Lemon mousse and the mother tongue
Why is Paris such a romantic city, where London is not? I’m not suggesting that one has the edge over the other; they are both fascinating in their own ways. It’s the seedier side of life that really demonstrates the difference in perception. Montmartre conjures up thoughts of starving artists, street cafés and the nearby Moulin Rouge with its colour and sparkle captured by Toulouse Lautrec; think of Soho and you picture strippers, peep shows and men in brown macs.
Visiting a major showing of Toulouse Lautrec’s works at the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank in the early 90’s, I was struck by how dull the colours were in reality, often daubed onto cardboard and paper. The caricatures and paintings were no less compelling but it conveyed a brutality of life where any glamour was a veneer. The passage of time and invisibility cloak of French sophistication has transformed our view to something infinitely more appealing.
The French language plays a role in this I think. Take a simple lemon mousse – it is transformed in the mind when called mousse au citron into a cloud of cream and citrus eaten at an elegant table with a delicate spoon while being wooed by the husky tones of an admirer and ravishing music.
This is another recipe in my repertoire of mousses, and my personal favourite (although my family fight over the peppermint white chocolate and milk chocolate versions). I want something refreshing but sweet at the end of a meal but I don’t like ice cream. This fits the bill perfectly and I like to serve them in shot glasses so you can have more than one each but not feel like you’ve overeaten. And you’ve still got room for some runny French cheese afterwards.
I’m taking the teens to Paris for the first time this summer. They simply can’t wait.
Mousse au citron – or lemon mousse (adapted from a recipe by Raymond Blanc) – Printable version
Ingredients
200ml (7 fl oz) milk
grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 teaspoon real vanilla essence
4 large egg yolks
70g (2 3/4 oz) vanilla caster sugar
3 1/2 leaves of gelatine*
200 ml creme frâiche
3 egg whites
3 slices of lemon cut into quarters (optional)
Method
- Soak the gelatine leaves in a shallow, wide bowl with just enough cold water to cover.
- Bring the milk to boil in a non-stick saucepan together with the grated zest of the lemon, lower the heat and simmer for a couple of minutes.
- Whisk the egg yolks with 40g of the vanilla caster sugar. Cut the lemons in half and add the juice of 3 of the lemon halves and the vanilla essence to this mixture.
- Pour the warm milk onto the egg yolk mixture while whisking briskly. Quickly wash and dry the saucepan and return the mixture to it over a medium heat. Stir with a wooden spoon until it thickens (this can take about 10 minutes).
- Remove the gelatine leaves from the water with your hands, shaking off any excess water, and add to the milk mixture off the heat, stirring quickly until the gelatine is dissolved. Strain through a sieve into a bowl and leave to cool completely.
- In a large bowl, whisk the creme frâiche lightly to loosen.
- Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they reach the soft peak stage, then add the remaining caster sugar and whip until they form stiff peaks that are slightly softer than meringue (I use my KitchenAid).
- Add about a quarter of the custard to the creme frâiche and stir in with a spatula, then fold in the remainder, followed by the egg whites (amalgamate gently without losing the air).
- Put 12 shot glasses (or 6 ramekins) on a tray that will fit into your fridge (and clear a space). Spoon in the mixture and leave to set in the fridge for about 4 hours. Garnish just before serving with the lemon wedge if you like.
*Gelatine leaves are sometimes found in the pork section in Dubai. I bring mine from the UK. If using powdered gelatine, use as directed on the packet but slightly less than recommended otherwise they will set too firmly and you’ll lose the light, fluffiness of the texture.
I’m making this mousse au citron with Life’s a Feast as part of the Monthly Mingle (an event created by Meeta). Her theme is April in Paris and, proving my point about language,she cooked a delicious Boeuf à la Mode aux Carottes otherwise known as beef stew with carrots. Which would you rather have?!
Sharing secrets
When I was looking for a venue to hold a food photography and styling workshop with Meeta K Wolff, one item was at the top of my list. Light. I saw my fair share of places, usually conference rooms, but nothing inspired me. The problem in the Emirates is that we have too much sunlight so buildings are designed to keep it out, with overhanging porches and tinted windows. The room often seems remote from the view, however dramatic. Where would I find an environment which had a range of well-lit places, inspiring vistas, photo-worthy backdrops and great food? Oh yes, and add in a projector screen, room and power for 12 laptops, cameras and other paraphernalia.
Nasimi beach at Atlantis The Palm. Really? Isn’t that the place where they hold massive club nights? I wasn’t sure what to expect at all. I discovered a secluded part of the resort, with an informal restaurant opening out onto shady terraces and a white sand beach. White furniture punctuated with vivid splashes of colour is designed for lounging by hotel guests or day visitors. Two bars lubricate the loungers through mid-morning coolers, to sunset cocktails, to late evening nightcaps when the lighting changes to blue and a DJ fuels the mood with ambient music. While I have visited many of the hotel’s restaurants such as SeaFire, Ronda Locatelli, Nobu, Saffron and enjoyed a tour of several others, Nasimi was like a secret discovery.
This was home for two days for ten delegates (nine ladies and one brave man!) who had come from as near as Dubai Marina to as far afield as Bahrain, Kuwait and Egypt. Food blogging, cook book writing, TV producing, photography and food styling – the backgrounds, experience and skills brought to the table were diverse, brought together by Meeta who shared her own perspective on food photography and food styling.
We started to get to know each other over a breakfast of pastries, fruit and juices and then spent the day in our ‘classroom’ – part of the restaurant specially prepared for our group, overlooking the beach on one side and a part of the terrace set aside for our private use on the other.
Shoot lunch, then eat
Lunch was bruschetta, salads and a fabulous array of sushi. It was very difficult to stop myself from diving straight in, but assignments were set and this meant anything edible had the potential for a lens being pointed at it.
Meeta is animated, voluble and candid. She covered many principles of food photography and styling and the secret of her own success as a now professional photographer and stylist. Questions punctuated every slide and our brains were buzzing by the end of the day. 
Were we ready for a cocktail demonstration at the beach bar in the dwindling dusk light? You bet we were. Some of us were then content to sit with our drinks and relax in the chic surroundings. My mocktail was sipped directly from the pineapple shell with a straw – deliciously exotic. Others were inspired to take their cocktails and assignment further afield. I watched a life guard wander down to the end of the jetty to make sure the girls who were horizontal at the end of it were alright. More inspiration was found in the lush undergrowth of the gardens, the textures of the sand, the rainbow colours of the drinks and the maritime inspired pinnacles of the coral pink Atlantis hotel building that seemed to glow as the sun lowered.
