Chinatown and Year of the Rooster

Had to get the tube at Leicester Square today, so decided to take a brief detour through Chinatown. Lots of red lanterns everywhere still, very pretty, although the main Chinese New Year celebrations were a couple of days ago, on Sunday, I think.

The pastry shops seem to have lots of cream cakes these days, unusual for Chinatown, and not very different from the cream cakes we see in the Turkish shops. I wonder where this trend comes from. Green tea as a flavoring still seems to be popular though, and the bakeries all had a version of a green tea flavored Swiss roll.

Purple sweet potatoes at See Woo supermarket on Lisle street, rather expensive, though. Lots of seafood, with tanks of live lobsters and crabs, among other things.

Krachai and red Java apples at the shop on Gerrard Street opposite Loon Fung, I can't remember the shop's name at the moment.

Saw packets of dark red granules labelled Dried Red Yeast in Loon Fung and one of the other main supermarkets. Never noticed that before. The only instructions on one of the packets was to rinse with water before using. Is this the wine yeast that's used to make red-fermented bean curd, perhaps?

Bought a packet of licorice-flavored preserved kumquats, because I remember having them, and licorice-flavored preserved plums, when I was first in London many years ago, and one of my in-laws was living in Hong Kong at the time.

Found that my favourite pastry shop, Kowloon, at the end of Gerrard Street, was still going, and bought one of those fried sesame-coated balls of dough with a red bean paste filling, because I hadn't had one in a long while.

Apple Tasitng Notes 2015

 Part 1 - July/August

These are notes from apples acquired early in the season, July/August, so mostly from windfall apples that weren't quite ready yet, apart from the George Cave apples.

George Cave:  Bright red skin.

Lady Henniker:  Very waxy skin.

Maldon Wonder:

Duchess of Oldenburg:  Slightly tart.

Emneth Early:

Pronounced ridges. Waxy skin.  Soft, dense flesh.  Slightly juicy.  Slightly sour, but I think it's supposed to be a cooker. Emneth is in Cambridgeshire.

Part 2 - October

James Grieve:

Bright red and yellow skin, red stripes on yellow background. Skin is quite waxy. Flesh is cream to white with yellow-green veins. Flesh is soft, very juicy, tastes a bit bitter, overall taste is just like apple juice. Perhaps these were riper than ones we've tasted in previous years, I seem to remember them being rather more tart. Skin is thin, a bit chewy. Bought at a farmer's market. These are early apples and so don't keep for very long.


Princess Russet:

Yellow to pinkish-beige colour under the brown russetting. Yellow flesh. Quite sweet.

Crisp, crunchy, dense flesh, not very juicy. Some herbal notes - maybe like fennel - in the rough skin.

Herefordshire Russet:

Skin is yellow-green with a flush of orange under the russetting.  Rough skin, due to the russetting.  Creamy to yellow flesh. Very sweet. Soft, moderately dense flesh,  moderately juicy. Mellow apple juice flavour. Very nice. Really like this one. I am beginning to really appreciate russet apples.

The second one we tasted had some spicy, herbal notes.

Ashmead's Kernel:

Skin is green with pale red flush and red stripes under the russetting. Not quite ripe yet, probably better later in the season. Skin is rougher than Herefordshire Russet, lots of russetting, flesh is white to creamy, and more juicy. A bit sharp, probably because it's not ready yet, but also sweet. When we tasted some properly ripe ones last year, they had a lovely balance of flavours.

Pitmaston Pineapple:

Yellow skin. Skin is a bit rough and chewy. The apples we got this year are very small. Yellow flesh, crisp, coarse textured, quite juicy, mellow flavour with a hint of pineapple.

Part 3 - November

John Standish:

Small apples with bright red skin. Thin skin. White flesh with red veins. The first one we tasted had a rather dry mealy texture. May be past its best. Tastes like it might have a nice balance of flavours though, a little bit sweet, a little bit acid.

Newton Wonder:

Waxy skin. Hard, dense flesh. Moderately juicy. A little bit tart. I think these are supposed to be dual purpose dessert/cookers.

Adam's Pearmain:

Very pronounced pear shape.  Hard, moderately juicy flesh, slightly sweet,  nice flavour.

Our previous tastings led to quite different conclusions. The year before last we tasted them for the first time, perhaps they were past their best, we didn't think much of the flavour, so we thought maybe it was the distinctive shape that made them interesting.

But then the ones we tasted last year, we thought, that's quite a nice apple.

October

It's October, which means it's time for Apple Festivals, and also Chocolate Week.

Chocolate Week is this week in the UK, 12 - 18 October, 2015, and it's not too late to catch The Chocolate Show at Olympia, whch runs from 16 - 18 October, 2015.

Five Recipes from Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

I haven't called this post Five Favourite Recipes as I've only recently started cooking from this book, so I've only tried about five recipes so far.

What I loved about the book when I first got it out from the public library was that it uses ingredients which I have bought and stockpiled in my pantry, and then never got around to using because I didn't have that many recipes that used them. Ingredients like dried Iranian limes, freekeh (Egyptian smoked green wheat), soba noodles, large Israeli couscous/Sardinian fregola, and pomegranate molasses.

There are a few recipes using quinoa, an ingredient that hasn't yet made it into my already overstocked pantry, and barley. While I had previously bookmarked a few recipes for barlotto ('risotto' made with barley) from various sources, I have yet to cook any of them.

