Mildreds

Finding respite from the meat and 3 veg variety of eateries was quite a task, and it wasn't that choices are lacking in London town. It comes back to the rather curious dilemma of there never being a table, anywhere! Diners are slowly coming around to the idea of vegetarian and gluten-free eating, searching for a health kick in their diet (or is that allaying guilt?). Nobody is perhaps more ready to embrace an emerging trend than a Soho hipster. Enter, Mildreds.       

The rather quaint blue-hued exterior. You know you're in London when you have a dapper gentleman in a trench coat blistering past!

Mildreds is a fairly seasoned player, established over 20 years ago on a small block on Lexington St. Vegetarian food is its major selling point and boy do the locals love it. We found ourselves there at the tail end of the lunch rush and the place was still packed to the rafters! The dining room is a rather simple banquet-seat affair, bathed in sunlight and livened up with a few potted plants. 

Views from the rather stylish private dining room, worlds away from the daily grind Credit: Mildreds

Confronted with the menu, you face the rather daunting task of picking from a multitude of dishes, with influences from all over the globe.  In addition to the à la carte options there are also a number of daily blackboard specials. Whatever you might fancy from Mexican to Sub-Continental, it'll be on there. Unfortunately, I'm not actually convinced this is a good thing. The menu could benefit from being reined in a little. Instead of doing everything at par (or sub par), it would be better to hone your skills on a couple of things done really well. Makes sense, no?

Panfried halloumi, cherry tomato and wilted spinach with balsamic glaze. I don't know about you, but I am SUCH a sucker for haloumi. It's like an achilles heel. This version was perfectly reasonable but nothing gave it that wow factor. I'm sure you could whip up a very similar dish at home. The haloumi from Nomad in Sydney on the other hand definitely had "It" (sorry, folks)

Sweet potato fries with mayo (or chipotle). Again, you could tell immediately that  these fries were basically large chunks of baked sweet potato. I was hopeful for that crunch in the skin without any luck. Suffice it to say I was actually looking for a deep fryer here *Gasps*. I kept having flashbacks to the glorious sweet potato chips done by Veggie Patch Van back home

Sri Lankan sweet potato and cashew nut curry with yellow basmati rice with peas and coconut tomato sambal. This was easily the most popular dish on the menu. It was made rather mild but the samba adds a nice hit of spice. And the serving size is ginormous! 

I need to mention that the service was rather haphazard and generally chaotic that day. One of my fellow diners was given the wrong main which was then hastily corrected. Yes, the restaurant was busy but it has always been that way as far as I can see. Another waiter on the floor might have helped the flow (or lack thereof :S) of the service! 

Fresh tortellini filled with pumpkin and ricotta, with chestnut mushroom, white wine cream sauce, drizzled with truffle oil. Don't get me wrong, I love the odd veggo meal but you don't need to overcompensate with stodgy additions like cream and cheese by the bucketload. I suppose it was a bad menu choice on my part! The pasta was reasonably cooked, but each tortellino had too much filling. This dish was rather heavy going; climate appropriate, yes but also giving indigestion!

All in all, the food at Mildreds was acceptable and reasonably priced. I do think however that they've spread themselves thin with a menu that is brimming with too many options, to their detriment. It sounded very nice on paper but in the end doesn't quite deliver. It's certainly a far cry from veggo food in Asia! The cracks in the service come simply from lacking front of house staff at their busiest times. Of course it's all easier said than done and I know that Mildreds will be bearing the flag for vegetarian cuisine in Soho for many years to come.
  

Butternut squash, pepper, smoked chilli and cheddar pasta bake. Funnily enough, this pasta had less cheese to the sauce than expected!

Thanks for reading!
xGourmand

A Kinfolk Salad

I don't know about you, but I adore receiving things in the mail. Snail mail, as it's come to be referred. Call me a nana but in an age where everything is about instant gratification, a small reminder of the old ways is a welcome relief. The day I was delivered The Kinfolk Table was a particularly exciting one. A self -proclaimed disciple of the Kinfolk camp, their philosophy is all about simplifying in the best possible sense. Singing the virtues of the shared table where time itself is the greatest luxury.

