Wacky Macaron's - 27th of October 2013

I haven't made any macarons for a while so i decided to go all out and make 3 kinds of them on Sunday.. i have wanted to make a liqorice and raspberry macaron for a while now - ever since i bought some liqorice powder in Sweden.. so that was first flavour. I also wanted to make a popcorn flavour macaron after reading on the web about popcorn flavoured ice cream. My 3rd flavour combo was a banana caramel.

I used my usual macaron base (available on this blog) for the shells and then i kind of made up the fillings as i went along.
The popcorn mac involved making a batch of microwave popcorn, then heating up milk and cream in a pan and soaking the popped popcorn in the cream mix.. let cool and refrigerate over night then put it in a fine sieve and squeeze out the now flavoured cream.. then heat up again and pour over chopped white chocolate.. ta da.. popcorn flavoured ganache! I have no idea about the quantities but the popcorn did soak up a lot of the cream so i had to add a lot of liquid.

A lot of people at work liked both the popcorn and the banana mac's.. the liqorice divided people.. but then again - liqorice is a bit like marmite.. you either like it or you dont.. personally i LOVED the combo or raspberry and liqorice but then again - i am from Scandinavia and we are kind of brought up on liqorice :-)

 

My pink shells for the liqorice / raspberry mac's

 

Fillings - ready to go

Liqorice and Raspberry mac's

Banana caramel mac's

Popcorn mac's

Mixed mac's

 

Amazing SushiSamba

I booked SushiSamba on short notice last week for our engagement anniversary.. trying to book a popular place like this with a only a few days notice is not easy and the only slot they had available was 3pm which i happily took.
I have been to the Heron Tower before - to Duck & Waffle which is a floor above SushiSamba (38th floor). The view is still spectacular and the lift is just as scary (all glass.. brrrrr).
We arrived a bit early so had a drink in the bar and inspected the view.. for being quite late for a lunch it was surprisingly busy in both the bar and the restaurant.
We sat down for our meal and got chatting to our very charming waiter who happily talked us through the menu before taking the very hard decisions about what to have. Everything is meant for sharing and we picked lots of smaller dishes rather than having the "main" plates. EVERYTHING on the menu looks amazing and it was very hard to not order too much!

So, we started with the Kanpachi Tiradito (Sashimi). Thin slices of Kanpachi fish marinated in Yuzu, Black truffle and seasalt.. fresh, clean and absolutely amazing.

We then had the 2 kinds of Taquitos: the Yellowtail with roasted corn and avocado and the Wagyu beef with avocado and shichimi mayo, both were good but we agreed that the yellowtail was the better out of the two (noted for next time). In the pictre below you can see the yellowtail taquito top left and wagyu top right and the Kanpachi in the front.

We then had the Wagyu Gyoza with kabocha puree (a kind of squash). They were perfectly cooked and it really worked with the squash!

Next came the Rock Shrimp -crisp and full of flavour with a pea and peashoot salad and black truffle dressing.. not a single pea managed to escape we chased them all down with our chop sticks!

Next came our dishes from the Robata/grill menu:
Chilean Seabass in miso.. dare i say - better than Nobu/Roka etc? YUM and the Fillet steak - perfectly cooked and oh so tender.. with this we had the Asparagus with sweet soy and sesame.

Lastly we had some of the famous SushiSamba rolls. We went for the special roll of the day which had Crab and prawn inside.. Stunning! The textures and flavours were second to none.. and also the Wagyu  te amo rolls which had wagyu beef, quail egg, garlic chips, pear soy.. also good but the crab/prawn one won hands down.

I could not eat any more but hubby went for the Chocolate banana cake which i did try and it was lovely. Dark chocolate, banana, maple syrup and rum ice cream....

I am already planning to come back here again.. i LOVED the food and ambiance.. my new favorite place i think!

Sticky Toffee pudding - 19 October 2013

I quite like a rich and decadent Sticky Toffee Pudding now and again in the autumn/winter.. i have never made one myself though.
We were over at my friend's house for dinner and decided to be brave and try and make this for pudding.

