Restaurant review: The Corner Room, Bethnal Green

Last week saw my birthday come and go, sweeping away any remaining hopes that I was still in my mid-twenties. Next stop the big thirty, grey temples and dodgy knees… Aside from this clear psychological trauma, and probably to ease it, I was lucky enough to receive some lovely presents. Usually my birthday presents are pretty one-dimensional, and my food obsession brings in swathes of cookbooks and random gadgets destined for the back of the drawer. Not this time however, as I was treated to a shiny new ice-cream machine from my gal, and from her mother a secretive lunch had been booked. I was also the recipient of some much needed, and very beautiful new shoes, but this is a food blog and frankly I should stay constant. 

And so the day came for my birthday lunch, and it was revealed as The Corner Room, in the newly renovated Bethnal Green town hall. This was very exciting news, as I had heard rave reviews of what they had done to the building and had been wanting to go look for a while. But I knew little of the restaurant. The town hall is largely renowned as the home of Viajante, the Michelin-starred restaurant of former El-Bulli chef Nuno Mendes. A little research showed that The Corner Room is the less formal sister restaurant, also overlooked by Mendes. The menu was short, the sort that requires a trust and a hope when ordering, but that leaves you in hot anticipation of what is to come. 

A Saturday full of damp misty rain and gloom is not always the best time to be hanging around Bethnal Green. As standard we were umbrellaless. It screams of a short trip to Broadway Market or Brick Lane and a cosy coffee or beer and newspaper. But tucked down a random sideroad was a grand old entrance that opened into warm yellow light and a step into another time. For a casual lunch, it didn’t half make you feel like you were somewhere special. The old utility wooden panels fused with the shiny marble and the quirky ornamental hipster touches. It is just beautiful. 

The restaurant is difficult to find, mostly because every centimetre of the décor draws the eye and removes you to state of wide-eyes glaring. Again they had got the balance just right. A small corner room, as implied in the name, sparsely laid out with simple tables and flooded with natural light. And old man with wonky glasses entertained his family in one corner and a couple drank coffee with a farty looking baby. Beautiful modern lights lifted the space, and straight away we were relaxed.

Some incredibly strong negronis and margaritas eased us further before the food arrived. First to arrive was the interesting sounding crispy rice and chicken mayo, which in the flesh were delicate rice cakes and a rich mayonnaise, scattered with what I assume was crispy chicken skin. Like everything else we were to eat, it was subtle, with your mouth popping to new little bits of spice and flavour, and was quickly polished off. The mackerel with ponzu and smoked tomato split us; Katie isn’t much a fan of cold, fish broths whereas again I enjoyed the odd-sounding but harmonious combination. 

I was left speechless at the arrangement of ingredients sitting on my main course plate. It is probably the most beautiful thing I have ever eaten, and tasted every bit as good. I had opted for the Berkshire venison with tarragon and mustard, which was both tangy and soothing at once and packed an extreme amount of flavour. Katie’s Iberico pork was the tenderest piece of pork I have ever eaten, and accompanied by classic tart red cabbage and sweet berries. Although this wasn’t as complex and original in taste, it was just a wonderful piece of cooking.

It was really a silly question being asked if we wanted to view the pudding menu, and despite my love of cheese I wanted to see a dessert at this level. My rhubarb with roasted lactose and ginger was a lovely clean way to finish the meal. The almost chalky milk fizzed and dissolved on the tongue. There wasn’t much of it though, and I would have liked a bit more of the roasted rhubarb alongside the compote and ice cream. Katie’s frozen panna cotta with apple and hazelnuts was again full of interesting textures. Neither of us however could really see much difference or point in freezing a jellified cream when you could just have ice cream.  

I haven’t eaten anything nearly as interesting for a very long time. Although the overall concept of some of the dishes, especially the desserts, seemed to overtake the substance, everything tasted really, really good. That clichéd description of taste buds being taken on journey was made for this meal, and the sort of thing that is difficult to achieve without an awful lot of thought. The value for the level of food is also fantastic, and to eat it in such a setting was a joy.

Beef wellington with braised shin fondant potato, bone marrow, anchovy kale and mushrooms

Every August sees the birthday of Katie’s sister, Lois, and the chance for me to cook up a storm. For the past three years all she has wanted as a present is a home cooked meal, which is absolutely fine by me. The four of us all get on really well, and it’s lovely to be able to play host, open a few bottles of wine and create a proper celebration meal. 

 

Normally on these kind of occasions I would spend weeks thinking up the right thing to cook, but this time I was told straight way what was to be expected; a beef wellington. I made this for Lois on the first year that we celebrated her birthday, and it has kept popping up in food conversations ever since. Despite being a bit of a retro classic and not served in restaurants much these days, a well-cooked wellington is perfect for a special occasion. Surely there’s nothing better than a luxuriously tender piece of meat surrounded by mushrooms and a case of melt in the mouth pastry!

