As many friends know me, I love dining out! 🍷🥩🐌 It is unusual this year that dining out becomes a really precious thing to do with your friends during COVID 19. Luckily we have managed to dine in with my close friends during early October.
Soutine located in St Johns Wood High Street and only few minutes walk from our place. It is wonderful French decor with classic french food without travelling to Paris.
My favourite dishes are always classic escargots, chicken liver pate, scallops (seasonal) and very tasty steak fillets with champagne or wine. The desserts on the other side, were a bit disappointed but cheese set was fabulous.
Eating out with friends are amazing!🎉 You get to catch up with them and enjoy tasty yummy food. Hope we can be back to normal soon and we have to support our hospitality industry!🌍
One lobster (1-2 people) Raw or cooked one all fine.
Garlics (4 cloves, finely chop)
Gingers (4 pieces, chopping into long pieces)
Spring onions (chopping into 3-5 cm long)
White onions (1 small onion, finely chop, optional)
Chilli (few pieces – optional)
Thick egg noodles (2 packs for 2 people)
Some greenery – broccoli or any green vegetables at home
Chilli bean sauce (Doubanjiang, 豆瓣酱）1 teaspoon
Black bean sauce (Garlic black bean sauce) 1 teaspoon
Cornstarch (2 teaspoons with 50ml water mixing with it)
3-4 teaspoons light soy and 1 teaspoon dark soy
Sprinkle some white pepper
Methods: (Easy – cooking time 20-30 minutes)
Clean the lobster and chop of the head off, and using the back of your knife to ban the claws shell opened, put aside.
Boiled some hot water and put the noodle in when it is soften after 3-4 minutes. (see the package instruction)
Medium heat on the pan, put 4-5 teaspoons vegetable/seeds oil into the pan, put all the chops garlics, gingers, spring onions, onions, chilli and fried it until it has all the fragrance and changing colour a bit.
Put the clean lobster into the frying pan and stirred it a bit until it changed into pink colour.
Drained the noodle, washed it with cold running water, and put aside, so noodle won’t be soggy.
Put the chilli bean sauce and black bean sauce into the pan, all the soy in, then cornstarch in, quick stirred few more around, add the noodle and veggies. If it looks too thick, add a bit water to loose it up, and then tasted it and see how is the seasoning, and finally add some white pepper.
I found a brilliant Japanese ramen recipe from justonecookbook Chef Namiko and if you love Japanese food as much as I do. Please check her website, she is brilliant. Easy cook recipe and tasty authentic Japanese food. This ramen broth recipe is from her, but I got some twist to do my topping, is a vegetarian broth base, and you could top up any toppings as you wish. Namiko’s Kimchi Vegetarian Ramen is the base broth of this recipe.
Ingredients:
500g large prawn or tiger prawn
1 knob of butter
3-4 cloves of garlics, chopping into fine pieces.
A bag of small baby spinach
2 pieces of gingers
500ml unsweetened Soy milk for 2 people
1 tea spoon of Chilli bean paste
2-3 tea spoons concentration dashi soup (I got it from Japan centre here)
I simply put a knob of butter, fried the chopped garlic, until it changed into golden colour, then put the clean – washed prawn into the frying pan and season with salt and pepper about 2-3 minutes, when all the prawn has changed into pink colour, not more grey colour. Then it is done. While the frying pan is still hot, put the spinach on the side, it will soak up all the prawn juice and only take 1-2 minutes, it will be done. Easy!
For the perfect ramen egg is here. Or quicker version I boiled the Clarence Court Burford Free range Eggs for 6 minutes, then put into ice bath for few minutes, then put all the eggs into a soy bath (soy, sugar, water) like Namiko did. It always works!
You need to do the eggs one night before, or at least 3-4 hours. The recipe is around 20-30 minutes maximum.
It is our weekly menu when the weather is cold. Perfect for a bowl of ramen.🍜
2020 is a strange year. With global Covid-19 outbreak, we were all forced to put a pause in our life for few months. It has been very hard for everyone. We can’t see our family and friends; we can’t travel and have to work from home and home schooling for our children. It has been very tough for all business and especially all entertainment sectors.
We spent indoor for 3 months when everything was shut apart from essential shops. However, there are many positive sides during lockdown.We created many new hobbits, like baking, cooking, being an artist, a bartender, doing work out at home etc. It feels like forever, but I hope that everything will be slowly return back to normal.
On early July, the eased lockdown has announced. Two of my best friends and I decided to walk through Regents Park to our first restaurant L’entrecote in Marylebone with our kids. We were super excited and it felt so great, and it never felt so happy just to do normal things as we take for granted.
