There’s been a fattening bounty of new openings in the past few months – The Rookery, Soif (more on those too in the coming weeks), Ben’s Canteen, Powder Keg Diplomacy… and it was chatting to the staff at my new hangover-brunch hangout Ben’s (sausage and egg bap, if you are asking) about how awesome St John’s Hill is getting – you already had independent eateries The Fish Club (get over the feeling like you are sitting in a takeaway chippie and the seafood is top notch) and frenchie Deli Boutique (at least once try their HUGE croques, go hungry or at the very least hungover) and along with Ben’s ‘mish-mash of furniture and name-checking suppliers’ Canteen there was fellow newbie Powder Keg Dipolmacy (Victoriana speakeasy with wicked punchbowls and, I’m told, British classic fare) – and he told me about another newcomer: indy coffeshop’n'cafe Birdhouse. I hadn’t spotted it, so a few weekends later I went out, in dire need of caffeine, on a hunt.

It didn’t take us long to spot the canary yellow frontage (even if the name is less than obvious).

Inside it all grey walls and tarnished stainless steel, reclaimed furniture (the bar is an old display cabinet) with yellow flashes and bird-themed prints on the wall… which got me thinking about how good it would look in my dream kitchen, making me worry about what marriage had done to my brain.

Back to Battersea, it was coffee time. One of the owner duo is an Aussie (the other half Cuban), which in London only means one thing: they know their coffee. Opting for my staple cappaccino instead of the Oz-classic flat white, I wasn’t disappointed – strong, rounded and beautifully presented.

Along with the sweet treats on the counter, there’s a short menu of breakfasty items (almost all of which were off by the time we rolled in) and toasted sandwiches.

We opted for the Serrano (me) and Lomo (the Boy), which came, keeping with the stainless steel-theme, in army mess tins.

Both wolfed down – a nice sandwich is a nice sandwich you might think – but for the cool presentation, and intersting range of ingredients, the Birdhouse boys score top marks. I just wish I’d tried the banana bread too – but there will defintely be a next time.

Birdhouse
123 St John’s Hill
London
SW11 1SZ
020 7228 6663
www.birdhou.se

Secreted away behind Debenhams on Oxford Street of all places, is the last place you’d expect to find a divey, red-lit meat’n'cocktails bar (although in the ground floor of a NCP carpark probably is) but take off your trendy faux-NHS specs and rub your eyes and believe – for here is where you’ll find the latest ‘must try’ on the foodies radar: MEATLiquor. Once you’ve braved the queue and are inside you might forget that you are only a shopping bag’s throw from the masses of Oxford Street, partially because it is so dimly lit you can’t actually see, inside or out. But, pah, seeing what you are eating is overrated.

With just enough light to make our meat and liquor (cocktails served in jam jars, the receptical de jour) choices, we waited in quiet anticipation (and to be honest, end of work starvation) for the big moment. The burger. Now I’d heard a lot about Meateasy’s fare. And a lot of rave reviews. Although this was my first Meateasy burger (we went for a classic cheeseburger), I’m something of a (hungover usually – it’s the only cure) connoisseur – and a current fan of Bryon’s back-to-basics patty. It arrived – all gerkin, cheesy, meaty goodness – and finally it was time for the first bite. Which was swiftly followed by the first dribble of meat juice ran down my chin onto the table. By the end it was a very happy puddle and I was converted. Oh, and the cocktails were pretty darn fine too.

MEATLiquor
74 Welbeck Street
London
W1G 0BA
020 7224 4239
www.meatliquor.com

I don’t need to tell you from the tidal wave of glowing reviews José has received that the food hit the mark and then some. The tomato bread smaked with that only-in-the-Mediterranean-could-tomatos-taste-so-heavenly flavour, a spoiling of cheesing and hams and chorizo and my personal favourite: mackerel escabeche. All nibbled standing at the bar while letting the most exciting conversation I’d had in a while sink in:

“Would you like some water, still or sparkling?”

“Oh we’ll just have tap.”

“Yes, they are both tap.”