Although I hadn’t made it for a couple of years, I was confident in pulling it off. Once you get the hang of constructing and cooking a wellington it’s pretty easy. For this occasion I wanted to make tweaks to the dish to elevate it to a higher level. To achieve this I made my own rough puff pastry for the wellington itself, and really made an effort with all of the items that would accompany it on the plate. This made the making process very time consuming, but seeing it all together on the plate really made it worthwhile. 

 

Instead of just serving the fillet of beef as the meat element, I wanted to incorporate a few less used cuts into the dish. I really enjoy doing this with my cooking, be it serving a braised leg of poultry with a pan-fried breast to a smoked pate with a grilled piece of fish. It makes the meal as a whole more interesting and introduces a wider range of flavour. For this recipe I slowly cooked the shin cut to stuff into the buttery fondant potatoes, and also the bone marrow, which I quickly fried as a garnish and also melted into the sauce. Ok I admit, I really wasn’t keen on bone marrow when I first tried it at Hawksmoor earlier in the year. But I have since persevered and eaten it a few more times and developed a taste for it. The melting texture and rich beefy taste is a wonderful thing, and I cannot wait to try cooking with it again. It is also a very cheap cut, appearing more and more commonly in good butchers.

For this meal I didn’t have a chance to visit said good local butcher, so once again ordered from the East London Steak Co. I normally like to see my meat before I buy it, but I was dead impressed with the service and quality of my delivery. The price was also a fair bit less, and I saved over a tenner on my piece of fillet steak alone. What I also like about the ELSC is the little card that comes with your order, informing you of the breed, farm, slaughter date and who was handled it along the way. Little details like this are the way forward, and I would thoroughly recommend their service. 

A lot of the items in this recipe can be substituted to make the whole process much quicker. Once you have mastered the wellington it can be served with so many different things, from creamy mash to dauphanoise potatoes. But this was certainly a celebration and the time spent making everything was a pleasure.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

For the rough puff pastry:

500g plain flour
250g butter, cold, cut into cubes
200g lard, cold, cut into cubes
1 tbsp English mustard powder
1 tsp baking powder
300ml milk
Salt
1 egg, beaten

For the mushrooms duxelle:

8 large portobello mushrooms, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
1 shallot, very finely chopped
2 tbsp parsley leaves, very finely chopped
¼ lemon, juice only
Olive oil
50g butter
Salt and pepper

For the rest of the wellington:

800g centre-cut piece of beef fillet, trimmed of any sinew
2 tbsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
10 slices Parma ham
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the braised shin fondant potato:

2 bone-in shin steaks
6 pieces of marrowbone, cut into 1 ½” rounds
½ bottle red wine
2 onions, sliced
2 carrots, roughly sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
2 litres good beef stock
10 sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
1 star anise
Olive oil

4 large maris piper potatoes
1 tbsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
5 sprigs thyme, left whole
50g butter
200g goose fat
500ml good beef stock
3 garlic cloves, crushed

For the sauce:

The strained leftover stock from the braised shins
30g butter
Salt and pepper

For the pan fried bone marrow:

4 1 ½” bone marrow cylinders, soaked and pushed out of the bone
50g flour
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
20g butter
Olive oil

 
For the kale:

6 large kale leaves, tough stalks removed and roughly cut
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
2 anchovy fillets, very finely chopped
30g butter
Salt and pepper

For the mushrooms:

16 pied bleu mushrooms, trimmed and brushed
16 girolle mushrooms, trimmed and brushed
1 garlic clove, very finely chopped
¼ lemon, juice only
30g butter
Olive oil
Salt and pepper


First braise the beef shins. Bring a large heavy saucepan to a high heat. Season the shin steaks well and rub with a little olive oil. Sear well on all sides until well browned then remove to a side plate. Add a little more oil to the pan then the onions, celery, garlic and carrots, stirring well and colouring. Pour in the wine and bring to the boil. Add the marrow bones, seared shin steaks, thyme, bay and star anise, then top up with the stock. Heat back up to the boil and then reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 4-5 hours, until the meat falls apart. Allow to cool. 

Remove the shin steaks from the stock and shred really well. Season and mix with the chopped thyme leaves. Set aside until needed later. Strain the stock and reserve for making the sauce later.

