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Dive right in. Bentley’s Seafood Grill at Harrods
A struggle to get onto at my age
Richard Corrigan is holding a champagne glass, it’s just an ordinary champagne glass but in his giant paw it looks like something from a dolls’ house. Larger than life he stands out even in a Harrods Food hall thronged with press people going Darryl Hannah ‘Mermaid’ on his seafood.
It’s the press launch of Bentley’s Sea Grill at Harrods, and with the iconic store now closed for the evening we’re free to sit and eat anywhere in the hall. Plates and plates of beautiful native oysters appear. Naked but for a shot of lemon juice, they’re some of the finest oysters I’ve eaten anywhere.
Rock oysters come out with a Vietnamese dressing of shallots and fish sauce, while other oysters come with plenty of butter and garlic and baked in the oven, making the flesh velvety textured and a bite to savour slowly.The seafood swimming by has my eyes on stalks, rather like the enormous langoustines that come just boiled and ready to be dredged in a classic Marie Rose Sauce.
Salt and pepper squid with mayonnaise is perfectly fried, the squid tender and the batter crunchy. Grilled head-on large prawns have been split, but not separated. Spiked with chilli they come roaringly hot off the grill and I burn my fingers tearing into them for the meat, but it’s worth the pain.
Your man himself
Salt cod ‘Scotch Eggs’ are served in egg cartons, fish and chips with mushy peas and plaice goujons both come in paper cones. Smoked salmon from Bentley’s own smoker is served in chunks, so you get something serious to chew on. Oh and there’s lobster and dressed crab and champagne too, so no one goes hungry or thirsty.
Of course this new place isn’t going to be cheap, no one goes into Harrods looking for a bargain do they. On the other hand the quality of the seafood is clearly second to none and it’s a fun place to eat.
Richard weaves his way magnificently through the throng beaming his head off. I tell him I am finally stuffed, I can eat no more. ‘You can never eat too much seafood!’ he roars cheerfully.
Bentley’s Seafood Grill is the third London opening in Richard Corrigan’s London restaurant portfolio, which also includes the first Bentley’s Oyster Bar and Grill and Corrigan’s Mayfair.
The menu also features the Bentley’s classic Royal fish pie, a dish first served at the Queen’s 80th birthday as part of the BBC series Great British Menu. A choice of desserts includes dark chocolate mousse and crème brulée and the wine list will focus on the Old World.
Canapés -Victoria Blashford-Snell and Eric Treuille
It’s what your fingers are for.
‘Ooh canapés, how posh!’ it’s a line from Abigail’s Party and if it isn’t it really should be. How many times have those of us of a certain age been offered canapés, normally not nearly enough of them, and what’s more impossible to eat without redecorating the carpet?
Canapes my mother always called them, steadfastly refusing to honour the acute accent and silent ‘s’. From the pineapple chunk on a cocktail stick, to the life threatening vol au vent, canapés were the 70’s on a plate.
Maybe it’s time to think again, after all there’s nothing wrong in theory in lots of pretty nibbles, and the splendidly named Victoria Blashford Snell, along with co-author Eric Treuille may be the people to lead a revival.
They first wrote this book in 1998 but since then tastes and trends have changed and more options are on the menu. Even so V B-S sticks to her avowed policy of keeping the canapés easy enough to make and eat while still looking good and delivering a bit of a ‘wow’. Read more…
Rodda’s clotted cream. Don’t save it for scones
The thick of it
The unannounced arrival of a big tub of clotted cream in the office, courtesy of Rodda’s, causes consternation. Some staff want to organise a working group to go out and get scones. Others want the working group to go out and get scones so they can eat the cream while they’re gone. It’s worse than heroin for turning decent people into sly crims, this stuff.
The sconners prevail after solemn swearing by the rest of us not to raise a spoon until they come back. And so it is that we all sit down to some scones, cream and jam on a sunny afternoon in Carnaby Street.