To my excitement, the Kinfolk Table is quite a tome to be pored over again and again Photo: Kinfolk

I want to cook everything in this book, the recipes are not there to challenge or dazzle you with technique but to simply enjoy the process: the market shop, the meander in the kitchen almost an idle.  Here is the first thing I made from the cookbook at home, it was a pleasure to put together (because that's all it was really) and to devour. 

Hearty Barley Salad with Broiled Feta and Tomatoes
Recipe by Nathalie Schwer

The finished product, a serving of deliciousness - and sort of healthy too!

Ingredientsss
Don't let this longish list of ingredients deter you!

230g feta cut into small cubes
230g small ripe tomatoes, halved
70g pitted black olives
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs e.g. rosemary, oregano, thyme
60ml (1/4 cup) extra virgin olive oil
200g pearled barley
2 cups water
Salt
2 ripe avocados, cut into cubes
455g marinated artichokes, in wedges
1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
2 cups fresh basil leaves, thinly sliced
30ml (2 tbspn) fresh lemon juice
Freshly ground pepper

Method
1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees, position rack in centre of oven

2. Combine feta, tomatoes, olives, herbs and olive oil on a foil lined baking tray and toss to mix

3. Bake for 25 mins or until the feta has melted and the tomatoes soft and brown

Oh man, just imagining this as a tart/quiche filling right now...

4. Meanwhile, bring barley, water and 1/2 tspn salt to boil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat. Reduce the heat to medium, cover and simmer for 20 mins or until tender. Fluff barley with fork and transfer to a salad bowl

Believe it or not, I haven't actually cooked with pearl barley before. I had to buy it from the trusty health food shop up the road. It has a texture very similar to brown rice, slightly nutty

5. Add avocados, artichokes, cucumber, basil and lemon juice to barley and toss to combine

Any other day, I would happily sit down and polish these off just as they are

6. Stir in the feta mixture. Season to taste with S & P

Be aware that feta tends to be quite salty so don't be too heavy handed with seasoning

7. Serve warm with bread and/or charcuterie (whatever's lying around) and a glass of wine

A hodge podge of veg and colour! I found the feta let off a lot of oil once baked, add the pan juices to the salad with care

There's a lot going on with this salad flavour wise. The feta offers a real kick that is tempered by the sweetness of the tomatoes and cucumber. Add in those divine artichokes and the occasional olive saltiness. The freshness of the basil features with almost every mouthful. The recipe apparently serves 4 but I stretched it to 6 pretty generous serves. Great as a party starter!

Thanks for reading!
xGourmand

Road Test #1

Hi all,
I thought I'd share with you some of my escapades in the kitchen. Not wanting to toot my own trumpet or anything but I really don't mind cooking at home to save a buck, or 30. No wonder the restaurant biz is in struggle city *sad face*. Being a student, I am used to cranking out whopping big vats of so called "one-pot-wonders" to last me the next 3 or 4 nights. Is that so bad? 


Here's a yee-old faithful pasta dish:


This one caught my eye from the Fare Exchange article from Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine (April 2012). This magazine my friends is gold. And great if you're looking for restaurant/recipe/travel "inspo" (eucch, don't you hate that slang). It's a rigatoni with braised pork, tomato and olives from the Sculpture Garden Restaurant (National Gallery; Canberra, ACT). I've posted the recipe at the tail end

Letting the stove do all the work: the pork is everything here and MUST be tender! I recommend at least 2+ hours (the recipe says 3 in the oven but I cooked on the stovetop instead). If you have a pressure cooker at home well, you're in business aren't you ;)

A true likeness, or so I'd like to think! My food styling pedigree is basically non-existent but I reckon the dish tasted pretty good! The olives are a perfect salty hit to the shredded pork. That's a big plate of pasta you got there (i hear you say)...why yes, yes it is.

