Another visit to Jamie's Italian

Yet again my husband was away for my birthday and yet again my sister filled the void. My number 2 son had found out that if you own a Blue Badge you can park at Westfield from Monday-Friday for free. This was news to me but then I hadn't gone into the deeper recesses of the Westfield website. The parking charges are about the only thing I don't like about the shopping centre. We had to park in an area I didn't really know (and I wasn't sure we'd ever find that car again) and on departure surrender the parking ticket plus the Blue Badge for intricate inspection. I am pleased to say I passed the test. But I digress. Entering the shopping centre from an unfamiliar escalator I was delighted to see a great array of Boris bikes and the great man himself giving press interviews. I didn't listen in (although I took a couple of pictures) but I imagine they must be extending the zones in which these bikes can be used. My friend Daniel, a keen cyclist, reckons they are great bikes to ride. I have my doubts as they look so clunky. But hey, what do I know? (Other than I'd be far too scared of the London traffic to even consider riding one).

And so to Jamie's. And it was another wonderful meal. From previous experience I have learned that I cannot manage 3 of Jamie's filling courses so we began with some nibbles. I ordered Mushroom fritti which was absolutely splendid, large mushrooms cut into chips with the exact same garlicky/parsley combination  that Jamie's funky chips have. And wondrous alioli. Delish!

Anne chose the rather more worthy (although deep-fried) Ravioli nachos, a nice idea but there wasn't enough of the spicy sauce to hide the blandness of the pasta.

Now, in my short experience of dining at Jamie's, I have always found it worth having a good look at the day's Specials.

I went for the plaice, Anne chose the previously happy chicken. The plaice was absolutely superb, probably the best piece of fish I've eaten this year. The sauce was just fab. Anne liked her chicken but the next day lunching with me she said that actually it was a bit too salty and she preferred the chicken recipe I had just cooked for her. We shared a tub of funky chips. It would have been rude not to.

The puddings were a triumph.

I am so glad I had the Tuscan Eat & Mess. It was fabulous. Tangy, slightly sharp but creamy and sweet all at the same time. Really, really good.  Anne selected her usual Tiramisu because she is addicted to it.

We shared a bottle of Merlot although as Anne was driving  I had the lion's share.  The bill came to just under £60.  I must also mention the very charming waitress who told us that Jamie does pop in from time to time but that as he is opening another 7 branches he is quite a busy man. But we knew that! Busier than Boris I suspect.

Jamie's Mustard Chicken with Dauphinoise potatoes

The OH has hotfooted it out of here for a week which means that in real terms I can eat exactly what I want. The problem is that my cooking mojo seems to have gone off to Derbyshire with him! I have been trying to make this chicken dish for the last week but things, mainly school-related, keep getting in the way.

Having made it before, I can report that it is easy, tasty but definitely an Olympic event trying to complete it in 30 minutes. (And I didn't do the greens or the affogato). But hey, Jamie is a youngish man and I am an old granny . . . !

I didn't tweak the recipe at all and this time it wasn't quite as mustardy as I would have liked. One of my offspring thought it was a bit bland. Well there you go, last time I made it I nearly had my head blown off.

Jamie's way of cooking chicken breasts is easy, fuss-free and thorough. I like it! Am not really sure though that if you had even sized chicken breasts you would need to chop them into bite-sized pieces. Mine were very lopsided (much like my own) and it was a necessity.

It did all look a bit insipid once chopped up as you can see. I think next time I would stir in more wholegrain mustard than he suggests as well as coating the breasts a little more thoroughly.

The Dauphinoise was a bit bland too. My fault. I couldn't be bothered to start it off in a pan and shoved the whole lot in the oven. It definitely needed more time and it needed more salt. I could have forgotten to put salt in for all I know.

So. Have made the recipe for the dreaded "second time" which, in my experience, is usually a bit doomed. But I think it will become a staple in this house because everybody enjoyed it so much first-time round.

Off to Jamie's Italian for my Official Birthday lunch tomorrow. Can't wait!

Hotslaw

Once again I find there has been a long gap since my last effort. The pressures at work have been unspeakably vile, I have been sleeping atrociously and seem to be functioning on a half empty brain.  Unlike some writers, probably most, I don't feel like writing when I am unhappy. And I don't much feel like cooking either. Add to that mix the fact that food costs have risen in a quite dramatic way and so I can't experiment as freely as I would like.

But yesterday Philippa had a barbecue for her friends to celebrate her 25th birthday which is tomorrow. This is an expensive time in the Lark household. My birthday follows Phil's - July 25th, then it's Taylor's on the 28th and Josh's on the 30th. But I digress.