Next make the rough puff pastry. Put the flour, butter, lard, baking powder, mustard powder and milk into a mixing bowl and combine lightly: the chunks of fat should be running through the mixture whole. Tip out onto a well floured surface and roll out into a rectangle of about 1cm thickness. This will be tricky the first time, and the mixture will look all wrong but it will get better each roll. Fold the pastry into thirds to form a long rectangle, then into half. Wrap with cling film and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes. Repeat this process twice more, then the pastry will be ready for the final roll later. Chill until needed. 

To make the mushroom duxelle, set a large frying pan or skillet to a medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil and the butter. When hot cook the shallot and garlic for a couple of minutes until tender. Add the mushrooms and seasoning, and cook for about 15 minutes, until all moisture has been evaporated. Remove from the heat, stir through the parsley and taste for seasoning. Allow to cool fully.

Take the fillet of beef out of the fridge for at least 30 minutes and allow to come to room temperature. Heat a large heavy frying pan until smoking hot. Season the outside of the meat really well with salt, pepper and the thyme leaves, and rub all over with a little olive oil. Sear the fillet in the hot pan for about a minute each side to seal the meat and caramelise a little. Remove and allow to cool.

Lay down 2 large strips of cling film side by side on a chopping board and arrange the Parma ham into an overlapping rectangle that is 2 strips deep and 5 wide. Spread a thin layer of the mushroom duxelle on top, leaving a lip of about 2cm around the edges. Position the cooled fillet in the middle, then very carefully wrap the Parma ham around, using the cling film to make it as tight as possible. Wrap tightly with more cling film and chill in the fridge for at least half an hour. 

 

Roll your finished pastry into a rectangle that is 2-3 inches longer than the fillet at each end, and wide enough to fold right around. It should be about 1cm thick. Beat an egg in a small bowl and brush a little all over the surface. Place the wrapped fillet on top and very carefully fold the pastry around, sealing tightly at the side and ends. Trim away any excess pastry, and roll the wellington so that the join is on the bottom. Place on a lined baking tray and chill until needed.

Pour the strained stock into a large, shallow saucepan and bring to the boil. Keep reducing until only about 300-400ml is left, and the sauce has thickened and intensified in flavour. Transfer to a smaller saucepan and set aside for finishing later.

Next make the stuffed fondant potatoes. Cut the top and bottom off the potatoes and use a cutter to create a neat cylinder shape about 2” in height. Cut a 1cm lid off the top, then use a mellon baller to scoop out the centres. Stuff with a good amount of the braised, shredded shin mixture. Heat a frying pan to a high heat with a little olive oil and quickly fry the top of the lids for a couple of minutes until golden brown. Remove and place on top of the stuffed fondants. Place in a deep, lined baking dish with the whole thyme sprigs, the butter and the garlic. 

 

Heat the oven to 200ºC.

Put the goose fat and beef stock into a small saucepan and heat up until just boiling. Pour the fat around the potatoes until half way up then put in the oven for about 40 minutes, or until the potato is cooked through.

Brush the outside of the beef wellington with more beaten egg and put in the oven at this point too, cooking for 30 minutes for rare (as in photo). Cook for 5 or so minutes longer for better done. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

When the wellington comes out of the oven, finish off all of the accompaniments. Try and cook them all at the same time so that they are all hot when serving.

For the kale, heat up a large frying pan to a medium temperature and melt the butter with the chopped anchovy and garlic. Sweat for a minute then add the kale and 100ml of water and cook for another couple of minutes until wilted. Keep warm until ready to serve. 

 

To cook the mushrooms, heat a frying pan to medium/hot and add 1 tbsp of oil and the butter. When melted add the pied bleu mushrooms, then the girolles a minute later. Season well and fry for another couple of minutes until just cooked.

Heat up the sauce and stir through the butter until melted and emulsified. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Lastly cook the bone marrow. Heat up a small frying pan to medium/hot. Tip the flour onto a plate and mix in some seasoning. Roll the marrow pieces in the flour to coat, shake off the excess and fry for a couple of minutes until crispy on the outside. Be careful not to cook them for too long or they will melt!

To plate up, cut thick pieces of the Wellington and arrange one carefully on each plate. Add the cooked fondant potatoes and a serving of kale. Place a piece of the bone marrow on top of the kale and scatter around the mushrooms. Finally spoon over some of the sauce and serve.

Spaghetti Vongole

Just like the seared fillet recipe in the last post, vongole is as simple as can be but is a firm favourite in our flat. When Katie went away recently with work, I asked what she wanted me to make for her return. Her quick reply was “vongole!”, so it had to be just that. I was kind of disappointed at first, as I was thinking of something luxurious and intricate that I would spend the whole day cooking. I thought and thought of ways that I could elevate the simple pasta dish to a higher lever; adding langoustines, lobster, a shellfish sauce etc, but anything that I wanted to do took away from the distinctive clean tastes of sweet clams, dry wine, garlic, chilli and lemon. And not a lot else. Soon I had gone full circle and simply wanted to try and maximise those basic flavours. The fact of the matter is a good vongole on a warm evening is one of the best things that you can eat. It’s one of those dishes that can instantly make you feel like you’re on holiday.

