A Stylish Evening at The Cuckoo Club

August 29, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Ever wondered how to get onto the guest lists of the top members only clubs in London? Here is an idea, book a table for dinner and you won’t have to suffer the indignity of being selected from the queue.

The Cuckoo Club on Swallow Street has been a fashionable venue for a long time in its previous incarnations and today is one of the coolest clubs in town.

On the ground floor of the club, there is a restaurant which has been described as a destination restaurant where head chef Chris Cooper an alumni of the Modern Pantry has designed a modern European menu. The bar is manned by world class mixologist with an innovative cocktail menu.

The Cuckoo Club

We were recently invited to a dinner here where we got to sample their inventive menu. Eating in a club where the light is so low is a bit disorientating as you can’t see what is on your plate. The photos were taken without flash where possible. The decor is that of a formal dining room but bathed in this violet light, creating a louche feel.  The service was attentive enough considering we were the only diners there that night.

The starter and main dishes were competent enough but not all were a success. The chocolate dessert was a strange combination of different flavours and textures that didn’t work together.

The Cuckoo Club

Charred King Crab with coriander, spiced mango and salt baked pineapple

The Cuckoo Club

Chargrilled Aged Fillet, bacon, summer vegetables, haricot beans and red wine jus

The Cuckoo Club

Sweet potato fries

The Cuckoo Club

Chocolate and sea salt crumble

We were entertained by couple of guys singing Latin American tunes on the stage behind us and some of party took turns on stage and the dj booth as it was still not that busy.

The Cuckoo Club

The best part of the evening was when the party adjourned to the club downstairs which was starting to fill up.

The Cuckoo Club

Cured tuna marinated in lemon and basil

Meals are about £40 per head excluding drinks.

Cuckoo Club on Urbanspoon

Slow Food Kitchen was a guest at the Cuckoo Club.

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Kabuto Noodles – Posh Pot Noodles

August 28, 2011 By 1 Comment

Being stuck in boarding school and starving was a regular event in my school days. We were always shipped off to school with our stash of instant noodles, biscuits and chocolate as the mums were always afraid we would be underfed. Another girl in my dorm used to have a massive cake sent to her weekly and we pooled our resources and had regular midnight feasts, ala Mallory Towers, resulting in my putting on 20 lbs in my first term.

One of the few things we could get buy in the school tuck shop and the local corner shop were Pot Noodles.  We must have been really desperate as having a Pot Noodle was such a treat.

Fast forward a few years, Crispin Busk of Kabuto Noodles has just introduced a range of posh Pot Noodles which is nothing like the Pot Noodles that we had to endure at school. He was inspired by the steaming bowls of noodles that are staples in the East and noodles bars in London. This range was developed with no additives or preservatives, freeze-dried herbs and spices for extrafreshness, and good quality egg noodles wtih low levels of fat.

These noodles are really quick to prepare, ready in 4 minutes and comes in 4 flavours : Chicken Ramen, Beef Pho and Miso Ramen.

Kabuto Noodles

I tried them recently and found that they were quite a substantial portion. The egg noodles are not the broken up variety like that found in Pot Noodles, but full long strand and a good texture.

Instead of eating them out of the plastic pot that they come in, I put mine in a bowl and add some leafy green veg to make it a more balanced meal. My favourites was the Miso Ramen flavour. You can add meat or any other veg to this to your own liking.

Kabuto Noodles

 

Perfect for a quick and tasty meal. Kabuto Noodles are available in Waitrose.

 

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Spicy Nduja Palmier Bites – My recipe

August 16, 2011 By 3 Comments

Do you know the feeling like you have won the lottery when you discover an amazing new ingredient? There is this unrational thrill that a  foodie gets when finding and loving a fab tasting new ingredient and my newest one is nduja, which I tasted here.

An email popped into my inbox inviting me to participate in a recipe competition using nduja, I of course agreed. Then came the dilemma, what to cook with it. I had a really busy week and about a day to think of something, get ingredients and to cook it and take some nice photos. The competition is stiff as the other food bloggers involved are great cooks and they all have serious DSLR cameras to take amazing photos with.

What is Nduja ?

Nduja is a spicy spreadable salami from Spilinga in Calabria and it is made of different parts of the pig with about 40% fat, sweet pepper and hot Calabrian pepper. The meat is ground and with spices and some salt and is stuffed into natural casing. This is then smoked for about a week and then left to dry for a few weeks.

The Calabrians like to eat nduja just spread on bread, with fusilli, in a tomato sauce, added to bean stews or soups. My inventive friends on twitter suggested these other ways, spread on top of a burger, and rubbing it on chicken for roasting.

Nduja melts when you heat it up so it is often used in pasta sauces, adding a bit of a spicy kick and the melted pig fat making everything taste extra delicious.

