Baumanns – Cooking & Eating

For those that don’t know Essex, there’s a small village called Coggeshall. A place I knew of, being from Essex, but had never been. I have had two great excuses to go and visit and strangely they were for different reasons but at the same place. The first trip was for the cookery school at Baumanns Brasserie,  day’s lesson that I won through Twitter from Chef Baumann himself. Now you’ve seen my adventure on cookery days so you’ll know I was quite looking forward to this. Even more so that it was a game day. That is game as in the animals, not that we went and played Cluedo in the kitchen (it was the chef with the carving knife).

A few game birds

I arrived very early as the great sat nav told me it took 40 minutes, add in A12 traffic in the morning, I gave myself an hour. 20 minutes it took, 20. Half of 40! Not that it annoyed me as, as you can probably tell. I had a wander round the village, sat in my car, was eyed by people walking their dogs, who were probably thinking, who is that person just sat in their car at this time of day. I finally decide to make a move, knowing I’ll be first in but it was getting chilly. I’m greeted cheerily, actually very cheerily for that time of day and coffee is supplied. I sit and wait for others to arrive and there ends up being four of us, two girls, two boys, nice & even. One of those girls was @EssexGourmet. Wasn’t our first meeting but nice to actually know someone there as, believe it or not, I’m a bit shy.

We meet the chef, Chris and the day is explained, menus handed out, aprons (much used since) are adorned. There’s the usual health & safety talk. Would you believe that knives are sharp! The kitchen is quite small, but not sure what I was really expecting as I didn’t know much about Baumann’s. It was fine for the five of us and special guest whose name I should have noted, basically it was a guy from their butchers who showed us how to bone a bird and put together a three bird roast. Should I change the wording of that last sentence?

I did learn quite a lot and since the day there I’ve mainly been buying whole birds and butchering them myself with the new found skills. It really works out a lot cheaper and is not as hard as it seems. Personally I learned more again about simple things you can do in the kitchen to makes things taste better. I mean, cooking with butter and putting some thyme in with it, so you just coat the meat and there’s a gentle flavour from the herbs. So simple and easy but something I’d never thought of doing before.

All the dishes turned out well and I think I was the best at butchering as well as cooking. Although @EssexGourmet will probably tell you otherwise. As well as what was on the menu, a few things were brought out from the larder to try, tarragon pannacotta is sublime and the Bailey’s and espresso one too, mmmmmmmm.

I have all the recipes and notes from this day but I’m not going to divulge too much information. Why? Because you should go and find out for yourselves. Put it this way, yes it was free for me to do it, but given the price, it is well worth it. I think one of the more value for money days actually. You’re a lot more hands on, the smaller group makes it easier to see everything and Chris is a great chef and very good laugh. Sometimes the day are with Mark Baumann but who wants to cook with him when we know who really does the hard work! (Secretly I’d like to cook with Mark but I don’t want to appear too much of a geek).

The second reason I had to go to Baumann’s was as a dinner guest. Again I’m not going to tell you much about the food as you have to go and try it yourself. I love good food, informal surroundings and great service and we got all three here. Having only been cooking with Chris (hey that should be their name for the experience days)a few weeks earlier we were treated to a few extras and ended up with a six course meal. The bonus to having great food is when the price is reasonable and it certainly is at Baumann’s. When you consider we had a glass of wine with starter and main rather than sharing a bottle, three courses each, after dinner drinks and coffee, a price of £50 a head is not to be sniffed at. Actually make that four courses paid for as we had the middles as well (you have to check out the menu to see them, fantabulous idea).

The great thing about the Brasserie is there was plenty there I had never tried which is why I ended up having Antelope. I have to say I was pretty stuffed after and we actually didn’t eat until about 2pm the next day as we had been fed so well. I am already trying to arrange my next visit back there and, if you haven’t been, then you should arrange your first.

