The Food Diaries

Milk chocolate and passion fruit truffle cups

I managed to track down Pierre Herme’s sumptuous milk chocolate + passion fruit combo which he uses in his macaroons.

Place a bowl over a pan off hot water and add 40ml passion fruit pulp (about 4 passion fruits, sieved to remove the seeds), 1 tbs heavy cream and 1 tsp honey till bubbling. Add 100g milk chocolate (Lindt), broken into pieces and stir till melted and smooth. Off the heat stir in 1 tbs butter. Place in the fridge for 4 hours to cool. Using a spatula, drop the mixture into the corner of a small plastic bag (to form a cone). Snip off the end of the bag with scissors and pipe into pre-made chocolate cups, or mini pre-baked tartlets also work well (I can find both at Marks & Spencers). Garnish with coconut flakes and passion fruit jam (or some apricots cut super finely also can work well).

Note: You could also ditch the chocolate cups and roll the cold ganache in cocoa powder to make truffles.

Smoked salmon “flower” appetizers

I was bored of serving smoked salmon on the ubiquitous blini so came up with this idea instead.

How I made it:

Mix together 1/4 cup soft curd or cream cheese, 1/4 cup creme fraiche, 1 tbs white horseradish cream, 2 tsp lemon juice, some chopped chives, and pepper. Using a spatula, drop the mixture into the corner of a small plastic bag (to form a cone). Snip off the end of the bag with scissors and pipe into pre-made savoury pastry cups. It helps if you leave a little border around the edge of the cream. Then take strips of smoked salmon and circle them upright in the case (starting on the outside edge inwards). Using scissors you can snip the tops to make “petals”. You will need about 5 slices of smoked salmon (140g). Finish with a garnish of chives.

Creamy Italian Walnut sauce (Tocco di Noci)

So this sauce is more a thick paste than a traditional pasta sauce but I find it a really versatile base to which other ingredients can be added and which could be used in all kinds of dishes. I’ve adapted it quite a bit from Anna del Conte’s recipe in The Painter, the Cook and the Art of Cucina. See the original recipe below and then my notes follow it.

How to Make it

200g/7oz shelled walnuts
25g/1oz unflavoured breadcrumbs
1 garlic clove, minced
30g/1oz finely grated Parmesan cheese
1 pinch minced fresh marjoram
175ml/6fl oz prescinseua (Ligurian curd cheese) or 150g/5fl oz fresh ricotta diluted with 2 tbsp tepid water
60ml/2.5fl oz extra virgin olive oil, plus extra to taste
sea salt (optional)

Place the walnuts, breadcrumbs, garlic and salt in a mortar and pound with a pestle to form a paste. Alternatively, place these ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until they form a paste. Transfer to a bowl if you are not using a pestle and mortar. Add the Parmesan and marjoram, then the prescinseua or diluted ricotta. Finally, add the olive oil to the mixture, a little at a time, stirring to combine the ingredients. Serve on hot pasta.

Lydia’s notes:

I prefer 2 garlic cloves, I like using either 0% Quark cheese or English Soft Curd cheese in the absence of Ligurian cheese (!), and I only added 2tbs olive oil and none of the parmesan to the paste itself, preferring to drizzle/sprinkle it on the pasta itself once it’s cooked. I also found that adding the soft cheese in the food processor worked fine. Saves a little work.

How I served it: (per person) 2tbs of the paste, 100g cooked pasta, along with some chopped sundried tomatoes, black olives and parsley, as well as some chili flakes. Seasoned with salt, pepper, olive oil and parmesan.

Frank and Ava in Havana (a passion fruit cocktail)

Am a little addicted to my passion fruit jam and I love the sharpness of the flavours when cut with alcohol, so I came up with this little new number. I named it after Frank Sinatra and Ava Gardner who spent time at the Hotel Nacional in Havana at the height of the glamorous 50’s (and were the topic of a notorious affair at the time):

- 25ml rum (I like 5 year old Ron Varadero)

- 15ml cashaca (Sagatiba or other)

- 15ml Cointreau

- juice of 1/2 lime

- 2 tsp. passion fruit jam

Shake all the above over ice in a cocktail shaker quite vigorously, and strain into a chilled cocktail glass (I prefer to let most of the seeds slip through and settled at the bottom of the glass) and garnish with a half passion fruit.

