MY NEXT POP UP - 26th APRIL

Another month, another pop up! I thought I should let you know about my next pop up restaurant, as there are still tickets available, but they do start to sell out around now.

I've got a bumper Spring menu, full of some of my favourite produce for my pop up on Saturday 26th April. The event is at our lovely house in West London, and starts at 7.30pm, and is kind of similar to a dinner party - a large table filled with guests, eating my four course menu, and having a great time. I've had guests from age 11 up to 60+ in the past, from all walks of life, and from all over the world. You can come with a group of friends, in a pair, or on your own, and it's bring your own booze, so you can bring a bottle or 2 of your favourite. I also serve either a welcome cocktail, pudding wine or port to go with the cheese, and there's homemade soft drinks for anyone who wants.

Every component of the food I serve is made from scratch, in my kitchen, with as much as possible being British, seasonal ingredients.

The menu for 26th April is:

 

Hand picked Dorset crab, homemade mayonnaise, remoulade, crusty white bread

 

Slow cooked shoulder of Spring lamb, savoy cabbage, Jersey royal new potatoes, with watercress and wild garlic salsa verde

 

Lemon posset with rhubarb compote and vanilla shortbread biscuits

 

Somerset cheeseboard, tomato chutney and herby salted crackers

 

Coffee/herbal tea served with sticky chocolate balls

If you'd like to come but can't eat or don't like something on the menu, that's fine - when you book there's a comments section where you can mention this. I don't think I've yet done a pop up where I haven't done at least 2 different main courses to cater for everyone's needs.

To find out what my previous guests have thought of the evenings you can see reviews of my last event here or a review written by another of my guests here.

Tickets for my pop up on 26th April are £30 each and can be bought via Grub Club.

And here's a couple of pics of the food my from the last event (although I always forget to take proper photos!)

Crusty white bread:

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HOMEMADE LAMB SHISH / HUMMUS

Despite my attempts at vaguely healthy and responsible eating, there may have been occasions, after a few pints at the pub, that I've ducked into the local kebab shop for a lamb shish on the way home, normally at around 2am! I don't do this often, in fact probably only about once a year, but I've still done it. The alcohol normally fuels the hunger, but I do actually really like the taste of lamb shish! So here's my recipe for those naughty kebabs, which you can now make at home (although maybe not at 2am after the pub!)

I can't promise that this version is massively healthier than the kebab shop's, but at least you know exactly what's gone into this one! The thing that makes homemade kebabs super tasty is the marinade, so you'll want to get your lamb out of the fridge, ready to marinate a couple of hours before cooking.

Serves 2

For the lamb:

250g diced leg of lamb (I get mine from the excellent Wyndham House butcher in Chiswick)

1 tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp cumin seeds

2 tsp paprika

1 tsp ezapote (Mexican herb)

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp coriander leaf

1 tsp dried chilli flakes (I didn't use these in mine, but would've done if I wasn't sharing with the chilli-allergy one!)

2 cloves garlic, crushed
Squeeze of lemon juice

Large glug of olive oil

Black pepper

For the hummus:

130g tinned chickpeas (one of the mini tins)

1 tbsp tahini paste

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

2 tbsp water, more if needed

Pinch of sea salt

Black pepper

1 tsp cumin powder

For the garlic sauce:

2 tbsp natural yoghurt

1 tsp mayonnaise (I cheated and used shop bought, which I don't normally do, but it actually works best in this sauce)

1 large clove garlic, crushed

Squeeze of lemon juice

Half tsp salt

Everything else:

Flour wraps

Salad leaves

Pickled red cabbage

Sliced tomatoes

Jalapenos

Get things started by getting your lamb in the marinade. Heat a dry frying pan over a medium heat and add the coriander and cumin seeds, toasting for a minute or so until you can smell the aromas - be careful not to burn them though as they turn very fast. Tip the toasted spices into a pestle and mortar and grind into a powder. Add the paprika, ezapote, oregano, coriander leaf, chilli flakes, crushed garlic and black pepper. Pour this into a dish with the olive oil and lemon juice, and mix it all together. Toss the lamb pieces in the marinade and put the bowl back in the fridge until you're nearly ready to cook.

