Friday Find: Quail Otter Face Egg Cup

The second I saw these egg cups in Liberty's window, it was love. Look at it: isn't it just the most daft yet glorious vessel you've ever seen? It's an otter egg cup for pete's sake. And a stern looking otter at that. These ceramic beauties by Quail also come in badger, duck, Scottie dog and other random beasts. Fellow blogger Liberty London Girl snapped the full line up here:

http://tweetphoto.com/39177280


£10.95 each from Liberty of London and online at www.liberty.co.uk.

And as Bank Holiday bonus, here's a link to some otters holding hands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno

Recipe: Lambs' kidneys with mustard and cream

On a blustery day like today, thoughts turn to toast. And what to put on it. A thick wedge of good sourdough is the foundation stone of this simple supper from Gill Meller, head chef at River Cottage's Cookery School in Devon...

When River Cottage invited me to be a guinea pig for its new Every Day Cookery Course, I was Devon-bound faster than you can say 'the 7.02 from Waterloo.' Nestled in a deep valley on the Devon/Dorset border (my ears popped on the journey home), with sparrowhawks swooping overhead, River Cottage HQ is every bit the bucolic pocket of industry that it looks like on the telly...

gratuitous yurt pic

The new four-day course uses recipes from the excellent River Cottage Every Day and covers key basics and cookery skills - meat, fish, vegetables and bread/baking. In a morning alone we made a summer tart, mackerel fillets with salsa verde, stuffed lambs' breast, the lambs' kidneys on toast, and strong white loaves.  The first course (in September) sold out in just two days, but there are further dates in November, December and January. It costs an eye-watering £850 but if you've got the money, you'll learn cooking skills here that will last a lifetime. Visit www.rivercottage.net/ for dates and more info.

In the meantime, if you want a thrifty but luxurious supper for an August-masquerading-as-October evening, here's Gill's lambs' kidneys on toast with mustard and cream. Hubba hubba.

Lambs' kidneys with mustard and cream

4 fresh lambs' kidneys, halved and cored
2 heaped tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 glass white wine
200ml cream
Handful fresh flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper
Good trickle of olive oi

Two slices of hot buttered toast, to serve.

Cut each cored kidney half in half again. You will now have 16 pieces. Place a medium-sized frying pan on a high heat. Lightly season the kidneys with salt and pepper. Add a good trickle of olive oil to the pan, and when it starts to smoke add the kidneys. Don't stir them about initially - let them get some colour on them. After thirty seconds start to turn them over.
20 seconds later, add the white wine and mustard. Stir well with a wooden spoon and keep moving the kidneys about. When the wine has reduced by 2/3 add the cream and parsley. Keep stirring to reduce the sace.
When the sauce has reached a nice, thick consistency remove the pan from the heat and pile the sauce and kidneys onto the toast.

Serve with a green salad.

Food Debate postponed

Due to unforseen circumstances, the Food Debate on 10th September at the Westbridge Battersea, has been postponed. A new date will be announced soon.

Friday Find: I Love London lunchbox

Readers, I have a bad habit. Some of you may share it - the compulsion to throw my disposable (and sometimes indisposable) income in the direction of superfluous kitchen items. London enables this addiction - from Columbia Road to Ladbroke Grove there are emporiums of domestic loveliness lurking all over the city. So I'm channeling this addiction into a new series - Friday Finds. Cool, quirky and useful food finds from around the smoke.

First up is the adorable plastic I Love London lunchbox above from Constructive Lives, a homewares store on the corner of Portobello Road and Golborne Road in W10. The typeface and the 60s-y illustrations put an instant smile on my face - the artist isn't credited, but the illustrations reminded me  of the sketches in a series of children's books about a bear called Albert who lived in a flat in Marylebone. If someone can tell me who the illustrator is, or even that I didn't dream the ursine bachelor Albert, I'd be very grateful!

You can't miss the shop - just look for the place that looks like an inside-out Rubicks cube...

Check back here next Friday for another find!

Wabi, Horsham

Back in May, chipper ex-Nobu chef Scott Hallsworth appeared in our test kitchen armed with gleaming sushi knives and a coolbox filled with foie gras, duck, scallops and edible flowers. The results were extraordinary. The entire office, no strangers to a free feed, were in raptures over Scott's tea-smoked duck, quail kara-age and beef tataki with onion ponzu and garlic chips.

Quail kara-age

                                                          

The reason for Scott's visit was to preview some dishes from his new Japanese restaurant Wabi, a glam, spenny affair boasting a bar with a water wall, and private dining rooms.