One of my favourite pics – going to new lengths for a the perfect image
We meandered through the hotel via the ‘pop-up’ Easter shop (including an egg made of 115kg of dark and white chocolate which you could stand up in) via the elegant shisha terrace – an Arabic-style curved balcony overlooking the resort – to an outside terrace at Levantine. Chef Ali was on holiday but had come in specially to oversee the banquet that was prepared for us including a sneak preview of many dishes that will be served during Ramadan including a slow roast whole shoulder of spicily, scented lamb. I am a fan of Lebanese wines and so delighted that Chateau Keffraya Blanc de Blanc and Chateau Keffraya Rouge were served during the meal. Meeta’s family joined us and her young son’s eyes were on stalks when the belly dancer appeared.
Chef Russell with Minna and Meeta
Our rendezvous in the morning was at Lafayette Gourmet. Coffee, fresh juices and pastries awaited us and we were led on an extensive tour by Chef Russell Impiazzi. The great thing about Russell is that he is so passionate about every ingredient that he thrives on the multitude of in-depth questions fired at him by a bunch of foodies. As well as finding more inspiration for the assignment (challenging under artificial and daylight from different angles) including pizza baking in the wood fire oven and an action shot of pasta making (capturing the egg being cracked into the flour) our group discovered many hard to find cuts of meat and other ingredients not available elsewhere in Dubai. It really is like a well-kept secret Aladdin’s cave for gourmets (and gourmands). It was almost impossible to extricate ourselves as more food kept appearing including freshly cooked paella from the new tapas area and seared wagyu. We charged back to Atlantis to meet on the lawn for a cookery demonstration by Chef Hany.
He showed us how to make two types of kofta including one using meat smoked with herbs before grilling. Meeta styled the dish which was wilting fast in suddenly raised temperatures of the day, the efficient staff also whisked away several of the ingredients, but she kept her cool. A lot of chatting went on over a three course lunch of prawn and avocado salad, sea bass and hazelnut Pavlova before the delegates got cracking with the next step of their assignment. The chefs from Nasimi presented a range of dishes from their menu plus some of the key ingredients so that the pairs could style, prop and shoot them.
Most of the workshop group at Nasimi: image taken on Meeta’s camera
We ended the day reviewing everyone’s assignments which was fascinating. So many different views of a multitude of subjects. Meeta and I waved everyone off laden with goodies from some really generous sponsors including Finer Things, Jones the Grocer, Lafayette Gourmet, Lindt, Toffee Princess, Weber and, of course, Atlantis The Palm.
As the co-organiser of the workshop, I won’t comment on the merits of the course. I will say that as a previous food blogger conference attendee myself, I was hyper-aware of what I would expect and eager to get everything spot on. Atlantis was a brilliant event sponsor and the staff couldn’t have been nicer. The group of delegates was so diverse and everyone had very different aims from the course; I think it’s safe to say we all went away with new inspiration, myself included, not just from the course but from each other as well.
We parted, all promising to keep in touch; Meeta dished out some homework to a couple of people. In fact we met up a few nights later in Dubai including a couple of the delegates who work with Chef Osama on Dubai TV. Then Meeta joined them on the show; she expected just to see the studio but was suddenly asked to style some of the dishes live on air. I know it meant a lot to her when some of the course members tweeted their support.
So I’d like to say a massive thanks to Meeta, who I can now say is a firm friend as well as an inspiration, to every single one of the delegates – a hugely talented bunch of people – who it was a real pleasure to meet. Nothing would have been possible without our wonderful sponsors too – a massive round of applause to the incredible team from Nasimi and Atlantis The Palm who pulled out all the stops for us. The location and food were fantastic but what really made the difference were the staff, from the security guard who told me how much it meant to him to work there, to the lovely guys at the Nasimi bar, to jazz lover Chef Philippe, Chef Ali and Hany for their care and attention, to Chef Grant who oversees the whole enormous food and drink operation of Atlantis, to Alison whose enthusiasm lit up our days. Our reception at Lafayette Gourmet was fitting for royalty (especially royals obsessed with fine foods). And last but not least the goodie bag sponsors – please visit their links and give them some support; all provide top quality culinary goods and equipment in the UAE.
The finest single estate tea from Jones the Grocer, irresistible Lindt Lindor stracciatella and Carre’s chocolates, superb knives from Weber (barbecue specialists), unique deli items from Finer Things, freshly made crumbly tablet in four fabulous flavours from Toffee Princess, Locadeli extra-virgin olive oil and beach bag from Atlantis, goodies including melt-in-the-mouth macarons from Lafayette Gourmet.
One thing is for sure, this is another step on a fascinating journey…
Good pics, bad pics, great buns
Do you eat and drink while you are working? I’m writing this with a cup of tea and a warm, sticky hot cross bun smeared with butter at my elbow. Whoops, there are crumbs on the keyboard. I don’t care though as these are some of the best hot cross buns I’ve ever made. If you celebrate Easter, I hope you are enjoying this week. For me it’s a time of friends and family; my teens are on school holidays so I may have to make a repeat batch. Join me and grab yourself a cuppa. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin…
The sky was a bit grey and cloudy as I drove up the ramp to the apartment block but the voice answering the phone was warm and sunny. Meeta had arrived and within minutes she appeared, wearing a bright red dress and a wide smile. Of all the incredible contacts, networking, meetings and friendships that I’ve encountered since I started My Custard Pie, this was one of the most exciting. We’d ‘met’ on Twitter and via Meeta’s blog What’s for lunch, Honey? and this exchange led eventually to working together on a two-day Food photography and styling workshop at Atlantis The Palm, Dubai. We’d e-mailed, Tweeted and Skyped, I’d even met her Mum for lunch, but this was the first time in person. There was no hanging around though; on the eve of the workshop we had prop shopping to do.
In the craft shop, our eyes scanned reams of fabrics of every hue and pattern to use as backgrounds, table-cloths and improvised napkins. Meeta said she wanted some brighter colours but laughed once she assessed the selection she’d chosen which included a lot of dark blue and green, while I gravitated to muted taupe and beige. Our personal styles were revealed.
Developing a personal style, finding your own creativity and staying true to your instincts in photography and styling was a theme that came up a lot over the next couple of days at Atlantis. It’s easy to get caught up by the latest trends or a certain popular look. Finding your own voice takes time, practise and honesty but is ultimately very rewarding.
My passion for simple food with good fresh ingredients is what I try to communicate. Adding a lot of props takes me out of my comfort zone; it’s like wearing someone else’s clothes.