Ideally you want to leave your lamb to marinate for at least 2 hours, so give it the time it needs to absorb all those delicious flavours. After a couple of hours, remove the lamb from the fridge and leave it on the side, to allow it to come to room temperature. Whilst that's happening you can make your hummus, and garlic sauce.

You do really need some sort of blender to make the hummus. I use my magimix, but anything with a blade and motor will be fine. Stick the chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, lemon juice, water, salt, pepper and cumin into the blender and whizz for a couple of minutes, until it's really quite smooth. Taste the mixture at this point, and adjust the lemon/salt/cumin ratios to your liking. If it's a bit gluey, add some more water, a little at a time. Put to one side.

To make the garlic sauce, simply combine the mayo and yoghurt, crush the garlic into the mix and stir in the lemon and salt. Taste, and add more garlic/lemon/salt if needed.

I like to layer up the wraps at this point, before the lamb is cooked, so that once the lamb's ready you can just add that, and eat the kebab nice and warm. A stripe of hummus and a stripe of garlic sauce, with salad leaves, tomatoes, pickled cabbage and some jalapenos.

Then on with the lamb. Heat a large, wide frying pan over a medium to high heat, and once hot, add the lamb pieces. I start at the edges and place in a circle so that once all the lamb is in the pan I can start turning the cooked pieces over. My chunks were around 2.5cm square, and I cooked them for a couple of minutes each side, to leave them tender and a little pink in the middle.

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NEXT A LITTLE LUSCIOUSNESS POP UPS!

Last October I started doing a monthly pop up restaurant/supper club at our home in Acton Town and I've absolutely loved every minute of menu planning, food sourcing and all the cooking and preparation involved in putting on these events, as well as meeting all the lovely guests who've come to eat my food.  

My next pop up is on Saturday 29th March 2014, at our lovely house, in Acton Town, West London (Piccadilly line). The menu for the night is:

STARTER – Salmon three ways - beetroot cured with capers, sashimi with spring onions and pan fried with soy glaze

MAIN – Bavette steak, dauphinoise potatoes, greens and red wine sauce

PUDDING – Rhubarb hazelnut crumble, homemade stem ginger, hazelnut ice cream (this is the same pudding I served at my February pop up, but it went down so well, and rhubarb season should be made the most of, so I'm serving it again in March!)

CHEESE – Montgomery cheeseboard, spiced chutney and herby salted crackers

COFFEE and HERBAL TEAS served with sticky chocolate balls

If you'd like to come along but there's something on the menu you don't like, just let me know in the comments section of the booking form, and I can make you an alternative.


Tickets are available HERE.

You can come on your own, bring a date, grab some friends, or book out a whole table for however many of you there are! It's £30 a head for the evening, and it's bring your own booze, so feel free to bring a bottle of your favourite!

I do my public pop ups once a month, and the next one after this will be April 26th. Link to tickets and menu is HERE.

Hope to see some of you at one of my pop ups soon!!

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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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STICKY BBQ SAUCE

You may have seen the recipe I put up for barbecue sauce a couple of months ago. And while that is still my go to recipe for barbecue sauce, I came up with something at the weekend which is quicker and easier to make, but still tastes really good. You can get a batch of this ready in 20 minutes, and it will keep in a sterilised jar in the fridge for a couple of weeks.

I made this to go with our Big Lunch that I hosted yesterday with Grub Club, and it was the perfect accompaniment to the warm and cold meats, and salads that we ate. I've already had a couple of requests for the recipe so thought I'd put it up here.

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A NIGHT OF GAME AT PUTNEY'S DUKES HEAD

You might have read my recent post about supper club coordinators extrodinaire, Grub Club. Well they very kindly organised for me to go and try out one of their supper clubs, so I invited my brother and his fiance, her sister and boyfriend, and the boy along, to try it out. We had a raucous Wednesday night, full of game dishes and excellently chosen wines. My little brother is a wine salesman and came along to choose appropriate wines to match our meal. He's written a few words for my blog about the wine - see the end of this post.