For more information on Baumanns Brasserie and the Cookery School visit www.baumannsbrasserie.com

Or contact them at:

 Baumanns Brasserie, 4-6 Stoneham Street, Coggeshall, Essex CO6 1TT
Tel: 01376 561453       Email: food@baumannsbrasserie.co.uk
Y0u can follow Mark Baumann on Twitter @chefbaumann

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Launceston Place

If you have read previous blogs you will know I usually try to have a funny title to my posts, maybe a little play on words. This time, I couldn’t, I didn’t want to. The reason? Launceston Place is quite simply brilliant. Not sure I should start the post saying that as you will think the rest of it will be me gushing over the restaurant and the food. Well, I will, probably. I was extremely excited to be going anyway as I already knew the main man, Tristan Welch, would be in. Tristan is one of my favourite Great British Menu Chefs. I love his twists and new takes on food and showing off where the food comes from.

I’d better get back to the start of the evening though. I was taking my Wife for a pre-valentine treat to avoid the faux romance of the night itself. Yes yes, I know I said I took my Wife as a treat, yeah right of course I did, like you or she really believes this was for her. Well I did pay so I can get away with it. Not having been to Kensington for a while I was unsure where we were going so we took a casual walk up from Harvey Nicks after meeting a certain Chef called Jason Atherton (watch out for a post on Pollen Street Social in the future). We stopped off at the Victoria and Albert for a mooch around. My Wife found me in good spirits and making many hilarious jokes about some of the exhibits and artifacts (her opinion, not mine, honest).

We needed a sit down and were two hours early. You think I was eager? We stopped at a hotel bar called the Polo Bar, small, friendly, not a great choice of drink but a great Australian barman. We watched the Rugby, had a beer, had another beer and finally thought it was okay to head over to Launceston Place half an hour before our booking. We were greeted warmly and to be honest I actually enjoy a drink in the bar before a meal. We sat perusing the wine book ( I’ve stopped calling them menus or lists), took in the dark decor which I have to say takes a while for your eyes to adjust too but it does make for a very intimate setting. We ordered an English sparkling rosé to start and it was a corker. I’m not really into rosé but this was a great wine, refreshing and zingy.

We then had a look at the menu and ordered while we finished our drinks. I was slightly surprised by the menu as it only has four choices for starter and main. There is a major plus side to this though. I take ages to decide and I would have eaten everything on the menu. We would have gone for the taster menu if my wife would have attempted the steak tartare but hey ho, you can’t have everything and this was HER night. As we sat there, someone said good evening, I was busy reading and then I heard my name. I looked up and there was Tristan. This was funny because I had already asked if there was any chance Tristan could come and say hello, I just wasn’t expecting it so soon. My Wife said it is the most dumbstruck I have ever been in front of a chef. Even now I’m not sure why I could hardly speak. I probably hadn’t had enough to drink.

We are shown to our table after choosing and we discuss wine with the sommelier, choosing a white to start, red for the main. Oh sorry, I forgot, you get crisps when you have your aperitif, move over Kettle, Tyrells, and all you other pretenders, Launceston Place holds the crown for crisp making and it would take something pretty amazing to tear it off their heads. Anyway, we’re sat at the table, a loaf of the most amazing bread arrives with some pickled herrings. Pickled herrings, hmmmmmmmmm, my mind casts back to poorly catered parties with nasty poor quality roll mops. I really have never liked pickled herrings. Well guess what, I love them now. I am of the mind-set to think that even if I don’t like something, if it’s then made by a top chef, I will give it another chance. So glad I did. I meant to ask Tristan if I could have a pot to take home but forgot, so Tristan, could I please have a pot of herrings?

We are served our white wine, clean crisp, plenty of oomph to deal with the calves tongue my wife ordered and subtle enough for my scallops. The scallops arrive in the shell, roasted in coastal herbs and on a bed of shells. This is what I meant about Tristan showing you where the food comes from. Perfectly cooked, the herbs were new to me but somehow tasted so familiar. My wife’s tongue was pretty amazing too. Maybe I should rephrase that. My Wife let me have some tongue, no that’s even worse. I tried the tongue – will that do? I’ve never had tongue before so had to try it, what a flavour, tasted life a good slice of beef without tasting like beef.

