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Dinner with trends
God Save the Clam
God Save the Clam is a four-day foodie bender on a Hackney rooftop. As you might expect from the Pitt Cue Co. and Rock Lobsta boys, it’s simple, punky and cool as shuck. Book tickets here.
Carl Clarke, AKA Disco Bistro, is one of the most creative chefs in London. A self-confessed ad-hoc addict, Carl has played a massive role in London’s thriving pop-up restaurant scene. Last year he was crowned UK Chilli Champ, championed the lobster roll in Shoreditch and gave Dot Cotton a run for her money with The English Launderette. This year he’s smashed the Cornish Grill and Burger Monday, making sure he’s always a tough act to follow. Tom Adams opened Pitt Cue Co. in Soho just a few months ago and is working night and day to get the original food truck that started it all back on the road this summer. And that’s not to mention opening a second BBQ joint in east London later this year. Together, with help from long-term collaborators Adam Van den Bussche, Simon Anderson (Pitt Cue, The Albion) and David Wolanski (The Recipe), these culinary kings dreamt up the ultimate alternative Jubilee celebration: a four-day clam bake with sunshine, DJs and bucketloads of fantastic food.
“It’s gonna be a f—ing party on the roof. With food. It’s punk rock. We’re doing a clam bake on a roof, in Hackney, because we f—ing can.” – Carl Clarke
Carl worked in Savanna, Georgia, for a while, where clam bakes were common. “On Fridays they’d do an oyster and clam bake. It was always a good place to just hang out and have a few tinnies. I just want to recreate that, to bring people together to eat shellfish and get drunk.” A ticket for God Save the Clam gets you a starter of Pitt Cue smoked sausage links (served with burnt lettuce, smoked anchovy salad cream and dry rub fried toast), a huge bucket of baked clams, cockles, mussels, devilled crayfish and crab claws with a wide array of sides, followed by a choice of two dessert sundaes.
The Emigre Studios rooftop looms over London Fields
Former L’Enclume pastry chef Glyn Gordon will be dishing out the decadent desserts, including the Fat Elvis screwball sundae, consisting of peanut butter, bacon butterscotch, bacon lardons and bacon fat croutons. “I tasted one yesterday”, beams a wide-eyed Carl, “it is f—ing off the radar.” Diners will not only leave full but also with a souvenir mug and a set of temporary tattoos, inspired by the art of punk icon Jamie Reid, to commemorate the alternative Jubilee celebration.
“It’s gonna be a feast. Everything comes to share between two. It’s about getting stuck in and getting messy. That’s why we’re providing bibs!”
Aside from the clam bake, there will be a snack bar serving Pitt Cue pulled pork and fried shrimp po’ boys, blue lobster and pigskin popcorn (smurf n’ turf!) and lobster corn dogs — a concept which has taken 28 versions to perfect. In its current incarnation it’s a lobster sausage on a stick, dipped in corn batter and deep-fried and served in a soft white bun with gooseberry ketchup, lobster thousand island dressing and pickled samphire. “We’ve created a monster”, Carl grins.
Revellers can take shelter from the sun in the specially erected beach huts, while a flight of top DJs keep the party banging. Playing the tunes on the opening night is punk and reggae legend Don Letts, whose DJ sets at The Roxy are credited with bringing the two cultures together.
“Our food is a f—ing culture clash. This is the best time ever for food. Chefs that have worked in Michelin starred restaurants are starting to appreciate good, simple food. Really good things are happening in the industry. It really is the same ethic as punk rock. We’re not conforming, we’re doing things for the love of what we do.”
For my money, God Save the Clam is going to be the foodie event of the summer. Make sure you’re on that Hackney rooftop next weekend — get your ticket here now.
Cheapest Michelin Starred Restaurants – Where to go for lunch?
Another tasty infographic, this time from ‘friends of the blog’ The Train Line. Where does one find the most affordable Michelin starred lunch? The Hand and Flowers in Marlow, apparently.
Ribstock 2012
So, today’s the day. Ribstock. A veritable feast of ribs, served 15 ways by 15 top chefs. Throw some bourbon cocktails into the mix and you’ve got yourself a festival to do Soho proud. I’m going to be live blogging as much as possible (what will incapacitate me first? Whisky or pigs?) so do check below for updates throughout the day. Let’s go!
11:45 AM
I kick off #Ribstock with some Billy Franks ‘Christ on a Bike’ jerky, made with The Rib Man’s new extra-hot sauce. Creator Will Yates (below) models his first foray into Billy Franks merchandising!
12:55
Just arrived at #Ribstock. The venue is absolutely rammed and there’s a real festival atmosphere. The scent of all those quality ribs is intoxicating. Those lucky pigs!
13:00
Starting off with a Holy F- rib roll from The Rib Man. It’s so good. The hot sauce triggers instant euphoria (followed by mild panic two minutes later). I head swiftly to the craft beer stand for a Camden Pale Ale. It’s a great beer, and quickly defuses the ballistic heat of the naga jolokia peppers.
13:10
Redhook generates a healthy queue early on. Head chef Jeff Roxas-Green sure seems to know what he’s doing with his jospered ‘n’ jaxxed roxas racks. Jeff’s coleslaw (featuring pineapple, red onion, coriander, lime, honey, sesame oil and red pepper) is making him lots of new friends. I’ll return to this rib stand a bit later, I think.
