Borough's Loss is Bermondsey's Gain

The simmering rows between core traders and Borough Market management have finally reached a climax with 8 long-standing businesses being evicted last week.  Their crime seems to have been to open their nearby storage/maturing spaces for a few hours on Saturdays whilst continuing to support Borough.   The buzz about the activity half a mile up the road in Bermondsey seems to have become too loud for comfort.  Apparently, Borough Market management viewed their actions as competition rather than as a complementary food venue which brought in more customers to the area.   Is this a result of big business management being brought to what is supposed to be a charity serving the local community?

It could be hard on the remaining good traders at Borough and it will be interesting to see how the market management can find the quality traders to fill the shoes of those they have ejected.  Even if the traders are out there, the Market management will need a complete re-think of how they attract them.  Surely this recent ruthless action, and the local reaction to it, will focus a few minds at last.

Giving the traders only one week’s notice seems a pretty shabby way to treat people who have worked hard for many years to grow the Market.   Many of the businesses were landmarks at Borough and beacons of good food.  There is much discussion (and not a little abuse) on the”london-se1” website about the disastrous results of the attempts to micro-manage the traders – talk of preventing them from growing their businesses at the Market, and from trading elsewhere.  However, there is a case for traders to "stick to their knitting" as excessive diversification can confuse the customer and, in a small business, dilute standards. Local shoppers are in despair at how a once fantastic wholesale and retail market has, for them, descended into a tourist area best avoided. 

Entering the Green and Jubilee Markets today was a sorry sight.  No Comte from the Borough Cheese Company, no Ham and Cheese Company Parmesan, no Kaise Swiss cheese, nor French cheeses from Mons.  Even Kappacasein with their renowned Toasted Cheese Sandwiches and Raclette have been given their marching orders.  Ironically, these are businesses which have maintained their focus.  It was impeccable timing when, only yesterday, Kappacasein was highlighted as a Borough Market trader in The Times column 'The Table'. 

Happily, Bill Oglethorpe at Kappacasein has been able to move fast and normal service will resume from this Saturday 9-2pm at his new railway arch unit– a trailblazing extension to my Bermondsey Trail. It’s just a little farther up the London Bridge to Dover line from the arches housing the other “miscreants”.  Let’s show the Bermondsey traders our support, but still buy selectively at Borough.

UPDATE NOVEMBER 2011 - Happily now that the management of Borough market has changed, Kappacasein and The Borough Cheese Company have returned to stalls at Borough Market (still open at their Bermondsey Trail arches on Saturdays).

KAPPACASEIN DAIRY

1 Voyager Business Estate

London SE16 4RP

www.kappacasein.com

www.maltbystreet.com

Fiendish & Goode - Food Find

Fiendish & Goode - fantastic name, fantastic cakes.  Miniature cakes and biscuits not only look good but deliver on lightness and flavour.  Intense Lemon Drizzle Cake with Pistachios and sensational (flour, egg and sugar-free) Bramley Apple Fruit Cake.  "Little treat/big reward" sums it up perfectly.  Parsnip Ginger Pecan Cake anyone?  Find them every Saturday at Broadway Market, Hackney, London E8 and selected stockists. 

Barcelona Roundup

Barcelona Buoy

With great architecture and museums, good food and wine, and even a beach, Barcelona pretty much has it all. In my last posting on Barcelona I spent so much time telling you about the delights of the Mercado de Santa Catarina that I didn't get round to my other finds.  Here's a brief round-up to tempt you to go to this fabulous city.

I briefly mentioned places in the El Born district close to the Mercado you could check out, such as the venerated and influential tapas bar Cal Pep just north of the Plaça de Palau.  This is the daddy of Barcelona tapas bars and has been such an influence on the Hart brothers' Barrafina in London's Soho.  You probably won't be offered a menu at Cal Pep but the barman's recommendations are generally a good guide.  However, be warned, the fish dishes can be expensive.  It will be fabulously fresh - the trifasic (fried whitebait, squid and shrimps) is a must, and the deep fried tiny fish with a freshly fried egg, chopped and mixed into the mass, sounds odd but tastes great.  Botifarra sausage and beans is a local speciality.  My tip is not to join the queue which forms before the shutters go up - these are tourists and will be moved on quickly.  The second wave is much more welcome.

In the same area, don't miss the atmospheric old grocer Gispert with lovingly displayed preserves, wooden tubs of dried fruits, roasted nuts and coffees and spices including genuine high quality La Mancha saffron.  It's close to the starkly beautiful Basilica Santa del Mar and the Catedral La Seu, as well as the wonderful Museu Picasso.

