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!

 

 

Rocambolesc Gelateria - Roca brothers in Girona - 31 August 2013

We went to Girona with friends for a few days and i had put us on the waiting list for El Celler de Can Roca (worlds best restaurant currently http://www.cellercanroca.com/index.htm ) back in May when we booked our holiday.. You have to book the restaurant a year in advance in order to get a reservation.. but we lived in hope that they would get a cancellation.. i kept spamming them on email, begging, sending charming post cards, pleading etc ..but to no avail :-(

SO, the next best thing would be to visit the Gelateria called Rocambolesc, http://www.rocambolesc.com/carro_eng.html, owned by Jordi Roca, the youngest of the brothers and the pastry chef at their famous restaurant.

Girona is a very pretty city with cobbled streets and thousands of ice cream places - i have never seen so many ice cream places in one town.. i do wonder how they all make a living! We stayed at Hotel Nord 1901 - a cute family run hotel in a great location - only 85 meters from Rocambolesc.

So, what about the Ice cream place? Well, it was smaller then i thought it would be.. but the decor as Willy Wonka like as the pictures i have seen. They had 6 different flavours of ice cream (4 creamy and 2 sorbet) and they are all soft ice - so no scoops.

I went for the baked apple, creamy and rich with a topping of toffee apple, butter shortbread and cooked pears. The winner however was the Carrot sorbet (also had some mango in there) topped with physalis.. it was AMAZING.

Our friends kids both had their ice creams topped with candy floss from the shops own machine... they loved it.

The flavours change but if you go - have the carrot sorbet - you wont regret it!

Helene Darroze @ the Connaught - 24 August 2013

One of my bosses gave me a real treat for my birthday - a 9 course tasting menu with wine pairing at Helene Darroze at the Connaught http://www.the-connaught.co.uk/mayfair-restaurants/helene-darroze/#Opening_Hours

This is a 2 Michelin starred restaurant so we were in for a real treat. We got a very warm welcome from the restaurant manager on arrival and the ambiance was warm rather than stuffy.

The tasting menu was really interesting:

 

We started off with some little canapes and were warned to not over do the bread basket due to the amount of courses we had ahead of us.. oh so true!

 

Our first dish was the Oyster, now, i am not a big fan of oysters but the combination was beautiful and with it a glass of chilled rose champagne!

Next we had the duck foie gras which was amazing.. i was doubtful about the pistachio puree but even though it was a strange pairing it somehow worked.. very memorable dish.

The Ravioli came next.. it was a tiny bit too al dente for my taste but that is my personal opinion. Again, i am not a big fan of calamari but this was very nice and balanced.

The Manager and the waiters had told us at the start of the meal that the scallop dish is one of the most iconic dishes from Helene so the pressure was on ... The scallop was beautifully cooked and the spice delicate. The carrot mousseline was also to die for.

 

The hake was the weakest dish for me. Too watery and not much flavour. Not a bad dish  but it didn't live up to the others.

Next came the chicken, beautifully moist and lots of flavour from the mushrooms and foie gras it was stuffed with. It was my hubby's favorite dish.

The Cheese came with a matching jelly for each one.

 Time for dessert.. with a pre dessert of pannacotta and berries! lovely.

Followed by a beautiful dessert made of apricots. Light and airy with a fruity apricot flavour.

 

 

The last dessert was rich and indulgent with chocolate and nougatine.

 

 

I really could not eat anymore after this but then i spotted the sweet trolley.. and i decided to have some mint tea. They had 9 different home made sweets on the trolley, everything from truffles to macaroons, to jellies and marshmallows.. i had one of each (yes i am greedy). I could of course not finish them all so i got them boxed up to take home. Nice touch!

We had a lovely time here. It took 4 hours but it was time well spent on a very special evening. Since i had a gift card we did not even have to pay service charge.. amazing. We walked out feeling happy, content and very very full. :-)

 

Homemade Jaffa cakes!

I watched the Sorted guys on You Tube making delicious cakes and decided to give their Jaffa cake recipe a try.. Who doesn't love Jaffa cakes??

The recipe and ingredients themselves are super easy.. the chocolate drizzle was rather hard to do neatly though.

I followed the recipe from Sorted - the only thing i did differently was that i added the orange zest to the jelly instead of the sponge and i added a spoonful of marmelade too for some tartness :-)

Recipe can be found here: http://sortedfood.com/#!/jaffacakes/

My cake mix made 16 cakes/bases... i would probably make them thinner next time so i would get around 20 in total.

I cut the jelly out with a shot glass since my cutters were too big.

 The Chocolate topping was the hardest.. they look a bit uneven but they taste good!!

