Old Vienna in Torquay - something a little different...

As usual, Tripadvisor is my friend when on the road and sleeping over in a new and strange town. There is only so much generic hotel restaurant fair one person can take, so I jumped onto my iPad, opened up Tripadvisor and typed in Torquay into the restaurant search bar. A number of good looking restaurants fleshed out the list with a few establishments I had already visited prominently displayed on the first page.

Top of the pile was Old Vienna… Winner of the Tripadvisors #1 restaurant for 2012, 2013 and probably 2014 based on current position, it definitely shouted out for a visit. The 350 positive reviews sold me and I emailed the restaurant on Tuesday evening to book a table. Just be aware that they are closed on Monday and Tuesday of each week. I received a reply back from Werner within a few minutes confirming my reservation.

Werner Rott is the Chef Proprietor of the restaurant and based on comments on line, he is well liked and respected in the local area.

I discovered that parking can be an issue, so if going to the restaurant, it might be better to catch a cab or walk through the lovely and lively Torquay, maybe stopping at a harbour side bar for pre-dinner drinks. This said, based on the great German beers, local ales and good looking wine list, it is probably advisable not to drive!

I walked into the restaurant and was greeted by a happy, smiling hostess who took me to my, sadly, one seater little table. I was handed my menu and told about a Paprika Goulash and Dumpling special for that evening that definitely tempted me. I asked about beers, hoping for an Austrian tipple and was told about 2 German beers that graced the bar fridge. My choices were Flensburger, a bottled light German lager and a heavier German wheat beer by the pint, that I unfortunately didn’t catch the name of. Ales were also on offer with Devon Dumpling standing out, as I had tried one on a previous Devon trip and really enjoyed it. I opted for the Flensburger and I can honestly say it was a lovely, light and very drinkable lager. I could easily have polished of a fair few of them if so inclined!

Deciding on my meal options was hard… I was stuck on starter choices between homemade sausages, duck or scallops. Main course divided me between Devon Wild Things and Classic Wiener Schnitzel. Roasted Rump of Lamb was also knocking on the door. I chose ‘Devon Wild Things on a plate – Confit Leg of Rabbit, Loin of Rabbit, seared Pigeon Breasts served on ribbons of Courgettes and Peppers with Thyme Infused Rabbit Jus’ for my main, so this then knocked out the duck as I felt it didn’t flow with my main. I was then stuck between scallops and homemade sausage… I went for ‘Sauteed sliced Venison and Wild Boar with Apple Sausage on a Creamy Sauerkraut’ because Werner is Austrian after all and I just knew it would be good. I’d also heard a comment from a customer at a nearby table stating the sausage was great, whereupon the waitress asked if he would like to buy any to take home. Nice upsell option, that!

A steaming little bun arrived at my table and its bright red countenance demanded my attention. I gently broke it open to display a light and fluffy interior. A strong fragrance of paprika wafted up… and I started salivating! , Phwar, I was looking forward to this little roll! I was immediately hit with a gorgeous paprika flavour when eating the bread and finished with a touch of aniseed flavour on my palate. My initial thoughts where paprika and fennel or caraway (even though I couldn’t see any seeds) as flavours, but upon asking the waitress, I was informed it was Smoked Paprika and Tomato. I’m guessing the smoking confused my tongue… The roll was so good, I asked for another one and was promptly served one. Great!

My starter arrived and first impression was… Wow, that’s a lot of parsley! I moved the parsley to the side of my plate and was presented with a quite appetising dish of sausage and tomato on the creamed sauerkraut. Quite honestly, the flavours lived up to the visual appeal. The venison sausage was gamey and slightly course in texture, the wild boar and apple sausage was firm and mildly sweet and the creamy sauerkraut was heaven sent. I loved how the addition of cream reduced the acidic pickling of the sauerkraut and just made it oh so yummy. A really good start to my meal however, as a starter, it could be argued that the portion size was a bit big.

