Wow, it’s been a busy week. I haven’t been very active on my blog for a while as it’s been a bit mad at work recently. There have been lots of celebrations this week which meant going to bars and
restaurants in London.
On Monday night, I dined at the Groucho Club in Soho for a private event. We started with a lovely salad of fresh minted spring vegetable salad, soft goat’s curd, and crunchy walnuts topped with a vinaigrette dressing. The concept was great, but as a cheese fan, I found the vinaigrette over-powering the flavour of the goat’s curd. For mains we had a fairly straight forward, we had succulent Devon Red chicken breast, delicious cider and tarragon gravy, spinach mousse, and new potatoes served on the side. I thought the spinach mousse was a little bit bizarre in texture as it was a set almost jellied green thing. I don’t think it went down with the rest of the group either. The dessert was written on the menu as “Hot chocolate pudding with crème Chantilly”, but the reality was a chocolate fondant. Not that I was complaining mind you. :)
On Thursday night, a group of us went to a fantastic bar in Marylebone, called Purl. This was a prohibition style, dramatic, sophisticated, ‘molecular’ cocktail bar, with a list of reinvented classics such as “Colonel Sanders Boiler Maker” (Four Roses Bourbon, hay infused stout reduction, honey water & liquorish bitters) which comes in a small unmarked glass bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag.
As well as theatrical knockouts like the ‘Blue Blazer”; Four Roses Yellow Label thrown ablaze with Chase raspberry liqueur & Green Chartreuse. It was literally thrown ablaze as the bar tender came to our booth with two metallic pouring cups, he set alight the alcohol in one of them and proceeded to pour the flaming liquid into the other with the same theatrics as Moroccan tea makers. We had a little debate arguing that in cooking, one sets alcohol alight to cook off the alcohol. But on trying this drink we found it was perhaps even stronger than a chilled drink from the heat of the fire and the heat retaining properties of the metallic chalice it was served in. We proceeded to pass this drink round the table as everyone wanted a try.
After one cocktail, the group was already tipsy so we ordered some platters of meat and cheese which were both accompanied by fantastic chutney. The little pieces of pork pie on the meat platter were the star players in terms of food. Salty, rich meat wrapped in the obligatory thin strip of jelly, followed by suet pastry with the perfect crumble.
I am going travelling for business next week, so I won’t be cooking for a while. I do promise however, to take pictures and do some reviews of the food I will be sampling out and about. Not to mention the backlog of recipes I’ve made in the last month but have yet to post.
Today’s recipe though is one I made recently was a quick, fish dish of Spice crusted tuna with coconut leek and ginger sauce by Atul Kotchar whose food I absolutely adore. Like other Kotchar dishes this one is simple to prepare with seasonal ingredients but combines subtle flavours so intelligently that it takes my palate to new dimensions. The recipe is available on the BBC recipes website, and I’m not going to speak much about it because I think I’ve spoken enough already today. So enjoy!
Ingredients
small piece of fresh Ginger, peeled & grated
1 Lime, zest only
1 Lemon, zest and juice
1 tbsp Coriander seeds, toasted
1 tsp Cumin seeds, toasted
½ tsp dried Chilli flakes
2 tbsp Sesame seeds, toasted
Salt & Pepper
Cooking Oil
150g fresh Tuna steak
1 tsp black Mustard seeds
Another small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into julienne
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 large Leek, cut into julienne
½ tsp Tumeric powder
300ml Coconut milk
Recipe
Place grated ginger, lime zest, lemon zest, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and dried chilli into a pestle and mortar. Grind well and smell it! Add the sesame seeds, salt and pepper, a bit of oil and make a thick paste.
Spread paste over the tuna steak to form a crust and leave to marinate for a few minutes. Heat a griddle until hot, place the tuna onto it and griddle for 2 minutes on each side. You want the tuna to be slightly pink in the middle. Then put to one side.
To make the sauce, fry the mustard seeds in some oil until they start to pop. Add ginger and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes until starting to brown, but not burn. Add leeks, turmeric powder and season. Saute for 3-4 minutes as everything turns yellow from the turmeric.
Add coconut milk and bring to a simmer until leeks have softened and the sauce has thickened slightly. Slice the tomatoes into half moon shapes, mix with lemon juice and stir into the sauce.
Assemble your dish. I put the tuna down with the sauce on top, but it’s probably better to put the sauce on the bottom with the tuna on top. I served this with a small mound of cooked basmati for a light dinner.
restaurants in London.
