Gastro Gran.

Me and my nan have always been really close , she loves food and is a really great cook, in her eyes I am the jewel in the crown. When I worked at Mirabelle she came for Lunch and was so impressed that I started taking her to Top London restaurants a few times a year, Hakkassan, L'Attilier, The Belvedere to name a few, anyway a year or so ago I took her to St.John, we had a really nice lunch and a good laugh, the puds are our kind of puds, big, loads of cream and really sweet. I was due another 'Gastro Gran' day out and as we had such a great time last time , I decided to take her back to St.John, this time with my Mrs.
So I polished my best shoes and met her at Kings Cross,where she was glowing and as bubbly as always and telling me what a lovely lad I am and how she remembers when, etc,etc! So we made our way over to Smithfield in a cab. We were a bit early so decided to have an 'aperitif' in a lovely old pub called the Hope (its become a bit of a Gastro Gran ritual!) , just across the road from the restaurant. We were really tempted to have a salt beef or pork belly and apple sauce sandwich in the pub, as they looked so tasty, but managed to hold back and made our way across the road.
The restaurant was empty when we arrived, Monday in August= Bad business! But we didn't mind as we were going to have a laugh anyway.
The menu at St.John changes daily and as it was Monday and fishermen don't go out to sea over the weekend there wasn't much choice, in fact only 1 main course, if you were a 'fish eater', but there were loads of other tasty Meat dishes, which to be honest is what St. John specialises in, to choose from. To start Gastro Gran had Terrine, a simple slice of pork terrine with a few cornishons and some lovely bread, made on site. My Mrs. Had cold Middle White pork with celeriac remoulade, a bit to fatty for her and I had brown crab meat on toast, which was stunning, the reason so many chefs love this restaurant is because of dishes like this, great produce with very little done to it, salt,pepper and half a lemon, cracking dish! Gastro Gran then went for 'A brace of slip soles', slip soles are also known as Megrin, slip sole is a catchy name I suppose, they have, in the past also been sold as Cornish soles and Rockall sole, thay are sustainable and most of them (90%) caught around British shores are shipped to Spain and Italy, Madness, but lets not go into that now! The Mrs. wasn't sure so I chose for her, Pigs cheeks and Dandelions, not very lady like, but I wanted to try it! It was again to fatty for her (but I liked it)! I chose the Ox tongue with green sauce, another winner, I would rather have Ox tongue than beef fillet any day, It was stunning, simply braised and served with 2 braised carrots, braised with the tongue and a sauce similar to salsa verde, made with capers, garlic and parsley. We shared a side order of buttered spring greens, which my Mrs. liked (finally). As we finished up our main course, Fergus Henderson (owner/legend) arrived with two of his friends, and sat on a table near to us and all ate a Grouse each! With their fingers! They must have been from a bunch of the first grouse of the year to reach London as it only came into season on the 12th of this month, 4 days ago!
Then came the best bit, Pudding, Gastro Gran had the Blue berry tart and ice cream and I had the Chocolate terrine, both were right up our street, rich, tasty, sweet and just really bad for you! By this time my Mrs. had the hump because I chose her main course just because it was my second favourite! So when the waitress asked her what she would like, she replied sarcastically, 'ask him', so I picked the creme caramel as it was me and Gastro Grans second choice! Ha, ha, But she liked it anyhow.
Then my Mrs. had a coffee and me and Gastro Gran shared a pot of tea.
All in all another great lunch at St. John and another great lunch out with Gastro Gran.

Bargain...Harrods cookbook for £2.50!

Just bought this book in a second hand bookshop, what a bargain, £2.50, there are some amazing old English recipes in there, I have listed a few of my favourites and will cook and feature one next week....any special requests?

Fulham to Finsbury Park!

10 days straight working then 4 days out of 5 off! I am a bit broke at the moment, so I was trying to find something to do on my day off that wasn't going to cost me anything and try and combine that with some form of exercise (as I have been promising myself that I will 'get fit' for about 5 years now, ha, ha), cos the rock n roll lifestyle is starting to catch up with me a bit! So I decided to go on a free foodie bike ride! I decided to ride from Fulham (where I live) to Finsbury Park (don't know why!), and try and find a few restaurants (hidden gems) to visit when in 100 years I eventually get my over draught up! Or the odd good butcher, fish munger, etc.
I rode through the West End, then through Holbon and Angel to finsbury park.
Interesting things that I came across include Da Mario Princess Diana Pizzeria in Gloucester road, which has a newspaper article placed next to the menu, with a picture of Princess Diana leaving the restaurant from about 20 years ago!
I Also came across a cool Bagel shop, which opened next to a painting by graffiti Artist Banksy, called....Banksy Bagel Bar! This was in Holbon.
Towards Finsbury park there was an array of old school fish and chip shops, I love a bag of fish and chips from a real Chippie, bread roll, mushy peas and a can of Coke (no wonder I need to exercise) oh , and Tar tare sauce! They are just great, a real comfort food and chip shops have such character, you always get served by a grumpy old man that doesn't really want to work in there or an under age employee who shouldn't really work in there, his 13 year old niece or nephew! And there is always a small pile of 1 fishcake, a saveloy and a pineapple fritter in the corner of the greasy glass covered shelves! And raw chips are always stored in blue buckets!
I also came across a realy cool looking Japanese Cafe, called Necco and a sandwich shop called Butty Boys!