The night took place at The Duke's Head in Putney in the private upstairs room. A lovely, tranquil (until we arrived) space, that suited the occasion perfectly.

This particular evening was all about game meats. We started the meal with an amuse bouche to share of duck rillettes, carpaccio of duck and smoked duck egg yolk with asparagus. This was my favorite course of the meal, with all 3 components presented beautifully.

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A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS....

If you fly with RyanAir this month, you might see me in their inflight magazine talking about the lovely Princess of Wales pub in Primrose Hill.

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BEEF AND BEER PIE

Beef and beer is pretty much up there with cheese and wine in food and alcohol pairings for me. And this pie is a luxurious, winter warmer combo of the two. 

Not only is this pie delicious, but it's not difficult to make, and it's a super supper on a cold day. I have used shop bought puff pastry, which is cheating a little bit, but tastes great all the same!

1 tbsp olive oil
1 white onion
1 red onion
4 cloves garlic
Sprig of thyme
300g closed cup chesnut mushrooms, wiped clean
600g diced free-range beef; braising steak or topside
1 tbsp mushroom ketchup
500ml bottle of Guiness
300ml game or beef stock
1 tbsp grainy mustard
1 bay leaf
Salt and pepper
1 tbsp flour (if required)
1 pack of shop bought puff pastry
1 egg
Parmesan

Heat a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the oil. Chop the onions finely, along with the garlic and add to the pan. Reduce the heat and sweat the onions for at least 5 minutes, until they become translucent. Add the thyme, stir and add the whole mushrooms. Cook for another couple of minutes, then add the beef. Increase the heat and stir for another 5 minutes. Pour in the mushroom ketchup, bottle of Guiness, half of the game or beef stock and the mustard. Stir, and bring up to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat so that the liquid gently simmers. Add the bay leaf and plenty of salt and pepper. Leave to gently simmer for 90 minutes, until the beef is meltingly tender and the sauce thickened. If the sauce reduces too much, add more stock, and if it's too runny, scoop some sauce out, add flour, mix, and return to the pan.

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Take the pie filling mix off the heat, and allow to cool slightly.

Pour the pie filling into a pie dish. Take your puff pastry and place it over the top, tucking any corners in. Brush the pastry with beaten egg and a sprinkling of grated parmesan. You can also make individual pies in pudding bowls.

Cook for 15-20 minutes until the pastry has puffed up and is golden brown.

Serve with mash and peas, and all the lovely juices from the bottom of the pie dish.

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SMOKEY BARBECUE SAUCE

Barbecue sauce goes well with lots of meals. We eat it with this pulled pork recipe, but it's equally as lovely with chicken, prawns or anything straight off the barbecue. It will also keep for a couple of weeks in your fridge, so the recipe below makes enough for more than 1 meal.

Don't let the list of ingredients put you off. This is a one pot sauce and not at all complicated. If you don't have mushroom ketchup, add extra Worcestershire sauce. And if you don't have any tomato passata, you can use ketchup, but if you do this, you need to halve the amount of sugar you use.

2 tbsp butter
1 large onion
5 cloves garlic
1 tbsp fennel seeds
200ml rice vinegar
150ml red wine vinegar
600ml tomato passata
2 tbsp worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp mushroom ketchup
70g brown sugar
1 tbsp honey
2 bay leaves
Sprig of thyme
1 tbsp english mustard
1 heaped tsp paprika
Salt
Lots of pepper

Heat the butter in a medium sized saucepan, over a medium to low heat. Chop the onion and garlic and add to the pan. They don't need to be chopped with any care, as the whole lot will be blended at the end.

Cook the onion and garlic gently until they become translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the fennel seed and fry for 2 more minutes, stirring as you go. Now add the vinegars, tomato passata, Worcestershire sauce, mushroom ketchup, sugar, honey, herbs, mustard, paprika, salt and lots of pepper, and bring up to a simmer.