On the side:
It may seem basic but sometimes salads can be glorious. I'm sure Damien Pignolet will attest to this. This one is by chef Matt Wilkinson from Pope Joan and Circa(look, to be honest I really should just up and move to Melbourne), who has recently published a veggie friendly cookbook, "Mr Wilkinson's Favourite Vegetables". Okay, so it sounds like a children's picture book, but never mind that! The recipe was featured in the March 2012 issue of Australian GT and is posted at the end

Fresh and simple. That's all I could really ask for at the moment and Matt has hit the nail on the head. The dressing has but 4 ingredients and is incredibly tasty - only lashings of it will do.

Pork riga

Ingredientsss

1.5 tbspn olive oil

1 onion + leek + celery stalk, chopped finely

350g pancetta, chopped finely

150ml Madeira (I survived without this)

800g canned crushed tomatoes

1kg boneless pork shoulder, cut in half (or smaller to reduce braising time)

200g black Ligurian olives, pitted

30g butter, coarsely chopped

1.5 tbspn marjoram leaves, plus extra to serve

750g died rigatoni

Finely grated parmesan to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 120 degrees C. Heat olive oil in large casserole dish over medium heat. Add onion, leek and celery, stirring occasionally until tender. Add pancetta and stir occasionally until golden

2. Add Madeira and simmer until reduced by half, add crushed tomato, bring to the simmer, season to taste, add pork shoulder, cover and braise in oven, turning once, until very tender (3 hours). Remove pork and coarsely shred, set aside

3. Process cooking liquid in a food processor to a puree, transfer to a saucepan over medium heat and simmer until reduced to a thick sauce. Stir in pork, olives, butter and marjoram, season to taste

4. Cook rigatoni in a large saucepan of boiling salted H2O until al dente, drain, toss through pork mixture and serve hot with extra marjoram and grated parmesan. Et voila!

Bean salad

Ingredientsss

2 small Spanish onions, skin on

300g green beans, top and tailed

300g yellow beans, top and tailed

375g cooked cannellini beans (tinned will do)

3 Roma tomatoes, quartered, seeds removed, cut into thin strips

1 punnet baby basil, or 20 basil leaves finely chopped

Dressing

1 tbspn Dijon mustard

75g creme fraiche

90ml extra virgin olive oil

2 tbspn Chardonnay vinegar

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Wrap onions in foil and bake for 15-20 mins or until knife pierces through easily. Take out from oven, unwrap and set aside to cool

2. Bring 1L of salted H2O to the boil. Add green + yellow beans and cook for 4 mins or until "just still crisp" (a bit of an awkward turn of words but okay). Drain and refresh in icy cold H2O. Drain again and place in a large bowl

3. Add cannellini beans, tomato and basil. Peel skin off onions, cut into eighths and add to beans. Season to taste

4. For the dressing, whisk mustard and creme fraiche before adding olive oil + vinegar. Season to taste

5. Pour dressing (like, a lot) over the bean mixture and serve

Happy days :) :) :)

Toodles!

Dedicated to...Rhubarb

Yes, a whole post dedicated to a vegetable. Cousin to celery, with leaves that are poisonous...who knew veggies could be so awesome?! Rhubarb is just coming into season now (down under) and bunches are looking a much deeper red with chunkier stalks(a technical term, yes). None of this anaemic looking rubbish that I saw over in London's Portobello (sad, but true). I snapped up a humungous bunch over at the Pyrmont Growers Markets on the Easter weekend and went to town (cooked it up). Here are some of the fruits of my labour:

Look, I'm an artiste! Drizzling honey like a champion. Here I've stewed some rhubarb pieces with a tablespoon (or 2 for the sweet toothed) of sugar for around 10 minutes on a low medium heat (you know when it's done when you get the texture that you want). KISS - keep it simple stupid: a few dollops of (full fat!!!) yoghurt with a drizzle of honey is all you need for the rhubarb to work it's tarty magic.

