thinking this somewhat higher than average strength would lend weight to the flavour. It tasted strongly of fresh apples, but with a slightly sweetened flavour, a bit more like the apple flavours you get in an apple pie, including cinnamon. The company says it likes to keep things simple, and combined with high quality ingredients, this philosophy has helped them win many awards. Their apples are local to Herefordshire, and they shine right through this drink, along with the sunbeams in which I sat and enjoyed it.

This time I phoned up to book in advance. On yet another warm evening most diners wanted the luxury of an outside table, but I chose the rather quieter surroundings inside. It’s a curious construction of metal and glass, giving it something of the feel of a greenhouse, and with a long bar running through it.

My friend had a new slimline Casio camera to try out. It has 3x optical zoom, surprising for such a slim job, and was rated at 10 megapixels. It even has a mode especially for taking pictures of food! The shot from our table (above) came out surprisingly clear, given the depth of field.

I ordered grilled monkfish with herb and garlic butter. It came as a few goujons on a bed of carrot and pok choi vegetables, both of which were cooked just right, rather than overcooked as so often happens. The monkfish was good, but not as good as the rather excellent stuff I’d eaten at Seabass. My friend ordered the halibut, also grilled, with a side dish of mushy peas. I tried it and thought it excellent, nicely moist and tender.

We chose a rather unusual Chilean cabernet sauvignon rosé, J Bouchon at 14 percent. It was a vivid cherry colour with a very strong fruity taste. It’s a glorious wine, but a little strong tasting for delicate fish.

I tried to get into Fish! Near Southwark Cathedral, but it was a warm evening and the same idea had occurred to everyone, so there was a significant queue. London being what it is, I was able to transfer within minutes to Seabass on James Street. Both seafood restaurants are only minutes away from Tube stations on the Jubilee Line. I’d been to Seabass before and rated it very highly, and confirmed that view.

I began with taramasalata which had a nice home-made feel about it, The authentic Greek version should use carp’s roe, but some versions use cod’s roe. This was cod’s roe, but very good. I went on to have monkfish, a favourite of mine. I’d expected medaillons of it but no, it was a large section of monkfish tail, fortunately without the membrane. It was gorgeous, soft and moist. In fact it was beautifully prepared. The wine I had with it was a sancerre, a Domaine G Millet ‘05 at 12.5 percent, with an up-front taste of grapefruit, then lemon.