Tamarind and Thyme

When Blai’s mother came to visit us a few weekends ago, she very kindly took us out to dinner at La Trompette one night. While it was a lovely dinner, we thought many of the dishes lacked that extra creative touch as on our first visit; they now seemed to lean more towards the classically French in style. Don’t get me wrong – the food was all excellent (all photos here), and the entire meal itself was lovely, but the main courses in particular just weren’t that exciting. When the bill arrived, there was an extra card on the tray which was a 50% off voucher for a meal at their sister restaurant The Glasshouse in Kew for anytime (except Fridays and Saturdays) in November. Never one to turn down a bargain, I booked a table for last Sunday. Dinner there is priced similarly to La Trompette at £39.50 for three courses or £34.50 for two courses, making comparisons between the two inevitable.

We sat at an intimate table for two in a corner, with a fantastic view of the room. Strangely, one wall had a wavy textured surface, making for dizzying viewing; we averted our eyes. Luckily, the menu was full of interesting options and it took us a while to select our dishes. Blai started with the Quail and ham terrine with salad lyonnaise, crisp quail eggs and celeriac remoulade. I had a little taste of the salad lyonnaise and marvelled at the range of textures in there – croutons, leaves, green beans and bacon. The crisp eggs looked fantastic and even more so when he cut into one and the yolk oozed out. His plate was wiped clean so I think we can safely assume that is was good!

I was in a fishy mood and chose the Grilled mackerel and miso, oyster dressing, shiso leaf and crispy squid, a surprise order from me as I usually avoid fusion dishes in modern European restaurants. However, this was quite pleasant with the grilled mackerel very tasty and sitting on top of an equally delicious remoulade-like salad. The crispy squid was not as I expected but was more like an extravagant spring roll like concoction with a squid filling – I liked it! The sauce, however, was too plentiful for something so strong and salty; I assumed this was the oyster dressing? It was difficult keeping it off the other more delicate parts of the dish. Less sauce please!

Blai followed with the Roast gurnard with creamed fennel, saffron potatoes and swiss chard and roasting juices. The fillet of gurnard came with an appetisingly crisp skin and sat on a delicious preparation of creamed fennel. I liked how nothing went to waste with the chard: the stems were cooked separately from the leaf and stacked quite pleasingly on top of the fish. Blai stated that the potatoes were some of the finest he’d had recently.

Again I chose fish with the Steamed plaice with mussel chowder, beurre noisette, spaetzle, chervil and samphire. And again I surprised myself – steamed fish?! This isn’t normal for me! This delicately prepared fish though was paired with a rich and creamy chowder with mussels and spaetzle noodles. I loved the salty samphire cutting through all that creaminess.

I had my eye on the Port roast plums with warm cinnamon beignets and creme fraiche ice cream since the beginning of the meal. The tender plums gave easily to the tines of a fork and the beignets were irresistably light. The creme fraiche ice cream was… not: it was just a quenelle of creme fraiche. What a shame – ice cream would have been lovely here. Still, it was a wonderful dessert.

The most refreshing thing on the menu was the Mango sorbet with citrus fruits, earl grey granita and passion fruit, which was exactly what Blai wanted. Surprisingly, there was a bit of jelly under the sorbet too which added yet another texture to this dessert.

Surprisingly, we both enjoyed this meal more than our recent one at La Trompette; we got the surprises and creativity in our meal that we had expected. If one thing could be improved, it would be the service, which was a little confused and scattered while we were there; still, nothing affected our lovely date night. With the 50% off voucher, dinner became about £50 for the two of us but this was a meal where we would have been happy to pay full price (not for everyday, of course, but for the occasional meal).

If cheese is more your thing than dessert, do check out Chris’ post on the restaurant from his recent visit too.

The Glasshouse
14 Station Parade
Kew TW9 3PZ

This dish really hit the spot last week. It’s getting cold, people, and I want warm food to fill my belly every night. Rice is something I do crave from time to time and nothing says weekday dinner like a one pot dish on top of white rice. Well, to me at least. That and pasta.

Anyway, you might recognise this dish as being a direct copy of what my brother ate at Taste of China in Leicester. Yup, I recreated the fish fillets with scrambled egg at home and it turns out it’s quite easy. The dish comes together as you’re cooking the rice and voila, dinner in 30 minutes with not much thinking involved. I find it odd that Chinese restaurants call it scrambled egg when I think of it more as an eggy sauce. I used two eggs here but you could definitely get away with one. Peas were added to make it a proper meal in one with vegetables. If you don’t want to use fish, you could use another meat or some leftovers or a mixture of other vegetables too; it’s quite a versatile sauce. Of course, it’s quite a delicately flavoured dish and if you need some pep, eat it with lots of chili oil!