It's a bird, it's a plane...NO, it's a rhubarb bundt cake! Shaped as an UFO, this one is a Rhubarb & Sour Cream cake, a recipe from a friend (thank you!). In order to cope with the significant quantity of rhubarb in the recipe you need to pack in the brown sugar (don't be shy) or the cake will be too tart for most (but i know i can handle it). I think I was slightly over ambitious in trying to use this baking dish because I have significant muffin toppage - nevermind, I actually like the crust. The golden brown colour, I've realised can only be achieved with a decent oven! Too bad my college oven is a POS.

And so my love affair with macro continues - here's a close up shot. Can i just say that the cake tasted pretty darn good. Lucky i cut the oven time so that it was just cooked. Remember kids, whilst the cake is out cooling it is still cooking - something to keep in mind.

It's a strange thing, but I actually quite like desserts or baked goods with vegetables in them. I've made a chocolate and beetroot cake a couple of times which is so rich but so yum. I'll post about it one of these days. Of course there's always the humble carrot cake and pumpkin scone - old stalwarts that never let you down. I'm keen to try some other recipes with rhubarb - maybe a rhubarb/apple/blueberry pie...I have an Australian GT recipe in mind (holy crapola, that looks good). Anyway, that'll do for now. My baking itch has been temporarily scratched ;) Thanks for reading! :D

Going Retro

Hi all, I know it would seem that I have fallen off the food radar but that is certainly not the case! I have been having gastronomic adventures in another hemisphere! I've just come back from a 6 week stint in London/Paris and boy do I have lots to write about. Now it's time for some retro-blogging (hence the title)...are you ready?

What I was greeted by when I got off the plane: Hyde Park Winter Wonderland's rendition of hot choccie (a 5-year-old's dream). "Do you want cream and sprinkles with that?" *Blank stare* (OF COURSE I DO) I'm a big girl, I can handle it. I love how the flake doubles as a swizzle stick. Pretty sure I've never had a bigger sugar rush in my life.

Buenos dias! Huevos rancheros vegetarian breakfast bonanza @ Giraffe (270 Chiswick High Road, London W4 1PD). Feeling a little adventurous, I went for a kick of a mexican spice for brunch. The ultimate test was those poached eggs... pass!

Falafel me up baby! The famous falafel produced by Arabica Food & Spice Co @ Borough Market (8 Southwark St, London SE1 1TL) - i'll be raving about this one later. This Damascean falafel was dee-lish. Next time, I'll be brave and get the one with pickles. The falafel, salad and sauce are like peas in a pod. It's the real deal, and is perfect as second lunch ;)

The tip-off. Thanks go to Time Out London aka the bible, who gave it a glowing review. I do need to mention it was a bit of a trek to get to what felt like Vietnamese aunty's house (if she owned an English pub). Hint: figure out where it is before you get to Surrey Quays - it gets VERY QUIET at night. Rice paper rolls @ Cafe East (100 Redriff Road, Surrey Quays Leisure Park, London SE16 7LH). Had to try these babies out. The sauce was v nice, although the rolls were lacking a bit in the herbs department (herbs to lettuce ratio was out of whack). 

The main event from Cafe East, beef pho. Mmm, I can just picture the huge cauldron of stock that would have been simmering away overnight. This pho was pretty good, considering we were in the (SE) heart of London. The bean sprouts, coriander and lemon juice MAKE IT i.e. are essential. The problem is, every pho outside of Vietnam just isn't as good (Hanoi's the ticket)! Also, tried the 3 bean drink in a heady sugar syrup and a heap of ice = massive sugar rush #2.

These snaps serve as a little taster, an hors d'oeuvre. There's plenty more where that came from! Thanks for reading

VEG (almost)

Gee whiz, doesn't time fly... Sunday was Xmas day and soon I'll be hitting my mid 20s! Nothing like a quarter-life crisis to throw into the mix. I've been a busy little bee recently and will only tease you with une salade.


