The Food Diaries

Pear and ginger oat crumble

Fill a little ramekin with chopped fresh pear (1-2 depending on the size of the container). Drizzle with 1tbs of ginger syrup (I like to make my own - just bring 1/2 cup sugar with 1/4 cup water to boil and add fresh chopped ginger and then let steep). Sprinkle a few tablespoons of oat crumble topping (see recipe below) and bake in at 175c till golden and bubbling. Serve it on its own, or with creme fraiche, clotted cream, custard, or vanilla ice cream. Serve 1.

To make the crumble:in a food processor or bowl place 40g flour, 40g ground almonds, 40g oatmeal, a little salt, 90g cubed cold butter, and mix till it starts to crumble. Add 6tbs sugar, 1tsp cinnamon and 1tsp vanilla.

This keeps well in the freezer till the next crumble emergency!

Lost in Translation cocktail - vodka-based with an Asian twist

In a cocktail shaker filled with ice vigorously shake together 20ml Sake, 30ml Vodka, 25ml lychee puree (canned fruit works really well), 1 and 1/2 fresh passion fruit pulp , 1tbs agave syrup (found in all health food shops these days). Strain into a tumbler filled with ice. Garnish with a 1/2 passion fruit.

Pave du Roy Gateau - An old French classic, now revived (with the added benefit of being flourless and optionally dairy-free too)

I first started making this cake as part of the Cordon Bleu Pastry degree cycle. I then brought the recipe home and made it as a special treat for a good friend’s 80th birthday (a certain Monsieur Lamorlette). Little did I know it had been a cake quite popular in his childhood (which had somehow lost fashion in between time), so resulted in a flood of memories for him. It reminds me of the power of taste (and smell in particular) in drawing back memories of the past (a la recherche du temps perdu - see Marcel Proust)

How I made it:

Slice off thin pieces of rind from 1 large orange and cut into thin strips (julienne). Blanch in boiling water a couple of times (to remove the bitterness). Bring to a boil 130g sugar with 130g water, set aside half in a bowl and then add the orange rind to the remainder and simmer till the rind is glossy and candied. Drain the rind (adding any remaining liquid to the reserve syrup), chop finely and set aside.

In a mixer beat together 1 egg, 2 yolks and 75g sugar till light and white. Sift in 15g cornstarch and 15g cocoa powder and mix delicately. Fold in 60g ground almonds. Whip up 2 egg whites till you see hard peaks forming and then add 20g sugar and beat briefly till the egg whites become glossy. Mix in a couple tablespoons into the cake batter to soften it and then fold the remaining egg whites. Bake at 200c in a 7-inch round cake tin (line the bottom with parchment paper) for between 25-35 minutes depending on your oven (till a cake tester comes out clean and the cake sponges back to the touch). Turn onto a grill and let cool.

Whip up 3 egg whites till you see hard peaks forming and then add 30g sugar and continue beating till glossy. Melt 100g dark chocolate. Fold in 2 egg yolks and 50g butter (or cooking margarine for dairy-free) into the melted chocolate. Fold in the egg whites.

To assemble: flip the cake over if you haven’t already done so (so that the flat bottom is now on top) make a small mark on the edge/side of the cake with a knife (so the cake can be easily re-aligned later),  then cut the cake in half lengthwise and set the top layer aside. Mix 40ml of Cointreau or Grand Marnier with the remaining sugar syrup and dab the inside of the cake with syrup quite generously using a pastry brush. Spread some of the chocolate mousse on top (about 1/3), sprinkle with all the orange rind evenly across the top. Place the top layer of the cake (align it up!), and then dab with the remaining syrup and cover the entire cake with the remaining chocolate mousse. Decorate the sides with chocolate vermicelli (or chocolate shavings if you can be bothered making them - and the rose made of spun sugar even less!). Dust with cocoa powder using a sifter.

Serves 6-8. You can increase the quantities for a larger cake pan.

You can make the sponge cake a day ahead and leave the assembling (with the sugar syrup and chocolate mousse) anytime on the day you will be serving it.