There’s so much to share about the workshop that it deserves another post, but Meeta started off the sessions by comparing a bad photo with a good photo. They were both taken by her – one over six years ago and one this year. Time, dedication, practise, perseverance, honesty, confidence and a good eye took her from snaps on her blog to professional food photography and styling. There had been a build up of many months of groundwork prior to the workshop and we had a wonderful couple of days in a lovely location – Nasimi – which I will expand on soon. Meeta was as open and sunny as her blog and gave us a lot of food for thought. It was great to get into the kitchen after it was all over for a spot of restful dough bashing.
The Fresh From the Oven challenge this month was to make hot cross buns again and a year later I’ve changed how I approached it.
For one, I didn’t follow the recipe. Cranberries and orange juice are an irresistible combination in Christmas cranberry sauce; I’ve been a rebel and brought them out for Easter with orange zest and dried cranberries in the dough and a sticky, syrupy glaze of orange juice with a dash a Cointreau. Try them during this Easter week (or at any time). You won’t regret it. I’d love to know what you think of the pictures too – I had a lot of fun experimenting. Which one makes you want to eat these buns the most?
Cranberry and Cointreau hot cross buns
Makes 12. Printable version here.
Ingredients
7.5g (1 1/2 teaspoons) instant dried yeast (or 15g fresh yeast)
175ml (6 fl oz) lukewarm milk
350g strong plain white bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon mixed spice, ground
1 teaspoon cinnamon, ground
1 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated
50g (2oz) butter, diced
zest of a lemon, grated
zest of an orange, grated
25g (1oz) soft, light brown sugar
75g (3oz) dried cranberries
1 egg, beaten
For the glaze: Put 100g (4oz) caster sugar in a small saucepan with 50ml fresh orange juice. Heat gently to dissolve sugar then raise the heat and bring to the boil until thickened but not brown. Leave to cool and add 15ml Cointreau.
For the crosses: approx 50g (2oz) shortcrust pastry or 1 tablespoon of plain flour mixed to a loose paste with 1 tablespoon of water.
Method
- Stir the yeast into the warm milk and leave for 5 minutes (unless you are using easy-blend yeast). Sift the flour and spices into the bowl of your mixer, add the salt and rub in the butter (I used the paddle on my KitchenAid). Stir in the lemon and orange zest, sugar, cranberries. (If you are using easy-blend yeast, add this in now.)
- Add the yeast/milk mixture and egg to form a soft dough (I use the dough hook). Knead for 10 minutes by machine or hand. Remove the dough, wash and dry the bowl and lightly oil it, then return the dough, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in size.
- Knock back the dough (removing the air), lightly knead again for a few minutes then cut it into 12 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a ball (I do this by tucking the edges underneath) and put on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
- Cover with cling film and leave to rise again in a warm place for around 30 minutes (alternatively you can put them in the fridge overnight and bring to room temperature in the morning). Roll out the pastry and cut into even strips, brush the back of each strip with a little water and lay two pieces over each bun to form a cross. Alternatively use a piping bag (or plastic bag with the corner cut off) with the flour and water paste to make the crosses.
- Bake in an oven preheated to 190C (325F) for 15-20 minutes. Make the glaze while they are cooking and brush this over the top while the buns are still warm. Cool on a wire rack. Serve with butter and jam.
I think I’ll try soaking the cranberries in Cointreau overnight next time for an extra orangey hit. Did you make hot cross buns this year? As always, you can see many more buns over on The Little Loaf , who set the challenge, and the round up on Purely Food .
Croissants – part two
So, in the last installment, we left our heroes teetering on the brink of being plunged into a hot oven. Would they emerge golden and flakey, crumbling at the touch of a buttery knife? Or would they be stodgy with not a paper-thin layer of baked dough in sight? Would I have finally conquered my fear of croissant making?
Well pretty they ain’t. Or weren’t….this is the second lot I baked as the first eight were devoured by hungry teens and yours truly. I barely had time to whip the next lot outside for their culinary mug-shot, before they went the same way as the first.
Time-consuming and a bit fiddly but I would urge everyone to have a go at making these. If you have the house to yourself and don’t need to rush anywhere, get in the kitchen, put some music on and get stuck in. The satisfaction of making these superior pastries is not to be underestimated and your friends or family will love you for it, especially at breakfast-time.
I’m still to perfect the art of croissant-making but the step by step instructions from this month’s Fresh From the Oven Challenge set by Lavender and Lovage are excellent and have put me on the right track. I’m now croissant-making-phobia free.
Top tips along the way
- You can use a free-standing mixer with a dough hook for the kneading
- Liberally flour your work surface
- Dust off the residual flour as you fold the dough
- Cover the dough in cling film when you put it in the fridge to rest to stop it drying out
- Brush egg wash from middle to outside to make sure the layers can rise
- Best eaten warm from the oven (and they are divine)
So are you ready to make croissants?
Croissants – part one
The last time I made croissants, the butter, in its envelope of dough. got too warm despite having my air conditioning turned to the Arctic setting. As I rolled it out a huge bubble of air was created which, eased along by my rolling pin, burst at the edge sending butter oozing out of the side. It felt like a creature that I was trying to tame – very unsuccessfully. I flung the lot into the bin and instantly developed a severe case of fear-of-croissant-making (the dough division of Mageirocophobia).
So I thought that this month’s Fresh From the Oven baking challenge would be perfect desensitization therapy and was determined to give them another go. Then suddenly it was the 28th of the month and not a homemade, buttery, flakey, morsel in sight. Excuses, I have many – my daughters’ school show, the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Taste of Dubai, a Fooderati Arabia picnic, invites to Baker & Spice, Solis Bistro, Donatello, Royal China and the Nobu Garden party plus working on the Food Photography and styling workshop with Meeta. Add in working for living and putting a meal on the table every night – you know the usual. However, maybe it was subconscious avoidance. The fear was deep-rooted. I couldn’t let this one go.
Grasping the nettle, I set to. The step by step instructions and pictures by Lavender and Lovage were superb. The ‘dotting’ technique (rather than trying to roll out a slab of butter) was much simpler, although by the end I did have a bit of seepage, despite cranking up the air-conditioning and lots of time in between stages in the fridge. I rolled the little devils up – they looked a bit like they’d been made by a contestant on the Generation Game. And that pushed me further and further towards the end of the day….when darkness falls (making food photography impossible unless you have an expensive fancy light – which I don’t).
So was the result flakey, buttery croissants to die for (or at least smother in jam and tear into pieces)?
Come back on Friday and I’ll tell you.
They’ll also be a collection of croissants on Utterly Scrummy Food for Families in the next couple of days.
Do you have a food-making phobia or a culinary bête noir? It’s good to talk.
Growing vegetables in the desert
The phone rang, “Can you answer that?” said Nausheen, who was driving. The screen flashed Obaid the farmer. After a rendezvous in a shopping centre car park we were soon following a pick-up truck, at speed, along a series of highways, out in to the desert. “What do you want to see?” Obaid had said, “I have seven farms.” He was prepared to show us them all but we only had a morning free so opted for the nearest one.
