Tapas with a twist

Summer has been so slow in coming in that I had begun to think it never would. So had a lot of other people, judging by the way London revelled in the hot weather today. Shorts and sandals emerged from hibernation, the parks were thronged well into the evening and pavements heaving with drinkers.

There are better places than Camden to enjoy the hot weather, frankly - but that is where I was. Luckily I discovered El Parador, a tapas restaurant with a secret garden out the back, a mere olive-stone's throw from Mornington Crescent tube station.

Their garden was baking in the sunshine and packed with lunchers. I had a good feeling as I read the menu. Sometimes tapas places feel wearily familiar: Spanish omelette/ meatballs/ patatas bravas/ calamari/ mushrooms with garlic/ sardines... you eat it with a yawn. El Parador does serve some of these dishes, but lots of more unusual things too. And some of the old favourites come with a twist that is thoughtful rather than just for the sake of it. Chorizo comes with butter beans, roasted piquillo peppers and brandy. Chicken livers are prepared with with shallots, enoki mushrooms and Iberico ham.

There is a slight tendency to over-list the ingredients: El Parador, you don't need to tell me about the black pepper. But on balance I forgive you, especially as nearly every dish of 40 or more sounds worth eating. (The owners have written a recipe book, too, which isn't a failsafe sign of quality, but suggests enthusiasm and a bit of originality, at least.)

Between the four of us we ate two pots of the broad bean puree, made with confit garlic, rosemary and lots of olive oil, and served unexpectedly hot, with bread. Hummus was never this good. There was roasted butternut squash with spinach, chestnuts and feta, which is every bit as delicious as it sounds. Celeriac was advertised with peas and shallots, which were barely in evidence, but still, it was delicious. Meltingly soft, coated with Manchego cheese, it was a dish to convert even the most reluctant vegetable-eater.

Grilled octopus came as a single tentacle, coiled around the plate. Fishcakes, made with smoked haddock and mash, were unusually soft, but not much the worse for that. We also ate beetroot roasted with red onion and butter beans, Ratte potatoes (a fancy variety of new potato) with cherry tomatoes, leeks and chilli, and a Jerusalem artichoke salad from the specials list with a really excellent dressing.

It's a menu that makes excellent use of the whole spectrum of vegetables, not just the obvious "Mediterranean" ones. So there are parsnips, fennel and curly kale. But there's plenty of meaty stuff too, including grilled quail, spicy lamb fillets, and pork belly braised in cider.

Spices make more of an appearance than they do in most Spanish restaurants, with some dishes showing influences of the Asian-Mediterranean borderlands. Harissa, cardamom and star anise all make appearances.

It's definitely a place to try something unusual. The least original dish we had, the pastries filled with spinach and cheese, was also the most pedestrian. As for the bill, tapas dishes are mostly £5 to £7, with a three-for-the-price-of-two offer on weekday lunchtimes.

If you are anywhere near Camden, you should go. Even if it's not sunny. I can't think of a better way of putting summer on a plate.

El Parador Restaurant
245 Eversholt Street
London
NW1 1BA
http://elparadorlondon.com 
020 7387 2789

Little Bay Farringdon

I was reminded of my question How cheap is too cheap? at Little Bay Farringdon. It's part of a popular mini-chain of restaurants in London and Brighton. At the Farringdon branch they seem to have a more or less permanent "half-price" offer. As it's not exactly extortionate in the first place, this makes the prices ridiculously cheap - £2.65 for a starter, £5.95 for a main course.

I was slightly wary, but the place has good reviews from Time Out and others, so off I went. It's almost worth it for the ahem, striking, decor.

I'm clearly not the only one who likes a bargain, because on a Thursday night the place was packed. There was a bit of a delay in getting the menus - I've never been given bread before the menu before - but after that the service was pretty quick. Actually the food arrived with almost lightning speed.

At these prices it would have been rude not to have a starter, so we ordered moules mariniere and a goats' cheese parcel with Waldorf salad. It wasn't the largest portion of mussels, but reasonable for a starter and frankly a steal for the price. The goats' cheese was wrapped in crispy filo and on some Waldorf salad which was mostly apple, but a nice contrast to the goats' cheese.

About two minutes after our starters had been cleared the main courses arrived: a vegetable moussaka and a slow-cooked shoulder of lamb with roast vegetables and flageolet beans. The lamb had the edge - flaking under the fork after four hours of cooking, the beans flavoured with pesto and some colourful roast vegetables.