The only extra thing that I did was make the pasta myself. Most of the time I just snip off the top of a packet of dried pasta and the dish is ready in minutes, but I wanted to add that special touch. I have met many people who snub the idea of homemade pasta and think it’s a waste of time, but for me the taste and texture that you can achieve by making it fresh can make even the simplest dishes incredible. And it really doesn’t take that long once you get the hang of it. You can even freeze the dough then simply thaw out and roll!

I like my finished vongole to be quite winey and lemony to taste, so feel free to adjust the levels to your taste.

Serves 2-3 as a main course:

For the sauce:

800g live clams
1.5 glasses dry white wine
2 shallots, very finely chopped
1 red chilli, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very finely chopped
4 tbsp flat leaf parsley, very finely chopped

2 lemons, juice only
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

For the pasta:

400g ’00’ grade flour
4 eggs
2 tbsp olive oil
Large pinch of Salt


To make the pasta, combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Tip out onto a clean surface and knead together for 5-10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic in texture. It should be soft but not sticky. Wrap well with cling film and allow to rest for at least half an hour, preferably longer.

Once rested, unwrap and roll through a pasta machine around 10 times at the widest setting, folding after each pass. This will make the dough much easier to work with. Next pass the dough through the narrower settings, one at a time until the second thinnest (number 5 on a Imperia machine). You should have a long sheet of thin pasta. Cut the sheet to the length that you want the spaghetti to be, then cut using the spaghetti attachment. Flour the cut pasta lightly and lay on a rack, keeping the strands as separate as possible. Set aside until needed.

Fill a large saucepan with water, add a good amount of salt and bring to the boil.

Heat a large frying pan or skillet to a medium temperature and add 2 tbsp of olive oil. Fry the shallot, garlic and chilli for a couple of minutes until softened, seasoning as you go. Turn the heat up slightly, add the white wine and bring to the boil. When the alcohol has burned off tip in the clams and cover the pan with a lid. Shake the pan gently and keep covered until the clams have opened, about 2-3 minutes.

While the clams have been cooking for a minute add your pasta to the saucepan of boiling water. Cook for 1-2 minutes, tasting a strand occasionally to make sure that it is al dente.

You want to try and time it so that the clams and pasta cook at the same time.

Once the clams have opened, transfer the cooked pasta into the pan using some tongs, along with 3 tbsp of the cooking water. Combine well, agitating the pasta to release to gluten and thicken the sauce. Add the juice of one lemon, the parsley, salt and pepper and a good glug of olive oil and combine again. Taste to make sure that there is enough seasoning and lemon.

Spoon into shallow bowls and squeeze some more lemon over the top, along with a drizzle of olive oil and some cracked pepper. Simple as that!

Seared fillet of beef with parmesan, basil, croutons and chilli and lemon oil

With my last few recipes being quite long-winded and time consuming, my next couple are going to be the complete opposite; all about the simplicity and flavour. Often the tastiest and most memorable meals are simple gatherings of a few ingredients that go perfectly together. I have made so many meals that have been overworked, and have too many different things going on. So with this it is time to go back to basics again. 

Fillet of beef is a prime example of an ingredient that is so easily spoilt by overcomplicating. I personally think that the best ways to get the most out of a fillet steak is to either eat it raw or cook it in a beef wellington (cooked very rare). I even think that cooking it as a piece of steak is a waste of money, with rib eye and sirloin having a higher fat content and way more flavour. Both of these cuts are often half the price and money way better spent.

My inspiration for this dish is from a holiday in Italy a few years ago. The food that we ate throughout the trip was massively hit and miss, with some lovely meals had, but also some terrible experieces of over-inflated ‘Italian’ food made for tourists. One of the best places that we went to was a tiny restaurant tucked away in Venice. We had spent hours walking around looking for something more than veal escallops sitting next to tables of rude tourists, and just stumbled randomly across it. It was one of those small bustling rooms where everybody seemed to be having a great time and eating the most amazing food. Our waiter was a larger than life Italian man who made the experience that much better. The food lived up to our expectations too, in typical Italian style being simple combinations of high quality produce. I had the carpaccio and despite the fact that it was just beef, parmesan, rocket and olive oil, it has stayed in my mind ever since. 