I offered to do the puddings which, by request, were the usual suspects. And I said I would make a couple of salads because I have been itching to try Diana Henry's Hotslaw since reading the recipe in the Daily Telegraph some weeks back. Let me tell you this. It is sensational. I was bombarded with requests for the recipe and the guests were baying for more.



The one criticism came from my chilli-loving son-in-law who said it wasn't hot enough, so next time I will up the chillies and tabasco sauce.

A Grand Day Out

Way back at the beginning of 2011 Liz and I promised ourselves a visit to Tate Britain and it's much lauded Watercolours Exhibition, so yesterday we had a day out. The Metropolitan Line was running for the first weekend in weeks (apparently Take That were playing Wembley so that may have been the reason) and it was also The Queen's official birthday and therefore Trooping the Colour was taking place.

The exhibition was gentle, interesting and educational. We couldn't have asked for more. The highlight for me was a particularly stunning picture by Charles Rennie Mackintosh called Fetges. When I win the lottery I shall try and buy it. I was less impressed by the squiggles of many of the later artists and felt I could do as well. So there Tracy Emin!

We tried to take a bus to Trafalgar Square as we were lunching at Les Deux Salons just behind the National Portrait Gallery but because of Trooping the Colour the buses were all on diversion so we ended up walking from the Embankment. I knew the fly-past would be at 1 and so we took our places in the Square and waited. Sure enough an aerial procession of chinooks, the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and many others, culminating in the magnificent Red Arrows, flew directly over us. It was just wonderful.

And then it was lunchtime and my second visit to Les Deux Salons, having been there with Foodycat earlier this year. It seemed like Liz's kind of place.  I had booked but the brasserie was very quiet although our waitress did say that a party of 10 had cancelled and that they were full for the evening. (I worry about this kind of thing - fantastic eateries disappearing because of the recession etc.).

I began with Cornish crab, green mango, chilli, lime and ginger. It looked extremely pretty but I reckon the chef had been a bit heavy-handed with the ginger. I couldn't taste the mango at all and, given recent publicity, it had beansprouts in it which was a bit scary! (I am still here 24 hours later so I think I survived e-coli).

Liz chose a Broad bean and goat cheese salad and felt that the cheese wasn't quite punchy enough. Some of the beans had been skinned, some hadn't. That met with approval.

I then opted for Sea bass with seashore vegetables, fennel, lemon and crushed potato. The fish was fantastic but seaweed (which is basically what it was) was downright unpleasant. Samphire would have been nice. There is salty and then there is salt-enhanced.

The star of the entire meal however was the Special of the Day. It was Slow-cooked breast of lamb carefully interspersed with slices of potato to make a boulangere. It also came with sweetbreads. Liz pronounced it the best thing she had eaten for ages. She also thought it had been very cleverly, even mathematically assembled. It looked like a meat and potato lasagne. Very, very good.

I had chosen the pudding I was going to have even before I chose my starter, and it was to die for. Iced peanut butter parfait with roast banana. I need the recipe because it was just perfect. Not too sickly, which it easily could have been, and set off nicely with a large wodge of praline.

Liz, who has a whey allergy, was slightly disappointed that all of the desserts on offer yesterday contained cream but, in the interests of research, she chose a Raspberry and rosewater macaroon with me agreeing to eat any cream that might adorn it. Again it was really pretty. And again it was very tasty. Liz went home vowing to find out how to make macaroons.

(And yes. I ate the cream in the middle).

We shared a bottle of Temperanillo. The bill including service came in at just over £100. We both felt it was worth it and Liz is going back in a couple of weeks with some other foodie friends.

All in all a grand day out Grommit.

Tapas Revolution

I am ashamed to say that it is over a month since my last offering here. I can only plead pressure of schoolwork. The Summer Term throws up a lot of extremely dull tasks such as report-writing, and I don't get out much!

And so it was a treat to allow myself out for a meal at Westfield with Foodycat and Sue.

Tapas Revolution sits right in the middle of the first floor of the main concourse at Westfield in possibly the most unaesthetically attractive situation I have dined at for a long time. Our bar seats afforded us an excellent view of some of the more recognisable chainstores but nevertheless John Lanchester of The Guardian had rated it very highly (although his comments re the awfulness of dining anywhere else at Westfield were undeserved). Jamie's Italian and Wahaca to name but two are more than decent eateries, and there isn't a McDonalds or KFC on site.

