Another Food Blog

I associate Pimms with summer.  It is on sale in winter, but I never saw anyone drink it then.  Its popularity seems to have increased to such an extent that Sainsbury’s now offers its own brand equivalent, Pitchers, which seems to have pretty similar ingredients and the same alcoholic strength (25 percent).  My recipe is simple.  I measure out a double shot of Pimms and a single shot of gin (and call the result a “fortified Pimms”).  Next I put in the fruit, and sometimes cucumber or mint.  I cut the fruit so its surfaces can interact with the drink.  I might hull and halve a strawberry, halve and stone a cherry, and add a raspberry.  Next come two cubes of ice – the Pimms has been kept in the fridge anyway.  I then fill the glass most of the way with diet lemonade.  That’s it – instant summer in a glass.  For parties or barbecues I sometimes make up a jug, but using the same proportions.

Well, not totally straightforward.  For one thing I never use white bread, and I nearly always used sliced bread.  I prefer wholemeal medium sliced, and preferably the stuff that stays fresh longer that Sainsbury’s sell.  One version has light mayonnaise spread onto each slice, then sliced cucumber, smoked salmon, lemon juice and black pepper.  Another has both slices done with sunflower spread (or butter) and Dijon mustard, before adding honey roast ham and cheddar cheese.  Some time ago I went from cutting horizontally to cutting diagonally, sometimes twice, to give triangular sandwiches.  Often I mix the two, especially when packing for a picnic.  I usually double wrap everything in clear film, only opening each pack as it is about to be eaten, thus keeping wasps at bay.

You go to the Greencoat Boy (in Greencoat Place, Westminster) for pub food, not wine bar food.  That said, the food is usually appetizing and there are some quite good wines.  There were two sausages on offer, Toulouse or pork and apple.  I chose Toulouse.  It came with peas and mashed potato, which was quite acceptable.  English mustard and wholegrain mustard were on offer, so I took both.

I could only manage about a third of the mash, but the sausages were tasty and I ate them all.  The wine we ordered was Tintara, an Australian ’07 shiraz at 14 percent.

I had a couple of comice pears and an apple from Sainsbury’s basics range.  I bought in some yet-to-ripen plums and some luscious black cherries.  I peeled the pears, but not the other fruit.  I cored the apple and pears and chopped up the fruit into about half-inch pieces.  I halved the plums, removed the stones, and cut the halves into three pieces each.  I halved the cherries and removed the stones.  The whole lot was simmered for about ten minutes with an inch of boiling water and just a sprinkle of cane sugar.  I cooled it and served it cold with a dollop of half fat crème fraiche.  It was very good, with the cherries adding great tanginess to the taste.

I had one piece left of chicken I’d marinated in peri-peri sauce.  I cut it into pieces and seared them in oil on the stove top.  I added half a pint of chicken stock from a cube, then potatoes I’d par-boiled for 8 minutes.  Then I added the peppers, red, green and orange, and the mushrooms.  Finally I put in a shake of Mrs Dash’s mixed herbs and spices, ten turns of black pepper and a quarter spoon of cayenne pepper.  I brought it all to the boil, then let it simmer for about ten minutes.  It was deliciously spicy.  I drank a Spier pinotage, South African, at 14 percent, alongside it.

Two of us lunching at Balls Brothers wine bar in Buckingham Palace Road opted for the ‘British Farmhouse Platter’ which is shared between two (or more).  The third person went for the calves liver and mash.  The platter turned out to be pretty large.  It had rare roast Scottish beef (which was quite excellent), honey roast gammon, West country cheddar, pork pie, quail’s eggs, cold new potatoes, and pickled onions.  It also came with what they called ‘rustic’ bread, chutney and piccalilli (which I’ve not seen in years).  It was quite a feast.  Indeed, we couldn’t even finish it.  The pork pie was nice and gamey and the meats were first class.  With it we drank a CJ Pask 2009 sauvignon blanc from New Zealand at 12 percent.

Fish pie is sometimes called fisherman’s pie, and I make it myself.  I tend to put in things like squid and prawns, we well as chunks of salmon and white fish.  I make the white sauce from goat’s milk and cornflour, season with parley, then top with instant mashed potatoes.  Usually I do a butter crust by making fork grooves in the top and scattering flecks of butter to melt, run into the grooves, then crisp in the oven.  Sometimes I do a cheese crust instead with grated cheddar.  When I went with a group of friends to Livebait in Covent Garden I ordered their fish pie.  It was pretty good, with a fairly soft cheese top and a good ratio of fish to potatoes.  Two of the others had roast cod, and one went for their fish of the day, a sole.  With it we drank Cullinan View South African – not the chenin blanc, but their less well known sauvignon blanc.  Well rounded, but with less fruit that shown by the New Zealand ones.

We used to go when it was the Puzzle on Horseferry Road.  Now it’s the Loose Box with a much better menu, and still pleasant to sit outside on a warm day.  We sat just inside, reckoning that the humidity would soon produce a rain shower.  I ordered the seared tuna steak.  It was pretty large, and came with avocado, small sweet tomatoes, and lamb’s lettuce.  It was cooked correctly an tasted very good indeed.  With it I drank a Boar’s Kloof chenin blanc which I’ve written about before.  Before we finished there did indeed come a substantial rain shower.

For some reason all four of us felt like fish and chips.  The last time that happened a group of us went to the North Sea Fish Restaurant, justly renowned for the high quality of its fish.  This time we went to the Seafresh restaurant in Wilton Road.  One had a prawn salad, two ordered cod, and I went for a small size plaice – yes, that really is a small one.  It was deliciously moist and tender, with quite good batter.

With the food we drank a 2009 Stoneburn, a Marlborough sauvignon blanc from New Zealand.  It was fresh and fruity, as expected.

It’s a lovely starter dish, with virgin olive oil, fried wild mushrooms, sea salt, cracked black pepper and flakes of parmesan cheese.  I remember how enjoyable it was, and I’ve since looked up recipes with a view to trying my own version of it.  I found the photo in my file, but I can’t remember whether I ate it at Jamie’s Italian Kitchen or Cote of Cambridge.  There were two pieces like this, and I ate one of them before taking the photo.  I do remember how good it was, though.