Sourdough Loaf

This weekend has been jammed packed with all kinds of baking but this baby started last Sunday at 9pm. Why did it take so long I hear you cry, well this is a sourdough bread which requires a natural yeast to be grown in advance. Most people keep their sourdough constantly on the grow but I let my last one fall in to disrepute so I started a new one last Sunday courtesy of my friend Stephen Chisholm's blog, and in fact this sourdough starter has been my best yet, you can find Steve's information here: http://bakersdiet.wordpress.com/sourdough-info-2/. This loaf is fairly simplified and easy to knock up, I love it and I am sure you will too.

Ingredients

470g Bread Flour
65 g Rye Flour
200g White sourdough starter 100% Hydration
300g Water
15g Salt

Method

1. Mix all ingredients except the salt in a large mixing bowl.

2. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and leave at room temperature for 30 minutes (autolyze).

3. Add salt.

4. Knead the dough by hand for a 8 minutes.

5. Place the dough in the oiled bowl again, cover with a wet towel and leave at room temperature for 2 hours.

6. Stretch and fold the dough about 2-3 times.

7. Shape the dough into a round and place it in a flour-dusted bowl.

8. Cover the bowl and leave for 2 hours.

9. Preheat the oven to 240c degrees.

10. Place the baking sheet in the oven, quickly spray the edges of the oven with water, this will help create a good crust.

11. Bake for 35 minutes.

And you are done, get ready to enjoy :)

Thanks for reading as always

Will

Croissants

What can I say that picture above doesn't say, for me I have a reached a milestone this weekend in my baking with the above croissants. I say I have a reached a milestone as I would have never have thought i'd been able to produce something like the above patisserie before until this weekend and I found this recipe online by Top with Cinnamon. The recipe is absolutely fantastic and makes the production of croissants so damn easy. I have a long long love affair with croissants, in fact as crazy as it sounds I remember my very first one. I was 7 years of age and for our first ever summer holiday our parents were taking us to Pontins in Prestatyn North Wales. We had gotten a deal if I remember with Slattery's bus company that took us from Limerick city to Pembroke in South Wales arriving in the middle of the night. As part of the journey from Pembroke to Prestatyn we stopped in a roadside services, "Wow" I thought this was a magical oasis, video games, and breakfast at 3am. Having never experienced this before I asked my dad for one of the large round looking things, of which he informed me was a croissant. I thought oh man this is so nice and croissants became my obsession for such a long time after and they still are to this day. Nowadays however croissants are everywhere, but in the most part they are pretty poor, this recipe however is not, I hope you make these and enjoy! I owe Izy Hossack everything for her adapted recipe

Ingredients 

250 ml cold milk 

125 ml boiling water

1 tbsp active dry yeast

50 g caster sugar

500 g plain flour

1 tsp salt

250 g butter, frozen, then left at room temp. for 20-30 minutes

Method

1. Pour the milk and boiling water into a large bowl. Whisk in the yeast and sugar this will start to froth up after to 5 minutes. Dont worry if it does not froth up yeast should still do its work. Now add your flour and salt, bringing together in to a fairly dry looking ball.





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2. Refrigerate your dough for 1 hour. 

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3. With 30 minutes before your dough is due to come out of the fridge grate your frozen butter on to a piece of cling film, shape into a rectangle about 20cm in length. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
4. Remove your dough from the fridge, you will notice that the dough has proved and risen. Roll in to a rectangle about 60cm in length, and 15cm wide. Now tip your butter on to the centre of the dough, folding in 2/3 over the butter and sealing the edges.


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5. Rotate the dough 90 degrees, use the roiling pin to make regular indentations in the dough.

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6. Roll into a 60cm x 15cm rectangle.

