A linguistic digression

 

 

Cookery books are not the only books I read.

In fact, long before cooking became a job and more than a passionate hobby, I was (and still am I want to believe) a linguist.

I recently borrowed a little jewel from my local library. It tells the history of the English language from the fifth century when the Germanic tribes invaded the Islands to the present. It is by all accounts, fascinating and I am deeply engrossed in its pages.

Destined for the general public, it is an easy read. It ‘explains’ (if that’s the word to use) the irregularities of the English spelling which so baffled me as a child*.

I find it fascinating that, as the author himself explains, even though English had to cope with many invasions by foreign languages to the point of being almost wiped out some of the times, it was remarkable how resilient it proved to be and survive by assimilating many words (sometimes hundreds) from the current invading language whichever that was.

Part of the Normanisation of England under William II in the 9^th century meant that the French brought with them not only habits and culture but also their language. So, after King Harold, there would be no English-speaking king to take his oath in English for another three hundred years.

Being a linguist I couldn’t resist this paragraph: 

      While the English-speaking peasants lived in small, often one-roomed mud and wattle cottages, or huts, their French-speaking masters lived in high stone castles. Many aspects of our modern vocabulary reflect the distinction between them.

      English speakers tended the living cattle, for instance, which we still call by the Old English words ‘ox’ or, more usually today, ‘cow’. French speakers ate prepared meat which came to the table, which we call by the French word ‘beef’. In the same way, the English ‘sheep’ became the French ‘mutton’, ‘calf’ became ‘veal’ ‘deer’ became ‘venison’, ‘pig’ ‘pork’, English animal, French meat in every case.

      The English laboured, the French feasted.

 

from: The Adventure of English by Melvyn Bragg

*I used to go to private language lessons since I was eight. Now, I have a personality which demands to know the reason for everything. As such, I simply could not understand why I had to write the pronoun ‘I’ in capital letters even if it was in the middle of the sentence, or I would pronounce ‘tomato’ one way and ‘potato’ in another way even though the spelling at the end was the same. So, to cut a long story short, one day Nora, my wonderful teacher, had to sit me down after the lesson and explain to me that I had to take it as it came, because sometimes (most times, in fact) English phonetics just didn’t make any sense. 

It is different in cooking, where everything is a lot more logical, it’s just common sense. I would drive my French chef tutor mad with all the questions: Why is this cooked in a copper pan and not a regular one? Why is this fried and not boiled, etc? Why do you use this type of flour and not other? I would say 99.9% of the cases had a logical explanation (for the remaining 0.01% see my honey and banana bread which I made last year).

Lefties

 

Being a “leftie” has nothing to do with political ideology. Those who are lefties will, no doubt, know what I am talking about. (For those who are not, I will tell you: it’s a nickname for a left-handed person).

Today is the International Left-handers Day! Although this has been celebrated since 1992, I have been unaware of the fact until this very day when I heard it on the radio. 

In my life I have admired many a leftie: 

 

 

Kurt Cobain

 

 

 

Facundo Arana

 

Sting

 

 

 Even Ned Flanders…

 

 

 

 

 

And of course, one of my culinary heroes, Gordon.

 

This being a food blog, I am going to have to post a recipe, haven’t I? Well, these two recipes come from a rather unexpected leftie: Paul McCartney.

In all honesty, I haven’t tested the recipes yet but I promise to include photos once I do.

 

And yes, I’m a leftie too!

 

Paul’s Scrumptious Salad

by Paul McCartney
Recipe Serves: 2

Instructions:

Take two generous handfuls of baby spinach leaves and put in a salad bowl. Add to this another kind of lettuce of your own choice, perhaps rocket (arugula) or Romaine (ordinary green lettuce). Mix the lettuce gently together, then take a tomato and cut it up any way you fancy (large slices or little bits) and add to the lettuce. It’s sometimes nice to use three to four cherry tomatoes if you can find them. I like to cut these in half as an alternative to the straight forward tomato. Then add a little of what you fancy, for instance, I like to add half an avocado pear, which I cut into smallish pieces or another alternative is crumbled feta cheese or perhaps sliced Red Leicester or cheddar.

