Fish

February 6, 2015 1 Michelin Star

Angler, Moorgate

Angler, hidden in the heart of the City of London, is one of my favourite restaurants and was another on our hit~list now we’ve returned. Tony Fleming set up Angler three years ago, and since achieving his first Michelin star within a year, he’s taken the restaurant from strength to strength ~ there’s a constant and steady hum of diners in the glittering mirrored room. I’m a little bit obsessed with meticulous attention to detail, and there’s nothing to fault here.

The glory of being in a fish restaurant is that I can literally eat my way around the menu, and where dishes do contain a meat element {such as veal cheek}, Tony replaces it with something {to my mind} more luscious, such as a plump and juicy langoustine.

Angler always delivers ~ do check out the dessert offerings, which are more beautiful and delicious each time we visit.

Cauliflower cheese {soup}, with a parmesan galette

Crab cocktail, deep fried Porthilly oyster, rouille

Onto which is poured a crab bisque

Shellfish ravioli, chive and tomato butter, fennel and ginger slaw, lime

Scallops, langoustine, carrot purée, ginger, jus

Brill, ragout of squid, fennel purée, sea purslane

Lime posset, spiced bread {dehydrated and fresh}, mango, meringue

Flourless orange cake, grapefruit, Grand Marnier, roast almonds {salted}, roast almond ice-cream

Petit fours including a salted caramel truffle {divine}, and Earl Grey fudge {already snaffled by Hubby}

The second the sun shines, you’ll find me here, on the Angler Terrace

Angler
South Place Hotel
3 South Place
London EC2M 2AF
020 7215 1260

November 25, 2012 Fish

Steamed turbot, crushed potatoes with crab, and buerre noisette…

My on-going lack of a gas supply has resulted in me turning to some alternative methods of cooking. I wanted to pan-fry some turbot, in a loose tribute to Tony Fleming’s dish, but actually as his was steamed, it suddenly motivated me to get the steamer out of the cupboard – I’m quite sure it’s not even been used a dozen times – but now it was going to come into it’s own! Needless to say the children had eaten all my lovely tomatoes – so the sauce vierge was also going out of the window. I swapped over to a beurre noisette and capers – and here you have it…

The potatoes would apparently take 45 minutes in a steamer (45 minutes ?!?!?!), and the thickness of the turbot looked as though it would take 15 minutes.

I cooked the buerre noisette on a portable induction hob, ensuring that the butter had gone to a golden colour – then throw in some capers – and in my case, a little white balsamic vinegar, my new addiction.

The potatoes were crushed with a little white crab meat, and some sorrel and butter….

Overall, actually pretty quick, extremely effective and the steamer may find a place slightly higher in my list of gadgets than previously…

September 3, 2012 Fish

Halibut, with Salsa Verde and a Citrus Dressing…

I have finally found a decent fish supplier – hurrah! Despite the fact that I live less than three miles from a harbour, it’s almost impossible to buy fish locally. I think most of it seems to disappears straight out of the town. I was bemoaning this fact to Matthew at the michelin starred Montagu Arms, and he introduced me to their suppliers – Premier Fish… A quick look on their web site sent me into small ecstasies – there’s brill, turbot, halibut, lobster, prawns, clams, anything you can think of – fabulous. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to do something “big”, so, meet my chum, the 3kg halibut, dubbed Herbert by the 11 year old.

Halibut is a pretty high end fish – it’s delicate yet meaty, a stunning white colour, with an open texture. It can handle pretty robust flavours, and when I spotted a recipe by Tom Kitchin which included salsa verde a citrus dressing, and olives, I knew I had to make it. I’m a huge fan of Tom’s. He’s worked with and for Pierre Koffmann, and a number of other excellent chefs. As a punter, it’s always fabulous when you find a chef who’s palate matches your own personal preferences, and Tom inspires me utterly. Some flavours are understated, others are incredibly bold – but always the produce is allowed to shine through to show respect to the ingredients… That’s my kind of chef!

The joy of a restaurant recipe is that you tend to find the chef has broken the dish down into stages, many of which can be completed in advance. In this case the salsa verde, citrus dressing and vegetables can all be prepped earlier in the day. The fish itself requires no more than 6 minutes cooking in total, so it’s perfectly viable to do that bit of the dish at the last moment.

