My Very Own Beef Stew

It's winter time now and wrapped up like a giant snow(wo)man, I decided its time for some comfort food. Taking a peek in my fridge/food cupboard, I have 500g baby potatoes, chestnut mushrooms, onion, 450g of beef shoulder meat, a can of organic chopped tomatoes. With my spice rack, I think I could just about whip up my first winter stew!

Having some rough idea forming in my head, its always helpful (and advisable) to sense check with my cookbook collection. There were some beef stew suggestion, but non of them I actually have the exact ingredients and patience for them. So, its the usual Grace-style improvisation and doing it my way :)

I normally don't eat beef and have been trying to beef up my consumption of it lately since its so nutritious and contains lots of good-for-you iron and protein, without too much fat. The thing about stews is that although the ingredients list is more extensive than say a chinese stir-fry, but the cooking method requires way less attention to speed/timing. There's always a trade off, but never in flavor, cos you have to have confidence in your awesomeness always (not too much tho).

So I just quartered my mushrooms, sliced the onions into thin long strips, washed the baby potatoes and cut the meat into big chunks. Heat up some olive oil, and fry the onions till brown and soft. Meanwhile, put a tablespoon of flour into a plate, season with some salt and pepper, and lightly dust the meat, and fry them along with the onions for another 5 minutes or so. Lastly, add the mushrooms, potatoes and the tomato puree in. Mix thoroughly and season with salt and pepper to taste. I added a glug of red wine in too :P If you find it too dry/thick, add a cup or two of water and let the mixture boil for a 2 minutes. Don't forget to put in some herbs (basil/oregano/thyme/rosemary, I had these mixed in a bottle) and sprinkled some on for a nice aroma...

Then, in a slow cooker pot, pour your stew into it and leave it for 4-5 hours on medium heat. Your flat will smell pretty lovely by then and its ready to be served, with warm crusty white baguettes or just a simple buttered brown toast, just like below...

Enjoy!

Santorini - The Fairy Tale Island

Night time at Athens was another eye-opening experience... Strolling along the streets after dinner, passing by Syntagma square, we spotted a lifesize version of a choo-choo train, and it moves around the city! Apparently its called the Athens Happy Train, an alternative way to sightseeing buses, which from the name sounds like something to fetch around a bunch of people high on dope...

Arriving at the airport for the flight to Santorini, we somehow landed in the local McDonalds where I spotted something Greek on offer - Mozzarella Balls. Didn't try it but looks good!

P was hungry and happily munching McFarm, a burger filled with 2 pork patties that tasted just like sausages, with some salad and cheese sandwiched in between. A tad too salty for me I find, always preferred burgers like GBK ...

The short 35 minute flight to Santorini was delayed, nevertheless the breathtaking views made everything worthwhile. This is the amazing balcony view we had at our hotel in Imerovigli, just facing the caldera, with the soothing sea breeze, ever so quiet and peaceful ...

Apparently people in Greece do everything 2 hours later than the 'norm', something like the Spanish, having dinner at 9pm, clubbing starts at 11pm, waking up after 10pm, etc, you get the drift. So not a surprise that arriving at 7pm in the morning wasn't a great idea, especially after not much sleep the previous night. But then, it was time to explore the area despite the grogginess, we enthusiastically headed for the nearest town Fira, which was the capital city of Santorini ...

This is a great snapshot of Imerovigli and Fira (further at the back). One thing unique about Santorini (not sure if it's a Greek island thing as haven't been to others), is that the buildings are built as part of the mountain, hence inheriting the hilly and disorganised structures, with a small path connecting each of them. Personal balconies were a big feature of the hotels, as most people came here to have a tan, with outdoor chairs and small swimming (dipping) pools are all readily available.

We made it to Imerovigli 'town' as still unsure of how to walk to Fira without getting confused (no road signs!). Wouldn't call it a town per se, a street of shops is probably appropriate. But it has all you need as a tourist, a few restaurants, mini markets, souvenir shops, an ATM, car rentals and a bakery. And breakfast at the local bakery called "The Sun" was a good start ...

I had a huge Apple Pie pastry for €2. It was fresh out of the oven and tasted heavenly, without being too sweet at all, perfect.

P had something local, a Feta Cheese Pie, which wasn't that great. Basically too little feta cheese encased in too much flour/bread that was too dry to begin with.

With not much to do and whole of the island still pretty much asleep at 9am, a morning stroll back to the hotel for a nice big nap was super appealing. Nothing beats the calm sea, cloudless skies and warm sunshine ....