Duck and Waffle - 11th of August 2013

My hubby plays golf most Sunday mornings and following golf yesterday he came back and announced that he has a great idea for Brunch - let's go to the Duck and Waffle!
Fab idea i thought and off we went. The Duck and Waffle is on the 40th floor in the Heron Tower http://duckandwaffle.com/
Not for the faint hearted if you are not keen on heights! We had not made a reservation and that was a mistake.. popular spot for Londoners and tourists alike! The lift is all glass on the outside of the building and it is very fast.. my ears popped on the ride up!

We went up to the bar and was put on a waitlist for a table.. very happy we did that since we then had the most amazing drink (i had 2 of them actually :-)) It was called "Rhubarb" and is made of DWΣ rhubarb liqueur, DWΣ rhubarb cordial, sparkling wine... AMAZING.. i now need to recreate this at home going forward.

We enjoyed the view and our cocktails and voila, 30 min later we had a table.

Since it was Sunday there was a brunch menu available and there were plenty of nice dishes to choose from. We ended up with the "Duck egg en cocotte" with wild mushrooms / gruyère / truffle / soldiers. This was really lovely (doesn't look great on the photo but the TASTE!)

We also had the "Colombian eggs" scrambled eggs on toast with avocado and chorizo. This was also very tasty.

We both then had waffles following the eggs, i had mine with fresh berries and cream and hubby had his with banana and cream. We were too focused on eating so forgot to take a photo. They also had a very nice dessert menu but we were in full on brunch mode so it had to be waffles.

I really enjoyed this place and will definately go back again.. there is also the famous "Sushi Samba" restaurant on the 38th floor which is next on our list of places to go to. I will however make sure that we have made a reservation next time to avoid disappointment.

I will leave you with a photo of the view!

Tom's Kitchen in Canary Wharf - 10th of August 2013

I quite like Mr Aiken's food and i was looking forward to try his "brasserie style" restaurant called Tom's Kitchen. http://www.tomskitchen.co.uk/canary-wharf
Sadly, we came away slightly disappointed and £250 lighter (dinner for 4). Yes, it is a brasserie - not fine dining but the portions were very inconsistent, food arrived too quickly and was not hot etc. Strange since there were only a handful of people in the restaurant.

I started with the "Piquillo Pepper Tartine - sourdough, goat's cheese and onion relish" which was a piece of sourdough with lots (and i mean lots) of caramellised red onion relish. I do love onions don't get me wrong but i had to really look for the peppers and the goat's cheese which were hidden amongst the leaves on top. It tasted perfectly fine but in the end of the day it was mostly bread and onions.

I then had one of the specials. "Pollock with ravioli filled with prawns, courgette puree and a lemon and butter sauce" The fish was unfortunately overcooked and the ravioli were a bit flavour less and the butter sauce was coagulated.

I did not have dessert by my friend had a lovely creme brulee with passionfruit. I tried it and it was tart and creamy at the same time - and a rather large portion. Our husbands both had Eton mess which came in rather small glasses.

I really wanted to like this restaurant but sadly i won't be rushing back in a hurry. The menu had a good mix of comfort food (burgers/shepherd's pie) and some more modern dishes so it would appeal to most. For me it was too expensive for the execution of the dishes.

Ispahan Macaron's - 4th of August 2013

My favorite macaron flavours are salted caramel and pistachio but it is fun to try new combinations now and again. One of the most talked about macarons are the Ispahan by Pierre Herme.. a delicate combination of Lychee, rose & raspberry. I decided to give it a try, following an adaptation of Pierre Herme's recipe.

I have included the adapted recipe below. I always use the same recipe for the macaron shells, from Adriano Zumba which work well for me. The recipe is already on my blog so below you will see the filling recipe only.

Ispahan Macaron

makes filling for about 30 macarons

For the raspberry jelly:
200gr raspberries
20gr caster sugar
1,5 leaf of gelatine


For the lychee and rose ganache:
200g white chocolate
200g lychees (preserved in syrup)
30g double cream
2g rose essence

To finish:
Silver dust

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. Strain the purée to remove the pips. Heat a quarter of the purée to 45°C. Drain and dry the gelatine and add 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 lychee and rose ganache. Drain the lychees well (squeeze out as much of the liquid as you can). Blend then strain them to obtain a fine purée. You will need 100g purée. Chop up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
Pour the ganache into a gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of the ganache. Set aside in the fridge for the ganache to thicken.

Spoon the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe a mound of ganache on to half the shells. Lightly press a square of frozen jelly into the center and finish with a dot of ganache. Top with the remaining shells. Use a brush to lightly swipe the top shell with some silver dust. Cover and chill for 24 hours.