Swedish Knäck & Lusse bullar - 19 December

There is no Christmas without home made Swedish "knäck" (similar to toffee) and Swedish "Lussebullar" (sweet saffron bread). I made the knäck a few weeks ago already and it is the easiest thing in the world.

Swedish knäck (makes about 50)
- 2 dl double cream
- 2 dl golden syrup
- 2 dl caster sugar
Boil in a pan for about 45 min to an hour (you can test it to see if it is ready by pouring a teaspoon of the toffee into a glass of ice cold water. It is ready if it hardens and can be rolled into a ball inbetween your fingers)

Add 1 dl of chopped almonds and 1 tbsp of butter and take of the heat.
Spoon into little paper cups and keep in the fridge. Yummy!

Now onto making Lussebullar... You need the following:

Lussebullar (gives your around 45 - 50)

50 gr of fresh yeast

1 gram of saffron

15 dl of plain flour

3 dl of caster sugar

5 dl full fat milk

250 gr of youghurt

pinch of salt

100 grams of unsalted butter

1.5 dl of raisins

Melt the butter in a pan and add the milk, let it come to blood temperature, 37 degrees C

Break up the yeast in a big bowl, add 1 dl or raisins and the saffron. Pour over the butter / milk mixture and stir well until all the yeast has dissolved. add 14 dl of the flour, sugar, pinch of salt and the youghurt and combine well.

Add more flour if need be but not too much.

Knead the dough of a floured surface until elastic and shiny. Put it back in a bowl and cover with a towel and leave for 45 min.

Knead again and roll out the dough into the traditional "S" shape ( i did half the dough this way) and put them on a baking tray, cover with a towel and let them rise for 30 min. The rest of the dough i made into a swiss roll shape and filled with grated marsipan mixed with butter, rolled it up and cut into slices and put into paper cases.

Let them rise under a towel for 30 min then brush with egg (push some extra raisins into the "S" shaped buns and spinkle some sugar pearls over the marsipan filled rolls) and bake in the oven at 225 degrees C for about 8 - 10 min.

They are best when straight out of the oven or you can freeze them and heat them in the micro wave when needed and they will taste like just baked.

Enjoy!!

Team breakfast at Dishoom - 7th of December

The Admin team had kindly been offered a free taster breakfast at Dishoom, an indian restaurant that just opened around the corner here in Covent Garden. http://dishoom.com/ 

Free is always good so we met up at 9am anticipating some interesting food.
Being an indian restaurant there is of course an indian twist to the breakfast menu. I had some sweet chai tea and a bacon naan with some sweet chili jam. Very tasty and the naan was freshly baked. They have an extensive menu for breakfast with something for everybody and a nice atmosphere, free wifi and newspapers.
I would go again (probably have to pay next time though ;-))

First Floor restaurant - 4th of December

My lovely old friend Anna came to London last week and we went out for lunch at First Floor restaurant on Portobello.. i had fond memories of this place but after our experience there on Saturday i will never go back. I have already written a lengthy review on London eating (http://www.london-eating.co.uk/28633.htm) so feel free to read it there. All i can say is that i will never go back again.

Lunch at Adam Street club - 3rd of December

I went to a members club called The Adam Street club just off the Strand with my boss for lunch the other day. I had a very tasty open lasagna with vegetables and a curry cream sauce which was very tasty. Made me realise that you can easily use supermarket lasagna sheets and recreate it at home.. perhaps change it and serve with crumbled goats cheese and oven dried tomatoes.. loovely.. might just do that!

Cake buffet in Gothenburg - 27th of November

My uncle Michael knows how to celebrate in style over 2 days for his 50th birthday bash in Gothenburg. Most of my family travelled to Gothenburg for his 50th including myself. I missed the dinner on the Friday night but arrived in good time for his lavish cake buffet which consisted of 8 different cakes buffet style.. with coffee and prosecco :-) The hardest part was deciding which cakes to eat.. they all looked great. See a selection of the choice below. Yum.

