Drink more
What a sanctimonious load of twaddle that last entry was. Sorry about that. I still say that getting totally wasted is bad though. Possibly the whole point of your twenties is to learn that. But a bit of social lubrication is a healthy thing.
I had a fantastic cookery demonstration at Almeida restaurant in Islington. It was a Christmas present from A and it has taken us until now to get it organised. I was expecting Almeida to be a little bistro place and when I walked in to this massive Conran styled place I was gobsmacked. The head chef Ian Wood was a really nice chap, nothing like the bully like image you have come to expect from watching Ramsey. When A more or less told him off for not tasting the food often enough he handled it better than I do when she makes helpful suggestions to me when I'm cooking. There were five people at the demonstration including us. We sat on stools at the 'service' where the waiters pick up the plates to take out and stick the orders up on the rail thing. The kitchen was quiet but some things were being prepared by the teenaged army of kitchen hands. He stood in the kitchen cooking at the stove nearest the service and put things down on it to taste and look at. He took us through a four course dinner from the Provence region showing loads of cool little tips on the way. For example how to cook onions down to a deep brown colour without burning them. How too cook button onions so they end up soft and yet not too brown on the outside. How to get a scallop to go golden brown at the edge without overcooking it. How that when something looks like it was all cooked together it need not be and in fact that it can be better to cook components separately and combine then at the end. How to and how not to cook a creme brulee.
That was all excellent but the best was yet to come. We then got to eat the same menu and it was heavenly. We had an onion, olive and anchovy tart called a salineirre (no idea how to spell that but tasted so lovely with the sweet onion and and savory anchovies) then we had scallops on a tomato and basil fondue (amazing scallops really fresh and just cooked so still piping hot, sauce was good and uncomplicated). Next came the Daube (Beef cheek stew essentially, it was three decent chunks of really tender beef with a garnish of button onions button mushrooms and pancetta lardons, served with mash this was gorgeous and my favorite of the evening) . The creme brulee was very good. I wasn't expecting anything so organised and professional and I wasn't expecting such an amazing meal. But the biggest surprise was the amazing amount of attention we got from the sommelier and the vast quantity of incredible wine he practically threw down our necks. There was a pastice apperatif and different wine with each course and he wasn't holding back. It was all like heaven in a glass and it enhanced the food and the conversation and the evening as a whole.
Mainly for that reason I won't be quitting drinking any time soon. Cheers!
I had a fantastic cookery demonstration at Almeida restaurant in Islington. It was a Christmas present from A and it has taken us until now to get it organised. I was expecting Almeida to be a little bistro place and when I walked in to this massive Conran styled place I was gobsmacked. The head chef Ian Wood was a really nice chap, nothing like the bully like image you have come to expect from watching Ramsey. When A more or less told him off for not tasting the food often enough he handled it better than I do when she makes helpful suggestions to me when I'm cooking. There were five people at the demonstration including us. We sat on stools at the 'service' where the waiters pick up the plates to take out and stick the orders up on the rail thing. The kitchen was quiet but some things were being prepared by the teenaged army of kitchen hands. He stood in the kitchen cooking at the stove nearest the service and put things down on it to taste and look at. He took us through a four course dinner from the Provence region showing loads of cool little tips on the way. For example how to cook onions down to a deep brown colour without burning them. How too cook button onions so they end up soft and yet not too brown on the outside. How to get a scallop to go golden brown at the edge without overcooking it. How that when something looks like it was all cooked together it need not be and in fact that it can be better to cook components separately and combine then at the end. How to and how not to cook a creme brulee.
That was all excellent but the best was yet to come. We then got to eat the same menu and it was heavenly. We had an onion, olive and anchovy tart called a salineirre (no idea how to spell that but tasted so lovely with the sweet onion and and savory anchovies) then we had scallops on a tomato and basil fondue (amazing scallops really fresh and just cooked so still piping hot, sauce was good and uncomplicated). Next came the Daube (Beef cheek stew essentially, it was three decent chunks of really tender beef with a garnish of button onions button mushrooms and pancetta lardons, served with mash this was gorgeous and my favorite of the evening) . The creme brulee was very good. I wasn't expecting anything so organised and professional and I wasn't expecting such an amazing meal. But the biggest surprise was the amazing amount of attention we got from the sommelier and the vast quantity of incredible wine he practically threw down our necks. There was a pastice apperatif and different wine with each course and he wasn't holding back. It was all like heaven in a glass and it enhanced the food and the conversation and the evening as a whole.
Mainly for that reason I won't be quitting drinking any time soon. Cheers!
posted by Phil at 8:19 pm
3 Comments:
How *do* you cook onions down to a deep brown colour without burning them? I have always wanted to know how to do this.
First you have to accept that it will take at least an hour. It only works with a fairly large quantity of onions. The onions need to be uniformly sliced so that all the bits cook at the same rate. You should use a thick bottom pan that spreads the heat evenly. You can do it with vegetable oil doesn't have to be butter couple of lugs. Once the onions are frying you turn the hob down to the lowest possible setting. You may have to put the pan so it sticks off the edge of the hot plate and push the onions away from the hotest part of the pan. They should be barely frying at all just the odd bubble. After about 50 mins the onions will be going brown. Then you take them off the heat and cover the pan and wait ten minutes. The onions steam will have made them really soft and have loosened all the brown residue which coats the pan and you stir all the onions round and wipe off the brown pan residue so the pan looks clean and the onions will look more or less chocolate coloured ready to be used to make french onion soup or an onion tart that will be proper brown.
Fantastic, thanks! We have a ton (or thereabouts) of onions to eat up, and that's what I'm going to do with them...
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