You cannot visit Barcelona without taking in the inspiring Antonio Gaudi architecture.  Everyone visits the Sagrada Familia church but both Gaudi's Casa Batllό townhouse and La Pedrera apartment block are on Passeig de Gracia.  They are spectacular and unmissable. At the top of the street, on the corner of Av. Diagonal, are the Jardins del Palau Robert, a lovely spot to cool down.  You'll also find a tourist information office here.

Close by is the Passatge de la Concepciό (off the Passeig de Gracia) and the buzzing Mordisco, one of the latest ventures from Grupo Tragaluz, owners of the Hotel Omm round the corner.  Entering through the shop and cafe, you graduate to an art space and a sleek white bar before reaching the light-filled conservatory dining room.  Upstairs are lounges to encourage lingering over a drink.  Expect dishes such as Smoked Sardines with Sweet and Sour Aubergine, Foie Gras with Fig Brioche, and mains of Roast Beef on Toast with Onion Confit and Chargrilled Mixed Vegetable Tatin.  Puddings might include Grilled Wild Strawberries with Black Pepper or Mordisco Cheesecake with Raspberries. 

Emerging from the Passatge onto Rambla de Catalunya, you will find Hänsel close to the junction with c/Provenca.  This is a stylishly fitted-out, friendly small bakery and coffee shop.  The cafe cortado is fine, the bread, particularly the Flauta is good but the Palmeras are exceptional – the burnt sugar edges are deliberate and delicious. 

A further five minute stroll down the Rambla de Catalunya brings you to Casa Vives, a traditional Catalonian bakery.  Amongst the array of cakes and chocolates are delicious tuna, onion and red pepper Empanadas, little oblong cakes similar to French Financiers and, when we there, light as air Bunyols (Lenten doughnuts).  Perfect for a picnic in Gaudi's Parc Guell or on Barcelonetta beach.

Cal Pep

Placa de les Olles 8
http://www.calpep.com/

Gispert
c/Sombreres 23
http://www.casagispert.com/

Mordisco

Passatge de la Concepciό 10
http://www.grupotragaluz.com/rest-mordisco.php

Hänsel

c/Provenca 237

Casa Vives

Rambla de Catalunya 58
http://casavives.com/index-barcelona.html

New Park Farm Asparagus - Food Find

Every year I look forward to the six-week English asparagus season.  Each year I come to the conclusion that the tastiest crop comes from  'New Park Farm', Groombridge, Kent.  You can find them at Blackheath and Marylebone Farmers' Markets and at Borough Market until around 20th June.  If you visit their farm shop you can even buy crowns to grow your own. 
http://www.asparagus-in-kent.co.uk/index.html

Le Cristal de Sel, Paris



Le Cristal de Sel
Confiture - Mirabelles Verveine

Unfortunately I can't tell you about the best meal I've had in London of late as its location is a bit 'hole-in-the-wall' as yet.  Rest assured, as soon as I can, I will.  In the meantime, to make up for my little tease, I've decided to tell you about my favourite restaurant in Paris.  This is not a new find.  I've been eating at Le Cristal de Sel since soon after its opening in 2007.  Chef Karil Lopez and front-of-house Damien Crepu were both formerly at the renowned Hôtel Bristol.  Every time I've eaten at Le Cristal de Sel the experience has been sheer pleasure. 

From both outside and in the place reminds me of an '80's Italian trattoria.  You need to know this or you will walk straight past, as I did on my first visit.  After hearing of the hundreds of thousands of pounds spent on some restaurant openings of late, it's refreshing to see the money has been spent on the important things rather than on ripping out what has gone before in search of style and ambience. 

With the Chef being ex-Hôtel Bristol you might expect complicated dishes.  Whilst his classical training is obvious, particularly in saucing, he is confident to let a great ingredient speak for itself, from a slab of simply cooked Simmental Beef to a slice of first-class charcuterie.  Then again, his buttery-sauced Ravioles de Languoustines is a thing of beauty and tastes sublime.  The wine list is short, carefully selected and Damien's recommendations have always proved to be good.

