A short walk around Covent Garden
There is something very wrong with the British Museum. On Saturday morning there was a 45 minute-long queue to get through the security check, both at the front and the rear entrances. Since we live in London and the museum is less than half an hour by tube from our house, I didn’t see the point of wasting time. Instead, Mr Gochugaru and I went for a walk to nearby Covent Garden.
My point is that it should not have to take 45 minutes to get past the security check. It will get worse from tomorrow, when their staff go on strike.
It was our wedding anniversary, which we don’t often celebrate. Historically, Summer was when the world descended on London and we had to host multiple visitors. For many years it was also the week of the annual Scout camp, where I would be away helping out with admin and catering (pitching tents is not my forte). After a while I just gave up trying to mark the day. This June and July saw us still receiving a mixture of visiting students and relatives.
I treasure the long years we have put in to our marriage and you know what, we are still happy.
Mr Gochugaru and I met during our first year at university, bonding over our shared wonder of London and the sheer woe of hall food. Hall food meaning the institutional meals at our hall of residence in Brunswick Square. At weekends we would walk down to Covent Garden’s cobbled streets to visit the crafts market, its individual shops and occasionally to catch a theatre performance. Some favourite shops from that time: Covent Garden General Store, Cranks restaurant and (the name escapes me) a spice shop which sold some very delicious samosas in its upstairs cafe.
This is still a popular place to visit and here are a few shops which I took note of during our walk.
The latest Indiana Jones film has just been released, and you can purchase a fedora at Stetson, 58 Neal St, London WC2H 9PA. A fedora = Indy’s hat and a Stetson = cowboy hat
Stanfords Travel Bookshop at 7 Mercer Walk, London WC2H 9FA, around the corner from their original site in Long Acre
Macarons from Pierre Hermé are ideal for any occasion. 38 Monmouth St, London WC2H 9EP
Udderlicious Ice cream was shut when I passed by but one of the flavours I could see on their board was Dragonfruit and Banana, which was what Junior 1 had just eaten in their Islington branch
Following our recent trip to Berlin I discovered the European Coffee Trip App. They recommended WatchHouse, 7 Upper St Martin’s Lane, London WC2H 9DL and Grind, 42 Maiden Lane, London WC2E 7LJ. There is the ever popular Arôme for pastries and coffee/ tea, 9 Mercer Street, The Yards, London WC2H 9QJ. Photos from a previous visit here.
I came across Fair Shot which is a social enterprise supporting and training adults with learning disabilities to work in cafes. It wasn’t time for lunch but this is definitely on my list the next time I am in Covent Garden. The sandwiches looked appetising and large enough to share between two people. 3 Slingsby Place, London WC2E 9AB.
I was told of the Japanese cafe Katsute 100 on the top floor of Uniqlo Covent Garden, 19-21 Long Acre, London WC2E 9LZ. Given that I much prefer tea to coffee, this was a real find. Full menu here and prices below, in case you need to decide before you reach the cafe. There are cakes as well so I think it would be best to visit with a few friends for a tea and cake testing session.
The shop itself is interesting as it has a glass roof, letting in natural light
We had to return home soon after, as we were having friends over for dinner. I cooked some dishes from the Falastin Cookbook and will write about this later. There was a lot of leftovers which meant I had the Sunday off cooking.
Other shops:
I do not have a photo of St John Bakery but they are located at 3 Neal’s Yard, London WC2H 9DP. This is near to Neal’s Yard Dairy,17 Shorts Gardens, London WC2H 9AT, where you can sample and buy fine British cheeses. Seven Dials Market is a food hall with independent food traders. To be honest, I miss some of the shops which have closed due to the dire economic climate we are in, but am encouraged by entrepreneurs who are still willing to open a business nonetheless.
Slow-roasted Beetroot with Labneh
This is the dish I could not stop thinking about during dinner at Otto in Berlin, after I left the restaurant, and as I returned to my kitchen in London. Chef Vadim Otto Ursus’s beetroot, sloe berry, labneh and brown butter is not easy to describe because it is unlike any other dish I have had, beet or otherwise. I attempted to make it using his recipe which I found here.
