Benin: lourobbo's kitchen

I hate to admit it but I'd never even heard of Benin (pronounced buh-NIN), geography was never my strong point. And so it wasn't an enormous surprise that finding a Beninoise restaurant in London proved fruitless.

We had a short hiatus over Christmas, but now into 2011, let's get back on track with eating the A to Z. Benin's cuisine certainly has some French influence, I used this great website, Celtnet Recipes again to choose 3 dishes.

For main, Crabe Beninoise - a hot spicy gratin of crab, served with rice and hot sauce.

 

It had quite a strange texture, almost a bit too dry with the breadcrumbs. However, if you like spicy food, this is one for you, the dish itself had a heap of chili, and then topped with hot sauce (I didn't have any African sauce, but used Mexican as a stand-in), it certainly cleared the sinuses.

For pudding, we had Flan au citron. Effectively, a creme caramel with a tinge of lemon. And here the saga begins. It took me 3 attempts to get this right. The recipe calls for the mixture to be baked in a flan dish in a bain marie. So I merrily poured the creamy eggy soup into what I would consider to be a flan dish. Put it on the hob, in my biggest pan and poured some boiling water round the edge, bain marie stylee!

And then the loose flan dish bottom floated up and the boiling water flowed in. Disaster.

I'd also used up all the milk in the house, so had to leave it for the evening. I'd try again on Sunday.

Sunday morning - thought about the usual creme caramels you often come across in family run Italian restaurants (and trust me, I've eaten a few of these), and went for the pyrex bowl option.

Mixed up the creme, poured into the pyrex bowl and on the hob (liked a steamed pudding I thought) for 45 minutes. Made myself a cup of tea and sat down to see if flan au citron take 2 would be any better.

An hour later, still liquid. Two hours later, still liquid. I give up.

I was determined to get this right and not to waste the lovely creamy mixture. This time, turned to the internet and looked at various creme caramel recipes. Consensus seemed to be to cook in the oven, in ramekins.

And here we have the results. Third time lucky! Tasted good too.

One more Benin recipe was on the menu for last weekend - Confit d'Arachide, a sweet snack of candied peanuts (I'd call it peanut brittle). Not healthy or good for your teeth in the slightest. But when was eating the A to Z ever about being good?

Benin, a mixed bag really. I learnt some things - how to pronounce Benin, and what not to do with bain maries. And we had a pretty decent meal.....eventually.

Next week, Bermuda!

Belize: lourobbo's kitchen

Boring, bland, Belize, I'm afraid. The first of our ventures into the world of Rice and Beans. Of which, I think there are many still to come.

No joy with finding a restaurant, I settled on a couple of recipes which seemed common across several web sites. Rice and Beans, to accompany a fish tea. (Unfortunately, not a patch on the fish supper available from Adam's fish bar at the end of my road).

I'd not go as far as saying this is the worst we've eaten since starting the challenge (that definitely sits with Caribbean coconut goo to date), but it won't be one for the recipe book. Too much effort (those beans take some time to cook), for what wasn't a memorable meal. Sorry, Belize.

Belgium: Brouge

What a find! We had struggled to find anything other than Belgo's for our Belgian session but were keen to find somewhere new. James remembered a place that used to be in Smithfields, but that seems to have closed.

We did however find various references to Brouge, a "chain" of 2 restaurants in Twickenham and Richmond. Being fairly close to home, we booked for Sunday lunch at the Richmond branch. It's right on the high street in Richmond, slightly tricky to find as it's actually a basement restaurant, so reached by some well hidden steps. A lovely Belgian Beer bottletop sign marks the spot.


There are plenty of typical dishes you associate with Belgium, and Brouge had them all. We started with beers and canapes, a selection of meats and pickles. Suzanne sampled the Brouge Pilsner and I had a glass of the Delirium Tremens, a blonde beer. Delicious.

Then moving on to the mains. Suzanne and I both had moules frites, with different sauces and James had slow cooked French rabbit (not strictly Belgian but hey, that's what he fancied).

The mussels were fantastic, plump and juicy with plenty of sauce. And a generous helping in a smart moules pot too. 

 

We were feeling quite full by this stage, but how can you go to a Belgian restaurant without finishing with some waffles (washed down with some cherry beer).

A beautiful end to what was a particularly good stop on this world eating tour.

I hadn't been to the centre of Richmond for a long while, when we do go, we tend to end up at the Dyshart pub out towards Petersham. But Brouge may now become our favourite stop if we're over that way. I would certainly go back. It wasn't completely packed while we there, although did get busier as the afternoon wore on so is probably worth booking a table to ensure you're not disappointed.

Excellent effort from Belgium!

Food ****

Atmosphere ****

Value for money ****

Belarus: RealJimBob's kitchen

Belarus really is all about pork and mushrooms. No restaurants found (although maybe there are some lurking in London somewhere......just no web presence).

Sunday lunch for us was Country cutlets with mushrooms. A breadcrumb coated pork dish with a mushroom filling, served with mashed pumpkin and potatoes and savoy cabbage.

