Review: Breakfast at St. John Hotel

John St. John be cool

Anticipation. That is what we felt for the ultra-long awaited opening of St John’s Hotel in Leicester Square.  They were due to swing their doors open in November to the public, but yesterday St John’s finally put an end to the waiting.  As we crossed Leicester Square this morning, we witnessed the clean up operation from the night before.  I remarked to Keith that we had never been here so early in the morning and he chuckled “no, only when we have been still been out from the night before”.  Leicester Square used to feel exciting and glamorous when we were teenagers, but today, weaving through shards of broken glass, pigeons feeding on vomit and suspect pools of water (did it rain last night?), we did not feel the sophistication of movie / theatre land. Nonetheless, Leicester Square remains a popular iconic part of London and tourists appear to love it. Thus, it is prime real estate for a hotel. 

Sparking off its own hype, St John’s have described their breakfast as “no afterthought” on their website, which is why we found ourselves in the center of London at eight thirty on a Sunday morning.  The hotel cast the bait with their audacious self-proclamation and we took it. The facade of St John’s has always been pristine, white decor and today’s setting was no different. The rectangular dining hall was lined at one end with an open kitchen.  Pools of light flooded into the room.  Unfortunately, what comes in, must go out.  Visible through the windows were unsightly bins, orange traffic cones, broken beer bottles and pavement works.  Might we suggest frosted glass, just up to the eye line?  It would be a preferable canvas for the restaurant’s clientele.  I shudder to think what “entertainment” supper diners may have inflicted on them in the evenings.  White washed walls can be considered sterile and cold. I wore my coat for the first half an hour until the warmth of the kitchen seeped over the counter. 

At the time of booking, we were told that our turnaround time would be one hour fifteen minutes, so we felt under pressure to keep the food flowing. It took a while for someone to take our latte orders, but when they arrived, the coffee was of excellent quality.  It was a shame that the cups were so small.  We usually have the grande size in the morning, but the serving was probably less than you might expect from an after dinner cappuccino. Incidentally, we ended up ordering two each.  The most talked about aspect of the breakfast are the buns. The warmed buns could be described as English style circular croissants. Our selection consisted of three mouth-watering flavours; Plain, fruit and spiced.  They were simply delicious.  The outer shell was firm with a light crunch, whilst the inside consisted of layers of buttery pastry. I fear I will have nightmares tonight that I may never be able to eat them again.  In particular, the spiced bun with seville jam was very reminiscent of Christmas.  I almost wished it had been Yuletide.

We followed the buns with a hot course.  Keith chose the ham, eggs and fried bread, whilst I picked the Arbroath smokie.  The ham, from Tamworth, was very simply cooked.  It was exceptional quality and it did not taste as if had been interfered with. The fried bread was crisp but not saturated in oil. The fried eggs were also of a high standard.  The yolks were rich and creamy. I thoroughly enjoyed my Arbroath smokie, which was haddock, mashed potatoes and egg, smothered in a creamy sauce infused with fish liquor.  As the dish was served in a bowl, a half slice of bread would have been great to mop up all of the scrumptious sauce. I would also heed the food staff to remove all fish bones. A few caught me out.  I found it to be a wonderfully warming and comforting dish. It too, had an underlining wintry feel to it.  Yes, we were more than satisfied by our dishes, but there were aspects which felt incongruous compared to the spring cerulean blue skies.  We could not imagine many customers choosing this dish at the height of summer.

St John’s was not cheap.  Our meal cost us £52.00 including tips. Unfortunately, the service was patchy.  There were members of staff who appeared experienced and savvy, whilst there were a few who seemed to be merely wandering around.  I found what appeared to be an acrylic hair in my food.  Later the staff identified the foreign item as a pastry brush bristle. The incident was dealt with professionally and quickly.  The quality of the food was excellent and the buns were heavenly (£7.50 for 3 buns), but you are paying for the privilege of being in the milieu of London.  The least you can do is enjoy the buns and ask for a double latte.

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Recipe: Pasta with pork sausage and spinach topped with garlic bread croutons

All energy fennel, all becomes you

If you love pasta, you may agree that it is easy to fall into habits where you end up preparing the same dishes with almost ritualistic regularity. We all have our favourite pasta dishes, but if you want to expand your repertoire to include another relatively quick meal, with an added twist of originality, then try this.