We try to finish our white wine very quickly as were talking quite a lot, mainly about buying a place nearby and Launceston becoming our local haunt (just one lottery win away from moving to London). I purposely slowed down on the white knowing there would be some left for her while I delve into a dessert wine later. Our red is poured, a Rioja, oh how I love Rioja and this was an excellent one. I am clearly salivating by this point, the starters made me want more.

Our mains arrive, Herdwick Lamb with sea beets, crackling & salt baked potato for my better half and lightly curry spiced sweetbreads with chestnuts & grapes for me. Thinking back to Saturday night and that main course is making me drool, perfect sweetbreads, I love the flavour of them and only tried them for the first time last year. Never had warm grapes before and with the curry flavouring and chestnuts I was starting to float to food heaven. Angels appeared, playing harps, a schoolboy choir starting singing, that ray of light shone on the plate. I had a sneaky taste of the lamb and the slat baked potato which intrigued me. Lamb the way it should be, medium rare, tender and juicy. The potato was interesting. Too salty for my taste buds but somehow addictive as I had to try another piece.

We talk to our sommelier again. Do you know I’m a bit annoyed I didn’t get his name, a really friendly chap and very amusing, in fact all the staff were so friendly, a good team there. We choose dessert and I am somehow talked into trying the most expensive dessert wine on the menu, yes my arm was physically twisted. You do believe me don’t you? I’m glad I went for it though, matched my dessert of baked cheesecake with blood oranges perfectly. Blood oranges oh how I love you (note blood oranges is not a pet name for my Wife and I love her even more). I actually chose the dessert based on the fact it had blood oranges in it. Was not disappointed, creamy cheesecake and brandy snaps. Anyone who puts a brandy snap in front of me will be my friend, they may not want to be my friend so let this be a warning to anyone that feeds me – brandy snap = instant friendship. I knew what my wife would have for dessert, had to be the poached rhubarb with vanilla sabyon & hazelnut shortbread. Now something strange here with my Wife, I tried her tongue, I tried her lamb, I didn’t even get a look in with dessert. Her words, “It was yummy and I could eat that again”.

We enjoyed a very good cup of coffee after, my usual espresso. Then moved back into the lounge for after dinner drinks. Two glasses of 20 yr old Tawny port later (my wife going for cognac) and we were ready to pay the bill. Now we drank a bit so I won’t say how much the drinks bill was. The food is great value for money, £45 a head for three courses. When the food is of such a high quality, that is more than reasonable, in fact I’d almost say it’s a steal.

And so we pay, we start to feel sad at the thought of leaving when Tristan appears again, I’m sure he’s a fan of Mr Benn, he just appears from nowhere. We have a wander round, have a look in the private dining area and then into the kitchen. It’s quite small. I don’t know why that always surprises me really and kitchens. Everything is pristine, they are still serving a few people but are more or less cleaned down. We meet the team and thank them for what was one of my favourite dining experiences. So I leave you with just the picture below, the lighting is very low in the restaurant which is why I didn’t take any of the food. If you want to know what it looks like, get yourselves down to Launceston Place, you really won’t regret it.

Thank you guys for such a great meal.

 

For more information, please visit www.launcestonplace-restaurant.co.uk

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Dining into the New Year

With my Sister and her family expected to be in Australia and my Brother and his girlfriend expecting an arrival any day, we hadn’t really planned very well for New Year and by December my Wife and I were trawling the internet for somewhere that looked good, not too pricey, no taxi problems. You’re thinking, good luck with that and you would be right in thinking we couldn’t find anything. So as we haven’t seen the New Year in with my Dad for quite some years we (I) thought a nice dinner would be in order. Now with it being a celebration, I thought why not celebrate some chefs & cooks. Four courses sounded like a good idea too so I had to keep it simple while hopefully still giving it a wow factor. Was to be a case of less is more I thought.