On this Spring visit we chose from the fantastic value lunchtime Menu du Jour at 18 Euros for 2 courses and started with 'Oeuf cocotte cuisiné comme une raclette, jambon de Savoie et rattes à la ciboulette' a raclette-type dish of eggs, savoy ham and ratte potatoes with a buttery chive sauce.  Deeply comforting (but then I'm a sucker for the combination of ham, potato and eggs).  A classic charcuterie selection presented on a slate platter was small but good.  We both chose a main course of Duck Breast on soft polenta served with a wonderfully spiced sticky sauce.  We showed admirable restraint in skipping pudding - a signature dish of beggar's purse pancake with apples and caramel sauce is damnably hard to resist - but we had plans for les gateaux later on.  On a day-trip to Paris, you've got to pace yourself and we'd already succumbed to the Chocolat chaud and some samples at Un Dimanche à Paris soon after arriving on Eurostar.

In any down-time, Chef makes exquisite jams as and when different fruits come into season.  I can recommend leaving with a jar of Mirabelles Verveine for spreading on a crisp baguette.

Staff are young and the place is run like a big happy family without ever losing sight of the paying customer.  It's the perfect neighbourhood restaurant that's worth going out of your way for.  The front-of-house is always welcoming, the quality of the ingredients is high, the cooking is exceptional, and everyone, including the staff, seems to be enjoying themselves.  There is a slight air of eccentricity about the place - not at all staid Parisien.  What more could you want from a restaurant.  The location is off the beaten track but the Metro is good so why not use it. 

Le Cristal du Sel
13 rue Mademoiselle
75015 Paris
Metro: Commerce
http://www.lecristaldesel.fr/pres.php

Outdoor English Asparagus

The first outdoor grown English Aspargus has arrived at Tony Booth's Druid Street arch.  Grown on the Isle of Wight, it's on sale for £10 a kilo.  Delicious steamed and seasoned with pepper and Noirmoutier Sea Salt with Seaweed, available from Real France on Borough Market.


http://www.maltbystreet.com/
http://www.realfrance.co.uk/

Easter Simnel Cake



Simnel Cake

Now I know I alerted you to Leila's Italian Easter Cakes - Colomba - recently, but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate our own English specialities.  Simnel cake is traditionally baked for Easter and is a lighter version of Christmas fruit cake.  Dating from Medieval times, it was baked by daughters in domestic service as a gift to take home on the fourth Sunday in Lent.  This day was known as Mothering Sunday, now more commonly referred to as Mothers Day.  Simnel is believed to derive from the latin word Simila - fine wheaten flour with which the cake was made.
 
From its orgin as a cake baked to mark a holiday over 400 years ago, it took on more Christian religious connotations.  In Simnel Cake almond paste (marzipan) is layered between the fruit mixture before baking.  Traditionally, after cooling, it is topped with another layer, and eleven balls of marzipan are placed around the edge to symbolise Christ's faithful apostles (Judas being omitted).  The cake is then toasted under a grill to lightly brown the topping. 

I am particularly fond of ground almonds.  They add so much to the taste and texture of cakes yet produce so many different results - from English fruit cakes to Italian "Torta di Mandorle", Spanish "Tarta de Santiago", French "Financier", and many more.  With Simnel Cake, I love the almond paste which is sandwiched between the fruit cake mixture, but the paste decoration never appeals to me.  Unless you plan to eat the cake straight away, the topping hardens and dries out.  My version (recipe below) keeps better, and satisfies my appetite for the almost toffee-like quality you get from baking the almond paste inside the cake.  Unless you are concerned to have the cake look traditional, I recommend two layers of marzipan sandwiched by fruit cake mix.  Yes you may get a little sinking in the middle and have no way of disguising the fact, but I'd rather have a tasty cake than a perfect looking one.  This is how I like fruit cake.

Simnel Cake
(for an 18cm round tin)

170g plain flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon mixed spice
Pinch of salt
140g butter (very soft)
140g Muscovado sugar
2 medium sized eggs, mixed well
380g of currants, raisins and sultanas in roughly equal measure
40g candied peel
Grated zest of  1 orange and 1 lemon
Juice of half an orange
300g Marzipan (almond paste)

Heat the oven to 150C/Gas 2.  Butter an 18cm round cake tin and line the bottom and sides with parchment or greaseproof paper.  Sift together the first four ingredients.  Cream the butter and sugar until soft and fluffy.  Add the eggs in four lots beating well with each addition (add a tablespoon of the flour mixture if it starts to curdle).  Fold in the sieved flour mixture, then the dried fruit, peel and the orange and lemon zest.  Loosen the mixture with the orange juice.  Spread one third of the mixture in the cake tin.  Divide the marzipan in half, roll into two balls and flatten each with the palm of your hand into roughly18cm rounds.  Place one round in the cake tin, top with another third of cake mix, and repeat.  Smooth the top and bake in the oven for 1½ hours.  Cool in the tin.  Turn out and wrap in foil.  This cake benefits from keeping a day or two. 