Main course was up next and I suddenly understood Werner’s presentation style. I had a huge bay leaf and sprig of rosemary rakishly poised on the plate. Once again, the portion was huge! 'Rustic Home Style cooking with elements of Posh' is what we have here. There were 2 whole pigeon breasts on the plate, 1 whole rabbit leg and a whole rabbit loin as well as various bits of rabbit placed on top of the veg. The pile of veg was also fairly substantial. Having said that, it all tasted great and I finished the whole plate! The veg was gorgeous having been sautéed in lashings of butter. This would be my only negative comment about the presentation was that the butter from the veg and the jus from the meat didn’t mix well and look a tad messy on the plate. But what about the taste? Oh yeah… soooo good! In addition to this hearty plate of food, a dish of vegetables accompanied the meal. Buttery carrots, celeriac, garlic new potatoes, beetroot and beans. A veritable feast!

Dessert was a straight forward and easy choice. Whilst there were quite a few desserts I would’ve happily tucked into, I went for the ‘Apricot Dumplings covered in Toasted Sweet Buttery Breadcrumbs served with Homemade Vanilla Ice cream’.  This choice was once again made because of the Austrian influence and when in Rome… ummm.. Austria… as they say. The presentation was fun and I thought, 'Oooh, can't wait to get into that dumpling!' The large, golden, breaded dumpling sat on a bed of buttery breadcrumbs and nestled next to it was a smooth looking scoop of ice cream, vanilla seeds proudly visible.

To be honest, I found this dessert a little odd. I almost think a biscuit crumb would’ve been nicer than the breadcrumb and the dumpling itself was dense and, dare I say it, a little bland. I loved the texture of the crumb, the sweet and sour of the apricot and the creamy vanilla ice cream was gorgeous. Dumplings are an absolute favourite of mine and I personally think a lighter, maybe spiced or sweetened dumpling would've really helped this dessert.

At this point, Werner came out into the restaurant and yodeled hello to everyone. Just imagine it! Helloooo-dalee-dalooo-daleee-dalooooooo! Just awesome. He then went round the restaurant chatting to customers, sharing a glass of schnapps with a few patrons and generally just being a gracious, appreciative host. He found out I was a chef from the hostess as I had earlier discussed why I was in Torquay with her. He came over and spent some time with me, bringing the obligatory shot of schnapps and we chatted about cheffing in general and the couple of ski trips Sheila and I had been on in Austria. I then commented on the Austrian wines available on the wine list and that I had never tried any before, and almost instantly, a small glass of red and of white appeared on the table and we had a little impromptu wine tasting session. Brilliant!

I seriously cannot rate this restaurant highly enough. My personal taste of portion size being too big and dumpling a bit heavy do not in any way detract from a fantastic evening full of attentive service and great food. I would recommend this restaurant to anyone and I will definitely be back when next in Torquay.

Ciao Italian Bistro in Hull

Once again I'm on the road for work. This time in Hull... not the most salubrious of destinations, but I have found a lovely restaurant or two in the area in the past.

Being a Monday evening hampered the search for a decent (ie. non chain) restaurant open for business. The first four choices were all closed... I continued moving down the Tripadvisor list and eventually found an Italian restaurant close to the hotel that was open.

A short drive later and I was walking through the front door to a genuinely happy greeting. The restaurant was half full. Now is that because the restaurant is good or is it because nothing else was open...

The first thing the waitress said to me was that they currently cannot serve alcohol. This is because the restaurant has just undergone a name change (from Ciao Caffe) and as such have no licence under the new name to serve alcohol. If we wanted a more substantial beverage than soft drinks, we were more than welcome to pop over the road to a store and purchase a bottle of wine or a few beers. Soft drinks were OK...

I was shown to a table in a restaurant that felt slightly rustic, but this could also be described as 'run down' chic. The atmosphere was pleasant enough with authentic traditional Italian music softly warbling in the background. My coke arrived whilst debating the merits of specials board versus a la carte menu...

I split the difference and for starters from the specials board I went for Chorizo and Beef Meatballs in Napolitano Sauce and topped with Mozzarella. For mains, I went to the menu and chose Linguini Gambretti - Prawns in Tomato Sauce with Shallot, Chilli, White Wine and Garlic.