And where is this place? Mayfair? Nope. Soho? No. Put away your Oyster and get out your Young Person's Railcard/Network card/OAP discount* - we're heading to sleepy Horsham, west Sussex.

Wabi-Sabi apparently means understated elegance in Japanese. Not sure that's true of the bling downstairs bar and sushi counter with that are-we-in-Vegas-or-Sussex water wall but it's certainly true of the refined upstairs restaurant area, which includes private rooms. some of which are furnished with low tables and tatami mats for cross-legged dining fun.

The small plates trend has clearly hit the home counties - it's all about the sharey bits at Wabi. The waitress recommended 7-9 dishes between two, which given that plates are typically around the £7-£10 mark adds up to a handsome sum before you've even glanced at the wine list. Still, if you've got deep pockets and a penchant for superlative Japanese food there are few better places to splash out...

Salmon and avocado tartare was a delight - teeny dice of spankingly fresh salmon and firm avo with a tangy truffle ponzu dressing and crispy rice bits (senbei, not Krispies). Squid kara-age was every bit as delicious as the quail version we'd tried in London. This traditional Japanese comfort food - white meat (or seafood) marinaded and then deep-fried in a peppery batter is KFC as made by angels. Toban yaki - beef cooked on a ceramic plate and sent to the table spitting and sizzling - was butter-soft with a rich, sweet sauce. An organic salad of various bitter leaves was the only low note. There was a lump of watery apple and ginger dressing sat under the salad - maybe that's on purpose but it could've done with a good toss. So to speak.

Much better were the silky tranches of tea-smoked duck tataki, served with a tart ginger amazu. And black cod, served here with a spicy miso and a a green chilli sauce, was every bit as richly crusted and flaky as its Nobu namesake. Sushi comes at the end of the meal, and though we were beginning to hit the pain barrier of fullness, we pushed on through with a platter of spicy scallop maki, coated in tempura crumbs. Without doubt the best sushi roll I've eaten in a long, long time.

It's flashy, sure and the location feels a bit incongruous - but this is clearly cooking done with love - love for the ingredients, love of the dishes, love of Japan. Scott Halsworth is an incredibly talented chef and I hope Wabi goes the distance.

Wabi, 38 East Street, West Sussex, RH12 1HL.
Wabi.co.uk

*delete as appropriate
[Pinch of Salt was a guest of Wabi]

Picnic Concerts winner...

And the tickets to see loveable jazz moppet Jamie Cullum go to...

Stine!

There were some great entries, but the tickets go to Stine for this evocative description which made me want to board the next plane to Oslo, armed solely with passport and picnic basket:

"My perfect picnic spot is Hvervenbukta in Oslo. It's an area by a fjord where everyone can have a small bay each. A late June evening picnic there is my idea of heaven: starting off with a swim, cooling the drinks in the water, lapping waves, 24 hour daylight and the illusion that there is no one else around for miles (even if they're behind the next headland)."


Stine - please drop me a line on pinchofsaltlondon (at) googlemail.com asap...


Check back here soon for more competitions and giveaways. 

Another picnic concerts competition!

Congratulations to George, who won the Summer Proms tickets last week with his spirited ode to the picnic basket: 'out with the wicker, in with the edible!' G - I hope you enjoyed the concerts.

If you didn't win, don't despair - I've got another pair of tickets to the Kenwood House Summer Proms up for grabs, courtesy of yummy puds company Frü. You could win the chance to see loveable jazzster and husband de Dahl, Jamie Cullum in action this Saturday 14th August...

Loll on the grass, scoffing your goody bag of Frü puds (including Key Lime pies and Mango & Passionfruit mini cheesecakes) and supping your beverage of choice, while enjoying those dulcet Cullum tones and Kenwood House's glorious views across London.

To enter, answer the following question in the comments section below BY 12pm this Thursday 12th...

Where is your perfect picnic spot, and why?

Picnic Concerts competition

It's giveaway time again dearest readers. This time, I've got a pair of tickets to the Summer Proms at Kenwood House up for grabs, courtesy of top pudding types Frü...

If you fancy spending this Saturday evening (7th August) lolling on the lawns of glorious Kenwood House on Hampstead Heath, listening to The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra performing Vivaldi's Four Seasons, while eating lots of yummy Frü puds all you need to do is answer the following question:

What would you pack for a perfect picnic?

Please write your entries in the comments section below this post. The closing date is this Thursday 5th August at 12pm.

For more info on the concerts visit http://www.picnicconcerts.com/
For more info on Frü visit http://www.frupuds.com/