I drank some more of the Lehmann wine. This time it was not to mark the anniversary of the collapse of the similarly-named investmant bank (which lacks the final ‘n’) but to celebrate a remarkably tasty pizza at Ask, the branch in Bridge Street, Cambridge.
It featured lots of mozzarella and parma ham, and called for a very robust Australian. The Lehmann Weighbridge, coming in at a hefty 14.5 percent, proved equal to the task
Having tried creme fraiche on my first pumpkin pie of the season and found it not sweet enough, I tried something different for the remainder of it. I heated the last piece of pie in the oven, and made custard to go with it. I added a half spoonful of sugar to the custard (something I don’t normaqlly do). To my surprise it worked, giving a nice creamy finish to it. I still don’t think it goes as well as fresh cream, but it was nice enouigh…
I did check to see if Waitrose were really offering Orca Bay New Zealand sauvignon blanc for less than a fiver. They were not, but they were offering a New Zealand sauvignon blanc called Five Fathoms for just under five pounds. I bought some, and was pleased to fnd it very drinkable with an uo-front taste of melon and a little grapefruit. Definitely good value…
I went for lunch at Pembroke College. Unlike formal hall dinners with gowns and rituals, these are very informal buffet affairs. There was a huge range of choices, many of them healthy fare, but some calculated to fill hungry students. I went for the very traditional fish, chips and peas. It was very good, with nice crunchy batter, tasty chips and good peas. I had tartare sauce with it, as tradition stipulates. I suppose I should have gone for the ice-cream, but I followed it with some very good cheeses – especially the Stilton – and biscuits.
Now the clocks have changed, it feels distinctly autumnal. A little over a year ago, I wrote about what is a rather good dish for this time of year. The brisket had been in the freezer for a while – I bought it Waitrose at a knock-down price as it was the end of a joint. I cooked it rather simply, but first, something else.
Marks and Spencer have been running a promotion – “Dine in for £10″ – where you get a main course for two, side dish, dessert, and bottle of wine all for £10. I’ve had some good deals in the past – often the main course is a whole chicken, and I’ve pricked up some that come in at around £8 – so a big saving. This time, it was “Dine in for 4 for £15.” The main course options included chicken and beef. The chickens were only about £9, but I managed to find a beef roasting joint at just over £11! Along with it, I got a bottle of wine (now on the rack) and a berry and cherry jelly. The final part was a selection of vegetables for roasting – red onion, potatoes, swede, parsnips, and baby carrots.
So, to the brisket. First I browned it all over, and set it aside. Into the pan then went some of the red onion from the selection and a whole additional onion. Then went some baby carrots and the diced swede. The beef went back in, as did water to mostly cover, some tomato puree, and half a bottle of Ruddles County. It simmered for a couple of hours, and then went in the fridge over night. The next day, for dinner, I heated the whole thing back, up with a little instant gravy powder to add more flavour and thicken the sauce. It was good – alongside I tucked into steamed kale and some more of the vegetable selection, roasted this time as the instructions suggested.
It was unusual in that I added a herby tomato sauce to the minced lamb, plus some fried chopped onions. This gave it something of the character of a thick Bolognese sauce. I added pepper and lemon, an then covered it with mashed potatoes. I grooved the top with a fork, and put flecks of butter across it to melt and form a thin butter crust. I gave it 20-25 minutes in the oven, and served it with a herby tomato and mushroom salad with torn basil and chopped ends of fennel. It’s certainly a different way to make shepherd’s pie, and while I won’t do it regularly, it makes for a pleasant change.
So, there are two Chophouses in town now. Some of the staff seem to have headed up the hill to the new one, perhaps keen to help get it off to a flying start. We picked a bottle of Sangiovese to drink whilst we looked through the menu. Whilst – as I was once told by an American physicist is very British – much like the Chophouse’s menu. It’s good to see that the menu brings many of the dishes from the original location to the new location, and the simple interior has been carried forward too.
We started with the potted venison, which was excellent, but rather more liquid than I had expected. There were chunks of venison and the whole thing was sealed with butter that had picked up a gamey flavour. This butter, it turned out, was much better than the plain butter that came with the bread.
For main course, my friend went for the calf’s liver. I went for sausages from the board. These were good: pork, with peppercorn, and stilton. The sauces and mashes seemed to be a different selection from the King’s Street branch. I picked port sauce, as I figured it would work well with the stilton (it did.) As a final point, I found possibly the best mashed potato recipe ever created. Black pudding mash. What a great idea! It was smooth and creamy, with big chunks of the Chophouse’s home-made black pudding. Fantastic.
I had some pumpkin purée left over after my pie, and decided to make pumpkin soup. I had half a head of fennel left, so I chopped that and fried it alongside half an onion. When these were soft, but not brown, I put them to one side while I reheated the liquid left over from boiling the pumpkin to soften it, and dissolved a cube of chicken stock into it. For the spices I used a pinch of brown sugar, a half teaspoonful of nutmeg, a quarter one of cloves and of cinnamon, and some twirls of black pepper, When this had all simmered with the onion and fennel, I zapped it for thirty seconds in the blender. Finally I reheated it with a third of a pint of milk, and simmered it again before serving. It makes a pleasant, warm soup for a cold day.
I had the moules frittes at the Abbey, and this time took a photo. The quantity is such the French would sniff at, but is about right for my lunch. Tasty, succulent, but one problem: the lovely liquid is left with nothing to eat it with. Next time I shall order bread to mop it up with.
I bought my first pumpkin of the season. Instead of buying a whole small one as I usually do, I bought a slice of pumpkin from the market. Before Halloween most of the pumpkins available are for carving rather than eating, so I knew I was getting some ‘eating’ pumpkin. I scraped away the seeds and pulp, cut off the rind, and chopped it into pieces about an inch big. I sometimes roast these to soften them, sometimes freeze and thaw, but this time I boiled, carefully saving the water.
When it was soft I zapped it in a blender with just enough of the liquid to make a pumpkin purée, saving the rest of the liquid for a later soup. I whisked up 2 large eggs with an ounce of sugar and a tablespoon of golden syrup, a big dollop of crème fraiche and a quarter pint of milk. Then I added the spices. There were one and a half teaspoons of cinnamon, with about a teaspoon of ginger and a quarter teaspoon of cloves, plus a pinch of salt.
I poured it into a pastry base I’d made – my shortcrust mix of 4 oz plain flour plus a heaped dessert spoon of bran and a level teaspoon of baking powder, mixed with goose fat and sunflower spread to make a crumble, then just enough water to make it a dough. Once the topping filled it, it went into a 175 oven for about 40 minutes. The test was to slide in a knife blade. When it comes out clean, with nothing sticking to it, the pie is done. I served it with crème fraiche, but pouring cream would have been better if I’d had any. It made a nice dessert: my first pumpkin pie of the season, but there will be more.