Desserts include profiteroles (filled with banana cream - I haven't tried it but my instinct says what were they thinking?), apple cake and cheese platter. We shared a chocolate roulade, slightly too sweet I thought, but very edible. It was served with poached pear and scoop of vanilla ice-cream, a tried-and-tested combination but pretty good nonetheless.

Drinks are not half price, sadly, but still not unreasonable. Red wine starts at £11.95 a bottle and is perfectly drinkable, while the only beer is Budvar in bottles for £3.45.

The whole thing was about £30 including wine, which struck me as astonishingly good value. At twice the price I wouldn't have been blown away, but it wouldn't have been daylight robbery. I still don't know how Little Bay does it, but I suspect I'll be back to find out more.

Little Bay
171 Farringdon Road, City of London, London, EC1R 3AL
020 7 278 1234

Nettles for sale - whatever will they think of next?

The title above says it all really. I was at Oval Farmers' Market yesterday and was amazed to see "wild nettles" for sale alongside the organic veg at the Perry Court Farm stall.

My first thought was - why would you buy something you can get for free on any roadside? And my second thought (which might have been your first thought) - is there much demand for nettles anyway? Now I eat nettles, though I've been a bit remiss in collecting them this spring, but I do feel like I'm very much in the minority.

If you're considering it, they are very good for you - full of iron and other nutrients - but you need to pick them before they start flowering, otherwise they are no good to eat. It's getting a bit late in the season now, certainly around London, but you might still get some decent ones. It's best to just pick the tips. You can even dilute the cooking water and drink it as nettle tea!

Whether you buy them or pick them yourself, nettles are good in curry, frittata or even quiche, in the same way that you'd use spinach. Here's a recipe for nettle pesto.

Nettle pesto

A few big handfuls nettle tops
1 tub ricotta
1-2 cloves garlic, to taste
2oz / 50g pine nuts, walnuts or hazelnuts
25g/ 1oz grated parmesan or similar cheese, plus extra to taste

Boil the nettles in plenty of water for about 2 minutes or until thoroughly wilted.  Drain and place in a food processor with the other ingredients. Blend until smooth. Taste and adjust the ingredients as you wish.

Stir into just-drained cooked pasta. Serve with extra parmesan.

Two 100th birthdays and a special chocolate roulade

It was an unusual, tiring and mostly wonderful weekend. I'm in the unusual position of having two grandmothers who have both just turned 100 - one on Friday and one today. So it was a weekend of festivities, and it was really lovely to see them both enjoying themselves and celebrating with their families. I ate far too much throughout and probably need to eat super-healthily for several weeks to make up for it!

Today's highlights were both tarts - a super-zesty lemon tart, the punchiest I have had in a long time, and a savoury tart with tomatoes, goats' cheese and a hint of mustard.

On Friday we all ate a three-course lunch and then a huge banquet again in the evening, mostly cooked by my talented sister-in-law. I couldn't choose between her pear tart and her chocolate raspberry roulade in terms of sheer deliciousness, but here is the recipe for chocolate raspberry roulade. It looks amazingly professional but is not as hard as it looks, and it's flourless so it is very light, and gluten-free too.

We didn't even get to the birthday cake (also baked and decorated by Yarti) - at least not on Friday, anyway.

Yarti's chocolate raspberry roulade

Ingredients
175g dark chocolate
2 tbsp water
5 eggs, separated (preferably at room temperature)
175g caster sugar
300ml double cream
200g raspberries
2 tbsp liqueur of your choice (optional) - Grand Marnier works well

Method
Melt the chocolate together with the water in a small pan over a low heat.
Beat the egg yolks and sugar together with an electric whisk until pale and fluffy.
Beat egg whites until stiff but not dry
Fold the melted chocolate into the egg yolk and sugar mixture. Fold in the egg whites with a metal spoon - do this in three batches rather than all at once.
Line a Swiss roll tin with greased baking parchment and pour in the mixture.
Bake at gas mark 5/190C for 20-25 minutes or until the top is glossy and cracked and a toothpick or small skewer inserted inside comes out clean. (It's best to check after 20 minutes.)
Cover with a clean damp tea-towel and leave for at least an hour or until completely cool.
Whip the cream and fold in the raspberries and the liqueur. If you want to decorate the top, reserve a couple of tablespoons of whipped cream and five perfect raspberries for decoration.
Spread the raspberry cream all over the roulade and then roll it up gently from the shorter edge. Treat it gently to avoid cracks, but if it does crack it's not the end of the world.
To decorate, pipe five small rosettes of double cream along the top of the roulade, then place a raspberry on top of each rosette. If you don't have a piping bag, you can just put neat blobs of cream on using teaspoons, though this doesn't look quite as professional.