Pix Pintxos bar - 5th of November

I haven't written any updates for a while since we have been on holiday :-) Back in London again and my first update will be for Pix tapas bar in Neal Street in Covent Garden: http://www.pix-bar.com/
My lovely friend Hannah and I went there for a Friday lunch - it is a concept based on the little pintxos/tapas bars in Spain. On arrival we sat down and ordered drinks, you then get a plate each and you help yourself to all the different tapas lined up around the bar. Each tapas has a short or a long stick in it which determines the price of the tapas, you then collect your sticks in a glass and give the glass to the staff to calculate what your bill is.. not unlike Yo Sushi! 
The smaller tapas were around £1.50 each and the larger ones around £2.50 each. We both really enjoyed our tapas - for example, grilled pepper stuffed with goat's cheese, bruschetta with serrano ham, chicken and bacon salad & stuffed grilled mushroom.
Will definately go back again!

Boheme Kitchen and Bar - 6th of October

I went to a film preview on Wednesday with my friend Hannah who i used to work with. The film was called "Life as we know it" and it was really good - a romantic comedy with a lot of laughs and a tear or two. Go and see it!

After the movie we went for a catch up at Boheme Kitchen & Bar in Soho over a bottle of wine and some nibbles.
They had a very yummy platter menu where you pick 3 items for £14 or 5 items for £20. We decided to go for a platter with 3 choices: mini burgers, spicy sausages and corn fritters. All of it was lovely and i would go back again for more!

Cantina Laredo - 29th of September

A couple of colleagues from Dallas came over to London for a few days and we went out to Cantina Laredo for lunch. Cantina Laredo is a new upmarket Mexican restaurant in Covent Garden which i have wanted to try for a while.
I really like the fact that they make the guacamole at your table to share which is fun and you can then decide how chunky or smooth/ hot or mild you want it to be. You get corn chips and 2 types of salsas with your guacamole order.
I went for a "Enchilada Veracruz" (with chicken and spinach) for my main which was very nice but looked a bit scruffy (for it being an upmarket mexican restaurant - being picky here). It also could have done with some spice but i just used the salsa sauces that came with the chips. I would definately like to go back again and be a bit more adventurous with the menu - maybe for dinner.

 

Inamo - 25th of September

My friend Karin asked me to join her and her 9 year old daughter, Emely, for a shopping day in central London for Emely's birthday. So we met up in the morning at the Nordic bakery for a swedish cinnamon bun and some coffee to start the day before hitting the shops including every child's idea of heaven.. Hamley's.
I had booked us in for lunch at Inamo's thinking that Emely would find it fun. Inamo is a Japanese restaurant that i have reviewed before with a futuristic way of ordering. Each diner basically have a computer screen projected onto their place setting and you can click through the dishes and then click to order. You can also change the "table cloth" with different moodlights..and you can play games - perfect for kids when they get bored during lunch!;-)

My last visit had me raving about the place but this time i was not as convinced. We were seated in the basement since it was full on the ground floor.. the basement was very dark with a fierce airconditioning (think gale wind) and i asked them to turn it down but not much changed. Some of the food also came out a tad cold (amazing presentation though).
We had a large selection of dishes to share and everything was nice. The highlight was the creme brulee.. to die for!! the letdown dish was the springrolls which were very strange - i do not recommend them.
I would go back again on the 50% off deal .. and i keep dreaming about the creme brulee..

Bar Boulud @ Mandarin Oriental - 23rd of September

The famous Daniel Boulud who once upon a time created the "DB Royale dubble truffle Burger" at DB Bistro Moderne in NYC and then successfully opened many other restaurants in the US have now opened Bar Boulod at Mandarin Oriental hotel in London.
Bar Boulud has got it's own separate entrance from the street and on the Thursday when i visited with a friend for an early dinner it was already quite busy at 6:15pm. Plenty of people in the bar area and lots of attentive staff.
The dining room was quite dimly lit up and you had a full view of the open plan kitchen where you could watch the chefs at work.
We went for the 3 course pre fix menue which had 3 choices for each course and at £20 it is very good value for money.
I started with a "pulled Rabbit terrine" which came with some grain mustard and miniature pickled gherkins and onions. It was really tasty with very simple presentation.
My main was grilled mackerel which was very nice and not too rich.. forgot to take a photo of the dish though!! oops!
The dessert was the star of the show though.. "Tropical Fruit sundae with ginger mascarpone foam and coconut/passionfruit sorbet and coconut biscuit" Wonderfully fruity, fluffy and indulgent. One to recreate at home for sure!

