White chocolate & Raspberry Jelly Macarons - 27 April 2013

I have a recipe for Pierre Herme's Ispahan macaron's waiting to be tried and tested but have not yet dared to attempt them. Instead i decided to do a simpler version with just a white chocolate/vanilla ganache and raspberry jelly

See recipe at the bottom of the post - note that i halved it to make a smaller batch.

White Chocolate & Raspberry macarons
(based on "Macarons" by Pierre Hermé)

makes about 72 macarons

For the raspberry jelly:
420g raspberries (fresh or frozen)
35g caster sugar
2 leaves of gelatine (2g each)

For the macaron shells:
300g ground almonds
300g icing sugar
110g 'liquefied' egg whites
red food coloring
+
300g caster sugar
75g mineral water
110g 'liquefied' egg whites

White chocolate ganache
200 gr white chocolate (broken into pieces and put in a bowl)
100 gr double cream
Vanilla extract


Start by preparing the raspberry jelly. Soak the gelatine leaves for 15 minutes in cold water to soften.

Using a hand blender, blend the raspberries and sugar to a purée. I used frozen so i heated them in the microwave to soften first. Strain the purée to remove the pips. Heat a quarter of the purée to 45°C.  Squeeze out the water from the gelatin andadd to the hot purée. Stir and add the rest of the raspberry purée.

Pour it into a gratin dish lined with clingfilm up to a depth of 4mm. Allow to cool for 1 hour at room temperature then put the dish in the freezer for 2 hours. Turn out the jelly and cut it into 1.5cm squares. Return the jelly squares to the freezer.

For the ganache:
Heat the cream and pour over the chocolate and added vanilla extract, stir until combined and then pour into a piping bag and put in the fridge to cool.

For the macarons: Mix the almonds and icing sugar in one bowl.
In another bowl, put in the 110 gr eggwhites and be ready with an electric whisk

Put the castersugar and water in a pan on the hob and heat until 118 C - also add your color at this stage. When it is getting close to this temperature, start whisking the eggwhites on medium until frothy. Slowly pour the hot sugar syrup (whilst whisking the eggwhites on high) into the eggwhite bowl. Whisk for about 5 minutes until it is glossy and starting to cool down.

Then empty the rest of the liquefied eggwhites into the bowl with the ground almonds/ icing sugar, give it a quick stir and then add the whisked eggwhites.
Combine until a nice flowing "lava" texture. Scrape into a piping bag and pipe 2 cm rounds on to a silicon paper. Let rest for about 15 min until a skin has formed then put into the oven (heated to 135 c) for 14 - 16 min until firm to the touch.

Let cool, then pair up. Pipe some ganache on one side of the macaron and s small blob on it's other half. then add a piece of jelly and sandwich together.

I dusted them with freeze dried raspberry to make them look pretty. Let them rest in the fridge overnight, bring back to room temp before serving.

Bon appetit!

One Leicester Street - Soft opening - 26 April 2013

I received an invitation to the soft opening of the restaurant "One Leicester street" where all food was half price at lunch and dinner during their first opening week. The chef is Tom Harris who held a michelin star last year when the restaurant was called "St John Chinatown".

We arrived at the hotel/restaurant via chinatown and was ushered into a rather small and intimate dining room. Muted colours and a cosy feeling all around.
The menu was small but interesting and the service friendly. The menu is designed so you can either share lots of plates or do a standard 2/3 course meal. My hubby is not the sharing kind so we went with our own 3 courses :-)

As a starter i went for "Crab, fennel & monk's beard" which was light and fresh with a crab salad on top of a thin and crispy sourdough bread. The fennel complimented the crab and there was also a smear of what i think was taramasalata or some sort of roe which added some saltiness to the sweet crab.
My husband had a starter of Razor clams with samphire salad which tasted really nice and fresh (i managed to sneak a bite from his plate).


 

 

 



My main was "Pollock with grilled escarole and anchovy" - the fish was poached and served with the cooked escarole (a kind of lettuce). It was nice but needed a crunch of something - and i could not taste the anchovy.

Hubby had smoked Dexter beef which is a bit like salt beef, with textures of beetroot and horseradish and some watercress garnish.

 

The dessert was my favorite "Salted Caramel, Apple and Hazelut". It was made of a salted caramel parfait with "sheets" of crisp hazelnut macaron shells with a garnish of dried apple slices, dollops of caramel and caramellized hazelnuts. Sweet and indulgent! Could have done with a bit of colour on the plate buy hey, i am not complaining!

 

All in all, interesting food but a slightly underwhelming dining room - not enough wow factor for me. With the 50% discount it was however really good value for money and i might go back if that offer came up again.