Locally grown, organic vegetables wasn’t a phrase I had heard in Dubai prior to April 2010, than Nazwa opened and there was the first farmer’s market organised by Baker & Spice. I hot-footed it down there, not really expecting much but was proved wrong by the freshness of the vegetables and the pride of the producers in what they were selling. Sadly Nazwa closed but was followed more recently by the Ripe market and veg box scheme – and Elena who ran Nazwa is also providing veg box deliveries. So much choice in less than two years.
My bounty from Organlicious on the left and the contents of my shopping basket from the Farmers' market this Friday on the right
The way I shop has changed completely due to the Baker & Spice market (on Fridays at Souk al Bahar and Saturdays at the Marina during the growing season). I shop once a week for fresh vegetables, selecting what looks best on the day, and then structure our meals around the ingredients. My family eats more healthily, the produce tastes so good and we also save money. There will be a hole in our lives once the growing season ends and we have to go back to tasteless, overpriced, air-miles accumulated, imported stuff.
The choice of locally grown organic produce and producers has grown at the B & S market and the connection with growers and eager customers seems to benefit both parties. Organically grown vegetables are important to me (especially since coriander was withdrawn for a month last year due to unacceptably high levels of chemicals being detected by the Municipality) but I’ll admit to being dubious about how feasible true organic farming is in the UAE. The choices we make are not cut and dried.
In a desert country where most things are imported and water is in short supply the choices are not always cut and dried
I met Yael Mejia at the recent launch of her third Baker & Spice restaurant (in Dubai Marina), and someone asked her what benchmark was used for the organic produce, “UK Soil Association standards” she replied immediately.
Really?! I wanted to see this with my own eyes, which is why I was tearing down the highway into the desert with blogger Dubai-Bites and TV presenter Saba Wahid – both avid organic veg. shoppers.
My first question to Obaid was “Why?” After all you have to be pretty committed to agriculture in a desert country with average five days rain a year and summer temperatures in excess of 40 C
“I am a father now.” was his simple but sincere answer, and his dedication to putting the best food he possibly could on his family’s table and to show others how to produce it too, became clear as we toured the farm for a couple of hours.
Water from the well
Obaid and his (very tall) friend Khalaf showed us round and answered all the questions we fired and more. This particular patch of land was bare two years ago and a lot of hard work, trial and error and research has gone into making it into the fertile plot of today. Obaid is helping Khalaf to convert his family’s 22 farms to use organic practises.
We started at the water source. Well water is used (Obaid is strongly opposed to desalinated sea water), it is filtered to extract the small amount of salt that is present which inhibits plant growth. We dipped our hands into the gushing stream and drank. It was just like spring water, if a bit warmer. Next to the reservoir is the compost heap, supplementary fertiliser is also used but this too is organic. The earth was already turning into crumbly brown loam in contrast to the red sand that surrounded us. Pest control is through companion planting (for example garlic next to lettuce), physical removal (e.g. washing black fly off leaves) and some imported organic pest control remedies from Europe.
Crop rotation is used very carefully in order to put nitrogen back into the soil. For instance there was a crop which is used for animal feed, a sort of clover which generates a lot of nitrogen. As we were visiting at the end of the season, a lot of the crops were going to seed. The farm collects the seed to plant next year and Obaid believes that the same plant, several generations on, will evolve to become more tolerant to the specific conditions and location. We marvelled that the broccoli had produced a most beautiful burst of yellow flowers.
Broccoli gone to seed
Some ears of bleached wheat waved in the beating sun. This was planted as organic food for a small flock of hens. I have long thought there was the market for organic, local chicken but Obaid is not so certain that there is the volume of consumers prepared to pay the higher prices necessary to sustain this.
As a child who spent my six weeks summer holidays in the garden, I couldn’t resist taking a pea pod from the plant, prising it open and eating the sweet, bright, pea while contemplating the peace of the surroundings. Young date palms underplanted with grass framed one corner, rusty-brown corn sheaves another, the green planting stopping abruptly at a wire fence edged by the red ribbon of the desert.
Ears of wheat for the hens and vegetables gone to seed to provide next years crop
We brushed off our clothes and washed the bottom of our shoes in disinfectant before entering the greenhouses. Tomato vines were trained up to the roof but the stems snaked in ropes along the bottoms of the cordons. This was a system that Obeid had seen used in Europe, making the plants much stronger. We tasted some tiny sweet strawberries irrigated and fertilised through a system devised by Obaid (which he wanted to keep secret) using the experimental aquaponics method (using live fish). He was damning about hydroponics which he believes concentrates the chemical fertilisers in the plants.
Aubergines and peas
Large fans cooled the greenhouses of tomatoes and cucumbers. Obaid has looked into solar and wind power but the set up costs are prohibitive. I couldn’t help feel confident that the pair will come up with a solution though – Obeid’s previous passion was in motor-racing and Khalaf had invented an electric car and spoke enthusiastically about the benefits of using one (including the politics of electric vehicles in an oil-centric world). Eco warriors might be the wrong term for Obaid and Khalaf but they are genuinely dedicated to bringing sustainable organic agriculture to the U.A.E. drawing on international experiences from farming and combining it with their own skills and ingenuity as a legacy generations of Emiratis to come. Obaid mentioned several times about feeding organic, chemical-free food to children for their development “the first seven years are the most important”. I feel convinced that he and Guy Watson of Riverford would have a lot to talk about.
Tomatoes and cucumbers in the cooler greenhouse
Obaid showed us the difference between male and female flowers on the courgettes and we mentioned that he could sell them to restaurants. He asked one of the farm workers who was harvesting the courgettes not to discard them. As well as excellent English (and Arabic of course), Obaid speaks the Indian language of his workers and spends long hours on the farm with them. Despite the immaculate dish dash he was wearing, he is the driving force and knows every metre of the land.
Obaid and Khalaf were very shy about having their photo taken as they wanted the farm to be the focus. Obaid appears to have a very good working relationship with his team especially as he has taken time to learn their language.
We were sent home with bags of produce (including the courgette flowers). Any scepticism I had harboured was completely blown away and replaced by immense admiration for the dedication and perseverance it takes to farm in such inhospitable conditions. I sliced and grilled the aubergines for freezing (thanks Celia), the enormous bunch of coriander went into taboulleh and I made this dip out of the courgettes. I was back at the market this weekend. The ripe tomatoes rival anything from the Mediterranean at this time of year with that ‘just picked’ smell from the vine, I bought a big bag of freshly-picked peas, a huge bunch of basil that scented the entire kitchen and bunches of sweet baby carrots from Obaid’s farm Organiliciouz. Like many of my friends who shop at the market I try to buy a bit from each producer; they deserve our support going to such lengths to produce fresh, tasty, nutritious food of such good provenance.
