Another 5 Things You Didn’t Know About Me

I’ve been tagged by Scott at Real Epicurean for this meme. I’ve done this one before so this time I turned to Rob for my 5 things. With little hesitation he came up with:

1. I once dyed my hair blonde. (I also dyed it black when I was a teenager - you could say I like extremes! But hey, you’ve got to try everything once.)
2. I have a thing for handbags (which is a rather expensive habit).
3. I’m messy (I tell Rob it’s my creative streak but I don’t think he’s buying it).
4. I once owned a red MGF (I loved that car, driving it in the summer with the roof down was exhilarating).
5. My favourite colour is blue.

I tag:
Rice and Noodles
Tartelette
Hannah's Country Kitchen
Cafe Lynnylu
Hooked on Heat

Old Friends, Familiar Places

I met a good friend, Viv, for dinner earlier in the week. We met through work and although we no longer work together our friendship remains, as does the restaurant we’ve been frequenting over the years. We regularly went there for lunch when we worked nearby and since then, when we meet for dinner, we meet there. It’s become our place. There are several practical factors in this, it’s central so convenient for us both, it’s reasonably priced for a night out and importantly, of course, we like the food and drink that’s served there. But more than this, we feel comfortable in this restaurant. I love its familiarity and how we are immediately relaxed in our environment.

Viv told me of one of her favourite times at this restaurant when she lunched with another friend there. They shared several bottles of wine and before they knew it day turned to evening and they were given the evening menus, so they stayed for dinner too. What a great story - that is feeling relaxed and at home in a restaurant.

There is so much we often associate with restaurants and so many memories we make in them. First date, old friends, new friends, family celebrations, etc. I can think of several restaurants that I associate with different people in my life and different times in my life. There is so much more to restaurant dining than simply feeding ourselves, as with food in general. This is life in the making.

Clams with Linguini

Fry 1 finely chopped shallot and 1 garlic clove in butter for a few minutes in a saucepan. Next add about 200ml white wine and the clams. Turn the heat up high and put a lid on. Remove from the heat when the shells open. At this point remove the clams from the pan and add 100ml cream, salt, pepper and juice of half a lemon to the pan. Bring to a boil and simmer until it is reduced to a sauce consistency. Meanwhile cook the linguini and once the sauce is ready and the linguini to the pan along with the clams to reheat them.

How to Cook the Perfect…

The latest in my cookbook collection is ‘How to Cook the Perfect…’ by Marcus Wareing, Chef Patron of two London hotel restaurants; The Savoy Grill at the Savoy Hotel on the Strand and Pétrus at The Berkeley Hotel in Knightsbridge.

With a title such as ‘How to Cook the Perfect…’ and written by a chef of Marcus’s calibre, you may be forgiven for expecting a little pretension and complex dishes from this book. But this is far from the case. Marcus offers his professional expertise in a very down-to-earth, easy to follow way and the book is packed full of classics you would want to cook at home and want tips for perfection on. In fact, the more I flicked through the book, the more pleasantly surprised I was to see homely, rather than restaurant style, dishes; fish pie; roast chicken; apple pie; fish cakes and even ‘Mum’s Pork Chops’. Marcus was inspired by his mother’s home cooking and is father to two young sons, so home cooking is clearly important to him. He’s successfully combined this with his professional skills in this book.

Of course, as fabulous as it is to sit back and read a new cookbook, the true test of a good cookbook is in the cooking. So into the kitchen I went with the book opened at ‘Roast Belly of Pork with Crackling’. Now, I consider myself able to cook good belly of pork with crispy crackling; it’s one of Rob and my favourites and we cook it a lot so I’ve had a lot of practice. I therefore wasn’t really expecting to learn anything new, but I was once again surprised. Marcus uses two textures of sea salt to create a crispy crackling; fine salt to get right into the scored skin, and coarser salt to create a crust. It makes perfect sense when you think about it, but thankfully the thinking has been done for you here. The recipe was easy to follow and the end result absolutely delicious. The roasted onion and apple infuse each other with their taste and the pork also; its juices dripping into the fruit and vegetables and their juices in turn flavouring the pork. The crackling, as promised, was fantastically crispy and the meat underneath was tender and moist with no trace of fattiness.

Watch Marcus making the perfect custard tart here