Really enjoyed this restaurant and will have to go back again to try their burgers that looked amazing (not the original "Royale" one though.. ;-)

Cooking for friends - 4th of September

It is so nice to have friends around for dinner and i love the whole planning process of coming up with what to make. We invited our friends Erika and Andrew over for dinner on a Saturday night and i had already decided that i wanted to to a "Tian of crab & prawn" as a starter so i headed to Selfridges to buy some micro herbs (only place i have ever found them in) as a garnish for my starter and for the freshly picked crab.
Main was a bit harder to come up with but in the end i settled for shoulder of lamb.. slowcooked in the oven with potato wedges and a red wine sauce. Nice and easy! for dessert i made a pannacotta with fresh berries since again, it can be prepared in advance.. i want to be able to sit and chat with my friends and not spend the whole evening in the kitchen :-)

Here is the recipe for my Tian of crab:

Ingredients (4 people):

• 200 gr of fresh white crab meat
• 200 gr of cooked prawns (roughly chopped)
• 1 avocado (finely chopped)
• 1 lime or lemon - juice squeezed - added to taste)
• 5 radishes (finely chopped)
• 1 small red onion (finely chopped)
• 1 red chili (finely chopped0
• 2 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1-2 tbsp creme fraice
• freshly ground pepper and salt
• a few drops worchester sauce

Mix all the ingredients together and season to taste. Cover and leave in the fridge until ready to serve.
Use a ringmould and place on a plate, fill up with the mix and gently remove the ringmould. Put some micro herbs on top and serve with some melba toast on the side (toast some white bread, remove crusts and cut in half to make 2 thin slices, toast again and cut into 3cm strips and place in bowl on plate - i used egg cups) decorate plate with some fresh tomatoes. Voila!

Bloomsbury Street Bar & Restaurant - 25th of August

Two friends took me out for dinner to celebrate my birthday .. (a little late but hey, i am not complaining :-)) at Bloomsbury Street Bar & Restaurant http://www.radissonedwardian.com/hotels/gbmarlbo/dinings  It is situated in the Radisson Bloomsbury Street hotel and it is a really nice little restaurant with dark colours and a cosy feel. This is my second visit and i really enjoyed it but i felt that it was playing a bit more safe with the dishes this time around then when i visited last (around a year ago). The food was a bit more innovative that time.

I started with a "Tartar of tuna and smoked haddock with sushi ginger and coriander crème fraiche" which was lovely and light. Presentation was beautiful and simple.

My main was "Pan-fried fillet of sea bass with smoked salmon basil risotto and shellfish oil" which was very good but the fish was slightly over cooked. Very tasty though.. i even forgot to take a photo of the dish! Not the end of the world though since i have a tendency to always order seabass when it is on the menu..i have to count all the seabass dishes on here one day ;-)

I finished with a dessert of "Spiced pears with a dark chocolate cinnamon sauce, rum and raisin ice cream" which looked pretty but actually tasted a bit bland. Definately needed a lift .. and more dark chocolate cinnamon sauce!

We had the 50% off the full a la carte menu on Toptable so it was a great deal. 3 courses each with water and a glass of wine came to £23 a head including service. Not bad at all.