13:25
A favourite emerges. Lucky Chip ribs! They’re so sticky and flavoursome and fall-of-the bone tender. They look stunning too, cut into near perfect rectangles. They’re the kind of ribs that you need to have a private moment with. They wouldn’t look out of place at a Roman orgy, dangled into the laurelled gobs of fourth century aristocracy. Or something. Now leave me alone with my rib!
13:45
Decent effort from Red Dog Saloon in Hoxton. The ribs are tender but not terrifically flavoursome. All the flavour is in the sauce, which is spicy and sweet.
14:15
Disappointing Tamworth baby back ribs from Ben Spalding. Flavourless and tough. They really could have done with brining for a few days prior to hitting the grill.
14:20
Essentially fine, but very mild tasting pit-smoked baby back ribs with coriander and chilli from Jamie Oliver’s Barbecoa. This saddens me. If you’re going to make a chilli and coriander rib then make sure it has heat and zeal. There’s none of either here. The staff are very attentive though if that counts for anything!
14:45
Three time UK Barbecue champion Andy Annat starts with a quick spritz of bourbon sprayed directly into the mouths of the baying punters. It’s a great omen for what look like the best ribs on the block so far. “It’s meant to go on the ribs but I think it tastes good enough to go straight into your mouths”, Andy grins.
15:50
Andy’s Memphis style St. Louis spare ribs are grilled over charcoal and cherry wood. Andy’s ribs have clearly undergone a thorough smoking, causing a prominent pink ring to form around the outside of the seriously tender meat. The glaze is perfect, glossy and cracks slightly as you sink your teeth into the succulent flesh. For me this is the Platonic ideal of a spare rib. And it doesn’t need any sauce either.
16:00
I’m pretty much close to being all ribbed out. But I need to dig deep and to try the Redhook ribs. Head chef Jeff tells me his belly pork ribs were hot smoked for about an hour in a Josper oven, over oak chips, before being braised in Jack Daniels and beef stock and finished on the barbecue. Oh my god. They’re ludicrously tender, and the inspired side salad is everything I could ever hope it to be. Lipsmacking stuff. The pineapple and coriander in the salad (it’s not really a slaw or a salsa is it?) galvanises the taste buds, bringing life back into a palette jaded by hours of swine dining.
16:15
My utility belt tells me ‘it’s to the bar, Batman’. The cocktails at Ribstock really are stupendous. Pint size concoctions are available at a very reasonable £5 each, the best of which are the Stonewall (Woodford Reserve, apple, fresh lemon and ginger beer) and the Floradora (Bombay Sapphire, lime, raspberries, fresh ginger and ginger ale).
16:45 Last ribs of the day, this time from Cabana. Unfortunately they’re crap. Perhaps because they’ve been cooking for a while, I dunno. But the sauce is inexcusable. My friend hits the nail on the head, “tastes like f— spaghetti bolognese on a rib!”
17:30 Ribstock host Richard Bacon recovers quickly from a ‘Porkstock’ gaffe.
17:40 Mr Bacon reveals the winner of the hot sauce competition: Tom Parker Bowles. Nice work Tom, your sauce is MENTAL. Tom remains modest about his simple sauce, made from scotch bonnet peppers, vinegar, salt and roasted tomatoes. “I am crap at most things but I do have faith in my hot sauce.”
Best Burger In London: Ben’s Canteen (SW11)
In the first of a series of posts on the city’s best burgers, I talk shop with Dave Ahern, head chef at Ben’s Canteen in Battersea. Dave is the creator of the revered BC Burger, a double dose of meat, consisting of a 21 day dry-aged Orkney topside patty topped with a thick slice of home-cured corned beef made from the same beast. The bovine brace is then topped with smoked cheddar and popped in a lightly toasted sourdough bun with lettuce, tomato and an original burger sauce made from ten different ingredients. An exciting mix of originality and familiarity makes this one of London’s best burgers.
Dave’s signature BC Burger is a Graduate-esque interruption of the holy union between pattie and bun. A glass thumping “ELAIN!” at the rear of the In-N-Out Burger church, in which many of London’s burger joints form the congregation. There’s nothing wrong with that kind of burger, Dave concedes, in fact he’s a fan of the ‘all American’ fare served up at places like Marylebone’s MEATliquor. But when he’s in the kitchen, he’s damn sure it’s his girl lookin’ all purdy on the pass (even if she does go home with somebody else). The BC Burger is an instant success story. It hasn’t changed one jot since the first one was served back on 6 December 2011. Now, upwards of 200 leave the kitchen every week. Make sure at least one of them’s yours.
Ben's Canteen's BC Burger with homemade corned beef
When Dave created the BC Burger he realised that it had to fit in with the Ben’s Canteen ethos, which is good British seasonal food, cooked to a high level (case in point their 42 aged beef board). Like many people, Dave likes bacon on his burger. But his signature sandwich had to be more skilful than that, more technical. Cue corned beef. And not your (still very lovely) dry mush in a can either. Real homemade, US style corned beef was required, made from 21 day aged rolled Orkney topside, brined in-house and cooked for six to eight hours before being chilled and thickly sliced. Placed directly on top of the patty, the corned beef not only adds texture and flavour, it also give the cheese a platform. “It means we can get more cheese on”, Dave grins, “it’s like the cheese has its own plate of corned beef to sit on.”