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7. Fold into thirds like an envelope. Wrap the dough in cling film, and refrigerate for 1 hour.  (steps 8+9 = ‘one turn’ of the dough)
8. Remove the dough from the fridge, unwrap and complete 1 turn (i.e. repeat steps 8 + 9). Re-wrap in the cling film, refrigerate for 1 hour.
9. Repeat step 10, two more times, so you have done a total of 4 turns.
10. Cut the dough into thirds. Wrap cling film and refrigerate for 8-12 hours.
11. Remove one piece of dough from the fridge, unwrap it, and roll out on a lightly floured surface into a 30cm x 10cm rectangle.
12. Cut into thirds, forming 3 smaller rectangles. Cut each of these rectangles in half diagonally forming 6 triangles.
13. Pull on the corners of the shortest edge, to even up the base of the triangle. Then gently stretch the dough a little
14. Cut a small slit in the base of the triangle, stretch it, then roll the dough up.
15. Place it, tip side down, onto a lined cookie sheet. Repeat with the rest of the triangles, placing them 6cm apart.
16. Cover loosely with some cling film and leave to rise in a cool place for around 2-3 hours.
17. Once ready to bake, preheat the oven to 220c degrees . Brush the croissants with beaten egg using a pastry brush and put into the oven. Immediately lower the temperature to 200c degrees, and bake for 10 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 180c degrees and bake for a further 10-15 minutes until well browned and puffy.

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18. Take out cool on wire rack, then TUCK IN cause these are amazing! 

Look at the cross section its simply fantastic:

Thanks for reading!

Will

3 Strand Braided Bread

Afternoon I recently made this braided bread for a guest post on the cooking club for Boards.ie. It could not be easier to make, it looks like Challah bread but there is no sweetness here so its perfect for sandwiches etc, or my favourite toasted with some Gooseberry preserve. I hope you make this and enjoy it, any questions give me a shout.

Ingredients:

500g strong flour

Pinch of salt

Pinch of caster sugar

1 Egg

1 Tablespoon dried fast action yeast

320 gr milk

75 gr melted butter

1 egg yolk with pinch of salt for glaze whisked 

Method

1. Heat the milk in a microwave for 1 minute or till lukewarm in pan. Take off the heat and add the yeast with pinch of sugar, whisk and allow to dissolve. The addition of sugar encourages the yeast to grow, feeding it if you like. Sieve the flour into a bowl and place pinch of salt in the opposite side of the bowl.  
2. The purpose of this is if the salt mixes with the yeast too early on it will damage the growth of the yeast later in the prove.
3. Make a well in the flour and add the milk mixture, give a quick stir then add your whisked egg. 
4. Combine the ingredients and finally adding your butter. Bring together to form a dough ball, it will be quiet sticky, this is how it should be. Place on very lightly floured counter top, literally a sprinkle. 
   
5. Knead the dough for roughly 5 - 7 minutes. As you need the dough will be come less sticky. By the time you are finished kneading you will have a smooth round ball.
   
6. Place the dough back in a large bowl, and cover with a damp cloth. Allow to prove in a warm place for 45 mins, room temperature should do or even the hot press. It should have doubled in size when you return to it. The purpose of proving is to build up the gluten proteins allowing them to react and expand with the yeast.
7. When the dough has doubled you now need to knock it back, to do this gently tap down the dough with your hand to knock back the air that has built up in the prove. Once you have knocked back the dough, weigh the dough ball cut in to 3 equal weighted smaller dough balls. 
8. With these dough balls you now need to roll in to 3 long strands with your hand all the same size and length, each strand should be about 60 cm in length. 
9. Now line up your three strand and follow this technique:
   
10. What you are looking to do is bring the left most strand to the middle of the further right two strands and then the furthest right to the middle of the furthest left strands, and so forth till you have it fully braided. Once braided chop off both ends with a knife roughly an inch. 
11. Place on a floured tray and allow to prove for a further hour in a warm place again. Pre heat oven to 240c / 230c for fan ovens 15 mins before end of prove.
12. Once doubled in size, glaze with egg glaze making sure to glaze all over to achieve maximum colour. Bake for 30 mins. Take out allow to cool and enjoy!

Thanks for reading.

