TheKua Does Food

Lima

October 30, 2012 Patrick Peruvian, Restaurants, UK

Earlier this year, I read a blog about Peruvian food being the next “thing” and Lima was one of the first London restaurants to hit my reading radar. After talking it through with a friend fiercely passionate about Peruvian food (I’ve never been so can’t really say) we thought we’d check it out.

I think we were really lucky getting in before they really opened and lots of other foodies would hit. We started with a Pisco Sour, a very classic drink that is a little bit too easy to drink. I think we finished with a Pisco Sour if that gives you an idea of how easy they are to drink as well. The interior to Lima is bright, airy and very well modern. According to Noelia, my passionate Peruvian-loving friend, Lima takes on what one might imagine Peruvian food imported into a discerning and competitive Fitzrovian-based restaurant might be like.

We started with two ceviches. A classic white fish ceviche with the white tiger’s milk and decorated with crispy red onions bits. Absolutely delicious. The fish was still delicate, the sauce crisp with lime and a good bite from the background of the chilli.

We then tried a scallop tiradito but this time covered in a bright yellow chilli emulsion. Tasty, clean and zesty but the ceviche really worked better for me.

After reading about the dishes people ordered, I had to order the suckling pig confit served with puy lentils. The crispy skin was absolutely devine, the flesh fall about fantastic and succulently moist – a really good combination balanced by the rest of the dish.

My dining partner went for the halibut, that was beautifully presented, well cooked but didn’t seem to have as much flavour as the pork. I thought the corn parfait was a really interesting spin on the entire dish as well.

Name: Lima London
Found at: 31 Rathbone Place London W1T 1JH
Website:http://www.limalondon.com/

Chipotle Pulled Pork

October 22, 2012 Patrick American, BBQ, Recipe

I’ve made only a handful of dishes in my slow cooker, and mostly that’s because I don’t want to leave it turned on at home whilst I’m at work. Inspired by the Heston recipe my flatmates brought home, I thought I’d make a pulled pork dish with some chipotle paste I had in the cupboard.

Ingredients

1 chopped red onion
2 pork loins (you can use pretty much anything but I wanted it to be a little bit leaner)
1 tsp smoked paprika
1/2 tsp smoked salt
2 cloves garlic
1 small bottle of chipotle paste
1 bottle of tomato passata
1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tablespoons brown sugar
10 ml Worcestershire sauce
25g golden syrup

Method

Cut the loin into small rounds, and coat with the dry ingredients and the chipotle paste. Add the chopped garlic. Brown the pork off to caramelise some of the flavours
Brown the onion and add the onion to the slow cooker.
Add the pork and the rest of the wet ingredients.
Cook the pork in the slow cooker (I did it for about 4 hours)
Shred the pork and add it back in

One thing I realised that slow cookers aren’t good for is caramelising and thickening the sauce. The temperature never gets hot enough, so I think next time I would finish the dish off in a saucepan on the pan to really bring the sweetness and thickness to the BBQ sauce at the end.

Still turned out pretty good. I served this in a toasted ciabatta with freshly chopped coriander, salsa and a squeeze of lime juice. This is one dish I’ll definitely be making again.

Breakfast at Christopher’s

October 18, 2012 Patrick American, Brunch, Restaurants, UK

I’ve heard a lot of Christopher’s and although I had heard about it, didn’t realise where it was in Covent Garden, lot alone what sort of food it served. I met my Italian friends their for a Sunday brunch to catch up to see how they were.

Being Sunday, we decided to live a little and whilst others stood with the classic Bloody Mary, I took the opportunity to be efficient in the caffeine and the alcohol hit and go for the espresso martini. Well presented and with a double whammy of effect.

A “starter” of pancakes were ordered. They were pretty small after all and were pretty light and fluffy.

And then being quite gluttonous, going for a “main” of eggs benedict served with a hash brown. Both eggs perfectly poached, wonderfully citrusy hollandaise as it should and a bit more carb loading with a hash brown.