Good quality pork sausage meal is skinned and tossed into pasta, baby leaf spinach and garlic bread croutons. The mashed up pork and crunchy bread keeps the dish alive with texture. The distinctive flavour of fennel is very characteristic of an Italian dish of this kind. Fennel can be overwhelming, in this dish it is very subdued.

We enjoyed our pasta with a glass of Valpolicella Ripasso wine from Waitrose (£10.44) a strong flavour with ripe red berry undertones and vegetable.

Ingedients

• 175g pasta
• 125g Pork sausages, skins removed
• 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, crushed
• 1 medium onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed or grated
• 75g Pecorino Romano cheese
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 crusty rolls or 75g crusty bread cut into 1cm dice
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 60g baby spinach leaves
• 50g sun dried tomatoes, chopped
• 175ml dry Italian red wine

Method

1. Boil your pasta according to packet instructions.
2. Sauté the sausage meat for 6 minutes until brown.
3. Whilst the sausage meat cooks, heat olive oil in another pan, add 1/3 of the garlic with the cubes of bread and oregano. Fry the bread until you have golden coloured croutons.
4. Once the meat has browned, remove from the pan into a large bowl
5. Add the onions and 2/3 of the garlic to the pan and fry gently for 2 to 3 minutes until slightly brown. Add the red wine to the onion to deglaze the pan and simmer for another 2 minutes.
6. Add the onion mixture to the sausage meat.
7. Add the spinach, fennel, sun dried tomatoes, a pinch of salt and a grind of pepper. Stir until the spinach has slightly wilted.
8. Stir the sausage mixture into the pasta with 2 tablespoons of the cooking water to add texture.
9. Serve in a pasta dish and top with the croutons and grated cheese.

Wine Paring

Waitrose Ripasso di Valpolicella Classico Superiore, Fratelli Recchia 2008 Veneto, Italy (£10.44 from Waitrose) A positively dry red with clearly defined red fruits and vegetable notes coming through the mid palate. There is also a dash of spice that held together beautifully with the fennel in the sauce.

Review: Ideal Home Show (March 11th - 27th 2011)

Oh won't you please take me home

We have been to the Ideal Homes fifteen times, which is quite a number of visits for two thirty something year olds. We started going to the Exhibition as teenagers who knew they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together and share a home. The exhibition follows a similar format to recent years, that is splitting the event into several aspects of your home life from food, to decorating, gardening, home improvement to name a few.  In recent years, we have noticed the show shrinking in terms of stalls, but there is still plenty there to keep you and your family busy.  Despite the fact that we are in the middle of a major renovation project ourselves, we mainly concentrated on the food aspects, although we did a complete lap of the venue.

We began our journey in the food gadget section.  The wide display of titanium pans, hot plates, electric blenders were impressive.  It never fails to surprise us that people purchase such gadgets and then proceed to cart them around for the whole day. I guess if I were mugged on the way home I would prefer to be armed with a ten inch steel pan than a mop with innovative micro fibre technology.  Nonetheless there were still the usual hoards of people brandishing mops and in charge of knives sets, which would otherwise make ordinary citizens nervous.

We had caught Paul Rankin at the Ideal Celebrity Chef Theatre. We love that man's potato cakes. They could possibly be the best invention ever brought to the breakfast table. He expertly chopped and stirred his way through a wholesome pasta dish plus starter and dessert. What a legend. A show pleaser was Master Chef 2010 Champion Dhruv Baker's session on Sunday roast. The audience love this man! He prepared an eclectic Sunday spicy rack of lamb roast with beetroot. If he had offered to feed the audience, he would have had no problems sharing his wears as they were eating out of his hands! In fact a slightly inebriated lady to the left of me (with plastic pint of lager to match) was being restrained by her husband, so that she did not rush the stage. Luckily, she was too intoxicated to notice.  

There are so many food stalls in the ideal homes. It is worth taking the opportunity to navigate yourself through the mire and seek out the best food, not just scoffing an ordinary burger and chips.  A stall which caught our eye was Aromas Catering, based in Park Royale, who have been running their catering business for two years. We tried a spicy chicken, onion, capsicum dish of medium heat served with naan bread–  Lovely authentic food, and not run of the mill.

We love good healthy foods and Munchy Seeds had quite a selection of guilt free crunchy snacks (available in Waitrose, Tesco and Lakelands).  A couple of teaspoons and you can at least pretend you made an attempt at healthy living before you turn to the macaroon stall.   

http://www.munchyseeds.co.uk/ 

There are several options to try wines, spirits and beers, so if you are a oenophile, you can have a time out from the crowds and treat yourself. 

