BROCKMANS CURED SALMON

On receiving a bottle of Brockmans gin to use in a recipe, I knew exactly what I’d make with it when I smelt the heavy floral scent of berries and zings of citrus coming from the bottle. I’ve never smelt or tasted a gin quite like it. It’s such a delicious and powerful standalone drink that it’s one of few gins I like neat. Therefore I didn’t want to add too much to my recipe to take away from all the flavours in the spirit. As a big fan of curing fish I wanted to go to this, and added a little beetroot to give an earthiness to compliment the gin's botanicals, which very unusually include blueberries and blackberries. What better to go with these purple fruits than a purple vegetable to cure a piece of salmon...

It’s such a simple recipe, though it does need to be made a few days in advance so bear that in mind when you make it. If you haven’t cured fish before then try it – the process “cooks” the fish so you end with salmon that’s of a similar texture to smoked salmon, and utterly delicious as it’s absorbed the flavours of the gin and the beetroot.

1kg salmon loin

2 beetroot

70g granulated sugar

70g table salt

120ml Brockmans gin

Zest of 1 lemon

Chop the beetroot into chunks and put in the blender with the sugar, salt, gin and lemon. Whizz up until you have a paste. Smother the paste all over the salmon loin then wrap the salmon in three layers of cling film. Pop the salmon in a tray in the fridge and put another tray on top, weighed down with something heavy (tins of beans are good!) Turn the loin of salmon over twice a day, for 2-3 days. When ready, rinse the salmon under cold water then pat dry with kitchen towel. Thinly slice and serve on blinis as canapes, or with salmon mousse and pickled vegetables, with bread, for a lovely starter. 

Photo by Chelone Wolf Photography

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CHOPITOS + MOJO VERDE

With the rainy drizzly January about to turn into a probably similar February it doesn't take long for my brain to wander to sunnier climes. Especially when asked to create a recipe inspired by Tenerife. I'm fed up with winter food so jumped at the chance to whip up something a bit sunnier in my kitchen. Tenerife is known for its cheeses, seafood, light stews and broths and grilled meats. There was just one recipe I really wanted to make though - delicious lightly fried baby squid with the tangy, herby, vinegary mojo verde sauce. The slight crunch of the squid batter encasing the soft squid dunked in the sauce is pretty much all I'd want to eat if I was sitting in the Tenerife sunshine right now.

Serves 2

For the squid:
300g baby squid or squid tentacles (the fishmonger should do these really cheap because a lot of people buy squid and ask for the tentacles to be removed)
1 egg white
2 tbsp plain flour
Salt and pepper

For the mojo verde:
Half bunch coriander
Half bunch parsley
Half bunch mint
3 cloves of garlic
1 green chilli
1 tsp sea salt
Sprinkle of cumin powder
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
Extra virgin olive oil

Start by making the mojo verde sauce, as the squid takes minutes to prep and cook. Roughly chop the herbs and smash or crush the garlic cloves. Add them all to the blender with the chilli, salt and cumin and a splash of oil. Blend, adding oil as you go until you having a liquid paste. Stir in the sherry vinegar.

Whisk the egg white in a bowl and put the flour in another bowl. Heat the oil in a frying pan. Dunk each piece of squid in the egg then the flour, then into the hot pan. Cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove and pop the squid onto a piece of kitchen roll to absorb any excess oil. 

Serve the crispy squid with a big squeeze of lemon juice and the mojo verde sauce drizzled all over the top. Cold beer optional but advisable!

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GREAT BRITISH CHEFS at CORDON BLEU

Sometimes this little old blog of mine throws some super exciting opportunities my way - activities I wouldn't do normally end up being evenings so well spent. Like a couple of Mondays ago when I headed to Le Cordon Bleu cookery school for an evening masterclass with Michelin starred chef Pascal Aussignac, the Norwegian Seafood Council and Great British Chefs. Pascal is of Gascon fame and has several restaurants across London including his Michelin starred original site, Club Gascon. 