Will

Avoca Scones Slight Return

I absolutely love scones, I always have loved them ever since a child when my mum would make them as a treat, they would always be gorgeous warmed with some butter. As kids it was rare to have jam in our house  ( if it was there my dad would gobble it up, the man has always loved a sneaky sandwich before bed and jam makes it all the sweeter. Plus another reason we wouldn't get jam is because I would request it for my school sandwiches, but after day or so I would get tired of jam sandwiches and my parents would find em at the bottom of my bag so that would put an end to jam)so I still find it weird putting jam on my scones. My favorite recipe for scones is currently the one from Avoca, a friend of mine Aoife told me all about her love for this recipe so I just had to try the it with a slight change of replacing double cream with natural yogurt. Here is the recipe that produces lovely fluffy scones:

Ingredients

450g self-raising flour

50g caster sugar

1 pinch of baking powder

1 pinch of salt

110g butter

1 large egg

50ml of natural yogurt

200ml of milk 

1 large egg for glaze 

1. Preheat oven to 180°C.
2. Sieve the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a large bowl.
3. With a knife, gently blend in the butter firstly, then finish by blending with your fingertips until the mixture resembles dry bread crumbs.
4. Add the egg, yogurt and enough milk to moisten.
5. Mix well until it has a soft, doughy texture, but it should not be too moist.
6. Form dough into a ball and turn out onto a floured surface.
7. Roll lightly with a rolling pin until it is 1inch [2.5 cm] thick.
8. Cut out with a round cutter and transfer to a greased baking sheet.
9. Brush the tops with beaten egg glaze.
10. Bake for 15-20 minutes until well browned.

Thank you for reading and thank you to Aoife & Avoca for this great recipe.

Enjoy with some butter whilst still warm.

Will

Summer Strawberry Tart

Who does not love Strawberries (apart from people who are allergic of course!) at this time of the year, they are absolutely everywhere, and they taste delish unlike the behemoths you find in shops in mid December that taste of nothing. I even remember having my first strawberry, I was about 10 years of age,  mum, my bro and myself were over to Sunday lunch in my aunt's house whilst my dad was over in Holland visiting family (I always think of this episode of the Simpsons when I say my dad is over in Holland). I shuddered at the prospect of eating strawberries as a kid I never liked fruit but that was about to change. Simple as you like strawberries and cream, heavenly I thought and still to this day there isn't a better combination as a dessert. So when I got home to Limerick on Friday I saw a punnet of strawberries in the fridge and knew I would be using them for dessert on Sunday. What I decided to make today was what I had got going on in my head, sugar pastry base, lined with white chocolate, pastry cream, strawberry gel, strawberries and a final layer of strawberry gel, voila Summer Strawberry Tart.

Sugar Pastry

1 large Egg

50g caster sugar

125g margarine

200g plain flour

pinch of salt

Pastry Cream

2 large egg yolks 

40g caster sugar

7.5g plain flour

7.5g cornflour

175ml whole milk

.5 teasp of vanilla extract

icing sugar to dust

Filling

100g of white chocolate

1 large punnet of strawberries

2 packets of Green's strawberry gel ( This is what you need linkage )

Pastry Method

1) Rub the butter in to the flour with the salt added until it resembles breadcrumbs.

2) Now add the sugar and make a well in the centre adding a lightly whisked egg, when it comes together, place in to the fridge for about an hour to firm up.

Pastry Cream

1. In a bowl whisk together the eggs and sugar until they turn a pale in colour. Whisk in the flour and cornflour and set aside.

   

1. Place the milk and vanilla extract in a saucepan, bring to a gentle simmer, stirring frequently. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool for 30 seconds.
2. Slowly pour half of the hot milk onto the egg mixture, whisking all the time, then return the mixture to the remaining milk in the pan. It is important to slowly pour the hot milk onto the cold eggs before you return the mixture to the pan to prevent the eggs from scrambling.
3. Bring the mixture back to the boil and simmer for one minute, whisking continuously, or until smooth.
4. Pour the cream into a clean bowl and dust with icing sugar to prevent a skin forming. Cool as quickly as possible, by sitting the bowl of pastry cream in another larger bowl of ice water. When cooled, refrigerate until needed.

Assembly and Cooking 

1) Pre heat your oven to 180c, grease and flour a loose bottomed 10 inch tart tin.

2) Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll out to the size of the tart tin making sure to roll as thin as possible on a floured surface. Once rolled place the pastry in the tin allowing for overlap on the sides. We allow this overlap to prevent shrinkage. We now need to blind bake the pastry, prick the base with a fork all over and  line the inside of the tart with some greased baking parchment filling with either baking beans or rice.

3) Bake the tart blind for 15 mins.