On Monday night, I dined at the Groucho Club in Soho for a private event. We started with a lovely salad of fresh minted spring vegetable salad, soft goat’s curd, and crunchy walnuts topped with a vinaigrette dressing. The concept was great, but as a cheese fan, I found the vinaigrette over-powering the flavour of the goat’s curd. For mains we had a fairly straight forward, we had succulent Devon Red chicken breast, delicious cider and tarragon gravy, spinach mousse, and new potatoes served on the side. I thought the spinach mousse was a little bit bizarre in texture as it was a set almost jellied green thing. I don’t think it went down with the rest of the group either. The dessert was written on the menu as “Hot chocolate pudding with crème Chantilly”, but the reality was a chocolate fondant. Not that I was complaining mind you. :)
On Thursday night, a group of us went to a fantastic bar in Marylebone, called Purl. This was a prohibition style, dramatic, sophisticated, ‘molecular’ cocktail bar, with a list of reinvented classics such as “Colonel Sanders Boiler Maker” (Four Roses Bourbon, hay infused stout reduction, honey water & liquorish bitters) which comes in a small unmarked glass bottle wrapped in a brown paper bag.
As well as theatrical knockouts like the ‘Blue Blazer”; Four Roses Yellow Label thrown ablaze with Chase raspberry liqueur & Green Chartreuse. It was literally thrown ablaze as the bar tender came to our booth with two metallic pouring cups, he set alight the alcohol in one of them and proceeded to pour the flaming liquid into the other with the same theatrics as Moroccan tea makers. We had a little debate arguing that in cooking, one sets alcohol alight to cook off the alcohol. But on trying this drink we found it was perhaps even stronger than a chilled drink from the heat of the fire and the heat retaining properties of the metallic chalice it was served in. We proceeded to pass this drink round the table as everyone wanted a try.
After one cocktail, the group was already tipsy so we ordered some platters of meat and cheese which were both accompanied by fantastic chutney. The little pieces of pork pie on the meat platter were the star players in terms of food. Salty, rich meat wrapped in the obligatory thin strip of jelly, followed by suet pastry with the perfect crumble.
I am going travelling for business next week, so I won’t be cooking for a while. I do promise however, to take pictures and do some reviews of the food I will be sampling out and about. Not to mention the backlog of recipes I’ve made in the last month but have yet to post.
Today’s recipe though is one I made recently was a quick, fish dish of Spice crusted tuna with coconut leek and ginger sauce by Atul Kotchar whose food I absolutely adore. Like other Kotchar dishes this one is simple to prepare with seasonal ingredients but combines subtle flavours so intelligently that it takes my palate to new dimensions. The recipe is available on the BBC recipes website, and I’m not going to speak much about it because I think I’ve spoken enough already today. So enjoy!
Ingredients
small piece of fresh Ginger, peeled & grated
1 Lime, zest only
1 Lemon, zest and juice
1 tbsp Coriander seeds, toasted
1 tsp Cumin seeds, toasted
½ tsp dried Chilli flakes
2 tbsp Sesame seeds, toasted
Salt & Pepper
Cooking Oil
150g fresh Tuna steak
1 tsp black Mustard seeds
Another small piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into julienne
2 cloves Garlic, peeled and finely sliced
1 large Leek, cut into julienne
½ tsp Tumeric powder
300ml Coconut milk
Recipe
Place grated ginger, lime zest, lemon zest, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and dried chilli into a pestle and mortar. Grind well and smell it! Add the sesame seeds, salt and pepper, a bit of oil and make a thick paste.
Spread paste over the tuna steak to form a crust and leave to marinate for a few minutes. Heat a griddle until hot, place the tuna onto it and griddle for 2 minutes on each side. You want the tuna to be slightly pink in the middle. Then put to one side.
To make the sauce, fry the mustard seeds in some oil until they start to pop. Add ginger and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes until starting to brown, but not burn. Add leeks, turmeric powder and season. Saute for 3-4 minutes as everything turns yellow from the turmeric.
Add coconut milk and bring to a simmer until leeks have softened and the sauce has thickened slightly. Slice the tomatoes into half moon shapes, mix with lemon juice and stir into the sauce.
Assemble your dish. I put the tuna down with the sauce on top, but it’s probably better to put the sauce on the bottom with the tuna on top. I served this with a small mound of cooked basmati for a light dinner.
2 comments:
Wow, it's a beautiful coloured dish, very pretty, I love it!
Sounds like you've been having a busy & fun week. Enjoy!
Looks Fantastic as usual Maya. Tuna is one of the few fish I like, so I might give this a go
Post a Comment