The rustic theme was carried through into the meal with two large meatballs smothered in tomato sauce and grilled mozzarella staring up at me from the bowl. A couple of slices of fresh, warm toast nestled up to the bowl and just screamed 'dunk me!'. This I duly did and found the starter to be very pleasant. The tomato sauce was richly tomato'ed and lightly seasoned and was lovely on the bread. Add a lump of creamy melted mozzarella and I had a mini pizza! The meatballs were surprisingly light and the paprika flavour of the chorizo permeated the beef very well. I really did like this starter with its quite simple homemade personality. 

Main course arrived and once again 'rustic' jumped out at me... or was it lack of presentation skill? It was blatantly obvious that the pasta had been dumped into the very large bowl directly from the pan. All of the king prawns, the little, curled, pink hero's of this dish, were hidden under the pasta ashamed maybe at the lack of respect from the chef. I had to rearrange the dish to take the photo. Having said that, the taste was very good. The linguini pasta was beautifully cooked and had a nice bite. The tomato sauce was slightly sweet with a tingle of heat from the green chilli. The prawns were tasty and had a that lovely resistance to the first bite in my mouth. The were little shrimps included in the dish and I almost found these obsolete as the king prawns were enough. Also, the portion was huge and I didn't finish all of it.

Dessert was spectacularly disappointing... My first choice of Tiramisu was not available and neither was my fallback Pannacotta. I just couldn't bring myself to order an American Cheesecake, a French Creme Brulee or a French Chocolate Torte in a restaurant so blatantly offering honest, traditional homemade Italian food. I eventually settled on a special Chocolate Souffle (French!) with Toffee Sauce. What arrived just deflated me... Two souffle's plonked on a plate surrounded by spray can cream and bottled toffee sauce. Bleh... Huge portion again that was really not needed. The souffle was honestly a poor, overcooked version of a chocolate fondant. Not great, however the rich chocolate flavour was good and the light hand with the sugar was appreciated after the large meal. It was heavy, over cooked and over eggy though (a hint towards souffle?) and I barely finished one of the 'souffles' and didn't touch the cream. The sauce was as expected from a bought bottled sauce...

 

Sigh... a good (not great) traditional meal ruined by a disastrous dessert... The service was however pretty good and friendly and the prices were very reasonable, especially when considering the portion sizes. The chefs do need a lesson or two in presentation and passion, though.

 

Would I go back? Probably not as I have found better restaurants in Hull and the surrounds.

 

River Cottage - working lunch

Last week, as part of my work, I was lucky enough to be invited to River Cottage to see what they were all about and to see if there was the possibly to work more closely together in the future... I was in for a treat!

The closest hotel I could find was over 20 miles away and the drive in, in the morning was through little English villages and miles upon miles of hedgerow. We had our obligatory meeting and then went on a tour of the farm. Next time I will not wear a shirt and trousers... it was stinking hot, over 30C and shorts and sandals were called for but in short supply.

First stop was the herb and vegetable garden. Well, one of them anyway. There must have been about 5 or 6 different areas for growing various bits of greenery. We also walked past loads of pigs, sheep and cows that will either provide for the farm or will eventually end up in the pot. I was loving it...

The kitchen used in the show...

A superb demonstration/training kitchen that we will hopefully make use of in the future.

The view from said training kitchen...

Following our tour, we were offered a quick, 'thrown together' lunch using only ingredients sourced from their farm or local producers. The soup was pea, basil and lettuce and was wonderfully fresh and cold, very summery and I could have polished of a pint of it. A potato, celery and Dorset Blue Vinny frittata just screamed to be eaten and who could refuse such an offer. The egg was wonderfully light and the blue vinny cheese was mild in flavour and oh so creamy. Sometimes a blue cheese can overpower a dish, but not here... very very nice!

Accompanying the soup and frittata were two salads. A quite pretty Nistertion, pea shot and red chard salad pouted at us asking for attention...

...but my favourite was the chestnut mushroom, broad bean, mint and ebley wheat salad. Meaty mushrooms with earthy ebley, fresh broad bean and subtle mint... yum! I had seconds...

And who can have a working lunch without bread? In this case it was it was a fresh focaccia  with garlic and herbs, all fresh from the garden.

Thank you River Cottage for an exceptional day out in the country.  I will definitely be back on a Friday or Saturday evening to sample one of their taster menus.

