Taste of London

Some pictures from Taste of London 2010 in Regents Park, taken on a phonecam, so a bit rough n ready:

Chicken Satay with the usual trimmings from Paddington Restaurant Tukdin. Also saw a cooking demonstration from their head chef, who seems like a very friendly and talented young man:


Next from Gaucho: Argentine Black Angus steak with chimchuri sauce and humitas (an Argentinian kind of tamale): crushed sweetcorn and masa harina flour steamed in a leaf. Steak had a nice flavour, but the steamed sweetcorn number was spectacular.


The best dish so far from Angela Hartnett's York and Albany: Pistachio crusted lamb cutlet with soused tomatoes and a smoked aubergine puree (served in what I can only describe as a 'turd-shaped-cone'). Tasted great though - weirdly intense brown colour in the puree. Not sure how they achieved that.


Daube of Beef a la nicoise from Le Gavroche, with braised olives and a cheesy soft polenta. Beautifully cooked and wholesome, though not necessarily hot weather food. Michel Roux Jr was pressing the flesh at the stall.


The headline chef today was Rick Stein, who was, slightly bizarrely, there to promote Malaysian food (there's also a whole Malaysian section near the entrance). I've always had a soft spot for old Rick, so it was nice to see him up close and watch his cooking demos. He seemed a bit hot and flustered, and the cooking didn't go quite as planned. But he came across as the same easy going guy he is on TV and the audience loved him. Saw him make a grilled fish and a coconut chicken curry.


Some other famous faces - Georgio Locatelli at his stall (didn't eat there)


And Gok Wan (left) paired up Jun Tanaka (right):


Saving the best to last - the two dishes I sampled from modern Japanese restaurant Dinings. The best food I had at the festival last year also came from Dinings, and I've had dinner there in the meantime. First some chilli garlic black cod. Just sensational.


And finally one of the 'signature dishes', a new concept that's been introduced this year. The signatures are a way of charging even more than the already excessive prices at Taste. But in this case the 8 quid cost was (almost) worth it: Seared wagyu sushi two ways. One with a chunk of seared foie gras on top. Not sure what all the minutely portioned seasonings and sauces on the dish were, but it was definitely the standout dish of the day


So, a fun day out, and some amazing food, but there's one overwhelming flavour that lingers in the mouth: the bitter taste of having been thoroughly milked of your hard earned cash. It costs around 22 pounds just to get in the gate, and then every dish is at least 3 to 4 pounds, with the "mains" costing from 5 upwards. Considering these are all just tasting plates it works out pretty expensive.

I don't think you can come here planning to try a few different dishes without spending at least 50 quid. If you're really going for it and having some drinks it will easily be £75 and up. Great as it was I'm not sure it's worth that much money.

The clever thing to do would probably be to cut out the middle man, save half your money and just go and have dinner at Dinings.

Pepperoni and Anchovy Pizzas

Have been experimenting with making my own pizza dough in recent weeks and think I'm getting close to nailing it. This time I left the dough to rise for 10 hours, despite being worried about it over-rising and collapsing into a gooey mess. But it came out great - makes such a difference to the taste. The longer it rises the longer it has to develop deep, bready flavours.

Next time I'll measure the quantities (rather than just busking them by eye) and post the recipe here.

Beer Snack

Here's something I stumbled across randomly on the internet yesterday: a really simple dish I'd never heard of that's actually rather excellent with a drink - fried chickpeas. I'd credit the website, but don't know what it is anymore... I've made up my own recipe inspired by the idea.

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add finely chopped garlic. Open a can of chickpeas, drain and dry, then toss in heavily seasoned flour. I used paprika, chilli, salt and pepper. Fry the chickpeas until crispy, drain on kitchen paper and serve hot with an ice cold beer. They're surprisingly delicious - crunchy and spicy on the outside, like roasted peanuts; mealy and starchy on the inside, like fluffy chips.

Other flavour ideas could be garlic, parsley and lemon zest or curry powder... whatever takes your fancy.



Two new posts in a day after a month-long hiatus! Please let me know if you read and like / hate this blog, because I'm never sure if I'm just writing for my own amusement. If anyone actually cares what I write I'd have a reason to do it more regularly.

Cheers.

EDIT: Credit where it's due. The site that I got the idea from:
http://www.ecurry.com/blog/starters-snacks/fried-chickpeas-or-ceci-frito/

BBQ Blowout

My sister is getting married in October. In America, which is a little inconvenient for most of her friends and relatives. So we had an engagement party in this country for anyone unable / unwilling to travel all the way to San Francisco. I ended up volunteering to prepare all the food, and with 45 people coming it was by far the largest crowd I've ever cooked for.

A formal sit-down meal for that many people would been completely out of my comfort zone, but a barbecue seemed manageable. I've grilled for around 20 people before, so it wasn't a massive step up. Although charcoal is always my first choice we went with a hired gas BBQ. The large cooking surface and sustained heat made a lot of sense for that many people. The last thing I wanted to do was constantly having to re-stoke the coals and wait for them to come up to temperature. So this was the cooking beast we ended up with:




Positives: the gas kept the grill hot for several hours and the vast cooking surface was a bonus.
Negatives: no charcoal flavour; hard to control temperature (surprisingly); only narrow slits on the steel surface, so food steams and fries more than it grills.
Still, on balance probably the right choice for the occasion.

We ordered the meat from Scottish mail-order supplier Donald Russell, after having them recommended by friends. Have to say it was great quality and didn't cost too much. I'll definitely be using them again in the future.

We got three boned legs of lamb, which I marinaded in chillies, onions, garlic and Moroccan spices. Here they are looking like one massive lump of meat with a Weber meat thermometer to make sure they cooked until they were crusty on the outside and nicely pink on the inside.



Next came some Chicken Satay skewers, marinated in garlic, ginger, coconut milk, soy, sugar and turmeric (served with my patented Satay sauce). We also ordered a whole load of Donald Russell steak burgers and sausages.



Then there were the salads, which were (mostly) made the night before:

Pea, baby broadbean, spring onion and mint
Chargrilled sweet peppers
Greek Salad
Carrot, cabbage and apple coleslaw
Mixed beans with lemon zest and parsley
Mixed leaves with shredded beetroot

Plus 6kg of roasted new potatoes, which we forgot to put out and left in the oven until everyone left and we suddenly remembered. Never mind.



Well, everyone left happy. I didn't feel quite as in control of the cooking as I would have done over charcoal, but it all turned out alright...