old-fashioned potted crab

After eating so many junks whilst watching the über important England match, I decided to jog around the beach for an hour. And also knowing what I'm about to have for dinner later.

I had old-fashioned potted crab, another recipe from Jamie's book. I never had anything potted before, and you know what, I liked it!

Jamie said once upon a time potting meat or fish was pretty common in Britain. I guess it was one way to preserve food and the results were regarded as highly as the French regard their pâtés.

It took me less than 10 minutes to prepare the potted crab and it is a nice recipe to serve at dinner parties or for cooking in advance.

This is how it's prepared: I smashed some fennel seeds, a pinch of dried chili, lemon zest with pestle and mortar. Put in a bowl and mix with some softened butter and brown crabmeat. The butter supposed to act as a preservative here as I've been told when I research about the history of potting meat on the internet. Anyway, back to the recipe, grate a little bit of nutmeg and stir in the white crabmeat. Season with salt and pepper and a tip from Jamie: chefs are always trained to slightly over-season food that is going to be served cold, like pâté or terrine, otherwise in a few hours or the next day, it can be a bit bland.

I then scooped the mixture to a mini le creuset pot and flattened it down with a spoon. Make sure that it doesn't quite reach the top of the pot. I melted some butter and spooned this over the crab mixture - this will be the 'lid' for the potted crab. Sprinkle with a little bit of dill before putting it in the fridge to set.

You can really taste the fennel, but it's not too overwhelming and I particularly enjoy the spicy hint from the dried chili.

I managed to demolish 2/3 of the pot

Day 296, 22 recipes to go... wow, time flies...

black angel tagliarini

After a long weekend of eating out, I'm glad to be back home and cooking again. For dinner tonight, and to continue with the project, I made black angel tagliarini. I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while but I was struggling to find the squid ink to make the fresh black pasta. And at my London trip on the weekend, I went to Harvey Nichols food hall and I found some dried black spaghetti which Jamie recommended to use as an alternative. Yay!!

Black pasta, if you never had it, it doesn't really taste any different to normal pasta.

The dish is called black angel tagliarini because the scallops are supposed to look like angels in the black pasta. I love this kind of recipe. It's so simple to make, the sauce comes together in minutes and it looks beautiful or angelic as one might say... The only thing to be careful though is not to over-cook the scallops as they'll become chewy.

The sauce itself is made of garlic, chilli, parsley, white wine, lemon juice and butter (and now you know why it's so delicious)...


I've also been very good with my time because I have tomorrow's dinner ready in the fridge. I cannot wait!

Have a good one.

taste of London, etc

I just returned home from a weekend in London with my friends Adam and Kelly. The main purpose of the trip is to attend the taste of London ("the world's greatest restaurant festival" as quoted on the website) at Regent's Park; and to eat a lot.

We arrived on Friday lunchtime, and after a serious discussion on 'where should we go for lunch?' which Kelly and Adam agreed to go to any place as long as they can watch the football match, we went to Chicago Ribs Shack. We had a 'light' lunch of the Shack Combination Platter that consists of a quarter of BBQ chicken, a handful of baby back ribs, smoked brisket and pulled pork with a side of manslaw (their 'man' style coleslaw with grated cheddar, jalapeños and spicy chorizo sausage) and two bowls of chips. Delish! I was very tempted to get a dessert to share, like a sundae or a slice of pie, but Kelly reminded me that we'll be going for afternoon tea in a couple of hours, so next time perhaps.

After lunch, we checked-in to the hotel, changed our clothes and took a taxi to the Berkeley London at a posh London neighbourhood, Knightsbridge for afternoon tea. I mentioned this place a few blogs back, which you can read here; the afternoon tea, Prêt-à-Portea, is inspired by clothings and accessories from various well-known designers; all served on fine-bone china by Sir Paul Smith. And the menu changes every six months to follow the changing seasons in fashion.


Out of all the sweets, my favourite was Sonia Rykiel nautical vanilla and raspberry jam layered mousse topped with humorous yellow hat (pictured above). It was just out of this world and I'm gonna try to recreate this, so just wait and see...

The evening was spent watching England vs Algeria match nearby our hotel. Another draw, and it was another disappointing result for England. Oh, come on England!

Saturday was the day... the day of the festival! Yay!!
There were loads of restaurants, food stalls (with free samples), food and drink master-classes, and music entertainment. I also met Gary Rhodes and Heston Blumenthal at the festival.