Earls Court Beer Fest!

Went to the beer fest last Saturday, we spent most of our time at the 'Bombardier Bus', I also tried some crazy sommerset ciders, luckily most stands let you taste before you buy as the ciders can be really strong! All in all it was a good day out, and we didn't get (too) drunk, unlike some of the other people in these pictures!

I chop the end of my finger off!

This is what happens when you work 10 days in a row and slice chillis first thing in the morning whilst still half asleep......Note to self!

Great news!

I am at the end of my 10 day stint at work and with my half chopped off finger (these things happen when you are tired), will today be visiting the beer festival in Earls Court, post to follow!
Anyway, to the good news, about 6 months ago I applied for the 2010 Craft Guild of Chefs National Chef of the year competition, it runs every 2 years and has some really high profile past winners, Gorden Ramsay and Marcus Wearing to name a few! But I didn't hear anything and this was 6 months ago , so I presumed that I didn't get through, until during the week the organiser called me and told me that I had made it past the first stage and was in the semi-final! Wahoooooo, there are 4 categories, I am in the Asian category, with 7 others and ''the big showdown'' is on the 13Th of September, where we cook our submitted menus and 2 from each of the 4 categories pass through into the final, which will be live at the Restaurant show in Earls Court in October!
The menu which we had to submit needed to include the following:

To serve 4 people,
3 canapes, 2 hot and 1 cold,
a Chicken dish,
a vegetable or salad,
a starch,
and a dessert which includes Lemons.

My brain was really tested over this one for a few reasons, firstly, as it is difficult to make an Asian Chicken dish look 'restaurantie', they eat loads of chicken in south eat Asia/Japan (which is where my cooking interests lean towards), but usually in a curry or stir fried or in a soup or with noodles, etc, etc, never really presented in a restaurant fashion, so this was my first problem, then secondly, Lemons, you will rarely find lemons in Asian cuisine as they are not native to Asia and Asian cuisine is steeped in tradition, limes all the time, but rarely lemons!


So after weeks of racking my brain, jumping out of bed at 2 in the morning to jot down an idea that has just crossed my mind, and just generally driving myself crazy trying to come up with a menu that I was happy with , here is what got me through, and what I have to cook on the 13th of September.


Canapes


Turmeric fried Squid,

Crispy fried queen Scallops with iceberg lettuce and Chili mayonnaise,

Seared salmon with pickled Cucumber, Salmon eggs and Shiso.


Main Course

Selection of 'Black Leg Chicken' Skewers cooked on a Hibachi grill
(Chicken liver Yakitori,
Chicken thigh and spring onion Yakitori,
Chicken breasts rolled with Japanese plums and Shiso leaves)

Baby spinach Salad with toasted sesame seeds and sesame dressing,

Steamed rice with Japanese mushrooms, spring onions and Konbu Dashi.

Dessert

Steamed Lemon Custard with green Tea Crumble.




The 2 hot canapes are deep fried, I know, but they deep fry everything over there, and the salmon is very lightly seared (Titaki) and really fresh, I will use farmed Salmon as it is Fattier than wild.
For the main course I will serve the Skewers on one large plate, the Rice on another and the Baby Spinach salad on another, with 4 side plates and the judges will serve themselves, this may prove controversial, but sharing a meal is much more sociable and traditional in Asia (and in Nobu, Nahm and Zuma!).
And the Lemon custard, well as I said earlier it is difficult to find a recipe with Lemons in it in either South East Asia or Japan, but custards are common and I added some green tea crumble for a bit of crunch and to turn it into a more restaurant friendly dessert as apposed to just a simple custard!
So wish me luck and I'll let you know how I get on, Oh and cheers Dobbie for 'volunteering' to be my commis chef)!

Almost there...2 more days then I'm off!