Shoes, Holidays and Cake - Aubaine, Selfridges

I've done it! I survived my yoga session on Saturday and I finally got round to booking my flight to distant lands where the sun shines everyday and the temperature is never below 25 °C. At the moment my body hurts like crazy and my bank is on the verge of calling on the IMF AND the European Union to bail me out. But hey ho .... I'm going away on holiday (imagine me dancing a wee online jig)!

I'm off in a couple of weeks but until then a girl has to keep her spirits up and what better way than a long overdue visit to the new Shoe Galleries at Selfridges? 35,000 sq ft, 150 brands, 4,000 pairs on display and 55,000 pairs in stock at any one point - that's a lot of shoe stats. It was intense shoe pleasure - I wriggled my toes in Louboutins, shimmied around in Choos, glided around in Ginas and I even dared to ignore the eagle eyes of the old bats down at Chanel and copped a feel or two of their goods before rushing out (just in case they saw through me and called security!). High on heels (flats and everything in between) we headed for the one section of the shoe area we could possibly afford - Aubaine.

Stuffed to the brim with ladies who shop and men who wait for ladies who shop, Aubaine's limited space was packed. To maximise every inch, tables were jammed together. Customers tried hard to ignore conversations around them and very likely failed. Well, I did ... I became quite fascinated with the stories the 2 girls from New York (very much Londoners for the moment, apparently) next to us were regaling each other with. They too in turn looked suitably horrified the moment after I suddenly exclaimed to my friend, "Oh, have I told you about the guy who's stalking me?". The stalker story is very much true but that's for another time.

My shoe fanatic-in-arms suggested we share a portion of salt and chili squid, unsurprising since she has a bit of a thing for deep fried squid. The dish was actually rather lovely. The squid was pipping hot, the batter was light and crisp and the whole dish was seasoned well. This in the middle of the shoe department in one of the city's most exclusive departmental stores. I'm really quite impressed. They did, however, let themselves down on the lime aioli. Under seasoned and just a tad bit lame.

This was what we came for - cake. Well, I did anyway and ended up ordering their over sized strawberry macaron. Topped with a light handed sprinkle of poppy seeds, the macaron was fine. Not particularly exciting but good. Crisp, light shell with a jammy centre.

My companion chose the raspberry tartlet - yes, raspberries in the middle of January...imagine! Little sweet/tart nuggets sitting on crème patisserie and a crisp, buttery pastry. Served with a squiggle of raspberry coulis. She seemed incredibly happy with it and my little bite tasted just fine.

So what do I now know about Aubain that I didn't know before the weekend?
I now know that Aubaine does a heavy cup of skinny latte, the staff don't know their white wine glasses from their red and the food served is actually rather scrummy, albeit on the steep side. I also know that the service is pretty decent but with slight dips here and there ... like the guy who kept insisting on arranging piles of forks in strict military precision on the service counter right next to our table ... imagine .... *clink, clink, clink, clink, clink ....*

Aubaine
Selfridges, 2nd Floor - 400 Oxford Street, London W1A 1AB

Summer Dinners

Tom Yum Mussels with Garlic and Chili Pasta

The mussels were a spur of the moment purchase from a Chinese supermarket one weekend. I cooked them up with a tom yum spice mix I had brought back with me from Malaysia and tinned tomatoes. Loads of herbs I also picked up from the Chinese supermarket went in - coriander, dill and mint. Served with pasta simply tossed in olive oil, garlic and chili.

Chedder Stuffed Burgers with Courgette Crisps

I stupidly didn't consider the size of my roll when I shaped out these patties. Amateurish mistake! I was so focus on getting the meat to encase the ball of cheese I forgot about everything else. The patties turned out pretty darn good though - oozy melting cheese. Yum. The meat was flavoured with a myriad of different things I found in my cupboard, which is possibly why none of my food ever tastes the same twice :) The courgette crisps were made by deep frying thin long strips of corgettes coated in cornflour.

Full English

Well, not really a full English since I decided against eggs and bread but I got the hash browns that I had been thinking about. I won't take any credit for this meal as Stuart knocked it up in about 10 minutes flat.

