Friday 31 December 2010

Rum Old-Fashioneds for New Year

It’s Old-Fashioneds tonight. The drink that’s evocative of the turn of the century, America, a manly era. It’s not just the taste of the bourbon with that whiff of orange that laces the lips, but the heavy feel of the glass, the clink of the ice, the demand to be sipped and all-night drinking. A new year requisite, no?

However, the rum in the cupboard just won’t be ignored. It's getting to the point where it's just rude so I'm giving in and making old-fashioneds with rum to see the new year in. It's not how Jack Sparrow would have done it, but I'm sure swigging from the bottle is only a matter of time.

Happy new year, have fun tonight whatever your tipple of choice and we'll meet again in 2011.

You'll need:
3/4 teaspoon brown sugar (The traditional old-fashioned requires a sugar cube, but I think, as it’s rum, it could do with a bit less)
Few drops Angostura bitters
1 slice of orange peel
Aged rum
Ice
An old-fashioned tumbler

Add the sugar to the tumbler. Drop in the Angostura bitters, and half a teaspoon of water and stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Add the orange peel, and bruise with the spoon to release the oils. Add a measure of rum, keep stirring.

Add as much as ice as you can, top up with more rum - as much to your taste, stir and serve.

I sometimes add a naughty slice of orange to it, which is not the done thing at all. As the ice melts, the rum loosens and tastes heaven.

(Adapted from Victoria Moore’s How to Drink)

Tuesday 28 December 2010

Revival of the Turkey Hash

If anyone's already done their cold turkey slices, turkey pies, turkey soups, and still has some defiantly in the fridge I'd say turkey hash is the business for this kind of leftover meat. We ate this last night with a ridiculous amount of ketchup, which of course, has to be Heinz.

Here's my extremely simple Bostonian turkey hash recipe which I posted earlier this year, or if you fancy a bit more of a spicy one, Simon Schama's recipe from the FT magazine with chipotle for a sprinkle of fire.

Friday 24 December 2010

Happy Christmas

That's it from Voracious before Christmas, eat lots, drink more and have a thoroughly ace few days.

Hx

Sunday 19 December 2010

Voracious advent Calendar: Dec 20

Dec 20: Marks & Spencer Egg Cups

The boiled egg is a resolute route to childhood breakfasts. It’s such a complete breakfast – to start with, the whole ritual of sawing off the top with a knife, having hot-buttered soldiers primed for a dipping, digging away to discover whether the yolk is wibbly, salting, or as my friend Sonia does it, soy saucing. No wonder wee ones love it, and I become a kid again when I have a boiled-egg breakfast.

So hurrah M&S for coming out with a handpainted Chick stoneware collection to brighten up breakfast with their quirky hen egg cups and egg baskets. And the egg-cups are £4 each, so they're pretty cheep* too.

They may be handpainted, but can withstand the toils of dishwashing and microwaves.

Chick Hen Egg Cup: £4


Chicken Egg Cup: £4



Chicken Egg Basket: £29.50


And if you’re not into your farmyard animals, M&S also have this regal heritage egg cup to wrap round your soft-boileds.

Heritage Egg Cup: £5


*Punny apologies. I don't know what came over me.

Voracious advent Calendar: The Bumper Edition

Yes, it's the last weekend before Christmas. But don't panic, here are five ideas for the week ahead if you've not managed to get all your shopping done...

The Flavour Thesaurus

A brilliantly conceived book - you don’t realise you have needed this all your cooking life until you read it. Niki Segnit’s guide to flavour combinations is far from an exhaustive list of ingredients but a deliciously witty exploration of why certain flavours, such as goats cheese and coffee, work, and why some just don’t.

Worth getting if only for the pithy put down of chocolate and beetroot.

“It’s champions can hardly believe the lusciousness and chocolatiness of the combination. I couldn’t either and.. I still don’t.

“In chocolate beetroot cake...the raw cake mixture was so unpleasant that no one wanted to scrape the bowl clean. Case closed, at least in my kitchen.”


The Flavour Thesaurus: Usually £18.99, but now £10.44 from Amazon


Doughnut Box Canvas Bag

Anything from New House Textiles would be a stockingy treat, but their doughnut canvas bag is a particular favourite.

And thanks to the lovely Katy from Pinch of Salt, who brought them to my attention in her Friday Finds.

Doughnut Box Canvas Bag, £12.95


Le Creuset Bean Pot and Soup Bowls in Cerise

Forgive me for being twee, but this bean pot is adorable. I don’t even like beans. (That much).

I would like a kitchen big enough for these, and I’d probably make soups and stews all day and serve them in these lovely soup bowls which have lids, just because.
Heavy duty, French farmhouse and devilishly practical. I love them.

