Tummyrumble

Great food done just right - 32 Great Queen Street

The name may be a bit of a mouthful, and a bit confusing. "So, where did you go for lunch today?" "Oh, I popped over to Great Queen Street." "Umm, yeah, but what restaurant did you go to?"

Not confusing at all however, is their attitude to food and service. No nonsense, no frills, what you see on the tin. Like the name, stripped down to the bare essence of great produce and British cooking and I love it.

Check the attitude of that lamp! The no nonsense lamp shade illuminates a number of no nonsense brew labels.
Originally uploaded by Manne.

Last Friday I had a day off. In fact, I have every Friday in December off and the only plan I have is to spend lots of time eating, cooking, reading and writing. Luxury.

Anyway.

Last Friday, on my day off (I can't get enough of saying that), I crowdsourced some restaurant recommendations on Twitter. Kindly @ChrisPople and @GreedyDiva got in touch with a few good suggestions, but the one that really peaked my interest was the subject of this post, 32 Great Queen Street.

Looked a few reviews up and the one that really made me decide I had to go was actually by AA Gill... Funny review, starting off sounding like he intends to slam them down, but towards the end is so lyrical about them that he associates them with Blake, Swift, Bunyan and others as hinting at true British greatness.

Arriving at about 12.15 the restaurant was almost empty. Bad sign, I thought, on such a lovely and sunny Friday. However, as I started making myself comfortable and sat down at a small table by the window a girl hurried over from the bar and asked me if I intended to have lunch. Which I, slightly confused and with hope in my voice immediately confirmed. Hungry, see.

She then asked me if I wouldn't mind sitting in the bar as they were fully booked for lunch... I moved over to the bar, and indeed. Not more than 15 minutes later the place was rammed!

I like sitting in the bar. You can chat to the bar staff (a very nice and attentive fellow named James), you can check out the beer and wine on offer (I particularly liked the brand "The Usual") and it just feels more casual.

Ordering some wine and sparkling water I helped myself to some bread and studied the menu. As austere in layout and content as the rest of the restaurant, but full of exciting names of food stuffs unfamiliar to me. Like "Middlewhite", which I had to ask what it was, apparently a breed of pig.

I got the Jerusalem artichoke soup, and the curious Middlewhite pork dish, which was served with chocroute, braised red cabbage and horseradish sauce. If a dish ever was designed for me, that's it.

Jerusalem artichoke soup, and some very excellent bread.
Originally uploaded by Manne.

The soup was decorated with a golden swirl of oil and delivered at a perfect temperature. Hot and warming, but not roof of mouth charring. Creamy and sweet, there was just a hint of saltiness. As I reached the bottom of the bowl I mopped the remains up with some of the bread, wondering if they would think me weird if I started licking the bowl clean.

I feel a bit of need to pick on the wine glasses. Check the above photo. Not the fact that they are simple affairs, sticking to their guns and serving wine in water glasses is a good thing, no, the fact that they are tiny.

Middlewhite pig at its finest, slow cooked and with crispy crackling.
Originally uploaded by Manne.

Pork was succulent and moist, with just the right amount of fat in there to make the meat juicy and rich in flavour. Without a doubt the crackling was the masterpiece of the dish. Delicate, golden, sublimely crunchy like a baked Lay's crisp. 

Serving pork with pickled cabbage is my idea of food heaven. Here I got a double whammy, pickled chocroute and braised red cabbage both on the same plate (check this photo for the full view of the pork and cabbage glory). Both the varieties of cabbage cut nicely through the fat in the pork, the red cabbage in a lovely, spicy, cinnamony kind of way.

Horse radish was of cask strength variety: head expanding, nose blowing, wasabi like explosivity.

Having devoured both dishes I was starting to feel quite satisfied. James wouldn't have it though, he forced upon me the dessert menu. Being the timid Swede that I am, always following the orders of authority, who was I to argue? My eyes fell upon the words "Bitter chocolate terrine with chestnut cream" and I knew there would be no escape.

Chocolate and cream. So simple, yet so beautiful.
Originally uploaded by Manne.

I won't bore you with stating the obvious, I will urge the readers to draw your own conclusions about the quality of my dessert. My only point of criticism is that I was unable to finish it...

