Tamarind and Thyme

Here’s my first attempt to recreate the amazing dal that was part of our banana leaf rice from Samy’s Curry. Oh that was the dal of dreams!

I cannot remember where I copied this recipe from (it looked promising!) but one of the main modifications I made was to increase the amount of water - those yellow lentils really soak it up. The frying of the aromatics really brings out their flavour and that all gets absorbed by the lentils. The curry leaves tasted of not much when I was eating the leftovers the next day! I have no idea what makes it Malaysian-style but that was one of reasons why I decided to try this recipe - as I’d only eaten this kind of dal in Malaysia and Singapore.

While this did taste very nice (well, positively addictive actually as we could hardly stop spooning it into our mouths), the texture wasn’t exactly what I was looking for. The dal at the banana leaf places was smoother and just felt nicer on the tongue. My dal was a bit rough - it was soft and fully cooked but it just had a bit of graininess there. Any ideas on how to improve this? I might try using red lentils next.

Malaysian-Style Dal
serves 4 as part of a meal

1 cup dried yellow lentils
3 cups water
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp + 2 tbsps ghee or oil
1 tsp black mustard seeds
1 dried red chili
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 slices ginger, peeled and minced
20 fresh curry leaves
1 tsp garam masala
1 medium tomato, cut into 8-10 sections
salt to taste

Pick through the lentils and remove any foreign objects (I found wheat husks and once, a stone). Rinse the lentils a few times in water, until the water runs clear. In a medium sized pot, stir together the lentils, water, turmeric and 1 tsp of ghee/oil (I used oil and then chucked in a good sized lump of butter at the end!). Set it over high heat and when it comes to a boil, reduce the heat and let it simmer until the lentils are soft. This should take about 30 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Heat a frying pan over medium heat and add the 2 tbsps of ghee/oil. Add the mustard seeds and when they start to pop, add the chili, onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves. Fry until the onion softens and starts to become golden. Add the garam masala and the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes start to wilt. Pour this entire mixture into the softened lentils, add salt to the pot, mix well, and continue simmering the lentils for about 5 minutes. The final mixture will be quite thick. Feel free to add more water if you like your dal thinner.

Eat with lots of rice! We ate it along with a mutter paneer that looked so lovely and tasted lovelier - thank you, Route79! That recipe really does require the simmering time as then the tomatoes mellow out (a bit of sugar helps) and don’t taste so…Italian.

Another vegetable dish I highly recommend is this recipe for cabbage sabzi from One Hot Stove. It’s delicious and leftovers keep well in the fridge.

I love the Latin name for the European sprat!

Yesterday at the farmer’s market, the fishmongers showed up after an extended absence. But they only had sprats - and lots of them! Only 2 pounds a kilo or a tenner for 6 kilos. I purchased a kilo, dusted about two thirds of them in flour and shallow fried them. The rest I froze.

They were delicious! We ate them with our fingers - nibbling away at the fillet on one side, crunching through the crispy tails, and then nibbling away at the other side, carefully leaving the bones and the bitter guts. A squeeze of lemon, a bowlful of cavolo nero, and a baguette…and a meal was made.

Of course, now I’m a little tired of sprats. I think I’m going to try grilling the ones in the freezer, as Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall suggests…but um…later.

A friend and I went to visit Byron for lunch soon after it opened, in December. It’s located across the street from the Kensington Odeon and replaces what once was a branch of the Ask chain. It’s had quite a nice makeover and markets itself as a posh burger joint. Does London need another one of those though? There are already the GBK and Hamburger Union chains and plenty of others too. And Byron’s menu is also little pricier.

My friend ordered a rare cheeseburger with Cashel blue cheese and when we brought it to their attention that it was well-done, it was replaced without a fuss. Her burger looked delicious while my order, the mini classic burgers were a disappointment. Nothing was wrong with it - it was tasty - but there was significantly less burger for my money and I would have done better by ordering a regular hamburger. The pickle on the side was very tasty though - half sour and half sweet and wholly crunchy.

Sides were hit and miss. The French fries were nice but the batter of the onion rings (red onions!) had herbs in it and the rosemary overpowered everything.

I’ll leave it to you to decide whether the whole burger craze is still going strong or is starting to wane. But Byron’s not going to be my first choice when I next crave a big, juicy hamburger. You know, all this has me thinking what the next restaurant trend in London will be. What would be fun is some interactive eating - Chinese hotpots or Korean barbeques. Very social and it doesn’t have to be expensive. Just my two cents.