When it is snack time, we would also recommend Med Food Ltd, who displayed a mouthwatering selection of authentic foods, including cashew chili and sea salt, an impressive array of olives, sun dried tomatoes, baklava and more.

An interesting lunch option if you favour buying British as we do often is The Bath Pig, who specialise in free trade cured meats.  Their chorizo, made from british pork, are gluten free.  Flavours range from original, spicy paprika, garlic & herb and were seriously good. Ciabatta sandwiches with chorizo, peppers, rocket were available throughout the day.  Perfect if you were nursing a hang-over. 

http://www.thebathpig.com/

Chocolate and Love were probably the friendliest of all the chocolatiers. As we nibbled on a taster, the lady demonstrating the product advised us to suck not chew (he said). We are fans of dark fair trade, organic chocolate.  Chocolate and Love also run chocolate tasting classes and have a great piece on their website on how to extract the most from your chocolate. 

http://www.chocolateandlove.com/

Lastly, no Ideal Home Show visit is complete without a pie.  Flavour of the day were the Crusty Pie based in Halifax, who were established over twenty years ago.  Their pies keep for 5 days refrigerated and are freezable. We picked a Gloucestershire Old Spock pie to go and warmed it in our oven that evening for dinner.

http://www.crustypie.co.uk/shop/

Our one moment of food unhappiness was the afternoon tea with Champagne.  We are afternoon tea enthusiasts, so we have high standards. The staging of the tea was set in the centre of the show and looked impressive from the first floor mezzanine.  I enquired with the waitress what was on offer (incidentally she looked exhausted) and she muttered something about cakes, scones and Moet.  We persevered and were advised that we had to go to a counter to order.  Yes, it was all rather bizarre.  The final straw was the dirty, plastic table cloths.  Aghast, we walked out. 

The Ideal Homes Show has so many unusual food lovers opportunities.  The aforementioned places were stalls that caught our eye, but we could not try everything. If you want to settle for a simple burger and chips that is fine, but one can also indulge in Ostrich burgers, authentic spicy curries, and flavours from around the globe.  You can bring another dimension to your home and in years gone by, we have been sourced amazing tantilising, finds; Canadian maple syrup, herbs galore and spicy nuts to name a few.  Be bold with your choices and enjoy the event.

Opening Times
10am-6pm daily
Late Night Thursdays open until 9pm

Ticket Prices
	Door	Advance
Weekday Adult	£16	£11
Weekend Adult	£18	£13
Weekday Concession (Over 60's)	£12	£10
Weekend Concession (Over 60's)	£14	£12
Children Under 15	Free	Free
Late Night Thursday Open until 9pm	£5 after 5pm	£5 after 5pm

Recipe: Homemade Portuguese Style Pizza

To eat the crust on pizza

For the first time in weeks we had a free weekend at home.  For us that could only mean three things; Wine, pizza and movies.  I visited my mother in Portugal a couple of weeks ago and brought back queijo curado (a hard, salty cheese, creamy in colour and texture) and black pig chouriço (a lesser known spicy sausage equal in taste to the Spanish varieties).  Along with the cheese and chouriço, we decided on toppings of piri piri chicken, olives, onions, peppers and obligatory egg. We also made the tomato sauce slightly piquant.

We have recently got into the “habit” of making pizzas at home, which are by far superior to take-aways or store bought.  Incidentally, making a pizza after a hard day in the office or with the kids is a great stress reliever / fun.

Portuguese style pizza from scratch

• Prep time: 1 hour
• Cook time: 10 min
• Total time: 1 hour 30 min
• Makes: 2 x 12" thin crust pizzas

Ingredients for the pizza dough for two pizzas

• 250g strong white flour plus more for dusting
• 1/2 sachet of dried fast action yeast
• 150ml tepid water
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated white sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon olive oil

 Topping ingredients for two pizzas

• 2 chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoons piri-piri marinade
• 50g Portuguese chourico
• 60g Portuguese mature cheese shaved or grated
• 1/2 medium red pepper, sliced
• 1/2 medium green pepper, sliced
• 200g tinned tomatoes
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 2 piri-piri chilies
• A handful of chopped parsley
• Pinch of salt
• Black pepper
• 2 eggs