Chocolates from Paris - 24 April 2013

I love Paris and all the wonderful patisseries and chocolatiers that can be found everywhere you look when strolling around the streets of Paris. My hubby came back from a work trip yesterday and brought a little gift... He went to Las Marquis de Laduree which is a sister shop to the famous Laduree.. with the difference that they concentrate on everything chocolate.. yes, they do macarons but with chocolate fillings only. They also do amazing chocolate truffles, bars and squares. The packaging itself is just beautiful too!

I tried all the macarons last night.. amazing (for the flavous click here)
they were all gorgeous but i really liked the Chocolate and red berries and the Chocolate and yuzu... tart and chocolatey at the same time. The passion fruit and white chocolate was lovely too (hubby's favorite) fresh and creamy with the white chocolate and some acid from the passion fruit.

The absolute surprise was the "Palais fleurs" Gorgeous discs of white chocolates each flavoured with either crystallized Jasmin, Rose or Violet and an added crunch of tiny bits of caramelized almond. One word= DEVINE
They are in the clear tube on the left in the top photo.

I also got a box of hand picked chocolates.. they look lovely too but i need to spread the eating out over a few days!!! Sneak peak photo below :-)

Broccoli & Feta quiche - 23 April 2013

I decided to give quiche making a go last night. I had a pack of feta cheese lying around in the fridge and some other bits of vegetables that needed some attention so a quiche was the perfect solution. Turned out quite nice but next time i will add some cream to the egg/milk mixture for a richer taste (but on the downside even more calorific).

Broccoli & Feta quiche (serves 8)

Put the oven on 200 c (fan)

Base:
125 gram butter (diced)
2,5 dl flour
1,5 tablespoon of ice cold water
salt

Filling:

1 x small broccoli (cut into florets and boiled for 1 min then cooled and drained)
1 x pack of feta cheese (around 120 gram) crumbled
A handful of pine nuts
1 x tomato (cut into pieces)
1 x small leek (sliced)
1 x red chili (finely sliced/chopped)
2 dl of milk (or half cream half milk)
2 x eggs
salt & pepper to taste

for the base: put all ingredients in a kitchen aid or similar and quickly pulse together to a dough. Wrap in clingfilm and rest in the fridge for 10 min

Roll out or use your hands to quickly push the dough into a quiche tray - making sure you go up the sides properly. Fork the bottom and then put in the oven for 12 min.

In the meantime, thinly slice the leek and fry until soft adding the chili at the end - season with some salt and pepper.

Take the base out of the oven and put the leek/chili mix evenly on the bottom, follow with the broccoli (make sure it is properly drained) then scatter over the diced tomatoes, pine nuts and crumbled feta chese.

Whisk the eggs and the milk together (add plenty of salt and pepper) and pour over the quiche.
Bake in the oven for about 25 min. Let it rest for 10 min before serving it with a green salad.

The Red Lion & Sun in Highgate - 21 April 2013

Sunday, Sunshine and Pub lunch with the lovely Helen!
Husband still in Portugal working hard on his golf swing and i headed up to the gorgeous Highgate Village to meet my friend Helen for a good old pub lunch and a gossip. I was early as usual (Swedes are always on time or too early for everything) but the sun was shining and i had a wonder around exploring.

The Pub was called "The Red Lion & Sun" and it was so lovely. A large outdoor garden at the front with an array of small and large tables in the sun and also a garden in the back of the pub. Spoilt for choice! I sat outside reading the papers in the sun whilst waiting for my lunch date.
We decided to eat inside since some pesky clouds made an appearance and without the sun beaming down it was a bit chilly. Note: You have to book a table for lunch since this is one of the most popular pubs in Highgate.
We had a corner table in a little snug and the bench i sat on was apparently the favorite spot of the late Stephen Gately of Boyzone. I can understand why he liked it, private but great for people watching.

I haven't had a proper sunday roast for ages so i decided to go for the Rib of beef with all the trimmings. It was nice with great crispy/fluffy roast potatoes and an array of vegetables hiding under the beef. My only complaint would be that there wasn't enough gravy (but it was very tasty what little there was). BTW.. i still don't understand the point of the yorkshire pudding - they just don't taste of anything. I guess it is a british thing...

Helen went for the healty option of a Salmon Nicoise which looked really nice and colourful and HEALTHY. Thank God she ordered a side of chips so i didn't feel to bad about my roast ;-)

Well, it was sunday and we were in a pub - you just can't leave without having pudding right?
I loooove Sticky Toffee pudding so that was a clear choice for me.. and yes, i was not disappointed.. lovely hot and sticky pudding with an amazing toffee sauce and vanilla ice cream.. i could have licked my plate but i didn't.