I'm trying to remember what we had there because there were loads: crisp-fried summer squid salad, seared tuna and green tea soba salad, steak and chips, garlicky snails and chorizo mash, minted Welsh lamb burger, apple danish pastry, cheesecake, fresh oysters, many kinds of spirits and beverages and I found... 'Rekordelig Premium Strawberry-Lime Cider' - My official new best friend. So refreshing.

mouth-watering cupcakes

I also stocked up on onion marmalade and sweet chilli jam from the food stalls because I'm almost running out. This is my second time at the festival and we cannot wait to come back for the next one in December.

We spent about four hours eating and drinking at the festival and then we went back to the hotel, took a nap, and watched a little bit of football before dinner at one of my favourite place, Bumpkin, a country-style restaurant at South Kensington.

To start I had warm duck salad with cucumber, fennel and toasted sesame seeds. I hope you're not sick of me saying 'Yum' to almost everything, because I'm just telling the truth and the salad was a definite yum...


And then I had the overnight roast belly of Plantation pork with Northumberland Pan Haggerty and red wine jus. Another definite YUM. The meat was melt-in-you-mouth tender and the crackling was perfect.


I have always believed that my stomach is divided into three different sections: for something to start, one for the main meal and another one for sweets and puddings. This weekend I used all these compartments and more...

I have had a great weekend in London, but I'm glad to be back home. I cannot wait to start cooking and to continue with the project.

Fruit bar for dinner.

How was your weekend?

stuffed

Yesterday was another football night with the guys.
My friend Mark had this idea that every person must bring a dish from a country that's in the World Cup. On paper, it does sound like a great idea, doesn't it? You'll find out...

I made a pot of Turkey Corn Chilli. I couldn't decide whether it's a Mexican or American but it doesn't matter because both country are in the World Cup. The chilli was then used to make nachos. I piled up some corn tortilla chips on a baking tray, layered the chili and I sprinkled a generous amount of grated cheddar cheese before putting it in the oven until the cheese melted. I garnished the nachos with few dollops of sour cream and slices of jalapenos.

Next, we had Mark's Spanish chorizo and butter bean stew served with crusty bread. The chorizo and the beans was cooked in red onions, garlic, chopped tomatoes and smoked paprika (I love the smell of smoked paprika). It was delicious. However, at this point, speaking on behalf of everyone, we were already full. And with three more dishes to go, this didn't look good.

After some football, and just before the first half of the match finished, it was time for Adam's Ratatouille pasta bake, a French-Italian inspired dish. A lovely dish, I especially love the cheesy crust but I could only managed the tiniest portion.

We took another break during half time and coming up next is Leo's Japanese Beef Curry. It was nice but I was struggling, honestly. Just the thought of it makes me full already and I haven't had anything yet to eat today. This is not like me, because I always want to eat.

I was gonna make chocolate brownie pudding but I scraped the idea. We just couldn't eat anymore. Although saying that, we had two scoops each of mint and chocolate chips ice cream; something sweet and cool to finish.

Uruguay won the match leaving the World Cup host, South Africa disappointed.

And so it's true our eyes are bigger than our belly. We have now came up with a new idea. For the next football night or any nights, we should only have one or two dish to share.

Tomorrow I'm going down to London for a weekend full of food. God help me...

crispy risotto cakes

Having leftovers of anything doesn't happen very often at my place. One of my favourite leftovers has got to be risotto because I can make my crispy risotto cakes. They're very easy to make and most of the preparation can be done early in the day, or even the night before as I did, and the sautéed just before dinner.

I mixed the leftover risotto with an egg, cream cheese and chives in a bowl and then cover with cling film and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours or overnight, to firm.

And when ready to cook, I shaped them into patties and coat in breadcrumbs. I like to use panko, or Japanese breadcrumbs, because they have a lighter texture than regular breadcrumbs. You should be able to find panko in a well-stocked Asian food store. I use them to make tempuras, fried pork chops, shrimps, etc...

I cooked the cakes on a hot pan with olive oil, turning them once, and cook for about three minutes on each side until the cakes are crisp and nicely browned.

The cream cheese and eggs give these cakes a delicious creamy interior, and the panko just gives them a wonderful crunchy crust. yum!

I served the cakes with a big dollop of sour cream and freshly ground black pepper.