The atmosphere is very nice, and I have to admit I felt a little under dressed in the white-table clothed environments with just a jumper, t-shirt and jeans. Fortunately the service was just as wonderful and nothing really noted or observed.

Name: Christopher’s
Location: 18 Wellington Street, Covent Garden, London. WC2E 7DD
Website: http://www.christophersgrill.com/

Visiting North Road Again

October 16, 2012 Patrick British, Dessert, Restaurants, UK

I was really impressed by North Road last time that I felt that I had to go ahead, but this time do the full tasting menu. My sister accompanied me on this journey, appropriate since we ate at Noma last time and Danish fondness of foraging was not a foreign concept.

We started with an espuma – a light crisp mouthful delicately dotted with some tangy, herby sauce.

As well as a smoked quails egg and potato delicately nestled amongst the brush that I assume was a source of the smoke. Both were strongly infused (something I love) with that smokey flavour.

We then had the two types of butter. Sweet and salty. I have to say that the brown butter really grew on me this time, and although I’m hadn’t expected to enjoy the sweet butter on bread, was surprised how much I enjoyed it the second time around.

Here’s our bread basket filled with tiny pieces of bread.

Our first dish was a light crab with cucumber. I think we were both surprised at how the strength of the crab flavour really shone through despite being cold. The cucumber also really went well to balance out the dish, bringing a cool clean flavour.

Our next dish, served warm and continuing the seafood theme, was a generous piece of lobster. I can’t really remember the other components (seeing as it was a couple of months ago) but yummy and delicious!

The yogurt dish, next, pleased my sister the least but I found it a good palette cleanser and refreshing.

The next dish was a real winner both in flavour and in appearance, being a jersey royale dish served with lovage. It looked and tasted just like a little garden (in a good way). It’s funny because in most places potatoes don’t really taste like potatoes – just a bit more like starch and fortunately these ones did. Nestled amongst some “fake soil” this was a real delight to consume.

Our next dish was a lamb dish served with fresh flowers and other components I can’t quite remember.

This was labelled as “stone and hay” but basically was a clever piece of hay ice cream wrapped in a covering that was a clever mouthful.

Our main tasting menu finished with an amazing plate of Kentish strawberries in several forms including marshmallow, sorbet, cream log and fresh as well. Lovely, light and full of flavour.

Though full, we were then bombarded with the petite fours – a tiny rose marshmallow, some bark with sweet dollops, a small shortbread sandwich and a clever take on the fløderboller (or chocolate covered marshmallow).

A lovely dinner and one that I wouldn’t hesitate to do again.
Name: North Road
Location: 69-73 St John St, EC1M 4AN
Website: http://www.north-road.com/

What’s more Australian than a Meat Pie

July 17, 2012 Patrick Aussie, Bakery, Recipe

Spurred on by cooking Australian things, I thought I’d give a go at making a good meat pie. All with proper sauce. I looked around for a few recipes and came away with an inspired combination.

Ingredients

500g lean mince
50g tomato paste
1 brown onion, brunoise
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons light soy sauce
1 cup stock
1 tablespoon cornflour mixed with 2 tablespoons of water
Shortcrust and puff pastry

This is a pretty easy recipe, but requires a bit of planning as you want the filling to cool before putting them into pastry cases. Brown the onions and then add the beef, cooking until no more red appears. Add the tomato paste and cook until you can’t smell the tomato-rawness anymore. Add the sauces and the stock, mixing with the corn flour and water to help thicken. Let the mixture cook.

Roll the pastry out (or do what I did and cut them into smaller lots into a lined muffin tray for “mini” meat pies. Fill each case with the mixture and then top with the puff pastry. Brush with egg-wash (egg with milk, or just plain egg, or plain milk) to give the pies a bit of shine.

Bake in a 180 degree celcius oven until brown (approximately 15-20 minutes). Rest and enjoy with some tomato sauce.