Method

1. Score each of the chicken thighs three times on the fleshier side. Mix together with the piri-piri marinade, cover and leave in the fridge for a couple of hours
2. To make the dough, empty the sachet of yeast into a cup with the sugar and half of the water and leave for 10 minutes.
3. Whilst the yeast begins to activate, add the flour to a mixing bowl with the salt and form a well in the middle.
4. Empty the activated yeast into the well and use a wooden spoon to start mixing together with the flour. Continue to do this, adding the remainder of the water a bit at a time.
5. Empty the dough onto a floured surface, dust your hands with flour and knead the dough well for 10 minutes. Add more flour to the surface you are kneading on if it becomes too sticky.
6. Add a little bit of olive oil to the bottom of a suitably sized bow and put in the kneaded dough. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for an hour until it doubles in size.
7. After the chicken has been marinading for at least 45 minutes, preheat the oven to 200C or gas mark 5. Cook the chicken for 25 minutes on a rack in the oven so excess fat can easily drip off whilst cooking.
8. To make the sauce, empty the tinned tomatoes with the juice into a suitable pan on a gentle heat. Add the garlic, chilies, a pinch of salt and ground black pepper and simmer for 5 minutes. Use a hand blender to whiz the sauce so that it becomes a nice even consistency.
9. Take the dough out after it has doubled in size (depending on how warm the place where you left it was) and cut into two equally sized pieces. Use a rolling pin to each piece to as uniform a shape as you can and it must be about on average 4 to 5 mm thick. It doesn't need to be circular, this is a rustic pizza so taste is the key this time.
10. Roll the dough up around your rolling pin and use it to lay it back over a floured baking sheet you'll be cooking the pizza on.
11. Construct the pizza by first adding a layer of the sauce but try not to put on too much. Cut the chicken thigh meat into chunks discarding the left over bones and skin.
12. Add the peppers, sliced chourico, onion and cheese evenly over the pizza leaving a space in the middle to crack an egg before transferring to the oven
13. Cook for 10 minutes or until the edge of the crust becomes golden the remove from the oven and sprinkle over with chopped parley and serve immediately.

With massive Portuguese pizza, glass of vinho tinto and “Shutter Island” we had the perfect, chilled out Saturday evening. 

Wine Paring

Quinta do Carmo Dom Martinho, 2000 (Not widely available in the UK - sorry!) Ripe fruits with notes of black cherry. Peppery feel in the mouth with sweet tannins and a smooth but lingering finish.

WenniesAffairs.com

Recipe: Onion and Riesling Soup

I've got onions in my soup

Onion and Riesling soup is a winner for two reasons; Number one it is made with a wonderful crisp Riesling, although quite different from traditional onion soup.  Number two as it only requires 450ml of wine, there is a good 300ml left which a whopping big serving for the chef.  The Riesling adds green vegetable notes, butter and citrus tones, which compliments the stewed onions and leeks as they sweeten with cooking.

We used a Cheddar cheese, but you can substitute it if so desired. The soup is very simple to make, but chopping can take quite some time. If you are adept with a knife though, you will find this recipe very easy.

Ingredients for 6 Generous Servings

• 1kg Onions (about 3 or 4 large ones), peeled and thinly sliced
• 300g Leek (1 large one), washed and thinly sliced
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 heaped tbsp tarragon
• 50g unsalted butter
• 450ml Dry Reisling
• 1.25 litres Chicken stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
• 1/2 a baguette cut into 1.5cm cubes
• Oil spray
• Dried mixed herbs
• 6 tbsp grated cheese

Method

• Melt the butter in a large pot and add the onions with the leek, garlic and tarragon. Cook gently for 15 minutes until the ingredients are all soft.
• Add the Riesling and simmer gently for another 10 minutes stirring occasionally
• Add the stock and bring down to a gentle simmer and leave uncovered for 45 minutes giving it a stir from time to time.
• Whilst the soup is simmering, preheat the oven to 150C. Spray the baguette cubes with oil and sprinkle over the mixed herbs and place into the oven for 10 minutes until golden brown
• To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, drop in a few croutons and sprinkle over with grated cheese

Serve with baguette or a crusty roll, not forgetting 300ml of Riesling for yourself.

Recipe: A duet of falafel and home made pita bread

You've bean learnin', baby, I bean learnin'

We love falafel.  In fact, all our friends do too. At summer barbecues and picnics we always have bowls of them with humus.  We must have spent thousands of pounds on falafel, which is why we decided it was time to learn to make them ourselves.  Falafel are traditionally balls of chickpeas or fava beans. They are not tricky to make, and as expected taste exponentially better than store bought.  What is great, as well, is that you can make up a batch and freeze them, so they can be on hand for a quick supper or when guests pop around.