I also noticed a recipe that uses verjuice, and a bean recipe that uses lovage, a herb that I have been growing in my garden for several years, but have only used the occasional few leaves (the taste is quite strong) for pea and lovage soup, a River Cottage recipe.

Many of the recipes include at least a sprinkling of fresh herbs.

So here are 5 of the recipes I have tried so far.

1. Soba Noodles with Aubergine and Mango.
soba noodles, aubergine, mango, lime, rice vinegar, fresh herbs.

Seems like an unusual combination, but it was really good, the only thing was that it seemed very acid, perhaps next time I would reduce the amount of vinegar.

The price sticker on my packet of soba noodles said 89p, the price when I looked recently in a Korean/Japanese food shop was more like £4.89, an indication of how long the noodles had been in my pantry (and of high inflation - I can't remember when I had bought the noodles, but probably not longer ago than 2010).

2. Itamar's Bulghar Pilaf.
bulgur, onions, red peppers, currants, spices.

Very colorful and tasty, the only problem with this was that the whole coriander seeds were a bit of a nuisance  when trying to eat it, I think next time I will substitute them with ground coriander.

3. Freekeh Pilaf.
 freekeh, onions, stock, spices, fresh herbs, pine nuts, yogurt.

This tasted lovely, similar to a mushroom risotto. The wheat grains had a slightly chewy texture. I made it with some chicken stock that I happened to have in the fridge. This was the first time that I had cooked or eaten  freekeh.

4. Burnt Aubergine with Tahini.
 aubergines, tahini, pomegranate molasses, lemon, garlic, parsley, pomegranate.

I love aubergines, and this will be one more recipe to add to my repertoire of aubergine dips.

I skipped the tomatoes and cucumbers, and didn' t have any pomegranate seeds on hand to scatter over the top as decoration.

In the photo in the book, this dish looks very white, as if it had yogurt on top, as well as the pomegranate seeds, but no yogurt is called for in the recipe. My version turned out looking more dark grey, like mud, but was very delicious nevertheless.

5. Black Pepper Tofu.
tofu, chilies, garlic, black pepper, spring onions, soy sauce.

I had bookmarked a very similar recipe from Spice Trip, by Stevie Parle and Emma Grazette, but for some reason we opted to make the Ottolenghi version. Not sure if we used the full amount of black peppercorns.

Bradwell - The Ultimate Rip-Off

This was never meant to be a political blog, but I just could not believe my ears when I heard the news earlier today.

Not only is China, still a totalitarian country, going to build a nuclear power station at Bradwell, we - through our taxes - are going to guarantee them a huge amount of money to build it, and then guarantee them twice the going rate for any energy they produce, for many years to come.

What kind of Third World country has Britain become that we have to invite a foreign power to be in control of our nuclear energy?

You would never know that Britain was the home of the Industrial Revolution, and that there are still plenty of British universities producing engineering graduates year after year.

Why have we elected a government that is going to sell us down the river like this?

Five Favourite Recipes from Sicilian Food by Mary Taylor Simeti

I just heard on BBC Radio 4's Food Programme (Sundays at 12:30 pm, Mondays at 3:30 pm),  that next week's edition, part of the Food Heroes series, will feature Mary Taylor Simeti, so I decided that this should be my next list.

1. Caponata - Sweet and Sour Eggplant.
aubergines/eggplants, celery, green olives, capers, tomato sauce, vinegar, cocoa powder.

I love aubergines, and Mary Taylor Simeti's version includes the optional use of cocoa powder, a baroque touch, which I always add.

Caponata

2. Pesto Trapanese.
garlic, basil, almonds, tomatoes, olive oil.

This Sicilian pesto uses ground almonds instead of Parmesan cheese, and is a hit with me because mature cheeses give me headaches.

3. Pasta Capricciosa - Pasta with Capers and Mint.
tomato sauce, garlic, capers, mint, cream.

4. Fegato ai Sette Cannoli - Sette Cannoli's Liver.
winter squash, garlic, mint, wine vinegar (actually a vegan recipe).

The author explains that Sette Cannoli was a poor neighborhood in Palermo.

5. Cuddureddi - Christmas Cookies.
filled with figs, walnuts, almonds, raisins, citrus peel, chocolate, honey, vino cotto, spices.

D decided that they were not unlike mince pies.

Five Favourite Recipes from An Invitation to Italian Cooking by Antonio Carluccio

My top 5 of the recipes I've tried from An Invitation to Italian Cooking.

1. Pollo al Forno con Patate -  Roast Chicken with Potatoes.
chicken, potatoes, onion, unpeeled garlic cloves,  rosemary.

2. Peperoni Fritti con Aglio, Capperi e Aceto - Fried Peppers with Garlic, Capers and Vinegar.

3. Pasticcio di Polenta - Timbale of Polenta.
polenta, tomato sauce, cheese (fontina, Gorgonzola, Parmesan).

4. Patate Fritte con Aglio e Rosmarino - Fried Potatoes with Garlic and Rosemary.
potatoes, olive oil, unpeeled garlic cloves, rosemary.
a fried meatless version of 1.

5. Stewed Quinces.
serve with mascarpone.

I discovered after I'd had it for some time, that my paperback edition of the book is slightly abridged, and this last recipe was one that was missing from it.

Stewed Quinces

Stewed Quinces