Jackie and I are still on vacation, mostly in London, where we're filling up on theater, opera and art. And trying not to fill up too gluttonously at dinner time. So I haven't been cooking. As usual, here are a few things we've eaten that might lend themselves to home cooking.
Some are very simple: One day, we had booked both a matinee and an evening theater. There wasn't time to return to our hotel between shows, but we were right near The Delaunay, which is always a nice place for something to eat and drink any time from breakfast to late at night. Jackie, properly, had a pot of tea and an amazing coffee-rum layer cake, but I had a cocktail and a savory snack: The restaurant's Mitteleuropa variation on Welsh rarebit. The cheese sauce was nothing revolutionary, though it was delicious; what made this something worth filing away for future reference was the garnish of sweetish dill pickle spears, which seemed such a natural pairing that I wondered whether I'd ever make a plain rarebit again. I will of course, but I'll also do the pickle variation every now and again.
At Ed Wilson's Brawn our meal started with a snack that I'll make my poor version of as soon as appropriate peppers come to the farmers' market: Fried or grilled peppers, each draped with an oil-packed anchovy. The catch is that these were not just any anchovies: they were carefully fished, prepared and packed in Cantabria, Spain. The brand is Don Bocarte; they're hard, but not impossible, to find in the USA, and they're expensive. But they're worth hunting and paying for if you're going to eat them unadorned like this. Mr. Wilson uses mild green Italian peppers called friggitelli, but shishito or Padrón peppers would be excellent.
We'd never had a tomato risotto before our dinner at the new Covent Garden outpost of our pal Angela Hartnett's Café Murano - and we've eaten, probably, hundreds of risottos at home and in restaurants. For some reason, the notion seemed odd to me, and I still can't quite believe what a good dish it was. The trick - apart from good ingredients and sterling technique - lies in that crucial final stage of beating in butter and cheese, which softens the acidity of the tomatoes and balances their sweetness. This risotto was scented with basil; not an unexpected flavor, but a perfect one.
There were lots of other dishes at which I might have a stab, but these three won't be that much of a strain to emulate, even if my versions don't rise to the level of the originals.
We'll be home soon, and should be back in the kitchen in time for next week's Cooking Off the Cuff.
