Weekend food with Darina Allen

EVERY year I take the Ballymaloe Cookery School teachers on a skite to London to eat, drink and be very merry all in the way of research.

We keep our eyes and ears open for new trends and tasty bites to incorporate into our repertoire and pass on to the students who come to the school.

On Friday afternoon I arrived a little earlier than some of the others and headed for Shoreditch, a really happening area in East London to check out the über cool Rochelle Canteen, a quirky gem in the converted bike shed of a Victorian school.

Just missed lunch, but picked up some tantalisingly delicious sounding menus.

Like Brooklyn and Harlem in New York, the Shoreditch/Whitechapel area is all about galvanise and graffiti, recycled building materials, distressed furniture, old china and dynamic street art, all impossibly chic.

Just around the corner on Calvert Avenue, I found Leila’s, one of my favourite cafés and grocery shops, with an achingly stylish semi-open kitchen, a wooden plate rack, rusty galvanise counter, zinc topped tables, old French terracotta bowls and a blackboard.

The menu is short and minimalist — toast and jam, fried eggs with sage leaves, puy lentil and courgette soup. I had a little feast — an eclectic mix, a terracotta bowl of Salmorejo with chopped hard boiled egg, strips of Serrano ham and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, a bowl of fresh cherries, a gorgeous brownie on a board with a knife so I could cut it into a million little pieces and nibble it in guilty bites with a cup of Robert Wilson Ceylon tea.

Sated, I then wandered into the beautiful grocery shop next door and bought some of the tea, a bag of squashed peaches and fantastic cheese.

My next stop was Labor and Wait — a shop that is unquestionably my favourite retail experience.

No, it doesn’t sell clothes or sexy lingerie, it sells the sort of merchandise that you haven’t seen for years — Stanley flasks, Guernsey jumpers, vintage kitchen ware, Sussex trugs, enamel pie dishes, zinc dustpans, heavy drill apron s… and they ship.

It’s only a couple of minutes’ walk from The Albion, Terence Conran’s latest venture, a clever combination of hotel, café and food shop. On a fine day, visit the stylish rooftop bar and grill with views from Canary Wharf to the Gherkin and Barbican in the distance.

I was bound for Brawn on the corner of Columbia Road in Bethnal Green to meet the BCS team. The menu is divided into Taste Ticklers, Pig, Plancha Cold, Slow Cook, Pudding and Cheese — don’t miss the wobbly Panna Cotta with cherries and the crepes with salted butter caramel. Great atmosphere, lots of sharing plates, very au courant.

Caramelised Chicory with Crozier Blue Cheese and Caramelised Walnuts

This is my version of one the tapas we ate at José — they used Picos Blue cheese.

Serves 6

6 heads of chicory (tightly closed with no trace of green)

2 pints (1.1L) water

1 tsp sugar

2 tsp salt

Good squeeze of lemon juice

Butter

4-6 ozs (110-175g) Crozier Blue crumbed

3½ oz (100g) fresh walnuts, halves

3ozs (75g) sugar

Pinch of salt

First cook the chicory. Remove a thin slice from the root end of each chicory. Remove the centre root with the tip of a sharp knife if you find it too bitter. Bring the water to the boil, add salt, sugar and a good squeeze of lemon juice.

Add the chicory and cook for about 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until almost or completely tender, depending on how you intend to finish the cooking. Remove the chicory when it is tender and a knife tip will pierce the root end without resistance. Drain well and squeeze out all excess water (I do this in a clean T-towel).

When cool, cut each chicory into four, lengthwise. Melt the butter in a sauté pan, cook the chicory in a single layer on a low heat until caramelised on all sides, turning when necessary. Meanwhile, caramelise the walnuts.

Sprinkle the sugar in an even layer on a heavy bottom pan over a medium heat. Spread the walnuts evenly over the sugar, cook over a low heat until the sugar first melts and then caramelises. Tilt the pan to coat the walnuts in caramel, careful not to get burnt.

Turn out immediately onto a non-stick silpat mat or an oiled baking tray. Separate the caramelised nuts immediately with two oiled forks and allow to get cold.

To serve: Arrange three pieces of chicory on a hot plate. Scatter some crumbled Crozier Blue cheese on top. Pop under the grill for a minute or two: the cheese should be slightly melting, add a few coarsely chopped caramelised walnuts — serve immediately.