“Our patties are completely different to the competition’s”, he continues as I dislocate my jaw. For a start they’re bigger, as is everything else on the board by a good 15%, making for (together with a buck-ette of homemade skin-on chips) a very substantial meal. They’re also leaner. Most places uses an 80:20 ‘visual lean’, i.e. 80% meat to 20% fat, but Ben’s Canteen uses a leaner 85:15. “It’s riskier, in terms of keeping the patty juicy, but I think you get a better flavour from the beef.”
Two BC Burgers on the pass
At this point I’m invited to tuck in. The corned beef makes for a satisfying mouthful. Dave’s custom patty mix of coarse and medium ground beef gives the impression of hand-chopped steak, and cooked medium-rare it has almost a steak tartare mouth feel. The yielding corned beef has a pate-like softness. My teeth sink deep into the burger, leaving a classic cartoon chomp mark. Apparently this has a lot to do with the ageing process. The excess liquid has had a chance to evaporate, meaning the patty stays in a perfect disc and doesn’t swell up into a ball, making for an unstable construction. The burger breaks up where it should and doesn’t fall apart on your plate. “And you don’t have to wear a poncho to eat it!”
Not exactly a die-hard five-a-day fruit and veg man, it’s good to see real thought going into the greens. Each patty is rested on a thickly sliced tomato plinth. “I hate flaccid slices of tomato on burgers. It should be once slice, roughly the same size as the patty, maybe not as thick. If you have two thin slices one tends to fall out halfway through eating it. The burger should sit together and eat at the same pace.”
For me it’s the chargrilled scent, the winning aroma of scorched beef that heightens anticipation, and cranks up your appetite to ‘ravenous’, that sets the BC Burger apart. Each medium-rare patty has a thin dark crust and a rich pink middle. Without an actual char-grill Dave has had to improvise. A fine crust is created by cooking the patty on a very hot griddle and turning the patty 90 degrees before flipping it. It’s this crosshatching which creates an extra layer of char, as well as a lovely pattern, on the meat. It also evens out the cooking time (heat escapes very quickly when a burger is flipped), allowing each patty to be cooked in just three minutes – quite surprising for a burger this size. There’s also a top-secret (and very delicious) ingredient in the mince to keep it extra moist, but restaurant owner Ben tells me if I ever reveal it he’ll “destroy my life”. Dave chimes in, “seriously, we’ll kill you”.
The BC Burger 'special sauce' - can you guess all ten ingredients?
One of Dave’s ideologies is that everything should be tasted together, which is why he’s combined all his favourite burger flavours (and a few more outlandish ones) into one original burger sauce. “I absolutely loathe burger relish. Every half-arsed pub in the country does it. They boil a can of tomatoes for six hours with some vinegar and some sugar and think they’ve invented the wheel. Burgers should come with burger sauce, and, historically, they always did.” The BC Burger sauce is made up of ten ingredients (including three types of mustard!) and each one is there for a reason — to work alongside the beef.
This is a seriously considered five-star burger. I sincerely urge you to take one down.
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Valentine Warner at Pizza Express
This week I was invited to go and check out Valentine Warner‘s new pizza range at Pizza Express, meet Val, and have him show me how to turn my own hand to his creations. All very nice. Unfortunately I’ve been ill all week so I had to call for back-up. I sent my impish mate James along (he’s not on Twitter but he is on Instagram) to see how Val’s pizzas stacked up. I won’t tell you any more about James except he once wrote a “hectoring” e-mail to his university professor after getting a crap grade. – Adam
At the request of Noshable’s sickly head honcho I headed to Pizza Express for the launch of their two new star attractions, created by former Express waiter Valentine Warner (pleasingly the chain also counts A. A. Gill amongst its tray carrying alumni).
Whatsa matta with my base?
The launch was held in the basement of the High Holborn branch in which two long tables were laid out with twenty generous piles of flour and headed by six hefty bowls of tomato sauce. At the other end, the chef’s table, were the many ingredients for the toppings, but we mustn’t call them toppings as it makes ‘Val’ (we’re that close already) cringe. The restaurant laid on free drinks for the evening so after a couple of beers we’re all lined up at our stations and ready to flip and twirl our bases.
Only we’re not actually trusted with making the dough ourselves, which turns out to be a sensible decision at least on my part as my manipulation of the ball provided leaves one area too thin. At Val’s suggestion I try again. The second is better, but when one of the team wanders over to remove the duff one he actually crumples the good one into stringy uselessness, and I’m back to square one. Some time later and with help, I have one good base made by the guilty party and one of my own with holes in (this will taste better, surely?).
Val then takes us through the assembly process for each pizza and I’m already favouring the Puttanesca, traditionally a pasta sauce (translates as Whore’s sauce, couldn’t tell you why), the pizza-friendly elements of which Val has adopted. Anchovies, olives and capers jostle for position while an extra half ladle of sauce compensates for the lack of cheese. Background flavour comes from scatterings of thyme, fresh chilli and a drizzle of garlic oil. Once blasted in the oven, fresh oregano is applied (in my case by an eager Val while I was looking the other way) and it’s ready.