Sparkling tap water! Amazing. And what’s even more amazing is that come the end of the month Pizarro is branching out with a proper sit down restuarant down the road, called, why of course, Pizarro. And I’m sure they’ll serve sparkling tap water there too… Oh, and it’s going to specialise in cavas. What more could you want? I’m there.

Photo: Emma Lundin

José
104 Bermondsey Street
London
SE1 3UB
020 7403 4902

As you can imagine, the food (and Brice champagne – a tongue-in-cheek honour to my new surname) was one of the highlights. No sad chicken or limp salmon for us. Oh no… an ‘amuse’ of a shot of gazpacho was followed by charred fillet of beef wrapped in horseradish pastry. Not to mention the canapés, the trio of desserts (summer fruits crumble, lemon tart and berries and clotted cream) and the ‘bar snacks’-inspired evening buffet featuring pork pies, chutneys, cheeses, bread and, of course, Scotch eggs. Oh and Tunnock’s tea cakes for the Scottish element. Mmm…

I have lots of posting to catch up on but for now, enjoy.

photo: Jeremy Enness

At the ‘wrong’ end of the Kings Road, Medlar strikes a subtle presence amoung the well-supplied Chelsea charity shops: a menu outside displaying that day’s offering and, shall we say, a ‘well-dined’ man sipping red wine with a carafe (all the bottles are offered as a ‘taster’ this way, if you can call 500ml a taster…) on the table next to his broadsheet Sunday paper.

Inside, the long space is split between a main front section, a couple of in-betweener booths and an airy, almost greenhouse-like back room. The decor is modern without being overly so, just as the staff are dedicatedly attentive without being in your face and the menu distinctive and ambitious without overtly patting itself on the back for its own ‘innovative-ness’. Everything is, as Thom Yorke sang, in its right place. And they make it look so god-damn easy.

£30 for 3 courses for Sunday lunch, a mere £25 during the week or £38 for dinner. It was cheaper than Brucie’s too.”Nice to see you, to see you nice!”

And it was very nice to see Medlar’s sommelier Clement who was going to sort us out for the meal. I do love it when they do that…

An aperitif of Reisling poured, home-made focaccia and sour-dough (well how can you choose?) on the side, it was time to get down to business: deciding. I could have eaten it all…

But with John Lanchester’s review in the Guardian Weekend just the day before ringing in my ears, I couldn’t resist the crab raviolo; the Boy thinly sliced rump of veal (which he managed to almost destory before I got the camera poised and ready).

Of course, it was expertly executed: the fresh, almost sweet tastes of the crab and leek filling balanced by the rich meeaty brown shrimp and sauce. And man, I need to cook more samphire… The veal too so thinly sliced it almost dissolved on the tongue was another expert balancing act.

I had no doubt the mains would follow suit (all though I could have quite happily eaten my way through the rest of the starter list in lieu). For me: red mullet with baby squid (you can always judge a restaurant on the quality of its squid… or so my squid-obsession told me). For the Boy: lamb rack and confit shoulder.

There was no way we were going to say no to desserts. Especially when with a glass of dessert wine in each of our hands. The croutade was an old Chez Bruce favourite: the Boy had a mince pie version when we went just before Christmas and turn down a repeat of a good thing he opted for the more summery cherry version. Which made a very satisfying sound as you tapped through the pastry to the goodness waiting inside.

I plumped for the apricot and cardamon ice cream with (mmm) baklava, which was pleasingly chunky and nutty while the ice cream hit with an intense whoosh through my mouth. Boy that’s a zinger.

Whoozy, full and very well fed we stumbled onto the Kings Road into the sunshine… it’s just a shame they weren’t open for Sunday dinner as well. We might have just been straight back. Well, I still wanted to try that duck egg tart…

Medlar
438 Kings Road
Chelsea
SW10 0LJ
020 7349 1900
http://www.medlarrestaurant.co.uk/

So, there will be more from where that (and this) has come from… you must be hungry.