I wouldn’t quite class this dish as a carpaccio though, as I have prepared the beef a little bit differently. Firstly I sear the fillet lightly before chilling and carving. The caramelisation on the edge of the meat gives that little bit more flavour whilst you still get the taste and texture of the raw centre. I also cut the meat slightly thicker, which again gives a better texture in my opinion. 

This makes a lovely starter on it’s own, or part of a big spread of food for a bigger group to dig into.  

Serves 3-4 as a starter.

Ingredients:

For the beef:

500g beef fillet, trimmed of any sinew

3 tbsp fresh thyme leaves, picked and finely chopped

10 sprigs thyme, whole

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

1 lemon, finely grated zest only

2 garlic cloves, crushed

For the chilli and lemon oil:

200ml good extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon, zest only

6 basil leaves, crushed gently

1 medium red chilli, sliced

For the croutons:

2 slices white bread, crusts removed and cut into 1cm cubes

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

To finish:

Basil leaves

Parmesan, cut into thin shards

Salt and pepper

Remove the piece of fillet from the fridge about an hour before cooking and allow to get to room temperature.

Crush the garlic and scatter onto a small chopping board with the lemon zest, whole thyme, seasoning and a little olive oil. Set aside.

Heat up a heavy frying pan to the highest heat possible, until smoking. Season all sides of the meat really well and rub with the chopped thyme and olive oil. Cook very quickly for about 30 seconds to a minute on each side, so that the outside forms a nice brown crust. Remove straight to the seasoned board and roll around. Leave to cool completely then wrap tightly with cling film and put in the fridge for a few hours. 

To make the flavoured oil, pour the oil into a frying pan with the chilli and lemon zest. Bring just to a warm temperature, enough to touch but no hotter. Tip into a bowl and add the basil leaves. Allow to infuse for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 180ºC.

Make the croutons by cutting the bread into 1cm cubes and scattering onto a lined baking tray. Season and drizzle with olive oil and roll around to cover well. Cook for about 10 minutes until nicely golden with a bit of give in the middle still. Set aside. 

Take the chilled beef out of the fridge, unwrap and slice very carefully with a sharp knife into rounds a couple of millimetres thick. Allow to come to room temperature for about 20 minutes before serving. 

To plate up, take a large plate or platter and spread the slices of beef evenly around. Season very well with salt and pepper. Scatter the croutons, basil and parmsan over the top and spoon over some of the oil.

Home-smoked sardines with clams, leeks, crispy cavolo nero and saffron and lemon mayonnaise

So Katie goes away for a few days with work, and in that time the kitchen somehow sprouted a makeshift smoker. And I don’t know why I haven’t done it before! 

This was a very spontaneously thought out and prepared lunch. All I knew that day was that I wanted to make something with sardines, but for the life of me I couldn’t decide on what to do with them. I had thought of curing them in blackcurrant juice, which might have looked beautiful but tasted frankly disgusting, or simply grilling them, which wouldn’t have been very original for me. It got to the point where I was cycling back from the fishmongers with a bag of fish and still didn’t know their fate. And then the idea of smoking them came into my head. 

Although I like to stretch myself and try as many different cooking techniques as I can, I have always thought that smoking was a step too far for the amateur cook. Only spending vast amounts of money on a purposely built, outdoor smoker would make this possible, and I had one scribbled down next to a sous-vide machine and double oven on my unrealistic wish list. But although cold-smokers might be a little more difficult to recreate, a makeshift hot-smoker turned out to be a doddle to make. Just make sure you open the windows and turn the extraction fan on! Anyone really interested in homemade methods such as this should check out the writing of Tim Haywood. Not only is it funny, but the things that he makes with often household items are brilliant and inspiring. 

I thought that I would be able to make a smoker out of a very deep oven tray with a cooling rack suspended above, all sealed up with trusty foil. And I was kind of amazed that it worked, and that I didn’t burn down the flat in the process! The fish really was delicious, lovely and moist in the middle and smokey on the outside. As for the flavour of the smoke, I just experimented with a mixture of thyme, pink peppercorns, rice and sugar. This might not be the right thing to use for seasoned smokers, but it worked just fine for this dish. I only wanted to lightly smoke the fish, but you could leave them in for longer to achieve a crispier, stronger result. Instead I finished the cooking with a blowtorch to crisp up the skin.  It was a treat, and could well be the start of a whole lot of experimentation. 

The rest of the dish was formed by things I was lucky enough to have at home. I had clams in the fridge for a meal the next night, and the mayonnaise was made out of store cupboard ingredients. All in all it took me about half an hour, although the kitchen was a proper mess by the end!