I trawled through my cookbooks, so many recipes, so many great cooks and chefs. What to do? Then as I was sat watching Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers I was him make a roast beef with pumpkin Ragout dish. It looked great, I like pumpkin and I knew I could get some squash if I couldn’t get a pumpkin. The only problem is my wife is not keen on beef. So I thought a good cut of lamb would be good and picked up a saddle of lamb from the butchers. While I was there I also picked up a couple of duck breasts for the starter which I had decided on. I definitely only needed two for the three of us, unlike getting them from the supermarket, they were huge, freshly portioned from a whole duck.

I had decided on the dessert fairly quickly too. I was given a copy of the Christmas With Gordon  book and there’s a great cheesecake in there which I just had to make. I have to pause here and just say hello to Mark Sargeant, a great Chef who often passes on tips and advice via Twitter. Thank you Mark and good luck with the book and restaurant next year. So, fish course. This gets difficult as my wife eats tuna, scallops or bass. Every now and then she’ll try something else if it’s cooked by a top chef. Richard Corrigan, Stuart Gilles, Michael Caines and Nigel Hawthorn are a few who have managed to get her to eat something new. And step forward Simon, top Michelin star chef………….. erm, hold on, no I’m not am I? Anyway, off to the fish monger to get some turbot. No turbot, no skate, no bass, panic sets in. I walk away, unsure, I walk back, I see bream. Well I know I like it, oh well, it will have to be bream and hope for the best. All this after taking two days to decide between a Michel Roux Jr or Marcus Wareing recipe.

The menu was as follows (I have put in brackets the originally ingredients where I had to substitute).

Starter

Warm Duck and Red Cabbage Salad

From: A Slice of Cherry Pie – Julia Parsons

 

Fish Course

Fillet of Sea Bream (Turbot) in Red Wine with Artichoke Puree & Pickled Beetroot (baby beets)

Recipe by Marcus Wareing, from the Great British Menu Cookbook

 

Main Course

Roast Saddle of Lamb (fillet of beef) with Squash (pumpkin) Ragout

From Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers

 

Dessert

Pear & Amaretto Cheesecake

From Christmas with Gordon – Gordon Ramsey

It’s the morning of New Year’s Eve. I wake early as one of the most simple ingredients I needed had sold out everywhere the previous day. Look people, I know it’s christmas but do you all have to cook with red cabbage? I mean, honestly, some of us have New Year feasts to prepare. I drive to town after checking the market will be open.It was, just, half the stalls closed but the veg man was there and he had red cabbage. Some may have read my plea of “My kingdom for a red cabbage” on Twitter the previous day. It didn’t quite cost me my kingdom, more like 8     and £1 for the car park which amused me for some reason.

I get home, have breakfast, then set about in the kitchen. The great thing about the menu I chose is it is fairly easy and simple. Very much a case of letting the ingredients speak for itself. I made the cheesecake base, digestives crushed up with butter & chocolate spread. While it’s setting I unpack my brand new food mixer, mainly just to use the bowl. I realised after making the filling and setting the cheesecake, I didn’t have much to do until later. So why did I get up so early. I decide to chop the veg required for the evening and leave in water, pickled the beetroot and let them cool to re-heat later and prepped the poaching liquid for the fish. Made sure I got the meat out of the fridge to it wasn’t too cold when I cooked it later.

While I was doing all this, my Wife was setting up the table which looked beautiful (and so did she). With about an hour to go before serving the first course I got the lamb on, wanting to give it plenty of resting time. I suddenly realised I hadn’t sorted out what plates I was using and serving everything on so a quick dash to the cabinet was called for and after several switch-a-roos I made up my mind. I made the ragu to go with the lamb, again to just warm up on the hob before serving. Oh by the way, I have no Idea what squash it was, oval and green so if you can tell me that will be great (no it wasn’t a melon)This is while Wife and Father enjoyed their aperitif of champagne & hibiscus flowers in comfort. Mine was on the kitchen side.

