Roots Manoeuvre Curry with Swede and Leeks

I typically post about restaurants here, but there is always some serious cooking, and recipe testing going in our place. So, I decided to add the dinners we created starting with this curry recipe.

This is an Abel & Cole recipe - slightly modified. This was the first time we were cooking swede, and given that we got this root vegetable from Abel and Cole, it made sense to try their recipe first.
Their recipe is a generic root-veg recipe by the way, so it is possible to try with different vegetables and roots.

First ingredients:

• A few good splashes of oil
• 6 large handfuls of swede peeled and dices (or any root vegetable)
• 2 heaped tsps of cumin seeds
• 2 heaped tsps of coriander (I used ground, you can use seeds)
• 1 heaped tsp of fennel seeds
• 2 tsp garam masala powder
• 1 tsp of tikka masala paste
• 2/3 medium shallots, roughly chopped
• 4 large garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• A thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, roughly chopped
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin of coconut milk
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 leeks (or any other vegetable)
• A handful of fresh coriander
• 1/2 lime, juice
• Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celcius. Heat up a roasting tin/dish. 

In a bowl, coat your chopped roots with oil, salt and pepper. 

Add the roots to the heated dish, and roast for 45 mins. 

Toast the cumin and fennel seeds (and if you are using coriander seeds, them too). 

When they become fragrant, grind them to a rough powder.  Mix in the ground coriander and garam masala.  Add the chilli flakes.

Make a paste of onion, garlic, and ginger. 

Heat a splash of oil in medium temperature and fry the spices for a min. Add the onion paste. Stir for 5 mins. Stir in tomatoes. coconut milk, tikka masala paste and cinnamon sticks. 

Add the leeks. Cook around 10 mins. 

Then, add the swede simer around 20 mins. We cooked until the swede is al dante and the sauce is thick. 

Finished with lime juice, fresh coriander and a dollop of a yoghurt. 

Enjoy with some naan!

Babaji Pide Salonu, Piccadilly Circus, London

Address: 53 Shaftesbury Avenue, London W1D 6LB

WWW: http://www.babaji.com.tr/

Summary: A taste travel to Turkey

Pide is a comfort dish, and to tell the truth, besides a few occasions in my life, it is not a type of dish that I would look for and eat  specifically in a restaurant when I go out in Turkey.  And the best pide I ever ate was in Karadeniz Pide Salonu, in Beyoglu, Istanbul (http://www.karadenizpide.com.tr/iletisim.php)

However, I could not stop myself trying out the Babaji Pides. The location is spot on, and from the hustle and the bustle of Piccadilly Circus, it is just a pleasant escape to hide in the comforts of chewy dough and fresh toppings.
Comes right out of the oven, and accompanied by a sour cherry soda (or tea, if that is what you prefer), it is just the perfect answer to tired feet.  Only tried the vegetarian options this time, next sill be  the classic ground beef or meat cut in small pieces. And, yes, there will be definitely a next time.

  

Soho, London - Copita and Gellupo

I love Soho, it is vibrant, colorful - a place to find good food, delightful small specialty stores, and always always something interesting to look at around.

Today, we found two places for a spontaneous lunch around the area.

The first one was Copita, a Spanish Tapas place - http://www.copita.co.uk/
A very easy going place, good wine and quite delicious and different tapas.
We tried:
bread £2
roasted aubergine, hazelnut & tomato jus £5.45
truffled goat’s cheese, almond & honey £4.95
cured sardines, black olive & quince £5.10
octopus, potato & smoked paprika £12

Glasses of Red wines:
La Bascula Monastrell/Syrah 2012 (Jumilla) £4.95 £14.50 £29
Orto Garnacha/Carinena 2011 (Montsant) £5.95 £17.50 £35
Ribera del Duero (young: elegant & restrained, aged: both superb at price)
 Young: Quinta Milu Tinto del Pais 2012 £5.70 £16.50 £33

Truffled goat's cheese was a revelation - I think we are hooked. It really worked well with almond and honey and it was a generous portion. I also really liked the octopus - very very softly cooked, thought I imagined it coming with scalloped potatoes rather than a mash, not that I am complaining.
Roasted aubergine was less liked by others, but a Turkish person must have her aubergine! So, there you go, I did not imagine the roasted hazelnuts would make such a positive difference. I might try this at home.  The least exciting dish were the cured sardines, I did not very much taste the quince, it was overpowered by the black olive. Not bad, but not in the same league with the others.