You can use your imagination as to how big the pieces or slices can be. I like to slice the cheese paper thin but the choice is yours. Once you’ve got all of this in the salad bowl take a small mixing bowl or cup and put in it a tablespoon full of olive oil, a small teaspoonful of balsamic vinegar, then squeeze the juice of half a lemon into the mixture, add a pinch of salt and give the mixture a good whisk. Sometimes for a change you can add half a teaspoon of French mustard or I like honey mustard. Or, if you can manage to get some stuff called Braggs, which is a liquid aminos seasoning “thang”, a dash of this makes for an interesting dressing. However, if you want to keep it simple that’s fine too. After you’ve whisked your dressing and just before you’re ready to eat your salad, pour the dressing into the bowl and gently give the whole salad a mix. Turn it out onto a plate and enjoy this lipsmacking treat.

P.S. There are variations of this salad. Once you get the hang of it, you can vary it to your own taste. For instance, I like to add fake meat slices, chopped into thin strips or even just ripped with your fingers. You could also try chopping up a couple of silverskin onions or a couple of pickles. The list is endless and that bit is up to you. Anyway, have fun and enjoy your salad, Paul. (McCartney)

And to watch the man himself making Mashed Potatoes, check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyyEc-GNDfQ

Some interesting links you might like:

 

 

Addresses:

 

Anything Left-Handed Shop  

http://www.anythingleft-handed.co.uk/ 

http://www.lefthandersday.com/

 

Having lunch the Swedish way

 

 

 

 Yes, frozen fries and yes, shop-bought sausages (although flown in from Sweden).

What makes this lunch so special is the knäckebröd (lit. “bread that cracks”) at the back and this really, really fresh mayonnaise (just made by yours truly).

Let me tell you, after having made a bucket load of mayo with 30 yolks (which I separated myself) nothing tastes as gloriously delicious as a plate full of chips (my friend must be telepathic) with a dollop of the mayo you just made. If you don’t believe me, try it.

I know you can separate the yolks using the broken egg shells but I do it the Nigella way: using my hands I pass the yolk back and forth between the palms of my hands until all the egg white has squeezed out and only the yolk remains.

Do it in a small separate bowl, one egg white at a time just in case the yolk breaks. This way you won’t have to ruin the 30-odd egg whites should you want to use them for meringues or any other egg-white- only concoction.

Once made, you can enrich this mayonnaise with either lemon or lime juice to taste  (for my serving I added a generous squeeze of lemon juice).

Because I was making such a huge batch I played it by ear, as I do most of the time. I am giving you a few recipes with proper quantities, though.

I also used Swedish mustard to do this mayonnaise (English mustard is too strong but Dijon mustard is OK).

As for the vinegar, whatever you do, use red wine vinegar NOT white.

The sausages, by the way, are fried falukorv, not unlike German frankfurters.

 What you see, almost at the back of the plate is Swedish knäckebröd.

My Swedish dictionary gives the translation of knäck [knek:] knäcken knäckar  as “to break” so I was right in my assumption that the name meant more “crack” as in “cracking” than crisp bread as it is normally referred to in English.

When you roll it out, really thin, please consider using a pasta machine to do this if you have one; it will save you many a headache. Once it’s baked and has cooled down, just break it into big, irregular pieces and serve as canapés with some smoked salmon, sour cream and dill. 

Another great idea for serving is spreading some ricotta (not much!) and top with smoked salmon and grated lemon zest.

These traditional crispbreads were originally made with a hole in the centre so that they could be hung over the oven to keep dry. Nowadays, they keep well in an airtight container knäckebröd is also sometimes made with rolled oats, in a similar way to Scottish pancakes.

