The Seagrass - Manzes, Chapel Market, Islington

The Seagrass - Manzes Chapel Market, Islington

On Thursday, friday and Saturday nights Manzes, a 19th century pie and mash shop in Islington, is taken over by The Seagrass restaurant.
Focusing on game and seafood the deal is £30 for three courses - and it is BYOB.
We were lucky enough to go on the Friday of the Jubilee weekend. Manzes is in Chapel Market - not the nicest part of Islington - but as soon as you step through the door everything else is forgotten. A really warm welcome - into a very traditional looking pie and mash shop - all tiles and marble - with additional bunting the night we went.

We were met by Ashley - a really warm welcome, and he ran through everything with us, and opened the wine (warning BYOB can be dangerous..........)

The menu was a really interesting mix - I could quite happily have had all of the dishes! Whilst we were deciding there was an additional amuse bouche of King Scallop - served pan fried with the coral - a beautiful start to the meal.

 

A selection of three starters, three main and three deserts - we went for the west coast mussels, horseradish and dill - and the pan fried wild duck, chorizo and sweet potato hash to start, and the Chargrilled sirloin with shallot and cracked black pepper, and the whole cornish crab for mains.

I could not resist the triple cooked chips as a side with the crab - and they were a masterclass in chippery!!

The mussels were as fresh as can be, and cooked to perfection. The steak was perfectly cooked and seasoned, one of the best I have tasted in a long time - and it wasn't even my order...

The crab was lovely - but I always find that crab and lobster look tempting on the menu - the wrestling a involved in eating them takes away some of the enjoyment.

As I said the BYOB can be a bit deadly - apologies to anyone who got in my way as I ran down Chapel Market to get another bottle in before Waitrose closed......

All in all a great night, a really warm welcome with good service all night, great food - long may it continue!!



Torta Caprese  (Chocolate and almond cake)

Baking is not my favourite sort of cooking - but this desert delivers the goods - and is very straightforward to make - and forgiving!
I was taught how to make this flourless cake it at a fantastic cookery course at the wonderful La Cucina Caldesi in Marylebone.
I usually serve with cream or creme fraiche, and a few rasberries - which cut through the richness of the cake.

Serves 8

225g dark chocolate (70% cocoa)
100g butter
4 eggs - separated
150g icing sugar
150g ground almonds

Preheat the oven to 180 / 350 / Gas mark 4.
1 Grease a loose based 23cm cake tin.
2 Melt the chocolate and butter in  heatproof bowl over a pan of water - make sure it does not burn
3 Whisk the eggs yolks and sugar together until light and fluffy
4 Whisk the eggs whites until the frm soft peaks ( I use an electric whisk for this)
5 Add the melted mixture to the egg yolks and combine thoroughly. Add the ground almonds to the mix.
6 Fold in the eggs whites using a spatula. Mix well and pour into the cake tin.
7 Transfer to the oven and cook for 25-30 minutes. The cake is cooked when it creates a crust on the outside.

It's as simple as that  - and it's a winner everytime!!

Butterfly leg of lamb with harissa on roasted new potatoes and onions

This was the amalgamation of a few of my favourite recipes - and my favourite ingredient at the time - Harissa Paste.
The lamb is slow roasted - which I absolutely love - either with leg or shoulder - it really is my favourite way to roast lamb - though it can mean getting up pretty early in the morning to start cooking lunch!
The weights are very flexible, and the style of cooking is very forgiving - so no need to panic if you, or your guests - are running late....

Ingredients:
Leg of lamb 2.5kg - boned and butterflied (keep the bone)
10 banana shallots or 20 round shallots
1kg new potatoes
1 x 135g can harissa ( I used Harissa Du Cap Bon Tunisie - it has a distinctive yellow tin)
1 bulb garlic
60g cold butter cubed
red wine - 1 - 2 glasses to taste
lemon
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Rub the meat all over with the harissa - use the whole tin, and leave to marinade for an hour or two.
2. Preheat the oven to 180 / 350 / Gas 4.
3. Boil the new potatoes for 10 minutes
4. Peel the shallots
5. Place the bone from the lamb in a deep roasting tray - big enough to hold the meat butterflied.
6. Surround the bone with the potatoes and shallots.
7. Lay the marinated meat over the potatoes and roast in the oven for 30-40 minutes.
8. Remove from the oven and drain off any excess fat.
9. Add the garlic cloves, reduce the heat to 120 / 250 / Gas 1, cover the lamb with foil, and return to the oven for 4 1/2 hours.
10. Take out the lamb to rest, take out the vegetables and keep warm.
11. Deglaze the roasting dish with red wine - this will create a wonderful gravy, you have the juices and fat from the meat, the spice from the harissa - and the wine. I took some time to reduce this - and you have to continually taste to get the flavour right adding wine, lemon, salt and pepper to taste. Then add the cold butter to give a wonderful sheen to the sauce.
12. To serve you simply slice the lamb, at this point it is incredibly tender - so it is a cross between slicing and tearing.
13. Serve with the potatoes, onions, garlic and the sauce.
14. I served with green beans, as I think you do need something green to cut through the richness.

I really hope you enjoy this as much as I do!!
Left overs are great in a pilaf or biriani

Piedmontese Peppers - October 2011

This recipe is adapted from a great recipe by Terence Conran - which reminds me I should add him to my list of heroes.......
It was very good as a starter for a number of people as you make it ahead and serve at room temperature.
The recipe for 4 people as a starter is:-

4 red peppers, halved and deseeded
4 cloves garlic
8 cherry tomatoes
8 anchovy fillets (leave out for vegetarian)
sea salt
olive oil

1 Preheat the oven to 150c / gas 2
2 Place the halved peppers on a baking tray
3 Slice the garlic finely and share one clove between each 'pair' of pepper halves
4 Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and place between 3 and four halves in each half of pepper
5 Place in the oven and cook for approximately 1 hour - you are looking for the peppers to 'collapse' and take on some colour around the edges.
6 Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

I served on a plate with a few leaves of rocket lightly dressed, and a couple of slices of mozzarella - they both provide a great contract to the flavour of the roasted peppers and tomatoes, and it looks great on the plate!!

October 2011 Intro

Hi - this is my first post - and it comes as a result of a meal for 10 that I cooked to welcome my friend Martin's wife to married life in the UK, and to wish Martin's brother Jon and his fiance Sarah well as they head off travelling for a few months before they get married.
As autumn well and truly arrived in the last couple of weeks I have used the last peppers and tomatoes in the starter, and headed a bit more for autumn with the main course, beautiful lamb with a hint of heat.
The dessert is an old favourite - one that never lets me down!!
Menu
Piedmontese Peppers
Butterfly leg of lamb with harissa on roasted new potatoes and onions
Torta Caprese