4) Remove the tart from the oven, removing the rice.

5) Place the tart shell back into the oven and bake for 25 mins more until golden brown.

6) Remove the tart shell finally from the oven allow to cool. Once cooled release from the tin.

7) Melt the chocolate in a microwave for 1 min. Once melted paste all over the bottom of the tart tin. Allow to chill in the fridge for 20 mins.

8) Spread the pastry cream all over the base of the tart and place back in the fridge while you make your gel.

9) Following the instructions of the gel on the first packet, boil 200ml of water with the gelatine until it reaches the boil and simmer for 1 minute. Cool the gel for 10 minutes.

10) Pour the cooled gel in to the tart shell over the pastry cream, chilling again for 15 minutes.

11) Wash and remove the bottom of your strawberries. Slice thinly and decorate the top of your tart.

12) Repeat step 9 again with your second packet of gel.

13) Pour the cooled gel over the strawberries and allow to set again for 15 minutes.

Serve and enjoy this summery tart!

Thanks for reading my recipe.

Will

A Return To Blogging - Will's Salad & Ballybunion

Ok first things first I have been away from blogging for nearly 2 months now for numerous reasons, 1 of which you will hear about in the coming months just not yet, sure don't we all love waiting for a surprise.......... This weekend I am down home and spent most of today down in Ballybunion. I could bleat on like everyone else is right now about the weather but for the love of jeff its the weather enjoy it, stop talking about it already. Today was my first day in Ballybunion since I was about 12 years of ages so we are talking nearly 17 years ago. We used to go there quite regularly as kids or kid ( when my bro arrived we didn't go as much anymore, thanks Steve!) so it was a treat to head back down and see what had changed over the years. New places opened , old places closed and most notably my favourite chipper as a kid, Jumbo's beside Shortis's bar had since changed hands. After a day on the beach my dad would take us in there for a strawberry milkshake and chips, heavenly at the time. Now its still a chipper, and so cleverly named Chips, must have taken them an age to come up with that one. However there is a lovely ice cream parlour now open on the main street called Sundaes ( check them out here : 

https://www.facebook.com/sundaes.ballybunion). They do a range of ice creams, sundaes, frozen yogurt and even hot doughnuts. I went for a tub of the frogurt today and it was beautiiiiiiful, its so much more refreshing than ice cream, however I still had to get the flake and sprinkles, it was yummy.

Ballybunion's stunning beach

Sundaes's gorgeous frozen yogurt ( I do not know who owns the midriffs!)

On to my salad, yes I have named it after myself its my own little creation I came up with tonight in a hurry, its tasty and works so well. Its essentially done in a caesar salad style with a few changes. I hope read this, make it and enjoy it cause my dad scoffed it down.

Ingredients (Feeds 4-6 people or 3 hungry men)

Two heads of washed Cos / Romaine Lettuce 

8 slices of Pancetta or good streaky bacon ( I used Crowes Farm's stunning streaky bacon)

150g of cashew nuts

1 small loaf of a good wholemeal batch bread

250g of natural yogurt ( I used Old MacDonnells)

1 heaped teaspoon of wholegrain mustard

2-3 teaspoon of honey (maybe judge this for taste)

Salt 

Pepper

4 chicken breasts

1 small red onion

Olive oil

120g of Parmigiano Reggiano

Method

1) Season your chicken breasts and fry in a little oil for 1-2 mins on both sides, transferring to a pre heated oven of 180c for a further 30 mins. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

2) Grill the bacon until crispy, pat dry to remove excess grease.

3) Toast your cashews in a hot pan for 3-4 mins to colour and allow the release of the natural flavour. Its always important and I cannot stress this enough to toast your nuts!

4) Cut about 4 thick slices of your bread removing the crusts, and cutting in to cubes. Drizzle in a little olive oil and grill until golden brown, remembering to turn them throughout so as not to burn.

5) Make the dressing by placing your yogurt, mustard and honey in a bowl, give a good whisk until ingredients mixed. Adjust the taste with a little more honey if you like a sweeter dressing.

6) Finely slice your red onion in half moon shapes, also at this stage slice up your chicken breasts length ways.