Helen went for the Apple & Rhubard crumble (with ice cream instead of the custard it normally comes with) and it was a huge portion. She said that the crumble topping was nice but the apple & rhubarb had been reduced a bit toom much so it resembled baby food.. i agree that it is nice to have a bit of texture in a crumble but hey ho.

I would definately come back again, especially for the Sticky toffee pudding and the large outdoor seating areas when the weather is good!

Sketch - the return - 20 April 2013

So, i took my friend Karin to Sketch back in March as part of her birthday present and i was slightly disappointed with the experience and the quality of the pastries.
I got an email asking me to review the afternoon tea and i basically wrote down what i thought was good and not so good. To my surprise i then got an email from the manager who was concerned about the feedback and he invited us to come back again and have a complimentary glass of champagne & cake.
Nice to know that feedback actually gets read. I booked us in to go and claim our champers & cake following our lunch at Asia de Cuba earlier in the day.
On arrival we asked to be seated in "The Parlour" which is situated on the ground floor and is much more intimate than the Gallery where we were last time.
The staff had been informed about our complimentary booking and handled everything perfectly. We had some lovely chilled champagne, cappuchino and a choice of cake from the display.
I went for "London to Paris" which was a Pate a choux filled with praline cream, caramelised hazelnuts and a vanilla whipped cream. Light and lovely.  Karin went for a very decadent "Gateaux Chocolate" a lovely chocolate sponge cake filled with layers of chocolate mouse, coconut mousse and passion fruit ganache.. rich and lovely. So if you are ever out and about around Regent/Oxford street - pop in to Sketch to top up your enery levels and rest your shopping weary legs. All cakes are £5.50 a pop.

Asia de Cuba - 20 April 2013

My hubby left me this weekend to go to Portugal for Golf school - great time to have long lunches with friends!
So, Saturday lunch took place at Asia de Cuba in St Martins Lane hotel. They always have great offers and the venue is so cool even after all these years!
Toptable has a deal where 2 courses and a mojito is just £18.50 = perfect!

We started off the lunch with the mojitos closely followed by steamed rolls with miso marinated black cod. The flavour of the rolls where great - my only slight concern was that the actual roll itself was a bit thick and rubbery.

For main i had a lovely charred Salmon in a sweet soya sauce served with a stir-fry of mushrooms and vegetables - delicious!

Karin decided on the BBQ chicken with a sticky coconut rice, tamarind sauce and fruity mango salsa. I had a taste and it was really good too!

We didn't have desserts since we already had plans for something sweet later in the afternoon.. however, i have had the mexican donuts with butterscotch sauce here at Asia de Cuba before and they are VERY nice!

John Salt - Gastro Pub in Islington - 18 April 2013

Finally managed to have dinner together with my lovely colleague Kellie after numerous date changes due to holidays, work, diets and just life in general :-) We went to John Salt, a new-ish and very nice gastro pub on Upper street in Angel. They have a small dining room upstairs.. quite a communal feel since the tables are very close together so not the best for a private conversation but great if you are nosy like me :-)

I had heard great things about the food so expectations were quite high..but i am afraid i came away slightly underwhelmed. Don't get me wrong, nothing was overy wrong, it just didn't excite me as much as i thought it would.

So, we started with "Burnt leeks, parmesan, egg yolk and truffle vinaigrette" which was light and airy and quite enjoyable but it needed some sort of crunch since everything was just so.. soft. I also couldn't really taste or smell any truffle. 

The second starter was a rather tasty grilled scallop (2) in its shell with ponzu and peanuts. Very tasty.

For mains we decided on the "Green chili Poussin" which came with a sweet and sticky sauce and some green chilis. It was perfectly nice. We also had "Mackerel, BBQ'd fennel, lime, mint" which was the weak spot. Rather limp mackerel on a watery and rather firm fennel with no real hit of mint and lime. Both the fennel and the mackerel would have benefited from a closer encounter with the BBQ ;-)

 



 

Desserts - We had a lovely and fresh dessert with segmented grapefruit in caramelized sugar and a creme fraiche sorbet with a sprinkle of nuts, absolutely perfect and my favorite dish of the evening. The second dessert (and Kellie's preferred choice) was an earl grey mousse with an orange marmelade and grated chocolate.

We kept a close eye on our neighbours table and saw some other interesting dishes which means that a return visit perhaps could happen. I am still keen to try the steak with the kimchi hollandaise! I think the food at John Salt is inspired and anything but boring.