Salmorejo with Hard-Boiled Egg and Serrano

Serves 6

1 clove of garlic crushed

800g (1lb 7 ½ oz) ripe red tomatoes cut into quarters

50g (2oz) white bread, crust removed and cut into cubes

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1-2 tbsp red wine vinegar — we use Forum

Salt, pepper, and sugar

To Serve:

2 hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped

75g (3oz) strips of Serrano ham cut into slivers

Extra virgin olive oil

Flat parsley

Shallow terracotta bowls

Place the garlic, tomatoes, bread, olive oil and 1 tablespoon of vinegar into a food processor — season with salt, pepper and sugar.

Whizz until well blended but still slightly coarse.

Taste. You may need to add more vinegar, depending on the sweetness of the tomatoes.

Chill well. If the mixture is too thick, add a little water, but not too much. Serve in chilled shallow terracotta bowls with a couple of tablespoons of chopped hard boiled egg and slivers of Serrano ham in the centre of each. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil. Eat with lots of fresh, crusty bread.

Baked Plaice or Lemon Sole with Samphire, Capers and Brown Butter

Serves 4

Plaice and lemon sole are at their best in summer and early autumn. Make this recipe while marsh samphire is in season.

4 baby plaice in season

110g (4oz) Marsh samphire

75g (3oz) butter

1–1½oz (25-35g) capers

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5.

Turn the fish on its side and remove the head. Wash the fish and clean the slit very thoroughly. With a sharp knife, cut through the skin right round the fish, just where the ‘fringe’ meets the flesh. Be careful to cut neatly and to cross the side cuts at the tail or it will be difficult to remove the skin later on.

Sprinkle the fish with salt and freshly-ground pepper and lay them in 1cm (½ inch) of water in a shallow baking tin. Bake in a moderately hot oven for 20-30 minutes according to the size of the fish. The water should have just evaporated as the fish is cooked. Check to see whether the fish is cooked by lifting the flesh from the bone at the head; it should lift off the bone easily and be quite white with no trace of pink.

Meanwhile, wash the samphire under running water. Cook the samphire in boiling water for 3-4 minutes, drain, keep warm.

When the plaice is cooked, transfer to individual hot plates. Lift off the skin.

Put a few fronds of samphire on top of each fish. Heat the butter in a saucepan on a high heat, when it foams and turns golden, add the drained capers, allow to sizzle for a minute or two. Spoon the brown butter and crispy capers over the samphire and fish. Serve immediately.

Panna Cotta with Grappa and Cherries

Inspired by Rose Gray’s recipe from the River Café.

Serves 8-10

1.2 litres (2 pints) double cream

2 vanilla pods

Thinly pared rind of 2 lemons

3 gelatine leaves

150 ml (5 fl oz) cold milk

150 g (5 oz) icing sugar

120 ml (4 fl oz) grappa, plus extra to serve

2 punnets of fresh cherries

8-10 moulds, 200 ml (7 fl oz) in size

Pour 900 ml (1½ pints) of the cream into a pan; add the vanilla pods and lemon rind, bring to the boil, then simmer until reduced by one-third. Remove the cooked lemon rind and keep to one side. Remove the vanilla pods and scrape the softened insides into the cream.

Soak the gelatine in the milk for about 15 minutes or until soft.

Remove the gelatine, heat the milk until boiling, then return the gelatine to the milk and stir until dissolved.

Pour the milk and gelatine mixture into the hot cream through a sieve, stir, then leave to cool.

Lightly whip the remaining cream with the icing sugar, fold in the cooled, cooked cream, then add the grappa.

Place a piece of cooked lemon rind in each of the moulds, pour in the cream mixture to two thirds full and allow to set in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Turn out on to dessert plates and serve with fresh cherries and a tablespoon of grappa poured over the top.

Hot tips

London Food Market Guide — Flynn Hall is the person to contact if you’d like a brilliant guided tour of the Bermondsey Market — highly recommended 0044-7772875474.

The Cliff Bar Academy is Ireland’s only bespoke bartender school of its kind that offers courses to become a professional bartender in a short period of time. Contact Richard Linden on 01-6383939 or email: [e-mail]

A Taste of West Cork Food Festival takes place in Skibbereen, West Cork from Saturday, September 10, to Sunday, September 18. Highlights include Island Hopping with starters and dinner on Heir and Sherkin Islands on the MV Mystic Water. Then back to Casey’s Baltimore for dessert and music. Very limited numbers so contact 086-3639856. West Cork locals will also get a chance to vote for their favourite foods, producers and marketing. See www.atasteofwestcork.com

Taste Council — Food Summer School: The Taste Council, in association with Bord Bia, will host the first national symposium on the current and future contribution of the artisan and the speciality food producer to the Irish economy on Tuesday next at The Brooklodge Hotel, Macreddin Village, Co Wicklow. To book accommodation, call 0402-36444 or email [e-mail]