Alphonso Mangoes - Food Find

Unseasonably cold weather has caused a 30%  reduction in yield in the Alphonso mango crop, so this year they will be harder to find and more expensive than usual.  Tony Booth has them this week at his Druid Street arch but expect to pay £2.00 each.  Definitely a special treat.

Potato Pickings - How special is the Jersey Royal?

"Pink Fir Apple" Potato

By now you will probably have noticed the tiny Jersey Royal potatoes arriving in the shops, and you may wonder why I haven't sent out a Food Find alert.  Well, the reason is that I blog about what I consider to be good and for the last few years, sadly, I don't think Jersey Royals meet my criteria.  The Jersey Royal is grown in the British Channel Island of Jersey.  Having an EU "Designation of Origin", Jersey Royals cannot be sold as such from anywhere else.  The variety of potato is in fact "International Kidney", alluding to their distinctive kidney-shape, and they are grown under this name elsewhere in the UK, though not widely as they are susceptible to blight.

The things that made Jerseys special were the early crop and the effect of the local vraic seaweed which was spread over the potato beds.  The Channel Islands are milder than most other areas of the UK (with the possible exception of the Scilly Isles), and the potatoes are grown on the steeply sloping south-facing hillsides of the island.  These days the beds are more likely to be swathed in black polythene to speed up growing for an even earlier crop.  It's also not considered cost-effective to haul the seaweed up from the beach.  The first Jerseys to go on sale are little bigger than marbles and are known as "mids".  To my mind, they taste OK but not special.  By the time outdoor-grown English asparagus (May to mid-June) is available the potatoes will be larger (this size is referred to as "small ware") and I think they taste better for it.  I'm sure there must still be some farmers who grow Jerseys in the traditional way but their potatoes are certainly not getting to me.  If you find a source in London, snap them up - and please let me know.

So, following the principle of "good things come to he who waits", this year I'll be biding my time and waiting for my own crop of salad potatoes.  A nice waxy-fleshed Charlotte is my 2011 choice planted a couple of weeks ago, on a bio-dynamic 'root' day.  I'll have to wait until July to enjoy them, but enjoy them I will.  In a week or so I'll also plant some Pink Fir Apple potatoes for harvesting in August/September (see above for a picture of last year's).  Maybe next year I'll even plant International Kidney, feed them with seaweed fertiliser, and have a taste-off with Jersey Royals.  I'll probably fall flat on my face, especially if they get blighted, and maybe it'll make me appreciate Jersey Royals more.

In anticipation of you finding some good salad potatoes, here's a simple, classic potato salad recipe from Simon Hopkinson. The peeling of salad potatoes is one of the few subjects I am in disagreement with him about.  He is somewhat messianic on this point.  At least he does concede that Jersey Royals don't need peeling - being papery, the skins simply rub or scrub off - but he is adamant that all others should be boiled then peeled.  For me it depends on the variety and I certainly don't peel young Charlottes or Pink Fir Apple.

Potato Salad (Source: Simon Hopkinson - Roast Chicken and Other Stories)
(Serves 4)

700g/1½lbs waxy salad potatoes
salt and pepper
3-4 sprigs of mint
1 tbsp Dijon mustard (smooth)
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
5 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
A few spring onions or chives

Scrub the potatoes and boil in salted water with the mint until just cooked.  Whisk together the mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper, then whisk in the oils.  Drain the potatoes and discard the mint.  If the potatoes are bigger than marble size, cut in half longways (it looks prettier and exposes a larger area of flesh to the dressing).  Whilst still hot, add them to the dressing.  Snip the spring onion or chives into the bowl and gently mix to coat the potatoes.  Lukewarm is the perfect eating temperature for this delicious potato salad. 

Colomba, Italian Easter Cake - Food Find

Leila had Colomba, the traditional dove-shaped Italian Easter cake, at Druid Street (Arch 104) today.  Made with a natural sourdough starter, they’re from the same Trieste bakery that supplied Leila with the fabulous Christmas Pannetone.  Available for the next few weeks, you can also buy them from Leila’s shop at 17 Calvert Street, London E1 
www.pasticceriatriestina.com/