Another Food Blog

They say it has the best view of any restaurant in Cambridge, not because it overlooks the river and Mill Pond, but because the hideous concrete University (graduate) Centre cannot be seen from inside it. It does, however, have a good restaurant which I’ve not visited in months. I began with the “mackerel two ways,” which featured smoked mackerel paté and a mackerel fishcake. My dining companion ordered the asparagus. Both were nice enough, if unexceptional.

For the main courses I chose a roasted monkfish with scallops, and my fellow-diner went for the poached salmon fillet. Again, both workmanlike, but not in the ‘remarkable’ class.

I suppose the same was true of the wine – a nice New Zealand Nobilo sauvignon blanc. Very good, very reliable at 12.5 percent, and with a sharp fruit up front that mellowed on the edges of the tongue. The verdict? Reasonable food, good wine, fantastic view.

Back to London’s Gerrard Street for a really good up-market Chinese restaurant, the Haozhan.  Their seafood is so good, especially the cod.  We began with scallops (photo) and soft-shell crab, and went on to have champagne cod and honey cod, both extraordinary with delicate fish lightly seasoned.  We shared a bowl of rice (and didn’t eat all of it) and a bottle of Eagle’s Cliff chenin blanc (which we did drink).  I keep going back to this place for the obvious reason that it is superb.

Yes, it’s summer pudding time and I’ve been making some spectacularly good ones, plus a below par one when I simmered the fruit in too much water.  The good ones involve bringing summer berries to the boil with two tablespoons of crème de cassis, two of lemon juice and a quarter of a pint of orange squash.  The recipe calls for two ounces of sugar, but I cut that to a mere pinch and find it makes for better puddings.

While the fruit simmers to softness, I cut the edges off sliced brown bread and line a pyrex pudding bowl with bread, including the bottom.  In goes the fruit together with a fair amount of the liquid to soak into the bread.  I put bread on top to make a complete cover, add a circle of foil, and put weights on the top.  After a few hours I inspect it for any bare patches of bread, and use a flat-bladed knife to slide down and create a small gap into which I pour more juice.  A later session covers the top similarly, though with no more weights because it would be too sticky.  Of course, it being a summer pudding, it is served chilled.  It can go with yoghurt, crème fraiche or ice-cream, but I’ve been finding it totally delicious just on its own.

I decided at the last minute to feed my guest in rather than at a restaurant, so that meant using whatever I had in.  Right, a quiche.  Pastry made extra quick with no embellishments.  Cheese to line it, then chopped onions and the rest of that thin-sliced chorizo cut into quarters with scissors.  Then creamed spinach, and then the egg and milk.  Eeek!  No milk!  I did have dried milk, dried goat’s milk, so I quickly whisked up about a quarter pint and blended in two eggs.  I was going to give it 40-45 minutes, but it was clearly done after 35, so out it came to rest for 5 minutes.  Meanwhile I sautéed some new potatoes in butter and oil to serve alongside.  It worked well.

The dessert was equally rushed, consisting of the berries left over from a summer pudding I’d made.  They had goat’s milk yoghurt on top and the barest sprinkle of cane sugar.  I’m sure we’d have done no better at a restaurant.

The Fort St George in England is a very old Cambridge pub, and very popular, too, with its large outdoor area.  Their specials usually include mixed roast meats from their carvery, but this was a warm summery day, and that seemed like a lot of food.  There were two of us, both tempted by the smoked duck and chicken salad.  It was perfect for the day, light but very tasty.  There was a lot of meat without the vast surplus of lettuce leaves that pub salads often feature.  This was crisp, and dressed to complement the smoky taste of the duck and chicken.  We both thought it excellent.  Only afterwards did the thought occur that it might have been intended as a starter course.

I ate lunch at the Sanctuary on Tothill Street near St James Park tube station.  Although I was attracted by the board outside offering butternut squash soup, when inside I ordered the lemon sole instead.  It was workmanlike and quite delicate with new potatoes and green beans.  With it I drank some Conway Hill, a New Zealand Marlborough sauvignon blanc (13 percent).  Wow, it didn’t hide itself, but hit the palate full frontal with a sharp tang.  It surprised me because I’ve come to expect perfection every time from New Zealand sauvignon blanc.  This was somewhat too intense, though nice enough as one grew accustomed to it.

It was simple enough.  I rolled puff pastry into an oval shape, and scored a line half an inch in from the edge.  I pricked within the line, but not outside, to let it puff up into a border.  Within the score line I spread a mix of cranberry sauce and goat’s milk yogurt to make a pink base for the fruit.  On top I carefully arranged cherries, cut into two and with the stones removed, and with blacker ones around the outside, and redder ones to the middle.  A sprinkle of cane sugar on top, and beaten egg brushed around the rim.

I cooked it until it looked done (about 20 minutes), then served it with more goat’s milk yoghurt.  Nice tart, nicely tart.