Kimchi Summer Rolls

With summer comes an almost weekly procession of barbecues. I was never a bringer of sausages and burgers to a party; last week these fat, squat summer rolls, a hybrid of the Vietnamese and Korean cuisines, made an appearance instead.

Given my propensity for rolling cigarettes, you'd think I'd make a neater bundle. The first always turns out a shocker; the rest, vaguely passable.

For the filling, bouncy prawns and ponytail kimchi were used. This particular type of kimchi is made from the ponytail radish - so called, I suspect, because of its burst of green leaf. Called 'chonggak kimchi', it's peppery. Sliced into batons, it added a good amount of spicy, tangy crunch. Both ponytail radish kimchi and summer roll wrappers should be available at your local Asian supermarket.

Kimchi Summer Rolls

Enough for 6 people

1 packet of summer roll wrapper (I use these)
1 small head of Little Gem lettuce, shredded
A handful of glass noodles, cooked
1 carrot, julienned
10 prawns, cooked and sliced lengthways in half
2 kimchi ponytail radishes, julienned
A small handful of coriander, chopped finely
Greens of 3 stalks of spring onion, shredded
A few stalks of mint, leaves picked
Half a lime

Mix the carrots, glass noodles, radishes, spring onions and lettuce in a bowl. Sprinkle with the juice of half a lime. Meanwhile, add some hand-hot water to a shallow dish. Lay out a clean tea towel. Place the roll wrapper in the water for 10 - 20 seconds, until it becomes soft, then lay on the tea towel. To make things pretty, add a mint leaf to the centre of the circle, then a prawn, sliced in half, below. Add a small bundle of veg etc. under that - roll like this. Or however you see fit.

Sauce:

4 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp water
1 tsp sugar
Juice of 1 lime
1 red chilli (hot)
1 clove of garlic

Mince the garlic and chop the chilli. Combine vigorously with the above to serve as a dipping sauce with the summer rolls.

Chaconia, Deptford

I'm a bit of a lurker over at Chowhound, the food message board; I don't often have time to post, but when I remember I dip in and out and although a lot of it is made up of tourists wondering where to eat in London, you can pick up a load of good suggestions. It was there I first heard of Chaconia, a Caribbean (or, more specifically, Trini) cafe in Deptford. Being a mere 15 minute walk from home to me, I had to visit, especially as the words 'best roti in the UK' were used.

Without a website or any ideas about opening hours, I chanced my luck and headed for 12pm. Alas, it was closed. I meandered around the high street for a bit taking in the stalls of Deptford Market that line the high street, and on my way back, around 12:30pm it was open. So I'd aim for 1pm. A lovely woman behind the counter welcomed me warmly and I ordered a potato and spinach curry roti.

As the lady was making my order, she explained to me that everything is freshly made on the premises. When I told her the compliment I'd read about the roti, she beamed with pride. Made into a wrap, the package was then wrapped in greaseproof paper and popped in the microwave for a few seconds - "roti has to be PIPING hot!"

Soft, chewy roti wrapped gently spiced potato and spinach. Cooked with plenty of cumin seeds, the roti meal was deliciously fulfilling. Make sure you ask for the pepper sauce, as the home-made luridly orange sauce was as hot as hell, the fruity scotch bonnets shining through in the dominant flavour. A cup of sorrel, which the lady told me was made with hibiscus and cinnamon, tasted fresh and fruity without being too sweet.

"Make sure you come back for goat! I make good goat. No pressure cookers." I am excited about next weekend's lunch already.

Chaconia

26 Deptford High Street
London SE8 4AF

Tel: 020 8692 8815

Restaurants in Residence - The Young Turks & The Clove Club

Buttermilk fried chicken, raw peas in their pod

Restaurants in Residence are currently showcasing 4 different places from London's underground pop-up scene; I've always been a fan of The Young Turks (I went to their stint at the Loft Project; pics here) and, coupled with The Clove Club, I secured myself a seat at their dinner held in a disused building in Canary Wharf, to be torn down after this event. After a drink on the terrace when the sun was just setting over Canary Wharf, we were led to our seats in a curiously office-like space.