After being welcomed with a glass of bubbly and some nibbles it was straight in to the state of the art teaching kitchen to get cooking. We started with the "basics" - Pascal's crunchy grapes. A quick and easy showstopping canape idea, we made caramel from sugar before adding crushed seeds and nuts then rolling our grapes in the sticky crunchy mixture. A really fun idea for a pre dinner snack to impress your guests.

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ORMER, MAYFAIR

There's some restaurants I go to which I know I'm going to love before I've even been. Their menus read like a dream, and when I hear someone like Emily, who I have very similar tastes to (apart from the skinny bitch cali maki incident), raving about it then I know it's a sure fire thing. What I don't expect though is to end up eating the best dish I've tried all year, possibly even ever.... A bold statement, I know. But it's true.

Ormer Mayfair is the London version of Shaun Rankin's Michelin starred Jersey restaurant and it officially opens on Tuesday next week. I popped in to try their menu during soft launch, and am going to have to stop myself going back there weekly for the food. Ormer is in the Flemings Mayfair Hotel and has all the classic feels of an old school, luxury hotel restaurant, in a good way (apart from for food photos as you'll soon see). Service was attentive yet not overbearing, and the food.... Well the food was something else. 

I'm not sure if it's just for soft launch but I was welcomed with a glass of 2009 Nyetimber, which as the sommelier rightly said, has a creamy finish to it having been aged for five years in the bottle. This came with an amuse bouche of the poshest lobster roll I've tried - a great hunk of lobster encased in soft, sweet homemade brioche. 

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WAZEN, KINGS CROSS

It's no secret that I'm a huge fan of Japanese food - in fact, for a regular meal out, I'd probably choose Japanese over any other cuisine - I love the clean, fresh flavours and I like the prevalence of fish in the menus, as it makes for a satisfactory yet not overly heavy meal. So when a new Japanese restaurant opens in London I always try to get there to check it out. Wazen opened in Kings Cross in October and I went along to see what all the fuss was about - I'd read only good things about it from some of my favourite food writers in the few weeks it had been open.

The first surprise of the evening was the person to greet me when I arrived - the lovely Ken who used to work at Kanada-ya is now working at Wazen. Always smiling and so knowledgeable about food, Kanada-ya's loss is Wazen's gain. Wazen is in the old Prince Albert pub on Acton Street in Kings Cross, and due to still having the old pub exterior, with the sign still almost intact, I couldn't actually find the restaurant when I first got there. But when I did I was welcomed into the large dining room, full of wooden tables and stools and the old pub bar that's now serving as the restaurant's bar.

I was invited to review Wazen so we were given a tasting menu to try. Every dish was exquisite - beautifully presented and utterly delicious. Chelone, who's been working on photos for my book, came to review with me, hence the much better than normal photos in this post. He's an excellent food photographer, so drop him a line if you want any reasonably priced, top quality food pics done - I can't wait for you to see the photos he's taken for my book, though you'll have to wait a while longer for those!

First up, after a few edamame to snack on, was the agedashi tofu. What I love about tasting menus that the restaurant choose for you are the dishes that I'd never choose for myself. I would never pick tofu on a menu - I think of it as a bit bland and generally a waste of stomach space, but this was fantastic. Deep fried tofu wrapped in wonton skins, served in a mushroom based sauce that had such depth of flavour, with a dashi foam, which didn't really add anything to the dish. But it didn't need anything added. The mushroom sauce/soup was the kind of broth that felt like it had serious healing powers!

 

 
Second to the table was a dish I definitely would've chosen myself - salmon zuke - seared salmon with kimizu dressing, which was made from egg yolk and vinegar, a sort of Japanese mayonnaise - the tangy acidity of the dressing perfectly complemented the sweet salmon.

