Darina Allen: Cutting-edge recipes from London's burgeoning new food scene

Canteen’s Ribollita: A delicious, comforting meal in a bowl, make a big pot as it reheats brilliantly.

The London food scene is insane at present. Despite the challenging climate over there, as well as here in Ireland for the restaurant industry, new places continue to open, the choice is mesmerising, and the standards seem to continue to rise and rise.

I spent a couple of days whizzing around London recently and didn't miss a meal slot. The raison d'etre for the trip was to attend a lunch to celebrate 10 years of Portland on Great Portland Street, co-owned by a past student, Daniel Morgenthau. 

The original chef, Merlin Le Bron Johnson of Michelin-starred Osip in Bruton, Somerset, came back for the day to cook up a delicious lunch for a group of invited guests and friends of the 'farm-to-table' restaurant which now also has a Michelin star.

We were treated to the most delicious lunch. We started with six 'nibbles' including macaron of mushroom and Parmesan; crispy chicken skin, liver parfait, candied walnuts, Muscat grapes; sausage roll and clementine; smoked cods roe and crudités; Flourish Farm brassicas, smoked egg yolk emulsion, black winter truffle; heritage carrots, salsify, tunworth custard and carrot brioche, one more delicious than the next.

The main course was a game pithivier of layers of wild duck and guinea fowl encased in puff pastry crust with a delicious green pepper gravy and a salad of winter leaves including my favourite speckled Castelfranco and several types of radicchio.

Pudding was Portland trifle sprinkled with frosted pistachios and made with the first of the new season’s forced rhubarb directly from the growers in the famous Yorkshire triangle. 

Daniel served it with one of my favourite 'stickies' — a sweet Chateau de Chantegrive, Cerons, France (from 2015, the year Portland opened). It was so, so good. I had several helpings.

Can you imagine that I went for dinner after that to another restaurant you need to know about — Mountain, located at 16-18 Beak Street. 

Welshman Tomos Parry and his team cook up delicious simple dishes with superb ingredients. 

I loved having a table near the open kitchen, where I could watch the chefs cooking over fire in both a wood-burning oven and conventionally. It was just like having a personal cooking class.

We loved the crunchy pumpkin and sage leaf fritters in the lightest tempura batter. All were delicious, but the mutton chops blew me away. An almost-forgotten flavour — go there especially to taste them. 

There's a variety of unusual homemade ice creams, including jalapeño and honey, to clear the palate, or artisan cheeses in perfect condition if you'd rather.

My non-foodie highlight was a trip to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to see the Vincent van Gogh exhibition, I made sure to arrive early and was third in the queue, so managed to get close to the extraordinary paintings. 

I'm so grateful and moved to see his Self-Portrait, Starry Night over the Rhône, Irises, Sunflowers, and The Poet's Garden in real life.

Lunch that day was at Canteen, located at 310 Portobello Road which opened its doors in November last. 

They don't take bookings, but it was packed on a grey and drizzly Wednesday. The vibrant young team, with no one looking a day over 25, were properly impressive, the menu hopelessly tempting.

Once again, the food was super-fresh and super-delicious.

We loved the starter salad of radicchio (two types), slivers of Pecorino and toasted walnuts, pomegranate seeds and another of shaved fennel, blood orange and mint.

We also had to taste the gutsy ribollita drizzled with Fèlsina extra virgin olive oil, a meal in itself, and the fettuccini ragu dusted with Parmesan.

For the main course, we shared a butterflied mackerel with agretti (monk’s beard) and anchoïade, a delicious combination. I can't wait to get some Ballycotton summer mackerel to try that inspired dish.

Despite being totally full, I had to try a quenelle of the lightest and most exquisite chocolate mousse I've ever tasted. 

You might have to make a detour to taste that too. Also very good wine choices included a selection of low and alcohol-free beverages and cocktails.

While I was there, I met five past students, two of whom — Beth O’Brien and George Williams — are planning to open a restaurant, The Fat Badger, upstairs over Canteen in a few weeks’ time, so watch that space too. 

Apparently, they’re planning to do lots of pies and baked Alaska. A blast from the past, how cool does that sound?

• A special thanks to Daniel Morgenthau of Portland (portlandrestaurant.co.uk) and Jessica Filbey of Canteen (Instagram: @canteen.310) who shared recipes for our Examiner readers to enjoy.

Canteen’s Ribollita

A delicious, comforting meal in a bowl, make a big pot as it reheats brilliantly.

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 20 mins

Cooking Time

 40 mins

Total Time

 60 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• 2 carrots, 180g approx.

• 1 heart of celery, 80g approx.

• 1 red onion, 175g approx.

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• 2 cloves garlic

• a few sprigs rosemary

• a few sprigs sage

• a few sprigs thyme

• 1 bay leaf

• 400g tinned tomatoes

• 1 big bunch Cavolo Nero (kale)

• 800g cooked borlotti beans

• 500ml chicken stock

• ½ sourdough loaf

• extra virgin olive oil

• Parmesan to finish

Method

1. Chop the carrots, celery heart and red onions finely and fry in a heavy based pan with a good glug of olive oil until soft. Season with salt and pepper. Chop the garlic and herbs and add this to the sofrito mixture and fry for another 2 minutes.

2. Break up the tinned tomatoes with your hands and add to the base, cooking for a further 5 minutes.

3. Shred the Cavolo Nero from its stalks, roughly chop and add to the base, fry for a further 4 minutes.

4. Take half the borlotti and blitz in a food processor until smooth. Add the blitzed beans and the whole borlotti beans to the base.

5. Heat the chicken stock and add to the vegetables, add the bay leaf and season again to taste with salt and pepper.

6. Take the crusts off the sourdough loaf and slice.

7. Place the slices over the top of the soup, add a good glug of oil all over and simmer for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it doesn’t catch on the bottom, until the cavolo is soft and the bread has soaked up the soup.

