Byron - A Tasty Burger in London

The quest for the perfect burger in the UK poses a fun challenge.  Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant chain gives you a fine one, but unfortunately, the burger changes.  Sometimes it's Italian-inspired, other times it's more American.  The quality of ingredients is always high, but often the flavor isn't exactly what I'm seeking at that moment.

Byron, the London chain that has multiple locations, offers a consistent burger that thankfully pushes all my buttons.  It's like someone picked into my brain and came up with 3 characteristics that I most love about hamburgers, putting them all together.  From the American school of burger-making, the meat is not manhandled too much into a dense hockey puck.  The sandwich takes advantage of its British roots and comes with a sharp, tangy mature cheddar cheese.  And the coup de gras is that the burger is charred on the outside, pink all the way through and even a little bit raw in the middle, which the French embrace.

Now, not everyone would want mature cheddar or a rare, bloody hamburger.  Byron thoughtfully allows you to specify how well-done you'd like the meat and allows you to choose from a variety of cheeses that include Monterey Jack and American.  You can also get bacon, portobello mushrooms and avocado.  You can choose the condiments.  A default burger comes with iceberg lettuce, tomato, red onion, and a bit of mayonnaise.  There are a million choices to be made, which I think also comes from the American school of dining.

But wait!  Your choices aren't over yet!  What sides do you want?  You can have french fries, special skin-on chips, courgette fries (gorgeously straddling the line between tempura and beer-battered), and macaroni and cheese.  There's also milkshakes and fun American-inspired desserts like cheesecake, brownies or a sundae (which the Brits insist on calling Knickerbocker Glory). 

When it comes to describing this marvelous culinary treat, I think Homer Simpson says it best, "Mmmm.....burger."

Hyde Perk Bistro - London

Somehow I ended up with the chance to see Totem, the latest Cirque du Soleil show, at the Royal Albert  Hall in London.  Amanda and I had an hour to kill before curtain, so we wandered by Hyde Park in search of some munchies.  We dodged the raindrops and came across the Hyde Perk Bistro, a cozy little venue with a surprisingly extensive menu.  There were pre- and post-theatre meal options along with breakfast served all day and specials like the lovely leek, potato, and rocket soup I enjoyed.  Amanda got the pain au chocolate and hot chocolate (gotta give props to a girl who lives large and orders everything chocolate).  After our meal, we ordered takeaway sandwiches for our journey home after the show.  I happily chewed my brie, cranberry and lettuce on walnut bread as we drove through Old Brompton Road and saw the National History Museum, the Victoria & Albert, Harrod's and Harvey Nichols.  My compatriot's sandwich looked just as delicious with its mozzarella, tomato and pesto goodness inside an enormous ciabatta.  Hyde Perk was such a great, lucky find on a rainy afternoon! 

Ren and Stimpy's Chicken Pot Pie

Ren and Stimpy are a vulgar animated dog and cat duo that had odd adventures in the 90s.  One of their favorite dinner dishes was Chicken Pot Pie, that great childhood classic many of us treasure.  I thought about them traveling in their space ship as I was making this dish and sure enough, after I served it to my family, Major Obvious thanked me in his best grating Ren voice, "Thank you for my Cheeeckin Pot Pie."

Pie Crust
(Pate Brisee recipe from Martha Stewart Living)
Ingredients:
Makes 1 double-crust or 2 single-crust 9- to 10-inch pies.

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces
• 1/4 to 1/2 cup ice water

Directions:

1. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, salt, and sugar. Add butter, and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, 8 to 10 seconds.
2. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through feed tube. Pulse until dough holds together without being wet or sticky; be careful not to process more than 30 seconds. To test, squeeze a small amount together: If it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time.
3. Divide dough into two equal balls. Flatten each ball into a disc and wrap in plastic. Transfer to the refrigerator and chill at least 1 hour. Dough may be stored, frozen, up to 1 month.                   
   
   
   The Pot Pie 
   heavily borrowed from The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook
   
   
   Ingredients
   6 skinless chicken thigh fillets 
   4 carrots, peeled and cut into ½ in. pieces
   2 zucchini, cut into ½ in. pieces
   1 onion, chopped
   4 T. flour
   1 c. chicken broth
   ¼ c. Cognac
   1 t. dried tarragon
   1 ½ t. salt
   pepper to taste
   a knob of butter and a glug or two of olive oil
   
   pastry for a single crust pie
   milk
   
   Directions
   Lay chicken thighs in a single layer in baking dish. Salt and pepper.  Bake at 350, 20-25 minutes. Let the chicken cool and then cut chicken into 1 inch pieces.
   
   Blanch carrots in boiling water for 5 minutes. Add zucchini and blanch 2 minutes more. Drain.
   
   Warm butter and olive oil in large dutch oven over medium heat.  Add onions and sauté until translucent. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, for 3 minutes. Add broth, and whisk until thickened. Stir in Cognac. Cook over low heat until thick. Stir in tarragon, salt, and pepper.
   
