mama's channa masala recipe

a was sleeping over and i wanted to cook something. i decided it was time to make channa masala. mama's recipe is super easy and requires very little work. with it i boiled plain white rice. a and i ate it with some preserved lemons. pity i didn't have yoghurt. it would have been really nice to have raita but i wasn't inclined to walk down to the local shops thanks to the rain.

yum yum thai

o and i and i got soaked in summer rain on our walk down to yum yum thai in stokey. i had at one point contemplated going to au lac, a trusted favourite but was vetoed by o and i alike. our rain-soaked trio was seated rather promptly on arrival. and from the point of the beginning of our dinner to the end there was a flurry of service. at yum yum thai, the food appears and disappears with alarming alacrity. even on a tuesday night the place was packed full – and yum yum is no small fry. it’s quite a large restaurant.

as part of tastelondon we got a fifty percent of the total bill provided we ordered a starter and an entree each. i went for the yum yum dimsum with a chilli and garlic sauce and o and i both chose deep fried chicken starters. o’s lok chin tod were balls of chicken marinated in thai herbs and served with a plum sauce and i’s golden bags round bags of chicken encased in a deep fried golden and crisp pastry. the plum sauce was more of a sweet chilli sauce than plum. the dim sum was good – not outstanding but good enough. a medley of vegetables and some white meat wrapped in a dim sum wrapper and steamed. the only difference between my chilli sauce and the plum sauce was that mine was chillier.

for mains we ordered the kang peneng, essentially thinly sliced beef in a ground peanut curry with coconut cream and kaffir lime leaves. i picked the chicken stir fried with onions and cashews and i went for the pad ke-mao – stir-fried flat noodles with chilli, holy basil, thai herbs, prawns and egg. we all shared the entrees.

the stir-fried chicken as o noted tasted like pakistani chinese. it was sweet and sour with a base that tasted distinctly like thinned down ketchup. the onions obviously made it sweeter. i had asked for the chilli to be put down a notch in the pad ke-mao but what we got was incredibly bland. we did like the kang peneng which had a lovely and creamy peanut base made luxurious with coconut cream. i wish there had been more kaffir lime leaves to cut through the mellowness of the dish though. overall the kick of chilli and herbs was sorely missing.

our desserts turned to be the best part of dinner. an adventurous take on a classic french crème brulee with the addition of lemon grass and pistachio biscotti was good. i felt that the custard could have been a tad bit warmer but it was good nonetheless. o had the banana fritters with ice-cream. the lemongrass tea was faultless.

overall, yum yum thai was a disappointing experience. all of us had been drawn to trying it out because it was featured in gordon’s f word. the problem is it didn’t taste like thai at all. there was none of the heat and vibrancy of colour that i associate with thai. and the entrees were quite stingy in size.

so, i am pretty certain that we won’t be going back.

yauatcha

o took me to yauatcha for my belated birthday dinner. we had done much short listing and eventually decided on coming here partly because i love dim sum so very much and partly because we’ve been meaning to come here for so long and haven’t managed to make it.

so here we were on a friday night waiting aside the macaroon and chocolates to be seated. shortly after nine we were led down the stairs to be seated. the lower floor of yauatcha is markedly different from the ground floor – the lighting is more subdued and the bar has an aquarium running along it. there is a certain calm to the busy-ness here. everything works clockwork. food appears and empty plates disappear without the bat of an eyelid or a raising of the hand.

o was in charge of drinks so to start with we had a chai la lai – a rather fruity and refreshing concoction of crushed grapes, apple syrup, vodka, oolong tea and some champagne followed by dragon’s well green tea. the chai la lai tasted as good as it looked. i was given the rather difficult task of short listing the dim sum with some suggestions – o fancied the winter melon dumpling with black fungus and straw mushroom and the crystal dumpling wrap with pumpkin and pine-nut neither of which would have been my choice. the winter melon dumplings looked pretty as they were shaped like carrots with the dim sum wrapper in orange and a tuft of green herbs for the leaves, but were disappointing in taste. the pumpkin and pine-nut is a combination that i would pick for ravioli rather than dim sum. in either case i associate pumpkin with autumn not summer. the dim sum wrapper on this was delicate and perfect but once again the flavours were tepid. if i had it my way i would have picked the meaty wild mushroom dumpling or a bean curd roll. i chose the prawn shui mai with chicken, prawn cheung fun and the rice paper prawn mango roll. the prawn shui mai was excellent (which may explain why o ate more of it than the vegetable dumplings he had ordered), the rice paper prawn mango roll an experience of textures and flavours with a crispy fried exterior giving way to a rich creamy centre of prawn and mango. i loved the cheung fun which (i think) was a variation on the tradition cheung fun as between the rice noodle roll and the prawn filling was a layer of slightly crispy fried batter. 

