The Monocle Cafe, London - Food Find

Although it officially launches on 15 April, The Monocle Cafe in Marylebone opened its doors today. This is the second Cafe from Monocle, the first one opened in Tokyo 18 months ago.  Small but perfectly formed, the design and execution is just what you'd expect from Monocle.  Beautiful use of wood, great lighting and a cosy lounge at the back.  There's Monocle 24 TV playing and copies of Monocle magazine to browse.  Decor  is completed by original artwork from Virge Brûlé.  A downstairs room, set up for use as either extra cafe seating or a room for hire, is furnished with vintage Ercol.  Come summer, the few tables outside will be favourites on this street with its eclectic mix of independent shops.  Pastries and buns are being supplied by Swedish bakery Fabrique.  Allpress coffee  was expertly made and cakes by the impressive Masayuki Hara of Lanka were delicious and, of course, service was attentive. 

The Monocle Cafe
18 Chiltern Street
London  W1U 7QA

Onion Tart with Lancashire Cheese - Perfect combinations

Slice of Onion Tart with Lancashire Cheese

I was saving this recipe for the the day I managed to plant this year's onion sets but, with the unrelenting cold we've been experiencing, I've decided this undeniably rich tart is exactly right for now.  I like to tell  myself a helping of watercress off-sets the richness!

Last year's store of onions have long gone and the onion sets I planted to overwinter are nowhere to be seen.  Some November-planted garlic clings on tenaciously but the leeks, which usually grow so well, are stunted.  A mixture of clay soil, copious rain and prolonged, numbing, cold has taken its toll.  My bio-dynamic planting calendar tells me it will be mid-April before I can start my Spring planting - assuming winter releases its icy grip.

Onion Tart with Lancashire Cheese

So, while I wait impatiently to get planting, I'm grateful to Simon Hopkinson for reminding me what a joyous combination cheese and onion make.  This recipe is adapted from his Onion Tart in Roast Chicken and Other Stories in which he mentions his mother's love of mixing a little Lancashire cheese into the filling. It's certainly a winning combination, though I prefer to scatter the Lancashire on the top just before baking.  A version of this tart is sometimes on the menu at 40 Maltby Street where an oat pastry is used.  Though more difficult to work with, it works as a great counter-balance to the richness of the filling.  Making this dish does leave you with a lot of egg whites, but that just gives you the excuse for a batch of meringues or macarons.

Onion Tart with Lancashire Cheese 
(Serves 4-6)

Shortcrust pastry:
100g (4oz) plain flour
50g (2oz) cold butter, diced
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cold water
Pinch of salt

Filling:
75g (3oz) butter
4 medium-large onions, thinly sliced
4 egg yolks
300ml (1/2 pint) double cream
Salt & pepper
75g (3oz) Lancashire cheese

Lightly butter a 20cm (8 inch), 3cm deep loose-bottomed tart tin and chill.  To make the pastry, sift flour, add salt and rub in the butter.  Add egg yolk and water and stir with a knife until the mixture comes together.  Use your hands to form it into a smooth ball, working the pastry as little as possible.  Wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Melt the butter for the filling in a frying- or sauce-pan with a lid.  Add the onions and a little salt and pepper, stirring to coat the onions in the butter.  Cover with the lid and cook very gently, without browning, until the onions are soft (about 40 minutes).  The mixture will be very wet.  Remove the lid and cook down on a low heat for a further 15-20 minutes until the moisture has mostly disappeared.  Transfer to a bowl and leave to cool.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C (fan oven 180C).  Roll out the pastry as thinly as possible and line the prepared tart tin with it.  Prick the base of the pastry and chill for 15 minutes.  Line with greaseproof paper and fill with baking beans to bake blind in the oven for 10 minutes.  Remove the paper and beans and return the tart to the oven for a further 5 minutes or so to cook the base thoroughly.  Remove from the oven and turn down to 180C (fan oven 160C).  

Lightly beat the egg yolks with the cream.  Mix in the onions and season with salt and pepper.  Place the tart tin on a baking tray and pour the mixture into the tart case as high as you dare before crumbling the cheese on top.  Bake for around 35 minutes until the filling is set and lightly browned.

Peppery watercress goes very well with this tart.

Monvínic Barcelona

Rockfish Pasta
at Monvínic

I've long had a liking for Spanish wines and, although it's based on no great learning, I know what I like and I like the wines at Monvínic very much indeed.  Not that you'll only find Spanish wines here.  Their copious cellar houses several thousand bottles from all over the world, and a reference library satisfies the most discerning oenophile.  But a visit last week confirmed that's not all this stylish temple to viniculture is about.