It was a very, very good meal. The boquerones were delicious, the pan con tomate a wonderful base, and the pig cheeks in sherry completely divine. I must certainly learn to make those - Morrision's are now competing with Waitrose in the pig cheeks stakes! The charcuteries was also top-class. I decided however that I was bored with patatas bravas - but that is possibly because it is the only tapas dish that I regularly make myself.

We finished with churros. Very tasty although their chocolate sauce IMHO didn't exceed the very special one you get at Wahaca.

But for me the unexpected highlight was a dish of Manchego cheese with Membrillo which I thought was just the perfect way to finish a meal. And I know that I will never get Membrillo like that round here. It was just lovely and matched the cheese beautifully.

The bill for 3 came in at £77. It included a bottle of very smooth Temperanillo.

I will definitely be back.  And I need to bag some quinces when they are around and have a go at Membrillo.

Pannacotta

I guess this post should really be titled "MummyLark loses her fear of leaf gelatine" for, in truth that's what it's all about.

In my young mother days I was just as scared of the granule variety having had several disasters - a particularly memorable one being when I turned out a jelly which turned to liquid and escaped over the edge of the worktop onto the then dog. However once I decided that less heat and patient stirring was the answer I became Queen of the packet variety. But I have shied away from the leaf stuff, partly because it looked difficult and well partly because it looked a tad unlikely.

No more. I adore pannacotta and it is so trendy that I would be losing my culinary nerve if I didn't experiment. I followed this recipe for Vanilla Pannacotta from Simon Rimmer whose work I have always found accurate, reliable and tasty.

The only problem I encountered was that I had 3 packets of leaf gelatine in the cupboard all purporting to set different amounts of liquid. I chose the one that was endorsed by Saint Delia, using 4 sheets (they were small) rather than Simon's 2. And Tesco Express only had blackberries so they replaced the suggested raspberries.

The result was a perfect wobbly set.  I didn't feel it was sweet enough - I shall add more sugar next time. And there will be lots of next times.

Why was I so worried? I shall have to try Choux pastry next, my other phobia.

Lunch at Bocca di Lupo

It is the school Easter holidays and therefore time for a treat. My chum Liz will be retiring as a Deputy Headteacher at Christmas so we need to get her into the swing of lots of culture and lots of good food. And so it was that yesterday we headed off to the National Gallery to see an exhibition of work by the Flemish artist Jan Gossaert. Suitably edified we then walked to Archer Street in Soho where I had booked lunch at Bocca di Lupo. This was my second visit. The first had impressed me with the food but it had been crowded and we had dined at the bar, not good for an aged lady with back problems. On my recommendation Liz had taken a GP friend there last October and was smitten. This time I was smitten too! The restaurant had phoned to confirm the booking the previous day and I had explained that we were going to the National Gallery first and would be with them by 2. In fact the exhibition was small and had not taken as long as predicted so we arrived an hour early expecting to be turned away. But no. The greetings girl remembered me, asked how the gallery was and said that of course we could have our table now. As we were shown in I recognised Jay Rayner sitting opposite. Mr Rayner is a very good and knowledgeable food writer come restaurant reviewer so this was auspicious. Liz and I shared the smaller plates throughout other than dessert. Our starters were Shaved radish, celeriac and pecorino salad with truffle oil and pomegranate, and Lamb prosciutto with broad beans and, also pecorino. Having had some disgusting air-dried lamb at Borough Market once I was wary of the prosciutto but it was amazing. Really tasty and just the right texture. The pecorino worked so well with it too. I think I was a bit underwhelmed by peeling my own broad beans but maybe that's just me. We drank a lovely chilled Pinot Bianco. I'd had the radish and celeriac salad on my previous visit and it was just as beautiful as I remembered it. Liz is not a massive bread eater but she was scraping up every last drop of the dressing - naturally with the onion focaccia that came with our pre-lunch G&T's.

Our mains were both absolutely terrific but the prize (just) went to the Fried soft-shell crab with blood orange and Lamb's lettuce. So heavenly that we nearly ordered another plate. However the second dish of Scallops with wild garlic was also brilliantly put together and, with our side dish of (more) broad beans, rocket, lemon and mint was both filling and satisfying. (At this point Liz informed me that Jay Rayner was also eating the radish/celeriac salad and the crab).

Liz finished with a 4 sorbet ice cream which she pronounced "wonderful except for the bergamot". I went for the very fattening Rum baba with strawberries and cream which was drop-dead gorgeous.

It truly was a memorable lunch and I will back. The bill which included service was £101. Not cheap but this is London and we were on a splurge.

Fantastic. Our next venture is in the Summer holidays to The Waterside Inn in Bray. If we can book it.