Vinoteca Kings cross - 15 March 2015

I managed to snatch up a table at Vinoteca Kings Cross during their soft opening stage where they had 50% off all food and drink. We got a couple of friends to join us for lunch on the Sunday.. which happened to be Mother's day and our friend had forgotten to book somewhere for him and his family so we saved the day! :-)

Soft openings can be chaotic and confused which is why you get a discount of course - but I have to say that the lunch went really smoothly. A couple of minor mistakes but hey, that can happen in established places too. We spent over 3 hours lingering over food and drink and enjoyed every moment.


What I love most about the menu is that each dish has a recommended glass of matching wine as optional - rather affordable too. From about £3.50 for a small 125ml glass - bargain.

We started off the meal with a bottle of prosecco to toast mum..and some nibbles of olives and catalan almonds (love those almonds).

I then had a starter of Orecchiette pasta with sage, butter, garlic and parmesan. A very tasty bowl of pasta with good flavour.

I then had the grilled Cornish mackerel with warm pickled vegetables, pine nuts and capers. The pickled fennel &  carrots were lovely and pickled just right. The guys had Sunday roasts with beef and Yorkshire puds. They tucked in too quickly for me to take a photo but it looked really good and I am told it was!

 I shared desserts with my friend, first some lovely cheese and then one of the best pannacotta's I have ever had - soft, super wobbly and very light with pink moscato poached rhubarb - lovely!

We had a great afternoon with lots of food and wine and I would happily go back again paying full price.

Swedish princess cake - all rolled up - 7 March 2015

Swedish princess cake is a classic cake but I wanted to make it rolled like a log - for my god son's birthday.

Sponge:

3 eggs
1,5 dl caster sugar
1 dl plain flour
1 dl potato flour
1,5 tsp baking powder

- whisk sugar and eggs until fluffy. add the flours and baking powder. pour into an oven tray and bake for about 5-7 min at 230 c. I line my tray with silicon paper which makes it super easy to peel off. After turning it out onto another silicon sheet I roll it up loosely to get the round shape and let it cool like that. Makes it much easier to roll it up with the filling later.

Filling - I made a thick vanilla custard (around 2 dl) and whisked up 3 dl of double cream. I then folded in two thirds of the cream into the custard.

when the sponge had cooled down I put a layer of raspberry jam on  - spread out evenly - then the custard cream mix. Rolled it up and spread a layer of the leftover whipped cream all around.

Decoration - I had bought some golden marzipan that I coloured green (kept some back for other colours). I then rolled it out between silicon sheets and put it on the cake. The rest of the marzipan became little bees (with almond flakes for wings) roses, leaves etc. I added some edible shimmer spray and sprinkels. Ta da... done.

Sushisamba - 22 February 2015

Sushisamba is such a great restaurant - high up in the sky in the Heron Tower with lovely Japanese/Brazilian fusion food. Difficult to get a reservation but I had booked far in advance and got a table on the Sunday evening.

Walking in to the restaurant at 8 in the evening it was hard to believe it was actually a Sunday evening. The place was full!! The bar was busy and the restaurant did not have a single table free - I guess Sundays are the new Saturdays! :-)

Having been before we ordered some old favourites' and some new items. The food did not disappoint - light, fresh and interesting. Here is a selection below of what we had. We also had the obligatory black cod but forgot to take photo evidence. 

 Shrimp tempura

 Kanpachi Tiradito

 Yellowtail Taquitos

 Samba Salad

 Mixed sushi incl Samba rolls

Passion fruit cake

The Ivy Market Grill - 22 February 2015

I took my hubby out for lunch on his birthday at the newly opened "Ivy Market Grill". Smack in the middle of Covent Garden it was a very lively atmosphere and reminded me of an informal French brasserie. The food menu has got something for everybody - I had a very tasty fish pie with a lobster sauce and hubby had a chicken escalope. We were both happy with our choices. Great venue for a catch up with friends or for a quick lunch.

Busaba Eathai - cooking class

I loooooooove Thai food! Especially Busaba Eathai's Green curry and Sen Chan Phad Thai.. and the Goong tohd prawn and Som tam salad.. and everybody loves their  famous Thai Calamari (i just don't like calamari... i keep trying it but not for me).
So, when i found out that Busaba in Panton Street near Leicester Square do cooking classes on Sunday mornings i immediately emailed to get booked in with a friend.