7) Assembly time! With your cleaned lettuce cut the large leaves in to 3. Start layering on a nice serving dish, lettuce, bacon, cashews, croutons, red onions, chicken, and dressing. You will end up with about 3 layers, finally top with drizzle of dressing and parmesan shavings (I used a vegetable peeler to do this).

8) Enjoy it! I even surprised my dad, as the whole way through he was saying "all you are doing is a salad, thats not much now is it, you said you were doing a pie Willem, you have had me waiting till 7pm for salad!" (Picture him saying that in a grumpy Dutch accent)Yup needless to say he devoured two plate fulls......

Thanks for reading, I am back indefinitely now with my distractions ended for the moment anyhow.

Will

Wholemeal Bread

 

 

I am always on the lookout for a great bread recipe and this weekend I found it over on ebakerie. I must alert you this is a long recipe and needs to be started the day before but by god it produces an excellent bread. 

Ingredients:

Day 1: ( 2 loaves )

Paté Fermentee

100 g White Bread Flour

75 g Wholemeal Flour

140 g Cold Water

2 g Instant Yeast

Day 2: 

Mash:

450 g Wholemeal Flour (I used all purpose)

450 g Hot Water

250 g White Bread Flour

24 g Salt

10 g Sugar

4 g Yeast

Methods

Day 1:

Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and cover for at least 14 hours at room temperature.This will be your Paté Fermentee. I stored mine in a Tupperware box, with the lid loosely on top, by god when I took the lid off this morning the smell was intoxicating from the yeast, heavenly beer smell!

Day 2:

For the mash above combine the hot water with the wholemeal flour and cover like the Paté fermentee for 2 hours.

1) Now combine your day 1 Paté fermentee along with your mash and the rest of the ingredients. The dough will be slightly sticky, remove from the bowl onto a floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes. When you are finished kneading transfer back to the bowl and cover with clingfilm and place in a warm area for 3 hours, it will double in size when the yeast activates.

2) After two hours knock back the dough and re cover the dough with cling film for a further 30 mins.

3) Pre heat your oven to 400f, 200c/180c for fan ovens. You can now remove your dough from the bowl and shape in to your desired shape. Place on a lined baking tray and loosely cover with cling film for a further hour to allow proving.

4) After the hour is up place into the oven and cook for 25 mins until browned and crispy. I placed a plate of boiling water in the bottom of the oven to create steam which aids a better crust.

5) Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing up.

Thanks for reading 

Will

Irish Soda Bread

Ingredients

225g  wholemeal flour

225g  plain flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

25g butter

1 egg

325ml Buttermilk


Method

1) Preheat oven to 220c/200c for fan oven, (425f), gas mark 7.

2) Sieve flours together, salt and soda in a bowl. Rub in your butter till it resembles breadcrumbs, make a well in the centre.

3) In another bowl whisk your egg and buttermilk, add to the flour mix. Loosely bring together with your hand , do not over work as it should be soft but not sticky.

4) Turn on to floured board and bring together into a round, cutting a cross in the top dusting with flour.

5) Place on to a floured baking tray baking for 15 minutes, then turning your heat down by 20c to 200c/180c for fan oven, (400f), gas mark 6. Cook for a further 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool slightly before slathering butter.


Please enjoy and thanks for reading,

Will

Le Gavroche

What can I say that hasn't already been said time and time before me about Le Gavroche except for its a fulfilment of 22-23 years worth of food admiration and interest. Let me first start by telling you how my visit came about. My girlfriend Joanne, you have heard me mention herself a few times already at this stage presented me on the 19th of December with an envelope as my Christmas present. I knew for months she was taking me somewhere as my Christmas present but didn't know where, in those months preceeding the sheer level of her winding me up was epic, and if you know me I hate suprises or waiting for things, I can't stand it. Anyhow she hands me an envelope, having spent months thinking I am going to Paris, Barcelona anywhere other than London which was detailed in her letter. I thought ok London, that will be nice I haven't been there very often in a tourist capacity, so it will be a nice break away from Dublin in March. We continue to swap presents and I come to my last present being Monica Galetti's book (Monica being of Masterchef and Le Gavroche fame aswell as Michel Roux's sous chef). I thought cool I liked the look of this book when I saw it in the book shop a few weeks previous, I have scant flick through and place it down on the bed. Joanne then exclaimed " Would you open the book fully Will". Me: " Ok why would......" Another envelope?. I open the envelope carefully and there is yet another letter like before, as I slowly read down through, I dont pause I quite literally freeze in shock at what I am reading, I struggle to utter a word... the letter detailed that on the 9th of March Joanne and myself would be dining at 9.30pm at Le Gavroche where by we will be having the Menu Exceptional. Quite honestly I felt like I was smacked across the head with a bat, my mind was in overdrive at the prospect of eating in the one place I have desired to eat since a young boy. The present to say the least surpassed any present I have ever received in my life, outstanding!

