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Dressed Cornish Crab with Mayonaise and Hard Boiled Quails Eggs - from The Chelsea Fishmonger Rex Goldsmith

Roast Loin of Dorset Organic (Tamworth) Pork - from Jack O'Shea
Roast Carrots , Potatoes and Parsnips
Sauted Spinach with Pancetta

St Marcellin , Pont-l'Évêque - from La Fromagerie London - Parmabio 50 month Organic Parmigiano Reggiano from Fausto Brugnoli e Marina Carpanini hand carried from Vischeto , Parma.




Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble with Jersey Double Cream made by Mrs Gastro



Meursault, Les Charmes,2005, 1er Cru, Domaine Michel Bouzereau - Berry Brothers & Rudd

Coudoulet de Beaucastel Red , 2006 Cote du Rhone - Haynes Hanson & Clark
Chateau de Beaucastel 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape Hommage a Jacques Perrin - Gift

2006 Passito di Pantelleria DOC Ben Rye - Harrods

The Chelsea Fishmonger Rex Goldsmith

Rex is one of my food heroes.
He took over this small Chelsea Green Fishmongers shop as he expanded from his original outlet on Secretts Farm in Surrey. He recently opened another in Guildford.
Rex and his team led by Matt know how to buy fish and hence you will always find amazing fresh seasonal fish mainly from British waters.

The best fish I have bought in London over the last 15 years has come from here - superb Red Mullet , Dover Sole, Brill , Turbot , Sea Bass , John Dory , Clams , Mussels , Razor Clams ,Cornish Crabs and Crab Meat as well as fanatstic Scottish Langoustine and Scallops .

A fishmonger in Islington once tried to sell me a faux Red Mullett so I never returned, then again its the most overated Fishmonger in Britain.

By the way the person who owns the "Chelsea Tractor"parked outside the shop bought some smoked haddock for a fiver and paid £85 for a wash and blow dry at Real the Hair Salon next door !

10 Cale Street,
Chelsea,
London, SW3 3QU.
Tel: 020 7589 9432
http://www.chelseafish.co.uk

Spaghetti a la Putanesca

Alistar Little recommended in one of his early books that you should always have the ingredients ready for this dish in you larder.
There are as my good friend Umberto once said as many recipes for this dish as puttanas in a certain streel in Naples !
Also there are several theories about the origins of the Putanesca sauce some involving the oldest profession and others not . Wikipedia covers most http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puttanesca
Any way here is the one I follow and adore !

Serves 4

Ingredients:
1/3 cup olive oil
10 anchovies -
8 whole garlic cloves
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 medium San Marzano tomatoes, chopped & seeded with juice, or one can San Marzano tomatoes
12 Kalamata olives, pitted & halved or chopped to taste
3 tsp capers, drained
3-4 garlic cloves, chopped
1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley
400grams of Dried Spaghettini/Fedelinni or even Linguini, for example Di Martino or your favourite artisan brand , personally I always favour pasta di Gragnano and the Di Martino or Faella brands . The rougher exterior of Gragnano pasta seems to embrace sauces in a unique way. This sauce is better suited to long thin dried pasta (do not use fresh pasta) .

In skillet, heat olive oil. Add crushed red pepper flakes and anchovies (stiring and crushing into the oil) cook for 90 seconds then add chopped garlic . Cook until garlic begins to brown a bit and anchovies fall apart. . Add tomatoes, olives and capers. Simmer sauce 8-10 minutes.Add some of the pasta water to the skillett just before the pasta is ready to serve say half a cup.

Add a bit more chopped garlic, parsley and basil. Simmer a few minutes more. Serve on cooked ( al dente of course ) pasta and then 1/3 of a cup more pasta water when you mix everything up. (No Parmigiano Reggiano or any other cheese for that matter are required to this dish )

Top 10 coffee shops in London

Top 10 coffee shops in London

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The Nosh Bar London is Back and the Salt Beef is A1

The Nosh Bar was a well known salt beef bar at 39 Great Windmill Street, London, for over forty years, opening in 1944 by Phil Rabin and finally closing in the late eighties. It re-opened in 2009 after an absence of almost 20 years by the Jonas family.

I have to agree with food critic Dan Young who has specific domain expertise on Jewish Deli food "To describe the thick, moist, fat-glistening, hand-cut slices of cured salt beef as “tender” is to do their singularity an injustice."

Today I had not one but two Salt Beef Sandwiches on Rye for research purposes of course.

The meat was really outstanding ( sourced from Hensons ) as was the Rye Bread ( sourced from Gavins)

Carry on the good work lads and keep the quality up !

O'Shea's my new Number 1 Butcher in London

Dermot O'Shea is descended from eight generations of Irish butchers. In 1998, he and his sons and daughter opened a butcher's shop in Brussels, which quickly became one of the most popular amongst the cognoscenti in the city supplying a very demanding epicurean audience. In 2006 he and his two sons opened his second shop in Knightsbridge, London. Cathal now runs the Butcher concession in Selfridges Food Hall whilst Darragh runs the premium Knightbridge shop.