 
Having said that I like Japanese food for the fish led menus it was nice to try some meat dishes on Wazen's menu too. The first of two chicken dishes we tried rivals Kricket's KFC in terms of juicy fried chicken. The chicken kakinotane was sublime - chicken thigh coated in crumbled Japanese rice cracker, the chicken was so tasty and the deep fried cracker had a wonderful nuttiness to it.

 

The Wazen salad was a good dose of our five a day. I love beetroot anyway and this plate of roasted beetroot, golden beetroot, yuzu daikon, edamame, salmon roe, pomegranate, tonbruri kochia seeds (sometimes known as land caviar due to their texture and saltiness), shiso cress, cervil and chrysanthemum petals, with a yuzu dressing, was spot on. A refreshing vegetable interlude between the other plates.

 
Then we were on to sashimi. Beautifully cut pieces of tuna, salmon and butterfish were so, so fresh. We were given a lighter soy sauce to match the fish served on its own.

 
With our sashimi we had the isaribi sushi platter - three pieces of ngiri topped with the same fish as the sashimi platter, and the salmon and avocado roll. All perfectly made and a really good ratio of fish to rice. I don't like it when there's too much rice which then dominates the sushi pieces. The isaribi platter was served with a different soy sauce than that with the sashimi - it's the little touches like this that make Wazen a step above a lot of other Japanese restaurants in London.

Last but not least for savoury dishes was chicken namban. Pan fried baby chicken with a thick namban sauce and julienne vegetables. Again, the chicken was succulent and flavoursome, and the namban sauce was divine - it's a pickle type sauce that the chicken is marinated in, which is then reduced down to an unctuous, thick sauce for the dish. It was all topped with a Japanese style tartare sauce that kept it light and fresh.

Throughout the meal we had sake pairings to match each set of dishes - sohomare karakuchi (a 15% premium dry sake made with Yamadanishiki rice) for the first dishes, kawashin (15% with hints of chestnut and lychee water, with an almost salty taste) for the sushi and sashimi, and omachi (made with omachi rice, and again at 15% abv, it has a soft yet rich flavour) for the namban chicken. I really enjoyed the first two particularly, and could see why they'd been chosen to pair with the plates as they really complimented the food. It was great to sample sakes chosen by the restaurant as I'd have no idea where to even start when choosing sake with food.

Puddings were matcha tiramisu which really just tasted like a decadent tiramisu that had been dusted with matcha powder. I'm not a huge fan of puddings anyway, and by this stage was struggling to eat anymore after so much food, but I preferred the tiramisu to the other pudding which was a matcha chiffon cake - chiffon cake is a sponge made with oil rather than butter so is very light in texture, but it didn't really do it for me. My advice would be to fill up on the delicious starters and mains and maybe just skip dessert!

 

Photos by Chelone Wolf - Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

 
If you want excellent Japanese food in a relaxed environment, served by those with real knowledge of the food who are able to guide you through drinks to enjoy with each dish, then definitely check out Wazen. Full info, their address and menu can be found on their website. Dishes range from £3 for nibbles, to £17.50 for the black cod main, which is really reasonable compared to what other Japanese restaurants charge for their versions of that dish. I'm looking forward to trying the black cod, as well as the teriyaki cream soft shell crab and the spicy tuna roll next time I'm there.
 

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MACKEREL, RHUBARB, CUCUMBER

I'm lucky enough to eat out quite a lot. It's one of my favourite things to do and I love discovering new restaurants and discovering an area through where to eat there. This does mean that I watch what I eat when I'm not eating out though.... I have to! I try and avoid carbs altogether and eat fresh fruit and vegetables with some occasional protein. This is a go to recipe of mine during rhubarb season and one of the easiest recipes I've posted. There's no actual cooking involved, it takes about five minutes to make and is the perfect light, summer lunch. It's healthy, quite low in calories and full of good nutrients. You can bulk it out with a potato salad made with boiled new potatoes tossed in natural yoghurt but I like it just as it is.