Auberge du Lac... Our 2nd year anniversary

Wow... has it been 2 years already? And 1 year since we enjoyed excellence at Sat Bains. The standard was set last year and it is now up to me to match the experience and keep Sheila happy! Well, me too really...

We have recently moved to Hertford and we heard about Auberge du Lac from one of the locals. The restaurant is situated at Brocket Hall, just down the road from us, so I decided to go ahead and book local! Upon arrival, we were greeted by a smiling host and asked if we would like a drink on the patio. There is only one answer to this of course... Yes please!

The patio was wonderful in the late evening sun and we sat sipping a Mojito and Cosmopolitan feeling ourselves relax as we looked out over the gardens and the river that ran through the Hall's grounds. Menus were presented and quite honestly the choice was easy... 2 x 9 course menu with matching wines please. We spent a good twenty minutes outside, slowly sipping our cocktails and nibbling on White Truffle Oil Popcorn and Candied Nuts. Just what I love, there was no sense of time ticking by and no desire by the waiting staff to rush us through our evening.

Our cocktails slowly went down and once done, we were escorted to our table. Wine and water followed swiftly, and shortly there after we received our Amuse Bouche. The Amuse Bouche was listed as part of the 9 choice menu and in my opinion, it should not be mentioned on the menu and it should be a little surprise taster provided by the chef to intrigue your palate and set the scene for the evening. Having said that, the delectable Cucumber Gazpacho with Avocado Puree and Sourdough Croutons was all that. It was light, fresh, summery and got my taste bugs zinging all over the place.  I loved the little crunch provided by the croutons. Sheila would have preferred a couple less croutons though as she found the dish too crunchy.

Along with our Amuse Bouche, a bread board was served. It was just scrumptious! Onion Brioche and Garlic Baguette served with a Sundried Tomato Mayonnaise and a Fresh Churned Homemade Butter. The tomato mayo was delectable with the Onion Brioche, but both of us loved the fresh butter. We lathered it into both the baguette and brioche and tucked in. The onion brioche was exquisite with rich and sweet onion flavours permeating throughout. Yum!

Right, onto the first course proper. A Lobster dish with Kohlrabi, Coriander and Bisque. The bisque was poured over the lobster by the waiter at the table. Light and fresh lobster swimming in a pool of superbly rich bisque, crunchy Kohlrabi and the subtle taste of coriander washing across my tongue. Just exquisite. There was also a lot of crunch provided by a grain (deep fried quinoa?) of some sort. I found the dish absolutely brilliant although the crunch was all encompassing and detracted slightly from the overall feel.

Next up was Foie Gras with Cherry, White Chocolate and Pistachio. The plate was placed in front of me and instantly I wanted to eat it. The presentation was quite beautiful and you could see texture and flavour without eating a thing. Tucking in, I found the foie gras creamy and rich with a nice crisp outside from the pan. The cherry was sweet and fruity and the pistachio was caramel like in texture, sticking my teeth together! The brioche was sweet and light and the white chocolate dust just instantly liquified when put into your mouth. I found that the chocolate was lost when combining all the flavours, however, overall, this dish was brilliant and was my favourite of the evening.

I do want to comment on the wine paired with the Foie Gras, which was a German Gewurztraminer, sweet and fruity and just perfect with the rich liver and sweet garnishes.

Following on from the Foie Gras was Halibut with Braised Octopus, Tomato, Samphire and Lime. When placed in front of you, the first thing to grab your eye was the Squid Ink Crackle. Very dramatic and it shouted out taste me, if you dare! Presentation was very pretty and the splash of green from the samphire added a lovely fresh feel. The halibut was perfectly cooked and blended brilliantly with all the flavours on the plate. Meaty fish, sour lime, fresh tomato, salty samphire, crunch from the crackle... just yum!

Time to cleanse the palate... Elderflower Granita with Pickled and Poached Gooseberries. Liquid Nitrogen was used to create the granita which was lovely and cold and sweet. The pickled and poached gooseberries packed a punch. Slightly sweet, but with loads of sour notes from the pickling. Just great and definitely refreshed my palate!

Thankfully, a short break was provided at this point...

