u m a m i

Shallots, chorizo & gorgonzola pasta-in-a-pan

I don't own any pasta cookbooks but if I do this would be a standby recipe because it is easy, fast and versatile not to mention very tasty. It doesn't contain much meat but would satisfy meat lovers, children would not know that they are eating a bunch of vegetables and  few adults would not succumb to the "sauce" which is essentially melted gorgonzola. If you stick to using hard vegetables (vs 'wet' ones like chinese cabbages or leafy greens that leach water upon cooking) you can make extra and it'll keep well for lunch the day after.

The base is made up of roasted vegetables and some tasty meat. Here I used a packet of chorizo sausagemeat which I bought from Bellota Bellota but I've had really good results with Italian sausages and fresh sausages from my market charcuterie.

I love roasting vegetables like leeks, onions, shallots, and going down the bitter and anise flavour profile, fennel, endives and even brussels sprouts. For a different effect, roast eggplants and zucchinis as I did when these vegetables were abundant in late summer. Equally happy to go into the mix are carrots, green beans and broccoli. On this occasion I used leeks and some leftover shallots, and broccolli which I could have roasted but didn't because I did not want to crowd the roasting pan. 

Try to time the pasta to finish cooking at the same time as the vegetables. All ingredients except the cheese should be hot at the moment of mixing otherwise the dish would cool too quickly. I reserved some pasta cooking liquid just in case the pasta sticked, but it was not really necessary.

Ingredients

Pasta

2 leeks, cleaned, sliced in diagonal chunks

2 shallots, quartered

1 cup chorizo sausagemeat

1/2 head broccolli, cut into florets

1 slab gorgonzola, cut into small chunks

1. Roast shallots and leeks at 190C (200C if not using convention oven) for 30 minutes then add chorizo and continue to cook until vegetables are soft.

2. In meantime, boil broccoli in oiled and salted water until tender. Set aside. Just before mixing reheat in a microwave or plunge into boiling water for 1 minute.

3. Cook pasta in oiled, salted, boiling water until done. Drain.

4. Take leeks out of the oven, quickly put pasta, broccoli and cheese into the pan and stir briefly. Serve.

 

Pearl by Jun Tanaka, London

Days before arriving in London, my sister C emailed me about wanting to try out lunch at Pearl by Jun Tanaka. Sure, I replied, thinking we were going to eat some Japanese food. Imagine my surprise when we reached the restaurant and did not see any blond wood or calligraphy screens. Instead there was a double-height dining space clad in beautiful marble, while splendid columns of more marble and pearl chandeliers added light and sparkle. White tablecloths and an army of greeters, waiters and sommeliers completed the impression of a serious continental restaurant.

The staff were professional and endlessly patient- every time V dropped her napkins, and we were talking at least five times, someone would come by with fresh linen; even when we objected and said it was not necessary.

Lunch was a really good deal at 20 pounds for two courses and 24 pounds for three. Amuse bouches arrived quickly. Beetroot gelee, celeriac purée and parmesan was simple yet elegant, eating well  on their own and with each other.

Husband's appetiser of mackerel fondant with horseradish cream came artfully presented. The ingredients may be inexpensive, but the mackerel fondant was rich tasting yet light. His main course of provencal vegetables was a more substantial rendition of more vegetables which was, truthfully, rather monotonous.

My main course was cornish plaice with artichoke gnocchi, caramelised chicken wings, girolles and baby artichokes. A substantial plateful but I wished they didn't remove the fish skin. The highlight was the three little nuggets of chicken wings- skin and luscious meat, all salty-savoury and sweet in one mouthful. Across the room a group of dark-suited executives was having a business lunch. I saw one of them, a bespectacled lady, popped a piece of the chicken wing in her mouth without realising what it was, also that the bones had not been removed. Probably without benefit of eating bone-in-chicken like I have since I was a child, she had a hard time eating this delicacy with dignity.