Bacon Fried Rice

I had some rice sitting in the fridge, a pack of bacon I couldn't find room for in the freezer and a whole load of bits and bobs lying around. So fried rice it was and bacon just goes so well with just about anything, doesn't it?

Sweetcorn Fritters with a Tomato and Cucumber Salad

Someone mentioned sweetcorn to me in passing one day and I just knew I had to have sweetcorn fritters for dinner that very evening. I mixed up a batch of batter of flour, corn flour and an egg, seasoned it and added some cayanne pepper. I then added as much sweetcorn as the batter could hold. On hindsight I should have defrosted the sweetcorn before I added it to the mixture to avoid the huge sweetcorn clump. Yes, I know it's summer with an abundance of sweetcorn but sometimes I just want a pain free evening that frozen food offers. Served with a simple salad of chopped tomatoes and cucumber topped with olive oil and chili pepper flakes.

Roast Teriyaki Chicken Legs

I marinated a batch of chicken legs in teriyaki sauce, honey, black pepper and spring onions overnight. All I had to do the next day was to shove it all into the oven and dinner was ready 40 minutes later. Served with steaming hot rice, of course.

Grilled Mackeral with Thai Inspired Salad

The mackeral fillets were quickly grilled (about 3 minutes each side) and served with what I like to call a Thai inspired salad (thinking along the lines of the Thai papaya salad, som tam). Long shreds of courgette, carrot, red onion, tomatoes and coriander tossed in a dressing of fish sauce, chili, lime juice, sugar and garlic.

Macaroni in a Fresh Tomato Sauce with Burger Patties

I love summer for it's abundance of fruit and veg and none makes me smile more than the tomato. My tomato love affair is intensely passionate and if I could, I would probably add tomato to all the dishes I cook. I bought a huge batch the other week and I'm desperate to eat them before they go bad. What better way than a fresh tomato sauce with olive oil, garlic and basil. I also added some spinach to my boiled macaroni and fried up some sun dried tomato burger patties (cut up into bite size chunks) to serve with it.

Fried Kway Teow (Thai Style)

My food is frequently Thai style but never truely Thai. I just like borrowing elements from Thai cuisine - I love the freshness, the herbs, the flavour. This is a lot like phad thai but minus quite a few of the essential ingredients like tamarind juice, crushed peanuts, lime juice, etc. I boiled up some flat rice noodles (which I love over and beyond any other kinds of noodles and know it as kway teow or hor fun), fried up some chinese leaf, thinly sliced tomato, spring onion, shredded chicken, prawns and egg. I added the softened noodles to the mixture before flavouring the dish with fish sauce, oyster sauce and my secret ingredient, ketchup. I guess I'm just a big kid who never outgrew her taste for ketchup with almost anything :) Some rough torn basil leaves went in just before the final toss of the noodles for extra flavour.

Aubin and Randall - Soho, London

Knowing my father's fondness for seafood platters, I mentally jotted down Aubin and Randall in Soho as a potential place to eat when he was next in town. The restaurant was always bustling on the numerous occasions I have passed by and the food didn't look too bad either. Reviews online showed the sort of middle of the road comments ... never quite a five but around the three. Good enough to risk a meal with my parents.

A no booking policy meant waiting for a table but with the nice weather and a chilled glass of wine supplied by the charming waiter, the time passed by fast enough. Once settled on our high stools in the teeny tiny restaurant, a little cramped but it's all part of the charm (though someone might want to tell the staff that the slightly overenthusiastic dance music was more than a little out of sync with the Parisian chic atmosphere that they were trying to recreate), we were supplied with bread, butter and olives (a surcharge of £1.50 is charged per person) for us to nibble on whilst waiting for our orders.

Finally the pièce de résistance arrived - the fruits de mer. Our waitress advised getting the minimum order for 2 people (priced at £29.50 per person) with the serving being rather large and getting a few sides to share or another main (or two) later if we were still hungry. And how right she was .... the serving was very generous - a selection of rock oysters, whole crab, giant prawns, Atlantic shrimp, diver picked scallops, whelks, cherry stone clams and green lip mussels. There was supposed to be langoustine on the platter as well but as they had run out for the day we had extra oysters. All the seafood was fresh and tasted good. My father was satisfied. So all was good.