Warm Duck Breast with Red Cabbage Salad

Fillet of Sea Bream in Red Wine with Pickled Beetroot & Artichoke Puree

I was ready for the first course, the duck went in the pan. Now I know there are lots of ideas about how to cook duck, I season the skin and cook skin side down for most of it, turning over at the end when it’s resting. Now I do pride myself on my duck breast cooking skills and tonight was the best yet, medium rare, cooked enough to eat, soft, succulent, fantastic. While the duck rested I set up the plates with salad leaves mixed with grated red cabbage. Anyone know why red cabbage is purple when you start and looks red when you serve it? Anyway, I put the simple but tasty red wine vinegar and olive oil dressing over the leaves and placed the duck on top.

We had two bottles of wine to go with the meal and started with a Pouilly Fume 2009 which was a Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference wine. I love this wine, find it can handle red meat as long as it’s not a heavy dish so was perfect with the duck salad. A nice rest and I was back in the kitchen. I heated up the poaching liquid for the fish, also a re-heat of the beets and the artichoke puree. The fish takes literally seconds which is good as you don’t want it overpowered by the red wine, just flavoured. I was fairly proud of my presentation too, mind you I more or less copied the picture in the book. You must be sitting there wanting to know, did my Wife like it? Well, the man from Del Monte he say yes. It was a bit fishy for her but the beets and artichoke puree balance the dish out well. The funny thing is I only remember the first couple of mouthfuls as I was then concentrating on my Wife’s reaction. I do remember the beets were especially nice.

By this time we’d opened the second wine, a Michel Sarrazin Bourgogne Cóte Chalonnaise 2006. What a wine, smoky, deep, fruity. Would recommend it to anyone. Obviously went well with the fish course and good to carry on drinking with the lamb. Talking of which, the lamb had been resting long enough so I dash back to the kitchen and heat up the ragu. How simple is that ragu? Onions, squash, herbs, seasoning, stock, white wine. Perfect for a big meal. Effectively the main used a large pot and a roasting tin, easy. I carved the lamb, keeping fingers crossed it was going to be cooked okay, which was tricky holding the knife (boom boom). It was perfect, I don’t think I have ever cooked lamb that well actually. I used deep plates and filled with the squash, laying the lamb on top. I know why this is a supper recipe, it’s very filling, tastes amazing though. But here’s the thing, during this course, my Wife tells me, if I cooked beef like I had cooked the lamb, she would have eaten it. Thanks, now you tell me. Not that I’m complaining really as the lamb was melt in your mouth stuff. I guess I should mention too that I roasted the meat on the bone and must have had a knowing look as when I was buying it, the butcher looked at me and said “you’ll be wanting to roast this on the bone won’t you?”. We were stuffed and knew there was a huge cheesecake to eat yet so we had a rest and at 11 we retired to the lounge to watch Jools Holland’s Hootenanny (a must if you stay in on new Year’s Eve).

The cake left the fridge, carefully carried through to the lounge and an ice candle stuck in the middle, which is just an indoor firework. Very apt for the occasion. I have to say Gordon (Mark), it’s a great recipe. I love pear, I love Amaretto, I love chocolate, so all three together, fantastic. It is a fairly classic combination which never fails to work. Light, tasty, and will no doubt impress your friends. I love too that there’s crumbled amaretti biscuits in the filling. I could eat a truck full (yes the man that doesn’t do desserts, although I may be coming round). A great finish to a successful meal. I keep trying to think what I could have done better and, to be honest (and big headed), I’m not sure I could have improved it that much, maybe presentation but not on taste. I do put a lot of that down to fresh ingredients, good quality fish and meat and my new food processor and knives. You may laugh  but they just lifted me enough to up my game some. We should have had a dessert wine with this but it had gone off which was a shame, although with another bottle of champagne to come, I was secretly pleased.