Knäckebröd  (Swedish crisp bread) – adapted from Swedish Food and Cooking by Anna Mosesson

Makes 15

 600ml/1 pint/2 ½ cups milk

50g/2oz fresh yeast (use half the quantity if using dry yeast)

565g/1 1/4 lb/5 cups rye flour plus

225g/8oz/2 cups for dusting

565g/1 1/4 lb/5 cups  strong white bread flour

10ml/2 tsp caraway or cumin seeds

5ml/1 tsp. salt

 

1. Put the milk in a pan and heat gently until warm to the touch. Remove from the heat. In a bowl, blend the yeast with a little of the warmed milk. Add the remaining milk then add the rye flour, bread flour, caraway or cumin seeds and salt and mix together to form a dough.
2. Using the rye flour for dusting, turn the dough out on to a lightly floured surface and knead the dough for about 2 minutes. Cut the dough into 15 equal pieces then roll out each piece into a thin, flat round. Place on a baking sheets and leave to rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/Gas 2. Using the rye flour, roll out the pieces of dough again into very thin, flat rounds. Return to the baking sheets. Make a pattern on the surface using a fork or a knife.
4. Bake the breads in the oven for 8-10 minutes, turning after about 5 minutes, until hard and crispy. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool. Store the breads in an airtight container.

 

Tip: great used for canapés, just cracked and some smoked salmon and sour cream with dill on top. 

Another tip: The Swedes use a special rolling pin with a knobbly surface to create the distinctive texture of this hard bread. An ordinary rolling pin is a good substitute, with the speckled texture created with the head of a fork or a knife end.

 

Mayonnaise (all the varieties you can possibly imagine) 

Very easy and good mayonnaise adapted from the Mosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen

Yields 3 ½ cups

 

 Beat together in blender:

 ½ cup vinegar (you can use part, or all, lemon or lime juice)

1 tsp. honey

½ tsp. salt

1 tsp. tamari

2 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

gradually drizzle in 2 ½ cups mixed olive and sunflower oil (or one, or the other) while blender is still running in a trickle and continuously.

The mayonnaise will become thick as the oil s drizzled in.

As soon as it is thick, stop beating it (or it will thin again. Strange, but  true).

Taste to adjust seasonings.

 

Another mayo – adapted from a recipe in Leith’s Cookery Bible

 

2 egg yolks

salt and freshly ground white pepper

1 tsp. dry English mustard

290ml olive oil or 150ml each olive and salad oil

squeeze of lemon juice

1 tbsp. white wine vinegar

 

1)      Place the yolks and the mustard with a pinch of salt in a bowl and beat well.

2)      Add the oil in a thick trickle. The mixture should be quite thick by the time half of the oil is added.

3)      Beat in the lemon juice.

4)      Resume pouring the oil, very slowly, alternating oil with vinegar.

5)      Season with salt and freshly ground white pepper.

 

If it curdles, whisk another yolk in a separate bowl and add it to the curdled mayonnaise drop by drop.

 

Variations:

 

Dill mayo: add chopped dill, to taste, to the mayo.

Mustard mayo: mix mustard to the mayo.

Parsley and lemon mayo: mayonnaise, chopped parley, lemon juice and/or lemon zest.

Green mayo 1: add ½ cup chopped parsley and/or ½ cup chopped chives.

Sesame mayo: use 2 ¼ cups safflower oil PLUS ¼ cup sesame oil.

Sauce Marie Rose (or as I have always known it, golf sauce): mix ketchup to the mayo.

Chilli mayo: mix Japanese chilli sauce to mayonnaise.

Avocado mayonnaise: mash avocado and mix to mayo use for grilled chicken club sandwiches.

Basil mayonnaise: smash up a small handful of fresh basil and mix it in the mayonnaise. Add a squeeze of lemon juice, and salt, freshly ground black pepper and cayenne to taste.