(I’ve just discovered there’s a lot of similarity between this dish and another called mui fan, a seafood/meat/vegetables mixture in an eggy sauce on rice. Just add anything you like in there; it’s a great catch-all dish. If you are going this route, try sauteing some garlic first before adding the stock. Mmmmm….)

Fish Fillets with Scrambled Egg on Rice
serves 2.

2 fillets of a white fish like cod (I think I used coley)
600mL chicken stock (or vegetable, fresh or from a cube)
1 tbsp soy sauce
a handful or two of frozen petit pois
2 spring onions, chopped
1-2 eggs
salt and white pepper to taste
cornstarch to thicken
sesame oil
hot, cooked white rice for two

Pour the stock and soy sauce into a large saute pan and bring it to a boil. Add the petit pois and bring the stock back up to a boil. Reduce the heat and let the peas simmer until almost fully cooked. Meanwhile, cut the fish fillets into pieces and slip them into the pan when the peas are ready.

Beat the eggs well and when the fish has just cooked through, pour them into the saute pan, stirring all the while so that you end up with a kind of egg drop soup rather than chunks of cooked egg. You should have threads of egg throughout the broth and if you used 2 eggs, the broth will have thickened somewhat. Season with salt and white pepper and finally, use enough of a cornstarch slurry to thicken to your liking. Scatter the chopped spring onions on top and let the heat wilt them a little.

Drizzle with a few drops of sesame oil and pour on top of white rice. Serve immediately.

It wasn’t the smartest decision I’d made in a long while. In a show of great ambition two weekends ago, I figured I was going to have a South Indian breakfast along Ealing Road, an area I’d been meaning to explore more, prior to meeting a number of food bloggers and tweeters at Pacific Plaza for lunch. Location wasn’t a problem as Ealing Road was just a 15 minute walk away from Wembley; what was a problem was my lack of discipline in the face of lots of Indian food.

It was Sakonis that I decided on, partially on a recommendation and partially on their breakfast buffet, perfect for a lone diner like me. It costs £4.50 and is only offered on weekends and bank holidays between 9 and 11am.

And what was on offer? Masala dosas, puris, upma, potato curry, idlis, sambar, yogurt, gathia, a spiced cabbage dish, coconut chutney, jalebis, chai. It’s vegetarian, if you hadn’t figured that out already. (Click through the photos for notes on what each item is.)

While everything was spiced, nothing was very hot in terms of chili heat; everyone can partake in this Indian buffet. The dosas were still crisp but the potato filling inside was just ok – make up for this with the delicious potato curry. The sambar is lovely with it too as well as the puris and idlis (oh, by the way, an idli soaked in sambar is a wonderful thing). The cabbage dish on offer reminded me of a stir-fried Indian cabbage dish I cook at home with lots of mustard seeds. And I’m already thinking of my next visit when I’ll top a bowlful of potato curry with cold, fresh yogurt and lots of the crunchy gathia! It’s a great introduction to South Indian breakfasts.

The popular dishes were refilled quite quickly, every 10 minutes in the case of the masala dosas. One man put away at least 5 of them!

Two platefuls. Honest, that’s all I had. (Ok, ok, and a jalebi.)

Then why did my stomach refuse to take in any more food two hours later? (It’s most likely to do with the fact that I hardly ever eat breakfast most days.) We ordered a ridiculous spread at the Pacific Plaza food court and I didn’t really do it justice. I did better (read: consumed more food) towards the end of lunch though!

Sakonis
127-129 Ealing Road
Wembley
London  HA0 4BP

One free Saturday a few weeks ago had us scratching our heads and peering at our crumbling A-Zs as we had absolutely nothing planned. The weather wasn’t looking great but the thought of sitting at home didn’t appeal (and yet it sometimes does – don’t you love being curled up in front of the telly with the rain beating hard on the windows?). With the overground available that day (seriously, when’s the Sunday work on the Richmond-Stratford line going to finally finish?!), we opted for Hampstead, West Hampstead to be specific, as I suddenly remembered a restaurant I’d been wanting to try for a while – the Czechoslovak Restaurant.