It’s lush stuff this, I love the oily yellow crust on top that heralds the thick joy beneath. I’m from a generation that only ever got clotted cream when as kids on holiday in Devon. In my memory I ate it wearing grey shorts sitting next to girls who wanted to be boys. Enid Blyton has a lot to answer for in my opinion. Read more…
Woking it at School of Wok
The prep
‘It’s more of a gentle movement really,’ says Jeremy Pang moving swiftly out of range as I attempt to redecorate his class kitchen with the contents of my wok. ‘A gentle push forward and then a flick. Just relax’, he adds as I spatter some more onion about the place.
I’m actually cooling down the wok’s contents. You don’t adjust the flame under a wok if things get smoky, you just lift it off the hob for a moment and flick the contents over, it’s enough to dump the excess heat before the wok goes straight back on for more sizzling.
Many of us have a wok in our kitchen, for some it’s a white elephant, largely unused and taking up space. But even those of us who fancy ourselves as hard wokers, rarely get the all-important technique right. ‘People end up braising food in the, wok not frying it, because they don’t know how to keep things moving and keep the heat high,’ Le Cordon Bleu trained chef Jeremy explained earlier as he prepped the simple ingredients: sliced chicken thigh, red pepper, onions, cashews and spring onions with plenty of Szechuan peppers. The last would deliver a citric tang and a strange numbing sensation on the tongue but, despite their name, no heat at all. That was to come from a big bowl of sliced birds eye chillies. ‘You like chilli?’ enquired Jeremy as he sliced away, ‘that’s good!’.
The flip
The class kitchen at School of Wok is smart and shiny, at least when no one is scattering food about. Induction hobs in the main, perfectly ok for woks when fitted with a small stand, and a fabulous AEG induction wok hob, basically a large depression in the work surface, that I immediately want to have at home as it’s so sexy and perfect.
‘The order of preference for home wok cooking I’d say is gas first, then induction, then electric,’ says Jeremy, his large cleaver making short work of some spring onions. ‘I’ve carried out wok classes in peoples’ homes and really there is nothing that won’t work, although with electric a flattish-bottomed wok’s best, but not,’ he adds sternly waving the cleaver for emphasis, ‘one of those completely flat bottomed ones, you can’t move the food around properly in those.’
They carry out cookery courses non stop at School of Wok, including day long Chinese cooking lessons and Vietnamese evening lessons too, but I’m taking the one hour Quickfire Wok lesson designed to get some vital skills learnt in less than a lunch hour. ‘We prep, you cook,’ Jeremy told me as I strapped on my apron. ‘We want you to get properly hands on with the wok, so we prepare everything in advance, but I will show you how to marinade the chicken properly.’
The Grind
The thigh meat is his meat of choice, he laughs off my suggestion of breast. “In Chinese cooking we tend to use that more for stocks, it doesn’t have the flavour for main dishes we find. And thigh meat is cheaper, anyway.’ He adds Sesame oil, sugar, Chinese 5 spice, and light soy sauce to the meat and then some cornflour. ‘Just enough to make the marinade look creamy,’ he explains. ‘We don’t add the cornflour at the end of cooking as some people do, that makes the sauce thicken okay but it doesn’t make the chicken crispy which is what we want here.’
And so to wok, using a ladle for everything is handy and saves on washing up. I get some oil, never sesame or olive oil; they have too low a smoke point and will burn long before they reach the high temperature required. Jeremy advises drizzling the oil down the sides of the wok in a circular motion and then watching for the smoke. As soon as it gets to that point, in goes the onion and red pepper. I stir the way Jeremy advises, pulling the veg from back to front using the ladle edge so that everything is evenly exposed to the heat. After a few minutes the veg are pushed to the back of the wok and more oil added before adding in the chicken garlic and peppercorns.
I bring the veg back on top of the chicken so they are protected from too much cooking and when signs of excess heat occur I do the ‘flip’, soon I’m getting quite good at it and feeling very professional and confident. Once the chicken is golden, in goes chilli paste, rice wine and soy sauce, the fresh chillies and cashew nuts. Job done.