Onto main course and at this stage, we had a choice of Rabbit with Carrot Quinoa, Young Leeks, Compressed Lettuce and Miso Caramel or Iberico Pork, Roast Sweetcorn, Spring Onion and Barbecue Pineapple. Needless to say, we chose one of each.

Sheila chose the pork and was a very excited young lady when she spotted the abundance of sweetcorn on her plate. Sheila was hard pressed to share and the small taste I had was lovely. I really enjoyed the sweet contrast from the sweetcorn and pineapple with the meatiness of the pork and the rich saltiness of the sauce, but this should be understandable as being South African, we do love fruit with our meat.  Just think Bacon and Banana Pizza!

As mentioned, Sheila was quite possessive of her main course...

I chose the rabbit. It was honestly a lovely dish. The rabbit was extremely tender and was complemented beautifully by the miso caramel. The vegetables were crunchy, well seasoned and very tasty. I did however find the quinoa verging on the point of being over seasoned, but I know loads of folk that would say the seasoning was just right.

Following on from mains, we once again had a choice of dish and chose one of each. The cheese course was either a Roquefort or Brillat Truffle. My favourite bit of this course was the fruity biscuit. It was more like bread, and the best part, it was warm! A spoonful of the Roquefort Truffle placed onto the bread with a grape plonked on top was heavenly. The cheesy truffle started melting onto the warm sweet bread and when in the mouth, the warmth of the bread, the coolness of the truffle and the sweet crunch of the grape was lovely! I enjoyed the Roquefort truffle so much I almost licked my plate clean... The sharp look from Sheila stopped me.

Finally we have reached the dessert end of the evening and following on from what had already been experienced, we expected great things. First up was Strawberry, Tonka and Meringue. Tonka? What's that, you may ask. And no, it is not the toy manufacturer and we did not receive a free toy with our dessert. The Tonka bean comes from a tree native to the America's and has flavours and aromas of vanilla, cinnamon, cloves and almonds. Tonka is new to me, so I cannot say where it was used in this dish. The strawberry's had something done to them (poached, macerated, marinated?) and I just don't know because the translucent, almost jelly like flesh of the strawberry was something I'd not experienced before. I'm guessing the Tonka was used in the strawberry process. The strawberry's were however very very nice! The meringue was sweet, light and crunchy and the little shortbread cubes (at least that's what I think they were!) added a rich butteryness to the dish. They were very very light and lacked the doughy weight I've come to expect from shortbread. Overall, I can say that the dish was light, fresh, sweet and gorgeous and was Sheila's favourite of the evening.

Finally, the end is nigh! Our last course was Chocolate, Malt, Macadamia and Blond Beer. Presentation was superb and we loved the trickery of the chocolate ring. I really enjoyed this dessert and loved the combination of flavours. The ice cream was not overly sweet and this was nice as the malt and chocolate sponge was quite rich. I found the sponge quite dense (brownie like?) whereas I might have preferred it a little lighter. It was a lovely decadent way to finish the meal, however Sheila did comment she would have preffered the lighter strawberry dessert last.

Back outside onto the patio to finish our evening with coffee and petit fours. Yet more food! Sheila was done, but I couldn't insult the pastry chef by not partaking of a few samples!

Auberge du Lac also presented us with a lovely little surprise! I had to eat these chocolate's too...

To cap the evening off, we spent a good 10 minutes or so chatting to Phil Thompson, Executive Chef at Auberge du Lac. Phil is a great guy and I'd love to revisit his restaurant on the Chef's Table.  I can see meeting the chef becoming a bit of an anniversary tradition as we spoke to Sat Bains last year and now Phil this year. Wonder if I can pull this off at our future restaurant visits!
I would also like to point out that James, our waiter, was brilliant and we were well looked after all evening long. Fantastic food, atmosphere and service... I would recommend this restaurant to absolutely anyone!

Mulberrys Restaurant and Grill - Yeovil

On a quick little business trip down to The River Cottage in Musbury, Devon, I decided to rekindle my blog... It's about time... And yes, it is that River Cottage!

The closest hotel I could find to River Cottage was in Yeovil. Right, hotel booked... Now to find a restaurant. Tripadvisor comes in handy in situations like these. Top of the list, rated number 1, was Mulberry, a semi South African themed restaurant. Perfect!