Serves 2 for lunch

Ingredients:

For the sardines: 

3 whole sardines, scaled and gutted

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

For the smoker:

3 large handfuls of rice

1 large bunch of thyme

2 tbsp pink peppercorns

2 tbsp caster sugar

For the clams:

30 clams, cleaned of grit

1 glass dry white wine

For the steamed leeks:

2 young leeks, washed and cut into long rounds

1 tsp butter

Salt and pepper

For the crispy cavolo nero:

3 leaves cavolo nero, shredded finely

3 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

1/4 nutmeg

1 lemon, zest only

Salt and pepper

For the saffron and lemon mayonnaise:

2 egg yolks

1/2 level tsp english mustard

1 garlic clove

Splash white wine vinegar

Small pinch saffron

300ml rapeseed oil

1-2 lemons, juice only

Salt and pepper

First get the smoker ready. Line the bottom of a deep oven tray with foil and scatter over the rice, thyme, pepper and sugar. Put a shallow bowl with a little water in at each end, and use these to support a cooling rack a couple of inches above the base. Create a lid out of a few sheets of tin foil, making sure that it will seal properly and sit a couple of inches above the cooling rack. Set aside for lighting later.

Now make the mayonnaise. Add the garlic clove, salt and pepper to a food processor with a small bowl and blitz well. Top up with the mustard, vinegar, saffron and egg yolks and mix again until well combined and very frothy. Leaving the mixer on, pour in the oil in a very slow trickle, getting steadier as you reach the end. The mayonnaise should be very thick and emulsified. Squeeze in the juice of one lemon, mix again and taste. Add more lemon and seasoning as required, then transfer to a squeezy bottle. 

Prepare the sardines by removing the head, cutting open the belly cavity and removing any innards. The next step is to butterfly the fish by carefully running the tip of a sharp knife between the fine ribcage and the flesh on each side, then slowly easing the backbone free with your fingers. Cut them at the tale end so you are left with both fillets connected and bone free. Cut into separate fillets and put onto a plate. The key with handling the sardines is to be very gentle as the skin and flesh tears really easily. 

Put the oil for the cavolo nero into a medium frying pan and set to a medium-high heat. When hot, add the shredded leaves with the lemon zest and seasoning. Cook for a minute or two, of until very crispy, then remove to a plate lined with kitchen roll. Grate over the nutmeg, mix well and check the seasoning. Set aside. 

Heat a medium saucepan to a medium-high temperature. When hot, add the clams and cook in the dry pan for a couple of seconds before adding the white wine. Cover the bubbling pan tightly and gently shake a couple of times. Cook until the clam shells open, about 2-3 minutes, then transer to a bowl. Remove the clams from the shells with a spoon, keeping about ten of the shell halves for plating up. Set aside. 

Half-fill a saucepan with a steaming attachment with salted water and bring to the boil. 

When the water is nearly boiling, start up the smoker. Run a blowtorch over thyme and rice mixture in the bottom of the oven tray until charred and smoking, then put the tray on the hob over a medium heat and seal with the foil. While the smoker is heating up, dry the outside of the sardines with kitchen paper, season well and rub with a small amount of oil. When the smoker is hot and the cooling rack is up to temperature, carefully lay each fillet skin down on the rack and quickly reseal the edges. Check after 3-4 minutes; the fish should be cooked and the skin starting to turn a golden colour. Carefully remove the fillets from the rack using a palette knife and place skin up on a plate. Using the blowtorch, run the flame over the fillets until the skin starts to crisp up. 

While the fish is smoking, steam the leeks for 3-4 minutes or until jest tender. When cooked, brush with a little butter and season. 

To plate up, position 5-6 pieces of leek onto each plate. Lay three sardine fillets per portion, and scatter some of the crispy cavolo nero around the plate. Arrange the clams over the top, leaving some of them in their shells, then dot the mayonnaise in the gaps.

Restaurant review: Patty and Bun, Marylebone

After the downright success that was our visit to Honest Burgers last October, Katie and I have been eager to try another of the new burger joints that have been clogging the arteries of my Twitter feed recently. The burger revolution of London just keeps on rolling on, being taken to more and more extravagant levels. The trend of elevating simple fast food into something posh has fallen on the humble patty, and now you can pop out and indulge in lobster, Iberico ham or even a lump of foie gras as part of the experience. But for now I’m not bothered about all that gloss; it’s all about how a patty, bun and condiments alone can be elevated into something special. I must have forgotten the names of half of the new eateries that have opened, but the place that kept cropping up was Patty and Bun in Marylebone. 

