food geek

mummum’s tea brack

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Mummum’s tea brack is one of my mother’s specialities. She is a plain cook but a wonderful baker. This traditional Irish cake is not too sweet and – unsurprisingly – uses tea to moisten it. It would often be served sliced like bread and buttered.

1 lb of sultanas or raisins
1 cup of cold tea
1 egg
3/4 lb flour

1. Steep fruit in tea for at least one hour (preferably overnight).

2. Add egg and swirl around.

3. Sieve in flour and mix well.

4. Pour into 9 inch square tin.

5. Put in oven in middle shelf at Gas Mark 4 for 45 minutes.

6. Cover with tin foil and cook for a further 45 minutes and Gas Mark 3.

7. Test with a knife to make sure centre is cooked.

fill up on bread

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

My mother was raised in a fairly poor family in a small town in County Dublin, but there was always enough to eat. Vegetables grew in the back garden, there was lots of floury potatoes, fish on Fridays and maybe some Hafner’s sausages as a treat on Saturdays.

In our family food and love are interchangeable. As a result most of what we eat, and who serves it, is laden with symbolism.

The rituals of Christmas included the formal post-mortem of the turkey/ham/Christmas cake/Christmas pudding of other family members: my mother and our Auntie Molly being the two main culprits:

“Maggie, your ham is much nicer than mine. Mine is very salty.”
“No, Molly, mine is very dry. Yours is better. And your cake is beautiful.”
“Yes but the pudding didn’t come out very well.”
“Ah, Molly, your pudding is gorgeous. Give us another bit.”

Christmas dinners were rushed to make sure we had enough time to sit down again at six o’clock for tea. It wasn’t much different the rest of the year, and even when the food being served was more modest than Christmas dinner, there was always the exhortion to “fill up on bread”. For the families of post-war children, it was always important to “eat loads”.

My mother has served the same dishes for dinner since she got married. Now, 52 years later, I can tell you which she will have for dinner this week:

Monday
left-over roast meat from Sunday with a salad

Tuesday
Egg and chips (she used to serve us mince, beans and chips but we didn’t notice for years that she didn’t eat the meat herself)

Wednesday
Beef stew, except for Lent and summertime when fried fish, mashed potatoes and white sauce is served

Thursday
Pork chops, gravy, boiled potatoes and turnip

Friday
Fish and chips and peas

Saturday
A mixed grill

Sunday
Traditional roast dinner – chicken, beef, pork or lamb
or
Corned beef or boiled bacon, cabbage and boiled potatoes

Over the years, and miles from home now, food still conjures up many emotions and associations.

My mother lists reading restaurant menus as one of her more serious hobbies, and it is always a big highlight to have as many family members around the table for dinner – difficult when we are spread across two continents.

This blog is an attempt to pull together all the recipes from my lifetime, food served to me with love by family, friends and strangers.

Many have a story attached and some speak for themselves.

Little Bay

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Little Bay, 171 Farringdon Road, London EC1

This little restaurant is a true find. Situated close to the Exmouth Market area, it offeres incredibly good value and excellent.

The décor is simple and the basement not to be recommended due to the loud echo effect, but if you are looking for beautifully prepared fresh ingredients with a good wine list to boot, this is the place for you.

I can recommend the chips which are cooked in duck fat in true south of France style.

There are branches in Battersea and Kildurn/Belsize Park too!

>3 Monkeys

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>3 Monkeys
Herne Hill

Suzanne and I got a last-minute cheap deal to eat at this relatively new south London Indian restaurant, so we were looking forward to a posh Indian dinner on the cheap when we visited Three Monkeys.

This is one of a breed of modern Indian restaurants which are rapidly replacing every Mughal-arched, flock-wallpapered old place in the city (much to my relief). The place is split-level with a modern bar downstairs. Upstairs everything is light and bright, with some beautiful Indian art on the walls.