Parking is hard to come by in Yeovil, so a pleasant and quiet walk through town from the car park was needed before I found the restaurant.  Slightly unassuming from the exterior with an A-frame board advertising 2 for 1 steak nights on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, I walked in and was shown to a table immediately even though the restaurant was reasonably full. The ambiance was pleasing enough and thankfully not over the top South African.

Following a perusal of the menu that was surprisingly laminated and didn't fit the feel of the restaurant, I ordered Slow Roast Crispy Pork Belly with Thatchers Apple Cider Jelly for £6 and Oven Roasted Duck Breast with Poached Pear, Parsnip and Vanilla Puree, Port Wine Gravy and Market Vegetables for £15.50.  Once the order was placed, homemade bread promptly arrived which I polished off with gusto.

A very pleasing looking plate was placed in front of me and my first thought was ooh, yum! My second thought was good grief, that's a fairly large piece of pork.  The starter was good. The pork was tasty and tender and the crackling was delightfully crispy. The apple jelly flavour was fresh and complemented the pork extremely well, as apple always does. The sauce was rich and delectable and the fresh leaves was a pleasing touch.  My only comment is that the apple jelly was too solid. Gelatin had been used in abundance and the jelly was approaching rubber... not quite there but firm enough to detract from the rest of the plate.  No wobble to this jelly! Overall though, it was a very pleasing starter with good flavour combinations. 

Once again, a pleasant looking plate of food was placed in front of me. I was really looking forward to the duck as the combination of pear, parsnips and vanilla intrigued me. My first visual was a tinge of disappointment... the duck had been overcooked for my taste. I like medium rare at most and this duck was fast approaching medium well... anyway, I never the less tucked in.  Yes, the duck was slightly overcooked, however the port sauce almost made up for this.  Rich, unctuous, salty, sticky and oh so moreish! In addition, the hint of vanilla permeating the parsnip was a nice touch. The pear however, was extremely sweet. Eaten on its own, I would struggle to eat the whole thing. Also, it hadn't been de-cored... However, when combining the pear with a slice of duck, they did complement each other well and the sweetness of the pear was minimised and balanced well with the meatiness of the duck. Once again, I did find the portion large as I had an entire duck breast on my plate.  Usual when cooking at home, not so much when eating out.

Dessert was a tough choice... I was tempted by melting chocolate biscuits and Amarula sauce, but eventually selected the Malva Pudding, a South African Soft Sponge made with Apricot Jam and served with Vanilla Ice Cream for £6.  Quite honestly, the Malva Pudding was to die for... soft, sweet, sticky, jam packed with flavour, just delicious! The ice cream was good quality and store bought (I think). However, the mango puree and raspberry bits left me puzzled. Mango and Raspberry can work well together and I've paired them together in smoothies, however on this plate they left a bitter after taste in my mouth.  Odd... the mango on it's own was sweet and creamy, the raspberry sharp and sour, just what you'd expect... but for some reason they really seemed to clash on my palate... just weird!

Overall, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, relaxed and peaceful. The food was pretty good and I can understand their top rating on Tripadvisor as I would give them a 4 out of 5. Also, based on food quality and the large portion sizes, I would rate the food as good value for money. I would however eat here again and recommend it to friends. Just a pity about the little errors...

Cookbook Lottery #8 - Nobu's 'Kobe' Fillet of Beef with Eringi Mushrooms

Sarah, one of our close friends, is a regular participant of my dubiously entitled Cooking Masterclass, occasionally referred to as a 'Fancy Pants Dinner'.  Sarah expressed an interest in learning a bit about Japanese food. As chance would have it, Sheila had recently bought me a new cookbook,  Nobu Now. Nobuyuki Matsuhisa is a world renowned restauranteur and chef and has almost 20 restaurants all over the world. So, I decided to send through photographs of the index page to Sarah and I asked her to choose the menu.

This turned out to be a trifle of an oversight as Sarah chose the Kobe beef main course and the Layered Hazelnut Cake which both seemed innocuous in the title until you read the recipe or investigated cost... The Wagyu 'Kobe-Style' fillet cost a whopping £160 per kg (not even the true Japanese beef but from Australia) and the layered hazelnut cake had 6 tricky elements!