   Fold in chicken and vegetables. Pour mixture into deep casserole or soufflé dish. Roll out pastry and place on top of dish. Trim pastry and crimp edges. Brush milk over top of crust. Cut steam vents.
   
   Bake at 400 for approximately 30 minutes.

Triple Caramel Shampoo Birthday Cake

Sweet Pea had her 7th birthday a couple of weeks ago.  I tried a new cake recipe for her special day instead of the usual chocolate cake.  When I was putting the finishing touches on the cream and making it look fluffy on the cake, Bacon walked into the kitchen and exclaimed, "That looks great!  It looks like a head full of shampoo!"  Well, I don't know if that was the look I was trying to emulate, but the dessert was a big success.  Slice, eat, repeat.

Adapted from Fine Cooking magazine and Best American Recipes 2005-2006.

INGREDIENTS
3 cups whipping cream
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
4 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt

DIRECTIONS
In a 2-quart saucepan on medium heat, gently bring 2 cups cream to simmering.  

Meanwhile, put 1 cup sugar in another medium pan on medium heat. Leave undisturbed until sugar begins to melt and darken. Gently swirl pan to distribute sugar. Remove from heat when sugar has all melted and is dark amber, about 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325F.

While stirring constantly with wooden spoon, slowly pour in hot cream to make caramel. Return pan to burner. Turn heat to low. Boil gently, stirring often, 5 minutes. Set aside at least 30 minutes, stirring often, until cool.  Set aside 1 cup of the caramel for the batter and store 1 cup of the caramel in the refrigerator.


Grease and line with parchment paper two 8" or 9" cake pans.*   Using electric mixer at medium speed, beat butter and remaining 1-1/2 cups sugar in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time until blended. Scrape sides of bowl. Beat on medium-high until fluffy.

Sift flour, baking powder and salt into medium bowl. At low speed, mixing until barely incorporated, beat 1/3 of dry ingredients into batter, then 1/2 cup caramel, then 1/3 of dry ingredients, then 1/2 cup of caramel, then the remaining dry ingreidnets.  Scrape sides of bowl. Finish blending gently with spatula.

Pour batter into prepared pans. Bake on lower rack of oven until tester comes out clean, about 20 minutes. Cool on wire rack 10 minutes.  Flip cakes out of their pans and cool completely on rack.

When ready to assemble the cake, bring refrigerated caramel to room temperature (a quick 3-5 seconds in the microwave can help if necessary).  Spread half of it between the two cake layers and set the other half of the caramel aside.

Whip the remaining 1 cup cream until firm peaks form. Fold in the rest of the caramel, leaving streaks. Makes about 12 servings.

*You can use a Bundt pan for this recipe...just drizzle the caramel sauce over the cake and then serve with dollops of whipped cream on the side.

Mini Mincemeat Pies

Nigella Lawson is the person I turn to for fun British holiday ideas.  These tiny star-studded pies are a great concept, as I often think that the traditional mincemeat pie is too big.  After a large Christmas meal, I like to have a little nibble of something with coffee (or a few little nibbles of different things).  

You will need a mini-muffin pan or mini tart tin, with each indent 4.5cm/1¾in diameter.  You will also need a 5.5cm/2¼in round fluted biscuit cutter and a 4cm/1½in (approx.) star-shaped cookie cutter and/or heart shaped cookie cutter.  (I didn't think that I had cookie cutters this small, but Dr. Tex pointed out that my daughter's kitchen play set did.  Perfect!)

As for pie dough, I hate using vegetable shortening.  There's just something about it that really turns me off.  So I used my favorite pie dough recipe, but here I include Nigella's crust because, after all, it is her mincemeat pie recipe.  There really is something so wonderful and Christmassy about standing at the stove and sniffing the air as these cranberry jewels simmer in the glorious mixture of spices, juice and spirits.

Mincemeat Ingredients:

•  75g/2½oz soft dark brown sugar
• 60ml/2fl oz ruby port
• 300g/10½oz cranberries
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• 75g/2½oz currants
• 75g/2½oz raisins
• 30g/1oz dried cranberries
• 1 clementine, zest and juice only
• 25ml/1fl oz brandy
• few drops almond extract
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp honey

Mincemeat Method:

1. In a large pan, dissolve the sugar in the ruby port over a gentle heat.
   
2. Add the cranberries and stir.
   
3. Add the cinnamon, ginger and cloves, currants, raisins, dried cranberries and the zest and juice of the clementine.
4. Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for 20 minutes, or until the fruit has broken down and has absorbed most of the liquid in the pan. (You may need to squish the cranberries a little with the back of a wooden spoon to incorporate them fully.)
   
5. Remove from the heat and allow to cool a little.
   
6. Add the brandy, almond extract, vanilla extract and honey and stir well with a wooden spoon to mash the mixture down into a paste.
   