Courgette dip on organic wholewheat flat bread
Where to buy locally grown organic vegetables and fruit in Dubai:
The Farmer’s Market on the Terrace outside Baker & Spice – at Souk al Bahar every Friday 9 am – 6 pm and at The Promenade, Dubai Marina every Saturday 9 am – 2pm (during the growing season approx November to May). On Facebook follow Baker & Spice here and The Farmers’ Market here.
Ripe holds a market at Dubai Garden Centre every Saturday 9.30 am – 1 pm, Abu Dhabi Khalifa Park’s Desert Garden Centre every Friday 9.30 am – 1 pm & Al Raha Jones the Grocer Thurdays 3 – 7 pm. They deliver vegetable boxes to some areas in Dubai and also have a schedule of collection points in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. More information here.
Organic farm box scheme. Elena delivers vegetable boxes to collection points in Arabian Ranches and Umm Suqeim. Leave a comment on this post if you’d like contact details.
Organic Foods & Cafe at The Greens and in Dubai Mall stocks a small selection of locally grown organic produce (the range is mainly imported). You can buy online and they provide free home delivery if you spend over 250 AED. More information here.
Organiciliouz – you can follow on Twitter here
Courgette crostini
This is a simple recipe for using up a lot of courgettes; you can smear onto crostini as a starter, stir through pasta as a sauce or use as a dip with bread and crudités.
Ingredients
olive oil
250g (approx.) courgettes
sea salt
black pepper
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice
A handful of freshly grated Parmesan cheese (or a vegetarian cheese to make this vege friendly)
Leaves from a couple of sprigs of fresh mint (about 20) – although you could use other fresh herbs too
For the crostini:
1 thin baguette
approx 120 ml exta virgin olive oil
Makes about 40 crostini
Method
Wash and dry the courgettes and slice them into rounds (about 1/2 cm thickness). Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil into a non-stick frying pan and gently saute the courgette with a sprinkling of sea salt for about 15 -20 minutes until cooked but not browned (the courgettes turn transparent). Leave to cool for a few minutes then tip into a food processor with the rest of the ingredients and pulse until blended but retaining some texture.
To make the crostini, preheat the oven to 200 C. Slice a French stick diagonally into rounds of about 1/2 cm, lay on a baking tray and smear each slice with a little extra virgin olive oil (I use a pastry brush). Toast in the oven until golden turning them over halfway, then rub the surface of each one with the cut half of a garlic clove. Leave to cool (can be made a couple of hours before you want to use but no longer). Top with the courgette paste and some chopped parsley or a small amount of finely chopped red chilli and serve immediately.
How important is organic or local when you are shopping for fruit and vegetables?
All in good taste?
Taste of Dubai is one of a series of festivals franchised in cities around the world. To quote the blurb ‘where the host city’s most acclaimed restaurants and chefs gather in a stunning venue to present their signature dishes to thousands of ‘foodie’ visitors.’ In reality this means the restaurants with enough cash to afford to exhibit usually with a ‘celebrity endorsement’. The almost complete lack of owner-run restaurants and home-grown talent in the fine dining sector means that ‘Taste of Dubai’ could be a slight misnomer. However, it’s a major food-focussed gathering that, in this its fifth year attracted the public in droves to eat, drink and sit around listening to music in a tranquil, green space surrounded by steel and glass buildings. Actually, not that tranquil once the crowds of record numbers streamed in over three days but the sense of enjoyment and relaxation was palpable. The atmosphere was positively chilled – even at temperatures of 29 C.
Taste of Dubai - in a green space among the towering buildings of Media City
In addition to the restaurants there are chefs’ demonstrations in two open venues. In the Miele theatre, you can sign up to cook along with on of the many celebrity or local chefs and I was lucky enough to be in a session with my food hero Giorgio Locatelli. After Vineet Bhatia’s demo, the cooking stations were quickly cleared and restocked with equipment and ingredients. A man with a hoover started vacuuming as Giorgio and his team arrived. Giorgio looked with amusement at the cloud of mosquitos hovering under the bright lights directly over his work surface. “Who’s gonna want to cook there?” he asked ruefully, grabbed the hoover attachment and proceeded to decimate the flying insect population.
Giorgio attacks the mozzies
I had watched Giorgio cook twice before (here and here) and tasted his wonderful food that is memorable for its simplicity and flavour so I was delighted to hear we’d be making risotto alla marinara (seafood risotto). Maybe I’d be able to get a bit closer to making the perfect risotto.
We steamed open some clams in some fish stock, sautéed the soffrito (of onion, celery and carrot), toasted the rice (the tostatura) and then poured in the first ladleful of stock. “You should be able to hear it scream” said Giorgio and came round to check and nodded his approval as the stock hissed upon hitting the hot rice, “Keep it boiling, boiling, boiling.” he advised.
“Whatever you do, don’t add the calamari till the very end, because if you do it’ll end up like rubber”. Hoots of laughter from one team at the back as they had jumped the gun with the calamari. Once we’d plated up the risotto, Giorgio came round to taste each one. I held up the plate keeping everything crossed! “Fantastic!” he exclaimed. We received a certificate at the end but this approval was enough for me. I had a spring in my step all weekend.
The recipe we followed was similar to the one in Giorgio’s book Made in Sicily with a slightly simpler method of preparing the seafood and the addition of cold butter at the end.
I’ll let some pictures do most of the talking for the rest of the festival:
I found Gary Rhodes completely absorbed in reading his own cookery book. He was miles away for about 5 minutes but had the good grace to laugh when I confessed that I’d caught him. He’s ‘hands-on’ and spends a lot of the time in the kitchen while at Taste of Dubai.
I got caught taking pictures of the ingredients prior to Aldo Zilli’s demo and the compère made me come back up to take an aerial view (red-faced). Aldo made a kind of bouillabaise with rouille (fish stew with red pepper sauce) and some prawn and calamari skewers on griddled aubergine. He had a good patter and the aromas were wonderful but it all looked a bit slap-dash to me. Call me biased, but there was none of Giorgio’s finesse. He invited some 5-year-old twins up to answer some questions:,
Aldo : “Who does the cooking in your house?”
Twin: “Our nanny.”
Truly a taste of Dubai!