Smoked mackerel, cucumber and pickled rhubarb

Serves 2
2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tsp golden caster sugar
4 whole peppercorns
1 stick of rhubarb
1 cucumber
Half tsp table salt
2 fillets good quality smoked mackerel (get it from the fishmongers or deli if you can - it's still really good value)

Heat the vinegar, sugar and peppercorns in a small sauce pan or frying pan. Chop the ends off the rhubarb stalk and slice into thin matchsticks. Lay the rhubarb sticks on a plate and pour over the warm vinegar mixture. Leave to pickle while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Using a spiraliser or a julienne peeler create ribbons of cucumber. Lay the ribbons on a sheet of kitchen roll and sprinkle with a little table salt.

Give the cucumber a few minutes then shake them gently to get rid of the excess salt and moisture. Put the cucumber ribbons onto the plate, top with the rhubarb sticks and mackerel fillets. The sweet, oily fish is perfect with the pickled rhubarb and juicy cucumber.

 

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KERBISHER & MALT

Kerbisher and Malt - the best fish and chip shop in London (?) I know it's a bit of a grand statement, but it's one I've been thinking about a bit recently. You see, I've been to Kerbisher and Malt twice now. The first time I didn't get it - it was good, but it was just fish and chips. But I went back recently and I've changed my mind. I've changed my mind because I've realised, that although there are a couple of places in London that sell excellent fish and chips, that's all they sell, and your arms normally stick to the tables because they're so greasy, and you clean up after yourself, because they're just takeaway shops that happen to have a few seats/tables. But Kerbisher and Malt is different. It really stands out from the rest. It's fish and chips but it's more, it's an actual restaurant for a start, where you pay after your meal, and where the waitresses bring your food to you and take it away when you're done. And they also bring you booze if you so desire. And their food is really, really good.

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10 MINUTE VEG STIR FRY + TUNA

I made this delicious meal for dinner last night. The boy's been ill at home all week and I wanted to make something healthy, quick and tasty to feed us both (before we collapsed on the sofa to watch How to Train your Dragon 2 - perfect film for a 31 and 37 year old to watch!)

This recipe uses tuna as the main protein but you could make it veggie by omitting the tuna, or top it with some grilled chicken or beef if you want something meaty.

Serves 2

1 large tuna steak
Squeeze of lemon juice
1 broccoli
1 red pepper
3 cloves of garlic
Bunch of spring onions
2 nests of dry egg noodles
1 tbsp sesame oil
2 tbsp soy sauce
Coriander
1 tsp sesame seeds
1 chilli (for mine only, the boy's allergic so I added this last)

Fill the kettle and put it on.

Rub the tuna steak with olive oil, a grind of pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice.

Chop the broccoli heads off and slice into small pieces. Slice the pepper into rings. Crush the garlic and finely chop the spring onions.

Put the noodles in a bowl and pour over the boiled water. These will need to sit for 5 minutes while you cook the tuna and the veg.

Heat a small frying pan over a high heat. Once hot put the tuna in the pan and leave it to sear for 1-2 minutes, depending how thick the fillet is.

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CITY BARGE CHISWICK

A couple of weeks ago an email from The Handbook landed in my inbox that stopped me in my tracks - a pub within half an hour's walk of our house was about to reopen having been closed for a major refurb, which included adding a kitchen to the venue. I'd never heard of The Barge in Chiswick before, but was intrigued, as we live a little bit in no man's land  where pubs are concerned (in between Chiswick and Acton there's a lack of good pubs) so was excited to find out about The Barge. I popped down last Tuesday for a drink, and met the manager, who invited me back, with the boy, for some food. Even on a rainy Tuesday post-bank holiday it was busy in there, so we decided to go down on Friday night and try out the new menu.

Luckily by Friday the rain had stopped so we had a lovely walk through Chiswick's house and tree-lined roads until we got to the river. We were early so sat outside, right on the towpath, enjoying a drink and some people (and dog) watching.