C's main course of braised pork cheeks with caramelised squid, white polenta and shallots was another generous serving. While excellent, we all agreed my dish was the best.

Dessert were complete crowd pleasers. Poached prune and almond crumble looked like a square version of mince pie, quite magnificient- the rich dark and slightly spicy fruit filling a perfect foil for the buttery almond crumble, the whole accompanied by an equally indulgent almond ice cream. There was also a chocolate dessert of dark chocolate brownie, pear granite and pear crisps; evidently it was good, for daughter and sister made short work of it. 

That was just lunch. I imagine that dinner would yield even more surprise and gratification. Just remember to save room for desserts.

Pearl by Jun Tanaka

225 High Holborn, London WC1V 7EN T: 020 78297000

   

My new micro-blog YummiUmami

Typepad introduced a new micro-blog feature yesterday. It is like twitter with more than 140 characters plus pictures plus RSS subscription. Readers can follow me, make comments, re-blog something that they liked and even indicate their favourites. Please go and have a look, I think I'll use it to post all the other stuff that don't make it to the main food blog, you know, exciting stuff like mini-reviews and oh, what I ate for lunch today.

http://umami.typepad.com/yummiumami/

Ginger-Assam Ducky Stew

I probably shocked my friend Florence once by telling her I hate to handle raw meat, especially chicken. It's not difficult to chop up a chicken but I would prefer not to do it because my cleaver cannot cut cleanly through the bone. Fortunately my regular vollailer, or poultry stall at the market, understand what I want. The owner and his son, as well as some of their more experienced workers, can strip a chicken from its bony skeleton, although this is a pretty unusual request because most French people nowadays don't know what to do with the carcass. They will obligingly cut up a whole chicken, or even chicken or duck thighs, into small pieces that is typically called for in Asian dishes. My mother would probably not approve but I really appreciate the convenience, it cuts down a lot of prep and washing-up time.

So, three juicy duck legs all cut up ready for the pot; what does one do with them? A stew, perfect for the cold weather. In any case, I always make some sort of a stew or braise once a week; it gives the impression that I am dedicated housewife and fills the apartment with tantalising smells.

I thought of the block of assam, or tamarind paste, languishing away on the bottom of my fridge; it would give a mellow sourness which is great for such a fatty meat. Rounded off with sweetness from dark sugar, kicap manis (sweet Indonesian soya sauce) and carrots. I used a cube of the dark ginger sugar that Andrew gave me last year- the mahjong tile-sized cube has fresh ginger preserved in between sticky black pressed sugar, the ginger added a welcome warmth. When my stash is used up I will probably substitute with fresh ginger and unprocessed soft brown sugar or even palm sugar.

The result was gratifying, neither an adobo nor an itek sio, but something in between, with lots of velvety soupy sauce that husband gleefully poured over his steamed rice. The child liked it too, the ginger spiciness not too overwhelming for her, in any case she was distracted by the tender duck meat and carrots cooked to an almost candylike state. 

3 duck legs, cut into small pieces, bone in. Peel off/remove as much fat and skin as possible.

2 carrots, peeled, cut into chunks

Flavouring

4 tbsp assam paste, made into slurry with 6 tbsp hot water, strained to discard seeds. 

2 tbsp kicap manis 

2 tbsp dark soya sauce

2 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)

1 cube ginger sugar (or 1 tbsp soft brown sugar and a thumb-sized piece of ginger smashed up)

Black pepper (optional)

1. Put duck pieces into a pot. Add cold water to cover the duck. Bring to boil and discard the water, along with the scum that would have risen to the top.

2. Return duck to pot. This time, with just enough water to cover 70% of the duck.

3. Add all the flavouring ingredients. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a slow simmer. Let it cook, covered but allowing a little steam to escape, for 30 minutes.

4. Carrots go in and the stew cooks a further 45 minutes. Taste again and adjust seasoning. Remove surface oil if there is a lot of it. If is not sour enough, or is too sweet, finish with some lime juice or a few dashes of good vinegar.