Eating out

My colleague Sébastien returns to France for good next month, and I wanted to make sure he ate out at a good British restaurant before he goes back. Where better than St. John, with Fergus Henderson's take on British cooking? This is one of only three UK restaurants to make the S.Pellegrino World’s 50 Best Restaurants list this year; it also happens to be one of my favourite restaurants. I ate there last year with Aaron, and I know he enjoyed it, so I invited him to join use there for lunch again today.

I have long been a fan of Fergus Hendenson, and you will see recipes from his books The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating and Beyond Nose to Tail: More Omnivorous Recipes for the Adventurous Cook on this blog from time to time. His ascetic style and emphasis on using the whole beast is not to everyone's taste; some of my chef friends find the food too basic, but it's the robust flavours and unfussy presentation that appeal to me.

I was particularly pleased to see roast bone marrow and parsley salad on the menu today.  This is something I have wanted to try for a while (Anthony Bourdain chose this as his "last supper"), so my choice of starter was quickly settled. Aaron also went for the bone marrow, which we both thought was delicious and complemented brilliantly by the fresh parsley and shallot salad with its acidic dressing. Sébastien started with the crab on toast, which he said was beautifully fresh and packed with flavour.

For the main course, I had crisp pig's cheeks with dandelions. The pig's cheeks are salted then slowly cooked in goose fat, drained and cooled, then returned to the oven to finish. This results in a crisp skin and very tender flesh with an intense porky flavour. (Emily at the Kingham Plough makes a similar dish: try it if it's on the menu when you're there, you won't regret it.)

Aaron and Sébastien both had chitterlings with turnips for their main. They devoured them quickly, but I did sneak a taste: fantastic!

We were all pretty full after this, but it would have been a shame to let this get in the way of dessert. So we didn't. Sébastien and I had the baked cheese cake with Marc, while Aaron finished with an Eccles cake and Lancashire cheese.

I haven't mentioned the bread. The bread was great. White or brown sourdough, both packed with flavour and a delightful acidic edge. I wish I could make bread like this. I have been making sourdough regularly for several months, but clearly I have more to learn.

All in all, a great meal and well worth the journey to London. The menu changes daily, and there are plenty more familiar dishes on offer (we could have had roast lamb, or roast Middlewhite pork, or Megrim sole, or whole sea bass). I would have been perfectly happy to eat any of these, but they are the sort of things I cook at home and I prefer to try something different when I'm eating out. Here's hoping I don't leave it another year before my next visit to St John's.

Cooking for friends

I have had a lot of fun over the last few weekends cooking for friends. This started with a gathering of University friends at Steve and Judith's place in London. It was during my birthday meal at Hibiscus last year that I suggested to Steve that I come down and cook for everyone at their place, and Judith worked her magic to get us all together last month. There were plenty of volunteers to help in the kitchen, so I had a chance to relax and chat to everyone; I even got a ride in Steve's Lotus while Judith saw to the baking of the biscotti.

We started the meal with a simple asparagus soup garnished with asparagus tips and parmesan shavings, along with Ruhlman's buttermilk dinner rolls. For the main course, we had roasted rack of lamb with a herb and mustard crust (pepperonata tart and poached egg for Henry, the lone vegetarian). This was served with new potatoes cooked en papillote, glazed carrots, and purple sprouting broccoli. Next came the cheeses I picked up at the Exeter Festival of South West Food and Drink and a delicious, ripe, brie that threatened to run over the side of the cheese board. Finally dessert, a rhubarb fool sweetened with honey and served with toasted almond and orange biscotti. Steve provided wine, which flowed freely throughout the meal, and port afterwards.

Judith took this shot of me and John serving up the soup; you can see the lamb ready for the oven in the foreground:

The following weekend I invited my colleague Sébastien and his wife Laurène, who was visiting from Paris, to dinner. Sébastien has been in Cambridge for almost a year and had yet to try roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. The French call us "les rosbifs"; I hate to spoil a good stereotype, so I served up a roasted sirloin joint with roast potatoes, roast parsnips, carrots, purple sprouting broccoli, and a simple gravy made by deglazing the roasting tin with a glass of red wine - and, of course, Yorkshire pudding.

For dessert, we had poached rhubarb with buttermilk pannacotta. This is made just like a vanilla pannacotta, but replacing half of the cream with buttermilk. This gives it a slightly acidic edge, and makes it a great accompaniment for fruit like rhubarb or gooseberries.

Then last weekend I visited Sébastien and Laurène in Paris. We ate out a couple of times, but they had invited some friends around to their flat for dinner on Sunday. Sébastien and I were in charge of the kitchen. Seb made a great starter of goat's cheese wrapped in a filo parcel and baked in the oven, which we served with a green salad. For the main course, we made pan-roasted duck breasts with a sauce suggested by Laurène's mum: while the meat rests, deglaze the pan with white wine, add a handful of wine-soaked raisins, a couple of spoons of honey, and the resting juices from the meat. Simple, but delicious. We served this with new potatoes (cooked en papillote again) and French beans (what else?). For dessert I made a crumble with rhubarb poached in vanilla syrup and some strawberries we picked up at the market. Much to my embarrassment, I made a terrible mess of the crème Anglaise (aka "custard"), which at first refused to thicken then, after adding flour in desperation, thickened too much. Still, the meal was a success and everyone enjoyed themselves.

Tomorrow I'm cooking with Seb again: braised shoulder of lamb, gratin Dauphinois, purple sprouting broccoli, then a steamed rhubarb pudding and - not to be defeated by a basic preparation - crème Anglaise. Laurène is back in Cambridge next week for her final visit before Sébastien returns to France for good, so we are planning another meal together on Thursday.

I wasn't sure whether to title this post "Cooking for friends" or "Cooking with friends". I love cooking and sharing food with friends, but it's especially satisfying to cook together and learn from each other. Good food, good wine, and good friends: it's the simple things that make life worthwhile.