The history behind my admiration is the fact as a young boy the Roux brothers Michel and Albert had a tv show on the Lifestyle channel, I would watch this regularly with my father. He would wax lyrical at how good these guys are, they set the seed in my head for my love in gastronomy, I was hooked on all things food ever since watching them at the age of 5-6. Later in my life I learned about their restaurant in London how it was run by both brothers, Michel Roux Snr however departed to run his own Michelin starred restaurant in Bray called the Waterside Inn. Albert stayed on at Le Gavroche, until he retired and handed the reigns over to his son Michel Roux Jnr. Michel now presents Masterchef the Professionals with Greg Wallace with a little help from his sous chef Monica. The man seems like an absolute gent on tv, a man who lives and breathes food. When I opened Joannes letter it was like being handed the key or the golden ticket for Wonka land, a dream of mine was about to happen. 

 

We arrived the Saturday evening just before 9pm, thinking oh god we are 30 mins early we are going to look like fools. I say fools because the girl sitting on the door would have seen us no more than 20 mins earlier ( Yes we in actuality arrived at 8.40pm) as we did a lap of the block in anticipation for what was about to happen. We were greeted by the lovely door lady, who took our coats and brought us in to the bar area. In the bar we were met by Emmanuel Landré the general manager, who seated us and took our drinks order before heading downstairs. The bar area is the first glimpse as to what you can expect, red leather couches, tastefully and classically decorated. We receive a bowl of salted almonds as a little nibble aswell as our drinks order of champagne. The bar man drops over our menus, mine without the prices and Joannes with the prices, I loved that little touch as they knew it was a present for me. Whilst deciding we get two little appetisers each of breaded catfish and celeriac remoulade in a pastry case, both wonderfully delightful. By now I had scoffed all the almonds down, this would turn out to be a bad idea later on I think. We made our orders, we were of course here for the 8 course tasting Menu Exceptional. Emmanuel is back and brings us down in to the restaurant, I am not going to lie I was trembling with excitement. The people who have eaten here, the chefs and food this one restaurant has produced is immense. We are seated at our beautiful table with full view of the restaurant which so well decorated adorned with paintings with a connection to Le Gavroche. The sommelier takes our wine order, I think if I remember correctly I got a langues doc and Joanne ordered a Sancerre. All I can help at notice is the service staff, they are running everywhere, however no one bumping in to each other, everything was running like clockwork, or choreographed dance if you will. 

Out arrives our first dish, a Souffle Suissesse baked on double cream with Gruyere cheese. I might run out of superlatives in this post so bear with me. This was heaven, it was like eating a cloud covered in cheese with a light creamy cheese sauce, a stunning opener. Joanne liked it but not as much as me so she passed me her leftovers, bad idea number 2.  Up next is Foie Gras, something I have never really eaten before despite being a food fanatic, but by the time I was finished I wanted more of it, it was so good, and now I can see why people love the stuff so much. In between our meals Michel greeted and worked the room, he didn't get to us, in a weird way I am glad, I would have been a bumbling mess if I spoke to him, plus I was here for the restaurant's food not to faun over Michel Roux Jnr. Next course is a Stone Bass pastilla with Basque Pepper, yet again a stunning plate of food and slightly spicy. God I am thinking someone punch me do something cause I think I have gone to heaven here or this is the perfect dream. Next was a gratin of langoustines and snails, snails I had never eaten before, absolutely gorgeous morsels, like the foie gras I would have devoured more of these babies. Each dish as they come out are so well presented, and described by the waiting staff, they tell you everything possible about what you are about to eat. Following the snails we received a home made black pudding au Le Gavroche and a crispy hens egg, when combined the flavours danced off the plate, a triumph for something that seems so simple. The next plate of food was our Galloway beef, this was presented to us at the table, sliced and assembled in front of us. A truly stunning piece of meat, and a personal success for Joanne as she ate medium to quite rare beef, generally she likes her meat well done.