Bean pot: £45.60, John Lewis
Soup bowls: Set of 2: £17.60, John Lewis


St. John Hotel

St. John Hotel The opening of St. John Hotel is one of the most anticipated launches. If the restaurants in Spitalfields and Clerkenwell are anything to go by, after playing in Soho, this will be a a homely respite from the cackling bustle of Chinatown.
Writing about the St. John ‘Breakfast Bun’ at breakfast time is unforgiving, so I just beg that it opens soon. Breakfast or a cheeky stay here would be a wonderful present. Prices start at £200 for the post-supper room. For reservations, details below.

1 Leicester St
London
WC2H 7BL

0203 301 8069


Red Cabbage and Beetroot confit

And finally, a recipe. I’m sure you’ve had your fill of the brilliant ways to cook your bird already (Margot Ferguson’s collection in the OFM last week is a great place to start) so I’ve got a red cabbage one instead to go with it.

This is meant to be a ducky accompaniment, but actually if your meat is fatty, salty and roasty, I’m sure this sweet, rich confit would still work wonderfully well.
Finely slice a red onion, grate three beetroot and finely shred half a cabbage.
Heat up a knob of butter with some oil in a heavy saucepan, and soften the onions for a good ten minutes. Add 100g sugar, two heaped tablespoons of jam (raspberry or strawberry is good), 100ml red wine vinegar. Bring to a bubble, then throw in the beetroot and the cabbage, stir well, cover and keep it on the lowest heat for 30-40 minutes. Add another knob of butter before serving large spoonfuls.

Adapted from Riverford Farm Cookbook

Saturday 18 December 2010

Esquire Magazine: Hot Cocktails

If the snow carries on like this, I definitely suggest scurrying to the shops to stock up on loads of booze for hot winter cocktails. For Esquire this week I chatted to some top barman from round the country - we have a rich and naughty port cocktail from Tony Conigliaro from 69 Colebrooke Row, and the intriguingly historical Lamb's Wool from Hix's Nick Strangeway. Get your cockles ready for some warming up...

Read the full feature here.

Do pop round tomorrow when there'll be a bumper advent calendar post for the last week before Christmas. x

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Voracious advent Calendar: Dec 14 and 15


Dec 14: Hot pork rolls and rum




Every year full-grown adults engage in fisticuffs to get to the front of the queue for hot roast beef sandwiches at our friend James' house. He invites everyone over for Christmas festivities, carols, mulled wine, but it's the whiff of prime meatiness from the largest piece of beef you'll ever see that bring 40 clamouring friends to his door.

This year, it was controversial. This year James decided to roast pork. Worrying stuff.

But fears were assuaged when he flexed his muscles and lifted out two huge pork shoulders from the oven, crackling golden and glistening, flecked with fennel and rock salt. Perfectly mottled with fat, and basted in cider for eight hours, the pork met with universal approval.

So here is the recipe from James, who also happens to be the director for the toasty Rum sixty-six.

"I just seasoned it with fennel, rock salt and rosemary (controversial but the butcher assured me it worked), blasted it at 350 [conventional oven] to get the crackling for 45 mins and then cooked it for 8 hours at 125 under foil with a load of cider, topping up if it fried out. Served with the rather excellent Rum Sixty Six!

"I think the real key is getting good pork. 3 things make sure its succulent.

1. Obviously the cider and the foil
2. You need a decent sized joint. We had whole shoulders.
3. Decent fat content, which of course also gives you the flavour."


Serve in baps slathered in apple sauce, your favourite salad leaves and, (the equivalent of crisps in your sandwich) a layer of salty crackling.

Thank you James for a perfect crackling evening!

James buys his pork from Moens near Clapham Common, one of Jamie Oliver's favourite butchers too.


Dec 15: How to Drink, by Victoria Moore


This is a slight cheat because it was reading India Knight's posterous that reminded me how deliciously written Victoria Moore's book How to Drink is.

I could read about shot glasses of chilled sauvignon blanc with crabmeat or oysters, how to drink a rose in winter or the way to make your own cranberry vodka all day. I might even make them one day. And it's not all alcoholic, for the proper way to drink tea, hot chocolate, or just ideas for elevenses, it's worth dipping into this gem.

I wrote about it earlier this year.

You can get it for half price (it's usually £15.99) at the moment, and have a peek inside on Amazon.