Bill came to £32.45 with a glass of wine and a cup of (excellent) coffee. Not too expensive for a three course meal which will stay in my mind as the best lunch of 2009. Then again, I have three more Fridays off to go... 

 

More reviews:

URL: Giles Coren, Times Online
URL: Time Out, 32 Great Queen Street
URL: Squaremeal
URL: Matthew Norman, The Guardian
URL: Harden's

Sunday on a plate: nothing like a roast to chase away the winter blues

Sunday on a plate: Lamb roast, cauli mash, sauteed kale, creamy gravy...
Originally uploaded by Manne.

Spent most of today indoors, brief trip to the local offie for some Ryvita crackers to go with some lovely Appenzeller cheese aside.

On her way back from the gym W had a stroke of genius and brought home the finest boneless leg of lamb Waitrose could offer.

Few hours later: bliss on a plate, ready for carving.

Made a quick gravy based on the juices in the roasting dish, simply adding about 100 ml of white wine with the juices in a sauce pan (to which I salvaged the meat juices after cracking the porcelain roasting tray, barely avoiding the disaster of gravy-less roast) and letting that simmer for a while.

Then added 2 tsp of corn flour (first thoroughly mixed in a glass of about 50 ml of cold water) to thicken it up a bit.

Lastly I whisked in a big dollop of creme fraiche (about 2-3 tbsp) to add some freshness and give it a nice and silky sheen.

Best gravy I ever made, I think. Probably more thanks to the sweetness of the lamb roast juice than anything I did... Went incredibly well with the cauliflower mash.

Looked around online for some varieties on gravy recipes and found this more elaborate method which certainly sounds like a great gravy to go with a great roast!

What is your favourite roast: lamb, chicken or beef? Got any great gravy secrets to reveal? Would love it if you shared your best tips in the comments below!

Fresh and zingy red cabbage salad

Finished result: red cabbage salad served with grilled chicken, keep reading for recipe
Originally uploaded by Manne.

This recipe originates from a recently released Swedish cookery book, written by Anna Jacobsson (blog) who successfully lost more than 60 kg over the course of 2.5 years. From 137 kg to 75 kg, without skimping on food or starving herself.

Not only did she lose an astonishing amount of weight, she also according to herself unsurprisingly gained a healthier and more enjoyable life. 

How did she do it? Certainly not through traditional methods. She explains that she through the years probably tried every diet known to man, and nothing really worked. Until she realized that she had a serious sugar addiction and decided to kick it. The method she chose was her own variety of LCHF - Low Carb High Fat.

In the book is a variety of recipes she devised over the years she was losing weight, so they are all high in saturated fat content and provides an ample amount of protein. Rather than sugar and starch her recipes use nuts, fruit, fresh berries, leafy vegetables, chocolate and cream to add taste and colour.

There has been a lot of discussion about low carb diets as being boring and leading to a dull monotonous attitude to food. Anna's book proves that it is not just possible but even easy to create inspiring, tasty, great looking dishes while leaving the sugar mostly out of it.

The book is called "From my kitchen - food on the road from 137 kg" and if you speak Swedish and wants to introduce some inspiration in your LCHF cooking habits it is a must have.

Yesterday I wanted something really quick and simple as I was coming home later than usual from work. Having just received this book I leafed through it and found a tasty looking photo of a red cabbage salad. I love cabbage! So I picked up a grilled peri-peri chicken at my local Tesco's along with the ingredients, added some ideas of my own to make it a little bit more interesting and headed home in the cold and rainy winter darkness.

Ingredients

This is enough for two as a replacement of a more carby alternative, or four as a side dish. I guess this is a bit like a coleslaw. Something sweet, something acidic, something with a bit of bite and lots of cabbage.

1/2 medium red cabbage head, shredded
1/2 red onion, halved and finely sliced
2 small red apples, diced
250 ml creme fraiche or sour cream
juice of 1/2 lemon
freshly ground black pepper

Ready to get cracking...
Originally uploaded by Manne.

Method

Cut up the cabbage in strips a few millimetres to half a centimetre wide. Crush them a bit with your hands on the chopping board.

Add all the ingredients in a big bowl and stir them together, ensuring the creme fraiche gets distributed evenly throughout. The mixture will go a glorious deep pink.

Season with black pepper, and possibly a little salt if you wish. Taste. If I had some parsley I would sprinkle that on top as a nice garnish.

