St John Bread & Wine

Mr Parkinson and I went to St John Bread and Wine for dinner last week. Partly because we couldn't get a table at Brawn and it was on our "to do" list. 

It was busy given that it was just any Wednesday evening. We were absolutely ravenous, having both had a hard day at work. Fortunately a big wodge of bread came out, but this only served to fuel our appetites. It seems sparsely staffed there so it took a while to get our orders in. We opted for three of the "starters" (around £6-7) and one "main" (around £14). The main was teal and we were informed it would take half an hour, but not to worry as the other dishes should arrive before then.

Which they did, after about twenty minutes, one by one.

Ogleshield, onion and potato.

Ogleshield, it turns out, is a mild Jersey cow's cheese. This was sort of a fancy cheesy chips you might say. Very tasty and the mild cheese offset the tartness of the onions very well. Our appetites were now on overdrive. Eventually the next dish arrived.

Duck liver and foie gras toast

This was lovely crisp toast smeared with a rather creamy rich livery goo. Nice cornichons. Now the wait for the next dish...

Monk's Beard, anchovy and duck egg

We were intrigued by what Monk's Beard might be and fortunately it turned out to be a green shoot type vegetable not unlike samphire. It was enveloped in a salty anchovy sauce. This went very well with the perfectly cooked duck egg which melted all over the "beard". By now I was gagging for a bit more bread to soak up the remnants. At this point we realised we may not be sated and considered ordering more dishes, but the waiting had put us off somewhat.

It got to an hour after we had ordered and we felt we ought to say something, which is very unlike us. The kind waitress informed us that "the teal takes half an hour, but I'll try to find out", before zipping away without us being able to say well actually it's been over an hour! Anyway, it then turned up shortly afterwards and although it was very nice it was (a) on the cold side and (b) small.

Mr Parkinson and the teal, savoy cabbage and quince

We then ordered pudding, of which I had heard great things. Other choices included a blood orange trifle, profiteroles, chocolate ice cream and honeycomb. Mr P went for spotted dick and custard.

I opted for ginger loaf with butterscotch sauce. This was served with a blob of clotted cream.

My dessert was rich, warming and comforting. I was by now full, but Mr P was still hungry. To the extent that on our walk up Brick Lane he said he "could eat a curry"!

Mr P and I are greedy individuals and it is rare for us to go home hungry if we've eaten out. If we were to return I think I would go for five of the "starters" and abandon the "mains", ie the pricier ones. The food was delicious, just a shame it was a bit slow.

Dinner Party

We spent a long time deliberating our menu for entertaining our very good friend and her new gentleman friend. Something comforting and easy.

Dinner table. New napkins!

So, we settled on a starter of warm goats cheese on a bed of rocket and caramelised onions. We prepared the onions in the morning, roasting them with sugar and red wine vinegar till they were darkened and sticky.

Then we made something which was for us a first. Venison and chestnut mushroom suet puddings, an adapted recipe, with creamy mash and braised red cabbage. The venison was stewed in the oven for about two hours with celery, red wine, gin and herbs. The venison meat was separated from the thick juices which were further simmered to make a thick, intensely flavoured gravy. The suet pastry was easy to make and texturally was stodgy and like a big warm blanket. Red cabbage was braised with red wine vinegar.

After this, we rolled out a banoffee cheesecake from Nigella's new book, "Kitchen". I am a fan of making a cheesecake using a bain marie and this was pretty tasty. Next time I think I'll try the peanut butter cheesecake in that book which looks incredible.

Hopefully my entries will get a little more interesting as they go on! But I'm pleased I've got this off the ground.