Val delivers a fresh bollocking.
The fennel and salami number, for which Val has had a fennel salami specially made by Trealy Farm charcuterie, is just as exciting. Fennel seeds, chilli flakes and garlic get comfortable under slices of the salami and as much mozzarella as you dare to throw on. Once given the heat treatment, and I can only assume Pizza Express works with serious ovens as this doesn’t take long, a hint of Grana Pandano – a hard cheese similar to parmesan – is added, followed by some fresh thinly sliced fennel tossed with rocket and a lemon oil dressing.
We’re somewhat pointlessly encouraged to tuck in. Happily we’re not given back the pizzas we made, so some poor soul at the table is by now wrestling with my pockmarked base as the one in my hand holds together. Both are brilliant, though contrary to the room at large I prefer the Puttanesca – there are too many things to love on there.
The final product. And some other bloke on the right whose blog I don't endorse AT ALL.
Val (nice chap by the way) slipped off to have dinner cooked for him by Nathan Outlaw, the lucky swine, but I was on a pizza high that lasted through the subsequent breakfast and lunch. He’s done himself proud with these two although a mention should go to the team at Pizza Express, particularly Development Chef Antenor Siqueira, who watched over Val with hawk eyes.
Next time you have a pizza craving, or indeed a Valentine Warner craving, find your way to Pizza Express – you’ll do well. – James
Perfect Roast Dinners #4 – Joe Mercer Nairne
Chef Joe Mercer Nairne has worked in a handful of the world’s finest kitchens, from Chez Bruce and The Savoy Grill in London to the antipodal Rockpool in Sydney. Just over a year ago Joe opened up his first restaurant, The Medlar, with David O’Connor (ex-front of house for the Michelin-starred restaurants The Square, The Ledbury and Chez Bruce). Light and relaxed, The Medlar serves good value, globally inspired French dishes to a fifty-fifty split of well-heeled locals and travelling foodies. This Sunday the Cornish Grill is delighted to have Joe and sous-chef Andrew Kyriakides take over the Redhook kitchen, where they will showcase their wonderfully creative – and truly original – take on the Great British roast dinner. BUY TICKETS HERE.
Chef Joe Mercer Nairn in the kitchen at The Medlar
Born in England, but raised in Scotland and Seattle, Joe led a fairly nomadic existence before he met his wife. It was then, eight years ago, that she introduced him to Cornwall and he began to appreciate the exquisite nature of the region, and its delicious, unstinting produce. It’s some 700 miles north in Scotland, however, where Joe’s formative roasts were served. “Most commonly it was chicken, because it was cheap I suppose, but I love roast chicken”, Joe tells me, between smacked lips. “Mum was quite a good cook. We always had mealy pudding and bread sauce.”
Joe’s fondest memories of roasts were in Scotland, when his mother would cook the prized local beef. It was something he’d miss dearly when the family upped sticks to the West Coast in the 80s, where the beef philosophy was ‘bigger is better’. It’s those halcyon Highland days that he’s trying to recreate on Sunday, this time with Cornish produce. And that’s not the only twist…
The roast will begin with a wonderfully accomplished plate of asparagus, served with soft, oozing, parmesan and butter seasoned polenta, St George mushrooms, a poached egg and shavings of Berkswell cheese. Berkswell is a nice, earthy, sheep’s milk cheese, which will tie together the burgeoning flavours of spring. It’s the sort of dish that The Medlar is known for, but it’s the main course where Joe is really going to get his kicks.
Duck egg tart with red wine sauce, turnip purée, lardons and sautéed duck heart at The Medlar
The Cornish Grill has always been an outlet for culinary creativity, as proved most recently by Tim Anderson’s five-spice rubbed rib of beef with Shaoxing wine gravy and Carl Clarke’s glorious venison with ‘Pitt Cue Co’ smoked pig fat roasties. Joe’s approach is no different, in fact, this might be the most iconoclastic Cornish Grill yet. Make sure you’re sitting down for this one. THERE WILL BE NO YORKSHIRE PUDDINGS. And, steady… NO ROAST POTATOES. Instead, Joe will rework those textures, flavours and ingredients back into the meal, pushing his nerve to the limit in the meantime. No goading on my part will draw him into competition with the likes of Alyn Williams for the perfect roastie. “I love roast potatoes, don’t get me wrong, but you can’t have them all the time!” And so is chuckled the final word.
The main surprise however is perhaps the type of cut that Joe has gone for. He’s taking the whole rump of 30 day aged Belted Galloway (purebred suckler beef raised on the lower reaches of Bodmin Moor) and cutting it into its different muscle groups. At the heart of it, he wants to surprise us, to shatter our associations of tough, flavourless, supermarket rump.
“Andrew and I thought it would be fun. We’ve gone for the rump because I think it’s got more flavour. You don’t get the benefit of the fat but the meat’s nicer. Everyone expects a fillet or a rib to be good, but if you have a really good butcher who’s selected really nice cows, and aged them well, bits like the rump are delicious.”
- Chef Joe Mercer Nairne
That said, Joe’s only human and, like the rest of us, has a lust for lipids. “We’ll certainly be serving it with a bit of fat. We’ll try to keep a bit of fat on the outside of the rump, if it looks nice, and render it down a bit.”