Being mid-week we were one of about four tables occupied so it did feel a bit quiet, added to which we were very chilly for the whole evening. The waitress was pleasant enough but on occasion a little slow to respond – no problem for us as we were gossiping madly but another time this would have wound me up.

As for the food, there are lots on the menu which were new to me. One of their specialities is Handi cuisine from the central plateau of India, slow cooked in an earthen pot. We stuck to fairly standard dishes, our man courses being one chicken and one lamb. Our first impression was that the quantity of meat in each dish was woefully small. This was partly made up by the quality of the meat and the delicate taste of the sauce. Added to which, the side dishes and rice we were served were beautiful.

Having said all that, we could not manage a dessert, settling for a coffee and a masala tea instead. However when the bill came it was almost £50 for two, and that was only included two glasses of wine. All in all, we felt that it was not good value for money – and this was on a special deal! I would not be tempted back here if I had to pay full price, and I could think of many more places service equally good food for less elsewhere in London.

All in all, a pleasant enough experience but not really worth the trip or the money.
www.3monkeysrestaurant.com

notting hill

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

>Ion Bar
161-165 Ladbroke Grove
020 8960 1702
www.meanfiddler.com
Excellent live music and DJs in the downstairs bar, and a groovy vibe upstairs with great food. The maitre d’ looks like Uma Thurman from Pulp Fiction.

Osteria Basilico
29 Kensington Park Road
020 7727 9372
www.osteriabasilico.co.uk
Cosy Italian trattoria with food to die for.

Casa Frattini
104a Chepstow Road
020 7221 1821
www.casafrattini.co.uk
Another tiny, crowded Italian with a small but wonderful menu of delights.

Black & Blue
105 Gloucester Road
020 7244 7666
www.blackandbluerestaurant.com
The only place to go for a steak in Notting Hill

north by north west

~ maireaddoyle ~ Leave a comment

Hummingbird, 84 Stroud Green Road, London N4 3CV 020 7263 9690
Hummingbird is a small but perfectly formed Caribbean restaurant on the legendary Stroud Green Road. Family-run, this place offers genuine Carribean food from most of the islands, beautifully presented and washed down with excellent run punch. The menu has lots for vegeterians as well as meat-eaters.

La Porchetta Pizzeria, 141 Upper Street, London N1 1QY 020 7288 2488
This is my absolute favourite pizza place in London. Huge delicious thin-crust pizzas, ridiculously low prices, extremely young cute Italian waiters, lashings of house wine by the jug. Be prepared to queue!

Raj Bangladeshi, 146 High Street, Harlesden NW10 4SP 020 8965 6036
This used to be our local Indian takeaway, and what a place. Recently refurbished to a trendy urban feel, it used to be red velvet and Mughal arches all the way. In any event the food never let this place down. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

BeBes, 3 Chignell Place, West Ealing W13 0TJ 020 8840 8322
Bebes serves genuine Caribbean food in a cosy restaurant with gold graffiti on the walls left by grateful customers. The cocktail list is small but majors on rum-based concoctions – I recommend you start here! The curried goat is my favourite, with more than a hint of coconut in the taste. They even have real flying fish from Barbados!

The Spaniard’s Inn, Spaniard’s Road, London NW3 7JJ 020 8731 6571
This lovely pub is very close to the High Gate of Hampstead Heath, and a great place to chill out on a late summer afternoon in the huge garden. Indoors are lots of little rooms to get lost in, ideal for winter evenings. The food is good, lots of Greek and Meditteraneam dishes with a legendary paella served only on Saturdays.

Lemonia, 89 Regent’s Park Road, London NW1 8UY 020 7586 7454
This lovely Greek restaurant has a lovely feel about it, with genuine Greek waiters serving you with a twinkle in their eyes. The restaurant is clustered around a covered courtyard, which is a great place to catch a bit of sunlight in winter without dying of cold. In summer the big windows at the front open right up so it feels lovely and breezy. Oh, and the food is sublime too. Don’t do what we always do and order too much food!!!