We considered having desserts there - there were some interesting items in the menu - like a coconut cake and allspice icecream.

But the rest was, well, restless, so we ended up having our dessert in the nearby Gellupo http://www.gelupo.com/
Do not be scared away seeing the long queues - it moves pretty smoothly. We ended up having affogatos, which came with hazelnut icecream. And they were absolutely a delight, if you like your coffee and icecream and can't decide between the two! Other flavors we tried were cream and strawberry, good but more cream than strawberry. The other flavor was ricotta honey and coffee and that was very very good.

Soho has some delight in every corner but this pairing agreed with us very well. We'll come again!

Shoryu Ramen Soho, London

Address: 3 Denman Street London W1D 7HA

WWW: http://www.shoryuramen.com/

Summary:Oh glorious ramen!

We went to the Soho branch of this ramen paradise.
This is one place one has to visit again and again.
There are a variety of ramens, that would suit every taste. The broth is rich, filling, and I have to say that it serves to calm, nourish, and relieve stress after a busy day in the office.  But, before ramens, we tried the buns - well who can say no to 2 for 1. And those all another reason why we will come back to this place again, and again, and again.

Rasoi, London

Address: 10 Lincoln Street, Chelsea, London SW3 2TS
WWW: http://www.rasoi-uk.com/

Summary: Elegant and delicious Indian food, served in a great ambiance

We found this restaurant in the book "Quiet London" by Siobhan Wall. This was our first ever Michelin-starred Indian restaurant, and we were rather curious about it.
The owner Vineet Bhatia, says in their webpage: ‘I came to London with nothing but ambition and love of Indian food”
And that ambition and love you can feel in every bite.

We were a party of three and chose our dishes from the lunch menu. Each of us ordered two items (one main and one dessert), and were warned that this may be a too light lunch by our waiter. To tell the truth, we ordered one more savory dish not because we were hungry but we were greedy to have more of what they do so brilliantly here.

Our journey started with a nice amuse bouche, compliment of the chef. The idli was good, but we were excited more with that dollop of sweet and spicy sauce it was served with. It came together with a cold mint lemonade. Very very very tasty and it nicely cleansed our palate for our mains.

 
Two of us ordered the same main: Tandoori malai paneer, Bombay pav bhaji, sev
The pav bjahi had layers of flavors, starting first sweet and then ending nicely spicy. We were amazed how well designed each dish was - each bite had a different effect - crunchy from the tiny thin noodles, then the milky paneer, ending with a spice sensation of pav bhaji (apparently a Bombay street food).

 Steve went for a meat dish: Tomato-olive chicken, chicken cigaroll, dahi bhalla

Looked absolutely gorgeous. He enjoyed his chicken and cigaroll immensely but was not a big fan of dahi bhalla. For us, the cardamom taste in it was a joy.

We also ordered: Crushed samosa chaat with yoghurt and tamarind chutney, tangy chickpeas.
It turned out to be the best dish! And, we were so happy that greed took us over.

Finally the desserts: Chocolate samosa, chocolate caramelised nut delice, Slow cooked glazed carrot fudge, smoked cardamom set milk, Dark chocolate-rasmalai & white chocolate-malai kulfi

So elegantly presented, ever so tasty - I think it was the best ever carrot fudge I tasted. We accompanied everything with a glass of rose but Steve had an Indian red wine. While we were skeptical that the Indian wine may not deliver, it was again a pleasant beautiful surprise, and the rose drinkers regretted their decision.

This is absolutely a gem, very nice cozy setting - the dining rooms are parts of a victorian house. The serving staff is ever helpful, with suggestions, and the speed of service. Shame we cannot afford it every day (even the lunch), but would love to come here again for another special occasion.

Sampling Edinburgh

Burns in Parliement

We were in Edinburgh for a few days. We absolutely love this city, the restaurants did not disappoint either. 

Breakfast:

Red Squirrel
http://www.redsquirreledinburgh.co.uk/

We ordered the country breakfast (smoked back bacon, egg, pork sausage, baked beans, haggis, flatcap mushroom, tomato rye toast) and veggie breakfast (vegetarian haggis,egg, quorn sausage, baked beans, flatcap mushroom, tomato, rye toast) and buttermilk pancakes with berries and maple syrup. To tell the truth, it sounds better than it tasted.  Haggis was not my cup of tea (though I have nothing against its ingredients, and have consumed them cooked in various ways before). Vegetarian haggis was way tastier. The rest was nothing fancy - though we expected things to be looking and tasting fresher.  The buttermilk pancakes were interesting, much denser than the American style pancakes, but still went well with the maple syrup.