Unfortunately I didn't get to take a picture of it before it was eaten, but here are pictures of Elsie and Ruth, still going strong at 100, aided by champagne! Cheers both!

A Highlands odyssey and orange treacle tart

I'm back in London again after a trip to the Scottish Highlands: walking, cycling, marvelling anew at each new view. A lot of cake was eaten, as well as not a few scones. I seemed to notice scones a lot on this trip - if I associate them with anywhere it is with the West Country, but are the Scots even bigger scone enthusiasts, I wonder?

One of the foodie highlights was a brief stop at Glasgow farmers' market on the way further north. The hot offerings included home-made burgers, hog roast and excellent curries. I also bought the first cakes of the trip (ginger cake and banana bread) and crowdie (an traditional Highlands soft cheese, difficult to find down south), which I find irresistible on oatcakes.

One discovery in a pub near Fort William was an orange treacle tart. I loved the hint of zestiness which married with what can otherwise be a piercingly sweet dessert. Here is my approximation at the recipe.

Orange treacle tart

250g shortcrust pastry
450g golden syrup
150g fresh breadcrumbs (white is usual but you can use brown if you prefer, not granary please!)
Zest and juice of one orange
2 eggs, lightly beaten

Roll out the pastry and line a 20cm tart tin. Line with greaseproof paper and baking beans and blind bake at 190C/gas 5 for 10-15 minutes or until the pastry is lightly cooked. Take out the paper and beans and return to oven for 2 minutes more to dry out. Turn the oven down to 180C/gas mark 4.

Warm the syrup slightly in a pan, remove from heat and mix in the breadcrumbs, orange zest and juice, followed by the eggs.

Pour into the tart case and bake for 30-45 minutes or until lightly set. 

Serve with custard or cream. I would go for custard myself, though the slight tanginess of creme fraiche also works well with the sweet filling.

Not quite electric, but there's some buzz at the Power Station

Battersea Power Station may be a local landmark, but I'm not sure I would name my restaurant after it. It's a stunning building, but that whiff of dereliction, its failure to find a purpose since it stopped burning coal nearly 20 years ago, aren't the kind of associations you necessarily want.

That said, we had a pretty good meal there. It's a neighbourhood cafe and restaurant handily located over the road from Battersea Park rail station and just a couple of minutes from the park. If the summer ever materialises, a lazy afternoon in the park followed by some Mediterranean flavours in the Power Station bar and restaurant might be a great way to spend a day.

We didn't sample much of the menu, just a mezze platter which was unexpectedly heavy on the cured meats - thin Parma-style ham, salami, and cured beef. There were deep fried bits of octopus, some tasty spinach and cheese pastries (I told you these were of the moment), and a couple of meatballs. Plus, of course, hummus, tzatziki, olives and pitta bread. The dips were quite acceptable but blander than some.

At the next table a couple of ladies were enjoying their sea bass fillets in prawn and garlic butter. There are Greek classics like moussaka and kleftiko, plus Greek-style pasta dishes (I liked the sound of the makaroni me kima, "similar to the Italian bolognese, only better".) There are lighter dishes like burgers, you can get takeaway, and they do roasts on Sundays.

From the outside it is easy to believe it's no more than a cafe, but if you venture towards the back you find a casual but quite nicely done restaurant. I'll certainly be back to test it out more fully.

Power Station Bar and Restaurant
161 Battersea Park Road SW8 4BU
0207 7200 632
powerstation-bar-restaurant.co.uk

Wild garlic

I wasn't even looking for anything edible, but wild garlic en masse is hard to miss. It's the broad leaves, the pungent whiff, and depending when you catch it, the starry white flowers. I haven't done any foraging since last autumn's blackberries, so my excitement was considerable.

Wild garlic is one of those plants that is locally abundant but you may not be able to find it for miles around. It likes damp and wooded conditions, often near a stream. I spotted it near Box Hill in Surrey and then, even more copiously, near Arundel in Sussex the very next day.

Like nettles, it seems to be fashionable at the moment. I use the leaves like a garlicky spinach (the bulb root is not worth bothering with, and anyway, you shouldn't uproot a wild plant) and the flowers as a garnish. Tonight's dinner was pizza with ricotta, portobello mushrooms and wilted garlic leaves: delicious. But I also love a few wilted leaves in a cheese omelette, or in a risotto (perhaps with mushrooms again).  I have used it instead of basil in a pesto, but that's definitely one for garlic-lovers only.

Warning: it is exceedingly pungent raw, although little finely chopped into a salad may be no bad thing.