7. Spoon the mincemeat into sterilised jars and, once cool, store in the fridge for up to two weeks.
   

Pie Crust and Mincemeat Pie Assembly Ingredients:
240g/8oz plain flour
60g/2oz vegetable shortening
60g/2oz cold butter, cut into small cubes
1 orange, juice only
pinch salt
icing sugar, for dusting
350g/12oz Christmas mincemeat


Mincemeat Pie Assembly and Baking Method:
1. Sift the flour into a shallow freezer-proof bowl, then add small mounds of vegetable shortening.
2. Add the butter, shake to cover it, then place into the freezer to chill for 20 minutes. (This will make the pastry tender and flaky.)
3. Mix the orange juice and salt in a separate bowl. Cover and leave in the fridge to chill.
4. After the 20 minutes, empty the chilled flour and shortening mixture into the bowl of a food processor and pulse to make porridge-like crumbs.
5. Gradually add the chilled salted orange juice, pulsing until the mixture is just coming together as a dough. Stop just before it comes together (even if some orange juice is left). If all the juice is used up
before the dough has begun to come together, add some iced water.
6. Turn the mixture out onto a clean, floured work surface and, using your hands, knead the mixture to form a dough.
7. Divide and shape into three equal-sized discs (you'll need to make the mince pies in three separate batches of 12, unless you've got enough tart tins to make all 36 pies at once).
8. Wrap each disc in cling film and place into the fridge to rest for 20 minutes.
9. Preheat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7.
10. Remove a pastry disc from the fridge and roll out on a floured work surface thinly, but so that it will be sturdy enough to support the dense mincemeat filling.
11. Using a fluted pastry cutter, cut out 12 circles a little wider than the moulds in the tart tins. Press the circles gently into the moulds.
12. Place a teaspoon of mincemeat into each pastry case.
13. Reroll any remaining dough to a similar thickness, then using a star-shaped cutter, cut out 12 stars and place each lightly onto the mincemeat filling.
14. Transfer to the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden-brown. Keep an eye on them as they don't take very long to cook.
15. Remove from the oven, prising out the little pies straight away and placing onto a wire rack to cool. Allow the empty tray to cool down before repeating the steps from step 10. Repeat until you have
made 36 mince pies.
16. Dust the mince pies with icing sugar and serve.

Carluccio's, Cambridge and Bury St. Edmunds

When Major Obvious and I have a free morning together, we usually make our way to Carluccio's in either Cambridge or Bury St. Edmunds.  I can't get enough of their Eggs Benedict which are served over deliciously grilled bread instead of the traditional muffins.  My dining companion is in love with the mushroom and onion egg scramble.  The lynchpin of the meal, however, is the Bicerin, a Tuscan espresso drink that magically combines the wonderful worlds of gooey chocolate, sharp coffee and heavenly whipped cream.  The servers at Carluccio's know us by now and always show us to the same cozy booth.  Major Obvious happily sips his Bicerin as I admire the gorgeous holiday decorations and revel in being surrounded by stacks and stacks of Christmas panettone luxuriously wrapped in golden paper and bows.  After we dine, we never resist a visit to the deli and shop where we stock up on teddy bear brownies for the kids, Italian candies for later, and hard-to-find items like squid ink pasta.  A visit to Carluccio's always proves fun, but it's even more indulgent and spectacular during the festive season.

Holiday Bake Sale

My kids' primary school is a little eager to kick off the holiday season.  It just hosted the annual Christmas Fair this past weekend.  I suppose that with no reality check of Thanksgiving to get in the way, the steam roller that is Holiday Madness starts right after Halloween.

One of my British friends came up with the brilliant idea of hitting up the local grocery store for some bakery boxes.  We were able to sell loads of cupcakes by giving customers the option to get a package of 4.  Don't they look cute and festive? 

Making these is a snap.  You just need:

Red Velvet Cake mix
Foil cupcake wrappers
Ready-made icing (I used Pilsbury Vanilla) and
Candy canes
Optional:  pastry bag with star tip

I know, I know.  Cake mix?!  Ready-made icing?  I must admit that I usually rely on such terrible tactics for bake sales. 

1.  Bake the cupcakes and freeze them until ready to use.  (You could do this 2 weeks in advance, if you wanted.)
2.  On the day of the bake sale or holiday fair, line up the cupcakes on paper towels or wax paper.
3.  Squirt the icing out of a pastry bag if you want or spread on with an off-set spatula.  (I used the star tip, but these would be super pretty with the ribbon or circle tip as well.  You are only limited by your imagination.)
4.  Crush some candy canes by putting them into a Ziploc bag and then wacking with a rolling pin or some such tool.  (I used the handle of my kitchen shears because they were right on the table already).
5.  Sprinkle candy canes on cupcakes.  Pack into boxes and watch them sell out right before your eyes!  Don't worry about the fact that the cupcakes are frozen...they will thaw about 2 hours after you take them out of the freezer.  By the time you decorate all of them, pack them up and drive them over to the school, you're probably home free!

Note:  Other fun decorations would include holiday Peeps...I've noticed that they come in snowman and Christmas tree options.