So on the 25th of January at exactly 9:50am we stood outside the Panton street branch and was welcomed by Chef Hesh. The groups are kept quite small and have max 8 people in them which is great. We were 7 in total when we went which was great. We had lemongrass tea, cookies and a chat about the hours ahead before we got into our chefs whites and got started.

You don't get to do any prep work - you just learn about the food and get to cook/finish the dishes. Each class has 2 courses that you get to make. This time it was Som Tam (green papaya salad) and Phad Thai. Chef Hash also rustled up some Tom Yam Soup, Goong tohn prawn and calamari for us.

The menu changes every month or so - might have to go back again to learn the green curry! :-)

We started off with bashing up the Som Tam salad in a huge pestle and mortar

 Voila - my finished Som Tam salad.. yummy and didn't look to shabby if i may say so myself!

 

We then moved on to the Phad Thai. Did you know that it has dried turnip as one of the ingredients? No, i didn't either!

 

We got to wok away over very high heat ourselves - i lost a prawn whilst furiously stirring away but no other casualties!

 

Lunch time!

Afterwards we went to China town with Chef Hesh and he showed us where to buy authentic ingredients - all in all - really fun couple of hours cooking, eating, socialising and pestering the chef for top tips.. and all that for £45 a head.

 

The best cinnamon buns .. ever

I love sweet buns.. cinnamon, pistachio, marsipan, vanilla or saffron.. I don't mind.. but I have struggled to make really light and fluffy ones.. until now.. this recipe has changed my bun making forever..

In Sweden, fresh yeast is always used and I still prefer it over dried yeast. Nowadays you can get fresh yeast at Ocado (packs of 4 x 50 gr) or in Scandi kitchen in London. I had a couple of left over frozen packs of yeast so I used the recipe below but instead of the recommended 20gr I used a 50gr frozen pack of yeast.. since yeast is no longer as potent when it has been frozen.

Here is the basic recipe though.. and you can of course use any filling you fancy.

Pre dough:
125 gr water
125 gr milk
20 gr fresh yeast
250 gr flour (wheat)

Mix in a bowl until dissolved (as much as you can) put some clingfilm on the bowl and leave for an hour.

The "real" dough:

250 gr flour
Pinch of salt (4 gr)
1/2 teaspoon or more of cardamom (ground)
100 gr butter (softened and sliced up)
100 gr sugar

 Use a pestle and mortar to grind the cardamom - discard the husks. You can also use bought ground cardamom but I prefer to grind it myself. Add all the ingredients to the pre dough and mix with dough hooks or in a machine for 10 15 min until it comes together and is shiny and elastic. Put a tea towel or cling film on top and let it prove for an hour.

For the filling (cinnamon)

100 gr butter (softened)
100 gr sugar
1 tsp of cinnamon
1/2 tsp of cardamom

Mix together and set aside

Make the buns!

Roll out half the dough to a rectangular shape. Spread out the filling on half of it then fold over the other half. Cut long strips and then twist the strip and roll it around 2 fingers and tuck in the end.

Let them rest with a tea towel on top in a warmish place until risen (20 min). Heat the oven to 225 C. Whisk up some egg with a little water and salt. Brush the buns and put some pearl sugar on top (optional) and in the oven they go.. for around 9 min (depends on your oven). Take out and check them - if they are light and the bottom has gotten some colour then they are done! Brush some more of the egg/water mix on them when still piping hot.. makes them nice and shiny! Eat immediately and freeze the rest - they are great to take up and heat up in the micro or oven when required!

Pictures below are of vanilla/marzipan filled buns - before and after they have been in the oven.

Ametsa with Arzak instruction at the Halkin

Ametsa is situated in the Halkin Hotel in Knightsbridge.. it is overseen by Father and daughter team behind the multi Michelin starred Arzak restaurant in Spain

We went here on a deal from Bookatable and included a glass of pink cava and 4 courses. One word: AMAZING
Food was so inventive and lovely and the service.. well, I think the friendliest and best service I have ever had. The one thing that let the experience down one notch was the ambiance - It was rather quiet when we where there but then it was the Saturday after NYE... I would be back in a heartbeat though.. already have my eye on the full tasting menu! 

Some photos from the amazing dinner: Trio of sharing starters with "egg and chorizo", "Iberian ham on a bread pillow" and "scallops at home"

Fish and Meat courses: "Grouper with beans" and "Ox cheeks with piquillo flames"..note that the little different coloured beans on the plate are actually vegetable juices set and shaped as beans.... amazing.. and a side salad with a truffle dressing.