 

Soy mayonnaise – adapted from Yoshuku by Jane Lawson

2 tsp. white miso

½ tsp. Japanese soy sauce

1 garlic clove, crushed

125g (4 ½ oz ½ cup Japanese mayonnaise)

 

To make the soy mayonnaise :

Mix the miso, soy sauce and garlic until smooth and then whisk into the mayo and set aside.

 

 

Green mayonnaise version 2 – adapted from Leiths Cookery Bible

 

1 bunch watercress

290ml mayonnaise

salt and freshly ground pepper

 

1)      Pick over watercress to remove the stalks and yellowed leaves. Blanch and refresh. Dry thoroughly and chop very finely.

2)      Add to the mayonnaise and season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Note: cooked and well-drained spinach can be used instead of watercress. *

 

How to cook spinach without boiling it 

I know boiling spinach is boring and, in addition, it takes all the nutrients away. Plus, when it comes to squeeze it, it doesn’t matter how much you do it, there is still plenty of water coming out.

* Note to the note: you can also put a packet of spinach in the freezer and forget about it. (very low temperatures also cook food as was demonstrated by the liquid nitrogen (see this post) Take it out of the freezer but DO NOT open the package. Simply rub it in your hands until it’s sort of pulverized. Presto! You have cooked, chopped spinach with a fraction of the effort!

 

Best bagels in town

 

 

 

My very good friend Amal came from Reims, France to spend a few days with me last Friday.

Even though the weather here was typically English for the summer (read several drizzles and one shower storm) we managed to go to many a place in London.

After having lived in south London for many years since I came to England some years ago, I moved to north London last year.

I now live a stone throw’s away from the Jewish quarter in Golders Green.

Living close to the Jewish quarters has many advantages, one of which is having so many incredible eateries to choose from should you feel the need to feed something other than your soul.

So, today we decided to visit one of them. I had been wanting to visit Daniel’s ever since I moved to this area and today was the day.

They had so many wonderful things that it was difficult to choose but I really wanted to try a smoked salmon bagel. After all, what best place to get it from than a Jewish deli in the Jewish quarter?

 And it was great.

 

 

Smoked salmon bagel

 

bagels, cut in half

cream cheese, as needed

smoked salmon, 2 slices per serving

cucumber, sliced, 3 or 4 slices per serving

freshly ground pepper

lemon zest (optional)

 

Spread both slices of bagel with cream cheese (be generous).

Carefully arrange the salmon slices on the bread and sprinkle with the lemon zest.

Top with the cucumber slices and season with ground pepper to taste.

 

Daniel’s

12-14 Hallswelle Parade
Finchley Road, London NW11 0DL

 

 

Wild Horses

 

 

 

 

 

 Documenting “anything” in a hectic restaurant kitchen is a feat in istself.

If you’re not ready, the moment you turn your head both the moment and the food you’re rying to photograph are gone for good. Plus, you have to take your picture in a split second because, you know, if you’re a chef you’re supposed to be doing other food-related activities. Still, sometimes I manage.

My favourite time is when I am told what to do but not how to do it. It means I can go back to the pantry and pick and choose whatever takes my fancy. Having free-rein to do something is the best thing in the world. Nothing made me happier than when I was told: “Make some muffins, two sorts, whatever way you like so long as one batch is chocolate.” Wow!

The good thing about muffins is that all you have to do is mix the dry ingredients. Then, separately, mix all the wet ingredients. Then mix them all together and that’s that.

This means you can have a batch of dry ingredients made in advance and mix the other ingredients as you are ready to bake them (much as you would do with a cake mix, only much, much better).

Nigella also suggests mixing all the wet ingredients except the butter the night before you are going to make them and keep both cling-filmed in the fridge in separate containers. Then, the next morning, all you have to do is melt the butter, preheat the oven, mix wet with dry ingredients, fold in the fruit and spoon them in the muffin cases.