I don't really have much to say about this dish, other than it tasted delicious and was relatively easy to make (finding cocktail sticks in Sainsbury's to pin the pork together with the mushroom filling was a significantly harder challenge)

Barbados: Cottons Rhum Shack and Restaurant

Wooooo, we're going to Barbados! Finally found a Caribbean restaurant that had some (albeit tenuous) link to a specific island. In that it had a named Bajan dish on the menu.....and a Barbados room (although we were actually seated in St Lucia, they only open Barbados when it's full). But hey, no cooking coconut pudding for me this week!

Suzanne, James and I took a trip to Chalk Farm to Cottons Rhum Shack and Restaurant on Thursday. It's situated right on the main road between Chalk Farm and Camden, a few yards away from the Roundhouse (where Elton John happened to be playing as part of the Electric Proms series that night).

We started with a selection of cocktails from the "rhum" shack. Cottons serves over 250 different rums in a bar area that certainly did resemble a shack on a Caribbean beach . If it hadn't been for the constant rumble of London traffic and plunging temperatures outside, instead of gently lapping waves, white sand and hot hot heat, we could have been in Barbados.

The restaurant is actually quite a jumble, in that there are 3 separate rooms named after different islands and they are all on different levels. A tight squeeze to get in there, it was relatively busy for a Thursday, but not packed, so we didn't get to sit in Barbados. It was quite a relaxed atmosphere, but I wouldn't say there was a huge buzz about the place. The mood was marred for me by the constant R&B droning on in the background. Urgh. Still, we're here for the food for the most part.

The starters were, it has to be said, outstanding. We shared a West Indian Meze and Cripsy shredded pork between the three of us. The meze had some tasty morsels - Bajan fish fritters which were lovely and crunchy, a sweet yet highly spiced chickpea and pumpkin curry, with roti, jerk chicken, creole prawns and tabbouleh. The pork, also delicious, had a hot sweet glaze.  Starters, a hit.

Moving on to the mains, James opted for a mixed jerk meat grill, Suzanne had Cottons beef pepper pot and I chose a whole sea bass, served with saute potatoes and a paprika cream. All the dishes were good sized portions, tasty and very filling. Suzanne particularly liked the pepper pot, the sauce was extremely rich.

Now, how much of this meal was actually traditional to Barbados is debateable (perhaps even just the fish fritter starter), but I needed a change from cooking Caribbean, so am mighty glad we found this place. Overall, I'd really rate the food, filling and yummy. This may well be somewhere we come back to before gigs at the Roundhouse.

Food ****
Atmosphere **
Value for money **

Bangladesh: Reema Balti House

There was no real decision to be made for Bangladesh, where else would you go for a curry but to Brick Lane? Together with a group of work pals, we headed off to Shoreditch on a Wednesday night. Originally, we'd planned to try a restaurant that Umbreen had been to a few years before for her sister's wedding breakfast....but alas, it had closed down and been replaced by a Chinese.

We ran the usual gauntlet of waiters trying to tempt us in, eventually settling on Reema Balti House, actually on Hanbury Street, a side street off Brick Lane. It was probably the £10 deal that settled it - a starter, main, rice, naan, sides and 2 beers (yes, I'll say that again, 2 beers! Although admittedly small ones) all for a tenner. Originally quoted £12, magically it dropped to £10 as we got nearer the restaurant. We know a bargain when we see one!

Oops....I actually forgot to take any pictures of the food. But here are a couple of the happy diners:

Overall, the food was pretty tasty, certainly excellent value for money. I had what was described on the menu as a traditional Bangladeshi dish - chicken tikka ureebisi gatta. The atmosphere picked up as the evening went on and more people were dragged in off the street, initially it was pretty quiet.

If you're in the area and looking for a reliable place to stop for a ruby, I'd definitely recommend the Reema. And don't forget to haggle...

Food: ***

Atmosphere: ***

Value for money: *****

Bahrain: lourobbo's kitchen

More home cooking this Sunday.  On the menu today, a traditional dish from Bahrain, Chicken Machboos (or sometimes written as machbous). Effectively, that globally recognised combination of chicken and rice

I like one pot cooking, and that's what we have with chicken machboos. It took some time to prepare, starting with the trawl round Wimbledon supermarkets for cardamom pods and rose water. Eventually,  I ended up at the fabulous Spiceways Supermarket on the Kingston Road, opposite South Wimbledon tube. I love that shop, you can find every type of spice/vegetable/paste imaginable and it seems to be open 24 hours a day. It's proving to be essential for the A to Z eating tour.

A key ingredient in the machboos is a complex mix of spices called Baharat. I had to make this from scratch, and now have enough to make this dish for about 50 people. Maybe I should have a Bahraini themed party sometime soon?

The actual cooking isn't difficult, but takes a while for all the flavours to permeate the chicken. I swapped in fresh limes for the dried limes mentioned in the recipe and that didn't seem to detract from the taste.

Very happy with the outcome and this is certainly one I'll be adding to my recipe book. Besides, I'll have to make it again to use up all that Baharat spice mix!