If you have been following us, you may have realised that we love traditional recipes but also have a penchant for innovation.  Therefore, Keith is sharing not only Tradition Falafel, but also a Mexican Inspired Falafel. The Mexican falafel has all those rich South American flavours which we love; cumin, coriander, paprika as well as black beans in lieu of the chick peas.  

Ingredients for the pita

• 600g plain white flour
• 1 sachet dry fast active yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 1/2tsp salt
• 3 tbsp olive oil

Ingredients for the traditional falafel (6 balls)

• 1 400g can chickpeas, drained
• 1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp Garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Vegetable oil for frying

Ingredients for the Mexican falafel (6 balls)

• 1 400g can black beans, drained
• 1 red chilli, seeded and chopped
• 1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves, finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• Zest and juice of one lime
• 1 tbsp Red onion finely chopped
• 2 tsp Garlic, finely chopped
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1/2 tsp of baking soda
• Vegetable oil for frying

Method for the traditional falafel

1. Use a blender or food processor to blitz the chickpeas to a grainy texture
2. Add 2 tsp garlic, the parsley, 1 tsp cumin, 1 tsp ground coriander, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper to the chickpeas and mix.
3. Add flour and baking soda and mix in well.
4. Add a tbsp of water and use your hands to make 6 balls, each about the size of a golf ball.

Method for the Mexican Falafel

1. Mash the black beans well with a fork and try to squeeze out any excess liquid.
2. Add the lime zest and juice, chopped onion, garlic, chilli, coriander leaves, remainder of the cumin and ground coriander, season and mix well.
3. Add the flour and baking soda to the black bean mix. Mix well.
4. Using your hands, form 6 evenly sized balls from the black bean mixture.

To cook the falafel

1. Using your hands, form 6 evenly sized balls the bean mixture.
2. Heat enough vegetable oil in a deep fat fryer or suitable pan to immerse the balls. Cook a few at a time to allow them enough room in the oil to cook. Be careful not to move them around too much whilst they're cooking.
3. Use a slotted spoon to remove from the the oil after 2 to 3 minutes. Shake off any excess and place onto a plate covered in kitchen towel.

Method for the pita bread

1. Empty the sachet of yeast and a tsp of sugar to a bowl and mix together.
2. Add 100ml warm water (about 40C) to the bowl and give it a little stir and leave in a warm place for 15 minutes.
3. Add the flour to a mixing bowl and mix together with the salt.
4. Form a well in the middle of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture after it has started bubbling on top.
5. Stir well and add another 225ml warm water, stirring in a bit at a time until you have a sticky dough.
6. Add 2 tbsp olive oil to a large bowl and transfer the dough.
7. Cover with cling film and leave in a warm place (about 20C to 30C) for about an our or until it has doubled in size.
8. After it has doubled in size, remove onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes adding more flour when needed. Its a good idea to preheat your oven during this stage to gas mark 6 or 220C with a baking sheet or suitable oven tray on the bottom shelf.
9. Take off pieces of the dough, a little bigger than a golf ball and roll out until its about 3mm thick.
10. Place the rolled dough, 2 pieces at a time onto the hot baking sheet and leave to bake for 5 minutes until they have puffed up.
11. Leave to cool on a rack once cooked.

We served the traditional falafel with homemade houmus, lettuce, tomato and slices of red onion. The Mexican style falafel was served with a freshly made salsa, sour cream, grated cheese and a lime wedge.

Delicious!

Giveaway: Two tickets to the Ideal Home Show 2011 up for grabs!

In an ideal home

We're very pleased to be doing our very first official giveaway. Thanks to DULUX, we are giving away a pair of tickets to the show in Earls Court that will get you in for absolutely nothing!

We love the Ideal Homes Show and go almost every year to get some inspiration for our home. Its a great opportunity (end excuse) to grab some fun gizmos for the kitchen too.

How to Win:

To be in with a chance to grab the pair of tickets, all you need to do is one of the following

• Leave a comment on this post or 
• Send us a tweet to @WenniesAffairs with the words "Ideal Homes Tickets Please!" 

Entries must be in before midnight (GMT) on Sunday 13th March 2011. The winner will be chosen at random and contacted via email (if you comment) or direct message via Twitter (so that means you will need to follow us).

Please don't leave your email address in the comment itself! Use the email field which we will have access to but will be hidden from view.

For further information on who is at the show, ticket prices, floor plans and directions then you can visit the official web site

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