The meat will be served with in-season purple sprouting brocoli with toasted almonds and an anchovy vinaigrette, pickled walnut salsa verde (an influence from Andrew’s Greek-Cypriot heritage) and what Joe describes as a ‘butch’ potato salad. New potatoes are boiled first thing in the morning and left to marinade in celery, red wine vinegars and choice herbs. “It’s very tasty and, like the salsa verde, it has plenty of acidity. It all goes nicely together with the rich beef. Hearty stuff.” The Medlar is not known for skimping on portions, and this Sunday will be no exception. Joe will be serving his sides just as he does at home: a little on the plate, and lots more in big help-yourself bowls.
“It’s always a challenge to try to make something look pretty on the plate while giving enough food. I was always taught to be generous with the main ingredients.”
Now, I’ve deliberately left the last side for last, because I think you’re going to need to compose yourself all over again. Braised. Shin. Croquettes. Think the crunch of a fine roast potato, but with an inside of unctuous, melting meat. That’s where you’re at. The shins are braised in (lots of) red wine, port and vegetables, then removed from the pot and cooled, after which the meat shredded from the bone. The liquor is left to reduce by half before it’s returned to the meat as a thick, sticky glaze and together the mixture is rolled into boudins and hung in the fridge. When chilled the boudins are sliced into discs, breadcrumbed and deep-fried. If anything’s getting stuffed down my trousers this weekend, it’s these.
Headstrong and with the determination of a Special K model squeezing into her cereal-diet jeans, we proceed onto dessert. And boy does it sound good, and after the excitement of the main course, reassuringly simple, too. A generous slice of poached rhubarb frangipane tart with a quenelle of Cornish clotted cream. What could be more delightful? But its simplicity belies a great deal of technical skill, for it’s a ‘proper’ frangipane tart, you see. Real frangipane has no flour in it, just eggs, sugar, ground almonds and butter. It makes it more like a cake than a frangipane. The texture becomes too bouncy. “With a proper frangipane, if you push your finger into it after it’s cooked it will leave a finger print”, Joe corroborates. He’s leaving nothing to chance with the frangipane case either, opting for rich sable pastry, which has a biscuity, shortbread texture. “Some people would use other pastries, but for frangipane sable is definitely the best. It’s the nicest pastry to eat on its own too.”
So there you have it, a wonderful, button bursting Sunday roast fitting for a wet April’s afternoon. And if you’ll be recovering from Ribstock like me, the unlimited Grey Goose Bloody Mary bar and cocktail reception will be just what the doctor ordered. I hope to see you there!
The Cornish Grill Sunday roast will be served from 12.30pm on Sunday 29 April. There will no turning tables so take your time and enjoy the feast. Tickets cost £40 and include a cocktail upon arrival and unlimited trips to the DIY Bloody Mary bar. Buy tickets here. The menu in full:
THE MEDLAR – CORNISH GRILL
The Cornish Grill at Redhook
Sunday 29 April
Joe Mercer Nairn and Andrew Kyriakides
~
Grey Goose aperitif – Ruby Red Royale
(Grey Goose vodka, Ruby Red grapefruit juice, elderflower)
Grey Goose Bloody Mary buffet
(DIY your favourite or bartender’s best)
~
THE BEGINNING
Cornish asparagus and poached egg with soft polenta, St. George mushrooms and Berkswell cheese
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THE MIDDLE
Roast rump of Belted Galloway with braised shin, purple sprouting broccoli with toasted almonds and anchovy vinaigrette, pickled walnut salsa verde and a ‘butch’ potato salad
~
THE END
Rhubarb and frangipane tart with Cornish clotted cream
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Tea, coffee and chocolate truffles
Bubbas, Tulse Hill
Don’t let the dodgy decor put you off the good, fun food served up at Bubbas Caribbean restaurant in Tulse Hill.
Last month I was invited to the Bubbas open night for press and bloggers. Keeping my plantain craving in check, I gratefully accepted and headed undauntedly to Toulouse Hill (as neighbouring St Reatham-ites would have it) in London’s deep south. My jerk-loving plus one was to meet me at the station, which is happily right next door to the restaurant.
Somewhere on the Effra Road I got a Whatsapp message from my evidently more punctual mate: “It looks like someone’s opened a restaurant in EastEnders”. I wasn’t disappointed. Silver gilt framed mirrors, laminate flooring and a firmament of halogen-spot stars. It’s a kid’s art collage, where the only resources are Next and Maplin catalogues. Old friends beer and prosecco helped me compose myself. “They do things differently down here”, I acquiesced, double parked but thirsty for amends.
Thankfully the food was a vast improvement. At the open night the dishes were served buffet-style, which meant you had to be quick and elbowy. I am both of these things when it comes to communal eating. The goat curry, saltfish canapes and various filled roti flatbreads were devoured upon arrival. ‘Modern’ touches in the kitchen were far better received than outside it, with the jerk chicken scotch eggs going down very well indeed. Rounding the evening off with forty thimblefuls of rum punch I headed northwards to greener pastures (Clapham Common), having had a very nice time indeed.