although we had no space for dessert we decided to go all out anyway and ordered the milk chocolate and passion fruit cake with toasted hazelnuts and ginger ice-cream (this was recommended by our waiter). i must admit that i was slightly disappointed at the fact that there were no desserts with green tea or azuki beans. we also ordered a selection of chocolates. the cake was an interesting experience. i would have to deconstruct it into parts some of which were good. the ginger ice-cream was excellent, not over powering in its creaminess or in its taste of ginger and the presence of some thin flaky biscuit added a welcome crunch. the cake on the other hand was a slightly odd concoction of flavours and textures. a thin passion fruit jelly layer between an ultra non-chocolate cream on a biscuit base. in this it was the biscuit base which shone the most with a slightly nutty flavour and light crunch. the jelly could have benefited from a little more passion fruit and the cream with more chocolate.

the chocolates did not disappoint. there was a lovely yuzu one with a hint of sake, a white chocolate truffle with a heady coconut cream and the best of all, a white chocolate and matcha one which has a really intense green tea flavour.

dinner was followed by drinks at the light bar at st martins lane which is one of my favourite bars in london and does the most exquisite cocktails, fruity champagne flutes and strawberry cheese cake shots.

foodlovers market soho

o was staying in to study for an upcoming imc exam so i decided to entertain myself by taking myself down to the foodlovers market in soho. it was past noon and i was concerned that i would have missed the best of it but it was still a buzz when i got there in the afternoon.

i walked around, trying little tid-bits. there were some seriously good and uber sweet cherry tomatoes at david emmett’s stall. the fosse meadows farm has bite sized pieces of rotisserie chicken with a cherry sauce in celebration of national cherry day. at hook and son’s the cream was thick and a really rich pale caramel. the food at madame gautier was beautiful to look at, the deep earthy tones of a beef confit, thick fish cakes with golden breadcrumbs and a colourful medley of salads glistening in their dressings. i tried two types of apple juice at moat farm kenton – one so incredibly sweet it was like honey and the other slightly tart like a granny smith. conscious foods had a range of power snacks which are guilt free and tasted so good that i am convinced it is not possible for them to be. combinations of poppy seeds and sesame seeds, some with nuts and molasses and others with agave – they were crunchy and satisfying, and they are ethical and sustainable too. at the brogdale farm stall i tried cherries that were a dark red-purple with a heady sweetness. i couldn’t resist buying a box. for lunch i had two risotto balls courtesy of the arancini brothers – essentially a cheesy and herby melting risotto held together on the outside in a thin slightly crispy shell. i could have eaten more but was really tempted by the cherry special baking treats at the outsider tart. i bought a dark chocolate and cherry brownie and took to queen’s square and sat in the company of a pigeon and ate (half of) it slowly. there is something about american bakers and brownies. they always manage to get the perfect texture. not too loose so that it’s cakey but not so tight that it is nothing but chewy. outsider tart’s brownie was seriously rich and decadent. a cultured and cosmopolitan brownie that was dark chocolate and melting chunks of milk chocolate with dark purple cherries. o had the other half with a nespresso cappuccino at home.

it’s a nifty little market, this one with something for both those who are there to buy produce and cheese and fruit and those who want something to eat then and there.

ginger and white

o and i spent sunday around north west london, hampstead heath to be specific. our breakfast was a good if slightly harassed affair. we went to the brew house in kenwood house. o was a bit cranky as he’d hadn’t had a snack which made the queue for brunch seem inordinately long. once we were seated outside with our more than generous helping of free range scrambled eggs and sides of mushrooms and tomatoes we were distracted by the wind and some bumble bees. the upside was that the eggs were fantastic – creamy and loose textured. to me that’s a bit of a marvel given how difficult it is to make scrambled eggs in large quantities. but i have to agree with o that it was hard to enjoy brunch when one was being harassed by the elements and having to queue and self-serve. we are both very self-service friendly but brunch is one of those meals that needs to conduct itself at a leisurely pace.

after brunch o and i wandered through the park and eventually found ourselves on hampstead high street. hampstead high street is mostly a proliferation of chains – food and clothing alike. i was here for ginger and white, a decidedly british cafe tucked into perrin’s court. o and i placed our orders after a little deliberation and sank into a slightly distressed and very comfortable leather sofa. o wasn’t particularly impressed with his cold coffee stating with conviction that he can make as good a one at home. i had a lovely chegworth apple and strawberry juice which was sweet and tart at the same time. with it i had a rather generous slice of blossom cake – really a syrup cake with citrus and some polenta. o ordered a friand which came with a crown of raspberries that stained its custard coloured top. the blossom cake was good but having being told that it had polenta i much missed the gritty crunch. in other words it was too smooth a texture. the friand on the other hand was really good, bursting with almond flavour and complimented well by the raspberries.  having looked up a friand, you may be interested in knowing that it’s the australian version of the french financier which is basically an oval shaped cake make with ground almonds.

as o and i finished our coffee and cake, two women came in and ate breakfast at half past four – soft boiled eggs with toast soldiers and a side of baked beans. i guess there is something for everyone at ginger and white.  

4 perrins court

london nw3 1qs