Afternoon Tease

18/05/2010 · 8:12 pm

Reacquainting myself with an old friend

Last Thursday I was running early (as usual) for a Businesslink course in London Bridge, the perfect opportunity to reacquaint myself with my old friend Monmouth Coffee.

I used to be a pretty frequent Saturday visitor to Borough Market when I lived South of the river but since I defected oop North visits have been few and far between. Now, for those of you who have not been educated in the delights of Monmouth, it is, in my opinion one of the best coffee’s you can get your hands on in London. Their coffee menu is simple and unfussy – I highly recommend their flat white but on this occasion I decided to go for a filter coffee. I really like the look of the racks and rows of filters lined up on the counter and I love the fact that you can’t rush a filter coffee – the water takes it’s own sweet time to drip through taking the most delicious coffee with it –

The wait is always worth it at Monmouth –

The perk of being in Borough Market on a Thursday was that it was relatively quiet and I had the chance to wander around and see what was new since my last visit. I was drawn to a little stall owned by The Cinnamon Tree Bakery

and especially to their Pecan and Orange Shortbread (a light and flaky shortbread with fresh orange zest and a sweet pecan and orange crust)

After much deliberation I decided to try a Tweet Tweet Cookie (Pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds, raisins, dates, tahini and malt extract), which was divine! It was chock-full of wholesome ingredients and still managed to be the most delicious cookie with a very satisfying, not too syrupy, not too crumbly texture. Just what I needed to help me through 4 hours of lectures on starting a business 🙂

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12/05/2010 · 8:28 pm

The poshest arctic roll I’ve ever eaten

Yesterday, found Kim and I, courtesy of Toptable, on another of our monthly fine dining experiences. I was very excited to be visiting the Grill at the Dorchester as it’s a bit of a London institution. The actual restaurant is a funny old place though. It’s a riot of gold bling, tartan fabric, red velvet sofas, vast vases of deep red roses and to top it off the walls are painted with murals of angry looking, windswept, intimidating scotsmen and women.

I’d done my homework and read some reviews, which helpfully warned us not to be tempted by the champagne trolley that they wheel around to tempt you with before your meal and there was also a recommendation to opt for the 3 course set menu as opposed to 2 as it comes with quite a few extras. Oh boy were we in for a treat….

First off we were served a platter of speciality breads and rolls including stilton (mmmmm), multi-seed and rye and an amuse bouche of smoked salmon with a pea foam –

The starters all sounded so good that we ordered 2 out of the 3 on the menu and went halves on the english asparagus topped with a poached pheasant egg and hollandaise sauce –

and the roasted mackerel on toast with a quenelle of crab mousse, topped with pea shoots –

We both decided on the rump of lamb with a basil and garlic risotto. It came with kidneys, which I made myself try thinking that my tastes may have grown up but….no I still don’t like them! and an unidentified meat dish, which we think was duck but texture wise can only liken to pulled pork – I’m not doing it justice in my description but it was extremely rich and tasty. I just wish I’d noted the description off the menu as it’s annoying me now that I don’t know what it was. It will remain a mystery for all time.

The lamb was cooked to perfection and accompanied by a lovely glass of Baron Philip de Rothschild Mouton Cadet “Origin” Pauillac 2006.

As if that wasn’t enough, we were presented with a pre-desert of (posh) arctic roll topped with strawberries and jelly. Who’d have thought we’d be served jelly and ice cream at the Dorchester – I’m such a pleb that I have to admit, it was actually my favourite part of the meal 🙂

The waiter wasn’t much use in helping us decode the desert menu but all was forgiven when he brought me out the sabayon parfait, a delicious, extremely light, frozen custard –

and a banana financier served with praline and ice cream for Kim –

By this point we were fit to burst but still managed to put away some home made petit fours – it’d be rude not to wouldn’t it??

And the best bit…..we only paid £33 for all of the above including service! God bless Toptable!