8. Stir the bread through the soup until it is broken up.

9. Serve with another good glug of oil and a generous sprinkling of Parmesan.

Canteen’s Chocolate Mousse with Olive Oil & Sea Salt

This was truly the lightest, silkiest and most delicious chocolate mousse I ever ate. Thank you to Jessica Filbey at Canteen for sharing the recipe but do go and taste the original.

Servings

10

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• 400g good quality dark chocolate (Callebaut 54%)

• 210g good quality extra virgin olive oil

• 230g egg yolks with 90g caster sugar

• 200g cream

• 360g egg whites with 60g caster sugar

• Pinch Maldon sea salt

Method

1. Melt the chocolate over a bain-marie and stir in the olive oil.

2. Whisk the egg yolks and 90g caster sugar until pale and very thick.

3. While this is happening, whisk the double cream by hand until very soft peaks form.

4. Carefully fold the whisked egg yolks into the chocolate and oil mixture in three increments, until incorporated.

5. Take two large spoons of the chocolate mixture and fold it into the whipped double cream. Set this aside.

6. Whisk the egg whites, 60g caster sugar and the salt, until firm peaks form. In thee increments, fold in the whipped egg whites to the chocolatey, egg yolk mixture until incorporated. Finally fold in the double cream. Pour into a large serving bowl and put in the fridge to set for a few hours.

7. Scoop and serve with a drizzle of your finest olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.

Portland's Rhubarb Trifle

Oh, my goodness, this was so irresistible, I couldn’t help myself, I had three helpings… it takes time to make but is so worth it!

Servings

8

Course

 Dessert

Ingredients

• Components:

• Rhubarb jelly

• Genoise sponge discs

• Grand Marnier syrup

• Vanilla custard

• Rhubarb compote

• Syllabub

• Frosted pistachios

• orange zest

• For the rhubarb jelly:

• zest of 1 orange

• zest of 1 lemon

• 1 vanilla pod, scraped

• 120g strawberries, chopped

• 600g rhubarb, chopped

• 75g elderflower cordial, diluted

• 120ml dessert/sweet wine

• 120ml water

• 15g grenadine

• 150g caster sugar

• For the Genoise sponge:

• 20g milk

• 40g butter

• 6 eggs

• 180g caster sugar

• 180g plain flour (sieved)

• For the Grand Marnier syrup:

• 50g Grand Marnier

• 100g water

• 75g sugar

• For the vanilla custard:

• 750g double cream

• 2 vanilla pods

• 225g egg yolk

• 130g caster sugar

• 15g cornflour

• For the rhubarb compote:

• 325g roughly chopped rhubarb

• 50g butter

• 75g sugar

• 1 x vanilla pods

• 400g nicely diced rhubarb

• For the syllabub:

• 325g cream

• juice of ½ orange

• 75g sherry

• 30g Grand Marnier

• 75g sugar

• For the frosted pistachios:

• 300g caster sugar

• 75g water

• 2g ground cardamom

• 175g green pistachio

Method

1. For the rhubarb jelly:

2. Place all the ingredients in a metal bowl and cover with a lid. Place the bowl on top of a pan of gently simmering water and cook for around 1 hour until all the liquids have been released and the rhubarb is very soft. Strain off the liquid by pushing through a fine sieve. Measure the liquid and add 4 leaves of bloomed gelatine per 1 litre of boiled liquid to set the jelly.

3. For the Genoise sponge:

4. Firstly, gently melt the milk and butter together. Meanwhile whip together the eggs and sugar (ideally in a stand mixer) until light and fluffy. Gently fold the flour into the egg mixture bit by bit, followed by the milk/butter. Transfer the mixture to a baking parchment lined baking tray and spread out evenly to around 2cm thick. Bake at 170°C/gas 3 for around 14 minutes until cooked through.

5. For the Grand Marnier syrup:

6. Place ingredients into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Chill

7. For the vanilla custard:

8. Place the cream in a saucepan, scrape out the vanilla seeds and add to the pan along with the pods. Bring to the boil. Separately whisk together the egg yolk, sugar and corn flour until light in colour. Once the cream has boiled pour over the egg yolks and whisk well together. Return to the pan and cook out to 83°C whilst whisking constantly. Once cooked pass through a fine sieve and chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours and then whisk again.

9. For the rhubarb compote:

10. Place everything except the diced rhubarb into a saucepan, cook until soft and blend in a blender until smooth.

11. Place the purée into a pan and add the diced rhubarb, cook gently on a low heat until the diced rhubarb is just cooked. Chill.

12. For the syllabub:

13. Whisk the cream to a stiff peak and gently fold in the remaining ingredients.

14. For the frosted pistachios:

15. Place the sugar and water into a saucepan, bring to the boil and reduce by half until just starting to change colour. Take off the heat and throw in the ground cardamom and pistachios and keep stirring until the sugar crystalises. Scrape out the pan onto baking paper and let cool.

16. To build the trifle:

17. Take your preferred trifle bowl and pour in a layer of the rhubarb jelly until it comes one-fifth of the way up the side of the glass. Place in the fridge until completely set (ideally overnight).

18. Cut out the genoise sponge into discs the same circumference as your trifle bowl. Place this on top of the set sponge (it should be the same thickness as the jelly). Generously spoon over the Grand Marnier syrup until the sponge is thoroughly soaked. Now spoon over the custard and spread out, again it should be the same thickness as the previous two layers. You may not need it all. Next repeat the process with the rhubarb compote and then add a generous dollop of the syllabub. Lastly, sprinkle over a liberal amount of frosted pistachios and finish with a few gratings of orange zest.

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