The Taste of Summer 2014

Now I love wine in a happy non-co-dependent way but there is something about a gin and tonic which makes me smile (and occasionally grin like a fool but that takes more than one). 

That first bubbly sip with a hint of lemon and the sharp tang of good gin is pretty much as good as a back massage so I was delighted to be invited to join Chivas Brothers – the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard – to sample their take on Summer 2014!

I arrived at Hixter in Devonshire Square (the latest in Mark Hix excellent invasion of the UK restaurant scene) at 6:15 to see a few other bloggers, glamorous PRs and Global Brand Ambassadors for Chivas, Beefeaters and Ballantine’s chatting.  Global Brand Ambassador for a drinks brand?  Not sure if this is discussed at school career days but wow, what a job!

Devonshire Square is a former warehouse that with the addition of a glass roof is a calm oasis in the frenetic Liverpool Street Area and while I would have loved to show you a photo, I was warned off by a security guard as ‘this is private property’.  The proliferation of restaurants and a Planet Organic rammed with people did not seem to change his mind - #logicbypass.

The evening started with Max Warner talking you through the 'Escocia' which is a glorious cocktail (inspired by Scotland and the Spanish summer) with Chivas and Manzanilla Sherry mixed with white grape juice, pear essence, apricot essence and Lemon Tincture. 

Admittedly, this cocktail does take a little preparation as the recipe contains the words ‘sous vide’ but it does produce a dreamy indulgent grown up drink which allows the Chivas to come through without being overpowering.   The suggestion is to pair this with smoked salmon and crème fraiche but I might suggest that other strong slightly oily fish like mackerel and eel might be good too.

As we continued to sip our cocktails, Tim Stones (@Ginisawsome) steered us towards my first love (gin) introducing the infinitely easier 'Apple of my Eye'.  This drink combines apple with fresh lemon juice, thyme and a drop of saline solution to produce an all too quaffable slightly tart cocktail – lethal in the wrong hands I would imagine.

The suggestion was to pair this with beetroot galettes with goat's curd and hazelnuts.  Being a little lactose intolerant (and not a great fan of goats anything), I skipped this but think that perhaps a beetroot and caramelised onion tartlet might be nice?

Finally, we arrived at Ballantine's Cobbler which mixes whisky, port, raspberry and cherry to create a fruity summer cocktail with a very adult kick mixed by Fredrik Olsson (@freddieolsson). Sprinkled with berrys and mint it was served with some seriously good sirloin steak sliders with scrumpy fried onions.

And thus the evening drew to a close and I pondered whether I might make any of these cocktails at home for friends.  

My answer is perhaps most reminiscent of goldilocks - the Escocia is a little too complex (and no one wants to arrive to find their host crying in a corner muttering sous vide), the Apple of my eye is little too simple but the Ballantines's Cobbler is just right.

Yes, a little whisky and a little port with a sprinkling of berries is just what my next party needs

L xx

Don't forget to follow me on twitter @littleofwhatyou

A hat trick of Cocktails to Celebrate Summer 2014

Escocia

• 130ml Chiveas 12 infused with Raisins (300ml/50g sous vide at 45 degrees)
• 130ml Manzanilla sherry
• 193ml fresh white grape juice
• 130ml Pear essence (1:1.5 fresh pear/water sous vide at 45 degrees)
• 85ml Apricot essence (1:4 apricot jam/water sous vide at 45 degrees)
• 45ml Lemon Tincture (1:10 Fresh Lemon Peel/water sous vide at 45 degrees)
• 45ml Citric acid solution
• Lemon and orange oils from zest

Add all ingredients together, except for the sherry and charge these with CO2.  Serve immediately or seal into a Champagne Bottle.  Add Sherry to serve.

Apple of my Eye

• 50ml green apple inflused Beefeater Dry
• 15ml fresh lemon juice
• 15ml lemon thyme syrup
• 4 drops of 2:1 saline solution

Shake and strain into a small coupette glass

Ballantines Cobbler

• 50ml Ballantines Finest
• 15ml Ruby Tawny Port
• 3 bar spoons maraschino cherry syrup
• Dash of sugar syrup
• 15ml raspberry puree
• Berries to decorate
• Mint for decoration

Lightly shake and strain into a hurricane glass filled with minted crushed ice. Load up the glass with berries and a sprig of mint.

Thanks to the lovely people at Chivas Brothers for the recipes!

Bumpkin - Alice in Wonderland Inspired by the Seasons

I admit it, I do occasionally judge a book by its cover!  Yes, I tend to assume that Hugo Carbine-Smyth probably went to a nice university – may live South of the River – could even go home to his parents in their country pile.  Therefore, when I was invited to a blogger event at  Bumpkin 

in Chelsea – I wondered if I was wandering into a twee overprice haven for the terminally privileged.   However, I can say not only was I pleasantly surprised but pretty blown away with not only the food but also the staff (how lovely is Katia? – hope I spelt that right)

I arrived having trotted quickly through Chelsea (only getting marginally lost, due to my sense of direction which resembles a slightly dyslexic lemming) and found a restaurant which I can only describe as designed by Alice in Wonderland.  Grass inside, an adorable Gnome on the table and little glasses of Pimms which did everything but come with a dormouse and a label that said drink me.   With my events hat on, I could definitely see an afternoon tea for a select group of ladies with a few glasses of bubbles.  Maybe a haven from the football?