Now of course it isn’t necessary for you to buy a whole halibut, heaven forbid! I bought one because I really wanted to fillet it :0) Filleting a big fish is hilarious – it’s practically wrestling – but if you’re interested in having a go, there are several excellent videos on YouTube – just make sure you choose the right fish. Oh, and another fishy point, farmed halibut will have a mottled underbelly, where wild will have a white belly…

Ingredients
Salsa Verde
2 tablespoons chopped basil
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
1 tablespoon mint
3 tablespoons capers
4 anchovy fillets
1 garlic clove, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
150ml olive oil
4 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 lemon, zest and juice
(You might need a tiny bit of sugar to balance the acidity)

Citrus Dressing
4 lemons, segments and zest
8 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil

Vegetables
6-8 new potatoes (I used fir, didn’t have any new to hand)
vegetable oil
100g fresh samphire (didn’t have any)
12 olives, pitted and chopped (we both used black)
300g baby spinach
2 tablespoons chopped chivesFish
2 x 200g halibut fillets

To Serve
chervil and dill
micro leaves if you have them
diced croutons made with 2 slices of white bread

Method (in advance)

To prepare the salsa verde, blend everything together until smooth, then set aside in the fridge
For the dressing, toss everything together and set aside
Cut the bread into small dice, and fry in oilive oil until golden
Boil the potatoes until cooked, and cut into slicesWhen ready to serveFry the potato slices in vegetable oil until crisp and golden brown
Add the samphire, and chopped olives, then the baby spinach, shallots and chives
Pat the halibut fillets dry, and sason well with salt.
Heat two tablespoons of vegetable oil over a medium head, and add the fish.
Cook until they are golden on both sides, turning once.
This will take around three minutes per side. Allow the fish to rest for 3 or 4 minutes

To plate

Put a pool of salsa verde onto each plate
Top with the vegetable mix, then the halibut
Spoon the dressing over the halibut, and add some croutons
Garnish with the herbs (and micro-leaves, if you have them)

The salsa verde and citrus dressing don’t clash – there are so many other big flavours that they work together well. The last time I had something similar, it was actually a rabbit dish, cooked by an Observer food editor twenty years ago, and had the same earthy and bright notes… I know they sound completely different, but they strike the same note within my palate. Hubby and the 11yo had cleared their plates before I’d even finished photographing mine – and wanted to know when I could make it again! Another victory for the lovely Mr Kitchin.

You can find this recipe in Tom’s first book, and don’t forget his second is due out imminently! >

June 12, 2012 Fish

Aqua Grill in Soho, New York…

I’m in New York – hurrah! City to some of the finest restaurants in the world, and a mecca for foodies everywhere. Every street corner boasts a diner or deli, and with produce coming in from all over the country and overseas, it’s no surprise that it also has restaurants like Aquagrill.

On the day that we visited, Aquagrill had no less than 27 kinds of oysters available on its huge ice-packed counter… And that’s just the oysters. There were also countless kinds of fish, produced in a myriad of different ways.

We were six for dinner, and in the time we sat there, tables emptied and refilled around us. Platters of fruits de mer seemed to be the most popular dish, and trays heaving with shellfish poured up and down the room. It’s obviously an extremely popular local restaurant, and the pace never lets up.

There’s just one tiny problem – I can’t actually eat oysters… Yup… So why come here? I chose Aquagrill precisely because I appreciate this kind of dedication – fish and shellfish of this standard should be applauded, and I just wish we had something comparable in London. Of course we have Scotts, Bentleys et al, but this is different – this isn’t a fine dining restaurant – this is just sheer and unadulterated homage to the produce, served in a continental style.

Given that there were six of us, it would have been impractical for me to photograph everyone’s food (not to say annoying in the extreme), so I have my dishes, and a couple of others…

The kitchen sent us some lobster tartare on a game chip to begin – really good tartare, some hint of horseradish in there that might have been a touch of wasabi.

Lobster tartare on a game chip

I began with the lobster salad… A good combination of tail and claw meat, well dressed salad, avocado, zingy ruby grapefruit and tiny beetroot dice for texture and sweetness. The lobster was succulent, and a lovely light way to begin the meal. Hubby had this too and thought it very good. The others had lobster cocktail (apparently good), and soft shelled crab (good, but a little salty). I’ll check the other dishes when I get a minute.

Maine Lobster salad with avocado,
ruby grapefruit, and a champagne vinaigrette

Crispy soft shelled crab, with sautéed spinach, jicama,
ortaniques, and micro greens in a spicy citrus vinaigrette

Hubby and I both followed this with a special of the day, porcini dusted loin of yellow fin tuna, porcini polenta, fiddlehead ferns, fresh porcini and arugula salad (that’s rocket to us Brits) in a truffle vinaigrette… What’s not to like? Rare tuna and an intense umami kick from all the mushroom elements. These didn’t overwhelm the tuna, and fiddleheads… Strangely enough I had a (twitter) conversation with Sat Bains and James Tanner recently about fiddleheads, and we were commenting on the fact that they’re eaten more in the US than the UK. I know some varieties are considered poisonous, but these were lovely… I can’t really describe the texture or the flavour, but they eat as you’d imagine they would. Here they completed that sense of the woodland when combined with the porcini, and added an extra forest-like dimension.

