Top 5 salt beef sandwiches in London

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Bouillabaisse

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"Bouillabaisse with haddock, sea bass, line caught cod, prawns and scallops. A bit deluxe for a Monday night but really felt like it. "

Ingredients:

3 pounds of at least 3 different kinds of fish fillets, fresh or quick frozen (thaw first)

1/2 cup Olive oil

1-2 pounds of Oysters, clams, or mussels

1 cup cooked shrimp, crab, or lobster meat, or rock lobster tails

1 cup thinly sliced onions

4 Shallots, thinly sliced OR the white parts of 2 or 3 leeks, thinly sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 large tomato, chopped, or 1/2 cup canned tomatoes

1 sweet red pepper, chopped

4 stalks celery, thinly sliced

2-inch slice of fennel or 1 teaspoon of fennel seed

3 sprigs fresh thyme or 3/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1 bay leaf

2-3 whole cloves

Zest of half an orange

1/2 teaspoon powdered saffron

2 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup clam juice or fish broth

2 Tbps lemon juice

2/3 cup white wine

Sliced French bread

1 Tbsp hot fish stock or clam broth.v

2 cloves peeled garlic

1 small red hot pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup soft white bread, pulled into bits

1/2 cup olive oil

Directions:

1. Heat 1/4 cup of the olive oil in a large (6-qt) saucepan. When it is hot, add onions and shallots (or leeks). Sauté for a minute, then add crushed garlic (more or less to taste), and sweet red pepper. Add tomato, celery, and fennel. Stir the vegetables into the oil with a wooden sppon until well coated. Then add another 1/4 cup of olive oil, thyme, bay leaf, cloves and the orange zest. Cook until the onion is soft and golden but not brown.
2. Cut fish fillets into 2-inch pieces. Add the pieces of fish and 2 cups of water to the vegetable mixture. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes. Add oysters, clams or mussels (though these may be omitted if desired) and shrimp, crabmeat or lobster tails, cut into pieces or left whole.
3. Add saffron, salt, pepper. Add clam juice, lemon juice, and white wine. Bring to a simmer again and cook about 5 minutes longer.
4. At serving time taste and correct the seasoning of the broth, adding a little more salt or pepper if need be, and maybe a touch of lemon juice. Into each soup bowl place a thick slice of crusty French bread, plain or slighlty toasted. Sppon the bouillabaisse over the bread. If desired, serve with Sauce Rouille.

Serves 6.

Notes

Add 6 scallops pan fried over high heat for deluxe version.

Blitz some of the fish and soup together to get a velvety soup to pour over the fish, prawns and scallops.

Bright Courtyard, London

Bright Courtyard sits directly opposite the Royal China Club on Baker Street and it's easy to contemplate that this restaurant was intended to challenge the RCC in the posh Chinese restaurant stakes.  The modern Chinese decor reminded us a bit of the Princess Gardens in Mayfair.  Our friends G&S had stumbled upon this place to avoid yet another frustratingly long wait at the popular Royal China restaurant (not to be confused with the posh Royal China Club) further down Baker Street.  They had raved about the hot towels and good food so we had to come and see for ourselves.

Uncharacteristically, A and I decided to ride our bikes down on this lazy Sunday morning.  Narrowly avoiding being squashed by three buses on the busy Baker Street I was relieved to arrive at Bright Courtyard safely, and see that there were bike racks directly outside the entrance.  Fab, we can even keep an eye on the bikes through the floor to ceiling windows!

We were seated quickly upon entry - though there was mild confusion at which the waitress was about to seat the elderly couple with their grandkids at our table.  I had to chortle back a laugh as the grandpa gestured to his own table as if to say "Sorry I think we're going to sit at a separate table".  The tables were well spaced out and our table for 6 would normally probably sit 8 at other Chinese restaurants. 

But for us, it's always about the food and we were delighted as we worked our weigh through the dim sum favourites.  The skin of the Shanghainese dumplings (小笼包) were so delicate that it was reminiscent of Ding Tai Feng (鼎泰奉) in Yong Kang street in Taipei.  The top was a little thickly creased and filling a little firm but perfectly delicious morsel.  The shrimp dumplings (虾饺) were full of plump whole shrimp pieces, and the pork puff pastry (叉烧酥) delightfully crunchy. The turnip cake (萝卜糕) was a little lacking in the mushroom and Chinese sausage goodies - but aren't they always in Chinese restaurants - though very moist and tender.  On G&S's recommendation we tried the cuttlefish cheong fun (鱿鱼肠粉) - we'd never had it before - and it was a lot of fun. Crisp pieces of cuttlefish deep fried then wrapped in cheong fun. What's not to love! 

All the dim sum are on the small side, but seems somewhat appropriate considering the delicateness of the chef's handiwork.

The final test was the dessert.  I'd been disappointed by Princess Garden's Heavenly Scent (杨子甘露) dessert which is a sweet cold dessert made up of mango blended coconut milk, sago balls, grapefruit pieces and (very importantly) fresh* mango.  I'm pleased to report that unlike Princess Garden's dessert, the Heavenly Scent was in fact made of fresh mango as promised by the waiter.  Ok so the mango was a little on the green side ... but it was indeed fresh!

All in all, excellent dim sum, ability to book and decent service and having found an alternative quiet bike route (on our way back) means this place is going to be our choice of dim sum venue from now on.  We can't wait to go back to see if this place holds up!

43-45 Baker Street London,W1U 8EW
www.lifefashion-sh.com | Tel: 0207 4866 998
Bookings recommended (online booking available)

Le Relais secret sauce

Our adaption of a recipe from the internet:

1 cup dry white wine

1 cup minced shallots

6 anchovy fillets, chopped

1 cup low-sodium beef broth 

100 gms unsalted butter

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

1/2 cup chopped fresh chervil

1/2 cup chopped fresh tarragon

(and any other herbs you like)

2 tablespoons mustard

Either using the pan the steaks were cooked in, or another pan:

Add the wine to pan and deglaze all

the nice brown bits, dislodging them with a wooden spoon if necessary. 

Add the beef stock, shallots, anchovies, and cook until the liquid reduces to a glaze.  Make sure you reduce the sauce sufficiently at this point to around one cup (but its not too salty).

Remove from heat, whisk in the butter a couple of cubes at a time, then add the mustard and finally add the herbs.  

For the next recipe, we'd probably try adding some green peppercorns at the start and possibly even some bone marrow for more depth of flavor!