Canapes - 21st of August

Any excuse to make canapes and this time we took the opportunity to organise a little party to coincide with our dear friends Sue, Germain and little Ellie's visit to London from Tokyo. Always fun to gather friends together and i decided to have a few canapes.. nice and simple on paper but it was hard work too! 
So, here is what i did: 
- Sausage rolls
- Mini pizzas with 3 toppings: Feta/pesto/pine nute, goats cheese/onion marmalade/thyme, tomato/olive/pepperoni/mozzarella
- Pea/mint/truffle soup shots
- mini skewers with parma ham/mozzarella/figs
- mini skewers with ribbons of smoked salmon/cucumber
- Bruschetta with tomato/basil/onion salsa, roast beef/horseradish/creme fraice/parsley
- Mini chocolate pots with crushed amaretti biscuits
- Eton mess
- mini tarts with custard/strawberries
- chocolate dipped strawberries (dark/white chocolate, chopped pistachios and crussed amaretti biscuits

A lot of the food could be prepared in advance and then cooked/assembled during the evening. They all went really quickly and i guess they were either very nice or people were very hungry!! I captured most of them on camera but not all.. see photos below.

The pea soup was made in advance and then i just re-heated and poured into little disposable shot glasses!
For the salmon/cucumber canapees i used a potato peeler to make ribbons of a cucumber.. then just threaded it together with the salmon on sticks.. squeeze of lime and some black pepper..

Here are the mini pizzas waiting to go in the oven. I then just added a little drizzle of fresh pesto to the Pizzas with the Feta cheese when they came out of the oven, scattered some basil over and voila! For the goats cheese pizzas i added a little dollop of onion marmelade when they were ready to eat. I bought basic pizza mix to make life easier and cut them out using a cookie cutter.. Very easy and i personally think they look fab!

Sausage rolls - shop bought puff pastry and some good quality sausages. i removed the sausage skin and place on top of the puff pastry added some chopped herbs and rolled together. Rolled them into foil and kept them in the fridge until needed. Then just cut them into small bite size pieces and put them in the oven for 10 min.

Strawberries.. simply dipped in dark or white chocolate and then either left plain or dipped in chopped pistachios or crushed amaretti biscuits...i totally forgot about them during the evening and they finally made it out when there were a handful of guests left.. oh well, better late than never i guess..

Chocolate pots - easy to do in advance. Made out of Cream, dark chocolate, sugar and egg yolks.Poured into shot glasses and chilled. Then topped with crushed amaretti biscuits.

I have to admit that the little mini tart cases were shop bought from M & S.. i customised them and filled them with dark or white melted chocolate then topped them with vanilla custard and a quarter of a strawberry.

Easy peasy Pannacotta - 8th of August

I love having people over for food.... and i tend to plan and obsess for days in advance going through cook books, old food magazines etc.

We were going to have some friends over for lunch on the Sunday and after a lot of thinking i decided on doing a little pea and mint soup in a mug as a starter.. nice and simple and best of all: can be prepared and re-heated!

For Main i decided on pan fried cod on crushed new potatoes and sauce vierge.. loosely based on a recipe i found. It turned out ok but not great so i am not going to write down a recipe here.. my dessert on the other hand turned out great.. so i will focus on that :-)

I decided to make a pannacotta which is great since you can prepare it in advance (needs to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours) so i did that the evening prior. Here is the recipe for 5 to 6 portions:

Ingredients:

600 ml of Single cream
2 leaves of gelatin
50 grams of caster sugar
1 vanilla pod or a tsp of vanilla bean paste
1 tbsp of dark rum

Put the gelatin leaves in a bowl of cold water.

Heat the cream and the sugar in a pan with the scraped out vanilla pod seads, stir and bring to the boil briefly. Take of the heat and add the softened and squeezed out gelatin leaves and the rum. Stir and pour through a fine sieve into little ramekins. Put in the fridge for at least 4 hours or over night.

I also made a berry coulis through heating up mixed berries with a little sugar to taste, then putting them through a sieve to get rid of the little pips from the raspberries.

To serve i made some really simple little tuiles. You can have a lot of fun shaping these!

Ingredients:

50 gram softened butter
50 gram icing sugar
1 egg
50 gram plain flour

Cream the butter and sugar together well then add the egg, whisk and then fold in the flour.