Feeling more refreshed (and hungry) after a good long nap, we started to make our way to Fira. It takes about 20-25 minutes walk, but it was a pleasant one especially when not too hot in the late afternoon. On the way, in a mini town called Firostefani, we got some 'Mipantas' from the supermarket. At least I think that's what I heard from the lady cashier. Mipanta is a local biscuit, very simple nothing special, but so good and so easy to pop in your mouth, hehe. Made of flour, sugar, egg, it has a slight hint of vanilla sweetness and crumbly texture. Good snack to have with some outdoor reading in the island...
And we made it to Fira! Here's a view of the city from top of the mountainous route we took. A lot of cafes and restaurants are set up here as to the right of this is simply just the sea, all buildings facing the caldera , but from a lower point than Imerovigli ...

For dinner, we headed to this place called Stani, situated right in the center of town, boasting volcanic views of the island. Pretty excited to finally try out some local specialties that I'd read so much about.

For starters, we had Aubergine and Tomato Keftedes. Keftedes is a generic name for fried items in ball shape I presume. The Santorini Aubergine is special, where instead of the usual purple skin we're so accustomed to, Santorini's is white and hence I was intrigued to see if it tasted different. The aubergine keftedes was crispy outside with a melt-in-your-mouth texture within, tastewise similar to its purple cousins I'd say, nicely spiced and not too salty.

However, what I was more interested in was the Tomato Keftedes, which just got me thinking how can you deep fry tomatoes without making a mess out of them? Especially after tasting amazing local tomatoes at Athens, would it taste better fried or just left alone simply? And here's what we got ...

It looked like banana fritters (pisang goreng) back home, but somehow they managed to fry the tomatoes in a very light and crispy batter, retaining all the sweet juicy tomato goodness once you chew into it. I still have no idea how they did that, but it was truly amazing!

So progressing to the mains, I chose Stani's chef's special, Lamb in Vine Leaves, which our host assured us it authentic and within the family recipe. It was indeed very homey looking, with the meat stuffed with feta cheese and red peppers, wrapped with a layer of vine leaves and slowly braised to produce the soft texture. Served with boiled potatoes and rice, it was definitely a healthy change from the starters :) I was full from the starters, but thoroughly enjoyed something so simple infused with natural flavors.

P went straight ahead with traditional Mousaka, and it certainly looked mean and done the proper way. No more mushy, cheesy and messy unauthentic attempts one so often see at confused restaurants, this one means business. A thin layer of cheese, lots of aubergine as base, and lean minced beef in between, with a sprinkle of herbs on top, P was happily munching away and it was super filling.
It was a good first dinner, but we weren't fans of the local wine I must say. Nothing that interesting and the white was pretty flat in taste, but good food made up for it :P

Meanwhile, the crepe shop next to Stani had some interesting (weird) suggestions for the possible combinations for a crepe filling ... Chicken, banana, curry, yoghurt and peanuts anyone?

Soon, it was time to head back and here's a sneak peek into the beautiful sunsets I was raving about previously ...

The Roadhouse Tex Mex Mania

Time to revive the American fast food days, with a Tex Mex twist! The Roadhouse near the Covent Garden market fits the occasion perfectly. It gives the whole authentic experience, with the American diner deco, food quality AND quantity a class above the TGIF chains! There were special Happy Hour deals with buy one get one free cocktails before 7pm too, combined with a half price offers on mains, definitely one good value place for excellent Tex Mex selections.

Starters was Nanchos Grande, and they do mean every bit of that phrase. Definitely an overload of melted cheese with crisp tortilla chips, served with a cheese fondue, sour cream, salsa and fresh guacamole!

P had Philly Steak Sandwich, a tender 8oz prime sirloin steak with caramelized onions, sautéed mushrooms, red & green peppers and topped off with melted cheese dipping gravy. Comes with a little salad garnish and some fries on the side too.

I on the other hand, was feeling more carnivorous that day. Given that I don't take beef pretty much limits the menu (majority is steak/burger variety) to chicken, pork or fish. And there's no way of having fish in an American diner (leave it to the French :P), so it's definitely Smokin' Ribs and Chicken: half rack of bbq ribs and a grilled breast of chicken basted with smoky bbq sauce, served with french fries and onion rings. I did try to minimize the guilt by swapping the fries and onion rings with mashed potatoes and some salad :P Looks pretty mighty to even finish both chunks of meat, but we both did a pretty good effort at it in the end. The nachos had probably taken more space that we thought, haha

A place that I'd highly recommend, especially for big groups of party, since its hard to find restaurants in London that actually fits big groups of people. Fun place for Hen/Stag Nights out too, I did spot a table or two of those whilst there. Cocktail selection is vast, encompassing most of the famous American ones like Cosmopolitan, Big Apple Martini and Texas Fizz.