If you don’t fancy cooking with nduja yourself, you can always head over to the best Italian Restaurant in the City, L’Anima as Francesco is from Calabria and he serves a pasta dish with nduja.

 

Food Unearthed Recipe Challenge

Nduja Food Unearthed

For the challenge, I wanted to deviate from the traditional ways of using nduja and find a way of enjoying this without too much fuss.  So I decided to make these delectable melt in your mouth spicy nduja palmiers with a hidden explosion of flavour.  These canapes are really quick and easy to make and is an alternative to how nduja is traditionally used.

The competition is open for voting on Facebook , do have a look and please vote. Thanks.

Print
Spicy Nduja Palmier Recipe

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

20 pieces

canapes

Spicy Nduja Palmier Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 packet Food Unearthed Nduja
  • 1 packet of All Butter Puff Pastry
  • About 75g Grated Parmesan cheese
  • Honey to drizzle
  • 1 beaten Egg for egg wash - optional

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 220C.
  2. Roll out the puff pastry evenly on a clean and lightly floured work surface until it is about the thickness of a pound coin. I made a rectangular shape with mine to make it easy to fold over. If you are using frozen puff pastry, make sure you take it out earlier to let it thaw before use. There are usually instruction on the packet for you to follow.
  3. For the first layer, spread the delectable spicy nduja all over the pastry leaving a 2cm edge clear. You don't need to have a very thick layer a little bit will go a long way. You can press the nduja down into the pastry to help the salami adhere.
  4. For the next flavour, evenly sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over the nduja. You can substitute parmesan with any other melting cheese that you have to hand.
  5. For an added dimension I drizzled honey all over this nduja and cheese topping. Honey seems to complement nduja really well as it takes an edge off the spiciness and adds an added depth to the flavour to each bite.
  6. Folding the pastry to make a palmier shape.
  7. Fold both the long side of the pasty so that the edges meet in the centre.
  8. Secondly fold the edges again to the centre again. You now have quite a thick piece of pastry.
  9. Lastly, fold this in half along the middle to form a flat sausage like shape.
  10. Alternative to folding: you can roll the pastry from the edge towards to the centre to create a scroll shaped pastry too.
  11. You can now wrap it up in cling film and put the pastry back in the fridge for about 15 minutes to firm up before cutting.
  12. With a sharp knife, cut pieces of the pastry into 1cm thick slices. If your knife is not sharp and your pastry is too soft, you will not get a clean shape. At this point you can egg wash the pastry to give it a gorgeous shiny finish after baking by just beating up one egg and brush each piece on the baking tray.
  13. Place these slices cut side down onto a paper lined baking tray. Spread them out a bit with some space between them on the tray as they will expand as they bake. You can sprinkle more cheese on top of the pastry too.
  14. Place on the middle shelf of the oven and bake for 15 minutes until the nduja and cheese melts and the pastry turns golden brown. keep an eye on it as different ovens work differently and take them out when it starts to brown.
  15. When ready, take it out of the oven and carefully place them on a wire rack to cook. When cool it will crisp up very nicely.
  16. Serve.
http://www.eatcookexplore.com/spicy-nduja-palmier-bites-my-recipe/

 

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Chocolate dipped orange shortbread biscuits

August 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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Chocolate dipped orange shortbread biscuits

Chocolate dipped orange shortbread biscuits

Ingredients

  • 100g (3 ½ oz) Kerrygold butter, softened and diced, plus extra for greasing
  • 150g (5oz) plain flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 50g (2oz) caster sugar
  • 75g (2½ oz) dark chocolate, broken in to pieces
  • The grated zest of one orange

Instructions

    Makes 15–20 biscuits
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°f/Gas mark 4.
  2. Grease a baking sheet with a little Kerrygold butter.
  3. Sift the flour into a large bowl and, using your fingertips, rub in the Kerrygold butter until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the sugar and orange zest and bring the whole mixture together to form a stiff dough. (Don’t be tempted to add any water.) Alternatively, briefly mix the ingredients in a food processor until they come together.
  4. Transfer the dough to a lightly dusted worktop and roll out to about 5mm (1/4inch) thick. Cut into rounds, fingers, squares or dinosaurs, then lift carefully on to the prepared baking sheet with a palette knife, spacing the biscuits evenly apart.
  5. Bake for 6–10 minutes or until pale golden, then remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for a minute or so before transferring to a wire rack to cool down completely.
  6. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. When the chocolate has melted, dip the shortbread in about half way in to the chocolate, then allow any excess to drip off and place on a plate to cool and set.
http://www.eatcookexplore.com/chocolate-dipped-orange-shortbread-biscuits/

This recipe will be featured in the Free Kerrygold Recipe Book, out Oct 2011.