Taking in the leather apron-clad sommelier/greeters behind the desk, the copper ceiling, low lighting and pony-skin seating in the bar area we did wonder on entering whether our wallets could stand the heat.  Being handed a digital wine list, initially, didn't help but a quick run-through by Ramiro allayed our fears.  Starting at under 20 Euros a bottle, and with around 50 wines served by the glass, for us this proved the best way to make discoveries at Monvínic.  The wines on offer are constantly changing, to the point where a second glass of the one you just enjoyed may not be available.  We were determined to stick to local Catalan wines so sampled a lovely crisp, dry Castellroig DO Penedès 2010.  We followed up with Portal del Montsant DO Brunus 2009, a Carignan, Grenache, Syrah blend which was  blackberries in a glass, for me. Finally a gorgeous, honeyed orange with white-pepper 2007 Moscat from Emporda in the North-East adjoining the French border   

Loin of Veal
at Monvínic

As good as the wines are here's where it gets even more interesting.  A low-lit cosy bar opens out into a sparse glass-walled dining room. You can eat in either according to how you feel.  A Menu del dia of 3 courses for 20 Euros including mineral water and one glass of wine was on offer.  OK, so the day before we had eaten for 12 Euros, but this was in an altogether different league.

A bowl of Onion soup was presented with an egg gently poaching in the heat of the stock. A sweet/savoury and comforting introduction which we were glad we had both ordered.  Next, for me, Mediterranean Rockfish with Orzo pasta.  A dish which relied on exceptionally good fish stock, and this certainly came up to the mark.  A just-cooked prawn topped the dish off.  For N, a dish of tender and tasty Loin of veal with a lovely, sticky veal jus.  Pudding was a choice of Creme Caramel or a cream-filled choux pastry with candied fruits and pine nuts and a slick of sweet wine with a quenelle of goat's cheese ice cream alongside.

Choux pastry dessert
at Monvínic

You can spend a lot at Monvínic, if you're so inclined.  With a total of three glasses of moderately-priced wine, mineral water and coffee our lunch bill came to 52 Euros for a stunningly good lunch. With Sommeliers like Isabelle and Ramiro providing exactly the sort of service you want, this is definitely where I'll be heading next time I'm in Barcelona.

Monvínic
Diputació 249
08007 Barcelona
Tel: +34 932 726 187

UPDATE: Revisited March 2014: New chef.  Food easily as good as I remember.  Still offer this great value lunch - 3 courses for 22 Euros.

Tortilla Monvinic style
March 2014

Wild garlic leaves - Food Find

Last Saturday I spotted the first of the broad-leaved wild garlic at Tony Booth's Tayshaw arch at 60 Druid Street SE1 so I can reliably alert you to their availability this week.   Ramsons, Buckrams, Wood garlic or Bear's garlic, whatever you call it don't miss it over the next few weeks.  Wild Ramson, Allium ursinum, is a wild relative of chives.  If you go out foraging in deciduous woodland for it, be sure it is wild garlic by crushing the leaves to release the distinctive garlic scent.  They have an affinity with eggs and make a fantastic addition to soups but here's another simple way of enjoying wild garlic which I posted around this time last year.

Spa Terminus

Honey & Co London - Food from the Middle East

Honey & Co London
Cakes of the day

I had intended waiting until after I'd tried dinner at Honey & Co but one lunch and a breakfast has told me all I need to know.  This is more than just "food from the Middle East", it's nothing short of manna.

You could easily walk past this tiny little Fitzrovia cafe - at least you could if you happen to pass by before they've set out their window display.  Without that you'd be forgiven for thinking it's just another quick lunch place on a sidestreet off Tottenham Court Road.  I know I did.  Then one day I joined the ranks of the pavement stumblers, wide-eyed and disbelieving at the sheer beauty of it.  I was in.

I was going to say if you like Ottolenghi you'll like this, but actually it's quite different.  What it does have in common are its Middle Eastern roots and that owner Sarit Packer has worked at, amongst other places, Ottolenghi and Nopi.  Husband and co-owner, Itamar Srulovich, trained and worked in Tel Aviv.  Walk in and, along with the fantastic aromas of Middle Eastern spices and baking, you get an immediate warm welcome from Rachel and Holly, front-of-house.  You'll be fed well and with generosity.