Aussie Lamingtons

July 15, 2012 Patrick Aussie, Bakery, Recipe

One of the pleasures I have when I am not commuting is the joy of making something in the kitchen. There’s nothing like producing a wonderful meal, or trying some new recipe and the result is a tangible, tasty dish that is so different to software.

This weekend I found some time to whip up a batch of lamingtons. They were destined for our “Pot Luck Lunch” tomorrow where everyone is going to bring something “native” from their home country.

I had planned on making Pavlova, but then my colleague from New Zealand said they’re apparently a kiwi-dish, and she had already planned to make it. Oh well.

The difficult thing about making Lamingtons is that it’s a bit labourious to make. I had planned on taking the shortcut and buying a prepared sponge cake, but imagine my surprise (and joint disappointment about more work ahead) when I found that none of the supermarkets near me sold plain old sponge cake. Yes, you could get a plain madeira cake, or a “Jamaican” fruit cake, or any of the final prepared “birthday” cakes all covered in icing and cream. Nope to the plain old sponge cake. Oh well.

I used the following recipe for the sponge cake after looking around and deciding I didn’t want a particularly eggy-tasty sponge cake.

Ingredients

2 eggs
125g butter
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
2 cups self-raising flour
1/2 cup milk

Making it was pretty straight forward. Cream the butter and sugar, and slowly add the eggs one by one. Mix in the vanilla and fold in the first cup of flour before folding in the second cup of flour and milk. Pour into a sponge cake (I used a long tray) and bake in a pre-heated 180oC oven until cooked through. If you’re using a square tin, it’s supposed to be 30 minutes, but I used a thinner tray so it took less than 20 in a fan forced oven.

The next part to Lamingtons are preparing the icing and the coconut. I used this recipe, but have to admit it turned out a little bit too rich.

Ingredients

500g icing sugar
200g dark chocolate (60% or 70%)
15g butter
1/2 cup milk

This was pretty easy. Basically mix it all together on a bain-marie (i.e. bowl over boiling water) until it all melts. I found this icing much too thick, so I ended up watering it down with a lot more milk.

Now came the terribly messy part.

First, I cut the sponge in half and then spread some strawberry jam between each item. My first few attempts to coat them turned out to be rather disastrous with cake crumbs, chocolate and coconut everywhere. A bit of searching on the internet and people recommended putting the cake in the freezer. Apparently leaving the cake overnight would have also helped make it easier to deal with. Five or ten minutes into the freezer and the pieces were much easier to handle.

Using two forks, I dipped the sponge sandwiches into the chocolate sauce. I held them up letting the excessive drip off, before dunking them into a bowl of desiccated coconut. Using two spoons to press the coconut into the icing, I found that was a bit cleaner than using my hands (as recommended by many recipes). I let them dry out a bit on a rack before putting them into an airtight container for storage.

Messy, enjoyable but probably not something I’d try all the time.

Dumplings’ Legend of Chinatown

June 15, 2012 Patrick Asian, Restaurants, UK

The last time that my sister and I went out for Yum Cha, or Dim Sum, we headed for Dumplings’ Legend in Chinatown. Partly because my sister had been there before and we were both craving some of the Mooli Croissant that she knew they had. When you walk in, you are welcomed by a waiter and promptly seated. We arrived early (noon) so there was no waiting and we were immediately seated at a table by the window.

On your way into the dining room, you get to see people making the dumplings fresh. It seems to be the current trend in Chinatown of putting workers making dumplings as visible parts to the outside world. This is probably a good thing as it helps people appreciate the skill and labour people put into the dumplings they are about to eat.

Ordering is pretty standard for London. You get a checklist of items (both in Chinese and English) and you get to tick things off. Dumplings’ Legend has some pretty reasonable prices, and the quality seemed to be consistently good. They have the usual dumplings as well as ones that you probably wouldn’t find anywhere else. Above is the stir fried cheung fun – it had a really good wok char (smoky flavour) and reminded me of a really good ho fan dish.