He sells high-quality meat, including an outstanding grass-fed, barley finished Black Angus beef from South West Ireland and Perthshire in Scotland that provides perfect conditions for this breed that produces not only excellent "prime" cuts like sirloin and fillet but superb Onglet, Bavette and stewing classics like Cheek and Shin.

Just looking at this fine Beef not only shows the marbling but that it has been hung from between 30 to 60 days .

The Knightsbridge store also has outstanding organic and free range pork (Landrace)from Childhay Manor (Dorset) as well as excellent British Lamb from Yorkshire, Shetland and Wales depending on the season.

The Rosé Veal is sublime (Irish) full flavoured unlike the majority of pale Dutch Veal mostly found in the better butchers in London. It is how Veal should be i.e. a young animal as opposed to the Dutch produce that is treated like a Guantanamo Bay prisoner.

The shop also produces excellent homemade pies, pasties, hams , gammon bacon and sausages. There is often a scrum at lunch for the famous homemade baguette sandwiches.

Darragh runs a very serious premium business focused on excellence in terms of selection, correctly hanging and maturing their meats as well as clearly identifying their provenance.

I have had the pleasure of meeting Dermott and Darragh and it's clear within minutes that they are true artisans and this is a business committed to promoting excellence in gastronomy. Seems like the O'Shea's not only know their meat but also are well traveled and understand how different nationalities cook theirs.

Unfortunately during these tough economic times many of our top London Butchers are lowering their standards by mixing up their offerings with inferior and cheaper meats with very dodgy provenance.

For me O'Shea is now the leader of the pack in London leaving Lidgates, Allen's of Mayfair, Harrods, and Ginger Pig etc behind. This has all been achieved in 3 years.

Until further notice I will single source all my meat from this establishment.

11 Montpelier St.
London
SW7 1EX
Tel: 0207 581 7771
website

Not bad for a chain

Rossopomodoro is a successful chain of Italian Restaurants promoting Neaplolitan food. It has many branches all over Italy and has now launched in the UK .

The chain has wood fired ovens and make good Neapolitan style pizzas using quality ingredients.

There are also good pasta dishes and salads.

I tend not to like chains especially those that feature "Italian" food like Strada , Ask , Bella Italia etc but Rossopomodoro manages to produce simple and consistent food using good ingredients.

Can 'Curation' Save Media?

Can 'Curation' Save Media?

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Should An iPhone App Developer Charge Or Run Ads? (Galaxy Impact Case Study)

Should An iPhone App Developer Charge Or Run Ads? (Galaxy Impact Case Study)

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Hibiscus in London

It is always difficult to move a restaurant within a city but to bring it down from Ludlow the little gastro hub in Shropshire is very brave indeed.

All I can say after eating there recently week is bravo Monsieur Bosi ! you and your wife have done a great job.

The food is superb and original from the amuse bouche to a remarkable light chocolat tart infused with liquid choc and flavoured with indonesian basil.

Claude Bosi does remarkable things with vegetables somehow concentrating the flavours through pulverisation and blending with other compatible ingredients.

My one criticism is that the portions are slightly too small if you are going for 3-4 courses a la carte including cheese.

The wine list needs a bit of beefing up in terms of choice especially red and white Burgundy and a wider range of red Bordeaux to include some cru bourgeois and lesser grand cru classes' ( of at least 8 years of age)

As in Ludlow this is two star cooking and with some small changes this could become along with The Square and Pied a Terre a contender for a 3rd.

My experience here reminded me of another great French Chef who thrived in London - Pierre Koffman at Tante Claire (Royal Hospital Road) - the approach and philosophy is obviously different but the technical skill and execution from the kitchen was really impressive.

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Freedom for Theo

I have gone on record to say that the River Cafe is vastly overrated and L"Anima is my current favourite Italian in London.

Well Theo Randall now has his own canvas to paint on free from Rosie and Ruthie !

I had a very good meal here last night as a guest of Subterranean.

We both started with the capelletti stuffed with slow roasted veal which was good to the standard found in an average restaurant in say Parma but nowhere near the delights of the Sorelle Picchi in that same fiar city or even an excellent Tortelli stuffed with osso buco a la Milanese that I onCe had a Locanda Locatelli full of flavour, a juicy runny meat and sauce stuffing.

My host had what he desribed as a superb grilled calves liver and I had a truly outstanding Vela Chop topped with porcini and slasa verde.

We shared some fried Zucchini that were good but not as good as those at L'Anima.

We both finished with a truly superb selection of deserts to share - homemade vanila ice cream , pana cotta , lemon tart and chocolate cake - all were really outstanding.

We drank a bottle of Frans Hass Pinot Grigio form Alto Adige and ended with a glass of Sweet Asti.

Perhaps because the retaurantis in a major international hotel it tries to please people with eclectic tastes hence some great Italian wines are conspicous by their absence eg. Passito di Pantelleria one of the worlds top dessert wines.

L'Anima remains my favourite Italian in London !

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