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SQUID INK, SPINACH, PESTO & SEA BASS

I wasn't actually going to post this recipe up on my blog - it was just something I threw together for a weekday supper for me and the boy, and the title of it's a bit long winded. But the photo I posted on Instagram of our meal went down a treat, so I thought I'd put the recipe up here in case any of you want to make it.

You can substitute any ingredients you don't have for what you do have - my recipe was influenced by the contents of my fridge!

Serves 2:

150g squid ink spaghetti
50g spinach pasta

Handful frozen peas
2 tbsp pesto - I used Pisco pesto (I think that's what it's called, although can't find any info online about them), which was a homemade brand I picked up at Battersea car boot sale at the weekend
Packet of spinach
Lemon juice
Black pepper

2 fillets of sea bass

Get 2 pans of water on to boil - 1 large for the pasta, one smaller for the peas. 

Add salt to the larger pan once boiling and add your pasta. This needs to boil for 10 minutes. In the meantime, add the peas to the small pan, and boil for 1 minute, then drain and leave to one side. 

Heat a frying pan until hot, rub the sea bass fillets with olive oil and season. Place in the frying pan, skin side down and cook for a couple of minutes, until the skin is golden and crispy, and the fish is cooking through. Flip the fillets and cook for 1 more minute. Remove from the pan and leave to one side.

When the pasta is cooked (taste to check it's to your liking), drain, leaving a tiny amount of the cooking water, and return to the heat. Turn the heat right down and add the bag of spinach, stirring it through the pasta until it has wilted. Add 2 tablespoons of pesto and the peas and continue to stir. I drizzled some really nice olive oil through the pasta at this point as well; just to loosen the whole thing up a bit.

Put the pasta in shallow bowls and the fillet of fish on top. Squeeze a nice amount of lemon juice over the whole thing, and serve. A perfect, quick weekday dinner for 2!

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SAT 14th - NEXT A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS SUPPER CLUB

Next Saturday, 14th December, I'm hosting another supper club/pop up restaurant at my house in West London, and there's still a few tickets left, available through Grub Club, if you want to come along.

The last event was such a great success that I really can't wait for this one! We had such a varied group of people come on the night, from students, to photographers, to food journalists (eek!) - from all walks and ages of life. It was a brilliant night at our house, a chance to meet new people and rekindle old friendships over a long and plentiful dinner, and I've been very fortunate to have had great reviews of the night.

My supper clubs focus on using seasonal, British and really well sourced ingredients. I have visited the farms that produce the food I'm using and have seen the cows that the meat I'm using in my main course and the cheese for the cheeseboard comes from! Everything on the night is handmade by me, at home, promising the freshest and yummiest food around.

The menu for the 14th is as follows:

To start - Cornish mussels cooked in cider with baby leeks, served with the crustiest, fluffiest homemade bread (I normally cook wholemeal fruity bread, but this wouldn't go well with the mussels, so I was perfecting the crusty white bread all of last weekend and literally could not stop eating it!)

For mains - This is the part I'm most excited about feeding everyone. I'm serving a beef and beer pie, with the most extra-ordinary meat I could find. The rare breed highland beef comes straight from Oxenpark Farm (more info here) who rear very few animals each year in order to ensure the animals are reared in the best way possible.

The cows are fed on 100% grass and clover and the taste of the meat is just incredible. This will be served with horseradish mash, star anise glazed carrots, greens and an ale gravy. Perfect winter grub! 

Something sweet - After a litte post-mains break, next up is a sweet and decadent pear and almond tart. Pears are poached in a ginger syrup and then made into this sumptuous, gluten free tart, served with a homemade butterscotch creme fraiche to take the edge off that sweetness! This is one of my personal favorties! I'm also serving a MAD pudding wine with this for everyone to enjoy.