Honey & Co London
Fitzrovia Buns

The breakfast menu is light on savoury dishes.  On our visit there was Ijje (a featherlight herb and feta frittata) served with plump kalamata olives, tomatoes and sour cream and two kinds of lahma (spiced lamb, tahini, pine nuts and one with Spinach, herb, egg).  Add to this a dish of yoghurt, fresh fruit and Ashura cereal, Milk bun with butter and jam, Blueberry and sour cream baked doughnuts and plate after plate of those aforementioned cakes. You will be spoilt for choice and I haven't yet mentioned the two we ordered.  If you try just one thing make it the Toasted fig, walnut and orange loaf served with butter and home-made marmalade. Rendered toffeed and chewy by the toasting, it is sensational.  If you can manage something else then I'd go for the Fitzrovia Bun.  Oh, yes - move over Chelsea Bun.  This version contains sour cherries and pistachios and has spoilt me forever for that doughy, sticky fruit bun.  One of each plus a slice of Ijje, a pot of tea and two coffees came in at a very reasonable £16 for breakfast for two, excluding tip.

A luncthime visit offered a Mezze plate for the table at £5 per person; Jerusalem style falafel with cinnamon and sesame seeds and a tahini sauce £6; Chopped chicken liver flavoured with cumin & lemon served with radish and milk bread £6; and Fennel salad, blood orange, olives and feta £6/£10.50.  For mains there were dishes such as Gundi sabzi (Persian chicken dumplings in herb broth £12.50; Ox cheek sofrito with quince served on white rice £13.50; and Siniya (roasted cauliflower, with a tahini topping, pistachios and pitta £12.50.

A large portion of Marinated violet aubergine, tahini and poached Legbar egg with crispy pitta £10.50 was fresh and moreish, and Creamy hummus topped with spiced lamb and pine nuts served with pitta bread £11.50 was beautifully spiced, of great texture and deeply comforting.  With a portion of stunning Chestnut cake with salted caramel sauce and vanilla cream and a gorgeous, moist Warm marzipan cake with spiced plums, one Orange & orange blossom water iced tea, a glass of red wine,  coffee and a bottomless teapot of rose and cinnamon tea the bill came to £46.50, excluding tip.

Oh, and they do takeaway too and have an ever-growing larder you can buy from.  I think you should realise by now I can't wait to go back.  In fact I'm already booked for dinner.

Honey & Co
25a Warren Street
W1T 5LZ
Tel: 020 7388 6175
Kitchen open all day Tues-Sat until 10.30pm
Closed Sunday
Monday closes 18.00
(You really need to book for lunch and dinner and at busy times it is a squeeze)

Fabrique Bakery - Food Find

Fabrique London

I’d almost given up hope of finding a really good baguette in London. You know the kind I mean; like the ones you take for granted in France, crusty outside, soft and springy inside.  Rather than a commercial yeast version, I prefer a pain au levain, or sourdough, to impart sweet, nutty notes to the bake.   These days, any number of bakeries in London are turning out decent sourdough loaves so it’s a puzzle why a good baguette eludes them.  Fortunately I've never given up looking and, finally, I’ve found that perfect pain au levain baguette, baked in the French style by Swedes - in East London.  Fabrique is a small bakery set-up in a railway arch next to Hoxton Station, just behind The Geffrye Museum.  After opening 7 bakeries in Stockholm in the past 5 years, this is Fabrique's first venture outside Sweden.  Now I have to say, I've been a little resistant to the charms of Nordic food.  An ill-advised purchase of a 'cinnamon bun', from an acclaimed bakery, resulted in an experience I can only liken to chewing on damp cardboard.  Fabrique, however, from my perspective, clearly know what they're about.  Not only do they bake superb cinnamon buns, but also delicious cardamom buns, a few tempting tray-bakes, biscuits and other fantastic-looking breads including a rye.  Sandwiches are available and there's a small cafe area in the bakery where they serve very good coffee specially blended in Sweden for them by Johan & Nyström.

Fabrique
Arch 385 Geffrye Street
Shoreditch
London E2 8HZ
(Closed Mondays)

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook
Recipes from a New York Kitchen
by Deb Perelman

Just as I sat down to write this review I noticed The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook had emerged as the runner-up in Food52's 'Tournament of Cookbooks' for the coveted Piglet trophy.  As the tournament winner is a hot, young, New York based, chef I think Deb Perelman can feel pretty pleased with herself.  She's not a chef but a self-taught home cook and photographer, with a typically small New York kitchen, who "just likes to cook". The vast number of followers who have posted over 150,000 comments to her award-winning blog clearly like the way she does it. 