Zucchini and Green Bean Salad with Tahini dressing

I'm partial to a nice macro shot, and this veggie creation

Serves 4

Ingredientsss

Salad

2 tbspn olive oil

3 medium zucchinis (400g) sliced thinly into rounds

Juice 1/2 lemon

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

125g french beans

4 handfuls of salad leaves

12-18 oven dried tomatoes (chuck in halved tomatoes in oven at 100 deg C with some sugar, thyme sprigs, bay leaves, olive oil and some S & P for as long as you can muster). Alternatively, use semi-dried tomatoes

Handful of shredded mint (optional)

3 chicken thigh fillets (optional, for the carnivore in each of us)

Dressing

1/2 garlic clove, crushed with coarse salt

2 tbspn light tahini (sesame seed paste)

Zest and juice of 1/2 lemon

Juice 1/2 orange

1/2 tbspn honey

2 tbspn olive oil

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

• Pan fry sliced chicken thighs in olive oil and salt and pepper. Note: add the oil etc to the chicken before putting in the pan. Once cooked, set aside
• Heat 2 tbspn olive oil in a large pan over high heat and cook the zucchini slices in batches, until tender and browned on both sides. Transfer to a bowl once cooked and season with S & P, lemon juice and chilli. Toss together well
• Bring a pan of salted water to the boil. Tip in French beans, return to boil and blanch beans quickly (but depending if you like them crunchy or soggy and limp, lol)
• Drain beans and rinse in cold water  to stop coooking and refresh. Drain and pat dry, add to zucchini
• For the dressing: put the crushed garlic into a small bowl with the tahini, lemon zest and juice, orange juice, honey and some black pepper. Stir well. If the dressing is thick and grainy, thin with 1 tbspn of water at a time. Stir in olive oil and season to taste
• Assembly: spread salad leaves in the serving dish, scatter over zucchini and beans, tomatoes and shredded mint. Top with chicken pieces and dress generously. Et voila!

It's a little 'rustic' but I'm not complaining. This photo was taken literally about 5 secs before I launched in. The dressing tastes awesome and the salad itself has the right balance of texture and flavour. Props to Hugh

This plate of deliciousness was conjured by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, of the River Cottage empire (coming in a close second to Jamie's diabolical plan for world domination). Restaurant openings (and closures, for that matter) have been gracing our media all year - Jamie's Italian in Pitt St is no exception. Pity, it's not exceptional, according to grand master Durack [13/20]. 


I first heard about Hugh when I watched an ep of his River Cottage series. It was a rerun from 50 billion years ago but I thought it was rather charming, especially the huge garden that supplies the restaurant fresh fruit/veg/herbs bit. The English countryside is always a winner too. I bought this cookbook, cheap as chips off the interweb and it has served me well. Who knew there are so many ways with the humble bean, or beetroot! Btw, the baby beet tarte tatin looks fan-freakin'-tastic. There are plenty of recipes to whet your appetite for greens, but I usually add a smatter of meat (like pan-fried chicken pieces par example) for something more substantial . There really  aren't any rules so cook what and how you feel like!

When Hughie cut off his luscious locks (see his former glory here), I must admit I was a little shocked and appalled. It was akin to Enrique Iglesias having his face mole lasered off...it's not like we didn't notice! Source Le Delicieux

Another list: What I like about Hugh F-W

His honesty: a bit corny I know. F-W is not a trained chef but has made a profession out of his passion. There is none of the pomp or pretence that comes with your Ferrans, Hestons or Redzepis - many of whom have become too big for their boots.

He doesn't want you to sous vide anything

His food philosophy: he is a big believer in cooking and eating more vegetables (hence, the vegetarian cookbook) but is definitely not veggo (see this installment). Yotam Ottolenghi, a UK chef is on the same page with Plenty (def on my wish list). True, it 'tis the usual, sourcing the freshest in-season ingredients yada yada (rant) but it all rings true.

Hugh F-W's hair, in the early days (pre-2011) - see caption above. It became a sort of trademark for him and signified his hobo-esque image of "the farmer who could cook". Well nevermind, now he just looks like your average joe in a cabbage suit...

Dapper as anything. If ever you are in some sort of culinary crisis or in need of some comic relief. ..this is your man. Source The Guardian

Happy silly season! Peace out.