Feels a bit odd writing about cake when there’s all this shit going down in London, so to that end I’m going to do what I promised in my last post. Be brief.

So another week, another cake mountain. The cakes last week were definitely more technical than the week before. We compared and contrasted the differences between fat based and egg based sponges, including Génoise and Chiffon, as well as making a bunch of different fillings and icings.

Here are a few highlights:

The Fraisier – a light vanilla sponge sandwiching fresh strawberries and mouselline, all topped off with a marzipan disc. Summer in cake form.

Black Forest Gateaux – a modern twist on the German classic. Kirsch spiked chocolate sponge sandwiching a filling of Chantilly and brandied cherries, covered in cherry cream. Das ist gut, ya!

Sachertorte – from Vienna with love. A dense chocolate and almond sponge, a bit of apricot jam, all smothered with a pretty thick layer of chocolate. Always served with a dollop of whipped cream.

Opera – my winner of the week. Thin, dense sponge soaked in sweetened coffee. Two layers of chocolate ganache, one of coffee buttercream, all topped off with a chocolate glaze. Moist, sophisticated and tres tasty.

The Concorde – alternating layers of chocolate meringue and chocolate ganache surrounded by and topped with ‘cigarettes’ of chocolate meringue. Richer than Donald Trump, but with better hair.

The final two days of the week we made wedding cakes. Yep, you heard me right. Wedding cakes. In fact we made two, one more traditional iced with buttercream, and the other we had more creative license.

Here are a few of the results. And yes that is a Pac Man cake. And yes it’s mine. More on this in another post.

So thats it for week 14. Next week we’re doing yet more cakes, and moving into chocolate and confectionery. Until then, I hope all you Londoners are well. Don’t let the buggers get you down.

I’m no food snob. I love a bit of fried chicken. A KFC or Junior Spesh after a night out is one of life’s pleasures. But there’s nothing wrong with elevating it a couple of notches either. I use thighs for this recipe, as to my taste they’ve got the right skin to flesh ratio, and of course that tasty dark meat. I also use a good dose of not very traditional herbs and spices in the coating.

Buttermilk isn’t that easy to get in the UK, so if you can’t get it, some live yhogurt will do just as well. Lets get cookin’.

Ingredients (serves 2)

6 chicken thighs

For the ‘marinade’

1 pint (600ml) buttermilk

1 clove of garlic

1/2 an medium onion

Sprig of rosemary

Sprig of time

For the coating

150g all purpose flour

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

2 teaspoons fresh rosemary, finely chopped

2 teaspoons fresh thyme, finely chopped

salt & pepper

Additional

1 large egg

Oil for frying (ground-nut / grape seed / rapeseed)

250g French beans, 1 large clove of garlic & olive oil (for the sauteed beans).

500g new potatoes, milk & butter (for the mash)

Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

The first thing you need to do is ‘marinate’ your chicken in the buttermilk. The whole point of this stage is to tenderise the meat and to help keep it moist during the pretty intense cooking process. But it’s also a chance for you to get a bit of extra flavour into your meat. Note that the chicken will need to sit in the buttermilk for at least 6 hours, preferably over night.

Pour the buttermilk into a large bowl and then crush the garlic clove under a knife and add it to the milk. Chop the onion in to thick slices, smash the rosemary and thyme with a blunt object to release their oils, and then add them to the bowl too. Give the marinade a good mix, and then add the chicken thighs, making sure each one is fully submerged. Cover with clingfilm and  put in the fridge for at least 6 hours.

Later / the following day, take your chicken out of the fridge at least an hour before you cook it. After you’ve done this, prepare the coating. In a large freezer bag, combine the flour, smoked paprika, salt, pepper and the finely chopped rosemary and thyme. Give the bag a good shake so all the ingredients are properly combined.

Now, set your oven to 180c, then remove the chicken thighs from the buttermilk mixture, and wipe off the excess with some kitchen towel (discard the marinade). Place the thighs in the bag two at a time and give them a good shake around to get them nicely coated all over with the seasoned flour. Set aside, and then repeat until all are covered.