The well known soup dumplings called xiao long bao were pretty good although my sister wanted to try the spiced szechuan version. We definitely got the numbing and spicy sensation, but I think I preferred the classic soup version. I just found the flavours a bit average after getting past the numbing spice. As per dumplings, they were pretty good xiao long bao as well. The skin not too tough and enough soup inside.

We went for some steamed dumplings and fried dumplings. They served the fried prawns strangely with a sweet sour sauce instead of a mayonnaise and although the mooli croissant looked beautiful was okay – not the best I’ve ever eaten. The steamed dumplings were pretty good. I was impressed by the BBQ por bun and the steamed prawn dumplings.

Like most Chinese restaurants, they wanted to turn tables as fast as possible, even without the restaurant being completely full. The dumplings were good value, although a few not as flavoursome as you can get elsewhere. On the other hand, you can also do much worse around the area.

Name: Dumplings’ Legend
Found at: 15-16 Gerrard Street Chinatown, London
Website: http://www.dumplingslegend.com/

North Road

June 14, 2012 Patrick Michelin Starred, Restaurants, UK

I’ve always been meaning to eat at North Road since it opened. The Danish chef is one of the many leading the way in using locally sourced foods, foraged plants and keeping dishes clean and effective. I hate to compare it, but the food definitely seems to have similar touches to Noma (which is not a bad thing).

I turned up for a rather lazy lunch where this Michelin-starred restaurant has an amazing offer of two courses for £22, and 3 courses for £35. Even their seven course tasting menu is a bit of a bargain at £67 although not something you probably want to indulge in everyday.

Two other tables ate during the service that I had, and their evenings definitely seem a lot more packed out.

Bread arrived in a cute little brown bag to keep the rolls warm. On of the left is a lovely crunchy, chewy brown bread and the other one a spelt bread with lots of whole grains seen throughout.

It came accompanied with a wild garlic butter (yum!) that I probably shouldn’t have finished off and a strange, caramel butter that felt a little bit too sweet to start off with. I did try it, but definitely preferred the stronger savoury flavours of the wild garlic. Super intense without lingering for the next few dishes.

For my first course, I opted for the smoked lobster and pearl barley salad. I did manage to find a shell in the salad (but it wasn’t really a problem for me) and the grains of pearl barley provided a nice contrast to the entire dish. Samphire provided a good and appropriate salty greenness to the overall dish and freshly sliced radish providing some overall lightness.

Although tempted by the beef dish, I ended up trying the dorset plaice, picked cockle, sea kale, brown butter and green strawberries. I ended up with the last piece of plaice as I heard the waiter tell another table seated after me they had run out and for me, turned out a really good choice.

The green strawberries strangely worked very well. The tart, slightly bitterness of the strawberries brought good contrast to the dish and the firmness provided by being under-ripe also helped them keep their shape amongst the other textures on the plate. They had only dabbed just enough brown butter to provide flavour but without making the entire dish too rich and heavy. Yum.

I opted for dessert which was a yogurt sorbet, malt and oat crumble. The malt reminded me of milo and the yogurt ice cream turned into the perfect way of cleansing the palette. This was a really great dish that worked very well together and my only regret was how we only had a single scoop. It was plenty of food already and, I think, very good value.

The waiters even brought me a glass of aged grappa to have with my dessert. My first thought was, “ugh”, but was amazed at how aging the otherwise “firewater” helped temper it and its cask infusing delicious qualities as well. I hadn’t asked for this, but certainly appreciated the gesture. We exchanged stories where the waiter told me more about the grappa (even bringing the bottle to show me) and I told him about the Scotch Malt Whisky Society and its location not too far from their restaurant.

I really enjoyed their service, the food was brilliant and now I can’t wait to try their tasting menu sometime. What I really like about restaurants like this is how different the food evolves as well because of their focus on seasonality. I love the way that the waiters demonstrated their passion for food and drink and it really comes through during the service.

