Flat Iron and Bone Daddies

It is so easy to always go to the same favorite restaurants again and again for weekend lunches (like Busaba, Byron etc).. but New Year.. time to explore new places!
So, for lunch on Saturday we went to "Flat Iron" in Soho which is a restaurant that only has one dish on the menu: Flat Iron Steak for £10 and a few different sides and sauces.
On arrival you get a mug of popcorn and a carafe of tap water whilst you check out the (very short) menu.
We both had the steak (doh :-)) and 2 sides of chips, 2 bearnaise sauces and a Sophies salad (salad with blue cheese, walnuts and lemon dressing). The steak also comes with a small salad in a glass with a house dressing.
We ordered the 2 steaks Medium but when they arrived they had gotten the order wrong and had one medium and one medium rare - too hungry to wait for them to rectify i had the medium rare which was actually great and more of a medium to me anyway.
The steak was good - for that kind of cut..but the chips and the bearnaise were the stars of the show..wonderful.
I'd definately go back again at one point .. well, when i have exhausted all the new places that is.. ;-)

So, Sunday came along and we were going to go to Burger & Lobster in Soho for lunch (i have been before but hubby has not - the lobster roll is FAB) but the queue was too long so we decided to go to another Soho newbie called "Bone Daddies". It is not fancy with communal tables, loud music and quite small. The chef used to work at Nobu and Zuma and i guess he knows a thing or 2 about asian food!!
We both had a variation each of Tantanmen which is a noodle soup with sesame and chili oil. It was lovely and full of flavour but a bit on the spicy side for my sensitive husband.
The place was packed when we were there - again, the seating is communal on long tables with bar stools. Great place for a quick lunch.. as long as you are careful when eating.. i of course slurped my noodles a bit too much and made a mess of my top.. oh well..

Raspberry mac's

New Year, more macarons to be baked on Sundays afternoons :-)

I now follow Adriano Zumbo's recipe for the shells and i find that it works the best. It is the Italian version with hot sugar syrup which is a bit more time consuming than the French version - but it makes the shells crack free, shiny and with good feet!
I will post the recipe shortly.
For yesterday's baking session i did a raspberry macaron filling:

White chocolate & Raspberry ganache

- 100 gr white chocolate - broken into pieces
- 1 dl of double cream
- 3 teaspoons of powdered freeze dried raspberries
- tiny bit of pink gel colour
- 25 grams of unsalted butter

Heat up the cream and when boiling - pour over the white chocolate pieces and stir until melted. Add the powdered raspberries and the colour and stir. Add the butter and stir to combine. Pour into a disposable piping bag, seal and put in the fridge to set.

Here are the little finished macaroons. They turned out pretty nice if i may say so myself.

2013!!

Wow, Time has flown by and it is 2013 already.. i just realised that i have not written anything for almost 1,5 years! My new year's resolution (apart from dieting, excercise etc etc is now officially to continue to update my tastebuds from now on! So, a lot has happend during the missing 1,5 years.. many restaurants have been visited and many macaron experiments have taken place together with cake pops, cupcakes and numerous banana cakes.. oh well, you just have to take my word for it!
For NYE i made a lovely 3 course meal starting with a lobster salad with textures of vegetables, some i pickled some i steamed and some where raw. Served with a truffle mayonnaise - yummy and very light. This was folloed by a loin of lamb with a cauliflower puree and beans with a light porcini and lamb jus.. and the dessert.. well, all of my favorite flavours = vanilla, pistachio and raspberry! I made a moist pistachio cake and a white chocolate pannacotta which i "quenelled" over a slice of the cake. I also made raspberry jelly which i cut into lovely wobbly cubes and "pistachio crumble" made from caramellising sugar adding pistachio nuts, stir and pour on baking sheet to cool.. then crush up with a pestle & mortar.. Very yummy.:-)

Dinner in Chelsea - 21st of July

Had a little catch up dinner with my friend Iolanda at the Chelsea Brasserie close to Sloane Square Tube. The food was really really good and i highly recommend this restaurant. The bar was buzzing with an after work crowd when i arrived. The waiters were charming and very attentive. We were on a toptable deal which was great value for money.
I started with an amazing dish of warm soft goats cheese rolled in almonds (then baked in the oven until golden and toasted) served with some salad and onion marmalade.. Very very good.
Main was panfried bream with gnocchi and artichokes in a butter sauce. Again very good.
No room for dessert but i would definately like to come back for more!

Cup cakes - 21st of July

Riiight.. i have been soo bad with updating my blog recently.. but in all fairness,  have been busy getting married and enjoying my honeymoon :-)
So, one of my exec's decided to butter me up and say thank you for all my hard work.. so very sweet of him! I took delivery of a yummy box of cup cakes at work which i have to say were some of the best cup cakes i have had. A very moist almost almondy cake with a nice and light topping of buttercream. Highly recommend them. The company is called The little cupcake company: http://www.thelittlecupcakecompany.co.uk/

Only in Sweden... 25th of March 2011

When in Sweden you have to have a prawn sandwich or salad.. no other country compare when it comes to this classic... fresh prawns in a light mayonnaise dressing with dill and lemon.. not to mention that you get about a kilo of prawns! FAB

We went to "Tures" in the galleria in Stureplan in Stockholm.. a great shopping center with lovely restaurants and cafe's.
Take a look at my sandwich below and you will want to try one for yourself!

SMAK restaurant in Stockholm - 25th of March 2011

We went to Stockholm last weekend to organise our up and coming wedding. I had thought long and hard about where to go for dinner in the evening and after lots of research on the internet i picked SMAK www.restaurangentm.com/  which is part of the F12 group.
We both loved this restaurant! The concept is that you create your own tasting menu and you tick what food you want to include. You can have 3, 5 or 7 courses and you can mix and match savoury and sweet in any combination. You can also add on even more courses if you have a really big appetite. You can also choose to have "tasting glasses" of wine to match some or all of your dishes, or go for normal glasses or by the bottle.. i love the freedom of choice here!
Really liked the atmosphere and the very friendly staff.. the only downside is that the tables are very close together so you can overhear everything that is being said on either side of your table.
We decided on 7 courses each - 5 savoury and 2 sweet and we both picked the same dishes apart from 2. In hindsight it would have been more fun to pick all different dishes to try more but hey, this means we have to go back again!

My first dish was called: “Clay pot” matjes herring, red onion


It was so lovely and typical scandinavian with matjes herring, slicec boiled potatoes, egg and onion. Lovely and savoury.

My second dish was: Yuzo – “Sashimi” scallop, tofu, soya

Very fresh and clean tasting!

My third dish was the star of the show: Truffle – “Black ‘n’ white ‘n’ green” asparagus, parmesan

This is the dish where everybody around us (including ourselves) were seriously considering licking the dish clean! Such a simple dish but oh so good...

My fourth dish was: Wild garlic – “Oeuf cocotte” morells, chicken, bacon 
 An egg poached in a creamy concoction of cream, morell mushrooms, chicken and bacon.. yum.

My fifth dish was: Miso – “Glacée” lamb cutlet, daikon radish, sesame

Perfectly cooked lamb with japanese flavours.

My sixth dish was: Pistachio – “Gauffre” preserved strawberries

I went for it because i love pistachio however, i was disappointed since i did not think the flavours worked together as a dish. Everything was fine individually but not together.. plus i found it a bit boring.

My seventh and final dish was: Licorice – “Fondant” chocolate, sour cream, cherry
This was great! Chocolate fondant with a hint of licorice.. heaven

I would higly highly recommend this restaurant if you are visiting Stockholm.. we are definately going back again.. and again...