Done. Probably took me all of ten minutes. And it was delicious. Mission accomplished!

Serve with cold meat, meatballs, grilled chicken... ...or bring along to your next barbecue! I already long for summer and garden meatfests.

Right now, Christmas knocking on the door, there is another cabbage recipe which lovely smells I am looking forward to permeating my flat with: traditional Swedish browned cabbage. Oh, comfort food for vikings!

Do you have a favourite cabbage recipe? Perhaps even a favourite coleslaw recipe? I would love it if you share it with me in the comments!

Hong Kong City - putting New Cross (not Peckham) on the dim sum map

Dim sum dilemma: which tasty morsels to devour in what order!
Originally uploaded by Manne.

Update: We interrupt your reading of this post for an important message. As pointed out to me, Hong Kong City actually has a New Cross Gate post code (S14), which to anyone with a grasp of the genius UK post code system means that it is not a part of Peckham after all. Sadly, I must say that Peckham to my knowledge still lacks a decent (any at all!) dim sum restaurant. Thanks to @HollowLegs (blog) for pointing this out!

We now return to normal service:

Last weekend we decided to start the day with early yum cha lunch at a Chinese restaurant called Hong Kong City, on New Cross Road just around the corner from where I live. We had seen on online review sites like Qype and MyVillage.com that they consistently get good reviews (although not many) so we figured it was worth a shot.

While the surroundings are quite bleak (many things can be said about the New Cross area, but being picturesque is not one of them), once inside the restaurant you quickly forget about the dreary exterior.

Typical for so many Cantonese restaurants, a big open room holds several round tables of varying sizes. This is a big restaurant, one of the biggest Chinese restaurants I have been to in London (with maybe Royal China on Baker Street being slightly bigger although I am not entirely sure). Some of the reviews I have read mention that a lot of wedding banquets are arranged at Hong Kong City and that they can seat up to 500 people... If you want to throw a big party in south east London, especially considering that they also do karaoke, this might be a place to check out.

Hungry like a pack of wolves we tore into the menus and started noting dishes down on the ordering sheet. Don't know about you, but when at a dim sum restaurant I certainly appreciate photos next to each dish. While the menu makers at Hong Kong City decided to use the same photo twice for completely different dishes, the menu is clear and quite comprehensive. All the usual suspects are there, but also some dishes I had never seen before like jellyfish, a type of beef meatballs and something simply called "fried pork and vegetable bun" which looked very appetizing.

Service was quick and efficient, only minutes after we handed over our order the dishes started arriving. Deep fried yam dumplings were crisp and dry on the outside with perfectly gooey insides. Pan fried turnip was perfectly fried and satisfyingly rich in flavour. Their fried gelatinous rice (W's favourite of the lot) was sticky and chewy with lots of Chinese sausage and small prawns mixed in.

My favourite today was cheung fun with "golden mushrooms" and scallops. I think "golden mushrooms" would be the same as enoki (also see Wikipedia, enokitake), either way this is one of the best cheung funs I have had.

We went on to devour all of the other dishes, too many to list, as they arrived. This is where I will make a promise to myself: never again order with my stomach, order with my brain... While every single dish was lovely, with perhaps only the beef meatballs being a bit disappointing (nothing wrong with them, just a bit too plain for my liking) we ordered far too many. Ten dishes on two people, even though not having had breakfast (or perhaps because of that very fact...) are clearly two or even three too many.

I can only blame me being really hungry making me forget how rich a meal dim sum is, despite being so small servings. 

Having gone through all the dishes, we ended up leaving some of the turnip, most of the deep fried chicken feet and even one of the new made acquaintances "fried pork and vegetable bun" which was sort of like a dumpling made of soft and chewy donut dough and then pan fried. Brilliant.

As we got the bill we again marvelled over the fact that you can completely stuff yourself dizzy on great and intricately made dishes and still get a bill amounting to less than 15 pounds per head. Like I pointed out a few weeks ago, you can't beat dim sum for value. All in all, I would recommend anyone to try on the dim sum at Hong Kong City. 

Clearly a lot of people think the same, while we had been munching away the restaurant had filled up to two thirds of capacity. I think we will make a repeat business again quite soon, but make sure to order less greedily and eat a lot slower...

What is your favourite dim sum restaurant in London? What's your favourite dim sum dish? Share your opinions in the comments below! :)