Grilled Oysters with Pernod Cream

We hosted Christmas for the first year ever this year.  It's a fair bit of pressure when you have fairly hard to please parentals eating your food.

It went pretty well, bar dropping the pan of roasters on the floor, and not reading the actual recipe for Fennel Butter Cream oysters and realising, come the time, that I didn't have half the ingredients.  Hence the following recipe.  I have to say, the oysters were the highlight of the meal,  purchased from Welch's along the road in Newhaven.

We had some au natural with a bit of pickled chilli Mike had made a couple of weeks back, and the rest in the following sauce and grilled.  Some call it blasphemy, I call it delicious.


knob of butter

1 celery stick, finely chopped

25ml Pernod

100ml Double Cream

Salt and Pepper

Squeeze of Lemon Juice

Melt butter in a smallish frying pan, add celery and fry for 2 mins.  Pour in the Pernod and set on fire, reduce till about half the liquid remains, add double cream and let it bubble for another couple of mins until it's a bit thicker, then season to taste with salt and pepper and a wee squeeze of lemon.

Add a tablespoon or two to your freshly shucked oysters and put under the grill until nice and golden brown.

Enjoy responsibly, preferably with a wee glass of champagne.

Timberyard Visit

After the social media build up to this restaurant, I was quite excited to be visiting last Thursday lunch.

As the daughter of a painter and decorator, I have many  a childhood memory of visiting Lawson’s Timber of a Saturday, waiting around for what seemed like hours, when there’s was way more exciting things to be doing.  Today, it’s much more up my street and I could pass away many an hour without complaint.

It’s super industrial, lots of bare walls, lighting flex and oversized shades, tables (from Atrium days gone by), vintage bits and bobs, comfy sofas and throws in case anyone’s chilly!  Good toilets too, with a wine fermentation soundtrack to boot!!!

But what about the food? Overall, it was great.  Tasty, locally sourced ingredients, simply put together but with much evident skill, showcasing that often simplicity really is best.  They smoke their own, bake their own and even aerate their own water.

We opted to do bites as starters, so in the throws of Oyster season we decided on an oyster each and I opted for the raw beef fillet with pickled cucumber and wood sorrel.  I am a big raw meat and pickle fan and this was a beautifully executed plate of beef, the pickled cucumber bringing a sweetness to an already very tasty plate.  Sitting next to me the crab mayonnaise with fennel toast was being demolished by a very satisfied sister who, living in Leeds,  loves coming up for a good ‘non chain’ restaurant meal.  To follow was my fillet of mackerel, with caper and raisin dressing accompanied by a warm potato salad, the biggest mackerel fillet I’ve ever seen, perfectly cooked, and with a crispy skin.  

Captain Fussy, the aforementioned painter and decorator, opted for the day’s special of Venison Stew and mash.  A lovely hearty stew, tender chunks of venison and a mash that must have been cooked with some form of dripping, giving you that good ‘but you know it’s probably bad for you’ sensation.  

I was a little underwhelmed by the cheese board but I think that has more to do with me eating too much cheese than anything else.  My partner had the chocolate and salted hazelnut pudding, I managed to get a bit but found it hard to detect the salted part.  We couldn’t stay for coffee but my sister sent me a picture of some petit fours in a cigar box (like) and she didn’t even save me one!

I don’t really concern myself with the wine list but we drank a South African Chenin Blanc which according to my partner has been on the Radford’s wine lists since the good old Blue days and very good it was too.  We didn’t get a chance to sample cocktails, it being a lunchtime affair, but we’ll be back to try what promises to be an interesting line up.

I loved Timberyard, I really did!  We had a mini tour from Andrew and there’s a load of space that they haven’t used yet, space for smokers, herb gardens, outdoor drinking and dining and a whole other floor, so plenty to look forward in 2013 I suspect.

Timberyard is a true family affair with the Radford’s utilising their children’s skills in kitchen, bar, marketing and management.  It’s isn’t like anything else in Edinburgh, it’s brave and interesting and all quite exciting and I hope it succeeds.  With the Radford’s behind it, I really doubt there’s any question.

Jewels of New York

I love this website and I say website because I've never been fortunate enough to eat their food.  Colaborating in 2009 these two lovely ladies set up Jewels of New York to uncover the hidden gems of New York, combining home cooking with the beauty of everyday things.

They claim to provide, what they describe as good, seasonal, everyday home cooking.  If I could turn out everyday, home cooking like this, i'd be a very happy lady.

The styling is awesome, simple but pretty and makes every dish look super appetising.  I won't say anymore and let the pictures speak for themselves.