The result
To go with it I make fried noodles after Jeremy explains to me how to deal with dried noodles, and that in itself is an eye opener. Adding Chinese greens and bean sprouts I cook them all fast and furiously, then add some dark soy sauce and serve the two dishes up. Although I say it myself, it’s delicious and photographer Al is impressed as he chases the cashews about with his chopsticks.
You can read books, you can watch TV shows but nothing beats hands on experience with an expert at your side every step of the way. Now I can do the flip and understand wok cooking on a visceral level, I’ll be getting the wok out more regularly in the week. Wok on!
schoolofwok.co.uk 61 Chandos Place, WC2N 4HG
We check out the Leisuregrow 100 BBQ. Dragon’s Den’s loss is our gain
The beast in the publicity shot
Like many a male I spent last weekend putting up a barbecue, driven to it by the rare sight of sun and a nagging family. Normally we just wheel out our trusty Weber charcoal BBQ but this this time we’d been persuaded to try a gas one supplied for testing – the Leisuregrow Grillstream 100 and just in time for National Barbecue Week too.
Now like most food fans I’ve always rather looked down my nose at gas BBQs. If you’re going to cook on gas, you might as well cook in the kitchen, has been my argument. A gas BBQ won’t give you that unique flavour, nor can you smoke so well inside it .Food that is, not you and 20 Marlboro.
On the other hand, there is the fact that a charcoal BBQ can be a right pain to light and in any case needs lighting a good 45 minutes before cooking can commence, something which makes it all too much of a fuss for weekday cooking.
Enter the dragon
This particular gas BBQ also had something special to recommend it; Grillstream technology.It was this clever idea that won approval in Dragon’s Den and went on to win a licence for factory fitting to Leisuregrow BBQs. To survive the den and emerge not fatally holed below the waterline is rare, to come out with a bright future even rarer. Read more…
Windsor Burger. Fit for a Queen?
Now I am no burger nutcase, I mean I like a burger now and then just like most people, but I don’t go all weak at the knees or gabble uncontrollably when I hear of another ‘restaurant’ that intends to serve up minced meat in a bun. Maybe it’s my age, when I was a young man burgers were still the food of people who had crude tastebuds and saw food merely as fuel. Americans we tended to call them.
Gourmet Burger Kitchen were not, I think, the first to try and raise up the burger’s image in order that middle-class parents could surrender to their kids peer-fuelled cravings without having the shame of being seen in Maccy D, but they were among the first. Clean wholesome places with no anti-drug lighting in the loos and quality meat on the griddles and sourced from good, traceable places.
Today GBK don’t really figure on the burger foodies’ radar; too chain, too unhip, but they carry on feeding normal people and doing it very well. Getting in the spirit of Jubilee. they’ve partnered up with the Royal Farms in Windsor to create a limited edition burger available for a restricted time only across all GBK restaurants from May 28th.
The Royal Farms in Windsor produce some of the finest beef in the UK and The Windsor is the only burger to be made from The Royal Farm’s world famous Sussex cattle reared in the grounds of Windsor Castle, with the meat then hung and aged to get extra flavour and tenderness.
Only the best grade cattle are selected and the meat is aged on the bone for the maximum allowable time. Each burger is fully traceable and made using a specific blend of chuck steak, short rib and brisket.
The Royal Farm’s beef is in finite supply, one doesn’t want all one’s cows going to the plebs obviously, and so The Windsor won’t be around forever unlike our dear dear Queen. It’s priced at £11.95 and available throughout the Diamond Jubilee and the Olympics until they are all gone.
I tried a preview and it was certainly how I personally like a burger; not too rare in the centre, just blushing slightly, and with the outside pretty well sealed. The brioche bun was naked but for some mustard mayonnaise, and the lettuce and tomato were outside so you had the option of adding it or not. Personally I cannot stand burgers that have everything but the kitchen sink inside them, I want to taste the meat not a hodge podge of ingredients all mashing together in a gloopy mess that goes down my shirt sleeves. The Windsor is much more of a sandwich, simple and unadorned. Mind you I do like a gherkin.
GBK do a nice range of sauces/dips for your chips, although our skinny fries were so anorexic they hadn’t the strengh to survive dipping and we’d have been better off with the thicker options. GBK also serve Coke in original bottles, maybe it’s just me but I think Coke tastes better out of glass and the iconic bottle always makes me smile.