Name: North Road
Address: 69-73 St John St, EC1M 4AN
Website: http://www.northroadrestaurant.co.uk/

Belle Epoque

June 13, 2012 Patrick Bar, Malmo, Restaurants

One of the restaurants I really wanted to visit in Malmö was Bastard. Unfortunately you need to book a week in advance to even think about getting a table. It really wasn’t going to work for the eight or ten of us who wanted to go. Fortunately someone else knew another great place to dine, called Belle Epoque.

With so many of us, it was definitely easier for the kitchen that we all ordered from the tasting menu. I arrived slightly earlier, but had a nice Swedish beer and chatted to the Australian(!) bartender and his swedish customers at the small bar set up outside. The restaurant turns into a bit of a drinking venue that was definitely popular with the locals later.

To start, they served us with two types of bread. A nice, standard white baguette loaf and crispy bread. They served it with yogurt balls (more like curd) that disappeared very quickly. Apparently very popular.

Our second dish was stunning. It was a Swedish cheese turned into a croquette with a crispy crumb that set on a bed of creamed cauliflower, herbs and barley. The cheese was a strong flavoured cheese, that melted slightly but still did very well to hold its shape.

Our next dish was a fillet of pike served with dill, wild garlic and taramasalata. As you can see from the picture (a terrible iPhone photo I know), the presentation was impeccable and the flavours intense and extremely delicious. The wild garlic, slightly steamed, or wilted still packed quite a lot of punch, the fish perfectly crisped on the outside yet remaining nice and flaky on the other side and the dill covering tiny cucumber balls on the side.

Our meat course main was just as stunning as the others. Here we have chunks of lamb, oh so tender and perfectly cooked sitting a top a broad bean mash and a toasted rice cake browned in butter. I really liked the way the roasted rice brought out a very different dimension and helped contrast the strong flavours of lamb. Fresh mint strewn throughout the bean mash and atop helped brighten the entire dish.

Finally we had alternating desserts at the table. The winning dish that I had was a filo pastry tart filled with chopped nuts, French anglaise and strawberry although the photo didn’t really turn out. The alternative was a goat’s cheese sorbet, rhubarb and nuts with a caramel sauce. I didn’t have a taste of it, but those who compared the two said the tart was definitely the winner. Either way, it was a fantastic effort and brilliant execution throughout the evening.

This restaurant definitely proved popular with locals with tables filling up even as we departed from our meal so much on the heavier side. I guess it’s a good drinking spot too with a DJ coming out a bit later.

Name: Belle Epoque
Address: Södra skolgatan 43, Malmö
Website: http://belle-epoque.se/

Johan P

June 10, 2012 Patrick Malmo, Restaurants

My friend, Alistair, who visits Malmo often work recommended Johan P as a restaurant for us to meet. It’s a little bit more pricey that your standard restaurant in Malmo mainly because it does some really clean consistent flavours centered around fresh seafood. In fact, when our waitress presented the menu to us, most of the seafood dishes had some sort of substitution because the catch of the day was very different.

We started with some nice crusty bread that actually had a pretty moist crumb. The butter was soft, slightly salted and very easy to spread on the bread.

We both started by splitting a bowl of lobster bisque. It came with a generous claw, lots of lobster chunks and a few mussels. The broth is exactly how I would have imagined it – strong in seafood flavour, deep but not too rich and thick.

I can’t remember what sort of fish this had, but it came served with a small number of calamari, a mashed potato stack, and a very rich tomato sauce and fresh beans. The fish was perfectly cooked – soft and flaky without being overcooked. The balance in the dish was also great. I thought the intenseness of the tomato sauce might overpower the fish, but because the fish had a very meaty flavour, it definitely stood up to the strength of the sauce. The calamari was soft, and probably not needed. A slight bit of decadence not necessary but definitely appreciated.

This restaurant still has a nice dining area, and is slightly off from the bustling square at Lilla Torg. It’s a bit quieter, so probably more suitable for catching up with people, or a business meal, but you definitely pay a lot more for it. We skipped desserts and headed to Rosen for a dessert drink instead.

Name: Johan P
Found: Landbygatan 5, Malmö (just off Lilla Torg Square)
Website: http://www.johanp.nu/