Black cod from Nobu, churrasco beef from Gaucho, ravioli from Ronda Locatelli and panna cotta from Rhodes Mezzanine
It took a whole weekend of tasting (me and KP joint effort) for me to find something that knocked the socks off my taste buds:
South Indian style lamb korma with saffron pulao from Indego by Vineet Too bland and creamy for KP’s taste
Lamb, carrot and cracked coriander from Table 9 Nice morsels of fragrant, tender shredded lamb and KP scoffed the lot. As chefs who are based in Dubai and making a brave effort at trying to do something different, it was great to see Scott Price and Nick Alvis present. Scott reminded me to try their cookery school soon.
Churrasco style beef with Peruvian rice and tomato rocoto salsa from Toro Toro Nicely cooked steak but second place to….
Churrasco de chorizo (a marinated, spiral cut with garlic, parsley and olive oil served with a humita) from Gaucho This was freshly cooked on the outside grill. Flecked with green; salty, fresh and garlicky all at the same time. The humita was a mix of smoked corn, some purèed, some whole kernels, all wrapped in a little leaf.
Black Cod Yuzu Miso from Nobu While I loved the contrast in textures and the soft, yielding black cod, the sauce was too overpowering for this tiny piece of fish. For me it was the Japanese equivalent of drowning something in ketchup (sorry if this view is sacrilegious to those that worship at the temple of Nobu). I presume the portion of fish would be larger in the restaurant itself countering the imbalance.
Food voyeurism (clockwise) from Da shi Dai, Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, The Ivy, Rhodes Mezzanine and Zafran
Iced berries from The Ivy These and the next dish were served as free, tasting-spoons (more of this kind of sampling please). I don’t like cold things very much so would never have tried them so was pleasantly surprised by how good these berries in a rich vanilla sauce were.
Bang bang chicken from The Ivy I think this is a strange thing to put on the Ivy menu but it was a pleasant combination of crunchy veg and creamy peanut sauce.
Vanilla panna cotta with pineapple and passionfruit coulis from Rhodes Mezzanine Not quite wobbly enough for my tastes (but that’s splitting hairs), the coulis was deliciously cooling and sharp on a hot day. I know the pineapple was fresh but in the coulis it had a tinned quality about it making the whole thing like a grown-up version of a dessert my Mum would have made for childhood birthday parties. This is a good thing.
Chocolate brownie from Rivington Grill Recreating dishes from the restaurant in temporary kitchens must be a challenge but there is no excuse for how dry and slightly dusty tasting this brownie was. The very small serving of ‘Devonshire clotted cream’ (my tip is to head over the border and get Rodda’s from Cornwall) was not enough to compensate. Regretfully chose this over the moister-sounding banana brownie from Mango Tree.
Fish and chips from Rivington Grill In my defense I held out and this was the last thing I ate on Saturday night. Crisp batter, creamy, flakey cod, homemade tartare sauce and a mushy pea puree – not rocket science but very satisfying. Fresh cod (not possible here) and hand cut chips would be the only improvements.
Ravioli di castagne e patate, tartufo nero pregiato (homemade chestnut and potato ravioli with buttered black truffle) from Ronda Locatelli Again, I left this to the last night feeling I was perhaps a bit biased towards this restaurant and should try something else. This had me trying to scoop up every last drop of the trufflely butter with a plastic fork, if there hadn’t been a crowd I would have licked the plate. Earthy, soft and comforting, it was like eating a gastronomic equivalent of the forest floor.
Vineet Bhatia in the Miele school. Paul DeVisser (from Ruth's Chris Steakhouse) tutors about tuna.
The Miele Cookery School was a highlight of the event for me. You could watch the chefs in action from the sidelines and all I witnessed were really hands-on, giving as much guidance as they could. It was great to see parents and children cooking together.
Sid from Spontaneous Euphoria and Raw coffee
I met Sid from Spontaneous Euphoria selling her homemade cookies and biscuits (she’s a cupcake queen) and tasted fabulous ginger and basil-infused cold brew coffee with the Raw team. It was good to see some small and artisan businesses – it would be great to see more next year.
Pity the poor chef behind the Gaucho barbecue. Let me say right now that your efforts were appreciated.
There was a constant queue at Rivington Grill – almost a pastiche of British food (they were serving cockles too)! Ketchup and Sarsons!
Take two chefs! Richard Sandoval from Toro Toro
From a shaky start five years ago, Taste of Dubai has carved a place for itself in the calendar. It would be great to have some low-key, artisan-led, grass-roots events to counter-balance the five-star mania. Taste of Dubai is just part of the picture of the diverse range of food this city has to offer. It was a breath of fresh air to see some smaller businesses with good products there but it would be great to see a lot more. A warning to restaurants too – we notice those that serve the same menu year after year! So here’s to some surprises in 2013….because, yes, I’ll be back. Do you fancy coming next year?
For a full list of the restaurants visit the Taste of Dubai site.
Pasta that refreshes the parts…
…Brits of a certain age fill in the rest! You know that after-Christmas feeling? When you long for something fresh and simple to eat? I’ve got it right now. Quite a few lovely invites have dropped into my in-box of late and some have been just too tempting to resist. Dubai has been choc-a-bloc with chefs (last weekend at the Festival of Literature and this weekend at Taste of Dubai), restaurant openings and new menus.
A while back, Ahlan Gourmet asked me to write about my favourite meal. I thought about some of the wonderful meals I’ve been lucky enough to experience especially since I’ve lived in Dubai and there have been plenty of luxurious foodstuffs and incredible culinary skills involved. They include a seafood banquet commencing with sushi, followed by several kinds of oysters, freshly nestled in their briny shells, both raw and ‘Rockefellered’ all accompanied by some excellent Champagne. Steak tartare with a quivering little poached quail’s egg poised on top, confit of duck with spiced, red cabbage, fresh Brixham scallops wrapped in pancetta with a spicy tomato sauce (at Jamie’s in Bath) – I’ve cleaned every morsel from my plate and longed for more.
Then there is food prepared with love which seems to have a special secret ingredient added through the care involved. For me, this starts with my Mother’s roast dinner with crispy potatoes, parsnips and Mum’s gravy. Then there are my Mother-in-law’s fabulous stuffed vegetables, her blackberry and apple pie and unctuous yellow home-made custard, thick with cream and free-range egg yolks. Or my friend Wasia’s fabulous courgettes in a tomato sauce and her delicious dhal – she’s given me the recipes, which are simple, but they don’t taste the same when I make them for myself.
My favourite meals of all are those spent at home with my family and here I want simple comfort food, the freshest ingredients which are local if possible. This is what I’m in need of right now as an antidote to eating out and fancy food. I find solace in the repetitive stirring action of a risotto, the chopping of herbs, the kneading of dough for bread. The comforting aromas in the kitchen are all part of the process. This bowl of pasta appeases my slight lemon addiction, refreshes with herbs and soothes with crème fraiche and cheese. A perfectly ripe mango or peach is all that is needed for dessert.