I found a Nigella recipe that seemed pretty straight forward so that is what we followed.. and yes, it was really easy and it worked a treat.. even though i was doubtful about pouring 500ml of boiling water over the cake dough.. who comes up with these things? :-)

Here is the recipe - courtesy of Nigella

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Ingredients

for the cake

• 100 grams dark brown muscovado sugar
• 175 grams self-raising flour
• 125 ml full fat milk
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 50 grams unsalted butter (melted)
• 200 grams chopped dates

for the sauce

• 200 grams dark brown muscovado sugar
• approx. 25 grams unsalted butter (in little blobs)
• 500 ml boiling water

 

As featured in

NIGELLA BITES

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5/375ºF and butter a 1½ litre / 6 cups capacity pudding dish.
2. Combine the 100g / ½ cup of dark muscovado sugar with the flour in a large bowl. Pour the milk into a measuring jug, beat in the egg, vanilla and melted butter and then pour this mixture over the sugar and flour, stirring - just with a wooden spoon - to combine. Fold in the dates then scrape into the prepared pudding dish. Don't worry if it doesn't look very full: it will do by the time it cooks.
3. Sprinkle over the 200g / 1 cup of dark muscovado sugar and dot with the butter. Pour over the boiling water (yes really!) and transfer to the oven. Set the timer for 45 minutes, though you might find the pudding needs 5 or 10 minutes more. The top of the pudding should be springy and spongy when it's cooked; underneath, the butter, dark muscovado sugar and boiling water will have turned into a rich, sticky sauce. Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche, double or single cream as you wish.

My Photos of the adventure:

Stirring the cake ingredients togeher

 

Transferred the mix to the pudding bowl

 

Adding A LOT of muscovado sugar!

 

Dotting the butter

 

This is the scary part.. 500 ml of boiling water goes in on top of the cake!



Cake out of the oven

My portion with some vanilla and ginger ice cream!

 

 

It was a really nice pudding - it did not look pretty that is for sure.. but then again, i have never really seen a pretty sticky toffee pud.. unless you make them in individual moulds i guess. This however was more of a "help yourself and take as much as you want" family sized pud for a relaxed meal with friends.

Latium - 16 October 2013

So, i really wanted to try out Berner's Tavern run by Jason Atherton in the new Edition hotel in London's West End.. sadly, it was fully booked when i tried to reserve a table for 2 for my girly catch up dinner.
Instead, i booked Latium .. which has been around for a very long time. It is an Italian restaurant also on the same street as Berner's Tavern :-)

The restaurant is a little bit more old fashioned than modern but kind of homely at the same time. All the waiters seem to be Italian, so it was pretty handy to my Italian friend with me.
We immediately got breadsticks, bread, olives, cheese and salami as a pre meal snack. Rather generous i'd say.

For my starter/pasta i then had the "Tagliatelle with Girolles" which was lovely and had a good amount of the lovely girolles in there.

For Main i had the "Roasted red Mullet with mozzarella sauce, escarole and sun-dried tomato dressing" I was intrigued about the mozzarella sauce in particular. Verdict? Well, It was perfectly nice but i personally thought the mozzarella was too creamy and rich for the fish.

Dessert - well, we shared.. they had a "Dark chocolate and almond cake (Caprese) with amareto sauce" which is a kind of must have.. dark moist cake and the lovely creme anglaise with amaretto - what is not to love?

They also had an intriguing "Sweet Ravioli selection" which was fun but not amazing. One was flavoured with mint, one with dried fruit, soft cheese and xmas spices and one with chocolate and orange. Novel idea.

We then got some little biscotti and truffles at the end of the meal -washed down with some fresh mint tea.

 

All in all a pleasant meal :-)

Amazing dinner at Stoke Place - 7th of September 2013

I love booking country house hotels for a weekend away now and again.. the English countryside is so beautiful and there are so many tempting hotels around England with easy access from London.
One of my favorites is Stoke Place in Stoke Pogues which is a leisurely 45 min drive from central London.. perfect for a weekend away.

We have been coming here once a year for the last 3 years, i always snap up the offers they have when i can.. and this time it was a 1 night stay that included a room upgrade, a bottle of champagne, 3 course dinner, breakfast and late check out - all this for a great rate!