Cheese and more - Once the pudding has been served it'll be time for cheese. I'm using the excellent Montgomery cheeses, straight from their small Somerset farm, and serving these with some of my salty, herby, wholemeal crackers and a cherry tomato chutney on the side.

To finish - Finally, and if you've still got room left, I'm serving the least British sourced part of my menu - I have special a Guatemalan and Brazilian coffee blend, or a selection of herbal teas to round off your meal with some of my ginger shortbreads.

It's £30 a head for the evening, and includes all of the above! It's going to be a really fun, food filled evening and I hope as many of you as possible can come along!

You can get your tickets here.

If you can't make this date but are interested in future events, do check back on my blog - there's a link on top right to A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS and I will keep that updated with details of my events.

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SEARED TUNA with PUTTA POTATOES

My cooking abilities are still limited. 6 weeks post bike fall, 5 hospital visits later and my wrist is still broken. In fact, one of the bones has healed but that's no use when the other one hasn't! So a quick change of plaster cast and the wait to be able to cook, clean, wash properly, and all those other things I took for granted, continues!

However, I was pretty pleased with myself when I managed to make this last night, home alone, and without anyone to help peel, cut or lift trays. It's not ground breaking, but it is delicious, and pretty easy to assemble. If you wanted to have this with meat instead of fish it would be great with thinly sliced rare steak. And if you don't want meat or fish, this is perfectly yummy on its own - just leave out the anchovies too.

I've called these putta potatoes as they have a lot of the same ingredients as the Italian puttanesca pasta sauce.

Serves 4.

4 large potatoes

1 pack green beans

1 pack of English mini red peppers

Handful black olives

4 cloves garlic

1 tbsp capers

6 anchovy fillets

2 tomatoes

Paprika

Good olive oil

2 lemons

Basil

Salt and pepper

4 responsibly sourced tuna steaks 

Get a pan of water on to boil, and turn the grill onto a medium high heat.

Peel the potatoes and slice into 3cm cubes. Boil in salted water (they should take 12-15 mins).

Slice the peppers in half, remove seeds and stalks, toss in olive oil and grill for 5 minutes.

When the potatoes are nearly cooked (soft when poked with a knife), chop the green beans in half and add to the potato pan. Cook for 90 seconds and drain.

Take the peppers out of the oven and sprinkle with paprika. Add the drained potatoes and green beans, and the crushed garlic, sliced black olives, capers and anchovies. Slice the tops and bottoms off the tomatoes and slot these in too. Top with a good grind of pepper - you don't need salt as the olives, anchovies and capers are all quite salty anyway, and a generous glug of olive oil. I did all of this on a foiled baking tray, so there would be less for the boy to wash up (I'm definitely still off washing up with my cast on!)

Put the tray of vegetables under the grill for around 8 minutes.



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WEEKEND WONDERS - SALMON and LENTIL SALAD / POPPY BREAD / HONEY WALNUT CHEESE

We're about to have our house refurbished (floors, carpets, bathrooms, kitchen - yey! etc), and have to move out to do so, so spent the whole weekend packing, boxing things up, trying to work out what should go to recycling, and getting the house as empty as possible (again, I'm less than helpful with a broken hand, but I did try!)

Lifting might not be my forte for another few weeks, but I am now able to whip up a few basics in the kitchen as the strength of my thumb/finger grip is getting better. I therefore decided to do my part to help with the weekend move by keeping everyone well fed. The move also forced me to empty the freezer, which is what inspired the first dish I cooked, as I found half a side of salmon in the freezer which I'd got when it was on special offer at Ocado.

It still feels like summer to me, so I made a huge, healthy salad to keep everyone going on Saturday.