Porcini dusted loin of yellow fin tuna, porcini polenta,
fiddlehead ferns, fresh porcini and arugula salad dressed in a truffle vinaigrette

Seared diver scallops, with Peekytoe crabmeat risotto
and sugarsnap peas in a tomato shellfish emulsion

To finish I had the creme brûlée – not the best one I’ve ever eaten to be honest, and I couldn’t get a decent picture of it. The custard was a tiny bit granular – always a possibility with creme brûlée – though the sugar top was crisp and good.

Creme brûlée

Two of my chums had the panna cotta, which they thought was very good, and another two had the apple tarte which they also thought good.

Apple tarte

Overall we had a good meal – the quality of the ingredients were exceptional. Some of us did have a issue with heavy-handed seasoning. It’s difficult to assess – all the food I’ve eaten in NewYork to date has been pretty heavily seasoned, so perhaps this is fairly typical? Certainly this wouldn’t have been the case if we’d tucked into the fruits de mer, and judging by the sheer quantity zipping past our table this is by far the most popular fare! If you’re in Soho, go visit Aquagrill – I defy you to find a better selection of fish and shellfish in any restaurant in the city.

Aquagrill
210 Spring Street

Soho
New York

NY 10012

@AquagrillNYC

August 11, 2010 Fish

J Sheekey’s, Covent Garden

Last week we went, yet again, to J Sheekey’s. It’s one of my absolute favourites – the staff are always polite, prompt, if sometimes a little brisk – but I like that…. It’s part of the atmosphere, and means they’re doing their job.

There are a couple of ways into the restaurant – I prefer going through the customary greeting by the doorman, into the tiny lobby – but you could go in through the oyster bar if you wish. There’s a teeny tiny bar which serves all manner of things in old fashioned martini glasses, and every available space is covered in photos of bygone stars…

In fact you’ll invariably spot a photo you hadn’t noticed before, and be whisked away on some reminiscence of the role they were playing, the production or film they were in… The restaurant is made up of a series of interconnected rooms, all crammed with little tables, all crammed with very animated diners. This is why I don’t mind the brisk staff, you get the impression it’s all run on a very tight and strict schedule – there’s no room for dilly-dallying.

The play we had been to see, Prisoner on Second Avenue, had finished phenomenally early, and we wandered up from The Strand, thinking that we could sit in the bar until our table was ready – not a bit of it – there way a queue out of the door… We wandered off to peek into the antique print shops in the next alley, and came back at 10.15… This time we were greeted by name (so they were obviously paying attention earlier – always a good sign), and shown to the end room… I have to say I’ve never noticed the division of Sheekey’s into the Gods and Wasteland you see in places like The Ivy… I’ve eaten at some point in every available table for two, four and six! Naturally the Hubby knew someone on the next table, so it was already quite late by the time we ordered.

Now, food: Sheekey’s is the sister restaurant to Scotts, and so you find most of what they do here too… You can eat oysters, caviar, tons of fresh fish, the odd nod to the meat eaters, and veggies – but fish is why we’re here!

As a starter I had little scallops, with crushed peas, pea shoots and crispy pancetta – absolutely yummy – one of my favourite combinations; the Hubby had devilled whitebait, which came out in a huge portion, with a serving of fresh tartare sauce to the side – he often has this – and says this is the place to eat it.

I can honestly say that I don’t eat fish and chips, never have and ordinarily probably never will – but I eat it at Sheekey’s and at Scotts. The haddock has a casing so crisp it shatters with your fork, and it’s served with crushed minted peas and chips – delicious!

This is what the Hubby chose, and I did gaze in his direction, but he ignored my fluttering eyelashes. No matter, I had one of my other favourites – the sole served off the bone, with really good bernaise sauce. I had my usual herb green salad – can’t go to a Caprice Holdings restaurant without that – and the Hubby had his parmesan courgettes.

The food was perfectly cooked: the bernaise was both unctuous and light, the sole practically melted in the mouth. The Hubby’s fish and chips really did look delicious, and he tucked in with gusto. It’s difficult to say much more about it, really: I have never had a bad meal at Sheekey’s – I have never had any issues with the staff at Sheekey’s – it’s a fabulous restaurant!

If you’re going to go to one of the Caprice Holdings restaurants for the food (!), it has to be Sheekeys! If you’re going to celebrate your wedding anniversary, or significant birthday, it should be Scotts. If you’re taking your easily impressed aunt from Blackpool, and you want to show off – may as well go to the Ivy – I don’t want you cluttering up Sheekeys for the rest of us…