GOURMANDIZING RSVP 03

ANARCHY IN THE UK

LONDON RIOTS 2011

OUT LIKE A LAMB

Me in our great British garden. On the garden tip. I came home from work the other day, destined to make a basil and tomato pasta. To my surprise my basil plant was missing. Not missing from the pot, but the pot and the plant. Straight vic’ed. It came back two days later. C’est WTF.

Here is an older post that has gone unpublished where we have gathered herbs from our front yard. Pan seared lamb with an herb dressing of parsley, mint, garlic, white wine and horse radish. It was way yummy. This is my lovely wife’s favorite cut of lamb. The shape usually resembles a crown and the way tit  is actually cut, you get more meat  than on a traditional chop.

YOUR EEL

More research.

Since having arrived in London I have wanted to get into an eel & pie house. Any of ‘em to be honest. Kenya, for that same very long while, has not wanted to be my bombing partner (insert participatory graffiti lingo) on that mission. And I understand. Really. So imagine my joy, when recently on a date on Broadway Market I was able to get my eel on. Kenya was my photographer / accomplice. She did not dine, but watched me. In all my excitement, I was hardly able to get the spoon into my mouth. Smiled so wide.

Here we are at the way affordable, famous and long lived F. Cooke Pie & Mash House. Success, like sweet baby Jesus. I remember so many stories told by my mom of her Grandfather teaching her to skin eels on the Angula forever  beaches of Staten Island when she was a kid. I always wanted to learn too.

NEAR LOBSTER – COLOSSAL SHRIMP

More research. Simply said, I could not afford to ball out on an actual Lobster. So. Splashed with fresh lemon, salt & peppered and on the grill.
Eat the shell and all. Super simple and fun starter. I just rested this guy on a bed of coriander, for the cleanliness and  fragrance,  but you can make a small mixed leaf salad, which would be perfectly rad.

SAMPHIRE & GOLDEN CHANTERELLE PASTA

A week or so ago (a rather long week ago or so) a friend of ours was in London, from Italy, on holiday. I know. I know. Why? When equal to less a travel time away lay Greece or Cyprus or Croatia or Majorca or any where but here. Well thats how I saw it. Rain for days for her stay. I digress.

Here is our dinner which was designed by a food vendor who had sent a sample to our restaurant instead of the chef’s restaurant whom happened to actually ask for the product. Can you follow that? We called the company that sent the stuff-which was real real fine quality-but to no avail. I got to keep it from hitting the bin. A wonderful package of British samphire and girolle mushrooms. I guess that is like a holiday in itself.

Yes, dinner is like a rainbow; it looks great from a distance, yet disappears when one gets close to it.
We actually found this on our way home from the market, just before we made dinner. The samphire was absolutely incredible. It was my favorite.
I am so sorry my mushroom loving people. I just cant stop thinking about finding proper London samphire along the banks of the Thames these days-
As they did during the long century during the warmer months of July and August.

SCALLOP RESEARCH, A MINUTE AGO, WHEN MALCOLM WAS VISITING

Appetizer: Trusted, tried and true. The italian flag like national dish of fresh basil, mozzarella,
tomato and fresh bread.  Add per your liking olive oil, salt and pepper.
Unfailingly simple and most delectable the more in season and fresh your ingredients are.

Starter: Pan seared scallops easy as could be. I love watching a scallop cook in hot heat. The color goes from a translucent sun brewed tea to a milky cream  and the exture reveals itself as it crispens, allowing the vertical crannies to expose the interstices between muscular fibers, oh so enticing-appetizing. And again when the fish is way  fresh the simple method, for me, works best. Olive oil salt and pepper. Salad of water crest, olive oil and balsamic vinegar

Mains: Home made polenta with a Puttanesca sauce, shaved pecorino and water crest salad. I completely adore a Puttanesca Sauce. It is a comfort food for me. Before I understood the namesake, I was taken by the process of cooking down anchovies in oil with garlic & shallots to create the right base, the sharp bite of a caper amidst the familiarity of stewed tomatoes coupled with the luxurious depth of black olives tracking several sensors along ones tongue. And after learning what Puttanesca means in Italian, well… I was hooked. Who else would have a national dish named after prostitutes. ( Berlusconi aside) From early Turkish Roman shopping lists to Woody Allen’s Academy Award winning sexual movie misconducts to the cover of Miles Davis’s unconventional Bitches Brew to Eliot Spitzer’s pay as you go plan, prostitutes are everywhere in history. I am unsure any of these references may stack up and make any sense. Even once upon a long time ago, working on a project about prostitution, we ate this pasta every night. Conceptually flawed we may have been, as the dish could also have been born when one such client demanded “Facci una puttanata qualsiasi”  Just cook us anything. And as a PS, I am unsure why I decided to plate the dish in the manner of Missing Foundation’s Logo. I noticed my self doing it and was quietly amused with myself.

Dessert: Kenya makes a stellar apple crumble. She only uses Bramely Apples. The key to every door. I am very lucky she is so decided on this variety. Its fluffy light texture, when cooked, appeals in contrast to the texture and sweetness of sugar coated oats. C’est Yum!

GOURMANDIZING 02

So here we are, number two of our Gourmandizing events under our belt. We sat 11 guests, old and new friends that proved great company. Kenya worked as our florist and host, while the menu was prepared and cooked by Nacho Del Campo and myself. We ran a near perfect service (admittingly, near perfect) with an extrodinary menu sourced from the ever diverse Deptford Market. The food was pretty much perfection.

Deptford Tea Towel and Menu

Table Setting in the midst of . . . The Menu:

Starter: Pan fried hand dived Scottish scallops with lobster bisque

Main: Seared yellowfin tuna, Szechuan aubergine, seasonal green asparagus and sweet-chili sauce.

Platting the plates.

Dessert: Baked chocolate tart, home-made vanilla sherbet with poached cherries.

Served with a Cuban coffee of flambed rum and sweet cream.

Nacho and Matt drinking coffee

Nacho working a stiff flambe

Copy on the Tea Towel:

Since it takes a lot to win,and even more to lose,
you and me bound to spend some time
wondering what to chooseDeptford Tea Towel.
Our event take away.

Kenya modeling an edition of the Deptford Tea Towel. 

Still life or Dead Duck, A Missing Post

C’est can not wait!!!!

Colette Hosmer
Natura Morta, Still life

Confit Duck

I  accidently / excitedly purchased some duck a few weeks ago. It was just before we took our brief trip to  NY. I have tried to cook it once before, coincidentally at a friends place in Brooklyn, it started out real well, but…

Maybe it was the drinking, maybe it was the conversation, maybe it was the exhaustion of a day’s worth of surfing, it dried the heck/hell/fuck out. I mean it was not that bad. That is a word bank for how hard one can be on themselves. Brass tacks.

Here is my first real attempt at Duck Confit. I cooked the duck on 200C for about an hour and a half. Maybe a little more. Cooked the carrots in a bit of chicken stock and white wine down to a mear nothing in the pan then added a bit of oil and herbs, garlic, shallots and made wonderful aromas that swirled the kitchen in smoke so delicate yet palpable, you could have taste the distinctive flavors. Vapouriser status – sort of. The dish was set with baby red chard and glazed carrots.

Also I am realizing, paying attention, to how much I like to garnish a plate with salad. I am unsure where this may be coming from…childhood maybe. It seems that near every post I publish, there is a salad on the plate. C’est la veg.