On the way back I spotted these interesting scooters as well. Which would you prefer? A Spidey one or classic green Vespa? You know me, choice is always the latter :) Happy Easter to all of you!

Swanky Sweden II

Speaking about my IKEA furnished rooms previously, here's a few pictures for illustration. Strangely how something so basic and simple can look so elegant and classy, don't you think?

Even the wash room is spacious and practically designed. You can see the simple curtains for the shower on the mirror image. Somehow everything in Sweden seems to be designed to maximize space without making it look tacky or extremely claustrophobic, especially noticeable in the place we stayed in Stockholm. Apparently Britain may start building "IKEA-villes" in the future to increase home affordability for first time buyers, with houses/apartments furnished with IKEA furnitures and designs to save space. That'd be cool to see :)

Dinner was a stone's throw away from our hotel. Barely 20 seconds walk there (yup, the island is that small). I decided to take my parents and family for a full fine dining experience, not sure why I decided to do that in Sweden, a country with 25% service charge :P (ouch!). But it's well worth the time and money of course as I get comical responses from my parents given its their first time trying out fine dining.

Starters are either Seafood Cocktail with Buttered Toast

or Grilled Scallops with Asparagus Soup. I got my taste of both and I must say the latter is slightly better and more unique as I've never had home made asparagus soup before. It was creamy with tiny bits of asparagus, served in a dainty cup as you see below. The seafood cocktail was light and well dressed with citrusy flavours, matched well with the mini buttered toast. Grilled scallops done to perfection, lightly seasoned and bursting with springy-ness. Yumz!

I had Chargrilled Lamb shoulder with Polenta. I usually like my lamb slightly medium done, still pinkish, hence this fits my palate nicely. I was quite excited to try out Polenta too, which is basically coarse ground cornmeal, forming a thick mush after boiling and lightly salted. To describe the taste, let's just say Polenta is to Italians, what potatoes are to the Brits. I quite like it for a change of scenery after 5 years of potato, but I think I'd still miss my potato mash after a while :P

G had Steak with Mash and Tomato Salsa, I'm sure they'd a nicer name but the menu was in Swedish, hence I'm providing the basic breakdowns, heh. I don't really take beef, but with the lightning speed he ate, I'm sure it's good stuff.

M chose to have Squid Ink Tagliatelle (pronounced tah-lyah-tel-le) with Poached Sea Bream and Asparagus. You all know I'm a super-big-squid-ink ANYTHING fan (well, maybe not a drink on it's own), so I was relieved when M liked my recommendation :)

Think the highlight of the meal wasn't really the taste of the food nor ambiance of the restaurant, but rather the opportunity to be able to gather around as a family over dinner, and more importantly laughing over M's comical expressions of wonder and confusion like "You pay so much for this small amount of food?!". I don't understand much either about the fine dining concept, maybe the price you pay also includes the presentation (BIG plates with SMALL servings), ambiance (candles and yellow lighting etc), and even the expensive rent these restaurants have as they're usually situated at prime locations. I somehow prefer more 'down to earth' cooking, like the ones I had in Portugal, but nevertheless, it's nice to pamper and treat yourself once in a while :)

Swanky Sweden!

Finally managed to get hold of the photos taken from my Stockholm holiday. Thanks to K's Canon SLR, photos (especially the food ones) showed significant improvement in quality! Hope my compromise on getting a Panasonic Lumix TZ2 recently provides an adequate compensation in terms of quality, trading off on it's weight/bulkiness .

Stockholm is a beautiful city by the sea, boasting hundreds of beautiful islands on the archipelago. We spend 5 days in Sweden, with one in Sandhamn, a quaint island just a short ferry ride away from the city. It's my favorite day in Sweden, just because the island is really small and there's not much to do except wine and dine and slacking around, which fits my criteria of a retirement plan :P

There are 3 main accommodation on site, 2 restaurants, a cafe and some grocery stores. That's a tiny island yea? But there are plenty of yachts around that day, as there's a competition going on. We arrived at noon and were instantly mesmerized by the crisp and fresh air, clear blue sky and crystal clear water



Lunch was at Seglar hotel's bistro, the largest hotel at the island (there are only 2 anyway) ...