Yes, I’d never seen it, and, well, you could say watching it was one new year’s resolutions that it was pretty easy to tick off the list. But if we were going to do it, we were going to do it in style. Italian style. Proper Bolognese, bottle of Chianti (hair of the dog, the only way through) and a huge portion of tiramisu. It was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

Authentic Ragù Bolognese
This Delia recipe is almost as epic as The Godfather so best make ahead and make lots, you can freeze the extra (makes about 8 portions)

450g lean minced beef
450g minced pork
around 225g chopped chicken livers
140g chopped pancetta or streaky bacon
6 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, finely chopped
4 fat garlic cloves, chopped or crushed
2x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
2x 200g tubes of tomato puree
half a bottle of red or white wine (Delia suggests red but traditionalists would go white…)
15g packet of basil
1/2 whole nutmeg, grated
And two off-Delia additions:
2 medium carrots, grated
250g packet of mushrooms, grated

First up brown off your minces seperately and add them to your biggest casserole dish (which is not on the heat). Then fry up the garlic and onions, add the pancetta or streaky bacon and cook until the onions soften and the bacon browns and cooks, lastly add the grated carrot and mushroom and continue stirring until cooked (left). Then add this to your casserole dish.

Finally add more oil to the frying pan and fry off the chopped chicken livers (add these even if you think you don’t like liver, you can’t taste them individually and it adds a secret richness to your bol sauce). Finally add these to your meat medley in the casserole dish (right). Add in your chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, wine and a very healthy seasoning of salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.

Pop this over the heat and bring to a simmer. Now this is where I’ve got to argue ol’ Dels has got it wrong. She suggests putting the mix in the oven uncovered for 4 hours. We’ve tried this. It dries out. So you could put it in the oven partially covered to reduce. Or you could do it our way and cook it over a low heat on the hob for 4 hours. Yes and you have to keep stirring so it doesn’t stick. It is painstaking method but boy is it worth it.

Spaghetti may be the pasta known for bolognese but fatter tagliatelle is far better (and what the Bolognese have with their ragu sauce) as it ropes in the sauce and gives it something to get hooked up on. Fresh egg pasta is best, so flash it in boiling water for a couple of minutes, drain, top with the ragu and a healthy shaving of parmasean, unplug the phone, pour a glass of Chianti, draw the curtains and settle down to a mafia marathon…

The three acts to The Godfather triology are perfectly timed to make the tiramisu between part one and two and for it to be set and ready to sweeten Sofia Coppola’s wooden acting in part three.

Jamie does… Best Tiramisu
serves 12
(the Italians might kill him for messing with the classic recipe but this version has a kick of orange zest, richness for chocolate and an added lightness of egg whites through the mascapone)

200g good dark chocolate
50g diced butter
175g sponge fingers
400ml good hot sweetened coffee
Sweet dessert wine (Jamie suggests Vin Santo – however we went for Tia Maria…)
4 large eggs
100g caster sugar
750g mascapone
2 oranges
to garnish some crushed coffee beans, chocolate shavings or cocoa, orange zest

Melt your chocolate in a glass bowl over a pan of simmering water, although make sure it isn’t touching the water. Add the diced butter and a pinch of salt and melt and stir to combine.

Line a large deep dish with sponge fingers, then carefully pour over the hot coffee. Add some booze to your melted coffee, stir through and then drizzle over the fingers and spread evenly (in a bit messy style… left).

Seperate the eggs with whites in one bowl and yolks in another. Add sugar to the yolks and if you fancy another swig of booze an whisk with an electric whisk for 5 minutes until everything is mixed and pale and fluffy. Mix in the mascapone and the zest of an orange.

Clean the whisk and whip the whites with a pinch of salt to stiff peaks – using the old turning the bowl upside down trick again. Using a large spoon, add spoonfuls of the white mix to the yolk bowl (right) and fold each through.

Spoon the mix over the chocolate layer and smooth. Garnish with a dusting of coffee and/or cocoa powder (or grated chocolate). Then pop in the fridge to set for two hours and sit down to part two…

Chirstmas! Food! Stuff yourself stupid until you can’t move and pass out!