There seems to be a formula with the modern trendy burger joint: find a small pipe of a shop in a busy area of town, cram it elbow-to-elbow with tables, turn the lights right down and hire someone to play music that was considered cheesy and awful at the time and is somehow now seen as edgy. Slap a long queuing time with that you’re there. Service will be fast and there will visibly be people eyeballing you for your table. But that said, when has eating a burger every been long and comfortable experience? They are the very essence of fast food (apart from those bloggers who might still be waiting for their burger to arrive at Meat Liquor, although I haven’t had the experience myself). 

And although to a certain extent Patty and Bun fits into this rhythm, I would urge you to overcome these factors for the sheer pleasure of the food that you are about to eat. It is almost torture having to queue outside for half an hour staring at the words ‘confit chicken wings’. The menu at Patty and Bun is minimal, but you want to eat every last word of it in one glutinous sitting. Once you have finished firing laser beams from your eyes at slow diners and a table becomes available, you just cannot order quickly enough.

One mouthful of burger and all the waiting and hanging around is forgotten. It was not a pretty burger to look at, it was the dirty variety that makes your stomach want to jump out of your mouth and grab it before your hands get the chance. Below the golden shiny bun gushed cheese and burger juices, and the perfectly seasoned patty cooked a perfect pink. All of this hype certainly stands, it is right up there with the best. 

But you have no time to grab for that extra napkin, as it’s time for those wings. They sounded amazing on the menu, but I was curious having never tried chicken cooked in that manner. My word. Beneath the crunchy spiced crust they just fell apart, and all I could do was fight Katie for who got that last one. They were good to the point that a shop selling them and only them would do very well indeed. They were truly memorable, and the taste that I now want every wing I ever eat in my life to match.

Likewise, the coleslaw was the finest I have eaten in a burger joint. Often they are a sad afterthought, badly dressed and seasoned. But like everything else at Patty and Bun, the attention to detail was evident. 

We finished with peanut choc ices, as you do. And they were exactly the right thing to eat after a dense main. Not too big, just enough to refresh you and leave you tasting something sweet. I hadn’t eaten a choc ice since I was about 12, but these ones conjured all of those memories back in a second. Mostly of those ones that had been carried in a bag on a warm day for far too long, and were a glorious dissolving mess when opened.

This was madness. I am a grown man, and the thought of sitting in a crammed room with disposable paper covering the table and the woman at your elbow swaying genuinely to Craig David would not be up there on my dining experiences wish list. But I cannot wait to go back. Unlike many places before, I still have the taste of that burger and those wings in my mouth, and not even the surroundings can deter my want. I would thoroughly, thoroughly recommend it. 

It is difficult to compare to Honest, as they both make really excellent burgers. I would happily take friends to either. But for overall experience, I still think that the former edges it. As fun as the Big Mac greaseproof wrap is on the surface, I still like to eat my burger on a plate, and the ambience is not quite so intense at Honest. Patty and Bun nailed the food though. It is only the difference of a few small deeply-rooted faults at either. Reviews of this nature do have a habit of making the writer an unnecessary pedant... 

But the search still goes on, and as the London burger wheel keeps on churning I am excited as to where my next burger will be.

Pan-fried duck breast with Pommes Anna, broccoli, braised radicchio and a pink peppercorn sauce

It feels so good to be blogging again after a couple of weeks! Sorry about the lack of recent posts, it’s been one of those months when I’ve been rushing around and just haven’t managed to make time for writing anything. Luckily I’ve still cooked a few things, and have also been to the excellent Patty and Bun for dinner, so I have a backlog of things to post about that will hopefully be completed over the next week or so. If I don’t get distracted by yet another bbq in the park again...

I’ve also been a bit undecided in my cooking, and a bit uninspired with what to cook. The worst thing about blogging is trying to think of new recipes to cook, getting enthusiastic about an idea, going out and spending lots of money on good ingredients and then when you cook it things just don’t click, or you find out the hard way that your idea wasn’t quite good enough. Luckily this doesn’t happen too often, and I’m generally happyish with the finished result. But a couple of weeks ago I had a disaster with a langoustine and john dory recipe. Everything seemed like it would be amazing in my head, but although the finished dish was tasty it just wasn’t a complete dish, and still needed a lot of work before it   could grace these pages. To make things worse, the photos of the finished ‘dish’ were pretty awful too, so a failure all round. Still, I will learn from it, but hopefully next time my mistakes won’t be so damn expensive! 

Thankfully everything came together fine on this occasion, and I actually have a finished recipe to share. This one is very safe, using tried and tested combinations that just taste good together. Duck with something sweet tasting, an irony vegetable and some garlicky potatoes is always a winner. The only things to be concerned about when cooking this are the timings. You want the duck to be a little bit pink (which in this instance mine was, just), the potatoes to the soft in the middle and the radicchio and broccoli to just have some bite. Most things can be prepared hours in advance too, so this is ideal if hosting for a number of people. 