LENTIL AND BAKED VERDE SALMON SALAD

Makes enough for 6-8 people

Salmon:

1 half side of Scottish salmon

2 lemons

Handful basil leaves

Tablespoon of capers

Couple of anchovy fillets

Olive oil

Salad:

300g puy lentils

1 cube vegetable stock

1 tsp garlic granules

Basil stalks

3 carrots

2 spring onions

Handful of tomatoes

1 cucumber

Basil

Salt and pepper

Dressing:

1 part lemon juice

2 parts olive oil

Large pinch sea salt

1 crushed clove of garlic

I actually made this in 2 parts - I cooked the salmon on Friday evening and cut off a fillet each for me and the boy, which we had warm with green beans, new potatoes and homemade hollandaise sauce. Then on Saturday I made this salad.

To cook the salmon, preheat the oven to 220C (200C fan).

Slice 2 lemons thinly to create discs. Put the lemon discs onto some tin foil on a baking tray. Sprinkle the capers over the lemons, and add the basil and anchovy fillets. Drizzle with oil and a good grind of pepper. Place the side of salmon skin side up on top of the sliced lemons. Rub the salmon fillet on both sides with olive oil and another good grind of pepper. Put the salmon in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes (I did ours for just over 10 minutes and it was perfect). Gently peel off the skin when you take the fish out of the oven.

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STREET FEAST / SMOKESTAK

On Friday night, after a long post-holiday/festival/wedding week back at work we headed over to Street Feast to check out their newest tenant, Smokestak. I hadn't been to Street Feast since last year and it was great to see how it's grown and developed since then.

We got to Dalston just before 7pm, which was a good time to arrive as there weren't too many queues to get into the venue, or at the food and drink stalls.

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FENG SUSHI DELIVERY

As you may know, if you read my Tresco holidays post, I've broken 2 bones in my hand. This makes cooking particularly difficult at the moment, as I can't even hold or grip anything in that hand, so I'm really struggling in the kitchen! On top of this, I've barely been home recently as after our holiday, we went straight to Boomtown festival for a week, and then on to my little brother's incredible wedding. So when we got back home to London late yesterday evening, the last thing I felt like doing was fighting vegetables with a knife and no usable left hand! So we chose delivery instead. I've ordered a few deliveries recently, due to the one-handedness, but this was the best by far. I found Feng Sushi via hungryhouse, a website that locates your local food delivery companies. I'm always a little hesitant about ordering sushi for delivery as you can't guarantee the freshness that is essential for good sushi, but I read lots of good reviews and found out that they only use line caught tuna and sustainably sourced fish, and I really wanted fresh, raw, healthy food, so decided to go for it anyway.

We ordered at about 7pm, and our food was with us by 7.50, which is no mean feat, considering that Feng Sushi is about 4 miles from our house!

As usual I went completely over the top with the amount of food I ordered for 2 of us, but it was all so yummy we managed to eat most of it anyway!

I ordered a miso soup, which was just as miso should be; the "heavenly salmon spring roll" starter, that was a cooked salmon spring roll, which was nice but a little greasy and therefore not really what I wanted; an x ray salad, made up of peppers, edamame beans, pomegranate seeds, avocado and poppy seed, that was a big bowl of healthy freshness; the deluxe mixed sashimi selection of hand dived scallops salmon, tuna, yellow tail with kimchee, mackerel and MSC ikura (roe);

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TRESCO FOOD

One of my favorite things about Tresco and the Isles of Scilly is the food! There is such a diverse range of locally sourced, homegrown produce, the majority of which you can see growing and developing around you as you explore the islands.

On Tresco there are 2 shops. One is the main and official shop where you can buy toiletries, drinks, Cornish cheeses, cereals and all the normal things you'd find in a food shop, but you can also buy Tresco beef, that comes from the very free range cows on the island, and Troy Town Farm ice cream that's made on St Agnes, another of the islands. On the other side of Tresco, up a track is the other 'shop'. It's not your normal shop though, this is the Tresco Farm shop - an open shack stocking whatever has been pulled fresh from the ground that morning - there's new potatoes, fresh garlic, green beans, salads, strawberries, courgettes, homemade jam and lots more - and an honesty box where you leave your money.