I had started eyeing another table's order of roast chicken and frites when we were standing outside waiting for our table but with our large order of seafood to finish, I had to settle for a side order of fries (£2.65). Not the best fries I've ever had but it had to do for the day.

To jazz thing up a little further with a touch more fried food I also ordered the zucchini frites with basil mayonnaise (£4.95), which were yummy-delish! Juicy batons of courgette encased in light batter served with basil tainted mayonnaise. I absolutely adore mayo with fried food so was particularly delighted with this dish.

After much debate if we should get more food, we finally decided to "not overdo things" and get a main to share instead. The waitress recommended the pan fried king scallops with braised fennel and sauteed potato crisps (£16.85). The scallops were nicely cooked and despite being a fennel hater ... I found it rather yummy. Braised but still retaining a little crunch. The most interesting part of the dish was the sauce which took quite a few guesses to try to get right. Saffron, mango juice and star anise amongst other things ...... who would have thought ... it came out robust with an underlining fruitiness. Even then it was the waitress who came round to inquire if I had guessed the ingredients correctly. Apparently it is a common occurrence with customers who order this particular dish to conduct a taste test on the sauce.

Decent food and friendly service. Our waitress even gave us a little lesson on the French occupation of Algeria as she sorted out our bill. I think my father might suggest another visit when he is in town next.

Aubin and Randall
16 Brewer Street, Soho, London W1F 0SQ

Is There Such A Thing As Too Much Crab?

A visit down to Folkstone over the bank holiday weekend brought me back to London armed with a few goodies courtesy of the bright blue sea.

Four brown crabs needing to be dressed was something I soon discovered was going to be a pretty mean feat. It's one thing to pick, suck and prod at a crab piece for instant gratification and quite another when the eating pleasure is to be delayed. After three long hours picking through the one big beast and three smaller crustaceans, I swore I would never attempt to dress a crab again. There were about a half a dozen little cuts on my hands, crab shell littered the floor and the air was heavy with the salty, wet stench of the sea. Next time I want to eat crab I'll wait till I get back to Malaysia or I'll buy a neatly dressed crab from my local fishmonger who sells them for a very reasonable £5 each.

After all my hard work I was almost tempted to stash the meat away in the freezer until I had managed to get some of the crab smell off my hands (ohhh a few weeks or so ... ) but I went ahead and dressed some of my beautifully picked crab anyway. Some sweet white meat, some brown meat (for that lovely richness), mayonnaise, lemon juice, paprika and ketchup was mixed up for my afternoon snack of crab on toast.

The next day the crab became part of a sandwich - dressed with a little mayonnaise, paprika, ketchup, sweet chili sauce, fish sauce (fishy on fishy = quite delicious), finely chopped coriander and lime juice served on tomato bread with cucumber. Yum ... much nicer than the day before. The other sandwich for the day was ham with grain mustard, rocket and cucumber.

The rest of the crab is now sitting in the freezer waiting for me to decide what to do with it .... chili, garlic and lemon crab with pasta or crab cakes? We'll see ...

I Want Crabs! - Robson Heights Seafood Restaurant, Kuala Lumpur

I wanted crabs, I got crabs - some hefty babies drenched in a thick, sticky marmite sauce and some other suckers enveloped in artery clogging salty egg yokes. I was in high heaven - this was seriously good food.

Robson Heights Seafood Restaurant does some very nice food. The fried noodles are tasty - think it's the extra dose of lard that they use (surely it's near impossible to get food tasting good without a healthy dose of saturated animal fat? Roast spuds in goose fat, toasted crumpets dripping with butter, Hokkien mee with it's little pieces of deep fried pork lard ... ) and most of its seafood dishes are pretty darn good - like those scrumptious fresh water prawns with glass noodles. Heads heavy with roe cooked in a delicious broth flavoured with garlic, ginger, chili and the all important rice wine. However, there were some downsides to their food like the waste of time (and tummy space) lemon chicken and disappointing kam heong clams. Not that the clam dish tasted bad - more like the clams were so tiny, every other ingredient overpowered it.