Steak was perfect with their signature sauce and crispy fries, service was as good as before. Comfort and no fuss lunch with kids. Loved it every moment. 🥩🍟🍷
I found Sea Blue recipe from Liquor.com, however, I used my own measurements with a bit twist and adaption, as home-made, sometimes we don’t have all the ingredients at once.
2 shots (50ml for 1 shot) of ocean vodka (or normal vodka)
30ml of Malibu coconut rum
50ml of blue curaçao
10ml lemon juice🍋
30ml fresh squeeze pineapple juice🍍 (or normal pineapple juice)
Coconut ice cubes 🥥 (prepare one night before) coconut water with a bit coconut cream, mixed them together and put into ice cube moulds overnight)
How to shake it:
Chilled the glass, wet the glass edge using the lemon slice, then dip some coconut flakes as a ring. I don’t have coconut flake today, so I used lemon salt instead
Put all the ingredients together with the coconut ice cubes and shake them until icy cold (blue meets yellow become ocean colour, great colour)
Put more coconut ice cube or normal ice cubes into the chilled glass and pour it into glass, garnish with pineapple wedge and the orchid flower (I used one that just fell off from our orchid pot) or you can get some edible flowers instead.
It tastes amazing – fruity, coconut and feel like you were on holiday! 🏄♀️⛱️🌞
First cut the chicken breast in half, I use knife quickly slice on the surface – just few slices and season salt and pepper on top each side. Two chicken breasts will become four thin chicken breasts. (It will cook easily too)
Do the coating: coat each chicken piece in the flour and shake off any excess flour, then dip into the beating egg mix and then coating with the Japanese panko, and make sure all the chicken surface all coating with panko.
Pour some sunflower oil into the frying pan – around 6 big spoons, in medium heat. Wait for 2 minutes when the oil is heated, then put all the coating chicken into the frying pan. Normally I can do 2-3 pieces at once time.
When they cook around 2-3 minutes then flip into another side for 2-3 minutes.
When the chicken is firm and panko looks brown, you know it cooked.
Heat up the Katsu sauce and some vegetable and serve with rice. Simple and easy. （if you are using the Japanese curry sauce, just use one cube, then put 300ml (1/2 cup) water into boil, then put the cube in and keep stirring until it is all dissolving into sauce; if you need to add more water, please do so. )
Mince port meat (100-200g) or Quorn mince meat for vegetarian 100g （猪肉碎100-200g,或是素肉Quorn牌子的都可以）
2 pieces gingers – finely chopped (2片姜片剁姜蓉）
2 cloves of garlics (2片蒜剁成蒜蓉）
1 green spring onion – cut into small pieces (1条葱，切小粒）
Sauce: (调汁）
2 tsp Chilli bean Sauce – Medium heat🌶️ (if not into spicy, 1 tsp) (2汤勺豆瓣酱,假如不爱吃辣的，1小汤勺就好）
1 tsp Garlic black bean sauce (蒜蓉豆豉酱1汤勺）
1 tsp Oyster sauce – optional （if you are vegetarian, you can skip this one) （1汤勺蚝汁（假如你是素食的人就不要下）
2 tsp Soy sauce – light soy (2汤勺酱油 – 普通酱油）
1 tsp Sugar (1小汤勺糖）
1 tsp Sesame oil (1小汤勺麻油）
2 tsp Corn starch (2小汤勺玉米调羹）
How to cook: (如何烹饪）
Combined all the sauces into one bowl and prepare the sauce
Drain the tofu and cut into about 2.5 cm cubes
In the frying pan – medium heat, put 3 tsp vegetable oil and fried garlic and ginger, once changing a bit colour and you can smell the fragrant, add the mince pork / Quorn Mince into the pan, and break it up. For mince meat, cook it until a bit golden colour, and not too much water inside the frying pan. Quorn one once it is changing colour from frozen, then you add the sauce.
Keep stirring and add the tofu in
Try to avoid breaking up the tofu, gentle stirring until it is all covered by sauce and mix well, add some spring onion before turning off the heat.
Slice few line about 1-2 cm on the scallops surface, but don’t cut it through
Using medium heat, Put a knob of butter and let the butter melt
Put some fine-chopped garlics and wait until it is charging colour, put them aside
Put all the scallops cut-side into the fried pan for 3-4 minutes, until it is opened like a flower and changed into the brown colours, turn the other side
Frying another 2-3 minutes, season them and drizzling some lemon juice
I like to use some fine asparagus grilling on the other side
Put few lemon thymes for quick decoration, but you could put few leaves in side the sauce too.