Fried prawn and okra balls at Bubbas, Tulse Hill
I was keen to get back to Bubbas and try the full three-course experience, and did so a few weeks later on a very quiet Tuesday evening (fair enough). My date opted for fried prawn and okra balls to start, which were very tasty. I was concerned that the okra would struggle against the fishiness of the prawns but the balls were pleasantly well-balanced.
I had the jerk chicken tulips, which were well spiced with a good amount of heat. The chicken came away from the bone easily in one piece and was pretty tender considering the size of each morsel. The blinis looked homemade and very un-blini-like. A truer menu would have them as ‘stodgy discs of unlovely Mighty White‘. A smear of beetroot emulsion made them just about worth pursuing. As did the house dips and chutneys, which were uniformly excellent. Jerk ketchup had bite, apple and chilli chutney had fire and zing, and the mango chutney was light and fresh and a thousand times removed from the lurid orange gunk you get in your local curry house (WHICH I SECRETLY LOVE).
Jerk chicken tulips on blinis with beetroot emulsion
My date’s main course of goat curry was served in an oversized tuile, created by deep-frying a spring roll casing wrapped around a cocktail shaker. In the hot oil the casing is pushed upwards and outwards, creating a rather attractive budding flower shape into which the curry was served, topped with edible flowers. The goat curry wasn’t sloppy at all, meaning the tuile could be packed full of the tenderest chunks of slow-cooked meat. Garlic and ginger led the spices, with smouldering chilli bringing up the rear. To either side of the tuile was a teaser of a side. To the left was a perfectly nice tranche of plantain, which had the appearance of a mini tree trunk. To the right was essentially a guacamole. A fine palate cleanser and delicious in its own right, if a little out-of-step with the rest of the dish. “I like different things on a plate”, head chef Anthony Cumberbatch explains, poking his head out of the kitchen, “I want to taste lots of different flavours on the plate”. In this instance, I’m sold.
Goat curry with edible flowers, plantain and an avocado puree
At this point I’ve got to say something about the music. IT’S BRILLIANT. Classic R&B from Heavy D & The Boyz (thank you Shazam) to vintage Timbaland and Luther Vandross. JLS sneaked in but I’ll gloss over that. Poison!
So yeah, back to the food. I had the drunken pork loin, which was a bit of a lightweight to be honest. Any boozy flavours (I guess it was supposed to be rum) were lost on me. But it was a tasty bit of meat, with caramel and classic barbecue flavours, kept moist by a decent cloak of fat. This is authentic Caribbean grub. How Anthony imparted oil drum barbecue smokiness in a conventional kitchen I don’t know. It’s enough to take you back to Carnival. Like everything else I tried the spice levels were just right. An accompaniment of saltfish, ackee and trout roe vinaigrette wasn’t without its merits but the rather flat beetroot ravioli was not only incongruous but flavourless too.
Drunken pork loin with saltfish and ackee, trout roe vinaigrette and a beetroot raviolo
Desserts were extremely pretty, and were mostly without fault. Her opposite had a mango strudel, which smelled nice and strudel-y but the pastry was too heavy and had an almost savoury whiff about it. The vanilla ice cream was gorgeously creamy with a powerful vanilla bean hit.
Mango strudel with vanilla ice cream
I only had room for the exotic fruit plate, which was absolutely beautiful. There were chunks of pineapple, redcurrants, cape gooseberries cleverly contrasted with fresh mango sorbet and a ‘drunken’ pear (this is more like it!), soaked in rum with nutmeg and cinnamon. A fine dish to finish the meal off with.
Exotic fruit salad
Bubbas is doing a lot of things right. Anthony is a wonderful talent in the kitchen and an extraordinarily creative chef, if perhaps a little too outlandish. The service is perfectly polite, if a little stuffy. If the restaurant can achieve a degree of consistency it should establish itself as south London’s go-to Caribbean spot for when you want something a bit more special than jerk chicken, rice and peas. Walford chic.
★★★
Three course dinner for two with beers costs around £80. Bookings tel: 02086744114
Bubbas, 7A Station Rise, Tulse Hill, SE27 9BW.
Follow @BubbasDiningPerfect Roast Dinners #3 – Tim Anderson
Chef Tim Anderson was a London publican (via Wisconsin, USA and Japan) when he won Masterchef, which changed his culinary life forever. Since winning the competition he’s designed an ambitious burger menu at the Brewdog pub in Camden, helped develop a number of beers for the brewery of the same name, created an entirely porky pop-up and has a long list of exciting kitchen adventures in store for 2012. First up, the Cornish Grill at Farringdon’s Redhook on Sunday 1 April. Photos by Paul Winch-Furness. BUY TICKETS HERE.
"People expect something different from me. I think they'll really enjoy my take on a roast dinner"
As an outsider to the British staple meal, Tim has two interesting perspectives on the perfect roast dinner. The first is of total reverence. “Roast dinners are easy to fall in love with”, he tells me, yearning to wax lyrical about his love affair with ‘meat and two veg’, which began at The Plume of Feathers in Greenwich. “It was just a basic roast really — a rolled pork belly stuffed with prunes, apple and sage. Simple stuff but really, really good.”