* I had incredibly sticky fingers from probing every yummy crevice of the crabs, so not many photos.

The Robson Heights Seafood Restaurant
10B, Jalan Permai, Off Jalan Syed Putra, 50460 Kuala Lumpur

It Ain't the Same Without a Bit of Fish and Chips

What is a trip to the seaside without a bit of fish and chips? After a few long hours lying on the beach, walking around the shops ... it really was time for a bit of food again. Getting grumpier by the minute by the endless choice, I finally agreed to a non-descript chippie by the main road overlooking the sea. Bad service and an oily laminated menu later, I got a plate of battered cod, chips and mushy peas plonked in front of me. To be honest the fish was fresh, the batter wonderfully light and the chips crisp ... well, they would have been if my mushy peas weren't dolloped right over them. Oh well ... I stole some of Stuart's un-mushy pea-d chips and I have grudgingly admit the food was good.

We passed this stall on the beach but were still full from breakfast and didn't get anything. Rollmops, anyone?

The burnt structure of West Pier - rather sad really

Sautéed Prawns and Scallops in Garlic Butter

Awhile ago I mentioned that Stuart's mother was coming up for Sunday lunch, which I was admittedly a little worried about. However, it went off without a hitch and I do hope the food was up to scratch :) There was quite alot of food but I always think there should be a bit too much than to have too little. Of all the food we had that day, which included Malaysian beef rendang, Thai red chicken curry, long bean omelette; I only took this one photo - the starter of sautéed prawns and scallops in garlic butter served with a mix green salad with a soy and ginger dressing. Ohh so simple and very good, if I may say so :)

Prawns and Scallops in Garlic Butter served with a mix green salad with a soy and ginger dressing

Fresh scallops - about 3 per person
Fresh prawns - about 3 per person
Garlic - finely chopped
Butter - a very generous knob
Oil - just a touch

• Put a shallow pan on a medium-high heat until it's very hot. Add a touch of oil into the pan - just to lightly coat it.
• Lay the scallops in a circle around the pan, flat side down. Cook for about 1 1/2 minutes or until lightly caramelised on one side.
• Turn the scallops over, starting from the first scallop added to the pan until all the scallops in the circle have been turned
• Add the prawns into the middle of the pan, along with the garlic. Cook for about a minute before tossing to cook the prawns on the other side.
• Put in a generous knob of butter and season. Toss the prawns, scallops and garlic together. Cook for no more than a minute longer - you don't want rubbery seafood.
• Place on a plate and add the tossed green salad to the side.

A bag of mixed salad leaves - or whatever salad leaves you fancy
4 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp Japanese rice vinegar
2 tbsp soy sauce
A few drops of roasted sesame oil
1/2 inch ginger - grated
1/2 clove garlic - grated

• Wash the salad leaves
• Put all the other ingredients into an old jam jar (or any other jar) with a tight screw top
• Shake the jar vigorously to mix the dressing. If it's left to stand, the dressing ingredients will separate - so another shake before pouring over the leaves is advisable.
• Toss the salad with the dressing in a large bowl - but do not do this until the prawns and scallops are ready to be plated.
  

Little Toasts

A few weeks ago my friends who were supposed to come round for dinner ran late - 2 hours late! Starving but unwilling to stuff myself with toast or instant noodles, I made up a few of these little toasted baguettes to tide Stuart and myself over.

I rummaged through the fridge and found some prawns and leftover ceasar dressing. The sliced baguette was lightly toasted on the griddle pan (I would very likely have lost them in the toaster!) and topped with rocket leaves and the prawn, which I had mixed with the ceasar dressing, a light squeeze of ketchup, lemon juice and cracked black pepper. Why ketchup? Well, I was thinking along the lines of a marie rose sauce :)

The second batch of baguette toasts I topped with some of stewed lamb I was making for dinner and a sprinkling of chopped coriander. I exactly remember what into making the lamb - but off the top of my head - de-boned lamb leg steaks, onions, garlic, tinned tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and a spice mix of ground cinnamon, coriander, turmeric, cumin.