I included the butter in the chocolate version as optional because Narda’s version doesn’t include it. I think it should, though. The melted butter definitely improves the batter and it makes it smooth and silky.

  

Chocolate muffins - adapted from Comer y pasarla bien by Narda Lepes

Dry ingredients: 

1 ¾ cup strong flour

pinch of salt

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tbsp. bitter chocolate powder

¾ cup sugar

125g chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

 

Wet ingredients: 

3 eggs

½ cup milk

¼ cup corn oil

75g butter, melted (optional but it improves the batter a lot)

 

These are very easy to make and very light and chocolatey.

Mix the dry ingredients and leave them aside.

Mix the wet ingredients very well.

Then mix dry and wet ingredients together. DO NOT OVERMIX.

There may be some lumps in the batter but it’s OK.

The batter should be quite liquid and lumpy.

Spoon the batter in the muffin cases and bake in a moderate oven between 10 and 12 minutes.

If you like, sprinkle some chocolate chips on top of the muffins before baking them.

 Variation: the muffins you see in the photo had both white chocolate and dark chocolate chips (by all means, add some milk chocolate chips as well if you have them, we’d ran out).

You can also substitute the milk for buttermilk, as in the recipe below.

If you add some orange zest and some Grand Marnier you will end up with the most luxurious, decadent, delicious muffins you’ll have ever tasted.

 receta en castellano:

http://www.librodenarda.com/cocinerosninos.html

 

 

 

 

 

 Almond and strawberry muffins – adapted from a recipe in How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson

75g unsalted butter

200g plain flour

100g ground almonds (optional)

^½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 teaspoons baking powder

75g caster sugar

pinch of salt

200ml buttermilk (or 100g yoghurt and 100ml semi-skimmed milk)

1 large egg

200g strawberries, blueberries or any berry that takes your fancy

flaked almonds to decorate (optional)

12-bun muffin tray lined with 12 paper cases

 

Melt the butter, and set it aside to cool for a little. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.

Combine all the dry ingredients in a bowl, and in a measuring jug beat together the buttermilk (or yoghurt and milk), egg and melted butter. Using a wooden spoon and a light hand, pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix gently to combine. Don’t worry about lumps: the important thing with muffins is that the mixture isn’t over­worked. Fold in the blueberries, again keeping mixing to a minimum. You could also add orange zest at this point if you wanted. Spoon into the muffin cases — I use an ice-cream scoop and a small rubber spatula for this — and bake for 20 minutes, by which time the muffins should be risen and golden and firm on top. Eat warm or cold as you like: I like warm, broken with fingers and smeared, mouthful by mouthful, with good unsalted butter and blueberry jam.

Makes 12.

 

Variation: these muffins were crying out for some Amaretto liqueur and some orange or lemon zest

Tips: In both cases, please omit the spirits if you are baking these muffins for children.

Update: I found Nigella’s chocolate muffins here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9h9Y1VxTbs&NR=1

           

  

 

Like a Simpson

 

 

  

 Having lived in London for so many years it was inevitable that I became familiar with Heston Blumenthal.

I am not, however, very taken with his cooking. It is too complicated and offy for me to like it. I much prefer Jamie’s uncomplicated, unmeasured food (he almost never uses proper quantities in his recipes) served on paper plates to Heston’s. I did buy one of his books just to see what the fuss was all about.

Now one thing I like is that he applies molecular gastronomy to his dishes.

That marvel which is the liquid nitrogen means that you can change the texture of any food without it losing flavour or smell. Which is f…great.

Ferran Adria is a different thing altogether. I have only heard of El Bulli but eating there would definitely be in my list of “Things to do before I die“.

The fact that Matt Groening personalises a cartoon and Simpsonises you, that is saying something, man. I admit that, on seeing the cover for his last book I stopped in my tracks and I though: “Hang on, this guy must be good.” I mean, if Adria has a Matt Groening personalized cartoon it probably is because he ate at his restaurant and was bowled over by the food. (Incidentally, it was one of the show’s producers who actually went there).

