Red n Hot......

One might think that announcing your intention to visit an establishment named "Red n Hot" situated on the outskirts of London's Soho area could raise a few eyebrows!....However hold those thoughts because it's neither a building busily bursting with busty babes nor is it a bordelo bulging with bouncy bi-sexual beefcakes, it is in fact a rather fantastic little Szechuan restaurant.

(I wonder how many hits I get in the blog because I've used those words)

I say fantastic with regard to its food rather than in reverence to it's appearance. It's not exactly plush!

I was first drawn in there by hunger but also too by the name. I like my spicy food and I like to challenge my taste buds to the heat so seeing something called "Red n Hot" with the the suffix "Szechuan Cuisine" was just too tempting.

I always play it pretty safe when I go there and have the same the house special of Sliced beef sichuan style. Described as lavishly topped with chilli & sichuan pepper and I accompanied that with some egg fried rice.

Now I say safe because even though it's incredibly hot (so much so that this time around it even anaesthetised part of my tongue) it's rather tame considering some of the other dishes on the menu......uh hmmmmmm......These are taken directly from their menu and not made up or altered in anyway.

002. Husband & Wife’s Pork Lung Slice
004. Shredded Hot & Spicy Pig’s Tripe
006. Marinated Duck’s Tongue in Chilli Sauce
014. Hot & Spicy Beef Tripe
017. Slices of Pig’s Ears in Sesame Oil
052. Dry Fried Pig’s Intestine with Red & Green Peppers (Sichuan Delicacy)
054. Gong Bao Pig’s Intestine with Peanut
060. Fire Exploded Kidney Flowers, Crisp & Fast Fried
115. Dry Fried Frog Legs with Chilli Peppers(Authentic Sichuan Dish)

And curiously on the vegetable section of the menu one finds these -

140. Dry Fried Green Beans with Minced Pork
142. Aubergine in Fish Flavoured Sauce
145. Diced Chicken with Aubergine in Oyster Sauce
146. Pea Sprouts & Shredded Chicken with Thousand Year Egg in Rich Broth
159. Spinach & Shredded Chicken with Thousand Year Egg in Rich Broth

......You really couldn't make this stuff up but if you still don't believe me you can check it out for yourselves right here

I think I've been there three times now and I've never seen another western person in there. I do get some funny looks when I walk in. I think they must assume at first glance that I'm either lost or delivering something.

Each table doubles up as an induction hob too. They do this wonderful looking dish involving what seems as big bowl of broth which is kept hot on the induction hob and a huge board of meats and vegetables which you dip into the broth to cook then transfer to your bowl to eat.

It looks amazing but I'm yet to try. Firstly because I am not brave enough to even think about what meats are on that board let alone try them and secondly because it's so big that even if I did summon the cojones to get involved I'd never get close to finishing it on my own.

Next time you're in London and feeling peckish I seriously recommend popping in and giving it a go. It's on Charing Cross road on the far edges of Chinatown if approaching from the Piccadilly Circus end.

The ongoing mackerel and gooseberry experiment got another tweak on Monday and I'm pretty chuffed with myself for getting it almost right. This time I made a mackerel pâté garnished with a little chopped fresh mint and served that up with the absolutely winning pickled fennel, toasted bread and a gooseberry purée rather than a jelly.

To make the pate I used six mackerel fillets which I'd cooked in a water bath and then allowed to cool. Of these six fillets I removed the skin from four and blitzed up with some double cream, melted (unsalted) butter and seasoning until it was smooth then into it I folded the flaked remaining mackerel fillets and put in the fridge to set.

Of course you don't have to use a water bath you can just grill, bake or steam them.

The acidity and anise flavour from the pickled fennel compliments the mackerel so perfetcly and then the sweetness of the gooseberry purée balances it all so well together. The hint of fresh mint gives an added layer of flavour but as it's just a garnish you can choose how much or how little yourself rather than it being overpowering.

This time around I shaved the fennel lengthways. (I used a vegetable peeler, you could use a knife if you're skilled at doing so but a veg peeler is much easier and quicker). It gave it a little more flavour but also added much more of the missing bite from the last pickling attempt. Mix that with the relative smoothness of the pâté, the crunch of the toast and the purée and you get all these wonderful textures and flavours combining.

My only concern with the dish now is presentation. I have ideas for this but it involves rectangular plates and not setting the pâté in ramekins......I don't have rectangular plates, the mould required for setting the pate or a kitchen with decent enough light to take good photos........yet !!!

Toodlepip xx

Gooseberries.......

I've been thinking about these little green orbs of fruitiness since yesterday evening when LSQ2 posed a question on Facebook asking what their followers think they should do with the big batch they've just picked. My mind started ticking right away.

Instantly I though of a classic gooseberry fool. Who can resist the swirled green, slightly sour gooseberry purée mixed up with a vanilla sweetened and chilled chantilly cream perhaps topped with some chopped toasted almonds? I'm not even a big dessert fan but that sounds devine !!

However............

Having ditched my recipe making plans yesterday for an evening of sport and beer at my cricket club followed by a curry from my buddies at the Haweli. I've been enlightened by the thought that gooseberries may very well be a perfect accompaniment for these little beauties...






Mackerel.






All fish like Mackerel need a bit of acidity to cut through their natural oiliness and I think that a couple of nicely cook mackerel fillets over a fennel salad could be brought to life with some lovely gooseberry flavour.

I was first thinking of just a basic gooseberry dressing but then I started imagining how it would feel to eat and how it could be made a little more complex in texture and taste.

You'd get a bit of crunch from the fennel salad but maybe adding some croutons would add another texture level. The dressing would add flavour but why stop there? I'm thinking that adding a bit of fresh mint to the dressing would really lift it all in terms of taste so now it's become a gooseberry and mint dressing....better still a gooseberry and mint jelly !!!!! Even betterrerrerrrerer both a dressing and a jelly !!!

