Another Food Blog

The Evans family have recently gone wheat free. Although the occasional baguette is tempting when dining out, we are persevering at home.

This process has actually been a little easier than I would have thought. The purchase of a bread maker (more in future blogs) has made us wonder why we have been eating mass produced bread for so long and with a little imagination we have not missed out on much. Attempts at wheat free pastry and crumble have all been pretty successful.

A great added extra is the weight loss that this has produced!

I have been playing around for ideas for quick suppers and have come up with two versions on the same theme. For the posh supper, melt some Boursin cheese in a frying pan with a little single cream. When this is melted and starting to bubble take it off the heat and add some chopped smoked salmon, the heat of the sauce will cook the fish very quickly. Then add the sauce to some cooked spaghetti or tagliatelle, mix well and serve with some crusty bread.

For the very day version, fry a little bacon first, then remove it from the pan. Add to the pan some Philadelphia cheese with a little skimmed milk. When the sauce begins to bubble take it off the heat, add the bacon and again pour on to cooked spaghetti/tagliatelle. Both of these taste great and take no time to make.

Before Christmas we were lucky enough to have a family dinner in the wonderful dining room at the ritz. They do a fantastic black tie dinner and dance.

The food was wonderful as you can see from the picture of the lobster bisque. However, my moan is that I have a four year old daughter who I am trying to get interested in food. She loves going to restaurants but time and time again we are greeted by the same menu, even at the Ritz! Fish fingers (or goujons), chicken nuggets (or goujons), penne pasta with a tomato sauce and sausages and mash.

Come on restaurants, please, have some imagination, try to put something on your menus that will challenge the children’s taste buds a bit!

Not liking to waste food I was casting around for ideas to use up some left over roast lamb when my mind went back to things that my Grandmothers used to cook. Rissoles I said out loud, much to the surprise of Tim who was trying to read the Sunday papers.

So to work. Out came the old metal hand mincer that needed to be screwed to the kitchen table and after 45 minutes strenuous exercise and a quick count to make sure I still had all of my fingers, I had a nice pile of minced lamb. To this was added finely chopped onion, breadcrumbs, seasoning, herbs and an egg all off which needed to be squished together by hand. Then the mixture was formed in to several balls which were flattened slightly to make them easier to cook. The rissoles were then dredged in seasoned flour and fried in hot oil until hot and slightly crisp at the edges. To accompany this I made a spicy tomato sauce and some couscous.

With Christmas not too far away I decided that it was time to make some space in the freezer and first to be used up was some beef mince and sheets of lasagna. The meat sauce was made by frying off some white onions, browning the mince then adding chopped tomatoes, red wine, seasoning and some herbs. This was all then covered and simmered for just over and hour. As I was in a hurry I bought a Sainsburys fresh cheese sauce (the long life bottled stuff always seems to have a strange taste), The lasagne sheets were cooked in boiling water for about 5 minutes and then drained and assembly of the lasagne began. Meat first which was covered with the pasta sheets, then a couple of layers of meat and cheese sauces separated by the pasta finishing with a top layer of cheese sauce sprinkled with parmesan cheese. This was then cooked for about 40 minutes in a hot oven. It needed to be served with no more than a simple green salad.

Family friend Antoine returned from France with a gift of terrine of foie gras. The only problem was how to use it to do it justice.

We decided to use it to accompany fillet steak. The Steaks were fried to preference and then put aside to rest, good sized slices of foie gras were then fried until soft and slightly crisp at the edges then removed from the pan. The steak was placed on top of a slice of toast and the foie gras on top of that, and while assembly was happening the meat juices in the pan had been joined by brandy, port and madeira and bubbled to reduce. All of this was served with dauphonoise potatoes and baby veg.

Conversation at dinner was very light as we all just savoured this real treat.

The Evans family are always on the lookout for new restaurants to try out, so a recent birthday gave us the opportunity to visit Wodka in South Kensington.

It was a resounding success for all. For me the first course of potato, cheese and spring onion dumplings followed by a main of duck on red cabbage was just perfect.

The menu was a great success for all of the family whose ages ranged from 3 years old to 77 with the blinis and goulash being highly recommended. My only criticism is that their dessert menu lacks a little inspiration.

Very recently my husband had the grave misfortune of taking my young daughter to breakfast at Partridges of Sloane Street – or more accurately Chelsea given the main store is now just off the Kings Road. He has been visiting these local general grocers with their more recently added café since the 1960s, and putting to the side a noticeable drop in standards over the last couple of years, nothing could have prepared him for such a repugnant experience.

Forget the fact that he asked for an English breakfast whereupon he received something completely different – we all make mistakes. Forget that it took more than 40 minutes for a very simple order to arrive. These things happen and, well, there were customers on one of the other tables! No, what was such a shame was the fact that what eventually did arrive could only be described by him as a mound of utterly cold and gelatinous yellow stuff, which, according to the waitress was supposed to be scrambled eggs. Reportedly, to the side were four pieces of totally uncooked and un-browned bread that was officiously described as “toast”! On picking up a slice, he discovered that the bread was utterly stale and that it should have been thrown away days ago.

Sadly, this tip of the iceberg experience highlights a more troubling fact about this once proud business. Having been granted the branding advantage of a Royal Warrant, one suspects that Partridges is not only resting on past glories but that it now appears to be largely devoid of any effective quality control. For what emerged from the kitchen was symptomatic of a business that is no longer worthy of a Royal Warrant. Instead, it is becoming an embarrassment to London and anyone concerned with the very basics of quality food.

I would love to be able to urge readers of this blog to try out the book shop ‘Books for Cooks’ in Notting Hill. However, after my experience there this morning I find myself advising friends not to set foot in the place.

While I was browsing, with the intention of spending a considerable amount of money, I overhead the sales staff making some very rude and disparaging remarks about old people getting in the way of the cup cake stall that they had set up outside.

These ‘old people’ were my parents-in-law who were helping my daughter to chose a cake. I would have thought that in these uncertain economic times the owners of this shop would want to attract all of the custom that they could, or maybe they should just be honest about their intentions and rename their business ‘Books for Young Cooks Only.

I have written to the owners of the shop with my complaint. I will keep you informed as to whether they can be bothered to reply.

This salad is one of my quick stand by starters that is always well received. Start by arranging some green leaves on the plate and dress with a simple balsamic dressing. Then add some quails eggs, mandarine segments and finally some toasted pine nuts (for a change you could swap these for apple slices and walnuts).

Apart from the fiddliness of shelling quails eggs this is easy to prepare and very tasty.