Ok Ok I am starting to flag a little here, the food is flooring me and I am having a wobble but we struggle on for the cheese course. I decide on a hard Lincolnshire cheese, Camembert, Mont D'Or and a French blue cheese served with Melba Toast and quince jelly. Joanne as she isn't big cheese person got a gorgeous tasting plate of 3 ice creams and 3 sorbets. I am also not a cheese person, I stick to hard cheese generally and have never eaten any French cheese in the past bar Comté. So as it was a night of firsts I tuck in, god damn it the cheese was good, so good I could still taste it the next morning and not in a bad way. Truly gorgeous with the quince and Melba toast. I by now have my second wind just in time for dessert and petit fours. Dessert consisted of pear tartlets with filo pastry and salted caramel ice cream, which was very tasty indeed. The petit fours were salted caramel truffles with toffee tuiles. By now I am ready to throw in the towel, stick a fork in me I am done. We finish the meal with a tea n coffee, well and truly stuffed to the gills.

We leave just after 12am to catch the last tube back to our hotel in Bermondsey. We both left knowing we had experienced something special. Its not often you get to live out a dream and this lived up to everything and more than I could have ever hoped to be. Its the greatest meal I have ever eaten and not to be gushing too much but Joanne nailed it, quite simply the best present ever, I cannot express how thankful I am to her. If you can afford it, and you are in London, go here its truly special.

 

http://www.le-gavroche.co.uk/

Thank you for reading,

Will

Monmouth Coffee - Borough Market

Last weekend I had the pleasure of been taken to London by Joanne for my Christmas present, we took in the sights and ate like royalty at La Gavroche aswell as the Connaught Hotel of which will both be reviewed soon enough. However on the Saturday afternoon just before heading back to our hotel near London Bridge, we were both tired and weary from walking all over London town, fortunately for me coffee perks me right up so we headed to the nearby Borough Market in search of a good coffee. I must publicly apologise to Joanne here as I am a pain in the neck when it comes to coffee, I can't just drink any old muck, so after much searching I decided on Monmouth. Monmouth are truly fabulous, they roast their coffee near by in Bermondsey supplying both their Covent Garden and Borough Market coffee houses. Here is some information from their own site:

We roast coffee from single farms, estates and cooperatives. When we taste a coffee that we like, we want to know where it comes from and who grows, picks and processes it. We travel extensively throughout the year, visiting the producers and cooperatives with whom we currently work and looking for interesting varietals of coffee and new farms from which to buy. During these visits we talk to farmers and cooperative members, learning more about the coffee they grow and process and the challenges that they face. We then look to establish a relationship with the grower and exporter of that coffee. We believe that where such a relationship exists, quality, quantity and price requirements can be discussed in an open and equal way. We see this as sustainable, fair and equal trade.

The queue was 20-30 people strong when we arrived, I didn't want to have Joanne waiting around but she insisted, and thank god she did. The smell of coffee was amazing, the place was absolutely buzzing for 4.30pm on a Saturday. I decided on a filter coffee as shown below, it was a Finca Malacar, and boy oh boy it was good coffee. I am big a filter fan and naturally always on the lookout for a new coffee gadget so having finished my coffee I was soon queuing again for one of their beautiful china manual drip filters aswell as some of their beautiful fresh ground coffee. I picked up their Fazenda De Serrado from Brazil and their Finca Santa Maria from El Salvador. I dont think Joanne was all that impressed by the coffee though as it completely stunk out our hotel room whoops! When I got home Monday I couldn't wait to test out my new gadget, and I can confirm both coffees are stunning. For a coffee freak like myself I was chuffed with this little find on Saturday in the midst of the greatness of everything thing else we did last weekend.

Their filter coffee system

I love love love this place, and I am sure to be back if I am London again soon, if you are going to London or live there, visit this cool coffee house run by some of the nicest, most informative folk.

Thanks for reading.

Will