Sheila, being the pastry queen now, had to make Hazelnut Wafers, Caramel Ice Cream, Hazelnut Succes (a type of meringue biscuit), Roast Hazelnuts, Cabernet Sauce and Chocolate Sticks... and this is all before garnishing!  A few of the elements also required prep 24 - 48 hours in advance.  In comparison, my starter and main course role was easy!

In addition to the Kobe Beef and Hazelnut Cake, Sarah asked to be taught how to make Sushi rolls. Phew... this is something I can do with a reasonable level of skill.  A quick gloss over the sushi as the blog is really about the beef dish.

Learning to roll...

Salmon and Daikon Maki...

Tempura Prawn and Avocado Maki with Sesame Seeds...

And onto the beef dish.  Even though our budget did not extend to Wagyu beef, I did still choose a top quality British Organic beef fillet that had been well aged.  In addition, I learnt about a new type of mushroom that I was worried I wouldn't be able to source. Silly me, because of course it would be available from our favourite Oriental food store, Korea Foods! This was the Eringi mushroom, a big old fella that I found shelves full of at the store.

The ingredients (for 6):
3 Eringi mushrooms
30g Black Truffle
3 cloves Garlic
50ml Sake
Shichimi Togarashi
50ml Olive Oil
50ml Lemon Juice (supposed to be yuzu juice, but our store didn't stock it)
20ml Soy Sauce
750g Beef Fillet
Salt and Black Pepper

Jalapeno Salsa
2 Green Jalapeno Chilli
1 Red Onion
50ml Olive Oil
50ml Lemon Juice

The first thing I did was preheat the oven to 200C before jumping directly into the mise en place. Grabbing my knife, I sliced the Eringi mushroom into thin slices, maintaining the mushroom shape.

Next I moved onto slicing the truffle and garlic.

This was all added to an oven tray along with the sake, olive oil, lemon juice, soy sauce and shichimi togarashi. I gave it a good toss to coat and mix all the ingredients and then covered the oven dish in foil. This I put to one side till later.

Next I moved onto the salsa. I deseeded the chilli and finely diced the flesh.

Then I peeled and finely diced the onion.

This was all mixed well in a bowl along with the olive oil and lemon juice.  I covered the bowl with cling film and put it in the fridge till service.

Time to brown the fillet. I heated up a pan and added a little oil and when hot, I placed the seasoned fillet into the pan and browned each of the sides.  The fillet then went into the oven for about 20 minutes.  Halfway through the oven cooking of the fillet, I added the Eringi mushrooms to the oven and started their cooking.  The mushrooms would need about 15-20 minutes.

As the fillet reached it's 20 minutes, I removed this from the oven, covered it in foil and allowed it to rest for about 10 minutes.  During this time, I steamed the green beans and got the plates ready for service. Next, I sliced the rested beef and by this time, the mushrooms had reached their 20 minutes and I removed them from the oven.  Plating was simple and required a spoonful of the mushroom onto the middle of each plate.

Next I layered 3 slices of beef per person on top of the mushroom followed by a couple of spoonfuls of the salsa over the top of the beef and finally the green beans draped over the top.

I found this dish to be very tasty, quite fresh and light, with a lingering spicy tickle from the Shichimi.  The beef was excellent, soft, succulent and beautifully rare.  The mushrooms were tasty with the shichimi heat and the salt and sour from the soy and lemon juice adding a great balance of flavour.  The texture was new to me but definitely not unpleasant.  It was soft and slightly slimy with a dense texture.  Apparently it is a texture similar to Abalone which doesn't surprise me as my first thought about the texture when eating it was oyster but with a beautiful earthy mushroom flavour.  I also really enjoyed the hot beef and mushrooms contrasting with the cold salsa. A really yummy plate of food!

With main course finished we moved onto the dessert.  Oh wow... delicious velvety ice cream, sweet syrupy cabernet sauce and soft chewy meringue biscuit.  I want more please... but this requires giving Sheila at least 4 days notice!

Another delightful evening spent with friends, experimenting with recipes from our cookbook range and learning a thing or two. What more could you ask for, really?