One of my favorite things about Stoke Place is the food at dinner.. AMAZING. I actually can't believe that they haven't been awarded a michelin star as yet.. it is definately on par if not better than many of the awarded restaurants in London.

In our offer we had a 3 course meal from the a la carte included.. this is what i had.

Amuse bouche 1: A beautiful Tomato gazpacho foam with a red pepper crisp - lovely and light

Amuse bouche 2:Apple and Fennel salad with star anise and apple sorbet and a dill crisp. This was absolutely amazing - sweet but savoury and the same time - perfect palate cleanser.

Starter: Seared scallops, scallop tartare, charred cauliflower and peanut puree, mooli, wasabi sphere.
Beautifully seared scallops that went so well with the puree and got a kick from the wasabi. The tartare was fresh and beautiful - left me wanting more :-) The presentation itself was a work of art!

Main: Wild Sea bass, vanilla and corn puree, crayfish, samphire, purple potato

Again, lovely flavours.. i was sceptical about the vanilla in the puree but it was just a hint of vanilla which worked really well. The fish was beautiful and moist and i loved the samphire with it. The only thing that was a bit tasteless was the purple potato - they looked amazing but the flavor was a bit hard and floury.

 

 

Pre-dessert: Compressed watermelon, verjus sorbet, lychee and chili cloud.

Great little pre-dessert with refreshing watermelon and the verjus sorbet was tart and fruity.

 

Dessert: Dark chocolate and olive oil tart, brandy cherries, pistachio ice cream and cherry jelly

The cherries were replaced by berries since they were out of season (shame - i LOVE cherries) but nevermind - the chocolate was smooth and dark and the ice cream creamy and lovely and the little candied pistachios crunchy and sweet.

 

I can't recommend this restaurant enough.. i would happily come back every month if i could :-)

Restaurant Nu in Girona - 31 August 2013

So, as per my previous post we did not get into El Celler de can Roca.. well, i had a back up plan since Girona is full of interesting restaurants. One of them was Restaurant Nu which is situated in the lovely Old town of Girona (think cobbled streets and lots of bars, cafe's and restaurants everywhere)

I contacted them a few weeks prior to our visit and booked a table for 8:15pm. I also asked them about children and they welcome children but they do not have a kids menu - you can however ask them to adapt the dishes as necessary.

We were the first people in the restaurant when we arrived but it quickly filled up and by 9pm lots of people were being turned away (walk in's)... so highly recommend for anyone thinking of going to book in advance!

The dining room was very chic and modern with an open kitchen and very friendly service. The wine list was very affordable with bottles starting from €16!

So, the food.. artistic plating, interesting flavours and combinations.. highly recommend.

So we started with 2 sharing dishes.. The "King prawn tempura with curry mayonnaise" - light, lovely and fun presentation and the "Creamy mushroom fritters with squid ink" which were amazing!

 

We also had to have the "Cake bread with tomato and olive oil" Crispy toasted bread with an amzing tomato / olive oil flavour.

Then we were on to the starters - I had the "Slice of foie gras, hazelnut praline and sweet wine. Beautiful presentation and lovely flavour combination.

I also took photos of my hubby's starter which was "Ravioli of black sausage with a pumpkin and apple cream" Looked amazing!

My main was the "Tuna Tataki, soya sauce and basmati rice with curry" Sounds pretty standard but it was beautifully balanced with a hint of curry.

 

My husband had the "Lacquered loin of lamb with mustard and potato gnocchi" and my friends daughter had the "Wagyu beef hamburger with vegetables and a poached egg".. not a scrap left on either plate so must have been good!

We were pretty full but could of course not leave without having dessert!
I had the most refreshing dessert: "Red fruits tartare, soup and its sphere of vineyard peaches" Beautiful to look at and full of fruity flavours - not too sweet and not too tart.. and i love the fruit soup sphere!

The kids both went for "Oreo cookies, gianduja cream and banana ice cream" :-)

Other chosen desserts were the "Home-made “xuixo” cream-filled pastry with star anise" and the "Mango, passion fruit and chocolate ravioli"

I would definately come back here again if i were in Girona.. innovative food for a fraction of the cost of most fine dining restaurants.. you just can't go wrong!