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SALMON with STUFFED PEPPERS / SALAD DRESSING

I wasn't intending on posting this recipe up here, as it's more of a compilation of foods than an intricate recipe, but it tasted and looked so good that I felt I had to share! It's the perfect summer supper that's quick and easy to make. You can eat the red peppers with other fish than salmon, they're also great with sticky chicken, and they're brilliant to take to a picnic. 

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ROCK LOBSTA at MAHIKI

On Tuesday night the boy and I went to Carl Clarke’s new venture, Rock Lobsta at Mahiki, near Green Park. Mahiki is not somewhere I would normally choose to spend my evenings, but stick one of my favourite chefs in there, cooking up a seafood feast, and I was there like a shot!! The last time I ate Carl’s food was in a beach hut on top of a roof in East London, on what was meant to be a sunny evening last summer, when in fact, it poured rain all night, and rather than enjoy the food as I should’ve done, I sat shuddering from the rain and cold in the corner of the roof top hut. However, Tuesday night was a much warmer, more enjoyable experience.

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SUMMER PRAWN and PEA SOUP

This isn't actually a soup. Well it is, but normally soup has more liquid than other ingredients, so I suppose this more of a broth. Either way, it's the perfect lightweight, healthy meal that's quick and easy to cook. The original recipe came from Lyndsey Bareham's column in The Times, but I've made a few tweaks to give it my own twist.

Serves 2.

250g Jersey Royal new potatoes
1/4 vegetable stock cube
1-2 cups of water
1 lemon, zest and juice
200g raw king prawns, peeled
200g peas

100g green beans, chopped into 2cm pieces
1 tbsp creme fraiche

Rinse the new potatoes and chop into bite size pieces (about 2cm square). Put the potatoes in a wide saucepan (I actually use the wok to cook this in) and pour over enough water to just cover them. Sprinkle with a tiny corner of vegetable stock cube. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook uncovered for 8 minutes or so, or until the potatoes feel slightly soft when poked with a knife.

Add the zest and juice of the lemon and the prawns, stir, and cook for another 2 minutes. Now add the peas and beans and cook for 1 minute.

Remove from the pan, and stir the creme fraiche into the juice.

Serve in bowls with plenty of the liquid, a grind of black pepper, and a big wedge of lemon.

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FRESH SALSA VERDE

Well made salsa verde is one of my favorite things. It is great with white fish, such as coley and pollack, and with oilier fish like mackerel and sardines. It also really compliments cooked and cold meats, and is fab with roast chicken, slow roast pork belly, barbecued lamb or Spanish hams. It is equally as good tossed through buttery pasta for an easy mid-week supper. Or just a dip with some nice homemade bread.

Make a lot of it, as you will want to put it on everything you eat (if you're anything like me!), and as long as it is covered with a thin layer of oil in an airtight jar it will last for a couple of weeks in the fridge - not that it ever lasts that long in my house!

1 large bunch of parsley
1 large bunch of basil
Either 1 bunch of tarragon, 1 bunch of corainder, 1 bunch of mint or 1 bunch of spinach
Handful of capers and a bit of their juice
1 tin of anchovies
1 clove of garlic
2 spring onions
Olive oil
1 lemon, juice and zest

Roughly chop the parsley and basil. Depending on what you will serve your salsa with you can also add a bit of tarragon or coriander (great with chicken), mint leaves (for lamb) or spinach (for serving with white fish). It's up to you what variety of flavour combination to go for. 

Next chop the semi drained capers, spring onions and anchovies. Add this to the herbs and blitz for 2 seconds in a food processor with one crushed clove of garlic. When blitzing, try not to over blitz the salsa as it will become a bit slimey if it's chopped too much. Add a glug of good olive oil and the oil from the tin of anchovies, the juice and zest of a lemon and some black pepper. Blitz for ten seconds and transfer to an air-tight jar, cover with a thin layer of olive oil and it's ready for whenever you want it!

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