There are GBKs all over London, so if you’re in a royal mood tell the Queen to burger off in the nicest way.
www.gbk.co.uk
Cinnamon Soho is coming.
Vindaloo pork pie anyone? That’s a big fat yes from me, especially when it’s been cooked by Vivek Singh. He’s been West at Cinnamon Club and he’s been East with Cinnamon Kitchen, now he’s going central with Cinnamon Soho. I visited the building site to meet Executive Chef Vivek and find out more.
Green day
Just back from a pop up in New York, he’s looking bright eyed and is characteristically full of cheerful enthusiasm as he answers questions and tries to ignore our circling photographer
Have you wanted to be in Soho for some time?
Soho has been our list for a while yes, but you never seem to get the right place and to be honest despite all the doom and gloom people talk about there wasn’t much going, Soho properties still get snapped up fast. Luckily for Cinnamon Soho we were offered this old Red Bar before it went onto the market.
Behind youuuu!
So what’s going to be the difference at Cinnamon Soho?
Well the idea if you like is to be more Cinnamon Kitchen than Cinnamon Kitchen! The City has its own style and that affects what a restaurant feels like. Cinnamon Kitchen is more suit and tie than perhaps we imagined it would turn out, Cinnamon Soho will be what we originally intended Cinamon Kitchen to be. Read more…
Ken Hom -100 Easy Chinese Suppers
Happy with in his wok
Ken Hom looks much the same today as he did the day he brought Chinese cooking into our lives back in 1982, except he has a few more lines on his face. His first cookbook, Ken Hom’s Chinese Cookery was a mega-seller at the time and it’s still in print today,
He lives now mostly in his adopted Thailand, but he is in fact American by birth, along with stints at his home in France. Despite being semi-retired and recovering from cancer treatment, he popped up on Saturday Kitchen recently. It confirmed him as one of the nicest chefs around and still one of the most skilled. Read more…
Taste the real difference – the best of Scottish produce on a plate
Don't be shellfish
The salmon hooked me, a reversal of the way things usually go. The great sides of Summer Isles smoked fish were sliced thickly on the spot and anointed with the barest drop of lemon, no brown bread and butter thank you, and tasted delicious. The merest hint of smoke coming through from the rich, buttery, flesh as well as hint of sweetness from their special brine. You couldn’t compare it with supermarket smoked salmon; it was a different kettle of fish entirely.
Summer Isles were just one of around ten Scottish producers who had lugged their lovely grub from the Highlands all the way down to the lowlands of the RAC Club in Pall Mall. The intention was to show first hand what we miss out on when we fix our foodie gaze on Ludlow or the continent. The Scottish Highlands are a land rich in fine produce, none of which need to consume air miles to get to our plates.
Achiltbuie kipper pate with seaweed relish on oaties and cones of native lobster were passed around and gobbled up. Venison carpaccio wrapped around Highland Blue cheese was burst in the mouth flavour. The RAC Executive Chef Philip Corrick had cooked all the small plates and if you wanted any reason at all to join then to be able to eat his food every day would be a compelling one. Read more…
Toast!
Breville, now there’s a name you don’t really hear much of anymore. It’s not like Ronco, gone to the great brand graveyard, and yet there was a time when it strode the world like a colossus whilst now it merely wanders about like a lost kid in a mall.
They were famous for their sandwich toaster; it may even have been the product that made the company’s name and fortune. My family had one, every family had one, and after initial manic use they either ended up under the sink along with the Ronco button master and with their plugs removed by a dad too indolent to go to Woolworths, or they were solemnly bequeathed to a child about to go to University.
That’s how I got mine, my mother feeling that I would otherwise starve. In fact I had already mastered the art of making spaghetti Bolognese as well as curry/stew (one contained curry powder, one didn’t) so I was quite safe. All I recall about using the Breville at university are clouds of acrid cheesy smoke on the staircase by my rooms and the college porter giving me a lecture on fire drill. Read more…
Nick Harman 