Lemon and herb pasta
Ingredients
Serves 4
- 400g spaghetti or linguine
- Small bunch flat-leaved parsley, leaves picked
- About 20 fresh mint leaves
- A handful of basil leaves
- 1 lemon, zest grated
- 1 small tub crème fraiche 200ml
- Parmesan cheese (Parmigiano-Reggiano)
- Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Cook the pasta in a large amount of boiling water for the time stated on the packet (or until al dente). In the meantime wash, dry and chop the herbs finely and put into a large bowl with the juice of half the lemon, the finely grated lemon zest, crème fraiche, a handful of freshly grated parmesan and some black pepper. Stir to combine.
When the pasta is cooked drain it reserving a couple of tablespoons of the cooking water. Return the pasta to the pan, add the cooking water, give it a good stir to loosen the strands then pour into the bowl containing the other ingredients. Combine, adding some sea salt and extra lemon juice if necessary. Serve garnished with some basil leaves and provide additional grated parmesan at the table.
This is a revised version of an article that appeared in the first issue of Ahlan Gourmet magazine in October 2011
What do you crave when you’ve over-indulged?
Pomegranates and roses
Iran or Persia? This question reminds me of a passage from Anne Tyler’s novel Digging to America. A group of friends of Iranian descent are discussing the reaction of the American hostess at a party. The guest has answered ‘Iran’ as the answer to the question ‘Where are you from?’.
‘Oh! Persia!’ (says the hostess)
‘No’ I said ‘Iran. Persia is only a British invention. From the start it was always Iran.’
‘Well I prefer Persia,’ she told me. ‘Persia sounds much more beautiful.’
Sami, one of the main characters, advises “What you should have told her is, ‘Oh then! In that case! Please don’t let a mere twenty-five hundred years of history stand in your way, madam.'”
Do we all view everything that’s good about this country, everything mysterious, romantic, interesting, progressive, enriching and cultural, as something in the distant past to be labelled ‘Persia’ and all that is new and/or negative as ‘Iran’?
The difficulties of being able to travel to Iran means that most of us receive our information via the media (which is usually fear, suspicion and bad news). The U.A.E.’s proximity to Iran means that there is a large expatriate population here. Radio Shoma broadcasts in Farsi to over 600,000 Farsi speakers and Iranian restaurants abound. There is one way to get to know more about a country and its people – through its food culture.
This was one of chef Ariana Bundy’s motivations for writing a cook book about Iranian food. She hopes that people will read her book, make some of the recipes at home as a way of getting closer to the Iranian people. When I met Ariana at her light, airy home in Dubai, I shamefacedly confessed that until I moved to the Middle East I assumed that Arabic was the language of Iran and that I still knew very little about Iranian cuisine. I had a hunch that I was not alone. Over the next half an hour I received an amazing beginner’s guide and crash course, departing with my mind full of images, my imagination full of flavours and clutching a bag full of barberries.
Firstly Ariana showed me a copy of her book Pomegranates and roses – unsurprisingly (after all I’ve just said) subtitled My Persian family recipes. It is an exquisitely beautiful book which would justify its purchase if it never left your coffee table. Ariana worked on the styling of the book with her Mother, a Parisian fashion designer, who brought textiles and cooking pots, fabrics and cutlery from Iran, even matching cloth from a certain region to the relevant dish of origin. Another reason Ariana cites for writing the book was to produce a collection of recipes in a more modern way – the pages are edged with intricate motifs, text overlaid with Persian script and beautiful photography of the food and ingredients. It’s more than just a recipe book however giving a background of the evolution of the cuisine, sources of ingredients and the important principles in putting a dish together.
Ariana threw information at me, each nugget interesting or even astonishing. Iran is the biggest producer and exporter of caviar in the world. And of stone fruit, saffron and pistachios, demonstrating how richly fertile this country is, combined with an ancient aqueduct system which means that even remote areas can be irrigated, “the California of the Middle East”. Top-quality produce, in season is the basis of taste.
The key to understanding how to cook these recipes and what makes Iranian cuisine rather unique, lies near the beginning of the book. The sardi (cold) garmi (hot) system of classifying foods and temperaments. Ariana explained it as the Yin and Yang of Iran. Apparently all Mothers discover which camp their child falls into from an early age; this system of classification is called Unani and derived from the teachings of Greek physician Hippocrates, and Roman physician Galen. All main foods are divided into sardi or garmi and balanced within a dish to complement or off-set each other. In some cases the use of sharp ingredients such as verjuice, lemon or dried limes is also contrasted with other elements to achieve a sweet and sour balance. The seasons are also consulted; walnuts and garlic, which are garmi, would not be used during the heat of the summer, instead there would be sardi foods like cucumber and yoghurt. Whether a guest is old, young, sick, healthy etc. will also be taken into consideration. This counterbalancing of ingredients and view of the whole meal may explain why Iranian dishes have such interest and appeal. Ariana says that children absolutely love it as it is different but comforting. She’s found that when she cooks Iranian meals, her son eats and eats.
Roses in my Mum's garden
That Ariana hasn’t always cooked the food she grew up eating at her Grandparents’ table is another strength of the book. She grew up in the West (Switzerland, New York, London) and made a career change from international business and marketing to train in patisserie at the acclaimed Le Cordon Bleu school in Paris. After several years catering for the stars in Los Angeles, she decided to spend more time with her family and wrote a cookery book called the Sweet Alternative about desserts which are free of gluten, soy and dairy that was inspired by her and her family’s dietary intolerances. For this next book she brought her chef’s discipline to the process in recording the recipes passed down through her family and learning how to make them herself. She wanted precise instructions so she could re-create the authentic recipes and said it was a real challenge to get them as her relatives would say ‘a handful of this, a handful of that’. “I took my digital scales and I’d turn my back for one minute and something else would go in! But I was determined to record it properly, that’s why there are two whole pages dedicated to cooking rice.”
By now I was positively stroking the book and every time I turned the pages something else caught my eye. Elegant cold yogurt soup called Mas o Khiar and Asheh Reshteh, a soup with a drizzled garnish of Farsi script. Nowruz, which marks the Iranian New year is on March 21st and it’s traditional to eat noodle soup (and some people also leap over bonfires). The noodles represent the different paths one takes in life. With KP in mind I spotted a recipe for meatballs called Koofteh Sabzi which are normally served with bread and Torshi which is a Persian pickle.