The restaurant is located in the Czechoslovak National House, which is quite literally what looks like an Edwardian house, and situated here since 1946; the club itself was created for Czechoslovakian legionaries who fought for the British army and was originally established in 1939. The dining room itself looks like it hasn’t changed since 1946 with its patterned carpet and dark wallpaper. There were already a few people in the room when we went for lunch: a couple of elderly Czech gentlemen, two elderly German women who were cooing over their food, and a few Japanese tourists (how do they find these gems?!). Somehow I had a feeling we were going to eat well.

They stock a good variety of drinks, both alcoholic and nonalcoholic, from the homeland. We opted for the nonalcoholic Kofola (a soda like Coca Cola but much less sweet and more herbal) and Vinea (very similar to the Austrian Almdudler). I loved them both – very refreshing and unique. It may sound odd but we didn’t feel like we were in London any longer!

We skipped appetisers when we saw how large portions were (we peeked at what the ladies were eating) but it took us a while to go through the eclectic menu. I went with the Beef Goulash, beef cooked with onion and spiced with red paprika, marjoram and dumplings (£8.00) while Blai opted for the Czech club pork schnitzel, with garlic, fresh onion, sprinkled with cheddar and topped with Czech club BBQ sauce, garnished with pickled vegetables and potato salad (£9.00). That’s a lot of stuff on that schnitzel!

My goulash was a most comforting thick, mild paprika-rich stew of chunks of extremely tender beef and I wiped every bit of sauce from my plate with the bread dumplings (so different from German bread dumplings!).

Blai’s schnitzel wasn’t breadcrumbed like a traditional schnitzel but instead was coated in a crispy, almost greaseless batter; it was excellent. The Czech club BBQ sauce was more like a gravy than bottled Heinz to my relief and surprisingly, all those toppings didn’t detract from the deliciousness of the schnitzel. The side of chips though needed improvement; I’d try the fried potatoes as a side next time.

As we were eating, I overheard one elderly gentleman ask about a pancake with chocolate for dessert, without referring to the menu; he was obviously a regular. I imparted this new knowledge of the dessert offerings to Blai who immediately decided he was going to have the same. I knew already that I wanted their apple strudel.

And here were our desserts. The Pancake with chocolate and whipped cream (£4.00) …

… and the Apple strudel with ice cream (served hot with cinnamon, icing sugar and whipped cream) (£3.50).

You can’t see it in the photo but the pancake (thicker than a crepe) was filled with a delightful chocolate cream. Apparently, I didn’t show “respect” to the pancake when I half mauled it with my fork – sheesh; it was obvious that Blai loved it. The strudel held tender slices of fruit, much nicer than thick uncooked chunks that lesser strudels always seem to contain. I need to return to try their apricot dumpling.

This place is quite the gem and also turned out to be a pleasant place to pass a few hours if there’s a downpour outside (as it was for us). If you’re looking for Czech beers, there’s also a bar within the building.

ETA: Cash only!

Czechoslovak Restaurant
74 West End Lane
West Hampstead
London NW6 2LX

When I first read of the combination of yogurt and poached eggs, I was quite sceptical. Really? I just couldn’t get my head around the liquid yolk paired with the tangy yogurt. But then more recently, this photo on Flickr had me wondering again. The answer is a resounding yes as I decided to make it at home topped with a chili spiced melted butter for a light supper one evening. The original dish is called Çılbır and comes from Turkey though I’m not sure what time of the day it’s normally eaten over there; I imagine it’s excellent for brunch. Garlicky thick yogurt, poached eggs with centres of liquid gold, and chili infused butter, all mopped up with accompanying slabs of Turkish bread; proper Turkish Aleppo pepper was not used but it was still good.

In London, a version is available at the Providores and Tapa Room where whipped yogurt is use (I’ve not tried it). I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s also offered up in the many Turkish cafes in Dalston.

And this is what I put together at home; what follows is not so much a recipe as just general guidelines. If I remember correctly, we had a salad of chopped cucumber and tomato on the side to cut the richness.

Turkish Eggs with Yogurt

Allow at least two eggs per person. Poach them. Crush a small clove of garlic into a generous amount of plain Greek yogurt. Divide the yogurt between your serving dishes. In a small pan/pot, heat approximately 1-2 tablespoons of butter per person. When the butter has melted, add some hot paprika, allowing it to be cooked into the butter, colouring it a deep orange-red. Top the yogurt with the poached eggs and drizzle over with the melted butter.

I didn’t have anything green to sprinkle on top but I reckon chopped fresh mint or flat leaf parsley would be lovely. Serve immediately, while the contrast between the hot eggs and the cold yogurt still exists, with some Turkish bread or pita on the side to mop up the yogurt and yolk.