With half a mind not to pigeonhole Tim as ‘the slider guy from Masterchef’, I asked him if he had considered flipping the Cornish Grill on its head and creating a roast dinner in a burger. “That’s not a bad idea, actually”, he nods wistfully, “but when it comes to roast dinners, if you’re not serving a big hunk of pink meat you’re going to disappoint a lot of people.”
Tim’s other philosophy on roast dinners could only be that of a non-native. ”One of the things I like about Yorkshire puddings, and roast dinners in general, is that they’re a blank slate for flavour. A lot of Brits are purists about roasts, and that’s understandable, but I like that you can put whatever flavours you want in a Yorkshire pudding and you can rub your meat with whatever you like and flavour the gravy however you like. That’s fun for me.”
Like most weekly roasters in these fair isles I’ve never actually rubbed my Sunday joint with anything. Studded with garlic and rosemary, or brined with bay leaves and star anise, yes, but never rubbed. All of a sudden I feel as if I haven’t lived. I expect this is how most people feel after ten minutes with Masterchef’s zaniest graduate. He senses my trepidation. “I’m not going to go crazy with the five-spice rub. Used sparingly five-spice just makes the meat more savoury. They’re not flavours that are foreign to Western cooking.”
It’s a roast, Tim, but not as we know it
Tim tries to convince me that the Yorkshire pudding for his Chinese-influenced Cornish Grill roast dinner is a ‘normal’ one, ‘normal’ clearly a relative term when in his company. “It’s going to have lots and lots of Szechuan peppercorns and a little bit of garlic run through the batter”, he elaborates. The menu is beginning to make sense. There’s something about the crunchy, light texture of a good Yorkshire pudding and the punchy flavours of Szechuan cooking that just works (think of a zingy, piquant prawn cracker). Szechuan peppercorns also have that numbing, buzzy, electrical shock feeling (what the Chinese call málà), which makes the perfect counterpart to Tim’s rich gravy, made from sweet, sherry-like, Shaoxing wine. The roast potatoes will be getting the Szechuan treatment too, with chilli oil lacing the cooking fat to give it a bit of a kick.
"Roast dinners are a blank slate for flavour"
The starter of scallops, bacon, black pudding and apple is a modern classic that affords Tim the opportunity to flex his creative muscle. Fans of big seafood flavours will be also pleased to know that the coral from the scallops is to be dehydrated and made into a really rich scallop stock. ”I’m not going to give too much away,” Tim gleams, “it’ll be a surprise, hopefully, if I can pull it off!” Expect some Masterchef trickery worthy of the April Fools’ Day timing.
As for the dessert, “what you see is what you get”, Tim affirms, “It’s a straight panna cotta, with coffee sauce, nice chocolate crumbs and some good old spun sugar.” A twinkle in his eyes belies all the straight-talking. Could it really be a conventional roast dinner that Tim is offering? At last he surrenders, “I’m going to play with the flavours, but not the format. Usually I do the opposite! No, actually I do both, haha!”
The Cornish Grill Sunday roast with Tim Anderson will be served from 12.30pm on Sunday 1 April. There will no turning tables, allowing you to take your time and enjoy the feast over the course of the day. Tickets cost £40 and can be bought here. Don’t miss this opportunity to enjoy a unique take on ‘the Great British roast’, cooked by a Masterchef madcap. The menu in full:
MASTERCHEF WINNER – TIM ANDERSON
The Cornish Grill at Redhook
Sunday 1 April
Tim Anderson
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Grey Goose aperitif – Ruby Red Royale
(Grey Goose vodka, Ruby Red grapefruit juice, elderflower)
Grey Goose Bloody Mary buffet
(DIY your favourite or bartender’s best)
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STARTER
Scallop with bacon, apple and black pudding
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MAIN
Five spice-rubbed rib of beef, Szechuan Yorkshire Puddings, chilli oil roasties and Siaoxing wine gravy
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DESSERT
Vanilla panna cotta, spun sugar, toffee sauce, cocoa crumbs
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Tea, coffee, chocolate truffles
Guice green smoothies
London is a growing city of foodies (and a city of growing foodies) and there’s no doubt that we’re more adventurous than previous generations when it comes to tackling ‘interesting’ foods. However, there are certain flavour combinations that most of us struggle to get our heads and tongues around. Guice (pronounced ‘juice’ – the ‘g’ referring to the goodness within the freshly squeezed concoctions) is a Brixton-based start-up undaunted by such trepidations…
Guice owners Kordel and Aisha came across their unusual smoothie recipes, green in colour due to the addition of avocado and spinach, quite by accident when they were given a blender and a recipe book as a housewarming present. “Yuck!”, was the pair’s reaction when they first thumbed through the enlightened tome and I’m afraid that’s what my friends thought too. Heathens all of you!
OK so it does look like pea soup and it does have a certain gloopiness due to the fibrous nature of some of the raw ingredients but don’t let that deter you. These are some of the tastiest smoothies I’ve ever had. And if you need more convincing you’ll be pleased to know that spinach and avocado, whilst offering lots of mineral goodness in the way of iron, calcium, potassium, and magnesium, only accounts for about 16% of the total smoothie content.