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09/05/2010 · 7:18 pm

Use your loaf

My favourite way to while away a lazy Sunday afternoon is, surprise surprise, with a spot of baking. I realised that due to my housemate’s dislike for lemon/orange peel I had been neglecting cakes with these ingredients and thought it was high time that I built them back into my repertoire. So I set about trawling the interweb to find a good recipe and found an Observer article written by Nigel Slater called Crumbs of Comfort. I love his writing style and the fact that he is such an obviously, passionate foodie. A few years ago I read his book, Toast, which is the story of his ‘childhood and adolescence told through food’ and is a very good read.

I decided to try out his Lemon Loaf Cake described as ‘A truly moist cake scented with lemon and almond, with a thin, sweet-sharp icing’. Sounded good to me!

The recipe lacked any raising agents so what came out of the oven was a dense, compact loaf and I was a bit worried that it would be too stodgy but good old Nige set my mind at rest by saying that as a ‘general rule, the taller the cake the less good it is to eat. As usual less is more.’ While the cake was still hot and fresh out of the oven the recipe tells you to prick some holes in it and squeeze over the juice of half a lemon, which made a satisfying sizzling sound and an amazing smell! I had to exercise some patience and wait for it to cool before icing with an icing sugar and lemon juice paste.

But it was definitely worth the wait….

It was amazingly moist. The lemon and almond flavours, which go so well together, were delicate but still shone through the buttery goodness of the cake. In fact it was so good that I even managed to tempt my lemon hating housemate into trying a slice and…she’s a convert! That’s what I call a result.

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09/05/2010 · 1:19 pm

Steak for breakfast?

What best to sort you out the morning after a rather big night out…..steak for breakfast of course! Well that’s what me and my friend Owen were hoping as we headed up to Garufa in Highbury Park this morning. Last week I read a good review on The London Review of Breakfasts blog about it and I’m always up for trying something new especially if it’s delicious. I nearly had second thoughts when Owen told me he likes his steak blue, the thought of sitting opposite a plateful of blood nearly made sent me into relapse but I decided to risk it anyway.

I don’t like the idea of writing a negative blog entry as it kind of goes against what ‘The Afternoon Tease’ is about and I don’t want to become one of those wannabe critics but….we were really disappointed with our ‘Full Argentine Breakfast’ It was billed as ‘Scrambled eggs, portabello mushroom, 150g Argentine rump steak, Argentine style sausage, grilled tomato and toast’ sounds yummy right? wrong 😦

On a more positive note I can report that the atmosphere was lovely with a good selection of newspapers/ magazines for brunchtime perusal, I was also very happy with my macchiato and the staff were friendly but sometimes that’s just not enough.

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Gallery

I have developed a bit of a weekend ritual…an often hungover trip to the gym is rewarded by a fresh, very strong coffee prepared in my own little stove top espresso maker, finished off with a healthy dose of milk and a spoonful of dark brown muscovado sugar for that special treacley taste mmmmmm…

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08/05/2010 · 2:55 pm

08/05/2010 · 2:14 pm

Left to the fate of the London Buses….

This week my Friday treat coffee venue was decided by which bus arrived at the bus stop first. Kind of like a cafe lottery. The number 19 goes right near Exmouth Market, which would have meant yet another trip to Caravan or the number 4 goes down Goswell Road and stops right near Goswell Road Coffee, which I hate to admit, is part of a chain, thankfully not of the St&*%£$ks variety but with 2 more shops on Bermondsey Street and Brick Lane. The coffee is good but for me the thing that keeps bringing me back here is the feel of the place….I love it.