Put a teaspoon of the mix on a nonstick oven tray/silicon paper then take a knife and spread out to a paperthin cookie shape. You can also put the mix in a piping bag and pipe out little shapes (like my hearts in the picture) it is then optional to add chopped nuts (i added pistachios) before baking for 4-5 min on 200 C. (makes about 15 - 20 depending on size)

To get the classic tuile shape you need to quickly put the still warm biscuits on a rolling pin since they harden very quickly.

I then used up the leftover pistachios and mixed them with melted sugar to make some pistachio brittle for texture and crunch.

Assembly:

Briefly dip the ramekins in hot water to loosen the pannacotta, then tip out on a plates. Decorate with some raspberries (i used red and yellow), the coulis (poured in a line from a bottle). Sprinkle some of the caremellised pistachios on the pannacotta and on the side of the plate. Place a tuile heart in the pannacotta and a tuile biscuit on the side... and voila! YUM

Le Bouchon Breton in Spitafields - 7th of August

I book a lot of restaurants through Toptable..(http://www.toptable.co.uk/) one of my favorite websites where you get 200 points every time you book through them. Win win situation!

However, the points expire after a year and i received a couple of emails telling me that 800 points were due to expire soon so i decided to spend some points towards a free meal for me and my boyfriend.

Normally you can redeem points at restaurants with a reduced menu but when looking at the list i spotted a new addition, Le Bouchon Breton http://www.lebouchon.co.uk/breton/index.php that said that for 3000 points pp you can order 2 courses from the a la carte.. not bad at all so i booked for Saturday night.

The restaurant is on the 1st floor in Spitafields and upon arriving we were seated on the terrace part. It was pretty busy and they had a piano player and a singer entertaining the tables. The head waiter was very french and very special.. i did look around for a hidden camera at one point since the service was like something out of Fawlty towers :-)

However, i can't complain about the food. I had a goats cheese in filo pastry with a red pepper sauce to start which was just like it said on the menu.. and i do have a thing for goats cheese. Lovely and tangy with crisp filo pastry around it.. yum.

We then shared a Cout de boeuf (normal price £26 per person!) - a massive hunk of beef carved for you at the table. Served with french fries, bearnaise (lovely bearnaise by the way) and a side salad. It was lovely but we didn't manage to finish it all despite my boyfriend being a total carnivore who craves protein in large amounts ;-)

We were too full for dessert but the list looked good with a cheese board and lots of different sundaes.

Service was slightly strange and a lot of people had to wait a long time to order / get the bill etc but since we were dining for free we didn't really care. Our bill (drinks only incl. service charge) came to £16.. Thank you Toptable!

The Langham - Wonderland afternoon tea - 31st of July

What is more English than traditional afternoon tea? Such a great invention! However, should only be had in moderation since you probably consume enough calories to last you for 3 days!


Since my partners parents were visiting from Germany we decided to book in for afternoon tea at the Langham in London. http://london.langhamhotels.co.uk/restaurants/palm_court.htm

They have an amazing afternoon tea menu called "Wonderland" based on the famous Alice of course :-)

The Palm court room where the tea is served is stunning with lots of muted colours, glass and gold. There is also a man playing piano during the afternoon - very civilised indeed.

The tea menu is as long a a wine list in a restaurant and it is quite fun to read about all the different tea's. I decided on a "Lychee red" with was delicious.

We got a little welcome treat of "vanilla pannacotta with pineapple and lemon grass".. very nice and very moorish.


We started off with the finger sandwiches, there were 5 different kinds of sandwiches including egg & cress, chicken & tarragon, cucumber & cream cheese, tuna & sweetcorn and salmon & horseradish. I was so hungry that i forgot to take a photo at this point (i only had a small breakfast and no lunch in order to prepare for the calories ahead).

We then moved on to some wonderful, and still warm from the oven scones. There were 2 kinds, with raisins or without served with strawberry jam and clotted cream. Lovely!


However, we could not over indulge in the scones since we still had the lovely wonderland pastries to eat.

We had some amazing little almond madeleines topped with a pistagio cream and fresh raspberries - my favorite! There were also orange carrot cakes with a violet glaze and edible gold, white chocolate and strawberry eclairs and shortbread lollipops. The latter were quite boring but looked great.