Adria is renowned the world over for creating foams or airs. He achieves this with a siphon bottle and N₂O cartridges. In fact, his cooking wouldn’t be out of place in a Futurama episode.

The closest I got to this was an old siphon bottle (which has been around for longer than I have) which we keep in our flat in Miramar. My dad once explained that gas turned ordinary water into fizzy water and I used to watch him in wonder perform this miracle worthy of MacGyver with an open mouth. If I had only  known earlier what this liquid wonder was! But, as I said, chemistry and I were not the best of friends when I was at school. Had we been taught applied chemistry, had we been told and demonstrated how you can make fruit juice ice-cream but you can’t make caipirinha ice-cream (or lemoncello, or Tia Maria ice-cream) simply because alcohol doesn’t freeze in your ordinary freezer, I am 100% positive I would have remembered it to this day.  

As soon as the penny dropped (quite recently, I have to say) my eyes opened up in wonder at the sudden realisation of all the potential of “my” humble siphon bottle. (I am planning on calling possession of it as soon as I go to Argentina).  

Note: You do realise, do you not, that I can’t afford to eat at El Bulli. I haven’t checked their menu prices but I can only imagine how much they will charge you for serving a deconstructed tortilla de papas.

Ever wondered what a tortilla which underwent the siphon treatment would look like? Here it is:

 

    

Ferrán Adriá’s Deconstructed Tortilla Española

Ingredients x 4:

Zabaglione:

Air charges 1
Siphon bottle isi 1
Pasteurized egg yolk 380 g
Water 10 cl
Flour 10 g
Table salt 1 g

For the onion:

Peeled onions 250 g
Olive oil type 0.4 refined 1 g
Table salt 10 g

For the potato foam:

Air charges 1
Siphon bottle isi 1
New potatoes 250 gr
Reny Picot cream 125 cl
Water in which the potato was cooked 100 cl
Abasa oil 40 cl

Various:

Virgin olive oil 40 cl

How to make:

For the potato foam:

Peel and cut the potatoes in pieces. 
Place them covered with water on a pan and cook them. 
While still hot, drain them and place them in the blender with their own cooking water, the cream and the oil. 
Pass through the chinoise twice and put 400 g in the siphon bottle. 
Add one air charge. 

For the onion:

Peel and cut the onion in a fine julienne. Cut in half so that it is easier to eat. 
Saute in a pan with the olive oil until it is dark. 
Season with salt. 

For the zabaglione:

Mix all the ingredients, pass through a sieve and put inside the siphon bottle filled with one charge of gas. 
Heat in a bain Marie at around 60ºC.

Presentation:

Place the potato foam in the bain Marie at around 60ºC.
At the bottom of the glass, put the cooked onion and one tablespoon of zabaglione. 
Finish the presentation by placing the potato foam at the top and drizzle with a line of olive oil. 

 

Note: You will be able to freeze spirits and make delicious alcoholic ice-creams with some liquid nitrogen, if you can get hold of some.

Check out these links on how liquid nitrogen is used in cooking: 

hhttp://elespeciero.blogspot.com/2009/07/el-nitrogeno-liquido-en-la-cocina.html (in Spanish)

ttp://www.younghotelier.com/interviews/video-cooking-with-liquid-nitrogen-in-the-real-world-tang-restaurant-dubai/

 

 

Playing with fire

 

 

 

Let me tell you:

These little guys here took me back to my school days when, during chemistry lessons we tried (unsuccessfully) to make soap. Not even my devotion to MacGyver (something I have in common with the Bouvier twins) was enough to motivate me into being remotely interested in the subject.

I do remember the burners though because they were, together with the periodic table of elements, a constant companion.