Verdict?
Rather good for something that was rummaged up :) The prawns that came pre-cooked from the supermarket were crunchy, fresh and went really well with my "marie rose" sauce. The lamb was tender but slightly lacking in "oomph" - depth. I got a little desperate in the end as I tried adding other bits in to bring out more flavour - ie: maggie seasoning! Haha a lifesaver that ;)

Seafood Spaghetti

With another 2 basa fillets sitting in the fridge waiting to be cooked, I decided to pair them up with other bits and bobs that I needed to use up - some prawns (another buy one, get one free offer from Sainsbury's Taste the Difference range... ha I'm a shameless bargain hunter) and some tinned razor clams that a colleague very sweetly brought back for me from Spain - to make a quick weekday dinner of seafood pasta.

Seafood Spaghetti
Your choice of seafood - I used white fish fillets cut into chunks, peeled prawns and tinned razor clams
Fresh tomatoes - de-seeded and cut into small chunks
Olive oil
Garlic
Small knob of tomato paste
White wine
Fish stock - perhaps a bit of an extravagance if you don't have a large pot of fish bones simmering on the stove but I picked up a packet of this stuff ages ago (yes, another bargain find) and it really does make a difference to the overall dish.
Basil - I used Thai sweet basil as I had it in the fridge but the normal stuff is great too

• Boil the spaghetti according to the instructions on the packet
• In a large pan, heat up some olive oil on a medium heat. Add the garlic and let it sweat for a few seconds but careful it does not to let it colour.
• Add the tomatoes into the pan and cook them until they are almost broken down. Add the tomato paste and cook for a few seconds.
• Pour in the wine and let the alcohol cook off. Pour in the fish stock and bring to a simmer. Put the fish gently gently into the pan and make sure they are evenly scattered throughout. Let them cook for a few minutes.
  
• As the fish is about done, add the prawns, which only need warming through, and the razor clams. I added the liquid from the tinned clams as well. They contain all the yummy saltiness of the clams.
• Bring the pan to a simmer and ensure that everything in the pan is properly heated through. Season.
  
• Serve with the spaghetti and a sprinkling of torn basil leaves.

Verdict?
The basa fillets are definitely more suited for steaming with ginger and soy sauce or perhaps with lemongrass, lime juice and chili or even pan fried with a dash of soy sauce. The 'freshwater taste' came through quite strongly in this dish and was a little out of place. Otherwise the dish was very tasty and perhaps a tad extravagant for a midweek dinner but it's easy to put together if you have a few bits and bobs lying around, like I did. But maybe the addition of some chili would liven things up a little?

Spaghetti with Smoked Haddock and Prawns

A quick weekday dinner of pasta with smoked haddock, which I got discounted at Waitrose (yay!) and prawns, which I also got discounted - this time from Sainsbury's (double yay!). Yes, I'm quite the queen of a good bargain.

Smoked haddock - the dyed variety, unfortunately. It was discounted, so can't complain and it was very good. Can't fault Waitrose :)


Some shredded courgette - me experimenting with my new toy, a that I brought back from Vietnam. Originally intended for shredding green papayas for green papaya salad, I used it on some courgettes as they are roughly about the same .. 'hardness'. It works quite well, except of course courgettes have a higher percentage of water. I know texture and taste wise both the courgette and papaya are quite different, but shredded courgettes make a nice substitute in Thai inspired salad, with tomatoes, cucumber, lots of herbs - coriander, sweet basil, some lettuce, some avocado. Like I said - "Thai inspired" ;)


Out comes the pan and in goes some oil, lots of garlic, some diced de-seeded fresh tomatoes, the hearts of the courgettes that were too floppy to shred (the middle bit where the seeds are) and a handful of sliced button mushrooms. A splash of white wine and the smoked haddock in and once the fish is nearly done, in goes the prawns for a minute or two to heat through. Season and its done.

The result - a nice smoky-ness from the fish, a good punch from the garlic, nice crunch from the prawns, slight tart-sweetness from the tomatoes and an interesting contrast between the long shreds of courgettes and the spaghetti. The more traditional of you would shake your heads at the sprinkling of Parmesan over the top but what the heck, the smoked fish provided a good platform for a little of that hard salty cheese. All in all, thumbs up :)