Lemon and Thyme Roast Chicken with Red Camargue Rice Mushroom Pilaf

How I made it:

Brush a 1.5kg chicken (serves 4-5) with melted butter (or I like to use goose fat which has a lovely flavour). Here’s a tip: I pour the contents of a can of goose fat into ice cube trays and freeze into conveniently-sized portions which I can pop individually into the microwave as and when I need them. Sprinkle with some dried (or fresh) thyme, salt and pepper, and stuff the cavity with chopped lemon and garlic. Bake in an oven at 200 degrees for 20 minutes per 500g (you may need an extra 10 minutes or so depending on your oven), first with the breast side down and then turn back up for the last 20 minutes. Let rest before serving (during which time you can make a gravy if you like with the pan juices - though Marks & Spencers makes a truly wonderful one if you can’t be bothered)

I served this with some red Camargue and long grain brown rice (see the first part of the following recipe on cooking instructions) mixed with some briefly sauted mushrooms (fried with a little olive oil, parsley and some salt and pepper).

Red Camargue Rice Salad with Feta

Grown in the marshy region of the South of France at the mouth of Rhône delta called the Camargue (famous for its  wild white horses, pink flamingos, and black bulls), this rice is a hybrid of cultivated and wild rice, and has a lovely nutty flavour. Relatively easy to find nowadays in good supermarkets, I particularly like red rice in salads or pilafs (really lovely with mushrooms) - check out the Waitrose recipe collection for ideas.

Here’s my take on a red rice salad:

Fry up a finely chopped medium onion and garlic clove in a little olive oil till transparent. Add 1/2 cup red rice and 1/2 cup brown long grain rice and stir till well coated. Add 2 cups of water (or I like a mushroom stock), cover and simmer till all the water has been absorbed. Mix together one crushed garlic clove (though I prefer to pound it to a paste using a mortar and pestle for a less sharp flavour), 1 tbs sherry vinegar, 3 tbs olive oil, 1 tsp dijon mustard, and a little salt and pepper. Pour over the still warm rice and mix well. Crumble some feta cheese on top, sprinkle with sumac and chopped mint and serve.

Optional: add a tablespoon or two of green tapenade for a slightly sharper taste, some chopped roasted hazelnuts or pistachio for a bit of crunch, some chopped grilled and peeled red peppers (a good store-bought jar is a really good option) for sweetness.

Dining out on Lobster at Westfield London

Along with the blossoming lilac, late spring in Canada also delivers lobster in abundance. So much so that I remember when I was growing up in Ottawa that you could buy the smaller variety of fresh (and live!) lobster for as little as $25/dozen. My mother being the ambitious French home cook that she was would lug a large and wriggling bag of live lobsters from the LaPointe fishmongers, boil them up (sometimes she stored them in the fridge for a while and would forget to mention it, giving us the fright of our lives when hunting around for a pot of yogurt), and then plonk them on our plates. I can probably pull apart a lobster blind-folded as a result, though as a child it felt like a hugely daunting exercise.

Anyway, I’ve got a guest entry today, courtesy of Stuart Hacking who recently sampled the lobster on offer at LPDJ Westfield Shopping Centre in West London:

It is a French restaurant called LPDJ at Westfield. I had been told that you get a whole Lobster for about £16 but when we got there they had a deal on of a whole Lobster for £12.50 (picture attached). I had not eaten lobster before but I was assured this was good value. They also do a fantastic New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc to accompany it. The service was excellent and the restaurant had a feel of a more up-market establishment which you wouldn’t necessarily expect to find at a large shopping centre. I must admit wearing jeans and trainers I did feel a little under dressed.

The Dartmouth Castle Hammersmith - just don’t call it a gastro pub

Here’s a little secret. If you’d like to pay a visit to Primark (or Primarni as it is lovingly nicknamed by the Fashionistas) but don’t think you are prepared for heart-palpitating/cold-sweat inducing/flea market ambiance of the majority of their shops, then try paying a visit to the Hammersmith branch on a Monday evening. No queues, neatly folded clothes, friendly staff. And since your visit will be so swift and easy, you even have time to drop by the Dartmouth Castle, conveniently situated around the corner (and very close to the Hammersmith & City Line tube).

It’s the type of pub which manages to maintain its local boozer credentials (with a lovely front terrace for the sun seekers and smokers) while serving up some pretty decent food. We stuck to the above antipasti plate, which at £10 was huge value (4 dips, flatbread, garlic bread, ribs, quiche, chicken wings, olives…), and which our bar guy says he’s been in awe of since the day he joined. A compliment indeed