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Grilled spring lamb cutlets with anchovy, olive and caper butter served with buttered courgettes

August 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

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Grilled spring lamb cutlets with anchovy, olive and caper butter served with buttered courgettes

Grilled spring lamb cutlets with anchovy, olive and caper butter served with buttered courgettes

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 12 lamb cutlets
  • Salt and pepper
  • For the flavoured butter:
  • 125g (4 ½ oz) Kerrygold butter, softened
  • 1 tbsp parsley, chopped
  • 2 anchovies, chopped
  • 0 capers, chopped
  • 6 black olives, pitted and chopped
  • A squeeze of lemon juice
  • For the buttered courgettes:
  • 25g (1oz) Kerrygold butter
  • 2 medium courgettes
  • Salt and ground black pepper

Instructions

  1. In a bowl, mix together all ingredients for the flavoured butter. Next, lay out a piece of baking parchment or cling film. Spoon the butter mixture on top of the parchment or cling film in to a rough sausage shape, then use the parchment or cling film to roll the butter into a log about 2.5cm (1in) in diameter. Place in the fridge and keep chilled until needed.
  2. To cook the cutlets, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
  3. Place a griddle pan or frying pan on a high heat and allow to get quite hot, then add the cutlets and cook for 2–4 minutes on each side depending on how well done you like them. Take them off the heat, and allow to rest for a few minutes as you cook the courgettes.
  4. To cook the courgettes, first peel them, then slice in half lengthways and remove and discard the soft inner seeds. Next carefully cut the flesh into 1cm (½in) cubes or slices.
  5. To cook, place a frying pan on a high heat. Once hot, add the Kerrygold butter and when the butter has melted tip in the courgette pieces.
  6. Sauté for 2–3 minutes until just softened, tossing regularly, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
  7. To serve, cut a few slices of your flavoured butter, about 1cm thick, and place a slice on each lamb chop then serve immediately with the buttered courgettes.
http://www.eatcookexplore.com/grilled-spring-lamb-cutlets-with-anchovy-olive-and-caper-butter-served-with-buttered-courgettes/

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Competition: Get your recipe featured in a e-cookbook with Rachel Allen

August 7, 2011 By 1 Comment

If you have ambitions of getting your recipes published, here’s a chance.

Kerrygold have teamed up with Rachel Allen to produce the first Kerrygold Community Cookbook. It will be a ‘crowdsourced’ e-book created for the people, by the people, as all cooking enthusiasts can submit their favourite recipes via the Kerrygold Facebook application at www.facebook.co.uk/KerrygoldUK.

Rachel will select her favourite from all those uploaded and the book will be published in October. This book will be available for free download.

Here are some of Rachel’s recipes that will be in the book:

bread and butter pudding

Closing dates for entries is 28 August 2011.

 

 

 

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Mackerel Tartare with Minted Cucumber Soup

August 1, 2011 By Leave a Comment

This is a recipe we cooked at the Atelier Des Chefs, a recipe that was created by Andre Dupin for Total Greek Yoghurt.It is a very fresh dish and will be very easy to make for dinner parties as you can prepare most of it before hand.

This serves 6 people.

TOTAL GREEK YOGHURT TARTARE OF MACKEREL WITH MINTED CUCUMBER SOUP
Ingredients

  • 12 Fillets of mackerel
  • 1 Banana shallot (Echalion)
  • 25g Pickled gherkins
  • ½ bunch Flat leaf parsley
  • 50g TOTAL 0% Greek Yoghurt
  • 10g Ketchup
  • 3ml Tabasco
  • 10ml Worcestershire sauce
  • 25g Capers in vinegar

For the soup:

  • 1 Cucumber
  • 1 Garlic clove
  • ¼ bunch Fresh mint
  • 3 pinches Fine salt
  • 10ml White wine vinegar
  • 50g TOTAL 0% Greek Yoghurt
  • Method

1. Start by preparing the mackerel: fillet the fish if necessary and remove the pin bones. Remove the skin from the fish and then cut the flesh into dice. Keep refrigerated while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

2. Peel and finely dice the shallot. Chop the gherkins into small pieces. Pick the leaves from the parsley and roughly chop. Mix these chopped ingredients

3. with the mackerel and add the capers and Greek yoghurt.

4. Mix well and then add the ketchup, Tabasco and Worcestershire sauce. Taste the tartare mix and adjust the seasoning if necessary.

5. To make the soup: peel the cucumber and the garlic and pick the mint leaves. Place these ingredients in a blender with the salt and the white wine vinegar. Blitz for a minute to make the soup.

6. Add the Greek yoghurt and pulse the mixture for 5 seconds. Check the seasoning.

7.  To serve: place a large quenelle of the tartare mix in the middle of a small

8. bowl and pour the soup around. Serve immediately.
CHEF’S TIP: Try making this tartare dish with fresh tuna as an alternative to mackerel.

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