Of course, just liking to cook isn't all there is to Perelman.  She has an obsession to get things right.  The recipes in this book come out of much tweaking and testing and putting herself in the place of her readers.  This is something that professional chefs can't always achieve.  The Smitten Kitchen blog is archived seasonally but, disappointingly, seasonality is something which doesn't come across in the book.  What does shine out is the warm personality of the cook and her gratitude to her blog readers.  She is in no doubt that their constant questions made her a better cook and led to this book.    

Not everything about the The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook appealed to me.  Some of the recipe methods felt overlong in the attempt to make everything clear.  It would be easy to get superior about the odd listing of powdered garlic and onion, which was like a slap in the face to someone who grows their own.  But the author does express a desire to provide recipes which call for easy to find or "unfussy" ingredients.  There's no preaching about how to shop and what to buy, apart from telling us she buys good meat and shops at farmers markets where possible.  Deb knows from experience the pressures on time and budget most of us face and is good on suggesting substitutions.

Pancetta, white bean and swiss chard pie
cooked from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Recipes which caught my eye ranged from a healthy Roasted baby root vegetables with sherry-shallot vinaigrette to a far less so Chocolate hazelnut crêpe cake.  So, what did I try?  First off, a pie. Pancetta, white bean and swiss chard in a creamy velouté topped with a very good flaky pie crust worked a treat.  Being encouraged to prepare the stew and crust ahead influenced my choice.  By the time I needed to serve up it was quick, impressive and satisfying. Definitely one to cook again.

Grapefruit olive oil pound cake
cooked from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook

Perelman's enthusiasm for the idea of using grapefruit in an olive oil pound cake was infectious.  The recipe worked perfectly and produced an impressive cake, though the texture was a little drier than I was expecting.  I felt the grapefruit flavour pretty much disappeared and personally I missed the expected zesty freshness, so next time I will try it with lemon.



The book is structured simply, starting with 'Breakfast' and ending in 'Party Snacks and Drinks' - the perfect day for a food lover.   The photography is pretty and untricksy. Perelman's writing style is natural and confident and you will feel in safe hands cooking from this book.  It's a very good book for anyone who needs a bit of hand-holding but not patronising.


Book courtesy of Square Peg (a Random House Group Company)

Poached spiced rhubarb

Poached spiced rhubarb
with yoghurt, honey and biscuit

We're well into the forced rhubarb season now so, if you haven't bought it yet, you'll need to get your skates on.  Very different from the later, unforced, crop which is better used in pies, crumbles and chutneys, it's well worth seeking out.  It is grown by candlelight, generating an atmospheric glow in the forcing shed.  You can force your own garden rhubarb by covering it with an upturned pot once it starts to bud - although don't try this two years in a row as you will stress the plant too much.  Once cut, the delicate pink stems will soften and droop in no time at all, so you can't hang about.  I've given you a couple of recipes in the past and, if you want to know more about rhubarb or to see the recipes, the links are below.  What you really need to know is the best way to poach it; then there are so many possibilities. Throughout January and February I make a weekly dish of poached rhubarb to pop in the fridge. It will happily  keep this way for up to a week and is perfect for creating a quick dessert when things get hectic.

Eating lunch in London tapas bar Barrafina this week, I was surprised, and frankly a little alarmed, to be offered a Spanish take on the English Rhubarb Crumble.  I very nearly skipped it but was glad I didn't. Layers of poached rhubarb and whipped cream were sandwiched elegantly, in a Martini glass, between crushed almond biscuit crumbs.  OK, so nothing radical there, but it was the spicing which sold me on the dish.  I sometimes poach my rhubarb with either vanilla sugar or pod.  Here they had used not only vanilla and cinnamon but there was a hint of clove too, and it really worked. So here's my way of poaching rhubarb with the addition of cloves.  Having recently learnt that cloves contain vanillin, it perhaps should have come as less of a surprise to me that cloves would be sympathetic.

I don't endorse products but, if you are using vanilla, I'd urge you to seek out the brand Ndali, especially as we are about to enter Fairtrade Fortnight (25 February-10 March).  The Ugandan Ndali cooperative produces exceptional quality vanilla and its principles deserve support.