These burners are really pretty. And they keep food hot wonderfully well. They are ALSO deceitfully simple to light. You just have to be a contortionist or an experienced juggler to do it as I discovered today.

 

 

The photo above is not nearly as pretty as the others but it shows just why I was constantly badmouthing the burners as I tried to place the burning candle below the burner without setting fire to myself. I am sure MacGyver would have figured out what to do pretty quickly but, alas! I’m not him.

I kept on trying to place it at the base from above (I had already tried placing the candle first on the base but, as you can see, the smaller ring holds it too tightly and it was simply dancing on top of the candle done that way). In trying to place it from above, I was simply burning my fingers (plus, there was a dangerous draft which dispersed the flame e-ve-ry-where!).

So, I spent many minutes like a monkey, doing it WRONGLY, first from the top, then from the bottom until I just wanted to scream with frustration!

When I was about to give up, someone actually took pity on me and showed me how to do it: you have to grab it and lower it from above (as I was doing) but, instead of dropping it to the base of the burner (as I was also doing), you put your other free hand in through the side and grab it from there. Then you place it on the base. At least I learn something new every day.

With that out of my chest, I wanted to tell you about one of the beauties that we put on top to keep warm.

 

 

I have blogged about cous cous before so I’m not going to repeat the recipe here but I will tell you this delicious variation:

Cous cous with orange, cumin and pine nuts

1 quantity basic cous cous (see this post)

lemon juice

orange zest

herbs (added at the last minute), why not some freshly chopped coriander?

carrots, sliced and boiled (or roasted)

cumin, to taste

pine nuts or even better, roasted almonds

 

Once the cous cous is ready simply add all of the above and keep warm. As if I didn’t know… 

 

 

 

Haisuli

 

 

  

Surfing through the net I bumped into these absolutely CUTE cookie cutters. The characters are called haisuli which in Finnish means “smelly person”.

Apparently, you can only get them in Finland and I live in London.

Can anyone help me find out where to order them from?

I will be eternally grateful and might even bake a huge batch of these cookies for you in return!

Feeding the Boss (aka Born to Run)

I started catering for music festivals! It is very hard work, but, oh so much fun!

Last weekend I helped caterng for Hyde Park Calling festival.

 

 

 

 

We had to feed several hundreds of mouths last weekend including Neil Young, The Pretenders, The Killers and Bruce Springsteen and his crew (125 of them to be exact). Boy, were we not running! But that is partly why I love working as a chef, it’s that adrenaline feeling that I get from the madness of getting things ready for service in no time and having your head on a million things at once.

We had two menus on offer: an Asian one and a Mediterranean one. They chose the Mediterranean one which meant I had to prepare several trays of Vitello Tonnato (of all things) for them.

I mean, back in Argentina that was the dish we had for Christmas Eve every year, mainly because it’s easy to make in advance and it’s served cold which means you don’t have to slave in front of the oven before serving it. This makes things a lot easier on yourself. I suspect this is why head chef Jason chose it as well.

Except for cooking the veal (which was roasted), I made everything else: the tuna sauce and I sliced several kilos of veal (by hand).

 It was my first experience being backstage and I enjoyed it enormously.

 Although I am not a huge fan of Bruce Springsteen, I still enjoyed the show a lot.

It was a far cry from the first time I saw him at my first ever rock concert, Amnesty International in 1988 in Buenos Aires.

I was quite young and I had gone with my sister, Malila, more to see Sting than Peter Gabriel or Bruce although I had a very nice surprise when I heard them both live.

Because it was the first concert of that scale in Argentina, tickets were sold out quite quickly and I talked my sister into going to the stadium quite early to get a good place (even back then I wanted to be at the front).

We arrived at around 7 in the morning and, after a few hours of queuing, the roadies decided to open the gates and let us run for our lives. We could hear the roar of the people behind the second gate who had not been allowed in.  After some time relaxing on the grass, I started noticing that everybody was getting up, and, more by reflex than anything else, I got up too and started doing what everyone else was doing which was trying to get even closer to the stage. You just followed the flock.