Take the egg, crack it into a bowl and whisk it until the yolk is combined with the white. Again 2 at a time, coat the thighs with the egg mixture, let the excess drip off and then return the thighs to the coating bag. Give them another shake to coat all over, and repeat with the remaining chicken. This double dipping in the flour will give your fried crust extra flavour.

Your chicken is now ready to go. Take a heavy bottomed frying pan easily big enough to accommodate the six thighs (if you don’t have a pan big enough, fry in batches), and fill it up about a half an inch with your oil. Get it good and hot, around 160c, until a cube of bread sizzles and quickly fries golden brown in it. Fry the chicken on both sides until dark golden brown. This will probably take around 4 or 5 minutes on each side.

By now the chicken will have great colour and a crispy texture, but will not be cooked all the way through. So place it on a metal rack (NB. not a baking tray or anything solid or the underside of the chicken will get soggy) and pop it into your pre-heated oven for 10 minutes, or until you are satisfied it is cooked through.

Serve as soon as it’s out of the oven with French beans par cooked and the sauteed in olive oil with garlic, salt and pepper, a rustic, skin on new potato mash, lemon wedges for squeezing all over the crispy coating, and hot sauce (for the record my favourite hot sauce of the moment is Melinda’s original Habanero pepper sauce – it’s killer).

And that’s it in all it’s finger lickin’ glory y’all. Sorry about the lack of pictures. I got a bit engrossed in the cooking process and forgot to snap.

The pre-ferments we used last week are kind of like junior sourdough starters, and mostly come in three styles. Liquid or ‘poolish’ (first developed by Polish bakers), a stiffer sponge also known as ‘biga’ (used traditionally by the Italians) and the more solid Pre-Fermented Dough (PFD). Unlike sourdough starters, they contain a small quantity of commercial yeast to kick start fermentation, and are usually left to develop for between 12 and 24 hours before being added to a final mix. Not only do they add character and flavour, but they also help aid gluten development allowing for less intensive mixing.

We used these different pre-ferments across the week to make a fantastic array of breads, starting with, you guessed it, more baguettes. The reason for doing this is that it gave us the opportunity to do a side by side comparison to see how the different styles effect the end product. Poolish is supposed to be the pre-ferment of choice for baguettes, but to my pallet the PFD tasted the best, with the biga coming off in last place.

Following on from this we incorporated PFD into a range of formulas. A Pain Meunier, or millers bread, which contains white flour, whole wheat flour, wheat germ and cracked wheat which is soaked over night, and shaped with dowel to create a ‘fendu’. Plain and toasted walnut whole wheat boules. A simple wheat and rye bread. A classic American intensively mixed, ‘pan’ bread which is enriched with a bit of sugar and butter. A braided egg bread, which is a bit like a less intense brioche, and contains as the name suggests eggs, and also sugar, milk power and butter. And last but not least a multi-grain ‘batard’ which is made with a pre-soaked mix of rolled oats, sesame, pumpkin, and flax seeds. They were all great in their own way, but I loved both the taste and the craft that went into the Meunier.

The use of PFD and ’soakers’ brings with it some interesting challenges from a formula point of view as you obviously have to take out a percentage of your yeast, water, flour and whatever else you are using to create them. I’ve found the calculating and re-calibrating element of the course the toughest part so far as the mathematical side of my brain is one that hasn’t seen any action for quite some time. But I think I’m getting on top of it. Or at least I hope I am.

The final part of the week was a practical ‘test’ of sorts where we were asked to make three different breads . Working in 4 groups of 4, we had to make two different types of baguettes in differing quantities, and one of the more specialty breads from earlier in the week. I think we all did really well. It was pretty hectic and hard work, but our baking schedules all ran pretty smoothly and everyone scaled their ingredients perfectly. There was obviously room for improvement, but as a first attempt at flying solo, it was a great success.