Byron
222 Kensington High Street
London W8 7RG

Last Friday, we met a few friends in Covent Garden and we were brought to the opera-themed Sarastro Restaurant on Drury Lane. Words cannot express what the decor is in this place - imagine half pseudo-rococo, half Liberace’s home - those of you who have either been to or walked by this opera-themed restaurant will know what I’m talking about. For those of you who aren’t in London, here’s a photo:

And here’s another bizarre one:

I’ll be honest - I’ve always wanted to see what it was really like inside one of these flamboyant rooms. I could have had my pick of locations as there are two other restaurants with similar themes: Papageno (same owners) and Salieri. Upon entering, we were led to one of the upstairs booths that provide privacy and I guess is supposed to give one a feeling of exclusivity, like sitting in a real opera box. After settling in (which was a challenge as we had to contort ourselves to sit down at the table) and examining the bizarre tablecloth and napkins (crushed velvet!?), we were given menus and food immediately started arriving at the table. What was this? Glancing at our menus answered my questions - we had to choose from a three-course set menu. This was the first major bad sign of things to come. We were never told that we would be limited to this and nowhere on their website does it say this either.

I understand small menus - a small menu allows for the chef to have more control over the quality of the dishes and allows for your food to come quickly. At places like Sarrastro, though, this rather pricey set menu is obviously to cut costs and maximise profits. Appetizers were the cheap mass-produced kind: hummus, tzatziki, fried halloumi, cheese borek, fried calamari, dolmades. While the dips were presented in large-ish family-size bowls, the countable items were very stingily counted out to equal the number of people in our party. Never have I seen 6 sad calamari rings (count ‘em, 6!) presented on a bed of lettuce. The cheese pastries and halloumi was almost inedibly salty but luckily the fluffy Turkish bread that accompanied all this was quite nice with the dips. Apologies for the rubbish quality of the photos - flash was required as the lights were low and cast a reddish tinge to everything.

When the waiter came to take our orders for the main course, I asked for his recommendation between the braised lamb shank and the duck a l’orange. After some hesitation, he suggested the lamb - but when the food came out, I saw that his recommendation really meant the lesser of the two evils. The lamb shank was enormous. The photo that I took doesn’t show how massive this dish was - I felt a bit like a cave-woman tackling this beast.

Unfortunately, quality and quantity cannot mutually exist in a dish at places like these. While the portion was huge, the lamb didn’t taste of much…just very dull lamb. The meat wasn’t exactly falling off the bone and there were dangerous shards of bone throughout my shank. The duck eaters fared no better - a limp, overly-gamy, and probably from frozen, sliced duck breast with a thin, translucent, and possibly bottled, orange sauce poured on top. One of our friends just couldn’t eat hers and asked for a replacement. To their credit, they quite happily switched it for the more edible salmon; to their discredit, the salmon arrived approximately 5 seconds after the duck was taken away. Hmmm…suspiciously quick… Accompanying our meals were family-sized bowls of boiled potatoes and boiled, yet undercooked, mixed vegetables.

The real kicker came at dessert time. The set menu proclaimed that we would receive Turkish sweets and a fresh fruit platter. Turkish sweets turned out to be a tiny syrup soaked sweet, not baklava but tulumba, for each of us (count ‘em, 6!) and alongside lay some of the thinnest slices of pineapple the world has ever seen. The fruit platter was a large platter with whole, uncut, cheap fruits - apples, bananas, oranges, grapes…and the biggest joke of all, a whole pineapple in the centre, with no proper knives to cut any of them. Well, I was feeling slightly bitter by this time and proceeded to bag up that pineapple - we’re currently enjoying it at home!

And what did we pay for this catering-style meal? - £30 a head. Just looking at that number causes me to reminisce of the wonderful meals I’ve had at Le Vacherin that came to about that amount. And I haven’t even come to the musicians! Being an opera-themed restaurant, I would expect some music to be played. I do not, however, expect the band to sound like a mariachi band - nor do I expect the tambourinist to come around to each table, demanding money and shouting “Olé! Olé!”.

Take this as a warning! If the atmosphere is your thing, then perhaps you’ll be amused by this place, but do not go for the food! For me, the manic and surreal decor became tiring halfway through the meal and I will never go back!

Sarastro
126 Drury Lane
London WC2B 5QG

We had these for dinner the other night - roasted red peppers with warm slices of baguette on the side to dip into the oily, anchovy-infused juices. I know they sound quite simple but they are rather nice! The tomatoes become soft and juicy (even winter tomatoes), the peppers slippery and sweet, and the whole held together with the aforementioned juices.

Piedmont Roasted Peppers
adapted from a recipe by Delia Smith
serves 4 as a starter.

4 large red peppers
4 medium tomatoes
8 anchovy fillets in olive oil
2 cloves garlic
olive oil
black pepper
extra virgin olive oil
basil leaves (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Cut the peppers in half, from stem to base, cutting the stem in half as well. Scoop out the seeds and white pith, leaving the stem intact as that holds the pepper together as it cooks. Place the halves cut side up in a baking pan. Place the tomatoes in a heatproof bowl and pour boiling water over them. Take them out and peel off their skins. Cut each tomato into quarters and place two quarters in each red pepper half. Slice the garlic cloves finely and cut the anchovy fillets into pieces and divide them up between the pepper halves. Grind black pepper over top and then drizzle one teaspoonful of olive oil over each half.

Bake in the oven for approximately 1 hour, until the peppers are soft and on the verge of collapsing. Drizzle plenty of extra virgin olive oil and scatter with basil leaves if you have them. Serve with plenty of bread!