Spicy sausage and sprouting broccoli pizza @ Pizza East, Shoreditch, London

The jury is still out amongst my Italian friends on the Pizza East pizzas. They all consider them to be amongst the best pizzas they’ve had in London but they are somewhat perplexed by the almost fried look and taste of the crust. Not quite Italian enough for them I guess. (and don’t get Jamie Oliver started on the subject of Italians and their conservatism around food! Read more about that debate here).

It’s a shame actually that Pizza East emphasises the pizzas so much, as their other offerings - especially their wood burning roasts such as roast chicken for two and braised beef cheeks are really very good indeed.

They also do a fab red and golden beet salad with red and white endives and pecorino cheese shavings. Now that’s a recipe I must try and recreate at home soon.

Cherry Blossom Girl Cocktail

Named after the song by the French electronic duo Air, this is a fresh and perfumed cocktail in anticipation of springtime (preferably spent in Japan to coincide with the sublime cherry blossom season:

- 30ml Sake

- 20ml Bombay Sapphire Gin

- 30ml Briottet Maison Edmond Lychee Liqueur

- 10 ml lemon juice

- 2 drops Peach bitters

- a dash of pomegranate syrup

- Fever Tree ginger ale

Build in a Hi Ball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a mint sprig or lychee.

Pierre Herme opens macaroon boutique in London!

Ok - I’m not sure who forgot to send me the press release that celebrated pastry guru Pierre Herme made his debut in Selfridges 3 weeks ago, but this is very important news.

His milk chocolate and passion fruit macaroon easily makes my Top 5 best sweets of all time. A truly great dessert is identified at first bite, when you suddenly realise something truly important was missing from your life but you never knew what it was.

Can one have too many macaroons in one day? I’m not sure that is possible. Earlier the same day I popped into Laduree (another French institution now available across the Channel) where I was treated to their pistachio and coffee macaroons. Typically I had “sweetly” complained about something or other and the manager swept these onto the table. An easy way to get a smile on my face

Top 5:

- Pierre Herme milk chocolate and passion fruit macaroons

- Poilane’s caramelised apple puff pastry tart,

- Crumble (rhubarb, apple, plums - any combo will do)

- Pacojet ice cream

- Homemade madeleines

Crab cakes @ Wagamama

Wagamama was opened nearly 20 years ago by the genius that is Alan Yau (I like to call him the Ang Lee of restaurateurs as he has moved across many food genres - Japanese canteen food, Honk Kong style Chinese Hakkasan, retro modernist Japanese Sake No Hana - and more recently super authentic Italian deli and bakery Princi).

Us Londoners, with a Wagamama in every part of town take for granted the speedy service, the super fresh ingredients, the clean tastes, the honest prices and the accessible menu.

Malaysian Monkfish Curry

A good winter curry, but with the fresh flavours of monkfish and simple spicing (turmeric + ginger/chili). Warning: the sauce is very very moreish and could easily be eaten on its own with just rice (adding some steamed vegetables to ensure your 5/day).

How I made it:

Dry fry 50g (2/3 cup) dry, unsweetened coconut, till crisp and golden. Process into an oil paste in the food processor and then set aside. In the same processor add the following coarsely chopped: 6 shallots or small onions, 6 blanched almonds, 3 garlic cloves, 2.5cm piece ginger, 2 lemon grass stalks (roughly chop the bottom but leave aside the stalks for later), and 2 tsp ground turmeric. Process till a paste is formed.

Heat a little vegetable oil in a wok and add the onion paste. Cook for a few minutes without browning. Add 1 can (400g) coconut milk and bring slowly to a boil. Add 500g cubed monkfish fillet (seasoned with salt) along with the lemon stalks and 2 fresh red chillies sliced. Cook for 3 minutes and then add the coconut paste. Do not overcook. Season with the juice of 1 lime and salt to taste. Garnish with 1 sliced red chili and chives. Serve with Thai fragrant rice.