It has loads of big sofas, good music, a notice board advertising yoga classes, rooms to rent, ironing services, giving it a community feel and some pretty darn funky features like lamp shades made out of milk cartons…

coffee paraphenalia holders made out lego…

and a very cool mural that takes over a whole wall…

Unfortunately I only had time to grab a take away white americano but the sofas were calling out to me to be lounged on and the huge pile of magazines/ newspapers just begged to be perused……they’ll just have to wait for another day when work isn’t on the agenda. 😦

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03/05/2010 · 10:35 am

Mental Cupcakes

I love the excuse to bake birthday goodies and with two friends celebrating this weekend I was in my element! I was a bit short on time and as I needed to produce enough for 2 people I decided to do a big batch of cupcakes as they are so quick and easy. I use the vanilla cupcake recipe from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook. It sounds quite simple and boring right?? but you’d be surprised how much simple cupcake recipes can vary….this one ALWAYS produces moist, delicious cupcakes. Now that I know this recipe is a dead cert I can have lots of fun with colouring….

I have christened these creations my ‘Mental Cupcakes’ – red (vanilla) cupcakes with black (chocolate) butter icing and just because I didn’t think they were quite gaudy enough I topped them with edible gold stars 🙂

And this is what you see when you crack open these bad boys……

Here’s the recipe for you…

Vanilla Cupcakes

120g plain flour

140g caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

a pinch of salt

40g unsalted butter

120ml milk

1 egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

The Hummingbird bakery say that this recipe makes 12 but when I use the standard cupcake cases sold in all good supermarkets I can only get about 10 out of this recipe.

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a bowl and beat on a slow speed with an electric hand whick until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is incorporated.

Whisk the egg, vanilla and left over milk together and then pour into the flour mixture. Continue beating until all incorporated but don’t over mix! At this stage I added some concentrated food colouring from Lakeland as it doesn’t water the mixture down and you don’t need to use too much to get a vivid colour.

Spoon the mixture into the cupcake cases until two thirds full and bake for 20-25 mins (I usually only do 20 as I like them good and moist). They should be golden brown and spring back when touched. If you’re in doubt, insert a sharp knife or skewer into the middle of one and it should come out clean.

Leave to cool before decorating.

Chocolate Butter Frosting

300g icing sugar

100g unsalted butter

40g cocoa powder

40ml milk

Beat the icing sugar, butter and cocoa powder in a bowl with an electric hand whisk at a slow speed. I always get in a huge mess at this stage and am saving up for a freestanding electric mixer like this KitchenAid beauty which comes with a shield so that my kitchen won’t get liberally sprinkled with icing sugar dust every time I bake :).

Add the milk a little bit at a time. Once it has all been added and mixed in, turn the blender up to a high speed and continue beating until light and fluffy. Apparently the longer you beat it for the fluffier and lighter it becomes.

If you want black butter icing it’s best to start with a chocolate base so that less food colouring is needed to get a deep colour.

I use an icing bag with a large plastic nozzle as I love the over the top cupcake look!

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30/04/2010 · 10:45 am

I like my men like I like my coffee

Today’s Caravan coffee was a Bolivian Finca Irupana and as always…..was amazing! It was strong, full bodied and fruity, with a chocolaty, creamy aftertaste. I’m 3 weeks and 3 stamps on my loyalty card into my Caravan addiction and it’s just getting stronger and stronger. I may have to enforce a ban for a few weeks just so I’m forced to continue my hunt for other good coffee establishments….or maybe not! After all there are 6 more days in the week but Friday’s are reserved for Caravan!

As I was walking back down Exmouth market on my way to work the chorus of ‘coffee by supersister’ popped into my head (hence the title of this post) and annoyingly has been lodged there ever since. I realised after it had gone round and round my head on repeat a few times that I only knew the chorus so I googled the lyrics and they really brightened my morning. Read on and I dare you not to crack a smile…..

You ask a question, "Can I come in for coffee?"
I thought this could never be.
I thought for a minute, then smiled for a second,
Coz you're just my cup of tea.

The coffee was steamin', and I, I was dreamin'
You'd take me to boiling point.
Your lips started kissin', my heart started missin'
We damn nearly wrecked the joint.

Like a dream you held my body tight. (you held my body tight)
Like caffine you kept me up all night.