When discussing the combination of fruit and meat for which Persian cuisine is famed, I confessed that I had never tasted barberries so Ariana fetched some. Used commonly in recipes during Elizabethan and Victorian times in Britain, it’s a shame that these sharp fruit fell from fashion (to be replaced by the imported cranberry I fear). In true Middle East traditions of hospitality, Ariana kindly bagged up some barberries for me to take home. A few copies of her book will be available at her talk during the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, ahead of it’s UK release; I’ll be at the front of the queue. If you want to meet Ariana, hear more about her journey to learn about her native food culture and the secrets of Iranian cooking, including Zereshk Polo ba Morgh – chicken with barberries served with rice, her session is at 13.30 Friday 9th March
To read more about Ariana there is a great article by Emily Shardlow in The National. You can also see her on Thursday night on Studio One, Dubai One TVdemonstrating the dish above. After the Lit Fest, Pomegranates and Roses will be in Dubai book shops in April (otherwise order from Amazon).
To my eternal regret I missed going on a trip to Iran with some friends a couple of years ago. I hope there will be a little piece of Persia (or Iran!) in my kitchen when I get the book home and liberate the barberries from the fridge.
A big appetite for small food
A few weeks ago I made 300 canapes. All in a good cause (to help raise funds for my daughters’ school) but it did take me and my sister the best part of a day. My mass catering exploits have over the years included making chilli con carne for 50, a barbecue for 30 and sausage and mash for 20 (the latter from a tiny kitchen with only 2 saucepans).
People in Dubai who haven’t taken leave of their senses usually ring the caterers. Time Out Dubai lists over 900 restaurants (there are many more) and the majority have some sort of home-delivery or outside catering service. It doesn’t have to be grand, and with much of the year being perfect for holding a party outdoors, some of my favourite evenings have been fuelled by a cheap and cheerful curry or a shawarma stand in a friend’s garden.
Ceviche, tuna miso embellished with gold and mini lamb tagine with couscous.
KP has an aversion to small food and starts to get twitchy if we are off to a party where there is the promise of canapés (or is it canapé?). But Eggs on the Roof sums up the opposing view (which I share) quite perfectly:
I love the concept of the canape. All the flavours of an entire plateful, heaped extravagantly into one perfect mouthful.
Has the canapé reached a new standard of sophistication and creativity in Dubai of late? I hovered (and hoovered) at the blini stand at Traiteur, Park Hyatt recently, part of a range of exquisite morsels brought out that evening including minute lemon meringue pies. The Cavalli Club served spoons (in the shape of high-heeled shoes) containing confit of duck and Dish delivered old favourites like mini fish gougons and chips and Aberdeen angus burger with truffle mayonnaise prepared with panache at a private party. New entrants to the events catering arena, Lafayette Gourmet, invited Fooderati Arabia to sample their new menu last week.
Welcome greetings and drinks
You get to Lafayette Gourmet by threading through expensive fashion, displayed like art in a post-modernist gallery, rounding the corner into banks of fresh produce from chillies to quinces and seried rows of gleaming jars. It’s an emporium of a huge range of fresh foods and ingredients plus you can eat at various places dotted around the food hall from an extensive menu.
A blackboard announced us, a nice touch, and coloured drinks welcomed us; we then embarked on what might easily be called a marathon of appetiser eating.
The patient staff got used to posing! Simply stunning – buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil with a gazpacho dressing
A ceviche adorned with an edible pansy tasted as good as it looked and a tuna/miso concoction beautifully decorated with edible gold leaf and a squid ink wafer was also excellent. My head was turned by the foie gras bon bons with crushed brioche and walnut (see picture at the top); this was cold in contrast to a hot breadcrumbed duck liver parcel teamed with cranberry, both were sublime. Prising myself away to the pork room, I spent a very happy time there making very good friends with the sweet, salty, addictive Jamón ibérico which was expertly carved on the bone (not easy).
Inside the pork section getting to know the jamon iberico
I returned via the cheese room and a sample of some very ripe Brie which was oozingly good, from the huge selection of, mainly French, cheeses.
Oozingly ripe Brie
Wagyu Beef Wellington could have been a fraction pinker but this is quibbling as the yielding texture of the meat and layering of tastes meant they disappeared rapidly. Cute cartons of noodles were brought (tasty but could have been spicier).
The goat’s cheese parcels drizzled with thyme honey were another highlight of the evening. Wagyu wellingtons in the spotlight.
When it seemed we could eat no more, dishes of paella arrived; a Spanish tapas bar will be added to the already extensive eating-in options very soon (the only small food KP really likes).
The soundtrack to the evening had been ‘oooh’, ‘mmmm’, and ‘mmmMMMMmm’. The waiting staff had finally become accustomed to cries of delight followed by instructions not to move a muscle while we all took photographs from every angle before diving in.
Chocolate covered ice-cream pops in a cave of ice (made with a balloon and a blow-torch)
A crescendo was reached when the desserts appeared, ‘oooooooooooh!’; cute little cones topped with mini-marshmallows or caramel popcorn, chocolate-coated ice-cream pops shrouded in a mini ice palace, dainty petit fours and tartlets, double chocolate brownies, chocolate fondants with vanilla sauce, salty churros with dark chocolate for dipping and cubes of excellent panettone.
Churros, chocolate fondants, ice-cream pops, cones and tartlets – a sampler of the dessert menu.
Who wouldn’t be in foodie heaven after this Brobdingnagian feast of Lilliputian delights?* However what really set the Lafayette Gourmet food apart from other caterers in my opinion was the quality of the ingredients and the personal involvement of the ‘Gourmet Culinary Director’ and very, creative chef, Russell Impiazzi. Lafayette Gourmet only use ingredients from the food hall meaning that, for instance, the simple looking buffalo mozzarella and tomato,basil gazpacho was soft, melting and creamy due to the quality of the cheese. Russell orchestrated the constant flow of delicacies and was positively glowing with our reaction. He admitted that he loved our enthusiasm and the interest that so many of the group showed in how the dishes were made.
A close up of the fresh pasta section – one of the many counters around the Lafayette Gourmet food hall
If this has got you thinking about your next event, Harriet from Lafayette Gourmet was keen to point out that they can cater for large parties, wedding, corporate events, with live cooking stations and the like, to gourmet sandwiches for a meeting, to dinner for a select few (about 10 as a minimum). The large range of event menus is in the brochure here. As the team took such good care of us I’m betting they extend that kind of attention to detail to their outside catering.
Jamon Iberico – the bones sell for 199 AED a piece – behind closed doors in the pork section.
*This is going to qualify for Tangerine and Cinnamon’s Foodie Pseudery if I’m not careful!
I’m already planning my next date with Lafayette Gourmet and yes it may involve something from France and something from Spain. And who knows, next time you might not ‘always find me in the kitchen at parties’.
Disclosure: I enjoyed this evening as a guest of Galeries Lafayette, Dubai Mall, Dubai
My Custard Pie 