Stir regularly and leave simmering for around 30 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half and starts to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for 5-10 minutes.

Remove the bay leaves, and blend the sauce. Serve cold with whatever you like, and enjoy!

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PULLED PORK WITH PICKLED VEGETABLES

Before I start telling you about this wonderful recipe, you need to know that it takes 24 hours to cook the pork. I don't want you to read this, and think what a good recipe it would be to cook for your supper tonight. You need to be a little bit organised, but believe me, it is worth it, and once the meat is in the oven, there is very little to do for about 22 hours.

The other thing this recipe requires is a phone call to the butcher. You need a pork shoulder with the bone in, so call ahead and ask them to keep one aside for you, as they normally remove the bones from pork shoulders. Last time I cooked this I got a shoulder of Gloucester Old Spot from a lovely butcher in Tetbury called Jesse Smith (www.jessesmithbutchers.co.uk). This time, I am having my free range pork shoulder delivered by our local London butcher, Wyndham House (www.wyndham-house.com), who deliver for free in the area for orders over £10.

Pork shoulder is a very good value cut of meat, and comes in at around £6/kg, with a 6kg joint serving 18 people, with leftovers!

1 pork shoulder, 4-6kg
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp paprika
1 tsp chilli flakes
1 tbsp salt
Pepper
2 tbsp olive oil

If you want to eat this for Sunday lunch, you need to start thinking about it on Saturday morning, at around 11am. Remove the meat from the fridge, to allow it 2 hours to come up to room temperature.

Half an hour before the meat goes in the oven, preheat the oven to 220C (200C if you have a fan oven). Score the skin of the meat with a sharp knife, but be careful not to cut straight through the skin into the meat. Mix the fennel seeds, paprika, chilli, salt and pepper, stir in the oil, and rub all over the meat and into the cuts you've made in the skin. Put the joint into a large roasting tray, skin side up, and pop in the oven. You don't need to cover the meat with any foil.

Leave to cook for 30 minutes at 220C (200C fan oven), then turn the oven down to 100C (80-90C fan oven). It now needs to cook for 23 hours. You will need to take it out a couple of times and spoon the fat that it produces back over the meat - you can do this once before you go to bed, and once when you wake up.

I have read several recipes that ask for the meat to be turned upside down (with the skin on the bottom) but I don't do this, and I do not think it's necessary. Leave the meat to cook skin side up.

When the meat has 1 hour to go (ie. it has been cooking for 22 1/2 hours), start prepping the pickled veg.

2 red onions
1 fennel bulb
4 limes
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fennel seeds

Slice the red onions and fennel into very thin strips (the 2mm blade on the magimix is ideal). Drop the onion and fennel into a pan of boiling water for 10 seconds, remove and drain well. Add the juice of the limes, the vinegar, salt and fennel seeds and mix thoroughly so all the onion and fennel is coated. Cover and leave in the fridge for an hour or two, or until the meat is ready. Drain the vegetables before serving.

Once the meat has cooked for 23 1/2 or 24 hours, remove from the oven. The skin should have turned into crackling but if it is still soft, then put it under a medium grill for 5-10 minutes, but watch it like a hawk as it can burn in seconds!!

Take the crackling off the meat and hide it somewhere safe (otherwise, in my house, it all gets eaten before the food's ready)! Wrap the pork shoulder in 3 layers of tin foil, as tightly as possible, and leave to rest for between 30 and 60 minutes.

The meat can be carved with a spoon and fork, as it will just fall apart.

Serve in a bun with a pile of pickled veg, some homemade spicy, sticky BBQ sauce (recipe to follow) and some crackling.

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BUTCHERY COURSE AT THE GINGER PIG

For my birthday this year, amongst other very lovely presents, I was spoilt with a magimix from my parents (how I've longed for one!) and from my very generous brother and his girlfriend, a voucher for a beef butchery course at The Ginger Pig.

So last night, apron in tow, I headed to The Ginger Pig on Moxton Street for a night of beef!

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