Loudon
http://www.loudons-cafe.co.uk/

The best breakfast ever! Egg benedict on English muffin and hollandaise sauce. Unimaginably beautiful fluffy and gluten-free pancakes with berries, and maple syrup. Fervently recommended as a relaxation oasis.

National Gallery Cafe
http://www.contini.com/scottish-cafe-and-restaurant

Very very good bakery options - delicious carrot cake with a beautiful cream, coffee and walnut cake with a rich frosting (a bit too sugary for me as all frostings are), and melt-in-the-mouth butter croissants served with respectable cappuccinos.

Dinner:

Henderson's of Edinburgh
 http://www.hendersonsofedinburgh.co.uk/

Our first night in Edinburgh, we are already charmed with this lovely vegetarian place and good friendly service. A variety options are available, I have a crepe with a roasted vegetable filling. Steve got a choice of three salads. Our friend got a vegetable tart - beautifully spiced.  Everything was very tasty, but the portions for the mains are not uniform. Also, salads, no matter how many are combined, remain an appetizer size. Then we had desserts: the best was a warm apple rhubarb pie.

Blonde
http://blonderestaurant.co.uk/

We stumbled on this place -and luckily they had a table for us. To wait for our mains, we decided to nibble on a shared single appetizer of Smoked tofu and mint koftas; rocket and pumpkin seeds; carrot jam. I loved the originality of this recipe, however, not all liked the koftas. However, we all appreciated the taste of the sauce they came with.  The mains were so delicious, especially my grilled sea-bass fillet; leek, green peas and smoked salmon risotto; saffron oil. The desserts are quite amazing too - with twists on the traditional such as banoffee pie with no bananas :), or the steamed banana and date pudding. But, the real winner was the wine, a Gewurtztraminer – Los Gansos, Chile.
Beautiful fruity tones, complemented every single dish we had.  What a lucky find this was!

Passorn
http://passornthai.com/

This time we had to make a reservation, guessing how full the place looked the previous night. Passorn means Angel, and this Angelic Thai place had only a single availability between 6-8PM.
So, the expectations were running high. Unfortunately, although it was indeed quite good, it just did not live up to expectations. First, the service is flawless, but in that flawlessness, there is something lacking in putting the client at ease. The food is indeed nicely spicy and beautifully executed, but just what one expects or imagines reading the description. So at the end, the place ends up being highly ambitious, but quite not there yet.

Grain Store, Kings Cross, London

Address: Granary Square, London, N1C 4AB
WWW: http://www.grainstore.com/

Summary: Takes time to grow on you

This was not my first time in Grain Store - the first attempt failed due to not having reservation, and the only availability being at 9 o'clock. Simply too late for dinner, we are not in Spain, after all. The second time, we had a reservation, and had a good meal and did not quite understand why we need to book so much in advance  for some dinner that fails to impress. The third time was the charm; again, we had no reservation but accepted to wait for 30 minutes, which passed fairly quickly in the bar area, as we progressed with a bottle of Chianti.

Then, we were seated fairly close to the kitchen area, to observe the madness there, as dishes were being prepared. We surprised our waitress as we ordered a crazy list of things, ranging from appetizers, to side dishes, and main course - all to be shared and so, all needed to come around the same time.

The kitchen managed this beautifully, and in no time, we were served a main course of lamb confit, cooked beautifully melt-in-the-mouth, paired with some cucumbers and sauteed onions. The onions were sweet and accompanied the lamb well. I liked the cucumbers but did not see why they are called pickled, when they did not really taste so.

The appetizer of cauliflower & pickled cucumber salad, seaweed & squid ink wafer, smoked cod roe was a joy. We had never something like that - the seaweed wafer was very interesting, and had that strong sea flavor I love about the seaweed. The smoked roe mashed very well with the cauliflower. The dish was somewhat sour for Steve, but I simply loved it.

The squash ravioli, chips, and dahl lentils also did not fail to please and were enjoyed well by us and our friend.

Overall we paid 80.21 pounds for three (32 for the wine, includes the service charge). Though the prices are reasonable in the Grain Store, I must warn the portions are small. One would need to order an appetizer, and a main course for sure, and there would be still some place for dessert. Though the sizes are small, the taste is very rich - and experimental in a good sort of way.

We would definitely come here again - but it seems it is always better to book in advance here if you cannot support the wait.