I like my men like I like my coffee,
Hot, strong and sweet like toffee.
Oh, so you know that I can't let you go.

I like my men like I like my coffee,
Hot, strong and sweet like toffee.
Oh, and I know that I can't let you go.

I thought that maybe I'd slept like a baby,
Alas it was just a dream.
Then in popped my lover, pulled back the covers
Coz I like my coffee with cream.

Then I felt a stirring deep inside. (you stir me up inside)
Fill my cup (fill my cup) till it's flowing down the side.

I like my men like I like my coffee,
Hot, strong and sweet like toffee.
Oh, so you know that I can't let you go.

I like my men like I like my coffee,
Hot, strong and sweet like toffee.
Oh, and I know that I can't let you go.

Men like my coffee, really turn me on.
Sometimes espresso, sometimes he's too strong.
Then there's Costa Rican, mellow but he's rich.
But never give me instant, coz baby, he's too quick.

Like a dream you held my body tight. (you held my body tight)
Like a fiend you kept me up all night.

I like my men like I like my coffee,
Hot, strong and sweet like toffee.
Oh, so you know that I can't let you go.

I like my men like I like my coffee,
Hot, strong and sweet like toffee.
Oh, and I know that I can't let you go.

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26/04/2010 · 3:14 pm

What to do with some leftover cheese and a day off work…

The title kind of gives away the fact that today I had both, a day off work and some leftover goats cheese and cheddar knocking around my fridge. I trawled my recipe books and found a recipe for savoury cheese muffins which I adapted slightly to become…

Savoury goats cheese, cheddar, red onion and rosemary muffins.

255g plain flour

2tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp salt

60g grated cheese ( I used half cheddar, half goats cheese)

1 egg

2tbsp white granulated sugar

120ml plain yoghurt

180ml milk

90ml vegetable oil

Grated cheese for topping

3tbsp fresh rosemary chopped finely

4tbsp red onion chopped finely

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. My recipe book said that these stick to paper cases more than sweet muffins so it might be best to use a muffin tin and grease it well. However I used my wonderful silicone cases – I don’t think it’s possible to get anything stuck to them!

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and grated cheese.

In another bowl mix together the beaten egg, sugar, yoghurt, milk, oil, fresh herbs and onion.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and mix with a metal spoon but try to minimise on stirring.

Fill the muffin cases 3/4 full and top with grated cheese and sprig of rosemary.

Bake for about 20 minutes until brown. They are extra tasty fresh out of the oven.

You don’t have to add the rosemary and onion but they compliment the cheesiness perfectly! mmmmmm cheese!

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26/04/2010 · 2:58 pm

My tribute to Anzac Day

Yesterday was London Marathon day. It has become a tradition of mine to head down to the Isle of Dogs with friends, armed with beer (purely to lubricate the vocal chords you understand) to spend the day track side, giving the runners some much needed encouragement at the 16 mile mark. I love it! – I have such respect for everyone who takes part. I ran my first half marathon last year and can confirm that 13.1 miles was no mean feat so I find it hard to even imagine the pain of 26 miles. It always inspires me and who knows, come May 4th I might even have a go at entering the ballot for next year!

Among my marathon cheering buddies was my kiwi friend Simon and his brother Shane who educated me that yesterday was also Anzac day, a day of commemoration and remembrance for all Australians and New Zealanders who lost their lives defending their countries. Apparently it is also tradition to bake and eatAnzac Biscuits. I love a tradition involving baking and of course eating and was offered official Anzac Biscuits made by Shane himself. They were delicious and with a day off work ahead of me today I could think of no better way to spend it than having a go at making my own. I used a recipe from the BBC Good Food website. It’s a really exciting recipe which involves adding dissolved bicarbonate of soda into a mixture of melted butter and golden syrup, which fizzes up like a volcano. It felt a bit like a science experiment. These biscuits are super easy to make and very very yummy!