This week we’ve got our first introduction to sourdough, which I’m really excited about, so until next time…

The Great British Fry Up is a thing of beauty when done right, and probably one of the most disappointing food experiences when it’s cocked up. These days the classic fry up at a ‘greasy spoon’ has increasingly been replaced by the ‘posh’, expensive version served in gastro pubs and the like, and many of the old school cafés have gone with it. Earlier in the year, an old favourite caff of mine, Rossi’s in Spitalfields, closed its doors after 50 plus years of serving happy punters. A sad day.

So when you find a cafe that nails the classic British Fry Up, it’s something to be cherished. And The Regency Cafe in Pimlico / Victoria is one of those places. It’s definately in the mould of a ‘greasy spoon’, but it’s much more than that, and there’s not a deep fried sausage in sight.

Even from the outside you can tell The Regency is a special place. It’s has a really classic deco look to it, decked inside and out in original Edwardian tiles, gingham half curtains in the window, and according to the date above the door it’s been going since 1946. You have to place your order before you sit down, don’t test the regulars by taking a seat when you arrive, and there’s plenty to choose from on the menu from egg and chips to liver and bacon.

We opted for the breakfast special with a side of the much neglected bubble & squeak and a typical British caff ‘frothy coffee’. The breakfast came with egg, bacon, sausage, tomatoes, two toast and the bubble. The egg was fried to perfection, the bacon thickly sliced and delicious, and the meaty, herby sausage (Lincolnshire I think) was one of the best I’ve had at breakfast. The bubble was great too, especially when drenched in egg yolk. In fact the only thing I regret was getting tinned tomatoes instead of grilled / fried. But you live and learn.

In terms of atmosphere, the place is more like an American diner than a traditional British caff. It’s got a real buzz about it, and the guy who bosses the till calls out the orders in this great, booming voice. We arrived at about a quarter past ten on Saturday morning, and pretty much as soon as we’d placed our orders and sat down, there was a queue out of the door.

The regency is a real gem, and I hope it keeps going strong for years to come. They also serve a dinner menu from 4 till 7pm, but I’ve never been there after breakfast time. Go and check it out.

Veal had a bit of a bad rep in the 80s, but that didn’t stop the veal escalope becoming one of my favourite things to eat when I was growing up. There used to be this great Italian restaurant called La Baita up the road from my folk’s place in North London that we’d to go to on a pretty regular basis. I pretty much always ordered the veal escalope, which was served with sauteed potatoes and deep fried courgette. Not exactly healthy, but very tasty.

This is a bit of a remix of that childhood favourite. The prep is a bit fiddly, but well worth it.

Ingredients

For the Veal

2 veal escalopes

Seasoned plain flour

Thyme, finely chopped

Breadcrumbs (enough to coat both escalopes – 250 ish g)

1 egg, beaten

For the Courgette & Potato Cake

1 large potato, grated

3 courgettes, grated

1 medium onion, finely sliced

1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 chilli

Handful of grated Parmesan cheese

Grated nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

2 medium eggs

Olive oil

Method

Start by preparing the the cake. Grate the potato and courgette, and then finely slice the onion (in a food processor if you have one). Turn out onto a clean tea towel, bunch up and squeeze the excess moisture out of the grated veggies. Place in a bowl and add the chopped chilli, finely chopped garlic, Parmesan cheese, salt, pepper and a few grates of nutmeg. Mix together, crack in the two eggs, mix again thoroughly and then set aside.

Now prep the veal. Scatter plain flour on a large plate and season with salt and pepper, then take another plate and scatter on the breadcrumbs. Chop the thyme, and then mix into the crumbs. Finally beat an egg in a flat bottomed bowl. Take each escalope, pat dry with kitchen towel, and then coat with the seasoned flour. Pat off the excess and then dip in the egg, covering the surface of the meat. Then coat with the breadcrumbs, patting down to make sure the escalope is covered, and then set aside.

Get a large frying pan on the heat, and coat with olive oil. Decant the courgette and potato mixture into the pan and flatten with the back of a spatula to form an even cake about an inch thick, and then turn on your grill to maximum. Cook on the hob for around 5 minutes. Turn up the side of the cake with the spatula, once it’s a dark golden brown, pop it under the grill for another five mintes.