Cucumber with Indian spices

Fresh peas in the pod were the sweetest things, staining my nails green as I scrabbled the pods open. Buttermilk fried chicken nestled with acorns were fried deftly and were juicy within. Refreshing batons of cucumber gave rich, earthy Indian flavours.

Tomato salad with goat's milk

I've long bemoaned the lack of flavour the tomatoes in England have, but these were a different story. Sweet and juicy, the goat's milk brought out their natural sugars even more.

Raw Mackerel with Cucumber

Fleshy, raw slices of mackerel were smooth as silk and freshened by shavings of cucumber, and splodges of mustard. A well-balanced dish, it was a sight to behold and I was almost loathe to destroy it with my fork. But I did.

Angus rib, grilled onions

Angus rib tasted smoky and rich, while being as tender as butter. Land cress added spicy grassy notes and it got completely demolished within seconds, by all around the table.

I've never tried loganberries; they're a bit like raspberries, I'd say. The tartness was offset by a moussy ewes milk yoghurt. Unfortunately I completely missed the petit fours as I managed to get spectacularly drunk (I blame jetlag. And the wine.) but from the blurry, darkened photo it looked like some sort of ice cream mini burger.

The Young Turks with The Clove Club are only running until the 7th July, so for god's sake, GO. At £45 a ticket (food only) it isn't cheap, but the quality is stunning and you get some really good wine recommendations from their lovely servers.

Book HERE or call 07812 377427.

New York, New York

I went to New York for the first time last weekend. I want to live there forever and ever. Or at least a few years; the 4 days I spent there weren't nearly enough to sample all their eateries. I didn't go to Katz' Deli. I didn't eat any pizza. I didn't have a milkshake, nor a pretzel. I did eat a bugger-load of sandwiches though.

Momofuku's pork buns had to be sampled, and they were miles away from London's Leong's Legends efforts. Juicy, fatty pork squished in an airy bun with pickled cucumbers was everything I had hoped for. Upon my return, I bought Chang's cookbook immediately.

Chicken parm from Torrisi and the Italian combo make me wonder why on earth London doesn't seem to have any decent sandwich shops. Melty cheese flecked with basil and tomato sauce was perfect with the chicken, while quality sliced meats was made fiery with some pickled peppers. Not a cheap sandwich at $10 each, but then nothing seems to be in New York.

After a night on the cocktails a coleslaw-topped, jalapeno-flooded 'Spicy Redneck' from Crif Dogs hit the spot. Waffle-shaped fries topped with terrifyingly lurid and plastic cheese were delicious dunked in ketchup, and washed down with a root beer I felt quite the all-American. Especially when I followed it later that afternoon with a Shake Shack burger.

Right on the other end of the spectrum, a Red Hook stand at a Saturday food market in Williamsburg sold us a hearty lobster roll for $16. Offered in a brioche roll with a pickle, the Connecticut style, dressed in butter was my favourite, though the Maine style in cold mayonnaise was nothing to be sniffed at.

It wasn't all sandwiches though. Fette Sau, mere minutes away from where I was staying offered barbecued meat by the pound. Queues snaked around the till so we settled ourselves at the bar, drinking bourbon-tinged cocktails. Pulled pork, smoked brisket and pink juicy beef tri-tip were served on trays. The smokey beans almost eclipsed the meat. Almost.

On another barbecue trip we hit up Fatty 'Cue for brunch. A bloody mary was made with smoked tomato juice and had a huge spicy hit. Asian-inspired, the pork ribs I ordered were meaty and fatty, served with a palm sugar fish sauce glaze. I hoped for some vegetables but none seemed to be on the menu. The companion's smoked brisket sandwich packed with coriander, chilli jam and aioli made me jealous.