Tea Toddy

When the weather is cold and damp, when you are feeling under the weather, when a duvet and a cup of tea just won’t do….

How I made it:

- 2 tsp Assam tea leaves

- 4 whole cloves

- 2 cardamom pods

- 3 cinnamon sticks

- 1 tbs chopped fresh ginger

- 2 tsp honey

- 50ml Whiskey (or bourbon, or rum, or brandy or any combo)

Make a small pot of tea with the tea leaves, cloves, cardamom, 1 cinnamon stick and the ginger. Pour the whiskey into two ceramic (or other heat resistant) cups, fill with the tea and add the honey. Use the extra cinnamon sticks to stir together.

Grilled Sea Bass, Bok Choy, mixed vegetables with green chili and oyster sauce

Dinner made by your friends - nothing lovelier.

The Gold Rush Cocktail

My latest cocktail creation is a nod to my Canadian (and Polish) heritage. Crisp apples and maple syrup reminiscent of a crisp and cool Canadian Fall, perked up with the best Polish vodka - Bison Grass (or Żubrówka in Polish - pronounced zub’rufka).

Named after the famous Klondike Gold Rush as depicted by Charlie Chaplin, it probably could use a sprinkling of edible gold leaf to really fit the bill.

How to make it:

Pour all the below into a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice. Shake well until the sides of the shaker are really icy. Pour into a chilled cocktail glass and garnish with a sliver of apple (and sprinkle with edible gold leaf - optional).

- 30ml applejack

- 25ml Bison Grass vodka

- 30ml freshly pressed apple juice

- 10ml lemon juice

- 10ml maple syrup

Pork Spare Ribs in BBQ Sauce

I really have no idea why it’s taken me this long to attempt barbeque ribs. It’s so easy to make (though you have to patient enough to let the meat marinate first), and if eaten straight from the oven, much nicer than the usual reheated variety you tend to get. Recipes for ribs tend to either the Asian or the American. I liked the idea of a combo job which I think works really nicely.

How I made it:

Mix together the following marinade ingredients in a saucepan and heat gently (note these measurements are a guidelines only, you can pretty much make it up as you go along).

- 60ml Soy sauce - 30ml Oyster sauce

- 40ml Ketchup - 15ml Worcester sauce

- 60ml maple syrup or honey - 40ml sherry or red wine vinegar

- 3 garlic cloves, chopped - 2-inch piece, ginger, chopped

- 1tsbp salt - large pinch of chilli flakes

Pour the warmed marinade into a ziploc bag and add 1kg pork spare ribs. Marinate anytime between 1hr to overnight.

Place the ribs in the oven at 180 degrees and cook for about 1 hour, basting occasionally with the marinade (which should be kept warm in a saucepan on the stove). Add a little water to the pan if it becomes too thick

Serve with a spicy garlic dipping sauce.

French Vampire’s Kiss Cocktail

I may have been inspired by the recent flood of vampire-themed shows and films to come up with this cocktail but quite pleased with its relative simplicity (despite the number of spirits included in it):

- 25ml Sweet Vermouth (my new favourite is Lillet Rouge, produced in France since the 1800’s rather than the ubiquitous Martini Rosso)

- 25ml Dry Vermouth (Noilly Prat is also my current favourite)

- 25ml crème de cassis

- 75ml Bombay Sapphire Gin

- 20ml Pomegranate syrup (or grenadine)

Shake vigorously in a cocktail shaker quarter filled with ice. Serve strained into two chilled cocktail glasses and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Endive Salad with Shropshire Blue cheese and Walnuts

A nice late winter salad….

- Two endives cut in half lengthwise and sliced

- 1/3 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, lightly toasted

- Chopped sun-dried tomatoes

- 1/4 cup Shropshire blue cheese (or other similar)

- 2 tbs. sherry vinegar

- 2tbs olive oil

- 1 tbs grainy mustard

Place the endives in a serving bowl. Mash together the blue cheese, vinegar, olive oil and mustard. Drizzle over the endives. Season with the salt and pepper and then sprinkle with the still-warm walnuts and sun-dried tomatoes.