I had Truffle risotto with grilled vegetables and pesto. It was a large serving, but it was really good that I manage to clean the plate :) The risotto was creamy and fluffy, yet maintained it's bite and not overcooked. The pesto sauce was freshly made, a good match with the lightly salted grilled peppers and even the truffle risotto.

G had beef for starters. Somehow I can't recall what it's called, but it was a roast beef dish served with some grilled vegetables and sausages, in a spicy tomato sauce, if not mistaken. Ain't it pretty?

M had fish for main course, also beautiful presented below. Poached lemon pike in a cream sauce served with vegetables. I really like the way to line up the carrot, beetroot and radish, not chopped up and on top of each other, making something so common and plain special.

And after lunch, all of us just retreated in our IKEA-like furnished hotel and slept for the afternoon... Now that's a real holiday :P

Delightful D'Arry's

What better place to bring your family and friends for a meal in Cambridge?

I know, I know, I'm raving about d'Arry's again! Cause it's simply the place to impress, whether it's to show off British cuisine in a non conventional way, or that Cambridge is just not another nerdy town with pub grub and kebab stalls only :P

Graduation lunch here with my family and Yan provided the avenue for us (mainly me) to provide a more objective review of their main courses. All of us went for their main instead of lunch menu which only consist of lighter meals like sandwiches and wraps. My oh my, their menu didn't disappoint.

Ready to feast with your hungry eyes, mind and soul??

I chose Fish Pie (£10.80) which is a combination of salmon, smoked haddock and prawns on a bed of spinach, baked in a fresh and creamy white wine butter sauce with Parmesan herb crusted top, served with beautifully roasted baby new potatoes and seasonal vegetables. Yes, everything about it sounds evil with cream and dairy overdosage, ah well, it's graduation :P I'd have preferred a crustier top though, and given their extensive menu, I'd say that there are better options out there. However, their roast potatoes are to die for ...

K ordered Fish of the Day, which was Grilled Sea Bream on a bed of roasted seasonal greens. Look at the picture. Never have I seen such a beautiful masterpiece. Not only beautiful by sight, it was also grilled to perfection, with it's succulent texture and crispy skin lightly seasoned with salt.

I'd love to be able to do this dish in the future since seafood is my favorite thing. Something simple yet with such powerful impact if done perfectly ...

M had the Bacon and Barbecue Chicken (£ 8.95), which was reviewed in my previous post on d'Arry's. This is a safe bet with chicken breast grilled with a bacon rasher (to prevent dryness), BBQ sauce and melted Cheddar cheese, served with chunky chips and seasonal vegetables. The sauce was still good with a gooey consistency, something like sweet and sour sauce with extra cheesiness :) I absolutely love the chunky chips, their presentation makes big fries trendy again!

G had the 12 oz Scotch Rib-eye Steak (£ 13.95), grilled on demand with chunky chips, roast tomato, onion rings, seasonal vegetables with peppercorn sauce. Needless to comment on how it tasted like as the dish was finished pretty quickly, a big complement coming from a rather picky eater! However, I can't believe he didn't touch the onion rings! I'm not much of a fan as well I must say, but look at those irresistible onion rings and how can you not at least try them?! Boys ... :P

D had the special Dish of the Day, written on the blackboard. I don't exactly remember the name, but all I recalled was that he ordered Pan fried Shark Meat, how cool is that! It was served with some sort of sauce and vegetable dressing, with a purple potato timbales beautifully decorated on the side.

Ok, I might have just said a confusing and incomprehensible sentence. Let me explain ...

The Purple potatoes itself are uniquely of Peruvian origin. They are a smaller oval-shaped potato with a purplish black outer skin and vivid purple, dense inner 'meat'. I so love it when you have 'odd' colored food which add a special dimension to a dish! However, I learn that they are less flavorful as other potato varieties and tend to get mushy if overcooked. On the other hand, timbales is a cylindrical metal drum which are played with 2 sticks, seems to be common in European/Latin American culture, if I'm not mistaken. Hence the purple potato is shaped like a timbales in the picture below. Now you know what it means if you see the word timbales (pronounced teem-bah-les) in the menu of a fancy restaurant :) This dish received a thumbs up from D.

Yan's choice was also from the blackboard, this was her Shepherd's Pie served with lightly roasted asparagus and root vegetables (carrots, parsnips and purple radish). Highly suspect that purple may be a trendy food color or something :P Anyway, I liked the brown colored sauce dressing. The pie was really good and the vegetables nicely balanced out the gamey taste of the pie.