Ahh.. the dessert.. very theatrical: "Misty Chocolate" with a white chocolate cream in the glass - filled with smoke and then a sugar oblat with freeze dried berries.. you crack the oblat with the spoon so it falls into the dish.. the smoke wafts out and then you eat it.. :-)

 

 

Taste of London 2014

Time again for the annual "Taste of London" and guess what? It didn't rain for a change!

We had a lovely time with too much food as always.. forgot to take photos of them all - guess i was too hungry :-)

Here is a selection of what i did take photos of...

Stripbar & Steak at the Malmaison - 18th of June

We celebrated our wedding anniversary on the 18th of June and i had originally booked this restaurant called "Canvas" but the day before we were due to go there i get a call and guess what? They've had a gas leak! Restaurnat is closed for a week and with that our reservation goes out the window..
After trying a few favorites like Roka and SushiSamba with no luck we decided to go out and have some steak instead and found a great offer at Stripbar & Steak at the Malmaison - 50% off the whole a carte menu! Yes please.

The Malmaison is a little boutique hotel situated on Charterhouse square and the restaurant is in the basement.. very dimly lit, music playing, banquettes and neon signs.... very friendly welcome by Fabio, the manager.

I had a lobster cocktail to start and hubby had a trio or cocktails (shrimp/prawn/lobster) We also had some interesting cheesy bread

For main we had steak (yeah, really!) I had a 350 gr steak which i could not finish but it was good. We had some Mac'n'cheese, spinach and some tomato salad on the side..

With 50% off this was really worth it. They also do a great sounding brunch menu.. might be back to try it out!

Duck & Waffle - 15th of June 2014

An old friend of mine was in London last weekend so we went out for a late lunch / brunch at Duck & Waffle.. such impressive views from up there!

I had the smoked salmon with warm flatbreads, gherkins, capers and creme fraiche - which was lovely. My friend had the ox cheek benedict and we shared the beetroot salad. Food was great and at a decent price too.

We also shared a decadent sounding waffle with home made nutella, banana, ice cream & peanut crunch - sounded good on paper but did not live up to expectations.. we even left some!!!

This was my second time here but i would definately go back again.

 

And here is a shot of the view /the Gherkin - and us! :-)

 

Home made chocolates with salted caramel and chocolate ganache!

I have some friendly bake off's with one of my bosses (male!!) at work - so far we have made macarons and cheesecake.

He is heavily into making chocolates - so our next date has been set for our chocolate making challenge (14 July) which means that i am now practising at home with my amazing new magnetic chocolate mould from Fat Daddios - perfect for chocolate transfers to make the chocs look professional. I used some slightly retro looking gold transfers in the bottom of my mould.

Check out the moulds here - they are FAB!
I followed the instruction for the tempering of the chocolate from Lindt and it worked a treat. I used dark 70% chocolate since that is the easiest to temper and for a filling i cheated and used a ready made caramel from "Bonne maman" (the same people who make those yummy jams :-) i just added some sea salt to make it tastier and not so sweet. I half filled the moulds with the now salted caramel and then i added a dark chocolate ganache on top (made from cream and dark chocolate) before "closing" the praline with more tempered chocolate.

I was sooo pleased with the result. Check them out! Fingers crossed they look and taste as good when i make them for our bake off!!

Mad Hatters Tea Party at The Sanderson Hotel

I quite like a spot of afternoon tea now and again - i mean, who can resist just out of the oven scones with lots of clotted cream and jam?
The best afternoon teas i have had in London would be the Langham and the Ritz - both with to die for scones :-)

This time i went with 2 girlfriends to the Sanderson hotel for the Mad Hatters tea party

What a popular place - when we arrived if felt like it was a Saturday evening at 10 pm - not a Saturday afternoon at 3:30pm. Lots of (mostly) women dressed up in cocktail dresses sipping champagne.

It was busy but staff were very friendly and organised. I loved the look of the afternoon tea and the lovely touches like the sugar box and tea choices but it was a little bit of style over substance. The sandwiches were not great - just lots of bread and hardly any filling - the best one was the salmon on rye.

Same goes for the mushroom marshmallows and meringue carrots.. looked great but lacking in flavor.
The mini sweet and savoury scones were great and the green tea /white chocolate mousse was also very good. I also loved the "drink me" potion.. :-)

The other good thing was that they happily refilled anything that you wanted more of - and you could also switch to a different tea/coffee if you wanted - nice touch.

We had a great time and the damage was £38 for the afternoon tea per person (or £48 with a glass of champagne or £58 for a glass of rose champagne)