The Blogger event was hosted by Square Meal (which I must admit I do have a bit of a Foodie-career crush on) and we were introduced to the team as well as the Bumpkin crew.  We were then served a selection of healthy juices - I would imagine to offset the good food that was on the horizon.

Then they bravely unleashed us bloggers on the menu.  I was seated next to the delightful @gffoodie who deemed the menu good from a gluten-free perspective (they even do gluten free muffins at breakfast) and then began the debate over what to order.   Bumpkin prides itself on providing access to tasty seasonal food so I decided to go with the flow and start with Asparagus, Slow Poached Egg and Truffle although the retro crayfish cocktail looked really rather fun.

Despite a moment of food envy when I saw the Dressed Cornish crab, Avruga caviar on toast that someone else had ordered, I was utterly delighted with my choice.  The egg was perfectly poached (a feat I’ve never managed) the asparagus did credit to the season and the incredibly clever person in the kitchen had done dehydrated Tomato Skins which are probably a horrible faff but really tasty.

Katia helped us pair wine to each course and even managed to find a Chardonnay I was prepared to drink as I looked at the menu.  


Did I want the veal chop?  The Rib eye or the Short Beef Rib?    I could even have a burger or fish and chips if I was feeling retro but  I chose monk-fish and mussels in a light curry cream sauce.  I don’t often eat monk fish but as we discussed house prices and weddings (#middleclassmoments) I fancied wandering off my well-beaten track.  

The fish was perfectly cooked and the curry cream sauce light (and pretty good with one of the triple cooked chips I had nicked off someone’s portion).  The mussels were lovely but the unidentified (I think it was a piece of sweet potato) was really rather salty.  Honestly, leave it off, it’s pretty good with just the samphire to rest on.

Then came the dessert debate – I caved and chose bitter chocolate tart with honeycomb and salted caramel mousse.   Well, that was sin on a plate.  Not the type of sin, you can get away with saying a few Hail Marys to deal with, no proper decadent sin.  Although I thought the honeycomb was a little burnt but apparently when combined with the chocolate tart, it worked perfectly.  I was too busy enjoying the tart to try.

The evening finished with a glass of desert wine and quick trot back to South Kensington – avoiding the pissed and privileged.  So, would I visit again?  Would I take friends?  Would I recommend Bumpkin?  Yes, Yes and Yes – the food and atmosphere is lovely and I can’t wait to visit Alice’s boudoir again – even if I have to pay this time!

Lxx

Don’t forget to follow me on twitter @littleofwhatyou

Pasta Making - Not as hard as I though!

So after a hysterically busy week, what is the best possible way to relax?  Obviously, learn how to make pasta? I must admit as I crawled out of the loving embrace of my bed to catch a train to Liverpool Street, I was a little cranky.

This was not helped as I had to fight through the trendsters of Shoreditch to reach Hoxton Street and the Open Kitchen and the London City Hospitality Centre.  They regularly offer cooking courses and have a proper teaching kitchen (full on stainless steel) on the top floor which we used to learn from a lovely Spanish instructor (Antonio).

Antonio began by explaining that essentially with pasta, you have 100g of pasta flour per large egg then 2/3 teaspoon of oil.    We doubled this quantity and produced enough pasta for 8 people for a starter.   So how did this work?

Basically put the egg, flour and oil into a bowl and mix until it starts to form dough.  Then tip it out onto the side and knead for about 10 minutes.  Mine when a little dry so I wet my hand and then kept kneading.  As Antonio pointed out, if you do this in little bits, you won’t overdo it.

The dough then needs to rest for the minimum of an hour up to 24-hours, the longer it rests, the better it seems.  We cut this into two balls.  Using one, we were then let loose on the pasta machines, starting on setting number one and moving up to seven.   When we ran the pasta through the machine for the first two times, we were told to fold it over and then run it over again.

When we had hit about 3 - to produce tri-colour pasta, Antonio had made some dough with spinach powder and some with beetroot powder.  We were each given a little ball and instructed to make this into sausages and then overlay this on the pasta when we had started to flatten.

We kept flattening the pasta and then moved on to Tagliatelle as well as ravioli and tortellini.  Tagliatelli essentially involves running one of the sheets of pasta through the cutting setting on the machine and then hanging it up to dry. 

Tortellini is a little more difficult!  Essentially, you cut the pasta into smallish squares, you then pop a dab of the mixture (we had spinach and ricotta) in the centre and then wet the edges of the pasta.  You then fold the square into a triangle and make sure that the edges have stuck together.  You then twist the pasta around your finger and stick the edges together and flip the top over.  This is incredibly hard to describe so look at this photo to get a better idea.

With the ravioli, you mark out the circles – without actually cutting through – on one sheet and then dap a little of the mixture into the middle of these. Dab water around each of the circles. Pop the second sheet on top of the first and carefully push down around the filling to get rid of the air before you cut out each ravioli.

I was feeling very pleased with myself, I had made pasta – woo hoo!  Antonio produced a glorious tomato, basil, garlic, chilli and parmesan sauce to try with his efforts.  Needless to say it was delicious.  Would I recommend learning to make pasta?  Completely and if in London, I would definitely recommend the Open Kitchen.

L xx

Don't forget to follow me on Twitter @littleofwhatyou