Oh this is sounding good....I'm even going to give cricket practise a miss to make it. Actually I'm going to make both. Massive gooseberry off this evening :-)

Toodlepip xx

Bass..how low can you go?

I think it's time to talk a little food, not done that for a while and really it was the reason why I started the blog in the first plaice so lets reel it in and get back to basics.

(The fishy related puns in that opening paragraph are purely unin'tench'ional............sorry I just can't stop it now)

So last night after having the daytime urge to cook some Sea Bass I rustled up a rather yummy taste sensation even if I do say so myself, easily worthy of any top restaurant table.

The fish itself is in season so you'd expect it to be at it's best and also at it's best price however I think Waitrose don't seen to get this concept meaning I had to pay around £9.00 for 4 rather skinny fillets, that said they were very fresh. If you want to give this dish a go then 2 fillets per person will make a decent sized main course.

First up I made a little Fennel salad which I wanted to use as the base of the dish. Fennel and Fish go so well together in fact since discovering this food partnership when I was in Italy I can't remember ever cooking fish without fennel.



Take a fennel bulb and trim off the root end and the hollow stems removing any grubby or discoloured outer leaves then thinly slice them lengthways before tipping into a salad bowl.

To this add half a shallot again thinly sliced lengthways, I prefer to use the long banana (enchalon) shallots for this as the shape compliments the shape of the sliced fennel but you can use normal shallots or even 1/4 of red onion.



Finely chop a bunch of flat leaf parsley adding this to the bowl then dress the whole lot with extra virgin olive oil, a pinch of salt (sea salt preferably) and a good grind of black pepper. Set the bowl aside to let the flavours combine.

There are a lot of raw flavours in that salad which I thought might over power the main dish so to soften them up a little I made a basic cherry tomato sauce which I poured over the salad whilst still warm. The residual heat from the tomato sauce is just enough to take the raw edge off the other ingredients.

For this sauce I got some cherry tomatoes and a small finely chopped clove of garlic. these all go into a saucepan over a medium heat and you cook them until the tomatoes start to break up. Once this starts happening add in a glug of Balsamic vinegar and about a tablespoon of caster sugar and let this bubble away for a few minutes until the sauce itself has thickened up a little.

Adding the sugar balances out the acidity that you get from the tomatoes and the balsamic vinegar. Don't be scared about using sugar in these types of sauces because once you find the right balance it makes all the difference to the finished sauce.

Pour the warm tomato sauce over the fennel salad and you can give it a good mix and then just leave to one side until serving.

Next the Sea Bass. Before you pan fry these off it's a good idea just to have the oven warm, pretty much as low as your oven will go so that once cooked they can sit in there to keep warm before plating up. The fillets themselves will only take a minute or two to cook and they are so simple.

When pan frying any fish I always give them a dusting of seasoned plain flour as this gives the outer flesh and skin a nice crispy texture when cooked, its the simple details like this that make the difference.

Get a frying pan nice and hot and add in fairly small amount of oil, about 2 or 3 tablespoons, this should be a shallow and certainly not a deep fry. Try to avoid using extra virgin olive oil for this part as you should keep that reserved for salad dressings etc, it's not going to ruin the dish if you do use it but something less aromatic for this purpose is ideal. I've recently been introduced to rapeseed oil. It's virtually flavourless and light in texture which means it's perfect for delicate flavours such as fish.

I'd recommend doing one fillet at a time firstly because you don't want to overcrowd the pan as this will make it lose heat and secondly because the fillets will start to curl up as soon as you put them into the oil and you need to be ready to push them flat to the pan and that can be tricky with two or three at once.

Take your seasoned fillet and lay in the pan skin side down. Watch how the fillet will start to curl upwards as the skin contracts. As this start happening just take a fish slice or spatula and lightly push the fillet back down against the base of the pan, hold it the for about 10 seconds, by then the skin would have started to crisp up and the fillet will hold it's shape.

After about 30/40 seconds flip the fillet over to get a bit of colour on the flesh side, maybe another 30/40 seconds then remove to an oven tray. Repeat this for all the fillets. Keep an eye on the oil though because with the seasoned flour being added to the hot oil it may start to burn and go black. If this happens just give the pan a wipe with some kitchen towel (without burning your fingers) and add some clean oil.

Once all the fillets are fried off and in another dish then let them sit in your warm oven until ready.

The final part which I think makes this dish a bit special is the addition of some chorizo. Again this is a classic flavour combination and is used extensively in Spain and the nowadays seeing fish and chorizo on the menu at top restaurants is very common. Perhaps a little more is the addition of goats cheese to the chorizo. I've stolen this little gem off Glynn Purnell who is one of my favourite chefs.....I'm sure he won't mind at all :-)

Take about 50g or Chorizo per person, remove the tough skin and dice the sausage into about 1cm cubes. Throw this into a hot frying pan and let it crisp up. As it's cooking you notice the beautiful smokey flavoured, paprika infused oil that seeps out of the sausage, again don't be concerned by this, yes it's a little naughty but the taste is phenomenal and well worth those few extra calories.

When the chorizo cubes look like they are crisping up take some of the goats cheese and crumble it into the pan, you don't need much, perhaps a thumb sized amount, it'll all melt together with the oil and make a wonderfully rich sauce.

All that's left to do now is to plate it up. Take some of the fennel salad and put in in the centre of the plate. On top of this place your two Sea Bass fillets then spoon over some of the chorizo cubes along with some of the sauce an dthere you have a rather wonderful dish that I'm sure will impress your friends and family alike.

Try it...you'll love it and it's easy peasy.

Toodlepip xxx