It may not look like much, but Momofuku's pork ramen was the best noodle soup EVER. Intensely meaty broth, springy noodles and a perfectly poached egg nestled inside. Alas, the cold smoked brisket noodles paled in comparison beside them; we should have eaten them first.

A seafood dinner at the John Dory Oyster Bar in the Ace Hotel had me captive; moody low lighting and absorbing as much of the atmosphere and concentrating on the food made me forget completely to take photos but I highly recommend you go. With plenty of dollar.

So that was it. A weekend is not nearly long enough.

Riverford - 'Every Day & Sunday'

I was invited to the book launch of Every Day & Sunday from Riverford, created by Guy Watson and Jane Baxter. Following the success of their first Riverford cookbook in 2008, they were bombarded with requests for another, featuring more simple, day-to-day seasonal cooking, with a little something special for Sundays.

Hosted at the very lovely Blueprint Cafe, recipes from the book were used to feed us and cooked by Jeremy Lee. Everything was gorgeous, even a dish of plain spinach, but most especially this burrata salad. Flavours of fresh parsley mingled with creamy decadence, with a slight hint of orange. I can't wait till Amazon deliver my copy, because it was worth the purchase just for this.

You can buy a copy here. The rest of the photos, including some awesome desserts, are HERE.

Smacked Cucumber Salad

The first I'd heard of the hilariously named 'smacked cucumbers' was at Wuli Wuli; the cucumbers bathed in a pungently garlic sauce, that also had a fair amount of sweetness; at first, I found it too much, and then I was going back for more.

The name comes from the technique of smacking the cucumber with the flat of your cleaver (though I used a rolling pin) until the skin of the cucumber splits, leaving you with more surface area for the cucumber to absorb the dressing. Served with a fiery minced pork and noodle dish, this soothed the tongue and made us honk of garlic all night.

Smacked Cucumber Salad

Serves 2 as a side

1 large cucumber
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp palm sugar
2.5 tbsp rice vinegar
1.5 tsp chilli oil
2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 tsp salt

Lay the cucumber on a chopping board and smack lightly with a cleaver or a rolling pin. Slice and add to a colander, sprinkling with salt. Leave for 30 mins, then rinse and pat dry with a kitchen towel. Mix together the vinegar, the garlic, sugar, chilli and sesame oils and add the cucumber to the mix, leaving for 10 mins before serving.

Crayfish Bob

It's not often you hear of a business plan that consists of trying to sell out of produce and, therefore, putting you out of business. But that's what Crayfish Bob is doing; trying to eradicate the American Signal crayfish from the Thames and other UK waterways as they are wiping out our native White Claws. You can read more about it here - I particularly like Bob's bio.

Crayfish Bob, in conjunction with Two Degrees is currently holding a pop-up; artist Clare Patey along with Blanch & Shock worked with them to create the dining experience and I attended as a guest of theirs. For £5, you sit at shared tables outside in the lovely Toynbee Studios, the garden space of Toynbee Hall. Bread with butter is warm and moreish, and I slathered a load of hemp mayonnaise for a full fat mouthful.

After a quick speech about Bob's intentions, we were instructed to form an orderly queue and Bob plopped some meaty, bright orange specimens on my plate. Viscera flew about the place as claws were ripped off, crayfish heads sucked and sweet, fleshy tails were dipped in mayonnaise. Big bowls of salad with wild leaves, such as common hogweed and borage were stunning and delicious; astringent stalks mingled with sweet leaves. We washed this down with a glass of rosé, reportedly made from grapes grown in Tooting.


Finally, a elderflower pannacotta with strawberries and butterscotch was a highlight - I couldn't get enough of the rich, sweet butterscotch. Dusk settled and off I waddled, pleased as punch to have been doing my bit of ridding the waters of this pest.


The pop up is, understandably sold out (for £5, it really was a total bargain) but I believe Crayfish Bob is will soon be smoking and selling his delicious crayfish. Watch this space...

More photos HERE.