Sunday 12 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 13

Dec 13: Marc Quinn Frozen Strawberry Pendant



I remember seeing the head of blood. 'Self' by Marc Quinn, the sculpture of his own face from pints of his own frozen blood. It stood in the Saatchi Gallery in St John's Wood, and terribly striking in the days before the Tate Modern opened. It subsequently melted at the Saatchi home when builders accidently pulled the plug on the fridge it was kept in, but the effect it had on me stayed despite its demise.

And sculptor Marc Quinn, who is most famous for his Alison Lapper and Kate Moss sculptures, has created a piece of art you can keep for yourselves. It may be called 'Frozen Strawberry', but it won't melt and it won't take up the veg shelf in your fridge.

Quinn apparently removed every pip from a real strawberry, counted them and replaced them with 561 diamonds. Okay, it's probably the time to mention that Frozen Strawberry costs the princely sum of £28,000. While I might not be getting this for Christmas, I'm quite happy to admire for now.

Available from The Louisa Guinness Gallery

Saturday 11 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 11 and 12

Dec 11: Warhol Limited Edition Dom Perignon

Collecting is so unnecessary. I once picked up these limited edition Patricia Field Diet Coke bottles on a whimsy trip to Selfridges.

They sat pride of place in my bedroom where they propped up books and pouted at me. But on a desperate search for refreshment a couple of years later, my flatmate sinked a sip from a bottle before spitting the rotten liquid out.

The lesson? Drink first, save later.

Which is exactly what this covetable limited edition Andy Warhol Dom Perignon is for. Admire, sip and admire in that order. This is the thing for not any toast, but the toast to end all toasts. What else embraces market culture more than an Andy Warhol champagne bottle; after all it is so unnecessary and happy-making.

Warhol limited-edition Champagne, 750ml £120


Dec 12: Selfridges Panettone hat box

I have to admit it's all about aesthetics today. I was taken with the hat box for this luxury panettone, and presentation does matter. It might not be the best thing to keep the panettone fresh, but it does look so regal.

However, if you're after taste, which is not unreasonable, today's sterling Observer Food Monthly has chocolatier William Curley remarkably recommend Tesco Finest Panettone which pips panettones from Harrod's Scarpato, M&S and Bosari from Waitrose in the taste test.

Selfridges Panettone, 100g £24.99

Thursday 9 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 10

Dec 10: L'Artisan du Chocolat Spiced Fig Salted Caramels

A tweet from Juliet Kinsman, editor of Mr and Mrs Smith, reminded me how L'Artisan du Chocolat leads the way on salted caramels. The original salted caramel was fashioned for Gordon Ramsay at Claridges, and they haven't really looked back since. Their limited edition fig flavour, spiced with ginger, clove, nutmeg and cinnamon is a festive special and one that should be taken advantage of.


If you're not a big fig fan, maybe you can make dogs and cats happy by snapping up this Battersea Dogs and Cats Home 150th Anniversary bar infused with terribly festive mandarin and mulled spices. The bar is £2.75, and £1 of that goes to the charity.


More information here:

Spiced Fig Salted Caramels
£11.99 for 25 salted caramels

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home 150th Anniversary bar £2.75 for 45g

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 9

Dec 9: Charcuterie Bodega Ham Stand and Knife from Quintessentially Gourmand

According to the Guardian word of mouth today, British charcuterie is on the rise. And if that's the case, you could get in on the trend and kit out any charcuterie-obsessed friends or family you might have.

When I think of charcuterie, I think of Brindisa in Borough Market and those fabulous knives and terrifying ham stands that resemble instruments of torture.

I found these from Quintessentially Gourmand. There's only one thing to deduce from its owner. And that is - full on love for meat.


A wonderful ham contraption, £49.95



A scary looking but skilfully wrought knife, £34.90


They're not what you'd call snips, but it's the price you pay for looking as slick and equipped as those hunks at Brindisa.

Click below for more information:

Bodega Ham Stand
Jamon Charcuterie Knife

Wednesday 8 December 2010

Interview: 28°-50°'s Xavier Rousset: a new generation of sommelier


Xavier Rousset can open a bottle of wine 30 different ways. At least, that is what it said on his website. “Ah – that’s bullshit,” he says cheekily, when I mention this at his restaurant 28°-50°, “but you do have to know your wine inside and out, including how to open it”. This is not language, nor an admission I would expect from a refined Master Sommelier. However, he can uncork a bottle armed with a fork and a shoelace; an impressive feat even if it is not one of 30.

On paper, Rousset, 31, is a classic sommelier success story. He quickly rose to head sommelier at Hotel du Vin before moving to Le Manoir aux Quat'Saisons, which has two Michelin stars, and gained the top industry accolade, the Master Sommelier diploma. He counts Gerard Basset (who recently won the title ‘Best Sommelier in the World’) and top chef Raymond Blanc as mentors. His restaurant, Texture, has just been awarded a Michelin star, and his more low-key version, 28°-50°, opened in the City of London to great acclaim in June this year.