Spring Breakfast Tart

Creamy Sunchoke Soup

Spring Garden Salad

Pickled Ramps and Ramps Butter

White Asparagus Bruschetta

Check them out at Jewels of New York
All photos from Jewels of New York website.

I love lamb!

I'm not going to lie but I bought it because it was cheap.  Breast of lamb, what does one do with such a cut and on my google investigation found that recipes were a bit thin on the ground.  Not a wonder either as I later found out, this is the bit the butchers (quite literally) give away.  Oh well!  Cue Hugh and his trusty meat bible, I came across this recipe for Breast of Lamb Ste Menehould. It takes a while and a bit of organisation but god damn it, it's worth it.  This was a double whammy!  First time I made Tartare Sauce too.

Serves 4

1 breast of lamb
2 carrots, sliced
2 onions, sliced
A sprig of rosemary or thyme, or both
1 glass of white wine (I used red)
1 glass of water
Salt and Pepper
Dijon or English mustard
2 eggs, beaten
Dried breadcrumbs
100g butter, melted

First bit....

Place breast of lamb in a casserole dish, with the carrots, onions and herbs scattered in and around it.  Pour the wine and the water over, season and cover with lid.  Bake in low oven (140C/Gas Mark 1) for 2.5-3hrs basting several times during, until the meat in tender.

Raw Breast of Lamb

With Veg and Wine

Remove from the oven and cool till able to handle.  Place the meat between 2 chopping boards with weights on top, I used cans of chopped tomatoes.  Leave in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight.

Cut into goujon size pieces, brush with mustard of choice (I quite like the English for the heat), dip in the beaten egg and cover completely with breadcrumbs.

Lamb with a bit of English

Arrange on a wire rack and brush with the melted butter, place in the oven at (180C/Gas Mark 4) for 15mins....turns the grill on and grill each side until you start to get wee black burnt bits.  And you're done, that's it!  We had this for dinner so had with a bit of mash and the aforementioned Tartare.

The Tartare

The Finale

They're amazing, while a bit time consuming and a bit fiddly, they're probably the best, fancy goujons i've ever had, melt in the mouth but with a crispy tartness that's just ace!

Recipe from Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall's, The River Cottage Meat Book

Cultural Coffee

I have to admit, I have a slight obsession with Melbourne's cafe culture, that, and I do love a bit of well executed latte art.  Supreme Coffee seem to be the coffee of the moment in Melbourne and this is their cafe/roastery.  If my holiday scheduling goes according to plan, i'll be settling down for a wee coffee there next summer, here's hoping! Oh and maybe one of those bacon/pesto/scones.

Photos courtesy of The Selby

Lunch of the Week

Lunch of the week! but it's only Wednesday but this salad was so good that I've nominated it already.  Popped down to Out of the Blue Drill Hall to the food market and picked up some golden, pink and red beetroot from Phantassie Veg.  Roasted in the oven, served with red onion, a few walnuts, some rocket and feta and an olive oil and wholegrain mustard dressing, pretty awesome if I do say so myself!

Roast Beetroot and Feta Salad

Smitten!

This is totally stolen from one of my favourite recipe blogs Smitten Kitchen.  I don't even like boiled eggs, but even i'd give this a go.  The recipe's always sound amazing, the photographs make you want to be in the kitchen with her and overall she sounds like a really nice woman.

soft eggs with buttery herb-gruyere toast (pic stolen from Smitten Kitchen)

I'm off to boil some eggs!

Wellington Coffee

Undoubtedly the best place to grab a coffee in Edinburgh, Wellington Coffee have just undergone a wee refurb.  Popped in the other morning and what a beautiful job they've made of it, mosiac tiled floor, wood cladding on the walls and a tiled ceiling.  Gladly the coffee hasn't changed at all (well except that it was in a much smaller cup) but now there's much nicer surroundings in which to enjoy it.

Orange Blossom Water

Well, well people, only a year and a bit later and i've managed to retrack my passwords and hack into my blog account.  A lot has changed, (not my lack of blogging though) and I now have an 8 month old competing for my time.

It's been a great year but a busy year and there's lots of eating related stories that I should have documented.  Onwards and upwards though and now i'm back on it.

Inspired by Mr Ottolenghi himself, I tried using Orange Blossom Water in last nights dinner.  It scares me a little, super potent and I was kind of worried about over doing it.  Just a couple of drops in the boiled water for the coucous with soaked sultanas, green pitted olives, flat leaf parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper and you know what?  It was okay, it must be, i'm eating the rest it for my lunch as we speak.  You can only just taste it but I think that's probably a good thing.  Next, on to desserts I think!