We walked out of the Langham clutching our bellies.. but it was worth it!

The Seafood Restaurant in Padstow - 29th of July

I have lived in London for over 12 years now.. and i have never been to Cornwall! When you live somewhere you tend to think that there is "always tomorrow" to do the sightseeing and explore what is around you.

That is why i really like having visitors coming over to visit.. that kind of "forces" you to go and see the British Museum or other attractions that you have been putting off for years.. and in this instance - Cornwall!

Granted that Cornwall is quite a long journey away (south west England) but it has been on my to do list for a long time since so many people rave about how lovely it is. So, my partners parents came over for a visit and wanted to go to Cornwall so away we went!

We decided to visit Padstow which is also famous for being home to the one and only Rick Stein and his emporium of restaurants. http://www.rickstein.com/

We went to his flagship restaurant called "The Seafood restaurant" for dinner on the Thursday night and i have to admit that my expectations were very high indeed. The restaurant was buzzing and very busy with most tables full.. a mix of couples and families.

When in a seafood restaurant you have to have seafood of course so i started with "Seared scallops and serrano ham served with salad leaves and a sherry vinegar dressing". They were very nice and perfectly cooked and i was happy with my choice but i did expect them to have more of a wow factor.


For main i had "Grilled fillets of John Dory with girolle mushrooms served with rocket and sunblushed tomatoes". The fish was lovely and perfectly cooked and the girolles really worked with the dish. Enjoyed it very much.


For dessert i had to have the "Chocolate fondant with sour cherries" which was nice and gooey in the middle like it should be. I did think that it needed some cream or vanilla ice cream with it though.




All in all it was a nice meal but kind of traditional - no twists, you get exactly what it says on the menu- he keeps it simple with really good and fresh ingredients.

Jamie's Italian - 10th of July

My friend Karin told me a couple of weeks ago that i needed to put aside Saturday the 10th of July for her to treat me to a birthday day out.

Very exciting! So, true to her word she picked me up at 9am and we travelled to the southbank.. and .. we went to a flotation tank! I have never done it before and was not really sure what to expect but it was actually really relaxing.. apart from in the beginning when i did the totally opposite of what i was instructed and rubbed my eyes when in the water.. OUCH! We then went shopping in Covent Garden followed by a yummy lunch at the newly opened "Jamie's Italian" in Covent Garden http://www.jamieoliver.com/italian/

We had an amazing "Raspberry and limoncello mojito" (highly recommend it) and some nibbles "Worlds best olives on ice" which consisted of big green olives on ice and a caper & anchovy tapenade with flat bread.

We both then had the "Amazing Chicken salad" which was a crunchy salad of white radish, coriander, cress, kohlrabi, fennel and minty fregola.. plus the grilled chicken of course. It was really interesting and very tasty!

We then headed of to my hair dresser where Karin had booked me in for a wash and blowdry - ready for the evening ahead! Thank you Karin! :-)

Maze - 8th of July

I am so lucky to have such good friends who wants to take me out for dinner for my birthday! This time Helen whisked me off to Maze http://www.gordonramsay.com/maze/ which is part of Gordon Ramsey's empire of restaurants in London's Mayfair.

We went on a 4 course toptable deal. Maze works like a tapas restaurant and everything is in tapas sized dishes but with a british menu. You can order as many dishes as you want but 4 each is fine since the food is very rich.

We both started with a crayfish salad and a cold lobster bisque with avocado mousse. Very nice but rich!

Helen then had the slowcooked duckegg with asparagus and i went for the braised rabbit with a wild garlic risotto on the side.

We both had the roasted loin of lamb with leeks.. yum!

The piece de resistance of the meal was the pudding which looked too good to eat. Pistagio cake with crumble and raspberry mousse and ice cream. Lovely.

I also got a little chocolate cake for my birthday..very nice but rich.. and to finish a selection of truffles/jellies/fudge.

We had a great time apart from the fact that our waiter was very strange... we both thought that we were on Candid Camera for a moment!! All the other staff were lovely so we were just a little un-lucky!

Thank you Helen! :-)