I always love coming home for Christmas – the fridge is full to breaking point with half the contents on Marks & Spencer and there are so many exciting cheeses, chocolates, wines and more that I could easily eat myself silly for a good month without leaving the house to refuel. So, as if there wasn’t enough to consume already I decided yesterday that how better to get in the festive spirit than to bake cinnamon stars and mincemeat cheecake and then slump in front of the TV to watch Love Actually (again). So that’s exactly what I did…

Now I’m not a fair-weather cinnamon-junkie, oh no for me it’s a year-round obsession that can fortunately be flaunted publicly as the official ‘essence of Christmas’ as soon as the Starbucks red cups come out. It might have been gold, frankincense and myrrh that the three wise men brought to baby Jesus that night but really who knows what frankincense and myrrh smell like (gold is gold who cares what it smells like when it looks so pretty), I think we should update the tale and bring on cinnamon, cloves and, oh go on then, gold. Anyway before I re-write the entire story of Christmas, thankfully it’s not just me that’s obsessed with cinnamon: the Americans LOVE the stuff and the Germans are pretty fond of it too, bringing us our first creation:

Cinnamon Star Biscuits

300g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 to 1 tsp cinnamon (depending on the level of obsession…)
100g softened unsalted butter
200g golden caster sugar
1 large egg, beaten

Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and a pinch of salt together. Cream together the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy, then gradually beat in the egg (left).

Add the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly, add drops of cold water as needed to bind the dough.

Press the dough into a disc and wrap (in clingfilm or a plastic bag) and pop in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 180 (160 if it’s fan). Well flour your surface (don’t want your stars to get stuck and deformed now do you? I totally didn’t do that the first time, uhum…) and your rolling pin and roll the dough out to about the thickness of a pound coin. Stamp out your shapes (stars are the classic but go rogue and go for Christmas trees if you fancy a bigger biscuit) and keep re-balling and re-rolling and stamping until you’ve rinsed out your dough for all it’s worth.

Lay on parchment-lined baking trays and pop in the oven for 15-20 minutes or until they are gorgeously lightly golden. Let cool (and do a taste test, of course). You could ice them to be trad but I didn’t bother because that’d only dilute the cinnamon…

But my festive baking frenzy didn’t stop there. I’m not a huge fan of Christmas pudding. To be honest, I think I may have never had it on Christmas Day (I may, shh, never have had it at all…). My grandmother alway used to bake the most gloriously fluffy, goo-ily meringue-y pavlova for Christmas dinner. I know, higly unconventional but how could you opt for a solid fruitcake over that glory? Everytime. Anyway my grandmother has now stopped baking so I thought it was high time I took up the alternative Day dessert mantle. I saw Nigel Slater’s Mincemeat Cheesecake recipe in the OFM a few weeks back and that was it. Suitably festive and suitably tempting, he’d done it. And a new era of family Christmas dessert is born (hopefully).

Christmas Cheesecake
serves 8-10

As Nige says, you might find that your cheesecake cracks across the top as it cools (mine did – I maintain it adds to the ‘homemade’ look – and you can hide it with a bit of festive holly…). But if you are anti-cracks, Nige suggests you bake it in a water bath. so insted of placing on a baking tray, half-fill a roasting tin with water and lower the uncooked cheesecake into it and bake as suggested.

For the base:
65g butter
300g digestive biscuits or shortbread (it’s Scottish innit so obviously went for shortbread)

For the filling:
600g full fat cream cheese
200g  golden caster sugar
4 eggs plus one extra yolk
zest of one small orange (plus some extra to garnish)
few drops vanilla extract
300g sour cream
250g mincemeat

You want a round cake tin with a removable base about 22cm in diameter and 7.5cm deep. Line it with baking parchment. To make the base first smash up your shortbread (or biscuits). Food processor would be best, but in its absence I improvised with a mashing mallet and angry thoughts.

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and mix in the shortbread crumbs. Tip the glistening crumb mix into the tin and smooth out (don’t mash it down). Put in the firdge for half an hour to set.

While it’s in there, set the oven to 140 and make the filling. Put the cream cheese and sugar in a bowl (or food processor) and blend for a couple of minutes until smooth. Add the eggs then the extra yolk one by one, beating thoroughly and scrapping the sides inward if needed. Add the zest and the vanilla extract and blend with the food processor or hand blender. With just a spoon or spatula, mix in the soured cream. Then fold in the mincemeat gently.