And that is when I lost my sister and her friend. In the sea of people that River Plate stadium had become.

 Now, in my young mind what I thought was this: here I was, having anticipated this concert for months, having queued since the early hours of that morning and there was no chance in the world I was going to miss that. So I stayed, enjoyed the whole thing and decided to look for my sister when the show was over. So, imagine my joy when I found my dad waiting for me at the gates. Totally oblivious to the concern I had caused, quite innocently all I could think of was how tired I was and that it was going to be very nice to have a lift back home as opposed to going by bus. This all happened in the Stone Age, remember, before mobile phones and all that technology.

What happened was this: my poor sister panicked at the thought of having lost me, checked in all the emergency units at the stadium, then went back home and said to our  grandmother: “Please don’t worry but, did Gaby come back home?” To which she replied: “But wasn’t she with you?”

The show itself was fantastic: Peter Gabriel, Sting and Bruce Springsteen were all great but I especially remember Bruce’s performance because he was the last act. We were all dead tired, not only from having queued and from being crushed in a crowd of people but also from several hours of shows because Amnesty was marathonic. It was more like three concerts all rolled into one.

As I said, I had gone to see Sting because he had played River the year before and I missed the chance of going, silly me.

But I still remember feeling I could not possibly stay standing any longer and Bruce coming on stage and shouting: “Are you ready?” and kicking off his set with Born in the USA. And the madness started all over again. Only those who have been in River Plate stadium for a live concert know what I am talking about. I remember thinking: “if this man can get us going, then he can make even stones dance”.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1W4NTbBXU 

So it was  a nice feeling of the story coming full circle when this time all I had to do was come out of the kitchen (it was literally next to the backstage area) and getting  into the front row from backstage.

 

 

Now, my photos didn’t turn out spectacularly good so when I was browsing through them to decide which were the more acceptable ones, imagine my surprise when I discovered the Argentinian flag, amongst the crowd of Londoners! It’s just one of those things that photography has: sometimes there is a nice detail in the picture of which you were not aware at the time of snapping the photo but which only comes out as you develop or edit them.

 

Vitello Tonnato adapted from El libro de Doña Petrona by Petrona C. de Gandulfo

 

1 tongue or 1kg veal

salt

water

some vegetables

 

 For the sauce:

 100g tuna

6 anchovy filets

2 yolks

vegetable oil

pepper

½ coffee-sized cup vinegar

1 tbsp. mustard

 

To garnish:

capers

1 boiled egg yolk

 

Boil the veal with the vegetables in water. When it’s cooked, take off the heat, drain and leave to cool in its own stock.

To make the sauce: using a blender or food processor, blend the tuna with the anchovy fillets.

Place the yolks in a deep bowl and whisk them while you add the oil in a trickle (you are making a mayonnaise here), until it thickens, then add the tuna and the anchovies, pepper, vinegar, mustard and mix forming a light sauce, adding a little bit of water to it, if necessary. Or use some of the stock in which you cooked the veal.

Once cold, slice the tongue or veal in very thin slices, cover with the sauce and sprinkle with the capers and the chopped egg yolk (back home we also use the egg white which makes it more colourful).

This dish is infinitely better with home-made mayonnaise as we make it in Argentina, but, if you prefer a cheat’s version, you can use ready-made mayonnaise.

If you have leftover sauce you can also add it to some boiled pasta to make a nice pasta salad or do as I did and have it on some sliced bread. Yummy!

 

8/10!

 

Madsen Scandanavian restaurant, Old Brompton Road. Photograph: Sarah Lee/Guardian

 

 

This is a review from The Guardian magazine that appeared last weekend.

It makes me double happy to know that it appeared while I am there, working as part of the team.

 

I just wanted to share…

 

 

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/may/09/matthew-norman-madsen