Whilst the courgette and potato cake is in the oven, get another frying pan on the heat. Add some rapeseed or groundnut oil to the pan, and when it’s good and hot, pop in the breaded veal escalopes. Fry on each side for around one minute, or until golden brown. Remove from the pan, rest on kitchen towel to remove excess oil, and you’re ready to eat.

Serve with a slice of the courgette and potato cake, a parsley, red onion and cucumber salad dressed with a nice mustardy vinaigrette, and a wedge of lemon. Buon appetito!

They were made on dough base that was smeared with tomato puree, then topped with a triangle of Dairylea style processed cheese, and an egg. They were then baked in a bread oven until the egg was cooked all the way through. Like the hostel, the pizzas were pretty basic, but I remember them being very tasty, and after we’d been there a couple of times, the guy let us make our own and put them in the oven.

This breakfast pizza is a more sophisticated version of the above, and uses some of the same basic ingredients as the pizza recipe featured in this earlier post.

Ingredients (per pizza)

Around 200g pizza dough

Tomato sauce

2 cherry tomatoes, thinly sliced

Teleggio cheese

prosciutto ham or cooked bacon

An egg

Salt and pepper

Method

First of all, turn your oven on to as high as it will go, and then roll out the pizza base into a roughly circular shape and create a crust by turning up the edges. This needs to be high enough to contain the raw egg once you’ve cracked it on top. I make and cook mine in the small frying pan pictured which has a 20cm diameter. This not only helps maintain the right shape and edge, but I also start the cooking process off on the hob before putting the pizza in the oven.

Leave the base for 15 minutes to prove a bit, and then spread on the tomato sauce. Add the thinly sliced tomato, and tear over the taleggio. The taleggio may smell quite strong, but it has a pretty mild flavour, and goes beautifully creamy when melted. Chop up the ham or cooked bacon and place on top, crack a raw egg on the centre of the pizza, and then season with a few grinds of pepper and a small pinch of salt.

Next, put the frying pan on the hob and turn on the gas. This gets the base going in the absence of a pizza stone. Leave on the heat for a minute or so, and then put the pizza in the oven. The pizza should be cooked in around 6 minutes or so. It’s ready when the egg white is cooked through, but the yoke is still soft.

Take out of the oven and eat immediately, either on it’s own or with a bit of rocket. Seriously tasty, and a bit different.

Back to New York, if only briefly, for a quick bit about what might be my favourite place to eat breakfast in the World. Serious claim I know, but Williamsburgh’s Egg is amazing. So amazing in fact that the New York visit prior to this one I think we had breakfast there 3 times out of the 5 days we were there. We only managed twice this time, but if I lived in the neighborhood I’d have to stop myself eating here every bloody day of the week.

Egg is a really unassuming place tucked on a little side road off Bedford Avenue in Williamsburgh. It’s light years away from the city’s brash diners (that I also love) and has a really relaxed almost ‘hippyish’ atmosphere. The owners have their own little farm on the outskirts of New York state, which supplies as much produce to the restaurant as possible. I’m not 100% sure how long it’s been open, but probably around 2 years. It’s open all day, serving breakfast / brunch until the evening when the menu becomes a bit more substantial. I’ve not eaten there in the evening, but I’ve heard it’s good.

My absolute favourite thing on the menu is a dish called ‘Eggs Rothko’. I’m not sure if it’s named after Mark Rothko, but it’s a whole lot tastier than his paintings (IMHO). At the heart of the dish is a kind of remix of eggy bread. A thick slice of toasted brioche with a hole cut in the middle is popped in a frying pan, and then an egg is fried in the hole. They then top the bread with a grated, tangy mature cheddar and slide it under a grill until the cheese bubbles. I know it sounds pretty insane, but when you slice open the bread and the yoke of the egg oozes out, you know you’re in the presence of breakfast greatness.

They serve it with your choice of meat or seasonal greens. I always opt for the sausage, which is a little different to the sausages you get with a fry up in the UK. They are basically little sausage meat patties which are flavoured with chili and fennel. Spicy and seriously tasty, and they work really well with the eggy bread.

I wish I was there now.