However, Rousset is anything but a classic case. He was only 23 when he became a Master Sommelier (MS), achieved by most in their thirties. The wine lists he puts together for his restaurants are, by self-admission, “quirky”. His democratic view that “nobody’s got a good palate to start” is a view free from the snobbery associated with wine. And though his role is to offer the best wines for your food, he is “not very convinced about food and wine matching”.

Perhaps his liberal views spring from his upbringing. Raised in Saint-Etienne, France, he was “the only one with any wine knowledge” in his family. Like any 16-year-old, alcohol peaked his curiosity and this landed him his first job; although he was “always passionate about food and wine”, it was reading about cocktails, vodka, gin and wine in economics class which so excited him that he “turned that into a profession” when he was 18.

He wrote to Gerard Basset, by then a successful sommelier in England, asking to be taken on. Successful stints at sommelier school and Hotel du Vin followed and his love for wine was cemented. He was “hooked” and “stayed in London ever since”.

Tasting between 3,000 and 4,000 wines a year, which “sounds a lot, but that’s only ten a day”, it seems being hooked is a necessary attribute. How many is he trying today? He looks sheepish as he turns to a bottle standing tall on his workbench. “Today?” he says, “I’ll have to taste twenty-five wines”.

But then, tasting is the lynchpin of the buying and selling; the most interesting part of the job for Rousset. “To buy well, you have to research; making sure the vintage is good, the producers are good,” he says. And the selling? “It’s about seeing people enjoying themselves.”

“Sommeliers don’t create anything,” he says, “we don’t make wine, we don’t make anything, but what we try to give is pleasure.”

28°-50°, which he co-owns with fellow Le Manoir graduate Agnar Sverrisson, is a comely mixture of urbane function and rustic chic. The restaurant has no cellar and you realise on closer inspection all the worn wooden boxes that decorate the shelves also act as practical storage for his wines, including the £200 Corton Charlemagne star buy, reserved that morning by a customer to be sold tonight.

He chats to the casual lunchers with the bonhomie of a friendly barman, devoid of suit, stuffiness, airs and graces. But he does exude professionalism, a mark of his MS training when he learned everything from the climate of the Loire valley, which wine glasses to use, to the flavour of Havana cigars - a subject that was dropped following the smoking ban.

“But now you need to know about cocktails, spirits, beer, water,” he says. “We adapt to what the demand is and to the reality of the everyday.”

The reality for 28°-50° is an innovative business model which puts wine at its centre. Dependent on relationships with individuals who offer their collections at reduced margins, he explains that “restaurants solely make money on their drinks, so cutting the margin is very risky, especially in a recession.”

He proffers the restaurant’s two wine lists; one priced up to £600 per bottle that “people will travel for” from the collectors, and an accessible everyday drinking list with glasses sold for as little as £2. Mornings are spent by the computer updating what has been sold, and emailing his seven contributing collectors before attending to lunch and dinner service on the restaurant floor. Finding lunch service more functional than dinner, he enjoys the time spent talking to the customer in the evenings to see what they want as “it’s no good serving Riesling, even if it’s perfect with the fish, if the customer doesn’t like Riesling”.

“People [have to] get what we’re doing,” he explains, “With two wine lists I was worried - was I being too sommelier? Will nobody get it?

“When we opened I [made the list] half quirky, half safe. Now people want quirky all the time.”

But why does he feel strongly about quirky wines when many would be happy with a Pinot Grigio?

“I used to have a Sylvaner from Slovenia - I got through 24 bottles in two weeks.” He says proudly. “[Those who] have tried will remember a Sylvaner from Slovenia, but they won’t remember the last time they tried a Pinot Grigio.

“There are no rules. If you’ve got good food and good wine, then you’re covered.”

Rousset knows that London an exciting place for those in wine and the success of 28°-50° shows an appreciation for his exceptional skills. After all, London is a city that attracts young international talent just like him.

“The stuffy sommeliers have gone now - the snooty old classic French who are old and arrogant,” he says brightly. “We are now the new generation.”

28°-50°
140 Fetter Lane, London, EC4A 1BT
info@2850.co.uk
020 7242 8877


With thanks to Ruth Ford and Kirsten Bresciani

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 8

Dec 8: Tweet Mass Gathering at The Florence Pub

As fellow blogger @tehbus says, today is full of awesome. And that's because he knows he's going to have a whole lot of booze and and meat at the end of it, in great company. And you could also stuff yourself silly with food from the most esteemed culinary trucks in London if you head down to The Florence tonight in Herne Hill.