It was a good lunch fare for a special occasion. Definitely a day to remember ...

Lunch was beautiful :)

Gourmet Burgers

Man, once exams are over, everything is a mad rush (still) in preparation for graduation. Have been going out and eating out most of the time and cooking less these days. Hence the these few upcoming posts would be highlighting a few nice places to grab a bite whilst in Cambridge (UK).

A new burger chain recently opened, marketed itself as an upmarket burger chain called Gourmet Burger Kitchen (GBK). I decided on the Venison burger, with spiced red currant & cranberry sauce and salad. This gigantic thing appeared right in front of me, while I just burst out in laughter, thinking of what strategy I could implement to chow down this thing which is like 20cm tall. Mind you, even if I open and stretch my mouth to the maximum, at most I could attack 60% of the height in one bite. Trying it the civilized way with a knife and fork was the way to go for me, despite the slight annoyance that I should get my hands on it and eat it the real way. :P The meat was medium done, which is perfect with a hint of pinkness, however, I found that the spiced red currant sauce was in fact over-infused with mustard which made it too hot to eat it in one go, where I started to burst into tears as the heat goes up into my nose instantly! But it was good all the same by taking out some of the relish, think they have a flavor imbalance there which is a pity for such a nicely done burger.

On the other hand, P had the Cajun Burger, 100% Aberdeen-Angus Scotch Beef, served with smoked chili mayo, salad & Cajun relish. We ordered a portion of fries for sides to share as well. This is how the Cajun burger looked...

And the cross section (innards) halfway through the quest of eating it neatly without dropping all the contents... As you can see P has better skill in managing his burger and manage to chow it down using his hand, cutlery free, hehe

Overall, I think it's a nice place to check it out, slightly pricier than other chains, but probably worth it only once in a while for a treat. I somehow prefer simpler yet equally tasty burgers in some pubs, and even Ramlee ones which size suits me better. I was full halfway through that giant burger already :) But for more exotic types of meat and sauces, do check GBK out.

Gourmet Burger Kitchen
43-45 Regent Street
Cambridge
CB2 1AB

Opening times
Monday to Friday 12pm to 11pm
Saturday 12pm to 11pm
Sunday 12pm to 10pm

Ville de Conde

This is my favourite day in Porto, simply because we are visiting the beach/seaside, a place that I grew up with :) This is a relatively new place, in the sense that it's quite unknown to the mass tourists and there isn't much of them trampling the whole place down, which is good, as the last thing you would want to see after escaping from Cambridge town is more people. LOL

As a 'ritual' before going home and not seeing my beautiful egg tarts anytime soon, it's something to start the day with, fresh, warm and crispy :P

Next, we wandered around town and found a local supermarket, with eye catching wine prices. Seriously, for 3 Euro's you'll get a really decent wine here. We saw this cookie medley and just had to try it as I thought I was just blinded by the egg tart as Portuguese's only famous pastries. Really interesting mix, especially the one with the burnt bits on the top, shaped like a inverse cone, rich yellow color (there's 3 of them in this pic). That caught my curiosity first and it turns out to be a rich coconut and eggy mixture baked in the over till crispy on the top. Too sweet for my liking, LOL. And no, we did not finish this pack all in one go, let's just say 80% :P

We ventured around town and found the good bakery listed in the mini guidebook. It wasn't hard to find, the town is really THAT small. Besides the egg tarts (again), we tried some odd looking ones which are basically a variant of the egg tarts. Since no one spoke English there, there's no point asking what it is and just try it :) I remember the one on the right with a dust of icing sugar on top, it seems to be less sweet with a richer custardy taste to it. Note that I'd sprinkled some cinnamon on top of the tart on the left. Was on egg tart high that morning, we ate all of that pastries within 1-2 hours of arrival in town -_- talk about binge eating ...

Feeling slightly guilty and quite 'jelak' (sick) of sweet stuff, the beautiful beach was next. It was slightly out of town, and took a good 15 minutes walk at least. The beach is just right next to the residential area, I'm so envious of the ones facing directly to the sea! There is a really exclusive hotel that looks like a some sort of a forte with really high walls and and a bell, facing the sea. The beach is almost unbelievably deserted, except with a really patient man fishing and some (two) sun tanners lying about. Just strikes me how underrated this part of Portugal is...

Especially when you have lunch facing a sea like this, with a good book facing the breeze ...