Poached spiced rhubarb

1 kg pink forced rhubarb
175-200g caster sugar
Half a vanilla pod, split and seeds scraped out
1 whole clove
Juice of half an orange (optional)

Heat oven to 160C.  Wash and trim the rhubarb and cut into 1 inch/2cm lengths.  Place in an ovenproof dish.  Sprinkle over the sugar (and add orange juice if using).  Tuck the half vanilla pod and seeds and the whole clove in with the rhubarb.  Cover with greaseproof paper or foil and cook for about 40 minutes, stirring gently once.  Check after 40 minutes - the fruit should be soft, yet still holding its shape.  Remove from oven and, using a slotted spoon, gently place the rhubarb in a bowl.  Discard the clove. Wash the vanilla pod and leave to dry (once dry it can be added to a jar of sugar to make vanilla sugar).  Pour the juice into a small heavy-based pan, bring it to the boil then simmer until the juice is reduced by half.  Cool and stir the thickened juice gently into the fruit.  The compote will keep, covered, in the fridge for up to a week.


Links which might interest you:
Rhubarb Triangle & Rhubarb Mess
Rhubarb & Ginger Polenta Cake

What on earth are you eating?

Butcher's Recipe book

In response to the current horsemeat scandal Carlo Petrini, Slow Food President, asks  "How have we, as humanity, become so despicable that we can betray our brothers and sisters, jeopardize their health and neglect their rights, all for the sake of money."

Food adulteration is nothing new.  It is a universal truth that if there's money to be made from messing with food, someone will do it.  These days, rather than the opportunistic entrepreneur, we've come to expect big business to be stirring the processed food pot.

In London, adulterations reached a peak in the 19th century.  The rich kept their fine teas under lock and key but what the poor drank was sometimes laced with poisonous black lead or iron filings; coffee was often bulked with acorn or chicory; milk was thickened with potato starch and passed off as cream; pickles were greened with copperas (iron sulphate); boiled sweets were coloured with arsenic and mercury.   In the 1820's, the chemist Friedrich Accum published a Treatise on Adulteration of Food, highlighting the use of chemicals in food.  He made himself so unpopular amongst London food manufacturers that a lawsuit caused him to flee the country.

Chalk, Plaster of Paris and, it was said, bone ashes were used to bulk out bread flour.  The compound alum was added to the mix for its whitening action and to produce a more silky crumb.  It was said that the consumers' delight in 'white' bread encouraged the practice.  W Mattieu Williams in The Chemistry of Cooking, published in 1885, pointed out there were two guilty parties to alum use - the buyer who demands unnatural appearances and the manufacturer who supplies the demand.  The medical journal, The Lancet, horrified the public when in the 1850's it published test results on 49 samples of bread and found all to be in some way adulterated.  The Food Adulteration Acts of 1872 and 1875 finally outlawed bulking out, poisonous additives and short weights.  However, chalk made a legal return in 1942 to bolster calcium deficiencies in the wartime diet.

Today's horsemeat food scandal owes much to price-squeezing by supermarkets and long supply chains  but W. Mattieu's observation on buyers and sellers still rings true.  If we demand cheaper and cheaper unrecognisable processed food, maybe we shouldn't be surprised when it turns out not to be quite what we thought.  One report on the horsemeat situation this week suggested worst of all was the possible use of wild Romanian horses.  Well, given that they will have eaten a natural diet, if I was going to eat horse, then I would prefer wild pony to racehorse stuffed with "bute".  Maybe now we should be looking at the other adulterations we currently take for granted in the form of 'additives', 'improvers' and 'nutrients'.  Let's get back to teaching our children how to shop wisely and cook from scratch because the less we know about food the more we risk being duped by the unscrupulous "all for the sake of money".

Anna Koska - Food illustration comes alive

Crocus
by Anna Koska

I have a love-hate relationship with social media.  I hate it for robbing me of time, but love it for the chance meetings which enrich my life.  This post is about one of those serendipitous moments when you're glad you took the time to look.

A visit to my butcher led to a meeting with his supplier of top quality condiments and seasonings, which led to an illustration of a freshly pulled red onion.  Proof that one good thing leads to another.  Every part of the illustration was brilliantly observed, from the yellow/orange/pink/red/purple hues of the bulb to the papery skin and traces of soil clinging to its fine roots. This was the entrancing calling card, left a few minutes earlier, by Anna Koska.

I had to see more of this.  Back home I browsed the website and was blown away.  Illustrator Anna is entirely self-taught.  Her illustrations put life onto the canvas.  A luscious purple fig drips juice enticingly.  You imagine a shimmering Mackerel could, with one swish of its tail, swim out of the picture.

Arriving home yesterday I gathered up the usual handful of junk mail and bills from the doormat.  Snuggled amongst them was a surprise.  A small envelope addressed in an elegant hand.  The contents are reproduced above and I'm thrilled to have my very own, original, Anna Koska illustration.

I plan to bring you more of Anna, but in the meantime, I hope I've inspired you to look for yourself at
Anna Koska Illustration