A quick word on the Pommes Anna. To be honest I didn’t really know what these were up until a couple of months ago when I saw them on a Michel Roux Jr programme. They’re a bit like a gratin or other vegetable stack, but pretty and individual. The layers of duck fat, leek, garlic and thyme give the cooked potatoes a beautiful richness that goes perfectly with the rest of the dish. 

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

1 free range duck crown, trimmings reserved for the sauce

Salt and pepper

20g butter

For the Pommes Anna:

2 large floury potatoes such as maris piper

1 leek, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

10 sprigs thyme, leaves picked

30g butter

6 tbsp duck fat

Salt and pepper

For the braised radicchio:

1 medium radicchio, heart removed and leaves sliced finely

5 slices smoked pancetta, finely chopped

8 dates, stones removed and finely chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

1 shallot, finely chopped

5 sprigs thyme, leaves picked

1 tbsp caster sugar

50g butter

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the sauce:

Trimmings and bones from the duck, as many as you can get. Excess fat removed.

1 shallot, finely chopped

1 leek, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, crushed

5 sprigs thyme

1 bay leaf

1 large glass white wine

500ml chicken stock

20g butter

1 tsp pink peppercorns

Salt and pepper

For the broccoli:

4 pieces of tender-stem broccoli, trimmed

20g butter

Salt and pepper

To finish:

Baby red sorrel leaves

Turn the oven to 190ºC Fan.

First make the Pommes Anna. Heat up a medium frying pan to a moderate temperature. Melt the butter, then add the chopped leeks, garlic and thyme. Season and cook gently for about 10 minutes, or until very tender. Take off the heat. Wash and peel the potatoes, then slice them vertically very thinly, so that they are almost translucent. Using a small round cutter, cut identical circles in these slices, discarding the edges or saving for bubble and squeak. Put a sheet of greaseproof paper onto a baking tray. Put one cylinder of potato on first, then spread a little duck fat on top. Spoon a little of the leek mixture on top of this and season well. Repeat this process until the stack is about 10 potato pieces high, then top with more duck fat, seasoning and a sprinkle of thyme. Repeat so that you have two stacks of potato. Spoon the rest of the duck fat around the potatoes on the baking sheet. Put in the oven for about 40 minutes, turning to temperature down to 160ºC half way through the cooking.

While the potatoes are in the oven make the sauce. Heat a large skillet to a high heat and add the olive oil. When hot, season the duck trimmings and bones and sear on all sides until very well browned. Add the leek, shallot, garlic and thyme and caramelise well. Pour in the white wine and allow to reduce by half, then add the bay leaf, stock and a little more seasoning and mix well. Reduce the liquid again until only about 175ml remains, about 25 minutes, then strain into a small saucepan. Set aside for finishing later. 

As the sauce is reducing, make the braised radicchio. Heat a large frying pan to a medium heat and add half of the butter and a splash of oil. When hot add the chopped pancetta and cook for 7-8 minutes until starting to crisp. Add the shallot, garlic, thyme and seasoning and cook for another 3-4 minutes until tender. Now add the dates and sugar and stir the mixture well. Cook for another couple of minutes then remove from the heat for finishing later. 

Cook the duck when the potatoes have about ten minutes left to cook (although the Pommes Anna can be left in a warm oven for a few minutes until ready). Dry the duck breasts well with kitchen paper then season all over. Place skin side down in a dry, cold, non-stick pan and set the heat to medium-high. Cook for 4-5 minutes on the skin side, until the fat is well rendered and crisp. At this point put the butter in the pan and turn the duck over. Cook for another 2-3 minutes, touching with your finger occasionally to judge the cooking like you would a steak. Baste the top of the duck with the fat as you go. When cooked, remove to a board to rest for 5-6 minutes. 

While the duck is resting finish the other elements off at the same time. 

Drain most of the fat from the duck pan, but don’t clean, then put straight back onto a medium heat with the butter and a splash of water for the broccoli. When melted add the trimmed broccoli and seasoning and cook for 3-4 minutes, tossing occasionally. 

To finish off the radicchio, heat up the bacon and date mixture with the other half of the butter. When hot add the sliced radicchio and stir to combine well. Taste and adjust the seasonings so that the right balance of sweet and salty is achieved. 

Reheat the sauce gently and add the pink peppercorns and the butter. Stir well to combine and be careful not to boil, you just want it to come to heat.

Carve your duck into 3 diagonal slices and you are ready to plate up. 

First position the potato stack to the plate, then add three tablespoons of the radicchio mixture. Place one slice of duck on each mound. Top with the broccoli and spoon over the sauce. Finally scatter over some of the baby sorrel leaves.