The drinks smell ever so fresh, kind of like ripe kiwi fruit. The banana, avocado and spinach version is basically a bucked up pineapple juice, rescued from the sickly sweet cartoned doldrums of kids’ packed lunches. I felt so vital after downing one of these I was ready to hail a cure for the common cold. The mango, avocado and spinach flavour smelt much the same but with an energising tartness brought to the foreground by the interplay of mango and lime. As always I sacrificed some of my newfound nectar to my good friend and fresh food and deli manager at Fortnum & Mason, Jenny Cromey-Hawke.
“This is a great smoothie. It’s not too sweet and the mango, avocado and spinach flavour is the perfect palate cleanser.”
- Jenny Cromey-Hawke
Jenny was right, the Guice smoothies are fantastic palate cleansers and that gave me an idea. Quickly I rummaged through the cupboards for the most formidable foodstuff I could unleash on my tastebuds. Voila, Billy Franks’ ‘Holy F—’ flavour beef jerky, made with The Rib Man’s fiery signature sauce. Chops aflame I took a glug of the banana, avocado and spinach smoothie and boy, this stuff’s good at putting a fire out! An instantaneous extinguisher. A veritable minus 10 on the Scoville scale.
We got through Nutella pizza and jellied eels didn’t we? So step up and give these delightful smoothies a go!
Guice green smoothies are available at selected stores across London, including The Village Store in Walthamstow, priced at £1.99 a bottle.
Jerk Beef Wellington Recipe – Anthony Cumberbatch
Anthony Cumberbatch is head chef at Bubba’s Caribbean restaurant in Tulse Hill, which serves Michelin-influenced Caribbean cuisine with a British twist. Having sharpened his skills in prestigious kitchens at The Ivy and The Savoy, Anthony is hoping to bring culinary brilliance to the oft-overlooked area of south London he calls home. He’s cooked for stars such as George Clooney and Mick Jagger, and with his affable personality and winning smile you’d be forgiven for thinking he was part of the Hollywood firmament himself. Do try one of his signature dishes at home.
Chef Anthony Cumberbatch
Anthony Cumberbatch’s Jerk Beef Wellington (serves 4)
Ingredients:
- 1 kilo of beef fillet
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 250g/ 9oz chestnut mushroom, include some wild ones if you like
- 50g/ 2oz butter
- 1 large sprig fresh thyme
- 100ml/3.5 fl oz dry white wine
- 12 slices prosciutto
- 500g/ 1lb 2oz pack puff pastry, thawed if frozen
- A little flour, for dusting
- 2 egg yolks beaten with 1tsp water
- 1/2 onion diced
- 2 cloves of chopped garlic
Jerk Seasoning:
- 1 tbsp of all spice (ground)
- 1 hot pepper (scotch bonnet)
- 2 spring onions
- 1/2 onion (chopped)
- 1 garlic clove
- 1 tsp of ginger
- 1 tsp of thyme
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1/2 tbsp lime juice
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
Method:
- In a blender or food processor blend all ingredients to a smooth paste.
- Rub the jerk marinade onto the beef fillet and place to one side.
- Heat oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Sit the 1kg beef fillet on a roasting tray, brush with 1 tbsp olive oil.
- Then roast for 15 mins for medium-rare.
- Remove from the oven to cool, then chill in the fridge for about 20 mins.
- While the beef is cooling, chop chestnut (and wild, if you like) mushrooms as finely as possible so they have the texture of coarse breadcrumbs. You can use a food processor to do this, but make sure you pulse-chop the mushrooms so they don’t become a slurry.
- Heat the olive oil and butter in a large pan and fry the mushrooms on a medium heat.
- Add the fresh thyme, for about 10 mins stirring often, until cooked.
- Season the mushroom mixture (this is now what’s known as ‘duxelles’).
- Add the dry white wine and cook for another 10 mins until all the wine has been absorbed.
- The mixture should hold its shape when stirred.
- Remove the mushroom duxelles from the pan to cool and discard the thyme.
- Overlap two pieces of clingfilm over a large chopping board.
- Lay the slices of prosciutto on the cling film, slightly overlapping, in a double row.
- Spread half the duxelles over the prosciutto.
- Sit the fillet on it and spread the remaining duxelles over.
- Use the cling film’s edges to draw the prosciutto around the fillet.
- Then roll it into a sausage shape, twisting the ends of cling film to tighten it as you go.
- Chill the fillet while you roll out the pastry.
- Dust your work surface with a little flour.
- Roll out a third of the puff pastry to a 18 x 30cm strip and place on a non-stick baking sheet.
- Roll out the remainder of the puff pastry to about 28 x 36cm.
- Unravel the fillet from the cling film and sit it in the centre of the smaller strip of pastry.
- Beat the egg yolks and brush the pastry’s edges, and the top and sides of the wrapped fillet. Using a rolling pin, carefully lift and drape the larger piece of pastry over the fillet, pressing well into the sides. Trim the joins to about a 4cm rim. Seal the rim with the edge of a fork or spoon handle. Glaze all over with more egg yolk.
- Using the back of a knife, mark the beef Wellington with long diagonal lines taking care not to cut into the pastry.
- Chill for at least 30 mins and up to 24 hrs.
- Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6.
- Brush the Jerk Beef Wellington with a little more egg yolk and cook until golden and crisp — 20-25 mins for medium-rare beef.
- Allow to stand for 10 mins before serving.