If you fancy going, let me know - I'll see you there!

For more details on venue click here

Tuesday 7 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 7

Dec 7: The Etiquette Collection from Liberty


During my amble in Liberty’s off Regent Street yesterday (I had to duck in from the unforgiving cold), I came across these gems from the ‘Etiquette’ series - Etiquette for Wine Lovers, Chocolate Lovers and Recipes for an English Tea.

Of course they are as necessary as Debretts, containing handy hints such as ‘A Guide for the Butler’ (who will know ‘that the condition of his glass and decanter is as necessary for fine wines as the brightness of his boots is for the morning appearance of a gentleman’.) The recipes for an English tea have the delights of Marrow Jam and Parkin, and I know quite a few tea-lovers who would love to brush up their marrow-jam making skills.

But most of all, they have pretty pictures.

In the ‘Etiquette’ series, there are also booklets for coffee-lovers, gentlemen (apparently sold out, I’m guessing as many want to be gentleman, or want their men to be gentlemen), and politeness.

At £4.95 a pop, I don’t think that’s a bad deal for a life-changing stocking filler...


For more detail go to Liberty, or Amazon. If sold out online, Liberty have plenty in-store.

Monday 6 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 6

Dec 6: Dickens and Cognac

What the Dickens? Literature and booze?

Yes, when the Dickens-Courvoisier tour popped up in my Urban Junkies daily email dose I got rather excited. For me, Dickens is old London - the grime, the nooks and crannies, the pubs. And cuddling up on a dark walking tour of London with a hot punch waiting at the end makes me want to go ooh. In fact, it does.

I'd say this would be great for a date. And it's only a tenner, so it's a cheap date.

It runs until the 19th December, so get in quick! It begins and ends at the Covent Garden Cocktail Club.

Click here for more info.

Sunday 5 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 5

Dec 5: Cool Yule Chocolate Slab


A visit from Santa is in order, and begging to be unearthed from a Christmas day stocking is this chocolate slab - a glorious mix of milk chocolate, caramel and white chocolate. I used to work near the King’s Road near Hotel Chocolat, and would amble a few too many times past to try whatever they had out that day. I'd love a nibble of this cute thing.

For more info, go to Hotel Chocolat: Cool Yule Chocolate Slab

It's £13.50 which may seem steep but it's a big slab of a lotta choca.

Their tasting kits are also fantastic. I’ve been giving them as gifts for the last seven years, they’re a treat and a half for anyone. Prices start from £49 for a subscription for three months.
Tasting Kits

Saturday 4 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 3 and 4

Dec 3: St John Doughnut


Behold the St John doughnut. Defiantly cricket-ball shaped (none of that ring-with-a-hole business), deep-fried, rolled in sugar, overstuffed with cream. I was given a box for my birthday last week by our very own wine-botherer Ruth Ford. She had hurried down to the bakery in Bermondsey that morning, and, that evening, secretly hunched over the box, we wolfed them down there and then in the bar of fifty guests, guilty only because we couldn't quite bring ourselves to share.

Any host would love you if you brought a box. I know I would.

St John Bakery
Open from 9am - 4pm, Saturdays only

Dec 4: Alessi Parrot Sommelier Corkscrew

With bread must come wine. Well, something to get to it anyway. Here is a delightful corkscrew that looks like a parrot. Nice, eh? Alessi have done it again, a cheeky and useful present for the gamely sum of £27.


Alessi Parrot Sommelier Corkscrew in 'Proust'




You can buy them from A White Room

Thursday 2 December 2010

Voracious Advent Calendar: Dec 1 and 2

I can be rather Scrooge at Christmas, but when I trudged home in the snow yesterday, someone had clearly risked frostbite to erect hundreds of glittery Christmas trees all along the road. I actually had to stop in the road for a rare heartstopping moment. It was all very Miracle on 34th Street.

Anyway, to get you in the mood, if you're not already, I'm launching the Voracious advent calendar - nothing dodgy, just culinary present ideas every day up until Christmas. And as I missed out on Dec 1, here are two present ideas. Enjoy.

Dec 1

I've been guilty of losing my notes in the ridiculous number of Moleskines I have on the go, but with this little beauty, at least you have your recipes all in one place.

Moleskine recipe journal


Dec 2

Irresistible Beano flask from John Lewis for those snowy days. Nostalgia, guffaws and hot sweet tea all in one go.


Beano Flask


Or if alcohol is more your thing (and for me, it very often is) Charlotte's drinks advent calendar is definitely worth a visit:
Concerning Cocktails blog