Otto’s June 2023 menu and the the beetroot dish
The recipe below has been adapted to suit my own cooking practicalities (I use the oven a lot). For chef Otto’s original recipe please see here.
I could not find any purveyors of sloe berry juice, but research indicates that it is possible to head up the road to Hampstead Heath and pick my own during the right season. Most people would pick sloe berries to add to gin (indeed there was a very popular book published 30 years ago called Sloe Gin and Beeswax which showed you how to make this) but if I were to find any, it would go into making this beetroot dish.
Since sloes are in the same family as plums and cherries, I opted to use tart cherry juice as that was what I could find. I would imagine pure cranberry juice would also make a good substitute.
The dish took two days to make but most of the time it looks after itself: roasting, soaking, dehydrating and then briefly boiled before serving. As it can be prepared ahead of time, it is a perfect addition to the vegetable platters from the other Otto i.e. Ottolenghi, whose dishes I cook every weekend when I have friends and family around the dinner table.
For the Beetroot:
1 kg medium-sized fresh beetroot
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
600 g tart cherry juice
250 g labneh
OR
strain 500 g full-fat sheep / cow yoghurt to make your own labneh
4 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 – 4 tablespoons olive oil
a few leaves of Belgian endive, for serving
How to Make:
DAY 1
Top and tail the beetroot, then give them a quick rinse under water if the skin is muddy. Dry with a paper towel then wrap each beet in some foil. Bake in the oven at 200°C / 180°C fan for 50 minutes.
Switch off the oven but leave the beetroot cooking in the residual heat for another 30 minutes. By this time they will be just right, yielding but not too soft.
When the cooked beetroot has cooled a little, remove the skin. When I was about to proceed, Niece Number 2 showed me her super efficient and neat way of doing this: cup the beet, still in its foil, in the palms of both hands. Simply twist the foil, which will act like a ‘scrubber’ to scrape the skin off the beet. The skin literally rubs off in one go and the whole process takes a few seconds.
Cut each beetroot into 6 wedges and place in a large non-reactive bowl, e.g. a glass or ceramic bowl. Mix the cherry juice with 2 teaspoons of fine sea salt and pour over the beet.
Cover the bowl with a lid and let it sit overnight at room temperature. It was by now 10pm and I went to watch some K-Drama.
Day 1 stages: baking the beetroot and soaking overnight in the cherry juice
DAY 2
In the morning, preheat the oven to 70°C/ 55°C fan. Line 1-2 baking trays with baking paper.
Using a pair of tongs, remove the beetroot from the juice and place evenly on the baking tray. Reserve the juice for later.
Dry the beetroot in the oven for around 6 – 7 hours. This was my second attempt and I felt a bit more confident. Both timings seemed OK but I would not stray outside these limits.
The beetroot can be used immediately or kept for later.
Just before serving, place the beetroot into a pot with the reserved juice and pomegranate molasses. (For one portion, use six wedges of beetroot, 80 g reserved juice and 2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses).
Bring everything to a boil to reduce the juice a little. Remove the pot from the heat.
To serve, arrange the beet and juice in the middle of a deep plate. Place a few pieces of the endive on one side, and a dollop of labneh on the other side. Drizzle over with the olive oil (1 – 2 teaspoons if making individual portions) and serve immediately.
Day 2: the beetroot before and after dehydrating in the oven for 6 hours
Plating up: my second attempt (top) and first attempt (bottom)
I was very glad that my only companion at the restaurant was Mr Gochugaru, who after 34 years of marriage knows that I am usually not one to lick the last drop off a plate. I know he is not like that either. However we found ourselves taking turns to scrape, with our spoons, what we could of the remaining juice. Happily I don’t have worry about this in my own kitchen. This afternoon, after trying out the second batch with Junior 3, I simply added more yogurt to the remaining juice and ate it like a sort of savoury yoghurt treat.