Take the base out the fridge and place it on a piece of baking parchment on a baking tray. Pour in the filling mixture. Bake in the oven for an hour. The middle will still seem uncooked and wobbly but do not fear. After the hour, turn the oven off but leave the cheesecake in the hour for another hour with the door shut. After, remove from the oven, allow to cool then set in the fridge overnight (do this, you don’t want a wobbly cheesecake). In the morning (Christmas morning!), remove from the fridge and garnish with orange zest, and if you fancy, holly. Merry Christmas!

Manson (SW6)
The owners of secret-gem gastropub The Sands End have upped their game to a fully-fledge restaurant in Manson, bringing in ex-Ramsay protégé chef Gemma Tuley to give a very un-pubby gastro French flair to their brassiere-style offering. Knowledgeable young things explain the menu peppered with ‘my favourite’ and appetite-whetting descriptions of the more inventive twists on classics sitting t alongside the untwist-ables such as oysters, terrine and lobster thermidor with truffle mash (don’t leave until you’ve tried it). But it’s the sharp presentation and interesting execution which lifts Manson head and shoulders above your average local restaurant and that will make it a classic.

Manson
676 Fulham Road
Parsons Green
SW6 5FA
020 7384 9559
http://www.balthazarrestaurant.co.uk/

Red Monkey Lounge (SW11)
Past the burly Friday-night bouncer and through the dimly-lit, packed bar isn’t where you expect to find fine sushi but find you shall, with an Asian-infused cocktail in hand. The menu is tapas-style and with a kitchen headed up by ex-Sake No Hana chef Pawal Wiktorek, these are no average bar snacks. Platters (kushiyaki, katsu or tempura) offer an easy introduction, with the grilled ‘kushiyaki’ selection including buttery belly pork, marinated just-done beef and a multitude of marinated veg. Sushi is super-fresh, while tuna katsu and spice ika (deep-fried strips of squid) are battered with the lightest of hands. Plus with three karaoke ‘pods’ downstairs, you can even sing for your supper.

Just a couple of tempting snaps (it was very dark and I, um, kept on diving in before I snapped… well I did say they were tempting – spider maki and the lightest tuna katsu)

Red Monkey Lounge
50-52 Battersea Rise
SW11 1EG
020 7924 6288
http://www.redmonkeylounge.co.uk/

Cah Chi (SW18)
Korean food might not get the top-billing of its Chinese and Japanese neighbours, but Cah Chi is no bit part. The star of the SW London Korean scene at their New Malden branch, the Earlsfield incarnation loses some of the more unusual dishes but excels in the crowd-pleasing barbecued fare. But don’t dive straight for your hot plate: glistening translucent dumplings and spicy stir-fries whet your appetite nicely before the table-top barbecue is revealed and your choice of meat sizzled then wrapped in a lettuce leaf with spring onions and Korean ‘miso’ called chang. With green-tea cheesecake and sake to round things off, plus a BYO on wine, Cah Chi is sure to come to play a regular role.

On our visit we opted for the set menu – hit me:

Our ‘amuse bouche’: fried soya beans, various (slightly mystery) pickled veg and a very-mash-potato-like potato salad… not a highlight, but there was plenty more to come.

Miso soup and more salad, we’re getting warmer…

Now this was more like it and they were coming down thick and fast: vegetable stir fried noodles…

Delicately shiny pork dumplings…

And hot hot hot squid stir fry… yum.

But this is what it’s all about: the barbeque. Over came the waitress, the middle of our table taken out, hot plate lit and we watched on tender hooks as she deftly chopsticked the sizzling pork (it was near as damnit bacon, mmm) until it was crispily perfect.

Then to add a ‘healthy’ element the bac…uhum.. pork was wrapped in a little lettace leaf ‘pancake’ with shredded spring onions and kang (miso-like) sauce… refreshingly delicious.

Now I don’t normally opt for desserts in Asian restaurants a) because I’m normally so stuffed and b) I have, shall we say, a few bad experiences. But green tea cheesecake? My favourite dessert on a health kick? How could I resist. And I was pleasantly surprised… especially when washed down with sake and sticky sweet plum wine.

Cah Chi
394 Garratt Lane
Earlsfield
SW18 4HP
020 8946 8811
http://www.cahchi.com/