The hour approached, Jools, his band and guests were entertaining us to the point I almost missed getting the champagne ready. What to drink for the end of the decade? Well you can’t do much worse than having a ten year old vintage champagne, in this case it was a Laurent-Perrier Brut Millesime 2000. I . do like vintage champagne, it seems to have much more depth of flavour. The cork pops, glasses filled in readiness. We count down with Jools, Kylie oh and @puddingface, sorry Gregg Wallace (he was one fo the guests, didn’t know he could sing). The hour arrives, we sing Auld Lang Syne, then I turn the TV down and play two more versions of it, one by Frank Sinatra and then I up the class with Chas & Dave. I toast my family, my friends and the chefs/cooks that gave me the inspiration for this meal. So to Julia Parsons, Marcus Waring, Nigel Slater and Gordon Ramsey (yes you too Mark Sargeant) I raise my glass and say cheers, thank you for the great food eaten that night and for all that will be eaten in the many years to come.

 The books:

A Slice of Cherry Pie – Julia Parsons

Christmas With Gordon – Accompanies Gordon Ramsey’s Christmas Special on Channel 4

Great British Menu Cookbook – BBC

 

Lamb dish inspired by Nigel Slater’s Simple Suppers series on the BBC where the recipe can be found.

 

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A time for something new

Looking over the last week and then the coming month there seems to be trend for trying something new. My cooking has always had a fairly limited range, i.e., a pasta dish or two, sunday roasts with a slight twist, a lot fo the time, meat and veg with maybe a little something added. Since going to this year’s Taste of London I have noticed I am becoming braver and all of a sudden it seems to be happening at once. I think it was partly getting to speak to Richard Corrigan and Michel Roux Jnr that may have sparked off this bolder approach. To hear the passion in their voices and their encouragement. There was a general message of “go and try something new”.

Well it has taken a slow build up and during the week I tried pheasant for the first time. Not only did I try it, I cooked it myself which I thought pretty daring as I had no idea how it should taste or what the texture should be like. Given that, I still know I slightly overcooked it, i just didn’t feel as tender as I thought it should. I served it with some simple veg and a sauce made with the marinade and mainly let the bird do the talking. Also I was so worried about cooking the pheasant I didn’t want to have to concentrate too much on anything else.

I also bought some baking beads. I am not really a desert person and yet have volunteered to make the desert among other things for a family dinner. I need the beads to blind bake the pastry. I have tried to cook with pastry in the past and it’s nearly always a disaster. So I thought these might help, more in that they will focus my mind and make me believe I can do a good job. You don’t always need the right equipment and there are alternatives. Sometimes a small thing (they cost about £3) can just give you a little more confidence. I remember rock climbing and struggling on a climb, a fellow climber next to me gave me some of his chalk and hey presto, I went flying up the rest of it. Did the chalk help? maybe a little. Did my mind-set change? yes. I went from “oh I can’t do this” to “I won’t let this beat me”.

So here I am now, a few weeks left in the year and every big meal I will be making, bar the main course on Christmas day, is something completely new. I even bought some saffron yesterday for one of the recipes. An ingredient I have looked at many times and never had the courage to buy, let alone use it. I’m even making a sorbet that I can not track down a recipe for on the web.

I’m not saying everyone needs to try something new every time you cook. Sometimes, just add one ingredient you may not normally use. Try a different salad dressing, have a game bird for a roast one day, try a different cut of meat. It’s not got to be a great departure from anything you know. Small steps though can lead to some big jumps.

Another first coming up is a visit to Le Gavroche. Michel Roux Jnr’s 2 michelin star restaurant in Mayfair. This must be one fo the best ways to try something new. This lends itself to trust, trusting him to put something before you that you have never tried and to give it a go. I will without doubt be choosing food that I have not experienced and purposely going for those dishes that are alien to me, or the combination may be alien. I know in turn the experience will open my eyes further to the world of food and help me to experiment more in the kitchen.

I would love to hear from anyone who is also going to be trying something new, I know it’s not the New Year yet, why wait until then to make a resolution to try something new.

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